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 Home Now on R4 Contact

RADIO-LISTS: BBC RADIO 4
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC Radio 4 — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/



SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m0001p81)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (m0001p62)
Bolder: Making the Most of Our Longer Lives

Episode 5

How do we make the most of our longer lives?

Journalist Carl Honoré brought the Slow Movement to wider attention with his book ‘In Praise of Slow’. Now he charts a major shift in our approach to ageing as he meets the revolutionaries who are inspiring us to live better for longer. As his journey concludes, Carl makes some unexpected discoveries about love and sex after the first flush of youth.

Read by Darren Boyd

Abridged by Eileen Horne

Produced by Eilidh McCreadie


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0001p83)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0001p85)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0001p87)
The latest shipping forecast


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m0001p89)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0001p8c)
A short reflection and prayer with Canon Noel Battye


SAT 05:45 iPM (m0001p8f)
Here's a church, here's a steeple...

With news that Shetland is set to lose two thirds of their churches, iPM takes a closer look at the houses that God built. Sue Lawley reads Your News. Presented by Luke Jones. Produced by Scott Adam. iPM@bbc.co.uk


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m0001phq)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m0001m7x)
Moorland on the mend

In July this year, pictures of burning moors were everywhere in the news. During one of the hottest summers for decades, hundreds of acres of moorland went up in flames, destroying fragile ecosystems and wrecking wildlife habitats. Nearly six months on, how are they starting to recover? Caz Graham returns to some of the areas near Manchester which she first visited when the fires were at their height. She finds the landscape looking very different from last time, with scorched and blackened earth repopulated by new green shoots. She meets the organisations and volunteers involved in work to restore the moors, and learns about their efforts to fireproof them for the future.

Producer: Emma Campbell


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m0001phs)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside


SAT 06:57 Weather (m0001phv)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (m0001phx)
News headlines and sport.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m0001phz)
Former cricketer and commentator David Gower

David Gower talks about his life in cricket and how spending his early years in Africa inspired his passion for wildlife. Anne Atkins has been inspired to write about her son Alex, who has Asperger's. They discuss their relationship and how Alex has learnt how to read people. Clive Collins explains why Christmas trees are so important to him. Singer Lily Allen shares her Inheritance Tracks - she has chosen I’m Always on a Mountain When I Fall, performed by Merle Haggard and Fix You by Coldplay. And from the courtroom to the kitchen- Nisha Katona tells her story.

Presented by Aasmah Mir and Rev. Richard Coles.
Producer: Claire Bartleet
Editor: Eleanor Garland


SAT 10:30 The Tyranny of Story (b0bgpp9r)
Episode 3

The journalist John Harris examines the potency of narrative, both in the stories that define us as individuals and in those that shape our understanding of the public domain.

Story is ubiquitous - and not simply in the realm of fiction and entertainment. In science and religion as well, narratives shape our world and help us negotiate ideas of truth.

In this episode, we hear from Yarden Katz of Harvard Medical School, theologian Robert Beckford, neuroscientist Tali Sharot, medical humanities researcher Angela Woods, the writer Bernardine Evaristo and psychotherapist Arabella Kurtz.

Presented by John Harris
Produced by Nina Garthwaite and Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m0001pj1)
Top commentators review the political week.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m0001pj3)
Fighting Hungary's 'Slave Law'

A controversial law in Hungary will allow employers to demand 400 hours of overtime from their workers and defer payment for three years. Nick Thorpe examines the rationale behind the new legislation and watches as more than ten thousand people take to the streets in protest.

Kate Adie introduces this and other stories from around the world:

Lorraine Mallinder shares a story of survival and escapee from Cameroon’s English speaking regions, where hundreds of thousands of people tried to violence between separatist and the mainly French-speaking military.

Jonah Fisher has the tale of a Ukrainian woman who thought her son had finally been found in Afghanistan. He went missing more than 30 years ago when serving in the Soviet military.

Jeremy Bristow meets a man trying to preserve the language spoken by Jesus and his followers as he visits some of the shrinking number of Syriac Christians who still live in Turkey.

And it’s the same procedure as every year for Joanna Robertson in Germany where New Year’s Eve is celebrated with a bang.

Producer: Joe Kent.


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m0001pj5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m0001pj7)
Jailed for failing to disclose the whereabouts of his clients' money

Paul Lewis presents the latest news from the world of personal finance.


SAT 12:30 Dead Ringers (m0001p7g)
Christmas Specials 2018

Episode 3

Satire and impressions from Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey, Lewis MacLeod and Debra Stephenson.

The series is written by Private Eye writers Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain, together with Tom Coles, Ed Amsden, Laurence Howarth and others.

A BBC Studios Production.


SAT 12:57 Weather (m0001pj9)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (m0001pjc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m0001p7n)
Baroness Chakrabarti, Joanna Cherry QC MP, Paul Drechsler, Jacob Rees-Mogg MP

Jonathan Dimbleby presents topical debate from St John's Wood Church in London with a panel including the Shadow Attorney General Baroness Chakrabarti, Joanna Cherry QC MP the SNP's Home Affairs spokesperson, the chairman of London First business group Paul Drechsler and the Chairman of the European Research Group Jacob Rees-Mogg MP.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m0001pjf)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:30 Drama (m0001pjh)
The Haunting of M.R. James

by Neil Brand

Starring Mark Gatiss. Every Christmas, the master of the ghost story, M.R. James would read a tale to his Cambridge students. In this original chilling drama he finds horrific events from those stories are echoed in reality alongside the inevitable forces of change and modernism.

M.R. James ..... Mark Gatiss
Gwendolyn MacBryde ..... Fenella Woolgar
Jack Pownall ..... Ryan Whittle
Dr. Luxmoore ..... Gerard McDermott
Davey Steadman ..... Cameron Percival
Sellerman ..... Ronny Jhutti
Jukes ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Grant ..... Tony Turner
Thomas Herrick ..... Ewan Bailey
Dr. Cameron ..... Chris Harper
Webb ..... Sam Dale
Student ..... Lewis Bray

Director: David Hunter


SAT 15:30 The Art of Living (m0001mdg)
In My Mind's Eye

Following two artists as they work with parents and children in Pembrokeshire to bring autism and the arts together.

Daniel Settatree and Catherine Dyson have given disposable cameras to a group of young people affected by autism and asked them to take pictures of things that interest them. For these children, talking about their emotions, about their feelings and about the things which fascinate them is very difficult. The camera is a way in which these artists can unlock the humanity and creative potential of this very particular group.

Will it work? How will the participants react? And what can we learn from their pictures?

Produced by Glyn Tansley for BBC Wales

Photograph by Kes Warner


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m0001pjk)
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week.Presented by Jenni Murray
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor:Jane Thurlow


SAT 17:00 PM (m0001pjm)
Full coverage of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 iPM (m0001p8f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 today]


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0001pjq)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m0001pjs)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0001pjv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m0001pjx)
David Mitchell, Donovan, Maureen Lipman, Gillian Burke, Tankus The Henge, Arthur Smith, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Donovan, David Mitchell, Maureen Lipman and Gillian Burke for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Donovan and Tankus The Henge.

Producer: Tim Bano


SAT 19:00 Profile (m0001pjz)
Reed Hastings

The founder of Netflix, the streaming service that’s turned us all into binge watchers.

It's Christmas and for many that means settling in to watch seasonal TV. But traditional broadcasters have a big rival: Netflix. With 125 million subscribers worldwide it's changed television. So who is Reed Hastings, the man behind the seismic shift in broadcasting, and how did he do it?

Thanks to CBS/60 Minutes for audio of Reed Hastings.

Presenter: Mark Coles
Producer: Phoebe Keane


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (m0001pk1)
Mary Poppins, The Convert, John Lanchester, Dead Poets Live, The Long Song

Mary Poppins returns to the silver screen with Emily Blunt in the title role and Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack the lamplighter. It's a sequel not a remake with all new songs very much in the style of The Sherman Brothers' originals. Is it unfair to compare it with the much-loved Disney original? or is it impossible not to?
The screenwriter of Black Panther, Danai Gurira's play The Convert at London's Young Vic stars Letitia Wright and Paapa Essiedu. Set in late 19th century Africa, a young woman is working for a devout Catholic priest who wants to spiritually mould her.
John Lanchester's novel The Wall is about why the young are correct to distrust the old
Dead Poets Live is about putting poetry on the stage, drawing together the most exciting performers to bring our greatest poets to new audiences, creating theatre out of poems and poets
BBC1 has some BIG Christmas drama offerings. And it includes a 3 part adaptation of Andrea Levy's award-winning novel The Long Song, set in Jamaica during the final years of slavery and the transition to freedom.

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Andrew O'Hagan, Rowan Pelling and Stephanie Merritt. The producer is Oliver Jones.

Main image: Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins Returns. Credit: Disney Pictures


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m0001pk3)
How Santa Claus Stole Christmas

Cultural historian and writer Christopher Frayling explores how Hollywood movies helped to create the modern global Christmas.

If Dickens' A Christmas Carol invented the Victorian Christmas of family, good works and good cheer, Hollywood has created its modern counterpoint - Santa Claus, elaborate presents, hummable tunes, consumer satisfaction and family tensions and reconciliations. 

From Holiday Inn and Miracle On 34th Street to It's A Wonderful Life and White Christmas, Christmas movies are designed to create a warm glow in the audience. They have helped turn Christmas into a global event, spread across cultures and religions, and rebranded for the age of mass consumption.

In the process, the meaning of Christmas has become comprehensively Americanised - complete with the ubiquitous iconography of Santa Claus, red-nosed reindeer, red costumes trimmed with white and shopping to the sound of piped seasonal muzak. A cultural critic said recently that Santa Claus is to American material faith what Jesus Christ is to the spiritual.

Christopher Frayling dives into the BBC archive to discover how this happened and why - with the help of filmmakers, advertisers and historians, as well as comedians, commentators and religious figures.

Interviewees:
Joe Dante, film director
Judith Flanders, historian and author
Sir John Hegarty, advertising executive
Karen Krizanovich, broadcaster and writer
Kim Newman, critic and horror writer

Producer: Jane Long
A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 Drama (m0001mtp)
Born to be Wilde: An Ideal Husband

Oscar Wilde's classic comic melodrama is given a sparkling and surprising new production, featuring the music of Steppenwolf, Taylor Swift and Amy Winehouse.

Robert Chiltern is the man of the moment: a rising star in government, wealthy and with a loving wife. All this is thrown into jeopardy when the mysterious Mrs Cheveley rolls into town with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Robert Chiltern turns to his friend Lord Goring for help, an apparently idle philanderer and one of Wilde's greatest dramatic creations. Goring has his own dirt on the blackmailer, but can he make it count to save his friend's career, let alone his marriage?

Robert Chiltern . . . John Heffernan
Laura Cheveley . . . Miranda Raison
Arthur Goring . . . Ryan Whittle
Gertrude Chiltern . . . Lucy Doyle
Mabel Chiltern . . . Saffron Coomber
Lord Caversham . . . Michael Bertenshaw
Lady Markby . . . Elizabeth Counsell
Phipps . . . Tony Turner
Mason . . . Sean Murray

Musical direction and arrangement by Colin Sell

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko

An Ideal Husband is part of a celebration of Oscar Wilde's life and Work, Born to be Wilde, offering a 21st century perspective on the making of a modern celebrity. Featuring energetic adaptations of his best-loved plays, and an imaginative approach to the less familiar aspects of his biography - this is Wilde's life before the fall.

We encounter Wilde on the make, Wilde in his pomp, Wilde on the edge of the abyss.

We see the young Wilde create his own celebrity and fame, before he'd produced any work to be famous for. We see Wilde the devoted family man, having to confront his growing estrangement from his wife. We see a hubristic Wilde, flirting with danger by publically hinting at his own sexuality.

These biographical elements are given greater poignancy by our knowledge of what happened next. And the successes of An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895 marked the climax of his theatrical career, but also the point of his downfall.

Each of the plays are introduced by Oscar Wilde himself (played by Max Bennett).


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (m0001pk5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Brexit on the Border (m0001l8p)
Northern Ireland - Republic of Ireland

Young people from both sides of the border that separates Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland discuss what Brexit will mean for their lives. Audrey Carville chairs a live debate from The Nerve Centre, a music and arts venue in the border city of Derry/Londonderry.

Featuring Brian McDermott, a chef and hotelier from Donegal; Larry Rodgers, a dairy farmer from Co. Tyrone; Pearl Natasha Doherty, a musician from Derry; and BBC Northern Ireland's Business and Economics Editor, John Campbell.

Producer: Freya McClements for BBC Foyle
Series Producer: Helen Grady
Editor: Andrew Smith


SAT 23:00 WIQ (m0001mnj)
A new quiz show hosted by Jo Brand that takes the opportunity, in this anniversary year of Female suffrage, to celebrate all things female. Two Women's Institutes from Manchester and Cambridge compete in front of an audience to see who can get ahead in the field of general knowledge, popular culture and baking.

Producer...Julia McKenzie
BBC Studios Production


SAT 23:30 Welsh Ladies (m0001mtr)
Taking inspiration from her collection of vintage and antique 'Welsh lady' postcards, poet Mab Jones seeks out their stories, and tries to find out what they would say if they could, in a poetic tribute to them.

They sit, in traditional dress, in photos from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, looking uncomfortable in tall black hats and scratchy woollen shawls. Occasionally they're arranged around a harp. Usually they're in a domestic setting - silent, obedient, rooted to the spot. Mab wants to find out who these Welsh women of bygone ages were. What were their lives like? How did they think, and feel?

Finding out more about them isn't a straightforward task, because although the subject of wry greeting cards today, the voices of women in Wales of that era have largely been absent from its historiography. Could it be that they didn't really exist at all? The costume was partly invented during the romantic revival in Wales, at a time when the old rural ways were dying out. More decorous than practical, it was celebrated by tourists and visitors, and became an emblem of national identity.

But even if their ways of life have vanished, the female poetic voices of the pre-industrial era are still traceable. In seeking them out, Mab finds poems that speak of the experience and imagination of women through a rich heritage of folk traditions and ancient oral traditions, from anonymous old verses thought to have been written by women, to individual voices that are only now being recovered and translated into English.

Mab composes a poem to the picture postcard version of the Welsh Ladies, who for the camera seem to be inhabiting a life that was not theirs, bringing her warmth and wit to this attempt to bring them, and their forbears, back to life.

Producer: Megan Jones for BBC Wales



SUNDAY 23 DECEMBER 2018

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m0001pk7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:30 Short Works (m0001p70)
My Sister Biira, by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

The award winning writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's new short story, specially written for Radio 4, is all about a family secret. Babirye Bukilwa is the reader.

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a Ugandan novelist and short story writer. In 2014 she won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her story, Let's Tell This Story Properly, and her debut novel, Kintu was published in 2018.

Produced by Elizabeth Allard


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0001pk9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0001pkc)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0001pkf)
The latest shipping forecast


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m0001pkh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m0001pkk)
Durham Cathedral

Bells on Sunday comes from Durham Cathedral. Five of the bells date from 1693. The ring of eight was augmented in 1980 to bring the number to ten. The 28 hundredweight tenor is tuned to D. We hear them ringing ‘Grandsire Caters’.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m0001pjz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (m0001q4n)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (m0001q4q)
Advent

The Reverend Robin Griffith-Jones, Valiant Master of the Temple in London, explores the nativity narratives recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

The familiar tales of virgin birth, shepherds and Magi are intriguing and laden with symbolism and meaning. "There is far more to them, as they were written then and as they have been read over the centuries, than meets the eye," he says.

Robin explores Matthew's desire to show that all the events in his telling are there to fulfil prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures. "In Jesus, Judaism’s most venerable prophecies and vastest hopes were coming to fruition. The prophet Isaiah had written of gentiles and kings coming to Jerusalem’s God-given light, bringing gold and incense and singing the praise of the Lord.”

Luke meanwhile with his shepherds and the link to John the Baptist’s birth, has another agenda. “Luke sees two stages in God’s dispensation for the world - the old order, centred in Jerusalem and its Temple, and the new order, realised in Jesus. In Luke’s grand narrative, the new grows out of the old, confirms it and transcends it.”

To illustrate his thesis, Robin introduces music from Handel and Bach and the poetry of TS Eliot and John Donne.

Presenter: Robin Griffith-Jones
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 The Living World (m0001q4s)
Winter Ravens

The raven is both agile and majestic in flight but shrouded in mystery, superstition and folk law. How was it that our biggest member of the crow family, a bird once protected as an important scavenger in ancient times, was then persecuted almost to extinction in the British Isles, with less that 1000 pairs clinging onto a precarious future in few remote hills in upland Britain? In this Living World from 2010, Lionel Kelleway travels to the syperstones in Shropshire where thankfully the raven is making a remarkable comeback. Here he meets up with Leo Smith and Tom Wall from the Shropshire Raven Study Group, a group who have been studying these magnificent birds for nearly 20 years. As they walk to an old raven nest in wet woodland, they encounter many ravens on the wing. But the tide has turned and now Shropshire is home to a remarkable wildlife spectacle, a raven roost in a private woodland where Lionel is chorused by over 60 ravens wheeling and displaying in the gathering dusk.

Since the programme was broadcast, the Shropshire Raven Study group has completed it's work. In this revised episode wildlife presenter Lindsey Chapman updates the listener with this corvid success story.

Produced by Andrew Dawes


SUN 06:57 Weather (m0001q4v)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m0001q4x)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m0001q4z)
Where was Jesus born?

Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme presented by Edward Stourton.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m0001q51)
Lost Chord

Opera singer Lesley Garrett makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Lost Chord.

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 ‘Lost Chord’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Lost Chord’.

Registered Charity Number: 1099385.


SUN 07:57 Weather (m0001q53)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m0001q55)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m0001q57)
The Candle of Peace

From Methodist College Belfast. The Advent wreath traditionally holds five candles; the one lit on the fourth Sunday of Advent is traditionally known as the Candle of Peace. From Methodist College, Belfast
Led by the Rev Emily Hyland
Preacher: The Right Rev the Lord Eames, OM
Matthew 1: 20-25; Luke 2: 1-8

The Advent Candle Carol (Chilcott)
It came upon the midnight clear (traditional)
Gabriel's Message (Basque arr Pettman)
Rejoice and be merry (Rutter)
While shepherds watched (Owain Park)
When Christ was born (Archer)
The Sussex Carol (arr Ledger)
Ding dong merrily on high (arr Stopford)

With the Chapel Choir, directed by Ruth McCartney
Organist: Dr Joe McKee
Producer: Bert Tosh


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0001p7q)
On Not Being Oneself

"Is our taste for righteous self-blown indignation so indurated and inwrought" writes Howard Jacobson, "that we will never again be able to shrug our shoulders, forget who we are and what we believe and embrace people who believe differently?"

Howard explores the destructive nature of the Cult of Self.

Producer: Adele Armstrong


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m0001q59)
Monty Don Swallows Return

For writer, gardener and TV presenter Monty Don, swallows are as central to his garden as any plant. Their return to the garden in April brings a soaring familiarity of song, which when they depart in September leaves the skies above silent and empty, and for Monty a feeling of loss and longing for their return after the long winter months.

Monty Don takes over the Tweet of the Day output this week with a selection of seasonally relevant episodes by Sir David Attenborough.

Producer Andrew Dawes


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m0001q5c)
News with Paddy O'Connell including Toby Young's year of shame and Pru Leith's sprouts tips. Reviewing the Sunday news coverage: novelist Dreda Say Mitchell, presenter Petroc Trelawny and historian Linda Colley.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m0001q5f)
Writer ..... Liz John
Director ..... Kim Greengrass
Editor ..... Jeremy Howe

Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ben Archer ...... Ben Norris
Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore
Helen Archer ..... Louiza Patikas
Tom Archer ..... William Troughton
Brian Aldridge .... Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Ruairi Donovan ..... Arthur Hughes
PC Harrison Burns ..... James Cartwright
Justin Elliott ..... Simon Williams
Eddie Grundy ..... Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy ..... Barry Farrimond
Shula Hebden Lloyd ..... Judy Bennett
Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Lily Pargetter ..... Katie Redford
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Roy Tucker ..... Ian Pepperell
Lee ..... Ryan Early
Russ ..... Andonis James Antony


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m0001q5h)
Alan Carr, comedian

Alan Carr, comedian and chat show host, is known for his love of silliness, dressing up and camp daftness. His stand-up shows have filled arenas, and on TV he co-hosted the Friday Night Project and then his own show - Chatty Man.

Alan was born into a footballing family – his dad, Graham, was a professional player and then a manager. Alan first tried his hand at comedy while reading Theatre Studies at Middlesex University. After he graduated, he took on a range of jobs before his ability to make friends laugh with his stories of working in a call centre in Manchester led him to try stand-up at a local venue. In 2001 he won the City Life Best Newcomer of the Year and the BBC New Comedy Awards.

His break into TV came after a spell as the warm-up man for the Jonathan Ross chat show. He has won many awards including Best Entertainment Show for Alan Carr: Chatty Man at the 2010 TV Choice Awards, the 2013 BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance and 2013 British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Entertainment Personality. In 2015 he won the National Television Award for Best Chat Show Host.

He and his long term partner Paul were married in January 2018 by Adele - who also organised the wedding, and paid for it.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m0001q74)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m0001mnx)
Series 70

Episode 6

Back for a second week at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, Tim Brooke-Taylor is joined on the panel by programme stalwarts Susan Calman, Richard Osman and Rob Brydon with Jack Dee in the chair. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell.

Producer - Jon Naismith.
It is a BBC Studios production.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m0001q5m)
Nigella Lawson: A Life Through Food

"I am not a chef. I am not even a trained or professional cook. My qualification is as an eater." So writes Nigella Lawson in the preface to her first book 'How To Eat', published 20 years ago.

In this programme, Nigella shares the food memories, the dishes and flavours which have shaped her life. Being taught to cook by a mother with eating disorder, balancing a career in journalism with cooking for young children, what food means when you lose those closest to you, and how navigating a rise to food-icon status sometimes feels like joining the circus.

When food writer Diana Henry read 'How To Eat' for the first time, it was on a rainy afternoon after the birth of her first child. Nigella's recipes got Diana back into the kitchen and when she said so in a recent article, she realised the electric influence Nigella has had on home cooks all around the world.

Now Diana joins Nigella at home in the kitchen to talk life, death, and roast chicken. Marmite sandwiches to 'Steak Mirabeau', grouse to goose fat to Christmas "goddess". This is Nigella in her own words.

Presented by Diana Henry
Produced by Clare Salisbury


SUN 12:57 Weather (m0001q5p)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m0001q5r)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 13:30 From Our Home Correspondent (m0001q5t)
In the Christmas edition, Mishal Husain introduces dispatches from journalists and writers around the United Kingdom which reflect the range of contemporary life in the country.
Ian McMillan tells a story known with subtle variations across the country - the Christmas card that's received each year but which can't be acknowledged because you've lost the address of the people who send it. They aren't relatives, they're not friends and they're not really acquaintances. But their card says something profound beyond the sentiments it contains.
Meanwhile, Jane Labous joins the Special Constables on Christmas patrol. They're part of the police force in England, Scotland and Wales and yet not for they are volunteers who have the power to detain and fine those who break the law. At a time of tight police budgets in Dorset, the regular police tell Jane, without the Specials there would be many fewer arrests. But who are the Specials and what is the essential job they perform for no salary?
Those who are single at Christmas may be thinking the best present they could have is a partner to shower them with affection and maybe the odd gift. Increasingly, they are turning to technology to find that special one and Melanie Abbott discovers if online dating is delivering for them.
With the seasonal party season in full flood, Datshiane Navanayagam reveals that while she loves make-up, she'd rather wear it indoors, unseen by the rest of us, and then wipe it off and go to bed than show it in public. Can a celebrity make-up artist she approaches change her mind?
And Garry Owen explains why a rude horse is coming to call more frequently in Wales at this time of year and how she should be greeted if there's a knock at your door.

Producer Simon Coates


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0001p6y)
West Yorkshire

Eric Robson and the panel are in West Yorkshire. Neil Porteus, Bunny Guinness and Matthew Wilson answer the horticultural questions.

The panellists discuss how best to fill a raised bed with, growing roses over an archway, and caring for Willows. They also advise on how to dig a pond on a slope, caring for Jacarandas, and what to plant in a sensory garden.

Matt Biggs visits the largest living Christmas tree in the UK.

Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (m0001q5w)
Omnibus - The Career Paths We Choose to Take

Three conversations between women of different generations about changes in women's working lives and work choices. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Mohini Patel


SUN 15:00 Drama (m0001q5y)
Born to Be Wilde: An Ideal Husband

Oscar Wilde's classic comic melodrama is given a sparkling and surprising new production, featuring the music of The Troggs, Adele and Daft Punk.

Robert Chiltern has been blackmailed by the devilishly witty Mrs Cheveley. Unless he supports her financial scheme, she'll reveal to the word that, in his youth, he sold a cabinet secret for money. The walls have already begun to close on Robert; his wife Gertrude has learned of the crime and the two face almost certain estrangement. Cue Lord Goring, the idlest man in London. Does he have it in him to face down Mrs Cheveley? Well, he was engaged to her once.

Robert Chiltern . . . John Heffernan
Laura Cheveley . . . Miranda Raison
Arthur Goring . . . Ryan Whittle
Gertrude Chiltern . . . Lucy Doyle
Mabel Chiltern . . . Saffron Coomber
Lord Caversham . . . Michael Bertenshaw
Lady Markby . . . Elizabeth Counsell
Phipps . . . Tony Turner
Mason . . . Sean Murray

Musical direction and arrangement by Colin Sell

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko

An Ideal Husband is part of a celebration of Oscar Wilde's life and Work, Born to be Wilde, offering a 21st century perspective on the making of a modern celebrity. Featuring energetic adaptations of his best-loved plays, and an imaginative approach to the less familiar aspects of his biography - this is Wilde's life before the fall.

We encounter Wilde on the make, Wilde in his pomp, Wilde on the edge of the abyss.

We see the young Wilde create his own celebrity and fame, before he'd produced any work to be famous for. We see Wilde the devoted family man, having to confront his growing estrangement from his wife. We see a hubristic Wilde, flirting with danger by publically hinting at his own sexuality.

These biographical elements are given greater poignancy by our knowledge of what happened next. And the successes of An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895 marked the climax of his theatrical career, but also the point of his downfall.

Each of the plays is introduced by Oscar Wilde himself (played by Max Bennett).


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m0001q60)
Festive short stories, Hangovers in fiction, Christmas novels, Book choices for 2019

As the BBC releases a tranche of classic short stories in audio form, writer Chris Power and critic Peter Kemp discuss how the form came to be associated with winter and darkness.

Journalist Max Liu staggers through the best literary hangovers including offerings from Kingsley Amis and Jean Rhys.

Best-selling novelists Karen Swan and Jenny Colgan explain what it's like to publish a Christmas novel every year.

And Mariella Frostrup and guests look ahead to what we'll all be reading in 2019.


SUN 16:30 Poems for the Winter Solstice (m0001q62)
A collection of seasonal poems for the winter solstice to mark the turn of the season. Poets Caroline Bird and Vanessa Kissule join actors Simon Russell Beale, Juliet Stevenson, Anton Lesser and Siobhan Redmond to share readings of much loved and memorable verse. There is rain, snow, darkness and warmth to mark the shortest day of the year.


SUN 17:00 The Power of Twitter (m0001mfg)
How did Twitter, invented to allow friends to keep track of each other's social lives and interests, become a key forum for political debate? And what effect has the social media platform had on the nature and quality of public life?
Presenter David Baker speaks to the man who taught President Trump everything he knows about Twitter, the head of President Obama's social media campaign, and Twitter's own leader on strategy for public policy, to explore the real effect that it has had on politics.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert


SUN 17:40 Profile (m0001pjz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0001q64)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m0001q66)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0001q68)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0001q6b)
Antonia Quirke

This Christmas week Joni Mitchell skates across a frozen Saskatchewan river and a stone cutter admires William Blake’s W’s. Pigling Bland woos his soulmate through a locked door, and an iconographer perfects the ‘bright sadness’ in the painted face of Christ. There's an encounter with ghostly horrors courtesy of M.R James and Edgar Allen Poe, and we explore how the warm glow of Christmas movies has helped to turn the festive season into a global event. There's an unashamed celebration of Led Zeppelin and hauntingly beautiful carols. We go 1,000 wind-whirling feet up with a Yorkshire hill farmer, before descending into the gloaming of a subterranean cell, incandescent - for a moment - in the light of a secret candle.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m0001q6d)
Lynda issues a terrifying ultimatum and it's all change for Brian.


SUN 19:15 The Shuttleworths (m0001q6g)
Visiting Time

John Shuttleworth has to combine his Christmas Broadcast with a visit to the local hospital, as his friend Alan the Opera Singer is in for tests.

John’s wife Mary, along with Ken Worthington and Joan Chitty, accompany him to the hospital for the day trip. Once the rather expensive fee has been paid in the hospital car park, the ladies go off to the café and hospital shop while John and Ken visit the patient.

John has his trusty keyboard with him to play Alan a Christmas medley, but, when he arrives at the ward, Alan is nowhere to be found and his bed is worryingly empty. As Ken begins to panic about Alan’s state of health, John sings his new song Going Rapidly Downhill to take his mind off Alan’s disappearance.

When Joan turns up with some mistletoe, John decides it’s time to go looking for Alan – especially as his tummy is rumbling.

Written and performed by Graham Fellows
Produced by Dawn Ellis
A Chic Ken production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Turbulence (m0001q6j)
Doha to Budapest

Twelve flights. Twelve travellers. Twelve stories.

In David Szalay's masterful short story series, twelve travellers circumnavigate the globe en route to see lovers, children, parents, brothers and sisters, or nobody at all. From London to Madrid, Dakar to Sao Paolo, Seattle to Hong Kong, and beyond, these are stories of lives in turmoil, each in some way touching the next.

Today: a mother learns some uncomfortable truths about herself, when she meets her daughter in Budapest...

Writer: David Szalay
Reader: Emma Fielding
Producer: Justine Willett
Original Music: Kirsten Morrison


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m0001p76)
Roger Bolton catches up with Evan Davis to share listener views on his new role as PM’s presenter. How has Evan found the transition from Today and Newsnight, and where does he want to take the programme now that he’s at the helm?

Also, listeners respond to this week’s Archive on 4 about Apollo 8 and reporter Karen Pirie travels to Perivale where the vast BBC audio archives are stored. She meets with the archive’s collections manager, Elliot Gibson, and talks to some of the radio producers who plunder its depths to bring lost voices back to life.

Finally, while Sailing By, Radio 4’s late night precursor to the Shipping Forecast, acts as a kind of lullaby to most listeners, it has a very different effect on listener Reverend Ian Robinson’s Tibetan terrier Oswald.

Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0001p74)
Sir David Weatherall, Penny Marshall, Evelyn Berezin, Zhores Medvedev, Nancy Wilson

Pictured: Nancy Wilson

Matthew Bannister on

Sir David Weatherall, the world renowned haematologist and geneticist who pioneered molecular approaches to medicine.

Penny Marshall, the first woman to direct a film which grossed more than a hundred million dollars. She also starred in the US TV sitcom Laverne and Shirley.

Evelyn Berezin who invented the first computerised word processor for secretarial use.

Zhores Medvedev, the Soviet scientist who revealed the use of psychiatric hospitals to lock up political dissidents.

Nancy Wilson the versatile Grammy award winning singer who recorded jazz, pop and R&B songs.

Interviewed guest: Tom Soloman
Interviewed guest: Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
Interviewed guest: Matthew Kirschenbaum
Interviewed guest: Jonathan Steele
Interviewed guest: Tina May

Producer: Neil George

Archive clips from: Eureka: David Weatherall, Radio 4 03/12/95; Science at War: Hydrogen Bomb, BBC Two 10/12/98; Newsnight, BBC Two 21/03/84; Newsnight, BBC Two 28/04/86; Happy Days, Henderson Productions/Miller-Milkis-Boyett Productions/Paramount Television; Big, American Entertainment Partners II LP/Gracie Films/Twentieth Century Fox, 1988; The Talk of the Town, BBC TV 30/04/72; Oral History of Evelyn Berezin, Computer History Museum, Interviewed by Gardner Hendrie 10/03/14 in New York.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m0001pj7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m0001q51)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (m0001m8k)
Selling Sleep

From innovative mattresses to personal sleep consultants, business is moving in on our nights under the covers. The sector is booming, thanks to a new understanding of the importance of sleep, with annual sales in the billions of pounds. And it’s not only our homes that businesses are targeting. In the workplace, managers are becoming more aware of the sleep needs of their teams and some are even installing pods to allow their employees to have a nap on the job.

David Baker looks at the products and services on offer and finds out how we can separate the science from the snake oil.

Producer: Smita Patel
Editor: Penny Murphy


SUN 22:00 Archive on 4 (b09nqnxw)
The Medium Is the Message

Generation X author Douglas Coupland explores the ideas, sound and vision of media seer Marshall McLuhan who in the 1960s coined the phrases "the medium is the message" and "the global village".

Marshall McLuhan was the first great prophet of what would become digital mass media and indeed the global media village - a thinker and writer of near supernatural foresight.

Trained as a literary scholar, throughout his career McLuhan not only examined the relationship between form and content in the media itself, offering dazzling arguments for the importance of medium over content, but anticipated the very idea of online networks, virtual reality, multiple interfaces, social media and most importantly of all, how new technologies rewire us by stealth, endlessly transforming our identities and our communities. "We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us," he said.

Drawing on cutting-edge thinking about networks and cybernetics, McLuhan foresaw a fully wired, connected world, which would bring to an end the isolated consumption of print. New cross-border (effectively online) communities would form, breaking old political barriers, creating genuinely new kinds of electronic identity. But with this McLuhan offered a warning: older ideas of privacy and the self would evaporate under new media he said, leading to the rise of what he called 'discarnate' man - the lost, disembodied user extended across an unrelenting, unforgiving electronic global nervous system.

McLuhan's ideas seem more prescient than ever. As Douglas Coupland puts it: 'The future has never happened so quickly, to so many people, in such an extreme way - just as Marshall predicted, an uncanny prophet of our own digital age.'

Contributors include novelist Tom McCarthy, DJ Spooky, Andrew McLuhan, biographer Philip Marchand, the media theorists Shannon Mattern and Bernard Dionysus Geoghegan, Zak Kyes the graphic designer, philosopher James Garvey, filmmaker Jonathan Meades and former network engineer Tung-Hui Hu, who has written on McLuhan and 1970s guerrilla television.

Presenter: Douglas Coupland
Producer: Simon Hollis

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m0001m83)
Christmas Presents

With Antonia Quirke

Critics Tim Robey and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and cinema programmer Clare Binns swap gifts around the imaginary Film Programme tree and discuss the best films of 2018.

Among their favourites are Black Panther, Cold War, Summer 1993, Mission Impossible 6, The Happy Prince, Shoplifters, McQueen and The Rider.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (m0001q4q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 24 DECEMBER 2018

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m0001q6m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m0001l85)
Metrics

Laurie Taylor explores the increasing use of metrics across diverse aspects of our lives.

From education to healthcare, charities to policing, we are are target-driven society which places a heavy emphasis on measuring, arguably at times at the expense of individual professional expertise.

Laurie is joined by Jerry Muller, Professor of History at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., who asserts in his book, The Tyranny of Metrics, that we are fixated by metrics, to the extent to which we risk compromising the quality of our lives and most important institutions. He is also joined by Btihaj Ajana, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Digital Humanities at King's College London, who, in the introduction to the book, Metric Culture - Ontologies of Self-Tracking Practices, explains the concept of the 'Quantified Self Movement' - whose philosophy is 'self-knowledge through numbers'.

With such a plethora of personal information about ourselves being generated daily are we complicit in creating a culture of surveillance with the blurring of boundaries between the private and public? Stefan Collini, Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature at the University of Cambridge, joins the panel.

Producer Natalia Fernandez


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m0001pkk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0001q6p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0001q6r)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0001q6t)
The latest shipping forecast


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m0001q6w)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0001q6y)
A short reflection and prayer with Canon Noel Battye


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m0001q70)
Global warming and climate change, Reindeer, Festive tractors

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside


MON 05:56 Weather (m0001q72)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0lwc)
House Wren

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Sir David Attenborough presents the house wren found across the New World. Having one of the largest ranges of any songbird in the New World, the migratory house wren occurs anywhere from their breeding grounds in Canada and North America, to their to wintering grounds from Central America to Chile. The male house wren's song is a torrent of trills delivered at full volume from his territory of shrubs, low trees and ferny banks. Diminutive he may be but he's feisty and is known to drag other birds' eggs or chicks from a nest-hole he wants for himself. In parts of North America, house wrens are a significant cause of nest failure in some other species of songbirds.


MON 06:00 Today (m0001qh1)
News and current affairs programme, including Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m0001qh3)
Ice and Snow

On Christmas Eve, Andrew Marr explores the mysteries of snow and ice. Michelle Paver's novels dwell in the darkest places: an Arctic hut in midwinter haunted by ghosts, an isolated mountain peak, and a prehistoric frozen forest. She explains the appeal of these inhospitable settings, and asks why the cold still terrifies us.

Ben Saunders knows the sounds and smells of ice better than most. As one of the world's leading polar explorers he has skied to the North Pole and completed Scott and Shackleton's aborted trip to the South Pole. He describes the exhaustion, frustration and wonder of life on a frozen sea.

Materials scientist Mark Miodownik knows that liquids are not to be trusted, even when frozen solid. His latest book, Liquid: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives, unpicks the cracks, creaks and crystals of ice.

Poet and writer Nancy Campbell set out from the world's northernmost museum to understand our fascination with ice and snow. Her new book, The Library of Ice: Readings from a Cold Climate,brings to life the people who dwell in these icy landscapes, many of which are now disappearing.

Producer: Hannah Sander


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (m0001qh5)
Blowing the Bloody Doors Off

Episode 1

Hollywood legend and British national treasure Sir Michael Caine, now 85, shares stories from screen and stage alongside some of the lessons and skills that life has taught him.

In episode one he gets some advice from John Wayne and also looks back on his time as an evacuee and later as a soldier on National Service.

Written and read by Michael Caine
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0001qh8)
Christmas - too much hard work?

On Christmas Eve you may be ready to put your feet up and relax, or be frantically trying to perfect your preparations ahead of the arrival of your nearest and dearest.

We'll be talking to listeners about the efforts made to make it a happy Christmas for others. To what extent do you put others before yourself at this time of year?
Tell us about the things you do and the lengths you go to. Are you doing it to impress, to repay kindnesses, or to make special memories? Do people notice the effort you've gone to? Perhaps it’s your idea of heaven decorating the house from top to toe, whipping up amazing deserts and surrounding yourself with long lost relatives. Or is everyone happier if you just keep the holiday low-key and relax?

You can email us now with your stories - leaving contact details if you'd like to take part in the programme. On Monday you can call us on 03700 100 444 and the lines open at 8am.

Presented by Jane Garvey


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m0001qhb)
Good News Stories

A Plague of Frogs

Five contemporary drama shorts inspired by stories from the old and new testaments. There’s a plague of frogs, a visitation from an angel and even a miracle - maybe. Good news stories for anxious times from much-loved Radio 4 playwright Katie Hims. 1. A Plague Of Frogs.

LAURA ..... Nadia Clifford
MR VENTURA ..... Michael Bertenshaw
LEILA ..... Jayda Pryce
MOSES ..... Joseph Nicholas
AMBER ..... Ella Purton
Director ..... Mary Peate
Writer ..... Katie Hims


MON 11:00 The Untold (m0001qhf)
Field of Dreams

James is 24 and dreams of being a farmer. He’s got sheep, but nowhere to keep them. A sought-after farm in Cornwall is open for applicants. Will he find a home for his flock?

But if you’re a first-time farmer without the money to buy, even finding a farm is difficult. James has been trying for years and has applied to 6 farms. He’s recently heard about a farm to rent in Cornwall. He and his fiancé, Isobel, have visited it and fallen in love with it. So they’ve decided to throw their heart into this one last application and if they don’t get it, they’re going to sell their 400 sheep and their sheep dogs and buy a house. They'll stop chasing their dream.

And there’s one more complication: alongside tending to his sheep, James is also running a family business with his brother and father. He’s farming insects to feed fish. It’s a business with international growth potential and great career prospects but James has found that spending all day in a workshop doing experiments is not what he wants to do for the rest of his life.

James’ Dad Andrew isn’t very enthusiastic about James dream to be a livestock farmer. He wonders what will happen to the family business. And he worries that there’s not much money in farming. James’ Dad worked in the oil and gas industry for 40 years and has helped James set up the insect-farming venture. He feels that farming livestock on a small scale in Cornwall is not a viable business for his son. James meanwhile is determined to pursue the outdoor farming life. "If it pays off, our children will have an amazing life. We’ve got one chance and we have to make the most of it.”


MON 11:30 Conversations from a Long Marriage at Christmas (m0001qhh)
Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam play a couple who have been married ‘for ever’. Children of the Sixties, they’re still free spirits, drawn together by their passion for music and each other. A two-hander, we follow their dangling conversations, as they prepare for Christmas a deux, open their Christmas cards, dissect their neighbours' relationships – and Joanna reveals she’s planned some rather surprising activities for Christmas Day because ‘All I want for Christmas is you’ A late night phone call means that her Christmas wish may not be granted
Written for Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam, by award-winning comedy writer and journalist, Jan Etherington, who’s been married for 34 years to Gavin Petrie, with whom she has created many hit radio and TV series (Second Thoughts, Next of Kin, Faith in the Future, The Change), this Christmas episode follows her first solo-scripted, half hour Conversations From a Long Marriage, which was transmitted, to great acclaim, on New Year's Day 2018. Jan says: ‘Joanna and Roger together are funny, warm, strong and complement each other perfectly. Their ‘Conversations’ will resonate with couples of any age but especially those who are still dancing in the kitchen, singing in the car and trying to keep the passion alive. Conversations From A Long Marriage has just been nominated for this year’s Tinniswood Award, for original radio drama and a full series will be broadcast on Radio 4 next year.

Producer, Claire Jones
A BBC Studios Production


MON 12:00 News Summary (m0001qhk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 A Maigret Christmas (m0001qhm)
Episode One

Sir Derek Jacobi reads a classic Inspector Maigret mystery by Georges Simenon.

On Christmas Day, as the snow begins to fall in Paris, Inspector Maigret receives two unexpected visitors. A young girl claims to have seen Father Christmas in her room, behaving strangely and cutting a hole in the floor. He agrees to investigate...

Read by Sir Derek Jacobi
Abridged by Lauris Morgan-Griffiths
Written by Georges Simenon & translated by David Coward
Produced by Mair Bosworth


MON 12:18 You and Yours (m0001qhq)
Poundworld, Christmas adverts, Vegan food

Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.


MON 12:57 Weather (m0001qhs)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (m0001qhv)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.


MON 13:45 The Gut Instinct: A Social History (m0001qhx)
1 - Gut Culture

Tim Hayward journeys through the bowels of history, exploring our changing relationship with the human gut.

Food writer and restaurant owner Tim Hayward lives by his gut. But his interest extends far beyond filling it up with delicious things. The gut microbiome is one of the most fertile and exciting new fields of scientific enquiry - the vast ecosystem of microbes we now know live inside us and the medical, psychological and dietary ways they affect us. But there is a deeper story to tell.

In this five-part series, Tim explores the complex human relationship with its gut - from how we talk about it to how we have reacted to its ills, and from obsession to veneration via constipation.

In episode one, Tim discovers how different cultures - today and back into history - have had very different attitudes to the human gut. Featuring comedian Anuvab Pal, writer Louise Foxcroft, Egyptologist Richard Parkinson and historian of Christianity Diarmaid MacCulloch.

Written and presented by Tim Hayward
Produced by Rich Ward
Series consultant: Elsa Richardson
A Somethin Else’ production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:00 The Archers (m0001q6d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b085trpc)
Rumpole

Rumpole and Memories of Christmas Past

Rumpole shares some of his favourite yuletide poetry, carols, and pantomime stories as he recounts seasonal legal cases which reveal, as always, the true nature of men, women, children - and She Who Must Be Obeyed!

Cast:
Rumpole...............................Julian Rhind-Tutt
Hilda / Peggy........................Jasmine Hyde
Donald Compton /
Judge Bullingham /
Basil Wrigglesworth...............Stephen Critchlow
Erskine-Brown /
Gwent-Evans.........................Nigel Anthony
Rev. Roger Longstaff /
D.I. Cartwright /
Campbell Forsyth...................Ewan Bailey

Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (m0001vyk)
A live broadcast from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge in the Festival’s Centenary year.

Hymn: Once in Royal David's City (desc. Cleobury)*
Bidding Prayer read by the Dean
Up! good Christen folk (Piae Cantiones)*
First lesson: Genesis 3 vv 8-19 read by a Chorister
Adam lay ybounden (Ord)
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (Poston)
Second lesson: Genesis 22 vv 15-18 read by a Choral Scholar
In dulci jubilo (arr. de Pearsall)*
I saw three ships (arr. Simon Preston)
Third lesson: Isaiah 9 vv 2, 6-7 read by a representative of Eton College
Nowell sing we now all and some (Medieval)
Unto us is born a Son (arr. Willcocks)*
Fourth lesson: Isaiah 11 vv 1-3a, 4a, 6-9 read by a Fellow
A spotless rose (Howells)
The Lamb (Tavener)
Fifth lesson: Luke 1 vv 26-38 read by the Master over the Choristers
Joys seven (arr. Cleobury)
Bogoróditse Dyévo (Arvo Pärt)
Sixth lesson: Luke 2 vv 1-7 read by the Mayor of Cambridge
What sweeter music? (John Rutter)
Stille Nacht (arr.Ledger)
Seventh lesson: Luke 2 vv 8-16 read by the Director of Music
In the bleak midwinter (Darke)
While shepherds watched (desc. Cleobury)*
Eighth lesson: Matthew 2 vv 1-12 read by the Vice-Provost
O mercy divine (Judith Weir) (King’s College Commission 2018)
Sir Christèmas (Mathias)
Ninth lesson: John 1 vv 1-14 read by the Provost
O come, all ye faithful (arr. Willcocks)*
Collect and Blessing
Hark! The herald angels sing (desc. Cleobury)*

Organ voluntaries:
In dulci jubilo (BWV 729) (Bach)
Pièces de Fantaisie en quatre suites, Livre II op. 53: Toccata (Vierne) [broadcast on Radio 3 on Christmas Day only]

Director of Music: Stephen Cleobury
Organ scholar: Henry Websdale
Cellist: Guy Johnston

For many around the world, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, live from the candlelit Chapel of King's College, Cambridge, marks the beginning of Christmas. It is based around nine Bible readings which tell the story of the loving purposes of God. They are interspersed with carols old and new, sung by the world-famous chapel choir who also lead the congregation in traditional Christmas hymns.

A specially-written carol by the composer Judith Weir will be premiered during A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols this year. A new carol has been commissioned for the Christmas Eve service every year since 1983, so this new work entitled ‘O Mercy Divine’ for choir and cello will be the 36th such carol commissioned by King’s College. Judith Weir is an alumna and honorary fellow of King’s who currently holds the post of Master of the Queen’s Music.

Broadcast live around the world, the famous Christmas Eve service attracts many millions of listeners. Commissioned carols from previous years have included carols by Judith Bingham, Diana Burrell, Tansy Davies, Jonathan Dove, Carl Rütti, John Tavener and many others. The series, instigated by Stephen Cleobury in 1983, represents part of a long-standing contribution by the College to contemporary choral writing.

For Director of Music Stephen Cleobury, who began the regular series of Christmas Eve commissioned carols in 1983, this new carol will be the last such commission ahead of his retirement in September 2019.

“I am delighted that Judith has accepted the College’s invitation to compose a carol for this very special year which sees the 100th anniversary of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. A previous commission from Judith in the series, Illuminare, Jerusalem, was written for the same service in 1985 and has come to be regarded as one of the finest contemporary carols of recent times. We are proud to count Judith among our many prestigious alumni, and it is a personal delight to have been able to ask her to write this carol for my last Christmas here at King’s.”

This year’s choices include a number of pieces which were sung in 1918 (asterisked, performed this year not necessarily in the original arrangements). Every organist of the College (known as Director of Music since the Willcocks era) including Harold Darke, who acted as organist during Boris Ord’s wartime absence, is represented by a composition or an arrangement. Two commissions from earlier in Stephen Cleobury’s tenure – by Arvo Pärt and John Rutter - are also included.

Producer: Philip Billson


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m0001qj0)
Angels

Angels are central to the Christmas story. The angel Gabriel first told Mary of the birth of her Son, an angelic choir greeted his entry into the world and an angel warned wise men not to go near Herod. All the monotheistic sacred texts include descriptions and stories of angels. But belief in angels goes beyond religion, as research shows as many as one in three people in the UK believe in angels while one in ten people claim to have seen or heard an angel.

In this Christmas Eve edition of Beyond Belief, Ernie Rea discuss angels with Sally Vickers Author of Miss Garnet’s Angel, Rev Dr Arabella Milbank Robinson, Deacon and Theologian and Angel Expert and Rev Dr Stephen Burge, Lecturer at the Quranic Studies Unit at the Institute of Ismaeli Studies and author of “Angels in Islam.”

Producer:
Catherine Earlam


MON 17:00 PM (m0001qj2)
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0001qj4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:15 Uncorked (m0001qj6)
Jancis Robinson talks wine and rugby with Brian Moore

Uncork a bottle, reveal a person…

Jancis Robinson recommends wine to former rugby player and wine connoisseur Brian Moore.

In this series Jancis Robinson is on a festive mission to recommend wines to famous guests. After all, wines are a bit like people really. Some are bold and fruity, some elegant and refined; you’ll get aging smoothies and sharp young things. But what do you recommend to a man who was nicknamed 'Pitbull' - famously aggressive on the rugby field, but also a sophisticated debater and a trained manicurist?

Jancis aims to find bottles that match or reveal things about Brian's public persona but also his more secretive, private self. What follows is a lively conversation about wine and personality – about a person’s taste, their passions and opinions. On the way we’ll learn a lot about wine - about tasting, and style, about balance, acid and tannin; about winemaking and winemakers. It's a conversational masterclass from one of our foremost wine writers. But more than that – the open bottle starts up conversations about people's lives and opinions on all sorts of things. We’ll find ourselves asking what our own taste in wine might reveal. Open up a bottle and you’ll open up a person.

Produced in Bristol by Melvin Rickarby.


MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m0001qj9)
Series 21

Episode 1

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

Sandi Toksvig, Jon Richardson, Lucy Porter and Graeme Garden are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as Denmark, hair, smells and fish.

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


MON 19:00 The Archers (m0001qjd)
Emma is touched by some heartfelt words and Ben resorts to blackmail


MON 19:15 Front Row (m0001qjg)
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m0001qhb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Game Over, Humans (m0001qjj)
Ever since an Artificial Intelligence called Deep Blue beat human chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, it has been clear that the days of humans’ supremacy at the games table have been numbered. But twenty years later, it still came as a surprise that an AI called Libratus was able to outbluff and outperform us at a game that’s often thought of as the most human of all: poker. With his livelihood under threat, professional poker player and stand-up comedian Ken Cheng looks into historic matches in which humans were bested by computers, hoping to understand what this means for AI in our society as a whole and to decide, is it really game over for humans?

From DeepMind’s AlphaGo software’s defeat of Korean champion Lee Sedol at the ancient Chinese board game go, to IBM Watson’s victory at TV quiz show Jeopardy! – AI has been able to outperform top ranking human players who have devoted their lives to the study of their game. The race is now on to build an AI that can beat humans at complex, strategic video games like Starcraft and Dota. Talking to human gamers like Garry Kasparov and pro poker player Jason Les, Ken finds out what it feels like to lose against a machine. With leading AI developers like Murray Campbell, who headed up IBM’s Deep Blue project, David Silver who was behind Deep Mind’s AlphaGo and Jennifer Chu Carroll who worked on IBM Watson, he asks what these matches reveal about the evolution of AI and its possible impact on society. Having become obsolete as a poker player, will there one day be an AI to replace him as a stand-up comedian?

Producer, Miranda Hinkley
Executive Producer, Peggy Sutton.
A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m0001m7c)
DNA, Me and the Family Tree

Where do you come from? Tracing your ancestry in the USA is one of the most popular hobbies along with gardening and golf. TV is awash with advertising for the do-it-yourself genetic testing kits which have become much sought after gifts, especially at Christmas time. The kits have revolutionised family tree research and gone are the days of sifting through old documents. But, as Lucy Ash reports, the DNA results are now revealing far more than many had bargained for. How do you react when you find out your mother had a secret affair half a century ago…and the man who raised you isn’t your dad? Produced by Charlotte McDonald.


MON 21:00 George Soros and His Enemies (m0001mdd)
The wealthy investor George Soros first became famous when he made a billion pounds from speculating on Britain's dramatic exit from the ERM in 1992, one of many successful deals that amassed him a fortune and made him one of the world's richest men. But it is what he does with his money politically that brings him enemies.

His political commitment and funding has made him the subject of intense hostility from critics in several countries, but a hero to those who support or benefit from his engagement. So how important really is George Soros? Why does he arouse so much venom? Should we be grateful for a billionaire who wants to put his money to social causes?

His life and career span the catastrophe of World War 2 through attempts to create a more cooperative world order and the current challenges from nationalists and populists around the globe.

Allan Little looks at the making of the man and his way of thought, and the reaction to his involvement in political and civic organisations in many countries.

Producer: Adam Bowen


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m0001qh3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m0001qjm)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


MON 22:45 A Maigret Christmas (m0001qhm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


MON 23:00 Mastertapes (m0001qjp)
Series 8

Don McLean (A-side)

John Wilson returns with another run of the series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.

A-side: American Pie by Don McLean

Twenty-four year old Don McLean’s debut album was rejected by 72 labels before it was released by Mediarts. It was only because that label was taken over by United Artists that his follow-up received the promotion it deserved.

His second album contained: a tribute to the 19th-century Dutch painter, which was cited as a personal inspiration by the late rapper Tupac Shakur; a song that was re-recorded 32 years later by George Michael in protest against the Iraq War; and an eight-and-a-half minute single that in 2017 was designated an “aural treasure… worthy of preservation as part of America’s patrimony”

The B-side of the programme, where it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions, can be heard tomorrow at 3.30pm.

Complete versions of the songs performed in the programme (and others) can be heard on the 'Mastertapes' pages on the Radio 4 website, where the programmes can also be downloaded and other musical goodies accessed.

Producer: Paul Kobrak


MON 23:30 Midnight Mass (m0001qjr)
The Bishop of Leeds, The Right Reverend Marcus Stock, is the celebrant and preacher at the Mass of the Nativity of the Lord, live from Leeds Cathedral. The setting is Vierne's Messe solennelle, and amongst the carols and anthems is Poulenc's ethereal motet 'Quem vidistis pastores dicite', as well as seasonal favourites such as 'O come, all ye faithful', 'O little town of Bethlehem', and 'Hark! the herald angels sing'. Director of Music: Benjamin Saunders. Producer: Ben Collingwood.



TUESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2018

TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0001qjt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0001qjw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0001qjy)
The latest shipping forecast


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m0001qk0)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0001qk2)
A short reflection and prayer with Canon Noel Battye


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m0001qk4)
The Nativity, as told by a farmer, and starring real animals

Farmer Rupert Burr dresses as a donkey to tell the Christmas story. Roves Farm near Swindon has hundreds of sheep, cows and pigs but every Christmas the family puts on a nativity. Scores of children dress up and take part in the play, performing alongside the livestock. The stars of the show - three donkeys, three sheep, a cow and two alpacas.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0ly5)
Christmas Shearwater

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

On Christmas Day, Sir David Attenborough presents the Christmas shearwater. 2000km south of Hawaii the highly marine Christmas shearwater is at home over the Central Pacific seas, tirelessly riding the air-currents, skimming wave-crests and hugging the contours of the sea looking for food. They rarely come to land as adults, but when they do, it is to return to their place of birth on remote oceanic islands to breed. Here they form loose colonies, laying a single white egg which is incubated for around 50 days. Inhabiting these far flung inaccessible islands means little is known about their biology, but that remoteness gives them protection from land based predators.


TUE 06:00 Voices of the First World War (m0001qtq)
In an omnibus edition of selected programmes from the final series, Dan Snow looks at some of the key events of 1918, from the German Spring Offensive in March, to the impact that the arrival of massed American troops had on the war. In interviews recorded by the BBC and the Imperial War Museums, those who were there recall the devastation caused by the Spanish Flu epidemic from May onwards, and the rapid advances made in the autumn as the Germans retreated. Finally Dan looks at the closing moments of the war on 11th November 1918, when the armistice took effect. When 11 o'clock came, alongside relief, disbelief, and celebrations, veterans recall that there was also an empty feeling, and a looming question that seemed to trouble many of them: what were they going to do now?

Presented by Dan Snow
Produced by Megan Jones for BBC Wales, and then


TUE 07:00 With Great Pleasure (m0001qts)
With Great Pleasure at Christmas: Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman shares the writing that he loves. With actors Peter Capaldi, Nina Sosanya and John Finnemore and music from Mitch Benn and members of Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Radio Theatre.
Extracts from Neil's favourites: Mary Poppins Comes Back by P.L. Travers; a delightfully funny short play, Fair Mistress Dorothy by A.A. Milne, performed by the whole cast; Charles Dickens' gruesome 'Captain Murderer' story from The Uncommercial Traveller and the poem Differences of Opinion by Wendy Cope. Alan Moore's song Me & Dorothy Parker performed by Mitch Benn, a clip of BBC radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and two ukulele songs round off the show.
Producer Beth O'Dea


TUE 08:00 The Museum of Curiosity (m0001qtv)
Annual Stocktake

In this special edition of the Museum, John Lloyd attempts to conduct his first ever annual stock take of all of the 237 exhibits that he has so far gathered from 79 Steering Committee meetings. These include a yeti, a pygmy sloth, the giant hornet of Chang Jiang, a hairy anglerfish, a sheep rolling over a cattle grid, a snail glued to a board, the offspring of a Neanderthal and Homo sapiens, and that’s just some of the animals. He also needs to account for some seemingly impossible exhibits which include a magic mirror in which you can see the masterpiece you will never make, the Big Bang, silence, Epping forest, the Danish concept of Hygge, a single atom of iron and, quite literally, nothing. To help him out, he has invited former curators Sally Phillips, Lee Mack, Jo Brand & Jimmy Carr, and while he’s got them there, he even tries to squeeze a fresh donation out of each of them.

If you want to find out what smell is worth $100,000 Australian dollars more than that of some dirty socks, what chart places Cameron Diaz one place higher than Jimmy Carr, why there is especially nothing particularly special about Ordnance Survey square SE830220, and what’s so good about things that are not so good.

The show was researched by Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus of QI.

Producers: Richard Turner and Anne Miller
A BBC Studios Production


TUE 09:00 Christmas Service (m0001qtx)
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby, reflects on the birth of Jesus in a service for Christmas morning from the Chapel of Lambeth Palace, with members of the Community of St Anselm. It features traditional readings and carols, including O come, all ye faithful and Joy to the World. Music is provided by St Martin’s Voices, directed by Richard Tanner, who also perform a new arrangement of O little town of Bethlehem by composer Will Todd.

The producer is Andrew Earis.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (m0001qwq)
Blowing the Bloody Doors Off

Episode 2

Hollywood legend and British national treasure Sir Michael Caine, now 85, shares some stories along with some of the lessons that life has taught him in his remarkable career.

Michael Caine has starred in a huge range of films: from the classic British movies Alfie, Zulu and The Italian Job to the Hollywood blockbusting Dark Knight trilogy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hannah and Her Sisters and Cider House Rules.

In episode 2 he recalls how, after years of struggling to get by, his luck began to change.

Written and read by Michael Caine
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0001qv1)
Christmas Day with Prue Leith, Kelechi Okafor, Helen Lewis and Bridget Christie

Jane Garvey celebrates Christmas Day with Prue Leith, the author of 'Prue, My All-time Favourite Recipes', the comedian Bridget Christie, the actor Kelechi Okafor and Helen Lewis, Deputy Editor of The New Statesman.

Presenter: Jane Garvey
Interviewed guest: Prue Leith
Interviewed guest: Bridget Christie
Interviewed guest: Kelechi Okafor
Interviewed guest: Helen Lewis


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m0001qv3)
Good News Stories

Eleven 73s

Five contemporary dramas inspired by stories from the old and new testaments by Katie Hims. 2. Eleven 73s. Two women disagree about which of them is a child's rightful mother.

Solly ..... Don Gilet
Carla ..... Lucy Doyle
Jo ..... Saffron Coomber
June ..... Rachel Davies
Passenger 1 ..... Tony Turner
Passenger 2 ..... Jeanette Percival
Director ..... Mary Peate
Writer ..... Katie Hims


TUE 11:00 The Food Programme (m0001q5m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


TUE 11:30 An Audience for the Queen (m0001qv6)
Professor Kate Williams chronicles the appearances of the Queen on stage and screen from the Coronation to the latest series of The Crown. In what way do these representations offer a guide to the Queen's popularity and public attitudes towards the monarchy?

Queen Elizabeth II is one of the most famous people in the land, but also one of the most the most private and unknowable. This combination is a challenge for writers wishing the dramatise the life and times of Her Majesty.

The programme is studded with archive - from the feature film of the Coronation , narrated with pomp and circumstance by Sir Laurence Olivier, through theatrical plays such as Handbagged and The Audience, to television dramas such as Walking the Dogs in which Emma Thompson played the Queen as she confronted an intruder into her bedroom in Buckingham Palace.

Naturally, we hear from Helen Mirren who has come to identify closely with the Queen ("When I see her picture, I think 'Oh, there I am' or There's my girl'") and Claire Foy who recently received a Golden Globe for her role in The Crown. And we go on set of The Crown to speak to William Conacher, dialect coach, who regularly trains actors in how to "speak Queen".

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0001qy3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 A Maigret Christmas (m0001qvb)
Episode Two

Sir Derek Jacobi reads a classic Inspector Maigret mystery by Georges Simenon.

On Christmas Day, as the snow begins to fall in Paris, Inspector Maigret receives two unexpected visitors. A young girl claims to have seen Father Christmas in her room, behaving strangely and cutting a hole in the floor. He agrees to investigate...

Read by Sir Derek Jacobi
Abridged by Lauris Morgan-Griffiths
Written by Georges Simenon & translated by David Coward
Produced by Mair Bosworth


TUE 12:18 Pick of the Year (m0001qvd)
Pick of the Year 2018

Evan Davis offers nudity, Nile Rodgers and a night in an ice palace.

Along with whale watching and beat boxing, plus some of the most moving radio of 2018.

The seasonal pick me up has it all wrapped up. A programme packed with gems, lots of crackers, plenty of fizz and no turkeys.

Produced by Stephen Garner

Production support by Helen Surtees


TUE 13:00 News and Weather (m0001rtx)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


TUE 13:13 Weather (m0001qvg)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:15 Once in Royal David's City (m0001r53)
Every Christmas Eve at two minutes past three, a choirboy steps up to a microphone and sings the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City. For many people this iconic moment signals the start of their Christmas, as they wrap their final presents or rustle up some mince pies whilst listening to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings College Cambridge. The tradition of opening the service with a lone treble voice is well-known. What is not so well-known is the fact that the Musical Director chooses this soloist just before the transmission begins giving a twelve or thirteen year old boy just minutes to compose himself before singing the solo live to an audience of millions across the globe.

This programme takes a look at the singing of this iconic solo as a number of former soloists talk about their experience. They include; Rupert Peacock (who is studying for his A levels), Rodney Williams (who sang the solo in 1954 and went on to sing in the Westminster Abbey choir for the funerals of Mountbatten and Princess Diana), Jon Wimpeney (now studying Computer Science) and composer Bob Chilcott (who sang the solo three times in the mid-1960s). In addition, we hear from 100 year-old David Briggs, who sang in the first broadcast Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in 1928 and later became headmaster of the choir school.

Other contributors: The three Johnston brothers (only one of whom actually sang the Once in Royal David's City solo), Jill Etheridge (House Master for the choristers at King’s College School and the mother of a former solosits) and retiring Musical Director Stephen Cleobury.

Producer: Helen Lee


TUE 13:45 The Gut Instinct: A Social History (m0001qvj)
2 - A Window into the Gut

Tim Hayward journeys through the bowels of history, exploring our changing relationship with the human gut.

The complex mysterious workings of our stomach and intestines have long fascinated us. In this episode, Tim peers through a window into the gut and tells a story of a case that changed medical history. Featuring stomach-churning experiments, intestinal surgery - and big black ants.

With historian of health Elsa Richardson and medical writer Thomas Morris.

Written and presented by Tim Hayward
Produced by Rich Ward
Series consultant: Elsa Richardson
A Somethin Else’ production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m0001qjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (m0001qvl)
The Hartlepool Spy

THE HARTLEPOOL SPY is a comedy-drama by Emmy-winning writer Ian Martin (THE DEATH OF STALIN, THE THICK OF IT, VEEP), with an all-star cast including Michael Palin, Jim Moir (AKA Vic Reeves), Toby Jones (DETECTORISTS), Gina McKee (BODYGUARD) and Monica Dolan (W1A, APPROPRIATE ADULT).

1804. Britain is at odds with Europe, as usual. And at war with France, again. Paranoia is at boiling point. Sensational rumours flood the country. Napoleon’s spies are everywhere.

Towns and villages along the east coast are on high alert. Ships from Bonaparte’s navy have been spotted just beyond the range of English artillery, looking for weaknesses in defence, probing for landing points. Invasion is expected any day.

When times are tough, people look for strong leadership. Alas, the people of the North Eastern fishing town of Hartlepool have a corrupt mayor, Tucker Palmer (Toby Jones) and a narcissistic vicar, Rev William Ferrier (Jim Moir). The two men can’t stand one another, each (correctly) suspecting the other of lining his pocket at the expense of the parish, and each in competition for the favour of local land-owner aristo Lady Embleton (Gina McKee).

One Sunday morning, Lady Embleton, Mayor Palmer and his formidable wife Mrs Palmer (Monica Dolan) are in the front pew as Ferrier delivers an impassioned sermon about the vain delusions of those with earthly power, when news comes from the harbour. A French ship has been spotted and it’s heading their way.

Panic. As the men of Hartlepool ready themselves for attack by getting drunk, the Mayor, the Vicar and Lady Embleton spring into action. Lady Embleton rallies the men to the harbour, Tucker buries his gold in the garden and Ferrier huddles in the church leading prayers of intercession. Suddenly, a horrible miracle. The weather changes. The French ship is caught in a savage storm – it can’t put to sea, it can’t seek refuge on an enemy shore. In the night it founders and sinks.

By daybreak it’s over, and a small fortune in salvage is washing up alongside the bodies of the French. But who will claim it? With their eyes on the loot, Ferrier, Palmer and Lady Embleton begin to draw up battle lines.

But then: a single survivor washes ashore. A monkey. And he’s not the only unexpected arrival: arriving on the fast coach from London, from an Admiralty department you’ve never heard of, waving a royal warrant: Cavendish (Michael Palin) has his own plans for Hartlepool.

And from this point, events get completely out of hand.

THE HARTLEPOOL SPY is a dark comedy on the timeless themes of xenophobia, groupthink and fake news, about the perilous mental landscape of suspended disbelief. And, through the petty bickering of a town in fear, it explores just how greedy and stupid people can really be.

Cast:
CAVENDISH – Michael Palin
REVD FERRIER – Jim Moir
MAYOR PALMER – Toby Jones
LADY EMBLETON – Gina McKee
MRS PALMER – Monica Dolan
GARVEY – Jason Forbes
Other parts played by Robin Berry and Laura Elphinstone
With Robin Berry as THE MONKEY

Written by Ian Martin
Produced by Sam Ward

A BBC Studios production.


TUE 15:00 HM The Queen (m0001qvn)
The Queen's Christmas message to the Commonwealth and the nation, followed by the national anthem.


TUE 15:05 News Summary (m0001rtz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:15 Christmas Compass (m0001qvq)
Christmas Compass: North

Four contemporary stories from four corners of the British Isles.

On a storm-ravaged island a man waits for the return of his daughter who is travelling home for winter.

Steven Robertson reads Malachy Tallack’s poetic story set in Shetland.

Writer ….. Malachy Tallack
Reader ….. Steven Robertson
Producer ….. Eilidh McCreadie

A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:30 Mastertapes (m0001qvt)
Series 8

Don McLean (B-side)

John Wilson talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.

Having discussed the making of "American Pie" - his all-time classic debut album (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 24th December 2018 and available online), Don McLean responds to questions from the audience and performs live acoustic versions of some of the tracks on the album.

Producer: Paul Kobrak.


TUE 16:00 Short Cuts (m0001qvw)
Series 17

Lasso the Moon

Josie Long presents short Christmas-themed documentaries and adventures in sound.

We hear from a long time resident of Santa Claus, Indiana, the comedian Mark Thomas offers a tender reflection on Away in a Manger, and Karolyn Grimes - the woman who played Zuzu Bailey in the festive classic It's a Wonderful Life - explores how it's interwoven with her life.

The Chief Elf of Santa Claus, Indiana
Featuring Pat Koch
Produced by Andrea Rangecroft

Away in a Manger
Featuring Mark Thomas
Produced by Sarah Cuddon

It's a Wonderful Life
Featuring Karolyn Grimes
Produced by Andrea Rangecroft

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m0001qvy)
Series 47

Charlie Chaplin - not just funny but a political rebel according to Mark Steel

Mark Steel makes the case for Charlie Chaplin being one of the most radical comedians of his time. He reckons it's sad that most see Chaplin as that bloke who wore a bowler hat, had a funny walk, waved a cane around and wasn’t even that funny. Mark argues that Charlie Chaplin’s silent films and his "Tramp" character make sense if you look at the upheavals in society that were occurring alongside his career.

Mark is best known for the Mark Steel Lectures and Mark Steel's in Town. He says that while Chaplin was standing up for the working class, the irony was that he became the richest rebel. Also joining Mark Steel is Simon Louvish author of ‘Chaplin: The Tramps Odyssey’.
The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer is Perminder Khatkar.


TUE 17:00 The Listening Project (m0001qw1)
The Listening Project Christmas Special

Fi Glover and guests celebrate Christmas reflecting on a lively range of conversations between children, and between adults and children. Special guests: Greg James, Radio 1 breakfast host and co-author of the highly successful Kid Normal books ; and writer and child psychologist Tim Gill.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Mohini Patel


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0001qw3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:15 Uncorked (m0001qw5)
Jancis Robinson talks wine, theatre, and Dr Who with Jodie Whittaker

Uncork a bottle, reveal a person… Jancis Robinson recommends wine to Dr. Who actor Jodie Whittaker.

Jancis Robinson is on a festive mission to recommend wine to famous guests. The key is to find wines that match their personalities, be that their public persona or more private selves. After all, wines are a bit like people - some are bold and fruity, some elegant and refined; you’ll get aging smoothies and sharp young things. So what will she suggest for someone who has embodied dozens of characters and personalities - in Shakespeare, Broadchurch and Dr Who?

What follows is a lively conversation about wine and personality – about a person’s taste, their passions and opinions. On the way we’ll learn a lot about wine - about tasting, and style, about balance, acid and tannin; about winemaking and winemakers. And we'll ask what would Dr Who drink on Christmas day. It's a conversational masterclass from one of our foremost wine writers. But more than that – the open bottle starts up conversations about people's lives and opinions on all sorts of things. We’ll find ourselves asking what our own taste in wine might reveal. Open up a bottle and you’ll open up a person.

Produced in Bristol by Melvin Rickarby.


TUE 18:30 The Tim Vine Chat Show (m0001qw7)
Christmas Special 2018

Tim Vine hears the Christmas stories of the British public and offers up a sack full of seasonal one-liners, definitely not traditional songs and fiendishly silly seasonal games.

Featuring a seasonal lawn-mowing song and a man who lost his Christmas dinner.

Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0001qw9)
There's tension over the turkey at Brookfield and Jenny faces an alternative Christmas


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0001qwc)
Choirs - a celebration of singing together

It's estimated that almost three million people in the UK now belong to a choir. Kirsty Lang explores why this might be, and looks at the evidence that singing is really good for us.

The Sixteen is a professional choir which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year. It's founder, Harry Christophers, and one of the sopranos, Charlotte Mobbs, talk to Kirsty about starting the choir, changing attitudes towards choral singing, their 2019 plans and their outreach programme, working in communities where arts provision is low.

Ten years ago, musician Martin Trotman was approached by the Birmingham NHS Trust to set up a community choir for those with mental health issues. One choir has grown into four choirs, which welcome all members of the community with the aim of promoting mental and physical wellbeing through music and song. Martin discusses why choral singing is so beneficial, and two members of the Birmingham Wellbeing Choir talk to Kirsty about how it's helped them.

M J Paranzino is a musician and vocal coach with a passion for community singing. She currently runs four choirs, one in Brighton, one in Hastings and two in London. Kirsty joined M J and members of the choirs when they sang at the V&A in London in the run up to Christmas and discovered that all of human life is in a community choir!

Dr Jacques Launay is a lecturer at Brunel University and has done, and continues to do, research into music and social bonding. He explains why our bodies and minds respond so well to singing in a choir.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Rebecca Armstrong


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m0001qv3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 The Eternal Life of the Instant Noodle (b0bkv4f3)
How instant noodles, now 60 years old, went from a shed in Japan to global success.
What is the most traded legal item in US prisons? Instant Noodles.
According to the World Instant Noodles Association, 270 million servings of instant noodles are eaten around the world every day. Annually, that's 16 to 17 portions for every man, woman and child.
At the turn of the millennium, a Japanese poll found that "The Japanese believe that their best invention of the twentieth century was instant noodles."
The Taiwanese-Japanese man who invented them (Momofuku Ando) was convinced that real peace would only come when people have enough to eat. In the bleak wreckage of post-war Japan, he spent a year in a backyard hut, creating the world's most successful industrial food. Crucially, he wanted the noodles to be ready to eat in less than three minutes. That convenience has since become a selling point for noodles that are consumed by students, travellers and, yes, prisoners the world over. Instant noodles first went on sale in 1958, and they've changed little since.
Sixty years on, Celia Hatton explores the story behind instant noodles. It's a journey that starts in Japan, at the nation's instant noodle museum, and then takes her to China, still the world's number one market for "convenient noodles" as they're known there. Chinese sales of instant noodles are falling, though, as the country becomes wealthier. But noodles are still on sale in every food store in the country. The story ends with Celia being shown how to make a "prison burrito" by an ex-prisoner from Riker's Island prison in New Jersey, in the US. We hear why instant noodles have emerged as the prisoners' currency of choice. Momofuku Ando's invention lives on.

Producer: John Murphy


TUE 20:30 In Touch (m0001qwf)
Dame Joan Plowright at Home

Dame Joan Plowright was discovered as a stage actor in the late 1950s before going on to have a stellar career – starring in The Country Wife, A Taste of Honey and as Saint Joan. She became Lady Olivier on marrying Sir Laurence Olivier in 1961. They were married until his death in 1989. Dame Joan took parts in film and television production up until 2014 when her worsening eyesight compelled her to retire.

She lives in her home in Sussex where she and Sir Laurence came to live once he had retired. She openly speaks of her career, her life with her husband and family and her attitude towards her failing sight.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Lee Kumutat


TUE 21:00 David Sedaris: Death Knows No Season (b086kp8n)
A very special evening of stories from David Sedaris alongside music from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero and featuring a medley arranged by Gary Carpenter.

No matter the time of year, the Grim Reaper could be just around the corner.

This sequence of stories and music was recorded at The Barbican, London on 20th December 2016. The full length concert was broadcast previously on BBC Radio 3 and is a joint venture between the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Radio 3 and Giddy Goat Productions.

Music:
Santa Baby, Javits & Springer. Arr: Carpenter
Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Rachmaninoff orch: Respighi
Front Row Center Overture, Carpenter.

A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 22:00 With Great Pleasure (m0001qts)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]


TUE 22:45 A Maigret Christmas (m0001qvb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


TUE 23:00 Wireless Nights (m0001qwj)
Series 6

Destiny's Child

Jarvis Cocker hosts a special festive edition, telling stories of a shepherdess and a miracle birth, whilst a wise man looks out for bright lights in the Christmas skies.

On a cold and frosty Christmas night, a baby is set to enter the world in the most inauspicious circumstances, a pair of shepherds keep watch over their flocks and a star gazer scans the heavens for unusual signs.

Producer: Laurence Grissell


TUE 23:30 From Our Home Correspondent (m0001q5t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]



WEDNESDAY 26 DECEMBER 2018

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m0001qwl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:15 Christmas Meditation with Paul Kerensa (m0001qwn)
Fresh from compering his seasonal touring show 'Comedians and Carols' in pubs, arts centres and churches, Christmas obsessive comedian Paul Kerensa offers a light-hearted reflection for Christmas night - a bit of a lift after all that turkey, sherry-filled Christmas pudding and what can sometimes be the hard labour of family interaction! In this delightful sleigh ride Paul sends up a few of the most cherished Christmas traditions and answers some festive questions you never thought to ask. Whether you mull on wine or enjoy the biggest turkey, the biggest tree or the biggest credit card bill, unwrap the Christmas story through Paul's celebration of Christmas. Producer: Katharine Longworth.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (m0001qwq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0001qws)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0001qwv)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0001qwx)
The latest shipping forecast


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m0001qwz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0001qx1)
A short reflection and prayer with Canon Noel Battye


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m0001qx3)
A visit to the North York Moors

Sarah Falkingham is on the North York Moors What to find out about the health and well-being impact of visiting a National Park and why a price has been put on that. Boxing Day is traditionally a day for getting outdoors and there’s a growing body of evidence about the benefits of connecting with nature. For the first time researchers have put a price on the value of spending time in one of the UK's National Parks. Specifically they looked at the impact of taking up a new activity which involves getting fitter, learning a new skill or making new friends through voluntary work. It’s called Social Return on Investment and the study, by researchers at the University of York, estimates that for every £1 invested the North York Moors National Park generates over £7 of health and well-being benefits for visitors and volunteers.

Professor Philip Linsley, co-author of the study, explains how they used extensive surveys of visitors and volunteers to see what positive changes people had made and found the financial equivalent i.e. an hour’s gym class or a social club / befriending activity. They calculated a seven fold return on every pound invested by DEFRA which grants the park £4.2m annually. The Chairman of the North York Moors National Park Authority Jim Bailey tells Sarah Falkingham that the study helps evaluate if its funded activities are meeting the park’s objectives with room to do more about improving people’s health and wellbeing in the future. Today’s programme also joins a group mending a trail, at Goathland near Whitby, who explain how working together not only has helped their fitness but has helped some overcome cancer treatment and dispel loneliness and depression.

Producer: Sarah Falkingham


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0hjv)
New Zealand Robin

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Sir David Attenborough begins Christmas week with the New Zealand robin. The toutouwai or New Zealand robin may share a name with the more familiar European robin, but it is a very different bird to the robin redbreast we know so well. Although about the same size with the same perky upright stance, the New Zealand robin, is appropriately enough nearly all-black, with a pale belly and a white splash just above the bill, but no trace of red. Three subspecies exist; one in north Island, one in South Island, and another in Stewart Island. And like their British counterparts, who they are not closely related to at all, can become quite tame and friendly to humans. The song is very varied and each male has a repertoire of around two dozen different notes.


WED 06:00 The Listening Project (m0001qw1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Tuesday]


WED 07:00 Today (m0001r7f)
Radio 4's flagship news and current affairs programme; including Thought for the Day


WED 09:00 Soul Music (m0001r7h)
Series 27

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Shine On You Crazy Diamond discussed by voices including David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.

Understood to have been written about Syd Barrett, their former band member, it’s both a tribute, and a call for him to ‘shine on’ despite suffering serious mental health issues.

In this edition of Soul Music, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd recalls the legendary day that Syd Barrett unexpectedly appeared in the studio where they were recording Wish You Were Here, the album bookended by Shine On. Nobody recognised Syd at first; once handsome and slender, he'd gained weight and shaved his head and eyebrows.

Another contributor to the programme, Anna Gascoigne, talks about the pain of losing her son, Jay. He was a gentle boy, a talented musician, who eventually succumbed to the multiple mental health problems he had battled for years. Shine On You Crazy Diamond, for Anna, speaks directly to her of Jay; he loved Pink Floyd and Shine On was played at his memorial service. Anna, herself, was driven to the brink of suicide by her son’s death. It was the support of her family – including her brother, Paul Gascoigne - that helped her to carry on.

Ed Steelefox, a DJ based in Worcester, describes a New Year’s Eve house-party of a few years ago: as the guests gradually fell asleep he chose to slip out the door leaving a non-stop playlist of different, live, versions of Shine On You Crazy Diamond to penetrate their dreams.

And Professor Allan Moore, a regular Soul Music contributor, takes to the grand piano to play and talk about what it is in the track that is so directly reminiscent of Syd Barrett.

NB: Details of organisations offering information and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free, at any time to hear recorded information on 08000 566 065. Please scroll further down this page to 'Related Links' for direct links to actionline, and for more information about Jay's story.

Producer: Karen Gregor


WED 09:30 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m0001r7k)
Series 12

The Horrible Hangover

"My name is Ava and I've never had a hangover," writes Ava Karuso. "I'm a 25 year-old Australian and I enjoy going out for drinks. However, the next day when everyone else sleeps in and licks their wounds, I get up early and get right back to my normal routine.”

Drs Rutherford and Fry investigate the ancient origins of alcohol, from Sumerians drinking beer through straws, to Aristotle's teachings ‘On Intoxication’.

But what can modern science tell us about how alcohol affects our brains? What causes the morning-after hangover and do some drinks make you feel worse than others? Are there any hangover cures that have been scientifically validated?

Featuring health psychologist and hangover researcher Sally Adams, chemist Andrea Sella and science writer Adam Rogers, author of 'Proof: The Science of Booze'.

Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
Producer: Michelle Martin


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (m0001r7m)
Blowing the Bloody Doors Off

Episode 3

Hollywood legend and British national treasure Sir Michael Caine, now 85, tells some stories and shares some of the lessons that life has taught him in his remarkable career.

Michael Caine has starred in a huge range of films, including some all-time favourites, from the classic British movies Alfie, Zulu and The Italian Job to the Hollywood blockbusting Dark Knight trilogy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hannah and Her Sisters and Cider House Rules.

In episode 3, he examines how even disasters on set can offer an opportunity to learn. He also recalls being sacked by Joan Littlewood.

Written and read by Michael Caine
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0001r7p)
Celebrating Powerful Women in Music

Celebrating Powerful Women in Music. This year we counted down the top 40 most powerful women in the music industry for the Woman's Hour Power List and only three performers made it into the Top 10. They were Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Adele. Advocates Roxane Gay, Freya Ridings and Jayde Adams give us the secrets to their power.

Singer Becky Hill first came to public attention in 2012 when she reached the semi-finals of the first series of The Voice aged just 17 years old. In 2014 she became the first The Voice UK contestant to score a UK number 1 when the song, "Gecko (Overdrive)" topped the charts. She has continued to have a string of hits and joins Jenni to perform “Sunrise in the East”.

The band Little Mix were recently involved in a controversy following the release of their video Strip which included footage of them dancing in underwear. Piers Morgan claimed they were taking off their clothes for “attention” and singer Ariana Grande defended them by saying “I use my talent AND my sexuality all the time because I choose to”. But do all female music artists have the same level of choice about how they express their sexuality? And is taking off your clothes really a sign of being in control? Jenni talks to singer Becky Hill, music journalist and academic Jacqueline Springer and singer and song-writer Victoria Hesketh, also known as Little Boots.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Laura Northedge

Interviewed Guest: Becky Hill
Interviewed Guest: Victoria Hesketh
Interviewed Guest: Jacqueline Springer


WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (m0001r7r)
Good News Stories

Song of Solomon

Five contemporary drama shorts inspired by stories from the old and new testaments by Katie Hims. 3. Song of Solomon. Bus driver Solly is a good bloke, but there's one area of his life where he's less than perfect...

Solly ..... Don Gilet
Marsha ..... Saffron Coomber
Leila ..... Jayda Pryce
Lloyd ..... Alex Lanipekun
Carys ..... Alexandra Constantinidi
Director ..... Mary Peate
Writer ..... Katie Hims


WED 10:55 The Listening Project (m0001r7t)
Sarah Jane and Louis – A Unique Artistic Connection

Mother and son, both artists, talk about their unique connection, their love of nature and of living in the north. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.


WED 11:00 Game Over, Humans (m0001qjj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 Party (m0001r7w)
Christmas Special

Writer Tom Basden reunites the cast of this critically acclaimed Radio 4 series six years on as the group of aspiring political agitators once again apply their small minds to big problems. This Christmas one-off special sees the team reunite one last time to take on Donald Trump.

Starring

Tom Basden...Simon
Anna Crilly...Mel
Tim Key...Duncan
Jonny Sweet...Jared
Katy Wix...Phoebe
Producer...Julia McKenzie
A BBC Studios Production


WED 12:00 News Summary (m0001r7y)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 A Maigret Christmas (m0001r80)
Episode Three

Sir Derek Jacobi reads a classic Inspector Maigret mystery by Georges Simenon.

On Christmas Day, as the snow begins to fall in Paris, Inspector Maigret receives two unexpected visitors. A young girl claims to have seen Father Christmas in her room, behaving strangely and cutting a hole in the floor. He agrees to investigate...

Read by Sir Derek Jacobi
Abridged by Lauris Morgan-Griffiths
Written by Georges Simenon & translated by David Coward
Produced by Mair Bosworth


WED 12:18 You and Yours (m0001r82)
Beauty Industry Special: Bobbi Brown, L'Oreal, The Ordinary

You and Yours reports on how the cosmetics and beauty industry has boomed in recent years, and why increasing sales is mostly down to young men and women.

We speak to legendary make up artist Bobbi Brown about how the industry has changed, and why she thinks the trend for wearing lots of make up which has been driven by social media, isn't a great look.

Online celebrities called influencers are driving the growth in make-up sales. We speak to MMMMitchell, who has 800,000 followers on Instagram about his rise to fame and why people buy products recommended by influencers like him.

The advertising regulator is concerned about whether consumers can trust influencers, and if it's clear when they're being paid to feature a product in their posts. We hear from Rob Harrison from the Advertising Standards Authority.

Skincare is another booming market; we speak to the boss of cult brand The Ordinary, who sell a product every second, on how consumers want transparency when they buy beauty products.

We go inside Station F, a hub for start up companies to speak to the entrepreneurs L'Oreal is putting money behind, in the hope that they become the next big beauty success story.

And, Fenty Beauty, the make-up range by pop star Rihanna, has kick-started other brands to release a diverse range of make-up shades. We ask Funmi Fetto why cosmetics companies didn't cater for this market until recently.

Presenter: Samantha Fenwick
Producer: Lydia Thomas


WED 12:57 Weather (m0001r84)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (m0001r86)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.


WED 13:45 The Gut Instinct: A Social History (m0001r88)
3 - The Language of the Gut

Tim Hayward journeys through the bowels of history, exploring our changing relationship with the human gut.

From medieval times on, we have artefacts that bring to life just how much our relationship to our own guts have changed. One of the most vivid ways this can be tracked is through language. In this episode, Tim is joined by lexicographer and word-lover Susie Dent to seek out a priceless illuminated manuscript. Also surviving from the middle ages are two white marble effigies that have their own gut story to tell.

With contributions from art historian Jack Hartnell.

Written and presented by Tim Hayward
Produced by Rich Ward
Series consultant: Elsa Richardson
A Somethin Else’ production for BBC Radio 4


WED 14:00 The Archers (m0001qw9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (m0001r8b)
Lena Marsh, Live and Shticking!

She's Big, She's Brash, She's Still Breathing and She's Here!

Lena Marsh (Rebecca Front) is the self-proclaimed, 'Broad of Broadway'. Now in her 90th decade she's in London to record a new christmas album at the BBC, with the help of her showbiz chums including the legend that is Michael Ball, Olivier Award-winning musical sensation Sharon D Clarke and Kevin Whately ('Lewis' in Inspector Morse and it's spin-off series 'Lewis'). With a son and daughter who both want their mother dead, what could possibly go wrong in this festive action comedy - full of surprises and twists - from the team behind hit Radio 4 comedy, Incredible Women.

With guest cameos from Michael Ball, Kevin Whately and Sharon D Clarke and a top-notch comedy cast including Bafta-winning Rebecca Front, Samantha Spiro, Jeremy Front, Jenny Bede, Jason Forbes, Lewis Macleod, expect candid conversation, surprise revelations and hilarious action as Incredible Women's Jeremy Front raises the red velvet curtain on Lena Marsh - Live and Shticking!

Cast:

Rebecca Front as Lena Marsh, with...
Jeremy Front
Michael Ball
Sharon D Clarke
Kevin Whately
Samantha Spiro
Jenny Bede
Lewis Macleod
Jason Forbes

written by Jeremy Front

Producer: Simon Nicholls

A BBC Studios Production


WED 15:00 Drama (m0001rjt)
Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology

‘And the game begins anew…’

As the nights draw in and frost begins to crackle in the air, Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology comes to Radio 4, inviting us into a world of gods and monsters, fiery endings and new beginnings, tricks and trust.

Diana Rigg, Derek Jacobi, Colin Morgan and Natalie Dormer lead a stellar cast, inviting us into these stories of old betrayals – and new hope.

We meet the trickster god Loki and his astonishing children – the giant wolf Fenrir, Jormungundr the snake that encircles the world, and Hel, the little girl who grows up to be Queen of the dead. We meet Odin the all-father, who sacrificed his eye to see the future, and Freya the understandably angry, most beautiful of the gods and always being gambled for by unwanted suitors. And the stories take us to the very end of the world, Ragnarok.

The stellar cast also includes Luke Newberry, Nonso Anozie, Rhashan Stone, Don Gilet, Nathaniel Martello-White, Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong, Lucy Doyle, Michael Bertenshaw, Lewis Bray, Alexandra Constantinidi, Cameron Percival, Saffron Coomber…. And Neil Gaiman himself.

Author …… Neil Gaiman
Adaptor …… Lucy Catherine
Sound Design …… Wilfredo Acosta
Director & Producer …… Allegra McIlroy

Cast:

Teller ….. Diana Rigg
Odin ….. Derek Jacobi
Freya ..... Natalie Dormer
Loki ….. Colin Morgan
Thor ….. Nathaniel Martello-White
Balder ….. Luke Newberry
Thrym ….. Nonso Anozie
Fenrir ….. Rhashan Stone
Heimdall …..Tayla Kovacevic -Ebong
Mimir ….. Don Gilet
Sif ….. Lucy Doyle
The Stranger ….. Lewis Bray
Brokk ….. Michael Bertenshaw
Hel ….. Alexandra Constantinidi
Eitri ….. Cameron Percival
Angrboda ….. Saffron Coomber
Magnus ….. Eviee Lavery
Young Hel ….. Grace Doherty
Radio ….. Neil Gaiman


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m0001r8d)
The Great British Radio Breakfast

In this special edition of The Media Show, Amol Rajan charts the history of breakfast radio and finds out how it became one of the most competitive markets in media. Listen out for archive of some of your favourite breakfast presenters and hear the secrets behind today's hit shows.

Amol is joined by Dave Berry from Absolute Radio, Jo Russell from Gem, Andy Parfitt, former BBC Radio 1 controller and David Lloyd, radio consultant and historian.

Producer: Richard Hooper


WED 17:00 PM (m0001r8g)
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0001r8j)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:15 Uncorked (m0001r8l)
Jancis Robinson talks wine with actor and comedian Adrian Edmondson

Uncork a bottle, reveal a person… Jancis Robinson recommends wine to actor and comedian Adrian Edmondson.

Jancis Robinson is on a festive mission to recommend wine to famous guests. The key is to find wines that match her guest's personality - both their public persona and more private self. After all, wines are a bit like people - some are bold and fruity, some elegant and refined; you’ll get aging smoothies and sharp young things. But what will she recommend to someone who was the hell-raising Vyvian in The Young Ones, performed punk music on folk instruments in The Bad Shepherds, has been in Star Wars and supports Exeter City?

What follows is a lively conversation about wine and personality – about a person’s taste, their passions and opinions. On the way we’ll learn a lot about wine - about tasting, and style, about balance, acid and tannin; about winemaking and winemakers.

It's a conversational masterclass from one of our foremost wine writers. But more than that – the open bottle starts up conversations about people's lives and opinions on all sorts of things. We’ll find ourselves asking what our own taste in wine might reveal. Open up a bottle and you’ll open up a person.

Produced in Bristol by Melvin Rickarby


WED 18:30 Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! (m0001r8n)
Christmas Special 2018: Doorknobs and Matchsticks

Arthur returns to BBC Radio 4 with a celebratory 50th episode of his long running sitcom. The former variety star is understudy on a Christmas production of Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Will he ever get on stage?

Steve Delaney stars as Count Arthur, supported by a host of regular characters created by Mel Giedroyc, Terry Kilkelly, Alastair Kerr and Dave Mounfield.

The 50 episodes of Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show! comprise seven series and eight specials since the programme first aired in December 2005. Highlights include winning the Sony Radio Award for Best Comedy in 2009 and being voted as the Best Radio Sitcom by the British Comedy Guide in 2016. The long running radio series aired until 2012 when the character stepped on to BBC TV for three series of the BAFTA nominated and critically acclaimed TV sitcom Count Arthur Strong. Since then, Count Arthur has returned to BBC Radio 4 annually with his celebrated Christmas specials.

A Komedia Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m0001r8q)
Elizabeth continues to cause concern and Ruairi's scheme is revealed


WED 19:15 Front Row (m0001r8s)
Chris Drury's Morecambe Bay project Horizon Line Chamber

Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m0001r7r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:41 today]


WED 20:00 Thinking Allowed (m0001r8v)
Identity

Identity: Laurie Taylor presents a special programme exploring the ways in which we define ourselves and gain a sense of belonging – from race, religion and nationality to membership of a subcultural tribe. He talks to Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University, and author of a new book which takes issues with fixed notions of identity; Carrie Dunn, author of a study of female football fandom and Karl Spracklen, Professor of Music, Leisure and Culture at Leeds Beckett University and author of a new book about the ‘Goths’, a counter cultural identity originating in the 1980s.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


WED 20:45 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m0001r7k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]


WED 21:00 Science Stories (m0001r8x)
Series 8

Kepler's Snowflakes

Philip Ball reveals the tale of a small booklet 'On The Six-Cornered Snowflake", written by Johannes Kepler as a New Year's gift. The C17th astronomer wished to explain the intricate and symmetrical shape of winter's tiny stars of snow. His insightful speculations about minerals and geometry was the beginning of the modern understanding of crystals.


WED 21:30 Soul Music (m0001r7h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m0001r8z)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


WED 22:45 A Maigret Christmas (m0001r80)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


WED 23:00 The Damien Slash Mixtape (m0001rjw)
Series 2

Episode 3

Multi-character YouTube star Damien Slash makes the move from online to Radio 4, in this new fast-paced, one-man sketch comedy show. From the surreal to the satirical, from the zeitgeist to the absurd, Damien serves up a range of high octane characters, all from his own voice. Adverts, actors, hipsters, trolls - no aspect of modern life is left un-skewered.

Written by and starring Damien Slash (aka Daniel Barker).
Guest starring Natasia Demetriou
Production coordinated by Hayley Sterling
Produced by Matt Stronge
A BBC Studios production.


WED 23:15 Pick of the Year (m0001qvd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:18 on Tuesday]



THURSDAY 27 DECEMBER 2018

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m0001r91)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:15 Christmas Compass (m0001r93)
Christmas Compass: South

Four festive stories from four corners of the British Isles.

Set in a near future, a woman reflects back on the year that migrating birds returned unexpectedly and everything changed forever.

Nina Sosanya reads Stella Duffy’s potent and poetic story set on the English south coast.

Credits

Writer ….. Stella Duffy
Reader ….. Nina Sosanya
Producer ….. Kirsty Williams

A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (m0001r7m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0001r95)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0001r97)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0001r99)
The latest shipping forecast


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m0001r9c)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0001r9f)
A short reflection and prayer with Canon Noel Battye


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m0001r9h)
A project to wipe out mink... and bring back water voles.

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation is working with a local Wildlife Trust to recruit volunteers in a project to wipe out invasive American mink. After escaping from fur farms in the 50s and 60s, mink have been having a devastating impact on our native wildlife, particularly water voles. They are voracious predators and hunt on land and in the water.

We meet volunteers as they learn how to use special floating traps to detect and catch mink...and visit a site where mink have already been caught.

Could this unusual collaboration between conservationists and the shooting industry bring back one of our most treasured species?

Presented and produced by Heather Simons


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (m0001r9k)
Mistle Thrush (Song)

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

David Attenborough presents the story of the Mistle Thrush. Mistle thrushes are early singers and you'll often hear one singing from the top of a tall tree in windy winter weather. Because of this habit, an old name for the thrush is 'storm cock'.


THU 06:00 Today (m0001rlz)
Radio 4's flagship news and current affairs programme; including Thought for the Day


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0001rm1)
Venus

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet Venus which is both the morning star and the evening star, rotates backwards at walking speed and has a day which is longer than its year. It has long been called Earth’s twin, yet the differences are more striking than the similarities. Once imagined covered with steaming jungles and oceans, we now know the surface of Venus is 450 degrees celsius, and the pressure there is 90 times greater than on Earth, enough to crush an astronaut. The more we learn of it, though, the more we learn of our own planet, such as whether Earth could become more like Venus in some ways, over time.

With

Carolin Crawford
Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy and Fellow of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge

Colin Wilson
Senior Research Fellow in Planetary Science at the University of Oxford

And

Andrew Coates
Professor of Physics at Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London

Produced by: Simon Tillotson and Julia Johnson


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (m0001rnp)
Blowing the Bloody Doors Off

Episode 4

Hollywood legend and British national treasure Sir Michael Caine, now 85, shares some of the lessons that life has taught him in his remarkable career.

One of our best-loved actors, Michael Caine has starred in a huge range of films, including some all-time favourites, from the classic British movies Alfie, Zulu and The Italian Job to the Hollywood blockbusting Dark Knight trilogy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hannah and Her Sisters and Cider House Rules.

In episode 4, Michael Caine recalls his first publicity tour in America and also summarises some of the skills an actor needs to achieve enduring success.

Written and read by Michael Caine
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0001rm5)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m0001rm7)
Good News Stories

Angel Delight

Five contemporary dramas inspired by stories from the old and new testaments by Katie Hims. 4. Angel Delight. Laura is either truly blessed or going crazy. She can't tell which.

Laura ..... Nadia Clifford
Claudia ..... Jeanette Percival
Angel ..... Tony Turner
Rick ..... Cameron Percival
Leila ..... Jayda Pryce
Trumpet .... Peter Ringrose
Writer..... Katie Hims
Director ..... Mary Peate


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m0001rm9)
Armenia: Return to a Town That Died

Thirty years on from the 1988 earthquake in Armenia, what’s happened to the devastated town of Spitak? Rescuers from all over the world came to help search for survivors – among them a team of British firefighters. Now, with reporter Tim Whewell, two of those men are returning - to see how the town’s been rebuilt - and to remember a rescue effort that marked a turning point in East-West relations. The disaster came as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was developing his policy of glasnost (openness) – and his request for foreign assistance was the first such appeal the Kremlin had made in decades. The firefighters relive the drama, grief and courage of those days – and renew old friendships. They discover that Spitak has still not fully recovered from the quake, with many living to this day in squalid temporary housing.

Reporter Tim Whewell.


THU 11:30 How to Play... Beethoven's Symphony No 7 (m0001rmc)
We eavesdrop on rehearsals as world famous conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Southbank Sinfonia prepare for a performance Beethoven’s beloved Symphony No. 7. They give us their insiders' perspective on this celebrated music and show how they work together to make this 200-year-old masterpiece come alive in the concert hall. Sir Roger Norrington shares his experiences of conducting orchestras in Beethoven over the last 50 years, and Erica Buurman looks at what inspired the famously grumpy composer to produce his most joyful symphony yet.

Produced by Chris Taylor for BBC Wales

Photo credit: Sam Olivier


THU 12:00 News Summary (m0001rq7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 A Maigret Christmas (m0001rmh)
Episode Four

Sir Derek Jacobi reads a classic Inspector Maigret mystery by Georges Simenon.

On Christmas Day, as the snow begins to fall in Paris, Inspector Maigret receives two unexpected visitors. A young girl claims to have seen Father Christmas in her room, behaving strangely and cutting a hole in the floor. He agrees to investigate...

Read by Sir Derek Jacobi
Abridged by Lauris Morgan-Griffiths
Written by Georges Simenon & translated by David Coward
Produced by Mair Bosworth


THU 12:18 You and Yours (m0001rmk)
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.


THU 12:57 Weather (m0001rmm)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (m0001rmp)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.


THU 13:45 The Gut Instinct: A Social History (m0001rmr)
4 - The Disease of Civilisation

Tim Hayward journeys through the bowels of history, exploring our changing relationship with the human gut.

Today, scientific research is revealing insights into our gut microbiome - and along with this comes a fear, along with ever-more supporting evidence, that various factors of modern life are damaging to our gut health.

But the idea that modernity itself is somehow incompatible with a healthy gut is not, as Tim finds out in this episode, a new concept.

He discovers how the fear of constipation drove one eminent surgeon to propose the ultimate cure, and learns how indigestion changed the course of political protest. He also encounters writhing serpents, strange new cityscapes - and a flatulent parrot.

Featuring historian of emotions Rhodri Hayward, writer Louise Foxcroft and health historian Elsa Richardson.

Written and presented by Tim Hayward
Produced by Rich Ward
Series consultant: Elsa Richardson
A Somethin Else’ production for BBC Radio 4


THU 14:00 The Archers (m0001r8q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Tracks (p06rtwvg)
Series 3: Tracks - Chimera

Episode Nine

Part 9 of the conspiracy thriller. Written by Matthew Broughton, starring Hattie Morahan and Jonathan Forbes.

Helen gives birth as the series reaches its thrilling climax.

A gripping thriller, chart topping podcast and winner of Best Sound (BBC Audio Drama Awards) and Best Fiction (British Podcast Awards), now Tracks is back with another 9 part headphone filling thrill-ride.

Helen…. Hattie Morahan
Freddy….. Jonathan Forbes
Chloe…. Sinead Matthews
Rebecca…. Carys Eleri
Policeman…. Don Gilet
Mechanic…. Lewis Bray

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


THU 15:00 Open Country (m0001rmv)
Reservoirs and lost villages

In this programme Helen Mark is in Derbyshire to hear the stories of the reservoirs of the Derwent valley. Under one of them, Ladybower, lie the remains of two villages which were demolished and flooded to make way for a new reservoir in the 1940s. After an exceptionally dry year, water levels have dropped so low that the stones of the past can once again been seen emerging from the mud. Helen meets the people who have travelled to the area to catch a glimpse of a long-gone community, and learns about the fascination the story of the lost villages holds. Meanwhile, further up the valley, are the remains of another village - largely ignored by the tourists. Birchinlee, or "tin town" as it was known, was built to house the navvies working on the construction of the other two reservoirs of the valley - Dewent and Howden. Helen meets an archaeologist who shows her how traces of this once-bustling settlement can still be seen in the landscape today.

Produced by Emma Campbell


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m0001q51)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (m0001q60)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m0001rmx)
Nic Roeg

With Francine Stock.

Nic Roeg, who died in November, had a profound effect on many British film-makers. Francine Stock hears from some of the directors who fell under his spell, including Danny Boyle, Asif Kapadia, Carol Morley, Andrew Haigh and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey. And there's a chance to listen to the man himself, including highlights from an edition of The Film Programme that was recorded in Roeg's living room. Plus, Jenny Agutter, Paul Mayersberg, Jeremy Thomas and Terence Stamp from The Film Programme vaults.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0001rmz)
First stars, Life on Mars, Climate update, Control of CRISPR, Jamestown forensic genetics

2018 in space, climate science and genetics with Adam Rutherford and guests. They discuss the first stars, life on Mars, how to control CRISPR and Jamestown forensic genetics.


THU 17:00 PM (m0001rn1)
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0001rn3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:15 Christmas Compass (m0001rn5)
Christmas Compass: East

Four festive stories from four corners of the British Isles.

A young primary school teacher is guided to change the course of her life by a trailblazing head teacher.

Jessica Hardwick reads Ruth Thomas’s playful and evocative story set in Edinburgh.

Credits

Writer ….. Ruth Thomas
Reader ….. Jessica Hardwick
Producer ….. Kirsty Williams

A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4


THU 18:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b087qjzk)
Series 6

Episode 3

John Finnemore, writer and star of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore's Double Acts and regular guest on The Now Show and The Unbelievable Truth, returns for a sixth series of his multi-award-winning Souvenir Programme, joined as ever by Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin, Carrie Quinlan and, at the piano, Susannah Pearse.

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme was described by The Radio Times as "the best sketch show in years, on television or radio", and by The Daily Telegraph as "funny enough to make even the surliest cat laugh". Already the winner of a BBC Audio Drama Award and a Radio Academy Silver Award, John was named the 2016 Radio Broadcaster of the Year by the Broadcasting Press Guild for his work on Souvenir Programme.

3/6
This week's Souvenir Programme has sketches about the worst of the bad coppers; a frustrated one hit-wonder; and the return of Patsy Straightwoman in an exciting new format.

Written by & starring ... John Finnemore
Cast ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Cast ... Simon Kane
Cast ... Lawry Lewin
Cast ... Carrie Quinlan

Original music composed and performed by ... Susannah Pearse

Production Coordinator...Sophie Richardson

Producer ... Ed Morrish

A BBC Studios Production.


THU 19:00 The Archers (m0001rn7)
There's panic at Brookfield and Ruth's nerves get the better of her


THU 19:15 Front Row (m0001rn9)
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m0001rm7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 Face in the Crowd (b0b6phll)
In 1977, Africa Liberation Day took place in Handsworth Park, Birmingham. Vanley Burke was there to document it. Now he meets four of the people he caught on camera.

All children of Windrush immigrants, they were the first generation to be born in this country or, if 'sent for', to grow up here. They share memories of that day in the park.

For some, it was a day of political awakening as they listened to the speakers from across Africa and the Caribbean. For others, a day out with friends. For all, they were facing hostilities their parents did not always understand or acknowledge. Just nine years after Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech in the city and four years before the first of two major riots, this was the height of the SUS laws, as well as poor employment and housing. Educational expectations of the community were low and many were turning to the Rastafari movement for support.

Thought to be the biggest gathering of Black people in Britain at the time, there appear to be no records of it apart from these photographs.

Vanley Burke is one of our leading photographers. He has been documenting the people of Handsworth and Birmingham for nearly 50 years, ever since he arrived from Jamaica in 1965. His photographs are a unique record of everyday lives and troubled times. But for his pictures, the community tells him, they would not be able to tell their history to their children. He has been exhibited in major galleries across the world, but his exhibitions in local venues for local people are equally important to him.

With Vanley Burke, Norville Bynoe, Derek Douglas and sisters Rhonda and Louisa Nisbett.

Photographs copyright Vanley Burke

Sound Engineer: Tony Wass
Voiceover: Chanise Evans
Produced by Caroline Raphael
A Dora production for BBC Radio 4


THU 20:30 In Business (m0001rnc)
On the Rails

It’s been a challenging year on Britain’s railways with timetable chaos, over-running engineering works, cancelled trains and irate passengers, not to mention a private operator handing back control to the government. The transport secretary, Chris Grayling has announced yet another review of the industry. Meanwhile, Labour and many of the public want to see rail re-nationalised. Rail professionals point to the industry’s successes – a doubling in passenger numbers since privatisation, and a current strong safety record. But the government says the rail industry hasn’t kept pace with customer demand. So is there another way? Matthew Gwyther goes to Italy to experience their take on free competition on their high speed lines. He also speaks to rail experts at home – all searching for answers.

Producer Caroline Bayley


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m0001rmz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (m0001rm1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m0001rng)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


THU 22:45 A Maigret Christmas (m0001rmh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


THU 23:00 TEZ Talks (m0001rnj)
Series 3

15. Mischief

Series 3. Episode 7. Teztopian Society.

In this episode, Tez talks about schemes and pranks.

Written and performed by... Tez Ilyas
Produced by... Carl Cooper

This is a BBC Studios Production.


THU 23:15 The Pin (b07vs3n6)
Series 2

Ep 3: Record

Following a hugely successful first series, which drew praise from the likes of David Walliams and Ben Stiller, Alex and Ben are back with their weird twist on the double-act sketch show. Strap in for a 15 minute delve in to a world of oddness performed in front of a live studio audience.

This week, The Pin are out to achieve a very rare record... a radio first.

About The Pin
The Pin are an award-winning comedy duo, and legends of Edinburgh festival. They deconstruct the sketch form, in a show that exists somewhere between razor-sharp smartness and utterly joyous silliness.

After a sold-out run in Edinburgh, and a string of hilarious performances across BBC Radio 4 Extra, BBC 3, Channel 4, and Comedy Central, this is The Pin’s debut solo show for Radio 4. Join them as they celebrate, make, collapse and rebuild their jokes, each other, and probably the radio too.

For fans of Adam and Joe, Vic and Bob, and Fist of Fun - a show of absurd offerings from two loveable idiots.

- 'The Pin prove it's still possible to play with the conventions of the medium of sketch comedy.’ - The Guardian
- 'Knowing and inventive: a 15 minute blast.' - The Times
- 'The sketches are funny, and made special by Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen also examining, subverting and reversing familiar tropes. The material is excellent.' - Radio Times
- 'Eviscerating their chosen form completely.' - The Sunday Times
- 'A very classy, very funny show indeed.' - The Telegraph

Producer: Sam Bryant
A BBC Studios Production


THU 23:30 The Digital Human (b09byh8d)
Series 12

Insatiable

For many of us the modern world is thankfully one of abundance, where we can indulge ourselves at every turn. But why is it so difficult to say when we've had enough; of foods we know aren't good for us, of TV programmes that play the next episode automatically, of the fleeting social connections we get through online platforms?

As advanced as our technological world has become our brains haven't evolved much since we lived on the African Savannah. And all the things that we sought out to survive there remain hardwired into us today. And it's the consequences of that Aleks will explore.

Some of the tricks nature plays on us go even further back in evolution. Take the humble if duplicitous Cuckoo, laying eggs in another bird's nest. When hatched the cuckoo chick's mouth is that bit wider, that bit redder than those it's sharing the nest with (should any other chicks have survived). The result is the deceived parents will feed it preferentially as the best bet for survival. That extra redness and wider gape is an example of a phenomena in animal behaviour called super normal stimuli. We encounter something we like but with its attributes boosted and we go mad for it, there numerous examples across the animal kingdom.

The difference with humans is we've learnt to super-normally stimulate ourselves; with foods with more sugar and fat than occur in nature, with images of the opposite sex carefully manipulated to make them even more arousing. We've mastered how to push our buttons and we do it, or have it done to us repeatedly.

Aleks sees how this plays out across a range of experiences from the playing of slot machines to competitive eating, to learn the tricks being played on us and how we might outsmart the tricksters.

Producer: Peter McManus.



FRIDAY 28 DECEMBER 2018

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m0001rnl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:15 Dr John Cooper Clarke at the BBC (b080w7lv)
Series 1

Twisted Romance

The Bard of Salford performs a mixture of classic and previously unheard poems, recorded at the BBC’s Radio Theatre in London.

Ep 1 - Twisted Romance

Set List:

I Married a Monster from Outta Space
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Avocado Vignette
I Wanna Be Yours

Written and performed by Dr John Cooper Clarke
Introduction by Johnny Green
Produced by Joe Nunnery
A BBC Studios Production


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (m0001rnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0001rnr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0001rnt)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0001rnw)
The latest shipping forecast


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m0001rny)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0001rp0)
A short reflection and prayer with Canon Noel Battye


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m0001rp2)
Could the future of animal feed be insects?

Sybil Ruscoe visits a farm in the Cotswolds where they are nurturing a 'micro-herd'! Brothers Paul and James Wright are breeding black soldier flies with the aim of using their larvae for animal feed. At the moment, the farm is just a prototype, but Sybil learns about the process of breeding flies and asks whether this could be the future of animal feed.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe. Produced by Heather Simons.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0lzb)
Wandering Albatross

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Sir David Attenborough presents the wandering albatross of the South Atlantic Ocean. On the windswept South Georgian Islands, a stiff breeze is ruffling the grass tussocks as a Wandering Albatross is billing and coo-ing to its mate. These huge seabirds, mate for life and can live for 50 years (or more). Longevity is vital for a species which produces only one chick every two years. The chocolate brown youngster takes to the air nine months after hatching, the longest pre-fledging period of any bird, but when it does, it breaks another record, as adults have the longest wingspan of any living bird, which can reach over 5metres.


FRI 06:00 Today (m0001rz8)
Radio 4's flagship news and current affairs programme; including Thought for the Day


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m0001q5h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (m0001s16)
Blowing the Bloody Doors Off

Episode 5

Hollywood legend and British national treasure Sir Michael Caine, now 85, shares some of the lessons that life has taught him in his remarkable career.

One of our best-loved actors, Michael Caine has starred in a huge range of films, including some all-time favourites, from the classic British movies Alfie, Zulu and The Italian Job to the Hollywood blockbusting Dark Knight trilogy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hannah and Her Sisters and Cider House Rules.

In episode 5, Michael Caine reflects on how fame can affect the behaviour of those in the limelight. He looks back on some starstruck encounters and ahead to his continuing role as a granddad.

Written and read by Michael Caine
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0001rzd)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m0001rzg)
Good News Stories

Ms Lazarus

Five contemporary dramas inspired by stories from the old and new testaments by Katie Hims. 5. Ms Lazarus. Laura has a really lucky escape.

Jesus ..... Alex Lanipekun
Atilla ..... Don Gilet
Laura ..... Nadia Clifford
June ..... Rachel Davies
Driver ..... Tony Turner
Receptionist ..... Saffron Coomber
Director ..... Mary Peate
Writer ..... Katie Hims


FRI 11:00 Guy Garvey: Recording Dad (m00010q1)
Guy Garvey spent a decade recording his dad’s stories and now he wants you to do the same.

When Elbow singer Guy Garvey began to record his father Don's anecdotes, he already knew a lot of the stories he was capturing. What he didn't know was his father's childhood memories, his thoughts and feelings, the characters of long-gone family members, the stories which were much more touching and personal - or, as Guy describes it, 'the tales without a punchline'.

Once he got his dad talking, a wealth of new stories emerged which helped Guy form a deeper bond with his dad and painted a vivid picture of a child in wartime Manchester. When Don died in March 2018, Guy realised how precious these recordings were - not just to him but also to his siblings and future generations of his family.

Now he’s on a mission to encourage others to record their parents before it's too late.

With contributions from Professor Catherine Loveday of the University of Westminster, BBC Technical Producer Sue Stonestreet, Paddy O’Connell and, of course, Mr Donald Garvey and his son Guy.

A Snoball production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 11:30 There Was A Young Fellow Named Palin (m0001rzj)
Michael Palin, Britain’s nicest man, is probably Britain’s busiest man too, which might explain why he’s asked James Peak to step in and write him some limericks.

Limericks are the simplest of verse forms - only five lines, a bit of rhyming, and half of the first line "There once was a..." is already written for you.

It's child’s play you’d think - but writing a really good limerick is not as easy as it sounds.

Join Michael and James for a ridiculous half hour that proves, once and for all, that if you want something doing properly you should do it yourself.

With thanks to the National Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre.

Window Cleaner ….. Harriet Carmichael
Limerick Expert ….. Chris McCabe (as himself)

Written by Michael Palin and James Peak.

Producers: Andre Jacquemin and James Peak

A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m0001s23)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 A Maigret Christmas (m0001rzn)
Episode Five

Sir Derek Jacobi reads a classic Inspector Maigret mystery by Georges Simenon.

On Christmas Day, as the snow begins to fall in Paris, Inspector Maigret receives two unexpected visitors. A young girl claims to have seen Father Christmas in her room, behaving strangely and cutting a hole in the floor. He agrees to investigate...

Read by Sir Derek Jacobi
Abridged by Lauris Morgan-Griffiths
Written by Georges Simenon & translated by David Coward
Produced by Mair Bosworth


FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m0001rzq)
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.


FRI 12:57 Weather (m0001rzs)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (m0001rzv)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.


FRI 13:45 The Gut Instinct: A Social History (m0001rzx)
5 - The Gut Speaks

Tim Hayward journeys through the bowels of history, exploring our changing relationship with the human gut.

In the final episode, food writer and restaurant owner Tim asks what our guts have been trying to tell us. There are goblins, demons and angry gods - as well as a book written by a stomach - and Tim discovers that gut sounds might just be the key to a whole new understanding of our insides.

With historian of science and literature Emilie Taylor-Brown, Barry Marshall and Mary Webberley from the Noisy Guts Project, and medical and cultural historian Elsa Richardson.

Written and presented by Tim Hayward
Produced by Rich Ward
Series consultant: Elsa Richardson
A Somethin Else’ production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0001rn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (m0001rzz)
Porcelain

Are you a witch, or are you a fairy
Or are you the wife of Michael Cleary?

Jessie Buckley stars as Hat, an overqualified admin assistant who grew up in the shadow of a fairy fort, famously the site of the murder of Bridget Cleary. And when Hat's life changes, unexpectedly, her familiar mythologies are all that can make sense of her world.

Hat ….. Jessie Buckley
Bill ….. Don Gilet
Silvertongue ….. Emma Handy
Sarah ….. Niamh Denyer
Michael ….. Alan Mahon
Bridget ….. Lucy Doyle

Written by Margaret Perry
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole

Notes

What are now identifiable psychological syndromes, used to be attributed to the intervention of other realms. Capgras Delusion, the belief that a close family member has been replaced by an identical impostor gave impetus to the notion of changelings, while the old ‘shapeshifter’ myth that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance is now called Fregoli Delusion. In Porcelain, Margaret Perry lightly weaves these two conditions into this story of past and present, psyche and myth.

Bridget Cleary was an Irish woman killed by her husband in Tipperary in 1895. Her husband believed that she had been abducted by fairies with a changeling left in her place; a belief so fervent he invited her family to witness the killing of the changeling.

Margaret Perry is a playwright and poet, under commission to Bush Theatre, and the Yard. She was a Barbican Young Poet from 2015-2015, and is published in New River Press’s Yearbook 2017. Porcelain premiered at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin early in 2018.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0001s01)
North Downs

Eric Robson hosts the programme from the Kentish North Downs. Matthew Wilson, Pippa Greenwood and Christine Walkden answer the questions.

The panellists discuss plants that rabbits won't devour, planting alliums, and replacing a columnar juniper.

They also make suggestions for climbers and hedges, and native plants, and consider which heritage tree they would pass onto future generations.

Peter Gibbs chats to BBC technology correspondent Jane Wakefield and puts gardening apps to the test.

Produced by Laurence Bassett
Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m0001s03)
Fear of Flying by Anna Freeman

A woman and her new boyfriend take a trip. But can she conquer her fear of flying? An original short work for radio by Anna Freeman.

Anna is a novelist, a multiple poetry slam champion, am associate lecturer in creative writing at Bath Spa University and the producer of Bristol's acclaimed spoken word series, Blahblahblah. She is the author of two novels, The Fair Fight, a historical adventure set within the world of female prize-fighters and their patrons in 18th century Bristol, and Five Days of Fog, which follows a gang of female criminals through the great smog of 1952.

Produced by Mair Bosworth
Written and performed by Anna Freeman


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m0001s05)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.


FRI 16:30 A Good Read (b09cz3mf)
Rick Edwards and George Lamb

Presenters Rick Edwards and George Lamb join Harriett Gilbert to talk favourite books, including Dave Eggers' Heroes of the Frontier and Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam. Producer Sally Heaven.


FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (m0001s07)
Katrina and William - The Joy of Long-distance Horse Riding

Two friends share their deep love of travelling long distances on horseback. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.


FRI 17:00 PM (m0001s09)
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0001s0c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:15 Christmas Compass (m0001s0f)
Christmas Compass: West

Four festive stories from four corners of the British Isles.

Lucianne McEvoy reads Mike McCormack’s atmospheric story about the inhabitants of a divided village in the West of Ireland who gather for a new Christmas tradition.

Mike McCormack is an Irish novelist and short story writer who recently won the International Dublin Literary Award for his book, Solar Bones.

Writer ….. Mike McCormack
Reader ….. Lucianne McEvoy
Producer ….. Gaynor Macfarlane

A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m0001s0h)
Series 98

Best of 2018

In this special programme, Miles Jupp looks back at the best bits of News Quizzing from 2018. Featuring news stories big and small from international diplomatic wranglings to the pomp of a royal wedding via some less familiar "and finally" whimsy. Also features the pick of listener cuttings sent in across the year - well, the broadcastable ones at least.

Writer: Mike Shephard
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m0001s0l)
Writer ..... Caroline Harrington
Director ..... Jeremy Howe
Editor ..... Jeremy Howe

Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ..... Daisy Badger
Josh Archer ..... Angus Imrie
Ben Archer ...... Ben Norris
Jolene Archer ..... Buffy Davis
Tony Archer ..... David Troughton
Brian Aldridge .... Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Ruairi Donovan ..... Arthur Hughes
Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde
PC Harrison Burns ..... James Cartwright
Eddie Grundy ..... Trevor Harrison
Will Grundy ..... Philip Molloy
Emma Grundy .... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy ..... Barry Farrimond
Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Lily Pargetter ..... Katie Redford
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ..... Michael Cochrane
Russ ..... Andonis James Antony


FRI 19:15 Front Row (m0001s0n)
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m0001rzg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Correspondents Look Ahead (m0001s0q)
Correspondents Look Ahead 2018

How do you look ahead in a world which constantly takes us by surprise, sometimes shocks us and often makes us ask 'what happens next?'

Who would have predicted that President Trump would, to use his words, fall in love with the North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, whose country he had threatened to totally destroy? Who could have imagined that a prominent Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, would be murdered and dismembered in a Saudi Consulate? And, on a happier note, we’re relieved that, as the year ends a climate change conference in Poland did manage to save the Paris pact, and maybe our world.

The BBC's chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet talks to correspondents from around the globe about what might happen in the world in 2019.

Guests:

Katya Adler, Europe editor
Yolande Knell, Middle East correspondent
James Robbins, Diplomatic correspondent
Steve Rosenberg, Moscow correspondent
Jon Sopel, North America editor

Producer: Ben Carter
Editor: Penny Murphy


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0001s0s)
To Parks

Howard Jacobson on the joys of city parks.

"I am, and always have been, a lover of city parks", he writes. "A park finishes, that's its beauty. It is circumscribed. If you want more you can walk it twice. If you want less you can slip back out into the city".

Producer: Adele Armstrong


FRI 21:00 Living With The Gods (m0001s0v)
Living With The Gods Omnibus

Powers Earthly and Divine

Neil MacGregor concludes the omnibus editions of his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time.

In this final programme he considers how communities of faith can flourish in societies run by politicians, and explores the societies that reject faith altogether. He also looks at the dangers of politicians imposing one faith over another, and celebrates how we can live together.

Producer Paul Kobrak

The series is produced in partnership with the British Museum, with the assistance of Dr Christopher Harding, University of Edinburgh.
Photograph © The Trustees of the British Museum


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m0001s0x)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 A Maigret Christmas (m0001rzn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


FRI 23:00 Woman's Hour (m0001s0z)
Late Night Woman's Hour

Lauren Laverne and guests partake of a few nocturnal frank and funny conversations.


FRI 23:30 Great Lives (b0924kwx)
Series 43

Sathnam Sanghera on Alexander Gardner

Author and Journalist Sathnam Sanghera nominates a Great Life; a man dismissed as a fantasist and a liar in his own lifetime. Alexander Gardner was a Scottish-American soldier, a traveller, an explorer and adventurer - a white man with a tartan turban, who ended up in India in a Maharaja's Sikh Army in the 19th Century, just before the British Raj took over. Possibly a plagiarist and touted as a scoundrel, yet Sathnam claims he's worthy of a bigger place in history. If just a tiny portion of what we think we know about him is true, he is a genuinely remarkable figure.

Joining Sathnam is our expert witness to Gardner's life, the historian John Keay.

The presenter is Matthew Parris, and the Producer is Perminder Khatkar.


FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (m0001s12)
Karen and John - The good and bad of gaming

Mother and son reflect on the pros and cons on gaming. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.




LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)

15 Minute Drama 10:45 MON (m0001qhb)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 MON (m0001qhb)

15 Minute Drama 10:45 TUE (m0001qv3)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 TUE (m0001qv3)

15 Minute Drama 10:41 WED (m0001r7r)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 WED (m0001r7r)

15 Minute Drama 10:45 THU (m0001rm7)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 THU (m0001rm7)

15 Minute Drama 10:45 FRI (m0001rzg)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 FRI (m0001rzg)

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols 15:00 MON (m0001vyk)

A Good Read 16:30 FRI (b09cz3mf)

A Maigret Christmas 12:04 MON (m0001qhm)

A Maigret Christmas 22:45 MON (m0001qhm)

A Maigret Christmas 12:04 TUE (m0001qvb)

A Maigret Christmas 22:45 TUE (m0001qvb)

A Maigret Christmas 12:04 WED (m0001r80)

A Maigret Christmas 22:45 WED (m0001r80)

A Maigret Christmas 12:04 THU (m0001rmh)

A Maigret Christmas 22:45 THU (m0001rmh)

A Maigret Christmas 12:04 FRI (m0001rzn)

A Maigret Christmas 22:45 FRI (m0001rzn)

A Point of View 08:48 SUN (m0001p7q)

A Point of View 20:50 FRI (m0001s0s)

An Audience for the Queen 11:30 TUE (m0001qv6)

Any Answers? 14:00 SAT (m0001pjf)

Any Questions? 13:10 SAT (m0001p7n)

Archive on 4 20:00 SAT (m0001pk3)

Archive on 4 22:00 SUN (b09nqnxw)

BBC Inside Science 16:30 THU (m0001rmz)

BBC Inside Science 21:00 THU (m0001rmz)

Bells on Sunday 05:43 SUN (m0001pkk)

Bells on Sunday 00:45 MON (m0001pkk)

Beyond Belief 16:30 MON (m0001qj0)

Book of the Week 00:30 SAT (m0001p62)

Book of the Week 09:45 MON (m0001qh5)

Book of the Week 09:45 TUE (m0001qwq)

Book of the Week 00:30 WED (m0001qwq)

Book of the Week 09:45 WED (m0001r7m)

Book of the Week 00:30 THU (m0001r7m)

Book of the Week 09:45 THU (m0001rnp)

Book of the Week 00:30 FRI (m0001rnp)

Book of the Week 09:45 FRI (m0001s16)

Brexit on the Border 22:15 SAT (m0001l8p)

Broadcasting House 09:00 SUN (m0001q5c)

Christmas Compass 15:15 TUE (m0001qvq)

Christmas Compass 00:15 THU (m0001r93)

Christmas Compass 18:15 THU (m0001rn5)

Christmas Compass 18:15 FRI (m0001s0f)

Christmas Meditation with Paul Kerensa 00:15 WED (m0001qwn)

Christmas Service 09:00 TUE (m0001qtx)

Conversations from a Long Marriage at Christmas 11:30 MON (m0001qhh)

Correspondents Look Ahead 20:00 FRI (m0001s0q)

Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! 18:30 WED (m0001r8n)

Crossing Continents 20:30 MON (m0001m7c)

Crossing Continents 11:00 THU (m0001rm9)

David Sedaris: Death Knows No Season 21:00 TUE (b086kp8n)

Dead Ringers 12:30 SAT (m0001p7g)

Desert Island Discs 11:15 SUN (m0001q5h)

Desert Island Discs 09:00 FRI (m0001q5h)

Dr John Cooper Clarke at the BBC 00:15 FRI (b080w7lv)

Drama 14:30 SAT (m0001pjh)

Drama 21:00 SAT (m0001mtp)

Drama 15:00 SUN (m0001q5y)

Drama 14:15 MON (b085trpc)

Drama 14:15 TUE (m0001qvl)

Drama 14:15 WED (m0001r8b)

Drama 15:00 WED (m0001rjt)

Drama 14:15 FRI (m0001rzz)

Face in the Crowd 20:00 THU (b0b6phll)

Farming Today 06:30 SAT (m0001phs)

Farming Today 05:45 MON (m0001q70)

Farming Today 05:45 TUE (m0001qk4)

Farming Today 05:45 WED (m0001qx3)

Farming Today 05:45 THU (m0001r9h)

Farming Today 05:45 FRI (m0001rp2)

Feedback 20:00 SUN (m0001p76)

From Our Home Correspondent 13:30 SUN (m0001q5t)

From Our Home Correspondent 23:30 TUE (m0001q5t)

From Our Own Correspondent 11:30 SAT (m0001pj3)

Front Row 19:15 MON (m0001qjg)

Front Row 19:15 TUE (m0001qwc)

Front Row 19:15 WED (m0001r8s)

Front Row 19:15 THU (m0001rn9)

Front Row 19:15 FRI (m0001s0n)

Game Over, Humans 20:00 MON (m0001qjj)

Game Over, Humans 11:00 WED (m0001qjj)

Gardeners' Question Time 14:00 SUN (m0001p6y)

Gardeners' Question Time 15:00 FRI (m0001s01)

George Soros and His Enemies 21:00 MON (m0001mdd)

Great Lives 16:30 TUE (m0001qvy)

Great Lives 23:30 FRI (b0924kwx)

Guy Garvey: Recording Dad 11:00 FRI (m00010q1)

HM The Queen 15:00 TUE (m0001qvn)

How to Play... Beethoven's Symphony No 7 11:30 THU (m0001rmc)

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue 12:04 SUN (m0001mnx)

In Business 21:30 SUN (m0001m8k)

In Business 20:30 THU (m0001rnc)

In Our Time 09:00 THU (m0001rm1)

In Our Time 21:30 THU (m0001rm1)

In Touch 20:30 TUE (m0001qwf)

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme 18:30 THU (b087qjzk)

Last Word 20:30 SUN (m0001p74)

Last Word 16:00 FRI (m0001s05)

Living With The Gods 21:00 FRI (m0001s0v)

Loose Ends 18:15 SAT (m0001pjx)

Mastertapes 23:00 MON (m0001qjp)

Mastertapes 15:30 TUE (m0001qvt)

Midnight Mass 23:30 MON (m0001qjr)

Midnight News 00:00 SAT (m0001p81)

Midnight News 00:00 SUN (m0001pk7)

Midnight News 00:00 MON (m0001q6m)

Midnight News 00:00 WED (m0001qwl)

Midnight News 00:00 THU (m0001r91)

Midnight News 00:00 FRI (m0001rnl)

Money Box 12:04 SAT (m0001pj7)

Money Box 21:00 SUN (m0001pj7)

News Briefing 05:30 SAT (m0001p89)

News Briefing 05:30 SUN (m0001pkh)

News Briefing 05:30 MON (m0001q6w)

News Briefing 05:30 TUE (m0001qk0)

News Briefing 05:30 WED (m0001qwz)

News Briefing 05:30 THU (m0001r9c)

News Briefing 05:30 FRI (m0001rny)

News Headlines 06:00 SUN (m0001q4n)

News Summary 12:00 SAT (m0001pj5)

News Summary 12:00 SUN (m0001q74)

News Summary 12:00 MON (m0001qhk)

News Summary 12:00 TUE (m0001qy3)

News Summary 15:05 TUE (m0001rtz)

News Summary 12:00 WED (m0001r7y)

News Summary 12:00 THU (m0001rq7)

News Summary 12:00 FRI (m0001s23)

News and Papers 06:00 SAT (m0001phq)

News and Papers 07:00 SUN (m0001q4x)

News and Papers 08:00 SUN (m0001q55)

News and Weather 22:00 SAT (m0001pk5)

News and Weather 13:00 TUE (m0001rtx)

News 13:00 SAT (m0001pjc)

Once in Royal David's City 13:15 TUE (m0001r53)

Open Book 16:00 SUN (m0001q60)

Open Book 15:30 THU (m0001q60)

Open Country 06:07 SAT (m0001m7x)

Open Country 15:00 THU (m0001rmv)

PM 17:00 SAT (m0001pjm)

PM 17:00 MON (m0001qj2)

PM 17:00 WED (m0001r8g)

PM 17:00 THU (m0001rn1)

PM 17:00 FRI (m0001s09)

Party 11:30 WED (m0001r7w)

Pick of the Week 18:15 SUN (m0001q6b)

Pick of the Year 12:18 TUE (m0001qvd)

Pick of the Year 23:15 WED (m0001qvd)

Poems for the Winter Solstice 16:30 SUN (m0001q62)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 SAT (m0001p8c)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 MON (m0001q6y)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 TUE (m0001qk2)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 WED (m0001qx1)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 THU (m0001r9f)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 FRI (m0001rp0)

Profile 19:00 SAT (m0001pjz)

Profile 05:45 SUN (m0001pjz)

Profile 17:40 SUN (m0001pjz)

Radio 4 Appeal 07:54 SUN (m0001q51)

Radio 4 Appeal 21:25 SUN (m0001q51)

Radio 4 Appeal 15:27 THU (m0001q51)

Saturday Live 09:00 SAT (m0001phz)

Saturday Review 19:15 SAT (m0001pk1)

Science Stories 21:00 WED (m0001r8x)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 SAT (m0001p85)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 SUN (m0001pkc)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 MON (m0001q6r)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 TUE (m0001qjw)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 WED (m0001qwv)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 THU (m0001r97)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 FRI (m0001rnt)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 SAT (m0001p83)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 SAT (m0001p87)

Shipping Forecast 17:54 SAT (m0001pjq)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 SUN (m0001pk9)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 SUN (m0001pkf)

Shipping Forecast 17:54 SUN (m0001q64)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 MON (m0001q6p)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 MON (m0001q6t)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 TUE (m0001qjt)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 TUE (m0001qjy)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 WED (m0001qws)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 WED (m0001qwx)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 THU (m0001r95)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 THU (m0001r99)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 FRI (m0001rnr)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 FRI (m0001rnw)

Short Cuts 16:00 TUE (m0001qvw)

Short Works 00:30 SUN (m0001p70)

Short Works 15:45 FRI (m0001s03)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 SAT (m0001pjv)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 SUN (m0001q68)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 MON (m0001qj4)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 TUE (m0001qw3)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 WED (m0001r8j)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 THU (m0001rn3)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 FRI (m0001s0c)

Something Understood 06:05 SUN (m0001q4q)

Something Understood 23:30 SUN (m0001q4q)

Soul Music 09:00 WED (m0001r7h)

Soul Music 21:30 WED (m0001r7h)

Start the Week 09:00 MON (m0001qh3)

Start the Week 21:30 MON (m0001qh3)

Sunday Worship 08:10 SUN (m0001q57)

Sunday 07:10 SUN (m0001q4z)

TEZ Talks 23:00 THU (m0001rnj)

The Archers Omnibus 10:00 SUN (m0001q5f)

The Archers 19:00 SUN (m0001q6d)

The Archers 14:00 MON (m0001q6d)

The Archers 19:00 MON (m0001qjd)

The Archers 14:00 TUE (m0001qjd)

The Archers 19:00 TUE (m0001qw9)

The Archers 14:00 WED (m0001qw9)

The Archers 19:00 WED (m0001r8q)

The Archers 14:00 THU (m0001r8q)

The Archers 19:00 THU (m0001rn7)

The Archers 14:00 FRI (m0001rn7)

The Archers 19:00 FRI (m0001s0l)

The Art of Living 15:30 SAT (m0001mdg)

The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry 09:30 WED (m0001r7k)

The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry 20:45 WED (m0001r7k)

The Damien Slash Mixtape 23:00 WED (m0001rjw)

The Digital Human 23:30 THU (b09byh8d)

The Eternal Life of the Instant Noodle 20:00 TUE (b0bkv4f3)

The Film Programme 23:00 SUN (m0001m83)

The Film Programme 16:00 THU (m0001rmx)

The Food Programme 12:32 SUN (m0001q5m)

The Food Programme 11:00 TUE (m0001q5m)

The Gut Instinct: A Social History 13:45 MON (m0001qhx)

The Gut Instinct: A Social History 13:45 TUE (m0001qvj)

The Gut Instinct: A Social History 13:45 WED (m0001r88)

The Gut Instinct: A Social History 13:45 THU (m0001rmr)

The Gut Instinct: A Social History 13:45 FRI (m0001rzx)

The Listening Project 14:45 SUN (m0001q5w)

The Listening Project 17:00 TUE (m0001qw1)

The Listening Project 06:00 WED (m0001qw1)

The Listening Project 10:55 WED (m0001r7t)

The Listening Project 16:55 FRI (m0001s07)

The Listening Project 23:55 FRI (m0001s12)

The Living World 06:35 SUN (m0001q4s)

The Media Show 16:30 WED (m0001r8d)

The Museum of Curiosity 08:00 TUE (m0001qtv)

The News Quiz 18:30 FRI (m0001s0h)

The Pin 23:15 THU (b07vs3n6)

The Power of Twitter 17:00 SUN (m0001mfg)

The Shuttleworths 19:15 SUN (m0001q6g)

The Tim Vine Chat Show 18:30 TUE (m0001qw7)

The Tyranny of Story 10:30 SAT (b0bgpp9r)

The Unbelievable Truth 18:30 MON (m0001qj9)

The Untold 11:00 MON (m0001qhf)

The Week in Westminster 11:00 SAT (m0001pj1)

The World This Weekend 13:00 SUN (m0001q5r)

The World Tonight 22:00 MON (m0001qjm)

The World Tonight 22:00 WED (m0001r8z)

The World Tonight 22:00 THU (m0001rng)

The World Tonight 22:00 FRI (m0001s0x)

There Was A Young Fellow Named Palin 11:30 FRI (m0001rzj)

Thinking Allowed 00:15 MON (m0001l85)

Thinking Allowed 20:00 WED (m0001r8v)

Today 07:00 SAT (m0001phx)

Today 06:00 MON (m0001qh1)

Today 07:00 WED (m0001r7f)

Today 06:00 THU (m0001rlz)

Today 06:00 FRI (m0001rz8)

Tracks 14:15 THU (p06rtwvg)

Turbulence 19:45 SUN (m0001q6j)

Tweet of the Day 08:58 SUN (m0001q59)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 MON (b04t0lwc)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 TUE (b04t0ly5)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 WED (b04t0hjv)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 THU (m0001r9k)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 FRI (b04t0lzb)

Uncorked 18:15 MON (m0001qj6)

Uncorked 18:15 TUE (m0001qw5)

Uncorked 18:15 WED (m0001r8l)

Voices of the First World War 06:00 TUE (m0001qtq)

WIQ 23:00 SAT (m0001mnj)

Weather 06:57 SAT (m0001phv)

Weather 12:57 SAT (m0001pj9)

Weather 17:57 SAT (m0001pjs)

Weather 06:57 SUN (m0001q4v)

Weather 07:57 SUN (m0001q53)

Weather 12:57 SUN (m0001q5p)

Weather 17:57 SUN (m0001q66)

Weather 05:56 MON (m0001q72)

Weather 12:57 MON (m0001qhs)

Weather 13:13 TUE (m0001qvg)

Weather 12:57 WED (m0001r84)

Weather 12:57 THU (m0001rmm)

Weather 12:57 FRI (m0001rzs)

Welsh Ladies 23:30 SAT (m0001mtr)

Wireless Nights 23:00 TUE (m0001qwj)

With Great Pleasure 07:00 TUE (m0001qts)

With Great Pleasure 22:00 TUE (m0001qts)

Woman's Hour 16:00 SAT (m0001pjk)

Woman's Hour 10:00 MON (m0001qh8)

Woman's Hour 10:00 TUE (m0001qv1)

Woman's Hour 10:00 WED (m0001r7p)

Woman's Hour 10:00 THU (m0001rm5)

Woman's Hour 10:00 FRI (m0001rzd)

Woman's Hour 23:00 FRI (m0001s0z)

World at One 13:00 MON (m0001qhv)

World at One 13:00 WED (m0001r86)

World at One 13:00 THU (m0001rmp)

World at One 13:00 FRI (m0001rzv)

You and Yours 12:18 MON (m0001qhq)

You and Yours 12:18 WED (m0001r82)

You and Yours 12:18 THU (m0001rmk)

You and Yours 12:18 FRI (m0001rzq)

iPM 05:45 SAT (m0001p8f)

iPM 17:30 SAT (m0001p8f)