SATURDAY 01 AUGUST 2020

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000l8gd)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 Girl Taken (m000gn6g)
10. An End in Sight

BBC journalist Sue Mitchell and ex-soldier-turned- good-Samaritan Rob Lawrie thought they were involved in the heart-breaking, but straightforward story of an Afghan father and his motherless daughter as they struggled to get to Britain. The following four years saw Sue and Rob fall into a web of lies and life changing, mind changing events. Girl Taken is a 10 part hunt - across closed borders and broken promises - for the truth and to find a little girl, taken.

Producer: Sue Mitchell
Studio Production and Sound Design: Richard Hannaford


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000l8gg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000l8gj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000l8gl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m000l8gn)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000l8gq)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Very Reverend Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Dean of St Davids Cathedral


SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m000l7zh)
Embracing Uncertainty

Caoilinn Hughes discovers the power of embracing uncertainty instead of always fearing it. In her work as a writer and in life, she commends a little more leaping into the unknown.

Presenter: Olly Mann
Producer: Sheila Cook


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000lf0z)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m000l8qv)
Restoration in the Lake District

Ian Marchant talks to people involved in re-imagining the landscape and culture of the Lake District, with lines both sinuous and straight.

Lee Schofield of the RSPB has been part of a project to re-meander Swindale Beck, which had become canal-like after years of 'improvement'. Lee is used to the fruits of conservation work taking years, but this time, the results were virtually instantaneous. The team finished work one Friday when it started raining. A flash flood over the weekend brought calls from the onsite supervisor, afraid of disaster: the whole valley was flooded. Lee arrived back on Monday morning to find the river had become a gentle, naturally sinuous stream, with shallow gravel pools for the salmon to use as spawning grounds. The hay meadows on either bank no longer fill with stagnant standing water, and sand and stones don't get washed downstream.

Jim Bliss is the Conservation Manager of Lowther Estates and he is just beginning the estate's journey into ecological restoration, taking up fences, and selling the flock of 5000 sheep. Now they have Longhorn cattle, Tamworth pigs and soon, they hope, reintroduced beavers. There are also bees, which Jim hopes will be a measure of the success of the restoration, responding to the increased biodiversity of the flora with a bigger crop of honey.

Ian loves trains and so does Cedric Martindale, who is keeping alive a dream he has had for twenty-five years, to restore the Penrith to Keswick Rail Line. Nina Berry is a distinctive new playwright based in Cumbria, inspired by the landscape she grew up in. She's been commissioned by Paines Plough and Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, to write a new play in the series: Come To Where I Am.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m000lf11)
01/08/20 - Farming Today This Week: Consultation announced on gene editing

The government have announced they are going to hold a consultation in the autumn on whether to allow gene editing. Some argue that it simply accelerates the process that would have happened anyway with selective breeding and help crops be, for example, more resistant to drought. But not everyone is convinced and say they've heard the same promises from those promoting genetic modification of crops with very little results. Charlotte Smith picks her way through the events that led to this consultation and hears from those both for and against its introduction, and looks at how trade discussions are influencing the discussion. All this plus the riveting moment when a peregrine falcon chick in Northern Ireland falls from its nest. Spoiler alert - it's okay!

Producer: Toby Field


SAT 06:57 Weather (m000lf13)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m000lf15)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m000lf17)
Danielle de Niese and Loyd Grossman

Richard Coles and Bridgitte Tetteh are joined by Danielle de Niese who became the youngest ever winner of the Australian TV programme Young Talent Time at the age of 9. Her family relocated to Los Angeles, where Danielle made her professional operatic debut at the age of 15 with the Los Angeles Opera. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera at 19 and now performs around the world. She will host the TV coverage of the Proms 2020 later this summer.

Loyd Grossman claims he hasn’t had a career, he’s got a CV. It’s an extensive one; he was the presenter of TV programmes Through the Keyhole and the original MasterChef, he has been a punk guitarist, a journalist, a food critic and launched his own successful food line. And he is now a historian, having published a book about American artist Benjamin West in 2015 and now one on the Italian sculptor Bernini.

Sally Coulthard was a busy TV producer in London until she was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue syndrome in her late 20s. She was forced to move back home to Yorkshire where she fell in love with rural life. Sally, who has her own flock of sheep, has now published a book on how the woolly creatures have shaped the world.

Chris Steel was a bouncer in Blackpool when he returned to school to get his GCSEs. Unexpectedly, he fell in love with learning. Chris is about to embark on a PhD in cancer cell biology at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Producer: Laura Northedge
Editor: Richard Hooper


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000lf19)
Home Economics: Episode Twelve

Jay Rayner hosts the culinary panel show. Dr Annie Gray, Jordan Bourke, Rachel McCormack and Tim Anderson join from their kitchens to answer questions sent in by email and social media.

This week, the panel shares ideas for the perfect summer Sunday lunch, discusses the history and many uses of the grater, and comes up with ideas for making use of homegrown courgettes.

Producer: Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Jemima Rathbone

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Briefing Room (m000l8r9)
How to beat obesity

The government says “tackling obesity is one of the greatest long-term health challenges this country faces” and has published a plan to help people in England lose weight. What’s in it, what’s not, and what more could be done?

David Aaronovitch asks the experts:

David Buck is a senior fellow at the health think tank The Kings Fund and used to work for The Department of Health
Smitha Mundas is a doctor turned journalist and a health reporter for the BBC
Susan Jebb is Professor of Diet and Population Health at the University of Oxford, and a member of the Public Health England Obesity Programme.
Professor Corinna Hawkes is Director of the Centre for Food Policy at City University and Vice Chair of the London Child Obesity Task force.

Producers: Ben Crighton, Kirsteen Knight and Joe Kent
Studio Manager: James Beard
Editor: Jasper Corbett.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m000lf1c)
Taking on the ruler of Belarus

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya had nothing to do with politics until recently, and has now become the main opposition candidate for the presidential election in Belarus on the 9th of August. She became a candidate when her husband, a leading opposition leader, was suddenly jailed. Jean Mackenzie was able to meet her, and the other women taking on President Lukashenko who has ruled for 26 years.
In Australia, relations with its main trading partner China are the worst they've been for decades, over issues ranging from the coronavirus to tariffs on beef and barley. And Australians of Chinese descent are increasingly becoming the victims of racist abuse. Frances Mao, Chinese-Australian herself, reports from Sydney.
Florida has reported a record high daily death toll from Covid-19, and governor Ron DeSantis has been under pressure to toughen up restrictions. There is no state-wide requirement to wear masks, but individual cities like Miami have imposed them. Attitudes to the virus remain quite divided, as Tamara Gil has been discovering in Miami.
Laos was neutral in the Vietnam war, but was heavily bombed by the Americans anyway, as their North Vietnamese enemies ran supply routes to American-backed South Vietnam via the country. Unexploded ordinance from that time are blighting lives in Laos decades later, as Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent found out.
If a common language divides Britain and America, as they say, then how much more does a separate language divide Britain and France? The single word postilion or postillon in French sheds quite a lot of light on what makes these countries so different, says Hugh Schofield in Paris, who is fluent in both languages.

Presenter: Kate Adie
Producer: Arlene Gregorius


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m000lf1f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m000ldnp)
The latest news from the world of personal finance


SAT 12:30 Summer Comedy Festival (m000l8fx)
Episode 2

Expect a summer festival with a difference as some of the nation's favourite comics turn curators and host a virtual festival featuring their favourite performers from the worlds of comedy, literature and spoken word. They'll be in control of everything (even the weather) as we're taken along for the ride to not only hear some great performances but also to get an insight into the cultural radars of our celebrity hosts.

In episode 2 it's Jo Brand's turn as chief curator as she brings together all her favourite festival ingredients for a celebration of poetry. She's joined by performance poets Nafeesa Hamid and Hollie McNish as well as the impressionist Lewis MacLeod and the comedy poet, John Hegley.

Producer: Richard Morris
Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound: Chris McLean
A BBC Studios Production


SAT 12:57 Weather (m000lf1h)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m000lf1k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m000l8g1)
Professor Mary Beard, Paul Johnson, Bob Seely MP, Emily Thornberry MP

Chris Mason presents political debate from Broadcasting House in London with a panel including the classicist Professor Mary Beard, the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Paul Johnson the MP for the Isle of Wight Bob Seely and the Shadow International Trade Secretary Emily Thornberry.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m000lf1m)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 One to One (m000jg8y)
Veggie roots: Miles Chambers meets the inventor of the Vegeburger

Miles Chambers grew up in a veggie household in the 70s - the Vegeburger was a staple in his childhood. He meets the plant-based pioneer, Gregory Sams, who came up with the idea.

As Miles got older, he grew to love the melding of Caribbean flavours with the fats of meats. He looks back with guilt on the lifestyle he left behind - especially now plant-based diets are mainstream. He wants to talk to those who have played a role in the meat-free movement, about their lives and experiences - how the movement has changed over the years, and whether he should return to his plant-based roots.

Greg Sams founded Seed in Paddington - the first vegetarian restaurant in London, and a favourite spot for the likes of Mark Bolan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Later he founded the first organic food store, before inventing the Vegeburger - having never tasted a meat burger himself.

Greg explains that while he spent decades advocating a meat-free diet, one experience changed his view.


SAT 15:00 Saturday Drama (b01mny0r)
The Martin Beck Killings

The Locked Room

Steven Mackintosh and Neil Pearson star as Martin Beck and Lennart Kollberg in the Swedish detective series that inspired a generation of crime writers.

The Locked Room. On his return to work after recuperating from a bullet wound in the chest, Martin Beck's first case is a conundrum: the body of a man who has been shot dead is discovered in a sealed room, but there is is no gun. Meanwhile, Kollberg and Larsson are on the trail of a pair of bank robbers.

Narrator 1 ... Lesley Sharp
Narrator 2 ... Nicholas Gleaves
Martin Beck ... Steven Mackintosh
Lennart Kollberg ... Neil Pearson
Gunvald Larsson ... Ralph Ineson
Einar Rönn ... Wayne Foskett
Bulldozer Olsson ... Michael Maloney
Malm ... Nick Murchie
Sten/Police Commissioner ... Rick Warden
Mauritzon ... Ewan Bailey
Ake/Manager/Doctor ... Ben Crowe
Monita ... Philippa Stanton
Clerk/Insurance Woman ... Joanna Brookes
Pathologist/Ingela ... Hannah Wood
Gustavsson ... David Seddon
Rhea ... Nadine Marshall
Zachrisson ... Joe Sims
Hjelm/Warehouse man - old ... Robert Blythe
Detective Sergeant/Warehouse man - young ... Matthew Watson
Original music by Elizabeth Purnell
Directed by Mary Peate
Dramatised by Katie Hims

Original novels by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö
Translated by Paul Britten Austin


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m000lf1p)
Recovering after domestic abuse, Black women in music, Bicycle saddles

We discuss the process of recovery after domestic abuse, the way that these relationships can stay with you but also how you can build a new life after. How do those who have survived abuse find their behaviour affected? What do they wish that their friends and family had understood? And how can friends and family can help? With Sue Penna, co-founder of Rockpool who deliver trauma-informed training programmes for those working with survivors of abuse, and Jennifer Gilmour, an author and advocate for women in abusive relationships, and founder of #AbuseTalk on twitter and the Abuse Talk podcast.

The school summer holidays are underway across the UK – but this year they’re going to be a bit different. Thanks to coronavirus there’s a shortage of childcare and holiday clubs, helpful grandparents are mostly off-limits, parents are already exhausted from juggling home-working and home-school for four months, and teenagers are faced with another six weeks of restricted freedoms. So how are people planning to make it through to September? Joeli Brearley is the founder of Pregnant then Screwed, and Leann Cross is the director of Home Start Greenwich.

Now that cycling may soon be on prescription and bikes are soaring in popularity due to the pandemic, how can women ensure they have a pain-free ride? Endurance cyclist and coach Jasmijn Muller talks about what she’s learned from years of serious pain, and specialist women’s cycling physio Bianca Broadbent gives her top troubleshooting tips for everything from saddles to lubricating cream, and not wearing pants.

We explore what it’s like to be a black woman and work in the music industry. Jacqueline Springer is a music lecturer and journalist. Fleur East is an artist and songwriter who rose to fame after coming second on the X Factor in 2014. Lioness MC is a Grime rapper who has been making songs for over 10 years.

In her book Sex Robots and Vegan Meat, journalist Jenny Kleeman explores seismic changes in four core areas of human experience: birth, food, sex and death. We hear about the implications of fully functioning artificial wombs and what sex robots mean for future relationships between men and women.

In the next of our summer series of How to guides, we discuss how to end your relationship well. It seems lockdown has accelerated the process for some couples, with one UK-wide legal services firm reporting a 42% increase in enquiries about divorce between March and May. We offer you expert suggestions on managing the practical, emotional, legal and financial aspects of splitting up, with the least damage to you and others. Jenni is joined by family lawyer and mediator Rebekah Gershuny, FT Money digital editor Lucy Warwick-Ching, family therapist Joanne Hipplewith and founder of amicable Kate Daly.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Rosie Stopher


SAT 17:00 PM (m000lf1r)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 The Inquiry (m000lf1t)
Can we dismiss QAnon?

The far right conspiracy theory featuring child molesters and baby eaters may sound far-fetched, but the FBI names Q Anon in a report warning conspiracy theorists pose a growing threat of violence. So can we dismiss Q Anon?

Q releases anonymous internet posts and claims to have a high level of security clearance in the US, signing messages with only ‘Q’. The cryptic posts apparently reveal that Trump is fighting a battle against the deep state and trying to take on an A-list paedophile ring. The followers decode the messages and enjoy feeling part of an online community who have ‘insider knowledge’. There’s no evidence behind any of it. The worrying thing is, it’s not just an online community, some followers have taken real world action, turning up in the desert with guns to hunt for satanic child molesters and a murder suspect has appeared in court with a letter Q written on his palm. Recently, Twitter announced a crackdown on the QAnon followers.

Presenter: Neal Razzell
Producer: Phoebe Keane


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000lf1w)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m000lf1y)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000lf20)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m000lddk)
Jade Anouka, Sindhu Vee, Ben Hart, Raphael Rowe, Black Pumas, Lady Blackbird, Christopher Eccleston, Nikki Bedi

Nikki Bedi and Christopher Eccleston are joined by Jade Anouka, Ben Hart, Sindhu Vee and Raphael Rowe for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Black Pumas and Lady Blackbird.

Studio Manager: Emma Harth
Producer: Sukey Firth


SAT 19:00 The Long View (m000k7j8)
Rethink

The Unexpected Impact of the Black Death

Jonathan Freedland returns with a special series of The Long View for the Radio 4 Rethink season. As the country looks for the best ways to recover from the pandemic and examine how it might change society for the better in its aftermath, Jonathan and his guests consider national crises in our past and ask how those in power at the time sought to rethink their future.

Episode one - Dr Helen Lacey on the unforeseen consequences of the Black Death of 1349 on British society.

Producer: Philip Sellars


SAT 19:15 The Reith Lectures (b08vy0y6)
Hilary Mantel

Silence Grips the Town

The story of how an obsessive relationship with history killed the young Polish writer Stanislawa Przybyszewska, told by best-selling author, Hilary Mantel. The brilliant Przybyszewska wrote gargantuan plays and novels about the French Revolution, in particular about the revolutionary leader Robespierre. She lived in self-willed poverty and isolation and died unknown in 1934. But her work, so painfully achieved, did survive her. Was her sacrifice worthwhile? "She embodied the past until her body ceased to be," Dame Hilary says. "Multiple causes of death were recorded, but actually she died of Robespierre."

Over the course of these five lectures, she discusses the role that history plays in our lives. How do we view the past, she asks, and what is our relationship with the dead? The lecture is recorded before an audience in the ancient Vleeshuis in Antwerp, a city which features in Mantel's novels about Thomas Cromwell and the cosmopolitan world of the early Tudors. The lecture is followed by a question and answer session chaired by Sue Lawley.

The producer is Jim Frank.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m000lf23)
The Crunch Convention

Two rivals for the Presidency. Two visions for America.

Built from archived editions of Letter from America, we revisit the 1980 Democratic Convention with Alistair Cooke.

The clash between sitting President Jimmy Carter, and his rival for the Democrats’ nomination Edward “Teddy” Kennedy, broke the Democratic Party and uncovered old wounds.

At that moment, the party, as well as the United States, were at a turning point. Old loyalties were being broken as the Republican Party under Richard Nixon and later Ronald Reagan employed a southern strategy to peel away the Democrats’ white base.

Kennedy’s liberal vision of America challenged his party to move from the centre ground, and further to the left. To speak more strongly for minorities, the poor and the dispossessed.

Using archive, historians and eye-witnesses, this Archive on 4 tells how one election frames American politics in the years since.

Produced by Glyn Tansley


SAT 21:00 Tracks (b09h6k0z)
Series 2: Strata

Omnibus Part 1

By Matthew Broughton

Snowdonia, 1980. It's the dawn of a new decade and the future is coming. But in the wilds of Snowdonia, the ancient history of the landscape is hard to escape. Rachel Turner is looking for fossils with her four-year-old son, Joe. But when a freak earthquake shakes the land beneath their feet, Joe vanishes. With the help of two locals, Rachel embarks on a desperate search to find her son. But as darkness descends, the secrets hidden in the ancient forests of the mountain are uncovered.

The first series of Tracks became the most successful drama series launched by Radio 4 in 2016. Over nine 45 minute episodes it told the story of Dr Helen Ash, as she uncovered a dark medical conspiracy. It received a five-star iTunes rating, was one of Apple's chosen podcasts of the year 2016, won awards for Best Use of Sound (Audio Drama Awards) and Best Fiction (British Podcast Awards) and is nominated for Best Series at the Prix Europa.

Tracks: Strata is a prequel to series one, set thirty-six years before the events that rocked the life of Helen Ash. It stars Fiona O'Shaughnessy (Utopia), Kai Owen (Torchwood) and Robert Pugh (Game of Thrones). Told over six fifteen minute episodes, the drama is an 'online first' commission for Radio 4 - it will be serialised as a podcast online before being broadcast on air as two forty-five minute Afternoon Dramas.

Tracks: Strata explores the roots of a conspiracy that's set to envelop the world in the third series, which will arrive on Radio 4 next year.

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.


SAT 21:45 Goodnight, Vienna (b04vk1cz)
Jonke's Schnitzel, by James Hopkin

A multi-contributor series of specially-commissioned radio stories about this most beguiling of cities. To the outsider, Vienna can be a state of mind as much as an actual place.

Episode 2 (of 3): Jonke's Schnitzel by James Hopkin
The Narrenturm, or Tower Of Fools, was once the principal mental asylum in Vienna. It has now been reopened. But to what purpose?

James Hopkin's short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4, including The Mural At Frau Krauser's, A Georgian Trilogy and A Dalmatian Trilogy, which was broadcast in 2012. He is currently working on his second novel.

Reader: Tim McInnerny

Produced by Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 22:00 News (m000lf25)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (m000l80x)
The Death of the City?

Our normally bustling cities have been eerily quiet for months. It’s reminiscent of the post-apocalyptic horror film, ‘28 Days Later’. The lockdown is proving costly; Westminster Abbey has lost more than £12 million in revenue this year and is set to lay off one in five of its staff. Theatre bosses say they must reopen without social distancing in time for Christmas or face oblivion. Restrictions are beginning to ease but for many cafes, pubs, shops, clubs and restaurants, the pandemic could be terminal. Museums, galleries, churches and office developments will struggle to justify their continued existence; should they be bailed out by the taxpayer? Perhaps each of us has a moral duty to head uptown on a shopping spree, take in a show and dine out? Yet this is about more than jobs and tourism; it raises bigger questions about the value we put on cities. If a ghost town is sad, a dead city is surely a tragedy. Since ancient Athens, cities, for many, have been the cultural jewels in civilisation’s crown, creative cauldrons of multicultural mingling and springboards to success. Others cite London, for example, as a social, cultural and economic drain on the life of our country. They believe that declining big cities give us an opportunity to revive towns, to end the suburban commuter crawl, beef up provincial culture, restore lost industries, embrace home-working and cut carbon emissions. Are big cities an unquestionable moral good, worth preserving in their current state? Or, in the new post-Covid world, is there a better way of organising the way we live? With Richard Burge, Paul Chatterton, Tom Cheesewright and Dr Jonathan Rowson.

Producer: Dan Tierney.


SAT 23:00 The 3rd Degree (m000l7q5)
Series 10

Ulster University

Steve Punt hosts the funny, lively and dynamic quiz from Ulster University.

This week's specialist subjects are engineering, sport, physical activity and health, and pharmacy and pharmaceutical studies, and the questions range from chuck keys to trampolines via CAT scans and cannabinol.

The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three undergraduates against three of their professors in a genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz

The rounds vary between specialist subjects and general knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the Highbrow and Lowbrow round, cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their professors’ awareness of television, sport, and quite possibly Ed Sheeran. In addition, there are the head-to-head rounds, in which students take on their professors in their own subjects - with plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides.

In this series, the universities are Bournemouth, Imperial College, Reading, Durham, Ulster University and Mansfield College Oxford.

The host, Steve Punt, although best known as a satirist on The Now Show, is also someone who delights in all facets of knowledge, - not just in the humanities (his educational background) but in the sciences as well. As well as The Now Show, he has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4 on subjects as varied as The Poet Unwound - The History Of The Spleen and Getting The Gongs - an investigation into awards ceremonies.

Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:30 There Will Be Singing (m000l7kk)
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing
About the dark times.
– Bertolt Brecht, Motto to the Svendborg Poems

The German poet and playwright wrote these lines while living in exile in Denmark in the last years of the 1930s. When faced with traumatic times, how do we find the strength to sing? What does the poet write, against the backdrop of war, unrest, injustice, a global pandemic? The Lebanese poet Zeina Hashem Beck writes a new poem in response to Brecht and speaks to three poets whose work recognizes the cruelty of the world and simultaneously tries to praise it: Naomi Shihab Nye, Ross Gay and Tishani Doshi.

Dear Brecht,
Is it Brecht? With a خ?
I’m tired of singing. My country breaks
me. I wanted to consider the walnut tree, but yesterday
my hometown burnt. A young man dead. Then undead.
I will not use the word blooms with blood.
His white shirt—not a field.
- Zeina Hashem Beck

Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet whose most recent collection is Louder than Hearts (Bauhan Publishing, 2017). Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry, The New York Times, The Adroit Journal, The Academy of American Poets, Poetry London, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. She currently lives in Dubai.

Producer: Mair Bosworth



SUNDAY 02 AUGUST 2020

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000lf27)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 The Way I See It (m0009s1d)
Es Devlin on Felix Gonzalez-Torres's Perfect Lovers

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 British stage designer and sculptor Es Devlin. Devlin has made large scale touring stage sculptures in collaboration with Beyoncé, Kanye West Adele, U2, and the Royal Opera House in London, as well as designing the London Olympic Closing Ceremony in 2012. She has selected Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Perfect Lovers - in which two synchronized clocks, like those typically found in offices and public spaces, are displayed side by side. One will inevitably stop before the other. Created whilst Felix Gonzalez-Torres's partner was ill, it embodies the tension that comes from two people living side-by-side as life moves forward towards death. Laycock died of AIDS six years before Gonzalez-Torres's own death in 1996. What will one of the world's greatest set designers see in this simple, poignant work?

Producer: Tom Alban

Main Image: Felix Gonzalez-Torres,"Untitled" (Perfect Lovers), 1991. Clocks, paint on wall, overall 14 x 28 x 2 3/4" (35.6 x 71.2 x 7 cm). Gift of the Dannheisser Foundation, The Museum of Modern Art, 177.1996.a-b. © 2019 The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, Courtesy Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York


SUN 00:30 The Poet and the Echo (m000l8fl)
The Idler

Writers choose poems as inspiration for new stories.

The Idler

Poet, essayist and activist, Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson was a mixed-race American born in Louisiana a decade after the Civil War.

Hannah Lavery takes inspiration from her poem about an idle man to create a moving and timely meditation on the value of taking life at a slower pace.

Credits

Writer ….. Hannah Lavery
Reader ….. Anneika Rose
Producer ….. Kirsty Williams

A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000lf29)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000lf2c)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000lf2f)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000lf2h)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000ldnx)
St Giles Church in Ashtead, Surrey.

Bells on Sunday comes from St Giles Church in Ashtead, Surrey. There’s a long history of bell ringing at St Giles, which had a ring of six cast in 1725, made from three pre-existing bells. The current ring of eight was cast in 1873. We hear the St Giles Society of Change Ringers with part of a quarter peal of Ashtead Surprise Major.


SUN 05:45 The Long View (m000k7j8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News (m000ldkb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b039yz4g)
Seeking Eurydice

Orpheus' descent to the underworld to bring Eurydice back to life is a powerful myth, and one that has a special hold over artists and anyone who is grieving. But how can someone who believes in the finality of death reconcile this conviction with an Orphic reluctance to let go? After losing a friend, Jo Fidgen goes in search of an afterlife that an atheist can believe in.

With readings from Czeslaw Milosz, Rainer Maria Rilke and Ali Smith; and music by David Lang, Karl Jenkins and Beethoven. The programme also includes an interview with a Sami reindeer herder about the tradition of bringing the dead to life in song.

Readers: Emma Fielding and Jonathan Keeble
Producer: Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m000ldkd)
Secrets Beneath the Soil

Can the history of a field affect the crops that grow in it today? The answer is yes.

In this programme, the historian, Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, visits a farm in Oxfordshire looking for secrets buried beneath the soil. She speaks to archaeologists and farmers about the impact historical human activity can have on today's crops; from raised phosphate levels on the site of a Roman villa, to increased lead along an old track.

She leans how the past can be used to inform the future of farming.

Producer: Heather Simons


SUN 06:57 Weather (m000ldkg)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000ldkj)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000ldkl)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000ldkn)
Royal Life Saving Society UK

Television personality and maths enthusiast Johnny Ball makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Royal Life Saving Society UK.

To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘Royal Life Saving Society UK’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Royal Life Saving Society UK’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4

Registered Charity Number: 1046060/SC037912


SUN 07:57 Weather (m000ldks)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000ldkx)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000ldl3)
Encountering God in abandonment

The Rev Dr Isabelle Hamley, Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury charts her walk with God and with Covid-19. In a recent Thought for the Day on Radio 4 Dr Hamley spelt out the devastating effects Covid-19 has had on her personally, an early sufferer from the disease, referring to the biblical book of Job. "Job goes from being incredibly fortunate to losing everything, his wealth his loved ones, his health." Job's friends were "explaining away what happened, finding meaning in Job's continued plague, even blaming him." But the bible is deeply realistic. His friends are fighting their own battle with fear. Job is fighting with meaninglessness and trauma. "Job never finds out why he suffered. Instead he meets God face to face and finds solace in his presence." In this programme the Archbishop's chaplain will bring other portions of scripture to bear as they relate to wider suffering across the world. What can people of faith and none draw from ancient spiritual wisdom as the world faces a pandemic unprecedented in recent human memory? Producer: Andrew Earis.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000l8g3)
The Big Benefits of Smallness

"There's nothing wrong with ambition," writes Linda Colley, "but coming to terms with our inescapable geographical smallness would be helpful."
She says historically there's been a tendency to kick against this awkward fact and an obsession with the idea of a global Britain.
Linda argues that we should recognise the advantages of smallness - nourishing a nation's innovation and agility.

Producer: Adele Armstrong


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m0002rm1)
Geoff Sample's Orphean Warbler

For wildlife sound recordist Geoff Sample hearing the jazz like notes of the Orphean warbler on the island of Lesvos reminds me of the legend of how the bird got its name.

All this week Geoff will be selecting his bird species from the Tweet of the Day archive which can be heard again on the Tweet of the Week Omnibus.

Producer : Andrew Dawes


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000ldl8)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000ldlg)
Writers, Naylah Ahmed & Daniel Thurman
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Tony Archer ..... David Troughton
Johnny Phillips ..... Tom Gibbons
Harrison Burns ..... James Cartwright
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Joy Horville ..... Jackie Lye


SUN 10:55 Tweet of the Day (m000ldln)
Tweet Take 5 : Oystercatcher

The piping call of the oystercatcher is a familiar sound while walking along a rocky shore. Their piercing alarm call is often heard as they fly away from you into the distance, yet this black and white bird holds many fond memories of days beachcombing surrounded by their calls. In this extended version of Tweet of the Day, we hear from wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan, author Michael Morpurgo and from theatre maker and poet Tara Robinson.

Producer Andrew Dawes


SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000ldlw)
Steve Backshall, Explorer

Steve Backshall is an explorer, naturalist and broadcaster.

His BAFTA-winning programmes bring viewers of every generation closer to nature – from the children's series Deadly 60, featuring close encounters with the most dangerous and venomous creatures on earth, to Blue Planet Live and Springwatch.

His interest in the natural world began at a young age, after his parents decided to swap their terraced house for a smallholding with goats, ducks and geese.

His big break as a broadcaster arrived when National Geographic offered him the post of Adventurer in Residence and he’s been taking on the most arduous challenges and toughest environments on earth ever since. He ran a marathon in the Sahara and has swum cage-free with great white sharks.

His adventures have also brought him many near-death moments. He broke his back while rock climbing and recently almost drowned while kayaking in Bhutan.

Steve is married to the Olympic champion rower Helen Glover, and they have a two year old son and twins born earlier this year.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor


SUN 11:45 The Alien Birds Have Landed (b01m0lgg)
The Pheasant

Alison Steadman tells the story of why and how so many birds that make up the avifauna of Britain are aliens from elsewhere. Programme one: pheasant.
Producer: Tim Dee


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000lgwx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m000l7qh)
Another half-hour of quality desk-based entertainment for all the family comes to you once more from the Theatre Royal in Nottingham, 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 (m000ldf2)
Return of the Restaurant?

Slowly but surely, restaurants are emerging from the coronavirus lockdown, introducing us to a new world of dining out, with added hygiene and distancing measures.

But some outlets aren’t able to open safely yet - some may never open again. And although small, independent outlets might seem like the most obvious victims of this crisis, no business is immune to the effects of Covid-19; as we've seen from the slew of recent closures announced by established high-street brands.

There has been government support for hospitality businesses in the shape of grants, for those who can access them; the staff furlough scheme; the dine-in VAT cut; and the new ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ meal discount scheme that launches this month. But with the situation still precarious, will it be enough?

Today, Sheila Dillon finds out how Britain’s £130-billion hospitality industry is managing its post-lockdown come-back.

We hear from Tanya Gold, food critic for The Spectator Magazine, on the reality of distanced dining; Mark Lewis from the benevolent charity Hospitality Action discusses the influx of requests for support they've seen in recent months; and Vernon Mascarenhas from fruit and veg supplier Nature's Choice talks about how the pandemic has permanently changed the supply sector.

We also follow the fortunes of the north London Nigerian tapas restaurant Chuku’s, as sibling founders Ifeyinwa and Emeka Frederick gear up to the big reopening.

A BBC Audio production presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m000ldmc)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000ldmk)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000ldmr)
Fi Glover presents the longer weekly edition of the programme on the shared experience of being in lockdown and beyond.

In this edition two recent university students who have never met compare notes on coming to terms with their 'new normal' -online graduation ceremonies and curtailed plans for the future; strangers from different parts of North Yorkshire – one a bus driver and the other coach driver - share their passion for being behind the wheel and working for the community they live in; two women from different parts of the country talk about the joys of taking up cycling again during lockdown - the first time since childhood; and an older couple who live with a grown-up son who has Down’s Syndrome reflect on how the last few months have been for the 3 of them.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation. The
conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moments of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in this decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Mohini Patel


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000l8fj)
GQT At Home: Episode Eighteen

Kathy Clugston presents the horticultural panel show with gardening experts. Anne Swithinbank, James Wong and Matthew Wilson are on hand to answer questions sent in via email and social media.

This week, the panel discusses adding colour to your flowerbed, taking care of an orchid and gardening gloves suitable for heavy duty work.

Away from the questions, Peter Gibbs visits the exotic garden at RHS Wisley to chat to Matthew Pottage and Dr Helen Hoyle, and Pippa Greenwood has tips for inviting bees and butterflies to your garden.

Producer - Laurence Bassett
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 The Way I See It (m0009t1c)
Renee Fleming chooses Colors for a Large Wall

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 American operatic soprano, Renee Fleming. Winner of the National Medal of Arts and Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal winner, she is the only classical singer ever to have performed the U.S. National Anthem at the Super Bowl. Renee has chosen Ellsworth Kelly’s 1951 work, Colors for a Large Wall - a collage of painted, multi-coloured squares. What is it about this work that hits Renee Fleming's high notes?

Producer: Paul Kobrak

Main Image: Ellsworth Kelly, Colors for a Large Wall, 1951. Oil on canvas, sixty-four panels, 7' 10 1/2" x 7' 10 1/2" (240 x 240 cm). Gift of the artist, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1067.1969.a-b. © 2019 Ellsworth Kelly


SUN 15:00 Drama (b067vjwk)
Closely Observed Trains

It is 1945. For gauche young apprentice Milos Hrma, life at the sleepy railway station in Bohemia is full of complex preoccupations. There is the burden of dispatching German troop trains; the shocking scandal of Dispatcher Hubicka; and the vexing problem of his sexual performance.

Classic comedy drama from celebrated Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal.

Dramatised by Ian Kershaw

Milos ..... John Bradley
Masha/Virginia ..... Verity Henry
Hubicka ..... Jason Done
Lansky ..... Howard Chadwick
Mother/Viktoria ..... Fiona Clarke
Slusny/Father ..... Jonathan Keeble
Zednicek ..... Hamilton Berstock

Closely Observed Trains, which became the award-winning Jiri Menzel film of the 'Prague Spring', is a classic of post-war literature, a small masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism.

Director: Gary Brown

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.


SUN 16:00 Bookclub (b081tdpc)
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

August's edition is a Classic Bookclub - Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped - and is part of BBC Radio 4's ongoing support for students during the Covid-19 crisis. In the absence of Stevenson, our guide to the book is author Louise Welsh, who has written an opera inspired by him.

Kidnapped is one Stevenson’s best loved titles. It’s an historical adventure novel set in Scotland after the Jacobite rising of 1745 and tells the adventures of the recently orphaned sixteen year old David Balfour, as he journeys through the dangerous Scottish Highlands in an attempt to regain his rightful inheritance.

James Naughtie says : "As a young boy Robert Louis Stevenson was my guide to adventure. Kidnapped was always at hand and, like Treasure Island, it introduced me to great story-telling. A boy alone in a country torn apart by war, betrayed by a sad but wicked uncle, and a coming-of-age through adversity. Reading it again, I can still feel the thrill of the first time. That's what great books do".

Author Louise Welsh has said “I think if you were to stop any Scottish writer and ask them to list their top three writers that made them want to write they would mention Stevenson. He’s always been number one for me.”

Bookclub on Kidnapped is recorded as always with an audience of readers, including members of the RLS Club, local school children and university students, at the Hawes Inn, Queensferry, where Stevenson is thought to have started the novel in 1866. The programme was first broadcast in November 2016.

An unabridged reading of Kidnapped is available on BBC Sounds.

Presenter James Naughtie
Interviewed guest : Louise Welsh
Producer : Dymphna Flynn

September's Bookclub Choice : My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (2019)


SUN 16:30 Fothermather (m000ldn5)
When Belfast poet Gail McConnell's son was growing in her partner's womb, Gail was writing poems exploring what it means to be a non-biological parent in a same-sex relationship. Gail's poem 'Untitled/Villanelle' lets go of the binaries of motherhood and fatherhood and imagines these roles in more fluid terms as a parent with a bit of both...a Fothermather. We meet Gail, her partner Beth and their son Finn as Gail tries to find language for a family structure we don't have words for yet.

Producer: Conor Garrett


SUN 17:00 The Homeless Hotel (m000l8lr)
Simon had been sleeping in shop doorways in Manchester for three years when the coronavirus pandemic reached the UK. Suddenly, as the government released emergency funding to get people sleeping rough off the streets during lockdown, Simon found himself being offered an en suite room at the Holiday Inn. This is the story of the unprecedented operation to get the country’s street homeless inside - told through one hotel in Manchester. The experience has been transformational for some, including Simon - proof that radical change can happen and happen fast. Government ministers say this is an opportunity to end rough sleeping “for good”. But homelessness charities are warning that as emergency funding runs out, people will end up back on the streets. So what will happen to Simon and others like him as the country moves out of lockdown?

Reporter/Producer: Simon Maybin


SUN 17:40 The Long View (m000k7j8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000ldn9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m000ldnc)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000ldnf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000ldnh)
This week……

Art as a weapon for social change and Art Garfunkel. Mind reading and the music of Mendelssohn.
We say goodbye to a warning device and hello to a new memoir from Director Oliver Stone
There’s truth and lies from past and present plus adventure and survival over the Atlantic.
Greg James goes on a global mission and a furry friend makes its radio debut

Presenter: Testament
Producer: Stephen Garner
Production support: Dave James
Studio Manager: Richard Hannaford

Contact: potw@bbc.co.uk


SUN 19:00 The Whisperer In Darkness (m000lhkt)
Episode 1

An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?

The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.

Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.

Episode One
Henry Akeley, an old student from Dr Eleanor Peck’s folklore and witchcraft course, has gone missing. Could this be Heawood's next story?

Cast:

Kennedy Fisher.........................JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood....................BARNABY KAY
Eleanor Peck.............................NICOLA WALKER
Henry Akeley.............................DAVID CALDER

Producer: Karen Rose

Director/Writer: Julian Simpson

Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling & Holly Slater

Music: Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


SUN 19:15 Cabin Pressure (b00lyvz7)
Series 2

Kuala Lumpur

A week on stand-by at the airfield gives Arthur an opportunity to brush up on his stewarding skills, while Douglas seems to have disappeared. And why is everyone terrified of Dirk the groundsman?

Starring
Carolyn Knapp-Shappey ..... Stephanie Cole
1st Officer Douglas Richardson ..... Roger Allam
Capt. Martin Crieff ..... Benedict Cumberbatch
Arthur Shappey ..... John Finnemore
Dave ..... Paul Putner
George ..... Roger Morlidge

Written by John Finnemore.

Produced & directed by David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Fabuloso (m000ldnl)
It Was Too Hot

The first of two short stories specially written to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Brighton and Hove Pride.

Brighton and Hove Pride's theme for this year’s online-only festival is Fabuloso - a fantastic and fabulous celebration of who you are. The schedule will be tied together by live presenters from a purpose built studio in Brighton and will feature performers and highlights that were already planned for Pride In The Park as well as archive footage of iconic acts from past years.

1: It Was Too Hot by Lesley Sharp
Veronica (Ronnie) reluctantly accepts Stephanie's invitation to join the Moss family's Pride Pool Party. Her first impressions reinforce her reservations, but Ronnie hasn't bargained on finding first love over a bag of spilt cherries.

Reader: Zooey Gleaves
Producer: Celia de Wolff
Sound Engineer: David Thomas

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000l8fq)
Is there any point in Radio 4 broadcasting comedy programmes such as the News Quiz without a studio audience and with all the panellists in different places?

The executive in charge, Julia McKenzie, joins Roger Bolton to discuss comedy under coronavirus restrictions, and whether Just a Minute will return now that its legendary presenter Nicholas Parsons has left the stage.

And the BBC';s Director of Radio and Education, James Purnell, discusses the recently announced plan to improve representation of minorities in radio and answers questions from a listener who suggests that improving diversity of class at the BBC is just as important.

Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Alun Beach
Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000l8fn)
Stuart Wheeler, Josephine Cox, Miloš Jakeš, Peter Green

Pictured: Stuart Wheeler

Matthew Bannister on

Stuart Wheeler, the spread betting tycoon who used his millions to fund anti-EU political parties and campaigns.

Josephine Cox, the multi-million selling author whose novels often drew on her working class childhood in Blackburn.

Miloš Jakeš, the General Secretary of the Czech Communist Party at the time of the Velvet Revolution.

Peter Green, the revered guitarist who founded Fleetwood Mac, but later suffered severe mental health problems.

Interviewed guest: Philip Collins
Interviewed guest: Kimberley Young
Interviewed guest: Professor Mary Heimann
Interviewed guest: Bernie Marsden

Producer: Steven Williams

Archive clips from: HARDtalk, BBC News 24 11/10/2019; General Election, ITN 24/05/2001; Nigel Farage on Stuart Wheeler, VoteLeaveMedia 02/04/2009; A Woman’s Fortune by Josephine Cox, read by Carole Boyd, Audible/HarperCollins 2018; Woman's Hour, Radio 4 02/09/1999; Woman’s Hour, Radio 4 09/10/2001; The Lion’s Den by Josephine Cox, read by Robert Glenister, Radio 4 Extra 24/04/2011; The Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia 1968, BBC News 21/08/2018; Miloš Jakeš speech, Radio Free Europe 17/07/1989; People’s Century: 1989: People Power, BBC One 16/02/1997; BBC News, BBC One 10/12/1989; Peter Green: Man of the World, BBC Four 04/02/2011; The Works: Peter Green: A Hard Road, BBC Two 03/10/1996.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000ldnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000ldkn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (m000l8rc)
The Jobs Challenge

As the UK emerges from the coronavirus lockdown, millions of employees are still furloughed – either fully or part-time – with most of their salaries paid by the government. But how many of them really have jobs to go back to? Already companies including British Airways, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar Landrover and Centrica, to name just a few, have announced thousands of job losses and no-one knows what the true picture will look like by the autumn, as government support is removed.

There are dire warnings that the labour market could be as bad or even worse than the 1980s. Jonty Bloom asks whose jobs are most at risk from the economic damage wreaked by Covid 19 and what help is needed.

Producer Caroline Bayley


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000ldnr)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000l8qx)
Odds Against Tomorrow

Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) is late but essential film noir. Unusual for many reasons not least that it starred and was executive produced by Harry Belafonte. It also beat the Hollywood blacklist with a script from Abraham Polonsky. As Francine Stock uncovers, with a previously unheard Polonsky interview, the film forms part of an unofficial trilogy of radical noirs. Beginning with the acclaimed John Garfield boxing romance Body & Soul in 1947, deepening with the poetic indictment of capitalism in Force of Evil and ending with the bleak, destructive racism of Odds Against Tomorrow. The three films form a noir route map through the stars, possibilities and politics of films out of the shadows of American life. With the voices of Edward Dymtryk, Foster Hirsch, Fritz Lang & Abraham Polonsky.
Producer: Mark Burman


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b039yz4g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 03 AUGUST 2020

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000ldnt)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m00094jg)
Estates

Council estates: Laurie Taylor talks to Insa Lee Koch, Associate Professor in Anthropology at LSE, and author of a new study which explores the history of housing estates and the everyday lives of residents on one such estate in southern England. How did council housing turn from being a marker of social inclusion to a marker of abject failure? Also, the origins and symbolism of the ‘sink estate’, a term invented by journalists and amplified by think tanks and politicians. Tom Slater, Professor of Urban Geography at the University of Edinburgh, traces the usage of this term and the long-term impact of associating council estate residents with effluence and sewage. Revised repeat.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000ldnx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000ldnz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000ldp1)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000ldp3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000ldp5)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000ldp7)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Very Reverend Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Dean of St Davids Cathedral


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000ldp9)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


MON 05:56 Weather (m000ldpc)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


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

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

Producer Maggie Ayre
Photograph: Anthony Pope.


MON 06:00 Today (m000ldd2)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 The Patch (m000ldd4)
City of London, St Paul's

The random generator throws up EC4V 5, a postcode like no other – the City of London. The patch covers a few streets in a corner of the square mile – in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Most people know the City as the financial capital of the world, but few understand how it works. It has its own government which predates parliament and is thought to be the oldest democracy in the world – the City of London Corporation. It has its own police force and it has more money than most local authorities can dream of – billions in three separate pots. While 400,000 people commute to the square mile for work, there are very few residents – and the Corporation doesn't have much social housing in the City. But it also has a sizable homeless population.

Online, the first thing Polly spots is a beautiful old building covered in Latin. Formerly a choir school for the Cathedral, it has been a youth hostel for the past fifty years. When coronavirus struck, the City of London Corporation realised they owned the building. They offered rooms here to 19 of the hardest to reach individuals on the City’s streets and brought in a team to run it.

There are people staying in the hostel who have refused help for more than fifteen or twenty years. Some have seen it as a battle – they felt the Corporation just wanted them out, and what’s worse, they didn’t trust the outreach workers commissioned by the City to help. The hostel seems to have changed things – no one has gone back on the streets, many are taking up support from outreach workers, and some are on lists for permanent accommodation for the first time ever.

So why does this seem to have worked? What has been going wrong for all these years? And what happens next?

Produced/Presented by Polly Weston


MON 09:30 Legacy of War (m000ldd6)
Episode 9

Sean Bean presents a series exploring the ways in which wartime experiences have filtered down through the generations.

Tom Boden experienced the bombing of Liverpool as a child and was evacuated from the city. Twice.

His stories about those tumultuous years have remained a part of his everyday life, even as he gets older and his memory recedes.

And now they have found their way into fiction.

Featuring: Tom Boden, Dawn Hann, Evie Thame and Michael Thame.

Thanks to Brian Hann.

Producer: Martin Williams


MON 09:45 The Oak Papers by James Canton (m000ldft)
Episode 1

Jonathan Keeble reads a fascinating account of the history and symbolic power of oak trees, by James Canton.

When a relationship breaks down, James Canton begins to spend time with an ancient oak tree near where he lives in Essex - the 800-year-old Honywood Oak.

“I began to visit the oak as one might visit a friend. From the first meeting there grew a strange sense of attachment I didn’t consciously recognise until I began to realise the significance that trees, and oak trees especially, can have in our lives.”

Spending time at the tree, James finds solace from his distress. More than that, he begins to feel bewitched by the power of the tree. It is then that he begins an exploration of the history of oak trees, and their vital importance in history and myth.

“As I’ve dug deeper into the historical and cultural layers of ancient Europe, I have begun to realise just how common the veneration of oak trees was.”

He meets people who work with oak, and artists who have been inspired by oak trees. And, as he sits at the oak, he records in detail the sounds and sights of the natural world around him.

“A wren pipes up, a staccato tic, tic, tic from somewhere in the centre of the oak. A hare appears on the path, all ears, lean and jittery, only to disappear into the long grasses and ferns that cover the soft slopes of the stream valley. It is a slice of time laid bare, a moment when the normal flow of life is frozen.”

Beautifully-observed nature writing and fascinating history, with a soundscape of the natural world, and music by Max Richter.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000lddb)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


MON 10:45 Bloody Eisteddfod (m000lddd)
Episode 1

Inspector Daf Dafis of Dyfed Powys Police knows that the visit of Wales’ greatest cultural festival to his patch will be a challenge but even he didn’t anticipate the mayhem which ensues.

It’s not all archdruids and choral contests, as Daf discovers, and when the ceremonial Chair cannot be filled, there is a murder case to solve.

There's as much crime as culture and Daf has one or two personal issues to solve as well but, with the help of his trusty sergeant and the sexiest female agricultural contractor in the county, he’ll give it his best shot.

An adaptation of the best-selling Welsh novel, Bloody Eisteddfod, provides a lively insight into contemporary rural life as well as culture. A stellar cast of the finest actors in Wales, headed by Steffan Rhodri and Rhian Morgan are joined by talented newcomers in a lively and engaging drama, packed with incident and vivid characters.

A Cwmni THR production for BBC Radio 4


MON 11:00 My Name Is... (m000lddh)
Natasha: Sharing intimate images

Domestic abuse survivor Natasha Saunders wants to find out why threatening to share intimate images isn't a criminal offence in England and Wales. Natasha was tormented for years by an ex-partner who used the threat to share intimate photos with her family, friends and work colleagues as a way to keep control over her. When Natasha reported these threats to police she was told they were powerless to act until her ex actually shared the photos.

But in Scotland the law changed in 2017 and threats to share is a criminal offence there and it's punishable by up to five years in prison.

Natasha talks to Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner in England and Wales, 'Jane', a domestic abuse survivor in Scotland, Detective Inspector Steven McMillan from Scotland's National Domestic Abuse Task Force and Caroline Nokes MP, Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee.

Producer: Ben Carter
Editor: Emma Rippon
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound Engineer: Nigel Appleton

Details of organisations offering information and support with domestic violence are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free, at any time to hear recorded information on 0800 888 809.


MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000lddk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


MON 12:00 News Summary (m000lgrj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 Actress by Anne Enright (m000lddp)
Episode 6: Troubles

Booker-winning Anne Enright continues reading her new novel about the rise and terrible fall of Irish acting legend, Katherine O'Dell.

Today: As politics and passion become disastrously entwined for Katherine, Norah finds herself negotiating her own disastrous decisions with men...

Written and read by Anne Enright
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett


MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000lddr)
Eat Out To Help Out; FlyBe Routes; Bank Branch Closures

Will the "Eat Out To Help Out" scheme really help to turn around the fortunes of the UK's struggling restaurants and cafes?
The challenges for air passengers with half of FlyBe's old routes not being taken up by other airlines. We look at where you can now fly to and where you can't.
The people still struggling to get refunds for Vacations Rentals holidays scuppered by lockdown.
While online banking has seen a surge during lockdown, the bank branch closures keep ramping up.
PRESENTER: Winifred Robinson
PRODUCER: Mike Young


MON 12:57 Weather (m000lddt)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m000lddw)
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 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000lddy)
6. ‘Reposition Global Warming as theory, not fact’

‘Unless “climate change” becomes a non-issue…there may be no moment when we can declare victory’. We reveal the communications plans drawn up by energy groups to make us doubt climate change. From targeting ‘older, lesser educated males from larger households’ to making sure that those promoting action on climate change ‘appear to be out of touch with reality’; their ambitions were high, their tactics down and dirty.

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change.
With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.

Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane


MON 14:00 Drama (b0bcgt0y)
Festival

by Sarah Wooley

A comedy drama about festivals and the start of a legendary literary romance.
In 1962, novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard took on the job of running the Cheltenham Literary Festival. It was to be a baptism of fire.

Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane

With Olivier Award nominee Melody Grove (Farinelli and the King).


MON 14:45 Museum of Lost Objects (b071x87f)
The Lion of al-Lat

The Museum of Lost Objects traces the histories of 10 antiquities or cultural sites that have been destroyed or looted in Iraq and Syria.

The Lion of al-Lat was a protective spirit, the consort of a Mesopotamian goddess. This 2,000 year old statue was one of the first things the so-called Islamic State destroyed when they took Palmyra in 2015. The Polish archaeologist Michal Gawlikowski recalls discovering the lion during an excavation in the 1970s, and we explore the wider symbolism of lions and power and how this was appropriated by modern rulers including Bashar al-Assad’s own ancestors.

This episode was first broadcast on 4 March, 2016.

Presenter: Kanishk Tharoor
Producer: Maryam Maruf

Picture: Lion of al-Lat
Credit: Michal Gawlikowski

Contributors: Michal Gawlikowski, Warsaw University; Zahed Tajeddin, artist and archaeologist; Augusta McMahon, University of Cambridge; Lamia al-Gailani, SOAS

With thanks to Sarah Collins of the British Museum


MON 15:00 The 3rd Degree (m000ldf0)
Series 10

Mansfield College Oxford

Steve Punt hosts the funny, lively and dynamic quiz from Mansfield College, Oxford.

This week's specialist subjects are english, physics and theology and the questions range from petrol pumps to Philistines via Tristram Shandy and Burt’s Bees.

The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three undergraduates against three of their professors in a genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz

The rounds vary between specialist subjects and general knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the Highbrow and Lowbrow round, cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their professors’ awareness of television, sport, and quite possibly Ed Sheeran. In addition, there are the head-to-head rounds, in which students take on their professors in their own subjects - with plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides.

In this series, the universities are Bournemouth, Imperial College, Reading, Durham, Ulster University and Mansfield College Oxford.

The host, Steve Punt, although best known as a satirist on The Now Show, is also someone who delights in all facets of knowledge, - not just in the humanities (his educational background) but in the sciences as well. As well as The Now Show, he has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4 on subjects as varied as The Poet Unwound - The History Of The Spleen and Getting The Gongs - an investigation into awards ceremonies.

Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000ldf2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 Simon Schama: The Great Gallery Tours (m000ldf4)
The Whitney Museum of American Art

New York is Sir Simon Schama's home town. So it's approriate that his final Gallery Tour should be based in the Whitney Museum of American Art which he first experienced as a young man in the 1960s.

Since then, the museum his moved to an exciting glassy new building at the foot of the High Line in the former meatpacking district of the city. It's a welcoming place with wonderful terraces layering the building which afford splendid views over the city and the water.

Here Simon's chooses American artists from the 20th century. They tell a New York story. The Mark Rothko colour panel called Four Darks in Red was one of a set intended for the restaurant of the flashy Four Seasons Hotel in the Seagram Building, but were withdrawn by Rothko who hated the conspicuous consumption of the place. Edward Hopper's New York Movie takes us inside a cinema where an usherette is lost in her own thoughts as the film plays. Simon also chooses work by Jacob Lawrence, the Harlem painter who catalogued the experience of African Americans in the Second World War, and photographer and chameleon Cindy Sherman whose Untitled 2008 offers us a grand dame - herself in yet another guise - moneyed and aloof, but staving off the ravages of time.

It's a wonderful introduction to the museum which will not re-open until August 2020 at the earliest.

You can find the names of the paitings discussed and a link to the museum on the Great Gallery Tours programme page.

Written and Presented by Sir Simon Schama
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


MON 16:30 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p08hnxhl)
Series 22

The Sun

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by a dazzling panel of sun worshippers from actor, comedian and musician Tim Minchin to solar scientist Professor Lucie Green and biologist Professor Steve Jones. They look at how the evolution of life was only possible because of our position relative to the sun and its possibly unique behaviour, and how rare that situation might be across the rest of the universe. They also look at how the sun makes you feel and its vital importance to all creatures, especially snails.

Producer: Alexandra Feachem


MON 17:00 PM (m000ldf7)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000ldfc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b07m5dz2)
Series 65

Episode 6

Back for a second week at the Cliffs Pavilion in Southend-on-Sea, regulars Barry Cryer and Sandi Toksvig are joined on the panel by Miles Jupp and Richard Osman with Jack Dee in the chair. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell.

Producer - Jon Naismith.

It is a BBC Studios production.


MON 19:00 The Archers (m000ldfg)
There’s an emergency at Home Farm and Fallon has the rug pulled from under her.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m000ldfj)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


MON 19:45 Bloody Eisteddfod (m000lddd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 The Death Row Book Club (m000ldfl)
When Anthony Ray Hinton was sentenced to death for a double murder, he set up a book club for his fellow death row inmates. It was to get him through 28 years of solitary confinement.
Now a free man after the State of Alabama dropped all charges against him, he takes us back to the echoing corridors of death row and introduces listeners to his book club, including one member of the Ku Klux Klan. 
Producer: Sarah Shebbeare


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m000l8qd)
Venezuela's 'Bay of Piglets'

A failed coup in Venezuela - a story of hubris, incompetence, and treachery… At the beginning of May, the government of Nicolas Maduro announced the armed forces had repelled an attempted landing by exiled Venezuelans on the coast north of Caracas. Some were killed, others captured. This was Operation Gideon – an incursion involving a few dozen, poorly-equipped men, and two former US Special Forces soldiers. The hair brained plan to depose Nicolas Maduro, and force a transition in Caracas was conceived by Venezuela's political opposition in neighbouring Colombia, the United States and Venezuela. Command and control of Operation Gideon allegedly lay with another former US Special Forces soldier, Jordan Goudreau. But why would men with decades of military experience between them join a plan that, from the outset, looked like a suicide mission? For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly goes in search of answers.

Presenter / producer: Linda Pressly
Producer in Venezuela: Vanessa Silva
Editor: Bridget Harney

(Image: Jordan Goudreau and Javier Nieto address the Venezuelan people on 3 May, 2020. Credit: Javier Nieto)


MON 21:00 The Political School (m000l8nz)
Episode 3

Have you ever thought that our whole political system needs radical change? That in the face of complex global challenges - a pandemic, for example - the British state is a lumbering beast still using the technology of the 20th century - if not the 19th? That our politicians aren’t as well equipped for their jobs as they could be?

In this three-part series, author and broadcaster Timandra Harkness examines whether there's truth in these ideas - and how our political system can change for the better.

In the third episode, we look to the future - and how to make government into the engine of change that many voters want.

Presenter: Timandra Harkness
Producer: Ant Adeane
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


MON 21:30 The Patch (m000ldd4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000ldfn)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 Actress by Anne Enright (m000lddp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m000l8pf)
Words Used About Women

Spinster, slut, bird, cat lady, ladette, hussy, bossy, goddess, wife. Guest presenter Nikki Bedi (sitting in for Michael Rosen) talks to Professor Deborah Cameron about the words used to talk about women.

Deborah Cameron is Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Oxford. In 2007 she published The Myth of Mars and Venus, a general-interest book about language and gender differences. She writes a regular blog - 'Language: a feminist guide' - and occasionally performs as a linguistic stand up comedian.

Produced by Mair Bosworth


MON 23:30 Archiving Black America (m000l0rc)
"We are our history," said James Baldwin. But how history is remembered depends on what materials survive, and who deems those materials worthy of preserving.

Maya Millett - a writer, editor and founder of Race Women, an archive project dedicated to honouring early Black American feminists - speaks to the archivists who are working to ensure the voices and stories of African-Americans are not forgotten.

As racism and violence against African-Americans continues, collecting, cataloguing, and preserving the truth has never been so vital in preventing the distortion of history. The historical record has the power to preserve legacies and shape identities - but it doesn’t write itself. History is an activity, and what makes it into the archives depends on the actions people take now.

With contributions from musician Rhiannon Giddens; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Director, Kevin Young; Julieanna Richardson, founder of The HistoryMakers (the largest collection of African-American first-person video oral history testimonies in the world); contemporary art curator Kimberly Drew (aka museummammy); and Fisk University Special Collections Librarian, DeLisa Minor Harris.

Presenter: Maya Millett
Producer: Sasha Edye-Lindner
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4



TUESDAY 04 AUGUST 2020

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000ldfr)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 The Oak Papers by James Canton (m000ldft)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000ldfx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000ldfz)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000ldg3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000ldg7)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000ldgc)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Very Reverend Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Dean of St Davids Cathedral


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000ldgh)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09v6vt2)
Nick Moran on the Heron

Nick Moran of the British Trust for Ornithology describes the surprise he got when he listened back to a recording he had made during the night of birds on the move.

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

Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Ian Logan.


TUE 06:00 Today (m000lghb)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m000lghd)
Alice Roberts on bones

It’s amazing what we can learn from a pile of old bones. Having worked as a paediatric surgeon for several years (often doing the ward round on roller blades), Alice Roberts spent a decade teaching anatomy to medical students and studying human remains. A niche interest in the collar bone and how it has changed since we evolved from the common ancestor we share with other apes 6 million years ago, led her to some of the biggest questions in science. Who are we? And where do we come from? She is the presenter of several landmark TV series on human evolution and archaeology, such as The Incredible Human Journey and Digging for Britain. And in 2019 she became President of the British Science Association. In conversation with Jim Al Khalili, Alice shares her passion for the bones of our ancient ancestors and of the freshly dead, and describes her own incredible journey from a basement full of medieval bones to an eminent science communicator and public figure.
Producer: Anna Buckley


TUE 09:30 Behind the Buzzwords (m000lghg)
Big Data

David Cannadine tells the story behind the buzzword Big Data.

Throughout history, numerical information has been gathered in efforts to understand human behaviour, but the computer revolution changed the ways information can be collected and analysed, opening the gates to the Big Data era.

This deceptively simple buzzword probably originated in Silicon Valley in the 1990s, but the first academic reference to Big Data came in a paper written in 2003 by Francis Diebold, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania. He explains to David how he was inspired by George Orwell’s Big Brother when he first used the term, as the data we now generate is being collected with every click we make.

In 2012, Big Data entered the mainstream when it was discussed at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In March that year, the American government provided $200 million in research programs for Big Data computing. Soon afterwards, the term was included in the Oxford English Dictionary for the first time.

But as David explains, it isn’t so much the data that’s important, it’s what you do with it that counts. With the evolution of Big Data came new buzzwords like Data Science, Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning and AI, which describe new ways of analyzing the new data sets to which we now have access. As a result, Big Data has been hailed for its potential to improve decision-making in fields from business to medicine, allowing judgments and evaluations to be based increasingly on information and analysis rather than intuition and insight.

‘Knowledge is Power’ wrote Sir Francis Bacon; but perhaps the modern day equivalent is ‘Data is Power’. Political scientist Matthew Longo from Leiden University uses the term ‘dataveillance’ to show how the model of statecraft is changing in the Big Data era. Today, surveillance tracks individuals through their data and there is a race for data in the way that there was once a race for oil.

There are so many places where Big Data is changing the way things work, including how we tackle diseases like Coronavirus. Rowland Kao, Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Data Science at the University of Edinburgh, who has been working with Public Health Scotland on Coronavirus modelling, explains how Big Data is being used to understand and fight the pandemic.

With Francis Diebold, Hetan Shah, Matthew Longo, Helen Margetts and Rowland Kao.

Researcher: Joe Christmas

Produced by Melissa FitzGerald

A Blakeway roduction for BBC Radio 4

The series is made in collaboration with The British Academy, the UK's national body for the humanities and social sciences.


TUE 09:45 The Oak Papers by James Canton (m000lgjr)
Episode 2

Jonathan Keeble reads a fascinating account of the history and symbolic power of oak trees, by James Canton.

When a relationship breaks down, James Canton begins to spend time with an ancient oak tree near where he lives in Essex - the 800-year-old Honywood Oak.

“I began to visit the oak as one might visit a friend. From the first meeting there grew a strange sense of attachment I didn’t consciously recognise until I began to realise the significance that trees, and oak trees especially, can have in our lives.”

Spending time at the tree, James finds solace from his distress. More than that, he begins to feel bewitched by the power of the tree. It is then that he begins an exploration of the history of oak trees, and their vital importance in history and myth.

“As I’ve dug deeper into the historical and cultural layers of ancient Europe, I have begun to realise just how common the veneration of oak trees was.”

He meets people who work with oak, and artists who have been inspired by oak trees. And, as he sits at the oak, he records in detail the sounds and sights of the natural world around him.

“A wren pipes up, a staccato tic, tic, tic from somewhere in the centre of the oak. A hare appears on the path, all ears, lean and jittery, only to disappear into the long grasses and ferns that cover the soft slopes of the stream valley. It is a slice of time laid bare, a moment when the normal flow of life is frozen.”

Beautifully-observed nature writing and fascinating history, with a soundscape of the natural world, and music by Max Richter.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000lghl)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


TUE 10:45 Bloody Eisteddfod (m000lghn)
Episode 2

Inspector Daf Dafis of Dyfed Powys Police knows that the visit of Wales’ greatest cultural festival to his patch will be a challenge but even he didn’t anticipate the mayhem which ensues.

It’s not all archdruids and choral contests, as Daf discovers, and when the ceremonial Chair cannot be filled, there is a murder case to solve.

There's as much crime as culture and Daf has one or two personal issues to solve as well but, with the help of his trusty sergeant and the sexiest female agricultural contractor in the county, he’ll give it his best shot.

An adaptation of the best-selling Welsh novel, Bloody Eisteddfod, provides a lively insight into contemporary rural life as well as culture. A stellar cast of the finest actors in Wales, headed by Steffan Rhodri and Rhian Morgan are joined by talented newcomers in a lively and engaging drama, packed with incident and vivid characters.

A Cwmni THR production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 11:00 From Our Home Correspondent (m000lghq)
In the latest programme of the monthly series, Mishal Husain introduces dispatches from journalists and writers around the United Kingdom that reflect the range of contemporary life in the country.

Producer Simon Coates


TUE 11:30 With Great Pleasure (b08n2gj4)
Charlotte Church

Charlotte Church presents a selection of the writing that means the most to her, from the books of Roald Dahl, Mark Twain and Carl Sagan to the lyrics of Jill Scott and Sam Beam (Iron and Wine). She talks about being in the spotlight from a young age, about her love of physics, about testifying at the Leveson Inquiry and becoming a feminist. She's joined on stage by her friends - the singer and actress Carys Eleri and musician Jonathan Powell - to read and sing her choices.

This episode of With Great Pleasure was recorded in front of an audience at The Norwegian Church in Charlotte's home town of Cardiff.

Producer: Mair Bosworth
Readers/Musicians: Carys Eleri and Jonathan Powell.


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000lgk2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 Actress by Anne Enright (m000lghv)
Episode 7: Shame

Booker-winning Anne Enright's new novel about the rise and terrible fall of Irish acting legend, Katherine O'Dell.

Today: after a humiliating audition for a movie, Katherine's career goes into tailspin. Meanwhile, her daughter Norah continues her own self-destructive streak...

Writer: Anne Enright is an Irish author of six novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering, as well as The Forgotten Waltz and The Green Road.
Reader: tbc
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett


TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000lghx)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


TUE 12:57 Weather (m000lgj1)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m000lgj5)
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 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000lgk6)
7. The opponent

How do you win a battle, if you’re fighting in the wrong arena? A look at how the virtues of science were being used against the scientists. Uncertainty is an inherent part of climate change science, but the word means something different to scientists. This is the lowdown on how scientists are literally using a different language to us and why this has played into the hands of those who want to delay action on climate change.

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change.
With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.

Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000ldfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (m0001830)
Holding Back the Tide

Ps and Qs

by Nick Warburton

John Hector has a new campaign to halt the decline of good manners in Breck Howe. But his idea of naming and shaming those who fall below his standards meets with opposition, and John's own manners are called into question.

John ..... Ronald Pickup
Richard ..... Paul Ritter
Clare ..... Kate Duchêne
Mrs Cardabbon ..... Sue Jameson
Ralph Bell ..... Sean Murray
MC ..... Tony Turner
Robust Betty ..... Emma Handy
Rude Girl ..... Saffron Coomber
WPC ..... Jeanette Percival
Surly Reader ..... Cameron Percival

Directed by Sally Avens


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000lf19)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 James Veitch's Contractual Obligation (m000k8c1)
Animal Crossing

Comedian James Veitch gets drawn into the world of smash hit computer game Animal Crossing.

Lockdown prompts James to make some major resolutions about life - including reading Proust. But he soon gets distracted by Animal Crossing, the computer game that allows you to escape to your own tropical island.

In common with millions of others shut indoors over the past few months, he becomes increasingly obsessed with creating his own island paradise.

As his addiction grows, James explores the game's compulsive appeal... and Proust gets shelved.

Producer: Laurence Grissell


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m000lgkb)
Othering through the centuries: Translation to acronyms

Playwright Sabrina Mahfouz, sitting in for Michael Rosen. talks to producer Tobi Kyeremateng and classicist Professor Katherine Harloe about othering in language: describing people in ways that exclude them and make them seem lesser, whether in terms of race, gender, sexuality or ability.

Translations of the classics have been politicised in identity terms both with race (as in adding 'white skin' in where it didn't exist) and also with ideals of female beauty which have been changed from the originals to reflect the pressures of contemporary white, western versions of beauty. Also sexuality - the originals don't other same sex relations in the way translations might other or omit them. The current language around 'BAME' and 'the traditional working class' is dangerous, even if people think they are being helpful.

The opposite of this is the power of language to include. For Sabrina, feminist translations of the Qu'ran enabled her to feel Islam as being much more inclusive, because the actual meaning in translation/interpretation shifted when written by a feminist.
What are the ways forward from here?

Producer Beth O'Dea
Image copyright : Greg Morrison


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m000lgkg)
Mussolini

September 1943, and German troops have just landed in gliders to rescue Benito Mussolini from the mountain resort where he was being held. “I knew my friend Adolf Hitler would not desert me,” he said later. But Mussolini died before the end of the war, shot and then strung up with his mistress in Milan.

Who was this man, and is he still relevant today? Nominating him is Professor Margaret MacMillan, not as her hero but as someone she says must not be dismissed as a buffoon. Mussolini founded and led the fascists in Italy, was a brilliant propagandist, and would have probably died in his bed but for the war. Winston Churchill, speaking in 1927, told him his fascist movement "has rendered a service to the entire world."

Only later did he dub him the Italian Miscalculator. Mussolini declared war on Britain just as France was poised to fall.

As well as archive of Mussolini, Churchill, and the Italian journalist Luigi Barzini, the programme features Professor John Foot of Bristol University. Margaret MacMillan is the author of Peacemakers and a former BBC Reith lecturer. The programme is presented by Matthew Parris.

Future great lives in this series include Frida Kahlo, Donna Summer, Hendrick Witbooi and Kenneth Williams of Carry On fame.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde


TUE 17:00 PM (m000lgkk)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000lgkm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (b08ynzzz)
Series 6

Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?; A Modest Proposal

The globetrotting, trash-picking, aisle-rolling storyteller is back on Radio 4 with more words of wit and wisdom. This week, some selected sections from a 'style' essay, Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?, and A Modest Proposal, David's take on the subject of same sex marriage..

With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America's pre-eminent humour writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.

David Sedaris's first book, Barrel Fever (1994), which included The SantaLand Diaries. was a critical and commercial success, as were his follow-up efforts, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997) and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000). He became known for his bitingly funny recollections of his youth, family life and travels, making semi-celebrities out of his parents and siblings.

David Sedaris has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album. A feature film adaptation of his story C.O.G. was released after a premier at the Sundance Film Festival (2013). He has been a contributor to BBC Radio 4 since 1996.

Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000lg44)
Alice finds herself in demand and Natasha makes her presence felt.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000lgkp)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


TUE 19:45 Bloody Eisteddfod (m000lghn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 Taking on Trump (m000lgkr)
Jim Naughtie tells the story of the Democratic Party's challenger to Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and assesses his chances against a ruthless campaigner.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000lgkt)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000lg48)
A weekly quest to demystify health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.


TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m000lghd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000lgjf)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 Actress by Anne Enright (m000lghv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


TUE 23:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p08hnxhl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Monday]


TUE 23:30 Your Call (m000l1db)
Comedy about a father and daughter supporting each other during Lockdown.

Once Anwen Evans has decided to stay in her flat rather than return home to join her father, John Evans, for Lockdown, they keep in regular contact by phone. As we listen in on their calls, we hear them preparing to let go of the past and embrace the future.

'Your Call' was made through May 2020. All four collaborators live separately in different parts of UK - London, Cambridge, Leeds and Edinburgh. And they still haven't met.

Written & Performed by Shôn & Josie Dale Jones
Music by John Biddle
Produced by Laurence Cook



WEDNESDAY 05 AUGUST 2020

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000lgjm)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


WED 00:30 The Oak Papers by James Canton (m000lgjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000lgjw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000lgk0)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000lgk3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000lgk7)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000lgkc)
A reading and a reflection to start the day on Radio 4


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000lgkh)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08slp5r)
David Lindo on the Kestrel

David Lindo is known as the Urban Birder. His love of all things feathered began when he was tiny, but it was seeing a kestrel while he was at school in north London one day that set him on the road to birdwatching in the city.

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

Producer Maggie Ayre.


WED 06:00 Today (m000lg39)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Soul Music (m000lg3c)
Harvest Moon by Neil Young

It's a love song about growing old. Neil Young's Harvest Moon released in 1992 is a nod to the 1970s country rock loved by music blogger Alyson Young. It's a grown up song about love says singer/songwriter Ricky Ross. How do you make the magic last and how do you keep love alive? People tell their stories about what the song means to them: jazz singer Maureen Washington danced to the song with her late husband and Amanda Legere played it to her premature daughter each morning when she went in to see her in the ICU. She knows the baby responded to the song. Mary Divine and her husband were serenaded on their wedding anniversary when the whole neighbourhood came out to watch a teenage neighbour play Harvest Moon for them during lockdown. Margy Waller grieved the loss of the work she did in social care under President Clinton . She drove to the White House on the final days of his administration crying as she listened to Harvest Moon. For her it's a song about loss. She is still touched by it today during the pandemic in what she describes as another period of great loss.

Versions include Harvest Moon by
Neil Young
Cassandra Wilson
Maureen Washington
Nils Lofgren
Neil Young Unplugged

Produced by Maggie Ayre

Alyson's music blog is Jukeboxtimemachine.com
Ricky Ross presents Another Country on BBC Radio Scotland
Maureen Washington is a jazz singer based in British Columbia


WED 09:30 Four Thought (m000lg3f)
Series of thought-provoking talks on topics that affect culture and society.


WED 09:45 The Oak Papers by James Canton (m000lg3h)
Episode 3

Jonathan Keeble reads a fascinating account of the history and symbolic power of oak trees, by James Canton.

When a relationship breaks down, James Canton begins to spend time with an ancient oak tree near where he lives in Essex - the 800-year-old Honywood Oak.

“I began to visit the oak as one might visit a friend. From the first meeting there grew a strange sense of attachment I didn’t consciously recognise until I began to realise the significance that trees, and oak trees especially, can have in our lives.”

Spending time at the tree, James finds solace from his distress. More than that, he begins to feel bewitched by the power of the tree. It is then that he begins an exploration of the history of oak trees, and their vital importance in history and myth.

“As I’ve dug deeper into the historical and cultural layers of ancient Europe, I have begun to realise just how common the veneration of oak trees was.”

He meets people who work with oak, and artists who have been inspired by oak trees. And, as he sits at the oak, he records in detail the sounds and sights of the natural world around him.

“A wren pipes up, a staccato tic, tic, tic from somewhere in the centre of the oak. A hare appears on the path, all ears, lean and jittery, only to disappear into the long grasses and ferns that cover the soft slopes of the stream valley. It is a slice of time laid bare, a moment when the normal flow of life is frozen.”

Beautifully-observed nature writing and fascinating history, with a soundscape of the natural world, and music by Max Richter.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000lg3k)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


WED 10:45 Bloody Eisteddfod (m000lg3m)
Episode 3

Inspector Daf Dafis of Dyfed Powys Police knows that the visit of Wales’ greatest cultural festival to his patch will be a challenge but even he didn’t anticipate the mayhem which ensues.

It’s not all archdruids and choral contests, as Daf discovers, and when the ceremonial Chair cannot be filled, there is a murder case to solve.

There's as much crime as culture and Daf has one or two personal issues to solve as well but, with the help of his trusty sergeant and the sexiest female agricultural contractor in the county, he’ll give it his best shot.

An adaptation of the best-selling Welsh novel, Bloody Eisteddfod, provides a lively insight into contemporary rural life as well as culture. A stellar cast of the finest actors in Wales, headed by Steffan Rhodri and Rhian Morgan are joined by talented newcomers in a lively and engaging drama, packed with incident and vivid characters.

A Cwmni THR production for BBC Radio 4


WED 11:00 The Death Row Book Club (m000ldfl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 For the Love of Leo (m000lg3p)
La Signora di Ferrara

By Michael Chaplin. Edinburgh widower Leo still talks to his beloved wife Tamsin when he’s alone; even though daughter Laura and housekeeper Sadie fill the house and his life. Leo has a revelatory visit from an Italian woman and meets the new man in Sadie’s life.

Mark Bonnar (star of Shetland, Guilt and Line of Duty) stars as Leo Fabiani, renowned painter who lost his wife recently in mysterious circumstances and seems, ever since, to have become a magnet to all kinds of attractive women. We meet four of them in this new series.

Cast:
Leo Fabiani ..... Mark Bonnar
Tamsin Fabiani ..... Beth Marshall
Laura Fabiani ..... Samara Maclaren
Sadie ..... Tracy Wiles
Beatrice Fabiani ..... Emily Bruni
Kevin ..... Derek Riddell

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


WED 12:00 News Summary (m000lg3r)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 Actress by Anne Enright (m000lg3t)
Episode 8: Priest

Booker-winning Anne Enright's new novel about the rise and terrible fall of Irish acting legend, Katherine O'Dell.
.
Today: As Norah continues piecing together the events that led to her mother's downfall, dark secrets begin to emerge, including the nature of Katherine's relationship with her priest...

Writer: Anne Enright is an Irish author of six novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering, as well as The Forgotten Waltz and The Green Road.
Reader: tbc
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett


WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000lg3w)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


WED 12:57 Weather (m000lg3y)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m000lg40)
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 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000lg42)
8. Jerry gets ‘duped’

As climate change goes prime time, a super star climate change sceptic wins his last TV debate. Jerry Taylor was working at CATO, a free market think tank and was regularly on TV putting forward contrarian arguments. One day, all that changed.

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change.
With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.

Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane


WED 14:00 The Archers (m000lg44)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b08csqy4)
My Mother Taught Me How to Sing

By Daf James

Docu-drama about two men negotiating the adoption process.

Daf and his partner Hywel want to adopt. But when his mum dies, Daf wonders if he has what it takes to become a parent. Returning to his childhood home, and with the help of some cassette recordings made of him growing up, Daf attempts to uncover what it means to be a mum.

Daf James.... Himself
Social Worker.... Eiry Thomas
Little Daf.... Lewis Howe
Dawn.... Mali Matthews

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.


WED 15:00 Money Box (m000lg46)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.


WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000lg48)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000179n)
Maoism

Maoism: the changing face of a revolutionary ideology. Julia Lovell, Professor in Modern Chinese History and Literature at Birkbeck, University of London explores the origins and development of global Maoism; Alpa Shah, Associate Professor in Anthropology at LSE, provides a glimpse into the lives of a group of Maoist guerrillas in modern day India and Dennis Tourish, Professor of Leadership and Organisation Studies at the University of Sussex, looks at Maoist organisations in the context of his research into political cults.
Producer: Jayne Egerton


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000lg4c)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world


WED 17:00 PM (m000lg4f)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000lg4h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Women Talking About Cars (b095tjw0)
Series 2

Claudia Winkleman

Last in the current series of the show that uses a famous woman's cars as a vehicle to talk about her life. This week Victoria Coren Mitchell talks to Claudia Winkleman about everything from friendship and family to the dangers of unfashionable shoes, via the joys of the black cab and the sentimental value of an ageing Volkswagen. Plus Claudia has some thoughts on how to make horses a lot safer...
With contributions from the studio audience and car descriptions read by Morwenna Banks.
Produced by Gareth Edwards

A BBC Studios Production.


WED 19:00 The Archers (m000lf9q)
Fallon faces an impossible choice and Emma’s plans gather pace


WED 19:15 Front Row (m000lg4k)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


WED 19:45 Bloody Eisteddfod (m000lg3m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000lg4m)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze


WED 20:45 Four Thought (m000lg3f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]


WED 21:00 Soul Music (m000lg3c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000lg4c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000lg4p)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 Actress by Anne Enright (m000lg3t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


WED 23:00 Things My Mother Never Told Me (... About Lockdown) (m000lg4r)
Tom Allen

Lockdown is making us think a lot more about family, and for many people the parent-child relationship has been flipped. With the older generation more vulnerable to Coronavirus, middle-aged children are now worrying about where their parents are, and if they're behaving responsibly. We're telling them not to stay out late, to stay away from friends (especially those bad influences who won't wear masks), and to make sure they get enough vitamins.

Sindhu Vee and her guests take a look at that bond, and ask whether the things their mothers taught them have set them up to cope with a global pandemic.

This week, "Bake Off: The Professionals" host Tom Allen shares anecdotes about living with his parents in the family home, and how his mother's love of cleaning has given him a head start on handwashing.

Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production


WED 23:15 Bunk Bed (b0b930kx)
Series 5

Episode 1

Everyone craves a place where their mind and body are not applied to a particular task. The nearest faraway place. Somewhere for drifting and lighting upon strange thoughts which don't have to be shooed into context, but which can be followed like balloons escaping onto the air. Late at night, in the dark and in a bunk bed, your tired mind can wander.

The acclaimed Bunk Bed, written by and featuring Patrick Marber and Peter Curran, returns for its fifth series with a dozy vengeance. Recorded in the dark and in real beds.

Tonight they discuss what sort of dinosaur they would have been, respond to archive of the great African-American writer James Baldwin on Fathers with their own tales of being humiliated by children, and argue if it's ever appropriate for an Irish person to use the phrase "Yada, yada, yada..."

"A welcome comfort against the gathering storm clouds" - The Spectator

"Funny, strange, enchanting, and beautifully put together' - The Observer

"You'll love it or hate it...but stick with it, it's gold" - Sunday Telegraph

"Bunk Bed on Radio 4 is beloved by broadsheet critics, but don't let that put you off" - Metro

Producer: Peter Curran
A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 The Learning Revolution (m000h93b)
Knowing

In a world where a tiny parasite can immobilise societies across the world, Alex Beard asks what kind of knowledge will be crucial to learn in the future.

Today, we have more access to information and knowledge than we have ever done before. So what does knowing mean today when you can simply ask Google? We take a deeper look into how our brains use and store information, and find out whether future generations could be using their brains in very different ways.

And as a species, what we know grows in reaction to the ever changing, and often challenging, world around us. In the midst of these changes, we ask whether facts and figures have a place in education when those facts and figures are changing.

Alex Beard used to be a teacher, and is now an education explorer, of sorts. In the first episode of The Learning Revolution, he quizzes some of today's biggest minds in philosophy, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, urban innovation, and climate change, to find out what we'll really need to know in an ever changing world.

Presenter: Alex Beard
Producers: Emma Barnaby and Dan Hardoon
Executive Producer: Deborah Dudgeon
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4



THURSDAY 06 AUGUST 2020

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000lg4t)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


THU 00:30 The Oak Papers by James Canton (m000lg3h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000lg4w)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000lg4y)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000lg50)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000lg52)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000lg54)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Very Reverend Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Dean of St Davids Cathedral


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000lg56)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09m165l)
Kathy Hinde on the Knot

"Its one of the most breath-taking experiences I've witnessed" says Kathy Hinde as she recalls watching thousands of Knot being forced by the incoming tide into the air above the mudflats at Snettisham In Norfolk. Here she shares that experience with us.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Ian Redman.


THU 06:00 Today (m000lf8y)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 The Long View (m000lf90)
The Long View of Celebrity Sports Campaigners

When the Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford persuaded the government to change policy and extend through the summer holidays the introduction of food vouchers for children who would normally have free school meals, it was celebrated as both a triumph for Rashford and a quintessentially 21st century example of celebrity culture. Where campaigners in the field of child poverty had failed, a high profile footballer had cut through.
But a sporting hero using his status to further ends with no connection to his profession is not as new as it sounds. In the late 1700s the prize fighter John Jackson won a reputation as an altruistic gentleman as well as a triumphant competitor in the Prize ring when he raised a huge sum of money to support Portuguese families made homeless by the invasion of the French during the Peninsular war. He went on to raise money for other causes until he became known not as John, but 'Gentleman' John Jackson.
What impact Jackson's, and indeed Rashford's, actions had, and might have, on their career, and what it tells us about both today's and the 18th century's attitudes to celebrity is the subject of this, the last in the current series of The Long View.
Jonathan Freedland is joined by the historian Peter Radford, the CEO of the Child Poverty Action Group Alison Garnham, Jennifer Williams of the Manchester Evening News and the sports commentator Conor McNamara.

Producer: Tom Alban


THU 09:30 James Burke's Web of Knowledge (m00025cj)
Episode 4

James Burke has spent his career as a broadcaster and writer in the field of science and technology 'joining up the dots'. Now he uses the information he has gleaned over many years to create a 'Knowledge Web', revealing how the most unexpected connections can be made across history. What he can show us is that change doesn't happen in predictable straight lines, and he has some surprises in store.


THU 09:45 The Oak Papers by James Canton (m000lfbp)
Episode 4

Jonathan Keeble reads a fascinating account of the history and symbolic power of oak trees, by James Canton.

When a relationship breaks down, James Canton begins to spend time with an ancient oak tree near where he lives in Essex - the 800-year-old Honywood Oak.

“I began to visit the oak as one might visit a friend. From the first meeting there grew a strange sense of attachment I didn’t consciously recognise until I began to realise the significance that trees, and oak trees especially, can have in our lives.”

Spending time at the tree, James finds solace from his distress. More than that, he begins to feel bewitched by the power of the tree. It is then that he begins an exploration of the history of oak trees, and their vital importance in history and myth.

“As I’ve dug deeper into the historical and cultural layers of ancient Europe, I have begun to realise just how common the veneration of oak trees was.”

He meets people who work with oak, and artists who have been inspired by oak trees. And, as he sits at the oak, he records in detail the sounds and sights of the natural world around him.

“A wren pipes up, a staccato tic, tic, tic from somewhere in the centre of the oak. A hare appears on the path, all ears, lean and jittery, only to disappear into the long grasses and ferns that cover the soft slopes of the stream valley. It is a slice of time laid bare, a moment when the normal flow of life is frozen.”

Beautifully-observed nature writing and fascinating history, with a soundscape of the natural world, and music by Max Richter.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000lf94)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


THU 10:45 Bloody Eisteddfod (m000lf96)
Episode 4

Inspector Daf Dafis of Dyfed Powys Police knows that the visit of Wales’ greatest cultural festival to his patch will be a challenge but even he didn’t anticipate the mayhem which ensues.

It’s not all archdruids and choral contests, as Daf discovers, and when the ceremonial Chair cannot be filled, there is a murder case to solve.

There's as much crime as culture and Daf has one or two personal issues to solve as well but, with the help of his trusty sergeant and the sexiest female agricultural contractor in the county, he’ll give it his best shot.

An adaptation of the best-selling Welsh novel, Bloody Eisteddfod, provides a lively insight into contemporary rural life as well as culture. A stellar cast of the finest actors in Wales, headed by Steffan Rhodri and Rhian Morgan are joined by talented newcomers in a lively and engaging drama, packed with incident and vivid characters.

A Cwmni THR production for BBC Radio 4


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m000lf98)
Algeria's Plague Revisited

A mysterious illness appears out of nowhere. The number of cases rises exponentially, as the authorities attempt to downplay the severity of the disease. There is a shortage of medical staff, equipment and arguments about whether people should wear masks. People are forbidden to leave their homes and many are left stranded in unfamiliar places, separated from loved ones.
Albert Camus’ novel The Plague set in the Algerian city of Oran under French colonial rule was published more than 70 years ago. But today it almost reads like a current news bulletin and seems more relevant than ever.

This edition of Crossing Continents revisits Oran in the age of the coronavirus and investigates the parallels between now and then. For the time being, it seems the pandemic has achieved something the authorities have tried but failed to do for the past year – clear the streets of protestors. Lucy Ash investigates Algeria’s plague of authoritarianism and finds that the government has been using Covid 19 as an excuse to crack down harder on dissent.

Reporter: Lucy Ash
Producer: Neil Kisserli
Editor: Bridget Harney


THU 11:30 Tales from the Stave (m000k75j)
Schubert's Winterreise

One of the greatest treasures in New York's Morgan Library collection, and indeed in any collection of music manuscripts anywhere in the world, is the handwritten working manuscripts of Franz Schubert's great and final song cycle Winterreise. Composed in 1827, the last year of his life, it describes a poet's journey through winter snows after being rejected by his lover. However the gathering darkness and the searching introspection make it a far more compelling experience for audiences, including those who heard it first, played and sung by the composer himself shortly before his death than that simple precis suggests.
This edition of Tales from the Stave was recorded well before Covid 19 brought the closure of museums and libraries and so Clemency Burton Hill was joined at The Morgan by the tenor Rufus Muller and the pianist Inon Banatan as well as the scholar Marjorie Hirsch. What they reveal is the striving of a composer with a huge capacity for melodic brilliance matched here by a desire to make the poetry by Wilhelm Muller tell in every line. There are times when it appears to flow easily and others when there's a tortured sense of a man in a hurry. That, of course, is a reality. He had been diagnosed with Syphilis and although he didn't suffer the ignominies that disease brought to many, his end coming swiftly, he was acutely aware that these songs would be amongst his last.

Producer; Tom Alban


THU 12:00 News Summary (m000lfc4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Actress by Anne Enright (m000lf9d)
Episode 9: Gun

Booker-winning Anne Enright's new novel about the rise and terrible fall of Irish acting legend, Katherine O'Dell.
.
Today: As Norah looks back to the day of the shooting and her mother's descent into madness, she uncovers something that could explain everything...

Writer: Anne Enright is an Irish author of six novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering, as well as The Forgotten Waltz and The Green Road.
Reader: tbc
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett


THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000lf9g)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


THU 12:57 Weather (m000lf9j)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m000lf9l)
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 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000lf9n)
9. Deep pockets; useful allies

Following the oil money as it’s pumped to contrarian scientists and think tanks.
As millions of dollars flow from oil companies to researchers looking into ‘solar variation’ or picking holes in the temperature record, we reveal that ten years previously, oil company researchers had dismissed these very arguments. An internal American Petroleum Institute document from 1995 said ‘hypothesis about the role of solar variability and Michaels’ questions about temperature record are not convincing arguments against any conclusion that we are currently experiencing warming as a result of greenhouse gas emissions’. So why were they funding people who made these arguments years later?

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change.
With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.

Clip used from 'The Hunt' series from 2015 by David Attenborough and Hunter Films Ltd.

Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane


THU 14:00 The Archers (m000lf9q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (m000lf9s)
Graveyards in My Closet

By Daf James

When Daf was 11 he made a momentous discovery about his grandparents. The true story of a dark family secret.

in 1931 Daf’s Nan was five years old; her father took her to her grandparents’ house in the mountains of North Wales and told her that her mother was dead. He then left her there and never came back. This event sparked a lifetime of secrets that reverberated across the last century. Today, Daf wrestles with the story; but he’s not sure whose story it is, where it truly starts or what any of it means. Armed with a cast of actors, and the help of his dad, Daf sets out to explore the skeletons in his family’s closet.

Daf James is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, composer and performer working in both English and Welsh. As a screenwriter he is part of the 2019 BBC TV Drama Writers’ Programme. Graveyards in My Closet is a follow-up to his Radio 4 drama My Mother Taught Me How to Sing.

Narrator …. Daf James
Little Daf …. Fflyn Edwards
Mam Aberteifi …. Siw Hughes
Hanna …. Carys Eleri
Grandad …. Ifan Huw Dafydd
Douglas …. Himself
Nigel Owens.... Himself

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


THU 15:00 Open Country (m000lf9v)
Green Pavements

Why do the weeds in our pavements deserve our attention? Helen Mark presents a pavement safari in search of our urban flora. French botanist, Sophie Leguil decided to start chalking the names of plants next to them to draw people’s attention to the downtrodden. Others, like Jane Perrone began to do the same thing, and gradually the urban flora is gaining a new respect. But this isn’t the first time these plants have attracted interest, botanist Phil Gates tells the story of weeds, walking and worship as he reveals how some 90 years ago a young Edward Salisbury, (who was later to become Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew) discovered how seeds could be picked up and transferred vast distances on the soles of our shoes. So has the time come to show the downtrodden a little more respect? Trevor Dines of Plantlife certainly thinks so, and argues that we should be protecting our grass verges, reducing the frequency with which they are mowed and allowing the wildflowers that line our roads to grow which would enrich our environment and our well-being. Producer Sarah Blunt
Photo credit: Phil Gates


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000ldkn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Bookclub (b081tdpc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000lf9x)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000lf9z)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world


THU 17:00 PM (m000lfb1)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000lfb5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 ReincarNathan (m000lfb7)
Series 2

Komodo

Nathan Blakely was a popstar. But he was useless, died, and was reincarnated. The comedy about Nathan’s adventures in the afterlife continues with Daniel Rigby and Diane Morgan, and guest-starring James Acaster.

In episode 5, Nathan is brought back to life as the animal that best represents his true self - a Komodo Dragon. The Panel have decided that he's driven by his reptilian brain, the basest instincts of feed, fight and flight. Nathan is desperate to prove them wrong, and tries to help a young Komodo (James Acaster). But, inevitably, things don't go entirely to plan.

Will Nathan ever learn to do the right thing and make it back to human again?

Cast:
Diane Morgan - Jenny
Daniel Rigby – Nathan
James Acaster - Arakas, the young Komodo
Tom Craine – Gap Year Student
Hugh Dennis - Nathan's dad
Freya Parker – Vortex, Buffalo, Gap Year Student, Mum
Daniel Lawrence Taylor - Max
Mike Wozniak – Fangor, the Komodo dad

Writers: Tom Craine and Henry Paker
Music composed by Phil Lepherd

Producer: Harriet Jaine

Studio Production: Jerry Peal

A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4


THU 19:00 The Archers (m000lfb9)
Brian delivers good news and Chris plans a surprise.

Writers, Julie Beckett & Nick Warburton
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Alice Carter ..... Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ..... Wilf Scolding
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen


THU 19:15 Front Row (m000lfbc)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


THU 19:45 Bloody Eisteddfod (m000lf96)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000lfbf)
Combining original insights into major news stories with topical investigations


THU 20:30 In Business (m000lfbh)
The Gatwick Effect

The coronavirus pandemic and the associated global economic lockdown have had a dramatic impact on businesses across the UK, perhaps none more so than on the aviation industry and airports like Gatwick, usually the UK's second busiest.

The consequences, though, go far beyond the confines of the airport. Tens of thousands of jobs in the wider economy and in nearby towns, like Crawley, are under threat.

One report has suggested that, because of its dependence on Gatwick, Crawley could be the worst affected urban centre in the UK.

John Murphy speaks to a range of businesses in Crawley during this extraordinary period, to see if and how they can survive.

Producer: Darin Graham


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000lf9z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 The Long View (m000lf90)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000lfbk)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 Actress by Anne Enright (m000lf9d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


THU 23:00 Jack & Millie (b0b9yw79)
Series 1

Death & The Maven

When Film Club Leo dies suddenly, Jack and Millie have to make a choice between good behaviour and cheesecake, in this comedy about an older couple trying to grapple with an elusive name, a missing Bette Midler, a rogue knish and a married lifetime's-worth of verbal sparring.

So Millie's son Melvin has given her a new tablet with a voice recorder?

So suddenly Jack and Millie have decided to record everything that happens to them? And for this, we should be grateful?

Well Yes! Because this is a new comedy show written by Jeremy Front (writer of the Charles Paris mysteries for Radio 4) and starring Jeremy Front and Rebecca Front as Jack and Millie Lemman, an older couple who are fully engaged with contemporary life while being at war with the absurdities of the modern world.

Written by Jeremy Front
Produced by David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:30 The Learning Revolution (m000hhsv)
Teaching

At a time when many parents unexpectedly find themselves taking on the role of the teacher, Alex Beard sets out to discover how teaching might look very different in the future.

We are used to a system of teachers who know and learners who don’t. The model of a large group of students sitting in rows, eyes trained on a single teacher, has proven remarkably resilient. But in today’s world, where new fields of knowledge are emerging rapidly and lifelong learners may not always have access to a dedicated teacher, is it time to rethink how teaching is done?

Artificial intelligence is already playing a significant role in education. Some edtech companies are developing technology which can track a learner’s progress by monitoring their heart rate and eye movements. But where does all this leave the human teacher? And how can new technology be harnessed in the best interests of teachers and learners?

Alex Beard used to be a teacher, and is now an education explorer, of sorts. In the second episode of this series, he observes teaching around the world, and talks to important thinkers in artificial intelligence, philosophy and pedagogy, to find out what role teachers will play in the Learning Revolution.

Presenter: Alex Beard
Producers: Dan Hardoon and Emma Barnaby
Executive Producer: Deborah Dudgeon
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4



FRIDAY 07 AUGUST 2020

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000lfbm)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 00:30 The Oak Papers by James Canton (m000lfbp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000lfbr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000lfbt)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000lfbw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000lfby)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000lfc0)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Very Reverend Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Dean of St Davids Cathedral


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000lfc2)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09rzrxs)
Michael Morpurgo on the Swan

Children's author and poet Michael Morpurgo reflects on the swan, celebrating its mysterious beauty and the wonder of its wings as they pass overhead.

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

Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photograph: Bryan Garnett.


FRI 06:00 Today (m000lh5n)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000ldlw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 The Oak Papers by James Canton (m000lh7d)
Episode 5

Jonathan Keeble reads a fascinating account of the history and symbolic power of oak trees, by James Canton.

When a relationship breaks down, James Canton begins to spend time with an ancient oak tree near where he lives in Essex - the 800-year-old Honywood Oak.

“I began to visit the oak as one might visit a friend. From the first meeting there grew a strange sense of attachment I didn’t consciously recognise until I began to realise the significance that trees, and oak trees especially, can have in our lives.”

Spending time at the tree, James finds solace from his distress. More than that, he begins to feel bewitched by the power of the tree. It is then that he begins an exploration of the history of oak trees, and their vital importance in history and myth.

“As I’ve dug deeper into the historical and cultural layers of ancient Europe, I have begun to realise just how common the veneration of oak trees was.”

He meets people who work with oak, and artists who have been inspired by oak trees. And, as he sits at the oak, he records in detail the sounds and sights of the natural world around him.

“A wren pipes up, a staccato tic, tic, tic from somewhere in the centre of the oak. A hare appears on the path, all ears, lean and jittery, only to disappear into the long grasses and ferns that cover the soft slopes of the stream valley. It is a slice of time laid bare, a moment when the normal flow of life is frozen.”

Beautifully-observed nature writing and fascinating history, with a soundscape of the natural world, and music by Max Richter.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000lh5s)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


FRI 10:45 Bloody Eisteddfod (m000lh5v)
Episode 5

Inspector Daf Dafis of Dyfed Powys Police knows that the visit of Wales’ greatest cultural festival to his patch will be a challenge but even he didn’t anticipate the mayhem which ensues.

It’s not all archdruids and choral contests, as Daf discovers, and when the ceremonial Chair cannot be filled, there is a murder case to solve.

There's as much crime as culture and Daf has one or two personal issues to solve as well but, with the help of his trusty sergeant and the sexiest female agricultural contractor in the county, he’ll give it his best shot.

An adaptation of the best-selling Welsh novel, Bloody Eisteddfod, provides a lively insight into contemporary rural life as well as culture. A stellar cast of the finest actors in Wales, headed by Steffan Rhodri and Rhian Morgan are joined by talented newcomers in a lively and engaging drama, packed with incident and vivid characters.

A Cwmni THR production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 11:00 The Crisis Of American Democracy (m000lh5x)
Unequal

Ben Wright investigates how partisan maps are affecting American democracy.

In the second part of his series assessing the health of America's electoral democracy ahead of the 2020 elections, Ben examines concerns that in many states politicians are choosing their voters, rather than the other way around. As he discovers more about the damage caused by so-called 'gerrymandering' in North Carolina and Wisconsin, Ben learns a whole new lexicon, one filled with 'packing', 'cracking' and 'stacking'. And as he speaks to voters, activists and politicians from both sides of the political aisle and none, he'll hear how voters in some states are fighting back against politicians who want to embed themselves in power.

Producer: Giles Edwards


FRI 11:30 Relativity (m000lh5z)
Series 3

Episode 4

The third series of Richard Herring’s comedy drama, Relativity, builds on the warm, lively characters and sharply observed family dynamics of previous series.

His always affectionate, sometimes spiky observation of inter-generational misunderstanding, sibling sparring and the ties that bind will resonate with anyone who has ever tried to combine a relaxing mini break with a four month old who rarely sleeps.

Amid the comedy, Richard broaches some more serious highs and lows of family life. In this series, he focuses on the roller coaster ride of first time parenting, how to maintain a long standing marriage and brass rubbing.

Richard Herring is a comedian, writer, blogger and podcaster and the world's premier semi-professional self-playing snooker player.

Episode 4
A tale of two hotels. Ian and Chloe’s relaxing weekend proves to be anything but, with Chloe taking Don home alone. Meanwhile, Jane treats Ken and Margaret to a slap up cream tea with a little too much prosecco.

Cast:
Margaret…………….Alison Steadman
Ken……………..Phil Davis
Jane…………….Fenella Woolgar
Ian……………….Richard Herring
Chloe…………..Emily Berrington
Pete………………..Gordon Kennedy
Holly………………...Tia Bannon
Mark………………Fred Haig
Nick………………..Harrison Knights
George……………..Danny Kirrane

Written by Richard Herring
Sound design by Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producers: Jon Thoday and Richard Allen Turner
An Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000lhf8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Actress by Anne Enright (m000lh63)
Episode 10: Endings

Booker-winning Anne Enright's new novel about the rise and terrible fall of Irish acting legend, Katherine O'Dell.
.
Today: as Norah pieces together the dark secrets of her mothers life, her rage finally turns to solace...

Writer: Anne Enright is an Irish author of six novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering, as well as The Forgotten Waltz and The Green Road.
Reader: tbc
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett


FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000lh65)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


FRI 12:57 Weather (m000lh67)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m000lh69)
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 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000lh6c)
10. Leaving the tribe

Our story ends at the very top, with a fax to the White House. The campaign to spread doubt about climate change was so successful, it infiltrated the White House. In 2007, a House of Representatives Committee investigation ruled: ‘There was a systematic White House effort to minimize the significance of climate change by editing climate change reports’.

But years later, after the oil money pipeline was cut, the key groups who initiated the strategy had folded, huge swathes of the population still doubt climate change. In 2001, about 50% of Republicans thought human activity was the main cause of global warming. Ten years later that was down to just 30% or so. What happens when a Republican politician proposes legislation to tackle climate change?

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change.
With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.

Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000lfb9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (m000lh6f)
Wild Swimming

Nell (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and Oscar (Joseph Tweedale) meet on a deserted beach in Dorset. It’s 1595. Or maybe it’s 1610. Oscar has returned from his first term at university and Nell is bored out her brains. They will meet here, on this same beach, again and again for the next 400 years. Stuff will change, as it does with time. They will try to keep up.

Wild Swimming is a battle of the sexes, an interrogation of privilege and a wilfully ignorant history of English Literature.

Written by Marek Horn, from an original concept by Marek Horn and Julia Head. Produced by multi award-winning director Becky Ripley.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000lh6h)
GQT At Home: Episode Nineteen

Kathy Clugston hosts the gardening panel show, with Pippa Greenwood, Chris Beardshaw and Matt Biggs joining her this week to answer questions sent in by listeners.

Producer - Rosie Merotra
Assistant Producer - Jemima Rathbone

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 The Poet and the Echo (m000lh6k)
Carpe Diem

Writers choose poems as inspiration for new stories.

Carpe Diem

Cathy Forde takes inspiration from Horace's famous ode to write a moving story about the reality of being a carer.

Writer ….. Cathy Forde
Reader ….. Anita Vettesse
Producer …..Gaynor Macfarlane

A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000lh6m)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.


FRI 16:30 Feedback (m000lh6p)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience


FRI 17:00 PM (m000lh6r)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000lh6w)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 Summer Comedy Festival (m000lh6y)
Episode 3

Comedians curate their dream festivals, hosting a line-up of their favourite performers.


FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000lh70)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


FRI 19:45 Bloody Eisteddfod (m000lh5v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000lh72)
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from venues around the UK.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000lh74)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.


FRI 21:00 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000lh76)
Omnibus. Part 2

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how to manufacture doubt. In this series we reveal how some of the world’s most powerful interests made us doubt the connection between smoking and cancer, and then how the same tactics were used to make us doubt climate change. With the help of once secret, internal memos, we will take you behind the board room doors and give you a seat at the table where the PR strategies were drawn up. They’ve been so successful, they’ve managed to change the narrative on one of the most important stories of our time. This is about more than climate change, this is the story of how we have come to live in a world where our sense of shared reality is in retreat. Where nothing seems true, and everything is possible.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000lh78)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 Actress by Anne Enright (m000lh63)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


FRI 23:00 Great Lives (m000lgkg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 The Learning Revolution (m000hq1m)
Learning

Right now, more than 860 million students worldwide are not at school due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many are studying from home but, amid endless distractions, are they actually learning?

For centuries, formal learning has been confined to a dedicated school or university building at a particular stage of life. Now more than ever, that looks set to change.

In designing an education system fit for the future, how might we harness the human brain’s incredible capacity for learning? There’s much to be gleaned from how babies and teenagers learn. Lifelong learning will also be an important part of education in the future – but what might it look like in practice?

Alex Beard used to be a teacher, and is now an education explorer, of sorts. In the final episode of this series, he hears from neuroscientists, psychologists and education experts, and sets out the blueprint for his Learning Revolution.

Presenter: Alex Beard
Producers: Dan Hardoon and Emma Barnaby
Executive Producer: Deborah Dudgeon
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4