The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
In April the world's publishing industry descends on Earls Court for the London Book Fair. It is principally a showcase of British books and an opportunity to sell their foreign rights but there is so much more going on. Laurie Taylor talks to the social scientist Brian Moeran and the publishing industry insider Damian Horner about parties, restaurants, one-upmanship and the importance of long-term friendships in an industry which relies on something as intangible as the quality of a book.
He also talks to David Cox about the forerunners to the Metropolitan Police, the Bow Street Runners. Were they anything more than corrupt thief-takers and a private security firm for the upper classes? Laurie hears new evidence which casts them as world class innovators in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Charlotte Smith finds why a skills shortage is good news for those studying agriculture. Is it possible to become a farmer without a family farm to fall back on? And the latest progress on the Farming Today piglets.
With John Humphrys and Justin Webb. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
Andrew Marr talks to Lionel Shriver whose new book 'So Much For That' looks at ageing, illness, money and asks 'how much is one life worth?'. Journalist and author, Lionel Shriver's book 'We Need to Talk about Kevin' won the Orange Prize in 2005. Animal behaviourist Jonathan Balcombe discusses the inner lives of animals; journalist Victoria Clark talks about her new book 'Dancing on the Heads of Snakes' about the turbulent past and troubled present of Yemen and Heather Brooke discusses her role in exposing the scandal of MPs' expenses.
In "Burying The Bones", distinguished biographer Hilary Spurling takes as her subject Pearl Buck, the highly influential American author whose astonishing life proved even more fantastic than her popular novels of the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
Born to Christian missionaries in 1890s China, Buck's writing helped change Western perceptions of that country forever; in recognition of which she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.
Pearl's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Good Earth" portrayed the lives of ordinary Chinese people and became a worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1932 (it still sells in its thousands each year). Though her work has fallen out of fashion with the public, she is still held in high regard by writers such as Jung Chang, the acclaimed author of "Wild Swans", who described Buck as "One of the greatest writers on China'".
Hilary Spurling is the author of "The Unknown Matisse", listed as one of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of 1998, and "Matisse The Master", which was named Whitbread Book of the Year, and won the Los Angeles Times biography prize, in 2005.
Reader: Lindsay Duncan.
Abridger: Alison Joseph.
Woman's Hour looks at the enduring appeal of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Plus, should the 'legal high' mephedrone be banned? And has the simple pleasure gone out of gift giving?
1/5 Irene Nemirovsky's classic novel of ruthlessness and ambition, love and money, translated by Sandra Smith and adapted for radio by Ellen Dryden.
David Golder is a remarkable portrait of a man who is something like a monster, but whose killer instinct in business is based not in self-interest but in the almost pathological desire to provide for a family he knows does not care for him.
Episode One: 1929, France. David Golder, a self-made businessman of 68, is rich and ruthless- and woe betide anyone who tries to cross him. Even if that person is his oldest friend and associate, Simeon Marcus. But on this occasion Golder's implacability in his business dealings has unforeseen and tragic results.
David Suchet stars as Golder, with Anna Francolini (recently winner of the TMA/Stage award for the best stage performance of 2009) as Irene Nemirovsky.
Nemirovsky was 26 when David Golder was published in 1929, and had made the same journey from a Ukrainian/Jewish background to France and wealth as her protagonist. The novel was a huge and immediate success .A film followed in 1930 but this is the first adaptation of the novel the Nemirovsky estate have allowed since. Irene Nemirovsky died in Auschwitz in 1942. She was 39.
Claudia Hammond investigates the latest research into the working of the five year old brain, and asks whether the latest developments in neuroscience might have an application in the classroom.
Could a deeper understanding of brain development help educationalists get better results- and if so how can teachers separate the brain fact from so much of the brain fiction which seems to be out there?
When Bill meets the organisation's most effective but least sane assassin, it's up to Sharla and Mark to find them.
Comedy by Harry Venning and Neil Brand about a team of inept, backstabbing surveillance operatives.
Bill ...... Richard Lumsden
Sharla ...... Nina Conti
Mark ...... Daniel Kaluuya
Ian ...... Paterson Joseph
Mrs Davies ...... Lucy Montgomery
Channing ...... Ewan Bailey
Tim the Tea Boy ...... Joe Thomas
Secretary ...... Tessa Nicholson
Julian Worricker questions Pat McFadden about Labour's plans to expand the Post Office's financial services and hopes that it will become "the people's bank" with budgeting accounts and mortgages aimed at first-time home buyers.
Asda is slimming down its pool of dairy farmers because it was getting more milk than it needs. We'll find out how this will affect the UK milk industry.
Julian watches some 3D TV and finds out how retailers and broadcasters plan to take the technology to the nations' sitting rooms.
The questions cover every aspect of music - from the classical repertoire to world music, show tunes, film scores, jazz, rock and pop.
Three contestants from from London, Edinburgh and Brighton battle it out at the BBC Radio Theatre in London:
An absurd black comedy thriller, set in Baghdad. The first of three Arabian Afternoons - contemporary plays inspired by tales from The Arabian Nights.
Junior diplomat Bob Goldacre is in trouble: the American businessman he was looking after has vanished from a Baghdad street. As the suspects pile up, Goldacre is going to have his work cut out if he wants to save his career and make sure that justice is done.
World View. Mike Parker considers the picture that maps and atlases give us of the wider world and our place in it. He discovers how cartographers always have to keep one eye on the map and the other on the news as territorial disputes rage, borders change and new countries emerge. And he visits Jan Morris to look through a collection of maps and atlases accumulated over sixty years of travel writing.
Simon Cox returns for another series exploring the ways the digital world is changing how we live our lives.
Whether it's the device in your pocket, on your desk or built into nearly every part of the world around us technology is part our daily lives
This week Simon finds out what happens as soon as your child hits the panic button on a social networking site. And with the growing dispute between Facebook and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre he asks why Facebook still refuse to provide a link to CEOP.
Also social Networks for the aspiring author - Harper Collins are no longer intending to accept unsolicited manuscripts. Instead they've launched a social network where budding authors will review and rate each others work. So will this result in better books getting published, or will it be only the best self publicists who will see their work in print?
We also hear from regular technology expert Rupert Goodwins on why there's such flurry of litigation between mobile phone manufacturers. And also on the subject of mobiles how can teenagers avoid the scams inticing them to run up huge bills.
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
David Mitchell hosts another series of the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents. Marcus Brigstocke, Henning Wehn, Lucy Porter and Graeme Garden are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as: Sleep, Beer, Childbirth and Sir Isaac Newton.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
The producer is Jon Naismith, and this is a Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
Kathy's given Jamie adequate admonishment for his role in the graffiti, and Kenton doesn't want her to make him pull out of the talent show. The village needs Jedward! Kathy thinks they both need to be around a bit more for Jamie - especially when Sid and Jolene are away. Kathy thanks Ed for his role in the graffiti saga.
Jazzer meets Harry, the new milkman, who's full of enthusiasm and bright ideas but Jazzer reckons his own way of ensuring customer retention works fine. Ed meets them at the Bull. Ed reckons Jazzer's going to bottle it at the talent show but Jazzer tells him to get ready to pay up.
Lynda and Kathy are concerned about the level of entrants for the Talent Show, but are even more concerned when Kenton admits there's bad news regarding the third judge. It turns out that Larry died five years ago. But Kenton's got it sorted. Neville Booth is the man for the job. Lynda's not convinced he has enough personality but Kenton's realised that the real judge is the audience - they should have a clap-o-meter. Lynda wonders how it will work. Kenton's sure Robert can rig something up.
For the first time in over ten years, The Who will be performing the whole of their seminal double album Quadrophenia at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday. Lead singer Roger Daltrey looks back at the creation of their classic 1973 rock opera about English teenagers, set in London and Brighton.
Sam Worthington, star of Avatar, talks to Mark Lawson about playing Perseus, a half-man half-God, in the new film Clash of the Titans.
Bernard Hill and Saskia Reeves discuss the making of Canoe Man, a TV drama about John Darwin, who faked his own death.
Following her own experience of a mastectomy, Jenni Murray asks what does it take to wield the surgical knife?
At the end of 2006 Jenni, one of Radio 4's longest standing presenters announced, very publicly, that she had breast cancer. She told her listeners on Woman's Hour that she would be away from the microphone for a while, as she underwent treatment.
Jenni returned to work after a mastectomy and chemotherapy. Then in 2008 she was joined on the programme by the Irish journalist Lia Mills, who had much of her jaw, neck and cheekbone removed after she was diagnosed with oral cancer. She described her surgeons as 'ruthless and brilliant' - brilliant enough to save her life but ruthless enough to take a knife to her face.
This got Jenni thinking - what does it take to lift a scalpel and cut into the most intimate and treasured parts of the human body? The programme examines the extremes of surgery, and speaks to the doctors whose work may save lives, but also fundamentally change them. The patient may survive, but their appearance will be essentially altered. How do you tell a patient that radical surgery is needed, as they beg you for an alternative?
Angus Crawford reports on efforts to rescue vulnerable girls in Tajikistan who were locked up rather than helped. He hears how girls who had been raped were detained for being 'degenerate'. He also sees how a British NGO is working with the Tajik authorities to help these teenagers find freedom and safety.
Eco-cities. Architects, developers and visionaries have been promising them for the past decade. Dongtan was supposed to be the green Shanghai, the Thames corridor was supposed to be a linear eco-city, Florida's building a car-free city for 100,000, eco towns were to spread around the UK. But time and time again economic reality intrudes, plans are shelved or diluted and another commuter suburb is thrown up with a token wind turbine.
The answers might be found at the World Future Energy Summit in the extraordinary setting of Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. $20bn has been committed by the government to ensure this city is the first zero carbon conurbation. With the money made supplying the world's fossil fuel the Abu Dhabi emirate has employed Norman Foster to create the anti-Dubai- a car and skyscraper-free city powered by the sun. If anyone can do it then the cash-rich, democracy-free, hugely ambitious rulers of Abu Dhabi are the men to back. Progress is rapid with students already attending the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology with its focus on renewable energy and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) making its home as the first international agency to be located in the Middle East.
With the great and good of the sustainability movement gathered together in Masdar City in early 2010 it's a perfect opportunity to test the concept- a real model for the cities of the future or a green smokescreen for the oil states' carbon- hungry habits.
The Battle of the Chancellors - Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable take part in a live TV debate explaining why they should be in charge of the economy
Two suicide bombers kill 37 people and wound more than 70 others on the Moscow underground
Four executives from the mining company Rio Tinto are jailed in China for taking bribes and stealing commercial secrets
And mephedrone - until now one of the legal highs - is reclassified as a class B drug
Eileen Atkins reads from Salley Vickers' acclaimed new novel, Dancing Backwards
Violet Hetherington's husband has recently died. Alone, she decides to take a cruise-ship crossing to visit her old friend, Edwin, in New York.
As she journeys across the Atlantic the quiet Violet begins to blossom - learning to ballroom dance, taking up smoking again, befriending a famously seething theatre critic. And in her time alone she reminisces about her early adulthood as a student at Cambridge. It's at Cambridge that she meets Edwin. Edwin, it soon becomes clear, is someone she's betrayed and someone she's both terrified and desperate to see again. The story that unfolds about the young Violet holds the secret to that betrayal.
Written and abridged by Salley Vickers. Vickers is a critically acclaimed, best-selling novelist whose work includes Mr Golightly's Holiday, Instances of the Number 3, Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You. Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You were both popular Book at Bedtimes. Last year she dramatised her version of the Oedipus myth, Where Three Roads Meet, for Radio 4's Afternoon Play slot. Before becoming a full time writer she was a psychoanalyst.
Michael Rosen takes another journey into the world of words, language and the way we speak.
David Wilby brings all the day's parliamentary news from Westminster. MPs debate defence issues. And they continue their debate on the Budget.
On the committee corridor, they take evidence on the Budget from economists, including from Robert Chote, Director of the Institue for Fiscal Studies.
In the Lords, peers question the quality of food being given to the troops in Afghanistan. And they discuss a proposal to hold a pageant in 2012, celebrating the achievements of Parliament.
TUESDAY 30 MARCH 2010
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b00rl59q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b00rl6wf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00rl5cy)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00rl5wf)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00rl61j)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b00rl6gm)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00rl6mt)
with the Rt Revd Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b00rl6qg)
Anna Hill hears how sweeter peas could mean a greener countryside. Plus, why a major supermarket's decided to source all its own brand frozen peas from the UK. Also in the programme, an Organic dairy farmer's take on plans to create a farm with just over eight thousand cows in Lincolnshire.
TUE 06:00 Today (b00rl6t1)
With John Humphrys and Justin Webb. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day; Yesterday in Parliament.
TUE 09:00 Between Ourselves (b00rmr64)
Series 5
Episode 2
An Iraqi Kurd and an Iranian Azeri discuss their lives as refugees in the United Kingdom. Mohamed (from Iran) became a refugee in 2009, while Zirak was granted refugee status in 2002 and now has British citizenship. What is it like to leave family and friends behind in your home country, possibly never to return? Have you put them in danger by leaving? Is it easy to settle in the UK?
Zirak was involved with an organisation that wanted a free Kurdistan. When the group was discovered, two of his friends were arrested and one subsequently died. He started receiving threatening letters and knew he had to leave. He left in 2002 and, from Turkey, was smuggled out in a lorry. When he eventually arrived in the UK, he didn't know what country he was in, and couldn't speak any English.
