SATURDAY 17 MARCH 2018

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b09tz04d)

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


SAT 00:30 An Alternative History of Art (b09v8hkf)
Rotimi Fani-Kayode

Iwona Blazwick, director of the Whitechapel Gallery London, concludes 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 Lagos, Nigeria in 1955, Rotimi Fani-Kayode fled the Nigerian Civil War with his family and arrived as a refugee in the UK at the age of 11. He used the black male body in his photographs to explore themes of diaspora and belonging, racism, mortality and the tensions between his homosexuality and his Yoruba upbringing. Fani-Kayode suffered a fatal heart attack while recovering from an AIDS-related illness at just 34 years old, only six years into his career. He is one of a generation of gay artists who died prematurely in the 1980s and 1990s - how different might the art scene have been if these artists had lived?

Contributors include Robert Taylor (Photographer), Mark Sealy (director of Autograph ABP) and Femi Fani-Kayode (Politician and brother of Rotimi Fani-Kayode).

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: Untitled (Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil), Rotimi Fani-Kayode 1985, Courtesy Autograph ABP.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b09tz04g)

The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b09tz04q)

SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b09tz04s)

The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b09tz04w)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b09v99l2)

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Simon Doogan.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b09v9b7h)

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


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b09tz051)

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


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (b09v71w4)
Series 38, Black Men's Walking for Health Group

Clare Balding walks in the Peaks with Maxwell Ayamba, who founded a rambling group for other black men, from Sheffield, to help improve their health and well being. Clare joins the group as they leave the Moorland Discovery Centre and set off across the Moors. They explain to Clare how the group has helped improve their relationships as well as their health and Maxwell describes the art of riding crocodiles.
Producer: Lucy Lunt.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b09tz055)

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b09tz059)

The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b09vwz5t)

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


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b09tz05h)
Kim Wilde

Kim Wilde joins presenters Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles. She sold ten million albums, and after retiring, having a family and then a successful gardening career, has returned to the stage. She has a new album out and is about to embark on her first UK tour for 30 years.

We also have Helen Tse who is a lawyer, writer and restaurateur whose book about her family story, Sweet Mandarin - also the name of her restaurant - has been turned into a play about to open at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

Lutalo Muhammad is a British taekwondo athlete who represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal, and the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal. He won the Gold medal in the 87 kg class at the 2012 European Taekwondo Championships.

John Connell is a writer and a farmer. Farming has been in his family for generations but he never intended to follow in his father's footsteps. He followed the academic route, going to study in Australia, becoming a documentary maker and then to Canada, but he ended up finding his way back to the family farm in County Longford, Ireland and began to learn the ways of the farmer and the way of the cow.

We have the inheritance tracks of cricket commentator Henry Blofeld who chooses Tit Willow from the Mikado and Bring in the Clowns by Barbra Streisand.

Kim Wilde's album Here Come the Aliens is out now, and her tour of the same name starts 30 March.
Mountains: The Dreams Of Lily Kwok is on at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. The first night is 22nd March in Manchester and then it goes on tour from 18th April to 2nd June.
The Cow Book by John Connell is out now.
Over and Out by Henry Blofeld is out now and he is touring theatres with a brand new show, 78 Retired.


SAT 10:30 A Call from Joybubbles (b08hlnjq)

In the 1960s and 70s a whole subculture of teenagers - many of them blind - became fascinated by the United States phone system. They spent their time finding ingenious ways to hack into it and make the network do things that not even the phone company could have imagined. They were known as the phone phreaks.

This is the story of a love affair with the phone network and of the precocious teens who outwitted and explored it. It's also the story of the genius at the centre of that subculture.

Blind, with an IQ of 172 and perfect pitch, Josef Carl Engressia Jr. was born in 1949. He developed a fascination with phones at the age of four and by seven he'd discovered that he could make free phone calls simply by whistling the right tones. Joe had a difficult family life and as a child he sought refuge and reassurance in the hums, clicks and tones of the phone system.

As he grew up, the phone system became for him a universe to explore and he delighted in pushing it to its limits. He routed free calls right across the United States and back to his own phone - just because he could. His peculiar talents led to him being first prosecuted and, later, employed by the phone company.

And he wasn't the only person doing it. He gradually discovered that, scattered across America, there were other phone phreaks. Within this community - and beyond - Joe became a legend, the catalyst uniting disparate phreaks.

Phreaking was about exploring the phone network, playing with it and understanding it. It attracted brilliant oddballs and technological adventurers, people who would later play a key role in creating the personal computer - people like Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs who founded Apple.

In 1982 Joe Engressia's life took a bizarre new twist. He moved to Minneapolis, changed his name to Joybubbles and declared that he would remain five years old forever. Now he used the phone to record his thoughts and tell his life story on a dial-in service called 'Stories and Stuff', an audio blog which he updated every week until his death in 2007.

With a soundtrack of telephonic tones from an analogue era A Call from Joybubbles explores the extraordinary subculture which for two decades outwitted Ma Bell and her phone network.

Producer: Jeremy Grange.


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (b09vwz5w)

A look behind the scenes at Westminster.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b09tz05m)

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


SAT 12:00 News Summary (b09tz05p)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (b09vwzg4)
Cost of being single, End of mortgage interest support, Pension transfer letters

The latest news from the world of personal finance.


SAT 12:30 The Now Show (b09vwzqz)
Series 52, Episode 3

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches.

Punt and Dennis are joined this week by James Acaster, Rachel Parris, Suzi Ruffell and Daniel Barker.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b09tz05t)

The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b09tz05w)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b09v8xwg)
Ken Clarke MP, Andrew Lilico, Bronwen Maddox, Shabana Mahmood MP.

Shaun Ley presents political debate from the English Martyrs' Catholic School in Leicester, with a panel including former Chancellor of the Exchequer Ken Clarke MP, Economist Andrew Lilico who is Executive Director of Europe Economics, the Director of the Institute for Government Bronwen Maddox, and the Labour MP Shabana Mahmood.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b09tz064)

Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:30 Drama (b07bpv3j)
School Drama, Romeo and Juliet

The re-branded Deer Park Academy has brought in has-been TV star, Geoff Cathcart, to stage a student production of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. In this the final episode, the curtain finally rises and the students take to the stage... Romeo & Juliet, as performed by the pupils of Deer Park Academy. With Tom Hollander.

All other parts played by students from Portsmouth Grammar School:
Douglas James, Joe McAuley, Freddie Fenton, Jay Pasricha, Thomas Locke, Floss Willcocks, JM Hopkinson

Written by William Shakespeare
Adapted by Andy Mulligan

Music by Jon Ouin
Sound by Steve Bond
Produced by Emma Hearn

Directed by John Dryden
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 15:30 The Art of Now (b09v3fdk)
No Singing, No Movement: Part 2, Sudan's New Generation

(Programme 2 of 2)

In the second programme in the series, 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. 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 stigma clings strongly to the profession of musician - especially for women. If things are opening up now: how much, and for whom?


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b09tz068)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Nudinits, Rooney Mara and cook the perfect Lingurian Farinata

The Woman's Hour Craft Prize is on tour. Two crafters Lesley Jones of the Embroiders Guild and Sarah Simi the creator of the knitted village Nudinits tell us about their work.

We hear about Sally Challen who was jailed for 22 years for the murder of her husband, Richard. Earlier this month she was granted permission to appeal that sentence and she will use coercive control as a mitigating circumstance. We hear from her son David and from her solicitor Harriet Wistrich.

Rooney Mara will be talking about her role as Mary Magdalene in a new film.

Is money marketing aimed at women sexist? We discuss with Anne Boden CEO and founder of Starling Bank and Otegha Uwagba Brand Consultant and co-founder of Women Who.

Lily Bailey tells us what it's like to live with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and why she's written a memoir about it.

A new booklet aimed at educating young people on normal female anatomy - specifically vulva appearance has been launched. Dr Naomi Crouch a consultant gynaecologist tells us why she thinks an increasing number of girls are having labiplasty surgery despite having normal anatomy.

We cook the perfect Ligurian Farinata with the food writer Claire Thomson.

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


SAT 17:00 PM (b09tz06d)
Saturday PM

Luke Jones with coverage of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (b09v734s)
Do corporate headquarters still matter?

The tech giant Apple has just spent five billion dollars building a campus in California's Silicon Valley. It's not alone in its architectural ambitions. The new Facebook HQ in London features trees, grass and plants. So what does a corporate headquarters tell us about a business? Is it an opportunity for a company to show off its wealth and attract the best talent or is it folly? Evan Davis and guests explore what the latest trends in corporate architecture reveal about our business leaders.

Guests:
Ken Shuttlewoth, founder of Make Architects
Helen Berresford, head of interior design at Sheppard Robson Architects
and Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b09tz06j)

The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b09tz06n)

The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b09tz06s)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b09tz06x)
David Morrissey, Joe Wicks, George Egg, Hannah Peel, Yazmin Lacey, Sara Cox, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Sara Cox are joined by David Morrissey, Joe Wicks and George Egg for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Hannah Peel and Yazmin Lacey.

Producer: Tim Bano.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b09vx097)
Margarita Simonyan

Series of profiles of people who are currently making headlines.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b09tz071)
Frankenstein in Manchester, Palme d'Or winner The Square, The Immortalists, Tacita Dean, Annihilation

A new theatrical adaptation of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein at The Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre aims to be one of the most faithful versions to the original novel. What does this add to our understanding of the play and of the Creature?
This year's Palme d'Or winning film The Square, is a Swedish satirical drama dealing with the world of contemporary art and our personal boundaries and responsibilities.
Chloe Benjamin's latest novel 'The Immortalists' follows the lives of a group of contemporary New York Jewish American siblings and poses the question "how would you live your life if you knew the day you would die'?
Two exhibitions have opened this week in London of the work of Tacita Dean (former YBA), known primarily for her work in film
Annihilation is a new release on Netflix, written and directed by Alex Garland. With five female leads, its scheduled theatrical release has been dropped, but can we read into that decision: that it's no good?
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Susannah Clapp, Ryan Gilbey and Alex Clark. The producer is Oliver Jones.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b09vx0db)
Disinformation: A User's Guide

What if there was never a 'Truth' era before 'Post-Truth'?

In this edition of Archive on 4, Phil Tinline mines the archives to trace the story of 'disinformation' - navigating the slippery history of such incidents as the Zinoviev Letter, the Reichstag Fire, the Moscow Trials and the allegations that the US used germ warfare in the Korean War.

Amid the rise of totalitarianism, leading thinkers on left and right alike were worrying about the 'End of Truth' over 70 years before today's furores. Anxiety about truth and its enemies seems to flare up at times when orthodoxies are falling apart -, political uncertainty is rife and people become unusually open to the comforting certainty of extreme ideas.

So - if 'fake news' is not as new as advertised, might we have something to learn from this history? Phil uses this long history of deliberate attacks on truth to identify tricks and techniques that are still in use today.

And he investigates what all this has to do with underground Bolsheviks, Cambridge scientists and the supposed science of 'brainwashing'.

