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.
Ben Macintyre's thrilling account of a KGB double agent operating at the height of the Cold War concludes with a breath taking sequence of events that entail ingenuity, duplicity and fearlessness. Tim McInnerny reads.
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Canon Patrick Thomas, vicar of Christ Church in Carmarthen.
A couple on why their divorce was almost too amicable.
Plus iPM listener Charlotte on why childcare meant she couldn't go back to work and how that impacted her life.
Mariella Frostrup reads our bulletin of your news. Email ipm@bbc.co.uk
Presented by Luke Jones. Produced by Cat Farnsworth.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Clare Balding hears the uplifting story of how walking helped a young man recover from a brain injury.
At the age of 23, Matt Masson fell off a roof during a night out. He was in a coma for six weeks and, when he awoke, couldn't walk, talk or sit-up. When his voice returned, so did a determination to return to his previously active life. Walking formed a central part of his rehab; his first goal was to walk just 300 metres but by 2014 Matt had walked the Amsterdam Marathon which took 9 hours and 37 minutes.
In this edition of Ramblings, Matt and his mother, Anne, walk a stretch of the Centurion Way in Chichester and recall his many endeavours. The Centurion Way is a route between Chichester and West Dean which follows the line of part of the disused Chichester to Midhurst Railway.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast.
News and current affairs including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
She can dance, she can sing, she can ice skate and act in gritty London based soap EastEnders: all round showbiz star Bonnie Langford joins us to talk about her show business career spanning 5 decades and her return to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane where it all began aged 7.
Aged 15 George Green was a talented footballer and signed by Everton. Money and success at such a young age led him to drug and alcohol abuse, and 4 years later he was let go. He joins us to tell his story of pulling himself back from the brink.
Previous Shed of the year winner Joel Bird extolls the virtues of carpentry for mindfulness.
Karen Gibson shot to worldwide fame after she appeared conducting The Kingdom Choir at this year's Royal Wedding of Harry and Meghan. She joins us to talk about career highlights which also include singing for Nelson Mandela.
Farmer and Countryfile presenter Adam Henson chooses The Strangler’s Golden Brown and Live on Mars by David Bowie and we have a listener's Thank you.
Producer: Corinna Jones
Editor: Eleanor Garland
Jay Rayner and the panel are in Welwyn Garden City. Andi Oliver, Tim Anderson, Sophie Wright and Dr Annie Gray answer the culinary questions.
The panel discuss the food of garden cities, bacon sandwiches and how to celebrate Michaelmas.
Produced by Miranda Hinkley
Assistant Producer: Hester Cant
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
The fabled city of Timbuktu is a curiosity. To 16th century Muslim scholars, it was the cosmopolitan hub of Islamic learning in West Africa, to European explorers 300 years later, it was a place of mystery whose name remains synonymous with being at the end of the earth. Most recently in 2013, Timbuktu was at the centre of the world’s attention again after Islamist militants threatened thousands of valuable historic manuscripts stored in the city’s famous libraries. Believed to be the richest person in history, it was Mansa Musa - the emperor of the vast Mali Empire - who first developed the desert settlement into a place of intellectual debate in the 1300s. The Golden Age of Islamic learning he began, still survives today.
Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss the importance of Timbuktu in Islamic history are Dr. Gus Casely-Hayford, Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. who has recently published a Ladybird Expert book about the city; Dr. Susana Molins-Lliteras, a researcher at the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project and postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town; and Dr. Lansiné Kaba, Professor of History and Thomas M. Kerr Distinguished Career Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar.
Photo: Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu, Mali (Getty Images)
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Paul Lewis presents the latest news from the world of personal finance.
A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by guest host Bridget Christie.
On the panel this week, Mark Steel, Daliso Chaponda, Danielle Ward and Deborah Frances-White.
This week the Labour Party's party in Liverpool and 32 different types of ambulance.
Written by Max Davis, Jessica Fostekew and Robin Morgan with additional material by Laura Major.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Brooklands College in Weybridge, Surrey with a panel including the new co leader of the Green Party for England & Wales Sian Berry, the commentator and LBC radio presenter Iain Dale, the Digital and Creative Industries Minister Margot James MP and the Labour MP and Corbyn ally Chris Williamson MP.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
Pearl
Reflections on loss and consolation.
A programme about the special relationship between father's and daughters , weaving together two voices of grief, one from six hundred years ago and one very much of the present day.
In the heart-breaking medieval poem Pearl a father laments the loss of his daughter, who returns to him in a dream to help him come to terms with her absence. The poem frames the first in-depth interview with Gerry McCann whose daughter Madeleine disappeared from an Algarve holiday apartment in May 2007. In honest, personal and sometimes painful terms, Gerry reflects on the special bond between fathers and daughters, the difficulties men have in articulating sorrow, and his absolute determination to keep looking for Madeleine. The anonymous Pearl poet confirms to us that grief for loved ones is the hardest grief of all as he seeks consolation in the idea of heaven the power of prayer.
"As a family we'd worked with Simon Armitage before and know what a sensitive, thoughtful writer he is. When I read the Pearl poem, I could see echoes in it with Madeleine's situation and our loss. I decided it was a good opportunity to say something about the special bond between fathers and daughters, thinking that speaking openly might help other men in similar positions. It feels like the right time." Gerry McCann .
Pearl is translated and adapted for radio by the poet Simon Armitage and read by Iain Glen and Grace Doherty .
Produced in Salford by Susan Roberts.
Music broadcaster Verity Sharp listens to the world in a different way. We eavesdrop with her along latitudinal lines, hearing local stories that are having a direct impact on music and musicians. Could there be echoes along these sound lines? Might different music that's created thousands of miles apart, but on the same latitude, share common ground? And could listening in this way allow us to glimpse the effect of the vast and often immeasurable forces that are sweeping change across our planet?
This third episode circumnavigates the globe along the 33rd parallel. Halfway between the Equator and the Arctic Circle, this latitude falls within a narrow, densely populated band in which a quarter of the world's humans live. It's here that the Fertile Crescent, a region between the Nile, Euphrates and Tigris rivers, gave rise to some of the earth's earliest civilisations - and the latitude runs close to several of the planet's major cities, including Atlanta, Casablanca, Beirut, Baghdad and Shanghai.
Around the circle, we hear three stories.
Journalist and sometime musician Zeina Shahla shares her experiences living through the Syrian conflict in Damascus, and its effect on music-making there. We also meet Bernar who, amid the shelling, has resolutely continued to put on live music in his cafe in the old part of the city.
Sound artist Kate Carr listens to the sounds of the US-Mexican border fence in Tijuana. And she meets electronic musician Haydée Jiménez, aka Hidhawk, who aims to use sound as a way of healing the effects of the "cut or bruise" that is the division between the two nations.
Even in the relatively remote Ladakh region of northern India, which singer and song collector Morup Namgyal describes as "a broken moon, rooftop of the world", an explosion of tourist numbers in recent years is having an impact on the health of traditional culture.
Producer: Chris Elcombe
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.
We reveal the Woman’s Hour Powerlist 2018 acknowledging women in music onstage and backstage. The judges recognise the work of women three women who are campaigning to make the music industry a better and more inclusive place for everybody. Olga Fitzroy has been campaigning for shared parental leave for freelancers and self-employed workers, Chi-chi Nwanoku set up Chineke! an orchestra for BME musicians and Vanessa Reed from the PRS Foundation is working to get 50/50 representation for women at festivals and events.
Naz Shah the Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities tells us what the Labour party has to offer women.
Elle Wright talks about her son Teddy dying at three days old. She’s written a book ‘Ask Me His Name’ and explains why it’s so important for society to speak out about baby loss.
Mary Queen of Scots and the English Queen Elizabeth were great rivals who never met but how would the course of history have changed if they did? A new Hollywood film imagines just that and historians Kate Williams and Tracy Borman discuss.
Why have rape prosecutors been urged to abandon ‘weaker’ cases? What effect could this have on victims access to justice? Alexandra Topping senior reporter at the Guardian and barrister Laurie-Anne Power discuss.
We ask what makes grandma’s homemade cooking so special? Anastasia Miari, Iska Lupton and grandmother Shewa Hagos share their recipe’s and stories.
Why does singing make us feel good? How important is it for children to sing? We look at the health benefits of singing with Dr Saoirse O’Sullivan Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health at Nottingham University and Fran Hannan a former music teacher, now managing director of Musical Futures.
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week.Presented by Jenni Murray
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Beverley Purcell
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Clive Anderson and Nikki Bedi are joined by Fay Weldon, Clare Perkins, Mark Kermode and Ekow Eshun for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Sarathy Korwar and Her's.
Producer: Debbie Kilbride.
Mark Coles looks at the life of Tiger Woods, one of the most successful golfers of all time.
Two For Joy is a British film starring Samantha Morton, Billie Piper and Daniel Mays. a study of family tensions, depression and hope
Poet In Da Corner is a play that explores how grime music (and Dizzee rascal's award-winning album Boy In Da Corner in particular) changed the life of a young Mormon girl in Essex who transformed from Deborah Stevenson into Grime MC Debris. It's about how an album can turn your life around.
Sarah Perry's 2016 novel The Essex Serpent was a runaway prize-winning success. Her latest - Melmoth - is a supernatural tale full of dilemmas and questions
Space Shifters is an exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery which intends to re-orientate visitor's perceptions of the world around them
Two Sci-fi TV series Maniac and Counterpart have begun on Netflix and Amazon Prime respectively
Podcast Extra:
Kamila Shamsie recommends the Canadian literary journal Brick.
Barb Jungr recommends the band 10cc.
Tom Dyckhoff recommends the book Inner City Pressure by Dan Hancox and two exhibitions at London's Photographers' Gallery.
Tom Sutcliffe recommends the radio programme Ratlines on Radio 4 and the Doris Salcedo exhibition at White Cube.
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kamila Shamsie, Tom Dyckhoff and Barb Jungr. The producer is Oliver Jones
When a country unilaterally takes back control of its waters, the results are dramatic.
This isn't a prediction about Brexit. It's a statement about our recent history.
The modern cod wars were a series of disputes (starting in the late 1950s and ending in 1976) between Britain and Iceland over fishing rights in the waters surrounding North Atlantic island. Each started when Iceland extended its territorial waters, claiming more and more of the seas that had been traditionally fished by the British. The final cod war started in 1975 when Iceland extended its territorial waters to two hundred miles. It ended one year later with Britain capitulating to Iceland's demands.
While they lasted, the cod wars were nightly news. British fishing boats and Icelandic coast guards clashed at sea. The Royal Navy were called in to protect the fishing fleet and take the brunt of the Icelandic aggression. Fishing lines were cut, sending vast trawler nets to the bottom of the North Sea. Their crews' fortunes sank with them. There were shots fired and arrests made.
At the time, Hull and Grimsby on England's east coast were two of the biggest fishing ports in Europe. The local families who sent their men to sea went back generations. It was a way of life that formed the heart of a whole community. The cod wars put an end to all of it.
Successive governments did try to negotiate with Iceland and in the mid 70s, Prime Minister Harold Wilson sent in the Royal Navy to protect the trawlers. But at the same time international treaties were being pushed that gave all countries the right to claim the amount of water Iceland wanted. By contrast the Icelandic government was prepared to do anything to assert its rights. In the end, Britain succumbed to international pressure and the tide of history and allowed Iceland all that it was asking.
In this programme, Julia Langdon brings this history to life through archive and new interviews with key figures from both sides. The sounds of the trawlermen on their way to the fishing grounds mingles with debate from the time. In Hull and Grimsby, Julia hears from trawlermen and their families about what life was like when cod was king.
The Cod Wars Revisited is a Made in Manchester Production for BBC Radio 4.
By Nick Warburton
Summoned to Nieuport on the Belgian coast can a barely recovered Mickey deal with the problem of remotely controlled German boats packed with explosives? Especially when the solution concurs horribly with a crisis in his personal life.
Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war, exactly 100 years ago.
Series created by Jonathan Ruffle
Producers: Jonquil Panting, David Hunter, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: David Hunter.
Wine has been made by most civilisations throughout history, and in every part of the world. It has inspired artists, thinkers, writers, theologians and poets through the ages, and is deeply connected with the story of recorded human history. In this series, five wine critics offer personal reflections on the personal, political, and historical stories of bygone bottles.
In the third episode, Master of Wine Rebecca Gibb travels to the Tuscan coast to the birthplace of Sassicaia, a wine that started out as an experiment and became Italy's Wine of the 20th Century. Created by a family that trained Gold Cup and Arc de Triomphe-winning horses in the 1940s, the Tenuta San Guido estate is still home to race horses, but the demise of Italian racing and the runaway success of this Italian red means that Sassicaia is now the thoroughbred of this stable.
The story of Sassicaia is also the story of the transformation of the Italian wine scene. Sassicaia and a group of other nonconformist wineries nicknamed Super Tuscans shunned the traditional grape of Tuscany - Sangiovese - in favour of Bordeaux-style blends. Operating outside of the local rules meant that some of the finest wines in Italy were labelled as simple table wines. Rebecca visits this famous family to hear their story of fast horses and fine wine, and meet those who have witnessed Sassicaia's rise from homemade wine to Italy's most revered red.
An SPG production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
One decade on since the great crash, Nick Robinson asks whether we can handle a crisis in our financial system of a similar magnitude. Have politicians and officials, central bankers and the leaders of our major financial institutions learned the lessons of 2008?
Producer: Peter Snowdon.
(8/13)
The long-established music quiz comes from the BBC's Maida Vale studios this week, with the contestants facing Paul Gambaccini's questions on everything from Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky to Michael Jackson and prog-rock. A semi-final place awaits the winner, and a chance to compete in the Final at the BBC Proms for the 32nd Counterpoint title.
Taking part are:
Ralph Barnes, a civil servant from Cheltenham
Gordon Ridout, an actor from London
Michael Rixon, a technology consultant from Hampton Wick in London.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
New Yorker Huey Morgan examines the life, work and enduring appeal of a musician known as Moondog who lived and worked on the city's streets in the 1950s and 60s.
Born Louis Thomas Hardin in Kansas in May 1916, he played musical instruments from an early age and lost his sight in an accident when he was 16. He went on to teach himself music and composition by ear, as well as music theory through books in braille.
In 1943, Moondog moved to New York where he soon became acquainted with Leonard Bernstein and Arturo Toscanini as well as jazz performers and composers like Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman.
In the late 1940s, he lived as a street musician, composer and poet on the streets of New York City and became known as The Viking of 6th Avenue because of his beard, long hair and attire which included a cloak and a Viking-style horned helmet.
Moondog's music would take inspiration from street sounds such as the New York subway and foghorns. His compositions were a combination of classical, traditional jazz and American vernacular. He became a pioneer with a unique attitude to composition and melody. He also invented instruments including a small triangular shaped harp known as the "oo" and the Trimba, a triangular percussion instrument.
Huey Morgan returns to his home city to learn more about Moondog, his life and his music. He discovers how Moondog went on to influence other musicians, including Phillip Glass, and how his work is continuing to be used and adapted to this day.
Huey is joined in New York by Moondog biographer Robert Scotto and poet and writer Magie Dominic who remembers meeting him in the 1960s. They take Huey to some of the places popular with Moondog, including Carnegie Hall and his regular pitch on 6th Avenue.
Huey hears from the Swedish musician Stefan Lakatos who befriended Moondog when he moved to Europe, from composer John Zorn, saxophonist and composer John Harle and classical pianist and composer Joanna McGregor.
The programme also includes rare recordings of Moondog speaking in the early 1980s.
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Writers choose poems as inspiration for new stories.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
A woman weaves a patchwork quilt for her mother.
An enchanting story inspired by Thomas Hardy's poem about how we express love. By PK Lynch.
Credits
Writer ..... PK Lynch
Reader ..... Lucianne McEvoy
Producer ..... Kirsty Williams
A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Bells on Sunday comes from St Maunanus & St Stephen, Mawnan in Cornwall. Situated with views out to sea, the Church contains a light peal of eight bells cast in 2003 by the now closed Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The tenor tuned to the key of E weighs just over three and a half hundredweight. We hear them ringing Stedman Doubles.
The latest national and international news.
Suryagupta Dharmacharini, Chair of the London Buddhist Centre, remembers seeing her mother crying when witnessing the horrors of war-torn countries on the nightly news. As a child, Suryagupta couldn't understand why her mum was so moved by the suffering of strangers. It was years later, when meditating on a Buddhist retreat, that the importance of this level of empathy first truly struck her.
Whilst kindness and compassion might seem to be innate, Buddhists like Suryagupta believe that they can be actively cultivated through meditation. In this episode, Suryagupta explores the Metta Bhavana meditation practice - an ancient technique for the cultivation of kindness created by the Buddha approximately 2500 years ago. She explains that Metta in Pali translates as 'loving kindness' and Bhavana as 'cultivation'. The meditator concentrates on channelling kindness in a number of directions, resulting in a heightened level of empathy and compassion that has been scientifically proven.
Across the five stages of the Metta Bhavana meditation, practitioners direct kindness towards themselves, towards a friend, towards a neutral person about whom they have no strong feelings, towards someone they have a fractious relationship with and finally towards all sentient beings. Suryagupta examines the challenges and benefits that each stage brings with the help of Johnny Cash, Gregory Porter, John Coltrane, Raymond Carver, Rumi and a selection of Buddhist texts.
Producer: Max O'Brien
Presenter: Suryagupta Dharmacharini
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4
It is not often on the Living World that the largest or biggest of any species is discovered. Yet in this episode Lionel Kelleway is in search of a large slimy creature. Though locally common across Britain's ancient woodlands, this slug is very much at home in the warm damp woodlands of Dartmoor and is the world’s largest ground slug, the “Ash-Black” slug. This mollusc is known to reach up to a length of 25 to 30 centimetres. Lurking under the bark of dead trees during the day, at night they slip obsequiously into the open looking for fungi of all kinds to eat. Guiding Lionel is renowned Dartmoor, naturalist John Walters who explains these large slugs are quite easy to identify by their characteristic dark edged sole, with a pale, ash coloured stripe running through the middle. Their presence is an important part of the ecosystems that keep ancient woodland alive. As if encountering this leviathan was not enough, the duo also stumble across Britain's largest ground beetle, Carabus intricatus.
Lindsey Chapman revisits this edited Living World from 2008 to bring the story up to date for today's listener.
Producer Andrew Dawes
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme, presented by Edward Stourton.
Gyles Brandreth makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Rainbow Trust Children's Charity
Registered Charity Number: 3585123,
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 'Rainbow Trust Children's Charity'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Rainbow Trust Children's Charity'.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines, including a look at the papers.
The service of Thanksgiving for Harvest reflects on the beauty and goodness of God's Creation and expresses our gratitude.
Led by the Dean of Connor, the Very Rev Sam Wright. The preacher is the curate, the Rev Danielle McCullagh.
Live from Christ Church Cathedral, Lisburn, Co Antrim.
Producer; Bert Tosh
Val McDermid asks if Sadiq Khan’s plan for a Glasgow-style crime reduction unit can have the same transformative effect in London as it did in Scotland.
"If we change the script people live by", writes Val, "then surely we should be able to alter our outcomes".
Producer: Adele Armstrong
For singer and songwriter Kitty MacFarlane the natural world and the landscape around her provides the inspiration for her work, especially when she takes a sound recorder out with her to record bird songs. Or takes part in an eel project, with an ever present grey heron never far away.
Kitty continues her selections from the Tweet of the Day back canon.. You can hear all five episodes chosen this week, and further thoughts from Kitty on how she first saw a bittern recently via the the Tweet of the Week omnibus edition, which is available to download via the Radio 4 Website.
Producer : Andrew Dawes.
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
Writer ..... Paul Brodrick
Director ..... Peter Leslie Wild
Editor ..... Alison Hindell
Kenton Archer ..... Richard Attlee
Jolene Archer ..... Buffy Davis
Tony Archer ..... David Troughton
Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore
Tom Archer ..... William Troughton
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
PC Harrison Burns ..... James Cartwright
Susan Carter ..... Charlotte Martin
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Shula Hebden Lloyd ..... Judy Bennett
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ..... Toby Laurence
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Robert Snell .....Graham Blockey
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Carol Tregorran ..... Eleanor Bron
Peggy Woolley ..... June Spencer
Hannah Riley ..... Helen Longworth
Judge Langford ..... Emma Handy
Tom Daley started diving aged seven and by the age of 14 was representing Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He has won six British Championships, three European Championships and won the World Championships in 2009 and 2017.
Born in Plymouth in 1994, he’s the oldest son of Rob and Debbie Daley. He has two younger brothers. His success at a very young age led to widespread media attention, but as he became famous, he was bullied and had to change schools at the age of 15. His parents encouraged his sporting ambitions and he was always able to spot his father in the crowd at competitions because he’d be waving a huge union jack. In 2006 Rob was diagnosed with brain cancer and despite initially successful treatment, the cancer returned. He died in 2011, missing the London 2012 Olympics, where Tom won a bronze medal in the individual 10m platform event.
In 2013 Tom met Dustin Lance Black and they married in 2017. They recently became parents – through surrogacy – of a son called Robert. Tom is currently in training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
In this final episode of the current series Nicholas Parsons introduces the expert flannelling skills of Paul Merton, Sheila Hancock, Jan Ravens and Rufus Hound.
What exactly constitutes a hard hat is one of the many subjects up for fierce debate.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
Meat-free meat is having a moment. As more and more people move to a plant-based diet the range of steaks, burgers, hams - almost any meat product you can think of is available without the meat. Usually when we think of vegan and vegetarian dishes we expect them to be relatively healthy. Are these foods healthy? Are they trying to be?
Vegan cook and YouTube star Rachel Ama tries to find out as she visits Club Mexicana, where the meat is meat-free. She goes to Zionly Manna Rastafarian vegan restaurant, run by Jahson Peat; she finds Renee's vegan Caribbean kitchen and the Deli Jerk Centre at Notting Hill Carnival; she talks to CEO of Quorn Kevin Brennan, Caroline Chin of Loon Fung Oriental Supermarket in Chinatown and nutritionists Laura Thomas and Helen Ford.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
The latest weather forecast.
Global news and analysis.
Poems suggested for learning:
T.S.Eliot - The Preludes (one or all!)
Tony Harrison - Them and [uz]
Benjamin Zephaniah - Talking Turkey
Wilfred Owen - Dulce et Decorum Est
Carol Ann Duffy - The Christmas Truce
Gyles Brandreth has, for many years, been familiar with the notion that learning something new every day is a sure-fire way of sustaining mental well-being. He's also got a hunch that if that new 'thing' is in verse form there are a raft of other positives to be had from the process of learning it heart. In this programme he garners advice on how it should best be done, what benefits it genuinely brings and what joys are to be had 'in vacant or in pensive mood' from the flow and facility of poetic verse recollected in tranquillity.
His first port of call is the Duchess of Cornwall, Patron of the Royal Society of Literature, who shares a passion for poetry, and more particularly poetry learned by heart. He also calls on Dame Judi Dench for advice on learning and some insights into how she sustains her reservoir of learned verse.
But there's science behind all this, supplied by Professor Usha Goswami, the Director of the Centre of Neuroscience at Cambridge University, who'll explain to Gyles the latest thinking about the way the brain records and retains poetic meter and particularly the strong, rhythmic meter of the twice-told rhymes of childhood.
And then there's Kaiti Soultana, winner of the Poetry By Heart Competition in 2013, whose successfully committed a chunk of the early English poem Sir Garwain and the Green Knight to memory. He'll find out from her how the poetry learning initiative of the last few years has fared and whether his passionate enthusing will be well received. And then there's Michael Rosen, former Children's Laureate, who continues to encourage kids not only to read and learn poetry but to write it as well.
Producer: Tom Alban
Peter Gibbs and his panel make a return visit to the John Innes Centre in Norwich. Bob Flowerdew, Christine Walkden and Matthew Wilson anser the audience questions.
The panellists discuss maggoty plums, the best approach to pruning blackcurrants and how a greater understanding of pesticides might help amateur growers to reduce their use in the horticultural industry.
Peter Gibbs examines some of the 3500 varieties of peas on offer at the John Innes Centre, discovering how this vast collection is being used to inform and ensure the future of pea growing internationally.
Produced by Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Hester Cant
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
Fi Glover introduces conversations about ways of dealing with a condition that seems to make people look at you differently. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
By Angela Carter
Adapted by Lucy Catherine
The fantastical story of Sophie Fevvers - aerialist extraordinaire and star of the circus. Hatched from an egg, Fevvers is part woman, part bird - if you believe her. Having fallen under her spell, journalist Jack Walser follows Fevvers' tour across Russia, determined to discover the truth.
This new adaptation of Angela Carter’s penultimate novel tells the story of the extraordinary, raucous, and often raunchy,` life of Sophie Fevvers, a winged circus performer. The 1984 novel not only won the James Tait Black memorial prize (Britain's oldest literary prize) when it was first published, but also won the Best of the James Tait Black prize in 2012.
Award-winning screenwriter and playwright Lucy Catherine has adapted the novel for audio. Previous work for BBC Radio include The Master and Margarita, Roald Dahl’s Boy and Going Solo, Frankenstein and long-running serial Gudrun. Award-winning comedian, actor and writer Roisin Conaty plays the Cockney Venus, Sophie Fevvers.
Nights at the Circus forms part of a season of dramas on BBC Radio 4 and Radio 3 that celebrates the writing of Angela Carter. The season includes The Bloody Chamber; Carter's unmade screenplay The Christchurch Murder; and An Evening With Angela Carter on BBC Radio 3 - two new productions of Carter’s radio plays, Vampirella and Come Unto These Yellow Sands.
Sophie Fevvers . . . . . Roisin Conaty
Lizzie . . . . . Elizabeth Counsell
Jack Walser . . . . . Ryan Whittle
Mignon . . . . . Carys Eleri
Colonel Kearney . . . . . Stewart Wright
Samson/Kidnapper . . . . . Joe Sims
Princess . . . . . Clare Cage
Lamarek/Grand Duke . . . . . Richard Elfyn
The piano was played by David Thomas.
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko
To celebrate Open Book's 20th anniversary, Mariella Frostrup is joined by guests Sebastian Faulks, Lisa McInerney, Chibundu Onuzo and Kamila Shamsie to explore the huge changes in books and publishing over the past 20 years. They discuss some of the industry's hot topics including author's pay, diversity and representation, and look ahead to what we'll be reading in the next two decades.
Virginia Woolf believed that "a Beethoven quartet is the truth about this vast mass that we call the world". This radiophonic feature explores the musicality and sonic landscape of Virginia Woolf's world. It's written and presented by Fiona Talkington, with a soundscape composed by Nina Perry. Tamsin Greig performs the role of Virginia Woolf.
Connecting past and present, Fiona and Virginia duet through the rooms and gardens of Monk's House - the Woolfs' home in the village of Rodmell in the spectacular Sussex Downs. Here, Virginia's fascination with the relationships between music, words and narrative find a resonance in the sounds of nature in the garden - in the acoustics of the bathroom, in a well-loved chair by the fire, in a game of bowls, church bells, the sense of the ancient pathways of Mount Caburn in the distance, and in the gramophone records and radio broadcasts her husband Leonard Woolf would play in the evenings. Leonard kept meticulous notes of what he listened to in a small faded green notebook, listing each piece, composer and recording. Some of these same recordings have been found in the BBC archive and woven into this evocative dramatised soundscape.
Virginia Woolf played by Tamsin Greig
Written and presented by Fiona Talkington
Producer and composer: Nina Perry
Executive Producer: Iain Chambers
An Open Audio production for BBC Radio 4.
In August, Jessica Hurst wrote to the media asking them to investigate how her dad’s debts of just under £12,000 became a bill of just under £73,000. Nigel Hurst killed himself a year ago after learning that bailiffs were to repossess his family home. It was the bailiff who found him.
Student, Jessica, was left with a pile of debt recovery letters and bank statements which she hoped would hold the clue to his financial troubles. File on 4 reporter Helen Grady takes up Jessica’s challenge.
Her findings include the fact that councils are increasingly enforcing council tax debts, often using aggressive tactics which have been outlawed or become outdated in the private sector. And that bankruptcy can trigger a series of punitive charges - including some paid directly to the Government - which can make a manageable debt unmanageable.
The charities interviewed for this programme that provide free debt advice are …
www.stepchange.org
www.nationaldebtline.org
capuk.org
If you are feeling emotionally distressed and would like details of organisations which offer advice and support, visit BBC Action Line or you can call for free, at any time, to hear recorded information 0800 066 066
You can also get help from …
https://www.samaritans.org/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/suicide/
Presenter: Helen Grady
Producer: David Lewis
Editor; Andrew Smith
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Nihal Arthanayake chooses his BBC Radio highlights.
Elizabeth makes plans, and Brian keeps his fingers crossed.
by Jeremy Front
based on Simon Brett's novel
Directed by Sally Avens
Charles is playing The Ghost and the Gravedigger in Hamlet but when the reality star playing the young Dane is badly injured he begins to suspect that the accident may have been deliberate and other members of the cast may be in danger.
Eight new cases to challenge the detective wit of Annika Strandhed, queen of the Oslo Police boat patrol.
Since we last met her, Annika has been promoted to Chief Inspector. Her first act was - apart from choosing a new speedboat - to co-opt Mikel, her forensic photographer of choice, to accompany her. Her son Tor is about to start school.
Being Chief Inspector means a bigger case-load. What follows will test her physically and emotionally as never before.
Episode 7: Last Call
Annika gets an unpleasant surprise when she investigates a death in the ski resort at Lillehammer.
Nick Walker is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels, Blackbox and Helloland. His plays and short stories have often featured on BBC Radio 4, including the First King of Mars stories (2007 - 2010) and the plays Life Coach (2010) and Stormchasers (2012). The previous series of Annika Stranded were broadcast in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
Writer: Nick Walker
Reader: Nicola Walker
Sound Design: Jon Calver
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
From the 10th July to the 31st of October 1940 the skies above Britain were a battle zone. The German Luftwaffe launched large scale attacks aiming to reach London, they were held back and ultimately defeated by the Royal Airforce which included many nationalities. The bravery of the pilots – known as ‘The Few’ - cannot be disputed but is it really true that the average life expectancy of a spitfire pilot during the Battle of Britain was just four weeks, as is often claimed. Tim Harford and Lizzy McNeill look into the statistics and consider which of the armed forces had the highest death rate.
Does domestic violence increase by 30% when England loses a World Cup match? It’s a claim that’s often made and has most recently heard on the Freakonomics podcast. But is it true?
Is the tonic wine Buckfast really linked to 40 per cent of arrests in Scotland, as the website LADbible claims? Jordan Dunbar discovers the numbers are much exaggerated.
A listener noticed something rather strange while tucking into a bowl of his favourite cereal: “Sainsbury's Blueberry Wheaties purport to contain 72% wheat and 35% blueberry filling. This makes 107%. When I put this to Sainsbury's, I am met with incomprehension. ‘What's wrong?’ they say," he emails. We investigate, and find out the supermarket is not making a mathematical mistake.
And, has there been a rapid resurgence in the number of babies being named Ian?
Producer: Ruth Alexander
Pictured: Chas Hodges
Matthew Bannister on
Chas Hodges, the session musician who became one half of the cockney duo Chas and Dave and had hits like Gertcha and Rabbit.
M.J. Long the American-born architect who co-designed the British Library, the National Maritime Museum and studios for some of the UK's best known artists.
Arthur Mitchell, the first African American principal dancer in a major ballet company and founder of the Dance Theater of Harlem.
Rick Turner, the archaeologist who recovered the 2,000-year-old Lindow Man, Britain's best preserved bog body.
And Rachid Taha, the singer who mixed Algerian music with rock, techno and punk.
Interviewed guest: Michael Hann
Interviewed guest: Rolfe Kentish
Interviewed guest: Rachel Pugh
Interviewed guest: Robin Denselow
Archive clips from: Piano Tales - A Social History of the Piano, Radio 3 23/09/2012; Outlook, World Service 24/01/2018; QED - The Body in the Bog, BBC One 10/04/1985; The African Rock 'N' Roll Years - North Africa, BBC Four 09/08/2005.
Will artificial intelligence change how we shop and decide which retailers succeed? Senior retail executive, Jeremy Schwartz, meets chat bots, robots and the humans behind them, to find out. He explores the impact that the AI revolution may have on jobs - not just the number of them but their nature too. As algorithms take over certain tasks, he asks how humans - and the companies that employ them - will need to respond. And he looks at the growing digital divide between retailers and asks what role AI is playing in the struggle for survival on our high streets.
Producer : Rosamund Jones.
Preview of the week's politics with politicians, pundits and experts.
In the first of the new Moving Image series, Francine Stock talks to a filmmaker about a movie that continues to inspire them. This month, director Paul King reveals the influence of Powell and Pressburger's The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp on his two Paddington adaptations.
Legendary editor and Michael Powell's widow, Thelma Schoonmaker reveals the influence of Colonel Blimp on Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull. Historian Ian Christie supplies the backstory to the film that Churchill tried to scupper.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Creativity - has it become the meaningless buzz word for our times? Oli Mould, Lecturer in Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, delivers a broadside against the injunction to 'be creative' and the 'creative economy' itself. He's joined by David Hesmondhalgh, Professor of Media, Music and Culture and Eliza Easton, Principal Policy Researcher in the Creative Economy and Data Analytics team at Nesta.
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 Canon Patrick Thomas, vicar of Christ Church in Carmarthen.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Common Crane. Common Cranes were extinct in the UK in the 17th century. Now, they are being re-introduced to the Somerset Levels and Moors. The aim is to release a hundred birds into the wild over five years and establish a strong population.
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Yuval Noah Harari offers his 21 lessons for the 21st century. In a wide ranging discussion with Andrew Marr, Harari looks back to his best-selling history of the world, Sapiens, and forward to a possible post-human future.
Technological disruption, ecological cataclysms, fake news and threats of terrorism make the 21st century a frightening prospect. Harari argues against sheltering in nostalgic political fantasies. He calls for a clear-sighted view of the unprecedented challenges that lie ahead.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Michael Palin reads from his new book, abridged by Penny Leicester, about the mysterious and tragic voyage of HMS Erebus in 1845:
A 19th century botanist, Joseph Hooker, and a press conference in Canada in 2014 sharpen the author's interest in the story. Erebus made a successful journey to the Antarctic and was being rigged and loaded for a second expedition to the Northwest Passage. Hopes were high when she finally set off with HMS Terror from Greenhithe on the Thames estuary..
Producer Duncan Minshull
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
Singin' and Swingin' And Getting Merry Like Christmas - ep1/5
dramatized by Winsome Pinnock
Drama series based on Maya's Angelou's third volume of vivid memoirs set in the early 1950's. Single mother Maya loves music. She meets and marries former sailor Tosh in the record shop where she works.
NARRATOR - Older Maya…...…………..…….…….…..………….Adjoa Andoh
MAYA…...…………..…….…….………………………….……..………….Pippa Bennett-Warner
TOSH…......…….…….………………………….……..………………….……….Jamie Demetriou
VIVIAN BAXTER…...…………..…….………………………….……..…………….Ellen Thomas
CLYDE…...…………..…….…….………………………….……..………………...Tumo Reetsang
PREACHER…...…………….…..…….……………...…….……..…………………Steve Toussaint
Produced and Directed by Pauline Harris
The heartbreaking stories of Syrians living and dying in besieged cities during the civil war. Over the last seven years as many as a million people in Syria lived under siege, 400,000 of them in Eastern Ghouta alone. Some were trapped for more than four years of bombardment, sniping and near starvation. The walls that stopped them fleeing also prevented many of their stories reaching the outside world.
Over the course of the war, Mike Thomson has been using internet links and social media to hear from those in these isolated and often forgotten places, Many told Mike their stories as bombs shook the walls around them. The result is a picture of everyday life in some of the most dangerous and devastated places on earth. Yet amid the grim accounts are inspiring examples of resilience, courage and hope.
Producer: Bob Howard
Second series of the sitcom starring stand-up comic Josh Howie, coming to terms with the birth of his first child.
In this first episode. Josh and his wife Monique prepare for a visit from the health visitor - who Josh manages to get on the wrong side of, as only he can.
Cast:
Josh Howie
Pippa Evans
Kerry Godliman
Julian Deane
Jonathan Kemp
Written by Josh Howie
Produced by Ashley Blaker
A Black Hat production for BBC Radio 4
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Drama series charting life on the home front during the First World War.
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
Lucy Kellaway charts her new start as a trainee teacher at the age of 58, moving from the comfortable life of an FT columnist to the realities of teaching in East London.
In 2016, the Financial Times’ management columnist Lucy Kellaway announced she was starting a new career as a teacher. Calling on others of a certain age to join her, she set up the Now Teach organisation to help older professionals become trainees in challenging schools. The scheme received over a thousand applications and selected just under fifty to join, including former corporate lawyers, investment bankers and senior civil servants.
This series follows Lucy and the other trainees over their first year as they encounter the ups and downs of their new life as novice teachers in inner city London.
Episode 1 – Last Day
It’s Lucy’s final day in her old job at the Financial Times. She talks to sceptical colleagues and undergoes that final duty of leaving a workplace - the boss’s speech.
Producer: Russell Finch
Assistant Producer: Dasha Lisitsina
A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4
Set in California, and inspired by a true story. A radical group of environmental activists becomes suspicious of their latest recruit, the mysterious Anna. Believing she might be an FBI infiltrator, members of the group attempt to unmask her before carrying out their most audacious act - a plan to blow up a dam.
But when Anna begins a romantic relationship with their leader Greg, tensions threaten to destroy the group from within.
This fast paced, two-part thriller tells the story from two perspectives - episode one from within the group, and episode two from outside listening in.
Cast:
Anna……….Julianna Jennings
Greg……….Philip Desmeules
Angel……….Jammy Kasongo
Melissa……….Gillian Saker
Al……….Jared Zeus
Franklin……….Trevor White
Librarian……….Lorna Nickson-Brown
Written by Michael Butt
Sound: David Chilton
Producer: Emma Hearn
Director: Carl Prekopp
Executive Producer: John Dryden
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4
(9/13)
The last of the 2018 heats comes from MediaCity in Salford. Paul Gambaccini welcomes three music lovers from the north of England competing for the one remaining place in the semi-finals this year.
As always, they have no idea what musical styles or eras they'll be asked about, with music today including Strauss and Satie alongside John Williams and Donna Summer. They will also have to specialise in a musical topic Paul will offer them at the half way point, without any warning of the categories available to choose from.
Today's competitors are:
Richard Grothusen, a retired hairdresser from Blackpool
Alan Harrison, a retired metallurgist from Sheffield
Mike Meakin, an operating department practitioner from Harrogate.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
Award winning photographer Nick Danziger revisits Armenia to see if a pilot project started by the Red Cross can help thousands of isolated elderly people.
Over the centuries, the former Soviet Republic of Armenia has often been at the centre of many geo-political upheavals - and earlier this year, after weeks of peaceful protests against political corruption and cronyism, it’s clear that upheaval still exists today. But as Armenia goes through yet another political transition, it’s the elderly who are left struggling to cope.
Nick Danziger is a passionate advocate for human rights and development, documenting the lives of those who are not being reached by development projects and where basic services and essential infrastructure doesn’t exist or doesn’t work. Armenia is one such place and somewhere Nick has been to many times.
He returns to Armenia to catch up with a pilot project he first became involved with over a year ago. The project was started by the Red Cross in order to try and help the thousands of isolated elderly people who are struggling to survive – coping in temperatures of -30 in the winter and unable to afford food and medicine on their tiny pensions. Often they are living in buildings without heating or running water - the result of a devasting earthquake over 30 years ago - and, because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the buildings have been left in a state of disrepair.
With young people leaving the country to find work abroad, many elderly people lack the support of children or close family members and are struggling to survive. Is this project managing to make a difference to their lives?
Producer: Angela Hind
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
Aleks explores the bystander effect and how this can translate online. Can technology transform a bystander into a witness who can then help to protect and defend those in need?
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his brand new curator Lee Mack welcome comedian and writer Lucy Beaumont; scientist, writer and storyteller Dr Kat Arney; and multi-award-winning poet Benjamin Zephaniah.
This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee find out how jumping genes took the world by surprise, peep through the smallest window in the world and practise the ancient art of Tai Chi.
The show was researched by Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus of QI.
The Producers were Richard Turner and Anne Miller.
A BBC Studios Production
There's a near miss for Johnny and Jazzer oversteps the mark
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
55,000 people worldwide completed the BBC Loneliness Experiment. It is the largest survey of loneliness ever done. The results are unique in their scope and reach and were revealed first at an event in the Reading Room of Wellcome Collection.
At the live event, presented by Claudia Hammond, musician Jazz Morley and poet Daljit Nagra perform and talk about how their creativity was driven by their loneliness. Philosopher Julian Baggini challenges the idea that loneliness is always a negative experience. And Claudia discusses the results of the Wellcome supported research with Professor Christina Victor of Brunel University and Professor Pam Qualter of Manchester University.
How power moved from West to East after the 2008 financial crisis. Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development at Oxford University, explores how Asian nations, especially China, demonstrated resilience, and rebounded quickly from the crisis. This led to a profound loss of faith in the ability of the Western leaders to manage the global economy effectively.
Interviewees:
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister, Nigeria
Nick Stern, former chief economist, The World Bank
Jeffrey Sachs, professor Columbia University
Kumi Naidoo, secretary general, Amnesty International
Willem Buiter, former Chief Economist, Citibank
Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator, The Financial Times
Kishore Mahbubani, professor, University of Singapore
Justin Lin, professor, Beijing University
Adam Tooze, author of 'Crashed'
Christine Lagarde, managing director, International Monetary Fund
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Series celebrating the infinite variety of the natural world and its depiction in culture. In the final episode of the series we present our swan song.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Pat Barker, the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war, reimagines the most famous conflict in literature - the legendary Trojan War.
When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis's old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she's not alone. On the same day, and on many others in the course of a long and bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters.
The Trojan War is known as a man's story - a quarrel between men over a woman, stolen from her home and spirited across the sea. But what of the other women in this story, silenced by history? What words did they speak when alone with each other, in the laundry, at the loom, when laying out the dead?
In this historical novel, a brilliant and brutal retelling of Homer's Iliad, Pat Barker charts one woman's journey through the chaos of the Trojan War, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story.
In Episode 6, the Trojans have advanced to the outskirts of the Greek camp and Agamemnon begs Achilles to return to battle.
Written by Pat Barker
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Nadine Marshall and Colin Salmon
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
Historical novelist Sarah Dunant presents a monthly dive into stories from the past that might help us make sense of today. In this month's episode, the complex task of dating.
Sarah's going behind closed doors to eavesdrop on the most intimate of exchanges. She scrutinises moments in history when the rules of the dating game have been rewritten. From the male-centric ideals of courtly-love at the heart of medieval poetry to the uneasy collision of dating and the gender politics of the 1970s, Sarah examines the ways men and women have related to each other in this most difficult of areas, and considers how we might improve them.
As we redraw the lines today following more revelations of harassment emerge, more public confessions of guilt and more open airing of intimate encounters, Sarah asks if we can learn lessons from moments in the past when men and women renegotiated the boundaries of dating.
Presenter: Sarah Dunant
Producers: Katherine Godfrey and Nathan Gower
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
For many years, transgender people have remained silent. But today they are affirming publicly that they have a rightful place in society and religious groups are now grappling with transgender issues. The Church of England General Synod recently debated a motion to draw up a prayer to welcome people who have transitioned from one sex to another. The House of Bishops turned it down.
The Bible asserts that God made mankind in his own image; so what's the problem? Presumably he made people whose gender does not sit comfortably with the sex they were assigned at birth? But debate still rages within the church because the Bible also says that "male and female, God created them" which suggests that there should be no ambiguity when it comes to a person's gender.
The issues are complex and they can multiply if a trans person is living a religious life within a religious community. What is the attitude of religious traditions towards transgender people? Are the problems more cultural than religious?
Joining Ernie Rea are Kamalanandi, and Philippa Whittaker, A Buddhist and a Christian who have both transitioned. With them in discussion is the academic Dr Susannah Cornwall whose work concentrates on contextual theologies, particularly those relating to sex gender and sexuality.
Ernie also talks to Indian transgender activist Vyjayanti Vasanta Mogli about the role that the Hijra play within the Hindu community in India. The Hijra are transgender people who are invited to bless new born babies and married couples but they find themselves outcast within Indian society despite a change in the law in 2014 which recognises their right to be who they are.
Producer: Helen Lee
Series producer: Amanda Hancox.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Patrick Thomas, Vicar of Christ Church in Carmarthen
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Little Egret. The colonisation of the UK by these small brilliant-white herons with black bills and yellow feet, has astonished ornithologists because of its speed.
Radio 4's flagship news and current affairs programme; including Thought for the Day
55,000 people completed the BBC Loneliness Experiment. Claudia Hammond reveals the results and discovers the loneliest times of life and the top solutions in tackling loneliness.
Researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Brunel and Exeter, supported by Wellcome developed a questionnaire asking people what they thought loneliness was, when they felt lonely and for how long and in this programme Claudia discusses the times of life when people feel most lonely and the most popular suggestions for overcoming loneliness as suggested by the results of the survey
The survey also looks at how people viewed loneliness today in contrast to the work of Professor Barbara Taylor from Queen Mary College London. She studies the history of loneliness and solitude and explains how attitudes have changed significantly through time.
Michael Palin reads from his new book that follows the mysterious and tragic voyage of HMS Erebus in 1845:
Leading the expedition to the Northwest Passage is Sir John Franklin, with Captain Crozier and Lieutenant Fitzjames in support, plus a host of sea-seasoned characters. Back on dry land Franklin's wife, Jane, emerges an ever-present figure as the story unfolds.
Producer Duncan Minshull
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas - ep2/5
dramatized by Winsome Pinnock
Maya gets a job as a dancer in a strip bar. As the first black dancer they've employed she doesn't have to strip but she does have to induce the punters to buy fraudulent drinks in return for her company.
NARRATOR…...…………..…….…….………………………….……..…………….Adjoa Andoh
MAYA…...…………..…….…….……………………….……..…………….Pippa Bennett-Warner
VIVAN BAXTER…...…………..…….…….…………………….……..…………….Ellen Thomas
CLYDE…....…………..…….…….……………………….……..…………….…….Tumo Reetsang
EDDIE…...…………..…….…….……………………….……..………………….…….Lewis Bray
JORIE…...…………..…….…….………………….….……..………………….…….Emma Handy
BABE…...…………..…….…….………………….….……..………………….………..Lucy Doyle
TOM…...…………..…….…….…………………….……..………………….………..Ryan Whittle
Produced and Directed by Pauline Harris
A convent of Mexican nuns is helping to save the one of the world's most endangered and most remarkable amphibians: the axolotl, a truly bizarre creature of serious scientific interest worldwide and an animal of deep-rooted cultural significance in Mexico.
The Sisters of Immaculate Health rarely venture out of their monastery in the central Mexican town of Patzcuaro. Yet they have become the most adept and successful breeders of their local species of this aquatic salamander. Scientists marvel at their axolotl-breeding talents and are now working with them to save the animal from extinction. BBC News science correspondent Victoria Gill is allowed into the convent to discover at least some of the nun's secrets and explores why axolotls are a group of salamanders so important to protect from evolutionary oblivion.
Axolotls are able to regrow lost limbs and other body parts. As a result, the aquatic salamanders are of great interest to researchers worldwide who study them in the hope of imitating the trick: to grow tissues and organs for medicine. The nuns also began to breed and rear their axolotls for medical reasons. They use the salamander as the key ingredient in an ancient Mexican remedy for coughs and other respiratory illnesses. The Sisters of Immaculate Health sell the medicinal syrup to the public. As well as being the basis for a popular folk remedy all over Mexico, the axolotl is also the manifestation of one of the ancient Aztecs’ most important gods.
The big problem is that all species of axolotl are critically endangered. The nun's species is known locally as the achoque. It only lives in nearby Lake Patzcuaro and it has been pushed to the edge of extinction because of pollution and introduced fish species. This is why the sisters began to breed the animals in the convent about 30 years ago. They were advised to do this by a friar who was also a trained biologist because the supply of achoques from Lake Patzcuaro’s fishermen diminished. In the 1980s, 20 tonnes of axolotls were fished from the lake every year. Today they are very few left in the wild.
Biologists from the nearby Michoacan University discovered that the nuns are expert breeders of the species and have started to collaborate with them in a conservation programme to make the Lake Patzcuaro an axolotl-friendly habitat once more and (if necessary) to introduce convent-bred animals to restore the lake’s tiny population. The project is being supported and funded by the UK's Chester Zoo. The zoo's curator of amphibians Dr Gerardo Garcia visits the convent with Victoria, and demonstrates some of the technical help being offered to the nuns. For example, he micro-chips and takes DNA samples from the nun's breeding salamanders so the sisters can refine their breeding success even further.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker
The final episode of a series in which broadcaster Verity Sharp listens to the music of the world in a different way. We eavesdrop with her along latitudinal lines, hearing local stories that are having a direct impact on music and musicians. Could there be echoes along these sound lines? Might different music that’s created thousands of miles apart, but on the same latitude, share common ground? And could listening in this way allow us to glimpse the effect of the vast and often immeasurable forces that are sweeping change across our planet?
Verity ends with the Arctic Circle. This far north, both the strengths and limits of human influence over the planet are starkly visible - the melting ice here has come to symbolise the pace of climate change while, for much of the year, the harshness of the environment is a continual reminder of our vulnerability.
Around the circle, we hear three stories.
Electronic musician Roman Kravchenko brings us into his life in one of the planet’s coldest, most remote and polluted cities - Norilsk, some 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Siberia, where life expectancy is ten years less than for the rest of Russia.
Christine Tootoo lives in Rankin Inlet, in the Nunavut Territory of northern Canada. Caribou-hunting and throat-singing are an important part of the Inuit culture she seeks to promote in the face of rapid social and environmental change.
And Lasse Marhaug, a Norwegian noise musician, has returned to the far north of the country where he grew up. He’s in search of the reasons he makes his music, recalling the womb-like experience of an Arctic winter storm.
Producer: Chris Elcombe
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Drama series charting life on the home front during the First World War.
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
Lucy Kellaway charts her new start as a trainee teacher at the age of 58, moving from the comfortable life of an FT columnist to the realities of teaching in East London.
In 2016, the Financial Times’ management columnist Lucy Kellaway announced she was starting a new career as a teacher. Calling on others of a certain age to join her, she set up the Now Teach organisation to help older professionals become trainees in challenging schools. The scheme received over a thousand applications and selected just under fifty to join, including former corporate lawyers, investment bankers and senior civil servants.
This series follows Lucy and the other trainees over their first year as they encounter the ups and downs of their new life as novice teachers in inner city London.
Episode 2 – First Day
Lucy has her first day at her new school in East London, and teaches her very first maths lesson.
Producer: Russell Finch
Assistant Producer: Dasha Lisitsina
A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4
Set in California, and inspired by a true story. A radical group of environmental activists becomes suspicious of their latest recruit, the mysterious Anna. Believing she might be an FBI infiltrator, members of the group attempt to unmask her before carrying out their most audacious act - a plan to blow up a dam.
But when Anna begins a romantic relationship with their leader Greg, tensions threaten to destroy the group from within.
This fast paced, two-part thriller tells the story from two perspectives. In this concluding episode, the clock turns back, and the story unfolds again, this time from the perspective of the FBI.
Cast:
Anna……….Julianna Jennings
Greg……….Philip Desmeules
Angel……….Jammy Kasongo
Melissa……….Gillian Saker
Al……….Jared Zeus
Jackson……….Nathan Osgood
Shelley……….Laurel Lefkow
Night Watchman……….Trevor White
Receptionist……….Lorna Nickson-Brown
Written by Michael Butt
Sound: David Chilton
Producer: Emma Hearn
Director: Carl Prekopp
Executive Producer: John Dryden
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4
Is the time finally right to buy an electric car? Peter Gibbs has just taken the plunge. We join him on his first road trip to see if Britain really is ready to wave goodbye to diesel and petrol.
He drops in on Robert Llewellyn, Kryten in Red Dwarf and the man behind the electric car Youtube channel, Fully Charged for some initial inspiration and a moan about the difficulties of charging on the road. He checks out the real environmental benefits with Nick Molden from Emissions Analytics. He asks the Gardeners' Question Time panel if they're ready to make the shift and hears from Roads Minister, Jesse Norman and the scientists at Warwick University who are making radical advances in battery technology.
If they really can offer a car with a 300 mile range that can be charged in 10 minutes then the future may very well be electric.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright talk Multicultural London English (MLE) with Somali born journalist Ismail Einashe. Producer Sally Heaven.
Harriett Gilbert discusses favourite books with the writers Nikesh Shukla and Leone Ross. Nikesh's choice is Amateur; a real-life account of testing one’s masculinity in the boxing ring by Thomas Page McBee. Leone's is Cane, the largely forgotten African-American classic by Jean Toomer and Harriett's is a divisive modern classic, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.
Producer: Eliza Lomas
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Start/Stop is a sitcom by Jack Docherty about three marriages in various states of disrepair.
Barney and Cathy have been married for ages and it shows, Evan and Fiona's marriage is one big, noisy argument and David is old enough to be Alice's father.
Start/Stop follows the story of these three couples as they try to make the best of their marriages and friendships, and the characters are able to stop the action, explain themselves to the audience and start it all up again.
This week: 'Friends'.
Barney is being suspiciously nice to Cathy. Fiona wants Evan to invest in her new business but Evan thinks it will be a disaster. And David is trying not to be so controlling.
Written by: Jack Docherty
Producer: Claire Jones
A BBC Studio Production.
Freddie's behaviour causes concern and Josh spreads some news
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
In the aftermath of the Winterbourne View scandal the government pledged to transfer people with learning disabilities and autism out of unsuitable hospital placements and into supported community living settings. A key milestone was to cut inpatient beds by March 2019 and to transform the lives of people who have been previously been ‘stuck’ in institutional settings.
But File on 4 has been told that the target will be missed and that it’s unachievable. Without the necessary expansion of capability to provide care for people in their own homes or community settings - many still languish in unsafe and unsuitable accommodation, with little prospect of moving on.
What are the implications for people who say they’re trapped in the system, with no route out?
Parents fighting to have their children moved to more appropriate environments say they fear for their safety. They paint a picture of a system that is overstretched and at breaking point. Without enough staff to provide the one to one care residents require – some have suffered serious injuries, harm or abuse.
So seven years after Winterbourne View, has enough really changed?
Reporter: Lucy Adams
Producer: Rob Cave
Editor: Gail Champion
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Dr Mark Porter goes on a weekly quest to demystify the health issues that perplex us.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Pat Barker, the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war, reimagines the most famous conflict in literature - the legendary Trojan War.
When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis's old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she's not alone. On the same day, and on many others in the course of a long and bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters.
The Trojan War is known as a man's story - a quarrel between men over a woman, stolen from her home and spirited across the sea. But what of the other women in this story, silenced by history? What words did they speak when alone with each other, in the laundry, at the loom, when laying out the dead?
In this historical novel, a brilliant and brutal retelling of Homer's Iliad, Pat Barker charts one woman's journey through the chaos of the Trojan War, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story.
In Episode 7, furious and insulted, Achilles continues his refusal to fight. But his friend Patroclus, also a gifted soldier, comes up with a plan.
Written by Pat Barker
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Nadine Marshall and Colin Salmon
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
A new sitcom from award-winning comedian Josie Long about a young woman trying to build a new, more fulfilling life for herself in Glasgow.
Glasgow is the indie band theme park, where Josie will finally be happy and accepted. But almost as soon as she de-trains at Queen Street Station she begins to think she's made a big mistake.
Josie sets about finding friends, a place to live and a new job.
Based on characters from the short films "Romance and Adventure" and "Let's Go Swimming" by Josie Long and Douglas King.
Josie - Josie Long
Darren - Darren Osborne
Roddy - Sanjeev Kohli
Kerry - Hatty Ashdown
Eleanor - Clare Grogan
Chris - Michael Bertenshaw
Mona - Rebecca Hamilton
Fraser - Chris Pavlo
Written by Josie Long
Producer: Colin Anderson.
Is it a religious duty to give to beggars?
If you go into the centre of a city like Yangon or Bangkok, you will also come across people begging. Among them will be fine robed Buddhist monks with their begging bowls. They're highly respected members of society, following the tradition of religious mendicancy. What differentiates them from what we know as street beggars? What should inform our decision on whether or not to give?
Joining Ernie to discuss religious and moral attitudes to Begging are Jon Kuhrt, Chief Executive of the West London Mission; Eleanor Nesbitt, Professor Emerita from the University of Warwick and founder-member of the Punjab Research Group, and Dr Andrew Skilton, Senior Research Fellow in Buddhism at Kings College London.
Producer, Rosie Dawson.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Patrick Thomas, Vicar of Christ Church in Carmarthen
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachen presents the oystercatcher. These black and white waders used to be called sea-pies because of their pied plumage, which contrasts sharply with their pink legs and long red bill. Oystercatchers don't often eat oysters. Instead they use their powerful bill to break into mussels on rocks or probe for cockles in the mud of estuaries.
Radio 4's flagship news and current affairs programme; including Thought for the Day
The Sound Odyssey is a new series in which Gemma Cairney takes British artists for musical collaborations in different countries around the world, hearing the musicians in a new light, and exposing their artistic process as they create something new in different and unfamiliar surroundings with an artist they have never met before.
In this programme singer-songwriter, actress, and political activist Charlotte Church travels to Kutaisi in Georgia to learn about Georgian polyphonic singing, a genre of music she’s fascinated by. Situated on the border of Europe and Asia, Georgia has a strong history of Polyphonic singing, at celebrations as well as in everyday life, and was recognized by UNESCO as a Human masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage in 2001. A typical Georgian song is sung acappella by men, singing in at least three vocal ranges together.
Charlotte who has sold more than 10 million records worldwide is from Llandaff, a district of Cardiff in Wales. She will be collaborating with a polyphonic choir in Kutaisi to create a new recording.
Kutaisi has connections with Wales having been twinned with the town of Newport since 1989. The two countries are similar in size and population, both are mountainous with their own distinctive language and culture and, furthermore, both are strongholds of singing and rugby, a sport which has a considerable following in Kutaisi.
Presented by Gemma Cairney
Produced by Jax Coombes
A BBC 6 Music Production for BBC Radio 4
Alan Dein asks several generations of five families from across the UK revealing questions about what they do in their spare time, as well as their perspectives on the past and future.
From Luton in Kent to Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, every family faces the same searching questions. Today, Alan explores views on leisure time - and how our families see the past and the time ahead.
Producers: Laurence Grissell & Paul Kobrak
Michael Palin reads from his new book that follows the mysterious and tragic voyage of HMS Erebus in 1845:
The ship was last sighted in July that year. In London Lady Jane Franklin fears the worst for her husband and the crew - "I sometimes think it is better perhaps that we should be in happy ignorance of any disaster that may have happened". And still the Admiralty won't respond to requests for a recovery expedition.
Producer Duncan Minshull
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou- ep3/5
dramatized by Winsome Pinnock
Maya begins her singing career at the Purple Onion, where she gets to meet the cast of the famous black opera Porgy and Bess. To her surprise she gets to audition for the company, with the prospect of a world tour.
NARRATOR…...…………..…….…….………………………….……..…………….Adjoa Andoh
MAYA…...…………..…….…….……………………….……..…………….Pippa Bennett-Warner
CLYDE…....…………..…….…….……………………….……..…………….…….Tumo Reetsang
VIVIAN BAXTER…...…………….…….…….…………………….……..………….Ellen Thomas
MARTHA FLOWERS…...…………..…….…….…………………….…..……Gbemisola Ikumelo
WILKIE…...…………..…….…….…………………….……………..….………….Steve Toussaint
DREW…...…………..…….…….…………………….……………..….………...…….Sean Murray
BREEN…...…………..…….…….…………………….……………..…………..……Ryan Whittle
MISS BLUM..…...…………..…….…….…………….……………..….………….Jeanette Percival
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris
Brothers reflect on the resilience of their parents, who left Bangladesh to build a new life against the odds in England. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess
Amid Brexit, comedian Zoe Lyons grabs her shiny, newly issued Irish passport and returns to her roots. In these tumultuous times, what does it mean to belong somewhere, and will the Motherland welcome her back into the fold with open arms?
After recalling cherished memories of her Irish childhood in the previous episode, Zoe now delves a little further into the Ireland of today. Travelling from Cork city, through Dunmore East, Greystones and north to Dublin, she meets with Irish citizens who are both native and adopted, but who all share a passionate love for the Emerald Isle they call home.
Where does Ireland see itself in the world today, where is it headed, and has Zoe's trip inspired her to embrace her Irish roots and be a part of its future?
An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Drama series charting life on the home front during the First World War.
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
Lucy Kellaway charts her new start as a trainee teacher at the age of 58, moving from the comfortable life of an FT columnist to the realities of teaching in East London.
In 2016, the Financial Times’ management columnist Lucy Kellaway announced she was starting a new career as a teacher. Calling on others of a certain age to join her, she set up the Now Teach organisation to help older professionals become trainees in challenging schools. The scheme received over a thousand applications and selected just under fifty to join, including former corporate lawyers, investment bankers and senior civil servants.
This series follows Lucy and the other trainees over their first year as they encounter the ups and downs of their new life as novice teachers in inner city London.
Episode 3 – The Half-Term Wobble
As the trainees reach half term, Lucy finds out how they are adapting to being at the bottom of the pecking order.
Producer: Russell Finch
Assistant Producer: Dasha Lisitsina
A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4
Brief Lives by Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly
Episode 2
Sarah and Frank have been called in to represent clients involved in a cold case investigation that has been reignited by some newly discovered DNA.
FRANK............... David Schofield
SARAH................Kathryn Hunt
LUCY…………….Gillian Kearney
DOMINIC….….Reece Dinsdale
BEN ...……….…Samuel Holland
D S ANDERSON.....Russell Richardson
FRANNY.................Beatrix Baxter
Director/Producer Gary Brown
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.
A topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
One of Britain's finest comedians, Rob Newman, sets his sights on the world of philosophy, unpicking 3000 years of good and bad ideas to discover how we got into this mess. In a world gone mad, can philosophy provide the answer?
In episode four, Rob tackles some of history's thorniest thought experiments, including the famous Shakespeare-typing monkey.
Written and performed by Rob Newman
Edited by John Whitehall
Produced by Jon Harvey
Executive Producer: Richard Wilson
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4
There's a shock for Fallon and Christine offers some advice
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel comes to St Paul's Cathedral to take on some of the hardest questions raised by the public discontent that characterises much of global politics today. With the help of a live audience, he asks whether globalisation and deepening inequality have eroded the bonds that hold communities together. He enquires if the continuing debate over Brexit reveals competing notions of political identity. Should we aspire to be citizens of the world, or is a citizen of the world a citizen of nowhere? He wonders if patriotism is a sentiment we should encourage or a prejudice we should overcome and whether, in diverse societies such as ours, a politics of the common good is even possible. Michael and his audience engage in a searching discussion of the contending visions of moral and civic identity that lie just beneath the surface of our fiercest public debates.
Producer: Tim Mansel.
Sunday league football is played up and down the country. The writer Ewan Flynn says that forging a team spirit against the odds can bring out the best in people.
Recorded at the Shambala Festival.
Producer: Peter Snowdon
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Pat Barker, the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war, reimagines the most famous conflict in literature - the legendary Trojan War.
When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis's old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she's not alone. On the same day, and on many others in the course of a long and bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters.
The Trojan War is known as a man's story - a quarrel between men over a woman, stolen from her home and spirited across the sea. But what of the other women in this story, silenced by history? What words did they speak when alone with each other, in the laundry, at the loom, when laying out the dead?
In this historical novel, a brilliant and brutal retelling of Homer's Iliad, Pat Barker charts one woman's journey through the chaos of the Trojan War, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story.
In Episode 8, Achilles return to battle with one aim - to kill Hector in revenge for the death of Patroclus.
Written by Pat Barker
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Nadine Marshall and Colin Salmon
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
Stand-up series exploring British Chinese culture, from BBC New Comedy Award finalist Ken Cheng. In this first episode, Ken examines attitudes towards Education.
Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.
A BBC Studios production.
Taking the songs of Bob Marley into riot-damaged parts of Baltimore and removing the bullet-proof glass barrier from the box-office of his Center Stage theatre are just two of the tasks undertaken by Artistic Director, Kwame Kwei Armah. He muses on the laughs and confusion caused by looking like an African-American but speaking with the cultivated tones and accent of a British actor.
Kwame grew up in London and found fame in the medical drama Holby City before he won the Evening Standard's Most Promising New Playwright award for Elmina's Kitchen, which was a success at the National Theatre. Set in a West Indian restaurant, Elmina's Kitchen tells a tale of family conflict and crime in Hackney, East London. He's also the writer and director of the Bob Marley musical, One Love.
In Litter From America, he reflects on how his character has changed over the years and the qualities he has, and has not, managed to pass onto his children. We also get a portrait of attitudes to President Trump, including those of Charlene Taylor, a hostess in one of the city's downtown diners.
A Foghorn Company production for BBC Radio 4.
There is a certain way of saying the word 'spinster' that gives it implications of disapproval or even pity; as if for a woman, not being married is an inferior state. Why does it sound so unpleasant? And why is it more acceptable to be a bachelor than a spinster? Could part of the blame lie in religious traditions with their stress on the centrality of the family? Today women are forging careers and putting off marriage and babies. Is there a positive role for single women in religious structures which lay great stress on producing children? Is spinsterhood a holy state? Is it better for a woman with strong religious convictions to remain unmarried rather than being, what St Paul called, "unequally yoked together."
In an attempt to find answers to these questions, Ernie Rea is joined by Shelina Janmohamed - an author and commentator on Muslim social and religious trends - Jewish journalist Angela Epstein and former MP Ann Widdecombe, who is a Christian.
Ernie also talks to Dr Fauzia Ahmad. She is an unmarried Muslim woman whose own experience has informed 25 years of research into why young Muslim women are finding it increasingly difficult to meet suitable Muslim husbands.
Producer: Helen Lee
Series Producer: Amanda Hancox.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Patrick Thomas, Vicar of Christ Church in Carmarthen
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Actor Samuel West recalls how his birdwatching companion unpicked a riddle-like line in Hamlet but told him just late enough that he'd finished playing the part.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Picture: Richard Blackburn.
Radio 4's flagship news and current affairs programme; including Thought for the Day
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works of Wharton (1862-1937) such as The Age of Innocence for which she won the Pulitzer Prize and was the first woman to do so, The House of Mirth, and The Custom of the Country. Her novels explore the world of privileged New Yorkers in the Gilded Age of the late C19th, of which she was part, drawing on her own experiences and written from the perspective of the new century, either side of WW1 . Among her themes, she examined the choices available to women and the extent to which they could ever really be free, even if rich.
With
Hermione Lee
Bridget Bennett
And
Laura Rattray
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Michael Palin reads from his new book that follows the mysterious and tragic voyage of HMS Erebus in 1845:
Years after her disappearance, and thanks to the campaigning zeal of Lady Jane Franklin, recovery expeditions have set out. But unanswered questions persist, even when a cairn is discovered that possibly sheltered survivors. And a piece of paper, folded into a particular shape - did it once contain words?
Producer Duncan Minshull
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou ep4/5
dramatized by Winsome Pinnock
Maya has an eventful time on a world tour with Gershwin's famous black opera, Porgy and Bess. It's the first American company to be invited to perform behind the Iron Curtain.
NARRATOR- Older Maya…...…………..…….…….…………………….Adjoa Andoh
MAYA…...…………..…….…….……………………….……..…………….Pippa Bennett-Warner
CLYDE…....…………..…….…….……………………….……..…………….…….Tumo Reetsang
MARTHA FLOWERS…...…………..…….…….…………………….…..……Gbemisola Ikumelo
LILIAN…...…………..…….…….…………………….…………………………..……Sarah Niles
JULIAN…...……………….……..…….…….…………………………………..……Ivan Marevich
ARABIC MAN…...…………..…….…….………………….……...……………………..……Steve Toussaint
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris
Correspondents around the world tell their stories and examine news developments in their region.
Donald Trump's pledge to build a "big beautiful wall" along the US-Mexico border has inserted a political urgency into the mainstream art world and made the Latino experience a point of inspiration for many. Seven artists working on either side of the border wall, from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east, describe their work and how recent US immigration policy has helped to shape it. From music, to sculpture, virtual reality and performance art, the Art of Now explores the diverse artistic scene thriving along the 2000 miles border.
Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Drama series charting life on the home front during the First World War.
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
Lucy Kellaway charts her new start as a trainee teacher at the age of 58, moving from the comfortable life of an FT columnist to the realities of teaching in East London.
In 2016, the Financial Times’ management columnist Lucy Kellaway announced she was starting a new career as a teacher. Calling on others of a certain age to join her, she set up the Now Teach organisation to help older professionals become trainees in challenging schools. The scheme received over a thousand applications and selected just under fifty to join, including former corporate lawyers, investment bankers and senior civil servants.
This series follows Lucy and the other trainees over their first year as they encounter the ups and downs of their new life as novice teachers in inner city London.
Episode 4 – Dark Days
Lucy confronts the difficulties of her new life and talks to others who have reached crisis point.
Producer: Russell Finch
Assistant Producer: Dasha Lisitsina
A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4
A story like this doesn't fall into your lap every day. Livvy's a podcaster with a taste for conspiracy and a keen eye for injustice. Her ex-boyfriend's gone missing on a gap year adventure. This is the story that will make her name. It's got everything. Sex, corruption, dastardly foreigners, sly diplomats and a tragic hero. Livvy won't rest until her podcast is top of the iTunes chart.
Director: Alasdair Cross
Clare Balding walks part of the Whithorn Way with a local group of walking enthusiasts who are involved in the preservation and development of the Whithorn Way an an ancient pilgrim route from Glasgow down along the west coast ending at the holy site of St Ninian's Cave on the southern tip of the peninsula looking towards the Isle of Man.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
Antonia Quirke talks to Bradley Cooper about his re-make of A Star Is Born, which he co-wrote, directed and starred in. He reveals how the first ten minutes of the film came to him in a dream
Adam Rutherford investigates the news in science and science in the news.
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Welcome back to Hardacre’s, the worst advertising agency in London, as Edward Rowett’s award-winning sitcom returns for a third series.
The second series ended in euphoria, as Hardacre’s secured their biggest ever account – the Cosmos X10 smartphone. Now there's a reality check, as the team realise how woefully ill-equipped they are to handle a client of this magnitude.
Accounts manager Amanda Barnes (Josie Lawrence) immediately sets to work hiring new staff, while agency chief and creative director Rupert Hardacre (Nigel Havers) heads into Soho to secure new and grander premises.
Meanwhile on the creative side, copywriter Joe Starling (Mathew Baynton) begins to doubt his ability to deliver work for an account this size, despite reassurance from his art director and best friend Teddy Beech (Rasmus Hardiker), leading Joe to take drastic action.
Cast:
Nigel Havers- Hardacre
Mathew Baynton- Joe
Josie Lawrence- Amanda
Rasmus Hardiker- Teddy
Holly Morgan- Singer/Waitress
Andrew Nolan- Irish Barrista
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
Kenton tries to make amends and Hannah is left confused
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
Current affairs series combining original insights into major news stories with topical investigations.
What are the new rules of business? Evan Davis and guests discuss.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Pat Barker, the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war, reimagines the most famous conflict in literature - the legendary Trojan War.
When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis's old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she's not alone. On the same day, and on many others in the course of a long and bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters.
The Trojan War is known as a man's story - a quarrel between men over a woman, stolen from her home and spirited across the sea. But what of the other women in this story, silenced by history? What words did they speak when alone with each other, in the laundry, at the loom, when laying out the dead?
In this historical novel, a brilliant and brutal retelling of Homer's Iliad, Pat Barker charts one woman's journey through the chaos of the Trojan War, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story.
In Episode 9, with Troy about to fall to the Greeks, Achilles and his men reflect over an evening meal.
Written by Pat Barker
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Nadine Marshall and Colin Salmon
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
It's the second series of Hilary Lyon's Secrets and Lattes. Trisha (Hilary Maclean) and Clare (Hilary Lyon) keep the caffeine-fuelled comedy coming in their Edinburgh coffee shop, Cafe Culture.
But can the sisters rise to the challenge of keeping the business going while coping with a missing chef and dealing with 20 year-old waitress, Lizzie (Pearl Appleby) falling off the kleptomania wagon?
Throw in Trisha's married ex-boyfriend and Clare's absent husband and it's emotional carnage all round.
Clare can't cope with change but Trisha positively craves it - praise the Lord for God-fearing Minty (June Watson), an eccentric but helpful customer who won't make a drama out of a crisis.
Director: Marilyn Imrie
Producers: Gordon Kennedy and Moray Hunter
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
We all know that lying in a court of law carries serious penalties so do we really need to place our hands on holy books and affirm our sincerity by swearing an oath? Joining Ernie Rea to discuss whether or not there is any place for God in a modern courtroom are Joshua Rosenberg, legal commentator and presenter of Radio 4's Law in Action; family law barrister Jasvir Singh, Chairman of City Sikhs; and Sarah Donaldson a Manchester based barrister and Quaker.
Producer: Helen Lee.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Patrick Thomas, Vicar of Christ Church in Carmarthen
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
In the third of five recollections about his encounters with birds, writer and wildlife programme-maker Stephen Moss recalls the first time he saw a Bittern - a bird which whilst it produces a loud booming call can be quite elusive.
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: Czech Conroy.
Radio 4's flagship news and current affairs programme; including Thought for the Day
Michael Palin reads from his new book that follows the mysterious and tragic voyage of HMS Erebus in 1845:
The author is in the bar of the Akademik Sergei Vavlov, an ice-strengthened survey ship, and singing lines from Northwest Passage. "Tomorrow" he says, "we make our way through the Bellot Straight, which will take us into Peel Sound and very close to the heart of the Franklin story." But what will be found there?
Producer Duncan Minshull
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou - ep 5/5
dramatized by Winsome Pinnock
Maya is sent to the brink of despair when she discovers what adverse effects her absence has had on her young son.
NARRATOR- Older Maya…………..…….…….………………….........Adjoa Andoh
MAYA…...…………..…….…….……………………….……..…………….Pippa Bennett-Warner
VIVAN BAXTER…...…………..…….…….…………………….……..…………….Ellen Thomas
CLYDE…....…………..…….…….……………………….……..…………….…….Tumo Reetsang
WILKIE….…....…………..…….…….…………….…….……..…………….…….Steve Toussaint
PSYCHIATRIST..….…....…………..…….…….…………….…….……..…………….…….Sean Murray
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris
Andrew McGibbon talks to Edwin Dawes, biochemist and beloved magician to Philip Larkin.
Edwin Alfred Dawes arrived at the University of Hull to establish its Biochemistry department in 1963. There he met Larkin, the poet and university librarian. They became good friends and Edwin became chairman of the library committee, working under Larkin.
But Edwin had a parallel professional interest in magic and conjuring, and Larkin was spellbound with Edwin's sleights of hand and magic skills.
Edwin wrote many notable books on biochemistry and continues with his magic, having been awarded the Gold Medal from the Magic Circle for "exemplary service to the Society or exceptional magical ability or both". He is only the ninth recipient of this award since 1926.
As well as library and magic commitments, Edwin's biochemistry department at Hull University took the lead in researching bioplastics in the early 1970s, which led to the commercialisation of Biopol, a biodegradable plastic polymer chain that can be used to make disposable plastic items, a discovery later sidelined but now the subject of renewed interest.
Written and presented by Andrew McGibbon
Producer: Nick Romero
A Curtains For Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
Policeman turned stand-up Alfie Moore takes an audience through real-life crime scenarios
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Drama series charting life on the home front during the First World War.
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
Lucy Kellaway charts her new start as a trainee teacher at the age of 58, moving from the comfortable life of an FT columnist to the realities of teaching in East London.
In 2016, the Financial Times’ management columnist Lucy Kellaway announced she was starting a new career as a teacher. Calling on others of a certain age to join her, she set up the Now Teach organisation to help older professionals become trainees in challenging schools. The scheme received over a thousand applications and selected just under fifty to join, including former corporate lawyers, investment bankers and senior civil servants.
This series follows Lucy and the other trainees over their first year as they encounter the ups and downs of their new life as novice teachers in inner city London.
Episode 5 – Lessons Learnt
Lucy moves to a new school and teaches her final lesson.
Producer: Russell Finch
Assistant Producer: Dasha Lisitsina
A Somethin’ Else Production for BBC Radio 4
Me Myself I
by Esther Wilson
Based on true stories, three interlinked short dramas exploring loneliness. A girl of 13 struggles at school and with social media, a middle aged woman discovers loneliness through her marriage, and an elderly woman in the first week in a care home inhabit this poignant and thoughtful drama.
Pat ..... Sue Johnston
Sarah ....... Siobhan Finneran
Esme ....... Millie Gibson
Martin ....... Jack Deam
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris
Peter Gibbs hosts a special correspondence edition from Birmingham Botanics. Neil Porteus, James Wong and Bunny Guinness answer questions from the postbag..
Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
How does a boy learn when to run away, when to fight back and when to hide in a phone box? Written and performed by Javaad Alipoor, The Phone Box is a new short work for radio. It's a poetic monologue reflecting on those formative moments of childhood that stay with you, bright and ringing, into adulthood.
Javaad Alipoor is a writer, theatre maker and director who grew up in Bradford. He is resident associate director at Sheffield theatres and an associate director of Bradford's Theatre in the Mill. This is his Radio 4 debut.
His most recent play, 'The Believers Are But Brothers', invites audiences to experience the world of disaffected men online. It was Fringe First award winning and Total Theatre Nominated. His other plays include 'The Rising of the Moon' and 'Bassett.'
He also writes poetry and prose. His pamphlet 'The People Want a long form poem about the Arab Spring' was published by Art in Unusual Places. His essays and theory-fiction on global politics, philosophy and art have been published by Continuum and UnKant.
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.
Series devoted to the world of numbers.
Friends share memories of divorce and acknowledge the difficulty they had in talking about their problems. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Comedian Jo Brand takes the guest host chair this week for a satirical look at the week's news.
Producer: Richard Morris
Writer ..... Tim Stimpson
Director ..... Marina Caldarone
Editor ..... Alison Hindell
Jill Archer .... Patricia Greene
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Josh Archer ..... Angus Imrie
Kenton Archer ..... Richard Attlee
Tony Archer ..... David Troughton
Tom Archer ..... William Troughton
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Christine Barford ..... Lesley Saweard
Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde
Justin Elliott ..... Simon Williams
Clarrie Grundy ..... Heather Bell
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Jazzer McCreary ..... Ryan Kelly
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ..... Toby Laurence
Johnny Phillips ..... Tom Gibbons
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Robert Snell .....Graham Blockey
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Peggy Woolley ..... June Spencer
Hannah Riley ..... Helen Longworth
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from the Birmingham Repertory Theatre with a panel including the Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott MP, Europe Minister Sir Alan Duncan MP and the SNP's spokesperson on Social Care and Health at Westminster Dr Philippa Whitford MP.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
Drama serial charting life on the home front during the First World War.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Pat Barker, the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war, reimagines the most famous conflict in literature - the legendary Trojan War.
When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis's old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she's not alone. On the same day, and on many others in the course of a long and bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters.
The Trojan War is known as a man's story - a quarrel between men over a woman, stolen from her home and spirited across the sea. But what of the other women in this story, silenced by history? What words did they speak when alone with each other, in the laundry, at the loom, when laying out the dead?
In this historical novel, a brilliant and brutal retelling of Homer's Iliad, Pat Barker charts one woman's journey through the chaos of the Trojan War, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story.
In Episode 10, Hector’s body is returned to Priam and a ceasefire is agreed for his burial and the funeral games. Briseis' plan to escape is abandoned, and she has returned to Achilles’ hut.
Written by Pat Barker
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Nadine Marshall and Colin Salmon
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
Maths and religion are both ways of seeking order and understanding in the world. Numerologists who like to find significance in every number believe that 2016 was always going to be a bad year because of that combination of numbers - 2 0 1 6. Mainstream religious traditions have often set great store by numbers. Certain ones recur repeatedly in their scriptures, 3, 7, 40. What's that all about?
Ernie Rea discusses religion's obsession with numbers with Marcus du Sautoy, Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford: Alex Bellos, science writer and journalist and author of the book, "Can you solve my problems?" and Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers a Community Educator at the Movement for Reform Judaism.
Father and son celebrate their dedication to cricket and the reward of a burgeoning professional career. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess