SATURDAY 16 MAY 2020

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000j2wb)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 Fall of the House of Byron (m000j2wd)
Episode 5

Susannah Harker reads from the story of how, within three generations, the illustrious family of the poet Lord Byron disintegrated into adultery, debt, elopement, coercion and murder.

In 1798 a small, bewildered boy of ten from Aberdeen – whom the world would later come to know as Lord Byron, the Romantic poet, soldier, and adventurer – first laid eyes on Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire, the Byron family seat he had just inherited. His family, he would come to learn, had in recent decades become infamous for almost unfathomable levels of scandal and impropriety, from elopement, murder, and kidnapping to adultery, coercion, and thrilling near-death experiences at sea. Just as it had shocked the society of Georgian London, the outlandish and scandalous story of the Byrons – and the myths that began to rise around it – would influence his life and poetry for posterity.

In this final episode, we learn of the scandalous life of the poet’s father, mad Jack, who dragged the family name to a new low with his womanising, gambling, drinking and cruelty.

At 22, he returned from undistinguished service in the army to embrace the life of a rakish young London bachelor. And he was promptly swept up in an affair that would alter the course of his life.

The irresistible pull of his attraction to Amelia, Lady Carmarthen, could not be stifled by the inconvenient existence of her husband, or even her three infant children. Having worked his way through Amelia’s fortune and driven her to an early death, he looked for another wealthy bride. His next unfortunate victim was the young Scottish heiress Catherine Gordon who was to become the mother of the poet Lord Byron.

Abridged and produced by Jane Greenwood
Read by Susannah Harker
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000j2wg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000j2wj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m000j2wl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000j2wn)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Father Christopher Hancock, a Catholic priest working in the Archdiocese of Cardiff


SAT 05:45 The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread? (m000j2sl)
Kombucha

Does kombucha boost your immune system? It's the wonder drink becoming popular as an alternative to alcohol, but is kombucha, which some claim can improve your gut health, really all it’s cracked up to be?

To discuss the science behind these popular health trends, presenter Greg Foot is joined by Blur bassist turned cheese maker Alex James, Dr Bridgette Wilson, a research dietitian from King’s College London and Sophie Medlin, a lecturer and researcher in nutrition and dietetics, also from King’s College London.

Together they’ll explore the evidence and decide whether these products really are the best thing since sliced bread or just marketing BS.

This episode was first broadcast in February 2019.

Presenter: Greg Foot
Prodcuer: Marijke Peters


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000j7fz)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m000j1jv)
Joyful Highlights Part 1: Friends and Family

In a joyful celebration of twenty years spent walking on air, Clare Balding digs deep into the exhilarating and exhausting archives of Ramblings to share her favourite walks. This week the theme is Friends and Family as Clare finds the moments that best illustrate how walking is a fantastic way of drawing people together.

Please scroll down to the 'Related Links' box to click through to the programmes featured:

The Nidderdale Way: Gouthwaite to Bewerley
Going Wild in the West Country
An Aussie Walkabout... in Norfolk
Hopetoun with the Monday Walkers
Reigate, Surrey (Refugees)

Producer: Karen Gregor


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m000j7g1)
Farming Today This Week

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside


SAT 06:57 Weather (m000j7g3)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m000j7g5)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m000j7g7)
Kathy Burke

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


SAT 10:30 Rewinder (m000j7g9)
Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and self-confessed 'proud radio nerd', rummages through the BBC's vast archives of audio, video, vinyl, photographs and documents, using current stories as a springboard into the past, as well as answering requests and getting hopelessly sidetracked, as his searches take him to unexpected places.

In this series, an email from a listener sends Greg hunting for the many voices of comedian Peter Cook, and he also uncovers early attempts at home schooling, and finds out why the mystic power of Glastonbury seemed to cast a spell over programme-makers years before the music festival became part of the summer TV and radio schedules - a quest which leads him to a new order of Arthurian knights founded in the 1930s, and funded by a fortune made from selling custard.

Producer Paula McGinley


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m000j7gc)
Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m000j7gf)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m000j7gh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m000j7gk)
The latest news from the world of personal finance


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m000j2vw)
Series 102

Episode 5

Angela Barnes hosts series 102, leading a panel of regular News Quiz comics and journalists in rounding up the news stories of the week. Joining Angela this week are Helen Lewis, Andy Zaltzman, Sindhu Vee and Andrew Maxwell.

Produced by Suzy Grant

A BBC Studios Audio Production


SAT 12:57 Weather (m000j7gm)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m000j7gp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m000j2w0)
Minette Batters, Harriet Harman MP, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, Helen Whately MP

Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from London Broadcasting House with the President of the NFU Minette Batters, Labour MP Harriet Harman, the Chair of the BMA Dr Chaand Nagpaul and the Care Minister Helen Whately.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m000j7gr)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 15:00 Saturday Drama (b04p53k9)
The Havana Quartet

Havana Blue

by Leonardo Padura
adapted by Jennifer Howarth

The first story in Padura's much-loved detective series set in Havana. It's New Year's Day 1989 and Lieutenant Mario Conde wakes up with another terrible hangover and a case which is close to home - his schoolboy rival, now a party grandee, is missing.

Cast:
Mario Conde ..... Zubin Varla
Rangel ..... David Westhead
Manolo ..... Lanre Malaolu
Josefina ..... Lorna Gayle
Skinny ..... Ben Crowe
Tamara ..... Adjoa Andoh
Rene Maciques ..... David Acton
Zaida ..... Hannah Genesius
Zoilita ..... Bettrys Jones
Miki ..... Jude Akuwudike
Maria Antonia ..... Elaine Claxton
China ..... Jane Slavin
Neighbour ..... Ian Conningham
Minister ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Garcia ..... Sam Dale

Directed by Mary Peate

Leonardo Padura's series, published in English as the Havana Quartet, is set over the course of 1989 - starting with Havana Blue which opens on New Year's Day.

Leonardo Padura is a novelist and journalist who was born in 1955 in Havana where he still lives. He has published a number of short-story collections and literary essays but he is best known internationally for the Havana Quartet series, all featuring Inspector Mario Conde.

In 1998, Padura won the Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers and in; 2012, he was awarded the National Prize for Literature, Cuba's national literary award.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m000j7gt)
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week


SAT 17:00 PM (m000j7gw)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m000h291)
Nick Robinson gets beneath the surface in a personal and political interview with the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford - from the satisfaction of digging on his allotment, through why he's always rejected nationalism as a right-wing creed, to the current issues in working with Boris Johnson on tackling the coronavirus pandemic across the UK.

Producer: Peter Snowdon.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000j7gy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m000j7h0)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000j7h2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m000j78c)
Grayson Perry, Rafe Spall, Janey Godley, Jacob Collier, Arthur Smith, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Grayson Perry, Rafe Spall and Janey Godley for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Jacob Collier.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m000j7h5)
Rosena Allin-Khan

The coronavirus crisis presents a difficult challenge for opposition MPs seeking to win national support without being accused of opportunistic point scoring. One shadow minister has managed to get the nation’s attention. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Shadow Minister for Mental Health, is both an MP and an A&E doctor. During lockdown she has been working shifts at her local hospital and her first-hand experience there led her to accuse the Health Secretary Matt Hancock of manipulating testing figures last week. Their exchange in the commons has been viewed over 5 million times on social media.

Producer: Anna Meisel
Researcher: Vivien Jones


SAT 19:15 The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed (p0868w77)
Kate Tempest

As someone who has been successful in many different genres, when Kate Tempest has an idea, how does she decide what it will be? In Simon Armitage's wooden writing shed in the garden, surrounded on all sides by the Pennine Hills and the Pennine weather, their conversation ranges from moving to rural France after growing up in south London, her time at the Brit School and her discovery of rapping to writing poetry. They discuss using the tongue as a weapon and the power of words, and Kate reads from Simon's reworking of the comic medieval poem The Owl and the Nightingale.

If the poets of the past sat in their garrets dipping their quills in ink and waiting for inspiration to strike, our current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has a more mundane and domestic arrangement, scratching away at a poem in the shed. Any distraction is welcome, even encouraged, to talk about poetry, music, art, sheds, sherry, owls, nightingales and to throw light on some of the poem's internal themes .


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m000j7h8)
The Empire Strikes Back

40 years ago George Lucas risked all on the creation of the first Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. Or rather Episode V in what is now the middle trilogy of the Star Wars saga. On this the fate of the Star Wars universe rested. Having your first screen writer die on you whilst the ink had barely dried on the first draft was an inauspicious start. Then came fire and ice. Elstree studios endured conflagration as Stanley Kubrick's The Shining went up in smoke. The first weeks of filming in Norway (a.k.a. Hoth) were a white out and the film went over schedule & over budget,. But in May 1980 the world was treated to a space opera classic that for many remains the defining film of the Star Wars universe.

Mark Burman returns to a snowbound Finse, Norway to hear from some of the veteran crew, draws on his own archive of key personnel from director Irvin Kershner to the hands and face behind Yoda. Stuart Freeborn. Listen to this you must.

Featuring the voices of Dave Barclay,Christian Berrum, Jim Bloom, Leigh Brackett, Stuart Freeborn,Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Nilo Rodis Jamero,, Gary Kurtz, George Lucas ,Peter MacDonald, Frank Oz, Ken Ralston, Peter Suschitzsky, Phil Tippett, Robert Watts & John Williams.

Producer: Mark Burman


SAT 21:00 Pilgrim, by Sebastian Baczkiewicz (b03k29xy)
Series 5

Woolmere Walter

By Sebastian Baczkiewicz

Episode 3: Woolmere Walter

Pilgrim is forced assist a mismatched couple in their very unusual courtship.

William Palmer ..... Paul Hilton
Norah ..... Michelle Terry
Michael ..... Ralf Little
Handley ..... Joel MacCormack
Sterne ..... Peter Hamilton Dyer
Fran ..... Priyanga Burford
Daddy ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Piano ..... Colin Guthrie

Directed by Marc Beeby


SAT 21:45 Rabbit Redux (b09h2z84)
Episode 6

John Updike's masterful Rabbit quintet established Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom as the quintessential American White middle class male. The first book Rabbit, Run was published in 1960 to critical acclaim. Rabbit Redux is the second in the series, published in 1971 and charting the end of the sixties - featuring, among other things, the first American moon landing and the Vietnam War.

Despite its very strong language, sex, and reflection of racist attitudes of the time, Time Magazine said of the book and its author, "Updike owns a rare verbal genius, a gifted intelligence and a sense of tragedy made bearable by wit. A masterpiece."

It's extraordinary how many of its themes reverberate down to the present day.

Abridged by Eileen Horne
Read by Toby Jones
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 22:00 News (m000j7hb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Grounded with Louis Theroux (m000j2sj)
2. Boy George

Louis is using the lockdown to track down some high-profile people he’s been longing to talk to – a fascinating mix of the celebrated, the controversial and the mysterious.

In this episode, he speaks to singer and musician, George O’Dowd aka Boy George, who has chosen to lockdown in London rather than Australia. They discuss growing up in the 70s, losing his virginity and a surprise appearance in the A-Team.

A Mindhouse production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (m000j1yl)
Heat 6, 2020

(6/17)
Russell Davies is in the questionmaster's chair, with questions on topics as diverse as meteorology, Hindu gods, the books of the Bible and video games. Today's heat was recorded in London before the restrictions on public events.

Taking part are:
Phil Anderson, a chemist from Buntingford in Hertfordshire
George Ferzoco, a university lecturer from Bristol
Graham Holliday, a writer from Lower Seagry in Wiltshire
Dom Tait, a media and entertainment consultant from Guildford in Surrey.

Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 Shuntaro Tanikawa: A Poet's Japan (m000j12m)
Shuntaro Tanikawa is Japan’s most widely read and acclaimed poet and has been called one of the world’s ‘active poetic volcanoes’. Now aged 88, he continues to be at the cutting edge of modern poetry in Japan, where he has remained ever since his first collection, Two Billion Light-Years of Solitude, was published in 1952.

In the book's prefatory poem, Tanikawa's mentor, Tatsuji Miyoshi, introduced him as a young man who 'has come from a distant land, unexpected … bearing the weight of being alone'. Today, he compares his age to tree rings: ‘No matter how old I grow, the younger me still exists in the centre ring.'

Over the years he has shifted his focus from the cosmos and the nature of being, to the pathos of everyday life, to his subconscious desire for silence. And his poetic voice remains as exhilarating as ever.

Tanikawa invites us into his world, and talks about his life and work in the company of his friend and translator since 1967, William Elliott, an American poet who has lived in Japan for more than 40 years, and his more recent translators Nishihara Katsumasa and Takako Lento.

Along the way, we peer into the soul of modern Japan and reflect on nearly 90 years of its history.

Readings from Shuntaro Tanikawa: New Selected Poems, published by Carcanet Press; The Art of Being Alone, published by Cornell East Asia Series. Featuring music by Kensaku Tanikawa, Toru Takemitsu and Ryuichi Sakamoto, with lyrics by Shuntaro Tanikawa.

