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 19 SEPTEMBER 2020

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000mlws)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 Eat the Buddha by Barbara Demick (m000mlv2)
Episode 5

The acclaimed journalist Barbara Demick's new book is an illuminating account of modern Tibet. Today, we catch up with the townspeople of Ngaba, and their new lives in India where the Dalai Lama resides. Laurel Lefkow is the reader.

Eat the Buddha tells Tibet's troubled history through the eyes the people of one town, starting in the 1950s when China claimed sovereignty over Tibet, leading to decades of unrest and resistance, and bringing us up to the present day. Barbara Demick's account is an evocative portrait of what life is like for today's Tibetans who struggle to maintain their identity in the face of one of the most powerful countries in the world.

Barbara Demick won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nothing to Envy (Granta, 2010), her seminal book on North Korea. She is also the author of Besieged (Granta, 2012), her account of the war in Sarajevo, which won the George Polk Award, the Robert F Kennedy Award and was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize. She lives in New York.

Abridged by Penny Leicester.
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000mlwv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000mlwx)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000mlwz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m000mlx1)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000mlx3)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Dr Rosa Hunt, co-principal of the South Wales Baptist College.


SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m000mksy)
In Defence of Embarrassment

Tiffany Atkinson rehabilitates the concept of embarrassment, seeing its potential to be a positive force in social encounters, in contrast to the negative power of shame. "Sometimes shame may be appropriate, but we do not have to file all errors and pratfalls and misunderstandings under shame. Is this a healthy way to live with others? Would an embarrassment culture not be a useful counterbalance?"

Presenter: Olly Mann
Producer: Sheila Cook


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000ms91)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m000mk2z)
The Mendips with Professor Alice Roberts

On a hot day, Clare and Alice Roberts walk from the village of Draycott in Somerset up through the Draycott Sleights Nature Reserve with views opening out across the Bristol Channel to Wales and across the Somerset Levels to Glastonbury Tor.
Alice says she finds the ancient landscape fascinating and imagines the inhabitants of past centuries who would have lived on the small settlements on the Levels.

Producer: Maggie Ayre


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m000ms93)
Farming Today This Week

Caz Graham finds out about the crops that are grown to make drinks - from malting barley to pears. With the pubs shut for months because of the pandemic, it's been a difficult year for drinks crops.

Some cider apple producers who grow fruit for drinks companies are being paid to let fruit rot in the fields. With large quantities of cider normally sold through pubs, companies have been left with a surplus of fruit. But we visit one farm where they grow the apples, then process and bottle their own cider...and they've been able to benefit from a five-fold growth in internet sales.

Hot weather in the Spring and Summer of this year has lead to an impressively early grape harvest. We speak to a winemaker trialing a new automated grape picker.

Banham Poultry in Norfolk is asking for financial help from the Government after losing millions of pounds because of a temporary plant closure after a COVID outbreak. We hear from the Managing Director about what happens next.

We get an update on the Agriculture Bill's progress through the House of Lords.

And, it's Open Farm Sunday...except it's closed. We find out whether a virtual tour will cut the mustard.

Presented by Caz Graham
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


SAT 06:57 Weather (m000ms95)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m000ms97)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m000ms99)
Alan Davies

Alan Davies joins Richard Coles and Marverine Cole. Having spent nearly 20 years on the QI panel, performing sell-out comedy tours and appearing in television sitcoms and dramas, Alan has branched out and written an unflinching memoir about his painful childhood.

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason is a former lecturer at Birmingham University and the mother of seven children. The third eldest, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, was BBC Young Musician 2016 and performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The siblings have performed at the 2018 BAFTA ceremony, Britain's Got Talent, The Royal Variety Performance and at major concert halls around the world. How did she do it?

Harry Shearer is an American comedian, radio host and actor who is known for his stints on Saturday Night Live, for co-creating and performing in This Is Spinal Tap and for voicing up several characters on The Simpsons, including Mr Burns, Principal Skinner and Ned Flanders. He is now using his vocal skills to create an album of songs which Harry performs as Donald Trump.

Listener Barbara Butcher contacted Saturday Live to tell us about her grandfather, who died during the First World War at Ypres in 1917. He left behind a beautiful watch which has been in the family for four generations, but when her son had the watch opened up a few years ago, he was surprised by what he discovered…

And we have the Inheritance Tracks of food critic and broadcaster Jay Rayner whose latest book Last Supper: One Meal, a Lifetime in the Making is out now and the Jay Rayner Quartet will be live-streaming their gig on Oct 17th.

Producer: Laura Northedge
Editor: Eleanor Garland


SAT 10:30 You're Dead To Me (p088jy8d)
The Mughal Empire

Greg Jenner is joined by historian Dr Mehreen Chida-Razvi and comedian Sindhu Vee to explore The Mughal Empire and it’s legacy in art and architecture.

We learn why an Emperor always needed to be wary of his siblings and how a zebra came to cause disbelief in court, and we hear the real story behind the wondrous Taj Mahal.

A Muddy Knees Media production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m000ms9d)
Anushka Asthana of The Guardian and guests review another fractious and busy week at Westminster. They discuss new Covid restrictions and the problems with testing, and the government's controversial Brexit 'Internal Market' Bill which is causing unease among Conservative backbenchers. Also, has the coronavirus crisis provided an opportunity to 'build back greener' or are environmental threats more serious than ever?

The editor is Leala Padmanabhan.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m000ms9g)
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements to normalise relations with Israel, this week, motivated by a desire to build a united front against Iran. Palestinians have condemned the move as a betrayal. Yolande Knell reports on out how the deal has gone down with young Emiratis and Israelis.
Wildfires continue to rage across the West Coast region of the United States. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes as over four and a half million acres of land have now been scorched. President Trump visited this week and blamed “poor forest management” for the conflagrations. California’s governor insisted they’re due to climate change. Peter Bowes knows the devastation and destruction of these fires all too well....
On the Greek island of Lesbos, efforts have begun to move thousands of migrants and refugees from the fire-gutted Moria camp to a new tent city nearby. The camp had become overcrowded and squalid, and now many would prefer to leave Lesbos altogether. But where can they go, asks Bethany Bell.
In Romania, the small Transylvanian village of Viscri has become a magnet for tourists, including the Prince of Wales. Stephen McGrath has been finding out why, and what impact it's been having.
It would normally be peak safari season in the Serengeti region in northern Tanzania at this time of year, with carloads of tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of a giraffe, an elephant or even a pride of lions. But this year the visitors have stayed away because of the coronavirus. Well, not all of them. Michelle Jana Chan did go, and got a front row seat seeing some of nature’s grandest spectacles.

Presenter: Kate Adie
Producer: Arlene Gregorius


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m000ms9j)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m000mrcm)
The latest news from the world of personal finance


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m000mlwd)
Series 103

Episode 3

A satirical review of the week's news with Andy Zaltzman. This week Andy is joined by Paul Sinha, Ayesha Hazarika, Geoff Norcott and Catherine Bohart.

Testing testing...is this thing on? Andy and the teams trace their way through another weekly deluge of news.

Written by Andy Zaltzman with additional material by Simon Alcock, Alice Fraser, Ambika Mod and Mike Shephard.

Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production


SAT 12:57 Weather (m000ms9l)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m000ms9n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m000mlwj)
Timandra Harkness, Gillian Keegan MP, Richard Leonard MSP, Adam Price AM

Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Broadcasting House, London, with the writer and broadcaster Timandra Harkness, the Apprenticeships and Skills Minister Gillian Keegan, the leader of Scottish Labour Richard Leonard and Plaid Cymru's leader Adam Price.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Studio direction: Maire Devine


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m000ms9q)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 One to One (m000mj1b)
Body shape: Helen Mort & Anyika Onuora

Poet and runner Helen Mort talks to retired Olympic track and field athlete Anyika Onuora about body image in sport. In the last of three programmes about body modification and the relationship between how we present ourselves physically to the world and how we feel, Helen swaps experiences with Anyika about striving for ’the perfect image‘ and the effects training and competitive sport have on the body’s shape. Anyika reveals her lack of confidence about her body and how she managed this whilst living her life in the public eye in front of vast crowds and TV cameras. Producer Sarah Blunt


SAT 15:00 Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola (b079lhy2)
Season 2 - Sex

Episode 1: Performance

Blood Sex and Money, an epic 24 hours of drama inspired by the works of literature’s greatest whistle blower, Emile Zola.

Season 2. Sex. Episode 1. Performance.

A story of sexual desire and the birth of a celebrity dramatised by Oliver Emanuel.

Glenda Jackson returns as Dide, the matriarch to a family of wolves – the Rougon- Macquarts - and drawing us into the decadence and degradation of 19th Century France.

Nana’s been living and working on the dangerous streets of Paris when a theatre manager buys her for the night and realizes just how potent she could be.

Cast:

Dide … Glenda Jackson
Nana…Holliday Grainger
Mignon…Ben Batt
Fauchery… John Catterall
Copeau…David Crellin
Rose…Kimberly Hart-Simpson
Paul…Reece Noi
Satin… Kate O’Flynn

Directed by Kirsty Williams


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m000ms9s)
How does the feminisation of alcohol work? We hear from Carol Emslie a Professor of substance use and misuse at the School of Health and Life Sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University, Kate Baily a podcast host and the co-author of Love Yourself Sober – a self-care guide to alcohol-free living for busy mothers and from Dr Athanasia Daskalopoulou, a Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Liverpool Management School.

What are the pros and cons of being naked in front of your children? Rosie Haine, a writer and illustrator whose book is called “It Isn’t Rude to be Nude and Dr Keon West, a psychologist at Goldsmiths, University of London, discuss.

Three quarters of black women do not feel the NHS protects them equally. That’s according to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights which commissioned a poll on being Black in the UK. We hear from researcher Celine Henry and Harriet Harman MP Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

Julia Gillard, once Prime Minister of Australia, and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, economist and international development expert from Nigeria and also a woman with experience at the top of the Nigerian politics, have come together to explore women and leadership. They tell us about the book they’ve written together.

Bridget McCrum didn’t start her career as a sculptor until she was in her forties. Now at 86 she is still working with stone and in the last 10 years has had more interest in her work than ever - a recent commission sold for 68, 000 pounds.

The author Nina Stibbe tells us about winning the Comedy Women in Print Prize with her book ‘Reasons To Be Cheerful’ with chair of the judges Marian Keyes.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Sarah Crawley


SAT 17:00 PM (m000ms9v)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m000ms9x)
Nick Robinson talks politics and personal roots with Environment Secretary George Eustice.

Producer: Peter Snowdon.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000ms9z)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m000msb1)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000msb3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m000msb5)
Dara Ó Briain, Nina Conti, David Nicholls, Jamz Supernova, The Allergies, 47 Soul, Arthur Smith, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined,by Dara Ó Briain, Nina Conti, David Nichols and Jamz Supernova for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from The Allergies and 47 Soul.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m000mrbp)
Kamala Harris

The woman who could soon be "a heartbeat away" from the presidency. This week voters in some states started sending in their ballot papers for the US presidential election. If the Democrats win when results are announced in November, it's vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris who'll be second in line to the Oval Office. She would be first black person, the first woman and the first person of Indian descent to become VP. But what is Kamala Harris really like? Why has she attracted criticism in some circles for her record as a prosecutor and a legislator, while being hailed a hero by others? And is she likely to attract voters to Joe Biden's presidential campaign, or drive them away?

Presenter: Mark Coles
Producer: Ben Crighton
Researcher: Beth Sagar-Fenton


SAT 19:15 Miles Jupp Is Literally Unputdownable (m000hpcw)
When was the last time you read a story which kept you up at night or made you miss your stop on the train? Miles Jupp goes on the trail of literally unputdownable stories in the company of "The Day of the Jackal" author Frederick Forsyth, "Line of Duty" creator Jed Mercurio, "The Girl on the Train" author Paula Hawkins, critic DJ Taylor and others.

Presented by Miles Jupp
Produced by David Stenhouse
Readings by David Jackson Young


SAT 19:45 The Californian Century (m000fq4f)
The Good Fight

Stanley Tucci tells the story of Leon Lewis who hunted down Nazis on the streets on LA in the 30s and 40s.

With its aircraft factories and shipyards, California consumed ten per cent of the US war budget. That made it a prime target for Nazis hoping to disrupt the war effort.

Leon Lewis swung into action, infiltrating LA's Nazi groups. Meanwhile, California drew in more people and money than ever before, sowing the seeds of its post-War economic success.

Academic consultant: Dr Ian Scott, University of Manchester

Written and produced by Laurence Grissell


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m000msb7)
A Broadcasting Life

Sue MacGregor looks back on five decades of broadcasting in this final goodbye to Radio 4.

When Sue MacGregor quietly retired from The Reunion last year, there was no fanfare, montage of past heroics or on-air hullabaloo, just a spontaneous ripple of applause from the original cast of the musical "Cats".

It marked the end of 52 years of continuous broadcasting on the BBC, including a unique unbroken run on Radio 4 since its inception. In this goodbye to the network, she reflects on some of her most memorable moments, and the way broadcasting has changed since 1968.

She represents the deepest values of the BBC, was once described as the "crown imperial" of Radio 4, and has forged a unique relationship with listeners over the decades as the presenter of programmes like Woman’s Hour, Today, A Good Read, Conversation Piece and many more.

Radio Times readers still place her in the Top 5 of the all-time best voices on radio.

In this programme, she recalls frying eggs at Piccadilly Circus (on a famously hot day in the late 60s), the El Vino’s sit ins of the early 70s (the last men only wine bar on Fleet Street), being smuggled into Winnie Mandela’s Soweto home whilst she was under house arrest, both wedding and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, and memorable encounters with Julie Andrews, Margaret Thatcher, Bette Davis and a very angry Conservative Party Chairman.

Producers: Ellie Clifford and David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 21:00 Tracks (m0001fvv)
Series 3: Chimera

Chimera: Episode Six

Part 6 of the conspiracy thriller. Written by Caroline Horton, starring Hattie Morahan.

Helen forms an unlikely friendship with another patient in the psychiatric hospital where she's been sectioned. The decision whether to terminate her unexplained pregnancy hangs over her.

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

Helen…. Hattie Morahan
Freddy….. Jonathan Forbes
Nasrah…. Amerah Saleh
Lance.... Adam Deacon
Andrea….. Eiry Thomas
Nasrah's Father….. Bijan Daneshmand
Policewoman.... Emma Handy

Lead writer…. Matthew Broughton
Directed by Rebecca Lloyd-Evans
Produced by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production


SAT 21:45 Angielski (b068yd6p)
Fox Season by Agnieszka Dale

Three newly commissioned stories offering different angles on the Polish experience in London.

Estimates vary but there are now approximately 750,000 Poles living in the UK. And Polish is now the second most spoken language in England. Much of this is the result of immigration since Poland joined the EU in 2004 - but there is also an older community that developed in the years after the Polish Resettlement Act of 1947.

Episode 3: Fox Season by Agnieszka Dale
Despite her husband’s objections, Emilia is determined to keep feeding the foxes at night.

Reader: Anamaria Marinca

Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:00 News (m000msb9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 The Spark (m000mkv4)
Paul Collier and John Kay v Destructive Individualism

A new series of the interview programme in which journalist 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.

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.

In the first episode of this latest series, leading economists Sir Paul Collier and John Kay argue that the world is in thrall to destructive individualism, from the right’s obsession with shareholder value to the left’s extremes of identity politics.

They tell Helen why they argue in their new book, Greed is Dead, that we need to focus instead on mutual obligations and community. Helen asks them to lay out the practical proposals for trying to make this happen, from devolving power to promoting German-style 'associations'.

Producer: Phil Tinline


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (m000mkhs)
Heat 12, 2020

(12/17)
In the last of the heats in the 2020 series, Russell Davies puts another four contenders through their paces. The winner will take the last of the automatic places in the semi-finals, and the scores today will also determine which four of the runners-up go through with the highest points totals. The contest was recorded under special safe conditions with no audience present.

Appearing today are
Ricki Kendall, a personal tutor from Spalding in Lincolnshire
Stephen Longridge, a retired bank employee from London
Manuel Lovell, an insurance recruiter from London
Mat Williams, a market researcher from Tonbridge in Kent.

A listener also gets the chance to Beat the Brains, by stumping them with questions he or she has suggested.

Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 A Manual For Dreaming Womxn (m000mlbf)
What’s the most compelling dream you’ve ever had? Poet Rachel Long would like to hear about it. In this workshop-for-radio, she leads the listener in a dreamy guide – how to turn our night-time sequences into a poetic form.

With the help of poet and psychoanalyst Nuar Alsadir, poet and playwright Caroline Bird and literary editor Kishani Widyaratna, Rachel explores the links between dreams and poetry, including her own. How might we transform our sleep-time wanderings into something more than just a funny story for the morning?

Dreams can be many things - they are narratives constructed and experienced in image; a portal into our unconscious and, more simply, a way to keep our mind occupied while sleeping. But Rachel argues, we can also harness their metaphoric capabilities to deepen our understanding of poetry, and the process of writing poems. Not only that, but poets really can use their unconscious as a guide for their writing.

Rachel Long is a poet and founder of Octavia Poetry Collective for Women of Colour, which is housed at Southbank Centre, in London. Her debut collection, My Darling from the Lions, was published by Picador this year, and has been nominated for the Forward Prize for best first collection.

Presented by Rachel Long
Produced by Eliza Lomas
Mixed by Olga M Reed
A Boom Shakalaka production for BBC Radio 4



SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000msbc)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 A British History in Weather (b07b2hxf)
The Wisdom of Winter

Alexandra Harris tells the story of how the weather has written and painted itself into the cultural life of Britain. Episode 2, Winter: the coldest season.

Our thoughts have been expressed through certain weathers. In the literature that survives from the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries, it is often winter that speaks loudest. Though that winter is a fierce challenge, it is also surprisingly beautiful, exposing the white bones of the world as a kind of truth.

With music by Jon Nicholls.

A BBC Audio Production, made in Bristol


SUN 00:30 Hannah Vincent - The Poison Frog (b07j7nv7)
Written by Hannah Vincent. A curious tale featuring a mother, a daughter and an amphibian. The swelling on Vicky’s mother’s neck creates unforeseen family tensions.

Hannah Vincent lives in Brighton. She began her writing life as a playwright and her first radio play, Come to Grief, was a re-working of one of her stage plays. It won the BBC 2015 Audio Award for Best Adaptation. Hannah’s first novel is Alarm Girl. She is currently writing a second novel and carrying out doctoral research in creative and critical writing at the University of Sussex. She teaches Creative Writing for the Open University and will become a Royal Literary Fund fellow in September.

Writer: Hannah Vincent
Reader: Sinead Matthews
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000msbf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000msbh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000msbk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000msbm)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000mrd0)
The church of St Peter’s, Congelton

Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Peter’s, Congelton which has had a ring of bells since at least 1635. Various bells were recast and added to the ring, firstly by Rudhalls of Gloucester in 1720 and then by Thomas Mears and Son of London in 1806. The current ring of eight, tenor weight thirteen and a quarter hundredweight in the note of F were rehung by Taylors of Loughborough in 1911. We hear an excerpt from a Peal of Carmela Delight Major that was rung by a band of family and friends in fond memory of Michael Orme, a long time ringer at this tower.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m000mrbp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News (m000mr92)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b03ymr4b)
Where It Was

Broadcaster Chris Brookes is Canadian - or, more accurately, a Newfoundlander. He reflects on how the past is written not just into our memories, but also into our identities and the landscapes we inhabit - drawing upon his experiences of living in earthquake-damaged Nicaragua, as well as among the declining fishing communities of Newfoundland.

With readings from writers including Howard Nemerov, Bishop Tutu, Billy Collins and Julian Barnes and music from Ella Fitzgerald, JS Bach and Diana Krall.

Readers: David Westhead and Kerry Shale
Produced by Alan Hall.
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (m0009d11)
Sloth

The dreamy smile of the sloth has made it wildly popular, but once its slowness was condemned and saw it named after one of the seven deadly sins. Brett Westwood and Joanna Pinnock talk to those who really know, understand and live with sloths and ask if we're still projecting our own feelings onto them. Our changing attitudes to sloths tell us more about ourselves than about this harmless animal. Dr Rebecca Cliffe, founder of the Sloth Conservation Foundation and a leading researcher, is in the rainforest in Costa Rica with them right now. She describes how local people feel about them, while she sits under a tree with a sloth at the top.

Joanna Pinnock tries for her own encounter with Marilyn the sloth and her baby Elio at ZSL London Zoo, and experiences the magic of sloths at first hand. William Hartston, author of Sloths: A Celebration of the World’s Most Misunderstood Mammal. explains the vexed history of sloth first as a sin then its next incarnation as a harmless South American treetop dweller named after that sin, and the repercussions for the animal down the centuries. He also shares his opinion on the best sloth in film. And it's not Sid from Ice Age. And the poet Debbie Lim reads her poem Gift of the Sloth, describing other ways in which they deserve our admiration, but again not for the reasons that the current popular image of sloths would seem to suggest.

The Sloth Conservation Foundation is at www.slothconservation.com
Original Producer Beth O'Dea

Archive Producer: Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol


SUN 06:57 Weather (m000mr98)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000mr9d)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000mr9j)
Edward Stourton takes a look at the ethical and religious issues of the week.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000mqp8)
Create

Actress Isy Suttie makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Create.

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 ‘Create’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Create’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4

Registered Charity Number: 1099733


SUN 07:57 Weather (m000mr9n)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000mr9q)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000mr9s)
Where shall we put our trust?

Where shall we put our trust?
At a time of enormous uncertainty with so much that was familiar swept away, many people are worried, apprehensive about what will happen to individuals, communities and nations as the result of Covid 19 and about the possibility of environmental catastrophe. In what for large numbers of people is an atmosphere full of fear, Father Brian D’Arcy asks where we can put our trust.

READINGS:
St Mark 4:35-41
Psalm 91
Jeremiah 20: 7-11

RECORDED MUSIC:
Music: Lacrimosa (WA Mozart)
Performers: Academy and Chorus of St Martin in the fields/Marriner
CD: Requiem WA Mozart

Music: I heard the voice of Jesus say (English traditional, arranged R Vaughan Williams)
Performers: The Choir of Manchester Cathedral
CD: The Complete New English Hymnal Volume 18 (Priory)

Music: De Profundis (Arvo Pärt)
Performers: The 16 /Christophers
CD: Icon: Music for the Soul and Spirit (Universal)

Music: Brother, sister, let me serve you (Gillard/Pulkingham)
Performers: The Daily Service Singers
CD: The Hymn Makers: Hymns of Discipleship (Integrity)

Music: O Taste and See (R Vaughan Williams)
Performers: The Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral
CD: Jubilate: 500 years of Cathedral Music (Decca)

Music: Alone with none but Thee, my God (Charles Wood)
Performers: The Priory Singers/ Grindle
CD: Hymns of Love and Joy (Priory)

Music: Kol Nidrei (Bruch)
Performers: Jacqueline de Pré and Gerald Moore
CD: Cello Music (Warner)

Music: The Coulin (Irish traditional)
Performers: Innisfree Ceoil
CD: Celtic Airs (Outlet)

Music: Be thou my vision (Irish traditional)
Performers: The Huddersfield Choral Society
CD: The Hymns Album

Music: Attende Domine (Gregorian Chant)
Performers: The Monks of Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick
CD: Gregorian Chants

Music: Be still my soul (Sibelius)
Performer: Beth Nielsen Chapman
CD: Hands across the Waters


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000mlwl)
Conspiracy Theories and a Good Hair Cut

Facts have lost their meaning," writes Sarah Dunant. "In their place, belief has taken over."
Sarah discusses QAnon, widening social divisions, and her conversations with her hairdresser.

Producer: Adele Armstrong


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xjw)
White Stork

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

Michaela Strachan presents the white stork. White Storks are annual visitors in small numbers to the UK, mainly in spring and summer when migrating birds overshoot their Continental nesting areas and wander around our countryside. They used to breed here, most famously documented on St Giles's cathedral in Edinburgh in 1415 and who knows, they may well breed here in the future.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000mr9v)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000mr9x)
Writers, Adrian Flynn & Tim Stimpson
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Fallon Rogers..... Joanna Van Kampen
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O’Hanrahan
Jazzer McCreary .... Ryan Kelly
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Gavin Moss ….. Gareth Pierce


SUN 10:55 Tweet of the Day (m000mr9z)
Tweet Take 5 : Woodlark

The woodlark, with its buff-white eye stripe and a spikey head crest, could be mistaken for its skylark cousin. However the much rarer woodlark is the real songster of the two. Less often seen than heard, its memorable descending staccato song can inspire emotions as it flies from an evening vantage point, circling over and around the fortunate listener; one of the best songsters in southern England. In this extended version of Tweet of the Day we hear from comedian and birdwatcher Bill Oddie, writer and speaker on mental health Joe Harkness and wildlife sound recordist Gary Moore.

Produced by Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol


SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000mrb1)
Bernardine Evaristo, writer

Bernardine Evaristo won the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel, Girl, Woman, Other. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London.

Bernardine was born in May 1959, the fourth of eight children, to an English mother and a Nigerian father. She grew up in Woolwich in south London, and was educated at Eltham Hill Girls’ Grammar School. She spent her teenage years at the Greenwich Young People’s Theatre and, after deciding that she wanted to be a professional actor at the age of 14, did a Community Theatre Arts course at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama.

After graduation she founded the Theatre of Black Women with two fellow students in the early 1980s and they began to write roles for themselves. By the late 1980s, she had decided that it was the writing she enjoyed most.

Her first poetry collection was published in 1994, followed by a semi-autobiographical verse novel called Lara three years later. More books followed, experimenting with form and narrative perspective, often merging the past with the present, prose with poetry, the factual with the speculative, and reality with alternate realities. Girl, Woman, Other is her eighth book.

A longstanding activist and advocate, Bernardine has initiated several successful schemes to ensure increased representation of artists and writers of colour in the creative industries.

She is married to David, who she met in 2006, and lives in London.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale


SUN 11:45 The Rise and Fall of the Antique (b0bdvj0j)
Post-war Portobello

Travis Elborough charts the rise and fall of the antique, examining how, ultimately, the present always dictates which bits of yesteryear we deem worthy of collecting.
In episode three, his chronological survey of the antiques trade reaches the post-war era of the swinging sixties when antiques became fashionable with pop stars, and nostalgia for Victoriana co-existed with the modernising trends epitomised by the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Producer: Sheila Cook


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000mss8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 The Museum of Curiosity (m000mkj7)
Series 15

Episode 2

Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and the Museum’s latest curator Alice Levine are joined by comedian and podcaster Suzi Ruffell, chef and presenter Ainsley Harriott and writer and creator of Bridget Jones, Helen Fielding.

This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee donate a Dutch upright bicycle, the welwitschia mirabilis plant and the Victoria Falls.

In this series of The Museum of Curiosity, John and Alice are recording from various locations around their fictional Museum. This week they’ve climbed up to the top of the Museum’s roof. Over the series they will also visit the canteen, the lost property office and get stuck in the Museum lift. This series was recorded remotely in June/July 2020.

The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Shephard, Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus and Lydia Mizon of QI.

The Producers were Anne Miller and Victoria Lloyd.

The Production Coordinator was Mabel Wright.

Edited by David Thomas.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000mrb5)
Kitchen obsessives: Why aim to cook the perfect dish?

March 2020. Supermarket shelves were bare, restaurants and takeaways were closed, schools and workplaces closed. Perhaps it's no surprise then that all around the world, people started getting creative in the kitchen. But as Leyla Kazim finds in this programme, some cooks took lockdown cooking to a whole new level.

Warwickshire cook Dan Fell made headlines for sharing his 'perfect' fried chicken recipe after spending 18 months testing it. In New York, journalist and chef Bill Buford became obsessed with cooking the perfect roast chicken. And journalist Kate Ng spent her days emulating the perfect crimps on her Grandmother's curry puffs. It seemed we'd become culinary perfectionists in our own kitchens.

For Leyla Kazim, lockdown was all about baking the perfect sourdough loaf. In this programme she wants asks why so many of us became obsessed with creating the perfect meal, and what the quest for perfecting a dish says about us. She speaks to long standing recipe obsessives food writer Felicity Cloake and 'obsessional' Youtube cook Alex.

Presented by Leyla Kazim.
Produced by Clare Salisbury for BBC Audio in Bristol.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m000mrb7)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000mrb9)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000mrbf)
Fi Glover presents friends, relatives and strangers in conversation as we learn to adjust to the 'new normal'.

In this week's programme - strangers separated from partners during lockdown and beyond, talk about making life-changing decisions as a result of the experience; strangers who came together during lockdown through a charitable book borrowing scheme set up by one of them outside her house; head teachers giving a revealing insight into their lives now; and two men who had never met reflect on a shared experience which is as traumatic as it gets - the murder of a daughter and the so-called honour killing of a brother.

Producer: Mohini Patel


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000mlw2)
GQT at Home: Episode Twenty-Five

Kathy Clugston hosts this week's gardening panel show. Matthew Biggs, Pippa Greenwood and Humaira Ikram answer questions sent in from listeners via email and social media.

This week, the panellists suggest plants for hanging baskets during the winter, advise on where to start with a new over-grown garden, and give tips on attracting worms back into the garden.

Away from the questions, Chris Beardshaw gives us his handy guide to planting bulbs and Advolly Richmond has the varied history behind the Agapanthus.

Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Living National Treasures (m000g459)
Episode 3

We have become divorced from physicality. Technology detaches us from touch and provenance. This, in part, has contributed to the boom in artisanal crafts. It's a call back to more tactile experiences. We're learning to craft, to forage, to paint, to build; gravitating towards skills which can replace some of the sensory connections from which we've disengaged. We want to literally get our hands dirty!

Living National Treasures seeks to represent this societal shift. This series is about celebrating existing ability and drawing attention to our own Living National Treasures.

Silversmith Rauni Higson works out of an old chapel in Snowdonia, North Wales. From her old chapel window, which streams light onto her traditional silversmith work bench, she can on a good day, see the top of Snowdon. Her work is very much inspired by the landscape around her. Rauni is currently making a processional cross and candlesticks for Liverpool’s Catholic Cathedral. Rauni has been working on this commission for two years. It is a painstaking process, but the end result will be a beautiful object that could potentially last forever.

While the Living National Treasure tradition began in Japan - where they also commend buildings and monuments as 'National Treasures' - the celebratory trend has now been adopted by France, Thailand, South Korea and Romania. Living National Treasures are defined as people who possess a high degree of knowledge and skill in a culturally significant craft.

Living National Treasures is a combination of slow radio, artisanal craft and poignant personal stories. We get under the skin of practitioners, learning why they've chosen rare and unusual crafts.

Produced by Kate Bissell


SUN 15:00 Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola (b079mdy2)
Season 2 - Sex

Episode 2: Power

Blood Sex and Money, an epic 24 hours of drama inspired by the works of literature’s greatest whistle blower, Emile Zola.

Season 2. Sex. Episode 2. Power

A potent story about the clash between love and politics dramatised by Oliver Emanuel.

Eugene Rougon is at the peak of his political power when his lover gives him an ultimatum.

Glenda Jackson stars as Dide the matriarch to a family of wolves – the Rougon- Macquarts.

Cast:

Dide … Glenda Jackson
Eugene … Robert Jack
Veronique ... Victoria Beesley
Photograher/Minister ... Laurie Brown
Clorinde … Laura Dos Santos
Delestang … Alasdair Hankinson
Gilquin/Emperor … Jonathan Keeble

Directed by Kirsty Williams


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000mqpb)
Rose Tremain; Science in Fiction

Chris Power is joined by Dame Rose Tremain to discuss her new book Islands Of Mercy which travels from Bath to Borneo, exploring desire and ambition. Set in the nineteenth century, it follows the story of Jane Adeane, a nurse who is torn between a conventional life in Bath and a more bohemian lifestyle in London. Her story is contrasted with that of Sir Ralph Savage, a British Rajah in Borneo, living a life free from the expectations of Victorian society.
Rose Tremain talks to Chris about this wide ranging novel, and why we all need our own island of mercy.
Two writers share their experience of creating fiction from science: Mark Blacklock and Benjamin Lapatut discuss using fictional tools to explain and explore some of the most complicated theories in modern maths, geometry and physics. And how to keep the reader on side.
And crime writer Susie Steiner on how her own experience of illness has made her yearn for more depictions of illness in our fiction.


SUN 16:30 Earth Bound (m000mrbk)
Barrow poet Kate Davis faces her chronic claustrophobia, and legacy of childhood polio to go pot holing, experiencing first-hand the subterranean world that’s fired her literary imagination.

In her poetry memory and reality are blurred, but one theme is clear to her, the ground is not to be trusted.

For Kate the earth can give way at any time and trip her up, and the porous limestone landscape of upland Britain, is as dangerous and fascinating as an army obstacle course.

Luckily, in theatre director Rachel Ashton - fell-runner and potholer - she’s a friend who vicariously lives out her poetic fantasies of slimy tunnels, and belaying down precipitate drops.

Kate’s poems ring out with the sound of Rachel’s potholing vocabulary - choke, sump and avon, are as familiar to her as the caving maps that she lends her.

Up until now its been an alien world as remote, and unreachable as the far side of the moon. But Rachel has a plan, to take Kate on her first assisted journey into a cave near Ingleton. It’s here that Wordsworth and Turner experienced the thrill of the sublime. . . . but will Kate overcome her fear of cold dark confined spaces, and sense for herself the weight of rock, words, and memories above her?

Produced by Andrew Carter.


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000mj2s)
Mental disorder and killings that could have been prevented

Last month Alex Sartain took a homemade gun and shot his neighbour James Nash dead in his front garden.
The 34 year old then fled on his motorbike before he lost control and fatally crashed on a winding tree-lined road. His family had made repeated requests to mental health services for help as they saw his condition deteriorate. But they say no help was forthcoming and days later he killed 42-year-old James, a popular artist and children’s author. Alex Sartain's family say the mechanic suffered paranoid schizophrenia and had become acutely unwell in the run-up to the killing.
File on 4 investigates whether mental health support is always available when people need it most. And reporter Paul Connolly hears concerns that mental health professionals are not always quick enough to act on evidence a person suffering severe mental illness may be intending to harm others - with tragic consequences.

Reporter Paul Connolly
Producer Ben Robinson
Editor Carl Johnston


SUN 17:40 Profile (m000mrbp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000mrbt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m000mrbx)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000mrc1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000mrc5)
Arthur Bostrom

The best of BBC Radio this week.


SUN 19:00 The Whisperer In Darkness (m000mrc9)
Episode 8

An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?

The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.

Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.

Episode Eight
Does Henry Akeley hold all the answers?

Cast:
Kennedy Fisher………….………………JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood………………...…..BARNABY KAY
Albert Wilmarth…………………………MARK BAZELEY
Henry Akeley……………………………..DAVID CALDER
Parker..........................................PHOEBE FOX
Mystery woman……………..............NICOLA STEPHENSON
Male voice……................……………FERDINAND KINGSLEY

Producer: Karen Rose

Director/Writer: Julian Simpson

Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling and Holly Slater

Music by Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


SUN 19:15 Dot (b08q3yjs)
Series 2

Psychology

by Ed Harris

Comic adventures with Dot and the gals from personnel. Peabody's not been the full shilling recently and now Dr Pinkly has arrived to test who is the psychological 'weak link' and everyone's a suspect. Who will be deemed sane and who will be sent to Sunnyside Sanatorium? Ed Harris' rollicking comedy starring Fenella Woolgar.


SUN 19:45 The Hotel (m000mrcd)
1: The Hotel

Daisy Johnson's deliciously unsettling series of ghost stories, set in a remote hotel on the Fens. Readers in the series include Maxine Peake, Nicola Walker and Juliet Stevenson.

Today: Sara Kestleman kicks off the series with a story of rumour, myth and secrets about The Hotel. Why are only some people haunted by The Hotel? Why do they return again and again? And why are they all women?

Writer: Daisy Johnson is a British novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, Everything Under, was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize, making her the youngest nominee in the prize's history.
Reader: Sara Kestelman
Producer: Justine Wilett


SUN 20:00 More or Less (m000mksw)
Covid testing capacity, refugee numbers, and mascara

Amid reports of problems with coronavirus testing across the UK, we interrogate the numbers on laboratory capacity. Does the government’s Operation Moonshot plan for mass testing make statistical sense? Has the UK been taking more refugees from outside the European Union than any EU country? We explore the connection between socio-economic status and Covid deaths. And we do the maths on a mascara brand’s bold claim about emboldening your eyelashes.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000mlw6)
Sir Terence Conran, Dame Diana Rigg CBE, Shere Hite, Toots Hibbert

Pictured: Sir Terence Conran

Matthew Bannister on:

Sir Terence Conran, the designer and businessman who transformed the UK’s approach to home décor and eating out.

Dame Diana Rigg, the actor who combined a critically acclaimed stage career with stardom on TV and film.

Shere Hite, who wrote the Hite Report which changed attitudes to female sexuality.

Toots Hibbert, the Jamaican singer often called “the man who invented reggae".

Interviewed guest: Deyan Sudjic OBE
Interviewed guest: Michael Quinn
Interviewed guest: Matthew Sweet
Interviewed guest: Lola Atkins
Interviewed guest: Dame Jenni Murray
Interviewed guest: David Katz
Interviewed guest: Glady Wax

Producer: Neil George

Archive clips from: Profile, Radio 4 22/04/1983; The Festival of Britain, British Pathe 07/05/1951; Desert Island Discs, Radio 4 01/09/1996; Game of Thrones Series 7 Episode 3, directed by Mark Mylod, HBO 30/07/2017; Front Row, Radio 4 10/09/2020; Today, Radio 4 11/09/2020; Private Passions, Radio 3 3/12/2012; The Avengers, ABC 1965; Woman’s Hour, Radio 4 02/05/2006; The First Time With Toots Hibbert, 6 Music 17/01/2019.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000mrcm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000mqp8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (m000mk3p)
Building Back Better

The pandemic and the resulting recession have led to widespread calls to recognise that we now have a once in a generation opportunity to re-think how we put the economy back together again. Research shows we can help our economy flourish again by prioritising spending on environmentally friendly initiatives. From electric bikes, to eco-friendly cement, to a new type of plastic that could heat our homes, fill our mattresses and cushion our running trainers, Adam Shaw meets the businesses that could benefit from this type of recovery plan and could help us build back better.

Producer: Phoebe Keane


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000mrcq)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000mk35)
Rocks

With Antonia Quirke.

Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson describe how they wrote their award-winning film Rocks in collaboration with their teenage cast. Theresa reveals why she didn't tell her older sister that the main character was based on her, until she saw the film.

Director Hong Khaou talks about the autobiographical elements that underpin his new drama Monsoon, about a young British man who returns to the place of his birth in Vietnam. Hong explains why his mother refuses to watch his movies.

The Film Programme is following director Mark Jenkin over the course of a year as he plans his follow-up to the award-winning Bait and faces the new challenges that the pandemic has thrown up. This week, Mark talks about the short film he made while waiting patiently for a contract to start writing a new script.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b03ymr4b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2020

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000mrcv)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m0003z8y)
CEO Society - Time Management

CEO Society – Laurie Taylor talks to Peter Bloom, Head of the Department of People and Organisations at the Open University and author of a new book which asks why corporate leaders such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg have become cultural icons of the 21st century. Also, how did productivity emerge as a way of thinking about job performance? Melissa Gregg, Research Director at Intel, explains why she thinks that time management is actually counterproductive. Repeat.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000mrd0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000mrd4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000mrd8)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000mrdd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000mrdg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000mrdj)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Dr Rosa Hunt, co-principal of the South Wales Baptist College.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000mrdl)
21/09/20: Polluted rivers, agricultural education, poor wheat harvest

New water quality statistics published by the Environment Agency show that all English rivers are polluted. The main causes are sewage and agriculture.
We hear from the Rivers Trust why, after years of regulation, monitoring and work to improve water quality they're still polluted.
We kick off our week looking into the types of education and training available for young people who want a career related to agriculture.
And hear how some farmers’ grain stores are currently empty when they’d normally be full at this time of year.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


MON 05:56 Weather (m000mrdn)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xkr)
Honey Buzzard

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

Michaela Strachan presents the honey buzzard. The Honey Buzzard is more closely related to the Kite than it is to our common Buzzard. It gets its name for its fondness, not for honey, but for the grubs of bees and wasps. The bird locates their nests by watching where the insects go from a branch. It then digs out the honeycomb with its powerful feet and breaks into the cells.


MON 06:00 Today (m000mstl)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000mstn)
Claudia Rankine and Margaret Atwood

Claudia Rankine, one of America’s leading literary figures, and the double-Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood look at the world afresh, challenging conventions – with Kirsty Wark.

In her latest book, Just Us: An American Conversation, Claudia Rankine reflects on what it means to experience, and question, everyday racism. Her poems draw on a series of encounters with friends and strangers, as well as historical record. Her work moves beyond the silence, guilt and violence that often surround discussions about whiteness, and dares all of us to confront the world in which we live.

Margaret Atwood recently won the Booker Prize for a second time with The Testaments, her sequel to the 1985 prize-winner The Handmaid’s Tale. Her story of the fictional Gilead’s dark misogyny has retained its relevance after more than three decades. The world of Gilead was originally sparked by an earlier poem, Spelling, and Atwood explores the importance of poetry in firing the imagination.

Producer: Katy Hickman
Photographer: John Lucas


MON 09:45 Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (m000msx0)
Episode 1

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke strives to forge human connections at times of crisis. Her tender and uplifting memoir reveals how love and kindness can be found in the darkest places.

Dr Clarke remembers key inspirations that led her to study medicine and suggested her future specialism – her physician father and a shared moment in television history.

Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Read by Rachel Clarke


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000msts)
Shobna Gulati. British Touring Car driver Jade Edwards. Playground politics. Sarah Brown.

When actor Shobna Gulati’s mum was diagnosed with dementia in 2017, she was already spending the majority of her time caring for her. Their sometimes difficult relationship was tested to the limit, but ultimately she gained a lot from those years spent in her mum’s front room. When she passed away last year she decided to write a book about her family and her mum’s illness called Remember Me? Discovering my mother as she lost her memory.

At the weekend Jade Edwards will become the first woman in 13 years to race in the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone. So why's it taken so long to see another woman on the course? Jade joins us, along with Fiona Leggate, the last female driver who competed back in 2007.

Have you been given the silent treatment by another parent at school, or felt excluded from a group of mums? Now the new school year is well underway, playground politics can sometimes extend to the other side of the school gate. Jane discusses coping strategies with counselling psychologist Dr Rachel Allan and Tanith Carey, author of The Friendship Maze and Taming the Tiger Parent.

Because of the Covid 19 pandemic up to 10 million children around the world are likely to be permanently excluded from getting an education according to the UK charity Theirworld. It's run by Sarah Brown, wife of the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Ahead of a virtual session later today at the UN General Assembly Meeting she talks to Jane about how the charity advocates on global education issues at both a strategic and practical level .

Presenter Jane Garvey.
Producer Beverley Purcell

Photo Credit. The About Studio.


MON 10:45 Things Fall Apart (m000mstv)
Episode 1

Biyi Bandele dramatises Chinua Achebe’s classic tale about the rise and fall of Okonkwo, a powerful Igbo clan leader.

When a neighbouring clan commits an offence against Umuofia; to avoid war, the offending clan gives Umuofia a young boy, Ikemefuna who is entrusted to Okonkwo.

OKONKWO.....Okezie Morro
IKEMEFUNA/ UZOWULU.....Clinton Liberty
CHINYERE....Grace Cookey-Gam
EKWEFI/ EZINMA.....Marilyn Nnadebe
OBIERIKA.....Cyril Nri
ODUKWE/ EZEUGU.....Richard Pepple

Directed by Nadia Molinari
Original Music by Tayo Akinbode
Sound design by Sharon Hughes


MON 11:00 Vaccines, Money and Politics (m000mstx)
Who should get a vaccine first?

Scientists around the world are working at pandemic speed to discover a safe and effective vaccine against the virus SarsCoV2, and the disease it causes, Covid 19. But while all this research is taking place, a host of other critical elements need to be organised if we are to have any chance of successfully building an immunisation programme to reach more than seven billion people with a vaccine that will, at least initially, be in limited supply. Sandra Kanthal looks at what strategies are being put in place to transport a vaccine to countries around the world, who will be the first in those countries to get the vaccine, and, once it is available, how to convince people to take it.

Produced and Presented by Sandra Kanthal


MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000msb5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


MON 12:00 News Summary (m000mszl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (m000msv2)
Episode 1

By Charlotte Hobson. Early in 1914, 22-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess, little-knowing the huge upheavals in the world and in her own life that lie ahead.

In London, 1974, Gerty begins a memoir for her daughter Sophy, looking back at that extraordinary time of war, revolution and civil war. Most of her memories are centred on a young inventor, Nikita Slavkin, who mysteriously disappeared in 1919 and was subsequently celebrated in Soviet culture as The Vanishing Futurist.

“No word has been heard from him since […] Yet the idea persists that one day he will reappear.”

Charlotte Hobson graduated from Edinburgh University with a first in Russian. Thereafter she travelled widely in the former Soviet Union, working as an interpreter in the Caucasus, a translator, and dabbling in civil rights. Her book, Black Earth City (2002) won a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 2002. The Vanishing Futurist was published in 2016 - her first novel. Charlotte lives in Cornwall with her family.

Writer: Charlotte Hobson
Reader: Barbara Flynn
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000msv5)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


MON 12:57 Weather (m000msv9)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m000msvf)
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 Two Minutes Past Nine (m000msvk)
April 19th

On April 19th 1995 a 26-year-old named Timothy Mcveigh steered a yellow rental truck into downtown Oklahoma city. Inside was a two-ton homemade explosive.

Oklahoma City Bombing is the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in US history, killing 168 people and leaving 680 dead. Journalist Leah Sottile investigates the legacy of the attack.

Recorded over some of the most divisive and turbulent months in recent American political history, Two Minutes Past Nine explores and questions the changing face of far right extremism in all its chaos and conspiracism.

Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt


MON 14:00 Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola (b079ndx0)
Season 2 - Sex

Episode 3: Family

Starring Glenda Jackson, Anna Maxwell Martin and Samuel West, and inspired by the epic saga of the Rougon Macquart families by literature’s greatest ever whistle-blower, Emile Zola

Adelaide Fouque (Dide) is 104 years old, trapped in her small room in the local asylum, but omniscient as she broods over her extended family.

As a young woman, she gave birth to two dynasties that exemplified French society: one legitimate - rich, powerful, obsessive and corrupt; the other - illegitimate, poor, vulnerable, weak and depraved. France is on the brink of a new Empire. Her family is a turbulent mix of the good, the bad and the misguided.

This third episode, Family, takes place over one evening, in the luxurious mansion belonging to Aristide Rougon. Inviting his politically influential brother Eugene round to help clinch the engagement of his feckless son Maxime to a rich young heiress seems a simple enough matter. All his exquisite trophy wife Renee needs to do is look pretty and entertain. So very simple - yet by the end of the evening this rich, seemingly united family has completely unravelled, exposing the rotten core at its heart.

Dan Rebellato is a Sony nominated writer and Professor of Theatre at Royal Holloway.

Cast:
Dide..............Glenda Jackson
Aristide..........Samuel West
Renee............Anna Maxwell Martin
Eugene...........Robert Jack
Maxime...........John Heffernan

Dramatised by Dan Rebellato
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore

Produced and Directed by Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Melanie Harris
Series Producer: Susan Roberts

A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:45 The Escaped Lyric (b080r362)
Solitude

From teenage alienation to middle-aged loss and regret, lyrics from popular music can escape their song to become an anthem of our youth or a lifeline through loss and solitude. Nick Berkeley speaks to song writers and musicians about how the words of a three minute pop song can come to have such impact on us all.

He dissects the craft of the song in a quest to understand the alchemy that converts seemingly simple words into thoughts of great impact and meaning. From Noel Coward to Kylie Minogue, seminal folk songs to outsider hip hop, there are words and phrases that the music fan can cling to, and remember, forever.

Contributors include: Hanif Kureishi, Brett Anderson, Cathy Dennis, Green Gartside, Benjamin Clementine, Christopher Ricks and Sid Griffin.

Programme One: Solitude

Producer: Emma Jarvis
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (m000msvp)
Semi-final 1, 2020

(13/17)
The first four of the most successful players so far in the 2020 tournament return, as the competition intensifies in the first semi-final. Three of the outright heat winners are joined by one of the top-scoring runners-up across the series.

Russell Davies asks the questions, which range across the usual spread of history, literature, popular culture, politics, science and geography. There are some unpredictable music choices to test the contestants' knowledge - and another pair of questions for the panel from a listener hoping to Beat the Brains.

Today's winner takes the first of the places in the 2020 Final.

Taking part are
Brian Chesney, a retired librarian from Malvern
Michael Smith, who sells mares' milk and lives in Chiswick in London
Roy Smith, a retired management accountant from Warrington
Jon Stitcher, a paralegal from the Wirral.

Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000mrb5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 Hip-hop’s Laughing Stock (m000msvw)
Joe Jacobs is a failing rapper trying to make a career as a stand-up comedian.

Straight out of Finchley, Joe spent a decade attempting to build a recording career as a hip-hop MC. But by his own admission he was never taken too seriously. Now he’s trying to turn the tables - instead of being the butt of other people’s jokes he is hoping to direct the laughs himself. His ambition is to succeed in stand-up, where he failed in rap - and get a gig on television.

Can he go from being a comedic rapper, to a stand-up comedian who raps?

In this documentary he meets other artists who bridge the worlds of rap and comedy. He hears about hip hop's humorous roots from Open Mic Eagle, understands the world of rap battles with Lunar C and Jaz Kahina and meets one of the least likely success stories in viral rap videos, Dan Bull.

Mix Engineer: Steve Urquhart
Producer: James Trice
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman

Commissioned as part of the Multitrack Audio Producers Fellowship

A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m000msw1)
The US Presidential Election

There is no doubt that religion plays a large part in US Presidential Elections. Donald Trump is supported by the religious right which includes white evangelicals and conservative Catholics, whilst Joe Biden appeals to more liberal Catholics and Protestants and to the majority of black voters. Which raises two interesting questions. Why do white evangelical Christians vote for a man whose lifestyle is at odds with their moral principles? And how is Joe Biden going to persuade fellow Catholics to vote for him when his pro-choice views in the abortion debate clash with the teachings of his Church?

To unpick the intricacies of the religious vote in the upcoming Presidential Election, Ernie Rea is joined by four experts: Sarah Posner, whose most recent book is ‘Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump’; Jane Little, a former Religious Affairs Correspondent for the BBC who now commentates on Religion and Politics in the United States; Christopher White; the National Correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter; and Anthea Butler, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Producer: Helen Lee


MON 17:00 PM (m000msw5)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000mswf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 The Museum of Curiosity (m000mswk)
Series 15

Episode 3

Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and the Museum’s curator Alice Levine are joined by comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, Natural History Museum curator Miranda Lowe and doctor and author Dr Roopa Farooki.

This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee donate the centre of the universe, a jellyfish and a virtual patient.

In this series of The Museum of Curiosity, John and Alice are recording from various locations around their fictional Museum. This week they’re in the Museum’s staff canteen. Over the series they will also visit the Museum’s grand hall, the lost property office and get stuck in the Museum lift. This series was recorded remotely in June/July 2020.

The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Shephard, Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus and Lydia Mizon of QI.

The Producer was Anne Miller.

The Exec Producer was Victoria Lloyd.

The Production Coordinator was Mabel Wright.

Edited by David Thomas.


MON 19:00 The Archers (m000mswn)
Susan starts a rumour and Robert reluctantly concedes


MON 19:15 Front Row (m000mswq)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


MON 19:45 Things Fall Apart (m000mstv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Cannadine on Class (m000mr4p)
Professor David Cannadine argues that class and the notion of history as a continuous 'class struggle' have been overplayed by historians and politicians. He dismantles the Marxist view that events from the Civil War to the 2019 election are part of a narrative in which class consciousness is the driving force.

He makes clear that other aspects of people's identity - their religious beliefs, their sense of nationality, their gender and race - cut across a loyalty to class. He also looks at some events in the 19th century - Peterloo and the Chartists - and finds these were generally reformist movements aimed at better and more representative government, rather than pre-revolutionary uprisings to overthrow the bourgeoisie.

Politicians have , nevertheless , found it useful to address the electorate in class terms - from the appeal to the 'fustian coated' workers in the 19th century to the 'just about managing' of the 21st. But authors of the Great British Class Survey point out that today's population, though conscious of inequalities in society, have little appetite for describing themselves in class terms.

David is joined by scholars and commenators including Diane Purkiss, Simon Heffer, Miles Taylor, Helen McCarthy and Mike Savage.

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m000mk2g)
Poland's Gay Pride and Prejudice

A number of small towns in Poland have been campaigning against what they call 'homosexual ideology'. Local authorities in the provinces have passed resolutions against perceived threats such as sex education and gay rights. LGBT activists complain that they are stoking homophobia and effectively declaring ‘gay-free zones’. Both sides argue that they are protecting the universal values of free speech and justice. But the row has attracted international condemnation. The European Union has withheld funds to six of the towns involved, and some of their twinning partners in Europe have broken off ties. Meanwhile, politicians within Poland’s conservative ruling coalition stand accused of exploiting the divisions to further a reactionary social agenda.

Lucy Ash reports. Mike Gallagher producing.


MON 21:00 Forum Internum (m000fq3y)
Freedom of Thought

What is freedom of thought and why might it need protecting in the digital age? It’s one of our foundational human rights, but the right to freedom of thought has never really been invoked in the courts as it was never believed vulnerable to attack – until now.

In this three part series, Helena Kennedy QC explores the need to safeguard what lawyers are calling the forum internum (our own private, mental space) from the incursions of social media technology, new kinds of surveillance and manipulation through data-mining, advances in AI and neuroscience, the arrival of neurolaw and fMRI imaging in the courts, and the very real possibility of thought-crime.

Philosopher James Garvey takes up the thread in part 2, looking at the rise of neuroscience and its influence across the culture, from sport and mental health to neuroarchitecture, neurolaw, and concerns about the growing practice of neuropolitics and the manipulation of whole populations.

Helena Kennedy resumes the argument in part 3, making the case for freedom of thought and asking whether the law can protect the forum internum from the speed and scale of new technologies and their misuse by corporations and the state. Are we entering a digital dark age for freedom of thought or will we create new spaces for it to flourish?

Series contributors include: authors Shoshana Zuboff and Peter Pomerantsev; psychoanalyst Adam Phillips; neuro-philosopher Patricia Churchland; human rights lawyers Susie Alegre and Philippe Sands; ethical advisor to Google Luciano Floridi; neuroscientists Mark Stokes and Tali Sharot, director of the Affective Brain Lab; Larry Farwell, the inventor of Brain Fingerprinting; digital philosopher Mark Andrejevic; Darren Schreiber, advisor on neuro-politics; legal scholar Gabriel Mendlow, the journalist Carole Cadwalladr; authors Dorian Lynskey and James Bridle and B.Troven, activist with the network CrimethInc.

Presenters: Helena Kennedy QC (parts 1 and 3) and James Garvey (part 2)
Producer: Simon Hollis

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000mstn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000mswt)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (m000msv2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


MON 23:00 Alex Edelman's Special Relationships (m0007k8c)
Public and Private

Alex Edelman encourages his guests from both sides of the Atlantic to think laterally about a diverse collection of special relationships in this loose limbed series of chat shows, recorded in London and the USA.

Inevitably, that special relationship surfaces - but in unexpected ways. In this episode, there are some surprising revelations about social life, social networking and what the panel would like to keep private. Recorded in London

Producer: Sophie Black
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000msww)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2020

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000mswy)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (m000msx0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000msx2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000msx4)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000msx6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000msx8)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000msxb)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Dr Rosa Hunt, co-principal of the South Wales Baptist College.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000msxd)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xxk)
Golden Eagle

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

Michaela Strachan presents the golden eagle. Golden Eagles are magisterial birds. With a wingspan of over two metres their displays are dramatic affairs involving spectacular aerobatics. They can dive upon their quarry at speeds of more than 240 kilometres per hour, using their sharp talons to snatch up their prey.


TUE 06:00 Today (m000mt0f)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m000mt0h)
Neil Ferguson on modelling Covid-19

Modelling, lockdown and advising government. Prof Neil Ferguson talks to Jim Al-Khalili about his life and work.


TUE 09:30 One to One (m000mt0k)
Diversity Outdoors - Mya-Rose Craig talks to Rhiane Fatinikun

In the first of two programmes exploring how we can increase diversity outdoors in the rural landscape, 18 year old Mya-Rose Craig, aka Birdgirl talks to Rhiane Fatinikun about Black Girls Hike which she founded about a year ago to enable black women to benefit from the comradery of other black women and enjoy the tranquillity of rural areas. Mya-Rose Craig is a very keen birdwatcher having seen over half the world’s birds in her global travels. But what she doesn’t see as a British Bangladeshi are many people like herself in the forests, fens, mountains and other rural landscapes in the UK. In recent years she has run Nature Camps to actively encourage Black and Visible Minority ethnic people outdoors. The two women share their experiences and views about how we can remove the barriers, challenge stereotypes and reinforce the message that the outdoors is for everyone. Producer Sarah Blunt.


TUE 09:45 Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (m000mt0m)
Episode 2

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke strives to forge human connections at times of crisis. Her tender and uplifting memoir reveals how love and kindness can be found in the darkest of places.

Dr Clarke considers how medical school, along with society’s reticence when talking about dying, can leave young doctors ill prepared for dealing with death.

Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Read by Rachel Clarke


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000mt0p)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


TUE 10:45 Things Fall Apart (m000mt0r)
Episode 2

Biyi Bandele dramatises Chinua Achebe’s classic tale set in 1890's about the rise and fall of Okonkwo a powerful Igbo clan leader.

Having lived with Okonkwo for three years, Ikemefuna is treated like a son until the day that the Oracle of the Hills and Caves pronounces a different fate for him.

OBIERIKA.....Cyril Nri
OKONKWO.....Okezie Morro
IKEMEFUNA.....Clinton Liberty
CHINYERE.....Grace Cookey-Gam

Directed by Nadia Molinari
Original Music by Tayo Akinbode
Sound Design by Sharon Hughes


TUE 11:00 Science Stories (b07fg6v6)
Blood Banks

Blood and Fire: the segregation and racialisation of blood

The development of plasma transfusion for masses of people was born of urgent necessity during WW2. In 1940, Britain struggled to treat thousands of civilians injured in the Blitz and many more soldiers at Dunkirk. Into that desperate maelstrom Charles Drew, an African American doctor, came to the rescue. Dr Drew was the key driving force behind a project called Plasma for Britain which saved many lives.

But when a similar project was rolled out in the USA the authorities insisted that the blood be segregated. Charles Drew resigned and returned to work at a black establishment.

A few years later Dr Drew was involved a catastrophic car accident; he was taken to a segregated (whites only) hospital but died of his injuries. For decades afterwards, the myth persisted, especially amongst African Americans, that the man credited with saving the lives of so many through transfusion was denied blood (because of his colour) that would have spared him. Naomi Alderman explores the pivotal moment in the history of blood transfusion and its legacy in the controversy over race-based medicine.

Producer: Colin Grant


TUE 11:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (m000ckvw)
Series 5

Aristotle

Natalie Haynes stands up for Greek philosopher-scientist Aristotle, with Dr Adam Rutherford and Professor Edith Hall.

This week Natalie explores why it's so easy to fall in love with Aristotle, have fun with his Nicomachean ethics and how we know he had 20:20 vision. It seems he hated being tutor to Alexander the Great, although he did manage to stay alive in the lethal court of Philip of Macedon, where the usual toll of suspicious deaths was fourteen a week. But how much did he really know about elephants tongues and bivalves on Lesbos? We love a bit of gossip from a couple of thousand years ago.

Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. Each week she takes a different figure from the ancient world and tells their story through a mix of stand-up comedy, extremely well-informed analysis, and conversation. The series is – in part - about how the modern world is more interesting when it's refracted through the prism of the ancient one. Natalie picks out hilarious details and universal truths, as well as finding parallels with modern life, or those parts of life which are still influenced by ancient thought.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000mt0w)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (m000mt0y)
Episode 2

By Charlotte Hobson. Early in 1914, 22-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess, little-knowing the huge upheavals in the world and in her own life that lie ahead.

In London, 1974, Gerty begins a memoir for her daughter Sophy, looking back at that extraordinary time of war, revolution and civil war. Most of her memories are centred on a young inventor, Nikita Slavkin, who mysteriously disappeared in 1919 and was subsequently celebrated in Soviet culture as The Vanishing Futurist.

“No word has been heard from him since […] Yet the idea persists that one day he will reappear.”

Episode Two
The world sinks deeper into war and brings seismic change both in Russia and in Gerty herself.

Charlotte Hobson graduated from Edinburgh University with a first in Russian. Thereafter she travelled widely in the former Soviet Union, working as an interpreter in the Caucasus, a translator, and dabbling in civil rights. Her book, Black Earth City (2002) won a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 2002. The Vanishing Futurist was published in 2016 - her first novel. Charlotte lives in Cornwall with her family.

Writer: Charlotte Hobson
Reader: Barbara Flynn
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000mt10)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


TUE 12:57 Weather (m000mt12)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m000mt14)
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 Two Minutes Past Nine (m000mt16)
The First April 19th

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile and producer Georgia Catt work to understand what made Timothy McVeigh the home-grown terrorist he was – and how that informs what’s unfolding today.

In episode 2, April 19th 1775 was the day the American Revolution began. And, in some ways, the story of the Oklahoma City Bombing started that day too, 220 years before Timothy Mcveigh steered the yellow Ryder truck into Oklahoma City.

Recorded over some of the most divisive, turbulent, and quite frankly dangerous feeling months in recent American political history, Two Minutes Past Nine aims to understand the changing face of far right extremism in all its chaos and conspiracism.

Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000mswn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola (b079pqcy)
Season 2 - Sex

Episode 4: Lovesick

Lovesick is the fourth drama in Emile Zola: Sex, inspired by literature’s greatest ever whistle-blower, and his epic saga of the Rougon Macquart families.

Adelaide Fouque (Dide) is 104 years old, trapped in her small room in the local asylum, but omniscient when it comes to her extended family. As a young woman, she gave birth to two dynasties that exemplified French society: one legitimate - rich, powerful, obsessive and corrupt; the other - illegitimate, poor, vulnerable, weak and depraved. France is on the brink of a new Empire. Her family is a turbulent mix of the good, the bad and the misguided.

In episode four, Lovesick, Dide reflects on the fate of Angelique, the love child of the incestuous affair in the previous episode. Abandoned by her real mother and cruel foster carers, Angelique is fortunate enough to be adopted by Hubertine, a kind woman desperate to have a child. Angelique is a strange, obsessive child, inheriting much of the dangerous Macquart-Rougon traits. Dide watches helplessly as Angelique’s love of God clashes fatally with her love of a beautiful young man. Tragedy is the inevitable conclusion.

Dan Rebellato is a Sony nominated writer and Professor of Theatre at Royal Holloway.

Cast:
Dide......................Glenda Jackson
Angelique...............Robyn Skeete
Hubertine................Mina Anwar
Renee.....................Anna Maxwell Martin
Girl at the stream.....Lucy Moss
St Catherine.............Yusra Warsama

Dramatised by Dan Rebellato
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore

Produced and Directed by Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Melanie Harris
Series Producer: Susan Roberts

A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000mt18)
Hauntings

Josie Long presents short documentaries and adventures in sound about absences which leave a mark. A quiet city, a haunted literature and an attic filled with the sounds of secret symphonies.

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


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000mr6r)
Marine Microbes

Ellen Husain investigates the presence of pathoghens in the marine environment. She learns how surfers and regular sea swimmers may be more likely to have anti-microbial resistant bacteria in their bodies, and finds out about the ways in which antibiotics find their way into our oceans. Is the way we manage our seas actually fuelling the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria and increasing the risk of untreatable disease in future?

Producer: Emma Campbell


TUE 16:00 No Triumph, No Tragedy (m000cmz8)
Haben Girma

In this edition of No Triumph No Tragedy, Peter White, himself blind since birth, meets Haben Girma, the first deaf blind graduate from Harvard law school who is now breaking barriers to tackle discrimination on a world wide scale.

Haben's father was from Ethiopia and her Mum from Eritrea: they were determined to not restrict her in any way and she grew up in a noisy rough and tumble home, staying in mainstream education and even helping build a school in Mali when she was just fifteen. She said that as a young child she didn't fully realise she was different: she thought everyone was deaf and blind!

This upbringing helped shape Haben's approach to life, including her stubborn refusal to accept any limits on what she can achieve. When her school cafeteria menus were unreadable to her, she threatened to take them to court! And this fierce campaigning streak got her into Harvard: the first deaf blind student to graduate from the law school.

She is now a human rights lawyer tackling access to the internet and therefore to most aspects of life for other disabled people. She is a firm believer that small changes by the big companies can have huge knock on benefits to people across the world and that they could do far more to help. It's a message she takes all over, using her brain machine and a typist manically transcribing the words of those around her in a system she helped to develop:

I want more companies to realise that people with disabilities are talented and an amazing market. We are one of the largest minority groups. There are over a billion disabled people across the world and so an organisation that invests in accessibility gets to tap into this huge market."

Produced by Sue Mitchell


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m000ms0y)
James Graham on John Maynard Keynes

James Graham, the award-winning playwright whose work includes the TV dramas "Brexit: The Uncivil War" and "Quiz", tells Matthew Parris why he is inspired by the life and work of John Maynard Keynes. Keynes was not just the revolutionary economist who helped shape the course of post-war history. The programme explores his colourful love life and lifelong passion for the arts. Matthew and James are joined by Linda Yueh, economist and author of "The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today".
Producer: Chris Ledgard


TUE 17:00 PM (m000mt1b)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000mt1d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 The Lenny Henry Show (m000mt1g)
Episode 5

Another helping of character-based sketch comedy from Lenny Henry, this time including more from outrageous Jamaican gameshow Box Mi Down, hosted by the great Glenroy Livingstone.

We're back in space to see if Tyrone can stop himself getting killed again. Delbert and Winston are back on the Brixton Broadcasting Co-operative to discuss celebrities they nearly met and there's more from bookseller Paul's Brixton Bibliotheque. Also, we drop in on Raheim X Davies's art history audioguide.

Cast includes Lenny Henry, Vas Blackwood, George Fouracres and Cherrelle Skeete.

Written by Lenny Henry and Max Davis, with Kim Fuller and Michael Odewale.

Music by Lawrence Insula

Produced by Sam Michell
A Douglas Road and Tiger Aspect production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000mr5n)
Lynda takes charge and Alice is confused


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000mt1j)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


TUE 19:45 Things Fall Apart (m000mt0r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m000mt1l)
Expecting alone: The isolation of pregnancy during Covid

Six months since Britain was instructed to ‘stay at home’, File on 4 examines the decisions that affect new mothers and their babies and asks if the potential for long term damage outweighs the risk of spreading the virus.

For pregnant women, many of the hospital restrictions implemented at the height of the pandemic remain. Many women must attend antenatal scans or go through early labour on their own, while their birth partners wait outside. Others have had to receive the worst possible news about their pregnancy alone.

Once the baby arrives, the landscape remains uncertain.

Health visitors are seen by many as a frontline defence against child health problems; a lifeline for new mums and their babies who are trained to spot early signs of illness, harm or neglect. Yet, the decision to redeploy many health visitors to the frontline during lockdown left countless families without the support they needed – a decision seen by some as ‘unnecessary’ and ‘dangerous’, one that could lead to a ‘second pandemic’ of child protection issues.

Now, professionals are reporting ‘an explosion’ in mental health problems amongst new mothers and their partners, while those suffering are struggling to get help.

Reporter: Alys Harte
Producer: Mick Tucker
Editor: Gail Champion


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000mt1n)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000mr5s)
Sticky Blood : From Blood Clots to Covid-19

Thromboses - blood clots that form in the circulation - are easily the biggest single killer of British men and women. They affects people of all ages, races and ethnicities. Most strokes and heart attacks are caused by thromboses forming in the arteries supplying the heart or brain. But clots in the veins can be just as lethal, particularly when part of the clot breaks off and travels around the circulation and lodges in the lungs. Recently, the appearance of abnormal micro-clots in the lungs of severely affected Covid patients has highlighted the huge impact even tiny clots can have on our long term health and mortality. What more should be done to protect people from this misunderstood condition?

James Gallagher unravels the risks and causes for blood clots, from deep vein thrombosis to clots in the lungs. As he hears from patients, the surprise of a DVT diagnosis and debilitation can be profound. Treating clots is a delicate process with a need to get the balance right between thinning the blood but preventing bleeding. James examines the effectiveness of the latest range of anticoagulants that have a more predictable blood thinning effect, without the need for regular checks to make sure the blood’s not too thick or too thin.

The psychological effects of being diagnosed with thrombosis is often under reported. but in up to half the cases, severe anxiety, depression and PTSD can arise. We hear of a major new study following the experiences of patients from their diagnosis to follow ups after treatment and how effectively they overcame the impact of knowing they carried a blood clot, on their mental health.

And we unravel the newly emerging relationship between Covid and clotting. It was back in April when the alarm was first sounded about abnormal blood clots in severe Covid19 cases. Research as it continues to unfold, is shedding new light on the causes of the problem - sticky blood, and in turn, offering up new ways to treat some of the major complications thrown up by the virus.

Presenter: James Gallagher
Producer Adrian Washbourne


TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m000mt0h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000mt1q)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (m000mt0y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


TUE 23:00 To Hull and Back (b07mxth9)
Series 2

This Must Be It

It seems that Sophie will finally manage to escape the family home and the clutches of her overprotective mother.

She pegs her hopes on an acting audition and reluctantly enlists the help of her mother, who takes her role a bit too seriously.

Will this prove to be the break Sophie has been waiting for?

Lucy Beaumont stars as the daughter trying to escape her overbearing mother played by Maureen Lipman in the second series of this warm-hearted sitcom set in Hull.

Sophie ...... Lucy Beaumont
Sheila ...... Maureen Lipman
Alan ...... Matt Sutton
Jean ...... Kerrie Marsh
Ernie ...... Norman Lovett

Written by Lucy Beaumont.

Producer: Carl Cooper

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2016. .


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000mt1s)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2020

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000mt1v)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


WED 00:30 Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (m000mt0m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000mt1x)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000mt1z)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000mt21)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000mt23)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000mt25)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Dr Rosa Hunt, co-principal of the South Wales Baptist College.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000mt27)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xyd)
White-tailed Eagle

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

Michaela Strachan presents the white-tailed eagle. These magnificent birds, sometimes called the sea eagle, are our largest breeding bird of prey and in flight have been described as looking like a "flying barn-door". The adults have white tail feathers, a bulky yellow bill and long parallel-sided wings: they really do deserve that barn door description.


WED 06:00 Today (m000mr3w)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 More or Less (m000mr42)
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life.


WED 09:30 Four Thought (m000mr46)
Series of thought-provoking talks on topics that affect culture and society.


WED 09:45 Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (m000mr79)
Episode 3

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke strives to forge human connections at times of crisis. Her tender and uplifting memoir reveals how love and kindness can be found in the darkest of places.

Beginning the next stage of her medical career in the hospice, Dr Clarke finds an unexpected freedom – and humour - amongst the terminally ill.

Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Read by Rachel Clarke


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000mr4g)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


WED 10:45 Things Fall Apart (m000mr4l)
Episode 3

Chinua Achebe's classic tale about the rise and fall of Okonkwo dramatised by Biyi Bandele

At the funeral of the great warrior Ogbuefi Ezeudu, Okonkwo accidentally commits a crime against the Earth Goddess and is forced to flee.

OBIERIKA.....Cyril Nri
OKONKWO.....Okezie Morro
NWOYE/ ONE-HANDED SPIRIT....Michale Ajao

Directed by Nadia Molinari
Original Music by Tayo Akinbode
Sound design by Sharon Hughes


WED 11:00 Cannadine on Class (m000mr4p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 Jack & Millie (m000mr4s)
Series 2

Street Party

Millie feels like a natural woman while Jack feels like a man grappling with a keyboard, a saucepan and some shonky decking.

So Millie’s son Melvin has given her a new tablet with a voice recorder?

So suddenly Jack and Millie have decided to record everything that happens to them? And for this, we should be grateful?

Well Yes! Because this is the new series of the comedy show written by Jeremy Front (writer of the Charles Paris mysteries for Radio 4) and starring Jeremy Front and Rebecca Front as Jack and Millie Lemman - an older couple who are fully engaged with contemporary life whilst being at war with the absurdities of the modern world...

Cast:
Jack............Jeremy Front
Millie..........Rebecca Front
Shirley........Tracy-Ann Oberman
Harry...........Nigel Lindsay
Melvin........Harry Peacock
Delphine....Jenny Bede

Written by Jeremy Front

Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:00 News Summary (m000mt3n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (m000mr52)
Episode 3

By Charlotte Hobson. Early in 1914, 22-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess, little-knowing the huge upheavals in the world and in her own life that lie ahead.

In London, 1974, Gerty begins a memoir for her daughter Sophy, looking back at that extraordinary time of war, revolution and civil war. Most of her memories are centred on a young inventor, Nikita Slavkin, who mysteriously disappeared in 1919 and was subsequently celebrated in Soviet culture as The Vanishing Futurist.

“No word has been heard from him since […] Yet the idea persists that one day he will reappear.”

Episode Three
While the Kobelevs leave Moscow, Gerty and Slavkin remain at the house on Gagarinsky Lane.

Charlotte Hobson graduated from Edinburgh University with a first in Russian. Thereafter she travelled widely in the former Soviet Union, working as an interpreter in the Caucasus, a translator, and dabbling in civil rights. Her book, Black Earth City (2002) won a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 2002. The Vanishing Futurist was published in 2016 - her first novel. Charlotte lives in Cornwall with her family.

Writer: Charlotte Hobson
Reader: Barbara Flynn
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000mr56)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


WED 12:57 Weather (m000mr5b)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m000mr5f)
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 Two Minutes Past Nine (m000mr5k)
Manual of Hatred

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile and producer Georgia Catt work to understand what made Timothy McVeigh the home-grown terrorist he was – and how that informs what’s unfolding today.

Episode 3: Leah Sottile explores the influence of a man considered America's most dangerous white nationalist on Timothy McVeigh.

As Leah and Georgia start recording the series in early 2020 the world changed: a global pandemic, calls for racial justice that rang out around the globe, conspiracy theories suddenly going mainstream. Reacting to events as they unfolded, Leah and Georgia didn’t realise quite how relevant and on point it would be to examine the Oklahoma City Bombing right now, at this exact moment in world history. As one journalist tells them: ‘McVeigh would have loved this’.

Recorded over some of the most divisive, turbulent, and quite frankly dangerous feeling months in recent American political history, Two Minutes Past Nine aims to understand the changing face of far right extremism in all its chaos and conspiracism.

Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt


WED 14:00 The Archers (m000mr5n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola (b079r539)
Season 2 - Sex

Episode 5: Innocence

Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola, Season 2 - Sex

The second season of dramas inspired by the work of literature's greatest whistle blower - Emile Zola. Double Oscar winner Glenda Jackson stars as Dide, 104 years old and matriarch to the family Rougon-Macquart.

Innocence by Martin Jameson is inspired by Zola's The Sin of Father Mouret. A young man wakes up in an idyllic garden in the care of a beautiful young woman. He has no idea of his true identity. But when his memory returns, the young man is forced to question the very nature of his identity and a battle for his soul ensues.

DIDE.....Glenda Jackson
SERGE.....Nico Mirallegro
ALBINE.....Leila Mimmack
DOCTOR PASCAL.....Paul McGann
BROTHER ARCHANGIAS.....Steve Evets

Directed by Nadia Molinari


WED 15:00 Money Box (m000mr5q)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.


WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000mr5s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000mr5v)
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000mr5x)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world


WED 17:00 PM (m000mr5z)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000mr67)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Phil Ellis Is Trying (m000mr6c)
Series 3

Ghost Walk

When that the treasure map he bought off a dodgy Tom Jones impersonator turns out - incredibly - to be useless, Polly convinces Phil to abandon his get-rich-quick schemes and opt for something more traditional, namely a ghost walk through Parbold. Phil jumps at the idea and enlists Johnny to help him. Parbold has its fair share of ghosts. And even if no-one can see them, they can just make them up; who's to know any better? More importantly, putting on a big event like a ghost walk might finally impress Phil's love interest Ellie. If only Polly and Phil hadn't shared their idea with Mick the Chinese herbalist who suddenly decides he's going to put on a ghost walk too. What a coincidence. Parbold's not big enough for two spectral spectacles so which walk is going to win?

Cast includes:

Phil Ellis as Phil
Johnny Vegas as Johnny
Amy Gledhil as Polly
Katia Kvinge as Ellie/Goth
Jason Barnett as Keith the Barman
Desiree Burch as American Tourist
Terry Mynott as German Tourist/Gravedigger/Orlando
And
Mick Ferry as Mick The Chinese Herbalist

The producer was Sam Michell and it is a BBC Studios Production.


WED 19:00 The Archers (m000mqp3)
Gavin’s in hot water and Lynda and Robert go head to head.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m000mr6h)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


WED 19:45 Things Fall Apart (m000mr4l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


WED 20:00 The Spark (m000mr6m)
Kiran Gill and Excluded Pupils

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.

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.

In this episode, innovative young educationalist Kiran Gill tells Helen about her radical ideas for improving the life chances of excluded school pupils - from drawing on neuroscientific research on childhood trauma to reconnecting Pupil Referral Units with mainstream schools. Helen asks her to explain how and why she set up her organisation, The Difference, to put her ideas into action - and how it's working out.

Producer: Phil Tinline


WED 20:45 Four Thought (m000mr46)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000mr6r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000mr5x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000mr6w)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (m000mr52)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


WED 23:00 The Damien Slash Mixtape (m000mr70)
Series 3

Episode 2

Multi-character YouTube star Damien Slash is back for a third round of zeitgeisty sketches in this new fast-paced, one-man sketch comedy show. This episode Xavier Landing makes new revelations and everyone’s favourite hyper-masculine podcast host Jimmy Swoon has a new sponsor.

Written by and starring Damien Slash (aka Daniel Barker).
Additional Material from Tom Savage
Guest starring Natasia Demetriou
Produced by Benjamin Sutton
A BBC Studios production.


WED 23:15 Bunk Bed (m0003z9l)
Series 6

10/04/2019

Everyone craves a place where their mind and body are not applied to a particular task. The nearest faraway place. Somewhere for drifting and lighting upon strange thoughts which don't have to be shooed into context, but which can be followed like balloons escaping onto the air.

Late at night, in the dark and in a bunk bed, your tired mind can wander.

This is the nearest faraway place for Patrick Marber and Peter Curran. Here they endeavour to get the heart of things in an entertainingly vague and indirect way. This is not the place for typical male banter.

From under the bed clothes, they wrestle life's challenges - examining the etiquette of Farmers, David Bowie sex fantasies, hair transplants and the dangerous charm of the song The Air That I Breathe.

Produced by Peter Curran
A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000mr74)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



THURSDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2020

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000mr77)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


THU 00:30 Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (m000mr79)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000mr7c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000mr7f)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000mr7h)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000mr7k)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000mr7m)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Dr Rosa Hunt, co-principal of the South Wales Baptist College.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000mr7p)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378t34)
Ringed Plover

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

Michaela Strachen presents the ringed plover. Camouflage is crucial to ringed plovers because they lay their eggs among the pebbles and shingle of the open beach. To protect her young from a predator, the Ringed Plover will stumble away from the nest while dragging one wing on the ground.


THU 06:00 Today (m000mqn3)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000mqn7)
Cave Art

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ideas about the Stone Age people who created the extraordinary images found in caves around the world, from hand outlines to abstract symbols to the multicoloured paintings of prey animals at Chauvet and, as shown above, at Lascaux. In the 19th Century, it was assumed that only humans could have made these, as Neanderthals would have lacked the skills or imagination, but new tests suggest otherwise. How were the images created, were they meant to be for private viewing or public spaces, and what might their purposes have been? And, if Neanderthals were capable of creative work, in what ways were they different from humans? What might it have been like to experience the paintings, so far from natural light?

With

Alistair Pike
Professor of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Southampton

Chantal Conneller
Senior Lecturer in Early Pre-History at Newcastle University

And

Paul Pettitt
Professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at Durham University

Producer: Simon Tillotson


THU 09:45 Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (m000mqq8)
Episode 4

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke strives to forge human connections at times of crisis. Her tender and uplifting memoir reveals how love and kindness can be found in the darkest of places.

As she thrives in the compassionate surroundings of the hospice, Dr Clarke is about to hear of a diagnosis that will test everything she’s learned about dying well.

Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Read by Rachel Clarke


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000mqnc)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


THU 10:45 Things Fall Apart (m000mqnf)
Episode 4

Chinua Achebe's classic tale following the rise and fall of a powerful Igbo clan leader Okonkwo is dramatised by Biyi Bandele.

When Christian missionaries arrive and proclaim that the Igbo Gods are false, Okonkwo is angered but his son Nwoye has a different view.

OBIERIKA.....Cyril Nri
REV BROWN.....Andonis Anthony
NWOYE .....Michael Ajao
MR KIAGA/ ENOCH.....Sule Rimi
OKONKWO.....Okezie Morro

Directed by Nadia Molinari
Original Music by Tayo Akinbode
Sound design by Sharon Hughes


THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000mqnj)
Kate Adie presents revealing stories, sharp insights, telling commentaries and evocative vignettes about topical issues from BBC correspondents around the world.


THU 11:30 Packing Up The Family Home (m000mqnl)
It may be one of the least discussed rites of passage, but is nonetheless loaded with enormous emotional weight - clearing out the family home.
With their dad having recently moved into a care-home and their mum long since passed, Geoff Bird and his siblings set about sorting, sifting and clearing half a century’s worth of stuff.
Among the masses of broken ornaments and faded certificates they also find some forgotten treasures and surprising glimpses into the lives of their parents. Part family-portrait, part meditation on the nature of things and the charge they carry, ‘Packing Up The Family Home’ serves to remind us of just how far our homes provide the stage upon which so much of the joy and the tragedy of our lives is played out.


THU 12:00 News Summary (m000mt5v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (m000mqnq)
Episode 4

By Charlotte Hobson. Early in 1914, 22-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess, little-knowing the huge upheavals in the world and in her own life that lie ahead.

In London, 1974, Gerty begins a memoir for her daughter Sophy, looking back at that extraordinary time of war, revolution and civil war. Most of her memories are centred on a young inventor, Nikita Slavkin, who mysteriously disappeared in 1919 and was subsequently celebrated in Soviet culture as The Vanishing Futurist.

“No word has been heard from him since […] Yet the idea persists that one day he will reappear.”

Episode Four
Pasha and Sonya have returned to Moscow and the Kobelevs’ house becomes the Institute Of Revolutionary Transformation.

Charlotte Hobson graduated from Edinburgh University with a first in Russian. Thereafter she travelled widely in the former Soviet Union, working as an interpreter in the Caucasus, a translator, and dabbling in civil rights. Her book, Black Earth City (2002) won a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 2002. The Vanishing Futurist was published in 2016 - her first novel. Charlotte lives in Cornwall with her family.

Writer: Charlotte Hobson
Reader: Barbara Flynn
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000mqnt)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


THU 12:57 Weather (m000mqnw)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m000mqny)
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 Two Minutes Past Nine (m000mqp0)
Don't Tread on Me

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile and producer Georgia Catt work to understand what made Timothy McVeigh the home-grown terrorist he was – and how that informs what’s unfolding today.

Episode 4: After he left the army, Timothy Mveigh became steeped in gun shows, conspiracies and government distrust. Leah Sottile investigates that world.

As Leah and Georgia start recording the series in early 2020 the world changed: a global pandemic, calls for racial justice that rang out around the globe, conspiracy theories suddenly going mainstream. Reacting to events as they unfolded, Leah and Georgia didn’t realise quite how relevant and on point it would be to examine the Oklahoma City Bombing right now, at this exact moment in world history. As one journalist tells them: ‘McVeigh would have loved this’.

Recorded over some of the most divisive, turbulent, and quite frankly dangerous feeling months in recent American political history, Two Minutes Past Nine aims to understand the changing face of far right extremism in all its chaos and conspiracism.

Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt


THU 14:00 The Archers (m000mqp3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola (b079rbcv)
Sex

Episode 6: Jealousy

Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola, Season 2 - Sex

The second season of drama inspired by the works of literature's greatest whistle blower - Emile Zola. Glenda Jackson stars as Dide, 104 years old and matriarch to the Rougon-Macquart family.

Jealousy by Martin Jameson inspired by Zola's A Love Episode. Recently widowed, Helene lives a claustrophobic and reclusive life struggling to look after her fragile, sickly daughter Jeanne. But when handsome Doctor Henri Deberle comes to her aid, it seems as if life for both mother and daughter might take a new turn - but Helene soon finds her heart pulled in two irreconcilable directions.

DIDE.....Glenda Jackson
HELENE..…Lyndsey Marshal
HENRI..…Fraser James
JEANNE..…Talia Barnett

Directed by Nadia Molinari


THU 15:00 Ramblings (m000mqp6)
Barry Farrimond, who plays Ed Grundy, on Dartmoor

Barry Farrimond, who plays Ed Grundy in The Archers, takes Clare Balding for an adventurous hike across Dartmoor. As they navigate the granite boulders of Wistman's Wood and scramble cross the West Dart River, Barry discusses the challenges of recording The Archers during lockdown, the knot he invented a few years ago (the Farrimond Friction Hitch) and Open Up Music, an organisation he co-founded to ensure that orchestras are accessible to young disabled musicians; this led to the establishment of the National Open Youth Orchestra, the world's first disabled-led national youth ensemble.

Barry and Clare began their walk at Two Bridges, in the car park for Wistman's Wood: grid reference SX609750.

Producer: Karen Gregor


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000mqp8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (m000mqpb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000mqpd)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000mqpg)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world


THU 17:00 PM (m000mqpj)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000mqpn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b06vmzdy)
Series 5

Episode 2

John Finnemore - writer and star of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore's Double Acts, regular guest on The Now Show and The Unbelievable Truth - returns for a fifth series of his multi-award-winning sketch show, joined as ever by a cast of Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.

This second episode sees the voice in John's head push him to tipping point; a new approach to the News; and, well, since you ask him for a tale of espionage...

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme won the BBC Audio Drama Award for 'Best Scripted Comedy with Live Audience' in 2015; and a Radio Academy Silver Award for Comedy in 2014.

"One of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time" - The Guardian
"The best sketch show in years, on television or radio" - The Radio Times
"The inventive sketch show ... continues to deliver the goods" - The Daily Mail
"Superior comedy" - The Observer

Written by and starring ... John Finnemore

Producer: Ed Morrish

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme is a BBC Radio Comedy production.


THU 19:00 The Archers (m000mqpq)
Writers, Liz John & Nick Warburton
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Lynda Snell.... Carole Boyd
Robert Snell.... Graham Blockey
Kirsty Miller.... Annabelle Dowler
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Gavin Moss ….. Gareth Pierce
Counsellor... Saffron Coomber


THU 19:15 Front Row (m000mqps)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


THU 19:45 Things Fall Apart (m000mqnf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000mqpv)
David Aaronovitch and guests explore big issues in the news.


THU 20:30 In Business (m000mqpx)
Still in Business

For the final programme of the series, John Murphy returns to a selection of businesses that have come through this far. A fabric and haberdashery shop, a fruit farmer and a micro-pub. What’s their story of survival, what did they change and what of the future? The potential difficulties and pitfalls, are not over.

Presenter: John Murphy
Producer: Phoebe Keane
Series editor: Penny Murphy


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000mqpg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000mqn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000mqq0)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (m000mqnq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


THU 23:00 The Skewer (m000mqq2)
Series 2

Episode 2

Jon Holmes's extraordinary Skewer returns to twist itself into these extraordinary times.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000mqq4)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



FRIDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2020

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000mqq6)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 00:30 Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (m000mqq8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000mqqc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000mqqf)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000mqqh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000mqqk)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000mqqm)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Dr Rosa Hunt, co-principal of the South Wales Baptist College.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000mqqp)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378t4y)
Great Black-backed Gull

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

Michaela Strachan presents the great black-backed gull. These gulls are the largest in the world. They are quite common around our coasts and you can see them in summer perched on a crag watching for any signs of danger or potential prey. Although they are scavengers Great Black-Backs will attack and kill other birds.


FRI 06:00 Today (m000mrzf)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000mrb1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Dear Life by Rachel Clarke (m000mrzh)
Episode 5

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke strives to forge human connections at times of crisis. Her tender and uplifting memoir reveals how love and kindness can be found in the darkest of places.

After her father is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Dr Clarke finds strength, kindness and joy in human connection even as she faces a sorrow too large to grasp.

Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Read by Rachel Clarke


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000mrzk)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world


FRI 10:45 Things Fall Apart (m000mrzm)
Episode 5

Chinua Achebe’s classic novel about the rise and fall of Okonkwo dramatised by Biyi Bandele.

As the Christian Missionaries and the British Colonial Officers take ever stronger control over Umuofia will Okonkwo be able to persuade his fellow clan members to fight for their independence?

OKONKWO.....Okezie Morro
OBIERIKA.....Cyril Nri
AJOFIA / HEAD MESSENGER.....Sule Rimi
REV BROWN/ DISTRICT COMMISSIONER.....Andonis Anthony
NWOYE / INTERPRETER.....Michael Ajao
EKWUEME.....Richard Pepple

Directed by Nadia Molinari
Original Music by Tayo Akinbode
Sound Design by Sharon Hughes


FRI 11:00 The Austerity Audit (m000mrzp)
Episode 3

Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies examines the impact of 10 years of austerity on the welfare system and education. He hears from those at the sharp end whose lives were badly affected by some of the most controversial of the welfare reforms such as the bedroom tax and disability benefit changes. He ,looks at the mixed fortunes facing those in the education system and hears from the winners and the losers. Whilst universities have seen huge financial gains, the further education sector has been badly hit with night school and sporting activities being cut along with the equipment and staff needed to provide the apprentices for the next generation of technicians and engineers. Financial blogger Iona Bain asks why her generation of millennials have not been a priority for changes to the benefit system and why those who don’t receive a university education are being denied the opportunities they deserve.

Producer: Jim Booth
Presenter: Paul Johnson


FRI 11:30 Believe It! (m000mrzr)
Series 5

Brand

Richard Wilson returns with another series of not quite true revelations about his life. Jon Canter’s comedic writing is as sharp as ever as he delves into themes such as celebrity, brand awareness and death.

As usual Richard has many friends from whom he seeks advice. Starring Ian McKellen as Head of Gay, Peter Capaldi and David Tennant as the Two Doctors, and Antony Sher as The Man Addicted To Waitrose along with an excellent supporting cast.

It’s a mockumentary and spoof autobiography rolled into one.

CAST:
Richard Wilson
Sir Antony Sher
Rebekah Staton - Danielle
Arabella Weir
Sir Ian McKellen
Elliot Levey - The Waiter

Written by Jon Canter
Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000mrzv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (m000mrzx)
Episode 5

By Charlotte Hobson. Early in 1914, 22-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess, little-knowing the huge upheavals in the world and in her own life that lie ahead.

In London, 1974, Gerty begins a memoir for her daughter Sophy, looking back at that extraordinary time of war, revolution and civil war. Most of her memories are centred on a young inventor, Nikita Slavkin, who mysteriously disappeared in 1919 and was subsequently celebrated in Soviet culture as The Vanishing Futurist.

“No word has been heard from him since […] Yet the idea persists that one day he will reappear.”

Episode Five
Amid rising tensions within the commune, Slavkin builds his Propaganda Machine.

Charlotte Hobson graduated from Edinburgh University with a first in Russian. Thereafter she travelled widely in the former Soviet Union, working as an interpreter in the Caucasus, a translator, and dabbling in civil rights. Her book, Black Earth City (2002) won a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 2002. The Vanishing Futurist was published in 2016 - her first novel. Charlotte lives in Cornwall with her family.

Writer: Charlotte Hobson
Reader: Barbara Flynn
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000mrzz)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


FRI 12:57 Weather (m000ms01)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m000ms03)
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 Two Minutes Past Nine (m000ms05)
The Second April 19th

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile and producer Georgia Catt work to understand what made Timothy McVeigh the home-grown terrorist he was – and how that informs what’s unfolding today.

Episode 5: How standoffs at Waco and Ruby Ridge became flash-points for Timothy McVeigh.

As Leah and Georgia start recording the series in early 2020 the world changed: a global pandemic, calls for racial justice that rang out around the globe, conspiracy theories suddenly going mainstream. Reacting to events as they unfolded, Leah and Georgia didn’t realise quite how relevant and on point it would be to examine the Oklahoma City Bombing right now, at this exact moment in world history. As one journalist tells them: ‘McVeigh would have loved this’.

Recorded over some of the most divisive, turbulent, and quite frankly dangerous feeling months in recent American political history, Two Minutes Past Nine aims to understand the changing face of far right extremism in all its chaos and conspiracism.

Presenter: Leah Sottile
Producer: Georgia Catt


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000mqpq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola (b079rfx3)
Season 2 - Sex

Episode 7: Affairs

Blood Sex and Money by Emile Zola, Season 2 - Sex
Affairs by Lavinia Murray
Double Oscar winning actress Glenda Jackson, and Alison Steadman lead this gloriously mischievous episode. Unusual for Zola, this is comedic and fun. Dide follows her great-grand-son as he journeys to Paris to find his fortune. Octave Mouret, ambitious and a ladies man, moves into an apartment block where there are female delights, it seems, on each floor.

Dide ...... Glenda Jackson
Octave ....... Jack Lowden
Mrs. Josserand ..... Alison Steadman
Berthe ....... Verity Henry
Concierge/August Vabre
/Mr. Josserand ...... Eric Potts
Adele ......Rachel Austin
Marie Pichon/Mrs. Hedouin ....... Fiona Clarke
Produced and Directed by Pauline Harris


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000ms07)
GQT at Home: Episode Twenty-Six

Kathy Clugston chairs the horticultural panel show. Chris Beardshaw, Anne Swithinbank and Matthew Pottage are on hand to answer questions from green-fingered listeners.

Producer - Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000ms09)
Post

An original short story for BBC Radio 4 by the Irish author Elaine Feeney. Read by Maggie Cronin.

Elaine Feeney is an Irish poet, novelist, and playwright. She has published three collections of poetry, Where’s Katie?, The Radio was Gospel, Rise, and a drama piece, WRoNGHEADED, commissioned by Liz Roche Company. She teaches at The National University of Ireland, Galway and St Jarlath’s College. Her work has been widely published and anthologised in Poetry Review, The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times and others. Her fiction debut 'As You Were' was featured in the Observer's Ten Best Debut Novelists of 2020.

Reader: Maggie Cronin
Writer: Elaine Feeney
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Northern Ireland production.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000ms0c)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.


FRI 16:30 More or Less (m000mr42)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m000ms0f)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000ms0h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m000ms0k)
Series 103

Episode 4

A satirical review of the week's news.


FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000ms0m)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.


FRI 19:45 Things Fall Apart (m000mrzm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000ms0p)
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from venues around the UK.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000ms0r)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.


FRI 21:00 Two Minutes Past Nine (m000ms0t)
Omnibus 1/2

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile investigates the legacy of the Oklahoma City Bombing.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000ms0w)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (m000mrzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


FRI 23:00 Great Lives (m000ms0y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 Things That Made the Modern Economy (m000bksw)
Series 2

Interface Message Processor

In 1958, ARPA, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, was dubbed “a dead cat hanging in the fruit closet”. All the interesting projects had been transferred to its newer, more fashionable rival, NASA. And yet the dead cat turned out to have an extra life: ARPA commissioned and created a way for any computer in the world to contact any other computer in the world. As Tim Harford explains, the ARPAnet was the forerunner of today’s Internet – and the heart of the ARPAnet was a massive, heavily armoured piece of kit that set the stage for how the internet works: The Interface Message Processor, the most important hunk of silicon you’ve never heard of.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon


FRI 23:45 Today in Parliament (m000ms10)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament




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

A British History in Weather 00:15 SUN (b07b2hxf)

A Manual For Dreaming Womxn 23:30 SAT (m000mlbf)

A Point of View 08:48 SUN (m000mlwl)

A Point of View 20:50 FRI (m000ms0r)

Alex Edelman's Special Relationships 23:00 MON (m0007k8c)

Angielski 21:45 SAT (b068yd6p)

Any Answers? 14:00 SAT (m000ms9q)

Any Questions? 13:10 SAT (m000mlwj)

Any Questions? 20:00 FRI (m000ms0p)

Archive on 4 20:00 SAT (m000msb7)

BBC Inside Science 16:30 THU (m000mqpg)

BBC Inside Science 21:00 THU (m000mqpg)

Believe It! 11:30 FRI (m000mrzr)

Bells on Sunday 05:43 SUN (m000mrd0)

Bells on Sunday 00:45 MON (m000mrd0)

Beyond Belief 16:30 MON (m000msw1)

Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola 15:00 SAT (b079lhy2)

Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola 15:00 SUN (b079mdy2)

Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola 14:00 MON (b079ndx0)

Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola 14:15 TUE (b079pqcy)

Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola 14:15 WED (b079r539)

Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola 14:15 THU (b079rbcv)

Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola 14:15 FRI (b079rfx3)

Brain of Britain 23:00 SAT (m000mkhs)

Brain of Britain 15:00 MON (m000msvp)

Broadcasting House 09:00 SUN (m000mr9v)

Bunk Bed 23:15 WED (m0003z9l)

Cannadine on Class 20:00 MON (m000mr4p)

Cannadine on Class 11:00 WED (m000mr4p)

Costing the Earth 15:30 TUE (m000mr6r)

Costing the Earth 21:00 WED (m000mr6r)

Crossing Continents 20:30 MON (m000mk2g)

Dear Life by Rachel Clarke 09:45 MON (m000msx0)

Dear Life by Rachel Clarke 00:30 TUE (m000msx0)

Dear Life by Rachel Clarke 09:45 TUE (m000mt0m)

Dear Life by Rachel Clarke 00:30 WED (m000mt0m)

Dear Life by Rachel Clarke 09:45 WED (m000mr79)

Dear Life by Rachel Clarke 00:30 THU (m000mr79)

Dear Life by Rachel Clarke 09:45 THU (m000mqq8)

Dear Life by Rachel Clarke 00:30 FRI (m000mqq8)

Dear Life by Rachel Clarke 09:45 FRI (m000mrzh)

Desert Island Discs 11:00 SUN (m000mrb1)

Desert Island Discs 09:00 FRI (m000mrb1)

Dot 19:15 SUN (b08q3yjs)

Earth Bound 16:30 SUN (m000mrbk)

Eat the Buddha by Barbara Demick 00:30 SAT (m000mlv2)

Farming Today 06:30 SAT (m000ms93)

Farming Today 05:45 MON (m000mrdl)

Farming Today 05:45 TUE (m000msxd)

Farming Today 05:45 WED (m000mt27)

Farming Today 05:45 THU (m000mr7p)

Farming Today 05:45 FRI (m000mqqp)

File on 4 17:00 SUN (m000mj2s)

File on 4 20:00 TUE (m000mt1l)

Forum Internum 21:00 MON (m000fq3y)

Four Thought 05:45 SAT (m000mksy)

Four Thought 09:30 WED (m000mr46)

Four Thought 20:45 WED (m000mr46)

From Our Own Correspondent 11:30 SAT (m000ms9g)

From Our Own Correspondent 11:00 THU (m000mqnj)

Front Row 19:15 MON (m000mswq)

Front Row 19:15 TUE (m000mt1j)

Front Row 19:15 WED (m000mr6h)

Front Row 19:15 THU (m000mqps)

Front Row 19:00 FRI (m000ms0m)

Gardeners' Question Time 14:00 SUN (m000mlw2)

Gardeners' Question Time 15:00 FRI (m000ms07)

Great Lives 16:30 TUE (m000ms0y)

Great Lives 23:00 FRI (m000ms0y)

Hannah Vincent - The Poison Frog 00:30 SUN (b07j7nv7)

Hip-hop’s Laughing Stock 16:00 MON (m000msvw)

In Business 21:30 SUN (m000mk3p)

In Business 20:30 THU (m000mqpx)

In Our Time 09:00 THU (m000mqn7)

In Our Time 21:30 THU (m000mqn7)

In Touch 20:40 TUE (m000mt1n)

Inside Health 21:00 TUE (m000mr5s)

Inside Health 15:30 WED (m000mr5s)

Jack & Millie 11:30 WED (m000mr4s)

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme 18:30 THU (b06vmzdy)

Last Word 20:30 SUN (m000mlw6)

Last Word 16:00 FRI (m000ms0c)

Living National Treasures 14:45 SUN (m000g459)

Loose Ends 18:15 SAT (m000msb5)

Loose Ends 11:30 MON (m000msb5)

Midnight News 00:00 SAT (m000mlws)

Midnight News 00:00 SUN (m000msbc)

Midnight News 00:00 MON (m000mrcv)

Midnight News 00:00 TUE (m000mswy)

Midnight News 00:00 WED (m000mt1v)

Midnight News 00:00 THU (m000mr77)

Midnight News 00:00 FRI (m000mqq6)

Miles Jupp Is Literally Unputdownable 19:15 SAT (m000hpcw)

Money Box 12:04 SAT (m000mrcm)

Money Box 21:00 SUN (m000mrcm)

Money Box 15:00 WED (m000mr5q)

More or Less 20:00 SUN (m000mksw)

More or Less 09:00 WED (m000mr42)

More or Less 16:30 FRI (m000mr42)

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics 11:30 TUE (m000ckvw)

Natural Histories 06:35 SUN (m0009d11)

News Briefing 05:30 SAT (m000mlx1)

News Briefing 05:30 SUN (m000msbm)

News Briefing 05:30 MON (m000mrdg)

News Briefing 05:30 TUE (m000msx8)

News Briefing 05:30 WED (m000mt23)

News Briefing 05:30 THU (m000mr7k)

News Briefing 05:30 FRI (m000mqqk)

News Summary 12:00 SAT (m000ms9j)

News Summary 12:00 SUN (m000mss8)

News Summary 12:00 MON (m000mszl)

News Summary 12:00 TUE (m000mt0w)

News Summary 12:00 WED (m000mt3n)

News Summary 12:00 THU (m000mt5v)

News Summary 12:00 FRI (m000mrzv)

News and Papers 06:00 SAT (m000ms91)

News and Papers 07:00 SUN (m000mr9d)

News and Papers 08:00 SUN (m000mr9q)

News 13:00 SAT (m000ms9n)

News 22:00 SAT (m000msb9)

News 06:00 SUN (m000mr92)

No Triumph, No Tragedy 16:00 TUE (m000cmz8)

One to One 14:45 SAT (m000mj1b)

One to One 09:30 TUE (m000mt0k)

Open Book 16:00 SUN (m000mqpb)

Open Book 15:30 THU (m000mqpb)

PM 17:00 SAT (m000ms9v)

PM 17:00 MON (m000msw5)

PM 17:00 TUE (m000mt1b)

PM 17:00 WED (m000mr5z)

PM 17:00 THU (m000mqpj)

PM 17:00 FRI (m000ms0f)

Packing Up The Family Home 11:30 THU (m000mqnl)

Phil Ellis Is Trying 18:30 WED (m000mr6c)

Pick of the Week 18:15 SUN (m000mrc5)

Political Thinking with Nick Robinson 17:30 SAT (m000ms9x)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 SAT (m000mlx3)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 MON (m000mrdj)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 TUE (m000msxb)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 WED (m000mt25)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 THU (m000mr7m)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 FRI (m000mqqm)

Profile 19:00 SAT (m000mrbp)

Profile 05:45 SUN (m000mrbp)

Profile 17:40 SUN (m000mrbp)

Radio 4 Appeal 07:54 SUN (m000mqp8)

Radio 4 Appeal 21:25 SUN (m000mqp8)

Radio 4 Appeal 15:27 THU (m000mqp8)

Ramblings 06:07 SAT (m000mk2z)

Ramblings 15:00 THU (m000mqp6)

Saturday Live 09:00 SAT (m000ms99)

Science Stories 11:00 TUE (b07fg6v6)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 SAT (m000mlwx)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 SUN (m000msbh)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 MON (m000mrd8)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 TUE (m000msx4)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 WED (m000mt1z)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 THU (m000mr7f)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 FRI (m000mqqf)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 SAT (m000mlwv)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 SAT (m000mlwz)

Shipping Forecast 17:54 SAT (m000ms9z)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 SUN (m000msbf)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 SUN (m000msbk)

Shipping Forecast 17:54 SUN (m000mrbt)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 MON (m000mrd4)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 MON (m000mrdd)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 TUE (m000msx2)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 TUE (m000msx6)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 WED (m000mt1x)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 WED (m000mt21)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 THU (m000mr7c)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 THU (m000mr7h)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 FRI (m000mqqc)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 FRI (m000mqqh)

Short Cuts 15:00 TUE (m000mt18)

Short Works 15:45 FRI (m000ms09)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 SAT (m000msb3)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 SUN (m000mrc1)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 MON (m000mswf)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 TUE (m000mt1d)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 WED (m000mr67)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 THU (m000mqpn)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 FRI (m000ms0h)

Something Understood 06:05 SUN (b03ymr4b)

Something Understood 23:30 SUN (b03ymr4b)

Start the Week 09:00 MON (m000mstn)

Start the Week 21:30 MON (m000mstn)

Sunday Worship 08:10 SUN (m000mr9s)

Sunday 07:10 SUN (m000mr9j)

The Archers Omnibus 10:00 SUN (m000mr9x)

The Archers 19:00 MON (m000mswn)

The Archers 14:00 TUE (m000mswn)

The Archers 19:00 TUE (m000mr5n)

The Archers 14:00 WED (m000mr5n)

The Archers 19:00 WED (m000mqp3)

The Archers 14:00 THU (m000mqp3)

The Archers 19:00 THU (m000mqpq)

The Archers 14:00 FRI (m000mqpq)

The Austerity Audit 11:00 FRI (m000mrzp)

The Briefing Room 20:00 THU (m000mqpv)

The Californian Century 19:45 SAT (m000fq4f)

The Damien Slash Mixtape 23:00 WED (m000mr70)

The Escaped Lyric 14:45 MON (b080r362)

The Film Programme 23:00 SUN (m000mk35)

The Film Programme 16:00 THU (m000mqpd)

The Food Programme 12:32 SUN (m000mrb5)

The Food Programme 15:30 MON (m000mrb5)

The Hotel 19:45 SUN (m000mrcd)

The Lenny Henry Show 18:30 TUE (m000mt1g)

The Life Scientific 09:00 TUE (m000mt0h)

The Life Scientific 21:30 TUE (m000mt0h)

The Listening Project 13:30 SUN (m000mrbf)

The Media Show 16:30 WED (m000mr5x)

The Media Show 21:30 WED (m000mr5x)

The Museum of Curiosity 12:04 SUN (m000mkj7)

The Museum of Curiosity 18:30 MON (m000mswk)

The News Quiz 12:30 SAT (m000mlwd)

The News Quiz 18:30 FRI (m000ms0k)

The Rise and Fall of the Antique 11:45 SUN (b0bdvj0j)

The Skewer 23:00 THU (m000mqq2)

The Spark 22:15 SAT (m000mkv4)

The Spark 20:00 WED (m000mr6m)

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson 12:04 MON (m000msv2)

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson 22:45 MON (m000msv2)

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson 12:04 TUE (m000mt0y)

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson 22:45 TUE (m000mt0y)

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson 12:04 WED (m000mr52)

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson 22:45 WED (m000mr52)

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson 12:04 THU (m000mqnq)

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson 22:45 THU (m000mqnq)

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson 12:04 FRI (m000mrzx)

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson 22:45 FRI (m000mrzx)

The Week in Westminster 11:00 SAT (m000ms9d)

The Whisperer In Darkness 19:00 SUN (m000mrc9)

The World This Weekend 13:00 SUN (m000mrb9)

The World Tonight 22:00 MON (m000mswt)

The World Tonight 22:00 TUE (m000mt1q)

The World Tonight 22:00 WED (m000mr6w)

The World Tonight 22:00 THU (m000mqq0)

The World Tonight 22:00 FRI (m000ms0w)

Things Fall Apart 10:45 MON (m000mstv)

Things Fall Apart 19:45 MON (m000mstv)

Things Fall Apart 10:45 TUE (m000mt0r)

Things Fall Apart 19:45 TUE (m000mt0r)

Things Fall Apart 10:45 WED (m000mr4l)

Things Fall Apart 19:45 WED (m000mr4l)

Things Fall Apart 10:45 THU (m000mqnf)

Things Fall Apart 19:45 THU (m000mqnf)

Things Fall Apart 10:45 FRI (m000mrzm)

Things Fall Apart 19:45 FRI (m000mrzm)

Things That Made the Modern Economy 23:30 FRI (m000bksw)

Thinking Allowed 00:15 MON (m0003z8y)

Thinking Allowed 16:00 WED (m000mr5v)

To Hull and Back 23:00 TUE (b07mxth9)

Today in Parliament 23:30 MON (m000msww)

Today in Parliament 23:30 TUE (m000mt1s)

Today in Parliament 23:30 WED (m000mr74)

Today in Parliament 23:30 THU (m000mqq4)

Today in Parliament 23:45 FRI (m000ms10)

Today 07:00 SAT (m000ms97)

Today 06:00 MON (m000mstl)

Today 06:00 TUE (m000mt0f)

Today 06:00 WED (m000mr3w)

Today 06:00 THU (m000mqn3)

Today 06:00 FRI (m000mrzf)

Tracks 21:00 SAT (m0001fvv)

Tweet of the Day 08:58 SUN (b0378xjw)

Tweet of the Day 10:55 SUN (m000mr9z)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 MON (b0378xkr)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 TUE (b0378xxk)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 WED (b0378xyd)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 THU (b0378t34)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 FRI (b0378t4y)

Two Minutes Past Nine 13:45 MON (m000msvk)

Two Minutes Past Nine 13:45 TUE (m000mt16)

Two Minutes Past Nine 13:45 WED (m000mr5k)

Two Minutes Past Nine 13:45 THU (m000mqp0)

Two Minutes Past Nine 13:45 FRI (m000ms05)

Two Minutes Past Nine 21:00 FRI (m000ms0t)

Vaccines, Money and Politics 11:00 MON (m000mstx)

Weather 06:57 SAT (m000ms95)

Weather 12:57 SAT (m000ms9l)

Weather 17:57 SAT (m000msb1)

Weather 06:57 SUN (m000mr98)

Weather 07:57 SUN (m000mr9n)

Weather 12:57 SUN (m000mrb7)

Weather 17:57 SUN (m000mrbx)

Weather 05:56 MON (m000mrdn)

Weather 12:57 MON (m000msv9)

Weather 12:57 TUE (m000mt12)

Weather 12:57 WED (m000mr5b)

Weather 12:57 THU (m000mqnw)

Weather 12:57 FRI (m000ms01)

Westminster Hour 22:00 SUN (m000mrcq)

Woman's Hour 16:00 SAT (m000ms9s)

Woman's Hour 10:00 MON (m000msts)

Woman's Hour 10:00 TUE (m000mt0p)

Woman's Hour 10:00 WED (m000mr4g)

Woman's Hour 10:00 THU (m000mqnc)

Woman's Hour 10:00 FRI (m000mrzk)

World at One 13:00 MON (m000msvf)

World at One 13:00 TUE (m000mt14)

World at One 13:00 WED (m000mr5f)

World at One 13:00 THU (m000mqny)

World at One 13:00 FRI (m000ms03)

You and Yours 12:18 MON (m000msv5)

You and Yours 12:18 TUE (m000mt10)

You and Yours 12:18 WED (m000mr56)

You and Yours 12:18 THU (m000mqnt)

You and Yours 12:18 FRI (m000mrzz)

You're Dead To Me 10:30 SAT (p088jy8d)