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.
Francoise Frenkel's real life story of flight from Berlin on the 'night of broken glass'.
An escape attempt with the 'smuggler' goes wrong. The author is apprehended and will face a trial in Saint-Julien. Things look bleak for the future, but again the kindness of strangers will prevail..
Reader Samantha Spiro
Producer Duncan Minshull.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A reading and reflection to start the day.
A listener on how loneliness and an interest in spirituality led her a cult. On iPM next week we'll hear how she left.
iPM is the news programme that starts with its listeners. Email ipm@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCiPM. Presented by Luke Jones.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Ealing girl Konnie Huq finds out more about her favourite green spaces in London - Kew Gardens and Northala Fields. Konnie's late mother often took the family to Kew Gardens as it reminded her of her childhood in Bangladesh. Konnie goes back to Kew to revisit memories of her mother with her sister Nutun, before meeting scientists and horticulturalists to discover more about the work that goes on behind the scenes. She also gets a sneak preview of the newly renovated Temperate House that's been closed to the public for 5 years.
Konnie has two young sons and their favourite London park is Northala Fields in Northolt. She finds out how this award-winning park was created from rubble from the demolition of the old Wembley Stadium, which created its four dramatic conical hills.
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.
Extraordinary stories, unusual people and a sideways look at the world.
Jay Rayner and his panel are in Bath. Tim Anderson, Sophie Wright, Nisha Katona, and Dr Annie Gray answer this week's questions about food.
The panellists discuss how to make the perfect risotto, cooking duck, and baking a camembert without ruining it.
They also investigate Bath's rich culinary history, passing judgement on everything from Bath Chaps to Bath Olivers.
Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
Food Consultant: Anne Colquhoun
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Kate McCann of The Daily Telegraph looks behind the scenes at Westminster .
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 FCA is warning about a form of online high-risk trading which some firms are illegally offering in the UK. Binary options trading involves betting on whether anything that can be measured in financial terms, like a currency or share index, will rise or fall below a specified price at a certain time. The FCA began regulating last month which means it's now illegal to sell those trades in the UK without its authorisation. Money Box listener Penny lost nearly £17,000 with an unauthorised firm but what can the FCA do in future to protect people like Penny? Christopher Woolard FCA Director of Strategy and Competition explains.
The Department of Work and Pensions has confirmed that all Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims will be reviewed. It follows a Government decision not to challenge a court ruling that said changes to PIP were unfair to people with mental health conditions. Guest Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of the mental health charity Mind.
Interest-only mortgage holders are being urged to contact their lenders after a financial regulator review found too many people avoid planning how they intend to clear the underlying debt when the mortgage ends. It comes as Bank of England figures show December mortgage approvals reached a three year low. Why? Guests: Jane King, Independent Financial Adviser with Ash-Ridge Private Finance and Samuel Tombs, Chief UK Economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Producer: Charmaine Cozier
Editor: Jim Frank.
Jeremy Hardy, Lucy Porter, Vicki Pepperdine and Hugo Rifkind join Miles for a round-up of the week's news.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Ormiston Bushfield Academy in Peterborough with the Labour peer Lord Blunkett, the Green Party's spokesman on Brexit and finance Molly Scott Cato MEP, Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party James Cleverly MP and the journalist and writer Isabel Oakeshott.
Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
To celebrate the centenary year of Roald Dahl's birth, a full dramatization of tales from his own childhood. Sometimes magical, sometimes grotesque but always true, Dahl's boyhood stories are as remarkable as the acclaimed fiction he would go on to write as an adult.
"An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life. It is usually full of all sorts of boring details. This is not an autobiography."
The story of Roald Dahl's childhood is filled with excitement and wonder but also terror and great sadness. We learn of his experiences at cruel boarding schools, his daring Great Mouse Plot, the dangers of Boazers, the pleasure/pain of the local sweetshop and his time as a chocolate taster. Just some of the marvellous, extraordinary events that no doubt went on to inspire his best-selling books.
Patrick Malahide provides the voice of Dahl in a colourful adaptation by Lucy Catherine.
Dramatised by Lucy Catherine
Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production.
Opening Night is in Cardiff where Theatr Pena are mounting a new production of a work by the controversial writer and campaigner Saunders Lewis. Women of Flowers is a story from the ancient books of the Mabinogion which was dramatised by Lewis in the 1920s. This new version has been written by award-winning writer Sion Eirian after the original, and is the latest outing for a company which focusses not only on literary theatre in Wales but also on providing opportunities in theatre for Women.
The programme also looks at a theatre spaces working outside the mainstream and a Welsh premiere at Cardiff's The Other Room of Caryl Churchill's exploration of science and family, A Number.
Pearl Mackie best known as Dr Who's sidekick Bill talks to us about playing Lulu in Pinter's The Birthday Party.
New research from the housing charity Shelter suggests that more than 100,000 female tenants in England have been offered 'sex for rent' in the last year. We hear from Barbara Dickson who has first-hand experience of this issue and from Polly Neate the chief executive of Shelter.
How being in nature and making crafts can help with mental health issues with Emma Mitchell who suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder and has written a creative guide for surviving the winter months.
Twelve percent of children aged 11-15 gambled in the last month, making gambling a more common risky behaviour than smoking or drinking. Professor Heather Wardle the Head of Gambling & Place Research at Geofutures on how children are getting drawn in and how parents can spot hidden gambling .
The midlife crisis is a staple in novels but why is the menopause missing? Alex Clark the literary critic has sought out hot flushes, brain fogs and anxiety in a variety of novels.
How has being a single parent changed over the last 100 years? Rosie Ferguson the chief executive of Gingerbread, and two single mothers Sacha Corcoran and Ayse Inal share their experiences.
Two authors who found love in an unlikely place and turned their real life stories into novels. Emmy Abrahamson met her future husband when he was homeless, living in bush barefoot and dirty and Zoe Folbigg noticed a new commuter on her train and knew immediately that he was the one.
Presented by Jenni Murray
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Beverley Purcell.
Full coverage of the day's news.
Civil engineers would argue they are the unsung heroes of the railways, roads and bridges we all take for granted. But building major infrastructure projects is a complicated business. So how do you go about putting up a bridge? Are you limited by engineering or economics? Evan Davis tries to find the answer from three civil engineers.
GUESTS
Mike Glover, Arup Fellow
Louise Hardy, Civil Engineer, Non-Executive Director Sirius Minerals and Ebbsfleet Development Corporation
Katy Toms, Senior Engineer, WSP Engineering Consultancy.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Clive Anderson and Nikki Bedi are joined by Sylvia Syms, Mark Thomas, Kimberley Chambers and Mitu Misra for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Oumou Sangare and Julia Biel.
Producer: Sukey Firth.
This week the home secretary Amber Rudd announced that Sara Khan will lead the newly created Commission for Countering Extremism - an appointment which was not welcomed with blanket approval, with some sections of the Muslim community calling on her to quit.
Sara Khan is the co-founder of Inspire - a counter-extremism and human rights organisation engaging with Muslim women, which has also engaged with the government's Prevent scheme. The counter-extremism programme has proved controversial, with critics claiming it unfairly 'spies' on the Muslim community - but Sara Khan has been a vocal supporter, saying it is vital tool in tackling terrorism at its root.
This has put her at odds with some British Muslim organisations, and has also led her to being the target of vicious online abuse and accusations that she is a 'house Muslim' and a government stooge.
This criticism has re-emerged in light of her new appointment, with questions about her experience and whether she really qualifies for the role.
Becky Milligan charts Sara Khan's life growing up in Bradford, speaking to old friends who worked alongside her in her early advocacy work as a leader in a prominent British Muslim youth group and charts the road which has taken her to a prominent role in central government.
A review of the week's cultural highlights.
Illegitimacy once meant you were a 'bastard'. The MP Caroline Flint wants to know what the word 'illegitimate' means now.
Caroline has always been open about her unmarried Mum having her when she was 17 years old and that she had her first son before she got married. Caroline describes her own family's story as a Catherine Cookson novel. There are suspicions that her widowed great-grandmother had an illegitimate child. Her grandmother's older sister had an illegitimate child during WW1 with an American soldier who was brought up as though his mother was his sister.
She explores the archives to find out if the stigma has died out with social historian Jane Robinson and discusses the issue with best-selling crime author Martina Cole and fellow MP Jess Phillips. Martina, who is also an ambassador for the single parent families' charity Gingerbread, became a single parent by choice when she was 18 and then again 20 years later. Jess conceived her son when she was 22 and had been with her boyfriend for barely a month.
Is the biggest deal today not whether a child is illegitimate but whether she bears her father's surname? Has the cloak of illegitimacy really fallen because daddy is willing to say publicly: she's mine?
Two families - one Turkish, the other Armenian-American - are bound by the same horrific past. Written by Elif Shafak and dramatised by Hattie Naylor.
One rainy afternoon in Istanbul, a nineteen-year-old, unmarried woman walks into a doctor's surgery. "I need to have an abortion," she announces.
Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. All the Kanzanci men die early, victims of a mysterious family curse, so this is a household of women. Among them are Asya's beautiful, rebellious mother Zeliha, her clairvoyant aunt Banu and their eccentric sister Feride, as well as the ageing Petit Ma. They are ruled over by the iron will of matriarch Gulsum.
Into the midst of this madhouse comes Asya's determined American cousin Armanoush, who unknowingly brings with her long-hidden family secrets inextricably linked to Turkey's turbulent past.
Other voices by the cast
Written by Elif Shafak
Dramatised by Hattie Naylor
Music by Gorkem Sen
Sound design by James Morgan and Steve Bond
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Produced and Directed by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
Fi Glover reunites the Boston leavers and the Brixton remainers, who we first met in 2016, to discover how their feelings about Brexit have evolved as negotiations unfold.
Shortly after the 2016 referendum, two groups from the two political extremities of Brexit Britain were invited into separate rooms to discuss their feelings. One room was occupied by residents of Boston, where a record high 75.6% of residents voted Leave, and the other by those from Brixton in South London, where 78.6% of the population voted Remain.
Those forward looking conversations established what each room was expecting from Brexit, for the future of issues such as trade, education, free movement of people, immigration controls and national identity.
Now, we invite them back to see how their hopes and fears are evolving, and whether their views have hardened or softened as the Brexit process has got underway.
In moderated sessions, the Brixtonians and the Bostonians discuss the feelings among themselves, before coming together in a single group session to understand their counterparts.
Crucially, we ask them to look back on the decision they made on 23rd June 2016, and ask whether they would still vote the same way today.
Presenter Fi Glover navigates us through the conversations, while Claer Barrett of the Financial Times and Fraser Nelson of The Spectator analyse the discussions.
Producer: Emma Jarvis
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
(11/12)
It's the last appearance of the current series for both the North of England (represented by Adele Geras and Stuart Maconie) and Scotland (Val McDermid and Alan McCredie). Scotland need to win today to equal the North's tally of victories this season, but they're virtually neck and neck on points going into today's clash.
As always, Tom Sutcliffe's apparently impenetrable questions require recall of a diverse range of topics, this week encompassing children's literature, ancient history, 21st century cinema, Olympic sport, scientific units of measurement and the albums of Led Zeppelin. There'll be the usual smattering of questions suggested by listeners, selected from the many hundreds we've received in the past few months.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Roger McGough is joined by Hollie McNish, who picks her favourite poems for the programme. Producer Sally Heaven.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
In a newly commissioned story for Radio 4 by the award-winning Asian-American writer Celeste Ng, a woman questions her younger sister's romantic choices. But has she really given up art for love?
Writer: Celeste Ng is an acclaimed US writer. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, won multiple awards and was a New York Times bestseller, and Amazon's Number 1 Best Book of 2014. Her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, has just been published.
Producer: Justine Willett
Reader: Laurel Lefkow.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
This week's Bells on Sunday comes from St Mary's Church in Abergavenny. There have been bells in the church since the 16th Century. The current ring of 10 was installed in 1947 in thanksgiving for the end of the Second World War. Today we hear them ringing Spliced Surprise Royal.
The latest national and international news.
The poet Michael Symmons Roberts reflects on the importance of sight. Eyes "seem so vulnerable, so exposed, yet so central to the way most of us receive and interact with the world around us," he observes as he explores the deep metaphorical associations of vision and blindness, light and darkness, with truth and ignorance, good and evil.
Many great writers and thinkers have lost their sight and used their blindness to provide fresh insights on faith and God. Roberts quotes the academic John Hull, who went blind in middle age: "God is indifferent alike to both light and darkness. He does not need the light in order to know and the darkness cannot prevent him from knowing".
We also hear the poetry of Gerald Manley Hopkins, who practised "Custody of the Eyes", keeping his gaze fixed on the ground for months on end, in order to deepen his appreciation and understanding of the world and the gift of sight.
Music from Shostakovich, Handel and Etta James helps Michael contrast physical and inner sight, and he goes on to discuss forms of technological seeing that bypass the human eye entirely.
Presenter: Michael Symmons Roberts
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
Every year almost half a million pigs cross the Irish border for slaughter in Northern Ireland, a trade which Brexit has cast into uncertainty. Sarah Swadling meets farmer Ollie Leddy at his pig unit a mile south of the border, in County Cavan. He's concerned about the future of his business and the re-emergence of old divisions.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.
The broadcaster Jane Garvey makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Child Soldiers International.
Registered Charity Number: 1095237
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 'Child Soldiers International'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Child Soldiers International'.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Sunday Worship marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which allowed some women to vote and to stand for election in Great Britain for the first time. The service comes from St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, where on 5th April 1914 a bomb planted by the suffragettes, at the height of their campaign, exploded.
The preacher is the Archdeacon of Hackney, the Rev Liz Adekunle, and the service is led by the Associate Vicar of St Martin's, the Rev Katherine Hedderly. The music is led by St Martin's Voices, directed by Emily Dickens.
Producer Andrew Earis.
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
Environmentalist Tony Juniper recalls his encounters with Woodcock from startling them in a woodland during a daytime walk to enjoying the curious sight and call of the birds as they perform their curious roding flight at dusk.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Mike.
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
Brian stands accused, and Pip's attitude causes concern.
Jack Whitehall, stand-up comedian, actor, sit-com writer and producer is Kirsty Young's castaway.
He co-wrote and starred in the sitcoms Fresh Meat and Bad Education. He and his father launched their chat-show Backchat in 2013 and recently made a TV series together travelling around Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Jack played Paul Pennyfeather in a TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall in 2016 and has forthcoming roles in Good Omens and a film about Marc Bolan and David Bowie.
The son of the talent agent and television producer Michael Whitehall and the actress Hilary Gish, he grew up in Putney. Sent away to boarding school at 11, he performed his first comedy gig aged 16 while still a pupil. He briefly attended Manchester University before he decided to exchange lectures for laughs and make his way in stand-up: he won the King of Comedy award at the British Comedy Awards in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Presenter: Kirsty Young
Producer: Cathy Drysdale.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
This week, the Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Sally Phillips welcome the former merchant banker-turned-standup Sindhu Vee, the Nobel Prizewinning geneticist Sir Paul Nurse and the editor of The Amorist magazine Rowan Pelling.
This week, the Museum's Guest Committee blow hot and cold over the Danish concept of hygge, get in a spin at the Large Hadron Collider and end up dizzy with a choice collection of saucy limericks.
The show was researched by Mike Turner and QI.
The Production Coordinator was Tamara Shilham.
The Associate Producer was James Harkin.
The Producers were Richard Turner and Anne Miller.
It was a BBC Studios Production.
When the BBC World Service's Language Services moved into New Broadcasting House in central London, different services would take it in turns to host a 'Meet-Your-Neighbour' event to introduce themselves to other parts of the BBC. People started bringing in food that reflected their country or region. Other people took up the mantle and an idea was born. Three years on and this extraordinary collection of recipes has been compiled into a truly global cookbook, available for staff to download.
But this is just more than a collection of recipes - this is food that connects the journalists, correspondents, managers and producers to their homes, and provides a cultural bridge between themselves. Sheila Dillon meets Paula Moio who describes how a fish stew - Calulude Peixe - epitomises long Saturday afternoons in Angola when friends and family come to put the world to rights over long lunches, and how on moving to London a Saturday afternoon could be a poignant and emotional time. Sadeq Saba discusses the flavours of North Iran and why nothing can dampen down the Iranian's love of food. Lourdes Heredia gives Sheila a tour of the fifth floor before unveiling an incredible selection of salsas that has colleges from the African and Middle Eastern sections arguing about which country produces the hottest chilies. BBC Urdu presenter Aliya Nazki talks quinces and Kashmiri food, and Dmitry Shishkin is joined by his daughter Masha to explain how there's a lot more to Russian cooking than meets the eye.
Producer: Toby Field.
The latest weather forecast.
Global news and analysis.
In this monthly series, broadcaster and acclaimed historical novelist Sarah Dunant, delves into the past to help frame the present, bringing to life worlds that span the centuries.
Taking a different modern day anxiety, hope or idea as its starting point each month, the series considers how certain questions are constant, yet also change their shape over time.
The programme takes its name from the industrialist Henry Ford who, in 1921 reportedly told the New York Times, "History is Bunk" and asked "What difference does it make how many times the ancient Greeks flew kites?"
Presenter: Sarah Dunant
Producers: Katherine Godfrey and Nathan Gower
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
Eric Robson and the panel are hosted by Bob Flowerdew for a correspondence edition of the show, at his house in Norfolk. Matthew Wilson, Christine Walkden and Bob Flowerdew answer questions from the GQT inbox and postbag.
As Bob shows the panel around his fantastic garden, they offer listeners advice on moving ponds, replacing a beech tree, and Whitefly on Pelargoniums.
Bob also takes his guests on a tour of his polytunnels, giving a polytunnel masterclass as he goes.
Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Fi Glover introduces conversations about working with family or partners, caring for loggerhead turtles, and facing a delayed pension age 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.
Reading Europe - Russia: Bride and Groom. Radio 4's journey across Europe exploring the best in contemporary literature.
By one of the most exciting voices in modern Russian literature, Alisa Ganieva, Bride and Groom is a tragi-comic novel about family expectations, religious and cultural tensions, and power struggles in rural Dagestan. It's also a love story.
Both Patya and Marat are young, successful and live in Moscow. They have made it: they were able to escape the Caucasian back country that is still stuck between tradition and modernity, as well as police brutality, corruption and Islamist terror. Patya and Marat don't know one another, but when they both return to their home village one summer, their story unfolds. As the couple struggle to overcome obstacles determined to keep them apart, fate seems destined to keep them together-until the very end.
Adapted for radio by Bethan Roberts from the translation by Dr. Carol Apollonio.
Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production
The Writer
Alisa Ganieva is an author from Dagestan. Her novel, Salam Dalgat! (published under a male pseudonym) won the 2009 national Debut Prize. Alisa's latest novel Bride and Groom was shortlisted for the 2015 Russian Booker Prize. In 2016 the Guardian named Ganieva number 9 on the list of Moscow's thirty most talented young people.
The translator
Dr. Carol Apollonio translated Ganieva's debut, The Mountain and the Wall and was awarded the Russian Ministry of Culture's Chekhov Medal in 2010.
Eimear McBride won the 2014 Baileys Prize for Fiction and the Goldsmiths Prize for her experimental novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing.
It's the story of an Irish girlhood told by an un-named narrator, starting whilst she is still in the womb. Written in a fragmented stream of unconsciousness style the girl rails against a life that makes little sense - as well as being sexually abused by an uncle at a young age, her brother is left damaged by a dangerous childhood illness which casts a long shadow. Her half-formed life offers no simple hope of escape to something easier or more comfortable.
Eimear talks about the influence of Joyce and how contemporary Irish fiction continues to focus on elements of its society's painful past that have been previously concealed. The novel took her six months to write and although Eimear struggled to find a publisher she refused to make any concessions like changing the challenging language or turning the novel into a straight memoir.
Presenter : James Naughtie
Interviewed guest : Eimear McBride
Producer : Dymphna Flynn
March's Bookclub choice : A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale (2015).
Roger McGough and Sinead Morrissey present a selection of listeners poetry requests.
There were a record 3,744 drug related deaths in England and Wales last year. While many were linked to street drugs such as heroin, a growing number also involve prescription medicines such as benzodiazepines and Fentanyl.
Fentanyl addiction has swept across North America where the drug and other synthetic opioids have been blamed for thousands of deaths. It hit the headlines here when it was linked to a spike in fatalities in certain parts of the UK after being mixed with heroin.
Allan Urry travels to Stockton on Tees where ten deaths have been linked to Fentanyl and its derivatives. He meets users and their families and the medical professionals and police dealing with the problem.
But while Fentanyl is currently in the spotlight, it is tranquilisers and other sedatives often used by heroin users to dull withdrawal symptoms which are contributing to many more deaths. Nowhere is the problem more acute than in Scotland where benzodiazepines contributed to nearly half of all drug deaths.
Many of the pills known as "street valium" or "blues" are made in back street laboratories run by organised crime gangs. Users gamble with their lives as the ingredients and strength of the tablets are often unknown.
But File on 4 has discovered that organised crime gangs have also become involved in diverting significant numbers of highly addictive medicines from the legitimate supply chain onto the black market.
Regulators say there is an extensive network of criminality involving businesses such as wholesale dealers and registered pharmacies. Some in the pharmaceutical industry such as drug manufacturers are repeating calls for supply chain regulation to be reviewed to ensure medicines reach their intended target.
Reporter: Allan Urry
Producer: Paul Grant
Editor: Gail Champion.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Sheila McClennon chooses her BBC Radio highlights.
Jennifer is left disappointed, and Kirsty receives an unexpected request.
Dawn breaks on a beautiful Sunday morning in Flamford. Uncle Jeff (Philip Jackson) is on a quest for spiritual comfort and persuades his nephew Andy (Tom Palmer) to join him by bribing him with the promise of a proper roast dinner.
They find that the local church has installed a new vicar, the Reverend Beverley (Shobna Gulati), who invites Jeff to her bible class that evening. The words "bring a bible" strike a chill to Jeff's heart. He has never owned a bible, and neither has Andy.
They spend the rest of the day trying to find a bible on a Sunday, with Andy's stomach rumbling as he pictures his dinner slipping further away. On their quest they encounter Derek Horrox The Mayor (Rasmus Hardiker), Peter Humfriss, The Town Crier (Mark Benton), and a slightly unnerving bookseller.
Writers: Ian Brown and James Hendrie
Producer/Director: Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
Writers choose poems as inspiration for new stories.
Episode 4/5
Goblin Market
An artist arrives in a market town to create an installation and becomes entranced by a sinister fruit-seller.
An evocative story inspired by Christina Rossetti's poem about goblins who sell enchanted fruit. By Louise Welsh.
Credits
Writer ..... Louise Welsh
Reader ..... Lesley Hart
Producer ..... Kirsty Williams
A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4.
How many transgender people are there in the UK?
The UK produces official statistics about all sorts of things - from economic indicators to demographic data. But it turns out there are no official figures for the number of transgender people in the UK. We explore what we do know, and what is harder to measure.
Do 4% of the population drink nearly a third of the alcohol?
According to recent headlines, just 4% of the population drink nearly a third of the alcohol sold in England. But can so few people really account for so much of the countries bar tab? We find out where the statistic came from.
Bank of England's Mark Carney says no to RPI
At a hearing of the House of Lords' economic affairs committee, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said it would be useful to have a single measure of inflation for consumers - and that CPI was a much better measure than RPI, which he said had "no merit". We find out why with the FT's Chris Giles.
A statistical take on parkrun
Every weekend over 1.5 million people run 5,000m on Saturday mornings for parkrun which is a free event that takes place all over the UK and indeed across the globe. Each runner is given a bar code, which is scanned at the end of the run and fed into a database showing them what place they came in their race- we take a look at which courses are the fastest, slowest, hardest and easiest.
Testing for a cough correlation between snooker and smoking
A listener emailed us this week to ask whether you can connect the number of coughs during snooker matches to the decline in smoking. We got counting to see if the theory was a trick shot - with help from John Virgo.
Photo: Dorothy Malone
Julian Worricker on:
Ingvar Kamprad, the Swedish entrepreneur who founded Ikea and changed the way we furnish our homes
Elizabeth Hawley, journalist turned chronicler, who documented every Himalayan climb from 1963
The musician, Robert Mann, who was the founding first violinist of the Juilliard Quartet
Jon Castle, the Greenpeace activist who captained the first Rainbow Warrior
Oscar-winning actress Dorothy Malone, famous for her role in Peyton Place.
Archive clips from: Outlook, BBC World Service 16/06/10; Profiles: Ingvar Kamprad: Design for Life, BBC 4 08/07/04; Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil, ep 3. BBC 4 02/07/09; Radio 4 News 10/07/85; Newsbeat, Radio 1 20/06/95.
Women are sexist too. Even avowed feminists are found to be unconsciously biased against women when they take 'implicit association' tests. Mary Ann Sieghart asks where these discriminatory attitudes come from and what we can do about them. Evidence for women's own sexist biases abounds. In one example, female science professors rated the application materials of ostensibly male applicants for a lab position considerably higher than the identical documentation of ostensibly female candidates, in an experiment with fictitious applicants where only the names were changed. The reasons for the pervasive bias seem to lie in the unconscious, and in how concepts, memories and associations are formed and reinforced from early childhood. We learn from our environment.. The more we are exposed to sexist attitudes, the more we become hardwired to be sexist - without realising it. So what to do? Does unconscious bias training help? Or could it make our implicit biases worse? A good start might be to tell little girls not that they look so pretty in that dress, but to ask them what games they like to play, or what they are reading. And so teach them they are valued not for how they look, but for what they do.
Producer: Arlene Gregorius.
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
With Francine Stock
Director Paul Thomas Anderson discusses Phantom Thread, Daniel Day Lewis' farewell to the film industry.
There's another episode of Pitch Battle, in which historians nominate a suitable candidate for the movie treatment, a historical figure who has not yet been the subject of bio-pic. This week Helen Antrobus champions Ellen Wilkinson, the five foot "mighty atom" who led the Jarrow March.
Anna Smith explains why she's spent the last twenty five years watching Groundhog Day over and over again.
Perfume expert Dariush Alavi examines one of the few films to have been named after a scent, Black Narcissus, and explains what the movie smells like to him.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Stigma - Laurie Taylor explores the origins and meaning of Erving Goffman's famous sociological concept and the ways its being re-cast by social scientists in the 21st century. He's joined by Graham Scambler, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at University College, London, Lisa Morris, Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Birmingham and Joanna Latimer, Professor of Sociology at the University of York.
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 Alison Murdoch, a Tibetan Buddhist writer and former director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
Andy Clements of the British Trust for Ornithology describes how he was first bewitched by the captivating sound of the Golden Plover in summer above the moors.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Simon Stobart.
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Andrew Marr discusses money, transformation and the obsession with growth with two leading economists: Diane Coyle and Dharshini David. Professor Coyle argues it's time to rethink the way we measure productivity, while the broadcaster Dharshini David follows the journey of a single dollar in her study of globalisation. The theatre director Anna Ledwich is more interested in the people whose lives revolve around the money markets: her latest play Dry Powder highlights their vulnerability, vision and sheer unadulterated greed. During the financial crisis of 2008, Iceland experienced proportionally the largest banking collapse by any country in economic history. The novelist Jón Kalman Stefánsson is writing a modern Icelandic family saga and explores whether the transformation of his country in the 20th century laid the foundations for its future collapse.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
This is the first memoir written by someone living with dementia.
Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at the age of 58 . But after a 20 year career in the NHS, based in York, this single mother of two adult daughters was not going to just give in.
This is her account, written with Anna Wharton, of how she determined to try and outsmart the challenges served up by the dementia on a daily basis. Every tiny victory was hard won. Every day is faced with courage and resourcefulness.
Four years on from the diagnosis, she still lives independently, spends more time than ever travelling throughout the UK to give talks, and continues to do whatever she can to change a society that views dementia as a death sentence. Her driving force is a compulsion to live in the moment, never knowing which version of herself - somebody she used to know - might greet her when she wakes each morning.
Written by Wendy Mitchell and Anna Wharton
Abridged by Amanda Hargreaves
Read by Tessa Gallagher
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
When a convicted murderer is released on appeal, his supporters claim a victory for justice. But for the murdered man's friends, life implodes.
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died?
Only one of them wants to uncover the old lies. This is her secret audio log.
6/15 Anna finds Roz, and an offer of safety. Or is it?
With Philip Bretherton, Adam Fitzgerald, Philip Fox, Kerry Gooderson, Clive Hayward, Chetna Pandya, David Reakes
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
Mohammed was only thirteen when he was excluded for school for his behaviour following an incident when fireworks were ignited in a corridor. His Mum has been trying to get him back into education for many months now and as time passes she sees little hope of success. He is now fourteen and even if he gets a school place, will he be able to settle down and how will he manage to catch up the months of education that he's missed? Grace Dent follows what happens.
Mohammed is being helped by staff at Raising Explorers, an inspirational after school club in Bradford, which provides input on the academic side, along with Islamic study. Abu Mustufa, who oversees the team, says that however much work they do at the centre it will not be enough to compensate for the loss of a school education. He wants the family to concentrate on getting Mohammed back into lessons whilst also addressing the behavioural issues which have seen him excluded in the past.
Episode 5, 'How to Make a Killing'. A neighbourly good deed lands Tom in trouble while his parents throw themselves into some evening classes.
Series 3 of the sitcom where Tom Wrigglesworth phones home for his weekly check-in with his Mum, Dad and Gran, giving listeners a glimpse into his family background and the influences that have shaped his temperament, opinions and hang-ups.
Starring Tom Wrigglesworth, Paul Copley, Kate Anthony and Elizabeth Bennett.
Written by Tom Wrigglesworth and James Kettle with additional material by Miles Jupp
Produced by Richard Morris
A BBC Radio Comedy Production.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
French obstetrician Dr Michel Odent believed that childbirth had become too medicalised. So, in 1977 he began promoting a more natural approach at the French state hospital where he worked. He introduced a pool which women could climb into, to ease the pain of labour. Eventually some babies were even born in the pool. Dr Odent looks back at his innovation which changed the way millions of women approached childbirth.
Some of the UK's largest care homes providers are owned by private equity firms.
We look at the impact that's having on the social care sector.
Our reporter, Samantha Fenwick, visits one care home which has recently been taken back into local council ownership.
Low interest rates are making savings accounts far less attractive than they used to be.
According to the Office of National Statistics, who measure household savings, last year saw some of the lowest levels since the 1960s.
We look at what's driving that - and speak to an academic who's been studying our changing saving habits.
And we'll discuss supermarket wine promotions. The discounts are decided by the retailer and can vary a lot.
But is the wine good value at full price? We've done some research about brands on sale in some of the UK's biggest supermarkets. It shows that some wines are on offer up to 45 percent of the time.
Presenter: Shari Vahl
Producer: Jess Quayle.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Will Self continues his 1000 mile tour of the UK by bus and coach, assessing a bold civic experiment in Preston.
Bus and coach windows afford Will a different perspective on the nation. He eschews the bright lights of the big cities, heading instead for smaller urban centres. His objective is to speak to Britons about how they view their cities and themselves in 2018. In the course of his enquiries, he discovers Britain has become a highly debatable land.
Today he stops off in Preston and visits a local mosque as well as assessing a bold civic experiment dubbed The Preston Model.
Also this week, Will visits Middlesbrough, East Kilbride and Derry-Londonderry, concluding his journey on the Irish border.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
by Robin Brooks
A comedy drama series about the exploits - musical and otherwise - of a string quartet.
After a difficult night in a Brussels A and E, the Benjamin Quartet has been invited to play at a festival in Lucca. What could go wrong?
Paul ..... Alasdair Hankinson
Fergus ..... Simon Donaldson
Archie ..... Robin Laing
Skye ..... Shauna Macdonald
Kelly ..... Karen Bartke
Charlie/Philippe ..... Nick Underwood
Jimmy/Hans ..... Kenny Blyth
Taddeus Richter ..... Finlay Welsh
All music was played by the Edinburgh Quartet
4/4 was created by Robin Brooks and Sarah Wooley
Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
(12/12)
Tom Sutcliffe chairs the last contest of this year's Round Britain Quiz tournament, with Northern Ireland (Paddy Duffy and Freya McClements) taking on Wales (Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards). Can the Welsh make it a clean sweep again this year by winning all four of their fixtures across the series?
All of the questions in this final programme have been selected from listeners' suggestions, and there are some highly devious ones among them - including 'Why would rays of sunlight follow the state of Minnesota, a lookout position, a machine-readable label and Mother Teresa as of 2016?'
Tom will also be revealing the answer to the teaser puzzle left unanswered at the end of the previous contest.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Sonia Boyce views current interest in black British art through the life of Donald Rodney, the work he left behind, his fellow artists, friends and family, and Auto Icon - a digital version of himself.
Donald Rodney often talked of a clock ticking. A sufferer of sickle cell disease, he had a life expectancy of only 36 years. He died in 1998 after packing a furious amount into a short life. Part of the BLK art group and a new wave of Black British Artists out of the art schools, his work was political, challenging, innovative and smart.
Sonia, who knew Rodney well, unearths the creative, the personal and the political in what is often an emotional journey into her friend and fellow artist's life. Before he died, Donald started work on Auto Icon, an early digital life that enables a virtual conversation with Donald through diary notes, images and sound bites. Although the 1990's technology can now be rather awkward, it offers snatched glimpses into the work, the artist and his collaborators.
Sonia visits Donald Rodney's family, still in Smethwick where they experienced an openly racist election campaign in the 1960s, followed by a visit to this 'racial hotbed' from Malcolm X. She interviews Donald's family, for the first time, about his art and meets those who are now reviving, collecting and exhibiting his work, and discovers why there's renewed interest in him and his contemporaries in today's political climate. Sonia asks what kind of work Donald might be making now, in the age of social media, post-truth, and division, and how the work he's left behind speaks to us now.
Producer: Michael Clifford
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4.
How Animals Behave
Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Rufus Hound, Zoologist and broadcaster Lucy Cooke and Professor Rory Wilson to discover how we learn about what animals are up to when we are not looking, and some of the hilarious mistakes we've made in the process of discovery. They'll be hearing about why the sex life of eels has remained so enigmatic, how the mystery of the wandering albatross has been solved, and why making underwear for frogs finally solved the riddle of how babies are made.
PM at 5pm - Carolyn Quinn with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
This week, the Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Sally Phillips welcome the satirical comedy songstress Dillie Keane, intrepid Neanderthal expert Ella Al-Shamahi, and the writer of Notting Hill, Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley, Richard Curtis.
This week, the Museum's Guest Committee tuck into some homemade chutney, get embarrassingly excited about caves and celebrate some choice bits of Australian slang.
The show was researched by Mike Turner and QI.
The Production Coordinator was Tamara Shilham.
The Associate Producer was James Harkin.
The Producers were Richard Turner and Anne Miller.
It was a BBC Studios Production.
Ruth feels hurt, and Emma causes tension.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Helen Pankhurst presents the previously untold story of one of the foremost Suffragettes, as she uncovers her grandmother Sylvia's role in the fight for Ethiopian Independence, and reveals a lifelong love for the fascinating country that became her home.
Emmeline's radical left-wing daughter, Sylvia Pankhurst, became deeply involved in the Ethiopian cause following its invasion by Italy in 1935. She would later be recognised as an honorary Ethiopian, and eventually given a state funeral. She also became an avid writer on Ethiopian culture, culminating in the publishing of her work Ethiopia, a Cultural History.
Triggered by Mussolini's invasion of the country in 1935, Sylvia Pankhurst set up a weekly journal campaigning for, and championing, the Ethiopian cause. The paper, and her passion for Ethiopia and its people, long outlasted the Italian occupation. She spent the last four years of her life living, at the emperor's invitation, in Addis Ababa with her son Richard and his wife Rita - Helen's parents.
The family lives in that same house today, and Helen is in Addis Ababa to meet some of the few locals still alive who knew Sylvia. She discovers Sylvia's legacy in Ethiopia - she was the first non-Ethiopian to be granted a state funeral, as well as having a street and café named after her.
Helen spends time with her mother, Rita, who remembers Sylvia as an energetic woman, as committed to the causes she was fighting for in her 70s as she was to the suffragette cause and Communist activity that most people in the UK remember her for.
A Boom Shakalaka production for BBC Radio 4.
Poland and Hungary appear to be on paths to what the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called "illiberal democracy". What does this mean for the European Union? Naomi Grimley hears how in Hungary a respected newspaper was shut down overnight after criticising government officials. A liberal university is fighting for its survival. In Poland, a popular singer was uninvited from a festival after speaking out against the proposed outlawing of abortion. Laws have been passed which give politicians more control over the appointment of judges. Both countries are in trouble with the European Commission. And yet, the view from Warsaw and Budapest is that their governments were democratically elected, and that they are enacting the will of their peoples - a will that may not be the same as that of Brussels, but has a popular mandate. In Hungary, Naomi is told that the country simply wants to keep its Christian identity. In Poland, the argument is that the court reforms are simply an overdue updating of the judiciary after the Communist era, and that Poland is entitled to develop as its voters see fit. Could their new paths divide East and West and eventually threaten the EU itself?
Producer: Arlene Gregorius.
The phrase 'essential 'element' is often incorrectly used to describe the nutrients we need, but can aptly be applied to iodine - without it we would suffer severe developmental problems. Iodine is a key component of thyroid hormones, responsible for the regulation of our metabolism. And yet most of us have no idea how much we need, nor where it comes from.
In her research, Margaret Rayman, Professor of Nutritional Medicine at Surrey University, has found pregnant women in particular are at risk of iodine deficiency - and there's a lack of iodine in what many consider healthy diets.
As well as looking at contemporary issues with iodine, Margaret explores the legacy of past iodine deficiency - the word cretin, was coined to describe someone living in the Alps with such a condition. We learn why you might find iodine in British milk - but not necessarily elsewhere in the world, and we discuss the consequences of exposure to radioactive iodine isotopes - both good and bad.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.
Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies from the translation by Polly Gannon
Produced by Mair Bosworth.
We used to sign off letters using "yours faithfully" or "yours sincerely", then email came along and it was all "kind regards" and "best wishes". Now, it seems, we hardly sign off at all. With so many forms of written communication- email, text, Twitter, What's App- what new etiquettes are emerging, and where are 'digital natives' simply getting it wrong? Emma Gannon is author of Ctrl, Alt, Delete: How I Grew Up Online, and hosts the podcast of the same name. Producer Sally Heaven.
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 Alison Murdoch, a Tibetan Buddhist writer and former director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Bonita Johnson of the British Trust for Ornithology recalls seeing a pair of Robins locked in combat on a woodland floor until they were surprised by her approach and flew apart, one of them almost colliding with her!
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Sam Linton.
News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Sixty people from around the world join Michael Sandel in a digital studio at Harvard to discuss free speech.
Free speech is a cornerstone of democracy and freedom of expression is regarded as a fundamental human right. But even in democracies there are disputes about the limits to free speech. And most countries have laws restricting free speech, such as libel laws, or laws controlling forms of pornography.
But should limits be placed on free speech? Should people be allowed to say and write whatever they like, even if it is untrue and is deeply offensive to vulnerable individuals or groups? Professor Sandel unpicks the philosophy of free speech.
Audience producer: Louise Coletta
Producer: David Edmonds
Executive Producer: Emma Rippon.
Wendy looks back and, in a conversation with her pre-dementia self, wonders when the condition really began to take hold.
Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at the age of 58 . But after a 20 year career in the NHS, based in York, this single mother of two adult daughters was not going to just give in.
This is her account, written with Anna Wharton, of how she determined to try and outsmart the challenges served up by the dementia on a daily basis. Every tiny victory was hard won. Every day is faced with courage and resourcefulness.
Four years on from the diagnosis, she still lives independently, spends more time than ever travelling throughout the UK to give talks, and continues to do whatever she can to change a society that views dementia as a death sentence. Her driving force is a compulsion to live in the moment, never knowing which version of herself - somebody she used to know - might greet her when she wakes each morning.
Written by Wendy Mitchell and Anna Wharton
Abridged by Amanda Hargreaves
Read by Tessa Gallagher
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
When a convicted murderer is released on appeal, his supporters claim a victory for justice. But for the murdered man's friends, life implodes.
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died?
Only one of them wants to uncover the old lies. This is her secret audio log.
7/15 Now there are two men following her.
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia or CLL, is the most common form of leukemia. It's a disease which kills. The most common treatment is with chemotherapy. If that doesn't work, most patients can only expect to live for another few years at most.
But there are dramatic developments with new targeted treatments which are less toxic than conventional chemotherapy. In this programme, reporter Simon Cox follows a medical trial based at St James' hospital in Leeds which uses a unique combination of drugs designed to defeat the cancer. It's the last hope for many patients but will it work? Can researchers find a cure?
Presenter: Simon Cox
Producer: Jim Frank
Editor: Andrew Smith
Image: Illustration of man in a white coat looking at a test tube
Credit: BBC.
Johann Sebastian Bach has long been called "the fifth evangelist", his music displaying a sense of fervent devotion to the biblical texts he set. His ambition to compose vast cycles of sacred music for every feast in the church year, has left us with over 200 cantatas as well as magnificent choral works including the St. John and St. Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio and B Minor Mass. He is heralded as one of the greatest composers of all time, his music finding a place within the hearts and souls of all those who experience it.
But who was the man behind the music? What did he think, feel and believe? What inspired him and what drove him to write such ground-breaking compositions?
Professor John Butt, Bach scholar and director of the Dunedin Consort explores Bach's life and work. He considers the composer's motivation and his character speaking to composers and musicians in order to delve into Bach's personality and purpose. Gathering together the evidence available to us today, he attempts to reconstruct something of this musical great in all his complexity; this man who revolutionised the music of his time but, all the while, looked beyond, dedicating each composition "to the glory of God alone".
Producer: Katharine Longworth
MUSIC:
Ei! wie schmeckt der Coffee süße
JS Bach: Coffee Cantata, BWV 211
Christopher Hogwood
The Academy of Ancient Music
Soprano: Emma Kirkby
C Major Prelude
JS Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1
Badinerie
JS Bach: Suite No.2 in B Minor
Sir Neville Marriner
Academy Of St Martin-in-the-Fields
Aus Liebe
JS Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV 244
Jeffrey Thomas
American Bach Soloists
Soprano: Catherine Bott
Erbarme dich mein Gott
JS Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV 244
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Concentus musicus Wien
Alto: Bernarda Fink
Das Wort sie sollen lassen stahn
JS Bach: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80
Masaaki Suzuki
Bach Collegium Japan
Herr, dein Mitleid, dein Erbarmen
JS Bach: Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248
Stephen Layton
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Trinity College Choir Cambridge
Soprano: Katherine Watson
Bass: Matthew Brook
Bereite dich, Zion, mit zärtlichen Trieben
JS Bach: Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248
Stephen Layton
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Trinity College Choir Cambridge
Countertenor: Iestyn Davies
Prelude
JS Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007
Oeffne dich
JS Bach: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61
City Bach Collective
Soprano: Nicola Corbishley
Organ: Simon Lloyd
Herr, unser Herrscher,dessen Ruhm
JS Bach: St. John Passion BWV 245
Masaaki Suzuki
Bach Collegium Japan
Kyrie Eleison
JS Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
John Butt
Dunedin Consort and Players
Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder
JS Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV 244
John Butt
Dunedin Consort & Players
Badinerie
JS Bach: Suite No. 2 in B Minor
The Swingle Singers.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
In 1977 a group of American Muslim converts took more than 100 people hostage in Washington DC. They were held captive for more than three days and the siege only ended after ambassadors from Islamic countries helped negotiate with the gunmen. Simon Watts has been speaking to Paul Green, one of the hostages who was held at the Jewish B'nai B'rith centre.
Consumer phone-in.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Will Self continues his tour of urban Britain travelling only by coach and bus, assessing British identity at a time of flux.
Will heads to Middlesbrough where he learns about the booming digital scene and finds out what happened to the 1700 workers laid off at the Redcar steelworks two years ago.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
In 1986 Elizabeth Lewis dreamed of a glorious summer in Italy. Working as an au pair in a remote picturesque village she planned to cook Italian, learn Italian, be Italian. There was so much hope to be dashed...
A long hot summer begins with Lizzie re-christened Betty - or should that be Cinderella? - by her Italian hosts. Between daily chores and child-minding, dreams of becoming Sophia Loren grow hazy. That is until her knight in shining armour arrives, in a Cinquecento, and Lizzie's romantic Brief Encounter begins.
A joyous romantic comedy, and an ode to Italy, youth and summertime. Based on a true story.
Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production.
Series exploring the latest historical and archaeological research.
Michael and Laura explore how diseases are named and the political, economic and social fallout from disease names past and present.
Harriett Gilbert talks to comedian Jake Yapp, whose condensed satires include Radio 4 in 4 Minutes, and Ruby Tandoh, runner-up in The Great British Bake Off and cookery writer, about their favourite books.
Jake's is Nicholas Again by René Goscinny (author of Asterix) and Jean-Jacques Sempé, translated by Anthea Bell.
Ruby loves Nora Ephron's essays I Remember Nothing: and other reflections, written at the end of her life.
And Harriett introduces them to On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, which reminds Jake for some reason of the TV series Lost...
Producer Beth O'Dea.
PM at 5pm - Carolyn Quinn with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
In this series, Simon Evans examines the concept of the 'free lunch' and shines a light on new ways of making money in the 21st century.
There are many apparently 'free' economic models operating today but what are they and how do they work? Across four episodes Simon and his team will explore Social Media and how we often appear to enjoy it for free. Later on Simon examines the perhaps unfair belief that some multinationals appear to operate tax free. And what about the billions being given away 'for free' by a new breed of philanthro-capitalists? Finally, what can we learn from these operating models to help that beloved yet creaking institution, the NHS, which is also apparently free at the point of use?
As a wise person once said, there's no such thing as a free lunch. If you're not paying, you're the product.
Also featuring Financial Times economics god Tim Harford and Timandra Harkness, author of 'Big Data: Does Size Matter?'
Episode 4: The Cost of Health
While many services are now provided free of charge others continue to be very expensive, despite a widely held view that they should be free. Nowhere more so than in the field of healthcare. Big Pharma, as it is for some reason known (presumably to confuse people that it's all about fields), makes millions out of selling drugs to the poorly. With the economic complexities of healthcare provision growing more and more complex, what are the implications of an industry that thrives on our ill health? Who decides what gets subsidized, and how?
Starring: Simon Evans with Tim Harford and Timandra Harkness
Written by Simon Evans with Benjamin Partridge
Researcher: Andrew Wright
Production coordinator: Toby Tilling
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
There is more bad news for the Aldridges, and Will is left fuming.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
New transparency rules designed to reveal the true owners of British companies are being flouted. Billions of pounds of dirty money is alleged to have passed through opaque UK companies in recent years.
How does this square with UK's international reputation for financial probity? A British company at a British address carries an air of legitimacy. But, in reality, some corporate vehicles are being used to fill the pockets of corrupt politicians and deprive people living in poverty of much-needed public funds.
In this edition of File on 4, Tim Whewell investigates the scams designed to circumvent new regulations and untangles the global networks behind the Great British Money Laundering Service.
Presenter: Tim Whewell
Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Gail Champion.
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Dr Mark Porter presents a series on health issues.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.
Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies from the translation by Polly Gannon
Produced by Mair Bosworth.
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 Alison Murdoch, a Tibetan Buddhist writer and former director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Dave Leech from the British Trust for Ornithology describes his excitement at finding a Water Rail nest containing the most beautiful eggs after having spent three years searching for a nest. Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus?
In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Nathian Brook.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Arts series.
Despite being forced to leave her job on grounds of ill-health, Wendy is anything but retired, finding fresh purpose in her charity work of raising dementia awareness across the UK.
Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at the age of 58 . But after a 20 year career in the NHS, based in York, this single mother of two adult daughters was not going to just give in.
This is her account, written with Anna Wharton, of how she determined to try and outsmart the challenges served up by the dementia on a daily basis. Every tiny victory was hard won. Every day is faced with courage and resourcefulness.
Four years on from the diagnosis, she still lives independently, spends more time than ever travelling throughout the UK to give talks, and continues to do whatever she can to change a society that views dementia as a death sentence. Her driving force is a compulsion to live in the moment, never knowing which version of herself - somebody she used to know - might greet her when she wakes each morning.
Written by Wendy Mitchell and Anna Wharton
Abridged by Amanda Hargreaves
Read by Tessa Gallagher
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
When a convicted murderer is released on appeal, his supporters claim a victory for justice. But for the murdered man's friends, life implodes.
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died?
Only one of them wants to uncover the old lies. This is her secret audio log.
8/15 Old tapes are revealing new lies.
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
Friends who met at university reflect on where they come from and where they hope they are going. Fi Glover presents.Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
Series 11 of the show where one week's interviewee becomes the next week's interviewer. The first episode of Chain Reaction was broadcast on BBC Radio Five in 1991 when John Cleese was the first comedian in the hot seat. Now, 25 years on, a new series sees another raft of the world's best-loved comedians talking to each other about their lives and work. This week, comedy legend and music hall expert Roy Hudd turns interviewer as he chats to the much loved actress, Alison Steadman.
Roy Hudd has clocked up more than 50 years in showbusiness, starting out as a Butlins redcoat in the 1950s and then developing a stellar career through numerous successes on stage, radio and screen. BBC Radio listeners know him best as the host of the much loved News Huddlines on Radio 2 for 26 years. More recently, Roy gained plaudits for his moving portrayal of Bud Flanagan in the BBC drama 'We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story'.
Alison Steadman is an actress who has been popular with the British public and worldwide since making her name in the critically acclaimed works of Mike Leigh in the 1970s. She went on to deliver much-loved and memorable performances across both drama and comedy in Pride and Prejudice and Gavin and Stacey amongst many others.
In this programme Roy talks to Alison about her early days growing up in Liverpool, her trip to the palace to get the OBE and her critically acclaimed work with Mike Leigh.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Radio Comedy Production.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
In 1982 a young Chinese-American engineer was murdered with a baseball bat by two white men in the city of Detroit. The lenient sentences the perpetrators received sparked an Asian-American activist movement with protests across the USA. At the time America was going through an economic depression and many were blaming Japan which was perceived to be flooding the US with its cars. For Asian-Americans it was a time of fear. Farhana Haider has been speaking to Helen Zia, one of the activists leading the fight for justice.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Will Self continues his tour of urban Britain travelling only by coach and bus, assessing what it means to be British in 2018.
Will stops off in East Kilbride to ask locals how they feel about about their identity at a time of rapid change.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
The Book of Yehudit
Yehudit, a young Orthodox Jewish woman, is desperate for a divorce. But in the Jewish world, a divorce can only be granted if the husband is willing to give his wife a get, and Yehudit's husband has other ideas.
Written by Adam Usden
Directed by Charlotte Riches
The Cantor was Michael Isdale.
Financial phone-in.
Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
PM at 5pm - Carolyn Quinn with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Award-winning stand-up comedian Bridget Christie returns to BBC Radio 4 with her brand new comedy series, Bridget Christie's Utopia.
As Bridget Christie struggles to come to terms with current world events - Kim Jong-un, the melting polar ice caps, the Brexit negotiations and Nick Knowles singing a cover of The Beatles "Here Comes The Sun", she embarks on a comic quest for her Utopia - a way of living that will make her less anxious and enable her to have her first happy wee since the Brexit vote in 2016.
EPISODE 1 : Disengage In this first episode of the series, Bridget explores politically disengaging for a week - to see if that will make her happier. Will not reading the papers, abstaining from all social media and not watching rolling news reports bring a smile to Bridget's face and be the answer to all her problems? Or will life still be completely rubbish? In her quest to disengage from the turmoil that is world news, Bridget goes to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, has an aqua massage and stands in her garden. Will she switch off?
Stand-up show recorded in front of a studio audience at the BBC Radio Theatre.
Starring: Bridget Christie.
With special guests Mike Christie and Leyla Hussein.
Producers: Simon Nicholls and Alison Vernon-Smith.
A BBC Studios Production.
Toby is left red faced, and Lynda struggles with her Lent challenge.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Matthew Taylor, Claire Fox, Melanie Philips and Anne McElvoy.
Writer Jonathan Stroud explains why he thinks ghost stories are good for you.
"While it may seem odd that it's pleasurable to be frightened, it's actually - like other activities that get the heart racing - a celebration of being alive. While so much around us is frankly mind-numbing, there's something pure and bracing about a nicely delivered scare."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
e kill and maim billions of insects in the name of science. Genetics, physiology, ecology, agriculture and medicine would all be nowhere with the wholesale slaughter and vivisection of insects for experiments, sampling and identification. Until recently, no one really seemed to care. Is that changing?
Killing mammals, birds or anything else with a backbone for science is heavily regulated in the UK and attracts impassioned anti-testing protests. But recently, scientists studying insects have come under fire for their "cruel" and "despicable" research. With insults and violent threats now levelled at those working with everything from worms to wasps, are we starting to draw a new line in the sand when it comes to animals?
In this timely documentary, Professor Adam Hart, whose been on the receiving end of robust media criticism for killing insects in the name of science, investigates why we kill insects, what we are doing to reduce, replace and refine our methods and whether we should even care.
Across the sciences, Adam explores how we got from anti-vivisectionists targeting rabbit research labs, to angry journalists and tweeters "slamming" entomologists whose research requires them to kill for science.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.
Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies from the translation by Polly Gannon
Produced by Mair Bosworth.
Tez Ilyas returns for a second series of TEZ Talks.
In this episode Tez talks about the assumptions people have about Muslims, especially him and his love life.
Written and performed by... Tez Ilyas
Produced by... Carl Cooper
This is a BBC Studios Production.
Rhys James Is...
Comedian Rhys James explores different aspects of himself through live stand up, spoken word poetry and interview clips.
In this final episode Rhys reads a letter he wrote to his future self when he was 10.
'You don't need to find out who you are. It's about finding out who you is".
Last in the series.
Written and performed by... Rhys James
Rhys' mum and dad... Rhys' mum and dad
Music by... Steve Dunne
Sound by... David Thomas
Produced by... Carl Cooper
This is a BBC Studios production.
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 Alison Murdoch, a Tibetan Buddhist writer and former director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Ben Darvill of the British Trust for Ornithology recalls his first encounter with the Common Rosefinch after it woke him up when he was camping on the Island of Canna in Scotland.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Eero Kiuru.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery in Maryland in 1818 and, once he had escaped, became one of that century's most prominent abolitionists. He was such a good orator, his opponents doubted his story, but he told it in grim detail in 1845 in his book 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.' He went on to address huge audiences in Great Britain and Ireland and there some of his supporters paid off his owner, so Douglass could be free in law and not fear recapture. After the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, he campaigned for equal rights for African-Americans, arguing against those such as Lincoln who had wanted freed slaves to leave America and found a colony elsewhere. "We were born here," he said, "and here we will remain."
With
Celeste-Marie Bernier
Professor of Black Studies in the English Department at the University of Edinburgh
Karen Salt
Assistant Professor in Transnational American Studies at the University of Nottingham
And
Nicholas Guyatt
Reader in North American History at the University of Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
The noise and unbearable clatter of city life has meant a move to more peaceful surroundings for Wendy, in a new home near her daughter Gemma.
Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at the age of 58 . But after a 20 year career in the NHS, based in York, this single mother of two adult daughters was not going to just give in.
This is her account, written with Anna Wharton, of how she determined to try and outsmart the challenges served up by the dementia on a daily basis. Every tiny victory was hard won. Every day is faced with courage and resourcefulness.
Four years on from the diagnosis, she still lives independently, spends more time than ever travelling throughout the UK to give talks, and continues to do whatever she can to change a society that views dementia as a death sentence. Her driving force is a compulsion to live in the moment, never knowing which version of herself - somebody she used to know - might greet her when she wakes each morning.
Written by Wendy Mitchell and Anna Wharton
Abridged by Amanda Hargreaves
Read by Tessa Gallagher
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
When a convicted murderer is released on appeal, his supporters claim a victory for justice. But for the murdered man's friends, life implodes.
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died?
Only one of them wants to uncover the old lies. This is her secret audio log.
9/15 A visit to Phoebe turns murderous.
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
Street Art is a three-part series which looks at what happens when art breaks free from the gallery.
With exclusive access to contemporary artists as they prepare in their studios, and install works across the UK, the three episodes, Place, People and Platform explore the big issues surrounding art outdoors. This episode explores how location influences a piece. The second looks at the occasionally unpredictable reality of what happens when a work goes before the people. The final episode "Platform" investigates a more contemporary way to consume art - we shop on it, bank on it, socialise on it - so how does the internet function as a new platform for public art?
Presented by Dr Cadence Kinsey, Art Historian at The University of York, the first programme journeys into the studio of Turner Prize winner Rachel Whiteread, currently working on a piece for the new US Embassy at Nine Elms, to discuss the impact of her iconic piece about gentrification "House".
She joins Heather Phillipson, who reveals the daunting logistics of preparing a piece for the iconic fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, and we hear from Louise Walsh - an artist who came face to face with politics in Belfast.
We'll also discover the surprising link between gentrification and hanging out your washing...
Other contributors in the series include Amalia Ulman, who confused the art world spectacularly with Instagram and Facebook-based imagery which toyed with the fabricated personalities we display on social media.
We head to Belfast to talk to sculptor Louise Walsh and Tim McCarthy - a street artist who was employed to adapt murals near the Falls Road - in a bid to "re-image" sectarian murals which were dominated by guns and balaclavas.
And in the final episode we're at the cutting edge of new innovations in technology, as Cadence comes face to phone with an augmented reality dog created by the artist Jeff Koons. We also hear from Sebastian Errazuriz - on why he felt compelled to vandalise it.
Packed with revelations direct from contemporary artists, Street Art examines big issues under the surface of contemporary art commissioning. As the gentrification of working class areas leaves residents disconnected from areas they grew up in - who exactly gets to "join in" and experience public works of art?
From traditional sculpture to the technological frontier of crypto currency and the blockchain, Street Art is packed with insight, revelation and the testimony of working artists who operate outside the four walls of the gallery.
Presented by Cadence Kinsey.
Produced by Kev Core.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
While Leningrad was under siege by German forces, mountaineers scaled the churches and palaces of the city to camouflage their roofs and spires against enemy attack. Monica Whitlock has spoken to Mikhail Bobrov who was just 18 years old when he first risked his life to save Leningrad's heritage.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Will Self continues his tour of the UK.
Will travels to Cairnryan to take the ferry across the Irish Sea to assess questions of identity in Northern Ireland.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
The Archivist by Kellie Smith
A psychological thriller. Like many young parents Ben and Clare enjoy basking in the responses they get from uploading photos and videos of their family on social media. But things spiral out of control when Ben starts to secretly film his family for his personal archive.
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris.
Ian Marchant has always longed to visit the Inner Hebridean island of Gigha, off the west coast of Scotland.
For a writer and hippie like Ian, it sounds like a dream: an island owned and run by its own community of fewer than 170 people. No more exploitative or neglectful landlords; everyone has a say in how things are done and they all live happily ever after. But also, no more wealthy and benevolent landlords, no more cash injections when things get tough. And, everyone has a say in how things are done.
It's a dream - or a nightmare - that has come true on the Scottish island of Gigha. In 2001 the islanders took their destiny into their own hands and made a successful bid to buy the island. Ian finds out how the landscape is changing and how the people here are adapting to a new way of living.
Interviewees include Tony Philpin of the local Coast and Countryside group; owner of Achamore House Don Dennis; Alasdair MacNeill, whose family were once lairds of the island tracing back to the eleventh century; Joe Teale who approves of the buy-out and runs the island's only shop; and Elaine Morrison, the manager of the Heritage Trust.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.
With Francine Stock
Guillermo del Toro on his Oscar nominated fantasy The Shape Of Water.
Adam Rutherford investigates the news in science and science in the news.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
John Finnemore presents the last episode of this seventh series of his award-winning sketch show, joined by his regular ensemble cast of Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.
So, whether you're listening accidentally or not, this episode will sound the same: you'll learn about the downsides of adopting animals, and hear a modern shanty that anyone who works in an office will identify with. And what's more you'
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme was described by The Radio Times as "the best sketch show in years, on television or radio", and by The Daily Telegraph as "funny enough to make even the surliest cat laugh". Already the winner of a BBC Audio Drama Award and a Radio Academy Silver Award, John was named the 2016 Radio Broadcaster of the Year by the Broadcasting Press Guild for his work on Souvenir Programme.
Written by & starring ... John Finnemore
Cast ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Cast ... Simon Kane
Cast ... Lawry Lewin
Cast ... Carrie Quinlan
Original music composed by ... Susannah Pearse
Piano ... Susannah Pearse
Squeezebox/cello ... Sally Stares
Production Coordinator ... Beverly Tagg
Producer ... Ed Morrish
A BBC Studios production.
Adam takes the strain, while Susan feels unappreciated.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Series looking at important issues in the news. Presented by David Aaronovitch.
Evan Davis presents the business magazine.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.
Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies from the translation by Polly Gannon
Produced by Mair Bosworth.
Please turn your radio over and start listening as Marcus Brigstocke has just thirty minutes to retake his GCSEs. During the show he will be sitting a genuine GCSE exam set by the Producer in an attempt to get the bottom of Grade Inflation and also the class.
The invigilators are Margaret Cabourn-Smith ("Miranda"), William Andrews ("Sorry I've Got No Head") and Justin Edwards ("The Thick Of It") with a secret appearance by The Now Show's Jon Holmes.
Written by Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Salsby, Toby Davies, Nick Doody, Steve Punt and Dan Tetsell.
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Alison Murdoch, a Tibetan Buddhist writer and former director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Mike Toms of the British Trust for Ornithology describes his night-time encounters with Tawny Owls in Thetford Forest in Norfolk.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Neil Cowley.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Wendy finds companionship and discussion through online forums, which are a vital lifeline with the outside world as well.
Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at the age of 58 . But after a 20 year career in the NHS, based in York, this single mother of two adult daughters was not going to just give in.
This is her account, written with Anna Wharton, of how she determined to try and outsmart the challenges served up by the dementia on a daily basis. Every tiny victory was hard won. Every day is faced with courage and resourcefulness.
Four years on from the diagnosis, she still lives independently, spends more time than ever travelling throughout the UK to give talks, and continues to do whatever she can to change a society that views dementia as a death sentence. Her driving force is a compulsion to live in the moment, never knowing which version of herself - somebody she used to know - might greet her when she wakes each morning.
Written by Wendy Mitchell and Anna Wharton
Abridged by Amanda Hargreaves
Read by Tessa Gallagher
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
When a convicted murderer is released on appeal, his supporters claim a victory for justice. But for the murdered man's friends, life implodes.
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died?
Only one of them wants to uncover the old lies. This is her secret audio log.
10/15 Now her housemates reveal The Deal.
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
Across Britain, thousands of people have stopped paying council tax, water rates and speeding fines. They think they have the law on their side, thanks to the 1215 Magna Carta treaty between King John and the Barons. They argue that the present Queen has breached her obligations under the treaty and so has in effect deposed herself and even become a traitor. As a result, all laws passed by parliament are invalid, the courts are shams, and government officials are imposters. Instead, they swear an oath of allegiance to a group of members of the House of Lords.
The rebels meet in a Facebook group with 13,000 members. In truth, few people join the group because of an interest in constitutional history - most arrive there because they are in a desperate financial or legal situation, feel that the system is stacked against them, and are looking for a way out. The group offers a system to deal with the authorities that - if used effectively - will supposedly get them off your back.
For nearly a year, Jolyon Jenkins followed the group's members, even signing an oath himself. But does the system work? Over the months, members of the group become increasingly frustrated at the authorities' refusal to take their arguments seriously. The frustration eventually leads to a secret plan to seize a crown building, as they believe Magna Carta entitles them to.
Presenter/Producer: Jolyon Jenkins.
Comedy series by Katherine Jakeways about four generations of women living under one roof.
Hetty's taking Maggie on a roadtrip to collect an heirloom; she wants something to bequeath and this piano is perfect for Emily. It'll be a lovely day. Provided Maggie can drive a van of course.
All Those Women explores familial relationships, ageing, marriages - it's about life and love and things not turning out quite the way that you'd expected them to. Every week we join Hetty, Maggie, Jen and Emily as they struggle to resolve their own problems, and support one another.
Written by KATHERINE JAKEWAYS
Producer Alexandra Smith
A BBC Studios Production.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Series looking at key events in history, featuring archive accounts from the people who were there.
Consumer news and issues.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Will Self concludes his bus tour of the UK, assessing British identity at a time of rapid change.
Will's final stop is Derry-Londonderry - on the very edge of the UK - where he speaks to young people about how they see themselves in 2018.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
David Jason stars as Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln in a comedy of secrets, sins, sex and sects - with Patsy Kensit, Robert Bathurst and Miles Jupp.
Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln - the goodliest soul who ever lived, loved by princes and paupers alike - needs money to rebuild his beloved Lincoln Cathedral after it's destroyed in an earthquake. But funds are not forthcoming.
After a visitation from The Virgin Mother herself, he is shown the way to raise the much needed money - relics. She tells him of the relic of the arm bone of Mary Magdalene which lies at the abbey at Fécamp - a relic that will certainly bring pilgrims and cash to Lincoln.
But Hugh soon realises The Holy Mother may not be quite so holy as she appears, as she taunts him with an old sin that casts a very long shadow. The great man of faith is thrown into turmoil and it's only a weary, drunken old monk who can see Hugh's impending actions may destroy not only the abbey, but also one of the very foundations of Christianity.
Based on a thrilling true story, the themes and comedy are most definitely contemporary and Hugh's ultimate act is as shocking today as it was almost 1000 years ago.
A comedy to really sink your teeth into!
Historical Advisor: Sue Scott
Director: Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
Eric Robson and the panel are at the Seedy Sunday festival in Brighton. James Wong, Anne Swithinbank and Bob Flowerdew answer horticultural questions from the festival goers.
Producer: Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Hester Cant
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Andrew Doyle creates a short story inspired by this week's news. Andrew Doyle is a stand-up comedian and playwright. He's also the co-writer of internet sensation Jonathan Pie - the spoof news broadcaster created and performed by Tom Walker.
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
Investigating the numbers in the news.
A mother and daughter reflect on changing attitudes since the Brexit vote and what's within their power to do about it. 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.
Mark Steel, Desiree Burch, Zoe Lyons and Fred MacAulay join Miles Jupp for more news quizzing.
Brian comes to a decision, and Nic loses her temper.
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from the Mary Hare School in Newbury, Berkshire, with a panel including the President of the Liberal Democrats Baroness Sal Brinton and the conservative peer and columnist Danny Finkelstein.
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
Will Self continues his 1000 mile tour of the UK by bus and coach, assessing a bold civic experiment in Preston.
Bus and coach windows afford Will a different perspective on the nation. He eschews the brights lights of the big cities, heading instead for smaller urban centres. His objective is to speak to Britons about how they view their cities and themselves in 2018. In the course of his enquiries, he discovers Britain has become a highly debatable land.
Today he stops off in Preston and visits a local mosque as well as assessing a bold civic experiment dubbed The Preston Model.
Also this week, Will visits Middlesbrough, East Kilbride and Derry-Londonderry, concluding his journey on the Irish border.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.
Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies from the translation by Polly Gannon
Produced by Mair Bosworth.
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
Friends with a German connection consider the similarities and differences in national characteristics. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.