SATURDAY 20 JANUARY 2024

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001vc05)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 The Great Post Office Trial (m001sdw1)
17. Facing the Music

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 17, Nick explores how senior Post Office lawyers and managers reacted in 2013 to the biggest challenge to the Horizon system yet. After MPs forced an independent investigation which identified bugs in Horizon, the Post Office publicly backed their computer system and reaffirmed their faith in the prosecutions they had conducted. But behind the scenes, all hell was breaking loose.

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

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vc09)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vc0f)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vc0m)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001vc0r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vc0w)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger

Women’s Bible

Good Morning.

On this day back in 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the first woman ever to testify before the US Congress, on the issue of votes for women. She was an abolitionist and an ardent campaigner for women’s rights, - and a harsh critic of how the Bible was interpreted by men, so much so that she published the Women’s Bible in 1895! She believed the Bible had been written- and interpreted- to subordinate women, and that it was a product of its time. Her views shocked many people. Nevertheless, the Woman’s Bible was hugely popular, running to seven editions in six months! It caused a storm - but her methodology, using textual and historical criticism, was already gaining traction amongst academics. She read the Bible through feminist eyes, convinced that its- to her- most offensive passages had been written by men in a less enlightened age!

Nowadays, few people, other than fundamentalists who regard the Bible as being literally the word of God, would turn a hair. Academic biblical criticism has flourished for well over a hundred and fifty years. Historical analysis is commonplace. Different versions of the same text, such as the 10 Commandments, demonstrate that attitudes changed and developed - the later version suggests a wife is more valuable than a house!

Stanton established the foundations for modern feminism, alongside critical religious thinking. She wanted slavery abolished, votes for women, girls to be educated like boys and marriage to be between equals, with no one partner obeying the other. Through her campaigns, over a hundred and fifty years ago, she changed social attitudes, for women and men alike. And that led to progress. She deserves memorialising. God, let us remember Elizabeth Cady Stanton and all others who changed our world for the better, however hard it was for them to do so.


SAT 05:45 The Banksy Story (m001nw23)
3. Santa's Ghetto

James Peak isn't an art critic, or even a journalist. He's a Banksy super-fan, and in this series he, and his soundman Duncan, get closer than close to Banksy's secret world - telling the story of the graffiti kid who made spraying walls into high art, the household name who is completely anonymous, the cultural phenomenon who bites the hand that feeds him.

James persuades a member of Banksy's secret team – someone who worked closely with the artist when they were starting to cut through – to talk about the experience. The story that results is a rollercoaster ride

In this episode, an incident at the Christmas Santa's Ghetto exhibition helps Steph prove herself to Banksy.

Written, Produced and Presented by James Peak
Sound & Commentary: Duncan Crowe.
Voices: Keith Wickham & Harriet Carmichael
Music: Alcatraz Swim Team & Lilium
Series Mixing: Neil Churchill
Executive Producer: Philip Abrams
With special thanks to Hadrian Briggs, Pete Chinn, Patrick Nguyen, John Higgs and Steph Warren.

An Essential Radio production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001vky9)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m001vbvd)
Mabel's mountain trip with hares

"In the winter when the snow is there it's a different world, escaping into the silence. It has a hint of the forbidding too because you feel you're going on true adventures." Andrew Cotter.

It's almost two years now since Iain Cameron and Andrew Cotter took producer Miles Warde on a lengthy summer mountain hike. They all agreed they'd love to come back in the winter, in the snow, kitted out and accompanied by at least one of Andrew's famous dogs. Olive stayed at home for this one; but buoyed up by endless biscuits and chicken bits, Mabel made it over four Munros in the ice and snow near Glenshee. It was a grand day out.

Andrew Cotter is a sports broadcaster and author of Olive, Mabel and Me. His friend Iain Cameron is a snow patch researcher and author of The Vanishing Ice.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001vkyf)
20/01/24 Environmental targets; Neonicotinoids; Risk of animal disease at ports; LAMMA show and AI drone mapping; Kaleb's rap.

The Government is doing too little, too slowly, to meet its own environmental ambitions and statutory commitments, according to a report published by the Office for Environmental Protection.

Neonicotinoid pesticides have been approved for emergency use for the fourth year in a row. That's an exemption to a ban that's been in place in the UK and the EU since 2013. The seed treatment for sugar beet seed makes them resistant to a crop virus spread by aphids called virus yellows. Environmentalists say the pesticide poisons the soil and water courses, and affect plants and the bees that feed on them. Farmers say the regulations around them are stricter in the UK than in Europe but the way forward is to develop breeds of plant that are resistant to the aphids.

Farmers warn that cuts to, and changes in, inspections at the Port of Dover raise the risk of animal disease being brought into the UK. The Government wants to cut the budget for spot checks for illegal meat in cars and coaches by 70%, and later this year plans to move the new post-Brexit inspections of commercial traffic from Dover to an inland site.

The LAMMA Show took place in Birmingham this week with 600 exhibitors show casing the very latest in farm machinery and innovation, everything from specialist soil-aeration machinery to farm solar energy systems, and of course, enormous tractors.

Drone tech is often touted as the next big thing in agriculture. But how useful is it? Plymouth University is working on a project to map biodiversity on farm using artificial intelligence.

Kaleb Cooper, the star of the TV series "Clarkson's Farm" has recorded a rap to raise money for RABI - the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001vkyk)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001vkyp)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001vkyw)
Sathnam Sanghera, Libby Jackson, Darren Edwards, Keith Brymer Jones

Extending our knowledge of Imperial frontiers - journalist, author and Empire educator Sathnam Sanghera’s reveals why tea is the best medium to discuss the British Empire.

Crossing the final frontier with Libby Jackson - she boldly explores where none of us are likely to as The Head of Space Exploration at the UK Space Agency.

And the record-breaking Darren Edwards keeps crossing endurance frontiers after announcing his next challenge is to become the first disabled adventurer to complete the longest sit-ski expedition across the Antarctic.

All that plus the Inheritance Tracks of ceramic designer and Great Pottery Throw Down judge, Keith Brymer Jones.

Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Greg James
Producer: Ben Mitchell


SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (m001vkz0)
The Bloomsbury Group

For the 100th episode, Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Jane Goldman and comedian Suzi Ruffell as he travels back a century to1920s London to learn all about the members of the Bloomsbury Group. A collection of intellectuals and artists active in London in the early twentieth century, the Bloomsbury Group included such luminaries as Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, and John Maynard Keynes. From their origins at the University of Cambridge to their bohemian lifestyle in London in the 1910s and 20s, and taking in their political work, artistic output, and boundary-pushing relationships, this episode explores the lives, loves and cultural impact of Bloomsbury Group members.

Research by: Madeleine Bracey, Andrew Himmelberg, and Josh Rice
Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner
Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse


SAT 10:30 Alexei Sayle's Strangers on a Train (m001p10h)
Series 2

Birmingham to Stansted Airport

Comedy icon Alexei Sayle continues his series of rail journeys across the country with a trip from Birmingham to Stansted Airport

Alexei’s mission is to break the golden rule of travelling by train and actually talk to his fellow passengers, in a quest for conversations with strangers that will reveal their lives, hopes, dreams and destinations.

Along the way, Alexei holds a finger into the wind of the thoughts and moods of the great British travelling public. There’s humour, sadness and surprise as people reveal what is going on in their lives and, as Alexei passes through familiar towns and cities, he also delves into his own personal stories of a childhood in Liverpool and a long career as a comedian, actor and author.

Alexei has a life-long ticket to ride in his DNA, as his father was a railway guard. As a child, Alexei travelled on trains with his mum and dad, not only in the UK but also abroad. While other children in Liverpool at the time thought a trip to Blackpool was a big adventure, Alexei travelled to Paris, experienced the Orient Express, had summer holidays in Czechoslovakia and visited mysterious cities with unpronounceable names in the farthest corners of Europe.

In this programme, Alexei meets Adam, a student at Cambridge on his way back to college with his mum Helen. Adam introduces Alexei to the mysterious world of competitive Pokemon. Among his many fellow travellers, Alexei also meets Holly who lives in Bali and is dedicated to studying and saving sharks; Megan, who was born in Arizona and is on her way to her first ever key note speech at the prestigious Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge and Katrin and Klara who have been on holiday in the UK, are flying home to Germany from Stansted, and are great fans of English humour.


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m001vkz7)
Paul Waugh, chief political commentator of the i Newspaper, assesses the latest developments in Westminster.

In a week of challenges for the Conservative Party over their Rwanda plan, Paul is joined by Sir John Hayes MP and Labour's Baroness Hayter, to discuss what happens next.

Meanwhile in the small Swiss town of Davos, government ministers and tech billionaires rub shoulders to discuss global challenges. Former Downing Street Director of Communications, Guto Harri, is joined from Davos by the Financial Times' Gillian Tett to discuss what it's all about.

Gareth Davies, Comptroller & Auditor General of the National Audit Office sets out the challenges facing government following his speech to Parliament this week.

And finally, in a week of polls, Deltapoll's Joe Twyman and Sophie Stowers from UK in a changing Europe, discuss how seriously we should take the polls as we prepare for a general election this year.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001vkzm)
Taiwan's Defiant Message To China

Kate Adie presents stories from Taiwan, Ecuador, Germany, Georgia and Indonesia

The pro-sovereignty candidate William Lai won Taiwan's presidential election this week. Our correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes charts the key moments that led to this historic vote, as Taiwan's voters sent a signal to Beijing.

Will Grant has been in the Ecuadorean city of Guayaquil which experienced a sudden descent into violence after two gang members escaped from prison, and a TV station was raided during a live broadcast. He meets one family who encountered tragedy in the crossfire.

In Germany, Jessica Parker recounts her encounters at some of the nationwide tractor protests which blocked streets in towns and cities this week, as farmers took a stand against the removal of tax relief on diesel - but that's not the only thing German voters are angry about.

Amelia Stewart visits a family trying to revive Georgia's once-thriving tea industry, which supplied 95 per cent of tea to the former Soviet Union. She visits Racha, in the country's north-west and hears how it's providing a welcome source of income for locals.

And finally we travel on Indonesia's new high-speed 'Whoosh' railway. Funded by Chinese loans, the train runs from Jakarta to the economic hub, Bandung. Such infrastructure projects are one way for China to exert influence via its Belt and Road Initiative - but does the train live up to the hype? Nick Marsh takes a ride.

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


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001vl00)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001vl0j)
Pension Scams & HMRC and Fuel Vouchers

Some people who have been defrauded out of some or all of their pension fund are now being chased by HM Revenue & Customs for tax on money they no longer have. They were persuaded by advisers to cash in their pension and invest it in schemes that promised big returns. In fact they were often fake and some or all of their money disappeared. But HMRC is demanding tax on this missing money because they cashed in their pension too early. A campaign group based in Parliament is calling for a change in the law to protect them from what it calls the largest tax scandal in British history. In response, HMRC told Money Box “We do not tax pension savings lost to fraud. What we do tax are amounts that people release, or attempt to release, from their pensions where not authorised in law. It is our responsibility to collect the tax people legally owe and maintain a fair tax system for all. We sympathise with people who may have lost money by entering such arrangements and handle these situations on a case by case basis. We take the wellbeing of all taxpayers seriously and do everything we can for those who engage with us to get their tax affairs in order, including by offering affordable payment plans.”

As temperatures hit a new low this week one charity is nearly doubling the size of the vouchers it gives to those who can't keep warm. We'll speak to the Fuel Bank Foundation which helps people on prepayment meters manage their bills.

A record number of people will need to re-mortgage this year - are the choices getting any better?

And all you need to know about filing your self assessment form.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Tamzin Kraftman
Researcher: Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 20th January 2024)


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m001vbyl)
Series 113

Episode 3

Andy Zaltzman quizzes news from Swansea this week. Providing all the answers are Lucy Porter, Robin Morgan, Tadiwa Mahlunge, and Ayesha Hazarika.

In this episode Andy and the panel have a look at some broken geopolitical New Year's resolutions and how life seemingly both began and is now struggling in Wales.

Written by Andy Zaltzman

With additional material by: Cody Dahler, Cameron Loxdale, and Callum Jones

Producer: Sam Holmes
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001vl0z)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001vl1h)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001vbz4)
Anita Boateng, Caroline Lucas MP, Steve Reed MP, Michael Tomlinson MP

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Uckfield Civic Centre, East Sussex with former Conservative special adviser Anita Boateng, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, Labour's shadow environment secretary Steve Reed MP, and the minister for countering illegal migration Michael Tomlinson MP.

Producer: Paul Martin
Lead broadcast engineer: Andy Lenton


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001vl20)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week


SAT 14:45 The Banksy Story (m001nvr1)
4. Reverse Heists

James Peak isn't an art critic, or even a journalist. He's a Banksy super-fan, and in this series he, and his soundman Duncan, get closer than close to Banksy's secret world - telling the story of the graffiti kid who made spraying walls into high art, the household name who is completely anonymous, the cultural phenomenon who bites the hand that feeds him.

James persuades a member of Banksy's secret team – someone who worked closely with the artist when they were starting to cut through – to talk about the experience. The story that results is a rollercoaster ride.

In this episode, Banksy's hilarious reverse heists at the world's best museums and galleries gain him some serious notoriety.

Written, Produced and Presented by James Peak
Sound & Commentary: Duncan Crowe.
Voices: Keith Wickham & Harriet Carmichael
Music: Alcatraz Swim Team & Lilium
Series Mixing: Neil Churchill
Executive Producer: Philip Abrams
With special thanks to Hadrian Briggs, Pete Chinn, Patrick Nguyen, John Higgs and Steph Warren.

An Essential Radio production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 15:00 Electric Decade (m000p0lp)
USA by John Dos Passos

Episode Three

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

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

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

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

Episode Three: Margo Dowling, Charley Anderson, Richard Savage.
Margo Dowling is a would-be actress, Charley Anderson is a working-man turned war hero, and Richard Savage is now Moorehouse’s right-hand man on Madison Avenue. The Twenties are beginning to roar, as the fates of all the characters we have met are resolved for good or ill.

Cast:
John Ward Moorehouse ..... Tom Bateman
Eveline Hutchins ..... Hannah Genesius
Janey Williams ..... Sheila Atim
Richard Savage ..... Luke Thallon
Margo Dowling ..... Genevieve Gaunt
Charley Anderson ..... Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Agnes ..... Laurel Lefkow
Frank / Doctor .... Eric Meyers
Tony Garrido ..... Jacob Fortune-Lloyd
Sam Margolies/ Jerry ..... Will Howard
Mo Askew..... Christopher Ragland
Tad Whittlesea..... Gabriel Freilich
Nat Benton ..... Calam Lynch
Doc Bingham ..... Robert G.Slade
Myra Bingham ..... Lily Lefkow-Green
Althea Bingham ..... Georgia Brown

Other parts played by members of the company.

Producer / Director - Fiona McAlpine
Sound Design & Music Arrangement - Lucinda Mason Brown

Production Manager - Lucy Barter
An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001vl2g)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Jodie Comer, Vicky McClure, Jameela Jamil

The Killing Eve star Jodie Comer joins us to discuss her latest film, The End We Start From. The protagonist is a new mum, who has to navigate a flooded Britain with her baby. Jodie also reflects on the powerful response to her play Prima Facie, and the impact of fame on her life.

According to a new report by the charity Brainkind, up to one in two survivors of domestic abuse in the UK may be living with an undiagnosed brain injury. We speak to Steffy Bechelet from Brainkind and Dr Annemarie Burns, a consultant clinical neuro-psychologist.

Vicky McClure joins us to discuss her new role as explosives expert Lana Washington in a new series of Trigger Point.

How often do you feel weary and depleted? The burnout coach and historian Anna Schaffner discusses her book, Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary.

They were known as Israel’s “eyes on the border.” These were female Israeli border soldiers - who raised concerns about suspicious Hamas activity on the Gaza border in the run up to the October 7 attack - but those concerns went unheard by higher ranking officers. Hamas killed at least 1,200 people in that attack and took about 240 hostages, around 130 of whom are still being held. Since then, nearly 25,000 civilians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment that followed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. We speak to the BBC’s Alice Cuddy and the author Mary Ann Sieghart.

The actor and activist Jameela Jamil has made headlines over the years for her provocative, sometimes sweary social media posts, often calling out celebrity culture for promoting unrealistic ideals. She reflects on cancel culture and her resolution to post online with more 'grace and empathy'.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Lucy Wai
Editor: Erin Riley


SAT 17:00 PM (m001vl2y)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m001vl3b)
The Humza Yousaf One

The First Minister of Scotland sits down with Nick Robinson in Glasgow to reflect on his first ten months in power and how his family is dealing with the ongoing trauma of being caught up in the war in Gaza

Producer: Daniel Kraemer


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001vl3s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001vl45)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vl4j)
Iran has threatened to retaliate -- after accusing Israel of killing five senior members of its security forces in a suspected air strike in Syria.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001vl4s)
Stuart Murdoch, Joanne Clifton, Tony Singh, Belle and Sebastian, Wayward Jane, Joy Dunlop, Janey Godley, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Janey Godley are joined by Stuart Murdoch, Tony Singh and Joanne Clifton for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Belle and Sebastian, Wayward Jane and Joy Dunlop, recorded at BBC Scotland, Glasgow.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m001vl52)
Gabriel Attal

Stephen Smith looks at the life of the newly appointed French prime minister.

The child of film producers, at one stage it looked like he was bound for a career in entertainment.

Instead, Gabriel Attal has become the youngest PM in modern French history and he hopes to revive President Macron's government.

One of his first tasks will be to lead the French government into the European Parliament elections in June.

Contributors
Marisol Touraine, former French Minister of Health, chair of Unitaid.
Mireille Clapot, National Assembly member for Drôme.
Philippe Marliere, Professor of French and European Politics, University College London.
Dominic Gould, Actor.
Sophie Pedder, Paris Bureau Chief, the Economist.

Credits
France 24
TF1, France.
La Belle Personne, directed by Christophe Honoré
Institut National de l'Audiovisuel

Presenter: Stephen Smith
Production: Daniel Gordon, Leontine Gallois, Diane Richardson
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound: Andrew Fell
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Katie Morrison, and Janet Staples


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m001vkvq)
Boy George

Born George O'Dowd, Boy George shot to pop stardom in 1982 as frontman with the band Culture Club and later as a solo artist. With his soulful vocals and flamboyant, androgynous looks, he became a massive star around the world with hits such as Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? and Karma Chameleon. His personal struggles with drug addiction and a prison sentence in 2009 meant he was rarely far from tabloid headlines. In recent years he’s been a judge on The Voice, survived the jungle in I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, and has just published a new memoir called Karma. He continues to record and perform as a prolific solo singer songwriter.

George discusses the impact that David Bowie had on him as a teenager and recalls seeing him at the Lewisham Odeon during the Ziggy Stardust tour of 1973. He also talks about the important influence of club promoter Philip Sallon who introduced him to London's gay scene in the late 1970s. Meeting Quentin Crisp in New York with Andy Warhol was also a formative cultural moment. George talks to John Wilson candidly about coping with fame and rebuilding his life after addiction and prison.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001vl58)
Reporting Russia

Russia is a posting which requires foreign correspondents to inform their audiences about a vast country relatively rarely visited by tourists or other travellers, a land that for long periods of its history has been isolated from the West for political reasons. Often, their status and working conditions have been dependent on the state of international relations. They've lived under the threat of expulsion and even arrest. Apart from one short period of openness in the late 1980s and 1990s, it's almost always been hard to gain information and understand what's happening in the country. Now, since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, many of the difficulties foreign reporters experienced in the Cold War have returned. One correspondent - Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal - is currently behind bars, accused of spying.

Tim Whewell, who was a BBC correspondent in Moscow at the time of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his successor, Russian president Boris Yeltsin, has been looking through the BBC sound archives to trace the experiences of some of his predecessors - and successors - from the Second World War through to the present day. What were the pressures they've operated under? How did reporters in the Cold War dodge the constant surveillance of the KGB secret police? How did they find ways to meet ordinary people? And what - against all the odds - were their journalistic scoops? How did they cope with the increased physical danger that came with greater freedom in the 1990s? Did they always interpret the huge changes underway in the country correctly? And how do they continue to operate now in the repressive atmosphere of Putin's Russia? It's a roller-coaster of a story - with many funny moments along the way.

Contributors:
Kevin Connolly, former BBC Moscow correspondent
Mary Dejevsky, former Moscow correspondent for The Times
Angus Roxburgh, former Moscow correspondent for The Times and then the BBC
Martin Walker, former Moscow correspondent for The Guardian

Voices from the archives include:
Sarah Rainsford, current BBC Eastern Europe correspondent
Steve Rosenberg, current BBC Russia Editor
David Tutayev, writer and diplomat, occasional correspondent in Moscow in the 1940s
John Rettie, Reuters correspondent in Moscow in the 1950s
Erik de Mauny, the BBC's first permanent Moscow correspondent from 1963, and again in the 1970s
Richard Dimbleby, presenter and moderator of the BBC's General Election coverage in 1964
Philip Short, BBC Moscow correspondent during parts of the Cold War
Svevolod Ovchinnikov, Pravda correspondent in London in the 1970s
Petr Kumpa, Moscow correspondent for the Baltimore Sun in the 1970s
Kevin Ruane, BBC Moscow correspondent in the 1970s
Teresa McGonagle and Molly Lee of the BBC's Woman's Hour in the 1970s
Jack Dee, presenting Have I Got News For You on BBC TV in 2007 (produced by Hat Trick Productions)
Margaret, later Baroness Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979-1990
Mikhail Gorbachev, last leader of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985-1991
Peter Snow, presenter of Newsnight from 1980-1997
Lawrence McDonnell, BBC correspondent in Moscow in the early 1990s
Danielle Gershkovich, sister of Evan Gershkovich, speaking to the Wall Street Journal in 2023

Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Tara McDermott
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Mike Woolley
Photo: Erik de Mauney reporting in snowy Moscow, copyright BBC


SAT 21:00 Drama on 4 (m0002kzx)
China Towns

Episode 1

Inspired by the novels of Arnold Bennett, an epic tale of money, passion and defiance set in the Staffordshire potteries. Dramatised for radio by Shaun McKenna and Lin Coghlan

It’s the 19th Century and the Industrial Revolution is at full throttle. Only the ruthless thrive in this uncompromising world. Edwin Clayhanger leaves school with dreams of becoming a painter but his father’s having none of it.

Ephraim Tellwright ….. Neil Dudgeon
Darius Clayhanger ….. Tim McInnerny
Edwin ….. Cameron Percival
Aunty Hamps ….. Carolyn Pickles
Big James ….. Ian Conningham
Constance ….. Bryony Hannah
Sophia ….. Alexandra Constantinidi
Mrs Baines ….. Clare Corbett
Mr Povey ….. Lewis Bray
Shushions ….. Michael Bertenshaw
Thwaite ….. Tony Turner
Machin ….. Christopher Harper
Snaggs ….. Don Gilet
Jeannie ….. Saffron Coomber

Incidental music arranged by Colin Guthrie and performed by Colin Guthrie, Peter Ringrose and Ian Conningham.

Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow

Presiding over this seething mass of industry are Ephraim Tellwright and Darius Clayhanger, self-made men, they hold the fate of this community in their hands, passing judgement on those that put the prosperity and reputation of the Five Towns at risk.

This is a radical reinterpretation of six brilliant Arnold Bennett novels for BBC Radio 4. It's his world seen with a modern eye. The books follow the inhabitants of Bursley and the Five Towns (of Stoke-on-Trent) from 1865 – 1903 in an epic sweep across 11 hours, as individuals rise, fall, age, flourish and see the world around them become unrecognisable, transformed by new technology. Fortunes are lost, hearts broken, empires built and compromises made. These tales of aspiration and passion, damage and danger are told with Bennett's forensic, (journalist’s) eye for human psychology and a surprising degree of witty comedy.

The Producers are Marion Nancarrow and Gemma Jenkins.


SAT 22:00 News (m001vl5g)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Screenshot (m001vbyy)
British Dystopias

Forty years on from 1984 and the release of the John Hurt-starring big screen adaptation of George Orwell’s novel, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore dystopian visions from British film and TV.

Mark speaks to film critic Kim Newman about the literary roots of the dystopia, from 1984 to A Clockwork Orange. And he talks to actor Brian Cox about how, in a career that has included roles as Dr Hannibal Lecter and Logan Roy, the prophetic 1968 TV play The Year of The Sex Olympics remains one of the projects he is most proud of.

Meanwhile, Ellen talks to Ngozi Onwurah, the director of landmark film Welcome II The Terrordome. Released in 1995, the radical British dystopian tale was the first feature directed by a black woman to get a UK cinema release. Ellen and Ngozi discuss why Welcome II The Terrordome was so prescient.

And Ellen also speaks to Kibwe Tavares, who co-directed new film The Kitchen, about a dilapidated housing estate in a near-future London, with Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya.

Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (m001vcdx)
Series 37

Heat 6, 2024

(6/13)
Paul Gambaccini welcomes three more amateur music lovers to the Radio Theatre in London for the latest contest of the ever-popular music quiz. Competitors from around the UK face Paul's questions on the widest possible range of musical styles and eras, from the classical repertoire to jazz, Broadway musicals, film and game themes, and seventy years of the pop charts.

Taking part are
Susan Booth from Kent
James Bingham from County Wicklow
Vanessa MacNaughton from London.

Today's winner will take another of the places in the semi-finals and will return in February.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner

Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 Stand-Up Specials (m00187rs)
Geoff Norcott: Well Classy

Award-winning comedian Geoff Norcott returns to Radio 4, this time examining his own class identity.

Is it defined by where he's from, or where he's at? Has he changed, now he's known the taste of brioche? Or is he the same old Geoff that he used to be, growing up on the council estate? And, most importantly - why does he care?

Geoff’s previous Radio 4 show won the BBC Best Comedy Award 2019. He is one of the stars of The Mash Report and appears regularly on Question Time. He writes for national publications with articles appearing in The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent and The New Statesman. He writes regularly for other comedians including Sarah Millican, Romesh Ranganathan and Katherine Ryan. Geoff was awarded an Operational Services Medal for five frontline tours entertaining the troops in Afghanistan.

Geoff's first book 'Where Did I go Right? How The Left Lost Me' was published in May 2021.

Written and performed by Geoff Norcott
Produced by Ed Morrish
Exec Producer: Caroline Raphael
Sound Engineer: David Thomas
Broadcast Assistant: Jacob Tombling

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2024

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001vl5n)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Across the Divide (m001styt)
The West Bank

Israeli and Palestinian societies are divided by history, conflict and trauma. But they are also inexorably connected. In Across The Divide Zak Brophy speaks with Israelis and Palestinians with different backgrounds and beliefs to learn about their family histories and the reality of their day to day lives. To hear their hopes, fears, dreams and aspirations. Could the testimony of a handful of the millions who are caught up in the conflict reveal some of the nuance and complexity that is so often lost in times of war? In this episode we hear from two people living in the Israeli Occupied West Bank, one living in a Jewish settlement and the other running a Palestinian community arts centre .

The Across The Divide series is presented and produced by Zak Brophy.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vl5y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vl66)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vl6g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001vl6r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001vl6z)
The church of St Michael in Melbourne, Derbyshire.

Bells on Sunday, comes from the church of St Michael in Melbourne, Derbyshire. The parish church building originally dates from around 1120. By 1897 the central tower housed a ring of eight bells by the John Taylor foundry. In 1992 these were re-hung and augmented to a ring of 12 bells by the addition of 4 new bells from Holland tuned to match the sound profile of the older bells. The Tenor bell weighs fifteen and a quarter hundredweight and is tuned to F sharp. We hear them ringing Stedman Cinques.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m001vl52)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001vl08)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b0890k5b)
Seeing the Light

In the week of the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, Mark Tully asks what causes sudden flashes of inspiration and what the American psychologist Dr Gary Klein has called "light bulb moments".

January 25th traditionally marks the day Saul saw a blinding light leading to his conversion to Christianity when "the scales fell from his eyes". Isaac Newton is supposed to have discovered gravity when struck on the head by an apple. Archimedes cries "Eureka" in his bath. The history books are littered with anecdotes of great discoveries made in the blink of an eye, problems solved in a single moment or radical changes of mind that are seemingly divinely inspired. Has the divine anything to do with the process or is it the subconscious at work - and do we all have the capacity to experience "eureka moments"?

Expert witnesses include Archimedes, George Frederick Handel, Sir Paul McCartney, mathematician Henri Poincaré and green campaigner Annie Leonard.

The readers are Claire Vousden and Vincent Ebrahim.

Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001vl0t)
Amazing Graze

Ruth Sanderson meets Stephen Comber, who co-ordinates and cares for a complex army of hardy livestock which graze the wild places of Northumberland. They do this to maintain areas of land for conservation purposes. Stephen matchmakes small flocks and herds with the landscapes they are brought in to manage, through a system of 'flexi-grazing'. Ruth finds out why grazing is important for wildlife conservation on nature reserves and in sensitive habitats, and meets some of Stephen's "moveable fleet of living lawn mowers."

Produced and presented by Ruth Sanderson


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001vl18)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001vl1v)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001vl28)
Cathedral charging; Last Christians in Gaza; Muslim Comedian Ola Labib

Sunday hears from George Antone from Catholic aid agency Caritas, a member of Holy Family Church in Gaza City. He's one of around 400 parishioners taking shelter in the church and tells us about problems finding food and receiving aid to keep going amidst the war.

Would an entry fee put you off visiting a cathedral? One in four now charge in England. William hears from listeners as well as the Very Revd Jo Kelly-Moore, Chair of the Association of English Cathedrals, and the Very Revd Dr Tim Stratford, Dean of Chester Cathedral, which is free to enter.

Muslim comic Ola Labib talks about keeping her standup secret from her parents when she changed careers from pharmacy, and the things she won't do on stage because of her religion.

Hear about the beautiful tradition of Gaelic Psalm singing being preserved and presented in a new exhibition touring the Hebrides this year. Dr Frances Wilkins and Magidh Smith talk about Seinn Spioradail.

Does it matter if the future King, and therefore the future Supreme Governor of the Church of England, is not particularly "religious"? A line from the new biography of the King speculating on the religious observance of the Prince of Wales has sent the tabloids into a spin. William asks political theologian Dr Jonathan Chaplin - when a head of state is given a constitutional role in an established church, does it matter if he, or she, has little or no personal faith?

Presenter: William Crawley
Producers: Catherine Murray and Helen Brown
Editor: Tim Pemberton


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001vl2s)
Habitat for Humanity

Daliso Chaponda makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Habitat for Humanity.

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 ‘Habitat for Humanity’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Habitat for Humanity’.
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.

Charity Number: 1043641


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001vl37)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001vl3k)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001vl40)
Unite us all at last

A service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity from the Chapel of Royal Holloway, University of London.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001vbzb)
Identity and Theft

AL Kennedy on the recent theft of her backpack and how misfortune can help us reclaim who we really want to be.

She reflects on how an an accident of birth - being white, able-bodied, heterosexual, being baptised a Christian and having English as a first language - has put her in 'a position of completely unearned privilege' when asking for help.

But 'in a decade when so many people, in so many places, have lost everything,' Alison ponders the role we all have in helping people whose needs aren't being met.

'I believe in helping', she writes. 'I didn't lose that worldview in my backpack.'

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


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03srfgn)
Grey Heron (Winter)

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

Chris Packham presents the grey heron. Winter can be a challenging time for grey herons. In freezing conditions, their favoured food supplies of fish and amphibians are locked beneath the ice and prolonged spells of cold weather can be fatal for these birds.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001vl4f)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001vl4q)
Writer: Naylah Ahmed
Director: Pip Swallow

Brian Aldridge…. Charles Collingwood
Helen Archer …. Louiza Patikas
Natasha Archer ….. Mali Harries
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Clarrie Grundy …. Heather Bell
Ed Grundy …. Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy …. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O‘Hanrahan
Mia Grundy …. Molly Pipe
Brad Horrobin …. Taylor Uttley
Joy Horville …. Jackie Lye
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Azra Malik …. Yasmin Wilde
Rebecca Price…. Rose Robinson
Fallon Rogers …. Joanna Van Kampen
Adil Shah …. Ronny Jhutti
Lynda Snell …. Carole Boyd


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001vl50)
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cellist

Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a cellist who came to international attention when he performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. Still only 24, he has performed at a series of high profile locations including the Hollywood Bowl and Downing Street. Last year he was a soloist at the Last Night of the Proms.

Sheku was brought up in Nottingham along with his six siblings who are also extremely talented musicians. At six-years-old he went to a concert by the Nottingham Youth Orchestra where he was transfixed by the cello section. He started having lessons not long afterwards and by the age of nine he’d completed all of his music grades – receiving the highest marks in the country. At 17 he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.

He went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music and made his debut at the BBC Proms as a soloist with the Chineke! Orchestra in 2017.

In 2020 he was appointed an MBE for services to music and two years later became the Royal Academy of Music’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring.

DISC ONE: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85 - 1st movement: Adagio – Moderato. Composed by Edward Elgar and performed by Jacqueline du Pré, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
DISC TWO: Rivers of Babylon -The Melodians
DISC THREE: Dat - Pluto Shervington
DISC FOUR: String Quartet in C major, Op 20 No. 2, Capriccio: Adagio. Composed by Joseph Haydn and performed by The London Haydn Quartet
DISC FIVE: Chances Are - Bob Marley
DISC SIX: Requiem in D minor, K. 626 , Introitus 1 – Requiem. Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and performed by the Monteverdi Choir
DISC SEVEN: Symphony No.11 'The Year 1905' - II. The 9th January; Adagio. Composed by Dmitri Shostakovich and performed by The Moscow Philharmonic, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin
DISC EIGHT: Largo from Organ Sonata No.5 in C major, BWV 529. Composed by Johan Sebastian Bach and performed by Samuel Feinberg

Book: The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman
Luxury: A cello and strings
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Requiem in D minor, K. 626 , Introitus 1 – Requiem. Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and performed by the Monteverdi Choir

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001vl56)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (m001vcfp)
Series 92

2. A Hundred Boy Scouts from Liechtenstein

Sue Perkins challenges Paul Merton, Lucy Porter, Angela Barnes and Eshaan Akbar to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation.

The long-running Radio 4 panel game is back for a new series with subjects including Skimming Stones, The Great Fire of London, and Why I Didn't Make It As A Professional Sprinter.

Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
An EcoAudio certified production.

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001vkw1)
Haggis and Hosting: Celebrating Burns Night

In the dark nights of January, celebrating the work of poet Robert Burns by feasting, toasting and speaking poetry has become a much-loved tradition in Scotland and around the world. Sheila Dillon joins Scottish-Malaysian chef Julie Lin in Glasgow as she hosts friends for Burns Night 2024 to share food and ways of celebrating. She also visits the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow to hear more about Rabbie Burns himself. Who was he? And where do the Burns' food traditions come from? After hearing Burns' famous 'address to a haggis', we call in on the recently-crowned world's best haggis maker, Simon Broadribb, at his butcher's shop in Southampton, to see his award-winning recipe in action. Time for a wee dram? Finally, we hear from whisky expert and 'Master of the Quaich' Ann Miller on what to drink alongside your Burns supper, and discover Burns' own links with the whisky industry.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.
Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001vl5h)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001vl5p)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world


SUN 13:30 Gangster (p0h2qr7m)
Catching the Kingpins

Catching The Kingpins: 3. In Suburbia

In the wealthy village of Denham in Buckinghamshire, Lee Hannigan and Harry Hicks-Samuels play the part of successful businessmen really well. Hannigan has a car garage, a mansion with a Ferrari on the drive and a place in Dubai. Hicks-Samuels is only 27 but has a watch business and flat in a luxury development.

But the secrets of where their money really comes from are on their EncroChat phones.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Series Producer: Andrew Hosken
Editor and Executive Producer: Innes Bowen

Catching the Kingpins is a BBC Studios Production for BBC Sounds.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001vbx3)
Postbag: Ham House and Garden

Could the panel share some gardening tips for wheelchair users? How do I start growing mulukhiyah in my garden? Which hedges could I grow that are resistant to ermine moths and offer privacy?

Peter Gibbs is joined by his eager team of horticultural experts as they dig through the GQT inbox and answer your gardening queries. On the panel this week are landscape architect Bunny Guinness, head gardener of Horatio’s Garden Ashley Edwards and curator of RHS Wisley Matthew Pottage.

This week they visit Ham House and Garden in Richmond where head gardener John Myers gives them a tour of their unique horticultural treasure trove.

Later, Peter and the panel discuss the fundamentals of a kitchen garden and give tips on non-typical fruit and vegetables you could grow in your garden.

Senior Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Short Works (m001p23m)
Kicha and the Unicorn

An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4. National Poet of Wales Hanan Issa tells the tale of Cardiffian widow Kicha, whose grief starts to take on an extraordinary horned and hoofed shape.

Reader - Nina Wadia

Directed by Philippa Swallow
Sound by Nigel Lewis
A BBC Audio Drama Wales production


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m000mkhq)
Oil on Water

From the novel by Helon Habila. Dramatised by Rex Obano.

A contemporary thriller about neocolonial corruption, ecological devastation and journalistic ethics in the badlands of the oil rich Niger Delta. Two reporters risk everything in search of the perfect story after the British wife of an oil company executive is kidnapped.

Port Harcourt, Nigeria - Rufus is yet to make his mark as a journalist. When he accepts an assignment to interview the hostage held by militants, he finds himself shoulder to shoulder with Zaq, a one-time legendary reporter now in painful alcoholic decline. Together, they form an unlikely bond as they set out up river in search of the kidnapped women. But they have forgotten that there’s no such thing as the perfect story in a region where exposing the truth can get you killed.

Set in a filmic world of mangrove swamps, floating villages, and jungle shrines, this taut and suspenseful thriller has echoes of Graham Greene or Joseph Conrad.

Cast:
Rufus ….. Idris Debrand
Zaq ….. Cyril Nri
Gloria ….. Tamara Lawrance
The Major & The Professor ….. Danny Sapani
Naman & Ibiram ….. Peter Bankole
Tamuno & other voices …. Seun Shote
Joseph, & other voices ….. Uché Gabriel Akujobi
Michael ….. Jordan Nash
James Floode ….. Matthew Gravelle
Isabel Floode ….. Claire Price

Other characters are voiced by the cast

Sound Design ….. Adam Woodhams
Mixing ….. Steve Bond
Executive Producer ….. Sara Davies
Produced and Directed by Nicolas Jackson

An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001vl63)
Gerald Murnane

A special interview with the writer Gerald Murnane from his home in Goroke, Victoria in Australia. At 84 years old, Murnane has often been considered a front-runner for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and now new readers are finding their way to his work in increasing numbers as his 1988 novel Inland is being republished. A watershed entry in his bibliography and a difficult book to summarise, Inland captures some of the key traits of his work: exquisite writing, hypnotically powerful, and an obsessive attention to memory, childhood, reading, and the plains and grasslands of Victoria. Gerald rarely gives radio interviews but talks candidly to Chris Power about Inland, his writing process, his rejection of post-modernist labels and why he calls himself "not a well-read man".

Chris is also joined by literary critics John Self and Mia Levitin to talk about some of the more interesting new books coming our way over the next few months and, the Scottish crime writer and academic Louise Welsh, tells us why an old copy of Rilke's poetry is her Book I'd Never Lend.


SUN 16:30 Moving Pictures (m001sm85)
Winter Scene on a Canal by Hendrik Avercamp

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.

We’re out on the ice this episode - a frozen river in the Dutch Republic in the early 17th century. Avercamp gives us a people-watching delight, filling his scene with tiny figures, each with a story of their own. Sledding, shopping, a quick round of colf: it’s an encyclopaedia of Dutch winter fun.

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 Winter Scene on a Canal.

Interviewees: Pieter Roelofs, Bianca du Mortier, Betsy Wieseman, Jonathan Bikker, Rosamund Oates and Leah Kharibian.

Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald

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

A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4.

Picture credit: Hendrik Avercamp (Dutch, 1585-1634), Winter Scene on a Canal, Detail, about 1615, Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, Ohio), Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1951.402


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m001vcgf)
Lethal Weapons: The Blank-Firing Guns Converted to Kill

Handguns which fire blanks are being converted into deadly weapons by criminals. File on 4 has discovered they're now being used more often than real handguns. Adrian Goldberg meets victims of gun crime and explores the UK's trade in illegal firearms. He discovers how easy it is to buy a blank firing pistol which can be illegally converted into a lethal weapon in 20 minutes, and hears from a former gangster who warns the law has too many loopholes.
The UK has some of the strictest firearm laws in the world. So as some criminals struggle to obtain genuine guns, they're now getting blank-firing weapons converted into deadly weapons. As reporter Adrian Goldberg discovers how easy it is, gun campaigners call for tighter regulations around the manufacture and sale of blank firing weapons.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg
Producer: Paul Grant
Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley
Editor: Carl Johnston


SUN 17:40 Profile (m001vl52)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001vl6c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001vl6n)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vl6x)
Russia has blamed Ukraine for the deaths of at least 25 people after shelling hit a shopping district the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001vl73)
Rajan Datar

Reasons to be cheerful parts one, two and three: Blue Monday is not the worst day of the year, but an all-day party in Kansas...we are making headway in our fight against climate change...and one country has found a solution to homelessness. Plus how not to handle a PR meltdown like the Post Office, what it's really like going back to your roots, and why vinyl makes us all feel so groovy…

Presenter: Rajan Datar
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinator: Lydia Depledge-Miller


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001vkvl)
Natasha apologises to Helen about the Grange Farm land misunderstanding, realising how insensitive she must’ve sounded. Helen tells her not to worry, although she’s finding it hard to move forward from Rob. Natasha’s surprised that Clarrie asked Helen to approach Miles about using the auctioned land for Ed’s sheep. The Echo photographer arrives and Natasha checks whether it’s ok for him to take photos in the Farm Shop as well as the Tearoom. Helen says that’s ok as long as she isn’t in shot. Echo journalist Rebecca appears to interview Natasha, who reminds her that the feature is to celebrate the Tearoom, not to scrutinise it. Rebecca agrees to promote all the right things, including Helen’s dairy window and cheese. When Rebecca asks if she can refer to Helen by name in her feature, Helen doesn’t mind at all. Later when Natasha mentions she was surprised Helen was alright about having her name in print, Helen says she surprised herself, but it felt like the right thing to do. Helen’s spent so many years looking over her shoulder, but now she feels liberated.

The Longest Drinker competition at The Bull is taking its toll on Jolene and Kenton who’re witnessing Neville and Bert’s competitive sides over the title. They’re always there, at opposite ends of the bar glaring at each other. Kenton and Jolene try to find a system to decide who’s the longest drinker but can’t agree, until Jolene comes up with the idea of asking Brad to do the calculations.


SUN 19:15 Can You Hear Me Now? (m001vkd0)
Can You Hear Me Now? Is a character comedian showcase for some of the best up and coming character comedians currently performing online and live on the UK comedy circuit.

This episode is hosted by Jim Smith and was recorded at the historic Oran Mor venue in Glasgow - featuring posh boy rapper MC Hammersmith, Edinburgh award-winner Lorna Rose Treen, and viral character comedians Michael Fry and Eleanor Morton.

Producer: Gus Beattie
A Gusman production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Bodies of Water (m001vl77)
3: Firestone Bay

The next in a series of short stories from the award-winning writer of Send Nudes, all taking their inspiration from water.

From a swim team flirtation to a fight by the Trevi Fountain, from an awkward bath for two to a pond-size a confession, these stories are all inspired by the transformative power of water.

In today's story, pulled by the lure of the ocean, a teenage girl leaves her troubled past behind...

Reader: Sian Brooke is a British actor known most recently for her roles in BBC's Blue Lights and Sherlock.
Writer: Saba Sams is a British writer. Her debut collection of short stories Send Nudes appeared in 2022 and won the Edge Hill Prize. One of the stories in the book, 'Blue 4eva', won the 2022 BBC National Short Story Award.
Producer: Justine Willett


SUN 20:00 More or Less (m001vbxy)
Life expectancy, inheritance tax and the NHS vs winter

We report on the state of the NHS as it struggles through a double wave of Covid and flu infections.

Do only 4% of people pay inheritance tax? Paul Lewis sets out the figures.

And what do the latest life expectancy figures tell us about how long we’re going to live?

Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporter: Kate Lamble
Producers: Nathan Gower and Debbie Richford
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Graham Puddifoot
Editor: Richard Vadon


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001vbxp)
Annie Nightingale, Isca Salzberger-Wittenberg, Bryan Ansell, Charlie Allan

Matthew Bannister on

Annie Nightingale who was Radio 1’s first female presenter and its longest serving DJ. Her son remembers meeting Jimi Hendrix over breakfast in her kitchen and the 72-hour-party at her home featuring some of the biggest names of the dance music scene.

Isca Salzberger-Wittenberg, the psychoanalyst who changed the approach to treating young people’s mental health.

Bryan Ansell, the games designer who co-created Warhammer and helped led the growth of the Games Workshop company.

And Charlie Allan who was a Scottish farmer, an economist, a broadcaster and a caber tossing champion.

Interviewee: Alex Nightingale
Interviewee: Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg OBE
Interviewee: Dr Valerie Sinason
Interviewee: Sir Ian Livingstone CBE
Interviewee: Susie Malcolm
Interviewee: Frieda Morrison

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Archive used:
Annie Nightingale 1940-2024, BBC Radio 1, 14/01/2024; Annie Nightingale, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 24/07/2020; Interview with Annie Nightingale, Sussex-BBC Centenary Interview part of the Connected Histories of the BBC project, Full interview Connected Histories connectedhistoriesofthebbc.org; Annie Nightingale interview, BBC Radio 1, Vintage, 22/12/2018; Old Grey Whistle Test, 100 Voices, BBC Four, 23/02/2018; The Oldest Living Child Psychotherapist, 99 year old Isca Wittenberg, Legacy Interview, MINDinMIND, Youtube uploaded, 02/03/2021; Dungeons and Dragons News report, BBC News South East, 06/10/1983; Fantasy Board Games report, BBC Breakfast, BBC News 20/08/1984; Warhammer 40000, Darktide, Soundtrack, Fatshark Youtube, uploaded 18/11/2022; Charlie Allan sings, Blue Grey Coo and Other Bothy Ballads, Ardo Pedigree Cattle, published 1979; Charlie Allan, Man O' Pairts,BBC Radio Scotland, 03/01/2024;


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001vl0j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001vl2s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Loose Ends (m001vl4s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001vl7f)
Ben Wright is joined by the Conservative MP and Chair of the Health Select Committee, Steve Brine; Shadow Foreign Office minister, Catherine West; and Hannah White - Director of the Institute for Government. They discuss the recent Tory turmoil over the Rwanda plan, and Rishi Sunak's efforts to shift the focus onto tax cuts. They also discuss Labour's electoral prospects, and the programme includes an interview with Neil Kinnock, reflecting on his experience of defeat in 1992. John Stevens - political editor of the Daily Mirror - brings his expert insight. And the backbencher Jason McCartney talks about his decision to use a high-profile slot at Prime Minister's Questions, to share the news of his father's dementia diagnosis.


SUN 23:00 Moral Maze (m001vcqm)
Is it time to allow assisted dying?

Nearly a decade since MPs in Westminster voted against allowing terminally ill people to end their own life, assisted dying is climbing back up the political agenda. The Health and Social Care Committee is due to publish the first report of its kind on the subject after a year-long inquiry. Meanwhile, the Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer has said there are "grounds for changing the law”, UK medical bodies continue to drop their opposition to the idea, and polls suggest around two-thirds of the public are in favour.

Assisted dying raises profound moral questions which shake the core of our humanity. What does it mean to live – and to die – well? Is it more dignified to live with suffering or to die without it? If life is a sacred gift, and a marker of our equal dignity, should we, or anyone else, be able to control when it ends? If death is the most dignified response to suffering, how much suffering is too much, and who should decide?

Those who describe constant physical pain and a loss of bodily autonomy say that isn’t living at all. Should we be guided principally by compassion in these situations? Or does the good intention of irradicating suffering risk a chilling effect in which people are pressured into re-appraising whether their lives are worth living?

Is it time to allow assisted dying?

Panel: Mona Siddiqui, Inaya Folarin Iman, Matthew Taylor, Giles Fraser

Witnesses: Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, Professor Kevin Yuill, Zoe Hyatt Marley, Dr Miro Griffiths

Producer: Dan Tierney.

MONDAY 22 JANUARY 2024

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001vl7k)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m001vcp8)
The Passport

THE PASSPORT: Laurie Taylor explores the cultural history of an indispensable document which has given citizens a license to travel and helped to define the modern world. Patrick Bixby, Professor of English at Arizona State University, delves into the evolution of the passport through the tales of historical figures, celebrities, artists, and writers, from Frederick Douglas to Hannah Arendt. How has the passport become both an instrument of personal freedom as well as a tool of government surveillance? They’re joined by Kristin Surak , Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the LSE and author of a new study which investigates the routes taken by wealthy elites in pursuit of a ‘golden passport’. Through six years of fieldwork on four continents, she discovered how the sale of passports has transformed into a full-blown citizenship industry that thrives on global inequalities.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001vl6z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vl7p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vl7t)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vl7y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001vl82)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vl86)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger

Precious Relationships

Good Morning.

Infertility is a major issue these days, but, in the ancient world, it was always thought to be the woman’s problem, or even fault. In Jewish tradition, if a couple had been together for ten years and had no children, the man was supposed to divorce his wife, find a new one- and get on with having a family. There’s a great rabbinic story about this.

A Jewish couple loved each other dearly but they had no children. 10 years on, they went to see the great rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, asking for a divorce. The rabbi heard them out and then told them to part ways but with a party, a celebration, just as they had begun at the wedding. So they prepared a feast, and the wife poured out cup of wine after cup of wine for her husband. As his mood gradually lifted, he said: “My dear, look around our house. Is there any precious item here that you would like? Choose a keepsake and take it with you to your father’s home…”

Once her husband was asleep, the wife instructed the servants: “Quick, bundle him on to a bed and carry him to my father’s house!”

When the alcohol had worn off, the husband woke up from his stupor, hung over. “Where am I?” he called out. “In my father’s house,” replied his wife. “What am I doing here?” he asked.

“You instructed me to take a precious thing from your house with me back to my parents’ home, and there is nothing in the world better than you.”
They realised they were meant to be together, and, so the story goes, they were finally blessed with children, strange as it may seem. God, let us give thanks for wonderful relationships.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001vl8b)
22/01/24 Organic farm payments, flooded farms, family farming

New money for organic farmers in Wales. What does this mean for farmers? After weeks of heavy rain and flooding in the East of England farmers say they're facing big losses, not just of the crops lost underwater but also of the crops they were due to plant, but can't as the ground is too wet.

We often describe a farmer by the number of generations their family has been on the land, it's not unusual to speak to a fourth, fifth or even sixth generation. Farming has long been a family business and that brings advantages and disadvantages. We're going to be talking about all this week: the family farm.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


MON 05:56 Weather (m001vl8g)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03mhyzf)
Raven

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

David Attenborough presents the story of the raven. Ravens are one of the most widely distributed birds in the world and can survive Arctic winters and scorching deserts. In the UK, Ravens were once widespread, even in cities but persecution drove them back into the wilder parts of our islands. Now they're re-colonising the lowlands and are even turning up on the outskirts of London where, since Victorian times, the only ravens were the ones kept at the Tower.


MON 06:00 Today (m001vktt)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001vktw)
War crimes justice

The legal framework to prosecute war crimes and prohibit the use of ‘aggressive war’ came out of the international war crimes tribunals after WWII – in Germany and Japan. In Judgement at Tokyo the academic and writer Gary J. Bass retells the dramatic courtroom battles as Japan’s militaristic leaders were held accountable for their crimes. With prosecutors and judges drawn from eleven different Allied countries tensions flared, and justice in the Asia Pacific played out amidst the start of the Cold War, China's descent into civil war, and the end of the European empires.

The political philosopher Hannah Arendt witnessed the end of the trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1963, coining the phrase ‘the banality of evil’ – a term that is often mistakenly believed to mean that evil had become ordinary. In We Are Free To Change The World, the writer Lyndsey Stonebridge explores Arendt’s writings on power and terror, love and justice, and their relevance in today’s uncertain times.

As the world grows increasingly turbulent war crimes justice is needed more than ever, but it appears to be failing. Since the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands opened in 2002 it has jailed just five war criminals. The journalist and war reporter Chris Stephen looks back at its history and examines alternative options in The Future of War Crimes Justice.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vchk)
Episode One - Diagnosis

Andrew Leland reads from his witty and revelatory memoir about losing his sight and his quest to learn about the rich culture of blindness.

Andrew is midway through his life with an inherited eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind. He grew up with full vision but, starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon, but without knowing exactly when, he will likely have no vision left.

Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Andrew embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, ‘normal’ life to one with a disability. Andrew is determined not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it - to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening.

Thought-provoking and brimming with warmth and humour, The Country of the Blind is a deeply personal and intellectually exhilarating tour of a way of being that most of us have never paused to consider, and from which we have much to learn.

In this first episode, Andrew describes how he first realised his sight was deteriorating as a teenager, and how he began to come to terms with his eventual diagnosis.

Andrew Leland’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and The San Francisco Chronicle. He has hosted and produced The Organist, an arts and culture podcast, and has been an editor at The Believer magazine since 2003. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and son.

Reader: Andrew Leland
Abridger: Ellin Stein
Producer: Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vkty)
DJ Paulette, Abortion, Vinted co-founder, Childcare

Award-winning DJ Paulette has been in the music industry for more than 30 years. She got her start at the famous Haçienda nightclub in Manchester but has DJ'd all over the world. Her book, Welcome to the Club: The Life and Lessons of a Black Woman DJ, tells some of the tales of her career so far and shines a light on many other women in the electronic dance music industry. Paulette joins Emma Barnett.

New guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to healthcare workers says that suspected illegal abortions should not be reported to the police. This guidance, which applies to England and Wales, follows some recent cases where women have been convicted of having illegal abortions. Emma is joined by former Chief Superintendent at the Metropolitan Police Parm Sandhu, and Associate Professor in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at Durham University Dr Emma Milne to discuss.

Buying second-hand clothes is fashionable again, thanks to online marketplaces like Vinted, Depop and eBay. Emma talks to Vinted co-founder Milda Mitkute about what it takes to turn an idea into a successful business and why she decided to leave the company in 2017 when her first child was born.

Is the Government's key childcare promise to parents in trouble? One newspaper is reporting that thousands of parents are being warned they won't be able to access the offer of free childcare to under twos this year. Emma gets the view of providers from Neil Leitch, Chief Executive of the Early Years Alliance which represents 14,000 nurseries, pre-schools and childminders, and June O'Sullivan CEO of LEYF nurseries.


MON 11:00 Black, African and British (m001vkv0)
Black, African and British in Business

British Nigerian broadcaster Jumoké Fashola travels across the country to ask what it means to be Black, African and British and to explore how these communities are shaping British politics, faith, business and culture today.

Episode 3: Black, African and British in Business

Jumoké Fashola speaks to the founders of three Black African British businesses about innovation, entrepreneurship and their experiences of business ownership.

Chika Russell takes Jumoké inside her international snack brand, Chika’s Snacks and explains why she wanted to set up her company in both Nigeria and the UK. Nigerian investor Tokunboh Ishmael talks to Jumoké about the links between British African businesses and investment and trade between the UK and African nations.

The tech innovator and entrepreneur William Sachiti gives Jumoké a tour of his business, The Academy of Robotics and explains how his childhood in Zimbabwe inspires his innovation in the world of self-driving cars.

The founders of First Response Group Jamal Tahlil and Edgar Chibaka tell Jumoké how they were inspired to create a business with a truly inclusive culture following the negative experiences they had working in security.

Plus Lydia Amoah, chief executive of diversity consultancy Backlight, provides insight into the opportunities and challenges faced by businesses founded by Black African Brits.

You can join the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #BlackAfricanBritish


MON 11:30 The Bottom Line (m001vby3)
Bringing your 'whole self' to work

It’s become the mantra of many employers, and the expectation of some employees, but what does bringing your whole or authentic self to work actually mean, and should companies encourage it?

Evan Davis and guests discuss the pros and cons of a workplace culture in which staff share their personal beliefs, politics and vulnerabilities with colleagues. What impact does it have on employee satisfaction and business productivity? And, at a time of great political and cultural polarisation, how do you prevent the ‘whole self’ ethos stirring up trouble?

Evan is joined by:

Nana Berchie, global people director for diversity, belonging and human rights, Arcadis;
Octavius Black, founder and CEO, The Mind Gym;
Kate Palmer, employment services director, Peninsula UK;
Sophia Luu, freelance design researcher and founder of Secrets Worth Sharing.

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Producer: Simon Tulett
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman

The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University.

(Picture: A woman hiding behind her laptop. Credit: Getty Images)


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001vkv2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001vkv4)
Cost of Care; Holiday Scams; Customer Service from Energy Suppliers

We were contacted by a 83 year old listener, Marie, who has spent £200,000 on care costs for her husband, John. He has dementia.
The care home costs are more than £1200 a week, and their savings are nearing the point where there won’t be any left to pay the bill. Marie contacted us to ask for advice on how she can continue to afford to pay for John’s care, what her options might be, and where to get help.
We will be speaking to Age UK to guide us through the options that are there, and where to go for help. Iona Bain, the financial journalist, will also join us to talk about equity release, and is this a safe option to pay for care.

With the weather being cold and wet, it’s no surprise that January is the busiest month for booking a holiday. But, are those deals that we see online too good to be true? Well it seems in some case they are, because they are actually scams that will leave you out of pocket, and without a holiday to go on. Travel expert Simon Calder and fraud and scam prevention expert, Jim Winters will be telling us how to protect our selves whilst looking for a break.

And energy companies and bad customer service - two things that will get a lot of you shouting at the radio I'm sure. We will be talking to consumer experts, Which?, about their recent energy company survey that shows that British Gas comes at the bottom of the table, as well as a man that was paying for his neighbour's energy.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Dave James


MON 12:57 Weather (m001vkv6)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001vkv8)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


MON 13:45 Ian Hislop's Oldest Jokes (m001vkvd)
Wordplay

There are a number of themes or types or techniques in British comedy that seem to survive any social or political upheaval. We love wordplay, we're suckers for Double entendre and while animals can be cute or terrifying, they can also make us laugh. In this series Ian Hislop looks back to try and find the first examples of these jokes or comedy genres. We love a good parody but when did that become a thing? Can we really find Anglo-Saxon Double Entendre? You bet we can, and filthy to boot, another trove of British Humour.
He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.

Ian begins his quest in the dark ages, not known as a well-spring of comic opportunity. Nevertheless, in the pages of the Venerable Bede's 'Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum - Ecclesiastical History of England, there is wordplay. Not only that it's wordplay that obeys the comedy rule of three and it was potent enough to have a part in the naming of a nation. And how his fellow monks must have laughed.

Producer: Tom Alban


MON 14:00 The Archers (m001vkvl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 This Cultural Life (m001vkvq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Saturday]


MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m001vkvt)
Series 37

Heat 7, 2024

(7/13)

Three more music lovers join Paul Gambaccini at the BBC's Salford studios for another wide-ranging contest of musical knowledge. The winner will proceed to the semi-finals and take another step towards the title of 37th Counterpoint champion. To do so they'll not only have to prove the range of their musical knowledge, but will also have to select a special musical topic on which to answer individual questions, from a list of which they have been given no warning.

Taking part are
Stephen Draper from Liverpool
Jo McEvedy from Whitley Bay
Mike Meakin from Harrogate

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001vkw1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 History on the Edge (m001pfg8)
Films and Filming

Anita Anand uncovers the hidden story of the British film magazine that, for 40 years, offered a cloak of authoritative cinematic respectability for gay readers who sought sexual contact when homosexuality was punishable by prison.

Films and Filming was a widely respected magazine that built a serious reputation for its coverage of the burgeoning international art-house cinema of the 1950s and 60s. It sold throughout the English-speaking world, its tens of thousands of readers admiring the calibre of its reportage of new masterpieces by Claude Chabrol, Elia Kazan and Bernardo Bertolucci. But when it launched, from a dingy basement near Victoria Station in London in 1954, few knew that Films and Filming was also a clandestine publication of great interest to men whose sexual preference was for other men.

That same year, when Films and Filming launched with Marlon Brando in his signature role in On the Waterfront on the cover, homosexuality had also been featured for months on the front page of Britain’s tabloids, as the famous peer, Lord Montagu, was put on trial and eventually sentenced to a year in gaol for illegal sex with other men.

Today, when equal marriage is legal and widely accepted in the UK, it’s hard to fully comprehend just how furtive and secretive gay relationships needed to be 70 years ago to escape the attention of the law – gay men lived in constant fear of discovery. So the existence of a respectable magazine that offered both stories about cinematic gay icons and images, often of near-naked male film stars, was a lifeline.

Even more of a lifeline were the magazine’s personal ads where gay film fans could arrange to share their interests, cinematic and otherwise, covertly of course, with impunity.

Anita Anand leafs through historic copies of Films and Filming with one of its regular columnists, David McGillivray. She meets his readers and reveals the hidden story of the magazine’s mysterious publisher, Philip Dosse, whose team of editors, almost exclusively gay, ran a distinguished portfolio of arts magazines on theatre, ballet, books and art, as well as film, from that Victoria basement.

Producers: Sara Parker and Simon Elmes
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m001vkw7)
Women in Charge?

What does female leadership in faith and religion look like today? Whilst more women than ever participated in the Pope’s recent Synod, (an assembly, or meeting) at the Vatican last year, we still seem a fair distance from women being able to offer a sacrament in the Catholic Church.

Aleem Maqbool meets Naima Khan, a Muslim and female imam and Director of the Inclusive Mosque Initiative. For ten years the mosque has been quietly pioneering, with women leading mixed-gender congregations in prayer. Naima tells Aleem why it was important for her to take on a level of spiritual leadership. What has the reaction been and what does her faith teach her about inclusivity and representation?

Jill Duff, the Bishop of Lancaster in the Church of England, Georgia Clarke, a youth leader in the Roman Catholic Church, and Mandeep Kaur MBE, Sikh Chaplain to the RAF and Ministry of Defence advisor on Sikh issues discuss what female leadership means to them. What progress has been made and where are the limits in their traditions to the roles women can play?

Producer: Rebecca Maxted
Assistant Producer: Ruth Purser


MON 17:00 PM (m001vkwd)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vkwj)
More than thirty thousand homes in Northern Ireland and Scotland remain without power


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m001vkwn)
Series 92

3. Ned Kelly is Australian, right?

Sue Perkins challenges guests Paul Merton, Eleanor Tiernan, Heidi Regan and Tony Hawks to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation.

The long-running Radio 4 panel game is back for a new series with subjects this week ranging from Apostrophes and Catastrophes to Hermits.

Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
An EcoAudio certified production.

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001vkws)
Clarrie worries to Susan about Ed’s sheep as despairing Ed’s now starting to think there’s no point in pursuing the tree surgery idea. Adam mentions that his family’s holding a cake baking contest to mark the anniversary of Jennifer’s death. When Susan and Clarrie ask for some advice about Ed’s sheep, Adam suggests sticking them on the outfield of the cricket pitch. Later Susan tells Clarrie that Emma likes the sound of the cricket pitch and is going to talk to Ed. Clarrie and Susan aren’t impressed when Helen explains her plan for cheese Easter eggs. When Helen then lets them know about her forthcoming holiday to Paris with Henry and Jack, Susan and Clarrie don’t fancy the idea of managing the dairy in her absence. However later Helen explains that she’s asked Adam to step in. Out of earshot, Clarrie and Susan aren’t keen on having Adam on board either.

Brian, Alice and Adam compare their Victoria sponges which Lilian’s judging. Lilian mentions Harry and Alice wishes everyone would stop going on about him. Lilian thinks Jennifer would’ve approved of the cake competition as a way of bringing the family together. Though Jennifer would’ve been surprised at seeing Brian baking a cake! Lilian declares Brian the winner and disqualifies Adam; she saw him buying a cake from the Tearoom earlier. Later, Alice insists on keeping Brian company and asks him what he thinks about Harry. Brian tells her to trust her feelings and is emotional when he mentions that Jennifer would just want Alice to be happy. He tells her to go and live her life.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001vkwv)
Andrew Haigh on All of Us Strangers, Lulu Wang on Expats starring Nicole Kidman

Andrew Haigh’s new film All of Us Strangers, is both a love story and a ghost story. Starring Andrew Scott, it explores the impact of a chance encounter in a deserted tower block, and how nostalgia draws him back to the suburban family home where his parents appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years ago.

Tom Hibbert was a popular music journalist who wrote for Smash Hits, Q and many other top magazines in the 1980s and 90s and whose irreverent style of writing would inspire the generation that followed. Miranda Sawyer and Jasper Murison-Bowie join to talk about ‘Phew, Eh Readers’, a new book that compiles some of his best articles.

Lulu Wang’s powerful new series Expats explores the lives of women in Hong Kong who are all outsiders for different reasons. It is an unsurprising theme given such female-led cast (including Nicole Kidman), as well as female-led production remains a rarity for shows of this scale and ambition. Writer and director Wang, who grew up in the US after her parents fled Beijing, joins Samira to discuss her expansive vision for it.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Julian May


MON 20:00 Alderney - The Holocaust on British Soil (m001vkwx)
Journalist Christine Finn travels to Alderney, one of the Channel Islands, to tell the harrowing story of the Nazi labour and concentration camps that operated there during World War Two.

Unlike Jersey, Guernsey and Sark, almost all of Alderney's residents were evacuated to England in June 1940.

Thousands of forced and slave labourers were brought to Alderney by the Organisation Todt to build fortifications as part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall. Housed in a network of camps, the majority came from the Soviet Union (rounded up after Germany's invasion in June 1941) but there were also French Jews, Spanish Republicans, North Africans - in fact almost 30 nationalities.

Eye-witness testimony from survivors described a catalogue of atrocities committed by the Germans - how large numbers of workers perished from the hard labour, systematic starvation, extreme ill-treatment and outright murder. Some prisoners died in transport to and from the island, and some who were too ill to work were sent back to the continent presumably for extermination.

Christine is accompanied by Colin Partridge, a retired architect and former jurat of the Alderney Court. He's part of an expert panel appointed by Lord Pickles - who leads the government’s work on post-Holocaust initiatives - to examine the surviving archival evidence in order to determine how many died on Alderney during the Occupation and how many forced, slave and volunteer workers were brought there. This includes conscripted labourers and volunteer workers who were not subject to such inhumane treatment.

The findings of the Expert Review will be published later this year and their aim is to put an end to almost 80 years of speculation. They are searching through archives scattered across Europe and it is painstaking work - prisoner numbers fluctuated, records were removed or destroyed by the Germans before the end of the war, or they are inaccurate. Key information from the post-war exhumations of the so-called Russian cemetery has been lost. Eye-witnesses describe corpses being thrown into the sea.

Christine and Colin visit SS Lager Sylt. This Operation Todt labour camp was probably built in the summer of 1942 and taken over by the SS in March 1943 with the arrival of SS Baubrigade 1- a construction brigade of 1000 prisoners from Sachsenhausen and Neuengamme concentration camps in Germany. Sylt then became a subcamp of Neuengamme.

We also visit Lager Norderney. Sylt is often said to be the only SS concentration camp on British soil - but Lager Norderney came under the control of two OT officers in 1943 who were members of the SS and who wore their SS uniforms in camp. During this time, Norderney also became the main camp for Jewish prisoners on the island. Eye-witness testimony describes violence and brutality as a daily occurrence. In 1944, the camps were shut down and most of the inmates were transported back to continental Europe. Norderney is now the location of the island's main holiday campsite.

Contributors include:
Dr Gilly Carr, a British archaeologist and academic. She is the Channel Islands representative for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and is coordinating the Expert Review.
Dr Marcus Roberts, a founding director of jTrails, the National Anglo-Jewish Heritage Trail, and a professional Heritage consultant who has been researching the labour camps on Alderney for over 15 years.
Gary Font's father Francisco, a Spanish Republican who was brought to Jersey as a forced worker but became a slave worker on Alderney.
Sally Bohan's family returned to Alderney after the war when she was a baby and built the Hammond Memorial to commemorate the foreign workers who died during Occupation.

Photo Credit: Christine Finn

Produced by Victoria Ferran
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m001vbpd)
Bulgaria: the people smugglers

Migration is high on the political agenda in countries across Europe, as the number of asylum seekers rises once more. As well as those who risk life and limb on flimsy boats in the Mediterranean, thousands more come via the Balkans, many of them through Turkey and across the border into Bulgaria. They don’t stay there long. Their preferred destinations are further west, Germany perhaps or Britain. And while the migrants’ stories have become well-known in recent years, we hear relatively little from the people who enable their journeys, the people smugglers.

For Crossing Continents, Nick Thorpe has been to the north-west of Bulgaria, where it meets Serbia to the west and Romania across the Danube to the north. There he meets two men who worked as drivers for a smuggling organisation, shuttling migrants from Sofia, the capital, to the border.

Presented by Nick Thorpe
Produced by Tim Mansel


MON 21:00 Wild Inside (m001vcdk)
The Red Kangaroo

Wild Inside returns for a new series to take a look at some of our planet’s most exceptional and unusual creatures from an entirely new perspective: the inside. Whilst we can learn a lot from observing the outside, the secrets to the success of any animal – whether they swim, fly, or hop – lies in their complex internal anatomy. How do these wild animals survive and thrive in harsh and changing environments? To truly understand we need to delve inside.

Professor Ben Garrod, evolutionary biologist from the University of East Anglia, and expert veterinary surgeon Dr Jess French, open up and investigate what makes each of these animals unique, in terms of their extraordinary anatomy, behaviour and their evolutionary history. Along the way, they reveal some unique adaptations which give each species a leg (or claw) up in surviving in the big, wild world.

The series begins with an icon of the outback – known best for its hopping, boxing, and cosy pouch – the red kangaroo. Despite the immense heat and lack of water, these marsupials dominate Australia, with their evolutionary history driving them to success. From the powerful legs which allow them to hop up to 40km an hour, to an unexpected reproductive system that keeps their populations plentiful, Ben, Jess and marsupial expert Dr Jack Ashby reveal a mammalian anatomy which holds many surprises.

Further episodes :

2: Sometimes ominously called the lamb vulture – the Bearded Vulture is a bird of legend but survives on an astounding diet of up to 90% bone. And its anatomy reflects its unusual dinner.

3: The formidable sap sucking aphid which at less than 3mm long is the scourge of many crop growers worldwide, outwitting the plants it feeds on, whilst cloning itself to produce identical offspring every 20 minutes.

4: Found lounging in their thousands on coastlines along the western coats of North and Central America – the California Sea Lion is a master of land and sea.

Co-Presenters: Ben Garrod and Jess French
Executive Producer: Adrian Washbourne
Producer: Ella Hubber
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m001vktw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vkx0)
Sunak: Childcare expansion to proceed despite "practical issues"

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has defended the government’s plans to expand free childcare after concerns were raised about some parents being unable to apply in time. The rollout for parents of two-year-olds is expected in the spring and will be expanded for children aged nine months from September.

Also in the programme: the UK and the US have once again carried out joint airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen; and we look ahead to tomorrow’s update of the Doomsday Clock, the symbol of how close the world is to ending.


MON 22:45 Scenes from a Childhood by Jon Fosse (m001vkx2)
Episode One: Scenes from a Childhood (Part One)

A selection of connected short stories by the celebrated Norwegian author Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature - “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. Minimalist and compelling, these pared-back vignettes take us from infancy to awkward adolescence, skirting the line between fiction and autobiography. Episodes one to three draw stories from the titular story sequence 'Scenes from a Childhood'; episodes four and five are taken from the story 'Little Sister'.

'the Beckett of the twenty-first century' - Le Monde

‘Fosse has been compared to Ibsen and to Beckett, and it is easy to see his work as Ibsen stripped down to its emotional essentials. But it is much more. For one thing, it has a fierce poetic simplicity.’ - New York Times

Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Read by John Mackay
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth
Mixed by Ilse Lademann


MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m001vcfz)
A Life in Lexicography

Grant Barrett is a lexicographer, linguist, author, editor, founder of Wordnik and Head of Lexicography at Dictionary.com. He also co-hosts A Way With Words, a phone in show about language, which airs coast to coast across the United States.
He and Michael discuss the joy of flicking through a dictionary with friends vs the fast return of an online look-up, the history of dictionaries, and Grant's favourite area of language: sociolinguistics - "where the rubber meets the road", as he puts it.
Producer: Ellie Richold


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vkx5)
Susan Hulme reports as a Health Minister announces a drive to get children in England vaccinated against measles.

TUESDAY 23 JANUARY 2024

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001vkx7)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vchk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vkx9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vkxc)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vkxf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001vkxh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vkxk)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger

Equal Treatment For All

Good Morning.

On this day back in 1889, Daniel Hale Williams founded the Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first non-segregated hospital in the United States. It seems incredible that all hospitals were segregated until then, but there are still major issues facing black people in our western health systems. Black people, and people from other minority ethnic communities, suffered worse from COVID19 in its early months- and no-one really knows why.

There are many studies that suggest black people’s pain is often not taken as seriously as white people’s, including by black healthcare staff- and once again we don’t know why. Black people’s diseases, such as sickle cell, often don’t get enough recognition or instant treatment in a crisis. We’re working on it, but there’s much more to do. None of this is new. All of it is serious.

So Daniel Hale Williams’ action was enormously important. He took one major step towards equalising treatment for all people. He began the long process- unfinished as yet- of treating people as individuals, whatever their ethnicity, gender, origin, or social class. He was a visionary. But his vision is not yet totally fulfilled. There’s still too much acceptance of things just as they are - that women have to undergo pain in childbirth, or that sickle cell is extremely painful.

Equalising is one part of this. The other part, which we need to fight for, is recognising that everyone should be treated as an individual, with their own wants and needs, beliefs and social attitudes. Today, let’s each resolve to do just one thing that makes one individual feel fully recognised, special, unique, God’s creation, and needing our care.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001vkxm)
23/01/24 Grocery debate; Bird flu compensation; Fishermen medicals; Family farms and succession.

More than 100 thousand people have signed an online petition and triggered an MPs' debate about the way supermarkets deal with the farmers and producers who supply them. The campaign is calling for the Grocery Supply Code of Practice and the role of the Groceries Code Adjudicator, the GCA, to be reformed.

A group of poultry farmers have won a High Court case against the government's Animal & Plant Health Agency, over compensation for farmers whose flocks were affected by avian flu. The court ruled that the APHA had 'wrongly interpreted' the law under the avian influenza compensation scheme. The case was brought by the National Farmers Union who argued that the time taken between reporting an outbreak and the arrival of government staff to assess compensation, meant that many birds died before the APHA could get there, and so were not counted as part of the compensation.

A fisherman who underwent gastric sleeve surgery to pass newly introduced medical requirements, says he's incredulous to hear the rules may now be changed. Brian Tapper from Plymouth says a high Body Mass Index put his career at sea in doubt, when the new health checks came into force in November. He spent £12,000 to have an operation so he could meet the weight requirements. Some of his colleagues have sold their boats. However, now the government has announced it is going hold a consultation on the requirements, without forcing small-scale fishers ashore.

All this week on Farming Today we’re talking about family farms. But what happens when the next generation decides they don’t want to carry on the family tradition of farming? We visit a a farm in Llandeilo in Wales where they faced that problem, and find out how they solved it.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x4769)
Cetti's Warbler

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

Bill Oddie presents the Cetti's warbler. Until the 1960s, Cetti's warblers were unknown in the UK but on the Continent they were common in marshy areas, especially dense scrub and the edge of reed-beds and ditches. They first bred in these habitats in south-east England in the early 1970s and by the end of the century their loud and sudden song-bursts were startling people from southern England and South Wales and northwards as far as Yorkshire.


TUE 06:00 Today (m001vm3s)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 Things Fell Apart (p0h248k2)
S2. Ep 3: Tonight’s the Night, Comrades

How an American media polarized over Antifa led to an innocent family on a Twilight-themed lockdown-escaping camping trip getting barricaded in the woods by armed, hostile townspeople.

Written and presented by Jon Ronson
Produced by Sarah Shebbeare
Original music by Phil Channell


TUE 09:30 Naturebang (m001gxfx)
Frozen Frogs and Preserved People

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight look to the freeze-thaw abilities of the North American wood frog to ask whether we can freeze ourselves in order to return to a future world...

Early March is breeding season for the North American wood frog. They are frisky because they’ve just thawed out having spent the winter not just in hibernation, but frozen at -18°C. How do they do it, and still survive? And what can we learn from their frozen ways?

Enter the growing field in medicine called cryo-preservation: the process of preserving cells, tissues, or organs by cooling them to very low, or freezing, temperatures. This can grant more time for medical procedures and operations, and help to preserve things like organs during a transplant. And if you take cryopreservation to the extreme, you get to the slightly sci-fi world of cryonics. The practice of cryo-preserving the whole body – immediately upon point of death - in the hope that future medicine can bring it back to life.

Maybe in the future, we will crack the code on how to bring bodies back from the cold. And maybe some of the science lies in the freeze-thaw abilities of the wood frog. Or maybe cryopreserved bodies will remain frozen forever…

Featuring Dr Allison Sacerdote-Velat, Curator of Herpetology at Chicago Academy of Sciences, and Dr Anders Sandberg, senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.


TUE 09:45 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vch8)
Episode Two - Lily

Andrew Leland reads from his witty and revelatory memoir about losing his sight and his quest to learn about the rich culture of blindness.

Andrew is midway through his life with an inherited eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind. He grew up with full vision but, starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon, but without knowing exactly when, he will likely have no vision left.

Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Andrew embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, ‘normal’ life to one with a disability. Andrew is determined not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it - to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening.

Thought-provoking and brimming with warmth and humour, The Country of the Blind is a deeply personal and intellectually exhilarating tour of a way of being that most of us have never paused to consider, and from which we have much to learn.

In this second episode, Andrew describes how he met his wife Lily and how their relationship has evolved as his sight has deteriorated.

Andrew Leland’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and The San Francisco Chronicle. He has hosted and produced The Organist, an arts and culture podcast, and has been an editor at The Believer magazine since 2003. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and son.

Reader: Andrew Leland
Abridger: Ellin Stein
Producer: Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vm3y)
Professor Jo Phoenix tribunal victory, Actor Sarah Greene

In an exclusive interview, Emma Barnett speaks to the academic Professor Jo Phoenix who has won an unfair dismissal claim against the Open University after she was compared with “a racist uncle at the Christmas table” because of her gender critical beliefs.

New York Times writer Amanda Taub brings us the latest news from the US Presidential race.

Irish actor Sarah Greene on her new project, an eight-part series – Sexy Beast – which has just launched on Paramount+.

And we hear about a campaign to get a new portrait of Margaret Bondfield, the first female government minister, commissioned and hung in Parliament with MP Alison McGovern and historian Professor Pam Cox.

Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Manager: Tim Heffer


TUE 11:00 Wild Inside (m001vm42)
The Bearded Vulture

Ominously called the lamb vulture, there are many myths and misconceptions surrounding the bearded vulture. Flying the mountainous ranges across central Asia and eastern Africa, with a wingspan of almost three meters, the bearded vulture is am impressive Old World vulture. Prof Ben Garrod and Dr Jess French are looking past the beautifully coloured plumage, and delving deep inside to learn what this bird of prey really eats and what keeps its great wings aloft.

Co-Presenters: Ben Garrod and Jess French
Executive Producer: Adrian Washbourne
Producer: Ella Hubber
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth


TUE 11:30 The Failure of the Future (m001vm45)
The Economic Dreamland

For decades, artists and scientists have dreamed up utopias that aim to reform the way we live. But why did they not become the future we are living in today? Is there something in those “what-might-have-beens” that’s worth returning to?

Writer and artist Johny Pitts explores a series of failed visions of the future. But rather than discarding them with the sands of time, he asks what we can learn from those past projections. And might elements of these forgotten worlds propel us towards a brighter tomorrow?

For Johny, there was a time when he felt he was living inside the future. Between 1950 and 1990, Japan was a time of great prosperity, innovation and invention. The nation seemed to be mapping out an advanced reality that could shape the future that the rest of the world might live in. And yet, that didn't come to fruition.

In the second episode of this four-part series, Johny considers what our future workplaces and creative practices might take from the explosive “bubble economy” era of 1980s Japan - a time of happy workers, booming industry, and pioneering inventions that we still love today. But was everything really as shiny as it seemed? What made the bubble era come crashing down and what can we learn from its collapse?

Presenter: Johny Pitts
Producer and sound design: Anishka Sharma
Mix Engineer: Nigel Appleton
Executive Producer: Phil Smith

A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001vm47)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001vm49)
Call You and Yours: Paying for Care

Call You & Yours: We want to know how are you paying for care costs? If you are getting help - tell us who is helping you. If you have received funding was it easy to navigate the system and find out about support and contributions to the cost of care. Email youandyours@bbc.co.uk or on Tuesday morning call us on 03700 100 444

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: KEVIN MOUSLEY


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001vm4c)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001vm4f)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


TUE 13:45 Ian Hislop's Oldest Jokes (m001vm4h)
Double entendre

There are a number of themes or types or techniques in British comedy that seem to survive any social or political upheaval. We love wordplay, we're suckers for Double entendre and while animals can be cute or terrifying, they can also make us laugh. In this series Ian Hislop looks back to try and find the first examples of these jokes or comedy genres. We love a good parody but when did that become a thing? Can we really find Anglo-Saxon Double Entendre? You bet we can, and filthy to boot, another trove of British Humour.
He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.

And in today's programme he travels to Exeter to admire the Bishop's seat and discover the filth hidden behind the Double entendre of the Exeter book of Riddles.

Producer: Tom Alban


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001vkws)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001vm4k)
Talawa Stories: The Master’s House

Talawa Stories from the UK’s outstanding Black Theatre Company presents a haunting and urgent tale that sees four women – stripped of their identities and renamed April, May, September and December – plot their escape from the master’s house and the violence of patriarchy.

The location is unknown; time doesn’t live here and, for the first time, the men are gone. But for how long?

This gripping thriller by writer and actor babriye bukilwa interrogates what would happen in a world absent of men, questioning the depths of internalised patriarchy, underpinned by themes of surveillance, rage within sisterhood, and the power of queer intimacy.

Cast (in order of appearance):
December – Unique Spencer (she/her)
May – Heather Agyepong (she/her)
April – Danielle Kassaraté (she/her)
September - Jumoké Fashola (she/her)
Man/Master – Mohammed Mansaray (he/him)

Creative team:
Writer – babirye bukilwa (they/them)
Director – malakaï sargeant (they/them)
Series Producer – Alison Holder (she/her)
Executive Producer – Caroline Raphael (she/her)
Sound Design – Lucinda Mason-Brown (she/her) and David Chilton (he/him)
Dramaturg – malakaï sargeant (they/them)
Production Coordinator – Alex Lynch (he/him)
Talawa New Work Producer - David Gilbert (he/him)
Casting Assistant – Melissa Vitalis Smith (she/her)

A Talawa Theatre Company production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m001vm4m)
Series 37

In Dreams

A couple looks for each other in their dreams, a research facility delves into the otherworldly, and a philosopher imagines a flow of time set to the rhythm of our rivers - Josie Long presents short documentaries that emerge from the dreams of others.

River Time
Featuring Jonathon Keats
Produced by Nadia Mehdi

Haunted
Featuring Linda Fleishman
Produced by Elizabeth Friend

Darling, Are You Dreaming?
Featuring Jules and Vital
Produced by Eloise Stevens

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


TUE 15:30 Doctor, Doctor (p0gy823v)
Dr Rosie Benneyworth

Doctor Doctor reveals the stress, excitement and challenges facing a 21st century medic. These are life-affirming stories of highs and lows, of commitment, bravery, skill, heartache and love.

Dr Phil Hammond dissects the medical lives of professionals at all levels of the health service: surgeons, intensive care nurses, NHS executives, junior doctors, psychiatrists - fascinating jobs, the titles of which we know very well, but our understanding of which may be lacking.

Dr Phil’s guests range from the recently qualified to the recently retired, from well-known medical grandees to unknown regional heroes, covering all specialties in hospital and community.

Producer: David Morley

Original Music by Chris O'Shaughnessy

A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m001vm4q)
Words for Sale!

Michael Rosen explores how language has become an online commodity, with Dr Pip Thornton, Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Thornton explains, with the help of auction props and a receipt machine, what happens to the words that we put into an online search and how the engines make money from our words and phrases. We discover why William Wordsworth's daffodils and clouds have had their context 'stolen', how Lewis Carroll wrote an incredibly 'cheap' poem and why mesothelioma is the most 'expensive' word. Plus Michael proposes a new form of poetry - the Monetised School of Poetry.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m001vl9g)
Alan Freeman picked by Simon Mayo

In 1961 Alan 'Fluff' Freeman took over as the host of the BBC Radio's 'Pick of the Pops' and changed music broadcasting forever. From the opening "Greetings pop pickers" Alan would count down the hottest records of the week punctuating the end of each track with minimal detail before introducing the next. It was exhilarating radio and his staccato delivery and catchphrases of "Right, all right, stay bright" and "Not 'Arf" he influenced a generation of broadcasters.

Simon Mayo was a DJ at Radio 1 at the same time as 'Fluff' and says his broadcasting hero coming came into his studio and said "Simon, darling" before kissing the back of his own hand that he'd placed over Simon's mouth. Simon remembers the end of Fluff's time at Radio 1 and speaks openly about his own departure from the BBC in 2018. He tells Matthew Parris that it was Fluff's economy of words that impressed him when sometimes he'd simply say "and" to link two records, and how Freeman gave once gave him a notebook full of opera and classical music recommendations.

Behind-the-scenes Alan was generous, kind and encouraging, but he was also a deeply private man who few got to know well. But one person who did was producer Phil Swern who worked with Alan for many years.

Presenter: Matthew Parris
Guest: Simon Mayo
Guest: Phil Swern

Producer: Toby Field for BBC Audio Bristol


TUE 17:00 PM (m001vm4s)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vm4v)
The Prime Minister said more will follow if they continue to attack ships in the Red Sea


TUE 18:30 The Ultimate Choice (m001vm4x)
Series 2

4: Cavemen v Clowns

Steph McGovern asks some seriously funny minds to offer definitive answers to the great questions of our age. Or not.

Welcome to the world's most devious game of Would You Rather? With guests Scott Bennett and Ria Lina.

Host: Steph McGovern
Guests: Scott Bennett and Ria Lina
Devised and written by Jon Harvey & Joseph Morpurgo
With additional material from Laura Major
Researcher: Leah Marks
Recorded and mixed by David Thomas
Producer: Jon Harvey
Executive Producers: Ed Morrish and Polly Thomas
Photo: Carolyn Mendelsohn

A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001vm4z)
There’s surprising news for Harry, and Chelsea turns detective.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001vm52)
Oscar Nominations, Howard Jacobson, Culture Funding Cuts

Following today’s announcement of the 2024 Oscar nominations, film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh joins Front Row to consider how well this year’s shortlisted categories reflect the year in cinema.

In Howard Jacobson’s new novel, What Will Survive of Us, nothing much happens but everything changes. Lily and Sam, in middle age and longstanding relationships – with other people - fall in love, then stay that way for years and years. The Booker Prize winning author talks to Shahidha Bari about love, sex and literature.

Local Government funding has been rising up the political agenda with one in five council leaders fearing that their local authority is on the verge of municipal bankruptcy. However is cutting council spending on culture a false economy? Stephanie Sirr, Chief Executive of Nottingham Playhouse and joint president of UK Theatre, and Councillor Barry Lewis, Leader of Derbyshire County Council and member of the Local Government Association’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, join Front Row to discuss.

Presenter Shahidha Bari
Producer: Paula McGrath


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001vm56)
Bailiffs Behaving Badly

Councils in England and Wales are owed half a billion pounds - mainly in uncollected taxes and fines; money that's needed for essential services. Now, more and more, many are turning to bailiffs to recover the money. File on 4 hears from those on the receiving end - and industry insiders who say their colleagues are incentivised to behave badly. Mark Lobel also speaks to those at the forefront of industry reform who believe say the industry still needs to clean up its act.

Reporter: Mark Lobel
Producers: Phil Marzouk
Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley
Editor: Carl Johnston


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001vm5b)
Accessible smart meters, A blast from the past!

Accessible In Home Displays (AIHDs) work with Smart Meters so that blind and visually impaired people can more easily monitor their use of energy. Their features include large buttons, high contrast displays and text to speech functions.

Around a year ago, we looked at complaints from listeners about problems in obtaining AIHDs from their supplier and were hopeful that the issue had been resolved. However, it's clear that some problems remain. We speak to a listener who contacted us about their recent experience and we also hear from their energy supplier.

Our other guest on this edition is no stranger to In Touch, having started as a reporter and gone on to produce the show for many years. They join us today to tell us about being a visually impaired photographer and how that passion took them to Chile to get pictures of rescued miners who had been trapped underground in 2010. Guessed who it is? Tune in and find out!

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Fern Lulham
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 21:00 Inside Health (m001vm5d)
Speedy medicine, and is fermented food good for us?

In this episode we’re taking a look at emergency medicine outside hospitals and surgeries – and meeting the people who save seriously-ill people in unusual places.

Smitha Mundasad goes on a rainy walk in the hills with the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team and meets the flying medics of London’s Air Ambulance. Will she have time for a chat before they get a call-out? We also hear from Sweden where they’re making lifesaving changes before the ambulance even arrives.

And from kombucha and kimchi to keffir and sourdough, fermented food and drink is everywhere. But as these foods have exploded in popularity, so have claims of health benefits, from digestion and gut health, to immunity and mood.

We start by trying some fermenting with chef Olia Hercules and then Smitha chats to fermented food “nerd” Professor Paul Cotter to sift through the evidence.

Next week’s Inside Health is all about the perimenopause – the time leading up to the menopause when oestrogen starts to drop. Why is it all still such a mystery?

Send us your questions – and we’ll put them to our panel. It’s insidehealth@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Smitha Mundasad
Producer: Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris

Declared interests:
Professor Paul Cotter: “Research in the Cotter laboratory has been funded by PrecisionBiotics Group, Friesland Campina, Danone and PepsiCo. Paul Cotter has also received funding to travel to or present at meetings by H&H, the National Dairy Council U.S., PepsiCo, Abbott, Arla and Yakult. In addition, he is the co-founder and CTO of SeqBiome Ltd., a provider of sequencing and bioinformatics services for microbiome analysis.”


TUE 21:30 Things Fell Apart (p0h248k2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vm5g)
PM defends the latest US-UK airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen

How widespread is the practice of workplace surveillance?

And called up, but on a flight home - why is a 20 year old member of the England test squad unable to play in India?


TUE 22:45 Scenes from a Childhood by Jon Fosse (m001vm5j)
Episode Two: Scenes from a Childhood (Part Two)

A selection of connected short stories by the celebrated Norwegian author Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature - “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. Minimalist and compelling, these pared-back vignettes take us from infancy to awkward adolescence, skirting the line between fiction and autobiography. Episodes one to three draw stories from the titular story sequence 'Scenes from a Childhood'; episodes four and five are taken from the story 'Little Sister'.

'the Beckett of the twenty-first century' - Le Monde

‘Fosse has been compared to Ibsen and to Beckett, and it is easy to see his work as Ibsen stripped down to its emotional essentials. But it is much more. For one thing, it has a fierce poetic simplicity.’ - New York Times

Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Read by John Mackay
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth
Mixed by Ilse Lademann


TUE 23:00 Icklewick FM (m001vm5l)
1. The Giant

IcklewickFM’s switchboard lights up when a very tall man is sighted on the outskirts of town. Amy and Chris try to keep on top of the rapidly escalating situation as the breaking news story tips into a full-blown panic.

The Mayor’s assistant (and rising social media star) Nicola Trickle categorically fails to quell the rising hysteria, and beleaguered manager Stanley Power calls in to discuss Icklewick FC’s latest humiliating defeat.

Radio producer and taxi rank entrepreneur, Mr Patel also says some stuff too.

Created and written by Chris Cantrill and Amy Gledhill with additional material from the cast.

Starring:
Kat Bond
Phil Ellis
Ninette Finch
Colin Hoult
Mark Silcox
Shivani Thussu
Johnny White Really Really

Sound Design and Music by Jack Lewis Evans.

Additional Material by Charlie Dinkin

The Line Producer is Laura Shaw.

Produced by Benjamin Sutton.

Icklewick FM is A Daddy’s SuperYacht Production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vm5p)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament