SATURDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2023

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001s64m)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 Prime Ministers' Props (m001rjfg)
Series 3

Edward Heath's Yacht

Professor Sir David Cannadine explores political fame and image by looking at how an object or prop can come to define a political leader. In this episode - Edward Heath's yacht.

Edward Heath took up sailing at the relatively late age of 50, and his mid-life career as a sailor developed with extraordinary speed - he bought his first yacht Morning Cloud in 1969 and won the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race later that year. He then captained Britain's winning team for the Admiral's Cup in 1971, while Prime Minister. It was a huge sporting achievement and the idea of yachting emphasised risk taking and competence. But Heath's passion for yachting also reflects something of the extraordinary isolation of his personality. The fact that Heath’s third yacht was sunk in a storm and two crew members died in 1974, seemed a tragic metaphor for the demise of his political career.

David goes to Broadstairs Sailing Club to find out how it all started, and he visits Sir Edward's former home, Arundells, in Salisbury, to look at the bow section salvaged from the wreckage of Morning Cloud III, which has been put on display in the garden.

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald
Series Researcher: Martin Spychal
Readings by Will Huggins

A Zinc Audio production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001s64t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001s650)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001s656)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001s65f)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001s65m)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya

The Festival of Diwali

Good morning.

For millions of Hindus around the world the time has come to celebrate the festival of Diwali.

In homes around the country and around the world, we prepare for Diwali by performing the equivalent of a spring clean. Since the festival of Diwali is about celebrating and welcoming the presence of Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth, it's important for us to prepare our homes, our surroundings, and also our minds such that we are able to receive this divine presence into our lives.

We may be cleaning our surroundings regularly on a daily or weekly basis, but I often find that it’s when I take the time to really clear a space I haven’t looked at for a while, that I learn something or come away with something to reflect on. When we take the time to clear spaces like that drawer full of odds and ends in the kitchen, we find things we forget we had, or things we no longer need, or things of sentimental value. We have an opportunity to examine the way our life has progressed and evolved between the time linked to that object and the present day.

Today also marks Armistice Day, an occasion for people around the world to pause and remember those who have given their lives in war. We fall silent in their memory and honour their sacrifice.

As we prepare for Diwali, I pray for the clarity to recognise what I do and don’t need in my life. I pray for the strength to let go of what no longer serves me. I pray for the wealth and the resources to be able to retain what's important to me in life.

Hari Om.


SAT 05:45 Close Encounters (m001mt80)
Alexa Chung and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

In the penultimate episode of Martha Kearney's series marking the re-opening of the National Portrait Gallery in London her guest is the model, writer and presenter Alexa Chung. Alexa took the opportunity of looking around the gallery as it prepared to re-open and made a shortlist of three pictures. The first was of Emma Hamilton depicted as an alluring young woman by the artist George Romney, who was clearly besotted with her, as was Admiral Lord Nelson who's portrait hangs next to Emma's in the gallery.
She was also drawn to an earlier portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I, not least because of the luxuriant and beautifully painted green silk dress she's wearing. The gallery curator Rab MacGibbon is on hand to point out that it was often the case that details in portraits, the landscape or clothes or flowers, would be the work of different hands, while the main artist would concentrate on the face and perhaps the hands.
However Alexa finally plumps for a huge canvas painted in 1616, the earliest portrait of the series. It's of the favourite, and very probably the lover of King James I, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. It shows him at the height of his powers, wearing the order of the garter regalia. As well as the extraordinarily vivid colour and drama of his costume, Alexa is drawn, as she was with Emma Hamilton, to the image of a man blessed with little more than good looks and a quick wit. Armed with these Emma and George before her made the best of what they had, and while they may not have been popular figures with the establishments of their respective times, they made a statement, and its a statement that survives in the gallery.

Producer: Tom Alban


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001scfw)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m001s5ld)
Mountain Rescue

The mountain rescue team in Wasdale in the Lake District have recorded their busiest year so far with some of the harshest winter months still to come. The Langdale Ambleside team have also already reached their average annual incident rate - two months before the end of the year. Across the peaks of the UK, Mountain Rescue teams are coming under increasing pressure as visitor numbers soar.

Helen Mark meets members of the Wasdale Mountain Rescue team and the Langdale Ambleside team in the Langdale Valley, to find out why they are getting called out so often. Both teams want people to come to the mountains and lakes that they love, but with the right knowledge and respect for a landscape which can be lethal.

Certain spots in the lakes have been pictured and shared on social media drawing in more visitors, who may not be prepared for challenging terrain and bad weather. Ross Davidson is a photographer who has begun to question whether the incredible sunsets and sunrises he shares online might be part of the problem.

The Mountain Rescue teams love their work and want everyone to enjoy their landscape, but as volunteers giving up their free time to help others, they're questioning whether they can sustain the rapidly increasing call-outs. That’s why they, and the celebrated mountaineer Alan Hinkes, are asking hikers and climbers to be "adventure smart" by making sure they have the knowledge, the equipment and the right conditions to make the most of these dramatic landscapes.

Produced by Helen Lennard


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001scg3)
11/09/23 Farming Today This Week: Sugar row, Horticulture report; Methane from livestock; Bird flu; Water management.

The Government has intervened in an increasingly furious row between British Sugar and the National Farmers' Union over the price farmers will be paid for sugar beet next year.

The future for fruit and veg growers is bleak, according to a report from the House of Lords Horticulture Committee. It calls on the Government to 'safeguard the sector.' and warns that British growers are being squeezed out by cheaper imports and that horticulture, worth £5 billion a year to the British economy, is underappreciated by policymakers.

Agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon-dioxide-versus-methane debate.

All week we've been looking at the impact of bird flu. It continues to spread across the world, killing both wild birds and farmed poultry. It's been reported in more than 80 countries now. Bio-security on farms is tight, we visit a free-range egg producer to see the lengths poultry keepers are going to, to protect their birds from the virus.

It's been a challenging few weeks for farmers with Storm Babet and Storm Ciarán bringing exceptional amounts of rainfall to different parts of the UK. The flooding has washed away newly sown crops, and the soil they were in. Farmers are having to decide whether to replant or not. With volatile weather events happening more regularly, do we need to think differently about how land is managed in flood-prone areas?

Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001scgc)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001scgm)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001scgw)
Hannah Fry, Sam McKnight, Oenone Forbat, Derren Brown

Professor Hannah Fry, whose job involves demystifying data and exploring how science and tech will shape our futures, personally though, she’s realised that ‘Life isn’t a problem to be solved, it’s an experience to be had’.

From body-building online star to social media sceptic. Oenone Forbat tell us how her life as a digital celebrity isn’t quite as glamorous as the filters might have us believe

And the legendary hair stylist Sam McKnight, reveals how a boy form a small Scottish mining town went on to style, shear and zhush the tresses of supermodels, pop goddesses and princesses.

Plus...the Inheritance Tracks of magician and illusionist Derren Brown.

Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jon Kay
Producer: Ben Mitchell


SAT 10:00 Your Place or Mine with Shaun Keaveny (m001sch4)
Tim Peake: The International Space Station, Space

Astronaut Major Tim Peake wants to take Shaun on a wonder-filled trip to the International Space Station. It’s a chance to really get away from it all, to consider our place in the universe and to spacewalk 250 miles above Earth.

Shaun loves a bit of astronomy from the comfort of his own home, but can he cope with the realities of being shot into orbit? Galactic cosmic rays, the very real risk of floating off into eternity and toilet trips in microgravity all give him pause for thought. Resident geographer, historian and comedian Iszi Lawrence is on hand to help Shaun decide whether an extraterrestrial holiday is the right choice for him.

Your Place Or Mine is the travel series that isn’t going anywhere. Join Shaun as his guests try to convince him that it’s worth getting up off the sofa and seeing the world, giving us a personal guide to their favourite place on the planet.

Producers: Sarah Goodman and Beth O’Dea

Your Place or Mine is a BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.


SAT 10:30 Soul Music (m001schk)
Songs My Mother Taught Me

Antonin Dvorak wrote his Gypsy Songs in 1880. He was passionate about the folk music of his native Bohemia and set a poem by Czech poet Adolf Heyduk to music. Songs My Mother Taught Me is the fourth song in the cycle.

Songs my Mother taught me
In the days long vanished
Seldom from her eyelids
Were the teardrops banished....

It's a wistful melancholic piece evoking memory and loss. Soul Music hears the stories of musicians, poets and singers from around the world of why they are so drawn to it.
The poet Raine Geoghegan is the daughter of a Romany woman whose life was weighed down with the loss of her father at a young age. Raine identifies with the sadness of the music because it not only represents grief at the loss of her father but also for the loss of a way of life for the gypsy people.
For Emily MacGregor it's all about the music we inherit from our parents. She is writing a book about music and grief and says this piece perfectly represents the bittersweet feeling of listening to music associated with the loss of a loved one. Dvorak had already lost three children in infancy by the time he wrote his Zigeuner Lieder.
Paris based violinist and conductor Bartu Elci-Ozsoy associates Songs with the innocence of childhood and was moved to perform it at a benefit concert he organised in aid of the children affected by the devastating earthquake in his native Turkey and Syria in early 2023.
The Korean soprano Sumi Jo recorded it in honour of her mother and presented it to her a year before she died in gratitude for her determination to see her daughter become a professional singer.
When The Scotsman newspaper commissioned a series of lockdown concerts in Spring 2020 cellist Sua-Lee chose to recreate the concert by Beatrice Harrison a century earlier when she played the piece accompanied by nightingales in her garden in Surrey. Sua set up her cello in woodland near her home in Grantown- on-Spey and performed Songs My Mother Taught Me to a collection of woodland creatures
Singer Ruby Hughes performed the American composer Charles Ives' version of the piece for a collection called Bright Travellers - music curated and composed by Helen Grimes from poems by Fiona Benson. Ives wrote his own version of Dvorak's piece not long after the Czech composer had settled in America. She loves the rocking gentle lullaby sensation created by the lilting melodies of both Ives' and Dvorak's compositions.

Featuring additional recordings by Sua Lee and Zoe Challenor

Producer: Maggie Ayre


SAT 10:59 Armistice Day Silence (m001schx)
The traditional two-minute silence to mark Armistice Day.


SAT 11:04 The Week in Westminster (m001scj9)
Radio 4's weekly assessment of developments at Westminster


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001scjn)
A Tribute to Hope

Kate Adie presents stories from Israel, the Middle East, Peru and Japan.

The Israel-Gaza conflict has been framed by harsh words, and when talk of peace and reconciliation seem more distant than ever, is there space for understanding - or hope? Our correspondent Fergal Keane has spent his career reporting on divided societies, and after spending the last few weeks in Jerusalem, he reflects on the question of hope.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been back in the Middle East this week, working to keep diplomatic channels open to negotiate 'humanitarian pauses' in the Israel-Gaza conflict. Our correspondent Anthony Zurcher travelled with him.

The ultra-fine wool of the vicuna was once reserved for the royal dynasties of the Inca empire, and today it is equally adored by European fashion houses. Stefania Gozzer has been in Peru, where she met the communities benefiting from this luxury trade.

And in Japan, baseball's Hanshin Tigers finally broke one of sport's longest standing 'curses' this week when they won the Japan Series. Tigers fan Guy De Launey tells the story of how his team broke a 40 year losing streak.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001scjz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001sck9)
Help for people in mortgage arrears and deferring your state pension.

As the number of homeowners behind on their mortgage jumps we look at a scheme in Wales trying to help people stay in their homes.

Also on the programme we speak to experts who weigh up the pros and cons of deferring your state pension and hear about the complications one woman had in getting the money she was owed.

We'll tell you if you're eligible for the winter fuel payment and, as the cost of living continues to bite, we visit a baby bank in Perth and Kinross to meet the volunteers who run it to speak to them about the increasing demand for help in providing everything from nappies to milk powder to wipes and toys.


SAT 12:30 The Now Show (m001s63t)
Series 63

Episode 2

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches. They are joined by Alasdair Beckett-King who mourns his political heroes, Desiree Burch with a deep dive on fast fashion, and Huge Davies gives us his musical take on why AI might not be so bad after all.

The show was written by the cast with additional material from Mike Shephard, Zoe Tomalin, Christina Riggs and Cody Dahler.

Voice actors: Daniel Barker & Gemma Arrowsmith

Producer: Sasha Bobak
Production Coordinator: Katie Baum

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001sckm)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001scky)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001s640)
Phillip Brett MLA, Sir Conor Burns MP, Kate Nicholl MLA, Matthew O'Toole MLA

Alex Forsyth presents political discussion from Share Discovery Village near Lisnaskea with DUP's Spokesperson for Infrastructure Phillip Brett MLA, the Conservative MP and the PM's Trade Envoy to the United States Sir Conor Burns MP, the Alliance Party's spokesperson on Migration and International Relations Kate Nicholl MLA and SDLP's cost of living spokesperson Matthew O'Toole MLA.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Will Rice


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001sclb)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week


SAT 14:45 The Planet Earth Podcast (m001sclq)
3. Living on Location

This week, Mike Gunton talks to the filmmakers that have lived in extreme locations for weeks at a time to capture the amazing animal sequences we love. Planet Earth II Producer Emma Napper describes her time camping alongside creepy-crawlies while filming in the Brazilian rainforest, while Alex Walters recalls her time on the isolated Ellesmere Island, filming wolves for Planet Earth III, and some of the close calls that come with living so close to wild predators. Sir David Attenborough remembers his own experiences on location, from the camaraderie in camp, to the frustration at trying to spot and film animals that don’t want to be seen.


SAT 15:00 Turning Point (m001scm6)
First Folio

Mike Harris reimagines the collation of Shakespeare's First Folio through the efforts of his colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell.

The First Folio, which was published 400 years ago, gathers 36 plays for the first time - although how much was accurate and how much reinvented through memory and scraps of manuscript remains a subject of debate.

To add a bit of fun to the whole procedure, Mike Harris imagines a young girl - Rosalind - desperate to act and write in a world where it's the last thing females would routinely be allowed to do....

Cast:
Rosalind Hannah Traylen
The Ghost/Shakespeare Christopher Jordan
Heminges Jos Vantyler
Condell Ricky Oakley
Isaac Jaggard Paul Kemp
John Leeson Ben Castle Gibb
Moll Frith Alex Constantinidi
Sir Pexall Broackass Miles Richardson

Other parts played by members of the cast

Written by Mike Harris

Produced and directed by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001scmp)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Perinatal pelvic health, ‘Grey pound’ fashion, Jilly Cooper, Swearing, Hot flushes

The Government has announced £11 million in funding for the NHS in England to roll out a dedicated perinatal pelvic health service across all trusts. The aim of these new perinatal pelvic health services will be to help educate and assess women during pregnancy and after a traumatic birth – but how will it work? Emma Barnett hears from Jacqui Barrett, who had a traumatic birth and was incontinent for a year, Professor Swati Jha, consultant gynaecologist and spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the Conservative MP Maria Caulfield, who is the Women’s Health Minister.

Luxury brands are beginning to feature ‘timeless icons’ in their campaigns to attract older shoppers with more spending power. Is the fashion industry finally responding to the strength of the so-called 'grey pound'? Alexandra Schulman, journalist and former editor-in-chief of British Vogue and retail analyst Kate Hardcastle discuss.

Jilly Cooper has sold more than two million copies of her books, including Riders, Rivals, and Polo - taking us into the glamorous worlds of show jumping and classical music. Her latest novel, Tackle!, takes us to the football pitch and features her legendary hero Rupert Campbell-Black. Jilly joins Emma to talk about football, why there is less sex in her novels now, and her view on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reading her books.

Why do we swear, and are women judged differently for swearing than men? Why are some swear words considered more offensive than others, and what does that tell us about misogyny and sexism in society? Dr Emma Byrne, scientist and author of Swearing Is Good For You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language, and Dr Rebecca Roache, the author of a new book, For F's Sake: Why Swearing is Shocking, Rude and Fun, discuss.

The ABC News Breakfast guest host Imogen Crump has been praised for helping to normalise symptoms of perimenopause, after she experienced a severe hot flush on live television. Emma asks her about what happened.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Dianne McGregor


SAT 17:00 PM (m001scn0)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m001scnc)
The Michael Gove 2023 One

Nick Robinson sits down with the Levelling Up Secretary for an in-depth conversation about what lies behind his drive for reform, having first joined the cabinet 13 years ago. They also reflect on community tensions in the UK as a result of war in the Middle East, what the Home Secretary has said about protests, and what Nadine Dorries has written about him

Producer: Daniel Kraemer


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001scns)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001scp3)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001scp9)
300,000 people have taken part in the biggest pro-Palestinian march in London since the start of the war in Gaza.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001scpk)
Alfie Boe, Andi Osho, Paul Rhys, Sabrina Bartlett, Passenger, Gaby Moreno, Sara Cox, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Sara Cox are joined by Alfie Boe, Paul Rhys, Sabrina Bartlett and Andi Osho for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Passenger and Gaby Moreno.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m001scpw)
Antony Blinken

As President Biden's top diplomat, Antony Blinken is in the eye of the storm as the conflict rages in Israel and Gaza. The US Secretary of State has been preparing for this role his whole life. But has he got what it takes? After a gilded upbringing - living in New York and Paris, an Ivy League education and a passion for music - he reluctantly turned his back on rock and roll to pursue a career at the top of politics, becoming a confidante of three US presidents.
Stephen Smith talks to friends and colleagues to find out more about the man whose father was an ambassador and whose stepfather survived Auschwitz.

Presenter: Stephen Smith
Producers: Sally Abrahams, Natasha Fernandes, Kirsteen Knight
Production co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele, Janet Staples, Rosie Strawbridge, Gemma Ashman
Sound: James Beard
Editor: Bridget Harney

Credits:
Without Ya, Ablinken (Spotify)


SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m001scq6)
Series 28

Octopuses!

If Aliens really are amongst us, the most likely candidates may not be little green men, but living in plain sight, just below our ocean waves, in the form of the mysterious and awe-inspiringly clever Octopus. Scientists are only just discovering the amazing intelligence of these elegant and highly unusual creatures that seem to have evolved in a completely different way to nearly any other creature on the planet. Brian and Robin are joined by marine biologist Dr Tim Lamont, Neuroscientist Dr Amy Courtney and comedian Russell Kane to uncover just how clever these mysterious creatures are, how they've evolved intelligence in an entirely unique way and whether 8 brains, as well as 8 legs are really better than 1. The panel also discover the alarming truth about the unique sex lives of the octopus - lets just say it doesn't end well for at least one of the participants.

New episodes released Wednesdays. If you're in the UK, listen to the newest episodes of The Infinite Monkey Cage first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF

Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001scqg)
Doris Lessing: Free Woman

On awarding the writer Doris Lessing the Nobel Prize in literature in 2007, the academy described her as ‘that epicist of the female experience’. Lessing herself greeted the news of the award, ambushed by journalists and photographers outside her London home, with the words: "Oh Christ!". She was 88 years old, she’d written over 50 books and she refused to be grateful.

Born in Iran in 1919, brought up in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and a settler in post-war London, Doris Lessing was the eternal outsider. She became one of the major fiction writers of the 20th century and in 1962, The Golden Notebook brought her international attention. The protagonist of The Golden Notebook, Anna Wulf writes in four different coloured notebooks, in different voices: ‘a black notebook, which is to do with Anna Wulf the writer; a red notebook, concerned with politics; a yellow notebook, in which I make stories out of my experience; and a blue notebook which tries to be a diary.’

The writer Lara Feigel’s life was changed when she read The Golden Notebook in her mid-30s. Now on the 10th anniversary of Lessing’s death in November 2013, Lara is looking back at her extraordinary life through the prism of The Golden Notebook, fragmenting her life into coloured notebooks as Anna fragments her own life in the novel.

Using the BBC’s archive and new interviews with her friends and readers across the generations, Lara is attempting to reanimate the complexity of Doris Lessing’s life and the long-lasting impact of her ground-breaking novel.

Contributors in order of appearance:
Dr Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Junior Research Fellow in African and Comparative Literature, St Anne’s College, Oxford
Professor Anthony Chennells, Arrupe College, Zimbabwe
Maggie Gee, writer
Deborah Levy, writer
Melissa Benn, writer
Cherie Blair CBE, KC
Nikita Lalwani, writer
Stephen Bush, journalist
Rebecca Liu, editor
Lisa Appignanesi, writer
Dr Nonia Williams, Lecturer, University of East Anglia
King’s College London MA Students: Doriana Dyakova; Anwesh Banerjee; Raashiqah Nagoor, Inka Unwin
Lauren Oyler, writer
Dr Susie Orbach, psychoanalyst and writer
Nicholas Pearson, publisher

Presenter: Lara Feigel, academic, writer and author of 'Free Woman, Life, Liberation and Doris Lessing'

Reader: Zannah Hodson

Producers: Melissa FitzGerald and Sarah O’Reilly

A Zinc Audio production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 GF Newman's The Corrupted (m000w4p0)
Series 6

Episode 5

It's now 2005 and Brian Oldman is still in jail for a crime he didn't commit.

He found a man in jail able to prove his innocence - but that man was soon discovered dead in his cell. He suspects that Joseph Oldman, now Lord Olinska, organised the killing.

In this final series, taking us to 2008, Joseph Olinska gets ever more involved in New Labour, while Brian Oldman becomes a vegan and studies law in jail in a bid to win justice for himself. Tony Wednesday continues to work behind the scenes for Sir Joseph at the same time as moving ever further up the ranks of the police force.

GF Newman's The Corrupted weaves fiction with real characters from history, following the fortunes of the Oldman/Olinska family - from small-time business and opportunistic petty crime, through gang rivalries, to their entanglement in the highest echelons of society. It's the tale of a nexus of crime, business and politics that’s woven through the fabric of 20th and 21st century greed, as even those with hitherto good intentions are sucked into a web of corruption.

Whose fortunes will prosper? Who will get their just deserts?

Joey Oldman, an uneducated Jewish child immigrant from Russia, has a natural instinct for business and a love of money - coupled with a knack for acquiring it. His first wife Cath is as ruthless in both the pursuit of money and the protection of her son, Brian. Joey built his empire with the help of a corrupt bank manager in the 1950s, starting with small greengrocer shops before moving into tertiary banking and property development, dealing with many corrupt policemen on the way - and befriending Lord Goodman, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. Joseph now helps New Labour with their finances, while continuing to invest heavily in Russia, the US and a pharmaceutical company specialising in cancer drugs.

The characters are based on GF Newman's novels.

Cast
Lord Olinska - Toby Jones
Brian - Joe Armstrong
Tony Wednesday - Alec Newman
Margaret - Flora Montgomery
Sonia Hope - Sarah Lambie
Catherine - Isabella Urbanowicz
Clive Bunter / Brad Thompson / Justice Deed - Matthew Marsh
Jack Braden - Jacob Fortune Lloyd
PO Rogers / Menachem Hyak / Robin Bleecher - Paul Kemp
John Quayle - David Ajao
EXO Avedlund - Nigel Pivaro
Mrs Jinks - Suzan Sylvester
FBI Agent Pyke - Will Meredith
Chuck Haley - Matt Rippy

Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:45 The Skewer (m001s5mj)
Series 10

Episode 5

Fresh from winning Gold for Best Comedy at the British Podcast Awards (and Highly Commended as Podcast of the Year), Jon Holmes's comedy current affairs concept album returns for its 10th series to remix the news into satirical shapes.

This week - the HamM&S Christmas advert, Matt Hancock: Infinity War, and Ray Mears goes camping with Suella Braverman.

Creator / Producer: Jon Holmes

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4

The Skewer was twisted by:
Jon Holmes
Katie Sayer
Darren Phillips
Phil Lindsey
David Riffkin
Cooper Mawhinny Sweryt
Dave Wol
and
Tony Churnside

With additional material by:
Ali Panting
Anna Martin
Helen Brooks
Alice Gregg
Mike Battle
Adrian Fisk
Kevin Smith
John Weston
Beechar & Pullar
Arfie Mansfield
David Kidder
John Upton
Duncan Ladkin


SAT 22:00 News (m001scqt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Add to Playlist (m001s63y)
Baritone Roderick Williams and violinist Jennifer Pike on a two-note masterpiece

Baritone and composer Roderick Williams and violinist Jennifer Pike - the youngest ever winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year at the time in 2002, aged just 12 - join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add five more tracks to the playlist.

The musical choices take us from one of the most famous tunes in the UK (composer unknown) to a Labi Siffre hit famously sampled by Eminem, via arguably the most recognisable film theme of all time. Labi Siffre makes an appearance to look back on his 1975 classic.

Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

God Save the Queen (from 1888 and 1898)
In Flanders Fields by Charles Ives and John McCrae
Jaws – Main Title by John Williams
Violin Sonata No.2 in G Major: III Perpetuum mobile by Maurice Ravel
I Got the... by Labi Siffre

Other music in this episode:

Yeke Yeke by Mory Kante
Let’s Go Fly a Kite from Mary Poppins
God Save the King, performed by Roderick Williams and Le Concert Spirituel
Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of My Fathers) - the National Anthem of Wales
Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja from The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Vespers of 1610: Deus in adiutorium meum intende by Claudio Monteverdi
Opening of La Valse by Maurice Ravel
To Those Who Pass the Borough from Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten
Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
My Name Is by Eminem


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (m001s55n)
Semi-Final 1, 2023

(13/17)
Three of the heat winners from the past few months, alongside one of the highest-scoring runners-up, compete in the first semi-final of the general knowledge contest. Questionmaster Russell Davies puts them through their paces as they vie for a place in the 2023 Final and a real chance of being named Brain of Britain.

Will they know what the word 'Chipping' means in English town names, or in which sport Nelly Korda has won Olympic gold? Or which musician appeared at an awards ceremony with the word 'Slave' written across his face?

As always there'll also be a chance for a Brain of Britain listener to win a prize with questions he or she hopes will defeat the panel.

Appearing today are:
Ian Fennell from Kidderminster
Gill Hollis from Lichfield
Colin Kidd from Bushey in Hertfordshire
John Robinson from Birmingham.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner

Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 Uncanny (m001rprz)
Series 3

S3. Case 3: The Ghost Who Hated Parties

1986, and three art students move into digs in Waterford, Ireland. But they discover the house seemingly disapproves of visitors, reacting to talk of student parties with lights flickering and cupboard doors banging. It’s funny at first, but not for long…

Written and presented by Danny Robins
Editing and sound design: Charlie Brandon-King
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme music by Lanterns on the Lake
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard

A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4

SUNDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2023

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001scr4)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 The Exploding Library (m001s53w)
The Unfortunates, by BS Johnson

Hirsute comedian and crumpled polymath Rob Auton shuffles through BS Johnson's 1969 novel The Unfortunates - a book published in a box with 27 unbound sections to be read in a random order.

Warped literature series The Exploding Library returns for a new run, as another trio of comedians explode and unravel their most cherished cult books, paying homage to the tone and style of the original text - and blurring and warping the lines between fact and fiction.

As our hosts shine the spotlight on strange, funny and sometimes disturbing novels by Angela Carter, BS Johnson and Octavia Butler, listeners are invited to inhabit their eccentric worlds - gaining a deeper understanding of their workings and the unique literary minds that created them.

With the comedic voices of Kiri Pritchard-Mclean, Rob Auton and Desiree Burch, and featuring the work of award-winning producers Leonie Thomas, Benjamin Partridge (Beef and Dairy Network), and Steven Rajam (Tim Key and Gogol’s Overcoat), this is an arts documentary series like no other.

Producer: Benjamin Partridge
Reader: Mike Shephard
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001scrg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001scrs)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001scs6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001scsp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001sct3)
The Church of Saint Probus and Saint Grace in Probus, Cornwall

Bells on Sunday comes from the Church of Saint Probus and Saint Grace in Probus, Cornwall. The church is the tallest in Cornwall with a Cornish granite tower standing at over one hundred and twenty feet. There are eight bells from various founders including four cast by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester in 1721.
The Tenor weighs twenty hundredweight and is tuned to the note of E flat. We hear them ringing Stedman Triples


SUN 05:45 Profile (m001scpw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001scsf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b0088m48)
Lest We Forget

For Remembrance Day, Mike Wooldridge considers what happens to our collective memory when we lose our first-hand witnesses. In conversation with the anti-genocide campaigner and founder of the Aegis Trust, Dr James Smith, he discovers why is it so important not just to remember, but to learn the lessons of such remembering for the sake of generations to come.

First Broadcast in 2007.

A Unique Broadcasting Company production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001sct1)
Loch Ryan's Wild Native Oysters

For the past five years the town of Stranraer has hosted a festival celebrating Loch Ryan's native oyster beds. Thousands of visitors enjoy the taste of a wild native oyster and watch the oyster "shucking" competition. For the Loch Ryan Oyster Fishery company, it's a major showcase to sell their produce, explain their farming methods and highlight the importance of native oysters.

While many other native oyster beds declined through centuries of overfishing, the Loch Ryan fishery has managed to survive. The fishing rights are owned by the Wallace family who were granted them by royal charter, by King William III, in 1701. Thirty years ago the Wallace family asked Tristan Hugh-Jones, an oyster farmer from Cork, to manage the fishery. He and his team have succeeded in growing numbers from an estimated one million to sixty million. "It's all about sustainable fishing" says Tristan. "We return 95% of our catch to the sea bed, into areas where the oysters are tightly packed and this enhances the chances of fertilisation."

Bags of oysters are shipped off to London where they're cleaned in filtration tanks and sold as a luxury product in some of the city's top restaurants. Wild native oysters are distinct from the more commonly available ‘farmed’ rock oysters. They grow more slowly and have a flatter, thicker shell. Tristan Hugh-Jones is not enthusiastic about exporting them: he says the complexity of Brexit regulations on transporting live produce makes it a time-consuming and risky option.

When the Stranraer Oyster Festival was first held five years ago, few people in the town were aware of the existence of Loch Ryan native oysters. This year more than ten thousand oysters were consumed over the three day event.

Produced and presented by Kathleen Carragher


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001sctf)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001scts)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001scv6)
Interfaith relations and Israel-Hamas war; The Bard and the Bible; Hindu ante-natal rituals

William Crawley talks to interfaith experts about navigating Jewish-Muslim relations against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war.
As we celebrate 400 years of the publication of Shakespeare's first folio, Professor Regina Schwartz, an expert in both explains how 'Love thy neighbour' is central to understanding the Bard and the Bible.
Hear about the Diwali baskets being made in Birmingham to celebrate the big day.
Angry meetings and an intractable issue: The General Synod of the Church of England gets ready to talk same sex blessings this week. Reporter Harry Farley has the details


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001scvm)
Music in Hospitals & Care

Broadcaster and musician Mark Radcliffe makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Music in Hospitals & Care.

To Give:
- UK Freephone 0800 404 8144
-You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
- 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 ‘Music in Hospitals & Care’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Music in Hospitals & Care’.
Please note that Freephone and online donations for this charity close at 23.59 on the Saturday after the Appeal is first broadcast. However the Freepost option can be used at any time.

Registered charity number: 1051659


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001scvz)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001scwc)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001scwr)
Remembering then, remembering now

Dai Woolridge is a story-teller, spoken word artist, and creative specialist at Bible Society; Cath Woolridge is a worship leader and founder of the contemporary worship collective Sound of Wales. Together they conduct a service of remembrance from Cardiff's Urban Crofter's Church, honouring those who have lost their lives in conflicts past and conflicts present. As well as reflections and scriptural readings, the service will contain some moving spoken word pieces, drawing on personal experiences.

The readings are drawn from the Book of Job and from Revelation, reflecting on a moment when there simply are no words with which to comfort those who suffer, and looking forward to a time when there will be no more tears.

With musical accompaniment from the distinguished worship collective Sound of Wales, hymns include: It is Well; Abide With Me; Nearer my God to Thee; Remembrance (Hillsong); Amazing Grace; Gwahoddiad.

Worship Leaders: Dai and Cath Woolridge
Musicians: Sound of Wales

Producer: Geoff Ballinger


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001s642)
Material World

Zoe Strimpel is turning her sights from artsy academic interests to much more concrete ones.

Cultural warfare and events in the Middle East have left her feeling, she says, as if she's in a 'ceaselessly enraged world'.

So instead of her usual contacts in sociology, anthropology and political science, she's seeking out engineers, agriculturalists and silversmiths - 'people who actually know something about the everyday things we all depend on and how it all works.'

'I find this far more dazzling these days than a new insight on cultural Marxism, and also less depressing,' Zoe writes, 'in a world that feels as if things are in freefall, and increasingly subject to entropic and evil forces.'

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m0001mt4)
Monty Don's Fieldfare Season

For writer, gardener and TV presenter Monty Don, the changing seasons herald different sounds and atmospheres in the garden. In autumn as the leaves begin to fall, the arrival of flocks of fieldfares from the north of Europe are as much a part of the garden in winter as are summer migrants during the long days of June. A mixture of truculence and shyness, everything about fieldfares is harsh or jerky, but for Monty he likes them.

Producer Andrew Dawes


SUN 09:00 News and Papers (m001scx6)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.


SUN 09:15 The Archers Omnibus (m001scxh)
Writer, Avin Shah
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Henry Archer ….. Blayke Darby
Kenton Archer ….. Richard Attlee
Alan Franks ….. John Telfer
Usha Franks ….. Souad Faress
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O‘Hanrahan
George Grundy ….. Angus Stobie
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Hannah Riley ….. Helen Longworth
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane


SUN 10:30 Ceremony of Remembrance from the Cenotaph (m001scmz)
Paddy O’Connell sets the scene in London's Whitehall for the solemn ceremony when the nation remembers the sacrifice made by so many in the two world wars and in other more recent conflicts.

The traditional music of remembrance is played by the massed bands. After the Two Minutes Silence and Last Post, wreaths are laid at the foot of the Cenotaph by members of the Royal Family, political leaders and representatives of Commonwealth countries, before a short Service of Remembrance.

Producer: Katharine Longworth


SUN 11:45 Short Works (m001n21r)
Daphne by Lucy Caldwell

An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the author Lucy Caldwell. Read by Michelle Fairley.

Born in Belfast, Lucy Caldwell is the award-winning author of four novels, several stage plays and radio dramas and two collections of short stories: Multitudes (Faber, 2016) and Intimacies (Faber, 2021). She is also the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber, 2019). In 2021 she won the BBC National Short Story Award with her story “All the People Were Mean and Bad.” Her most recent novel, These Days (Faber, 2022), was a Sunday Times, Times, Irish Independent, Spectator and Good Housekeeping Book of the Year.

Writer: Lucy Caldwell
Reader: Michelle Fairley
Producer: Michael Shannon
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland production.


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001scxt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m001s560)
Series 2

Episode 10 - Bridgwater

How much attention were you paying in 2022? This week Paul is in Bridgwater asking his audience about things that changed last year - such as the newest longest suspension bridge in the world, and the newest best restaurant in the world. He also asks about people who would have turned 100 in 2023, such as the French war hero portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg in a film that flopped for surprising reasons.

Written and performed by Paul Sinha
Additional material: Oliver Levy
Additional questions: the audience

Original music: Tim Sutton

Sound engineer: David Thomas

Producer: Ed Morrish

A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001scy6)
Mezcal: A Beginners Guide

Dan Saladino explores the Mexican spirit mezcal and the diverse world of agave spirits.

Contents include:

Gary Nabhan (Agave Spirits book): https://www.garynabhan.com/

Agave Road Trip Podcast: https://agaveroadtrip.com/

Sin Gusano: https://www.singusano.com/story

Kol: https://kolrestaurant.com/

El Pastore: https://www.tacoselpastor.co.uk/

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001scyq)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001scz6)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world


SUN 13:30 Gangster (p0gjb5x9)
Killing Death Row

Killing Death Row: 4. Who Cares if it Hurts?

If a lethal injection death is considered to be painful, that could make it vulnerable to a legal challenge as unconstitutional. What can the death of Corey Johnson tell us about the pain of a lethal injection, and does proof of pain hold sway in any US court, or indeed in the court of public opinion? Livvy Haydock heads out on the road to talk to Texans., and deep into Death Row in the USA. While support for the Death Penalty in the US remains at over 50 per cent, there’s been a steady decline in the number of executions – from the modern era peak of 98 in 1999 to just 20 in 2023 so far. Only a handful of states actually carry out the killings. It’s even become more difficult for executioners to get hold of the drugs used in lethal injections, which is what led Livvy Haydock to a surreal story about a man in West London, who was supplying these drugs to state penitentiaries in the US, and on to the macabre world of Death Row – and the people who live, work, and die on it.
Whether it’s the hunt for new lethal injection supplies, or the tip of the glasses that mark an executioner’s signal, Livvy goes right behind the scenes into the chamber itself to examine the pressures on the system that have left just 5 US states actively carrying out executions this year and around 2,400 Death Row prisoners in limbo. We’ll hear from an inmate waiting to die, and one saved at the last moment. We’ll chat to the wardens who make it happen, and the campaigners who want to stop it. And throughout, we’ll discover the possible future for Death Row in the only western democracy still carrying out capital punishment.

New episodes released weekly. If you’re in the UK, listen to Gangster Presents… Killing Death Row first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/40W5Chz

Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series producer: Anna Meisel
Sounds design and mix: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Clare Fordham
Production coordinator: Janet Staples


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001s638)
House of Lords

I’m having no luck growing chillies from seed. What am I doing wrong? Which plants would the panel recommend to bring fragrance and colour? Which way should a fig tree face to produce the most fruit?

Ready to answer all these questions and more, Kathy Clugston and her team of experts have been invited to the House of Lords for this week’s programme. Joining Kathy to offer their best horticultural tips and tricks are Head of Oxford Botanical Gardens Dr Chris Thorogood, garden designer Matthew Wilson, and plantswoman Christine Walkden.

Among the questions, Kathy chats to Baroness Fookes about the importance of gardening today.

Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Executive Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m001sczv)
The Betrothed - Episode 2

John Yorke explores a work that every Italian will know – I Promessi Sposi by Alessandro Manzoni, known in English as The Betrothed.

In this the second of two episodes, John looks at the context for the story told by Manzoni in The Betrothed. Written in the early 19th century, and set in the 17th century, at a time before Italy became a unified country, Manzoni deliberately used a historical period to comment on the political situation of his time. When he was writing, the Italian peninsula was under Austrian rule, and to criticise those in charge meant a likely jail sentence. So he wrote about a time when the rulers were Spanish, with obvious parallels.

The novel deals with the issues of war, failures of leadership, conflict between classes, social unrest, religion, and gives a vivid description of a plague which devastated the population.

It’s a novel which had resonance for readers in the 19th century when it was first published and, as John discovers, also for contemporary readers today.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for thirty years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized on BBC Radio 4. From EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.

Contributors:
Tim Parks Author of A Literary Tour of Italy
Eileen Horne, Adapter
Dr. Francesca Benatti, Research Fellow in Digital Humanities, Open University

Reader: Marco Gambino

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni, translated by Michael F. Moore, The Modern Library New York
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni, translated by Bruce Penman, Penguin Classics

Produced by Mark Rickards
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound by Charlie Brandon-KIng
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Love Stories (m001sd07)
The Betrothed: Episode Two

by Alessandro Manzoni, adapted for radio by Eileen Horne

Prevented from marrying by Spanish overlord, Don Rodrigo, the young lovers have fled their village. Finding himself caught up in bread riots in Milan, Renzo has now escaped to safety with his cousin in Bergamo. Meanwhile Lucia has been kidnapped and is being held in the castle of the Nameless lord. But further disaster awaits.

Lucia ….. Hiftu Quasem
Renzo ….. Ian Dunnett Jnr
Father Abbondio ….. Paul Higgins
Gabriel ….. Joel Maccormack
Griso / Bartolo ….. Owen Whitelaw
Nibbio / Medical Officer ….. Tunji Kasim
Agnese ….. Maureen Beattie
Brother Cristoforo ….. Ewan Bailey
Nameless /Scribe ….. Jonathan Forbes
Rodrigo / Father / Borromeo ….. Sandy Grierson

Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001sd0p)
Teju Cole

Chris Power talks to Teju Cole about his wide-ranging and powerful new novel, Tremor . Writers William Boyd and Chloe Aridjis reveal why the art world is fertile terrain for fiction and a book recommendation from Kevin Duffy of Bluemoose Books.


SUN 16:30 The Exploding Library (m001sd18)
Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler

Comedian Desiree Burch unravels Octavia Butler's visionary 1993 novel Parable of the Sower and its sequel Parable Of The Talents, an eerily-prescient dystopian portrait of society in collapse after being torn apart by climate change and corporate greed - with a populist demagogue US president who rides to power with the slogan "Make American Great Again".

Oh, and the story - pure fantasy of course, imagined by Butler three decades ago in the early 1990s - is set initially in 2024.

Now this all seems to Desiree just a little bit too close to reality for comfort. But is there hope - even optimism - beneath the surface of this chillingly bleak vision?

Warped literature series The Exploding Library returns for a new run, as another trio of comedians explode and unravel their most cherished cult books, paying homage to the tone and style of the original text - and blurring and warping the lines between fact and fiction.

As our hosts shine the spotlight on strange, funny and sometimes disturbing novels by Angela Carter, BS Johnson and Octavia Butler, listeners are invited to inhabit their eccentric worlds - gaining a deeper understanding of their workings and the unique literary minds that created them.

With the comedic voices of Kiri Pritchard-Mclean, Rob Auton and Desiree Burch, and featuring the work of award-winning producers Leonie Thomas, Benjamin Partridge (Beef and Dairy Network), and Steven Rajam (Tim Key and Gogol’s Overcoat), this is an arts documentary series like no other.

Producer: Steven Rajam
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m001s5n2)
Disability and the Adult Industry

As a young person, Ellen Macleod wasn’t sure whether her disabilities would mean she could never have sex so she turned to the internet. There she found porn featuring disabled adults, but those films threw up dark questions around consent, exploitation and whether disabled people were being made the involuntary subject of a fetish.

Now Ellen has teamed up with journalist Nastaran Tavakoli Far to investigate whether what she saw online was extreme role play or very real abuse.

Ellen and Nas speak to disabled adult content creators, as well as safeguarding and legal experts to explore how society protects vulnerable adults, and what many of us get wrong about sex and disability.

If you have been affected by sexual abuse or violence, details of help and support is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

Presenters: Ellen Macleod and Nastaran Tavakoli-Far
Producer: Ailsa Rochester
Sound Design: Rob Green
Executive Producer: Jo Meek

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:40 Profile (m001scpw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001sd1t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001sd29)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001sd2s)
Home Secretary says London is "being polluted by hate, violence, and antisemitism." Labour says she should be sacked. The US says it does not want fighting in Gaza's hospitals.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001sd39)
Tessa Dunlop and Betty Webb

For Pick of the Week this Armistice Sunday Tessa Dunlop is joined by a World War Two veteran who served in the ATS and at Bletchley Park, and who celebrated her 100th birthday this year, Betty Webb

Betty sheds her century of wisdom across the week's radio output. We hear her thoughts on remembering war and on-going war, on military tattoos and AI and on some of the figures who have cropped up this week, from the King to former Prime Ministers and Will Smith.

Presenters: Tessa Dunlop and Betty Webb
Producer: Jessica Treen
Production Coordinator: Lydia Depledge-Miller


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001sd3r)
Kate announces that Ruairi’s birthday party is fancy dress. She wants her and Jakob to make an entrance with their costumes. She’s put out when Jakob tries to get out of going, accusing him of not being a team player and then says she doesn’t want to spend the night with him. Later, Kate rings Jakob. Neither of them can sleep and Kate apologises for what she said earlier. Jakob agrees to go in fancy dress. He’s keen to make the point that he’s not “not a team player”, but Kate is too excited about dressing up to listen to anything else Jakob has to say.

Usha watches Alan get dressed up after he arrives belatedly at her brother Shiv’s house for Diwali celebrations. Alan’s had a busy Remembrance Sunday, even though Peggy and others are still boycotting St Stephen’s. Shiv welcomes Alan warmly, he’s heard from Usha that Alan’s in need of some TLC. Later, Shiv talks proudly about the fundraising and other activities they do for the community space at the Mandir, where the evening’s fireworks are being held. Alan’s impressed with how much goes on there. Usha joins them, before sitting with Alan. Alan realises he needed this time out. Inspired by what Shiv’s told him, he thinks they should open St Stephen’s up more and look at a Christmas fundraiser. As the evening progresses, Alan starts having ideas about what sort of groups and events the church could host. He can’t wait to begin fighting the challenges St Stephens faces with everything they’ve got.


SUN 19:15 Who Runs the World? (m001sd45)
Independent Women

Comedian Catherine Bohart channels her inner Mel Gibson and asks “What Do Women Want”? in the second part of her raucous new stand up special.

Alongside answering this frankly impossible question, Catherine also wants to know why all of our female Prime Ministers have been Conservatives, and conversely, why the Labour Party prefers the world’s most boring man over literally any woman?

Catherine puzzles out Westminster’s pub-to-nursery ratio, before sitting down with Conservative Peer Baroness Warsi to discuss detoxifying the corridors of power.

Performed by Catherine Bohart

Written by Catherine Bohart, Charlie Dinkin and Georgie Flinn

Produced by Benjamin Sutton

A Daddy’s Superyacht Production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 The State of the Art (p0gm22sm)
3: A Lens-Based Artist

Julian Rhind-Tutt reads the next in William Boyd's savagely funny story series, skewering the contemporary art world.

Giles Flint-Greenfield, a St James' art dealer with a penchant for post-war British watercolours, is finding his world rather small. But when Ludo Abernathy, an old and far more successful art dealer friend, cuts him in on the mother of a deal, new and potentially terrifying horizons open up for him in East London. All too soon Giles has swapped his tweed for black leather, and St James’ for a car maintenance shop, and is feeling very much out of his depth among the art lovers of Leyton. Not least because he isn’t quite sure how Ludo is making him so much money….

In today' story, Fernando Benn, enfant terrible of contemporary art, and self-styled lens-based artist, is ready to take the art world by storm. But he can't help wondering whether he's being taken seriously enough?

Reader: Julian Rhind-Tutt. Other readers in the series: Tom Hollander, Adrian Scarborough, Ed Stoppard.
Writer: William Boyd is the award-winning author of 17 novels.
Producer: Justine Willett


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m001s63g)
The Today Podcast

The Today Programme has re-entered the crowded market of news podcasts - so how do they hope to make the new offer stand out? Andrea Catherwood discusses The Today Podcast with presenter, Nick Robinson.

Long time breakfast TV presenter and journalist Sian Williams decided a few years ago to leave the newsroom and study psychology. Now Dr Sian Willians is both an NHS counselling psychologist and presenter of Radio 4’s series Life Changing which each week focuses on one person who's been through an extraordinary event that altered the course of their life. Find out more about the programme and how listeners are reacting to the series.

Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Gerry Cassidy
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001s63d)
Ken Mattingly, Anne Wright, Mary Gallacher, David Kirke

Matthew Bannister on

Ken Mattingly, the astronaut who missed flying into space on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission because he had been exposed to German measles. We have a tribute from Fred Haise who did take part in that hazardous flight.

Anne Wright, who devoted her life to conserving the wild animals of India.

Mary “Tiny” Gallacher who worked behind the scenes at Rangers Football Club in Glasgow for over 50 years.

David Kirke, the co-founder of the Dangerous Sports Club who took part in the first modern bungee jump wearing top hat and tails and carrying a bottle of champagne.

Interviewee: Fred Haise
Interviewee: Belinda Wright
Interviewee: Raza Kazmi
Interviewee: John Gallacher
Interviewee: David Mason
Interviewee: Chris Baker

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Apollo 13 official movie trailer , Universal Pictures, Universal Pictures All-Access YouTube channel, uploaded 12/04/2011; Ken Mattingly interview, NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, Thomas K. Mattingly II, interviewed by Rebecca Wright, Costa Mesa, California, 06/11/2001; NASA’s Look at 50 Years of Apollo, NASA, YouTube channel uploaded 13/04/2020; Apollo 13, CBS News Coverage of Apollo 13, 17/04/1970; Apollo 13 re-entry, BBC One, Cliff Michelmore, James Burke, Geoffery Pardoe and Patrick Moore, BBC, 17/04/1970; Anne Wright interview, Witness History, The End of British Rule in India 22/07/2014; Mary Tiny Gallacher interview, Rangers Retro , Tiny's Team, Rangers Football Club Official YouTube Channel, uploaded 25/10/2023;


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001sck9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001scvm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Loose Ends (m001scpk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001sd4w)
Leila Nathoo's guests are the former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers, Shadow Defence minister Luke Pollard, and foreign affairs expert, Dr Leslie Vinjamuri. They discuss the Armistice Day protests and whether the Home Secretary Suella Braverman should stay in post. They also consider the SNP's call for a Commons vote on an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East. And they look ahead to the Chancellor's Autumn Statement and possible tax cuts. Kevin Schofield - political editor of HuffPost UK - brings additional insight and analysis.


SUN 23:00 Moral Maze (m001s5kv)
How should we remember the dead and the living?

The Met police has warned of a "growing" risk of violence and disorder this Remembrance weekend. The Prime Minister has described a planned pro-Palestinian protest in London on Armistice Day as “provocative and disrespectful” to those who wish to remember the war dead “in peace and dignity”. The Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said it was "a stain on our common humanity" that so many seem to have "lost sight of the moral distance between Hamas and Israel". Others, however, strongly refute the description of the demonstrations as “hate marches”, believing that the protesters should be allowed to campaign for a ceasefire and an end to the killing; and to show solidarity with Palestinians without undermining either the remembrance events or the humanity of Israelis.

The polarising nature of the Israel-Hamas war and its repercussions in the UK has resulted in both sides accusing the other of ‘weaponising’ remembrance. Public attitudes to commemoration have changed over the last century and notions of a country honouring the ultimate sacrifice of its soldiers can be hard to disentangle politically from conflicts of the day.

What are we really doing on Remembrance Day? While for some it is a deep expression of sorrow for the dead and a formal commitment to peace, others believe it risks celebrating past acts of killing, which translates into justifying present militarism and violence. If rising conflicts around the world suggest humanity has not learned from the mistakes of the past – what is the moral purpose of remembrance? How should we remember the dead as well as those who are living through conflict today?

Producer: Dan Tierney.

MONDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2023

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001sd56)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Sideways (m001s5gk)
52. First Loves

After Kate and Guenther shared their first kiss on Torquay's pier in the summer of 1989, their blossoming love was soon interrupted by the distance between Yorkshire and Bavaria. Two years later, they had to let go of their early romance.

In this episode, we explore rekindled loves, for better or worse, and the challenges we can face when the ghost of an old romance resurfaces.

As Matthew Syed reminisces about his own experiences, he delves into the reasons why our first loves are unforgettable.

Featuring Professor Catherine Loveday, Jeannie Thompson, and Professor Adam Fetterman.

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Julien Manuguerra-Patten
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Sound design and mixing: Naomi Clarke
Theme tune by Ioana Selaru

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001sct3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001sd5k)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001sd5v)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001sd63)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001sd6d)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001sd6p)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya

 
Lamps of love are lit

Good morning. I share a blessing from Swami Tejomayananda.

Diwali, or “Deepavali”, means a row of lights or a billion lights. Most of the festivals in the Hindu culture are meant to celebrate the victory of good over evil. In this sense, Diwali is a day of many blessings.

As per the Ramayana, it is the day when Sri Ram, Sita and Lakshman returned to Ayodhya. Happiness, peace and harmony returned to Ayodhya—the land of no conflict. Sri Ram represents honesty and firm adherence to duty; Sita embodies faith and devotion; Lakshman personifies detachment. For this homecoming, lamps of peace are lit.

It is the day Sri Krishna killed Narakasura—the demon of sorrow and hell who had kidnapped and imprisoned 16, 000 princesses. It is the day when the selfish ego, which has entrapped all the 16,000 thought-varieties, is killed and all thoughts get wedded to the one infinite blissful consciousness. When our mind turns towards this infinite Self, the sense of limitation along with its selfishness ends. For this knowledge, lamps of joy are lit.

It is the day when we harvest the results of our hard work blessed with wealth by Mother Lakshmi. We pray to her with gratitude and ask the Divine Mother to shower Her blessings in abundance for the coming year, to give us the intelligence to use our wealth in the right manner and to give us the heart to share it generously with our fellow beings.

For this sharing, lamps of love are lit.

I pray that we may fill our hearts with love, light the lamp of knowledge within and remove darkness around us, to each be a light unto the world.

Hari Om


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001sd6w)
13/11/23 Sewage sludge on farmland, cauliflowers, dam removal

Campaigners have launched a legal challenge to the Government over the rules about fertilising farmland with sludge from sewage works. The group alleges it’s abandoned its pledge to protect farmland from harmful chemicals.
All week we're talking about brassicas; and today it's cauliflowers. Phil Collins grows veg across 150 acres, just north of Devizes in Wiltshire, with 20 acres of brassicas.
One of the biggest ever dam removals has been completed in Aberdeenshire. The Garlogie dam was built as part of a now defunct local hydro electric scheme in the 1920s. Its demolition opens up part of the River Dee to Atlantic salmon for the first time in more than 100 years.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


MON 05:56 Weather (m001sd72)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378srp)
House Sparrow

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

Michaela Strachan presents the house sparrow. These birds are more commonly found living alongside us than any other British bird. Perhaps the most enterprising birds were the House Sparrows which bred below ground in a working mine at Frickley Colliery in Yorkshire.


MON 06:00 Today (m001sd0v)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001sd1d)
Music – from page to performance

The award-winning composer Errollyn Wallen offers an insight into what it’s like to write a piece of music. In her memoir, Becoming a Composer, she also looks back on how a girl born in Belize and brought up in Tottenham found herself at home in the world of classical music.

Handel was gradually losing his sight in 1751 as he finished what was his last dramatic oratorio Jephtha. The harpsichordist Laurence Cummings conducts a new performance of this biblical tale of faith and sacrifice, at the Royal Opera House (8–24 November; on BBC Radio 3 on 27 January). He explains how Handel’s work has been reinterpreted for today’s audience.

Jazz musicians are celebrated for their re-interpretation of classics and improvisation. As the London Jazz festival is in full swing (10-19 November, and on BBC Radio 3), the celebrated jazz singer Emma Smith talks about what happens when the notes on the page are transformed into a performance.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired Our Brains and Conquered the World by Joshua Paul Dale (m001sd84)
Surrounded by Cuteness

Why are some things cute, and others not? And how did cuteness go global, from manga cartoons to Disney characters? These are questions explored in this book by Joshua Paul Dale.

Cuteness is an area where culture and biology get tangled up. Seeing a cute animal triggers some of the most powerful psychological instincts we have - the ones that elicit our care and protection - but there is a deeper story behind the broad appeal of Japanese cats and saccharine greetings cards.

Joshua Paul Dale, a pioneer in the field of cuteness studies, looks at how the cute aesthetic spread around the globe, from emojis and Lolita fashion, to the unstoppable rise of Hello Kitty. He's a Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Tokyo Gakugei University, and Irresistible delves into the ancient origins of Japan's culture of 'kawaii', or cuteness.

In this first episode, Joshua describes the sudden culture shock which made him realise that cuteness was everywhere around him in Tokyo.

He says: “I walked out of my apartment to find the road blocked not by a row of prosaic red-and-white stripes signalling danger, but by a long line of large, plastic Hello Kitty characters, each holding a rainbow. I soon realised that ‘cutified’ construction barriers were popping up everywhere in Tokyo, sporting frogs, monkeys, ducks, rabbits and dolphins. It was a bizarre transformation of mundane city streets. It was like a switch flipped in my brain; suddenly I noticed that cuteness - kawaii - is everywhere in Japan. When did its relentless spread begin, and why did it happen here?”

Reader: Adam Sims
Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001sd1y)
Suella Braverman sacked as home secretary, Natalie Cassidy, Breast Cancer treatment

Following a weekend of speculation, the most senior woman in government Suella Braverman has been sacked from her role as Home Secretary. To discuss Emma is joined by Lucy Fisher, the Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times; and Claire Pearsall, former Home Office special advisor under Amber Rudd and Sajid Javid.

The gripping BBC One drama ‘Time’ focuses on the stories of three women, and shows the stark differences for female and male prisoners. Emma is joined by Time’s screenwriter, Helen Black, who has first-hand experience of the criminal justice system from her past career in the law, and Lady Unchained, who was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for grievous bodily harm following a fight in a club while trying to protect her sister. She is now a poet, performer and broadcaster.

The actor Natalie Cassidy pays tribute to the late Anna Scher who taught children in North London to act for more than 50 years.

How is our interaction with AI shifting our concepts of intimacy and sexuality as humans? Emma Barnett talks to the Kate Devlin Kate Devlin who’s a Reader Artificial Intelligence & Society at King's College London and the author of Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots, and to Trudy Barber, Senior Lecturer at Portsmouth University in Media Studies.

Tens of thousands of women in England could benefit from a drug that helps prevent breast cancer. Anastrozole, used for many years to treat the disease, has now been licensed as a preventative option, and almost 300 thousand women will be eligible to take it. But is it as big a step forwards as it seems? Former surgeon and breast cancer survivor Dr Liz O’Riordan joins Emma to discuss.

Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Emma Pearce


MON 11:00 Fed with Chris van Tulleken (m001sd2f)
Series 1: Planet Chicken

3. U OK Hen?

We eat chicken. A LOT of it. We might love the taste, but what about how we're treating those birds?

After witnessing first-hand the reality of indoor chicken farming - how most of the chicken we eat is raised - Dr Chris van Tulleken wants to know: are the birds happy enough, or is our method of rearing cheap chicken actually cruel?

If so, what’s the ‘happier’ alternative – and do carnivores like Chris care enough to pay the price for that, or does a love of meat ultimately trump ethics?

Chris battles with his conscience, and finds the answer hard to stomach.

Produced by Lucy Taylor and Emily Knight.

Archive audio:
- VIVA broiler investigation video (2021)
- BBC and Channel 4 news reports on battery cage ban (2012)


MON 11:30 The Bottom Line (m001s5nl)
Blockbuster drugs

New medicines with sales in the billions of dollars each year are what every pharmaceutical company dreams of, but how do you create one and can they really justify their often high price tags?

Evan Davis and guests discuss the changing origins of so-called 'blockbusters' and their importance to the global drug industry, including recent examples like the obesity and diabetes treatments Wegovy and Ozempic, which have made Novo Nordisk one of the richest companies in Europe.

Plus, as outright cures for some diseases begin to emerge, how can the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare systems agree on what is a reasonable price to pay for them?

Evan is joined by:

Sir Patrick Vallance, former president of research and development at GSK, chief scientific advisor to the UK government, now chair of the Natural History Museum;
Ruth McKernan, venture partner at SV Health Investors;
David Brown, chairman and co-founder of Healx and co-creator of Viagra;
Natasha Loder, health editor, The Economist.

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Producer: Simon Tulett
Editor: China Collins
Sound: Graham Puddifoot
Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman

(Picture: Rolls of dollar bills next to a bottle of pills. Credit: Getty Images)


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001sdps)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001sd3d)
Shop workers, M&S, Drip pricing

A charity representing shop workers say half of retail staff feel unsafe as incidents of shoplifting, antisocial behaviour and assaults increase by 40% on last year. We find out why.

A few years ago, M&S took a big gamble on fewer stores. Has it worked? Shoppers in Liverpool give us their verdict on its "destination" branches.

If you've ever tried to book a flight or concert ticket, you've almost certainly come across drip pricing. That when extra fees are added to a purchase so what you pay at the end is a lot more than you first thought. Kevin Hollinrake MP is the minister for at the Department for Business and Trade. He also wants to crack down on this practice. We find out what exactly he wants to do and when.

It's roughly 6 months since Trans Pennine Express was taken back into public hands. How has its new boss Chris Jackson been getting on? We find out what he's been doing to turn things around.

And finally how do you feel about being asked to round up your shop by a few pence for a charity donation? More self-service tills are offering us these micro-donations. We find out why they're doing it and how much actually goes to charity.

Presenter: Shari Vahl
Producer: Julian Paszkiewicz


MON 12:57 Weather (m001sd3t)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001sd47)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


MON 13:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m001sd4l)
13. Inside the Machine

The Post Office Horizon Scandal has been called the widest miscarriage of justice in modern British history, with the number of former Sub Postmasters whose convictions have been overturned now over 60. Those who suffered prosecution or financial ruin due to errors on the Post Office's Horizon computer system want answers. How could this have happened? Who is responsible?

Continuing the series that has helped expose the scandal since 2020, Nick Wallis draws on interviews, documents and the extraordinary revelations spilling out of the ongoing public inquiry. For the first time, the public is getting real insight into what was really going on inside the Post Office.

Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design and Mixing: Arlie Adlington
Executive Producer: Will Yates

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:00 The Archers (m001sd3r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001sd4y)
How to Build a DJ

Michael Southan’s BBC Radio 4 drama debut is focusses on Ben, a disabled 18 year old who is striving to follow his grandad and become a DJ. But his mum, Gwen, has other ideas. She is struggling with grief as she tries to save the local community centre from council closure.

Ben and his best mate Seema have an idea to help Gwen and the community centre but when Tamsin, a new talent producer, arrives can friendship and promises be kept?

A fun light new drama with some great music.

Starring Callum Mardy (Our Generation, Big Boys) who makes his Radio 4 drama debut alongside Priyasasha Kumari (Waterloo Road) , David Crellin (Years and Years, Emmerdale), Carla Henry (Queer As Folk, Betty - a musical) and Nadia Emam (Everything I Know About Love, Playing Dead).

Nickie Miles-Wildin returns to Naked Productions to direct How To Build A DJ for BBC Radio 4. Her previous drama, Love Across the Ages, was nominated for Best Drama at The ARIAS 2023.

Michael Southan is a new writer from Wolverhampton. His most recent production was Kerbs, for Graeae and Belgrade Theatre for Coventry City of Culture in 2022. His audio work includes Connections and Night of the Living Flatpacks with Naked Productions for national community audio broadcast, funded by the Audio Content Fund. How to Build a DJ is his first BBC Radio 4 commission.

There will be an animated transcript available on broadcast to increase access.

Cast:
Ben ..... Callum Mardy
Dennis ..... David Crellin
Gwen ..... Carla Henry
Seema ..... Priyasasha Kumari
Tamsin ..... Nadia Emam


Director, Nickie Miles-Wildin
Sound Designer, Steve Brooke
Illustration, Julian Gray
Production Manager, Darren Spruce
Producer, Polly Thomas
Executive Producer, Eloise Whitmore

A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (m001sd59)
Semi-Final 2, 2023

(14/17)
Russell Davies welcomes another four semi-finalists to the Radio Theatre in London where one of them will take a step closer to being named Brain of Britain 2023.

Appearing in today's contest are
Dan Adler from Farnham in Surrey
Jude Cole from Sheffield
David Cowan from Swansea
Mickie Wynne-Davies from Oxted in Surrey.

The competition for the buzzer is bound to be fierce and the contenders may find it tougher to pull away from the pack as they did in their respective heats. They'll also face a challenge from a listener hoping to Beat the Brains with fiendish questions they have devised.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001scy6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m001scq6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Saturday]


MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m001sd5w)
Series 30

Reminiscence

‘I asked myself this very question after a family member was affected by dementia. In her later years, the only person my grandmother still remembered was her husband – but he had passed away several years earlier. She asked about him every morning and finding out that he had died always upset her greatly.’ - Thomas Nørmark.Thomas Nørmark

Dementia is a cruel and complex illness, one that robs individuals of their cognitive abilities, independence, and memories. The NHS website reports that in the UK alone, there are now over 944,000 people living with dementia, and this number continues to rise as our population ages.

While there is no cure for dementia, emerging technological breakthroughs hold the promise of more personalised treatment plans, the potential to enhance the quality of life for longer periods, and the ability to provide much-needed respite and comfort to the caregivers of those affected.

In this episode of Digital Human, Aleks explores some of the nascent AI tools that could help people living with dementia:

AMPER, an AI programme designed to aid in Reminiscence therapy, helping people to remain independent for as long as possible.

Moments, an app that creates timelines of memories, music, and photos that can be shared with clinical staff, so they can get to know who the person was before the disease took hold, meaning they can tailor care more effectively.

And a radical proposition of creating Digital Avatars of loved ones that offer support and reassurance to people who no longer remember that that loved one has already passed away - saving family members from the emotional strain of having to pretend to be someone else, to keep the person they love happy.

Aleks will explore not only how these technological developments will benefit people in the next few decades, but also the ethical complexities that arise in ensuring the well being and security of vulnerable users.


MON 17:00 PM (m001sd65)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001sd6q)
Suella Braverman has been sacked and replaced by James Cleverly as Home Secretary


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m001sd6x)
Series 80

Episode 1

Radio 4's multi award-winning ‘antidote to panel games’ promises yet more quality, desk-based entertainment for all the family.

The series begins at the Pavilion Theatre in Bournemouth where Marcus Brigstocke and Rachel Parris are pitched against Tony Hawks and Miles Jupp, with Jack Dee in the role of reluctant chairman. Regular listeners will know to expect inspired nonsense, pointless revelry and Colin Sell at the piano.

Producer - Jon Naismith.
It is a BBC Studios production.


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001sd4h)
Alan tells Jakob that Kate turned down his invitation to hold a weekly Spiritual Home session at the church, in support of Peggy’s stance. Jakob can’t believe it after what she said yesterday, but goes to see Usha on Kate’s behalf about borrowing a sari.

At The Stables Lilian quizzes Jakob about the Grange Farm land sale, but he can’t tell her anything. He then asks Lilian if she thinks he’s a kill-joy. Of course not, she replies quickly, before things become awkward and Jakob beats a retreat. Harry Chilcott then introduces himself to Lilian, demanding to see someone about Sadie, the horse he bought for his niece. He considers the horse’s recent injury to be the result of poor decision-making by The Stables. Learning the manager isn’t around, he says he’ll return tomorrow.

Helen looks for a card in the shop that Jack can give Rob. She tells Joy she doesn’t want Jack giving Rob his handmade one in case Rob says something hurtful. When Helen’s phone rings, it’s Miles. He tells her Rob’s deteriorating quickly but has refused a hospice, so now has nurses visiting his flat and Helen needs to bring forward Jack’s visit to tomorrow. Helen’s not sure Jack should see Rob in his condition, but Miles presses her to say yes. Supportive Joy then agrees to go with Helen when she takes Jack to see Rob. Helen is fearful of how Jack will respond to seeing Rob, but Joy thinks if he’s anything like Helen, he’ll brave it out.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001sd75)
Todd Haynes, Trevor Horn, new galleries at the Imperial War Museum

The UK’s first art, film and photography galleries dedicated to war and conflict have just opened at the Imperial War Museum. Al Murray, who has made several documentaries about Britain’s wars, and Rachel Newell, Head of Art at the Imperial War Museum, join Samira Ahmed to discuss the new galleries.

Director Todd Haynes talks about his new film May December which stars Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. The black comedy drama follows an actress who travels to Georgia to meet a controversial woman she is set to portray in a film.

And musician and producer Trevor Horn, known for creating the sound of the 1980s, talks about his new album Echoes – Ancient and Modern. It reimagining songs from 1982 to 2012 and includes performances from Iggy Pop, Tory Amos and Marc Almond.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Olivia Skinner


MON 20:00 Nato's Newest Member (m001scsz)
Ash Bhardwaj travels to Finland to find out how this northern European country came to abandon nearly 80 years of military non-alignment and become NATO’s newest member.

He speaks to conscripted soldiers on Finland’s frontline, takes a tour around the home of one of the country’s most important artists and visits Helsinki’s Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats to hear how Finland’s “total defence” mentality keeps it safe.

Presented by Ash Bhardwaj
Produced by Artemis Irvine
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


MON 20:30 Analysis (m001sd79)
Can reading really improve your life?

Most educational research now suggests that reading for pleasure is strongly linked to a child’s future outcome, educational success, and even wellbeing. But the latest studies also show that reading for pleasure is at its lowest level for twenty years.

Why has this happened in a country that's produced more successful children's books than any other? From Paddington, to Harry Potter, the Chronicles of Narnia to Alice in Wonderland, and of course, the Gruffalo, the list is vast. Is a lack of access to school and local libraries the problem, too few books at home or the rise of phones, tablets and game consoles?

What can schools, government, the media and parents do to help foster a love of reading that could help children throughout their lives? Author and former Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson investigates.

Presenter: Julia Donaldson
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors:
Frank Cottrell-Boyce, author and screenwriter
Joseph Coelho, 2022-24 Children’s Laureate, author and poet
Teresa Cremin, Professor of Education (Literacy), the Open University
Joanna Prior CEO Pan Macmillan Publishing, and Chair of Trustees at the National Literacy Trust
Laura Patel, head of literacy, Sandhill View Academy school, Sunderland
Leia Sands, librarian and committee member, the Great School Libraries campaign
Ben Lawrence, arts and culture editor, The Daily Telegraph
Sonia Thompson, headteacher, St Matthews C of E primary school, Birmingham


MON 21:00 Young Again (m001s5gx)
6. Jada Pinkett Smith

Kirsty Young talks to actor and producer Jada Pinkett Smith about the lessons she has learned from her life so far. Jada explains the impact of her parents’ drug addiction and her early experiences of Baltimore street life on her mental health and subsequent relationships. She reflects on her marriage to actor Will Smith and why she has chosen to go public about her private life. Would she do it all again? Jada talks to Kirsty about her extraordinary life.

Producer: Laura Northedge
Content Editor: Richard Hooper
Editor: Alice Feinstein
Senior Technical Producer: Bob Nettles
Presenter: Kirsty Young

A BBC Audio Production


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m001sd1d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001sd7h)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido (m001sd7m)
Episode 1

Brother of the More Famous Jack is Barbara Trapido’s first novel. Published in 1982, it soon acquired countless fans as well as winning prizes and, in more recent years, admirers including :

'The perfect book' - Meg Mason

'The best possible company in this difficult world' - Ann Patchett

'A daisy bomb of joy' - Maria Semple

'Funny, charming, teeming with life, and real' - Nick Hornby

'I adored it . Redolent of classics like The Constant Nymph with both its true voice and wonderfully sage and sanguine heroine' - Sophie Dahl

'Reading it again is as comforting as eating toast and Marmite between clean, fresh sheets' - Rachel Cooke, Sunday Times

Eighteen-year-old Katherine - bright, stylish, frustratedly suburban - doesn't know how her life will change when the brilliant Jacob Goldman first offers her a place at university. When she enters the Goldmans' rambling bohemian home, presided over by the beatific matriarch Jane, she realises that Jacob and his family are everything she has been waiting for.

Sally Phillips, much loved star of Clare in the Community, returns to BBC Radio 4 with this delightful comic tale of the joys and anguish of young love.

Abridged by Mark Kilfoyle and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
Read by Sally Phillips
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:00 Lights Out (m001sd7r)
Series 6

Four Walls

Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen.

For generations, queer people have moved to London from more conservative parts of the UK, in search of community and to live as their authentic selves. Now, with housing so unstable, queer people are among the marginalised communities for which homelessness is on the rise. They continue to come to London now to find their place, but the trade off is extreme financial insecurity.

Can you really feel at home when the four walls around you are unstable?

Jesse Lawson talks to Karen Fisch, Topher Campbell, Carla Ecola and Reggie Lennox about what it means to have to choose between one form of home over another.

Music by Femi Oriogun-Williams
Produced by Jesse Lawson
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001sd7w)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament

TUESDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2023

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001sd80)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired Our Brains and Conquered the World by Joshua Paul Dale (m001sd84)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001sd88)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001sd8d)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001sd8j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001sd8n)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001sd8s)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya

The Festival of Govardhan Puja

Good morning.

Today marks a festival known as Govardhan Puja. The story of Govardhan Puja is narrated in the Shrimad Bhagavat Mahapurana and is dear to many as the story revolves around one of the most beloved deities in Hinduism, Shri Krishna.

As a young boy, Shri Krishna comes to the rescue of his entire village by lifting up a mountain on his little finger. Why? Because Indra, the deity of rain, had become arrogant and accustomed to receiving offerings from the farmers of the town. The villagers needed the climate and the environment to be conducive to work for their livelihoods and thus they appealed to Indra so that he would bless them.

Shri Krishna saw that Indra had to be corrected. A team leader is responsible for his team’s welfare and productivity; Shri Krishna saw that Indra’s attitude showed some room for improvement. He convinced the villagers to stop their offerings to Indra and instead to pray to God. Feeling provoked, Indra proceeded to send a torrential downpour to the village. When it became apparent that all the villages and their homes were in danger, Shri Krishna picked up a nearby mountain and holding it high above his head, provided shelter and refuge for all the villagers.

We often pray to God for help without taking the time to see what assistance we already receive. God’s help is not intangible in our life; God’s support, if we care to notice, is with us at every moment of every day.

I pray that God's grace allows us to recognise the myriad ways in which he shelters us as we walk through life.

Hari Om.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001sd8v)
14/11/23 - New Defra Secretary, white cabbage waste and Wilder Marches

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has new boss - former Health Secretary, Steve Barclay. The appointment comes after Therese Coffey stepped down during the Prime Minister's reshuffle. We get the low down on the new Secretary of State, and consider what he will bring to the Department.

Simon Naylor produces white, red and pink cabbages in South Lincolnshire, which are sold whole in supermarkets, but also go into a huge range of pre-prepared lines, including coleslaw, stir-fry mixes and salads. But as much as 35 percent of each white cabbage is wasted, with tonnes of outer leaves thrown away every year. So, he's developed a plan to use the waste and transform it into new food ingredients.

And Wildlife Trusts on both sides of the Wales-England border are working together in a new project which aims to restore habitats for wildlife and tackle the consequences of climate change. The Trusts say the "Wilder Marches" project can also support farmers to carry out environmental actions to increase biodiversity on their land.

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01sbyxy)
Redshank

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Redshank. Redshanks are one of our commonest wading birds at home in freshwater marshes and on estuaries where you can easily recognise them from their combination of long scarlet legs, white rumps and wing-bars and greyish brown bodies.


TUE 06:00 Today (m001scym)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m001sczl)
Professor Sarah Harper on how population change is remodelling societies.

People around the world are living longer and, on the whole, having fewer children. What does this mean for future populations? Sarah Harper CBE, Professor in Gerontology at the University of Oxford, tells presenter Jim Al-Khalili how it could affect pensions, why it might mean we work for longer, and discusses the ways modern life is changing global attitudes to when we have children, and whether we have them at all. Fertility and ageing have been Sarah's life's work and she tells her story of giving up a career in the media to carry out in-depth research, and going on to study population change in the UK and China, setting up the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and later becoming a Scientific Advisor to UK Government.

Presenter: Jim Al-Khalili
Producer: Tom Bonnett


TUE 09:30 One to One (m001sd00)
Future Cities: Tori Herridge meets Ed Finn

Tori Herridge is a palaeontologist who spends her life studying creatures from the past – but when it comes to humans, she’s obsessed with the future. In the last of three episodes she speaks to Ed Finn, founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, about how science, art and science fiction can work together to help us picture the far future and avoid the dystopias we fear.

Presenter: Tori Herridge
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton

Made in Bristol by BBC Audio.


TUE 09:45 Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired Our Brains and Conquered the World by Joshua Paul Dale (m001sd7z)
Ancient Japanese Cuteness

Why are some things cute, and others not? And how did cuteness go global, from manga cartoons to Disney characters? These are questions explored by Joshua Paul Dale, a Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Tokyo Gakugei University. He’s a pioneer in the field of cuteness studies, and his new book looks at how the cute aesthetic spread around the globe, from Lolita fashion and emojis to the unstoppable rise of Hello Kitty.

In Episode 2, Professor Dale traces the roots of the cute aesthetic to ancient Japan, exploring images and beliefs which have spread across the globe.

“All small things, no matter what they are, all small things are most adorable” – words from a classic work of Japanese literature, The Pillow Book, written more than a thousand years ago. The author was a courtier, Sei Shōnagon, and The Pillow Book contains one of the earliest articulations of an aesthetic that eventually became today’s culture of ‘kawaii’.

Japan was largely peaceful in Sei’s era, leaving the upper class little to do but cultivate beauty and taste in all aspects of life, and although the nobility numbered only a few thousand, their aesthetic values spread across the land. What’s more, the idea that artistic pursuits could lead to self-improvement became established in this era. The modern attitude towards ‘kawaii’ reflects this idea: in Japan, people believe that cultivating the appreciation of cute things has a positive effect on one’s own life; cuteness is a force that can help to combat unhappiness, anxiety or even dissatisfaction at work.

Reader: Adam Sims
Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001sd0x)
Dame Kelly Holmes, Cabinet reshuffle, Debenhams picketers

The four top jobs in Rishi Sunak’s new cabinet have all been filled with men. It’s the first time this has happened since 2009. To unpack what this means, Emma Barnett is joined by Baroness Kate Fall, former deputy chief of staff to the newly appointed Lord Cameron, and Executive Editor of Politico Anne McElvoy.

Double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes spoke publicly about her sexuality for the first time in June last year. Her new memoir, Unique, details how serving in the military in the late 1980s - when it was illegal to be gay in the military – was a major factor in contributing to her decades-long silence. Dame Kelly joins Woman’s Hour to speak about her experience and what it meant to hear the Government’s apology to LGBT veterans.

In April 2020, Debenhams in Ireland closed all 11 of its stores, informing its staff they had been let go in the process. What ensued were pickets and protests across Ireland that lasted for 406 days, 24 hours a day and through all weathers. As a new film is released on the subject in the UK, Emma is joined by Carol Ann Bridgeman who worked for Debenhams for 15 years and Jane Crowe who worked there for 23 years.

Karuna Nundy is an advocate at the Supreme Court in India and has been leading legal campaigns to criminalise marital rape and to legalise same-sex marriage. She was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022 and will be giving a speech on her career tonight at the Institute for Development Studies. She joins Emma to discuss her role in these high-profile cases.

Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Lottie Garton


TUE 11:00 The Reinvention of Italy (m001sd1h)
Anne McElvoy goes on the road in Italy in the latest in her series exploring the convulsions of political and cultural change sweeping through Europe’s great nations. The election last September of the right wing populist Giorgia Meloni shocked the political establishment. Her declared mission: to restore and defend Italy’s national identity. But what does it mean to be an Italian today?

We visit Padua in the North Eastern region of Veneto - a city steeped in ancient culture, boasting the oldest university in Europe and the exquisite frescos of the Scrovegni Chapel. It's also at the heart of Italy's more prosperous North - the engine of the country's economy which draws in migrants from inside and outside Italy. A good place to explore the tensions between the old ways and the new which are rumbling through Italian life in the wake of Meloni's election.

Touring the city and its regions, we ask Italians from all walks of life - migrant workers, a female-led design and manufacturing business, a demographer and other experts on Italy's political and social culture. How do they see themselves in 2023 and what are the challenges of the future?

Why is a country built on the bedrock of the family facing a decline in the birth rate so severe it threatens to wreck the economy? Why is a country whose citizens have emigrated around the world throughout history so uneasy about inward migration? Could a new political era also signal a revival of an Italian economic miracle?

Producer: Leala Padmanabhan


TUE 11:30 Moving Pictures (p0ggs5gk)
Ambulance Call by Jacob Lawrence

Cathy FitzGerald invites you to discover new details in old masterpieces. Each episode of Moving Pictures is devoted to a single artwork – and you’re invited to look as well as listen, by following a link to a high-resolution image made by Google Arts & Culture. Zoom in and you can see the pores of the canvas, the sweep of individual brushstrokes, the shimmer of pointillist dots.

This episode explores Ambulance Call by the great American artist, Jacob Lawrence. We're on the sidewalk in Harlem, New York, in the 1940s. A crowd gathers as a patient is stretchered away. But not just a crowd - a community... captured in all its tender humanity by one of its own. Lawrence notices the everyday moments that are so often overlooked and gives them back to us in bold, brilliant style.

To see the high-resolution image of the painting made by Google Arts & Culture, visit www.bbc.co.uk/movingpictures. Scroll down and follow the link to explore Ambulance Call.

Interviewees: Austen Barron Bailly, Jen Padgett, Turry Flucker, Leslie King-Hammond and Brittany Webb.

Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald

Executive producer: Sarah Cuddon
Mix engineer: Mike Woolley
Art history consultant: Leah Kharibian

A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4

Picture credit: Jacob Lawrence, Ambulance Call, detail, 1948, tempera on board. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London 2023. Image courtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Photography by Edward C. Robison III.


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001sdrq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001sd2q)
Call You and Yours: Private Parking Firms

Its one of the issues that listeners contact You and Yours about the most. So today in our phone-in we want to hear about your experience of private parking firms. A record 11 million Parking Charge Notices were issued to drivers in the year leading up to March 2023, with an estimated cost of more than £1.1 billion. The Government has tried to regulate the sector. Last year it introduced a code of practice which was meant to have the interests of safe motorists at its heart. But four months later that code was withdrawn after challenges from the private parking companies. The government is consulting on next steps - meanwhile the number of Parking Charge Notices continues to rise.

So what's been your recent experience with private parking firms? Get in touch.

Email us now - you and yours @ bbc.co.uk or call us on Tuesday from 11am on 03700 100 444

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: CATHERINE EARLAM


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001sd36)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001sd3n)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


TUE 13:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m001sd43)
14. The Prosecution Spree

The Post Office Horizon Scandal has been called the widest miscarriage of justice in modern British history, with the number of former Sub Postmasters whose convictions have been overturned now over 60. Those who suffered prosecution or financial ruin due to errors on the Post Office's Horizon computer system want answers. How could this have happened? Who is responsible?

Continuing the series that has helped expose the scandal since 2020, Nick Wallis draws on interviews, documents and the extraordinary revelations spilling out of the ongoing public inquiry. For the first time, the public is getting real insight into what was really going on inside the Post Office.

In Episode 14, we hear how the Post Office disregarded red flags about Horizon when it rolled the system out, and how flawed and incomplete prosecution policies set the stage for the mass prosecution of many innocent Sub Postmasters.

Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design and Mixing: Arlie Adlington
Executive Producer: Will Yates

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001sd4h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Elsinore (m0009r5v)
Series 2

Episode 1

by Sebastian Baczkiewicz

Claudius, Prince of Denmark, has lived as an exile in Spain for the past sixteen years but an attempt on his life causes him to reassess his position. Meanwhile in Denmark, civil disobedience and political unrest are leading King Hamlet to take ever more authoritarian measures.

Claudius . . . John Light
King Hamlet . . . John Heffernan
Polonius . . . Clive Hayward
Gertrude . . . Lyndsey Marshal
Catalina . . . Laura Christy
Olsson . . . Rupert Holliday Evans
Kabanova . . . Jessica Turner
Schroeder . . . Neil McCaul

Directed by Marc Beeby and Sasha Yevtushenko

Set in an alternative Europe in the 1950s, Elsinore imagines the turbulent world of the Danish Court in events that take place some years before the story told in Shakespeare's Hamlet. It explores the relationships at the Danish court, particularly the troubled, not to say murderous relationship between King Hamlet and his brother Claudius. Series 2 picks up the action 16 years after the first series, in an alternative Europe in the early 1950s. Denmark is a powerful, militarised country with a small Empire around the Baltic which it is fighting hard to maintain. There is more than a hint of totalitarianism in the air.


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m001sd4v)
Series 36

Archival Imaginings

Liminal prose and cryptic hotlines. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures navigating our relationship and imaginations to history collecting.

The Flight of Sankofa
Produced by Weyland Mckenzie-Witter
Featuring Lisa Anderson, the Director of the Black Cultural Archives, Dr Etienne Jospeh of Decolonising the Archive and Christopher West the inaugural curator for the Black diaspora, John Hay Library, Brown University, who recently curated an exhibition using Brown University’s Mumia Abu-Jamal collection.

Xenoglossia
Produced by Kamikaze Jones

Fish & Chips
(best listened to with headphones)
Produced by Abira Hussein and Olani Ewunnet
Recorded with Sue Bowerman
Featuring the voices of Somali Aunties from London
Special thanks to Alan Archer-Boyd, and Whose Knowledge?

Produced by Axel Kacoutié
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (p0c258w1)
7. Mary Ann Cotton

Lucy Worsley investigates the crimes of Victorian women from a contemporary, feminist perspective.

This time, Lucy visits County Durham in North East England, to reinvestigate the woman known as Britain’s first female serial killer. Mary Ann Cotton was accused of murdering her stepson in 1872, after telling the local grocer that she was sure her stepson will die soon. When her stepson died a few days later, the police were called in.

Following a rushed post-mortem and inquest, Cotton seemed to have got away with it - his death was declared a case of natural causes. But more tests and a second post mortem revealed that her stepson had been poisoned. Mary Ann Cotton was arrested, put on trial, and sentenced to be hanged. She maintained her innocence right up until she was led to the gallows.

Although convicted of one murder, historians now believe that Mary Ann Cotton killed up to 21 people.

Lucy visits Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, to see the unsuspecting murder weapon, and Cotton’s former home in West Auckland, to see where she last lived.

Alexandra Wilson, an author and barrister who has practiced in both family and criminal law, talks Lucy through the legal implications of the case, including whether she would represent Cotton today.

Lucy asks if Mary Ann Cotton was a cold and calculated killer, or a desperate and vulnerable mother in need of an income from insurance payouts.

Historian Rosalind Crone puts the story into the context of the Victorian era. Was Mary Ann Cotton just trying to better herself? And why was it so easy for her to remain undetected for so long?

This is a case that highlights the domestic role of women and how they could, theoretically, get away with murder.

Producer: Hannah Fisher
Readers: Clare Corbett and Jonathan Keeble
Sound Design: Chris Maclean

A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m001sd55)
Jury conscience, resolving conflicts in space, and the law of Treasure Trove in Scotland

Can juries acquit a defendant as a matter of conscience? For example, if people are accused of causing criminal damage as part of a protest, could the jury find them innocent despite the judge's directions? Joshua speaks to Clive Dolphin from Defend our Juries; Richard Vogler, Professor of Comparative Criminal Law & Criminal Justice, University of Sussex, and Tana Adkin KC, Chair of the Criminal Bar Association.

There are currently around 5000 active satellites in space and that's expected to rise to 100,000 by 2030. Satellites generate debris, too, and even a tiny fleck of paint can cause serious damage when colliding with something else, due to the speeds involved. But who is liable if one satellite damages another? Joshua asks Rachael O'Grady, Partner at Mayer Brown if international space law is keeping up with technology.

If you find treasure in Scotland, can you keep it and will the finder receive a reward for declaring it? We hear from Glasgow University student Lucy Ankers who discovered a hoard of coins thought to be linked to the 1692 Glencoe massacre and Bobby Sandeman, Chief Executive of King's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer.

Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Producers: Diane Richardson and Arlene Gregorius
Sound: Graham Puddifoot and James Beard
Editor: Carl Johnston


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m001sd5j)
India Knight and Emma Dabiri

Journalist India Knight and writer Emma Dabiri talk to Harriett Gilbert about favourite books. India chooses The Tap Dancer by Andrew Barrow, while Harriett has gone for Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, the novel Anne Tyler considers her best work. Emma champions Claire Keegan's short but powerful story, So Late in the Day. Themes of food and family emerge from all three books.

Producer for BBC Audio Sally Heaven


TUE 17:00 PM (m001sd5t)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001sd6c)
The sacked Home Secretary told the Mr Sunak he had failed to deliver on key policies


TUE 18:30 Best Medicine (m001sd6n)
Series 1

6. CT Scans, Inhalation, Faith, Attention

Joining Kiri this week are Reverend Kate Bottley who offers up faith as the Best Medicine, Dr Subarna Chakravorty and John James OBE who team up to talk about sickle cell, comedian Ria Lina who wants everyone to get a CT scan, and historian Caroline Rance debunking dodgy inhalation practices throughout history.

Best Medicine is your weekly dose of laughter, hope and incredible medicine. Award-winning comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean is joined by funny and fascinating comedians, doctors, scientists and historians to celebrate medicine’s inspiring past, present and future.

Each week, Kiri challenges her guests to make a case for what they think is 'the best medicine', and each of them champions anything from world-changing science to an obscure invention, an everyday treatment, an uplifting worldview, an unsung hero or a futuristic cure.

Whether it’s micro-robotic surgery, virtual reality syringes, Victorian clockwork surgical saws, more than a few ingenious cures for cancer, world-first lifesaving heart operations, epidurals, therapy, dancing, faith or laughter - it’s always something worth celebrating.

Hosted by Kiri Pritchard-McLean

Featuring: Rev. Kate Bottley, Dr Subarna Chakravorty, John James OBE, Ria Lina and Caroline Rance

Written by Laura Claxton, Toussaint Douglass, Charlie George, Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Ben Rowse

Producer: Ben Worsfield

Assistant Producer: Tashi Radha

Executive Producer: Simon Nicholls

Theme tune composed by Andrew Jones

A Large Time production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001scwp)
Lilian isn’t looking forward to Harry Chilcott’s return, but Alice says not to worry. She’s looked him up online and knows his type. Later, Alice is grooming Sadie when Harry arrives. He compliments Alice’s way with the horse, commenting that it’s management who sometimes let the team down. Alice then introduces herself as manager of The Stables. She listens to Harry’s concerns and talks through the decision-making on the day Sadie was injured. Harry thaws, acknowledging that he was a little hot-headed with his accusations. Lilian encourages Alice to take Harry on a tour, but Alice puts him off. He gives Alice his card, suggesting he buy her lunch to apologise for his earlier behaviour. Alice turns him down repeatedly, then gets flustered when Harry says it’s clear that she really doesn’t want to meet up.

Joy waits outside with Jack while Helen goes in to see how Rob is, before taking Jack in. With Rob, Helen makes clear her conditions for Jack’s visit. She’s surprised when Rob simply agrees to her demands. As she leaves to get Jack, vulnerable Rob asks how he looks. Fine, she says. But when it comes to the moment Jack bursts into tears and refuses to go inside. Helen won’t force Jack into doing something he doesn’t want to, so she asks Joy to wait with Jack while she goes back to see Rob. Joy’s worried for Helen going in alone, but Helen says she’ll be alright. Then, when Helen delivers the news about Jack to Rob, he cries and asks her to leave.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001sd6v)
Emerald Fennell, Lucy Frazer and Paul Harding

Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to her award-winning film Promising Young Woman aims to have cinema-goers squirming in their seats. The mystery drama Saltburn explores class, as an awkward outsider spends the summer at a large country house.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon Lucy Frazer KC MP discusses her plans to reach the targets set out in the Government’s Creative Industries Sector Vision.

In this week’s interview with a Booker shortlisted author, Tom speaks to the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Paul Harding. His third novel, This Other Eden, uses the historical story of an island in Maine harmoniously inhabited by a mixed-race community in the 19th century as a point of poetic departure, until the unsettling arrival of missionaries.


TUE 20:00 Today (m001sd71)
The Today Debate: Israel Gaza - What happens when the war ends?

The Today Debate is all about taking a subject and discussing it with more time than we could ever have during the morning.

Mishal Husain is joined by a panel of guests to discuss what happens when the Israel Gaza war ends.

On the panel are Jeremy Bowen, BBC International Editor; Daniel Levy, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations; Lord Ricketts, former chair of the UK’s intelligence committee under Tony Blair and former national security adviser to David Cameron, former national security advisor and chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee; Ghada Karmi, Palestinian academic and author and joining from Washington Evelyn Farkas, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for President Obama.


TUE 21:00 In Touch (m001sd76)
All The Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr's 2014 war novel All The Light We Cannot See has been adapted into a four-part TV series on Netflix. The story is based in Nazi-occupied France during World War Two, and revolves around a blind character called Marie-Laure LeBlanc and a German boy, Werner Pfennig, who is pressed into serving as an anti-German radio broadcast interceptor for the Nazi army.

Aria Mia Loberti plays the role of Marie in the series and she joins us from Rhode Island to share what the experience was like of starring in her first acting role, the choices she applied to the character and she shares anecdotes of what it was like on set as a blind person and filming with the likes of Hugh Laurie. Fern Lulham is the voice of the audio description for the adaptation on Netflix and she tells us more about how audio describing works when you're visually impaired and Sean Randall is an avid reader, who has both read the book and watched the series, he helps us assess how well Marie-Laure LeBlanc has been adapted to the screen.

The Netflix series All the Light We Cannot See was written by Steven Knight and Directed by Shawn Levy.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image, wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three individual white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one of a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.


TUE 21:20 A Point of View (m001s642)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:48 on Sunday]


TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m001sczl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001sd7b)
Braverman accuses Sunak of betrayal

Suella Braverman has accused the prime minister of betraying the nation in a scathing post-sacking letter. We ask how serious her attack is for Rishi Sunak.

Also on the programme:

As President Biden prepares to welcome China's President Xi tomorrow - we hear why their meeting in San Francisco is so important.

And we hear how AI-based tools are challenging traditional weather forecasting systems for accuracy.


TUE 22:45 Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido (m001sd7g)
Episode 2

Brother of the More Famous Jack is Barbara Trapido’s first novel. Published in 1982, it soon acquired countless fans as well as winning prizes and, in more recent years, admirers including :

'The perfect book' - Meg Mason

'The best possible company in this difficult world' - Ann Patchett

'A daisy bomb of joy' - Maria Semple

'Funny, charming, teeming with life, and real' - Nick Hornby

'I adored it . Redolent of classics like The Constant Nymph with both its true voice and wonderfully sage and sanguine heroine' - Sophie Dahl

'Reading it again is as comforting as eating toast and Marmite between clean, fresh sheets' - Rachel Cooke, Sunday Times

Eighteen-year-old Katherine - bright, stylish, frustratedly suburban - doesn't know how her life will change when the brilliant Jacob Goldman first offers her a place at university. When she enters the Goldmans' rambling bohemian home, presided over by the beatific matriarch Jane, she realises that Jacob and his family are everything she has been waiting for.

Sally Phillips, much loved star of Clare in the Community, returns to BBC Radio 4 with this delightful comic tale of the joys and anguish of young love.

Abridged by Mark Kilfoyle and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
Read by Sally Phillips
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:00 Now You're Asking with Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn (m001sd7l)
The 'Is He the One?' Problem

Is it ever possible to know whether your partner is 'The One'? Can you go to church but avoid drinking the Kool Aid? Should men shave more than the hair on their chin? It's safe to say there is no subject that Marian and Tara won't tackle in their quest to solve their listener's conundrums.

Marian Keyes is a multi award-winning writer, with a total of over 30 million of her books sold to date in 33 languages. Her close friend Tara Flynn is an actress, comedian and writer. Together, these two friends have been through a lot, and now want to use their considerable life experience to help solve your biggest - and smallest - of the things that keep us awake at night.

Previous series were welcomed by listeners and critics: "Both are warm and kind enough to not only be funny but also offer genuinely thoughtful, if left-field, advice." (Miranda Sawyer, The Observer) "Keyes and Flynn are my new favourite double-act." (Jane Anderson - Radio Times) "I found their compassion endlessly soothing." (Rachel Cunliffe - The New Statesman)

Recorded in Dublin with emails received from listeners around the world, the hosts invite you to pull up a chair at their virtual kitchen table as they read and digest their inbox.

Got a problem you want Marian and Tara to solve? Email: marianandtara@bbc.co.uk.

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


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001sd7q)
Sean Curran reports as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and his Labour shadow Rachel Reeves clash over the economy.