The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

Sylvia Plath's renown as one of the twentieth century's most influential poets is beyond dispute, but she was also one of its most captivating correspondents. This radio selection, is abridged by Caitlin Crawford from the remarkable, collected edition of Plath's letters published last week. Edited by Peter K Steinberg and Karen Kukil , it is a work of immense scholarship and care, presenting a comprehensive and historically accurate text of the known and extant letters that she wrote to over one hundred and twenty correspondents, including her husband the poet Ted Hughes, to whom previously unseen letters are now revealed. The programmes offer us a generous insight into the life of one of our most significant poets. Known primarily for her poetry, Plath also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The book's protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is a bright, ambitious student at Smith College who begins to experience a mental breakdown while interning for a fashion magazine in New York. The plot parallels Plath's experience interning at Mademoiselle magazine and subsequent mental breakdown and suicide attempt.

Despite her remarkable artistic, academic, and social success at Smith, Plath suffered from severe depression and underwent a period of psychiatric hospitalization. She graduated from Smith with highest honours in 1955 and went on to Newnham College, Cambridge, in England, on a Fulbright fellowship. Here she met and married the English poet Ted Hughes in 1956. For the following two years she was an instructor in English at Smith College.

5. April 1956 to October 1956 - from meeting to marriage . Sylvia and Ted Hughes

Read by Lydia Wilson
Abridged by Caitlin Crawford
Produced by Susan Roberts.

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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaunaka Rishi Das, director of The Oxford centre for Hindu Studies.

In Spain, our listener and former holiday rep Stuart on Catalan independence.
iPM is the news programme that starts with its listeners. Email ipm@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCiPM. Presented by Luke Jones and Eddie Mair.

The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.

Clare Balding continues her exploration of The Isle of Man by travelling south to walk the coastal path from Kallow Point to the Sound. She's joined by locals Jane and Peter Gunn and archaeologist, Andrew Foxon. Despite the wind and rain setting in, there are still wonderful views to be had of the Calf of Man and Jane explains the many vagaries of living on the island, she appears to know everyone or at least all those they meet en route.

Producer: Lucy Lunt.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

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News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

Extraordinary stories, unusual people and a sideways look at the world.

Jay Rayner and the panel visit Pangbourne College in Berkshire. Dr Annie Gray, Andi Oliver, Tim Anderson and Sophie Wright answer the questions.

Producer: Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

Food Consultant: Anna Colquhoun

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

George Parker of the Financial Times asks how far Theresa May has stabilised her leadership. Why did a plot against her fail? Why is the chancellor, Philip Hammond, in trouble with Eurosceptics? And, Baroness Trumpington, one of the best known peers, explains why she is retiring from the House of Lords.

Editor: Peter Mulligan.

The spiritualists selling costly 'cures' and offering exorcisms for mental health problems. Kate Adie introduces stories, wit, and analysis from correspondents around the world.
Nicola Kelly is in Zanzibar were spiritual healers are getting rich as the country faces a mental health epidemic.
Mark Lowen ponders what the future may hold for Iraqi Kurdistan.
Zainab Badawi explores Charleston in America's Deep South. The carefully maintained Georgina houses are impressive, but look closely and the marks of the child slaves' hands that built them are still visible on some of the bricks
Phoebe Smith visits a restaurant for vulture in Nepal.
And Hugh Schofield has become a dad again. He's discovering that a lot has changed in France since his last child was born 18 years ago.
Producer: Joe Kent.

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The latest news from the world of personal finance.

Host Miles Jupp is joined by Rich Hall, Helen Lewis, Mark Steel and Kiri Pritchard-McLean to hash out the week's biggest news stories.

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Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Wellington Church in Glasgow with a panel including the leader of the SNP at Westminster Ian Blackford MP, the Times Columnist Iain Martin, Conservative peer Lord Forsyth and Shadow Minister for Industrial Strategy Chi Onwurah MP.

Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?

2 / 2. In Ian Rankin's crime thriller, Rebus and Clarke close in on a people-trafficking gang, investigate the murder of a convicted rapist, and unravel the mystery of two skeletons in an Edinburgh pub cellar. Dramatised by Chris Dolan.

Other parts played by the cast
Producer/director: Bruce Young
BBC Scotland.

A portrait of singer, songwriter and truck driver Will Beeley.

The myth of the road is deeply rooted in America - it's the thing that delivers escape, promises freedom, fuels new hopes and, once upon a time at least, thoughts of a new nation. And it provides its own opening onto the vastness and variety of the country today.

The distances can be dizzying. And these days Will Beeley spends more time on the road than he does at home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city in the desert, with Route 66 running through its heart.

In another life Will Beeley was a musician - a singer and songwriter - an anxious romantic at the end of the 1960s and a smooth-voiced folkie ten years later. He played gig after gig, made records and, for a while at least, hoped for the big time.

But now, like a different road taken, a different stop along the way, he spends his life behind the wheel of a hulking truck, sharing the driving with his wife, as the highway and the days blur by.

It's a unique vantage point. And as America spools past outside, framed by the huge windscreen, does he - like all of us now and then - think of times gone by, of unfinished business, of what might have been? Or is his attention fixed ahead on the road as it rolls towards him, flowing beneath his wheels?

Producer: Martin Williams.

American folksinger Peggy Seeger performs and tells us about her new memoir The First Time and her UK wide music and literary tour.

The English actor and writer Dawn French talks about her relationship with her daughter, dealing with racism while married to Lenny Henry and her new book a biographical diary.

We discuss the Harvey Weinstein case, the film producer dealing with multiple allegations of sexual harassment, with Laura Bates of the Everyday Sexism Project.

How can we teach our children about consent? We hear from Deana Puccio the co-founder of the Rap Project and former New York District Attorney and Rachel Fitzsimmons a sex and relationship Education specialist about the best age to broach the subject.

The award winning poet Claudia Rankine examines her experience of race and racism in Western Society

As part of our Best Place to be a woman series we look at Social Isolation of older women. The report found that South Tyneside was one of the worst places to be a lone women over the age of 65. We hear from 89 year old Betty who lives alone in South Tyneside and from Professor Barbara Hanratty from the Institute of Aging at Newcastle University.

Wonder Woman is the world's most iconic female superhero - but what do we know about her real life creators. A new film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women seeks to tell their story. Angela Robinson the director and screenwriter tells us about it.

Presented by Jenni Murray
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Beverley Purcell.

Full coverage of the day's news.

What's behind the recent collapse of airlines such as Monarch, Alitalia and Air Berlin? Is it a case of supply outstripping demand or is there a larger crisis
looming? Will Ryanair's cancellation of thousands of flights do the company permanent damage?

What's really happening to Europe's airline industry?
Evan Davis and guests discuss.

GUESTS

John Strickland, Aviation consultant

Peter Duffy, Chief Commercial Officer, EasyJet

And

Roger Flynn, Chairman, Loveholidays.com.

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Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Jessica Raine, Kevin Bishop, Linda Lewis and Chris Thorpe for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Bedouine and Siv Jakobsen.

Producer: Sukey Firth.

Edward Stourton profiles former minister, and mistress of the deadpan one-liner, Baroness Trumpington, who this week announced she will retire from the House of Lords at the age of 95. He talks to Ian Hislop, Viscount Astor, friends and family about her extraordinary life that took her from riches, through the Wall Street Crash, code breaking at Bletchley Park, into politics and finally to unexpected celebrity status after giving a two finger salute to a fellow peer. One of few politicians with the guts to stand up to Margaret Thatcher, some have even called her an unlikely feminist icon.

Sally Potter's new film The Party is her funniest to date with an all-star cast telling a neat little tale of a disastrous dinner party
Heisenberg:The Uncertainty Principle is a new play by Simon Stephens. relating physics with relationship advice
The Sparsholt Affair is Alan Hollinghurst's new novel about a love affair set in Oxford during the Second World War
Degas: A Passion for Perfection is at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum, with works by Degas himself and also looking at those who influenced him and those he influenced
A new 3 part series, The Gamble, on BBC Radio 4 looks at the connection between risk and creativity, narrated by the actor Noma Dumezweni

Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sarah Crompton, Kevin Jackson and Graham Farmelo. The producer is Oliver Jones.

Last year approximately 4,000 tourists from the West travel to the DPRK, this year there may be fewer, although tourist and business people are still entering the country.
So why do people visit?

Despite its reputation as a closed country - the 'hermit kingdom' - there has been an increasing interest in travel to North Korea over the past decade, both for tourists and business. So what do people experience there, and how do they feel when they hear the current high-voltage exchanges of threats from either side of the Pacific.

As the language of war is racheted up, Sara Jane Hall takes time to speak to those who have visited for a variety of reason, using a surprisingly rich vein of programmes recorded from within the DPRK, from the BBC archives. From the tour leaders guiding tourists through the museums, schools and parks, to a visit to the DMZ, from the 'other side', what do those who visited in the past now make of their time there? Have their views changed?

Some of the questions Sara Jane will explore include, what was the experience of being in a country so controlled you are rarely allowed to travel without a guide being present at all times? How does it feel to be unable to freely discuss your impressions for fear of putting your guide at serious risk of punishment?
Were you able to have any meaningful relationships with the Koreans and was there a sense of connection? Why did you even go?

In 1867 Mark Twain wrote "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness," but if you are unable to speak, move or act freely, how are your impressions of a country such as the DPRK formed. Sara Jane will also hear from business travelers, who have experienced negotiations with the authorities, and to refugees, who have seen Westerners in Pyongyang. How do they regard the occasional visitors, who stand out, due to their wide variety of clothing, as much as their features? Did it make tthem curious or angry?

There will also be a lot of surprises for the listener who has only a narrow picture of this country - which will humanise a little understood country.

Presented and produced by Sara Jane Hall, who has visited the DPRK twice, to record two documentaries for BBC Radio 4.

Photos courtesy of Tony Pletts.

Elena Ferrante's story of a life long friendship between Lila and Lena comes to an end in this sad and surprising final chapter.

Accepting the fact that her lover Nino will not leave his wife, Lena decides to move back to Naples with her two children and accept his offer to rent them a flat in the nice part of town. They continue to have an affair and she finds herself pregnant.

Strangely, Lila also finds herself also pregnant and this unites their friendship once more. Lila however seems to suffer during her pregnancy - not helped by the chaos caused by the earthquake that hit Naples in 1980. Gradually she seems to lose touch with her world once again.

Written by Elena Ferrante
Translated by Ann Goldstein
Dramatised for radio by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Directed by Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.

The Moral Maze returns with a special programme marking 50 years of the Abortion Act, recorded in front of an audience of students at UCL Faculty of Laws. Under the 1967 law, terminations were made legal for the first time in limited circumstances, with the agreement of two doctors. In practice this has meant that it has not usually been difficult to get an abortion in the first 6 months of pregnancy. The technology has changed: the threshold at which a baby has a good chance of surviving outside the womb has decreased, so at 23 weeks' gestation, one foetus might be aborted while another is put in intensive care. Social attitudes have changed and many doctors now support the official line of the British Medical Association which wants abortion to be decriminalised completely. So is it time for abortion to be treated like any other medical procedure that is regulated by the General Medical Council? On the other side of the dispute are those who say the Act has been too liberally interpreted. With nearly 200,000 abortions a year in the UK, they say we effectively have 'abortion on demand' and they want the law to be tightened to protect the rights of 'pre-born children' and their mothers. Whatever the details of time-limits and interpretation of the law, the moral dividing line remains as deeply-etched as it was in 1967: it is between those who think a human life starts at conception and those who don't.

The Moral Maze has teamed up with Dundee University's Centre for Argument Technology. For the first time, researchers will analyse the debate and use the data to create an interactive web page called "Test your argument", hosted by the BBC's experimental site "Taster" and available via the Radio 4 website after the broadcast.

Producer: Dan Tierney.

The popular quotations programme 'Quote ... Unquote' returns. Nigel Rees quizzes Kate Fox, Olly Mann, Julian Mitchell and Joanna Scanlon.

Quote ... Unquote, the popular quotations quiz, returns for a new series.

For over forty years, Nigel Rees has been joined by writers, actors, musicians, scientists and various comedy types. Kenneth Williams, Judi Dench, PD James, Larry Adler, Ian KcKellen, Peter Cook, Kingsley Amis, Peter Ustinov... have all graced the Quote ... Unquote stage.

Join Nigel as he quizzes a host of guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the panel to share their favourite anecdotes.

Episode 2

Playwright and Screenwriter Julian Mitchell
Award Winning Podcaster and Gadget Guru Olly Mann
Actor and Screenwriter Joanna Scanlan
Stand Up Poet Kate Fox

Presenter ... Nigel Rees
Reader ... Charlotte Green
Producer ... Katie Tyrrell
Production co-ordinator ... Beverly Tagg

This is a BBC Studios Production.

The relationship between fathers and daughters has been the subject of countless cultural explorations down the centuries, from Elektra's distress to Bonjour Tristesse. Some of them are idealised ('To Kill A Mockingbird', 'All the Lights We Cannot See'); some highly damaging and dysfunctional ('This is England', 'The Beggar's Opera'); some, as any A'Level pupil who's studied 'King Lear' can attest, are both. What is clear in all these cases is just how particular and powerful the relationship can be, and in this highly personal programme Lauren Laverne heads home to team up with her own dad, Les, to talk about their relationship and how it matches up with some of these cultural imaginings. Among anecdotes about growing up in Sunderland and later on Les playing roadie to Lauren's gigs with the likes of the Ramones, we also hear from artists who in one way or another are engaging with the dad/daughter relationship now, including Helen MacDonald, Glyn Maxwell and The Unthanks.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Geoff Bird.

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Maxine Beneba Clarke's specially written short story is about the fall out from a devastating hurricane which compels Nico and his son Elias to rebuild their lives in a new land. Read by Damian Lynch.

Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian writer and slam poetry champion of Afro-Caribbean descent. She is the author of the poetry collections Gil Scott Heron is on Parole and Nothing Here Needs Fixing. Her award winning debut short story collection, Foreign Soil was published in 2014, and The Hate Race, her powerful memoir about growing up black in white middle-class Australia was published in 2017.

Produced by Elizabeth Allard.

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Church bells from St Martins, Worcester.

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Mark Tully seeks the ideal balance between the virtue of simplicity and embracing the many complexities of life. Is there a danger in neglecting the virtue of simplicity? What are the pitfalls, as well as the advantages, of complexity in contemporary living?

Mark questions the potential for naivety in dreams of the "simple life" and celebrates the benefits of simplicity with music by Erik Satie and poetry by W. B. Yeats. He also considers triumphs of complexity with music by Kaikhosru Sorabji and the prose of John Steinbeck.

The readers are Christopher Harper, Francis Cadder and Polly Frame.

Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4.

Brett Westwood relives programmes from 50 years of the Living World archives. In this episode from 1988 Peter France is on the South Downs with ecologist David Streeter.

Hips haws and honeysuckle berries enliven the hedgerows. On the ground toadstools appear as if by magic and acorns rain from above - all to ensure future generations of their kind. David Streeter and Peter France sample the fruits of autumn while delving into the many evolutionary mechanisms plants employ to move the next generation across the landscape, with a little help of course.

Producer Andrew Dawes.

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Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.

Michael Palin makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Farm Africa.

Registered Charity Number: 326901
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That's the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope 'Farm Africa'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Farm Africa'.

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From the Churchill Hospital Cancer Centre in Oxford, anticipating St Luke's Day, who was the patron saint of Physicians. The service, which is led by the Revd Canon Dr Margaret Whipp, Lead Chaplain of Oxford University Hospitals, focusses on the work of spiritual care in the nation's hospitals. The preacher is John Wyatt, a Professor of Ethics and Perinatology and a member of the ethics committees of the Royal College of Physicians. The Chapel Choir of Exeter College, Oxford is directed by Bartosz Thiede. The producer is Andrew Earis.

Andrew Sullivan says a type of "cultural Marxism" is sweeping through American universities.

Conservative ideas, he says, are increasingly being banished from campuses and free speech is seen as a delusion.

"It's an ideology that is fast resembling a new religion".

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

BirdLife International's chief scientist Dr Stuart Butchart reveals the bronze-winged jacana. He shares what he found out whilst spending three years studying them at Vembanur Lake in India, surrounded by water lilies and patiently watching on a canoe.

Producer: Eliza Lomas
Photograph: Prerna Jane.

Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.

Lilian finds herself tempted, and Pip makes an embarrassing mistake.

Jane Gardam is best known for her trilogy of novels about an ex-colonial QC nicknamed Old Filth. A writer for both adults and children, she has won two Whitbread awards, the Katherine Mansfield Award and has been shortlisted for the Booker and the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Born in 1928, she grew up in North Yorkshire where her father was a schoolmaster at a small independent boys' school. Her mother wrote sermons and was an inveterate letter-writer. After graduating, Jane had a number of literary jobs, but gave up working to raise her three young children. Although she wrote poems as a young girl, her writing career didn't begin in earnest until the day her youngest child started school when she began to write her first book.

Since then, she has published more than 30 books, including novels for children and adults as well as short stories and a non-fiction volume about the Yorkshire of her youth.

Presenter: Kirsty Young
Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

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David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.

Richard Osman, Arthur Smith, Lou Sanders and Phil Wang are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as Kanye West, sugar, chickens and aeroplanes.

Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.

Increasing numbers of people in Britain seem to eat according to very clearly defined rules, from fashionable Clean Eaters to religious believers to professional sportspeople. In this third programme in the series How we Eat, Sheila Dillon talks to them about the rules they follow and why, sometimes, rules make life not only easier but more enjoyable. She meets vlogger Madeleine Shaw, an Instagram Star with 275,000 followers, whose 12-point eating philosophy includes the rule "Don't Eat Anything Beige". She talks to followers of the ancient Jain religion, who believe it's deeply wrong to eat root vegetables or anything raw. If they break the rules, there is a complex system of atonement. She visits a slimming class to discover the pleasures of eating according to a clearly defined plan and why iced Chelsea buns are evil. And she talks to professional athletes, a jockey and a boxer, about how they eat when they know that their entire livelihood depends on not gaining a single pound.

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How a bitter dispute over Israel's future split a country and divided a family. In June 1967, Israel had just won the Six Day War, defeating the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, and occupying much new territory. Israelis sensed a transformation in their country's destiny. Most were euphoric. A few were fearful. Two declarations drawn up in neighbouring Tel Aviv cafes and published on the same day symbolised this bitter divide.

One, now seen as hugely significant in shaping Israeli history, declared that 'The Land of Israel is now in the hands of the Jewish people'. It was signed by more than fifty members of the country's leading cultural and political elites. It encouraged the wave of settlements that would arise in the territories which Israel had recently occupied. The other declaration, concocted by two friends over an espresso, warned that the Israeli victory was a 'fateful' moment, and that holding onto occupied territories 'will make us a nation of murderers and murdered'. It was signed by just 12 people.

These heretical views, published in a leading daily newspaper, prompted intense criticism and its signatories were called traitors to the Zionist cause. Some received threats of violence, amongst them Shimon Tzabar, who was one of the authors. In this programme, his son Rami explores what this moment of dramatic change meant for Israel, and for his family. He travels to Tel Aviv and talks to those involved in making the two declarations, as they recall the extraordinary atmosphere surrounding them.

This is also a personal story, as Rami discovers the consequences of his father's passionate actions. After ostracism in Israel, his father went into exile in London (where Rami was born), and continued his campaigns with weapons of art, satire and unshakeable faith in his cause. The cost for the family was high.

Arguments still rage today about Israel's actions and destiny - an argument within Israeli society, within the international community and among individuals. This programme reveals, in one dramatic story, the roots of that argument, and how it reverberated so strongly across a family's life.

Producers: Rami Tzabar and Chris Bowlby
Editor: Hugh Levinson.

Peter Gibbs and the panel are at Wakehurst Place in West Sussex, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of damage The Great Storm did there. Pippa Greenwood, Christine Walkden and Bob Flowerdew answer horticultural questions from the audience.

Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Fi Glover introduces conversations about surviving physical abuse in care and sexual abuse in the family in the Omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that 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. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Marya Burgess.

Elena Ferrante's story of a life long friendship between Lila and Lena comes to an end in this sad and surprising final chapter.

While deep in conversation with her old lover Nino and holding his child with Lena, Lila loses sight of her own daughter who suddenly disappears. Lila's world will never be the same and, despite Lena's attempts to help her friend try to come to terms with her loss, their past comes back to haunt them and one of them finally decides that there is only one way forward.

Does this free the other or hold her prisoner to her past forever?

Written by Elena Ferrante
Translated by Anne Goldstein
Dramatised for radio by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Directed by Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

Omar El Akkad's debut novel American War has won rave reviews in the states. In it he imagines a future America where the country has been ravaged by climate change and a second Civil War breaks out over fossil fuels. He talks to Mariella Frostrup about his dystopian vision.

Also on the programme, Icelandic writer Sjon, and Ted Hodgkinson discuss their new anthology of short stories from the Nordic region, and best selling writer novelist Elizabeth Kostova reveals the book she'd never lend.

Writer and poet Bridget Minamore explores how women - particularly women of colour - have pushed back against the poetry establishment to create their own literary narratives.

Poetry as an escape from oppression and as a way to amplify the voices of the overlooked is nothing new. But, so often, resistance writers are male.

How have women in general and women of colour resisted dominant narratives in poetry? And how have they challenged those established voices of dissent to create their own literary spaces for resistance?

The themes explored in the programme range from 21st-century Peckham to ancient Iraq and the slave plantations of the Caribbean, as Bridget goes on a journey to uncover the lines of resistance followed by women throughout history. She talks both to established writers and teenage poets struggling to make their mark.

At the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, south London, poet Malika Booker tells Bridget, "Story is in our DNA". The women of the Octavia poetry collective explain how the internet both helps and hinders the process of creative resistance. With the help of Arabic literature specialist Dr Marlé Hammond and British-Egyptian writer Sabrina Mahfouz, Bridget draws links from Muslim women writing in 11th-century Spain to how Muslim women write in Britain today.

And in a surprising exchange with history professor Eleanor Robson, Bridget discovers that a writer of poetry from 4,000 years ago, long cherished by contemporary feminists, isn't all that she seems to be.

With poems by Sarah Lasoye, Warsan Shire, Malika Booker, Enheduana, Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, Seema Begum and Bridget Minamore herself.

Produced by Matthew Teller
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4.

How well do NHS hospitals look after their elderly patients? Allan Urry investigates concerns about a lack of basic care. Is it proving fatal for some? Why are bedsores, repeated falls, malnutrition and dehydration still featuring among the complaints of families who've lost loved ones? The programme also assesses how well the NHS responds when mistakes are made.

Reporter: Allan Urry
Producer: Nicola Dowling.

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This week poet and songwriter Stewart Henderson has bells, jokes and Stravinsky, courtesy of a brace of Russian Revolution programmes.

David Bowie is at the Berlin wall, we explore Bing Crosby's last British visit and the Hannover rain stops an opera.

Daughters and sons speak affectionately about their dads, Jeremy Irons reads a poem and there's piano playing at a London train station.

Producer: Stephen Garner
Production support: Kay Bishton & Alice Platt.

Lilian feels guilty, and Pip admits her faux pas.

Ineffective detectives Max and Ivan are called to help the penniless ringmaster of the crumbling Cirque Du Solihull (guest star Bridget Christie). After a series of mysterious accidents the circus faces closure after the human cannonball cannon is stolen.

Meanwhile, in an effort to fend off increasingly erratic landlord Malcolm, Max has come up with an ingenious way to delay paying him their rent.

Cast:
Max..............................................Max Olesker
Ivan...............................................Ivan Gonzalez
Brenda Zamponi...........................Bridget Christie
Narrator /
Malcolm McMichaelmas...............Lewis MacLeod
Belle (& others)............................Lolly Adefope
Joe (& others)..............................David Reed

Written by Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez
Developed by John Stanley Productions
Produced by Ben Walker
A Retort production for BBC Radio 4.

The story of a disappearance - told backwards.

In the third in Jon McGregor's 15-part short story series set in the Peak District, a 13-year-old girl has gone missing on the moors. Now, as the search for the girl gears up, the local newspaper boy joins the hunt for clues.

The fifteen stories of The Reservoir Tapes each stand alone but together build a compelling portrait of a community rocked by tragedy, as they explore events that precede and follow the disappearance the teenage girl. A prequel to Jon McGregor's critically acclaimed Man Booker long-listed novel Reservoir 13, these stories and their different perspectives offer tantalizing glimpses as to what might have happened to Becky.

Writer: Jon McGregor is an acclaimed British novelist who has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize three times. His third novel, Even the Dogs, won the International Dublin Literary Award
Reader: Sacha Dhawan is a British actor known for his roles in Sherlock and In the Club. He has the starring role in a feature-length drama of Sathnam Sanghera's The
Boy with the Topknot on 13th November on BBC 2
Producer: Justine Willett.

The Editor of PM defends his programme against listeners' accusations that presenter Eddie Mair's interview with Home Secretary Amber Rudd was hostile and biased. Roger Sawyer discusses the presenter's robust style of interviewing and sets out his editorial stance on the presentation of this and other items on the programme.

When Amber Rudd sought to bring the focus of the interview back to the policy announcements made by the Prime Minister at the Party Conference, listeners expressed their frustration with Eddie Mair's questioning. We speak to those who suggest that the presenter didn't allow for an informed discussion of the Conservative Party's policies, but focused instead on the Prime Minister's misfortunes, most notably her well-documented cough. Roger Sawyer explains these editorial decisions and discusses the sanctioning of coverage such as the use of gunfire on the recent Las Vegas shooting item.

And we hear from one listener dissatisfied with Winifred Robinson's latest programme on home education, 'Out of School, Out of Sight'. Fee Berry speaks to Roger Bolton about her view that the programme should have been more carefully balanced.

Also, listeners discuss their reactions to Feedback's interview last week with the new Editor of the Today programme, Sarah Sands and we hear from those involved in the introduction of the BBC World Service's new Pidgin English programming.

Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

Julian Worricker on:

Lillian Ross, who wrote for the New Yorker, and created a new form of journalism....

The Iraqi president after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Jalal Talabani - a prominent Kurdish politician....

The boxer Terry Downes, who held the world middleweight title in the 1960s....

Sybil Flory, a seamstress who evaded the Japanese in 1941, and found her sister six decades later....

Hedley Jones, a Jamaican musician who designed and built the country's first sound systems....and traffic lights....

What could spark a major conflict on the world's most sensitive front line, and just how devastating would it be? Alarm about North Korea has spiked. It claims to have successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit Alaska. Some experts estimate that North Korea is now 18 to 36 months away from launching a missile able to reach Los Angeles. President Trump has threatened to "totally destroy" the country, in an exchange of increasingly belligerent messages from both sides. Neal Razzell takes a look at the two sides' war plans and asks: what would war with North Korea look like?

Producer: Sarah Shebbeare.

Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.

In a special edition recorded at the London Film Festival, Francine Stock talks to Ian McEwan about his screen work - the films he's adapted, the movies made from his novels, the Hollywood thrillers he's penned, and the ones that got away.

The author of Atonement and On Chesil Beach reveals why he prefers to leave film-makers to do what they want with his novels and why the worst thing is to become the bad conscience of a film set, drifting around, saying "that's not what I meant". And why as an author you're treated as a god, but as a screenwriter you're treated like the cleaning lady.

Image: Getty Images.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

Class, labour, exchange, symbolism, performance - the restaurant is a stage which serves many functions.

Laurie Taylor explores a cultural history of restaurants with author of 'The Restaurant: Society in Four Courses' Christoph Ribbat and Times food critic Giles Coren. Also on the programme - an ethnography of a farmer's market with Dr Jessica Paddock, lecturer in Sociology at Bristol University.

Producer Fiona Woods.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaunaka Rishi Das, director of The Oxford centre for Hindu Studies.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

The latest weather forecast for farmers.

Birdwatching's irreverent Tweeter YOLOBirder remembers rescuing redwings when snow hit the North East, standing with a bird in each hand.

Producer: Andrew Dawes
Photograph: John Thistle.

News and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

War became illegal in 1928 with the Paris Peace Pact that created a new world order, according to the lawyer and academic Oona Hathaway. She tells Andrew Marr how this pivotal moment launched a new international system in which sanctions replaced gunboat diplomacy. Although inter-state wars have fallen since World War Two, intra-state conflicts have risen: Elisabeth Kendall explains the dire situation of one of the Arab's poorest countries, Yemen. The Norwegian ambassador to the UK Mona Juul talks about the art of international diplomacy. She played a key role in the secret talks which led to the Oslo Accords in the 1990s - the first ever agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation. And Phillip Collins looks at the speeches that have shaped the world and inspired generations, especially at moments of war and conflict.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

John Reed's classic eye-witness account of the Russian Revolution in October 1917.
Dramatised by Robin Brooks

Episode 6: The Revolutionary Front
Kerensky and the counter-revolutionary Cossacks are making gains and threatening Petrograd. Reed visits the Revolutionary frontline with the Bolshevik commander-in-chief - who seems less than organised.

Director Alison Hindell
BBC Cymru Wales production

John Reed's vivid eye-witness account of his time in Petrograd was written in early 1918 and published in the USA the following year. It was an instant best-seller, so much so that in Russia it was some years before Stalin - who is only mentioned twice in the book - felt he could ban it for its portrayal of Trotsky. Possibly naïve, definitely politically one-sided, nevertheless the veracity and impact of Reed's enthusiastic snapshot-style reportage has become a classic memoir and inspired films including Eisenstein's classic 'October' and 'Reds' which won an Oscar for its director and star, Warren Beatty.

Hillary Clinton is here to give her verdict on why she lost the US presidential election to Donald Trump and tell us what it's like to live with the defeat of failing to give the country its first female president.

Lesley Sharp joins Jane to talk about playing the monstrous and vulnerable Irina Arkadina in a new version of Chekhov's masterpiece The Seagull. With her previous roles including one half of detective duo Scott & Bailey and DC Margaret Oliver in BBC mini-series Three Girls, is she drawn to playing gritty, defiant, survivor women?

The BBC has revealed its list of 100 inspirational and innovative women for 2017. On the list, Dr Ellie Cosgrove from University College London and Anita Ndreu, a TV presenter in Nairobi, they discuss their experiences of sexual harassment on public transport and how it should be tackled.

Part-autobiography, part-self-help book, Sarah Millican's memoir is a funny, honest and sometimes outrageous account of how she went from being a quiet, bookish child to becoming one of Britain's most successful and best-loved comedians. She covers a wide range of subjects: from a love letter to her knockers, to coping with bullies; from a passionate defence of her decision not to have kids, to the recipe for her favourite cake, Sarah also gives hard-learned tips on how you too can be champion.

In this first episode, Sarah describes the life-changing moment she discovered her talent for writing and performing comedy in front of an audience of strangers.

Since winning the 2008 if.comedy Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for her debut solo show, 'Sarah Millican's Not Nice', Sarah has established herself as a household name, having been nominated three times for The British Comedy Awards People's Choice: Queen of Comedy and winning the award in 2011. A two time BAFTA nominee for The Sarah Millican Television Programme, Sarah's other television credits include two appearances on The Royal Variety Performance and four appearances on flagship BBC stand-up show Live At The Apollo.

Read by Sarah Millican

Written by Sarah Millican

Abridged by Kirsteen Cameron

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

Polly Toynbee examines how war profoundly informed the vision of her grandfather, the renowned historian Arnold J Toynbee. His generation were slaughtered on the Flanders fields but Toynbee's life took him on a different path. 'History is as melancholy as war itself' wrote Toynbee as he rose to become one of the 20th century's most popular historians & public intellectual. Yet real loss, from the fallout of war & troubled peace , began to inexorably shape his understanding and writing of history
Classics texts such as his vast, multi-volume best-seller A Study of History are rooted in his life and work from the outbreak of the Great War to the rise of fascism.

Haunted by the idea that he outlived so many of his generation who fell in battle, Toynbee became an important part in the Great War propaganda machine , an eyewitness to the fraught Peace Conference at Versailles & a war journalist in the troubled peace that followed. He would become a central figure in the new discipline of international relations and the founding of Chatham House as he rose to become a public intellectual. But as war loomed yet again, and after a personal audience with Hitler, Toynbee could not escape the shadow of human helplessness in the face of traumatic events surrounding him both professionally and privately. 'One is like a beetle under a steamroller' he wrote. Many of today's leading historians dismiss Toynbee's great 10 volume work as deeply flawed & riddled with mysticism and few now understand the events that deeply shaped his life. Polly Toynbee explores the events that haunted and shaped his work & life.
PRODUCER: MARK BURMAN.

Susan Calman tries to learn how to unwind, by going hillwalking with Muriel Gray.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

If managers often have a bad reputation, what should we make of the people who tell managers how to manage? That question has often been raised over the years, with a sceptical tone. The management consultancy industry battles a stereotype of charging exorbitant fees for advice that, on close inspection, turns out to be either meaningless or common sense. Managers who bring in consultants are often accused of being blinded by jargon, implicitly admitting their own incompetence, or seeking someone else to blame for unpopular decisions. Still, it's lucrative. Globally, consulting firms charge their clients a total of about $125bn.

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ben Crighton.

News and discussion of consumer affairs.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

Evidence-based, information-rich and full of smart tips and techniques, How To Have A Better Brain delivers a practical and optimistic guide to boosting brain power throughout our lives. Drawing on the latest neurological research into protecting and preserving cognitive function, journalist and broadcaster Sian Williams, currently studying for an MSc in Psychology, investigates the best ways to avert, and in some cases even reverse, mental deterioration.

In this episode Sian analyses the importance of physical exercise to brain health with Dr Alan Gow, Dr Hannah Critchlow and neuropsychologist Dr Catherine Loveday and her mum, Scilla, a former Consultant Psychiatrist who is using exercise to combat her memory loss.

Producer: Dixi Stewart.

by Paul Sellar

Directed by Sally Avens

Boxer turned businessman Joe Stein wouldn't normally get involved with Mafia money but he's on his uppers; when he hears of a Ghanaian gold mine with incredible deposits he wants a piece of the action. But the returns from the mine begin to pay dividends that Joe would rather be without.

The quotable and quote-filled quotations programme 'Quote ... Unquote' continues. Join Nigel Rees as he quizzes Sally Phillips, Matthew Parris, Kate Williams and Frog Stone.

For over forty years, Nigel Rees has been joined by writers, actors, musicians, scientists and various comedy types. Kenneth Williams, Judi Dench, PD James, Larry Adler, Ian KcKellen, Peter Cook, Kingsley Amis, Peter Ustinov... have all graced the Quote ... Unquote stage.

Join Nigel as he quizzes a host of guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the panel to share their favourite anecdotes.

Episode 3 Panellists:

Historian Kate Williams
Actor and Screenwriter Frog Stone
Actor and Writer Sally Phillips
Columnist and Broadcaster Matthew Parris

Presenter ... Nigel Rees
Reader ... Charlotte Green
Producer ... Katie Tyrrell
Production co-ordinator ... Beverly Tagg

This is a BBC Studios Production.

Peruvian-born chef and record producer Martin Morales heads back to his homeland to explore the inherent link between food and music in Andean culture.

For the first part of his trip, Martin is accompanied by his 10 year old son and budding radio producer Felix, 8 year old daughter Tilly and his wife Lucy. He shows them round his family's favourite haunts - from the famous La Chomba restaurant in Cusco where musicians queue up to serenade the diners, to the tiny village of Lamay where they dine on the local delicacy of guinea pig on a stick.

At the Centre for Native Arts in Cusco, food and music come together with a dance about the Oca potato. Providing the soundtrack to the dance is a musician Martin once worked with in his early career, the legendary violinist Reynaldo Pillco.

Along the way, Martin meets up with a recent musical discovery of his, singer Sylvia Falcon, who enchants him with a song highlighting the importance of the Coca leaf in Peruvian cuisine and culture.

Leaving the family holiday behind, Martin continues his journey with his chef's hat on, exploring the food and culture of the Andes - including local delicacies such as the freshest trout roe he's ever tasted.

Martin describes his joy at exploring the traditional picanterias (family-run restaurants) of the Andes as being akin to his joy at discovering a new band. For this former music executive, the roots of Andean culture run deep, where music and food are firmly intertwined. On every step of the journey, Martin is drenched in the music of the Andes - twanging guitars, wood flutes, and even the odd harp provide the soundtrack to mealtimes.

A BlokMedia production for BBC Radio 4.

If you use the internet the chances are you've been conscripted unknowingly into the business of spam. Spam has changed laws and communities, language and culture.

It comes in many shapes and forms - the most popular of which is advance fee fraud.

But this type of spam isn't just a feature of digital living; it's been around a lot longer than that.

The Digital Human traces the roots of the longest running spam scam in human history, before casting ahead to a world of intelligent spambots.

Aleks Krotoski asks if scams are symptomatic of their time, what do they tell us about now and what do they say about us?

Producer: Caitlin Smith.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.

Lloyd Langford, Henning Wehn, Ellie Taylor and John Finnemore are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as dinosaurs, China, cake and bees.

Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.

Shula's day goes from bad to worse, and Ruth makes plans for the future.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

In the two decades prior to the Russian Revolution in 1917, Vladimir Lenin and other prominent Russian political exiles spent periods of time in London - using the unique research resources of the British Museum, writing revolutionary pamphlets and journals, organising the smuggling of protest literature back to their home country, arguing fiercely with each other over ideological disputes and the practicalities of the struggle, as well as enjoying visits to pubs, the music hall and Speakers' Corner.

The British authorities showed greater tolerance of the emigres and their insurrectionary activities than did many other European countries, and some major revolutionary party conferences were held in London. This included the crucial 1903 congress, where the party split into the two factions of Bolsheviks (the 'hards') and Mensheviks (the 'softs') - a split with huge repercussions for the revolution and the course of Russian history.

In this programme Martin Rosenbaum explores how events in London played a role in leading up to the Russian Revolution.

From driverless cars to "carebots", machines are entering the realm of right and wrong. Should an autonomous vehicle prioritise the lives of its passengers over pedestrians? Should a robot caring for an elderly woman respect her right to life ahead of her right to make her own decisions? And who gets to decide? The challenges facing artificial intelligence are not just technical, but moral - and raise hard questions about what it means to be human.

Presenter: David Edmonds
Producer: Simon Maybin.

Brett Westwood follows gulls away from the sea and explores how they thrive in cities and at the landfill sites where birders gather to watch and ring them. Featuring Dominic Mitchell who spotted the UK's first slaty-backed gull, Viola Ross-Smith of the British Trust for Ornithology, Peter Rock on the Bristol urban gull study, artist Mark Dion who built the Mobile Gull Appreciation Unit and Dr Chris Pawson who headed up a study into the behaviour of gulls and our attitudes towards them.

Producer: Tom Bonnett.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

1/5. A new crime serial specially written for Book at Bedtime by the best-selling
author of the Rebus novels. Set in Edinburgh in 1962 a prison
guard watches over a man sentenced to hang for the murder of his wife.
Read by Jimmy Chisholm. Producer Bruce Young.

The writer Robert Macfarlane (author of Landmarks, The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind) believes that the language we use to talk about nature is itself at risk of becoming an endangered species. A 2016 research paper by Cambridge University conservationists found that eight-to 11-year-old schoolchildren were 'substantially better' at identifying common Pokemon characters than common species of British wildlife.

Over the past 10 years, Macfarlane has been gathering a 'word-hoard' of thousands of terms for nature, landscape and weather, in the hope of preserving, enriching and diversifying our language for the living world. He shares some of his favourites with Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright and talks about why its so important to celebrate the language we use to talk about the natural world.

Produced by Mair Bosworth.

Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaunaka Rishi Das, director of The Oxford centre for Hindu Studies.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

Birdwatching's irreverent commentator YOLOBirder on his love of the hipster-goatee beard and slick back quiff of the brightly-coloured waxwing, a bird so vibrant and uplifting he has come up with a special collective noun for them.

Producer: Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Richard Johnson.

News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

Professor Tim Birkhead talks to Jim Al Khalili about his 40 years of research on promiscuity in birds, his love of Skomer Island and its guillemots, and the extraordinary musical talent of the male bullfinch.

Tim Birkhead is an evolutionary biologist and ornithologist at the University of Sheffield. The primary focus of his research has been reproduction in birds. He pioneered the study of promiscuity or extra-pair mating in birds, and one of its evolutionary consequences - sperm competition.

In the early 1970s Tim questioned and then exploded the assumption that female birds were always sexually monogamous - a zoological dogma originating with Charles Darwin. Tim first explored this in the guillemot colony on Skomer Island in Wales: a population of seabirds which he has studied continuously for more than 40 years in the cause of both evolutionary insights and conservation. Tim talks with passion about an ongoing funding crisis that hit this research programme recently and how the public response to it has been the most inspiring event in his career.

A side branch of Tim's research includes the jaw-dropping musical mimicry of the male bullfinch. The programme includes a recording of a captive bird whistling a German folk tune with super-human skill.

ADVISORY! There is a longer version of the conversation in the podcast of this edition. In this edit, Tim talks about the truly weird false penis of the male red-billed buffalo weaver: an extreme evolutionary product of sperm competition in this species and what amounts to an avian tickling stick. Tim also addresses the controversial topic of sperm competition in humans and the myth of 'kamikaze sperm'.

Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.

DJ and radio presenter Trevor Nelson grew up in London knowing he had half siblings on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. However for Trevor and his three sisters, who were raised by his parents in the UK, it didn't impact much on his family life until later in his life when he finally met his half siblings.

He's been fascinated all his life by half siblings. And now, in One to One, he has the chance to meet three people who tell him their personal stories.

Here he meets 'Pip' (not her real name) whose life has been changed by her half sibling.

The producer is Perminder Khatkar.

John Reed's classic eye-witness account of the Russian Revolution in October 1917.
Dramatised by Robin Brooks

Episode 7: Counter-Revolution
Bryant is caught up in a vicious street battle and witnesses the bloody violence of the Revolution at close quarters. Counter-revolutionary government troops holding the telephone exchange are captured by Bolshevik sailors - who then have to learn to man the switchboards. Dramatised by Robin Brooks.

Director Alison Hindell
BBC Cymru Wales production

John Reed's vivid eye-witness account of his time in Petrograd was written in early 1918 and published in the USA the following year. It was an instant best-seller, so much so that in Russia it was some years before Stalin - who is only mentioned twice in the book - felt he could ban it for its portrayal of Trotsky. Possibly naïve, definitely politically one-sided, nevertheless the veracity and impact of Reed's enthusiastic snapshot-style reportage has become a classic memoir and inspired films including Eisenstein's classic 'October' and 'Reds' which won an Oscar for its director and star, Warren Beatty.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

Part-autobiography, part-self-help book, Sarah Millican's memoir is a funny, honest and sometimes outrageous account of how she went from being a quiet, bookish child to becoming one of Britain's most successful and best-loved stand-up comedians.

An astute observer of the ways in which society constrains and judges women, in this episode Sarah describes people's reactions (ranging from disbelief to outright shock) when she tells them that she doesn't like kids - and has never wanted to have children of her own.

Read by Sarah Millican

Written by Sarah Millican

Abridged by Kirsteen Cameron

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

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

Producer: Eliza Lomas.

There's a saying that all you need for a theatre is 'two planks and a passion'. Across the country, Britain's theatrical heritage is both literary and architectural.

This autumn two men's enthusiasm brings London the biggest - some say the riskiest - new-built commercial theatre to open in the capital for over 50 years. Sir Nicholas Hytner ran the National Theatre for a dozen years, which saw many of its biggest triumphs including War Horse and One Man Two Guvnors. Together with his former chief executive and friend Nick Starr, he hatched the idea of a new unsubsidised house, free from the splendid but frustrating physical limits of the Victorian and Edwardian theatres of the West End. They would run an ambitious 900-seater in a new building in the shadow of Tower Bridge, and ensure that it could accommodate every shape and style of play and performance.

Over the last year Libby Purves, theatre critic and broadcaster, has followed the project from the original discussions to its opening next month with a new play by Richard Bean. It took her to a field in Norfolk where local builders and engineers made uniquely designed steel balconies. She visited a soundproof state-of-the-art studio where acoustician Paul Gillieron demonstrated how digital technology enabled the two Nicks, months ahead, to listen from every corner of their virtual space.

We hear from architect Steve Tompkins, winner of the Stirling Prize for the Liverpool Everyman, who reveals how the creation of a theatre has to combine engineering with emotional empathy, and explore the work in progress with its creators as they consider everything from dressing-room corridors to stage machinery, and discuss how even the foyer should help build a sense of occasion and community before the play even begins.

Presenter: Libby Purves
Producer: Paula McGinley.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Ensuring property rights for the world's poor could unlock trillions in 'dead capital'. According to Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, the value of extralegal property globally exceeds 10 trillion dollars. Nobody has ever disputed that property rights matter for investment: experts point to a direct correlation between a nation's wealth and having an adequate property rights system. This is because real estate is a form of capital and capital raises economic productivity and thus creates wealth. Mr de Soto's understanding - that title frees up credit, turning 'dead capital' into 'live capital' - has prompted governments in other countries to undertake large-scale property-titling campaigns.

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ben Crighton.

Consumer phone-in.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

Evidence-based, information-rich and full of smart tips and techniques, How To Have A Better Brain delivers a practical and optimistic guide to boosting brain power throughout our lives. Drawing on the latest neurological research into protecting and preserving cognitive function, journalist and broadcaster Sian Williams, currently studying for an MSc in Psychology, investigates the best ways to avert, and in some cases even reverse, mental deterioration.

In this episode Sian analyses the importance of stress management to brain health with Dr Annette Bruhl, Dr Hannah Critchlow and neuropsychologist Dr Catherine Loveday and her mum, Scilla, a former Consultant Psychiatrist who took up mindfulness to combat memory loss.

Producer: Dixi Stewart.

by Paul Sellar

Part Two

Directed by Sally Avens

Boxer turned businessman Joe Stein wouldn't normally get involved with mafia money but he's on his uppers; when he invests the money in a Ghanaian gold mine he sets off a macabre series of murders and Joe finds himself in the biggest fight of his life - a fight to stay alive.

Where do the contents of our bins end up? Tom Heap lifts the lid on the recycling industry to find out what happens to our waste beyond the kerbside collection.

What does 'recycling' mean? Are bottles and tins and plastic packaging recycled when they're collected from our homes? They might well be taken to the local MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) and separated out into different waste streams, but what happens then? Embarking on a road journey along the recycling chain, Tom Heap tracks his own domestic recycling refuse to find out how much - or how little - of it is actually recycled.

Tom is accompanied on this road trip by waste expert Dr Karl Williams of the University of Central Lancashire's Centre for Waste Management, during which he devises what we're calling Karl's Top Ten Recycling Tips.

1 It's not waste you're throwing away, it's a resource.
2 Recycling starts at home.
3 Read your local authority's recycling guide or visit their website as to what they collect, and do as it says.
4 Sort your recycling at source which is at your home.
5 If in doubt, put it in the residual bin or black bag, don't put it in with the recycling!
6 Where you can, separate different materials, (eg: take cardboard wrapping off plastic cartons, plastic film from paper).
7 Don't put your recycling in bags in the bin.
8 Household waste recycling centres will take those recyclables not collected at the kerbside by your council.
9 Where possible, separate glass from paper.
10 Remember you are giving materials the chance of a second life as something else.

Producer: Mark Smalley.

Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright talk to geneticist Steve Jones about how language is used to talk about genetics, and how genetics influences language.

Producer Sally Heaven.

Writer Owen Jones and Google's resident UK millennial Georgia LA join Harriett Gilbert to discuss books. Choices are The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, The Power by Naomi Alderman and The Trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover by Sybille Bedford.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Tim Vine has been travelling the length and breadth of this fair land to not only uncover the best stories of the Great British public but also to take every possible opportunity to tell a ridiculous joke and sing a preposterous song along the way.

In this the final episode of the series Tim chats to a museum curator about airport security and there's a song about cake and milk.

Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.

Tony is put in an awkward position, and Emma is suspicious.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

Fifteen years ago, promising young footballer Kevin Nunes was shot dead on a country lane in Staffordshire. Five men were convicted of his killing, and jailed for life. But just four years later, their convictions were quashed, following concerns about the way police handled a key prosecution witness.

The Court of Appeal Judge said it appeared to be "a serious perversion of the course of justice," and an investigation was launched into misconduct claims against four of the UK's most senior officers.

Now, as the report into the police investigation is finally released, File on 4 speaks to those at the centre of the saga. Will the family of Kevin Nunes will ever get the justice they seek, and what does the case tell us about police transparency and accountability?

Reporter: Phil Mackie
Producer: Laura Harmes.

News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.

Dr Mark Porter presents a series on health issues.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

2/5. New crime story from the best-selling author of the Rebus novels.
Prison guard Thomas Scott investigates the story of condemned man
William Telfer - and begins to believe he's innocent.
Read by Jimmy Chisholm. Producer Bruce Young.

Fred MacAulay introduces some of the funniest comedians in the UK doing what they do best - pure stand up comedy. Recorded at The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh.

This week, Canadian John Hastings gives an insight into his love life, Sindhu Vee jokes about her family, Susie McCabe talks holidays and Gary Delaney delivers a series of blistering one liners.

Produced by Richard Melvin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4.

Sean Curran reports from Westminster.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaunaka Rishi Das, director of The Oxford centre for Hindu Studies.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

Birdwatching's irreverent Tweeter YOLOBirder tells how a kindly hotel owner took him to see peregrine falcons and got him hooked on watching these magnificent flyers for the rest of his life.

Producer: Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Adrian Dancy.

Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

A three part series about the connection between risk and creativity, narrated by the actor Noma Dumezweni.

For the painter Lucian Freud, every brush stroke was a risk. He led a dangerous and precarious existence. How did this contribute to the production of some of greatest figurative art of the 20th century?

Freud placed staggering and catastrophic bets on horses throughout his life, often losing hundreds of thousands of pounds. He explored Soho after dark with fellow painter Francis Bacon and he had brushes with gangsters. Seemingly these activities "emptied" Freud and were a necessary preparation for work in the studio.

David Dawson, Freud's assistant from the 1990s until his death, says, "He would gamble away until he had nothing left and that somehow freed him up to then start painting again."

In the studio, Freud's approach to life was at its most intense. Spending months on paintings, it was always a slow, sometimes tortuous process and sitters knew there was a real possibility that their portrait might never be finished.

But for decades Freud's career was in the doldrums. His fleshy portraits were deemed unfashionable by the art world. James Kirkman, his dealer at this period, says, "I remember working at the Marlborough Gallery in the 60s, which represented Lucian. Lucian was definitely the most unpopular of the artists."

Featuring the art critic Martin Gayford, Freud's former partner Jacquetta Eliot and "the Gentleman's Bookmaker", Victor Chandler.

So Lucian Freud, the skin red around the white of the
White English skin, truth no lies, low life.
(from 'Lucian Freud - Bigger the brush bigger the painting' by John Lalor)

Produced by Paul Smith
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.

John Reed's classic eye-witness account of the Russian Revolution in October 1917.
Dramatised by Robin Brooks

Episode 8: Victory
Trotsky has claimed victory over the Cossacks and Kerensky is asking for an armistice. Reed sets out once more for the front line with a driver who takes a dim view of American democracy, and finds himself up against the illiterate brutality of the Red Guard.

Director Alison Hindell
BBC Cymru Wales production

John Reed's vivid eye-witness account of his time in Petrograd was written in early 1918 and published in the USA the following year. It was an instant best-seller, so much so that in Russia it was some years before Stalin - who is only mentioned twice in the book - felt he could ban it for its portrayal of Trotsky. Possibly naïve, definitely politically one-sided, nevertheless the veracity and impact of Reed's enthusiastic snapshot-style reportage has become a classic memoir and inspired films including Eisenstein's classic 'October' and 'Reds' which won an Oscar for its director and star, Warren Beatty.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

Comedian Sarah Millican reads extracts from her candid and funny memoir.

This episode opens with a light-hearted love letter to her knockers, before moving on to describe what it was like to wear glasses from a young age (including becoming a target for school bullies) and how, despite the failure of her first marriage, she learned to believe in the word 'forever' again and marry for a second time.

Read by Sarah Millican

Written by Sarah Millican

Abridged by Kirsteen Cameron

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

Friends who live at opposite ends of Dartmoor don't let distance keep them apart. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.

Meera Syal stars as the Indian Aunty sleuth - with Justin Edwards and Vincetn Ebrahim. Mrs Sidhu is determined to put her humiliation in the stables behind her and win back Inspector Burton's trust.

Her nose for trouble leads her to mysterious spanish butler Carlos. But is Carlos what he seems? Is he merely a servant to Lady Lucas, or is there more going on. Lord Lucas, meanwhile, holes up in his office and watches old adverts for nasal hair trimmers.

Mrs Sidhu's Miss Marple Complex is questioned, and mishandled by Inspector Burton, while Tez has an unprofessional encounter with Lucy brought on by a shared interest in conspiracy theories.

Writer Suk Pannu
Studio Engineers Phil Horne, Leon Chambers
Editor Leon Chambers
Director Marilyn Imrie
Producer Gordon Kennedy
Executive Producer Chris Pye

An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

The same basic idea links every welfare state: that the ultimate responsibility for ensuring people don't starve on the street should lie not with family, or charity, or private insurers, but with government. This idea is not without its enemies. It is possible, after all, to mother too much. Every parent instinctively knows that there's a balance: protect, but don't mollycoddle; nurture resilience, not dependence. And if overprotective parenting stunts personal growth, might too-generous welfare states stunt economic growth?

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ben Crighton.

Consumer affairs programme.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

Evidence-based, information-rich and full of smart tips and techniques, How To Have A Better Brain delivers a practical and optimistic guide to boosting brain power throughout our lives. Drawing on the latest neurological research into protecting and preserving cognitive function, journalist and broadcaster Sian Williams, currently studying for an MSc in Psychology, investigates the best ways to avert, and in some cases even reverse, mental deterioration.

In this episode Sian analyses the importance of mental exercise to brain health with Professor Nazanin Derakhshan, Dr Hannah Critchlow, and neuropsychologist Dr Catherine Loveday and her mum, Scilla, a former Consultant Psychiatrist who took up online word games and running a choir to combat memory loss.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.

By Jeremy Hylton Davies.

Gwyn and Paul take on the epic Marathon des Sables - 150 miles across the Moroccan Sahara. Starring Mark Lewis Jones and Richard Harrington.

Gwyn's life was in in pieces until he met Paul. Paul invited him to do something he hadn't done for years - run. And, from that first time around the park, throwing up and thinking he'd never go further, Gwyn slowly began to overcome his demons. Now he's reached the hardest race of them all... 150 miles across the Sahara, in scorching temperatures. But the greatest challenge in the desert... is himself

Jeremy Hylton Davies is a regular writer on BBC One's Doctors. One Horizon is his first play for radio. In it he draws heavily on the experience of its stars - real-life ultra-marathon runners, Mark Lewis Jones (Game of Thrones) and Richard Harrington (Hinterland). Together they ran in the Marathon des Sables themselves in 2014.

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.

Financial phone-in.

Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.

Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Andy Hamilton is a familiar and much-loved voice on Radio 4. Now for the first time on the network, he presents a collection of observations and reminiscences about both his personal life and his 40 years working in comedy.

Over this 4 part series, Andy looks at Childhood, Politics, The Human Body and Animals. Using comic observation and personal anecdotes he will explore each theme, examining how much (or how little) things have changed in the 60ish years he's been on this planet. Each programme will provide 30 minutes of thoughtful, social history, but packed with laughs.

In this first episode Andy looks at something we've all had: a childhood. From his favourite childhood sounds of the ice-cream van and the roar of the Stamford Bridge, to his own memories of being an overcautious and yet inattentive parent.

Andy was born in Fulham in 1954, read English at Cambridge and then in 1976 began writing comedy for BBC radio, on programmes like Week Ending and The News Huddlines. In 1990, he and Guy Jenkin created Drop the Dead Donkey for Channel 4. Andy has spent much of his working life making acute observations about politics and family life. In 2007, again with Guy Jenkin, he created the massive TV hit, Outnumbered, which celebrated the chaos of life with young children. More recently they created the highly topical Ballot Monkeys and Power Monkeys for Channel 4, which charted the absurdities of the General Election and then the EU Referendum. For over 20 years he has been playing the part of Satan in his R4 sitcom, Old Harry's Game. Andy is also a popular panellist on shows such as The News Quiz and Have I Got News For You.

Robert has victory in mind, and Kate tries to do the right thing.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Giles Fraser, Melanie Phillips, Michael Portillo and Matthew Taylor.

Dominic Lawson asks former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey why he changed his mind from opposition to any euthanasia to support for assisted dying to be made legal in the UK.

A lifelong opponent of euthanasia, George Carey recently changed his mind on an issue which the Church of England has always opposed - assisted dying for those who can decide for themselves that their suffering as a result of very serious medical problems is too much to bear. He explains how he decided to change his views on such a significant issue for the Church.

In "Why I Changed My Mind", Dominic Lawson interviews people who have changed their mind on controversial matters.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.