Speakers include: Peter Pomeranzev, Robert Service, Lyndsey Stonebridge, Kathrn Weathersby

Producer: Phil Tinline.


SAT 21:00 Foreign Bodies (b09v0yxl)
The Samaritan's Secret

Crime drama set in Palestine. Omar Yussef teams up with an ex student turned police officer to solve the case of the murder of a young man whose body is found at the most sacred Samaritan site in Nablus.

Novelist ..... Matt Rees
Dramatist ..... Jennifer Howarth
Director ..... Mary Peate

This is the second novel of the Palestinian Quartet series by Matt Rees to be dramatised for Radio 4 by Jennifer Howarth. Matt Rees draws on his experience as Time Magazine's Jerusalem Bureau Chief to create detective stories which give us an insight into life in Palestine in the early 2000's.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b09tz079)

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


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (b09v6xx3)
The Morality of Comedy

Tatty bye, Doddy. The most famous resident of Knotty Ash, wielder of the tickling stick and creator of the Diddymen, has died. Sir Ken Dodd's widow said: "He just wanted to make people happy". He was both of his time - described as "one of the last music hall greats" - and timeless. From his debut at the Nottingham Empire in 1954 as "Professor Yaffle Chucklebutty: Operatic Tenor and Sausage Knotter," he never failed to reduce his audiences to tears of helpless laughter. For some, there could be no higher moral purpose of comedy than this. Yet we don't all agree about what is funny or even about what comedy is for. There will always be those who think that some subjects are beyond humour. Others will say it's the target of the humour that's important. Should comedy reinforce or challenge the moral consensus of its audience? When is mockery offensive and when is it satire? Where is the line between challenging bigotry and reinforcing stereotypes? Are comedians as important as pundits or politicians to the health of democracy? Or has comedy dumbed down debate and trivialised issues we should be taking seriously? Was Molière right when he said that the function of comedy is "to correct men's vices"? Or should we just stick a cucumber through next doors' letter box and tell them the Martians have landed? Witnesses are Dominic Frisby, Prof Matthew Flinders, Lynne Parker and Ted Robbins.

Producer: Dan Tierney.


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (b09v2x6q)
Heat 3, 2018

(3/17)
Which former Chelsea footballer was named the new President of Liberia in 2018? And which is the longest land border any European country shares with another?

Russell Davies has these and a host of other general knowledge questions to put to the competitors in the third heat of this year's tournament. The winner will take another of the automatic places in the 2018 semi-finals - with the possibility of a place for a high-scoring runner-up too, if the contest is close.

This week's competitors are:

Beverley Beesley, a copy editor from Billericay in Essex
Amit De, a financial services advisor from Sutton in Surrey
Jill Goodwin, a retired insurance claims officer from Swindon
Ian Porter, a former accountant from Great Yarmouth.

There will also be the customary chance for a listener to win a prize by beating the Brains with his or her own devious questions.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


SAT 23:30 Africa's Digital Poets (b07zy2xs)
Another Kind of Stage

In the first of two programmes, Johannesburg based poet Thabiso Mohare looks at the way digital platforms are serving poets across the continent, from emerging writers to established voices, and those carrying forward ancient oral traditions.

Thabiso Mohare ('Afurakan') is one of the poets and entrepreneurs spearheading developments in spoken word poetry in South Africa, and exploring the possibilities of what the digital space can offer poets in countries where there's a lack of publishing infrastructure, or publishers are pulling back from poetry. Thabiso talks to the digital pioneers who, as part of the broader tech revolution in a mobile-first continent, are offering poets across Africa a new outlet for presenting their work in a digital age.

The poets who are benefitting aren't just those below the age of 35, with a smartphone and wifi access, based in the major cities. Badilisha Poetry X-Change, a website based in Cape Town, is creating an online audio archive of the work of African master poets across the continent, some of whom recite rather than recording their work in book form, so the site is doing valuable work in preserving and archiving oral traditions. Linda Kaoma is Badilisha's Project Manager, and it's her job to track down such poets, however remote they are, and record them. Also based in Cape Town, but looking north across the whole of Africa, Bozza offers the opportunity for anyone with an internet connection to share their poetry, music and video content, in any language, and talk to their own community.

Thabiso talks to Mak Manaka, one of the poets excited by the opportunities to carve their own path, not only against those who value a published collection as proof of your worth, but also against the European model of success. And he talks to a mentor from the older generation, Professor Keorapatse Kgositsile, the poet laureate of South Africa, to see what he makes of it all, asking what the role of the poet has always been in African societies and how that translates into the online space, and what he sees the pitfalls as being.



SUNDAY 18 MARCH 2018

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b09vyvk5)

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


SUN 00:30 From Fact to Fiction (b09v8lvb)
The Daughter

In light of events unfolding in Salisbury this week, Joan Smith creates a story about a widow who remains suspicious of the circumstances surrounding her husband's death.

Joan Smith is a columnist, novelist and human rights activist. She is the author of What Will Survive, Moralities, Misogynies and five detective novels.

Writer ..... Joan Smith
Reader ..... Rosalind Sydney
Producer ..... Gaynor Macfarlane

A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b09vyvk7)

The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b09vyvk9)

SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b09vyvkc)

The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b09vyvkf)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b09vz6qs)
St Mary's Dunsford, Devon

This week's Bells on Sunday comes from St Mary's Church in Dunsford, Devon. All six of the bells were cast in 1978 at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. We hear them ringing Devon style call changes.


SUN 05:45 Lent Talks (b09v6ygz)
Put Down Your Gun - Rev Dr Tammy Williams

Another age, another violent arrest. U.S pastor and activist Rev Dr Tammy Williams on Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and alternatives to gun violence.

Producer: Rosie Dawson.


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b09vyvkh)

The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b09vyvkk)
Follow Your Bliss

Mark Tully investigates the meaning of Joseph Campbell's exhortation to follow your bliss.

The 20th century writer and philosopher based his aphorism on a phrase he found in the Hindu Upanishads. It became much quoted following his TV documentary series The Power of Myth, made shortly before his death.

"Follow your bliss" has become a mantra for many, but is often misunderstood. Mark tries to get a sense of its true meaning, in conversation with the priest, writer, teacher and pioneering theatre director James Roose Evans.

There are readings from Pablo Neruda, Stephen Spender and Katherine Raine and music by Erin McKeown, Cesar Franck and Beethoven.

The readers are Jasper Britton and Geraldine Alexander.

Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling
A 7 digital production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 The Living World (b09vz6qv)
Essex Geese

Around 100,000 dark bellied brent geese head to Britain every winter to escape the extreme cold weather of their arctic breeding grounds in Russia. Britain is therefore an important wintering ground for these geese with many thousands heading to the Essex Marshes. But what brings them here and what are the management needs of this populated area of the South East coastal?

To find out for himself, as Brett Westwood introduces in this Living World episode first broadcast in 2005, Peter France heads over to the Essex coastline in the company of ecologist Graeme Underwood from Essex University and Chris Tyas from the RSPB. Overlooking the wide marginal landscape wedged between the sea and the land they discuss mudflats and difference between marine and freshwater marshes. An ever changing landscape that requires specific management with all the challenges of creating the best habitat for all plants and animals here, including the thousands of dark bellied brent geese, in front of them.

Producer Andrew Dawes.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b09vyvkm)

The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b09vyvkp)

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


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b09vyvkr)

Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (b09vz6qx)
Sport Relief

Tom Daley makes the Radio 4 Appeal for Sport Relief
Reg Charity: Sport Relief is an initiative of Comic Relief, registered charity 326568 (England/Wales); SC039730 (Scotland)
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope 'Sport Relief 2018'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Sport Relief 2018'.


SUN 07:57 Weather (b09vyvkt)

The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b09vyvkw)

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


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b09vz6qz)

Actions Speak
In the continuing series, "Stories of Hope", for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, the Rev Cheryl Meban considers the theme "Actions Speak"- what motivates our actions, the effects they have on others and ourselves and the actions of Jesus in the days before His Crucifixion. The service come from First Lisburn Presbyterian Church in Co. Antrim and is conducted by the minister, the Rev John Brackenridge.

The readings are Mark 12.41-13.2 and 14.12-25. The music is provided by the Choir of Wallace High School, Lisburn, directed by David Falconer and the organist is Mark McGrath. It includes O Sacred Head, We sing the praise of Him who died, Elgar's Ave Verum Corpus and John Rutter's setting of a Prayer of St Patrick. Producer: Bert Tosh.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b09v8xwj)
The True Mark of Civilisation?

At a time when the word "civilisation" is the subject of great debate, Kamila Shamsie explores the meaning of the word through the prism of Indian art.

"If you really want to understand how the world's civilisations interact and meld", she writes, "go and look at the art of Gandhara".

Producer: Adele Armstrong.


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b09v2x52)
Andy Clements on Pink-footed Geese

Andy Clements of the British Trust for Ornithology explains why he finds the sound of Pink-footed Geese so exciting as they fly overhead calling to one another.

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 encounters with nature and reflections on our relationship with the natural world.

Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Mark Rhodes.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b09vyvky)

Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b09vyvl0)

Joe makes a shocking admission, and Alistair's world collapses.


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b09vz6r1)
David Byrne

David Byrne was a founding member of the band Talking Heads. Born in Dumbarton, Scotland, he emigrated first to Canada and then to the USA before the age of ten.

He started playing in bands at school and, when art school didn't work out for him, he founded Talking Heads with a couple of friends. They played their first gig, opening for the Ramones, at the legendary New York club CBGB's, in June 1975. Eight studio albums later, cracks were beginning to show in the relations between band members, and by 1991 Talking Heads had officially split up.

Since then, he has enjoyed a solo career, and also made films, published photographic books, composed scores for musicals, created art installations and written books. He has received an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score, as well as a Golden Globe and a Grammy, for his soundtrack to the 1987 film The Last Emperor.

He and his fellow Talking Heads members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. He lives in New York and has a daughter in her late twenties from his 17 year marriage to Adelle Lutz.

Presenter: Kirsty Young
Producer: Cathy Drysdale.


SUN 12:00 News Summary (b09vyvl2)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (b09v32j9)
Series 80, Episode 4

Nicholas Parsons and regular guest Paul Merton challenge Josie Lawrence, Jenny Eclair and Tony Hawks to speak for a minute on such diverse topics as Zombies, Pi and Audrey Hepburn.

Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.

Produced by Victoria Lloyd.

A BBC Studios production.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b09vz6r3)
The Future of Bread

Dan Saladino talks to Modernist Bread author, Nathan Myhrvold, about one of the biggest bread research projects ever undertaken, which involved the baking of 36,000 loaves.

Nathan Myhrvold has spent his life trying to understand how things work, he's been a post doctoral fellow researching quantum theory with the late Stephen Hawking, he went on to work as the chief technology officer at Microsoft working directly with Bill Gates and then....... he turned his attention to food.

In 2011 he published Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, which explored the history, science and techniques of cooking, including the world of Modernist cuisine, in which chefs continue to push the boundaries of the kitchen. Now he's turned his attention to bread.