Producer: Eve Streeter
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4



SUNDAY 17 MAY 2020

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000j7hd)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 The Way I See It (m0009bf5)
Neri Oxman and the Endless House

Art critic Alastair Sooke, in the company of some of the leading creatives of our age, continues his deep dive into the stunning works in the Museum of Modern Art's collection, whilst exploring what it really means “to see” art.

Today's edition features Professor Neri Oxman from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She's a world expert in combining art and architecture with biology, computing, and materials engineering. Little wonder, perhaps, she chooses Frederick Kiesler’s design for a project called Endless House - an organic structure that was never built.

Producer: Paul Kobrak

"The Way I See It" is a co-production of the BBC and the Museum of Modern Art, New York

Main Image: Frederick Kiesler, Endless House Project, 1950–1960. Ceramic, 20 x 11 1/2 x 6" (50.8 x 29.2 x 15.2 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York, MC 25


SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000j2vk)
You, by Caleb Klaces

"I’m about to read you a list of five words. Please listen carefully. In a few minutes I’ll ask you which you remember." A son speaks to his father across the airwaves, and across the years, in this original short story for radio.

Caleb Klaces is the author of two poetry collections, and the novel Fatherhood (2019).

Produced by Mair Bosworth


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000j7hg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000j7hj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m000j7hl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000j7hn)
The church of St George, Brailes, in Warwickshire

Currently there is no ringing taking place across UK towers, a situation not encountered since the Second World War. This week’s recording comes from the church of St George, Brailes, in Warwickshire. The tower holds the third heaviest peal of six bells. The tenor cast in 1877 by Blews of Birmingham weighs twenty nine hundredweight and is tuned to the key of C. The second is the oldest bell in the tower, cast by William Chamberlain of London in 1440. We hear them ringing call changes.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m000j7h5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News (m000j7pf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b090vd0r)
Hallowed Be Thy Name

Musician Jahnavi Harrison explores why chanting the name of God can be such a powerful devotional practice.

Drawing on her own Hindu tradition, she recalls hearing her parents chanting and how important it became to her from an early age. "The name of God," she explains, "is said to be the panacea for whatever ails the mind, body and soul. It was the ever present soundtrack to my life - night, day, birthdays, funerals, weddings and road trips."

Her experience at a Christian school also showed her that other religious traditions say and sing the God's name. She notes that she was "thrilled to discover this common thread, and the myriad ways that this praise was expressed."

Using the words of the Psalms, the Sufi poets and a number of Hindu saints and mystics, Jahnavi celebrates the power of chanting in different ways and locations and, alongside the music of Vivaldi and Rachmaninov, she relishes in the most famous of all Hindu songs, My Sweet Lord by George Harrison, who is quoted in the programme:

"My idea was to sneak up on them a bit. The point was to have the people not offended by 'Hallelujah' and, by the time it gets to 'Hare Krishna', they're already hooked."

Presenter: Jahnavi Harrison
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m000j7pj)
Looking Forward

Verity Sharp hears how young farmers are juggling one of the busiest times in the farming calendar with a global pandemic, and how they are looking to the future with hope.

Living in the mountains of Snowdonia with no mobile signal, Teleri Fielden can usually visit her neighbour’s farm to borrow the tractor or ask for help with lambing, but this year she and sheepdog Roy have had to manage it totally alone.

From their sheep shed in Shetland, Kirsty and Aimee Budge explain how they are juggling the busy arrival of lambs and calves with ensuring their island community pulls together. And at Plas Poultry in Brecon, Tom Parry tells us how lockdown has prompted a huge rise in people looking to rear their own chickens, and how he has been personally affected by the pandemic.

Produced by Caitlin Hobbs.


SUN 06:57 Weather (m000j7pl)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000j7pn)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000j7pq)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000j7ps)
Project Harar

Will Skidelsky, whose son was born with a cleft lip and palate makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Project Harar.

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 ‘Project Harar’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Project Harar’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4

Registered Charity Number: 1094272


SUN 07:57 Weather (m000j7pv)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000j7px)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000j7pz)
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Discovering the gifts of the Holy Spirit with the Rev Dr Alison Jack of New College, Edinburgh, and Fr Dermot Preston SJ of St Aloysius' RC Church, Glasgow


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000j2w2)
My Mother

"She'd been waiting for the catastrophe to end catastrophes all her life and now it was here she seemed not to give a fig about it".
Howard Jacobson reflects on his mother's life - and death.

Producer: Adele Armstrong


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dwy14)
Black-Headed Gull

Martin Hughes-Games presents the Black-Headed Gull.
Black-Headed Gulls are our commonest small gull and throughout the year you can identify them by their rather delicate flight action, red legs and the white flash on the front edge of their wings.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000j7q1)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000j7q3)
There’s No Place Like Home

Three weeks of themed programmes from the last two decades reliving key moments from the characters’ lives and the events that make Ambridge unforgettable. This episode forms part of the second week when we take a look at five different events that affect the characters relationship to their homes and the land, in ‘There’s No Place Like Home’.

The omnibus features:
Lockdown at Brookfield originally broadcast on 21st March 2001.
Brian’s Confession to Jennifer about his affair originally broadcast on 15th December 2002.
The Grundys' Eviction from Grange Farm originally broadcast on 26th April 2000.
Floods Hit Ambridge originally broadcast on 3rd March 2015.
Helen Wins Custody of Her Boys originally broadcast on 16th September 2016.

Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore
Tony Archer ..... Colin Skipp, David Troughton
Tom Archer ..... William Troughton
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Debbie Aldridge ..... Tamsin Greig
Christine Barford ..... Lesley Saweard
Harrison Burns ..... James Cartwright
Alan Franks ..... John Telfer
Bert Fry ..... Eric Allan
Eddie Grundy ..... Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy ..... Rosalind Adams, Heather Bell
William Grundy ..... Philip Molloy
Joe Grundy ..... Edward Kelsey
Siobhan Hathaway ..... Caroline Lennon
Shula Hebden Lloyd ..... Judy Bennett
Alistair Lloyd ..... Michael Lumsden
Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Robert Snell ..... Graham Blockey
Helen Titchener ..... Louiza Patikas
Ursula Titchener ..... Carolyn Jones
Rob Titchener ..... Timothy Watson
Carol Tregorran ..... Eleanor Bron
Judge Loomis ..... Nigel Anthony

Writers, Simon Frith, Mary Cutler, Joanna Toye,Tim Stimpson and Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
Directors, Vanessa Whitburn, Sean O’Connor and Julie Beckett.
Editors, Vanessa Whitburn and Sean O'Connor.


SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000j7q5)
Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.


SUN 11:45 Encounters with Victoria (m0004sg1)
5: American Idols

Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator, Historic Royal Palaces explores Queen Victoria's reign through significant encounters.

5: American Idols - 1844 & 1887.

Victoria was a global celebrity, adept at exploiting her image. And she learned a few tricks from some of the extraordinarily popular entertainers who proved that her Majesty was often very amused indeed. In 1844, the diminutive American performer whose stage name was Tom Thumb made a side-splitting appearance at Buckingham Palace. In a parody of court etiquette, he said 'much obliged Mama' when he shook the Queen's hand, and fought her dog with a sword. Like Victoria herself, Tom Thumb’s manager, showman P.T. Barnum, knew the power of brand management. Having Tom Thumb to the palace made the queen look human, while Barnum got a lucrative Royal endorsement. By 1887, the biggest show in town was again American: Buffalo Bill's Wild West: a whooping, tootin', gun-firing maelstrom of action, and Victoria commanded a private performance. It was thrilling and dangerous, but also a celebration of the guns which would allow Western Europe to ‘conquer’ the unknown. Tom Thumb and Buffalo Bill gave the queen who’d become an empress both entertainment – and education.

With historian Helen Davies, V&A curator & writer Nicholas Rankin
Readers: Sarah Ovens, Kenny Blyth
Producer: Mark Burman


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000j7q7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m000hvbk)
Another half-hour of quality desk-based entertainment for all the family comes to you once more from the London Palladium, where Jeremy Hardy joins show regulars Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and reluctant chairman, Humphrey Lyttelton. At the piano - Colin Sell.

Producer - Jon Naismith


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000j79j)
Joe Wicks: A Life Through Food, through lockdown

When Joe Wicks, the personal trainer, started making Instagram videos in his kitchen in 2014, he couldn't have imagined he'd become author of the second biggest selling UK cookbook of all time. He built a social media brand with millions of followers, nay disciples, on Instagram and YouTube who came for the quick healthy recipes and online fitness workouts.

And then, just as he was about to embark on a tour of UK primary schools, the Coronavirus pandemic swept the world and the UK. We were told to stay at home. Schools closed. Overnight, Joe came up with an idea. What if he could keep P.E lessons running from people's front rooms?

In this programme Sheila catches up with 'The Body Coach' to hear how the huge spotlight on him during lockdown has affected him and his family. And there's a chance to listen again to what happened when Sheila and Joe cooked together in 2019.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.
Produced by Clare Salisbury.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m000j7qb)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000j7qd)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000j7qg)
Capturing the nation in conversation to build a unique picture of our lives today and preserve it for future generations.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000j2vh)
GQT At Home: Episode Seven

Kathy Clugston is joined by Bob Flowerdew, Matthew Pottage and Christine Walkden to answer questions sent in via email and social media.

This week, the panellists tackle questions from gardening enthusiasts on whether you can cut the top off a cactus, planting runner-beans upside-down and options for low-growing plants.

Matt Biggs also advises on the best way to keep your lawn looking tip-top, and Bunny Guinness has this week's Gardening Glossary

Producer: Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer: Jemima Rathbone

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 The Way I See It (m0009d6q)
Steven Pinker and Picasso

Art critic Alastair Sooke, in the company of some of the leading creatives of our age, continues his deep dive into the stunning works in the Museum of Modern Art's collection, whilst exploring what it really means “to see” art.

Today's edition features Harvard professor Steven Pinker. As an experimental psychologist, Steven has written extensively about violence - and for his choice from the gallery's collection he has selected two of Pablo Picasso’s most gruesome depictions of man's inhumanity, Charnel House and Guernica, now housed in Madrid.

Producer: Tom Alban

"The Way I See It" is a co-production of the BBC and the Museum of Modern Art, New York

Main Image: Pablo Picasso, The Charnel House, 1944-45. Oil and charcoal on canvas, 6' 6 5/8" x 8' 2 1/2" (199.8 x 250.1 cm). Mrs. Sam A. Lewisohn Bequest (by exchange), and Mrs. Marya Bernard Fund in memory of her husband Dr. Bernard Bernard, and anonymous funds, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 93.1971. © 2019 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


SUN 15:00 Electric Decade (m000j7qj)
Leave it to Psmith

1. Poets at Blandings

Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres direct a star cast in this sparkling PG Wodehouse comedy.

It's the 1920s and Edward Bennett is Psmith (the P is silent!). He’s as broke as the Ten Commandments and advertises himself to ‘go anywhere, do anything. Crime not objected to!’

Down at idyllic Blandings Castle, affably vague Lord Emsworth (Martin Jarvis) prepares to travel to London to collect a famous poet who’s been invited to Blandings by Emsworth’s fearsome sister Constance (Patricia Hodge).

Emsworth’s son Freddie (George Blagden) sees Psmith’s advert. He needs someone to steal his aunt’s necklace! In town, the Earl mistakes Psmith for the poet. Psmith spots lovely Eve Halliday (Susannah Fielding). He falls in love on sight. Freddie hires Psmith to do the stealing.

Love and crime, hand-in-hand. A thrilling farce ensues.

Cast:
Psmith ..… Edward Bennett
Eve ..… Susannah Fielding
Constance ..… Patricia Hodge
Freddie ..… George Blagden
Joe Keeble ..… Nigel Anthony
Lord Emsworth ..… Martin Jarvis
Miss Peavey ..… Lisa Dillon
Jackson ..… Ifan Meredith
Miss Clarkson ..… Lucy Phelps
McTodd ..… Kieran Hodgson
Baxter ..… Joe Bannister
Beach ..… Lloyd Owen
Other parts: Matthew Wolf, Darren Richardson, Daisy Hydon

Dramatised by Archie Scottney
Directed by Rosalind Ayres and Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000j7qm)
Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books, talking to authors and publishers and unearthing lost classics


SUN 16:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (m000j7qp)
Series 6

Helen of Troy

Natalie Haynes tells stories of the most beautiful woman in the world, who hatched from an egg and was the daughter of Zeus: Helen of Troy. Men fought over her from an early age, but was she really to blame for all those wars on epic scale?

Helen's face may have launched a thousand ships but it didn't make her happy: being kidnapped repeatedly does not make for contented relationships. How have her life and beauty been exploited by writers and artists across the centuries, to justify their own world-views?

In this locked down, more intimate version of her show, Natalie offers escape to a different realm: the mythological. As fresh and funny as ever, Natalie brings us new insights into feathery sex as well as gossipy erudition from a couple of thousand years of culture, with the help of Professor Edith Hall.


