The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
A lost avant garde: Laurie Taylor examines the tension between art & money in the contemporary art museum. He talks to Matti Bunzl, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, and author of a study which takes a rare look behind the scenes of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. He found that a commitment to new and difficult work came into conflict with an imperative for growth, leading to an excessive focus on the entertaining and profitable.
Also, biologising parenthood: recent years have seen claims about children's brains becoming central to child health & welfare policies. Pam Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Aston University, Birmingham, argues that this has led to a simplistic construction of the child and one which claims parenting to be the main factor in child development.
Why there's a glut of pork across the EU, and why it's 30 pence per kilo more expensive in the UK than it is on the continent. Zoe Davies of the National Pig Association explains.
Essex skate fishermen explain why they are struggling with the latest fishing quotas, saying they risk going out of business.
We hear that farmers in Scotland can apply for their European farm subsidies online from the day of this broadcast. They hope not to run into the problems some of their English counterparts have experienced. In England all applications for the basic farm payment must be made online.
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the curlew. The haunting song of the curlew instantly summons the spirit of wild places. By April, most curlews have left their winter refuge on estuaries and marshes and have returned to their territories on moorland or upland pastures. Wherever they breed you'll hear the male birds singing and displaying. It's often called the bubbling song.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe discusses shame and betrayal. Jennifer Jacquet argues that modern-day shaming of corporations is a powerful tool to bring about change. However Jon Ronson believes too many lives have been devastated by public shaming and ridicule. Judas is a name synonymous with betrayal but Peter Stanford asks whether in the 21st century he has become the ultimate scapegoat? Arthur Miller's play All My Sons is a classic tale of family, loyalty, guilt, and betrayal and is brought to the stage by the artistic director of Talawa, Michael Buffong.
A true story that you couldn't make up - one man's attempt to survive a global catastrophe by setting up a commune in Scotland.
While lecturing in robotics, academic Dylan Evans became increasingly concerned by the visible impacts of global warming, population increase, terrorism - and by our inability to cope with a doomsday scenario in a world engineered to just-in-time living.
The concern became an obsession and Evans left his post to run an experiment. He set up a camp that would create the conditions for a post-apocalyptic world. It was established in the Scottish Highlands with a collection of people chosen for talents and skills necessary in a life without technology or comforts.
The resulting story is a Lord of the Flies for the modern day, treating serious and normally sombre topics with dark humour. At its heart, however, is one man's well-intentioned dream and the price he paid for trying to do something good.
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in March 2015.
Caitlin and Caz Moran on Raised by Wolves, the new TV sitcom they've written together and the real-life stories behind their fictionalised account of growing up on a Wolverhampton council estate. Sonic Youth singer Kim Gordon looks back at her years with the band in a personal memoir about her life, taking her from suburban California to cultural icon. Why it's time to take a look at economics from a feminist perspective with Swedish writer Katrine Marcal. As the General Election nears, we hear from Scotland on how the parties are addressing issues that concern voters.
Delia Grinstead's new job in the sleepy town of Bay Borough draws her into the business of another fractured family.
Professor Emma Griffin examines the lives of working women during the industrial revolution, through a rich body of neglected sources - working-class autobiography.
It can be difficult to study the lives of women as the historical record often tells us so little about them. But there are a handful of wonderful autobiographies, rediscovered by Emma Griffin, and in this programme she uses them to bring to life the voices of working women during the industrial revolution.
We hear from Ellen Johnston, living in Glasgow during the cotton boom; Betty Shaw from textile producing Lancashire; and Martha Smith, a domestic servant working in London. They feature in autobiographies full of fascinating detail about their lives and struggles. Emma uses these to show how life in the factories led to a transformation in women's opportunities for sexual freedom and expression - a little-known consequence of the industrial revolution.
Ronnie Corbett returns to Radio 4 for a third series of his popular sitcom by Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent.
Ronnie plays Sandy Hopper, who is growing old happily along with his dog Henry. His grown up children - both married to people Sandy doesn't approve of at all - would like him to move out of the family home so they can get their hands on their money earlier. But Sandy's not having this. He's not moving until the dog dies. And not just that, how can he move if he's got a lodger? His daughter is convinced that his too-attractive lodger Dolores is after Sandy and his money.
Luckily, Sandy has three grandchildren and sometimes a friendly word, a kindly hand on the shoulder, can really help a Grandad in the twenty-first century. Man and dog together face a complicated world. There's every chance they'll make it more so.
Sandy's neighbour Ken, although ancient, is still winning things - hearts, minds and the cup at the Squash Club. In fact, he seems to have discovered the secret of eternal youth. Only a raid on his garden will reveal the truth!
Kitty's life feels like a Gothic novel, complete with footprints in the snow, and a haunted lake.
The pre-school children with learning difficulties who don't get help they need because of where they live.
Government gives businesses 'relief' from a company claiming cash they weren't entitled to.
How random electrical 'noise' could be the cause of slow broadband and what you can do about it.
With the prospect of a closely fought general election on 7th May, Peter Hennessy, the historian, invites senior figures with experience of, or expertise in, the constitution, parliament and government, to discuss how a government would be formed if no single party wins an overall majority in the House of Commons.
The possibility of a hung parliament raises urgent questions about how the country would be governed during a period of political uncertainty.
Peter Hennessy's first guest is Lord O'Donnell - Gus O'Donnell - the former Cabinet Secretary.
This series examines the ground-rules - conventions, laws, precedents and principles - for deciding whether a prime minister and government can remain in office, or a new prime minister should be appointed and a new government formed. When no party won an overall majority in 2010, it took five days of talks before a coalition was formed between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Their agreement enabled the Queen to appoint David Cameron as prime minister, because he could command the confidence of the House of Commons.
In the hung parliament of 1974, the leader of the largest party in the Commons, Harold Wilson, formed a 'minority government'. In effect, the prime minister of a minority government commands the confidence of the House by calling the other parties' bluff, defying them to defeat the government in a confidence vote, thereby triggering an election. However, it has become more difficult for a prime minister to engineer an early election since 2011, when Parliament passed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. Peter Hennessy and his guests examine how a government would be formed in the event of a hung parliament and weigh the risks of a constitutional and political crisis.
Denise, a recently divorced middle-aged woman, falls head over heels for an older Polish man. But is he really who he says is, and can her desire to start afresh and love again have the happy ending she so longs for?
Reeling from a recent divorce, Denise falls passionately in love with an enigmatic Polish émigre, Karol. But Karol, a man full of secrets, is in flight from the realities of his own life - a life that had been lived, for the most part, behind the Iron Curtain: a life of moral compromise and collusion and the slow erosion of his better self, which only now, with the belated opening of the former state files in Poland, is coming to light. As truths about him begin to surface, Denise is forced to confront the fact that her longed-for fairy tale may not have a happy ending.
Now, Love is the story of Denise's powerful desire to love and live again after divorce has shattered her confidence and wrenched a sense of identity away from her.
The 2015 season of the nationwide general knowledge quiz reaches the last of the heats, with Russell Davies in the questionmaster's chair. With just one more automatic place in the semi-finals to be decided, and four places available to the top-scoring runners-up of the series, it all hinges on the outcome of today's contest.
Russell's unpredictable questions include which three words appear in the centre of the Brazilian flag, and what type of motion is described by the Navier-Stokes equations.
The contestants in this final heat are from London, Oxford, High Wycombe and Bristol.
Will Trevor Cox be able to give up music for Lent? This will prove difficult as he uses music to illustrate his lectures as a Professor of Acoustics, and he is a keen amateur musician who usually practices his saxophone every day. He will also find it hard to avoid music in public places like bars, restaurants, shopping malls and tube stations. He will have to avoid theatre, cinema and concerts but even at home he will need to be careful about watching TV and listening to the radio.
Trevor considers what effect music has on us, and whether the fact that music has become so ubiquitous is a good thing. And he asks what music actually is - how can he be sure what he has to avoid?
With contributions from Tom Service, Professor Lauren Stewart, Professor Charles Spence, Dr Victoria Williamson and film/TV music composer Debbie Wiseman.
In Britain we're sometimes nervous about talking about religion, lacking the tools to talk about it in a society of many faiths and none. But how can we begin to understand one another if we cannot talk about those things which form the bedrock of so many peoples' lives.
Joining Ernie to discuss Religious Literacy are Dr James Conroy, Vice Principal of the University of Glasgow and lead author of the publication, "Does Religious Education Work?"; Dr Adam Dinham, Professor of Faith and Public Policy at Goldsmith's, University of London; and Dr Abby Day, Reader of Race, Faith and Culture at Goldsmiths, and author of "Believing and Belonging."
Jolene and Kenton return from Australia, shocked at the devastation they find in Ambridge - and at the Bull. They have a few gifts for Fallon, as a thank you for looking after the pub.
Bert and Jill plan Freda's funeral. Bert will read a special poem he has written. He asks Jill to give the eulogy. Jill is touched and suggests that Jolene also talks about Freda's life at the Bull. Although his heart is broken, Bert's keen to keep things positive and remember happy times. And there will be flowers, what with Freda having arranged the church flowers for so long. Although he's doing his best, Bert wonders what on earth he's going to do without Freda.
Unaware of David's decision to stay in Ambridge, Kenton welcomes him at the Bull as the local hero. But when David finally comes clean about not moving, Kenton is furious. He points out all the things he was planning to do with the money from the Brookfield sale, like helping Fallon's business and setting up a trust fund for Meriel. Kenton doesn't want to listen to David's protestations. He can't even look at his brother right now and sends him away.
Saudi Arabia has been in the public eye recently, not least because of the death of King Abdullah. In the final part of his new series, Egyptian writer Tarek Osman examines the last few years of this desert Kingdom and asks why it is still so relevant and yet so misunderstood.
His journey has taken him from the origins of the modern Kingdom through the oil boom and threats to the stability of Saudi Arabia during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait to the fallout from 9/11 - where 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals - when Al Qaeda conducted a terrorist campaign inside the Kingdom.
This week Osman considers how the impact of the Arab Uprisings of 2011 was felt in Saudi Arabia. A growing youth population with high unemployment and well adapted to social media did not take to the streets as in other Arab countries. As regimes fell in the region, the late King Abdullah injected billions of dollars into welfare programmes and introduced certain reforms as a pre-emptive measure to ward off potential unrest.
But as we'll see, Saudi society - including the youth - consists of large sections who want gradual change and large sections who strongly resist it. The Kingdom moves forward internally at its own pace, whilst the region has gone up in flames with wars raging in Iraq and Syria. And, eyeing up its ideological rival Iran, Saudi Arabia has become more assertive then ever in its foreign policy the region.
As King Salman takes power the royal family comes towards the end of the line of sons of the founder of the Kingdom, Abdel Aziz Ibn Saud. Tarek considers the future of this traditional society and global banker of oil as a new generation of leaders and citizens waits in the wings.
Is it time to rethink how we care for older people, to enable them to have fulfilling lives?
In recent years the media has highlighted terrible cases of paid carers abusing and neglecting vulnerable, older people. Is it now time for a more fundamental re-examination of how society should care for older people? Much is made of the poor status, low wages and lack of training of workers in the care system. Why are older people entrusted to them in a way which we would never allow for children? Should we tackle the view that old age is simply a period of decline that has to be managed rather than an opportunity for a fulfilling final chapter of life? Sonia Sodha examines new thinking from Japan, the US and closer to home about how care might be done differently. And she considers whether we need to change our approach to how we look after the elders in our society.
Wildlife cameraman and filmmaker John Aitchison sets up his hide near a partially-frozen lake in Missouri, Midwestern United States, and waits for flocks of Lesser Snow Geese to fly over. Its spring and the birds are on migration. Lesser Snow Geese are one of the commonest birds in America; there are more than 5 million breeding pairs. Watching their huge flocks has been likened to watching snowflakes in a storm; there are just too many birds to count, and yet when the first Europeans arrived in America, populations of the Passenger Pigeon numbered billions not just millions. The early settlers could look up at the sky and see flocks of passenger pigeons as dense as these geese pass over, not just for minutes but for hours or even days. It's hard to imagine such a huge abundance of birds. One nesting colony reportedly covered 850 square miles.
The last passenger pigeon, a bird called Martha who was born and lived in captivity at Cincinnati zoo, died just over 100 years ago on Sept 1st 1914. In this programme, John travels to the States to see Martha, (after her death, she was packed in ice and sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC where she was preserved and is now kept) and learns about the history and lives of the Passenger Pigeons and discovers the causes of their extinction (a combination of deforestation, hunting, railroads, refrigeration and human greed). A century on, John reflects on what lessons we have learned from the birds' demise and explores the possibility of bringing the passenger pigeon back from extinction, using genomic technology and a living relative, the band-tailed pigeon. It's a fascinating and sobering journey; as John says when he comes face to face with Martha; "Extinction is a terrible thing". Producer Sarah Blunt.
Conservatives accuse Labour of trying to get into power on Sturgeon's "coat tails"
A tale of love, betrayal and redemption in the dying days of the Cold War. Set in Germany both in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as post-unification, and encompassing the excesses of life in 1980's Britain.
Bob McPherson is Scottish and unemployed. He lost his highly-paid job in the City because of his alcoholism. His counsellor at the Alcohol Advisory Service suggests he look back to a pivotal point in his life - Leipzig in the 1980s, when the GDR held its citizens in an iron grip.
Naive, and innocent of the machinations of the East German state, Bob embraces life as a PhD student at Leipzig University. There he falls in love with Magda Reinsch, a student with secret plans to escape to the West.
As their love affair deepens, Magda and Bob are drawn into a web of deception and betrayal. In a country where the Stasi is always watching, no-one is quite who they seem and everyone has their price.
Bob leaves the GDR thinking he is responsible for a man's death and that he lost Magda because of it. Now, in revisiting the past, Bob may be able to uncover the truth of his Leipzig Affair.
Fiona Rintoul is a financial journalist and translator. The Leipzig Affair is her first novel, and won the 2013 Virginia prize for the best new fiction by a woman writing in English.
Life will be so much better when we move to Spain, buy a new car, elect a different government, acquire those new shoes.....
We can all succumb to the promise of the new - change will be all we need to live the perfect lives. But we also know the reality rarely lives up to the promise. Shoes are scuffed, endless sun becomes wearisome and new governments - well lets just say they rapidly tarnish.
Yet disappointment after disappointment never seems to banish the lurking conviction that the grass is always greener on the other side. It appears we have within us a bias towards change.
Much of this is about the pursuit of happiness, but our own judgement about what makes us happy is often flawed.
This bias can manifest in the most unlikeliest of ways. The elation of winning that nick-nack in an online auction rapidly diminishes when we realise we've overbid significantly.
In the Human Zoo this week, you'll hear this lust for change in action, illustrated by experiment and discussed by some of the greatest minds in the field. We hear from perhaps the world's leading psychologist, Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman. You'll hear how our bias for change interacts with our fickle memories which has led to a radical approach to making that hospital stay not feel quite so bad after all.
The Human Zoo, where we see public decisions viewed through private thoughts, is presented by Michael Blastland, with the trusted guidance of Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School.
Peers approve plans to put cigarettes in plain packaging. Spending on social care is debated at Communities Questions in the House of Commons. And on committee corridor, members of the Public Accounts Committee react with trepidation to news of another ambitious IT project. Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
TUESDAY 17 MARCH 2015
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b055dgxc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b059crs2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b055dgxf)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b055dgxh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b055dgxk)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b055dgxm)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b055g4f6)
A short reflection and prayer, with the Rev Dr Lesley Carroll.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b055g4f8)
Halal Slaughter, Bees, Hedgehogs
New research is being unveiled at a livestock seminar today that could make pre-stun slaughter more acceptable to Muslim consumers. Under religious rules animals must be alive when their throats are cut, and there have been fears that pre-stunning itself can kill them. This makes the meat unacceptable. But research carried out for Eblex shows in a survey of 500 sheep and lambs, pre-stunning this was not the case.
The organisation hopes the results will inform the ongoing debate over halal meat.
BBC environment correspondent Claire Marshall has been with The Warwickshire Wildlife Trust at their new Solihull improvement area in Elmden to find out how they are trying to boost the dwindling number of hedgehogs.
And new research from scientists at Plymouth University shows bumble bees are ending up feeding on flowers by the road side of hedges rather than on the field-side of the boundary. That's because fertilizers used on crops also encourage more grasses and non flowering plants, so bees have little to feed on.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Sally Challoner.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zr00f)
Bittern
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the bittern. As the first shoots of spring appear in the reed-beds, you might hear the booming sound of a bittern. The bittern's boom is lower pitched than any other UK bird and sounds more like a distant foghorn than a bird. Today these birds are on the increase, thanks to the creation of large reed-beds.
TUE 06:00 Today (b055g5hz)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b055g5j1)
Matt Taylor on the Rosetta space mission
Matt Taylor talks to Jim Al-Khalili about being in charge of the Rosetta space mission to the distant comet, 67P. It is, he says, 'the sexiest thing alive', after his wife. He describes his joy when, after travelling for ten years and covering four billion miles, the robot, Philae landed on the speeding comet 67P; and turned the image tattooed on his thigh from wishful thinking into a triumph for science. Matt's father, a builder, encouraged him to do well at school. He wanted him to get a job in science and Matt didn't disappoint, joining the European Space Agency in June 2005. His charm and exuberance have brought competing teams together as they fight for their science to have priority on Rosetta. His enthusiasm has helped to spark and fuel a global interest in the mission and he deeply regrets his choice of shirt on one occasion.
Producer: Anna Buckley.
TUE 09:30 One to One (b054qc1k)
Zubeida Malik meets Sister Christine Frost
Zubeida Malik is a journalist who works mostly as a reporter for the Today programme. For the next two weeks she's taking over the One to One microphone to explore the nature of Britain's changing communities. In this first programme she meets Sister Christine Frost, a Roman Catholic nun who has lived and worked in east London for over forty years. Based at the St Matthias Community Centre on the Will Crooks Estate in Tower Hamlets, Sister Christine has seen huge changes in the four decades she's worked there: an estate that was mostly white British and black Caribbean is now predominantly Bengali. Zubeida asks how this 77 year old nun from Ireland has adapted, and what challenges these changes have brought to her life and work.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b055fkbc)
The Utopia Experiment
Episode 2
The commune has only just begun to establish itself in its Highlands base but is already afflicted by competing visions for its future – even though there are only two members.
Written and read by Dylan Evans.
A true story that you couldn't make up - one man's attempt to survive a global catastrophe by setting up a commune in Scotland.
While lecturing in robotics, academic Dylan Evans became increasingly concerned by the visible impacts of global warming, population increase, terrorism - and by our inability to cope with a doomsday scenario in a world engineered to just-in-time living.
The concern became an obsession and Evans left his post to run an experiment. He set up a camp that would create the conditions for a post-apocalyptic world. It was established in the Scottish Highlands with a collection of people chosen for talents and skills necessary in a life without technology or comforts.
The resulting story is a Lord of the Flies for the modern day, treating serious and normally sombre topics with dark humour. At its heart, however, is one man's well-intentioned dream and the price he paid for trying to do something good.
Abridged by Barry Johnston
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in March 2015.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b055g5j5)
Natural Childbirth Backlash, Gender-Neutral Clothing, Jill Leovy
Is natural childbirth being pursued at too high a cost for women and their babies? Jenni hears from both sides of the debate; as Selfridges launches a new project called 'Agender,' which includes a gender neutral clothing range, we ask what this says about the future of fashion as we know it? Jenni speaks to fashion journalist Kenya Hunt; as part of BBC News School Report 2015 we hear from 13 year old Caitlin, on what it's like to have a little sister who is autistic; and Jenni talks to Jill Leovy, the author of Ghettoside.
Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Sarah Crawley.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b055g5j7)
Ladder of Years
Ketchup on His French Fries
by Anne Tyler dramatised by Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
Episode Seven - Ketchup on his French Fries
Delia Grinstead's new life and equilibrium are disturbed by an unexpected visitor to town.
Delia ..... Nancy Crane
Narrator ..... Barbara Barnes
Noah ..... Sean McCrystal
Binky ..... Rhiannon Neads
Nat ..... David Hounslow
Joel ..... Sam Dale
Carroll ..... Sam Valentine
Rick Rack ..... Jude Akuwudike
Belle ..... Jane Slavin
Director: David Hunter.
TUE 11:00 Restarting the Antibiotic Pipeline (b055g5j9)
Episode 1
In the first part of this two part series, science journalist Roland Pease looks at the key scientific issues behind why increasing numbers of antibiotic drugs are becoming useless. He examines the disturbing lack of new drugs that are becoming available to doctors to replace the obsolete ones.
The discovery and deployment of antibiotic drugs in the mid twentieth century led some medics to predict the end of infectious diseases. But the bacteria fought and continue to fight back, evolving resistance to many of the drugs that used to kill them.
Public health officials warn that without new drugs, medicine will return to the days where 'a cut finger on Monday leads to death of Friday'. Without protective antibiotics to keep infections at bay, scores of standard surgical operations, chemotherapy for cancer, organ transplants and kidney dialysis will become too risky. Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, has described this scenario as the end of modern medicine and has compared the dangers of the antibiotic crisis to threat from international terrorism.
The injudicious use of these drugs means that antibiotic-resistant forms are now everywhere. Human bodies, rivers and soils are environments where antibiotic-resistant forms can flourish in the absence of drug-susceptible bacterial brethren.
The problem is a global one and the conditions which encourage the emergence of resistant bugs exist in many environments, not just in patients and on unclean hospital floors. Liz Wellington of the University of Warwick monitors the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bugs lurking in the mud of rivers in the UK. They've got there from us via the UK's sewage systems.
Prevalence of some drug-resistant bugs is high enough in British rivers but the situation in rivers such as India and China is "horrendous" according to Liz Wellington. One pharmaceutical factory in China was found to be flushing extraordinary amounts of the antibiotic fluoroquinolone into a local river. The quantity dumped by this one factory every day was equal to the amount consumed by all the patients in Scandinavia in a year.
With international air travel, resistant bacteria which emerged after this level of exposure in China could be in Copenhagen, Stockholm or London within 24 hours.
While the wider world is awash in antibiotics and antibiotic resistance is on the rise, there is little comfort to be gained from looking at the prospects for new drugs coming to the market. The last new class of antibiotic was discovered in a lab the 1980s and it took almost 30 years to get to the clinic. Most new drugs coming to market are chemical variants of existing types of drugs.
After his young son almost died of a multidrug-resistant infection following appendicitis, medicinal chemist Michael Kinch looked at the historical trends in antibiotic invention by the pharmaceutical industry since the mid 20th century. There was a sharp decline 15 years ago. From the 1950s through to the end of the 1990s, three new antibiotic medicines came onto the market every year. In the first decade of the 21st century, the number plummeted to one new drug every other year - a sixfold decrease. Even worse, antibiotics are falling out of use at twice the rate of new ones are becoming available to doctors.
More bad news comes from Professor Laura Piddock at the University of Birmingham, the scientific task of inventing novel kinds of antibiotics is much more challenging than it once was: "The low hanging fruit has been picked".
(The second part of the series will look at why pharmaceutical companies have turned away from antibiotic research and development, and ideas now being discussed by government and industry to restart the antibiotic pipeline and avert the looming resistance crisis.).
TUE 11:30 Gareth Gwynn's Little Book of Welsh Rock (b055g69f)
All the things you thought you knew about "Welsh music" are wrong.
Forget Tom Jones, Bread of Heaven, male voice choirs, Shirley Bassey: in 2015, the most vibrant and confident place that "Welshness" is articulated in music...is in Welsh-language rock.
There is a whole world of musical activity happening that almost no-one across Offa's Dyke has any idea about. This isn't some niche pursuit - the Welsh-language music scene is young, contemporary and thriving, and has fired off in hugely inventive and original paths that the English language rock scene hasn't; few realise that the internationally-renowned bands Catatonia and Super Furry Animals released songs in their first language of Welsh as well as English. For English music lovers in the know (like the late Radio 1 DJ John Peel) - "roc cymraeg" is fascinating in being completely British yet completely 'other' - in a way few parts of British culture can match. Most crucially, for teenage Welsh-language speakers, it's the medium through which express their cultural and political nationalism - their 'otherness' - most freely.
But Welsh-language rock is a political hot potato, mired in the same cultural and linguistic controversies that dog the idea of "Welshness" across the nation's culture. As the Scottish debated their independence referendum last year, no-one argued that not speaking Gaelic made anyone 'less Scottish'. But in Wales - where around a tenth of the population speak Welsh as a first language - there remains amongst some the idea that you're not truly Welsh unless you speak the national tongue. With the roots of contemporary Welsh rock lying in the protest movements of the 1960s, there remains a highly political - some say Anglophobic - strain to the music scene. If rock music in Welsh is a medium for the Welsh national psyche to truly express itself - who is it leaving out?
Satirist Gareth Gwynn has an identity crisis. He's a proper, paid-up music geek and a proud Welshman. But his iPod's full of English bands...and he doesn't speak Welsh. Can Gareth embrace his inner 'cymro' and immerse himself in a world through the looking-glass? Does he even need to? Gareth embarks on a twisted, often faintly surreal journey through the heart of Welsh-language rock.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b055dgxp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Home Front (b055g5vr)
17 March 1915 - Cressida Marshall
Cressida hits the roof when she realises what her mother and aunt have kept from her.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
TUE 12:16 You and Yours (b055g5vw)
Call You and Yours: Dog Control in the UK
Are we doing enough to tackle dangerous dogs in the UK?
New sentencing guidelines have been announced for cases where dogs have attacked. It'll look at whether owners have specifically trained dogs to attack and the levels of injury suffered by the victims.
Are there enough controls on dogs in the UK - or more specifically on the OWNERS of dogs?
You can email us now at youandyours@bbc.co.uk
PRESENTER: ANDREA CATHERWOOD
PRODUCER: PETE WILSON.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b055dgxr)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b055g5vy)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.
TUE 13:45 When the People Say Not Sure (b055g5w0)
Episode 2
With the prospect of a closely fought general election on 7th May, Peter Hennessy, the historian, is joined by Kenneth Clarke, former Chancellor, Lord Chancellor and Home Secretary, and an MP since 1970, to discuss how a government would be formed if no single party wins an overall majority in the House of Commons. The possibility of a hung parliament raises urgent questions about how the country would be governed during a period of political uncertainty.
They examine the ground-rules - conventions, laws, precedents and principles - for deciding whether a prime minister and government remain in office, or a new prime minister is appointed and a new government formed. When no single party won an overall majority in 2010, it took five days before talks between the parties produced a coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Their agreement enabled the Queen to appoint David Cameron as prime minister, because he could command the confidence of the House of Commons.
In the hung parliament of 1974, the leader of the largest party in the Commons, Harold Wilson, formed a 'minority government'. In effect, the prime minister of a minority government commands the confidence of the House by calling the other parties' bluff, defying them to defeat the government in a confidence vote, thereby triggering an election. However, it has become more difficult for a prime minister to engineer an early election since 2011, when Parliament passed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.
Peter Hennessy and his guests examine how a government would be formed in the event of a hung parliament and weigh the risks of a constitutional and political crisis.
Producer: Rob Shepherd.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b055g10s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 McLevy (b00yync9)
Series 7
The Firebrand
New series of Victorian detective mysteries starring Brian Cox as Inspector James McLevy.
Written by David Ashton.
Episode one: The Firebrand. McLevy investigates the kidnap of a women's rights campaigner.
Producer/director: Bruce Young.
TUE 15:00 Making History (b055g73w)
Today, Helen Castor is joined by Professor Anthony Howe and Professor Karen Sayer.
On the 150th anniversary of his death, has the legacy of the proponent of free-trade, Richard Cobden, been outshone by socialist Friedrich Engels? Professor Martin Hewitt sends a postcard from 1840's Manchester to explain the impact of the Anti-Corn Law League.
Tom Holland is in Stirling to meet the conservation writer Jim Crumley and hear about the last wolf, whilst Professor Ronald Hutton explains why the creature has taken on such a mythical status.
Meanwhile, Dr Sam Willis shares his love of pirates and the question 'What if?'.
You can email the programme at making.history@bbc.co.uk.
Producer: Nick Patrick
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b055g73y)
Lava: A Dangerous Game
A report from the United Nations published this week highlights for the first time the international impacts of volcanoes. Previously regarded as a local problem for people in Iceland, Indonesia or Central America the UN now recognises that our interconnected world can be split asunder by relatively small eruptions.
The 2010 eruptions in Iceland disrupted air travel for weeks, costing the global economy an estimated $4.9bn. In response enormous improvements are being made in the technology used to detect imminent volcanic eruptions. But is the technology enough on its own? Do changes need to be made in the way that vulnerable communities in the developing world are taught about the dangers on their doorstep? Can more be done to communicate risk without inducing panic?
From Nicaragua to Iceland, Montserrat to Santorini, Tom Heap hears from the scientists on the frontline, men and women enchanted by the stunning beauty of volcanoes but well aware of their potential to destroy communities and change our climate.
Producer: Alasdair Cross.
TUE 16:00 In Search of Moderate Muslims (b055g740)
Sarfraz Manzoor asks if moderate Muslims exist and, if not, where did they go?
Sarfraz describes himself as a moderate Muslim. He says he can't get too offended by a cartoon and belongs firmly among the liberal and progressive. But he wonders if he is now something of an oddity.
Is the idea of tolerance and integration a hopeful myth and the reality something more troubling?We're often told the vast majority of Muslims in Britain are moderate - but what exactly does that mean?
Producer: Natalie Steed
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b055g742)
Claire Skinner and Louise Welsh
Actress Claire Skinner, who plays the mum in BBC One's Outnumbered, and Glaswegian author Louise Welsh, talk favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. They include A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers.
Producer Beth O'Dea.
TUE 17:00 PM (b055g8z9)
PM at
5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b055dgxt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Ayres on the Air (b03qfzgg)
Series 5
Horses
Pam Ayres presents poems, stories and sketches about a subject close to her heart: Horses.
Pam recalls going to the races as a little girl and ponders the significance of leg positioning in statues of horses.
Plus an intriguing story of being flattered by a stranger's attentions at the Badminton Horse Trials.
With:
Felicity Montagu
Geoffrey Whitehead as Pam's long-suffering husband 'Gordon'.
Poems include: The Racehorse Fred, The Stuffed Horse & Dreaming of Fresh Fields.
Sketch writers: James Bugg, Jan Etherington, Grainne McGuire, Andy Wolton and Tom Neenan.
Producer: Claire Jones.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2014.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b055g8zc)
Kirsty visits, to see for herself how Ambridge was affected by the flood, and to show Pat and Tony her support.
As she clocks the temporary shop at Bridge Farm, Kirsty's shocked to hear that they're thinking of closing the Ambridge Organics shop, and that Helen is now the happy housewife. Kirsty tells Pat what she has been up to. She took some time to get her head together at home in the Wirral. She is now temping and sharing a flat in Felpersham. Pat's so grateful for the card Kirsty sent.
Kirsty visits Fallon at the Bull and puts some money behind the bar for the Grundys.
Joe is at Grey Gables, dressed in various outlandish cast-offs and enjoying the hospitality - including a pedicure at the health club. Joe heard that Hazel Woolley's insurance is paying for the flood damage to Keeper's Cottage.
Ed goes to see Charlie, who offers him some work digging out the ditches and culverts on the Estate. Charlie mentions insists on a confidentiality clause. Ed should be discreet about the condition he finds them in. Happy Ed tells Joe he could be onto some big money out of this.
TUE 19:16 Front Row (b055g8zf)
Samuel West, Bloodline, AD Miller, Spring in Verse
Samuel West discusses directing April De Angelis's black comedy After Electra at the The Theatre Royal Plymouth in which secrets of the past take their toll on family relationships.
Dark secrets too of a seemingly successful American family feature in a new thriller Bloodline from Netflix, whose previous productions include House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Viv Groskop reviews.
AD Miller was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize with his debut novel Snowdrops, set in Moscow. He discusses his follow up, The Faithful Couple, a contemporary morality tale about a friendship between two men who meet on a gap-year in California.
Front Row's 'Green Fuse' series, in which artists choose works that evoke spring for them, comes from Togo Igawa. Togo explains the Japanese springtime passion for cherry blossom - there is even a cherry blossom forecast on Japanese television - and reads haiku by leading poets inspired by these fleeting flowers.
Sinead O'Connor has told her fans that she will never sing her biggest hit, Nothing Compares 2 U, live again as she feels she no longer has an emotional connection with the song. David Hepworth discusses other musicians who refuse to perform their best-known songs.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Olivia Skinner.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b055g5j7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b055g8zh)
Sick of School
Is the pressure on teachers reaching crisis point?
Record numbers are leaving the classroom and thousands of teachers recently responded to the Government's workload survey to say they were struggling with their workload. They blamed the pressure of Ofsted inspections and pressure from school management.
Official absence statistics are silent on the causes of sick leave - but now File on 4 reveals new figures on the number of teachers off long-term because of stress.
Jane Deith hears from those who say they were pushed to the brink by the pressure - some suicidal and others hospitalized or diagnosed with depression.
Teaching has always involved long hours and heavy workloads but, with schools' performance open to unprecedented scrutiny, some education academics argue that the 'surveillance culture' is now seriously harming teacher's health and their ability to provide high quality education.
Are they right? How alarmed should we be about the mental well-being of our children's teachers?
Reporter: Jane Deith Producer: Matt Precey.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b055g8zk)
Children's Disability Living Allowance, Bluffington Post
Laura Jolliffe talks about her fight to get her deafblind 8 year old daughter Ava the benefits to which she is entitled. The Department for Work and Pensions originally told the Jolliffe's that Ava wasn't disabled enough to be entitled to benefits, but they have since apologised for this.
It is the responsibility of the German government to continue paying benefits to Ava and Laura as her carer.
The DWP is now supporting the Jolliffe's processing their claim.
And the noble art of bluffing - Kristina Venning-Rose talks about her blog The Bluffington Post.
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b055g8zm)
Avastin, Peanut Allergy, Bowel Bacteria and Faecal Transplants
Mark Porter visits a very smelly laboratory to find out how your gut bacteria could be influencing your weight - and more besides.
Doctors have written to the authorities asking for permission to use the drug Avastin instead of the more expensive alternative, Lucentis, to treat patients with age related macular degeneration (AMD) - the commonest cause of blindness in older people. Inside Health investigates.
And new research into peanut allergy, turning conventional wisdom on its head, that every parent should know.
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b055g5j1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b055dgxw)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b055g8zp)
All-square in Israeli General Election
Exit polls suggest Likud party running neck and neck with centre-left Zionist Union.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b05h4n8d)
The Leipzig Affair
Episode 2
A tale of love, betrayal and redemption in the dying days of the Cold War. Set in Germany both in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as post-unification, and encompassing the excesses of life in 1980's Britain.
Bob McPherson is Scottish and unemployed. He lost his highly-paid job in the City because of his alcoholism. His counsellor at the Alcohol Advisory Service suggests he look back to a pivotal point in his life - Leipzig in the 1980s, when the GDR held its citizens in an iron grip.
Naive, and innocent of the machinations of the East German state, Bob embraces life as a PhD student at Leipzig University. There he falls in love with Magda Reinsch, a student with secret plans to escape to the West.
As their love affair deepens, Magda and Bob are drawn into a web of deception and betrayal. In a country where the Stasi is always watching, no-one is quite who they seem and everyone has their price.
Bob leaves the GDR thinking he is responsible for a man's death and that he lost Magda because of it. Now, in revisiting the past, Bob may be able to uncover the truth of his Leipzig Affair.
Episode 2:
Magda's plan to escape to the West suffers a major setback. Meanwhile, Bob is inspired to leave his Scottish university and study in Leipzig.
Fiona Rintoul is a financial journalist and translator. The Leipzig Affair is her first novel, and won the 2013 Virginia prize for the best new fiction by a woman writing in English.
Readers: Douglas Henshall and Indira Varma
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:00 The Hot Kid (b055g8zr)
Fresh Start
Fed up with waiting for Deputy Marshal Carl Webster to take her dancing, Louly has gone to Kansas City to make a fresh start, with a new job and new name.
She arrives at the same time as Jack Belmont, who's fled Tulsa after shooting his partner and now plans to start robbing banks. Both soon come to the attention of local crime boss Teddy Ritz and it's not long before Carl has to bail them all out of trouble.
Elmore Leonard's enthralling criminal odyssey is set against the dusty, sun-kissed backdrop of Oklahoma and Kansas during America's Great Depression.
Adapted by Katie Hims
Louly Brown . . . . . Samantha Dakin
Tony Antonelli . . . . . Nathan Osgood
Carl Webster . . . . . Luke Norris
Jack Belmont . . . . . Adam Gillen
Teddy Ritz . . . . . Lucian Msamati
Heidi Dilworth . . . . . Bettrys Jones
Lou Tessa . . . . . Shaun Mason
Bank Guard . . . . . David Acton
Bank Teller . . . . . Hannah Genesius
Bank Manager . . . . . Ian Conningham
Hotshot . . . . . Paul Heath
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b055g8zt)
The Home Secretary says police, civil servants or intelligence officers should be able to give evidence about child abuse without fear of being prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act.
In their last question time the Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, and his Labour opposite number, Sadiq Khan, clash over legal aid cuts and prisons.
MPs call for the release after 13 years of the last British resident held at Guantanamo Bay.
MPs rejected changes made by the Lords to the Government's Modern Slavery Bill.
And two former heads of the Metropolitan Police warn against the use of water cannon on the streets of London.
WEDNESDAY 18 MARCH 2015
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b055dgyq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b055fkbc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b055dgys)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b055dgyv)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b055dgyx)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b055dgyz)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b055g98w)
A short reflection and prayer, with the Rev Dr Lesley Carroll.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b055g98y)
Rural payments, Pig disease, Common land grazing
There is still no end in sight to the problems with access to the new online system for farm subsidies. We share one farmer's experience of frustration.
As Farming Today continues its week long look at the pig industry, Anna Hill hears about a new system being trialled to help tackle the effects of outbreaks of disease on farms.
There's good news for farmers grazing common land as DEFRA agrees to their demands for a change to the way their land subsidy payments are assessed.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zr0ly)
Grasshopper Warbler
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the grasshopper warbler. The reeling song of the grasshopper warbler sounds more like an insect than a bird. Like the paying out of an angler's line from a reel, the grasshopper warbler's song spills out from the bush or bramble clump in which he sits. You'll hear it most often at dawn or dusk in overgrown scrubby or marshy areas.
WED 06:00 Today (b055g9mq)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b055g9ms)
Gerald Scarfe, Greg Wise, Eimear O'Callaghan, Ben Moon
Libby Purves meets cartoonist Gerald Scarfe; former journalist Eimear O'Callaghan; actor Greg Wise and rock climber Ben Moon.
Eimear O'Callaghan is a former BBC news editor whose book Belfast Days is based on the diary she kept in 1972 at the height of the Troubles. The book records her and her family's experiences throughout this turbulent year. From the inconvenience of British Army check-points and power cuts to the horror of shootings, bombings and almost 500 killings, her teenage jottings convey a family and community trying to function normally against a background of violence and bloodshed. Belfast Days: A 1972 Teenage Diary is published by Merrion Press.
Gerald Scarfe CBE is a political cartoonist. He started drawing for Punch and Private Eye and is now best known for his work in the New Yorker and the Sunday Times. His latest exhibition, Milk Snatcher, The Thatcher Drawings features his cartoons of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher. It spans a period of 22 years from her days as a member of the shadow cabinet to her leadership of the Conservative Party, her tenure as prime minister and her political decline. Milk Snatcher, The Thatcher Drawings exhibition is at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham.
Actor Greg Wise returns to the theatre after an absence of 17 years to star in Brad Fraser's play Kill Me Now. He plays Jake Sturdy, a once successful writer, who now cares for his disabled son, Joey, with the support of a motley crew of friends and family. Greg's acting credits include the films Sense and Sensibility and Effie Gray and his theatre work ranges from Richard II to The Recruiting Officer. Kill Me Now is at the Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London.
In 1990 Ben Moon made rock climbing history with the first ascent of Hubble in the Peak District, now widely recognised as the world's first F9a graded climb. A major figure in the sport climbing movement of the 1980s and the bouldering phenomenon of the 1990s, he fell in love with climbing at seven when he was taken to the Lake District on a family holiday. His story is told in Statement - The Ben Moon Story by Ed Douglas, published by Vertebrate.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b059crlx)
The Utopia Experiment
Episode 3
The commune is opened to the public and inspires unexpectedly dark thoughts about what might happen if an angry, hungry, post-apocalyptic mob did actually fall upon the community.
Written and read by Dylan Evans.
A true story that you couldn't make up - one man's attempt to survive a global catastrophe by setting up a commune in Scotland.
While lecturing in robotics, academic Dylan Evans became increasingly concerned by the visible impacts of global warming, population increase, terrorism - and by our inability to cope with a doomsday scenario in a world engineered to just-in-time living.
The concern became an obsession and Evans left his post to run an experiment. He set up a camp that would create the conditions for a post-apocalyptic world. It was established in the Scottish Highlands with a collection of people chosen for talents and skills necessary in a life without technology or comforts.
The resulting story is a Lord of the Flies for the modern day, treating serious and normally sombre topics with dark humour. At its heart, however, is one man's well-intentioned dream and the price he paid for trying to do something good.
Abridged by Barry Johnston.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in March 2015.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b055g9mv)
Nick Clegg, Marjane Satrapi
Nick Clegg discusses what the Lib Dems have to offer women voters; Marjane Satrapi and her new film 'The Voices'; Dr Rosie Trevelyan and why gender equality in science matters; School Report looks at the challenges faced by young carers;
Presenter : Jenni Murray
Producer : Kirsty Starkey.
WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b055g9mx)
Ladder of Years
Green Light, Green Light
by Anne Tyler dramatised by Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
Episode Eight - Green Light, Green Light.
Increasingly enmeshed in their family matters, Delia's encounter with Noah's mother proves to be fraught with injury and danger.
Director: David Hunter.
WED 10:56 The Listening Project (b01dzw3k)
Memories: Willie and Alison
A shared moment of tenderness between Willie and Alison, a couple who have shared a rich life together, but now face the challenges of an uncertain future as old age approaches. Another conversation introduced by Fi Glover in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. Listeners are given a unique opportunity to eavesdrop on these moments of closeness that capture the essence both of a special relationship and of something that really matters to them both.
The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Many of the long conversations are being archived by the British Library which they will use to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium, while Radio 4 is broadcasting three of these jewel-like moments each Friday, with an omnibus on Sundays at
2.45pm. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject.
WED 11:00 Sounds Up There (b055g9r2)
In late 2010, Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón presented Glenn Freemantle with a challenge - to create authentic sound design in the vacuum of space. In 2014, Glenn won an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing for his work on the film. Now, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first-ever spacewalk, Glenn sonically recreates the stories of real-life spacewalkers.
Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov completed a major Space Race hurdle by performing the first-ever spacewalk in March 1965. Alexey ran into serious problems with his suit pressure and was barely able to re-enter the airlock. Since Leonov's tense inaugural moments, there have been 175 successful spacewalks devoted to maintenance of the International Space Station alone.
In this programme, we'll meet some of the spacewalkers and walk through what the experience is like floating in zero gravity above the earth. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield describes his awe at flying weightless above the earth. Record-holding astronaut Sunita Williams describes her spacewalking experiences accumulated over more than fifty hours. Steven Smith describes the enormous pressure helping repair the Hubble Space Telescope. And Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano describes his dramatic 2013 spacewalk, when he almost drowned in his helmet.
Along the way, Glenn will use sound to help us feel the vacuum of space, punctuated by breaths, heartbeats, vibration, the radio crackle, the whoosh of the airlock. The thoughts and feelings of the spacewalkers describing the most awe-inspiring visions of their lives is dramatically contrasted with the odd sounds around them.
Produced by Colin McNulty
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 11:30 Dot (b055gcl6)
Pilot
Dot's had quite enough of making tea in the Cabinet War Rooms. When she finds a cryptic message in the newspaper she enlists the help of her gals Myrtle and Pearl.
Can they catch the spy? And will it prove to be the big break Dot's been waiting for?
Pilot by Ed Harris for the rollicking wartime comedy set in the Cabinet War Rooms.
Dot ..... Fenella Woolgar
Myrtle ..... Kate O'Flynn
Pearl ..... Roslyn Hill
Millicent ..... Jane Slavin
Peabody ..... David Acton
Ken ..... Stephen Critchlow
Director: Jessica Brown
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2015.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b055dgz1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Home Front (b055gbsq)
18 March 1915 - Alan Lowther
Some particularly mean bullying on the factory floor reveals an extraordinary truth.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
WED 12:15 Budget 2015 (b055gbss)
Live coverage of the chancellor's Budget speech with analysis and reaction.
WED 13:56 Weather (b055gcbc)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b055g8zc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 McLevy (b00z5hr8)
Series 7
Dead Reckoning
Brian Cox, Siobhan Redmond and Stella Gonet star in the latest episode of the detective series set in Victorian Edinburgh and Leith. Written by David Ashton.
2/4. Episode Two: Dead Reckoning. Inspector McLevy investigates a curious case of grave robbing.
Producer/director: Bruce Young.
WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b055gbsv)
Saving and Investing
Saving and investing dilemma? To talk to Paul Lewis and guests about your choices and ideas, call 03700 100 444 from
1pm to
3pm on Wednesday 18 March or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now.
Will chancellor George Osborne unveil any surprises for savers when he delivers his final budget before the election on Wednesday?
Last year's budget introduced the 65+ Guaranteed Growth Bonds, raised the NISA savings limit to £15,000 and cut the 10% tax on savings income to 0% for savings income up to from £2,880, from April 2015.
Child Trust Funds can also be moved to Junior ISAs from April but where will you find the best interest rates and what are the pros and cons of stock market investments?
What are the options if you are prepared to take a risk on the highs and lows of stock markets? The FTSE 100 has already risen from 6,298 on 15 January to 6,974 on 2 March this year and fallen back again. As well as volatility there will be charges to consider.
Whatever your saving and investing question, joining presenter Paul Lewis to share their views and experience will be:
Anna Bowes, Director, SavingsChampion.
Patrick Connolly, Certified Financial Planner, Chase de Vere.
Justin Modray, Director, Candid Financial Advice.
Call 03700 100 444 from
1pm to
3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail your question to moneybox@bbc.co.uk now. Standard geographic call charges apply.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (b055g8zm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b055gbt8)
Love, Money and HIV in Kenya, Microbreweries
Love, Money and HIV in Kenya. Laurie Taylor talks to Sanyu Mojola, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, and author of a study exploring how modern women in developing countries experience sexuality and love. Drawing on a rich variety of interview, ethnographic and survey data from her native country of Kenya, she examines how young African women, who suffer disproportionate rates of HIV infection compared to young African men, navigate their relationships, schooling, employment and financial access in the context of a devastating HIV epidemic and economic inequality.
Also, Thomas Thurnell-Read, Lecturer in Sociology at Coventry University, discusses his study of microbreweries and the revival of traditional beer in the UK.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b055gcbf)
The Clarkson Row and Handling 'Difficult' stars, The Future for Netflix, The Green Party Media Policy
Should they have seen it coming? Steve Hewlett looks at how the BBC is handling the latest Jeremy Clarkson controversy and the challenges of managing "difficult" TV presenters.
Self-confessed occasionally "difficult" TV presenter Giles Coren, veteran "Queen of Daytime" ITV producer Dianne Nelmes and former commercial TV executive Dawn Airey discuss the delicate balancing act of nurturing and reining in charismatic television stars to obtain their best possible on-screen performances.
Also - Ted Sarandos, the head of content at Netflix, talks about the future for the TV and film streaming website - commissioning original content like House of Cards and using subscriber data to decide what sort of programmes to provide and create.
And - in the first of seven interviews with political parties in the run-up to the general election, we hear from the Green Party about their media policy
Producer: Paul Waters.
WED 17:00 PM (b055gcbh)
PM at
5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b055dgz5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Chain Reaction (b055gcbk)
Series 10
Olivia Colman talks to Sharon Horgan
The star of Broadchurch, Twenty Twelve and Peep Show Olivia Colman, talks to creator, writer and star of BBC's BAFTA nominated sitcom Pulling, and winner of the British Comedy Award for best actress, Sharon Horgan.
Chain Reaction is the long running hostless chat show where last week's interviewee becomes this week's interviewer.
Producer: Charlie Perkins
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2015.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b055gcbm)
Kenton's giving David the cold shoulder. David admits he made a bad call in waiting to tell Kenton about the cancelled move. Pip suggests perhaps Shula will talk Kenton round.
Pip's looking to the future. Eddie is back in work at Brookfield but Pip sees herself being there full time eventually. She and David reflect on the flood damage to various local residents, including the Grundys, Sterlings and Snells. It was lucky for Ed that he sold his cows when he did. In fact, says David, Ed's has a new job and is looking rather chipper.
Alan drops in on Lynda. She is grieving for Scruff, who hasn't been found. Life carries on, though, and the Messiah concert is still going ahead. Alan suggests a village supper to celebrate the community pulling together. David agrees to host it at Brookfield.
Lynda is delighted to learn that David and Ruth are staying put. David and Lynda will take part at a meeting to discuss the flood and try to find ways to prevent future disasters. Lynda's determined to ask some big questions - and get some answers.
WED 19:16 Front Row (b055gcbp)
Mommy, Maggi Hambling, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Kirsty Lang discusses the film Mommy, by the 25 year-old Canadian director Xavier Dolan, which wowed the critics at Cannes.
Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen on the men from Palestine who travelled to Europe at the start of World War II to marry Jewish women, thus saving them from the Nazis.
Rachel Campbell-Johnston discusses the appointment of Gabriele Finaldi as the new Director of the National Gallery, announced today.
Artist Maggi Hambling on the art which best evokes Spring.
And with the announcement that Iraqi artists will be displaying their work at this year's Venice Biennale, Kirsty explores the contemporary art scene in Iraq.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b055g9mx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b055gccb)
Sex Education
Teaching children about sex is a moral, ethical and emotional minefield, as the latest guidance from the Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education Association has this week so clearly demonstrated. The government had announced that it wanted pupils as young as 11 to be taught about sexual consent and had commissioned the PSHE Association to come up with lesson plans. They've just been published and they include topics such as pornography, sexual images, sexual consent, rape myths and victim-blaming. One suggested lesson asks pupils to imagine what an alien, from a planet where there is no sex, would learn about human sexual relationships from watching pornography. Among other things they'll be asked to discuss whether pornography realistically depicts consent: "Is everyone acting in pornography consenting to the situation?" and "Does getting paid change the situation?" The new lessons could be taught in schools after the Easter holiday, although parents would have the right to withdraw their children from the classes and pornography wouldn't be shown to pupils. It's argued that we want our children to be able to deal with a highly sexualised society, where pornography is easily available and schools help build character in many ways, so why not build it in such an important field as sexual relations? On the other hand, critics have been attacking the proposals; they say the subject is being introduced too early, at an age when children are often emotionally vulnerable. Are these frank - some would say explicit - topics just contributing to the very problem - sexualisation - that they're partly designed to address? Schools are increasingly being expected to teach so-called "life lessons" alongside academic subjects. Are these latest plans outside the proper remit of education or should parents be left to teach their children about such sensitive issues? What should children be taught about sex in school?
WED 20:45 Lent Talks (b055gccd)
Quentin Letts
Producer: Phil Pegum.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b055g73y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Midweek (b055g9ms)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b05n8b8p)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b055gcdn)
Chancellor announces Budget - 7 weeks before General Election
Osborne announces tax cuts for workers and savers as well as help for first-time buyers.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b055g2hc)
The Leipzig Affair
Episode 3
A tale of love, betrayal and redemption in the dying days of the Cold War. Set in Germany both in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as post-unification, and encompassing the excesses of life in 1980's Britain.
Bob McPherson is Scottish and unemployed. He lost his highly-paid job in the City because of his alcoholism. His counsellor at the Alcohol Advisory Service suggests he look back to a pivotal point in his life - Leipzig in the 1980s, when the GDR held its citizens in an iron grip.
Naive, and innocent of the machinations of the East German state, Bob embraces life as a PhD student at Leipzig University. There he falls in love with Magda Reinsch, a student with secret plans to escape to the West.
As their love affair deepens, Magda and Bob are drawn into a web of deception and betrayal. In a country where the Stasi is always watching, no-one is quite who they seem and everyone has their price.
Bob leaves the GDR thinking he is responsible for a man's death and that he lost Magda because of it. Now, in revisiting the past, Bob may be able to uncover the truth of his Leipzig Affair.
Episode 3:
Magda meets her boyfriend Marek and tells him the bad news about her escape plan. Bob crosses the border into East Germany and arrives in Leipzig.
Fiona Rintoul is a financial journalist and translator. The Leipzig Affair is her first novel, and won the 2013 Virginia prize for the best new fiction by a woman writing in English.
Readers: Douglas Henshall and Indira Varma
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:00 Hannah Gadsby: Arts Clown (b055gcdq)
Michelangelo's David
Art historian Hannah Gadsby continues her radio series of comedy lectures about four masterpieces. This week she looks at Michelangelo's 'David', the 17ft statue he created between 1501 and 1504.
Born in Tasmania, Hannah got to know a lot about art from books. But it was only in her 20s when she visited Europe for the first time, that she saw the art she'd studied 'in the flesh', so to speak.
There in Florence she fell in love with David and in this programme she shares her affection for and knowledge of him, with all his imperfections.
Hannah is joined on stage by her very own 'Quotebot' who is inputted with every quote that's ever been written about art.
Quotebot sounds remarkably like comedy legend and all-round boffin John Lloyd.
Written by Hannah Gadsby
Performed by Hannah Gadsby with her Quotebot aka John Lloyd
Script edited by Jon Hunter
Produced by Claire Jones.
WED 23:15 Tim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme (b055gcds)
Series 3
Sleep
The concept of sleep is the focus of this week's episode, and Tim is broadcasting from the bedroom of his long-suffering guitarist, Tom Basden. Tim hopes Tom's wife Megan will wake up, so he can interview her about her dreams.
Written and presented by Tim Key
With Tom Basden and Katy Wix
Produced by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b055gcjq)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
THURSDAY 19 MARCH 2015
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b055dh03)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b059crlx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b055dh05)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b055dh07)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b055dh09)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b055dh0c)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b055j5zq)
A short reflection and prayer, with the Rev Dr Lesley Carroll.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b055j5zs)
Budget response; Farm payment problems in EU; Pig exports
Reactions to the budget as farmers welcome the change in averaging farm income over five years.
It's not just farmers in England and Wales who are experiencing problems with registering for their subsidies. We hear that France, Croatia and Italy are also struggling with the online system.
All this week we hear about aspects of the pig industry. In this programme we hear about UK exports to China of parts of the pig that British consumers don't want to touch. Trotters, offal and snouts are known as the pig's fifth quarter, which is considered a delicacy by growing markets in the Far East. Adam Couch of Cranswick explains.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Mark Smalley.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zr0qn)
Great Grey Shrike
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the great grey shrike. Great grey shrikes feed on small birds, which they can catch in flight. They also eat mice, voles and shrews and, as spring approaches, they'll include bees and larger beetles in their diet. Shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their habit of impaling their prey on thorns, just as a butcher hangs his meat on hooks.
THU 06:00 Today (b055j9rs)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b055j9rv)
Al-Ghazali
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Al-Ghazali, a major philosopher and theologian of the late 11th century. Born in Persia, he was one of the most prominent intellectuals of his age, working in such centres of learning as Baghdad, Damascus and Jerusalem. He is now seen as a key figure in the development of Islamic thought, not just refining the theology of Islam but also building on the existing philosophical tradition inherited from the ancient Greeks.
With:
Peter Adamson
Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the LMU in Munich
Carole Hillenbrand
Professor of Islamic History at Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities
Robert Gleave
Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Exeter
Producer: Victoria Brignell.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b059dfhy)
The Utopia Experiment
Episode 4
The commune comes face to face with the challenges of local authority planning permission. That, however, is the least of Dylan's problems.
Written and read by Dylan Evans.
A true story that you couldn't make up - one man's attempt to survive a global catastrophe by setting up a commune in Scotland.
While lecturing in robotics, academic Dylan Evans became increasingly concerned by the visible impacts of global warming, population increase, terrorism - and by our inability to cope with a doomsday scenario in a world engineered to just-in-time living.
The concern became an obsession and Evans left his post to run an experiment. He set up a camp that would create the conditions for a post-apocalyptic world. It was established in the Scottish Highlands with a collection of people chosen for talents and skills necessary in a life without technology or comforts.
The resulting story is a Lord of the Flies for the modern day, treating serious and normally sombre topics with dark humour. At its heart, however, is one man's well-intentioned dream and the price he paid for trying to do something good.
Abridged by Barry Johnston
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in March 2015.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b055j9rx)
Writer Diana Gabaldon
Diana Gabaldon Outlander series of books have sold over twenty six million copies worldwide and are published in 23 languages. There are currently eight titles in the series of what she calls her 'Big Enormous Books that have no discernible genre' as well as spin off titles. . Now they've been adapted for TV and Outlander will be available on Amazon Prime Instant Video later this month.
In the run up to the General Election what impact is the current debate about immigration having on BAME (black, asian minority ethnic) women?
Teenage years can be tough, exam stress, arguments with friends, growing pains and of course wanting more independence. But add to that feeling you just don't fit the skin you're in. Born a girl - 16 year old year Marley doesn't see herself as defined by gender. As part of year's BBC News School Report, she tells us her story.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe first made her name in the 1920s singing gospel music as did so many great interpreters of blues and soul. To celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday another chance to hear from Gill and Gary Atkinson, the husband and wife team behind Document Records who featured her in compilations of their work.
Presented by Jenni Murray
Producer Beverley Purcell.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b055j9rz)
Ladder of Years
I'm Calling About Susie
by Anne Tyler dramatised by Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
Episode Nine - I'm Calling about Susie
After more than a year away Delia finds herself feeling drawn back to the fractured family in Baltimore.
Director: David Hunter.
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b055dh0f)
'We Dazed Them!'
Around the world in less than half an hour! In this edition: euphoria in the Nigerian army as successes are notched up in the battle against the jihadis of Boko Haram; a stunning election victory for Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel -- but it means frustration, anger and dismay for the country's Palestinian population; bombs explode in a Christian neighbourhood in Pakistan - we hear how Christians there are regularly targeted by extremists and feel abandoned by their government; how the argument between states and the White House over immigration to the US is raising profound questions about what kind of a country the United States is and a community in China exclusively for those who are short in stature - we're off to find out whether its residents feel exploited or happy with their lot.
THU 11:30 Inconspicuous Consumption (b055j9s1)
Series 1
Exist Through the Gift Shop
This series aims to look at the cultural consumption that other media ignore. We treasure our great museums and galleries, but they increasingly depend on income and we increasingly depend on purchases to somehow validate our visit.
So what's in a postcard, a piece of replica jewellery or a tin of Rosetta Stone Mints? When we give a gift from a museum shop, what are we telling the recipient?
Nick Baker visits museums and galleries in London and Liverpool, hanging around gift shops and quizzing customers on how their purchases relate to what they've seen in the exhibitions to which they relate. If they relate. Some gallery gift shops feature stuff that's not really connected to the exhibits within. Others offer expensive replicas, like the British Museum's Elgin Marble gifts.
Andy Warhol famously predicted that one day, "All department stores will become museums, and all museums will become department stores." At a Warhol exhibition in Tate Liverpool, this seems to be becoming true. Shoppers there reflect on their purchases, how they relate to the consumer-focused artist who inspired them, and what they'll do with them when they get them home.
Sharon Macdonald, a cultural anthropologist and keen museum shopper explains how museums simultaneously are and aren't like department stores, and we visit the V&A jewellery department to ask people whether, when they look at the exhibits, they imagine themselves wearing them.
Produced and Presented by Nick Baker
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b055dh0h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Home Front (b055jmlz)
19 March 1915 - Joyce Lyle
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor Hell a fury like Joyce Lyle scorned
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
THU 12:16 You and Yours (b055jmm1)
Timeshare and Business Rates Review
Before the economic crash a lot of high street retailers weren't concerned about how much they paid in business rates.
The good times were rolling and retail profits were growing. But then shops began to close - vacancy rates in town centres increased and rents began to fall. But business rates, which are calculated on the rentable value of a shop, remained high. Many companies think they may have over paid on their business rates - some estimate by £1 billion. They've only have to the 31st March to try and get it back.
It costs £35,000 a year to train as a doctor at the first privately run medical school in the UK. Buckingham university is not for profit and has charitable status. But the British Medical association is concerned about the course and whether it could contribute to doctors being unable to find hospital training places. Melanie Abbott has been to visit the first intake.
Credit scoring, where a bank or business searches your financial history to find out if you're a safe bet, is becoming ever more important. Applications for mortgages, loans, mobile phones and even jobs are increasingly dependent on you the consumer passing a check from one of three UK credit reference agencies. You and Yours hears a lot from listeners unhappy their credit scores contain inaccuracies, but it was what Ralph Withers couldn't find in his credit report that baffled him.
You've heard of investing in gold or diamonds or fine wine - how about investing in handbags? Handbags can be more than an accessory to swing from your arm or a place to store half your life... they are also items that have been rising in value significantly in recent years - at least certain vintage ones have. A collecting website has just launched a "handbag index" - a bit like the FTSE but for valuable bags. We'll find out which brands have been the biggest risers.
A year after it was first introduced the Legal Services Consumer Panel comment on the consumers experience of divorce and how using an online provider differs from a normal high street solicitor. The use of online divorce services is on the increase as DIY divorce becomes an increasingly attractive proposition. But is it working for everyone?
Producer: Maire Devine
Editor: Chas Watkin.
THU 12:57 Weather (b055dh0k)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b055jmm3)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.
THU 13:45 When the People Say Not Sure (b055jmm5)
Episode 3
With the prospect of a closely fought general election on 7th May, Peter Hennessy, the historian, is joined by Lord Adonis - Andrew Adonis - the former Cabinet Minister, who was one of Gordon Brown's advisers after the 2010 election, and who is a constitutional and political historian in his own right. They discuss how a government would be formed if no single party wins an overall majority in the House of Commons and look at the ground-rules - conventions, laws, precedents and principles - for deciding whether a prime minister and government remain in office, or a new prime minister is appointed and a new government formed.
When no single party won an overall majority in 2010, it took five days before talks between the parties produced a coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Their agreement enabled the Queen to appoint David Cameron as prime minister, because he could command the confidence of the House of Commons. In the hung parliament of 1974, the leader of the largest party in the Commons, Harold Wilson, formed a 'minority government'. In effect, the prime minister of a minority government commands the confidence of the House by calling the other parties' bluff, defying them to defeat the government in a confidence vote, thereby triggering an election.
However, it has become more difficult for a prime minister to engineer an early election since 2011, when Parliament passed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. Peter Hennessy and his guests examine how a government would be formed in the event of a hung parliament and weigh the risks of a constitutional and political crisis.
Producer: Rob Shepherd.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b055gcbm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b055jpnh)
Big Sky
Thriller by Anna Maloney. Ambitious Australian lawyer, Lindsey Regan, wants to get her client out of Guantanamo prison and back to his family in Australia. He claims he was beaten and tortured somewhere abroad until he confessed to a terrorism plot. He also claims he briefly escaped his captors during a refuelling stopover at a Scottish airport.
Other parts played by the cast.
Producer/ director: Bruce Young
BBC Scotland.
THU 15:00 Ramblings (b055jpnk)
Series 29
Nordic Walking in Bramcote Park, Nottingham
Clare Balding takes a lesson in Nordic Walking as she joins national coach, Catherine Hughes, in one of her classes in Bramcote Park in Nottingham. Some of those who regularly attend, are a group of mothers with their daughters, all of whom have learning difficulties. Nordic walking has proved to be an ideal activity for them all to enjoy. The poles give confidence to those who find walking difficult, the fresh air is beneficial to all and the chance for mothers and daughters to be able to exercise together has made the group very popular.
Producer Lucy Lunt.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b055dttz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b055f2lj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b055jpnn)
Paddington; Xavier Dolan; Thelma Schoonmaker
With Francine Stock.
The men who brought Paddington to the big screen, producer David Heyman and director Paul King, reveal why it took seven years to turn the bear from darkest Peru into a movie star.
Thelma Schoonmaker, the Oscar winning editor of Raging Bull and The Wolf Of Wall Street, talks about the restoration of The Tales Of Hoffmann, written and directed by her late husband Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Xavier Dolan has made five films in five years, the latest of which, Mommy, won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and he's only 25. The Canadian wunderkind tells Francine that he's feeling very tired, and that his next movie will have to wait, for a few months.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b055jpnq)
Genetic Map of the British Isles, Drones for Conservation, Lab Photosynthesis, Solar Eclipse
The Romans, Vikings and Normans ruled Britain for many years, but few left their genetic calling cards behind in the DNA of today's mainland Caucasian population. That's one of the insights from the most comprehensive analysis yet of the genetic make-up of the UK's white British population. As the study's lead author Peter Donnelly explains it's produced some big surprises, not least how in contrast, the Anglo Saxons invasion was to account for up to 40% of the genetic mix in much of southern Britain. Much of Britain's current historical information is from a relatively small subset of people, but a genetic study like this sheds light on the history of the masses.
The Royal Botanical Gardens Kew is currently at the forefront of trialling drone technology to map and locate remote vegetation The aim is to examine plant health and deforestation in detail, particularly in inaccessible areas around the globe. The team led by Justin Moat and Oliver Whaley have recently returned from Peru, where they've examined the fragile ecosystem threatened by mining in the Lomas region. BBC Inside Science's Sue Nelson was deployed to join the Kew team for a Drone test run.
As our energy needs become greater, the impetus to tap the sun's energy directly becomes ever more urgent. A new paper published this month has cracked one of the barriers to efficient conversion of water into oxygen and hydrogen, which plants of course do naturally. Adam Rutherford speaks to Nathan Lewis at California's Institute of Technology who has developed an electrically conductive film that could enable devises to harness sunlight to split water into hydrogen. Chemist Andrea Sella assesses how close we are to achieving artificial photosynthesis and solar fuels.
And ahead of tomorrow's solar eclipse, Adam speaks to solar scientist Dr Huw Morgan from the University of Aberystwyth, who together with his colleagues in Svalbard is going to use those precious seconds to answer one of the great enduring mysteries of the sun: why is the corona, the fiery crown around the orb, is a great deal hotter than the sun itself?
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
THU 17:00 PM (b055jpns)
With the latest news interviews, context and analysis.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b055dh0m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Alex Edelman - Millennial (b055jpnw)
Alex Edelman presents a special half-hour version of his award winning show about the much misunderstood and ridiculed "Millennial" generation.
Discover how he's used his smart-arse wit to bite back.
The Bostonian Native won the prestigious Best Newcomer Award at the 2014 Edinburgh Comedy Festival aged 25,
Producer: Arnab Chanda
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2015.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b055jpt2)
Hungover Kate's trying to scrounge off Brian. He tells her again to get a job, then he'll support her by topping up her earnings. Kate ends up borrowing from Phoebe, to Jennifer's disgust.
Jennifer prepares a press release to publicise next week's flood meeting, She is keen to know why plans for a flood relief programme were delayed. Brian warns Jenny to be diplomatic.
David and Adam install a freezer in the temporary village shop at Bridge Farm, which is due to open tomorrow. They discuss soil and mixed farming, agreeing that an exceptional event can expose flaws in a system. Adam has been worried about Home Farm's soil structure for a while.
David realizes he'd have been crazy to leave Brookfield and lose all the inherited wisdom and experience of the land. Companies like RB Farming have no such ties and don't understand. This makes Adam think. He's keen to talk at the flood meeting, but Brian suggests not getting carried away.
Charlie has an awkward conversation with Rob. Charlie has had a letter from the Child Maintenance Service. He has to start deducting maintenance from Rob's earnings.
Charlie asks to view Adam and team putting the plastic on the polytunnels tomorrow. He'll treat Adam to breakfast afterwards.
THU 19:16 Front Row (b055jpt4)
Michael Winterbottom, Painting Paradise, Spring with Fred D'Aguiar
John Wilson talks to Michael Winterbottom about his new film The Face of An Angel, a fictionalised retelling of the trial of Amanda Knox after the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
Emma Townshend reviews Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden, a new exhibition exploring how the garden has been portrayed and celebrated in art. Made up of works from the Royal Collection, it includes rare botanical studies by Leonardo Da Vinci and 16th century Persian miniatures, as well as paintings demonstrating how monarchs from Henry VIII to Queen Victoria designed their gardens.
This week the remains of Cervantes have been discovered. Art history sleuth Silvani Vicenti thinks he has identified the remains of the woman we know as the Mona Lisa. Next week the Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct the funeral of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. In Front Row the sociologist Tiffany Jenkins will explain our fascination with bones of cultural and historic significance.
The Green Fuse, Front Row's series in which artists talk about their response to the spring, and choose a work which expresses spring for them, continues with the writer Fred D'Aguiar. He lives in the hills of Virginia and gets snowed in in the winter. Spring comes with a burst of energy he finds encapsulated by the first of Rilke's sonnets to Orpheus.
Presenter John Wilson
Producer Julian May.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b055j9rz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b055jslq)
Trouble at the Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph's political commentator Peter Oborne resigned in February 2015, accusing the paper of shying away from stories that might upset its advertisers. Reporter Robin Aitken asks whether the accusation is fair and traces the Telegraph's evolution from a broadsheet newspaper designed to appeal to middle England to a multimedia "news content provider".
Reporter: Robin Aitken
Producer: Tom Randall.
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b055jsls)
Football's Billions
Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore joins Evan Davis and guests to discuss the economics and business of football.
In light of the recent Premier League TV deal, worth a staggering £5 billion pounds, this week Evan and guests discuss its implications for football both in the UK and in other markets. Whilst the top players can expect even bigger salaries, how will the deal impact on fans and clubs outside the top division? Three top football executives discuss including Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore.
Producer: Jim Frank.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b055jpnq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b055j9rv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b05n8bdv)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b055jslv)
Election - Defence Special
A special edition of the programme from Chatham House looks at defence in the UK.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b05h2gyf)
The Leipzig Affair
Episode 4
A tale of love, betrayal and redemption in the dying days of the Cold War. Set in Germany both in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as post-unification, and encompassing the excesses of life in 1980's Britain.
Bob McPherson is Scottish and unemployed. He lost his highly-paid job in the City because of his alcoholism. His counsellor at the Alcohol Advisory Service suggests he look back to a pivotal point in his life - Leipzig in the 1980s, when the GDR held its citizens in an iron grip.
Naive, and innocent of the machinations of the East German state, Bob embraces life as a PhD student at Leipzig University. There he falls in love with Magda Reinsch, a student with secret plans to escape to the West.
As their love affair deepens, Magda and Bob are drawn into a web of deception and betrayal. In a country where the Stasi is always watching, no-one is quite who they seem and everyone has their price.
Bob leaves the GDR thinking he is responsible for a man's death and that he lost Magda because of it. Now, in revisiting the past, Bob may be able to uncover the truth of his Leipzig Affair.
Episode 4:
Bob meets Magda for the first time and is smitten with her. But Magda and Marek already have plans for him that they must keep secret.
Fiona Rintoul is a financial journalist and translator. The Leipzig Affair is her first novel, and won the 2013 Virginia prize for the best new fiction by a woman writing in English.
Readers: Douglas Henshall and Indira Varma
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:00 Chat Show Roulette (b055jslz)
Episode 1
Justin Edwards is the host of the new improvised chat show. His guests are Susan Calman, Marek Larwood and Kevin Eldon, with musical accompaniment from James Sherwood.
Devised by Ashley Blaker and Justin Edwards.
Produced by Ashley Blaker
A John Stanley production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b055jsmj)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
FRIDAY 20 MARCH 2015
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b055dh28)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b059dfhy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b055dh2b)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b055dh2d)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b055dh2g)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b055dh2j)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b055jthy)
A short reflection and prayer, with the Rev Dr Lesley Carroll.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b055jtj2)
Rural Payments Agency U-turn
Charlotte Smith challenges the head of the Rural Payments Agency as it announces a climbdown over it's controversial online-only system for farmers. The RPA had insisted the portal would be able to cope with applications from England's 80,000 farmers. But following a catalogue of problems it's been announced the system will be closed for all but new registrations.
Previously farmers have been able to submit claims for their European subsidies on paper. But England was to be the first country in the UK to insist on online-only applications. Last week the Environment Secretary Liz Truss said there was no need for a contingency plan as the system would work.
But as the computer continued to 'say no' to farmers, paper forms and maps will now be sent out.
The NFU has welcomed the move but says time and money would have been saved if this had been the plan from the start.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zr1zj)
Common Whitethroat
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the common whitethroat. Whitethroats are warblers which winter in the Sahel region south of the Sahara desert and spend spring and summer in Europe. When they arrive in April the males establish a territory by singing that scratchy song from hedgerow perches or by launching themselves into the air.
FRI 06:00 Today (b055jtwh)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b055dzb9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:16 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b059jjn6)
The Utopia Experiment
Episode 5
Dylan finds himself sectioned in a hospital's psychiatric unit. It's not quite dystopia, but it's certainly not the future he had imagined.
Written and concluded by Dylan Evans.
A true story that you couldn't make up - one man's attempt to survive a global catastrophe by setting up a commune in Scotland.
While lecturing in robotics, academic Dylan Evans became increasingly concerned by the visible impacts of global warming, population increase, terrorism - and by our inability to cope with a doomsday scenario in a world engineered to just-in-time living.
The concern became an obsession and Evans left his post to run an experiment. He set up a camp that would create the conditions for a post-apocalyptic world. It was established in the Scottish Highlands with a collection of people chosen for talents and skills necessary in a life without technology or comforts.
The resulting story is a Lord of the Flies for the modern day, treating serious and normally sombre topics with dark humour. At its heart, however, is one man's well-intentioned dream and the price he paid for trying to do something good.
Abridged by Barry Johnston.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in March 2015.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b055jtwk)
Nicola Sturgeon, Glasgow School of Art
Jane Garvey talks to Nicola Sturgeon about what the Scottish National Party plans to offers women voters.
Muriel Gray discusses plans to rebuild the unique art nouveau library of Glasgow School of Art.
We hear from some of the young women from BBC Scotland's young voter projects, Generation 2014 and Generation 2015.
And, the Friday panel discusses some of the stories of the week.
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Ruth Watts.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b055jtwm)
Ladder of Years
The Wedding Day Hitch
by Anne Tyler dramatised by Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
Episode Ten - The Wedding Day Hitch
After more than a year away Delia Grinstead is drawn back into the remnants of her fractured family. She is badly needed.
Director: David Hunter.
FRI 11:00 The Quietest New Year On Earth (b055jy1k)
Black-clad security men stalk the streets hunting down people making noise and silencing them.
No music, no laughter, no engines, no computer games.
Instead maybe a barking dog, a fly buzzing against a window pane, or a mother stifling a child's cry. In the paddy fields the crickets, the frogs and the beetles chirrup on, but the roads are empty, the skies free from vapour trails.
No human noise at all. Just silence.
This is not a scenario from some chilling science-fiction tale, but New Year's Day on the Hindu island of Bali, where Nyepi, as the day is known, is welcomed in by a day of silence - a day to fool the evil spirits into believing that everyone has gone and their work is done.
Of course, in one of the fastest growing property markets in the world, there is pressure for change, as overseas visitors exert more influence, and Muslim influence from the Indonesian mainland increases. But somehow Nyepi still has a powerful hold on the lives and imaginations of the Balinese, as the entire population falls silent for 24 hours – an island population known for one of the noisiest music traditions in the world - gamelan.
It's a tradition that most locals take part in gladly, taking a chance to contemplate the year to come and using the time to meditate - whilst increasingly tourists are drawn to experience this unique atmosphere.
Would you prefer a day of contemplating or a hangover to start the New Year?
From the exorcisms the night before, through the day of silence itself, we hear the tensions mount – till the morning after.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall
With additional material gathered by:
Maria Bakkalapulo: reporter
Niall Macaulay: field recordist
Wayan Tilik: assistant
John Stanmeyer: translator
Audio contributors: Melasti and Ogoh Ogoh
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2015.
FRI 11:30 Paul Temple (b0368fwf)
Paul Temple and the Gregory Affair
With the Compliments of Mr Gregory
Part 1 of a new production of a vintage serial from 1946.
From 1938 to 1968, Francis Durbridge's incomparably suave amateur detective Paul Temple and his glamorous wife Steve solved case after baffling case in one of BBC radio's most popular series. Sadly, only half of Temple's adventures survive in the archives.
In 2006 BBC Radio 4 brought one of the lost serials back to life with Crawford Logan and Gerda Stevenson as Paul and Steve. Using the original scripts and incidental music, and recorded using vintage microphones and sound effects, the production of Paul Temple and the Sullivan Mystery aimed to sound as much as possible like the 1947 original might have done if its recording had survived. The serial proved so popular that it was soon followed by three more revivals, Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery, Paul Temple and Steve, and A Case for Paul Temple.
Now it's the turn of Paul Temple and the Gregory Affair from 1946, in which Paul and Steve come to the aid of a baffled Scotland Yard in pursuit of a deadly and mysterious criminal mastermind. Not only has the recording disappeared but also the scripts of Episodes 1, 2 and 6. This new production is made possible by the recent discovery by a colleague in Norwegian radio of a complete set of scripts in an old store cupboard in Oslo.
Episode 1: With the Compliments of Mr Gregory
The daughter of an eminent physician disappears after a night out at the Alpine Club.
Producer Patrick Rayner.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b055dh2l)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Home Front (b055jy1m)
20 March 1915 - Edie Chadwick
Edie wants excitement in her life, and finds it in an odd place, when an exotic and exciting cargo washes up on Long Sands in Tynemouth.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
FRI 12:16 You and Yours (b055k3qy)
Ikea Hide-and-Seek, Price Comparison Sites, Private Dentists
Price Comparison sites have been told they must stop setting up deals with motor insurers that prevent them from selling the same deal elsewhere. The Competition and Markets Authority discusses the rules with Peter White.
A huge game of Ikea 'Hide and Seek' has been banned by the superstore. It has concerns about health and safety after 20,000 people joined a group hosting an event in one of the shop's Dutch branches. But why would anyone choose to get lost in an Ikea shop?
Plus haggling over the price of a filling. We hear why the cost of dental treatment varies wildly in different parts of the UK, and what we can do to get a good deal.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Natalie Donovan.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b055dh2n)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b055k3r0)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Mark Mardell.
FRI 13:45 When the People Say Not Sure (b055jy1p)
Episode 4
With the prospect of a closely fought general election on 7th May, Peter Hennessy, the historian, is joined by Peter Riddell, Director of the Institute for Government and former Chief Political Commentator for 'The Times', and Professor Robert Hazell, Founder and Director of the Constitution Unit at University College, London. to discuss how a government might be formed if there's another hung parliament.
In the final programme of this series, they examine the ground-rules - conventions, laws, precedents and principles - for deciding whether a prime minister and government can remain in office, or a new prime minister should be appointed and a new government formed. When no single party won an overall majority in 2010, it took five days before talks between the parties produced a coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Their agreement enabled the Queen to appoint David Cameron as prime minister, because he could command the confidence of the House of Commons.
In the hung parliament of 1974, the leader of the largest party in the Commons, Harold Wilson, formed a 'minority government'. In effect, the prime minister of a minority government commands the confidence of the House by calling the other parties' bluff, defying them to defeat the government in a confidence vote, thereby triggering an election. However, it has become more difficult for a prime minister to engineer an early election since 2011, when Parliament passed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. Peter Hennessy and his guests examine how a government would be formed in the event of a hung parliament and weigh the risks of a constitutional and political crisis.
Producer: Rob Shepherd.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b055jpt2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b04cfkv4)
Recent Events at Collington House
Episode 1
Collington House is a secondary school in a Midlands town with a large proportion of its students from the Muslim community. New head teacher Roz Taylor, eager to be inclusive and accommodate all faiths and cultures, finds herself increasingly at odds with one of the parent governors.
This is a drama that gets behind the news headlines and political wrangles to examine what is actually meant by "Islamisation" and the difference is between radicalisation and the co-existence of different faiths in schools on a day-to-day level.
Writer: Matthew Solon
Researcher: Eva Kryslak
Sound: Eloise Whitmore
Director: John Dryden
A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b055jykf)
Oxford
Peter Gibbs chairs this week's episode of the horticultural panel programme from Oxford. Chris Beardshaw, Matt Biggs and Pippa Greenwood answer questions from an audience of local gardeners.
Produced by Howard Shannon
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 Shorts (b055jykh)
New Irish Writing
The Blackthorn Tree
A series of original stories from some of Ireland’s most exciting writers.
Donal Ryan (The Spinning Heart, The Thing About December) brings us to Limerick where a young writer befriends a local octogenarian, Tommy, and discovers the beauty within the man. Eimear McBride (A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing) takes us into a world of dark family secrets and revenge, while playwright Rosemary Jenkinson reflects on the changing landscape of Belfast and its mythology as a young girl believes she’s discovered the fairy folk in the hill behind her home.
Writer ..... Rosemary Jenkinson
Reader ..... Maggie Cronin
Producer ..... Heather Larmour
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b055k3r2)
Shaw Taylor, Arthur Wyatt, Naty Revuelta Clews, Malcolm Fraser, Andy Fraser
Matthew Bannister on
Shaw Taylor, the pioneering presenter of Police 5 and other TV programmes about true crimes.
Arthur Wyatt, the British diplomat in Iran who helped six Americans to escape the siege of their embassy in 1979.
Naty Revuelta Clews, the Cuban socialite who had a daughter with Fidel Castro.
The Australian Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser who came to power after a constitutional crisis.
And the bass player Andy Fraser, who co-wrote Free's hit "All Right Now"
Producer Dianne McGregor.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (b055k3r4)
On this week's programme with Roger Bolton: the BBC's Moscow Correspondent Sarah Rainsford on reporting from Putin's Russia, the Trust's review of BBC music radio and Radio 4's Listeners' Elections.
It's less than 50 days to go until this year's General Election and BBC Newsrooms are delving into the big issues of the economy and immigration. But now, Radio 4 wants to break down the election issues that matter most to its audience. The station is launching 'The Listener's Election'. It calls for listeners to submit stories that put the election campaigns into a more personal context. The BBC's Political Correspondent Chris Mason, who's behind the project, tells Roger how he hopes to reflect the UK's key concerns.
Should Radio 1 and 1xtra be making moves towards including more speech in their output? Does Radio 2 need to vary its specialist music programming? And is Radio 3 starting to sound like Classic FM? These are some of the points raised in the BBC Trust's review of all six music stations. The findings of the review have now been published and Roger talks to BBC Trustee Nick Prettejohn about the review.
The journalists' lobby group Reporters Without Borders ranks Russia at 152nd out of 176 countries in its Press Freedom Index and the Russian authorities seldom if ever talk to foreign press reporters, so how hard is it for the BBC's Russian correspondent to report accurately? Sarah Rainsford talks about the challenges of her job.
And the BBC's School Report set a group of Sussex school children the challenge of turning a newspaper headline into a radio drama. We get a sneak preview of a Royal Pain in the Parkside which finds Prince Harry pursuing a new career - on a caravan site.
Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b01hxt9q)
Arranged Marital Bliss: Jasmit and Jaswant
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between Jasmit and Jaswant from Lincolnshire about their 34 year-long arranged marriage which is still going strong, proving again that it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Many of the long conversations are being archived by the British Library which they will use to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer Marya Burgess.
FRI 17:00 PM (b055k866)
With the latest news interviews, context and analysis.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b055dh2s)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b055jyzj)
Series 86
Episode 5
A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Jeremy Hardy. With Bob Mills, Hugo Rifkind, Elis James and Samira Ahmed.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b055jyzl)
With leg in plaster, Charlie joins Adam at the polytunnels and is keen to learn. Newbies Tom and Johnny join the regular staff.
Charlie treats Adam to breakfast. He has got wind of the public flood meeting, at which Adam plans to speak. Not wanting Justin to be scapegoated, Charlie tries to persuade Adam to tone down his message. Adam insists being bought breakfast isn't enough to persuade him to be Justin's mouthpiece. Adam senses how much the issue means to Charlie, though, and says he'll think about what he's going to say.
Tony finally comes home, to big celebrations at Bridge Farm. Peggy has joined them and has waited for Tony to return before looking at her birthday photo album with everyone. Pat breaks out the special champagne she's been saving for their anniversary.
Rob is distracted by a phone call from Jess, She insists that the only way to prove he's not the father of her child, is to take the paternity test. Furious Rob doesn't deny that they slept together, calling Jess a slut and refusing to be blackmailed.
In a private moment with Tony, Peggy tells him she has changed her will. Peggy believes in Tony and wants things to be shared equally between him and his sisters. Tony's touched. Peggy trusts Tony, and whatever plans he has for the future.
FRI 19:16 Front Row (b05j5r8j)
The Royals, Peggy Seeger, Sean Scully, Spring with Anna Meredith
The Royals is the first scripted drama from the E! channel which launched the careers of the Kardashians. It centres on a fictional Royal Family where Elizabeth Hurley plays the Queen and Joan Collins the Queen Mother. As the programme launches in the UK, Boyd Hilton explains why American TV has such a fascination with our most famous family.
Ahead of The Flatpack Film Festival which is celebrating the work of documentary film-maker Philip Donnellan, Folk singer Peggy Seeger discusses working with Ewan MacColl on the Radio Ballad documentaries, which inspired Donnellan's work.
Abstract painter and printmaker Sean Scully uses oils to create thickly-layered panels and blocks, representing urban contemporary life. As the two-times Turner Prize nominee prepares to show his work at this year's Venice Biennale, Scully talks to John about comparisons of his art to Lego and what prompted him to start using the colour green again.
The Green Fuse, Front Row's series in which artists talk about their response to spring and choose a work which expresses spring for them, continues with the composer Anna Meredith. She discusses Wake Up by the Canadian band Arcade Fire.
Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Ellie Bury.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b055jtwm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b055jyzn)
Chris Leslie MP, Mark Littlewood, Patrick McLoughlin MP, Tessa Munt MP
Jonathan Dimbleby with political debate from Aston University in Birmingham. with Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Leslie MP, Director General of the the Institute for Economic Affairs, Mark Littlewood, Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin MP, and Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Munt MP.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b05j5r8l)
Trial by Select Committee
Tom Shakespeare thinks our reformed Select Committees have revitalised Parliament but he warns against the temptation to play to the gallery and to cross examine unfairly.
"Their main business is the worthy task of holding the government and the civil service to account, even if it's more fun holding unpopular public figures' feet to the fire."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b055jyzq)
16-20 March 1915
A week of discoveries, and some exotic flotsam that washes up on Long Sands.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Story-led by Shaun McKenna
Consultant Historian: Professor Maggie Andrews
Music: Matthew Strachan
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b05h2zbf)
Islamic State militants say they were behind Yemen suicide bombings
2 mosques in Sanaa are hit - more than 130 people killed
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b05h2jv5)
The Leipzig Affair
Episode 5
A tale of love, betrayal and redemption in the dying days of the Cold War. Set in Germany both in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as post-unification, and encompassing the excesses of life in 1980's Britain.
Bob McPherson is Scottish and unemployed. He lost his highly-paid job in the City because of his alcoholism. His counsellor at the Alcohol Advisory Service suggests he look back to a pivotal point in his life - Leipzig in the 1980s, when the GDR held its citizens in an iron grip.
Naive, and innocent of the machinations of the East German state, Bob embraces life as a PhD student at Leipzig University. There he falls in love with Magda Reinsch, a student with secret plans to escape to the West.
As their love affair deepens, Magda and Bob are drawn into a web of deception and betrayal. In a country where the Stasi is always watching, no-one is quite who they seem and everyone has their price.
Bob leaves the GDR thinking he is responsible for a man's death and that he lost Magda because of it. Now, in revisiting the past, Bob may be able to uncover the truth of his Leipzig Affair.
Episode 5:
Bob's dislike of Marek grows. Meanwhile, Magda and Marek make new plans for her to escape East Germany.
Fiona Rintoul is a financial journalist and translator. The Leipzig Affair is her first novel, and won the 2013 Virginia prize for the best new fiction by a woman writing in English.
Readers: Douglas Henshall and Indira Varma
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b055g742)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b05h2k1l)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b01g65gx)
Gender and Identity: Michelle and Cilla
Fi Glover introduces Michelle from Humberside, chatting about being a transsexual and her life as a woman with her best friend, Cilla.
The Listening Project offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Many of the long conversations are being archived by the British Library which they will use to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer Simon Elmes.
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 (b055fzlp)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 MON (b055fzlp)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 TUE (b055g5j7)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 TUE (b055g5j7)
15 Minute Drama
10:41 WED (b055g9mx)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 WED (b055g9mx)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 THU (b055j9rz)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 THU (b055j9rz)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 FRI (b055jtwm)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 FRI (b055jtwm)
A Good Read
16:30 TUE (b055g742)
A Good Read
23:00 FRI (b055g742)
A Point of View
08:48 SUN (b054tmrp)
A Point of View
20:50 FRI (b05j5r8l)
Afternoon Reading
20:45 SAT (b00826cw)
Alex Edelman - Millennial
18:30 THU (b055jpnw)
Analysis
21:30 SUN (b054pqv8)
Analysis
20:30 MON (b055g1jv)
Any Answers?
14:00 SAT (b0557677)
Any Questions?
13:10 SAT (b054tmrm)
Any Questions?
20:00 FRI (b055jyzn)
Aunt Mirrie and the Child
00:30 SUN (b055dttn)
Ayres on the Air
18:30 TUE (b03qfzgg)
BBC Inside Science
16:30 THU (b055jpnq)
BBC Inside Science
21:00 THU (b055jpnq)
Bells on Sunday
05:43 SUN (b055dttq)
Bells on Sunday
00:45 MON (b055dttq)
Beyond Belief
16:30 MON (b055g10l)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 MON (b05h3pmm)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 TUE (b05h4n8d)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 WED (b055g2hc)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 THU (b05h2gyf)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 FRI (b05h2jv5)
Book of the Week
00:30 SAT (b054tl6z)
Book of the Week
09:45 MON (b059crs2)
Book of the Week
00:30 TUE (b059crs2)
Book of the Week
09:45 TUE (b055fkbc)
Book of the Week
00:30 WED (b055fkbc)
Book of the Week
09:45 WED (b059crlx)
Book of the Week
00:30 THU (b059crlx)
Book of the Week
09:45 THU (b059dfhy)
Book of the Week
00:30 FRI (b059dfhy)
Book of the Week
09:45 FRI (b059jjn6)
Brain of Britain
23:00 SAT (b054pp3m)
Brain of Britain
15:00 MON (b055g12p)
Broadcasting House
09:00 SUN (b055dzb5)
Budget 2015
12:15 WED (b055gbss)
Chain Reaction
18:30 WED (b055gcbk)
Chat Show Roulette
23:00 THU (b055jslz)
Copenhagen Curios
19:45 SUN (b054tl7h)
Costing the Earth
15:30 TUE (b055g73y)
Costing the Earth
21:00 WED (b055g73y)
Desert Island Discs
11:16 SUN (b055dzb9)
Desert Island Discs
09:00 FRI (b055dzb9)
Did Douglas Get It Right?
10:30 SAT (b0557671)
Dot
11:30 WED (b055gcl6)
Drama
14:30 SAT (b05577qg)
Drama
21:00 SAT (b054pfn7)
Drama
15:00 SUN (b055f2lg)
Drama
14:15 MON (b055g1jq)
Drama
14:15 THU (b055jpnh)
Drama
14:15 FRI (b04cfkv4)
Farming Today
06:30 SAT (b055766v)
Farming Today
05:45 MON (b055f9h0)
Farming Today
05:45 TUE (b055g4f8)
Farming Today
05:45 WED (b055g98y)
Farming Today
05:45 THU (b055j5zs)
Farming Today
05:45 FRI (b055jtj2)
Feedback
20:00 SUN (b054tssg)
Feedback
16:30 FRI (b055k3r4)
File on 4
17:00 SUN (b054qct9)
File on 4
20:00 TUE (b055g8zh)
Food in the Frame
13:30 SUN (b055dzbm)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:30 SAT (b054qd39)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:00 THU (b055dh0f)
Front Row
19:16 MON (b055g10v)
Front Row
19:16 TUE (b055g8zf)
Front Row
19:16 WED (b055gcbp)
Front Row
19:16 THU (b055jpt4)
Front Row
19:16 FRI (b05j5r8j)
Gardeners' Question Time
14:00 SUN (b054tl7f)
Gardeners' Question Time
15:00 FRI (b055jykf)
Gareth Gwynn's Little Book of Welsh Rock
11:30 TUE (b055g69f)
Giving Up Music for Lent
16:00 MON (b055g10j)
Hannah Gadsby: Arts Clown
23:00 WED (b055gcdq)
Home Front - Omnibus
21:00 FRI (b055jyzq)
Home Front
12:04 MON (b055fzlw)
Home Front
12:04 TUE (b055g5vr)
Home Front
12:04 WED (b055gbsq)
Home Front
12:04 THU (b055jmlz)
Home Front
12:04 FRI (b055jy1m)
In Our Time
09:00 THU (b055j9rv)
In Our Time
21:30 THU (b055j9rv)
In Search of Moderate Muslims
16:00 TUE (b055g740)
In Touch
20:40 TUE (b055g8zk)
Inconspicuous Consumption
11:30 THU (b055j9s1)
Inside Health
21:00 TUE (b055g8zm)
Inside Health
15:30 WED (b055g8zm)
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme
19:15 SUN (b01mqqb1)
Just a Minute
12:04 SUN (b054pq25)
Just a Minute
18:30 MON (b055g10q)
Last Word
20:30 SUN (b054tssd)
Last Word
16:00 FRI (b055k3r2)
Lent Talks
05:45 SUN (b054tfhp)
Lent Talks
20:45 WED (b055gccd)
Loose Ends
18:15 SAT (b055ddk8)
Making History
15:00 TUE (b055g73w)
Martha: An Endling's Tale
21:00 MON (b054qc1r)
McLevy
14:15 TUE (b00yync9)
McLevy
14:15 WED (b00z5hr8)
Midnight News
00:00 SAT (b054qd2s)
Midnight News
00:00 SUN (b055dgsd)
Midnight News
00:00 MON (b055dgvv)
Midnight News
00:00 TUE (b055dgxc)
Midnight News
00:00 WED (b055dgyq)
Midnight News
00:00 THU (b055dh03)
Midnight News
00:00 FRI (b055dh28)
Midweek
09:00 WED (b055g9ms)
Midweek
21:30 WED (b055g9ms)
Money Box Live
15:00 WED (b055gbsv)
Money Box
12:04 SAT (b0557675)
Money Box
21:00 SUN (b0557675)
Moral Maze
22:15 SAT (b054qfjx)
Moral Maze
20:00 WED (b055gccb)
News Briefing
05:30 SAT (b054qd31)
News Briefing
05:30 SUN (b055dgsn)
News Briefing
05:30 MON (b055dgw4)
News Briefing
05:30 TUE (b055dgxm)
News Briefing
05:30 WED (b055dgyz)
News Briefing
05:30 THU (b055dh0c)
News Briefing
05:30 FRI (b055dh2j)
News Headlines
06:00 SUN (b055dgsq)
News Summary
12:00 SAT (b054qd3c)
News Summary
12:00 SUN (b055dgt4)
News Summary
12:00 MON (b055dgw8)
News Summary
12:00 TUE (b055dgxp)
News Summary
12:00 WED (b055dgz1)
News Summary
12:00 THU (b055dh0h)
News Summary
12:00 FRI (b055dh2l)
News and Papers
06:00 SAT (b054qd33)
News and Papers
07:00 SUN (b055dgsv)
News and Papers
08:00 SUN (b055dgt1)
News and Weather
22:00 SAT (b054qd3r)
News
13:00 SAT (b054qd3h)
On Your Farm
06:35 SUN (b055dttv)
One to One
09:30 TUE (b054qc1k)
Open Book
16:00 SUN (b055f2lj)
Open Book
15:30 THU (b055f2lj)
PM
17:00 SAT (b055ddk6)
PM
17:00 MON (b055g10n)
PM
17:00 TUE (b055g8z9)
PM
17:00 WED (b055gcbh)
PM
17:00 THU (b055jpns)
PM
17:00 FRI (b055k866)
Paul Temple
11:30 FRI (b0368fwf)
Pick of the Week
18:15 SUN (b055f76c)
Poetry Please
23:30 SAT (b054pfnc)
Poetry Please
16:30 SUN (b055f2ll)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 SAT (b054tp5x)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 MON (b055f9gy)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 TUE (b055g4f6)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 WED (b055g98w)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 THU (b055j5zq)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 FRI (b055jthy)
Profile
19:00 SAT (b055ddkb)
Profile
17:40 SUN (b055ddkb)
Radio 4 Appeal
07:54 SUN (b055dttz)
Radio 4 Appeal
21:26 SUN (b055dttz)
Radio 4 Appeal
15:27 THU (b055dttz)
Ramblings
06:07 SAT (b054t79t)
Ramblings
15:00 THU (b055jpnk)
Restarting the Antibiotic Pipeline
11:00 TUE (b055g5j9)
Saturday Live
09:00 SAT (b055766z)
Saturday Review
19:15 SAT (b055ddkd)
Saudi Arabia: Sands of Time
20:00 MON (b055g1js)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SAT (b054qd2x)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SUN (b055dgsj)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 MON (b055dgw0)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 TUE (b055dgxh)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 WED (b055dgyv)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 THU (b055dh07)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 FRI (b055dh2d)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SAT (b054qd2v)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SAT (b054qd2z)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SAT (b054qd3k)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SUN (b055dgsg)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SUN (b055dgsl)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SUN (b055dgtb)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 MON (b055dgvy)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 MON (b055dgw2)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 TUE (b055dgxf)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 TUE (b055dgxk)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 WED (b055dgys)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 WED (b055dgyx)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 THU (b055dh05)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 THU (b055dh09)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 FRI (b055dh2b)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 FRI (b055dh2g)
Shorts
15:45 FRI (b055jykh)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SAT (b054qd3p)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SUN (b055dgtg)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 MON (b055dgwd)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 TUE (b055dgxt)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 WED (b055dgz5)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 THU (b055dh0m)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 FRI (b055dh2s)
Something Understood
06:05 SUN (b055dtts)
Something Understood
23:30 SUN (b055dtts)
Sounds Up There
11:00 WED (b055g9r2)
Start the Week
09:00 MON (b055fkb8)
Start the Week
21:30 MON (b055fkb8)
Sunday Worship
08:10 SUN (b055dtv1)
Sunday
07:10 SUN (b055dttx)
The Archers Omnibus
10:00 SUN (b055dzb7)
The Archers
19:00 SUN (b055f76f)
The Archers
14:00 MON (b055f76f)
The Archers
19:00 MON (b055g10s)
The Archers
14:00 TUE (b055g10s)
The Archers
19:00 TUE (b055g8zc)
The Archers
14:00 WED (b055g8zc)
The Archers
19:00 WED (b055gcbm)
The Archers
14:00 THU (b055gcbm)
The Archers
19:00 THU (b055jpt2)
The Archers
14:00 FRI (b055jpt2)
The Archers
19:00 FRI (b055jyzl)
The Bottom Line
17:30 SAT (b054t9hq)
The Bottom Line
20:30 THU (b055jsls)
The Film Programme
23:00 SUN (b054t7b7)
The Film Programme
16:00 THU (b055jpnn)
The Food Programme
12:32 SUN (b055dzbh)
The Food Programme
15:30 MON (b055dzbh)
The Hot Kid
23:00 TUE (b055g8zr)
The Human Zoo
23:00 MON (b01r9cr5)
The Life Scientific
09:00 TUE (b055g5j1)
The Life Scientific
21:30 TUE (b055g5j1)
The Listening Project
14:45 SUN (b055f2ld)
The Listening Project
10:56 WED (b01dzw3k)
The Listening Project
16:55 FRI (b01hxt9q)
The Listening Project
23:55 FRI (b01g65gx)
The Media Show
16:30 WED (b055gcbf)
The News Quiz
12:30 SAT (b054tmrh)
The News Quiz
18:30 FRI (b055jyzj)
The Public Philosopher
20:00 SAT (b055dfr8)
The Quietest New Year On Earth
11:00 FRI (b055jy1k)
The Report
20:00 THU (b055jslq)
The Week in Westminster
11:00 SAT (b0557673)
The World This Weekend
13:00 SUN (b055dzbk)
The World Tonight
22:00 MON (b055g1vx)
The World Tonight
22:00 TUE (b055g8zp)
The World Tonight
22:00 WED (b055gcdn)
The World Tonight
22:00 THU (b055jslv)
The World Tonight
22:00 FRI (b05h2zbf)
Thinking Allowed
00:15 MON (b054qfj6)
Thinking Allowed
16:00 WED (b055gbt8)
Tim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme
23:15 WED (b055gcds)
Today in Parliament
23:30 MON (b055g2hf)
Today in Parliament
23:30 TUE (b055g8zt)
Today in Parliament
23:30 WED (b055gcjq)
Today in Parliament
23:30 THU (b055jsmj)
Today in Parliament
23:30 FRI (b05h2k1l)
Today
07:00 SAT (b055766x)
Today
06:00 MON (b055fkb6)
Today
06:00 TUE (b055g5hz)
Today
06:00 WED (b055g9mq)
Today
06:00 THU (b055j9rs)
Today
06:00 FRI (b055jtwh)
Tweet of the Day
08:58 SUN (b03wpzmk)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 MON (b03zqzsv)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 TUE (b03zr00f)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 WED (b03zr0ly)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 THU (b03zr0qn)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 FRI (b03zr1zj)
Voices from Our Industrial Past: Women
11:00 MON (b055fzlt)
Weather
06:04 SAT (b054qd35)
Weather
06:57 SAT (b054qd37)
Weather
12:57 SAT (b054qd3f)
Weather
17:57 SAT (b054qd3m)
Weather
06:57 SUN (b055dgss)
Weather
07:57 SUN (b055dgsz)
Weather
12:57 SUN (b055dgt6)
Weather
17:57 SUN (b055dgtd)
Weather
05:56 MON (b055dgw6)
Weather
12:57 MON (b055dgwb)
Weather
21:58 MON (b05n89xz)
Weather
12:57 TUE (b055dgxr)
Weather
21:58 TUE (b055dgxw)
Weather
13:56 WED (b055gcbc)
Weather
21:58 WED (b05n8b8p)
Weather
12:57 THU (b055dh0k)
Weather
21:58 THU (b05n8bdv)
Weather
12:57 FRI (b055dh2n)
Westminster Hour
22:00 SUN (b055f76h)
What the Papers Say
22:45 SUN (b055f76k)
When the Dog Dies
11:30 MON (b01q0339)
When the People Say Not Sure
13:45 MON (b055g032)
When the People Say Not Sure
13:45 TUE (b055g5w0)
When the People Say Not Sure
13:45 THU (b055jmm5)
When the People Say Not Sure
13:45 FRI (b055jy1p)
Woman's Hour
16:00 SAT (b055ddk4)
Woman's Hour
10:00 MON (b055fkbf)
Woman's Hour
10:00 TUE (b055g5j5)
Woman's Hour
10:00 WED (b055g9mv)
Woman's Hour
10:00 THU (b055j9rx)
Woman's Hour
10:00 FRI (b055jtwk)
World at One
13:00 MON (b055fzm2)
World at One
13:00 TUE (b055g5vy)
World at One
13:00 THU (b055jmm3)
World at One
13:00 FRI (b055k3r0)
You and Yours
12:16 MON (b055fzm0)
You and Yours
12:16 TUE (b055g5vw)
You and Yours
12:16 THU (b055jmm1)
You and Yours
12:16 FRI (b055k3qy)
iPM
05:45 SAT (b054tp5z)