The research for Modernist Bread goes beyond the production of a book, new ideas about bread history are introduced (the first baker could have lived 100,000 years ago), myths are dispelled (French baguettes and Italian Ciabatta are not as traditional as we think they are) and techniques explained (why kneading might often be a waste of time and a squeeze of pineapple juice can work wonders for dough).

Dan and Nathan discuss bread history, correct some falsehoods and ponder on the need for a Modernist bread movement (and Nathan also explains which loaf out of the 36,000 they baked is his favourite).

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b09vyvl4)

The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b09vyvl6)

Global news and analysis.


SUN 13:30 From Our Home Correspondent (b09vz6r7)

In the latest programme of the monthly series, Mishal Husain introduces dispatches from journalists and writers around the United Kingdom that reflect the range of contemporary life in the country.

We hear why the forthcoming abolition of tolls on the River Severn road crossings may intensify enthusiasm among the English for living in Wales; what a flag-waving sand-dune yomp reveals about its Cornish participants; how the English, who once prided themselves on not cheating at sport, have succumbed to temptation; what a humble kitchen worktop can reveal about our knowledge of geography; and how a small Scottish market town is coping now that the banks have shut up shop.*

* This programme is topical and subjects included may change close to transmission.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b09v8lv8)
Hailey, Oxfordshire

Eric Robson and the panel are the guests of Hailey and District Gardening Club in Oxfordshire. Bunny Guinness, Bob Flowerdew and Pippa Greenwood answer the questions this week.

The panellists debate the pros and cons of 'double digging', offer advice on cutting back a Hebe, and help one questioner find a way round the lack of water supply on his allotment.

They also reveal the most exotic fruits and vegetables they have successfully grown in their own UK gardens, diagnose an unwell Conference Pear, and offer planting suggestions for a memorial trough.

And Pippa Greenwood analyses the latest RHS annual Top Ten Pests and Diseases chart.

Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b09vz70g)
Omnibus - Adventures in Parenting

Fi Glover introduces four conversations exploring the anxieties that parents face and the rewards that they reap. All in the Omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

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

Producer: Marya Burgess.


SUN 15:00 Drama (b086kjgq)
The Mysteries of Udolpho

y Ann Radcliffe
Dramatised by Hattie Naylor

Directed by Sally Avens

Emily St Aubert is forced to leave France and go and live with her Aunt and her new husband, Count Montoni, in his isolated castle in Italy.
Before long Emily discovers that the castle is a place of nightmares and Montoni a desperate man who will stop at nothing to terrorise both his wife and his niece.

Ann Radcliffe's Gothic romance revelled in both terrorising and titillating its readers. This was the sensational novel of its era, filled with dark deeds, dastardly villains and supposedly supernatural events.
As with many other Gothic novels, The Mysteries of Udolpho has at its centre a powerless young heroine often trapped in a mysterious location and pitted against an evil villain; the book revels in exploring the politics of power, pleasure and pain and sexual desire. Ann Radcliffe felt that terror was superior to horror, which nullified the senses, whereas she preferred to write about the psychological experience of being full of fear and dread manifested through the art of suggestion. Radcliffe was also unusual in always giving a rational explanation for the strange goings on in her novels.

In this dramatisation Hattie Naylor has taken the core of the four volumes of the novel to explore those edicts most at the heart of the Gothic Novel.


SUN 16:00 Open Book (b09vzg83)
Joseph Knox

Crime writer Joseph Knox talks to Mariella Frostrup about his follow up to his hugely successful debut Sirens.
And Golden Age crime writing: Ngaio Marsh left an unfinished novel when she died. Stella Duffy has now taken on the task of completing it and she talks to Mariella Frostrup about her approach.


SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (b06kb0gb)
Pot Luck

Roger McGough presents a pot luck of poetry from Byron and Keats to Charles Tomlinson. Producer Sally Heaven.


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b09v3ff2)
Britain's Squalid Prisons - Who's to Blame?

The collapse of the construction giant Carillion has focused attention on the contracts it had with the Government, one of which involved cleaning, landscaping and maintenance at 50 prisons in the south of England.

The prison contract came into effect in 2015, but within months major problems started to emerge, as prisoners, staff and inspectors reported long delays in getting cells, windows and toilets repaired.

The Ministry of Justice acknowledged that Carillion was under-performing and ordered the company to pay back millions of pounds - but its contract was allowed to continue until the work was taken in-house after the firm folded last month.

There've also been growing concerns about another contractor, Amey, which has a maintenance contract at 61 prisons in the north of England, the Midlands and Wales.

Amey's work came under the spotlight at Liverpool Jail which was described in a recent report as "squalid", with prisoners living in damp, dirty and cockroach-infested conditions.

The contracts, which are worth £200 million over five years, were intended to deliver savings of £115 million.

But Ministers have admitted that the Government won't achieve the economies it wanted to because it under-estimated how much it costs to maintain jails.

They say the new government-owned facilities management company which has taken on Carillion's work will secure "significant improvements" and have pledged to strengthen the management and oversight of its contract with Amey to deliver a better service.

But the Prison Officers Association says the failure to maintain prisons properly has fuelled frustration behind bars, contributed to increasing levels of violence and endangered the health and welfare of inmates.

File on 4 explores the background to the prisons maintenance contracts, the impact out-sourcing has had on prisoners, staff and the public and whether the solution lies in greater state control, an end to private sector involvement or more investment.

Reporter: Danny Shaw
Producer: Sally Chesworth
Editor: Gail Champion.


SUN 17:40 Profile (b09vx097)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b09vyvl8)

The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b09vyvlb)

The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b09vyvld)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b09vyvlg)
Anna Foster

Anna Foster chooses her BBC Radio highlights.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b09vzg85)

Clarrie fears the worst, while Shula speaks from experience.


SUN 19:15 In and Out of the Kitchen (b03w01zk)
Series 3, The Travel Piece

When Damien is offered the chance to test a new hotel as part of a writing assignment, he jumps at it. Meanwhile, Marion and Mr Mullaney are off on a date.


SUN 19:45 Man about the House (b04n6953)
The Parable of the Green House

Three specially commissioned stories that explore men's relationships with their homes:

2. The Parable of the Green House by Jess Walter
Dale hangs around his house, thinking bad things are happening in the yard. He becomes obsessed by this.

Reader: Trevor White
Producer: Duncan Minshull.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (b09v8lvg)

Roger Bolton asks if the BBC was slow to report allegations of sexual abuse in Telford, and the BBC's News Editor responds to concerns. Also this week - listeners' least favourite phrases, the new Welsh breakfast show, and memories of hearing the late Professor Stephen Hawking on the radio.

After the Sunday Mirror reported allegations of wide ranging sexual abuse of more than 1000 girls over a 40 year period in Telford, a number of national commentators and columnists accused the BBC of failing to give the story sufficient attention and prominence. In particular, it was suggested that the BBC had been held back by political correctness, since many of the accused offenders are of Asian origin. What followed was a huge twitter storm, with users on both sides angrily disputing the BBC's coverage. The BBC's News Editor James Stephenson joins Roger o discuss how the corporation's news division approached the story.

On A Point of View, sociologist Tom Shakespeare laid out with forensic ferocity why he hates the phrase "going forward" - prompting listeners to weigh in with their own linguistic bugbears. Tom sits down with Roger to discuss why people on the radio should watch their words.

And the physicist Stephen Hawking was renowned all over the world as a physicist, but to Feedback listeners he was also an exceptional broadcaster, appearing on everything from Desert Island Discs and The Reith Lectures to the current series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Fans of his warmth, clarity and humour tell their stories of hearing him on the radio.

Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (b09v8lvd)
Professor Stephen Hawking, Hubert de Givenchy, Michele Hanson, Sir John Sulston, Sir Ken Dodd

Photo: Professor Stephen Hawking

Matthew Bannister on

Professor Stephen Hawking, one of the world's best known scientists who carried out pioneering research into black holes. The Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees pays tribute.

Hubert de Givenchy, the French fashion designer who dressed Audrey Hepburn.

Michele Hanson who wrote a popular newspaper column about her struggles to bring up her teenage daughter. That daughter - Amy - pays tribute.

Sir John Sulston, the biologist who led the project to sequence the human genome.

And the comedian Sir Ken Dodd, whose shows could last into the early hours of the morning.

Archive clips from:TODAY PROGRAMME, RADIO 4 14/3/2018; THE KEY TO THE UNIVERSE:THE SEARCH FOR THE LAWS OF CREATION, BBC TV 27/01/1977; KEN DODD:HOW TICKLED I'VE BEEN, RADIO 2 03/11/2007; DESERT ISLAND DISCS, RADIO 4 03/06/1990; HOME TRUTHS, RADIO 4 03/01/2004; LATE NIGHT WOMAN’S HOUR, RADIO 4 26/05/2017; THE LIFE SCIENTIFIC, RADIO 4 29/11/2011; DESERT ISLAND DISCS, RADIO 4 13/05/2001


SUN 21:00 Money Box (b09vwzg4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b09vz6qx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (b09v32jp)
What Are Universities For?

Almost half of the UK's school leavers are now going to university. But the university sector is under more scrutiny than ever before. Sonia Sodha argues that it's time to take a profound look at what universities are really for.

Should we be spending vast amounts of public money educating young people at this level if the main purpose is to get ahead of the next person? Are vast numbers of students being failed by a one-size-fits-all system that prizes academic achievement above all else? Why has Apple - and several other companies in Silicon Valley - decided that training young people's imagination and sense of civic culture is of paramount importance? What are the long-term risks to society if universities increasingly become little more than training grounds for the workplace?

Producer: Adele Armstrong.


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b09vyvlj)

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


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b09v734n)
Mary Magdalene, The Square, Raiders of the Lost Archaeologist

With Francine Stock.

Here are five words you probably never thought you'd read in the same sentence - Joaquin Phoenix is Jesus Christ. Director Garth Davis explains why he cast the idiosyncratic actor in his biblical epic, Mary Magdalene.

Archaeologist Paul Duncan McGarrity excavates the history of cinematic diggers, bonekickers, and tomb raiders, and sees how they measure up to real life

Palme D'Or winner Ruben Ostlund takes us around The Square, his satire on contemporary society involving an art curator, a PR campaign and a grown man impersonating an ape.

In this week's A to Z of film-makers, X is for Xavier Dolan as critics Catherine Bray and Briony Hanson discuss the work of the Quebecois 28 year old wunderkind who's been making movies since he was 19.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b09vyvkk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 19 MARCH 2018

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b09vyvp1)

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


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b09v6yy3)
Racial inequality now, Women and political language

Racial inequality now - what explains its persistence? Nasar Meer, Professor of Race, Identity and Citizenship at the University of Edinburgh asks why racial and ethnic disparities continue to be fundamental to our society. Also, women and political language. Deborah Cameron, Rupert Murdoch Professorship in Language and Communication at Oxford University, discusses her study of the speech styles of the leaders of the main political parties in the 2015 General Election. (The latter was a pre-recorded interview which was transmitted in an earlier Thinking Allowed. The billed interview with Miri Song, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, had to be abandoned due to problems with the line from America).
Producer: Jayne Egerton.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b09vz6qs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b09vyvp3)

The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b09vyvp5)

MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b09vyvp9)

The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b09vyvpc)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b09x1976)

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Simon Doogan.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b09vyvpf)

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


MON 05:56 Weather (b09vyvph)

The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09vzn2j)
Matt Merritt on the Curlew

Poet and editor of British Birdwatching magazine revels in sounds of approaching spring as the call of the curlew once more fills the air in this Tweet of the Day.

Producer Maggie Ayre
Photograph: Anthony Pope.


MON 06:00 Today (b09vyvpk)

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


MON 09:00 Start the Week (b09vyvpm)
In Praise of Passion

We are drawn to wildness and disorder, argues historian Bettany Hughes. She tells Andrew Marr about the attraction of Bacchus, the god of wine and fertility, and the subject of a new BBC Four documentary. Bacchus (also known as Dionysus) has been a symbol of excess ever since Roman maidens fled to the woods and drank wine in his name. Hughes follows the Bacchic cult through history, and argues that chaos has been as important to civilisation as reason and restraint.

The wood - scene of so many Bacchic revelries - comes to life in nature writer John Lewis-Stempel's new account, The Wood: The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood. Through poetry, folklore and his own observations he asks what it is that draws us to magical spaces.

Today we revel in feelings of joy and wonder, but feelings themselves are a surprisingly modern invention, says cultural historian Rachel Hewitt. She looks back at the 1790s, the decade when men and women of learning first began to take emotions seriously. Hewitt explains how an Enlightenment interest in reason led us to explore our own chaotic moods.

There are Bacchic scenes in the music of Debussy, as biographer Stephen Walsh shows in a new study of the French composer. Away from his piano Debussy had to battle professional vendettas, but in pieces such as Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Debussy created a world of rich woodland scenes and musical intoxication.

Producer: Hannah Sander.


MON 09:45 Keywords for Our Time (b09vzn2q)
#MeToo

Helen Lewis, deputy editor of the New Statesman, explores this powerful yet "helpfully vague" phrase. It has enabled an overdue conversation about exploitation and abuse. The problem is, Helen argues, it "airbrushes away the brutality of what is happening.".


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b09vyvpp)

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b09vzsl0)
Based on a True Story, Seduction

Claudine Toutoungi's adaptation of Delphine de Vigan's psychological thriller about an obsessive female friendship. Delphine is suffering from crippling writer's block when she meets L.

Directed by Gemma Jenkins.

Delphine's writer's block is a result of the double-edged response to her last book. As her crisis progresses, Delphine encounters the enigmatic L at a party. L is intimately familiar with Delphine's work; an admirer who quickly insinuates herself into Delphine's life. Delphine realises that L's insistent desire to get her working again may not be as benevolent as it appears.

De Vigan has made her name writing "autobiographical fiction". She questions the place of the writer in our society of imitation and fake news. In this novel she blurs memoir and fiction to the extent that at every turn the audience is made to question where truth ends and fantasy begins.

The idea threading through the plot and feeding the final revelations is who has the power - or the right - to tell someone else's story.


MON 11:00 The Expressing Room (b09vzyd3)

Fi Glover goes behind closed doors of the Expressing Room at Evelina London Children's Hospital, meeting the mothers of Britain's growing numbers of severely premature babies.

"The Milk of Human Kindness," reads the mural on its wall. The Expressing Room is an intimate and private place where mothers from every background go to express milk for their babies, many of whom will require prolonged periods in hospital. Often, the mothers cannot hold their incubated babies so the expressing room becomes the only place where they feel a part of their child's care.

While expressing, mothers often share their hopes and fears. Everyone in the room knows that some babies will not survive.

Using special access agreed through the Neonatal Unit at the Evelina London Children's Hospital, Fi joins the mothers to hear them share their stories.

This is a room with a story that is becoming more and more common. Older mothers or women using fertility treatments are much more likely to have premature babies. In the UK, around 60,000 babies are born prematurely each year. Globally, more than 1 in 10 pregnancies will end in a preterm birth.

Music composition: Camilo Tirado.
Producer Sarah Cuddon
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 11:30 Ayres on the Air (b09vzyd5)
Series 6, Still in the Game

Much-loved poet and entertainer Pam Ayres returns to BBC Radio 4 with four new shows packed with poems, sketches and anecdotes that will make you laugh out loud.

Today's theme is 'Still in the Game' - about getting older... but not giving in!

There are sketches about the horror of being offered a seat on the train for the first time, to dye or not to dye grey hair, and still dancing in the aisles to Bruce Springsteen. Also, Pam performs poems including 'The Geriatric Juliet' about a faded actress and 'The Next Big Thing' in which Pam positively welcomes and embraces the idea of buying larger sizes in clothes.

Over the course of this series, Pam also regales the audience with stories and poems on the subjects of holidays, being a grandparent and what home means to her.
She is joined for the sketches by actors Felicity Montagu (Lynn in I'm Alan Partridge) and Geoffrey Whitehead (Not Going Out, Still Open All Hours).

Written by: Pam Ayres, Jan Etherington, Laura Major and Peter Reynolds.
Starring Pam Ayres, Felicity Montagu and Geoffrey Whitehead.
Producer: Claire Jones.


MON 12:00 News Summary (b09vyvpr)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 Home Front (b09swfry)
19 March 1918 - Dorothea Winwood

On this day in 1918, the House of Lords discussed the founding of a League of Nations, and in Folkestone, Dorothea puts together a mixed dinner party.

Written by Katie Hims
Story-led by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.


MON 12:15 You and Yours (b09vyvpt)

News and discussion of consumer affairs.


MON 12:57 Weather (b09vyvpw)

The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b09vyvpy)

Analysis of news and current affairs.


MON 13:45 Book of the Week (b09vzyd7)
The Wood, Episode 1

Over twelve months, this is the story of Cockshutt Wood in Shropshire, representative of all the small woods in our landscape and the sanctuary they provide.

From January through to December, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons in exquisite prose, as the cuckoo flits through the green shade in the silence and the wind of winter. He explores from the roots of the oak to its tips, under the black, spicy leaf mould of the woodland floor and up into the mysterious canopy.

It's a unique account of the animals that inhabit this refuge - the fox, the pheasant, the wood mouse and the tawny owl, among others - with the stories of their births, lives and deaths threaded through the book.

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


MON 14:00 The Archers (b09vzg85)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b09vzyd9)
The Ferryhill Philosophers, Thought Experiments and A Little Scrap of a Thing

Joe's daughter Lucy is pregnant and heading for University. Her Mum, her Dad, the baby's father and grandmother all have differing opinions - but why does philosopher Hermione stay silent?

Lucy must decide what to do, while Hermione gives her and Joe warm support, good advice - and a startling revelation.

Once again, ex-miner Joe Snowball and Durham philosophy lecturer Hermione Pink argue, console and confide in one another over the thinking behind one of life's big dilemmas.

Written by Michael Chaplin
Directed by Marilyn Imrie

A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (b09vzydc)
Heat 4, 2018

(4/17)
In this week's contest the questions cover human anatomy, Danish literature, palaeontology, the moons of the solar system and the writers of broadsheet arts coverage - and these are just the first five questions. As always Russell Davies brings friendly rigour to the competition, with another guaranteed semi-final place awaiting the winner today.

Today's competitors are:

Mark Eves, an accountant from Bexley in London
Andrew Fanko, a freelance translator from Market Harborough in Leicestershire
Gillian Ledwick, a retired college admin officer from Brentford in Middlesex
John Robinson, an English teacher from Birmingham.

A Brain of Britain listener also stands a chance of winning a prize if the questions he or she has devised outwit all four competitors.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b09vz6r3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 The Art of Now (b09w05z7)

Anglo-Spanish artist Sonia Boue responds to the Catalan crisis and the Spanish Civil War by retracing her father's exile and exhibiting her work in Spain for the first time.

We chart her journey as she makes her artistic response and navigates her own family history, capturing the processes by which she unravels the complex emotions and memories the unrest in October 2017 revives within her, and exploring her Spanish identity.

In a loving tribute to her father, Sonia retraces his exile in reverse. In 1939, he fled over the Pyrennes to France as Franco's army advanced on Barcelona, never letting go of his grief at being forced from his homeland.

The programme is also a lament for the 500,000 Spaniards who left Spain as the Civil War drew to a close - and indeed for all exiles everywhere, including those like Sonia, for who it is a historical memory passed down to the next generation.

The silencing of Civil War history, first by Franco's dictatorship and then by the "pact of amnesia" which aided the transition to democracy in the 1970s, is a recurrent theme in Sonia's work. She discovers elements of her own history and her father's struggle which are new to her and confronts the very real fears that surface as she prepares to take her artistic practice to Spain for the first time.

It is something she feels she needs to do - and yet she identifies menacing undertows in the recent upheavals in Catalonia that threaten to silence her more than ever before.

An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 16:30 The Digital Human (b09w05z9)
Series 13, Vortex

Aleks Krotoski asks if blaming social media for recent political upheaval misses the point and we end up giving to much power to the technology and not enough to ourselves in how opinions become formed.


MON 17:00 PM (b09vyvq0)

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b09vyvq2)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b09w05zc)
Series 80, Episode 5

Nicholas Parsons invites Shappi Khorsandi, Jo Caulfield, Julian Clary and Paul Merton to speak for 60 seconds on the subjects like Superfoods, Cairo and Hercule Poirot.

Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
A BBC Studios Production.


MON 19:00 The Archers (b09w05zf)

Justin calls in a favour, and Pat is offended.


MON 19:15 Front Row (b09vyvq4)
Andrew Lloyd Webber

Arts news, interviews and reviews.


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b09vzsl0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Double-Talk (b09w05zh)

A conversational feature exploring the art of the dialogue, in philosophy and law, in religion, psychoanalysis and the arts.

The dialogue is a special kind of exchange. At its most simple, between two voices A and B back and forth, one speaks as the other listens and vice versa. Both parties change from the experience. It's an ancient model for how we should communicate, debate, speak, listen and think.

Built around a series of conversations, this programme explores the two-voice dialogue across different spheres - its foundations in the ancient world and in law, in religious thought and modern psychoanalysis, in philosophy and fiction, in drama and comedy and even in music. Dialogue as competition and exchange, as the art of listening as well as speaking, a form of equity or even disguise.

The very earliest dialogues were rowdy and competitive, each voice trying to gain mastery over the other with one judged the winner - in ancient Sumerian writing summer debates with winter, copper takes on silver, fish against bird. These dialogues, all about prosecution and defence, became a foundation for legal argument. But dialogue can be used to describe something more pacific, an approach to understanding and agreement. In Western philosophy, the dialogue was the great revealer of truth - most famously the Socratic dialogues of Plato, which lay down the principles of reason through opposition and exchange.

When it works, the dialogue is a learning process, transforming both participants in the process.

But when two voices are put in dialogue, face to face, is truth and understanding always the outcome? Dialogue can also be a measure of silence, a space where parties conceal as much as they reveal - a way for authors to disguise their own voice by writing for two, sometimes in order to print radical ideas or reveal secrets without taking direct ownership of them, from Galileo to Oscar Wilde.

