SATURDAY 17 OCTOBER 2020

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000nd1m)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 The Good Germans by Catrine Clay (m000nd04)
Episode 5

Within six months of becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Adolf Hitler had disbanded all political parties, put a boycott on Jewish businesses and placed the Protestant churches under Nazi rule.

Yet two-thirds of the Germans had not voted for the Nazis and, as Jews began to disappear and the first concentration camp was opened at Dachau in Bavaria, many Germans found the courage to resist. They knew that, if caught, they would be subject to incarceration, torture or outright execution.

Catrine Clay argues that this was a much more widespread movement than has been previously thought. Teachers, lawyers, factory and dock workers, housewives, shopkeepers, church members, trade unionists, Army officers, Social Democrats, Prussian aristocrats, Socialists and Communists, resisters, who worked throughout the war to sabotage German armaments, to spread propaganda against the Nazis, and to try to assassinate Hitler.

This book offers a rare glimpse into the growth of this movement - a movement which brought disparate bodies together with one common aim, to save Germany by dismantling Nazism.

The episodes investigate the impact of the terror regime on ordinary ‘good’ Germans, on German Social Democrats and Communists, as well Jews - both in microcosm, in the domestic detail of resistance, and in macrocosm, as Germany’s relationship with Britain is brought into sharp focus prior to the outbreak of war.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000nd1p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000nd1r)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000nd1t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m000nd1w)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000nd1y)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Father Eugene O'Neill


SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m000nd20)
More Than a Game

Lydia Furse looks at the personal and political benefits of playing women's rugby.

Lydia has long played rugby, and in this passionate talk discusses the harmony of bodies working together, a well-executed try, and how being in a scrum has made her feel differently about her physical image. She argues that women's rugby - much more than a game - is empowerment, it is boundary breaking, and it needs to be feminist.

Producer: Giles Edwards.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000nkjn)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m000ncnr)
Anita Rani on Hackney and Walthamstow Marshes

Clare Balding walks with Anita Rani on Hackney and Walthamstow Marshes. They also explore Walthamstow Wetlands, an internationally important nature reserve opened to the public in 2017. The Countryfile presenter recalls her outdoorsy upbringing in Yorkshire and how much she values London's green spaces. She also discusses her plans to write a childhood memoir; how appearing on 'Who Do You Think You Are' changed her life; and the intriguing story behind her choice of name for a new puppy.

Clare and Anita started their walk in Millfields Park, Grid Ref: TQ353862

Producer: Karen Gregor


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m000nkjq)
17/10/20 - Farming Today This Week: The impact of COVID on rural communities and the Agriculture Bill

This week the Agriculture Bill was back in the House of Commons. Top of the political agenda was a proposed amendment from the Lords that would block imports of food produced to lower standards than UK farmers have to follow. The NFU has been campaigning hard on this, but in the end only 14 Tory MPs rebelled and the amendment was thrown out. The Government promise standards will be protected, but farmers are unimpressed.

And what impact is COVID having in rural communities. From a boom to local businesses as people give up their commute, to a rise in house sales as city-dwellers move out to work from home in the countryside. We look into the postives and negatives of the legacy of lockdown.

Presenter by Charlotte Smith
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


SAT 06:57 Weather (m000nkjs)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m000nkjv)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m000nkjz)
Rupert Everett

Richard Coles and Nikki Bedi are joined by Rupert Everett, star of stage and screen with titles such as My Best Friend’s Wedding, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of being Earnest, Shakespeare in Love, St Trinian’s, Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar Children, and his directorial debut which he also wrote and starred in: The Happy Prince.

We also have Charlotte Mensah, the UK’s authority on natural Afro, mixed and curly textured hair. Her journey took her between Ghana and the UK, overcoming some major hurdles, leaving school at 16, finding a community and security in hair dressing to owning her own salon, hair range and a charity to help others.

Jasvir Kaur Rababan MBE is a Sikh music therapist and one of the only female rabab players in the world. She talks about her journey from tone-deaf teenager to professional musician, and how picking up her instrument for the first time felt like coming home.

and JJ Chalmers joins us. A former Royal Marines Commando, Invictus Games medallist, TV presenter, media personality and public speaker, after being severely injured from a bomb blast whilst serving as a Royal Marine in Afghanistan JJ suffered life-changing injuries that led him to a long road of recovery. He’s now swapping his microphone for the glitter ball on Strictly.

Writer Bernard Cornwell chooses his Inheritance Tracks and we have your Thank you.

Producer: Corinna Jones


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000nkk1)
Series 29

Home Economics: Episode 16

Jay Rayner hosts the culinary panel show. Professor Barry Smith, Rachel McCormack, Tim Hayward and Anna Jones join the virtual kitchen table to answer questions sent in by the audience via email and social media.

This week, the panellists share roast potato recipes, discuss their disgust at certain eating noises and, together with the virtual audience, perform a sensory experiment which everyone can join in. All you need is some lightly butter toast and yeast extract.

Producer: Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m000nkk3)
Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m000nkk5)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m000nmyz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m000nkhy)
The latest news from the world of personal finance


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m000nd17)
Series 103

Episode 7

A satirical review of the week's news with Andy Zaltzman. This week Andy is joined by an international panel of comedians including regular guest Andrew Maxwell alongside Anuvab Pal from India, Olga Koch from Russia and Alice Fraser from Australia. The panel tackle the global response to COVID-19, the (no) chance of a deal between Britain and the EU and some controversially "boring" Indian cuisine.

Written by Andy Zaltzman with additional material from Simon Alcock, Suchandrika Chakrabarti and Mike Shephard.

Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production


SAT 12:57 Weather (m000nkk9)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m000nkkc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m000nd1c)
Greg Hands MP, Dan Jarvis MP, Pascal Lamy, Baroness Stuart

Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Broadcasting House in London with the Minister for Trade Policy Greg Hands MP, Labour MP and Mayor of the Sheffield City Region Dan Jarvis, former director-general of the World Trade Organisation Pascal Lamy and the crossbench peer and former chair of the Vote Leave campaign Baroness Gisela Stuart.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Studio Direction: Maire Devine


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m000nkkf)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 Fault Lines: Money, Sex and Blood (m000nkkh)
Series 2: Sex

Vocation

Fault Lines: Sex
Episode 7: Vocation by Michael Symmons Roberts
Celeste has returned from France and is looking after her Aunt Constance. Celeste feels Constance may need the solace of religion to help her cope with her illness and so enlists the help of a local priest. They all become friendly, but where exactly do the boundaries lie?

Constance.......... GLENDA JACKSON
Celeste.............. MELODY GROVE
Richard..............MATTHEW GRAVELLE
Director/Producer Gary Brown


SAT 15:30 Reading the Water (m000ncn6)
Writer, naturalist and fisherman Chris Yates has been wanting to return to a secret lake in Wiltshire he last visited 20 years ago. In summer 2020, he spends a day there in search of an ancient carp which, he says, is "the size of a small submarine".

While carp fishing may offer the occasional moment of intense excitement, it’s a pursuit that largely comprises long periods of apparent inactivity. Yet, as Chris reveals, it's anything but dull. Having amassed 60 years of fishing wisdom, he’s less concerned these days with actually catching a fish, and much more interested in what we can learn from sitting still, quietly, and observing the reality that surrounds and envelops us - a patient intimacy with nature. Alongside insider tips on the behaviour of carp, Chris regales us with tales of some of the extraordinary moments he's witnessed while lying beside a lake, his back against a tree.

Recorded on a single summer’s day in July, we share in the magic of a secluded place, sitting with Chris from dawn to dusk, amidst the singing of wrens and the wood pigeons’ lullaby, absorbing the play of the light on the water.

Photo: Dan Shepherd

Compiled by Dan Shepherd
Produced by Phil Smith
A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m000nkkk)
Weekend Woman's Hour - Carla Bruni, Working from Home, HIV and Bame women

We have music from the former supermodel Carla Bruni who tells us about her new album.

We hear from the Conservative MP Laura Trott who is trying to get a law passed to stop under 18s accessing filler treatments and other cosmetic procedures. We also hear from Ashton Collins from the organisation Save Face who have had reports of injuries caused by botched cosmetic procedures.

A journalist who writes about paramilitaries, has made a formal complaint to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland because investigations into threats made to her and her baby have come to nothing. She tells us why she believes her gender means she receives more threats than her male colleagues.

We discuss why three-quarters of women living with HIV in the UK are of Black, Asian or minority ethnic background. Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan, a consultant in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust in London, and two women living with HIV, Mina Kakaiya who is a mental health and mindfulness trainer of South Asian heritage, and Bakita Kasadha who is a British-Ugandan poet, activist and researcher discuss the stigma around the illness.

The author Onjali Rauf tells us about her new children’s book The Night Bus Hero which is told from the point of view of a bully.

When many of us suddenly switched to home working back in March, we might have thought we would be back in the office by now, but 30% of us are still working from home, and there is no timetable yet for returning to offices. So how’s it going, sharing work space with other adults, children or indeed no-one? We hear from clinical psychologist Linda Blair, and Chloe Davies, Head of PR & Partnerships at MyGWork about her experiences.

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


SAT 17:00 PM (m000nkkm)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (m000ncq4)
Cybersecurity

In modern business it's impossible not to be worried about a cyber attack of some form. But how do you lower your chances of attack and what do you do if someone manages to get in your system and data? Evan Davis and guests discuss.

GUESTS

Sian John, director, EMEA, cyber security strategy, Microsoft UK

Geoff White, author, 'Crime Dot Com' and investigative technology journalist

Jake Davis, consultant, Hacker Culture

National Centre for Cybersecurity - Cyber Essentials advice for businesses https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberessentials/advice

Presenter: Evan Davis
Producer: Julie Ball
Editor: Hugh Levinson


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000nkkq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m000nkks)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000nkkv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m000nkkx)
John Cooper Clarke, Shabaka Hutchings, Vanessa Kisuule, Pippa Bennett-Warner, L.A Salami, Leenalchi, David Morrissey

Clive Anderson and David Morrissey are joined by John Cooper Clarke, Shabaka Hutchings, Vanessa Kisuule and Pippa Bennett-Warner for a mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from L.A Salami and Leenalchi.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m000nkhh)
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines


SAT 19:15 My Dream Dinner Party (m000mkhx)
Simon Schama's Dream Dinner Party

Historian, writer and broadcaster Sir Simon Schama hosts a dinner party with a twist - all his guests are from beyond the grave, long-time heroes brought back to life by the wonders of the radio archive.

In his house in upstate New York, Simon is joined by acclaimed singer songwriter Nina Simone, When Harry Met Sally writer/director Nora Ephron, Broadway performer Elaine Stritch, writer and essayist Gore Vidal and master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.

In honour of Alfred's film The Birds, Simon prepares roast quail, while the guests discuss the secret of happiness, music and film as political tools, the origins of fear, love, lust - and having an orgasm in public.

There's gourmet food, performance, and the occasional howl from the woods.

Written and presented by Simon Schama
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 (m000fvz7)
San Francisco Burning

Stanley Tucci tells the story of Dianne Feinstein, trailblazing Californian politician who took over as mayor of San Francisco in 1978 after the murders of Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone.

Feinstein was charged with the difficult task of healing San Francisco after the brutal slaying of two highly popular leaders - against the backdrop of the further horrors of the recent Jonestown Massacre.

Academic consultant: Dr Ian Scott, University of Manchester

Written and produced by Laurence Grissell


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m000nkkz)
Play for Today

Alison Steadman celebrates 50 year since Play for Today was launched on BBC television.

The series ran from 1970 until 1984 and offered the audience hundreds of plays, many of which tackled the thorny issues of the day - industrial relations, the rise of the far right, poverty and consumerism. The series also included classics such as Abigail's Party and Nuts in May - which starred Alison Steadman and shone a perceptive light on suburban pretentions and preoccupations.

This archive-rich programme includes contributions from Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. We also talk to Margaret Matheson who produced Scum, the play about life in a borstal which was banned by the BBC; Paula Milne, one of the few women writers on the series; and Maureen Lipman, who was given an early acting role in Play for Today and whose late husband Jack Rosenthal was responsible for Bar Mitzvah Boy and Spend, Spend, Spend, the tragic story of pools winner Vivien Nicholson.

The landscape of drama on the small screen has now expanded enormously with vast choice and an imperative to run any drama over several episodes. So is there still a place for the single-episode 'play'? Was there a beauty and a discipline in that which we have lost? We talk to today's very successful television dramatist Jack Thorne.

Presented by Alison Steadman
Produced by Michael Umney and Susan Marling
A Just Radio production in collaboration with the BFI.


SAT 21:00 Dangerous Visions (b0b6hxk7)
Speak

By Philip Palmer

Starring Pippa Haywood and Andrew Gower

Lucian has a vocabulary that is limited to a core 1500 words, but Clara wants to teach him those that are forbidden. A dystopian love story about the power of words, set in a near future where the language spoken is Globish - a reduced version of English.

The OED lists 171,476 English words in current use. The average adult native English speaker has an active vocabulary of about 35,000 - 50,000 words. But studies suggest our vocabularies are shrinking.

Globish is a real international business language, developed in 2004, made up of the most common 1500 English words. It is designed to promote international communication in the global economy. 'Speak' imagines a future in which Globish has become the official language.

A gripping two-hander about the power of words; how words - and even more, the absence of words - can control, confine, leach emotion and trap minds.

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.


SAT 21:45 Rabbit Is Rich (b09xjjbk)
Episode 1

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

This third book finds Rabbit in middle age and successful, having inherited his father in law's car business - selling newly imported Toyotas to the mass American market. But his relationship with his son Nelson was severely compromised by Rabbit's affair with Jill and her subsequent death has left them both wary of each other.

Published in 1981, Rabbit is Rich won Updike, among other awards, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction - and it's extraordinary how many of its themes continue to reverberate down to the present day.

Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Toby Jones
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 22:00 News (m000nkl1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (m000nf3p)
The Moral Authority of Organised Religion

A damning report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse describes a culture of deference in the Church of England which meant that perpetrators were allowed to hide and, when exposed, were often given more support than their victims. This was a scandal in which the “moral authority of clergy was widely perceived as beyond reproach”. This pattern of behaviour and cover-up is shocking but depressingly familiar. Following decades of such revelations, there is a growing belief that Britain’s churches have lost all moral credibility as a result of their repeated inability to practice what they preach and get their house in order. Others point out that, while reparations are needed, all institutions – whether religious or secular – are made up of human beings who are capable of terrible crimes, and that the good done by organised religion in tackling poverty, comforting the bereaved and showing strong leadership on some of the key moral issues of the day, should not be overlooked. Whether or not such institutions still command moral authority, formal religious affiliation is nevertheless in decline. Is this to be welcomed or lamented? For many people, rules-based religion has had its day. They see the churches as being out of step on many progressive issues like gender equality and same-sex marriage; they look elsewhere for sources of morality, or they see morality, faith and spirituality as subjective and personal. Others, meanwhile, still see religious institutions as the bedrock of a cohesive society; an inherited, shared source or moral and spiritual guidance, spanning centuries. They caution against the jettisoning of absolute moral rules and view the belief that we all have our own ‘truths’ and ways of knowing as deeply unhealthy. With Dr Ed Condon, Rt Rev Philip North, Prof Francesca Stavrokopoulou and Rev Stephen Trott.

Producer: Dan Tierney.


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (m000ndb6)
Semi-final 4, 2020

(16/17)
Russell Davies welcomes the last of this year's semi-finalists, who once again comprise three of the heat winners, along with a particularly high-scoring runner-up. They're fighting for the sole remaining place in the 2020 Final, and the competition is sure to be fierce.

A listener also stands a chance of winning a prize by coming up with ingenious questions that might Beat The Brains.

Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 Every Little Touch (m000ndj0)
Whether it’s the missing hug of a parent, the affirmation of a handshake, or the grabbing of a handrail on a bus, the boundaries of our sense of touch have changed in recent months.

In this programme, as part of Radio 4’s Touch Test week, the writer Noo Saro-Wiwa gives her personal perspective on poetry’s relationship with touch, and speaks to modern poets about what it means to them now.

With extracts from Thom Gunn, Anne Carson, Alfred Tennyson, Imtiaz Dharker and Sarah Jackson’s book Tactile poetics and music by Jonsi.

The readers are Simon Russell Beale and Sheila Ruskin.

Producer: Emily Williams
Sound Design by Jess Hatton-Brown

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4



SUNDAY 18 OCTOBER 2020

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000nkl3)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 A British History in Weather (b07bbbjk)
Holiday on Ice

Alexandra Harris tells the story of how the weather has written and painted itself into the cultural life of Britain. When the rivers froze: frost fairs and merry making on ice.

"The winter of 1608-9 was so cold that the Thames froze over. At ebb tide, when the river was shallow, a few brave people walked gingerly right across. It was a bitter Christmas – and then, in the middle of January, the frost really took hold. By the 15th the river was solid from bank to bank. People crowded to Temple Stairs to see if what they heard was true – that the great highway of London was at a halt.

So it was, but there was a new highway in the making. There were tents being thrown up, and barrels of ale rolled out. Soon there was bowling and skittles, musicians were playing, there was dancing, drinking, eating. Someone lit a fire, the ice held: the fire was stoked and a hog roasted, turning and turning in the flames. An alternative world was forming on the river, improvised and ungoverned. You climbed down into it on steep ladders, or at the water stairs, as if you were boarding a boat, except that that there were no boats to board. The ferrymen, out of work, set their oars aside and took charge of the growing carnival."

Music by Jon Nicolls.

A BBC Audio production, made in Bristol


SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000nd0x)
The Cleaner

An original short work for radio by Mary Paulson-Ellis.

A woman returns to her home village in Scotland but is haunted by the past.

Read by Lesley Hart

Mary Paulson-Ellis is an Edinburgh based writer. Her debut novel, The Other Mrs Walker was a Times Bestseller and Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2017.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000nkl5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000nkl7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000nkl9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000nklc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000nkj4)
St. Thomas the Martyr in Oxford

Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St. Thomas the Martyr in Oxford. The bells were gradually replaced during the 1990s and there are now ten, with the tenor weighing eleven hundredweight. We now hear them ringing Spliced Surprise Royal.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m000nkhh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News (m000nkfc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b00ncwng)
The Consolations of Autumn

Writer and broadcaster Hazhir Teimourian asks if youth, as with spring and summer, is not overrated.

In the company of sages and poets from the most ancient times to our own era, he draws parallels between the physical 'age of mists and mellow fruitfulness' and the contentment and serenity that can be the gift of old age in these days of greater affluence and better medicine.

From Cicero in Rome 2,000 years ago, through Omar Khayyam in medieval Persia and Shakespeare in modern England, he reflects on both reminiscences of youth and the praise of 'the autumn of life'.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m000nkfg)
Ebony Horse Club

Singer JB Gill visits Ebony Horse Club, a stable only a stone's throw from Electric Avenue and Brixton tube station. He hears how the stable provides life-changing experiences to young people living in one of London’s most challenging areas, helping them to thrive both in the saddle and in their lives outside of the club.

Produced by Caitlin Hobbs.


SUN 06:57 Weather (m000nkfj)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000nkfn)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000nkfs)
Edward Stourton takes a look at the ethical and religious issues of the week


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000nkfx)
Minority Rights Group International

Paterson Joseph makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Minority Rights Group International.

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 ‘Minority Rights Group International’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Minority Rights Group International’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4

Registered Charity Number: 282305

Main image credit: Robert Day


SUN 07:57 Weather (m000nkg1)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000nkg5)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000nkg9)
The one who heals

A celebration of the eucharist, live from Croydon Minster, on the Feast of St Luke, patron saint of physicians.

As well as being the author of the gospel that bears his name - and of the Acts of the Apostles - St Luke was also a physician. His feast day within the church is particularly significant this year as it falls during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It provides an opportunity to give thanks for those who work in healthcare, and to call to mind those who continue to struggle with the effects of the virus in their own lives, and in the lives of others.

The celebrant is The Revd Canon Dr Andrew Bishop (Priest-in-Charge, Croydon Minster), and the preacher is Bishop Precious Omuku. Music sung by the Minster choir includes the hymns 'A brighter dawn is breaking' and 'O Holy Spirit, Lord of grace'.

Director of Music: Ronny Krippner
Organist: Simon Hogan
Producer: Ben Collingwood


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000nd1f)
The Great Conjunction

"Big as it looks, it is nothing but gas and more gas, imposing its will on the sky by sheer bluster."
On a night walk through Manhattan, Adam Gopnik reflects on the appearance of Jupiter high in the sky... and muses on the significance of this gassy planet today.

Producer: Adele Armstrong


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0rd4)
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

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

Liz Bonnin presents the raucous calling sulphur-crested cockatoo from Australia. It is with somewhat heavy irony that with its loud, jarring calls, the sulphur crested cockatoo is also known as the "Australian nightingale". These large white parrots with their formidable curved beaks and long yellow crests which they fan out when excited are familiar aviary birds. One of the reasons that they're popular as cage birds is that they can mimic the human voice and can live to a great age. A bird known as Cocky Bennett from Sydney lived until he was a hundred years old, although by the time he died in the early 1900s he was completely bald, and was then stuffed for posterity. In its native forests of Australia and New Guinea, those far-carrying calls are perfect for keeping cockatoo flocks together. They're highly intelligent birds and when they feed, at least one will act as a sentinel ready to sound the alarm in case of danger. So well-known is this behaviour that in Australia, someone asked to keep a lookout during illegal gambling sessions is sometimes known as a "cockatoo" or "cocky".


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000nkgf)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000nkgk)
Writers, Adrian Flynn and Liz John
Director, Julie Beckett
Editor, Jeremy Howe

David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Alice Carter ..... Hollie Chapman
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Alistair Lloyd ..... Michael Lumsden
Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler
Kate Madikane ..... Perdita Avery
Gavin Moss ..... Gareth Pierce
Philip Moss ..... Andy Hockley
Elizabeth Pargetter ..... Alison Dowling
Vince Casey ..... Tony Turner


SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000nkgp)
Tweet Take 5: Knot and Waders

Never underestimate the importance of mud. The British coastline is internationally known for its mudflats, home in winter to thousands of waders, feeding and roosting in vast numbers, including the knot. In this extended version of Tweet of the Day featuring knot and the sounds of the mudflat we heard from Sir David Attenborough, wildlife presenter Martin Hughes-Games and artist Kathy Hinde.

Produced by Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol


SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000nkgt)
Professor Averil Mansfield, retired surgeon

Averil Mansfield is a retired vascular surgeon and was the first female Professor of Surgery in the UK when she was appointed in 1993.

She was born in 1937 in Blackpool, where her father worked as a welder on the attractions at the Pleasure Beach. She was an only child and an avid reader when young. After perusing a library book on early advances in surgery, she decided, at the age of eight, that she wanted to become a surgeon. She studied at the University of Liverpool and spent her early working life in the city. Appointed a consultant surgeon in 1972, she moved to London eight years later with her second husband. She became a consultant vascular surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital in 1982 and remained there until her retirement in 2002.

One of the leading vascular surgeons in the country in the 1990s, she was a key figure in proving the safety of vital life-saving vascular operations: the stroke-preventing carotid endarterectomy, an intricate procedure to unblock the carotid artery, and surgery to repair a thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm. These surgeries have helped save thousands of lives by reducing the risk of strokes by 50%.

In the early 1990s, she set up an initiative called Women in Surgical Training to encourage more women to take up the profession. In addition to becoming the first female Professor of Surgery in Britain, she was also the first elected Chairman of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, served as Chair of the Stroke Association for five years following her retirement, and as President of the British Medical Association.

She lives in London and has three step-children and six grandchildren from her late husband.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale


SUN 11:45 Let's Talk About Rama and Sita (b03w0gwg)
A Good Marriage?

Award-winning poet and broadcaster Daljit Nagra takes stories from the Ramayana into his community and finds the ancient tales alive with contemporary Asian dilemmas. Today he examines the marriage of Rama and Sita and explores its relevance to marriage today.

Contributors include Jatinder Verma, Artistic Director of Tara Arts, playwright Amber Lone, Akhandhadi Das - Hindu teacher and theologian, Bhavit Mehta - director of London's South Asian Literature Festival, members of the City Hindus Network, and the congregation of Bhaktivedanta Manor Hare Krishna Temple.

Producer: Marya Burgess


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000nkgy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 The Museum of Curiosity (m000ndbk)
Series 15

Episode 6

Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and the Museum’s latest curator Alice Levine are joined by award-winning comedian Hannah Gadsby, entomologist and ecologist Dr Sarah Beynon and presenter and Paralympian Ade Adepitan.

This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee donate the a wildflower meadow, a headtorch and a tardigrade.

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 (m000nkh2)
Faith, Fasts and Feasts: The role of food in Jewish celebration

This year’s autumn run of Jewish holy days has been like no other; but even with coronavirus-related restrictions in place, food and community has remained at the heart of celebrations for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

Leyla Kazim hears from a socially distanced Sukkot meal in North London, follows a festival food diary from a family in Manchester, chats to singer-songwriter Jessie Ware and her mum Lennie about how they brought Jewish food culture to the table in their podcast and new cookbook, and gets some insight into how traditional fare is getting healthier with food writer Judi Rose.

Through stories of food, family and feasting, Leyla discovers how Jewish communities in the UK are adapting festivities to the current climate, and the modern world.

Produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m000nkh4)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000nkh6)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000nkh8)
Fi Glover presents the longer weekly edition of the programme on the shared experience of being in lockdown and beyond.

In this edition three conversations between people who have never met before: Liam and Adrienne who are both in recovery, one from a period of self-harm and the other from anorexia; Lianna and Tre share their thoughts on racism, identity, education and the importance of teaching black history in schools; and students Amy and Chess exchange notes on post-Covid university life.

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

Producer: Mohini Patel


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000nd0v)
GQT at Home: Episode Twenty-Eight

Kathy Clugston chairs this week's gardening show. Christine Walkden, Matthew Wilson and Pippa Greenwood join her to answer the questions.

This week the team are joined once more by a live virtual audience. The team discuss how they remember what they have planted and where, suggest the best salad leaves to grow outdoors over winter, and try to rescue a listener's dying rose.

Away from the questions, Peter Gibbs visits Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden in Sussex, to meet Living Collections & Conservation Manager Iain Parkinson, and Claire Ratinon chats to Sinead Fenton about her projects at Awesome Farm.

Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Legacy of War (m000l1zv)
Episode 7

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

Millions of people in the Indian state of Bengal were killed by famine during World War Two. Many more were gravely affected. One of these was Syed Muzaffar Towheed, the father of Shafquat Towheed.

In this edition of Legacy of War, Shafquat reflects on the ways that his father's experience of the famine stayed with him throughout his life -- and the ways in which the Bengal Famine is remembered. And forgotten.

With thanks to Diya Gupta.

Producer: Martin Williams


SUN 15:00 Electric Decade (m000nkhb)
USA by John Dos Passos

Episode One

USA is an epic saga following a group of characters through the opening decades of the 20th century, in a grand sweep that takes us from post-war boom to Great Depression bust.

It has modernist flair, a sharp social eye, and a profound humanity. We follow key individuals, drawn from all walks of life, as their paths cross to creating a complex and moving tapestry of American society.

One by one, we are introduced to the players, and we learn about each in depth from infancy to maturity. We see them growing up, negotiating adolescence, looking for love and finding their place in the world, meeting each other as fortune dictates, and following their destiny to success or failure.

Dramatised by Robin Brooks from John Dos Passos's USA trilogy: The 42nd Parallel, 1919 and The Big Money

Episode One : John Ward Moorehouse, Eleanor Stoddard, and Janey Williams.
In the opening episode, we meet the first players in our saga, as fate draws the threads of their lives together - John Moorehouse, a young man on the make, Eleanor Stoddard, a young woman with artistic ambitions, and Janey Williams, a girl growing up on the wrong side of the tracks.

Cast:
John Ward Moorehouse ..... Tom Bateman
Eleanor Stoddard ..... Tanya Reynolds
Eveline Hutchins ..... Hannah Genesius
Janey Williams ..... Sheila Atim
Annabelle Strang ..... Jessica Phillippi
Rochevillain /Oliver Taylor ..... Jacob Fortune-Lloyd
Freddy Sergeant / Alec ..... Calam Lynch
Joe Williams ..... Adam Courting
Gertrude Staple ..... Laurel Lefkow
McGill ..... Eric Meyers
Jerry Burnham/ Oppenheimer ..... Will Howard

Producer / Director - Fiona McAlpine
Sound Design - Lucinda Mason Brown

Production Manager - Lucy Barter
Broadcast Assistant - Georgia Brown

An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000nkhf)
Armando Iannucci and John Mullan on Dickens; John Lanchester; new Black British writing

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books, talking to authors and publishers and unearthing lost classics


SUN 16:30 My Muse (b095qs4j)
Series 2

Mark Billingham on Hank Williams

The crime novelist Mark Billingham believes there's more to the country icon Hank Williams than catchy melodies and a white suit.

Recorded on location during a promotional tour of the UK, Mark has chosen Hank as his muse because he believes the singer confronted an eternal artistic dilemma head on: how do you please a crowd and still please yourself? As the author of a popular, long-running crime series, it's a question which fascinates him. Crime fiction fans demand a book a year - but the challenge for any artist is to keep pushing their own creativity - so how did Hank manage it?

Mark meets Michael Weston-King of the band My Darling Clementine to discuss how the country singer's raw, brutal lyrics mined his own tumultuous life. He asks fellow crime novelist Christopher Brookmyre how he manages to balance the demands of commerce with the need to enjoy writing. And there are insights from the author MJ Hyland about the dangerous route taken by authors who decide to make a radical change in their writing. There's an unexpected detour into artistic motivation with Mark Radcliffe on 6Music and a chat on the streets of Liverpool about the dangers of "series fatigue" with the author Luca Veste. Having explored the real-life conflicts and tragedies which became fuel for Hank's art - Mark explores a step taken by Hank which is as radical as any by David Bowie or Bob Dylan - he became someone else - developing his Luke the Drifter alter ego which spurred him on to even greater creativity.

On a publicity dash across the UK - our presenter hears of the obsessions which made his muse a unique - if short-lived legend. As Mark Billingham discovers - Hank Williams can change your creative life.

Presenter: Mark Billingham
Producer: Kev Core.


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000nc2m)
All Sewn Up

An investigation into a network of companies involved in VAT fraud within Leicester's garment manufacturing industry.

After questions were raised in the summer about slave wages and unsafe working practices, File on 4 has now found a network of companies involved in a cash laundering scheme.

Insiders say VAT fraud is endemic among garment suppliers within the city and there are concerns that millions in tax revenue are being lost each year.

So how does it operate and why isn't more being done to prevent fraud within the fast-fashion supply chain?

Reporters: Paul Kenyon and Ashni Lakhani
Producer: Oliver Newlan
Editor: Gail Champion


SUN 17:40 Profile (m000nkhh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000nkhk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m000nkhm)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000nkhp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000nkhr)
Sean Cooney

This week, the singer-songwriter Sean Cooney shares tales of cunning carp and sinking ships, of posh miners and tireless toddlers. Haunting psalms and secret lakes, wide smiles, big hearts and stories...beautiful, life changing stories.

Presenter: Sean Cooney
Producer: Elizabeth Foster & Richard McIlroy
Production support: Sandra Hardial
Studio Manager: Sue Stonestreet

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 (m000nkht)
Episode 12

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 Twelve
Eleanor Peck gives Heawood insight into the dark and disturbing world he and Kennedy have been drawn into.

Cast:
Matthew Heawood……………BARNABY KAY
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 Love in Recovery (m0001xtf)
Series 3

The Coat

Third series of the award-nominated comedy drama set in Alcoholics Anonymous. Written by Pete Jackson and inspired by his own road to recovery. Stars Rebecca Front, John Hannah, Sue Johnston, Paul Kaye and Johnny Vegas.

Love in Recovery follows the lives of five very different recovering alcoholics. Johnny Vegas is Andy, the sweet but simple self-appointed group leader. Sue Johnston plays straight talking Julie, who's been known to have the odd relapse here and there - and everywhere. Rebecca Front is the snobby and spiky Fiona, an ex-banker who had it all and then lost the lot. John Hannah is Simon, a snide journalist who’s not an alcoholic – he got caught drink driving, his boss made him attend the meeting, but he fell in love with Fiona and stayed. And, despite her best efforts, she fell in love with him too. Paul Kaye is Danno, a down and out two-bit chancer with a shady past but a lot of heart, who’s desperate to turn his life around.

As we follow their weekly meetings, we hear them moan, argue, laugh, fall apart, fall in love and, most importantly, tell their stories.

In this second episode, Julie has a bone to pick with Danno, and Andy has finally met a woman – but she’s not all she seems.

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

Love in Recovery doesn’t seek to represent an AA meeting exactly as it might happen in real life, but to capture the funny stories, the sad stories, the stories of small victories and of huge milestones, stories of loss, stories of hope, and most importantly, the many highs and lows in the journey of recovery.

Cast:
Fiona….. Rebecca Front
Simon….. John Hannah
Julie….. Sue Johnston
Danno….. Paul Kaye
Andy..... Johnny Vegas
Alice..... Aimee-Ffion Edwards

Written and created by Pete Jackson
Producer/Director: Ben Worsfield

A King Bert production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 The Hotel (m000nkhw)
5: Clean

Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo continues Daisy Johnson's series of deliciously unsettling of ghost stories, with a feminist twist.

In today's story, it is the late seventies, and a young cleaner is making ends meet with a job at The Hotel. She knows it is dangerous to be there, but is finding its pull hard to resist...

Writer: Daisy Johnson
Reader: Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo
Producer: Justine Wilett


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000nd11)
The BBC’s Medical Editor is once more reporting from the Covid front line. Roger Bolton asks Fergus Walsh what lessons he has learned from covering the first wave.

What is code switching? The BBC Radio 4 programme of that name raised some questions from Feedback listeners, Roger asks a linguistics academic to explain.

And Nancy Sinatra puts on her boots again. Did she walk all over our listener reviewers?

Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer:

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000nd0z)
Derek Mahon, Professor Gerta Vrbová, Ang Rita Sherpa, Helena Shenel

Pictured: Derek Mahon

Matthew Bannister on

Derek Mahon, one of Ireland’s greatest poets of recent times, whose work 'Everything’s Going To Be Alright' was read on Irish TV and radio at the start of the Covid lockdown.

Professor Gerta Vrbová, who spent her youth fleeing Nazi persecution, then carried out pioneering work on the interaction between muscles and nerves.

Ang Rita Sherpa, the only person to have climbed Mount Everest ten times without using supplemental oxygen.

Helena Shenel, the voice coach who helped many celebrated performers – including Shirley Bassey, Annie Lennox and Peter Gabriel – to overcome problems with their singing.

Interviewed guest: Sean O’Brien
Interviewed guest: Peter Hilton
Interviewed guest: Uma Shahani
Interviewed guest: Ang Tshering Sherpa
Interviewed guest: Bhadra Sharma
Interviewed guest: Nikki Slade

Producer: Neil George

Archive clips from: Derek Mahon, Radio Ulster 15/01/1984; Arts Extra Special - Derek Mahon: A Celebration, Radio Ulster 16/12/2008; Poetry Please, Radio 4 28/01/2007; New Poems, Radio 3 19/08/1974; Gerta Vrbová: Oral History, Imperial War Museum 15/04/2003; 60 Minutes Australia, Nine Network 05/10/2018; Last Rites of Ang Rita Sherpa, Nepal Tourism TV 23/09/2020; Slate: Shirley Bassey, BBC One Wales 16/09/1993; Saturday Live, Radio 1 06/04/1985.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000nkhy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000nkfx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (m000ndbr)
Trouble on the backbenches? Tory Leaders and their MPs

Despite winning a large majority at the last election, Prime Minister Johnson’s relationship with his party is an uneasy one.

Just a few months after achieving its long term aim of leaving the EU, the Conservative Party seems ill at ease with itself and the sound of tribal Tory strife can be seen and heard.

Is this just the way it’s always been: a cultural and historical norm for Tory leaders and their backbenchers? Or is there something else going on?

In this edition of Analysis, Professor Rosie Campbell assesses Boris Johnson’s relationship with his own party and asks why Conservative backbenchers can be such a thorn in the flesh of their leaders.

Will this Prime Minister go the same way, or can he buck the trend?

Presenter: Rosie Campbell
Producer: Jim Frank
Editor: Jasper Corbett


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000nkj0)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000ncp4)
Romola Garai

With Antonia Quirke.

This month sees the release of six horror movies directed by women. And there are many more in production and waiting release. One of them is Amulet, directed by Romola Garai. Last year, Antonia visited her on set and found out why she wanted to make her directorial debut with a horror movie.

As filming starts again in Britain and America, Antonia talks to two producers, Charles Collier and Matt Kaplan, about what it's like to film in the middle of a global pandemic.

The classic Ealing comedy The Ladykillers is released in cinemas again, and Antonia talks to fellow fan Matthew Sweet and hears from one of the film's stars, Herbert Lom, from the Film Programme archive.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b00ncwng)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 19 OCTOBER 2020

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000nkj2)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m000nf3c)
REVOLUTION

REVOLUTION: Are all radical upheavals in the social, economic and political order destined to fail? Laurie Taylor talks to Daniel Chirot, Herbert J. Ellison Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Washington, about his study into why so many of the iconic revolutions of modern times have ended in bloody tragedies. Does radical idealism inevitably have tragic consequences? Also, the Rojava Revolution, how a region in Northwestern Syria, has become the site of extraordinary transformation. The writer and activist, Rahila Gupta, describes an experiment in direct democracy, inter-ethnic co-operation and women's liberation which has taken place against a backdrop of civil war.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000nkj4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000nkj6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000nkj8)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000nkjb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000nkjd)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000nkjg)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Father Eugene O'Neill


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000nkjj)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


MON 05:56 Weather (m000nkjl)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04sylr1)
Red-crowned Crane

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

Liz Bonnin presents the red-crowned crane from Japan and Asia. Backlit by a Japanese winter sun, huge black and white birds dance for an audience. Their plumage mirrors the dazzling snow and dark tree-trunks. The only spots of colour are crimson - the caps of these Red-crowned Cranes. Red-crowned Cranes breed only in far-eastern Russia. Tall, majestic and very vocal, red-crowned cranes gather in groups to reinforce pair-bonds, by leaping into the air and fluttering their 2.5 metre wings, sometimes holding sticks or twigs in their long bills. During winter months, the cranes are fed with grain, and receive a stream of captivated visitors. In front of a wall of clicking camera shutters, the cranes perform their elaborate dance, to delight their captivated audience.


MON 06:00 Today (m000nlkd)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000nlkg)
Fake news and data lies: how to win an election

Fake news, conspiracy theories, and weaponising data to influence elections are all aspects of contemporary politics. But Amol Rajan explores their historical roots with two eminent historians, Jill Lepore and Sir Richard Evans.

Decades before Silicon Valley tech companies had access to our personal information, The Simulmatics Corporation was dealing in the weaponisation of data. In her latest book, If Then – How One Data Company Invented the Future, Jill Lepore looks back at how algorithms that were supposedly able to forecast and influence human behaviour gained huge currency in the 1960s, and what happens when they were allowed to develop unchecked.

Sir Richard Evans is one of the world’s leading authorities on Nazi Germany. In The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination, Evans investigates key conspiracy theories that flourished at the time and still continue to arouse debate. Through painstaking research and evidence-based argument he reasserts the boundary between truth and fiction, and looks at why fake news takes hold.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 People Like Us by Hashi Mohamed (m000nlkj)
Three Hashis

Hashi Mohamed arrived in London aged nine. In People Like Us he examines social mobility in the UK, using his own experience to explore questions of race, class, education, language and integration. In this first episode he describes the events that brought him and his family from Somalia, to Kenya and then to London.

Producer: Nicola Holloway
Abridged by Sara Davies
Photo credit: Shaista Chishty


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000nlkl)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b078xf16)
Clouds in Trousers

Ice

Katie Hims' drama, inspired by Alexandra Harris' book 'Weatherland', imagines Zoe as a woman growing up weathered - for whom every turn of her life is marked by the weather: rain, snow, a summer heatwave, a thunderstorm, the threat of a flood. All our lives are weather-bound but for Zoe the weather is more than just what goes on behind the scenes.
Young Zoe and Alice: Sydney Wade; Young Shaun: Rhys Gannon; Older Zoe: Patsy Ferran; Older Shaun: David Reed; Juliet: Laura Elphinstone; Jim: Sam Troughton; Zoe's mum: Katy Carmichael; Zoe's dad: Tristan Sturrock. Music by Jon Nicholls. Producer: Tim Dee


MON 11:00 The Untold (m000nlkn)
Goodbye, Hong Kong?

Grace Dent follows two young Hong Kongers over a crucial two weeks in their bid to make the UK home.

Friends and housemates Chris and Louise have been living in the UK for the past two years. After the recent turmoil in Hong Kong, they now want to settle in the UK permanently. There's just one problem - Chris's visa is about to expire.

The Untold follows them over a critical couple of weeks which will determine their future forever.

Producer: Laurence Grissell


MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000nkkx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


MON 12:00 News Summary (m000nlkr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 Love by Roddy Doyle (m000nlkt)
1/10

Davy and Joe don’t often go out drinking anymore. Old friends, now married and with grown-up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a story he has to tell Davy, and Davy, a secret he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be.

Neither Davy nor Joe know what the night has in store, but as two pints turns to three, then five, and the men set out to revisit the haunts of their youth, the ghosts of Dublin entwine around them. Their first buoyant forays into adulthood, the pubs, the parties, broken hearts and bungled affairs, as well as the memories of what eventually drove them apart.

As the two friends try to reconcile their versions of the past over the course of one night, Love offers up a delightfully comic, yet moving portrait of the many forms love can take throughout our lives.

Author
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of eleven acclaimed novels including The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van and Smile, two collections of short stories, and Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Writer: Roddy Doyle
Reader: Brendan Gleeson
Music: 'Mary' by Glen Hansard
Abridger: Rowan Routh
Producer: Michael Shannon


MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000nlkw)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


MON 12:57 Weather (m000nlky)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m000nll0)
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 A Natural History of Ghosts (m000nll2)
Ancient Ghosts

When was the first time a human felt haunted?

Kirsty Logan travels back to the world’s earliest civilisations to uncover where tales of ghosts first emerged.

From the earliest evidence of belief in an afterlife, seen in decorated bones in early grave sites, to Ancient Egyptian letters to the dead, and predatory Chindi unleashed to wreak deadly vengeance in the snowy wastes of North America, Kirsty tells the tales of the spirits that haunted our most ancient forebears, and became the common ancestor for ghost stories across all of human history.


MON 14:00 Drama (m000nll4)
Bottled

Katy’s a normal teenager wrapped up with school, friends and new boyfriend Bradley. But when Katy's new stepdad Brian comes on the scene, her life starts to fall apart, as Brian's hold over Katy's mum Sharon gets stronger. Can Katy keep hold of her identity, and her fragile family?

The story of a girl determined to keep her voice in the face of domestic abuse.

CAST:
Katy………………………………..Ashna Rabheru
Sharon……………………..Clare Corbett
Brian ……………………………….Richard Corgan
Bradley ……………………………………….Michael Ajao
Mr Morris/Bailiff……………………………………Carl Prekopp
Coreen……………………………………..Hayley Wareham

Written by Hayley Wareham
Directed by Anne Isger

If you’ve been affected by the issues raised in this programme, details of organisations offering information and support with domestic abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free, at any time to hear recorded information on 0800 888 809


MON 14:45 The Escaped Lyric (b081b3wx)
Nick Berkeley explores the world of the song lyric and the ways they can help us articulate and negotiate different aspects of our lives: from hedonist joy to dealing with loss.

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 Five: Absence
Producer: Emma Jarvis
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (m000nll6)
The Final, 2020

(17/17)
The current season of the general knowledge tournament reaches the grand Final, with the four semi-final winners playing off for the title Brain of Britain 2020.

A tense contest is assured as the 'cream of the crop' compete for the handsome Brain of Britain trophy, behind closed doors at the Radio Theatre in London. Russell Davies is in the question-master's chair, and by tradition the 'Beat the Brains' questions for the interlude are supplied by last year's champion.

Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000nkh2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 Michael Morpurgo's Folk Journeys (m000nll9)
Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye

The author Michael Morpurgo (War Horse, Private Peaceful) explores the ways in which folk songs have reflected timeless human experiences, both in the past and today.

With help from singers, songwriters and other passionate experts, Michael admires the indelible stories within classic songs that deal with migration, war, protest and love.

Over the four themed episodes, Michael considers the locations and historical contexts that gave rise to much-loved traditional songs, and finds out how the same topics are inspiring new folk songs in the 2020s.

In the first episode, Michael considers a song about an injured man returning from war: Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye.

A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4


MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m000nlld)
Series 21

Trust

If there’s one thing that makes the world go ‘round, it’s trust - trust in institutions, trust in science, trust in the economy, trust in each other. Trust is what protects our vulnerability; it’s behind the unspoken social contracts that keep us safe. Without trust, we’re done.

And since the beginning of our love-hate relationship with the Web, we’ve been wondering: is computer-mediated communication eroding trust? Or, does it make trust stronger? Or, are we more likely to misplace it more now that we can’t see, touch and smell a person’s true intentions?

Producer: Kate Bissell


MON 17:00 PM (m000nllg)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000nllj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b00qgz7x)
Compilation

Episode 1

Nicholas Parsons chairs the devious word game. Paul Merton and Graham Norton talk about how to pass the time if you're stuck in traffic, and Sue Perkins and Liza Tarbuck debate whether bikers should be clad in leathers or lettuce.

First broadcast in 2010.


MON 19:00 The Archers (m000nl7x)
Elizabeth makes an impression and Philip’s plan gathers momentum


MON 19:15 Front Row (m000nllm)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


MON 19:45 Tracks (m0009z71)
Series 4: Indigo

Indigo: Episode Six

Part six of the conspiracy thriller by Matthew Broughton. Starring Romola Garai and Jonathan Forbes.

Helen learns that her baby might be 'Indigo'. While Irene's cryptic note leads them closer to the 'child-mother'.

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 a 10 part headphone-filling thrill-ride.

Helen…. Romola Garai
Freddy….. Jonathan Forbes
Ram….. Ashleigh Haddad
Serena.... Scarlett Courtney
Policeman.... Adam Courting
Tony.... David Hounslow
Irene.... Sally Orrock

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


MON 20:00 Surviving Unemployment (m000nllp)
Amy and Ian

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?

26-year-old Amy has just graduated with a Masters in psychology.

She was hoping to be well on track to securing her dream graduate job, but has applied to over 50 positions with no luck.

She's meeting Ian in South Wales, who was out of work for three years during Thatcher's battle with the coal miners in the 1980s.


MON 20:30 Analysis (m000nllr)
The Rise and Fall of the Bond Market Traders

In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher famously said that 'You can’t buck the markets' and Governments back then feared that, if they borrowed too much, they'd pay a terrible price in the markets in terms of higher borrowing costs. But now governments around the world are borrowing record amounts but paying record-low rates. In this programme Philip Coggan examines how the markets were tamed.

Philip talks to Don Kohn, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, economist and author Eric Lonergan, Andrew Balls, Chief Investment Officer at Pimco and economist and author Stephanie Kelton.

Producer: Ben Carter
Editor: Jasper Corbett


MON 21:00 Across the Red Line (m000nf2m)
Series 5

Should politicians stop worrying about 'hard-working families?

Anne McElvoy returns with the debate programme which invites two public figures who disagree on an issue of principle to listen closely to each other's arguments - and then to find out what drives them.

In this first edition of the new series, Anne is joined via Zoom by the former Conservative minister Rory Stewart and the former Labour minister Caroline Flint to debate whether politicians should stop worrying about 'hard-working families', and turn their attention more exclusively to the very poor.

And Anne works with conflict resolution specialist Louisa Weinstein to foster a more exploratory conversation, to encourage both speakers to probe the values and experiences that underpin each other's beliefs.

Producer: Phil Tinline


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000nlkg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000nllw)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 Love by Roddy Doyle (m000nlkt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


MON 23:00 Songs of the Humpback Whale (m000mk2j)
Songs of the Humpback Whale was released in 1970 and went multi-platinum, becoming the best selling environmental album of all time. But it also became emblematic of the West’s shifting attitudes towards environmentalism, inspiring a global movement to save the whales which continues to this day.

Marking the 50th anniversary of bioacoustician Roger Payne’s unlikely smash hit, this programme considers the legacy of sounds that caught the imagination of the world.

With contributions from the world of music, science and ecology, including the folk singer Judy Collins, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner Willie Mackenzie, Greenlandic musician Peter Tussi Motzfeldt, marine biologist and electronic musician Sara Niksic, music writer Simon Reynolds and Roger Payne himself.

Including archive courtesy of Radio Canada international
With music by Duotone.

Produced by Hannah Dean
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000nlm1)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER 2020

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000nlm3)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 People Like Us by Hashi Mohamed (m000nlkj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000nlm5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000nlm7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000nlm9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000nlmc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000nlmf)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Father Eugene O'Neill


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000nlmh)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04symwf)
Marabou Stork

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

Liz Bonnin presents the gaunt undertaker looking marabou stork in Africa. It is not very scientific to describe a bird as ugly, but the marabou stork would not win any prizes for beauty or elegance. This bulky stork, with a funereal air, has a fleshy inflatable sac under its throat which conspicuously wobbles as it probes African rubbish dumps for carrion. Seemingly more at home amongst the melee of vultures and jackals squabbling over a carcass, it is known in some areas as the undertaker bird. But, in the air the marabou stork is an elegant sight. It has one of the largest wingspans of any bird, up to 3 metres across. Soaring effortlessly on these broad wings the storks scan the sub-Saharan landscape for food. Marabou storks are doing well, thanks to our throwaway society and they've learned to connect people with rubbish – a salutary association one might say.

Producer : Andrew Dawes


TUE 06:00 Today (m000nl6y)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 Bringing Up Britain (m000nl72)
Series 13

Should I Have A Second Child? 

A family of four was once thought to be inevitable - a destiny for healthy fertile adults. But today families are getting smaller, and having one child is becoming much more common.
Anjula Mutanda speaks to Laura, a mother of one, who asks herself every day whether having a second child is the right decision for her and her family. We explore the issue in detail: why does the word 'only child' have such negative connotations? How important is having a sibling anyway? How much does having a child cost today? Should we be having more children in the age of climate change and in the midst of a global pandemic?

Producer: Sarah Shebbeare


TUE 09:45 People Like Us by Hashi Mohamed (m000nl8x)
Getting On and Getting Along: Race and Class

Barrister Hashi Mohamed, who arrived in London aged nine as a child refugee, uses his own story to explore questions of social mobility in modern Britain. in this episode he investigates the complex relationships between race and class.

Producer: Nicola Holloway
Abridger: Sara Davies


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000nl76)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b079yysq)
Clouds in Trousers

Sun

Katie Hims' drama, inspired by Alexandra Harris' book 'Weatherland', imagines Zoe as a woman growing up weathered - for whom every turn of her life is marked by the weather: rain, snow, a summer heatwave, a thunderstorm, the threat of a flood. All our lives are weather-bound but for Zoe the weather is more than just what goes on behind the scenes.
Young Zoe and Alice: Sydney Wade; Young Shaun: Rhys Gannon; Older Zoe: Patsy Ferran; Older Shaun: David Reed; Juliet: Laura Elphinstone; Jim: Sam Troughton; Zoe's mum: Katy Carmichael; Zoe's dad: Tristan Sturrock. Music by Jon Nicholls. Producer: Tim Dee


TUE 11:00 The Wedding Detectives (m000nl79)
Episode 1

Wedding albums capture the happiest day of a couple’s life. But what happens when those pictures are lost, discarded or even thrown away?

Wedding album collector Charlotte Sibtain and journalist Cole Moreton uncover the stories behind the photographs and try to reunite them with the family.

This time, the Wedding Detectives find just two photographs from the 1959 high society wedding of Tim and Sonya Bryant but, following clues, uncover a trail that takes them to West Cornwall and an extraordinary story involving Einstein, Marconi, landed gentry in decline, the author of the Chamomile Lawn Mary Wesley, infidelity and a trial for murder.

A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 11:30 The People's Pyramid (m000dk6w)
The KLF aka The Jams aka The Timelords aka The K Foundation aka K2 Plant Hire aka The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu... it's complicated.

Whatever name or weird mythology they happened to be operating under at the time, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty managed to top the UK pop charts in the early nineties with songs about love and ice cream vans - often with plastic horns strapped to their heads. Then they turned their backs on the music industry, deleted their entire back catalogue and cremated £1 million of their own earnings on a remote Scottish island. Scroll forward 23 years and Drummond and Cauty re-emerge to announce they're building a pyramid in Liverpool out of bricks containing the cremated remains of just under 35,000 people.

As more bricks are added to The People's Pyramid at the 2019 Toxteth Day of the Dead, Conor Garrett tries to work out what's going on...


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000nm2v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 Love by Roddy Doyle (m000nl7j)
2/10

Davy and Joe don’t often go out drinking anymore. Old friends, now married and with grown-up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a story he has to tell Davy, and Davy, a secret he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be.

Neither Davy nor Joe know what the night has in store, but as two pints turns to three, then five, and the men set out to revisit the haunts of their youth, the ghosts of Dublin entwine around them. Their first buoyant forays into adulthood, the pubs, the parties, broken hearts and bungled affairs, as well as the memories of what eventually drove them apart.

As the two friends try to reconcile their versions of the past over the course of one night, Love offers up a delightfully comic, yet moving portrait of the many forms love can take throughout our lives.

Author
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of eleven acclaimed novels including The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van and Smile, two collections of short stories, and Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Writer: Roddy Doyle
Reader: Brendan Gleeson
Music: 'Mary' by Glen Hansard
Abridger: Rowan Routh
Producer: Michael Shannon


TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000nl7m)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


TUE 12:57 Weather (m000nl7p)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m000nl7r)
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 A Natural History of Ghosts (m000nl7t)
So Shall You Be

There once was a man who died. He was flesh and bone when he went into the ground. And flesh and bone when he came back out of it.

Kirsty Logan delves into tales of the Revenant, a terrifying, malevolent ghost that haunted medieval England, and was anything but spectral.

She traces the origins of revenant stories to a violent entity that terrified even the fiercest of Viking warriors, discovers how the way you lived your life would determine if you would be accepted into heaven, or have the very earth would spit you out, and how the development of purgatory in Christian belief changed how people thought of ghosts forever.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000nl7x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Riot Girls (m00020k1)
Into the Maze

Episode 1

Ayeesha Menon's thriller plays out across three locations - London, Saudi Arabia and Mumbai - exploring the struggles faced by women across the globe when it comes to sexual assault, harassment and personal freedom.

Sisters Jamila and Saira grew up in a very traditional Muslim village in India, but are now forging independent lives of their own - Jamila in Mumbai, and Saira as a student in London. Saira also works at a hotel in London, but when she is raped by a rich and influential Saudi hotel guest, the lives of both sisters are thrown into turmoil.

Directed by Emma Harding

Jamila.....Maya Sondhi
Saira.....Aysha Kala
Najma.....Fatima Adoum
Majid.....Silas Carson
Zafar.....Amir El-Masry
Clare.....Clare Corbett
Colleague......Christopher Harper
Sharon.....Jeanette Percival
Andy.....Lewis Bray
Ms Morgan.....Carolyn Pickles
John McKinley.....Tony Turner
DC Price.....Alexandra Constantinidi
Officer Megan.....Lucy Doyle
Wheeler.....Sam Dale
Jamila's Boss.....Waleed Elgadi
Guide.....Ronny Jhutti

Research Consultant.....David Rhodes, Doughty Street Chambers


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000nkk1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000nl7z)
A short history of environmental protest

It's fifty years since the first blossoming of environmental campaign groups. Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the organisation which was eventually to become the Green Party were all set up in the early 1970s - all within just a few years of each other. In part 1 of this two-part series, Tom Heap takes a look back over the last half century of environmental protest. He talks to some of the big names involved in green campaigning - from the early days up to the present and the rise of Extinction Rebellion. He asks what the movement has achieved and what challenges still lie ahead.

Producer: Emma Campbell


TUE 16:00 Packing Up The Family Home (m000mqnl)
It may be one of the least discussed rites of passage, but is nonetheless loaded with enormous emotional weight - clearing out the family home.
With their dad having recently moved into a care-home and their mum long since passed, Geoff Bird and his siblings set about sorting, sifting and clearing half a century’s worth of stuff.
Among the masses of broken ornaments and faded certificates they also find some forgotten treasures and surprising glimpses into the lives of their parents. Part family-portrait, part meditation on the nature of things and the charge they carry, ‘Packing Up The Family Home’ serves to remind us of just how far our homes provide the stage upon which so much of the joy and the tragedy of our lives is played out.


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000nl81)
Mark Radcliffe & Patricia Cumper

Radio broadcaster Mark Radcliffe and playwright Patricia Cumper nominate their favourite books. Patricia chooses Toni Morrison's acclaimed novel Beloved, while Mark advocates for a very different writing style in Elizabeth Strout's Olive, Again. Harriett's pick is Helene Hanff's book of letters, 84 Charing Cross Road, which charmingly contrasts American chutzpah and British reserve in a long lost era.
Producer Sally Heaven
comment on instagram at @agoodreadbbc


TUE 17:00 PM (m000nl83)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000nl87)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Rob Newman (m000nl89)
Rob Newman's Half-Full Philosophy Hour

On Being Above The Law

What if the Right Side of History is the Wrong Side of Nature? asks multi-award-winning comedian Rob Newman. And how do we break up Big Tech before Big Tech breaks us?

Written and performed by Rob Newman
Guest starring Kathy Clugston and Diana Speed
Produced by Jon Harvey
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000nl8c)
Fallon raises a difficult subject and there’s good news for Pip


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000nl8f)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


TUE 19:45 Tracks (m0009zbt)
Series 4: Indigo

Indigo: Episode Seven

Part seven of the conspiracy thriller by Matthew Broughton. Starring Romola Garai and Jonathan Forbes.

Helen and Freddy visit the 'child-mother' and uncover a dangerous secret.

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 a 10 part headphone-filling thrill-ride.

Helen…. Romola Garai
Freddy….. Jonathan Forbes
Polly….. Sinead MacInnes
Luke.... Andrew Gower

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m000nl8h)
Award-winning current affairs documentary series


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000nl8k)
Dry AMD; Mona Minkara On Her Global Public Transport Experiences

News of a global study into dry age-related macular degeneration. Its aiming to help experts understand the role genetics may play in the disease. Professor Paulo Stanga from the London Vision Clinic talks us though what the study involves and how you can take part.
There is a number to call if you want more information about this trial. It's 01438 532 142. The link for more details is also on our website.
Also in this programme, the public transport challenges we face as we travel around the world's big cities. We'll hear from globe trotter, Mona Minkara, about her best and worst experiences.
PRESENTER: Peter White.
PRODUCER: Mike Young.


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000nl8m)
A weekly quest to demystify health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.


TUE 21:30 Bringing Up Britain (m000nl72)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000nl8q)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 Love by Roddy Doyle (m000nl7j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


TUE 23:00 To Hull and Back (b09rx3vt)
Series 3

Last Chance Salon

On her way back from Hull station following a failed attempt to get onto the Vidal Sassoon hairdressing course in London, Sophie is knocked over by a car. By way of compensation the driver, Alison, a frequent church-goer, offers Sophie a disused hair salon that she has access to thanks to her church's outreach work. Sophie accepts Alison's offer. But with only a week to make the salon a going concern, will Sophie manage to make a success of it?

Written by Lucy Beaumont

Production Co-ordinator: Luke Mason

Produced by Sam Michell

A BBC Studios Production.


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000nl8s)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER 2020

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000nl8v)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


WED 00:30 People Like Us by Hashi Mohamed (m000nl8x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000nl92)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000nl96)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000nl99)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000nl9f)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000nl9k)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Father Eugene O'Neill


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000nl9p)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0pm9)
Black-footed Albatross

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

Liz Bonnin presents the black-footed albatross of Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Two dusky-brown birds point their bills skywards to cement their lifelong relationship, these are black-footed albatrosses are plighting their troth in a former theatre of war. At only a few square kilometres in size, the island of Midway is roughly half way between North America and Japan. Once it was at the heart of the Battle of Midway during World War Two, but today it forms part of a Wildlife Refuge run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is home to white laysan albatross and the darker Black footed Albatross. Around 25,000 pairs of Black-foots breed here. Each pair's single chick is fed on regurgitated offal for six months, after which it learns to fly and then can be vulnerable to human activity on the airbase. But careful management of both species of albatrosses near the airstrip has reduced the number of casualties to a minimum.


WED 06:00 Today (m000nmch)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Across the Red Line (m000nmcm)
Series 5

Does impartiality impede good journalism?

Anne McElvoy presents the debate programme which invites two public figures who disagree on an issue of principle to listen closely to each other's arguments - and then to find out what drives them.

In this edition, Anne is joined by James O'Brien, LBC presenter and author of 'How Not to Be Wrong', and Roger Mosey, former Head of BBC Television News, to debate whether impartiality impedes good journalism.

And Anne works with conflict resolution specialist Louisa Weinstein to foster a more exploratory conversation, to encourage both speakers to probe the values and experiences that underpin each other's beliefs.

Producer: Phil Tinline


WED 09:45 People Like Us by Hashi Mohamed (m000nmdz)
Painting The Room Blue: Education

Barrister Hashi Mohamed, who arrived in London aged nine as a child refugee uses his own story to explore questions of social mobility in modern Britain. in this episode he recalls his own schooldays and looks at the role education plays in social mobility.

Producer: Nicola Holloway
Abridged by Sara Davies


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000nmcr)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b079yz8d)
Clouds in Trousers

Rain

Katie Hims' drama, inspired by Alexandra Harris' book 'Weatherland', imagines Zoe as a woman growing up weathered - for whom every turn of her life is marked by the weather: rain, snow, a summer heatwave, a thunderstorm, the threat of a flood. All our lives are weather-bound but for Zoe the weather is more than just what goes on behind the scenes.
Young Zoe and Alice: Sydney Wade; Young Shaun: Rhys Gannon; Older Zoe: Patsy Ferran; Older Shaun: David Reed; Juliet: Laura Elphinstone; Jim: Sam Troughton; Zoe's mum: Katy Carmichael; Zoe's dad: Tristan Sturrock. Music by Jon Nicholls. Producer: Tim Dee


WED 11:00 Surviving Unemployment (m000nllp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 The Wilsons Save the World (m000360d)
Series 2

Protest

The Wilsons family enjoy nothing more than a good protest march, joining with other like minds and sticking it to ‘the man’. Today is one they are particularly looking forward to and each of them has a different agenda. Cat has a special provocative costume and issue to highlight; Lola has a complex banner but a simple hope that all voices will unify; Max wants the family to stick together and have a great day out and Mike, well he will persist wearing that excruciating jester hat with bells on. Some tensions seemingly dealt with they are then in the thick of a march in Central London and find unity more difficult than ever to achieve.

Mike…Marcus Brigstocke
Max…Kerry Godliman
Cat..Mia Jenkins
Lola…India Brown
Jennifer...Vicki Pepperdine
Phillip…Rupert Vansittart
Various roles...Kiell Smith-Bynoe
Writers...Marcus Brigstocke and Sarah Morgan
Producer...Julia McKenzie
A BBC Studios production


WED 12:00 News Summary (m000nmyx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 Love by Roddy Doyle (m000nmcw)
3/10

Davy and Joe don’t often go out drinking anymore. Old friends, now married and with grown-up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a story he has to tell Davy, and Davy, a secret he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be.

Neither Davy nor Joe know what the night has in store, but as two pints turns to three, then five, and the men set out to revisit the haunts of their youth, the ghosts of Dublin entwine around them. Their first buoyant forays into adulthood, the pubs, the parties, broken hearts and bungled affairs, as well as the memories of what eventually drove them apart.

As the two friends try to reconcile their versions of the past over the course of one night, Love offers up a delightfully comic, yet moving portrait of the many forms love can take throughout our lives.

Author
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of eleven acclaimed novels including The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van and Smile, two collections of short stories, and Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Writer: Roddy Doyle
Reader: Brendan Gleeson
Music: 'Mary' by Glen Hansard
Abridger: Rowan Routh
Producer: Michael Shannon


WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000nmcy)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


WED 12:57 Weather (m000nmd0)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m000nmd2)
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 A Natural History of Ghosts (m000nmd4)
The Pregnant Ghost

'She will be made whole in her life and her afterlife, even if that means bending the rules of nature and society to suit herself.'

Kirsty Logan explores the ghostly tales found in Pu Songling’s ‘Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio’, a collection of hundreds of fantastic, and slippery tales of ghosts, spirits and demons that include a most unusual ghost - a pregnant ghost, that gives birth to a living child.

Kirsty finds out how ghosts come to exist within a culture of ancestor worship - where the souls of dead family members should be at peace due to the care and veneration they receive from their descendants, and how the ghosts that emerge can be symbols of hope, or terror.


WED 14:00 The Archers (m000nl8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Riot Girls (m00020yn)
Into the Maze

Episode 2

Ayeesha Menon's thriller plays out across three locations - London, Saudi Arabia and Mumbai - exploring the struggles faced by women across the globe when it comes to sexual assault, harassment and independence.

Jamila is determined to use her vlog to bring her sister's rapist to justice. But someone wants to silence her.

Directed by Emma Harding

Jamila.....Maya Sondhi
Saira.....Aysha Kala
Najma.....Fatima Adoum
Majid.....Silas Carson
Zafar.....Amir El-Masry
Purab.....Ronny Jhutti
Clare.....Clare Corbett
Sharon.....Jeanette Percival
Andy.....Lewis Bray
Ms Morgan.....Carolyn Pickles
DC Price.....Alexandra Constantinidi
Judge.....Sam Dale
Fisher.....Waleed Elgadi

Research Consultant.....David Rhodes, Doughty Street Chambers


WED 15:00 Money Box (m000nmd6)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.


WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000nl8m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000nmd8)
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000nmdb)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world


WED 17:00 PM (m000nmdd)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000nmdj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Ability (m0004593)
Series 2

A Job for Matt

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 (m000nlzh)
Harrison faces a life changing decision and Lily goes too far


WED 19:15 Front Row (m000nmdl)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


WED 19:45 Tracks (m000b0bj)
Series 4: Indigo

Indigo: Episode Eight

Part eight of the conspiracy thriller by Matthew Broughton. Starring Romola Garai and Jonathan Forbes.

Helen and Freddy embark on a dangerous mission to free a kidnapped boy.

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 a 10 part headphone-filling thrill-ride.

Helen…. Romola Garai
Freddy….. Jonathan Forbes
Luke….. Andrew Gower
Paramedic.... Adam Courting
Bobby.... Milo Robinson

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000nmdn)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Giles Fraser, Melanie Phillips, Mona Siddiqui and Tim Stanley #moralmaze


WED 20:45 Four Thought (m000nm7t)
The Empathy Equation

Anne-Marie Douglas discusses her own experience of empathy-infused services, and why we need to see more of them.

Anne-Marie's charity, Peer Power, works with children, young people and adults who have experienced significant trauma and adversity, using an empathy-focused approach to support them. In this powerful, personal talk, she outlines how her own experiences prompted her to focus on this approach.

Producer: Giles Edwards.


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000nl7z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000nmdb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000nmdq)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 Love by Roddy Doyle (m000nmcw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


WED 23:00 The Hauntening (m000nmds)
Series 3

Calculating

Travel through the bad gateway in this modern ghost story as writer and performer Tom Neenan discovers what horrors lurk in our apps and gadgets.

This week, Tom and Heidi are trapped in a terrifying situation - and have to make a horrifying decision.

Modern technology is terrifying. The average smartphone carries out three-point-three-six billion instructions per second. The average person can only carry out one instruction in that time. Stop and think about that for a second. Sorry, that’s two instructions -you won’t be able to do that.

But what if modern technology was literally terrifying? What if there really was a ghost in the machine?

Starring
Tom....................Tom Neenan
Heidi...................Jenny Bede
Dr Conroy.........Julian Rhind-Tutt
Elicia....................Georgie Glen

Written by Tom Neenan

Produced & Directed by David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:15 Bunk Bed (m0004spy)
Series 6

Jane Horrocks

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

Jane Horrocks joins Patrick Marber and Peter Curran on the spare mattress. Fancying yourself, the perils of childhood bed-wetting, rebel smoking and the wrong leggings are discussed without shame.

Produced by Peter Curran
A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000nmdv)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER 2020

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000nmdx)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


THU 00:30 People Like Us by Hashi Mohamed (m000nmdz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000nmf1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000nmf3)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000nmf5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000nmf7)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000nmf9)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Father Eugene O'Neill


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000nmfc)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0ptz)
Adelie Penguin

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

Liz Bonnin presents the adelie penguin on a windswept Antarctic shore. A huddle of braying shapes on a windswept shore in Antarctica reveals itself to be a rookery of Adelie Penguins. These medium sized penguins whose white eye-ring gives them an expression of permanent astonishment were discovered in 1840 and named after the land which French explorer Jules Dumont d'-Urville named in honour of his wife Adele. They make a rudimentary nest of pebbles (sometimes pinched from a neighbour) from which their eggs hatch on ice-free shores in December, Antarctica's warmest month, when temperatures reach a sizzling minus two degrees. In March the adult penguins follow the growing pack ice north as it forms, feeding at its edge on a rich diet of krill, small fish and crustaceans. But as climate change raises ocean temperatures, the ice edge forms further south nearer to some of the breeding colonies, reducing the distance penguins have to walk to and from open water. But, if ice fails to form in the north of the penguin's range it can affect their breeding success, and at one research station breeding numbers have dropped by nearly two thirds.


THU 06:00 Today (m000nlyq)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000nlyv)
Maria Theresa

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Maria Theresa (1717-1780) who inherited the Austrian throne in 1740 at the age of 23. Her neighbours circled like wolves and, within two months, Frederick the Great had seized one of her most prized lands, Silesia, exploiting her vulnerability. Yet over the next forty years through political reforms, alliances and marriages, she built Austria up into a formidable power, and she would do whatever it took to save the souls of her Catholic subjects, with a rigidity and intolerance that Joseph II, her son and heir, could not wait to challenge.

With

Catriona Seth
Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford

Martyn Rady
Professor of Central European History at University College London

And

Thomas Biskup
Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Hull

Producer: Simon Tillotson


THU 09:45 People Like Us by Hashi Mohamed (m000nm0h)
What Does It Sound Like? Language

Barrister Hashi Mohamed arrived in London aged nine, as a child refugee. In People Like Us he explores the opportunities for social mobility in the UK. In this episode he concentrates on language, on accent and how we are often judged not only on what we say, but how we say it.

Producer: Nicola Holloway
Abridged by Sara Davies


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000nlyz)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b079z08k)
Clouds in Trousers

Shelter

Katie Hims' drama, inspired by Alexandra Harris' book 'Weatherland', imagines Zoe as a woman growing up weathered - for whom every turn of her life is marked by the weather: rain, snow, a summer heatwave, a thunderstorm, the threat of a flood. All our lives are weather-bound but for Zoe the weather is more than just what goes on behind the scenes.
Young Zoe and Alice: Sydney Wade; Young Shaun: Rhys Gannon; Older Zoe: Patsy Ferran; Older Shaun: David Reed; Juliet: Laura Elphinstone; Jim: Sam Troughton; Zoe's mum: Katy Carmichael; Zoe's dad: Tristan Sturrock. Music by Jon Nicholls. Producer: Tim Dee


THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000nlz1)
Insight, and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world


THU 11:30 Haunted Women (m0009r62)
"I am tired of writing dainty little biographical things that pretend that I am a trim little housewife. I live in a dank old place with a ghost." - The Real Me, Shirley Jackson

An eerie exploration of how women have used the ghost story form over the centuries - from Violet Hunt to Shirley Jackson. We hear from writers - both living and dead - as the light fades and we take a walk, alone, into the gathering darkness.

During the peak of the form's popularity in the 19th Century, the writer and anthologist Jessica Amanda Salmonson has suggested that as many as 70% of the stories published in British and American magazines were written by women. Do these worlds of haunted houses and female ghosts present the perfect lens through which to explore women's liminal experiences in society? Featuring contributions from the writers Daisy Johnson, Ruth Franklin, Mariana Enríquez and Melissa Edmundson Makala.

Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:00 News Summary (m000nn85)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Love by Roddy Doyle (m000nlz5)
4/10

Davy and Joe don’t often go out drinking anymore. Old friends, now married and with grown-up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a story he has to tell Davy, and Davy, a secret he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be.

Neither Davy nor Joe know what the night has in store, but as two pints turns to three, then five, and the men set out to revisit the haunts of their youth, the ghosts of Dublin entwine around them. Their first buoyant forays into adulthood, the pubs, the parties, broken hearts and bungled affairs, as well as the memories of what eventually drove them apart.

As the two friends try to reconcile their versions of the past over the course of one night, Love offers up a delightfully comic, yet moving portrait of the many forms love can take throughout our lives.

Author
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of eleven acclaimed novels including The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van and Smile, two collections of short stories, and Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Writer: Roddy Doyle
Reader: Brendan Gleeson
Music: 'Mary' by Glen Hansard
Abridger: Rowan Routh
Producer: Michael Shannon


THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000nlz7)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


THU 12:57 Weather (m000nlz9)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m000nlzc)
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 A Natural History of Ghosts (m000nlzf)
The Impossible Ghost

'When people are told explicitly that ghosts do not – cannot – exist, this should mean an extinction, the end of the line. But…'

The three main Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, teach a belief in the unseen, but with ghosts… there is a struggle.
Kirsty Logan discovers how ghosts are not a truly universal folklore.

While ghosts make an appearance in the bible, in the tale of Saul and the Witch of Endor the meaning of the story is ambiguous. And when it comes to Islam, it is very clear, no ghosts.

And yet, tales of ghosts survive even when we’re told they’re impossible. Kirsty discovers how this can be by diving into the tales of the spirits of Malaysia, ghosts not only survive but thrive alongside the various religions and cultures in the country - because they have become part of life.


THU 14:00 The Archers (m000nlzh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Riot Girls (m0002198)
Into the Maze

Episode 3

Ayeesha Menon's thriller plays out across three locations - London, Saudi Arabia and Mumbai - exploring the struggles faced by women across the globe when it comes to sexual assault, harassment and independence.

Clare confronts Najma about the true identity of Saira's rapist.

Directed by Emma Harding

Jamila.....Maya Sondhi
Saira.....Aysha Kala
Najma.....Fatima Adoum
Majid.....Silas Carson
Zafar.....Amir El-Masry
Purab.....Ronny Jhutti
Clare.....Clare Corbett
Sharon.....Jeanette Percival
Andy.....Lewis Bray
Wheeler.....Sam Dale
Fisher.....Waleed Elgadi
Barfly.....Christopher Harper
Other parts played by Lucy Doyle, Carolyn Pickles and Tony Turner

Research Consultant.....David Rhodes, Doughty Street Chambers


THU 15:00 Open Country (m000nlzk)
Ghost Ponds and Underwater Songs

Richard Waddingham, a Norfolk farmer has been the inspiration for a remarkable project which is recovering and restoring Norfolk’s ponds. Norfolk has more ponds than any other English county; around 23,000 ponds. In North Norfolk many of these ponds were created in the 17-19th centuries as marl pits to provide lime-rich clay to improve the soil for crops. But over the last 50 years many of these ponds have suffered neglected or been filled in, largely as a result of changes in farming practices. Today, the Norfolk Pond Project is working to recover and restore these ponds. And where there is life in a pond there is sound; for example, water boatmen, respiring plants and water beetles all produce sounds, so by listening to the underwater sounds in a pond, you can estimate its health. For one composer, this was also an opportunity to create music. Not only does a healthy pond ‘sing’, but it increases the biodiversity in an area, and as Richard Waddingham first discovered and demonstrated, pond conservation and intense agriculture can coexist.

Producer Sarah Blunt

For more information www.norfolkponds.org


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000nkfx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (m000nkhf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000nlzm)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000nlzp)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world


THU 17:00 PM (m000nlzr)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000nlzw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b06zv3x5)
Series 5

Episode 6

John Finnemore - writer and star of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore's Double Acts, regular guest on The Now Show and The Unbelievable Truth - concludes the fifth series of his multi-award-winning sketch show, joined as ever by a cast of Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.

This final episode of the series finds John apologising for a delay, and wondering what his hobbies are. And, well, since you ask him for a tale of national mourning and robots...

"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

Original music composed by ... Susannah Pearse
Original music performed by ... Susannah Pearse & Sally Stares

Producer: Ed Morrish

A BBC Radio Comedy production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2016.


THU 19:00 The Archers (m000nlzy)
Writers, Nick Warburton & Katie Hims
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ..... Daisy Badger
Josh Archer ..... Angus Imrie
Harrison Burns ..... James Cartwright
Rex Fairbrother ..... Nick Barber
Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler
Philip Moss ..... Andy Hockley
Elizabeth Pargetter ..... Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ..... Toby Laurence
Lily Pargetter ..... Katie Redford
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Vince Casey ..... Tony Turner


THU 19:15 Front Row (m000nm00)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


THU 19:45 Tracks (m0009yww)
Series 4: Indigo

Indigo: Episode Nine

Part nine of the conspiracy thriller by Matthew Broughton. Starring Romola Garai and Jonathan Forbes.

Helen is confronted by the notorious Valerie Peluso.

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 a 10 part headphone-filling thrill-ride.

Helen…. Romola Garai
Freddy….. Jonathan Forbes
Valerie.... Juliet Cowan

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000nm02)
David Aaronovitch and a panel of experts explore major news stories.


THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m000nm04)
COVID-19 and the gig economy

Is the pandemic a spur to a world of temps and zero hour contracts? Hundreds of thousands of people have been losing their jobs during the crisis. Many are turning to the gig economy to boost their income. Should we welcome the acceleration of the move away from conventional employment? Evan Davis and guests discuss the pros and cons of the expanding gig economy.

Guests

Xenios Thrasyvoulou, CEO of People Per Hour
Lorna Davidson, CEO of Red Wigwam
Matthew Taylor, CEO of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
and Ed Cross, self-employed courier for Hermes


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000nlzp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000nlyv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000nm07)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 Love by Roddy Doyle (m000nlz5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


THU 23:00 The Skewer (m000nm09)
Series 2

Episode 6

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


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000nm0c)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER 2020

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000nm0f)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 00:30 People Like Us by Hashi Mohamed (m000nm0h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000nm0k)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000nm0m)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000nm0p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000nm0r)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000nm0t)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Father Eugene O'Neill


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000nm0w)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0qpk)
Trumpeter Swan

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

Liz Bonnin presents the sonorous trumpeter swan of North America. Across an Alaskan wilderness powerful sounds and calls emanate from the largest and heaviest of all wildfowl, the pure white trumpeter swan. With a wingspan of up to 250 cm, the biggest male trumpeter swan on record weighed over 17 kilogrammes, heavier than mute swans. They breed on shallow ponds and lakes in the wilder parts of north west and central North America. Hunted for feathers and skins, they were once one of the most threatened birds on the continent, with only 69 birds known in the United States, although populations hung on in Alaska and Canada. Since then trumpeters have been protected by law and populations have recovered in many areas. Alaska and Canada remain strongholds and today reintroductions are returning this musical bird to their former range in the USA.


FRI 06:00 Today (m000nm5k)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000nkgt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 People Like Us by Hashi Mohamed (m000nm5m)
Identity and Imagination

Barrister Hashi Mohamed reads the concluding episode of his account of social mobility in modern Britain. Here he considers what might be possible, with a little imagination and determination.

Producer: Nicola Holloway
Abridged by Sara Davies


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000nm5p)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b079z11v)
Clouds in Trousers

Flood

Katie Hims' drama, inspired by Alexandra Harris' book 'Weatherland', imagines Zoe as a woman growing up weathered - for whom every turn of her life is marked by the weather: rain, snow, a summer heatwave, a thunderstorm, the threat of a flood. All our lives are weather-bound but for Zoe the weather is more than just what goes on behind the scenes.
Young Zoe and Alice: Sydney Wade; Young Shaun: Rhys Gannon; Older Zoe: Patsy Ferran; Older Shaun: David Reed; Juliet: Laura Elphinstone; Jim: Sam Troughton; Zoe's mum: Katy Carmichael; Zoe's dad: Tristan Sturrock. Music by Jon Nicholls. Producer: Tim Dee


FRI 11:00 The New Deal - A Story For Our Times (m000nm5r)
3: Waitin' On Roosevelt

The decade of change brought about by the New Deal began & ended in the age of Jim Crow apartheid. Yet by its end Black American's had significantly shifted their political allegiances from the party of Abraham Lincoln to the Democratic party of F.D.R. as many found their lives altered by a raft of initiatives.

Abject poverty, discrimination & lack of representation was something millions of black Americans had experienced well before the Depression began, especially in the South. And in the first years of the New Deal little changed. Southern Democrats, a crucial part of FDR's New Deal coalition, benefited enormously from New Deal programmes but were insistent that nothing would affect the racial order of the South. Consistently blocking relief & excluding black workers from key pieces of legislation.

But by the time of Roosevelt's second election some 75% of black voters, those who could actually vote, backed the New Deal. Black representation in Federal departments had increased & many found in the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, an enthusiastic supporter and listener in the struggle for equality New flagship schemes like the W.P.A. were to be free from discrimination; a million black Americans would go to work for it. The Federal One Arts project gave black artists, writers, actors and musicians recognition & a degree of autonomy as never before. But repeated The New Deal was full of moral compromise over the issue of race, indeed it was never central to its aims, yet the future of American politics had begun to change.

With the voices of Tony Badger, Kate Dossett, Gary Gerstle, Eric Rauchway Edgar Tidwell, Joe Trotter & Jill Watts.
Reader Cornelius Eady.
Producer Mark Burman


FRI 11:30 Zoe Lyons: Passport Paddy (b0bksngd)
Episode One: The Past

Amid Brexit, comedian Zoe Lyons grabs her shiny, newly issued Irish passport and returns to her roots. In these tumultuous times, what does it mean to belong somewhere, and will the Motherland welcome her back into the fold with open arms?

In this episode, Zoe returns to Ireland in an effort to reconnect with the country where she spent the first few years of her life. Travelling for the first time as a legitimate Irish citizen, she speaks to her beloved Dad about their life there, visits the tiny fishing village of Dunmore East where her favourite past time was to frisbee dried cow pats with her cousins, and then onto Clonmel where it's back to school. Will her treasured memories of being taught by Nuns via an intercom match up with the present schooling system?

An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000nm5t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Love by Roddy Doyle (m000nm5w)
5/10

Davy and Joe don’t often go out drinking anymore. Old friends, now married and with grown-up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a story he has to tell Davy, and Davy, a secret he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be.

Neither Davy nor Joe know what the night has in store, but as two pints turns to three, then five, and the men set out to revisit the haunts of their youth, the ghosts of Dublin entwine around them. Their first buoyant forays into adulthood, the pubs, the parties, broken hearts and bungled affairs, as well as the memories of what eventually drove them apart.

As the two friends try to reconcile their versions of the past over the course of one night, Love offers up a delightfully comic, yet moving portrait of the many forms love can take throughout our lives.

Author
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of eleven acclaimed novels including The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van and Smile, two collections of short stories, and Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Writer: Roddy Doyle
Reader: Brendan Gleeson
Music: 'Mary' by Glen Hansard
Abridger: Rowan Routh
Producer: Michael Shannon


FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000nm5y)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


FRI 12:57 Weather (m000nm60)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m000nm62)
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 A Natural History of Ghosts (m000nm64)
La Llorona

'She was banished, condemned to wander the earth for all eternity, dressed in a long white veil, weeping and searching for her lost children. And if she can’t find them, perhaps she’ll take yours instead…'

The classic tale of La Llorona is the story of an irredeemable traitor, and monstrous mother. A woman who took a man into her bed, even though he had collonised her people's land, only to murder their children when he left her for a Spanish lady who was more useful to him in society. When she tried to enter heaven, she was turned away and condemned to forever search for the souls of her children.

Such a ghost is horrific, and yet La Llorona has evolved in a way that other ghosts simply cannot do. When a ghost story no longer serves a purpose in our culture, it dies off to be replaced with another, yet Kirsty Logan reveals how the Weeping Woman is fluid, and ever changeable, going from an ancient powerful goddess, to the arch traitor, to symbol of unity for a scattered people.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000nlzy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Pilgrim by Sebastian Baczkiewicz (m000nm66)
The Timbermoor Imp (Part 1)

A Hallowe'en adventure for the immortal mediator. Pilgrim donates an impossibly valuable artwork to Timbermoor museum, to keep it open and maintaining a particular shabby exhibit.

Cast

William Palmer ..... Paul Hilton
John ..... Stefan Adegbola
Rabbit ..... Louis Jay Jordan
Amy ..... Charlotte East
Piper ..... Katie Redford
Vaughan ..... Luke Nunn
Eddie/Mr Buttoner ..... Roger Ringrose
Sally ..... Jane Whittenshaw
Janice ..... Ellie Piercy
Ginger ..... Emma Handy

Writer, Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Directors, Marc Beeby and Jessica Dromgoole


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000nm68)
GQT at Home: Episode Twenty-Nine

Kathy Clugston presents this week's horticultural panel show. Pippa Greenwood, Matthew Wilson and Christine Walkden answer questions sent in by listeners via social media and email.

Producer - Rosie Merotra
Assistant Producer - Jemima Rathbone

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000nm6b)
Angela's Mother

An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4, written and read by Michèle Forbes.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Michèle Forbes is an award-winning theatre, television and film actress. Her first novel Ghost Moth was published in 2013 to great critical acclaim and Forbes was shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, for First Book Award at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival and selected as one of The Observer’s Seven Debut Novels That Will Make A Splash in 2014. Her second novel Edith & Oliver was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her short stories have won both The Bryan MacMahon and The Michael Laverty Award. She lives in Dalkey, Dublin.

Reader: Michèle Forbes
Writer: Michèle Forbes
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Northern Ireland production.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000nm6d)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.


FRI 16:30 Feedback (m000nm6g)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience


FRI 17:00 PM (m000nm6j)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000nm6l)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m000nm6n)
Series 103

Episode 8

A satirical review of the week's news


FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000nm6q)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


FRI 19:45 Tracks (m000b0qb)
Series 4: Indigo

Indigo: Episode Ten

Final part of the conspiracy thriller by Matthew Broughton. Starring Romola Garai and Jonathan Forbes.

As the final piece of the puzzle falls into place, Helen comes face to face with the fish.

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 a 10 part headphone-filling thrill-ride.

Helen…. Romola Garai
Freddy….. Jonathan Forbes
Julia…. Georgia Henshaw
Doctor.... Marc Danbury

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000nm6s)
Lord King, Douglas Ross MP

Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Broadcasting House in London with a panel including the former governor of the Bank of England Lord Mervyn King and the leader of the Scottish Conservatives Douglas Ross MP.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Studio Direction: Maire Devine


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000nm6v)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.


FRI 21:00 A Natural History of Ghosts (m000nll2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:45 on Monday]


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000nm6y)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 Love by Roddy Doyle (m000nm5w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


FRI 23:00 Americast (m000nm70)
Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel follow the US election.


FRI 23:30 Things That Made the Modern Economy (m000gt5c)
Series 2

Vickrey Turnstile

Subways get crowded, aeroplanes over-booked and roads congested. Back in the 1950s, a future Nobel laureate suggested a solution to these problems that worked well in theory but was unpalatable to the decision-makers of the day. Was he impractical, asks Tim Harford, or was he ahead of his time?

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon


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