SATURDAY 12 MARCH 2022

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m00154qw)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 Death by Conspiracy? (m00154pg)
10. Light and Dark

As Gary is remembered by those he left behind, what does his story tell us about the world we live in – online and off – right now?
Gary Matthews was a talented artist and photographer, sociable and well-liked - a familiar face in his hometown of Shrewsbury. A few years ago, his friends noticed that he was getting into conspiracy theories. Like millions of others, he fell for Covid pseudoscience when the pandemic hit. In January 2021, at the age of 46, Gary caught the virus, and died.
Marianna Spring, the BBC’s specialist disinformation reporter, travels to the serene medieval Shropshire town that Gary Matthews called home to investigate what happened to him - and why. While delving into the conspiracy underbelly of this picturesque town, she finds out more about Gary's life - and discovers a story that's been repeated across the country, and around the world.
Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Mike Wendling


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00154qy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00154r0)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00154r2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m00154r4)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00154r6)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Jonathan Rea

SCRIPT

Good Morning

I first heard the name when I was 7 years old. My primary school teacher caught my eye – “Right Yehudi Menuhin” she said – “It’s time you were away for your violin lesson.” – In the heart of North Belfast in the middle of the Troubles, a wise visionary had invested in music tuition - and I was one of the lucky ones. I was an abysmal violinist, but I quite liked my exotic nickname.

Yehudi Menuhin died 23 years ago today. His uniquely sweet sound on the violin earned him global fame and the respect of renowned colleagues. He performed Elgar’s concerto with Elgar conducting. Bartok wrote a commission for him. Benjamin Britten accompanied him on the piano. He collaborated with Ravi Shankar and Stephane Grappelli. And he recorded with EMI for 7 decades.

A keen philosopher and passionate educator, he founded a school, a youth orchestra and a prestigious competition in his name. And he had high aspirations for his art. In his own words:

Each human being has the eternal duty of turning what is hard and brutal into a tender and subtle offering, what is crude into an object of refinement, what is ugly into a thing of beauty, confrontation into collaboration, ignorance into knowledge.

He went on - Music lives and breathes to tell us who we are and what we face. It is a path between ourselves and the infinite.

We thank you Lord for the things which bring beauty and colour to our broken and war-torn world. May they be small reflections which point us to our infinite Creator and to your promise that one day, beauty will prevail over destruction and all things will be made new. Amen.


SAT 05:45 Lent Talks (m00154ds)
"I was hungry and you gave me food"

Lent Talks is a series of personal reflections inspired by an aspect of the story leading up to Easter. This year’s theme is the power of hospitality, based on Jesus’ encouragement in Matthew’s gospel to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger and look after the sick.

In the first episode of the series, Pastor Mick Fleming describes a traumatic upbringing and troubling past as he considers the words, “I was hungry and you gave me food”.

Producer: Dan Tierney.

--

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in the programme, details of organisations that can provide help and support are available here:

Addiction
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1kS7QTDB16PWkywhsXJLzxz/information-and-support-addiction-alcohol-drugs-and-gambling

Child sexual abuse
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/22VVM5LPrf3pjYdKqctmMXn/information-and-support-sexual-abuse-and-violence

Suicide/Emotional distress
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4WLs5NlwrySXJR2n8Snszdg/information-and-support-suicide-emotional-distress

Victims of crime
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2MfW34HqH7tTCtnmx7LVfzp/victims-of-crime


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m00159rz)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m00154h6)
95 Ethels in the Peak District

From the Redmires Reservoirs near Sheffield, Clare walks up to Stanage Edge ('stone edge') a gritstone escarpment in the Peak District. Angela Lawrence and Anna Jorgensen are Clare's guests and are retired fell-runners (an accident with a vacuum cleaner ended Angela's running career) but their passion for the hills of the Peak District, which they have run across many times, remains undimmed. They have simply slowed down a little, and are now committed walkers. They wrote to Ramblings to suggest that Clare hike with them up to Stanage Pole. Along the way, on a beautiful, clear-skied day, they take in stunning views, a sociable lunch in a stone bothy, and tell Clare about another of their passions: Argentine Tango.

During the walk they also talk about the "Ethels". In honour of the pioneering environmentalist, Ethel Haythornthwaite, 95 hilltops have been classified by the countryside charity, CPRE, as 'Ethels'. Clare, Angela and Anna delve into Ethel's fascinating life-story as they immerse themselves in the scenery that inspired her. The Ethels were recently created following an idea from Doug Colton.

The Grid Reference for Redmires Reservoirs is SK265858.

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m00159s1)
12/03/22 - Farming Today This Week: Wheat prices and food security, Catch App, NI Protocol

This time last year a tonne of UK wheat for milling would have been worth around £220 - now farmers tell us they’re getting £300. It’s a knock-on effect of the misery in Ukraine which - along with Russia - produces a third of the world’s wheat exports. In the UK we don't import significant amounts from the region but across the world, prices are rising in response to the war. In this programme we look at the consequences all along the food chain.

A group of small-scale fishermen have applied for permission for a judicial review against the Marine Management Organisation, in a row over a phone app. The Catch App has been designed by the MMO to allow fishermen to record which species and how much they catch, and where they land it. Use of the app became mandatory for all English vessels under 10 metres long at the end of February, and failure to do so accurately could lead to an unlimited fine. But fishermen say this could mean being criminalised by an app that simply doesn't work for them, and they want the enforcement of its use delayed.

Negotiators from the UK and the EU have been meeting this week to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol. When the UK left the EU it was decided that Northern Ireland would remain inside the single market and still follow EU food standards - so goods crossing the land border between the Northern Ireland and the Republic do not need to be checked. Instead those checks are done as goods cross the Irish Sea. But this arrangement has been causing problems for some food and farming businesses - with the new bureaucracy meaning added costs.

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


SAT 06:57 Weather (m00159s3)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m00159s5)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m00159s7)
Paul Merton

Richard Coles and Andrea Catherwood are joined by comedian Paul Merton: stalwart on Have I got News for You and Just a Minute, he's an impro pro.
We hear one woman’s story of how building a toilet - using a chainsaw - helped her find herself. Siri Heller joins us.
Guest Patrick Foster estimates that he placed a total of £4million on bets over the course of 12 years. The former professional cricketer turned teacher hid his gambling addiction until everything unravelled in 2018.
Adventurer Elise Wortley decided to recreate the journeys of forgotten female explorers, using only the means they used at the time.
And photographer Rankin chooses his inheritance tracks: English Rose by The Jam and Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones
and your thank you.

Producer: Corinna Jones


SAT 10:30 My Dream Dinner Party (m00159s9)
Joan Bakewell's Dream Dinner Party

Broadcaster and journalist Joan Bakewell hosts a dinner party with a twist - all her guests are from beyond the grave, long-time heroes brought back to life by the wonders of the radio archive.

Joan is joined by Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas, Labour politician Barbara Castle, acclaimed playwright Tennessee Williams, Carry On film star Barbara Windsor and artist Louise Bourgeois.

As the chicken and chorizo simmers on the hob, the conversation crackles - from art and obscenity, to the Don Juan complex and parental heartbreak. Before long, there's an unfortunate tantrum – and Joan is left picking up the pieces.

Written and presented by Joan Bakewell
Produced by Sarah Peters and Peregrine Andrews
Researcher: Edgar Maddicott
BBC Archivist: Tariq Hussein
Executive Producer: Iain Chambers

A Tuning Fork and Open Audio production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m00159sc)
The Ukraine war with the Conservative former defence secretary Dr Liam Fox and Labour's Nia Griffith.
Britain's economic outlook and cost of living crisis, with The Resolution Foundation's Torsten Bell and crossbench peer Baroness Wheatcroft.
Fracking and the direction of the Conservative government, with the former cabinet minister Lord Frost.
Do MPs deserve a pay rise? Parliament's longest serving MP Sir Peter Bottomley and Professor Rosie Campbell discuss.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m00159sf)
Ukraine's living nightmare

Millions of lives are being uprooted, or destroyed as Russia's bombardment of Ukrainian cities widens. Fergal Keane has covered the conflict with Russia and its proxy forces since 2014 – and has followed the story of a beekeeper from the Donbas, and his wife.
Ukrainian journalists covering the crisis at a distance have been watching the horror unfold and grappling with its implications on friends, colleagues and loved ones. Irena Taranyuk, of the BBC’s Ukraine service, tells of her experience of putting the story out on the night the invasion began.
Russia is becoming increasingly isolated internationally, with western companies stopping operations there. Thousands of Russians are packing up and leaving. Many say it’s because they have political concerns about the sort of country Russia will become; others fear of the imposition of martial law or worry that the economy will crumble. Caroline Davies spoke to some of them.
More than 180 million voters went to the polls in 5 of India’s states this week, including the country's largest - Uttar Pradesh. The governing BJP has a firm hold on the state, and its chief minister – a hindu-monk-turned politician, Yogi Adityanath is emerging as a favourite to succeed Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But during his leadership, he has been criticised for anti-muslim rhetoric. Rajini Vaidyanathan followed the campaign trail.
It's 20 years since James Helm arrived in Dublin as BBC Correspondent there, with his wife Charlotte and their young son. The original posting was for a year, but the family stayed on in Ireland for almost a decade - a period of enormous change for the country. After several years away, James and his sons recently made a return trip.

Presenter: Kate Adie
Producer: Serena Tarling
Editor: Emma Close


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m00159v9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m00159sk)
Boosting your benefits and new online shopping checks

Buying things online will be more difficult from Monday. A new law means that every purchase will have to be authenticated by an extra process after you have put in your card number, expiry date, and CVV code on the back. It will mean better protection against fraud, but may exclude some people from online shopping. We hear from Rob Cameron, Chief Executive of Barclaycard Payments, and Helen Saxon, Deputy Editor at Money Saving Expert.

Two not-for-profit lenders have come up with a way to help low income families get the state help they are entitled to. Millions of people miss out of billions of pounds in means-tested benefits every year. Now these lenders have built in a benefits calculator to their loan approval process to help customers claim money they didn’t know they were eligible for. We hear from Theodora Hadjimichael, Chief Executive of Responsible Finance.

Thousands of people try to avoid paying care home fees by putting their house into a trust. They're told it's a way to avoid the local authority counting its value so they get their care free. We hear about one listener's unexpected £900 bill, and about the many pitfalls involved, from Annie Shaw, Saga Magazine’s financial agony aunt.

Why are petrol and diesel prices so high at the pump? Money Box reporter Dan Whitworth investigates.

And a Money Box podcast exclusive - Disability Rights UK has lost almost £43,000 after NatWest mistakenly cleaned out its account without notice and transferred the money to the Crown. We hear from the charity's CEO Kamran Mallick - and whether Money Box is able to get the money back.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Producer: Paul Waters
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Producer: Louise Clarke-Rowbotham

(Photo Credit: Sturti/Getty images)


SAT 12:30 The Now Show (m00154qd)
Series 60

Episode 1

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches.


SAT 12:57 Weather (m00159sm)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m00159sp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m00154qk)
Lord Adonis, Caroline Lucas MP, Lord Moore, Jeremy Quin MP

Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Ashley Village Hall in Northamptonshire with the Labour peer and former Cabinet Minister Lord Adonis, the Green Party MP and former party leader Caroline Lucas, the author, columnist and non-affiliated peer Lord Moore and the Conservative MP and Minister of State for Defence Procurement Jeremy Quin.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: John Cole


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m00159sr)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m000r3nn)
More Power from the Sun

Electricity from the sun is cheap and clean but the solar cells we see on our rooftops could be much more efficient. Henry Snaith of Oxford PV has developed a new material which helps solar roof panels extract more energy from the solar spectrum. Tom Heap visits Henry's lab and joins Dr Tamsin Edwards to consider the carbon-cutting potential of a new generation of solar energy.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Researcher: Sarah Goodman

Produced in association with the Royal Geographical Society. Special thanks for this episode to Professor Stephen Peake from the Open University.


SAT 15:00 Drama (m00159st)
The War After The War

Drama exploring the battles and barriers that we often try to fight alone. Starring Sir David Jason and Natalie Davies. Directed by Johnny Vegas.

Layla’s night terrors are the first indication that Bernard’s granddaughter needs more help than the advice his own father used to give him, “Chin up, lad, and crack on.”

Layla came back to the UK three months ago, missing a leg, her army career seemingly over, and her young life in tatters. Layla still needs physiotherapy and support, so she can’t travel to India to be with her parents. Instead, Layla’s come to stay with Bernard, behind his bookshop.

Bernard didn’t raise his three kids, Elsie did. He was an inspector on the buses, working long shifts. By the time Bernard had the space to parent, they’d all left home. He enjoyed having the grandkids from time to time, but equally he was more than happy to give them back at the end of an exhausting day or overnight. The last time he saw Layla was at Elsie’s funeral, four years ago. She was 15 and he barely knew her.

Now, Layla is sharing Bernard’s bathroom, sleeping in the spare bed until way past midday, missing physio appointments. He’s out of his depth.

Cast:
(In order of appearance)
Ziggy – Joe Gaffney
Layla – Natalie Davies
Bernard – Sir David Jason
Natalie – Sian Gibson
Gruff – Johnny Vegas
Tommo and Barry - Joe Ransom
District Nurse & Cally – Jennifer Saayeng
Ida – Eileen O’Brien

Additional voices – Andrew Lynch, Paul Coates, Gerry O’Riorden, Beverley Dixon

Written by Paul Coates
Produced by Sally Harrison
Sound Engineer: Gerry O’Riorden
Sound Design: Alisdair McGregor
Directed by Johnny Vegas

A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m00159sw)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Women and Equalities Minister, Rachael Denhollander & USA Gymnastics, Betty Boo

Why in 2022 is there no position in the Cabinet solely dedicated to the job of Women and Equalities? Why is it always tagged onto another cabinet role? We hear from Amber Rudd who juggled the job of being Home Secretary, while she was also Work and Pensions Secretary and from Shadow Women and Equalities Minister Anneliese Dodds, who's also Chair of the Labour Party.

There have been elections in India this week and one journalist who’s been covering them is Rana Ayyub. She’s an Indian, Muslim journalist who writes for the Washington Post but she’s based in Mumbai. At the moment she’s under extreme pressure because of her work. She's experiencing serious online abuse, so much so that international monitoring groups worry that her life is in danger.

Anne Dickson's book, A Woman In Your Own Right: The art of assertive, clear and honest communication, was first published 40 years ago. It has been in print ever since. Anne outlines the skills and techniques she pioneered and why they are still relevant today.

Our TV screens are full of Ukrainian refugees - mainly women and children - who are fleeing their country. However, we're increasingly seeing women who are staying. We hear from the Ukrainian MP, Inna Sovsun.

In 2016 Rachael Denhollander became the first woman to publicly accuse the USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of sexual assault. Rachael talks about her fight for justice and the impact on elite gymnastics culture.

The singer and songwriter Betty Boo is back. The platinum success artist made a name for herself in the 1990s for her unapologetic attitude, and combination of Pop and Hip Hop music. Betty Boo has now released her first solo single in almost three decades.


SAT 17:00 PM (m00159sy)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (m00154hn)
Changing China

How will shifts in China's economic policies affect global commerce? The nation is the world's second-biggest economy and it's been the centre of globalised manufacturing for over three decades. But after a global pandemic, an energy crisis and now war in Ukraine, is this going to change? Already, President Xi Jinping has plans to move away from the reliance on global trade towards expanding domestic consumption, alongside targets for encouraging innovation in technology and artificial intelligence. Will recent economic sanctions on Russia due to geopolitics make China retreat more from global trade? What will this mean for us and for the rest of the world? Evan Davis and guests discuss
Guests:
Hong Bo, professor of financial economics, School of Finance & Management, SOAS University of London
Mike Collier, director, China UKTC consultancy
Xiaolan Fu, professor of technology and international development: and director, Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD), Oxford University
Producer: Julie Ball
Production Coordinators: Sophie Hill and Siobhan Reed
Sound: Nigel Appleton
Editor: Hugh Levinson

This programme was produced in partnership with the Open University


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m00159t1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m00159t3)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00159t5)
The Ukrainian president has demanded the release of the mayor of Melitopol. And Poland passes a new law to settle refugees.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m00159q0)
Jade Anouka, Tom Allen, Mark Hodkinson, Count Arthur Strong, Charles Watson, Yasmeen Khan, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Yasmeen Khan are joined by Jade Anouka, Tom Allen, Mark Hodkinson and Count Arthur Strong for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Charles Watson.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m00159t8)
Lynsey Addario

She took the defining picture of Putin’s war so far: a family killed by Russian troops as they tried to flee to safety. The US photojournalist, Lynsey Addario, has reported from almost every major conflict in the twenty-first century, and now she is on the ground in Ukraine, documenting suspected war crimes.

Lynsey Addario - who reported on the Taliban before most of the western world knew who they were - has borne witness to war, humanitarian disaster and the worst effects of climate change. She has been kidnapped twice, but still keeps returning to conflict zones.

Mark Coles profiles the award-winning photographer whose images continue to make the front pages.

Credits:
Lynsey Addario, talking to CBS Evening News’ Norah O’Donnell
Sky News’ Stuart Ramsay and his team being attacked in Ukraine

Producers: Sally Abrahams and Ellie House
Editor: Damon Rose
Studio Manager: Neil Churchill


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m00159tb)
Maggi Hambling

Artist Maggi Hambling is a painter known for evocative portraits, and powerfully energetic seascapes of the Suffolk coastline where she grew up. She’s also a sculptor, whose public artworks, including tributes to Oscar Wilde, Benjamin Britten and more recently Mary Wollstonecraft, have been the focus of both acclaim and controversy.

She tells John Wilson about her unconventional family life in Suffolk, discovering her artistic talent as child and studying with the East Anglian school of painting under Sir Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines. She explains how Rembrandt's portraits were a major influence on her own work, and reveals how a trip to New York in 1969 proved to be a formative experience, not least because she found herself at the legendary Woodstock Festival that year. She also speaks candidly about how painting family members and close friends after they have died, including both her parents and her partner in their coffins, helped keep their memory alive for her.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m00159td)
The Origins of The Metaverse

When Facebook changed its name to Meta at the end of 2021, the word "metaverse" got everywhere.

But the idea of a virtual reality, fully immersed life, spent in a structured, created, illusory perceived universe has its roots a lot deeper than that, even before the writer Neal Stephenson coined the term in his 1992 novel Snow Crash.

Pygmalion's Spectacles, a science fiction novella by Stanley G Weinbaum has hints of the idea. Perhaps it goes back to the beginnings of ancient philosophical traditions. It’s hard to nail down, so ubiquitous is the idea. Indeed, "world building" is in many ways just what film-makers, game-writers, authors and story-tellers have been doing for centuries.

More recently, it has even become fashionable to speculate that the universe as we perceive it now is actually some kind of a simulation, running in some sort of super-real computing medium outside of what we can sense.

On top of the growing sophistication and growing numbers of VR-headsets and AR devices, immersive games today and of the near future will involve artificial characters that try their best to emulate real people in their interactions with players.

So how might you convince one of them that their universe is a synthetic creation, merely the latest in a long continuum of human technological creativity? And why would that matter anyway?

Featuring contributions from Keza MacDonald, Guy Gadney and David Chalmers
With Colin Salmon and Clare Reeves
Inc music by Cyrus Shahrad
Written and Presented by Colin Harvey
Produced by Alex Mansfield


SAT 21:00 Riot Girls (b0717q6v)
Emma

Second of three new plays charting British feminism through three generations of women. By Lucy Catherine. Today's drama is the story of an ambitious young career woman, whose idealism is challenged when she encounters the seedier side of politics in the 1990s.

Emma is now in her twenties and, despite her unsettled childhood, has soared academically and is now a policy advisor to New Labour. She's on course to career success and, she believes, to changing the world. But when she catches the attention of senior party figure, Mac, she has to contend with regressive attitudes to women in the workplace.

CAST

Emma.....Sarah Smart
Susan.....Sarah Thom
Gareth.....Chris Pavlo
Mac.....Brian Protheroe
Shafiq.....Anil Goutam
Anders.....Leo Wan
Tim.....Ewan Bailey
Receptionist/ Sonographer.....Rebecca Hamilton

Director.....Emma Harding
Producer.....Abigail le Fleming


SAT 21:45 Border Crossing (b0785gjw)
A Good Soldier & Handsome Daddy

A series of programmes that sets up a unique pairing between writers from countries challenged by refugee and migration issues with short story writers from Britain. Each foreign story was given to a British writer who wrote their own response, in an exchange of fiction that aims to explode myths, explore shared concerns and extend the boundaries of the short story.

In A Good Soldier by Maaza Mengiste, the brutality of the past pursues an Ethiopian father into exile and shockingly marks his relationship with his young son. The reader is Amir El Masry.

In Helen Dunmore’s response, Handsome Daddy, an alert dinner lady notices worrying signs of abuse as a young boy lines up in the lunch queue. The reader is Sara Markland.

Maaza Mengiste is an Ethiopian-American novelist, essayist and photographer whose debut novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze was one of The Guardian’s ten best contemporary African books. Helen Dunmore is a prize-winning British novelist, short-story writer and poet whose latest novel, Exposure, was published in January.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:00 News (m00159tj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (m00154dq)
Sanctions, enablers and collective punishment

We can’t help Ukraine with troops and planes, most politicians insist, but we can hit back at Putin by punishing his friends and choking the Russian economy. This week the long-promised Economic Crime Bill zipped through the Commons and could be law within a month. The Home Secretary said the legislation proves she’s determined to “hobble Putin and his cronies”. But it will do nothing to hurt their ‘enablers’ – the London-based accountants, lawyers and fixers who’ve helped the oligarchs to hide their money and muzzle their critics. Should we try to punish those people too, or does that cross a moral red line?

We don’t need to wait for a new law before we start hurting ordinary Russians with economic sanctions. We’re already punishing extraordinary Russians, from Paralympians to opera singers, with bans and boycotts. Have they all deserved this for the crime of being Russian? Soon visa restrictions will start to trap Russian dissenters in a country that isn't safe for them. Is such "collective punishment" morally justified? What about our own economy, our businesses and their workers? Are we sure we will tolerate squeezing Russia when we have massive rises in the costs of energy and food?

Some global companies are shutting down their Russian operations - at least temporarily. Others have not, though the pressure on them is growing. But is that a commercial decision or a moral one? Do we even want businesses to advertise their virtue, if (as the Nobel-winning economist Milton Friedman put it) the social responsibility of business is solely to increase profits? With broadcaster Isabel Hilton; journalist Niko Vorobyov; City University Professor of Finance and Accounting Atul K Shah and Economist Julian Jessop.

Produced by Olive Clancy


SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (m0015478)
Series 35

Semi-final 2, 2022

(11/13)
All three competitors in the second semi-final of this year's Counterpoint tournament are women, and all three are heat winners from the earlier stages of the competition. Paul Gambaccini puts them through their paces again, and the standard is sure to be high as they have their sights set on a place in the 2022 Final.

As always, all genres of music are fair game for questions. How are they on the films of Doris Day or the arias of Handel, and if they get those will they also recognise a hit by Olivia Rodrigo or the lyrics to a song by Madonna?

Taking part today are
Isabelle Heward from North Lincolnshire
Rebecca Pasha from North Buckinghamshire
Rachel Thomas from Hertfordshire.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 Egypt's New Capital (m000nl7d)
With a population that's grown from 2.5 million to 20 million since 1950, Cairo is among the most congested cities in the world, and its inefficiency costs Egypt 4% of its GDP every year. The bold solution - to build an all new administrative and residential capital, totally from scratch, 45km away from Cairo in a place where before there was only desert.

Jonathan Glancey travels from Old Cairo to this new and as yet unnamed metropolis, touring the enormous ghost town as it springs into life.

The numbers are impressive. The so-called Sisi’s City will cover 270 square kilometres - the same size as Singapore island, house 6.5 million inhabitants, boast a 10km green area larger than New York’s Central Park. The new city will house all of the Egyptian governments 34 ministries, as well as the stock exchange and central bank.

While other cities have risen out of the desert, the likes of Las Vegas and Doha still did so somewhat organically. Here we have an entirely pre-planned city. But can such a project possibly predict and satisfy the needs of its inhabitants? Will the Egyptians have learned the lessons of the past 100 years of urbanism and be able to build a truly functioning city from scratch?

Presented by Jonthan Glancey
Produced by Dom Byrne
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4



SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2022

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m00159tn)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Tom Mayhew Is Benefit Scum (m000syp8)
Posh Radio

Working Class comedian Tom Mayhew takes you on an autobiographical journey through the benefits system in a stand-up series that takes a wry, sideways look at the prejudices that people have towards benefits claimants and turns those assumptions on their head. In this episode Tom looks at belief and how those beliefs affect the way we see eachother.
Tom Mayhew is a critically acclaimed comedian, whose material about being working-class – mixing the personal and the political, with the punchline-rate of a one-liner comic – sets him apart from any other act on the circuit. Tom Mayhew is Benefit Scum is an audio adaptation of Mayhew's acclaimed Edinburgh show I, Tom Mayhew which transferred to a sell out run at the Soho Theatre.

Produced by Benjamin Sutton
A BBC Studios Production


SUN 00:30 A Pocketful of Rye (b061pvbf)
Hollywood and Rye

The first in a series of three stories set in and around Rye in East Sussex.

Dot Buckle, proprietress of The Whistling Kettle, has heard a rumour that a film star is in town and rushes to The Mermaid Inn to see if it's true.

When she arrives, not only does she have the fortune of spotting Charlie Chaplin alongside two other famous actors from Hollywood, but has an even greater surprise in store for her in the shape of a blast from the past.

Written by Kellie Jackson and read by Serena Evans, this story is loosely based on Charlie Chaplin's visit to Rye.

Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in July 2015.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00159ts)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00159tx)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00159v1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m00159v5)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m00159v7)
The parish church of St Mary and All Saints, Kidderminster in Worcestershire.

Bells on Sunday comes from the parish church of St Mary and All Saints, Kidderminster in Worcestershire. The grade I listed building dates mostly from the 15th and 16th centuries and sits on a hill side overlooking the market town famous as a centre of carpet-making since the early 18th century. In 2004 a new ring of twelve bells were installed by Taylors of Loughborough with a tenor weighing twenty five and a half hundredweight and tuned to D. We hear the bells ringing Stedman Cinques.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m00159t8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m00159wq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b0372v87)
Desire

Sarah Cuddon reflects on the nature of desire - full of passion, ambition, creativity and, potentially, danger.

She draws on the writings of Sharon Olds, Marie Colvin and Gwendolyn Brooks; the music of Edith Piaf, Felix Mendelssohn and Sweet Honey in the Rock and she talks to 90 year old Josephine about the undimmed power of her desires.

Produced by Alan Hall.
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b05w9b6j)
Dinosaurs

Our collective imaginations go wild at the thought of lumbering, ferocious beasts that were so powerful they once ruled the earth. T Rex scares us witless and diplodocus was an astonishing creature of breath taking proportions. It is no wonder then that dinosaur books, especially for children, appeared in the early nineteenth century and are still flying of the shelves today.

Dinosaur exhibitions always draw throngs of people. From the Crystal Palace dinosaurs in London built in the mid 19th Century to the wonderful animatronic models in today's modern museums, these ancient beasts speak to us of a different planet earth, lost in deep time, gone for ever. Yet they have left us bones and teeth that are still revealing amazing facts. Recent science shows most dinosaurs were not cold bloodied reptiles but warm blooded, feathered and colourful. They lived for 160 million years, occupying a warm humid planet rich in vegetation.

When we use the world 'dinosaur' we mean it as a derogatory term for someone who can’t adapt but nothing could be further from the truth. These were supreme rulers that were brought down by an Act of God that defies imagination. So huge was the impact of the meteorite that the earth went cold and dark. Dinosaurs though will never leave us, we will take them with us into the future, in our stories, films and science and we will learn from their old bones ever more details about life on earth, and how even the most successful creatures on earth are, in reality, so fragile.

Originally broadcast in a longer form 28th July 2015
Original producer : Sarah Pitt

Archive Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol : Andrew Dawes


SUN 06:57 Weather (m00159wt)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m00159ww)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m00159wy)
The Pope's envoy to Ukraine; The Point of Prayer; Shorter organists' battle for adjustable benches

The Vatican lead on refugees and migrants, Cardinal Michael Czerny, tells us why Pope Francis sent him to Hungary and Ukraine to meet people fleeing war. Presenter William Crawley asks why why the Pope has not denounced the Russian President Vladimir Putin. And Vatican analyst Christopher Lamb gives an insight into the faith diplomacy going on behind the scenes.

While faith leaders around the world have called for prayers of peace in Ukraine, some will wonder - what is the point of prayer in times like these? We finds out how prayer has been used in previous conflicts as William seeks answers with Canon Professor Michael Snape, an Historian of Christianity and Conflict at Durham University and Ecumenical Lay Canon at Durham Cathedral.

As the Government lay out its plans to help refugees from Ukraine come to the UK, we hear from some of those responding to a plea from Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romaine MBE, from the Maidenhead Synagogue in Berkshire, to offer a 'Ukraine transport' and open their homes to provide sanctuary for those fleeing from the conflict. And William asks the Rt. Rev Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, whether the Government plans go far enough.

And how do you play a church organ when your feet don't reach the pedals? The Society of Women Organists wants churches to fit adjustable benches to make playing the organ more accessible for women, children and shorter men. Organist Marion Lees-McPherson, from Stockbridge Parish Church in Edinburgh, shows William the perils of perching on a stool that is just too high.

Producers: Jill Collins and Louise Clarke-Rowbotham
Editor: Helen Grady


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m00159x0)
Gingerbread

Actor and writer Arabella Weir makes the BBC Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Gingerbread.

To Give:
- UK Freephone 0800 404 8144
-You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
- 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 ‘Gingerbread’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Gingerbread’.
Please note that Freephone and online donations for this charity close at 23.59 on the Saturday after the Appeal is first broadcast. However the Freepost option can be used at any time.

Registered charity 230750


SUN 07:57 Weather (m00159x2)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m00159x4)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m00159x6)
A Passion for Hospitality: I was thirsty

A Passion for Hospitality: I was thirsty. During Lent Sunday Worship is considering how, as the nation emerges from a long period of isolation, how we can better reach out both to neighbour and stranger, and especially to the most marginalised and disadvantaged. On the Second Sunday in Lent the Sunday before St Patrick’s Day Mention, the Very Revd Henry Hull, the Dean of Down, reflects on how Jesus offered help to the thirsty.
Readings: Romans 12:1-13
John 2:1-12
God whose city sure foundation (WESTMINSTER ABBEY)
Jubilate (CV Stanford)
We believe in God the Father, (HYFRYDOL)
Be Thou My Vision (Chilcott)
O Christ the same) (LONDONDERRY AIR)
Christ beside me (Rutter)

From Down Cathedral, Downpatrick
Leader: The Revd Adrian Dorrian
Director of Music: Michael McCracken
Organist: Richard Campbell.
Producer: Bert Tosh


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m00154qm)
There Are No Words

For the past five years, Rebecca Stott and a Russian friend have spent time together... digging heavy soil, planting hawthorn trees and pruning wild roses.

Veronika is a translator and a university lecturer, with a talent for gardening. She's helped Rebecca in her garden; Rebecca has discussed translations with Veronika.

Now, in the light of events in Ukraine, Rebecca talks about their friendship.

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound: Peter Bosher
Editor: Penny Murphy


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03wpzmk)
Chiffchaff

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

Bill Oddie presents the chiffchaff. Chiffchaff are small olive warblers which sing their name as they flit around hunting for insects in woods, marshes and scrubby places. Chiffchaffs are increasing in the UK and the secret of their success is their ability to weather our winters. Many stay in the milder south and south-west of England where the insects are more active.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m00159x8)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Jane Garvey


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m00159xb)
Writer, Daniel Thurman
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Phoebe Aldridge ….. Lucy Morris
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Rex Fairbrother ….. Nick Barber
Amy Franks ….. Jennifer Daley
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Kate Madikane ….. Perdita Avery
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Fallon Rogers ….. Joanna Van Kampen
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Peggy Woolley ….. June Spencer


SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m00159xd)
Robert Plant, singer and songwriter

Robert Plant is a singer and songwriter who was Led Zeppelin’s frontman from the band’s inception in 1968 until it disbanded in 1980. Led Zeppelin sold hundreds of millions of albums and in their heyday acquired a reputation for unbridled rock ‘n’ roll hedonism. Since 1980 Robert has gone on to achieve success as a solo artist and has collaborated with other musicians, notably the bluegrass singer Alison Krauss. Their 2007 album Raising Sand won five Grammy Awards.

Robert was born in West Bromwich in 1948. At 15 he appeared on stage for the first time as the lead vocalist for a local band after the regular singer fell ill. In 1965 he started performing with the Crawling King Snakes and it was after one of the band’s gigs that he met his friend, the drummer John Bonham.

In 1968 Robert and John joined up with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones to form Led Zeppelin. Later that year the band embarked on its first US tour and the enthusiastic response from American audiences heralded a new force in British music. Over the next 12 years the band released eight studio albums including Led Zeppelin IV which featured one of their most popular tracks – Stairway to Heaven.

In 1980 John Bonham died from alcohol poisoning at the age of 32 and Led Zeppelin broke up. Devastated by his friend’s death, Robert took himself off to explore other creative avenues, recording and performing with a wide range of artists.

Robert and Alison Krauss released their second album, Raising the Roof, in 2021.

Robert lives in Worcestershire near where he grew up. He is a committed fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Black Country homing pigeons.

DISC ONE: Pink Peg Slacks by Eddie Cochrane
DISC TWO: Serenade by Mario Lanza
DISC THREE: I Ain’t Superstitious by Howlin’ Wolf
DISC FOUR: Teenage Ska by Baba Brooks
DISC FIVE: Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
DISC SIX: Raha Gardishon Mein Hardam by Mohammed Rafi
DISC SEVEN: Diaraby by Ali Farka Touré with Ry Cooder
DISC EIGHT: Your Long Journey by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

BOOK CHOICE: The Earliest English Poems, translated by Michael Alexander
LUXURY ITEM: A basket containing photos of homing pigeons
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Serenade by Mario Lanza

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley


SUN 11:45 Letter from Ukraine (m0015hxc)
A country in search of safety

Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov gives a personal account of daily life in war-torn Ukraine. This week he reflects on the experience of being a refugee in his own country.

Written and read by Andrey Kurkov
Translated by Elizabeth Sharp
Produced by Emma Harding

Production co-ordinator Eleri McAuliffe
Technical producer Nigel Lewis

A BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m00159xg)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (m001547k)
Series 88

Episode 3

Sue Perkins challenges Dane Baptiste, Stephen Fry, Sheila Hancock and Paul Merton to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation.

This week's panellists prove that it can be much more difficult than you would think to talk about brushing your teeth.

Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Richard Morris

A BBC Studios Production


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m00159qn)
Animal-free dairy: Could this be the future of milk?

Dairy alternatives with real milk proteins but no use of cows are now becoming a reality. In the US you can now buy animal-free dairy ice cream, and around the world scientists and food technologists are aiming to create lab-cultured dairy products indistinguishable from the real thing. This is possible through precision fermentation, a process which uses genetically engineered microbes to grow the proteins in a bioreactor, which is how insulin and rennet are already produced. The proteins are then separated and used to create products like milk and cheese from scratch.

Companies creating precision fermentation-made dairy believe it could play an important part in reducing the environmental impact of traditional dairy production, and provide a much needed source of alternative protein. But as this new industry emerges it’s still not known how consumers will take to animal free dairy, and if it can scale up enough to make the products widely available and affordable to make an impact.

In this programme, Leyla Kazim visits a company in London creating an animal-free cheese, and asks if it can ever be the same as a traditionally-made product. And as this new industry grows – how far could it go in making dairy more sustainable?

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol


SUN 12:57 Weather (m00159xk)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m00159xm)
Radio 4’s look at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.


SUN 13:30 The Archbishop Interviews (m00159xp)
Nick Carter

In this series, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has deep conversations with people who have made a significant contribution to public life about what they believe. How have the navigated their inner life alongside their public profile? What has been their moral ‘touchstone’ through the good times and the bad? How do they engage with faith and spirituality?

This week's guest is the recently retired head of the British Armed Forces General Sir Nick Carter. He joined the army as an 18 year old, serving in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. He later commanded in Kosovo, Iraq and twice in Afghanistan. He has seen conflict at its most intense, complex and intractable. He knows what it is like to make decisions that save and cost lives.

Producer: Dan Tierney for BBC Audio North.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m00154q2)
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Postbag Edition

Kathy Clugston is at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew with panellists Ashley Edwards, Matt Biggs and Anne Swithinbank.

In a wistful turn about the gardens, some of the panellists remember the time they spent training at Kew, all the while sharing their advice on keeping plants alive when you go away on holiday, pruning plum and hawthorn trees, and planting for fragrant raised beds.

Between the questions, the team visits Kew Gardens' Temperate House, learning all about the fascinating history of some of its rarest plants, the Treetop Walkway, and the Rock and Alpine collections, where they meet Gardens Supervisor - Alpine, Rock and Aquatics, Faye Adams.

Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Bethany Hocken

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b044jh6l)
The Noose

Sapna Sinha works as a sales assistant in a TV showroom in New Delhi. Being the only bread-winner in the family she works long hours to provide for her widowed mother and younger sister. But then a man walks into her life with an extraordinary proposition: pass seven "life" tests of his choosing and she will have wealth and power. At first the tests seem easy, but things are not quite as they seem. Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".

10) The Noose
A thriller set in India from the author of "Slumdog Millionaire".
Sapna must revisit her past to make sense of her present. But nothing can prepare her what she finds there. Dramatised from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".

Writers:
Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and a best-selling novelist. His first novel "Q & A" was made into the Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" as well as Sony Award winning radio drama serial for BBC Radio .

Ayeesha Menon dramatized Vikas Swarup's other novels SIX SUSPECTS and Q & A, which won a Sony Award for Best Drama. She also wrote for Radio 4 THE MUMBAI CHUZZLEWITS, UNDERCOVER MUMBAI, THE CAIRO TRILOGY and MY NAME IS RED. Her stage play PEREIRA'S BAKERY AT 76 CHAPEL ROAD, which was developed with the Royal Court Theatre, was recently staged by the Curve Theatre, Leicester.

John Dryden wrote the original three-part dramas series SEVERED THREADS, THE RELUCTANT SPY and PANDEMIC, which won the Writer's Guild Award for best radio drama script. His dramatisation of BLEAK HOUSE won a Sony Award for Best Drama. Other dramatisations include A SUITABLE BOY, A HANDMAID'S TALE and FATHERLAND one of the most repeated dramas on R4 Extra.

Cast:
Sapna ... Rasika Dugal
Acharya ... Vijay Chrishna
Karan ... Neil Bhoopalam
Nirmila Ben / Rosie ... Radhika Mittal
Sapna's Mother ... Shernaz Patel
Raja ... Sumeet Vyas
Kuldeep Singh / Roaji ... Rajit Kapur
Neha ... Amrita Puri
Priya Capoor / Pushpa / Female Judge ... Ayesha Raza
Badan Singh / Politician / Constable ... Kenny Desai
Madan ... Vivek Madan
Neelam / Babli ... Prerna Chawla
Rent Collector ... Satchit Puranik

Production:
Sound Design - Steve Bond
Editing Assistant - Varun Bangera
Script Editor - Mike Walker
Assistant Producer - Toral Shah

Music - Sacha Putnam

Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from the novel "ACCIDENTAL APPRENTICE" by Vikas Swarup.

Director - John Dryden
Producer - Nadir Khan
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 15:00 Drama (b08sklqy)
Michael Palin - The Weekend

Michael Palin stars with Penelope Wilton in his dark comedy of family meltdown.

The Weekend concerns a middle aged Englishman whose life is suddenly and utterly changed when a family gathering of sad daughter, dreary husband, and awkward teenager has him reaching for double whiskies laced with heavy sarcasm.

It's Michael Palin's only stage play and contains much of his self effacing humour, but there's sharp observation and truth too. It's as dryly comic and acutely observed as Ayckbourn, as wry as Wodehouse and as acerbic as Coward. This first adaptation for radio is by Richard Stoneman - writer on TV's hit series Doc Martin - and stars Michael Palin in the central role.

In his diaries for 1988-98, Palin writes about the out of town previews for the stage show and records the press saying it was, "A good play. Funny and moving...the audiences laughed and laughed," and he had to remind himself, "It is a comedy. It's a comedy about someone who has made a mess of his life." He also noted how much he enjoyed creating so much amusement for so many people.

Stephen Febble ...... Michael Palin
Virginia Febble ...... Penelope Wilton
Diana ...... Sophie Thompson
Alan ...... Hugh Dennis
Charlotte ...... Bryony Hannah
Duff Gardner ...... Bill Paterson
Bridget Gardner ...... Cathy Sara
Hugh Bedales ...... Patrick Barlow

Director: Marilyn Imrie

A Big Fish production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in June 2017. .


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m00159xr)
A life in books with Marlon James

Elizabeth Day talks to Man Booker Prize winning author Marlon James. The author's Dark Star Trilogy began in 2019 with his novel, Black Leopard, Red Wolf. Sogolon, the Moon Witch, proved a worthy adversary to the protagonist, Tracker, as they clashed across a mythical African landscape in search of a mysterious boy who disappeared. Now the titular Sogolon takes centre stage in his second part, Moon Witch, Spider King, where she gives her own account of what happened to the boy, and how she plotted and fought, triumphed, and failed as she looked for him.
Marlon James discusses writing the multifaceted Sogolon, his love of mythology, his reading from Tolkien to Jane Austen - and explains to Elizabeth why his family remains unimpressed by his Booker win.

Book List - 13th March to 20th March

John Crow’s Devil by Marlon James
The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Black Leopard Red Woolf by Marlon James
Moon Witch Spider King by Marlon James
White Wing, Dark Star by Marlon James
The African Trilogy by Chinua Achebe
Lord of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante: Translated by Ann Goldstein
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante: Translated by Ann Goldstein
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante: Translated by Ann Goldstein
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante: Translated by Ann Goldstein
Forest of a Thousand Daemons (Translated by Wole Soyinka) by Daniel O. Fagunwa
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen


SUN 16:30 Belief in Poetry (m00159xt)
John Donne

Poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama considers metaphysical poet and preacher John Donne's complex faith life through his poetry, 450 years on from his birth.

Pádraig talks about Donne's belief with Julie Sanders, Professor of English Literature and Drama at Newcastle University; Mark Oakley, writer and Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge; and Michael Symmons Roberts, poet and Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

The reader is Sir Simon Russell Beale and the featured poems are:

Holy Sonnets: Death, be not Proud
Holy Sonnets: Batter my Heart, Three-person'd God
Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness
A Hymn to God the Father

John Donne was born in London in 1572 into the very precarious world of English recusant Catholicism. His mother was the grand-niece of Catholic martyr Thomas More. Religion would go on play a hugely significant but complex role throughout Donne’s life.

After Oxbridge (where he never received degrees, due to his Catholicism) he studied law at Lincoln’s Inn and looked destined for a legal or diplomatic career. In his early 20s, much of his time and money was spent on women, books and travel as well as writing most of his famous love lyrics and erotic poems.

At 25, he was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England. He held his position for several years and it's likely that, around this period, Donne converted to Anglicanism.

In 1601 he secretly married Sir Egerton’s niece, the 16-year-old Anne More. Disapproval of this clandestine marriage led to Donne being fired and there followed eight years in a wilderness of relative poverty.

In 1610, Donne published his anti-Catholic polemic work winning him King James I’s approval. He was ordained and was soon appointed Royal Chaplain. His flair for dramatic language led to him becoming a great preacher.

In 1617, Donne’s wife died shortly after giving birth to their 12th child. Donne devoted his energy to more religious poetry and writings. Four years later, he became Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. He died at the age of 59.

Producer: Rosie Boulton
A Must Try Softer production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m00154bp)
Controlling My Birth Control

Reproductive coercion: a form of abuse you've probably never heard of.

From deliberately sabotaging contraceptives to forcing someone to have an abortion, it is used to gain power and control - and can have devastating consequences.

But with links to domestic violence and even homicide, is enough being done to spot the signs?

Rachel Stonehouse investigates.

Producer: Alys Harte
Editor: Maggie Latham

Details of organisations that can provide help and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline including:

Domestic abuse
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3FQFSnx6SZWsQn3TJYYlFNy/information-and-support-domestic-abuse

Sexual abuse and Violence
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/22VVM5LPrf3pjYdKqctmMXn/information-and-support-sexual-abuse-and-violence

Emotional distress
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4WLs5NlwrySXJR2n8Snszdg/information-and-support-suicide-emotional-distress


SUN 17:40 Profile (m00159t8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m00159xx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m00159xz)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00159y1)
A Russian missile attack on a military base in western Ukraine has prompted warnings that the war is closer than ever to NATO territory.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m00159y3)
Geoff Lloyd

The best of BBC Radio this week.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m00159qg)
Roy’s already missing Phoebe. The goldfish she gave him isn’t much of a substitute. Kirsty tries to cheer him up as they good humouredly banter about Kate the fish. As they chat about the rewilding, Kirsty spots Kate has escaped. They find her on the floor, but Roy can’t face scooping her up. It’s left to Kirsty to return Kate quickly to the water, where she recovers. Relieved Roy pledges to take the fish to the vet – but he’ll need to make sure Jakob doesn’t see them, or the real Kate will know something’s up.

Alice takes Jim some birthday cake, and a bookmark made by Martha. He’s touched. Alice is keen to make amends for her past actions. She asks Jim if there might be some shifts she could do at the shop. Jim agrees it would be a service to the village, but Alice will need to ask Susan. Jim hopes Alice’s quest will eventually allow her to forgive herself. As he holds Martha, he praises Alice’s ‘mother’s instinct’, commenting that his wife possessed a good one. He feels experiences in his life meant he was ill equipped to carry this on with his children. He’s troubled that Alice might be hanging on to the idea that she must make up for something. She’s clearly doing a good job as a mother, and she shouldn’t sell herself short. He himself realised too late that we never get a second chance to be the best parent we can be.


SUN 19:15 Now You're Asking with Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn (m0015c0s)
The High School Problem

Marian and Tara tackle an over-familiar flatmate, a caustic mother-in-law, love at a distance and high school anxieties with trademark kindness and good humour in the final episode of the series.

Marian Keyes is a multi award-winning writer, with a total of over 30 million of her books sold to date in 33 languages. Her close friend Tara Flynn is an actress, comedian and writer. Together, these two friends have been through a lot, and now want to use their considerable life experience to help solve your biggest - and smallest - problems.

From dilemmas about life, love and grief, to the perils of laundry or knowing what to say at a boring dinner, we’ll find out what Marian and Tara would recommend - which might not solve the problem exactly, but will make us all feel a bit better.

Recorded in Dublin with emails received from listeners around the world, the hosts invite you to pull up a chair at their virtual kitchen table as they read and digest their inbox.

Got a problem you want Marian and Tara to solve for series 2, which is due in the autumn? Email: marianandtara@bbc.co.uk.

Producer: Steve Doherty.
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


SUN 19:45 Bright Lights, Dead City (m00159y5)
Episode 10. Derry Girl

An American film crew descends on a Northern Irish city to make a lavish prestige drama series about the Troubles called ‘Dead City’, inspiring the locals to get involved in the production, only for filming to be halted by the mysterious disappearance of the lead actress.

The Writer
Séamas O'Reilly is a columnist for the Observer and has written about media and politics for the Irish Times, New Statesman, Guts, and VICE. His memoir 'Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?' was an Irish Times Number One Bestseller and was awarded the Dubray Biography of the Year Award at the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards.

Reader: Dearbháile McKinney
Writer: Séamas O'Reilly
Producer: Michael Shannon
Exec Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland production.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m00154q6)
Should BBC News remain impartial in its coverage of the appalling suffering in Ukraine?

And is it right to interview Russian spokespeople, who dare not deviate from Putin approved propaganda? Richard Burgess, Senior Controller News Content, at BBC News answers listeners’ questions about reporting of the war in Ukraine.

Also in the programme, two people who do not listen to BBC Radio try it for the first time as they assess the interviewing skills of the Archbishop of Canterbury, displayed in his new Radio 4 series.

And listeners and non-listeners talk about what comedy they listen to, and their likes and dislikes, during an interval at the Bristol Improv Theatre.

Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m00154q4)
Shirley Hughes (pictured), Roger Graef, Shane Warne

Matthew Bannister on

Shirley Hughes, the children’s author and illustrator whose books created a welcoming and recognisable picture of family life.

Roger Graef, the documentary filmmaker who revealed the inner workings of the criminal justice system, the planning authorities and the treatment of children in care.

Shane Warne, the Australian spin bowler hailed as one of the greatest cricketers of all time, but also known for his off the pitch party lifestyle.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Tom Vulliamy
Interviewed guest: Julia Eccleshare
Interviewed guest: Michael Palin
Interviewed guest: Katie Derham
Interviewed guest: Simon Wilde

Archive clips used: Random House Children's Publishers UK, Shirley Hughes reading 'Dogger' 18/09/2013; BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs - Shirley Hughes 25/03/2001; BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour - Shirley Hughes on 30 Years of Alfie 06/06/2011; Amnesty International, A Pleasure at Her Majesty's - documentary 1976; BAFTA, Tribute to Roger Graef 02/05/2014; Derrick Knight and Partners/ BFI, One of Them is Brett - documentary 1965; BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs - Robert Graef 26/10/2014; BBC One, Police - A Complaint of Rape 18/01/1982; BBC Radio 5Live, Remembering Shane Warne 04/03/2022; YouTube, 5 Magical Wickets of Shane Warne 05/08/2018; 60 Minutes Australia/ YouTube Channel, Shane Warne Interview 04/03/2022; Cricket.com.au/ YouTube Channel, From the Vault - Warne's Four Turns Adelaide on its Head 19/04/2020; BBC Radio 4, News - Shane Warne Sent Home from World Cup 11/02/2003; BBC Radio 4, Today - Tribute to Shane Warne 05/04/2022.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m00159sk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m00159x0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (m001547v)
Ending Violence

Is a world without violence possible? Violence blights the lives of countless individuals each year. The Crime Survey of England and Wales suggests there were 1.2 million incidents of violent crime in the year ending March 2020.

Sonia Sodha focuses on one category of violence – gender-based violence – and assesses the global progress in tackling this issue. Statistics show that most perpetrators – and victims – of violent crime are men. As a result, many violence prevention initiatives have traditionally focused on reducing men’s propensity for violence. But how effective is this gender-based approach? And does it provide any clues for the best way to reduce violence in society as a whole?

Presenter: Sonia Sodha
Producer: Dan Hardoon
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Jacqui Johnson
Sound: James Beard
Editor: Hugh Levinson


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m00159y7)
Carolyn Quinn's guests are the Conservative MP Danny Kruger, Labour's Florence Eshalomi and Ireland's Ambassador to the UK, Adrian O'Neill. They discuss the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis, and the UK government's policy on refugees. Caroline Wheeler - political editor of the Sunday Times - brings additional insight and analysis. The programme also includes an interview with the former Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom, on what should be in the new strategy for energy.


SUN 23:00 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m00154h8)
Series 19

The Shocking White Hair

Why does human hair go grey and is it ever possible for it to go white overnight from shock? Hannah and Adam explore why hair goes grey, how much stressful life events and a lack of sleep can speed up the process. They hear from the pilot whose hair turned white after a flight where all 4 of his engines failed after flying through a volcanic ash cloud - was the shock responsible? They also uncover new research which has shown it's possible for greying hair to return to its natural colour and ask if this finding could be exploited to uncover a cosmetic way to reverse hair greying?


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b0372v87)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 14 MARCH 2022

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m00159y9)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Wireless Nights (m00120t3)
Series 7

Lost in the Forest

Jarvis Cocker gets lost in the forest at night and encounters a series of rather intriguing characters.

As darkness falls on the forest, Jarvis realises he's hopelessly lost. Disorientated and desperately trying to find his way out, his nocturnal woodland walk takes a series of increasingly dark turns.

He stumbles upon members of Essex Ghost Hunters who are mounting some rather spooky paranormal investigations. Another presence in the woods tonight is storyteller Lisa Schneidau who recounts some very strange fairy tales and legends of the forest after dark. He then runs into mountaineer Nick Bullock who recalls his own terrifying encounter in the forests of Alberta, Canada.

But just as the darkness of the forest seems to be at its most impenetrable, Jarvis runs into bushcraft expert David Willis who guides him back to the light.

Lisa Schneidau is the author of 'Woodland Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland', and Nick Bullock is the author of 'Tides: A Climber's Voyage'.

Producer: Laurence Grissell


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m00159v7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00159yc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00159yf)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00159yh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m00159yk)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00159ym)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Jonathan Rea

SCRIPT

Good morning

Back in the 1980s when I was in primary school, we used to sit around the classroom radio to sing along to a wonderful BBC programme called Singing Together.
It was wholesome and fun, and the song books had proper sheet music, so we were learning to follow the tunes as well as the words.

One of our favourite songs was about a maverick train driver called Casey Jones. And it so happens that the real Casey Jones was born in Kentucky on this date in 1864.

As a child I was too busy enjoying the jolly tune to notice that the song that bore his name was actually about his untimely death as he “took his farewell trip to the Promised Land.”

Jones’s final journey began 75 minutes behind schedule, but he was so keen to keep his reputation for punctuality that he had regained 73 minutes by the time the crash happened. But then there was fog, confusion over instructions, and suddenly a broken-down train blocking his path. Seeing the unavoidable danger, Jones told his fireman to jump out and fought alone to reduce the train’s speed – ultimately saving the lives of every single passenger - at the expense of his own.

From a Christian perspective, stories like this resonate strongly with Paul’s words in his letter to the Romans – “while we were powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… God demonstrates his own love for us: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

Lord Jesus, the tragic sacrifice of one human life for another is an act of brave dignity. And we are horrified by the impact of a war which is making too many of those sacrifices necessary. But we thank you that you have not left us helpless. For in selfless love, you gave your own life to redeem our souls. Amen.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m00159yp)
14/03/22 Pigs, AHDB, Ducks

Pig farmers are warning that the rising cost of feed will be the last straw for some and are asking retailers to pay more for British pork. There has been a big rise in the price of wheat - one of the main cereal crops fed to pigs - The National Pig Association says costs have tripled.

Do farmers care about the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board - the AHDB? It’s the body which they pay for, via mandatory levies. It runs advertising campaigns, provides market information and analysis. Potato growers have left and set up their own body and horticulture businesses too have voted with their feet. That leaves livestock, dairy and arable farmers who now get a vote on how the AHBD uses their money. To use that vote they have to register by the end of this month, and not many have.

British farmers produce 10 million ducks every year, small in comparison with the one billion chickens, but The British Poultry Council says the UK is the global hub for breeding stock. It's estimated around 70 per cent of the world's commerical duck stock has its roots in UK duck genetics.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


MON 05:56 Weather (m00159yr)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03bkg3b)
Short-Eared Owl

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

Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Short-eared Owl. Short-eared owls, one of our most spectacular birds of prey, are nomads, roaming over vast areas of open countryside and breeding where they find their favourite habitat of moorland or long grass.


MON 06:00 Today (m00159pp)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m00159pr)
Feathered friends

Humans have been fascinated with birdlife since the first cave drawings 12,000 years ago. In Birds and Us, Tim Birkhead explores how birds have captured our imaginations and inspired both art and science. He looks back to the mummified ibises of Ancient Egypt and the Victorian obsessions with egg collecting, to today’s bustling guillemot colonies on the Faroe Islands and the fight to save endangered species.

Around 1820 John James Audubon declared his intention to paint every bird species in North America. The result was the hugely ambitious Birds of America featuring 435 life-size, hand-coloured prints. The National Museum of Scotland is currently exhibiting several of his original unbound prints, and the curator Mark Glancy tells the story of this controversial figure who shot thousands of birds in his pursuit of the perfect pose and specimen, but also had a unique eye for their beauty.

Alison Richard has spent five decades investigating one of the most extraordinarily diverse places on earth – Madagascar. She recreates the island of the past with its towering flightless Elephant birds and giant tortoises. Her latest book, The Sloth Lemur’s Song captures the magic and mystery of Madagascar today, but also serves as a warning at what could lie ahead for its unique wildlife.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Image Credit: Detail from a print depicting Carolina Pigeons or Turtle Doves from Birds of America by John James Audubon © National Museums Scotland.jpg


MON 09:45 Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen (m00159rh)
The Dawning of History

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth – the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 1
The lives and works of the earliest historians, the Greek Herodotus in 450 BC , indulging his curiosity about the habits of his neighbours (for example, descriptions of the sexual habits of the Egyptians) and his successor Thucydides, who shaped his material to enthral his readers. The great Romans Tacitus and Livy, with their epics of plagues and wars, embellishing the truth whenever it took their fancy. Livy was the tabloid journalist of his day.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00159pw)
Plaque for women priests, Young women coming off the Pill, Electric cars

On Saturday a ceremony took place at Bristol Cathedral to replace a plaque that marked the day women priests were first ordained by the Church of England, in 1994. The original plaque only listed the names of the men who attended the ceremony, and not the 32 women who had made history that day. Almost 30 years later, the plaque finally displays the women’s names. Emma speaks to Reverend Angela Berners-Wilson, the first woman to be ordained by the church, and the Bishop of Bristol, Right Reverend Vivienne Faull, who led the ceremony on Saturday.

A pregnant woman who was photographed being carried on a stretcher - following the bombing of a maternity hospital in the southern port of Mariupol in Ukraine last Wednesday - is reported to have died, along with her baby. The attack on the hospital caused outrage around the world. 4000 children have been born in Ukraine since the war began nearly three weeks ago. Emma is joined by Louise Callaghan, Foreign Correspondent at The Sunday Times.

Marked as a breakthrough in female contraception the Pill has been used for over six decades. 28% of women say it remains their preferred form of contraception, followed closely by the male condom. However, more recently on social media some young women are documenting their decisions to come off it. Emma is joined by Dr Jane Dickson, Consultant in sexual and reproductive health care, and former vice president of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, and Lottie Drynan who stopped taking the pill just over a year ago, after being on it for 13 years, and has been documenting her journey on Instagram.

We know that women are more environmentally conscious when shopping for the household - but there’s one area where that doesn't seem to be the case - cars. There are now over 600,000 plug-in electric vehicles in the UK, but a new study has found that 20% of women haven’t even considered buying an electric car. We speak to Erin Baker, Editorial Director at AutoTrader about why women are less likely to opt for electric vehicles.

It's been deemed a 'victory for women'. A campaign group has won a legal challenge against the Metropolitan Police over the force's handling of a vigil for Sarah Everard. Sarah Everard was murdered by serving Met police officer Wayne Couzens - and the vigil was to be near where she was killed in Clapham in London during Covid lockdown. But when the group got in contact with the police they were told that it would be illegal and could face fines over 10,000 pounds each and possible prosecution. So they cancelled the original plan but a spontaneous vigil and protest took place anyway. Anna Birley, the founder of Reclaim These Streets speaks to Emma.


MON 11:00 My Name Is... (m00159py)
My Name Is Kate

Kate E. Deeming is well-known in her neighbourhood as a dancer with many personas - the Disco Chicken, the Boogie Unicorn, Dance-stronaut…

Last year, she danced 1000 kilometres along her neighbourhood’s streets to raise money for her local school. She did it because there wasn’t enough money to provide extra-curricular activities for her nine year old son. And she did it all dressed as a Christmas tree.

Now she’s sewing together a new costume and returning to the streets of her neighbourhood of Pollokshields in Glasgow. With minimal green space and the community centre closed down, she wants to know why it has become so hard to find fun stuff for her son to do in her local area.

In her quest to find answers she heads to a successful community centre in Castlemilk, a theatre programme in Edinburgh that picks kids up straight from school and hears all about why Finland loves hobbies so much.


MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m00159q0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


MON 12:00 News Summary (m0015b37)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 12:04 Sea Change by Alix Nathan (m00159q4)
Episode 6

England is beset by social unrest and the threat of Napoleonic invasion. Parted following a freakish accident, Sarah Battle and her daughter Eve try to rediscover each other.

With her mother widely-believed to be dead, Eve is raised by Sarah’s erratic artist friend, Joseph in London. Sarah - traumatised in mind and body - must rebuild herself in a Norfolk fishing village at the parsonage of the strangely-motivated Reverend Snead.

Episode Six
Joseph returns to London after his travels in Europe. In Sowerthorpe, Reverend Snead is unmasked.

Alix Nathan is the author of His Last Fire, a collection of short stories, and the novels The Flight Of Sarah Battle and The Warlow Experiment.

Writer: Alix Nathan
Reader: Samantha Spiro
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:18 You and Yours (m00159q6)
The cannabis farm, the vicar and the fake rental agency

Reporter Shari Vahl uncovers an extraordinary fraud involving a vicar who put up an ad online to rent out his house. What happened next involved fake tenants, a fake agency and a cannabis farm. It's a cautionary tale in the checks you need to make if you're putting a property on the rental market.

The list of businesses cutting ties with Russia continues to grow, but what role does consumer pressure and spending power have to play in the invasion of Ukraine? Nicola talks to Professor Stephen Pavelin and Economist Caroline Bain about boycotts and whether they have any relevance in this situation.

The major change to the way you buy online comes in today. You'll have to input a special code when you checkout. It's a new rule aimed at cracking down on fraud

You might have noticed more chocolate orange flavoured products on the supermarket shelves. It is undergoing a bit of a boom. We're looking at the fruit and chocolate pairings that didn't quite make the grade and asking why chocolate orange has stood the test of time.

PRESENTER: NICOLA BECKFORD
PRODUCER: CATHERINE MURRAY


MON 12:57 Weather (m00159q8)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m00159qb)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


MON 13:45 The Museums That Make Us (m00159qd)
Derby - The Museum of Making

Neil MacGregor presents a new series for BBC Radio Four celebrating the role and ambition of museums the length and breadth of the country, and in the process he'll be find answers to the question ‘What are Museums For in 2022’.

He begins the second week of his series visiting Museums that grapple with the appeal of looking back to the power and purpose of the 18th and 19th centuries. How can they tell the story of what often appears to be industrial decline while offering a positive vision for the future. Today he's in Derby, at the heart of the Industrial Midlands, where factory production began. Although the museum's collection includes a massive Rolls Royce Jet engine and a deconstructed Toyota car, the object they've chosen to illustrate their ambitions is a huge Harrison clock mechanism that used to run the city's Guildhall Turret clock. It had been in the museum's stores for many years but working with apprentices from the clock makers Smiths of Derby, it has now been restored. That process makes it the ideal choice for what is now Derby's 'The Museum of Making'.

Museums have always been telescopes trained on the past to help locate a sense of place in the present. Neil believes that role is an active one, responding to changes in the people museums serve and the shifting social and cultural landscape they inhabit. After spending much of his life at the centre of our national Museum life in London, Neil is taking to the road to discover more about the extraordinary work being done in Museums outside the capital, from Stornoway to Stowmarket, and Belfast to Birmingham.

In each episode he visits a single museum, inviting them to choose an object from their collections which they feel best illustrates their civic role, and the way they relate and want to relate to their local audience. Very rarely have they chosen a crown jewel from their often priceless collections. More often it's an object with a particular local resonance, or which helps tackle episodes from the past which are being viewed very differently by citizens in the 21st century.

He’ll be visiting the great national museums of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as major city institutions in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and elsewhere. And in spite of the challenges of the last two years, everywhere he meets passionate teams who are dedicated to providing a unique experience for both local audiences and visitors from further afield.

Neil writes: “What’s going on in our museums is at once challenging and exciting and it can only really be understood by visiting as many as possible and finding out how they have approached what is a vital role in providing a sense of local, regional and national identity.”

Producer - Tom Alban
Original music composed by Phil Channell


MON 14:00 The Archers (m00159qg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 From Fact to Fiction (m00159qj)
jabber jabber

Fact to Fiction - topical new drama from Mark Lawson. It's a useful tool, but is endless jabbing the only way to save the NHS?

Mark Lawson says:
Full disclosure - the writer has had two jabs, a booster, and Covid-19 (of a thankfully mild kind). But seeing news reports that an impressive 90% of British adult population had received a first vaccination, I was fascinated by the 10% or[around five million who had refused or failed to respond to the offer. And even more so that around a tenth of the NHS workforce - that’s over 100,000 - had also declined to put their arm out for the roll-out, even under the threat of not being able to work with patients from 1 April. Why would people be prepared to lose their jobs or their lives over what is literally a pin prick?

Being the audience for a play is like taking a lateral flow test. At the end, you’ll have a positive or negative response. But, in this case, please try to withhold your verdict until - to extend the metaphor - the final line appears.

Cast:
Dr Kat Stock – Nimmy March
Dr Tom Stock - Nicholas Murchie
Dr James Billing - Julian Rhind-Tutt
Jenny Wheater - Jane Slavin
Peter Horster, MP - Clive Hayward
Nat Jenkins – Tom Glenister

Directed By Eoin O’Callaghan
A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m00159ql)
Series 35

Semi-final 3, 2022

(12/13)
In the last of the semi-finals for 2022, the three competitors who won the North of England heats earlier in the series return to contest the one remaining Final place. From Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel to Elgar and Bizet, they'll have to demonstrate the breadth of their knowledge of music in all its variety, as the pace intensifies at this stage in the tournament.

As always, in addition to musical general knowledge they each have to choose a set of individual questions on a topic or theme of which they've had no prior warning.

Today's semi-finalists are:
Joanna Munro from Liverpool
Sarah Trevarthan from Manchester
Neil Wright from the Wirral.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m00159qn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 Banding: Love, Spit and Valve Oil (m00154gr)
What’s the allure of brass?

Martin Green examines the complex associations we have with brass banding. Is it a reassuring picture of Britishness, solid and safe? A symbol of the grandeur, as seen in the hands of angels? Or a soundtrack to political uprising?

Continuing his quest to write a piece of music for brass band, Martin dedicates his piece to ex-coal miner Brendan who was recently pardoned by the Scottish government for his conviction during the mid-80s miners strikes. Living in the mining area of Southern Scotland, Martin discovers how the geology is to thank for the amazing band leaders and teachers in his area. People who work tirelessly to provide opportunities for young people to play and get good, because the message is strong within banding that education is a path to liberation. And when that path is threatened to be taken away, the community responds.

Produced by Rebecca Gaskell and Martin Green

A Sparklab and Lepus co-production for BBC Radio 4


MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m00159qq)
Series 25

Partisan

Alexander Lukashenko has proudly called himself 'Europe's last dictator'. He has held power in Belarus since 1994, and has been known to repress opposition with brutal efficiency. In 2020 he was re-elected for his 6th Presidential term in an election US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned was "not free or fair". This resulted in mass protests in the country, which was met with brutal crackdowns - the UN reported multiple violations of human rights, including reports of 450 documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of people who were arrested during the protests following the presidential election. People have vanished, or died, and journalists have even been grabbed off diverted planes, jailed and tortured for publishing about the actions of the regime.

However, there is a different kind of activist working to expose the crimes of the government and bring democracy to the country. The Cyber Partisans are a small group, but have become one of the most successful Hacktivist organisations the world has ever seen. They have hijacked government websites, released huge amounts of evidence of corruption and police brutality, and even taken control of the country's rail system - slowing the trains to cause disruption for Russian troops who were making their way through Belarus on route to neighbouring Ukraine. As of yet, Lukashenko's government has not been able to stop their operations, but can these ethical hackers really bring about change in their homeland?

Aleks tells the story of the Cyber Partisans, explores how Hacktivism has evolved in the decade since Anonymous hit the headlines in the Western World, and finds out if digital activism can really have an impact in countries ruled by Repressive Regimes where traditional activism can mean death.


MON 17:00 PM (m00159qs)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00159qx)
Civilian convoy leaves Mariupol
... as Russia and Ukraine hold more talks


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m00159qz)
Series 88

Episode 4

Sue Perkins challenges Lucy Porter, Shaparak Khorsandi, Julian Clary and Paul Merton to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation.

The long running national treasure of a parlour game is back, with subjects this week ranging from Fear of Flying to Victoria Wood.

Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Hayley Sterling

A BBC Studios Production


MON 19:00 The Archers (m00159r1)
Roy takes Kate the goldfish to the vet’s but Alistair’s out. Roy requests client confidentiality but impatient Jakob just wants to get on with it. He confirms Kate looks fine, but Roy’s worried and wants Jakob to take a closer look. Jakob vouches for the physical condition of the fish, but suggests she may be neglected – she may need clean water and a bigger tank. The penny drops with Roy that this is what they’ve done for Kate’s fish, Roy. The real Roy demands to know what type of tank has been chosen for Roy the fish. Mischievous Jakob points to the most expensive one online, and resigned Roy decides to buy it. It will be worth it to keep Kate the fish alive and win his bet with the real Kate.

Chris and Alice discuss their possessions split with their mediator Nora. Chris is relieved they no longer have to cite any wrongdoing. Nora notes their conciliatory attitudes over the care of Martha, commenting they seem to have found an agreeable pattern. Chris agrees, and then announces the bigger decisions concerning Martha should be down to him as the main parent. Alice is initially quiet, before suggesting she should now have Martha more. Chris argues that Alice may not always be reliable. Alice calmly counters that Chris shouldn’t be telling her when she’s able to parent. Nora gently pushes the conversation on. Alice feels Martha’s the priority and finally declares her home should be with Alice, at The Nest. She wants to be Martha’s primary carer.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m00159r3)
The National Theatre's Rufus Norris, smoking on screen, Alison Brackenbury's poetry collection Thorpeness

Rufus Norris’s production Small Island has returned to the National Theatre's Olivier stage, chronicling the experiences of a couple of the Windrush generation. Another epic on the same stage, Our Generation, distills the experience, in their own words, of young people today. Rufus Norris, artistic director of the National Theatre, speaks about the role and responsibility of the National Theatre as we emerge from the pandemic.

Benedict Cumberbatch admitted to giving himself nicotine poisoning for his role in BAFTA-winning film The Power of the Dog. Joining Samira to discuss the practicalities as well as the impact of smoking on screen are actor and former president of the actors’ union Equity, Malcolm Sinclair; Philippa Harte, set decorator for BBC period drama A Very British Scandal and Dr. Alex Barker, Lecturer in Psychology at the Nottingham Trent University.

During the first lockdown in 2020, when all the museums were closed, the poet Alison Brackenbury became Front Row’s “poet in remote residence”, sharing poems inspired by the museums we couldn’t visit. Alison talks to Samira and reads from her new collection, Thorpeness.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Simon Richardson

Image: Rufus Norris Photo credit: Paul Plews


MON 20:00 Pay Freezes (m00159r5)
From the Winter of Discontent to the Crash

Labour shortages and the cost of living are back as big issues for the first time in years.

There are predictions that the biggest pay squeeze in decades is imminent.

So in this new three-part series for BBC Radio 4, documentary-maker Phil Tinline traces the ups and downs of the politics of pay in Britain since 1945. How did we get here? And what can our history tell us about where we might now be heading?

In the second episode, Phil explores how the strikes by public sector workers - hospital staff, refuse collectors, gravediggers - created the abiding images of the 'Winter of Discontent' in January and February 1979. But how far did these strikes against the Labour government's incomes policy match their subsequent reputation?

He traces how this most controversial of pay disputes opened up a path to major changes in trade unions' legal position. But also how it began the long journey to the creation of the National Minimum Wage.

And he explores how far the marketisation of the 1980s paved the way for the acceleration of leadership pay in the 1990s, amid the proclamation of a 'War for Talent' - and campaigns against 'fat cats'.

Series contributors include: Kate Bell, Margaret Beckett, Neil Carberry, John Edmonds, Stuart Hill, Linda Hoffman, Gavin Kelly, Tara Martin Lopez, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Rain Newton-Smith, Michael Portillo, Dominic Sandbrook, Stefan Stern, Selina Todd, Norman Tebbit, Nick Timothy

Producer/ Presenter: Phil Tinline


MON 20:30 Analysis (m00159r7)
Can the UK ever be a low tax economy again?

As tax rises hit pay packets next month is this an end to traditional Conservative low tax policy? The UK government has so far defied calls from across the political spectrum to shelve the planned 1.25 per cent increase in National Insurance, despite millions of households grappling with a rising cost of living at a time of great economic uncertainty as war rages in Ukraine. A greater proportion of the nation’s income will go to the taxman than at any point since the 1950s. Yet Brexit was billed by some as the UK’s chance to go it alone and create its own economic model, a “Singapore on Thames” – a low tax, light touch economy to attract outside investment. Instead, corporation tax is to increase from 19 percent to 25 per cent by 2023, while a new £12 billion annual levy to fund the NHS and social care comes in from April, initially in the form of higher national insurance payments. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has broken his election manifesto pledge not to raise such taxes to meet, he argues, the cost of supporting the economy through the pandemic. His chancellor hopes this will permit future tax cuts. But with policy priorities such as levelling up and a transition to net zero, and the realities of an ageing population, BBC Economics Correspondent Dharshini David asks whether we're seeing a fundamental shift in traditional Conservative low tax philosophy and whether that's a temporary choice - or an unavoidable permanent reorientation?
Guests:
Sir John Redwood MP
Sir Charlie Bean, professor of economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science
Lord Nick Macpherson, former permanent secretary to the Treasury
Dame DeAnne Julius, distinguished fellow, Chatham House
Dr Jill Rutter, senior fellow, The Institute of Government

Producer: Caroline Bayley
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Jacqui Johnson
Sound: Graham Puddifoot
Editor: Hugh Levinson


MON 21:00 The Anatomy of Kindness (m00154cn)
The Anatomy of Kindness Results

Claudia Hammond and guests announce the results of the biggest ever public science project on Kindness. With over sixty thousand participants from across the world this unique work helps to fill some of the research gaps and learn more about how kindness is viewed within society at large. Led by a team of researchers based at the University of Sussex, in partnership with BBC Radio 4, Claudia is joined on stage at the BBC Radio Theatre by Professor Robin Bannerjee who has been crunching the data. Together with poet Raymond Antrobus, Stylist magazine editor in chief Lisa Smosarski , comedian Elvis McGonagall and clinical ethicist Professor Deborah Bowman they unpick what the results tell us about how experiences of kindness might relate to health, well-being, and other social and psychological apects integral to human nature.


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m00159pr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m00159rc)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


MON 22:45 Sea Change by Alix Nathan (m00159q4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


MON 23:00 You're Dead To Me (p07nx05j)
The Witch Craze

Discover the truth behind the European Witch Craze. Far from the world of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, discover how one book turned the world upside down as a disgruntled patriarchy murdered thousands of innocent women.

Join Greg Jenner, comedian Cariad Lloyd and historian Prof Suzannah Lipscomb. It’s history for people who don’t like history!

Produced by Dan Morelle
Script and research by Emma Nagouse, assisted by Eszter Szabo and Evie Randall

A Muddy Knees Media production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000vq89)
Sean Curran reports as Housing Secretary Michael Gove unveils details of a new sponsorship scheme for refugees from Ukraine.



TUESDAY 15 MARCH 2022

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m00159rf)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen (m00159rh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00159rl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00159rn)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m00159rq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00159rv)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Jonathan Rea

SCRIPT

Good morning.

When I was a boy, I filled the walls of my bedroom with posters of expensive cars - aspirational symbols which have sadly remained out of reach. But my favourite was a Rolls-Royce, pictured in front of an elegant house, and underneath it said, “My tastes are simple – I like to have the best”.

Charles Rolls was a privileged young man - the first Cambridge undergraduate to own a car. Henry Royce worked as a telegram boy from the age of nine and educated himself to become an engineer. And on this date in 1906, Rolls and Royce formed the company that would become a byword for opulence and quality.

Rolls was a racing driver and he kept the cars in the public eye. Royce was the design genius who pushed the boundaries of developing automotive technology. But Claude Johnson was managing director – the branding expert who voiced the outlandish claim that they were making “the best car in the world”. So critical was his role, that Claude Johnson became known as the hyphen in the name Rolls-Royce.

I wonder if he was frustrated not to have his name immortalised like the others? Most of us like our name to be credited, especially by people we respect.

When we pray to God, we can rest assured our Creator regards us as more than an anonymous hyphen “Fear not, he says, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.”

Thank you, Lord, that you know every name, because every human life is precious to You. Grant peace to those whose lives are under threat of war, in Ukraine and elsewhere. And when it feels as though my own contribution to this broken world is anonymous and without value, help me to find security and dignity in You. Amen.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m00159rx)
15/03/22 - Red Tractor standards, Gressingham ducks, inflated costs and farming mental health

A group of conservation charities have criticised the Red Tractor standards scheme for failing to set targets to encourage farmers to reduce pesticide use, and take up more environmentally friendly farming techniques. The Nature Friendly Farming Network, along with the RSPB and the Pesticide Action Network UK say Red Tractor, which certifies standards on animal welfare and the environment is failing farmers, consumers, and the environment.

This year has been the worst so far for avian flu - there have been more than a hundred outbreaks, several of those among commercial duck flocks. Anna Hill visits a farm that supplied the largest branded duck producers in the country - Gressingham. They produce nearly 200 thousand birds a week across the country, raised indoors across 52 farms.

The CEO of 2 Sisters, a major processor of poultry and chilled food, is warning that the cost of their products could rise by up to 15% this year. Behind that increase is the cost to livestock farmers of animal feed and heating and for arable farmers there’s also been a hike in the price of fertiliser, and fuel for tractors.

And we hear from hill farmer and Welsh television presenter, Alun Elidyr who has made a documentary about his struggle with mental health. Back in 2015 he had a breakdown, following the sudden death of his mother. He sought help from several organisations, but found the most comfort from friends and neighbouring farmers who lent a listening ear.

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx2x8)
Marsh Tit

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

Martin Hughes-Games presents the Marsh Tit. The marsh tit is badly-named. It doesn't live in marshes, and is most at home in older broad-leaved woodlands. "Oak tit" might be a better name. Unlike some other tit species they don't travel far, holding and defending their woodland territories throughout the winter.

ProducerBrett Westwood,MRS SARAH PITT,Sarah Blunt.


TUE 06:00 Today (m00159yt)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m0015499)
Steve Brusatte on the fall of dinosaurs and the rise of mammals

Steve Brusatte analyses the pace of evolutionary change and tries to answer big questions. Why did the dinosaurs die out and the mammals survive? How did dinosaurs evolve into birds? If you met a Velociraptor today you’d probably mistake it for a large flightless bird, says Steve. His intense interest in T. rex, Triceratops and all the other dinosaur species developed when he was a teenager and continues to this day. More recently, however, he’s focussed on the long history of mammals.

For hundreds of millions of years, our mammalian ancestors remained small. Most were mouse-sized. None were bigger than a badger. Steve studies how, when an asteroid collided with earth 66 million years ago, the mammals got lucky. All the big dinosaurs were wiped out and only the small ones with wings survived. (Birds are dinosaurs, by the way). Within half a million years, mammals of all shapes and sizes had taken over on planet earth. Sabre-toothed flesh eaters, cow-sized plant guzzlers and a host of other warm blooded placental animals evolved alongside the badger sized burrowers.

Steve talks to Jim Al-Khalili about his life and work, including the recent discovery of an incredibly well-preserved Pterosaur on the Isle of Skye, a place he likes to call Scotland’s Jurassic Park.
Producer: Anna Buckley


TUE 09:30 Witness (b01qsrpc)
Dutch school hostage crisis

In 1977 independence activists from Indonesia's Molucca islands took an entire Dutch primary school hostage. They wanted to force the Dutch government to support their freedom fight. They held children and teachers captive for days on end. Geert Kruit, was just nine years old at the time and is still traumatised by what happened to him.

Photo: Geert, a couple of years before the hostage crisis.


TUE 09:45 Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen (m0015b0q)
The Muslim View of History

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth – the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 2
The Muslim View of History. By the 2nd century AD city dwellers began to be interested in how their cities came into being, and so the writing of history began. The rich collected private libraries – one piled his house to the ceiling with books. The Qur’an came into being – by 730 AD Baghdad produced more narrative history than Europe. The great writers Tabari was one of many who produced accounts of conquests and civil wars as Islam grew.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00159z0)
Is maternity fashion changing? Marina Ovsyannikova, Caroline Lucas MP & Dame Sue Ion, South Korean new PM, Surnames, Threads

Marina Ovsyannikova is an employee of Russia’s state Channel One television interrupting the channel’s main news programme on Monday night in an extraordinary act of protest against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. She burst on to the set of the live broadcast of the nightly news on Monday evening, shouting: “Stop the war. No to war.” - holding a handwritten sign to the same effect. The protest was welcomed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky who mentioned it in his televised address last night.. And within hours of her protest, more than 40,000 people had left comments on the journalist's Facebook page, with many praising her for taking a stand. Professor of International Relations at London School of Economics, Tomila Lankina joins Emma.

In 2020, The Woman’s Hour Power List celebrated 30 inspiring women whose work is making a significant positive contribution to the environment and the sustainability of our planet. Today, we talk to the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, who topped that List. Can the UK afford its net zero policies? With the cost of living rising, and the impact of the war in Ukraine, are Britain's plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions too expensive? Joining Caroline to discuss will be engineer and nuclear industry expert, Dame Sue Ion.

In true popstar fashion, singer Rihanna announced her pregnancy in January with a New York photoshoot alongside her boyfriend, the rapper ASAP Rocky, wearing a bright pink coat, with layers of gold jewellery and chains resting on her new baby bump. And since that announcement, she’s been seen wearing a number of eye-catching outfits. But is there a bump fashion revolution coming? And what could this mean for the everyday pregnant woman? Celebrity stylist Jennifer Michalski-Bray and pregnant content creator Zara Bentley join us.

Last week South Korea picked a new president: Yoon Suk-yeol. He is a conservative who defeated his liberal rival Lee Jae-myung. During his campaign he promised to abolish the Ministry for Gender Equality, denying that women face discrimination. South Korea has one of the worst women's rights records in the developed world, although modest gains have been made over the last few years. But that has ignited an anti-feminist backlash among many young men who see feminism as reverse discrimination, taking away their jobs and opportunities. So what does Yoon Suk-yeol’s election mean for women? Emma is joined by Laura Bicker, the BBC’s Soeul Correspondent and the feminist South-Korean film-maker Youjin Do.

Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has revealed he is officially changing his name to incorporate his mother Carmen's surname - Larbalestier. He says that he wants her name to continue on with the Hamilton name, and that he doesn't understand why "when people get married then the woman loses her name." It is understood that he will include it as a middle name rather than a surname. Dr Jane Pilcher, Associate Professor of sociology, Nottingham Trent University discusses what impact a high profile man taking this step could have.

Purnima tells the story of a beautiful hand-knitted dress she brought with her to the UK when her family was expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin. The latest in our series Threads.

Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Professor Tomila Lankina
Interviewed Guest: Caroline Lucas
Interviewed Guest: Dame Sue Ion
Interviewed Guest: Jennifer Michalski-Bray
Interviewed Guest: Zara Bentley
Interviewed Guest: Laura Bickers
Interviewed Guest: Youjin Do
Interviewed Guest: Dr Jane Pilcher
Interviewed Guest: Purnima Shah


TUE 11:00 Putin (m0015nfc)
The Moth

From street thug to spy – what the Russian president did before he came to power.

To understand what Vladimir Putin might do in the future, you need to understand his past; where he’s come from, what he’s lived through, what he’s done. Jonny Dymond hears tales of secret agents, gangsters and the time a young Putin faced off a rat.

He’s joined by:

Nina Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York and the great-granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
Tim Whewell, who watched the rise of the man who’s changing the world as Moscow correspondent for the BBC in the 1990s
Dr Mark Galeotti, author of "We need to talk about Putin" and an expert in global crime and Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

Production coordinators: Sophie Hill and Siobhan Reed

Sound engineer: James Beard
Producers: Caroline Bayley, Sandra Kanthal, Joe Kent
Series Editor: Emma Rippon
Commissioning Editor: Richard Knight


TUE 11:30 China's Stolen Treasures (m00159z4)
Heists, History and Heritage

In the small hours of 6 August, 2010 thieves set off bombs around Stockholm, Sweden. The bombs were a distraction. The real target was the Chinese Pavilion at the Swedish royal residence, Drottningholm Palace. The thieves smashed open the doors and made off with a haul of Chinese antiquities, many of which used to be owned by Chinese emperors.

But this was not a one-off theft. Similar burglaries took place in the following years in Cambridge, Durham and Norwich in England, as well as in France, Spain and Norway. Were the thefts connected and who might have been behind them?

Many of the objects targeted were looted by British and French troops during what the Chinese call the Century of Humiliation. China was militarily weaker than the two colonial giants of Europe at the time and lost both of the Opium Wars that enriched Britain and impoverished the Chinese. In October 1860, during the Second Opium War, the British looted the emperor’s Old Summer Palace close to Beijing. The resonance of this event has echoed down the centuries and, as China grows stronger, so do calls for the return of these antiquities.

With artist Ai Weiwei, historian Liu Yang, China specialists Kerry Brown, Frances Wood, James Miles, Jasper Becker and art collector Christopher Bruckner.

Writer and Presenter - Dr Noah Charney
Producer - Caroline Finnigan
Executive Producer - Rosie Collyer
Researcher - Nadia Mehdi
China Producer - Coco Zhao
Sound Designers - David Smith and Tom Berry for Wardour Studios
Music Composer - Nicholas Alexander

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0015b39)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:04 Sea Change by Alix Nathan (m00159z9)
Episode 7

England is beset by social unrest and the threat of Napoleonic invasion. Parted following a freakish accident, Sarah Battle and her daughter Eve try to rediscover each other.

With her mother widely-believed to be dead, Eve is raised by Sarah’s erratic artist friend, Joseph in London. Sarah - traumatised in mind and body - must rebuild herself in a Norfolk fishing village at the parsonage of the strangely-motivated Reverend Snead.

Episode Seven
Safely away from Snead, Sarah makes progress in Hawkswith. In London, Eve is in for a series of shocks.

Alix Nathan is the author of His Last Fire, a collection of short stories, and the novels The Flight Of Sarah Battle and The Warlow Experiment.

Writer: Alix Nathan
Reader: Samantha Spiro
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m00159zc)
Call You & Yours: Are you worried about the cost of the food shop?

Today on Call You & Yours we want to know - are you worried about the cost of the food shop?

Ukraine is a big exporter of wheat, and the invasion has impacted wholesale wheat prices. Prices rose by more than a third recently. Brands such as Hovis, Greggs and Dominoes have said they'll need to pass these increased costs on to customers.
The National Farmers' Union has warned that some crops will become too expensive to plant, in part because of rising fertiliser costs.

How will you manage as food bills increase?
Are there foods you'll stop buying?
Will you explore options for finding food more cheaply elsewhere?

Email the programme at youandyours@bbc.co.uk and please leave a number so we can call you back. From 11:00am on Tuesday 15th March, you can call us direct on 03700 100 444.

Presented by Winifred Robinson.
Produced by Beatrice Pickup.


TUE 12:57 Weather (m00159zf)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m00159zh)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


TUE 13:45 The Museums That Make Us (m00159zk)
The Food Museum, Suffolk

Neil MacGregor presents a new series for BBC Radio Four celebrating the role and ambition of museums the length and breadth of the country, and in the process he'll be find answers to the question ‘What are Museums For in 2022’.

He continues this week's theme looking at the powerful allure of Britain's pioneering 18th and 19th century story of Industrial and Agrarian wealth, on a visit to The 'Food Museum,' in Stowmarket, Suffolk. It was, until recently, the 'Museum of East Anglian life', and like many museums developed after the second world war it harked back to an age when agriculture was powered by the horse. Once again they've been invited to choose an object from their collection that they believe defines what the museum is for today. Their choice is the biggest in the series, an 18th century Water Mill, transported to Stowmarket in the 1970s when its original site was flooded to make a reservoir. It illustrates the mechanics of a food making process that remains at the heart of our existence, the grinding of corn to make flour, and ultimately bread. That the Mill is driven by a renewable energy is just one way in which it serves as a powerful image for food production in the heavily mechanised 21st century.

Museums have always been telescopes trained on the past to help locate a sense of place in the present. Neil believes that role is an active one, responding to changes in the people museums serve and the shifting social and cultural landscape they inhabit. After spending much of his life at the centre of our national Museum life in London, Neil is taking to the road to discover more about the extraordinary work being done in Museums outside the capital, from Stornoway to Stowmarket, and Belfast to Birmingham.

In each episode he visits a single museum, inviting them to choose an object from their collections which they feel best illustrates their civic role, and the way they relate and want to relate to their local audience. Very rarely have they chosen a crown jewel from their often priceless collections. More often it's an object with a particular local resonance, or which helps tackle episodes from the past which are being viewed very differently by citizens in the 21st century.

He’ll be visiting the great national museums of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as major city institutions in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and elsewhere. And in spite of the challenges of the last two years, everywhere he meets passionate teams who are dedicated to providing a unique experience for both local audiences and visitors from further afield.

Neil writes: “What’s going on in our museums is at once challenging and exciting and it can only really be understood by visiting as many as possible and finding out how they have approached what is a vital role in providing a sense of local, regional and national identity.”

Producer - Tom Alban
Original music composed by Phil Channell


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m00159r1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Broken Colours (m00159zm)
Episode 4

Jess has left Dan, the dockside studio and the grimy, violent world of Ronnie Vaz behind. But something is pulling her back. Holli Dempsey and Josef Altin star in a new thriller of conflicting perception from Matthew Broughton (the creator of Tracks).

Jess.....Holli Dempsey
Dan.....Josef Altin
Henry.....Brendan Charleson
Janey.....Jasmine Hyde
Ronnie.....Alun Raglan
Petal.....Rina Mahoney
News Reader.....Chris Jack

Sound design by Catherine Robinson and Nigel Lewis
A BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC Radio 4, directed by John Norton and Emma Harding


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m00159zp)
Wildlife

Butterflies, rattlesnakes and feral chickens make their way through the short documentaries in Wildlife, as Josie Long presents audio adventures inspired by the natural world.

I Dream of Rattlesnakes
Produced by Sam and Todd Wemmer
Voiceover work by Annabelle Wemmer
Winner of the Third Coast International Audio Festival Shortdocs Challenge

Chicken Roundabout
Produced by Jake Lee-Savage
Additional audio of the Chicken Man supplied by Nicholas Jenkins of Sounding Board Productions from their collection Suffolk Voices

The Magnolia Exist
Featuring Naja Marie Aidt
Produced by Nanna Hauge Kristensen

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


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m00159zr)
Britain's Dark Waters

Perfluoroalkyl substances - or PFAS - are a group of thousands of man-made chemicals which have been widely used in everything from frying pans to firefighting foam. Anything which is non-stick, water-resistant or stain-repellent is likely to have been produced using PFAS. In the USA they have been linked to mass poisoning of water supplies, as the Hollywood film 'Dark Waters' documented. In this programme, Leana Hosea sets out to discover whether they are having an impact here. She teams up with environmental journalist Rachel Salvidge to investigate. They take water samples from drinking water around the country and have them analysed for the presence of PFAS. In Jersey Leana meets residents who believe their ill health is down to contamination of their drinking water, and whose blood has been shown to contain PFAS. She hears what the links are with health concerns, and finds out why firefighters are an at-risk group.

Producer: Emma Campbell


TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m00159zt)
Libel tourism

Has silencing journalists with libel claims now become harder? The High Court dismissed a suit by a Kazakhstan company against journalist Tom Burgis, author of 'Kleptopia'. The phenomenon of foreign individuals or companies using the favourable libel laws and high financial risks of the system in England and Wales is sometimes called "libel tourism" or even "lawfare". Some fear it has allowed Russian oligarchs in particular to stifle criticism. Joshua Rozenberg asks if this case could signal the end of that trend.
Class actions, or collective actions as they're called in the UK, are new on this side of the Atlantic. How do they work, and could millions of passengers stand to benefit from a case against some rail companies?
A little-noticed part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill would criminalise trespass and "residing, or intending to reside, on land without consent in or with a vehicle". Gypsy, Roma and Travellers say that threatens their lifestyle and makes nomadism illegal. But the Government argues it would prevent "boundless misery to local communities without consequence". Joshua hears the arguments on both sides.

Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Researchers: Octavia Woodward and Imogen Serwotka
Sound: Rod Farquhar
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Jacqui Johnson
Editor: Hugh Levinson


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m00159zw)
Jessica Fostekew and Molly Naylor

Comedian Jessica chooses The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science, by Will Storr, provoking a discussion about whether you can empathise with someone, no matter what they believe. Harriett loves The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell, leading to speculation about which of them would be sent to an asylum had feminism not moved things on somewhat. Writer Molly's choice of You're Not Listening by Kate Murphy causes everyone to listen attentively to what the others are saying.
Producer Sally Heaven


TUE 17:00 PM (m00159zy)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0015b02)
The mayor warns that the Ukrainian capital is facing "a difficult and dangerous moment".


TUE 18:30 The World of Simon Rich (m0015b04)
Series 3

Episode 2

Simon Rich is a one-man comedy phenomenon, described by The Guardian as "the funniest man in America" and with credits including The Simpsons, Pixar movies and Saturday Night Live. He created the hit sitcom Miracle Workers starring Steve Buscemi and Daniel Radcliffe, and his debut movie An American Pickle was released in 2020, starring Seth Rogen.

Now Simon returns to Radio 4 with a third series of his charmingly absurd stories, performed by a top-drawer British cast. Featuring parenting pirates, a baby detective, an unlikely retelling of Beauty And The Beast, and a super monster being promoted into management, this is unlike anything else you’ll hear this year.

Starring Mat Baynton, Ed Eales-White, Kieran Hodgson, Cariad Lloyd, Claire Price and Adjani Salmon
Produced by Jon Harvey and Clarissa Maycock
Editor: David Thomas
Executive Producer: Polly Thomas
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0015b06)
Peggy has a proposition for Tony. Rex and Kirsty would like him as farming consultant to the rewilding scheme. Tony assumes it was Peggy’s idea, and that others have turned down the role. Peggy denies this. Everyone was in agreement it should be Tony, and that his expertise could really benefit the project. He was ahead of the curve with Bridge Farm and he should be proud of its success. Tony agrees to visit to the site, and is impressed. Kirsty confirms Peggy had told her and Rex he’d be the best person for the job. Tony returns to Peggy declaring his acceptance of the role. They have a touching mother and son moment.

Alice tells her dad that Chris didn’t take the news of her wish to be Martha’s main parent well. Brian points out it must have been a shock for him. He thinks Alice should have given Chris a heads up beforehand of her intentions. Alice maintains she’s better than Chris thinks, and she’s determined to prove it. Brian sees Neil, who admits the news has come as a shock to him and Susan. Brian tries to advocate for Alice, but has to admit he doesn’t know why she’s changed tack. It might be best to leave them both to sort it out through mediation. However later Alice blows this out of the water. She’s made an appointment with her solicitor. Brian feels she’s being hasty. A solicitor will be expensive, and the courts will expose everything. Alice counters all she wants is Martha.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0015b08)
Liv Ullmann, Hilary McGrady, Literary Translation

Over the past 60 years Liv Ullmann has worked in film and throughout April the BFI celebrates her contribution to the medium as actor, writer and director with Liv Ullmann: Face to Face. The season coincides with the Norwegian cinema legend receiving an Honorary Academy Award for her exceptional contribution to the art of film. Liv Ullmann joins us to talk about her award-winning career in film and her close relationship with Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, with whom she made ten movies.

National Trust Director General, Hilary McGrady joins us to discuss their recently unveiled plans for the next year. She touches on the role and responsibility of The Trust, their pandemic recovery, and their statement on Ukraine.

In the wake of the announcement of the 2022 longlist, we explore the art of literary translation with International Booker Prize chair of judges, Frank Wynne, and one of the nominated translators Jennifer Croft, known for her translations of Nobel Prize in Literature winner Olga Tokarczuk.


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m0015b0b)
Ukraine: War Stories

Day by day, hour by hour, people all over Ukraine tell the story of the Russian invasion. We hear from people packing up and leaving with their children and those who remain in the eye of the storm, some fighting for survival amidst food shortages and shelling and others taking up arms to defend their country. Since the war began, many of those affected have been recording their daily struggles for File on 4 - keeping audio diaries, sharing their innermost thoughts at their most vulnerable.

Among them, a language teacher from Mariupol who doesn’t even know if her parents are still alive - and a young beautician-turned-soldier who now patrols the streets of Kyiv with a Kalashnikov.

Production team: Jim Booth, Annabel Deas, Nicola Dowling, Hayley Mortimer and Mick Tucker
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Carl Johnston


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m0015b0d)
Visually Impaired in Ukraine

According to the United Nations, more than 2.8 million people have so far fled Ukraine because of the Russian invasion and amongst them are visually impaired people. Many have fled to Poland, where some could be offered the help they need by Olga Mahler and Andriy Butenko. Olga travelled nearly 10,000 miles across the world from Australia to help visually impaired people with food and accommodation once they have crossed the border into Poland. Olga attended a boarding school for the blind in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Andriy Butenko is also from Kharkiv and is in Poland helping refugees cross the border into safety. We ask them about the work they are doing and how the visually impaired people they are meeting are coping with the ongoing war.
We also hear from Dr Vera Remazhevska in Lviv, who founded the first training and rehabilitation centre in Ukraine for children with visual impairments. There, she is currently helping visually impaired children, their families and other refugees that have travelled to the West of Ukraine to find safety.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole

Website image description: A group of three people are helping a visually impaired man to cross train tracks in Lviv, Ukraine. The visually impaired man has a cane in his left hand and is being helped up onto the train platform from the tracks. Another man wearing a blue outfit is helping him with his large duffle bag. The picture was taken in Lviv on March 5th.


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m0015b0g)
Long Covid revisited

It’s a long Covid reunion on Inside Health. We first met Jo, Neil and John in February 2021 when they were 12 months into the condition.

Another year on, we catch up with them to see if they are any closer to making a full recovery. We explore how a virus can cause such prolonged symptoms, with Dr David Strain from the NHS Long Covid Taskforce, and see if we are any closer to treating long Covid.

PRESENTER: James Gallagher
PRODUCER: Beth Eastwood


TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m0015499)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m0015b0j)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 Sea Change by Alix Nathan (m00159z9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m0015b0l)
226. A Spy Stuck Between the Doors, with Marianna Spring

This week on the podcast Fi and Jane chat to BBC Disinformation reporter, Marianna Spring. It's the first time Fi, Jane and a guest have all been in the same place since March 2020! Marianna talks them through her new series Death by Conspiracy, which tells the story of a man caught up in Covid 19 denial, with a tragic ending. She also offers up the Fortunately staple of her 'first news memory' and gets a tip from tech expert Jane on how to work out her screen time. Before Marianna's arrival it's Wheel vs Doors and we find out why the Queen built Windsor Castle so close to Heathrow Airport.

Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000vp4s)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament



WEDNESDAY 16 MARCH 2022

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m0015b0n)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


WED 00:30 Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen (m0015b0q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0015b0s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0015b0v)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.


WED 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m0015b0x)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0015b11)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Jonathan Rea

SCRIPT

Good morning.

48 years ago today, President Richard Nixon visited Nashville to open the brand new Grand Ole Opry House, the home of country music. And in the fun of the moment, he took part in the opening show, playing with a yo-yo on stage and performing on the piano.

Some years ago, I was involved in a concert in that same iconic venue. And my attention was drawn to a large digital clock in the wings, visible to everybody on stage, but not to the audience. I commented in jest that someone in here must be pretty strict about the timekeeping. “They are indeed,” came the reply - “if your show goes past 10pm by 1 second, your organisation is instantly fined many thousands of dollars. Every participant must be off stage before the deadline.

Apparently, there are no seconds of grace in this policy.

As I start this new day, I am all too aware that I can be carefree in my approach to punctuality. I am prone to procrastination and distraction. And I dread to think of the financial consequences if I were fined for every wasted second.

But as the wise king Solomon said, there is a time to work and to rest. To laugh and to weep. To speak and to be silent.

For each new day is a gracious renewal of our permission to live and breathe, gifted to us by an eternal God who exists outside the paradigm of time. Alpha and Omega. Beginning and end. Infinite in power but brimming with grace.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.
They fly, forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come
Be thou our guide while troubles last
And our eternal home. Amen


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m0015b13)
16/03/22 - Food security, animal sentience and organic duck eggs

Farmers are facing rising costs - the initial impact of gas price rises last autumn hit fertiliser costs and now the gas price hike has led some horticulture producers to close up their heated glasshouses. In Holland there are reports that Dutch glasshouse growers - have reduced their heating, and their yields will be down. At the same time, the war in Ukraine is disrupting global wheat exports and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations is warning of “serious food-security repercussions for some 50 countries that rely on Russia & Ukraine for wheat." So what does all this mean for UK food security? DEFRA says “the UK imports a very low amount of foodstuffs from Eastern Europe, with the majority of grains, meat, dairy and eggs produced in the UK, so the Government does not expect any significant direct impact on UK food supply.”

EU legislation enshrined that in law, and it was the foundation of animal welfare rules. Since leaving the EU, this ‘sentience’ legislation is now being put into the new Animal Welfare Bill, and a new Committee will be created, to ensure UK Ministers take account of animal welfare. This week, the government accepted an amendment to the Bill which would ensure recommendations from the committee respect religious rights, cultural traditions and regional heritage…that would include religious slaughter of un-stunned animals, and game-bird shooting.

And there’s only one certified producer of organic duck eggs currently operating in the UK. Parc Carreg is a small 10 acre business in Carmarthenshire running some 500 ducks. We visit and meet farmer, Josh Heyneke.

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b02tycf8)
Black-browed Albatross

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Steve Backshall presents the black-browed albatross.

Although they're residents of the Antarctic seas , black-browed albatrosses have turned up in the UK many times. For a while, Albert-or Albert Ross as he was christened by birdwatchers- was one of the most well-known birds in the British Isles. He was first spotted in the gannet colony on Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth in 1967. Sadly he failed to find a mate among the masses of gannets there.


WED 06:00 Today (m0015bd8)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 The Anatomy of Kindness (m0015bdb)
In the Anatomy of Kindness, a three part documentary series, broadcaster, author and psychologist Claudia Hammond interrogates what it means to be kind, who we are kind to and the benefits of being a kind boss.

For the first of the three programmes Claudia examines our motivations and decision making around kindness. She meets a super altruist who risked his life for a stranger, his motivation, he says, is to make the world a better place. A car accident left neuroscientist Professor Abigail Marsh stranded on the outside lane of an American freeway facing the oncoming traffic. In a split second a stranger made the decision to run into the oncoming traffic and save her, without thinking of the danger. This act of heroism shaped Abigail’s research. She looks at such extreme altruists and her work explores the relationship between psychopathy and extraordinary altruism.
Professor of Philanthropy Sara Konrath was surprised to discover that narcissists are just as likely to give to charity as very empathic people, but a remarkable act of empathy was her inspiration to research this topic and we discover what she owes to a very kind person who entered her life at a pivotal time.

But what about the everyday acts of kindness? Can we ever say we do something for someone else without expecting something in return? Psychologist Jo Cutler says that we weigh up the effort to do something for someone else every time we act, even when it’s as simple as holding the door open. Nichola Raihani, Professor of Evolution and Behaviour and author of "The Social Instinct, how cooperation saved the world" thinks we've evolved to be altruistic, it’s the reason why we have been so successful as a species and altruism brings reputational and status benefits. But how cynically do we act when we are kind?
Claudia examines the evidence and decides whether you can ever carry out an act of pure kindness.


WED 09:30 Witness (b01r0b15)
The Cultural Revolution in China

In the mid 1960s the young people of China were encouraged to turn on their parents and teachers and 'criticise' them. It was part of Chairman Mao's plan to rejuvenate his communist state. Violence and upheaval followed as young Red Guards took his message to extremes. Paul Crook was a foreign teenager living with his family in Beijing. His whole world was turned upside down by the Cultural Revolution.


WED 09:45 Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen (m0015bdd)
The Medieval Chroniclers

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth – the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 3
In the early Middle Ages, sometimes called the Dark Ages, Gregory of Tours produced the History of the Franks, which includes tales of rebellious nuns and impostors, while the Venerable Bede gave us the story of England, Wales and Scotland from 55 BC. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle and the Bayeux Tapestry provided the history of the Norman conquest. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Jean Froissart gave us their colourful and not necessarily truthful accounts of English and French kings.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0015bdg)
Diane Dodds, Child Q and Stripsearch, Charlotte Mendelson, Cook for Ukraine

The recent resignation of DUP First Minister, Paul Givan, from Stormont last month, has left people in Northern Ireland without a properly functioning government. On top of that, an election is coming - one that could bring massive political change if recent polls are to be believed. Leading unionist and DUP MLA Diane Dodds joins Emma on the programme to discuss Brexit, the Northern Ireland protocol and cooperation in Stormont.

A damning new report has revealed how a black schoolgirl was strip searched by the Metropolitan Police while on her period after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis. The review conducted by City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership took place without another adult present at the girl's secondary school in Hackney in 2020. The report states that during the search the girls "intimate body parts" were exposed and she was made to take off her sanitary towel. Emma speaks to Antoinette Bramble, Hackney's Deputy Mayor and cabinet member for children's services and Shabnam Chaudri, a former Detective Superintendent at the Metropolitan Police.

Charlotte Mendelson's new books features the Hanrahans a big, arty family living in their bohemian North London home. Ray and Lucia are both artists, she has surrendered her career for his and their grown-up children seem dazzled by their outrageous, talented father. But, things are not as they seem and family secrets are bubbling under the surface. Charlotte joins Emma.

Even in the face of war, food has a special power in bringing people together. Russian Chef Alissa Timoshkina and Ukrainian Chef Olia Hercules are best friends who have joined forces to set up Cook for Ukraine, a culinary campaign raising funds to support the humanitarian effort in Ukraine. They are encouraging people to celebrate Ukrainian and Eastern European culture by cooking traditional food. They join Emma Barnett to talk about their experiences as friends from opposing frontiers.


WED 11:00 The Witches' Pardon (m0015bdj)
From allegations of cursing the king's ships, to shape-shifting into animals, or dancing with the devil, three centuries ago witch-hunting was a mania that spread right across Europe. But nowhere did it exert a greater grip than in Scotland, which had an execution rate five times higher than England's.

It remains an example of just how vicious sexism and misogyny - exacerbated by superstitious beliefs and religious extremism - can be.

Now campaigners are on course to win an official pardon for the estimated four thousand - mostly women - tried as witches.

Leading QC Claire Mitchell, known for her prominent role in the Lockerbie appeal, is also fighting for an apology for all those accused, and for a national monument to mark the state-sanctioned atrocities she calls "the greatest miscarriage of justice in Scottish history."

Claire Mitchell and co-founder Zoe Vendittozi hope that First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon will issue a formal apology. But will she? And why does it matter?

Once again 'witch' is a name being levelled at women, usually in high profile cultural or political roles. It's not unusual to see figures like Hillary Clinton, Nicola Sturgeon, Professor Mary Beard, in twitter memes with green faces, stirring cauldrons and wearing pointy hats.

Dani Garavelli takes a fresh look at the history and at why women were so often accused of being witches. She explores the campaign which has gained mass traction across the UK and Europe, and spawned a copy-cat campaign in Catalonia. Which power structures were being maintained then, and which ones now?

Producer: Caitlin Smith
Presenter: Dani Garavelli
Sound Design: Joel Cox


WED 11:30 Maureen & Friends (m0015bdl)
Episode 3

Maureen Lipman’s unique collection of musings, monologues, duologues and amusing anecdotes about her life and popular culture.
This first programme begins with a poem reflecting on the past two years we've lived through. Other characters we meet include a far too chatty woman on a commuter train and a woman who is a whizz at crosswords.
For this second series, recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Radio Theatre, Maureen is joined by Oliver Cotton. Together they give life and opinions to various animals. They also give their take on an Awards ceremony. These are the 'Daftas'.

Written and performed by Maureen Lipman with a special guest performance from Oliver Cotton.

Produced and Directed by Tracey Neale

Maureen Lipman's unique collection of musings, monologues, duologues and amusing anecdotes about her life and popular culture. After a career that has encompassed a wide range of film, theatre, television, radio, books, magazine articles and BT ads, the Queen of Coronation Street will be entertaining the Radio 4 listeners with two programmes that have been recorded in the company of an audience in the BBC Radio Theatre.

The format follows a monologue tradition that builds on the foundations established by artists such as Ruth Draper and Joyce Grenfell. Maureen brings her own brand of incisive humour and witty comments to the genre. It begins with a poem reflecting on the past two years we’ve lived through. Characters we meet will include a far too chatty woman on a commuter train and a woman who is a whizz at crosswords. And Hester from the Home Counties makes a second appearance.

Maureen loves poems, jokes, sketches and making fun of the world we live in. This will be another listen filled with laughter and entertainment.


WED 12:00 News Summary (m0015bdn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 12:04 Sea Change by Alix Nathan (m0015bdq)
Episode 8

England is beset by social unrest and the threat of Napoleonic invasion. Parted following a freakish accident, Sarah Battle and her daughter Eve try to rediscover each other.

With her mother widely-believed to be dead, Eve is raised by Sarah’s erratic artist friend, Joseph in London. Sarah - traumatised in mind and body - must rebuild herself in a Norfolk fishing village at the parsonage of the strangely-motivated Reverend Snead.

Episode Eight
In London, Eve learns more about her mother’s past. Joseph is in serious financial difficulty.

Alix Nathan is the author of His Last Fire, a collection of short stories, and the novels The Flight Of Sarah Battle and The Warlow Experiment.

Writer: Alix Nathan
Reader: Samantha Spiro
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:18 You and Yours (m0015bds)
Heating Oil, White Goods Fraud, Clothes in your 30s

We track the price of Heating Oil which has been volatile over the past few weeks. To give you an idea of the price changes, 500 litres of heating oil cost £320 on 23 February, the day before the war began. It cost £662 last week. It's fallen slightly since. In Northern Ireland, around two thirds of households use oil for heating. Prices have been so unpredictable since Russia invaded Ukraine, that some people can't even get a price quote when they order. Instead, they're being asked to pay on delivery, whatever the oil costs.

Rogue companies have been targeting vulnerable people, miss-selling them insurance for washing machines, televisions and fridges. The Information Commissioner's Office are issuing five companies have been fined a total of more than £400,000 for breaking marketing laws. These companies were cold-calling people, persuading them to set up direct debits or make one off card payments.

Did your style and where you buy your clothes change in your 30's? Let us know youandyours@bbc.co.uk
Krissy Turner is Fashion Editor at Eliza, a new fashion and beauty website all about shopping. We ask her about the best brands and shops for people in their 30's and that aren't too 'young' or too 'old'.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Miriam Williamson


WED 12:57 Weather (m0015bdx)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m0015bf1)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


WED 13:45 The Museums That Make Us (m0015bf4)
The Auckland Project, Bishop Auckland

Neil MacGregor presents a new series for BBC Radio Four celebrating the role and ambition of museums the length and breadth of the country, and in the process he'll be find answers to the question ‘What are Museums For in 2022’.

Once again the challenge for today's museum is how to best serve a community that has experienced the industrial decline of the last half-century. In Bishop Auckland's case, it was the demise of the Coal industry that left the region facing so many challenges. The Auckland Project response was the opening of a Miners Art Gallery, to run alongside their celebrated paintings by the Spanish artist Zubaran of Jacob and his twelve sons. And to give that Castle treasure new context, the Trust has opened a third gallery celebrating the golden age of Spanish Art. Driven by founder Jonathan Ruffer, the ambition is to show that art is democratic, and that the very best of painting from Spain can matter to any community given the opportunity to see it.

Museums have always been telescopes trained on the past to help locate a sense of place in the present. Neil believes that role is an active one, responding to changes in the people museums serve and the shifting social and cultural landscape they inhabit. After spending much of his life at the centre of our national Museum life in London, Neil is taking to the road to discover more about the extraordinary work being done in cherished Museums outside the capital, from Stornoway to Stowmarket, and Belfast to Birmingham.

In each episode he visits a single museum, inviting them to choose an object from their collections which they feel best illustrates their civic role, and the way they relate and want to relate to their local audience. Very rarely have they chosen a crown jewel from their often priceless collections. More often it's an object with a particular local resonance, or which helps tackle episodes from the past which are being viewed very differently by citizens in the 21st century.

He’ll be visiting the great national museums of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as major city institutions in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and elsewhere. And in spite of the challenges of the last two years, everywhere he meets passionate teams who are dedicated to providing a unique experience for both local audiences and visitors from further afield.

Neil writes: “What’s going on in our museums is at once challenging and exciting and it can only really be understood by visiting as many as possible and finding out how they have approached what is a vital role in providing a sense of local, regional and national identity.”

Producer - Tom Alban
Original music composed by Phil Channell


WED 14:00 The Archers (m0015b06)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (m000jhnw)
Personal Shopper

A topical drama about how living in enforced isolation can lead to the forging of new relationships, and to the revitalisation of old ones.

It starts with a skinny slip of paper posted through Nina’s letter box:
Dear Neighbour. My name is Max. I am almost 15 years old and I live at number 76 of this road. My school has been shut and I am free to do shopping for anyone who needs it. Just ring me on the number below.

Nina’s first instinct is to bin the note. She’s not hugely bothered about the neighbours. The younger people who’ve moved onto the street in recent years are very different from her. They’re smarter, richer. They have well-spoken kids with names like Max.

But life is tricky in isolation. Nina’s husband Frank is ill. Maybe it’s the virus, maybe’s it’s just a bad cold, they can’t really tell.

Nina knows the rule is that she must stay indoors. And they don’t have anyone else. So Nina gives Max a call. The next day, he leaves a first bag of shopping outside her hall door.

Told through phone calls and an audio diary that Nina is updating daily, the drama follows the relationship that develops between Max and Nina through the first weeks of enforced isolation.

As the story unfolds, we come to realise that Nina is making the audio diary for a particular, special person.

CAST
Nina .......... Monica Dolan
Frank ........ Phil Davis
Max .......... Tom Glenister
Sarah ....... Jane Slavin

Written by Hugh Costello
Produced and Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan

A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4


WED 15:00 Money Box (m0015bf8)
Russia and Pensions

How do you make sure your pensions and savings and invested ethically? Do you know where your pension is invested? How much of your money is invested in Russia? How can you put pressure on your pension providers to invest ethically?

Felicity Hannah chats to listeners, guests and our panel of experts about how to make your money ethical.

Panel:

Lucy Coutts, Investment Director at JM Finn wealth management

Becky O’Connor, Head of Pensions and Savings at Interactive Investor

Find out more:
https://makemymoneymatter.co.uk/

Producer: Drew Hyndman

Editor: Maggie Latham


WED 15:30 Inside Health (m0015b0g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Rewinder (m0014nlx)
Tea and Telepathy

Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast show and self-confessed 'proud radio nerd', uses his access-all-areas pass to the BBC Archives to track down audio gems, using listener requests, overlooked anniversaries and current stories as a springboard into the vast vaults of past programmes.

This week, with awards season underway, Greg looks back at three generations of acting talent - Dame Judi Dench, Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley - who have all been nominated for Academy Awards this year. He finds early BBC appearances as far back as 1960, with parts ranging from Shakespeare to Holby City.

Are you thinking what Greg's thinking? Let's find out as he recounts a mass experiment in telepathy on BBC radio in 1927, resurrects a controversial mind transference act from 1949 which had an audience of 20 million, and conducts his own test for listeners at home.

It's now 50 years since the band Chicory Tip topped the charts with Son of My Father, the first number one to feature a synthesiser. This milestone sends Greg on a quest for more musical innovations in the archive, including sounds created by the electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram.

Following up a request from a listener, Greg explores the history of Children's Hour, the hugely important radio programme that ran from the BBC's birth in 1922 right up until 1964, and was a staple of so many childhoods over those decades.

Producer: Tim Bano


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m0015bfb)
Why are Russian oligarchs only now in the press spotlight?

As governments around the world race to sanction associates of Vladimir Putin, the British media turns its attention to the role Russian oligarchs have played in public life. This week an edition of Panorama aired allegations about the source of Roman Abramovich's wealth. At the weekend The Sunday Times reported that Evgeny Lebedev was made a peer despite the concerns of the security services. But why is it only now that the mainstream press has put the oligarchs in the spotlight? What stopped them before?

Guests: Paul Caruana Galizia, reporter at Tortoise Media; Adam Bienkov, Political Editor at Byline Times; Laura Kayali, Tech Correspondent at Politico; Natalia Antelava, journalist and co-founder of Coda Story, a global affairs news site; Lionel Barber, former editor of The Financial Times.

Producer: Hannah Sander

Studio engineer: Tim Heffer

Presenter: Katie Razzall


WED 17:00 PM (m0015bfd)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0015bfg)
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been freed after six years detention in Iran. And Russian forces are continuing their bombardment of civilian buildings in Ukraine.


WED 18:30 Conversations from a Long Marriage (m0015bfj)
Series 3

Travelling Light

Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam star in Jan Etherington’s award-winning comedy, as a couple who are passionate about life and each other. This week: Joanna plans a mountain trek but doesn’t think Roger’s knee is up to it. She reveals she’s asked the advice of the adventurer Rix Roden, which infuriates Roger, who suspects an attraction between them. Joanna heads off up the mountain, leaving Roger home alone. But perhaps not lonely?
Conversations from a Long Marriage won the Voice of the Listener and Viewer Award for Best Radio Comedy in 2020.
‘Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam have had illustrious acting careers but can they ever have done anything better than Jan Etherington’s two hander? This is a work of supreme craftsmanship.’ RADIO TIMES
‘Peppered with nostalgic 60s hits and especially written for the pair, it’s an endearing portrait of exasperation, laced with hard won tolerance – and something like love.’ THE GUARDIAN
‘The delicious fruit of the writer, Jan Etherington’s experience of writing lots of TV and radio, blessed by being acted by Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam. Treasure this one, produced by Claire Jones. Unlike many a current Radio 4 ‘comedy’, this series makes people laugh’ GILLIAN REYNOLDS. SUNDAY TIMES
‘You’ve been listening at my window, Jan’. JOANNA LUMLEY
‘The writing is spot on and Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam exquisite. So real, so entertaining. Please never stop making such terrific radio’. BBC DUTY LOG
‘Absolutely brilliant!! May it never end!’ BBC DUTY LOG
Conversations from a Long Marriage is written by Jan Etherington. It is produced and directed by Claire Jones. It is a BBC Studios Production.


WED 19:00 The Archers (m0015b7g)
Usha wishes Fallon all the best for Harrison’s baptism tomorrow. Fallon is equivocal, and sensitive Usha backs off. But Fallon wants to talk, and asks Usha how it is being in a mixed marriage. Usha shares her thoughts on the challenges she and Alan initially faced as a couple. They had to prove themselves and their commitment to one another, something Fallon and Harrison won’t have to do. Fallon queries whether Harrison will want to stick with her if she doesn’t share his views. Usha reckons it’s clear Harrison loves Fallon and the fact they’re together answers her question.
Justin’s hard line on whether Berrow should close isn’t well received by Lilian. She points out how its closure would affect people in their community, and how bad this would be once they know he’s behind it. Justin insists that the only people who know his mind are the other BL board members.
Susan’s upset when Neil mentions that Alice is seeing a solicitor regarding full time care of Martha. Later Justin rubs out of sorts Susan up the wrong way. Lilian wonders what’s wrong with her – it can’t have been Justin, as Susan was clearly distracted before they saw her. The thought occurs to Justin that word may have got out about Berrow. Why else would Susan be so tetchy with them? If news has leaked, declares Justin grimly, the culprit will be toast.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m0015bfl)
Olga reviewed, David Hare on Straight Line Crazy, audio postcard from York

The playwright David Hare talks about the resonances of his new play at the Bridge in London, Straight Line Crazy. It's a drama about Robert Moses, a civil planner who was a powerful and divisive figure in mid-twentieth century New York.

Jenny McCartney reviews Olga, a Swiss film that follows a Ukrainian gymnast who is forced to flee her country during the Euromaidan protests of 2013 because of her mother’s work as an investigative journalist.

Nathan Moore from BBC York sends Front Row an audio postcard from the city, including a visit to the studio of artist Sue Clayton who is painting portraits of York City supporters in the club’s centenary year, and a conversation with the York based rock band Bull.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Sarah Johnson


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m0015bfn)
Refugees and borders

Nearly three million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian tanks crossed the border at the end of February. Some say the UK was slow to respond but many thousands of people are now signed up to a government scheme to turn their houses into homes for Ukrainian refugees - the first should arrive soon. There has been an outpouring of generosity and goodwill toward those suffering in this conflict, but uncomfortable questions remain. Are we really doing enough? Why such generosity now, when we have spent years discussing how to keep migrants out? Is it morally acceptable to feel more comfortable welcoming large numbers of Ukrainian - rather than Syrian or Afghan - refugees? Is racism a factor, or is it simply that these people are fleeing an enemy who threatens us too?

Shortly the Nationality and Borders Bill will return to be voted on in Parliament. Campaigners say the bill is at odds with rhetoric about welcoming refugees as it could criminalise those who arrive to seek asylum in the UK without first filling in the correct forms. Is it right to put up yet more barriers? Perhaps it is a failure of moral imagination to turn away any individual who wants to make a better life? Some economists argue that the free movement of workers makes nations prosperous, but there’s more to Britain than its economy, and not everyone wants to do away with borders. How, without fierce gate-keepers, can we protect the places where we feel at home? With the human rights campaigner Bella Sankey; David Goodhart, who researches integration at the centre right think-tank Policy Exchange; the Chair of Britain’s oldest Immigration Museum, Susie Symes; and the former MEP and journalist Patrick O'Flynn.

Produced by Olive Clancy


WED 20:45 Lent Talks (m0015bcw)
"I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink"

Lent Talks is a series of personal reflections inspired by an aspect of the story leading up to Easter. This year’s theme is the power of hospitality, based on Jesus’ encouragement in Matthew’s gospel to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger and look after the sick.

In this episode, the historian and theologian Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes considers the words, "I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink"

Producer: Dan Tierney.


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m00159zr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 The Media Show (m0015bfb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m0015bfq)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 Sea Change by Alix Nathan (m0015bdq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


WED 23:00 The Damien Slash Mixtape (m0015bfs)
Series 4

Episode 2

Multi-character YouTube star Damien Slash is back for a fouth round of zeitgeisty sketches in this new fast-paced, one-man sketch comedy show.

This episode sees Xavier Landing explores his boundaries, TV execs choose the next big hit, and an A&R man gives his music tips for 2022.

Written by and starring Damien Slash (aka Daniel Barker)
Additional material by Tom Savage

Guest starring Natasia Demetriou.

Production Coordintator: Sarah Sharpe
Sound Editor: Rich Evans

Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios production


WED 23:15 Chris Neill: Raging Enigma (m0015bfv)
Walking to Inverness and Back

That prescribed daily exercise during lockdown really starts to add up as Chris Neill is joined by Isy Suttie and Martin Hyder, mining his life for the comedy stories buried within.

“A rapid-fire English David Sedaris. Every word is perfectly chosen and perfectly used.” - Miranda Sawyer, The Observer

After ten episodes of Woof, in Raging Enigma Chris Neill continues to reveal the unvarnished realities of being a really quite mediocre man. Memoir continues to underpin these illustrated stand-up shows, and the subject matter will be as varied as before…. But this time without the studio audience.

“Chris Neill’s show is a consummate masterpiece” - Susan Nickson

“Blissfully well written. Neill may be first and foremost a comedian, but his observations are as acute as any novelist’s. Sweet, sharp and very funny.” - The Times

Written by Chris Neill
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000vq6f)
Sean Curran reports as the Foreign Secretary announces the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from Iran.



THURSDAY 17 MARCH 2022

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m0015bfx)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


THU 00:30 Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen (m0015bdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0015bfz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0015bg1)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.


THU 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m0015bg3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0015bg7)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Jonathan Rea

SCRIPT

Good morning and happy St Patrick’s Day.

Just for today, the whole world is invited to be honorary Irish. So don your leprechaun hat, grab a green drink. and I’ll tell you a thing or two about Patrick.

The truth is, he was probably born in England. He wasn’t the first person to bring Christianity to Ireland. There were no snakes in Ireland for him to drive away. He didn’t teach theology using a shamrock and he wasn’t canonised as a saint.

But he lived in the 5th century, and as a teenager, he was abducted and sold as a slave to an Irish Chieftain. While in Ireland, he had a life-changing spiritual experience, so much so that after escaping to go back home, he felt called by God to return and share the Gospel with the Irish.

From his writings I imagine that he would have been horrified by the idea of a day in his honour. We treat Patrick as though his identity is synonymous with Ireland.
But he wanted his identity to be synonymous with Christ.

We tend to identify ourselves by age, ethnicity, sexuality, wealth, politics, job or nationality.
But Patrick taught us to go after a different kind of identity where we invite the full power of Christ to live in us, so that when people look at us, they think of Christ in every facet of our being.

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Amen


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m0015bg9)
17/03/22 - Land use, nature recovery and duck feathers

Land can be used for so many things - habitat restoration, carbon capture, solar panels, flood prevention, housing... and of course growing food. The Institute for Government says we need a land use strategy. It’s published a report looking at Environmental Land Management Schemes which are being introduced in England to pay farmers “public money for public goods” - things like improving soil quality or restoring habitats.

The Government has released its Nature Recovery Green Paper - but the Wildlife Trusts say protected land may be at risk.

And do you know where the feathers in your duvets and down jackets come from? Famers in the UK produce 10 million ducks every year - and feathers are a by-product, plucked after they’re slaughtered. We speak to one duck farmer about how it works.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dwz7f)
Linnet

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

Martin Hughes-Games presents the Linnet. Linnets gather in large flocks to feed on weed-seeds and the seeds of oilseed rape and flax left behind after harvesting. You can often identify the flocks from a distance as the birds circle over a field, by their tight formation and bouncing motion.


THU 06:00 Today (m0015b6m)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0015b6r)
Charisma

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea of charismatic authority developed by Max Weber (1864-1920) to explain why people welcome some as their legitimate rulers and follow them loyally, for better or worse, while following others only dutifully or grudgingly. Weber was fascinated by those such as Napoleon (above) and Washington who achieved power not by right, as with traditional monarchs, or by law as with the bureaucratic world around him in Germany, but by revolution or insurrection. Drawing on the experience of religious figures, he contended that these leaders, often outsiders, needed to be seen as exceptional, heroic and even miraculous to command loyalty, and could stay in power for as long as the people were enthralled and the miracles they had promised kept coming. After the Second World War, Weber's idea attracted new attention as a way of understanding why some reviled leaders once had mass support and, with the arrival of television, why some politicians were more engaging and influential on screen than others.

With

Linda Woodhead
The FD Maurice Professor and Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London

David Bell
The Lapidus Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University

And

Tom Wright
Reader in Rhetoric at the University of Sussex

Producer: Simon Tillotson


THU 09:45 Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen (m0015b98)
The Accidental Historian

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth – the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 4
The accidental historian, the Florentine writer, playwright, lover of brothels, Niccolo Machiavelli, worked for Cesare Borgia, and for the Medici family and was in and out of favour his whole life. His book The Prince is an account of how politics actually works, and his History of Florence is seen as a landmark in the way history is written. Eventually worn out by a life of dissipation, on his death bed he said he looked forward to going to hell and chatting to pagans like Plato.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0015b6w)
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss MP on Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe's release

As Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe comes home after six years in Iranian detention, Emma speaks to the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss MP about what it took to secure her release along with another British-Iranian hostage Anoosheh Ashoori.


THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m0015b6y)
Crossing into unknown territory

The war in Ukraine has brought back some uncomfortable memories. Refugees crowding on to trains in eastern European snow to escape a war. Young men volunteering to fight for their country and being sent into harm's way with almost no training. And the possibility that a new Cold War between Russia and the US and Europeans could be upon us, says Jeremy Bowen.
When Belarus opened its country to tens of thousands of mostly Middle Eastern migrants and refugees last year and started pushing them across the border into Poland, most Poles supported the government’s refusal to let them in. Yet Poland is now facing a refugee crisis on a much bigger scale. Close to two million people have crossed into Poland in just three weeks. Adam Easton met one of those Poles and the refugee he is supporting.
Attempts to create humanitarian corridors over recent weeks from besieged cities like Mariupol and Kharkiv have frequently been stymied by continued Russian attacks, imperilling efforts by residents to flee. At the border between Poland and Ukraine, Kasia Madera met one woman travelling from Kharkiv to Germany with her children.
Australia’s east coast has seen some of the worst flooding in the country’s history over recent weeks with more than 20 people killed in intense downpours. Viv Nunis met some of the residents whose homes had been destroyed.
China was the place where Covid-19 first emerged, but it was also the first place to get back to something resembling normality. But that all changed this week, as new cases jumped - and authorities imposed draconian new restrictions to maintain its 'zero Covid strategy'. Normal life for tens of millions of people, says Robin Brant in Shanghai - has stopped, again.

Presenter: Kate Adie
Producer: Serena Tarling


THU 11:30 Banding: Love, Spit and Valve Oil (m0015b70)
The pursuit of excellence

Martin Green looks at why brass bands are so good and asks if the cut-throat culture around contesting is worth it.

Coming from the world of folk music where the notion of competition is much more controversial, Martin questions if there should really be winners and losers in music. What does pressure and adrenaline bring to the pursuit of excellence?

Having written a piece of brass band music to soundtrack this series, Martin now needs to record it. A bespoke band is compiled by baritone player Amy Ewen, who introduces us to a room full of exceptionally virtuosic musicians. These players are all the more impressive when you consider this is an amateur movement.

We follow Amy and others through their day at the National Brass Band Championship at the Royal Albert Hall to better understand the rollercoaster ride that is contesting.

Produced by Rebecca Gaskell and Martin Green

A Sparklab and Lepus co-production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:00 News Summary (m0015b9q)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 12:04 Sea Change by Alix Nathan (m0015b74)
Episode 9

England is beset by social unrest and the threat of Napoleonic invasion. Parted following a freakish accident, Sarah Battle and her daughter Eve try to rediscover each other.

With her mother widely-believed to be dead, Eve is raised by Sarah’s erratic artist friend, Joseph in London. Sarah - traumatised in mind and body - must rebuild herself in a Norfolk fishing village at the parsonage of the strangely-motivated Reverend Snead.

Episode Nine
In Hawkswith, Edward and Hester try to piece together what happened to Sarah. In London, Eve makes a decision.

Alix Nathan is the author of His Last Fire, a collection of short stories, and the novels The Flight Of Sarah Battle and The Warlow Experiment.

Writer: Alix Nathan
Reader: Samantha Spiro
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:18 You and Yours (m0015b76)
Homes for Ukraine, Food Banks and YouTube music copyright

The government's 'Homes for Ukraine' scheme started this week and our reporter Jon Douglas is looking into the implications on your home insurance if you take in a refugee.
Some of the UK's biggest insurers have promised not to penalise customers who take in refugees from Ukraine as normally insurers can refuse cover, or increase premiums, if part of your home is occupied by someone who isn't a relative. We’ll also be hearing from a couple with previous experience of opening their home to a refugee and finding out what they learnt along the way.

When you, or someone you love, is coming to the end of their life, care at home or in a home is provided free, fast-tracked, under a system called NHS continuing care. The BBC has learned that the scheme that covers all the costs associated with care and accommodation is being withdrawn when people are living longer than anticipated. In the past four years nearly half of the 9,000 patients in England and Wales, who lived longer than expected, had their funding for care taken away.

The Trussell Trust, the UK's biggest foodbank provider has told us that two in five people receiving Universal Credit were forced into of debt this winter. They say that a lot of people on Universal Credit don't have enough money to afford the basics - like food and heating. Our reporter Linda Walker talks to those that rely on the service.

We hear from a music teacher using classic pieces on YouTube, being sent bogus claims for copyright payments by people who say they own the rights to the music

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Linda Walker


THU 12:57 Weather (m0015b78)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m0015b7b)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


THU 13:45 The Museums That Make Us (m0015b7d)
The Hepworth, Wakefield

Neil MacGregor presents a new series for BBC Radio Four celebrating the role and ambition of museums the length and breadth of the country, and in the process he'll be find answers to the question ‘What are Museums For in 2022’.

Neil is once again in the post industrial North of England, this time in Wakefield, Yorkshire. Amidst the dereliction of old spinning factories and declining coal mining, the local council chose to back an extraordinary project celebrating local artist Barbara Hepworth. The building of The Hepworth on the banks of the river Calder, with its angular structure dipping its toes in the river, has brought surprise, pride and a stream of visitors from both near and far. In a way it's an outlier in the series, being built around the works of one person, but its place at the heart of Wakefield makes it a powerful emblem of what a museum and gallery can be, and the choice of one particular sculpture, a mother and child, is driven not by any curatorial selection but by the simple democracy of postcard sales in the museum shop.

Museums have always been telescopes trained on the past to help locate a sense of place in the present. Neil believes that role is an active one, responding to changes in the people museums serve and the shifting social and cultural landscape they inhabit. After spending much of his life at the centre of our national Museum life in London, Neil is taking to the road to discover more about the extraordinary work being done in cherished Museums outside the capital, from Stornoway to Stowmarket, and Belfast to Birmingham.

In each episode he visits a single museum, inviting them to choose an object from their collections which they feel best illustrates their civic role, and the way they relate and want to relate to their local audience. Very rarely have they chosen a crown jewel from their often priceless collections. More often it's an object with a particular local resonance, or which helps tackle episodes from the past which are being viewed very differently by citizens in the 21st century.

He’ll be visiting the great national museums of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as major city institutions in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and elsewhere. And in spite of the challenges of the last two years, everywhere he meets passionate teams who are dedicated to providing a unique experience for both local audiences and visitors from further afield.

Neil writes: “What’s going on in our museums is at once challenging and exciting and it can only really be understood by visiting as many as possible and finding out how they have approached what is a vital role in providing a sense of local, regional and national identity.”

Producer - Tom Alban
Original music composed by Phil Channell


THU 14:00 The Archers (m0015b7g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Our Friends in the North (m0015b7l)
Episode One: 1964

Peter Flannery once famously said of Our Friends in the North, "I've always said it's just a posh soap opera - but it's a posh soap opera with something to say."

And now he has rewritten his multi-award winning and highly acclaimed television series as an audio drama for BBC Radio 4.

Ambitious in scale and scope, the drama chronicles the lives of four friends over three decades beginning in the 1960s. The series tackles corporate, political and police corruption in the 1960s, the rise and fall of the Soho porn empires in the 1970s, the nouveau riche and the Miners’ Strike of the 1980s and the rise of New Labour in the 1990s. Some of the stories are directly based on the real-life controversies involving T. Dan Smith and John Poulson in Newcastle during the 60s and 70s.

And the adapted series will now end with a new, tenth episode by writer Adam Usden, bringing the story up to the present day.

This first episode opens in 1964, with 20-year old Nicky Hutchinson meeting his girlfriend Mary on the beach. They’ve been apart all summer while Nicky was involved in the emerging US Civil Rights Movement. Her plans for them to spend the rest of the summer together are scuppered by Nicky’s sudden decision to throw himself into canvassing for the Labour Party ahead of the general election. His friend Geordie can’t see the point. He wants Nicky to join the band he’s putting together with Tosker. But Nicky’s far too busy. By the end of October, with Harold Wilson as PM, all four friends have made decisions that change their lives forever.

Cast
Mary: Norah Lopez Holden
Nicky: James Baxter
Geordie: Luke MacGregor
Tosker: Philip Correia
Felix: Trevor Fox
Florrie: Tracey Wilkinson
Austin Donohue: Tom Goodman-Hill
Eddie Wells: James Gaddas
Bede Connor: Tony Hirst

Writer: Peter Flannery

Studio Engineer: Paul Clark
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore

Producer: Melanie Harris
Executive Producer: Jeremy Mortimer

A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4


THU 15:00 Ramblings (m0015b7v)
Around Dulwich Woods with Floella Benjamin

Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE joins Clare for a walk around one of her favourite woodlands in London. Starting in Dulwich College where her mother worked in the laundry and later her son attended, Floella and husband Keith head off into the woods on a rainy March day. Their walk takes them up from the College past the Golf range and into the woods where parakeets dart among the trees shrieking and providing a dash of bright emerald green on a grey day. Along the way Floella talks about her life and all her achievements.
She was born in Trinidad and emigrated with her family in the 1960s settling in London. After leaving school she worked in a bank before becoming an actress and then getting her break into children's television in Play School. The education and wellbeing of children is one of her greatest priorities and she is hugely proud of all that she has achieved in this field.
The walk takes them along routes she has walked for many years from when her own children were small. She and Keith are great walkers and love to hike in the Lake District but when that's not possible, a walk in these woods is a sanctuary in the middle of the city - a place to relax, think and destress.

Producer: Maggie Ayre


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m00159x0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (m00159xr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m0015b80)
Series 19

The Turn of the Tide

Mathematician Hannah Fry and geneticist Adam Rutherford investigate your everyday science queries. Today, they get stuck into two questions about tides. Lynn Godson wants to know why isn’t high tide at the same time at all points around the coast? Whilst Tim Mosedale asks, could we ever harness tidal power commercially?
Did you think tides are caused by the pull of the Moon? And that they come in and out twice a day? Well, yes, that’s true but it turns out there’s so much more to it than that, especially here in the UK, which has the second largest tidal range in the world at the Seven Estuary near Bristol, coming in at an average of 15 metres (50ft in old money). But why should high and low tide times be so different even in places that are relatively close to each other?

The answer partly lies in something called bathymetry (which has more to do with baths than you might think – well basins at any rate). As for harnessing sea power, there are some ambitious projects currently in development and predictions that wave and tidal could make up as much as 15 percent of the UK’s energy needs in future. But how realistic is this and how do you ensure that your power generators can survive the rigours of the ocean – storms, saltwater and all those pesky barnacles?

To help answer these queries, Hannah and Adam are joined by Physicist and Oceanographer, Helen Czerski and Professor Deborah Greaves OBE, who heads up the COAST lab at the University of Plymouth which studies marine renewable energy technologies.

Producers: Rami Tzabar and Jen Whyntie


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0015b89)
Global food security during Ukraine conflict

The Russian conflict in Ukraine is already causing hunger there, and as Ukraine and Russia are huge grain exporters, the crisis will be far reaching. Food prices everywhere are expected to rise, and there’s fear that the war could affect food supplies in some of the poorest parts of the world. Tim Lang, Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University of London, and Dr Hannah Ritchie, Head of Research at the website Our World in Data, join us to discuss food security.

Lead is highly toxic to humans and other animals. One source of lead in the environment is the bullets and shot used to hunt wild game, and new research shows that lead shot has a significant effect on birds of prey such as eagles, buzzards and vultures across the whole of Europe. One of the study’s authors, Professor Debbie Pain, explains the research.

Many of us have spent the past two years anxiously following Covid graphs, but from next month the government is cutting funding to several surveillance programmes. Mass free testing will also end, though the Office for National Statistics survey will continue. Given that case numbers are rising, is reduced monitoring wise? Professor Adam Kucharski from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine discusses how important surveillance has been in the pandemic.

The last crewed mission to the Moon was half a century ago, and no one has made that one small step since. But a new NASA programme aims to change that, and tonight is the rollout of Artemis I, the first stage on a journey to return humans to the moon, including the first woman on the moon and the first person of colour on the moon. BBC science correspondent Jon Amos paints a picture of what we’ll see tonight.


THU 17:00 PM (m0015b8q)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0015b8v)
Russian forces in Ukraine continue to pound civilian targets.


THU 18:30 Big Problems with Helen Keen (b09b19y6)
Series 2

Women

This week's Big Problem with Helen Keen is; Women

You may not immediately identify women as a problem but, when 'normal' has meant 'male' for centuries how does that affect our perception of women from the past and how does it affect women in the present.

As humanity faces a very big raft of very varied problems, many of them of its own making, here is a series of optimistic, scientifically literate yet comically nimble shows that offer a sweeping overview of the biggest challenges we face and the science behind them. We look at the often surprising solutions of past generations and the likely and unlikely solutions of the future and present a scrupulously researched comedy celebrating human ingenuity.

Written by Helen Keen, Jenny Laville, Lloyd Langford and Carrie Quinlan and special thanks to Marc Abrahams and Dr Stuart Richie.
Cast: Helen Keen, Jon Culshaw and Susy Kane.
Producer was Katie Tyrrell and it was a BBC Studios Production.


THU 19:00 The Archers (m0015b8x)
Writer, Naylah Ahmed
Director, Dave Payne
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Justin Elliott ….. Simon Williams
Alan Franks ….. John Telfer
Usha Franks ….. Souad Faress
Jakob Hakansson ….. Paul Venables
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Fallon Rogers ….. Joanna Van Kampen
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperel
Peggy Woolley ….. June Spencer
Nora ….. Ellie Darvill


THU 19:15 Front Row (m0015b8z)
Mark Rylance, Julian Knight, Reviews of Hockney's Eye, The Dropout and WeCrashed

Multi award winning actor Mark Rylance on his latest film The Phantom of the Open, a warm hearted comedy about Maurice Flitcroft, a crane operator at the shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness who managed to gain entry to the 1976 British Open qualifying, despite never playing a round of golf before. Mark also talks to Samira about reprising his celebrated role as Johnny ‘Rooster‘ Byron in Jez Butterworth’s award winning play Jerusalem.

The Unboxed Festival that kicked off in Paisley earlier this month had a rave review here on Front Row. Unboxed had its origins in Theresa May’s premiership as a cultural celebration to mark a new post Brexit era for the UK. Now a concise new report by the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee of MPs has delivered what can only be described as a scathing criticism of the project, and the government’s whole approach to Major cultural and sporting events. We talk to the Committee’s Conservative Chair, Julian Knight MP.

David Hockney has always been fascinated by the role of new technologies in enabling artists to achieve their vision. Now, a new exhibition exploring his merging of science and art is being shown at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Tahmima Anam and Rachel Campbell-Johnston join us to review it.

And the Grimms fairy stories of the tech start up age: We review two drama series of entrepreneurs flying high and falling to earth: We Crash about the founders of We Work, starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway, and The Drop Out starring Amanda Seyfried about the Theranos scandal.


THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m0015f1y)
Russia's invasion: what could a peace deal look like?

Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have been underway this week. At the same time Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities have come under savage bombardment. If some sort of peace is to be brokered what compromises might be possible and what will be required to get there?

David Aaronovitch is joined by:

Oleksiy Semeniy, former advisor to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine

Aglaya Snetkov, author of “Russia's security policy under Putin” and a lecturer at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London.

Anatol Lieven, senior research fellow on Russia and Europe at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a visiting professor at King’s College, London.

Dr Julie Norman, lecturer in politics and international relations at University College London and co-director of its US politics centre.

Producers: Rosamund Jones, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter
Production Co-ordinators: Sophie Hill and Siobhan Reed
Studio Manager: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon


THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m0015b91)
Levelling Up

Evan Davis and guests examine the prospects for business in this government priority for increasing economic activity beyond the Southeast of England. How important is political devolution? Or are practical changes, like transport links and skills education more significant?

Guests:
Andrew Carter, chief executive, Centre for Cities
Akash Paun, senior fellow at the Institute for Government
Steve Cole, maritime business improvement director for BAE Systems
Lucy Winskell, chair of the North-East Enterprise partnership

Producer: Lucinda Borrell
Sound: Graham Puddifoot
Production Coordinators: Siobhan Reed and Sophie Hill
Editor: Hugh Levinson

The programme was produced in partnership with the Open University


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m0015b89)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (m0015b6r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m0015b94)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 Sea Change by Alix Nathan (m0015b74)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


THU 23:00 Gaby's Talking Pictures (b0b86bq5)
Series 1

Episode 4

Gaby Roslin hosts the funny, entertaining film quiz with impressions by Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona. This week, team captains John Thomson and Ellie Taylor are joined by special guests Rachel Parris and Stephen Tompkinson.

Presented by Gaby Roslin
Team Captains: John Thomson and Ellie Taylor
Impressionists: Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona
Created by Gaby Roslin
Written by Carrie Quinlan and Barney Newman
Produced by Gordon Kennedy, Gaby Roslin and Barney Newman
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000vqrl)
News from Westminster with Susan Hulme.



FRIDAY 18 MARCH 2022

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m0015b96)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 00:30 Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen (m0015b98)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0015b9b)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0015b9d)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:33 Shipping Forecast (m0015b9g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0015b9l)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Jonathan Rea

SCRIPT

Good morning.

120 years ago today in a hotel room in Milan, the Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso, made his first audio recording. It was captured using so-called portable equipment - that required 6 large crates to ship it.

Like most singers, Caruso wasn’t keen to have his voice recorded for posterity – so he commanded a huge fee of £100 to let it happen. Hearing the price, the record company sent a telegram to tell the recording engineer to stop. But instead of stopping, the engineer underwrote the fee - convinced he was on the brink of success.

He was right. Caruso’s album went on to sell 300,000 copies. Caruso became very famous and the record company became very rich. Even the sales of gramophones were boosted because of Caruso’s recordings. He had earned his place in music history as the world’s first recording superstar.

Now of course, we record everything. Meals are photographed. Our scores in word games are shared on social media. Parents attend school performances and watch their kids on a stage through a lens. Relationships are put on display. Personal successes are celebrated publicly. Personal failures are judged publicly.

I’m grateful for technology that gives us access to music, film and to each other. It helped us in recent times of isolation and it keeps us aware of what is happening in our world, not least in the ongoing horror in Ukraine.

But I also think the Psalmist David was right when he sang “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”

Lord, if you kept a record of sins, who could stand?”. But there is forgiveness with you so that you may be revered. Amen.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m0015b9n)
18/03/22 Clarity on seasonal workers' pay, Defra Secretary on food security, ducks

Clarity from confusion as government departments finally agree on seasonal workers pay.

The Government sees no need to change its policies on growing food in light of the war in Ukraine. Concerns over grain have led the EU to review its approach so farmers can grow more crops, but the Defra Secretary George Eustice tells us that "the impacts will be on price, rather than supply”.

We’ve been looking at UK duck production all week from meat to feathers and today we visit a rare breed duck farm in Cornwall.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378svz)
Wood Pigeon

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

Michaela Strachan presents the wood pigeon. One of our most widespread birds, you can hear this song all year round; just about anywhere. The young are called squabs and along with seeds and green foliage, Wood Pigeons feed their chicks with "pigeon milk", a secretion from their stomach lining.


FRI 06:00 Today (m0015b9v)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m00159xd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen (m0015bch)
Monsieur Voltaire and Mr Gibbon

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth – the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 5
Monsieur Voltaire and Mr Gibbon. These two, their lives overlapping, changed the way history was written, denigrating organised religion. The Frenchman was self promoting, always in trouble, a leading controversialist. His History of Charles XII was a bestseller and, in his old age, he lived on his country estate, running a weaving business and a watch making business. The Englishman Edward Gibbon, only 4 feet high, ugly and afflicted with gout, is famous for The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - still a classic today.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0015bb1)
Barbara Lisicki & Ruth Madeley, US basketball player Brittney Griner, Red Nose Day, Inclusive Britain, Native children in the US

Brittney Griner is 6 foot 9. She's an American basketball player, some say she's the greatest female basketball player of all time and she is currently being detained in Russia on drug charges that could carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Overnight Russian courts have extended her detention for two more months. All this while tensions between Russia and the States remain tense and her family worry she may be used as a political pawn. Molly McElwee, the Telegraph's Women's Sports reporter explains.

To mark Red Nose Day Ena Miller visits a Comic Relief supported project helping survivors of domestic abuse. At Tower House Horses they use equine assisted learning to help women improve their mental health and recover their confidence. A woman we are calling Sophie tells her story and Susie, one of the co-founders of the project, explains how horses help women who have been through trauma.

Yesterday the government set out its plans to address racial disparities in the UK with changes to policing, health and education. Inclusive Britain: the government response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities sets out 70 plans including ones to tackle the differences in maternal health to ones referring to police powers. There also includes a plan to get a diverse panel of historians to, as the report puts it, ‘develop a new knowledge rich History Curriculum by 2024 exploring Britain’s historical past’. But how would that actually work in practice?

Kendra Mylnechuk Potter was adopted into a white family and raised with no knowledge of her Native background. A new film 'Daughter of a Lost Bird' currently showing at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival follows Kendra as she connects with her birth mother April, also a Native adoptee, and discovers her Lummi homelands in Washington state. Her story has parallels with many of those children affected by the 1958 Indian Adoption project, where Native children in the US were removed from their families and placed in white homes, dubbed by some as' cultural genocide'. In the late1970s the Indian Child Welfare Act came into force which prioritised keeping native Indian children within their own tribes. Anita speaks to Kendra and to the filmmaker Brooke Pepion Swaney.

The history of civil rights changed when Barbara Lisicki met Alan Holdsworth. The two were disabled cabaret performers in the 1980s when they met, fell in love and founded the disabled people’s Direct Action Network (DAN). They became the driving force behind the campaign that ultimately led to the passing of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. A new BBC Two drama, Then Barbara Met Alan, tells their story. We hear from the real-life Barbara Lisicki, and Ruth Madeley, the actor who plays her.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Molly McElwee
Interviewed Guest: Susan Little
Interviewed Guest: Dr Angelina Osborne
Interviewed Guest: Stella Dadzie
Interviewed Guest: Brooke Pepion Swaney
Interviewed Guest: Kendra Mylnechuk Potter
Interviewed Guest: Ruth Madeley
Interviewed Guest: Barbara Lisicki
Photo Credit: BBC/Dragonfly


FRI 11:00 The Smugglers' Trail (m0015bb3)
Crossings by Boat and Lorry

In programme two Rob and Sue reveal the extent of frustration felt by families of those who died in the Channel in November. Relatives of some of the 27 victims have been trying to track the smugglers themselves and feel let down by the authorities - some have even gone as far as offering reward money to carry out the ultimate revenge on those they say are responsible.

Two sisters speak of the friendship they formed on the French camp with a seven year old girl called Hesty. She had made the journey from northern Iraq with her mother, Kajal, sister, Hadia, and brother, Mobin. Their father, Rizgar, is a policeman and had stayed behind to earn enough money to pay smugglers for his passage at a later date. When word of the deaths at sea spread the sisters tried desperately to find out more: they knew that Hesty was making the crossing and immediately feared the worse.

As they describe the anguish of waiting for news they reveal how their own sea crossing, just three days earlier, had also been beset with dangers. But they made it and are now settling into new lives in Blackpool. Their friend from the camp didn't and as they come to terms with what's happened they speak of their hatred of the smugglers involved and their fear that these ruthless individuals might ultimately evade justice.

Reporter: Sue Mitchell


FRI 11:30 Ankle Tag (b092pdwn)
Series 1

The Plumber

The bath has sprung a leak. Gruff wants to book an ethical plumber, much to Bob's disgust. His mate Terry would do it for clubcard vouchers.

Meanwhile Alice and Bob have both developed an unhealthy affection for ape-based reality show Monkey World.

Elis James and Katy Wix star as new parents Gruff and Alice, whose lives are disrupted when career fraudster Bob moves in.

Written by Gareth Gwynn and Benjamin Partridge.

Gruff ...... Elis James
Alice ...... Katy Wix
Bob ...... Steve Speirs
Mariella ...... Gemma Whelan
Terry ...... Oliver Maltman
Monkey World Announcer ...... Jason Forbes

Producer: Victoria Lloyd

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2017.


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m0015cjn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:04 Sea Change by Alix Nathan (m0015bb7)
Episode 10

England is beset by social unrest and the threat of Napoleonic invasion. Parted following a freakish accident, Sarah Battle and her daughter Eve try to rediscover each other.

With her mother widely-believed to be dead, Eve is raised by Sarah’s erratic artist friend, Joseph in London. Sarah - traumatised in mind and body - must rebuild herself in a Norfolk fishing village at the parsonage of the strangely-motivated Reverend Snead.

Episode Ten
Sarah and Hester travel to London in search of Eve, but Eve has travel plans of her own.

Alix Nathan is the author of His Last Fire, a collection of short stories, and the novels The Flight Of Sarah Battle and The Warlow Experiment.

Writer: Alix Nathan
Reader: Samantha Spiro
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m0015bb9)
Gambling inquest, Libraries, Power of Attorney

In the next few weeks the Government is expected to set out how it will reform gambling laws. It's been a long time coming - the White Paper with all the detail keeps getting pushed back. It's now likely to be published in May. We speak to Charles and Liz Ritchie who've been campaigning for years for an overhaul of the current legislation. In 2017, their Jack, a gambling addict, took his own life. Jack was 24 and working as an English teacher in Vietnam when he died. Their son began betting on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals when he was 17 and still at school. Later he gambled on online. Earlier this month an inquest into his death found that gambling had been a contributory factor in his suicide.

Years of council cuts have taken a terrible toll on libraries. Hundreds have closed or been handed over to voluntary groups and many continue to face an uncertain future. But one national library organisation has said the system used to measure the performance and popularity of libraries is not "fit for purpose" and should be replaced. Our reporter, Bob Walker goes to Nottingham where a number of libraries are under threat.

We revisit complaints about the Office of the Public Guardian which deals with Power of Attorney applications. Lasting Power of Attorney gives a relative or trusted friend control over your financial affairs, in anticipation that you may lose capacity to make those decisions yourself. We report on delays of up to a year with processing applications. We speak to Steve Reed, the Shadow Justice Secretary and Sheree Green from the Law Society. The Office of Public Guardian says they've hired more staff to deal with the delays and are working to make the system quicker, simpler to use and secure from fraud.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Tara Holmes


FRI 12:57 Weather (m0015bbc)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m0015bbf)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Edward Stourton.


FRI 13:45 The Museums That Make Us (m0015bbh)
Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton

Neil MacGregor presents a new series for BBC Radio Four celebrating the role and ambition of museums the length and breadth of the country, and in the process he'll be find answers to the question ‘What are Museums For in 2022’.

In today's episode Neil heads to the South coast where Brighton's reputation as a flamboyant, 'out there' city has been enjoyed from the Regency period to the present. And while the Pavilion itself might be an object that epitomises that, the museum has chosen to celebrate an exhibit from their 'Queer Looks' gallery which tells the story of the city's status as the unofficial gay capital of the UK, by celebrating powerful and universal human emotions and rituals which have been allowed to flourish here. That's what lies behind the choice of the wedding attire of Ciara Green and Abbie Lockyer. They got married in 2016, and in a first for Neil, he gets to chat to the original owners of a museum exhibit about what it means to see their clothes on display, and how it affects their views about a museum's role in shaping the attitudes and ambitions of a local community.

Museums have always been telescopes trained on the past to help locate a sense of place in the present. Neil believes that role is an active one, responding to changes in the people museums serve and the shifting social and cultural landscape they inhabit. After spending much of his life at the centre of our national Museum life in London, Neil is taking to the road to discover more about the extraordinary work being done in cherished Museums outside the capital, from Stornoway to Stowmarket, and Belfast to Birmingham.

In each episode he visits a single museum, inviting them to choose an object from their collections which they feel best illustrates their civic role, and the way they relate and want to relate to their local audience. Very rarely have they chosen a crown jewel from their often priceless collections. More often it's an object with a particular local resonance, or which helps tackle episodes from the past which are being viewed very differently by citizens in the 21st century.

He’ll be visiting the great national museums of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as major city institutions in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and elsewhere. And in spite of the challenges of the last two years, everywhere he meets passionate teams who are dedicated to providing a unique experience for both local audiences and visitors from further afield.

Neil writes: “What’s going on in our museums is at once challenging and exciting and it can only really be understood by visiting as many as possible and finding out how they have approached what is a vital role in providing a sense of local, regional and national identity.”

Producer - Tom Alban
Original music composed by Phil Channell


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0015b8x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (p0bpwb7w)
Who Is Aldrich Kemp?

Who is Aldrich Kemp? - Chapter Five: Kholat Syakhl

As the water rises, Clara Page is under more pressure than ever and learns some surprising family history. Can Aldrich Kemp and the team save her? Will she finally know all the answers?

Cast:
Clara Page .................................................Phoebe Fox
Mister Bartholomew .............................Tim McInnerny
Aldrich Kemp ...........................................Ferdinand Kingsley
Mrs Boone..................................................Nicola Walker
Sebastian Harcourt ................................Kyle Soller
Nakesha Kemp ........................................Karla Crome
Aunt Lily .....................................................Susan Jameson
The Underwood Sisters ........................Jana Carpenter
Conrad Spijker ........................................Steven Mackintosh
Hazlitt...................... ..................................Ben Crowe
Nurse.. .......................................................Louise Brealey

Created and written by Julian Simpson

Recorded on location in Hove, London and at The Royal Pavilion in Brighton

Music composed by Tim Elsenburg
Sound Design: David Thomas
Director: Julian Simpson
Producer: Sarah Tombling
Executive Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:45 Helen Lewis: Great Wives (m000z6dq)
Series 1

Muses

For two decades, Great Lives on Radio 4 has explored what it takes to change the world. But Helen Lewis wants to ask a different question: what does it take to live with someone who changes the world?

Behind the history of genius lies a second, hidden history: the stories of people who give geniuses the time they need to flourish. This series explores the many "supporting roles" needed to sustain an apparently "singular" genius.

In this episode Helen turns her attention to the role of the Muse as she meets many and various historical figures from Elizabeth Siddal to Dora Maar via Alice B Toklas.

Written by Helen Lewis with additional voices from Joshua Higgott
Producer: Richard Morris
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Design: Chris Maclean

A BBC Studios Production


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0015bbl)
GQT at Home: Euryops and Euonymus

Kathy Clugston hosts the horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts. This week's panellists are the ever-knowledgeable Chris Thorogood, Bob Flowerdew, and Bunny Guinness.

On this week's programme, the panel answer the question of whether it's possible to grow your own cup of tea. Keeping it in the kitchen, they also assess whether a passionfruit plant grown from seed will ever fruit, and explain what is going on with a confused ginger plant.

Away from the questions, Matt Biggs heads to Special Plants nursery in Bath to ask Derry Watkins for her best seed harvesting tips, and Advolly Richmond sings the praises of an often overlooked plant, common ivy.

Producer - Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer - Aniya Das

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 After Wonderland (b03ymr46)
Belle's Blog

The second of three monologues by Sheila Yeger imagining the adult lives of characters from children's literature.

Decades after Neverland Tinkerbell the fairy is writing a sassy blog, doing panto and pining for Peter Pan. But the nights are lonely and she has terrible dreams about crocodiles.

Belle is played by Marcia Warren; the producer is James Cook


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m0015bbn)
Mary Coombs, Paul Farmer, Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper, William Hurt (pictured)

John Wilson on Mary Coombs, the world's first female computer programmer in the commercial sector; Paul Farmer, a medical anthropologist who saved millions of lives in the world's poorest countries; Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper, who had a run-in with General Eisenhower and later went on to translate the comic book Tintin; and William Hurt, Oscar-winning actor.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Fred Frank Land OBE
Interviewed guest: Georgina Ferry
Interviewed guest: Sheila Davis
Interviewed guest: Sue Brown
Interviewed guest: Michael Goldfarb

Archive clips used: Putney High School YouTube Channel, Mary Coombs - 125th Anniversary Alumnae Portrait Exhibition 09/11/2018; LEO Computer Society / The Centre for Computing History, Sounds of the Leo Computer - LEO III in Operation 1964; Google / computingheritage YouTube Channel, Mary Coombs shares her story 25/09/2013; Partners in Health YouTube Channel, Paul Farmer - I believe in healthcare as a human right 21/05/2009; Decades TV Network, America Enters World War II 1941; British Movietone, Festival of Britain Opening 03/05/1951; BBC Cymru / Moulinsart, Tintin's Adventure with Frank Gardner 30/10/2011; Ellipse Programme/Nelvana Ltd, Tintin - The Crab With The Golden Claws (DVD) 1992; BBC Radio 4 Extra, The Adventures of Tintin By Hergé - Explorers On The Moon (Radio Drama) 06/02/1992; The Ladd Company, Body Heat (1981) film; HB Filmes / FilmDallas, Kiss of The Spiderwoman (1985) film; Marvel Studios / Vita-Ray Dutch Productions (III) / Studio Babelsberg, Captain America - Civil War (2016) film.


FRI 16:30 Feedback (m0015bbq)
Are there some subjects radio comedy programmes should steer clear of? For example, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The BBC executive in charge of both The News Quiz and The Now Show Julia McKenzie explains why those topical comedies sought to use humour as the prism for this dreadful tragedy.

Roger Bolton also examines the commercial logic behind the BBC’s decision to restrict access to its podcasts.

And the Out Of Your Comfort Zone listeners discuss the merits of a Radio 4 docudrama.

Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 17:00 PM (m0015bbs)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0015bbx)
An army barracks was targeted in the southern city of Mykolaiv


FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m0015bbz)
Series 60

Episode 2

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches. They're joined by Jess Fostekew, Ken Cheng and Jazz Emu.

Jess talks us through all the things she's doing to distract herself from the news, Ken takes on the cost of living crisis and Jazz Emu issues a challenge to Gordon Ramsay.

Voice Actors: Luke Kempner and Gemma Arrowsmith

Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Co-Ordinator: Sarah Sharpe

BBC Studios Production


FRI 19:00 Letter from Ukraine (m0015jjq)
A cold spring

Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov gives a personal account of the new routines of life in a country at war.

Written and read by Andrey Kurkov
Translated by Elizabeth Sharp
Produced by Emma Harding

Production co-ordinator Eleri McAuliffe
Technical producer Nigel Lewis

A BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m0015bc3)
Howard Goodall and Yshani Perinpanayagam and the wonders of the keyboard

Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are joined by composer Howard Goodall and pianist and music director Yshani Perinpanayagam to add five more tracks to the playlist.

In this week's adventure they explore the enormity of variety the keyboard offers, a journey that takes us to the cathedral, to outer space and, closer to home, Peru!

Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by J S Bach
No Time for Caution by Hans Zimmer
Malambo No.1 by Yma Sumac
Big Eater by The Bad Plus
Blockbuster by Sweet

Other music in this episode:

Lost in Music by Sister Sledge
Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues) by Duke Ellington
Chariots of Fire by Vangelis
Queen of the Night from Die Zauberflöte by W A Mozart
Chuncho by Yma Sumac
Smells Like Teen Spirit by The Bad Plus
I'm a Man by Bo Diddley
The Jean Genie by David Bowie


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m0015bc5)
Wera Hobhouse MP, Delyth Jewell MS, Bob Seely MP, Nick Thomas-Symonds MP

Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Coleg y Cymoedd Rhondda Campus in Llwynypia.
Our panel;

Wera Hobhouse is the MP for Bath. She is the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Justice, Women and Equalities
Delyth Jewell is the MS for South Wales East. She is the Plaid Cymru Spokesperson on Energy and Climate Change
Bob Seely is the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight. He is a member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee
Nick Thomas-Symonds is the MP for Torfaen. He is the Labour Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade

Producer: Richard Hooper
Lead broadcast engineer: Tim Allen


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0015bc7)
Every Picture Tells a Story

"When war smashes its way into our living rooms as it did three weeks ago", writes Sarah Dunant, "it is pictures rather than words that hit hardest".

Sarah discusses the impact of images from war through the centuries and the history they write.

And she ponders which image from Putin's war will represent this moment in the future.

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Hugh Levinson


FRI 21:00 Nazanin (m0015zvg)
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held in Iran for almost six years before her dramatic release this week. Why? Ceri Thomas unravels the extraordinary story of a decades-old argument about an arms deal and a debt which had nothing whatsoever to do with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe - until the day she was taken in lieu of payment.

Presenter: Ceri Thomas
Producer: Matt Russell

A Tortoise Media production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m0015bcc)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 Sea Change by Alix Nathan (m0015bb7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 today]


FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m00159zw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000vrkb)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament