SATURDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2024

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m00230bb)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (m002308w)
Book of the Week: Episode 5 - A New Threat

In Ben Macintyre’s latest book about the SAS hostage crisis at the Iranian Embassy, the siege enters its third day. The volatile gunmen make a new and chilling threat. Meanwhile, clad in combat gear, the SAS double down on their preparations. Jamie Parker reads.

Ben Macintyre sets the pulse racing in his new book when he returns us to the spring of 1980. On 30th April, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London, taking 26 people hostage, what followed was an intense set of events involving police negotiators, decisions makers at the highest levels, and the SAS. Jamie Parker reads.

In The Siege Ben Macintyre takes us on a journey through the crisis, painting a minute-by-minute picture of six days filled with terror and uncertainty for the hostages, the gunmen and the authorities.

When all avenues to resolve the crisis bloodlessly were exhausted, the SAS were deployed, and millions gathered around their televisions to watch the unprecedented events unfold.

Ben Macintyre’s previous titles include, Colditz, Agent Sonya, and The Spy and The Traitor. Several have been adapted for film and television – Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS Rogue Heroes.

Jamie Parker is known for his work on radio – Hamlet, Going Infinite, The Gold Finch; the stage – The History Boys, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Next to Normal, and screen - Becoming Elizabeth, The Crown and Des.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00230bh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00230bm)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00230br)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m00230bw)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00230c0)
Changing Seasons

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity


SAT 05:45 Glued Up: The Sticky Story of Humanity (m001y89y)
The Birth of Civilisation

Modern life would quite literally fall apart without glues – they hold our buildings, our phones, even our bodies together. But the story of stickiness runs much deeper than that. In fact, our greatest leaps forward as a species couldn’t have happened without adhesives.

In this series, materials scientist Mark Miodownik charts the journey of human progress through the sticky substances that have shaped us. In episode one he explores the very earliest adhesives, dating back at least 190,000 years, that allowed our ancestors to invent, innovate, and make the first tools.

And he hears how lumps of these prehistoric glues contain fragments of the stone age people who used them, trapped in time for thousands of years.

Contributors:
Geeske Langejans, Delft University of Technology
Hannes Schroeder, University of Copenhagen

Producer: Anand Jagatia
Presenter: Mark Miodownik
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
BBC Studios Audio Production


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m00236w9)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m0022z9k)
Night under the Stars

For young carers, it can be difficult to find time to get away from home and enjoy the great outdoors. In this programme Helen Mark meets a group of 12-13 year-olds who all have caring responsibilities for a family member at home, but who are spending a night camping out on Dartmoor. She joins them as they pitch their tents, do some river-dipping, and help with feeding farm livestock. As dusk falls, they set off on a night-time walk across the moor - battling their way through gorse bushes in the dark, to reach a rocky outcrop where they lie on their backs to gaze in silence at the stars.

Helen talks to some of the young carers about their experiences, and hears from the charity which organised the trip and the ranger from Dartmoor National Park who guides the young people through the activities. They tell her why it's important to offer opportunities like this and explain how much difference a taste of the outdoors can make to the life of a young carer. For some of them, this is their first experience of spending a night in a tent.

Producer: Emma Campbell


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m00236wc)
21/09/24 Farming Today This Week: Radical change to food safety proposed, flood repairs outstanding, trail hunting, blackberries

Radical changes to food safety are being proposed. The Food Standards Agency is discussing removing responsibility from cash strapped councils and relying instead on data collected by food companies and supermarkets. Chris Elliott, professor of food safety at Queen’s University Belfast and Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, says more work and more consultation is needed.

As the Met Office predicts another autumn and winter of destructive floods, a number of flood defences in England damaged during last winter's storms are still yet to be fixed. And the National Farmers' Union has warned that many farms still in dire need of flood support.

It's been 20 years since fox hunting was banned by Tony Blair’s government. Since then trail or drag hunting are two different ways of hunting without doing anything illegal. In drag hunting the hounds follow a non-animal scent laid by a drag pulled on a string, in trail hunting they follow an animal scent. Critics say trail hunting can be used as a smokescreen for illegal hunting and in its election manifesto Labour said it would ban trail hunting.

Picking blackberries from the hedgerows, along with the wild damson and sloes, is one of those end of summer outings, marking the seasonal shift. September is also the biggest month for selling commercially grown blackberries. Growers say new varieties mean they're bigger and better and while sales are up about 6% year on year, they're nowhere near as popular here in the UK as raspberries. Is it worth buying blackberries, at £2 or more a punnet, when you can pick them for free?

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m00236wf)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m00236wh)
21/09/24 - Emma Barnett and Simon Jack

News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m00236wk)
Fred Sirieix, Jeff Young, Jen Stout, Candice Brathwaite

Frenchman Fred Sirieix who's gone from front of house at the crème de la crème of London's restaurants, to fronting TV shows, to now writing a book on his love of Britain.

We hear what sort of urge it was that took Shetland raised journalist Jen Stout over to Russia to study, then onto Ukraine to cover the war.

Plus, screenwriter and playwright Jeff Young joins us to tell us why he quit his job as a filing clerk to hitchhike to Paris.

Two-time Sunday Times bestselling author Candice Brathwaite shares with us her Inheritance Tracks.

Presenters: Nikki Bedi & Huw Stephens
Producer: Lowri Morgan


SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (p0fhsb3y)
Cleopatra

Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Shushma Malik and comedian Thanyia Moore to learn about Cleopatra.

Cleopatra, the seventh Ancient Egyptian Queen to bear that name, was born around 69 BCE and she’s seen by many historians as the final ruler of dynastic Egypt; a lineage that stretched back 3,000 years.

From marrying and murdering her siblings to liaisons of love and political pragmatism with top Romans Julius Caesar and Mark Antony; Cleopatra led a very turbulent life.

But when we strip back the modern myths and ancient interpretations, who was the real Cleopatra?

You’re Dead To Me is a production by The Athletic for BBC Radio 4
Research by Aimee Hinds Scott
Written by Emma Nagouse, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Produced by Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner
Assistant Producer: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow
Project Management: Isla Matthews
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m00236wp)
Series 45

Norwich

Jay Rayner and his rabble of cooks and writers are in Norwich to share their best recipes, food combos and hot takes. Joining Jay to share their best kitchen advice are food blogger, Will Hughes AKA WhatWillyCook, food writers Melissa Thompson and Melek Erdal, and food historian Dr Annie Gray.

The experts explain how to avoid chewy steak, the best foods to embellish with crisps and perhaps the most pressing of questions: what to cook for a grumpy husband. While Will reminisces about crisp-coated prawns, Jay chats to the chef at XO Kitchen, about his recipes involving snacks, cereals and crisps.

After convincing an audience member that mussels are, in fact, edible, Jay takes a moment to chat to local fishmonger, Gary Howard about the process of harvesting Brancaster mussels.

Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock
Senior Producer: Carly Maile


SAT 11:00 Americast (m00230b6)
How do you protect a president?

After a second assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump, Americast hears from a former Secret Service agent on what goes into protecting a secret service agent, particularly on a golf course.
Sarah, Justin and Marianna are joined by Bill Gage, who helped protect President George W. Bush and President Obama. They discuss what went wrong, what secret service agents hide in their golf bags, and he also picks out out some of his most memorable experiences on the job.

HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Sarah Smith, North America Editor
• Marianna Spring, Disinformation & social media correspondent

GUEST:
• Bill Gage, former Secret Service agent

GET IN TOUCH:
• Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB
• Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480
• Email Americast@bbc.co.uk
• Or use #Americast

This episode was made by Purvee Pattni with Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo and Claire Betzer. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.

You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers.

US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155

Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including The Global Story, The Today Podcast, and of course Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.

The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd
The Today Podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r
Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl
Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m00236sk)
Panic and Unease in Beirut

Kate Adie introduces dispatches from Lebanon, Poland, The Gambia, Panama and Cyprus.

Lebanon is reeling from this week’s wave of exploding pager attacks, which killed more than 35 people, and injured hundreds more. Edmund Bower was in capital as the first news of the explosions began to spread, and reveals how the attacks has compounded the unease that already permeates Beiruti society.

Flooding has devastated parts of Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Austria this week leaving more than 20 people dead. Sarah Rainsford reports from Poland on the country's worst flooding in two decades.

Female Genital Mutilation is classified as a human rights abuse by the UN, but a recent bill in The Gambia sought to overturn a ban on the practice. Reporting with The Pulitzer Center, Sira Thierij visited a community where activists were working hard to change the minds of locals hanging on to long-held cultural beliefs.

Panama’s weather is hot, sticky and tropical – and it's causing a stink among the country's unattended rubbish piles. It was a particular problem for prisoners and prison guards at a local jail - until one inmate came up with an innovative solution. Jane Chambers went to find out more.

And it's 50 years since the war which divided Cyprus and the subsequent negotiations to reunify the island have ended in stalemate. Meanwhile the landscape of this popular holiday island is being remade by developers – though Maria Margaronis met one woman with a different vision for its future.

Series producer: Serena Tarling
Production coordinators: Sophie Hill & Katie Morrison
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m00236wr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m00236sh)
Social Tariffs and Open Banking

People are missing out on nearly two billion pounds' worth of discounts on water bills and broadband, according to Citizen's Advice. Social tariffs give lower prices to people on low incomes, but the charity says there's a "postcode lottery" when it comes to what people can get. The government says more than 1.3 million households in England and Wales benefitted from £200m worth of help with water bills in 2022/23 and that it's working with broadband providers to raise awareness of social tariffs.
Industry groups say many customers choose low-cost broadband over social tariffs and the number of households getting help paying for water should double by 2030.

How might the Chancellor change tax relief on pensions in the upcoming budget?

More than 11 million people used Open Banking in July - that figure was up by 12 percent on the month before. We'll discuss how it works.

And, have you been affected by a scam? Ahead of a special programme on October 5th we'd like to know your experiences - email moneybox@bbc.co.uk.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researchers: Jo Krasner and Emma Smith
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 21st September 2024)


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m002309n)
Series 115

Work & Play

Simon Evans, Ian Smith, Aditi Mittal and Anushka Asthana join Andy Zaltzman to quiz the news

This week on The News Quiz the panel go through the PM's wardrobe, take a splash into the Lib Dem's conference, and take on the year's greatest mystery... where are all the butterflies?

Written by Andy Zaltzman

With additional material by: Cameron Loxdale, Sarah Campbell, Owen Pullar and Peter Tellouche
Producer: Sam Holmes
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Coordinator: Jodie Charman
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4
An Eco-Audio certified Production


SAT 12:57 Weather (m00236wt)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m00236ww)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m002309v)
Victoria Collins MP, Nigel Huddleston MP, Steve Reed MP, Alex Wilson AM

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Weavers Academy in Wellingborough with Victoria Collins, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, technology and innovation; shadow financial secretary to the Treasury Nigel Huddleston; the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, Steve Reed; and Alex Wilson of Reform, a London Assembly member.
Producer: Paul Martin
Lead Broadcast Engineer: Kevan Long


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m00236wy)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week.


SAT 14:45 The Archers (m002309q)
While Tracy’s taste-testing Jolene’s apple and cheese pie Jolene mentions that someone has stolen Rosie’s sunflower from Brookfield. Tracy confesses it’s got to be Jazzer. When it was found after Jazzer hid it behind some greenery he went into a massive sulk. And now he must have dug it up and taken it. But Tracy’s determined Jazzer’s giving it back, somehow. Later, after Tracy finds the missing sunflower behind their shed, Jolene reckons she knows just the person to help sneak it back to Brookfield - Tracy’s dad!
Eddie’s miffed to hear from Will that Clarrie knows he’s fallen out with Susan. Eddie defends himself for sticking up for George, and still reckons the solicitor isn’t doing enough. Will just wants to make sure George is okay in himself. Eddie accuses Will of not even trying and says he’ll help George on his own.
Out on a tree surgery job Emma’s tetchy with Ed, who’s bitter about her quitting the Tearoom. Then, at a critical moment, Ed’s distracted by Emma’s phone. She drops a large branch, only just missing him, telling him they can’t work safely if they’re constantly bickering. Later, Ed breaks down at the prospect of Emma going to prison. She tells him to be strong for Keira and the business. They’ve worked too hard to throw everything away. And one more thing: he’s got to find a way to forgive her. Will then calls and tells Emma they’re both in the clear – they’re not being prosecuted! Tearful Ed swears he’ll try his best to forgive her. That’s all Emma’s asking for.


SAT 15:00 Drama on 4 (m000p725)
Clash. Part 1

Ellen Wilkinson's political romance, set during the General Strike, looking at the clash between North and South, work and life, tradition and emerging roles. Joan Craig bridges all these divides with energy and talent, but ultimately has to choose whose side she's on.

Cast
Kate O’Flynn ..... Joan Craig
Paul Ready ..... Tony Dacre
Luke Nunn ..... Gerry Blain
Jane Whittenshaw ..... Mary Maud Meadowes
Roger Ringrose ..... William Royd
Emma Handy ..... Helen Dacre
Stefan Adegbola ..... Harry Browne
Charlotte East ..... Factory worker
Ian Dunnett Jnr ..... Chemical Worker

Adaptation - Sharon Oakes
Sound - Peter Ringrose
Directors - Ciaran Bermingham and Jessica Dromgoole

Notes
Ellen Wilkinson is an all too rare working class, female voice from early 20th century literature. As one of the first ever women MPs and cabinet members, she is better known as a political pioneer. Joan's story echoes Wilkinson's own life. A woman with major personal and political dilemmas: Joan is born into a working class family, fights for social equality but is enchanted by world of ease and luxury represented by Mary Maud Meadowes and Tony Dacre.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m00236x0)
Weekend Women's Hour: Saoirse Ronan, Tracey Emin, Nikki Doucet on women’s football, Friends 30th anniversary

Dame Tracey Emin is one of the most famous artists and leading figures of the Young British Artists movement of the 1990s. Hers is a uniquely provocative, confessional style which confronts issues such as trauma of abortion, rape, alcoholism and sexual history. In recent years Tracey has focussed on painting and she has just published her first in-depth exploration of her painted work, simply called Paintings. Anita Rani talks to her about that and her latest exhibition, I followed you to the End, on now at the White Cube gallery in London.

Nikki Doucet has been called the most powerful person in English women’s football. She is the newly appointed CEO of the Women’s Professional Leagues Ltd which took over leadership of the two top tiers of women's football from the Football Association this summer. Nikki and her team have big plans to revolutionise the women's game, as she tells Clare McDonnell.

Four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan broke into Hollywood at 13 years old with her performance as Briony Tallis in Atonement. She has also appeared as Jo March in Little Women, as the lead actress in Brooklyn and won a Golden Globe for her performance in Lady Bird. She joins Clare to discuss her latest role in the film The Outrun in which she plays Rona, a young woman struggling with addiction.

The number of women taking up NHS cervical screening test invitations has been declining for the last 20 years. Healthwatch England did research with women who were reluctant to accept NHS invitations for screening and found that 73% would do an at-home test instead. A trial done by King’s College, London earlier this year found that if self-sample kits were available on the NHS, 400,000 more women would be screened per year. Chief Executive of Healthwatch England, Louise Ansari, and Dr Anita Lim, lead investigator of the King’s College London trial, join Clare to talk about their findings.

On 22 September 1994, the American TV show Friends premiered on NBC and the characters Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross became household names. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Anita speaks to one of the show’s writers and producers, Betsy Borns. Plus, we hear from journalist Emma Loffhagen about why the show still resonates with Gen Z all these years later.

Carrie Hope Fletcher is an author, singer, West End star – and now a new mum. She joins Anita to talk about her UK tour, Love Letters, which will feature musical theatre favourites and love letters from the audience.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Annette Wells
Editor: Rebecca Myatt


SAT 17:00 PM (m00236x2)
Fears grow of all-out war in Lebanon

Fears grow of an all-out war in Lebanon. Among those killed in Israeli air strikes in Beirut is Ibrahim Aqil, the man accused of organising the 1983 attack on the US embassy there. We speak to the CIA agent who remembers the attack. Also: lawyers representing women who say they were sexually assaulted by the late Egyptian billionaire, Mohammed Al Fayed, have received 150 new enquiries about the investigation. And Tamagotchi - the Japanese gadget synonymous with the 1990s - is making a return.


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m00236x4)
The Mick Whelan One

Mick Whelan is General Secretary of Aslef, the union representing train drivers.

He sits down with Nick on the week that his members voted overwhelmingly to accept a pay offer, bringing to an end two years of strike action.

Whelan reflects on growing up in working class West London and being one of a number of 2nd-generation Irish immigrants who have become union leaders in the UK.

Producer: Daniel Kraemer


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m00236x6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m00236x8)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00236xb)
Israel-Hezbollah Conflict

Israel mounts another wave of air strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m00236xd)
Russell Watson, Jackie Kay, Deborah McAndrew and Adam Kay join Nihal with music from The Lemon Twigs

The tenor Russell Watson's remarkable career took him from playing from working mens clubs in Salford to performing at the Vatican. But his life hasn't been completely charmed - he discusses the brain tumour that threatened his life as well as his voice and how he found his way back to centre stage.

Jackie Kay is one of the UK's most lauded poets who turned to writing as a child as a sanctuary from the difficulties of life as an adopted, if much loved, half-Nigerian child in Scotland. A new BBC One documentary tells her story "In Her Own Words"; we'll be asking why she wanted to do that.

Doctor-turned-comedian-turned-author Adam Kay’s first book This Is Going To Hurt sold over 3 million copies and was adapted into a multi award-winning TV series. Now he's taken another career turn into children's fiction with a new character – Dexter Procter, the ten year old doctor.

As an actress Deborah McAndrew played Angie Freeman on Coronation Street in the 1990s. She left the Rovers Return behind long ago for a career as a writer and her latest play tells the story of the night an Unidentified Flying Object landed near Stoke-on-Trent's Bentilee housing estate. The show draws on multiple eyewitness accounts from the time to create a warm and funny depiction of an extraordinary event happening to very ordinary people.

Plus music from The Lemon Twigs's latest album A Dream Is All We Know.

Presented by Nihal Arthanayake
Produced by Olive Clancy


SAT 19:00 Profile (m00236rf)
Martin Hewitt

Some call it one of the trickiest jobs in the country. How do you stop the small boats trying to cross the English Channel and smash the smuggling gangs?

The government has appointed Martin Hewitt to the role- he’s leading the UK’s new border security command. It’s a tough job, so can he do it?

Martin Hewitt is a former senior police officer and chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council. He is also the man who oversaw the policing of Covid lockdowns.

Mark Coles has been speaking to some of his colleagues, former colleagues and the journalists who reported on him.

Contributors
Tim Smith - Chief Constable, Kent Police
Danny Shaw - Former BBC Correspondent
Festus Akinbusoye - Former Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire
Ruth Turner - Senior Director at the Forward Institute
Dal Babu – Former Chief Superintendent in the Metropolitan Police
Vikram Dodd - Guardian Police and Crime Correspondent

Production team
Producers: Farhana Haider, Ben Morris, Ben Cooper, Michaela Graichen
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound: Gareth Jones
Production Co-ordinators: Sabine Schereck and Maria Ogundele


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m0022z8z)
Peter Kosminsky

Having started out as a current affairs journalist, Peter Kosminsky made his name by telling contemporary social and political stories in the form of television drama. Warriors was about British soldiers in the peace-keeping force in Bosnia; The Government Inspector dramatised the events surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly; The State explored the radicalisation of British Islamists. Kosminsky is also acclaimed for his television adaptations of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy. He has won six BAFTA Awards, including one for his outstanding contribution to British television.

Peter talks to John Wilson about the huge influence of his parents. He recalls how his left wing father and his mother who had been a kindertransport child, shaped his interest social justice from the perspective of the outsider, the refugee and the disenfranchised.
Seeing Ken Loach's 1975 BBC television drama Days of Hope was a another turning point, and revealed to the 18 year old Kosminsky, the huge emotional power of the medium of television drama.
He also explains how a letter from a British soldier in response to his 1999 drama Warriors led to his acclaimed and controversial Channel 4 series The Promise, 11 years later.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m00236xg)
Reweaving Threads, 40 Years On

40 years ago, a BBC film showing the grim reality of a post-nuclear world terrified a generation. Jude Rogers meets its cast and crew to unravel why it still haunts so many today.

It was a film that spawned a thousand nightmares, including the most terrifying traffic warden. When the Cold War film Threads was broadcast on BBC Two on the evening of Sunday 23rd September, many across the nation didn’t sleep.

