SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2020
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000fgkh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:30 To the Lake, by Kapka Kassabova (m000fgkk)
Episode 5
The term ‘Balkanise’ came into being a century ago to describe a region fragmented into smaller mutually hostile states. In this final episode, Kapka Kassabova drives south to the Greek segment of Lake Prespa. There, she plans to meet up with a friend from London, Nick who like her has a hybrid family history - the result of earlier geopolitical games. The Lake itself holds the human stories.
Written by Kapka Kassabova
Read by Clare Corbett
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000fgkm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000fgkp)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000fgkr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m000fgkt)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000fgkw)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Fr Jamie McMorrin of St Mary's RC Cathedral, Edinburgh.
SAT 05:45 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m000fgky)
Series 15
The ASMRnswer
"My question is about something I became aware of at a young age," explains Samantha Richter from Cambridgeshire.
"I was sitting on the carpet at school, being read a story by the teacher. My hair felt as though it was standing on end as waves of a tingly sensation washed over my head. I subsequently found certain scenes in films had this effect, when actors were talking softly, or someone was having their hair brushed."
"Then, a few years ago, I discovered that there is a name for the tingles, it's called ASMR. My question is, what is ASMR, and why do we experience it?"
In this episode, we explore the world of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It's a trend which has risen quickly on YouTube, with devoted subscribers following their favourite 'ASMRtists' whose videos receive millions of plays.
Hannah speaks to Dr Nick Davis, who published the very first research paper on the phenomenon in 2015. And Adam is put to the test by Dr Giulia Poerio, to see if he is susceptible to the sensation of ASMR. Are there any proven benefits for devoted fans, or is it just a YouTube fad?
We've concocted our very own Curious recordings so you can find out if your brain begins to tingle, You'll find them in our normal podstream, where you can enjoy Adam and Hannah crafting a very ASMRy cocktail for your listening pleasure.
Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
Producer: Michelle Martin
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000fn8h)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m000fgnn)
Series 41
Glastonbury Tor with Druids
Clare Balding explores Glastonbury with Druids Penny and Arthur Billington. Throughout this series of Ramblings, Clare is finding out how walking affects our inner life. She is hiking with people of differing beliefs and none to discover how the simple act of being in the natural world can change how we feel. As Penny and Arthur explain, Druids live their lives closely connected to nature and the changing seasons. Glastonbury Tor and the surrounding area is steeped in rich mythology which draws Druids to what they regard as a sacred landscape.
Producer: Karen Gregor
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m000fn8k)
Farming Today This Week
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
SAT 06:57 Weather (m000fn8m)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 07:00 Today (m000fn8p)
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m000fn8r)
Zawe Ashton
Actor, writer and director Zawe Ashton’s career began at the age of six and, having appeared on stage and in films ever since, it was the TV role of Vod in Fresh Meat that made her famous. She has since appeared in Hollywood films, had her play For All the Women Who Thought They were Mad performed in New York and London and has published Character Breakdown, an account of her life as a young actor.
Amit Patel was a busy 33 year-old A&E doctor when he completely lost his sight over a 36-hour period, just 18 months after getting married. He hit rock bottom, and didn’t leave his home for three months. That’s when Kika came into his life – a guide dog who had been labelled as ‘difficult’.
Jewellery maker and metalworker Bob Rowberry spent the 1960s and 70s importing Afghan coats which appeared in Vogue and holding Eric Capton’s hat as he busked. He now lives off-grid in an old school bus, growing his own produce and teaching his craft.
Eleanor Wood is a writer from Brighton who, aged 32, felt like her life was falling apart. Her stepmum had died, her stepdad left her mum, and she broke up with her boyfriend of 12 years. So she started leaning on her best girlfriend, who taught her to be resilient, and staunch – and who also happened to be her nan. This led to a girls holiday to Goa with her nan and her two great-aunts.
Producer: Laura Northedge
Editor: Eleanor Garland
SAT 10:30 The Patch (m000fn8t)
One producer, one randomly generated postcode, and the search for an unheard story.
SAT 11:00 The Forum (m000fr1z)
The Master and Margarita: Devilish satire
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which tells the fantastical story of a visit of the devil to the Soviet Union, is considered to be one of the most successful Russian novels of the 20th century. The novel also contains two of the most famous sayings in Russia, “manuscripts don’t burn” and “cowardice is the worst vice”. Written in secret in the 1930’s when Stalinist repression of the arts was at its height, the novel was only published more than 25 years later, when its blend of biting satire and magic realism created a sensation, not just in Russia but also in the West, inspiring rock bands like The Rolling Stones.
This programme explores the novel and its cultural influence, and also asks how it reflects Bulgakov’s often traumatic experience as a writer in Stalinist Russia. Joining Bridget Kendall are Julie Curtis, the biographer of Mikhail Bulgakov and Professor of Russian literature at Oxford University; Peter Mansilla-Cruz, the director of the Bulgakov museum in Moscow; Edythe Haber, associate of the Davis Centre at Harvard University and Professor Emerita at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Dr Olga Voronina from SSEES, University College, London, who have both published widely on Bulgakov’s writings.
(Photo: Improvisation 33 (Orient 1) by Wassily Kandinsky. Credit: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m000fn8w)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m000fn8y)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m000fn90)
The latest news from the world of personal finance plus advice for those trying to make the most of their money.
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m000fgjy)
Series 101
Immigration, Inundation, Resignation and Incubation
Nish Kumar discusses the top stories from the week's news with comedians Desiree Burch, Sindhu Vee, Neil Delamere and journalist for The Times Danny Finkelstein.
This week the panel talk about the government's new immigration proposals, the floods hitting the UK, Michael Bloomberg entering the Democratic race, the resignation of "weirdo" adviser Andrew Sabisky from his adviser role at No. 10, and the Britons finally flying home from their cruise in Japan after the Coronavirus outbreak.
The producer is Sam Michell and it is a BBC Studios Production
SAT 12:57 Weather (m000fn92)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News (m000fn94)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m000fgk4)
Daisy Cooper MP, Robert Halfon MP, Simon Heffer, Lord Falconer
Chris Mason presents political debate from the University of East Anglia in Norwich with the new Liberal Democrat MP for St Albans Daisy Cooper, the chair of the Education Select Committee Robert Halfon MP, the Sunday Telegraph columnist and historian Simon Heffer, and the Labour peer Lord Falconer.
Producer: Emma Campbell
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m000fn96)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
SAT 14:45 One to One (m000d707)
Gerald Scarfe - bring back the news!
In 2015 Arabella Dorman hung a boat upside down in a Piccadilly church. The boat had been carrying refugees in the eastern Mediterranean, but now it was a piece of art, a symbol of 'exile and desperation' as well as courage and hope. Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, who reported from Vietnam and Northern Ireland, wants to know if there is a different way to report the news, so here he talks to Arabella about whether her boat worked.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde
SAT 15:00 Drama (b0bbnrcr)
To the Ends of the Earth: The Man Who Would Be King
by Rudyard Kipling, adapted by Mike Walker.
Kipling's chilling cautionary tale set deep in the Hindu Kush mountains.
Dan and Peachey are two con men with an insane and dangerous plan: they want to conquer a remote region of what is now Afghanistan.
Rudyard Kipling .... Blake Ritson
Daniel Dravot ....Richard Ridings
Peachey Carnehan .... Samuel James
Timuk ....Peter Polycarpou
Tribesman .... Joseph Ayre
Tribesman .... Stephen Hogan
Young woman ....Lauren Cornelius
Bride .... Lauren Cornelius
Wounded man .... John Lightbody
Tribesman .... Ryan Early
Tribesman .... Ryan Whittle
Adapted by .... Mike Walker
Director .... Abigail le Fleming
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m000fn98)
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Emetophobia, a Perfect Winter Salad
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, famous for Fleabag and Killing Eve, is on the programme.
We hear why the fear of being sick or hearing others be sick affects more women than men. It's called emetophobia and someone who suffers from it explains what it's like. Professor David Veale, a consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, joins us too.
Islamic faith marriages aren’t valid under English law according to a recent Court of Appeal ruling. Now campaigners are worried that thousands of Muslim women have no rights if they divorce. We hear from Somiya who had to persuade her husband to marry her officially and Pragna Patel from Southall Black Sisters.
An all-female team of investigative journalists from the 50-50 team at Open Democracy carried out an investigation into crisis pregnancy centres in 18 countries. Nandini Archer, the assistant editor, tells what they found out.
We cook the perfect winter salad of red leaves, mackeral and orange with the food writer Catherine Phipps.
And Tilda Offen, Harriet Adams and Ellie Welling, friends of 17 year old Ellie Gould who was murdered last year, tell us why they want self-defence classes to be part of the national curriculum.
Presented by: Jane Garvey
Produced by: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Siobhann Tighe
SAT 17:00 PM (m000fn9b)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news, plus the sports headlines.
SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (m000fgp5)
Planning and Developing
The UK has a housing shortage whichis particularly acute in the affordable homes market. So what are planners and developers doing to solve this problem? Evan Davis and guests discuss.
GUESTS
Alice Lester, Operational Director Regneration, Growth and Employment, Brent Council
Dr. Janice Morphet, Visiting Professor, Bartlett School of Planning, University College of London
Stephen Pratt, Co-founder and Group Land Director, Godwin Developments
Producer: Julie Ball/Sean Allsop
Editor: Hugh Levinson
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000fn9f)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 17:57 Weather (m000fn9h)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000fn9k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m000fn9m)
Jennifer Saunders, Francesca Annis, Haydn Gwynne, Kwame Asante, Pictish Trail, Flavia Coelho, Nikki Bedi, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Nikki Bedi are joined by Jennifer Saunders, Francesca Annis, Haydn Gwynne and Kwame Asante for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Flavia Coelho. and Pictish Trail
SAT 19:00 Profile (m000fn9p)
Jurgen Klopp
The manager who's put Liverpool Football Club on the path to winning the treble and has lead them to so many victories, their lead at the top of the table is the biggest in premier league history. But he wasn't always this successful. When he was a young footballer at Mainz 05 in Germany, his former team mate Guido Shafer says he 'had no talent'. So what can we learn from his childhood in Germany's Black Forest? How did he become the manager he is today?
Presenter: Becky Milligan
Producers: Phoebe Keane and Eleanor Biggs
Thanks to BBC 5 Live podcast: At Home With Colin Murray and SWR.
SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (m000fn9r)
Midnight Family, Masculinities exhibition, Actress by Anne Enright, Far Away by Caryl Churchill, I Am Not Okay With This
Mexican documentary Midnight Family follows a family-run private ambulance in Mexico City racing to the scenes of accidents in order to earn a living
Masculinities:Liberation Through Photography, is a new exhibition at The Barbican in London, about how masculinity is experienced, perfomed, coded and socially constructed.
Actress is the latest novel from Irish author by Anne Enright. A daughter looks back at her sometimes fractious relationship with her famous mother
A revival of Caryl Churchill's 2000 play Far Away has just opened at London's Donmar Warehouse
Teenage existence is never easy and having superpowers can only make it even more so. I Am Not Okay With This on Netflix is a new series with an adolescent female lead...
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Blake Morrison, Amber Butchart and Stephanie Merritt. The producer is Oliver Jones
Podcast Extra recommendations:
Stephanie: The Laramie Project
Amber: We Will Walk at Turner Contemporary in Margate. And the sauna on Margate Beach
Blake: When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann
Tom: Midsommer
Main image: Taliban portrait. Kandahar, Afghanistan. 2002 © Collection T.Dworzak/Magnum Photos
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m000fn9t)
Everyone's a Star
YouTube is a cultural behemoth. It's the second biggest website on the internet after Google and is watched by people across the world for over a billion hours a day. But what effect is it having on us as individuals, and on our society?
Tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker charts the video sharing website's rise from an idea in a computer engineering student’s bedroom to a platform with a reach far greater than the BBC and all other television networks put together.
Chris meets one of the internet’s original vloggers, talks to an early YouTube celebrity and finds out what it’s like to become famous on YouTube in 2020. He also explores the dark side of the website. In the past 18 months, YouTube has been accused of driving political extremism and giving credence to conspiracy theories and fake news.
How did one simple design decision taken by higher ups at the company help fuel those accusations? Chris talks to an ex-YouTube insider who helped build the algorithm that lies at the centre of that decision.
We hear from an American teenager who says watching videos on the website was the reason he became a far-right radical. And we talk to an academic whose research helped uncover a shocking and terrible secret that forced YouTube to reckon with its fiercest critics.
Produced by Joe Sykes
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:00 Drama (b00899w3)
Take-Away
Patty's Patties
Take Away: Patty's Patties
By Leah Chillery
A series of five linked comedy dramas. 'The Battered Devil', has always been an immigrant take-away. Spool back through decades and taste the lives of the families that serve their community's soul food. It is 1988 and Patty comes back from Jamaica to find her son Everall has changed his hairstyle and shock-horror, his religion.
CAST
Patty..........................Yvonne Brewster
Jeff............................Bernard Wrigley
Everall.......................Daniel Poyser
Pastor Andrews............Vincent Davies
Dahveed......................Trevor Dwyer-Lynch
Aiyesha.......................Danielle Henry
Koffi..........................Marcus Hercules
Directed and Produced by Peter Leslie Wild
SAT 21:45 Annika Stranded (m00066v8)
Series 5
Sea Monsters
Eight new cases to challenge the detective wit of Chief Inspector Annika Strandhed, queen of the Oslo Police boat patrol.
Annika is still coming to terms with the death of her friend and long-time, long suffering forensic photographer Mikel. But life goes on, and so does police work on the Oslofjord. Annika must forge a new relationship with Mikel’s young replacement, Sigrid.
Episode 2: Sea Monsters
Delivering a guest lecture to criminology students, Annika recounts a case involving a murder at the aquarium.
Nick Walker is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels, Blackbox and Helloland. His plays and short stories have often featured on BBC Radio 4 - including the First King of Mars stories (2007 - 2010) and the plays Life Coach (2010) and Stormchasers (2012). The previous series of Annika Stranded were broadcast in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018.
Writer: Nick Walker
Reader: Nicola Walker
Sound Design: Jon Calver
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:00 News and Weather (m000fn9x)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (m000fgsp)
Transgender Rights
Two of the final three Labour leadership candidates have signed pledges to defend trans rights, expel party members who express "transphobic" views and fight against Woman’s Place UK, LGB Alliance and “other trans-exclusionist hate groups”. Both those groups cited insist they are merely campaigning for the rights of women as they exist under UK Equality law, as well as those of gay, lesbian and bisexual people. This bitter quarrel could be seen as symptomatic of a wider culture war which calls into question the very notions of gender, sex, sexuality, social justice and inclusivity. For many trans activists, a failure to recognise trans women as women or trans men as men is itself hateful, because they believe it denies the most fundamental fact of their identity. Their critics, however, accuse them of denying a biological reality that sex is determined at birth. It is, they say, unreasonable to refuse even to discuss the subject. For those prepared to debate, there’s a lot to think about. What constitutes “transphobia”? What are the moral implications of gender self-identification? What rights and protections should be afforded to ‘biological’ females in women's changing rooms, refuges and prisons? What does gender self-identification mean for women’s sport? More fundamentally, where does ‘masculinity’ end and ‘femininity’ begin? How should we respond to the increasing numbers of children and teenagers, particularly girls, being diagnosed with gender dysphoria? And what ethical considerations should apply in deciding whether and how to treat them? With Jane Fae, Graham Linehan, Torr Robinson and Kiri Tunks.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
SAT 23:00 Round Britain Quiz (m000ffzc)
Programme 6, 2020
(6/12)
What does a dog who went viral in Richmond Park have to do with a character in The Merry Wives of Windsor, the composer of the Newsnight theme tune, and Alvin Stardust?
The panellists representing Wales and the North of England face Tom Sutcliffe's challenging teasers in the sixth contest of the series. Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards play for Wales, opposite Stuart Maconie and Adele Geras of the North. They'll be trying to work their way through the complex questions without needing too many nudges from the chair. The more hints and clues they require as they grope towards the solutions, the more points they'll lose.
There will be the usual selection of the best listeners' question ideas we've recently received.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
SAT 23:30 Don't Log Off (m0003ksp)
Series 9
Utopia/Dystopia
Some locations - the beaches of California, the South American rain-forest, the majestic scenery and slow pace of Christchurch, New Zealand - may seem like Paradise - but reality, in the form of nature, climate change, industrialisation, or terrorism, can often creep in, even in these beautiful places.
What about if you live there?
Alan Dein talks to three strangers from across the globe, finding out the threats to Paradise, and how those who have chosen to make their lives there cope.
Jefferson grew up in Malibu, one of the most desirable places on earth - surfing, hiking, living the outdoor life. Once in a decade a fire would come and change all that... but in recent years the fires have become more regular and more devastating. How did Jefferson get through the devastating experience of losing his home to fire? .
Alan also gets a glimpse of life in the rain forest, speaking to Fernando who is lying in a hammock on the Pacific Coast of Colombia - describing the whales that come each year to visit the sea just off the beach. But he fears a giant new maritime port will destroy the community, the forest and the land he has learnt to love.
Alan also speaks twice to Julie from Christchurch, New Zealand, who vividly recalls the way her city crumbled to dust in front of her eyes in the devastating earthquake of 2011 - before changing for the better, with a stronger community spirit, during the city's recontruction.
But then she calls again - just a couple of days after the devastating terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques - giving Alan the chance to ask 'how does the city feel after this new tragedy'?
Producer: Sara Jane Hall
SUNDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2020
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000fn9z)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000fhw0)
The Blooming
In Olga Grushin's story, a young woman falls in love for the first time in her life, and, to her surprise, finds that the furniture in her small rental apartment starts to sprout flowers and grass.
Written by Olga Grushin
Reader: Emerald O'Hanrahan
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000fnb1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000fnb3)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000fnb5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000fnb7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000fnb9)
The parish church of St John the Baptist, Egham in Surrey.
Bells on Sunday comes from the parish church of St John the Baptist, Egham in Surrey. The present church was built in 1817 and stands on the site of a former Norman building. A ring of eight bells was cast in 1912 and in 1971, two more were added. We hear the Egham Band ringing Bristol Royal.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m000fn9p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (m000fnjt)
The latest national and international news headlines.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b03wgy6l)
Abstinence
As Lent approaches, Mark Tully discusses the purpose and effects of fasting. Why do so many faiths consider fasting so virtuous?
In conversation with the broadcaster and writer John Butt, a convert to Islam of forty-five years standing, he discusses the varied approaches to fasting in the major faiths.
With readings from Gerard Manley Hopkins and Patrick Leigh Fermor, and music ranging from Bhim Sen Joshi and The Irish Descendants to Antonin Tucapsky, he examines the pleasures and pitfalls of abstinence and self-denial.
The readers are Robert Glenister and Francis Cadder.
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m000fnjw)
Pond Life
Farm ponds are a vital wildlife habitat in the working countryside but tens of thousands have been lost in the drive for greater efficiency. Anna Hill joins farmer Nick Anema and the team from the Norfolk Ponds Project as they help bring 'ghost ponds' back to life.
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000fnjy)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000fnk0)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000fnk2)
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000fnk4)
Environmental Investigation Agency UK
Angela Rippon makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the Environmental Investigation Agency UK
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘Environmental Investigation Agency UK’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Environmental Investigation Agency UK’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 1182208
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000fnk6)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000fnk9)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000fnkf)
Caring for God’s Creation
Live from St Mary's Church Barnes as the congregation prepares for Lent. The Church of England's themes this year 'Live Lent' examine what the bible has to say about human responsibility to the environment as a Lenten observance. Featuring the voice of Anna Haestrup, BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year, who is a member of the Choir. Leader: the Revd James Hutchings (Rector); Preacher: Bishop Richard Harries; Director of Music: Henry Chandler.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000fgk6)
Inhaling History
"I am holding history in my hands," writes Sarah Dunant. "The date on the letter is February 1490...the place, the city of Mantua in Italy".
As she delves through the Mantuan State Archive, Sarah reflects on the task of understanding and writing history.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b096j56j)
Stephen Moss on the Coot
In the fourth of five recollections about his encounters with birds, writer and wildlife programme-maker Stephen Moss explains how a chance encounter with a coot when he was just three years old, inspired a lifelong passion for birds and bird-watching.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Martyn Illes.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000fnkk)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000fnkn)
Writer, Paul Brodrick
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Josh Archer ….. Angus Imrie
Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris
Jolene Archer ….. Buffy Davis
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Shula Hebden Lloyd ….. Judy Bennett
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kate Madikane ….. Perdita Avery
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Johnny Phillips ….. Tom Gibbons
Robert Snell ….. Graham Blockey
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Jakob Hakansson ….. Paul Venables
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Gavin ….. Gareth Pierce
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m000fnkq)
Melanie C
Melanie Chisholm - known as Melanie C - is a singer and songwriter who found global fame as one fifth of the Spice Girls, the most commercially successful female group ever.
Melanie was one of 400 other hopefuls who answered an advertisement to form a new girl band in 1994 - little knowing how her life would be turned upside down by fame and worldwide success. She was given the nickname Sporty Spice and presented what she calls a "gobby' persona to the outside world, but inside she was a shy girl who preferred to stay in the background.
She grew up in Merseyside and as a child she loved performing. At 16 she attended the Doreen Bird College of Arts, aiming for a career in musical theatre. By her early 20s, she was an international star: Spice world was a high-octane life of constant recording and touring and the accompanying press scrutiny contributed to a stressful environment. As the pressure intensified Melanie suffered from eating disorders and in 2000 she was diagnosed with depression. Her recovery was long and painful but she says finally getting a diagnosis enabled her to begin the process of getting better.
When the Spice Girls went their separate ways for a while Melanie began a career as a successful solo artist. In 2009 she played Mrs Johnstone in the West End production of Willy Russell's musical Blood Brothers, earning five star reviews and standing ovations. Recently she has been back on stage with the Spice Girls on their stadium tour.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000fnmb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Nature Table (m000ffzq)
Series 1
Episode 2
Nature Table is comedian, broadcaster and writer Sue Perkins’ new comedy ‘Show & Tell’ series celebrating the natural world and all its funny eccentricities.
Taking the simple format of a ‘Show & Tell’, each episode Sue is joined by celebrity guests from the worlds of comedy and natural history. Each of the natural history guests brings an item linked to the wild world to share with the audience, be it an amazing fact or funny personal anecdote. Each item is a springboard for an enlightening and funny discussion, alongside fun games and challenges revealing more astonishing facts. We also hear from some of the London Zoo audience, a mix of London Zoo staff and members of the public, as they bring us their own natural history ‘show and tells’ for Sue and the guests to discuss.
Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet’s wonderfully wild flora and fauna in a fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.
Episode 2
Recorded at London Zoo, this week Sue Perkins is joined by special guests wildlife biologist Lizzie Daly, zoologist Billy Heaney and comedian Jessica Fostekew. This week’s ‘Show & Tells’ include: Angler fish and grey seals.
Written by: Catherine Brinkworth, Kat Sadler & Jon Hunter
Researcher: Catherine Beazley
Produced by: Simon Nicholls
Music by Ben Mirin. Additional sounds were provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
A BBC Studios Production
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000fnkv)
A Tale of Two Fish: Salmon, the wild and farmed
Dan Saladino investigates the possible extinction of wild Atlantic salmon within 20 years. Dan travels from the River Spey on Scotland's east coast to fish farms in the west in order to plot the decline of one species, the wild salmon, and the rise of another, farmed salmon.
From a population that was close to ten million, wild Atlantic Salmon numbers are now down to below two million. It's cousins further south, the wild Pacific Salmon hasn't seen declines of anything close to this.
The author of the ground breaking food books on Salt and Cod, Mark Kurlansky has now turned his attention to the decline of the wild salmon and tells Dan some of the factors that are causing the crisis, from the pollution and dam building in the 19th century, to overfishing on the 20th and the effects of climate change on the oceans in the 21st century. Because the fish goes from being a freshwater fish to becoming an ocean going one, salmon provides, Kurlansky argues, the perfect barometer for how we how humans are treating our our planet, both the land and the oceans.
Mark Bilsby of the Atlantic Salmon Trust adds his concerns about the impact the salmon farming industry is having on the wild fish population, from the huge numbers of sea lice that can radiate out from farm pens, containing thousands of fish, out the sea, infecting wild salmon. Escaped fish are also a problem he says. Earlier this year, more than seventy thousand farmed salmon escaped from one pen because of storm damage, Bilsby says events such as these are resulting in a weakening of the salmon's gene pool as the domesticated (and genetically different) farmed fish is now breeding with the wild species.
Rory Campbell and Ian Roberts of Mowi, the world's biggest producer of farmed salmon explain the changes they are making in order to make their industry more sustainable and how schemes such as the Aquaculture Stewardship Council are helping to bring lice levels down and improve welfare standards.
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000fnkx)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000fnkz)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.
SUN 13:30 Lift Going Up (m000fnl1)
The lift comes to life and tells the story of how the elevator changed the way we live.
Emma Clarke plays the voice of the lift in this cultural history of the elevator. As we step inside, the doors close and the lift starts to speak, telling us its story.
Before the lift, the top floor was the least desired and most unhealthy place to live. The lift changed all that and made the penthouse glamorous and desirable. The lift made life immeasurably easier but it also brought many anxieties - about safety and the strange, forced intimacy of the lift car. It's also been a source of inspiration for writers - from 19th century German literature right through to Hollywood.
And now the lift is about to undergo a radical shift - as engineers develop a lift with no limits on how high it can go.
Step inside, relax, and allow the lift to tell you its story.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000fgjh)
Hidcote: Postbag Edition
Kathy Clugston and the team are at Hidcote Manor Gardens answering questions sent in by post or online.
Matt Biggs, Anne Swithinbank and Bunny Guinness join Kathy for a tour around the beautiful gardens by head gardener, Lottie Allen. As they go, they dig into the GQT postbag and answer questions - including how to save an indoor Gingko tree, planting suggestions for a small patio garden and why a Cherry blossom is flowering early.
Producer: Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (m000fnl3)
Sunday Omnibus - Stuff that life can throw at us
Fi Glover presents the omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen with three illuminating conversations covering music and performance, Asperger's and cancer.
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: Mohini Patel
SUN 15:00 The Pallisers (m000fnl5)
Episode 4
The Pallisers. Dramatised by Mike Harris based on the novels by Anthony Trollope.
The return of the series about high life and low politics in Victorian England. It is the 1880s and Plantagenet is to become Prime Minister. He is in charge of the government, but Cora is determined to be the power behind the throne. Is she a force for good? Or is she just meddling?
Lady Glencora..................Jessica Raine
Plantagenet.....................Tim McMullen
Phineas Finn...................Edward MacLiam
Marie Goesler.................Melody Grove
Lopez.................................Mark Arends
Emily Drought..............Lucy Reynolds
Orlando Drought.......Neil McCaul
Spurgeon......................Clive Hayward
Sailor/Servant..............Greg Jones
Servant..........................Scarlett Courtney
Director Emma Harding
Producer Gary Brown
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000fnl7)
Colum McCann, George Orwell, new fiction set in Windrush-era London
Colum McCann tells Mariella about Apeirogon, his suitably multi-sided book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, inspired by two fathers who have both lost their daughters. A soaring mixture of reportage, mythology, poetry and ornithology, among many other things, McCann makes the case for it as a "novel" with a universal message.
Born Eric Blair, George Orwell died 70 years ago, but his spirit continues to be evoked in cultural discourse by people who claim to know the true man behind the moniker. With his copyright expiring, is there an even greater risk that his work will be misrepresented for dubious political ends? Is there a great risk that his work will be misrepresented? His son Richard and his executor Bill Hamilton discuss.
And for her Editors' Tip, Melissa Cox chooses Louise Hare's This Lovely City, a debut novel set in postwar London about an aspiring Jazz musician who arrives on the Empire Windrush.
SUN 16:30 Alphabet (m000fnl9)
Poet Ailbhe Darcy delves into the poem 'alphabet' and what it means to her. It was published in 1981, by the Danish poet Inger Christensen. Written during the cold war, it's an account of living an ordinary life under the threat of nuclear devastation. The destructive force hanging over the poem is the atomic bomb, but the theme of ecological crisis is resonant today (and something Ailbhe explored in her own poem ‘Alphabet’, written in homage to Christensen, and published in her book 'Insistence').
Ailbhe looks at the remarkable form of Christensen's 'alphabet' - a kind of exploding poem which is organised both in alphabetical order and also according to the Fibonacci Series - and how that structure allowed both Christensen and Darcy to write at a time of crisis. She talks to translator Susanna Nied and the poets Marie Silkeberg, Joyelle McSweeney and Johannes Goransson about whether 'alphabet' weaves a spell of protection for all the things the poet loved, or catalogues them before they pass out of existence. Together they reveal a poem which through spirals and counter-spirals encapsulates both the beauty of the natural world and the potential for its extinction.
Produced by Megan Jones for BBC Cymru Wales
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000fgf3)
Fair game? The secrets of football betting
In recent years, betting companies have invested millions in Britain’s professional football leagues through sponsorship deals and blanket advertising campaigns. The ever-increasing collaboration between the two has been labelled as the ‘Gamblification of professional football’ – a term which, for many, raises serious concerns. File on 4 puts this controversial relationship under the microscope, asking if football’s public endorsement of gambling companies is helping to normalise, even encourage, a pursuit which, for those most vulnerable, can lead to addiction, financial devastation and suicide in extreme cases.
In addition, we investigate the failure of gambling companies to stop millions in stolen money from being wagered on the beautiful game by customers involved in criminality. Firms should carry out anti-money laundering checks when large sums of money are lodged, won or lost by customers. But File on 4 has learned that some betting companies ignore these obligations, opening the door for the proceeds of crime to be gambled - and potentially laundered. In hearing the testimony of industry whistle-blowers, and that of problem gamblers who stole hundreds of thousands to fuel their addiction, we lay bare the sometimes darker matters associated with the fusion of the football and gambling industries.
Reporter: Paul Connolly
Producer: Paul Grant
Editor: Carl Johnston
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000fn9p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000fnlc)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000fnlf)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000fnlh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000fnlk)
Katie Puckrik
The best of BBC Radio this week.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m000fnlm)
There’s a tempting offer for Freddie and Kate considers her options
SUN 19:15 Reluctant Persuaders (m0000mmf)
Series 3
Ideas for Life
Welcome back to Hardacre's, the worst advertising agency in London, as Edward Rowett's award-winning sitcom returns for a third series.
The second series ended in euphoria, as Hardacre's secured their biggest ever account - the Cosmos X10 smartphone. Now there's a reality check, as the team realise how woefully ill-equipped they are to handle a client of this magnitude.
Accounts manager Amanda Barnes (Josie Lawrence) immediately sets to work hiring new staff, while agency chief and creative director Rupert Hardacre (Nigel Havers) heads into Soho to secure new and grander premises.
Meanwhile on the creative side, copywriter Joe Starling (Mathew Baynton) begins to doubt his ability to deliver work for an account this size, despite reassurance from his art director and best friend Teddy Beech (Rasmus Hardiker), leading Joe to take drastic action.
Cast:
Nigel Havers- Hardacre
Mathew Baynton- Joe
Josie Lawrence- Amanda
Rasmus Hardiker- Teddy
Holly Morgan- Singer/Waitress
Andrew Nolan- Irish Barrista
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 19:45 Dangerous Visions (b07bzhyy)
Dark Vignettes
The Fanglur and the Twoof
The second of four specially-commissioned stories in the Dangerous Visions series.
The Fanglur And The Twoof by Toby Litt.
With the mysterious Noma as their guide, a family set off with their herd across the desert in search of pools and lakes. But this is no ordinary desert. There is no sand - just human teeth.
Writer: Toby Litt
Reader: Farshid Rokey
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000fgjm)
Director of BBC News and Current Affairs, Fran Unsworth, answers listener concerns about the planned cuts and fears they will lead to the loss of distinctiveness for programmes such as Today, The World at One and PM. She explains the changes and why she believes there is no alternative.
Also, can science help dispel racist myths? We discuss Adam Rutherford’s Book of the Week on BBC R4, How to Argue with a Racist.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Alun Beach
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000fgjk)
Heather Couper CBE, Leonard Woodley QC, Joseph Shabalala
Pictured: Heather Couper
Matthew Bannister on
Heather Couper, the astronomer who used her engaging media appearances to enthuse a generation about space. We talk to her co-author and business partner Nigel Henbest.
Leonard Woodley, the Trinidad-born barrister who played a leading role in many high profile race trials and became Britain's first Afro-Caribbean Queen's Counsel.
Joseph Shabalala, the South African musician who founded the singing group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They became global stars after collaborating with Paul Simon on his album Graceland.
Interviewed guest: Nigel Henbest
Interviewed guest: Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
Interviewed guest: Robin Denselow
Producer: Neil George
Archive clips from: Inside Parliament, Radio 4 31/03/1980; PM, Radio 4 25/09/1995; World Routes, Radio 3 18/03/2001; Under African Skies, directed by Joe Berlinger, RadicalMedia 2012; A Brief History of Infinity, BBC World Service 20/09/2006; With Great Pleasure, Radio 4 24/07/1987; Woman’s Hour, Radio 4 11/10/1995; The Planets: Are We Alone?, Channel 4 1985.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000fn90)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000fnk4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (m000ffzz)
Do voters need therapy?
In a poll last year, two thirds of people suggested that Britain’s exit from the EU was negatively affecting the nation’s mental health. But is that really about customs unions and widget regulations, or is it a more a product of how we think about politics? James Tilley, a professor of politics at Oxford, finds out how our distorted ways of thinking create emotional reactions to politics and how those emotions affect what we do politically.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000fnlq)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000fgnq)
Jessica Hausner on her scifi award winner, Little Joe starring Emily Beecham.
Her performance in Little Joe won Emily Beecham best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Also starring Ben Whishaw it is a scifi take on the dangers of genetic engineering in flowers. It's the first film in English for Austrian director Jessica Hausner and she reveals what inspired it and the themes that recur in her films.
Continuing our series on how to get a movie made, Pitch to Production, Matthew Sweet explores the tricky business of assigning rights with Clare Israel of film and literary agents David Higham Associates and development consultant Rowan Woods.
Another winner at Cannes in 2019 was the French film Portrait of a Lady on Fire which took Queer Palm and Best Screenplay prizes for its writer and director Céline Sciamma. Set in eighteenth century France it is the story of the developing attraction between a female portrait painter and the young woman sitting for her. Its stars Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel who talk about the difference between being the observed and the observer in art and the fun they had shooting sex scenes.
Presented by: Antonia Quirke
Producer: Harry Parker
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b03wgy6l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2020
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000fnls)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m000fgs9)
Loss
Loss: How should we understand the 'road not taken'? Laurie Taylor talks to Susie Scott, Professor of Sociology at the University of Sussex, about her study of lost experience - that vast terrain of things we have not done, that did not happen or that we have not become. Also, Tim Strangleman, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, reveals a lost world of paternalistic employment in which people enjoyed a well-paid job for life, free meals in silver service canteens, after work sports & theatre clubs & a generous pension on the horizon – the story of the Guinness Brewery in West London.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000fnb9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000fnlv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000fnlx)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000fnlz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000fnm1)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000fnm3)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Fr Jamie McMorrin of St Mary's RC Cathedral, Edinburgh
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000fnm5)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000fnm7)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09gfbbv)
Michael Morpurgo on the Magpie
Childrens author and poet Michael Morpurgo discusses the cackling magpie in this Tweet of the Day, a bird that seemingly never dies.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photograph: Ken Bentley.
MON 06:00 Today (m000fpmg)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000fpmj)
Leila Slimani on Sexual Politics
Leila Slimani is the first Moroccan woman to win France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. From stories of poverty, exploitation and sexual addiction she now turns her attention to sexual politics within a deeply conservative culture. She tells Amol Rajan why she wanted to give voice to young Moroccan women suffocating under the strictures of a society which allowed them only two roles: virgin or wife.
The writer Olivia Fane questions whether liberal society is really that liberating. In ‘Why Sex Doesn’t Matter’ she argues that women have been sold the idea of sexual freedom, but that this has curtailed the way people think about love and desire.
The journalist Sally Howard asks why, after forty years of feminism, women still do the majority of the housework. While straight British women are found to put in 12 more days of household chores than their male partners, in the US young men are now twice as likely as their fathers to think a woman’s place is in the home.
But it’s not just women who are constrained by the roles society presents to them. As a new photographic exhibition into Masculinity opens at the Barbican, the academic Chris Haywood, believes it’s important to highlight the importance of visual representations of men. He asks whether men have become stuck between ideas of ‘toxic’ and ‘fragile’ masculinity.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 The Crying Book, by Heather Christle (m000fpml)
Episode 1
Shedding tears is a universal human experience, but why and how do we cry?
American poet Heather Christle has lost a dear friend to suicide and must now reckon with her own depression. In this personal, lyrical book she faces her grief by researching the act of crying.
In her Ohio home, Heather assembles a “crybrary” in which she investigates the science and art of tears - from their chemical composition to their depiction in literature. She even mines the Internet for folklore and remedies.
Moving deftly between poetry and prose, she lays bare her own experience. She recalls crying in a car after being dumped, lying in tears on the bathroom floor after an argument with her husband, and her mother’s tears as she revisits traumatic family history.
The Crying Book is an honest, thought-provoking and surprising reflection on life, loss and mental illness.
In this first episode, Heather follows her preoccupation with tears back to its origins.
Abridged by Joanne Rowntree
Produced by Miranda Hinkley
Assistant Producer Alexandra Quinn
Read by Alexandra Metaxa, featuring Paterson Joseph, Alibe Parsons and Oliver Soden.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000fpmn)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
MON 10:45 The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd (m000fpmq)
Episode 1
Meg Fraser reads extracts from the modernist classic by Nan Shepherd, author of 'The Living Mountain'.
Spirited nine-year old Martha Ironside is taken in by her kindly Great Aunt Josephine.
Read by Meg Fraser
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
MON 11:00 Out of the Ordinary (m000fpms)
Series 7
A Sense of Direction
Many animals can navigate by sensing the earth's magnetic field. Not humans, though. But might we have evolved the sense but forgotten how to access it? 40 years ago a British zoologist thought he had demonstrated a homing ability in humans. But his results failed to replicate in America and the research was largely discredited. But new evidence suggests that our brains can in fact detect changes in the magnetic field and may even be able to use it to navigate. Jolyon Jenkins investigates, and talks to a Pacific traditional seafarer who has learned to navigate vast distances across the ocean with no instruments, and who describes how, when all else fails, he has been able to access what he calls "the magic". Is the magic still there for all of us, just waiting to be rediscovered?
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins
MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000fn9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000fpmx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (m000fpmz)
Episode 1
Colum McCann's epic new novel of friendship, love, loss, and belonging.
Bassam and Rami inhabit a world of conflict that colours every aspect of their daily lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on, to the schools their daughters, Abir and Smadar, each attend, to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate. Their worlds shift irreparably after ten-year-old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet and thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of suicide bombers. When Bassam and Rami learn of each other’s stories, they recognise the loss that connects them and attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace.
In Apeirogon - named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides - Colum McCann creates an epic novel inspired by the real experiences of Palestinian Bassam Aramin and Israeli Rami Elhanan who, after each losing a child, came together to promote peace.
Writer
Colum McCann is the author of seven novels and three collections of stories. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honours, including the National Book Award, the International Dublin Impac Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish arts academy, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts. His work has been published in over 40 languages.
Music
Original music composed and performed by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, inspired by his and the authors time in the West Bank with the non-profit global exchange group Narrative 4.
Reader: Stanley Townsend
Writer: Colum McCann
Abridger: Doreen Estall
Music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire
Producer: Michael Shannon
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000fpn1)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
MON 12:57 Weather (m000fpn3)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000fpn5)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
MON 13:45 The Californian Century (m000fpn7)
A Body on the Backlot
Stanley Tucci imagines the story of modern California as a movie screenplay, tracing the dramatic history of the state from Hollywood to Silicon Valley.
In this episode, the first man to direct a full movie in California meets a dramatic end. In 1911, 41 year old Francis Boggs was on the up, a pioneering movie director. But his luck was just about to run out.
California wants to dazzle you with its endless sunshine and visions of the future – but that’s just a mirage. Stanley Tucci plays a hard-boiled screenwriter uncovering the full, sordid truth. He knows exactly where all the bodies are buried.
His screenplays tell the stories of ten women and men who built California. It's a high risk, high reward state. A place where, if you make it, you're on top of the world. But if you don't, there's a long, long way to fall.
Also in the series, the men who lied and lied and lied again to bring water to arid LA, and the story of the superstar revivalist preacher who was as big as Chaplin – before she disappeared without trace. We'll also hear about the genius who first brought silicon to Silicon Valley, right before he became a passionate eugenicist - Silicon Valley's dirty little secret.
Over ten episodes, Stanley Tucci tells the real story of California: a story littered with dead bodies, disasters and duplicity.
Academic consultant: Dr Ian Scott, University of Manchester
Written and produced by Laurence Grissell
MON 14:00 The Archers (m000fnlm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 This Thing of Darkness (m000fpn9)
Part 1
Written by Lucia Haynes with monologues by Eileen Horne.
Dr Alex Bridges is an expert forensic psychiatrist, assessing and treating perpetrators of the most unthinkable crimes.
In this compelling drama, Alex charts the psychological impact of the murder of a young man on his family.
A week after 19-year-old Jamie’s murder, Dr Alex Bridges interviews the members of his family.
Cast:
Alex … Lolita Chakrabarti
Hannah … Jessica Hardwick
David … Robin Laing
Laura… Shauna Macdonald
Series created by Audrey Gillan, Lucia Haynes, Eileen Horne, Gaynor Macfarlane, Anita Vettesse and Kirsty Williams.
Series consultant: Dr Gwen Adshead
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane and Kirsty Williams
A BBC Scotland Production directed by Gaynor Macfarlane and Kirsty Williams
MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (m000fpnd)
Programme 7, 2020
(7/12)
Tom Sutcliffe welcomes back the Welsh and the Scots for a re-match, after the Welsh won the first contest of the series. Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards hope to repeat the feat for Wales, while the Scots Val McDermid and Alan McCredie will be trying to turn the tables. Cricket, science fiction, British folk music and the history of genetic research are just some of the topics of which a working knowledge could prove very useful, in answering today's cryptic and multi-layered questions.
As always, some more of the best question suggestions we've received from listeners in recent months will be used in today's programme. Tom will also have the solution to the knotty puzzle he left unanswered at the end of last week's quiz.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000fnkv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 The Day of Two Suns (m000fpnh)
For fifty years, nuclear weapons were tested in the Pacific. It started with American tests in 1946, Britain joined in the 50s, and France didn’t finish until 1996. Some of the tests were one thousand times more powerful than the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
For decades, the details were classified. But for generations, Pacific Islanders have been trying to push this story to global attention.
In this programme, James Nokise, a comedian and stage performer from New Zealand explores the role of Pacific wordsmiths, from song writers to poets, who have used their craft to protest against nuclear testing.
Featuring the poems:
No Ordinary Sun - written by Hone Tuwhare. Archival sound recordings from Tuwhare reading his poem in 1975 and 1986 courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, RNZ and Hone Tuwhare Trust.
Wave Song - written by Déwé Gorodé and translated by Raylene Ramsay and Deborah Walker.
Waka 83 - written and read by Robert Sullivan
Bad Coconuts - written and performed by Teresia Teaiwa (featuring H Doug Matsuoka and Richard Hamasaki)
Fishbone Hair, Monster, Anointed - written and performed by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Produced by Claire Crofton
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m000fpnk)
Series 19
Oops!
The Digital World is full of unintended consequences. Aleks finds out what happened when an influx of bitcoin miners descended like electricity devouring locusts on the snowy little town of Plattsburgh NY.
Depending what day it is maintaining the bitcoin network can take the same amount of energy as consumed by the whole country of Switzerland. These crypto currencies quite literally turn electricity into money but electricity costs, so all over the globe there are itinerant bitcoin miners like the prospectors of old in search deep veins of cheap power to refine into digital gold
And so when it became known that the little town of Plattsburgh on the US/Canadian border had just about the cheapest electricity on the continent the miners flocked there from as far away Puerto Rico. At its height you couldn’t walk down the street without feeling the heat and the din of servers churning away in hastily converted strip malls.
But it was it a bonanza for the locals? Aleks finds out.
MON 17:00 PM (m000fpnn)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000fpnq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Nature Table (m000fpns)
Series 1
Episode 3
Nature Table is comedian, broadcaster and writer Sue Perkins’ new comedy ‘Show & Tell’ series celebrating the natural world and all its funny eccentricities.
Taking the simple format of a ‘Show & Tell’, each episode Sue is joined by celebrity guests from the worlds of comedy and natural history. Each of the natural history guests brings an item linked to the wild world to share with the audience, be it an amazing fact or funny personal anecdote. Each item is a springboard for an enlightening and funny discussion, alongside fun games and challenges revealing more astonishing facts. We also hear from some of the London Zoo audience, a mix of London Zoo staff and members of the public, as they bring us their own natural history ‘show and tells’ for Sue and the guests to discuss.
Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet’s wonderfully wild flora and fauna in an fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.
Episode 3
Recorded at London Zoo, this week Sue Perkins is joined by special guests naturalist and BBC Wildlife correspondent Nick Baker, ethnobotanist James Wong and comedian Lucy Porter.
Written by: Catherine Brinkworth, Kat Sadler & Jon Hunter
Researcher: Catherine Beazley
Music by Ben Mirin. Additional sounds were provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Produced by: Simon Nicholls
A BBC Studios Production
MON 19:00 The Archers (m000fp5k)
Jim is left stunned by some life changing news and Tracy shows her support
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000fpnv)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd (m000fpmq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 My Name Is... (m000fpnx)
Joanna: Can't Afford My Medication
Joanna has a liver condition called Haemochromatosis. She had a liver transplant when she was nineteen days old and she's been on the transplant waiting on the list for a second transplant for several years.
She takes a range of medications each day to stay alive.
As a child her prescriptions were free but, since turning 19, she’s had to pay, and she just can’t afford them. Now 22 and a student, her loan and part-time job barely cover the food and rent. The one-off annual pre-payment certificate of £104, to cover her prescriptions, is out of the question.
Over the past couple of years, she's managed to pay for her prescriptions by buying a 3-monthly pre-payment certificate. She then tries to space out the collection of her prescriptions to fit as many medications into that 3-month time frame as possible.
While this works with her other medications, her anti-rejection pills don't quite stretch as there aren't quite the right number in each box. So for a few days, Joanna halves her dose to make it last until she collects her next prescription. She knows this is a risky decision, particularly given her transplanted liver is failing. But taking a few less pills for a few days feels like the right thing to do so that she can afford to eat and live.
She’s baffled that she and thousands of others like her - with long-term conditions like chronic asthma, Parkinson’s and Crohn’s Disease - have to pay for their prescriptions, while those with conditions like Type-1 diabetes don’t pay a penny. If she lived in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland she and everyone else would get their prescriptions for free.
So why is the system so unfair in England? Wouldn’t free prescriptions for all - so people don’t ration their life-saving medications - protect people's health and save the NHS money in the long-run?
Or is there a method in what looks, to her, like madness?
Producer: Beth Eastwood
MON 20:30 Analysis (m000fpnz)
It's Not Easy Being Green
If the future of politics must include tackling climate change, it holds that the future should be bright for the Greens. In parts of Europe, their influence is growing. In Germany the Green Party is enjoying unprecedented support. But in the UK there’s only ever been one Green MP and the party won just 2.7 per cent of the vote in last year's election. In this edition of Analysis, Rosie Campbell, Professor of Politics and Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at Kings College London, goes in search of the Green vote. Who are they? If the Parliamentary path is blocked due to the voting system, how do they make an impact? And can they persuade more people not only to vote Green but also to become “Greener”?
Producer: Jim Frank
Editor: Jasper Corbett
MON 21:00 Hong Kong: Love in a Divided City (m000fgcz)
An intimate glimpse of the Hong Kong protests, as experienced by a newlywed couple. The unprecedented mass demonstrations have caused chaos in Hong Kong’s public sphere – but what have they meant for private life? How have they affected the increasing number of couples who have married across the divide, with one partner from Hong Kong and another from the Chinese mainland?
BBC World Affairs Correspondent Paul Adams hears from one such couple, for whom the political has become personal. ‘Daniel’ is a native-born Hong Kong citizen, while his wife ‘Jane’ moved to the city from the Chinese mainland. They are happily married – but are living in a metropolis riven by discontent. How do they navigate the expectations of their friends, families and workplaces - and most importantly their spouse – while staying true to their own beliefs? This single marriage reveals a great deal about the emerging, troubled identity of Hong Kong.
Producer: Cat Farnsworth
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000fpmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000fpp2)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (m000fpmz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Night Vision (m000fpp4)
The Count
In new after hours listening on Radio 4, the team behind the award-winning Wireless Nights present three acoustically rich journeys through three long nights of the soul. Nights that left an indelible mark on the storyteller.
Time stretches out in the early hours. The space between sleep and wakefulness is alive with possibility. Fears and anxieties are projected in lurid hues, distorted, outsized. Dreams fade in and out. The real and the imaginary blur.
Over three programmes, we’ll enter that space with three artistic individuals: writer Zakiya McKenzie, sound designer Axel Kacoutié and actor Jonathan Forbes. Each have selected a Night Vision that has never left them.
Ep 1: Composer and sound designer Axel Kacoutié returns to a sleepless night from his youth, recovering from a heartbreak and forced to look at himself closely in the mirror. Fortunately, he wasn’t alone. With Bram Stoker’s Dracula as bedtime listening he finds a companion in the solicitor Jonathan Harker in the Count’s castle. Both are trapped. But there has to be some way out.
Words and Sound Design by Axel Kacoutié
The actress was Tamara Fairbairn
Jonathan Harker was played by Michael Harbour
Producer Neil McCarthy
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000fpp7)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2020
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000fpp9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 The Crying Book, by Heather Christle (m000fpml)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000fppc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000fppf)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000fpph)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000fppk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000fppm)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Fr Jamie McMorrin of St Mary's RC Cathedral, Edinburgh
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000fppp)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09gg8t1)
Michael Morpurgo on the Buzzard
Children's author Michael Morpurgo recounts how his daily walk in the Devon countryside is often enlivened by the call of buzzards overhead for this Tweet of the Day.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photograph: Mandy West.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000fp4l)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m000fp4n)
Anya Hurlbert on seeing colour
Anya Hurlbert tells Jim Al Khalili how colours are made in the mind.
TUE 09:30 One to One (m000fp4q)
Architect Elsie Owusu meets Lord Chris Smith
Elsie Owusu meets Lord Chris Smith, the former Secretary of State for Culture and chair of the Millennium Commission, to discuss what he feels is his architectural legacy: from the Eden project to the Dome and beyond.
Across three editions of One to One, Elsie - an architect - has been exploring the connection between architecture, art and justice. In today's discussion Lord Smith mulls over his time in office and discusses what he's proudest of: the reintroduction of free museum entrance, and what he's perhaps less happy to recall: the Millennium Dome.
Producer: Karen Gregor
TUE 09:45 The Crying Book, by Heather Christle (m000fp4s)
Episode 2
Shedding tears is a universal human experience, but why and how do we cry?
American poet Heather Christle has lost a dear friend to suicide and must now reckon with her own depression. In this personal, lyrical book she faces her grief by researching the act of crying.
In her Ohio home, Heather assembles a “crybrary” in which she investigates the science and art of tears - from their chemical composition to their depiction in literature. She even mines the Internet for folklore and remedies.
Moving deftly between poetry and prose, she lays bare her own experience. She recalls crying in a car after being dumped, lying in tears on the bathroom floor after an argument with her husband, and her mother’s tears as she revisits traumatic family history.
The Crying Book is an honest, thought-provoking and surprising reflection on life, loss and mental illness.
In this second episode, Heather is expecting her first child and continues her investigation by looking into the tears of infants and parents.
Abridged by Joanne Rowntree
Produced by Miranda Hinkley
Assistant Producer Alexandra Quinn
Read by Alexandra Metaxa, featuring Paterson Joseph, Alibe Parsons and Oliver Soden.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000fp4w)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
TUE 10:45 The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd (m000fp4y)
Episode 2
Extracts from the modernist classic by Nan Shepherd, author of 'The Living Mountain'.
Martha's love of learning puts her in conflict with her chaotic family.
Read by Meg Fraser
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
TUE 11:00 The Inside Story of Election 19 (m000f5rr)
What lies behind Boris Johnson's overwhelming election victory? In this programme, Anne McElvoy talks to the key figures across the political spectrum about how the 2019 general election was fought and lost.
To what extent was this a 'Brexit election' and how did the Conservative Party reach out to voters in places that it had not won for decades and in some cases generations? Why did the Opposition Parties agree to holding the election in the first place? What led to Labour's worst defeat since 1935 and why did Jeremy Corbyn's campaign fail to make the impact he had made in 2017? Why did the Liberal Democrats struggle to make the breakthrough that they had hoped for and what difference did the Brexit Party's decision to stand down in Conservative held seats make to the result.
Producer: Peter Snowdon
TUE 11:30 Leap (m000fp51)
What would you do with a day out of time?
The leap day, 29th February, is the result of an unsolved 3000 year-old problem. Conceived by the Egyptians, passed on to the Romans and reformed by Pope Gregory, it’s all too often a day that passes by without another thought.
This year, the artist Monster Chetwynd won’t let that happen. Known for her exuberant large-scale multi-person performances in fantastical environments, she delves deep into the leap year's ancient history and bizarre sexist customs to inspire a new radiophonic performance. True to Chetwynd-form, she brings together a group friends and collaborators in her Glasgow studio to reimagine everything she learns about the leap day into a wildly playful theatrical happening.
Monster Chetwynd was the first performance artist nominated for the Turner Prize in 2012. Her work includes a multi-person Cat Bus (2010), a Bertolt Brecht and Betty Boop-inspired children’s play Dogsy Ma Bone (2016), and giant luminous slugs slithering up the stairs and façade of Tate Britain (2018).
With contributions from Kristen Lippencott, former director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
Performance featuring Marc David, Bob Moyler, Jessica Ramm, Anna Danielewicz and Rabi.
Produced by Eliza Lomas
Mixed by Olga M Reed
Photo credit: Monster Chetwynd
A Boom Shakalaka production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000fp53)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (m000fp55)
Episode 2
Colum McCann's epic new novel of friendship, love, loss, and belonging.
Bassam and Rami inhabit a world of conflict that colours every aspect of their daily lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on, to the schools their daughters, Abir and Smadar, each attend, to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate. Their worlds shift irreparably after ten-year-old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet and thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of suicide bombers. When Bassam and Rami learn of each other’s stories, they recognise the loss that connects them and attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace.
In Apeirogon - named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides - Colum McCann creates an epic novel inspired by the real experiences of Palestinian Bassam Aramin and Israeli Rami Elhanan who, after each losing a child, came together to promote peace.
Writer
Colum McCann is the author of seven novels and three collections of stories. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honours, including the National Book Award, the International Dublin Impac Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish arts academy, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts. His work has been published in over 40 languages.
Music
Original music composed and performed by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, inspired by his and the authors time in the West Bank with the non-profit global exchange group Narrative 4.
Reader: Stanley Townsend
Writer: Colum McCann
Abridger: Doreen Estall
Music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire
Producer: Michael Shannon
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000fp58)
Call You and Yours
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000fp5b)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000fp5d)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
TUE 13:45 The Californian Century (m000fp5g)
Dark Water
Stanley Tucci tells the story of William Mulholland and the lies that made Los Angeles possible.,
The founders of LA had a vision of a future megacity. But there was just one problem - it was a virtual desert, with very little rainfall.
William Mulholland was the man charged with bringing water to the desert. But not without a great deal of double dealing and duplicity.
California wants to dazzle you with its endless sunshine and visions of the future – but that’s just a mirage.
Stanley Tucci imagines the modern history of California as a Hollywood movie, playing a hard-boiled screenwriter uncovering the full, sordid truth. He knows exactly where all the bodies are buried.
Academic consultant: Dr Ian Scott, University of Manchester
Written and produced by Laurence Grissell
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000fp5k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b0b4zvp7)
The Interrogation - Series 6
Ross
The detective duo are back for a new series. Today they interview a young prisoner about an attack on a fellow inmate, but there's something else they want help with...
Max ..... Kenneth Cranham
Sean ..... Alex Lanipekun
Harry ..... Rupert Holliday Evans
Ross ..... Billy Seymour
Directed by Mary Peate
Written by Roy Williams
The 6th series of this much-loved Radio 4 crime drama in which Kenneth Cranham as DCI Max Matthews and Alex Lanipekun as DS Sean Armitage expertly extract the truth from their suspects during the course of one interview. Their relationship has developed into friendship since the first series when Armitage was a rookie constable, but as ever the focus is on the interrogations and Roy Williams' brilliant ear for dialogue and his virtuosic, real-time scenes never disappoint.
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000fp5m)
Series 22
Dancing on the Radio
Josie Long presents toe-tapping, choreographed short documentaries and adventures in sound about dancing. From falling in love with movement to the art of staying still.
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 The Secret History of Science and Religion (m0006dw1)
3. On the Origin of Humans
Nick Spencer explores the history of the relationship between science and religion and questions the received wisdom that they have always been in conflict with one another. He tells the story of science and religion not as if they were big, abstract ideas but as it happened, through the lives and cultures of different people and different times. From The Scopes Monkey trial in the US to the present day polarisation in Britain he argues that at its heart, the story has less to do with the existence of God, or the age of the earth, or even the origins of life, and much more to do with how we think of ourselves as human beings.
Contributors:
Ed Larson - Historian and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion";
John Hedley Brooke - Historian of Science and author of "Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives";
Elaine Howard Ecklund - Professor of Sociology at Rice University in Texas;
Rev David Wilkinson - Professor and Principal of St John's College Durham and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society;
Steve Jones - Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London and fellow of the Royal Society;
Fern Elsdon-Baker - Professor of Science, Knowledge and Belief in Society at Birmingham University;
Hannah Malcolm - Coordinator of "God and the Big Bang" project;
Michael Harvey - Director of "God and the Big Bang" project.
Producer: Dan Tierney
Series Editor: Christine Morgan
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m000fp5p)
On parole
The Parole Board will soon have to decide whether it’s safe to release prisoners convicted of low-level terrorist offences. But how effective is it at predicting whether a criminal will reoffend? Joshua Rozenberg visits the Parole Board for England and Wales to find out.
Producer: Neil Koenig
Researcher: Diane Richardson
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000fp5r)
Richard Harrington & Njambi McGrath
Richard Harrington (Hinterland, The Crown, Death In Paradise) and Kenyan born comedian Njambi McGrath choose the books they've loved reading. Richard's choice is Unreliable Memoirs by the late Clive James, stories of his childhood in rural Australia. Fond memories of laughter at home as a child hearing his father reading extracts of it aloud to his mother brought Richard to the book as an adult. Njambi McGrath says Chigozie Obioma's chilling tale of two young Nigerian brothers in his debut novel The Fishermen made the hairs on her body stand up, and she could "feel the words on my skin", it was so engrossing. The Fishermen was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2015.
Harriett's choice is The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre. Translated from the French by Stephanie Smee, it won the European Crime Fiction Prize and is the story of Patience Portefeux. She's a 53 year old translator for the French police, earning a pittance for translating drugs squad intercepts of North African gangs. She has bills to pay and an elderly mother in a very expensive care home. So when she gets the chance to switch sides and deal drugs herself, the temptation is too great. Richard likens it a little to the TV series Breaking Bad and Njambi says never before has she rooted so much for someone about to commit serious crime.
Tell us what you think of the books on instagram @agoodreadbbc
CLIVE JAMES- UNRELIABLE MEMOIRS
CHIGOZIE OBIOMA - THE FISHERMEN
HANNELORE CAYRE - THE GODMOTHER
Producer: Maggie Ayre
TUE 17:00 PM (m000fp5t)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000fp5w)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b09w16mn)
Hexagonal Phase
Episode 3
Simon Jones stars as Arthur Dent in a 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.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000fp5y)
Jim struggles to take in recent events and Oliver has a dilemma on his hands
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000fp60)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd (m000fp4y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m000fp62)
Something in the Air?
In January 2020, a British Airways flight from Athens to London issued a mayday emergency call when the pilot flying the plane became incapacitated during a "fume event". The airline industry does not reveal how often fume events happen, but according to some estimates they occur every day.
Pilots and cabin crew say that sudden fume events and long term low level exposure to toxic cabin air is making them seriously ill and in some cases causing premature deaths. The industry insists that serious leaks of toxic gas into cockpits and cabins are relatively very rare, given the number of flights each day. And that no causal link between toxic cabin air and health problems has yet been proven. But airlines faces multiple court cases later this year.
For the first time, on File on 4, a representative of the airline industry agrees to face questions on fume events, lack of transparency and claims that the health of hundreds of pilots, cabin crew and frequent fliers is being put at risk.
We reveal confidential airline and coroners documents in connection with fume events and so called "aerotoxicity". We hear from pilots and crew who say they've been poisoned by toxic cabin air. And from scientists about research being done on potential links between airline cabin contamination and neurological health.
Presenter: Mike Powell
Producer: Paul Waters
Editor: Andrew Smith
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000fp64)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000fp66)
Chris van Tulleken demystifies health issues, separating fact from fiction and brings clarity to conflicting health advice, with the help of resident sceptic GP Margaret McCartney
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m000fp4n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000fp68)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (m000fp55)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Liam Williams: Ladhood (b096jb2f)
Series 2
Episode 1
Comedian Liam Williams recounts his youthful misadventures in this autobiographical sitcom. Episode one sees Liam anxiously awaiting A-Level results before trying to find his feet in a most alien of new environments, Cambridge University.
Music:
- When I Was A Lad - Tom O'Connor
- Reptilia - The Strokes
- I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys
- Is This It - The Strokes
- I Planted A Thought - Arthur Russell
- Wounder - Burial
- Glorious (Town) - Captain
- Mozart's Piano Concerto No.2 in B Flat Major - K.39 - Murray Perahia
- Infinitum/Auntie's Lock - Flying Lotus
- Prelude to a Kiss - Alicia Keys
- My Love - Justin Timberlake
- Rat Cage - Beastie Boys
- Chelsea Dagger - The Fratellis
- Don't Feel Like Dancing - Scissor Sisters
- Paris (Aeroplane remix) - Friendly Fires
- Kennedy- The Wedding Present
- Oh My God - The Kaiser Chiefs
- Jynweyhek Ylow - Aphex Twin
- Shoot The Poets - The Cribs
- Come To The Bar - Pete and the Pirates
Written and performed by Liam Williams
Producer: Joe Nunnery
Ladhood is a BBC Studios Production.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000fp6b)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2020
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000fp6d)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 The Crying Book, by Heather Christle (m000fp4s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000fp6g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000fp6j)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000fp6l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000fp6n)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000fp6q)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Fr Jamie McMorrin of St Mary's RC Cathedral, Edinburgh
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000fp6s)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09gh9cw)
Michael Morpurgo on the Oystercatcher
Children's Author and playwright Michael Morpurgo enjoys talking to oystercatchers on his annual visit to the Isles of Scilly.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photograph: Chris Kilpatrick.
WED 06:00 Today (m000fq7d)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Only Artists (m000fq7g)
Series 10
Simon Stephens meets Simon Armitage
The playwright Simon Stephens meets Simon Armitage. the Poet Laureate.
Simon Stephens has created more than 30 works for the theatre. They include original dramas, such as Punk Rock, set in the library of a Stockport school, new versions of plays by Chekhov and Ibsen, and the highly successful stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which won the Olivier Award for the best new play, and the Tony Award for the best play on Broadway.
Simon Armitage is the current national Poet Laureate, a role he began in May 2019. He published his first full-length collection of poems, Zoom!, in 1989. Since then has published more than a dozen volumes of poetry, along with fiction, an acclaimed translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, works for theatre, film, television and radio, and a book about of his love of pop music, and his band The Scaremongers.
Producer Clare Walker
WED 09:30 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m000fq63)
Series 15
A Cold Case Part 1
“I suppose a cold is called a cold because we catch it in the winter," writes Alison Evans from St Albans. "But why is it that we get more colds in winter than in the summer?”
This week's Cold Case is all about the common cold, a set of symptoms caused by hundreds of different strains of cold and flu viruses.
Adam uncovers the stinky history of infectious disease with medical historian Claire Jones.
Virologists Jonathan Ball and Wendy Barclay describe how spiky viruses lock on to our cells, but why many of the symptoms of a common cold are due to our own body's overreaction.
Plus, we delve into the science of sneezing with nose doctor Carl Philpott.
Presenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
Producer: Michelle Martin
WED 09:45 The Crying Book, by Heather Christle (m000fq7k)
Episode 3
Shedding tears is a universal human experience, but why and how do we cry?
American poet Heather Christle has lost a dear friend to suicide and must now reckon with her own depression. In this personal, lyrical book she faces her grief by researching the act of crying.
In her Ohio home, Heather assembles a “crybrary” in which she investigates the science and art of tears - from their chemical composition to their depiction in literature. She even mines the Internet for folklore and remedies.
Moving deftly between poetry and prose, she lays bare her own experience. She recalls crying in a car after being dumped, lying in tears on the bathroom floor after an argument with her husband, and her mother’s tears as she revisits traumatic family history.
The Crying Book is an honest, thought-provoking and surprising reflection on life, loss and mental illness.
In this third episode, a friend and fellow poet dies, prompting Heather to turn to the Internet for remedies against tears. Her investigation of crying becomes political when a young Black man is shot by the police in Walmart, prompting her to consider the power and meaning of “white lady tears”.
Abridged by Joanne Rowntree
Produced by Miranda Hinkley
Assistant Producer Alexandra Quinn
Read by Alexandra Metaxa, featuring Paterson Joseph, Alibe Parsons and Oliver Soden.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000fq7m)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
WED 10:41 The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd (m000fq7p)
Episode 3
Extracts from the modernist classic by Nan Shepherd, author of 'The Living Mountain'.
At Aberdeen University naive Martha’s horizons are beginning to widen.
Read by Meg Fraser
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (m000fq7r)
Flora and Briony - Was I There for You?
Friends recall how their relationship survived since one of them became ill as a teenager. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
WED 11:00 My Name Is... (m000fpnx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar (m0008jf9)
Series 3
Santa Claused Faced Old…
Alexei tells the story of a long lost tin of pâté, offers his thoughts on the gig economy and reveals what he believes to be the secret war being waged by the old on the young.
Written by Alexei Sayle
Performed by Alexei Sayle
Produced by Joe Nunnery
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000fq7t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (m000fq7w)
Episode 3
Colum McCann's epic new novel of friendship, love, loss, and belonging.
Bassam and Rami inhabit a world of conflict that colours every aspect of their daily lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on, to the schools their daughters, Abir and Smadar, each attend, to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate. Their worlds shift irreparably after ten-year-old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet and thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of suicide bombers. When Bassam and Rami learn of each other’s stories, they recognise the loss that connects them and attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace.
In Apeirogon - named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides – Colum McCann creates an epic novel inspired by the real experiences of Palestinian Bassam Aramin and Israeli Rami Elhanan who, after each losing a child, came together to promote peace.
Writer
Colum McCann is the author of seven novels and three collections of stories. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honours, including the National Book Award, the International Dublin Impac Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish arts academy, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts. His work has been published in over 40 languages.
Music
Original music composed and performed by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, inspired by his and the authors time in the West Bank with the non-profit global exchange group Narrative 4.
Reader: Stanley Townsend
Writer: Colum McCann
Abridger: Doreen Estall
Music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire
Producer: Michael Shannon
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000fq7y)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
WED 12:57 Weather (m000fq80)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000fq82)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
WED 13:45 The Californian Century (m000fq84)
The Vanishing
Stanley Tucci tells the story of celebrity revivalist preacher Aimee Semple McPherson who disappeared one day in 1926.
They called her Sister Aimee and she was a powerful figure in the early days of California. Adored by thousands, she embodied the close connection between religion, Hollywood, politics and money.
Right up until she went for a swim one day - and vanished. When she re-appeared weeks later, scandal swirled around Sister Aimee - scandal she could never quite shake off.
California wants to dazzle you with its endless sunshine and visions of the future – but that’s just a mirage.
Stanley Tucci plays a hard-boiled screenwriter uncovering the full truth.
Academic consultant: Dr Ian Scott, University of Manchester
Written and produced by Laurence Grissell
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000fp5y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b0b50kx7)
The Interrogation - Series 6
Jack
While DCI Matthews and DI Armitage interview respectable writer Jack - who insists he's innocent of shoplifting - they discover something more serious.
Max ..... Kenneth Cranham
Sean ..... Alex Lanipekun
Julie ..... Georgie Glen
Jack ..... Michael Shaeffer
PC Kerry ..... Kerry Gooderson
Directed by Mary Peate
Written by Roy Williams.
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000fq86)
The latest news from the world of personal finance plus advice for those trying to make the most of their money.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000fp66)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000fq88)
New research on how society works.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000fq8b)
The programme about a revolution in media with Amol Rajan, the BBC's Media Editor
WED 17:00 PM (m000fq8d)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000fq8g)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Alex Edelman's Peer Group (m000fq8j)
Series 3
The Future
Award-winning comedian Alex Edelman discusses the future and how it might look. With help from his "peer group" at the University of Arts London, he examines what issues lie ahead for humanity and how we might be able to save it.
Alex Edelman's Peer Group is written and performed by Alex Edelman, with additional material from Alfie Brown, Rebecca Nicholson, David Burstein, Catherine Brinkworth and Kat Sadler.
It is produced by Sam Michell and is a BBC Studios Production.
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000fpbn)
It’s an emotional day for Shula and Helen offers the benefit of experience
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000fq8l)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd (m000fq7p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000fq8n)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m000fq63)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
WED 21:00 Art of Now (m000fgd1)
A Mathematician's Guide to Beauty
What does a mathematician really mean when they describe something as beautiful? Is it the same type of beauty we perceive in art or music or landscapes - and is it something that the average member of the public can grasp?
Mathematician Vicky Neale has felt a deep emotional and aesthetic response to her subject since she was little. Now a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford University, in this programme she presents her own personal take on what constitutes the idea of the beautiful in mathematics - drawing connections between other fields like art, music, literature and engineering.
Vicky talks to celebrated maths communicator Marcus du Sautoy about the connections between mathematics and literary narrative, and interviews the acclaimed structural engineer Roma Agrawal about how she strives to create beauty when she’s engineering skyscrapers, sculptures and bridges.
Meanwhile, pianist Nicholas Ross tells us how composers like Mozart have used mathematical ideas like the Golden Section and Fibonacci Sequence to structure their works. Does it really have an impact on a listener’s enjoyment of them?
Historian June Barrow-Green outlines the history of beauty in maths - from the Ancient Greeks, through a Sanskrit treatise on beauty, to the philosophy of GH Hardy whose Mathematician’s Apology of 1940 famously said “there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics”.
Vicky also takes a stroll around a wet Blenheim Palace - or at least tries to - with philosopher Angie Hobbs, to explore what mathematicians and artists mean by aesthetic ideas like “elegance”, “economy” and “surprise” - and why they appeal.
Producer: Steven Rajam
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
WED 21:30 Only Artists (m000fq7g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000fq8q)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (m000fq7w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Ken Cheng: Chinese Comedian (m000fq8s)
Series 2
Money
Stand-up series exploring British Chinese culture from BBC New Comedy Award finalist Ken Cheng.
Dave's Joke of the Fringe Winner, Cambridge mathematics dropout and professional poker player Ken Cheng returns with a brand new series in which he’ll explore free speech, social status, racism and money…
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
Ken Cheng - Chinese Comedian is a BBC Studios Production.
WED 23:15 Cracking Up (b08pfq5n)
Series 1
A Recipe for Disaster
Psychotherapist divorcee Spencer Pandy attempts to reassert his parental credentials through the medium of a Banqueté Mexicano - though ex-wife Tina is bemused at his request for the children to arrive at
6:30 for 7.
Spencer's search for authentic corn chips and guacamole leads to him being forcibly ejected from a supermarket, arrested at Chalk Farm station and close to being reported for humiliating a distraught female client.
Children Dylan and Tilly arrive for the meal dressed as Zapatistas with huge, magic marker moustaches. Discovering the disguises have been applied by Tina's boyfriend Owen, Spencer is incensed and proceeds to have a fight with the supermarket delivery driver for being early.
A Big Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000fq8v)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2020
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000fq8x)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 The Crying Book, by Heather Christle (m000fq7k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000fq8z)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000fq91)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000fq93)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000fq95)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000fq97)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Fr Jamie McMorrin of St Mary's RC Cathedral, Edinburgh
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000fq99)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09gk16x)
Michael Morpurgo on the Dipper
Author Michael Morpurgo doesn't go out looking for birds, but when out walking along a river he loves to glimpse a dipper and would love to get up closer to them.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photograph: Keith Docherty.
THU 06:00 Today (m000fp9w)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000fp9y)
The Evolution of Horses
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins of horses, from their dog sized ancestors to their proliferation in the New World until hunted to extinction, their domestication in Asia and their development since. The genetics of the modern horse are the most studied of any animal, after humans, yet it is still uncertain why they only have one toe on each foot when their wider family had more, or whether speed or stamina has been more important in their evolution. What is clear, though, is that when humans first chose to ride horses, as well as eat them, the future of both species changed immeasurably.
With
Alan Outram
Christine Janis
And
John Hutchinson
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 The Crying Book, by Heather Christle (m000fpcl)
Episode 4
Shedding tears is a universal human experience, but why and how do we cry?
American poet Heather Christle has lost a dear friend to suicide and must now reckon with her own depression. In this personal, lyrical book she faces her grief by researching the act of crying.
In her Ohio home, Heather assembles a “crybrary” in which she investigates the science and art of tears - from their chemical composition to their depiction in literature. She even mines the Internet for folklore and remedies.
Moving deftly between poetry and prose, she lays bare her own experience. She recalls crying in a car after being dumped, lying in tears on the bathroom floor after an argument with her husband, and her mother’s tears as she revisits traumatic family history.
The Crying Book is an honest, thought-provoking and surprising reflection on life, loss and mental illness.
In this fourth episode, Heather explores the relationship between 19th century feminist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who suffered from depression, and her physician Silas Weir Mitchell.
Abridged by Joanne Rowntree
Produced by Miranda Hinkley
Assistant Producer Alexandra Quinn
Read by Alexandra Metaxa, featuring Paterson Joseph, Alibe Parsons and Oliver Soden.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000fpb2)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
THU 10:45 The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd (m000fpb4)
Episode 4
Extracts from the modernist classic by Nan Shepherd, author of 'The Living Mountain'.
As Martha nurses her poorly aunt, a figure from the past reappears.
Read by Meg Fraser
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000fpb6)
Insight, and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world
THU 11:30 Grandmaster Fash (m0009kyw)
Writer Lou Stoppard explores the relationship between music and high fashion, with French sound designer Michel Gaubert.
Gaubert has been central to many of the big moments in high fashion over the past 40 years, but he is not a designer or a model, and not particularly known to the public. Instead, he is a DJ who is often named by insiders as one of the most influential people in the business.
After being sacked from a Parisian record shop in his youth, he was asked by a regular customer, Karl Lagerfeld, the late head of Chanel, to pick out some music for the catwalk. So he started this unusual career creating the soundtrack for haute couture.
Lou follows Michel as he prepares for Paris Fashion Week.
Contributors:
Michel Gaubert, DJ and sound designer
Pierpaolo Piccioli, Creative Director at Valentino
Stephen Jones, Milliner
Caroline Evans, Professor of Fashion History and Theory at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design
Jo Ellison, Editor, How to Spend It magazine
Jo-Ann Furniss, Fashion journalist
Tim Blanks, Editor at Large, Business of Fashion
A Terrier production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000fq7b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (m000fpbb)
Episode 4
Colum McCann's epic new novel of friendship, love, loss, and belonging.
Bassam and Rami inhabit a world of conflict that colours every aspect of their daily lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on, to the schools their daughters, Abir and Smadar, each attend, to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate. Their worlds shift irreparably after ten-year-old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet and thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of suicide bombers. When Bassam and Rami learn of each other’s stories, they recognise the loss that connects them and attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace.
In Apeirogon - named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides – Colum McCann creates an epic novel inspired by the real experiences of Palestinian Bassam Aramin and Israeli Rami Elhanan who, after each losing a child, came together to promote peace.
Writer
Colum McCann is the author of seven novels and three collections of stories. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honours, including the National Book Award, the International Dublin Impac Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish arts academy, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts. His work has been published in over 40 languages.
Music
Original music composed and performed by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, inspired by his and the authors time in the West Bank with the non-profit global exchange group Narrative 4.
Reader: Stanley Townsend
Writer: Colum McCann
Abridger: Doreen Estall
Music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire
Producer: Michael Shannon
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000fpbd)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
THU 12:57 Weather (m000fpbg)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000fpbj)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
THU 13:45 The Californian Century (m000fpbl)
A Hard Won Oscar
Stanley Tucci tells the story of Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Oscar in 1940.
McDaniel won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind. But the hotel where the awards were being held almost barred her from attending the ceremony.
Her victory wasn't universally celebrated by African Americans either. She was heavily criticised by civil rights groups for playing a role that perpetuated stereotypes and romanticised slavery.
But in those days, you played by Hollywood's rules, or you didn't play at all.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
Academic Consultant: Dr Ian Scott, University of Manchester
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000fpbn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b0b52cmv)
The Interrogation - Series 6
Heather
A man is brutally attacked in his own home, but the detective duo are at a loss to find anyone with a motive. Eventually, years of pent-up anger burst out.
Max ..... Kenneth Cranham
Sean ..... Alex Lanipekun
Heather ..... Jo Martin
Clare ..... Claire Rushbrook
Directed by Mary Peate
Written by Roy Williams.
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m000fpbq)
Series 41
The Wilberforce Way with Inderjit Bhogal
Clare Balding walks with Sikh-turned-Methodist, Inderjit Bhogal, along part of the Wilberforce Way in East Yorkshire. Inderjit created this long distance walking route to honour Wilberforce who led the campaign against the slave trade. They start at Pocklington School, where Wilberforce studied, and ramble canal-side to Melbourne Ings. Inderjit Bhogal has an extraordinary personal story: Born in Kenya he and his family fled, via Tanzania, to Dudley in the West Midlands in the early 1960s. He couldn’t find anywhere to practice his Sikh faith so started attending his local Methodist chapel where he became an unusual sight, a Christian worshipper in a turban. He went on to become a leading figure in the Methodist church and was awarded an OBE in 2005. He discusses feeling fearful while walking alone in the countryside, because of the colour of his skin, despite having lived her for over 50 years.
Please scroll down to the 'Related Links' box for information about the guidebook mentioned in the programme
Producer: Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000fnk4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000fnl7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000fpbs)
The latest releases, the hottest stars and the leading directors, plus news and insights from the film world.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000fpbv)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m000fpbx)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000fpc1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 The Break (b0b3c42y)
Series 2
Van Crazy
Jeff and Andy (Philip Jackson & Tom Palmer) borrow a van from Frank (Mark Benton) setting them on the road to ruin - or rather, a nude beach, A&E and a search for some drip trays.
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000fpc3)
Roy questions himself and Jakob makes his feelings clear
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000fpc5)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd (m000fpb4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 Law in Action (m000fp5p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m000fpc7)
Evan Davis hosts the business conversation show with people at the top giving insight into what matters
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000fpbv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000fp9y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000fpcb)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (m000fpbb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 The Likely Dads (m000fpcd)
Former Blue Peter presenter Tim Vincent hosts a new late-night frank and funny conversation programme with several fathers discussing what it's like to be a dad in 21st century Britain.
In this pilot episode, comedians Russell Kane, Sean Hegarty and Mick Ferry, as well as voiceover artist and actor Jonathan Kydd, join Tim to talk about everything from sleep (or lack thereof), pregnancy and toilet training, to dealing with children in restaurants, being the only dad at playgroup and whether there's anything that dads do better than mums.
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000fpcg)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2020
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000fpcj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 The Crying Book, by Heather Christle (m000fpcl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000fpcn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000fpcq)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000fpcs)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000fpcv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000fpcx)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Fr Jamie McMorrin of St Mary's RC Cathedral, Edinburgh
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000fpcz)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09gkk3p)
Michael Morpurgo on the Greater Flamingo
On a visit to the Camargue National Park in France, author Michael Morpurgo found getting close to beautiful and elegant flamingos, and hearing their call, touched his soul.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photograph: Ashutosh Jhureley.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000fq3p)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000fnkq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Crying Book, by Heather Christle (m000fq5q)
Episode 5
Shedding tears is a universal human experience, but why and how do we cry?
American poet Heather Christle has lost a dear friend to suicide and must now reckon with her own depression. In this personal, lyrical book she faces her grief by researching the act of crying.
In her Ohio home, Heather assembles a “crybrary” in which she investigates the science and art of tears - from their chemical composition to their depiction in literature. She even mines the Internet for folklore and remedies.
Moving deftly between poetry and prose, she lays bare her own experience. She recalls crying in a car after being dumped, lying in tears on the bathroom floor after an argument with her husband, and her mother’s tears as she revisits traumatic family history.
The Crying Book is an honest, thought-provoking and surprising reflection on life, loss and mental illness.
In this final episode, Heather visits her friend’s grave and makes peace with her own family history of depression.
Abridged by Joanne Rowntree
Produced by Miranda Hinkley
Assistant Producer Alexandra Quinn
Read by Alexandra Metaxa, featuring Paterson Joseph, Alibe Parsons and Oliver Soden.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000fq3t)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
FRI 10:45 The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd (m000fq3w)
Episode 5
Extracts from the modernist classic by Nan Shepherd, author of 'The Living Mountain'.
Martha Ironside, now in charge of her own school, finds an unexpected sense of purpose.
Read by Meg Fraser
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
FRI 11:00 Forum Internum (m000fq3y)
Episode 1
What is freedom of thought and why might it need protecting in the digital age? It’s one of our foundational human rights, but the right to freedom of thought has never really been invoked in the courts as it was never believed vulnerable to attack – until now.
In this three part series, Helena Kennedy QC explores the need to safeguard what lawyers are calling the forum internum (our own private, mental space) from the incursions of social media technology, new kinds of surveillance and manipulation through data-mining, advances in AI and neuroscience, the arrival of neurolaw and fMRI imaging in the courts, and the very real possibility of thought-crime.
Philosopher James Garvey takes up the thread in part 2, looking at the rise of neuroscience and its misuse across the wider culture, from sport and mental health to neuroarchitecture, neurolaw and concerns about the growing practice of neuropolitics.
Helena Kennedy resumes the argument in part 3, making the case for freedom of thought and asking whether the law can protect the forum internum from the speed and scale of new technologies and their misuse by corporations and the state. Are we entering a digital dark age for freedom of thought or will we create new spaces for it to flourish?
Contributors include: authors Peter Pomerantsev and Shoshana Zuboff; psychoanalyst Adam Phillips; neuro-philosopher Patricia Churchland; human rights lawyers Susie Alegre and Philippe Sands; ethical advisor to Google; Luciano Floridi; neuroscientists Mark Stokes and Tali Sharot, director of the Affective Brain Lab; Larry Farwell, the inventor of Brain Fingerprinting; digital philosopher Mark Andrejevic; artist and author James Bridle; and Darren Schreiber, advisor on neuropolitics.
Presenters: Helena Kennedy QC (parts 1 and 3) and James Garvey (part 2)
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 11:30 Teatime (m000fq41)
Episode 2
Comedy by Katherine Jakeways about a chaotic but loving family. Starring Philip Glenister, Samantha Spiro, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Katie Redford and Steven Brandon.
Sensing he might be in with a chance to win her back, Joe (Glenister) decides to ambush his ex-wife Donna (Spiro) with an impromptu date night. Donna isn’t sure what to think, and neither are Vicky and Rav (Edwards and Puwanarajah) – Joe’s decided to stage this ambush in their kitchen.
Meanwhile, Vicky’s sister Lisa (Redford) is #livingherbestlife as a single lady about town. Now that she’s got nothing to look forward to except a lifetime of married routine, is Vicky just a little jealous? And Uncle Bob (Brandon) has some excellent advice for Rav.
Teatime was produced by Sam Ward, and is a BBC Studios production.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000fqgn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (m000fq45)
Episode 5
Colum McCann's epic new novel of friendship, love, loss, and belonging.
Bassam and Rami inhabit a world of conflict that colours every aspect of their daily lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on, to the schools their daughters, Abir and Smadar, each attend, to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate. Their worlds shift irreparably after ten-year-old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet and thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of suicide bombers. When Bassam and Rami learn of each other’s stories, they recognise the loss that connects them and attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace.
In Apeirogon - named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides – Colum McCann creates an epic novel inspired by the real experiences of Palestinian Bassam Aramin and Israeli Rami Elhanan who, after each losing a child, came together to promote peace.
Writer
Colum McCann is the author of seven novels and three collections of stories. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honours, including the National Book Award, the International Dublin Impac Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish arts academy, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts. His work has been published in over 40 languages.
Music
Original music composed and performed by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, inspired by his and the authors time in the West Bank with the non-profit global exchange group Narrative 4.
Reader: Stanley Townsend
Writer: Colum McCann
Abridger: Doreen Estall
Music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire
Producer: Michael Shannon
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000fq47)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000fq49)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000fq4c)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
FRI 13:45 The Californian Century (m000fq4f)
The Good Fight
Stanley Tucci tells the story of Leon Lewis who hunted down Nazis on the streets on LA in the 30s and 40s.
With its aircraft factories and shipyards, California consumed ten per cent of the US war budget. That made it a prime target for Nazis hoping to disrupt the war effort.
Leon Lewis swung into action, infiltrating LA's Nazi groups. Meanwhile, California drew in more people and money than ever before, sowing the seeds of its post-War economic success.
Academic consultant: Dr Ian Scott, University of Manchester
Written and produced by Laurence Grissell
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000fpc3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Where This Service Will... (m000fq4h)
Where This Service Will Depart
By Katherine Jakeways
As David embarks on a new life in Chicago, Suzie plans to surprise him at the airport. The final instalment of the romantic comedy about a couple who met on a train.
Suzie has taken the plunge and planned a surprise romantic reunion at Heathrow airport with David, as he leaves the country to start a new life in the USA. But Suzie discovers that surprises don't always go to plan.
A couple of years ago, Suzie and David sat next to each other on a train journey from London to Penzance. Both married, they shared an intense and unforgettable five-and-a-half hours. Since then they’ve enjoyed escaping their middle-aged lives together. But in reality, is there any future for them?
A romantic comedy from writer Katherine Jakeways. The Radio Times described Katherine as the 'new Victoria Wood' saying "her character comedy is so acutely observed and so sharp that it's in danger of causing permanent injury." Starring Rosie Cavaliero (Prey) and Justin Edwards (The Thick of It).
Suzie .…. Rosie Cavaliero
David .…. Justin Edwards
Julia .…. Pippa Haywood
Check-in Person/Security Officer/Passenger .…. Sargon Yelda
Ticket Person/Make-up Woman/Air Steward .…. Katherine Jakeways
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000fq4k)
Worplesdon
Peter Gibbs and his panel of gardening experts are in Worplesdon, Surrey. Matthew Pottage, Pippa Greenwood and Matt Biggs answer the audience questions.
Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000fq4m)
Beatrice
An original short work for BBC Radio 4 by the author Nicole Flattery. Read by Beccy Henderson (Derry Girls, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.)
At a private club, 14 year old Beatrice attends a class for Female CEO's of the Future. She has been developing her own business since she was thirteen. However, outside the classroom, her parents are divorcing and people no longer get out of their cars.
Writer
Irish author Nicole Flattery's work has been published in the Stinging Fly, the White Review, the Dublin Review, the Irish Times, Winter Papers and the 2019 Faber anthology of New Irish Writing. She was awarded the Irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year 2019 and the 2017 White Review Short Story Prize. Her debut short story collection ‘Show Them A Good Time’ was published in 2019. It was A New Statesman, Irish Times and Guardian Book of The Year.
Writer: Nicole Flattery
Reader: Beccy Henderson
Producer: Michael Shannon
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000fq4p)
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m000fq4r)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (m000fq4t)
Harriet and Georgina - Let's act now
Friends and environmental campaigners talk about the importance and urgency of their work. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
FRI 17:00 PM (m000fq4w)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000fq50)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m000fq52)
Series 101
Episode 7
A satirical review of the week's news
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m000fq54)
Writer, Keri Davies
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Ian Craig ….. Stephen Kennedy
Shula Hebden Lloyd ….. Judy Bennett
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Kate Madikane ….. Perdita Avery
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Johnny Phillips ….. Tom Gibbons
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Robert Snell ….. Graham Blockey
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Jakob Hakansson ….. Paul Venables
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Roman Trench ….. Ewan Bailey
FRI 19:15 Front Row (m000fq56)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 The Quarry Wood, by Nan Shepherd (m000fq3w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000fq58)
Kevin Maguire, Dehenna Davison MP
Chris Mason presents political debate from the University of Sunderland with a panel including the journalist Kevin Maguire and the new conservative MP Dehenna Davison.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000fq5b)
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
FRI 21:00 The Californian Century (m000fq5d)
Omnibus 1/2. 1900 - 1945
Stanley Tucci tells the dramatic story of modern California from Hollywood to Silicon Valley.
California wants to dazzle you with its endless sunshine and visions of the future – but that’s just a mirage. Stanley Tucci plays a hard-boiled screenwriter uncovering the full, sordid truth. He knows exactly where all the bodies are buried.
His screenplays tell the stories of ten women and men who built California. It's a high risk, high reward state. A place where, if you make it, you're on top of the world. But if you don't, there's a long, long way to fall.
In this omnibus, the first man to direct a full movie in California meets an untimely end. In 1911, 41 year old Francis Boggs was on the up, a pioneering movie director. But his luck was just about to run out. Also the men who lied and lied and lied again to bring water to arid LA, and the story of the superstar revivalist preacher who was as big as Chaplin – before she disappeared without trace. Plus, the story of the first African American Oscar winner, Hattie McDaniel and the man who hunted Nazis on the streets of LA, Leon Lewis.
Stanley Tucci tells the real story of California, a story littered with dead bodies, disasters and duplicity.
Academic consultant: Dr Ian Scott, University of Manchester
Written and produced by Laurence Grissell
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000fq5g)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Apeirogon, by Colum McCann (m000fq45)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m000fp5r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000fq5j)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (m000fq5l)
Lucy and Angela - This is a role reversal
Mother and daughter talk about where they are in their lives after a family tragedy. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.