Mohamed travelled here to study music and became involved with Azeri politics; friends back home were arrested as a result, and he began to realise that he, too, would be arrested if he returned. He applied for refugee status, which was granted extremely quickly - it was just a month before he was told he had leave to remain for five years. He hopes to return home one day.
TUE 09:30 A Musical Trip to South Africa - with Lenny Henry (b00rmr66)
Episode 1
1/5
In this series of five programmes Lenny Henry is in South Africa to enjoy and experience the country through its music.
South Africa has one of the richest musical traditions on the planet with a wealth of talent to match. Lenny meets the cream of that talent - from the legendary trumpeter Hugh Masekela (whose new show 'Songs of Migration' Lenny enjoys in Johannesburg) to S Africa's best selling recording artists, the Queen of Gospel, Rebecca Malope.
Lenny begins the whole series centre pitch at Soccer City in Jo'burg to the accompaniment of a chorus of Vuvuzelas - the deafening trumpets that blast out at football matches! He's invited onto YFM youth radio station to hear about Kwaito aka 'township house' music and finds himself in a recording studio with some of the country's hottest bands.
Producer: Susan Marling.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qf)
Hilary Spurling - Burying the Bones
Episode 2
Lindsay Duncan reads from "Burying The Bones" - the latest book by acclaimed biographer Hilary Spurling. Her subject is Pearl Buck one of the most successful and popular American novelists of the 20th Century.
Though her work has now fallen out of fashion, in her day Pearl was a phenomenal bestseller. The novel that made her name was "The Good Earth" - and it still sells in its thousands - which depicted for the first time the gruelling conditions of China's rural poor. Born to Presbyterian missionaries in 1890s China, Buck's first hand experience of the language and people informed her writing and helped to change Western perceptions of that country forever; in recognition of which she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.
In today's episode, we learn more about Pearl's childhood and the ways in which her father's missionary zeal impoverished his family. A firebrand preacher who was often absent for long periods of time, he invariably spent his meagre wages on a project to translate the New Testament into Chinese. Pearl's mother lost four children to illnesses which could have been treated easily had they better access to food and medicine. This was the potent environment which formed Pearl and inspired her adult imagination.
Abridger: Alison Joseph
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00rl8lr)
Woman's Hour with Jane Garvey. Including:
From ancient times, plants and flowers have been used symbolically as well as for their medicinal and nutritional values. Now a new exhibition at the Geffrye Museum charts the history of their decorative use in the home - through paintings, catalogues, letters, horticultural publications and novels. Jane visits the exhibition and talks to its curator, Christine Lalumia and art historian Charlotte Gere.
David Yelland, former editor of The Sun, has written his first novel, The Truth About Leo. It's based largely on his own life experience and is, he says, "the story of what might have happened to me and my son if I hadn't stopped drinking alcohol". David Yelland talks to Jane about his turbulent life from being bullied as a boy with alopecia to becoming an editor of the Sun at the age of 35, feeling powerless despite his ostensible success, his addiction to alcohol , losing his ex-wife to cancer, his eventual recovery and life now.
In 1948, Susana Gil, a 22-year-old Argentine secretary and interpreter married the English composer, Sir William Walton. He was 46 years old and at the height of his powers. After Sir William's death in 1983, Lady Walton became custodian of her husband's professional work. She fiercely promoted his music, and in 2001 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Nottingham in recognition of the work she had done to maintain the legacy of her husband. So how best do you safeguard the reputation of a loved one? How do you keep their artistic reputation alive? And what cost may this have on your own identity? Jane is joined by Lady Deborah MacMillan, the widow of the choreographer Kenneth MacMillan and the composer Michael Berkeley.
The death rate of women giving birth in the US is worse than in 40 other countries, including nearly all the industrialised nations. That's the claim made by an Amnesty International report entitled 'Deadly Delivery' which says America's approach to maternity care is "disgraceful and scandalous". Between 2004 and 2005, more than sixty eight thousand women died in childbirth in the US. And severe complications that result in a woman nearly dying, known as a 'near miss' increased by twenty five percent between 1998 and 2005. Jane speaks to Angela Burgin Logan whose diffcult birth left her with ongoing health problems Nan Strauss who co-authored the report by Amnesty International and Professor Timothy Johnson, Chair of the the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at the University of Michigan.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00rlb2f)
David Golder
Episode 2
2/5
Irene Nemirovsky's classic novel of ruthlessness and ambition, love and money, translated by Sandra Smith and adapted for radio by Ellen Dryden.
David Golder is a remarkable portrait of a man who is something like a monster, but whose killer instinct in business is based not in self-interest but in the almost pathological desire to provide for a family he knows does not care for him.
Episode Two: Following the shattering conclusion of the Marcus affair, Golder travels to Biarritz to recuperate. But with his wife and daughter entertaining a seemingly endless parade of charming hangers-on and gigolos, Golder finds himself far from relaxed.
David Suchet stars as Golder, with Anna Francolini (recently winner of the TMA/Stage award for the best stage performance of 2009) as Irene Nemirovsky. Elizabeth Bell plays Golder's rapacious wife Gloria, and Francesca Dymond his indulged daughter Joyce.
Nemirovsky was 26 when David Golder was published in 1929, and had made the same journey from a Ukrainian/Jewish background to France and wealth as her protagonist. The novel was a huge and immediate success .A film followed in 1930 but this is the first adaptation of the novel the Nemirovsky estate have allowed since. Irene Nemirovsky died in Auschwitz in 1942. She was 39.
David Golder...........................David Suchet
Irene Nemirovsky....................Anna Francolini
Gloria Golder..........................Elizabeth Bell
Joyce Golder..........................Francesca Dymond
Hoyos....................................Vernon Dobtcheff
Fischl.....................................Stewart Permutt
Directed by Peter Farago.
TUE 11:00 In Hinkley's Shadow (b00rmr68)
The villages around Hinkley Point in Somerset have lived with nuclear power for nearly half a century. As plans are developed for a new power station, Chris Ledgard investigates life in a nuclear community.
In medieval times, the village of Stogursey on the edge of the Quantock Hills was a market town. Over the centuries, its importance diminished. Then work began on a nuclear power station on the Somerset coast just 2 miles away, and Stogursey found itself in demand again - families flooded in and the school sent its overspill to the village hall. In Hinkley's Shadow is a portrait of a nuclear community. The first generation of Britain's nuclear power workers are now retired. At Hinkley, their children are now working on the site. So how is it to have grown up in the shadow of a nuclear power station? Chris Ledgard talks to people who work in and around Hinkley, including a mud horse fisherman, said to be the last in the world, who fishes with a sledge he pushes out into Bridgwater Bay. And as the debate on the new station, Hinkley Point C, develops, the anti-nuclear protestors enter another battle. But what happens to a protest movement as it nears middle age?
TUE 11:30 Delirious Wilderness (b00rmr6b)
Poet Owen Sheers travels to one of the wildest corners of the country - to discover the brilliant, tragic tale of Britain's lost school of Post-Impressionism.
A century ago, Britain's most brilliant - and infamous - artistic celebrity fled the debauchery of London's bohemia to find a new purity - in one of the nation's most remote wildernesses. He had been tempted there by a unique kindred spirit - a fellow painter and bohemian wildchild - whose rich imagination and relentless lust for life was spurred by knowledge that he had just months to live.
The celebrity was Augustus John, doyen of the Cafe Royal and celebrity portraitist of London's top literary figures and socialites. His friend: James Dickson Innes - virtually forgotten since his tragic death from tuberculosis aged just 27 - yet described by one critic as 'indispensable' to British landscape art.
Their Eden was the Arenig Valley in North Wales - a sliver of craggy, swirling peaks and haunting, silent plateaux east of Snowdonia, between Bala and Ffestiniog. There, buffeted by the wind and blinded by the rain, they painted feverish, delirious landscapes together in the open air - a unique blaze of creativity amidst the desolate countryside, described as Britain's only true flame of Post-Impressionism.
Yet after barely eighteen months, their fire was extinguished - as the spectre of war, illness and death abruptly drew a curtain upon their work. And whilst John was to live on for nearly half a century, his reputation - and infamy - undiminished, Innes was to die barely a year later - his work unappreciated and unloved - in a Kent hospice. After Arenig, neither man was to paint landscapes ever again.
Poet Owen Sheers grew up amongst the Black Mountains of South Wales, from which he drew inspiration for his collection "Skirrid Hill". In Delirious Wilderness, he tells the story of this unique, fleeting moment in British art history - encountering artists, writers and art historians, as he travels to Arenig - as remote now as it was a century ago - to try to distil what John and Innes were searching for in this untamed landscape.
The programme features contributions from the famed travel writer Jan Morris - herself haunted by the Arenig Valley, which she describes as "hallucinogenic...like entering a dream" - as well as Augustus John's biographer Michael Holroyd, and the contemporary Welsh landscape artist Iwan Gwyn Parry.
TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b00rlb66)
Why are there so many strikes when the UK economy is barely out of recession?
British Airways staff are about to strike and thousands of workers at Network Rail, British Gas and the Civil Service are planning walkouts in the coming weeks over pay and working conditions. At a time when unemployment is nearly 2.5 million. Are these disputes all separate and unrelated or do they mark a new mood among the UK's unionised labour force?
Do you support the strike action? Is it the only way that workers can effectively protect their pay and conditions? Are bosses exploiting the recession - using it as an opportunity to cut costs and ditch staff ? Or should workers recognise they must become more efficient if they want to hang on to their jobs?
Call You and Yours with Julian Worricker. An opportunity to contribute your views to the programme. Call 03700 100 444 (lines open at 1000) or email youandyours@bbc.co.uk.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b00rldsg)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b00rlff3)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
TUE 13:30 Ravi Shankar: Sitar Hero (b00rmrpt)
Nitin Sawhney explores the life of the Indian musician Ravi Shankar as he approaches his 90th birthday.
Ravi Shankar is one of the greatest musicians the world has ever seen. In the West his outstanding career has sometimes been overshadowed by his brief association with the Beatles but he has been performing and composing at the highest level for over 70 years. The man who first brought Indian classical music to an international audience was once compared to Mozart by the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin. But it wasn't an easy journey to success - it took an arduous process of study and practice. Fellow musician and fan Nitin Sawhney meets his hero to discuss how he did it.
With contributions from Ravi Shankar's daughter Anoushka, one of India's biggest music stars Zakir Hussain, George Harrison's wife Olivia, The Who's Pete Townshend and music historian Ken Hunt.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b00rlfqv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b00rmrpw)
Arabian Afternoons
The Porter and the Three Ladies
The Porter and the Three Ladies
by Rachel Joyce
A wild, dark modern fairytale, set in Damascus. The second in a series of contemporary plays inspired by stories from the Arabian Nights.
It is time for Shahrazad to tell another tale to save her life. In this story within a story, we find out that if Joe doesn't find the exclusive to satisfy his ruthless editor, he will lose his job. He finds three beautiful women in Damascus but what is the truth behind their secret life?
Directed by Tracey Neale.
TUE 15:00 Home Planet (b00rmrpz)
Series 18, Programme 13.
Friday night in any town centre provides ample evidence of humanities' love of intoxication. Drugs and alcohol have been associated with human activity for as long as there have been humans to have activities. But does this extend to other members of the animal kingdom. This week you ask whether a crow was deliberately drugging itself on fumes from a household chimney. What, you want to know, are the brown mites found swarming all over a bumblebee. More bird behaviour as you ask where all the black headed seagulls go in summer and do pigeons surf over oncoming traffic? And why do we hear so little about the origins of life on Earth?
Joining Richard Daniel for this week's Home Planet are ecologist Dr Lynn Dicks of Cambridge University; Graham Appleton of the British Trust for Ornithology; and Professor Philip Stott, an environmental scientist from the University of London.
The producer is Toby Murcott, and this is a Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00c0npx)
Unaccustomed Earth
Hell-Heaven
Nina Wadia reads Hell-Heaven from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's collection exploring the dark secrets of family life, all linked by the Bengali immigrant experience.
An India mother's lonely life in America is eased when she mees a charismatic young immigrant, who transports her back to a time before marriage. But before long, her secret infatuation comes close to devastating her family.
Hell-Heaven begins in America, but, like all the stories in this remarkable series, spills back over generations and past memories to India, following new lives forged in the wake of loss.
Reader: Nina Wadia
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett.
TUE 15:45 On the Map (b00rlwwr)
Off the Map
Self-confessed map addict Mike Parker explores modern cartography.
Off the Map. The first step to success in any military campaign is a good map. During the Second World War, intelligence officers prepared meticulously detailed maps for the D-Day landings using a combination of aerial photography, old tourist guides and holiday snaps. Mike Parker discovers how Germany, and later the Soviet Union, compiled maps of Britain often more detailed than our own. And he visits a Cold War nuclear bunker, one of the many sites that until recently were simply blank spaces on Ordnance Survey maps.
From 2010.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b00rms93)
Why do people always want to "improve" your English? Michael Rosen investigates the phenomenom of the "style guide" and asks whether all the advice that's given is helpful or accurate. He asks why some people take a strong dislike to adjectives and adverbs, and wonders whether, as Reader's Digest says, it really does pay to enrich your word power. (Or should that be "Readers' Digest?").
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b00rms95)
Gyles Brandreth and Burt Caesar
Sue MacGregor and her guests - writer and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth and actor and director Burt Caesar - discuss favourite books by PG Wodehouse, Roger Lewis and CLR James.
Right Ho Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
Publisher. Arrow Books
Seasonal Suicide Notes by Roger Lewis
Publisher. Short Books
Beyond a Boundary by CLR James
Publisher. Yellow Jersey Press
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2010.
TUE 17:00 PM (b00rlx2f)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00rlx4m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00rms97)
Series 3
Ardal O'Hanlon
Marcus Brigstocke invites his guest Ardal O'Hanlon to try five things he's never done before including bell ringing.
Whether the experiences are banal or profound, the show is about embracing the new and getting out of our comfort zones.
The title comes from the fact that the show's producer and creator Bill Dare had never seen Star Wars.
Producer: Bill Dare.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2010.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b00rlfjx)
Robert's done a great job with Jim's shelves, so seizes the opportunity to ask Kenton about redecoration work at Jaxx. Kenton reminds Robert he's got a more pressing job - the clap-o-meter. Robert doesn't know how he's going to make it work
Vicky watches the birth of another bull and thinks it's magical. Ed points out it's farming, and the bulls have to go. Vicky doesn't agree. Mike's finding it difficult to make Vicky see sense. Ed tells him it's not too late but Vicky's already done some research, and Mike knows that she'll soon come up with the idea of veal. Ed insists this is a no-go and Mike assures Ed he'll sort it. But Vicky's already onto the idea and is making plans. Robert has advised her to speak to Pat, who had a go at raising veal calves years ago.
Vicky passes on her good news to Mike and Ed. They try to persuade her that it's too much work, but Vicky's having none of it. They can leave it to her - she'll sort out a buyer for the calves. Mike realises he's beaten, and to Ed's dismay he suggests they could give it a go.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b00rlx6k)
Steven Moffat on writing Doctor Who.
Steven Moffat on the challenges of writing the re-launched Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith.
Natalie Haynes reviews Kick-Ass, a superhero film based on the comic of the same name, which is directed by Matthew Vaughn and produced by Brad Pitt.
Mark Lawson reveals the winner of the 2010 National Poetry Competition, worth £5,000. This year's competition attracted a record number of entries, with the judges reading through 10,467 poems. Poets enter anonymously, so judges are unaware of the authors' identities until after they have made their decision.
Architect David Adjaye talks about taking thousands of snapshots of 46 African cities for his exhibition Urban Africa - A Photographic survey.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00rlb2f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 GCHQ: Cracking the Code (b00rmssw)
The BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera gains unprecedented access to Britain's ultra secret listening station where super computers monitor the world's communications traffic and Britain's global eavesdropping and electronic surveillance operations are conducted.
The layers of secrecy which have surrounded GCHQ's work are peeled away - what exactly does it do and who is it listening to?
The programme explores the wide area covered by signals intelligence - from looking for terrorists planning attacks against the United Kingdom to supporting military operations of the type underway in Afghanistan.
A team from the Counter terrorism section describes what it is like to listen in on terrorists' conversations and the constant battle to predict where the next attack will come from: "I don't think you would be human if you didn't go home at night and couldn't switch off and thought 'Oh my God. What happens if . . .?'" What about the ethics of eavesdropping and how does their work compare to the way it is portrayed on television in series like 'Spooks'?
Code-breakers talk about their work, attempting to find a chink in the armour of a carefully encrypted message sent by a terrorist or a foreign government. "It just feels amazing really," when there is a breakthrough, says one. "I mean you feel like you've won".
The programme looks at the technological challenges posed by the internet and the threat of cyber warfare, which has led to the establishment of a new cyber operations centre at Cheltenham. It also explores the scientific and mathematical breakthroughs which have been achieved at GCHQ, including the discovery of public key encryption, used when we shop on the internet.
There's a tour of the building's four great computer halls, containing racks and racks of IT equipment and covering around ten thousand square metres. "I could actually fit Wembley football pitch into three of the halls quite comfortably,' says the man in charge of making sure that the equipment doesn't crash.
Gordon Corera challenges the director Iain Lobban. There has been considerable speculation about whether the government is planning huge databases at GCHQ to keep track of all communications and internet traffic. Do they really spy on us? And how accountable are they?
Producer: Mark Savage.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b00rmssy)
Sense is the organisation representing deafblind people and it has been running workshops up and down the country training MPs and parliamentary candidates, encouraging them to make election processes accessible for deafblind voters.
Liz Ball is politically active and enjoys diiscussing politics but she does not always have an interpreter available. She would prefer a template voting form which she could mark herself as she does not want anyone else to know how she has voted. She thinks there is a mix of knowledge levels amongst MPs but many haven't even thought of making their campaign material accessible.
Keri Gurstheimner from Sense talked about the training workshops
Geoff Long is a Demon customer and is concerned about their decision to withdraw their specialist support service, Demon's statement said they did not intend to reduce the level of service to blind and visually impaired customers.
Leonie Watson from the web design company Nomensa said she feels it is a trend. At least 3 service providers decide to withdraw their specialist services at the same time.
TUE 21:00 How Myers-Briggs Conquered the Office (b00rmst0)
It was created by a mother and daughter team, neither of whom were trained as psychologists, yet today it is the world's most widely used personality indicator, used by leading companies like Shell, Procter and Gamble, Vodafone, and the BBC.
Mariella Frostrup tells the story of The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), created by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers. Participants are asked a series of questions intended to reveal information about their thinking, problem solving and communication styles. At the end of the process each participant is handed one of 16 four-letter acronyms which describes their "type." ENTPs are extrovert inventors, ISTJs are meticulous nit pickers. Mariella finds out what type she is- will it change the way she works?
Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers devised their questionnaire during WWII to help women identify the sort of war-time jobs where they would be "most comfortable and effective." It was a long and arduous struggle to convince industry it could be useful to them. Today in academia many are still not convinced.
Despite this, as Myers-Briggs rolls out across the globe, how does it cope with different cultural attitudes towards celebrating individualism, particularly in more reserved Asian countries?
Mariella asks the key question; what does Myers-Briggs tell us that we couldn't have found out before?
TUE 21:30 Between Ourselves (b00rmr64)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b00rlx9n)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b00rlxh6)
On tonight's programme:
New plans for social care in England are unveiled
Blair is back - the former Prime Minister campaigns for Labour
And greening Gaza, how Palestinians are turning their territory organic
With Ritula Shah.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00r9y23)
Salley Vickers - Dancing Backwards
Episode 2
Eileen Atkins reads from Salley Vickers' acclaimed new novel, Dancing Backwards
Violet Hetherington's husband has recently died. Alone, she decides to take a cruise-ship crossing to visit her old friend, Edwin, in New York.
As she journeys across the Atlantic the quiet Violet begins to blossom - learning to ballroom dance, taking up smoking again, befriending a famously seething theatre critic. And in her time alone she reminisces about her early adulthood as a student at Cambridge. It's at Cambridge that she meets Edwin. Edwin, it soon becomes clear, is someone she's betrayed and someone she's both terrified and desperate to see again. The story that unfolds about the young Violet holds the secret to that betrayal.
In tonight's episode, Violet remembers the first time she and Edwin met.
Written and abridged by Salley Vickers. Vickers is a critically acclaimed, best-selling novelist whose work includes Mr Golightly's Holiday, Instances of the Number 3, Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You. Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You were both popular Book at Bedtimes. Last year she dramatised her version of the Oedipus myth, Where Three Roads Meet, for Radio 4's Afternoon Play slot. Before becoming a full time writer she was a psychoanalyst.
Produced by Kirsty Williams.
TUE 23:00 The Gorbals Vampire (b00rmt00)
In September 1954 hundreds of Glasgow schoolchildren crowded into a Gorbals graveyard to hunt for a Vampire with Iron Teeth. Novelist Louise Welsh discovers how the "Gorbals Vampire" led to a change in Britain's censorship laws.
In 1954 in Glasgow's Southern Necropolis cemetery hundreds of local children, ranging in ages from 4 to 14, were discovered by police roaming between the crypts. They were armed with sharpened sticks, knives stolen from home and stakes. They said they were hunting down "a vampire with iron teeth" that they believed had kidnapped and eaten two local boys.
The local press got hold of the story of what became known as the 'Gorbals Vampire' and it soon went national. The press and politicians cast around for an explanation. They soon found one in the wave of American Horror comics with names like "Astounding Stories" and "Tales from the Crypt" which had recently flooded into the west of Scotland.
Academics pointed out that none of the comics featured a vampire with iron teeth, though there was a monster with iron teeth in the Bible (Daniel 7.7) and in a poem taught in local schools. Their voices were drowned out in a full-blown moral panic about the effect that terrifying comics were having on children. Soon the case of the "Gorbals Vampire" was international news.
The British Press raged against the "terrifying, corrupt" comics and after a heated debate in the House of Commons where the case of Gorbals Vampire was cited, Britain passed the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955 which, for the first time, specifically banned the sale of magazines and comics portraying "incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature" to minors.
Produced by David Stenhouse.
First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2010.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00rlz06)
Sean Curran and reporters on today's news from Parliament, including plans for elderly care, the banning of mephedrone and the latest Budget fall-out.
WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH 2010
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b00rl59s)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b00rp7qf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00rl5d0)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00rl5wh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00rl61l)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b00rl6gp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00rl6mw)
with the Rt Revd Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b00rl6qj)
Anna Hill hears criticism of an organic farm conservation scheme by the public spending watchdog, but the Environment Minister tells her the £200 million initiative is money well spent. Anna also meets a man who is hoping to overcome the effects of a brain tumour to realise his ambition of becoming a farmer.
WED 06:00 Today (b00rl6t3)
With John Humphrys and Sarah Montague. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day; Yesterday in Parliament.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b00rmt9m)
Elkie Brooks was born Elaine Bookbinder, the daughter of a tailor and a kosher baker, who left home in Salford at the age of 15 to pursue her dream of being a singer. In her early years she sang with the legendary Humphrey Lyttelton, shared a bill with The Beatles and went on to front the raunchy group Vinegar Joe with Robert Palmer. This year she celebrates fifty years in the music business and releases two albums, Sunshine After the Rain, a career-spanning collection and a new album, Powerless.
Ann McPherson is a retired GP who set up Healthtalk online. As a newly diagnosed breast cancer patient, she pioneered this website because she herself couldn't find information on how other people were managing the disease. She also created the award-winning book 'Women's Health' for GPs and wrote the Woman's Hour Book of Health. She is co-author of 'Diary of a Teenage Health Freak' which has sold more than half a million copies.
Alex McBride is a criminal barrister. In his book 'Defending the Guilty' he takes us behind behind the scenes of Britain's criminal justice system, from the smoke filled rooms where the junior barristers await the call to court to the public arena of the Old Bailey. Defending the Guilty is published by Viking.
Simon King is the BAFTA award-winning natural history film-maker, who, over the last thirty years has worked on programmes including the Blue Planet, Big Cat Diary and Springwatch. He has just spent the last year on the Shetland Islands with his wife and young daughter experiencing Shetland through the changing seasons for a BBC series. He'll be explaining that visiting these islands, home to otters and vast seabird colonies, had always been a boyhood dream of his. The book, Shetland Diaries, is published by Hodder.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qh)
Hilary Spurling - Burying the Bones
Episode 3
Lindsay Duncan reads another excerpt from Hilary Spurling's new book: "Burying The Bones". The distinguished biographer's new subject is the astonishing life of Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl Buck, one of the most successful and popular American novelists of the 20th Century. (She's best remembered for her novel "The Good Earth", which is still a bestseller.)
Pearl's desire for independence led her to make a hasty marriage of which her family disapproved. Refusing to be cowed by a series of personal tragedies, she discovered that her imagination offered escape from her difficulties and she began to write fiction in earnest.
Abridger: Alison Joseph
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00rl8lt)
Jenni Murray talks to Meera Syal about her new role in Shirley Valentine. Meera rose to prominence in 'Goodness Gracious Me', the BBC1 sketch show which she also helped create. She was also 'Ammi', the outspoken granny in The Kumars at No 42. Now Meera is starring as Shirley Valentine at the Menier Chocolate Factory and joins Jenni Murray to talk about the challenges of performing a one woman show.
Two for the price of one - that's politicians and their wives. With television interviews and newspaper columns devoted to the wives of the party leaders, how important are political partners in winning votes? And, regardless of their own achievements, are political wives expected to take a supportive public role? Jenni talks to Elizabeth Day, who writes for the Observer, Alicia Collinson, a barrister who is married to Damian Green MP, Shadow Minister for Immigration and David Cowling, Editor of BBC Political Resaerch.
It is estimated that only around fifty percent of women currently retiring have built up an entitlement to a full basic state pension in their own right, compared with 90 per cent of men. To be entitled to a full state pension women currently need 39 'qualifying years' but from next week, the rules are changing in a bid to make a fairer and more widely available system. To discuss the changes, Jenni is joined by Sally West from Age Concern and Help the Aged, and Des Hamilton from the Pensions Advisory Service.
Most literary detectives seem to survive on a diet of whisky, fast food and loneliness. Not so Commissario Brunetti, the hero of Donna Leon's best-selling series set in Venice. Brunetti goes home for extended lunches with his family, and interviews suspects over delicious bar snacks. Now Donna Leon has collected some of the Commissario's favourite recipes in a book and she joins Jenni to discuss her detective and his food.
WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00rlb2h)
David Golder
Episode 3
3/5
Irene Nemirovsky's classic novel of ruthlessness and ambition, love and money, translated by Sandra Smith and adapted for radio by Ellen Dryden.
David Golder is a remarkable portrait of a man who is something like a monster, but whose killer instinct in business is based not in self-interest but in the almost pathological desire to provide for a family he knows does not care for him.
Episode Three: Golder's health takes a turn for the worse and a doctor is called. But the diagnosis, when it comes, is far from welcome to anybody concerned.
David Suchet stars as Golder, with Anna Francolini (recently winner of the TMA/Stage award for the best stage performance of 2009) as Irene Nemirovsky. Elizabeth Bell plays Golder's rapacious wife Gloria, and Francesca Dymond his indulged daughter Joyce.
Nemirovsky was 26 when David Golder was published in 1929, and had made the same journey from a Ukrainian/Jewish background to France and wealth as her protagonist. The novel was a huge and immediate success .A film followed in 1930 but this is the first adaptation of the novel the Nemirovsky estate have allowed since. Irene Nemirovsky died in Auschwitz in 1942. She was 39.
David Golder ..... David Suchet
Irene Nemirovsky ..... Anna Francolini
Gloria Golder ..... Elizabeth Bell
Joyce Golder ..... Francesca Dymond
Hoyos ..... Vernon Dobtcheff
Doctor Ghedalia ..... Max Digby
Directed by Peter Farago.
WED 11:00 Cadbury is Our Longbridge (b00rmthx)
Episode 3
Two years in the making, this is the inside story of how the Somerdale chocolate factory near Bristol became caught up in a huge global tale. Cadbury announced the factory was closing over two years ago, but the American food giant Kraft reckoned they could keep it open if their bid for Cadbury proved a success. Six days after winning, they announced Somerdale would shut, making employees feel they'd been made redundant all over again.
Producer Miles Warde.
WED 11:30 House on Fire (b00pr7sg)
Series 1
Party
Vicky and Matt have pooled their resources to buy a house together.
Things have not been going too smoothly - in fact, they haven't been going smoothly at all. But will a house-warming party settle their differences and put them back on track towards a harmonious co-ownership?
Vicky - Emma Pierson
Matt - JODY LATHAM
Col. Bill - RUPERT VANSITTART
Julie - JANINE DUVITSKI
Peter - PHILIP JACKSON
Donny - Sebastian Cardinal
Wendy - Sophie Black
With Fergus Craig & Colin Hoult
Directed by Clive Brill & Dan Hine
Produced by Clive Brill
A Pacificus Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:00 You and Yours (b00rlb6b)
There's no such thing as a free lunch and there's no such thing as a free light bulb either. The kind you might have got in the post from your energy company. They've been stopped by the government so what are the companies doing now?
And we'll be catching up with the fortunes of Wellworths - run by people in Dorset who took over the old Woollies site.
Winifred Robinson presents.
WED 12:57 Weather (b00rldsj)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b00rlff5)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
WED 13:30 The Media Show (b00rmxb6)
Sky has been told to sell its premium sports packages to rivals at a lower price. What does this mean for Sky and how could it affect the way we view TV in the coming years? Media analyst Matthew Horsman gives his views.
The Catholic church has been under a lot of media scrutiny over its response to recent allegations of child abuse. Journalist Melanie McDonagh, who heads the Catholic Writers Guild, reviews the coverage and Jack Valero, from Opus Dei and founder of Catholic Voices, explains why he wants more Catholics to have media training ahead of this year's Papal visit.
With the sale of The Independent, MD Simon Kelner talks about the negotiations, why he thinks the Guardian is "terrified" of his paper and about his hopes for change. It all started, he says, when Matthew Freud introduced him to the Lebedevs.
And what does Channel 4's Chancellors Debate tell us about the leaders debates? The Guardian's political writer Michael White gives his verdict.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b00rlfjx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b00rmxb8)
Arabian Afternoons
A Dish of Pomegranates
A Dish of Pomegranates
by Peter Jukes
The third in a series of plays inspired by stories from the Arabian Nights.
Shared roots and scattered families in the melting pot of modern Jerusalem. Tired after a stressful trip, Ajib is stopped by security officers as he tries to fly out of Ben Gurion airport on his way home to the U.S. They don't think his story adds up. Can he make them believe him? And does he actually know the whole story himself?
Directed by Mary Peate.
WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b00rmxbb)
Vincent Duggleby and guests are on hand to answer your personal finance questions.
You can call the programme when lines open on Wednesday at 1330 GMT. The number is 03700 100 444.
Standard geographic charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher.
Producer: Diane Richardson.
WED 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00c0npc)
Unaccustomed Earth
Unaccustomed Earth, part 1
Indira Varma reads the first part of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's story, Unaccustomed Earth, exploring the dark secrets of family life through the Bengali immigrant experience.
When Ruma's mother dies, she leaves a space neither she nor her father knows how to fill. Back in India, both know, things would have been very different. A visit from her father brings to the surface feelings of guilt, uncertainty and loss - but ultimately a kind of understanding.
Unaccustomed Earth begins in America, but, like all the stories in this series, spills back over memories and generations to India, following new lives forged in the wake of loss. Concludes tomorrow.
Reader: Indira Varma
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett.
WED 15:45 On the Map (b00rlwwt)
Whose Map Is It Anyway?
Self-confessed map addict Mike Parker explores modern cartography.
Whose Map Is It Anyway? Thanks to Ordnance Survey, the landscape of the British Isles is probably the most comprehensively mapped of any in the world. But pressure is growing for OS to waive their copyright and make their cartographic data free to use for all-comers. Mike Parker asks whether the UK's mapping agency can maintain its hold on the national topography - and its reputation.
From 2010.
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b00rmxbd)
Current sexual surveys reveal that many older people continue to enjoy sex. As the ageing population expands, the pharmaceutical industry has been quick to exploit opportunities to market drugs to eliminate age related sexual problems. But the sociologist Professor Barbara Marshall tells Laurie that sexual medicine is in danger of pathologising the normal processes of ageing and promoting a youth centred definition of sexuality. Also, does love overcome race in Brazilian democracy? There is a much higher intermarriage between races in South America than in Europe or the USA, Laurie explores the underlying traits which govern who marries whom in Latin American Society.
WED 16:30 Remembrance of Smells Past (b00jnj31)
Ian Peacock discovers why certain smells can transport us back to our childhood. Our olfactory perceptions are increasingly being recognised by scientists as the foundation for many of our decisions and actions, from consumer loyalty to weight loss and age perception.
With a growing realisation that a sense of smell has this special ability to arouse particular feelings, researchers are being drawn to explore the connections between smell, memory and emotion. Ian asks if smells could be bypassing the conscious mind and accessing memories on a deeper, more mysterious level.
WED 17:00 PM (b00rlx2h)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00rlx4p)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Party (b00rmxk5)
Series 1
Episode 4
The Party of young idealists take to the streets with their inaugural protest. If only it wasn't raining.
Jared's musical attempts to draw attention backfire painfully and Mel is desperate to get arrested.
Tom Basden’s sitcom satirises their ambitions, hypocrisy and naivety - based on his 2009 Edinburgh play, which won a fringe first.
Duncan ... Tim Key
Jared ... Johnny Sweet
Mel ... Anna Crilly
Phoebe ... Katy Wix
Policeman ... Nick Mohammed
Simon ... Tom Basden
Written by Tom Basden. Producer: Julia McKenzie
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2010.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b00rlfjz)
Eddie and Joe rehearse their talent show joke routine but Joe keeps messing it up.
Vicky's determined to solve her problem, and is grateful to Joe for agreeing to help with the calves. Joe tells Eddie that she has a rosy view of farming but she'll learn. Eddie doesn't think Vicky will find a market for veal but Joe knows they shouldn't underestimate her.
Helen's glad she's got Ian to talk to. Pat's being supportive but Tom's off with her, and Tony's still the same. She tells Ian about yesterday's session, when she discussed telling the child about how it was conceived. Ian finds it fascinating. Helen just wants it to start happening.
After seeing her son James to celebrate his birthday last night, Lilian meets Paul in London, and they wander around the tourist routes. Neither of them have mentioned to anyone about their meeting. She tells him a lot of her history over lunch, including Costa Rica. He doesn't think a two-bit building business and a semi in Watford amount to much in comparison but wants to learn more about her. As Lilian gets her train, they agree they'd like to meet up again. He'll give her a call.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b00rlx6m)
Jenny Agutter remembers filming The Railway Children when she was 17, as a restored print of the film is released to mark its 40th anniversary.
Rufus Wainwright talks about his new album and discusses the recent death of his mother, the folk singer Kate McGarrigle. He also reveals his musical exchanges with his singer-songwriter sister Martha and father Loudon Wainwright.
John Wilson meets the sculptor Anish Kapoor who reveals his towering plan for a major new public landmark in the London 2012 Olympic Park.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00rlb2h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b00rmxk7)
Are the Baby Boomers the most selfish generation history has ever known? The 11 million children of the post-war baby boom are marching towards retirement. There are more over 60s than under 16s and their numbers and the demands they make on our society and how we're going to pay for them are questions we're only just starting to confront. They've grown up with all the benefits of the welfare state and NHS, made a profit on their homes and have good company pensions. Should they have used their demographic good fortune to build for the future, rather than leaving the next generation to pick up the tab? There used to be a contract between the generations - a moral duty, that we'd leave the world a better place for our children, that they'll live better lives than us. Edmund Burke's described a nation is "a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born". But what's the baby boomers' legacy to the next generation? Climate meltdown, a wrecked economy and very large bill in the post. Do we have a moral obligation to the next generation and if so, what is it?
WED 20:45 Lent Talks (b00rmxk9)
Rev Dr Giles Fraser
"Greater love hath no man"
In the last of six talks by eminent writers and thinkers in the weeks leading up to Easter, The Revd Dr Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral and a Tutor of military ethics at The Defence Academy, reflects on the nature of sacrifice.
The Revd Dr Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral brings our series of Lent Talks to a close, when he will be reflecting on the nature of sacrifice. As a Tutor of ethics and leadership at The Defence Academy, Dr Fraser has a wide experience of talking to soldiers and military strategists about what sacrifice means in a war zone. In the light of those insights - and as Christians around the world mark Holy Week - he explores what the concept of sacrifice means in our contemporary culture.
WED 21:00 God On My Mind (b00rp1dr)
Neurology
Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA, discovers what the latest scientific research can tell us about the human need for religion.
Almost half the population claim to have felt the presence of a power beyond themselves. But what happens in the brain during religious experiences? If magnetism can produce visions, then what price mysticism and meditation? What's the difference between sainthood and schizophrenia? And why are many believers convinced that God speaks to them in their dreams?
Producer: Peter Everett.
WED 21:30 Midweek (b00rmt9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b00rlx9q)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b00rlxh8)
David Cameron promises a Big Society, but will it work?
Bombings stoke instability fears in North Caucasus.
And why brainstorming doesn't work.
With Robin Lustig.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00r9y25)
Salley Vickers - Dancing Backwards
Episode 3
Eileen Atkins reads from Salley Vickers' acclaimed new novel, Dancing Backwards
Violet Hetherington's husband has recently died. Alone, she decides to take a cruise-ship crossing to visit her old friend, Edwin, in New York.
As she journeys across the Atlantic the quiet Violet begins to blossom - learning to ballroom dance, taking up smoking again, befriending a famously seething theatre critic. And in her time alone she reminisces about her early adulthood as a student at Cambridge. It's at Cambridge that she meets Edwin. Edwin, it soon becomes clear, is someone she's betrayed and someone she's both terrified and desperate to see again. The story that unfolds about the young Violet holds the secret to that betrayal.
In tonight's episode, Violet and Edwin embark on a shared career and, aboard ship, one of the dance hosts begins to take more than a little interest in her.
Written and abridged by Salley Vickers. Vickers is a critically acclaimed, best-selling novelist whose work includes Mr Golightly's Holiday, Instances of the Number 3, Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You. Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You were both popular Book at Bedtimes. Last year she dramatised her version of the Oedipus myth, Where Three Roads Meet, for Radio 4's Afternoon Play slot. Before becoming a full time writer she was a psychoanalyst.
Produced by Kirsty Williams.
WED 23:00 Earls of the Court (b00rp1dt)
The Hangover
Is Lloydie ready for what is coming when Johnno makes a hungover, life-changing decision?
Comedy drama series by Will Adamsdale and Stewart Wright about two Australians down on their luck in London.
Lloydie ...... Stewart Wright
Johnno ...... Will Adamsdale
Desk Clerk ...... Alison Pettitt
Announcer ...... Keely Beresford
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2010.
WED 23:15 Nick Mohammed in Quarters (b00hdbgz)
Episode 4
Energetic sketch comedy from Nick Mohammed and friends. With Anna Crilly and Colin Hoult.
WED 23:30 4 At the Fringe (b00d0hwc)
Episode 1
Four At The Fringe is the first of two half hour comedy shows for Radio 4 which features some of the best acts who appeard at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2008, recorded at The Pleasance Beyond.
The series is hosted by comedian Michael McIntyre with his own unique style - he'll be introducing the eight acts over the two shows.
This first show features Ed Byrne; cheeky comedienne Kerry Godliman, Liverpudlian comic John Bishop and Rich Hall as his musical alter-ego Otis Lee Crenshaw who offers his unique perspective on life from an American perspective
Four At The Fringe brings the best of the acts appearing at The Fringe in Edinburgh in one bite sized audio chunk!
The producer is Paul Russell, and the programme is an Open Mike production for BBC Radio 4.
THURSDAY 01 APRIL 2010
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b00rl59v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b00rp7qh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00rl5d2)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00rl5wk)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00rl61n)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b00rl6gr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00rl6my)
with the Rt Revd Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b00rl6ql)
From today farmers will be paid to generate their own energy but will they get a fair price? Charlotte Smith finds out if it's worth the investment they will have to make. And more and more people are keeping chickens in their back garden. Farming Today finds out why there's been such a rise in household hens.
THU 06:00 Today (b00rl6t5)
With James Naughtie and Sarah Montague. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b00rp1fd)
The City - a history, part 2
Melvyn Bragg presents the second of a two part discussion about the history of the city. George Stephenson invented rail transport in the north-east of England in the 1820s, but it was not until over twenty years later that rail networks began to spring up to ferry workers in and out of the centre of British cities. When they did, this had a vast, transforming effect on the whole nature of cities - taking the pressure off dense, overcrowded central areas, but helping cities like London explode outwards.Victorian London was widely held at the time to be rather chaotic - especially in comparison with the grandiose, highly-orchestrated developments in continental European cities like Paris and Barcelona.The process of transformation was given another fillip by the introduction of the motor car. In this, the final part of a two-part special edition of 'In Our Time' exploring the development of cities, we're going to examine how Stephenson's invention transformed cities almost beyond recognition, and follow the story up to the present day.Peter Hall is Professor of Planning and Regeneration at The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London; Tristram Hunt is lecturer in History at Queen Mary College at the University of London; and Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qk)
Hilary Spurling - Burying the Bones
Episode 4
Lindsay Duncan reads another extract from "Burying The Bones", Hilary Spurling's account of the astonishing life of Pearl Buck.
The first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1938), Pearl's popular novels were rooted in her childhood experiences of growing up in rural China, the daughter of missionaries, at the turn of the 20th century. Jung Chang, the author of "Wild Swans" has described Pearl Buck as "one of the greatest writers on China".
Today's episode explores the extraordinary effect that Pearl's commercial success had on her family. This was most powerfully expressed in the freedom she had to secure a future for her daughters - including the best healthcare for her disabled daughter. But success came at a price: cracks began to appear in her marriage and Pearl became the focus of a divorce scandal that rocked 1930s America.
Abridger: Alison Joseph.
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00rl8lw)
Presented by Jenni Murray. Just a few months after coming on Woman's Hour last March to talk about her retirement plans, Baroness Glenys Kinnock decided against a slower pace of life and was appointed Minister of State at the Foreign Office. Today she joins Jenni to talk about her additional new responsibility in leading the Government's work, tackling violence against women overseas.
The British Film Institute launches its Paul Newman season with 20 of his films screened throughout April. But it is his partnership with Robert Redford that cemented box office status for both? Dr Sarah Churchwell, film critic and Senior Lecturer in America Studies at UEA and Antonia Quirke, author and film critic assess their careers. When it comes to choosing between them, is there any contest?
The wicked stepmother is one of the most compelling characters in myth and fairytale. And now that at least one in ten of us live in step-families, what do we really know about life with a modern stepmother, and life as a stepchild? We'll be hearing about new research into the 21st century stepmother from Dr Lisa Doodson, author of 'How to be a Happy Stepmum" and will also joined by the writer Sophie Parkin.
This month saw the UK release of the film version of Stieg Larsson's best seller, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". His work has divided opinion, with the title character Lisbeth Salander seen by some as a popular feminist heroine, while others damn the extreme violence perpetrated against some of the female characters as gratuitous and misogynist. Woman's Hour investigates.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00rlb2k)
David Golder
Episode 4
4/5
Irene Nemirovsky's classic novel of ruthlessness and ambition, love and money, translated by Sandra Smith and adapted for radio by Ellen Dryden.
David Golder is a remarkable portrait of a man who is something like a monster, but whose killer instinct in business is based not in self-interest but in the almost pathological desire to provide for a family he knows does not care for him.
Episode Four: Following disturbing news from the financial markets, Golder makes plans to return to Paris to negotiate a deal, which will save him from the impending catastrophe. But before he goes, Gloria has a shattering surprise for her husband.
David Suchet stars as Golder, with Anna Francolini (recently winner of the TMA/Stage award for the best stage performance of 2009) as Irene Nemirovsky. Elizabeth Bell plays Golder's rapacious wife Gloria, and Francesca Dymond his indulged daughter Joyce.
Nemirovsky was 26 when David Golder was published in 1929, and had made the same journey from a Ukrainian/Jewish background to France and wealth as her protagonist. The novel was a huge and immediate success .A film followed in 1930 but this is the first adaptation of the novel the Nemirovsky estate have allowed since. Irene Nemirovsky died in Auschwitz in 1942. She was 39.
David Golder ..... David Suchet
Irene Nemirovsky ..... Anna Francolini
Gloria Golder ..... Elizabeth Bell
Hoyos ..... Vernon Dobtcheff
Loewe ..... David Gant
Directed by Peter Farago.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b00rp1w4)
Mongolia's Deep Freeze
Mongolia is in the grip of the deadliest winter for a decade. People have died because they can't reach doctors or hospitals and malnutrition is increasing fast. Most significantly for a nation where tending livestock is central to its culture, untold millions of animals have died. Frozen carcasses of sheep and goats litter parts of the country. Linda Pressly travels to the remote far west of the country to report on this developing emergency. She asks what it means for Mongolia as rural refugees from the deep freeze have flooded to the capital, Ulan Bator.
And she asks about the prospects of a brighter future with recent discovery of what may be the world's largest deposits of gold.
Producer: Linda Sills.
THU 11:30 Capturing America: Mark Lawson's History of Modern American Literature (b00rp1w6)
Goodbye Soldiers, Hello Everyone
Mark Lawson completes his tour of modern American literature with a story of departures and arrivals and the cultural pressures which writers face in the 21st century.
The great post-Second World War generation of authors - Norman Mailer, John Updike, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut Jr - and their surviving contemporaries such as Gore Vidal and Philip Roth often expressed gloom about the future of serious novels and plays, fearing they would be pushed out by a pressure towards more commercial and personal stories.
The rise of "confessional writing" - from the poetry of Sylvia Plath and others in the 60s to the modern "misery memoir" - has seemed to call into question the validity of imagination and invention. Lawson argues that an underlying change in the status of the literary novel is epitomised by the fact that wheareas in the 1960s John Updike was featured on the cover of Time magazine, more recently it was Dan Brown.
However a new wave of so-called "hyphenated"' writers - Indian-American, Korean-American, Dominican-American - has been renewing U.S libraries in the way they always had been: through immigration.
Taking final stock Mark Lawson reflects on whether American Literature has reached a full stop or perhaps achieved a new dash. He talks to authors including John Ashbery, Rita Dove, Chang-rae Lee, Junot Diaz, Lorrie Moore, Walter Mosley and James Patterson.
THU 12:00 You and Yours (b00rlb6g)
The supermarket giant that's handing over the meat counter to the local butcher and why an Irish politician is encouraging his constituents to apply for a British passport to beat industrial action at the Dublin Passport Office.
And the couple hoping to make their new business venture a success - on an island with just 19 residents. Winifred Robinson presents.
THU 12:57 Weather (b00rldsl)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b00rlff7)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
THU 13:30 Costing the Earth (b00rm3pr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 14:00 The Archers (b00rlfjz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b00rp1w8)
Last Family Standing
Paul Watson's play "Last Family Standing" is set in 1946 though many listeners might think it today.
Britain, newly emerged from the shadow of war is in a time of austerity. Five million victorious men and women have returned from the war effort to a peacetime of few jobs. Money, food and decent housing are also scarce. The Government has failed to stem accumulating social problems. The jubilation of VE day has evaporated. Life is difficult. The party is over.
Today, 2010, we are told our economic output is falling. The nation is suffering the worst contraction of GDP since 1946.
Politicians wave their hands and offer excuses. Bankers sit in isolated splendour seemingly impervious to social need. And the people wait!
Like our grandparents who waited for the tank and munitions factories to re-adjust to the needs of peace, to the building of cars, kettles and cookers, we all again wait, as unemployment and its consequence affect the finance of home life.
Paul Watson's play is the account of one waiting family in 1946, the Truscott family. Charles, Marjorie and their grown-up children's struggle to survive "at any cost" brings tragic consequence as remembered by the only surviving family member, Dorothy. It is her anger and contempt for the Establishment of "then and now" that fuels 'Last Family Standing'.
Narrator ..... Paul Watson
Old Dorothy Truscott ..... Janet Amsden
Young Dorothy ..... Flora Newbigin
Dad"Charlie" ..... Jonathan Tafler
Mum "Marjorie" ..... Jacqui Sharpe
Frank ..... Tony Longhurst
Arthur ..... Michael James Ackerman
Estelle/Woman ..... Sara Stephens
Prostitueclient/Official ..... Peter Benedict
Mr Fentamann/Chemist ..... Russell Floyd
Nurse ..... Lucie Fitchett
The programme is produced by Paul Watson and is a Pier Productions Limited production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b00rkkpk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:07 on Saturday]
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b00rl48w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00c0npf)
Unaccustomed Earth
Unaccustomed Earth, part 2
Indira Varma reads the second part of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's title story from her collection Unaccustomed Earth, exporing the dark secrets of family life through the Bengali immigrant experience.
When Ruma's mother dies, she leaves a space neither her daughter or her husband knows how to fill. Back in India, both know, things would have been very different. But when Ruma's father visits her in America, Ruma finally decides to invite him to live with her and her family. But his response is not what she had expected.
Unaccustomed Earth begins in America, but, like all the stories in this week's series, spills back over memories and generations to India, following new lives forged in the wake of loss.
Reader: Indira Varma
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett.
THU 15:45 On the Map (b00rlwww)
Digital Maps
Self-confessed map addict Mike Parker explores modern cartography.
Digital Maps. Who needs traditional paper maps any more when you can download all the maps you need from the internet? Mike Parker looks at cartography in the digital age and asks whether internet mapping and satellite navigation are actually destroying good map-making and map-reading.
From 2010.
THU 16:00 Open Book (b00rl4zl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:30 Material World (b00rp1wb)
In a landmark ruling this week, a New York court judge has declared that several patents for a genetic cancer test are not valid. The finding comes after years of argument over the rights and wrongs of patenting disease genes, with objectors arguing that patents limit free inquiry, supporters insisting that fair rewards promote continued research. On Material World, Quentin Cooper will be hearing about the significance of the court case, and hearing what the evidence is either way in the debate.
4 billion years ago, the Sun was far dimmer than it is now, but all the geological evidence is that the world was no colder then than now. Now there seems to be an answer to this "faint young Sun paradox" first posed by astronomer Carl Sagan 30 years ago. Geologist Minik Rosing explains how a lack of continental rock, and eternal clear blue skies stopped the world from freezing over.
Also in the programme, Quentin hears from the first two shortlisted contenders in our So You Want to Be a Scientist talent search.
And he talks to the Manchester biologist who's working on plastic-chomping bacteria, to help deal with our waste problem.
THU 17:00 PM (b00rlx2k)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00rlx4r)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Another Case of Milton Jones (b00rp1wd)
Series 4
Oil Baron and Mining Engineer
In this episode, Milton waves goodbye to the world of dance and musical theatre to pursue his dream of becoming - a miner! And then his fortunes skyrocket when he strikes oil in the middle of the ocean - on an oil tanker. Diamonds, gold, laser beams and Eastenders combine in a glamorous yet gritty tribute to Billy Elliot in "Another Case Of Milton Jones".
He's joined in his endeavours by his co-stars Tom Goodman-Hill (Camelot), Dave Lamb (Come Dine With Me) and Ingrid Oliver (Watson & Oliver).
Britain's funniest Milton and the king of the one-liner returns with a fully-working cast and a shipload of new jokes in this series of daffy comedy adventures.
Each week, Milton is a complete and utter expert at something - Top Gun aviator, Weatherman, Billy Elliot-style dancer, World-beating cyclist, mathematical genius and Extreme Travel Entrepreneur.
And each week, with absolutely no ability or competence, he plunges into a big adventure with utterly funny results.
"Milton Jones is one of Britain's best gagsmiths with a flair for creating daft yet perfect one-liners" - The Guardian
"King of the surreal one-liners" - The Times
"If you haven't caught up with Jones yet - do so!" - The Daily Mail
Written by Milton with James Cary (Think The Unthinkable, Miranda)
Produced & directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive Production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b00rlfk1)
It's the night of the talent contest. Robert's got the clap-o-meter working, but there are three last minute withdrawals and no sign of Neville. As anticipation builds both backstage and in the audience. Lynda's panicking.
Ruth, David and Usha are in the audience. David's glad to hear Alan's better, and thinks he's done well to keep up the sleep-out over Lent.
Kenton gets the show gets under way, demonstrating the clap-o-meter. Molly Button's tap dancing is buzzed very quickly by Neville, and she burst into tears. Despite also being buzzed by Neville, Josh and Jamie do well with Ghostbusters and win their coveted football tickets. Mr Pullen wins the older category with his spoon playing. Neville continues to buzz every act quickly except his nephew Nathan.
The final act is Jazzer. After much speculation about what he's going to sing, Jazzer steals the show with an amazing rendition of a Scottish folk song, "The Roses o'Prince Charlie". He soon has the audience on its feet, and the clap-o-meter goes off the scale.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b00rlx6p)
Joanne Harris discusses her new novel Blueeyedboy, a sinister thriller told in the form of blogs.
As Madonna releases a DVD recorded during her highly successful Sticky & Sweet tour, music critics David Hepworth and Rosie Swash debate the merits of the live concert film, and consider whether the small screen can convey the flavour of Madonna's epic event.
Sanjeev Bhaskar, whose roles range from The Kumars at Number 42 to King Arthur in Spamalot, returns to the stage tonight in Dumbshow, Joe Penhall's play about tabloid celebrity. He talks to Kirsty Lang about the opportunities available to Asian actors in TV, film and theatre, the legacy of his marketing career and the freedom of spoof chat shows.
Novelist Sarah Dunant reviews the film I Am Love, starring Tilda Swinton, who won an Oscar for her role in the Hollywood drama Michael Clayton. I am Love, directed by Luca Guadagnino, is an Italian-language melodrama set among Milan's upper classes.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00rlb2k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b00rp1wg)
British Airways Cabin Crew Strike
Morland Sanders investigates the background to the strike at British Airways. How has a dispute over reductions in cabin crew turned into a long-running and costly row?
Union officials fear the dispute has the potential to cause acrimonious rifts between staff at BA - once dubbed the world's favourite airline. But managers say they have to cut costs and have put in place extensive plans to keep many routes operating. Travellers, though, face chaos and cancellations.
The Report examines the financial problems facing BA - and asks if the industrial action will result in business and first class passengers taking their custom elsewhere. They make up the premium market that the airline needs to keep for its long-term survival.
Producer: Sally Chesworth.
THU 20:30 In Business (b00rp1wj)
Who Sets Our Standards?
Who Sets Our Standards?
World trade in goods and services - from the butter on your bread to the existence of the mobile phone - is held together by an invisible web of standards set by all kinds of official and semi official organisations. Peter Day has been asking the standards-setters what they do, and why it matters.
Producer: Sandra Kanthal.
THU 21:00 The Naming of Genes (b00lyfy1)
Kakapo, Cleopatra and Pavarotti are cryptic names for genes; the clue to what they do lies in their names. Sue Broom cracks the code in this subtle game of scientific one upmanship.
Chardonay, Hedgehog and Cheap Dates all have one thing in common. They are all names for genes, specifically of fruit fly or drosophilia genes. The trick is you have to guess what it is, so for example Amontillado is a allusion to the Edgar Allan Poe book where the hero is walled in alive; the gene amontillado refers to mutant larvae who can't hatch.
Chardonay is a reference to the white blood cells and other wine genes are Chablis, retsina and Chianti. The wine collection is housed at Dr Leonard Zon's laboratory at Harvard Medical School. When one of Dr Zon's students discovers a new wine gene, they are awarded with a bottle of that particular wine, although he has got wise to them choosing some of the more rarified and expensive vintages.
Other labs prefer to use Shakespeare characters, musical references or more colloquial terms such as Lush, referring to an increased affection for alcohol. Sometimes there are races to name the gene, and a fight may break out between institutions. Kathy Matthews of the Bloomington Drosophilia Stock Centre in Indiana proudly says that fly geneticists were the first geneticists and therefore in the early days it was like being in the Wild West, but now political correctness is moving in.
More seriously, worm, mice and human geneticists think they should tone down their gene names. Its not appropriate they say to call a gene a Sonic Hedegehog.
But Kathy and her colleagues are resisting; it is part of their tradition, they say. A witty, whimsical or colloquial name can get a scientist lot of attention in the scientific community.
Sue Broom looks at some of the more famous examples and charts the resistance to turning Van Gogh into a chain of numbers and letters.
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b00rp1fd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b00rlx9s)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b00rlxhb)
The High Court blocks a planned national rail strike.
The economy is at the centre of a row between politicians and business leaders
Venezuela has a week-long Easter holiday because of energy shortages
with Robin Lustig.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00r9y27)
Salley Vickers - Dancing Backwards
Episode 4
Eileen Atkins reads from Salley Vickers' acclaimed new novel, Dancing Backwards
Violet Hetherington's husband has recently died. Alone, she decides to take a cruise-ship crossing to visit her old friend, Edwin, in New York.
As she journeys across the Atlantic the quiet Violet begins to blossom - learning to ballroom dance, taking up smoking again, befriending a famously seething theatre critic. And in her time alone she reminisces about her early adulthood as a student at Cambridge. It's at Cambridge that she meets Edwin. Edwin, it soon becomes clear, is someone she's betrayed and someone she's both terrified and desperate to see again. The story that unfolds about the young Violet holds the secret to that betrayal.
In tonight's episode, Violet and Edwin's happy life together faces its first challenge when an interloper arrives.
Written and abridged by Salley Vickers. Vickers is a critically acclaimed, best-selling novelist whose work includes Mr Golightly's Holiday, Instances of the Number 3, Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You. Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You were both popular Book at Bedtimes. Last year she dramatised her version of the Oedipus myth, Where Three Roads Meet, for Radio 4's Afternoon Play slot. Before becoming a full time writer she was a psychoanalyst.
Produced by Kirsty Williams.
THU 23:00 Scrooby Trevithick (b00rp1wl)
Paparazzo
Scrooby Trevithick is a six part scripted comedy series written by and starring Andy Parsons, following on from the first series aired on Radio 4 18 months ago - The Lost WebLog of Scrooby Trevithick.
This second series continues to follow the exploits of the hapless character of Scrooby (Andy Parsons), an enthusiastic but flawed wannabe who, having returned from his wanderings is still trying to find himself by zealously posting his web diaries online.
Each episode features him attempting to make a dent in the national consciousness, and in this series, he's helped by his good friend Sasha (Kerry Godliman). However, his desire for success always takes him one step further than prudence dictates.
Episode 3. Paparazzo. In this episode, Scrooby tries to become a Paparazzo having taken some dubious footage on his mobile phone
The cast features a variety of talented comedians including Dara O'Briain, Russell Howard, Hugh Dennis, Russell Kane, Rufus Hound, Alun Cochrane, Dominic Frisby, Paul Thorne, Martin Coyote and Barunka O'Shaughnessy.
As always, listeners are encouraged to share their comments with Scrooby at www.scroobytrevithick.com as he needs all the advice he can get.
The producer is Paul Russell, and the programme is an Open Mike production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:30 4 At the Fringe (b00d44xs)
Episode 2
4 At The Fringe is the second of two half hour stand up comedy shows for Radio 4 which features some of the best acts appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2008, recorded at The Pleasance Beyond.
The series is hosted by comedian Michael McIntyre with his own unique style - introducing the eight acts over the two shows.
Tonight Jon Richardson, Jeff Green Alun Cochrane and comic musician, David O'Doherty will bring his two small keyboards and his very odd sense of humour to round the show off.
Four At The Fringe brings the best of the acts appearing at The Fringe in Edinburgh in one bite sized audio chunk!
The producer is Paul Russell, and the programme is an Open Mike Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRIDAY 02 APRIL 2010
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b00rl59x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b00rp7qk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00rl5d4)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00rl5wm)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00rl61q)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b00rl6gt)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00rl6n0)
with the Rt Revd Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b00rl6qn)
Was the last beef you ate melt in the mouth tender or tough as old boots? The English meat industry is trying to find out exactly how much of the beef on sale in supermarkets is a bit too chewy. They're sending out mystery shoppers to buy beef from the major retailers, which will then be tested for toughness. Charlotte Smith asks EBLEX, The English Beef and Lamb Executive, why they are carrying out the research. Also on Farming Today, at the moment around a third of the English coastline doesn't have a legal right of way for walkers. That's about to change, as a blueprint's been published for how an all-England coastal path will actually work. The scheme got the go-ahead from the government last year, and now Natural England is explaining how it'll decide where the 4 metre wide route will go, and how conflicts with landowners and others will be resolved.
Farming Today is presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Anna Varle.
FRI 06:00 Today (b00rl6t7)
With James Naughtie and Evan Davis. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b00rl498)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qm)
Hilary Spurling - Burying the Bones
Episode 5
Lindsay Duncan reads the final extract from Hilary Spurling's new book: "Burying The Bones". The distinguished biographer's subject is the astonishing life of Pearl Buck, one of the most successful and popular American novelists of the 20th Century.
In today's episode we learn that as she entered old age, Pearl's indomitable spirit continued to shine as she shocked and surprised her family with a series of bizarre life choices. Pearl never quite recovered her equilibrium after the death of her second husband and, surrounded by a coterie of flamboyant young men, became increasingly cloistered - receiving visitors in a 'throne' room; a strange echo of the last days of her childhood heroine, the last empress of China.
Though her work has now fallen out of fashion, in her day Pearl Buck was a phenomenal bestseller. The novel that made her name was "The Good Earth" which depicted for the first time the gruelling conditions of China's rural poor. Born to Presbyterian missionaries in 1890s China, Buck's first hand experience of the language and people informed her writing and helped to change Western perceptions of that country forever; in recognition of which she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.
Abridger: Alison Joseph.
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00rl8ly)
Our national dish - fish and chips - is 150 years old and still going strong. In a 2008 poll of seven thousand Britons on what they most love about this country, it came first, beating the Queen into second place! There are over 10,000 fish and chip shops in the UK and each one has its own appeal. But who was the first person to put together the winning combination and does fish and chips hold its own with 21st century foodies?
Writer Kay Mellor has kept her play, A Passionate Woman, closely guarded over the years. Wary of selling out to Hollywood's production values, she feared that in the wrong hands, the story of a young woman's affair with her Polish neighbour, could be transformed into something unrecognisable from the story based on the life of her own mother. But a new BBC One adaptation of the story has been given the go ahead, with Billie Piper and Sue Johnston taking on the role of Betty, whose affair in 1950s Leeds has consequences that are still being felt decades later. Jenni Murray will be joined by writer Kay Mellor, to discuss A Passionate Woman.
Last week Baroness Ruth Deech gave a lecture at the Museum of London in which she called for a public campaign to discourage marriages between first cousins. It's a practice that's common in many immigrant communities and can put children at risk of serious genetic illnesses. Lady Deech called for more trained genetic counselling -and more openness in discussing the issues. She also warned that marriages between first cousins can be a barrier to integration of minority communities. To discuss these issues Baroness Deech joins Jenni Murray along with Waqar Ahmad, Professor of Social Policy at Middlesex University
In 1995 British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves became the first woman to climb Mount Everest without oxygen. Her strength, skill and determination made her an inspiration to thousands of women, and her achievements were front page news. But three months later she was back on the front pages when she was tragically killed attempting to climb K2. She left behind two young children - Tom, who was 6 at the time and Kate who was just 4. Her death lead to much criticism from the press who questioned how a woman with two young children could risk her life in this way. Now those children have grown up. Tom is 21 and Kate 18. The family have recently moved to the Swiss Alps where Tom is training to tackle some of the peaks his mother climbed. Early in 2011 he intends to attempt his own solo climb of K2. Jenni Murray talks to Tom and Kate and to their father Jim Ballard.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00rlb2m)
David Golder
Episode 5
5/5
Irene Nemirovsky's classic novel of ruthlessness and ambition, love and money, translated by Sandra Smith and adapted for radio by Ellen Dryden.
David Golder is a remarkable portrait of a man who is something like a monster, but whose killer instinct in business is based not in self-interest but in the almost pathological desire to provide for a family he knows does not care for him.
Episode Five: Living alone in Paris, Golder's career as a financier looks to be all but over. But an unexpected visit makes it necessary to force himself into one last deal- whatever the cost.
David Suchet stars as Golder, with Anna Francolini (recently winner of the TMA/Stage award for the best stage performance of 2009) as Irene Nemirovsky. Elizabeth Bell plays Golder's rapacious wife Gloria, and Francesca Dymond his indulged daughter Joyce.
Nemirovsky was 26 when David Golder was published in 1929, and had made the same journey from a Ukrainian/Jewish background to France and wealth as her protagonist. The novel was a huge and immediate success .A film followed in 1930 but this is the first adaptation of the novel the Nemirovsky estate have allowed since. Irene Nemirovsky died in Auschwitz in 1942. She was 39.
David Golder ..... David Suchet
Irene Nemirovsky ..... Anna Francolini
Gloria Golder ..... Elizabeth Bell
Joyce Golder ..... Francesca Dymond
Delegate ..... Robin Harvey Edwards
Russian Boy ..... Richard Galazka
Directed by Peter Farago.
FRI 11:00 The Doctor and Douglas (b00rp3dw)
As a new generation of fans await the debut of the 11th incarnation of the Doctor, long-time fan Jon Culshaw travels back in time to look at the man who changed Doctor Who forever: Douglas Adams.
After years toiling for success as a writer, in 1978 Douglas' world turned upside down. Just weeks after the radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was commissioned, so was his first script for Doctor Who. The following year - just as Hitchhikers was taking off - he was offered the job as script editor, one of the most demanding jobs in television.
The scripts he wrote for Doctor Who - The Pirate Planet, City of Death and Shada - still stand as a benchmark for the series today. But his time on the series was beset by problems. Technician strikes would seriously affect production, inflation was squeezing the series budget, and Douglas was exhausted by the simultaneous demands of Hitchhikers and Doctor Who.
Nevertheless, Douglas left an indelible mark on Doctor Who, bringing in a sharp wit that hadn't been seen before in what was ostensibly a children's TV series. Today's crop of writers and producers strive to emulate the intelligence, humour and ideas in Adams' scripts from 1979.
Jon Culshaw looks at Douglas' work on a television institution, talking to the writers, directors and actors who worked with him, and looks at the legacy of his work on Doctor Who with new executive producer Steven Moffat.
Produced by Simon Barnard and Kieron Moyles. This is a Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:30 Meet David Sedaris (b00rp3dy)
Series 1
Six-to-Eight Black Men; Just a Quick Email
From Carnegie Hall to the BBC Radio Theatre - American humorist David Sedaris reads from his extensive collection of published stories and articles.
Christmas traditions in the Netherlands attract David's attention in 'Six to Eight Black Men'; some guilty secrets are revealed in Just a Quick Email and we also hear selected extracts from his diary.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Boomerang production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 Counterpoint (b00rp41f)
Special
For Easter weekend on Radio 4, Paul Gambaccini's in the quizmaster's chair for a very special edition of the long-running music quiz, 'Counterpoint'.
The quiz covers the usual broad mixture of musical styles - but all the extracts and musical clues in this special edition will be played live in the studio by the BBC Philharmonic, taking a breather from their current Mahler season of concerts.
Answering Paul's questions, and identifying the extracts, are three musical celebrities - soprano and radio presenter Catherine Bott; conductor and comedian Rainer Hersch; and musician, writer and comedian Kit Hesketh Harvey.
The BBC Philharmonic will be providing plenty of surprising arrangements of familiar melodies, from Tchaikovsky to Take That. You can hear which of the celebrity panellists proves to have the broadest musical knowledge in this unique collaboration recorded with an enthusiastic audience at BBC Manchester.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b00rldsn)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b00rlff9)
National and international news with Shaun Ley.
FRI 13:30 Feedback (b00rp41h)
Roger Bolton airs listeners' views on BBC radio programmes and policy.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b00rlfk1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b00cbrjn)
I Love Stephen Fry
Jackie is married to a good-natured but big-bottomed butcher, Terry. She works in a newsagent and she's restless. Her youngest child, Chloe, is about to get married to Carl, a sensible lad. But Jackie thinks Chloe's repeating her own mistake: marrying too young, without exploring her options. Jackie's a big fan of Stephen Fry and would love her daughter to be marrying a man as interesting as him. Jackie buys a tent, ostensibly as a wedding present for Chloe. But instead Jackie sleeps in the tent herself, in the garden, to escape her husband. She has a series of dreams about Stephen Fry. He's everything her husband Terry is not: eloquent, metropolitan, learned and gay. In a series of exciting and alarming fantasies, Jackie and Stephen have a platonic love affair. Then Chloe meets Stephen Fry in an Indian restaurant and tells him her mum is in love with him. Suddenly, fantasy is becoming reality.
Terry discovers his wife is in love with a man known only as 'Steve'. He's no idea who Steve is. Should he confront Steve? Or should he keep quiet and wait for his wife's affair with Steve to blow over. Eventually, husband, wife and Steve meet in an Ipswich bookshop and have their lives changed forever. Except Steve. He just carries on being Stephen Fry.
I LOVE STEPHEN FRY is written by Jon Canter. Jon's worked with many of the biggest names in TV comedy and was script editor on 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie'. His writing credits include The Two Ronnies, 'Not The Nine O Clock News', 'Mr Bean', 'Alas Smith & Jones', 'Murder Most Horrid' and 'Posh Nosh'. He has had two comic novels published by Jonathan Cape. 'Seeds of Greatness' and 'A Short Gentleman'. 'I Love Stephen Fry' stars Stephen Fry himself, Lesley Sharp, Phil Davis, Karl Theobald, Sinead Matthews and Carolyn Pickles.
Stephen Fry ..... Himself
Jackie ..... Lesley Sharp
Terry ..... Phil Davis
Margaret ..... Carolyn Pickles
Ron ..... Ron Cook
Chloe ..... Sinead Matthews
Carl ..... Karl Theobald
Producer/Director Fiona McAlpine
The programme is an Allegra producton for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:00 Good Friday Liturgy (b00rp41k)
Cries of the Passion. Professor of Christianity and the Arts at King's College London, the Revd Prof Ben Quash, traces the way of the cross through the sounds and cries he hears on his daily walk to work across London. The cries of the Passion tell the story as Ben's pilgrimage moves from the roaring crowds of the Arsenal stadium, past the joyful shouting of children in Coram's Fields playground, the cries of the market place in Covent Garden, into the box of darkness in Tate Modern. The journey starts in the chant of the crowd and ends in a solitary cry. Producer: Clair Jaquiss.
FRI 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00c0npk)
Unaccustomed Earth
Year's End
Hari Dhillon reads Year's End, the last in the series of stories by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, exploring the dark secrets of family life through the Bengali immigrant experience.
During a holiday visit to his family home three years after his mother's death, a young man struggles to accept his father's new, and very young, Indian wife.
Year's End begins in America, but like all the stories in this series, spills back over memories and generations to India, following new lives forged in the wake of loss.
Reader: Hari Dhillon
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett.
FRI 15:45 On the Map (b00rlwwy)
Maps of the Mind
Self-confessed map addict Mike Parker explores modern cartography.
Maps of the Mind. The most powerful maps aren't found on paper or a computer screen. They're the maps we hold in our memories and imaginations. Mike Parker visits a primary school in his home town to compare the pupils' maps with his own, drawn from childhood recollection. And he takes a trip to Ambridge, home of the Archers, to meet Eddie Grundy and ask him for directions around the village.
From 2010.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b00rp41m)
Obituary programme presented by John Wilson. The lives of those who have recently died are assessed with contributions from those who knew the subject or who have a particular knowledge of their life and work.
FRI 16:30 The Film Programme (b00rp41p)
Screenwriter Colin Shindler investigates the British film studios that time forgot with the help of director Michael Winner.
He returns to the era of the British B movie and the world of quota quickies, over-sized apes and devil girls from Mars.
FRI 17:00 PM (b00rlx2m)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00rlx4t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b00rp41r)
Series 30
Episode 5
The Now Show 5/6
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present a satirical look through the week's news, with help from Jon Holmes, Laura Shavin, Mitch Benn and Nick Doody.
Producer: Ed Morrish.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b00rlfk3)
Jennifer wants to hear all about Lilian's visit to see James in London. Lilian tells her she had a lovely time, and might do it more often. Jennifer suggests they could both go. Jennifer tells Lilian of her worries that Kate might do something a bit rash.
Jill thanks Shula for coming to church with her. Jill's grateful for everyone's kindness but doesn't want anyone to feel she needs looking after - they've all got busy lives. Shula asks what Jill wants to do on Phil's birthday. Jill doesn't know.
As Tom and Brenda set up for the Easter Fayre, Tom suggests an Easter wedding next year. Brenda accuses him of going on about weddings at every opportunity, and thinks he can't stand the thought of Helen having a baby before him. Tom insists that's not true; he loves Brenda and hopes to spend the rest of his life with her. He needs to know if she feels the same. Does she want to marry him or not? She insists that she does, but she needs to find a career and use her degree first. It doesn't mean she loves him any less, and the minute they can set a date, she promises they will.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b00rlx6r)
Mark Lawson talks to Brian Eno, Guest Artistic Director of this year's Brighton Festival. Having trained as a painter with artist Tom Phillips, Eno began his musical career as a member of Roxy Music in the early 1970s. After disagreements with Bryan Ferry, he started releasing solo albums, collaborations with David Byrne and producing records for David Bowie, U2 and others. His invention of so-called ambient music began with Music for Airports and his radical approach to musical form continues in current works, several of which will be performed at the Brighton Festival, including the installation 77 million paintings which begins in April.
In his West London recording studio, Brian Eno talks about early experiments with cassettes, American radio preachers, saying no to Bono and reasons to be optimistic about the future of the world.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00rlb2m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b00rp41t)
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the live debate from Holsworthy in Devon with questions from the audience for the panel including: Rt Hon Peter Hain MP, Welsh Secretary; Nick Herbert MP, Shadow Secretary for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Susan Kramer, Liberal Democrat MP and Nigel Farage, UKIP MEP.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b00rp41w)
Simon Schama reflects on the history of political rhetoric and the power during election campaigns of televised debates. He recalls famous clashes in America between presidential hopefuls and wonders how famous historic political rivals Charles James Fox and the younger William Pitt or Gladstone and Disraeli would have fared on screen.
FRI 21:00 A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus (b00rp41y)
Old World, New Powers (1100-300 BC)
Another chance to hear "A History of the World in a Hundred Objects", where the Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, retells the history of humanity through the things it has made... and which have found their way into the Museum's collection.
This week he is looking at the key power struggles taking place across the globe around 3000 years ago, as ambitious new forces were building sophisticated new societies. And he does so with the help of: a set of stone carvings depicting, perhaps for the first time, the terrible effects of war on civilian populations; a stone sphinx of a black ruler that conquered Egypt from the south; a Chinese bronze bowl buried with the dead for feasts in the afterlife; a set of brightly coloured textiles from the Peruvian peninsula of Paracas; and what may well be amongst the world's first proper coins, minted during the reign of Croesus. And amongst those on hand to plot the wider significance of these objects in our world history are Lord Ashdown, Zeinab Badawi, Dame Jessica Rawson, Dr Wang Tao, Zandra Rhodes and James Buchan.
Producers: Rebecca Stratford, Anthony Denselow and Paul Kobrak.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b00rlx9v)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b00rlxhd)
Another government advisor resigns over mephedrone - he says the ban was being rushed through because of media and political pressure
Washington calls on Israelis and Palestinians to pursue talks, after Israeli planes bomb targets in Gaza City
Vatican compares the criticism of the church over child abuse to anti-semitism - we look at how the scandal affected young Catholics in Ireland
And how eggs and bunnies became symbols of Easter
With Felicity Evans.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00r9y29)
Salley Vickers - Dancing Backwards
Episode 5
Eileen Atkins reads from Salley Vickers' acclaimed new novel, Dancing Backwards
Violet Hetherington's husband has recently died. Alone, she decides to take a cruise-ship crossing to visit her old friend, Edwin, in New York.
As she journeys across the Atlantic the quiet Violet begins to blossom - learning to ballroom dance, taking up smoking again, befriending a famously seething theatre critic. And in her time alone she reminisces about her early adulthood as a student at Cambridge. It's at Cambridge that she meets Edwin. Edwin, it soon becomes clear, is someone she's betrayed and someone she's both terrified and desperate to see again. The story that unfolds about the young Violet holds the secret to that betrayal.
In tonight's episode, Edwin discovers that Violet's been keeping a rather surprising secret from him.
Written and abridged by Salley Vickers. Vickers is a critically acclaimed, best-selling novelist whose work includes Mr Golightly's Holiday, Instances of the Number 3, Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You. Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You were both popular Book at Bedtimes. Last year she dramatised her version of the Oedipus myth, Where Three Roads Meet, for Radio 4's Afternoon Play slot. Before becoming a full time writer she was a psychoanalyst.
Produced by Kirsty Williams.
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b00rms95)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 4 at the Fringe (b00m721q)
2009
Episode 1
4 At The Fringe is a stand up comedy show for Radio 4 which features some of the best comedy acts appearing at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2009, recorded at Pleasance Beyond.
Host Micky Flanagan introduces John Gordillo, Lucy Porter Alistair McGowan and Tom Basden
4 At The Fringe brings the best of the acts appearing at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe in one bite sized audio chunk!
The producer is Paul Russell, and this is an Open Mike production for BBC Radio 4.
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 MON (b00rlb2r)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 MON (b00rlb2r)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 TUE (b00rlb2f)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 TUE (b00rlb2f)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 WED (b00rlb2h)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 WED (b00rlb2h)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 THU (b00rlb2k)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 THU (b00rlb2k)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 FRI (b00rlb2m)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 FRI (b00rlb2m)
4 At the Fringe
23:30 WED (b00d0hwc)
4 At the Fringe
23:30 THU (b00d44xs)
4 at the Fringe
23:30 FRI (b00m721q)
A Good Read
16:30 TUE (b00rms95)
A Good Read
23:00 FRI (b00rms95)
A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus
21:00 FRI (b00rp41y)
A Musical Trip to South Africa - with Lenny Henry
09:30 TUE (b00rmr66)
A Point of View
08:50 SUN (b00rfl63)
A Point of View
20:50 FRI (b00rp41w)
Afternoon Reading
19:45 SUN (b008lvh6)
Afternoon Reading
15:30 TUE (b00c0npx)
Afternoon Reading
15:30 WED (b00c0npc)
Afternoon Reading
15:30 THU (b00c0npf)
Afternoon Reading
15:30 FRI (b00c0npk)
Americana
19:15 SUN (b00rl55s)
Analysis
21:30 SUN (b00rdxm3)
Another Case of Milton Jones
18:30 THU (b00rp1wd)
Any Answers?
14:00 SAT (b00rl20h)
Any Questions?
13:10 SAT (b00rfl61)
Any Questions?
20:00 FRI (b00rp41t)
Archive on 4
20:00 SAT (b00rl2ky)
Archive on 4
15:00 MON (b00rl2ky)
Banishing Eve
13:30 SUN (b00rl4kn)
Bells on Sunday
05:43 SUN (b00rl48f)
Bells on Sunday
00:45 MON (b00rl48f)
Between Ourselves
09:00 TUE (b00rmr64)
Between Ourselves
21:30 TUE (b00rmr64)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 MON (b00r9y3l)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 TUE (b00r9y23)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 WED (b00r9y25)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 THU (b00r9y27)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 FRI (b00r9y29)
Book of the Week
00:30 SAT (b00rmpwl)
Book of the Week
09:45 MON (b00rl6wf)
Book of the Week
00:30 TUE (b00rl6wf)
Book of the Week
09:45 TUE (b00rp7qf)
Book of the Week
00:30 WED (b00rp7qf)
Book of the Week
09:45 WED (b00rp7qh)
Book of the Week
00:30 THU (b00rp7qh)
Book of the Week
09:45 THU (b00rp7qk)
Book of the Week
00:30 FRI (b00rp7qk)
Book of the Week
09:45 FRI (b00rp7qm)
Broadcasting House
09:00 SUN (b00rl494)
Budget Statement by Plaid Cymru
22:55 SUN (b00rs8nt)
Budget Statement by the Scottish National Party
22:55 SAT (b00rs848)
Cadbury is Our Longbridge
11:00 WED (b00rmthx)
Capturing America: Mark Lawson's History of Modern American Literature
11:30 THU (b00rp1w6)
Classic Serial
21:00 SAT (b00rd4p1)
Classic Serial
15:00 SUN (b00rl4zj)
Click On
16:30 MON (b00rm309)
Costing the Earth
21:00 MON (b00rm3pr)
Costing the Earth
13:30 THU (b00rm3pr)
Counterpoint
23:00 SAT (b00rdwrf)
Counterpoint
13:30 MON (b00rm074)
Counterpoint
12:00 FRI (b00rp41f)
Crossing Continents
20:30 MON (b00rjz1p)
Crossing Continents
11:00 THU (b00rp1w4)
Delirious Wilderness
11:30 TUE (b00rmr6b)
Desert Island Discs
11:15 SUN (b00rl498)
Desert Island Discs
09:00 FRI (b00rl498)
Drama
14:15 MON (b00rm21n)
Drama
14:15 TUE (b00rmrpw)
Drama
14:15 WED (b00rmxb8)
Drama
14:15 THU (b00rp1w8)
Drama
14:15 FRI (b00cbrjn)
Earls of the Court
23:00 WED (b00rp1dt)
Excess Baggage
10:00 SAT (b00rklpb)
Farming Today
06:30 SAT (b00rkkwh)
Farming Today
05:45 MON (b00rl6qs)
Farming Today
05:45 TUE (b00rl6qg)
Farming Today
05:45 WED (b00rl6qj)
Farming Today
05:45 THU (b00rl6ql)
Farming Today
05:45 FRI (b00rl6qn)
Feedback
20:00 SUN (b00rfj9v)
Feedback
13:30 FRI (b00rp41h)
File on 4
17:00 SUN (b00rdzvb)
From Glory to Infamy
22:40 SUN (b00rw3qq)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:30 SAT (b00rl207)
Front Row
19:15 MON (b00rlx7g)
Front Row
19:15 TUE (b00rlx6k)
Front Row
19:15 WED (b00rlx6m)
Front Row
19:15 THU (b00rlx6p)
Front Row
19:15 FRI (b00rlx6r)
GCHQ: Cracking the Code
20:00 TUE (b00rmssw)
Gardeners' Question Time
14:00 SUN (b00rfl5r)
God On My Mind
21:00 WED (b00rp1dr)
Good Friday Liturgy
15:00 FRI (b00rp41k)
Home Planet
15:00 TUE (b00rmrpz)
House on Fire
11:30 WED (b00pr7sg)
How Myers-Briggs Conquered the Office
21:00 TUE (b00rmst0)
I've Never Seen Star Wars
18:30 TUE (b00rms97)
In Business
20:30 THU (b00rp1wj)
In Hinkley's Shadow
11:00 TUE (b00rmr68)
In Our Time
09:00 THU (b00rp1fd)
In Our Time
21:30 THU (b00rp1fd)
In Touch
20:40 TUE (b00rmssy)
Inside the Brain of a Five-Year-Old
11:00 MON (b00rm072)
Just a Minute
12:00 SUN (b00rdxlz)
Last Word
20:30 SUN (b00rfl5t)
Last Word
16:00 FRI (b00rp41m)
Lent Talks
00:30 SUN (b00rfhjv)
Lent Talks
20:45 WED (b00rmxk9)
Loose Ends
18:15 SAT (b00rl2kr)
Material World
16:30 THU (b00rp1wb)
Meet David Sedaris
11:30 FRI (b00rp3dy)
Midnight News
00:00 SAT (b00rflcv)
Midnight News
00:00 SUN (b00rl2pw)
Midnight News
00:00 MON (b00rl5cw)
Midnight News
00:00 TUE (b00rl59q)
Midnight News
00:00 WED (b00rl59s)
Midnight News
00:00 THU (b00rl59v)
Midnight News
00:00 FRI (b00rl59x)
Midweek
09:00 WED (b00rmt9m)
Midweek
21:30 WED (b00rmt9m)
Money Box Live
15:00 WED (b00rmxbb)
Money Box
12:00 SAT (b00rl209)
Money Box
21:00 SUN (b00rl209)
Moral Maze
22:15 SAT (b00rfhjs)
Moral Maze
20:00 WED (b00rmxk7)
Never Before in the History of Motion Pictures...
10:30 SAT (b00rkm42)
News Briefing
05:30 SAT (b00rfld3)
News Briefing
05:30 SUN (b00rl3hl)
News Briefing
05:30 MON (b00rl6h6)
News Briefing
05:30 TUE (b00rl6gm)
News Briefing
05:30 WED (b00rl6gp)
News Briefing
05:30 THU (b00rl6gr)
News Briefing
05:30 FRI (b00rl6gt)
News Headlines
06:00 SUN (b00rl48h)
News and Papers
06:00 SAT (b00rfld9)
News and Papers
07:00 SUN (b00rl48r)
News and Papers
08:00 SUN (b00rl490)
News and Weather
22:00 SAT (b00rl2l0)
News
13:00 SAT (b00rl20f)
Nick Mohammed in Quarters
23:15 WED (b00hdbgz)
On Your Farm
06:35 SUN (b00rl48m)
On the Map
15:45 MON (b00rlwxj)
On the Map
15:45 TUE (b00rlwwr)
On the Map
15:45 WED (b00rlwwt)
On the Map
15:45 THU (b00rlwww)
On the Map
15:45 FRI (b00rlwwy)
Open Book
16:00 SUN (b00rl4zl)
Open Book
16:00 THU (b00rl4zl)
Open Country
06:07 SAT (b00rkkpk)
Open Country
15:00 THU (b00rkkpk)
PM
17:00 SAT (b00rl2kh)
PM
17:00 MON (b00rlx4k)
PM
17:00 TUE (b00rlx2f)
PM
17:00 WED (b00rlx2h)
PM
17:00 THU (b00rlx2k)
PM
17:00 FRI (b00rlx2m)
Party
18:30 WED (b00rmxk5)
Pick of the Week
18:15 SUN (b00rl534)
Poetry Please
23:30 SAT (b00rd4p5)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 SAT (b00rfld5)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 MON (b00rl6n4)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 TUE (b00rl6mt)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 WED (b00rl6mw)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 THU (b00rl6my)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 FRI (b00rl6n0)
Profile
19:00 SAT (b00rl2kt)
Profile
05:45 SUN (b00rl2kt)
Profile
17:40 SUN (b00rl2kt)
Radio 4 Appeal
07:55 SUN (b00rl48w)
Radio 4 Appeal
21:26 SUN (b00rl48w)
Radio 4 Appeal
15:27 THU (b00rl48w)
Ravi Shankar: Sitar Hero
13:30 TUE (b00rmrpt)
Remembrance of Smells Past
16:30 WED (b00jnj31)
Ruthless and Brilliant
20:00 MON (b00pn4c5)
Saturday Drama
14:30 SAT (b00rl20k)
Saturday Live
09:00 SAT (b00rklp8)
Saturday Review
19:15 SAT (b00rl2kw)
Scrooby Trevithick
23:00 THU (b00rp1wl)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SAT (b00rflcz)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
02:00 SUN (b00rl2qv)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 MON (b00rl61g)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 TUE (b00rl5wf)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 WED (b00rl5wh)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 THU (b00rl5wk)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 FRI (b00rl5wm)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SAT (b00rflcx)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SAT (b00rfld1)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SAT (b00rl2kk)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SUN (b00rl2py)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SUN (b00rl2yv)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SUN (b00rl52y)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 MON (b00rl5wc)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 MON (b00rl61x)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 TUE (b00rl5cy)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 TUE (b00rl61j)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 WED (b00rl5d0)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 WED (b00rl61l)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 THU (b00rl5d2)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 THU (b00rl61n)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 FRI (b00rl5d4)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 FRI (b00rl61q)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SAT (b00rl2kp)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SUN (b00rl532)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 MON (b00rlx6h)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 TUE (b00rlx4m)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 WED (b00rlx4p)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 THU (b00rlx4r)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 FRI (b00rlx4t)
Sneakiepeeks
11:30 MON (b00pqn27)
Something Understood
06:05 SUN (b00rl48k)
Something Understood
23:30 SUN (b00rl48k)
Soul Music
15:30 SAT (b00rdyrb)
Start the Week
09:00 MON (b00rlzdz)
Start the Week
21:30 MON (b00rlzdz)
Suckers! Poet and Parasite
16:30 SUN (b00rl4zn)
Sunday Worship
08:10 SUN (b00rl492)
Sunday
07:10 SUN (b00rl48t)
The Archers Omnibus
10:00 SUN (b00rl496)
The Archers
19:00 SUN (b00rl55q)
The Archers
14:00 MON (b00rl55q)
The Archers
19:00 MON (b00rlfqv)
The Archers
14:00 TUE (b00rlfqv)
The Archers
19:00 TUE (b00rlfjx)
The Archers
14:00 WED (b00rlfjx)
The Archers
19:00 WED (b00rlfjz)
The Archers
14:00 THU (b00rlfjz)
The Archers
19:00 THU (b00rlfk1)
The Archers
14:00 FRI (b00rlfk1)
The Archers
19:00 FRI (b00rlfk3)
The Bottom Line
17:30 SAT (b00rfj45)
The Doctor and Douglas
11:00 FRI (b00rp3dw)
The Film Programme
23:00 SUN (b00rfl5w)
The Film Programme
16:30 FRI (b00rp41p)
The Food Programme
12:32 SUN (b00rl4kg)
The Food Programme
16:00 MON (b00rl4kg)
The Gorbals Vampire
23:00 TUE (b00rmt00)
The Media Show
13:30 WED (b00rmxb6)
The Naming of Genes
21:00 THU (b00lyfy1)
The Now Show
12:30 SAT (b00rfl5z)
The Now Show
18:30 FRI (b00rp41r)
The Report
20:00 THU (b00rp1wg)
The Secrets of the Art and the Artist: Caravaggio
14:45 SUN (b00rl4zg)
The Unbelievable Truth
18:30 MON (b00rv4db)
The Week in Westminster
11:00 SAT (b00rl205)
The World This Weekend
13:00 SUN (b00rl4kl)
The World Tonight
22:00 MON (b00rlyqf)
The World Tonight
22:00 TUE (b00rlxh6)
The World Tonight
22:00 WED (b00rlxh8)
The World Tonight
22:00 THU (b00rlxhb)
The World Tonight
22:00 FRI (b00rlxhd)
Thinking Allowed
00:15 MON (b00rfhjn)
Thinking Allowed
16:00 WED (b00rmxbd)
Today in Parliament
23:30 MON (b00rlz0s)
Today in Parliament
23:30 TUE (b00rlz06)
Today
07:00 SAT (b00rklp6)
Today
06:00 MON (b00rl6wc)
Today
06:00 TUE (b00rl6t1)
Today
06:00 WED (b00rl6t3)
Today
06:00 THU (b00rl6t5)
Today
06:00 FRI (b00rl6t7)
Weather
06:04 SAT (b00rkkph)
Weather
06:57 SAT (b00rkkwk)
Weather
12:57 SAT (b00rl20c)
Weather
17:57 SAT (b00rl2km)
Weather
06:57 SUN (b00rl48p)
Weather
07:58 SUN (b00rl48y)
Weather
12:57 SUN (b00rl4kj)
Weather
17:57 SUN (b00rl530)
Weather
21:58 SUN (b00rl55v)
Weather
05:57 MON (b00rlzdx)
Weather
12:57 MON (b00rldsq)
Weather
21:58 MON (b00rlxh4)
Weather
12:57 TUE (b00rldsg)
Weather
21:58 TUE (b00rlx9n)
Weather
12:57 WED (b00rldsj)
Weather
21:58 WED (b00rlx9q)
Weather
12:57 THU (b00rldsl)
Weather
21:58 THU (b00rlx9s)
Weather
12:57 FRI (b00rldsn)
Weather
21:58 FRI (b00rlx9v)
Westminster Hour
22:00 SUN (b00rl55x)
Woman's Hour
16:00 SAT (b00rl2kf)
Woman's Hour
10:00 MON (b00rl8m8)
Woman's Hour
10:00 TUE (b00rl8lr)
Woman's Hour
10:00 WED (b00rl8lt)
Woman's Hour
10:00 THU (b00rl8lw)
Woman's Hour
10:00 FRI (b00rl8ly)
Word of Mouth
23:00 MON (b00rdzv4)
Word of Mouth
16:00 TUE (b00rms93)
World at One
13:00 MON (b00rlfgx)
World at One
13:00 TUE (b00rlff3)
World at One
13:00 WED (b00rlff5)
World at One
13:00 THU (b00rlff7)
World at One
13:00 FRI (b00rlff9)
You and Yours
12:00 MON (b00rlbcm)
You and Yours
12:00 TUE (b00rlb66)
You and Yours
12:00 WED (b00rlb6b)
You and Yours
12:00 THU (b00rlb6g)
iPM
05:45 SAT (b00rfld7)