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 14 DECEMBER 2019

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000c4t5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 Three-a-Penny (m000c4rk)
The Detection Club

Diana Quick reads the autobiography of Lucy Malleson, a detective writer of the 1930s and 40s who wrote under the name Anthony Gilbert.

As her novels begin to be published, Lucy Malleson’s reputation as a writer grows and she is invited to become a member of “the Detection Club” by the famous Dorothy Sayers.

Becoming a member of this writers’ club involves a highly theatrical ceremony. It stars both Dorothy Sayers and G KChesterton, who is the President of the club, and features a procession with torches, long black robes, and a skull. Lucy gives a humorous description of this peculiar ceremony and looks back wryly at her own somewhat snobbish ambitions as an aspiring writer.

Meanwhile, though, unemployment is growing in the early 1930s.

“By 1933 the Slump had spread like the plague. For the unemployed, the cry of 'Too old at 40' was becoming 'Too old at 30'. One felt most for the men, because as a rule they had families to support, but it was bad for the women too. When nobody wants what you have to offer you begin to doubt your own value as a human being.”

Lucy decides to investigate for herself what it’s like trying to find employment as a secretary, and talks to others who are also looking for work.

“’You see stars at first,’ said one unemployed man to me,’and then you see sense. You realise that there are only a certain number of jobs left, and in every job, like a rabbit in a hole, some other chap is crouched. What you’ve got to do it watch till he’s off his guard and then bounce him out of his hole. The devil of it is everybody’s got the wind up. Everybody’s on guard now.'”

Lucy Malleson’s sharp and astonishingly modern account of working life is vividly brought to life by Diana Quick.

Reader: Diana Quick
Producer: Elizabeth Burke

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000c4t8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000c4tg)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000c4tn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m000c4tw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000c4v1)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Jo Bailey Wells

Good morning.

Last week I was on crowded a commuter train. That itself wasn’t unusual but what was utterly radical to someone who lives in the South East, was that PEOPLE WERE TALKING. As you might guess, this was not Surrey but Yorkshire. Of course I couldn’t help but listen in. We were in one of those trains with 3-seater rows, facing each other knee-to-knee. It began with two people comparing their phone covers and it ended up including 5 of the 6 of us, covering everything from fridge-freezers and teenagers’ phone contracts to protecting the elderly from scammers and the demands of work that day. I was hesitant to join in at first; but with hindsight it felt like a gift, a gift of inclusion, the kindness of strangers. It was just a 20-minute commute but it transformed the rest of my day.

"I've always depended on the kindness of strangers" said Blanche DuBois in ‘A Streetcar named Desire’. So why did I resist it here? I wonder: what strangers might I encounter today? Where is the scope for showing kindness or receiving kindness? It costs so little yet its potential to transform is so great.

So our prayer today is very specific. Just see how God might answer it!

God of radical inclusion, enlarge my world today through the gift of a stranger. Open my eyes to where I may show kindness. And open my heart to receiving kindness from others. I ask that such kindness might transform this day so strangers become friends, after the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who dares to call us his friends.

Amen.


SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m000c4tp)
Life In Transit

Louise Doughty, whose novels include Apple Tree Yard, explains why Peterborough railway station, the setting of her latest novel, has particular significance in her life as a place of transit. As she journeys back into her past, she discovers her own personal history sheds light on the experience of others.
Recorded at Primadonna literature and arts festival in Suffolk.
Presenter: Farrah Jarral
Producer: Sheila Cook


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000cbt0)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m000d0x6)
Painshill in Surrey - lost and found

In the 18th Century Charles Hamilton created Painshill, an early example of the English Landscape Garden. He redeveloped land in Cobham in Surrey to create a circuit garden with buildings inspired by his grand tours and he introduced plants being brought to Britain by traders. He aimed to create a living work of art with changes in mood and creating a 'hide and reveal' of the features. It was hugely influential with visitors from the USA and across Europe coming to view and recreate his new style of garden - seen as a work of art in itself. Yet the land was sold and passed through different hands and became overgrown, the buildings crumbled and Painshill forgotten about. In the 1960s a teenage local history enthusiast, David Taylor, read about the place and rediscovered it one dramatic night. He wrote an article for the local paper urging an effort to chart what was there before it was lost entirely. His words inspired a stronger momentum and the land was bought by the council and work began to research the original vision and recreate Hamilton's Painshill Park. The work has lasted decades and while featured like the Gothic Temple, crystal grotto and Turkish Tent have been done, the Temple of Bacchus interior is the new challenge for 2020. Helen Mark finds out more about how Hamilton's influential vision was almost lost and how those involved just can't give up working to restore it. Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock, BBC Radio and Music Production Bristol


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m000cbt2)
Farming Today This Week

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside


SAT 06:57 Weather (m000cbt4)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (m000cbt6)
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m000cbt8)
Jason Manford

Jason Manford began his stand up career at the age of 17 and was nominated for the Perrier Award in Edinburgh in 2005 at just 24. As he embarks on a starring role in the West End run of Curtains, Jason tells Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir why he won't be pigeonholed.

Justin Myers had been secretly detailing his romantic encounters and reviewing dates in the Blind Date column in the Guardian Weekend Magazine on his blog The Guyliner for ten years. Then he began to receive messages threatening to reveal his true identity. After deciding to unmask himself, Justin’s career has taken off; he published his first novel last year and his second novel The Magnificent Sons is out next year.

Esther Rutter grew up on a sheep farm in Suffolk, where she learned to knit at the age of seven. She’s been an enthusiastic knitter ever since and last year, she set out to write a history of the craft, a journey which took her across the country, from Shetland to Guernsey.

Lara Band is a listener who emailed Saturday Live about her unusual hobby - creating dioramas of Pre-Raphaelite paintings using mummified rodents.

Producer: Laura Northedge
Editor: Eleanor Garland


SAT 10:30 James Veitch's Contractual Obligation (m000cbtb)
Deepfakes

Comedian star James Veitch enters the murky world of deepfakes.

James is concerned the BBC may not commission another series of his show.

He hits on an idea which might persuade BBC bosses: deepfake his producer.

Producer: Laurence Grissell


SAT 11:00 Electioncast (m000cbtd)
Adam Fleming and the BBC's politics team bring you the essential guide to the 2019 UK general election.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m000cbtg)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m000ccmj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m000cbtl)
The battle for buying your freehold at a fair price

It's been described as a "David and Goliath" contest. Hundreds of leasehold home owners have joined together - for the first time - to begin a legal fight to take control of the freehold on their properties. They want investment companies, which bought the freeholds, to sell them for a fair price.

Renovare is a new 'banking solution' for ex-offenders, charging £7.99 a month for its services. We speak to Chief Executive David Bright about their funding model.

And now we know Brexit will happen, what do we know it will mean for your consumer rights and personal finances?

The battle for a fair price to buy your freehold

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Producer: Alex Lewis
Editor: Emma Rippon


SAT 12:30 Dead Ringers (m000c4sj)
Christmas Specials 2019

Election Special 2019

With each sketch being written within moments of the results, this promises to be the most up-to-the-minute show in the programme’s history. Recorded at lunchtime and edited in the afternoon, every twist, turn and embarrassing face-saving platitude will be examined.

Staring Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis McLeod, Duncan Wisbey, Deborah Stevenson.

The writing team for the series: Tom Jamieson & Nev Fountain, Laurence Howarth, Sarah Campbell, Ed Amsden & Tom Coles, James Bugg, Sara Gibbs, Simon Alcock, Alex Hardy and others.


SAT 12:57 Weather (m000cbtn)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m000cbtq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m000c4sr)
Therese Coffey MP, Barry Gardiner MP, Liam Halligan, Layla Moran MP

Chris Mason presents political debate from Saffron Hall in Essex with the Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey MP, Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner MP, the journalist Liam Halligan and the Liberal Democrat's Education spokesperson Layla Moran MP.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m000cbts)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 Three Sisters Rewired (m000cbtv)
Episode 1

Three Sisters Rewired, written and directed by established team Polly Thomas and Jenny Sealey, is a radical reworking of Chekhov.

This is not a faithful modernisation of the Russian original – it is a complete overhaul exploring how, even in the modern world, isolation and stagnation are the daily lot of many. Set in 21st century Yorkshire, Moscow becomes London. On an isolated farm, three sisters - Olivia, Maisie and Iris – struggle to survive on a financially draining farm, with intermittent internet, and a sense of dislocation from the rest of the world.

Jenny Sealey, artistic director of Graeae Theatre, has always wanted to tackle Three Sisters through the prism of Deafness. She was struck by Chekhov's characters being metaphorically deaf (as Michael Frayn points out in his foreword) and how little the three sisters actually talk in the play. This new take gives a voice to three sisters and makes them literally Deaf.

Jenny says, "Deaf people do arguably exist within their own monologue, unhindered by outside distraction of sound, but in order to communicate, they have to look intently so as not to miss any information. Their varying degrees of Deafness also can underpin the hierarchy between them – who is more Deaf, who heard what, who is the best lipreader? The sisters’ frustration with the world is not because they are Deaf, but because they are bored. Their longing for London is paramount, to get away from the dullness of their existence, but naturally their Deafness unconsciously informs everything. Three Sisters Rewired is about how we listen or don’t listen, how whether we are deaf or not, we all have selective communication, closing our ears and eyes to the world around us."

As in previous productions for Radio 4 by Graeae Theatre and Naked Productions, the cast is a mix of Deaf, disabled and non-disabled actors. The flute is played by Deaf flautist, Ruth Montgomery, who taught herself to play through the vibrations of the instrument.

Episode 1:
We meet Olivia, Maisie and Iris on Iris’ 20th birthday. Olivia, the eldest, is single and a teacher in an all girls school. Maisie works the farm, and is unhappily married to local teacher, Kevin. Iris is a vlogger, hoping army boy Tyrone – or maybe Sean - will take her to the bright lights of London. Angus, their brother, is a thwarted Quietism academic, trapped by his love for local small-town girl Natalie. A year later, Angus and Natalie have a son, Bobby, Their housekeeper Anna, tries to keep the family together as Angus gambles, Iris pits Tyrone and Sean against each other, Maisie falls in love with the married Colonel Victoria Thomas and Olivia roams Tinder, looking for love.

Cast:
Olivia………………Genevieve Barr
Maisie ………………..Lara Steward
Iris…………………Alexandra James
Angus…………….Jonathan Keeble
Natalie……………Steph Lacey
Anna………………Kay Purcell
Victoria……………Alexandra Mathie
Tyrone…………….Tachia Newall
Sean………………Chris Jack

Original music by Alice Trueman
Flute played by Ruth Montgomery

Sign Language Interpreters: Jude Mahon, Beverly Roberts, Kate Labno, Jan Guest

Written and directed by Polly Thomas and Jenny Sealey, inspired by Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters

Produced by Eloise Whitmore
Executive Producer: Jeremy Mortimer

A Naked/Graeae Theatre production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 15:45 One to One (m00095bq)
Benjamin Zephaniah meets Terri Clothier

Terri Clothier discusses how her husband’s fertility problems affected her and their relationship. When Terri married Richard (who we heard from in the previous programme ) she knew she wanted a family. They both did. Terri imagined life with two children. But this hasn’t happened. They were unaware that Richard had a fertility problem. Whilst friends and family were starting their own families Richard and Terri felt alone and isolated. A feeling they describe as grieving. Producer Sarah Blunt.

Support Organisations

Fertility Network UK offers information, advice and support for anyone suffering from infertility related problems.
http://fertilitynetworkuk.org

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is the UK's independent regulator overseeing the use of gametes and embryos in fertility treatment and research. The website offers details of licensed fertility clinics across the UK.
www.hfea.gov.uk

NHS Fertility
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/infertility/causes/


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m000cbty)
Alison Lapper, HRT Shortage & Women in Space

The artist Alison Lapper talks about her latest exhibition featuring a painting of her son Parys who died this summer aged just 19.

Why is there a shortage of HRT in the UK? The investigative journalist Emma Hartley who writes for the online magazine Tortoise told us what she has discovered.

The first British astronaut Helen Sharman, Dr Varsha Jain, a gynaecological researcher interested in the impact of spaceflight and zero gravity on the human body, and Liz Seward, a senior space strategist at Airbus, discuss the future of women in space.

We hear about the case involving Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been defending her country against allegations of genocide at the UN International Court of Justice in the Hague. Our correspondent in The Hague Anna Holligan tells us the latest.

How should parents talk to teenagers about losing their virginity? Flo Perry the author of How to have Feminist Sex and Rachel Fitzsimmons, the sex educator and lecturer in sexual health at the University of Lancashire discuss.

Three students Bukunmi, Osose and Hannah discuss the impact of ‘racist’ hair regulations at their school Townley Grammer in London. Their English Teacher Lauren Binks talks about how she worked with students to get rid of the hair regulations and Emma Dabiri the author of ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’ talks the history and politics around black hair.

Presented by: Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Beverley Purcell


SAT 17:00 PM (m000cbv0)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news, plus the sports headlines.


SAT 17:30 The Inquiry (m000cbv2)
Should we ban billionaires?

Excluding dictators and royalty, there are around 2,000 people in the world who are billionaires. Some inherit wealth while others might build fortunes through inventions, businesses or investments. Some say individuals holding onto extreme amounts of money is wasteful because it could be diverted to other areas that would benefit more people such as education and healthcare. Others reason than some billionaires should keep what they have because they drive economic growth and inspire others to innovate. Are billionaires the right focus or should attention move to the systems and processes that enable them to make and keep huge amounts of money?

Contributors:
Dr Paul Segal, Senior Lecturer in Economics, King’s College London
Roxanne Roberts, Reporter, Washington Post
Caroline Freund, Global Director of Trade, Investment and Competitiveness, the World Bank
Will Wilkinson, Vice President for research at the Niskanen Center

Presenter: Celia Hatton
Producer: Charmaine Cozier


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000cbv4)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m000cbv6)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000cbv8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m000c9lv)
Mackenzie Crook, Paterson Joseph, Ruth Madeley, Penn Jillette, Simply Red,Nikki Bedi, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Nikki Bedi are joined by Mackenzie Crook, Paterson Joseph, Ruth Madeley and Penn Jillette for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Simply Red.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m000cbvc)
Pink trams, flying squirrels and a taste for rock music. Mark Coles finds out about the life and character of Finland's new Prime Minister, Sanna Marin.

The first to graduate in her family, Sanna Marin entered politics at the age of 20 and rose quickly through the ranks of the Social Democratic (SDP) party becoming an MP in 2015. She now leads a five-party governing coalition.

Mark Coles asks colleagues and friends what drives the world's youngest Prime Minister.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (m000cbvf)
Aquarela, Swive, Robert Musil, Theaster Gates, Sticks and Stones

Aquarela is a movie about water...filmed at 96 frames per second- four times faster than normal and there are fewer than a handful of cinemas in then world with equipment to show it properly. What's them point?
Swive (Elizabeth) at The Sam Wannamaker Playhouse imagines Elizabeth I from teenager to monarch and the wiles and strength ways she needed to keep on top
Robert Musil's most famous book The Man Without Qualities was published in 1943 and a follow-up Agathe has just been published. Compiled by scholars it pulls together notes and drafts to make a sequel. Will the reviewers consider it worth the effort?
Theaster Gates is an African American social practice installation artist who has a major new exhibition opening at Tate Liverpool
Mike Bartlett wrote the wildly popular Dr Foster but hasn't quite matched its success since. Will his new ITV series Sticks and Stones (about workplace bullying) reestablish his success?

Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Natalie Haynes, Abigail Morris and Bidisha. The producer is Oliver Jones

Image: Nina Cassells
(c) Johan Persson

Podcast Extra recommendations

Bidisha - Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen
Abigail - Essays of E B White and Chernobyl podcast
Natalie - Peaky Blinders and Lizzo
Tom - Jo Jo Rabbit


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m000cbvh)
The Problem of Leisure

Documentary-maker Phil Tinline explores the history of a phantom fear - that automation will make work redundant, and leave us nothing to do.

Jump twenty-five years into the future and we have accidentally made life hell for ourselves. Technology has become so pervasive and efficient that workers sit idle, reduced to working a two-day week, if they have work at all. Social unrest boils.

That was the view in the 1960s, as laid out in detail on TV in a dystopian documentary called 'Time On Our Hands', which looks back on 1963 from an imagined 1988,

It never happened - but now the anxiety is back. Phil mines the archives to try to work out whether it was simply wrong, or whether AI soon prove it right.

In 1930, JM Keynes predicted a two-day week by 2030 - but worried that, if the idle rich were anything to go by, we might struggle to spend our time wisely. In Depression America, well-meaning social reformers were aghast at how Americans were spending their growing free time. The New Deal tried to coax people away from malign pursuits like movies and jazz in favour of outdoor pursuits and communal dancing.

After the War, the advent of modern computing triggered fresh visions of ordinary people rendered redundant by the machines, and rebelling against the managers and engineers who now ruled them. But by the 1990s, all this had faded once more, in favour of the opposite worry: overwork.

So what can we learn from this today, as the anxiety floods back amid stories about AI - captured in books like The Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment? Will we finally confront the problem of leisure?

With: Susan Currell, Richard Davies, Caroline Edwards, Martin Ford, Carl Frey, Robert Skidelsky, Oriel Sullivan
Producer: Phil Tinline


SAT 21:00 Dickens Confidential (m000cbvk)
Series 1

Innocence

Episode Six - Innocence
Written by Mike Walker

Through a chance encounter with a young woman of the night, Charles Dickens embroils The Herald in another dangerous investigation. Drawn into the murky world of prostitution and opium Agnes and Jack encounter a formidable adversary from the past.

Dickens ..... Jamie Glover
Agnes ..... Jasmine Hyde
Jack ..... Freddy White
Catherine ..... Charlotte Emmerson
Colonel Corbet ..... Clive Swift
Pimp ..... Gerard Murphy
Hawker. ..... Anthony Glennon

Produced & Directed by David Hunter
Executive Producer - Alison Hindell


SAT 21:45 Book at Bedtime (b08n1ksg)
Rabbit, Run

Episode 5

The post-war novel that summed up middle-class white America and established John Updike as the major American author of his generation. Rabbit, Run is the first in a virtuoso Pullitzer Prize-wining quintet featuring hapless Harry Angstrom, whom we meet as a 26 year old former high school basketball star and suburban paragon in the midst of a personal crisis.

Episode 5 (of 10):
Ruth's been losing weight to please Harry, but somehow she's gaining again. Rabbit revels in a lack of consequences for his behaviour, and insists that Ruth prove her love to him.

Rabbit, Run established Updike as one of the major American novelists of his generation. In the New York Times he was praised for his "artful and supple" style in his "tender and discerning study of the desperate and the hungering in our midst's".

Radio 4 plans to broadcast all five novels in the series over the next few years.

Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (m000cbvm)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 22:15 The Spark (m000c4xq)
Emily Oster and evidence-based parenting

Helen Lewis meets the writers and thinkers who are breaking new ground.

From politics to economics, from tech to the study of how we live, things are changing fast. Old certainties have not been under such challenge for decades.

So each week, we give the whole programme over to a single in-depth, close-up interview with someone whose big idea is bidding to change our world.

Helen’s challenge is to make sense of their new idea, to find out more about the person behind it – and to test what it has to offer us against the failures of the past.

This week, Helen talks to American economist Emily Oster, author of Expecting Better and Cribsheet, about how to apply rational, evidence-based decision making to the sleep-deprived fog of myth and misinformation that surrounds parenting.

Questions about what to eat in pregnancy, whether to have an epidural during childbirth, and whether to sleep-train your baby are fraught with controversy and attract a great deal of anxiety and guilt. Yet the actual data on the pros and cons is surprisingly hard to come by. Emily Oster sought to fill that information gap and she tells Helen Lewis why this can have a life-changing impact on babies – and their exhausted parents.

Producer: Eliane Glaser


SAT 23:00 Quote... Unquote (m000c4w7)
Sir Tim Rice, Robin Stevens, Shazia Mirza

Quote … Unquote, the popular celebrity quotations quiz, returns for its 55th series.

Join Nigel as he quizzes a host of celebrity guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the famous panel to share their favourite anecdotes.
Across forty years, Nigel Rees has been joined by writers, actors, musicians, scientists and various comedy types. Kenneth Williams, Judi Dench, PD James, Sir Ian KcKellen and Peter Ustinov... have all graced the Quote Unquote stage.

Episode 2
Lyricist and author Sir Tim Rice
Novelist Robin Stevens
Stand-up comedian and writer Shazia Mirza

Quotes read by Charlotte Green
Production Coordinator: Candace Wilson

Producer: Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:30 Power Lines (m000c3fx)
Class

Poet, playwright and performer Sabrina Mahfouz looks at working class poetics, talking to poets across the UK about their work and how performing poetry shows has been an avenue into theatre and page poetry for many who would have otherwise been excluded due to class.

Poets:
Bridget Minamore
Fran Lock
Toria Garbutt
Anthony Anaxagorou
Wayne Holloway Smith
Jamie Thrasivoulou

A Wire Free production for BBC Radio 4



SUNDAY 15 DECEMBER 2019

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000cbvp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000c4s4)
Man-made Miracle

"Some believe in saints, some believe in Santa Claus. Some worship the brute rewards of violence, others the quiet, constant hope for salvation." A modern-day twist on The Christmas Story, by award-winning poet Vanessa Kisuule. Directed by Becky Ripley.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000cbvr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000cbvt)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000cbvw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000cbvy)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000cbw0)
St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield in London

Bells on Sunday comes from St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield in London. The tower has a ring of five bells, with the tenor weighing five and a half hundredweight. The church was originally founded in 1123 as an Augustinian Priory, and is fortunate to have five bells cast by Thomas Bullisdon around 1510, the only complete pre-reformation ring of more than four bells by one founder. We hear them ringing Grandsire Doubles.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m000cbvc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (m000cc3k)
The latest national and international news headlines.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b06qg0ng)
The Court of Public Opinion

Mark Tully examines the rise in influence of the court of public opinion in the era of social media.

In the company of the journalist and ex Editor of the Guardian Alan Rusbridger, he discusses the growing power of public opinion and its future potential for good and for ill.

There are readings from writers including the American security specialist Bruce Schneier and poets John Dryden and Brian Patten, with music from J.S. Bach, the Cambodian musician Sinn Sissamouth and gospel singer Gwen Macrae.

A Unique Broadcasting Company production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 Living World (m000cc3m)
My Living World

Jackdaw Roost

Naturalist and wildlife film maker Hannah Stitfall is joined by Billy Clarke, a researcher with the BBC Natural History Unit to discuss another selection from the LIVING WORLD archive.

In this episode from 2011 Joanna Pinnock wonders what makes jackdaws roost together, and to find out more heads to the Cambridgeshire countryside with corvid scientist Dr Alex Thornton. Arriving in the dead of night they await one of nature’s spectacles, of thousands of jackdaws simultaneously leaving their night roost in a cacophony of sound. It is one of those winter spectacles often overlooked but rivalling any in the natural world. So what is actually going on here? For Hannah and Billy this gives them the opportunity to discuss corvid activity. Science is beginning to unravel the biology and social intelligence of corvids, recently dubbed feathered apes, but there is a lot still to learn about these familiar if mysterious jackdaws. If the morning was a spectacle, how will that compare with the evening gathering at the roost; some roosts have been recorded in the Domesday Book and are still being used centuries later?

Producer Sarah Blunt


SUN 06:57 Weather (m000cc3p)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000cc3r)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000cc3t)
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000cc1n)
Prisoners' Education Trust

Grace Dent makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Prisoners’ Education Trust.

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 ‘Prisoners’ Education Trust’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Prisoners’ Education Trust’.

Registered Charity Number: 1084718


SUN 07:57 Weather (m000cc3w)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000cc3y)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000cc40)
The Challenge of the Baptist

Revd Dr Stephen Wigley, Chair of the Wales Synod of the Methodist Church, preaches in a service for the third Sunday of Advent, from Llanishen Methodist chapel, Cardiff. The service is led by Revd Alana Lawrence, and looks at the challenge presented by John the Baptist. The Cardiff Polyphonic Choir is directed by David Young in music including John Rutter's "Open Thou My Eyes". Readings from Isaiah 35; Psalm 146; Matthew 11. Producer: Dominic Jewel.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000c4st)
Expectations of Democracy

"I can no longer force myself", writes Will Self, "to make choices that appear quite meaningless to me".

He outlines why he decided - for the first time in his life - not to cast a vote in the election.

Producer: Adele Armstrong


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b09nvs2r)
Jane Smith on the Great Northern Diver

Wildlife artist Jane Smith listens in the fog to a Great Northern Diver and is drawn towards the strange eerie call of the bird.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Della Lack.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000cc42)
News with Paddy O'Connell including election aftermath. Reviewing the news coverage: actor Richard Wilson, economist Linda Yeuh and broadcaster Swarzy Macaly.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000cc44)
David makes an intervention and the rewilders are thrown into disarray

Writer, Naylah Ahmed
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Jill Archer ….. Patricia Greene
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Kenton Archer ….. Richard Attlee
Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Phoebe Aldridge ….. Lucy Morris
Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett
Justin Elliott ….. Simon Williams
Rex Fairbrother ….. Nick Barber
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Hannah Riley ….. Helen Longworth
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Robert Snell ….. Graham Blockey
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Peggy Woolley ….. June Spencer
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Martyn Gibson ….. Jon Glover


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m000c8qc)
Heidi Thomas, screenwriter

Heidi Thomas is a screenwriter and playwright best known for Call the Midwife. The BBC TV series, which began in 2012, was originally a six part adaptation of a trilogy of memoirs by Jennifer Worth, recalling her experiences as a midwife in the East End of London. It was an immediate hit, with 10 million viewers a week, becoming one of BBC One’s most popular dramas and a fixture in the Christmas schedules.

Born in 1962, Heidi Thomas grew up as the eldest of three children in the leafy suburbs of Liverpool. Her father ran a drain cleaning business while her mother looked after the children, including Heidi's youngest brother David, who was born with Down's Syndrome.

Heidi studied English at Liverpool University, supporting herself by selling ladies’ underwear at a department store. During a bout of viral hepatitis, which left her unable to apply for jobs when she graduated, she entered a competition for new plays and won a prize for her debut, All Flesh is Grass. During the production,of her next play, Shamrocks and Crocodiles, she met the actor Stephen McGann. They went on to marry, and many years later Stephen was cast as the GP in Call the Midwife.

After nearly a decade in the theatre, Heidi made the leap into television, first writing on existing series such as Soldier, Soldier and Doctor Finlay. Her other screenwriting credits include Lilies, based on her grandmother’s recollections, and adaptations of classic novels including Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford, Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000cc46)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m000c4x9)
Series 72

Episode 5

The 72nd series of the multi award-winning comedy panel game chaired by Jack Dee


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000c9mg)
The Sugar Plum Shift: Exploring the ballet world’s changing approach to food, nutrition and body image

Sparkling lights, twinkly music, frothy tutus and perfectly pirouetting dancers: what could be more magical – and festive – than ballet?

This is an art-form that’s been revered over generations, romanticised by books, magazine and movies… but it hasn’t always had the best of reputations when it comes to health and well-being.

Ballet dancers are ethereal, elegant, poised – and were, traditionally, often tiny. Over the years, around the world, there have been stories of ballet dancers having unhealthy diets, eating disorders and mental health issues.

In more recent decades, the ballet world has recognised this – and a shift is well underway, in attitudes towards food, eating, diet and nutrition… one that’s seen the big ballet companies employing dedicated nutritionists and strength training coaches, training their dancers like professional athletes. The evolution of the art-form has seen ballet become more demanding - and as a result, the ideal ballet body image has shifted to strong, lean and toned; meaning dancers need to be on top of their diet and nutrition, in order to perform. Today, the industry says its focus is on education, and building positive relationships with food and body image right from the start of a dancer's career.

So how far has the industry come - and what more could yet be done? Sheila Dillon dons her tutu and ventures into the world of British ballet, to ask: does playing the Sugar Plum Fairy still mean sacrificing any hint of a sugar plum?

Presented by Sheila Dillon, produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

PICTURED: Yasmine Naghdi, principal dancer with The Royal Ballet, dancing Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty.
©ROH, 2017. Photographed by Bill Cooper.

* * *

Special thanks to The Royal Ballet for letting us attend and record their rehearsals for Coppélia, featuring dancers Laura Morera in the role of Swanilda and Bennet Gartside as Dr Coppelius - with coaches and former Royal Ballet dancers Leanne Benjamin and Stephen Wicks, accompanied by pianist Kate Shipway.

Also thanks to the staff and students of Elmhurst Ballet School for letting us watch and record one of their dance classes, taught by Gloria Grigolato and accompanied by pianist Dominic Mason.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m000cc49)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000cc4c)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000c4s2)
Houseplant Edition

Kathy Clugston looks through the GQT archives for a special house plant edition.

With questions and answers from across the years, featuring the whole panel as well as a few old voices, the team tackle questions on cutting back an orchid, caring for supermarket bought herbs and plants for dark corners of the house.

Away from the questions, James Wong visits Anne Swithinbank's house, while Matthew Pottage pops by James's, to get a behind the scenes look at how our experts keep plants in their homes.

Producer: Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Jemima Rathbone

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (m000cc4f)
Sunday Omnibus - Approaching Adulthood

Fi Glover presents the omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen with three conversations about the big wide world of adulthood.

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 This Is Your Country Now, Too (m000cc4h)
Tarek

Stories seen through the eyes of child refugees as they leave home for the unknown.

The family of 14 year-old Tarek’ is bidding him farewell in a restaurant in Idlib, northwestern Syria. Amid the partings and advice from his mother, father and sister and barrel bombs raining down, Tarek is bundled off on a perilous journey across Europe.

But, as if in a Kafkaesque nightmare, following setbacks on the road or at sea, he constantly finds himself back in the restaurant, still to start his journey and receiving more advice.

He can claim asylum once he's in Britain – the problem is getting there.

Set in war torn Syria and across Europe, this is the final drama in a series of seven plays about the experience of child refugees fleeing persecution to find a new life in the UK since 1939.

Cast:
Tarek … Ronak Patani
Baba … Paul Chahidi
Hozan … Rachid Sabitri
Zahra … Sara Bahadori
Khaled … Waleed Elgadi
Mama … Nathalie Armin
Najib … Danny Rahim
Zilal … Farshid Rokey
Joanna … Ruby Benthall
Other parts played by the company

Written by Jonathan Myerson
Series devised by Nicolas Kent with Jack Bradley

Original Music/Musical Supervision: Jack Newton
Sound Design: Mark Smith
Directors: Jonathan Myerson and Nicolas Kent
Producer: Nicholas Newton
A Promenade production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:45 Four Thought (m0006tkv)
Facing Death Creatively

R.M. Sánchez-Camus describes how art can be used as a language with which to communicate the fear of death and dying. Drawing on his experience as a Social Practice Artist working in a hospice, he reveals how art-making can create a space where individuals can mentally remove themselves from the state of dying, and produce a lasting testament to their lives. He believes death anxieties over global extinction can similarly be approached through making art. "It’s urgent to break the taboo of speaking about death. If we can hold this conversation within the community we can begin to support each other as citizens.
Recorded in front of an audience at the Kelburn Garden Party festival in the grounds of Kelburn Castle in Ayrshire.
Presenter: Olly Mann
Producer: Sheila Cook


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000cc1q)
Benjamin Markovits, PG Wodehouse, Family rows in novels and child prodigies

Mariella Frostrup talks to Benjamin Markovits about his latest novel, Christmas in Austin. An intimate and multi-layered story of one family's conflicts, love and enduring loyalty which unfurls over seven days at Christmas.

We discuss a new anthology of PG Wodehouse’s sports writing with the book's editor Richard T Kelly. Above Average At Games charts his journey from school boy enthusiast to Long Island residing golf fanatic.

Professor John Mullen explores the festive family furors in fiction. And we hear the remarkable stories of two child prodigies whose books are re issued for a new readership.


SUN 16:30 Art of Now (m000cc4l)
The Tides of the Staithe

Kevin Crossley-Holland reflects on the magic and the menace of the Norfolk tides.

For centuries, North Norfolk lives have been shaped by the daily rhythm of the tides, creating a sense of wonder, as well as tragedy, with many stranded or lost at sea.

The shimmering creek is at low tide at Burnham Overy Staithe, the North Norfolk coastline a mesh of salt marshes, sand dunes, wild sea lavender and shingle ridges. But the whispering of the wind and the cawing of the gulls are deceptively tranquil. In a matter of hours, the furious gushing of the incoming North Sea tide signals the utter transformation of the staithe – and, in its wake, a new menace arrives. The coastline is in a constant state of flux, always shape shifting, beguiling and menacing.

For local fishermen and sailing enthusiasts, the Tide Tables are ignored at their peril; for others the rhythm of the tides provides solace and comfort. And for a local artist, the tides bring back reminders from the past, from the ancient forests of Doggerland.

With thanks to contributors Matt and Sky Falvey, Andy Frary, Mandy Humphries, Polly Ionides, Daniel Loose, Ashmole Ring, Robert Smith and Pat and Mike Thompson.

Written and narrated by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Produced by Sarah Peters
Recorded and mixed by Peregrine Andrews
Extra wildlife recordings provided by Tony Fulford
A Tuning Fork and Open Audio production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:00 Grenfell: Flat 142 (m000ccs8)
Kamru Miah, his wife Rabeya Begum and their adult children, Mohammed Hamid, Mohammed Hanif and Husna Begum lived in Flat 142 on the 17th Floor of Grenfell Tower.

On the night of the fire, the family called 999 four times, over the course of two hours, but no firefighter was ever sent to attempt to reach them.

The inquiry says that what happened in Flat 142 shows clear failures in the London Fire Brigade’s response. This programme pieces together detailed evidence from the public inquiry into the fire at Grenfell Tower to understand how the information the family gave 999 operators was lost in a complicated network of communications between the control room and firefighters at the scene.

Presenter and producer Kate Lamble
Editor Jasper Corbett


SUN 17:40 Profile (m000cbvc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000cc4n)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m000cc4q)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000cc4s)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000cc4v)
Johny Pitts

The best of BBC Radio this week.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m000c9m7)
Lilian attempts to keep the peace and Helen issues an invitation


SUN 19:15 Fred at The Stand (m000cbjx)
Series 1

Cook, Sutherland, Vee and Waugh

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

This week, the unstoppable Jason Cook tells a story about performing on a cruise ship, JoJo Sutherland lets slip some of her supermum secrets, Sindu Vee tries to explain the leniency of her parenting compared to what can be found in India, and Scotsman Gareth Waugh has a plan to save the bees.

A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 19:45 A Run in the Park (m000cc4x)
Episode 7

A group of strangers in Belfast have formed a running group, determined to go from absolute beginners to completing a 5K Parkrun in just nine weeks. As their shared runs get longer and tougher, friendships are forged and relationships challenged. But will any of them actually make it over the finish line?

Young couple Brendan and Angela are running from their doubts about their rapidly approaching wedding; librarian Cathy is in pursuit of a new life following a health scare; Syrian refugee Yana races from the trauma of her past; and recent retiree Maurice is determined to get fit for his family, step by painful step, even if he’s not actually part of their lives right now…

Author
David Park is one of Northern Ireland's most acclaimed writers. He is the author of nine novels and two collections of short stories. He has been awarded the Authors' Club First Novel Award, the Bass Ireland Arts Award for Literature, the Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, the American Ireland Fund Literary Award and the University of Ulster's McCrea Literary Award, three times. He has also received a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. His most recent novel ‘Travelling in A Strange Land’ won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award and was a Radio 4 ‘Book at Bedtime’.

Writer ..... David Park
Reader ..... Seamus O'Hara
Producer ..... Michael Shannon


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000c4s8)
Kamal Ahmed the Editorial Director of BBC News answers listeners' questions on the BBC election coverage.

Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Alun Beach
Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000c4s6)
David Bellamy, Nell Gifford, Yasuhiro Nakasone, Mariss Jansons

Pictured: David Bellamy

Matthew Bannister on

David Bellamy, the botanist who became a household name through his popular TV programmes, but fell from prominence after describing man-made global warming as "poppycock".

Nell Gifford, who founded and ran a circus company known for its retro styling and creativity.

Yasuhiro Nakasone, the Japanese Prime Minister who formed a strong bond with US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Mariss Jansons, the Latvian-born conductor noted for his interpretation of Mahler and Strauss.

Interviewed guest: David Shreeve
Interviewed guest: Chris Baines
Interviewed guest: Cal McCrystal
Interviewed guest: Dr Christopher Hood
Interviewed guest: Norman Lebrecht

Producer: Neil George

Archive clips from: Desert Island Discs, Radio 4 01/01/1978; Profile, Radio 4 16/09/1983; Torrey Canyon and the Toxic Tides, Radio 4 18/03/2017; Today, Radio 4 12/12/2019; Backyard Safari, BBC One 09/07/1981; Bard on the Box, BBC Two 23/10/1994; Midweek, Radio 4 08/06/2011; Nell Gifford: Behind the Curtain, directed by Gem Hall, July 2019; The World Tonight, Radio 4 11/06/1984; Nippon: Risen Sun, BBC Two 09/12/1990; Reagan/Nakasone arrival ceremony, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, 30/04/1987; Mariss Jansons interviewed by Norman Lebrecht, Radio 3 29/08/2007.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000cbtl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000cc1n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (m000c4zx)
Women's work

Iceland has taken radical measures to reduce the gender pay gap. These aren't just about equalising pay when men and women do the same job but when they do different jobs of equal value as well. That's proved to be quite a sticking point in many countries, including the UK; ensuring that the jobs routinely done by women are paid as well as those that men routinely do. Lesley Curwen meets the people tasked with comparing a production line worker with an office administrator, an HR professional with an accountant and a camera operative with a social media marketer. What has the financial and cultural impact been on companies that have had to adjust their pay rates and what do their employees think about the process? Could other countries follow the Iceland model? That's one of the questions put to female council workers in Glasgow who, after more than a decade of fighting through the courts, have finally won their equal pay case.

Producer: Rosamund Jones


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000cc50)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000c4zg)
My Crazy Year

With Antonia Quirke

Two directors look back at their crazy year. Mark Jenkin’s Bait has been described as a modern masterpiece. Shot in 16mm black and white on a hand-cranked camera, this tale of a Cornish fishing village has been an unlikely box office hit, and still played in cinemas in this country two months after its release. Dexter Fletcher’s Rocketman, on the other hand, began life with a starry premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and was made not long after Fletcher was brought into complete filming on Bohemian Rhapsody, which won the best drama at the Golden Globes in January.


SUN 23:30 Art of Now (m000bx1h)
Innervisions

Blind musicians have been no strangers to the concert platform and the studio - from St Cecilia herself (patron saint of music) to blues singers Willie McTell and Lemon Jefferson, from Ray Charles to Andrea Bocelli. But how do people who can't see make music in the era of composing and mixing via touch screens?

Trevor Dann meets the multi-ethnic UK-based Inner Vision Orchestra, DJ Monix, award-winning classical and jazz pianist Matthew Whitaker and the blues duo Innervision to hear about the creative brain's remarkable capacity to manage without sight and spatial awareness. Musicians and composers share their experiences and researchers explain the latest advances as listeners are taken on an audio journey into the dark.

DJ Monix, a 37-year-old New Jersey-based techno DJ, producer and podcaster, explains how he fills dance floors from Miami to Ibiza without ever seeing his audience.

Teenage keyboard sensation Matthew Whitaker discusses growing up in the era of touch screen composing and editing,

Innervision, a blues duo, talk about their secret language. Genene (she's black) and Sam (he's white) were born exactly one month apart in the same hospital and lost their vision at birth. They spent the first weeks of their lives together in the same intensive care unit and developed a musical bond which still flourishes.

Baluji Shrivastav OBE, founder of The Inner Vision Orchestra, the UK's only ensemble of visually impaired musicians, explains why the band plays in the dark to help sighted audiences experience the music exactly as the players do.

Dr Michael Proulx, from the Department of Psychology, University of Bath introduces his work on the vOICe sensory substitution device which is "helping the brain to see again".

A Folder & Co production for BBC Radio 4



MONDAY 16 DECEMBER 2019

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000cc52)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Rewinder (m00055q1)
One: Donald Trump and the Three Beryls

In a brand new series, Radio 1 Breakfast Show host Greg James digs into the BBC's archives, taking some of the week's news stories as a starting point for a trip into the past.

Greg, who describes himself as a "proud radio nerd", is let loose in the vast BBC vaults, home to a treasure trove of radio and television programmes as well as some revealing documents. He says "As someone who spends too much time searching for oddities online, the opportunity to gain access to one of the greatest media resources on the planet was too good to miss."

This week's audio journey uncovers some surprising moments. As the UK prepares for the state visit of President Trump, Greg discovers some of his first encounters with British broadcasters - and also finds that searching for 'trump' in the archives delivers an unexpected series from the early 1980s.

The Elton John biopic Rocketman arrives in our cinemas this week and the BBC archives reveal that Elton's journey to global success had a very bumpy start. Following the announcement that Yorkshire-born Simon Armitage will be the next Poet Laureate, we hear from a long-overlooked Yorkshire writer who wrote hundreds of royal poems. And there's an art review format which Greg describes as 'astonishing': two Beryls consider paintings by an artist called Beryl.

Producer Paula McGinley


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000cbw0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000cc54)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000cc56)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000cc58)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000cc5b)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000cc5d)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Jo Bailey Wells

Good morning. I was at a community gathering when someone said, ‘I hope you survive Christmas’.

For shopkeepers and clergy and delivery people that’s surely about the seasonal workload of crackers and carols and cards – it’s a case of surviving the busyness. But for the person I was sitting next to, it was about surviving the family and financial pressures. She’s a single mum who struggles to make ends meet in a normal week, quite apart from when there are expectations of a special dinner and stockings from Santa. She desperately wants to avoid taking out an expensive loan yet at the same time desperately wants to give her son the present he longs for. In the past she’s used a savings club over the course of the year to help her in December, but a change in financial regulations means that savings club has been discontinued.

‘I hope you survive Christmas’. I wonder if anyone at a community gathering in heaven said the same thing to Jesus before he came to earth as a baby. The expectations, the workload, the regulations… surely there would be problems galore! But Jesus came anyway: he straddled the gap from heaven to earth, so that our horizons could be stretched from earth to heaven. We’re certainly stretched, and that can be stressful – yet it’s intended not to bring us to breaking point rather, to transforming point.

Lord Jesus, you know our hopes and our fears at this time of year. Come down and be with us in all the expectations and hard work, yet raise our sights to heaven so that our horizons may be transfigured by the beauty of your holiness and the power of your grace.

Amen.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000cc5g)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


MON 05:56 Weather (m000cc5j)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09m165l)
Kathy Hinde on the Knot

"Its one of the most breath-taking experiences I've witnessed" says Kathy Hinde as she recalls watching thousands of Knot being forced by the incoming tide into the air above the mudflats at Snettisham In Norfolk. Here she shares that experience with us.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Ian Redman.


MON 06:00 Today (m000c9lg)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000c9lj)
Numbers, nightmares and nanotech

The mathematician Hannah Fry reveals the hidden numbers, rules and patterns that secretly control our daily lives, in this year’s Royal Institution Christmas lectures. She tells Kirsty Wark how maths and algorithms have the power to reveal the truth - and to obscure it.

The economist Tim Harford is in search of the truth as he unravels the events that led to real life disasters. In the podcast series Cautionary Tales, Harford asks what we can learn from catastrophes. He wonders why we are so often susceptible to cons.

Science has revolutionised the way we live, and in the field of technology the ingenious invention of blockchain has been heralded as truly radical. As an incorruptible digital ledger of transactions, blockchain has uses far beyond crypto-currencies. The Financial Times journalist Izabella Kaminska looks back over the last decade to consider whether blockchain has lived up to its hype.

The latest science promising to transform medicine and biology is nanotechnology. Sonia Contera is a pioneer in the field and believes studying the infinitesimal realm of proteins and DNA will have a profound impact on our health and longevity.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Letters From Tove (m000c9np)
Episode 1

Out of the thousands of letters Moomin creator Tove Jansson wrote, a cache remains that she addressed to her family, her dearest confidantes, and her lovers, both male and female.

Into these, she spilled her innermost thoughts, defended her ideals and revealed her heart. To read these letters is both an act of startling intimacy and a rare privilege.

Penned with grace and humour, Letters from Tove offers an almost seamless commentary on Tove Jansson's life as it unfolds within Helsinki's bohemian circles and her island home. Spanning fifty years between her art studies and the height of Moomin fame, we hear the bleakness of war, the hopes for love that were dashed and renewed, and her determined attempts to establish herself as an artist.

Translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death
Abridged by Polly Coles
Read by Sarah Lambie

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000c9ln)
Single at Christmas: Love it or Loathe it?

Being single at Christmas – do you love it or loathe it? And what does it mean to be “marleyed” or “scrooged”? We discuss embracing singledom and festive dating trends with journalist Lizzie Cernik and dating expert Rachael Lloyd.

Finland’s new government is young and led by women. Last week, Sanna Marin was sworn into office, making her the world's youngest prime minister at the age of 34. She will lead a centre-left coalition with four other parties, all headed by women, three of whom are under 35. We hear from Li Andersson, the Finnish Minister of Education. And journalist Ndela Faye and Emilie Gardberg, Director of the Finnish Institute join us in the studio to discuss.

ADHD is a common disorder that affects around one in twenty children. Previous research has shown that children with ADHD are more likely to be deficient in omega-3, but there was conflicting evidence that taking fish oils could help symptoms – until now. Prof Carmine Pariante from King’s College London talks about his latest study, and Prof Ilina Singh from Oxford University discusses ADHD treatment from the child’s perspective as well as the importance of taking alternative treatments seriously.

Femke Halsema is Amsterdam’s first female mayor and she says she wants to make sex work in the red light district safer. Four main options are being considered including closing the windows in which women work and moving the red light district altogether. A consultation has been carried out and Ena Miller went to Amsterdam to canvass the opinions of sex workers, campaigners, a brothel owner, residents and tourists about the Mayor’s plans.

Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Li Andersson
Interviewed Guest: Ndela Faye
Interviewed Guest: Emilie Gardberg
Interviewed Guest: Lizzie Cernik
Interviewed Guest: Rachael Lloyd
Interviewed Guest: Professor Ilina Singh
Interviewed Guest: Professor Carmine Pariante
Reporter: Ena Miller


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m000c9lq)
Subterranean Homesick Blues - Series 4

Episode 1

by A.L. Kennedy.

John ..... Bill Nighy
Maggie ..... Anna Calder-Marshall
Registrar ..... Neil McCaul
Barry ..... Rick Warden

Directed by Sally Avens

A.L. Kennedy's comic drama about love in later life returns.
John and Maggie's wedding day arrives, but will John get there in time and has Maggie actually divorced all her previous husbands?


MON 11:00 The Untold (m000c9ls)
Jay-Z and Me Part II

In 2017 Jay-Z phoned Hannah… three times… and she missed the calls because she was surrounded by fifty of her music students on a coach back from Leeds.
For a decade, Hannah had been making soul music – juggling being head of music at the University of Winchester, fronting a soul band and being a mum to Leo. Her little known nine piece band, Hannah Williams and the Affirmations, had recently released an album.

It turned out Jay-Z had stumbled on a song from her album, Late Nights and Heartbreak, and had written his public apology to Beyoncé for cheating on her around Hannah’s voice.

After fourteen years at the University of Winchester, Hannah decided to quit her job to pursue music full time. Offers to play around the world started to fly in, and the press suddenly took an interest in what they were doing – yet Hannah quickly realised this was no fairy tale.

The track was one of the few songs from the album which the band hadn’t actually authored. Their friend Kanan had written it.
Two years ago, in the episode Jay-Z and Me, we followed Kanan as the revelation turned his world upside down – the song went platinum selling over a million copies, he was nominated for a Grammy, and the royalties began to roll in.

But for Hannah, as a sampled voice – not a feature, and not a songwriter, this was no cash cow. The story was only just beginning. After putting everything on the line for her music career, can the band make it work? And what does it mean for the most important things in her life - her son Leo and her husband Dave?

Produced by Polly Weston.


MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000c9lv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


MON 12:00 News Summary (m000ccml)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 Dark Matter (m000c9lz)
Episode Six

Michelle Paver's terrifying 1930s ghost story, set in the wilderness of the Arctic Circle.

Episode Six
"Whatever it is, it’s in the past. It’s only an echo."

Writer: Michelle Paver
Although born in Nyasaland of a Belgian mother and a South African father, by the time she was three Michelle Paver and her family had settled in Wimbledon. She was educated at Wimbledon High School and Oxford, where she got a first in biochemistry. She subsequently became a partner in a London law firm. In 1996, after the death of her father, she resigned from the law firm to become a full-time writer. In 2010, Dark Matter was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. The Shirley Jackson Awards, named after the American author, recognise outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense and horror.

Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Reader: Lee Ingleby
Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000c9m1)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.


MON 12:57 Weather (m000c9m3)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m000c9m5)
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 Classified Britain (m0007bc2)
Series 2

Edinburgh Evening Courant 14 April 1827

James Naughtie explores history through front page small ads.

The classified ads of the Edinburgh Evening Courant of April the 14th 1827 reveal the importance of the port of Leith - with direct passenger routes to Elsinore and St Petersburg, a public lecture intended to debunk Phrenology - the idea that an individual’s character can be determined from the shape of their skull, and Walter Scott, Europe's most prolific author, hoping to stay out of the new Bridewell debtor's prison.

Front page news is a relatively late addition to the newspaper business. For most of their first couple of centuries, British newspapers carried classified ads rather than news on their front page. They transformed the hustle and bustle of the marketplace into newsprint, so you could take it home or to the inn to pore over at your leisure.

James Naughtie travels the country discovering how these front page ads give us a snapshot of time and place, exploring how they weave national and local life together - the heartbeat of history rolling daily or weekly off the presses.

The ads tell us what people were eating, drinking and wearing, what was on stage and what people were playing at home. They mark the mood of the time through notices for public meetings held to stoke up or damp down public fears of crime and political unrest. They are a record of the notices placed for houses and public buildings to be built, licenses applied for and subscriptions raised for publications and commemorations. They show the latest labour saving gadgets "trending" as technology arrived, and they track jobs and trades on the way up and down as the British Empire waxed and waned. The ever present ads for patent medicines record our most popular ailments.

Produced by John Forsyth.
Assistant Producer: Alexandra Quinn.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 14:00 The Archers (m000c9m7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Fake Heiress (m000c9m9)
Episode 1

Reporting by Vicky Baker
Drama by Chloe Moss

Anna Delvey was due to come into a trust fund of $67m on her 26th birthday. She was on her way to establishing the Anna Delvey Foundation, a multi-million dollar visual-arts centre in the heart of New York City. She filled her time with champagne brunches and stays in penthouse suites, as she wined and dined the New York elites to secure investment for her project. It all sounded wonderful.

Except, it was all a lie.

Behind Anna Delvey, the heiress, was Anna Sorokin, the recent magazine intern. Out of nothing, this otherwise unremarkable twenty-something had reinvented herself as a multi-millionaire socialite, conning businesses and friends out of thousands of dollars in the process.

But how? How did she manage to live a life of luxury for so long? How did she make anyone believe her story? How did she get people to trust her enough to give her their money?

Journalist Vicky Baker and playwright Chloe Moss dig deeper into the New York scandal, and mix drama with documentary to tell the story of Anna Delvey's rise and fall.

Anna is played by Bella Dayne
Other parts are played by Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Heather Craney, Will Kirk, Scarlett Courtney, Neil McCaul, Clive Hayward, Ian Conningham, Lucy Reynolds, Adam Courting, Greg Jones, Laura Christy, Jessica Turner, Ikky Elyas, Sinead MacInnes.

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko

Fake Heiress will also be available as an extended six part podcast on BBC Sounds.


MON 15:00 Quote... Unquote (m000c9md)
Dame Esther Rantzen, Steve Pemberton, Konnie Huq

Quote … Unquote, the popular celebrity quotations quiz, returns for its 55th series.

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

Across forty years, Nigel Rees has been joined by writers, actors, musicians, scientists and various comedy types. Kenneth Williams, Judi Dench, PD James, Sir Ian KcKellen and Peter Ustinov... have all graced the Quote... Unquote stage.

Episode 3
Broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen
Actor and comedy writer Steve Pemberton
TV presenter Konnie Huq

Quotes read by Sally Grace
Production Coordinator: Candace Wilson

Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000c9mg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 What If Our Textbooks Were Black? (m000c9mj)
Episode 2

A series celebrating Black cultural figures who should be more central to history.

Naomi Beckwith grew up on Chicago’s South Side. Unusually, her school prioritised the teaching of Black history - when she opened a textbook, she saw people who looked like her. But when she left that school, most black faces from the past disappeared.

Today, Naomi’s an international curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Her exhibitions rebalance the story of art and culture – focusing on African American cultural figures who could and should be better known.

But she argues that we need to go much further - we must reconsider our models of education. If we change our exhibitions without changing our textbooks, then nothing changes at all.

In this series, Naomi invites artists to imagine a new cultural textbook that reinstates some of those Black cultural figures who’ve been sidelined.

In episode 2, Kerry James Marshall salutes Charles White, the artist who inspired him more than any other, while the composer and drummer Mike Reed acknowledges the ground-breaking work of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

Produced by Natalie Moore and Steve Urquhart
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m000c9ml)
Saudi Arabia and Iran

Saudi Arabia and Iran have been rivals for many years but recently this rivalry has become more intense. As the two countries struggle for regional dominance, what is the impact of this new ‘Cold War’ on the whole of the Middle East? And why is the tension between the two more complicated than simply a disagreement between Sunni and Shia Muslims? Joining Ernie to discuss this conflict are Iranian academic Dr Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi (Goldsmiths, University of London), Dr Simon Mabon (Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Lancaster University) and Saudi Arabian academic Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed (London School of Economics).

Producer: Helen Lee


MON 17:00 PM (m000c9mn)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000c9ms)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m000c9mv)
Series 72

Episode 6

The 72nd series of the multi award-winning comedy panel game chaired by Jack Dee


MON 19:00 The Archers (m000c9mx)
There’s trouble at Brookfield and Tracy digs her heels in.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m000c9mz)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m000c9lq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Like, Share, Vote (m000c9n2)
During the turmoil of the election period, this programme has been following the fluctuating political views of a group of floating voters who get most of their news and political information through the social media giant, Facebook. How has this influenced their opinions - and eventually their decisions on how to vote?

Producer: Patrick Cowling


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m000c4xv)
A Fight for Light in Lebanon

Life in Lebanon is a daily battle to beat the power cuts caused by the country's chronic electricity shortage. If you live in a block of flats, you have to time when you go in and out to avoid getting trapped in the lift. Food goes bad because fridges don't work, families must often choose between air-conditioning and watching TV, and those on life-support machines live in constant fear of a switch-off.
But if it's hell for citizens, it's heaven for operators of illegal private generators who profit by filling the gap left by the failures of the national grid. Some are former warlords who led militias in Lebanon's civil war. They're given an unofficial licence to operate, often in return for favours to the authorities in Lebanon's chaotic and often corrupt sectarian system.
Now a huge protest movement is demanding change in Lebanon - and a constant power supply is one of the demonstrators' main demands. They want to break the power of the "fuel mafia" that imports diesel for the generators and has close links to the country's leading politicians. For them, the fight for light is a fight against corruption. But can Lebanon's feeble state ever manage to turn all the lights on?
Reporter: Tim Whewell
Producer: Anna Meisel


MON 21:00 Russell Kane's Right to Buy (m00099yx)
The comedian Russell Kane traces his success back to the day his dad bought his council house in Enfield in the 80s. Now, in 2019, he wrestles with the impact of the Thatcher policy which allowed that to happen – Right to Buy.

Russell’s family lived in an end of terrace, which meant a bigger garden, and the potential for an extension. His dad built pillars onto the entrance of the house and, in his most audacious of moves, hand-dug a 21-foot swimming pool.

The house became known as “The Castle” to their disgruntled neighbours, and Russell started to feel different. He felt he could strive for more and he thinks it was the trigger for the events which led him to university, and beyond.

In all the debate about housing and the Right to Buy policy, Russell thinks that the social impact on families like his has been forgotten. But he also feels like the drawbridge was pulled up behind him – as if his family’s luck was potentially to the detriment of others. The social housing in Enfield was depleted, and his community divided between those with the extensions and the fancy entrances, and those without. Here, he tries to reconcile his feelings about a policy which changed the lives of working class communities across Britain – for better, or for worse?

Featuring the architect of Right to Buy – Lord Heseltine, sociologist Lisa McKenzie, and Russell’s mum, Julie.

Produced in Bristol by Polly Weston.


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000c9lj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000c9n8)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 Dark Matter (m000c9lz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


MON 23:00 Have You Heard George's Podcast? (m000c9nd)
Chapter 2

15. Who Am I?

George finds himself torn between different audiences at a crossroads in his writing.

Written by George The Poet.
Produced by Benbrick & George The Poet.
Original music by Benbrick.

Featured songs: Who Am I by Beenie Man, Step Out by Busy Signal, I Really Mean It (feat. Cam’ron & Jimmy Jones) by The Diplomats, When I’m ‘Ere by Roll Deep

Featured guests: Diggy, and Conroy.

We read an extract from The Guardian / The Observer article Yardie Terror Grips London published on Sunday 18th July 1999, and accessible online. We took elements from DJ Target talking about Grime from the “Welcome to the World of George The Poet” live event.

Have You Heard George’s Podcast? is a George the Poet production for BBC Sounds.

Commissioning Executive for BBC: Dylan Haskins
Commissioning Editor for BBC: Jason Phipps


MON 23:30 The Untold (b06yr7ft)
Be My Baby

Grace Dent presents untold stories of 21st century Britain.

After a week-long fling with a girl he met on Tagged, 21 year old Thomas is shocked to hear she is pregnant.

He stands up to the mark, offering support and going with her to the scans, but she suddenly cuts off all communication. She doesn’t return his calls or messages and Thomas can only guess what is going on. Has he done something wrong? Does she just want to do this on her own? The ex- boyfriend has moved back so perhaps the child isn’t actually his?

In October he sees a baby girl being pushed around town. He sees her photos on Facebook. He knows his life will change forever if he is found to be the father, but Thomas can’t cope with not knowing.

He is going to court to force a DNA test to find out one way or another.

Producer: Sarah Bowen



TUESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2019

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000c9nk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 Letters From Tove (m000c9np)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000c9nt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000c9ny)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000c9p4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000c9p9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000c9pg)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Jo Bailey Wells

Good morning.

I want to tell you about a Christmas card I once received that I’ve never forgotten. It came from the parents of Ali, a friend who had died from cancer after an 18-months of treatment– I've never seen anyone so determined to live in the midst of chemo and radiotherapy. Ali left behind two toddler, countless friends and family who loved her so dearly and were devastated. I still weep to think of that beautiful colourful energetic life, extinguished. ‘What is God doing?'’ so many of us were asking.

Well, I’m not God and I can’t answer that question. But I can tell you that Ali’s parents’ Christmas card went a long way to help me live with the question. There was a very simple drawing of a candle, and with it a quote from the bible, from John’s gospel, chapter 1 verse 5. It read, ‘The light still shines. The darkness does not extinguish it’.

Jesus comes to us at Christmas as a light in the darkness. His light does not remove the reality of darkness – his coming is not like some magic wand from heaven – yet it brings light, it brings hope. It shows us God has not forgotten or abandoned us and even in the worst circumstances God is with us, God is present in darkest night of struggle and suffering. That was the experience of Ali’s parents, and it’s my experience too. Though it was helpful to be reminded!

Lord God, shine your light into our darkness. May that light bring truth where there is deceit, direction where there is confusion, hope where there ‘s despair. Whatever our circumstances, may we know the reality that your light still shines, and cling to the promise that the darkness will never extinguish it. Through Christ, who is the Light of the World.

Amen.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000c9pp)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08yn32k)
Eleanor Matthews on the Magpie

Writer Eleanor Matthews recalls how the magpie came into her life at a time of change for Tweet of the Day.

Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

Producer Eliza Lomas.


TUE 06:00 Today (m000c9r9)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Long View (m000c9rc)
Impeaching a President

With the fast-developing saga of the investigations gathering pace towards a possible impeachment of President Donald Trump, Jonathan Freedland and his guests explore the process of removing a US president from office and compare today’s events to those surrounding the first ever presidential impeachment 150 years ago.

Producer: Simon Elmes


TUE 09:30 Naturebang (m000615j)
Vole-love and Fidelity

Ah, true love. Who can quantify that heady rush, the joy of another’s company, the unshakable bonds between one lover and another? Well, vole experts can.

This tiny rodent is not just an anagram of love, it can also teach us a lot about why we fall. And why we sometimes stray. Prairie Voles form life-long monogamous bonds, together until death they do part. Almost identical Meadow Voles don’t, living the single life, and mating at will. It all comes down to brain chemistry. And it turns out, some of us are more Prairie Vole than others.

Featuring Dr Larry Young from the Emory University,, and author of 'Sex at Dawn', Chris Ryan.


TUE 09:45 Letters From Tove (m000c9rf)
Episode 2

Out of the thousands of letters Moomin creator Tove Jansson wrote, a cache remains that she addressed to her family, her dearest confidantes, and her lovers, both male and female.

Into these, she spilled her innermost thoughts, defended her ideals and revealed her heart. To read these letters is both an act of startling intimacy and a rare privilege.

Penned with grace and humour, Letters from Tove offers an almost seamless commentary on Tove Jansson's life as it unfolds within Helsinki's bohemian circles and her island home. Spanning fifty years between her art studies and the height of Moomin fame, we hear the bleakness of war, the hopes for love that were dashed and renewed, and her determined attempts to establish herself as an artist.

Translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death
Abridged by Polly Coles
Read by Sarah Lambie

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000c9rh)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m000c9rk)
Subterranean Homesick Blues - Series 4

Episode 2

by A.L. Kennedy.

John ..... Bill Nighy
Maggie ..... Anna Calder-Marshall
Nora ..... Lucy Reynolds

Directed by Sally Avens

A.L. Kennedy's comic drama about love in later life. John and Maggie's honeymoon is more endurance test than the luxurious spa break John planned.


TUE 11:00 What Has Sat-Nav Done to Our Brains? (m000c9rm)
Who uses paper maps to get around anymore? Smart phone apps have taken a lot of the stress out of navigation. But at what cost?

In a trip across London, Timandra Harkness teams ups with London cabby Robert Lorden to scrutinise a technology that we now take for granted. How is sat nav changing our brains? Does it affect the way we think?

London taxi drivers are excellent navigators, having to memorise thousands of street names and mentally visualise hundreds of journeys. This impressive cognitive map is evident on an MRI scan – an enlarged part of the brain called the hippocampus.

But for the rest of us, Timandra discovers, scientists are finding that an underactive hippocampus could have wider implications for our health and well-being - particularly in child development, mental health and dementia.

While taking turn-by-turn instructions from a GPS device, we could be losing a vital sixth sense that we do not, as yet, fully understand.

Contributors include Prof Hugo Spiers, director of the Spatial Cognition Laboratory at University College London; Maura O’Connor, author of Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World; Prof Veronique Bohbot, cognitive neuroscientist at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Producer: Dom Byrne
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 11:30 What If We Stopped Buying Stuff and Started Making It? (m000c9rp)
What do we really understand about the stuff we own, what does it mean to us and what would the world look like if everybody started to buy less and make more?

Writer and occasional knife-maker Tim Hayward meets the crafts people and repairers who are challenging themselves and others to think harder about the things they buy, use and throw away. How has consumerism warped our relationship with the objects we use everyday and how would our lives be different if we understood how stuff was made?

Barnaby Carder, aka Barn the Spoon, is a green woodworker and “spoon tramp” working out of his Hackney shop while, over in Herefordshire, Joel Black and Holland Otik run a community pottery and blacksmith's forge. Other contributors include Laura James who co-founded the Cambridge Make Space, Clarry Elliot who helped set up the Leeds Repair Café, and designer and Cabinet Maker Poppy Booth.

A homemade world might seem like a sweet, nostalgic place, but the contemporary rise of making is having complex and unpredictable results.

Produced by Michael Umney
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000c9rr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 Dark Matter (m000c9rt)
Episode Seven

Michelle Paver's terrifying 1930s ghost story, set in the wilderness of the Arctic Circle.

Episode Seven
Jack hacks down the bear post.

Writer: Michelle Paver
Although born in Nyasaland of a Belgian mother and a South African father, by the time she was three Michelle Paver and her family had settled in Wimbledon. She was educated at Wimbledon High School and Oxford, where she got a first in biochemistry. She subsequently became a partner in a London law firm. In 1996, after the death of her father, she resigned from the law firm to become a full-time writer. In 2010, Dark Matter was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. The Shirley Jackson Awards, named after the American author, recognise outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense and horror.

Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Reader: Lee Ingleby
Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000c9rw)
Call You and Yours

News and discussion of consumer affairs.


TUE 12:57 Weather (m000c9ry)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m000c9s0)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.


TUE 13:45 Classified Britain (m0007khr)
Series 2

Hampshire Advertiser, 9 August 1856

James Naughtie finds the heartbeat of history in the front page small ads of old UK newspapers.

The classified ads of the Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday August 9th 1856. Trustees are advertising for survivors and dependents of those who died when the troopship, HMS Birkenhead, went down and introduced "women and children first" into the culture. Steam is replacing sail at sea, there's back breaking labour in the fields and an ad for corsets reveals unexpected aspects of lacing.

Front page news is a relatively late addition to the newspaper business. For most of their first couple of centuries, British newspapers carried classified ads rather than news on their front page. They transformed the hustle and bustle of the marketplace into newsprint, so you could take it home or to the inn to pore over at your leisure.

James Naughtie travels the country discovering how these front page ads give us a snapshot of time and place, exploring how they weave national and local life together - the heartbeat of history rolling daily or weekly off the presses.

The ads tell us what people were eating, drinking and wearing, what was on stage and what people were playing at home. They mark the mood of the time through notices for public meetings held to stoke up or damp down public fears of crime and political unrest. They are a record of the notices placed for houses and public buildings to be built, licenses applied for and subscriptions raised for publications and commemorations. They show the latest labour saving gadgets "trending" as technology arrived, and they track jobs and trades on the way up and down as the British Empire waxed and waned. The ever present ads for patent medicines record our most popular ailments.

Produced by John Forsyth.
Assistant Producer: Alexandra Quinn.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000c9mx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Fake Heiress (m000c9s2)
Episode 2

Reporting by Vicky Baker
Drama by Chloe Moss

Anna Delvey blazed a trail through New York City, posing as multi-millionaire heiress. She was well on her way to establishing the Anna Delvey Foundation, a multi-million dollar visual-arts centre in the heart of the city. She'd scouted a location, got an architect on-board and created a glossy brochure. All she needed now was an actual fortune.

Because behind Anna Delvey, the heiress, was Anna Sorokin, the recent magazine intern. Out of nothing, this otherwise unremarkable twenty-something had reinvented herself as a multi-millionaire socialite, conning businesses and friends out of thousands of dollars in the process.

But how did she manage to live a life of luxury for so long? How did she make anyone believe her story? How did she get people to trust her enough to give her their money?

Journalist Vicky Baker and playwright Chloe Moss dig deeper into the New York scandal, and mix drama with documentary to tell the story of Anna's rise and fall.

Anna is played by Bella Dayne.
Other parts are played by Scarlett Courtney, Youssef Kerkhour, Ayo-Dele Edwards, Nokukhanya Masango, Heather Craney, Will Kirk, Neil McCaul, Clive Hayward, Ian Conningham, Lucy Reynolds, Adam Courting, Greg Jones, Laura Christy, Jessica Turner, Ikky Elyas, Sinead MacInnes.

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko

Fake Heiress will also be available as an extended six part podcast on BBC Sounds.


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000c9s4)
Series 21

Bodies

Short documentaries and adventures in sound about the body presented by Josie Long.

Joe Dunthorne searches for under-described parts of the body, Nanna Hauge Kristensen explores the division between body and mind and we hear the sounds of sleep.

Production Team: Alia Cassam and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:30 Making History (m000c9s6)
Nationalism

Tom Holland and Iszi Lawrence continue to explore the historical connections behind today's headlines.

Today - with a resurgence in nationalism from Beijing to Barcelona and with flag-flying dominating the world news, Tom and Iszi look into the origins of this powerful force.

Author, critic and long-time scholar of fairy tales, Marina Warner, recalls regimes who have used them as a political tool for their own sinister ends.

And with the possibility of a second referendum in Scotland being discussed, Tom goes to the spot where Robert the Bruce was buried to consider the challenges of teaching a balanced history curriculum in schools.

Producer: Kim Normanton
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 16:00 Refrain (m000bl1r)
An adaptation of Sean Edwards' play Refrain, a poetic exploration of place, class and politics, performed by his mother Lily Edwards.

The artist Sean Edwards is currently representing Wales at the Venice Biennale. Central that exhibition is a radio play performed every day by the artist's mother Lily in her living room in Cardiff and transmitted to the various rooms of the gallery in Venice.

The play weaves Lily Edwards’ biography of growing up in a Northern Irish Catholic children’s home and her subsequent life in Wales, intertwined with the artist’s own personal memories from his childhood.

It's a fragmentary narrative, rich with implied and imagined sound. But in its daily performance it consists only of words -- and space and silence -- as the artist's mother combines the fragments of experience and memory into an evocative, elegiac piece.

This programme, like the play itself, is abstract and fragmentary. Retaining that sense of elegy and the slipperiness of memory and the flow of time, it returns the bare words of Sean's mother to their soundworld -- to the estate, to the betting shop frequented by Sean's father, to the refrain of bells. And it brings together the two places of the play, bridging the distance between the council flat and the grandeur of Venice, that upmarket tourist town.

Photo: Refrain (production image) c/o Sean Edwards and Tanya Leighton, Berlin.


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m000c8s3)
Series 50

Jeremy Paxman nominates Lord Shaftesbury

What makes a brilliant politician? What should motivate them? Does having a faith help?

Broadcaster and writer Jeremy Paxman chooses the seventh earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper. a Victorian politician whose numerous and wide-ranging social reforms transformed working and living conditions for impoverished children, miners and chimney-sweeps alike.

Joining Matthew Parris and Jeremy Paxman is Lord Shaftesbury's great-great-grandson, the twelfth earl, Nick Ashley-Cooper. The three discover more about the Ashley-Cooper dynasty, ponder what makes a good earl and explore how aristocratic life has changed between then and now.

Producer: Camellia Sinclair


TUE 17:00 PM (m000c9s9)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000c9sc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Rhys James (m000c9sf)
Series 2

Rhys James Isn’t… "B"

In an attempt to become more politically engaged, comedian Rhys James tries on opinions like clothes to see how they fit. This week he’s putting his right leg in first.

Last week he was a wishy-washy liberal. Now a week older and more right wing, Rhys asks: can we really be arsed to save the planet… Is it actually woke to teach LGBT+ issues in schools… Are gender-neutral toilets worth it… and Is Facebook really spying on us or do people just want to feel important?

Written and performed by – Rhys James
Produced by – Carl Cooper

Production Co-ordinator – Gwyn Rhys Davies

A BBC Studios production


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000c9sh)
Helen braces herself for a difficult conversation and Lynda makes her presence felt.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000c9sk)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m000c9rk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 The Misinformation Virus (m000c9sm)
In this online age, the internet is a global megaphone, billions of messages amplified and shared, even when they're false. Fake science spreads faster than the truth ever could, unhindered by national boundaries. Mainstream scientists are struggling to respond.
The science journalist and writer, Angela Saini, is fascinated by how bad ideas spread and in this programme she investigates the very real impact of online scientific misinformation. From the dangerous anti-vaccination campaigns to those who deny the reality of climate change, she assesses the scale and extent of the threat we face.
And she discovers the sinister world of deliberate disinformation where an army of bots and trolls work to sew dissent and confusion in the online space.

Producer: Fiona Hill


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000c9sp)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted


TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m000c9sr)
Programme exploring the limits and potential of the human mind.


TUE 21:30 The Long View (m000c9rc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000c9st)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 Dark Matter (m000c9rt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


TUE 23:00 Michael Frayn's Pocket Playhouse (b0b6phln)
Series 1

22/06/2018

Martin Jarvis directs the masterly comic series written by Michael Frayn, the author of Noises Off and the most comic philosophical writer of our time. The outstanding cast is led by Ian McKellen, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, Alfred Molina, Alex Jennings and Jarvis himself.

It's an astonishing tour de force of comic imagination and satire.

Each of the four episodes reveals Frayn's infectious delight in writing between the lines of theatre, fiction, television and the media, the church, relationships - life in general.

In this final episode of the series, Joanna Lumley presents a surprising travel programme, Janie Dee and Alex Jennings have memory lapses, and the ensemble provides an unusual restaurant menu. Meanwhile, Alex Jennings fronts a manic infomercial and Gyles Brandreth chairs the TV-watching Championships, assisted by Nigel Anthony and George Blagden, Alfred Molina and Yeni Alvarez speak "international English", and Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres wonder what's really happening on the radio.

Cast:
Joanna Lumley, Alfred Molina, Yeni Alvarez, Rosalind Ayres, Nigel Anthony, Gyles Brandreth, George Blagden, Martin Jarvis, Lisa Dillon, Edward Bennett, Janie Dee, and Alex Jennings.

Written by Michael Frayn,
Director: Martin Jarvis.
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 23:30 The Untold (b08x8ptg)
Born Before Time

Isobel is a much longed for baby for Catherine and James, who want to spend as much time as possible with her on Bradford Infirmary's neo-natal unit. Being born at just 26 weeks old means she needs a good deal of mechanical intervention to survive and she has a dedicated nursing team to closely monitor her progress.

As Grace Dent hears, her chances of survival are good, but there is vigilance about possible longer term complications and in the early weeks she is very closely monitored. As tests continue, there is an added burden for her parents, who both work: Catherine's job takes her round West Yorkshire collecting and cremating dead animals and helping owners overcome their grief at losing much loved pets. She also runs a busy service putting down sick and dying horses.

Leaving Isobel on the unit whilst she works is hard to do, but all seems to be going well - and then there is a change. It is a testing time for Catherine, James and their Consultant, Dr Chris Day. He knows how difficult it is to predict who will do well and although girls born early tend to do better than boys, Isobel still faces challenges as she learns to breath and feed on her own. He and his team are dedicated to doing all they can to improve the chances of these very premature babies.

Producer: Sue Mitchell.



WEDNESDAY 18 DECEMBER 2019

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000c9sw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 00:30 Letters From Tove (m000c9rf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000c9sy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000c9t0)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000c9t2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000c9t4)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000c9t6)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Jo Bailey Wells

Good morning.

When it comes to prayer, Jesus tells a story about a widow who visits a judge to beg for justice. She finds herself ignored, but famously does not give up. Indeed she wins him over by her persistence, eventually receiving the justice she deserves. The parable urges us never to give up in bringing our pleas to God.

Two friends of mine meet to pray together every Wednesday morning before work (they find that helps them to persist in prayer). They’d just read this parable from Luke 18 when there was a knock at the door. They steadfastly ignored it, resisting interruptions that might distract them from discovering what the passage could mean for them that day. But the visitor was persistent and the knocking continued… Suddenly they realised the parable was coming alive in front of their eyes, and the joke was very much on them! Praying turned to laughter and then hospitality - the story of that visitor is one for another day.

We’re invited to take heart from the widow, and persist in our praying – encouraged (rather than distracted) by examples of persistence we find around us. Where do you glimpse persistence this day… can you pray like that?

Lord, we thank you for the encouragement to persist in prayer and to hound your heavenly gates. So again we come to you this morning, as every morning, with the simple longings of our hearts – with pleas for justice, with requests for peace, with tears for healing. Work your mercy and grace within our household, across our nation, around our world. And grantthat you would work out that mercy and grace in us and through us. For the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000c9t8)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09jc69f)
Alison Steadman - The Twelve Tweets of Christmas 1 of 12

During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and, for many, a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song Twelve Days of Christmas.

On the first day of Christmas so the song goes, a true love sent a partridge in a pear tree. As actress Alison Steadman suggests as ground birds, partridges are not known for their amorous arboreal perching. Why a partridge in a tree could have many meanings, but given the song is of possible French origin, the French or red-legged partridge seems an ideal candidate as sitter in a pear tree.

Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Lynn Martin.


WED 06:00 Today (m000cc67)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Soul Music (m000cc69)
Series 28

We Are Family

We Are Family written by Nile Rodgers and performed by the Sledge Sisters Kathy, Kim, Debbie and Joni was released in 1978 at the height of disco's popularity. Kim Sledge says it has become the anthem for diverse groups of people around the world who come together on the dance floor to form a friend family. Professor Tim Lawrence says disco at its best was an inclusive music movement that welcomed people of all races and genders, unlike rock music which in the early 1970s appealed to a predominantly white male audience. We Are Family epitomised dance music's appeal to traditionally marginalised groups in the USA - African Americans, Latinos, women and gay men.
Listen to the stories of some of the people for whom the song is linked with some of the most significant experiences of their lives.
Producer: Maggie Ayre


WED 09:30 Four Thought (m000c8sm)
Recovery After Rape

Winnie M Li talks about her traumatic experience as a survivor of sexual violence, describing its lasting impact. She also charts her recovery through writing and activism.


WED 09:45 Letters From Tove (m000cc85)
Episode 3

Out of the thousands of letters Moomin creator Tove Jansson wrote, a cache remains that she addressed to her family, her dearest confidantes, and her lovers, both male and female.

Into these, she spilled her innermost thoughts, defended her ideals and revealed her heart. To read these letters is both an act of startling intimacy and a rare privilege.

Penned with grace and humour, Letters from Tove offers an almost seamless commentary on Tove Jansson's life as it unfolds within Helsinki's bohemian circles and her island home. Spanning fifty years between her art studies and the height of Moomin fame, we hear the bleakness of war, the hopes for love that were dashed and renewed, and her determined attempts to establish herself as an artist.

Translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death
Abridged by Polly Coles
Read by Sarah Lambie

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000cc6f)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (m000cc6h)
Subterranean Homesick Blues - Series 4

Episode 3

by A.L Kennedy.

John ..... Bill Nighy
Maggie ..... Anna Calder-Marshall
Colin ..... Clive Hayward

Directed by Sally Avens

Bill Nighy & Anna Calder Marshall return in A.L. Kennedy's drama about love in later life. When Maggie forgets date night and would rather do some work John worries that she is getting bored with him already.


WED 10:55 The Listening Project (m000cc6k)
Jemima and Sophy - Passage of Time

Close friends in their 20s share their thoughts on adulthood and the passage of time. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.


WED 11:00 Like, Share, Vote (m000c9n2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 Lemn Sissay's Social Enterprise (m000cc6m)
Episode 4

Every year since 2013, the poet, broadcaster and author Lemn Sissay has arranged a Christmas dinner for people aged 18-25 who have left the care system and have no one with whom to have Christmas dinner. No one to give presents or receive them. No-one on the other end of the cracker.

This is not a charity. It isn't even an organisation. It's a project Lemn undertook because he understands how it feels - at 18 he was released from a children's home and given an empty flat in Wigan, with no-one in the world who had known him for longer than a year.

Lemn Sissay’s Social Enterprise is a four-part series for BBC Radio 4, considering what these dinners have taught him about charity, social enterprise, and people, through stand-up, interview and poetry.

This week he explores the idea of food - with the help of Jill Mortimer from Age UK, Anna Chojnicka from the Global Entrepreneurship Network, and comedian and podcaster Deborah Frances-White.

Written and performed by Lemn Sissay
Guest: Jill Mortimer
Guest: Anna Chojnicka
Guest: Deborah Frances-White

Producer: Ed Morrish
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:00 News Summary (m000ccct)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 Dark Matter (m000cc6r)
Episode Eight

Michelle Paver's terrifying 1930s ghost story, set in the wilderness of the Arctic Circle.

Episode Eight
Jack has a welcomed visitor.

Writer: Michelle Paver
Although born in Nyasaland of a Belgian mother and a South African father, by the time she was three Michelle Paver and her family had settled in Wimbledon. She was educated at Wimbledon High School and Oxford, where she got a first in biochemistry. She subsequently became a partner in a London law firm. In 1996, after the death of her father, she resigned from the law firm to become a full-time writer. In 2010, Dark Matter was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. The Shirley Jackson Awards, named after the American author, recognise outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense and horror.

Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Reader: Lee Ingleby
Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000cc6t)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.


WED 12:57 Weather (m000cc6w)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m000cc6y)
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 Classified Britain (m0007qyh)
Series 2

Irish Times, Dublin Daily Express, The Freeman's Journal, April 1886

James Naughtie explores history through front page small ads.

One the eve of Gladstone's first Home Rule Bill, three Irish newspapers appeal to their respective readerships for support for the Protestant poor of Dublin or the destitute inhabitants of the west of Ireland. The Dublin Ladies Sanitary Association is tackling poverty in Dublin while the million and a half residents of Glasnevin cemetery tell their own stories.

Front page news is a relatively late addition to the newspaper business. For most of their first couple of centuries, British newspapers carried classified ads rather than news on their front page. They transformed the hustle and bustle of the marketplace into newsprint, so you could take it home or to the inn to pore over at your leisure.

James Naughtie travels the country discovering how these front page ads give us a snapshot of time and place, exploring how they weave national and local life together - the heartbeat of history rolling daily or weekly off the presses.

The ads tell us what people were eating, drinking and wearing, what was on stage and what people were playing at home. They mark the mood of the time through notices for public meetings held to stoke up or damp down public fears of crime and political unrest. They are a record of the notices placed for houses and public buildings to be built, licenses applied for and subscriptions raised for publications and commemorations. They show the latest labour saving gadgets "trending" as technology arrived, and they track jobs and trades on the way up and down as the British Empire waxed and waned. The ever present ads for patent medicines record our most popular ailments.

Produced by John Forsyth.
Assistant Producer: Alexandra Quinn.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 14:00 The Archers (m000c9sh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (m000cc72)
Their Humble Servants

Jonathan Myerson's drama explores the workings of Buckingham Palace from the bottom up. How do the staff deal with the day to day running of the Royal household - let alone when crises occur?

An intruder has been detected in the palace grounds on the eve of a banquet being thrown by Lord Melbourne and in the week when the Abdication Bill is due to pass.

The Royals themselves do not take part in this new fictional drama - just their humble servants.

Cast:
JEREMY STERN Dominic Rowan
MICHAELA ARLINGTON Ayesha Antoine
HOWARD PATCHETT Alec Newman
GERARD DERBYSHIRE Paul Chahidi
PIPPA WALL Harriett Hare
THE REV. CECILIA Tanya Loretta Dee
LORD MELBOURNE/FISHERMAN Jack Staddon

Other parts played by members of the cast

Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


WED 15:00 Money Box (m000cc74)
The latest news from the world of personal finance plus advice for those trying to make the most of their money.


WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m000c9sr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b01phj21)
Consuming passions

Consumer pleasures - in a New Year special edition, Laurie Taylor explores the place of shopping in our lives, as well as within sociological thought. He's joined by Professor Colin Campbell, Dr Kate Soper and Professor Rachel Bowlby.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000cc77)
The programme about a revolution in media with Amol Rajan, the BBC's Media Editor


WED 17:00 PM (m000cc79)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000cc7f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 The Missing Hancocks (m000cc7h)
Prime Minister Hancock

The Missing Hancocks recreates those episodes of the classic Hancock's Half Hour that have been wiped or lost from the archive.

The first modern sitcom, Hancock's Half Hour made stars of Tony Hancock, Sid James and Kenneth Williams, and launched Ray Galton and Alan Simpson as one of the most successful comedy-writing partnerships in history. But 20 episodes of the show were missing from the BBC archives. Now, after four highly successful series, the final batch of those episodes have been lovingly re-recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre.

Tonight's episode: Hancock stands for Parliament, with no success whatsoever. But in his dreams he's swept to power on a landslide, and the country salutes......Prime Minister Hancock.

Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and with the classic score re-recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, the show stars Kevin McNally, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall, Robin Sebastian and Susy Kane. Prime Minister Hancock was first broadcast on the 31st May, 1955.

Produced by Neil Pearson & Hayley Sterling.

Written by Ray Galton & Simpson

Music recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Levon Parikian.

A BBC Studios Production.


WED 19:00 The Archers (m000cc1j)
Phoebe tries to make amends and Brian issues some home truths.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m000cc7k)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m000cc6h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:41 today]


WED 20:00 The Spark (m000cc7m)
Hilary Cottam and revolutionising the welfare state

Helen Lewis meets the writers and thinkers who are breaking new ground.

From politics to economics, from tech to the study of how we live, things are changing fast. Old certainties have not been under such challenge for decades.

So each week, we give the whole programme over to a single in-depth, close-up interview with someone whose big idea is bidding to change our world.

Helen’s challenge is to make sense of their new idea, to find out more about the person behind it – and to test what it has to offer us against the failures of the past.

This week, Helen meets social entrepreneur Hilary Cottam, author of Radical Help, to find out why she thinks the welfare state needs a revolution, and how a new approach to human relationships can transform it.

Producer: Phil Tinline


WED 20:45 Four Thought (m000c8sm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]


WED 21:00 Science Stories (m000cc7p)
Sophia Jex-Blake, first woman doctor in Scotland

Sophia Jex-Blake lead a campaign to allow women to train and practise as doctors in Scotland. Naomi Alderman tells the story of Sophia Jex-Blake's life and her campaign.


WED 21:30 Soul Music (m000cc69)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000cc7r)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 Dark Matter (m000cc6r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


WED 23:00 Bunk Bed (m000cc7v)
Series 4

Episodes 3 & 4

Patrick Marber and Peter Curran talk in-depth nonsense late at night in a bunk bed.


WED 23:30 The Untold (b07z3zft)
The Trials of Gunner John Gough

With Grace Dent.

Since leaving the army, John’s never slept in his bed. He barely sleeps at all, but when he does, it’s on the floor of the living room in the sheltered accommodation for army veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder - PTSD.

Now it’s closing. And John has no idea what to do. He fears he could end up on the streets.

John left school at 16 and trained as a bricklayer, but after a fortnight of work being rained off and his girlfriend breaking up with him, he headed to the army careers office to sign up. He was 18 and went on to serve in Northern Ireland and both Gulf wars. It’s been 20 years since he left, but he hasn’t been able to move on.

Like the other war veterans in the house in Wolverhampton where he lives, PTSD has scarred his life. In the past decade he has shut out friends and family. Panic attacks, injuries sustained in service and drug addiction have left him unable to work, and he has served prison sentences. And now he is about to lose his home – purpose-built accommodation for army veterans with mental health issues. He fears he’ll end up on the streets.

Grace Dent follows John as he tries to arrange somewhere to live, and as he makes the first tentative steps towards reconnecting with old friends and family, seeking help, and starting to live again.

Producer Georgia Catt



THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000cc81)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 Letters From Tove (m000cc85)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000cc87)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000cc89)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000cc8c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000cc8f)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000cc8h)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Jo Bailey Wells

Good morning.

This week marks the end-of-term for most schools. Many may be holding some kind of Christmas celebration - so that whatever else has happened this term it can end with a bang, or should we say, with the peace and joy of the season.

This morning we pray for all who teach. I bet there are a good number of teachers up early this morning, perhaps right now seeking to summon up the energy for one more day after what-is the longest darkest toughest term of the year. I have so much respect for teachers: those who invest their lives so fully in the lives of others. Often it’s costly, a case of denying themselves and taking up a cross daily for the sake of the children in their charge.

It’s one of the most rewarding jobs in the world as well – but it’s not just a job, it’s a vocation. Because it’s not something you just do and then leave behind; it’s an investment in the next generation costing body mind and soul. Creating the environment in which young people have the space and safety and inspiration to thrive is utterly compelling yet hugely demanding. And Teacher’s will probably collapse the day after term ends and then be ill over Christmas. But let’s hope not.

This is a prayer for those who teach and those who learn which comes originally from the Book of Common Prayer:
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom: enlighten by your Holy Spirit those who teach and those who learn, that, rejoicing in the knowledge of your truth, they may worship you and serve you from generation to generation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000cc8k)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09jd328)
Alison Steadman - The Twelve Tweets of Christmas 2 of 12

During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and, for many, a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song the Twelve Days of Christmas.

As actress Alison Steadman discusses at the time of the song's creation, across England the soft call of the turtle dove would have sent amorous sounds to many a loved one, though not at Christmas of course. These days however the soft dove call that a true love would most likely hear is that of the collared dove.

Producer: Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Mediocreimage.


THU 06:00 Today (m000cc0p)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000cc0r)
Auden

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and poetry of WH Auden (1907-1973) up to his departure from Europe for the USA in 1939. As well as his personal life, he addressed suffering and confusion, and the moral issues that affected the wider public in the 1930s and tried to unpick what was going wrong in society and to understand those times. He witnessed the rise of totalitarianism in the austerity of that decade, travelling through Germany to Berlin, seeing Spain in the Civil War and China during its wars with Japan, often collaborating with Christopher Isherwood. In his lifetime his work attracted high praise and intense criticism, and has found new audiences in the fifty years since his death, sometimes taking literally what he meant ironically.

With

Mark Ford

Janet Montefiore

And

Jeremy Noel-Tod

Producer: Simon Tillotson


THU 09:45 Letters From Tove (m000cc0t)
Episode 4

Out of the thousands of letters Moomin creator Tove Jansson wrote, a cache remains that she addressed to her family, her dearest confidantes, and her lovers, both male and female.

Into these, she spilled her innermost thoughts, defended her ideals and revealed her heart. To read these letters is both an act of startling intimacy and a rare privilege.

Penned with grace and humour, Letters from Tove offers an almost seamless commentary on Tove Jansson's life as it unfolds within Helsinki's bohemian circles and her island home. Spanning fifty years between her art studies and the height of Moomin fame, we hear the bleakness of war, the hopes for love that were dashed and renewed, and her determined attempts to establish herself as an artist.

Translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death
Abridged by Polly Coles
Read by Sarah Lambie

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000cc0w)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m000cc0y)
Subterranean Homesick Blues - Series 4

Episode 4

by A.L. Kennedy.

John ..... Bill Nighy
Maggie ..... Anna Calder-Marshall
Colin ..... Clive Hayward

Directed by Sally Avens

A.L. Kennedy's drama about love in later life. John is convinced that Maggie is having an affair with one of her colleagues and is moving to Aberdeen.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m000cc10)
Finland's Race to Go Carbon Neutral

How do you achieve net-zero carbon emissions in just fifteen years? In Finland, a fisherman-turned-climate scientist believes he has part of the answer: re-wilding the country’s peat fields. Gabriel Gatehouse travels to the country's frozen north to meet Tero Mustonen, as he battles lobbyists and vested interests in government and the peat industry, in a race to mitigate the consequences of climate change. Michael Gallagher producing.


THU 11:30 Sketches: Stories of Art and People (m000cc12)
Come Together

Writer Anna Freeman presents stories of coming together to make art. A patchwork blanket in Birmingham brings together the migration journeys of refugee women around the city. A collective of homeless singers and performers come together to turn the story of La Bohème on its head. And musician Spencer Flay talks about his need to separate himself from others in order to write his songs - by climbing up into the cabin of a crane.

Produced by Mair Bosworth and Becky Ripley.


THU 12:00 News Summary (m000cc14)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Dark Matter (m000cc16)
Episode Nine

Michelle Paver's terrifying 1930s ghost story, set in the wilderness of the Arctic Circle.

Episode Nine
“When men know they won’t be found out, they will do anything”.

Writer: Michelle Paver
Although born in Nyasaland of a Belgian mother and a South African father, by the time she was three Michelle Paver and her family had settled in Wimbledon. She was educated at Wimbledon High School and Oxford, where she got a first in biochemistry. She subsequently became a partner in a London law firm. In 1996, after the death of her father, she resigned from the law firm to become a full-time writer. In 2010, Dark Matter was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. The Shirley Jackson Awards, named after the American author, recognise outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense and horror.

Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Reader: Lee Ingleby
Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000cc18)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.


THU 12:57 Weather (m000cc1b)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m000cc1d)
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 Classified Britain (m0007wv6)
Series 2

Oxford Times, 7 May 1926

James Naughtie explores history through front page small ads.

The classified ads in the Oxford Times of May 7th 1926, the midpoint of the General Strike, spell out the state of emergency and announce a rally at which Labour MP, Oliver Baldwin, son of the Conservative Prime Minister, will speak in support of the strike. The Morris car plant has displaced the University as the city's biggest employer and the Jane Austin Agency is recruiting battalions of domestic staff.

Front page news is a relatively late addition to the newspaper business. For most of their first couple of centuries, British newspapers carried classified ads rather than news on their front page. They transformed the hustle and bustle of the marketplace into newsprint, so you could take it home or to the inn to pore over at your leisure.

James Naughtie travels the country discovering how these front page ads give us a snapshot of time and place, exploring how they weave national and local life together - the heartbeat of history rolling daily or weekly off the presses.

The ads tell us what people were eating, drinking and wearing, what was on stage and what people were playing at home. They mark the mood of the time through notices for public meetings held to stoke up or damp down public fears of crime and political unrest. They are a record of the notices placed for houses and public buildings to be built, licenses applied for and subscriptions raised for publications and commemorations. They show the latest labour saving gadgets "trending" as technology arrived, and they track jobs and trades on the way up and down as the British Empire waxed and waned. The ever present ads for patent medicines record our most popular ailments.

Produced by John Forsyth.
Assistant Producer: Alexandra Quinn.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 14:00 The Archers (m000cc1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (b09jcftt)
Sophie's Lights

A father is torn between his Jewish heritage and his love for his daughter, when she becomes convinced that Santa Claus is real. A heartwarming festive drama about learning to live in two places at once.

Written by Adam Usden.
Directed by Charlotte Riches.


THU 15:00 Open Country (m000cc1l)
Bristol and the transatlantic slave trade

Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley examines how the transatlantic slave trade has shaped Bristol and meets some of the historians, artists and cultural figures who are redressing how the legacy of slavery is presented and how the city's story is told.

Jasmine speaks to Olivette Otele, the newly appointed Professor of the History of Slavery at the University of Bristol about why the University has decided to examine its past and what this might mean for the city's wider approach to its colonial history.

Jasmine meets Stacey Olika, Donnell Asare and Ade Sowemimo who are working on a project at Bristol Museum to tell the story behind how some of the objects on display which they hope will present a clearer and more honest narrative about the cultural significance of the objects and the legacy of Britain's colonial past.

Historian Madge Dresser has been talking about Bristol's relationship with the slave trade for some time and she tells Jasmine that after one of her talks in the late 1990's someone defaced the city's statue of Edward Colston.

Lynne Mareno talks about how when she was growing-up in Bristol in the 1960s she was regularly subjected to racism, and how Bristol needs to deal with its past in order to move forwards..

Edson Burton is an writer, performer and historian and he tells Jasmine that whilst this work has been going on for years there have been significant steps forward in recent years, but he cautions against presenting these issue as the opinion of one united voice.

Jasmine ends the programme in Henbury at the grave of Scipio Africanus, one of the few recorded enslaved people who lived in Bristol.

Presenter: Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley
Producer: Toby Field


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000cc1n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (m000cc1q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000cc1s)
The latest releases, the hottest stars and the leading directors, plus news and insights from the film world.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000cc1v)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.


THU 17:00 PM (m000cc1x)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000cc1z)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 Tom Allen Is Actually Not Very Nice (m000cc21)
Episode 3

A new series from Tom Allen, star of Mock The Week, Bake Off Extra Slice, The Apprentice: You're Fired and fresh from a sell out solo performance at The London Palladium.

Tom Allen is Actually Not Very Nice explores what happens when Tom's calm and collected exterior collapses. He used to be such a nice boy but what has happened to turn him naughty?

With help from the assembled studio audience, Tom works out how best to navigate some tricky social situations and how to keep a lid on his fury when confronted with life's small injustices.

Featuring Gabby Best.

Photo credit: Edward Moore @edshots

Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production


THU 19:00 The Archers (m000c8r6)
Tom discovers some worrying information and there’s an early Christmas present for Kirsty.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m000cc23)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m000cc0y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000cc25)
Combining original insights into major news stories with topical investigations.


THU 20:30 In Business (m000cc27)
Belarus: Harvesting the whirlwind

The irradiated lands around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor were large, prosperous, and lively collective farms until the reactor exploded in 1986. Seventy percent of the toxic radiation fell in Belarus – a small, agrarian country in which most people lived on the land. Hundreds of villages were evacuated, but much of the population has since returned. A generation later In Business visits the Belarussian contamination zone and its hinterland to see how the local economy and way of life has adapted to a world turned upside down. We meet the beekeepers developing a honey farm in the depopulated part of the zone, visit an unexpected herd of horses and hear about the innovations in arable farming designed to resist radioactive toxins.

Produced and presented by Monica Whitlock


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000cc1v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000cc0r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000cc2b)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 Dark Matter (m000cc16)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


THU 23:00 Relativity (b092p790)
Series 1

Episode 1

Richard Herring's brand new comedy about four generations of a family. Starring Alison Steadman, Phil Davies and Richard Herring.

Relativity is a witty and loving portrait of family life, with affectionate observation of inter generational misunderstanding, sibling sparring and the ties that bind, that will resonate with anyone who has ever argued with their dad about how to pronounce crisp brand names.

Episode 1:
Ian brings home new girlfriend Chloe. His mum Margaret desperately hopes she is the one, dad Ken can't wait to try out his shampoo joke - again, while sister Jane, brother in law Pete and their three teen children try to get to the bottom of just what the attractive, intelligent, witty 30-something Chloe sees in serial dater and under employed 40-plus actor, Ian.

Written by Richard Herring and produced by Polly Thomas.
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Broadcast Assistants: Bella Lamplough Shields, Bryony Jarvis Taylor
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producers: Jon Thoday and Richard Allen Turner
An Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:30 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.”



FRIDAY 20 DECEMBER 2019

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000cc2d)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 00:30 Letters From Tove (m000cc0t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000cc2g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000cc2j)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000cc2l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000cc2n)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000cc2q)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Jo Bailey Wells

Good morning.

As Christmas approaches, we cook “for” friends coming to stay from far away, we labour to choose a present “for” that tricky family member, we offer charity “for” those who are homeless.

Lots of doing-for gestures are generous and noble. But I wonder, do they work? Does our hospitality bring that much-needed conversation to happen? Does the gift bridge the rift with my relative? Does the gesture of charity bring us closer to those in need?

I’ve realised recently that “for” isn’t the preposition God chooses at Christmas. The angel says to Joseph, “‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” At the start of John’s gospel we read: “The Word became flesh and lived with us.” I suggest the word that lies at the heart of Christmas and at the heart of the Christian faith is that word “with.”

At Christmas, God doesn’t sort the world out, or shower us with blessings. We may wish God would - to make everything happy and surround us with perfect things. Rather, the good news of Christmas is that God celebrates by being “with”, by becoming flesh in Jesus so that from that point on everything else in the world may be founded on a fundamental, unalterable, everlasting, and utterly unswerving God is with us, Emmanuel.

I invite you into a listening prayer today. Hear the words God speaks to us unambiguously:

I am ‘with’ you. Behold, my dwelling is among you. I’ve moved into the neighbourhood. I will be with you always. My name is Emmanuel.

Amen.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000cc2s)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09jdxn5)
Alison Steadman - The Twelve Tweets of Christmas 3 of 12

During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and for many a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song the Twelve Days of Christmas.

As actress Alison Steadman discusses working out what the actual bird is on the third day of the song could prove a headache. The original three French hens mentioned in the song could be of course domestic chickens or hens in France, but not, I suggest, French Hens, a species which as far as we know doesn't exist. It's thought then our domestic chickens are descendants of junglefowl, forest dwelling members of the pheasant family from southern Asia. Of all the junglefowl, it is the red junglefowl that is believed to be the primary ancestral source of our humble hen.

Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Graham Ball.


FRI 06:00 Today (m000c8q9)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000c8qc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Letters From Tove (m000c8qf)
Episode 5

Out of the thousands of letters Moomin creator Tove Jansson wrote, a cache remains that she addressed to her family, her dearest confidantes, and her lovers, both male and female.

Into these, she spilled her innermost thoughts, defended her ideals and revealed her heart. To read these letters is both an act of startling intimacy and a rare privilege.

Penned with grace and humour, Letters from Tove offers an almost seamless commentary on Tove Jansson's life as it unfolds within Helsinki's bohemian circles and her island home. Spanning fifty years between her art studies and the height of Moomin fame, we hear the bleakness of war, the hopes for love that were dashed and renewed, and her determined attempts to establish herself as an artist.

Translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death
Abridged by Polly Coles
Read by Sarah Lambie

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000c8qj)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (m000c8ql)
Subterranean Homesick Blues - Series 4

Episode 5

by A.L. Kennedy

John ..... Bill Nighy
Maggie ..... Anna Calder-Marshall
Colin ..... Clive Hayward
Mrs Williams ..... Jessica Turner
Breezy stranger ..... Neil McCaul

Directed by Sally Avens

A.L. Kennedy's comic drama about love in later . Maggie teaches the flirtatious Colin a lesson while John struggles to save the library and his marriage.


FRI 11:00 Three Pounds in My Pocket (m000c8qp)
Series 3

Episode 3

Kavita Puri hears what that catch-all term “Asian” really means for British South Asians. Although the Indian subcontinent is a vast place, the main migrant groups from the early "three pound" generation came from a handful of places. Each of these regions has its own distinctive language, food and tradition. All these years on, what matters to them and their children: is it the region they first came from on the Indian subcontinent, or the country? Their religion? A mix? Or does it no longer matter? And we hear how for some it's not just the “Asian” bit of British South Asian that can be hard to define, right now it’s also the “British” part. These are personal reflections rarely voiced.

Presenter: Kavita Puri
Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Hugh Levinson

Historical consultants:
Dr Florian Stadtler, Exeter University
Dr Edward Anderson, Cambridge University


FRI 11:30 Austentatious (m000c8qr)
The world premiere of an incredible lost Jane Austen novel, full of wit, flirtation and dastardly behaviour - and completely cooked up on the spot by the UK's finest improv troupe.

All the cast know is that they will perform a story in the style of Jane Austen, based on a title suggested by the studio audience. Be prepared for anything from Strictly Come Darcy to Mansfield Shark.

Austentatious are Amy Cooke-Hodgson, Graham Dickson, Charlotte Gittins, Cariad Lloyd, Joseph Morpurgo, Andrew Hunter Murray, Rachel Parris and Daniel Nils Roberts, with violin by Oliver Izod.

Produced by Jon Harvey
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000c8qt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Dark Matter (m000c8qw)
Episode Ten

Michelle Paver's terrifying 1930s ghost story, set in the wilderness of the Arctic Circle.

Episode Ten
“It can open doors. It can get in."

Writer: Michelle Paver
Although born in Nyasaland of a Belgian mother and a South African father, by the time she was three Michelle Paver and her family had settled in Wimbledon. She was educated at Wimbledon High School and Oxford, where she got a first in biochemistry. She subsequently became a partner in a London law firm. In 1996, after the death of her father, she resigned from the law firm to become a full-time writer. In 2010, Dark Matter was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. The Shirley Jackson Awards, named after the American author, recognise outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense and horror.

Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Reader: Lee Ingleby
Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000c8qy)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.


FRI 12:57 Weather (m000c8r0)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m000c8r2)
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 Classified Britain (m000823f)
Series 2

Ripley and Heanor News, 2 July 1948

James Naughtie explores history through front page small ads.

The Ripley and Heanor News - serving the towns of the Amber Valley, north of Derby - reveals the austerity of post war recovery in its columns, the home made entertainment in the days before television's domination and a meeting with one of the best known mediums in the Midlands.

Front page news is a relatively late addition to the newspaper business. For most of their first couple of centuries, British newspapers carried classified ads rather than news on their front page. They transformed the hustle and bustle of the marketplace into newsprint, so you could take it home or to the inn to pore over at your leisure.

James Naughtie travels the country discovering how these front page ads give us a snapshot of time and place, exploring how they weave national and local life together - the heartbeat of history rolling daily or weekly off the presses.

The ads tell us what people were eating, drinking and wearing, what was on stage and what people were playing at home. They mark the mood of the time through notices for public meetings held to stoke up or damp down public fears of crime and political unrest. They are a record of the notices placed for houses and public buildings to be built, licenses applied for and subscriptions raised for publications and commemorations. They show the latest labour saving gadgets "trending" as technology arrived, and they track jobs and trades on the way up and down as the British Empire waxed and waned. The ever present ads for patent medicines record our most popular ailments.

Produced by John Forsyth.
Assistant Producer: Alexandra Quinn.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000c8r6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b085bff4)
Midnight at Christmas

Midnight at Christmas

A magical drama, set when Christmas Eve turns into Christmas Day. Caught in a snowstorm on the way to see his ex, Matt is taken on an unexpected journey by a series of strangers with a surprising interest in his love life.

MATT .... Luke Newberry
GRACE ... Lizzie Roper
JOE ... Reece Noi
GAVIN ... Chris Jack
MATTHEW .... Arthur Bostrom
EZRA .... Joe Wandera

Written by Elliott Kerrigan
Produced by Charlotte Riches


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000c8r8)
Levens Hall: Correspondence Edition

Kathy Clugston and the team are at Levens Hall in the Lake District for a correspondence edition of the show. Matthew Wilson, James Wong and Christine Walkden are riffling through the GQT postbag and in box to answer questions sent in by listeners.

Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000c8rb)
Photos From Krakow

Written by Elizabeth J Kuti. Celine has planned a short break to Krakow with a friend. Before she leaves, she visits her ailing uncle, who asks her to bring something back.

Elizabeth J Kuti has written award-winning stage plays including The Sugar Wife and Treehouses. Her most recent radio work was Sea Longing, for Drama on 3. She is the Head of the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex.

Writer: Elizabeth J Kuti
Reader: Monica Dolan
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000c8rd)
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently.


FRI 16:30 Feedback (m000c8rg)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience.


FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (m000c8rj)
Florence and Caroline - Go back where?

Kenyan cousins talk about how important it is for African migrants like them to integrate. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.


FRI 17:00 PM (m000c8rl)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000c8rn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 Dead Ringers (m000c8rq)
Christmas Specials 2019

Episode 2

With the nation still coming to grips with the election results, the team bring you in-depth analysis, the political comment and a joke about Christmas.

Staring Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis McLeod, Duncan Wisbey, Deborah Stevenson.

The writing team for the series: Tom Jamieson & Nev Fountain, Laurence Howarth, Sarah Campbell, Ed Amsden & Tom Coles, James Bugg, Max Davis, Sara Gibbs, Simon Alcock, Alex Hardy and others.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m000c8rs)
Writer, Liz John
Director, Julie Beckett
Editor, Jeremy Howe

David Archer …..Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Natasha Archer ….. Mali Harries
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Phoebe Aldridge ….. Lucy Morris
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O'Hanrahan
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Robert Snell ….. Graham Blockey
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Lee Bryce ….. Ryan Early
Roman Trench ….. Ewan Bailey
DC Tanners ….. Jane Slavin


FRI 19:15 Front Row (m000c8rv)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (m000c8ql)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000c8rx)
Julian Worricker presents political debate from Wac Arts in Belsize Park London
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000c8rz)
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.


FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (b0b90lng)
A Hack's Progress

Journalist and author Jonathan Freedland looks at how journalists and newspapers have been depicted in fiction from the advent of the mass popular press to the present day, examining the changing public image of the fourth estate and its practitioners.

Why did Edwardian novelists portray journalists as swashbuckling, truth-seeking heroes, but post-WW2 depictions present them as an alienated outsider? Why are contemporary fictional journalists often deranged, murderous or intensely vulnerable?

Jonathan considers how journalists have been represented in various distinct periods of the 20th century, explaining why the representations vary so widely. Crucially, this is a history of the press, told not by historians and sociologists, but by journalists and the creators of fiction themselves.

In uncovering many forgotten fictions, Jonathan explores the bare-knuckled literary combat conducted by writers contesting the disputed boundaries between literature and journalism.

The contributors include Simon Jenkins, Kelvin McKenzie, Francine Stock, Hadley Freeman, and S Town producer Brian Reed.

Produced by Sean Glynn and David Waters
An SPG production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000c8s1)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 Dark Matter (m000c8qw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


FRI 23:00 Great Lives (m000c8s3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:25 The Untold (b09cy90v)
Unfair Dismissal?

Grace Dent returns with a new series of untold stories from modern Britain.

The new series opens with the story of former care home manager Rachel Burns who was sacked after posting a photo of one of her residents on Facebook.

Though Rachel Burns admitted she'd made a number of mistakes in her use of social media, she felt that dismissal was too draconian after 21 years working for her employer, the local council. The Untold follows Rachel over a twelve month period as she pursues an unfair dismissal claim.

The odds seem stacked against her in the employment tribunal. While the council is represented by a barrister, she has no formal legal representation.

And as the case drags on, Rachel's debts mount and the experience starts to take a severe emotional toll.

Will the employment tribunal rule in her favour - or dismiss her claim?

Producer: Laurence Grissell.


FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (m000c8s5)
Nyree and Greg - Hour by hour, you just get through

Brother and sister on adulthood and how they coped when she had post-natal depression. 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 (m000c9lq)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 MON (m000c9lq)

15 Minute Drama 10:45 TUE (m000c9rk)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 TUE (m000c9rk)

15 Minute Drama 10:41 WED (m000cc6h)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 WED (m000cc6h)

15 Minute Drama 10:45 THU (m000cc0y)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 THU (m000cc0y)

15 Minute Drama 10:45 FRI (m000c8ql)

15 Minute Drama 19:45 FRI (m000c8ql)

A Point of View 08:48 SUN (m000c4st)

A Point of View 20:50 FRI (m000c8rz)

A Run in the Park 19:45 SUN (m000cc4x)

All in the Mind 21:00 TUE (m000c9sr)

All in the Mind 15:30 WED (m000c9sr)

Any Answers? 14:00 SAT (m000cbts)

Any Questions? 13:10 SAT (m000c4sr)

Any Questions? 20:00 FRI (m000c8rx)

Archive on 4 20:00 SAT (m000cbvh)

Archive on 4 21:00 FRI (b0b90lng)

Art of Now 16:30 SUN (m000cc4l)

Art of Now 23:30 SUN (m000bx1h)

Austentatious 11:30 FRI (m000c8qr)

BBC Inside Science 16:30 THU (m000cc1v)

BBC Inside Science 21:00 THU (m000cc1v)

Bells on Sunday 05:43 SUN (m000cbw0)

Bells on Sunday 00:45 MON (m000cbw0)

Beyond Belief 16:30 MON (m000c9ml)

Book at Bedtime 21:45 SAT (b08n1ksg)

Broadcasting House 09:00 SUN (m000cc42)

Bunk Bed 23:00 WED (m000cc7v)

Classified Britain 13:45 MON (m0007bc2)

Classified Britain 13:45 TUE (m0007khr)

Classified Britain 13:45 WED (m0007qyh)

Classified Britain 13:45 THU (m0007wv6)

Classified Britain 13:45 FRI (m000823f)

Crossing Continents 20:30 MON (m000c4xv)

Crossing Continents 11:00 THU (m000cc10)

Dark Matter 12:04 MON (m000c9lz)

Dark Matter 22:45 MON (m000c9lz)

Dark Matter 12:04 TUE (m000c9rt)

Dark Matter 22:45 TUE (m000c9rt)

Dark Matter 12:04 WED (m000cc6r)

Dark Matter 22:45 WED (m000cc6r)

Dark Matter 12:04 THU (m000cc16)

Dark Matter 22:45 THU (m000cc16)

Dark Matter 12:04 FRI (m000c8qw)

Dark Matter 22:45 FRI (m000c8qw)

Dead Ringers 12:30 SAT (m000c4sj)

Dead Ringers 18:30 FRI (m000c8rq)

Desert Island Discs 11:15 SUN (m000c8qc)

Desert Island Discs 09:00 FRI (m000c8qc)

Dickens Confidential 21:00 SAT (m000cbvk)

Drama 14:15 WED (m000cc72)

Drama 14:15 THU (b09jcftt)

Drama 14:15 FRI (b085bff4)

Electioncast 11:00 SAT (m000cbtd)

Fake Heiress 14:15 MON (m000c9m9)

Fake Heiress 14:15 TUE (m000c9s2)

Farming Today 06:30 SAT (m000cbt2)

Farming Today 05:45 MON (m000cc5g)

Farming Today 05:45 TUE (m000c9pp)

Farming Today 05:45 WED (m000c9t8)

Farming Today 05:45 THU (m000cc8k)

Farming Today 05:45 FRI (m000cc2s)

Feedback 20:00 SUN (m000c4s8)

Feedback 16:30 FRI (m000c8rg)

Four Thought 05:45 SAT (m000c4tp)

Four Thought 15:45 SUN (m0006tkv)

Four Thought 09:30 WED (m000c8sm)

Four Thought 20:45 WED (m000c8sm)

Fred at The Stand 19:15 SUN (m000cbjx)

From Our Own Correspondent 11:30 SAT (m000cbtg)

Front Row 19:15 MON (m000c9mz)

Front Row 19:15 TUE (m000c9sk)

Front Row 19:15 WED (m000cc7k)

Front Row 19:15 THU (m000cc23)

Front Row 19:15 FRI (m000c8rv)

Gardeners' Question Time 14:00 SUN (m000c4s2)

Gardeners' Question Time 15:00 FRI (m000c8r8)

Great Lives 16:30 TUE (m000c8s3)

Great Lives 23:00 FRI (m000c8s3)

Grenfell: Flat 142 17:00 SUN (m000ccs8)

Have You Heard George's Podcast? 23:00 MON (m000c9nd)

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue 12:04 SUN (m000c4x9)

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue 18:30 MON (m000c9mv)

In Business 21:30 SUN (m000c4zx)

In Business 20:30 THU (m000cc27)

In Our Time 09:00 THU (m000cc0r)

In Our Time 21:30 THU (m000cc0r)

In Touch 20:40 TUE (m000c9sp)

James Veitch's Contractual Obligation 10:30 SAT (m000cbtb)

Last Word 20:30 SUN (m000c4s6)

Last Word 16:00 FRI (m000c8rd)

Lemn Sissay's Social Enterprise 11:30 WED (m000cc6m)

Letters From Tove 09:45 MON (m000c9np)

Letters From Tove 00:30 TUE (m000c9np)

Letters From Tove 09:45 TUE (m000c9rf)

Letters From Tove 00:30 WED (m000c9rf)

Letters From Tove 09:45 WED (m000cc85)

Letters From Tove 00:30 THU (m000cc85)

Letters From Tove 09:45 THU (m000cc0t)

Letters From Tove 00:30 FRI (m000cc0t)

Letters From Tove 09:45 FRI (m000c8qf)

Like, Share, Vote 20:00 MON (m000c9n2)

Like, Share, Vote 11:00 WED (m000c9n2)

Living World 06:35 SUN (m000cc3m)

Loose Ends 18:15 SAT (m000c9lv)

Loose Ends 11:30 MON (m000c9lv)

Making History 15:30 TUE (m000c9s6)

Michael Frayn's Pocket Playhouse 23:00 TUE (b0b6phln)

Midnight News 00:00 SAT (m000c4t5)

Midnight News 00:00 SUN (m000cbvp)

Midnight News 00:00 MON (m000cc52)

Midnight News 00:00 TUE (m000c9nk)

Midnight News 00:00 WED (m000c9sw)

Midnight News 00:00 THU (m000cc81)

Midnight News 00:00 FRI (m000cc2d)

Money Box 12:04 SAT (m000cbtl)

Money Box 21:00 SUN (m000cbtl)

Money Box 15:00 WED (m000cc74)

Naturebang 09:30 TUE (m000615j)

News Briefing 05:30 SAT (m000c4tw)

News Briefing 05:30 SUN (m000cbvy)

News Briefing 05:30 MON (m000cc5b)

News Briefing 05:30 TUE (m000c9p9)

News Briefing 05:30 WED (m000c9t4)

News Briefing 05:30 THU (m000cc8f)

News Briefing 05:30 FRI (m000cc2n)

News Headlines 06:00 SUN (m000cc3k)

News Summary 12:00 SAT (m000ccmj)

News Summary 12:00 SUN (m000cc46)

News Summary 12:00 MON (m000ccml)

News Summary 12:00 TUE (m000c9rr)

News Summary 12:00 WED (m000ccct)

News Summary 12:00 THU (m000cc14)

News Summary 12:00 FRI (m000c8qt)

News and Papers 06:00 SAT (m000cbt0)

News and Papers 07:00 SUN (m000cc3r)

News and Papers 08:00 SUN (m000cc3y)

News and Weather 22:00 SAT (m000cbvm)

News 13:00 SAT (m000cbtq)

One to One 15:45 SAT (m00095bq)

Open Book 16:00 SUN (m000cc1q)

Open Book 15:30 THU (m000cc1q)

Open Country 06:07 SAT (m000d0x6)

Open Country 15:00 THU (m000cc1l)

PM 17:00 SAT (m000cbv0)

PM 17:00 MON (m000c9mn)

PM 17:00 TUE (m000c9s9)

PM 17:00 WED (m000cc79)

PM 17:00 THU (m000cc1x)

PM 17:00 FRI (m000c8rl)

Pick of the Week 18:15 SUN (m000cc4v)

Power Lines 23:30 SAT (m000c3fx)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 SAT (m000c4v1)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 MON (m000cc5d)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 TUE (m000c9pg)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 WED (m000c9t6)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 THU (m000cc8h)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 FRI (m000cc2q)

Profile 19:00 SAT (m000cbvc)

Profile 05:45 SUN (m000cbvc)

Profile 17:40 SUN (m000cbvc)

Quote... Unquote 23:00 SAT (m000c4w7)

Quote... Unquote 15:00 MON (m000c9md)

Radio 4 Appeal 07:54 SUN (m000cc1n)

Radio 4 Appeal 21:25 SUN (m000cc1n)

Radio 4 Appeal 15:27 THU (m000cc1n)

Refrain 16:00 TUE (m000bl1r)

Relativity 23:00 THU (b092p790)

Rewinder 00:15 MON (m00055q1)

Rhys James 18:30 TUE (m000c9sf)

Russell Kane's Right to Buy 21:00 MON (m00099yx)

Saturday Live 09:00 SAT (m000cbt8)

Saturday Review 19:15 SAT (m000cbvf)

Science Stories 21:00 WED (m000cc7p)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 SAT (m000c4tg)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 SUN (m000cbvt)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 MON (m000cc56)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 TUE (m000c9ny)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 WED (m000c9t0)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 THU (m000cc89)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 FRI (m000cc2j)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 SAT (m000c4t8)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 SAT (m000c4tn)

Shipping Forecast 17:54 SAT (m000cbv4)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 SUN (m000cbvr)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 SUN (m000cbvw)

Shipping Forecast 17:54 SUN (m000cc4n)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 MON (m000cc54)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 MON (m000cc58)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 TUE (m000c9nt)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 TUE (m000c9p4)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 WED (m000c9sy)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 WED (m000c9t2)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 THU (m000cc87)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 THU (m000cc8c)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 FRI (m000cc2g)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 FRI (m000cc2l)

Short Cuts 15:00 TUE (m000c9s4)

Short Works 00:30 SUN (m000c4s4)

Short Works 15:45 FRI (m000c8rb)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 SAT (m000cbv8)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 SUN (m000cc4s)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 MON (m000c9ms)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 TUE (m000c9sc)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 WED (m000cc7f)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 THU (m000cc1z)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 FRI (m000c8rn)

Sketches: Stories of Art and People 11:30 THU (m000cc12)

Something Understood 06:05 SUN (b06qg0ng)

Soul Music 09:00 WED (m000cc69)

Soul Music 21:30 WED (m000cc69)

Start the Week 09:00 MON (m000c9lj)

Start the Week 21:30 MON (m000c9lj)

Sunday Worship 08:10 SUN (m000cc40)

Sunday 07:10 SUN (m000cc3t)

The Archers Omnibus 10:00 SUN (m000cc44)

The Archers 19:00 SUN (m000c9m7)

The Archers 14:00 MON (m000c9m7)

The Archers 19:00 MON (m000c9mx)

The Archers 14:00 TUE (m000c9mx)

The Archers 19:00 TUE (m000c9sh)

The Archers 14:00 WED (m000c9sh)

The Archers 19:00 WED (m000cc1j)

The Archers 14:00 THU (m000cc1j)

The Archers 19:00 THU (m000c8r6)

The Archers 14:00 FRI (m000c8r6)

The Archers 19:00 FRI (m000c8rs)

The Briefing Room 20:00 THU (m000cc25)

The Film Programme 23:00 SUN (m000c4zg)

The Film Programme 16:00 THU (m000cc1s)

The Food Programme 12:32 SUN (m000c9mg)

The Food Programme 15:30 MON (m000c9mg)

The Inquiry 17:30 SAT (m000cbv2)

The Listening Project 14:45 SUN (m000cc4f)

The Listening Project 10:55 WED (m000cc6k)

The Listening Project 16:55 FRI (m000c8rj)

The Listening Project 23:55 FRI (m000c8s5)

The Long View 09:00 TUE (m000c9rc)

The Long View 21:30 TUE (m000c9rc)

The Media Show 16:30 WED (m000cc77)

The Misinformation Virus 20:00 TUE (m000c9sm)

The Missing Hancocks 18:30 WED (m000cc7h)

The Spark 22:15 SAT (m000c4xq)

The Spark 20:00 WED (m000cc7m)

The Untold 11:00 MON (m000c9ls)

The Untold 23:30 MON (b06yr7ft)

The Untold 23:30 TUE (b08x8ptg)

The Untold 23:30 WED (b07z3zft)

The Untold 23:30 THU (m0001qhf)

The Untold 23:25 FRI (b09cy90v)

The World This Weekend 13:00 SUN (m000cc4c)

The World Tonight 22:00 MON (m000c9n8)

The World Tonight 22:00 TUE (m000c9st)

The World Tonight 22:00 WED (m000cc7r)

The World Tonight 22:00 THU (m000cc2b)

The World Tonight 22:00 FRI (m000c8s1)

Thinking Allowed 16:00 WED (b01phj21)

This Is Your Country Now, Too 15:00 SUN (m000cc4h)

Three Pounds in My Pocket 11:00 FRI (m000c8qp)

Three Sisters Rewired 14:45 SAT (m000cbtv)

Three-a-Penny 00:30 SAT (m000c4rk)

Today 07:00 SAT (m000cbt6)

Today 06:00 MON (m000c9lg)

Today 06:00 TUE (m000c9r9)

Today 06:00 WED (m000cc67)

Today 06:00 THU (m000cc0p)

Today 06:00 FRI (m000c8q9)

Tom Allen Is Actually Not Very Nice 18:30 THU (m000cc21)

Tweet of the Day 08:58 SUN (b09nvs2r)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 MON (b09m165l)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 TUE (b08yn32k)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 WED (b09jc69f)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 THU (b09jd328)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 FRI (b09jdxn5)

Weather 06:57 SAT (m000cbt4)

Weather 12:57 SAT (m000cbtn)

Weather 17:57 SAT (m000cbv6)

Weather 06:57 SUN (m000cc3p)

Weather 07:57 SUN (m000cc3w)

Weather 12:57 SUN (m000cc49)

Weather 17:57 SUN (m000cc4q)

Weather 05:56 MON (m000cc5j)

Weather 12:57 MON (m000c9m3)

Weather 12:57 TUE (m000c9ry)

Weather 12:57 WED (m000cc6w)

Weather 12:57 THU (m000cc1b)

Weather 12:57 FRI (m000c8r0)

Westminster Hour 22:00 SUN (m000cc50)

What Has Sat-Nav Done to Our Brains? 11:00 TUE (m000c9rm)

What If Our Textbooks Were Black? 16:00 MON (m000c9mj)

What If We Stopped Buying Stuff and Started Making It? 11:30 TUE (m000c9rp)

Woman's Hour 16:00 SAT (m000cbty)

Woman's Hour 10:00 MON (m000c9ln)

Woman's Hour 10:00 TUE (m000c9rh)

Woman's Hour 10:00 WED (m000cc6f)

Woman's Hour 10:00 THU (m000cc0w)

Woman's Hour 10:00 FRI (m000c8qj)

World at One 13:00 MON (m000c9m5)

World at One 13:00 TUE (m000c9s0)

World at One 13:00 WED (m000cc6y)

World at One 13:00 THU (m000cc1d)

World at One 13:00 FRI (m000c8r2)

You and Yours 12:18 MON (m000c9m1)

You and Yours 12:18 TUE (m000c9rw)

You and Yours 12:18 WED (m000cc6t)

You and Yours 12:18 THU (m000cc18)

You and Yours 12:18 FRI (m000c8qy)