Directed by Mick Jackson and written by Barry Hines, Threads explored what would happen if a nuclear bomb went off in the city of Sheffield. The BBC production did what no other film had done to date - showing the grim reality of life after a nuclear attack in painstakingly researched and horrifying detail.

On a tiny budget and reliant on hundreds of willing extras from the city of Sheffield, Threads painted a picture so chilling that its images of melting milk bottles, urinating women, and the bleak wind of a nuclear winter have been branded into the memories of many of those who watched it when it was broadcast, or who have seen it since.

Jude Rogers saw Threads in the 1990s, when nuclear war seemed like a distant nightmare. She was drawn to the cult status of the film and the community of “Threads Heads” who re-watch it, discuss it, dissect it. But in today’s world, with wars raging and increasing political instability and unrest, some believe Threads is starting to feel eerily relevant again.

With an original soundtrack from Jim Jupp of Belbury Poly, Jude speaks to the cast and crew of Threads, as well as those who’ve been fascinated by it since, to explore how Threads was made, and how it has haunted so many in the forty years since.

Featuring:
Mick Jackson, the director
Jan Nethercot, Head of Make Up on Threads
Reece Dinsdale, who played Jimmy
Catherine Taylor, who was an extra on Threads
Dave Forrest, Professor of English at the University of Sheffield
Sylvan Baker, Senior Lecturer at the Central School for Speech and Drama
Craig Ian Mann and Rob Nevitt, filmmakers
Neil Kinnock, former Leader of the Labour Party.
With thanks to Roger Bolton, Karen Meagher, and Jim Jupp.
Presented by Jude Rogers
Produced by Leonie Thomas
Executive Producer: Steven Rajam

Soundtrack credit: Jim Jupp of Belbury Poly.
Image Credit: Catrin James

An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 Uncharted with Hannah Fry (m00236xj)
Omnibus

In this omnibus episode, catch up on four thrilling tales of data and discovery.

A Drop in the Ocean - A fisherman falls into the Atlantic late at night. Completely alone, the clock is ticking. How do you find one man lost in the open ocean? Can he be rescued in time?

The Golden Spike - At a conference in Mexico, one scientist’s outburst launches a global quest. Hannah Fry follows a group of researchers on the hunt for a ‘golden spike’: the boundary, marking a shift into a dramatic new geological period dominated, not by volcanoes and asteroids, but the influence of humans. From plastics and concrete to nuclear fallout, the data they uncover reveals a planet profoundly changed. But can these scientists persuade their colleagues - and the world?

The Night the Earth Shook - In a small Italian city nestled in the Apennine mountains, a series of low level tremors are setting nerves on edge. Is this just a passing phase, or a prelude to something far more devastating?

The Confidence Trick - An ambitious portfolio manager stumbles upon a perfect graph. It outlines eye watering profits. But something doesn't quite add up - could this graph be accurate? Or does it hide a far more sinister truth?

Produced by Ilan Goodman and Lauren Armstrong Carter
Sound Designer: Jon Nicholls
Story Editor: John Yorke


SAT 22:00 News (m00236xl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m002308t)
Nuts about Nuts

Leyla Kazim traces the journey of this unassuming wonder food, from its health benefits to its origins.

Nuts, which once would have been central to the diet of our ancestors, are now often treated as a nice-to-have health choice. It’s a food we need to reconnect with, and to do so, we can learn from both the latest science and other food cultures.

Leyla hears from Professor Sarah Berry of King’s College London, who has studied how the form in which we eat nuts - whole, ground, in butters or milks - affects how much of their benefits we receive. Swapping nuts for your daily snack, however you eat them, could help reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, as Sarah explains.

As health benefit messages around nuts take off, there has been a huge boom in demand. But what’s the impact of this on the world’s nut farmers, traders and environment? Without much origin information provided on nut packs, Leyla sets off to find some answers of her own. And her journey takes her across the world: from cashew plantations in west Africa, processing plants in south East Asia, markets in Turkey and walnut orchards in Kent. Not to mention a little diversion into California’s organised crime rings. Because there is another story here about how high demand has a price.

She spends a day with Charlie Tebbutt, founder of Food & Forest and one of the only companies to be actively selling British-grown nuts. Charlie also buys direct from other growers around the world, who are using a sustainable farming system called agroforestry, to preserve water, improve soil and diversify their income. Charlie is about to open a first-of-its-kind processing facility in Bermondsey, south London, where he hopes to de-shell and process British-grown hazelnuts in way that improves quality and allows the industry to scale up. Leyla visits his walnut orchards in Kent to ask: could British nuts ever replace imports?

If we’re trying to eat more nuts, there is also much to be learned from other countries. Specifically Turkey, where nuts are revered as a cornerstone of the cuisine and food culture. Leyla meets Turkish food writer and chef Ozlem Warren in her local Turkish supermarket, to reminisce over the Turkish 'green emerald' pistachios, green almonds and fresh walnuts, which are enjoyed by Turks in sweet or savoury dishes, at celebrations or indeed, at any other time of day.

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.


SAT 23:00 Randy Feltface's Destruction Manual (m00236xn)
1. Earth

Randy Feltface is done with us ruining the earth beneath our feet whether we’re digging it up, setting fire to it, or tipping it into the sea so with the help of an irritable duck, a fictional French coal miner and a sexy earthworm he works out the best way to just get the whole destruction business over and done with.

This head-on charge into possibly the most important subject facing humanity comes to you via a show where you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll learn, you’ll laugh again between the learny bits and most of all, you’ll be able to say “I was there when Radio 4 decided to have a show hosted by a puppet”.

Randy Feltface has been seen on Netflix, ABC, NBC, and has a huge & devoted following across the globe (1m+ social media followers, 1.6m TikTok followers, 833k subscribers, 79m YouTube views). His hour-long specials are YouTube cult classics, his world tours are sold-out sensations, and he's the only Radio 4 presenter to be entirely made of felt.

With Margaret Cabourn-Smith & William Hartley

Produced & directed by David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:30 Brain of Britain (m0022zx8)
Heat 3, 2024

(3/17)
Which is the only nation spread across all four hemispheres? Which fashion designer's signature is red-soled shoes? And which Chinese dynasty was founded by Kublai Khan?

Four contenders join Russell Davies for the latest heat in the 2024 quiz tournament, to face questions from all fields of general knowledge. A semi-final place awaits the winner, with a safety net for the top-runners up of the series too, if their scores are high enough.

Appearing today are
'Dennis', from Whitstable in Kent
Helen Lippell from East London
Mark Robotham who lives near Banbury in Oxfordshire
Shanine Salmon from Croydon.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria

A BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4.

SUNDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2024

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m00236xr)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Open Book (m0022zx6)
Matt Haig

Matt Haig speaks to Johny Pitts about his new book, The Life Impossible, set in Ibiza.

Plus The Lord Of The Flies at 70 - with Judy Golding, Jack Thorne, and Aimee De Jongh. The 70th anniversary of the classic novel sees two firsts: a graphic novel of Lord of The Flies, adapted and illustrated by Aimee De Jongh, and the first TV adaption - written by Jack Thorne, and set to reach BBC screens next year.

Presenter: Johny Pitts
Producer: Emma Wallace


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00236xt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00236xw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00236xy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m00236y0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m00236sr)
St Mary the Great in Cambridge

Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Mary the Great in Cambridge. Situated between the market place and the university there has been a church on the site since at least 1205 and bells since the late 15th century when much of the present building was constructed. For the last 300 years the bells are rung for services by the Society of Cambridge Youths, one of the oldest bell ringing societies, and who are this year celebrating the tri-centennial of their foundation in 1724. Today the tower holds a peal of twelve bells, cast by the Taylor Eayre and Smith foundry of Loughborough in 2009, with a twenty four and a quarter hundredweight tenor in the note of D. We hear them ringing “Particles” Maximus.


SUN 05:45 In Touch (m00230wy)
Melanie Barratt's Channel Swim; Your Questions, Please

Melanie Barratt is a decorated Paralympic swimmer, having won two Golds, two Silvers and a Bronze at the Atlanta and Sydney games. She has had a long career, but her most recent feat took her away from the swimming pool and into the English Channel. Melanie recently completed the 33km swim and made history while doing it, as she is thought to be the first blind woman to have finished. Melanie tells In Touch about how she prepared for the challenge (which involved regularly dipping into a barrel of freezing cold water), about the methods of how she did it as a blind person and about the health benefits that she believes cold water swimming provides.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: David Baguley
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m00236qm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Thinking Allowed (m00230wm)
Medical Icons

The Stethoscope and the X-ray: Laurie Taylor explores two medical innovations which have achieved iconic status. Nicole Lobdell, Assistant Professor of English at DePauw University, charts the when, where, and how of our use of X-rays, what meanings we give them and what metaphors we make out of them. Is there a paradox to living in an age where we rely on X-rays to expose hidden threats to our health and security but also fear the way they may expose us?
Also, Tom Rice, Associate Professor in Anthropology at the University of Exeter investigates a scientific instrument which has become the symbol of medicine itself. What makes the stethoscope such a familiar yet charismatic object?
Producer: Jayne Egerton


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m00236qp)
Farm Homeless Hostel

For three generations, Rob Addicott’s family have always wanted their Somerset farm to be accessible and welcoming to the local community. When he met his wife Suzanne, who had a background in working with people with addiction and homelessness problems, they decided they wanted Manor Farm to do, and be more.

In collaboration with Connect Community Church in Wells, the old Dairy House was converted into the area’s only direct access homeless hostel. Rural homelessness is often a hidden problem in the countryside, and it can be hard to find and access support. Dairy House residents receive accommodation and wholistic support within 2,000 acres of farmland, woodland and orchards. It receives core funding from the local authority. They can also learn skills in growing, gardening, animal care and woodwork with partner project, Root Connections. Their produce is sold direct to the local community through veg boxes, and used for meals in the communal hostel kitchen.

In this programme, Marie Lennon meets Rob and Suzanne, as well as speaking to service users and hostel staff.

Produced and presented by Marie Lennon


SUN 06:57 Weather (m00236qr)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m00236qt)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m00236qw)
CofE Bishops on Israel; Hezbollah pagers; Sugarcane

Four senior Church of England bishops have accused Israel of acting above the law in the West Bank. In a letter sent to The Observer newspaper, they have called on the UN to move beyond strongly worded resolutions and they say there is little distinction between state and settlor violence. The bishops say the letter has been prompted by the forceful dispossession of a Christian family from their ancestral land outside Bethlehem. Emily Buchanan speaks to one of the signatories, Bishop of Southwark, Christopher Chessun.

Our correspondent Hugo BachegaIn gives us the latest about the situation in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has confirmed that two senior commanders were killed in a strike on the capital Beirut on Friday. Since then Israel has claimed to have hit hundreds of Hezbollah rocket launchers while Hezbollah in turn has fired rockets into Israel's northern region. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said the earlier pager and walkie-talkie explosions which killed 39 people and wounded 3000 violated international humanitarian law.

A new documentary investigates abuse and death at an Indian residential school in Canada run by the Catholic Church between 1891 to 1981. As production of the film developed, Julian Brave NoiseCat’s (one of the Directors), own story became an integral part of the film. Emily Buchanan speaks to Julian and his co-director Emily Kassie.

Presenter: Emily Buchanan
Producers: Bara'atu Ibrahim & Alexa Good
Studio Managers: Amy Brennan & Mitchell Goodall
Editor: Tim Pemberton


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m00236qy)
The Brilliant Club

Comedian John Robins makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of The Brilliant Club. It places PhD students into schools across the UK to deliver university-style learning to disadvantaged pupils.

To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘The Brilliant Club’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Brilliant Club’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4

Registered Charity Number: 1147771
If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://thebrilliantclub.org
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites

Producer: Katy Takatsuki


SUN 07:57 Weather (m00236r0)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m00236r2)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m00236r4)
The time between times

Marking a festival of music in Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church, Melrose, with Fr Philip Blackledge; tracing the edges of our understanding of contact with God, in ways we can all explore and experience.
Philip speaks with Alastair McIntosh about the spiritual silence of the Quaker tradition and his experiences of liminality; and with Katriona and Paul Goode, whose son Matthew's disabilities taught them about true and deep communication of love.
Reading: Psalm 19
Hymns - All creatures of our God and King (Tune: Lasst uns erfreuen)
Eternal ruler of the ceaseless round (Tune: Song 1)
I bind unto myself today (St Patrick's Breastplate) (Tune: St Patrick)
Quartet - Christ be with me, Christ within me (Tune: Clonmacnoise)
Agnus Dei - Byrd Mass for 4 Voices
View Me, Lord (Composer: Richard Lloyd)
Prayers led by Rev Claire Nicholson.
Festival congregation and Choirs of Holy Trinity, Melrose, and St John's Episcopal Church, Princes Street, Edinburgh,
conducted by Robert Marshall and accompanied by David Goodenough.
Vocal Quartet: Claire Taylor, Michael Wood, Robert Marshall, Philip Blackledge.
Producer: Mo McCullough


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m002309x)
In Praise of the Nanny State

With the help of certain Conservative politicians, form number 48879-2039-876/WC and a rabbit hutch, Howard Jacobson takes a wry look at the advantages of a nanny state.

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Sarah Wadeson


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m00236r6)
Stephen Moss on the Swallow

A new series of Tweet of the Day for Sunday morning revealing personal and fascinating stories from some fresh voices who have been inspired by birds, their calls and encounters.

In his Somerset village, nature writer Stephen Moss enjoys the swallows that come to breed in the summer and fly around his home hawking for insects. Come September though, they will begin to head back to Africa to enjoy a second spring, a remarkable round trip of 20,000 kilometres for this globally widespread bird, that has even been recorded in Antarctica.

Producer : Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol
Studio Engineer : Caitlin Gazeley


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m00236r8)
Can Labour banish the gloom?

As Labour Conference commences in Liverpool, can the new government move on from the gloomy message? Paddy O'Connell is joined by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. Plus James May on single-file queues in pubs and one woman's mission to kayak all the points of the shipping forecast.


SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m0023px5)
James Graham - Extended Edit

This is an extended version of a programme first broadcast on Sunday 10 March 2024.

James Graham is an award-winning dramatist whose plays include This House, Ink and Dear England starring Joseph Fiennes as the England football manager Gareth Southgate. His acclaimed television productions include Sherwood and Quiz, based on the story of the so-called coughing Major Charles Ingram who was found guilty of cheating on the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

James was born in Kirkby-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire in 1982. He was a shy boy who was encouraged to perform in school plays by his teachers. He went on to study drama at Hull University where he wrote his first play Coal Not Dole! He took the play to the Edinburgh fringe and the reception it received from audiences encouraged him to carry on writing.

After graduating he worked as a stage doorkeeper at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham where one of his personal highlights was looking after Danny La Rue, the star of the Christmas panto. His first London premiere came in 2005 at the Finborough Theatre in London with Albert’s Boy, which explored the arguments for and against nuclear weapons.

In 2020 James was awarded an OBE for services to drama and young people in British theatre.

DISC ONE: Disco 2000 - Pulp
DISC TWO: Chatanooga Choo Choo - Glenn Miller
DISC THREE: Up In Arms - Foo Fighters
DISC FOUR: Syncopes - Gabriel Yared
DISC FIVE: Your Disco Needs You - Kylie Minogue
DISC SIX: Where Are We Now? - David Bowie
DISC SEVEN: If You Came To See Me Cry - Katie Brayben (from Tammy Faye: The Musical)
DISC EIGHT: Going To A Town - Rufus Wainwright

BOOK CHOICE: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
LUXURY ITEM: A keg of Single Malt Scotch Whisky
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Where Are We Now? - David Bowie

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley


SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m00236rc)
Writer: Liz John
Director: Mel Ward
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Jolene Archer…. Buffy Davies
Kenton Archer…. Richard Attlee
Pat Archer…. Patricia Gallimore
Tom Archer…. William Troughton
Tony Archer…. David Troughton
Susan Carter…. Charlotte Martin
Ian Craig…. Stephen Kennedy
Ed Grundy…. Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy…. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O‘Hanrahan
Will Grundy…. Philip Molloy
Tracy Horrobin…. Susie Riddell
Adam Macy…. Andrew Wincott
Fallon Rogers…. Joanna Van Kampen


SUN 12:15 Profile (m00236rf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 12:30 Just a Minute (m0022z3t)
Series 93

1. I’ve written down ‘Fleshy’, ‘England’ and ‘Chin’.

Sue Perkins challenges Stephen Fry, Jan Ravens, Tony Hawks and Katherine Parkinson to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation. Subjects include the invention of radio, doppelgängers and a bad-hair day.

Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Manager: Jerry Peal
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
An EcoAudio certified production.

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m00236rh)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m00236rk)
Do Labour need a strategy switch-up?

It's Labour's first conference in power - 10 weeks in, is their strategy working? Also, we hear a newly discovered Mozart symphony getting its premiere after more than 200 years.


SUN 13:30 American Paradox (m00236rm)
Immigration

James Naughtie travels to Arizona to examine the deep roots of the current political moment in the United States.

In this first episode of two, he considers the political debate over immigration and the border crisis. He looks at how a state law passed 14 years ago prefigured the rise of Donald Trump, and stimulated a political movement amongst young Arizonans against his politics. On the border with Mexico, James meets migrants, humanitarians and ranchers to understand the problems caused by a failure to effectively secure the border or efficiently process migrants. And he meets political leaders - those who have held power both in Arizona and in Washington, DC, to investigate how the politics of these issues have made compromise and successful policy outcomes - for either left or right - impossible.

Throughout, he explores how these modern political divisions lie along deep historical divides, and how the more either side presses for a 'win', the more divided the country becomes.

Producer: Giles Edwards
Assistant producer: Patrick Cowling.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002309b)
Hull: Venus fly traps, overgrown roses and controversial cucumbers

Any tips on how to keep a Venus fly trap alive? How do I successfully grow a cucumber? What unusual fruit or vegetable do the panel think is underrated?

Kathy Clugston and a panel of horticultural experts are in the hot seat, as they answer the gardening queries from an audience in Hull. On the panel are head gardener Matthew Pottage, garden designer Bunny Guinness and curator of RHS Bridgewater Marcus Chilton-Jones.

Later, Hull-born panellist Matthew Pottage meets with Cllr Henry from Hull City Council, to learn more about their ‘Right to Grow’ initiative which allows people to grow on public land for the first time.

Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m00236rr)
Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, is one of the most well-known and influential pieces of writing in Western literature. Initially presented as a true account, this tale of adventure, desert island shipwrecking and survival has been re-told and re-packaged for different audiences, different generations and different times - rom The Swiss Family Robinson to Lost In Space, and Lord of the Flies to Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway. The term ‘Robinsonade’ was even coined to identify the many books that followed the desert island template.

John Yorke examines what makes the story work, unpacks Daniel Defoe’s skill as literary pioneer, and asks how we should view the book today.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. From EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters.

Contributor:
Bill Bell, Professor of Bibliography at Cardiff University and author of Crusoe's Books: Readers in the Empire of Print, 1800-1918 (2022)

Readings by Stephen Bent
Excerpts from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 1719
Archive clip from The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, TV adaptation, 1964

Researcher: Nina Semple
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Producer: Jack Soper
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m00236rt)
Man Friday

A brilliant re-imagining of Daniel Defoe’s classic story, from the perspective of Man Friday, by Edson Burton.

Kofi is having a spectacularly bad day when he first meets the shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe. Lost at sea and out of provisions, his starving shipmates have decided to eat him. When they come upon a deserted island, it seems the perfect venue for a beach barbecue.

But Kofi spies a footprint in the sand which raises his hopes of rescue. Crusoe appears, raving, clothed only in branches, with a goat for backup. They somehow frighten off the pirates, leaving the two men alone.

This island is as foreign to Kofi as it is to Crusoe, and brings up all the same issues: loneliness, abandonment, and how to survive together.

Kofi ... CJ Beckford
Crusoe ... Alexander Kirk
Captain/Sailor 1/Sally ... Joseph Tweedale
Sailor 2 ... John Rutledge

Original music by Seckou Keita. Engineered by Andy Bell at Hudson Records.
Additional music and sound design by Ilse Lademann.
Director ... Mary Ward-Lowery


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m00236rw)
Rachel Kushner

Octavia Bright talks to Rachel Kushner, author The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room about her new novel Creation Lake.
The novel tells the story of spy-for-hire Sadie Smith who infiltrates an eco activists group in South West France, their leader is the mysterious Bruno Lacombe who is never present but communicates his radical missives by email.

Sarah Moss, best known for her novels The Fell, Summerwater, and Ghost Wall, talks about her new creative memoir, My Good Bright Wolf, her story of crisis in midlife and on what led her there.

And in the last ever, Book I'd Never Lend, the novelist Adam Thirlwell talks about his treasured teenage copy of Picasso by Gertrude Stein and gets to the heart of why some books can't ever be replaced.

Book List – Sunday 22 September

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
Picasso by Gertrude Stein
The Future Future by Adam Thirwell
Summer Water by Sarah Moss
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
The Fell by Sarah Moss
My Good Bright Wolf by Sarah Moss
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder


SUN 16:30 Brain of Britain (m00236ry)
Heat 4, 2024

(4/17)
What name is shared by both a wind-powered sculpture in the Pennines and an East German children's film of the 1960s? Which city in Southern Britain was Alfred the Great's capital? In classic DC Comics, which team originally included the Green Lantern, the Spectre and Doctor Fate?

These and many other general knowledge questions await the contenders in the latest heat, chaired by Russell Davies at London's Radio Theatre. Another of the semi-final places will be decided today.

The contenders are:
Paula Dempsey from south-east London
Annabel Lloyd from Wantage in Oxfordshire
Simon Mason from Hampshire
Jim Murdock from Bangor in County Down

There will also be the chance for a listener to win a prize by Beating the Brains with questions he or she has devised.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria

A BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4.


SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct5yh7)
I led the 'Umbrella' protests

On the 26 September 2014 Nathan Law stood on a makeshift stage outside Hong Kong's central government complex and chanted ‘Democracy Now’ and ‘Freedom’ into a microphone.

He was leading hundreds of protesters who had gathered to demand that China grants Hong Kong free and fair elections.

As the day went on the protest continued to grow and it wasn’t long before Nathan’s face was all over the news.

Then at 2am his microphone was cut off and the protest plunged into darkness as plain-clothed police officers rushed to the stage and arrested him.

Nathan tells Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty how despite his arrest the protests continued to grow into some of the largest Hong Kong had ever seen lasting 79 days in total.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Picture: Umbrella Protests. Credit: Getty Images)


SUN 17:10 The Verb (m00236s1)
Ian McMillan presents a cabaret of the word - the best poetry and performance - with guests Daljit Nagra, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Brian Bilston and the voice of Stagedoor Johnny.

Brian Bilston, internet poetry sensation - and the poet behind 'Days like there' and 'Alexa, what is there to know about love?' shares poems in both human and animal languages from his new book 'Let Sleeping Cats Lie'.

Karen McCarthy Woolf writes us a brand new poem in response to AA Milne's classic book - now reaching its centenary, 'When we were very young', featuring mice, Christopher Robin and Buckingham Palace. Karen's latest book is a verse novel called 'Top Doll' - Karen gives voice to the dolls that were owned by reclusive New York billionaire Huguette Clark.

Daljit Nagra lets us into a classic poem for our Neon Line series - and helps us enjoy and understand how a great line works in a great poem. He also shares poetry from his new book 'Indiom' which evokes English as a chatty and ancient forest.

Stagedoor Johnny is back with another Eartoon that explains the history of various language quirks - this time revelling in words that contain 'ear',


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m00236s3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m00236s5)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00236s7)
Strikes between Israel and Hezbollah have escalated, as concern grows about a wider war.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m00236s9)
Peter Curran

Peter's had enough and has sought out the last summer rays as the British summertime comes to an end, accompanied by a trusty battery-operated radio (and the BBC Sounds app) to see him through. The battery-operated radio would probably do him well going by the docudrama Threads, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on Sunday - we hear the responses from the acclaimed horror's first ever preview in Sheffield, which looked at the reality of the nuclear threat posed to Britain. Plus, given our seaside location, it seems apt that we learn about the amazing story of a dolphin tamer turned dolphin liberator in Indonesia. And Joanne McNally's gone all super sleuth on us, pursuing the truth with no agenda by bashing a beloved toy from a 1990s craze with a hammer.

Presenter: Peter Curran
Producer: Anthony McKee
Production Co-ordinator: Jack Ferrie

With thanks to the staff at Brighton Palace Pier.

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m00236sc)
At the Flower and Produce show Kenton’s brimming with confidence about his apple and cheese pie, until he learns Jill has entered and can’t be persuaded to withdraw. Meanwhile Tracy plans a distraction, so Jazzer can dump his stolen sunflower in the Village Hall, under Rosie Archer’s name. Chatting to David, Eddie proclaims Will and Emma’s innocence over any wrongdoing. David admires Clarrie’s spectacular rose and laments Rosie’s missing sunflower, before Kenton repositions his pie on an adjacent table, so that it can be seen to better advantage.
Eddie then asks Usha for advice on getting a better solicitor for George, but they’re interrupted by the fire alarm, meaning everyone has to leave.
With people congregated outside the Village Hall Tracy’s concerned that Kenton’s gone back in to check the kitchen. Lynda reports that Usha saw scones on the floor next to the smashed alarm. Tracy confesses setting it off when she accidentally tripped and dropped her scones. Meanwhile, Kenton reports another disaster: the table holding most of the pies has collapsed. Only Kenton’s and a few others survived. Jazzer then emerges belatedly from the toilet, where he hid when Kenton came in.
Later, Rosie wins tallest sunflower, leaving David confused and Jazzer and Tracy playing innocent. Eddie presses Usha, wanting her to take over as George’s solicitor, but she declines the offer.
Proud Kenton takes the rosette with his pie. However, Lynda’s intrigued by a report that Kenton moved his pie before the table collapsed. She feels the integrity of the show has been brought into question and intends to discover exactly what happened.


SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m002395g)
A Man Without Bees

Why are all the bees dying? Simon Mitambo, an expert from Kenya's so-called 'Land of Bees', travels from his own affected community to huge industrial farms in search of answers. It is a journey both planetary and personal: without bees, can Simon's world survive?

Presenter: Simon Mitambo
Producer: Lucy Taylor
Field producer: Mel Myendo
Researcher: Georgie Styles
Exec Producer: Dan Ashby
Sound design and mixing: Jarek Zaba

A Smoke Trail Production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 19:45 Buried (m001hp0d)
Series 1

Series 1 - 6. FOFO (Fear of Finding Out)

When a man used satellites to find illegal dumps, he learned they’re everywhere. But the criminals are watching him. Could a mafia be growing rich on our waste?

"All you have to do... is dig it up."

A trucker’s deathbed tape plays out. It’s urgent, desperate.

In this BBC Radio 4 podcast series, investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor deep-dive into one of the worst environment crimes in UK history - the secret dumping of a million tonnes of waste near a city. But when they uncover missing documents, fears of toxicity and allegations of organised crime, they realise they’ve stumbled into something much bigger. As they pick at the threads of one crime, they begin to see others. Could Britain be the home of a new mafia, getting rich on our waste?

In a thrilling ten-part investigation, the husband-and-wife duo dive into a criminal underworld, all the time following clues left in a deathbed tape. They’re driven by one question - what did the man in the tape know?

Presenters and Producers: Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Assistant Producer: Tess Davidson
Original Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell
Sound Design and Series Mixing: Jarek Zaba
Executive Producers: Phil Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

A Smoke Trail production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:00 Word of Mouth (m00236sf)
A Poet Writing in Three Languages

How best to write about love and other things. Nabeela Ahmed talks about writing in a second language and how her early life in Kashmir shaped the language she uses to express different aspects of her life. She is also a champion for the Pahari language in her home city of Bradford. Pahari is a language spoken by people in Northern areas of India, Kashmir and Pakistant. It fell out of favour as an official language of the courts but is still widely spoken in many British Asian homes today. Nabeela works with groups of budding poets and writers to help them express themselves in whichever language they feel comfortable with alongside English.

Producer: Maggie Ayre


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m002309g)
Dr George Berci, Olga Craig, Michaela Mabinty DePrince, Tony Strong

Matthew Bannister on

Dr George Berci, the surgeon who pioneered the use of miniature cameras in operations to minimise cutting and accelerate patients’ recovery times.

Olga Craig, the respected journalist from Northern Ireland who reported from war zones and covered the aftermath of the bombing in Omagh.

Michaela Mabinty DePrince, the orphan from war-torn Sierra Leone who realised her dreams of becoming a ballerina.

Tony Strong, the scenic artist who worked with film directors like Stanley Kubrick, Ken Russell and Sir Ridley Scott.

Interviewee: Dr L Michael Brunt
Interviewee: Sian James
Interviewee: David Harrison
Interviewee: Graham Strong

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Archive used:

Holocaust Survivor Talk: Dr. George Berci, Holocaust Museum LA, YouTube, uploaded 13/01/2022; 1956 Hungary Revolution news report, BBC Radio, World of Sound documentary, 13/11/1962; Omagh Bombing news report, BBC News, 15/08/1998; Michaela Mabinty DePrince, Outlook, BBC News, 29/08/2012; Tito Jackson of The Jackson 5 (Unreleased Full Interview); DJ Vlad TV, YouTube, uploaded, 26/01/2024; Tony Strong interview, ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ documentary, (2020) Coda Films, Director: Jonathan Blagrove , courtesy Graham Strong; The Boyfriend, Official film Promo, 1971, Director: Ken Russell; Live and Let Die, Official Film Promo, 1973 Director: Guy Hamilton; Legend, Official Film Promo, 1985, Director Ridley Scott;


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m00236sh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m00236qy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m00236sk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:30 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m00236sm)
Ben Wright hosts political discussion from the Labour conference in Liverpool, with guests including the party Chair, Ellie Reeves; Shadow Cabinet minister, Chris Philp; and Rob Ford, Professor of Political Science at Manchester University. Ben hears the views of delegates and trade union leaders on the winter fuel allowance, wealth taxes, and the controversy over gifts and donations. He also speaks to the journalist and speechwriter Philip Collins, about the art of writing the leader's conference speech. Plus there's additional insight and analysis from Jessica Elgot, deputy political editor of The Guardian.


SUN 23:00 In Our Time (m0022z8v)
Benjamin Disraeli

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the major figures in Victorian British politics. Disraeli (1804 -1881) served both as Prime Minister twice and, for long periods, as leader of the opposition. Born a Jew, he was only permitted to enter Parliament as his father had him baptised into the Church of England when he was twelve. Disraeli was a gifted orator and, outside Parliament, he shared his views widely through several popular novels including Sybil or The Two Nations, which was to inspire the idea of One Nation Conservatism. He became close to Queen Victoria and she mourned his death with a primrose wreath, an event marked for years after by annual processions celebrating his life in politics.

With

Lawrence Goldman
Emeritus Fellow in History at St Peter's College, University of Oxford

Emily Jones
Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Manchester

And

Daisy Hay
Professor of English Literature and Life Writing at the University of Exeter

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

Robert Blake, Disraeli (first published 1966; Faber & Faber, 2010)

M. Dent, ‘Disraeli and the Bible’ (Journal of Victorian Culture 29, 2024)

Benjamin Disraeli (ed. N. Shrimpton), Sybil; or, The Two Nations (Oxford University Press, 2017)

Daisy Hay, Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance (Chatto & Windus, 2015)

Douglas Hurd and Edward Young, Disraeli: or, The Two Lives (W&N, 2014)

Emily Jones, ‘Impressions of Disraeli: Mythmaking and the History of One Nation Conservatism, 1881-1940’ (French Journal of British Studies 28, 2023)

William Kuhn, The Politics of Pleasure: A Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli (Simon & Schuster, 2007)

Robert O'Kell, Disraeli: The Romance of Politics (University of Toronto Press, 2013)

J.P. Parry, ‘Disraeli and England’ (Historical Journal 43, 2000)

J.P. Parry, ‘Disraeli, the East and Religion: Tancred in Context’ (English Historical Review 132, 2017)

Cecil Roth, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (New York Philosophical library, 1952)

Paul Smith, Disraelian Conservatism and Social Reform (Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, 1967)

John Vincent, Disraeli (Oxford University Press, 1990)

P.J. Waller (ed.), Politics and Social Change in Modern Britain (Prentice Hall / Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1987), especially the chapter ‘Style and Substance in Disraelian Social Reform’ by P. Ghosh

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production


SUN 23:45 One to One (m001mt3l)
Dharshini David meets cosmetic dermatologist Dr Sam Bunting

Are we as obsessed as ever with not wanting to look old? And does the beauty industry respond to or fuel that desire?
BBC business correspondent Dharshini David and cosmetic dermatologist Dr Sam Bunting discuss people's motivation for wanting beauty treatments and procedures, the way advertising has changed over the years, and the ethics of the industry.

Produced for BBC Audio in Cardiff by Paul Martin.

MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2024

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m00236sp)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Three Million (m0022clj)
7. Road to the Past

Kavita Puri goes to India to meet some of the last survivors of the 1943 Bengal famine. She looks for traces of how war and famine impacted Kolkata and then travels from the city along the road to where the story of famine begins.

Kavita goes deep into the countryside and the jungle in West Bengal to find people who lived through that devastating time more than 80 years ago. These are voices that are almost never recorded and have never been broadcast before. For the past year and a half Kavita has been asking why there is no memorial to the three million people who died. But then in the Bengal jungle she finally finds it – it’s not what she expected.

Presenter : Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown

With thanks to Manoshi Barua for her translation work and to her, Bhasker Patel, Moazzem Hossain and Jesmin Ahmed for voicing up the Bengali-language interviews.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m00236sr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00236st)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00236sw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00236sy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m00236t0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00236t2)
Feathered guests

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m00236t4)
23/09/24 - Upland farmers in trouble, new planning proposals

Farmers in the Lake District have lost an estimated 10 million pounds in funding, in a year - and some are now under severe financial pressure. So says the National Farmers Union, which claims there are limited opportunities for upland farmers to tap into the Government's new ELMS - Environmental Land Management schemes - which are replacing the old EU system of farmer support in England. We visit one farmer who says he's been left in limbo.

The new Government wants to build more one and a half million homes over the next 5 years as well as developing more solar farms, wind turbines and the pylons to transport the energy. For some, all that equals the industrialisation of the countryside and a threat to food security. But the Energy and Net Zero Secretary, Ed Miliband, pledged to take on what he called 'the blockers, the delayers, the obstructionists'. This week on Farming Today, we look at the changing rules around planning and what that means for people who live and work in the countryside.

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Heather Simons


MON 05:57 Weather (m00236t6)
Weather reports and forecasts for farmers


MON 06:00 Today (m00237gl)
23/09/24 - Chancellor shifts tone at Labour conference

Rachel Reeves talks to Today ahead of speech expressing optimism about the UK's fortunes.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m00237gn)
Chance and fortune

‘Professor Risk’ David Spiegelhalter delves into the data and statistics to explore the forces of chance, ignorance and luck in The Art of Uncertainty. Whereas life is uncertain, he shows how far the circumstances of how, when and where you were born have an overriding influence on your future. But he warns against confusing the improbable with the impossible.

The novelist Roddy Doyle returns to the fortunes of one of his iconic characters, Paula Spencer, in his new book, The Woman Behind The Door. Mother, grandmother, widow, addict and survivor Paula Spencer is finally laying the ghosts of the past to rest, but how much is passed on to the next generation?

The historian Eliza Filby is interested in inheritance of a different kind – money and housing. In Inheritocracy: It’s Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad, she explores the nature of privilege through her own family’s experience. Filby’s grandfather had the lucky fortune of winning a house in a card game and the family went on to become ‘working class accidental millionaires’ who could pass on their fortune to later generations.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Café Hope (m00237gq)
Pick you up post

Rachel Burden hears from Alison Hitchcock and Brian Greenley, who started From Me to You, where people write letters to strangers with cancer to try to reduce the loneliness associated with the disease.

The idea came from when Brian was diagnosed with bowel cancer and Alison started writing to him to try to cheer him up during his treatment. They say that receiving a letter, even from someone you don’t know, can form a connection and bring comfort in a worrying time.

Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell Rachel Burden what they’re doing to make things better in big and small ways. You can contact us on cafehope@bbc.co.uk


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00237gs)
Elizabeth Strout, Girls Will Be Girls, Women's safety, Labour women and donations

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told the BBC it's "right" not to accept donations for clothing now she's in government. This is following reports that she took £7,500 from a donor for clothing between January 2023 to May 2024. Keir Starmer, his wife Lady Victoria Starmer and the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner have also accepted money for clothes, and on Friday, Downing Street said that would no longer continue. To discuss the issue of women and donations, Kylie Pentelow is joined by political journalists Rachel Sylvester from the Times and Eleni Courea from the Guardian.

The Sundance award-winning film, Girls Will Be Girls, follows the journey of 16-year-old Mira, who discovers desire and romance whilst attending a strict boarding school nestled in the Himalayas. But her rebellious sexual awakening is disrupted by her mother, who never got to come of age herself. Kylie discusses the film with the writer and director, Shuchi Talati, and actress Preeti Panigrahi who plays Mira.

The Labour Party conference is underway in Liverpool. A topic likely to feature heavily in tomorrow’s speech by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is women’s safety. Joining Kylie to give us their views on what they think needs to be prioritised by this government is director and founder of the Centre for Women’s Justice, Harriet Wistrich, and the campaigner Georgia Harrison.

Elizabeth Strout is the Pulitzer prize-winning author of many novels including Olive Kitteridge and the Lucy Barton books. Tell Me Everything is her latest novel where she revisits several of the characters who appear in her previous work. She joins Kylie live in the Woman’s Hour studio to talk about her characters and themes of friendship.

Presented by Kylie Pentelow
Producer: Louise Corley


MON 11:00 On the Run (m00237gv)
Stay Alive

Writer, Poet and Runner Helen Mort trails a history of running, from prehistoric times to present day. Helen asks why we run, and finds out what running has meant through the ages. Helen looks at stories of running through the ages, to chart the development of humanity's relationship with running. She'll be finding out what role running played in societies through the ages, and how it has been represented in culture.

In the first episode, Helen examines the role of running in prehistoric times. What role did running play in life of early humans, and what kinds of running did they do? Did we evolve to sprint, or to run long distances, and why? How did people represent running in their culture, such as cave art? Helen finds out if cultures of running in different indigenous communities today, with traditions stretching back thousands of years, can tell us anything about humanity's approach to running.

Helen's route then leads to Ancient Greece, the site of some of the earliest known records of running as a sport. She relives the famous journey of the messenger Pheidippides to Athens, whose feat, and feet gave us the marathon.

Interviewees:
Dr Nathalie Hager, Lecturer in Art History, University of British Columbia
Prof Dan Lieberman, Evolutionary Biologist at Harvard University and author 'Excercised: The Science of Physical Activity, Rest and Health
Dustin Martin, Executive Director, Wings of America
Christopher McDougall, writer and author of 'Born to Run'
Andrea Marcolongo, Classicist and author of 'The Art of Running: Learning to Run Like a Greek'.
Roger Robinson, Runner, Historian and author of 'Running in Literature'.

Readings by Andi Bickers and Nuhazet Diaz Cano

Thanks to Dr Judith Swaddling

Producer: Sam Peach


MON 11:45 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (m00237gx)
Book of the Week: Episode 6 - Negotiations continue

Ben Macintyre’s latest book tells the story of the 1980 SAS hostage crisis at the Iranian Embassy. Day 4 dawns, negotiations with the gunmen continue and the SAS assemble their arsenal. Jamie Parker reads.

Ben Macintyre sets the pulse racing in his new book when he returns us to the spring of 1980. On 30th April, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London, taking 26 people hostage, what followed was an intense set of events involving police negotiators, decisions makers at the highest levels, and the SAS. Jamie Parker reads.

In The Siege Ben Macintyre takes us on a journey through the crisis, painting a minute-by-minute picture of six days filled with terror and uncertainty for the hostages, the gunmen and the authorities.

When all avenues to resolve the crisis bloodlessly were exhausted, the SAS were deployed, and millions gathered around their televisions to watch the unprecedented events unfold.

Ben Macintyre’s previous titles include, Colditz, Agent Sonya, and The Spy and The Traitor. Several have been adapted for film and television – Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS Rogue Heroes.

Jamie Parker is known for his work on radio – Hamlet, Going Infinite, The Gold Finch; the stage – The History Boys, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Next to Normal, and screen - Becoming Elizabeth, The Crown and Des.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


MON 12:00 News Summary (m00237gz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m00237h1)
iPhone photos battle, supermarket pricing and renting with pets

Losing a loved one suddenly can throw up challenges we never thought we'd have to face. Listener Martyn Hall from Anglesey got in touch with us with a powerful example of this. After his wife died suddenly, he wanted to access their wedding photos to show them at her funeral. But they are saved on her iPhone - and he's not been able to negotiate the strict privacy barriers.

Also on today's programme - why supermarket price matching might not always be like-for-like.

We hear what new laws will mean for people renting with pets, and learn about the controversial habit of dumpster diving - why is so much being thrown away in the first place?

PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL

PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY


MON 12:57 Weather (m00237h3)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m00237h5)
Live from the Labour Conference

The chancellor says the country's 'best days lie ahead', but what does change under Labour look like? Plus, we discuss the options for de-escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.


MON 13:45 Superhead (m00237h7)
Episode 1 - A Delight in Class

John Dickens has been investigating Trevor Averre-Beeson for the best part of a decade. Averre-Beeson was once one of the most prominent examples of the generation of “Superheads” that Tony Blair and Michael Gove backed in turn to help transform failing schools in Britain. He built an education empire around a large academy trust, Lilac Sky.

But in 2016, that empire suddenly and rapidly collapsed, sparking a scandal that sent shockwaves through the world of education.

John Dickens explores the inside story behind the rise and fall of one of Britain’s most charismatic educators, and investigates whether the rapid growth - and precipitous collapse - of Lilac Sky exposes weaknesses in regulation that the government has failed to fully reckon with.

In Episode 1, John goes back to the beginning, hearing the story of Trevor's emergence as one of the original "Superheads".

Producers: Robert Nicholson and Charlie Towler
Sound Design: Tom Brignell
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:00 The Archers (m00236sc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Plum House (m000hfr3)
Series 3

4. Grace and Favour

This week, manager Tom hopes to earn some much needed funds for the museum by renting out Peter's grace and favour apartment - that's if Julian has remembered to tell Peter to move out. Meanwhile the museum also welcomes a French artist to paint a picture of the property. Julian sees her as a potential love interest but it turns out she has eyes only for Tom, much to his initial indifference. When Tom finally relents to her advances however his timing couldn't be more off...

Plum House features Simon Callow, Jane Horrocks, Miles Jupp, Pearce Quigley, Tom Bell and Louise Ford.
Guests this episode: Celeste Dring, Jason Forbes and Jade Ogugua
Written by Ben Cottam and Paul McKenna
Directed by Paul Schlesinger
Produced by Claire Broughton

It is a BBC Studios Production for Radio 4


MON 14:45 Wolverine Blues (m000ysyv)
Episode 5

Wolverine Blues, or a Case of Defiance Neurosis

The conclusion of Graeme Macrae Burnet's fiction serial, inspired by the case study "Defiance Neurosis of a Seventeen-Year-Old High School Student" by Alphonse Maeder.

Dr Maeder looks back with satisfaction at Max’s case, seeing a patient who appears much changed since they began their sessions.

Read by Robin Laing and Alasdair Hankinson.
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie

Graeme Macrae Burnet lives in Glasgow and is the author of novels including the Man Booker shortlisted 'His Bloody Project' and longlisted 'Case Study'. His new novel, 'A Case for Matricide', is published in October and concludes the Georges Gorski trilogy.


MON 15:00 Great Lives (m00237hb)
Ekow Eshun on the first openly gay footballer, Justin Fashanu

In 1981 Brian Clough paid £1 million pounds to bring Justin Fashanu to Nottingham Forest. It was the climax of a meteoric career, but within months the goals had dried up, he'd been going to gay nightclubs, and Fashanu had also become become a born again Christian. Four decades later Justin Fashanu remains top flight English football's only openly gay player. From his beginnings in care with brother John as Barnardo's boys, via adoption, boxing, football and failed pop star, this is an extraordinary life, beautifully highlighted by his nominator, Ekow Eshun.

"He was a pioneer - he broke ground. He was a prominent black footballer at a time when to be black and a footballer was fraught territory, when players were barracked from the terraces for no other reason than the colour of their skin." Ekow Eshun

Also in studio is Richard Williams of the Guardian, who saw Fashanu play on the way and on the way down. Plus there is moving archive of Fashanu himself, and also from his niece, Amal Fashanu, talking at the time of the release of her documentary, Britain's Gay Footballers.

The producer for BBC Studios Audio is Miles Warde


MON 15:30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (m00237hd)
Bonus Episode: Lady Killers Live

In this special episode of Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley, recorded in front of a live audience, Lucy is joined by Professor Rosalind Crone, Lady Killers in-house historian and Salma el-Wardany, writer, poet and BBC Breakfast presenter. They look back at the last three seasons and offer an exclusive preview of the new season, Lady Swindlers.

Lady Killers is where Lucy Worsley and a crack team of female detectives investigate the crimes of women from the 19th and 20th Century from a contemporary, feminist perspective.

Producer: Julia Hayball
Assistant Producer: Riham Moussa
Readers: Clare Corbett and Jonathan Keeble
Sound Design: Chris Maclean
Executive Producer: Kirsty Hunter

A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4.

If you're in the UK, listen to the newest episodes of Lady Killers first on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/3M2pT0K


MON 16:00 The Briefing Room (m0023qkp)
How do the Lebanon attacks alter the equation in the Middle East?

David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the recent events in Lebanon. Israel has been widely blamed for a series of pager and walkie-talkie attacks targeting members of Hezbollah. Does this mark the invention of a new kind of warfare and what might the wider consequences be for the region?

Guests:

Shashank Joshi, The Economist's defence editor
Professor Lina Khatib, Director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS University of London
Ronen Bergman, Israeli investigative journalist for The New York Times

Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Natasha Fernandes and Ben Carter
Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon


MON 16:30 Marianna in Conspiracyland (m00237hg)
Why Do You Hate Me? USA

1. Wild Thoughts: 'I hate Trump, she likes him – we both think he staged assassination attempts'

Meet Camille and ‘Wild Mother’. Both women love nature, animals, and the outdoors. Both women also believe the assassination attempts on Donald Trump were staged – but have very different political views. Why do people believe the things they do? And what role do social media sites – and their algorithms – play?

In this series, BBC disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring travels to the United States to investigate the social media backdrop to the 2024 presidential election and explore the different ways in which what is happening online is influencing the campaign offline.

Marianna starts her journey in Colorado, looking at how conspiracy theories have spread so far across the political spectrum in the US. She interrogates the consequences for Camille, ‘Wild Mother’, and the upcoming election.

Host: Marianna Spring
Producers: Daniel Wittenberg & Emma Close
Story Editor: Matt Willis
Editor: Sam Bonham
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
Sound Designer: Tony Churnside
Production Co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge


MON 17:00 PM (m00237hj)
Rachel Reeves says her optimism is 'brighter than ever'

The Chancellor changes her tone in a Conference speech that defends choices she calls hard but fair – we discuss her words with a cabinet minister. Plus: analysis of the deadliest day of Israel-Hezbollah conflict this year and what this means for the Middle East.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00237hl)
Rachel Reeves said her optimism for Britain "burns brighter than ever"


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m00237hn)
Series 93

2. A Punk Band Called The Sticky Carpets

Sue Perkins challenges Lucy Porter, Gyles Brandreth, Desiree Burch and Glenn Moore to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation. Subjects include doomsday bunkers, coriander, and polite conversation between enemies.

Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
An EcoAudio certified production.

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


MON 19:00 The Archers (m00237hq)
Ed may not be fussed about his upcoming fortieth birthday, but he and Emma agree they have to do something to help George. What he needs most are good character references. They try asking Oliver, but he’s distracted and goes, leaving Emma feeling he’s deliberately snubbed them. Later though, following an impassioned speech from Ed about his own troubled youth, Oliver agrees to help. Oliver subsequently reads out the reference he’s written, admitting there were some things he couldn’t ignore. Ed and Emma think he’s been very fair though and are delighted. But Emma knows one good reference won’t be enough - they need more.
Jolene’s put out to see that Kenton’s already chalking up ‘Kenton’s Award-Winning Apple and Cheese Pie’ on their board at the Bull and teases Kenton about Lynda making him feel like a suspect over the collapsed table. Harrison turns up to collect some cricketing memorabilia for the Cricket Club dinner being held at Brookfield on Friday, to celebrate winning promotion. Kenton will be running the bar and Harrison offers a hand moving barrels. They talk about Fallon falling out with Emma after she covered for George, before Harrison admits he’s not been himself at work recently. All this anger inside is threatening to get the better of him and he’s not even sure he should be a police officer anymore.
Lynda arrives at The Bull to question disgruntled Jolene about the mystery of the collapsing table, before Kenton tells Harrison that if he’s seriously thinking about quitting the police he needs to talk to Fallon first – she’d want to know.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m00237hs)
John Boorman, Anya Gallaccio, The Halfway Kid performs

John Boorman talks to Samira about his 1974 science-fiction, fantasy film Zardoz as it is screened on its fiftieth anniversary at the BFI and his novel on which it is based is republished. He discusses the craft of film making and reflects on the film he wishes he'd made with Elvis. British artist Anya Gallaccio welcomes us into her London studio as she prepares for three major exhibitions: a major survey at the Turner Contemporary in Margate, a stores she's pained entirely with chocolate in her hometown of Paisley and a permanent AIDS memorial due to be unveiled in London in 2027. And, the folk singer and social media sensation The Halfway Kid, otherwise known as Saeed Gadir, discusses his upcoming album Myths In Modern Life and performs live in the studio.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ruth Watts


MON 20:00 Rethink (m0022z9r)
Rethink: Is the internet getting worse?

Rethink examines emerging issues in politics, society, economics, technology and the UK's place in the world, and considers how we might approach them differently. We look at the latest thinking and research and discuss new ideas that might make the world a better place.

In this episode, we look at "Enshittification", or to put it more politely - the problem of internet platform decay.

Facebook used to be about posts from your friends, but its feed now also includes groups, adverts, reels, and threads posts. Trying to work out if the Amazon product you want is any good can be tricky, because sellers can pay for their product to appear higher in your list of results. Search engines are not immune; German researchers have found that Google, Bing and Duck Duck Go are prone to spam marketing, making it more difficult to find what you want.

There's no ill-intent behind this: platform decay is a side-effect of the way these businesses work. So what can governments and individuals do, to try to get a better internet for everyone?

Presenter: Ben Ansell
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors:
Cory Doctorow, visiting Professor of Computer Science at the Open University, and co-founder of the UK Open Rights group.
Professor Gina Neff, Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy at the University of Cambridge,
Marie Le Conte, political journalist and author of the book escape - about the rise and demise of the internet
Dr Cristina Caffarra, competition economist and former anti-trust consultant.


MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (m0022z9t)
Is lab-grown meat the future of food?

Lab-grown meat, cultivated meat, cultured meat, in-vitro meat - whatever you call it, the industry claims it could be a game changer. Not just economically, but for feeding the planet in a sustainable way.

But is it too good to be true? And will people even eat it?

In this special episode of Inside Science, we take a deep-dive into lab-grown meat; visiting a production facility to see how it's made, hearing about the nuanced perspectives of British farmers, asking if this new industry can learn from the failings of GM foods, and trying to figure out what the true environmental costs of entirely new way of producing food really is.

Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producer: Ella Hubber
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis


MON 21:00 Start the Week (m00237gn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:45 Café Hope (m00237gq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m00237hv)
Israeli airstrikes kill almost 500 in Lebanon

Officials in Lebanon say almost 500 people have been killed and more than 1,600 injured, after a wave of Israeli airstrikes in the south of the country. It's been the deadliest day of conflict across the border in nearly two decades. We speak to the Lebanese health minister, Firass Abiad, who says thousands of people are fleeing their homes and heading north to escape the bombardment.

Also in the programme: We look ahead to Sir Keir Starmer's speech at the Labour Conference in Liverpool; and the tensions over the government's policy towards Israel.


MON 22:45 The Last Loves of Ronnie Maker by Alice Jolly (m00237hx)
Episode 1

A newly commissioned serial from Alice Jolly about love, loyalty and the meaning of care, exploring the emotions at the heart of a family crisis.

After their mother’s death, sisters Leah and Tiffany know their father needs support. Ebullient, charming and and unreliable, Ronnie Maker has lived life at speed and he has no intention of slipping gently into a peaceful old age. How will he cope in a remote Yorkshire village on his own, with his daughters so far away, so constantly busy?
When a neighbour offers to help out, it seems like an ideal, if temporary, solution.

But the sisters cannot be sure what lies behind Marika’s offer of help and, as the crisis of their father’s situation mounts, it brings to the surface suspicions, old resentments and guilt.

Alice Jolly writes: “At its heart, this story is about who cares, in every sense of the word, in a society where the whole question of ‘care’ is a fraught and urgent issue. It circles around a demanding man, but it’s ultimately about the women around him and how they deal with loyalty and love.”

Episode 1. Ronnie Maker needs support – but who will give it? His daughters wonder if Marika is the answer they were hoping for.

Alice Jolly is a novelist and playwright. She has won a Royal Society of Literature V.S.Pritchett Memorial prize, the Pen/Ackerley Prize and an O. Henry Award, and was runner-up for the Rathbones Folio Prize for her novel Mary Anne Sate, Imbecile. Her short story collection From Far Around They Saw Us Burn was published in 2023.

Fiona Button, the reader, played Rose Defoe in The Split (BBC 1). As well as many television roles, she has starred in shows at the RSC, Almeida, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse and in the West End.

Writer: Alice Jolly
Reader: Fiona Button
Producer: Sara Davies
Executive Producer: Peter Hoare
Sound Design: Matt Bainbridge
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:00 Limelight (m001r1sz)
The System - Series 3

The System - Method 4: Turn into a Cyborg and Fly to Mars

Five Methods for Overcoming Mortality.

Season 3 of Ben Lewis’ award-winning thriller.

A community of activists vowing to make the earth sacred again, a mob of gamers desperate to win the augmented reality game that’s sweeping the nation and an elite group of super rich party goers are all making their way towards Matt Finch’s Scottish castle.
It’s his 50th birthday and tonight he fully expects to be assassinated.

Cast:

Maya… Siena Kelly
Jake … Jack Rowan
Coyote…Divian Ladwa
Carly and Amanda…Lois Chimimba
Robin and Voice of the Game…Ryan Sampson
Matt Finch…Rhashan Stone

Percussion by Alon Ilsar

Original music and sound design by Danny Krass
A BBC Scotland Production directed by Kirsty Williams


MON 23:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m00236wp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]

TUESDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2024

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m00237j0)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (m00237gx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00237j2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00237j4)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00237j6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m00237j8)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00237jb)
Seamus Heaney's roots

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m00237jd)
The Labour Party conference is underway in Liverpool. Last week we heard from the Liberal Democrats and next week we'll report on the Conservative Party conference. Agriculture is a devolved issue, so the budget and how it's spent is up to governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed spoke at the Labour conference. He told us a land use framework will be published before Christmas, but details of funding for farmers will have to waiting until the chancellor's autumn budget.

All week we're hearing how plans for new infrastructure are affecting farmers and their land. A row over whether farm land in North Yorkshire should be turned into a solar farm is going before a public inquiry. The tenant farmers at Eden Farm, Old Malton say a solar farm would make their business unviable. The developer says it’s listened to feedback, and reduced the solar farm’s size by a third.

The number of cases of bluetongue disease in cattle and sheep has risen to 97. As a result the restriction zone has been redrawn and now covers all Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, all Greater London, Surrey and West Sussex. Previous restrictions in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and East Yorkshire remain in place.

Apple growers tell us how the weather this year's affected them. One cider producer in Somerset says he's lost trees because of waterlogged orchards and the yield is way down.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


TUE 06:00 Today (m00237p9)
24/09/24 - Thousands flee southern Lebanon after Israeli strikes

Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah continued overnight as thousands of people flee their homes in southern Lebanon. On Monday, Lebanon's health ministry said at least 492 people were killed - the deadliest day of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict since 2006. Today hears from those trying to escape the conflict and a former head of MI6.
Nick Robinson reports from the Labour conference where Sir Keir Starmer will warn of a "shared struggle" and pledge to "build a new Britain" in his first party conference speech as Prime Minister.
And how do you stop people souping-up their e-bikes? The number of illegally modified electronic bikes seized by police has almost doubled in a year.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m00237pc)
Anna Korre on capturing carbon dioxide and defying expectations

As the famous frog once said, it's not easy being green. And when it comes to decarbonising industry, indeed, reducing emissions of all sorts, the task is a complex one.

Fossil fuels are used to manufacture some of mankind’s most ubiquitous products, from plastics to cement to steel; and even in areas where we’re trying to improve our footprint, there are repercussions. Mining lithium for electric car batteries isn’t exactly without impact. Add to the mix stories of corporations prioritising profits, and governments focusing on short-term popular policies – and it would be easy to feel disheartened.

Professor Anna Korre says her role is to be the champion of science in this debate: providing clear evidence to help reduce environmental impacts, while allowing vital production processes to continue.

Anna is an environmental engineer at Imperial College London and Co-Director of the university’s Energy Futures Lab. Her work has led to a risk model that's now used in mining operations around the world – and her current research into sub-surface CO2 storage could hold the key to decarbonising British industry. But as she tells Jim Al-Khalili, social and familial expectations when she was growing up in her native Greece meant her succesful career in engineering very nearly didn't happen...

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Producer by Lucy Taylor


TUE 09:30 All in the Mind (m00237pf)
FND - the most common disorder you’ve probably never heard of; political polarisation; All in the Mind Awards judge ZeZe

Functional Neurological Disorder, or FND, is the most common disorder you’ve probably never heard of. Some say it might be as common as MS or Parkinson’s and yet it’s not well known even by many medical professionals. It can cause seizures, paralysis, convulsions and changes in sensation, as well as pain, fatigue and memory difficulties.

It’s caused by a problem with the system in the brain that connects us consciously into our bodies, leaving sufferers unable to access their bodies properly. Because it doesn’t show up on scans and tests it is often not diagnosed effectively, and patients can face difficulties accessing the help they need or even being believed that their symptoms are real.

Claudia Hammond sits in on a consultation at the Maudsley Hospital between Emma, a new patient who is having exactly those problems, and Mark Edwards, Professor of Neurology and Interface Disorders at King’s College London.

She also meets Callum Alexander, a recovered patient who now volunteers for the charity FND Hope. He was referred by Mark for specialist neurophysiotherapy with Glenn Nielsen at St George’s University Hospital, which had immediate results. Glenn tells us that FND can cause the brain to become excessively focused on actions are normally automatic, such as walking, and that redirecting the brain’s attention can be one way of alleviating it.

Meanwhile, Emma is relieved she finally has a name to put to her condition and Mark is pushing for more positive diagnoses of FND.

Back in the studio, Claudia is joined by Kavita Vedhara, Professor of Health Psychology at Cardiff University. With increasing polarisation in the US in the run up to the forthcoming presidential election, she presents a study that sheds light on how we might view people who are more nuanced in their approach to controversial topics.

You might expect people who are able to express both sides of an argument to thrive in social situations. However, this new research suggests that people with nuanced views are seen as less likeable than those with polarised views, even by those who agree with that person’s ultimate position. How does that impact our chances of being able to have reasoned political debates?

The 2025 All in the Mind Awards are now open for nominations. You can nominate individuals, professionals and groups who have helped you in your hardest times.

Claudia catches up with ZeZe Sohawon who nominated her psychiatrist Dr Claire Purcell for an award in 2021. Since then ZeZe has set up a youth autism and mental health charity, Emotion Dysregulation and Autism, helping autistic young people who struggle with their emotions leading to mental health problems. The charity is about to start delivering a peer support programme in Birmingham hospitals, and she’s done all of this while studying for a Neuroscience degree. This year she’s a judge for the All in the Mind Awards and tells Claudia why she thinks people should take part.

You can find out more about the awards in the programme or by going to bbc.co.uk/radio4/allinthemind where you’ll also find full terms. Entries close 8th January 2025 at 1pm.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer: Ben Motley
Studio Manager: Emma Harth
Production Coordinator: Siobhan Maguire


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00237ph)
Respite care in NI, Pregnancy loss language, Sex workers and banking

BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight has spoken to mothers who are struggling to cope with sons whose complex needs can lead to aggressive outbursts – often leaving themselves and other family members injured. The NHS used to supply respite care that would give those families a break of one or two nights per month. But that care has been evaporating in Northern Ireland due to a number of factors – including the loss of facilities and an increasing number of children who have gone into full-time care. Spotlight presenter Tara Mills and Julie Tipping, one of the mums featured in the documentary join Kylie Pentelow.

Women working in the adult entertainment industry are being put at risk by banks not allowing them to open accounts or denying them financial services. That’s what industry representatives are saying, and why the Financial Conduct Authority recently issued new guidelines for banks around allowing sex workers to access their services. To find out more we hear from Clio Wood, a women’s health advocate and co-founder of CensHERship, Jessica Van Meir, co-founder of MintStars and Cindy Gallop, founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn.

The language used by healthcare professionals to describe pregnancy loss exacerbates the grief and trauma experienced by some individuals. Words such as incompetent cervix, products of conception, and empty sac to name but a few. That’s according to a study published this month by University College London. We hear from Dr Beth Malory, Lecturer in English Linguistics at UCL who led the study.

Romalyn Ante is a Filipino-British poet who also works as a nurse in the NHS. She has just released her second poetry collection, Agimat, which looks at how we keep safe that which we hold most dear. Romalyn talks about what the new collection means to her and why she wanted to combine Filipino mythology and tradition with her own experiences of fighting against Covid.

Presenter: Kylie Pentelow
Producer: Kirsty Starkey


TUE 11:00 Add to Playlist (m002309s)
Rick Wakeman and Fenella Humphreys, from Bach to Eurovision

Keyboard maestro and prog rock musician Rick Wakeman and concert violinist Fenella Humphreys are today's studio guests with Anna Phoebe and Jeffrey Boakye. In the penultimate episode of the current series, they take us from a Bach favourite via an Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong classic before hopping on a train to Moldova for some lively Eurovision action.

Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

1st movement of Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor by Bach
A Futuristic Auntyquarian by Gryphon
Your Woman by White Town
Summertime by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
Trenulețul (Eurovision 2022) by Zdob și Zdub

Other music in this episode:

Would You...? by Touch and Go
Bapaalaay by Esukolaal
Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor by Anne-Sophie Mutter
Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor by Yehudi Menuhin
My Woman by Lew Stone and the Monseigneur Band
Love Again by Dua Lipa


TUE 11:45 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (m00237pk)
Book of the Week: Episode 7 - The SAS Makes a Plan

In Ben Macintyre’s latest book about the 1980 siege at the Iranian Embassy, events take a disquieting turn. Meanwhile, the SAS commander refines his plans to put an end to the crisis. Jamie Parker reads.

Ben Macintyre sets the pulse racing in his new book when he returns us to the spring of 1980. On 30th April, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London, taking 26 people hostage, what followed was an intense set of events involving police negotiators, decisions makers at the highest levels, and the SAS. Jamie Parker reads.

In The Siege Ben Macintyre takes us on a journey through the crisis, painting a minute-by-minute picture of six days filled with terror and uncertainty for the hostages, the gunmen and the authorities.

When all avenues to resolve the crisis bloodlessly were exhausted, the SAS were deployed, and millions gathered around their televisions to watch the unprecedented events unfold.

Ben Macintyre’s previous titles include, Colditz, Agent Sonya, and The Spy and The Traitor. Several have been adapted for film and television – Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS Rogue Heroes.

Jamie Parker is known for his work on radio – Hamlet, Going Infinite, The Gold Finch; the stage – The History Boys, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Next to Normal, and screen - Becoming Elizabeth, The Crown and Des.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m00237pm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m00237pp)
Call You & Yours: Consumer confidence has tumbled; how confident are you about your future?

Despite positive signs in the economy, consumer confidence took a tumble this month
The Bank of England had expected a boost after cutting interest rates.
Millions of public sector workers are set to see the result of wage rises in their pay next month.
Interest rates are set to fall
But with energy prices on the rise and inflation still above target .. how confident are you feeling about your future?

Call us from 11am on Tuesday on 03700 100 444 or email us, youandyours@bbc.co.uk and please add your phone number so we can call you back

PRODUCER: KEV MOUSLEY

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON


TUE 12:57 Weather (m00237pr)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m00237pt)
Hezbollah retaliates after deadliest day in Lebanon for decades.

Thousands flee Southern Lebanon after Israel's attacks kill over 550, Hezbollah responded with strikes on Northern Israel. Plus the Home Secretary on her plans to bring down migration.


TUE 13:45 Superhead (m00237pw)
Episode 2 - Lots of Untapped Potential

John Dickens has been investigating Trevor Averre-Beeson for the best part of a decade. Averre-Beeson was once one of the most prominent examples of the generation of “Superheads” that Tony Blair and Michael Gove backed in turn to help transform failing schools in Britain. He built an education empire around a large academy trust, Lilac Sky.

But in 2016, that empire suddenly and rapidly collapsed, sparking a scandal that sent shockwaves through the world of education.

John Dickens explores the inside story behind the rise and fall of one of Britain’s most charismatic educators, and investigates whether the rapid growth - and precipitous collapse - of Lilac Sky exposes weaknesses in regulation that the government has failed to fully reckon with.

In Episode 2, John hears from an insider who describes Trevor's ill fated spell at the helm of an education experiment, when an American firm became one of the first private companies to run a British school, and appointed him as Headteacher.

Producers: Robert Nicholson and Charlie Towler
Sound Design: Tom Brignell
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m00237hq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m00202m5)
The Most Important Conversations Happen in Bed

Across 50 years of bedsheets, the love story of two extraordinary women unfolds against the backdrop of evolving LGBTQ+ rights in Britain. The romance between wild-hearted Margo and shrinking violet Lucille twists and turns as the political debate around queer love transforms from aversion to acceptance over the decades.

Queer female stories and longstanding lesbian relationships are rarely seen or heard in the media. This drama is quietly radical in its intimate depiction of two women’s personal lives revolutionised by the outside world’s changing relationship to queer love. The play asks - is love enough to weather the storm of conflicting political debate?

Lie your head on the same pillow as Margo and Lucille as they have the most important conversations of their lives in the privacy of their bed, laying bare the dreams, frustrations and secrets they dare not speak in public.

Cast
Margo (17 years)……..Tamara Brabon
Lucille (17 years)………Laura Marcus
Margo (29/40 years)……..Lucy Ellinson
Lucille (29/40 years)………Kelly Hotten
Margo (66 years)……..Cara Chase
Lucille (66 years)………Alexandra Mathie

Written by Natasha Sutton Williams
Directed by Rachel Austin
Production Manager - Darren Spruce
Illustration - Kelsea Knox
Executive Producer - Eloise Whitmore

A Naked production for BBC Radio 4

Writer
Natasha Sutton Williams is an award-winning writer, composer, and actor. Her podcast Clown Sex won an Independent Podcast Award 2023. The podcast is nominated for the International Women's Podcast Awards 2024. Her critically acclaimed stage show Clown Sex sold out at Edinburgh Fringe 2023, VAULT 2023, and the Bristol Wardrobe Theatre 2024. Her Off West End Award nominated plays have been produced at multiple London venues. Her one-woman show Freud the Musical has been a Time Out London and Time Out New York top pick. This is her first drama for BBC Radio 4.

Director
Rachel Austin is an actor, voice-over artist and audio producer. She has appeared in over 30 dramas for BBC Radio 4, including the critically acclaimed Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster, and has worked extensively in theatre, film, television, voice-over and audio drama. In 2022, Rachel produced and directed her first professional audio drama for Naked Productions, Heavier on the Turf, which was a finalist for the UK and International Audio Drama Awards.


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m00237q0)
The Forest

Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures that venture into the forest.

Searching for Eden
Written, performed and composed by Nyokabi Kariũki
Drums - Chris O'Leary
Field Recordings taken in Mũrang'a, Kenya

The Final Breath
Featuring Robin Elms
Produced by Kendra Hanna and Max Jungreis

El Manglar
Featuring Paolo Realpe, founder of Muisne Desde Adentro
Special thanks to Dr. Pilar Egüez Guevara, co-founder and director of Comidas que Curan (Foods that Heal)
Produced by Mickal Aranha

Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:30 Thinking Allowed (m00237q4)
Sight and Power

Laurie Taylor talks to Becca Voelcker, Lecturer in the Art Department at Goldsmiths, University of London, about her research into the relationship between sight and power. Everyday life is full of moments where we are seen, often without our knowledge, even in the virtual world, where cookie trails and analytics make us visible to profit making companies. Going back in time, Jeremy Bentham's panopticon depended on seeing its occupants to control them. If we cannot control who sees us today are we also being controlled? How does that square with the many moments when being seen is also a means of social recognition?

Also, David Lyon, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Law at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario explores the surveillance which permeates all aspects of our lives today. Every click on the keyboard, every contact with a doctor or the police, each time we walk under a video camera or pass through a security check we are identified, traced, and tracked. So how does surveillance make people visible, how did it grow to its present size and prevalence, and what are the social and personal costs?

Producer: Jayne Egerton


TUE 16:00 Illuminated (m002395g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Sunday]


TUE 16:30 When It Hits the Fan (m00237q8)
Al Fayed revelations, and the Murdoch succession battle

Following the BBC investigation into Mohamed Al Fayed, David Yelland and Simon Lewis discuss the circle of reputational protection that existed around the former Harrods boss and allowed him to commit serial sexual abuse for so long and get away with it.

Also, inside the Murdoch family's succession feud and the importance the results could have on the political state of global media.

Producer: Eve Streeter
Editor: Sarah Teasdale
Executive Producer: William Miller
Music by Eclectic Sounds
A Raconteur Studios production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 17:00 PM (m00237qd)
Keir Starmer's first conference speech as PM

Keir Starmer gives his first speech at as Prime Minister at Labour Party Conference. Also on PM reporting from Lebanon, a look around a new exhibition at the British Museum and a British Army veteran who witnessed nuclear tests at Christmas Island who's seeking compensation.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00237qh)
He told delegates in Liverpool that Labour would rebuild public services


TUE 18:30 Heresy (m0017tcn)
Series 12

Episode 2

Victoria Coren Mitchell presents a new series of the show which dares to commit heresy.

Joining Victoria Coren Mitchell to commit heresy about being at one with nature and mediocrity are the comedians Miles Jupp and David Mitchell, and former chair of the Conservative Party, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.

Written, presented, and produced by Victoria Coren Mitchell
with additional material from Dan Gaster and Charlie Skelton
Series created by David Baddiel

An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m00237qn)
At Greenacres, Jazzer’s concerned they haven’t followed Jim’s instructions with the redecoration, as per the message from Robert. Alistair reminds Jazzer that Jim wants him and Denise to feel at home. Later, after they’ve picked Jim up from the station, Alistair explains why everything has moved. When Jim hears that Alistair and Denise love the new space, he says he does too.
Following up on her investigation Lynda finds a distracted Harrison sitting in his car outside Woodbine, decompressing after a tough day at work. Lynda then quizzes Jazzer on his whereabouts during the fire alarm on Sunday. Getting the wrong idea about why he’s under suspicion, Jazzer confesses to stealing the Brookfield sunflower. Confused Lynda then explains that she’s investigating the fruit pies incident, but now Jazzer has thrown her whole investigation into disarray! Jim suggests that having Jazzer as witness during the critical period is actually very helpful, deducing that the person who collapsed the table must have been inside the hall the whole time. Suitably impressed, Lynda invites Jim to assist with her further enquiries.
While Fallon prepares food samples for her café pitch and talks about not being honest with Natasha over the reason she’s taking time off tomorrow, Harrison tries mentioning his concerns about staying in the Police. Fallon is too distracted though, and they end up trying her delicious samples for the pitch. When Fallon speculates about winning the contract, she talks about needing Harrison’s support. Would he be willing to go full-time? Suppressing his own concerns, Harrison says of course – he won’t stand in the way of Fallon’s dream.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m00237qr)
Chilly Gonzales performs, Dickens adaptations, Horror films

Classically trained pianist and rapper Chilly Gonzales performs from his new album Gonzo, ahead of his Royal Albert Hall gig,

As Hard Times kicks off Radio 4's season of Dickens dramas - what makes a good adaptation? Writer Graham White and Dickens expert Professor Juliet John discuss how the characters and issues like social inequality help to keep the stories relevant to modern audiences.

And what is the enduring appeal of horror films? Director Daniel Kokotajlo's folk-horror Starve Acre was inspired by his admiration for 70s classics like The Wicker Man and Anna Bogutskaya's book Feeding the Monster explores how horror films have evolved, and now often explore people's internal trauma and anxieties.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Paula McGrath


TUE 20:00 A Wild Ride (m00237qw)
In 2023, Ailsa Rochester made the decision to buy her daughter her first horse, but was shocked by this largely unregulated sector.

In A Wild Ride, Ailsa meets the equestrian who broke her back after buying a horse sold as “a quiet all-rounder”, the mother and daughter who fundraised to buy back their beloved pony after discovering he was being sold for thousands as a “perfect first pony” despite being medically retired by a vet. She also speaks to the parent who bought her 7 year old daughter’s first horse, only to find out it was not only dangerous, but allegedly stolen.

Ailsa finds out how social media has changed the ancient trade of horse dealing and speaks to legal experts, horse owners and those who claim they’re victims of unscrupulous dealers, to hear why buying and selling horses in England and Wales today is such a risky business.

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m00237r0)
Access to the Beautiful Game, Open Water Swimming

For many years, we've been used to in-stadium commentaries on football matches for people with no or only a little sight, but Crystal Palace have become the first Premier League club to offer another permanent high-tech accessibility feature to their partially sighted fans. It is called the GiveVision device. It provides people who have some remaining vision with an enhanced view of the game, up close to their eye. Fans Susan Vernon and Phil Green tell us of their experiences using the headset device at Selhurst Park stadium and Joanna Liddington from GiveVision describes the kind of interest they have received from other clubs.

Couple Emma Tracey and Robin Spinks allow us to tag along as they attend their regular cold water swimming spot. They describe the benefits they experience from cold water submersion, along with some of the more specific benefits of this activity for visually impaired people.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Pete Liggins
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.


TUE 21:00 World Of Secrets (w3ct793k)
Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods

Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods: 1. Golden opportunity

A dream job offer arrives from Harrods, to the surprise of debutante teenager, Cheska. Why is one of the world’s most famous luxury shops interested in her? How do they know where she lives - where to send the letter? It’s the 1990s in London. Cheska and other rich girls are being introduced to high society, as part of an centuries old tradition. What should she do next? Soon after she gets the job offer, Cheska is working in owner Mohamed Al Fayed’s personal office in London’s exclusive Park Lane. Can Al Fayed help her with her ambition to act?

This season of World of Secrets is about sexual abuse, and includes descriptions which some listeners might find distressing. For a list of organisations in the UK that can provide support for survivors of sexual abuse, go to bbc.co.uk/actionline.


TUE 21:30 Great Lives (m00237hb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:00 on Monday]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m00237r5)
Thousands of Lebanese flee Israeli bombardment in country's south

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has told British nationals in Lebanon "now is the time to leave" as Israeli air strikes targeting Hezbollah continue. An additional 700 UK military personnel are being flown to Cyprus tonight, joining 500 who were sent earlier this year. Meanwhile thousands of Lebanese civilians are fleeing the country's south and the Bekaa Valley. Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.

Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken at the United Nations Security Council saying "Russia can only be forced into peace."

And a sound designer in LA has developed a new way to start marathons that avoids the sound of a gunshot.


TUE 22:45 The Last Loves of Ronnie Maker by Alice Jolly (m00237r9)
Episode 2

A newly commissioned serial from Alice Jolly about love, loyalty and the meaning of care, exploring the emotions at the heart of a family crisis.

After their mother’s death, sisters Leah and Tiffany know their father needs support. Ebullient, charming and and unreliable, Ronnie Maker has lived life at speed and he has no intention of slipping gently into a peaceful old age. How will he cope in a remote Yorkshire village on his own, with his daughters so far away, so constantly busy?
When a neighbour offers to help out, it seems like an ideal, if temporary, solution.

But the sisters cannot be sure what lies behind Marika’s offer of help and, as the crisis of their father’s situation mounts, it brings to the surface suspicions, old resentments and guilt.

Alice Jolly writes: “At its heart, this story is about who cares, in every sense of the word, in a society where the whole question of ‘care’ is a fraught and urgent issue. It circles around a demanding man, but it’s ultimately about the women around him and how they deal with loyalty and love.”

Episode 2. As the sisters’ become increasingly suspicious about Marika’s motives, the tension between them grows.

Alice Jolly is a novelist and playwright. She has won a Royal Society of Literature V.S.Pritchett Memorial prize, the Pen/Ackerley Prize and an O. Henry Award, and was runner-up for the Rathbones Folio Prize for her novel Mary Anne Sate, Imbecile. Her short story collection From Far Around They Saw Us Burn was published in 2023.

Fiona Button, the reader, played Rose Defoe in The Split (BBC 1). As well as many television roles, she has starred in shows at the RSC, Almeida, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse and in the West End.

Writer: Alice Jolly
Reader: Fiona Button
Producer: Sara Davies
Executive Producer: Peter Hoare
Sound Design: Matt Bainbridge
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:00 Marianna in Conspiracyland (m00237hg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Monday]


TUE 23:30 The Gift (m001qdm5)
1. Fraud

In this first episode, a scandal deep in the heart of London's Harley Street is exposed when a man in his eighties receives a DNA test Christmas present from his daughter.

It's the go-to Christmas present for the person who already has everything. A gift that promises to tell you who you really are and how you're connected to the world.

Millions of us have spat into a tube and sent a vial of our DNA to a company like Ancestry and 23andMe. Their tests promise to unlock the truth of our heritage - perhaps even a future foretold in our genes.

Across six episodes, Jenny Kleeman meets the men and women whose lives changed forever after they opened a box that contained a DNA test. Exposing scandals, upending identities, solving mysteries and delivering life-changing news - Jenny investigates what happens when genealogy, technology and identity collide.

Presenter: Jenny Kleeman
Producer: Conor Garrett
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Executive Producer: Philip Sellars
Production Co-ordinator: Gill Huggett

WEDNESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2024

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m00237rc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 00:30 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (m00237pk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00237rf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00237rh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00237rk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m00237rm)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00237rp)
A daisy on the Giant's Causeway

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m00237rr)
All week we’re looking at planning and the countryside. The government has announced plans for "brownfield passports", to fast track house building on brownfield sites. The countryside charity, CPRE, has welcomed the proposals to make brownfield sites the first choice for building new homes. It says we could build most of the homes we need on such sites and says this could be in rural areas, as well as urban ones.

Green belt land was originally designed to protect the countryside from urban sprawl but some parts of it have been developed, and they are now considered ‘grey belt’ land. There’s a general acceptance that some of this land will have to be built on - providing space for some of the new 1.5 million homes the government's pledged to build over the next parliament. We look at two council areas - one where thousands of new homes have been built in the countryside, another which is creating 1000s of hectares of new green belt.

2024 is the year when payments to farmers in England, from the old EU Basic Payment Scheme, or BPS, really start to go down. They will be phased out completely by 2027. For instance, a farmer who used to receive £50,000 under the pre-Brexit scheme, will this year receive £26,000. Instead farmers can now sign up to a new agri-environment scheme: the Sustainable Farming Incentive, or SFI. It has more than a hundred actions for which farmers are paid. They’re designed to improve nature habitats, lessen flooding, improve soil health and provide cleaner water courses, and more. We visit a field event which helps farmers navigate their way through the new schemes.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


WED 06:00 Today (m00237v6)
25/09/24 - Starmer: Middle East on 'brink' of war

The Prime Minister tells the Today programme that he fears the Middle East may be on the brink of all out war. Hundreds of British troops are being sent to Cyprus to help with a possible evacuation of UK nationals from Lebanon. In Today's first interview with Sir Keir Starmer since he moved into No 10, he also signals a big shake up of benefits telling Nick Robinson that the long-term sick must "look for work".


WED 09:00 More or Less (m00237n0)
Could the winter fuel cut cost more than it saves?

The government is encouraging pensioners to claim pension credit in order to remain eligible for winter fuel payments. Will people sign up - and might that end up costing the exchequer more than it saves?

The Office for National Statistics has downgraded the status of a new statistic aiming to measure how many people are transgender. What went wrong?

Cancer appears to be on the rise in people under 50. But are more people dying?

And try your hand at a puzzle you’re likely to get wrong.

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news.

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producers: Natasha Fernandes and Bethan Ashmead-Latham
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound mix: Sarah Hockley
Editor: Richard Vadon


WED 09:30 The Coming Storm (m00237v8)
S2: 3. The Enemy Within

A prank about pizza is the moment members of the Republican Party in Idaho realise the conspiratorial John Birch Society has burrowed into mainstream politics. These people are dredging up ideas from the past, about communist plots and hidden hands, and repurposing them for the 21st Century.

An alliance is forming in the Pacific Northwest state between the John Birchers and another group of people who never trusted the federal government of America. Gabriel Gatehouse meets the leader of The Real 3%’ers of Idaho, anti-government activists who are part of the militia movement. He hears how a stand-off in the desert a decade ago between government bureaucrats and cowboys became a defining moment, for those who don’t trust the institutions of the state, and also for the FBI, as everyone looks at the January 6 Capitol riot as evidence of the enemy within.

Producer: Lucy Proctor
Sound design and mix: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon
Script consultants: Richard Fenton-Smith and Afsaneh Gray
Commissioning editor: Dan Clarke
Original music: Pete Cunningham

Credits:

Dorothy Moon speaking at the Kootenai County Republican Women Federated’s fundraiser

Idaho Freedom Foundation Investigation by KTVB

Dorothy Moon introducing Eric Parker of Hailey during the Idaho House session on Jan. 16, 2018.

Leaked bodycam footage of the Bundy Ranch stand-off fromThe Pete Santilli Show, Rumble - original owner unknown


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00237vb)
Demi Moore, Sexual assault allegations at Harrods, Women in war

Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actor Demi Moore is a name recognised by many, from her standout role as Molly Jensen in the film Ghost, to Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway in A Few Good Men. But it’s her role as Elisabeth Sparkle in new movie, The Substance, which has got a lot of people talking. Many see it as a commentary on Hollywood’s beauty standards and fear of ageing. Demi joins Kylie Pentelow live to discuss it.

Last week the BBC broadcast Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, a documentary and podcast which alleged that former Harrods chairman Mohamed Al Fayed sexually assaulted women who worked at the store. Kylie speaks to the woman who was the catalyst for the documentary - Sophia Stone and to her husband Keaton Stone. Sophia alleges that she was groomed and then sexually assaulted by Al Fayed. Keaton was determined to help her and approached other women who had worked at Harrods. The BBC has heard testimony from more than 20 female ex-employees who say Al Fayed, who died last year, sexually assaulted or raped them. The current owners say they are "utterly appalled" by the allegations and are seeking to settle claims "in the quickest way possible”.

How women cracked Wall Street, the iconic hub of New York's finance district, is the subject of writer and historian Paulina Bren's book She Wolves. It tells the inside story of these women, from the sixties up until 9/11.

Today the charity Women for Women release their findings which offers a rare glimpse in to the perspectives of women living in conflict areas. The charity’s International Director Sara Bowcutt joins Kylie to explain their findings.

Presenter: Kylie Pentelow
Producer: Emma Pearce


WED 11:00 A Wild Ride (m00237qw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]


WED 11:45 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (m00237vf)
Book of the Week: Episode 8 - The Crisis Escalates

Ben Macintyre’s latest book tells the story of the 1980 siege at the Iranian Embassy. Today, it’s the sixth day and the gunmen’s nerves are fraying. As the crisis escalates the SAS troopers ready themselves to strike. Jamie Parker reads.

Ben Macintyre sets the pulse racing in his new book when he returns us to the spring of 1980. On 30th April, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London, taking 26 people hostage, what followed was an intense set of events involving police negotiators, decisions makers at the highest levels, and the SAS. Jamie Parker reads.

In The Siege Ben Macintyre takes us on a journey through the crisis, painting a minute-by-minute picture of six days filled with terror and uncertainty for the hostages, the gunmen and the authorities.

When all avenues to resolve the crisis bloodlessly were exhausted, the SAS were deployed, and millions gathered around their televisions to watch the unprecedented events unfold.

Ben Macintyre’s previous titles include, Colditz, Agent Sonya, and The Spy and The Traitor. Several have been adapted for film and television – Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS Rogue Heroes.

Jamie Parker is known for his work on radio – Hamlet, Going Infinite, The Gold Finch; the stage – The History Boys, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Next to Normal, and screen - Becoming Elizabeth, The Crown and Des.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


WED 12:00 News Summary (m00237vh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m00237vk)
Cardigan Scam; Tennis Fees; Avocado Bathroom Suites

In today's programme we hear about the social media ads selling fake knitted cardigans and the links to a major international scam. Shari Vahl hears from victims and has advice on what to look out for when you're shopping via your socials.

Should tennis courts in parks be free or should people be made to pay in return for top quality courts? The Lawn Tennis Association is refurbishing 60% of park courts and councils are bringing in fees to cover costs. We hear from one park that's opted out of the scheme and Olly Scadgell from the Lawn Tennis Association and Paul Jessop from Tennis for Free discuss the pros and cons of the changes.

And avocado bathrooms were hated once but now they're back. According to research by Wickes, a third of 25-34 year olds picked avocado as the colour they would most like to use in a bathroom upgrade. We hear from someone who's got one, plus Deborah Sugg Ryan, Professor of Design History at the University of Portsmouth, and presenter of A House Through Time, discusses how the look has evolved since the 70's.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

PRODUCER: CATHERINE EARLAM


WED 12:57 Weather (m00237vm)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m00237vp)
PM urges Britons to leave Lebanon

The prime minister has urged Britons to leave Lebanon via commercial flights as soon as they can, as Israel and Hezbollah exchange more rocket fire. The World at One speaks to a British woman in Beirut who says she will stay put. Also: delegates at Labour's conference in Liverpool have voted to reverse the government's cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance; and the conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra tells us about the musical year ahead


WED 13:45 Superhead (m00237vr)
Episode 3 - Needs Improvement

John Dickens has been investigating Trevor Averre-Beeson for the best part of a decade. Averre-Beeson was once one of the most prominent examples of the generation of “Superheads” that Tony Blair and Michael Gove backed in turn to help transform failing schools in Britain. He built an education empire around a large academy trust, Lilac Sky.

But in 2016, that empire suddenly and rapidly collapsed, sparking a scandal that sent shockwaves through the world of education.

John Dickens explores the inside story behind the rise and fall of one of Britain’s most charismatic educators, and investigates whether the rapid growth - and precipitous collapse - of Lilac Sky exposes weaknesses in regulation that the government has failed to fully reckon with.

In Episode 3, John hears how Lilac Sky took over schools in Kent and raised questions from local campaigners.

Producers: Robert Nicholson and Charlie Towler
Sound Design: Tom Brignell
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


WED 14:00 The Archers (m00237qn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Riot Girls (m000dpk2)
Dykes

Episode 2

Episode 2: A greater threat to family life than Adolf Hitler. An original three part series by Sarah Daniels, which follows the friendship of three radical lesbian feminists from the 1970s to today. The angry, pioneering 1970s give way to the more repressive 1980s, and the introduction of Clause 28. Starring Nichola McAuliffe, Lucy Reynolds, Scarlett Courtney and Sinead MacInnes.

This fourth season of Riot Girls - provocative writing by women - offers no-holds barred dramas that explore themes of gender identity, lesbian relationships and the intersections between the feminist and LGBTQ+ movements.

CAST

Pat.....Nichola McAuliffe
Lynn/Liam.....Jelena Budimir
Miley.....Katie Angelou
Younger Pat.....Lucy Reynolds
Younger Bex.....Scarlett Courtney
Younger Lynn.....Sinead MacInnes
Flick.....Laura Christy
Marc.....Ian Conningham
Policeman.....Neil McCaul

Directed by Emma Harding


WED 15:00 Money Box (m00237vt)
Money Box Live: Can you afford university?

Across the UK freshers are heading off to university, many leaving home for the first time and most of them are paying for at least some of that with their student loans.

Graduates in England leave university with average debts of around £48,500 according to the Student Loans Company.

Tuition fees vary depending on where you live in the UK. Last year students in England were told they'd be paying back their loans longer than the graduates who came before them.

So, this week we're looking at how much a degree really costs. Felicity Hannah will be joined by Tom Allingham from Save the Student and Kellie McAlonan, Chair of the charity the National Association of Student Money Advisers.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Sarah Rogers
Editor: Jess Quayle

(This episode was first broadcast 3pm on Wednesday 25th September 2024)


WED 15:30 The Artificial Human (m00237vw)
Will Shrimp Jesus kill social media?

Sometimes, we get odd questions at the Artificial Human - ‘Why has my gran’s facebook feed been taken over by Shrimp Jesus?’ definitely raised eyebrows.

Kevin and Aleks embark on a journey into the weird and wonderful world of ‘AI Slop’ - mass produced, low quality AI images that have spread like wildfire over Social Media platforms - with Shrimp Jesus being one of the most prominent, and bizarre, examples.

They’ll speak with Renee Di Resta, about her study that reveals how algorithmic systems, designed to maximize engagement, have allowed AI slop to take over social media feeds - not because it's valuable, but because it's engineered to be highly clickable and shareable, gaming the algorithms for more impressions, likes, and comments.

And it turns out, those impressions can lead to money - BIG money... for a very select few. Aleks and Kevin talk with investigative journalist Jason Koebler about the hidden cottage industry producing the Slop - a community primarily from the Global South, trying to make money from social media reward programmes. With the help of various apps, online tutorials and hacker-like methods of avoiding spam filters, people are flocking to social media hoping to strike gold with viral images, like Shrimp Jesus.

But, will this AI Slop gold rush be the death of Social Media as we know it? And what happens to us when we just assume that anything we see online is simply not real.

And remember, if you have a question about AI that you’d like us to answer for you, get in touch with theartificialhuman@bbc.co.uk

Presenters: Aleks Krotosksi and Kevin Fong
Producer: Elizabeth Ann Duffy
Researcher: Emily Esson
Engineer: Barry Jackson


WED 16:00 The Media Show (m00237vy)
Al Fayed and the media, Have I Got News for You USA, TV news in Afghanistan

Katie and Ros meet Erica Gornal, director of the BBC’s new investigation into serious sexual abuse allegations by Mohamed al Fayed. Jimmy Mulville, the exec behind the new US version of Have I Got News for You tell us about what makes Americans laugh and we learn what it takes to run Afghanistan’s biggest television channel, still operating under Taliban rule.

Guests: Erica Gornall, Director, Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods; Henry Porter, former UK Editor, Vanity Fair; Jimmy Mulville, Managing Director, Hat Trick Productions; Nayeema Raza, Co-host, Semafor's Mixed Signals podcast; Saad Mohseni, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Moby Group; Chris Blackhurst, Communications Advisor and former Editor of The Independent

Presenters: Katie Razzall and Ros Atkins
Producer: Simon Richardson
Assistant Producer: Flora McWilliam


WED 17:00 PM (m00237w0)
Israeli troops ready for 'possible entry' to Lebanon

The head of the Israeli armed forces has said preparations are being made for a possible ground invasion of Lebanon. We hear from David Miliband on the humanitarian impact so far.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00237w2)
The Chief of the General Staff has told troops to prepare to enter "enemy territory"


WED 18:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m00174f1)
Series 1

Round four: Everything

So the more quizzes you do, the more predictable they get. Luckily, here comes quizzer, comedian and Rose d’Or winner Paul Sinha with his series, Paul Sinha’s Perfect Pub Quiz. In each episode he invites the audience to tell him their favourite quiz questions, before offering up not just different and surprising questions, but also the fascinating stories behind the answers.

This week's show is a general knowledge round. Paul asks about popes, toy companies and Nazis. The audience, meanwhile, contribute questions about cars, Margaret Rutherford quotes and Nazis.

It’s facts, jokes, stories and puns – just the way you like them.

Written and performed by Paul Sinha
Additional material: Oliver Levy
Additional questions: The Audience

Original music: Tim Sutton

Sound engineer: Jerry Peal

Producer: Ed Morrish

A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m00237w4)
While George helps Eddie prepare the sheep for tupping he talks about not being around for lambing. Eddie reckons he’s going to find George a new lawyer who can help minimise George’s sentence, but George says no to selling Eddie’s van - and the idea of using the money they got from selling Bartleby. When he calls Eddie a stupid old fool, Ed demands George apologise, but George walks off. Later, Ed catches George and tells him to accept help when it’s offered, as with the character reference Oliver wrote. But who else can they try?
Eddie goes to see Pat and updates her on Clarrie, who’s away looking after her sister Rosie. Eddie asks about Helen’s lawyer when she was on trial. Pat gives him Dominic’s name, but at the thought of what might happen to George Eddie becomes emotional and Pat tells him to have faith in the system. George then apologises to Eddie and says he’s not giving up, but needs to face up to what he’s done and accept that he’s going to prison.
Tony tells Pat that Eddie has a cheek asking them for help, then fulminates about the pressure they’re all under after having to fire George and with Emma staying away from the Tearoom. When Ed shows up to ask a favour Tony flatly refuses to write George a character reference. After Ed goes Tony gives him short shrift, but Pat defends Ed – and Eddie – questioning what good a long prison sentence will do George. But Tony is adamant, they are not writing George a reference.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m00237w6)
David Mitchell on Ludwig, poet Kathleen Jamie and the world premiere of Helen Grime's Folk

Poet Kathleen Jamie, whose tenure as Scotland's Makar, or National Poet, recently came to an end, talks about her new collection of poems written in Scots, The Keelie Hawk.

Composer Helen Grime, soprano Claire Booth and author Zoe Gilbert chat about the world premiere of Folk, an orchestral song cycle inspired by Gilbert's book of the same name.

And David Mitchell discusses his role in the new BBC comedy drama Ludwig, about a reclusive puzzle setter who becomes a reluctant detective, following the disappearance of his identical twin.

Presenter: Kate Molleson
Producer: Mark Crossan


WED 20:00 AntiSocial (m0023090)
Coconuts, race and hate speech

Is it racist for a person of colour to call someone a coconut? Should it be a crime?

A teacher was put on trial after she was pictured at a pro-Palestinian march holding a placard that showed then prime minister Rishi Sunak and then home secretary Suella Braverman as coconuts. The term “coconut” can be used to suggest that someone who is brown on the outside is white on the inside - that they are somehow acting in a way inconsistent with their ethnicity. The prosecution called “coconut” a “racial slur”; the judge said the placard was “political satire” and found the teacher not guilty. How did the case play out in court? What’s the history behind this use of the word coconut and others like it? And what does the law say about when speech becomes criminal?

Presenter: Adam Fleming
Producers: Simon Maybin, Ellie House, Elliot Ryder
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Editor: Richard Vadon


WED 20:45 Profile (m00236rf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


WED 21:00 The Life Scientific (m00237pc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 All in the Mind (m00237pf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m00237w9)
Israel prepares troops for possible ground invasion of Lebanon

The head of Israel's armed forces has told IDF soldiers to "prepare yourselves" for a possible ground offensive into Lebanon. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said air strikes by Israeli jets are "preparing the ground for your possible entry".

The Prime Ministers says people claiming long-term sickness benefit should be looking for work. How hard is it to re-enter the job market after an illness?

And former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove has been appointed as the new editor of right-wing magazine The Spectator.


WED 22:45 The Last Loves of Ronnie Maker by Alice Jolly (m00237wc)
Episode 3

A newly commissioned serial from Alice Jolly about love, loyalty and the meaning of care, exploring the emotions at the heart of a family crisis.

After their mother’s death, sisters Leah and Tiffany know their father needs support. Ebullient, charming and and unreliable, Ronnie Maker has lived life at speed and he has no intention of slipping gently into a peaceful old age. How will he cope in a remote Yorkshire village on his own, with his daughters so far away, so constantly busy?
When a neighbour offers to help out, it seems like an ideal, if temporary, solution.

But the sisters cannot be sure what lies behind Marika’s offer of help and, as the crisis of their father’s situation mounts, it brings to the surface suspicions, old resentments and guilt.

Alice Jolly writes: “At its heart, this story is about who cares, in every sense of the word, in a society where the whole question of ‘care’ is a fraught and urgent issue. It circles around a demanding man, but it’s ultimately about the women around him and how they deal with loyalty and love.”

Episode 3. Ronnie worsens, and old resentments conflicts between Leah and Tiffany rise to the surface.

Alice Jolly is a novelist and playwright. She has won a Royal Society of Literature V.S.Pritchett Memorial prize, the Pen/Ackerley Prize and an O. Henry Award, and was runner-up for the Rathbones Folio Prize for her novel Mary Anne Sate, Imbecile. Her short story collection From Far Around They Saw Us Burn was published in 2023.

Fiona Button, the reader, played Rose Defoe in The Split (BBC 1). As well as many television roles, she has starred in shows at the RSC, Almeida, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse and in the West End.

Writer: Alice Jolly
Reader: Fiona Button
Producer: Sara Davies
Executive Producer: Peter Hoare
Sound Design: Matt Bainbridge
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:00 Follow the Rabbit (m00237wf)
4. The Biscuit Tin Demon

Follow the Rabbit is a brand new comedy series following Chris Relish, an amateur paranormal investigator and podcast maker who is on a mission to prove the existence of supernatural forces after claiming he's had a romantic experience with a ghost.

In this episode, Chris meets Jade, a local woman who says she's got a tiny demon living in a biscuit tin. The demon speaks to Jade in her dreams and asks her to keep the tin supplied with biscuits until it can gather enough energy to leave. But it's becoming too powerful and making Jade feed it dogs and bite people in the street. Chris hopes to capture evidence so they perform an ancient ritual in an attempt to coax the troublesome entity out of the tin.

Cast
Chris Relish: Tom Lawrinson
Jade: Beth Mullen
Kathleen Relish: Jo Enright
Dr. Jeremy Morgan: Steve Brody
Darren: Joby Mageean

Written and produced by James Boughen

Executive Producers: Simon Mayhew Archer and Michelle Farr-Scott

Original music by Sam O'Leary and Jacob Howard

A Motif Pictures production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:15 The Skewer (m00237wh)
Series 12

Episode 3

The week’s biggest stories like you’ve never heard them before. The news remixed into a satirical concept album. This week, Labour Sausage Party and The Little Shop of Harrods.

Jon Holmes presents the multi-award-winning The Skewer. Headphones on.

Producer: Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 The Gift (m001qm3x)
2. Justice

A son's quest to learn more about his late father unravels a mystery that's baffled US federal law enforcement for over four decades.

It's the go-to Christmas present for the person who already has everything. A gift that promises to tell you who you really are and how you're connected to the world.
Millions of us have spat into a tube and sent a vial of our DNA to a company like Ancestry and 23andMe. Their tests promise to unlock the truth of our heritage - perhaps even a future foretold in our genes.

Across six episodes, Jenny Kleeman meets the men and women whose lives changed forever after they opened a box that contained a DNA test. Exposing scandals, upending identities, solving mysteries and delivering life-changing news - Jenny investigates what happens when genealogy, technology and identity collide.

Presenter: Jenny Kleeman
Producer: Conor Garrett
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Executive Producer: Philip Sellars
Production Co-ordinator: Gill Huggett
Archive courtesy CNN

THURSDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2024

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m00237wk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (m00237vf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00237wm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00237wp)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00237wr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m00237wt)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00237ww)
Broadening our humanity

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m00237wy)
As the first doses of bluetongue vaccine arrive in the UK, affected farms are to be surveyed about the impact of this latest outbreak.

Unexploded Second World War bombs are one of the hazards for those aiming to restore a Welsh bog, Crymlyn bog sits alongside some major parts of Swansea's industrial heritage - an area targeted by the Luftwaffe.

Farmers have been asked to comment on proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework for England. The consultation closed this week - with the new Labour government promising a major overhaul in order to deliver more housing, infrastructure and green energy.

Presented by Steffan Messenger

Produced by Alun Beach


THU 06:00 Today (m00237yr)
26/09/24 - Mishal Husain and Justin Webb

News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m00237yt)
Wormholes

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the tantalising idea that there are shortcuts between distant galaxies, somewhere out there in the universe. The idea emerged in the context of Einstein's theories and the challenge has been not so much to prove their unlikely existence as to show why they ought to be impossible. The universe would have to folded back on itself in places, and there would have to be something to make the wormholes and then to keep them open. But is there anywhere in the vast universe like that? Could there be holes that we or more advanced civilisations might travel through, from one galaxy to another and, if not, why not?

With

Toby Wiseman
Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London

Katy Clough
Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at Queen Mary, University of London

And

Andrew Pontzen
Professor of Cosmology at Durham University

Producer: Simon Tillotson


Reading list:

Jim Al-Khalili, Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines (Taylor & Francis, 1999)

Andrew Pontzen, The Universe in a Box: Simulations and the Quest to Code the Cosmos (Riverhead Books, 2023)

Claudia de Rham, The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity (Princeton University Press, 2024)

Carl Sagan, Contact (Simon and Schuster, 1985)

Kip Thorne, Black Holes & Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy (W. W. Norton & Company, 1994)

Kip Thorne, Science of Interstellar (W. W. Norton & Company, 2014)

Matt Visser, Lorentzian Wormholes: From Einstein to Hawking (American Institute of Physics Melville, NY, 1996)



In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production


THU 09:45 Glued Up: The Sticky Story of Humanity (m001y8cm)
How rubber changed the world

In this series, materials scientist Mark Miodownik charts the journey of human progress through the sticky substances that have shaped us.

In episode two he explores how latex, the sticky sap of the rubber tree, transformed the world we live in.

He learns how rubber is an ancient Mesoamerican innovation dating back at least 3,600 years, used by the Olmec people for its incredible stretchiness and bounciness.

And he hears how scientists of the industrial revolution were captivated by rubber, but struggled to harness its miraculous properties. Eventually, one man would solve this sticky problem – but the quest nearly killed him, and cost him everything he had.

Contributors:
Charles Slack, Author and historian
Mike Tarkanian, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sound effects: DeLorean DMC-12 (V6 PRV engine) by SkyernAklea, from Freesound

Producer: Anand Jagatia
Presenter: Mark Miodownik
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem
BBC Studios Audio Production


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00237yw)
Media reporting on rape cases, Women in the Sudan conflict, What's the alternative to dating apps?

What is best practice for journalists when it comes to reporting on rape cases? Why does the way it's reported matter and what sort of a difference can considered reporting make? The End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) with academic Alessia Tranchese are launching a new resource addressing responsible reporting on rape, based on analysis of 12 years’ coverage in the British press. With two most recent examples of Gisele Pelicot in France and the ex-employees of Mohamed Al-Fayed in mind, journalist Yvonne Roberts and CEO of EVAW Andrea Simons join Anita Rani to discuss.

The war in Sudan began in April last year and shows no signs of ending. It has claimed thousands of lives, displaced millions of people and plunged parts of the country into famine. Laila Baker from the United Nations’ agency for sexual and reproductive health and rights joins us to talk to us about the situation for women on the ground in Sudan.

It's officially the start of cuffing season. That time of the year where you want to stay home, under a blanket, with a takeaway and someone you love. But how are people looking for partners nowadays? Are we over dating apps and looking to return to meeting people in real life? Anita is joined by Olivia Petter, author or Millenial Love, and Oenone Fobart, co-host of the Everything is Content podcast.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Laura Northedge


THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m00237yy)
Marina Abramović

For over more than five decades the Serbian conceptual and performance artist Marina Abramović has used her own body as her artistic medium, exploring the human condition in works that are often feats of endurance, exhaustion and pain. From her earliest works such as Rhythm 0, in which Abramović invited audiences to freely interact with her however they chose, to her long-durational work The Artist is Present, she has put herself in danger at the mercy of audiences all in the name of art.

Abramović talks to John Wilson about her unhappy childhood in the former Yugoslavia with strict parents who had both been war heroes. She recalls how at age 14, a dangerous game of Russian roulette led her to Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot and how the book and its author's life sparked her creative imagination. She also reveals how two films, Alain Resnais' enigmatic 1961 French New Wave classic Last Year at Marienbad, and Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1968 movie Teorema, starring Terence Stamp, have inspired aspects of her work.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


THU 11:45 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (m00237z0)
Book of the Week: Episode 9 - Decisive Action Is Taken

Ben Macintyre’s latest book tells the story of the 1980 hostage crisis at the Iranian Embassy. On the evening of the sixth day the criteria is met for deploying the SAS. Jamie Parker reads.

Ben Macintyre sets the pulse racing in his new book when he returns us to the spring of 1980. On 30th April, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London, taking 26 people hostage, what followed was an intense set of events involving police negotiators, decisions makers at the highest levels, and the SAS. Jamie Parker reads.

In The Siege Ben Macintyre takes us on a journey through the crisis, painting a minute-by-minute picture of six days filled with terror and uncertainty for the hostages, the gunmen and the authorities.

When all avenues to resolve the crisis bloodlessly were exhausted, the SAS were deployed, and millions gathered around their televisions to watch the unprecedented events unfold.

Ben Macintyre’s previous titles include, Colditz, Agent Sonya, and The Spy and The Traitor. Several have been adapted for film and television – Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS Rogue Heroes.

Jamie Parker is known for his work on radio – Hamlet, Going Infinite, The Gold Finch; the stage – The History Boys, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Next to Normal, and screen - Becoming Elizabeth, The Crown and Des.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


THU 12:00 News Summary (m00237z2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 The Bottom Line (m00237z4)
How Smart Is the Smart Energy System?

The UK's power grid is undergoing a huge shift towards renewable energy, but running homes and businesses solely on this new form of electricity will be a delicate balancing act and will pose new choices for consumers.

Evan Davis and guests discuss the challenge of matching supply - from wind and solar - with an increased demand from electric vehicles and homes using heat pumps rather than gas boilers.

Part of the solution could be consumers themselves - homes with EVs, solar panels or battery storage could act like mini power plants, sending energy back to the grid, as well as taking from it, and getting paid in the process. But that two-way exchange could bring harder decisions - would you let your energy company switch off your fridge for an hour to ease pressure on the grid?

Evan is joined by:
Cordi O’Hara, president of UK electricity distribution, National Grid;
Hamish Phillips, net zero business development director, Centrica;
Jordan Brompton, co-founder and chief marketing officer, Myenergi.

Production team:
Producer: Simon Tulett
Researcher: Drew Hyndman
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound: Jonny Baker and Tim Heffer
Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m00237z6)
Slug Repellents

Listener Nikki from Essex has a problem in her garden with a certain slippery character – the slug. She told Sliced Bread that she’s lost many a plant to them, and had to abandon growing certain kinds altogether – because while they’re being a nuisance, she doesn’t want to harm them.

She has been researching non-lethal slug repellents, and wants to know if they actually work? Can things like egg shells, copper tape and wool pellets stop them in their slimy tracks?

We speak to principle entomologist at the Royal Horticultural Society Doctor Hayley Jones, as well as zoologist, ecologist and honorary fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, Doctor Gordon Port to find out. You can also hear us put some slugs through their paces – as we set up a test to see what they avoid…

All of the ideas for out investigations come from you, our listeners, and we’re always on the lookout for more. If you have seen a wonder product that claims to make you happier, healthier or greener, and want to know if it is SB or BS, then please do send it over on email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or drop us a message or voice note on WhatsApp to 07543 306807.

PRESENTER: Greg Foot

PRODUCER: Kate Holdsworth


THU 12:57 Weather (m00237z8)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m00237zb)
No progress on Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire

Benjamin Netanyahu tells Israeli troops to continue fighting at 'full force' in Lebanon. We hear from Israel's former prime minister during the last war with Hezbollah.


THU 13:45 Superhead (m00237zd)
Episode 4 - Disruptive in Class

John Dickens has been investigating Trevor Averre-Beeson for the best part of a decade. Averre-Beeson was once one of the most prominent examples of the generation of “Superheads” that Tony Blair and Michael Gove backed in turn to help transform failing schools in Britain. He built an education empire around a large academy trust, Lilac Sky.

But in 2016, that empire suddenly and rapidly collapsed, sparking a scandal that sent shockwaves through the world of education.

John Dickens explores the inside story behind the rise and fall of one of Britain’s most charismatic educators, and investigates whether the rapid growth - and precipitous collapse - of Lilac Sky exposes weaknesses in regulation that the government has failed to fully reckon with.

In Episode 4, the trust becomes suddenly mired in scandal.

Producers: Robert Nicholson and Charlie Towler
Sound Design: Simon Jarvis
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


THU 14:00 The Archers (m00237w4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m00237zg)
OK Boomer

By Kevin Core
Baby boomer streamer Trudy Stark's clickbait pronouncements on younger generations have resulted in a big online following, much to the embarrassment of her two struggling daughters 37-year-old Jenny, and 22-year old Chloe. For them there’s nothing funny in being mocked by the boomers with charmed lives who scooped up the nation’s wealth. But the death of Trudy’s father brings these three very different generations together – and as the war between 'Boomer', 'Millennial' and 'Gen Z' rages, they begin to reveal how unreliable these labels are.

Trudy..........................Susan Twist
Jenny..........................Erin Shanagher
Chloe..........................Sade Malone
Craig...........................Gareth Cassidy
Praj...............................Sushil Chudasama
Dan..............................Tarek Slater

Production Co-ordinator - Vicky Moseley
Studio Manager - Amy Brennan
Sound Designer - Simon Highfield
Director/ Producer - Gary Brown

A BBC Studios Audio Production.


THU 15:00 Open Country (m00237zj)
The 100 Mile Wildlife Corridor

Martha Kearney follows the River Ouse, from the High Weald to the Sussex coast and - finally - into the sea itself. Along the way, she discovers how one of the UK's largest nature recovery projects is taking root.

The project is called 'Weald to Waves' - it's a wildlife corridor that has been mapped out over more than 100 miles of Sussex landscape and coastline, to encourage biodiversity on a huge scale, connecting food, farming, nature and people. Encompassing more than 20,000 hectares of contiguous habitat, it is a huge coming-together of farmers, land managers, councils, utility companies, wildlife charities, schools, gardeners and community groups. Martha meets some of the people who have pledged to be a part of this huge collaborative effort.

Producer: Becky Ripley


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m00236qy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Word of Mouth (m00237zl)
How Animals Talk

Michael hears from zoologist Arik Kershenbaum about the latest research on how and why different types of animals communicate, from wolves howling to dolphins whistling: a world of soundscapes. He also explains how animal communication can help to shed light on the human variety.

Dr. Arik Kershenbaum is a zoologist and the author of: Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea.
Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz


THU 16:00 Rethink (m00237zn)
Rethink... voting

One person, one vote - we're all equal in the voting booth, right?

But it hasn't always been this way, and just who can vote has changed many times since the Second World War.

Until 1951, business owners and some university graduates were allowed multiple votes. 18 year olds could vote for the first time in the 1970 general election, and In 2024 British expats who had lived outside the UK for longer than 15 years were given the vote.

There are anomalies too. Irish and Commonwealth citizens who have just arrived in the UK can vote as long as they're registered, but an EU citizen who's lived here for 20 years cannot, unless they become a British citizen.

And when it comes to the results, smaller parties say the First Past the Post system leaves them with few seats that don't reflect their level of support.

So is there a better way? Quadratic voting, which allows people to vote multiple times could be the answer. Ben Ansell speaks to one of its inventors, and asks, "is it time to rethink voting?"

Presenter: Ben Ansell
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors
Glen Weyl, Microsoft Research
Rosie Campbell Professor of Politics at King's College London
Dr Hannah White the CEO of the Institute for Government
Rob Ford Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m00237zq)
How green is space travel?

The images beamed back to Earth of the first civilian spacewalk have prompted a very pertinent question from one Inside Science listener:

What effect is space travel having on our climate?

We're used to delving into the carbon footprint of Earth-bound travel – so this week we’re going to explore the impact of the rapidly growing space industry on our climate.

How does a rocket launch compare to a flight taking off? Do we even know the true cost yet – and if it’s significant, what might the solution be?

Also on the programme, a personal perspective from a remote island on worrying seabird declines, the results of a project to refreeze Arctic sea ice, and why new evidence unearthed about the Falkland Islands suggests it may once have looked very different...

Presenter: Vic Gill
Producers: Ella Hubber & Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis
Studio Manager: Rhys Morris

BBC Inside Science is produced in partnership with the Open University.

If you want to test your climate change knowledge, head to bbc.co.uk - search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to the Open University.


THU 17:00 PM (m00237zs)
Netanyahu in New York for key UN summit

Israel strikes Beirut, after Israeli PM Netanyahu tells military to fight with 'full force' in Lebanon. We speak to a senior member of Netanyahu's Likud party.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00237zv)
Around 200 women have come forward with accusations against the former boss of Harrods


THU 18:30 Phil Ellis Is Trying (m000mzsh)
Series 3

Pondlife 2000

When he's accused of murdering a hipster, Phil is hauled before the Supreme Court of Parbold presided over by the ruthless Judge Shawshank (Jack Dee). Phil must find a way to counter the allegations of Parbold's best prosecutor (Sindhu Vee) and the witness statements of several of Parbold's residents, including Mick the Chinese herbalist and Ellie the florist. Otherwise, it looks like Phil might be facing a lengthy jail term. Polly could help his cause as foreman of the jury, but as she's not been paid for months, she's got it in for Phil too. Luckily, the defendant has Johnny on his side. If only the court vending machine hadn't been so recently stocked full of Caramacs.

Cast includes:

Phil Ellis as Phil
Johnny Vegas as Johnny
Amy Gledhill as Polly
Katia Kvinge as Ellie the florist
Mick Ferry as Mick the Chinese herbalist
Jason Barnett as Keith the barman
Terry Mynott as Jarvis Cocker

And guest starring Sindhu Vee as the Prosecutor, and Jack Dee as Judge Shawshank.

It was produced by Sam Michell and is a BBC Studios Production


THU 19:00 The Archers (m00237mp)
Despite them both wanting to be there Ed persuades Emma they should respect George’s wishes and let just Will go to the Court hearing tomorrow. They’ll focus instead on getting more character references, though Emma can’t believe Ed even bothered trying Pat and Tony. However, Pat surprises them both when she turns up with an employee reference she’s written, admitting it’s just from her, not Tony. Pat believes in the possibility of redemption. Emma’s even more stunned when Pat offers her work at the dairy, covering while Clarrie’s away. Emma thinks working with Susan tomorrow will be a good distraction from worrying about the court hearing.
Tony is incensed with Pat for what she’s done, but she felt it was the right thing to do. Tony understands that, but Pat’s on her own when it comes to telling the rest of the family, especially Brian and Lilian.
Lynda, Tony and Jim talk about the need to improve standards before the cricket team plays in Division Four next season. They also talk about gathering memorabilia for tomorrow night’s Cricket Club dinner, before Jim and Lynda continue their sleuthing into the collapsed table at the Flower and Produce Show. Later, at Greenacres, Lynda says she’s been concentrating on MMO: Means. Motive. Opportunity. Jim, however, has made a sketch of the village hall and suggests returning to the scene of the crime. There, Lynda retraces her steps and remembers setting up the table. She points out how damning the verdict could be for whoever was responsible, before Jim turns one of the tables over to discover something that stops Lynda in her tracks.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m00237zx)
Review: art - Monet; book: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney; Joe Lycett's art book

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet


THU 20:00 The Media Show (m00237vy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Wednesday]


THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m00236xd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


THU 21:45 The Warsaw Ghetto: History as Survival (m001l94l)
1. Oyneg Shabes

The extraordinary archive that secretly recorded daily Jewish existence in the Warsaw Ghetto – brought to life 80 years on from the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
Through the Warsaw Ghetto's short, terrible life, historian Emanuel Ringelblum led a group of writers to secretly chronicle life for its inhabitants. The project became history as survival. Anton Lesser narrates this new 10 part series. Episode 1-Oyneg Shabes. How the archive began. With Elliot Levey as Emanuel Ringeblum.

In the middle of Europe, in the middle of the 20th Century, a half million Jewish men, women & children were herded into a prison city within a city. Walled off & surrounded by the German occupiers. How do you tell the world about your life and fate? Historian and activist Emanuel Ringelblum devised & directed a clandestine archive- codename Oyneg Shabes (Joy of the Sabbath) chronicling every aspect of existence. He recruited over 60 'zamlers' or gatherers to write, collect & compile thousands of pages-diaries, essays, poems, photographs, statistical studies, art, ephemera -a historical treasure that was buried even as the Ghetto was being extinguished so that the world might read and understand. Listen to their stories

Episode 1-Oyneg Shabes. In 1943, with most of the ghetto's inhabitants already murdered historian, Emanuel Ringelblum looked back on the history of the history.

Narration by Anton Lesser with Elliot Levey & the voices of Lily Fair, Carl Prekopp & Tracy-Ann Oberman. Translation by Elinor Robinson. Historical adviser Samuel Kassow. Written & produced by Mark Burman.

For more information on the Oyneg Shabes/Ringeblum archive go to the website of the Jewish Historical Institute https://cbj.jhi.pl/


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m00237zz)
US negotiators say they co-ordinated a proposal for a three-week ceasefire in Lebanon with Israel

The US says a call for a twenty-one day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was coordinated with Israel, despite its government's apparent rejection of the proposal. We get reaction and hear about people fleeing from Lebanon to Syria.

In Washington, Volodymir Zelensky presents his plan for victory in Ukraine's war with Russia.

And Baroness Sayeeda Warsi resigns from the Conservative Party in the House of Lords, saying the party has moved to the far right.


THU 22:45 The Last Loves of Ronnie Maker by Alice Jolly (m0023801)
Episode 4

A newly commissioned serial from Alice Jolly about love, loyalty and the meaning of care, exploring the emotions at the heart of a family crisis.

After their mother’s death, sisters Leah and Tiffany know their father needs support. Ebullient, charming and and unreliable, Ronnie Maker has lived life at speed and he has no intention of slipping gently into a peaceful old age. How will he cope in a remote Yorkshire village on his own, with his daughters so far away, so constantly busy?
When a neighbour offers to help out, it seems like an ideal, if temporary, solution.

But the sisters cannot be sure what lies behind Marika’s offer of help and, as the crisis of their father’s situation mounts, it brings to the surface suspicions, old resentments and guilt.

Alice Jolly writes: “At its heart, this story is about who cares, in every sense of the word, in a society where the whole question of ‘care’ is a fraught and urgent issue. It circles around a demanding man, but it’s ultimately about the women around him and how they deal with loyalty and love.”

Episode 4. There’s no going back once Leah reveals what she has learnt about their mother’s death.

Alice Jolly is a novelist and playwright. She has won a Royal Society of Literature V.S.Pritchett Memorial prize, the Pen/Ackerley Prize and an O. Henry Award, and was runner-up for the Rathbones Folio Prize for her novel Mary Anne Sate, Imbecile. Her short story collection From Far Around They Saw Us Burn was published in 2023.

Fiona Button, the reader, played Rose Defoe in The Split (BBC 1). As well as many television roles, she has starred in shows at the RSC, Almeida, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse and in the West End.

Writer: Alice Jolly
Reader: Fiona Button
Producer: Sara Davies
Executive Producer: Peter Hoare
Sound Design: Matt Bainbridge
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


THU 23:00 The Today Podcast (m0023803)
Keir Starmer’s interview - the analysis

Amol and Nick with their take on Keir Starmer’s first Today interview since becoming PM and behind the scenes insights about what it’s like doing big political interviews.

Plus, Ruby Wax drops in for Moment of the Week.

You can hear more of Amol’s conversation with Ruby Wax in a bonus episode that will drop on Saturday morning.

Subscribe to The Today Podcast on BBC Sounds so you don’t miss an episode.

You can also listen any time on your smart speaker by saying “Smart Speaker, ask BBC Sounds to play The Today Podcast.”

Amol and Nick are both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before and was also ITV’s political editor.

The senior producers were Lewis Vickers and Tom Smithard, the producer was Hatty Nash, the editor was Louisa Lewis and the executive producer was Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Ben Andrews and digital production from Charlie Henry.


THU 23:30 The Gift (m001qt82)
3. Mistakes

The family that must turn detective to find the couple who had IVF at the same time as them.

It's the go-to Christmas present for the person who already has everything. A gift that promises to tell you who you really are and how you're connected to the world.
Millions of us have spat into a tube and sent a vial of our DNA to a company like Ancestry and 23andMe. Their tests promise to unlock the truth of our heritage - perhaps even a future foretold in our genes.

Across six episodes, Jenny Kleeman meets the men and women whose lives changed forever after they opened a box that contained a DNA test. Exposing scandals, upending identities, solving mysteries and delivering life-changing news - Jenny investigates what happens when genealogy, technology and identity collide.

Presenter: Jenny Kleeman
Producer: Conor Garrett
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Executive Producer: Philip Sellars
Production Co-ordinator: Gill Huggett

FRIDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2024

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m0023805)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 00:30 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (m00237z0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0023807)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0023809)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m002380c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m002380f)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002380h)
Peace at Pluscarden

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002380k)
27/09/24 - Henry Dimbleby, dead Scottish salmon, underground energy cables

We’ve been reporting over the last couple of weeks about a £358m underspend over the last three years from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' £2.4 billion agriculture annual budget for England. Farmers are furious at the scale of this underspend and there are concerns that the money will be lost for good in cuts in this autumn’s government spending review. Now a former Defra director says it’s critical that this money isn’t lost from the farming budget. Henry Dimbleby was Defra’s lead non-executive board member for five years up until spring last year when he resigned over what he said was the then Government’s failure to tackle obesity, something he’d highlighted as a priority in his independent National Food Strategy, commissioned by the Government.

An animal welfare charity says it's filmed tonnes of dead and dying salmon being removed from a fish farm just hours before Members of the Scottish Parliament visited the site for a fact finding mission. Holyrood's Rural Affairs committee visited Dunstaffnage fish farm near Oban on Monday as part of their inquiry into whether the industry's made progress in tackling significant environmental concerns. The campaign group Animal Equality has accused the industry of trying to cover up the fish deaths, but Scottish Sea Farms who own the farm, says the workers were carrying out routine clearance of the pens.

The need for clean energy has led to a large increase in offshore wind farms and electricity generated in them has to be brought inland. That means hundreds of miles of underground cabling is being channelled through the countryside with some farmers having little choice about whether they go across their land.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


FRI 06:00 Today (m00237m3)
27/09/24 - PM calls for ceasefire at the UN

The Saudi Ambassador to the UK, Prince Khalid Bin Bandar Al Saud, tells us Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon risks inspiring more violence as the Prime Minister calls for a ceasefire in his first speech to the UN General Assembly. After Sir Keir has a two hour meeting with Donald Trump over dinner MP Emily Thornberry, who chairs the foreign affairs select committee, says she would call the former president out over racism. Critical care doctor Kevin Fong describes the shocking conditions he witnessed on intensive care wards during the pandemic: medics told him it was like 'facing a terrorist incident every day'. A year to the day after the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree the National Trust is offering people the chance to request a sapling from the stump. And could a plan to close the 'non dom' tax loophole actually cost more money than it earns if billionaires end up leaving the UK?


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m0023px5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Sunday]


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00237m5)
Afghanistan, Liane Moriarty, Parental leave, Jeans

The Taliban in Afghanistan are to be taken to the International Court of Justice for gender discrimination by Canada, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands. This is the first time that the ICJ has been used by one country to take another to court over women's rights. Krupa Padhy is joined by the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet.

Two weeks of paternity leave isn’t enough, according to the Dad Shift, a campaign group which is calling for more affordable paternity leave. Last week, they made headlines by attaching life-size model babies in slings to statues of men across London, in a bid to raise awareness of the issue. Research suggests that a third of eligible parents don’t take up the two weeks of statutory paid leave. George Gabriel from the Dad Shift; Scott Inglis, a parent and trade union rep for the University and College Union; and Dr Sarah Forbes, Director of the Equal Parenting Project at the University of York, join Krupa to discuss how current policies are working for parents.

What would happen if a mysterious woman on a flight began predicting the deaths of her fellow passengers? This is the premise of Australian writer Liane Moriarty’s latest book, Here One Moment. Liane joins Krupa to discuss her novels, which include the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Big Little Lies.

The classic Levi's 501 jeans have been voted the nation's most iconic fashion piece of all time. Originally patented in 1873, the 501 recently celebrated its 150th year. Second to the jeans came the classic Ralph Lauren polo shirt, ahead of the timeless Chanel little black dress. Joining Krupa to discuss all things jeans is Lauren Cochrane, senior Guardian fashion writer and Hannah Rogers, Assistant Fashion Editor at the Times

Presenter: Krupa Padhy
Producer: Rebecca Myatt


FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m00237m7)
The Brain Gut Connection

Why does food do our heads in?

This episode is a panel recording from 2024 Abergavenny Food Festival with a live audience.

Sheila Dillon is joined by Chef Heston Blumenthal, who recently went public about his diagnosis of bi-polar, and having ADHD (Attention Deficit hyperactivity disorder); chartered psychologist Kimberley Wilson, the author of "Unprocessed: How the Food We Eat is Fuelling Our Mental Health Crisis"; Natalie Hackett the Headteacher of New Lubbesthorpe Primary School in Leicestershire who was crowned School Leader Food Hero of 2024, at the Jamie Oliver School Food Awards; and Dr Ally Jaffee, co-founder of Nutritank, an organisation set up to make sure that future doctors learned that food, along with exercise, is central to health. Dr Jaffee is now a resident doctor specialising in psychiatry.

The discussion focussed on the known connections between food and mental health, from childhood through to old age.

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan


FRI 11:45 The Siege by Ben Macintyre (m00237m9)
Book of the Week: Episode 10 - Inside the Iranian Embassy Sounds of Battle Reverberate

Ben Macintyre’s latest book about the 1980 siege at the Iranian Embassy concludes. The SAS operation to bring the siege at the Iranian Embassy to an end is underway, but one minute in, it does not appear to be going well. Jamie Parker reads

Ben Macintyre sets the pulse racing in his new book when he looks back to the spring of 1980. On 30th April, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London, taking 26 people hostage. What followed was an intense set of events involving police negotiators, decisions makers at the highest levels, and the SAS. Jamie Parker reads.

In The Siege Ben Macintyre takes us inside the minds of all of those who were part of the crisis, painting a minute by minute picture of six days filled with terror and uncertainty for the hostages, the gunmen and the authorities.

Throughout efforts were made to resolve the crisis bloodlessly, while the SAS laid daring plans for a daring rescue. Millions gathered around their televisions to watch the unprecedented events unfold.

Ben Macintyre’s previous titles include, Colditz, Agent Sonya, and The Spy and The Traitor. Several have been adapted for film and television – Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS Rogue Heroes.

Jamie Parker is known for his work on radio – Hamlet, Going Infinite, The Goldfinch; on stage – The History Boys, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Next to Normal, and on screen - Becoming Elizabeth, The Crown and Des.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m00237mc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m00237mf)
Claims children are identifying as animals

Are the claims true? What are “furries”? And is it all really about gender identity?

Reports that a school child in Scotland identifies as a wolf have gone viral on social media. Some say stories like it are whipped up to attack trans gender identity; others that they are a sign of gender ideology running rampant in the education system. What do we know about the latest example? The child is said to identify as a “furry” - what does that mean? And what really happened when a child in south-east England was reported to identify as a cat?

Presenter: Adam Fleming
Producers: Simon Maybin, Arlene Gregorius, Beth Ashmead Latham, Caroline Bayley
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Editor: Richard Vadon


FRI 12:57 Weather (m00237mh)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m00237mk)
UK's youngest knife killers sentenced to eight years

Two 13-year-old boys - the youngest killers since the murder of James Bulger - are sentenced to a minimum of 8 years and 6 months for murdering Shawn Seesahai with a machete. Plus, John Bolton on Iran's attempt to assassinate him.


FRI 13:45 Superhead (m00237mm)
Episode 5 - Lacks Personal Responsibility

John Dickens has been investigating Trevor Averre-Beeson for the best part of a decade. Averre-Beeson was once one of the most prominent examples of the generation of “Superheads” that Tony Blair and Michael Gove backed in turn to help transform failing schools in Britain. He built an education empire around a large academy trust, Lilac Sky.

But in 2016, that empire suddenly and rapidly collapsed, sparking a scandal that sent shockwaves through the world of education.

John Dickens explores the inside story behind the rise and fall of one of Britain’s most charismatic educators, and investigates whether the rapid growth - and precipitous collapse - of Lilac Sky exposes weaknesses in regulation that the government has failed to fully reckon with.

In Episode 5, John puts the details of the scandal to Trevor himself.

Producers: Robert Nicholson and Charlie Towler
Sound Design: Simon Jarvis
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m00237mp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m00237mr)
Central Intelligence

Central Intelligence: Episode 3

The inside story of the CIA from the perspective of Eloise Page (Kim Cattrall), who joined on the Agency’s first day in 1947 and, in a 40-year career, became one of its most powerful women. Eloise takes the listener on a journey through the highs and lows of US foreign policy, spanning the staggering world events that shaped her career, as well as portraying her relationships with early CIA leaders, Allen Dulles (Ed Harris) and Richard Helms (Johnny Flynn).

New episodes available on Fridays. Listen first on BBC Sounds.

In Episode 3, a plan to fight communism in Europe by turning a group of Albanian farmers into an elite commando squad. But is intelligence watertight?

Cast:
Eloise Page..........Kim Cattrall
Allen Dulles..........Ed Harris
Richard Helms..........Johnny Flynn
Frank Wisner..........Geoffrey Arend
Young Eloise Page..........Elena Delia
Virginia Hall..........Jennifer Armour
Admiral Hillenkoetter..........Matthew Marsh
James Jesus Angleton..........Philip Desmeules
Kim Philby..........Rufus Wright
Colonel Smiley..........Wayne Forester
German Woman on tape..........Sarah Alles-Shahkarami
German Colonel on tape..........Walles Hamonde
Secretary..........Natasha Arancini
Albanian Girl..........Arita Sadiku

Original music by Sacha Puttnam

Production:
Episode 3 is written by Felicity Packard
Created by Jeremy Fox & Greg Haddrick
Sound Designers & Editors: John Scott Dryden, Adam Woodhams, Martha Littlehailes & Andreina Gomez Casanova
Script Consultant: Misha Kawnel
Script Supervisor: Alex Lynch
Trails: Jack Soper
Archive Research: Andy Goddard & Alex Lynch
Production Assistant: Jo Troy
Sonica Studio Sound Engineers: Mat Clark & Paul Clark
Sonica Runner: Flynn Hallman
Marc Graue Sound Engineers, LA: Juan Martin del Campo & Tony Diaz
Margarita Mix, Santa Monica Sound Engineer, LA: Bruce Bueckert
Mirrortone Sound Engineers, NY: Collin Stanley Dwarzski & James Quesada

Director: John Scott Dryden
Producer & Casting Director: Emma Hearn
Executive Producers: Howard Stringer, Jeremy Fox, Greg Haddrick and John Scott Dryden.

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:45 Buried (m001hp3f)
Series 1

Series 1 - 7. How to Make a Mafia

In the Comorrah’s neighbourhood in Naples, Dan and Lucy learn how waste can fuel a mafia. They’re warned that the UK is playing a dangerous game.

"All you have to do... is dig it up."

A trucker’s deathbed tape plays out. It’s urgent, desperate.

In this BBC Radio 4 podcast series, investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor deep-dive into one of the worst environment crimes in UK history - the secret dumping of a million tonnes of waste near a city. But when they uncover missing documents, fears of toxicity and allegations of organised crime, they realise they’ve stumbled into something much bigger. As they pick at the threads of one crime, they begin to see others. Could Britain be the home of a new mafia, getting rich on our waste?

In a thrilling ten-part investigation, the husband-and-wife duo dive into a criminal underworld, all the time following clues left in a deathbed tape. They’re driven by one question - what did the man in the tape know?

Presenters and Producers: Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Assistant Producer: Tess Davidson
Original Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell
Sound Design and Series Mixing: Jarek Zaba
Executive Producers: Phil Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

A Smoke Trail production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m00237mt)
Uxbridge: Floating Gardens, mealybugs and garden envy

Any tips on setting up and maintaining a floating garden that produces tasty produce? Do the panel suffer from garden envy? How do I get rid of the mealybug infesting my cacti?

Kathy Clugston and her team of horticultural champions are in Uxbridge, to solve the gardening grievances of the audience. On the panel this week are house plants expert Anne Swithinbank, proud plantsman Matthew Biggs, and ethnobotanist James Wong.

Later, Matthew Biggs re-visits Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, where he meets Ginny Abu Bakr and Billy Styles to discuss how they’ve introduced gardening to patients receiving chemotherapy.

Producer: Bethany Hocken
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m00237mw)
Rainbow Day by Soula Emmanuel

An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the author Soula Emmanuel. Read by Holly Hannaway.

Soula Emmanuel was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and a Greek father. She currently lives on Ireland’s east coast. She has written for IMAGE magazine, Rogue Collective and the Project Arts Centre, and has had fiction published by The Liminal Review. She was longlisted for Penguin’s WriteNow programme in 2020, took part in the Stinging Fly fiction summer school in 2021 and was a participant in the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency’s mentorship programme for 2021-22. In 2024 her debut novel Wild Geese won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction, and the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize at the UK Society of Authors Awards.

Writer: Soula Emmanuel
Reader: Holly Hanaway
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland Production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m00237my)
Peter Jay, Ed Johnson, Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, Deborah Roberts

Matthew Bannister on

Peter Jay, who was economics editor at the Times and the BBC and also Britain’s Ambassador to the United States.

Ed Johnson, the CIA agent who played a key role in the Argo operation to smuggle US diplomats out of Iran – but kept his involvement secret until his death. His wife tells us she had no idea what his work involved.

Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, who made controversial changes aimed at bringing more visitors to the Victoria and Albert Museum

Deborah Roberts, the acclaimed soprano who co-founded the Brighton Early Music Festival.

Producer: Ed Prendeville

Archive
Norman Acgroyd, BBC, Artists in Print, 09/03/1981; Argo, Declassified Trailer, Warner Bros Entertainment, YouTube Upload 09/02/2013; BBC News, 09/1/1979; BBC News, 04/11/1979; BBC Desert Island Discs 20/10/1991; BBC Newsnight, 13/12/94; TV-am First Broadcast – Good Morning Britain (1983), Uploaded to Youtube “Things”, 9/02/19; That’s Life, BBC 1, 25/01/1981


FRI 16:30 More or Less (m00237n0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m00237n2)
Israel's leader vows to 'set record straight' at UN

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, gives a defiant speech at the UN. We speak to a senior former US diplomat about how the speech was received in Washington. Also: top actors Alex Jennings and Harriet Walters pay tribute to Dame Maggie Smith, who has died aged 89. And our correspondent makes an AI clone of himself to highlight the risk of clone fraud.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00237n4)
Dame Maggie was described by BAFTA as a "legend of British stage and screen"


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m00237n6)
Series 115

Conference & Confidence

Robin Morgan, Ian Smith, Alice Fraser, and Ash Sarkar join Andy Zaltzman to quiz the news

This week on The News Quiz the panel plough through Keir Starmer's first Labour conference as PM, analyse the effectiveness of the UN, and celebrate the coming of Earth's new moon... All hail Moon 2!

Written by Andy Zaltzman

With additional material by: Jade Gebbie, Mark Granger, Sharon Wanjohi, and Christina Riggs
Producer: Sam Holmes
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Coordinator: Jodie Charman
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4
An Eco-Audio certified Production


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m00237n8)
Writer: Tim Stimpson
Director: Pip Swallow
Editor: Jeremy Howe

David Archer…. Timothy Bentinck
Jolene Archer…. Buffy Davies
Kenton Archer…. Richard Attlee
Pat Archer…. Patricia Gallimore
Tony Archer…. David Troughton
Harrison Burns…. James Cartwright
Usha Franks…. Souad Faress
Ed Grundy…. Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy…. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O‘Hanrahan
George Grundy…. Angus Stobie
Tracy Horrobin…. Susie Riddell
Alistair Lloyd…. Michael Lumsden
Jim Lloyd…. John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary…. Ryan Kelly
Lynda Snell…. Carole Boyd
Oliver Stirling…. Michael Cochrane


FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m00237nb)
Errollyn Wallen and Neil Brand round off the series

Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen, recently announced as Master of the King's Music, and composer and silent film music specialist Neil Brand, join Anna Phoebe and Jeffrey Boakye to round off the current series.

From the first winner of the Eurovision Song contest to a Marvin Gaye masterpiece, via warring brothers, Add to Playlist wraps up before returning for a new series in November.

Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Refrain by Lys Assia
The Honeysuckle and the Bee by Stanley Holloway
Champagne Supernova by Oasis
Sunny Afternoon by The Kinks
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

Other music in this episode:

1st Movement of Concerto Grosso by Errollyn Wallen
Trenulețul (Eurovision 2022) by Zdob și Zdub
All in Your Head by New Jack & Lys Assia
Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Disco Inferno by The Trammps


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m00237nd)
Lord Hammond, Fran Heathcote, Sarah Jones MP, Iain Martin

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Salfords Village Hall in Surrey with former chancellor and foreign secretary Lord Hammond; PCS Union general secretary Fran Heathcote; industry and decarbonisation minister Sarah Jones MP; and Times columnist Iain Martin.

Producer: Paul Martin
Lead broadcast engineer: Kevan Long


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m00237ng)
Kamala

From Kamala Harris' 'word salads' to her views about wealth redistribution, Zoe Strimpel finds little to like in a Harris presidency.

But it's her views on Israel that Zoe finds particularly hard to stomach.

'In those halcyon days of my youth,' says Zoe, 'our family's concerns that the leader of the free world protect Israel was normal, uncontroversial and, with Clinton and Bush at the helm, not a particular worry... But Kamala's hazy demands for instant deals and ceasefires,' she writes, 'are like nails on a chalkboard to me.'

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator Gemma Ashman
Editor: Tom Bigwood


FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m00237nj)
The eternal dynamic of Rivalry, Fredric Jameson, the newly reopened Warburg Institute

Sibling rifts, leadership battles in politics and history, philosophical schools of thoughts and their key players all come into our discussion of the way rivalry shapes the world. Roger Luckhurst reflects on the legacy of the American literary critic and philosopher Fredric Jameson who died earlier this week. Plus a report from the Warburg Institute Library which holds over 360,000 volumes available to scholars studying the afterlife of antiquity and the survival and transmission of culture.
Matthew Sweet is joined by the journalist Michael Crick, historian Helen Castor, Philosopher David Edmonds and the writer and academic Kate Maltby.

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m00237nl)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 The Last Loves of Ronnie Maker by Alice Jolly (m00237nn)
Episode 5

A newly commissioned serial from Alice Jolly about love, loyalty and the meaning of care, exploring the emotions at the heart of a family crisis.

After their mother’s death, sisters Leah and Tiffany know their father needs support. Ebullient, charming and and unreliable, Ronnie Maker has lived life at speed and he has no intention of slipping gently into a peaceful old age. How will he cope in a remote Yorkshire village on his own, with his daughters so far away, so constantly busy?
When a neighbour offers to help out, it seems like an ideal, if temporary, solution.

But the sisters cannot be sure what lies behind Marika’s offer of help and, as the crisis of their father’s situation mounts, it brings to the surface suspicions, old resentments and guilt.

Alice Jolly writes: “At its heart, this story is about who cares, in every sense of the word, in a society where the whole question of ‘care’ is a fraught and urgent issue. It circles around a demanding man, but it’s ultimately about the women around him and how they deal with loyalty and love.”

Episode 5. After another funeral, Leah tries to bring an end to rage.

Alice Jolly is a novelist and playwright. She has won a Royal Society of Literature V.S.Pritchett Memorial prize, the Pen/Ackerley Prize and an O. Henry Award, and was runner-up for the Rathbones Folio Prize for her novel Mary Anne Sate, Imbecile. Her short story collection From Far Around They Saw Us Burn was published in 2023.

Fiona Button, the reader, played Rose Defoe in The Split (BBC 1). As well as many television roles, she has starred in shows at the RSC, Almeida, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse and in the West End.

Writer: Alice Jolly
Reader: Fiona Button
Producer: Sara Davies
Executive Producer: Peter Hoare
Sound Design: Matt Bainbridge
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 23:00 Americast (m00237nq)
Arizona… and the battle for the Latino vote

Latinos are the second-largest group of eligible voters in the US, making their influence in the presidential election potentially pivotal.

Sarah is investigating their sway in Arizona - a state that could help decide the outcome of the race. Which party benefits the most from winning The Grand Canyon State? And is Donald Trump or Kamala Harris making more in-roads with Latino voters?

Americast brings in Mike Madrid, a veteran Latino pollster and strategist. What are demographic trends telling us about how Latinos will vote, and do Democrats need to shift their messaging to connect with this key voting bloc?

HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Sarah Smith, North America Editor
• Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent

GUEST:
• Mike Madrid, Latino Republican pollster & author of ‘The Latino Century’

GET IN TOUCH:
• Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB
• Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480
• Email Americast@bbc.co.uk
• Or use #Americast

This episode was made by Purvee Pattni and George Dabby with Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo and Claire Betzer. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.

You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers.

US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155

Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including The Global Story, The Today Podcast, and of course Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.

The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd
The Today Podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r
Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl
Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm


FRI 23:30 American Paradox (m00236rm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]