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000j22z)
Coronavirus: Stories from behind the mask

They’re the intensive care staff we see on the TV news. In their protective equipment, we can’t see their expressions – even their own colleagues find it hard to recognise them behind their masks. We can’t read their faces, but we can hear their thoughts - as they record a series of diaries as the weeks in the grip of the virus go by.
In these recordings for File on 4, doctors and nurses take off their masks and reveal their private emotions and professional fears. They talk from the heart, sharing how they feel about their patients and the emotional toll on them and their families. For the diarists, it’s a rare moment to stop and reflect, to mourn the losses and hold on to the glimmers of hope.

Reporter: Jane Deith
Producer: Paul Grant
Editor: Carl Johnston


SUN 17:40 Profile (m000j7h5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000j7qs)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m000j7qv)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000j7qx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000j7qz)
Anna Foster

The best of BBC Radio this week.


SUN 19:00 The Archers Revisited (m000j796)
New Year’s Eve: The Lower Loxley Ball

Three weeks of themed programmes from the last two decades reliving key moments from the characters’ lives and the events that make Ambridge unforgettable. This episode forms part of the third week when we take a look at five different occasions that mark unmissable dates in The Ambridge Calendar.
Our first invitation is to the New Year’s Eve Ball at Lower Loxley.

It’s the last night of 2001 and as the New Year is ushered in Peggy and Jack are celebrating their eleventh wedding anniversary. But with Siobhan Hathaway dancing the night away with Brian, maybe Jennifer should be wondering about the future of her own marriage. And over at the Bull Ed can only stand and watch as Will and Emma greet 2002 with a kiss.

This programme was originally broadcast on Monday 31st December 2001


SUN 19:15 Cabin Pressure (b00cb5k4)
Series 1

Abu Dhabi

Stephanie Cole, Benedict Cumberbatch and Roger Allam star in the sitcom about the pilots of a tiny charter airline for whom no job is too small, but many, many jobs are too difficult. Written by John Finnemore, writer for The News Quiz, The Now Show, and That Mitchell & Webb Sound.

In this week’s episode, the town of Bristol, a cat and a thermostat combine to present Martin with a career-breaking crisis.

Cast:
Carolyn Knapp-Shappey .............................. Stephanie Cole
1st Officer Douglas Richardson ...................... Roger Allam
Capt. Martin Crieff........................... Benedict Cumberbatch
Arthur Shappey.............................................. John Finnemore
ATC Fitton........................................................ Ewen MacIntosh

Written by John Finnemore

Produced and directed by David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread? (m000j2sl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 on Saturday]


SUN 20:00 More or Less (m000j2r7)
Vitamin D, explaining R and the 2 metre rule

R is one of the most important numbers of the pandemic. So what is it? And how is it estimated? We return to the topic of testing and ask again whether the governments numbers add up. As the government encourages those who can’t work at home to return to their workplaces, we’re relying on social distancing to continue to slow the spread of the virus. But where does the rule that people should stay 2 metres apart come from? And is Vitamin D an under-appreciated weapon in the fight against Covid-19?


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000j2vm)
Little Richard, Dr Janet Carr OBE, Professor John Horton Conway, Florian Schneider

Matthew Bannister on

The rock 'n' roll pioneer Little Richard, whose flamboyant performances and powerful vocal style influenced many who came after him.

Janet Carr, the psychologist whose long-running study changed attitudes to people with Down’s Syndrome.

John Horton Conway, the playful mathematician who invented the Game of Life.

Florian Schneider, the co-founder of the mould-breaking German electronic band Kraftwerk.

Interviewed guest: Geoff Barker
Interviewed guest: Sally Carr
Interviewed guest: Penny Warren
Interviewed guest: Sir Roger Penrose OM FRS
Interviewed guest: Colm Mulcahy
Interviewed guest: Adam Sweeting

Producer: Neil George

Archive clips from: Little Richard In His Own Words, 6 Music 11/05/2020; Little Richard - A Whop Bop A Lua A Whop Bam Boom, Radio 2 05/12/2012; John Horton Conway: Life, Death and the Monster, Numberphile 09/05/2014; Florian Schneider Interview, Silverstar Club 1998; Florian Schneider, Parley x COP21: Oceans, Climate, Life 08/12/2015.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000j7gk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000j7ps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (m000j1kf)
Adapt to Survive

2020 hasn't been good for British business - certainly not since Covid-19 showed up. The global pandemic and the lockdown imposed to try to fight it have affected individual livelihoods and those of many companies. John Murphy talks to some business owners from different sectors of the economy - a family-run pub, a fruit farm, a fabric and haberdashery shop and a multinational - to see what changes they've experienced and how they have had to adapt during the crisis. They explain what they think the future will hold and, indeed, whether they will survive.

Presenter: John Murphy

Producer: Lizzy McNeill

photo by: Victoria Connolly, MacCulloch and Wallis Ltd


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000j7r2)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000j1jx)
Terence Stamp

With Antonia Quirke.

For this week's film club, Antonia recommends Terence Stamp's movies from the 1960s and hears from the man himself about celebrity, meeting his idols and why he left the film industry at the end of the decade.

Adrian Smith from The Cult Film Club in Eastbourne tells us what happened when the club went online and ended up with 600 people taking part in the same film quiz


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b090vd0r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 18 MAY 2020

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000j7r4)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 The Spark (m000gsm8)
Margaret Heffernan and Preparedness

Helen Lewis meets the writers and thinkers who are breaking new ground.
From politics to economics, from tech to the study of how we live, things are changing fast. Old certainties have not been under such challenge for decades.
So each week, we give the whole programme over to a single in-depth, close-up interview with someone whose big idea is bidding to change our world.
Helen’s challenge is to make sense of their new idea, to find out more about the person behind it – and to test what it has to offer us against the failures of the past.
This week, Helen talks to entrepreneur, CEO, and writer Margaret Heffernan about just how often the prediction business gets it wrong. Governments, business and individuals are attracted to certainty, yet the reality is that we face an uncharted future. Planning for an outcome we expect – whether it’s a family holiday or ‘just in time’ food supply chains – can lead to disappointment or even disaster, as events so often take an unexpected course.
Instead, Heffernan argues, the best course of action is not to plan, but to be prepared: to build resilience for a range of possible outcomes. Helen Lewis asks how this works in practice, and how individuals, organisations and policy-makers can prepare for a future that is – try as we might – impossible to predict.
Producer: Eliane Glaser


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000j7hn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000j7r6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000j7r8)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m000j7rb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000j7rd)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Father Christopher Hancock, a Catholic priest working in the Archdiocese of Cardiff


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000j7rg)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


MON 05:56 Weather (m000j7rj)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dwxfp)
Siskin

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

Martin Hughes-Games presents the Siskin. Siskins are visiting our gardens as never before. These birds now breed across the UK and cash in on our love of bird-feeding. They are now regular visitors to seed dispensers of all kinds.


MON 06:00 Today (m000j77y)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000j780)
Richard Ford, writing from the edges

The prize winning writer Richard Ford talks to Andrew Marr about his latest collection of short stories, Sorry for Your Trouble. Irish America is Ford’s landscape, and his characters contemplate ageing, grief, love and marriage: ‘great moments in small lives’. Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi and has spent many years living in New Orleans – his characters, like himself, live far from the political centre of America.

Professor of 19th Century Literature and Thought, Ruth Livesey, is also interested in life away from the centre in her study of provincialism in Britain. Condescension towards small town life can be traced back to the Victorian period. But the writer George Eliot, who spent her early life in Nuneaton in the Midlands, argued that ‘‘art had a responsibility to show a provincial life could be just as full of insight and moral courage as one on the great world stage.’

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:30 Homeschool History (m000j782)
Pocahontas

Join Greg Jenner for a homeschool history lesson on Pocahontas, a Native American woman and daughter of prominent leader Wahunsenacawh, who was captured by British colonists in the 17th century and brought to England.

You’ve seen Disney’s Pocahontas, but how much of it is true? Tune in and find out.

Presented by Greg Jenner
Produced by Ben Green
Script by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch and Emma Nagouse
Historical consultant: Dr Misha Ewen
Native American Pamunkey advisor: Ethan Brown of the Pamunkey tribe.

A Muddy Knees Media production for BBC Radio 4


MON 09:45 The See-Through House (m000j784)
An Architectural Jewel

Shelley Klein's book is about her much loved family home, a modernist house commissioned in the 1950s by her father, the acclaimed textile designer Bernat Klein. Barbara Flynn reads.

High Sunderland is where Shelley Klein grew up. The house lies in the Scottish Borders and is set amongst a thick forest of trees, it comprises a series of boxes and grids which are interconnected with colourful glass panels. Shelley's father Bernat Klein was a textile designer who made a major contribution to 1960s and 70s style, with the major fashion houses, such as Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, using his fabrics. Over time, Shelley's father and the house he commissioned from the architect Peter Womersley became inseparable. In her book, Shelley Klein recalls the excitement of a childhood where fashion shows were regularly held in her home and, later, her teenage rebellion against her father and his design principles. Having left High Sunderland in her twenties, she reflects on her return home, to look after her father in his final years and to consider the influences behind his creative output, and her relationship with him.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000j787)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


MON 10:45 Doorstep Daughter (b0bkqtmw)
The Handover

Two families from very different backgrounds, one street and a baby on a doorstep. This series charts the story of how a young Christian couple came to entrust the care of their little daughter to a Muslim family that lived nearby in 1990s Watford. They were strangers but the couple - Peris Mbuthia and Martin Gitonga - needed help, as immigrants from Kenya working in low paid jobs with a child to support and no family to step in. They were struggling and their relationship was under strain. Early one morning, Martin left his flat with six month old Sandra zipped inside his jacket and handed her over to the Zafars across the road while he went to work at a warehouse. This arrival at the door was an event that changed the course of all their lives - that day the baby girl became the Zafars' Doorstep Daughter. And a special, enduring bond developed between Sandra and the Zafar’s daughter Saiqa. It is a story of faith, trust and love - a modern day telling of how it takes a village to raise a child.

In this first episode, Peris and Martin meet as they begin their new lives in London and Saiqa is on a gap year, deciding what will be in store for her. Then along comes a baby.

Producer: Sally Chesworth
Sound: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Gail Champion
Exec Editor: Richard Knight


MON 11:00 The Spark (m000j789)
Stuart Russell and Controlling AI

Helen Lewis meets the writers and thinkers who are breaking new ground.

From politics to economics, from tech to the study of how we live, things are changing fast. Old certainties have not been under such challenge for decades.

So each week, we give the whole programme over to a single in-depth, close-up interview with someone whose big idea is bidding to change our world.
Helen’s challenge is to make sense of their new idea, to find out more about the person behind it – and to test what it has to offer us against the failures of the past.

In this episode, Helen talks to Stuart Russell, a pioneer of artificial intelligence, about how he has become increasingly worried that AI design is founded on flawed principles. And how, if we don’t rethink its fundamentals, the arrival of ‘Artificial General Intelligence’ could put humanity at terrible risk.

He explains how AI design creates in its products a single-minded drive to fulfil the objective we give it – but how, as the story of King Midas shows, that can go terribly wrong.

And Russell sets out three new principles which, if incorporated into AI from the very start of the design process, could ensure that humans stay in control. Otherwise, he says, we face losing all agency over our future, with potentially terrible consequences.

Producer: Phil Tinline


MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000j78c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


MON 12:00 News Summary (m000j78f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000j78h)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 12:06 First Love, by Ivan Turgenev (m000jj6r)
Episode 1

Ivan Turgenev’s masterpiece tells the story of a young man who, over the course of one enchanted summer, falls hopelessly in love with his beautiful neighbour, only to find himself desperately entangled in illicit passion and betrayal.
Read by Alex Waldmann
Abridged and produced by Robin Brooks


MON 12:20 You and Yours (m000j78p)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


MON 12:57 Weather (m000j78t)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m000j78y)
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 New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j792)
Variety of objects, herbs, trees

In 1621, Robert Burton published The Anatomy of Melancholy. It was the first attempt in the modern western world to understand and categorise causes, symptoms and treatments of that universal human experience.

In this episode, writer Amy Liptrot unpicks Burton’s references to plants and herbs with their potential to ‘cure’ melancholy. He lists copious varieties for their medicinal properties and therapeutic value: ‘The best medicine, that e’re God made / For this malady, if well assay’d.’

Burton also recognises the importance of physical exercise that gardening or tending to the land brings: ‘Others enjoin those wholesome businesses, as to dig so long in his garden, to hold the plough, and the like.’

Amy visits Emma Mitchell who has written and illustrated The Wild Remedy. Trained as a scientist, Emma is investigating the reasons behind why her daily walks have become an essential part of staving off depression. Are there any links with Burton’s enthusiasm for herbs as a remedy for melancholy?

Monty Don, gardener and broadcaster, talks from the heart of his jewel garden about his own struggles with depression and how gardening has been a lifeline.

As Burton drew on the writing of others and made a patchwork of texts within his Anatomy of Melancholy, each episode ends with a modern-day contribution for a new and updated Anatomy of Melancholy.

