The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.

Radio-Lists Home Now on R4 Contact

RADIO-LISTS: BBC RADIO 4
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC Radio 4 — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/



SATURDAY 23 APRIL 2011

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b010fhb0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b010hd95)
Edmund De Waal - The Hare with Amber Eyes

Episode 5

By Edmund de Waal.Read by Nicholas Murchie.

264 delicate wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox - that stand as a symbol of the extraordinary events that overtake one family.

Potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered this collection in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. Later, when Edmund inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger than he could ever have imagined.

His family the Ephrussis came from Odessa, and at one time were the largest grain exporters in the world; in the 1870s, Charles Ephrussi was part of a wealthy new generation settling in Paris. Charles's passion was collecting; emerging French painters and - when Japanese art and artists became all the rage in the salons - he bought an entire collection of netsuke and sent them as a wedding present to his banker cousin in Vienna.

Later, three children - including a young Ignace - would play with the netsuke as history reverberated around them. The Anschluss and Second World War swept the Ephrussis to the brink of oblivion. Almost all that remained of their vast empire was the netsuke collection, dramatically saved by a loyal maid when their huge Viennese palace was occupied.

Edmund de Waal travels the world to stand in the great buildings his forebears once inhabited. He traces the network of a remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century and tells the story of a unique collection.

Abridged by Polly Coles

Producer: Clive Brill
A Pacificus Production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b010fhb2)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b010fhb4)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b010fhb6)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b010fhb8)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b010fhbb)
With the Rt Rev and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b010fhbd)
The news programme that starts with its listeners.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b010fhbg)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b010fhbj)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (b010k2dw)
Herefordshire film

Richard Uridge is in Herefordshire at the annual film festival to hear why it's important to bring the cinema experience to rural areas. On a farm outside the city of Hereford, he discovers a recently rehoused international film archive containing 80,000 documentaries including several old films on life in the Herefordshire countryside dating back to the 1930s that are being preserved as part of our rural heritage.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b010k2dy)
Farming Today This Week

Farming Today investigates the role farms play in preserving and unearthing history. Caz Graham visits a farm that is recapturing the past by growing a heritage cherry orchard and maintaining original field boundaries from medieval times. A visit to one Oxfordshire farm reveals how an entire Romano-British arena was discovered on an arable farm, and Farming Today explores how ancient farm boundaries can affect the way modern farms are run.
Presented by Caz Graham. Produced by Martin Poyntz-Roberts.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b010fhbl)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b010k2f0)
08:20 What does disagreement over internships mean for the coalition's ambitions on social mobility?
08:31 As Scotland agonises about a new spate of sectarian hatred, we hear from Paul McBride QC, who was sent a bomb in the post along with the manager of Celtic FC.
08:53 Why is the Daily Mail the world's second most-popular English-language newspaper website?


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b010k2f2)
Sian Williams with writer and director Mike Leigh and poet Matt Harvey.


SAT 10:00 Excess Baggage (b010k2f4)
Northern Ireland

John McCarthy visits Northern Ireland where he stays in two contrasting hotels and hears about different approaches to tourism after the troubles. In Belfast he talks to the owner, the concierge and a famous guest of the much bombed Europa Hotel, takes a taxi tour of the opposing sections of the city and looks forward to developments in the arts attracting visitors. In South Armagh, John visits the first new hotel for 100 years in Crossmaglen, a notorious village during the conflict, hears a traditional music session or ceoltas and gets a panoramic view from a local beauty spot.

Producer: Harry Parker.


SAT 10:30 The Swedish Invasion (b010k2f6)
They gave us Ikea, Volvo and Abba, but now a new wave of Swedish culture is conquering the world. Swedish books, films, music and design are being lapped up in Britain and even our politicians are looking to Sweden for answers. Danny Robins, comedian and Swedophile, goes on a tour of the country to explore why we've fallen so in love with Swedishness and just what it is that we're buying into.

Sweden is the world's third biggest exporter of music, its design is coveted across the globe and, led by Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, its crime fiction is now dominating the bestseller lists. What most of us know about the Swedes though is still based on stereotypes - sexually liberated yet boring, suicidal yet happy with a perfect society - it's the land of the midnight sun, forests and lakes, few inhabitants and picturesque towns, where it feels like the most serious crime might be dropping litter. Yet, Steig Larsson's novels and Henning Mankell's Wallander series present a different vision of Sweden, as a land of serial killers, corruption and racism.

Danny speaks to Swedish rapper Dogge Doggelito to find out whether there's any truth to the fiction. Though it seems safe and well-ordered, is there a darkness lurking beneath the perfect exterior? Two of Sweden's top politicians have been assassinated; rising immigration has led to strong support for a racist political party and Sweden's egalitarian social democracy feels under threat.

But the new 'dangerous' Sweden of the crime thrillers is only part of the picture. The 'Made in Sweden' stamp is still synonymous with success, quality and cool. Danny meets young designers, chats to Swedish cultural commentators and goes in the footsteps of Stieg Larsson's characters, to explore the country's recent success.

Producer: Jo Wheeler
An Unique production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 11:00 Beyond Westminster (b010k2f8)
As part of its plan to reduce the budget deficit, the coalition's Strategic Defence and Security Review last year envisaged radically slimmed-down military forces for Britain, with controversial cuts to numbers of troops, naval vessels, aircraft and weapons. Yet within weeks the prime minister led calls for intervention in Libya.

Mary Ann Sieghart explores the apparent contradictions between the high-minded rhetoric of the Government's foreign policy and the planned cuts in defence spending. Do British prime ministers too often will the ends of foreign policy while lacking the means to deliver them? Are financial pressures finally forcing Britain to match its defence forces to its diminished power in the world? Or is a more modest UK role in international affairs dangerous and too rigid for a fast-changing world? And what is the state of the relationship between politicians and the military?

She talks to former Chief of the Defence Staff, Lord Guthrie; the leading historian of British politics, Peter Clarke; and the defence minister, Gerald Howarth; and discusses the issues with three parliamentarians with diverging views: the former Conservative minister, David Davis; the former Labour defence secretary, Lord Hutton; and the opponent of Libyan intervention, Barry Gardiner, MP.

Producer Simon Coates.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b010k2fb)
Why aren't students revolting in Qatar and Oman? Robin Lustig's been touring the Gulf states to see what effect the uprisings in parts of the Arab world are having there. Justin Marozzi's in Libya as questions are being asked about who will run the country in the future. More journalists lost their lives this week in the fighting in Libya. Stuart Hughes, who himself was badly injured in an explosion in Iraq, reflects on the dangers a reporter can face covering conflict. Ethiopia is one of the least urbanised countries in the world; it's also a place which is losing its doctors - many of them are leaving the country in search of work elsewhere. Claudia Hammond's been talking to some of the young people there who've now been charged with taking healthcare out into the wide open spaces of the Ethiopian countryside. And why is it city dwellers in France are happy to live in apartments while their counterparts in the UK opt, where possible, for houses? Hugh Schofield in France wonders what this division tells us about the development of two neighbouring peoples.


SAT 12:00 Money Box (b010k2fd)
The latest news from the world of personal finance.


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (b010fd8n)
Series 74

Episode 2

Snooping, Superinjunctions, and Sleeping on the Job: iPhone's tracking abilities, celebrity gagging orders and an air traffic controller who watched movies on the job get the News Quiz treatment, in a satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi Toksvig. Guests this week are Susan Calman, Matthew Parris, Will Smith and Jeremy Hardy. Charlotte Green reads the news.

Produced by Victoria Lloyd.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b010fhbn)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b010fhbq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b010fd8v)
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the live debate from Brick Lane Music Hall in Silvertown London with panellists Sayeeda Warsi, Chairman of the Conservative Party; Alan Johnson, former Labour Cabinet minister; Rod Liddle, columnist; and Philippe Sands, Professor of International Law at the University of London.

Producer: Victoria Wakely.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b010k2fg)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?


SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama (b010k2fj)
One Chord Wonders

This is the Modern World

One Chord Wonders: This is the Modern World
4/5
Frank Cottrell Boyce's series of plays about the punk generation 30 years on continues with the story of an unlikely pilgrimage to Camberley. Eco-toilet pioneer and ex-'anarcho-punk' Muttley is about to be forcibly reunited with his former self.

Muttley ... Danny Webb
Lineel ... Stephanie Leonidas
Lin ... Ann Beach
Hippie ... Carl Prekopp
Drug Dealer ... John Biggins
Market Researcher ... Alex Tregear
Club Doorman ... John Cummins
Williams ... Sam Dale
Hotel Receptionist ... Liz Sutherland

Director/Producer ... Toby Swift

******************
ONE CHORD WONDERS is a series of 5 plays by top British screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce. The series looks at the 'punk generation' three decades on, with each play telling a different, but connected, story. Featured actors include Pauline Quirke, Doon Mackichan, Sian Reeves, Richard Ridings, Danny Webb, Manjinder Virk and Fenella Woolgar.

Frank Cottrell Boyce is probably best known for films like '24 Hour Party People', 'A Cock & Bull Story', 'Hilary & Jackie', 'Welcome to Sarajevo' and 'Butterfly Kiss'. He won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2004 for 'Millions', his first novel, which was subsequently filmed by British director Danny Boyle.

The series is based on the fictional premise that in March 1977 punk band the Adverts performed a gig in Camberley to an audience of 27 people. Over 30 years later, someone is trying to bring those 27 people back together again for a reunion.

In 'This is the Modern World', Muttley is to be found living in an eco-commune in Wales with his teenage daughter, Lineel. When an invitation to the reunion turns up, Lineel is desperate to find out more about her late mother's previous life in Camberley. Muttley reluctantly agrees to accompany her on a pilgrimage back to his home town...on foot. There Lineel learns the unlikely truth about her parents' past, as well as getting an abrupt introduction to life in the 'real world' beyond the confines of the commune.

The final play, 'Television's Over', takes us back 34 years to where it all begin; the day punk heroes the Adverts arrived at the Police Club in Camberley.


SAT 15:30 Ghost Music (b010dp0s)
In 1939 the BBC recorded the sound of two trumpets discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb.

It was a nail-biting session; one of them had previously shattered, but the British soldier, James Tappern, who played them allowed the haunting music that had been silent for 3000 years to be heard once more.

For three months this year the recording had added poignancy, as one of the trumpets was among the many artefacts stolen from the Cairo Museum during the recent revolution, though it's now been recovered. Archaeologist Christine Finn, who travelled to Egypt upon news of the uprising and chronicled the looting of archaeological sites, tells the story of the trumpet with the help of Egyptologist, Margaret Maitland.

Christine hears an account of the 1939 recording from Peter Tappern, son of the original bandsman, himself a professional trumpeter. And from archive of Rex Keating, who recorded the event for the BBC in Cairo.

Christine also considers how archaeology has revealed other 'ghost music'. Richard Dumbrill talks about his reconstruction of the Silver Lyre of Ur, discovered by Leonard Woolley in modern-day Iraq around the same time that Howard Carter was excavating Tutenkhamun's tomb. She hears from Domenico Vicinanza of the Lost Sounds Orchestra, an international group which re-creates the sound of ancient instruments using technology and synthesis. One of its first projects was the ancient Greek harp often seen on classical vases, the epigonion; this time the instrument is not a faithful re-creation, but a new model reflecting its 21st century incarnation.

And Christine reflects on the role of these musical, archaeological discoveries in modern composition.

Producer: Marya Burgess

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b010k3rh)
Weekend Woman's Hour

Presented by Jane Garvey. The troubled life of the legendary Edith Piaf traced in a new biography about the singer. The debate on the Alternative Vote: what might it mean for women? Tips from intrepid globe-trotters of the nineteenth century, including the best length of skirt for mountaineering. What role Gaddafi's daughter Aisha is playing in presenting the Libyan regime's message to the people. The work of the prolific children's writer Ursula Moray Williams and her extraordinary life. Emmylou Harris on her song-writing roots and influences. Find out how to Cook the Perfect... brownies.


SAT 17:00 PM (b010k3rk)
A fresh perspective on the day's news with sports headlines.


SAT 17:30 iPM (b010fhbd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 today]


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b010fhbs)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b010fhbv)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b010fhbx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b010k3rm)
Clive Anderson and guests with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy.

Clive is joined by the entertainer, raconteur and former politician Gyles Brandreth. His one man comedy show covers all aspects from his life and was a sell out success at the Edinburgh Festival last year. London folk get a chance to see him and The One to One Show at The Riverside Studios in Hammersmith in May.

Paul Merson was a hugely successful football player for Arsenal and England. Now he's written his memoir 'How Not to Be a Professional Footballer'. Top tips on what NOT to do include: not getting drunk enough to forget the 90 minutes of football you've just played, not to share a house with Gazza and not to place £30,000 bets at the bookies. Paul is now a panellist on SkySports' weekend football results show, Soccer Sunday.

Following a BBC television adaptation starring Billie Piper, the author of A Passionate Woman, Kay Mellor talks to Clive about the confession of an affair made to her by her mother. Kay takes on the emotional role of playing her mother Betty on stage in Ipswich and Oldham over the next couple of months.

Arthur Smith tries a spot of Sign Spinning under the tutelage of 'spinstructor' Max Durovic. It's America's fastest growing form of outdoor advertising - a mix of break dancing and acrobatic performance whilst waving a six foot advertising board around your body!

There's music from London based six-piece skiffle group, The Severed Limb. Drawn together from a love of rockabilly, folk and the King of Skiffle Lonnie Donegan, they perform their single Woo Eee Ha Ha!

Having toured with the likes of Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons, folk popstress Alessi's Ark makes a welcome return to Loose Ends, performing The Wire from her new album, Time Travel.

Producer: Cathie Mahoney.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b010k3rp)
Martin Amis

Martin Amis has a reputation as a literary bad boy and has caused a stir in a recent interview with a French magazine talking about the 'moral decrepitude of England' and saying he would 'prefer not to be English'. It's not the first time Amis has courted controversy: he offended Muslims by saying they 'ought to suffer until they get their house in order' and earlier this year he riled children's authors by saying 'If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book'. Those who've met him, however, say he can be charming and he commands the loyalty of several high profile friends.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b010k3rr)
Best of the week's arts review. Man Booker Prize winner Anne Enright's latest novel The Forgotten Waltz details an illicit and complicated love affair; How I Ended Last Summer is a gripping, award winning Russian film, by Alexei Popogrebsky, which maroons two meteorologists in the bleak landscape of the Russian arctic; photographs that have defined modern history are on exhibition in London; Russians in space with Rona Munro's play Little Eagles, about the man who put Yuri Gagarin into orbit and a moving, BBC One, psychological thriller created by Paul Abbot, who devised the series Shameless.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b00jkv2j)
Carl Sagan - A Personal Voyage

Physicist and broadcaster Brian Cox presents a tribute to his science hero, the American astronomer Carl Sagan, the man who many people describe as the greatest populariser of science of all time. His landmark television series Cosmos was seen by more than 60 million people worldwide and inspired a generation of young scientists to regard the universe with wonder and awe.


SAT 21:00 Classic Serial (b010dgrb)
Patrick O'Brian - The Mauritius Command

Episode 3

Patrick O'Brian's naval epic set in 1809, dramatised by Roger Danes. Starring David Robb as Captain Jack Aubrey and Richard Dillane as Doctor Stephen Maturin.

Jack has been promoted to Commodore to lead a squadron of English ships, charged with taking the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Réunion from the French. Jack faces superior odds at sea and on land (where Stephen's subversive skills are invaluable as ever). Yet, in his new role as Commodore, Jack needs subtlety and subterfuge to win over the crews and subordinate captains of his own fleet, including the courageous but brutal Captain Corbett.

Based on a naval campaign in 1809-10 when Britain and France were bitterly engaged in protecting their trade routes around the southern tip of Africa - and the islands of Mauritius and Réunion (east of Madagascar) were viewed as strategic bases.

The Mauritius Command is the fourth novel in Patrick O'Brian's Nelsonic epic series and the sequel to HMS Surprise which was dramatised for Radio 4 in 2008.

Captain Jack Aubrey ................... DAVID ROBB
Doctor Stephen Maturin .......... ...RICHARD DILLANE
Captain Corbett................. ....CHRISTIAN RODSKA
Governor Farquhar ..................... ..DAVID RINTOUL
Lt-Col Keating ............ ........THOMAS ARNOLD
Admiral Bertie.............................. SEAN BAKER
Lt Seymour ....................... ...MAX DOWLER
Lt Pullings ...................................DAVID HOLT
Lt Tullidge....................................LLOYD THOMAS
Major O'Neil................................ SAM DALE
Midshipman Johnson ....... ...........NYASHA HATENDI
Producer/director: Bruce Young.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b010fhbz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (b010drkx)
Celebrity Activism

The days of the tame celebrity being wheeled out by political parties or charities to show their face at the launch of their latest campaign - and keep their mouth firmly shut - have long gone. The rise of social networking and the way celebrity culture has spread to all parts of our society mean that some celebrities, if they chose to wield it, have genuine power. This is the age of the Celebrity Activist. Hugh Grant turning the tables on journalists and arming himself with a hidden microphone to investigate phone hacking for the New Statesman may be one of the unlikelier and entertaining stories in the field, but there's a lot to chose from. Labour politicians won't forget Joanna Lumley's lobbying for the Ghurkhas; Patrick Stewart regularly speaks in favour of assisted dying and celebs are all over the alternative vote referendum. If you think this all seems to be overstating things consider this: Stephen Fry's tweets are followed by 2.45 million people, that's more than the printed copies of the Times, the Telegraph, the Financial Times, the Guardian and the Independent combined. Do people like Stephen Fry have a moral duty to use the power of their status to comment and campaign on issues - to motivate and get people engaged in a way traditional politicians can't? Does such power foster and encourage a sense of social conscience in us all, or have we sacrificed content on the altar of celebrity and allowed a few to use it promote their particular personal interests, career and self worth? Is celebrity activism good for our democratic process?

Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk with Claire Fox, Kenan Malik, Michael Portillo, Matthew Taylor.

Witnesses:
Andrew Darnton, Lead researcher on 'Finding Frames', a year long study looking at new ways to engage the public with global poverty in partnership with leading NGOs
Tim Montgomery, editor ConservativeHome
Kriss Akabusi, former UK Olympic 400m athlete now campaigner on various issues
Maggie Neilson, Partner at Global Philanthropy Group, a for-profit agency that helps celebrities and other wealthy influential people with their philanthropy.


SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (b010dhd4)
Series 25

Episode 3

(3/13)
If La Scala is the main opera house in Milan, and La Fenice (fe-NEET-chay) its equivalent in Venice, which Italian city is home to the Teatro San Carlo?

The third heat of the 25th anniversary series comes from the BBC Radio Theatre in London, with Paul Gambaccini asking the questions on a wide range of musical styles and eras.

The winner today will take a place in the semi-finals in June. As usual the questions cover classical music, jazz, film and stage music, vintage chart hits and recent releases. There are plenty of musical extracts, some surprising, others familiar.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


SAT 23:30 Lost Voices (b010dgrg)
Series 3

Herbert Read

Herbert Read was a man of many contradictions. Though a dedicated socialist and a committed anarchist, he was knighted by Winston Churchill; he was a pacifist but was twice decorated for bravery in the First World War; he was a strong advocate for Modernism in British art but could not accept the concept of Post Modernism. His towering presence in the post-war art world (he co-founded the Institute of Contemporary Arts) almost totally eclipsed his abilities as a poet, and yet his son - the writer Piers Paul Read - believes he always thought of himself as a poet.

Brian Patten, who met Herbert Read towards the end of his life, revisits his First World War poetry and finds an impressively mature voice; cool in tone but full of humanitarian feeling towards the men - he characterised them as "children" - involved on both sides.

Piers Paul Read contributes to the programme and the poems are read by Samuel West.

Producer Christine Hall.



SUNDAY 24 APRIL 2011

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b010lxlv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:30 Afternoon Reading (b00lv228)
Perspectives

The Mumpers

Series of stories about people approaching something familiar from a different point of view.

By Eleanor Thom. Distant memories mingle with the present as an old woman at the end of her life is cared for by her young nurse. Read by Laura Smales.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b010lxlx)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b010lxlz)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b010lxm1)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b010lxm3)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b010lxm5)
The bells of St John Baptist, Burford, Oxfordshire.


SUN 05:45 Profile (b010k3rp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b010lxm7)
The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b010lxm9)
Everything Has Its Place

The pursuit of coherence in our lives is often mirrored in the orderly way in which we manage the clutter of our physical environment.

In 'Everything Has Its Place' Felicity Finch reflects on how we express this desire for neatness and order. Referring to words and music from Carol Shields, Robert Herrick and Daniel Abse, Radiohead, Mozart and Jacques Brel, and in conversation with actress Souad Faress, Felicity explores the comfort we draw from the arrangement of the objects with which we surround ourselves, the chaos thrust upon us by nature and the desire for freedom from the rigidity and limitations that order can sometimes impose.

With readings by Emma Fielding and Jonathan Keeble.

Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 Sunrise Service (b010lxmc)
A meditation to mark the dawning of Easter Day from Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral led by the Dean, the Rervd Canon Anthony O'Brien, with the Cathedral Girls' Choir directed by Philip Arkwright with Timothy Noon (organ). Producer: Stephen Shipley.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b010lxmf)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b010lxmh)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b010lyxt)
A special Easter Sunday edition with the theme of reconciliation and healing. William will be joined by a special panel: Rabbi Julia Neuberger, senior Rabbi at the West London synagogue; Colin Parry OBE, Co-founder of the Tim Parry and Jonathan Ball Foundation for Peace in Warrington and Canon David Porter, Canon Director for Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral

Earlier this month, Burnley, scene of race riots back in 2001, was ranked the eleventh most deprived town in the country. Padiham, one of the small towns within the Borough has just voted in a member of the BNP to the ceremonial role of Deputy Mayor. Our Reporter Kevin Bocquet who reported on those riots revisits Burnley to ask what challenges the town still face

This Sunday, Celtic and Rangers meet in the final Old Firm game of a turbulent football season. Former Scotland player Pat Nevin player talks to William about his research into sectarianism in the West of Scotland and how it goes beyond the game of football.

William speaks to Rev David Armstrong who was forced, in fear of his life, to leave Limavady in Northern Ireland after he befriended the local Catholic priest. He is now going back after his 25 year exile and he tells us why now is the right time to return

E-mail: sunday@bbc.co.uk

Series producer: Amanda Hancox.


SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b010lyxw)
Prisoner's Education Trust

Lord Ramsbotham presents the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Prisoner's Education Trust.

Donations to the Prisoner's Education Trust should be sent to FREEPOST BBC Radio 4 Appeal, please mark the back of your envelope Prisoner's Education Trust. Credit cards: Freephone 0800 404 8144. You can also give online at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/appeal. If you are a UK tax payer, please provide the Prisoner's Education Trust with your full name and address so they can claim the Gift Aid on your donation. The online and phone donation facilities are not currently available to listeners without a UK postcode.

Registered Charity Number: 1084718.


SUN 07:57 Weather (b010lxmk)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b010lxmm)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b010lyxy)
Easter Day from St George's

The joy of Easter is celebrated in a communion service from the Book of Common Prayer, live from St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Hymns include Jesus Christ is risen today, This joyful Eastertide, and Thine be the glory.
Preacher and celebrant: The Revd Dr Hueston Finlay.
Director of Music: Timothy Byram-Wigfield.
Organist: Richard Pinel.
Producer: Simon Vivian.


SUN 08:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b010fd8x)
Series 2

Rats

It might be surprising to hear, but Sir David Attenborough has made it known over the years that rats are not his favourite animal.

In this piece, dedicated to his nemesis, Attenborough with great wit and skill tells us of the living nightmare he endured whilst on location in a place infested with them. If that wasn't enough, whilst making Life of Mammals, he devoted a whole programme to them - and to balance his own personal view went to an Indian temple where the rat is revered and even encouraged to swarm in vast numbers.

But in a clever twist of the story, as is the hallmark of David Attenborough, in no uncertain way he tells us why they should be respected.

Written and presented by David Attenborough

Producer: Julian Hector

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b010lyy0)
News and conversation about the big stories of the week.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b010lyy2)
For detailed synopses, see daily episodes

Written by: Carole Simpson Solazzo
Directed by: Jenny Stephens
Editor: Vanessa Whitburn

Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene
Kenton Archer ..... Richard Attlee
Shula Hebden Lloyd ..... Judy Bennett
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Elizabeth Pargetter ..... Alison Dowling
Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde
Peggy Woolley ..... June Spencer
Jolene Perks ..... Buffy Davis
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Kathy Perks ..... Hedli Niklaus
Jamie Perks ..... Dan Ciotkowski
Joe Grundy ..... Edward Kelsey
Clarrie Grundy ..... Rosalind Adams
Vicky Tucker ..... Rachel Atkins
Oliver Sterling ..... Michael Cochrane
Caroline Sterling ..... Sara Coward
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Jim Lloyd ..... John Rowe
Elona ..... Eri Shuka
Ted ..... Paul Webster
Eric Robson .... As himself
Matthew Wilson .... As himself.


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b010lyy4)
Cath Kidston

Kirsty Young's castaway is the designer Cath Kidston.

Cheerful and practical, her products nod towards the 1950s. She began with ironing board covers but these days you can listen to a radio decorated with one of her designs, pitch one of her tents or decorate the children's bedroom with her cowboy wallpaper.

In her own room as a child she used to play at keeping shop. These days her business has a turnover of more than £50 million. "I really felt, from very, very early on, I was onto something with the notion of what I was doing," she says. "I remember feeling I'd really overstepped the mark when I opened my second shop - thinking, that's probably going a stage too far."

Record: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Book: The Larousse French/English dictionary
Luxury: A hot water bottle

Producer: Isabel Sargent.


SUN 12:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b010dk23)
Series 7

Episode 3

David Mitchell hosts 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.

Arthur Smith, Tony Hawks, Rhod Gilbert and Charlie Brooker are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as: Mice, Soup, Television and Sir Walter Raleigh.

The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b010lyy6)
Margate's Food Stories - Pie Days and Holidays

Margate's Food Stories - Pie Days and Holidays.

The Food Programme follows Sophie Herxheimer an artist who collects and draws food stories. For four months she has been travelling around the seaside town of Margate in the south east to bring people's food memories to life through art.

Her aim is to create an exhibition and a book to celebrate the people of the town and give them an opportunity to share personal stories.

Once a thriving holiday destination for Londoners Margate is now trying to find a new identity. The recently opened Turner Contemporary Gallery is one step in that process. Sophie Herxheimer is hoping the food stories, and her drawings will also make a contribution to Margate's future.

The project was launched at Christmas in the town's Tudor House and produced a wide range of stories; funny, sad, nostalgic, joyful, eccentric and thought provoking.

People were invited to sit down, talk and watch their memories appear as Sophie drew them live. The work has been building up to the Easter bank holiday weekend when all of Sophie's drawings will be unveiled to the public.

Producer: Dan Saladino
Reporter: Sara Parker.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b010lxmp)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b010lyy8)
The latest national and international news, with an in-depth look at events around the world. Listeners can comment via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #theworldthisweekend.


SUN 13:30 Bailout Boys Go to Dublin (b010mryv)
"I have a very vivid memory of going to Brussels on the final Monday and being on my own at the airport and looking at the snow gradually thawing and thinking to myself: this is terrible. No Irish minister has ever had to do this before".

The former Irish Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, in his first major interview since the Irish bailout last November recalls his feelings as he prepared to sign up to the 85 billion euro bailout - a deal which would end Ireland's economic sovereignty.

"I had fought for two and a half years to avoid this conclusion. I believed I had fought the good fight and taken every measure possible to delay such an eventuality and now hell was at the gates".

Dan O'Brien, the economics editor of the Irish Times, tells the inside story of Ireland's bailout. It is a tale of high drama, international diplomacy and - ultimately - political meltdown.

In the space of just two weeks and two days, the country was transformed. . The Celtic Tiger was dead and Ireland was forced to go with the proverbial begging bowl and accept a multi-billion euro international bailout.

It was an unprecedented situation. Never before had the International Monetary Fund given a bailout to a country that - publicly at least - was insisting it didn't need it.

Dan talks to the main players to uncover the truth of just what happened during those weeks in November and how the deal was reached.

Many believe Ireland was bounced into the bailout by Europe - and in particular the European Central Bank.

"The Irish government decided on its own to seek help. We have not pushed anyone" says Klaus Masuch, the chief negotiator for the European Central Bank.
But Brian Lenihan tells a very different story. "The European Central Bank appeared to have arrived at a view that Ireland needed to be totally nailed down". When asked if the ECB bounced Ireland into a bailout, Mr Lenihan responds: "I would say that, yes".

Dan describes the chaos as teams from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank arrived in Dublin. "There weren't enough desks so for the first few days we just sat with our laptops on the floor" one negotiator says. He hears about the government's fears of widespread social unrest during these weeks as the country lost control of its own finances. And he hears about the 2 am meetings as the international teams struggled to save not only the Irish economy - but the whole future of the euro.

Producer: Adele Armstrong.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b010lyyd)
Ambridge

A unique Easter Special bringing together two of Radio 4's longest running programmes.

In this lively horticultural debate, lead by chairman Eric Robson, the Gardeners' Question Time panel of Bob Flowerdew, Christine Walkden and Matthew Wilson answer the everyday gardening questions of country folk.

After 64 years of giving real advice to real gardeners, this week the Gardeners' Question Time panel is in Ambridge, facing the questions of the gardeners of Borsetshire, in a special recording to mark the Archers 60th Anniversary.

Pippa Greenwood shows how to spot and combat the first signs of pests and disease in your garden, with the hope of ensuring a better harvest of fruit and vegetables. Matthew Wilson visits one of Ambridge's most active residents to show her how to achieve the perfect lawn; giving fool-proof advice on spring lawn maintenance applicable to any garden in the UK.

Produced by Howard Shannon & Lucy Dichmont
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 14:45 Wonderful Ways to Beat the Recession (b010m03w)
Episode 4

Suzy Greaves is a life coach who offers to help you with The Big Leap. American writer and satirist Joe Queenan is ready to leap - he wants to become a falconer and hires Suzy to help with this radical change of career. The recession has pushed thousands of people into searching for what they really want to do, and Suzy helps many of her clients to develop a portfolio of work, from IT engineers who want to be magicians, to architects who want to design handbags. The programme features contributors from the Cotswold Falconry Centre, and the producer is Miles Warde.


SUN 15:00 Classic Serial (b010m03y)
Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities

Episode 1

Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities - 'a noisy, vital, impertinent social satire full of zest and high spirits' - was published in 1838 to great acclaim and introduced Dickens to the style of bold comic writing he went on to make his own. Surtees' writing was a significant inspiration for Pickwick Papers.

John Jorrocks is one of the great comic characters of English literature, a sporting cockney grocer, vulgar, good-natured, Master-of-Foxhounds and a social hero among the old hunting fraternity.

Set at a time when the 'sport' was changing from being a popular and inclusive neighbourhood event - the old fashioned farmer's hunt - into a more pretentious, exclusive and expensive activity - it displays great irony as the rapidly expanding middle class began to show more of a disdain and dislike of tradesmen (like Jorrocks) than the blue bloods and gentry ever did.

Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities gives a brash, honest, funny portrait of an innocent, naive England which is only just beginning to register the profound social changes brought on by the industrial revolution.

It depicts an almost Shakespearian world-order where everyone happily occupies their place in the scheme of things....a world-order which we see being taken over and transformed by the grasping, shameless Victorian nouveau riche.

Surtees (and Scott Cherry) gives us a gallery of unforgettable comic characters - and, at the programme's heart, a true Falstaff, in the irrepressible, loveable, indefatigable rogue that is John Jorrocks - fighting to preserve the English way of life he knows and loves.

Scott Cherry - who previously gave us somewhat irreverent versions of "Humphry Clinker" (Smollett) and "Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour" (Surtees) - once again turns his comic imagination and free inspiration to the recreation of the world of Jorrocks and Handley Cross.

Doleful is charged as Master of Ceremonies to turn Handley Cross into a spa town to rival Bath. He confides all his doubts to his "imaginary friend" - Beau Nash who helps out with his own experiences. But the tide of apathy is in danger of sweeping all their best laid plans away; there seems to be only one way out....to introduce fox hunting to the town. Enter the sporting hero to rival all before him - John Jorrocks.

Cast:
Jorrocks ..... Danny Webb
Nash ..... Clive Swift
Doleful ..... Charles Edwards
Miss Barnington ..... Rebecca Saire
Mello/Moonface ..... Gareth Armstrong
Julia Jorrocks ..... Emma Pierson
Muleygrubs ..... Christian Rodska
Pigg/Bray ..... Rob Hudson
Simpkins ..... Geoffrey Beevers
Barnington ..... Grant Gillespie

Producer: Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 16:00 Open Book (b010m040)
Edward St Aubyn

Mariella Frostrup in extended conversation with novelist Edward St Aubyn, author of the Booker nominated Mother's Milk.

St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical books centre on the saga of the Melroses, a family suffocated by the presence of a sadistic father and a disillusioned mother. His alter ego, Patrick Melrose, has just come to the end of his fictional journey with the publication of the final chapter in the series, At Last.

Edward St Aubyn joins Mariella to discuss the end of his decade-long relationship with the Melroses, and how his extraordinary life - which included being raped by his father and becoming a drug addict - fuelled his fiction.

With readings by Rory Kinnear.

PRODUCER: AASIYA LODHI.


SUN 16:30 Lost Voices (b010m042)
Series 3

Patricia Beer

Brian Patten highlights the work of Patricia Beer, which he feels deserves a new evaluation. Her strong, clear poetic voice grew out of a life menaced by insecurity and anger. Her friend, the poet Elaine Feinstein, and her niece, the novelist Patricia Duncker, consider the woman and the poetry.

Producer Christine Hall.


SUN 17:00 American Jihad (b010dp1k)
The 11 September attackers came from the Middle East, but now, nearly a decade later, America is confronting a new, homegrown threat from Islamic extremism. This programme traces the story of one all-American boy. Omar Hammami grew up in Alabama, son of a Baptist mother and a Syrian father. He was popular, well-liked, and church-going. He converted to Islam as a teenager and eventually turned to an ever-more-radical version of his new faith.
Across the US the debate over homegrown extremism is raising questions about how America relates with minorities. In Washington, Congress has held hearings on radicalisation and Muslim co-operation with law enforcement. Some Muslims chose to testify, while others have denounced the hearings as an exercise in scapegoating.
American radicalisation hasn't fit a neat pattern, and experts worry most about 'lone wolves'. But some homegrown extremists have already shown the ability to carry out deadly attacks - the worst was a mass shooting which killed 13 at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009.
Omar Hammami's path eventually led him to jihad in Somalia, where he quickly rose the ranks of the violent group Al Shabaab. In this programme we find out how many others might follow him - and why.
Presented by BBC Washington Correspondent Jonny Dymond.


SUN 17:40 Profile (b010k3rp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b010lxmr)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b010lxmt)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b010lxmw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b010m044)
Ernie Rea makes his selection from the past seven days of BBC Radio

There are tales of sorrow and joy in the Easter Sunday Pick of the Week. Two young people from Yorkshire, one Jew, one Muslim, confront the horrors of the Nazi Gas chambers. And a 14 year old suicide bomber in Pakistan reflects on the carnage he caused.
But then you can listen to the Glorious sounds of Tutankhamen's trumpets 3000 years after they were entombed; and the story of how singer Emmylou Harris rescued a pooch from certain death; and the glorious music of Easter.

Russia - The Wild East - Radio 4
Belief - Radio 3
The Prime Ministers - Radio 4
Great Lives - Radio 4
The Ladies' Man of Opera - Radio 4
Moon and Star - Radio Leeds
The Hare With Amber Eyes - Radio 4
Bob Harris Country - Radio 2
Ghost Music - Radio 4
PM - Radio 4
Sherbet Dolls - Radio 4
Chris Barber - Leader of the Band - Radio 2
Tales From The Casino - Radio 4
Good Friday Liturgy - Radio 4

Email: potw@bbc.co.uk or www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/potw
Producer: Bernadette McConnell.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b010m046)
Will tells Fallon that George was jealous of the new baby at first but Will's spending more time with him, which is nice for both of them. He makes a point of telling George that Keira can't do the egg hunt - it's just for big boys like George.

Josh helps Jill assemble the new bee hive. She's taking Josh to the fair at Lower Loxley - after she's listened to Gardeners' Question Time.

Ruth and Jill await the start of Gardeners' Question Time. Jill wonders where Joe Grundy is, with his mistletoe scam about to be broadcast to the nation. She noticed David was quiet over lunch and Ruth admits he's blaming himself for the below par milk yields. Ruth's hopeful they'll pick up soon.

Jolene and Kenton arrive at their hotel in Monte Carlo. The room's wonderful. Jolene wants a shower... but sends Kenton to the lobby to pick up a magazine she left there while she has it. He reckons Jolene sent him out so she could have a sneaky cigarette. She insists she's not had the slightest craving since she left home and she can manage another three days with Kenton's help. She's sure they can keep her mind off it somehow.


SUN 19:15 Americana (b010m048)
Election season 2012:
The 2012 election season is under way - and Barack Obama is the man the Republicans need to beat. There are plenty of contenders out there, but has the GOP found the man or woman with the winning combination? This week, Joe Scarborough - the host of MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' and a former Republican congressman himself - is on hand to guide us though the 2012 election.

The Royal Wedding:
With the Royal Wedding just around the corner, we'll hear from Americans with very different views about the upcoming nuptials.

Dolly Parton:
Dolly Parton talks about what keeps her smiling, who inspired her unique looks - and, of course, the royal wedding.


SUN 19:45 Pavilion Pieces (b00m17fx)
Youthful Folly

By Sylvestra Le Touzel Teale.

The breaking of a cherished mirror, seems like an omen to Frances Hughes, fifty, and on tour at the Theatre Royal. Twenty eight years earlier, in Brighton, in love, and about to make her West End debut in a play with a cast three times her age, she had been captivated by her first visit to the Pavilion, which seemed to embody her dreams of glory and romance. Once again she is drawn to the baroque palace, and finds its fading splendour awakens old ghosts.

Read by Sophie Thompson

Producer/Director: Celia de Wolff
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:00 More or Less (b010fd86)
In this week's More or Less:

How well are British schoolchildren doing compared to their international peer group? It's an important question. And there's a way of answering it, using a set of tests called "PISA", the programme for international student assessment. But there are doubts about the validity of the PISA method, and the way the numbers are used by politicians. More or Less investigates.Producer: Richard Knight.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (b010fd8g)
Tim Hetherington, Barbara Harmer, TP Flanagan, Prof David Bowen, Elisabeth Sladen

On this week's Last Word Jane Little discusses the lives of the award-winning photographer and filmmaker, Tim Hetherington, who was killed this week in Libya.

Barbara Harmer, the only woman pilot to fly Concorde.

Seamus Heaney pays tribute to his friend, Irish landscape painter, TP Flanagan.

Professor David Bowen, forensic pathologist, who worked on some of the most notorious crimes in recent British history.

And actress Elisabeth Sladen, whose role as Sarah Jane Smith endeared her to generations of Dr Who fans.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (b010k2fd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:00 on Saturday]


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b010lyxw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (b010dw0k)
Watch This Space

America's space effort faces big upheavals as President Obama reigns in government spending and NASA is told to work in partnership with private enterprise. From the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and the Mojave Desert, Peter Day asks what happens next on the USA's journey into space.


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b010m04b)
Carolyn Quinn talks to the Guardian's political correspondent Allegra Stratton about tensions within the coalition over the referendum on the voting system.

The Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George criticises claims made by the No campaign. Although he is critical of the Conservative Party's role in the campaign, he believes some good could come of the disagreements over the Alternative Vote.

An independent expert on voting systems, Dr Alan Renwick of Reading University, comments on the claims made about AV by both sides in the referendum campaign.

Two leading figures in the referendum campaign debate the Alternative Vote - ex Labour minister Ben Bradshaw from the Yes camp and Conservative MP George Eustace from the No camp.

Programme Editor: Terry Dignan.


SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b010m04d)
Episode 49

Andrew Grice of The Independent analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b010fd8j)
Francine Stock with what's going on in the world of film, including the latest offerings from Wim Wenders and Alexei Popogrebsky.

Producer: Zahid Warley.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b010lxm9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 25 APRIL 2011

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b010m195)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b010dq7d)
Demise of a Welsh steel town - Sexual politics of ballroom dancing (BSA 60th Anniversary)

A special edition marking the British Sociological Association's 60th anniversary. Laurie Taylor considers some of the seminal figures who've changed the face of sociology in the UK over more than half a century. He also highlights some of the most interesting research to emerge from this year's BSA conference, including Professor Valerie Walkerdine's study of the demise of breadwinning masculinity in a former South Wales steel town. How do men cope when few options are available other than 'women's work' in supermarkets and industrial cleaning? In addition, he hears about Dr Vicki Harman's exploration of ballroom dancing and traditional gender roles. Is it possible to be a feminist as well as being twirled around in a cloud of chiffon and sequins?
Producer: Jayne Egerton.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b010lxm5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b010m197)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b010m199)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b010m19c)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b010m19f)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b010m19h)
With the Rt Rev and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b010m19k)
Alpacas have only been imported into the UK since 1996 but there are now around twenty five thousand of them in the country. The market for Alpaca fleece is becoming increasingly commercial, whether for ready made garments or knitting yarn. Sarah Swadling meets Rob Bettinson and his daughter Kerry Lord from Toft Alpacas, on their farm in Warwickshire.


MON 05:57 Weather (b010m19m)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 06:00 Today (b010m19p)
Morning news and current affairs with Evan Davis and Justin Webb, including:
08:10 Sir Menzies Campbell and Lord Howard examine the impact of the row over the AV referendum on the workings of the coalition.
08:19 Comedian Stewart Lee on curating a own segment of the Festival of Britain celebration.
08:30 What can be done to improve SAS recruitment numbers?


MON 09:00 Start the Week (b010m19r)
Andrew Marr talks to the theatre director Greg Doran about the literary detective work involved in his production of Cardenio - a play he's described as Shakespeare's Lost Play re-imagined. Nicola Shulman turns to the court of Henry VIII to explore the influence of Thomas Wyatt's poetry. While Neil Astley brings together contemporary poets from around the world in an anthology dedicated to 'Being Human'. And as the Guardian launches a new website for book reviews by readers, its literary Editor, Claire Armitstead says there will always be a place in newspapers for the professional critics.

Producer: Victoria Brignell.


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zdbj1)
Edgelands

Episode 1

Poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts explore a wilderness that is much closer than you think: those debatable zones that are neither town nor countryside. These two lyric poets celebrate the strange beauty of these places that we all journey through, but generally fail to acknowledge.

Recorded entirely on location in the English edgelands, this Book of the Week journeys through the post-industrial landscapes of ruined warehouses, landfill sites, retail parks, sewage works and power stations.

Today, the car breaker's yard and the graffitied bridge.

Read by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts
Produced by Emma Harding

Edgelands is published by Jonathan Cape (27th February 2011). It won a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for non-fiction in 2009.

Paul Farley is the author of four collections of poetry - including 'Ice Age' - and has received the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Award and the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Michael Symmons Roberts has published five collections of poetry - including 'Corpus', which won the Whitbread Poetry Award - and two novels. He is a frequent collaborator with the composer James MacMillan and their opera, 'The Sacrifice' won the RPS Award.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b010m19t)
Presented by Jane Garvey. Taking kids out of school to go on holiday - is it ever okay? With a record number of unauthorised holidays being taken by school children and their families, we look at what's likely to happen over the extended Easter Break. In our "Cook the Perfect" season you can learn how to whip up a delicious Shepherd's Pie with Lindsey Bareham. And continuing our Women in Business initiative we listen in to the advice Nikki King from Isuzu Trucks UK gives to her mentee Jo Pateman who runs Women With Waders, a company which specialises in cleaning and maintaining ponds and lakes. And Diana Beresford-Kroeger shares her passion for trees.


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b010m19w)
Out of Africa

The Cuckoo

By Karen Blixen.
Dramatised by Judith Adams

Episode 1 : The Cuckoo
Soon after Karen Blixen relocates to East Africa, she finds herself alone in a foreign land with the enormous responsibility of trying to operate a successful coffee plantation. In order to accomplish this, she must get to know the land and the East Africans who work for and with her. In the process, she learns more about herself.

In 1913, Karen travels to Kenya to marry her second cousin and start a farm in Africa.

Karen Blixen ..... Emma Fielding
Denys Finch-Hatton ..... Tom Goodman-Hill
Kamante .... Beru Tessema
Farah ..... Maynard Eziashi
Wilhelm ..... Sean Baker

Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.


MON 11:00 It's Our Story: Liverpool's Own (b010m2f4)
Tim Daley tells the story of Lewis's department store, a Liverpool institution that for over 150 years followed the city's fortunes through good times and bad until its closure last spring.

"Take two journeys in one" writes Daley, journalist and proud Liverpudlian, "the journey through the lifetime of a shop and the city it served."

Lewis's Department store began life in the heart of Liverpool city centre during 1856; it survived a fire, the First World War, the May Blitz in 1941, changing tastes and fierce competition from a city once which was once full of emporia, to take a special place in the hearts of Liverpudlians.

But the shop, started by businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist David Lewis, closed its doors for the final time in May 2009.

'Liverpool's Own' charts the rise of Lewis's department store, its relationship with the city it once served and its bond with the people who loved it.

Founder David Lewis's creation gave birth to modern shopping and the idea that it could be a leisure activity, thanks to the clever marketing and publicity stunts. Here was a man who brought quality goods to normal people at the best possible price, giving rise to the slogan: 'Lewis's - Friends Of The People'. With the city's population booming in the second half of the 19th century mostly due to Irish immigration, Lewis's was there to serve the new Liverpudlians by the thousand, flourishing until the Second World War. What Liverpool went through, Lewis's went through.

But in May 1941 the city was firebombed ruthlessly, with one of the raids destroying Lewis's. The business, however, survived, picking itself up and dusting itself down, in much the same way that the city as a whole was forced to do. Rebuilt and reborn, complete with a controversial Jacob Epstein sculpture above the front door entitled 'Liverpool Resurgent' Lewis's was returning to its former glory, in a sleek, modern and confident way just as the city of Liverpool was doing the same.

Today just a shell the store stands empty and closed, isolated at the wrong end of Liverpool's fashionable designer shopping district, waiting as developers seek to preserve and re-use the old building as the cornerstone of a new residential and business development.

Using testimonies from the people who worked there, academics and local historians the programme re-opens the doors of Lewis's for one last time.

Producer: Tim Daley.


MON 11:30 Fags, Mags and Bags (b010m2f6)
Series 4

Evil Narbara

The hit Radio 4 series 'Fags, Mags & Bags' returns with a 4th series with more shop based shenanigans and over the counter philosophy, courtesy of Ramesh Mahju and his trusty sidekick Dave.

Written by and starring Donald McLeary and Sanjeev Kohli 'Fags, Mags & Bags' has proved a hit with the Radio 4 audience with the show also collecting a Sony nomination and a Writers' Guild award in 2008. This brand new series sees a crop of new shop regulars, and some guest appearances along the way from the likes of Mina Anwar and Kevin Eldon.

In this episode a rowdy party shop run by an unfriendly sort causes havoc amongst the local traders association after a number of undesirables descend on the town.

So join the staff of 'Fags, Mags and Bags' in their tireless quest to bring nice-price custard creams and cans of coke with Arabic writing on them to an ungrateful nation. Ramesh Mahju has built it up over the course of 30 years, and is a firmly entrenched feature of the local area. Ramesh loves the art of the 'shop'.

However; he does apply the 'low return' rules of the shop to all other aspects of his life. Ramesh is ably assisted by his shop sidekick Dave, a forty-something underachiever who shares Ramesh's love of the art of shopkeeping, even if he is treated like a slave.

Then of course there are Ramesh's sons Sanjay and Alok, both surly and not particularly keen on the old school approach to shopkeeping, but natural successors to the business, and Ramesh is keen to pass all his worldly wisdom onto them whether they like it or not!

Cast:
Ramesh: Sanjeev Kolhi
Dave: Donald McLeary
Sanjay: Omar Raza
Alok: Susheel Kumar
Peggy: Kate Donnelly
Mrs Begg: Marj Hogarth
Hilly: Kate Brailsford
Lovely Sue: Julie Wilson Nimmo
Mutton Jeff: Sean Scanlan
Bra Jeff: Steven McNicol

Producer/Director: Gus Beattie
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:00 You and Yours (b010m2f8)
David Cameron wants to see Britain in the top five tourist destinations in the world. He says tourism presents a huge economic opportunity. But is enough investment being put in to make this happen? With a number of other European countries looking to rely on tourism to boost their economies, we find out how the summer is shaping up. We look at what other governments are doing to support infrastructure and boost tourism, specifically in Portugal and Ireland.

Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world. Julian Worricker goes behind the scenes to find out how the airport authorities are trying to capitalise on making the journey as important as the destination.

It's one year since the eruptions of an Icelandic volcano grounded more than a hundred thousand flights and stranded millions of passengers. We find out about a new detection system meaning pilots will be able to see an ash cloud at distances of 100 km and ask how effective it will be at reducing future disruption to air travel.

Plus comedian Tom Wrigglesworth on our love affair with the camper van and some favourite 'hidden' holiday destinations.


MON 12:57 Weather (b010m19y)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b010m2fb)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


MON 13:30 Counterpoint (b010m2fd)
Series 25

Episode 4

(4/13)
Who was the trumpeter, producer and record company boss who had an American no.1 hit in 1979 with a tune called 'Rise'?

The answer to this and many other musical questions will be dispensed by Paul Gambaccini, in the chair for the fourth heat of Counterpoint, the long-running music quiz. This week's contenders are from Cumbria, West Yorkshire and the West Midlands.

They'll be tackling questions on every genre of music, from the core classical repertoire to jazz, show tunes, film music, vintage chart favourites and recent hits. As usual, the contestants have no idea what's going to come their way - the only thing that's guaranteed is that they'll be racking their brains. And there'll be a generous helping of musical extracts, both familiar and surprising.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


MON 14:00 The Archers (b010m046)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b010m2fg)
Ten Lessons in Love

An eclectic mix of writers explores one of the most important human emotions. Ten short plays; encompassing romance, heart break and some adult themes; each one is a very different perspective on love.

David uses 'the machine' to revisit his old memories - he wants to pinpoint the exact moment he fell in love. But when it malfunctions, it catapults us into the stories of a variety people, all of whom are attempting to make sense of love.

Lesson 1: You never know when you're going to fall in love
By Nick Warburton
David ... Sean Baker
Young David ... Nyasha Hatendi
Young Eleanor ... Alex Tregear

Lesson 2: More often than not, your dream date will be a nightmare
By Bola Agbaje
Laide ... Zawe Ashton
Femi ... Femi Oyeniran

Lesson 3: Beware of skeletons in the closet
Written and performed by Josie Long

Lesson 4: Remain interested; don't yawn at least
By Tim Key
Derek Monet ... Tim Key
Marie ... Alex Tregear
Waiter ... Stuart McLoughlin

Lesson 5: When your heart freezes it's time to leave the building
By Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Jeanie ... Sally Orrock
Ken ... Daniel Rabin

Lesson 6: Love is fickle
Written and performed by Josie Long

Lesson 7: Being alone doesn't have to mean being lonely
By Nick Payne
Jim ... Stuart McLoughlin
Sarah ... Alex Tregear

Lesson 8: Love's worth fighting for
The real-life story of Dane and Lenka
Produced by Rich Ward

Lesson 9: Love can't be pinned down
Written and performed by Josie Long

Lesson 10: Ignore all previous lessons
David ... Sean Baker
Eleanor ... Jane Whittenshaw
Young David ... Nyasha Hatendi
Young Eleanor ... Alex Tregear
Clive ... Stuart Mcloughlin

Directed by James Robinson.


MON 15:00 Archive on 4 (b00sb2s4)
Unsung Heroes

Tucked out of sight in the pit of Covent Garden, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House accompanies every world class performance presented on that stage. What does that glittering world look like from down there? Sarah Lenton, using a mixture of archive and new interviews with the musicians, follows the orchestra's fortunes from Handel's time to now.
We find out what it's like never to see a show, how to avoid flying daggers, why old London County Council drainpipes are indispensible to Tosca and where the brass players disappear to in very long breaks.
Supplementing the player's view of life is audio archive from the ROH and the BBC, including Thomas Beecham (who calmly extended one morning rehearsal to midnight,) Darcey Bussell, ("it is this battle between you" on the conductor versus the dancer,) and John Copley (on working on Tosca with Maria Callas.)

Producer: Philippa Ritchie.


MON 15:45 Russia: The Wild East (b010m2fj)
Series 1

Ivan the Terrible

The major new history of Russia series began last week in the 9th century with a collection of warring tribes. It looked at the events that laid the foundations of the Russian nation, the adoption of Christianity and the lasting influence of the Mongol invasion. This week Martin Sixsmith discovers the emerging forces that will make her the largest and longest-lived territorial empire in modern history.

He begins with Ivan the Terrible who centralises power in the Tsar, enslaving peasants and nobles alike. Martin Sixsmith paints a vivid portrait of one of Russia's most familiar Tsars, and uses Eisenstein's film Ivan The Terrible to explore the tenets of absolute autocracy that have characterised Russian rule ever since. This 'iron fist' which created a major obstacle to reform, and separated Russia ever further from Western Europe. He cites Ivan's correspondence with Elizabeth I, who by the 1550s was Russia's sole foreign ally. 'Ivan's letters', he says, "sound almost like love letters."

Ivan the Terrible is remembered as a wild-eyed, slightly deranged figure. But his legacy also had its positive side. Under his leadership, Russia expanded for the first time beyond the lands occupied by orthodox, ethnic Russians. It conquered the Tartar khanate of Kazan, laying the foundations for the greatest contiguous empire on earth.

Astoundingly, Russia would grow by 50 square miles a day for the next three centuries, until by 1914 it occupied eight and a half million square miles - a multiethnic, multilingual state spanning more than one seventh of the globe. Today, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia still spans eleven time zones and is home to a hundred nationalities and a hundred and fifty languages.

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producers: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 16:00 The Food Programme (b010lyy6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:30 Click On (b010m2k3)
Series 8

STDs on smart phones and solar flares

At the University of London Dr Tariq Sadiq is leading a team of scientists in a project to create a mini micro lab that can be inserted into smartphones to test for STDs - but, as Rupert discovers, while the technology is there to make it, the ethics surrounding it are problematic.

Professor Martyn Thomas of the Royal Academy of Engineering joins us in the studio to explain how solar flares could interfere with our Global Satellite Navigation System. We have become increasingly reliant on GPS and use it in our financial systems, for the emergency services and in shipping and air transport. Will a nasty spell of space weather bring our networks crashing down?

After a lengthy search using underwater robots we speak to the team who have discovered the wreckage of Air France 447 on the ocean bed off Brazil. It's feared that vital information stored in the black box will never be recovered - so can they be made more robust? We find out more about the technology inside these important flight recorders.

And Rupert meets up with a group of 'self-hackers' in London who use the very latest technology to log information about their lives. Are they just data obsessives or can there be positive results? We hear from Jon Cousins who has overcome depression through 'self-hacking'.

Produced by Kate Bissell.


MON 17:00 PM (b010m2k5)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b010m1b0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b010m2k7)
Series 7

Episode 4

David Mitchell hosts 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.

Alan Davies, Jack Dee, Marcus Brigstocke and Lucy Porter are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as: Eyes, Snakes, Cutlery and Dieting.

The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 19:00 The Archers (b010m2k9)
Jennifer and Phoebe are back from South Africa. They call in to say hello to Ruairi before Brian takes Phoebe home. Phoebe shows Brian loads of photos. Brian tells Jennifer he'd forgotten how full-on this childcare business is.

Lynda drops off her leaflet for the parish council elections, insisting that she's not canvassing. She tells Brian that Eric said her feature was one of the highlights of Gardeners' Question Time.

Lynda tells Jennifer that she and Robert will have a visitor tomorrow. His daughter Leonie is coming.

Lilian reminds Matt that James is on his way. She wants them all to make a fresh start. Matt promises to do his best. James, Lilian and Matt have lunch together. James tells them that there's been a development in his social life. Lilian guesses it's a new girlfriend but before he can tell them any more, he has to take a phone call. Lilian hopes he's serious about this one, and is pleased that James is being perfectly polite and charming to Matt. Matt's sure it's going to be a real fun couple of days!


MON 19:15 Front Row (b010m2kc)
Andy Warhol's last trip to London

John Wilson reports on Andy Warhol's final visit to London in 1986, for an exhibition of new self-portraits - an occasion which made a profound impression on many who met him at the time.

Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller was then an art history student, but an evening spent at the Ritz Hotel with Warhol and his entourage proved a life-changing moment. Gallery owner Anthony d'Offay, who invited Warhol to create the exhibition and arranged his no-expense-spared trip across the Atlantic on Concorde, remembers how he disagreed with the artist's choice of works. And Curiosity Killed the Cat front-man Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot, reviewer Richard Cork and documentary-maker Kim Evans all recall the excitement of the exhibition opening - as well as the shock of Warhol's unexpected death just over six months later.

Producer John Goudie.


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b010m19w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Alive in Chernobyl (b010r4kh)
On the 25th anniversary of the worst nuclear accident in history, Olga Betko travels to Chernobyl - in her native Ukraine - to find the people who are living in the "dead zone".

In the last week of April 1986, when the nuclear reactor exploded showering deadly radiation over the surrounding area, thousands of power station workers and their families were evacuated. It wasn't until a week later that the peasants who also lived in the 'Exclusion Zone', were also evacuated. By then many had been contaminated.

Life in the cities did not suit this group of people with its strong and ancient ties to the land. Many suffered from depression and also prejudice, having fled the contaminated area. Over the years a number of small groups of elderly rural people have defied the radiation and returned to live in their abandoned villages and are working the land they love.

Olga Betko, visits these tiny remote communities to see how they are surviving in isolation and recovering a poisoned homeland. She also looks for other signs of life in the Exclusion Zone: when humans left, there was a resurgence in animal population.


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b010dstq)
Germany

David Goldblatt looks at whether Berlin's alternative culture is under threat from commercial pressures. Or do developers and artists need each other to exist?

Berlin has long been a magnet for artists from within Germany and abroad. After the wall fell in 1989 they flooded into the vast deserted buildings left in the Mitte area of the former East of the city. But over the last few years developers have been moving into this increasingly fashionable area, increasing rents and evicting squatted buildings.

Today the right and left banks of the Spree river, the district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, has become home to underground clubs and artists studios. But developers are increasing their grip on this area too. A few years ago they joined together to create an consortium called "MediaSpree" with the aim of turning the East bank of the Spree into a media hub. Universal Studios and MTV were two of the first companies to locate themselves in the converted warehouses of a deserted port in 'no man's land' where the border wall once ran. They were attracted, in part, by the alternative vibe of the area.

But now increasing rents in this area are pushing artists and original residents out - and with them the clubs and galleries that attracted the media businesses in the first place. Will developers and the alternative culture find a way to co-exist?
Producer: Jane Beresford.


MON 21:00 Material World (b010dw05)
Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. He discovers the impact of the Deepwater Horizon spill on the Gulf of Mexico's wildlife one year on and the ongoing effect of Chernobyl on human health 25 years after the event. We also return to the islands of Tristan da Cunha for an update on the penguins, following the oil spill there and discover a strange exchange taking place between Saturn and one of its moons.

The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.


MON 21:30 Start the Week (b010m19r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:58 Weather (b010m1b2)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b010m5n6)
Syrian tanks go into action against Opposition protestors.Is this the final crackdown?

plus a debate with Robin Lustig and guests on " Who holds power on the internet ?".


MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b010v0fm)
The Absolutist

Episode 1

September 1919: 20 year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War but in 1917, Will laid down his guns on the battlefield, declared himself a conscientious objector, an act which has brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family.
But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep in his soul. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage. As he recalls his friendship with Will, from the training ground at Aldershot to the trenches of Northern France, he speaks of how the intensity of their friendship brought him both happiness and self-discovery as well as despair and pain.
From the author that brought us The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The House of Special Purpose - John Boyne creates a story that examines the events of the Great War from the perspective of two young soldiers; whose friendship encounters an extraordinary challenge.

The reader is Blake Ritson.

The Absolutist was abridged by Doreen Estall and produced by Heather Larmour.


MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (b010dp13)
Academic English

Is English too dominant in academic work around the world? Chris Ledgard visits universities in Sweden to ask staff and students how much they are able to debate, write and publish in their native language.
Producer: Chris Ledgard.


MON 23:30 In Living Memory (b00td9pl)
Series 12

Episode 3

In the mid 1990s investment companies sprung up offering huge returns on ostrich farming. The promise was that you could get 70 per cent or more and never get your feet muddy, or even have to see your ostriches. The birds would lay and endless supply of valuable eggs and the companies offered to buy them back.

Ostrich fever took hold, and birds changed hands at 10 times their true market value. It seemed too good to be true - and it was. The Department of Trade moved in and closed down the companies on the grounds that that they were running pyramid schemes. In the case of the biggest company, the Ostrich Farming Corporation, an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office revealed that the directors had also been siphoning off millions of pounds into offshore accounts, and three directors went to prison.

In this programme, Jolyon Jenkins tries to discover why so many apparently intelligent people fell for the ostrich scams. He also discovers what happened to the ostriches when the Ostrich Farming Corporation collapsed, and follows the fortunes of the two companies, each run by retired military officers, which were set up to try to carry on ostrich farming.



TUESDAY 26 APRIL 2011

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b010m7k6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b00zdbj1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b010m7k8)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b010m7kb)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b010m7kd)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b010m7kg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b010m7kj)
With the Rt Rev and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b010m7kl)
The number of dairy farmers has almost halved in the last ten years, but we meet a Cornish family making a return to milk production. The Dyers sold their cows in 2004, to concentrate on developing a bottled water business. Now their son, Michael, has come back to the family farm and sees his future in dairy. A new herd of Jersey cows has just arrived and their milk will be sold to a local ice cream manufacturer. The chairman of the National Farmers' Union's Next Generation Dairy Board, Roger Lewis, tells Caz Graham there are many similar young people eager to start dairy farming, their problem is finding an affordable, suitably equipped, farm.

And Farming Today explores dressing local with a trip to the last tannery in the UK to still use oak bark to transform cattle hides into leather.

Presenter: Caz Graham
Producer: Sarah Swadling.


TUE 06:00 Today (b010m7kn)
Including Sports Desk at 6.25am, 7.25am, 8.25am; Weather 6.57am, 7.57am; Thought for the Day 7.48am.


TUE 09:00 Between Ourselves (b010m7kq)
Series 6

Concert Pianists

James Rhodes and Susan Tomes, two concert pianists, discuss with work with Olivia O'Leary.


TUE 09:30 The Prime Ministers (b010m7ks)
Series 2

William Gladstone

Nick Robinson, the BBC Political Editor, continues his new series exploring how different prime ministers have used their power, responded to the great challenges of their time and made the job what it is today. The third of Nick's portraits in power is William Gladstone, who was prime minister four times between 1868 and 1894, and led the government for more than twelve years in total. He is our oldest ever premier, having finally left Downing Street for the last time aged 84.

Gladstone's influence endures today. Politicians who believe in low taxes and small government echo his belief in 'retrenchment'. He also served as chancellor of the exchequer four times and made a lasting impact - his emphasis on strict financial discipline remains Treasury orthodoxy. Those who call for political change reflect his belief in reform. And those who advocate an ethical foreign policy and intervention abroad to uphold liberal values are following his emphasis on moral considerations.

Gladstone dominated nineteenth century politics. First elected as a Tory MP in 1832, Gladstone ended as a Liberal-radical prime minister. His personal rivalry with Disraeli sparked fierce parliamentary exchanges and remains the stuff of legend. He kept fit by long walks and enthusiastic tree-felling. Intensely religious, his mission to save prostitutes also brought him deep personal anguish.

In the first two programmes in this series, Nick looked at Pitt the Younger and Earl Grey, and in later programmes considers Herbert Asquith, Ramsay MacDonald, Harold Macmillan, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zf6d5)
Edgelands

Episode 2

Poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts explore a wilderness that is much closer than you think: those debatable zones that are neither town nor countryside. These two lyric poets celebrate the strange beauty of these places that we all journey through, but generally fail to acknowledge.

Recorded entirely on location in the English edgelands, this Book of the Week journeys through the post-industrial landscapes of ruined warehouses, car breaker's yards, retail parks, containers and power stations.

Today, landfill sites and sewage treatment works.

Read by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts
Produced by Emma Harding

Edgelands is published by Jonathan Cape (27th February 2011). It won a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for non-fiction in 2009.

Paul Farley is the author of four collections of poetry - including 'Ice Age' - and has received the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Award and the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Michael Symmons Roberts has published five collections of poetry - including 'Corpus', which won the Whitbread Poetry Award - and two novels. He is a frequent collaborator with the composer James MacMillan and their opera, 'The Sacrifice' won the RPS Award.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b010m7kv)
Presented by Jenni Murray. Andrew Morton's new book on the Royal couple Kate and William ahead of Friday's big day. We examine the Polish Government's new commitment to gender equality and discuss the Night Bra! Paula Yates and Marilyn Monroe apparently wore one and we ask if it can really keep the wrinkles at bay and help defy gravity. And we hear about a prison programme called "Family Man" aimed at helping long term offender rehabilitation. Following our recent Mother and Son programme to mark Mother's Day, our reporter Felicity Finch has been to talk to Pat and her son Scott about the impact of the programme on their lives and family.


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b010m7kx)
Out of Africa

The Tapestry

By Karen Blixen.
Dramatised by Judith Adams

Episode 2 : The Tapestry.
Soon after Karen Blixen relocates to East Africa, she finds herself alone in a foreign land with the enormous responsibility of trying to operate a successful coffee plantation. In order to accomplish this, she must get to know the land and the East Africans who work for and with her. In the process, she learns more about herself.

Karen is settling into life on the farm but Bror, her husband, has very different ideas. And there is also Lulu to contend with.

Karen Blixen ..... Emma Fielding
Kamante .... Beru Tessema
Farah ..... Maynard Eziashi
Bror ..... Sam Dale

Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.


TUE 11:00 Saving Species (b010m7kz)
Series 2

Episode 1

Saving Species is back for another year of live broadcasting about the world of wildlife conservation. We kick off the first programme with a glorious reminder that spring has sprung and the UK's most treasured migrant birds are back - the swallows. During the winter a Natural History Unit team visited Nigeria to track down a little known population of wintering swallows - and they found them. With upward of five million individuals, the sky darkened with the swirling avian spectacle. And at the time this programme is broadcast most of those birds will be in their European breeding grounds - a considerable number in the UK - and even more specific, we know some go to Norfolk. We will reveal how we know East Anglia is the destination of some of these West African swallows.

Also in the programme - news from around the world with our news hound Kelvin Boot - and Matthew Oates finds the Duke of Burgundy butterfly.

Presenter: Brett Westwood
Producer: Sheena Duncan
Editor: Julian Hector.


TUE 11:30 Tales From the Digital Archive (b010m9sw)
Once a writer's archive consisted of letters, badly-typed first drafts and corrected manuscripts. But now they write on computers and communicate by email, what clues to their creative process remain?

Archaeologist Christine Finn sets out to explore how the new generation of archive from the digital age will be made accessible to future generations.

She hears from Erika Farr, the Coordinator for Digital Archives at Emory University in America, which recently acquired Salman Rushdie's archive. It is a definitive 21st century archive, including emails, discs, and the computers on which he wrote his best-selling books.

Meanwhile the British Library is also addressing the digital challenge with their first-ever Curator of Digital Manuscripts, Jeremy John, who explains how they're developing a 21st century approach to the preservation of the writer's environment. Instead of having to travel to Ted Hughes' Devon home to view his work-place, devotees will be able to access a digital reconstruction of his study via th BL website.

Christine also discusses the impact of technology on the art of archiving the work of writers and poets with novelist Fay Weldon, exploring how these developments affect authors, their readers, and potential biographers. She hears from Margaret Atwood's biographer, Professor Nathalie Cooke, Associate Provost of McGill University in Montreal, and from Bobby Friedman, who has written an unofficial biography of politician John Bercow.

The traditional lament is the loss of data, as email replaces letters and drafts disappear with the delete key. But here Finn celebrates the new technology that is as much a part of an archive as the words themselves.

Producer: Marya Burgess

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 April 2011.


TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b010m9sy)
Is the BBC value for money? Does it offer the programmes and content that you want - on TV, on radio and online? Your chance to put your views to Sir Michael Lyons, the outgoing Chair of the BBC watchdog, the BBC Trust. How do you think the Corporation handled the issue of older female presenters? Is it right that 6 Music is saved whilst the future of the Asian Network is unclear? And what of the BBC's new strategy: Putting Quality First? Its aim is to do fewer things better. So where do you want the focus to be? Call You and Yours with Julian Worricker and share your opinions. Email youandyours@bbc.co.uk or call 03700 100 444 (lines open at 10am Tuesday).


TUE 12:57 Weather (b010m7l1)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b010n4x3)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


TUE 13:30 The Music Group (b010m9t0)
Series 5

Episode 1

Comedian Stewart Lee and voiceover artist Julie Berry are joined by the author of One Day, novelist David Nicholls to discuss three personally significant pieces of music.

Amongst their choices are a soulful rendition of a song about the Falklands' conflict, a piece that survived a Carnegie Hall protest involving red paint; and a painful and experimental journey into playing guitar when suffering from a degenerative disease.

In the process, we discover one Music Group member had an adolescent passion for Space themes played by the Geoff Love Orchestra, whilst another has experienced the benefits of Bach in a hotel bathroom. We also discover what the free jazz movement has to do comedy and more specifically, with Morecambe and Wise.

The Music Choices are:
Shipbuilding sung by Robert Wyatt
Bach's Chaconne from Partita No.2 for solo violin performed by Yehudi Menuhin
5 Weeks Later by Derek Bailey

Presenter: Phil Hammond

Producer: Tamsin Hughes
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b010m2k9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (b010m9t2)
Jon Canter - The Vertigo Trust

By Jon Canter.

Ronnie Sax is a sixty something multi-millionaire businessman, abrasive, cocky, three times divorced but on wife number four. He's egotistical and high energy and very much afraid of heights. He lives in a bungalow. His very large office is on the ground floor. Branson keeps inviting him into his balloon but Ronnie always has an excuse.

He gives an interview to Deborah - a journalist with some serious copy to fill - and her searching questions turn into a flirtation that Ronnie feels can only be consummated by conquering his phobia.

Enter Martin - a 'Vertigo Counsellor' who has read Deborah's article and thinks he can help. Martin's done his research and Ronnie, impressed, quickly hires him as his very own counsellor (as long as no one knows finds out what he's doing in Ronnie's office.)

Over a series of sessions, Ronnie gets attached to Martin and quite dependent on him. Martin helps him overcome his deepest fears.

But Martin has a secret. A big secret. One that threatens to turn Ronnie's world completely upside down.

Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Pacificus Production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:00 Making History (b010m9t4)
Fiona Watson and the team explore recent historical research and follow up listener's questions and comments.

Today: a listener's interest in the forthcoming referendum on electoral reform has sparked an interest in why Australia had universal suffrage much earlier than Britain. Conversations with a friend who lives in Australia raised the influence of Chartists who were deported from Britain in the middle of the nineteenth century. Fiona Watson talks to Professor Malcolm Chase at the University of Leeds who is an authority on the chartist movement and who explains that the influence of Chartism in Australia is often overplayed and argues that a fairer voting system came about because British elites found it harder to retain the status quo over thousands of miles.

Kate Strasdin at the University of Southampton has been studying the costumes and objects left by Princess Alexandra of Denmark who married Queen Victoria's heir Albert - the future Edward the 7th, - in 1863. This was a very private ceremony, but the papers were still hot on their heels. Alexandra was just 18 and wasn't an obvious choice of bride - but it was hoped that she could have a positive influence on her husband, who was already known for a scandalous affair. She would be Princess of Wales for nearly forty years, and in that time became perhaps the first modern media royal - a nineteenth century Diana even. Making History's Lizz Pearson went to Kensington Palace to meet Kate and Alexandra Kim, Curator of the Royal Dress collection...

In Scotland, Abigail Burnyeat at the Centre for Celtic and Scottish studies at the University of Edinburgh has been working on some early textbooks in the National Archives of Scotland which show that as early as the 7th Century children 'north of the border' were learning Latin. Abigail tells Fiona Watson that she thinks that this was the case for most children in education throughout the British Isles at this time.

What is it to be a 'freeman'? That's the question posed by two Making History listeners whose ancestors were made Freemen on Gloucester and Pevensey in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Helen Castor travelled to Norwich to meet up with Professor Mark Bailey at the University of East Anglia who explained that the origins of 'freemen' goes right back to the 10th and 11th centuries.

Producer: Nick Patrick
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b010mv4r)
Malachi Whitaker - The Crystal Fountain

Landlord of the Crystal Fountain

Martin Jarvis directs Imelda Staunton in Malachi Whitaker's moving story, written in the 1930s. Attractive red-headed teacher, Brenda Millgate, meets five jolly men on a train from King's Cross going north. What happens to her on the journey is a life-changing experience. They're very friendly and helpful. All northerners. Where have they been? Who are they? Eventually it's revealed that they're all landlords.

Brenda, unhappy in London away from her northern roots, is beguiled by their talk, their humour and their courtesy. Then one of them says something which changes her whole life.

Malachi Whitaker was a prolific writer in the 1920s and '30s, writing with great perception and care about ordinary folk, invariably setting the stories in her native Yorkshire. She became known as 'the Chekhov of the north' because of her sympathetic observation of the minutiae of human beings and their (often comic and surprising) behaviour.

Imelda Staunton biography: Oscar nominated and Bafta award-winning for her title role performance in 'Vera Drake'. She has had a long and distinguished career in the theatre, RNT and West End, performing A Man for all Seasons, Mack & Mabel, Side by Side, and Elektra. Also BBC TV Series: Cranford.

Producer/Director: Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:45 Russia: The Wild East (b010m9t8)
Series 1

Enter the Romanovs

Pushkin's play and Mussorgsky's Opera Boris Godunov tell the story of Russia's Time of Troubles, which resulted from an absence of legitimate power. After the death of Ivan the Terrible, who left no succession, the throne had been fought over and authority undermined. For 20 years at the start of the 17thc, famine, revolt, economic devastation and foreign invasions came close to destroying the Russian state forever.

From the foot of the statue in Moscow placed in their memory, Martin Sixsmith tells the story of the 2 men who saved Moscow from the predatory Poles. They were MÃ-nin and Pozharsky - one of them a Russian prince, the other a merchant. They raised a militia and saw off the invaders, allowing a new dynasty, the Romanov family, to fill the power vacuum. They would rule until overthrown by the Bolsheviks 300 years later. Glinka's patriotic National Anthem, written two centuries later, celebrates the rise of this new autocratic dynasty.

The Romanovs, as Martin Sixsmith points out, could have created a new style of governance in Russia. "The nobility might have seized the moment to insist on a role in running the country, similar to the one enjoyed by the English barons since the time of Magna Carta. But they didn't. Instead, the talk was of the need for an absolute ruler, unshackled by restrictions on his authority, and invested with the monolithic power necessary to safeguard national security." One more opportunity to temper the autocracy that would dog Russia for centuries had slipped by with nothing changed. The need for unity and security was paramount.

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producers: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b010m9tb)
Speakers' Corner

Chris Ledgard explores Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park. He talks to the regulars who come to speak each week and learns how its history stretches back over a hundred years. The Speakers' Corner Trust is helping to set up more Speakers' Corners around the UK to promote debate and freedom of expression. In Tunisia, since the revolution last January, people have started to gather on the main street in Tunis to talk about politics and current affairs.

Produced by Beatrice Fenton.


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b010fd93)
Series 24

Kathleen Ferrier

Kathleen Ferrier was a British contralto singer who died in 1953 from breast cancer. Her professional career had lasted just 14 years but in that time she had had become an international star, singing at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne and Carnegie Hall; and had worked with such luminaries of post-war music as Benjamin Britten, Sir John Barbirolli, and Bruno Walter. Not bad for someone who had no formal training as a singer and who had left school to work in the Blackburn telephone exchange. Ferrier never lost her common touch, never became a prima donna, and retained her liking for beer, cigarettes, and risque jokes. In this programme, broadcaster Sue MacGregor tells Matthew Parris why she admires Ferrier's work. Joining the discussion is conductor Christopher Fifield who edited Ferrier's letters.


TUE 17:00 PM (b010m9td)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b010m7l3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Down the Line (b010m9tg)
Series 4

Episode 7

The return of the ground-breaking, Radio 4 show, hosted by the legendary Gary Bellamy; brought to you by the creators of The Fast Show.

Down The Line stars Rhys Thomas as Gary Bellamy, with Amelia Bullmore, Simon Day, Felix Dexter, Charlie Higson, Lucy Montgomery, and Paul Whitehouse.

Special guests are Rosie Cavaliero, Julia Davis, Robert Popper, Adil Ray and Arabella Weir.

Producers: Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse
A Down The Line production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b010mcks)
David's frustrated by the drop in milk yields and tells Shula and Peggy it's down to his bad management. David admits to Ruth that he hasn't recalibrated the platemeter for weeks but gets frustrated with Ruth when she tells him how important this is.

Concerned to see David so stressed, Pip suggests that they go see the Herefords together. She assures him that he made the right choice in going into Herefords. She's trying to cheer him up, but he's still upset about the dairy cows and doesn't share Pip's enthusiasm.

Ted gives Peggy a lift to the University of the Third Age meeting, where he gives his talk on a painter. Peggy enjoys doing something different. Learning that Ted also does enamelling, she would be interested to see some of his work. Ted offers to bring something along next time they meet up.

Shula thinks David looks terrible, and wonders if it's to do with the shock of seeing Nigel die. Shula thinks he needs help. Ruth doesn't think David would consider counselling but agrees it would be good if Shula was to ask Alistair to try talking to him. It's got to be worth a try.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b010mckv)
Shirley MacLaine, Thor, John Sullivan

Shirley MacLaine, author and award-winning actress (The Apartment, Terms of Endearment, Steel Magnolias) talks about sex, the mob, past life experience, and the end of the world, as she publishes a collection of her essays.

Kenneth Branagh directs a new film about the Marvel comic book hero Thor, set in modern day New Mexico. Comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes reviews.

John Sullivan, the writer of TV sitcoms including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith, Just Good Friends and first series of The Green Green Grass, died on 23 April. Speaking in a Front Row interview recorded last year, John Sullivan talks about how shifting scenery helped him with his TV writing career and reveals the story behind the gag where Del falls through the bar.

Producer Allegra McIlroy.


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b010m7kx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 Fallout: The Legacy of Chernobyl (b010mckx)
Events in Japan have reignited controversy around the safety of nuclear energy, reviving memories of the world's worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl.

But just how bad was the worst? What were the real health consequences of Chernobyl? On the 25th anniversary of the disaster Nick Ross travels to Ukraine, to the ruined plant itself, to meet survivors and to talk to scientists and doctors to try to unravel the truth.

Has Chernobyl turned out to be the health catastrophe that anti-nuclear campaigners claim?

How much of our fear of radiation is rational and how much is based on myth and propaganda surrounding the Chernobyl accident?

Producer: Brian King
An Above The Title production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b010mckz)
Marcelo Bratke is an acclaimed pianist who was born with complex eye problems. He spent his early life denying his blindness and even concealing the fact from fellow members of the orchestras he played with.
Finally, as an adult, his wife encouraged him to have an operation on both eyes, which although risky, could restore his sight.
The operations were successful and Marcelo speaks of the bright colours he could see for the first time - so bright in fact, that he said they resemble a cartoon.
He says that moving to the UK helped him come to terms with his sight problems and admits that he would have benefitted from going to a special school, but at the time his parents thought they were doing the best thing for him by putting him in mainstream education.
Marcelo learnt to play the piano purely by ear, and became interested when he heard his father playing.


TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (b010mcl1)
Professor James Fallon's Self-Discovery - Mirror-Pain - Spring

Professor James Fallon tells Claudia Hammond his tale of self-discovery: a story with some dark and disturbing turns involving psychopaths and brain scans, family skeletons, some very personal genetic revelations and the power of parental love.

Two people who experience mirror-pain and mirror-touch synaesthesia explain what it's like to see someone being hurt and feeling the sensation of pain or touch in the same place themselves. Michael Banissy, a neuropsychologist at University College, London talks about his research on this strange phenomenon. He looked at what's happening in the brains of these people and discovered that they are also extra-empathetic emotionally.

With spring in full blossom and summer on the way, Claudia talks to Harvard psychiatrist John Sharp about the sometimes profound impact of the passing months and changing seasons on our emotional lives. He began to notice seasonal changes in his patients and that inspired him to survey research on how the time of year influences state of mind. The result was his book 'The Emotional Calendar'.


TUE 21:30 Between Ourselves (b010m7kq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 21:58 Weather (b010m7l5)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b010mcl3)
Syrian human rights groups say hundreds of demonstrators have been killed in recent violence. We'll ask about the tactics of the Syrian government.

Should the world's largest nuclear power station be built in an Indian earthquake zone? We have a special report.

And we'll hear why Europe's border rules are being debated.

The World Tonight with Jonty Bloom.


TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b010wvg3)
The Absolutist

Episode 2

September 1919: 20 year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War but in 1917, Will laid down his guns on the battlefield, declared himself a conscientious objector, an act which has brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family.
But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep in his soul. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage. As he recalls his friendship with Will, from the training ground at Aldershot to the trenches of Northern France, he speaks of how the intensity of their friendship brought him both happiness and self-discovery as well as despair and pain.
From the author that brought us The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The House of Special Purpose - John Boyne creates a story that examines the events of the Great War from the perspective of two young soldiers; whose friendship encounters an extraordinary challenge.

The reader is Blake Ritson.

The Absolutist was abridged by Doreen Estall and produced by Heather Larmour.


TUE 23:00 Jon Ronson On (b010mrsk)
Series 6

Voices in the Head

Writer and documentary maker Jon Ronson returns for another 5 part series of fascinating stories shedding light on the human condition.

Eleanor Longden started to hear voices in her head when she was at university and was diagnosed as a schizophrenic - a label she totally rejects. Now she is a high achieving academic. What started the voices and how did she get to a point where she not only lives happily with the voices that still exist but also works with others who have the same experience? With contributions from writer Graham Linehan and comedian Josie Long.

Producer: Laura Parfitt and Simon Jacobs
An Unique production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b010mrsm)
Susan Hulme presents the top news stories from Westminster.



WEDNESDAY 27 APRIL 2011

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b010mry4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b00zf6d5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b010mry6)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b010mry8)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b010mryb)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b010mryd)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b010mryg)
With the Rt Rev and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b010mryj)
Langoustines are perhaps better known in their processed form as scampi and they're worth around £96 million a year to Scottish fishermen. But researchers say that 83% of the crustaceans they tested in the Clyde estuary had plastic fibres in their gut. Also, 25 years on from the Chernobyl disaster the Food Standards Agency is about to review restrictions which are still in place on 338 sheep farms in England and Wales. And, according to the Farming Minister Jim Paice, it's a 'radical and completely new way of working'. Charlotte Smith discusses how much a new advisory body on animal health and welfare will cost and how influential it will be.

Presenter: Charlotte Smith
Producer: Sarah Swadling.


WED 06:00 Today (b010mryl)
Including Sports Desk at 6.25am, 7.25am, 8.25am; Weather 6.05am, 6.57am, 7.57am; Yesterday in Parliament 6.45am; Thought for the Day 7.48am.


WED 09:00 Midweek (b010mryn)
Libby Purves is joined by Wayne Bartholomew, Mary King, Roger Garfitt and Randle Siddeley

Wayne Bartholomew is the general manager of the Lake District hotel The Damson Dene in Windermere which features in a 'fly on the wall' series on Channel 4 called The Hotel.

Mary King is a singing coach, singer and conductor and Director of the Southbank Centre's VoiceLab. Mary will be training 750 singers who will be taking part in the Messiah Concert at the Chorus! Festival at the Southbank with the acclaimed orchestra/choir The Sixteen.

Roger Garfitt is a poet who has written a memoir called The Horseman's Word which is published by Cape.

Randle Siddeley is a landscape architect. He also holds the title The Lord Kenilworth. His book Garden draws on his long career, taking the reader through gardens he has created, both large and small, town and country, British and international. It is published by Frances Lincoln.

Producer: Chris Paling.


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zf37p)
Edgelands

Episode 3

Poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts explore a wilderness that is much closer than you think: those debatable zones that are neither town nor countryside. These two lyric poets celebrate the strange beauty of these places that we all journey through, but generally fail to acknowledge.

Recorded entirely on location in the English edgelands, this Book of the Week journeys through the post-industrial landscapes of ruined warehouses, landfill sites, retail parks, sewage works and car breaker's yards.

Today, container yards and power stations.

Read by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts
Produced by Emma Harding

Edgelands is published by Jonathan Cape (27th February 2011). It won a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for non-fiction in 2009.

Paul Farley is the author of four collections of poetry - including 'Ice Age' - and has received the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Award and the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Michael Symmons Roberts has published five collections of poetry - including 'Corpus', which won the Whitbread Poetry Award - and two novels. He is a frequent collaborator with the composer James MacMillan and their opera, 'The Sacrifice' won the RPS Award.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b010mryq)
Presented by Jenni Murray. Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard bought Monks House in Sussex in 1919 as a holiday home. It was from there in 1941 that she set off for the river where she drowned herself. And one midsummer week nearly 70 years after her death, the writer Olivia Laing decided to walk the length of the river Ouse from source to sea. Her journey is recorded in her new book "To the River". Today NICE issue new guidance on ovarian cancer. GPs are now being advised to offer women with possible symptoms of the disease a blood test which can help with diagnosis. And we consider primogeniture, laid down in the Act of Settlement of 1701, giving men automatic preference to the throne over older women. Who are the notable queens we may have missed over three hundred years?


WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b010mrys)
Out of Africa

Visitors to the Farm

By Karen Blixen.
Dramatised by Judith Adams

Episode 3: Visitors to the Farm
Soon after Karen Blixen relocates to East Africa, she finds herself alone in a foreign land with the enormous responsibility of trying to operate a successful coffee plantation. In order to accomplish this, she must get to know the land and the East Africans who work for and with her. In the process, she learns more about herself.

Karen tells her beloved friends, Denys Finch-Hatton and Berkeley Cole about another, even more intriguing visitor to her farm - a young man named Emmanuelson who came, slept one night and walked away, never to return.

Karen Blixen ..... Emma Fielding
Denys Finch-Hatton ..... Tom Goodman-Hill
Berkeley ..... Sam Dale
Emmanuelson ..... Iain Batchelor
Farah ..... Maynard Eziashi

Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.


WED 11:00 Bailout Boys Go to Dublin (b010mryv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]


WED 11:30 Beauty of Britain (b010mryx)
Series 2

The Delegate

Karen of the Featherdown agency sends Beauty to the 'End of Life' care conference on her behalf.

Beauty struggles to understand the peculiar behaviour of the British at a conference and their obsessions with name tags and lanyards, as well as why she is the only carer in attendance. This must be why the keynote speaker, Professor Smythe takes a shine to her?

Starring Jocelyn Jee Esien.

Beauty's adventures continue as the Featherdown Agency sends her to provide care for the elderly.

Beauty’s Zimbabwean Shona background has taught her to respect age. She sees Britain at its best and its worst

Written by Christopher Douglas and Nicola Sanderson

Beauty ..... Jocelyn Jee Esien
Jenny ..... Pippa Haywood
Rob ..... Tony Gardner
Mrs Grace ..... Phyllida Law
Sally ..... Felicity Montagu
Karen/Keely ..... Nicola Sanderson

Music by The West End Gospel Choir.

Producer : Tilusha Ghelani

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.


WED 12:00 You and Yours (b010mryz)
Lord Adonis gives his ideas for revitalising the social work profession, including a Teach First approach to recruitment, "Children First". As the government extends its consultation period on changes to the coastguard service, we ask whether there could be a reprieve for some of the stations under threat of closure. The government wants to see a "huge increase" in the amount of energy generated by anaerobic digestion, but what impact could an expansion of this industry have on the environment?
David Cameron has praised a new mobile phone application that enables you to "volunteer" for charities via your handset, we look at the new trend for mobile volunteering.


WED 12:57 Weather (b010mrz1)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (b010pv9h)
On today's programme: the economy has returned to growth - official figures published this morning show a 0.5% increase in GDP in the first three months of this year. The government says it's "good news", but Labour claims that is flatlining. We hear how a car maker and a bathroom sales company are faring in the current economic climate.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, and the Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls debate what today's figures tell us about the government's economic policies. And they give their thoughts as to whether telling an MP to "calm down, dear" is appropriate language for the House of Commons.

And how should Europe respond to the thousands of migrants leaving North Africa? We'll hear from Tunisians hoping to settle in Paris and from spokesman for the European Commission Michele Cercone.


WED 13:30 The Media Show (b010mrz3)
Hugh Tomlinson QC is the barrister in several of the recent high profile, yet secret, celebrity privacy cases. Gill Phillips is head of editorial legal services at the Guardian, who guided the paper through the challenge to the Trafigura superinjunction. What do they make of the recent media reports of celebrities allegedly over-using injunctions to protect their private lives - and can they devise a system that's fair to individuals and the media?

Piers Morgan is in the UK this week for CNN, to cover the royal wedding. In his pub in west London, he tells Steve Hewlett how he landed his CNN job, what he thinks of his critics and whether he stands by his previous comment that phone hacking was "an investigative practice that everyone knows was going on at almost every paper in Fleet Street for years".


WED 14:00 The Archers (b010mcks)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b010mrz5)
Countrysides

Countrysides follows a hunt master (Tim McInernny) and an anti hunt protester (Russell Tovey) who find a fragile human connection despite their opposing positions. It is a story about the relationship between hunter and prey and what happens when those behaviours are reversed.

Based on extensive research, Countrysides explores what is happening in the countryside in response to the Hunting Act and represents the views and feelings of people involved on all sides

Says writer Anita Sullivan;

"I started writing this play because I wanted to really understand the issues involved. Like many people, I thought I knew what happened at a fox hunt and why that can be seen as offensive and cruel. But I wanted to go deeper than a news bulletin. I wanted to understand why people on both sides feel so passionately about the fox hunt that it becomes central to their lives: why they're prepared to face legal action and direct confrontation with their opponents on a weekly basis. Most importantly, I wanted to understand how the bill defines the interaction between wildlife, hunting, farming and the law... and above all, between people."

Countrysides was recorded in London and on location in Sussex. The cast also includes; Lucy Speed, Nicholas Boulton, Sam Dale and Tom Stanley.

Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b0110f44)
Money Box Live takes your calls on the cost of getting married.
How to decide on a budget. What method of payment will give you protection if things go wrong on your big day?
Should you consider taking out wedding insurance? And tips on how to negotiate a good deal for a more cost conscious ceremony.

So join Vincent Duggleby and guests for a wedding finances edition.


WED 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b010m9t6)
Malachi Whitaker - The Crystal Fountain

Strange Music

Martin Jarvis directs Moira Quirk in Malachi Whitaker's moving short story of a young girl's visit to a dance hall on a rainy night with her friend. But why does Cora send Joyce though to the dance-floor alone. Why does she remain outside? Is she waiting for someone? Then the young man she's come to see is standing in front of her.

It's Danny Dunne, the band leader. He tells her she shouldn't have come. She tells him urgently that she wants to see him again. 'I want us to be alone again together,' she says. 'You know what I want.' He nervous, telling her he's got to be careful. But what is the real story between these two? Does Cora have a hidden agenda? And is there more to diffident Danny than there seems?

Malachi Whitaker was prolific in the 1920s and '30, writing with compassion and perception about ordinary folk, invariably setting the stories in her native Yorkshire. She became known as 'the Chekhov of the north' because of her sympathetic observation of the minutiae of human beings and their (often comic) behaviour.

Producer/Director: Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis & Ayres Production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 15:45 Russia: The Wild East (b010mrz9)
Series 1

East into Siberia

By 1613 when the Romanovs came to power, Russia was already a multiethnic empire. It was the wealth of that very empire - the northern forests, the agriculture of the Asian south, the mineral riches of Siberia - that had given Muscovy the strength to survive its recurring crises. It was this relationship between the Russian state and the Russian empire - its original Slavic population and its expanding multi-ethnic one - that became an ever more crucial factor in moulding her future identity

In this episode Martin Sixsmith visits the eastern fringe of the Ural Mountains to tell the story of Siberia - its staggering vastness that has spawned legends of space, and emptiness and freedom. He uses the dashing Cossack Yermak - whose memory endures in Russian folk poetry and popular ballads - to show how Siberia became a vital part of Russia's growing empire transforming Muscovy from a state on the brink to a nation of unequalled riches.

But the other, darker side to Siberia is also evoked in the poems of Yevgeny Yevtushenko and in Shostakovich's Opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with its poignant evocation of the convict road that so many Russians - including Dostoevsky, Lenin, Stalin, Mandelstam and Solzhenitsyn, would tread over the next four centuries. He also tells the story of the Old Believers who broke away from the Orthodox Church and whose heirs still gather today. They opposed the hijacking of religious belief by a centralised state-sponsored hierarchy and were part of a daunting set of problems that the new tsar, Peter the Great, had to tackle and tackle fast.

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producers: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b010mrzc)
Craft and Community

Is DIY culture and home improvement linked to the ideals of John Ruskin? David Gauntlett, author of Making is Connecting believes it is and he contends that bloggers and online enthusiasts are the inheritors of Britain's creative culture - making communities through their craft in the same way that medieval stone masons used to do. But is posting a skate-boarding dog on YouTube really comparable to carving a gargoyle on a gothic cathedral? The sociologist Richard Sennett joins Laurie Taylor and David Gauntlett to discuss making things, creating communities and what counts as craftsmanship.
Producer: Charlie Taylor.


WED 16:30 All in the Mind (b010mcl1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 17:00 PM (b010mrzf)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b010mrzh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Act Your Age (b010mrzk)
Series 3

Episode 6

Simon Mayo hosts the three-way battle between the comedy generations to find out which is the funniest. Will it be the Up-and-Comers, the Current Crop or the Old Guard who will be crowned, for one week at least, as the Golden Age of Comedy. This week Holly Walsh is joined by Andrew Lawrence, Rufus Hound teams up with Paul Foot and Ted Robbins is paired with Stu Francis.

Devised and Produced by Ashley Blaker and Bill Matthews.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b010mrzm)
Leonie tells Robert and Lynda that her new boyfriend Jay is in Borsetshire, and suggests they all meet up at The Bull.

James offers to take Lilian and Matt for lunch. He's asked a friend to join them. Lilian hopes it's his new girlfriend.

James and Leonie enjoy announcing they are boyfriend and girlfriend. They're all over each other but insist they're not rushing into anything just yet. Sadly, they've both got to head off straight after lunch

Lynda questions whether James is right for Leonie but Robert sees they're so close and happy. Lynda knows he's right, and just hopes it lasts.

Jolene can't believe the holiday is nearly over but is pleased she's not touched a cigarette.

Back at the Bull, the bar's looking ready for the royal wedding. Everything's good, except that Jamie's still there, and not showing any signs of moving out. Kenton doesn't want Jamie stressing Jolene out and offers to have a word. Jolene reminds him that Jamie isn't talking to him, so how can Kenton try and drum some sense into him? Kenton's not going to give him a choice. He'll pick the right moment and Jamie will just have to listen.


WED 19:15 Front Row (b010mrzp)
Christopher Eccleston on The Shadow Line

Christopher Eccleston (Shallow Grave, Doctor Who) stars in The Shadow Line, a new conspiracy thriller written, produced and directed by Hugo Blick (Sensitive Skin, Marion and Geoff). The pair talk to Mark about the series and working together.

Mark Lawson reports on the reopening of the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Architect John Tuomey gives a tour of the building and we hear memories of the old Lyric from playwright Martin Lynch, whose play Dockers is being revived, from Conall Morrison, who is directing an all-Irish cast in the opening production of The Crucible and from Artistic Director Richard Croxford.

Cedar Rapids is a new comedy film about a young insurance salesman who leaves his small town to attend his very first major business convention. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh is Front Row's assessor.

Producer India Rakusen.


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b010mrys)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b010mrzr)
Meritocracy and monarchy

Two people will walk down the aisle to get married on Friday and like any wedding the rows and discussions the ceremony is provoking are an interesting measure of the values that are important to us. For example the guest list: was it really acceptable to invite the crown prince of Bahrain, a country that is vigorously and violently suppressing protests in favour of democracy, and not to invite two former British Prime Ministers - even if they were Labour? Thankfully the issue has been solved by a tactful withdrawal. Then there's family background of the bride and finally of course, what to wear. Is a morning coat just too posh? Does it send out the right message? Perhaps that will be on the mind of Nick Clegg as he dresses on Friday morning. A man who in his own words wants a country where "Everyone is free to flourish and rise regardless of the circumstances of their birth." At the Abbey, they will celebrate the opposite principle: the marriage of a man born to be king. Royalists argue that the monarchy symbolises deeply ingrained values that go beyond social and political fashion. Republicans counter that an hereditary ruler makes as much sense as an hereditary dentist and the monarchy traps us as subjects, enshrines inequality and that we should have the power to choose our head of state. So is the monarchy compatible with a truly meritocratic society?

Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk with Claire Fox, Clifford Longley, Michael Portillo and Matthew Taylor.

Witnesses:
Robert Hardman, Royal author and Daily Mail writer
AN Wilson, Writer
Graham Smith, Executive officer for Republic
Tony Mulhearn, One of the fighting 47 who fought Thatcher in the 80s and was president of the Liverpool district Labour party.


WED 20:45 Four Thought (b010mrzt)
Series 2

Christina Patterson: Care to be a Nurse?

Columnist Christina Patterson discusses her own experiences of terrible nursing care.

She asks why we keep making excuses for bad nursing when good care is so important - and maintains that whatever the pressures on them, nurses always have a choice about how they behave.

Producer: Giles Edwards.


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b010mrzw)
Cocoa Loco

It used to be a treat but now a chocolate bar is one of the cheapest ways to fill up. Chocolate is the unlikely substance at the heart of commodity wars. Cocoa has been reported to be more valuable than gold but will this mean the end of the nation's coffee break.

Over-farming has caused problems in chocolate producing countries in Africa and South America. The pressure to produce cheap cocoa has meant farmers have failed to replant and replenish. Soil has become unusable and mature trees are now reaching the end of their life cycle. Fair trade has been forced on even the biggest producers like Nestle as the only means to get the raw product. But, is it too little too late and is this late interest a real commitment to fair deals for farmers and their land?

There is concern that speculation by financial traders has helped to push up food prices worldwide, creating an unsustainable bubble that makes it even harder for many in the developing world to afford to eat. Workers in the UK have also felt the impact - Burton's Foods blamed higher cocoa and wheat prices for the closure of its Wirral factory - where Wagon Wheels and Jammie Dodgers are made - with the loss of over 400 jobs.

Palm oil is another growing problem. Cheap, easy to grow and lucrative, many cocoa farmers have switched to this crop and turned their land over to monoculture. Costing the Earth investigates the efforts to keep our favourite treat going and asks if this is the first commodity of many to succumb to over-production and unrealistically cheap market prices.


WED 21:30 Midweek (b010mryn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 21:58 Weather (b010ms00)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b010pxdd)
The World Tonight with Robin Lustig

The rival Palestinian groups, Fatah and Hamas, say they have reached an agreement to form an interim unity government and hold elections within a year - what does it mean for a chance for peace with Israel?

The British economy grew by half a percent in the first three months of the year - we talk to businesses in Bristol about how they're coping with hard times

The UN Security Council is discussing its response to the violent repression of anti-government protests in Syria

And why more and more young people in Spain live with and off their parents well into their 20s.


WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b010wvhx)
The Absolutist

Episode 3

September 1919: 20 year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War but in 1917, Will laid down his guns on the battlefield, declared himself a conscientious objector, an act which has brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family.
But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep in his soul. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage. As he recalls his friendship with Will, from the training ground at Aldershot to the trenches of Northern France, he speaks of how the intensity of their friendship brought him both happiness and self-discovery as well as despair and pain.
From the author that brought us The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The House of Special Purpose - John Boyne creates a story that examines the events of the Great War from the perspective of two young soldiers; whose friendship encounters an extraordinary challenge.

The reader is Blake Ritson.

The Absolutist was abridged by Doreen Estall and produced by Heather Larmour.


WED 23:00 Living with Mother (b010ms1h)
Series 1

Curtains at the Window

We're in the rural part of deep Devon on a remote cattle farm. 79 yr old Patrick has always lived with his 103 year old mother Maisy in their humble farm house. Patrick, however, is as tight as they come and won't hear of spending money on anything but the essentials.

All's going well until his Maisy's old school friend Susan returns home from London to retire and fills Maisy's head with all sorts of modern ideas. Will life be the same again or will Patrick still not allow curtains at the window?

Cast:
Maisy: Stephanie Cole
Patrick: David Ryall

Producer: Anna Madley
An Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:15 Mordrin McDonald: 21st Century Wizard (b00qprmm)
Series 1

Market Magic

Comedy by David Kay and Gavin Smith.

Mordrin is a 2,000-year-old wizard living in the modern world, where regular bin collections and watching Countdown are just as important as slaying dragons.

With Gordon Kennedy, Jack Docherty, Cora Bissett and David Kay.

A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b010ms1k)
David Cameron and Ed Miliband clash in the House of Commons over the latest UK growth figures.
The Prime Minister says the 0.5% increase in GDP, in the first quarter of this year, is "good news".
But the Labour leader accuses Mr Cameron of "extraordinary complacency".
On the committee corridor, MPs quiz the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, over military operations in Libya.
And in the Lords, peers debate Government's plans for elected police commissioners.
Sean Curran and team report on today's events in Parliament.



THURSDAY 28 APRIL 2011

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b010mt29)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b00zf37p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b010mt2c)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b010mt2f)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b010mt2h)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b010mt2k)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b010mt2m)
With the Rt Rev and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b010mt2p)
Are Britain's dairy cattle fit for purpose? One industry consultant believes that the health and fertility of the UK herd has declined markedly in the past thirty years. The emphasis on breeding animals that produce more and more milk per day has brought us a generation of dairy cows that are much more prone to disease and live a shorter life.

That's bad news for the cow, but it could also be bad news for the farmer and ultimately the consumer. According to figures produced by Dr Dick Esslemont a 100 cow herd could be losing £56000 in profits per year. That affects the viability of the farm and could push more farmers out of the industry, making British milk harder to find in the future.

Charlotte Smith discusses the figures and their implications in 'Farming Today'.

Producer: Alasdair Cross.


THU 06:00 Today (b010mt2r)
Morning news and current affairs with John Humphrys and Justin Webb, including:
07:50 Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd on the royal wedding and middle east diplomacy.
08:10 Why has the UN security council refused to condemn Syria?
08:35 How should supporters of PR vote in the AV referendum?


THU 09:00 In Our Time (b010mvcp)
Cogito Ergo Sum

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss one of the most famous statements in philosophy: "Cogito ergo sum".In his Discourse on the Method, published in 1637, the French polymath Rene Descartes wrote a sentence which remains familiar today even to many people who have never heard of him. "I think", he wrote, "therefore I exist". Although the statement was made in French, it has become better known in its Latin translation; and philosophers ever since have referred to it as the Cogito Argument.In his first Meditation, published ten years after the Discourse, Descartes went even further. He asserted the need to demolish everything completely and start right again from the foundations, arguing, for instance, that information from the senses cannot be trusted. The only thing he could be sure of was this: because he was thinking, he must exist. This simple idea continues to stir up enormous interest and has attracted comment from thinkers from Hobbes to Nietzsche and Sartre. With:Susan JamesProfessor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of LondonJohn CottinghamProfessor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading and Professorial Research Fellow at Heythrop College, University of LondonStephen MulhallProfessor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford.Producer: Thomas Morris.


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zf386)
Edgelands

Episode 4

Poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts explore a wilderness that is much closer than you think: those debatable zones that are neither town nor countryside. These two lyric poets celebrate the strange beauty of these places that we all journey through, but generally fail to acknowledge.

Recorded entirely on location in the English edgelands, this Book of the Week journeys through the post-industrial landscapes of ruined warehouses, landfill sites, sewage works and power stations.

Today, retail parks and edgeland hotels.

Read by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts
Produced by Emma Harding

Edgelands is published by Jonathan Cape (27th February 2011). It won a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for non-fiction in 2009.

Paul Farley is the author of four collections of poetry - including 'Ice Age' - and has received the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Award and the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Michael Symmons Roberts has published five collections of poetry - including 'Corpus', which won the Whitbread Poetry Award - and two novels. He is a frequent collaborator with the composer James MacMillan and their opera, 'The Sacrifice' won the RPS Award.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b010mt2t)
Presented by Jane Garvey. Throughout the Second World War, women played a crucial role in the war effort. Virginia Nicholson, whose new book, 'Millions Like Us' tells the story of women's experience during the War and in its aftermath. We consider the future for the Liberal Democrats' female MPs and as part of our Women in Business season look at the importance of advertising. And what do you do if your child finds it hard to make friends at school and is deemed to be unpopular. Are we stifling individuality or is there a real issue to be addressed?


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b010mt2w)
Out of Africa

Icarus

By Karen Blixen.
Dramatised by Judith Adams

Episode 4 : Icarus
Soon after Karen Blixen relocates to East Africa, she finds herself alone in a foreign land with the enormous responsibility of trying to operate a successful coffee plantation. In order to accomplish this, she must get to know the land and the East Africans who work for and with her. In the process, she learns more about herself.

Karen and Denys indulge in two of their favourite pursuits - shooting lions and flying in Denys's plane over Africa. Such is their love of the country, they decide that they would like to be buried on a ridge overlooking the Ngong hills.

Karen Blixen ..... Emma Fielding
Denys Finch-Hatton ..... Tom Goodman-Hill
Ismael ..... Jude Akuwudike
Kamante .... Beru Tessema
Farah ..... Maynard Eziashi

Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b010mt2y)
What happened next?

Lucy Ash revisits some of the significant stories covered in recent years and discovers what has changed since our initial reports.
In some instances, there have been attempts to bring suspects to justice. In 2009 Crossing Continents uncovered disturbing evidence of alleged atrocities by the Kosovo Liberation Army during the Kosovo War ten years ago. Since then a trial has opened in the capital Pristina and two former KLA leaders are being prosecuted for war crimes. The case began in March 2011, just a few months after Dick Marty, Special Rapporteur of the Council of Europe, released an explosive report claiming that the KLA summarily executed prisoners and harvested their kidneys to sell for organ transplants.
Also in 2009 Crossing Continents looked at claims that Rwandans in France and Germany were controlling a deadly African militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reporter Peter Greste tracked down Callixte Mbarushimana to a Paris cafe. The elegantly dressed rebel Hutu leader flatly denied his group was responsible for attacks against civilians. But then, last October, Mbarushimana was arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court in the the Hague accused of 11 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including rape and murder. Bereaved families and victims in Congo have long complained about a climate of impunity - could that be about to change?
There appears to be a disheartening lack of change in Turkmenistan. Lucy Ash travelled there undercover in 2005 to find out what ordinary life was like for the citizens of one of the world's most repressive dictatorships. Despite the gold and marble clad buildings in the capital Ashgabat, she found people deprived not only of all rights and freedoms, but also of basic necessities such as healthcare. At that time the country was ruled by a man who renamed the month of April after his mother, outlawed ballet and banned gold teeth. The current president, ex dentist Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov is less flamboyant but his promised reforms have failed to materialise. Doctors Without Borders, the last international nongovernmental organisation operating in the country recently left because the government refused to allow a programme to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis.
This special edition also catches up with an American policeman who created a cult following for his "Street Story" podcasts, vivid vignettes of his work for the Tulsa Police Department. And now that India has decriminalised homosexuality, what has happened to the Gay Prince of Rajpipla, once shunned by his family and his community?


THU 11:30 Erich Honecker's Rock and Roll Years (b010mt30)
Henning Wehn investigates 'Ostrock' - the rock and pop music scene in the old East Germany.

During the Cold War, we were given the impression that life behind the Iron Curtain was unrelentingly grim and that communist youth suffered from a lack of fashionable clothing and an earnest adherence to the socialist dream.

But this wasn’t always the case and despite the fact that Erich Honecker believed 'beat music' was being used by the enemy to send East German Youth into 'overdrive', he had only limited success in placing controls on a thriving rock and pop music scene in the GDR.

It’s true that his musicians had to perform in front of a committee to obtain a licence, that there was only one - state controlled - record company and that if you fell foul of those in power, your music 'ceased to exist'. But East German youngsters were listening to Western music being played on radio stations on the other side of the Wall and so Honecker ultimately failed to control their musical tastes.

German comedian Henning Wehn goes to Berlin in search of a scene unknown to him when he was growing up in West Germany. He talks to Ostrock musicians and fans and uncovers a story that involves, the Stasi, disappearing musicians, lyrics with hidden meanings and music that was 'Western' in all but name.

Producer: Helen Lee.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.


THU 12:00 You and Yours (b010mt32)
The way that herbal medicines are marketed is changing. In future, we'll be able to check whether herbal remedies have been made safely and to a set standard - although it won't show whether or not they're effective.

Consumers are celebrating Ofgem's decision to issue new rules to ensure energy suppliers give customers 30 days advance notice of price rises.

And the great village green swindle. It's where land is labelled a 'village green' to thwart developers but a new case in the high court could mean landowners have more power to fight these applications.

The French are known for the pride they take in their culture - famous for that unshakeable belief that theirs is the best cuisine, art and thought in the world. But it seems homegrown French TV dramas are experiencing a "crisis", according to Frederic Mitterrand the French Minister of Culture and Communication. He is so concerned he's launched a consultation into the state of drama production.

Plus, is it the end of the line for the railway dining car? On the news that East Coast main line has decided to do away with their dining cars, we mark the passing of 130 years of eating on the move in style.


THU 12:57 Weather (b010mt34)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b010pv7t)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


THU 13:30 Costing the Earth (b010mrzw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:00 The Archers (b010mrzm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (b009yfc7)
Series 1

The Taste of Success

by Nick Warburton. Part 4: The Taste of Success. The eccentric restaurant set in the Fens is in financial trouble. Jack asks his nephew to take care of things so he can get away for a few weeks. Meanwhile Warwick sings the praises of Mardle Pudding, a legendary local dish.

Warwick Hedges.....Trevor Peacock
Jack Hedges.....Sam Dale
David.....Chris Pavlo
Fay.....Liza Sadovy
Marcia.....Kate Buffery
Imogen.....Liz Sutherland
Zofia.....Helen Longworth

Director Claire Grove.


THU 15:00 Open Country (b010k2dw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:07 on Saturday]


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b010lyxw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b010mrz7)
Malachi Whitaker - The Crystal Fountain

Home to Waggonhouses

Martin Jarvis directs Rosalind Ayres in Malachi Whitaker's moving story, written in the 1930s. Sarah has been cycling for two hours. Where's she going? And why? She's determined to see the husband who deserted her. She has heard he is lying ill at Ebesham.

Three years ago he had come into some money and it had turned his head. Then the farm seemed too small for him. He went to look at bigger farms miles away. On one of his journeys he met an attractive widow. One day they left quietly together, and later Sarah heard that they had set up house at Ebesham. And now Sarah is riding there, where David is lying ill. But she arrives to find an unexpected situation. What she does next could probably only have come from Malachi Whitaker compassionate pen.

Malachi Whitaker was prolific in the 1920s and '30s, writing with great perception and care about ordinary folk, invariably setting the stories in her native Yorkshire. She became known as 'the Chekhov of the north' because of her sympathetic observation of the minutiae of human beings and their (often comic) behaviour.

Producer/Director: Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis & Ayres Production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 15:45 Russia: The Wild East (b010mv4t)
Series 1

Peter the Great

A threatening grassroots rebellion, commemorated in Shostakovich's The Execution of Stenka Razin, immediately foreshadows the reign of one of Russia's greatest Tsars, and the architect of its future.

Peter the First, later known as The Great, was crowned as a nine year old boy. For a decade and a half he was shamelessly manipulated by relatives and regents in a violent, bloody power struggle. It left him with a burning conviction that Russia must change. Martin Sixsmith describes his relentless energy and fierce determination, which would make him the most influential ruler in Russian history. Only Lenin would come close to him in the impact he had on society and power.

Peter the Great was a giant, both physically - he was six foot seven inches tall - and intellectually. He combined intelligence and wit with an unremitting penchant for debauchery. With his band of close associates he formed The All-joking, All-drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters, with extravagant rituals of feasting and drunkenness and savage mockery of the church. But, "beneath it all, like Shakespeare's Prince Hal", Martin Sixsmith insists, "he maintained an unwavering seriousness of intent and acceptance of his destiny."

He had inherited urgent problems, but with an eye on the West (he travelled incognito to London, Oxford and Manchester), he reformed the way Russia was governed. He created its first civil service, built a new capital city and brought the Russian calendar into line with the rest of the world. He constructed a modern army and a navy that saved Russia from the very real threat of foreign invasion, and turned a nation in danger of self-destructing into a European great power, with a vast, stable empire able to support her international ambitions.

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producers: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 16:00 Open Book (b010m040)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:30 Material World (b010mv4w)
Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. He talks to the scientists who are publishing their research in peer reviewed journals, and he discusses how that research is scrutinised and used by the scientific community, the media and the public. The programme also reflects how science affects our daily lives; from predicting natural disasters to the latest advances in cutting edge science like nanotechnology and stem cell research.


THU 17:00 PM (b010mv4y)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b010mt36)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 The Simon Day Show (b010mv50)
Series 1

Tony Beckton

British comedy legend and star of The Fast Show, Down the Line and Bellamy's People, Simon Day debuts his own Radio 4 character comedy show.

Simon Day and his characters welcome listeners to the Mallard, a small provincial theatre somewhere in the UK. Each week one of Simon's characters come to perform at the Mallard and we hear the highlights of that night's show, along with the back stage and front of house goings on at the theatre itself.

Episode 2 of 6: Tony Beckton. Reformed violent criminal Tony Beckton visits the Mallard Theatre to read from his memoirs as part of his rehabilitation.

Tony Beckton / Peter ..... Simon Day
Catherine ..... Catherine Shepherd
Goose ..... Felix Dexter
Ron Bone ..... Simon Greenall
Stacey ..... Susan Harrison

Written by Simon Day
Produced by Colin Anderson.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b010mv52)
Clarrie and Susan look forward to a day off tomorrow. They agree George seems more settled, and that Emma's making an effort to make him feel special.

Will wants a serious talk with Nic but she's got to pick Mia up. Will agrees it can wait. He tries to talk to Clarrie instead, but she's in a rush to get home so he tells her it can wait too.

Later on, Will tries to talk to Nic again but he takes her by surprise when he asks her how she feels about them having a baby. Nic doesn't know what to say. She's not sure about it. It's too much, she can't go there right now. Will asks her to think about it.

Jamie agrees to meet Kathy after school. Kathy apologies for how she's messed up and asks Jamie to put it all behind them and come back to his own room. Jamie insists he's ok at The Bull. Kathy promises she won't nag or stop him going out, or question what he decides to do after his exams. Jamie doesn't know what to say. Kathy tells him she's missing him, and begs him to come home.


THU 19:15 Front Row (b010mv54)
Brenda Blethyn; Nitin Sawhney and James Taylor; Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford

With Mark Lawson.

Brenda Blethyn stars in Vera, a new television crime series based on the Vera Stanhope novels by Ann Cleeves. She reveals how she was born Brenda Bottle, and reflects on the surprises of working with Mike Leigh.

Is it a lost Shakespeare play? The Royal Shakespeare Company has chosen Cardenio as one of the first productions conceived for its new theatre. Peter Kemp reviews the new staging of a work attributed to Shakespeare and John Fletcher, along with a new production of Macbeth.

Composer and musician Nitin Sawhney and jazz organist James Taylor were childhood friends who in 1981 went to buy a cheap electronic keyboard together. Three decades later, they're taking on a grander instrument: Nitin has composed a new work for the 9,999 pipes of the mighty Royal Albert Hall organ, to be performed by James. Mark talks to them both at the organ's keyboard, along with Jasper Hope, director of the Hall.

Producer Allegra McIlroy.


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b010mt2w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Report (b010mv56)
The Last Census?

In the 21st century age of digital technology, is it still really necessary to have a paper census costing the British taxpayer 482 million pounds and taking nine years to plan? In opposition, the Conservative Party was highly critical of the census. So, as the dominant partner in a coalition government, could they be about to abolish it? Reporter James Silver investigates the options for a replacement survey of the nation and reveals how some proposed changes could result in more goverment intrusion.


THU 20:30 In Business (b010mv58)
For Your Information

Information seems to be moving right to the heart of the 21st century economy but nobody really knows what it is or how it works. Peter Day talks to pioneers in the field of information management as well as corporate gatekeepers of this valuable commodity we call information to find out what advances are being made with the amount of data we now generate.


THU 21:00 Saving Species (b010m7kz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Tuesday]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (b010mvcp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 21:58 Weather (b010mt38)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b010pxdg)
As hundreds resign from Syria's ruling Ba'ath party, is support for the government crumbling?

Scotland prepares for next week's elections.

With David Eades in London and Ritula Shah in Scotland.


THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b010wvjv)
The Absolutist

Episode 4

September 1919: 20 year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War but in 1917, Will laid down his guns on the battlefield, declared himself a conscientious objector, an act which has brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family.
But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep in his soul. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage. As he recalls his friendship with Will, from the training ground at Aldershot to the trenches of Northern France, he speaks of how the intensity of their friendship brought him both happiness and self-discovery as well as despair and pain.
From the author that brought us The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The House of Special Purpose - John Boyne creates a story that examines the events of the Great War from the perspective of two young soldiers; whose friendship encounters an extraordinary challenge.

The reader is Blake Ritson.

The Absolutist was abridged by Doreen Estall and produced by Heather Larmour.


THU 23:00 That Jan Ravens (b010mw8c)
Jan Ravens heads up a new show which presents familiar names in unfamiliar situations. With Eve Webster, India Fisher and Ewan Bailey.

In this pilot episode Dame Maggie Smith discovers a shocking secret in Downton Abbey, the Queen discusses wedding plans with Mrs Middleton, and Baroness Warsi appears as a challenger on Countdown.

Produced by Victoria Lloyd.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b010mw8f)
Mark D'Arcy and team with the day's news stories from Westminster - including the Culture Secretary warns the BBC against cutting its local radio network, and a Conservative MP says that London's Olympic Park could become a 'state within a state' next year in the light of new legal powers that'll be in force to protect the 2012 Games. Editor: Rachel Byrne.



FRIDAY 29 APRIL 2011

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b010mwb5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b00zf386)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b010mwb7)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b010mwb9)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b010mwbc)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b010mwbf)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b010mwbh)
With the Rt Rev and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b010mwbk)
Charlotte Smith walks through bluebell woods with the estate manager who is helping the flowers to flourish. Dairy farmers defend the welfare standards in the industry after severe criticism. On the royal wedding day, the history of the British silk industry is explored at a former silk mill in Macclesfield.
Producer: Angela Frain.


FRI 06:00 Today (b010mwbm)
Morning news and current affairs with John Humphrys in the studio and Sarah Montague outside Buckingham Palace, including:
07:50 Lord Mandelson on the Doha trade talks.
08:20 What does the royal wedding mean for the future of the Royal Family?
08:30 Any last minute nerves for Westminster Abbey's organist?


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b010lyy4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zf5sh)
Edgelands

Episode 5

Poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts explore a wilderness that is much closer than you think: those debatable zones that are neither town nor countryside. These two lyric poets celebrate the strange beauty of these places that we all journey through, but generally fail to acknowledge.

Recorded entirely on location in the English edgelands, this Book of the Week journeys through the post-industrial landscapes of car breaker's yards, landfill sites, retail parks, sewage treatment works and power stations.

Today, ruined warehouses and abandoned piers.

Read by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts
Produced by Emma Harding

Edgelands is published by Jonathan Cape (27th February 2011). It won a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for non-fiction in 2009.

Paul Farley is the author of four collections of poetry - including 'Ice Age' - and has received the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Award and the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Michael Symmons Roberts has published five collections of poetry - including 'Corpus', which won the Whitbread Poetry Award - and two novels. He is a frequent collaborator with the composer James MacMillan and their opera, 'The Sacrifice' won the RPS Award.


FRI 10:00 The Royal Wedding (b010mwbp)
The Marriage of HRH Prince William of Wales to Catherine Middleton.

James Naughtie leads BBC Radio's live coverage, with Edward Stourton in Westminster Abbey and, to witness the event as it unfolds, a team of broadcasters around the processional route of London, including Julian Worricker, Anita Anand, Wendy Austin, Robin Lustig, Jonathan Agnew, Eleanor Oldroyd, Nick Higham, Jane Garvey and BBC Royal Correspondent Peter Hunt. Historian Christopher Lee and royal authors Kate Williams and Sarah Gristwood add expert comment.

The Marriage Service begins at 11am, followed by a carriage procession to Buckingham Palace, while the balcony appearance and RAF fly-past will be featured during The World At One.

Editor Peter Griffiths.


FRI 12:57 Weather (b010mwbr)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (b010pv7w)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on Twitter: #wato.


FRI 13:45 More or Less (b010mwbt)
Note: The 29 April 2011 edition of More or Less is truncated. This copy reflects the content of the full programme broadcast on 1 May 2011.

This week we present a cornucopia of wedding-related numbers, including:

Why we predict a jump in the number of weddings next year (hint: it will have nothing to do with the Royal Wedding);

How much does the average British wedding cost (less than you might think);

Can we know how many people watched the Royal Wedding (probably not);

Do married men earn more? (Yes, according to 140 years of baseball stats.)

Also in this week's programme: we explain the alternative vote electoral system, using limericks and puddings.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b010mv52)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b00hv1dz)
Iain M Banks - The State of the Art

The State of The Art
By Iain M. Banks
Dramatised by Paul Cornell

The Culture ship Arbitrary arrives on Earth in 1977 and finds a planet obsessed with alien concepts like 'property' and 'money' and on the edge of self-destruction. When Agent Dervley Linter, decides to go native can Diziet Sma change his mind?

The Ship ...... Antony Sher
Diziet Sma ...... Nina Sosanya
Dervley Linter ...... Paterson Joseph
Li ...... Graeme Hawley
Tel ...... Brigit Forsyth
Sodel ...... Conrad Nelson

Directed by Nadia Molinari.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b010mwlq)
Carrickfergus

Eric Robson leads Christine Walkden, Bunny Guinness and Bob Flowerdew in a horticultural discussion in Carrickfergus, County Antrim.

An insight into rose breeding with Christine Walkden.

Produced by Lucy Dichmont
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 15:45 Russia: The Wild East (b010mwls)
Series 1

A Window on the West

Peter the Great's major legacy, visible in all its splendour today, is the city of St Petersburg. He wanted to found a new capital city, named after St Peter the Apostle. He chose an inhospitable northern marshy bank of the River Neva, and raised up a formidable showpiece of architecture and city-planning.

St Petersburg became a grand statement loaded with symbolic resonance of renewal and adventure. It would inspire future generations, including the greatest of all Russian writers, Alexander Pushkin. His epic poem The Bronze Horseman opens with an elegant love letter to the European face of St Petersburg and her ousting of the old, Asiatic leaning Moscow.

From the city's streets Martin Sixsmith describes the "never-ending boulevards and even vaster squares; the surreal White Nights when darkness is banished and the city takes on its magical aura of ethereal beauty." Peter himself talked of a 'great leap from darkness into light' and the city became known as a 'window on Europe' and the defining metaphor of Peter's reign. But, the first clues that Peter's reforms might not be all they seem come in the very way he set about building this place. While the city rose gleaming and splendid, its foundations - laid on gigantic crates of stones sunk by slave labourers into the boggy mire - were literally full of the dead.

Just as at the end of Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman, praise for Peter is tinged with horror, Martin Sixsmith asks how European Peter really was in terms of democracy, justice and the rule of law. He knew change was vital because of the tensions in society - the peasant revolts were a symptom of a system straining at the seams - but he wanted to control that change, and certainly didn't want reforms that would weaken the autocratic power he himself wielded.

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producers: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b010mwlv)
John Sullivan, Sai Baba, Poly Styrene, Mike Campbell, Max Mathews

Matthew Bannister on

The TV comedy writer John Sullivan who brought us Only Fools and Horses and Citizen Smith. Robert Lindsay pays tribute.

The Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba, head of a multi billion pound foundation with millions of followers around the world.

Punk icon Poly Styrene - lead singer of X-Ray Spexs - noted for her outrageous dress sense.

The white Zimbabwean farmer Mike Campbell who won a court victory against Robert Mugabe's land reforms but was badly beaten by militia.

And Max Mathews, pioneer of computer synthesised music.


FRI 16:30 The Film Programme (b010mwlx)
Ray Winstone and Christian Carion talk to Francine Stock about their new films. There's a preview of the London Australian Film Festival which opens soon at the Barbican and Lucien Castaing-Taylor explains the fascination of sheep and the motives behind the beautiful and unsentimental documentary he and Ilisa Barbash have made about the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks up into Montana's breathtaking and often dangerous mountains for summer pasture.

Producer: Zahid Warley.


FRI 17:00 PM (b010mwlz)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b010mwbw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b010mwm1)
Series 74

Episode 3

A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi Toksvig.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b010mwtw)
Jamie was out late last night. Kenton wakes him up and says they need to talk, right now. As Kenton grills him on his living plans, Jamie reminds Kenton that he owns shares in The Bull. Kenton brushes this aside, and reminds Jamie he has another option for a place to stay. Jamie gets upset when Kenton points out how much Kathy cares. Kenton insists he's trying to help, and leaves Jamie to work things out in his head.

The Bull's busy for the royal wedding. Everyone enjoys it, and Jolene raises a toast to Kate and Wills.

Alistair thinks David's going to pull out of the cricket. Shula suggests it's a good time for Alistair to have a man-to-man chat with him. Alistair can't persuade David to stay on the cricket team, nor will David open up and talk, insisting he's fine. Alistair tells Shula he did his best. He'll just be there for David if he ever wants to talk.

Jamie surprises Kathy by turning up at home with his bag. Kathy carefully asks if he's going to stay around, and Jamie says he is - if that's ok. Kathy tells him it's fine and welcomes him home.


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b010mwty)
The rise of film and TV drama based on real events

When director Danny Boyle read mountaineer Aran Ralston's account of how he cut off his own arm after being stranded in a canyon for five days, he knew he wanted to turn it into a film, which became the Oscar-nominated 127 Hours.

Kirsty Lang talks to Boyle about the process of adapting a true story for the big screen. She also discusses the rise of films and TV dramas based on real events with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin who won the Oscar for his script for The Social Network; Public Enemies screenwriter Ronan Bennett; and actress Hilary Swank who played real characters in Boys Don't Cry and the recent Conviction.

Screenwriter Peter Morgan, who wrote The Deal, The Last King of Scotland and Frost/Nixon, discusses how he approached the subject of Diana's death which ultimately became The Queen, starring Helen Mirren.

And director Peter Weir explains why he turned his hand to an apparently true story when adapting the bestseller The Long Walk, turning it into his recent film The Way Back, starring Colin Farrell.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b010mwv0)
Out of Africa

The Giraffes Go to Hamburg

By Karen Blixen.
Dramatised by Judith Adams

Episode 5: The Giraffes Go to Hamburg

Soon after Karen Blixen relocates to East Africa, she finds herself alone in a foreign land with the enormous responsibility of trying to operate a successful coffee plantation. In order to accomplish this, she must get to know the land and the East Africans who work for and with her. In the process, she learns more about herself.

As Karen faces her greatest fear - the necessity of departure from Africa - the grasshoppers come and seal her fate. And there is still worse to come.

Karen Blixen ..... Emma Fielding
Denys Finch-Hatton ..... Tom Goodman-Hill
Kamante .... Beru Tessema
Farah ..... Maynard Eziashi
Bror ..... Sam Dale

Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b010mwv2)
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the topical debate from Wotton Arts Festival in Wotton under Edge Gloucestershire with panellists Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the critic and writer Sir Christopher Frayling, Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP, and the Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and the Olympics, Tessa Jowell.

Producer: Victoria Wakely.


FRI 20:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b010mwv4)
Series 2

Monsters

Fire breathing dragons are clearly something from legend, but what about a monster that lives in an ancient deep lake?

Sir David Attenborough reflects on a time when pre-eminent conservationist and naturalist Peter Scott was immersed in acquiring evidence of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. No such giant creature has ever been found or concrete evidence it ever existed, but this is an intriguing tale of discovery.

David moves his story on to beyond the highlands of Scotland and into the Himalayas - and it's here that he reveals something very surprising.

Written and presented by David Attenborough

Producer: Julian Hector.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.


FRI 21:00 Russia: The Wild East (b010mwv6)
Series 1 Omnibus

Expansion and Autocratic Rule

The major new history of Russia series began last week in the 9th century with a collection of warring tribes. It looked at the events that laid the foundations of the Russian nation, the adoption of Christianity and the lasting influence of the Mongol invasion. This week Martin Sixsmith discovers the emerging forces that will make her the largest and longest-lived territorial empire in modern history.

He begins with Ivan the Terrible who centralises power in the Tsar, enslaving peasants and nobles alike. Martin Sixsmith paints a vivid portrait of one of Russia's most familiar Tsars, and uses Eisenstein's film Ivan The Terrible to explore the tenets of absolute autocracy that have characterised Russian rule ever since. This 'iron fist' which created a major obstacle to reform, and separated Russia ever further from Western Europe. He cites Ivan's correspondence with Elizabeth I, who by the 1550s was Russia's sole foreign ally. 'Ivan's letters', he says, "sound almost like love letters."

Ivan the Terrible is remembered as a wild-eyed, slightly deranged figure. But his legacy also had its positive side. Under his leadership, Russia expanded for the first time beyond the lands occupied by orthodox, ethnic Russians. It conquered the Tartar khanate of Kazan, laying the foundations for the greatest contiguous empire on earth.

Astoundingly, Russia would grow by 50 square miles a day for the next three centuries, until by 1914 it occupied eight and a half million square miles - a multiethnic, multilingual state spanning more than one seventh of the globe. Today, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia still spans eleven time zones and is home to a hundred nationalities and a hundred and fifty languages.

Historical Consultant: Professor Geoffrey Hosking

Producers: Adam Fowler & Anna Scott-Brown
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 21:58 Weather (b010mwby)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b010nm9k)
The World Tonight with Felicity Evans.

A million people lined the streets of London today to see the royal wedding - but what's the explanation for the appeal of the British monarchy beyond these shores?

And this evening the UN Human Rights Council condemned the Syrian government for using deadly force - we talk to an eyewitness in Damascus and ask what role Turkey is playing behind the scenes.


FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b010wvkk)
The Absolutist

Episode 5

September 1919: 20 year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War but in 1917, Will laid down his guns on the battlefield, declared himself a conscientious objector, an act which has brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family.
But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep in his soul. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage. As he recalls his friendship with Will, from the training ground at Aldershot to the trenches of Northern France, he speaks of how the intensity of their friendship brought him both happiness and self-discovery as well as despair and pain.
From the author that brought us The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The House of Special Purpose - John Boyne creates a story that examines the events of the Great War from the perspective of two young soldiers; whose friendship encounters an extraordinary challenge.

The reader is Blake Ritson.

The Absolutist was abridged by Doreen Estall and produced by Heather Larmour.


FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b010fd93)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 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.




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 (b010m19w)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 MON (b010m19w)

15 Minute Drama 10:45 TUE (b010m7kx)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 TUE (b010m7kx)

15 Minute Drama 10:45 WED (b010mrys)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 WED (b010mrys)

15 Minute Drama 10:45 THU (b010mt2w)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 THU (b010mt2w)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 FRI (b010mwv0)

Act Your Age 18:30 WED (b010mrzk)

Afternoon Reading 00:30 SUN (b00lv228)

Afternoon Reading 15:30 TUE (b010mv4r)

Afternoon Reading 15:30 WED (b010m9t6)

Afternoon Reading 15:30 THU (b010mrz7)

Alive in Chernobyl 20:00 MON (b010r4kh)

All in the Mind 21:00 TUE (b010mcl1)

All in the Mind 16:30 WED (b010mcl1)

American Jihad 17:00 SUN (b010dp1k)

Americana 19:15 SUN (b010m048)

Any Answers? 14:00 SAT (b010k2fg)

Any Questions? 13:10 SAT (b010fd8v)

Any Questions? 20:00 FRI (b010mwv2)

Archive on 4 20:00 SAT (b00jkv2j)

Archive on 4 15:00 MON (b00sb2s4)

Bailout Boys Go to Dublin 13:30 SUN (b010mryv)

Bailout Boys Go to Dublin 11:00 WED (b010mryv)

Beauty of Britain 11:30 WED (b010mryx)

Bells on Sunday 05:43 SUN (b010lxm5)

Bells on Sunday 00:45 MON (b010lxm5)

Between Ourselves 09:00 TUE (b010m7kq)

Between Ourselves 21:30 TUE (b010m7kq)

Beyond Westminster 11:00 SAT (b010k2f8)

Book at Bedtime 22:45 MON (b010v0fm)

Book at Bedtime 22:45 TUE (b010wvg3)

Book at Bedtime 22:45 WED (b010wvhx)

Book at Bedtime 22:45 THU (b010wvjv)

Book at Bedtime 22:45 FRI (b010wvkk)

Book of the Week 00:30 SAT (b010hd95)

Book of the Week 09:45 MON (b00zdbj1)

Book of the Week 00:30 TUE (b00zdbj1)

Book of the Week 09:45 TUE (b00zf6d5)

Book of the Week 00:30 WED (b00zf6d5)

Book of the Week 09:45 WED (b00zf37p)

Book of the Week 00:30 THU (b00zf37p)

Book of the Week 09:45 THU (b00zf386)

Book of the Week 00:30 FRI (b00zf386)

Book of the Week 09:45 FRI (b00zf5sh)

Broadcasting House 09:00 SUN (b010lyy0)

Classic Serial 21:00 SAT (b010dgrb)

Classic Serial 15:00 SUN (b010m03y)

Click On 16:30 MON (b010m2k3)

Costing the Earth 21:00 WED (b010mrzw)

Costing the Earth 13:30 THU (b010mrzw)

Counterpoint 23:00 SAT (b010dhd4)

Counterpoint 13:30 MON (b010m2fd)

Crossing Continents 20:30 MON (b010dstq)

Crossing Continents 11:00 THU (b010mt2y)

David Attenborough's Life Stories 08:50 SUN (b010fd8x)

David Attenborough's Life Stories 20:50 FRI (b010mwv4)

Desert Island Discs 11:15 SUN (b010lyy4)

Desert Island Discs 09:00 FRI (b010lyy4)

Down the Line 18:30 TUE (b010m9tg)

Drama 14:15 MON (b010m2fg)

Drama 14:15 TUE (b010m9t2)

Drama 14:15 WED (b010mrz5)

Drama 14:15 THU (b009yfc7)

Drama 14:15 FRI (b00hv1dz)

Erich Honecker's Rock and Roll Years 11:30 THU (b010mt30)

Excess Baggage 10:00 SAT (b010k2f4)

Fags, Mags and Bags 11:30 MON (b010m2f6)

Fallout: The Legacy of Chernobyl 20:00 TUE (b010mckx)

Farming Today 06:30 SAT (b010k2dy)

Farming Today 05:45 MON (b010m19k)

Farming Today 05:45 TUE (b010m7kl)

Farming Today 05:45 WED (b010mryj)

Farming Today 05:45 THU (b010mt2p)

Farming Today 05:45 FRI (b010mwbk)

Four Thought 20:45 WED (b010mrzt)

From Our Own Correspondent 11:30 SAT (b010k2fb)

Front Row 19:15 MON (b010m2kc)

Front Row 19:15 TUE (b010mckv)

Front Row 19:15 WED (b010mrzp)

Front Row 19:15 THU (b010mv54)

Front Row 19:15 FRI (b010mwty)

Gardeners' Question Time 14:00 SUN (b010lyyd)

Gardeners' Question Time 15:00 FRI (b010mwlq)

Ghost Music 15:30 SAT (b010dp0s)

Great Lives 16:30 TUE (b010fd93)

Great Lives 23:00 FRI (b010fd93)

In Business 21:30 SUN (b010dw0k)

In Business 20:30 THU (b010mv58)

In Living Memory 23:30 MON (b00td9pl)

In Our Time 09:00 THU (b010mvcp)

In Our Time 21:30 THU (b010mvcp)

In Touch 20:40 TUE (b010mckz)

It's Our Story: Liverpool's Own 11:00 MON (b010m2f4)

Jon Ronson On 23:00 TUE (b010mrsk)

Last Word 20:30 SUN (b010fd8g)

Last Word 16:00 FRI (b010mwlv)

Living with Mother 23:00 WED (b010ms1h)

Loose Ends 18:15 SAT (b010k3rm)

Lost Voices 23:30 SAT (b010dgrg)

Lost Voices 16:30 SUN (b010m042)

Making History 15:00 TUE (b010m9t4)

Material World 21:00 MON (b010dw05)

Material World 16:30 THU (b010mv4w)

Midnight News 00:00 SAT (b010fhb0)

Midnight News 00:00 SUN (b010lxlv)

Midnight News 00:00 MON (b010m195)

Midnight News 00:00 TUE (b010m7k6)

Midnight News 00:00 WED (b010mry4)

Midnight News 00:00 THU (b010mt29)

Midnight News 00:00 FRI (b010mwb5)

Midweek 09:00 WED (b010mryn)

Midweek 21:30 WED (b010mryn)

Money Box Live 15:00 WED (b0110f44)

Money Box 12:00 SAT (b010k2fd)

Money Box 21:00 SUN (b010k2fd)

Moral Maze 22:15 SAT (b010drkx)

Moral Maze 20:00 WED (b010mrzr)

Mordrin McDonald: 21st Century Wizard 23:15 WED (b00qprmm)

More or Less 20:00 SUN (b010fd86)

More or Less 13:45 FRI (b010mwbt)

News Briefing 05:30 SAT (b010fhb8)

News Briefing 05:30 SUN (b010lxm3)

News Briefing 05:30 MON (b010m19f)

News Briefing 05:30 TUE (b010m7kg)

News Briefing 05:30 WED (b010mryd)

News Briefing 05:30 THU (b010mt2k)

News Briefing 05:30 FRI (b010mwbf)

News Headlines 06:00 SUN (b010lxm7)

News and Papers 06:00 SAT (b010fhbg)

News and Papers 07:00 SUN (b010lxmh)

News and Papers 08:00 SUN (b010lxmm)

News and Weather 22:00 SAT (b010fhbz)

News 13:00 SAT (b010fhbq)

Open Book 16:00 SUN (b010m040)

Open Book 16:00 THU (b010m040)

Open Country 06:07 SAT (b010k2dw)

Open Country 15:00 THU (b010k2dw)

PM 17:00 SAT (b010k3rk)

PM 17:00 MON (b010m2k5)

PM 17:00 TUE (b010m9td)

PM 17:00 WED (b010mrzf)

PM 17:00 THU (b010mv4y)

PM 17:00 FRI (b010mwlz)

Pavilion Pieces 19:45 SUN (b00m17fx)

Pick of the Week 18:15 SUN (b010m044)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 SAT (b010fhbb)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 MON (b010m19h)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 TUE (b010m7kj)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 WED (b010mryg)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 THU (b010mt2m)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 FRI (b010mwbh)

Profile 19:00 SAT (b010k3rp)

Profile 05:45 SUN (b010k3rp)

Profile 17:40 SUN (b010k3rp)

Radio 4 Appeal 07:55 SUN (b010lyxw)

Radio 4 Appeal 21:26 SUN (b010lyxw)

Radio 4 Appeal 15:27 THU (b010lyxw)

Russia: The Wild East 15:45 MON (b010m2fj)

Russia: The Wild East 15:45 TUE (b010m9t8)

Russia: The Wild East 15:45 WED (b010mrz9)

Russia: The Wild East 15:45 THU (b010mv4t)

Russia: The Wild East 15:45 FRI (b010mwls)

Russia: The Wild East 21:00 FRI (b010mwv6)

Saturday Drama 14:30 SAT (b010k2fj)

Saturday Live 09:00 SAT (b010k2f2)

Saturday Review 19:15 SAT (b010k3rr)

Saving Species 11:00 TUE (b010m7kz)

Saving Species 21:00 THU (b010m7kz)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 SAT (b010fhb4)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 SUN (b010lxlz)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 MON (b010m199)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 TUE (b010m7kb)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 WED (b010mry8)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 THU (b010mt2f)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 FRI (b010mwb9)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 SAT (b010fhb2)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 SAT (b010fhb6)

Shipping Forecast 17:54 SAT (b010fhbs)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 SUN (b010lxlx)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 SUN (b010lxm1)

Shipping Forecast 17:54 SUN (b010lxmr)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 MON (b010m197)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 MON (b010m19c)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 TUE (b010m7k8)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 TUE (b010m7kd)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 WED (b010mry6)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 WED (b010mryb)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 THU (b010mt2c)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 THU (b010mt2h)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 FRI (b010mwb7)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 FRI (b010mwbc)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 SAT (b010fhbx)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 SUN (b010lxmw)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 MON (b010m1b0)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 TUE (b010m7l3)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 WED (b010mrzh)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 THU (b010mt36)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 FRI (b010mwbw)

Something Understood 06:05 SUN (b010lxm9)

Something Understood 23:30 SUN (b010lxm9)

Start the Week 09:00 MON (b010m19r)

Start the Week 21:30 MON (b010m19r)

Sunday Worship 08:10 SUN (b010lyxy)

Sunday 07:10 SUN (b010lyxt)

Sunrise Service 06:35 SUN (b010lxmc)

Tales From the Digital Archive 11:30 TUE (b010m9sw)

That Jan Ravens 23:00 THU (b010mw8c)

The Archers Omnibus 10:00 SUN (b010lyy2)

The Archers 19:00 SUN (b010m046)

The Archers 14:00 MON (b010m046)

The Archers 19:00 MON (b010m2k9)

The Archers 14:00 TUE (b010m2k9)

The Archers 19:00 TUE (b010mcks)

The Archers 14:00 WED (b010mcks)

The Archers 19:00 WED (b010mrzm)

The Archers 14:00 THU (b010mrzm)

The Archers 19:00 THU (b010mv52)

The Archers 14:00 FRI (b010mv52)

The Archers 19:00 FRI (b010mwtw)

The Doctor and Douglas 23:30 FRI (b00rp3dw)

The Film Programme 23:00 SUN (b010fd8j)

The Film Programme 16:30 FRI (b010mwlx)

The Food Programme 12:32 SUN (b010lyy6)

The Food Programme 16:00 MON (b010lyy6)

The Media Show 13:30 WED (b010mrz3)

The Music Group 13:30 TUE (b010m9t0)

The News Quiz 12:30 SAT (b010fd8n)

The News Quiz 18:30 FRI (b010mwm1)

The Prime Ministers 09:30 TUE (b010m7ks)

The Report 20:00 THU (b010mv56)

The Royal Wedding 10:00 FRI (b010mwbp)

The Simon Day Show 18:30 THU (b010mv50)

The Swedish Invasion 10:30 SAT (b010k2f6)

The Unbelievable Truth 12:00 SUN (b010dk23)

The Unbelievable Truth 18:30 MON (b010m2k7)

The World This Weekend 13:00 SUN (b010lyy8)

The World Tonight 22:00 MON (b010m5n6)

The World Tonight 22:00 TUE (b010mcl3)

The World Tonight 22:00 WED (b010pxdd)

The World Tonight 22:00 THU (b010pxdg)

The World Tonight 22:00 FRI (b010nm9k)

Thinking Allowed 00:15 MON (b010dq7d)

Thinking Allowed 16:00 WED (b010mrzc)

Today in Parliament 23:30 TUE (b010mrsm)

Today in Parliament 23:30 WED (b010ms1k)

Today in Parliament 23:30 THU (b010mw8f)

Today 07:00 SAT (b010k2f0)

Today 06:00 MON (b010m19p)

Today 06:00 TUE (b010m7kn)

Today 06:00 WED (b010mryl)

Today 06:00 THU (b010mt2r)

Today 06:00 FRI (b010mwbm)

Weather 06:04 SAT (b010fhbj)

Weather 06:57 SAT (b010fhbl)

Weather 12:57 SAT (b010fhbn)

Weather 17:57 SAT (b010fhbv)

Weather 06:57 SUN (b010lxmf)

Weather 07:57 SUN (b010lxmk)

Weather 12:57 SUN (b010lxmp)

Weather 17:57 SUN (b010lxmt)

Weather 05:57 MON (b010m19m)

Weather 12:57 MON (b010m19y)

Weather 21:58 MON (b010m1b2)

Weather 12:57 TUE (b010m7l1)

Weather 21:58 TUE (b010m7l5)

Weather 12:57 WED (b010mrz1)

Weather 21:58 WED (b010ms00)

Weather 12:57 THU (b010mt34)

Weather 21:58 THU (b010mt38)

Weather 12:57 FRI (b010mwbr)

Weather 21:58 FRI (b010mwby)

Westminster Hour 22:00 SUN (b010m04b)

What the Papers Say 22:45 SUN (b010m04d)

Woman's Hour 16:00 SAT (b010k3rh)

Woman's Hour 10:00 MON (b010m19t)

Woman's Hour 10:00 TUE (b010m7kv)

Woman's Hour 10:00 WED (b010mryq)

Woman's Hour 10:00 THU (b010mt2t)

Wonderful Ways to Beat the Recession 14:45 SUN (b010m03w)

Word of Mouth 23:00 MON (b010dp13)

Word of Mouth 16:00 TUE (b010m9tb)

World at One 13:00 MON (b010m2fb)

World at One 13:00 TUE (b010n4x3)

World at One 13:00 WED (b010pv9h)

World at One 13:00 THU (b010pv7t)

World at One 13:00 FRI (b010pv7w)

You and Yours 12:00 MON (b010m2f8)

You and Yours 12:00 TUE (b010m9sy)

You and Yours 12:00 WED (b010mryz)

You and Yours 12:00 THU (b010mt32)

iPM 05:45 SAT (b010fhbd)

iPM 17:30 SAT (b010fhbd)