The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.
RADIO-LISTS: BBC RADIO 4
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC Radio 4 — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Novelist Fiona Melrose explores her fraught relationship with Johannesburg. As she travels across her home city to get a new ID card she observes the rich and fractured lives around her, and finds hope in the most unexpected and bureaucratic of places.
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 Leslie Griffiths, Methodist minister and life peer in the House of Lords.
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.
Helen Mark travels to Sussex to explore the wilderness at Knepp Castle Estate. Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell have turned their estate which was once intensively farmed over to a rewilding project since 2001. Isabella takes Helen to her favourite part of the landscape which has undergone the greatest change since they started restoring the land back to it's natural and uncultivated state.
Helen also goes bird ringing and cattle mustering on the state, now home to long horns, free roaming deer, pigs and Exmoor ponies. She meets a couple who retired and moved to the South Downs for an idyllic country life only to discover the view from their house is more than they bargained for. So is re-wilding the estate really working and should we be doing it?
The producer is Peminder Khatkar.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast.
News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Hit singer songwriter James Blunt joins Aasmah Mir and Shaun Keaveny to talk hits, the army and acerbic tweets.
Actor Abubakar Salim is the new lead in Assassin's Creed, a video game. We ask him why he wanted to act in a game, how it compares to other roles and how his martial arts study helped the role.
We have explosive ordinance disposal expert turned reality TV Love Islander Camilla Thurlow.
Listener Clare Rixon has run a marathon every month in 2017, set up a virtual running challenge and runs for her psychological well being.
And ahead of the Strictly final we have the Inheritance Tracks of last year's winner, Ore Oduba who chooses Pride by U2 and One Last Time by Ariana Grande.
James Blunt's lastest album is The Afterlove
Producer: Corinna Jones
Editor: Eleanor Garland.
Alan Dein connects with random strangers around the world and calls them. Each has a personal, intimate story of how art has enriched their lives or provided solace in difficult times.
Producer: Georgia Catt.
Jim Waterson of Buzzfeed looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
Discussing a government defeat on a vote in the commons, Brexit negotiations, curbs on social media, and the activities of the momentum organisation.
The editor is Marie Jessel.
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The latest news from the world of personal finance.
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis talk about what might happen in 2018, there's a look at Emerson Mnangagwa's first weeks as President of Zimbabwe from Daliso Chaponda, and Kiri Pritchard-McLean asks if Peppa Pig is causing trouble for the NHS. John O'Farrell joins to discuss his new book Things Can Only Get Worse? And Jake Yapp distills every Christmas song ever into one adorable pop hit. Featuring voices and impressions from Thomas Nelstrop.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Rowhedge Village Hall, Essex with the Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti, Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis MP, Editor of the Conservative Woman blogsite Laura Perrins and the former diplomat Sir Nigel Sheinwald.
Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
In 1831 a 22 year old Charles Darwin set sail on the HMS Beagle for a 5 year voyage that he said changed the course of his life. He later published his stories of the trip but in this reimagining comedy trio The Penny Dreadfuls reveal the untold story that Darwin was to keep to himself.
Humphrey Ker...McCormick, York Minster, General Rosas, Sailor 2
David Reed...Professor Henslow, Fitzroy, Santiago and Cannibal
Thom Tuck...Charles Darwin and Cannibal Steve
With Margaret Cabourn-Smith...Basket, Old Mother Trousers, Cannibal Susan and Sailor 1
Written by David Reed with additional material by Humphrey Ker
Producer...Julia McKenzie
A BBC Studios Production.
How do people with hearing loss engage with music? Performer Eloise Garland challenges assumptions.
Eloise began to lose her own hearing fifteen years ago. Now aged 23, she's a professional singer, violinist and teacher - and reveals her very personal engagement with sound.
She considers different ways of teaching and appreciating music - some of which might surprise people who aren't deaf - and shares her deep emotional connection to an art form and cultural activity that is so strongly associated with hearing.
Eloise also meets Tarek Atoui, a composer and sound artist who brings together deaf and hearing people to make music with special instruments designed to expand the experience of sound beyond the aural. If music cannot be heard, what are the other ways of listening?
Producer: Steve Urquhart
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
(Image credit: Caroline Lessire).
Nigel Slater is one of Britain's most influential food writers and cooks. His new book 'The Christmas Chronicles' is a collection of notes, stories and recipes for midwinter.
Will the last few months prove a watershed moment for sexual harassment? The founder of Everyday Sexism Laura Bates, activist and writer Bea Campbell, academic and broadcaster Emma Dabiri and Sarah Baxter deputy editor of the Sunday Times discuss.
This year's Royal Institution Christmas Lecturer is Sophie Scott, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. Sophie discusses the theme of language and communication as well as debunking the common myths around women's brains.
Real-life female role models are being celebrated in books for younger readers with some runaway success stories. So how important are these books and what makes someone a convincing role model? Space expert and author Libby Jackson and Dr Hetta Howes, a lecturer in medieval literature at the University of London, discuss.
An online shop has released images of plus-size tights being stretched out over skinny models' bodies to demonstrate their size. One picture shows a model standing fully in one leg of the tights. We'll be looking at its impact.
For some women, it's clear that having children is part of their future; for others it's definitely not. But what about when you're just not sure? Comedy writer Sian Harries and dating and relationships coach Katherine Baldwin discuss ambivalence towards becoming a mother.
Author Nina Stibbe's new book is timely 'An Almost Perfect Christmas'. Why is Christmas such a source of amusement for her? She joins Jane to discuss the highs and lows of Christmas jollity and fun.
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Dianne McGregor.
Full coverage of the day's news.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Clive Anderson and Emma Freud are joined by Al Murray, Ellie Kendrick and Spencer Jones for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Dave and The Surfing Magazines.
Producer: Sukey Firth.
Series of profiles of people who are currently making headlines.
A review of the week's cultural highlights.
It used to be called "The English Speaking World," comprising Canada, New Zealand, Australia, America and a collection of smaller nations. As Britain looks around for allies and trading partners post the EU is the Anglosphere set for a comeback?
Is there a genuine cultural and political bond between Australians, Canadians, Americans and Brits, and a handful of Commonwealth nations, or are we looking at a complex world through glasses fogged with Empire nostalgia? Has Digital Culture created a world in which the English language is once again the dominant conduit of intellectual ideas and cultural exchange? Or in a world of China and Indian power is the Anglosphere a nostalgia kick for old white men? Jonathan Powell speaks to political and diplomatic figures to explore the power of the Anglosphere in a multi centred world.
James Purefoy stars as Sir Percy Blakeney in Jonathan Holloway's new adaptation of Baroness Orczy's classic tale, set in the French Revolution.
Holloway's political interpretation is brought to life by an ensemble cast including Sienna Guillory as Marguerite Blakeney and Enzo Cilenti as the spine-chilling revolutionary soldier, Henri Chauvelin.
Muscular acting, pungent words, threat and jeopardy replace the whimsy of other adaptations and are floated on a contemporary, filmic score written by Sarah Llewellyn, with sound design by Wilfredo Acosta.
Episode One:
It is the year 1792. We witness a revolutionary France in the grip of a violent proletarian uprising and a British ruling class striving to prevent the same happening here.
Music composed by Sarah Llewellyn
Adapted and directed by Jonathan Holloway
Produced by Sally Harrison
A Darling Woolyback Co-Production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
Joan Bakewell and her panel ask why so many people donate their bodies to science and what happens if you do.
(5/12)
Why does finding the connection between DeMille's epic, an Agatha Christie whodunit, a re-telling of The Taming of the Shrew. and the framing of Timothy Evans, lie in your own hands?
It can only be Round Britain Quiz asking this type of question - and Tom Sutcliffe will be putting it to the regular teams from Scotland and the North of England in this week's contest, recorded in the Scottish Borders. Val McDermid and Alan McCredie play for Scotland, opposite Stuart Maconie and Adele Geras of the North of England. Both teams are looking for their first outright win of this year's tournament.
The programme includes some more of the best listeners' question ideas sent to us in recent months, and Tom will be revealing the solution to the teaser question he left unanswered at the end of the previous programme.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Paul Farley meets the Vietnamese-American poet and essayist Ocean Vuong, who was awarded the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection for his remarkable debut collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds at the 2017 Forward Prizes, and who is shortlisted for the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize. And talks to Manchester-based Mark Pajak, a rising talent to watch, about his pamphlet Spitting Distance.
Ocean Vuong's writings have been featured in The Atlantic, Harper's, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, and American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets. Selected by Foreign Policy magazine as a 2016 100 Leading Global Thinker, alongside Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki-Moon and Warsan Shire, Ocean was also named by BuzzFeed Books as one of "32 Essential Asian American Writers". Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he serves as an Assistant Professor in the MFA Program for Poets and Writers at Umass-Amherst. He is currently at work on his first novel.
Mark Pajak was born in Merseyside. His work has appeared in The London Review of Books, Poetry London, The North, The Rialto and Magma. He has been awarded a Northern Writer's Award, an Eric Gregory Award, first place in The Bridport Prize and has been commended in the National Poetry Competition. His first pamphlet, Spitting Distance, was selected by Carol Ann Duffy as a Laureate's Choice and is published with smith|doorstop.
Producer: Mair Bosworth.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
By Cameron Raynes. While his son is preparing to leave the granny flat, Dan's father is struggling in a nursing home. Dan asks himself if there used to be more to life than this. A tale of mid-life crisis and the sandwich generation.
Cameron Raynes lives in Adelaide and teaches Aboriginal history at the University of South Australia. He is author of the short story collection The Colour of Kerosene and the novel First Person Shooter, which explores his personal experience of adolescent stuttering. Granny Flat is his first story for BBC radio.
Writer: Cameron Raynes
Reader: Richard Dillane
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
This week's Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St. Eadburgha in Ebrington, Gloucestershire. The tower contains a ring of six bells with the tenor - weighing 12 and a half hundred-weight, tuned to F sharp. We hear them now, ringing the rarely heard, 'Grandsire Minor'.
The latest national and international news.
In a programme marking Hanukkah, rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand examines our culture of materialism and abundance, and the prevalent feeling of not having enough.
In the story of Hannukah, the Maccabees - a band of Jewish rebels - have only enough oil to keep the fire in their temple alight for a single day following its desecration at the hands of the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes. God intervenes and the Maccabees' flame miraculously burns for eight days. Hanukkah is often thought of as a festival of light, but Shoshana argues that its central teaching is about "having enough".
Contrasting our fate in the west with that of countless people worldwide for whom securing basic food and water is a struggle, Shoshana remarks that it's peculiar that westerners seem unable to settle upon a level of material wealth. Instead, we try to accumulate as we cling to the notion that having more will make us happy.
Drawing upon the Buddha's teachings, Shoshana explains that eastern religions have an outlook that views all human suffering as stemming from the human experience of desire. The Book of Exodus, with tales of manna falling from heaven, also provides insightful teachings on learning to consume responsibly and avoid excess.
Shoshana concludes that abundance is not a healthy state to be in, but neither is deprivation. The challenge is having enough - not too much and not too little - and finding peace when we have all that we need.
Presenter: Shoshana Boyd Gelfand
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
Black-tailed godwits are an elegant long legged bird about the size of a pigeon. In the summer they are found in the arctic where the Icelandic race of this species then migrates to Britain to spend the winter in relatively warmer weather.
For this week's Living World Brett Westwood relives programmes from the Living World archives with an episode from 2013 which sees Chris Sperring visit a private estate in Hampshire where 2000 black tailed godwit visit their flooded water meadows along the River Avon in winter. Here Chris is guided by Pete Potts from Operation Godwit, on a very cold afternoon. Initially they view a few hundred godwits in the distance but with a bit of fieldwork and time they manage to get close enough to count leg rings on these birds, birds that Pete Potts will have ringed in Iceland. As the afternoon progresses more and more godwits come onto the flooded meadows until as the last light fades well over 2000 black tailed godwits could be seen wheeling over the landscape. In a few short months these birds will head back to Iceland and Pete explains to Chris the work he does for Operation Godwit and how it is connecting both conservation and communities.
Producer Andrew Dawes.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme presented by Edward Stourton.
The comedian and writer Robert Webb makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of First Story.
Registered Charity Number: 1122939
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 'First Story'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'First Story'.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir are joined by Mel Giedroyc and Wei (hip hop artist, Greenjade) for a gospel reprise of traditional Lessons and Carols, featuring readings from King James and Word On The Street bibles, original script and gospel arrangements of Christmas classics including 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing', Gabriel's Message, O Come o come Emmanuel, Silent Night. A soulful and joyful start to the festival of Christmas!
Recorded in St Martin-in-the-Fields, Soul Sanctuary's mission is to bring contemporary gospel into all Christian worship and into secular contexts too, in the belief that it is the most inspiring and spirit-filled Christian music being written today anywhere. Choir Director: Christine Bullock; Band Leader: Adam Gray.
Producer: Andrew Earis.
A reflection on a topical issue.
As a child, musician Fyfe Dangerfield learnt bird calls from a sound tape borrowed from the library, meaning he was able to hear before seeing a golden oriole in the French countryside.
Producer Mark Ward
Photograph Martin IG.
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
Pip is torn, and Alan reaches the end of his tether.
Christine McVie enjoyed huge success with Fleetwood Mac, penning many of their signature songs including You Make Loving Fun, Oh Daddy, Little Lies, Everywhere and Songbird. The band has sold more than 100 million records and the album Rumours remains one of the most popular discs of all time, with sales of more than 40 million copies. The album was recorded during 1976 whilst the band members were going through relationship break-ups and the stories of excess and drug taking during the 1970s and 1980s are well documented.
In 1998 McVie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Fleetwood Mac and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. The same year, after almost 30 years with the band, and having a developed a fear of flying, she opted to leave and lived in semi-retirement for the next 15 years, releasing only one solo album in 2004. She bought a Jacobean house in Kent and spent the next four years restoring it.
Christine rejoined the band officially in January 2014, and that year she received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Presenter: Kirsty Young
Producer: Cathy Drysdale.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to the New Theatre in Hull. Regulars Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Miles Jupp and John Finnemore with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell accompanies on the piano. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
Dan Saladino reports on the past, present and future of what's thought to be the world's most widely produced and consumed cheese, Cheddar. Dan also meets producers who are trying to discover what cheddar might have tasted like more than a century ago, using some of the earliest known Cheddar recipes.
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.
The latest weather forecast.
Global news and analysis.
Peter White meets CBeebies Presenter Cerrie Burnell, who became the victim of a disturbing online campaign after parents complained that she was scarring toddlers by not wearing a prosthetic arm. She didn't let this short-sightedness get to her, however, and has gone from strength to strength in her commitment to tackle discrimination.
In No Triumph No Tragedy she tells Peter White, who has been blind since birth, that she is glad her disability allows her to see the damage that such narrow mindedness can have. She recently left CBeebies in order to concentrate on her writing career and has published several books for children that focus on acceptance and celebrating the differences between us.
When she first took the job at CBeebies she was already facing the challenge of being a solo parent to daughter Amelie, who is now nine. The controversy that erupted as a small number of parents called on her to cover up her missing right arm seemed to coame out of the blue. Messages started appearing on the CBeebies board and before long she was speaking to journalists across the world.
Cerrie is forgiving about those who were hostile to her, believing that any adverse reaction was due to ignorance: "I don't mean that in a rude way - I just think they hadn't been exposed to it. I think having someone who is speaking directly to your child is a lot more intimate and more personal than just seeing a character in a wheelchair.
"I think having a children's TV presenter, for the adult, is more challenging. We live in an age where everyone thinks their opinion matters: that's the dark side of Twitter really, that everyone can say anything."
She tells Peter White that she hopes to use her writing career to tackle different forms of discrimination and she is also keen to continue with her acting career. She is nothing if not determined and says she is reluctant to ask for help, preferring to be seen as someone who can cope with whatever life throws at her. This was apparent even as a youngster, when doctors and her parents tried to persuade her to wear a prosthetic arm:
"There I was, as a seven year old, and they were saying that I would have more friends if I had the prosthetic. I laughed at them - my friends accepted me as I was. I wasn't aware of it ever being a problem and was picked on more for having braces!" A bigger problem at school was her dyslexia, with a diagnosis not coming until she was eight - when she still couldn't read and write. But even that has its compensations: her memory, sense of a story and vivid imagination, to name but three.
Peter Gibbs presents the horticultural panel show from the Hamble Valley, Hampshire. Bunny Guinness, Pippa Greenwood and Chris Beardshaw answer the questions.
This wee,k the panel encounters a gardener frustrated with his non-ripening quinoa, offer advice on pruning a contorted Hazel, and dispel some banana skin myths.
The panellists also diagnose a sickly Madagascar Dragon Tree, offer tips to a man struggling with his swedes, and suggest exotic things to grow in an allotment next year.
Chris Beardshaw visits Strawberry Coast historian Mary South to find out more about the area's juicy connection to our nation's favourite red berry.
Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Fi Glover introduces conversations between friends with mental health problems and friends who get through life in different ways 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.
James Purefoy stars as Sir Percy Blakeney in Jonathan Holloway's new adaptation of Baroness Orczy's classic tale, set in the French Revolution.
Holloway's political interpretation is brought to life by an ensemble cast including Sienna Guillory as Marguerite Blakeney and Enzo Cilenti as the spine-chilling revolutionary soldier, Henri Chauvelin.
Muscular acting, pungent words, threat and jeopardy replace the whimsy of other adaptations and are floated on a contemporary, filmic score written by Sarah Llewellyn, with sound design by Wilfredo Acosta.
Episode Two:
At Lord Grenville's ball, Chauvelin's plot is in play. Has Marguerite's honey-trap worked? Can she save her brother? And will the true identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel be revealed?
Music composed by Sarah Llewellyn
Adapted and directed by Jonathan Holloway
Produced by Sally Harrison
A Darling Woolyback Co-Production for BBC Radio 4.
Mariella Frostrup and her guests, novelists Patrick Flanery and Preti Taneja suggest some literary Christmas gifts, and she investigates the rise in crowd funded publishing in 2017. Also on the programme as the teenage diaries of Margaret Forster are published, her husband and daughter join Mariella to discuss what they reveal about this most loved writer.
Visual artist Sam Winston spent a week living in total darkness, recording the experience in a series of 'blind' drawings. He later invited three poets to undertake 'darkness residencies', asking them to write new work in response to the experience.
Paul Farley visits Sam's installation at the Southbank Centre to spend time in the dark himself, and to hear the resulting poems by Kayo Chingonyi, Emily Berry and George Szirtes.
Producer: Mair Bosworth.
As recovery work continues in Grenfell Tower, what's the future of the building and its surroundings? Former residents and those living in its shadow give their views.
Faisal Metalsi has lived in the area all his life and Grenfell Tower has been a prominent part of it. In this programme, he asks friends and neighbours how the sight of the Tower affects them,and what they think should happen to it. He talks to those involved in the recovery operations inside the Tower, and we hear lessons from elsewhere on how best to memorialise a site of tragedy and trauma.
Some local residents describe the sight of the burned-out shell of Grenfell Tower as "a daily act of abuse". Many want the building torn down as soon as possible - while others say it should remain as an indictment of unheeded warnings and failures of management.
Six months on, work continues inside the Tower to recover and identify victims, retrieve belongings, and investigate what went wrong. It's a painstaking process involving multiple agencies. And it's highly sensitive. The NHS spoke out recently about the scale of trauma in the area, saying the number of people affected was likely to exceed 11,000. When local people hear noise and see movement in the Tower, it can be distressing, And as days get shorter, some have been startled by the sight of a light in an old friend's window.
The poem "14 June 2017" is written and read by Father Alan Everett of St Clement's Church.
Producer: Deborah Dudgeon
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
John Waite chooses his BBC Radio highlights.
Toby's life is changed forever, and Jennifer fears for her Christmas celebrations.
Martin Jarvis performs the second of two beloved Jeeves stories by P G Wodehouse in front of an enthusiastic, invited audience at the Riverhouse Barn Theatre, Walton on Thames in Surrey.
In Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit, Martin - as Bertie Wooster - recounts his visit to a Christmas Eve house party. There's seasonal high-jinks as Bertie's rival, Tuppy Glossop, is also a guest. Bertie is smitten with attractive Roberta Wickham. Jeeves doesn't approve. Old scores must be settled in the dead of night, involving a darning needle and a punctured hot-water bottle. But will things go according to plan? Ask Jeeves!
Director: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.
When a girl disappears in the heart of England how far back do you have to go to find the truth?
Jacqueline Redgewell continues Jon McGregor's gripping series. A community is rocked when 13-year-old Becky Shaw goes missing on a midwinter walk in the Peak District. Now her disappearance sparks long-buried memories, and opens old wounds. Today: the local cleaner remembers an unexpected visitor...
The fifteen stories of The Reservoir Tapes each stand alone but together build a compelling portrait of a village shaken by tragedy, as they explore events that precede and follow the disappearance of the teenage Becky Shaw. A companion to Jon McGregor's critically acclaimed Man Booker long-listed novel Reservoir 13, these stories and their different perspectives offer tantalizing glimpses as what to might have happened to the teenage girl.
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: Jacqueline Redgewell
Producer: Justine Willett.
Roger Bolton with listener views on BBC radio programmes.
The way in which we listen to radio is radically changing. On Monday this week, the BBC launched its first full voice app for voice recognition speakers. Editor of Voice Mukul Devichand describes how the new way of listening works, demonstrating how this technology will allow greater access to the BBC's range of live radio stations and podcasts.
Also, we hear from listener Roslyn Byfield about a recent item on World at One about teenage mental health. She discusses the audio diaries of a teenage girl suffering from anxiety.
Tweet of the Day is one of BBC Radio 4's best-loved programmes, but has it moved too far away from its original format, putting famous voices above birdsong? Editor James Cook discusses the programme and responds to listener comments on Michael Morpurgo's analysis of the magpie.
And - how radio changes lives. Listeners Simon Rennie and Libby Tempest tell us how an edition of In Our Time helped inspire change.
Producer: Kate Dixon
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
(Photo: Keith Chegwin)
Matthew Bannister on
The disgraced publicist Max Clifford who was known as the king of the kiss and tell story, made up many tabloid headlines and was convicted of eight charges of indecent assault against teenage girls.
The adventurer Norman Baker who sailed with Thor Heyerdahl from Morocco to Barbados on a papyrus raft called Ra II.
The businessman Tony Garrett who was chairman of Imperial Tobacco and a pioneer of sponsorship deals in sport and the arts.
The art historian Virginia Surtees who championed the pre-Raphaelite painters.
And Keith Chegwin, much loved children's TV presenter and entertainer.
In September Ryanair was headline news and in crisis, having had to cancel many thousands of flights at very short notice. By offering extremely low fares to flyers, the company has become one of the world's biggest and most profitable airlines. Matthew Gwyther traces Ryanair's history and explores how its business model differs from its competitors. Has Ryanair suffered reputational damage since September or will its passengers stick with the company no matter what? And has a change of direction now been forced on Ryanair?
Producer: Rosamund Jones.
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
Inside Science presenter Adam Rutherford joins Francine Stock to assess the latest instalment in the Star Wars saga, while critic Gavia Baker-Whitelaw takes us through the various fan theories about what is going to happen in The Last Jedi, and who is going to die.
Director Daniel Rezende discusses his Brazilian drama Bingo: The King Of Mornings, based on a real-life clown and TV sensation who lead a disastrous double life as children's entertainer and drug addict.
Perfume expert Dariush Alavi presents another edition of his series The Scent Of Cinema, and this week he turns his attention to arch sensualist and serial killer Hannibal Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs
Critics Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Tim Robey give us an exclusive preview of their new podcast series Mind The Gap, in which they try to fill the embarrassing gaps in their film knowledge.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The Trojan Horse Affair - Laurie Taylor talks to John Holmwood, Professor of Sociology at the University of Birmingham and author of a new book which argues against the notion that there was a plot to Islamicise schools in Birmingham. Instead, he considers the teachers and pupils are victims of a false narrative They're joined by Sukhwant Dhaliwal, Research Fellow at the University of Bedfordshire, who considers some of the claims have foundation and raise issues about the role of religion in our educational system.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
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 Leslie Griffiths, Methodist minister and life peer in the House of Lords.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and, for many, a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song Twelve Days of Christmas.
On the first day of Christmas so the song goes, a true love sent a partridge in a pear tree. As actress Alison Steadman suggests as ground birds, partridges are not known for their amorous arboreal perching. Why a partridge in a tree could have many meanings, but given the song is of possible French origin, the French or red-legged partridge seems an ideal candidate as sitter in a pear tree.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Lynn Martin.
News and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
The former President of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger, questions how senior judges became cast as 'enemies of the people' last year. He tells Andrew Marr how the judiciary has grown more powerful and ready to challenge the government over the last half century - while professor of politics Tim Bale explores whether parliament has at the same time become weaker. Cicero was proscribed as an enemy of the people in the 1st century BC. Robert Harris's Cicero trilogy has now been dramatized for the stage, and is a timely reminder of earlier collisions of politics, the law and the people. Barbara Hosking understands the workings of politics and the media, having served under two Prime Ministers - Harold Wilson and Edward Heath - and pioneered breakfast television. She reflects back on her life travelling from a Cornish village to the corridors of power.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
Derek Jacobi reads from a new collection of Laurie Lee's writings, including newly discovered pieces by his daughter Jessy Lee, which return to the landscape and traditions of his rural home in Slad as well as a changing London in the last century.
Laurie Lee's classic memoir Cider With Rosie, his lyrical evocation of an early life in Gloucestershire, launched his writing career in the late 1950s and continues to be one of England's most popular books.
Writer: Laurie Lee
Reader: Derek Jacobi
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
by Jon Canter
Directed by Sally Avens
Comedy about two policewoman crewing in a small village. For PC Sue Holmes policing is about keeping the peace but PC Tina Watford yearns for excitement and she'll stop at nothing to ensure some action. Today a teenager runs out of a shop surely he must have done something wrong?
Jon Canter is an award winning comedy writer. He won the Prix Europa for Boswell's Lives and an Audio Comedy award for 'Believe It'.
He has written for Lenny Henry and is the author of several comic novels.
Jessica Ransom won a Children's Bafta for her work on Horrible Histories and is best known for her role as Morwenna, the receptionist in Doc Martin.
Susan Wokoma is an award winning actress best known for her work on Crazyhead and Chewing Gum and is appearing on stage with Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig in James Graham's play 'Labour of Love'.
Paul Mosby was a professional oboist. Now with advanced Alzheimers, he is largely non-verbal, and spends his days walking the corridors of his care home. His wife Yvonne and daughter Helen hope that music therapy might awaken his connexion with music, and with himself. Paul made the decision to stop playing the oboe nearly twenty years ago. He put it away in a box, and has not played since. And the early music sessions don't go well - Paul only stays a few minutes and then again begins his endless walking. Then his daughter brings in an old oboe that he gave her many years before - will it evoke any memories in Paul and re-connect him with his past?
Beattie Edmondson and Nikesh Patel star in Sue Teddern's romantic comedy, inspired by Katharine Whitehorn's cookery classic. Deepak takes Trisha on an outing to Oxford. But it's not quite the punting and picnic she expects. Extracts from Cooking in a Bedsitter are read by Eleanor Bron.
Directed by Emma Harding.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1917, it was reported that local Belgians had created a Christmas fund for miners' children, and in Tynemouth, Edie prepares for a charity football match.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
This year money advice charities have been reporting rising levels of debt. They say benefit cuts, inflation and the increase in interest rates have stretched many household budgets to breaking point. The charity, StepChange, says the busiest time of the year for calls to its helplines is after Christmas. Staff took almost two hundred thousand calls in January this year. We'll hear from two of their clients, on how they manage their money over the festive season.
The introduction of the new benefit, Universal Credit, is set to continue next year. It merges six benefits for working-age people into one new payment, which is reduced gradually as you earn more. The mental health charity, Mind, is warning that its roll-out is having a negative effect on claimants who have mental health problems. We'll hear from one man who's affected and also get a response from the Department for Work and Pensions. It says Job Centre work coaches are given special training to help them give the right support, and that helping people with mental health problems is one of their priorities.
And swapping winter sun for a night sleeping under canvas. The Caravan and Motorhome Club says record numbers are heading off to camp sites in the UK during the colder months. In January, February and March this year booking on the sites they own reached record levels. It happened again in November. But what's driving that rise, and what's the appeal?
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Jess Quayle.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Singer Cerys Matthews and music expert Tristram Penna go back to summer 1898 when The Gramophone Company opened offices in London's Covent Garden.
This was the very first disc record company in the UK, later becoming well known as HMV and EMI, and was the London affiliate of inventor Emile Berliner's US National Gramophone Company.
The first inventory consisted of imported parts for 3,000 gramophones and 150,000 American records. It was swiftly obvious that British tastes meant local repertoire was vital, so Berliner sent his top engineer and talent man Fred Gaisberg to London. On 9 Aug - the day of the very first gramophone recording session - Fred recorded Adam Umbach, clarinettist from the Trocadero, playing Mendelssohn's Spring Song.
Close by, Rules Restaurant, London's oldest restaurant which opened in 1798, also played an important part as a place where artists and Gramophone Company staff could fraternise. Here Gaisberg heard Australian singer Syria Lamonte, leading to a legendary recording of Coming Through The Rye on the 2 September.
Fred wanted to record everything and anything that he thought might sell and the very first gramophone record catalogue contains several thousand very diverse recordings.
The early recording process may have been primitive, but many artists were persuaded to record by a pioneering spirit. By Christmas 1898 the company had sold out of all machines and records so the entire staff poured into Rules to celebrate.
We hear from Christopher Proudfoot, CLPGS chairman, academic Peter Adamson, and music manager/author Simon Napier-Bell. The early recordings are courtesy of the EMI Archive Trust.
A Sue Clark Production for BBC Radio 4.
A father is torn between his Jewish heritage and his love for his daughter, when she becomes convinced that Santa Claus is real. A heartwarming festive drama about learning to live in two places at once.
Written by Adam Usden.
Directed by Charlotte Riches.
(6/12)
The new Northern Ireland team make their second appearance in Round Britain Quiz this week, this time taking on the formidable Welsh who are the defending champions. Tom Sutcliffe is in the chair, as Freya McClements and Paddy Duffy square up to David Edwards and Myfanwy Alexander. You can find out how close you were to the right answer when Tom reveals the solution to last week's unanswered teaser question. The programme also includes some more of the best listeners' question ideas sent in over the past year or so.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Following four distinguished photographers at work on four very different photo shoots, exploring both sides of the story: the process of photographing and of being photographed.
It seems like we're all photographers now, and never have more photographs been taken - events documented, lives snapped, moments frozen. With high quality cameras in most back pockets these days, it's been estimated that a trillion photographs will be taken this year.
What are we doing when we point a camera at something - and why?
In this series we get behind the lens, as we hear about the process and practice of professional photographers. What motivates them? What are they trying to capture? Which shots work best?
And, crucially, what do they think they're doing?
In this programme we follow the photographer Mahtab Hussain as he continues his project documenting the changing identity of British Muslim women.
Each programme will be accompanied by an on-line gallery of photographs.
During Hanukkah - the Jewish Festival of Lights - Ernie Rea takes a look at the symbolism and use of light in Judaism and other religions. He is joined by Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism; Alan Williams, Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Religion at Manchester University; and by Denis Blackledge SJ, Parish priest of the of St Francis Xavier in Liverpool.
Producer: Beena Khetani.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Back for a second week at the New Theatre in Hull, regulars Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Miles Jupp and John Finnemore with Jack Dee in the chair. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
Lily seeks advice from an enemy, and Brian receives an unexpected offer.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Dreaming of a Dark Christmas, in Iceland
At the darkest time of the year in Iceland scary creatures come out to play. Storyteller Andri Snær Magnason used to be terrified by his grandmother's Christmas tales of Gryla the 900 year old child eating hag and her thirteen troll sons - the Yule Lads - who would come down from the mountains looking for naughty children in the warmth of their homes. These dark lullabies partly hark back to a pre-Christian Christmas when people worshipped the Norse gods.
As Iceland opens up to global influences after centuries of isolation Andri travels from farmstead to lava field and reflects on these traditions: whether the elves still crash your house to throw a Christmas party or the cows still talk on New Year's Eve; and what happens when you have to spend Christmas alone, locked inside Ikea?
Featuring the Graduale Nobile Choir conducted by Árni Heiðar Karlsson
Partially recorded in Binaural Stereo. Listen on headphones for the best effect.
Additional sound design by Phil Channell
Producer Neil McCarthy.
The brutal, unsolved murder of Malta's most outspoken blogger has blackened the image of the Mediterranean holiday island. Since Daphne Caruana Galizia was blown up by a car bomb in October, her son has denounced his country as a mafia state. European leaders say they're deeply concerned about the rule of law there. But on Malta, Daphne was a divisive figure - admired by some as a fearless investigative journalist, detested by others as a snobbish "queen of bile." She herself said there were "two Maltas" - and the reaction to her murder has proved that. So was Daphne's death a political assassination - as one Malta says - or a criminal killing without wider implications, as the other Malta insists? Tim Whewell goes looking for answers on an island where everyone knows everyone, but belongs firmly to one camp or the other. Producer: Estelle Doyle.
Imagine waking up and finding you're paralysed. Unable to move. Dark, shadowy figures enter your room, demonic images press against your face. You open your mouth to scream but you can't make a sound. A heavy pressure bears down on you. You feel like you're suffocating. The more you panic, the longer it lasts. Welcome to the terrifying world of sleep paralysis - just one of the sleep disorders experienced by patients of neurologist, Dr Guy Leschziner, from Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals in London.
In this programme, he explores this and other medical conditions that affect normal dreaming and assesses what they tell us about the brain and its control of our sleep.
Dreaming usually occurs in REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement sleep) when our brains are very active, but our bodies are not. A switch in the brain paralyses almost all our muscles, to stop us hurting ourselves. But sometimes this switch is faulty, causing sleep disorders that can significantly impact daily life.
We meet Evelyn who experiences sleep paralysis and horrific hallucinations. Christian describes his narcolepsy, a rare brain condition that makes him suddenly fall asleep at inappropriate times - including when driving a forklift truck. Adrian recounts his experience of cataplexy, a sleep disorder that can happen during the day and means he suddenly loses control of his muscles. And we hear from John who has REM sleep behaviour disorder (known as RBD) which causes him to act out his dreams, kicking and thrashing in his sleep. Sometimes injuring himself and his wife, Liz. And we learn how RBD may be an early warning of degenerative brain conditions like Parkinson's disease and certain types of dementia.
Presenter: Dr Guy Leschziner
Producer: Sally Abrahams.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Tracy Wiles continues Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking new novel - this year's bestselling fiction debut.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.
Today: with her thoughts still very much on ageing rocker Johnnie Lomond, Eleanor agrees to go to a party with Raymond. Soon the bubbles are going to her head...
Reader: Tracy Wiles
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
John Wilson continues with another recording for the series in which leading artists discuss the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios, each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience asks the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
Cult singer-songwriter and artist Benjamin Clementine talks to John Wilson about his 2015 Mercury Prize-winning album At Least for Now .
Self-taught, and inspired by a range of music from Antony & the Johnsons to Erik Satie, Benjamin emigrated from London to Paris in 2009 at the age of 19. His career was launched after being discovered while busking in the Paris metro, singing covers of James Brown and Bob Marley.
At Least for Now is a dramatic album of poetic ballads that prompted comparisons to Nina Simone and gained critical acclaim for its swooping melodies and the arresting lyricism of singles such as "London" and "Cornerstone".
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
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 Leslie Griffiths, Methodist minister and life peer in the House of Lords.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and, for many, a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song the Twelve Days of Christmas.
As actress Alison Steadman discusses at the time of the song's creation, across England the soft call of the turtle dove would have sent amorous sounds to many a loved one, though not at Christmas of course. These days however the soft dove call that a true love would most likely hear is that of the collared dove.
Producer: Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Mediocreimage.
News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
The Wire's Clarke Peters draws on a rare collection of archive recordings to explore a forgotten musical history.
Received wisdom has it that black popular music arrived in Europe with the Empire Windrush in 1948, but Clarke brings us black sounds recorded in Europe from as far back as 1900.
Focusing on early commercial discs made in the recording studios of London, Paris and Berlin, we hear from dozens of different performers, including African American travelling entertainers, traditional African musicians, black British classical composers and more.
Episode 1 - 1900-1910
Clarke discovers a huge variety of black music recorded in Europe at the start of the 20th century, including very early examples of blues harmonica, scat singing and stride piano. The programme also includes some of the earliest African music ever recorded, from Senegalese war songs captured at the Paris World Fair in 1900 to the music of a troupe of Congolese pygmies who toured Britain in 1905-07.
Much of the music in this series is drawn from Black Europe, a vast boxset issued by Bear Family Records and documenting the sounds of the era.
With readings by Paterson Joseph.
Produced by Tom Woolfenden
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
Comedy writer Sian Harries and guest discuss that strange taboo for women - ambivalence towards motherhood and whether those who have chosen to have children now regret it.
As the successful writer of programmes like ' Man Down', 'The Now Show' and 'Dilemma', Sian Harries explores how a fear for her career might be affecting her decision to have children. Women certainly have more choice now about whether to become a mother, but does society really accept and respect that choice or is it generally assumed that she and any women who feel ambivalent will change their minds at some point?
Producer: Toby Field.
Derek Jacobi reads from a new collection of Laurie Lee's writings, including newly discovered pieces by his daughter Jessy Lee, which return to the landscape and traditions of his rural home in Slad as well as a changing London in the last century.
Laurie Lee's classic memoir Cider With Rosie, his lyrical evocation of an early life in Gloucestershire, launched his writing career in the late 1950s and continues to be one of England's most popular books.
Writer: Laurie Lee
Reader: Derek Jacobi
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
by Jon Canter
Directed by Sally Avens
Comedy about two policewoman crewing in a small village. For PC Sue Holmes policing is about keeping the peace but PC Tina Watford yearns for excitement and she'll stop at nothing to ensure some action. Today an old lady is reported missing, could David Attenborough be involved in her disappearance?
Lack of sleep can make us sick, fat and slow. But what if a sleep disorder is to blame? What happens when no matter how much sleep you get, it's never enough?
In the last of a three-part series, neurologist Dr Guy Leschziner explores medical causes of sleep deprivation or disruption and their consequences. We meet some of his patients, including 17 year-old Vincent, whose internal body clock runs on a different rhythm from the world around him, leaving him wide awake when everyone else is tucked up in bed. We hear from Mary Rose, whose restless legs stop her from getting to sleep and staying asleep and Claire, whose severe insomnia led to a breakdown. And we talk to Maria, whose mysterious symptoms turned out to be due to one of the most common sleep disorders, sleep apnoea.
In this programme, we learn about the medical causes of lack of sleep and the serious impact that these conditions have on our brain function, mood and general health.
Presenter: Dr Guy Leschziner
Producer: Sally Abrahams.
Viz was born in a Newcastle bedroom during the Thatcher years. The profanity-laced and flatulence-filled comic took Britain by storm with its taboo-shattering humour. While its blatant disregard for political correctness turned many away in disgust, its gasp-inducing gags made it one of Britain's best-selling magazines. Nick Baker traces the comic back to its Geordie genesis to ask how something so shockingly vulgar ended up under the mattresses of countless teens and under the eyes of business men pretending to read the Financial Times.
Nick's journey begins in Tyneside with the creators of Viz. Brothers Chris and Simon Donald and best friend Jim Brownlow.
With the equally loved and hated Fat Slags, Sid the Sexist and Johnny Fartpants by his side, Nick tours the Newcastle underground that served as an incubator for Viz. The naughty and risqué content spread like wildfire in the punk scene. Soon each issue of the DIY magazine was consistently selling over a million copies.
As Nick tries to understand this rollercoaster success, he secures exclusive interviews with Viz legends Roger Mellie the Man on the Tellie and Billy the Fish, voiced by Harry Enfield.
Viz's outrageous satire got them in trouble with everyone from the United Nations to Scotland Yard. Accusations of racism, sexism, and insensitivity were part of the daily routine at the office. Comedians Richard Herring, Alex Lowe, Lucy Porter and Frank Skinner debate whether these boundaries should exist in the first place.
Today, sales of Viz have declined dramatically. Nick discusses its place in the pantheon of British comedy with current editors Graham Dury and Simon Thorp.
Produced by Anishka Sharma
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
Image (c) Colin Davison.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1917, it was announced that women's alcoholism had declined since the start of the war, and in Tynemouth, Alan Lowther feels the weight of responsibility.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
Consumer phone-in.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Singer Cerys Matthews and music expert Tristram Penna continue their investigation into the pioneering days of the UK record industry with a programme dedicated to laughter and novelty.
The Gramophone Company's chief producer Fred Gaisberg was enthusiastic to record all sorts of sounds, not just music, and so he scoured the country for likeable talents. He taught his friend, the Music Hall entertainer Burt Shephard, The Laughing Song which was already a proven hit in America and Shephard proved a natural to put it on record for British audiences.
Artists with robust hearty voices worked best on the recording equipment they used, so we see that the technology was beginning to dictate what would be ultimately captured on disc.
Laughter doesn't recognise international borders and Gaisberg's original 1902 recording became a hit across the world. Pursuing the laughing tradition on popular records, we hear other examples where laughter on tracks has been a requisite for success - including The Laughing Policeman from the 1920s and David Bowie's The Laughing Gnome of the late '60s.
Fred's thirst for recording sounds also led him to create 'novelty records', including the Chairman of the Gramophone Company, Trevor Williams recording his party piece of farmyard animal sounds.
By the early 1900s the Gramophone was becoming a popular machine people could buy to have in their homes which gave them instant laughter, sounds and songs to entertain them.
We also hear from academic and record collector Peter Adamson, and music manager/author Simon Napier-Bell. The early recordings are courtesy of the EMI Archive Trust.
A Sue Clark production for BBC Radio 4.
As Pat catches up with an old friend in the park, it suddenly dawns on her that her four year old grandchild is no longer in the playground.
Clare Dwyer Hogg has emerged as one of Ireland's most exciting new playwrights. Her first play Farewell, directed and starring Stephen Rea, premiered in December 2012 and launched the reforming of Field Day Theatre Company. It was also broadcast on R3 in March 2013. As well as her theatre work, Clare is an award-winning journalist having received the Premio Luchetta award for Human Rights journalism. Clare grew up in Northern Ireland, studied at Cambridge and lives in London.
Writer ..... Clare Dwyer Hogg
Producer ..... Gemma McMullan.
A two-decade long attempt to write a new Christmas standard, an Icelandic documentary fairytale and the comedian Mark Thomas on a Christmas story from his father - all feature in Josie Long's festive documentary special.
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
John Wilson concludes the seventh series, of the programme in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about their musical craft. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios.
Having discussed his about his 2015 Mercury Prize-winning album 'At Least for Now' (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 18th December and available online), Cult singer-songwriter and artist Benjamin Clementine responds to questions from the audience.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
Dr David Halleran was the trauma surgeon who held John Lennon's heart in his hands after he was fatally shot outside the Dakota buildings in New York.
Halleran was a third-year general surgery resident at New York's Roosevelt Hospital when an unidentified man with four gunshot wounds to the chest was brought to the emergency room. But Halleran didn't recognize the victim and began trying to restore his vital signs like any other patient.
During this time one of the nurses said, "That looks like John Lennon." Halleran was not so sure.
Halleran, a Beatles fan himself, describes the brief time he spent with Lennon as he desperately tried to bring his heart back to life, including massaging it in his hands. This sudden meeting in the most tragic of circumstances became a remarkable event in Halleran's life as well as a defining cultural one for Beatles lovers around the world.
Written and Presented by Andrew McGibbon
Producer: Nick Romero
A Curtains for Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
On a field outside Dublin, Daniel O'Connell met and shot a former royal marine in a duel. John d'Esterre had been outraged when O'Connell, the later hero of Catholic emancipation, described the mainly Protestant Dublin corporation as a 'beggarly corporation'. O'Connell later claimed that he had practised with two pistols every week, knowing that one day he would be challenged to a duel.
Nominating O'Connell is the vice chancellor of Oxford and terrorism expert Louise Richardson. It's not the violence of the duel that appeals, but O'Connell's revolutionary way of marshalling huge support for his causes, which were always conducted in a remarkably non-violent way. "The altar of liberty totters when it is cemented only with blood," O'Connell said. He took his seat in Westminster in 1830 and thereafter fought for the abolition of slavery and the repeal of the union, a cause in which he failed. Patrick Geoghegan, O'Connell's biographer and special advisor to the new Irish prime minister, adds the colour to a truly extraordinary and important life.
Matthew Parris presents.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Mark Steel's In Town - Inverness
Mark Steel returns to Radio 4 with the 8th series of his award winning show that travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents.
In this episode Mark visits Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland.
Inverness is the 2nd happiest place in Britain, according to some polls, but Mark finds them to be a bit grumpy if the truth be known... some of them anyway... some of them are marvellous. He meets Sheena from the local taxi firm who tells a story about a fib she told to a tourist, and he meets Steve the Nessie Hunter, a man who has lived in a van on the shores of Loch Ness for 26 years.
Written and performed by ... Mark Steel
Additional material by ... Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator ... Hayley Sterling
Sound Manager ... Jerry Peal
Producer ... Carl Cooper
Picture Credit ... Tom Stanier.
Lynda puts her foot in it, while Emma treads carefully.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
In 1867 Walter Bagehot published his seminal work on The English Constitution, describing the role of Cabinet, Parliament and Monarchy in delivering 'strong and stable' government. But 150 years on, would Bagehot still recognise our current political system and would he approve? The writer of The Economist's Bagehot column, Adrian Wooldridge, examines the British constitution through the eyes of a Victorian master.
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Claudia finds out what can be done to help children whose parents have a mental illness and who may end up becoming their carers. She talks to Kiera and Ambeya who have lived with their parents depression and schizophrenia and she meets Alan Cooklin, the founder of Kidstime, a charity which aims to support families where one or more parent has a mental illness. Also why an experiment at Tate Modern is trying to explain why we like the art we do. Claudia talks to the psychologist who finds out why our perceptions of the amount of exercise we do can change its health benefits and tips to help with panic attacks and anxiety from one of the All in the Mind Awards judges, Mandy Stevens.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Tracy Wiles continues Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking new novel - this year's bestselling fiction debut.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.
Today: Eleanor is surprised to find herself dancing at the golf club party... And dancing, it turns out, is easy.
Reader: Tracy Wiles
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
An energetic, intelligent female-anchored show with a predominantly female panel - using the events, trends and talking points that they think should really be top of the news agenda in a series of fresh and funny challenges.
The host is Jo Bunting, a producer and writer of topical comedy and satire, whose credits include Have I Got News For You, the Great British Bake Off spin off show An Extra Slice with Jo Brand, and the successful topical chat show That Sunday Night Show presented by Adrian Chiles on ITV. Jo was a guest interviewer on Loose Ends for several years and a panellist on Loose Women.
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4.
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 Leslie Griffiths, Methodist minister and life peer in the House of Lords.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and for many a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song the Twelve Days of Christmas.
As actress Alison Steadman discusses working out what the actual bird is on the third day of the song could prove a headache. The original three French hens mentioned in the song could be of course domestic chickens or hens in France, but not, I suggest, French Hens, a species which as far as we know doesn't exist. It's thought then our domestic chickens are descendants of junglefowl, forest dwelling members of the pheasant family from southern Asia. Of all the junglefowl, it is the red junglefowl that is believed to be the primary ancestral source of our humble hen.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Graham Ball.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
"O' Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining..." and so begins the gentle carol of reflection that has touched the lives of listeners around the world.
For The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, it's the carol that lifted his spirits as he lay in a London hospital battling pneumonia. It is also the hymn that inspired a fellow patient to find faith. In Philadelphia it is the song that outreach worker Asteria Vives sang when she took Christmas to the homeless, whilst for singer and songwriter Katie Melua it's the carol that awoke her love of music as an 8 year old child in Belfast. And for Tymara Walker it's the Christmas family favourite which went viral when she sang it on a Washington subway, eventually reaching a worldwide audience of over 5 million.
Featuring choral conductor and composer Bob Chilcott.
Producer: Nicola Humphries.
A lifelong supporter of state education, headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh chose a Conservative Party conference platform to declare Britain's state education system badly broken. She explains to presenter Dominic Lawson how she came to change her mind about Britain's education system.
She grew up a passionate supporter of socialism and became a teacher in Britain's state schools. But what Katharine Birbalsingh found there made her change her mind about the fundamentals of how schools are run and how pupils are taught. She chose the Conservative conference of 2010 to make a platform speech which attacked well-meaning liberals for ruining the education chances of many from low-income and ethnic minority backgrounds. Revealing herself to be a supporter of the new Conservative-led government, she felt ostracised by the state education system and has struggled for years to found her own free school.
Having established the Michaela Community School in north London, she is able to put her radical ideas into practice there, leading some to dub it the 'Strictest school in Britain'.
In "Why I Changed My Mind", Dominic Lawson interviews people who have changed their mind on controversial matters.
Producer: Jonathan Brunert.
Derek Jacobi reads from a new collection of Laurie Lee's writings, including newly discovered pieces by his daughter Jessy Lee, which return to the landscape and traditions of his rural home in Slad as well as a changing London in the last century.
Laurie Lee's classic memoir Cider With Rosie, his lyrical evocation of an early life in Gloucestershire, launched his writing career in the late 1950s and continues to be one of England's most popular books.
Writer: Laurie Lee
Reader: Derek Jacobi
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
by Jon Canter
Directed by Sally Avens
Comedy about two policewoman crewing in a small village. For PC Sue Holmes policing is about keeping the peace but PC Tina Watford yearns for excitement and she'll stop at nothing to ensure some action. Today a couple have a row outside a pub but Tina has a vested interest in ensuring they don't make up.
Ten year olds with a sophisticated understanding of what it means to be a supportive friend and the importance of talking. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
Last in the series. This week Alfie Moore looks at evidential property and the trouble it brings to the police. After a successful first series on Radio 4 and a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival, policeman turned comic, Alfie Moore, returns with the series that forces his audience to make the policing decisions as he takes them through a real life crime scenario.
Written and performed by Alfie Moore,
Script Editor ..... Will Ing,
Producer..... Alison Vernon-Smith.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1917, a seventeen year old munitionette, Maria Scratcher, was killed in a factory accident in Willington, and at Marshalls, the workers are united.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Singer Cerys Matthews and music expert Tristram Penna continue their investigation into the early days of the recording industry in the UK. They are in Cecil Sharp House, the home of English Folk Dance and Song Society, and are joined by Steve Roud, creator of the Roud Folk Song Index.
In the first few years of the Gramophone Company's history, they were making records of many popular songs rooted in the folk tradition including many old work songs, and producer Fred Gaisberg first travelled the British Isles in 1899 to find and record them. He began in Scotland with pipers and singers, then going to Wales to record choirs including the Rhondda Royal Glee Society, and lastly to Dublin to record the very best of the local talents.
These discs captured local folk songs and melodies but, with an ear for what might sell, Gaisberg nearly always added a piano accompaniment and gentrified them for the Gramophone's targeted genteel audience.
The portable recording equipment they needed consisted of at least six crate loads and involved an interesting mixture of zinc plate, wax and toxic chemicals as well as an electrically driven recording machine.
We end with a recording of English Music Hall artist Gus Elen and an English hit song which points to the future of the popular recording industry in the UK - pop songs leading us all the way from Gus to The Beatles.
We also hear from academic Peter Adamson and Christopher Proudfoot, CLPGS President. The early recordings are courtesy of the EMI Archive Trust.
A Sue Clark production for BBC Radio 4.
By Annamaria Murphy
First in the latest series of the comedy drama set in Glan Don, a mysterious village perched on the wild Welsh coast.
Gareth and Diane's baby arrives early on the 302 bus into town, but that's not the only new arrival about to land in Glan Don. As the lives of the pub landlords are thrown into turmoil, up at the castle sleeping dragons are stirring.
Starring Elis James (Josh), Emma Sidi (W1A) and Ifan Huw Dafydd (Gavin and Stacey).
Gareth.... Elis James
Diane.... Emma Sidi
Emlyn..... Ifan Huw Dafydd
Series created by Meic Povey
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.
Jeremy Hardy returns with his new series that not only seconds that emotion, but explains it too. In this show, Jeremy is feeling... sad.
Radio 4's most passionate polemicist returns to the airwaves with a new format which promises to be both personal and profound, and to present sides of Jeremy you won't have heard before. He may even sing. (He won't sing.)
The News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" regular, proud progenitor of ten series of Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, and winner of numerous awards and almost certainly the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Jeremy is famous for lines like:
"Kids should never be fashion slaves, especially in the Far East. My 12-year old daughter asked me for a new pair of trainers. I told her she was old enough to go out and make her own."
and -
"Islam is no weirder than Christianity. Both are just Judaism with the jokes taken out."
His unique world view once lead him to be likened to "an incendiary vicar". Gillian Reynolds called him, "an idealist, a dissenter, a polemicist and moralist - he's a salutary reminder that jokes can, and should, be about big things."
The show is produced by Jeremy's long-standing accomplice, David Tyler, whose radio credits include Cabin Pressure, Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones!, Marcus Brigstocke's The Brig Society, Kevin Eldon Will See You Now, Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off, The Castle, The 99p Challenge, Deep Trouble, My First Planet, Radio Active and Bigipedia. His TV credits include Paul Merton - The Series, Spitting Image, Absolutely, The Paul Calf Video Diary, Coogan's Run and exec producing Victoria Wood's dinnerladies.
Written by Jeremy Hardy
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
Alan attempts to take control, and there is good news at Bridge Farm.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
As we spend an ever increasing amount of time online, much of our lives, both professional and personal, have found their way onto the digital sphere.
So what happens to it all when we die? Should we view our digital assets much like our physical possessions? And, if so, how should we manage our digital legacies?
Producer: Beth Eastwood.
How do you judge whether a dog is dangerous enough to be destroyed?
Two people come together to swap one story which helped shape their views. They each listen to the other then they retell the story as if it had happened to them. Does this attempt at understanding one another bring new empathy? Can you really step into another's shoes and see the world from their perspective?
Postlady, Sharon was seriously injured when she endured an attack by two dobermans on her mail-round. The owner was prosecuted but the court didn't order the destruction of the dogs. Sharon fears that another innocent person could be attacked by the same dogs.
Michelle's boyfriend owns a cane corso, an Italian hunting dog. Michelle and her children adore 'soppy git', Reggie but last May her son ran to her with blood pouring from his head. She insists that the dog didn't bite, but just grazed her son as he squirmed free from an over-enthusiastic cuddle. The police seized Reggie but Michelle and her boyfriend fought to have him returned to the family.
Can Sharon and Michelle agree on how to define a dangerous dog? What should happen if they injure a person? When should a dog's life become forfeit?
Presented and Produced by Polly Weston.
Philip Ball tells the story of Michael Faraday, professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, and how he was inspired by the book Conversations in Chemistry by Jane Marcet.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Tracy Wiles continues Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking new novel - this year's bestselling fiction debut.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.
Today: Sporting her new hairdo, make-up and outfit, Eleanor prepares herself for the hand of fate to unite her with Johnnie Lomond at his farewell gig.
Reader: Tracy Wiles
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
Harry Hill is the governor of the UK's remostest prison, The Egg. However, his resources are limited, so when there is an incident within the prison he is forced to record it in watercolours. That's why he is delighted when he receives a brand new CCTV system to monitor goings-on within The Egg. But the system soon malfunctions...and Harry has to think quickly to save the sanity of his team.
It is written by Dan Maier
The producer is Sam Michell
It's a BBC Studios Production.
The East Coast Listening Post was created by Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated duo Lazy Susan. Across the series, journalist sisters, Jenna and Dana, tour the UK and interview its inhabitants in their quest to reveal something meaningful, inadvertently revealing themselves in the process.
In the first episode of the series, Old Money, Jenna and Dana get a glimpse of the dying embers of the old British aristocracy. They go and stay with two elderly sisters, Gilly and Sally, whose neighbours are up in arms over the behaviour of the elder sibling who is refusing to grow old gracefully. Will the old aristocrats win round their neighbours by throwing a party in their honour? We'll find out.
The East Coast Listening Post was written and performed by Celeste Dring and Freya Parker, with performances from David Elms, Sally Grace and Maggie Ollerenshaw. The original score was composed by Owain Roberts. The script editor was Matthew Crosby. The production co-ordinator was Steve Lanham.
The East Coast Listening Post was produced by Suzy Grant for BBC Studios Scripted Comedy.
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 Leslie Griffiths, Methodist minister and life peer in the House of Lords.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and for many a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song Twelve Days of Christmas.
As actress Alison Steadman discusses, on the fourth day of the song, a true love is sent four calling birds. Given that most birds call, which quartet of birds could be calling? Possibly the four calling birds could refer back to colly, a derivative of the older col, roughly translated as coal. In other words, birds as black as coal. But which black bird would capture a wooing heart?
Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: John Quine.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great composers, who was born into a family of musicians in Bonn. His grandfather was an eminent musician and also called Ludwig van Beethoven. His father, who was not as talented as Beethoven's grandfather, drank heavily and died when Beethoven was still young. It was his move to Vienna that allowed him to flourish, with the support at first of aristocratic patrons, when that city was the hub of European music. He is credited with developing the symphony further than any who preceded him, with elevating instrumental above choral music and with transforming music to the highest form of art. He composed his celebrated works while, from his late twenties onwards, becoming increasingly deaf.
Before the live broadcast, BBC Radio 3's Breakfast programme will play selections from Beethoven, with Essential Classics playing more, immediately after, on the same network.
With
John Deathridge
Laura Tunbridge
and
Erica Buurman
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
Derek Jacobi reads from a new collection of Laurie Lee's writings, including newly discovered pieces by his daughter Jessy Lee, which return to the landscape and traditions of his rural home in Slad as well as a changing London in the last century.
Laurie Lee's classic memoir Cider With Rosie, his lyrical evocation of an early life in Gloucestershire, launched his writing career in the late 1950s and continues to be one of England's most popular books.
Writer: Laurie Lee
Reader: Derek Jacobi
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
by Jon Canter
Directed by Sally Avens
Comedy about two policewoman crewing in a small village. For PC Sue Holmes policing is about keeping the peace but PC Tina Watford yearns for excitement and she'll stop at nothing to ensure some action. Today a burglary has taken place and Tina has a lightbulb moment as to whom may have committed the crime.
There are 33 ways to dispel a mistress according to one of China's top love detectives. An unusual new industry has taken hold in some of the country's top cities. It's called "mistress-dispelling", and it involves hired operatives doing what it takes to separate cheating husbands from their mistresses. With the surge in super-affluent families in China, there has also been an apparent upsurge in the number of men choosing to keep a concubine. And for wives who see divorce as a humiliating option, almost no expense is sometimes spared in seeing off the rival. For Crossing Continents, Ed Butler meets some of these private detectives and "marriage counsellors", heads off on a mistress "stake-out", and asks whether this is all a symptom of a deeper crisis in gender relations in China.
Reported and produced by Ed Butler.
Mark Lawson continues his exploration of the ways in which technology is shaping the way that stories are being told today. He begins by describing the various ways that mobile phones, search engines and CCTV cameras would blow huge holes in the plots of so many classic crime novels - the late Ruth Rendell once told him in an interview that none of her many novels would be plausible in the digital age. Mark talks with TV producers, novelists and showrunners (including Dreda Say Mitchell, Denise Mina, Jed Mercurio and Nicola Shindler) about the possibilities that technology offers them and the pressure it puts on them to make sure their stories are sufficiently sophisticated to bear scrutiny. He also speaks with the new artistic director of the Young Vic, Kwame Kwei Armah, about the perils of updating plays for the stage and his excitement at the ways future generations will use technology in their work. Mark also visits the BBC's research and development department to hear how new digital developments are allowing the audience to enjoy a much more active engagement with a wide range of radio and television stories.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1917, hundreds of striking munitions workers at Beardmore's factory in Paisley returned to work, and in Tynemouth too, it's the first shift back after the strike.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
Poems for the winter solstice.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Poems for the winter solstice.
Singer Cerys Matthews and music expert Tristram Penna continue their investigation into the very earliest days of the recording industry in the UK.
Tristram with Christopher Proudfoot, CLPGS chairman, visits the EMI Archive Trust in Hayes, which houses Fred Gaisberg's own collection of over 14,000 7 inch discs dating from 1898 as well as an amazing collection of early gramophones.
Cerys and Tristram visit Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End where they meet actor Kenneth Cranham. Charles Wyndham was a famous actor/impresario who built this theatre in 1899 and a disc of Wyndham's voice reciting a poem recorded in December 1898 is played on the stage - probably the first time his voice has been heard there for over 100 years. This disc has not been previously broadcast.
As an actor himself, Wyndham had this theatre built to his own specifications so the acoustics are incredibly good - and even today actors require no amplification.
The recording process of the Gramophone Company back in 1898 had certain technological limitations and so they needed the right voices to put on disc, and famous actors of the day were an obvious choice. The people with Gramophones in their own home would be incredibly proud to have the latest speech from actors like Charles Wyndham to impress their peers. For those less fortunate who couldn't afford a Gramophone in their own home, there were Gramophone evenings in theatres across the country where they could go along and pay a shilling or so and hear the latest speeches.
It was also at this point the Victorians realised that recording famous people of the day would be good for their future legacy. The early recordings are courtesy of the EMI Archive Trust.
A Sue Clark production for BBC Radio 4.
By Alan Harris
Second in the latest series of the comedy drama set in Glan Don, a mysterious village perched on the wild Welsh coast.
When lightning strikes the apple tree outside the Druid's Rest, an ancient spirit is unleashed. Meanwhile, Gareth and Diane are struggling with a lack of sleep and the demands of being new parents to both a baby and a 22-year old man. Could a mysterious new cider be the answer to their prayers? Or the source of their worst nightmares?
Starring Elis James (Josh), Emma Sidi (W1A) and Ifan Huw Dafydd (Gavin and Stacey).
Gareth.... Elis James
Diane.... Emma Sidi
Emlyn..... Ifan Huw Dafydd
Series created by Meic Povey
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
The writer and walker Linda Cracknell joins Helen Mark along North Devon's exposed and rugged coast to seek out the traces of her maritime roots. Her family sailed out of Braunton on the Torridge and Taw. This estuary, which drains large parts of Exmoor and Dartmoor, has the second largest tidal range in the world, and Linda is fascinated by the intertidal zone that's exposed at low tide, a place of wrecks and wader birds.
Particularly treacherous is the Bideford Bar, a shifting bank of sand and shingle that sits at the entrance to the estuary, and which has claimed many lives over the years. Helen rows out towards it with the Appledore gig racing team, who love to rise to the challenges the estuary poses. Helen and Linda also meet the Hartnell family who farm Braunton's Great Field, an unenclosed system of narrow strips that dates back past medieval times to the Saxons.
Forming the buffer between the sea and the Great Field are Braunton Burrows, a richly varied sand dune habitat, home to orchids and many other rare plants. Botanist Mary Breeds and her husband John, former warden for the Burrows, show Helen and Linda the plants, while Army landrovers rattle by on training exercises.
Producer: Mark Smalley.
Poems for the winter solstice.
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh is joined by Clare Binns and Tim Robey as they look back at the best films of 2017 and look forward to things to come from 2018.
Adam Rutherford investigates the news in science and science in the news.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
Poems for the winter solstice.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Susan Calman is the least relaxed person she knows. She has no down time, no hobbies (unless you count dressing up your cats in silly outfits) and her idea of relaxation is to sit on her sofa playing Assassin's Creed, an hour into which she is in a murderous rage with sky high blood pressure. Her wife had to threaten to divorce her to make her go on holiday, and she's been told by the same long-suffering wife that unless she finds a way to switch off, and soon, she's going to be unbearable.
Susan decided her best bet was to try to immerse herself in the pursuits that her friends find relaxing, to find her inner zen and outer tranquillity. In the first series of this show she attempted to ditch the old Susan Calman and attempted to find the new Susan Calm, by watching Cricket; going Hillwalking; visiting an Art Gallery and being spontaneous. She enjoyed these pursuits, but all too soon found herself slipping back into her old ways. So she's trying again. This week she learns how to bake with Great British Bake Off star Selasi Gbormittah.
In other episodes Susan will learn about gardening with Val McDermid, go to a music festival with Robin Ince and try birdwatching with Emma Kennedy.
Keep Calman Carry On is an audience stand up show in which Susan reports on how successful she's been - both at relaxing and at the pursuit itself - as well as playing in and discussing a handful of illustrative clips from her efforts. It's an attempt to find out how people find solace or sanctuary in these worlds and how Susan can negotiate her own place in them.
Written by Susan Calman and Jon Hunter.
Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.
A BBC Studios Production.
Justin's evening takes a surprising turn, and Harrison smells a rat.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
David Aaronovitch looks back at some of the promises made by Donald Trump on the campaign trail and whether he delivered on them once he became President.
Uganda has taken in more than a million South Sudanese refugees. Many have lost almost everything. So how do they get back on their feet? For some of them the answer is to set up a small business. But doing that in a refugee settlement, when you have no capital and many of your customers have no money, is no easy task.
Yet markets are sprouting up across the refugee settlements of northern Uganda. There are stalls selling eggs, vegetables, mobile phone cards, jeans; and there are even hairdressers and photocopying services in small shacks, where both the refugees and the local Ugandan population can trade.
So how have these places come to existence? How have they grown out of what very recently was untamed African bush land?
As John Murphy discovers, it's a story of entrepreneurship, sacrifice, taking a gamble and simple necessity.
Producer and Presenter: John Murphy.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Tracy Wiles continues Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking new novel - this year's bestselling fiction debut.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.
Today: Humiliated by her childish infatuation with Johnnie Lomond, Eleanor seeks help...
Reader: Tracy Wiles
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
Welcome To Wherever You Are is a stand-up show that refuses to be constrained by geography when it comes to booking guests; instead, it uses modern technology to connect a studio audience in the BBC Radio Theatre, London, with the best comedians in the world - no matter where they happen to be.
In this final episode of the series, host Andrew Maxwell presents the Saudi-born 'White Sudani' Omar Ramzi from his home in Dubai; the 'Queen of African Comedy' Kansiime Anne, from Kampala; and, from Rome, Francesco De Carlo, who is the regular Italian correspondent for Unspun with Matt Forde.
Andrew Maxwell is a multi-award-winning stand up and double Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, familiar to Radio 4 audiences for his appearances on The News Quiz, The Now Show, and his own series Andrew Maxwell's Public Enemies. He's also appeared on Live At The Apollo, Mock The Week, and Have I Got News For You.
Presented by ... Andrew Maxwell
Featuring ... Omar Ramzi
Featuring ... Kansiime Anne
Featuring ... Francesco De Carlo
Production co-ordinator ... Hayley Sterling
Producer ... Ed Morrish
A BBC Studios Production.
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
Poems for the winter solstice.
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 Leslie Griffiths, Methodist minister and life peer in the House of Lords.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and, for many, a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song the Twelve Days of Christmas.
As actress Alison Steadman outlines the refrain Five Gold Rings in the song is a recent thing, having emerged as an Edwardian addition to the song when Frederic Austen composed the music we know and love today. Yet in the century before that, a small colourful bird captivated Victorian society like no other. The goldfinch.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Janet Sharp.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Derek Jacobi reads from a new collection of Laurie Lee's writings, including newly discovered pieces by his daughter Jessy Lee, which return to the landscape and traditions of his rural home in Slad as well as a changing London in the last century.
Laurie Lee's classic memoir Cider With Rosie, his lyrical evocation of an early life in Gloucestershire, launched his writing career in the late 1950s and continues to be one of England's most popular books.
Writer: Laurie Lee
Reader: Derek Jacobi
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
by Jon Canter
Directed by Sally Avens
Comedy about two policewoman crewing in a small village. For PC Sue Holmes policing is about keeping the peace but PC Tina Watford yearns for excitement and she'll stop at nothing to ensure some action. Today a speeding driver brings back painful memories of her schooldays for Sue.
Sara Parker documents the creation by eminent sculptor Martin Jennings of an 8 foot high statue of the 1984 author, George Orwell. The programme was first broadcast to coincide with the statue's unveiling on 7th November.
For the past 18 months, BBC producer Sara has paid regular visits to Martin's Oxford studio to follow the progress of the statue from a small maquette to the larger than life likeness that will look down on visitors, passers-by and BBC employees alike from its plinth outside New Broadcasting House in central London.
Orwell worked for the Indian service of the BBC during the Second World War. Eton-educated, he had already written his first novel informed by five difficult years in the Indian Imperial police force in Burma. By then, he had also fought in the Spanish Civil War where he nearly died after being shot in the neck. After leaving the BBC in 1943, he went on to write about and champion the disadvantaged in society and expose political injustice and tyranny. Inscribed on the wall behind the statue is Orwell's quote, "Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear".
As a sculptor, Martin Jennings has a reputation for public work throughout the UK - from statues of the famous such as poet John Betjeman, hat clamped to his head, hurrying across the concourse of St Pancras Station, to pioneers such as plastic surgeon Archibald McIndo outside a Sussex hospital where his father was one of his first patients. The humanity of his work is also captured in statues such as a commemoration of Sheffield's women steel workers and one of Mary Seacole to mark the abolition of the slave trade.
The programme reflects Martin's research into Orwell, his life and writings including interviews with two people still alive who actually knew the author - his adopted son Richard Blair and 100 year old Anne Olivier Bell (nee Popham) to whom Orwell proposed after his first wife died. Other contributors include Baroness Whitaker, widow of former Labour MP Ben Whitaker who worked tirelessly during the final years of his life to ensure that a statue of his schoolboy hero became a reality.
Readings by Ian Masters from 1984 with thanks to the estate of the late Sonia Brownell Orwell
Recorded and produced by Sara Parker
Executive Producer: Chris Paling.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
Jason "Ladybird" Hazeley and Joel "Ladybird" Morris present a history of the Xmas loo book. With contributions from Ben "Miscellany" Schott, John "Not The Nine O'Clock News" Lloyd, Andy "Bunny Suicides" Riley and him off The Viz, Simon Donald - as well as a sprinkling of QI Elves. Extracts are lovingly read by Eleanor Bron.
Toilet books. No, not books about toilets. The funny or fascinating books that have pride of place on any home's most exclusive shelf - the safe space, the lock-in.
The ones you buy at Christmas - 101 Uses For A Dead Cat, The Meaning Of Liff, Schott's Miscellanies, The Far Side compilations, the Viz annual, Bunny Suicides, countless TV tie-ins from Monty Python to Mrs Brown - maybe even The Ladybird Books For Grown-Ups. These are the books that everyone giggles at and passes round when the family gets together at Christmas - the sociable books that bind a nation together once a year over the pickled walnuts.
Written and presented by Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley, two of Britain's busiest comedy writers. They created legendary news spoof The Framley Examiner and have produced countless newspaper and ad parodies for Viz magazine. They are regular collaborators with Charlie Brooker, worked on the screenplay for Paddington with Paul King, and have just joined the writing team for Have I Got News For You.
In addition to two book adaptations of The Framley Examiner for Penguin Books, they co-authored a pair of guides to Britain's more peculiar tourist attractions, Bollocks to Alton Towers (Sunday Times number 1 best-selling travel book of the year) and Far from the Sodding Crowd ('one of the best guide books ever written' -The Guardian).
They divide their time between London and the pub.
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1917, peace negotiations between Russia and Germany began at Brest-Litovsk, and at Collingwood too, relations are thawing.
Cast
Isabel Graham ..... Keely Beresford
Ada Stokoe ..... Victoria Bewick
Johnnie Marshall ..... Paul Ready
Kitty Lumley ..... Ami Metcalf
Phyllis Marshall ..... Christine Absalom
Lester Reed ..... Trevor Fox
Gabriel Graham ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Sylvia Graham ..... Joanna David
Cristine de Groot ..... Ysabelle Cooper
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
Consumer news and issues.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Singer Cerys Matthews and music expert Tristram Penna conclude their investigation into the very earliest days of the recording industry in the UK.
1902 was the year that changed everything for the Gramophone Company and was the real starting point for the record industry of the 20th Century. Fred Gaisberg was on his way to Rome to record the Pope when he stopped in Milan to hear an acclaimed new tenor. His name was Caruso.
He wanted Caruso to record ten songs, but he asked for a payment of £100 - an exorbitant sum. The Company Chairman telegraphed back forbidding Gaisberg to go ahead, but Fred decided that this new tenor was too good to miss. The tenor voice was uniquely well suited to early disc recording machines and one of earliest records of Caruso was the first to sell over a million copies. The success of Caruso as a recording artist led directly to bookings at the New York Met and London's Covent Garden - the first time that being a recording artist had a major impact on a singer's career.
Another popular classical singer was Nellie Melba, the Queen of Song, who negotiated and popularised the idea of a royalty being paid to the artist for each disc sold.
Over the next few decades, recording innovations and the invention of the electric microphone meant that tenor and strident voices no longer held the upper hand, as singers of both sexes could purr and be heard.
We also hear from manager Simon Napier-Bell and music journalist Peter Doggett. The early recordings are courtesy of the EMI Archive Trust.
A Sue Clark production for BBC Radio 4.
By Annamaria Murphy
Last in the latest series of the comedy drama set in Glan Don, a mysterious village perched on the wild Welsh coast.
Christmas is coming and Gareth has broken his leg. Bedbound and alone in Emlyn's caravan, his paranoia begins to take root - he becomes convinced that his wife and son are having an affair. It sounds like madness, but the spell Charlie has cast on the people of Glan Don is a curious thing.
Starring Elis James (Josh), Emma Sidi (W1A) and Ifan Huw Dafydd (Gavin and Stacey).
Gareth.... Elis James
Diane.... Emma Sidi
Emlyn..... Ifan Huw Dafydd
Series created by Meic Povey
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
Eric Robson presents a special edition of the show from London's Broadcasting House. Christine Walkden, James Wong, and Matthew Wilson continue GQT's 70th Anniversary celebrations by taking a tour of Broadcasting House. Along the way, they answer questions from some of BBC Radio 4's household-name presenters.
Produced by Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Eurydice writes to Orpheus from her home in the Underworld, to reflect on love, death, and his failed rescue attempt. Written and read by Natalie Haynes. Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
Radio 4's forum for audience comment.
A mother and daughter look back on tough times with dyslexia and moving countries, and celebrate getting through them together. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Topical impressions show that offers a satirical take on politics, media and celebrity.
It is a day to remember for Lilian, and Pip gives an ultimatum.
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Cheriton Fitzpaine Parish Hall in Devon with the Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on Home Affaris Ed Davey MP, and the conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng.
A reflection on a topical issue.
The sixth omnibus of Season 12, Giddy with Possibility, set in Tynemouth, in the week, in 1917, when negotiations for peace between Russia and Germany began at Brest-Litovsk.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Tracy Wiles concludes Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking new novel - this year's bestselling fiction debut.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.
Today: After being taken back to painful childhood memories, Eleanor finally confronts her mother...
Reader: Tracy Wiles
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
Two stained glass artists share the love and inspiration of the craft. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.