In this episode, Emma Mitchell offers an extract from Four Hedges – A Gardener’s Chronicle (1935) by Clare Leighton.

Simon Russell Beale brings the voice of Robert Burton to life with extracts from The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Presenter: Amy Liptrot
Reader: Simon Russell Beale
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Series consultant: John Geddes

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:00 The Archers Revisited (m000j796)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b0b01jsw)
Mythos

Glamis

Mary Lairre (Nicola Walker), the ghost of a sixteenth century French nun murdered at Borley Rectory and rendered corporeal by the mysterious Department, is joined by Parker (Phoebe Fox), a character whose magical abilities rely upon her transforming her entire personality as circumstances require.

In the first of two new Mythos stories, Lairre and Parker accompany their boss Johnson (Tim McInnerny) to Glamis Castle in Scotland, where a secret door has been discovered. The door leads into a folkloric dimension, where monster hunter Libby Ward (Jana Carpenter) is tracking a dangerous monster and has kidnapped an innocent American tourist to use as bait. Time bends, dimensions fragment and our heroes realise that the monster Ward is hunting may be a lot closer to home than they thought.

Mythos is a series that looks at British folklore through a quasi-scientific prism. It's laced with sardonic humour, ridiculous situations and insane leaps of logic - but its foundations lie in the stories that have become part of the British cultural DNA over the last two thousand years.

Writer Julian Simpson won the Tinniswood Award for his Radio 4 play Fugue State.

Writer and Director: Julian Simpson
Sound Designer: David Thomas
Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 15:00 My Generation (m000j79b)
Programme 1, 2020

Stuart Maconie's My Generation quiz focuses on the events and culture of different decades within living memory. Three contestants of varying ages each answer questions on their own particular chosen decade - which could be the one they grew up in, or one they know plenty about for some other reason. They then also have to answer questions on a randomly chosen decade, perhaps further from their comfort zone. Stuart hopes to find out just how much the generations know about one another's heroes, heroines and heritage.

There'll be plenty of news clips, TV themes, extracts from pop songs and familiar voices from different decades. The questions cover popular culture, sport, politics and world events, technological innovations and social history. Whatever your age, you may find yourself surprised at some of the things you know that the contestants don't.

You can apply to take part yourself by emailing mygeneration@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000j79j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 Tales from the Stave (m00094kz)
Max Bruch's Violin Concerto

Clemency Burton Hill is the new presenter of Tales from the Stave which begins its latest run in The Morgan Library in New York City. A violinist herself, Clemency explores one of the library's most valuable manuscripts, the Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 by Max Bruch. With her is the internationally acclaimed Violinist Joshua Bell and the music scholar Michael Beckerman of New York University, along with the Morgan's head of Music Manuscripts Fran Barulich.

The Bruch is often coupled with the Mendelssohn concerto as the two stalwarts of the 19th century Violin repertoire.
As well as telling the story of Bruch's working relationship with the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim and the detailed striving towards perfection of a composer still uncertain of his powers, Clemency also discovers the sorry tale of Bruch's attempts, later in his life, to sell the manuscript with the help of two American sisters who effectively defrauded him.
Joshua Bell has been playing the piece since he was eleven years old and he's fascinated to see evidence of Bruch's corrections and additions in this late stage of the pieces development. There are several examples of the composer taking advice from Joachim while seeking to perfect his first solo work for the Violin. By contrast, the glorious second movement Adagio appears almost pristine, suggesting that this was the essence of Bruch who was later to be frustrated by the astonishing success of his first Concerto and the limited impact of the rest of his output.

Producer: Tom Alban


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m000j79n)
Series exploring the place and nature of faith in today's world


MON 17:00 PM (m000j79s)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000j79x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b03j9m1h)
Series 60

Episode 3

The nation's favourite wireless entertainment pays a visit to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by special guest Victoria Wood, with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell provides piano accompaniment.

This programme was originally broadcast in November 2013.

Producer - Jon Naismith.


MON 19:00 The Archers Revisited (m000j7b2)
The Flower and Produce Show

Three weeks of themed programmes from the last two decades reliving key moments from the characters’ lives and the events that make Ambridge unforgettable. This episode forms part of the third week when we take a look at five different occasions that mark unmissable dates in The Ambridge Calendar.

The Flower and Produce Show has always been one of the most competitive dates in The Ambridge year. Jill‘s not happy with her Victoria Sponge but everyone’s surprised by the winner of the cake entries. Could there be foul play afoot? And in the photography category, Lynda has high hopes for her shots of village life. Jennifer has other things to worry about when Alice calls from Bestival.

It’s not the first time ‘cheating’ has occurred at the Flower and Produce Show. Way back in 1977 Doris Archer’s prize winning lemon curd came under suspicion, and there’s a long tradition of people being eliminated for not really understanding the rules – more recently Jim Lloyd was disqualified for using the wrong kind of twine to tie his onions together but that may have been a rule Joe Grundy made up in order to prevent Jim from winning!

This programme was originally broadcast on Sunday 7th September 2008


MON 19:15 Front Row (m000j7b4)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


MON 19:45 Doorstep Daughter (b0bkqtmw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 The Migrant Medics (m000j7b6)
On the 25th March 2020, transplant consultant Adil El Tayar became the first working hospital doctor to die of Covid-19 in the UK. Born in the Sudan, he graduated from the University of Khartoum and moved to the UK in the '90s, where he then studied at the University of West London, before becoming a consultant at St. George’s Hospital. He was a cousin of BBC journalist Zeinab Badawi for whom Adil’s story – alongside the deaths of other NHS staff – raises wider questions. A huge number of doctors, nurses and others have come to Britain after training in the developing world. Naturally, they want to improve their standards of living and work in more sophisticated medical systems. But is it fair for the rich world to benefit by effectively cherry-picking the brightest and best from poorer countries? Is this effectively a form of neo-colonial exploitation? Or can the expertise of those medical staff who migrate to wealthier countries benefit their home nations? Dr El-Tayar, for example, helped at a major transplant programme in his native Sudan. Some argue that this brain cycle – rather than a brain drain – along with remittances, is actually of benefit to the developing world. Zeinab Badawi unpicks this tricky and intensely personal conundrum.


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m000j1j5)
Bulgaria's Children and the Norwegian Bogeyman

Thousands of Bulgarian parents pulled their children out of school in a mass panic last October, fearing they would be abducted by social workers. Many more are protesting against a draft law they say puts 70 per cent of children at similar risk. Are they right to be scared? Or have rumours and fake news spread hysteria about the power of the state? Suddenly, campaigns to defend the “traditional family” are gathering strength in Bulgaria – and across eastern Europe. What’s behind them? And why do they treat one Western country – Norway – as the ultimate source of evil? Tim Whewell investigates.


MON 21:00 The Pebble In Your Pocket (m000j21w)
Why do people love pebbles? What is it about their appearance, texture, sounds, history and folklore that inspires us? BBC Radio 4 invites you on a lyrical pebble pilgrimage, shaped by the sounds of scrunching shingle and wild waves.

‘The beautifully shaped stone, washed up by the sea, is a symbol of continuity, a silent image of our desire for survival, peace and security.’ (Barbara Hepworth)

We hear how pebbles have influenced some of our greatest artists, possessing secrets of deep time, and woven into our history and our very being. What do pebbles tell us about the world, and about ourselves?

Across the British Isles, we meet a writer, a geologist, an archivist, a clothes designer, and a team of pebble dashers – people who work with and are captivated by pebbles. In Cambridge, we visit Kettle’s Yard gallery – created by the late art collector Jim Ede and known as the Louvre of the Pebble.

The programme includes pebble-inspired poetry and music, and soundscapes of pebbles recorded in a range of locations, from NE Scotland to SW England.

POETRY:
Stone Speech by Charles Tomlinson
Dover Beach (extract) by Matthew Arnold

MUSIC:
The Sea – Morcheeba
Pebble Dash – Gang Colours
Sunday Morning, from Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes (Opus 33a), composed by Benjamin Britten.
Pebble Shore – Baltic Fleet
Gotta Pebble In My Shoe – Ella Fitzgerald
The Pebble and the Boulder – MJ Hibbett
Su-a Song – Jenna Reid

Extract from Barbara Hepworth, BBC TV, September 1961 – by kind permission of Sophie Bowness: ‘Barbara Hepworth © Bowness'

Producer: Steve Urquhart
Executive Producer: Emma Walker
A Rosa production for BBC Radio 4


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000j780)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000j7b8)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 Amongst Women, by John McGahern (m000j78k)
Episode 1

Michael Moran’s life was forever transformed by his days of glory in the War of Independence. Now, a farmer in the Irish countryside, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past. However, as he grows older, his wife and daughters must confront how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by this complicated and contradictory man.

2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Amongst Women’, widely considered to be the author’s masterpiece. This intimate story of a family living on the Irish border, under the thumb of a former soldier turned tyrant in his own home, has never been more relevant.

The Author
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a Primary School teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. In the opinion of the Observer, John McGahern was 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Produced by Celia de Wolff for BBC Northern Ireland.

Writer ….. John McGahern
Abridger ..... John McGahern
Reader ….. Lloyd Hutchinson
Producer ….. Celia de Wolff


MON 23:00 Forest 404 (p074lxm0)
Ep4: Of Earthly Delights

Daria and The Hands close in on Pan as they race towards the oil lake.

An environmental thriller starring Pearl Mackie, Tanya Moodie & Pippa Haywood. With theme music by Bonobo. Written by Timothy X Atack and directed by Becky Ripley.

Each episode comes with its own talk and soundscape. And you can take part in our interactive experiment to see how you respond to sounds of nature at: bbc.co.uk/forest

#Forest404


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000j7bc)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



TUESDAY 19 MAY 2020

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000j7bf)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 The See-Through House (m000j784)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000j7bh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000j7bk)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m000j7bm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000j7bp)
A reading and a reflection to start the day on Radio 4


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000j7br)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx96d)
Goshawk

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

Martin Hughes Games presents the Goshawk. A favourite bird of Martin Hughes-Games, who is presenting November's 'Tweet of the Day', the goshawk is a powerful deep-chested relative of the sparrowhawk: its name derives from "goose-hawk", though in practice goshawks rarely catch geese - they prefer woodpigeons, rabbits and squirrels. A female goshawk is a hefty bird, as big as a buzzard and much bulkier than her smaller mate.


TUE 06:00 Today (m000j7zs)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m000j7zx)
Frank Kelly on air pollution

Tackling air pollution. Jim Al Khalili talks to Prof Frank Kelly


TUE 09:30 One to One (m000j21m)
Personality: Katya Adler talks to Professor Wiebke Bleidorn

Since she was a university student, Katya Adler has been fascinated by the idea of personality - how personalities are formed, how they can change, and whether we even really have a fixed set of characteristics.
For the third and final part of this One to One series about personality, Katya speaks to Wiebke Bleidorn, professor of social and personality psychology and head of the Personality Change Lab at the University of California, Davis.
Wiebke talks to Katya about how the field of personality psychology has evolved, discusses her research into how stable personality traits are and reveals whether it is possible to change someone's personality.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair


TUE 09:45 The See-Through House (m000j81s)
House Designs

Shelley Klein's book is about her father, the acclaimed textile designer Bernat Klein, and the modernist home he created. Today, Bernat finds inspiration for his house and the design and planning begin. The reader is Barbara Flynn.

High Sunderland, in the Scottish Borders, is the modernist house commissioned by the textile designer Bernat Klein and, together with his wife Peggy, is where he raised his daughter Shelley and her brother and sister. Bernat Klein made a major contribution to 1960s and 70s style, with the major fashion houses, such as Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, using his fabrics. Over time, Shelley's father and the house he commissioned from the architect Peter Womersley became inseparable. In her book The See-Through House, Shelley Klein reflects on her return home to look after her father, who was then in his eighties, and considers the influences behind his creative output and her relationship with him.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000j801)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


TUE 10:45 Doorstep Daughter (b0bkr4cv)
An Unusual Arrangement

Two families from very different backgrounds, one street and a baby on a doorstep. This series charts the story of a young Christian couple entrusting the care of their little daughter to a Muslim family that lived across the way in 1990s Watford. They were strangers but the couple - Peris Mbuthia and Martin Gitonga - needed help, as immigrants from Kenya working in low paid jobs with a child to support and no family to step in. They were struggling and their relationship was under strain.
Through a friend, the Zafars offered to help. It was a generous offer although Peris wasn't sure at first that this family from another country and another culture was the answer because the two households seemed to have nothing in common. But on the brink of losing their jobs, the couple simply had to give it a go. No money was involved, no checks or references. The Zafars weren't child minders, just willing neighbours meaning everything was done on trust.

It was an unusual arrangement. So how would this unlikely scenario change the lives of those involved?

A special, enduring bond developed between Sandra and the Zafar’s daughter Saiqa. It is a story of faith, love and tolerance - a modern day telling of how it takes a village to raise a child.

In Episode Two, the arrangement takes shape. How will baby Sandra adjust to life on the other side of the street?

Producer: Sally Chesworth
Sound: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Gail Champion
Exec Editor: Richard Knight


TUE 11:00 The Global Ventilator Race (m000j803)
The coronavirus outbreak revealed an international shortage of ventilators. Across the world, govenrments scrambled to acquire new ones, not just from traditional manufacturers, but from anyone who though they could design a simple yet functional device. As a result, hundreds of teams and individuals have risen to the challenge, including university students and hobbyists. Jolyon Jenkins set out to design and build a ventilator himself, drawing on the wealth of shared informationi and designs that have emerged in the last few weeks. He soon discovers that it's harder than it looks.

Much publicity has gone to organisations that have produced ventilators that are not up to standard. And as knowledge of the disease has progressed, it's become clear that coronavirus patients need very careful and specialised forms of ventilation if it's not to do more harm than good. So are non-specialists capable of producing machines that will actually benefit patients?

Presenter/producer: Jolyon Jenkins


TUE 11:30 Art of Now (m000j805)
The Gospel of Grime

Contemporary black music has always had a boundary pushing relationship with black church traditions. From gospel singers like Kirk Franklin, to grime artists like Stormzy; who brought the house down at Glastonbury 2019 with an emotional rendition of his song Blinded By Your Grace. In it, he praises God, saying “Lord, I've been broken / Although I'm not worthy / You fixed me.”

Fans love that musicians like Stormzy portray their real life experiences alongside expressions of their faith. Other people claim genres like grime and drill are incompatible with Christianity.

As the once niche scene for religious ministry within UK rap increasingly reaches the mainstream, music and culture journalist Jesse Bernard traces the relationship between secular music and black churches in the UK.

He looks at how colonialism and slavery shaped the role music plays in black Christian faith communities. And with the help of theologians and musicians, he explores why issues of social justice are frequently left unaddressed within the Church.

Jesse examines how long standing social inequality and the current policy of austerity have impacted both black churches and the music being made by black artists in the UK. And he asks - is it so controversial for our everyday lives and our spiritual lives to be explored, side by side, in popular music?

Produced by Tej Adeleye
A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000j807)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000j809)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 12:06 First Love, by Ivan Turgenev (m000jj79)
Episode 2

Ivan Turgenev’s masterpiece “First Love” tells the story of a young man who, over the course of one enchanted summer, falls in love with his beautiful neighbour, only to find himself desperately entangled in illicit passion and betrayal. Vladimir is shocked to learn that the princess has many other suitors.
Read by Alex Waldmann
Abridged and produced by Robin Brooks


TUE 12:20 You and Yours (m000j80f)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


TUE 12:57 Weather (m000j80h)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m000j80k)
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 New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j80m)
Mirth and merry company

In 1621, Robert Burton published The Anatomy of Melancholy. It was the first attempt in the modern western world to understand and categorise causes, symptoms and treatments of that universal human experience.

In this episode, writer Amy Liptrot taps into the theme of connection and friendship that runs through Burton’s book on melancholy.

Gemma Cairney, broadcaster and author of advice books for young people, shares her thoughts on loneliness, social media and changing relationships in the 21st century. She is a great believer in the power of friendship, like Burton: ‘The best way for ease is to impart our misery to some friend, not to smother it up in our own breast.’

Dr Amy Orben, from the University of Cambridge, researchers the effect of social media on young people. She reveals how the picture is much more nuanced than we might think.

Professor Frances Rice from Cardiff University and Dr Daisy Fancourt from UCL discuss innovative approaches to depression including behavioural activation and social prescribing. Is it possible that knowledge of these approaches can be found in Burton’s Anatomy?

As Burton drew on the writing of others and made a patchwork of texts within his Anatomy of Melancholy, each episode ends with a modern-day contribution for a new and updated Anatomy of Melancholy.

In this episode, Gemma Cairney offers the song Creshendorious by Brigitte Aphrodite.

Simon Russell Beale brings the voice of Robert Burton to life with extracts from The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Presenter: Amy Liptrot
Reader: Simon Russell Beale
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Series consultant: John Geddes

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 14:00 The Archers Revisited (m000j7b2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (b0b01rvm)
Mythos

Albion

A sinkhole opens up beneath the City Of London and Lairre and Parker, fresh from battling Robin Hood and his Merry Men, are tasked by Miranda Hyde (Tracy Ann Oberman) to rescue Johnson from the depths of the city.

Lairre battles an incorrect cultural consensus of British history while Parker channels Modesty Blaise to become the world's greatest secret agent, and together they find themselves facing Gogmagog the Giant as Britain's past erupts through time to destroy the present.

Mythos is a series that looks at British folklore through a quasi-scientific prism. It's laced with sardonic humour, ridiculous situations and insane leaps of logic - but its foundations lie in the stories that have become part of the British cultural DNA over the last two thousand years.

Writer Julian Simpson won the Tinniswood Award for his Radio 4 play Fugue State.

Writer and Director: Julian Simpson
Sound Designer: David Thomas
Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000j80p)
The Sea, The Sea

Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the sea.

The sounds of the sea, whispers into a wind phone and the dark, silent nights in Lyø, Denmark.
A writer reflects on women dreaming of diving beneath the waves,
A Hawaiian surfer describes the exhilaration of riding through the barrel of a wave.
And stories from cliff-edge towns in the UK as the water comes ever-closer.

Production Team: Andrea Rangecroft and Alia Cassam
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000j80r)
Is this something I should be doing?

A decade ago, many people saw carbon offsetting as an excuse for carrying on bad behaviour. Need to fly? I can still fly ... look at me - I'm not so bad after all. And the critics lined up to shoot it down. So what has changed, asks Tom Heap, and is it something we should all be doing?


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b04xp4wn)
Philip Pullman and Michael Rosen talk about language and writing

Philip Pullman and Michael Rosen talk in depth about language, writing and imagination. They share examples from their own work, discuss the books that influenced them and share who they think they are writing for. Produced by Beth O'Dea.


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m000j80t)
Anand Menon on Leeds United's Billy Bremner

Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe, chooses the life of infamous Leeds United Captain, Billy Bremner.

Billy Bremner played for Leeds as a midfielder from 1959 until 1976. He scored 115 goals for the team and captained them for 11 years during the side’s most successful period in their history, under manager Don Revie. 5’5”, with a mop of red hair, and known as “ten stone of barbed wire” "Wee Billy and “Midfield Terrier”.

He grew up near Stirling in a working class family, moving to Leeds at 16 for what became a lifelong relationship with the club. He returned to Leeds in the 80s as manager.

At the time, Anand was a schoolboy in Wakefield. Before he became a Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs, he was first and foremost a Leeds fan.

Anand was also at school with Telegraph journalist Rob Bagchi - author of the forthcoming biography of the club.

Growing up in West Yorkshire at the time, instilled a lifelong devotion to Billy and the club for both of them - in spite of their "Dirty Leeds" reputation and the ups and downs of a team often destined to narrowly miss out on chances. "If being a Leeds fan has taught me anything, it's that anything which can go wrong, will go wrong."

But there is another side to this story, both Anand and Rob are children of Indian parents. Elland Road was well known for the presence of the National Front on the terraces as they were growing up, and so Anand only saw Billy in the flesh a few times. But when Billy returned as manager in the 1980s, he went to great lengths to turn the culture of the terraces around.

Presented by Matthew Parris

Produced by Polly Weston


TUE 17:00 PM (m000j80w)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000j80y)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 My Teenage Diary (m000j812)
Series 9

Olly Mann

Rufus Hound talks to the podcaster Olly Mann about his teenage diaries, and finds out about boarding school life, Olly's Bar Mitzvah, and his love of the Australian soap Neighbours.

Producer: Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers Revisited (b09by2t0)
The Hunt Ball

Three weeks of themed programmes from the last two decades reliving key moments from the characters’ lives and the events that make Ambridge unforgettable. This episode forms part of the third week when we take a look at five different occasions that mark unmissable dates in The Ambridge Calendar.

The night of the Hunt Ball has arrived and Lilian is attending with new love Justin Elliott.

But her evening is interrupted by calls from her ex, Matt Crawford, and he wants her to leave town with him tonight. Will she go or will someone put a stop to Matt’s plans?

Lilian has always been Pusscat to Matt Crawford’s Tiger, but she thought she had finally closed the door on their relationship now she’s with Justin Elliott.

When Matt cleared out the bank accounts and disappeared to Costa Rica she thought she’d never see him again, but Matt reappeared in Ambridge in April of 2017 and it didn’t take him long to make himself a few enemies. He’s attempted to destroy Lilian’s impending marriage to Justin, having blackmailed Alistair in the past over his gambling he’s now spread ugly rumours about his veterinary practice being responsible for a horse’s death incurring Shula’s loathing, come to blows with Adam over his and Ian’s plans to adopt, and left Tom a few thousand pounds worse off in a deal. There are plenty of people who might want to see Matt dead and they’re all either at the Hunt Ball or drinking in the Bull. Would any of them dare?

This programme was originally broadcast on Sunday 29th October 2017


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000j818)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


TUE 19:45 Doorstep Daughter (b0bkr4cv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m000j81c)
Coronavirus: The care homes catastrophe

The awful impact of Covid-19 on the lives of care home residents and staff is now well understood. But many in the industry believe the authorities, both local and national, didn't recognise the threat of the virus on the most vulnerable elderly early enough and didn't react quickly enough to stop it spreading through their homes.
File on 4 hears from those who say opportunities to collect and share information were missed, that vital PPE supplies weren't secured quickly enough and that a policy of discharges of untested patients into care homes was ill thought-out and badly executed. The effect this has had on residential elderly care, they say, isn't just measured in the deaths of those who went too soon, but also in the threat the virus now poses to the survival of the whole private care industry.
With testimony from those at the front line at the very beginning of the crisis, File on 4 examines the fight to keep care home residents safe on the frontline and investigates the circumstances which led to care homes becoming one of the most significant crucibles for the virus.

Editor; Ciaran Tracey
Producers; Rob Cave and Helen Clifton
Reporter; Jane Deith


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000j81f)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000j81h)
Inside Health: The Virus

Episode 8

Claudia Hammond reports on the unfolding coronavirus pandemic.


TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m000j7zx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000j81k)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 Amongst Women, by John McGahern (m000j80c)
Episode 2

Michael Moran’s life was forever transformed by his days of glory in the War of Independence. Now, a farmer in the Irish countryside, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past. However, as he grows older, his wife and daughters must confront how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by this complicated and contradictory man.

2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Amongst Women’, widely considered to be the author’s masterpiece. This intimate story of a family living on the Irish border, under the thumb of a former soldier turned tyrant in his own home, has never been more relevant.

The Author
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a Primary School teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. In the opinion of the Observer, John McGahern was 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Produced by Celia de Wolff for BBC Northern Ireland.

Writer ….. John McGahern
Abridger ..... John McGahern
Reader ….. Lloyd Hutchinson
Producer ….. Celia de Wolff


TUE 23:00 You'll Do (p089cwgc)
Feminism with Deborah Frances-White and Tom Salinsky

The Guilty Feminists' Deborah Frances-White and Tom Salinsky join Catherine Bohart and Sarah Keyworth to discuss feminism in relationships.

In the podcast that goes beyond date nights, Deborah and Tom talk about marriage, monogamy and why they'll never play bridge together.

And why not everyone's a natural cook.

Producer: Kate Holland
Executive Producer: Lyndsay Fenner

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000j81n)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2020

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000j81q)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


WED 00:30 The See-Through House (m000j81s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000j81v)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000j81x)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m000j81z)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000j821)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Father Christopher Hancock, a Catholic priest working in the Archdiocese of Cardiff


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000j823)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx98q)
Little Auk

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

Martin Hughes-Games presents the Little Auk. Little auks are black and white relatives of the puffin but only about half the size. They're one of the most numerous seabirds in the world, with around twelve million pairs of birds. In autumn and early winter we see them in the UK as they head south into the North Sea.


WED 06:00 Today (m000j947)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 More or Less (m000j949)
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life.


WED 09:30 Legacy of War (m000j94c)
Episode 2

How wartime experiences have informed the dynamics of families in subsequent generations.


WED 09:45 The See-Through House (m000j94f)
Colour

Shelley Klein's is book is a portrait of her father, the acclaimed textile designer Bernat Klein, and the modernist home he created for his family. Today, Bernat's childhood in 1930s Yugoslavia and an early passion for colour and design are explored. Barbara Flynn reads.

High Sunderland, in the Scottish Borders, is the modernist house commissioned by the textile designer Bernat Klein and, together with his wife Peggy, is where he raised his daughter Shelley and her brother and sister. Bernat Klein made a major contribution to 1960s and 70s style, with the major fashion houses, such as Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, using his fabrics. Over time, Shelley's father and the house he commissioned from the architect Peter Womersley became inseparable. In her book The See-Through House, Shelley Klein reflects on her return home to look after her father, who was then in his eighties, and considers the influences behind his creative output and her relationship with him.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000j94h)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


WED 10:45 Doorstep Daughter (b0bksngg)
Doubts and Deliberations

Two families from very different backgrounds, one street and a baby on a doorstep.

This series charts the story of how a young Christian couple came to entrust the care of their little daughter to a Muslim family that lived nearby in 1990s Watford. They were strangers but the couple - Peris Mbuthia and Martin Gitonga - needed help, as immigrants from Kenya working in low paid jobs with a child to support and no family to step in. They were struggling and their relationship was under strain. Early one morning, Martin left his flat with six month old Sandra zipped inside his jacket and handed her over to the Zafars across the road while he went to work at a warehouse. This arrival at the door was an event that changed the course of all their lives - that day the baby girl became the Zafars' Doorstep Daughter. And a special, enduring bond developed between Sandra and the Zafar’s daughter Saiqa. It is a story of faith, trust and love - a modern day telling of how it takes a village to raise a child.

Episode 3 finds little Sandra now living at the heart of the Zafar household, heading home only for alternate weekends. It seems to suit everyone. But then doubts creep in and critics of this unusual arrangement start to snipe from the sidelines. Is this the perfect situation after all?

Producer: Sally Chesworth
Sound: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Gail Champion
Exec Editor: Richard Knight


WED 11:00 The Migrant Medics (m000j7b6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 Michael Frayn's Magic Mobile (m000j94k)
Episode 2

A second folder of entertaining files from genius comic writer Michael Frayn. A stellar cast includes Joanna Lumley, David Suchet, Susannah Fielding, George Blagden, Jared Harris, Lisa Dillon, Martin Jarvis.

Does your heart sink when asked to ‘listen to the following three options’? Enjoy racy promos of the newest versions of a Jane Austen classic! A filmed documentary dares to ask ‘What is Truth?' Why do we get so enraged with the latest technology? And gorgeous young tv personality Melinda Twinkling presents a reminder of old-school viewing.

CAST:
Joanna Lumley, David Suchet, Susannah Fielding, George Blagden, Jared Harris, Lisa Dillon, Roger Allam, Nigel Anthony, Anna-Louise Plowman, Moira Quirk, Matthew Wolf, Martin Jarvis

Writer: Michael Frayn
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
Director: Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:00 News Summary (m000j94m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000j94p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 12:06 First Love, by Ivan Turgenev (m000jj6z)
Episode 3

Ivan Turgenev’s masterpiece “First Love” tells the story of a young man who, over the course of one enchanted summer, falls hopelessly for his beautiful neighbour, only to find himself desperately entangled in illicit passion and betrayal.

Vladimir discovers that Zinaïda herself is in love. But who is the object of her passion?

Read by Alex Waldmann
Abridged and produced by Robin Brooks


WED 12:20 You and Yours (m000j94t)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


WED 12:57 Weather (m000j94w)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m000j94y)
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 New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j950)
Love of learning or overmuch study

In 1621, Robert Burton published The Anatomy of Melancholy. It was the first attempt in the modern western world to understand and categorise causes, symptoms and treatments of that universal human experience.

In this episode, writer Amy Liptrot grapples with a dilemma close to Robert Burton’s heart - learning as a remedy for melancholy, but also as a cause if pursued ‘overmuch’.

As a single man living at Christ Church, Oxford, devoted to his scholarly labours on melancholy, Burton knew that the absorption in his subject gave him motivation and purpose. But he also knew that this ‘solitary, sedentary’ occupation was a major risk factor for the blues.

Amy speaks to Professor Anne Duffy from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, about the latest research into student mental health, and hears from Henry and Emma, PhD students who have both overcome struggles with anxiety and low mood to find a study-life-balance that works for them.

As Burton drew on the writing of others and made a patchwork of texts within his Anatomy of Melancholy, each episode ends with a modern-day contribution for a new and updated Anatomy of Melancholy.

In this episode, Henry offers the poem New Every Morning by Susan Coolidge.

Simon Russell Beale brings the voice of Robert Burton to life with extracts from The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Presenter: Amy Liptrot
Reader: Simon Russell Beale
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Series consultant: John Geddes

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


WED 14:00 The Archers Revisited (b09by2t0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b09txfyh)
The Unforgiven

Episode 2

Barbara Machin's gripping five part crime thriller continues. Trying to peel back the layers of this old case, Criminal Profiler Grace Foley must face her own fears.

Written by Barbara Machin
Directed by Allegra McIlroy

Sound Design ..... David Chilton
Crime Story Consultant ..... Brian Hook.


WED 15:00 Money Box (m000j952)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.


WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000j81h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 The Spark (m000j789)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Monday]


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000j954)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world


WED 17:00 PM (m000j956)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000j958)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Quanderhorn (m000j95b)
Quanderhorn 2

4. I Didn’t Say it was Well Cloaked

Brian (Ryan Sampson) and Gemma (Cassie Layton) are trained to pass themselves off as convincing Martians, without much success in Brian’s case. Meanwhile, Jenkins (John Sessions) and Troy (Freddie Fox) have all the water removed from their bodies by the pig dehydration device, and hide in Guuuurk’s (Kevin Eldon) pocket.

The crew infiltrate the Martian Invasion Vessel, but Guuuurk hasn’t counted on meeting an old friend aboard, who may not be as trustworthy as he seems. And isn’t.

Back in the Lab, the Professor (James Fleet) works on the bomb-melting ray, with a little help from half a brain in a diving suit (Rachel Atkins).

The plan is on target, up until the moment Gemma steps into the Martian Deep-Memory-Guilt-Testing ray, and is rendered frozen by a terrible, long-buried secret.

Starring
James Fleet as Professor Quanderhorn
Ryan Sampson as Brian Nylon
Cassie Layton as Dr Gemini Janussen
Freddie Fox as Troy Quanderhorn
Kevin Eldon as Guuuurk
John Sessions as Sergeant 'Jenkins' Jenkins and Churchill
Rachel Atkins as Delores

Created and Written by Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall
Directed by Andrew Marshall

Studio Engineer and Editor: Alisdair McGregor
Production Manager: Sarah Tombling
Special Thanks to Edward Rowett
Recorded at The Soundhouse Studios
Produced by Rob Grant and Gordon Kennedy

An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers Revisited (m000j8r8)
Bonfire Night

Three weeks of themed programmes from the last two decades revisiting key moments from the characters’ lives and the events that make Ambridge unforgettable. This episode forms part of the third week when we take a look at five different occasions that mark unmissable dates in The Ambridge Calendar.

Remember, remember the 5th of November. As David and Kenton are in high spirits setting up the firework display Ian discovers Peggy at breaking point with Jack, whose increasingly erratic behaviour has kept her up all night.

Peggy married Jack Woolley, a pillar of the Borchester community, back in 1991 and they began to look forward to a blissful retirement.

All was going according to plan until Jack was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. One by one he sold Grey Gables, the Borchester Echo and Jaxx Caff as his illness progressed. Peggy began a long and difficult period as his carer.

When she had a stroke in 2008, Peggy reluctantly realised that as Jack deteriorated further he needed residential care. She was a very frequent visitor to The Laurels until his death.

This programme was originally broadcast on Wednesday 5th November 2008.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m000j95d)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


WED 19:45 Doorstep Daughter (b0bksngg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


WED 20:00 Grounded with Louis Theroux (m000j95g)
3. Helena Bonham Carter

Louis is using the lockdown to track down some high-profile people he’s been longing to talk to – a fascinating mix of the celebrated, the controversial and the mysterious.

In this episode, he speaks to actor Helena Bonham Carter, who is in lockdown in London. They discuss going to the same school, handling criticism and working with your significant other.


WED 20:45 Legacy of War (m000j94c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000j80r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000j954)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000j95j)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 Amongst Women, by John McGahern (m000j94r)
Episode 3

Michael Moran’s life was forever transformed by his days of glory in the War of Independence. Now, a farmer in the Irish countryside, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past. However, as he grows older, his wife and daughters must confront how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by this complicated and contradictory man.

2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Amongst Women’, widely considered to be the author’s masterpiece. This intimate story of a family living on the Irish border, under the thumb of a former soldier turned tyrant in his own home, has never been more relevant.

The Author
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a Primary School teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. In the opinion of the Observer, John McGahern was 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Produced by Celia de Wolff for BBC Northern Ireland.

Writer ….. John McGahern
Abridger ..... John McGahern
Reader ….. Lloyd Hutchinson
Producer ….. Celia de Wolff


WED 23:00 Where to, Mate? (m000j95l)
"...you're coming in, you're coming out..."

Set and recorded on location in a car in Manchester, ‘Where To, Mate?’ is a semi-improvised comedy following our drivers Bernie and Ben and Saj as we eavesdrop on their taxi journeys around the North West.

This week at 'All Star Cars', Bernie picks up Milton again and they discuss the merits of cosmic ordering, Ben tries to help a lad come out to his dad and Saj takes a dog for a poo.

Jason Wingard is a writer, director and film maker from Manchester. He’s written and directed a number of award winning short films as well as the feature film ‘Eaten By Lions’ which recently had a cinema release.

The show features local voices and character actors /comedians from the North.

CAST

Ben ..... Peter Slater
Bernie ..... Jo Enright
Saj ..... Abdullah Afzal

Milton ..... Christopher J Hall
Weight Watchers Lady ..... Lisa Moore
Paul ..... Brennan Reece

Controller ..... Jason Wingard
Controller ..... Abdullah Afzal

Conversations improvised by the cast based on ideas by Jason Wingard and Carl Cooper.
With additional material and production support by Hannah Stevenson.

Additional voices and material by the cast and crew.

Production Co-ordinator, Mabel Wright
Directed by Jason Wingard
Produced by Carl Cooper

A BBC Studios Audio Production


WED 23:15 Six Degrees of John Sessions (b0b01lxn)
Series 1

Episode 2

Actor, writer, raconteur and impressionist John Sessions mixes showbiz stories, intriguing history, extraordinary impressions and fabulous one-liners - all linked to and from him in this entertaining series.
John’s dazzling array of skills - storytelling, erudition, vocal re-creations and comedy - are all brought into play as he starts each episode with a story or fact related to himself, takes us all over the place by linking people, ending up back with himself.
Each show is a quick-witted, Peter Ustinov-style rollercoaster of storytelling: bizarre and brilliant, eccentric and effusive, autobiographical and alliterative, full of incredible impressions and droll digressions along the way.

Show 2: From Mel Gibson to Jimmy Nail via O‘Toole and Kerensky

Written and performed by John Sessions.
Producer: Liz Anstee, a CPL Production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000j95n)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



THURSDAY 21 MAY 2020

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000j95q)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


THU 00:30 The See-Through House (m000j94f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000j95s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000j95v)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m000j95x)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000j95z)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Father Christopher Hancock, a Catholic priest working in the Archdiocese of Cardiff


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000j961)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


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

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

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


THU 06:00 Today (m000j8qh)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0001kr8)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the jewels of medieval English poetry. It was written c1400 by an unknown poet and then was left hidden in private collections until the C19th when it emerged. It tells the story of a giant green knight who disrupts Christmas at Camelot, daring Gawain to cut off his head with an axe if he can do the same to Gawain the following year. Much to the surprise of Arthur's court, who were kicking the green head around, the decapitated body reaches for his head and rides off, leaving Gawain to face his promise and his apparently inevitable death the following Christmas.

The illustration above is ©British Library Board Cotton MS Nero A.x, article 3, ff.94v95

With

Laura Ashe
Professor of English Literature at Worcester College, University of Oxford

Ad Putter
Professor of Medieval English Literature at the University of Bristol

And

Simon Armitage
Poet and Professor of Poetry at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson


THU 09:45 The See-Through House (m000j8qk)
Haute Couture

Shelley Klein's book is about her father, the acclaimed designer Bernat Klein, and the modernist home he created for his family. Today, it's 1963 and haute couture is in thrall to Bernat's textiles. Barbara Flynn reads.

High Sunderland, in the Scottish Borders, is the modernist house commissioned by the textile designer Bernat Klein and, together with his wife Peggy, is where he raised his daughter Shelley and her brother and sister. Bernat Klein made a major contribution to 1960s and 70s style, with the major fashion houses, such as Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, using his fabrics. Over time, Shelley's father and the house he commissioned from the architect Peter Womersley became inseparable. In her book The See-Through House, Shelley Klein reflects on her return home to look after her father, who was then in his eighties, and considers the influences behind his creative output and her relationship with him.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000j8qm)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


THU 10:45 Doorstep Daughter (b0bktydj)
The Reunion

Two families from very different backgrounds, one street and a baby on a doorstep. This series charts the story of how a young Christian couple came to entrust the care of their little daughter to a Muslim family that lived nearby in 1990s Watford. They were strangers but the couple - Peris Mbuthia and Martin Gitonga - needed help, as immigrants from Kenya working in low paid jobs with a child to support and no family to step in. They were struggling and their relationship was under strain. Early one morning, Martin left his flat with six month old Sandra zipped inside his jacket and handed her over to the Zafars across the road while he went to work at a warehouse. This arrival at the door was an event that changed the course of all their lives - that day the baby girl became the Zafars' Doorstep Daughter. And a special, enduring bond develops between Sandra and the Zafar’s daughter Saiqa. It is a story of faith, trust and love - a modern day telling of how it takes a village to raise a child. Doubts arise though when Sandra's first words are in Urdu and critics in the community start unkind rumours about why the families are so close.

In Episode Four, an unwelcome letter arrives which will again alter the course of these families' lives. Will the ties still bind them together?

Producer: Sally Chesworth
Sound: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Gail Champion
Exec Editor: Richard Knight


THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000j8qp)
Insight, and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world


THU 11:30 Butch (m000j8qr)
Being 'butch' has always meant being invisible, for good or ill. To be a 'masculine' presenting lesbian has often been a way of evading the male gaze, but it has also meant being off the radar of a culture that's drawn to what shines. Now poet and theatre maker Joelle Taylor celebrates ‘being butch’ in an age of increasingly complex gender identities. She writes: 'Not funny enough to be your best friend love/ the closet is full of clothes we refuse to wear/ not camp enough for your TV show bruv / a woman without makeup is a woman without a face / who knew/ when we cleansed/ we were erasing our whole existence?’.

We follow Joelle as she prepares for her new show, and discovers what reactions 'butch' provokes in 2020. Why do some see the identity as retrograde, whilst others see presenting as butch as more radical than ever? Joelle explores the 'courageous’ distinctiveness of butch culture and community – and what it has meant to her: ‘we are ferocious women/ climbing out of our skins/ and leaving them draped/ like soiled wedding dresses behind us/ as we fall into each other’s mouths. This is love. Furious love.’


THU 12:00 News Summary (m000j8qt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000j8qw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 12:06 First Love, by Ivan Turgenev (m000jj77)
Episode 4

Ivan Turgenev’s masterpiece “First Love” tells the story of a young man who, over the course of one enchanted summer, falls hopelessly in love with his beautiful neighbour, only to find himself desperately entangled in illicit passion and betrayal.

Mad with jealousy, Vladimir lurks in the garden, in an attempt to ambush Zinaïda’s lover.

Read by Alex Waldmann
Abridged and produced by Robin Brooks


THU 12:20 You and Yours (m000j8r0)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


THU 12:57 Weather (m000j8r2)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m000j8r4)
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 New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j8r6)
Moderate sleep and divine music

In 1621, Robert Burton published The Anatomy of Melancholy. It was the first attempt in the modern western world to understand and categorise causes, symptoms and treatments of that universal human experience.

In this episode, writer Amy Liptrot finds out more about the effects of sleep and music on our mood. Like many new parents, sleep deprivation has been a challenge for Amy since the birth of her son, while music and singing has taken on new meaning with its potential to soothe and lift the mood.

Colin Espie, Professor of Sleep Medicine at Oxford University, offers insights into how issues with sleep can affect mood. It’s long been acknowledged that sleep problems can be a symptom of depression, but can they also be a cause? Robert Burton, is in no doubt.

Recently, Amy has discovered singing as a new way to lift her spirits. It is a remedy that Burton champions. She rejoins the singing group which was a lifeline in the early baby days to talk to Liz Powers about why singing in close harmony can have a calming, restorative effect.

Nearby, at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, singing is being taken to the wards as a mood-booster for staff and families and children who want to join in. We hear from staff about what it means to them.

As Burton drew on the writing of others and made a patchwork of texts within his Anatomy of Melancholy, each episode ends with a modern-day contribution for a new and updated Anatomy of Melancholy.

In this episode, Liz Powers offers Everybody Hurts by R.E.M..

Simon Russell Beale brings the voice of Robert Burton to life with extracts from The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Presenter: Amy Liptrot
Reader: Simon Russell Beale
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Series consultant: John Geddes

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


THU 14:00 The Archers Revisited (m000j8r8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (b00t8xfm)
Rumpole and the Family Pride

We rejoin Rumpole and Hilda in the late 1950s, when they have been married for a year or two. Rumpole mingles with a branch of Yorkshire aristocracy remotely connected to Hilda's family when he represents a Lord in the Coroner's Court.

Hilda's first cousin (once removed), Rosemary, lives with her husband, Richard, the 17th Baron Sackbut, in Sackbut Castle and Hilda and Rumpole are invited to Yorkshire when a body is found in the grounds of the castle.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Rumpole in a story written by John Mortimer and adapted by Richard Stoneman.

Older Rumpole/Mr Cursitor ..... Timothy West
Young Rumpole ..... Benedict Cumberbatch
Hilda ..... Cathy Sara
Liz Probert/Helen Yarrowby ..... Elaine Claxton
Lord Richard Sackbut ..... Julian Wadham
Rosemary Sackbut/Pippa Bastion ..... Sophie Thompson
Jonathan Sackbut/Young Man ..... Joshua McGuire
"Plunger" Plumstead/Tarquin Yarrowby/Mr Saggers ..... Stephen Critchlow
Mrs Percier ..... Susan Wooldridge
Dr Malkin/Castle Guide/Policeman ..... Geoffrey Whitehead
Dr Swabey/Gavin Bastion ..... Adrian Scarborough

Music: The sax quartet version of Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away From Me" was arranged by Julie Hodge and performed by "Sax" who are Luiza Beddoes, Kate Mylnar, Janine Ng and Julie Hodge.

Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4


THU 15:00 Ramblings (m000j8rd)
Joyful Highlights Part 2: Health and Happiness

In a joyful celebration of 20 years spent walking on air, Clare Balding digs deep into the exhilarating archives of Ramblings to share the best moments from her favourite walks. This week she explores the theme of Health and Happiness to discover how walking can provide a real boost to both our physical and mental health.

The featured programmes include The Diamond Ramblers, a group who discuss their achievements with weight loss; the positive and uplifting Forget Me Not dementia group; and Dr. Kate Kirkwood who persuades Clare to walk in silence, always a challenge, however this was an encounter that proved very meaningful for Clare; it's a walk she's never forgotten.

Please scroll down to the 'Related Links' box to access the full programmes included in this edition. Many, many more are available on BBC Sounds.

Swindon, Wiltshire 'Forget Me Not' Dementia Group
Black Men's Walking for Health Group
The Diamond Ramblers - Otterton
Walking for Spiritual Renewal
Up to the Labyrinth on St. Catherine's Hill

Producer: Karen Gregor


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000j7ps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (m000j7qm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000j8rg)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000j8rj)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world


THU 17:00 PM (m000j8rl)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000j8rn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 Ankle Tag (m000179x)
Series 2

The All-nighter

An attempt to get a good night's sleep results in a visit from the police.

Bob – Steve Speirs
Gruff – Elis James
Alice – Margareat Cabourn-Smith
Graham– Ben Willbond
Sara– Vivienne Acheampong
Rashid – Phaldut Sharma

Written by Benjamin Partridge & Gareth Gwynn
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production


THU 19:00 The Archers Revisited (b04sy3r4)
The Christmas Lights Switch On

Three weeks of themed programmes from the last two decades revisiting key moments from the characters’ lives and the events that make Ambridge unforgettable. This episode forms part of the third week when we take a look at five different occasions that mark unmissable dates in The Ambridge Calendar.

As the residents of Ambridge gather on the green for the traditional Christmas Lights switch on, rumours abound. It seems that David and Ruth Archer have agreed to sell Brookfield to Justin Elliot’s firm, Damara Capital, which has a vested interest in the council approving plans for a new road that would impact hugely on the village. The residents have been mounting a campaign against the building of the road believing David and Ruth to be on their side, but instead it looks like they’re about to betray their community.

Not everyone is unhappy though as Emma has a surprise for Ed.

This programme was originally broadcast on Friday 5th December 2014.

Adam Macy ..... Andrew Wincott
Charlie Thomas ..... Felix Scott
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Ed Grundy ..... Barry Farrimond
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan

Writer, Mary Cutler
Director, Julie Beckett

Cast from earlier episodes this week:
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Phil Archer ..... Norman Painting
Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene
Eddie Grundy ..... Trevor Harrison
Will Grundy ..... Philip Molloy
Emma Grundy ..... Felicity Jones
Tim Hathaway ..... Jay Villiers
Siobhan Donovan ..... Caroline Lennon
Nigel Pargetter ..... Graham Seed
Clarrie Grundy ..... Rosalind Adams
Neil Carter ..... Brian Hewlett
Alice Aldridge ..... Hollie Chapman
Justin Elliott ..... Simon Williams
Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde
Shula Hebden Lloyd ..... Judy Bennett
Matt Crawford ..... Kim Durham
Nic Grundy ..... Becky Wright
Ian Craig ..... Stephen Kennedy
Adam Macy ..... Andrew Wincott
Kenton Archer ..... Richard Atlee
Peggy Woolley ..... June Spencer
Jack Woolley ..... Arnold Peters
Elizabeth Pargetter..... Alison Dowling

Writers in earlier episodes this week, Carole Simpson Solazzo, Caroline Harrington, Gillian Richmond,
Directors in earlier episodes this week, Marina Caldarone


THU 19:15 Front Row (m000j8rr)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


THU 19:45 Doorstep Daughter (b0bktydj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 A Celebration for Ascension Day (m000j8rt)
Every year Radio 4 listeners fill the pews of St Martin-in-the-Fields for Radio 4's broadcast celebration of Ascension Day. But this year is different. As congregations gather remotely, this is a different kind of service constructed from contributions from people across the country recording from their own homes. It’s a celebration but also a time to reflect on the present and find hope for the future.

Novelist and priest, the Revd Marie-Elsa Bragg offers a series of reflective meditations. She explores the fundamental place of physical touch in human experience and considers the nature of relationships built at a distance. She reflects on how people approach death, grief and despair, and provides a poetic vision of the future which acknowledges the triumphant power of love.

The service, led by the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Revd Dr Sam Wells, is a tapestry of words and music. It culminates in a new recording of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus featuring the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and voices of Radio 4 listeners recorded from their own homes in lock-down around the country. This virtual choir experience allows singers to upload their own recordings singing with the BBC Philharmonic, to create a national choir created especially for this broadcast.

At a time when musicians cannot assemble, the BBC Philharmonic, the Daily Service Singers, St Martin's Voices and solo artists are also brought together, recording remotely, to create unique versions of hymns and anthems for Ascension Day.

Producer: Katharine Longworth


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000j8rj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (m0001kr8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000j8rw)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 Amongst Women, by John McGahern (m000j8qy)
Episode 4

Michael Moran’s life was forever transformed by his days of glory in the War of Independence. Now, a farmer in the Irish countryside, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past. However, as he grows older, his wife and daughters must confront how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by this complicated and contradictory man.

2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Amongst Women’, widely considered to be the author’s masterpiece. This intimate story of a family living on the Irish border, under the thumb of a former soldier turned tyrant in his own home, has never been more relevant.

The Author
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a Primary School teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. In the opinion of the Observer, John McGahern was 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Produced by Celia de Wolff for BBC Northern Ireland.

Writer ….. John McGahern
Abridger ..... John McGahern
Reader ….. Lloyd Hutchinson
Producer ….. Celia de Wolff


THU 23:00 Welcome to Wherever You Are (b09gkh2f)
Series 1

Episode 1

Welcome To Wherever You Are is a stand-up show that refuses to be constrained by geography when it comes to booking guests; instead, it uses modern technology to connect a studio audience in the BBC Radio Theatre, London, with the best comedians in the world - no matter where they happen to be.

This week, host Andrew Maxwell talks cricket and colonialism with The Bugle podcast co-host Alice Fraser in Sydney; hears emerging star Storm Xu in Shanghai tell us about his problems with dating; and talks to world-renowned satirist Bassem Youssef about why he had to move to Los Angeles from his native Egypt (spoiler: it turns out dictators don't like you making jokes about them).

Andrew Maxwell is a multi-award-winning stand up and double Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, familiar to Radio 4 audiences for his appearances on The News Quiz, The Now Show, and his own series Andrew Maxwell's Public Enemies. He's also appeared on Live At The Apollo, Mock The Week, and Have I Got News For You.

Presented by Andrew Maxwell
Featuring Alice Fraser
Featuring Storm Xu
Featuring Bassem Youssef

Production co-ordinator Hayley Sterling
Producer Ed Morrish

Photo credit: Matt Stronge

A BBC Studios Production


THU 23:30 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy (m0008hk8)
Series 2: 50 More Things...

Cubesat

Satelites used to weigh several tonnes and be as long as a bus. Now they’re closer to the size of a Beanie Baby. In fact, as Tim Harford explains, the new microsatellites were originally a student engineering challenge: design a satellite that can fit into a Beanie Baby box. So how are these CubeSats changing the way we use space? And how are they changing the way economics itself is done?

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon


THU 23:45 Today in Parliament (m000j8ry)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000j8s0)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 00:30 The See-Through House (m000j8qk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000j8s2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000j8s4)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m000j8s6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000j8s8)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Father Christopher Hancock, a Catholic priest working in the Archdiocese of Cardiff


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000j8sb)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


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

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

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

ProducerBrett Westwood,MRS SARAH PITT,Sarah Blunt.


FRI 06:00 Today (m000j9jk)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000j7q5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 The See-Through House (m000j9lb)
Leaving

Shelley Klein's book reflects on her father, the acclaimed textile designer Bernat Klein and the modernist house he commissioned in the 1950s. Today, Shelley considers his creative legacy.

High Sunderland, in the Scottish Borders, is the modernist house commissioned by the textile designer Bernat Klein and, together with his wife Peggy, is where he raised his daughter Shelley and her brother and sister. Bernat Klein made a major contribution to 1960s and 70s style, with the major fashion houses, such as Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, using his fabrics. Over time, Shelley's father and the house he commissioned from the architect Peter Womersley became inseparable. In her book The See-Through House, Shelley Klein reflects on her return home to look after her father, who was then in his eighties, and considers the influences behind his creative output and her relationship with him.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000j9jr)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


FRI 10:45 Doorstep Daughter (b0bkv4f7)
The Consequences

Two families from very different backgrounds, one street and a baby on a doorstep. This series charts the story of how a young Christian couple came to entrust the care of their little daughter to a Muslim family that lived nearby in 1990s Watford. They were strangers but the couple - Peris Mbuthia and Martin Gitonga - needed help, as immigrants from Kenya working in low paid jobs with a child to support and no family to step in. They were struggling and their relationship was under strain. Early one morning, Martin left his flat with six month old Sandra zipped inside his jacket and handed her over to the Zafars across the road while he went to work at a warehouse. This arrival at the door was an event that changed the course of all their lives - that day the baby girl became the Zafars' Doorstep Daughter. And a special, enduring bond develops between Sandra and the Zafar’s daughter Saiqa. It is a story of faith, trust and love - a modern day telling of how it takes a village to raise a child.

In many ways it was an ideal arrangement. Sandra's parents built their careers and stabilised their relationship while little Sandra stayed with the Zafars. In turn the Zafars had all the rewards of watching Sandra grow through the baby and toddler years, filling a gap in their lives that reconnected them as a family too.

When Peris and Martin had immigration issues and decided to return to Kenya the relationship had to end and no one felt that more harshly than Saiqa. She had cared for little Sandra, her Doorstep Daughter, like a mum through her formative late teen years.

In this final episode, those involved explore the lasting consequences of what was a very unusual arrangement and the sacrifices that made it work.

Producer: Sally Chesworth
Sound: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Gail Champion
Exec Editor: Richard Knight


FRI 11:00 Pandemic 1918 (m000j9jt)
Episode 2 - How the UK and the world reacted

As the coronavirus affects the whole world, leading virologist Professor John Oxford presents a three part series on the origin, spread and reaction to the Pandemic that devastated much of the planet just over 100 years ago.

The so-called Spanish flu of 1918/19 is estimated to have killed more than 50 million of the 500 million people it infected, including 228,000 in the UK. It was the planet's biggest single natural human catastrophe - a flu pandemic that killed more people than both world wars put together in a fraction of the time. And yet this huge moment in history remains largely under the radar.

Despite massive advances in health care and medical science, the parallels to today are stark. Professor John Oxford has warned of a similar kind of pandemic for years and has continually argued such a threat should be at the very heart of disaster planning for all governments.

In three programmes, he charts the story of how the 1918/19 flu pandemic affected the UK and the world.

In Episode 2, he looks at how communities and the different authorities in the UK and around the world reacted to the arrival of this killer disease.

In Britain, towns and cities which acted quickly in shutting schools, cinemas and so on, managed to prevent the worst. This was a time before the NHS, so everything was dealt with on a very local level. In Manchester, the medical officer Dr James Niven (brought to life here through reports he wrote at the time) was praised for his work in protecting the city from the worst of the first wave. But other parts of the UK were much slower and there were often rebellious outbursts from cinema owners and others determined to keep open, despite the obvious threats.

There were no mass quarantines, social distancing practices or lockdowns in 1918/19. Factory work continued, but half of workers were off with symptoms and many would never return. in some places, people were advised not to touch, kiss or shake hands, to keep distances and to wash hands regularly, while in New York a strict ban on spitting in the street was introduced.

There was no mass media in 1918 but it didn't stop the spread of mis-information around quack cures and how you could prevent yourself from contracting the illness - not unlike some of the unreliable advice being pushed over the internet today around Covid-19.

Despite the death rate and risks, people still joined in huge crowds on the streets across Britain and Ireland to celebrate the Armistice in November 1918. Inevitably more were infected as a result, in what became the second wave.

Basic nursing, like today, was key to whether or not people survived. In some places, St John's Ambulance personnel were brought in. In other places, mirroring today, older and retired medical staff joined in the care effort.

Some doctors had huge catchment areas and couldn't get around all their patients. This was made worse by a shortage of doctors. Many were still on the Western Front and doctors and nurses treating the sick in makeshift hospitals succumbed to the virus and died themselves.

We hear how very few parts of the world were unaffected in some way. The population on the tiny Island of Western Samoa was almost completely wiped out due to poor decisions by the New Zealand government which only recently apologised to the people of the island. Meanwhile, American Samoa was the only place in the world to completely escape after the US General there implemented the very strictest of quarantine measures.

Episode 3 will examine the long term impact on people, communities and on general health.

Produced by Ashley Byrne and Iain Mackness
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 11:30 A Charles Paris Mystery (m000j9jw)
A Doubtful Death

Episode 1

Comedy with the return of the loveably louche actor-cum-amateur detective.
To his horror, Charles has landed a role in an immersive theatre production of Hamlet and, when an actress goes missing, Charles has to decide if this is to be or not to be a murder case.
By Jeremy Front from a story by Simon Brett.

Charles ..... Bill Nighy
Frances ..... Suzanne Burden
Maurice ..... Jon Glover
Vicky ..... Jessica Turner
Jenny ..... Scarlett Courtney
Tomasz ..... Ian Conningham
Tour Guide ..... Will Kirk
Waitress ..... Lucy Reynolds

Directed by Sally Avens


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000j9jz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000j9k1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 12:06 First Love, by Ivan Turgenev (m000jj7g)
Episode 5

Ivan Turgenev’s masterpiece “First Love” tells the story of a young man who, over the course of one enchanted summer, falls hopelessly in love with his beautiful neighbour, only to find himself desperately entangled in illicit passion and betrayal.

Vladimir discovers the terrible truth about his love.

Read by Alex Waldmann
Abridged and produced by Robin Brooks


FRI 12:20 You and Yours (m000j9k5)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


FRI 12:57 Weather (m000j9k7)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m000j9k9)
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 New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j9kc)
For the common good of all

In 1621, Robert Burton published The Anatomy of Melancholy. It was the first attempt in the modern western world to understand and categorise causes, symptoms and treatments of that universal human experience.

In this episode, writer Amy Liptrot concludes the series by bringing our focus back to Burton. Why did he write thousands upon thousands of words on melancholy? What urged him on to seek out every reference to melancholy he could find in the libraries of Oxford? And why did he – unusually for the time - reveal his own vulnerability to the condition?

Dr Christopher Tilmouth from Cambridge University sheds light on Burton’s personal struggles - the vulnerabilities that keep drawing him back to this ‘edifice of learning’.

Rachel Kelly, writer and mental health campaigner, reveals the solace that The Anatomy has brought her over dark times.

Novelist Rob Paulk reflects on his own reading of The Anatomy and why Burton isn’t simply ‘writing of melancholy by being busy to avoid melancholy'.

Psychiatrist John Geddes shares what he thinks Burton’s text can offer us during contemporary, troubled times.

Finally, Amy considers her own epic journey into exploring the vast book and its insights for us all today.

Simon Russell Beale brings the voice of Robert Burton to life with extracts from The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Presenter: Amy Liptrot
Reader: Simon Russell Beale
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Series consultant: John Geddes

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:00 The Archers Revisited (b04sy3r4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (m000j9kf)
Eric the Skull

In 1930, at the height of the Golden Age of crime fiction, a group of detective writers set about forming their own social organisation, which came to be called the Detection Club.

It still exists and, three times a year, the cream of today’s crime writers meet for dinner.

The precise facts of the association’s genesis are, appropriately, shrouded in mystery - but this play chronicles how it might have happened.

One of the leading lights in the setting-up of the Club was the indomitable Dorothy L Sayers (played by Fenella Woolgar). Also involved were Agatha Christie (Janie Dee) and GK Chesterton (Mark Williams), who became its first President.

The high spirits of much of that period’s crime fiction is reflected in the play’s tone, as the members devise an arcane Initiation ritual for new members, and search for a suitable object on which they should make their vows of loyalty to the Club.

Cast:
Dorothy L Sayers – Fenella Woolgar
Agatha Christie – Janie Dee
GK Chesterton – Mark Williams
EC Bentley – Steve Furst
Anthony Berkeley Cox – Matt Addis

Written by Simon Brett
Producer: Liz Anstee

A CPL production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000j9kh)
GQT At Home: Episode Eight

Peter Gibbs hosts the horticultural panel show. He is joined from their own homes by James Wong, Anne Swithinbank and Chris Beardshaw.

Producer: Laurence Bassett
Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000j9kk)
Senior Moment, by Peter Bradshaw

Ivor finds himself in a lavatory he knows not where, or why, apart from the obvious.
Increasingly anxious to remember not only his middle name, which is, he insists, on the tip of his tongue, he is also agitated about not recognising a series of people who address him in a friendly and familiar manner. And then there's this grand house and its elegant lawns, and that woman, dressed in white, who's the spit of his late wife. What IS going on?
Senior Moment takes a playful and poignant look at the vulnerabilities of middle age and the fear we all have of the ravages that getting older can bring with it.

Senior Moment was written by Peter Bradshaw
Read by Michael Maloney
Produced by Kaaaarren Holden (pronounced like 'Car')


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000j9km)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.


FRI 16:30 More or Less (m000j949)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m000j9kp)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000j9kr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m000j9kt)
Series 102

Episode 6

Angela Barnes hosts series 102, leading a panel of regular News Quiz comics and journalists in rounding up the news stories of the week. Joining Angela this week is Helen Lewis, Darren Harriott and Jess Fostekew.

Produced by Suzy Grant

A BBC Studios Audio Production


FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000j9kw)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


FRI 19:45 Doorstep Daughter (b0bkv4f7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000j9ky)
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from venues around the UK.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000j9l0)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.


FRI 21:00 The New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j9l2)
Omnibus: Cures

In 1621 the English scholar, Robert Burton, published The Anatomy of Melancholy. It was the first attempt in the modern western world to understand and categorise causes, symptoms and treatments of that universal human experience: melancholy.

Writing from Oxford where he was a life-long scholar, librarian of Christ Church and a vicar, Burton drew on the writing of others and also his own experiences.

In this omnibus, writer Amy Liptrot looks at some of the cures of melancholy identified by Robert Burton.

Are there any links with Burton’s enthusiasm for herbs as a remedy for melancholy and gardening or connecting with nature today? Amy meets writer Emma Mitchell and gardener and broadcaster Monty Don.

What about friendship, mirth and merry company as Burton put it? Broadcaster Gemma Cairney shares her reflections on the importance of friends and joy.

And Burton is torn between ‘a love of learning’ and ‘overmuch study’. How can today’s students find the right balance?

As a new parent, Amy is curious to know how problems with sleep can affect our mood and also how music can help soothe frazzled nerves and lift our spirits. She talks to sleep expert Professor Colin Espie. We hear singing from the wards of Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

Finally, who really was Robert Burton, why was he moved to write this epic book that has so much relevance for us today?

Across the centuries, he passes the baton over to us.

Simon Russell Beale brings the voice of Robert Burton to life with extracts from The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Presenter: Amy Liptrot
Reader: Simon Russell Beale
Sound design: Alice K. Winz
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Series consultant: John Geddes

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000j9l4)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 Amongst Women, by John McGahern (m000j9k3)
Episode 5

Michael Moran’s life was forever transformed by his days of glory in the War of Independence. Now, a farmer in the Irish countryside, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past. However, as he grows older, his wife and daughters must confront how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by this complicated and contradictory man.

2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Amongst Women’, widely considered to be the author’s masterpiece. This intimate story of a family living on the Irish border, under the thumb of a former soldier turned tyrant in his own home, has never been more relevant.

The Author
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a Primary School teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. In the opinion of the Observer, John McGahern was 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Produced by Celia de Wolff for BBC Northern Ireland.

Writer ….. John McGahern
Abridger ..... John McGahern
Reader ….. Lloyd Hutchinson
Producer ….. Celia de Wolff


FRI 23:00 Great Lives (m000j80t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy (m0005hdh)
Series 2: 50 More Things...

QWERTY

The QWERTY keyboard layout has stood the test of time, from the clattering of early typewriters to the virtual keyboard on the screen of any smart-phone. Myths abound as to why keys are laid out this way – and whether there are much better alternatives languishing in obscurity. Tim Harford explains how this is a debate about far more than touch-typing: whether the QWERTY keyboard prospers because it works, or as an immovable relic of a commercial scramble in the late 19th century, is a question that affects how we should deal with the huge digital companies that now dominate our online experiences.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon


FRI 23:45 Today in Parliament (m000j9l6)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament