SATURDAY 03 OCTOBER 2020

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000myy1)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre (m000mywl)
Episode 5

Anne-Marie Duff reads the incredible true story of Ursula Kuczynski: lover, mother, soldier, spy. From acclaimed historian, Ben Macintyre.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Emma Harding

Episode 5: In a quiet English village in 1942, no one knows that their neighbour and mother-of-three, Mrs Burton, is really Ursula Kuczynski - a dedicated communist, a colonel in Russia's Red Army, and a highly-trained spy. Nor do they know that 'Agent Sonya' is currently helping the Soviet Union to build the atom bomb.

Opening music: Kühle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt? Solidaritätslied by Hanns Eisler from album Bye-Bye Berlin, performed by Quatuor Manfred, Harmonia Mundi
Closing music: Suite No 2 Op 2 Niemandsland i by Hanns Eisler from album Roaring Eisler, performed by H K Gruber and Modern Ensemble, RCA Red Seal


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000myy5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000myyb)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000myyf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m000myyk)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000myym)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Sarah Teather, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK

Good morning.

The early morning sun falls on the table and chairs in my tiny garden from the first signs of spring; doing nothing there with a mug of tea is a daily ritual. This year, first dunnocks, then robins built nests in the climbers I should really have pruned. The snails ate the lupins I planted in the flower bed; but a self-seeder took root in the gravel path. I admired its pluckiness, and so let it be, and its brilliant blue blooms grew tall, blocking access to the shed, until undisturbed, the virginia creeper sealed the door shut.

The arc of the morning sun is lower now, hovering in the sky beneath the line of roof tops behind, casting shadow on my table until spring. So I have retreated to a chair inside the backdoor. Out of sight, behind the Michaelmas daisies, a fox curls up like a cat in the ivy on the sunny wall. He forced a gap in the fence for ease of access, through which I can now see that the clematis is in flower again; though not in my garden. Its beauty can be viewed only from the vantage of the junk-filled public alleyway, on the other side of the fence.

You will have gathered by now that all those extra hours working from home this year left little energy to manicure a garden, but rather yielded exhaustion, and with it, an accidental rewilding experiment. But as I sat, spent out, watching it flourish, in spite of me, I caught a glimpse of the untamed beauty of God’s glory.

“How lovely is your dwelling place O Lord of hosts. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, at your altars… my king and my God.”

Amen.


SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m000myyp)
Reading Outside Your Comfort Zone

Ann Morgan, who read a book from every country in the world to broaden her homogeneous reading habits, commends the challenge of reading outside your comfort zone. "When you break out of that hall of mirrors and open yourself up to what the world's stories offer, amazing things can happen."
Presenter: Olly Mann
Producer: Sheila Cook


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000n56l)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m000myw5)
Buckinghamshire with Professor David Wilson

David Wilson is a well known criminologist and former prison governor. Clare meets him in the village of Wicken on the Northamptonshire/Buckinghamshire border near to where he lives for a walk to the nearby village of Leckhampstead. This is one of David's regular routes. He has been walking around 50 miles a week since lockdown began in March. He does it to keep his weight down and to help process the horrors he often faces in his work dealing with murderers and serial killers. Clare talks to him about a case in his hometown in Scotland which he has recently written a book about. In it he reexamines the brutal murder of a young woman in 1973. Many people in the town believed the wrong man was tried and convicted. With the help of his sisters, David revisits the case and tracks down the man he believes to be the real killer.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

The route starts on OS Landranger 152 Grid Ref SP 745394 Wicken to Leckhampstead


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m000n56q)
Farming Today This Week

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside


SAT 06:57 Weather (m000n56s)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m000n56v)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m000n56z)
Shirley Ballas

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


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000n571)
Home Economics: Episode 14

Jay Rayner hosts the culinary panel show. Dr Annie Gray, Tim Anderson, Sophie Wright and Jeremy Pang join virtually from their kitchens to answer culinary questions sent in from the audience via email and social media.

This week, the team discusses the best way to make a rosti, whether pomegranates are worth the hassle, and the history of the stock cubes. They also talk about adding a shine to pastry - for which Dr Annie Gray has a very unusual solution.

Z He from Bun House in Soho talks about the Moon Festival and has sent some the panel some mooncakes.

Producer: Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Jemima Rathbone

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m000n573)
Steve Richards and guests look back on another turbulent week at Westminster. As tensions mounted between the government and Conservative backbenchers, we explore the relationship between parliament and the executive at times of national crisis. Also, is our media culture too punishing of politicians who don't always know the full facts, all of the time? And, are virtual party conferences a poor substitute for the real thing?


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m000n575)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m000n64j)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m000n4yq)
City's plan to end poverty in 10 years

The latest news from the world of personal finance


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m000myx1)
Series 103

Episode 5

A satirical review of the week's news with Andy Zaltzman and guests guests Simon Evans, Jena Friedman, Mark Nelson and Zoe Lyons.

It's been a big week for America - even before the Trumps tested positive - and Britain has been doing its best to keep up in the highly satirisable news stakes too.

Written by Andy Zaltzman with additional material from Simon Alcock, Max Davis, Alice Fraser, Natasha Mwansa and Mike Shephard.

Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production


SAT 12:57 Weather (m000n579)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m000n57c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m000myx9)
Vaughan Gething MS, Amanda Milling MP, Frances O'Grady, Camilla Tominey

Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Broadcasting House in London with a panel including the Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething MS, the TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady, the Co-chair of the Conservative Party Amanda Milling MP and associate editor of The Telegraph newspaper Camilla Tominey.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Studio Director: Maire Devine


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m000n57f)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 One to One (m000mzmc)
Diversity Outdoors - Mya-Rose Craig talks to Zakiya Mckenzie

18 year old Mya-Rose Craig, aka Birdgirl is a very keen birdwatcher having seen over half the world’s’ birds in her global travels. What she doesn’t see as a British Bangladeshi are many like herself in the forests, fens, mountains and other rural landscapes in the UK. In recent years she has run Nature Camps to actively encourage Black and Visible Minority ethnic people outdoors. In this, the second of two programmes, she shares her experiences and challenges with Zakiya Mckenzie: postgraduate student, writer in residence with the Forestry Commission in 2019 and Ambassador for Black and Green- a group which works to connect Bristol’s African and Caribbean communities with the city’s environmental sector. Producer Sarah Blunt


SAT 15:00 Dangerous Visions (b0b5qh2m)
Shadowbahn

The Twin Towers reappear in Dakota in 2021. Nothing is predictable in this new America and reality and history are turned upside down. What exists and what is a shadow?

Steve Erickson's 2017 novel was hailed by critics as the first novel of the Trump era. It imagines checkpoints and borders and rupture zones in a country that's torn apart.

Parker, aged 23, and his 15 year-old sister Zema are driving from the West coast to see their mother in Michigan. On a news feed they hear that the Twin Towers have reappeared in South Dakota. Overnight. Out of nowhere. Strange sounds seem to be coming from them. Is there anyone inside? The buildings look pristine.

Dubbed by reporters on the scene as an "American Stonehenge", they immediately become a pilgrimage site.

Headstrong Zema insists that they change course and join the throng heading to the site. She has brought along mix tapes made by their dad who was a music DJ. The songs somehow reflect where they are and what they are thinking about. Astonished, they learn over social media that their car has become a magnet. Hashtag Supersonic. What is the strange cargo they carry?

Meanwhile, around the Twin Towers, every sightseer hears different music. And on a top floor in the otherwise empty South Tower, Jesse Presley the twin brother of Elvis wakes up. He has his own demons and music raging in his head.

Jesse's journey has parallels with Parker and Zema's. It's a supernaturally charged trip across an America which is familiar and yet eerily angry and dangerous, and back in altered time.

Steve Erickson, often described as a writer's writer, has had ten novels published in as many languages. He's known for Zeroville (soon to be seen as a movie), Our Ecstatic Days, and These Dreams of You which contains some of Shadowbahn's characters.

Recorded on location in Arizona and New York.

Other parts played by
Pete McElligott
Chris Dwane
Sara Berg
Reynaldo Piniella
Raphael Martin

Written by Steve Erickson
Adapted for radio by Anita Sullivan

Produced and Directed by Judith Kampfner and Steve Bond

A Corporation For Independent Media production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m000n57h)
Weekend Woman's Hour - Jenni Murray, the Story of Cherry Groce, Butterfly Conservation

In her final Woman’s Hour after 33 years at the helm Jenni discusses the work that still needs to be done when it comes to feminism and equality. She's joined by Helena Kennedy QC, Jude Kelly the founder and director of The WOW Foundation, "Mother of the House" Harriet Harman MP, and poet and novelist, Jackie Kay.

We hear from Lee Lawrence, who’s mother Cherry Groce was shot by police in a botched dawn raid. Lee describes his fight to get justice for his mother and his ongoing commitment to challenging racism within the police force.

We hear from the film director Malou Reymann about her new film ‘A Perfectly Normal Family’. It centres around an eleven year old girl whose life is turned upside down when her father tells her he wants to become a woman. The fictional story is based on Malou's own experience.

Live, learn and thrive: that’s what Andrea McLean wants us to do with the help of her new book “This Girl is on Fire”.

The 2020 Woman’s Hour Power List is looking for women who are trying to improve the health of our planet. We hear from Zoë Randle, the Senior Surveys Officer for Butterfly Conservation. She tells us about the thousands of volunteers who are turning their love of nature into hard data which will directly influence UK conservation policy.

And Jenni leaves us with a snap-shot of her favourite ever guests.

Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Siobhann Tighe


SAT 17:00 PM (m000n57k)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m000n57m)
Nick Robinson talks politics and personal roots with Green co-leader, Siân Berry


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000n57p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m000n57r)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000n57t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m000n57w)
Kae Tempest, Jim Moir, Magid Magid, Athena Kugblenu, Amythyst Kiah, Lack of Afro, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Athena Kugblenu are joined by Kae Tempest, Jim Moir and Magid Magid for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Amythyst Kiah and Lack of Afro.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m000n4xv)
Chuck Feeney

Billionaire Chuck Feeney said he would give away all of his money by 2020 – and he’s done it. An entrepreneur from childhood, he amassed a huge fortune in the duty-free business, before spending it on projects ranging from concert halls in Ireland to AIDS support in South Africa. For many years the money was only given out on condition of secrecy, that his name should never be mentioned in connection with the donations.

Mark Coles finds out what’s driven this unique mission - and what his family think.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Researchers: Benita Barden & Beth Sagar-Fenton


SAT 19:15 My Dream Dinner Party (m000mbll)
Jack Whitehall's Dream Dinner Party

Actor and comedian Jack Whitehall hosts a dinner party with a twist - all his guests are from beyond the grave, heroes brought back to life by the magic of the radio archive.

Jack is joined by James Bond star Roger Moore, comic actor Frankie Howerd, football legend Brian Clough, art historian Sister Wendy Beckett, and Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall.

Things get awkward when Jack's Beef Wellington goes wrong but the conversation soon flows when the dinner table chat turns to living in a caravan, the sting of failure, the need for a father figure - and pubic hair.

There's laughter, an arm wrestle with 007 and Sister Wendy comes out on top in an unexpected round of spin the bottle.

Presented by Jack Whitehall
Produced by Sarah Peters and Peregrine Andrews
Researcher: Edgar Maddicott
BBC Archivist: Tariq Hussein
Executive Producer: Iain Chambers

A Tuning Fork and Open Audio production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 19:45 The Californian Century (m000fvvf)
Acts of Resistance

Stanley Tucci tells the story of Kathleen Cleaver, a leading light in the short-lived but highly influential Black Panther Party which was founded in Oakland, California.

Kathleen Cleaver and the Panthers were sick of the compromises of the mainstream civil rights movement. Their militant approach influenced many other activists - including San Francisco's increasingly vocal LGBT community.

But for the US government, the Panthers became public enemy number one - and leading figures like Cleaver were forced to flee.

Academic consultant: Dr Ian Scott, University of Manchester

Written and produced by Laurence Grissell


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m000n57y)
The Quebec Emergency

How did troops end up on the streets on Montreal in October 1970? The French-speaking majority of Quebec has long been isolated and disadvantaged on the English-speaking continent of North America. As anti-colonial and social movements gained global traction in the 1960s, Quebec transformed into a secular, progressive society.

Yet, for some francophone Quebecois, change would never go far enough if the province remained a part of Canada. And, within the broad movement for Quebec independence, one radical group chose to use violence to pursue their cause.

The Front de Libération du Quebec, or FLQ, launched a campaign of terror on Quebec, planting bombs throughout the 1960s. National and provincial tensions came to a dramatic climax in October 1970, when the FLQ kidnapped a British diplomat, James Cross, followed by a senior Quebec politician, Pierre Laporte.

The Prime Minister at the time, Pierre Trudeau, was faced with a grave dilemma - crush violent separatism at the risk of fanning the flames of Quebec’s grievances or be seen to appease terrorism.

Canadian Professor of International History, Margaret MacMillan, charts the cultural and political currents of that dramatic time. We hear archive that illustrates the fear, discontent and uncertainty on both sides, as well as the personal story of one kidnap victim and the tragedy of the other. How did Canada and Quebec go from an international success story to the site of a terrorist challenge in three short years? Margaret considers the story of the October Crisis as a pivotal moment in the history of democracy in her country.

With archive from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Producer: Leonie Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 Tracks (p06rtws9)
Series 3: Chimera

Episode Eight

Part 8 of the conspiracy thriller. Written by Matthew Broughton, starring Hattie Morahan and Jonathan Forbes.

Helen discovers the truth behind her mystery pregnancy.

A gripping thriller, chart topping podcast and winner of Best Sound (BBC Audio Drama Awards) and Best Fiction (British Podcast Awards), now Tracks is back with another 9 part headphone filling thrill-ride.

Helen…. Hattie Morahan
Freddy….. Jonathan Forbes
Rachel…. Fiona O’Shaughnessy
Mrs Soames…. Emma Handy
Dr Grace…. Claire Cage
Dawn…. Saffron Coomber
Doctor…. Sean Murray
Andrea…. Eiry Thomas

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


SAT 21:45 Poem Stories (b05xwf5q)
A Potion by Jacob Polley

An original short story by the poet Jacob Polley, read by Bryan Dick.

A new series in which poets adapt their own poems into short stories. 'A Potion' springs from Jacob Polley's poem 'The Remedy', from his 2003 collection 'The Brink'.

Jacob Polley was born in Carlisle, Cumbria. He is the author of four books of poems, The Brink (2003), Little Gods (2006), The Havocs (2012) and Jackself (2016) all published by Picador, as well as a novel, Talk of the Town.

Written by Jacob Polley
Read by Bryan Dick
Produced by Mair Bosworth


SAT 22:00 News (m000n580)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 The Spark (m000mzsm)
Chris Daw and the Abolition of Prisons

The interview series in which journalist Helen Lewis meets the writers and thinkers who are breaking new ground.

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

Each week, we give the whole programme over to a single in-depth, close-up interview with someone whose big idea is bidding to change our world.

Helen’s challenge is to make sense of their new idea, to find out more about the person behind it – and to test what it has to offer us against the failures of the past.

In this episode, the barrister Chris Daw QC, author of Justice on Trial, tells Helen why he contends that we should abolish prisons as we currently understand them, and radically rethink our whole approach to punishment and rehabilitation. Drawing on over two decades as a criminal barrister, Daw argues that a radical rethink would help reduce rates of prison overcrowding and reoffending, and reverse what he sees as the UK's increasingly US-style approach to sentencing and incarceration. Helen challenges him to explain how this fully factors in public safety, justice as seen from the victim's and society's perspectives, and the need for deterrence.

Producer: Phil Tinline


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (m000my7k)
Semi-final 2, 2020

(14/17)
Russell Davies welcomes another three of the 2020 heat winners, along with a particularly high-scoring runner-up from one of this year's contests. The winner today will take another of the places in the grand Final in October. The questions are challenging at this stage and the competition is fierce.

A listener also stands a chance of winning a prize by coming up with questions that might defeat the combined brainpower of the contestants, in the Beat The Brains interlude.

Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 Contains Strong Language Live (m000my1w)
Luke Wright discovers Barrow- in Furness through the eyes of the poets who’ve been inspired by this coastal industrial town.

Barrow propelled itself onto the map 150 years ago after the discovery of iron ore transformed Barrow-the-fishing-village, into a frontier town of the industrial revolution, earning it the title of The Chicago of the North.

Millom poet, Norman Nicholson wrote “Railways spool out their tangle of parallels....wagons stand abandoned beside broken down buffers and stonechat perch upon them, as if the red of their breasts were intended by nature for camouflage among rust” of this part of the world – so it’s no wonder that Barrow Island became the inspiration for Thomas the Tank Engine!

And William Wordsworth was no stranger to Furness Abbey – “a mouldering Pile” and “holy Scene” of The Prelude – and across the water to Piel Castle…
"And this huge Castle, standing here sublime, I love to see the look with which it braves, Cased in the unfeeling armour of old time, The lightning, the fierce wind, the trampling waves".

Speaking to Barrow Poets Kim Moore and Kate Davis, Luke explores Barrow through those who walk in Wordsworth’s footsteps – alongside Yorkshire poet Kate Fox, bringing her own experience and work to reflect on this coastal town.

Produced by Katharine Longsworth and Susan Roberts
A BBC Drama North Production



SUNDAY 04 OCTOBER 2020

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000n582)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 A British History in Weather (b07b2kcs)
Britain and the Sun

Alexandra Harris tells the story of how the weather has written and painted itself into the cultural life of Britain. episode 4, Britain and the sun: a rare treat?

"I kept a kind of weather diary during a hot spell last summer. I didn't try to record pressure or the movement of air fronts – I'd have been hopeless at that – but just noted some ordinary details of life in the warm, basic ingredients from which summer days are made. There's the waking up already hot with a single sheet in a crumpled mess, and why does the traffic sound louder – o yes because the window's open behind the curtain. Best keep the curtains closed all day. So the house stays dark, and there's a white-green flash when you come back into it from brightness, before the eyes have adapted, as well as the swooning doziness of sitting at a desk again after half an hour in the sun. There's all the action in the street outside, people going to the park, hot children pulling scooters, hotter children crying, music from open car windows, wasps in the kitchen, a cloud of heat hovering half way up the stairs. In the evening the scent of lilac pools in the stillness; you can walk into it like a room."

Music by Jon Nicholls.

A BBC Audio Production, made in Bristol


SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000myw4)
A Borderline Interest by Derek Owusu

Two people meet in a mental health support group and quickly grow close. But is one of them hiding something?

An original short story for Radio 4 about what we share, what we hide and how to understand someone's true feelings when you're not even sure of your own.

Derek Owusu is a writer, poet and podcaster from north London. He discovered his passion for literature at the age of twenty-three while studying exercise science at university. Unable to afford a change of degree, Derek began reading voraciously and sneaking into English Literature lectures at the University of Manchester. Derek edited and contributed to Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space. That Reminds Me, his first solo work, won the Desmond Elliott Prize for new fiction in 2020.

Read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Produced by Mair Bosworth


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000n584)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000n586)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000n588)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000n58b)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000n4z3)
The sound of church bells ringing on Sunday from around the country


SUN 05:45 Profile (m000n4xv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News (m000n4vf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b00w6p8f)
I Don't Believe in Being Lost

Broadcaster Anita Rani explores the significance of being lost, both physically and spiritually. Drawing on a broad range of music and texts, from the Qawwali of Sufi Islam to the fairytales of the Brothers Grimm, Anita illustrates the importance of losing oneself in culture and spirituality.

In some ways, Anita doesn't believe in being lost if there's a map, a signpost or even a person to ask, it's possible to get where you need to be. On another level we are all incredibly lost throughout our lives. From birth until death there's no plan and no map, just meanderings and different destinations. How does this feeling of being lost manifest itself in our existence, physically, mentally and spiritually?

Anita reflects on the nature of being lost with Reverend Peter Owen Jones, priest, award-winning television presenter and author, described by the Times as "the bravest vicar in Britain". Peter has journeyed deep into the wilderness in the footsteps of St Anthony. In a hermit's cell in the heart of the Egyptian Sinai Desert, he lived alone. The experience, he says, withered his illusions and allowed him to see things as they really are.

Producer: Jo Coombs
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b05w9b5j)
Burbot

The burbot is the skulker under the rocks, the flabby, sour-faced cod of cold, fresh water. It is not loved for its looks, but it was once prized for its body. At one time it was common here but has now gone from UK shores, believed extinct in the 1960s. This is the only member of the cod family that lives in fresh water and for centuries it swam in the eastern part of England to be pursued by fishermen for its firm, white flesh and unbelievably rich liver oils.

Barbot Hall in Rotherham and Burbolt Lane in Cambridge show it was once important – and so common that some records say it was fed to pigs. In North America it is a common angling fish; but in the early 20th century, the rich oils were so prized the Burbot Fishing Company processed half a million fish a year. It is still found in Europe and Russia. Chekhov wrote a comic story, The Burbot, showing how this Cinderella of fish could outwit even the aristocracy.

Some want the burbot restored to our waterways, arguing in the present desire to re-wild it should be allowed to live here once more. After all, the burbot was so much a part of our culture; However, others say it is best to leave it as a faint memory as climate change will make its life unbearable.

Either way, the burbot is a reminder of how quickly we forget what was once so common.

Original Producer : Andrew Dawes

Archive Producer: Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol


SUN 06:57 Weather (m000n4vp)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000n4vt)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000n4vy)
Emily Buchanan takes a look at the ethical and religious issues of the week.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000n48b)
Vision Aid Overseas

Dancer Oti Mabuse makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Vision Aid Overseas.

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

Registered Charity Number: 1081695

Main image credit: Joseph Sinclair


SUN 07:57 Weather (m000n4w2)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000n4w6)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000n4wb)
Song of the Prophets

This Black History Month the service explores the theme that Black Lives Matter everywhere through the lens of climate injustice, poverty and inequality around the world. Leader: Amanda Khozi Mukwashi, CEO of Christian Aid which is marking its 75th anniversary year; Preacher: Professor Robert Beckford with reflections by Bob Kikuyu (Kenya), and Solomon Woldetsadik (Ethiopia). Prayers: Dionne Gravesande. Readings: Colossians 1:15-20, Romans 8:18-25. Producer: Andrew Earis.

Photograph: Christian Aid


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000myxf)
The Pro-Mask Movement

"As a fully fledged luvvie," writes Bernardine Evaristo, "practically every greeting and farewell is accompanied by a kiss or hug."
But these days hugs feel like a distant memory and, she argues, wearing a mask is the least we can do.
"It's an act of compassion, self-protection and a commitment towards the survival of our fellow humans, our country, our world."

Producer: Adele Armstrong


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkxj9)
Galapagos Mockingbird

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents a bird which intrigued Darwin, the Galapagos mockingbird. There are four species of Mockingbird in the Galapagos islands, which probably all descended from a single migrant ancestor and then subsequently evolved different adaptations to life on their separate island clusters, hence their fascination for Charles Darwin. The most widespread is the resourceful Galapagos Mockingbird. Unlike other mockingbirds which feed on nectar and seeds, the Galapagos mockingbird has adapted to its island life to steal and break into seabird eggs and even attack and kill young nestlings. They'll also ride on the backs of land iguanas to feed on ticks deep within the reptiles' skin and will boldly approach tourists for foot. They aptly demonstrate the theory of the "survival of the fittest".


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000n4wg)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000n4wl)
Writers, Sarah Hehir & Keri Davies
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Jolene Archer.... Buffy Davis
Lilian Bellamy.... Sunny Ormonde
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Jakob Hakansson... Paul Venables
Jazzer McCreary.... Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller.... Annabelle Dowler
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Gavin Moss ….. Gareth Pierce
Elizabeth Pargetter.... Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter... Toby Laurence
Fallon Rogers.... Joanna Van Kampen
Lynda Snell.... Carole Boyd
Counsellor... Saffron Coomber


SUN 10:55 Tweet of the Day (m000n4wq)
Tweet Take 5 : Grey Heron

With it's prehistoric looks and tuneless clattering the grey heron is a familiar sight along many rivers and wetlands. More often seen lazily flying away as you draw close, grey herons are also a regular garden visitor to well stocked garden ponds, where standing motionless for hours they wait for that perfect moment to catch their prey. In this extended edition of Tweet of the Day we hear three stories of the grey heron from; Sir David Attenborough, Welsh poet and playwright Gillian Clarke and ecologist Penny Anderson.

Produced by Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol


SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000n4wv)
Samantha Morton, actor

Samantha Morton is an actor and director. She has appeared in films directed by Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg, and is also known for her work on independent productions, often with serious themes such as prostitution and bereavement. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards and won many accolades including a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.

Born in Nottingham in 1977, she had a difficult childhood. She was first taken into care as a baby, then spent the next decade between foster parents and her father’s home before being taken into care permanently at the age of 11. She was sexually abused in one of the homes, and left school at the age of 13.

She discovered acting when a teacher recommended she apply to the Central Junior Television Workshop which lead to her appearing in TV series including Soldier Soldier, Cracker, and Band of Gold. She went onto appear in the films, Emma and Jane Eyre and received her first Academy Award nomination for her role as a mute laundress in Woody Allen’s 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown. Her second was for her portrayal of a grieving mother in the 2003 film In America.

Other roles have ranged from Mary, Queen of Scots, in Elizabeth: The Golden Age to a war widow in The Messenger and the wife of a serial killer in Rillington Place. She made her directorial debut with The Unloved in 2009, a film based on her own experience of the care system. It won the BAFTA Award for Best Single Drama.

Sam lives in Sussex with her husband, Harry Holm. They have two children together, Edie and Teddy. Sam also has a daughter, Esme, from her relationship with Charlie Creed-Miles.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale


SUN 11:45 The Rise and Fall of the Antique (b0bdvl93)
Retromania

Travis Elborough charts the rise and fall of the antique, examining how, ultimately, the present always dictates which bits of yesteryear we deem worthy of collecting.
He concludes his series on the changing fortunes of the antiques trade, discovering the impact of the internet, and the rise of “vintage” wares alongside traditional antiques.
Producer: Sheila Cook


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000n4x0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 The Museum of Curiosity (m000my7x)
Series 15

Episode 4

Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and the Museum’s latest curator Alice Levine are joined by comedian and The Last Leg host Josh Widdicombe, mathematician and pianist Dr Eugenia Cheng and editor and Have I Got News For You captain Ian Hislop.

This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee donate Bowerman’s Nose, the equals sign and print.

In this series of The Museum of Curiosity, John and Alice are recording from various locations around their fictional Museum - this week they get stuck inside the Museum lift. This series was recorded remotely in June/July 2020.

The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Shephard, Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus and Lydia Mizon of QI.

The Producer was Anne Miller.

The Exec Producer was Victoria Lloyd.

The Production Coordinator was Mabel Wright.

Edited by David Thomas.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000n4x4)
Taking the Biscuit: How a long-life ration became the quintessential British comfort food

Biscuits aren’t just a classic accompaniment to a cuppa: they’re also somehow an edible comforter - very often providing a link to childhood, to family, to happy memories. And of course, giving that all-important sugary pick-me-up.

All of which goes some way towards explaining why, over just one month of lockdown, the UK spent an extra £19 million on biscuits, according to market research firm Kantar; and why baking biscuits helped keep so many of us sane during what's been a tough year.

But there is more to the humble biscuit than comfort. This is a food that helped shape wartime rations, that was front and centre of Britain's factory revolution, that formed the basis for an industry that employed thousands and shaped neighbourhoods - and today, remains a key component of the UK's food manufacturing and trade sectors.

So what's the secret to their success? Sheila Dillon finds out.

Produced by Lucy Taylor for BBC Audio in Bristol.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m000n4x8)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000n4xd)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000n4xj)
Fi Glover presents the longer weekly edition of the programme on the shared experience of being in lockdown and beyond. In this week's programme two university students - both undergraduates in Scotland - reflect on a restricted university life as well as their hopes and dreams for the future; local journalists discuss the importance of local newspapers, the stresses and strains of the job and positive side of working from home; and pub landlords in York talk about the trials and tribulations of working in the License Trade during the pandemic.

Producer: Mohini Patel


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000myw0)
GQT at Home: Episode Twenty-Seven

The gardening panel show hosted by Kathy Clugston. Joining her on the panel are Chris Beardshaw, Anne Swithinbank and Matthew Pottage.

This week, the panellists tackle questions from the live virtual audience on Canna, Cosmos and Cacti. They also discuss the surprising scent of an Elder.

Aside from the questions, James Wong chat to Bonsai Tree expert, Eric Danot, from Bonsai Co., and Alex Young is back with a beginners' guide to topiary.

Producer - Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Living National Treasures (m000g4gb)
Episode 5

We have become divorced from physicality. Technology detaches us from touch and provenance. This, in part, has contributed to the boom in artisanal crafts. It's a call back to more tactile experiences. We're learning to craft, to forage, to paint, to build; gravitating towards skills which can replace some of the sensory connections from which we've disengaged. We want to literally get our hands dirty!

Living National Treasures seeks to represent this societal shift. This series is about celebrating existing ability and drawing attention to our own Living National Treasures.

Oak swill basket maker, Owen Jones lives outside Ulverston in the Lake District. Owen is the only master craftsmen of swilling (oak basket weaving) left in the country. Owen coppices near-by woods to maintain a supply of oak and willow and uses water from the beck running past his workshop to boil and soften the wood. Owen choice swilling because he spent most of his childhood roaming the New Forrest and wanted the lifestyle it brings him.

While the Living National Treasure tradition began in Japan - where they also commend buildings and monuments as 'National Treasures' - the celebratory trend has now been adopted by France, Thailand, South Korea and Romania. Living National Treasures are defined as people who possess a high degree of knowledge and skill in a culturally significant craft.

Living National Treasures is a combination of slow radio, artisanal craft and poignant personal stories. We get under the skin of practitioners, learning why they've chosen rare and unusual crafts.

Produced by Kate Bissell


SUN 15:00 Drama (m000n4xn)
Elegies

Part 1. Milton's Lycidas

A two-part drama telling the stories behind two of the greatest and most influential poetic elegies ever published in English - Milton's Lycidas and Tennyson's In Memoriam.

Part 1. Milton's Lycidas - starring Holliday Grainger and Nico Mirallegro.

Although written two centuries apart, in 1637 and 1833, the making and circumstances of these great elegies are full of interconnections and are centred on the poetic response to grief and loss. Milton's Lycidas is the first great elegy in English poetry. Both Lycidas and In Memoriam were written in response to the sudden unexpected death of a young male friend, striking the poets in their mid-twenties. when the poets were students at Cambridge. The dead men were prodigiously gifted and also poets, early rivals and first readers to the poets who elegised them.

Milton and Tennyson were thereby thrown into personal grief and poetic challenge, but how to make a poetic elegy that honours and reflects that genuine grief whilst rising to the challenge of the first great poetic subject in these young poets' lives? Milton and Tennyson responded to these complex and terrible circumstances with radically different elegies that stand among the finest poems in English literature.

CAST

Holliday Grainger ..... Emily Tennyson
Nico Mirallegro ..... John Milton
James Cooney ..... Alfred Lord Tennyson
Conrad Nelson ..... John Milton senior
Ashley Margolis ..... Diodati

Elegies was written and adapted from Lycidas by John Milton by Michael Symmons Roberts
Directed by Susan Roberts

A BBC North production


SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m000n48d)
Joseph O'Connor - Star of the Sea

Joseph O'Connor talks about his novel of Irish emigration at the time of the Famine, Star of the Sea with James Naughtie and readers.

In the winter of 1847, the Star of the Sea sets sails from Ireland for New York. Among the refugees are a maidservant, a bankrupt aristocrat, an aspiring novelist and a maker of revolutionary ballads. As we learn each of their stories, we also learn how each is connected more deeply than they know.

The novel has its roots in Connemara, with the characters being connected to the land and the sea. At the heart of the story is the threatening figure of Pius Mulvey – the balladeer and adventurer who turns bad as the story unfolds. As one reader asks, is Pius Mulvey Jack the Lad, or is he Jack the Ripper? Mulvey stalks the decks of the ship like some kind of embodiment of the tragedy that’s overtaken the old country.

Joseph O’Connor explains how he created the character of Pius, his ambivalent relationship with Dickens who has a cameo role in the book, and how he has a connection to Connemara from childhood holidays; plus his hopes that the novel will keep the story of the Famine alive for the next generation of Irish people.

To take part in our Bookclub recording with Tana French on the Wych Elm email bookclub@bbc.co.uk

November's Bookclub Choice : An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (2018)

Presenter : James Naughtie
Interviewed Guest : Joseph O'Connor
Producer : Dymphna Flynn
Studio Manager : Tim Heffer


SUN 16:30 My Muse (b0952jk9)
Series 2

Lynne Truss on Joni Mitchell

Not everyone appreciates the tonalities, lyrics or even the shrieky voice of Canadian artist and musician Joni Mitchell but in a dusty class room in 1971 Lynne Truss decided she loved the writer of Woodstock, Big Yellow Taxi and Both Sides Now. It was a bond forged in the face of the frosty indifference of fellow pupils in Miss Cheverton's music class at the Tiffin Girls School in Kingston Upon Thames.

Even Lynne is slightly mystified when she was asked who was her muse that, as a person mostly famous for writing a book on punctuation, she replied; Joni Mitchell. Lynne explores why a series of albums from Ladies of the Canyon to Heijra taking in Blue, Court and Spark and The Hissing of Summer lawns' has wrought such influence over so many.

For her aficionados Joni Mitchell is more than a song writer. Lynne observes that for some the attachment goes beyond the personal; its a complete identification with the struggles of dealing with high emotion and how to cope.

In the programme she speaks to the poet and playwright Liz Lochhead, the author Linda Grant, Elbow's front man Guy Garvey, her latest biographer the Syracuse University academic David Yaffe and Gina Foster the singer with the UK act Joni's Soul, which she insists is not a tribute but a celebration act.

Lynne contends that despite at the time being overshadowed in favour of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon and others Joni Mitchell will come to be regarded as the greatest exponent of the art of singer-song writer from that era and concludes that what makes her a muse can be found less in the brilliant lyrical summations of eternal questions like love, loss and freedom but more in her absolute commitment never to compromise her art - to remain true, above all else, to her own muse.


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000mzph)
Fit for football

MPs and supporters are calling for an overhaul of the way English football is governed after a series of clubs were hit by financial problems. Bolton wanderers, Wigan Athletic and Charlton have all flirted with financial disaster while Bury FC were expelled from the Football League altogether after problems with creditors. File on 4 hears claims that the root of the problem is the Owners' and Directors' Test used to assess those who want to take control of football clubs

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg
Producer: Kate West
Editor: Carl Johnston


SUN 17:40 Profile (m000n4xv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000n4xz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m000n4y3)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000n4y6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000n4yb)
John Waite

This week – a melange of music on Pick of the Week, from calypso to classical, and from James Bond to jazz;

What Louis Theroux does in the BBC’s toilets that helps get him through the day and what Mrs Burton did in her outside loo that changed the course of history.

And cometh the hour – leaveth the woman: after thirty three years, Jenni Murray says goodbye to Woman’s Hour. Well, you can’t hurry a Murray.

Presenter: John Waite
Producer: Stephen Garner
Production support: Sandra Hardial
Studio manager: Tim Archer

Contact potw@bbc.co.uk

The full programmes of all of the selections featured can be accessed in the Related Links section on the Pick of the week homepage


SUN 19:00 The Whisperer In Darkness (m000n4yg)
Episode 10

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, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) 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 Ten.
Heawood has 48 hours to find a connection between Henry Akeley and Charles Dexter Ward.

Cast:
Kennedy Fisher.....................JANA CARPENTER
Mystery woman……………….NICOLA STEPHENSON
Newsreader…………………..FERDINAND KINGSLEY
Albert Wilmarth………………MARK BAZELEY
Henry Akeley………………….DAVID CALDER

Producer: Karen Rose

Director/Writer: Julian Simpson

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

Music by Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


SUN 19:15 Dot (b08rptr4)
Series 2

Trees

by Ed Harris

Comic adventures with Dot and the gals who are tasked with a top secret mission in the countryside. A German plane crashes nearby, will this be Dot's big chance for promotion?
Producer/Director, Jessica Mitic.


SUN 19:45 The Hotel (m000n4yl)
3: The Build

Maxine Peake continues Daisy Johnson's series of deliciously unsettling of ghost stories, set in a remote hotel on the Fens.

Today, in 'The Build', work starts on the foundations of The Hotel, but resistance seems to be coming from the ground itself...

Writer: Daisy Johnson is a British novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, Everything Under, was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize, making her the youngest nominee in the prize's history.
Reader: Maxine Peake
Producer: Justine Wilett


SUN 20:00 More or Less (m000mywc)
'Record' Covid cases, Trump on the death count, and ant pheromones

Daily recorded coronavirus cases in the UK have hit record levels;
we explain why that’s not as bad news as it sounds. We hear a mathematical answer to the problem of Covid-19 testing capacity. How can we assess a country’s capacity to take refugees? US president Donald Trump has said that just six per cent of people who were reported to have died from Covid in the US actually died from the disease. Could he be right? (No.) Plus: what ant pheromones can teach you about your life decisions.

(Leafcutter Ants carrying leaves across a branch. Credit: Carlos Ángel Vázquez Tena/Getty images)


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000myw7)
Juliette Greco, Bob Gore, Dame Georgina Mace, Jiri Menzel

Pictured: Juliette Greco

Julian Worricker on the French singer and actor, Juliette Greco, who rose to fame on the famous Left Bank in Paris after the war....

Bob Gore who revolutionised outdoor clothing with his invention of the waterproof fabric, Gore-Tex....

The ecologist Dame Georgina Mace, who changed the way threatened species were classified and reshaped worldwide conservation policies....

And the Czech director, Jiri Menzel, who won an Oscar for his 1966 film 'Closely Observed Trains'.

Interviewed guest: Agnes Poirier
Interviewed guest: David Cole
Interviewed guest: Professor Kate Jones
Interviewed guest: Professor Ian Christie

Producer: Neil George

Archive clips from: In Town Today, Radio 4 24/03/1962; ‘Vive Paris’: The Liberation of Paris in 1944, British Movietone 29/06/2015; Roots of Heaven, directed by John Huston, Darryl F Zanuck Productions / Twentieth Century Fox 1958; Moon Landing Live, BBC America 20/07/2019; Perseverance Launch to Mars, NASA 30/07/2020; The Life Scientific, Radio 4 12/07/2016; Closely Watched Trains, directed by Jiri Menzel, Filmove Studio Barrandov 1966; The Film Programme, Radio 4 09/05/2008.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000n4yq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000n48b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (m000my85)
Is the Internet Broken?

The internet is a cornerstone of our society. It is vital to our economy, to our global communications, and to many of our personal and professional lives. But have the processes that govern how the internet works kept pace with its rapid evolution?

James Ball, author of 'The System - Who Owns the Internet, and How It Owns Us', examines whether the infrastructure of the internet is up to scratch. If it's not, then what does that mean for us?

Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Jasper Corbett


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000n4yv)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000mywb)
London Film Festival

With Antonia Quirke.

Tricia Tuttle, the director of The London Film Festival, reveals all the challenges that she faces organising the festival during a global pandemic.

Actor Patrick Kennedy describes what it was like to be on the red carpet of this year's Venice Film Festival, where the public weren't invited and the stars had to wear masks to the premieres and keep a social distance from one another.

Director Mark Jenkin knows what a festival can do for a film's reputation. After a rave review of Bait and an ecstatic response at the Berlin Film Festival in 2019, the low budget drama went on to become a huge hit around the world. He now has the unenviable task of following up an unexpected success, and is keeping an audio diary for The Film Programme as he starts to write a supernatural tale set across several time dimensions.

Neil Brand continues his series on rejected scores with The Getaway, the story of what happens when a star doesn't like the music to his new movie.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b00w6p8f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 05 OCTOBER 2020

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000n4yz)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m000mzrw)
Cars

CARS: How do cars transmit our identities behind the wheel? Laurie Taylor explores the meaning of cars from Bradford to China. Yunis Alam, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bradford, discusses his study of car ownership amongst Bradfordians of Pakistani heritage. How do cars project status, class, taste and racial identity? Also, Jun Zhang, Assistant Professor of Asian and International Studies at City University of Hong Kong, describes the rise of car consumption in China and the ways in which it has shaped the emerging, but insecure, middle class.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000n4z3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000n4z7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000n4zc)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000n4zh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000n4zm)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000n4zr)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Sarah Teather, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK

Good morning.

The continuous newsfeed of reminders of our mortality this year coincided with moving into the second half of my 40s. As lockdown barred any opportunity for wilder versions of a midlife crisis, I took up exercise with unwise enthusiasm.

Learning then about strains and stretches, limitations and moderation has been a strange new journey for me into inhabiting an embodied state of mind.

Bodies, with all their vulnerabilities, are hard to avoid paying attention to just now, whether it is the new social awkwardness around personal space, our chapped hands or that paranoia which follows a clearing of the throat.

There is no escaping that the trauma of this pandemic is physical – its devastation wrought on bodies: scarring, wounding, struggling to breathe. So too the wider story: indented lines on the faces of medics who tend the sick beneath PPE. The ache of the shielding denied human touch. The fatigue of those who convalesce. The scalding tears of those who grieve. The bruises of those who cannot escape. The hunger of those who can no longer afford to eat.

The Christian story is a story of God who became human, with the vulnerabilities of an enfleshed body. A God who washed the feet of those he loved, touched the limbs of the sick, took children in his arms, suffered wounds of nails and spear, and rose again in his physical body.

It is in our bodies that we live and move in Him. In our bodies that He can be met and seen.

Christ, you play in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes not yours, pointing to the Father, through our features and our faces. Give us eyes to see what we are.

Amen.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000n4zw)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


MON 05:56 Weather (m000n500)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkwkp)
Swainson's Hawk

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the North American Swainson's hawk. About the size of the European buzzard, Swainson's hawks are dark-brown birds, rusty brown on the chest and white on the belly, and a familiar sight across open farmland and prairies of western North America where they soar effortlessly in search in prey. Most winter in South America, this epic round-trip of around 20,000 kilometres is probably the longest regular migration made by any American bird of prey. When they reach their wintering grounds they switch diet. In North America they feed mainly on mammals, but in South America, they gather in flocks to hunt dragonflies and grasshoppers in the vast pampas plains.


MON 06:00 Today (m000n5d3)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000n5d6)
Contested histories

Europeans and Africans have been encountering one another since as early as the 3rd century, according to the historian Olivette Otele. In her new book, African Europeans: An Untold History, she traces those meetings through the lives of individuals, both ordinary and extraordinary. She tells Tom Sutcliffe that exploring a past long overlooked raises prescient questions about racism, identity, citizenship and power.

Toussaint Louverture – the subject of Sudhir Hazareesingh’s biography, Black Spartacus – was no ordinary figure. A former slave, he became the leader of a revolution in the 1790s that transformed Haiti, the former French Caribbean colony. With access to archival material often overlooked, Hazareesingh draws a portrait of an extraordinary man who combined Enlightenment ideals and Machiavellian politics with Caribbean mysticism and African traditions.

As Professor of Public Engagement with History at the University of Reading, Kate Williams has thought hard about how to tell history. Her books, TV and radio programmes have covered topics from England's queens to the funeral of Baroness Thatcher, often turning upside-down preconceived images of Britain's most powerful women. She discusses the new debates raging in history, including how we should approach the legacies of colonialism and misogyny.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (m000n5gn)
Childhood

Hermione Lee's vivid and illuminating biography of one our finest playwrights, Tom Stoppard. Today, his childhood is disrupted when his family escape Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Alex Jennings reads.

Tom Stoppard is among British theatre’s giants and in Hermione Lee's evocative and immersive biography we come to know the man and his work. Since 1964 Stoppard has been writing for the theatre, big screen, television, and radio,. His plays are among the most studied of the last century.

Hermione Lee is one of our leading literary biographers, and with access to private papers, diaries and letters, interviews with the playwright's friends, and Stoppard himself she has created an intimate portrait of the writer. Here we learn of his formative years as a young child forced to flee Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia; growing up in India and then England; his activism and campaigning on behalf of Eastern European and Soviet prisoners of conscience; the influence of, and his friendship with Vaclav Havel., and always his work, the writing, rehearsing, casting and his ever present humour.

Tom Stoppard remains at the forefront of British theatrical life, even in this moment of crisis. His most recent, personal and highly acclaimed play, Leopoldstadt, fell victim to Covid-19, when its run in the West End was suspended in March, 2020.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000n5dg)
Agony Aunt Mary Killen. Is gossip the glue or life? Disabled foster carers. C4's new drama "Adult Material".

Agony Aunt and star of Googlebox Mary Killen joins Jane Garvey to urge us to channel her ultimate British Role model – The Queen . She argues we’d all be a bit happier, wiser and more adept if we adopted the underrated virtues of duty, kindness, discretion, restraint and fortitude as exemplified by Her Majesty.

Could disabled people help to solve the crisis in fostering? Is gossip the glue or life, why do we do it, and who does it most? Plus the writer Lucy Kirkwood and actor Hayley Squires talk about their latest project, the drama "Adult Material"

Presenter Jane Garvey
Producer Beverley Purcell
PHOTO CREDIT: Hugo Burnand

Guest; Mary Killen
Guest; Professor Robin Dunbar
Guest; Lucy Kirkwood
Guest; Hayley Squires
Guest; Alison Bryne
Guest; Peter Unwin


MON 10:45 Broken English (m000n5dk)
Episode 6

Four years ago, Anna and John's marriage was floundering. To make matters worse, John began a disastrous affair with their couples counsellor, which he later regretted.

Now, to escape the past, they've started over in rural Southern France - a place they once visited on holiday, but don't know very well at all.

It's an act of folly, maybe, but necessary for their survival – or so it seemed at the time. But their dream of a new life in France is shattered when their 16 year old son disappears and they find that they, and each of their house guests, are suspects in what the gendarmes have decided is a possible murder enquiry.

Written by Shelagh Stephenson

CAST:
ANNA……. ………..……..…………………………………….Rosie Cavaliero
JOHN……..………………………………………………………Ewan Bailey
JESS..……………………..……………………………………… Macy Nyman
DOROTHY ……………………………………………………… Linda Bassett
DUNCAN …….…………..…………………………………… Rufus Wright
JOE…………………………....………………………………….Tom Glenister
LOU……….……………………………………………………….Rebecca Saire
ROB ………………………………………………………………. John McAndrew
MELANIE ………………………………………………………..Jane Slavin
CHARLIE ……………………………………………………….. Thomas Allam
CHRISTOPHER ………………………………………………. Alfie Wickham

Produced and Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling

A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4


MON 11:00 The Untold (m000n5dm)
The Perfect Bench

A year ago, when Sam graduated with a masters in Modern History, and headed back to his hometown near Bristol, he had no idea what the year would bring. But it wasn’t this.

Suddenly, something Sam’s done has become an international news story. As he finished his degree, his friends convinced him to start up an Instagram page – rating public benches. It was a joke. But in the gloomy days of readjusting to life at home without a job, back sharing his childhood bedroom with his adult brother, it became a lifeline – something he bonded with his Dad over, and eventually, a hobby which got him a girlfriend. 180 benches later, he's never awarded a 10/10, but through the international trauma of 2020, his quest for the perfect bench has captured the imagination of the news cycle.

With this unexpected fame, he’s been faced with a dilemma. One of the marking criteria is whether the bench is dedicated to anyone. The page has become a touching tribute to deceased strangers he has never met. Now, bereaved relatives have begun contacting him, asking him to rate their loved one’s bench. To Sam, it would undermine the integrity of the page. Yet one bench is about to be unveiled very close to home, which will throw his principles further into turmoil…

Presented by Grace Dent
Produced in Bristol by Polly Weston


MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000n57w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


MON 12:00 News Summary (m000n6f7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon (m000n5ds)
Episode 1

Sam Selvon’s sparkling, lyrical tale of a group of Caribbean immigrants who band together to buy a house in London.

Sick of paying exorbitant rent for a basement in Brixton, Battersby decides to buy his own house – but he can’t do it alone. He pulls together a motley crew of shift workers, pot-washers, hustlers and calypsonians who share a desire to own their place. Plans, scams, deceits and double dealing ensue as friends feud and switch allegiance and through it all, the pile of money under Bat's mattress never quite grows as it should.

Written by Sam Selvon
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Read by Martina Laird
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie


MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000n5dv)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


MON 12:57 Weather (m000n5dx)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m000n5dz)
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 Anatomy of Touch (m000n5f1)
Touch Hunger

In Anatomy of Touch Claudia Hammond asks whether people have enough touch in their lives and what has been the impact of Covid-19.
Covid-19 and social distancing have changed how most people feel about touch but even before Covid-19 there was a concern about the decrease of touch in society. Michael Bannissy of Goldsmiths University of London discusses the results of the BBC Touch test and leading researchers reveal their findings about the lack of touch.
Claudia meets John, who, growing up during the Second World War, endured a lack of touch in his childhood and discovers how in adult life he overcame this absence of touch and why touch remains so important to him. And we discover solutions to touch hunger and simple ways to compensate for the lack of touch.


MON 14:00 Drama (m000n5f3)
The Tenderness of Boys

By Oliver Emanuel

It’s a Monday morning. A writer walks into a supermarket and sees his mother. It’s an entirely ordinary scene. Except his mother’s been dead for 15 years.

A playfully surreal and moving drama about the bond between mothers and their sons.

Cast:
Writer … Robert Jack
His Mother … Shauna Macdonald
Boy … Daniel Smith

Directed by Kirsty Williams


MON 14:45 The Escaped Lyric (b081b2y1)
From teenage alienation to middle-aged loss and regret, lyrics from popular music can escape their song to become an anthem of our youth or a lifeline through loss and solitude. Nick Berkeley speaks to songwriters and musicians about how the words of a three minute pop song can come to have such impact on us all.

He dissects the craft of the song in a quest to understand the alchemy that converts seemingly simple words into thoughts of great impact and meaning. From Noel Coward to Kylie Minogue, seminal folk songs to outsider hip hop, there are words and phrases that the music fan can cling to, and remember, forever.

Contributors include: Hanif Kureishi, Brett Anderson, Cathy Dennis, Green Gartside, Benjamin Clementine, Christopher Ricks and Sid Griffin.

Programme Three: Vulnerability
Producer: Emma Jarvis
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (m000n5f6)
Semi-final 3, 2020

(15/17)
Russell Davies is in the chair as three of the 2020 heat winners return, along with another particularly high-scoring runner-up from one of this year's contests. Today's winner will take another of the places in the grand Final.

A listener also stands a chance of winning a prize if the questions he or she has devised turn out to outwit the contestants, in the Beat The Brains interlude.

Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000n4x4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 I Was... (m000n5fd)
Series 7

I Was Basquiat’s Partner in Noise

In the late 1970s, New York City was bust and mired in debt, suffering from widespread corruption, arson and the collapse of its infrastructure. Its residents were victims of fear and despair as crime rose to an all-time high.

But in lower Manhattan, a creative street art sub-culture was booming with music, graffiti art, rap artists and nascent stars yet to shine like Debbie Harry and bands like Talking Heads.

Michael Holman was one of many experimental artists active in New York at that time

Michael met a young graffiti artist whose profound gnomic statements had picked up a following. He suggested to Michael that they form an Art House Noise Band. His name was Jean Michel Basquiat.

Overnight, Gray was born. They performed in The Mud club and other venues in the area.

Michael talks to Andrew McGibbon and recalls his time with Basquiat both as a band member and watching as his friend became a world-famous painter.

Written and Presented by Andrew McGibbon

Produced by Nick Romero

A Curtains For Radio Production for BBC Radio 4


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m000n5fj)
Prayer

There is evidence that, since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, more people are turning to prayer. Is this a last desperate resort on our part to divert an existential threat? Do we really expect God to intervene? If not, what are we hoping to achieve? Prayer is a vital part of any religion. The ritualising of prayer is one of the things that makes each religion distinctive whilst private, personal prayer seems to sustain the spiritual life of the believer. How does prayer impact on us as individuals and on the world around us? To discuss the importance of prayer, Ernie is joined by Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies; Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic and Inter Religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh: and by Douglas Davies, Professor in the Study of Religion at Durham University.

Producer: Helen Lee


MON 17:00 PM (m000n5fn)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000n5fx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 The Museum of Curiosity (m000n5g1)
Series 15

Episode 5

Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and the Museum’s latest curator Alice Levine are joined by comedian Ken Cheng, jewellery and silverware designer Theo Fennell and Supernanny Jo Frost.

This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee donate the Starship Enterprise, a bottle of rum and the perfect after dinner singsong.

This series was recorded remotely in June/July 2020.

The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Shephard, Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus and Lydia Mizon of QI.

The Producer was Anne Miller.

The Exec Producer was Victoria Lloyd.

The Production Coordinator was Mabel Wright.

Edited by David Thomas.


MON 19:00 The Archers (m000n5g5)
Jill makes a discovery that could change everything and Fallon wrestles with more than one problem


MON 19:15 Front Row (m000n5g9)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


MON 19:45 Broken English (m000n5dk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Surviving Unemployment (m000n9kk)
Reece and Sean

Covid-19 is ravaging the UK's job market and as the furlough scheme winds up, the outlook for many jobseekers is bleak.

Some forecast that we could see up to four million people out of work in 2021 - unemployment figures we haven't seen since the 1980s.

So what can today's young people learn from those who found themselves out of work during the Thatcher years?

Reece is 23 and is looking for work that fits around his responsibilities as a carer for his mum, something which he worries that the pandemic has made almost impossible.

He's meeting Sean, who left Liverpool to move to London for work in 1985 after three years on the dole.


MON 20:30 Analysis (m000n5gc)
Planning for the Worst

How ready are we for the next pandemic, cyber attack, volcanic eruption, or solar storm?

Our world, ever more interconnected and dependent on technology, is vulnerable to a head-spinning array of disasters. Emergency preparedness is supposed to help protect us and the UK has been pioneering in its approach. But does it actually work? In this edition of Analysis, Simon Maybin interrogates official predictions past and present, hearing from the advisers and the advised. Are we any good at anticipating catastrophic events? Should we have been better prepared for the one we’ve been living through? And - now that coronavirus has shown us the worst really can happen - what else should we be worrying about?

Presenter/producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Jasper Corbett


MON 21:00 Forum Internum (m000g4fw)
Political Space

What is freedom of thought and why might it need protecting in the digital age? It’s one of our foundational human rights, but the right to freedom of thought has never really been invoked in the courts as it was never believed vulnerable to attack – until now.

This three part explores the need to safeguard what lawyers are calling the forum internum (our own private, mental space) from the incursions of social media technology, new kinds of surveillance and manipulation through data-mining, advances in AI and neuroscience, the arrival of neurolaw and fMRI imaging in the courts, and the very real possibility of thought-crime.

Helena Kennedy QC resumes the argument in this third episode, making the case for freedom of thought and asking whether the law can protect the forum internum from the speed and scale of new technologies and their misuse by corporations and the state. Are we entering a digital dark age for freedom of thought or will we create new spaces for it to flourish?

Series contributors include: authors Shoshana Zuboff and Peter Pomerantsev; psychoanalyst Adam Phillips; neuro-philosopher Patricia Churchland; human rights lawyers Susie Alegre and Philippe Sands; ethical advisor to Google Luciano Floridi; neuroscientists Mark Stokes and Tali Sharot, director of the Affective Brain Lab; Larry Farwell, the inventor of Brain Fingerprinting; digital philosopher Mark Andrejevic; Darren Schreiber, advisor on neuro-politics; legal scholar Gabriel Mendlow, the journalist Carole Cadwalladr; authors Dorian Lynskey and James Bridle and B.Troven, activist with the network CrimethInc.

Presenters: Helena Kennedy QC (parts 1 and 3) and James Garvey (part 2)
Producer: Simon Hollis

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000n5d6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000n5gg)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon (m000n5ds)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


MON 23:00 Alex Edelman's Special Relationships (m0007xs9)
Faith and Uncertainty

Alex Edelman encourages his guests from both sides of the Atlantic to think laterally about a diverse collection of special relationships in this loose limbed series of chat shows recorded in London and the USA.

This week, matters of faith and uncertainty are probed - and not only religious matters. Is faith misleading and can uncertainty have an upside?

Producer: Sophie Black
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000n5gj)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



TUESDAY 06 OCTOBER 2020

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000n5gl)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (m000n5gn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000n5gq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000n5gs)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000n5gv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000n5gx)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000n5gz)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Sarah Teather, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK

Good morning

My four-year-old niece started school a few weeks ago. She walked excitedly on the first day in her sparkly pink wellies, dragging her new friend by the hand behind her, pausing only to pose for a photo, with her tongue out... It's fair to say that they’re going to have their hands full.

It was a good reminder though that for all the drama and unpredictability of this period, time marches on, while life in the present continues to offer moments we can choose to grasp with both hands.

As lockdowns in various varieties gather pace, and family visits, music making and more besides gets postponed again, I have had to fight the temptation in myself to think of this phase as life on hold, a diversion from the main route. What has been exposed instead, Pope Francis says, is our vulnerability, and the “false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, projects … and priorities."

The invitation is to be attentive to what the Holy Spirit is doing now, here, in this upended space, as it really is, as we really are, and then to, as Francis says, “seize this time as one of choosing: …what matters… what passes away; …to separate what is necessary from what is not”.

To choose life….which is to choose love… love of God and one another. Not in the abstract, theoretical sense, but in the particular and individual; trusting that life will find ways of making itself seen, as it eagerly awaits our choice, even (in our own eyes at least), in this less than perfect now.

Lord, you are love and you are life; make your ways known to us that we may choose what is true.

Amen


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000n5h1)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkyn2)
Snow Goose

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the snow goose found breeding across Canada and Alaska. Although most snow geese are all-white with black wing-tips, some known as blue geese are blue-ish grey with white heads. Snow geese breed in the tundra region with goslings hatching at a time to make the most of rich supply of insect larvae and berries in the short Arctic summer. As autumn approaches though, the geese depart and head south before temperatures plummet, and the tundra becomes sealed by snow and ice. As they head for areas rich in grain and nutritious roots hundreds of thousands of snow geese fill the sky with their urgent clamour providing one of the greatest wildfowl spectacles in the world.


TUE 06:00 Today (m000n5xs)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Touch Test: The Results (m000n5xx)
The BBC Touch Test was launched in collaboration with Wellcome Collection in January 2020. Nearly 40,000 people from 112 countries took part. It is the world’s largest study on attitudes to touch and asks questions about many different aspects of touch in daily life. The results have now been analysed by researchers from Goldsmiths University of London and Greenwich University.
Touch is said to be the first sense to develop but is it also the most underrated?
Claudia Hammond and Professor Michael Banissy look at the major findings of the study, with Radio One DJ Greg James, philosopher and neuroscientist Ophelia Deroy, comedian and founder of Tourettesheros Jess Thom and playwright V. We look at how touch maintains social bonds, the role of touch in caring, ask if men’s attitudes to touch are changing and how touch effects our health and sleep.
The Covid pandemic has changed how we think about touch, so are we in a crisis of touch as well as a health crisis? How have feelings of touch hunger changed since March, do people think they are getting enough, what impact is the lockdown is having on many professions such as doctors, nurses and paramedics. And how do people cope when their loved ones are seriously ill and they are not able to touch them. How does lack of touch impact grief?


TUE 09:45 Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (m000n5zg)
Overnight Success

Hermione Lee's new and illuminating biography of one of our greatest playwrights, Tom Stoppard. Today, the writing and production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and its astonishing reception. Alex Jennings reads.

Tom Stoppard is among British theatre’s giants and in Hermione Lee's evocative and immersive biography we come to know the man and his work. Since 1964 Stoppard has been writing for the theatre, big screen, television, and radio,. His plays are among the most studied of the last century.

Hermione Lee is one of our leading literary biographers, and with access to private papers, diaries and letters, interviews with the playwright's friends, and Stoppard himself she has created an intimate portrait of the writer. Here we learn of his formative years as a young child forced to flee Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia; growing up in India and then England; his activism and campaigning on behalf of Eastern European and Soviet prisoners of conscience; the influence of, and his friendship with Vaclav Havel., and always his work, the writing, rehearsing, casting and his ever present humour.

Tom Stoppard remains at the forefront of British theatrical life, even in this moment of crisis. His most recent, personal and highly acclaimed play, Leopoldstadt, fell victim to Covid-19, when its run in the West End was suspended in March, 2020.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000n5y1)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


TUE 10:45 Broken English (m000n5y3)
Episode 7

Four years ago, Anna and John's marriage was floundering. To make matters worse, John began a disastrous affair with their couples counsellor, which he later regretted.

Now, to escape the past, they've started over in rural Southern France - a place they once visited on holiday, but don't know very well at all.

It's an act of folly, maybe, but necessary for their survival – or so it seemed at the time. But their dream of a new life in France is shattered when their 16 year old son disappears and they find that they, and each of their house guests, are suspects in what the gendarmes have decided is a possible murder enquiry.

Written by Shelagh Stephenson

CAST:
ANNA……. ………..……..Rosie Cavaliero
JOHN……..……………… Ewan Bailey
JESS..……………………..Macy Nyman
DOROTHY ………………Linda Bassett
DUNCAN …….…………. Rufus Wright
JOE………………………….Tom Glenister
LOU……….………………..Rebecca Saire
ROB ……………………….John McAndrew
MELANIE …………………Jane Slavin
CHARLIE ………………….Thomas Allam
CHRISTOPHER …………Alfie Wickham

Produced and Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling

A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 11:00 Black Star Line: The Story of Marcus Garvey (m000n5y5)
A look at the life of Black activist Marcus Garvey, whose ideology encouraged black independence and who had a dream of black self-reliance across the world.

We examine whether his dreams of a century ago are still relevant today and, if so, who is leading the charge with them.

A Playmaker Group production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 11:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (m000czlf)
Series 5

Suetonius

Natalie tells the story of Suetonius, biographer of the Caesars and friend of Pliny the Younger. She's joined by guests Professor Llewelyn Morgan and biographer and journalist Anita Anand.
Classical knowledge is fragile: so much is lost. We don't know, for example, when Julius Caesar was born. What we do know about the Caesars is largely because of Suetonius. And some of it is quite strange. Who knew that experts in Latin grammar were once the coolest of the cool? That Domitian wrote a treatise on hair care? That Augustus kept a bust of Hadrian in his office and used hot nuts to soften the hair on his thighs? (Please don't try this at home).

Fellow biographer Anita Anand knows - like Suetonius - that writing about the long-dead is probably sensible if you want to stay out of trouble, but she still found herself in international hot water after her book on the Koh-i-Noor diamond (co-written with William Dalrymple) was published. It's amazing how Suetonius managed to stay in imperial good books despite writing the first warts and all biographies of all time.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000n64v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon (m000n5y9)
Episode 2

Sam Selvon’s sparkling, lyrical tale of a group of Caribbean immigrants who band together to buy a house in London.

Sick of paying exorbitant rent for a basement in Brixton, Battersby decides to buy his own house – but he can’t do it alone. He pulls together a motley crew of shift workers, pot-washers, hustlers and calypsonians who all share a desire to own their place. Plans, scams, deceits and double dealing ensue as friends feud and switch allegiance and through it all, the pile of money under Bat's mattress never quite grows as it should.

Jamaican room-mate Harry Banjo has come up with a solution to Battersby’s renting woes and the Trinidadian is about to put it to his friends.

Written by Sam Selvon
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Read by Martina Laird
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie


TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000n5yc)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


TUE 12:57 Weather (m000n5yf)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m000n5yh)
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 Anatomy of Touch (m000n5yk)
Don't Touch

Campaigner and activist Amy Kavanagh is partially sighted and on her daily trip to work receives much unwanted touch. Some touch from strangers is well meaning but without her consent, while she is also subject to abusive and violent touch. In Anatomy of Touch Dr Natalie Bowling from Greenwich University and co-creator of the BBC Touch Test looks at what the results tell us about touch between strangers.
Where do people find it acceptable for strangers to touch them, what are the differences between men and women, how would most people like to be greeted by their boss and is it OK for your boss to kiss you at a party?

The study looked at attitudes around consent and Joanna Bourke Professor of History at Birkbeck University looks at issues of consent and entitlement. And while it might seem that social distancing would prevent unwanted touch, evidence suggests that there is a transfer of the abuse online. Meanwhile for Amy she isn’t travelling to work anymore because Covid means she can’t see who is around her and the risk of catching Covid is too high. But she does have a campaign ready for when she can travel again which is #JustAskDon’tGrab.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000n5g5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (m000n5ym)
Quartet for the End of Time

At 10am on a Wednesday morning, the Stellae String Quartet meets for rehearsal. Each of them has met at this time on this day for the last twelve years, but today is different. Today something extraordinary happens. Today they discover that together they can stop time. Shocked, excited, amazed, each player takes a turn to use this newfound power to change something in their lives.

Anika (First Violin): Mandeep Dhillon
Peter (Viola): Simon-Anthony Rhoden
Emily (Cello): Anna Doolan
Felix (Second Violin): Ed Browning

Written by Emma Hooper, with original music by Red Carousel.
Casting by Alison Crawford, Ali Serle, Victoria Cansfield and Toby Field.
Studio Manager: Nick Ford.
Produced by Toby Field for BBC Audio in Bristol.


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000n571)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000n4yk)
Bushfire Animal Rescue

Record-breaking temperatures and months of severe drought fuelled a series of massive bushfires across Australia last winter. Dozens of people died and millions of hectares of bushland and forest were burnt.

Australia's plant and animal life are well adapted to natural fire but the additional burden of climate change ensured that many of the fires were more intense and widespread than ever before. Much of the country's unique fauna had nowhere to hide.

Peter Hadfield travels through the fire-ravaged regions of New South Wales to discover how local people are working to return injured animals to the wild and prepare habitats for a future that can only get hotter.

Producer: Alasdair Cross


TUE 16:00 No Triumph, No Tragedy (m000czyj)
Paul Maynard MP

Paul Maynard has cerebral palsy and has found ways of adapting to ensure he operates in Government at the highest level. He has held a number of Ministerial posts, along with the Government Whip and has ensured that whilst he might get mocked and taunted in the House, it won’t be on account of his disability.

He has also doing his best to raise awareness about cerebral palsy and help families struggling to navigate educational and welfare services. There are 1,800 children diagnosed with the condition every year and yet only two have ever gone on to become elected representatives in Parliament. Paul sees many opportunities to better support parents and has been pushing other MP’s to familiarise themselves with a useful guide armed with information for constituents.

He is aware of how important it is for parents to seek early identification of the condition and secure the input from therapists that can make a huge difference. Paul tells Peter that it is important that cerebral palsy shouldn’t be holding anyone in the UK back from achieving their dreams: “Let’s make sure we play our part in helping every child gain consistent access to high quality services and enable them to achieve their full potential”

His interest in politics began at a very young age: when he was just four to be exact! Margaret Thatcher visited the special school he attended and he remembers her bending down to play with him in the sand pit. he credits those early school days with giving him the academic discipline honed from hours spent standing in callipers to strengthen his legs whilst reciting his times tables.

Produced by Sue Mitchell


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000n5yp)
Ruth Jones & Dominic Cooke

Writer, actor and Gavin and Stacey creator Ruth Jones, and theatre and film director Dominic Cooke share their favourite reads with Harriett Gilbert. Ruth chooses Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Dominic loves What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt, and Harriett advocates for Prick Up Your Ears, John Lahr's biography of Joe Orton. Ruth and Dominic are old friends, but did they enjoy one another's books? And what happened to Ruth's pottery robot in her third set art class?

Producer Sally Heaven.

Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc


TUE 17:00 PM (m000n5yr)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000n5yw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Rob Newman's Half-Full Philosophy Hour (m000n5yy)
3000 Years Of Bad Ideas

One of Britain's finest comedians Rob Newman returns with a brand new series that plunges into the world of philosophy. In episode one, he reveals why James Bond is inspired by Nietzsche, and why horny wood wasps might take issue with Einstein.

Written and performed by Rob Newman
Produced by Jon Harvey
Executive Producer: Polly Thomas
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000n4x7)
The pressure builds on Alice and the future’s looking bright for Ben


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000n5z1)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


TUE 19:45 Broken English (m000n5y3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m000n5z3)
Me and my Trolls

During the pandemic, more and more of our lives have been lived online. But that has also led to a sharp rise in the number of people being targeted by internet trolls. According to one survey, nearly half of women and non binary people reported experiencing online abuse since the beginning of COVID-19 and a third said it had got worse since the pandemic.
So who are the people behind these often anonymous attacks? Journalist Sali Hughes has been a target of trolls herself. She sets out to find what motivates them and how they justify their actions. She speaks to other women who have been targeted and hears about the devastating impact it can have on people’s lives. With a proposed online harms bill not now due until next year, she investigates what social media and other platforms are doing to tackle the issue and what individuals can do to try to stop the abuse


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000n5z5)
How the Biggest Blind Charities Should Focus Their Efforts; Baluji Shrivastav At 70

Guide Dogs, the RNIB and the Thomas Pocklington Trust have joined forces to launch a research project on the needs of blind and partially sighted people. Keith Valentine from the RNIB tells us why they're doing it and how you can take part.
Blind Indian music legend Baluji Shrivastav chats to Peter about plans for his 70th birthday. We'll hear just how tough 2020 has been for musicians like him.
PRESENTER: Peter White
PRODUCER: Mike Young


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000n4xh)
A weekly quest to demystify health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.


TUE 21:30 The Touch Test: The Results (m000n5xx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000n5z8)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon (m000n5y9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


TUE 23:00 To Hull and Back (b07pj1dw)
Series 2

Is That You Mr Brown?

An elderly Mrs Chiltern comes to stay after her cat goes missing. Sophie tries to get some bits and pieces together to sell, to pay for a car, her mother buys an antique crystal ball and attempts to tell the fortune of a neighbour with piles.

Lucy Beaumont stars as the daughter trying to escape her overbearing mother played by Maureen Lipman in the second series of this warm-hearted sitcom set in Hull.

Sophie ...... Lucy Beaumont
Sheila ...... Maureen Lipman
Jean ...... Kerrie Marsh
Ernie ...... Norman Lovett
Mrs Chiltern ...... Elizabeth Bennett
Barbara ...... Elizabeth Bennett
Denise ...... Debra Baker
DJ Richie ...... Jon Richardson

Written by Lucy Beaumont.

"It's like a cross between a Victoria Wood Sketch and a Mike Leigh film". Radio Times

Producer: Carl Cooper

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in August 2016.


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000n5zb)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



WEDNESDAY 07 OCTOBER 2020

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000n5zd)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


WED 00:30 Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (m000n5zg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000n5zj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000n5zl)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000n5zn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000n5zq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000n5zs)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Sarah Teather, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK

Good morning .

As the first lockdown began in the spring, many wrote wistfully about it as a period of conscious uncoupling from activity, of slowing down, a retreat even. I know I am not alone in finding quite the opposite was true – this year has been one of the most intense periods of my professional life.

I work in a charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers. COVID intensified their exclusion, as it did for many whose ordinary lives were already a struggle. The closure of community centres and face-to-face services generated hunger and despair, and with it a situation of emergency the like I have not encountered before.

We had to radically reorient our service model, turning our operation inside out to take help onto the road.

What was disorientating for a faith-based organisation was that this period of intense activity arrived concurrently with the ordinary structures of faith practice being suspended. Churches were closed. Public mass was off. Worse, in my own case, I found it wasn’t only the sacraments and common worship that felt unreachable. My daily habit of silent prayer was for a while too: for I could not sit still.

“Teach us to pray Lord”, said the disciples to Jesus. And teach in my case He did. But not through words, silence, or liturgy. Instead, He taught me by example, as people from different backgrounds and faiths responded to our call for help, and poured themselves out in love, generosity and care.

Lord Jesus, you emptied yourself in love for us. Teach us to recognise you in the people we meet and let our work and lives be an offering of prayer and service.

Amen.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000n5zv)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkxpc)
Resplendent Quetzal

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the resplendent quetzal of Guatamala. The image of resplendent quetzals are everywhere in Guatemala, but the source of their national emblem is now confined to the cloud forests of Central America. Its beauty has long entranced people, the male quetzal a shimmering emerald-green above and scarlet below. His outstanding features are the upper tail feathers which, longer than his entire body, extend into a train almost a metre in length, twisting like metallic ribbons as he flies through the tree canopy. Historically resplendent quetzals were considered sacred to the Mayans and Aztecs for their brilliant plumage, with the lavish crown of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma the Second, containing hundreds of individual quetzal tail - plumes.


WED 06:00 Today (m000n4vg)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 More or Less (m000n4vq)
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life.


WED 09:30 Four Thought (m000n4vv)
Class of 2020

Rufaro Mazarura discusses what the graduating class of 2020 have learned from the pandemic.

A year ago, Rufaro carefully marked 23rd March in her diary - the day on which she'd be printing out and handing in her final year dissertation, and starting the transition to her new life, out of full-time education. But when the day arrived, she instead submitted her dissertation by email, and travelled home on an empty train, arriving just before the coronavirus lockdown. Rufaro has always been interested in transitions, and so she decided to make a podcast about the experiences she had in common with fellow members of the Class of 2020. In this talk, Rufaro shares some of the insights which she gleaned, and in particular the way in which their proximity to the edge may have shaped their worldview.

Producer: Giles Edwards


WED 09:45 Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (m000n4z6)
Activism

Hermione Lee's new and illuminating biography of the playwright, Tom Stoppard, turns to his activism and friendship with Vaclav Havel. Read by Alex Jennings.

Tom Stoppard is among British theatre’s giants and in Hermione Lee's evocative and immersive biography we come to know the man and his work. Since 1964 Stoppard has been writing for the theatre, big screen, television, and radio,. His plays are among the most studied of the last century.

Hermione Lee is one of our leading literary biographers, and with access to private papers, diaries and letters, interviews with the playwright's friends, and Stoppard himself she has created an intimate portrait of the writer. Here we learn of his formative years as a young child forced to flee Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia; growing up in India and then England; his activism and campaigning on behalf of Eastern European and Soviet prisoners of conscience; the influence of, and his friendship with Vaclav Havel., and always his work, the writing, rehearsing, casting and his ever present humour.

Tom Stoppard remains at the forefront of British theatrical life, even in this moment of crisis. His most recent, personal and highly acclaimed play, Leopoldstadt, fell victim to Covid-19, when its run in the West End was suspended in March, 2020.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000n4w3)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


WED 10:45 Broken English (m000n4w7)
Episode 8

Four years ago, Anna and John's marriage was floundering. To make matters worse, John began a disastrous affair with their couples counsellor, which he later regretted.

Now, to escape the past, they've started over in rural Southern France - a place they once visited on holiday, but don't know very well at all.

It's an act of folly, maybe, but necessary for their survival – or so it seemed at the time. But their dream of a new life in France is shattered when their 16 year old son disappears and they find that they, and each of their house guests, are suspects in what the gendarmes have decided is a possible murder enquiry.

Written by Shelagh Stephenson

CAST:
ANNA……. ………..……..…………………………………….Rosie Cavaliero
JOHN……..………………………………………………………Ewan Bailey
JESS..……………………..……………………………………… Macy Nyman
DOROTHY ……………………………………………………… Linda Bassett
DUNCAN …….…………..…………………………………… Rufus Wright
JOE…………………………....………………………………….Tom Glenister
LOU……….……………………………………………………….Rebecca Saire
ROB ………………………………………………………………. John McAndrew
MELANIE ………………………………………………………..Jane Slavin
CHARLIE ……………………………………………………….. Thomas Allam
CHRISTOPHER ………………………………………………. Alfie Wickham

Produced and Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling

A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4


WED 11:00 Surviving Unemployment (m000n9kk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 The Wilsons Save the World (m0002r74)
Series 2

Library

Maxine Wilson is continues to occupy the local library despite the council closing it and things take a turn for the worse when it looks like eviction is on the cards. Daughter Cat can’t really see the point of libraries anyway, with the internet, and it becomes clear that Mike doesn’t fully grasp what they really mean either. As things take a turn towards the more confrontational Mike recruits a veteran activist, much to Max’s horror.

Mike…Marcus Brigstocke
Max…Kerry Godliman
Cat..Mia Jenkins
Lola…India Brown
Pauline...Liza Tarbuck
Various roles...Kiell Smith-Bynoe
Writers…Marcus Brigstocke and Sarah Morgan
Producer...Julia McKenzie
A BBC Studios production.


WED 12:00 News Summary (m000n50l)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon (m000n4wh)
Episode 3

Sam Selvon’s sparkling, lyrical tale of a group of Caribbean immigrants who band together to buy a house in London.

Sick of paying exorbitant rent for a basement in Brixton, Battersby decides to buy his own house – but he can’t do it alone. He pulls together a motley crew of shift workers, pot-washers, hustlers and calypsonians who all share a desire to own their place. Plans, scams, deceits and double dealing ensue as friends feud and switch allegiance and through it all, the pile of money under Bat's mattress never quite grows as it should.

With the decision made to pool their resources for a deposit, the friends need to come up with some cash.

Written by Sam Selvon
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Read by Martina Laird
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie


WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000n4wm)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


WED 12:57 Weather (m000n4wr)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m000n4ww)
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 Anatomy of Touch (m000n4x3)
Episode 3

How important is touch to us? Claudia Hammond reveals the BBC Touch Test results.


WED 14:00 The Archers (m000n4x7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b08yrp59)
Deacon

By Edson Burton.

Mack has an illicit delivery to make and the clock is ticking. But his mission begins to unravel when he runs into Deacon, a fierce and enigmatic old drifter. Starring Don Warrington and Ashley Thomas.

Mack is offered a 'job' by his former boxing trainer Jimmy. It seems easy - all he has to do is deliver a car to an address outside Swindon by midnight. But when Mack asks what he's delivering, Jimmy tells him the less he knows the better. 'Oh and don't look in the boot.'

Then Mack hits an old man with the car and he's forced to take him to hospital. But who exactly is the old man crumpled on Mack's back seat? He says his name is Deacon; he looks like a tramp, but speaks with words wise beyond this world. And he might just be about to change Mack's life, forever.

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.


WED 15:00 Money Box (m000n4xc)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.


WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000n4xh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000n4xm)
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000n4xr)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world


WED 17:00 PM (m000n4xw)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000n4y5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Ability (m0003r3w)
Series 2

Disability Exam

Matt is 25. He has cerebral palsy and can only speak via an app on his iPad. Everyone who cares about Matt knows that this isn't the defining thing about him. He is funny and clever and "up for stuff" - partly because he is keen to show that there's nothing he can't do, but also because, if he's honest, he's aware that he's less likely than other people to get the blame.

In this second series of the award nominated comedy, Matt is still sharing a flat with his best mate, Jess. He is still in love with her but, much as she likes him, she is still not in love with him. She does however, fancy Matt’s rubbish carer, Bob (Allan Mustafa). Well just a tiny bit anyway. Not that she would ever admit it. After all, Bob is even more lazy and useless at most things than she is.

But Bob is willing. And although domestic duties are not really his forte, he likes Matt and treats him like a real person. And over the last year or so the three of them have been through a lot together - well a lot of drinking and hangovers anyway.

Ability is the semi-autobiographical co-creation of the 2018 Britain’s Got Talent winner, Lee Ridley, otherwise known as Lost Voice Guy. Like his sitcom creation, Lee has cerebral palsy and can only speak via an app. He is - probably - the first stand up comedian to use a communication aid. Prior to BGT, Lee won the BBC New Comedy Award in 2014, has written and performed four full Edinburgh shows and has just completed a major sell out tour of the UK.

Katherine Jakeways, the co-creator and co-writer of Ability, is a multi-award nominated writer. She has written North by Northamptonshire, Guilt Trip and All Those Women for BBC Radio 4 as well as numerous radio plays. She has also written for Crackanory and The Tracey Ullman Show for TV.

The series is set in Newcastle and many of the cast last played together as children in Biker’s Grove.

Cast includes:
Matt............Lee Ridley – aka Lost Voice Guy
Bob..............Allan Mustafa
Jess..............Sammy Dobson
Matt's Inner Voice.............Andrew Hayden-Smith

A Funny Bones production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m000n486)
Ruth is reluctant to jump the gun and Jazzer is over the moon


WED 19:15 Front Row (m000n4y9)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


WED 19:45 Broken English (m000n4w7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000n4yf)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze


WED 20:45 Four Thought (m000n4vv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000n4yk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000n4xr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000n4yp)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon (m000n4wh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


WED 23:00 The Damien Slash Mixtape (m000n4yt)
Series 3

Episode 4

Multi-character YouTube star Damien Slash is back for a third round of zeitgeisty sketches in this new fast-paced, one-man sketch comedy show. In the final instalment discover Commuter-wear designed for the most extreme locations, a special prayer to celebrate the re-opening of the pubs and meet new favourite children’s character Thomas the Thermonuclear Missle.

Written by and starring Damien Slash (aka Daniel Barker).
Additional Material from Tom Savage
Guest starring Natasia Demetriou
Produced by Benjamin Sutton
A BBC Studios production.


WED 23:15 Bunk Bed (m0004f4y)
Series 6

Benjamin Zephaniah

Late at night, in the dark and in a bunk bed, your tired mind can wander away from the hurly burly of the day.

Peter Curran and Patrick Marber are joined on a mattress by poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who reveals how he nearly took a job writing verses for a Greetings card company and shares the fallout from a disastrous appearance on Mastermind.

Produced by Peter Curran
A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000n4yy)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



THURSDAY 08 OCTOBER 2020

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000n4z2)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


THU 00:30 Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (m000n4z6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000n4zb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000n4zg)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000n4zl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000n4zq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000n4zv)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Sarah Teather, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK

Good morning.The stories of the grieving, wrote the poet Ann Weems, are too painful for salvation to come through self-help. “Our only hope is to march ourselves to the throne of God and in loud lament cry out the pain that lives in our souls.”

Weems’ extraordinary book of poetry, Psalms of Lament, was published 25 years ago, in the aftermath of the murder of her son, but seems to give voice to the unanswered pain of others in the world throughout generations. Grief, she said, would not be resolved “until God Himself wipes the tears from our eyes.”
What is most striking to me about Weems’ writing is the brutal honesty and directness of her speech to God.

In one poem, that seems uncannily current, she cries
“How long will you watch, O God,
as we your people live huddled in death?”

In another, she lists a litany of global injustice, then accuses and pleads with God
“… is this any way
to run a world?
O Merciful One, let us rest
between tragedies!”

Lament has a form and order in the bible: it makes space for tears and rage, petition and redress, but also expressions of trust and praise. To engage in lament for the world, says the biblical scholar Walter Brueggermann is to engage in a prophetic act of political imagination . We dare to dream of God’s justice, and hold fast to our belief that He will act and transform the pain.

“Ask and it will be given to you”, says Jesus, in St Luke’s gospel, as he praises persistence and assures us of God’s generosity. Perhaps now is the moment to ask on behalf of the suffering world.

We cry to you O Lord! You are our refuge! Attend to our cry!

Amen


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000n4zz)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkyr5)
Greater Honeyguide

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the greater honeyguide of sub-Saharan Africa. A loud repetitive "it's - here" – "it's -here" is a sound the greater honey guide only makes to humans in an extraordinary co-operative act between humans and bird. Relatives of woodpeckers they are one of the few birds which can digest wax and also feed on the eggs, grubs and pupae of bees. A greater honeyguide knows the location of the bee colonies in its territory and is able to lead honey-hunters to them. Once it has successfully guided its helpers to a nest, it waits while the honey-hunters remove the comb. Then it moves in to snap up the grubs and wax from the opened nest. So reliable are honeyguides that the Boran people of East Africa save up to two thirds of their honey-searching time by using the bird's services and use a special loud whistle (called a fuulido) to summon their guide before a hunt.


THU 06:00 Today (m000n478)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000n47b)
Deism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that God created the universe and then left it for humans to understand by reason not revelation. Edward Herbert, 1583-1648 (pictured above) held that there were five religious truths: belief in a Supreme Being, the need to worship him, the pursuit of a virtuous life as the best form of worship, repentance, and reward or punishment after death. Others developed these ideas in different ways yet their opponents in England's established Church collected them under the label of Deists, called Herbert the Father of Deism and attacked them as a movement, and Deist books were burned. Over time, reason and revelation found a new balance in the Church in England, while Voltaire and Thomas Paine explored the ideas further, leading to their re-emergence in the French and American Revolutions.

With

Richard Serjeantson

Katie East

And

Thomas Ahnert

Producer: Simon Tillotson


THU 09:45 Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (m000n47d)
Arcadia

Hermione Lee's illuminating portrait of one of our finest playwrights, Tom Stoppard. Today, his brilliant and moving mid-life play, Arcadia. Read by Alex Jennings.

Tom Stoppard is among British theatre’s giants and in Hermione Lee's evocative and immersive biography we come to know the man and his work. Since 1964 Stoppard has been writing for the theatre, big screen, television, and radio,. His plays are among the most studied of the last century.

Hermione Lee is one of our leading literary biographers, and with access to private papers, diaries and letters, interviews with the playwright's friends, and Stoppard himself she has created an intimate portrait of the writer. Here we learn of his formative years as a young child forced to flee Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia; growing up in India and then England; his activism and campaigning on behalf of Eastern European and Soviet prisoners of conscience; the influence of, and his friendship with Vaclav Havel., and always his work, the writing, rehearsing, casting and his ever present humour.

Tom Stoppard remains at the forefront of British theatrical life, even in this moment of crisis. His most recent, personal and highly acclaimed play, Leopoldstadt, fell victim to Covid-19, when its run in the West End was suspended in March, 2020.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000n47h)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


THU 10:45 Broken English (m000n47k)
Episode 9

Four years ago, Anna and John's marriage was floundering. To make matters worse, John began a disastrous affair with their couples counsellor, which he later regretted.

Now, to escape the past, they've started over in rural Southern France - a place they once visited on holiday, but don't know very well at all.

It's an act of folly, maybe, but necessary for their survival – or so it seemed at the time. But their dream of a new life in France is shattered when their 16 year old son disappears and they find that they, and each of their house guests, are suspects in what the gendarmes have decided is a possible murder enquiry.

Written by Shelagh Stephenson

CAST:
ANNA……. ………..……..…………………………………….Rosie Cavaliero
JOHN……..………………………………………………………Ewan Bailey
JESS..……………………..……………………………………… Macy Nyman
DOROTHY ……………………………………………………… Linda Bassett
DUNCAN …….…………..…………………………………… Rufus Wright
JOE…………………………....………………………………….Tom Glenister
LOU……….……………………………………………………….Rebecca Saire
ROB ………………………………………………………………. John McAndrew
MELANIE ………………………………………………………..Jane Slavin
CHARLIE ……………………………………………………….. Thomas Allam
CHRISTOPHER ………………………………………………. Alfie Wickham

Produced and Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling

A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4


THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000n47m)
Insight, and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world


THU 11:30 The Buchan Tradition (b05qjq6h)
A century after its first print run, the famous novel The 39 Steps continues to sell worldwide. It's never been out of print.

The book's author, John Buchan, wasn't just a master of the suspense thriller, he also wrote poetry, short stories, essays, biographies and histories - all on top of his ambitious career as editor, publisher, intelligence officer, civil servant, politician, churchman, peer and, at the end of his life, Governor-General of Canada.

The writer Nicholas Rankin examines Buchan's literary legacy through the lens of two of his descendants who have themselves become authors - James Buchan is one of John's grandsons, a former FT Middle East correspondent who now writes both fiction and non-fiction; while Ursula Buchan, a granddaughter of John Buchan, is a distinguished gardening journalist and social historian.

With additional contributions from best selling novelist William Boyd and literary critic Kate MacDonald, James and Ursula reflect in a personal way on the influence John Buchan has had on their own writing and the significance of his books today.

Producer: Dan Shepherd
A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:00 News Summary (m000n47r)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon (m000n47t)
Episode 4

Sam Selvon’s sparkling, lyrical tale of a group of Caribbean immigrants who band together to buy a house in London.

Sick of paying exorbitant rent for a basement in Brixton, Battersby decides to buy his own house – but he can’t do it alone. He pulls together a motley crew of shift workers, pot-washers, hustlers and calypsonians who all share a desire to own their place. Plans, scams, deceits and double dealing ensue as friends feud and switch allegiance and through it all, the pile of money under Bat's mattress never quite grows as it should.

The bold decision to escape unscrupulous landlords affects each of the friends differently.

Written by Sam Selvon
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Read by Martina Laird
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie


THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000n47x)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


THU 12:57 Weather (m000n47z)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m000n481)
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 Anatomy of Touch (m000n483)
Episode 4

How important is touch to us? Claudia Hammond reveals the BBC Touch Test results.


THU 14:00 The Archers (m000n486)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (m0006ln9)
Deacon: Moonlight on Water

By Edson Burton.

The enigmatic drifter returns to help a lost soul. Young Jas is in love and in danger, but who from?

16-year-old Jas is planning to run away with her one true love. They are sworn to secrecy. Her ex, Zain, has found out and pursues her through the dangerous night-world of Eastville Park. Enter Deacon, the centuries old drifter who has a habit of crashing into people's lives. But there are other powerful spirits abroad in Eastville tonight, looking for pleasure, and all is not what it seems.

This second episode of Deacon, unfolds in the spaces between inner-city Bristol and the nether world. Starring Don Warrington.

Deacon - Don Warrington
Jas - Ashna Rabheru
Ray - Don Gilet
Legba - Marega Palser
Zain - Raj Bajaj

Directed by John Norton
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


THU 15:00 Ramblings (m000n488)
Beachcombing on the Isle of Sheppey

Clare goes beachcombing on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent with author Lisa Woollett. Lisa is fascinated by what we throw away and how it reflects our changing lifestyles. Her new book ‘Rag and Bone’ tells the story of her discoveries in beachcombing and mudlarking and how it links to her family history: her great grandfather was a scavenger and her grandfather was a dustman.

Clare and Lisa begin their walk (crucially, at low tide) at grid reference TQ954737.

Producer: Karen Gregor


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000n48b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Bookclub (m000n48d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000n48g)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000n48j)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world


THU 17:00 PM (m000n48l)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000n48n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b06yfjdy)
Series 5

Episode 4

John Finnemore's fifth series of his multi-award-winning sketch show, joined as ever by Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.

This week features a sketch that couldn't catch a cold in Coventry, if you know what we mean; a train passenger who really doesn't over think things; and, well, since you ask him for a tale of a haunted mansion...

John is the writer and star of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore's Double Acts, regular guest on The Now Show and The Unbelievable Truth.

One of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time" - The Guardian
"The best sketch show in years, on television or radio" - The Radio Times
"The inventive sketch show ... continues to deliver the goods" - The Daily Mail
"Superior comedy" - The Observer

Written by and starring ... John Finnemore

Producer: Ed Morrish

A BBC Radio Comedy production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in January 2016.


THU 19:00 The Archers (m000n48q)
Writers, Sarah McDonald Hughes & Daniel Thurman
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Jill Archer.... Patricia Greene
Ruth Archer.... Felicity Finch
Ben Archer.... Ben Norris
Jennifer Aldridge.... Angela Piper
Susan Carter.... Charlotte Martin
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Fallon Rogers.... Joanna Van Kampen
Jazzer McCreary.... Ryan Kelly
Alistair Lloyd.... Michael Lumsden
Freddie Pargetter... Toby Laurence
Medical Advisor ..... Laura Rollins


THU 19:15 Front Row (m000n48s)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


THU 19:45 Broken English (m000n47k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000n48v)
David Aaronovitch and guests explore major stories in the news.


THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m000n48x)
Evan Davis chairs a round table discussion providing insight into business from the people at the top


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000n48j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000n47b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000n490)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon (m000n47t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


THU 23:00 The Skewer (m000n492)
Series 2

Episode 4

Jon Holmes's extraordinary Skewer returns to twist itself into these extraordinary times.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000n494)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



FRIDAY 09 OCTOBER 2020

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000n496)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 00:30 Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (m000n47d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000n498)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000n49b)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000n49d)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000n49g)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000n49j)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Sarah Teather, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK

Good morning.

Today is the Feast of St John Henry Newman.

I have a beautiful charcoal drawing of Newman that hangs on the wall of my office at the Jesuit Refugee Service. The drawing was done by an A-level student and given to me by a school in my constituency when I was an MP. It hung first on the wall of my Ministerial office, out of the eye line of visitors but directly in mine, providing a visible reminder of Newman’s teaching on conscience as an echo of the voice of God in the heart.

My introduction to Newman though came through Elgar’s extraordinary rendering of his poem in The Dream of Gerontius. The orchestral build up to the Soul’s meeting with God and that exhilarating chorus, Praise to the Holiest, with its perilously difficult quiet soprano entry on a top A… that remains one of my favourite musical climaxes of all times. It probably also shapes my imagination about the afterlife more than any other piece of art.

Newman’s faith journey was full of challenge. Though he is revered and loved now as a Catholic saint, he suffered rejection and suspicion at the hands of both the church he left and one he joined. He would later describe how this period of trial had been critical to him learning to surrender his life to God.

Perhaps his most moving writings were at the end of his life, as he described his journey with God, who takes us as we are, entering the heart and working with it, while changing it. This he says, is the triumph of his Grace.

Enter our hearts Lord, and let the depths of your heart speak to the deepest place in ours, that your words may lead us on into your eternal light.

Amen


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000n49l)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkysz)
Vampire Finch

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the blood sucking vampire finch. On Wolf Island in the remote Galapagos archipelago, a small dark finch sidles up to a booby with a taste for blood. Sharp-beaked ground finch is found on several islands in the Galapagos and is one of the family known as Darwin's finches. Several species of ground-finches have devolved bill sizes which vary depending on their diet and the competition for food. Usually seeds, fruits, nectar and grubs. But one sharp-beaked ground-finch has gorier ambitions. On the isolated islands of Wolf and Darwin where seeds are scarcer in times of drought this bird has taken to drinking the blood of other seabirds, especially boobies. It pecks at the bases of their feathers and greedily laps up the flowing blood. For this reason it's often known as the, the vampire finch.


FRI 06:00 Today (m000n6qd)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000n4wv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (m000n6qg)
On Leopoldstadt

Hermione Lee's vivid biography of one of our finest playwrights, Tom Stoppard concludes. Today, attention, turns movingly to Leopoldstadt his most recent play, where he reflects on family and the Holocaust. Read by Alex Jennings.

Tom Stoppard is among British theatre’s giants and in Hermione Lee's evocative and immersive biography we come to know the man and his work. Since 1964 Stoppard has been writing for the theatre, big screen, television, and radio,. His plays are among the most studied of the last century.

Hermione Lee is one of our leading literary biographers, and with access to private papers, diaries and letters, interviews with the playwright's friends, and Stoppard himself she has created an intimate portrait of the writer. Here we learn of his formative years as a young child forced to flee Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia; growing up in India and then England; his activism and campaigning on behalf of Eastern European and Soviet prisoners of conscience; the influence of, and his friendship with Vaclav Havel., and always his work, the writing, rehearsing, casting and his ever present humour.

Tom Stoppard remains at the forefront of British theatrical life, even in this moment of crisis. His most recent, personal and highly acclaimed play, Leopoldstadt, fell victim to Covid-19, when its run in the West End was suspended in March, 2020.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000n6qj)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


FRI 10:45 Broken English (m000n6ql)
Episode 10

Four years ago, Anna and John's marriage was floundering. To make matters worse, John began a disastrous affair with their couples counsellor, which he later regretted.

Now, to escape the past, they've started over in rural Southern France - a place they once visited on holiday, but don't know very well at all.

It's an act of folly, maybe, but necessary for their survival – or so it seemed at the time. But their dream of a new life in France is shattered when their 16 year old son disappears and they find that they, and each of their house guests, are suspects in what the gendarmes have decided is a possible murder enquiry.

Written by Shelagh Stephenson

CAST:
ANNA……. ………..……..…………………………………….Rosie Cavaliero
JOHN……..………………………………………………………Ewan Bailey
JESS..……………………..……………………………………… Macy Nyman
DOROTHY ……………………………………………………… Linda Bassett
DUNCAN …….…………..…………………………………… Rufus Wright
JOE…………………………....………………………………….Tom Glenister
LOU……….……………………………………………………….Rebecca Saire
ROB ………………………………………………………………. John McAndrew
MELANIE ………………………………………………………..Jane Slavin
CHARLIE ……………………………………………………….. Thomas Allam
CHRISTOPHER ………………………………………………. Alfie Wickham

Produced and Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling

A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 11:00 The New Deal - A Story For Our Times (m000n70z)
1: The Confidence Man

In 1933 American's clamoured for new leadership & direction. Their nation was at the epicentre of a global financial crisis A quarter of the working population unemployed. Farmers & workers in revolt, war veterans marching on the nation's capital. The siren song of populists filled the airwaves. Franklin D. Roosevelt came to office amidst deep gloom with the banks about to fail. 'If I read the temper of our people correctly...we cannot merely take...we must give as well. Historian & writer Marybeth Hamilton explores the decade long experiment that was America's New Deal. There was no blue print for restoring the nation's fortunes or fortitude but to Roosevelt, and those he gathered around him, it was clear that the future of capitalism & democracy were at stake.

With the voices of Tony Badger, Steve Fraser, Gary Gerstle, Gardiner Means, Eric Rauchway & Rob Schneider & Elizabeth Wickenden.
Producer: Mark Burman


FRI 11:30 Believe It! (m000n6qn)
Series 5

Grumpy Old Menopause

Richard Wilson returns with another series of not quite true revelations about his life. Jon Canter’s comedic writing is as sharp as ever as he delves into themes such as celebrity, brand awareness and death. As usual Richard has many friends from whom he seeks advice.

Starring Ian McKellen as Head of Gay, Peter Capaldi and David Tennant as the Two Doctors, and Antony Sher as The Man Addicted To Waitrose along with an excellent supporting cast.

It’s a mockumentary and spoof autobiography rolled into one.

CAST:
Richard Wilson
David Tennant
Peter Capaldi
Alexei Sayle
Jasmine Hyde - Tina and Announcer
Eliot Levey - Jonathan
Kate - Janine and Linda
Sarah Lambie Claire

Written by Jon Canter
Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000n6qq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon (m000n6qs)
Episode 5

Sam Selvon’s sparkling, lyrical tale of a group of Caribbean immigrants who band together to buy a house in London.

Sick of paying exorbitant rent for a basement in Brixton, Battersby decides to buy his own house – but he can’t do it alone. He pulls together a motley crew of shift workers, pot-washers, hustlers and calypsonians who all share a desire to own their place. Plans, scams, deceits and double dealing ensue as friends feud and switch allegiance and through it all, the pile of money under Bat's mattress never quite grows as it should.

Although the friends have been saving for a month, treasurer Jean is yet to see a penny.

Written by Sam Selvon
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Read by Martina Laird
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie


FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000n6qv)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


FRI 12:57 Weather (m000n6qx)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m000n6qz)
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 Anatomy of Touch (m000n6r1)
DIGITAL TOUCH

Can touch be replicated digitally? What devices exist already and how likely are we to use them?
Michael Banissy co-creator of the Touch Test, neuroscientist David Eagleman and researcher Carey Jewitt look at the possibilities for touch technologies in the future. David has developed a wristband that translates sound into touch for deaf people, Carey looks at the ethics of digital touch and Michael reveals the attitudes from the Touch Test towards digital technologies and if we could replicate the feeling of holding a loved ones hand in hospital would it really be the same?


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000n48q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (m000n6r3)
Deacon: Gabriel’s Feast

By Edson Burton.

The enigmatic drifter returns. Deacon is called back to our world to help a lost soul, but despite his years and wisdom, he is struggling to read the signs. Grace fled her war-torn homeland and has taken refuge in a strange community on the fringes of Bristol. But what is it that drives their leader Gabriel? What are they preparing for? Can Grace overcome her paralysing fear? Will Deacon realise what is happening in time? Or has he finally met his match?

This third episode of Deacon unfolds in the spaces between inner city Bristol and the nether world. Starring Don Warrington.

Deacon - Don Warrington
Grace - Diana Yekinni
Gabriel – Richard Pepple
Khan - Ikky Elyas
Max/ Legba – Marc Danbury

Directed by John Norton
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000n6r5)
GQT at Home: Episode Twenty-Eight

Peter Gibbs hosts this week's gardening panel show. James Wong, Bob Flowerdew and Bunny Guinness are on hand to answer questions sent in by listeners.

Producer - Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000n6r7)
Original short works for radio.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000n6r9)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.


FRI 16:30 More or Less (m000n4vq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m000n6rc)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000n6rf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m000n6rh)
Series 103

Episode 6

A satirical review of the week's news


FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000n6rk)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


FRI 19:45 Broken English (m000n6ql)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000n6rm)
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from venues around the UK.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000n6rp)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.


FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (m000n6rr)
A Media Divided

Michael Goldfarb looks at how eliminating a simple broadcast regulation in the United States, The Fairness Doctrine, led to the birth of right-wing talk radio, Fox News, political polarisation, and the rise of Donald Trump.

He explores whether the First Amendment, with its guarantees of free speech and a free press, can survive the polarisation fed and watered by unrestrained partisan "fake news".

A Certain Height production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000n6rt)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon (m000n6qs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m000n5yp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 Things That Made the Modern Economy (m000bktf)
Series 2

Bonsack Machine

One historian of the cigarette industry reckons it invented much of modern marketing. Why did such huge sums go into advertising early brands such as Camels and Lucky Strikes? Before an inventor called James Bonsack came along, cigarettes were far less popular than cigars, pipes or chewing tobacco. Bonsack’s machine made it possible to make huge amounts of cigarettes more cheaply – creating the need to persuade people to buy them. But, as Tim Harford explains, many modern regulators think we should be worried about the power of cigarette branding.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon


FRI 23:45 Today in Parliament (m000n6rw)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament