SATURDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2024

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m00254jc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 The Shadow of Algiers (m0014qdb)
The Black Box of History

Seventy years after the Algerian War of Independence began - and as a divided France struggles to repair its broken politics - Edward Stourton presents tales from a colonial past which still cast a shadow over the present.

In the final programme of the series, Edward reveals how the wounds left by the Algerian War remain very close to the surface.

Benjamin Stora, the historian charged with producing a report on the war and its legacy for the French government, says the enormity of the challenge is clear..

Zorah Drif, who planted a bomb in Algiers at the age of 20 and who was immortalized in the film "The Battle of Algiers" tells us that one of the last great joys of her life is seeing young people determined to carry on the struggle. 87 years old when we spoke to her, she remained unrepentant.

But Algeria's leading novelist, Kamel Daoud, says the country's constant reliving of the past is a curse, not a blessing and says keeping the old wounds so raw is catastrophic.

Sound design: Peregrine Andrews
Producers: Ellie House and Adele Armstrong
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman

REFERENCES
Paul Aussaresses - "Last Word", Radio 4.
Médine - “Grand Paris”.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00254jf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00254jh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00254jk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m00254jm)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00254jp)
New Beginnings

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Muslim academic Dr Yahya Barry.


SAT 05:45 Something to Declare (m00254h6)
How to Read Beyond the Room

Jack Boswell explores the Korean concept of Nunchi - a cultural practice that centres on deeply attuning to one’s surroundings and gauging others' unspoken thoughts and emotions. Through the lens of Nunchi, we learn about how silence and observation can speak louder than words.

Joining him is Euny Hong, author of The Power of Nunchi, who shares her own journey with Nunchi and what it reveals about human connection. Euny describes Nunchi as more than mere intuition - it’s a way of tuning into the subtle cues in our environment and adjusting our behaviour accordingly. In one memorable story, she recounts an awkward moment at a party that could have been avoided with a bit more sensitivity to the room’s mood - a stark reminder of how easily we can misread social situations when we’re too focused on ourselves.

Jack also sits down with Dr Jin Park, a professor of philosophy and religion, to delve into the deeper cultural roots of Nunchi. For Koreans, she explains, Nunchi is more than just a social skill - it’s a way of living in harmony with others in close quarters. In South Korea's densely populated cities, where space is limited, people grow up learning to pick up on non-verbal cues and anticipate each other’s needs, creating a collective sense of peace and understanding. Dr Park shares a touching story about a small but powerful gesture that epitomises the care and attentiveness that Nunchi fosters.

This episode offers listeners a chance to reflect on how tuning into our surroundings and being mindful of unspoken cues can enrich our relationships and bring more harmony into our lives. It’s an invitation to cultivate a quieter form of attentiveness, one that values silence and subtlety, and to find ways to truly see and understand the people around us.

Host: Jack Boswell
Producer: Emma Crampton
Senior Producer: Harry Stott
Executive Producer: Sandra Ferrari
Production Coordinator: James Cox
Audio Supervisor: Tom Biddle
Sound Editor: Alan Leer

A Message Heard production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m0025bbg)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m0025539)
Chief Scout Dwayne Fields in Epping Forest

Clare rambles around Epping Forest with the new Chief Scout, Dwayne Fields. He was appointed in September 2024, taking over from Bear Grylls, and has a wealth of adventure experience under his belt.

Dwayne was born in Jamaica and came to the UK at the age of six. He grew up in inner city London and says his formative years were wrapped up in social stigma, and he became a victim of both knife and gun crime. He managed to break away from this culture by spending time in outdoor spaces like Hackney Marshes, rediscovering a love of the outdoors he had felt deeply as a youngster in Jamaica.

He remembers watching a TV interview with James Cracknell and Ben Fogle who were looking for a third team member to join a polar expedition. Although by the time he applied he was too late for selection, Dwayne did eventually join another trip and became the first black Briton to trek to the north pole.

For Ramblings he leads Clare from the Scout Centre at Gilwell Park into and around Epping Forest.

According to the Epping Forest Heritage Trust, it’s the largest open space in London at just over 6000 acres stretching from Manor Park in east London to just north of Epping in Essex.



Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m0025bbj)
23/11/24 - Farming Today This Week: Inheritance tax protests and intensive farming

In the week when thousands of farmers took to the streets of London to protest over changes to inheritance tax, we dig into the details and ask if the Government will change it's mind.

There’s a global trend for farms to scale up and intensify their production and the UK is no different. We ask why it’s happening and the impact it’s having...as well as exploring large scale beef and chicken production.

Presented by Caz Graham
Produced by Heather Simons


SAT 06:57 Weather (m0025bbl)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m0025bbn)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m0025bbq)
Amar Latif, Lorna Dawson, James Middleton, Luke Evans

Amar Latif, the trailblazing adventurer who as a blind rambler and fearless globetrotter, treks paths that many of us wouldn’t dare, proving that vision is about perspective, not sight.

Dirt detective Professor Lorna Dawson is armed with her trowel and cutting-edge forensic science, she’s revolutionised crime-solving from the ground up.

James Middleton, entrepreneur, ideas man and brother to the Princess of Wales. From crafting bespoke marshmallows to creating a pet wellness brand, a champion of good mental health and animal welfare, his late dog Ella saved his life.

All that, plus the Inheritance Tracks of Hollywood actor and West End musical star, Luke Evans.

Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jon Kay
Producer: Ben Mitchell


SAT 10:00 Curious Cases (m002404z)
Series 1

8. Be More Athlete

Are you more of a rhino or a kitten? More like a tortoise or a hare? Listener Ivy wants to know what makes a good athlete and so Hannah and Dara tackle the science of sport.

Our curious duo get to grips with the rigours of training tailored for endurance events vs those based on more explosive bursts of activity. They consider the contribution of genetics, fast vs slow twitch muscle fibres, the unique advantage of Michael Phelps's body proportions and whether butterfly really is the most ridiculous stroke in swimming.

And after a rigorous scientific analysis, Dara turns out to be ideally suited for…netball. Much to his surprise.

Contributors
Dr Polly McGuigan: University of Bath
Dr Mitch Lomax: University of Portsmouth
Professor Alun Williams: Manchester Metropolitan University
Dr Josephine Perry: Sports psychologist

Producer: Ilan Goodman
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A BBC Studios Audio Production


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m0025bbt)
Series 46

Wolverhampton

Jay Rayner and the panel are in Wolverhampton discussing Desi pubs, mouli, and marinades.

Joining Jay to answer questions from the audience are chef Rob Owen Brown and food writers Sumayya Usmani, Lerato Umah-Shaylor and Melissa Thompson.                      
Filmmaker Zaki Solosho joins the team to talk about his new film Desi: A Pub Story which explores the origins, traditions and cultural significance of Desi pubs in the UK.
 
Jay and the panel also discuss what to do with celeriac leaves, the difference between tikka and tandoori, and how long we should be marinating meat. We also hear the panel’s favourite winter warmers, including an indulgent Maltese hot chocolate, Imbuljuta tal-Qastan.
 
 
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock
Senior Producer: Dom Tyerman
Executive Producer: Ollie Wilson

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m0025bbw)
To discuss the increasingly fraught state of world affairs, Jack speaks to Sir David Liddington, who was deputy to Prime Minister Theresa May, and now chairs the defence and security think tank RUSI and the Labour MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Emily Thornberry.

As thousands of farmers attend a rally in Westminster to protest against last month's budget, Jack speaks to Labour MP, Jeevan Sandher, who sits on the Treasury Select Committee and the former Conservative MP and environment minister Rebecca Pow, who comes from a long line of farmers in Somerset.

Children's rights campaigner and crossbench peer, Beeban Kidron discusses whether social media should be banned for under-16s.

And to reflect on the life of John Prescott, who died this week, Jack speaks to two people who knew him well from his years in government, the associate editor of the Mirror, Kevin Maguire, and a former minister and chief whip in Tony Blair’s government, Hilary Armstrong, who now sits in the House of Lords.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m0025bby)
Life in the Shadow of a Melting Glacier

Kate Adie presents stories from Pakistan-administered Gilgit Balistan, Brazil, the United States, the Faroe Islands and Austria

The remote mountain villages of Pakistan-administered Gilgit Baltistan are on the frontline of climate change. Some have already been wiped out by landslides caused by melting glaciers. Caroline Davies met locals in the picturesque Hunza Valley preparing for the next disaster.

World leaders gathered in Brazil this week for the G20 summit. James Landale observed how world leaders took the opportunity to recalibrate their relationships in advance of Donald Trump returning to the White House - including China's President Xi.

Donald Trump has been masterminding nominations for his new cabinet from his Mar a Lago resort in Florida's Palm Beach. It was the nerve-centre of operations during his campaign, and has become the place to be seen for West Wing hopefuls. Jessica Parker found out what locals make of the political circus.

In the Faroe Islands, the annual round up of 70,000 sheep is underway. On one tiny island, on a farm only accessible by helicopter – one couple manage a herd of some five hundred sheep. Tim Ecott tried his best to lend a hand on the steep, slippery slopes.

The Austrian spa town of Bad Ischl is where the Habsburg Emperor Franz Josef signed the declaration of war on Serbia that triggered the First World War. Over recent decades, Bad Ischl has increasingly traded on its history – with an annual festival to mark the birthday of the emperor. But as Gareth Jones discovered, the question of what people choose to remember is acquiring a new urgency.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Coordinator: Janet Staples


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m0025bc0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m0025bc2)
Reporting Scams and Lifetime ISAs

More than 800,000 people have called a dedicated fraud line, which connects them with their bank if they think they’re being scammed, since it started 3 years ago. Stop Scams UK, which set up 159, says 20 banks are now part of the service. We'll hear from a woman who called the number after losing £4,000 in a scam and find out more about how it works.

Complaints about the wealth manager St James Place have risen sharply amid a major historical review of the ongoing fees it charged its customers. Fifteen thousand clients complained to the company directly in the first half of this year, and complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service quadrupled in that time compared to the year before. St James Place says beginning last year, it saw an increase in the number of complaints received. While these have since reduced, it continues to do everything it can to work through them as quickly as possible. It has put in place processes including training and recruitment to maximise the number it can complete without jeopardising the quality of the investigation, and says that it apologises for any delays clients may experience during that time.

Some first-time buyers are finding that Lifetime ISAs, a government scheme that adds a 25% bonus to everything you put in towards your deposit, aren't working for them when they come to buy a home. It is because there's a £450,000 cap on the price of the property you can buy, which some find prices them out of buying where they live. The Treasury says that across the vast majority of the country and in most London boroughs, the average price for a first-time home remains below the cap.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researcher: Emma Smith
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 12pm November 23th 2024)


SAT 12:30 Dead Ringers (m00254hq)
Series 25

Revolting Farmers

Jeremy Clarkson and Nigel Farage weigh in on the new land tax, Rachel Reeves defends her CV and Donald Trump talks turkey.

This week's impressionists are Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis Macleod, Duncan Wisbey and Katia Kvinge.

The episode was written by: Nev Fountain and Tom Jamieson, Laurence Howarth, Rob Darke, Edward Tew, Sophie Dickson, Angela Channell Christina Riggs and Joe Topping

Executive Producer: Richard Morris
Produced and created by Bill Dare
Production Co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow


SAT 12:57 Weather (m0025bc4)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m0025bc6)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m00254hx)
Dr Halima Begum, Emma Reynolds MP, Joe Twyman, Sir John Whittingdale MP

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Layer Marney Tower, near Colchester, Essex, with Dr Halima Begum, Chief Executive of Oxfam GB; Labour MP for Wycombe Emma Reynolds, the Parliamentary Secretary at HM Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions; Joe Twyman, the co-founder and director of the public opinion consultancy DeltaPoll; and Sir John Whittingdale, Conservative MP for Maldon and current member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Lead Broadcast Engineer: Rob Dyball


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m0025bc8)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week.


SAT 14:45 The Archers (m00254hs)
Justin has scathing feedback for Brad on his promotional video about beavers, and advises some changes. But he’s horrified to learn that Brad has already sent the video to Innes, Justin’s client, and tells Brad he won’t be getting any more work. But later Justin eats his words, having heard back from his friend. Innes was delighted with the video, so Justin buys Brad a drink and wants him to do another job, for Borchester Land. Brad worries about missing more Uni, but Justin guilt trips him by talking about protecting George’s business for him.
At the Bull, Kenton and Jolene speculate on Fallon’s business plans, before seeing Joy who’s meeting Mick for dinner. Keen to plant a seed in Joy’s head, and to get Mick’s van off of their car park, they talk warmly about what a catch Mick is, and drop hints about spending more time together and perhaps living together.
Mick admits to Joy his van is not ideal, with pub noise and general discomfort. Concerned Joy invites Mick to move in with her. He’s grateful but declines, pointing out that she’d just be taking pity on him. He’ll get the van fixed and then they should discuss it again, on equal terms. Joy admires him for this, as they declare their love for each other. Jolene and Kenton notice how serious they seem over in the alcove, and are delighted when Mick mentions Joy’s offer - but quickly disappointed when Mick tells them he turned Joy down. But after an awkward moment, Mick’s assured he can stay in his van in the car park.


SAT 15:00 Drama on 4 (m0025bcb)
Berlin Alexanderplatz

Episode 1

A dramatization by Simon Scardifield from Michael Hofmann's landmark translation of Alfred Döblin's modernist masterpiece - a novel that exploded into 1929 and changed urban writing forever.

Ex-convict, Franz Biberkopf, is back on the streets of Berlin determined to go straight. But Berlin has other ideas.

Narrator ..... Claes Bang
Franz ..... Lee Ross
Mack ..... Samuel James
Otto ..... Neil McCaul
Pretzel Woman ..... Ria Marshall
Lina ..... Jasmine Hyde
Conductor ….. Mark Edel Hunt
Eliser ..... Justice Ritchie
Minna ..... Grace Cooper Milton
Speaker ..... Chris Jack
Alice ..... Christine Kavanagh

Produced by Emma Harding and Marc Beeby
Directed by David Hunter and Gemma Jenkins

Published in 1929, Germany is on the brink of fatal change. Döblin throws everything at us, like a radio tuner going up and down the dial: weather reports, historical trivia, adverts, sporting results, this is a world where buildings come alive and beer and Schnapps conduct conversations with us. Berlin itself is as much a character as Biberkopf, it’s like a vast pinball machine through which our protagonist ricochets. We're looking down on the city through God's eyes one moment and feeling the grittiness and grime of Franz's reality the next.

Germans still consider Berlin Alexanderplatz one of their most important - and most loved - literary works. This is Germany's Ulysses playful in its form and as alluring as the modern city it both invents and immortalizes.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m0025bcf)
Weekend Woman’s Hour: Michelle Yoeh, Primary school suspensions, Katarina Johnson-Thompson

Oscar-winning Michelle Yeoh’s career has spanned four decades. Starting out as a martial arts actor, she became a key figure in the Hong Kong action scene. But it was her role in James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies that catapulted her into Hollywood. She's since starred in many hits including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the multi-Oscar winning movie - including for her own performance - Everything Everywhere all At Once. Now, she’s in the film adaptation of the musical Wicked. She joined Nuala McGovern live in the studio to discuss it.

BBC analysis suggests that the rate at which primary school pupils are being suspended from state schools in England has more than doubled in a decade. Permanent exclusion rates of primary-age pupils have also gone up, by almost 70% in the same period. Campaigners say children excluded from school at a young age experience long-term impacts. It's worth also stating that nearly 90% of those permanently excluded over the past five years also had special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The government has acknowledged the situation is at "crisis point", and says it is determined to "drive up standards" in schools. Anita Rani spoke to Lydia, whose son Eddie has been suspended from school 14 times this year.

Twenty-four year old product design and technology graduate Olivia Humphreys is a Global Medical Winner of the James Dyson Award 2024. Her invention, Athena, is a portable hair-loss prevention device for chemotherapy patients. She talks to Nuala how the product works and how her mum inspired it.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is the double World and double Commonwealth Games heptathlon champion. This year she won the Olympic silver medal in Paris, her first ever Olympic medal. Katarina joined Anita to talk about her new book, Unbroken, in which she opens up about the pressures of representing Great Britain as a 19 year old at the London 2012 Olympics, her struggles with body image and the relentless resilience and determination she has shown in coming back from career-threatening injuries.

Bethany Hutchison is one of eight female nurses who are taking their NHS Trust to an employment tribunal for allowing a trans woman to use their changing facilities at work. Bethany spoke to Nuala about why she feels she needed to bring this case, and how she hopes it will be resolved.

The film Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal as Lucius and Connie Nielsen returns to her role as Lucilla. The sequel also includes a female gladiator for the first time, Yuval Gonen plays the role of Arishat. Anita is joined by classicist and author Dr Daisy Dunn and the film critic Larushka Ivan-zadeh to discuss how accurate this portrayal is and the role women play in the film.

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


SAT 17:00 PM (m0025bch)
Full coverage of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m0025bck)
The Daisy Cooper One

The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats reflects on her journey from campaigning as a child against nuclear weapons and scratchy jumpers, to being at the heart of the third-largest party in parliament.

Producer: Daniel Kraemer


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0025bcm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m0025bcp)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0025bcr)
Developing nations claim the cash offered by richer nations to help them tackle global warming is too low


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m0025bct)
Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Louise Minchin, Robert Macfarlane, Chris Cantrill, Melanie Baker, Stuart Maconie, Olivia Fern

Loose Ends embraces the great outdoors this week at the Kendal Mountain Festival. Stuart talks to festival patron and bestselling writer Robert Macfarlane about his "mountain DNA" and unusual walking snack. Broadcaster and writer Louise Minchin loves a mountain too. Having put aside the extreme working practice of rising at 3am for Breakfast TV she now loves a triathlon, a free-dive at night under ice or the extreme experience that is learning to cook a soufflé from an online video for Celebrity Masterchef. Space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock - who is such a star there is even a Barbie doll in her image - on being inspired by the night sky, be that incredible telescope images or The Clangers as she was as a child. And for a counterpoint approach we have a relative newcomer to the country, the comedian Chris Cantrill who describes himself as a "rural imposter" and hosts a podcast about adapting to the northern wilds by competitive leek growing and donning a cape.
Plus music from Lake District singer songwriter Olivia Fern and Cumbrian-born indie artist Melanie Baker, who loves mountains so much she once filmed a music video at the top of one.

Presenter: Stuart Maconie
Producer: Olive Clancy


SAT 19:00 Profile (m0025bcw)
Sir Ridley Scott

From television commercials in the 1970s, to today’s toga-ripping, chariot-flipping sequel to Gladiator.

Sir Ridley Scott is one of Britain’s greatest film directors.

The grammar school boy, born in South Shields, spent part of his childhood in Germany before pursuing his passion for art at school in Hartlepool and then the Royal College of Art.

But the camera appealed to Scott as much as the canvas, and Stephen Smith has been talking with the Hollywood titan’s friends, family and peers to find out more about him - and his work.

Production Team

Producers: Nathan Gower and Ben Cooper
Editor: Ben Mundy
Sound: James Beard
Production Co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele

Credits

Alien (1979): 20th Century-Fox, Brandywine Productions
Gladiator (2000): DreamWorks Pictures, Universal Pictures, Scott Free Productions, Red Wagon Entertainment
Napoleon (2023): Apple Studios, Scott Free Productions, Columbia Pictures (through Sony Pictures Releasing)
Gladiator II (2024): Scott Free Productions, Lucy Fisher/Douglas Wick Productions, Paramount Pictures


SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m002552n)
Series 31

Hedgehogs

Brian Cox and Robin Ince emerge from the hedge row waking up their guests from hibernation to discuss the fascinating lives of Britain’s favourite mammal, the hedgehog. They are joined by hedgehog experts Hugh Warwick and Sophie Lund Rasmussen (also know as Dr Hedgehog), and by broadcaster and poet Pam Ayres. Sophie Lund Rasmussen has crowd sourced 14 freezers worth of dead hedgehogs for her research and has brought one of her more unique samples with her, the penis of the oldest known hedgehog who reached a stupendous 16 years of age! Together our panel snuffle their way through the evolution of hedgehogs, their life cycle and how to stop them getting run over by robotic lawn mowers!

Producer: Melanie Brown
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
Researcher: Olivia Jani

BBC Studios Audio production


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b08hl265)
The Mind in the Media

If you ask the author Nathan Filer when he first came into contact with mental illness, he'll tell you it was in 1999 when he first became a psychiatric nurse. But, like many of us, he'd actually met it much earlier : through film, drama and the news. Like many of us, his understanding had been shaped by how the media chose to portray it. But he quickly realised how very different real life was to fiction and the reports.

Now he asks what does that difference do to us - both as a society and to us as individuals, when many of us have experienced mental health disorders in our every day lives, either personally or to close family and friends. How does story-telling in the 21st century influence public understanding and our sympathy or condemnation for those experiencing mental health disorders?

Times are changing. As Alastair Campbell says, in the 80s, if you'd suggested to the newsroom a piece on depression, it just wasn't on the agenda. But although mental health is becoming more common as a storyline or story, many myths still prevail about violence, treatment, diagnosis, recovery.

Looking back through archive, Nathan Filer tells the story of the way we've framed mental health and illness across all media over the last few decades, and he talks to those with knowledge to explore its effect. Featuring Alastair Campbell; Professor Graham Thornicroft of Kings College London; Jenni Regan, senior editorial advisor at Mind; Dr Sarah Carr; Erica Crompton; and author Ramsey Campbell, among others.

Producer, Polly Weston

For information and support on the subjects discussed in this programme visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1NGvFrTqWChr03LrYlw2Hkk/information-and-support-mental-health.


SAT 21:00 Moral Maze (m002548s)
Is loyalty a virtue or a vice?

Donald Trump has made some eyebrow-raising, some might say jaw-dropping, appointments to his top team. While a number of the appointees still need Senate approval, they all appear united by one thing – loyalty to Donald Trump.

Some consider loyalty to be a foundational virtue that is central to close friendships. Seneca, called it “the holiest virtue in the human heart”. It is more than simply “support” – it suggests a duty to support “come what may”. Others, however, think loyalty can enable controlling behaviour, hide self-interest, encourage tribalism and threaten independent thought. If a close friend violates your ethical code, to what extent should you stay loyal to them? Or should you only be loyal to the person you thought they were?

Outside the realm of inter-personal relationships, loyalty to an organisation, the government, the Crown or the Church can mean both faithfulness to its principles and deference to its hierarchy. Here, calling out the institution is both an act of betrayal and loyalty, depending on how it is viewed.

Do we value loyalty in our personal and professional lives any less than we did 50 years ago? And is that a good or a bad thing? Perhaps we just have a healthier perspective about who and what deserves our loyalty?

Is loyalty a virtue or a vice?

Chair: Michael Buerk
Panel: Mona Siddiqui, Tim Stanley, Inaya Folarin-Iman and Giles Fraser
Witnesses: Josie Stewart, Major General Tim Cross, Anouchka Grose, Tony Milligan.

Producer: Dan Tierney
Assistant producer: Ruth Purser
Editor: Gill Farrington


SAT 22:00 News (m0025bcy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m00254gb)
Once Upon a Mealtime

Whether it's Turkish Delight, chocolate cake or ginger beer - some of our earliest food memories are shaped by the books we read. In this episode Sheila Dillon goes down the rabbit-hole of children's fiction to discover why young readers find descriptions of food so compelling.

She hears from bestselling children's author Katherine Rundell who insists on eating the food she features in her books. Katherine reveals what it's like to sample a tarantula in the name of fiction. Professor of Children's Literature Michael Rosen unpicks the themes of greed, temptation and fear that surface in both his work and that of Roald Dahl. At the Bath Children's Literature Festival Supertato author Sue Hendra and the illustrator Rob Biddulph talk about how children are drawn to the everydayness of food.

The programme concludes in the Children's Bookshop in North London as the Food Programme presenters gather to discuss their favourite food books of the year for both younger and older readers. They are assisted by the bookshop owner Sanchita Basu de Sarkar and the author of The Chronicles of Wetherwhy Anna James.

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Robin Markwell

This episode features extracts from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis read by Katherine Rundell, The Boy Next Door by Enid Blyton read by Miriam Margolyes (for BBC Radio 4 in 2008) and The Twits by Roald Dahl read by Kathy Burke (for Jackanory, BBC TV in 1995)


SAT 23:00 Parish Matters (m0025bd0)
3. 'Bring back hanging?'

A brand-new sitcom sketch hybrid made in Belfast and starring voices from all over Ireland. Each week we join the eccentric inhabitants of the Parish in their weekly council meeting to air their problems and grievances.

The Parish is in a state of total lawlessness when the best and only cop in town goes on holiday and the council meets to discuss law and order. Can they bring this period of chaos to an end? The restrictive curfew is a political hot potato while inventive self-defence classes are proposed and the efficacy of the Parish rehabilitation program is called into question. The council hotly debates the culprit behind the spate of cat burglaries - could it be the same person responsible for the unfolding hostage situation? And can the best (and only) cop in town ever solve the mystery of the missing uniform?

PARISH MATTERS is a half hour window into an everlasting argument and an energetic and original comedy show written by Michael McCullagh and Phil Taggart and starring the writers alongside Michael Fry, Ciara Knight, Hannah Mamalis, Mary Flanigan, Michael Stranney and Peter McGann. Produced by Keith Martin and Exec Produced by Sam Michell. A FABEL radio Production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 23:30 Brain of Britain (m0025362)
Heat 12, 2024

(12/17)
It's the last of the twelve heats in the 2024 Brain of Britain tournament, with just one place left to fill in the semi-finals which begin next week. Russell Davies puts the last of this year's 48 quizzing hopefuls through their paces, at the Radio Theatre in London.

Competing are:
Richard Edwards from Bath
Tim Hall from Oxfordshire
Catherine McManus from west London
Adam Vernone from Reading.

There will also be a chance for a Brain of Britain listener to win a prize, by outwitting the competitors with questions he or she has suggested.

Brain of Britain is a BBC Studios Audio production.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria

SUNDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2024

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m0025bd2)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Inside The Wasp Factory (m001w71d)
When it was first published in 1984, Iain Banks' debut novel 'The Wasp Factory', was described as a "a work of unparalleled depravity" and also "a masterpiece". Today the book is considered one of the great novels of the twentieth century, is taught on curricula and sits on many a favourite list. Simon Pegg chose this book on Desert Island Discs, and now he is finding out how it became such a phenomenon.

Forty years after its publication, and over a decade since the author's death, Simon traces how the book was written and its impact on generations of readers since.

The novel centres around Frank Cauldhame, an isolated 16 year old living on an island off the North East coast of Scotland with his father. Frank details his life of strange rituals, confesses to murder and conducts acts of barbarity on the local wildlife. When the news arrives that Frank's brother Eric has escaped from a psychiatric hospital, everything is turned upside down and Frank looks for answers in The Wasp Factory, a huge living contraption presiding in the loft of their old house. As we follow Frank's experiences, even more dark secrets are revealed.

The book is recognised as a biting and witty critique of violent masculinity and the politics of the era, as well as a contemporary gothic classic with indications of the master of Sci Fi that Iain Banks would become. What can we learn from heading inside The Wasp Factory today?

Contributions from:

Irvine Welsh, author of 'Trainspotting', 'Filth' and other novels.
Prof Katharine Cox, formerly Bournemouth University and now The University of Derby.
Ken MacLeod, author of 'The Star Fraction' and other novels.
David Haddock, editor of The Banksoniain Fanzine
Dr Monica Germana, The University of Westminster
Readings by Ian Dunnett Jr.

Extracts from The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (MacmIllan 1984)


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0025bd4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0025bd6)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0025bd8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m0025bdb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m0025bdd)
The parish church of All Saints in Ashbocking, Suffolk

Bells on Sunday comes from the parish church of All Saints Ashbocking in Suffolk. The Grade One listed building dates back to the 13th century with later additions, and was remodelled in 1872. There are six bells, one dating from 1615 and five bells cast by the John Taylor foundry of Loughborough in 1904. The tenor bell weighs ten hundredweight and is tuned to A flat. We hear them ringing Norwich Surprise Minor.


SUN 05:45 In Touch (m002546y)
Speech Radio, Showdown

The British Wireless for the Blind Fund have a free app called Speech Radio, which is set up to provide easy access to thousands of radio stations. They have recently partnered with radio aggregator Airable, and can now provide thousands more stations from all around the world. BWBF's Head of Technology David Beard tells In Touch about what is now on offer and how the app works.

What is 'showdown' in the context of blind and partially sighted people? It could mean a confrontation intended to settle a dispute, certainly, but we are exploring the specialist sport showdown. It is a fast-paced table top sport that was originally designed to be played by people with visual impairments. Our reporter Fern Lulham tried her hand to see if she would become the next showdown showstopper.

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 (m0025cwr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Surrealism Remixed (m0023pvw)
Transformations

100 years ago, when Andre Breton set out his ideas in the first ‘Surrealist Manifesto’ in 1920s Paris, he promoted Surrealism as a way of questioning conventional reality and the rational world. He wanted to revolutionise human experience - could a better world be made through unlocking the subconscious and harnessing the power of dreams?

It led to a flourishing of writing, painting and sculpture depicting uncanny, illogical and dreamlike scenes. This desire to transform an imperfect world, struck a chord with artists and activists beyond the original Paris Surrealist group - people who were searching for new ways to fight the oppression they encountered, whether sexism or racism, to imagine a freer world.

The women of Surrealism are only now getting the recognition they deserve. So, in this episode, Russell Tovey looks closely at just a few of these incredible artists and activists - Meret Oppenheim, Ithell Calquhoun, Lee Miller, Leonora Carrington and Suzanne Césaire, who took the ideas of Surrealism in new directions.

Why did they find Surrealism so liberating?

With Chloe Aridjis, Louisa Buck, Kate Conley, Carine Harmand, Terri Francis, Katy Hessel, Lisa Mullen, Joanna Moorhead, Anthony Penrose and Alexandra Reza.

Producers: Melissa FitzGerald and Eliane Glaser
Sound Design: Tony Churnside
Readings: Hazel Holder
A Zinc Audio production for BBC Radio 4

Cover Photo: Martin Creed and Russell Tovey


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m0025cwt)
BBC Food & Farming Awards finalist: Trout Aquaponics at the Burnt Hill Herb Co

After a career touring the world with internationally famous musicians, Jon Allen's life took a drastic change of direction. His passion for smoked fish lead him to set his own business farming and smoking trout. But this is no ordinary trout farm - it's an aquaponics system. The fish are raised in tanks, and the water they swim in is then pumped into a polytunnel and used for growing tomatoes, which thrive on the nutrients from the fish waste.

Because the plants and the fish have to share the same water, that puts restrictions on what chemicals Jon can use - no antibiotics for the fish, and no pesticides for the tomatoes. It means he's come up with alternative ways of tackling pests, like growing sacrificial herbs.

The innovative system has been chosen by judges, Charlotte Smith and Lucy Speed, as one of their three finalists in the "Farming for the Future" category of this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards. In this programme, Charlotte and Lucy visit the farm to find out more about how it works.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and Lucy Speed
Produced by Heather Simons


SUN 06:57 Weather (m0025cww)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m0025cwy)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m0025cx0)
Gordon Brown on assisted dying, Pendle Witches, 'God's Astronomer'

In an exclusive interview for 'Sunday', the former prime minister Gordon Brown speaks to Julie Etchingham about his opposition to assisted dying, ahead the MPs' vote this week.

A campaign group called 'Justice for Witches' has gathered more than ten thousand signatures for a petition to Parliament asking for a royal pardon for the Pendle Witches - more than four hundred years on.

And the Pope's astronomer Brother Guy Consolmagno has been delivering a lecture in Cambridge this week, hoping to lay to rest the perceived tension between science and faith.

Producers: Dan Tierney and Katy Davis
Editor: Chloe Walker


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m0025cx2)
Bees for Development

Beekeeper and gardener Monty Don makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Bees for Development.

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

Registered Charity Number: 1198116. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://www.beesfordevelopment.org
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites


SUN 07:57 Weather (m0025cx4)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m0025cx6)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m0025cx8)
St Thomas, Fifth Avenue

In the week of American Thanksgiving, a service of Choral Morning Prayer celebrating the Feast of Christ the King from St Thomas’ Church on Fifth Avenue, one of the busiest and most famous shopping streets in New York. The service is led by the Rector, the Revd Canon Carl Turner, and the preacher is Fr. Mark Schultz. Music is provided by the renowned Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, directed by Jeremy Filsell, with Associate Organist Nicolas Haigh. The producer is Andrew Earis.

Music
Introit: Tollite portas – Byrd
Responses: Tomkins
Psalm 29
Jubilate: Weelkes in B minor
Anthem: Thou art my King, O God – Tomkins
Hymns: King of Glory, King of peace, O praise to thee, for thou, O King Divine
Organ Voluntary: Clarifica me Pater (III) – William Byrd


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m00254hz)
The New Centre Ground

John Gray believes the British state is broken, and that we urgently need a new centre ground in British politics.

'Outside the echo chamber of metropolitan opinion', John writes, 'there is a restive electorate perplexed and discomforted by the country the UK has become'.

He says our politicians seem bent on continuing the status quo, seemingly unable to comprehend a surge in support for populist politics.

But he wonders if the election of Kemi Badenoch could be a first step towards creating something radical in a new centre ground.

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m0025cxb)
Tolga Aktas on the Wren

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. This episode celebrates the new emerging generation of young naturalists.

Conservation biologist, writer and photo journalist Tolga Aktas is particular over one specific bird he always looks for while out birdwatching, the diminutive wren. This Hobbit of a bird seems too small for the explosive song it emits, often deeply hidden within a shrub or crevice. The wren is the favourite bird of Tolga's partner, therefore whenever he sees one it reminds him of her.

Producer : Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol
Studio engineer : Ilse Lademann


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m0025cxd)
Storm Bert batters Britain

Storm Bert, rain, snow and wind hit the UK. Mark Gatiss on the lasting appeal of A Christmas Carol. Opera singers and football chants in a BH combination.


SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m000zt7b)
Baroness Hale of Richmond, former judge

Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, is a former judge who served as the first female president of the Supreme Court. In 2019 she announced the court’s judgement that the prorogation of Parliament was ‘unlawful, void and of no effect’. The twinkling spider brooch she wore that day caused a sensation and set social media aflame. She was the first woman and the youngest person to be appointed to the Law Commission and in 2004 became the UK’s first woman law lord.

Lady Hale was born in Yorkshire and read law at the University of Cambridge where she graduated top of her class. She spent almost 20 years in academia and also practised as a barrister. Later at the Law commission she led the work on what became the 1989 Children Act.

Lady Hale retired as a judge in January 2020.

DISC ONE: Messiah - Part 1: O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings To Zion, composed by Georg Friedrich Händel, performed by Kathleen Ferrier and The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
DISC TWO: Love Me Do by The Beatles
DISC THREE: Move Him Into The Sun. Composed and conducted by Benjamin Britten. Performed by Peter Pears (tenor) and Galina Vishnevskaya (soprano) with the Bach Choir and the London Symphony Orchestra
DISC FOUR: Part 1 Nos 4 & 5: Gloria in excelsis Deo – Et in terra pax. Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists and conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner
DISC FIVE: The Marriage of Figaro), K. 492 Sull'Aria. Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, performed by sopranos Charlotte Margiono and Barbara Bonney, Netherlands Opera Chorus and the Concertgebouw Orchestra
DISC SIX: Hand in Hand by Glória (Ireland’s Gay and Lesbian Choir)
DISC SEVEN: Parry: I Was Glad, composed by Hubert Parry, performed by Westminster Abbey Choir, Simon Preston (organ) and conducted by William McKinney
DISC EIGHT: Dies Irae. Composed by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by Swedish Radio Choir and the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Claudio Abbado

BOOK CHOICE: A Desert Island survival manual
LUXURY ITEM: A solar-powered computer with sudoku puzzles and a writing application
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Part 1 Nos 4 & 5: Gloria in excelsis Deo – Et in terra pax, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley


SUN 10:45 Uncharted with Hannah Fry (m001qw93)
2. The Hockey Stick

In 1998, the climate scientist Michael Mann published a simple graph shaped like an ice hockey stick: a long straight line which curves suddenly upward at the end. It was based on decades of intrepid work by scientists around the world. But the line held a stark warning. For Michael, notoriety, abuse and a global battle over the reality of climate change followed.

Hannah Fry tells the remarkable story of the people behind the hockey stick: the scientists who scaled mountains and braved oceans in search of evidence, and the dramatic fallout when the world saw what they had found.

Episode Producer: Ilan Goodman
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
Story Editor: John Yorke

A series for Radio 4 by BBC Science in Cardiff.


SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m0025cxg)
Contemporary drama in a rural setting.


SUN 12:15 Profile (m0025bcw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 12:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m00254cx)
Series 3

Bradford - a load of bulls

Paul tests his Bradford audience with a series of bull-themed questions, from Oscar winners to epic battles.

Who is the tallest-ever Oscar winner? What's Paul's online pseudonym? And exactly how little news happens in Stamford, Lincolnshire? He also looks back at people and things from 1974, such as that year's biggest sporting over-achiever, and two famous 50-year-olds with a connected love life.

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

Original music: Tim Sutton

Recording engineer: Richard Biddulph
Mixed by Rich Evans
Producer: Ed Morrish

A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:57 Weather (m0025cxj)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m0025cxl)
What is the Russian cyber threat?

After US and UK long-range missiles are used in the war in Ukraine, European countries are briefing their citizens to prepare for retaliation. The former head of GCHQ warns of the scale of cyber attacks from Russian actors. Plus, Ireland goes to the polls, but the expected surge for Sinn Fein stumbles.


SUN 13:30 Inheriting the Earth (m0025f1s)
Charlotte Smith explores the thinking behind Labour's 2024 budget and asks why farmers are so cross about it. Is this the death knell for the family farm, as the NFU claims? Or is this a long overdue intervention to end decades of wealthy people investing in farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax? And then there is the acceleration of the phasing out of basic farm payments, and the increase in the minimum wage. The anger in parts of rural Britain is palpable, but is it justified?

Presenter – Charlotte Smith
Producer – Beatrice Fenton for BBC Audio Bristol


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m00254hb)
Postbag Edition: Regent's Park, London

When should we prune roses? What plants grow well in rubble and grass? What's infecting my Prunus avium?

Peter Gibbs and a team of horticultural experts are led on a guided tour of Regent's Park in London, while dipping into the GQT postbag to answer your gardening conundrums.

Leading the tour is head gardener and fellow GQT panellist Matthew Pottage, who's also joined by pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood and head gardener Ashley Edwards.

Later in the programme, head gardeners Anna Rafal and Anne Tuomisto offer advice on pruning roses and designing a Mediterranean garden, as well as winter tidying with hibernating animals in mind.

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

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m0025cxq)
The Lay of the Land

The Lay of the Land, by the American novelist Richard Ford, is the third of what became a series of five books about Frank Bascombe.

Now in his mid-50s, Frank has left sports writing behind and works in real estate in coastal New Jersey. But life is not settled - Frank is in remission from cancer and, previously divorced, his new marriage is facing problems of its own and relations with his grown-up children are under strain. Also, the dispute over the result of the US presidential election, between George W. Bush and Al Gore, lingers in the background.

John Yorke asks if Richard Ford achieves what he sets out to in this book - not only to continue Frank’s story, but to do something bigger than he’s done before, to reflect on America in the early 2000s – a country and culture that was about to change forever.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years and shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless.  As creator of the BBC Writers Academy, he's trained a generation of screenwriters - now with over 70 green lights and thousands of hours of television to their names.  He is the author of Into the Woods, the bestselling book on narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of narrative - including many podcasts for R4.

Contributor:
Ian McGuire, Professor of American Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. He is the author of three novels, Incredible Bodies (2006), The North Water (2016) and The Abstainer (2020), and one critical monograph, Richard Ford and the Ends of Realism (2015).

Credits:
Excerpts from The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford, 2006.
Interview clips of Richard Ford from the BBC radio archive.

Reader: Eric Stroud
Production Hub Coordinator: Nina Semple
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Producer: Jack Soper
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Frank Bascombe: An American Life (m0025cxs)
The Lay of the Land

Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe books are a remarkable literary phenomenon, following the fortunes of his hapless but ever-hopeful hero Frank, and giving us a unique portrait of contemporary American life.

Over the year, we have been checking in with Frank during four weekends of his life, over four decades, stretching from the early 1980s to Christmas 2012.
Dramatised by Robin Brooks.

Episode 3
The Lay of the Land
Set over the Thanksgiving weekend of the year 2000. Frank, now in his mid-50s, is enjoying the fruits of a successful career in real estate but, through a bizarre set of circumstances, his second wife Sally has just left him and he’s got plenty of other problems on his plate - with a misbehaving prostate, wayward children, and neighbours who will insist on playing Ravel’s Bolero at top volume whenever the fancy takes them.

Cast

FRANK BASCOMBE: Kyle Soller
ANN : Kelly Burke
CLARISSA: Hannah Genesius
SALLY: Melody Grove
PAUL: Christopher Buckley
COOKIE / JILL : Lily Anne Lefkow
DETECTIVE MARINARA: Eric Stroud
THOM / PARAMEDIC: Robert Mountford
OFFICER GREGGS: Amelia Parillon
NICK FEENSTER : Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong

Dramatised by Robin Brooks from the Bascombe novels by Richard Ford

Sound Design: Joseff Harris and Alisdair McGregor
Broadcast Assistant: Hermione Sylvester

Directed and Produced by Fiona McAlpine
An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4

The first two episodes, The Sportswriter and Independence Day are now available on BBC Sounds.

Picture credit: ‘In the Car’ by Roy Lichtenstein
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2024.
Photo: National Galleries of Scotland


SUN 16:00 Take Four Books (m0025cxv)
Graeme Macrae Burnet

Presenter James Crawford talks to Booker Prize-shortlisted writer Graeme Macrae Burnet about his new book, A Case of Matricide, the concluding part of his trilogy of Gorski novels. With the help of crime novelist Louise Welsh, Macrae Burnet explores three other works that have influenced his new book. His choices were: Georges Simenon's The Little Man From Archangel, La Femme de Gilles by Madeleine Bourdouxhe and L’Assommoir by Emile Zola. Presenter: James Crawford Producer: Dominic Howell Editor: Annie McGuire A BBC AUDIO SCOTLAND PRODUCTION FOR BBC RADIO FOUR.

Presenter: James Crawford
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Annie McGuire

A BBC AUDIO SCOTLAND PRODUCTION FOR BBC RADIO FOUR.


SUN 16:30 Brain of Britain (m0025cxy)
Semi-final 1, 2024

(13/17)
The quest for the 2024 Brain of Britain champion enters the semi-final stage, with Russell Davies chairing the contest from London's Radio Theatre. Contestants who've come unscathed through the heats now play off in the first of the contests that will decide who goes through to the Final.

Taking their places in the first semi-final are:
Paula Dempsey from south-east London
David Edwards from Denstone in Staffordshire
Andrew Fanko from Market Harborough
Heather Smith from Chichester.

There will also be a chance for a Brain of Britain listener to outwit the Brains with questions of their own, and win a prize if they succeed.

Brain of Britain is a BBC Studios Audio production..

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct5yq3)
Arrested for "immorality" in South Africa

In 1969, a white man and an Indian woman were put on trial in South Africa for conspiring to have sex.

Dr Zureena Desai and Professor John Blacking were the most high profile couple to be arrested under the Immorality Act.

Their case made headlines all over the world and made a laughing stock of South Africa's ruling National Party and its racist regime.

Dr Desai tells Vicky Farncombe about the ridiculous lengths police officers went to in order to gather evidence against the couple, including climbing trees and listening at ventilation shafts.

“Young people born after 1994 don't remember what South Africa was like,” she says. “People died. And people were arrested for fatuous reasons.”

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.

(Photo: Dr Zureena Desai. Credit: Abrie Jantjies)


SUN 17:10 Complex (m0022z2v)
Episode 3: Hospice

It's said that it takes a village to raise a child, and never is that more true than for families raising children with complex disabilities. They rely on health, social care and other professionals to help keep their children healthy, happy, and living at home. But this tangled network of support has been worn thin by growing demand and dwindling resources.

Seven year-old Nora has a rare genetic disorder and complex care needs. This three-part series guides us through the concentric circles of Nora’s life. In this third episode, Nora spends time at her local children's hospice. Chestnut Tree House is a place of respite and joy as well as grief, and it is a crucial lifeline for Nora, her parents, and her brother.

Hospices rely on public donations for almost two thirds of their income. Is it right that a service that is absolutely essential for families like Nora's is dependent on bake sales and fun runs to deliver its services?

Presented by Dave and Tors
Produced by Redzi Bernard
Music by Lily Sloane
"Who Cares" was written and performed by Chichester Festival Theatre Young Carers Song Project
Executive Producer: Rachel Hooper/Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0025cy2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m0025cy4)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0025cy6)
Storm Bert has continued to wreak havoc in parts of the country.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0025cy8)
Kathy Clugston

Between incontinence and flatulence (all covered on Radio 4 this week), Kathy Clugston goes on a bear hunt across the radio schedules, including what humidity means for languages around the world, a philosophical teddy bear and how science is tackling the humble hedgehog’s newest enemy, the robotic lawnmower. Plus, we take a voyage into the archives of the Shipping Forecast to unearth a "Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire" delivered by the late Lord Prescott in 2011.

Presenter: Kathy Clugston
Producer: Anthony McKee
Production Co-ordinator: Jack Ferrie

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m0025cyb)
American couple Faith and Chuck attempt to check into their holiday cottage in Ambridge. Faith finds it all very quaint, especially the key under a flowerpot, and they make themselves at home. But it seems different from the online pictures, and tired Chuck is less taken.
Meanwhile, Kate and Jakob can’t agree on where to holiday in the new year – she fancies warmth, he talks up Finland in February. They’re stopped in their tracks as Jakob spots movement inside his cottage. He wants to call the police, but Kate goes to investigate.
Faith and Chuck are adamant they have booked to stay in the Rookery. Jakob insists he has never heard of the website, so Chuck goes to contact the company. Chuck wonders whether the owners have tricked them and plan to take them hostage. Meanwhile as Chuck can’t get through to anyone, Faith sends an email, asking someone to call her asap.
Chris, who owns the cottage, knows nothing about any listing. Jakob and Kate spot that the photos online don’t resemble the real cottage. Jakob’s simple view is that the couple can’t stay there, but Kate feels compelled to help. After proper introductions, Kate invites them to stay the night, leaving Jakob stunned to find himself sharing a yurt with Kate. Kate plans to ring round places tomorrow for the couple. As suspicious Jakob goes to grab his pyjamas and lock away any valuables, Kate looks forward to a night under canvas and assures them it will all be sorted out tomorrow.


SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m0025cyd)
Dark Crossing

Mike is a carpenter, a boat builder, and a keen amateur sailor. Now, in his 60s he feels the time has come for a big adventure, so he signs on as crew for a transatlantic sailing voyage. But when the skipper turns to tyranny and his only ally on board loses touch with reality, Mike is faced with his own demons.

There's no storm, no shipwreck, no sea monster - only three men trapped together, each battling for their own sanity.

With only the endless sea surrounding them, Mike soon realises he is the only one who can pull the crew and himself out of a very dangerous place. Will he surrender to the dark line that runs through all of us?

Produced by Guy Natanel
Executive Producers: Shannon Delwiche and Chris Jones
Original Music by Pat Moran

A Sound and Bones production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001qtbl)
Swim

Michael Mosley ventures to his local pool and the sea to explore the unique benefits of going for a swim - from improving memory and mental agility, to boosting longevity. Professor Hirofumi Tanaka, from the University of Texas at Austin, reveals why water-based exercises like swimming are especially good for improving the elasticity of your blood vessels and a new way to exercise in the pool. There really seems to be something special about being in the water that can help your heart, improve joint pain and even boost your brain. Surprisingly, water-based exercise can be more beneficial than land-based exercises!

New episodes will be released on Wednesdays, but if you’re in the UK, listen to new episodes, a week early, first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3zqa6BB

Producer: Nija Dalal-Small
Science Producer: Catherine Wyler
Assistant Producer: Gulnar Mimaroglu
Trainee Assistant Producer: Toni Arenyeka
Executive Producer: Zoe Heron
A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds / BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m002553c)
BBC Radio 3 Unwind, and farmers' inheritance tax.

BBC Radio 3 has unveiled a new online-only stream - Unwind. It's dedicated to calming classical music and broadcasts 24/7 on BBC Sounds. For some listeners it's unlocked the mystery of a good night's sleep, but for others the playlists are more mindless than mindful. Andrea Catherwood puts your comments to Radio 3 Controller Sam Jackson.

In a week where farmers shot to the top of the news agenda following changes to their inheritance tax exemptions in the 2024 Budget, Andrea talks to Dimitri Houtart - who was until recently the Executive Editor of Rural Affairs, and Rural Affairs Champion at the BBC. Has Radio 4's reporting managed to cut through the sound of tractors roaring down Whitehall? And how do you push for fair coverage of rural communities inside the BBC?

And with only a few weeks to go before Feedback unveils the Interview of the Year 2024, one listener nominates John Wilson's conversation with writer Hanif Kureishi, for This Cultural Life.

Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Pauline Moore
Executive Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m00254hj)
Lord Prescott, Stephanie Collie, Dame Janet Nelson, Frank Auerbach

Matthew Bannister on

Lord Prescott, the working-class lad who became Deputy Prime Minister.

Stephanie Collie, whose costume designs for “Peaky Blinders” and “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” inspired street fashion.

Dame Janet “Jinty” Nelson, the leading mediaeval historian who wrote an acclaimed biography of the Frankish King Charlemagne.

Frank Auerbach, one of the twentieth century’s finest artists. We speak to the art historian Catherine Lampert who sat for him every week for over forty years.

Producer: Ed Prendeville


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m0025bc2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m0025cx2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m0025bby)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:30 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m0025cyg)
Ben Wright and his panel of MPs look ahead to the big debate in Parliament on assisted dying

Ben Wright's guests are the new Labour MP Jake Richards; Conservative former Treasury minister John Glen; and Liberal Democrat frontbencher Sarah Olney. They discuss government plans to encourage more young people into work and options for wider welfare reform. They also preview the assisted dying debate in the Commons and Lord Steel explains the parallels with his Bill to legalise abortion nearly sixty years ago. Katy Balls - the political editor of The Spectator - brings additional insight and analysis.


SUN 23:00 In Our Time (m002552g)
Italo Calvino

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Italian author of Invisible Cities, If On A Winter's Night A Traveller, Cosmicomics and other celebrated novels, fables and short stories of the 20th Century. Calvino (1923 -1985) had a passionate belief that writing and art could make life better for everyone. Despite his parents being scientists, who dearly wanted him to be a scientist too, and his time fighting with the Partisans in Liguria in WWII during which his parents were held hostage by the Nazis, Calvino turned away from realism in his writing. Ideally, he said, he would have liked to be alive in the Enlightenment. He moved towards the fantastical, drawing on his childhood reading while collecting a huge number of the fables of Italy and translating them from dialect into Italian to enrich the shared culture of his fellow citizens. His fresh perspective on the novel continues to inspire writers and delight readers in Italian and in translations around the world.

With

Guido Bonsaver
Professor of Italian Cultural History at the University of Oxford

Jennifer Burns
Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Warwick

And

Beatrice Sica
Associate Professor in Italian Studies at UCL

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

Elio Baldi, The Author in Criticism: Italo Calvino’s Authorial Image in Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2020)

Elio Baldi and Cecilia Schwartz, Circulation, Translation and Reception Across Borders: Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities Around the World (Routledge, 2024)

Peter Bondanella and Andrea Ciccarelli (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the Italian Novel (Cambridge University Press, 2003), especially the chapter ‘Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco: Postmodern Masters’

James Butler, ‘Infinite Artichoke’ (London Review of Books, vol. 45, no. 12, 15 June 2023)

Italo Calvino (trans. Martin McLaughlin), The Path to the Spiders’ Nests (first published 1947; Penguin Classics, 2009)

Italo Calvino (trans. Mikki Taylor), The Baron in the Trees (first published 1957; Vintage Classics, 2021)

Italo Calvino, Marcovaldo (first published 1963; Vintage Classics, 2023)

Italo Calvino (trans. William Weaver and Ann Goldstein), Difficult Loves and Other Stories (first published 1970; Vintage Classics, 2018)

Italo Calvino (trans. William Weaver), Invisible Cities (first published 1972; Vintage Classics, 1997)

Italo Calvino (trans. Patrick Creagh), The Uses of Literature (first published 1980; Houghton Mifflin, 1987)

Italo Calvino (trans. Geoffrey Brock), Six Memos for the Next Millennium (first published 1988; Penguin Classics, 2016)

Italo Calvino (trans. Tim Parks), The Road to San Giovanni (first published 1990; HMH Books, 2014)

Italo Calvino (trans. Ann Goldstein), The Written World and the Unwritten World: Essays (Mariner Books Classics, 2023)

Kathryn Hume, Calvino's Fictions: Cogito and Cosmos (Clarendon Press, 1992)

Martin McLaughlin, Italo Calvino (Edinburgh University Press, 1998)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production


SUN 23:45 Short Works (m00254hg)
Martinmas Wind

New fiction from Zoe Strachan set at the time of year when past and present mingle.

Song and memory combine at Martinmas; a time for feasting marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter.
Read by Wendy Seager
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie

Professor Zoe Strachan writes novels, short stories, essays, libretti and plays. She is a teacher of creative writing, editor of fiction anthologies and passionate about libraries and literacy.

MONDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2024

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m0025cyj)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 A Square Gogh (m0024vv3)
Ross Muir is a self-taught artist who has struggled with drug addiction all his life. Despite the turmoil, he began painting at the age of 30 when he was given a set of paints as a gift. He began deconstructing famous works of art in a Scottish context, imbuing a modern personality into the lauded and the familiar.

He struck gold when he painted Vincent Van Gogh in an Adidas tracksuit, the struggles of the famous painter brought up to date to the streets of Glasgow. The image is now infamous throughout Scotland and found a second revival throughout the first lockdown in 2020 with variations of his 'Square Gogh' painting decorating cash machines, buses and trains throughout Glasgow with the aptly titled message, 'Jist Gogh Hame'. It was an immediate hit with his website crashing due to the volume of people trying to buy their own square of Scottish Gogh.

Presenter: George McDermott
Producer: Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m0025bdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0025cyl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0025cyn)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0025cyq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m0025cys)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0025cyv)
Thank you, House

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Muslim academic, Dr Yahya Barry.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m0025cyx)
Plans to flood 1500 acres of farmland along the Severn Estuary to create saltmarsh won't be effective in saving fish affected by a nuclear power station - that's according to ecosystems expert Dr Mark Everard of the University of the West of England. EDF is building the station at Hinkley Point in Somerset and had agreed to install and maintain an acoustic fish deterrent to prevent fish being sucked into the site's cooling systems. But they now say it's dangerous to build and the technology is untested, and want to flood farmland instead to create saltmarsh habitats. Dr Everard says most fish - including migrating salmon - won't benefit from this, and the deterrent system is already used effectively worldwide.
We visit a farm testing a robot that can measure the organic matter in soil. The farm is part of a trial by Innovative Farmers and Plymouth University, and it could help farmers improve their soil.
All this week we're looking at winter vegetables - things like Brussels sprouts, kale and those favourite root veg like parsnips and carrots. We eat more than 10 billion carrots each year according to the British Carrot Growers Association. They're mainly grown in the east of the UK from Scotland down to Norfolk and it’s a highly specialised operation.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Sally Challoner.


MON 05:57 Weather (m0025cyz)
Weather reports and forecasts for farmers


MON 06:00 Today (m0025d4g)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m0025d4j)
The high street

The UK high street has appeared to be in a near perpetual state of distress since the birth of self-service shopping in the 1950s. Since then, local authorities approving out-of-town developments in the 1970s, the rise of the supermarket, the internet and the recent Covid lockdowns, have all taken their toll on town centres. Adam Rutherford talks to three guests about the changing nature of the high street.

Annie Gray explores the long and varied history of shopping districts in The Bookshop, the Draper, the Candlestick Maker, from medieval marketplaces to the purpose-built concrete precincts still standing today. The urban designer and strategic planner Vicky Payne believes the high street is far more resilient than people think. Her research has looked at the innovative work being done across the country, from Bournemouth to Barnsley, to revitalise town centres. And the food writer Angela Hui shines a light on the central role that migrants have played – from running corner shops to restaurants. Her Chinese takeaway installation, inspired by her experiences growing up behind the counter of her parents’ business in Wales, forms part of the All Our Stories exhibition at the Migration Museum, Lewisham Shopping Centre, until December 2025.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Café Hope (m0025d4l)
Rescuing chickens around the cluck

Volunteer at Chicken Rescue UK, Jenny Betts, tells Rachel Burden about how she helps ex-commercial chickens find their forever homes. Her work won her a BBC Local Radio Make a Difference Award.

Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell us what they’re doing to make things better in big and small ways. Think of us as sitting in your local café, cooking up plans, hearing the gossip, and celebrating the people making the world a better place.

We’re all about trying to make change. It might be a transformational project that helps an entire community, or it might be about trying to make one life a little bit easier. And the key here is in the trying. This is real life. Not everything works, and there are struggles along the way. But it’s always worth a go.

You can contact us on cafehope@bbc.co.uk


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0025d4n)
Civil rape case against Conor McGregor, Binge drinking, Chappell Roan

The woman who accused the mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor of raping her has won her civil case against him. He has been ordered to pay nearly a quater of a million euros in damages. Mr McGregor says he will appeal. Nuala McGovern speaks to Orla O'Donnell who is the RTE News Legal Affairs Correspondent.

A BBC Panorama documentary is out today which asks: Why are more young women dying from alcohol-related liver disease than ever before? The BBC’s Hazel Martin, who’s 32, was diagnosed with the condition. She’s been investigating how she became one of a growing number of young women surprised to discover their social drinking habits had put their lives at risk. Hazel joins Nuala as does Professor Debbie Shawcross, Consultant Hepatologist at Kings College Hospital.

Journalist Lili Anolik had already written a book about obscure LA writer Eve Babitz when she read a letter Eve had written but not sent to her sometime friend, the literary superstar Joan Didion. Lili realised that the key to understanding Joan was held by Eve and vice versa and she joins Nuala to discuss her new book, Didion and Babitz.

A new play at the Royal Court Theatre in London explores the impact of the child sexual exploitation and grooming scandals that took place in Northern and Midlands towns in England in the late 90s to the early 2010s. Emteaz Hussain, the play's writer, joins Nuala to discuss it.

US pop star Chappell Roan has made it onto the shortlist for BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2025. Just a year ago she was a backing singer for Olivia Rodrigo – so what do we know about her? Laura Snapes, deputy music editor at the Guardian, joins Nuala to tell us more.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Emma Pearce


MON 11:00 County Lines (m0025d4q)
Episode 1: Their World

This powerful and highly personal series investigates how criminal networks systematically exploit vulnerable young people, transforming them from ordinary schoolchildren into drug dealers through manipulation, violence, and trauma. An estimated 50,000 children in Britain have been groomed into county lines drug trafficking, yet their stories remain largely hidden.

In this first episode, Phoebe McIndoe hears from those caught in the web of county lines. Between the promise of quick money and the reality of extreme violence, we reveal how Britain's drug trade is being built on the backs of traumatized children, and why the system often fails to protect them.

Presented by Phoebe McIndoe
Produced by Redzi Bernard and Phoebe McIndoe
With original music by Phoebe McIndoe
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


MON 11:45 Five Ways They Get You (m0025d4t)
Love

Kirsty falls victim to a romance fraudster after coming out of a bad relationship.
And his tactics are particularly nasty...

For decades Radio 4's Shari Vahl has been nailing fraudsters, and getting victims’ money back. Now she's opening her casebook… to help you protect yourself.

She's joined by ex-fraudster and poacher-turned-gamekeeper Alex Wood and linguistics expert Elisabeth Carter who help Shari decode the criminals' tactics in a bid to keep you safe.

Presented By Shari Vahl
Produced by Kev Core


MON 12:00 News Summary (m0025d4w)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m0025d4y)
Scam Safe Week, Advent Calendars, Weight-Loss Drug Black Market

Can you hack into a bank account using AI voice cloning? As part of the BBC’s Scam Safe Week, our reporter Shari Vahl investigates whether the growing field of AI voice cloning can be used to bypass security systems that require Voice ID.
Modern advent calendars have long been synonymous with 24 days of chocolate, but in recent years there has been a growing market for elaborate – and often expensive – advent calendars aimed at adults. From caviar to beauty products, these advent calendars are providing a significant boost to retailers.
Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are in very high demand. However, with supplies restricted, many people are paying for these drugs through private online pharmacies – and in some cases through the black market. We hear from someone who has sourced weight-loss drugs from these illegal suppliers, and hear about the potential risks this can pose.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED RBINSON

PRODUCER: CHARLIE FILMER-COURT


MON 12:57 Weather (m0025d50)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m0025d52)
Storm Bert fallout: flood warnings still in place

The Welsh government responds to questions over the efficacy of their alert system. Plus, is social drinking affecting your health more than you think?


MON 13:45 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (m001v3jn)
Episode One

Winner of the Booker Prize 2024. "...an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it" - Max Porter

Across 24 hours on the International Space Station, six astronauts from different nations contemplate the Earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of one astronaut's mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from Earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without Earth? What is Earth without humanity?

"In this new day they'll circle the earth sixteen times. They'll see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets, sixteen days and sixteen nights. In their rotations around the earth in accumulations of light and dark, in the baffling arithmetic of thrust and altitude and speed and sensors, the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes".

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping.

Read by Anneika Rose (Line of Duty, Shetland, Ackley Bridge) with music by Timothy X Atack.
Abridged by Sara Davies
Studio Recording and Mixing by Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio


MON 14:00 The Archers (m0025cyb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Hennikay (m001fmj2)
Series 1

2. Grown-Up Stuff

Bill Bailey stars as Guy Starling, a middle aged man who, after 45 years, and for reasons quite unknown to him, is suddenly revisited by his imaginary childhood friend, Hennikay.

Time has passed and Hennikay is still inexplicably and maddeningly in Guy’s life. Every morning when he wakes up, his 11-year-old friend from 1976 is there, making a noisy mess, asking endless questions and generally being as annoying as all 11-year-boys were back in 1976.

And there is nothing Guy can do about it.

So, one Saturday morning, after a particularly typical Friday night out in Maidstone, a very hung-over Guy tries to lay down some adult ground rules to his unwanted housemate and educate him about life in the modern grown-up world.

But Guy’s grown-up modern world gets particularly complicated that morning when he discovers a strange woman in his spare bedroom and has no idea who she is or how she got there. Is she his imaginary girlfriend? Who keeps ordering mysterious boxes from Amazon? And when his boss’s suspicious wife turns up demanding to know where he was last night and what he was doing, why doesn’t he have a clue what to tell her?

If this is what modern life as a grown-up is really like, then young Hennikay is very unimpressed with how his old friend has turned out.

Cast:
Guy – Bill Bailey
Tony – Dave Lamb
Nikita - Polly Frame
Lyrissa - Tracy-Ann Oberman
Harry - Paul Panting
Hennikay – Max Pattison

Written by David Spicer
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:45 Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (m00174fd)
Episode Nine

Helen Fielding's iconic 1996 novel of life as a single thirty-something woman in London.

"Have bought recipe book by Marco Pierre White. At last understand the simple difference between home cooking and restaurant food. As Marco says, it is all to do with concentration of taste. One must make real stock by boiling up large pans of fish bones, chicken carcasses, etc., then freeze them in form of ice-stockcubes. Then cooking to Michelin star standard becomes as easy as making shepherd’s pie: easier, in fact, as do not need to peel potatoes, merely confit them in goose fat. Cannot believe have not realized this before."

Bridget Jones begins the new year full of resolutions. She pledges in her diary to drink less, smoke less, lose weight, find a new job, stay away from unsuitable men and learn to programme the VCR. But her resolve is tested by the horrors of attending dinner parties with the "smug marrieds", the confusing behaviour of her charming rogue of a boss Daniel Cleaver, and her increasingly embarrassing encounters with Human Rights lawyer Mark Darcy.

Bridget Jones's Diary started life as a weekly column in the pages of The Independent in 1995, when Fielding worked on the news desk. Helen’s column chronicled the life and antics of fictional Bridget Jones as a thirty-something single woman in London trying to make sense of life and love. It was first published as a novel in 1996 and has gone on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a series of films.

Read by Sally Phillips
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Mary Ward-Lowery


MON 15:00 A Good Read (m0025d56)
Sir Ian Blatchford and Charles Fernyhough

TOKYO EXPRESS by Seichō Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, chosen by Sir Ian Blatchford
THE LETTERS OF ABELARD AND HELOISE, translated by Betty Radice, chosen by Charles Fernyhough
SOLDIERS OF SALAMIS by Javier Cercas, translated by Anne McLean, chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Director of the Science Museum group and president of the Royal Literary Fund, Sir Ian Blatchford, chooses a cult classic from 1958 for his good read. A double love suicide wrapped up in suspicious government corruption and a whodunnit hinging on train timetables, Sir Ian makes the case for one of his favourite books.

Travelling to the middle ages for Charles Fernyhough's pick, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise were once much more widely known than they are today. Charles, an amateur medievalist alongside being an author, musician and Professor of Psychology at Durham University, recommends this book as one of the greatest love stories of all time. The letters of Heloise he especially believes should be celebrated, as they showcase a great early feminist philosopher and writer.

Presenter Harriett Gilbert's good read takes readers into the Spanish Civil War: Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas, from 2001. This is a book exploring the role of memory when unpicking the past, and asks questions about whether we can ever remember what really happened. What will the others make of it?

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol
Join the book club on Instagram, @agoodreadbbc


MON 15:30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (m0023jl7)
Lady Swindlers with Lucy Worsley

39. Ann Mary Provis - Art Hoaxer

In this new series Lucy Worsley switches her attention from Lady Killers to Lady Swindlers - con women, thieves and hustlers.

This time Lucy is investigating the case of Ann Mary Provis, an obscure young artist in Georgian London who has the leading painters of her day - including the President of the Royal Academy - eating out of her hand.

She claims to know the ‘secret’ of how great Renaissance painters, like Titian, achieved intense colour and luminosity. But Ann Mary isn’t going to part with Titian’s ‘lost recipe’ unless the artists who want it pay up. And ultimately, in falling for her hoax, they lose a great deal more than their money.

With Lucy to explore Ann Mary’s story is Rebecca Salter, the current President of the Royal Academy, and the first woman to hold that position. Lucy and Rebecca discover how Ann Mary, the poorly educated daughter of a servant, uses her femininity to dupe the great men of the Royal Academy.

Lucy is also joined by historian Dr Jacqueline Riding at the Royal Academy in London to explore the humiliating denouement of Ann Mary’s hoax. When pictures using her ‘secret recipe’ are put on display they are ridiculed, and the whole episode is immortalised by the great 18th century satirist James Gillray.

Lucy wants to know: how did an obscure young female artist pull off this extraordinary hoax? Why have so many female artists of the 18th century, like Ann Mary Provis, disappeared from view? And have women artists today finally achieved the same recognition as men?

Producer: Jane Greenwood
Historical consultant: Professor Rosalind Crone
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 Inheriting the Earth (m0025f1s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]


MON 16:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m0025bbt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


MON 17:00 PM (m0025d58)
Flood resilience after Storm Bert

As a clean-up begins in parts of the UK following Storm Bert, we look at flood resilience. Plus, the homeless man whose piano skills have raised thousands for charity.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0025d5b)
Weather forecasters had warned of high waves and advised against maritime activity


MON 18:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m0025d5d)
Series 3

South Norwood - Paul brings up his half-century for Radio 4

Paul celebrates his 50th stand-up show for Radio 4 with questions about anniversaries, 2011 (the year of his first show on the network), and his home borough of Croydon. In return, his audience tests his knowledge of tax years, anagrams, and the Crystal Palace.

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

Original music: Tim Sutton

Recording engineer: David Thomas
Mixed by: Rich Evans
Producer: Ed Morrish

A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4


MON 19:00 The Archers (m0025cmz)
After an uncomfortable night in the yurt, Jakob wonders why a more rested Kate is being so helpful, as she sets about helping Faith and Chuck find somewhere to stay.
Faith and Chuck still can’t get any answer from the booking company. Grey Gables and Ambridge Hall are all booked up or out of action, but there’s somewhere available in Felpersham. Faith is disappointed, revealing to Kate that Ambridge has special memories for her. Faith grew up here before emigrating to Phoenix, Arizona, as a ten year old. The trip back with Chuck was for their 40th anniversary, although Chuck wanted a beach! Sympathetic Kate promises to let the couple stay.
Jakob complains to Jazzer and explains what’s happened, and they talk about scams. Jazzer mentions a room going spare for him at Jim’s, and worries Jakob with the suggestion that more people could arrive on Jakob’s doorstep after he’s got rid of Faith and Chuck. Jakob realises he needs to do something – but what? In the Bull, Faith and Chuck meet Jazzer, and Chuck ponders ditching their holiday. But Faith is going nowhere.
At Brookfield, another stranger arrives – Ellie, along with her two teenage daughters – and gets short shrift from Ruth as she asks to check in. Ellie has booked via the same website, and Jakob realises that this is another victim of a fake listing. Ruth shares his worry about more people turning up. Jakob has been trying all day to get to the bottom of his rogue listing. They need to take matters into their own hands.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m0025d5g)
Sigourney Weaver & Selina Cadell, Art forgery on the rise? Nitin Sawhney

Friends for fifty years, Sigourney Weaver and Selina Cadell discuss acting together in the Jamie Lloyd Company's new production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. As part of the BBC's Scam Safe week, we examine whether art fraud is on the rise with Georgina Adam from the Art Newspaper and and the lawyer Amanda Gray, a specialist from the firm Mishcon De Reya. And, musician Nitin Sawhney talks about his two new works Heart Suite, about by his recent heart attack, and Orbital, which is inspired by this year's Booker prize winner, Orbital by Samantha Harvey.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ruth Watts


MON 20:00 The Briefing Room (m002553f)
Why do we have such overcrowded prisons?

Our prisons are overcrowded, the Government recently released a group of prisoners early to ease the pressure. Britain seems to incarcerate more people per head of population compared to any other Western European country. Now the Government has announced there is going to be a Review of Sentencing to see what we can do to reduce the number of people in prison.

Recently an eight week consultation period began, during which members of the public can send in their thoughts on how to tackle these issues.

Why have prisons have become so over-crowded, and what we can do about it?

John Podmore, former prison governor and prison inspector and author of Out of Sight Out of Mind: Why Britain's Prisons Are Failing
Nicola Padfield, Emeritus Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice, at the University of Cambridge
Catherine Heard, Director of the World Prison Research Programme, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, Birkbeck, University of London

Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Charlotte McDonald, Kirsteen Knight and Beth Ashmead Latham
Sound engineers: Rod Farquhar, Neva Missirian
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman


MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (m002553h)
The climate cost of war

As conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine continue to dominate the news, many Inside Science listeners have been in touch with the same question:

What is the carbon footprint of war?

How significant is the impact – and is it crass to even talk about it? We’re joined by Benjamin Neimark from Queen Mary University in London.

Also this week, we chat to the incoming DG of Europe’s particle-smashing facility Cern, what have we learnt by defrosting an extinct big cat and, the beetle that could ruin Christmas...

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Florian Bohr, Ella Hubber & Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 

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 to take the quiz.


MON 21:00 Start the Week (m0025d4j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:45 Café Hope (m0025d4l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m0025d5j)
US says Israel and Hezbollah close to ceasefire deal

US officials expressed cautious optimism that Israel and Hezbollah would agree to a 60-day ceasefire deal. The Israeli cabinet will discuss the deal tomorrow. It would see Israel withdraw from southern Lebanon while Hezbollah would vacate the area close to the border.

In the UK, the Supreme Court will begin a hearing tomorrow on the legal definition of a woman. It's been brought by a campaign group in Scotland over a piece of Scottish legislation that means anyone with an appropriate Gender Recognition Certificate is considered a woman.

And 40 years since the original, the "ultimate mix" of Band Aid has been released. But is the message of the song out of date?


MON 22:45 The Green & The Black by Kit de Waal (m0025d5l)
Fiona's Secret

A brand new original fiction serial by the best-selling author Kit de Waal about the changing face of modern Ireland, as told through multiple generations of one family.

Author
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022 it was adapted as a BBC Two film. Her second novel The Trick to Time was longlisted for the Women's Prize and her young adult novel Becoming Dinah was shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. Her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in August 2022. She is a patron of Prisoners Abroad, the Bridport Prize and Writing West Midlands, ambassador of Well-being in the Arts and a trustee of The Reading Agency. Kit is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor and Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence at Leicester University.

Reader: Derbhle Crotty
Writer: Kit de Waal
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 23:00 Limelight (m0019kd4)
English Rose - Series 1

English Rose - Episode 3: Tending the Wounds

by Helen Cross

Rose has come from Whitby to Manhattan to work as a nanny for power couple Austin and Maya. Their baby Gulliver is... unusual. But then, so is Rose. Bloody revenge is her speciality.

The body count is rising and she still has to work out where the dangers lie. Also she needs something expensive to wear to Maya's launch. Time to go shopping with the platinum credit card.

Stylish and surprising fantasy horror with a comic twist, starring Alexandra Mardell (Coronation Street) and Demetri Goritsas (Ten Percent). With music by Dana Margolin and Sam Yardley of Mercury-nominated band, Porridge Radio.

Helen Cross wrote ‘My Summer of Love’ which won a Betty Trask award and was made into a Bafta-winning film with Emily Blunt (recently rated her best film in The Guardian top ten Emily Blunt films). Mary Ward-Lowery won Best Director in 2020 Audio Drama Awards.

Rose ... Alexandra Mardell
Maya ... Miranda Braun
Austin ... Demetri Goritsas
Siobhan ... Deirdre Mullins
Delphine ... Yasemin Özdemir
Randy ... Michael Begley
Art Guy ... Mathew Durkan
Beatrice ... Alexandra Hannant
Newsreader ... Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Jason ... Joseph Tweedale
Mam ... Jane Thornton

Including the voices of Jo Makel, Paul Murphy, James Hoggarth, Freya Pollaidh, Augusta Chapman, Becky Ripley and Ben Casswell.
Original music written and performed by Dana Margolin and Sam Yardley of Porridge Radio, and produced, mixed and engineered by Sam Yardley.

Sound design by Ilse Lademann
Producer Mary Ward-Lowery


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0025d5n)
Alicia McCarthy reports as the environment secretary Steve Reed warns that there is likely to be further flooding over the next few days.

TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2024

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m0025d5q)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 Five Ways They Get You (m0025d4t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0025d5s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0025d5v)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0025d5x)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m0025d5z)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0025d61)
A dream of Northern Lights

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Muslim academic, Dr Yahya Barry.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m0025d63)
26/11/24 Sustainable Farming Scheme in Wales, sprouts

The Welsh government has backed down on its policy to insist farmers put ten percent of their land into woodland. The decision came after farmers demonstrated against the government's plans for its Sustainable Farming Scheme, or SFS, which replaces the payments to farmers under the old EU Common Agriculture Policy. The SFS still includes previous ambitions of supporting sustainable food production, rewarding farmers for mitigating climate change and enhancing the environment. The Welsh government hopes the changes will encourage more farmers to join in. We speak to Deputy first Minister Huw Irranca-Davies, who is also Secretary for Climate and Rural Affairs in Wales, and get reaction to the changes.

All this week we're looking at winter vegetables. Some winter veg has to be harvested by hand which is labour intensive and costly. That used to be the case with Brussels sprouts - but over the last decade that's changed and now some farms have invested in self-propelled machinery to carry out the harvest. We visit a grower in Perthshire to see how it's done.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


TUE 06:00 Today (m0025cmd)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Reith Lectures (m0025cmg)
Gwen Adshead - Four Questions about Violence

Is Violence Normal?

In her 2024 Reith Lectures, Dr Gwen Adshead, addresses four questions that she has most commonly faced in her work as a therapist with violent perpetrators in secure psychiatric units and prisons:

Is Violence normal?
What is the relationship between trauma and violence?
Is there such a thing as Evil?
Can we change violent minds?

In this first lecture, using data and real-life stories from nearly 40 years’ experience as a forensic Psychiatrist working inside institutions such as Broadmoor, she asks if violence is normal.

Is violence unnatural? Or is it normal because, deep down, we are all capable of cruelty and can experience, even briefly, the urge to hurt others? What then are the tipping points, what are the factors that drive some to kill?

The programme was recorded at Broadcasting House in London in front of an audience and is presented and chaired by Anita Anand.

Producer; Jim Frank
Editor: Clare Fordham


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0025cmj)
Supreme Court hears case on definition of a woman, Barbara Taylor Bradford's life

Judges at the Supreme Court are today considering how women are defined in law in a landmark case brought by Scottish campaigners. It will address what “sex” means legally, and will set out exactly how the law is meant to treat trans people. BBC Scotland Policital Correspondent, Phil Sim, joins Nuala McGovern to explain more.

Song writing partnership Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear are making history by becoming the youngest and first female songwriting duo to compose for a Disney feature film in the highly anticipated Moana 2. The Grammy Award-winning pair join Nuala live in the studio to discuss what the songs mean to them, and their career so far.

The film Mediha tells the story of a teenage Yazidi girl who was captured by the Islamic State group in the 2014 genocide against the Yazidi people and kept for four years as a sex slave. To help her process her trauma, she has filmed her life and her journey to try and find her missing family members. Mediha herself joins Nuala alongside the director and producer of the film, Hasan Oswald.

Following the death of bestselling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, Nuala talks to her publisher, Lynne Drew, and to television presenter and author Fern Britton who was a fan and a friend of Barbara’s. They’ll discuss Barbara’s extraordinary rise from typist to multi-millionaire author and the enduring appeal of her work, including her 1979 smash hit A Woman of Substance.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Lottie Garton


TUE 11:00 Add to Playlist (m00254hv)
Jess Gillam and Richard Stilgoe launch the new series

Saxophonist and Radio 3 presenter Jess Gillam, and lyricist and songwriter Richard Stilgoe, launch a new series as they join Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe to add the first five tracks of the new playlist. The elements feature in three of the tracks (but Earth, Wind & Fire don't!), before we head to the barber's and round off with a Dylan classic.

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

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

I Feel the Earth Move by Carole King
Earth by Joe Henderson and Alice Coltrane
The Elements by Tom Lehrer
Shave and a Haircut by Billy Watson and His International Silver String Submarine Band
Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan

Other music in this episode:

Ay Jona by The Bahama Social Club
Will You Love Me Tomorrow by Carole King
Poisoning Pigeons In The Park by Tom Lehrer
Major General's Song from The Pirates of Penzance by W S Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan
We Will All Go Together When We Go by Tom Lehrer
Magic Melody by Les Paul and Mary Ford
Unsquare Dance by The Dave Brubeck Quartet


TUE 11:45 Five Ways They Get You (m0025cml)
Friends

Nicole spots a great money-making opportunity on Instagram.
And the fact it's directly endorsed by one of her real-world friends means she thinks it's a safe bet...

For decades Radio 4's Shari Vahl has been nailing fraudsters, and getting victims’ money back. Now she's opening her casebook… to help you protect yourself.

She's joined by ex-fraudster and poacher-turned-gamekeeper Alex Wood and linguistics expert Elisabeth Carter who help Shari decode the criminals' tactics in a bid to keep you safe.

Presented By Shari Vahl
Produced by Kev Core


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0025cmn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m0025cmq)
Call You and Yours: When did you know you were being scammed?

For this phone-in, we'd like you to tell us about a time when you realised you were being scammed. When did the penny drop? As we often hear on You and Yours, criminals are getting increasingly sophisticated, finding more and more cunning ways to get us to part with our cash. So what are the giveaways? Have you foiled a scammer, or suddenly realised the person you thought you were dealing with isn't who they say they are? Tell us how that felt. You can email us - youandyours@bbc.co.uk. Please leave a number so we can give you a call back. And after 11am on Tuesday 26 November you can call us on 03700 100 444.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY


TUE 12:57 Weather (m0025cms)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m0025cmv)
Israel steps up Beirut attacks ahead of ceasefire meeting

Israel launches 10 simultaneous air strikes on Beirut as its Cabinet meets to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah. Plus, a new plan to get more people off benefits and into work and Lord Richards - former head of the defence forces - on the West's strategic failure in Ukraine.


TUE 13:45 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (m001v3ln)
Episode Two

Winner of the Booker Prize 2024. "...an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it" - Max Porter

Across 24 hours on the International Space Station, six astronauts from different nations contemplate the Earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of one astronaut's mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from Earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without Earth? What is Earth without humanity?

"In this new day they'll circle the earth sixteen times. They'll see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets, sixteen days and sixteen nights. In their rotations around the earth in accumulations of light and dark, in the baffling arithmetic of thrust and altitude and speed and sensors, the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes".

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping.

Read by Anneika Rose (Line of Duty, Shetland, Ackley Bridge) with music by Timothy X Atack.
Abridged by Sara Davies
Studio Recording and Mixing by Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m0025cmz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m0025cn1)
One Eighty, Fan

By Ali Taylor.

Rom-com about two 40-something neighbours who decide to take on the energy crisis by sharing an oven.

Tom ..… Grant O’Rourke
Geri ….. Sally Reid
Zack ..… Lewis MacDougall

Sound Design by Kris McConnachie

Directed by Kirsty Williams

An EcoAudio certified from BBC Audio Scotland for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:00 Punt & Dennis: Route Masters (m0023zjg)
Series 1: From Beer to Eternity

9 – From Ipswich Town to Nessie

Susie Dent joins Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis in a wide-ranging and utterly tenuous route between Ipswich Town and the Loch Ness monster, via the Dromedary camel and the Berlin Wall.

This warm and witty podcast celebrates new and half-remembered trivia in a bid to link random places, people and things. Across the series, Steve and Hugh are joined by guests including Ken Cheng, Kiri Pritchard McLean, Isy Suttie and Marcus Brigstocke, on a scenic route which takes in Shampoo, The Gruffalo, Watford Gap Services and Yoghurt - on a bid to travel from “beer” to “eternity”.

Written and hosted by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis
With Susie Dent
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
Recorded at Maple St Creative
Mixed by Jonathan Last

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:30 Sphere of Influence (m0025cn4)
What do you think of when you hear the phrase "artistic genius"? Maybe a creative icon? Or a unique talent?

But every artist creates their works in a time and a place, inspired by the world around them. And sometimes these sources of inspiration are properly surprising and help us think of their works in new ways.

In this programme, Kate Bryan takes one artistic work which has reached iconic status and finds out about the unexpected influencers who might have led to the work's creation. The work she's picked is Edvard Munch's famous painting, The Scream. Painted in 1893 when Munch was a young man, the painting has become an icon, there's even an emoji. But can we see the artwork in a new light by learning about the influencers who might have inspired Munch to paint it?

Joining Kate in the studio is Professor Dorothy Price from the Courtauld Institute of Art - together they meet influencers from Parisian painters to Peruvian mummies, from German philosophers to cloud formations! At the end of the programme, they must choose the influencer they found the most persuasive or who helped them see The Scream in a totally new light.

With contributions from Christopher Heaney, Associate Professor at Pennsylvania State University; Sue Prideaux, author of Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream; the atmospheric physicist Dr Fred Prata and the environmental historian and writer Dr Richard Hamblyn.

Presenter: Kate Bryan
Producer: Camellia Sinclair for BBC Audio in Bristol


TUE 16:00 Poetry Please (m0020j46)
Deryn Rees-Jones

For the last episode in the current series, Roger McGough is joined by poet and editor Deryn Rees-Jones, who makes a personal selection of poems requested by listeners. Deryn's choices include poems by Robert Frost, George Herbert, Medbh McGuckian, Stevie Smith, Denise Saul, Seamus Heaney, Wanda Coleman and John Burnside, who died in May 2024.

Produced by Sally Heaven and Emma Harding for BBC Audio Bristol.


TUE 16:30 When It Hits the Fan (m0025cn8)
Jaguar’s rebrand, John Prescott and Meet the Rees-Moggs

Jaguar’s rebrand video has sent the internet into meltdown, and the insults are piling up. The car manufacturer’s wildly uncharacteristic advert has even tempted Elon Musk into the conversation. David Yelland and Simon Lewis discuss the PR strategy Jaguar might be employing and whether they’ll come out of this unscathed.

Also, how the late Lord John Prescott managed to navigate a lifetime of fan-hitters to go down in political history as a legend.

And, how and why has the lure of reality TV captured former Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg?

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


TUE 17:00 PM (m0025cnb)
Vauxhall factory to close threatening 1,100 jobs

A van factory in Luton is to close; how are EV targets affecting the motor industry? Plus reaction from Lebanon as strikes continue to hit Beirut ahead of a possible ceasefire.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0025cnd)
The US has said the ceasefire would help to end the conflict in Gaza


TUE 18:30 Best Medicine (m0025cng)
Series 2

2. Sweating In Nature, Animals, Transplantation, Horticulture

Joining Kiri this week at the Hay Festival is comedian Zoe Lyons who tells Kiri how running helps with the stress associated with her alopecia - and how she survived getting rammed by a badger. Dr Matt Morgan explains how kangaroo vaginas held the key to developing IVF and whales’ hearts inspired new heart treatments for humans, Dr Fotios Sampaziotis unveils innovative new treatments that could repair livers before a transplant is needed, and ethnobotanist James Wong unearths the benefits of horticulture and how it can benefit health and bring hope.

Best Medicine is your weekly dose of laughter, hope and incredible medicine. Award-winning comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean is joined by a funny and fascinating panel of comedians, doctors, scientists, and historians to celebrate medicine’s inspiring past, present and future.

Each week, Kiri challenges a panel of medical experts and a comedian to make a case for what they think is 'the best medicine', and each guest champions anything from world-changing science or an obscure invention, to an everyday treatment, an uplifting worldview, an unsung hero or a futuristic cure.

Whether it’s origami surgical robots, life-changing pineapple UTI vaccines, Victorian scandal mags, denial, sleep, tiny beating organoid hearts, lifesaving stem cell transplants, gold poo donors or even crying - it’s always something worth celebrating.

Hosted by Kiri Pritchard-McLean

Featuring: Zoe Lyons, Dr Matt Morgan, Dr Fotios Sampaziotis and James Wong

Written by Laura Claxton, Edward Easton, Charlie George, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Nicky Roberts and Ben Rowse

Producers: Tashi Radha and Ben Worsfield

Theme tune composed by Andrew Jones

A Large Time production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0025cnj)
It’s action stations for Ruth, while the Grundys spot an opportunity.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0025cnl)
Edward Berger on Conclave, Ganavya performs, Tim Robey on film flops

Director Edward Berger joins Tom Sutcliffe to talk about his thriller Conclave, staring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, which focuses on the election of a new pope. Berger's previous film All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars - this success contrasts with a century of film flops which critic Tim Robey wrote about in his book Box Office Poison and discusses with Signature Entertainment's Ben Jacques. We also have New York born and Tamil Nadu raised singer and musician Ganavya who performs and speaks about her musical style and influences.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m0025cnn)
The Asylum Business

The government has pledged to stop using hotels to house asylum seekers. But in early November nearly three hundred people were moved into a hotel in Altrincham in Greater Manchester. The decision has provoked widespread concerns from the community and there are fears that far right protestors could target the premises. It follows violent demonstrations outside hotels in Rotherham, Hull, Tamworth, Manchester, Aldershot and Bristol in the summer.

Hotel accommodation is often provided in some of the UK’s poorest communities where residents are already facing difficulties in accessing vital services. So what is the government’s plan to stop the use of hotel accommodation? And when will it end? File on 4 hears from some of those who live in the hotels – and from the communities who live nearby – and discovers who’s profiting from the asylum business.


Reporter: Datshiane Navanayagam
Producer: Vicky Carter
Technical Producer: Craig Boardman
Production Coordinators: Tim Fernley and Ellie Dover
Editor: Carl Johnston

This programme contains descriptions of graphic violence. Details of organisations offering information and support are available at:
www.bbc.co.uk/actionline


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m0025cnq)
Sexual Assault within the Visually Impaired Community

In Touch discusses sexual assault within the visually impaired community, with people who have experienced it or have witnessed inappropriate behaviours and attitudes. Our contributors describe how inappropriate behaviours can often go unchecked or are deemed as acceptable within parts of the visually impaired community, resulting in victims being afraid to speak out about their experiences. We also hear how in some cases, visually impaired victims have difficulty being believed by other people and the police.

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.


TUE 21:00 Crossing Continents (m0025cns)
Our whole life is a secret

The Taliban edict that women's voices should not be heard aloud renders women up and down Afghanistan inaudible as well as invisible in public. Women are already denied most forms of education and employment. They are not allowed to go outside without a male guardian, and have to be completely covered up, including their faces. Now the new rules say they should be quiet too. Women singing together, or even raising their voices in prayer, is forbidden.

But there's more than one way to be heard.

Our Whole Life is a Secret records the day to day life of 'Leila', a lively, energetic Afghan woman aged 23, doing everything she can to navigate the rules. From behind the walls of her home, Leila reveals her vivid interior world, and that of her female friends and relatives. She and her sisters are the first women in their family to read and write, and before the Taliban returned to power in 2021, she was a university student. Now she teaches in a secret school and is part of a dynamic online learning community. From reading Emily Bronte to working out to Zumba, Leila is determined to keep stay sane and busy.

'Leila' is not her real name and all locations are omitted for safety reasons. Her words are read by Asal Latifi.

Producer/Presenter Monica Whitlock
Sound design and mix James Beard
Editor Penny Murphy


TUE 21:30 The Law Show (m002548b)
Miscarriages of justice and the CCRC

The job of the Criminal Cases Review Commission - or CCRC - is to investigate cases where people may have been wrongfully convicted of a crime in the criminal courts of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The CCRC has faced criticism over it's actions - or lack of action - in a high-profile miscarriage of justice.

In April this year, the CCRC offered an unreserved apology to Andrew Malkinson. He spent 17 years in prison following conviction for a rape in Salford that he didn’t commit. DNA testing which led to his conviction being quashed was not commissioned by the CCRC, and in July, an independent review found that he could have been freed five years after receiving a life sentence in 2003.

After the report was published, the Justice Secretary called for the resignation of the chair of the CCRC, Helen Pitcher. However, she said she was still the “best person” for the job and that she had no intention of standing down.

So how does the Criminal Cases Review Commission work? How does it make decisions about which cases should go back to the Court of Appeal, and which should be rejected?

Also this week:
- Are the laws around accessing social care for disabled children too complicated?
- And if you’re selling your home - are you legally bound to mention problem neighbours?

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producers: Ravi Naik and Nathan Gower
Editor: Tara McDermott
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele

Contributors
Dr Hannah Quirk, a Reader in Criminal Law at King’s College London, who also used to work at the CCRC.
Professor Alison Young, Commissioner for Public and Welsh Law, the Law Commission.
Catriona Moore, policy manager at IPSEA, a charity which helps parents with SEND legislation - Special Educational needs and disabilities.
Tracey Moloney, from Moloney Family Law, also known as the Legal Queen on social media


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m0025cnv)
Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire expected to start within hours

US President Joe Biden has announced a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. The truce will kick in overnight and is scheduled to last for sixty days. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would “respond forcefully to any violation” of the deal.

In the UK, the owner of Vauxhall has announced the closure of its van-making factory in Luton, putting 1,100 jobs at risk. Stellantis cited UK laws to impose a transition to electric vehicles as part of the reason. The government says it will consult on “flexibilities” to those rules.

And the Macquarie Dictionary has a new word of the year. The dictionary’s committee describes the word as: “A very basic Anglo-Saxon term wrapped in affixes which elevate it to being almost formal; almost respectable”.


TUE 22:45 The Green & The Black by Kit de Waal (m0025cnx)
Molly's Garden

A brand new original fiction serial by the best-selling author Kit de Waal about the changing face of modern Ireland, as told through multiple generations of one family.

Author
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022 it was adapted as a BBC Two film. Her second novel The Trick to Time was longlisted for the Women's Prize and her young adult novel Becoming Dinah was shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. Her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in August 2022. She is a patron of Prisoners Abroad, the Bridport Prize and Writing West Midlands, ambassador of Well-being in the Arts and a trustee of The Reading Agency. Kit is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor and Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence at Leicester University.

Reader: Eimear Keating
Writer: Kit de Waal
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 23:00 Now You're Asking with Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn (m0025cnz)
The Voice Notes Problem

This week: Do you feel hanker after a more creative live than the one you're living? What should you do when an elderly parent insists on discussing death, when you'd rather not? And voice notes - are they a blessing or a curse?

Each week Marian and Tara do their best to shed their particular brand of warmth, wit and wisdom onto listeners questions with topics big and small.

Earlier series of Now You're Asking were welcomed by listeners and critics:
"Both are warm and kind enough to not only be funny but also offer genuinely thoughtful, if left-field, advice." (Miranda Sawyer, The Observer)
"Keyes and Flynn are my new favourite double-act." (Jane Anderson - Radio Times)
"I found their compassion endlessly soothing." (Rachel Cunliffe - The New Statesman)

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

We have been inundated with emails since the last series but everything gets read and we're always on the lookout for new questions, queries and conundrums to include on the show.

Got a problem you want Marian and Tara to solve? Email: marianandtara@bbc.co.uk.

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


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0025cp1)
Susan Hulme reports on government plans to 'get Britain working'.

WEDNESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2024

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m0025cp3)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 00:30 Five Ways They Get You (m0025cml)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0025cp5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0025cp7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0025cp9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m0025cpc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0025cpf)
A million and one things to do

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Muslim academic, Dr Yahya Barry.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m0025cph)
Many farmers have been worried about their Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier agreements, which expire, or partly expire, this year. These cover larger scale agri-environment schemes and capital grants for "the most environmentally important sites", according to DEFRA.
DEFRA's now announced that farmers can take up a "mirror agreement" to carry on from their old one. This will last the same time as their original arrangement - 5 or 10 years and will exactly duplicate their existing plan, including the money they get for it. We speak to Dr Julia Aglionby from The Foundation for Common Land who's concerned that it leaves some farmers, especially commoners and those in the uplands, in a difficult position.

As part of our focus on winter veg, we visit a farm in Worcestershire which grows Tenderstem broccoli. The crop's a registered trade mark, high in value but costly to grow, the seeds are closely controlled and it's labour intensive to pick. We also speak to a big commercial seed company about what's involved in creating new varieties of veg and what qualities plant breeders are looking for when they develop them.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


WED 06:00 Today (m0025cqz)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Life Changing (m0025c09)
Finding a Voice

On the threshold of the first COVID lockdown when people were preparing for the unknown, a mother of two young children from Leeds was given a Life Changing diagnosis. Tanja Bage had always been a keen singer and performer and so was increasingly aware of her shortness of breath. There had been several attempts to deal with it, but nothing worked. Eventually she had an appointment with an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. The diagnosis was cancer, which required almost immediate surgery to remove the tumour, and with it her vocal chords. She would be losing her voice, and she had just a week to prepare herself and her family. Tanja describes that pre-Covid frenzy, the support she received and the challenges of being a mother while having to re-learn how to speak using a Stoma in her neck. Her mix of passion and stoicism meant that not only did she recover after the massively intrusive operation, but she is now involved in artistic ventures with the Laryngectomy choir and the Sound Voice project as well as being a brilliant mother to her children.

Producer: Tom Alban


WED 09:30 The Gift (m00255wz)
Series 2

4. Taboo

One man’s determination to find his mother reveals an unbearable secret.

It’s the perfect gift for the person who already has everything. It promises to tell you who you really are, and how you’re connected to the world. A present that will reveal your genetic past – but could also disrupt your future.

In the first series of The Gift, Jenny Kleeman looked at the extraordinary truths that can unravel when people take at-home DNA tests like Ancestry and 23andMe.

For the second series, Jenny is going deeper into the unintended consequences - the aftershocks - set in motion when people link up to the enormous global DNA database.

Reconnecting and rupturing families, uprooting identities, unearthing long-buried secrets - what happens after technology, genealogy and identity collide?

Presenter: Jenny Kleeman
Producer: Conor Garrett
Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett
Editor: Philip Sellars
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

The Gift is a BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4

Details of organisations providing support with mental health, adoption and feelings of despair are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0025cr1)
Joan Armatrading, Baroness Lola Young, Melanie Reid

Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Joan Armatrading joins Nuala McGovern to discuss her 23rd studio album, How Did This Happen and What Does it Now Mean?

Losing a baby in the early stages of pregnancy can be an extremely painful experience. Having to think about what you're going to tell your employer about why you're not able to come to work can compound the difficulty. In the UK you are not entitled to any time off work if you experience miscarriage in the first six months of pregnancy. But today, the Women and Equalities Select Committee is hearing evidence for the case of extending your right to bereavement leave to the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. Sarah Owen MP, Chair of that Committee is in the Woman's Hour studio.

Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey has spent the last 20 years as an independent crossbench peer in the House of Lords, championing social justice causes such as the fight against modern slavery and promoting ethical fashion. She was also one of the first black women to enter the Lords. In her memoir Eight Weeks, she reflects on her childhood in the care system during the 1950s and 60s and the challenges she faced moving between foster care and children’s homes, and what she learnt from accessing her care records some fifty years later.

After writing her Spinal Column for the Times newspaper since 2010 – the first just two weeks after breaking her neck and back in a riding accident - columnist and author Melanie Reid has decided it’s time to stop and has published the final one. She joins Nuala to discuss why she has made that decision and what her plans are now.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Kirsty Starkey


WED 11:00 File on 4 (m0025cnn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]


WED 11:45 Five Ways They Get You (m0025cr4)
Property

How can someone possibly steal a house from under your nose?
Reverend Mike Hall makes an astonishing discovery when neighbours tell him there's someone in his property...

For decades Radio 4's Shari Vahl has been nailing fraudsters, and getting victims’ money back. Now she's opening her casebook… to help you protect yourself.

She's joined by ex-fraudster and poacher-turned-gamekeeper Alex Wood and linguistics expert Elisabeth Carter who help Shari decode the criminals' tactics in a bid to keep you safe.

Presented By Shari Vahl
Produced by Kev Core


WED 12:00 News Summary (m0025cr6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m0025cr9)
Romance Fraud, Personal Phones at Work and Car Finance

Should employers ask workers to use their phones for work business? How AI is making romance fraud harder to spot, and will budget hotels dump food and become room only in future?


WED 12:57 Weather (m0025crf)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m0025crk)
Thousands head back to Southern Lebanon as ceasefire takes effect.

Lebanese residents return to the South as Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire takes effect. Plus a new report details the ‘appalling’ state of British prisons.


WED 13:45 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (m001v3ms)
Episode Three

Winner of the Booker Prize 2024. "...an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it" - Max Porter

Across 24 hours on the International Space Station, six astronauts from different nations contemplate the Earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of one astronaut's mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from Earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without Earth? What is Earth without humanity?

"In this new day they'll circle the earth sixteen times. They'll see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets, sixteen days and sixteen nights. In their rotations around the earth in accumulations of light and dark, in the baffling arithmetic of thrust and altitude and speed and sensors, the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes".

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping.

Read by Anneika Rose (Line of Duty, Shetland, Ackley Bridge) with music by Timothy X Atack.
Abridged by Sara Davies
Studio Recording and Mixing by Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio


WED 14:00 The Archers (m0025cnj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m0025crt)
The Curse of the Five Elements - Fire

A dynamic and atmospheric murder mystery set in imperial Song (or Sung) Dynasty, 960 - 1279 A.D. The protagonist, Judge Bao (999 - 1062) was a real person, the illegitimate child of an African father and Chinese mother. He became the most famous judge in Chinese history, a legend featuring widely in Chinese folklore.

On the wedding night of a well to do family, the groom is murdered, his bride vanishes - linked to a five-element curse (fire, metal, water, wood, earth). By chance, Judge Bao is in town on his way to his own family and finds himself swept up investigating a mystery that unexpectedly reveals secrets from his past.

While travelling, Bao has made friends with Tiger, a Tangut soldier. He came for the wedding of his best friend, Master Chi - the man found dead on the night of his wedding. Rumour is that he was killed by the missing bride who happened to be a courtesan. A courtesan who might be more interested in his money than him. Logical, right? Not until Bao finds out that she is the most famous courtesan in the city - the Virgin Courtesan, who refused to sleep with any clients, a risk no courtesan dared to take.

Tiger is beyond consolation. Is he just a friend? Apparently a Black Christian missionary once cursed the Chi household, saying that members of the Chi family will each be killed by the five elements – fire, water, metal, wood, earth. Is this murder just the beginning? This house is full of secrets, and everything is not what it seems. Since the dead man Master Chi is related to the royal family, one wrong step may cost Bao’s head - literally a life and death situation.

Simon Wu’s work has been widely published, performed, and broadcast in the UK and Hong Kong. His play The Disappearance of Mr. Chan was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2020. He co-wrote three radio plays—Looking for Stones, Bare Branches, and Demolition Man— for BBC World Service. His online radio play Diwali and Curry featured in the Urban Scrawl project. Simon’s plays have been performed at venues such as Soho Theatre, Greenwich Theatre, Oval House, Tara Arts, and the Decibel Festival. His stage play Wolf in the House was performed by Hong Kong Repertory Theatre in 2015, and his play Oikos is published by Oberon Books.

Cast:
Judge Bao ..... John MacMillan
Tiger ..... Jon Chew
Ping Ping /Manager ..... Emma Fischer
Lady Fan /Little Wind/Miss Wu ..... Liz Sutherland-Lim
Master Ming /Liu Yong ..... Jeff D'Sangalang

Writer, Simon Wu
Original Music, Ruth Chan
Director, Shan Ng
Sound Designer, Eloise Whitmore
Illustration, Yanki Darling
Xiqin player, Li Yan Wen
Production Manager, Darren Spruce
Executive Producer, Polly Thomas

A Naked production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 15:00 The Law Show (m0025crz)
Joint enterprise - what is it and why is it controversial?

A parliamentary inquiry has just started work into the law around Joint enterprise, and the Law Commission is also looking at ways to reform the law. It will report back next year.

Joint enterprise is contentious because if a person is seen to be involved in a crime - from knowing about it, egging someone on, being present, or being able to predict that someone is likely to use a weapon like a gun - then they could be considered as guilty as the person who pulled the trigger.

It has a long history, but in recent times, it has been used as a way of prosecuting murder, especially in cases involving groups of people, when it's not known who carried out a killing.

But is it being applied fairly?

The CPS says “We choose the right charges for the right people based on the evidence in front of us. We look objectively at the evidence before making our own decisions.

and they add that “The CPS carefully monitors joint enterprise prosecutions, with senior legal oversight over every case to ensure that our approach is fair and proportionate.”

But campaigners say joint enterprise disproportionately results in working-class and black youths being prosecuted and convicted.

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producers: Ravi Naik, Arlene Gregorius and Bob Howard
Editor Tara McDermott

Contributors:
Alexander Hughes, Head Judicial Assistant at The Supreme Court
"Cleeshay" who was convicted of murder under joint enterprise
Jan Cunliffe, co-founder of Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA)
Tracey Moloney, solicitor, Moloney family Law
Dr Sam Fowles, a barrister and author
David Duncan, solicitor and Director of the legal firm Duncan & McConnell in Dundee


WED 15:30 Human Hibernation: The Big Sleep (b086s64v)
Ever wished you could miss an entire cold dark winter like bears or dormice? Kevin Fong explores the possibilities than humans could hibernate. This ability could help us recover from serious injury or make long space flights pass in a flash.

The first report on human hibernation in a medical journal was in the BMJ in 1900. It was an account of Russian peasants who, the author claimed, were able to hibernate. Existing in a state approaching "chronic famine", residents of the north-eastern Pskov region would retreat indoors at the first sign of snow, and there gather around the stove and fall into a deep slumber they called "lotska". No-one has ever found these peasants but there is serious research into putting humans into suspended animation, for long distance space travel or for allowing the body to recover from major injury.

The greatest clues into how to pull off hibernation comes from the American Black Bear. Dr Kevin Fong, an expert in trauma medicine, talks to Dr Brian Barnes, Director of the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska. He's done the most extensive study of black bears and observed how they slow down their metabolism. Fat-tailed lemurs are the only primates to hibernate. Duke University's Lemur Research Centre has discovered that they breathe just once every 20 minutes at their deepest torpor. These lemurs live longer than other animals of similar size. Could we find a way to use this trick of suspended animation? We could slow down out physiology ,cool down our bodies and hibernate during long space journeys. NASA too is working on how humans can survive trips to other solar systems.

Kevin Fong goes to the lab of Professor Robert Henning at the University Medical Centre in Groningen where he's worked out how animals protect their organs when they slow their body metabolism , enter a state of torpor and then return to normal physiology. Rob Henning wants to apply this to humans, on earth and in space. Already doctors use cooling in patients who have serious head injuries. Could this technique be applied further to allow us to fight disease and buy time for surgeons in the hospital trauma unit?

Producer: Adrian Washbourne


WED 16:00 The Media Show (m0025cs3)
The end-of-life influencer, Christmas adverts, Mishal Husain leaves the BBC

We talk to journalists and influencers about how they discuss assisted dying. As staff at The Observer vote to go on strike over the plans, its outgoing editor explains why he's against a proposed sale of the Sunday newspaper to Toirtoise media. We ask if department store Christmas adverts still retain their iconic status in 2024 and we consider what presenter Mishal Husain's departure means for BBC flagship news show, Today. Plus we get the latest on the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, which is now heading for the courts.

Guests: Alex Farber, Media Correspondent, The Times; Paul Webster, outgoing Editor, The Observer; Franki Goodwin, Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi and Saatchi; Maisie McCabe, UK editor, Campaign magazine; Julie McFadden, end of life care influencer; Janet Eastham, Social and Religious Affairs Editor, The Telegraph; Mark Savage, BBC Music Correspondent

Presenters: Ros Atkins and Katie Razzall
Producer; Simon Richardson
Assistant Producer: Lucy Wai


WED 17:00 PM (m0025cs7)
People return home as ceasefire holds.

Citizens return home in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. We examine what's left for them and look at Iran's role in the conflict. Plus, an update from the Lucy Letby inquiry.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0025csc)
The ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel - brokered by the US has so far held.


WED 18:30 You Heard It Here First (m001ygj0)
Series 2

'Is it someone going down a waterslide?'

Chris McCausland asks Jessica Knappett and Andy Parsons to take on Ahir Shah and Desiree Burch. Ahir Shah confuses his teammate when using just sound to describe a preassigned prompt. The teams must figure out what on earth is being advertised on TV, guess what famous objects or locations children are trying to describe, and work out which famous faces are being described by Chris' audio assistance software.

Producer: Sasha Bobak
Assistant Producer: Becky Carewe-Jeffires
Executive Producer: Richard Morris
Production Coordinator: Dan Marchini

A BBC Studios Production

An EcoAudio certified production


WED 19:00 The Archers (m0025csh)
Faith bumps into Jazzer as he takes Jim’s old airbed over to Brookfield to help with their ‘big barn sleepover’. Faith is so grateful for the community support, and Jazzer makes no secret of how relieved Jakob will be to have his home back.
Eddie’s visiting Joe’s grave, and chats to his old Dad. Visiting the churchyard also is Faith. They bump into one another and Faith remembers him from her childhood. She jokingly reminds Eddie of when they got “married” when they were five or six years old. It has been more than sixty years, but Eddie hasn’t changed at all.
Over a drink at the Bull, they catch up and share their life stories. Eddie lies, making himself out to be in the antiques business with Clarrie. Faith’s delighted to accept his invitation to come over with Chuck tomorrow and try some home-made cider.
A stranger arrives at Greenacres, and startled Jim takes immediate action to make a citizen’s arrest. The stranger had let himself in thinking he’d booked into Jim’s bungalow. Jazzer arrives and points out that this guy isn’t a scammer but rather has himself been scammed. With this clarified, apologetic Jim shares a drink and gets to know Joel. Having been contained by Jim in the living room, Joel admits he enjoyed looking at Jim’s impressive library. Joel is an archaeologist and connects with Jim over his Classical literature. Joel resigns himself to going home, but Jazzer has another idea, mentioning the Brookfield Barn. Joel’s happy; he feels he’s found a kindred spirit in Jim.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m0025csm)
Donny Osmond, Orhan Pamuk, Puccini's centenary

Nobel Prize winning Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk talks about the publication of his illustrated journals, Memories of Distant Mountains.

As he takes on the role of Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Playhouse Theatre in Edinburgh, Donny Osmond talks about his career in music.

And in the week that marks the centenary of his death, artistic director of English National Opera Annilese Miskimmon and music critic and broadcaster Flora Willson discuss the perennially popular - but somewhat problematic - composer Giacomo Puccini.

Presenter: Kate Molleson
Producer: Mark Crossan


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m0025csr)
What is a healthy attitude to death?

The debate around assisted dying exposes fundamental questions about our attitudes to death. We will all die. Nothing is more certain. But it’s not something most of us really think about, apart from superficially. We can often think of death as something that happens to other people. There’s a paradox – we are more distanced from death than our ancestors, yet we are exposed to it every day in the news and value it as a key component of art and entertainment. We can have a morbid fascination with death but a fear of confronting our own mortality.

While, fear, anxiety and avoidance are deeply human responses, are they good for us both psychologically and morally? Those advocating a “death positive” approach see honest conversations about death and dying as the cornerstone of a healthy society. In theory, thinking about your death should put your life into perspective and direct your actions towards things that are good for you and others. But is that necessarily the case? Should death ever be seen as anything less than a tragedy? During the pandemic, there were concerns about the subtle messaging around the ‘acceptability’ of some deaths over others. In conflict, repeated exposure to death causes a callus to form, where there may be less empathy for the dead as a survival mechanism for the living.

Does a greater openness and acceptance of death help us to live better lives? Or can losing the fear of death mean we lose something of what it means to be human? What is a healthy attitude to death?

Chair: Michael Buerk
Panel: Matthew Taylor, Ash Sarkar, Konstantin Kisin and Anne McElvoy
Witnesses: Charlotte Haigh, Anton Noble, Victoria Holmes, Teodora Manea.

Producer: Dan Tierney
Assistant producer: Ruth Purser
Editor: Gill Farrington and Chloe Walker.


WED 21:00 Rory Stewart: The Long History of... (m002136z)
Ignorance

Ignorance: 2. The Limits of Knowledge

We prize knowledge, and rightly so. We think of ignorance as a bad thing. But ignorance is inseparable from what we know.

Knowledge can distract us, mislead us and endanger us. While ignorance is often the most fundamental insight about our human condition. Ignorance is not simply the opposite of knowledge, but a positive force with its own momentum that gives meaning to our lives. It drives scientific discovery, fosters creativity and can be psychologically helpful.

That’s why Rory Stewart wants to make a radical case for embracing ignorance. He wants to encourage a way of knowing in which knowledge and ignorance exist in a relationship with each other.

With a cast of global thinkers, drawing on Western and Eastern ideas from the ancient world to the present day, Rory explores how a greater awareness and appreciation of ignorance can help us become more clear-thinking, humble, empathetic and wise.

Writer and presenter: Rory Stewart
Producer: Dan Tierney
Mixing: Tony Churnside
Editor: Tim Pemberton
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

Readings by Rhiannon Neads

Contributions across the series from:

Alex Edmans - Professor of Finance at London Business School.
Ani Rinchen Khandro - a life ordained nun in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
Annette Martin - Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Antony Gormley - sculptor.
Carlo Rovelli - Theoretical physicist and Professor in the Department of Physics at Aix-Marseille University.
Daniel DeNicola - Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania – and author of ‘Understanding Ignorance: The Surprising Impact of What We Don't Know’ (2018).
Daniel Whiteson - Professor of Physics at The University of California, Irvine.
Derek Black - Author of ‘The Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism’ (2024).
Edith Hall - Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History, at Durham University.
Fabienne Peter - Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick.
Felix Martin - economist and fund manager.
Iain McGilchrist - Psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher and literary scholar.
James C. Scott - Anthropologist and Sterling Professor Emeritus in Political Science at Yale University.
Jay Owens - Author of ‘Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion Particles’ (2023).
John Lloyd - Television and radio comedy producer and writer.
Jonathan Evans, Baron Evans of Weardale - Former Director General of MI5.
Karen Douglas - Professor of social psychology at the University of Kent.
Mark Lilla - professor of humanities at Columbia University, New York City and author of ‘Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know’ (2024).
Martin Palmer - Theologian, sinologist and translator of Daoist and Confucian texts.
Mary Beard - Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge.
Michael Ignatieff - Professor in the Department of History at Central European University in Budapest and former Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Neil Hannon - singer-songwriter and frontman of The Divine Comedy.
Nicholas Gruen - policy economist and social commentator.
Rik Peels - Professor of Philosophy, Theology and Religion at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and author of ‘Ignorance: A Philosophical Study (2023)’.
Robert Beckford - Theologian and Professor of Climate and Social Justice at the University of Winchester.
Rowan Williams - Theologian and former Archbishop of Canterbury.
Sandrine Parageau - Professor of Early Modern British History at Sorbonne University and author of ‘The Paradoxes of Ignorance in Early Modern England and France’ (2023).
Stuart Firestein - Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, New York City and author of ‘Ignorance: How It Drives Science’ (2012).
Tom Forth - data scientist, Head of Data at ‘Open Innovations’ and co-founder of ‘The Data City’.


WED 21:30 The Conflict (m0025csw)
Middle East

The First Intifada (1987): What impact did the Palestinian uprising have?

We look back on the region’s history and discuss what it can teach us about the future.

Jonny Dymond brings together a carefully curated panel of experts, academics and journalists to talk about the conflict in the region.

What has happened in history to lead us to this point? And, what can history teach us about what might happen next?

This week, Jonny is joined by BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, Dr Dina Rezk, associate professor of modern Middle Eastern history at Reading University and Dr H A Hellyer, senior associate fellow at the think tank RUSI.

They explore the First Intifada, a mass uprising by Palestinians, in 1987 against 20 years of Israeli occupation, and its lasting impact on the region.

This episode was made by Keiligh Baker with Ivana Davidovic. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans and David Crackles. The assistant editor is Ben Mundy. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

This episode is part of a BBC Sounds series. It was recorded at 14:00 on Wednesday 27 November 2024.


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m0025csy)
Does Lebanon ceasefire bring wider Middle East peace closer?

The US envoy who brokered the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah tells us it opens the door for a broader peace in the Middle East.

Also on the programme:

Lord Cameron has become the first former prime minister to publicly back the bill that legalises assisted dying for terminally ill people with less than six months to live. We ask how sure doctors can be about when someone is likely to die.

A bendy banana in the Oval Office? The crypto entrepreneur who paid almost £5 million for an artwork of a banana duct-taped to a wall tells us why Donald Trump would like it.


WED 22:45 The Green & The Black by Kit de Waal (m0025ct0)
Constantin's Judge

A brand new original fiction serial by the best-selling author Kit de Waal about the changing face of modern Ireland, as told through multiple generations of one family.

Author
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022 it was adapted as a BBC Two film. Her second novel The Trick to Time was longlisted for the Women's Prize and her young adult novel Becoming Dinah was shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. Her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in August 2022. She is a patron of Prisoners Abroad, the Bridport Prize and Writing West Midlands, ambassador of Well-being in the Arts and a trustee of The Reading Agency. Kit is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor and Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence at Leicester University.

Reader: Emmanuel Okoye
Writer: Kit de Waal
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:00 Sarah Mills' Bad Bod Squad (m0025ct2)
Episode 2 - Squeaky

Sarah Mills' comedy guide to dealing with a fallible and embarrassing body.

Since losing part of her bowel, comedian Sarah Mills has used a stoma bag. She might tell you that having a bag attached to her belly to collect her poo has made her unembarrassable, but the truth is she has always been completely shameless. Now, with the assistance of her outrageously candid celebrity guests, she wants to smash the taboos around bodily malfunctions and help us all banish bodily embarrassment for good.

Recorded in her home town of Stevenage, in this this week’s episode, Squeaky, Sarah explores bodily cacophony with writer, comedian, actor and star of the Australian version of The Office, Felicity Ward.

Created and written by Sarah Mills
Starring Sarah Mills with special guest Felicity Ward

Recording Engineer and Editor: Jerry Peal
Recording Assistant: Guy Thomas
Script Editor: Zoe Tomalin
Associate Producer: Antonia Gospel
Executive Producer: Alan Nixon
Production Manager:
Co- Producers: Gordon Kennedy and Sarah Mills

Recorded in front of a live audience at Stevenage Lytton Players Theatre

An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4

Additional information on issues in this episode:
https://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/irritable-bowel-syndrome-ibs/


WED 23:15 Bunk Bed (m00139l6)
Series 9

Ep1 Patrick Marber and Peter Curran grapple in the dark with life's woes and wonders

This time, after a top bunk malfunction, they are forced to snuggle up together in the same bed. Socks with 12 hours of wear on them, uncut toenails and grinding all bring conflict. Eventually, we hear the strange voice of science fiction pioneer HG Wells from a 1934 BBC broadcast that spookily sums up society today. This leads naturally to a discussion of national pride, Seamus Heaney, and the male orgasm.

Occasional sleepover guests for this series will include star of The Simpsons and This Is Spinal Tap, Harry Shearer, actor Jane Horrocks, cook and presenter Andi Oliver, and director Sir Richard Eyre.

Producer: Peter Curran
A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0025ct4)
Alicia McCarthy reports from Westminster as the government's economic plans dominated this week's edition of Prime Minister's Questions.

THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2024

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m0025ct6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 Five Ways They Get You (m0025cr4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0025ct8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0025ctb)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0025ctd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m0025ctg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0025ctj)
Working it out

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Muslim academic, Dr Yahya Barry.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m0025ctl)
28/11/24 - Risk of 'fear and resistance' amongst farmers, parsnip harvest, wildfire management

The Government 'risks creating a culture of fear and resistance' amongst farmers, according to the Nature Friendly Farmers Network. It's highlighting the suspension of grants which help farmers in England invest in infrastructure to improve the environment. That's things like better slurry storage to protect waterways or planting hedges to reduce soil erosion. Defra says the Capital Grants Scheme has been temporarily closed after unprecedented demand.
Scotland's fire service says rural communities need to prepare for bigger and more wildfires in the years ahead. The service is spending £1.6m on new equipment as changing land use and the warming climate increase the risk posed by wildfires.
All week we're taking a closer look at winter veg, and today it's parsnips.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


THU 06:00 Today (m0025d6g)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0025d6j)
The Hanoverian Succession

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the intense political activity at the turn of the 18th Century, when many politicians in London went to great lengths to find a Protestant successor to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland and others went to equal lengths to oppose them. Queen Anne had no surviving children and, following the old rules, there were at least 50 Catholic candidates ahead of any Protestant ones and among those by far the most obvious candidate was James, the only son of James II. Yet with the passing of the Act of Settlement in 1701 ahead of Anne's own succession, focus turned to Europe and to Princess Sophia, an Electress of the Holy Roman Empire in Hanover who, as a granddaughter of James I, thus became next in line to be crowned at Westminster Abbey. It was not clear that Hanover would want this role, given its own ambitions and the risks, in Europe, of siding with Protestants, and soon George I was minded to break the rules of succession so that he would be the last Hanoverian monarch as well as the first.

With

Andreas Gestrich
Professor Emeritus at Trier University and Former Director of the German Historical Institute in London

Elaine Chalus
Professor of British History at the University of Liverpool

And

Mark Knights
Professor of History at the University of Warwick

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

J.M. Beattie, The English Court in the Reign of George I (Cambridge University Press, 1967)

Jeremy Black, The Hanoverians: The History of a Dynasty (Hambledon Continuum, 2006)

Justin Champion, Republican Learning: John Toland and the Crisis of Christian Culture 1696-1722 (Manchester University Press, 2003), especially his chapter ‘Anglia libera: Protestant liberties and the Hanoverian succession, 1700–14’

Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707 – 1837 (Yale University Press, 2009)

Andreas Gestrich and Michael Schaich (eds), The Hanoverian Succession: Dynastic Politics and Monarchical Culture (‎Ashgate, 2015)

Ragnhild Hatton, George I: Elector and King (Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1979)

Mark Knights, Representation and Misrepresentation in Later Stuart Britain: Partisanship and Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2005)

Mark Knights, Faction Displayed: Reconsidering the Impeachment of Dr Henry Sacheverell (Blackwell, 2012)

Joanna Marschner, Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth-Century Court (Yale University Press, 2014)

Ashley Marshall, ‘Radical Steele: Popular Politics and the Limits of Authority’ (Journal of British Studies 58, 2019)

Paul Monod, Jacobitism and the English People, 1688-1788 (Cambridge University Press, 1989)

Hannah Smith, Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture 1714-1760 (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Daniel Szechi, 1715: The Great Jacobite Rebellion (Yale University Press, 2006)

A.C. Thompson, George II : King and Elector (Yale University Press, 2011)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production


THU 09:45 Strong Message Here (m0025d6l)
I Make No Apology For...

Comedy writer Armando Iannucci and journalist Helen Lewis decode the utterly baffling world of political language.

This week, we get into the world of political apologies. Why does Starmer keep insisting he makes no apologies for things that no one is actually asking him to apologise for? Is saying something is 'regrettable' really an apology? And why has Mark Zuckerberg decided to stop apologising for Facebook?

Listen to Strong Message Here every Thursday at 9.45am on Radio 4 and then head straight to BBC Sounds for an extended episode.

Have you stumbled upon any perplexing political phrases you need Helen and Armando to decode? Email them to us at strongmessagehere@bbc.co.uk

Sound Editing by Charlie Brandon-King
Production Coordinator - Katie Baum
Executive Producer - Pete Strauss

Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4.
An EcoAudio Certified Production.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0025d6n)
Children with special educational needs and disabilities at academy schools, Kim Cypher, Choreographer Lucy Hind

Academy schools were one of the issues that listeners raised during, and since, Woman’s Hour’s special programme investigating the SEND system for children with special education needs and disabilities. We hear the voices of two mums who say their children were let down by their Academy schools for allegedly failing to support their children's SEND needs and Anita Rani discusses SEND support in Academies with Leora Cruddas, CEO of the Confederation of School Trusts which represents more than ¾ of all Academies.

Choreographer and intimacy director Lucy Hind has worked on major productions including Girl From the North Country, Oliver, My Fair Lady, Secret Life of Bees and more recently Groundhog Day. Her latest project Spend Spend Spend has just opened at the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester and is the story of the infamous Viv Nicholson who in the 1960’s won today’s equivalent of a few million pounds and went on to spend it all on very public lavish spending-sprees. Lucy explains to Anita why being an intimacy director is an integral part of being a choreographer.

Kim Cypher is a saxophonist, composer, vocalist and a regular performer on the London and UK jazz circuit including sold our performances on the main stage at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. She’s just launched her third album Catching Moments and Kim and her band join Anita in the Woman's Hour studio.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Laura Northedge


THU 11:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m0025d6q)
Series 31

Starless World

Brian Cox and Robin Ince consider how different our understanding of the universe would be without the stars. They are joined by Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Roberto Trotta and comedian John Bishop who illuminate all that we have learnt from the stars and how different life would be without them.

Every culture has looked up at the night sky, but why are we so drawn to the pin pricks of light in the sky above us all and how have they helped shape human civilisation? Roberto Trotta takes us back to the origins of astronomy, to women who he believes were the first astronomers, linking the orbital period of the moon with the length of the menstrual cycle. We continue the historical journey, through the astronomical greats, Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler who all in part owe their scientific discoveries to the stars. Our panel marvel at how we, an infinitesimally small part of the universe, are able to look up at the stars and comprehend what is beyond and how this star-gazing has profoundly shaped our sense of selves as well as underpinned science as we know it.

Producer: Melanie Brown
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
Researcher: Olivia Jani

BBC Studios Audio production


THU 11:45 Five Ways They Get You (m0025d6s)
Bank Card

Charlotte is working out in the gym. But when she gets back to her locker eveything is gone - including her clothes.
As thousands start disappearing from her bank account, we find out just how vulnerable your bank card can be.

For decades Radio 4's Shari Vahl has been nailing fraudsters, and getting victims’ money back. Now she's opening her casebook… to help you protect yourself.

She's joined by ex-fraudster and poacher-turned-gamekeeper Alex Wood and linguistics expert Elisabeth Carter who help Shari decode the criminals' tactics in a bid to keep you safe.

Presented By Shari Vahl
Produced by Kev Core


THU 12:00 News Summary (m0025d6v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 You and Yours (m0025d6x)
Gap Finders - Jenny Radcliffe

From an early age Jenny Radcliffe was fascinated by locked door, high fences, and the secrets being kept behind them, so much so she became a social engineer.

Born in Liverpool, Jenny became a burglar for hire and a professional con-artist, who changed sides and became an ethical people hacker working with businesses and organisations to find weaknesses in security systems. She has spent a lifetime learning how to use the “human element” to gain access to the buildings, data and information, and the things we would wish to keep private.

Jenny created Human Factor Security, a company set up to highlight these gaps in security systems. She's been employed to breach zoos, offices and funeral parlours, theme parks, banks, football stadiums and more, as well as being booked around the world to deliver talks and training on human manipulation.

Presenter: Shari Vahl
Producer: Dave James


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m0025d6z)
Toast - Phones 4u

The mobile phone retailer, Phones 4u, was hugely profitable, so why did it have to close all of its 700+ shops?

The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington and the entrepreneur, Sam White discover how Phones 4u ended up toast with help from expert guests including:

John Caudwell - Phones 4u founder

Nikki Barrow & Chris Papageorgiou - former Phones 4u staff members

Ian White - editor of Mobile News magazine

Produced by Jon Douglas. Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

You can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.uk

Feel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes.

Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in December, where Greg Foot investigates so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds


THU 12:57 Weather (m0025d71)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m0025d73)
Tens of thousands added to historic net migration tally

The Office for National Statistics says net migration has fallen but it has revised previous figures to a record high, adding tens of thousands of people to the total. Plus, Greg Wallace steps back from Masterchef amid historical claims of poor behaviour, and Russia targets Ukraine's energy grid in 'response' the use to US and UK missiles.


THU 13:45 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (m001v43p)
Episode Four

Winner of the Booker Prize 2024. "...an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it" - Max Porter

Across 24 hours on the International Space Station, six astronauts from different nations contemplate the Earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of one astronaut's mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from Earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without Earth? What is Earth without humanity?

"In this new day they'll circle the earth sixteen times. They'll see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets, sixteen days and sixteen nights. In their rotations around the earth in accumulations of light and dark, in the baffling arithmetic of thrust and altitude and speed and sensors, the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes".

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping.

Read by Anneika Rose (Line of Duty, Shetland, Ackley Bridge) with music by Timothy X Atack.
Abridged by Sara Davies
Studio Recording and Mixing by Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio


THU 14:00 The Archers (m0025csh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m000r36b)
Sparks

What do you do if you’re female and in your twenties and very definitely a feminist, but you also really want to fall madly in love with someone. And maybe have a kid... And then you meet that someone. And it’s perfect. And then it’s not. And the person you’d really like to talk to about all of this is your Mum. But she died. And you’re not really talking about that.

A musical drama by Jessica Butcher, with original music by Anoushka Lucas, about the messiness of dating, love and loss – and the brain’s response to grief.

Performed by Jessica Butcher and Anoushka Lucas
Originally directed for stage by Jessica Edwards
Produced for radio by Emma Harding


THU 15:00 This Natural Life (m0025d77)
Cate Blanchett

In the first episode of this new series, Martha Kearney meets Hollywood star Cate Blanchett. She finds out about Cate's relationship with the natural world and explores the significance of nature and wildlife to her, as they walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens at Wakehurst in Sussex - where Cate has recently taken up the role of ambassador. Both Cate and Martha are bee-keeping enthusiasts, and they put on protective bee suits to visit the garden's bee hives together. Cate explains why the wildlife of both the UK and her native Australia are so important to her, and praises the work of the Millennium Seed Bank which is also based at Wakehurst.

Producer: Emma Campbell


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m0025cx2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Feedback (m0025d7b)
Dead Ringers, and listeners respond to BBC news cuts

This year there's been no shortage of material for the latest series of Dead Ringers. Andrea Catherwood is joined by cast member Jan Ravens and Richard Morris, Creative Director of Comedy and Entertainment for BBC Studios, and asks if it's still possible to make light of serious matters.

In a previous episode of Feedback we heard from John McAndrew, Director of Programmes for BBC News, who defended the recent cuts to BBC News including the axing of HARDtalk and Radio 4's 5.30am News Briefing, among others. Following that interview, listeners have had more to say about the decision. We hear their responses on what will be missed, and whether or not the changes are justified.

And as submissions for Feedback's Interview of the Year close, we hear one more pick - from listener Calum, who had high praise for an episode of Desert Island Discs in which Lauren Laverne interviewed Shirine Khoury-Haq, the first woman CEO of the Co-Op.

Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Pauline Moore
Executive Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


THU 16:00 The Briefing Room (m0025d7d)
Ukraine - what’s next?

North Korean troops are fighting Ukrainians in Russia, while Ukraine has finally been permitted to use US missiles deep into Russian territory.

It’s over 1000 days since Vladimir Putin’s full scale invasion of his neighbour and the circle of those involved in the conflict seems to widen. But though the situation changes the central question doesn’t. That question being which side can best stay the bloody course of this war? Ukraine and the West or Russia and its allies? Where do things stand now?

Michael Clarke, Visiting Professor in the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London and former Director of the Royal United Services Institute
Elina Ribakova, Senior Fellow at Peterson Institute of International Economics in Washington DC
Defence Editor of the Economist, Shashank Joshi

Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Charlotte McDonald, Kirsteen Knight and Beth Ashmead Latham
Sound engineers: Rod Farquhar, Neva Missirian
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0025d7g)
Is flood forecasting failing?

The south Wales town of Pontypridd saw cars submerged, people bailing floodwater out of their homes using bins, and the beautiful park and lido transformed into a brown mess, as parts of the UK were flooded.

But, it's nothing new. Pontypridd was severely flooded just four and a half years ago – and these are scenes that play out around the UK every winter.

So, is the way we warn people about floods failing?

We’re going to unpick exactly how floods are forecast – and what went wrong – with natural hazards researcher and hydrologist, Professor Hannah Cloke.

Also this week, sharing your microbiome with friends, alternative plastics, and was the most recent climate summit good COP or bad COP?

Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Gerry Holt, Sophie Ormiston & Ella Hubber
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 

To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.


THU 17:00 PM (m0025d7j)
Record migration figures

The prime minister says the Conservatives were running an 'open borders experiment'. The Tories say they would bring the numbers down.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0025d7l)
Sir Keir Starmer says net migration rise under Tories happened "by design".


THU 18:30 Unspeakable (m0025d7n)
Series 1

5. Gingers for Justice

Roisin Conaty introduces a term for hiding moments of irrational irritation, Alasdair Beckett-King presents a word that challenges 'playful' teasing, and Slim offers a new term aimed at uplifting older individuals in a society that often overlooks them.

Ever struggled to find the right word for a feeling or sensation? Unspeakable sees comedian Phil Wang and lexicographer Susie Dent invite celebrity guests to invent new linguistic creations, to solve those all too relatable moments when we're lost for words.

Hosts: Phil Wang and Susie Dent
Guests: Roisin Conaty, Alasdair Beckett-King and Slim
Created by Joe Varley
Writer: Matt Crosby
Recorded by Jerry Peal
Producer: Jon Harvey
Executive Producers: Joe Varley and Akash Lockmun

A Brown Bred production for BBC Radio 4


THU 19:00 The Archers (m0025bzx)
Faith enjoys her tour of Brookfield, telling Chuck what farming royalty the Brookfield Archers were when she was little. Meanwhile, Clarrie’s anxious to make a good impression, as Eddie dumps a flagon of cider on the table. She’s aghast at Eddie’s lie about them being landowners with an antiques business. Over dinner they all reminisce about the Grundys, the Larkins and Faith’s childhood exploits, and Chuck generally warms to his Ambridge experience. When Eddie’s unhappy customer berates him for the junk he sold him, the bubble is burst for Eddie – but Faith and Chuck see the funny side. Chuck even shows some interest in an old spokeshave of Eddie’s, which is a genuine antique.
Ellie’s taken with country life and bonds with generous Kate. Ellie senses Kate’s mood and Kate admits she and Jakob have fallen out. Kate’s touched when Ellie invites her to stay and join her at the Brookfield bonfire. Kate explains how obsessed Jakob has become playing detective with the holiday fraudsters. Ellie helps Kate to see things from Jakob’s point of view, allowing for their different ways of dealing with things. As Kate works out what to do, she’s invited to sleep over with the others at Brookfield. But she persuades Ellie not to promote Brookfield too much as a retreat – she already runs one of those! Staying at the barn also allows Faith and Chuck to talk about some of their problems and even realise they have new things to discover about each other. This makes Kate think.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m0025d7q)
Review: Beatles 64, Electric Dreams @ Tate Modern, The Agency

Samira Ahmed's joined by this week's critics - Louisa Buck and Matt Everitt - to review Beatles '64, documenting the fab four's first trip to America with previously unseen footage shot by pioneering brothers Albert and David Maysles.

They've also been to see Tate Modern's new exhibition Electric Dreams, exploring how artists were inspired to use machines and algorithms to create mind-binding art before the internet.

Plus the star-studded new TV spy drama The Agency - starring Michael Fassbender, written by Jez Butterworth and produced by George Clooney - and we hear about this year's Deep Time music festival, taking it's inspiration from an imagined meeting between Jean-Michel Basquiat and John Cage in Edinburgh.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Sarah Jane Griffiths


THU 20:00 The Media Show (m0025cs3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Wednesday]


THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m0025bct)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


THU 21:45 The Warsaw Ghetto: History as Survival (m001ljtr)
10. Out of the Ruins

The Oyneg Shabes Archive reveals every facet of life and death in the Warsaw Ghetto between 1940-43. An underground project that became history as survival. Anton Lesser narrates this 10 part series revealing the lives and stories of the Ghetto. Episode 10. Out of the Ruins with Tracy-Ann Oberman

In the middle of Europe, in the middle of the 20th Century a half million Jewish men, women & children were cut off, surrounded by the German occupiers, imprisoned behind walls. How do you tell the world about your life and fate? Historian and activist Emanuel Ringelblum devised and directed a clandestine archive- codename Oyneg Shabes (Joy of the Sabbath) to chronicle every aspect of their existence. He recruited over 60 'zamlers' or gatherers to write & 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

10. Out of the Ruins. In the aftermath of the war, Warsaw was nothing but rubble. Rachel Auerbach one of only 3 members of the Oyneg Shabes to survive. Her urgent calls to rescue the archive, buried in the ruins of the vanished ghetto, were answered when the first tranche rediscovered in 1947.
Narration by Anton Lesser. With Tracy-Ann Oberman as Rachel Auerbach. Translation by Sarah Traister Moskowitz. 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 (m0025d7s)
MPs prepare to vote on assisted dying bill

After weeks of public debate, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will be voted upon in its second reading in the House of Commons tomorrow. The Bill was introduced to Parliament last month by backbench Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. We brought together three MPs: one who backs a change in the law, one who opposes it, and one who remains undecided.

The dormant Syrian Civil War sprang back into life today as rebel forces in the country's northwest launched an offensive against the government-held city of Aleppo.

And as Asako Yuzuki's novel 'Butter' is named Waterstones' Book of the Year, we ask what lies behind the surging popularity of Japanese literature in Britain.


THU 22:45 The Green & The Black by Kit de Waal (m0025d7v)
Caleb's Job

A brand new original fiction serial by the best-selling author Kit de Waal about the changing face of modern Ireland, as told through multiple generations of one family.

Author
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022 it was adapted as a BBC Two film. Her second novel The Trick to Time was longlisted for the Women's Prize and her young adult novel Becoming Dinah was shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. Her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in August 2022. She is a patron of Prisoners Abroad, the Bridport Prize and Writing West Midlands, ambassador of Well-being in the Arts and a trustee of The Reading Agency. Kit is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor and Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence at Leicester University.

Reader: Daniel Mick Ryan
Writer: Kit de Waal
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:00 The Today Podcast (m0025d7x)
Esther Rantzen on the Assisted Dying Debate

When Dame Esther Rantzen told Amol and Nick that she had joined the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland she helped reignite a debate about assisted dying in the UK. Now MPs are preparing to vote on a bill that would legalise it in England and Wales, so in this episode they catch-up with Dame Esther and speak to two MPs, Preet Kaur Gill and Warinder Singh Juss, about how their religion has influenced their thinking.

They also discuss the interview Amol did with the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, whose private members' bill could bring about this colossal social change.

The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson who 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 has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.

To get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories and insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme make sure you subscribe on BBC Sounds. That way you’ll get an alert every time we release a new episode, and you won’t miss our extra bonus episodes either.

If you have a question you’d like Amol and Nick to answer about presenting the Today programme or something they discuss on the podcast, get in touch by sending us a message on WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email Today@bbc.co.uk

The Today Podcast was made by Lewis Vickers with Nadia Gyane. Research and digital production was by Joe Wilkinson. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0025d7z)
Susan Hulme reports as MPs question the Government over what its doing about the situation in Sudan

FRIDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2024

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m0025d81)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 00:30 Five Ways They Get You (m0025d6s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0025d83)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0025d85)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0025d87)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m0025d89)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0025d8c)
Sunset at Dalmeny Kirk

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Muslim academic, Dr Yahya Barry.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m0025d8f)
29/11/24 Scottish farmers rally over budget, winter veg, inter-cropping

Scottish farmers are demanding a bigger agriculture budget from the Scottish Government. Hundreds of farmers and crofters joined a rally outside the Scottish Parliament to lobby MSP's ahead of next week's Scottish budget and also to protest against the UK Government's decision to put inheritance tax on farmland. The farming union, NFU Scotland wants the overall agriculture budget to increase by £50 million pounds to £776 million - and for the £46 million which was taken from the agricultural budget in 2022-2023 to fund other priorities to be returned.

Cumbria may not be the first place you think of when thinking about growing veg here in the UK, but this week as we focus on winter veg we've come across a network of farmers and growers there feeding an increasing appetite for local, sustainably produced vegetables. . Growing in fields and polytunnels the Home Grown Here co-operative sells at farmers' markets and delivers hundreds of weekly veg boxes to doorsteps around the county.

We visit the last of our three finalists in our Farming for the Future category of the BBC Food and Farming Awards. Andy Howard is a regenerative farmer who's invited scientists, conservationists and agri-tech businesses onto his arable farm in Kent to try out theories in a multitude of on-farm trials. He's tested out drones that use AI to analyse crop nutrition, experimented with adding compost extract to his soils when planting seeds and in the same field, grown lentils with other crops.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


FRI 06:00 Today (m0025bz8)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000zt7b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Uncharted with Hannah Fry (m001qw98)
3. The Doctor Will See You Now

It’s a hot summer’s day in 1998. Two couples stand side by side in a small courtyard. Brought together by chance, they may never have met if not for one thing. A tatty piece of paper, the contents of which will change their lives, and the lives of thousands across the country, forever.

Hannah Fry tells the tale of this single sheet of A4 uncovered a dark pattern and a serial murderer hiding in plain sight.

A warning for sensitive listeners, that this episode contains references to murder.

Episode Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
Story Editor: John Yorke

A series for Radio 4 by BBC Science in Cardiff.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0025bzb)
Author Maggie O'Farrell, Allegations against Gregg Wallace, Marina Costa-Jackson

When the Stammer Came to Stay is award-winning author Maggie O’Farrell’s third book for children. Based on her own experience of living with a stammer, it's a story that celebrates differences and explores the resilience of children as they learn to navigate new and seemingly frightful challenges. She talks to Anita Rani about the book and the impact of her stammer on her life.

Gregg Wallace is to step away from presenting MasterChef while allegations of historical misconduct are investigated. Wallace's lawyers say it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature and MasterChef's production company Banijay UK has launched an investigation. To discuss the story, Anita is joined by Katie Razzall, the BBC's Media Editor.
Anita also speaks to Emma Bartlett, employment lawyer and partner at CM Murray, to look at some of the issues cases like this raise in terms of reporting allegations of inapproprate behavior in the workplace.

In Nigeria scammers posing as doctors are convincing women that they have a “miracle fertility treatment” guaranteed to get them pregnant. BBC Africa Eye Reporter Yemisi Adegoke explains how these scammers target infertile women and fuel an underground trade in black market babies. Nigeria’s Miracle Baby Scammers is on BBC iPlayer.

The Italian-American soprano Marina Costa-Jackson's acclaimed portrayals include Floria Tosca at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Mimi in La Bohème at Los Angeles Opera, and Carmen with Nashville Opera. She has now made her Royal Opera House debut where she is currently singing the role of Giulietta in a new production of The Tales of Hoffmann. She joins Anita, live in the studio, to discuss the role, how she handles performance anxiety, and to sing the aria L'amour lui dit la belle, accompanied by Christopher Willis on piano.

Presented by Anita Rani
Producer: Louise Corley


FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m0025bzd)
Nan the Wiser

Sheila Dillon explores how our grannies' cooking can shape who we are—and asks what we lose if we let go of those traditions.

Guests include:

Vicky Bennison, founder of YouTube channel Pasta Grannies.
Food Writer Clare Finney, and her Grandma Joan Fox.
Chet Sharma, chef patron of Bibi, a restaurant named in honour of his grandmothers.
Dr Fiona Lavelle from Kings College London, who is researching cooking skills and how they're passed on.
and Pauline Crosby, a grandma from Norfolk who is shortlisted for the title of "Nan from Del Monte".

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan


FRI 11:45 Five Ways They Get You (m0025bzg)
Hello Mum

It's one of the most common frauds in the UK - a text from your child saying they've lost their phone.
Shari discovers why it's frighteningly successful by talking to Julie, who lost thousands thinking her son was in trouble. And Shari considers what frauds might be next in a world of AI...

For decades Radio 4's Shari Vahl has been nailing fraudsters, and getting victims’ money back. Now she's opening her casebook… to help you protect yourself.

She's joined by ex-fraudster and poacher-turned-gamekeeper Alex Wood and linguistics expert Elisabeth Carter who help Shari decode the criminals' tactics in a bid to keep you safe.

Presented By Shari Vahl
Produced by Kev Core


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m0025bzk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Rare Earth (m0025bzm)
The Final Frontier

Some of the wealthiest tech entrepreneurs share a vision of life beyond the horizon. They see a future for humankind that abandons our tired, dirty planet and creates new colonies of health and creativity on the Moon, on Mars or even further into deep space. Is this a wise precaution for all our futures or an insurance policy for the super-wealthy as they continue to trash our home planet? Tom Heap and Helen Czerski are joined by British astronaut, Tim Peake to consider the big moral questions of space colonisation and the practical problems of devising ways to make the best of the extraordinary possibilities of space without increasing the pressure on Earth’s resources. If we do colonise another planet how do we avoid making the same mistakes again? How do we grow food and find or produce freshwater? How can we travel to, from and around these planets without burning more fossil fuels? Could the answers help us all live a better life right here, right now? Joining Helen, Tom and Tim in studio are Eloise Marais, who leads the Atmospheric Composition and Air Quality research group at University College London and co-chair of the Environmental Task Force at Space Scotland, Andrew Fournet, and Tom pays a visit to a company in Bletchley who are developing nuclear fusion propulsion.

Producer: Alasdair Cross
Assistant Producer: Toby Field

Produced in association with the Open University


FRI 12:57 Weather (m0025bzp)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m0025bzr)
Commons poised for historic assisted dying vote

Emotional debate in the Commons as MPs prepare to vote on making assisted dying legal. We hear from campaigners gathered outside Parliament and MPs discussing the change within it. Plus why did Louise Haigh quit Cabinet after an historic conviction was revealed?


FRI 13:45 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (m001v43j)
Episode Five

Winner of the Booker Prize 2024. "...an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it" - Max Porter

Across 24 hours on the International Space Station, six astronauts from different nations contemplate the Earth, as continents and oceans pass beneath them. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of one astronaut's mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from Earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without Earth? What is Earth without humanity?

"In this new day they'll circle the earth sixteen times. They'll see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets, sixteen days and sixteen nights. In their rotations around the earth in accumulations of light and dark, in the baffling arithmetic of thrust and altitude and speed and sensors, the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes".

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping.

Read by Anneika Rose (Line of Duty, Shetland, Ackley Bridge) with music by Timothy X Atack.
Abridged by Sara Davies
Studio Recording and Mixing by Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0025bzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m0025bzz)
Aldrich Kemp and The Rose of Pamir

Aldrich Kemp and The Rose of Pamir - Chapter Two: The Music Box

Aldrich Kemp and the gang are back with some new faces as the race for the mysterious and elusive Rose of Pamir moves from London to Paris, New York to Amsterdam and the Maldives to Tajikistan.

Chapter Two: The Music Box

Clara Page's investigation of the Linnean Society break-in provided the first clues in the search and now Clara and Aldrich are heading south-west in a bid to beat the other side. Whoever they are...

Clara Page - Phoebe Fox
Aldrich Kemp – Ferdinand Kingsley
Mrs Boone – Nicola Walker
Sebastian Harcourt & Dutch Interviewer – Kyle Soller
Aunt Lily – Susan Jameson
The Underwood Sisters – Jana Carpenter
Mrs Bartholomew – Kate Isitt
Lionel – Steven Mackintosh
Selina & Miss Evesham – Catherine Kanter
Mister Dalton – Karl Davies

Written and directed by Julian Simpson
Music composed by Tim Elsenburg.

Sound Design: David Thomas
Producer: Sarah Tombling
Production Assistant: Ethan Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Karen Rose

New episodes available on Fridays. Listen first on BBC Sounds

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:45 Something to Declare (m0025c01)
How to Nurture Community

Jack Boswell delves into saudade, a Portuguese word often described as untranslatable. Saudade captures a complex mix of longing, melancholy, and bittersweet nostalgia - a "pleasant sadness" that simultaneously consoles and aches. Jack unpacks the profound emotional resonance of this concept and how it might help us navigate difficult feelings in our own lives.

Jack begins by speaking with Helder Macedo, a celebrated writer and Emeritus Professor of Portuguese at King’s College London. Helder describes saudade as the paradoxical feeling of longing for something - be it a person, moment, or way of life - that is gone, yet whose absence offers a bittersweet comfort. Rooted in Portugal’s maritime history, where separation and uncertainty were common, saudade shaped the national psyche and found expression in Fado, Portugal’s iconic music. Helder likens it to a pinch of salt - enhancing when balanced but overpowering if excessive.

The episode also features Christina Branco, a renowned Fado singer who shares how her music channels the vulnerability and raw emotion of saudade. For Christina, Fado - a genre deeply intertwined with this feeling - is both a personal catharsis and a mirror for her audience, encouraging them to confront their own emotions. She shares how Fado helps her transform pain into strength and creativity.

Through heartfelt conversations, Jack learns how saudade resonates in art, memory, and even daily life. This episode invites listeners to reflect on their own moments of longing and consider how embracing vulnerability can deepen connections, foster resilience, and inspire transformation.

Host: Jack Boswell
Producer: Emma Crampton
Senior Producer: Harry Stott
Executive Producer: Sandra Ferrari
Production Coordinator: James Cox
Audio Supervisor: Tom Biddle
Sound Editor: Alan Leer

A Message Heard production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0025c03)
Staffordshire: Dogs, Gradient Gardens and Aphrodisiacs

How can I stop my dog from digging holes in my garden? What conditions do walnut trees grow best in? If you could lose one pest from your garden, what would it be?

Peter Gibbs and a team of experts are in Staffordshire, to solve the gardening conundrums of the audience. Returning to the National Memorial Arboretum with Peter are grow-your-own legend Bob Flowerdew, pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood and garden designer Bunny Guinness.

Later in the programme, is your garden on an gradient? Garden designer Matthew Wilson provides tricks and tips on the best way to effectively garden on an incline.

Producer: Dan Cocker

Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m0025c05)
Paul by Francesca Reece

Cleo's mother is 84. And she's just told her daughter that she's got engaged to the man who came to fix the porch. As Cleo rushes to work out what's going on, she'll encounter a scam that's harder to unravel than she thought...
A witty and moving short story by award-winning writer Francesca Reece, read by Aimee-Ffion Edwards.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m0025c07)
Madeleine Riffaud, Chris Topp, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Dr Julian Litten

Matthew Bannister on Madeleine Riffaud, the French resistance fighter who was tortured by the Gestapo, became a journalist and was embedded with the Vietcong in Vietnam.

Chris Topp, the blacksmith who restored ironwork at Buckingham Palace, York Minster and St Paul’s Cathedral.

Barbara Taylor Bradford, the best-selling author of A Woman of Substance and many other novels.

Dr Julian Litten, whose fascination for the rituals surrounding death led to him being called “England’s foremost funerary historian”.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies and Ed Prendeville

Archive:
General Charles De Gaulle speech, BBC Radio, 22/06/1940; Algerian War: 70 Years On, News Report actuality, France 24, 01/11/2024; Panorama: Vietnam: The Other World ,BBC Television, 31/03/1969; Barbara Taylor Bradford, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 11/07/2003; Reading: A Woman of Substance, HarperCollins Publishers UK SoundCloud Channel, Audio promo - Release date 25/10/2012; Barbara Taylor Bradford interview, Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, 09/07/1999; Barbara Taylor Bradford interview, Saturday Live, BBC Radio 4, 30/11/2019; Reading: A Woman of Substance, HarperCollins Publishers UK SoundCloud Channel, Audio promo, Released date: 04/05/2017; BLACKSMITH'S CONTRACT: LOOK NORTH, BBC One North East & Cumbria, 14/07/1995; Reading the Past / Writing the Future - Chris Topp (Blacksmith), Uploaded to Youtube 14/05/2014; Songs of Praise: Rite of passage, Bereavement, BBC, 05/11/2002, Red Heaven Oral History Archive, Julian Litten talks with Dr Simon Machin, 14/03/2021; BBC News at One, BBC, 26/03/2015


FRI 16:30 Life Changing (m0025c09)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m0025c0c)
MPs back assisted dying

The latest reaction from MPs and campaigners after MPs vote through the assisted dying bill by 330 votes to 275. Dame Esther Rantzen tells PM she hopes the vote will mean her family could travel to Switzerland with her when she chooses to die without fear of police investigation.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0025c0f)
The Prime Minister was among the 330 MPs who voted in favour of it


FRI 18:30 The Naked Week (m0025c0h)
Series 1

Episode 1: Lobbying, art, soup, and farms

From The Skewer’s Jon Holmes comes The Naked Week, a fresh way of dressing the week’s news in the altogether and parading it around for everyone to laugh at.

Host Andrew Hunter Murray and chief correspondent Amy Hoggart will strip away the curtain and dive into not only the big stories, but also the way the news is packaged and presented.

From award-winning writers and a crack team of contemporary satirists - and recorded in front of a live audience - The Naked Week delivers a topical news nude straight to your ears.

This week - Lobbying, art, soup, and farms.

Written by:
Jon Holmes
Katie Sayer
Sarah Dempster
Gareth Ceredig
Jason Hazeley
Adam Macqueen
Louis Mian

Partial Nudity:
Marc Haynes
Cornelius Mendez

with Additional Material.

Production Team: Laura Grimshaw, Tony Churnside, Jerry Peal, Katie Sayer, Phoebe Butler.

Produced and Directed by Jon Holmes
Executive Producer: Philip Abrams

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m0025c0m)
Writer ….. Sarah McDonald Hughes
Director ….. Rosemary Watts
Editor ….. Jeremy Howe

David Archer … Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer … Felicity Finch
Clarrie Grundy … Heather Bell
Eddie Grundy … Trevor Harrison
Jakob Hakansson … Paul Venables
Jim Lloyd … John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary … Ryan Kelly
Kate Madikane … Perdita Avery
Faith … Emma Fielding
Chuck … Nathan Osgood
Ellie … Kerry Howard
Joel … Will Close


FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m0025c0p)
Sam Amidon and Heidi Fardell with music to make you dance

American folk musician and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon and recorder player and baroque flautist Heidi Fardell take us on a global musical journey, from Salzburg to Soweto, with Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe. The history of the humble tambourine, the challenge of being a left-handed musician, and a little-known controversial involvement in slavery all feature as the next five tracks are added to the playlist.

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

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Ballet Intermezzo: Tambourin by Mozart
Ril Gan Ainm (No Name)/Cinnte Le Dia (Ah Surely)/The Union Reel by Mary Bergin
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix
Eternal Source of Light Divine by Handel
Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela) by Hugh Masekela

Other music in this episode:

Million Voices by Otto Knows
Walkin' Boss by Sam Amidon
Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan
Down in the Valley by Bessie Jones
Wilson Rag by Elizabeth Cotten
Grazing in the Grass by Hugh Masekela


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m0025c0r)
Andy Burnham, Nigel Evans, Rt Revd Rose Hudon-Wilkin, Baroness Wheatcroft

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from St Clement's Church in Chorlton, Manchester, with the mayor of Greater Manchester, Labour's Andy Burnham; the former Conservative MP for Ribble Valley and House of Commons deputy speaker, Nigel Evans; the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover; and crossbench peer and former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, Baroness Patience Wheatcroft.

Producer: Paul Martin
Lead broadcast engineer: Chris Hardman


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0025c0t)
House Clearing

Rebecca Stott ponders the task of clearing her Mum's house, and the enormous difficulty of dismantling the things her mother loved and that Rebecca remembers her buying from bric-a-brac and antique shops.

'The beauty of the objects in my mother's house exists in her artistry,' writes Rebecca, 'the way she had placed some of them so that the evening light falls on them, the way that the kooky little Italian lamp sits next to the framed print of the Venetian canal... the way that everything is in the place that she had chosen for it.'

It gets her wondering about how many other people are doing the same with their parents' homes, in towns and cities across the country.

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m0025c0w)
The ideas shaping our lives today - with Shahidha Bari and guests


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m0025c0y)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 The Green & The Black by Kit de Waal (m0025c10)
Nick's Speech

A brand new original fiction serial by the best-selling author Kit de Waal about the changing face of modern Ireland, as told through multiple generations of one family.

Author
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022 it was adapted as a BBC Two film. Her second novel The Trick to Time was longlisted for the Women's Prize and her young adult novel Becoming Dinah was shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. Her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in August 2022. She is a patron of Prisoners Abroad, the Bridport Prize and Writing West Midlands, ambassador of Well-being in the Arts and a trustee of The Reading Agency. Kit is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor and Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence at Leicester University.

Reader: Owen Roe
Writer: Kit de Waal
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 23:00 Americast (p0k7n1h0)
The Trump Trials... Cases Closed?

This week the last federal criminal case against Donald Trump was dropped. It's a dramatic end to a year in which began with Trump facing nearly 100 criminal charges connected to the two federal cases and others.

It was unprecedented legal territory for a former president, becoming the first to face a criminal trial and later conviction, in a case tied to a payment made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

With just under two months until he's back in office, is he likely to use the Justice Department to pursue his enemies, and will there be wholesale pardons for people convicted for the January 6 riots?

HOSTS:

* Sarah Smith, North America editor
* Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
* Marianna Spring, Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent

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 Chris Flynn with Rufus Gray and George Dabby. The technical producer was Michael 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.

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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.

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FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0025c15)
A momentous day at Westminster. Sean Curran reports on an emotional debate as MPs vote to back assisted dying in England and Wales.