SATURDAY 30 DECEMBER 2023

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001tr99)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:15 BBC National Short Story Award (m001qf1f)
BBC National Short Story Award 2023

The Storm by Nick Mulgrew

Dirk and Clement are pulled into an elaborate show of machismo courtesy of a divorcee dad with something to prove. Something unsettling brews in this tragi-comic story of toxic masculinity, not just the ominous weather.

Reader: Cokey Falkow is an actor, writer and comedian originally from Durban, South Africa. Recent credits include War Of The Worlds, Jurassic World Dominion, Suspicion, The English, Inside Man and Lenny Henry's 3 Little Birds (forthcoming)

Writer: Nick Mulgrew grew up in South Africa and New Zealand. He is the founder and publisher of the poetry press uHlanga, and is the author of two collections of poetry, two volumes of short stories and two novels. Previously shortlisted for The White Review Prize, Nick also received the Nadine Gordimer Award for his collection, The First Law of Sadness. Nick lives in Edinburgh.

Produced and abridged by Ciaran Bermingham


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001tr9y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001trbl)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001trc8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001trcv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001trd9)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Rachel Mann

Soren Kierkegaard

Good morning.

For many people, the week after Christmas Day is a little odd. For those who are able to take a break from the ordinary run of life, the days can begin to blur. It can become unclear whether we’re still enjoying the feast of Christmas or looking towards to the arrival of the new year.

I find that the slower rhythm and space to be found as we draw close to the new year offers me time to look back over the previous year and begin to look forward to the next. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said, ‘Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.’ That sounds like deep wisdom to me, though in my own particular case, I am not sure that looking backwards really helps me understand my life. The best I can say is that in looking back I have been able to spot patterns of behaviour and habits which have shaped my life.

Perhaps my worst habit is to work too hard. I mistake being busy for enjoying life. While there is nothing wrong with hard work, I rarely pay due mind to the words found in the biblical Book of Ecclesiasticus: ‘My child, do not busy yourself with many matters; There are those who work and struggle and hurry, but are so much the more in want.’ The Bible reminds me that prioritising rest and refreshment is important. Tempting though it is to rush on to the myriad new opportunities ahead, sometimes the wise thing is to slow down, enjoy and think.

O Holy God, you too rested from your work; and knew the delights of rest. Set me free to risk finding joy and space in slowing down this day and always.

Amen.


SAT 05:45 New Storytellers (m001p78m)
Disappearing Birds

House martins live on our homes in summer and, in winter, they disappear. No one knows where they go. But now these mysterious birds are red listed. They’re rapidly declining more and more each year. Disappearing Birds tells the story of how people all over the UK are working hard to save them.

This series of New Storytellers is presenting the winners of the Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature 2023. Petra Robyn Jones, the producer of this winning feature, is a recent graduate from the University of the West of England’s MA course in Journalism (Audio, Documentary and Podcast). The judges remarked that her programme on house martins, celebrated their beauty and examined their declining numbers through a group of persuasive speakers - it was “well executed with good use of sound...The stories are engrossing and touching: Moving, insightful, surprising and sometimes shocking.”

Producer: Petra Robyn Jones
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001ts2c)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m001tqsk)
Seeking asylum in nature

Helen Mark joins a group of asylum seekers as they help with a tree-planting project in Denbighshire. She hears how - without a car, and with rural buses both scarce and expensive - refugees rarely get access to the countryside. The group of people she meets have travelled to Wales from Liverpool for the day, but come originally from all over the world. She hears about the experiences of four of them - from Iraq, Iran, Namibia and Togo. They spend the day working alongside local conservation volunteers from the nearby village of Tremeirchion, sharing food, stories and songs.

The project is organised by the charity Action Asylum, which has joined forces with the North Wales Wildlife Trust to get more than two thousand trees planted on former farmland near Offa's Dyke path. For the asylum seekers, who are not allowed to work while their cases are being assessed, it's a chance to contribute and do something constructive. With incredible views of the mountains in the distance and the Welsh coast spread out beneath them, Helen hears how working in the countryside is beneficial for both the environment and the refugees' mental health.

Produced by Emma Campbell


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001ts2j)
The art of ploughing the land and keeping a straight furrow has been a way of life in the British Isles for thousands of years, so much so that ploughing terms have become embedded in our language and culture; from pub names and church hymns to popular songs and the humble ploughman's lunch. While phrases such as ‘ploughing on’ and someone ‘ploughing a lonely furrow’ are second nature.

Vernon Harwood visits the British National Ploughing Championships near Taunton to meet the people with a passion for ploughs and ploughing to discover why the task of turning the soil holds such a fascination. Along the way he meets the man who cares for a priceless collection of Victorian ploughs in Berkshire, a famous cheese-maker with a prized Gloucestershire Long Plough, a celebrated folk singer keeping forgotten plough songs alive and comes nose-to-muzzle with Sam and Tilly, the last working plough horses in Somerset.

Archive material used in this programme:
Speed The Plough: Moreton in Marsh Ploughing Competitions; BBC National Programme 30/09/1938
Gloucestershire Long Plough; Country Matters, BBC Radio Gloucestershire 30/03/2014

Contributors:
Dr Ollie Douglas, Sue Frith, Martin Horler, Jim Huntley, Trevor Johnstone, Alan Jones, John Kirkpatrick, Charles Martell, Deb Puxty, Simon Witty and Michael Wyman.

Produced and presented by Vernon Harwood.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001ts2n)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001ts2s)
Professor Jason Arday guest edits Today

Professor Jason Arday, who this year was named as one of the youngest people ever appointed to a Professorship at Cambridge University aged just 37, will look the stigma and shame associated with low literacy in adults. Jason was diagnosed with global development delay and autism aged three, learned to speak aged 11 and to read and write aged 18. His programme will also look at 90s culture.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001ts2x)
Gareth Reid, Rogue Jones, Wynne Evans

With 2024 just around the corner, we’re celebrating the lovely achievements of our guests from the year past and some of yours too...

Artist Gareth Reid has painted King Charles, Graham Norton, and recently won Portrait Artist of the Decade with his interpretation of Dame Judi Dench.

Rogue Jones, the married singer-songwriters Ynyr Ifan and Bethan Mai, won the coveted Welsh Music Prize 2023 for their charming second album Dos Bebés

Plus the Inheritance Tracks of this year’s Masterchef Celebrity Champion, opera star and broadcaster Wynne Evans.

Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Huw Stephens
Producer: Ben Mitchell

CORRECTION: This programme has been edited since broadcast to include Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339: Laudate Dominum for Wynne Evans’ Inheritance Tracks


SAT 10:00 Your Place or Mine with Shaun Keaveny (m001ts32)
Anneka Rice: Hong Kong, China

Anneka wants to take Shaun back to the place and time that made her: the intense rush of Hong Kong in the 1980’s, where she lived and worked a variety of improbable jobs from kung fu film dubbing to jeans modelling. But Shaun is not sure that intense rushes are for him, although he is drawn to the Blade Runner-like skyscrapery vertiginous appeal of the place. And also to the pavement chicken. Resident geographer, historian and comedian Iszi Lawrence has lived there too and tries to help him see through the smog.

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

Producers: Beth O'Dea and Sarah Goodman

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


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001trpq)
Series 42

West Horsely Place

In the season finale of The Kitchen Cabinet, Jay Rayner and his team of food experts are at West Horsley Place to solve the audience’s culinary conundrums.

He's joined by food writer Lerato Umah Shaylor, chefs Jeremy Pang, Rob Owen Brown and materials expert Zoe Laughlin to tackle all things banquets and nibbles - from non-alcoholic drinks perfect for Dry January to show stopping banquet meals to amaze party guests.

The panellists also discuss the weird food items tucked away at the back of their pantries, and answer the all important question - what's the optimum shape for a glass of champagne?

And Jay chats to the Director of West Horsley Place Trust, Ilona Harris, to find out about West Horsley’s rich banqueting history - previously enjoyed by Henry VIII.

Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Hannah Newton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Screening Dilemma (m001trvs)
Ronnie Helvy is on his way for a screening test. He's in his sixties and wants an assessment to check for a variety of cancers. He isn't currently displaying any symptoms but is seeking reassurance. His blood will undergo a series of tests in exchange for over a thousand pounds. The outcome might be able to determine whether he is susceptible to cancers that some of his family have died from. It sounds like a good thing. Or is it?

Advances in health screening have allowed us to see far into our bodies' future. During the pandemic home testing became an everyday routine. The same technology has helped develop new tools that can sequence our DNA quickly. Simple tests are making the process less intrusive than ever before.

These improvements have also seen the development of a number of major national screening programmes. Including Our Future Health and the UK Biobank. Both of these are large scale research studies to help researchers prevent chronic health conditions. They could also inform the NHS on how to implement generalised screening across more of the population.

Private health clinics are also offering health check-ups -- tests that could spot future warning signs. Home-testing kits can be ordered from the internet. But what does this information tell us? And is it information we can trust? We look at whether the private industry is acting responsibly when it comes to genetic testing.

The BBC's Health Correspondent Matthew Hill finds out whether screening programmes can really help us live both better and longer lives. And he asks: can diagnosing conditions decades before they might affect us cause more harm than good?

The promise of diagnosing conditions early is an exciting one. But there are fears among some health professionals that more screening might not be entirely helpful.

We take a look at what lessons from the past could tell us about the current surge in screening. And we consider some of the dilemmas it might present us with.

Presenter: Matthew Hill
Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski
Editor: Richard Collings

Contributors:
Dr Paul Cornes, Oncologist and International Advisor on cancer
Prof. Clare Turnbull, Division of Genetics and Epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research
Helen Wallace, Deputy Director of GeneWatch UK
Prof Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford and the UK’s Life Sciences Champion


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001ts37)
The Changing Face of Modern China

Kate Adie presents stories from China, Bolivia, the US and Italy.

BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell arrived in Beijing as a student 20 years ago and jumped straight into the city's buzzing nightlife. But the bohemian club scene he fell in love with was rapidly replaced by shiny new shopping malls, and towering skyscrapers as China's wealth and ambition grew. Along with the economic boom came substantial military expansion and a tightening of control in political and cultural life under Xi Jinping's leadership. Stephen ponders if change is always for the better.

The southern US state of Louisiana is on the front-line of climate change. Its famous wetlands are now disappearing at a rate among the fastest in the world, and the state has lost nearly 2000 square miles of land over the past century leaving coastal communities increasingly vulnerable. Beth Timmins has met residents fearful for their future.

The invasive Paiche fish is so large and voracious it’s been called King of the River by fishermen in Bolivia. It’s thought that the breed escaped from fish farms in Peru and swam downstream, to take over the waterways of the Beni region in northern Bolivia. This mighty invader has changed the lives of locals as Jane Chambers learned.

And wild boars are on the rampage in Italy in rural areas - and now in cities too. Last year hunting laws were relaxed, to allow for the animals to be captured and killed in urban areas. This move was welcomed by Italy’s farming lobby – but has faced considerable criticism from city-dwelling conservationists. Nicholas Walton tells the story of how matters recently came to a head in his local village group-chat.

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


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001ts3c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001v0xw)
Money Box Live: Survival Guide

Are you putting down the mince pies and opening your bank statements? Well, you're in the right place as we're dedicating some time to the kinds of money topics that come up between Christmas and New Year. 

Perhaps you want to know your consumer rights before hitting the sales, what to do with unwanted gifts or maybe you've spent more than you can afford this festive season? If so, then you've come to the right place.

We'll hear why for hundreds of thousands of people, their tax return has become a festive tradition.

And we'll also look ahead to Summer 2024 and how to get some holiday bargains.

Felicity Hannah is joined by, etiquette coach William Hanson, Emma Munbodh, the money news editor at The Telegraph, Anna Hall the head of money and debt operations at the Money and Pensions Service and Rob Staines an independent travel expert.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Reporter: Luke Smithurst
Producer: Sarah Rogers
Editor: Jess Quayle

(This is a slightly shorter version of an episode was first broadcast on Wednesday the 27th of December 2023 at 3pm on Radio 4)


SAT 12:30 Dead Ringers (m001v25d)
Christmas Specials 2023

Episode 3

Jon Culshaw and Jan Ravens join Bill Dare, the long time producer and creator of Dead Ringers to look back at the last ten years of the programme on Radio 4. Their focus is Party Leaders – the ones they most want to remember.

We’ll hear a selection of the funniest party leader sketches going back to 2014 when Dead Ringers returned to radio and David Cameron vs Ed Miliband was the main show in town. Jon, Jan and Bill will whizz through the next decade giving us a behind the scenes glimpse of how party leaders across the spectrum were portrayed on the show.

Produced and created by Bill Dare

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001ts3k)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001ts3v)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Correspondents' Look Ahead (m001tr6z)
Looking Ahead to 2024

Jonny Dymond asks some of the BBC's top correspondents to gaze into their crystal balls and predict what 2024 might have in store.

2023 has been dominated by the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel and Gaza and a global cost of living crisis. Next year will see nearly half of the world’s population going to the polls.

Around forty general elections are scheduled to take place next year, in countries including the UK, USA, India, Russia and Pakistan. How might those elections shift the geopolitical tectonic plates - and will we see any resolution to ongoing conflicts.

Contributors:

Alex Forsyth, Political Correspondent
Lyse Doucet, Chief International Correspondent
Simon Jack, Business Editor
Steve Rosenberg, Russia Editor

Producer: Ben Carter
Production Co-ordinator: Ibtisan Zein
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SAT 14:00 Pick of the Year (m001tq9j)
Pick of the Year 2023

Picking out the best bits of radio from 2023 from across the BBC is quite a challenge... but Rachel Burden and Jon Kay have stepped up to the plate. From hours and hours of fantastic content, they’ve chosen some outstanding moments.
From the joy of the Proms and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, to the brilliance of The Skewer and Andy Zaltzman on The News Quiz. There are touching moments from Adrian Edmondson’s Desert Island Discs, and Nicholas & Jonathan Dimbleby’s affecting series The Bright Side Of Life. Andrew Malkinson’s stand-out interview on the Today programme to the impeccable coverage of the King’s Coronation.

Join us for all this - and so much more - from an unforgettable year of broadcasting.

Presenters: Rachel Burden & Jon Kay
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinator: Lydia Depledge-Miller


SAT 14:45 The Banksy Story (m001nvrr)
1. The Mild, Mild West

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, how did the city of Bristol, in the south west of England, help to shape Banksy and his art? And will James and Duncan find the person they're looking for?

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 Turning Point (m001ts47)
Never Mind the Ballocks

When Nottingham Virgin Records displays the Sex Pistols album Never Mind The Bollocks in the window, the local police take offence. The local shop manager looks like he might take the rap when Virgin boss Richard Branson manufactures a row and the case goes to court.

The stage is set for a showdown between Sir John Mortimer QC and the local guardians of morality. And it's more than just strong language that's on trial.

Michael Eaton's drama evokes England of the late 1970s - a time of strikes, poverty and power cuts. Against this background, the country's attitude to the Sex Pistols, punk and the angry youth they represented is tested.

Regina v Searle was heard at Court Three at Nottingham’s Guildhall on the chill morning of November 27, 1977. Witnesses included artist Caroline Coon, and the stern Scottish Professor James Kinsley of Nottingham University, an expert in Medieval Linguistics.

Cast:
Nicholas Boulton as David Ritchie QC, and Inspector Phil Newton
Jon Culshaw as John Lydon, Richard Branson and Malcolm McLaren
Philip Jackson as The Narrator
Alistair McGowan as John Mortimer QC
Alana Ramsey as WPC Julie Storey
Wilf Scolding as Christopher Searle and Sergeant Stone
John Wark as Professor Kinsley
Gemma Whelan as The Commentator

Writer: Michael Eaton
Director: David Morley
Sound Presentation: Wilfredo Acosta
Sound Design: Tom Maggs

A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001ts4m)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Dame Siân Phillips, Highflying care-leavers, 'Trouser-less' trend

Just 14% of care leavers go to university, compared to 47% of young people who didn’t grow up in care, according to a report by the think tank Civitas. The figures have barely changed over the past 10 years and at the current rate of progress, it will take 107 years to close the gap. Two care-experienced young women who did manage to smash the so-called care ceiling share their experiences with Krupa; Rebecca Munro, who graduated with a masters in business and is now an Education Liaison Officer at the University of St Andrews and Lucy Barnes, a barrister.

Up to half of women will have a UTI at some point in their life. Earlier this year the NHS launched a new awareness campaign which the filmmaker and author Kate Muir has criticised for not mentioning vaginal oestrogen as a treatment. Kate joins Krupa Padhy alongside Dr Olivia Hum, a GP who is on the Council of the British Menopause Society.

Actor Dame Siân Phillips’ life and career are explored in a new documentary, Siân Phillips at 90. She joins Krupa to talk about some of her acting roles, including playing Emmeline Pankhurst in a BBC drama in the 1970s, what it was like being married to Peter O’Toole, and what she’s doing now.

Terri Lyne Carrington, a multi-Grammy-winning drummer and jazz artist, saw a distinct lack of songs by female composers being learned by jazz musicians - and decided to fix it. As a ‘gender justice advocate’ she decided to create a project, the New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets By Women Composers, and an accompanying album which won a Grammy, to shine a light on female jazz composers. She joins Nuala McGovern to discuss the project and jazz and gender justice on our special programme about women digging for the truth.

Would you swap your trousers for a pair of statement knickers? Julia Hobbs from Vogue tells Krupa about the new trouser-less trend that's been sweeping the catwalks and social media, and the reactions she got when testing it out on the London Underground.

As a nation we eat more sprouts than any other country in Europe but it’s a vegetable that, like marmite, divides opinion. Anita Rani is joined by plant pathologist Dr Lauren Chappell and the brassica research expert Dr Rachel Wells to explain how sprouts are being engineered to taste sweeter and withstand climate change.

Presenter: Krupa Padhy
Producer: Hanna Ward
Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald


SAT 17:00 PM (m001ts4z)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Sliced Bread Presents (m001lyvr)
Sliced Bread - Low and No Alcohol Beer

Sales of alcohol-free beer in the UK have more than tripled in the past five years, and you'll find more types of no and low-alcohol beer on sale in your local supermarket.

But what does 'alcohol-free' really mean? And are these drinks always better for your health?

Various listeners got in touch with us about this one, so we enlisted the help of two experts to answer their questions.

Laura Willoughby knows a lot about no/low alcohol beer as co-founder of Club Soda which says it exists "to help people drink more mindfully and live well”.

Kerry Torrens is a registered nutritionist who has been working in the food and drink sector for two decades.

Once again this series we’re testing and investigating your suggested wonder-products, so f you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad, and wonder if there’s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.

PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Jon Douglas


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001ts58)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001ts5h)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001ts5q)
Russia says at least 14 people have been killed in Ukrainian airstrikes and all Eurostar services to and from London have been cancelled due to flooding.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001ts5y)
Timothy Spall, Miles Jupp, Iain Stirling, Isabella Pappas, Mica Paris and Maiya Quansah-Breed, Rumer, Danny Wallace

Clive Anderson and Danny Wallace are joined by Timothy Spall, Miles Jupp, Isabella Pappas and Iain Stirling for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Mica Paris and Maiya Quansah-Breed and Rumer.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m001tr70)
Sir Mufti Hamid Patel

Sir Mufti Hamid Patel, chief executive of education trust, Star Academies, which runs schools often in deprived areas, many of which have achieved outstanding results. Sir Mufti Hamid Patel left school in Blackburn at 16, without himself excelling academically. Having worked in local government in Blackburn, he then ran a Muslim girls school before starting Star Academies. The trust has grown to include 34 primary and secondary schools mainly in northern England, the Midlands and East London.
New government ways of monitoring progress, show almost half the top twenty achieving schools in the country are run by Star.

PRODUCTION TEAM
Presenter: Mark Coles
Producer: Bob Howard
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound: Neil Churchill
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m001ts66)
Nigel Kennedy

John Wilson's guest is the violinist Nigel Kennedy. A prodigy whose childhood talents were nurtured by Yehudi Menuhin, one of the greatest violinist of the 20th century, Kennedy himself became an international star in 1989 with his recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It sold over three million copies, topping the UK classical charts for a year and went on to be listed as the biggest selling classical album of all time in the Guinness Book Of Records. An unconventional classical musician from the outset, it wasn’t just his wardrobe, accent and attitude that set him apart. As well as recording all the major violin concertos, his repertoire includes jazz standards, folk tunes and Jimi Hendrix. He remains one of the world’s greatest virtuosos.

For This Cultural Life, Nigel chooses his two violinist mentors; Yehudi Menuhin and the French musician Stéphane Grappelli with whom he shared a love of jazz and improvisation. Going to New York to study at the prestigious Juilliard School also proved a turning point for Kennedy, not so much for the teaching he received there, but for the legendary jazz musicians like Jimmy Rowles and Ellis Larkins that he sought out in clubs downtown and in Harlem. Nigel also discusses how being a fan of Aston Villa football club has made him think about crowd dynamics in his concerts and reveals the influence of his dog Huxley on his approach to his career.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001ts6f)
Vivienne

This month marks the anniversary of the death of a designer who changed British fashion, Vivienne Westwood. Kirsty Wark reflects on Vivienne Westwood’s life, ground breaking designs and legacy through the stories of some of her most famous and controversial pieces. From cheeky T-shirts, the design of a modern corset plus one very famous pair of shoes we learn how and why Westwood was such a pioneer.

Vivienne Westwood created the punk movement in the early 1970s alongside entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren in a shop called Let It Rock at the unfashionable end of the King’s Road in London. She went on to become one of the fashion world’s most admired and controversial figures and her designs and motifs still endure today. Westwood’s designs famously celebrated both the female and male body and she was unafraid of creating sexuality provocative clothing; she loved to shock.

Vivienne Westwood features prominently and we hear her speaking on Desert Island Discs, Woman’s Hour, The Jonathan Ross Show, Jo Whiley’s show and Radio 3’s Private Passions. As well as contributions from her biographer, Ian Kelly, there’s archive from Malcom McLaren and the Sex Pistols' Glen Matlock.

We also explore her latter years as an eco warrior, a cause she was passionate about as she was urging consumers to 'Buy Less, Choose Well, Make It Last'.

The programme features interviews with those who were inspired by her including the artist Tracey Emin, who wore many of Westwood’s designs, fashion designer Christopher Kane, who admired her punk spirit and don’t-care attitude and V&A curator Professor Claire Wilcox who describes how Westwood’s designs reflected her cultural influences from pop art, politics, and 18th-century portraits.

Producer: Belinda Naylor
Sound Engineer: Gayl Gordon


SAT 21:00 Ramblings (m001tq6r)
Clare's Highlights

Clare chooses some favourite moments from her Ramblings year:

Join brothers Manni and Reuben Coe who amble down to Hive Beach in Dorset on a calm summer's day. On the way they recall the emotional story of how Reuben, who has Down's Syndrome, was nurtured back to health partly by walking that very route. Head to Orkney where Clare battles 60mph winds in one of the wildest episodes we've yet recorded. Hike up Shutlingsloe with Frank Milner, in training to climb Kilimanjaro on his 82nd birthday. Hear David and Iain recall some youthful misadventures as they stroll along the cliffs towards Portpatrick on the remote Rhins of Galloway. And meet Sam and Roger by the waterfall in south Wales where their romance began thanks to an online walking group.

Boff Whalley of Chumbawamba leads his Commoners Choir in song as they march up to Gaddings Dam in Calderdale. On the Thames Path, Tina and Cas share how their adopted son's way of coping with the world is by long distance hiking. The inspirational Halifax Hikers lead Clare on their favourite local route. And Ali Allen, in Herefordshire, takes time out from running her tiny walking shop to march with Clare up to a section of the Offa's Dyke footpath.

Please scroll down to the 'related links' box on the Ramblings page of the Radio 4 website for links to all these individual episodes.

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor


SAT 22:00 News (m001ts6v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Screenshot (m001tr6g)
Stop-Motion Animation

As Bristol claymation legends Aardman's new film hits screens, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at the enduring appeal of the most painstaking and time-consuming art form conceivable - stop motion animation.

Ellen talks to director Guillermo del Toro about his 2022 Oscar winner Pinocchio, as well as some of his favourite stop motion films, from Jason And The Argonauts to The Nightmare Before Christmas.

And Mark speaks to animation professor Maureen Furniss and up-and-coming animator Joseph Wallace about why stop motion is so subversive - and so cool.

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


SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (m001tqbb)
Series 37

Heat 3, 2023-4

(3/13)
Whether it's Duke Ellington playing Jingle Bells, or Boney M with Mary's Boy Child, the competitors in this week's edition of the quiz can count on there being a Christmas flavour to the clips and questions. Paul Gambaccini hosts the wide-ranging music contest from London's Radio Theatre.

Taking part are:
Farrar Hornby from London
Vicky Johnson from Nottingham
Karen Rasmussen from London

They'll have to show the breadth of their knowledge of music, as well as choosing a special topic on which to answer their own individual questions in the second round, with no prior warning of what the categories are going to be. The questions cover all genres and eras, and the competitors can't always count on being in their comfort zone.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 Limelight (m0016hhb)
Dead Hand

Dead Hand – Episode 4: 97

A contemporary thriller set in Northern Ireland written by Stuart Drennan.

Greg is the host of a true crime podcast dedicated to uncovering the identity of a serial killer, last active over twenty years ago, known only as Dead Hand. A killer named after a mysterious radio transmission which has been broadcasting an indecipherable code in the years since Dead Hand vanished. A code told in the voices of Dead Hand’s victims; including Greg’s missing father. However, when a new voice is added to the code, Greg realises that Dead Hand is active again. With time already running out, can he finally crack the code and catch the killer?

Cast:
Greg ... Paul Mallon
DS Murray … Michelle Fairley
Kate … Roísín Gallagher
Lucy … Hannah Eggleton
Stacey … Eimear Fearon
Thomas … Patrick Fitzsymons
Assistant Jo … Nicky Harley
All other roles played by members of the cast.

Writer … Stuart Drennan
Script Editor … Philip Palmer
Producer … Michael Shannon
Executive Editor … Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland production for Radio 4.

SUNDAY 31 DECEMBER 2023

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001ts75)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Pilgrimage for a Pint (m001tq1k)
Folk musicians Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart set out on a journey to the most remote pub in mainland Britain - The Old Forge in Inverie.

Located on the Knoydart Peninsular on the west coast of Scotland, the pub is only accessible by a 15 mile hike through the hills from the nearest single-track road, or by sailing into Loch Nevis from the port of Mallaig.

Joining Julie and Karine are fellow musicians Iain MacFarlane and Ingrid Henderson, and the poets Sarah Grant and Doug Wilson Garry. They have set themselves the challenge of writing a new song and composing poetry about their two different pilgrimages for a pint, aiming to capture their experiences in words and music - and all in time for a special Sunday Session at The Old Forge where they join the locals for a fun evening celebrating the recent community buyout of this remotest of pubs.

More songs from the The Old Forge session can be found on BBC Radio 2's The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe on BBC Sounds.

Producer: Lewis Harrower
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001ts7k)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001ts7x)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001ts86)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001ts8n)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001trf6)
St Clement Danes, in the City of Westminster London

Bells on Sunday comes from St. Clement Danes, in the City of Westminster London. On a site reputedly founded in the 9th Century by the Danes the current building was completed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1682. It has a ring of ten bells, nine of which were cast by the Mears and Stainbank foundry in 1955 and the Tenor Bell by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1979. It weighs twenty one and a quarter hundredweight and is in the note of E.. We hear them ringing ‘London Surprise Royal’.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m001tr70)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001tqwm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b00g42lc)
At the End of the Year

Mark Tully draws on the ancient prayer tradition of the Examen - a night-time reflection on the events of the day, in order to seek understanding, awareness, forgiveness and healing, but above all, to express gratitude.

In this last Something Understood of the year, we look back on the old year and forward to the new, guided by the wisdom of the Examen.

First broadcast in 2008.

A Unique Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b098j5lc)
Turtle

Brett Westwood explores how the venerable, slow moving and long-lived turtle has become a symbol of good fortune and stability while being hunted for tortoiseshell and turtle soup. Featuring Molokai the turtle and his keeper at the National Sea Life Centre Jonny Rudd, conservation scientist Professor Brendan Godley from the University of Exeter, documentary-maker Tran Le Thuy telling the story of a legendary turtle in Vietnam and Gregory McNamee who dives into the cultural world of turtles.

First broadcast in a longer form : 17th October 2017
Original Producer (2017) Eliza Lomas
Archive Producer (2023): Andrew Dawes


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001tqxl)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001tqy6)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001tqyt)
Tackling the rise in homelessness

Emily Buchanan presents the final edition of Radio 4's Sunday programme of 2023, and brings together a panel of guests from different faiths to discuss the stand out events of the last year and also look forward to the issues and stories they expect everyone will be talking about in 2024.

New figures from the charity Shelter indicate a sharp rise in homelessness. More than 300,000 people are thought to have spent this festive season without a proper home. We speak to the Anglican Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, who regards this as a moral scandal.

In recent days Russia has intensified its attacks across Ukraine, in a significant escalation of the war. We return to Zhanna Bezpiatchuk, a reporter with the BBC Ukraine Service, who was one of the first people we spoke to after Russia's full scale invasion in February 2022. She reflects on nearly two years of conflict, how it's affected her life and the importance, during wartime, of her personal faith.

A spontaneous memorial garden has sprung up close to the Angel of the North sculpture in Gateshead. People have been leaving notes and trinkets in memory of friends and family who have died. We hear from Professor Anne Whitehead who’s been documenting the development of this new "shrine". She reflects on how the sculpture has taken on a new and spiritual dimension.

Producers: Jonathan Hallewell and Rajeev Gupta
Editor: Tim Pemberton


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001tqzg)
Pets As Therapy

Actor Josette Simon makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Pets As Therapy.

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 ‘Pets As Therapy’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Pets As Therapy’.
Please note that Freephone and online donations for this charity close at 23.59 on the Saturday after the Appeal is first broadcast. However the Freepost option can be used at any time.

Registered Charity No 1112194. Charity registered in Scotland No SCO38910.


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001tr00)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001tr0j)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001tr12)
Revelations of Divine Love

Throughout 2023 people from all over the world have been drawn to Norwich Cathedral to share and learn more about a woman who lived in the city 650 years ago.
Julian’s Revelations of Divine Love, the first known book written by a woman in English, has become a spiritual classic known and loved by millions and a guide to many in the way of faith, hope and love.
Julian of Norwich has become England’s most widely known female visionary. In May 1373, when she was thirty years old and suffering what was believed to be a terminal illness, she experienced a series of sixteen visions or ‘shewings’ which revealed aspects of the love of God. Following her recovery, she spent the rest of her life pondering their meaning and implications and recording her insights in writing. She became an anchoress, living in the cell attached to the small church of St Julian off King Street in Norwich, and from that cell and that time her influence has radiated to the present day and across the world. Preacher: The Rt Revd Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich; Master of Music: Ashley Grote; Organist: Robbie Carroll; Producer: Ben Collingwood.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001tr1p)
A Lump of Coal and a Black Bun

Alex Massie delves into Hogmanays past and present.

'The traditional 'first footing' gifts of the New Year - a lump of coal and a black bun - linger on,' Alex writes, 'though with diminished take-up and not just because few houses are coal-heated now and few people truly appreciate the black bun.'

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b038qk3x)
Mistle Thrush: Part One

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

Brett Westwood presents the Mistle Thrush. Loud rattling calls, like someone scraping a comb across wood, tell you that Mistle Thrushes are about. From midsummer to early autumn, bands of Mistle Thrushes roam the countryside, where they feed on open pastures, among stubble or on moorland. These birds are very fond of the white sticky berries of mistletoe and spread the seeds into cracks of tree bark when they wipe their bills or defecate.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001tr29)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001tr2t)
Writer: Katie Hims
Director: Dave Payne

Brian Aldridge…. Charles Collingwood
Jolene Archer …. Buffy Davis
Kenton Archer …. Richard Attlee
Ruth Archer …. Felicity Finch
Lilian Bellamy ….Sunny Ormonde
Alice Carter…. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter …. Wilf Scolding
Harry Chilcott … Jack Ashton
Justin Elliot …. Simon Williams
Ed Grundy …. Barry Farrimond
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O‘Hanrahan
Jakob Hakansson …. Paul Venables
Tracy Horrobin …. Susie Ridell
Alistair Lloyd …. Michael Lumsden
Paul Mack …. Joshua Riley
Kate Madikane …. Perdita Avery
Jazzer McCreary …. Ryan Kelly
Denise Metcalfe …. Clare Perkins
Lily Pargetter …. Katie Redford


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001sdrh)
Peter White, broadcaster

Peter White is an award-winning broadcaster. In 2024 he will celebrate 50 years presenting Radio 4’s In Touch, the programme for blind and visually impaired people. He is also one of the presenters of the network’s consumer series, You and Yours.

Peter was born in 1947 and has been blind since birth. Like his older brother Colin, he has a rare genetic anomaly that meant his optic nerve hadn’t developed properly. From the age of five he boarded at The Royal School of Industry for the Blind where he excelled at Braille and won national reading competitions for several years running. He completed his secondary education at Worcester College for the Blind.

In 1970 he turned up in the reception for the new local radio station BBC Solent and announced that he wanted to present programmes for them. They took him on and he went on to report and present for Link, the station’s programme for blind people. Years later he presented Viewpoint, a two hour live, mainstream mid-morning programme on Radio Solent. His appointment was featured on the 9 O’clock news as he was the first blind presenter to host a live daily topical programme.

In 1995 he was appointed the BBC's Disability Affairs Correspondent - the first totally blind person to produce as well as present reports for television news. Peter has presented other Radio 4 programmes including No Triumph, No Tragedy and Blind Man on the Rampage.

In 1998 he was appointed MBE for services to broadcasting. Peter lives in Marple, Greater Manchester with his second wife Jackie.

DISC ONE: Somebody Who Loves You - Joan Armatrading
DISC TWO: An extract from Hancock’s Half Hour - Sunday Afternoon at Home with
Tony Hancock. With Sidney James, Bill Kerr, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams
DISC THREE: Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye - Ella Fitzgerald
DISC FOUR: Badge - Cream
DISC FIVE: Albatross - Judy Collins
DISC SIX: The Banks of Green Willow. Composed by George Butterworth and performed by The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
DISC SEVEN: My Old Man - Joni Mitchell
DISC EIGHT: We Can Work It Out – The Beatles

BOOK CHOICE: The 1962 edition of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
LUXURY ITEM: Pear drops
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Albatross - Judy Collins

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001ts0r)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 It's a Fair Cop (m001tqfj)
Christmas Special

Copper turned comic Alfie Moore takes an audience through real-life crime scenarios. The topic, crime at Christmas. What's it like to be a bobby on the beat in the festive season?

This merry jaunt introduces us to a fun cavalcade of Christmas characters, including a gas station Grinch, an inebriated Mary and Joseph, and a Christmas Eve saviour...

Written and presented by Alfie Moore
Script Editor: Will Ing
Production Co-ordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Producer: Sam Holmes

A BBC Studios Production


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001tr3w)
New Year’s Eve Food Around the World

Join Leyla Kazim for a tour of New Year’s Eve food traditions around the world, from eating lentils in Italy, scoffing 12 grapes in Spain, slurping soba noodles in Japan and Kransekage in Denmark and Norway.

We hear from food writer, Rachel Roddy; owner of Japanese Cookery School Hashi Cooking, Reiko Hashimoto; Spanish chef, Omar Allibhoy; co-founder of ScandiKitchen, Brontë Aurell; and author of National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home, Anya Von Bremzen.

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001tr49)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001tr4r)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world


SUN 13:30 Finding My Father (m001tbbk)
This is a remarkable true story of how an elderly former engineer met a new partner, who eventually put in a care home without telling his family where he was. His daughter embarked on a long search to track him down - when she finally found him last Christmas he had advanced dementia but recognised her straight away and was overjoyed to see her again.

Anyone else might have given up when faced with the obstacles that Carolyn Stephens encountered. Her widowed father met his new partner on a Saga holiday and very quickly Carolyn worried that she was isolating him from family and friends. She was concerned that her dad, Vincent, was losing mental capacity and arranged through his GP for dementia assessments to be organised. The day before his appointment, Vincent Stephens left his home and effectively disappeared from Carolyn's life.

Carolyn discovered that he and his new partner had attempted to post wedding bans but had been prevented from doing so by the Chief Registrar for Births Deaths and Marriages, who was worried about his lack of mental capacity. The couple had gone to a solicitor, where he signed a power of attorney giving her control over his financial and medical affairs; his house went up for sale and Carolyn was told by the police that her Dad did not want her to contact him anymore. It soon became apparent that this applied to other family members, who could no longer reach him.

His family lost contact with him altogether from 2019 and his daughter only found him again in December 2022 after searching through thousands of voter records in the British Library. She discovered that he had been put in a care home at the start of the Covid pandemic and when she got there and made her way towards his bed to hug him, he waved his arms and kept repeating the word 'surprised.' The search she had undertaken was harrowing and exhausting and Carolyn is telling her story in detail for the first time in the hope that it helps others. She is Professor of Global Health at University College London and is campaigning for better provision for the elderly.

This documentary focuses on what protection exists when loneliness and mental decline leave people vulnerable to potential abuse. It is estimated that around 3 million people aged 65 and over live alone in the UK and many hope to form new relationships in later life, especially after bereavement or divorce. The danger can come from strangers, lovers, and carers; but it can also be closer to home, from family and friends. The UK charities working in this field are united in wanting better protection and can relay countless stories of elderly people being isolated and losing contact with people who are important to them.

When Carolyn eventually found her father the full impact really hit home: so did her desire to make the most of what little time they had left together. She wants to see safeguarding of elderly people prioritised and is alarmed that protection in key legislation is currently being weakened. This documentary is tied to the BBC Radio 4 series, Million Dollar Lover, which is also presented by Sue Mitchell. It follows the case of an eighty year old woman in America who starts a relationship with a younger lover and sets in motion events which leave her increasingly isolated from those who are concerned about her.

And if you want to hear more on this subject, you can listen to Sue Mitchell's ten part series, Intrigue: Million Dollar Lover, on BBC Sounds.
We will be following up on the issues raised in future programmes and you can make contact at: sue.mitchell@bbc.co.uk


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001tr11)
Sarratt

When should I prune raspberry canes? How do I prep the lawn for winter?Why have my leeks turned pink inside?

Kathy Clugston and her panel of gardening experts are in Sarratt, Hertfordshire for this week’s episode. Joining Kathy on the panel are plantsman Matt Biggs, grow your own guru Bob Flowerdew, and pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood.

And GQT regular Anne Swithinbank chats to Charles Dowding to find out his best tips and tricks for composting.

Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock
Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Executive Producer: Hannah Newton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Short Works (m001rh72)
Hearing Aids by Roddy Doyle

A new story from Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments and the 1993 Booker Prize winner, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
In this touching and funny story, new hearing aids lead Barry to look afresh at his marriage to Donna and the way he has behaved in the past.

Hearing Aids is read by Liam Carney, and produced by Nicola Holloway


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m001tr5f)
Rumpelstiltskin's Radio Drama Romance

The Radio Drama Department are recording their annual Christmas Pantomime - this year "Rumpelstiltskin and the Sleeping Beauty", an enjoyable mish-mash of traditional fairy tales, given a 21st century twist. But our harassed producer Graham finds the two days’ recording anything but enjoyable.

Briony (the Witch) berates the play’s author for the story’s inherent sexism, the Prince worries about waking the Sleeping Beauty with a kiss without asking her permission first, and Lizzie wonders why her character appears to behave so stupidly. Meantime, in the production room, Graham’s PA has gone sick, his writer’s beloved dog is ailing and Graham finds to his horror that he has been allocated a Technical Producer with whom he has had a brief, thoroughly unsatisfactory liaison after a drunken party.

What slowly becomes apparent is that true-life events have begun eerily to mirror some of the main themes in the pantomime.

Gordon House, the writer, was once Head of BBC Radio Drama and Rumpelstiltskin’s Radio Drama Romance, starring Jon Strickland as the much put-upon Graham, is his affectionate tribute to the medium.

With songs composed by David Chilton and lyrics by Gordon House.

Cast:
THE PRODUCTION TEAM
Graham . . . . . Jon Strickland
Jeremy . . . . . Clive Hayward
Tashelle . . . . . Rakie Ayola
Jenny . . . . . Abbie Andrews

THE ACTORS
King/Royal Soothsayer/Neil . . . . . Neil Summerville
Witch/Queen/Briony . . . . . Tracy Wiles
Princess/Melissa/Lizzie . . . . . Lizzie Burder
Rumpelstiltskin/Prince Howard/Wil . . . . . Will Howard

Crew:
Technical Producer: Matt Bainbridge
Sound Designers: David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling
Director: Gordon House

An Essential production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001tr60)
Endings and New Beginnings

Perhaps they're always layered together, if not inextricably intertwined - now, as the old year closes and a new year dawns, Chris Power explores what makes a perfect ending, and how best to open a new story.

Chris is joined by a panel of literary experts, the writers Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Lucy Caldwell and Aminatta Forna, in a lively and moving discussion. There's laughter and even tears as our writers share their literary tips and some of their favourite examples of brilliant beginnings and unforgettable endings

Presented by Chris Power
Produced by Allegra McIlroy

Book List – Sunday 31 December and Thursday 4 January

These Days by Lucy Caldwell
The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion by Aminatta Forna
Runaway Robot by Frank Cottrell Boyce
The Accidental by Ali Smith
By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
True Grit by Charles Portis
The Complete Short Stores by Roald Dahl
The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov
The Dead by James Joyce
The Dubliners by James Joyce
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit


SUN 16:30 The Wilkie Collins Guide to Modern Life (m001tr6h)
Matthew Sweet re-examines the life and work of the exciting, sensational and surprising figure who contemporary critics might have labelled 'Woke Wilkie'. In this his bicentenary year, Matthew will open up the world of Wilkie Collins's fiction - a world that is profoundly strange, but deeply engaged with questions with which we're still grappling today. Whether on restitution, polyamory, disability or gender roles, Collins wasn't just ahead of his own time but in many ways, ahead of ours.

Readers: Josh Bryant-Jones and Kitty O'Sullivan
Producer: Mohini Patel


SUN 17:00 Incandescent: The Phoebus Cartel (m001tqj9)
A century ago, businessmen from around the world gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, to form a shadowy international organisation called the Phoebus Cartel. Their purpose? To control the production and distribution of lightbulbs across the world - and also, it's alleged, to deliberately shorten their lifespans to make them burn out quicker in order to sell more.

It's a manufacturing tactic called planned obsolescence and it's claimed the Phoebus Cartel invented it.

In this documentary, Shaun Keaveny goes in search of the mysterious Phoebus Cartel, a journey which takes him from the Industrial Midlands to Switzerland, a testing laboratory in Belgium, and the bizarre story of an immortal light bulb called Byron. Shaun investigates the rise of today's throwaway culture and looks at its enormous environmental impact, with millions of low-cost, poorly-made products ending up in landfill within a year of being bought.

Is this a legacy of the Phoebus Cartel? Where does the conspiracy theory end and reality begin?

Shaun also hears from the repairers, the activists, the campaigners and the designers who are fighting back against today's culture of accelerating obsolescence.

Featuring contributions from: Chris Setz and the team at Haringey Fixers, Helen Peavitt (Science Museum), Catherine Shanahan (Rugby Art Museum), Markus Krajewski (University of Basel), James Hooker (Head of Laboratories for international lighting company), Scott Butler (Material Focus), Jack Holloway (Product Designer), Tim Cooper (Nottingham University), Kate Raworth (Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University)

Readings... Joseph Millson
Presenter... Shaun Keaveny
Producer... Andrew Smith
Executive Producer... Kris Dyer

A Rakkit production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:40 Profile (m001tr70)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001tr7h)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001tr7z)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001tr8h)
US Navy, protecting commercial ships from Houthi rebels in Yemen, hits 3 small vessels. UN warns of a risk of famine in Gaza. Queen Margrethe of Denmark to abdicate in January.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001tr90)
Pick of the Pods: Geoff Lloyd & Sara Barron

Geoff and Sara like to keep things spicy by inviting other people into their marriage. This year they've welcomed many people, including a prominent artist, several conspiracy theorists, a national hate figure...and a footballer with his new best friend. And they’re going to reveal everything.

Join them as they share all the details of their podcast listening and bring you their 2023 highlights from BBC Sounds.

Presenters: Geoff Lloyd & Sara Barron
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinator: Lydia Depledge-Miller


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001tr9j)
Whilst getting The Lodge ready for sale, Lillian, Brian and Tony are reminiscing about going there for tea. Tony mentions that it would have been John’s 48th birthday. When Lillian asks Brian what he’s doing for the New Year, he tells her he’ll be spending a quiet one at home, but she manages to convince him to form a team for the darts competition at The Bull. The unlikely pair manage to win. It’s a bittersweet evening for them both and later they talk about the symbolism of the new year… a moment of hope looking to the future yet somehow so melancholy.

Kenton and Tracy are getting The Bull ready for the evening’s festivities. They discuss how George is bringing a group of his friends to spend New Year’s Eve there. Tracy is pleased that they’re choosing The Bull instead of a fancy bar in Borchester. They go on to talk about the longest drinker competition and the lengths Bert and Neville are willing to go to in order to prove how long they’ve been drinking at the pub. Jolene is backing The Horrobins, but Kenton is Team Neville all the way. He then goes on to tell Tracy he is conducting an experiment by giving them both Gulcher’s Moxey, the first alcohol free IPA from Shires Brewery. When Bert finds out he’s angry, claiming he’s been tricked. Just before the clock strikes twelve, Tracy reminisces on the proposal and how if there’s something to celebrate it’s that, against all odds, she has finally made an honest man of Jazzer McCreary.


SUN 19:15 Sigmund Troy'd (m001trb3)
You’ve seen him online, you’ve seen him on Comic Relief and now, for the first time, you can hear him on Radio 4. Join Troy Hawke in this award-winning show as he does battle with a new enemy on behalf of all people everywhere… psychotherapy!

In Sigmund Troy’d, everyone's favourite smoking jacket-wearing comic is here to let anyone with self-doubts know that everything is OK - you deserve what you have, you’re entitled to what you’ve earned and, most importantly, you are good enough.

A social media sensation and winner of the 2022 Leicester Comedy Festival’s Best Show award, Troy makes his BBC Radio 4 stand-up debut with a show that’s guaranteed to make you laugh and feel better about the world.


Written and performed by Troy Hawke

Sound recording and mixing by Mark Burrows

Photo supplied by Steve Ullathorne

Produced by Kurt Brookes

Executive Producer: Ashley Byrne

A Made In Manchester production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Love on the Main Line (m001trbr)
Episode 5 - Gatwick Airport

Jess Searle's life is mapped out like a timetable. A successful data analyst, she’s created her own dating app to find your perfect match. It worked for her! She found devilishly handsome Jean-Baptise and they will be married at the start of the new year. Everything is running to schedule. Until she meets cynic and sceptic Kev Warmley - a stand up comedian who believes love cannot be determined by an algorithm but by the rhythm of your heart. And the odd fart joke. Is Jess’s life about to be completely derailed? Or will she find Love On The Main Line...?

Written by Colin Bytheway

Read by Rasmus Hardiker and Tigger Blaize

Directed by Celia de Wolff
Studio Manager - Matt Bainbridge
Sound Design by Lucinda Mason Brown
Production Manager - Sarah Wright

A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:00 Money Box (m001v0xw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 20:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001tqzg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001tr28)
Jacques Delors, Nancy Pearce, Elinor Otto, Tony Allen

Kirsty Lang on

Jacques Delors, the politician and architect of the modern EU.

Nancy Pearce, the founder of a charity to help people with eating disorders.

Elinor Otto, the American factory worker who was one of the original ‘Rosie the Riveters.’

Tony Allen, one of the pioneers of the alternative comedy scene.

Producer: Ed Prendeville


SUN 21:00 Archive on 4 (m001smw2)
Doctor Who: 60 Years of Friends and Foes

As Doctor Who celebrates its 60th anniversary, Sue Perkins explores how the programme has reflected our social history across the decades both on and off screen. From advances in technology to politics, violence, gender and sexuality.

Featuring archive footage, interviews and new conversations with showrunner Steven Moffat, script editor Andrew Cartmel, former companions including Anneke Wills, Katy Manning and Janet Fielding, and the voice of the Daleks Nicholas Briggs along with Dalek Operator Barnaby Edwards. Also, there's analysis from several academics who have published books on the subject.

Sue examines how progressive the show has been, questioning if our favourite time traveller has kept with the times.

A Voiceworks production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 22:00 Loose Ends (m001trcx)
Loose Ends Lounge: Music from Pokey LaFarge, Fantastic Negrito, Rae Morris, Galen & Paul and many more

Clive Anderson with the final programme showcasing some of the best music performances on Loose Ends this year, featuring Pokey LaFarge, The Teskey Brothers, Rae Morris, Fantastic Negrito, Daoirí Farrell and Galen & Paul.


SUN 23:00 But First, This... (m001trdd)
Continuity announcers' voices are at the heart of Radio 4 - they introduce programmes and bring us the news. But who are they? What does it take to do their job - from introducing The Archers to reading the Shipping Forecast? And what happens on those hopefully rare occasions when things don't go according to plan? With contributions from more announcers than ever previously spotted in one place, and a special musical performance, countdown to the new year with the BBC Radio 4 announcers.

MONDAY 01 JANUARY 2024

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001trdv)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Short Cuts (m001gj4w)
Series 33

Time Stops

As time appears to fall still between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures that play with our temporal senses.

Blight
Created by Jocelyn Pook and John Smith
Originally created for the series Sound on Film in 1996
Released on Purge Records

Raven
Produced by Vaida Pilibaitytė

Time Stops
Produced by Jules Bradley

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


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001trf6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001trfj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001trfv)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001trg1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001trg9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001trgh)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Rachel Mann

The Feast of the Naming

Good morning and a Happy New Year! Today is also the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Christ. For Jesus, the rituals he underwent as a baby were part of a process of welcoming him as a newborn boy into the people of God; from that day forward, he would be publicly called by name.

For all of us, to be identified by name is a powerful signal of our personhood. When someone is given or takes a new name it is a signal of a new beginning; it is a sign that they have entered into fresh and rich networks of relationships and human connection. Conversely, when someone is deprived of a name, as were those in the death camps of the Nazi regime, it is a step towards dehumanisation. To be known only by a number represents an attempt to turn human beings into objects.

Names matter then. As a transgender person, I know this truth only too well. When I transitioned from male to female over thirty years ago and took a new Christian name, I felt as if I was being addressed as me for the first time when people started using it.

One doesn’t need to be trans to appreciate the power of being known by name. The prophet Isaiah says that God himself calls us by name; in doing so, Isaiah reminds us that we are profoundly valued by God and can find a home in him. Our human need to be seen and loved is a deep part of our humanity, as well as God’s economy.

God of love, you address me by name and my hearts soar when I am cherished. Help me to be seen and valued this day for the person I really am.

Amen.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001trgp)
Sarah Swadling finds out what it takes to manage the world's largest herd of free-roaming, pedigree Exmoor Ponies. She meets David and Emma Wallace, who describe themselves as custodians of the Anchor Herd, which numbers around a hundred ponies. Exmoor Ponies are an ancient breed and are on the Rare Breed Survival Trust's Endangered list but, as Sarah finds out, their population has been painstakingly rebuilt. Demand for the ponies is healthy; for riding, and for grazing land in conservation or rewilding projects.

Produced and presented by Sarah Swadling


MON 05:56 Weather (m001trgt)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zbtzz)
Black Grouse

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

Kate Humble presents the story of the black grouse. A black grouse lek is one of Nature's spectacles. Charged with testosterone, the males, known as 'black cocks', compete on 'jousting lawns' for the females or grey hens. Fanning their lyre-shaped tails and displaying a flurry of white undertail feathers, the males rush towards their rivals with harsh scouring sneezes and bubbling cries, known as 'roo-kooing'.


MON 06:00 Today (m001ts41)
Dame Emma Walmsley guest edits Today.

Dame Emma Walmsley guest edits Today in the last programme of the series.


MON 09:00 Fixing Britain with Louise Casey (m001ts4b)
Rough Sleeping

For 25 years, Baroness Casey, Louise Casey, has been Britain's fixer-in-chief, the person Prime Ministers turn to when they've got a tricky social problem to fix. Now, at the start of a General Election year, she looks ahead to the challenges which will face whoever wins. Examining 5 major areas of policy on she has worked, but which have remained stubbornly un-fixed by governments of all political colours, she asks why that is. Delving into the deeper reasons problems remain un-solved, at questions of governance and political complexity, she asks what we need from our government, at every level, to make things work better.

In this first episode Louise examines rough sleeping - an area she has helped fix - twice, first under Labour then under the Conservatives. Why has the problem - twice fixed - twice resurfaced? In London she meets a man who is now living off the street for the first time in years, as well as a woman still sleeping rough, as she tries to find out what isn't clicking within the system. And catching up again with people she first worked with 25 years ago - from ministers at the centre of government to charity workers - she examines what it will take inside government to fix it again, and keep it fixed.

Producer: Giles Edwards.


MON 09:30 Hoax (m001psq6)
The Planted Plants of Rum

Mysterious plants appear on the Isle of Rum. Do they prove the island miraculously escaped the Ice Age? And what extraordinary lengths would one scientist go to in order to prove that it did? Dr Tori Herridge investigates.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth Sagar-Fenton


MON 09:45 The Wager by David Grann (m001ts4q)
Book of the Week: Episode 1 - Preparations for a Secret Mission

David Grann's high stakes story of shipwreck, mutiny and survival begins. In1739, Britain has declared war on Spain and preparations are well underway for a secret mission on the high seas to capture a galleon filled with the enemy's silver. Luke Treadaway reads.

David Grann, the internationally best-selling and award winning writer, brings us the story of the treacherous events that took place on the Wager, an eighteenth century British warship, when it was lost at sea. Grann's enquiry into this story of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder sheds light on what happened when the Wager's crew were stranded on an uninhabitable island thousands of miles from home. The fate of those few men who made it home, reveals shocking insights into Great Britain's justice system in the Age of Empire.

David Grann is the author of The Lost City of Z, and Killers of the Flower Moon which is now a Hollywood blockbuster.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001ts51)
Women and Negotiations

A special Woman's Hour episode all about women and negotiation.

Nicky Perfect is the former Deputy Head of the elite New Scotland Yard Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Unit. She has travelled the world teaching negotiation and working with the Government on international operations. She’ll be joining Hayley Hassall throughout the programme sharing her own experiences and advice, and taking us through how what she learnt can be used in our everyday lives.

What has been the role of women in negotiations historically? Professor Margaret Macmillan specialises in British Imperial and International History from the 19th to the 20th Century. In those days, negotiations never involved women on paper – but that wasn’t always the case in reality. She joins Hayley to tell us more.

Nomi Bar-Yaacov has been all over the world mediating and negotiating international conflicts. She’ll tell Hayley some of her experiences, as well as how these negotiations happen, and the different roles women play.

How much of your daily life do you spend negotiating? Perhaps at work, or with your children – or even in-laws? Mum and a mic on Instagram, Jane Dowden, joins Hayley to chat through negotiations she has with her twins, and clinical psychologist Catherine Hallissey will talk about what goes on in our brains while we’re negotiating, and the best way to do so with family.

At the end of last year, the largest negotiations including delegates from all over the world took place – COP28, the United Nation's climate summit. Rachel Kyte was there – and at several previous COPs as well, having served as special representative of the UN secretary-general and chief executive officer of Sustainable Development for All among other roles. She’ll tell Hayley all about how negotiations like COP work behind-the-scenes, including the strops and the drama that lead eventually to world-changing commitments.

Presenter: Hayley Hassall
Producer: Lottie Garton


MON 11:00 Who Do You Really Think You Are? (m001ts5b)
We’re a nation obsessed with genealogy. Millions of us are gripped by TV shows like 'Who Do You Think You Are', where genealogists show celebrities their famous ancestors - like Danny Dyer being descended from Edward III, the first Plantagent King! But what if Danny doesn’t get exclusive bragging rights? With the help of mathematician Hannah Fry and Habsburg Royal Historian professor Martyn Rady, population geneticist Dr Adam Rutherford sets out to prove that we're all descended from royalty, revealing along the way that family trees are not the perfect tool for tracing your heritage. But can it really be true? Can we all be descended from Henry VIII or Charlemagne!?


MON 11:30 When It Hits the Fan (m001trw4)
Gerald Ratner special

In this special episode, David Yelland and Simon Lewis take you into the eye of a media storm and talk to a person who has lived through it. What’s it like to wake up to a world where everyone knows your name, and you wish they didn’t?

In 1991, Gerald Ratner had one of Britain’s most famous fan-hitting moments. Having built a billion-pound chain of high-street jewellery shops, he saw his business collapse around him after making a seemingly harmless, yet ill-fated, joke.

In fact, what happened to him has become so synonymous with a fan-hitting moment that he's become a verb – in business English, “Doing a Ratner” is shorthand for really screwing up in an entirely avoidable way. But, 25 years later, he says there are many silver linings to losing a billion pounds in 10 seconds flat.

Producer: Eve Streeter
Editor: Sarah Teasdale
Executive Producer: William Miller
Researcher: Sophie Smith
Music by Eclectic Sounds
A Raconteur production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001ts5k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001ts5r)
Happiness Special – with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

In this series of special editions of BBC Radio 4 podcast Just One Thing, Michael Mosley quizzes the world’s leading health experts on the best ways to live well.

In this Happiness Special we hear from Dr Rangan Chatterjee - GP, host of successful podcast “Feel Better, Live More” and author of numerous best-selling books including “Happy Mind, Happy Life”.

We hear the top tips that Dr Chatterjee swears by to improve and maintain good mental health and wellbeing. Could talking to strangers make you more content? Would eliminating choice reduce stress and improve your wellbeing? Is changing your relationship with technology the key to improving your life?

And as this is a Just One Thing special, Michael ends the interview by asking Dr Chatterjee for his single most effective health hack for a happier life.

Series Producer: Dom Byrne
Production Manager: Maria Simons
Exec Producer: Zoe Heron
Specially composed music by Richard Atkinson (Mcasso)
A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds / BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:42 Obsessed with the Quest (m001ts6k)
Inside the Minds of Chimpanzees

Primatologist Catherine Hobaiter has spent more of her adult life in the rain forests of Uganda, with family bands of chimpanzees, than she has with her own human family members. For more than 20 years now she has spent 6 months every year at a remote field station, getting up before dawn every day to observe and collect behavioural data on family bands of chimps as they wake up and go about their daily lives. What is she trying to find out, that has gripped her for so long? It turns out that life in a chimpanzee troupe is every bit as gripping as a soap opera. We hear about Nambi - a high status female and the family matriarch who, in controlling the lives and social status of her offspring, has been the quintessential helicopter parent, actively intervening to help her layabout son, Musa, climb up the rungs of the male hierarchy. And about the tragic fate of Lola - a young female who becomes caught up in what seems to be a tragic case of miscommunication. Maintaining her scientific objectivity, Catherine can only look on as Lola tries to hide behind her for protection, as she is beaten by an older male, later dying of the resulting injuries. But there are many more moments of beauty, revelation and the joy of discovery, as Catherine pursues her continuing, multi-decadal quest to understand what it means to be a chimpanzee.

Produced by Diane Hope

(Image: Chimpanzees in Kibale National Park. Credit: Yannick Tylle/Getty Images)


MON 12:57 Weather (m001ts61)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001ts68)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


MON 13:45 Understand (m001tv4h)
The US Election

The US Election: 1. Primaries, Caucuses and the National Conventions

How do the parties select their presidential candidates?

This episode was hosted by Justin Webb (Today Programme host and Americast host) alongside Sarah Smith (BBC North America editor and Americast host) and Ned Foley (director of the election law program at Ohio State University).

Producers: Dan Gordon and Alix Pickles
Production coordinator: Sabine Schereck
Senior News Editor: Sam Bonham


MON 14:00 The Archers (m001tr9j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 This Cultural Life (m001ts66)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Saturday]


MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m001ts6t)
Series 37

Heat 4, 2024

(4/13)
Paul Gambaccini puts another three amateur music-lovers through their paces in the eclectic music quiz. As well as testing their general musical knowledge, he'll be asking them to pick questions on an individual theme or musical topic, from a list they haven't seen before. They'll need speed on the trigger as well as a wide range of musical interests if they're to make it through to the semi-finals.

Today's competitors are:
Nicki Cockburn from Cardiff
Geraint Davies from Gwent
Emma Laslett from Milton Keynes.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001tr3w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 Loose Ends (m001ts5y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m001ts7f)
Sacred Sounds

What makes music sacred?

A young, slightly lost university student wanders into York Minster on a Saturday afternoon, after football practice. The choral music he hears there will change his life.

Aleem Maqbool hears his story, and is joined by a panel of talented musicians and composers from the Christian, Sikh and Sufi Islamic traditions to explore what makes the music they perform and compose spiritual. Is music a way they are able to connect with the divine?

His guests include Abi Sampa and Rushil Ranjan from the Orchestral Qawwali Project, Indian classical musician Jasdeep Singh Degun and Elizabeth Stratford, organist and Master of the Choristers at Arundel Cathedral.

Producer: Rebecca Maxted
Assistant Producer: James Leesley


MON 17:00 PM (m001ts7t)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001ts84)
A powerful earthquake has struck central Japan -- triggering a tsunami alert. Israel's highest court has struck down a highly disputed law.


MON 18:15 The Wombles (m001ts8k)
Episode 6: Tobermory's Surprise and the Midsummer Party

The Wombles live under Wimbledon Common, and it is their special responsibility to 'tidy up' everything that untidy human beings leave behind.

Radio 4 and BBC Sounds celebrate these much loved classic characters, marking 50 years since The Wombles first appeared on the BBC.

This joyful festive listen is based on the original books by Elisabeth Beresford, performed by Richard E Grant, directed by Johnny Vegas and nestled in a new soundscape for Christmas 2023.

Full of fun and warmth, with an underpinning environmental message - this is novelty and nostalgia combined and a gift of Christmas comfort-listening for all to enjoy.

Episode 6: Tobermory's Surprise and the Midsummer Party
Bungo's idea for the Wombles' Midsummer Party comes to fruition as Tobermory's secret project is revealed.

Cast and Credits:
Performed by............ Richard E Grant
Written by.................. Elisabeth Beresford
Abridged by.............. Sally Harrison and Susan Vale
Script Consultant..... Kate Robertson
With thanks to.......... Marcus Robertson

Music: The Wombling Song, composed and recorded by Mike Batt

Produced by.............. Sally Harrison
Sound Engineer........ Wilfredo Acosta
Sound Designer........ Alisdair McGregor
Directed by................. Johnny Vegas

A Woolyback Productions and Mrs Mellor's Cellar collaboration for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m001ts8t)
Seasonal Trimmings

It's a star-studded seasonal special featuring choice cuts from a cast that includes Graeme Garden, Armando Iannucci, Sean Lock, Richard Osman, Holly Walsh, Susan Calman, David O’Doherty, Rob Brydon, Alan Davies, Stephen Fry, Fern Brady, Geoff Norcott, Simon Evans, Jack Dee, John Lloyd, Lee Mack and Rufus Hound.

Topics covered include Christmas trees, nuts, snow, donkeys, Santa Claus, champagne, reindeer, boxes and turkey.

The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith.

Producer: Jon Naismith

A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001trpb)
Brian is buying essentials at the shop when Tony arrives in a panic. He’s realised he has thrown away three bin bags full of Kate’s belongings at the tip. Brian tells him not to worry as Kate sporadically dumps her worldly possessions and starts again. Tony, however, isn’t sure and says he’ll come and apologise in person later on. Later, Kate is ranting to Brian about her missing clothes. He consoles her by saying she hasn’t lost everything and it was an accident… Tony thought he was being helpful.

Joy arrives at Blossom Hill with bags of Rochelle’s clothes to replace what Kate has lost. They discuss being mothers, and Kate tells her how she gave birth at Glastonbury, and that’s when she realises her festival wristband was in one of the bags that has gone to the tip.

Tony and Henry are talking about his birthday plans, and he says going for a pizza is nice but it’s a bit embarrassing having your mum with you in the restaurant. Tony offers to have a word with Helen, but Henry doesn’t want her to feel bad. Later, Helen tells Tony the birthday treat she’s planned for Henry is far more exciting than pizza at a restaurant, and she has organised for one of Henry’s friend’s older sister to supervise. Whilst playing a computer game with Henry, Helen tells him about his actual birthday plans and how he’ll be going on a tree-high adventure in the dark followed by hot dogs and hot chocolate at the café camp fire.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001lj8b)
Rachmaninoff - the 20th century's great romantic

Samira celebrates the music and life of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

With pianist Kirill Gerstein, who has released a new recording of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, Marina Frolova-Walker, Professor of Music at Cambridge, pianist Lucy Parham, who has created a Composer Portrait concert about Rachmaninoff that she is currently touring across the UK. Plus film historian and composer Neil Brand discusses the use of Rachmaninoff's music in film classics such as Brief Encounter.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Timothy Prosser


MON 20:00 My Dream Dinner Party (m001r7dw)
Minnie Driver's Dream Dinner Party

Actor Minnie Driver hosts a dinner party with a twist - all her guests are from beyond the grave, long-time heroes brought back to life by the wonders of the radio archive.

In her mobile home overlooking Malibu beach, Minnie is joined by singer-songwriter George Michael, actor and raconteur Sir Peter Ustinov, actor Alan Rickman, poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, and actor and politician Glenda Jackson.

As the sunlight fades, the conversation becomes more candid - from filming sex scenes to the anger at being exposed in the press; from a failed attempt at being a spy to the joy of being in love. There are confessions, laughter, and a midnight swim.

Written and presented by Minnie Driver
Produced by Sarah Peters and Peregrine Andrews
Co-producer Tim Bano
Additional Editing: Jerome Watson
BBC Archivists: Roni Abera and Michael Pridham
Executive Producer: Iain Chambers

A Tuning Fork and Open Audio production for BBC Radio 4


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m001tqq1)
Bolivia’s giant fish intruder

Some people said it was created by Peruvian scientists, that it gorged on the blood of farm animals, that it was a monster. Many myths have grown up in Bolivia around the Paiche, one of the world’s largest scaled freshwater fish which is native to Amazonian rivers of Brazil and Peru and can grow up to four metres long. But after young fish were accidentally released from a Peruvian fish farm, the Paiche has arrived big time in Bolivian rivers.

Every year, it reaches another 40 km of river and is eating all before it, especially smaller native fish stocks including even the deadly piranha. At the same time, the Paiche is proving a boon to many local fisherman who sell it to families and restaurants who are acquiring a taste for it in a land-locked country where meat has always been the favourite form of protein. This gives scientists and the authorities a dilemma. Do they try and control or even eradicate the Paiche from rivers famed for their biodiversity where new species are being identified all the time? Or let its spread continue unabated and provide a useful livelihood for fishermen and a healthy addition to the Bolivian diet? For Crossing Continents, Jane Chambers takes to the rivers of Bolivia

Produced by Bob Howard
Mixed by Rod Farquhar
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Series editor: Penny Murphy


MON 21:00 Seven Deadly Psychologies (m001tqbf)
Wrath

Becky Ripley and Sophie Ward take a cold hard look at the psychology behind each of the seven deadly sins, in the order established by Pope Gregory the Great: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and lazy old sloth. Why have we evolved these emotions? What’s going on in the brain and the body when we feel them? And how best can we live alongside them - in ourselves and with others?

Wrath is today's hot topic, and things can get pretty ugly when our blood starts to boil. Some of us are quick to flip, some of us brood, and some of us push down our anger. But ultimately anger is a motivator; a driver for change in the face of a perceived injustice. The question is, how are you going to act on it? For bad? Or for good?

To guide us through this mess is evolutionary anthropologist Dr Anna Machin from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, psychology professor Dr Ryan Martin (aka "The Anger Professor"), multidisciplinary artist and former Children's Laureate of Wales, Connor Allen, and Jake Hall from the Destroy'd Rage Rooms.

Producer: Becky Ripley


MON 21:30 Fixing Britain with Louise Casey (m001ts4b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001ts96)
Rising tensions in the Red Sea as Houthi rebels target global shipping

Israel's Supreme Court strikes down judicial reforms which sparked months of protests

The first patient to trial a revolutionary gene-editing treatment for sickle cell disease


MON 22:45 The House Next to the Factory by Sonal Kohli (m001ts9g)
One Hour, Three Times a Week

Sonal Kohli tells the gentle story of an extended family that lives in the same house in Delhi over three decades. There are nine stories in all but we have selected five.

Delicate and finely textured, the stories lay bare the complexities of class and culture and the difficulties as well as excitements of change, even as it evokes loves and triumphs, the pull of incongruous desires and the tragedies of everyday life.

Abridged by Joseph Bedell
Read by Meera Syal
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:00 Yeti (m001ts9r)
Omnibus

Andrew Benfield has a thing about yetis - he believes they’re real. So he persuaded his friend, Richard Horsey, to join him on a four-year yeti search across the Himalayas.

The pair travelled to remote villages and mountain valleys and heard extraordinary stories about the mythical creature. They even received apparent bona fide evidence that the yeti exists. Is there any truth in these yeti stories?

Andrew and Richard look back over their long and driven quest and are surprised by what they find. You can listen to the whole series in full including the special bonus episode on BBC Sounds now.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4

TUESDAY 02 JANUARY 2024

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001tsb0)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:15 The Hauntening (m001df1t)
Series 4

Dead Funny

Travel through the bad gateway in this modern ghost story as writer and performer Tom Neenan discovers what horrors lurk in our apps and gadgets. In this episode, there seems to be a problem with the studio audience – because there shouldn’t be one.

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

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

Starring:
Tom - Tom Neenan
Heidi - Jenny Bede
The Archivist - Geoffrey Whitehead
The Barman - Morgan Jones

Written by Tom Neenan

Produced and directed by David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 The Wager by David Grann (m001ts4q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001tsb8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001tsbd)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001tsbj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001tsbp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001tsbs)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Rachel Mann

Good morning.

As the new year begins, many of us decide to go on a health kick. We have an understandable and reasonable desire to change diet or fitness regime and work off the calories of Christmas.

Getting fit is one thing. However, both social and traditional media can promote barely obtainable ideals about beauty, health and vitality; advice is dispensed readily to older women like me on ways to turn back the years. There is now a flourishing market of biotech companies which want to reverse ageing or enable us to live forever.

The search for an ‘elixir of life’ is as old as civilisation. There is a reference to it in the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh as well as in ancient Chinese and Indian texts and scripture. In medieval Europe the search for the ‘philosopher’s stone’ was the search for the elixir of life.

As someone with a long-term health disability, you might think I long to rejuvenate my body or have an endlessly extended healthy life. Certainly, at times, I have wanted a better quality of life. But I remain suspicious of a search for a formula that could extend life indefinitely or grant instant health.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus offers his disciples ‘living water’, a spring gushing up to eternal life. As I see it, this not so much an elixir or quick fix to our health concerns, but an invitation to live our lives with character and grace, whether you are well or not. To live well is something available to all, whether able or disabled.

God of life, whatever I face this day, grant me the character to meet it with grace, that I may work for the flourishing of all people.

Amen.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001tsbv)
02/01/24 Girls studying agriculture, Decarbonising pork production, Tweed

Labour shortages have long been a problem for agricultural businesses, but there may be some light at the end of the tunnel - with an unexpected rise in the number of teenage girls opting for farming as a career choice. Rural colleges in Scotland are reporting that around half of all agricultural students are now girls. We meet some of the latest intake.

Farmers and food processors are under increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprint, in the face of climate change. Pilgrims, which produces nearly 30 percent of all UK pork on more than 300 farms, says it's made significant cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in its processing factories, while increasing sustainability on its farms. Anna Hill talks to the company's head of sustainability to find out what they've been doing to decarbonise the operation.

A Lake District tweed is being made using wool from the flock of sheep at the RSPB’s Wild Haweswater site. The design was inspired by a ‘re-wiggled’ river.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Emma Campbell


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09f380d)
Dermot O'Leary on the Dunnock

The dunnock is a newly-appreciated bird in the O'Leary household and as Dermot potters around the garden he admires the work ethic and understated beauty of this industrious little brown bird.

Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photo: Ian Redman.


TUE 06:00 Today (m001trl5)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 Fixing Britain with Louise Casey (m001trlk)
Hunger

Baroness Casey, Louise Casey, continues her series looking at the challenges facing whoever wins the next general election. Delving into the reasons why five major social policy problems on which she has worked remain unsolved, she looks at questions of governance and political complexity, and asks what we need from our government, at every level, to make things work better.

In the second episode, Louise is looking at hunger and how it is starting to reach in to some unexpected places. She examines how poverty and the cost of living crisis is impacting people, and looks at how welfare policy could be improved. And she meets those who are looking for other solutions, including people right at the top of British society.

Producer: Ed Chivers.


TUE 09:30 Hoax (m001ptb5)
The Wizard of Sussex

Like all great mysteries, this story starts with the discovery of a body – in this case one that was claimed to be hundreds of thousands of years old.

Did an eccentric solicitor really convince the world that early humans had evolved in the heart of England? Dr Tori Herridge investigates.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth Sagar-Fenton


TUE 09:45 The Wager by David Grann (m001trrn)
Book of the Week: Episode 2 - Daily Life On Board a Man-of-War

In David Grann's account of shipwreck on the high seas, the Wager is on its way to the shores of South American to intercept a Spanish galleon filled with silver. Meanwhile, for the rank and file, daily life on board the 18th century man- of-war becomes a perilous reality. Luke Treadaway reads.

David Grann, the internationally best-selling and award winning writer, brings us the story of the treacherous events that took place on the Wager, an eighteenth century British warship, when it was lost at sea. Grann's enquiry into this story of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder sheds light on what happened when the Wager's crew were stranded on an uninhabitable island thousands of miles from home. The fate of those few men who made it home, reveals shocking insights into Great Britain's justice system in the Age of Empire.

David Grann is the author of The Lost City of Z, and Killers of the Flower Moon which is now a Hollywood blockbuster.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001trm8)
Lavinia Greenlaw, Lindsay Duncan, the Irish mother and baby homes scandal

The names of Jeffrey Epstein's associates are likely to be published today, after a judge in the US ordered the release of court documents. Epstein took his own life after he was accussed of sexually abusing and trafficking underage girls. Names connected to him have previously been anonymised as John or Jane Doe; but now around 170 people, mostly men, will have their association with the former financier made public. Joan Smith, journalist and author, and Georgina Calvert-Lee, an equality lawyer at Bellevue Law, tell Emma Barnett what the list will mean.

Lavinia Greenlaw is one of the country's leading poets and has now published a selected edition of her work, covering three decades of writing. She tells Emma about her new role as poetry editor at Faber, the first woman to hold the position. She is now the custodian of a back catalogue that includes TS Eliot, Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, and the gatekeeper for aspiring poets of the next generation.

It is ten years since journalist Alison O’Reilly revealed that up to 796 babies were buried in a mass, unmarked grave in the grounds of a former mother and baby home in Galway in Ireland. The Irish government has promised compensation but none has been paid out. Is this now about to change? Alison joins Emma to discuss the latest developments.

And how far would you go to help a friend? In Lindsay Duncan's new drama, Truelove, on Channel 4, a drunken reunion at a funeral leads a group of friends to make a pact: they will support each other in assisted dying rather than let a friend suffer alone. Lindsay tells Emma how a thriller starring a cast in their 70s and 80s is turning the police procedural on its head.

Producer: Hannah Sander
Presenter: Emma Barnett


TUE 11:00 Seven Deadly Psychologies (m001trml)
Sloth

Becky Ripley and Sophie Ward take a cold hard look at the psychology behind each of the seven deadly sins, in the order established by Pope Gregory the Great: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Why have we evolved these emotions? What’s going on in the brain and the body when we feel them? And how best can we live alongside them - in ourselves and with others?

Sloth is, unsurprisingly, the final sin of the series. Lethargic, languid, lazy old sloth. Such sluggishness is often caused by a lack of dopamine, the neurochemical that helps drive motivation and movement. And it's not always a bad thing. Our brains and bodies need rest in order to recharge, perhaps especially in today's world of hyper-productivity and stimulation. But too much sloth, and you can get stuck in a downward spiral of apathy or depression. How best can we get ourselves out of a slump? And how can we get the balance right between uptime and downtime?

To guide us through this mess is evolutionary anthropologist Dr Anna Machin from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, geneticist and writer Dr Adam Rutherford from the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London, neuroscientist and clinical psychologist Professor Ian Robertson from the Department of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin, author and human rights activist Yasmin Khan, and some parting words of wisdom from Katherine May's memoir 'Wintering', read by Tyler Cameron.

Producer: Becky Ripley


TUE 11:30 The Volcanic Verses (m001trmy)
Presenter Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College Oxford, dons her safety gear and travels to Iceland’s areas of volcanic activity to explore humanity’s wealth of poetry about volcanoes.

While there she meets with Icelandic poets and academics who have personal experience of volcanic activity, including one professor whose childhood home was engulfed by lava.

Volcanoes have had a massive impact on humanity. As well as Icelandic poetry, Fiona also uncovers poems from across the world reacting to the volcanic activity they have faced, ranging from Montserrat in the Caribbean to Japan. She includes volcanic poetry from Ted Hughes, Lord Byron and Icelandic poets ancient and modern, as well as poets who liken volcanic eruptions and lava to the rise of oppressive regimes. These include poems from Austrian Jews who fled the Holocaust and Iranian poets who liken the recovery from a lava flow to post-revolutionary survival.

There has been a surprisingly huge amount of volcanic poetry over the last 2,000 years and this programme tries, with a small selection of examples, to chart the changing beliefs, hopes and interpretations of volcanic activity by different cultures, communities and generations.

Producer- Turan Ali
A Bona Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001trrv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001trnj)
Sleep Special – with Prof Russell Foster

In this series of special editions of BBC Radio 4 podcast Just One Thing, Michael Mosley quizzes the world’s leading health experts on the best ways to live well.

In this Sleep Special, we hear from Professor Russell Foster - Director of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford and one of the world’s leading researchers on what makes our body clocks tick.

We hear the top tips that Professor Foster lives by to improve the way we sleep and live. How many hours do we really need to ensure a refreshing slumber? What is our chronotype and can we adapt it? And what are the dos and don’ts of sleep hygiene that we should all follow?

And as this is a Just One Thing special, Michael ends the interview by asking Professor Foster for the single most effective health hack to get a good night’s rest.

Series Producer: Dom Byrne
Production Manager: Maria Simons
Editor: Zoe Heron
Specially composed music by Richard Atkinson (Mcasso)
A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds / BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:42 Obsessed with the Quest (m001trp4)
Humpback Heat Run

Underwater cameraman Roger Munns set himself and his team an incredible challenge. In 2008, they set out to Tonga to film the biggest courtship ritual of the animal kingdom, the humpback heat run, for the very first time underwater and up close.

In the first few days, Roger had intimate encounters with humpback mothers and their calves. He captured their interactions, and marvelled at how gracefully they move their fins. But most of the time, he was sat on the back of the boat, next to his safety diver Jason. They spent 12 hours a day looking at the endless blue ocean, waiting to find a heat run. After two unsuccessful weeks, he started to wonder whether they would ever see one. He questioned whether this had been a good idea in the first place.

A few days later, somebody spotted a heat run, and everything sprang into action. Roger got in front of the whales, and dove down ten meters underwater on a single breath. From then on, his job was just to wait and hold his camera ready. In a moment that seemed to stretch out time, he waited, nervously, for a group of 40-ton bus-sized whales to speed past him…

Produced by Florian Bohr

Credits:
Humpback whale mother and calf sounds - Acoustic Communications CNRS team & CETAMADA
Humpback whale calf sounds - Lars Bejder (MMRP Hawaii), Peter T. Madsen (Aarhus University) & Simone Videsen (Aarhus University)

(Image: Humpback whale heat run with multiple whales in pursuit close to the ocean surface. Credit: Philip Thurston/Getty Images)


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001trnq)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001trny)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


TUE 13:45 Understand (m001tv53)
The US Election

The US Election: 2. The Campaign Trail

What happens on the road and who actually pays for it all?

This episode was hosted by Justin Webb (Today Programme host and Americast host) alongside Anthony Zurcher (BBC North America correspondent) and Mary Frances Berry (Professor of American Social Thought, History and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania).

Producers: Dan Gordon and Alix Pickles
Production coordinator: Sabine Schereck
Senior News Editor: Sam Bonham


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001trpb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001trpk)
Yusuf and the Whale

Yemen. 2023. In one of the poorest countries in the world, with civil war raging, life isn’t exactly easy, and most days the fishermen return with barely enough to live off, let alone to sell.

But fisherman’s son Yusuf is an eternal optimist, and dreamer, who keeps the community’s spirits high with tales of whales and his dreams of the Gulf’s glorious past. Plus, he’s secretly in love with his best friend. But when disaster strikes, and Yusuf’s optimism is tested to the limit, he ends up at sea in the strangest of scenarios.

A heart-warming tale of faith, hope and rizq (the Islamic concept that Allah is responsible for all sustenance provided to us).

CAST
Yusuf ..... Bilal Hasna
Zulaikha ..... Danusia Samal
Fatima ..... Sirine Saba
Khaled ..... Stewart Scudamore
Abdo ..... Fayez Bakhsh
Nabil/Mahdi ..... Yassine Mkhichen

Written by maatin
Directed by Anne Isger
Sound by Pete Ringrose and Ali Craig
A BBC Audio Production

An EcoAudio certified production

About the writer:
maatin is a London-based playwright who focuses on Muslim storytelling. In 2023, maatin's play Duck was performed at the Arcola, following a run at Jermyn Street Theatre. His play Friday at the masjid was selected for the RSC 37 Plays project, and longlisted for the The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2022 and the Soho Theatre’s Verity Bargate Award 2022. Previously, his work was nominated for the Edinburgh TV Festival’s New Voice Awards 2021 and longlisted for BBC Comedy Room 2020. He was selected for the Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE Programme 2020/21.


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001trpq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 Doctor, Doctor (m001trpx)
Dr Caroline Rance

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 The Long View (m001trq3)
Aged Premiers

If Donald Trump is elected to a second term as President of the United States he would be 82 at the end, if Joe Biden is re-elected he would be 86. Age has become a campaign weapon. How effective have the octogenarian leaders of the past been shown to be?

One was William Ewart Gladstone who was Prime Minister four times, the last when he was 82. Dr Ruth Windscheffel Head of Teaching and Learning Enhancement at York St John University and author and editor of a number of books and articles about Gladstone discusses how his advanced age affected his final administration.

Emperor Gordian I acceded to Rome's Imperial throne in 238 AD in his early eighties. Dr James Corke-Webster is Reader in Classics, History and Liberal Arts at King's College London. He discusses with Jonathan Freedland the events surrounding Gordian's rise to power in ancient Rome's most turbulent year.

Reader: Josh Bryant-Jones

Producer: Harry Parker


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m001trqb)
Jimmy Wales on Thomas Jefferson

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, kick-starting the movement against British rule and putting in place the foundations for democracy in what became the United States of America. But he was a man of contradictions. He argued passionately against slavery but was a slave-owner. He had a relationship with an enslaved woman, Sally Hemings which may have started in France when she was just fourteen. He became the third President of the United States, and he loved philosophy, nature and wine.

Jimmy Wales first-learned of Jefferson and the founding fathers when he was in school. The founder of Wikipedia fell in love with Encyclopaedias when his Mother bought a set from a travelling salesman. Jimmy's fascinated by Jefferson's political principles and intrigued by his many contradictions, and with the help of Kathleen Burk they discuss Jefferson's political legacy and how his attitudes to slavery are impacting on how he's seen today.

Presenter: Matthew Parris
Guest: Jimmy Wales
Guest expert: Kathleen Burk, Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London
Producer: Toby Field for BBC Audio Bristol


TUE 17:00 PM (m001trqk)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001trr0)
Hamas says its deputy head, Saleh al-Arouri, has been killed in Beirut.


TUE 18:30 The Ultimate Choice (m001trr5)
Series 2

1: Jane Austen v Where's Wally

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 Jason Cook and Lauren Pattison.

Host: Steph McGovern
Guests: Jason Cook and Lauren Pattison
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 (m001tr82)
Having tried to get her things back from the tip a disconsolate Kate tries to persuade Jakob to console her with lunch. When he tells her he has a client to visit Kate tells him she knows she sounds spoilt but her lost Glastonbury wristband represented a memento of such an extraordinary birth and she just wanted him to see it. Later Jakob goes to visit Kate at Spiritual Home, telling her he had met up with Lillian to try and find her wristband at The Rookery. They weren’t successful but Kate is touched. When he produces a card from Tony, Lillian and Brian with vouchers, Kate is overwhelmed and says she knows she doesn’t have the wristband any more but she still has the memories of walking away from that field with a new-born baby in her arms
Later whilst preparing Henry’s birthday cake, Helen and Tony discuss the presents Henry received and how he has been a bit quiet and complaining of a stomach ache. Helen doesn’t know what’s going on but whatever it is, he doesn’t want to tell her about it. Tony offers to take Henry for a walk later to see if he can work out what’s going on. Later, Henry tells Tony that he’s just feeling a bit nervous and Tony reassures him that if he needs anything Henry can message him and he’ll be there.
As they leave for Henry’s birthday treat, they confide to each other that they are feeling nervous and agree that it is because they have spent so long looking over their shoulders. Helen tells Henry they need to get used to grabbing life with both hands.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001trrf)
George Clooney, writer Gwyneth Hughes, The Scala Cinema

The Boys in the Boat tells the story of the surprise success of the US rowing team at 1936 Munich Olympics. Samira talks to the director George Clooney and its star Callum Turner.

Writer Gwyneth Hughes talks about her new ITV production, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which dramatises what has been called the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, the prosecution of hundreds of sub-postmasters and mistresses as a result of a flawed computer accounting system.

The Scala cinema in London’s Kings Cross was the leading alternative picture house from the late 70s to the early 90s. A new documentary, Scala!!!, traces its development as purveyor of eccentric films to an even more eccentric audience. The directors Jane Giles and Ali Catterall explain how it became a counter-cultural landmark.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Paul Waters


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001trrl)
Doctor of Deception

For more than twenty years, Zholia Alemi worked as a psychiatrist for the NHS. She practiced the length and breadth of the country, treating vulnerable patients with dementia, learning disabilities and mental illness. And then she was caught in a lie.

Alemi was found guilty of forging a dementia patient’s will. But this deception was only the beginning. From Crowd Network, Doctor of Deception investigates how one woman’s web of lies reveals historic flaws in the system designed to keep patients safe.

If you were treated by Zholia Alemi, or have concerns about her practice, there is a support page available on the General Medical Council’s website: https://www.gmc-uk.org/news/news-archive/zholia-alemi---information-for-patients


Presenter: Saleyha Ahsan
Producer: Louisa Adams
Technical Producer: Phill Brown
Executive Producer: Samantha Psyk


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001trrs)
The New CEO of Guide Dogs; Cars

Andrew Lennox took over as the CEO of The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association in September 2023. We thought we'd give him a little time to get his feet under the table but now he joins us to describe his vision for the future of the charity and what they plan to do about the long waiting lists for new and replacement dogs.

Roger Sharp has always had a passion for cars; building them, repairing them and racing them and when he lost his sight at the age of 48, that passion didn't fade. Roger has finished rebuilding a classic Ford Escort, while without vision. Our reporter Fern Lulham went to check it out.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate 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 is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.


TUE 21:00 A Dyeing Wish (m001t9jf)
An inspirational story for the dark days of winter.

A remarkable five-year project called Three Acres of Colour is taking place on a farm in Wiltshire. The figurehead is acclaimed fine-art photographer Garry Fabian Miller who has been inspired by early 20th Century natural weaver and dyer Ethel Mairet to attempt to grow at scale weld, woad and madder - the dye-plants which yield the primary colours, yellow, blue and red.

Three Acres of Colour is set against worldwide anxieties about chemical dyes and against Garry's personal story as he undergoes treatment for bladder cancer after a life given to the toxicity of traditional dark room colours.

While farm-owner Sarah Griffin hopes to find a new source of income, Garry is reinterpreting one of his final dark room works, The Ark, in a new textile version, created by Bristol-based design and weaving studio Dash and Miller and using wool dyed from the project.

Contributors include master potter and writer Edmund de Waal, gardener and dyer Tania Compton, head gardener Les Brindley, farm manager Mike Mundy and the Dash and Miller team, Emma Loughton, Molly Hayden, Juliet Bailey and Libby Kates.

With a specially commissioned soundscape by Emily Levy inspired by the natural music of the handloom and of the larks which sing above the Three Acres of Colour field, performed by Riaan Vosloo and Richard Ormrod.

Photo credit: Nicholas J R White

Presented and produced by Beaty Rubens
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 21:30 Fixing Britain with Louise Casey (m001trlk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001trrz)
Hamas deputy leader killed in Beirut blast

Harvard's president Dr Claudine Gay resigns

Should companies compensate customers for the "techno admin" that results from billing mistakes?


TUE 22:45 The House Next to the Factory by Sonal Kohli (m001trs3)
The Outing

Sonal Kohli tells the gentle story of an extended family that lives in the same house in Delhi over three decades. There are nine stories in all but we have selected five.

Delicate and finely textured, the stories lay bare the complexities of class and culture and the difficulties as well as excitements of change, even as it evokes loves and triumphs, the pull of incongruous desires and the tragedies of everyday life.

Abridged by Joseph Bedell
Read by Meera Syal
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:00 Now You're Asking with Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn (m001trs7)
The Sullen Super Model Problem

All life is truly here, this week with an awkward family Christmas (that needn’t be so bad), a semi-cancelled wedding (which almost certainly wasn’t so bad), and pulling out an under-used dinner service (which definitely isn’t bad). All these conundrums and many more have come in to the Now You’re Asking mailbox for Marian and Tara to do their best to address.

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

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

Recorded in Dublin with emails received from listeners around the world.

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

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


TUE 23:30 Carbon Lifeforms (m0019m1q)
1. Food

The brand new carbon neutral comedy magazine show that dangles (think: Emission Impossible) itself over the climate crisis.

Not content to simply be carbon neutral, environmental comedian (and actual Council Waste Education Officer) Jon Long teams up with scientist and TV presenter Tara Shine for a new hybrid BBC Radio 4 show that emits jokes, sketches, games, songs and facts as they aim to (carbon) capture all things climate and environment - demystifying the issues, and helping listeners make positive choices in their everyday lives.

Episode 1: Food, with guests Arielle Souma and Jay Rayner

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4