Contributors include curator Irving Finkel and Helena Kennedy QC; philosopher Simon Critchley and literary scholar Hugh Haughton; singer Catherine Bott and jazz bassist Alec Dankworth; comedy writer John Finnemore and playwright Tristan Bernays; psychotherapist Adam Phillips and Giles Fraser, priest of St Mary's Newington in London.

Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 20:30 Analysis (b09w05zk)
Screens and Teens

Do we need to "do something" about the effects of smartphones on teenage children? The backlash against the omnipresent devices has begun. Parents on both sides of the Atlantic are increasingly worried that smartphones pose a threat to the current generation of teenagers, who have grown up with a phone almost constantly in their hand. Smartphones make our teenagers anxious, tired narcissists who lack empathy and the ability to communicate properly in person. Or so the story goes.

David Baker examines the evidence behind the case against smartphones. He hears from the academics calling for action to curb the addictive pull of the screen and from a former Silicon Valley developer who won't let his children have a smartphone. But he also speaks to experts convinced this is just another moral panic about technology's effect on the young. Could there be a danger in blaming smartphones for the rise in teenage anxiety, especially among girls, at the expense of finding the real cause?

What, if anything, should we be doing to protect our kids? And who can we look to for guidance in fashioning a healthy relationship with this incredibly powerful piece of kit?

Producer: Lucy Proctor.


MON 21:00 Aftermath (b09v3fdh)
Series 2, After the Admiral Duncan

In 1999, the Admiral Duncan pub in the heart of Soho was bombed - a nail bomb exploded killing 3 and injuring over 70 people. What have been the long term after effects for those involved? And how did Soho respond as the beating heart of London's gay community?

Alan Dein investigates as part of the Aftermath series, exploring what happens to a community after it has been at the centre of a nationally significant event.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby

If you've been affected by bereavement, or child bereavement, help and support is available.

BBC Action Line
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4MmhHDSbdDmTpVJhBs2v4Py/information-and-support-bereavement.


MON 21:30 Start the Week (b09vyvpm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b09vyvq6)

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b09w05zm)
Reservoir 13, Doubts were beginning to emerge

Lee Ingleby reads Jon McGregor's multi award-winning novel.

A teenage girl has gone missing on a midwinter walk in the heart of England. As the locals are called up to join the search party and police set up roadblocks, a crowd of news reporters descends on this usually quiet village. What effect will Becky Shaw's disappearance have on this close-knit Peak District community? And what did happen her?

But as the search for Becky goes on, so does everyday life. Cows must be milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written. And as the seasons unfold there are those who leave the village and those who are pulled back; those who come together or break apart. There are births and deaths; secrets kept and told; small kindnesses and unanticipated betrayals.

Reservoir 13 is one of the most acclaimed and talked-about novels of the 2017. It won the Costa Novel Award, was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, and was longlisted for the Man Booker. It was a Guardian, Financial Times, TLS, Telegraph and Observer Book of the Year.

Reader: Lee Ingleby is an acclaimed British TV and stage actor. Most recently he starred in the BBC dramas The A Word, and in Line of Duty.
Writer: Jon McGregor is an acclaimed British writer, who has won the Costa Novel award and been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize three times. His third novel,
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Justine Willett.


MON 23:00 Something of the Night (b09w05zp)
Lyse Doucet, Jonathan Bailey, Gary Fildes

BBC international correspondent Lyse Doucet; actor Jonathan Bailey and astronomer Gary Fildes join Libby Purves for live, late night conversation.

Lyse Doucet is the award-winning chief international correspondent and senior presenter for BBC World News television and BBC World Service Radio. She is regularly deployed to anchor special news coverage from the field, including Syria, Pakistan and Egypt. She played a key role in the BBC's coverage of the Arab Spring across the Middle East and North Africa and has covered all the major stories in the region for the past 20 years. She is a regular visitor to Afghanistan and Pakistan from where she has been reporting since 1988.

Jonathan Bailey is an actor who stars as John in the York Realist, a play by Peter Gill about the love affair between John, a theatre director, and George, a Yorkshire farm labourer, and the clash between London and regional culture. A child actor who got his first break in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Christmas Carol, Jonathan has appeared in Broadchurch and W1A and his stage credits include appearing in King Lear alongside Sir Ian McKellen. The York Realist is at the Donmar Warehouse until March 24th and then at the Crucible Theatre Sheffield until April 7th.

Gary Fildes is the founder and lead astronomer at Kielder public observatory, a popular visitor attraction in Northumberland. Fired by a love of the night sky from childhood, Gary left school at 17 and went straight into manual labour, working as a bricklayer for over 25 years before turning back to his first love - astronomy. In 2012 he received an honorary Master's degree from Durham University in recognition of his services to astronomy. He founded the Kielder Observatory in 2008.

Producer: Paula McGinley.


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b09vyvq8)

Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.



TUESDAY 20 MARCH 2018

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b09vyvsp)

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


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b09vzyd7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b09vyvsr)

The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b09vyvst)

TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b09vyvsw)

The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b09vyvsy)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b09xctlt)

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Simon Doogan.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b09vyvt0)

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09w08g3)
Matt Merritt on the Redstart

Poet and editor of British Birdwatching magazine enjoys seeing the first male redstart of spring, around April 20th, which has become Redstart Day for him in this Tweet of the Day.

Producer Maggie Ayre.


TUE 06:00 Today (b09vyvt2)

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


TUE 09:00 Civilisation: A Sceptic's Guide (b09sn1hj)

Professor David Cannadine argues that history has been wrong to categorise people according to their civilisation.

Far from belonging to a distinct grouping of this sort, peoples have always been interdependent and what may have looked like boundaries between empires and cultures turn out to be much more porous than we might imagine.

Nor do descriptions of 'we' (the civilised') and 'they' (the barbarians) stand scrutiny.

Cannadine looks at moments in history when these alleged divisions were most pronounced. The 18th century, under the influence of Gibbon's great Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire, for example, chose to trace Western civilisation in a straight line back to Greece and Rome, carefully sidestepping the vital influences of the east. The same is true of the story of the Renaissance and of the New World discoveries where so called encounters between civilised and primitive peoples are much more finely nuanced.

Most importantly, the recent incarnation of the Us and Them theory of world divisions, which is enshrined in Samuel Huntington's book The Clash of Civilisations, predicted that the conflicts which would replace the Cold War battle of ideologies would be 21st century battles between the West and Islamic or Confucian 'civilisations'. Cannadine argues that this idea is sweeping, dangerous and wrong.

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 09:30 One to One (b07cvhrl)
David Greig and Ben Smith

What does it take to be a successful runner of extreme distance, and why do people do it?

David Greig is the Artistic Director of the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh and an internationally successful playwright. He's also an ultra-marathon runner who has twice completed the punishing 96 mile West Highland Way amongst many other long-distance races. He took up running fifteen years ago when he stopped smoking and running has since become an endorphin-fuelled obsession.

For One to One, David speaks to two fellow runners. Today, he meets Ben Smith who - at the time of their conversation - was attempting to set a world record by running 401 marathons on 401 consecutive days. Following a difficult childhood and a challenging time during his 20s, Ben discovered running and it became a form of confidence building and healing. Out of this new sense of confidence, Ben decided to set himself an outlandish challenge, and the 401 was the result.

Producer: Karen Gregor.


TUE 09:45 Keywords for Our Time (b09wg6fm)
Prophets of Doom

Why are we so drawn to doom-mongers? Alex Deane, PR consultant and former chief of staff to David Cameron, explores the long history of the phrase 'prophet of doom', from Jeremiah to the modern day.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b09vyvt4)

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b09w09xh)
Based on a True Story, Possession

Claudine Toutoungi's adaptation of Delphine de Vigan's psychological thriller about an obsessive female friendship. Delphine's writer's block has progressed to a point where she is unable to write a single word. L offers to to move in and help Delphine put her life back in order.

Directed by Gemma Jenkins.


TUE 11:00 Aftermath (b09w09xk)
Series 2, Ibrox - The Forgotten Tragedy?

In 1971 at a game between Rangers and Celtic, 66 people were killed in a crush, trying to leave Ibrox stadium. Over 45 years on, Alan Dein asks what the impact has been for those closely involved in this tragedy, for Rangers, and for the wider football community.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby

If you've been affected by bereavement, or child bereavement, help and support is available.

BBC Action Line
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4MmhHDSbdDmTpVJhBs2v4Py/information-and-support-bereavement.


TUE 11:30 Perfect Husband, Pitiable Artist (b09w0bv7)

"I have often felt that an artist is a detestable, interior kind of man, and perhaps also a deplorable husband. Put another way," wrote the composer Claude Debussy, "a perfect husband can sometimes produce a pitiable artist."

Debussy died one hundred years ago this week. His admission to being a "deplorable husband" is supported graphically by the attempted suicide of his wife and his subsequent behaviour. The extent to which any of this was balanced or justified by the greatness of his music is questionable, though other artists have expressed similar sentiments.

The pianist Lucy Parham traces the turbulence of Debussy's personal life, in words and music. Also we hear from Sebastian Faulks whose fictional singer-songwriter Anya King overthrows her own 'precious one' (as Leonard Cohen famously described it) in the novel A Possible Life, and from a real-life singer-songwriter Laetitia Sadier who reflects on the tension between the artistic and the domestic during her years with Stereolab and her own bands.

With readings by Joanna David.

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


TUE 12:00 News Summary (b09vyvt7)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 Home Front (b09swfv2)
20 March 1918 - Kitty Lumley

On this day in 1918, the War Office forbade the use of 'maisons tolérées', and in Folkestone, Kitty encounters the sharp end of intolerance.

Written by Katie Hims
Story-led by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.


TUE 12:15 Four Seasons (b09w0g02)
Black March by Stevie Smith

Poems to celebrate the spring equinox. Noma Dumezweni reads Black March by Stevie Smith.

Producer: Sarah Addezio.


TUE 12:18 You and Yours (b09vyvt9)
Call You and Yours

Consumer phone-in.


TUE 12:56 Weather (b09vyvtc)

The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b09vyvtf)

Analysis of news and current affairs.


TUE 13:43 Four Seasons (b09w0g04)
Nostos by Louise Gluck

Poems to celebrate the spring equinox. Harriet Walter reads Nostos by Louise Gluck.

Producer: Sarah Addezio.


TUE 13:45 Book of the Week (b09x0fpt)
The Wood, Episode 2

Over twelve months, this is the story of Cockshutt Wood in Shropshire, representative of all the small woods in our landscape and the sanctuary they provide. In this second episode, winter has departed and spring has almost sprung.

From January through to December, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons in exquisite prose, as the cuckoo flits through the green shade in the silence and the wind of winter. He explores from the roots of the oak to its tips, under the black, spicy leaf mould of the woodland floor and up into the mysterious canopy.

It's a unique account of the animals that inhabit this refuge - the fox, the pheasant, the wood mouse and the tawny owl, among others - with the stories of their births, lives and deaths threaded through the book.

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


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b09w05zf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (b09w0g06)
The Ferryhill Philosophers, Minority Rights and The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Joe's friend Jemal fights to stay in Ferryhill after his family's secret is revealed and neighbours turn against him.

Joe and Hermione work to mediate between some of the village community's prejudices against a way of life for Jemal and his family. Can Jemal win the villagers' hearts with his story?

Once again, ex-miner Joe Snowball and Durham philosophy lecturer Hermione Pink argue, console and confide in one another over the thinking behind one of life's big dilemmas.

Written by Michael Chaplin
Directed by Marilyn Imrie

A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (b09w0g08)
Series 15, The Answer

Josie Long presents short documentaries and stories about the quest for resolution. Years spent in search of a solution to Elgar's Enigma, an adult seeks an answer to a childhood letter and a mother records her young son's responses.

The Being Sound
Produced by Stephanie Rowden

Get Pierced
Produced by Duncan Cowles

Counter Melody
Featuring Bob Padgett (who runs the website The Enigma Theme Unmasked)
Produced by Daniel Estrin, Jessi Carrier, Steven Jackson and Nick van der Kolk.

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


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b09w0g0b)
Superwood

Anything made from oil can now be made from trees, so is a new age of wood about to dawn? Tom Heap visits Finland which is pushing for a new industrial revolution based on trees and plants rather than oil and coal. He takes a glimpse into a future where cars, clothes, computers screens, and everything else we buy could begin its life in the forest. And he finds out how the UK is leading the way towards wooden skyscrapers.

Producer Sarah Swadling.


TUE 16:00 Four Seasons (b09w0g0d)
Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now by AE Housman

Poems to celebrate the spring equinox. Simon Russell Beale reads A E Housman's, Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now.

Producer: Sarah Addezio.


TUE 16:03 Law in Action (b09w0g0g)

Legal magazine programme presented by Joshua Rozenberg.


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b09w0g0j)
Bernardine Evaristo and Jolyon Rubinstein

Harriett Gilbert's guests are writer Bernardine Evaristo and comedian Jolyon Rubinstein. Bernardine's choice is Come Let Us Sing Anyway by Leone Ross and Jolyon's favourite is Any Human Heart by William Boyd, and Harriett introduces her guests to An English Murder by Cyril Hare.


TUE 17:00 PM (b09vyvtk)

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


TUE 17:58 Four Seasons (b09w0g0l)
Wet Evening in April by Patrick Kavanagh

Poems to celebrate the spring equinox. Anton Lesser reads Wet Evening in April by Patrick Kavanagh.

Producer: Sarah Addezio.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b09vyvtm)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Love in Recovery (b07378df)
Series 2, Starting Over

Second series of the award-nominated comedy drama set in Alcoholics Anonymous, written by Pete Jackson and inspired by his own road to recovery. Stars Sue Johnston, John Hannah, Eddie Marsan, Rebecca Front, Paul Kaye and Julia Deakin.

Love in Recovery follows the lives of five very different recovering alcoholics. Taking place entirely at their weekly meetings, we hear them moan, argue, laugh, fall apart, fall in love and - most importantly - tell their stories.

In this first episode of the series, Fiona (Rebecca Front) has a problem she thinks only Danno (Paul Kaye) can solve. But Danno has his own problems - and he's on the run.

Writer Pete Jackson is a recovering alcoholic and has spent time in Alcoholics Anonymous. It was there he found support from the unlikeliest group of disparate souls - with one common bond. As well as offering the support he needed throughout a difficult time, AA also offered a weekly, sometimes daily, dose of hilarity, upset, heartbreak and friendship.

There are lots of different kinds of AA meetings. Love in Recovery is about meetings where people tell their stories. There are funny stories, sad stories, stories of small victories and milestones, stories of loss, stories of hope, and those stories that you really shouldn't laugh at - but still do, along with the storyteller.

Written and created by Pete Jackson

Producer/Director: Ben Worsfield
A Lucky Giant production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b09w0g0n)

Alice goes too far, and Will attempts a brave face.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b09vyvtp)

Arts news, interviews and reviews.


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b09w09xh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b09w0hcp)

Simon Cox investigates a series of failures in a mental health trust. Patients say they don't feel safe on wards, there have been a series of suicides and now there are serious new allegations emerging.

Reporter: Simon Cox
Producer: Anna Meisel
Editor: Gail Champion.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b09vyvtr)

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


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b09w0hcr)

Dr Mark Porter presents a series on health issues.


TUE 21:30 Civilisation: A Sceptic's Guide (b09sn1hj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b09vyvty)

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b09wlndz)
Reservoir 13, It was as if the ground had swallowed her whole.

Lee Ingleby reads Jon McGregor's multi award-winning novel.

A teenage girl has gone missing on a midwinter walk in the heart of England. Now six months on, the search for Becky Shaw continues, and still there are no clues as to what happened to her. It's as if the ground had just opened up and swallowed her whole.

But as the search for the lost girl goes on, so does everyday life in the village. Cows must be milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written. And as the seasons unfold, there are more and more glimpses into what might have happened to Becky Shaw.

Reservoir 13 is one of the most acclaimed novels of the 2017. It won the Costa Novel Award, was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, and was longlisted for the Man Booker. It was a Guardian, Financial Times, TLS, Telegraph and Observer Book of the Year.

Reader: Lee Ingleby is an acclaimed British TV and stage actor. Most recently he starred in the BBC dramas The A Word, and in Line of Duty.
Writer: Jon McGregor
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Justine Willett.


TUE 23:00 Time Spanner (b087p3mn)

A mind-bending time-travelling comic adventure which sees Martin Gay's 40th birthday disrupted by two very important moments: one is meeting Gabbie, the girl of his dreams who he might possibly have just said totally the wrong thing to; and the other is being forced at gunpoint through a supernatural mirror into a world of angels, robots and the most powerful tool in the universe, the Time Spanner, which gives the holder the power to span time.

Will Martin use the time spanner to save humanity from destruction? Or will he use it to try and make sure Gabbie doesn't think he's an idiot?

Written by and starring Simon Kane as Martin Gay, narrated by John Finnemore as Laika the space dog, and starring David Mitchell as billionaire occultist Daniel Kraken, London Hughes as disconcertingly optimistic charity worker Gabbie, Jeremy Limb as the world's most irritating robot and Belinda Stewart-Wilson as the Angel.

Produced by Gareth Edwards

A BBC Studios production.


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b09vyvv2)

Sean Curran reports from Westminster.


TUE 23:55 Four Seasons (b09wlndr)
Work Without Hope by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Trees are Down by Charlotte Mew, It is Not Growing Like a Tree by Ben Jonson

Poems to celebrate the spring equinox. Readers Bill Patterson, Harriet Walter and Siobhan Redmond usher us into a new season.

Producer: Sarah Addezio.



WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH 2018

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b09vyvx5)

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


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b09x0fpt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b09vyvx7)

The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b09vyvx9)

WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b09vyvxc)

The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b09vyvxf)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b09xk8gp)

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Simon Doogan.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b09vyvxh)

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09w0vhv)
Matt Merritt on the Wheatear

Poet and editor of British Birdwatching magazine Matt Merritt revels in fast cheery song of the wheatear, which gave this bird the old name of English Ortolan, in this Tweet of the Day.

Producer Maggie Ayre.


WED 06:00 Today (b09vyvxk)

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


WED 09:00 Only Artists (b09w0vhx)
Series 4, Shobana Jeyasingh and Hussein Chalayan

Shobana Jeyasingh is a British choreographer. Born in Chennai, she grew up studying the classical Indian dance form bharatanatyam. She launched her own contemporary dance company in 1988. Past works have explored science, classical painting and urban architecture, working with composers, mathematicians and filmmakers. Last year she created a piece that directly challenged the stereotype of the exotic Indian dancer.

For only Artists she meets Hussein Chalayan at the Place Theatre, the home of contemporary dance in London.

Hussein Chalayan has twice won the British Designer of the Year, and was awarded the MBE in 2006. He was born in Cyprus and moved to Britain with his family when he was 8. From his first graduation collection which he left to decompose buried in his back garden to a coffee table which transforms into a skirt and remote-control dresses, Chalayan is known for his highly creative designs, worn by the likes of Bjork and Lady Gaga. He has made films, had his work shown in galleries and directed and designed a dance piece at Sadler's Wells Theatre.


WED 09:30 You're Doing It Wrong (b09w0vhz)
Series 1, The Environment

Recycle your plastics to replenish the rainforest; share showers to save the whales; turn your washing machine down 3 to give the polar bears a fighting chance!

Modern environmentalism is well-meaning, but horribly muddled. We diligently wipe out yoghurt pots and despair over plastic bottles.... yet jet off on holidays, buy new cars and pop out another kid, or three. We install solar panels, but eat imported guava. Replace our lightbulbs, but bin our batteries.
Do we have any idea which strategies are actually effective? Does anything work?

Adam Buxton digs down into our approach to saving the planet to see if anything makes sense.

Produced in Bristol by Emily Knight.


WED 09:45 Keywords for Our Time (b09wg6gp)
Resilience

Farrah Jarral - broadcaster, author and GP - checks over a buzzword of the medical profession. On the face of it, resilience is to be applauded - but behind the word, is something sinister lurking?


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b09vyvxm)

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b09w0vzp)
Based on a True Story, Inspiration

Claudine Toutoungi's adaptation of Delphine de Vigan's psychological thriller about an obsessive female friendship.

Delphine starts writing again but it's not the story L wants her to tell.

Directed by Gemma Jenkins.


WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b09w0w77)
Frank and Irene - It's Opened Our World

A couple have discovered that moving on from LPs and CDs has unlocked untold riches. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.


WED 11:00 On and Off the Valley Lines (b09w0wr7)

Following the lives and stories of those who live along the rail network that fans out from Cardiff up into the South Wales Valleys.

Broadly covering the ex-coalfield of South Wales, the Valleys is a collection of towns and villages ranged along, and separated by, hills and mountains. Running roughly north to south, the Valley Lines connects these towns and villages to each other - and to the growing city of Cardiff on the south coast.

Trains can offer up a slice of life, a window onto a world - glimpsed back gardens, frozen street scenes, snatches of lives and overheard conversations - and the Valley Lines provide an opening onto the people and places - and the culture and economics - of this region, defined by its geography.

As resistant to generalisations as any place, the meaning of the Valleys depends upon who you ask: a collection of deeply rooted communities with an enviable sense of cohesion and identity; a cradle of industrial and socialist history; a sublime natural resource and increasingly a rural playground; a predicament to be confronted, a problem to be solved.

And certain statistics do seem to back up this last concern: according to metrics of deprivation and economic inactivity, of educational attainment, health and life expectancy, the problems in the Valleys seem very real.

It's easy to be blinded by these statistics. And one proffered solution to 'the problem of the Valleys' that surfaces from time to time calls for, effectively, a managed clearance of large parts of the area, to rewild them, creating a tourist-focused region comparable perhaps to the Lake District.

One response to these intentions can stand as a premise for these programmes: what about the people?

It's a story usually told in a current affairs context, but these programmes hope to loosen that form to tell part of the story of the Valleys through the Valley Lines railway, its passengers and passers-by.


WED 11:30 Boswell's Lives (b09w10b3)
Series 3, Boswell's Life of Christie

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 Agatha Christie and soon becomes involved in deception, disappearances and an unnatural death.

Vicki Pepperdine is best known as a co-writer and performer of the award winning 'Getting On'. She recently appeared in 'Goodbye Christopher Robin' and 'My Cousin Rachel'.


WED 12:00 News Summary (b09vyvxp)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 Home Front (b09swfvh)
21 March 1918 - Bill Macknade

On this day in 1918, a convoy of 120 stretcher cases arrived in Folkestone, and Bill Macknade is ready to get back on his feet.

Written by Katie Hims
Story-led by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.


WED 12:15 You and Yours (b09vyvxr)

Consumer affairs programme.


WED 12:57 Weather (b09vyvxt)

The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (b09vyvxw)

Analysis of news and current affairs.


WED 13:45 Book of the Week (b09x0fsk)
The Wood, Episode 3

Over twelve months, this is the story of Cockshutt Wood in Shropshire, representative of all the small woods in our landscape and the sanctuary they provide. In episode three, it's May Day and the life force of the wood is unstoppable.

From January through to December, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons in exquisite prose, as the cuckoo flits through the green shade in the silence and the wind of winter. He explores from the roots of the oak to its tips, under the black, spicy leaf mould of the woodland floor and up into the mysterious canopy.

It's a unique account of the animals that inhabit this refuge - the fox, the pheasant, the wood mouse and the tawny owl, among others - with the stories of their births, lives and deaths threaded through the book.

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


WED 14:00 The Archers (b09w0g0n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Tommies (b09w10b5)
21 March 1918

Caught up in the surprise British retreat of 1918, three signallers face a terrifying choice between thick fog and German Stormtroopers, in this front line adventure starring Lee Ross and John Macmillan.

Mickey Bliss is back on the Western Front, where the Allies have spent the autumn gaining just five miles of soil over fourteen weeks at Passchendaele.

After today's extraordinary events, they will lose forty miles in just two weeks.

Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war, exactly 100 years ago.

And through it all, we follow the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers, from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army. They are the cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years.

Captain Mickey Bliss ..... Lee Ross
Sapper Juma Gubanda ..... John Macmillan
Sergeant Desmond Dixon ..... Daniel Weyman
Sapper Ezekiel Warmby ..... Tom Vallen
Major George Fenniman ..... Philip Bretherton
Captain Hubert Puckle ..... Simon Wilson
Sergeant Castle ..... Ryan Early
Sapper John Quennell ..... Nick Underwood
WAAC Florrie Fanshawe ..... Karen Bartke
Messengers ..... Lukie Bailey, Ryan Whittle
Commentator ..... Indira Varma

Series created by Jonathan Ruffle
Written by Jonathan Ruffle
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: Jonquil Panting.


WED 15:00 Money Box (b09vyvy0)
Money Box Live

Financial phone-in.


WED 15:30 Inside Health (b09w0hcr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b09w10b7)

Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (b09vyvy2)

Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.


WED 17:00 PM (b09vyvy4)

Coverage and analysis of the day's news.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b09vyvy6)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 It's Not What You Know (b09w10bc)
Series 5, Episode 3

Joe Lycett tests Melanie Chisholm, Kerry Godliman and Jack Carroll on how well they know their nearest and dearest.

What's Mel C's favourite Spice Girls song, where is Kerry's dream holiday destination and who would play Jack in the film of his life?

All these questions, and more, will be answered in the show hosted by Joe Lycett where panellists' relationships are put to the test...

Produced by Adnan Ahmed.

It was a BBC Studios Production.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b09w111b)

Alistair fails to make sense of recent events, while Chris tries to do the right thing.


WED 19:15 Front Row (b09vyvy8)

Arts news, interviews and reviews.


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b09w0vzp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:41 today]


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b09w12jf)

Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Anne McElvoy, Matthew Taylor, Giles Fraser and Michael Portillo.


WED 20:45 Lent Talks (b09w12jh)
The Silence of the Lamb - Dr Katie Edwards

As someone who witnessed the sexual abuse of her teenage friends in the 1990s, Katie Edwards wonders whether she - and they - might have spoken out more readily if they had not been taught that silence in the face of suffering is a virtue.

Producer: Rosie Dawson.


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b09w0g0b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 Only Artists (b09w0vhx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b09vyvyb)

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b09w12jk)
Reservoir 13, There was still a feeling of life being on hold.

Lee Ingleby reads Jon McGregor's multi award-winning novel.

A teenage girl has gone missing on a midwinter walk in the Peak District. Now a year on, with few clues as to what happened to Becky, the community is struggling to move on.

But while the search for her goes on, so must everyday life in the village. Cows must be milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written. And as the seasons unfold, there are more and more glimpses into what might have happened to Becky Shaw, not least from the local teenagers who, it seems, know more than they're letting on.

Reservoir 13 is one of the most acclaimed novels of the 2017. It won the Costa Novel Award, was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, and was longlisted for the Man Booker.

Reader: Lee Ingleby is an acclaimed British actor, known recently for starring in the BBC dramas The A Word, and Line of Duty.
Writer: Jon McGregor
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Justine Willett.


WED 23:00 Sophie Willan's Guide to Normality (b09w13sg)
Series 1, Be a Parent

Break out comedy star Sophie Willan is coming to Radio 4 with an exciting new stand-up series looking at what it is to be 'normal'. Sophie grew up in and out of the Care System and had an unconventional childhood. In her debut series she will get to grips with - and often challenge - our perception of 'the perfect normal life', shining a light on the reality of the British experience.

In episode one, Sophie looks at what it is to be a 'normal' parent.


WED 23:15 The John Moloney Show (b05vcyvv)

John Moloney has been headlining comedy clubs all over the world. We've captured him at his very best performing in front of an appreciative audience at The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh.

This week, there's a joke about a German baby, a tale about his old life as a teacher and a run in with a hen night.

Written and performed by John Moloney

Produced by Alan Lorraine
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b09vyvyd)

Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.



THURSDAY 22 MARCH 2018

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b09vyw0b)

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


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b09x0fsk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b09vyw0f)

The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b09vyw0h)

THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b09vyw0l)

The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b09vyw0p)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b09xk45x)

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Simon Doogan.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b09vyw0r)

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09w14nh)
Richard Jones on the Peregrine

Avian vet Richard Jones introduces the bird that inspired his career. A childhood trip to Anglesey led to an obsession with the fastest bird in the world, a love affair with falconry, and a career as a vet.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby.


THU 06:00 Today (b09vyw0t)

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


THU 09:00 In Our Time (b09vyw0x)
Tocqueville: Democracy in America

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) and his examination of the American democratic system. He wrote De La Démocratie en Amérique in two parts, published in 1835 and 1840, when France was ruled by the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe. Tocqueville was interested in how aspects of American democracy, in the age of President Andrew Jackson, could be applied to Europe as it moved away from rule by monarchs and aristocrats. His work has been revisited by politicians ever since, particularly in America, with its analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of direct democracy and its warnings of mediocrity and the tyranny of the majority.

With

Jeremy Jennings

Susan-Mary Grant

and

Robert Gildea

Producer: Simon Tillotson.


THU 09:45 Keywords for Our Time (b09wg786)
The National Debt

Oliver Kamm - journalist, language columnist and former City man - dismantles a brilliant metaphor: the idea that national economics are similar to household economics. How useful is it, when we're thinking about the contemporary global economic situation?


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b09vyw10)

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b09w14nk)
Based on a True Story, Betrayal

Claudine Toutoungi's adaptation of Delphine de Vigan's psychological thriller about an obsessive female friendship.

L exacts a high price when she uncovers the reason behind Delphine's recovery.

Directed by Gemma Jenkins.


THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b09w14nm)

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


THU 11:30 The Art of Now (b09w14np)
Band Politics

BBC 6 Music's Chris Hawkins listens to new music every day - and he's noticing a trend.
More and more of the bands he plays on the station are writing about politics. Acts like Nadine Shah, Cabbage, Idles and Life are covering topics as diverse as The NHS, the refugee crisis of 2016, austerity and rail privatisation.
Chris visits the performers to ask them what is fuelling their music, considering whether supposedly radical bands are operating in a form of musical filter bubble - singing radical songs to an audience who already agree with their point of view.
From the blues to grime, music and politics have always been intertwined, but Chris Hawkins provides a snapshot of the topics which are driving a generation of rock bands right now.
Presented by Chris Hawkins
Producer Kevin Core

Music featured:
Nadine Shah: Out the Way. Holiday Destination. Mother Fighter. Jolly Sailor.
Idles: Mother. Divide and Conquer.
Life: In Your Hands. Euromillions.
Cabbage: Tell Me Lies About Manchester. Preach to the Converted.


THU 12:00 News Summary (b09vyw12)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Home Front (b09swfy0)
22 March 1918 - Adeline Lumley

On this day in 1918, 'Women's Day' raised funds for the WAAC, and in Folkestone, Adeline finds her own way of helping women.

Written by Katie Hims
Story-led by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.


THU 12:15 You and Yours (b09vyw14)

Consumer affairs programme.


THU 12:57 Weather (b09vyw17)

The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b09vyw19)

Analysis of news and current affairs.


THU 13:45 Book of the Week (b09x0ftk)
The Wood, Episode 4

Over twelve months, this is the story of Cockshutt Wood in Shropshire, representative of all the small woods in our landscape and the sanctuary they provide.

From January through to December, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons in exquisite prose, as the cuckoo flits through the green shade in the silence and the wind of winter. He explores from the roots of the oak to its tips, under the black, spicy leaf mould of the woodland floor and up into the mysterious canopy.

It's a unique account of the animals that inhabit this refuge - the fox, the pheasant, the wood mouse and the tawny owl, among others - with the stories of their births, lives and deaths threaded through the book.

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


THU 14:00 The Archers (b09w111b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (b09w16mg)
The King of the Flat White

Kuba, a jaw-droppingly handsome hipster barista, is part of a new breed of Polish immigrants who no longer need to escape hardship but rather want to explore the world. Working in a popular third-wave coffee shop in Shoreditch, London, he has mastered the British accent and almost passes as a "native". The night after the Brexit vote, Kuba is severely beaten, losing not only his good looks but oddly enough his perfect British accent too.

This drama about the complex and sometimes uncomfortable issues of British identity and xenophobia is narrated by the Queen, voiced by Lin Sagovsky.

Produced by Ewa Banaszkiewicz
A Warsaw Pact production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 15:00 Ramblings (b09w16mj)
Series 38, York

Clare Balding joins Gill Callow, a teacher from York who takes her on a favourite six mile route around the city. Walking has always been an important part of Gill's life; a joy to share with friends, a way to appreciate the wonders of the British countryside, a stress - buster from intense days in the classroom and now vital to help her come to terms with the loss of her partner, Martin. Gill talks to Clare about how she introduced him to the joys of walking , the long distance routes they tackled and the plans they had for the future. She finds walking a good way to remember him and the many happy times they shared.
Producer Lucy Lunt.


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b09vz6qx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (b09vzg83)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b09w16ml)
Ava DuVernay

Ava DuVernay talks to Francine Stock about her new film A Wrinkle In Time.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b09vyw1c)

Adam Rutherford investigates the news in science and science in the news.


THU 17:00 PM (b09vyw1f)

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b09vyw1h)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b09w16mn)
Hexagonal Phase, Episode 3

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.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b09w16mq)

Ruth hears some interesting news, and Clarrie struggles to forgive.


THU 19:15 Front Row (b09vyw1k)

Arts news, interviews and reviews.


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b09w14nk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 Law in Action (b09w0g0g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:03 on Tuesday]


THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b09w16xn)

Evan Davis presents the business magazine.


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b09vyw1c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (b09vyw0x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b09vyw1m)

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b09w16xq)
Reservoir 13, We were scared, he said.

Lee Ingleby reads Jon McGregor's multi award-winning novel.

It's two years since the shocking disappearance of Becky Shaw on a midwinter walk in the Peak District. Now, as the supposed sightings of her continue, the truth about what happened to her seems as elusive as ever.

And as the search for her goes on, so must everyday life in the village. People come and people go, some come together and others fall apart. And as the seasons unfold, there are more and more glimpses into what might have happened to Becky Shaw...

Reservoir 13 is one of the most acclaimed novels of the 2017. It won the Costa Novel Award, was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, and was longlisted for the Man Booker.

Reader: Lee Ingleby is an acclaimed British actor, known recently for starring in the BBC dramas The A Word, and Line of Duty.
Writer: Jon McGregor
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Justine Willett.


THU 23:00 It's Jocelyn (b08gy87v)
Series 2, Friends

It's Jocelyn returns for a second series of sketches and stand-up from the wonderful mind of Jocelyn Jee Esien.
In episode three, Jocelyn talks about friendship, Princess Pay As You Go gets into podcasting and the traffic wardens have a meeting about a meeting.
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.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b09vyw1p)

Sean Curran reports from Westminster.



FRIDAY 23 MARCH 2018

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b09vyw3h)

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


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b09x0ftk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b09vyw3m)

The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b09vyw3q)

FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b09vyw3s)

The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b09vyw3v)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b09xk2tf)

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Simon Doogan.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b09vyw3x)

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09w2tj8)
Richard Jones on the Gyr Falcon

Avian vet Richard Jones introduces a strange tale from his surgery, involving a runaway Gyr falcon, a black hat, and a peculiar mating habit.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby.


FRI 06:00 Today (b09vyw3z)

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


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b09vz6r1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Keywords for Our Time (b09wg7b1)
Post-fact

David Wootton, professor of history at York University, looks at the long run history of the word 'fact'. Fact is a 17th century invention, so while we grapple with the post-fact era, most of our history took place in the pre-fact age. Perhaps there are things we can learn from it.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b09vyw41)

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b09w2tjb)
Based on a True Story, Ghost

Claudine Toutoungi's adaptation of Delphine de Vigan's psychological thriller about an obsessive female friendship.

Despite L's disappearance Delphine discovers her former friend still has a grip on her life.

Directed by Gemma Jenkins.


FRI 11:00 The Charity Business (b09w2tjd)
Series 1, Impact

Matthew Taylor concludes his look at the charity sector with a look at the impact charities have, and how they measure it.

In Leeds and Bradford, Matthew visits charities with very different approaches to measuring and assessing what they do and the impact they have. Some ask whether it's really possible to measure love; others say a relentless focus on measuring impact allows the charity both to explain itself to funders and to improve its effectiveness. And he hears from one leading businessman who says that charities are often part of the problem - and only business, with its hugely greater scale, can really solve many of the most pressing social problems.

But as he reaches the end of the series Matthew is prompted to ask a more profound question: where do our responsibilities lie? Some influential advocates argue that failing to adopt a utilitarian perspective in at least some of our giving is irrational, even immoral; while for many volunteers, donors and trustees of charities the act of giving itself is what makes charity worthwhile.

Producer: Giles Edwards.


FRI 11:30 A Normal... (b07m4wyh)
Family

After twenty years away from poetry, during which he co-wrote The Royle Family and produced Gavin & Stacey, amongst others, Henry Normal returns to Radio 4 for a comic and poetic look at his family life.

A Normal Family is centred around Henry's son, Johnny, who was diagnosed with "mildly severe" autism. Through stand-up and poetry, Henry explores what this means for Johnny, for himself, and for his wife, Angela.

Recorded in front of a live audience in Henry's hometown of Brighton, the show paints just one portrait of life with autism; there are many versions of it, and this is Johnny's.

Henry Normal is a multi-award winning writer, producer and poet. He starred in Channel 4's Packet of Three with Jenny Éclair and Frank Skinner, co-wrote The Royle Family and The Mrs Merton Show, and founded Baby Cow productions with Steve Coogan, which produced Gavin & Stacy, The Trip and Camping. He has published several volumes of poetry, including The Dream Ticket, Nude Modelling for the Afterlife and Staring Directly at the Eclipse. His last Radio 4 series was 1997's Encyclopaedia Poetica.

Written and performed by ... Henry Normal
Produced by ... Ed Morrish
A BBC Studios Production.


FRI 12:00 News Summary (b09vyw43)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Home Front (b09swg48)
23 March 1918 - Jessie Moore

On this day in 1918, Parisian wedding processions continued through the streets despite a bombardment with shells from a long-range gun over 70 miles away, and in Folkestone, Jessie and Adam play house.

Written by Katie Hims
Story-led by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.


FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b09vyw45)

Consumer news and issues.


FRI 12:57 Weather (b09vyw47)

The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (b09vyw49)

Analysis of news and current affairs.


FRI 13:45 Book of the Week (b09x0fw9)
The Wood, Episode 5

Over twelve months, this is the story of Cockshutt Wood in Shropshire, representative of all the small woods in our landscape and the sanctuary they provide.

From January through to December, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons in exquisite prose, as the cuckoo flits through the green shade in the silence and the wind of winter. He explores from the roots of the oak to its tips, under the black, spicy leaf mould of the woodland floor and up into the mysterious canopy.

It's a unique account of the animals that inhabit this refuge - the fox, the pheasant, the wood mouse and the tawny owl, among others - with the stories of their births, lives and deaths threaded through the book.

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


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b09w16mq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b06tk8hw)
Suggs: My Mad-Life Crisis

The Madness frontman tells his funny and moving true-life story.

The death of Suggs' beloved cat on his fiftieth birthday triggers a personal quest to discover what happened to the father he never knew. Stunned by what he learns, Suggs takes us back to his childhood and his first appearance on Top Of The Pops at the age of eighteen.

Adapted for radio by Owen Lewis from the stage play My Life In Words And Music by Graham McPherson and Toby Follet.

Other parts played by Ewan Bailey and Philippa Stanton.

Pianist: Dean Mumford

Director: Owen Lewis
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b09w2tjg)
Hambleton

Eric Robson and the panel are in Hambleton, 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.


FRI 15:45 Short Works (b09w2tjj)
Series 1, The Path Taken

An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the bestselling writer of 'Room', and its recent Academy Award nominated screen adaptation, Emma Donoghue.

When a mother becomes separated from her children during a hike, the police begin the search for the missing children. However the outpouring of support on social media soon turns ugly when contradictions in the statements given to police come to light.

Emma Donoghue is an Irish-Canadian playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Her novels include 'The Wonder', 'Frog Music' and the best-seller 'Room' which was also a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.

Writer ..... Emma Donoghue
Producer ..... Michael Shannon.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b09w2tjl)

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


FRI 16:30 Feedback (b09w2tjn)

Radio 4's forum for audience comment.


FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b09w2tjq)
May and Jackie - I Wasn't in a Happy Situation

Being together has given confidence to one and stopped the other being an irritable little so and so. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.


FRI 17:00 PM (b09vyw4c)

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b09vyw4f)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b09w32bj)
Series 52, Episode 4

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches

Punt and Dennis are joined this week by Marcus Brigstocke, Rose Matafeo and Jess Robinson.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b09w32bl)

Brian's nightmare continues, and Jill offers support.


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b09vyw4h)

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


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b09w2tjb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b09w32bn)
Diane Abbott MP, Sir Vince Cable MP, Suella Fernandes MP

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Crosfield Hall in Romsey Hampshire with the Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott MP, the leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Vince Cable MP and Brexit Minister Suella Fernandes MP.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b09w32bq)

A weekly reflection on a topical issue.


FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b09sz2wd)
19-23 March 1918

The third omnibus of Season 13, A Woman's Place, set in Folkestone, in the week, in 1918, when the greatest German offensive began.

Cast
Dorothea Winwood ..... Rachel Shelley
Kitty Lumley ..... Ami Metcalf
Bill Macknade ..... Ben Crowe
Adeline Lumley ..... Helen Schlesinger
Jessie Moore ..... Lucy Hutchinson
Sophie Beckwith ..... Abbie Andrews
Esme Macknade ..... Katie Angelou
Isabel Graham ..... Keely Beresford
Gabriel Graham ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Otto Marx ..... Paul Chahidi
Dolly Clout ..... Elaine Claxton
Alice Macknade ..... Claire-Louise Cordwell
Mrs Edkins ..... Rachel Davies
Oscar Hendrickx ..... Pierre Elliott
William McGowan ..... Rupert Holliday-Evans
Jeanie Jones ..... Kerry Gooderson
Adam Wilson ..... Billy Kennedy
Rev. Walter Hamilton ..... Joseph Kloska
Jack Wilson ..... Ashley Kumar
Elizabeth Chance ..... Kika Markham
Rev. Ralph Winwood ..... Nicholas Murchie
Olive Hargreaves ..... Rhiannon Neads
Dilys Walker ..... Ellie Piercy
Mr Snook ..... Carl Prekopp
Florrie Wilson ..... Claire Rushbrook
Rev. Alec Poole ..... Tom Stuart
Dennis Monk ..... Sam Swann
Charles Summer ..... Rufus Wright
Peter Lumley ..... Beatrice White

Written by Katie Hims
Story-led by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole

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


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b09vyw4k)

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b09w32bs)
Reservoir 13, There were dreams about her...

Lee Ingleby continues Jon McGregor's multi award-winning novel.

It's three years since the shocking disappearance of Becky Shaw up on the moors. Now, as the police release a computer-generated image of how she might look now, the villagers wonder what more could have been done.

And as the years go by, life moved on in the village, there are more and more tantalising glimpses into what might have happened to Becky Shaw...

Reservoir 13 is one of the most acclaimed novels of the 2017. It won the Costa Novel Award, was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, and was longlisted for the Man Booker.

Reader: Lee Ingleby is an acclaimed British actor, known recently for starring in the BBC dramas The A Word, and Line of Duty.
Writer: Jon McGregor
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Justine Willett.


FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b09w0g0j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b09vyw4m)

Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.


FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b09w32bv)
Amanda and Mark - The Love of the Game

Getting together with the manager of Chippenham Town F.C. means you cannot avoid football. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.