SATURDAY 16 AUGUST 2025
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m002h0bh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:30 Trauma Industrial Complex by Darren McGarvey (m002h098)
Episode 5
There’s been an explosion of trauma culture in the West over the last decade, ramped up by social media and its encouragement to shape, present and broadcast our own stories. But is this ownership helpful, or is it keeping people trapped? Could it even be warping public debate? In his new book the Orwell Prize-winning author of 'Poverty Safari' and 'The Social Distance Between Us' shares hard-won wisdom from a life spent recovering in the public gaze.
When trauma grows bigger than an individual, how do we find the balance between personal recovery and societal change?
Written and read by Darren McGarvey
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Darren has just finished a run of 'Trauma Industrial Complex: The Live Show' at the Edinburgh Fringe.
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002h0bk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002h0bm)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:30 News Summary (m002h0bp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002h0br)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002h0bt)
The vision of artists
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Dr Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity
Good morning. I’m speaking to you from Edinburgh, where the Festival (and its equally vibrant and bustling offshoot, the Festival Fringe) are in full swing. Scotland’s capital city is alive with creative energy, with live drama, music, dance, comedy, and much more delighting audiences all through the day and late into the night. Edinburgh’s theatres are packed, and every other available space has been transformed into a performance venue. Our streets are crowded with onlookers enjoying street performances, and our bars, cafes and restaurants overflow with people grabbing quick sustenance between shows. The city is crammed with works of live art and those who revel in them.
I have never been a performer, nor have I written anything for the stage, but I hold such deep admiration for those who share their artistry, whether as actors, dancers, writers, or composers. Writing and storytelling for audiences, and moving people through art, requires such bravery and vulnerability. This year, many shows in Edinburgh confront the injustices of our world with moral courage and no small amount of outrage and urgent calls for change. This has long been a feature of performances at the Festival, but the pain of the world feels so acute at this moment, with suffering so visible across our screens and social media, that it seems both inevitable and crucial for live art to address that pain with moral clarity.
Living God, we thank you for the moral vision of artists, and for the opportunity to encounter their works of courage, protest and prophecy. Inspire us to work together for compassion and mercy and give us hearts that are open to artists’ calls for peace and justice. Amen.
SAT 05:45 Uncharted with Hannah Fry (m0022sk3)
15. Song of the Sea
A PhD student with a passion for whales stumbles upon something strange. An eerie sound deep beneath the ocean waves is about to rock her world.
Producer Lauren Armstrong Carter
Sound Designer: Jon Nicholls
Story Editor: John Yorke
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m002h9fn)
The news headlines, including a look at the newspapers.
SAT 06:07 This Natural Life (m002h0fg)
Cosmo Sheldrake
Musician Cosmo Sheldrake takes Martha Kearney on a trip down memory lane as they explore his childhood haunts on Hampstead Heath. They first head to a tucked away bird sanctuary where Cosmo used to come with his dad, and talk about the profound influence that birdsong has had on his music making over the years. They pass through beech groves in search of his favourite tree, "The Beanstalk", which he used to climb every day after school. And they get creative with field recordings, using Cosmo's recording kit to tune into underground and underwater worlds. His geophone records the sound of the soil beneath their feet: the gurgle of water through clay and the shuffle of subterranean insects. And his hydrophone records the sound of the ponds: the fizz of photosynthesising plants and the bubble of fish.
Cosmo is a UK-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, live improviser, and field recordist. His music ranges widely from celebratory anthems to sparse electronic production, to haunting polyphonic songs that have grown out of field recordings of birds, whales, fish, frogs, and fungi, and more. Running through all his work is a belief that the living world is a noisy and musical place with the power to change how we think, feel, and imagine.
Producer: Becky Ripley
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m002h9fq)
16/08/25 Farming Today This Week: shooting licenses restricted, pig supply chain rules, carcass balance
Salted pig's trotter? Brains on toast? Why the carcass balance is important to farmers. We like steak but we're not so keen on tripe, and we eat a lot of chicken but not the feet. To both reduce waste and get the best price for the whole animal or bird we need to do something with the offal. This is carcass balance, balancing the sale of the popular bits with finding markets for the bits that are less desirable here. Those parts that can't be sold are sent for rendering, using heat to separate them into fats and proteins to be sold as animal feed, fertiliser or go into things like cosmetics.
Shooting clubs on Salisbury Plain say they may have to close because they can't get a licence to release game birds. Clubs near protected areas, like Sites of Special Scientific Interest, now need a special licence from Natural England to release birds like pheasants and that's now harder to get because of the threat of bird flu. The British Association for Shooting and Conservation says the licensing system is legally flawed and it's issued legal proceedings against Natural England. However, the RSPB would like to see the licensing regime extended.
New rules to make trade fairer for pig producers came in this week. A series of recent difficulties in the industry revealed that many farmers didn't have proper contracts for their stock. The new system aims to change that.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
SAT 06:57 Weather (m002h9fs)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m002h9fv)
Today (Saturday)
SAT 09:00 What's Up Docs? (m002gzzm)
What do your nails say about your health?
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken tackle the confusion around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.
This week, Chris and Xand are exploring the topic of nail health. As well as being useful tools on our hands and feet, nails can also be important signs of many diseases and disorders. But what exactly is a nail made of? How did nails evolve? And what should we be doing to keep them strong and healthy?
They speak to Dr Yusur Al-Nuaimi, Consultant Dermatologist at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and Clinical Lead for the British Hair and Nail Society, to get some answers.
If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08000 665 123.
Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken
Guest: Dr Yusur Al-Nuaimi
Producers: William Hornbrook and Jo Rowntree
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Assistant Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis
Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable
Social Media: Leon Gower
Digital Lead: Richard Berry
Composer: Phoebe McFarlane
Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby
At the BBC:
Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 09:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (m002gzyv)
Series 11
Hera
The Queen of the Olympian gods is swallowed whole by her father at birth and then marries her brother Zeus, who turns himself into a cuckoo to seduce her. Hera, or Juno to the Romans, has her triumphs. She adds the eyes to the tail feathers of her sacred bird the peacock by plucking them from the hundred-eyed monster Argos. And in the Iliad she dons a magic bra given to her by Aphrodite to persuade Zeus to support the Greeks against the Trojans.
Her loyalty to the Greeks begins when Trojan prince Paris doesn't choose her as the most beautiful. She then devotes her life to persecuting him and his people. Perhaps a slight overreaction. But is Hera a monster or just mistreated by the undisputed worst husband of all time?
At a packed out solo show recorded at the Hay Festival Natalie puts the case for and against.
'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the best-selling author of 'Divine Might', 'Stone Blind', and 'A Thousand Ships' as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greek and Rome.
Producer...Beth O'Dea
SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (m002h9fx)
India between empires: the long 18th century
Greg Jenner is joined in early modern India by historian Dr Jagjeet Lally and comedian Nish Kumar to learn all about the subcontinent’s dynamic eighteenth century. From the sixteenth century, the dominant power in India was the Mughal Empire. According to the traditional narrative, when the Mughals began to decline in the eighteenth century, the subcontinent descended into political chaos, and European trading powers – most notably the British East India Company – swooped in to take advantage and (in their words) restore order. But can we trust this story? In this episode, we look at India’s long eighteenth century not as a period of chaos, but one of dynamic transformation and exciting developments. Taking in the rise of new powers including the Marathas, the Rajputs and the Sikh Empire, and looking at changes in the economy, global trade, artistic patronage and gender relations, we explore what India was really like at this time.
If you’re a fan of the history of globalisation, the connections between politics, economics and social relations, and debunking historical myths, you’ll love our episode on the long eighteenth century in India.
If you want to know more about the history of India, check out our episodes on the Mughals and Bollywood. And for more eighteenth-century history, there’s our episode on Black Georgian England.
You’re Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past.
Hosted by: Greg Jenner
Research by: Clara Chamberlain
Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner
Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett
Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse
Executive Editor: Philip Sellars
SAT 10:30 Artworks (m0021b8j)
Art that Conquered the World
The Hay Wain
We have been making art for tens of thousands of years. But very few of these many millions of images have become truly famous.
Only a handful of artworks have entered popular culture, as fridge magnets, greetings cards and biscuit tins – becoming instantly recognisable all over the world.
Art historian Dr James Fox tells the story of one such painting, John Constable's The Hay Wain.
For more than a century, The Hay Wain has been all around us. It's been reproduced in magazines and on merchandise, in cartoons and advertisements and featured on propaganda posters and at protests. But why did it hit the big time?
Christine Riding of The National Gallery and the photomontage artist and activist Peter Kennard contribute as James traces The Hay Wain's progress through the artistic stratosphere to global celebrity.
Producer: Julia Johnson
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 11:00 Radical with Amol Rajan (m002h0g1)
Fake News: How We Can Save Ourselves From Disinformation (Eliot Higgins)
Conspiracy theories have flooded the internet in recent years and a growing number of people are avoiding mainstream news.
Eliot Higgins, founder of the open source investigative organisation Bellingcat, thinks this is partly down to a lack of trust in institutions, which is leading to a crisis of democracy in Britain and elsewhere.
He discusses why we need to spend less time online, improve media literacy and how Bellingcat has built a community of open source investigators on Discord.
Eliot also explains how his team tracked down the Russian agents behind the Salisbury poisonings, took on Putin’s Kremlin and uncovered what really happened to Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.
GET IN TOUCH
* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: radical@bbc.co.uk
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan
Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by James Piper. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002h9g0)
Afghanistan's hidden lives
Kate Adie presents stories from Afghanistan, China, Japan and Tajikistan.
In Afghanistan's Ghor Province, Mahjooba Nowrouzi reports from a small maternity hospital where two female doctors serve thousands of patients. With limited resources and financial support, the odds are stacked against them - and against the women they tend to and treat.
Last year, BBC Radio 4’s Crossing Continents aired the award-winning documentary ‘Our Whole Life is a Secret’, which charted the daily life of a young Afghan woman. In this dispatch, she provides an update on her life today, four years after the Taliban returned to power.
In Beijing, pro-democracy campaigners regularly face surveillance and restrictions on their movement. Among them is human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, who was arrested in 2015 and imprisoned for 'subverting state power'. Danny Vincent heard about his life since his release.
It's 80 years since Japan’s Emperor Hirohito surrendered to allied forces in World War II after the US dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima ad Nagasaki, bringing an end to the six-year-long conflict. Ellie House encountered a group of schoolchildren in Hiroshima's peace park - and learned more about how the war is remembered there.
In the Tajikistan the endangered striped hyena is fighting for survival. Tajik conservationists have been working hard to save this elusive and much misunderstood animal. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent met them on a trek into the mountains.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison & Sophie Hill
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m002h9g2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Sliced Bread (m002dpn7)
Toast - FHM
FHM was the men's magazine that sold vastly more copies than any of its competitors but still ended up toast. So, why did its publishers stop printing it while other men's magazines survived?
The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, charts its highs and lows in the company of four of FHM's former editors.
Alongside them is the entrepreneur, Sam White, who has to use her business acumen to reach her own conclusions based upon what she has heard.
Featuring in the show are:
- Eric Musgrave - the original editor of 'For Him Magazine' as it was known when it launched in 1985
- Mike Soutar - the FHM editor who took sales to over half-a-million a month in the late 1990s
- Piers Hernu - FHM's editor-at-large who took to the airwaves to defend lads' mags against accusations of sexism
- Joe Barnes - who edited the magazine for four years until shortly before its print publication ceased
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.
SAT 12:30 Too Long; Didn't Read (m002h0b3)
Series 2
We've got our work cut out
With unemployment on the rise, Catherine and friends want to know why Britain isn't working. Is it AI? Is it older workers taking early retirement? Or is there something bigger going on?
To find out why, Catherine is joined by Hugo Rifkind, Isabel Berwick, and roving correspondent Sunil Patel - and they've got their work cut out...
Written by Catherine Bohart, with Madeleine Brettingham, Georgie Flinn and Christina Riggs.
Producer: Alison Vernon Smith
Executive Producers: Lyndsay Fenner & Victoria Lloyd
Sound Design: David Thomas
Production Co-ordinator: Katie Sayer
A Mighty Bunny production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 12:57 Weather (m002h9g4)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News (m002h9g6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m002h0b7)
Elisabeth Braw, Stephen Doughty MP, Mark Serwotka, Lord Vaizey
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) military museum in Lyneham, Wiltshire, with Elisabeth Braw, a defence and security expert, and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank; foreign office minister and Labour MP, Stephen Doughty; the former president of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mark Serwotka; and Conservative peer and former culture minister, Lord Vaizey of Didcot.
Producer: Paul Martin
Lead broadcast engineer: Nick Ford
SAT 14:05 Any Answers? (m002h9g8)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?
SAT 14:45 The Archers (m002h0b5)
Lynda drops entry forms in to Lilian at the Dower House, to be distributed for the Flower & Produce Show, which Grey Gables is hosting. Lynda admits she and Dane now make rather a good team; the show will retain the finest Ambridge tradition. She then reflects on the lessons learned from forgetting to thank Akram, and the current coolness between her and Robert. She gratefully accepts Lilian’s offer of a meal at The Bull.
Brian bumps into them there and queries Lynda’s decision to leave Ambridge. Lynda tells him it was a joke – she’s not going anywhere. Inviting Brian to join them Lilian and Lynda play a lighthearted game about who should leave the village first, cheering each other up in the process.
When Martyn tells Jazzer he can’t believe Marlene likes him, Jazzer assures Martyn that tonight’s double-date will be fine. They’ll have a good night. He tells a different story to Tracy though – he’s dreading every minute. Tracy tells him to shut up and make the best of it. But after an hour with Martyn at the restaurant waiting for Marlene to show up, the atmosphere is excruciating. Then Tracy gets a message: Marlene isn’t coming. Jazzer’s all for eating the meal anyway, but Tracy suggests going for kebabs instead. Later tearful Martyn confirms it’s all over between him and Marlene. Jazzer suggests Martyn might prefer to be alone, but he wants to stay. He's grateful for their friendship. To Jazzer’s horror Tracy assures Martyn their door will always be open.
SAT 15:00 And Other Stories: Katherine Mansfield (m000lsty)
2. Daughters of the Late Colonel, The Garden Party, Ma Parker & Her First Ball.
Katherine Mansfield’s best-loved short stories fully-dramatised in two box-sets.
This second instalment contains four stories of age and experience.
* DAUGHTERS OF THE LATE COLONEL: Jug and Con's fear of their father’s disapproval continues even after he has died.
Katherine Mansfield ...... Hattie Morahan
Josephine ....... Rosie Cavaliero
Constantia ...... Clare Corbett
The Late Colonel ...... Michael Bertenshaw
Kate ...... Cecilia Appiah
Mr Farolles ...... Carl Prekopp
Nurse Andrews ...... Charlotte East
Cyril ...... Luke Nunn
* THE GARDEN PARTY: Laura learns, briefly, the awful gap between her class and that of a dead neighbour on the day of her mother’s garden party.
Katherine Mansfield ...... Hattie Morahan
Laura ...... Cecilia Appiah
Mrs Sheridan ...... Rosie Cavaliero
Mr Sheridan ...... Michael Bertenshaw
Laurie ...... Luke Nunn
Cook ...... Rose Basista
Sadie ...... Clare Corbett
Man ...... Carl Prekopp
Josie ...... Charlotte East
* LIFE OF MA PARKER: The cleaner for a Literary Gentleman discovers she has absolutely nowhere to grieve when her grandson dies.
Life of Ma Parker:
Katherine Mansfield ...... Hattie Morahan
Ma Parker ...... Rosie Cavaliero
Literary Gentleman ...... Michael Bertenshaw
Doctor ...... Carl Prekopp
Lennie ...... Orla Pearce
* HER FIRST BALL: Leila learns that the joy of a ball, and of being young and free, is short-lived and destined to end.
Katherine Mansfield ...... Hattie Morahan
Leila ...... Rose Basista
Laura ...... Cecilia Appiah
Man 1 & 3 ...... Carl Prekopp
Josie ...... Charlotte East
Man 2 ...... Luke Nunn
Old Man ...... Michael Bertenshaw
Dramatised by Katie Hims.
Sound by Peter Ringrose.
Director: Jessica Dromgoole
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2020.
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m002h9gb)
Weekend Woman’s Hour: Afghanistan, RFU President Deborah Griffin, Pregnancy sickness, Goalkeeper Hannah Hampton
Four years after Taliban fighters retook the capital Kabul on 15 August 2021, UN Women, the gender equality agency, is warning that the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is increasingly untenable. They say without urgent action, this untenable reality will become normalised and women and girls will be fully excluded. To discuss further Anita Rani was joined by Fawzia Koofi, former deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament & peace negotiator, and BBC senior Afghan reporter Mahjooba Nowrouzi, recently returned from Afghanistan.
As rugby fans across the UK look forward to the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Anita speaks with rugby trailblazer Deborah Griffin. An amateur player since university, Deborah co-organised the first ever Women’s Rugby World Cup, held in Wales in 1991. Earlier this month, she became the first woman to take up the role of President of the Rugby Football Union.
A woman in Wales who felt forced to terminate her pregnancy after being unable to access the anti-sickness medication she needed is calling for the drug to be made more widely available. Sarah Spooner was suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum which left her vomiting more than 20 times per day and unable to eat or drink. But she found it virtually impossible to access Xonvea, a medication which is recommended as a first-line treatment in England but not in Wales. Nuala McGovern hears Sarah's story, and speaks to Dr Caitlin Dean from Pregnancy Sickness Support about why there is a postcode lottery across the UK for women needing Xonvea.
Emma Holten tells us we need a feminist revolution. The author has spent years investigating the true value of care - and how rethinking it could transform our societies. Her debut book, Deficit: How Feminist Economics Can Change Our World, examines how mainstream economics systematically undervalues care work and advocates for reshaping policy to reflect its true worth.
England goalkeeper and Lionesses legend Hannah Hampton joins Nuala on Woman's Hour fresh from winning the UEFA European Women's Championship. Born with a serious eye condition, doctors told her she should never play football. She came into the recent Euros with questions over her ability to fill the gloves of recently retired Mary Earps. To add to that, she revealed her grandfather had died just days before the biggest tournament of her life began earlier this summer. Despite this, Hannah had an extraordinary tournament, particularly in those agonising penalty shootouts. She joined Nuala to chat all about it.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Annette Wells
Editor: Emma Pearce
SAT 17:00 PM (m002h9gd)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 Sliced Bread (m002h0f4)
Salt
Is expensive salt better for your health?
Greg Foot gathers the experts, dives into the data and crunches the numbers to get the answers for listener Sally.
Each episode Greg investigates the latest ad-hyped products and trending fads promising to make us healthier, happier and greener. Are they really 'the best thing since sliced bread' and should you spend your money on them?
All of our episodes start with YOUR suggestions. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk OR send a voice note to our WhatsApp number, 07543 306807.
RESEARCHER: PHIL SANSOM
PRODUCERS: SIMON HOBAN AND GREG FOOT
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002h9gg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m002h9gj)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002h9gl)
Putin-Trump Summit Discussed
Much of the discussion following President Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska has centred around the nature of any security guarantee for Kyiv. Reports are also beginning to emerge about what the two leaders talked about. In other news, weather conditions are hampering efforts to find survivors of flash floods that have killed more than three hundred people across Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. And Police Scotland has begun an investigation after pupils at a primary school in Midlothian were added to a WhatsApp group in which they were told to send explicit photographs.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002h9gn)
Ruth Jones, Jordan Gray, Jamie MacDonald, Dylan Adler, Hot Mess, James Emmanuel
Clive Anderson hosts a Loose Ends party with some of the many musicians, comedians, writers and stars of the stage lighting up the Edinburgh Festivals.
Ruth Jones’ latest book By Your Side is partly set in Scotland, and she’ll be in the capital sharing some of her pet peeves that have found their way on to its pages. Comedian and actor Jordan Gray is having a busy summer, her new sitcom Transaction hit our screens in June and her stage show promises to be her rootin-est, tootin-est, shootin-est hour of musical comedy so far. Stand-up Jamie MacDonald doesn’t want being blind to shut down his opportunities to be loathsome and toxic. Plus comedian Dylan Adler on growing up one half of a pair of identical gay twins.
With music from Hot Mess, a musical that rides the highs and lows of Earth and Humanity's passionate love affair, and Nigerian singer-songwriter James Emmanuel shares his love for Edinburgh, the city he now calls home.
Presenter: Clive Anderson
Producer: Caitlin Sneddon
SAT 19:00 The Bottom Line (m002h9gq)
The Decisions That Made Me
Sophie O’Brien (Pollen Careers, CEO)
After 14 years of having a successful career in media, Sophie found herself unemployed. She thought with her skills and experience finding a new role would be easy, but it was the opposite. After struggling with applications and repeated denials, Sophie decided she wanted to change the process of applying for a job. The employment specialist talks to Evan Davis about how she’s trying to change the way recruitment works with her business Pollen Careers.
Production team:
Producers: Nick Holland, Georgiana Tudor
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound: John Scott
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m002fxn9)
Series 33
Moths v Butterflies - Katy Brand, Jane Hill and Chris Jiggins
What really separates a moth from a butterfly? Is it just a matter of day and night, or is there more to this fluttering feud than meets the eye?
Professor Brian Cox and Robin Ince flap into the fabulous world of Lepidoptera with Professor Jane Hill, Professor Chris Jiggins, and comedian Katy Brand. Together, they chase colourful wings through science and storytelling, uncovering epic insect migrations, the secrets behind dazzling wing patterns, and most importantly, why Katy has a butterfly tattoo on her arm!
Producer: Olivia Jani
Series Producer: Melanie Brown
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
BBC Studios Audio Production
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m002h9gs)
Damage and Repair
Restorative Justice is a fascinating but under-acknowledged part of our criminal justice system. It seeks to deliver justice that heals, engaging in dialogue people who have caused harm and those who have been the victims of crime.
It gives victims the chance to talk about the impact of a crime and seek answers about why it happened. And it can provide people who have committed crimes with a new perspective, allowing them to move forward as constructive, positive citizens.
Yet despite it being part of the Ministry of Justice's policy on dealing with victims of crime to make them aware of restorative justice, only a tiny fraction of people even know that it is an option.
Presenter Hilary Ineomo-Marcus spent time in prison, and although he didn't go through a formal restorative justice process himself, he has spoken publicly about the offence he committed, addressing the harm that it caused to the people around him and allowing him to move forward.
In this remarkable programme, Hilary explores the history of restorative justice in the UK, hearing powerful testimony from people with first-hand experience of the practice.
With thanks to:
Nick Dawson;
Amanda Hamblin;
Teresa Parker;
Sir Charles Pollard;
Khamran Uddin, interviewed by Paula Harriott and Phil Maguire from The Secret Life of Prisons podcast;
Professor Kelly Richards, School of Justice at Queensland University of Technology;
Debbie Watters, chair of the Restorative Justice Council UK;
Caroline Willis, headteacher of Millpool Campus, City of Birmingham School, and pupils Ayaan, Kian and Jamie;
The Why Me? oral history project 'Damage and Repair: 20 Years of Restorative Justice'.
Producer: Becca Bryers
Executive Producer: Andrew Wilkie
A Prison Radio Association production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:00 Understand (m002h9gv)
The Trip
The Trip: Omnibus 2
During the early weeks of the pandemic, Tim Hayward spent 14 days in a coma. He remembers this time vividly – his days and nights filled with strange, incandescent visions and hallucinations. That experience is something he would never choose to revisit but, around the world, large numbers of people are deliberately seeking out powerfully altered states.
In this series, Tim sets out to better understand a group of substances that induce altered states: psychedelics.
There’s been a surge of interest in their therapeutic potential for various mental health conditions - as well as a range of other clinical possibilities. As research around the world ramps up after years of taboo and prohibition he tries to get to grips with - or at least get a clearer sense of - how science, culture, politics and business might all interact in this changing psychedelic landscape, and what it all might mean.
He also explores what might be happening in the brain during a trip and whether, by studying psychedelics, we might uncover more about consciousness, imagination and even the mysteries of reality itself.
This is the second of two omnibus editions.
Presenter: Tim Hayward
Series Producer: Richard Ward
Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Written by Tim Hayward and Richard Ward
Sound Design and Mixing: Richard Ward
Researcher: Grace Revill
Production Executive: Lisa Lipman
Commissioning Editor: Daniel Clarke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Audio footage from Psychedelic Science 2023 and 2025 used with permission from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
SAT 22:00 News (m002h9gx)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m002h096)
The Crayfish Question
It’s been nearly 50 years since invasive American Signal Crayfish were introduced to the UK, and we still haven’t figured out how to get rid of them. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall joins Sheila Dillon to meet a man who believes the way to control their spread is to get more people eating them — but not everyone’s convinced. These crustaceans are so invasive that ecologists worry encouraging consumption could lead to further spread. Meanwhile, in parts of the Southern US, crayfish are a beloved delicacy. Sheila heads to a crayfish boil in London to see how that tradition is being recreated here.
Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced by Natalie Donovan for BBC Audio in Bristol
SAT 23:00 Crybabies Present... (m002h7ng)
Series 1
Shootout
When villains hijack the biggest event on the planet (the Football Cup Final) the only man who can save the day is catering manager Skips McCoy. Can he save the world from disaster? Will he conquer the demons of his past? Did he bring enough tiny burgers?
Buckle up for an all action blockbuster as Crybabies bring the big screen to your normal sized radio.
Written and performed by Michael Clarke, James Gault & Ed Jones.
Featuring Jim Howick and Chiara Goldsmith
Production Co-ordinator - Laura Shaw
Sound Design by David Thomas and Victoria Freund
Producer - Benjamin Sutton
Executive Producer - Joe Nunnery
A Boffola Pictures production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 23:30 Nature Table (m001fvzx)
Series 3
Episode 2
Celebrating the natural world and all it’s funny eccentricities.
Taking the simple format of a ‘Show & Tell’, in each episode Sue Perkins is joined by celebrity guests from the worlds of comedy and natural history.
Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet’s wonderfully wild flora and fauna in a fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.
Recorded at ZSL London Zoo.
In this episode, Sue welcomes:
* Zoologist and Author Lucy Cooke
* Conservationist and Zoologist Megan McCubbin
* Comedian Felicity Ward
Written by Catherine Brinkworth, Jon Hunter, Jenny Laville and Nicky Roberts.
Additional material by Kat Sadler.
Producer: Simon Nicholls
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.
SUNDAY 17 AUGUST 2025
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m002h9gz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:15 Take Four Books (m002gzqz)
Irvine Welsh
Take Four Books, presented by James Crawford, this week speaks to the writer Irvine Welsh about his new novel Men In Love - the direct sequel to Trainspotting - and hears of the three other literary works that influenced and inspired Irvine's writing. More than thirty years after Trainspotting was published the iconic cast of characters of Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie are back, and entering a new phase of their lives looking for love.
For his three choices Irvine chose: William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream first performed between 1584-1596 and published in 1600; Ulysses by James Joyce from 1922; and In Search Of Lost Time by Marcel Proust which was published in seven parts from 1913 to 1927 and is listed in the Guinness Book Of Records as the longest novel ever written.
The supporting contributor for this episode is the writer and author of Scabby Queen - Kirstin Innes.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This is a BBC Audio Scotland production.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002h9h1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002h9h3)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:30 News Summary (m002h9h5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002h9h7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m002h9h9)
St Mary’s Church in Earl Stonham, Suffolk.
Bells on Sunday comes from St Mary’s Church in Earl Stonham, Suffolk. The Church is known for its ornate single hammerbeam roof decorated with carved angels, animals and foliage. There are six bells including two dating from the 15th century. The Tenor bell weighs nine nd a half hundredweight and is tuned to the note of G-flat. We now hear them ringing Cambridge Surprise Minor.
SUN 05:45 In Touch (m002h002)
Macular Society Update; Deafblind in Scotland
The charity Macular Society provides support to people living with the UK's most prominent cause of sight loss, macular disease. They also help to fund research into finding a cure. In Touch has been hearing about the society's plans to reduce staffing levels within their regional team and so we speak to their CEO, Ed Holloway who explains what is currently happening with these proposals, which are still under consultation.
Scotland has recently recognised Deafblindness as a distinct condition, but what does this mean for people living with the duel disability? Ian Hamilton delves deeper into whether this change might mean better services for those living with it in Scotland.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
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 of 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 (m002h9m7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Heart and Soul (w3ct6vp3)
Rāgas and Redemption: Alam Khan’s spiritual legacy
What does it mean to inherit a sacred tradition? Alam Khan was born into one of the most revered lineages in Indian classical music—his father, Ali Akbar Khan, was hailed as one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century and brought the spiritually rich sarod and rāga music to the West. But Alam's journey has not been one of simple inheritance.
Presenter Rajeev Gupta follows Alam across California - from his father's grave to the family music school and into the quiet spaces where Alam seeks refuge. At the heart of this documentary is a deeply personal wrestle: growing up American, immersed in rock and hip-hop, Alam resisted the weight of legacy. But after his father's death, something changed. Going through his father’s recordings, he felt a cosmic calling - one that was more spiritual than familial.
Through intimate conversation and music, Alam explains the sacred philosophy behind Indian rāgas, where melody becomes a prayer and performance a form of spiritual alignment with the cosmos. But this is also a story of doubt, pressure, and the personal cost of carrying a spiritual tradition into the modern world. This is the story of a man finding peace in music, faith in legacy, and meaning in sound.
[Photo Description: (Left to Right) Rajeev Gupta and Alam Khan in front of a photo of Ali Akbar Khan, Photo Credit: Rajeev Gupta]
Producer/presenter: Rajeev Gupta
Editor: Chloe Walker
Production co-ordinator: Mica Nepomuceno
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m002h9m9)
The Rush Harvest
Charlotte Smith wades into the River Great Ouse to see the rush harvest. Felicity Irons cuts the wild rush in the summertime, carrying it by punt back to the shore. In her Bedfordshire workshop she makes rush matting and baskets which are shipped all over the world.
Produced by Beatrice Fenton.
SUN 06:57 Weather (m002h9mc)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m002h9mf)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m002h9mh)
Russia-Ukraine; Saving the Shrimps; the pilgrim cellist
As the meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin fail to produce a ceasefire in Ukraine, we talk to Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski about the response of displaced Ukrainians in the UK.
The Daily Telegraph Defence Editor says it is becoming too dangerous to report in certain parts of the world and explains why St Bride’s, the journalist’s church in Fleet Street, has become a sanctuary for her.
This week Gary Grant, the founder of the UK’s biggest toy shop, announced he was handing over its ownership to its 1900 members of staff. We ask him why.
Former priest Kenneth Wilson talks to Julie Etchingham about his pilgrimage to play at 42 Anglican Cathedrals in England with his cello strapped to his customised bike.
And have the Shrimps been saved? As the future of Morecombe FC lies in the balance, a prayer vigil is held to help save the club.
Producers: Amanda Hancox and James Leesley
Studio Managers: Nathaniel Danter, Georgia-Mae Browne, Sharon Hughes
Production Co-Ordinator: Liz Poole
Editor: Tim Pemberton
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m002h9mk)
The Holocaust Educational Trust
Jason Isaacs makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of The Holocaust Educational Trust. The charity educates people about the Holocaust through its projects and uses technology to preserve and share the testimonies of survivors.
The Radio 4 Appeal features a new charity every week. Each appeal then runs on Radio 4 from Sunday 0755 for 7 days.
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘The Holocaust Educational Trust’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Holocaust Educational Trust’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
- Please ensure you are donating to the correct charity by checking the name of the charity on the donate page.
Registered Charity Number in England and Wales: 1092892, and in Scotland: SC042996.
If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://www.het.org.uk
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites
Producer: Katy Takatsuki
SUN 07:57 Weather (m002h9mm)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m002h9mp)
The news headlines, including a look at the newspapers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m002h9mr)
In the Footsteps of Popes and Pilgrims
A pilgrimage to Rome with young adults from the Diocese of Salford as they attend the Jubilee of Youth and enter the Holy Doors, opened by Pope Francis to mark the start of the Jubilee Year.
As they visit Rome's holiest sites and meet other young Catholics from around the world, they reflect on their faith, the legacy of Pope Francis and their hopes for Pope Leo XIV.
The pilgrimage is led by Fr. Christopher Gorton and the preacher is the Rt Revd John Arnold, Bishop of Salford.
Producer: Katharine Longworth
MUSIC
Christ be our Light (Bernadette Farrell)
Choirs of the Diocese of Leeds
Make me a Channel of your Peace (Sebastian Temple)
Geraldine Latty
Ubi Caritas (Maurice Duruflé)
The Cambridge Singers
Brother, sister, let me serve you (Richard Gillard)
The Northumbria Community
Tu es Petrus (G P da Palestrina)
Stile Antico
Lord, I lift Your name on high (Rick Founds)
AMC Gospel Choir
Pilgrims of Hope (Francesco Meneghello & Pierangelo Sequeri)
English translation by Andrew Wadsworth
Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington
SUN 08:48 Witness History (w3ct743r)
Sweden’s shocking sugar experiment
In the 1940s, some vulnerable Swedish hospital patients were fed large amounts of sugary sweets as part of an experiment to see what it would do to their teeth.
Researchers considered the study a success as it led to new recommendations for children to eat sweets just once a week.
In the 1990s, the unethical aspects of the experiment emerged when Elin Bommenel became the first researcher to gain access to the original documents from the experiments. Sweden's government has never formally apologised for what happened, although it has greatly improved care for vulnerable children and adults.
Elin tells Frida Anund about the revelations.
A PodLit production.
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: A sugar cube. Credit: Getty Images)
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m002h9mt)
George McGavin on the Snowy Owl
Entomologist and wildlife presenter George McGavin describes a magical encounter with a snowy owl. The sighting happened while George was on a university field recording trip fifty years ago, on the island of Unst in Shetland. Snowy owls primarily live in the polar Arctic regions, and while a small number have previously bred in Shetland, they remain rare visitors, so to spot one in the British Isles is incredibly lucky.
Presented by George McGavin and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol
Featuring a recording from Xeno-Canto by Patrik Åberg: Snowy owl - XC277682
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m002h9mw)
Putin comes in from the cold
The world watched Presidents Trump and Putin shake hands in Alaska. What next? Ex Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace gives us his briefing. Plus, the shortage of burial space, and we meet the teenage composers being inspired by the Proms. On the press review, Dame Sheila Hancock, Lord Ed Vaizey and Times journalist Patrick Kidd.
SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m002h9my)
Maggie Alphonsi, broadcaster and former rugby player
Maggie Alphonsi is a broadcaster and former rugby player. She was part of the England team which took home the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup and by the time she retired she’d won 74 caps for her country.
Maggie was brought up in north London and when she was 14 her PE teacher suggested she give the sport of rugby union a try. Maggie joined her local amateur club Saracens and relished the freedom she felt at being able to capitalise on her power and strength on the pitch.
Her first chance to play for England came when she was 19. Maggie started out as a number 12 and then later changed position to become a number seven or openside flanker. This role allowed her to showcase her tackling skills. She was part of the England team which won seven consecutive Six Nations tournaments and retired shortly after winning the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
She became the first female former player to commentate on the men’s game and to join the Rugby Football Union’s Council. In 2012 she was appointed an MBE for services to rugby. She is part of the BBC’s commentating team for this year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Maggie lives in High Wycombe with her wife Marcella and their two children.
DISC ONE: Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
DISC TWO: They Live in You - Samuel E. Wright (Mufasa) Ensemble - The Lion King, conducted by Joseph Church
DISC THREE: Stand by Me - Ben E. King
DISC FOUR: Woman - Andreya Triana
DISC FIVE: Wake Me Up - Avicii
DISC SIX: You Gotta Be – Des’ree
DISC SEVEN: World in Union - Kiri Te Kanawa
DISC EIGHT: I’m Coming Out - Diana Ross
BOOK CHOICE: The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on life's journey by Hana Yasmeen Ali and Muhammad Ali
LUXURY ITEM: A family photo
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m002h9n0)
Writer: Sarah Hehir
Director: Helen Aitken
Editor: Jeremy Howe
10th – 15th August
Brian Aldridge…. Charles Collingwood
Pip Archer…. Daisy Badger
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Susan Carter…. Charlotte Martin
Neil Carter…. Brian Hewlett
Alan Franks…. John Telfer
Tracy Horrobin…. Susie Riddell
Adam Macy…. Andrew Wincott
Kate Madikane…. Perdita Avery
Akram Malik…. Asif Khan
Zainab Malik…. Priyasasha Kumari
Jazzer McCreary…. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller…. Annabelle Dowler
Stella Pryor…. Lucy Speed
Lynda Snell…. Carole Boyd
Robert Snell…. Michael Bertenshaw
Dane…. Stravros Demetraki
SUN 12:15 The Bottom Line (m002h9gq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 12:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m002gzv9)
Series 83
6. Dinner Table or Bedroom
The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to the Bristol Beacon. On the panel are Adrian Edmondson, Rachel Parris, Miles Jupp and Henning Wehn, with Jack Dee in the umpire’s chair. Regular listeners will know to expect inspired nonsense, pointless revelry and Colin Sell at the piano.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:57 Weather (m002h9n2)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m002h9n4)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 Assignment (w3ct6rbr)
Myanmar’s Scam Centres
Hundreds of thousands of people are being recruited – usually under false pretences - to work in massive facilities in the border areas of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, to promote fraudulent investment schemes and romance scams to unsuspecting citizens around the world. The scams, run by criminal gangs, are thought to be making tens of billions of dollars every year. Those recruited often find themselves, trapped, beaten and tortured.
Ed Butler travels to Thailand’s border with Myanmar to investigate the scale of the trade, to speak to survivors and to some of those still involved, and to explore what role the ongoing civil war in Myanmar is playing in fuelling this apparently burgeoning criminal trade, beyond the reach of international law-enforcement.
Presenter/producer: Ed Butler
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar
Programme co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Penny Murphy
(Photo: Alleged scam centre workers and victims sit on the ground during a crackdown operation by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF). Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002h09s)
Hyde Hall: Latin Names, Water Butts and Plant Superpowers
What can gardening clubs do to entice new members? How do the panel handle their plant addiction? If you were to have a plant superpower, which would it be and why?
It’s party time in the garden once again! Gardeners’ Question Time returns with the much-anticipated GQT Summer Garden Party, recorded at the breathtaking RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Essex.
This week, Peter Gibbs leads the horticultural festivities as a vibrant panel of plant pros take on questions from a crowd of passionate and curious gardeners. On the panel - proud plantswoman Christine Walkden, pest and disease detective Pippa Greenwood, and botanical explorers James Wong and Dr Chris Thorogood.
Expect expert insights, surprising solutions, and a whole lot of garden inspiration in this special summer celebration of all things green and growing.
Producer: Matthew Smith
Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali
Assistant Producer: Rocky Cocker
Junior Producer: Rahnee Prescod
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:45 Why Do We Do That? (p0kvb144)
Series 2
11. Why do we fall for the bad boy?
Paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi looks at the evidence for what people want in a partner and how it changes as they get older. Psychologist Julia Stern from the University of Bremen shares the results of a study which recruited people from a singles night in a Berlin club and followed them for 13 years. Novelist Adele Parks explains why writing about bad boys is so much fun, and on the Bridget Jones scale of bad boys think more Hugh Grant and less Colin Firth.
SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m002h9n6)
John Hersey's searing account of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath.
John Hersey's Hiroshima is a ground-breaking piece of journalism that gave voice to the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombing. Written after two weeks spent interviewing citizens in the devastated city, the article was originally published in The New Yorker in 1946 under tight secrecy, due to U.S. suppression of the bomb’s long-term effects. It sold out rapidly and helped shift public understanding from triumphalist narratives to the harrowing human cost of nuclear war.
Hailed by New York University as the most important work of journalism in the 20th century, Hiroshima remains a moving testament to the power of bearing witness.
Hersey focuses his account on six of the survivors he interviewed. Miss Toshiko Sasaki; Dr. Masakazu Fujii; Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura; Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge; Dr Terufumi Sasaki; Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto.
In Part Two, the survivors come to terms with the medium and longer term effects of the bombing.
Read by:
Akie Kotabe
Ami Okumura Jones
Dai Tabuchi
Kae Alexander
Mark Edel-Hunt
Matt McCooey
Directed by Anne Isger
Sound by Andy Garratt
Production co-ordination by Sara Benaim and Jon Powell
A BBC Studios Audio Production
SUN 16:00 Take Four Books (m002h9n8)
Rachel Kushner
Presented by James Crawford, Take Four Books, speaks to the Booker-shortlisted American writer, Rachel Kushner, about her novel, Creation Lake, now out in paperback, and explores its connections to three other literary works. Creation Lake introduces us to the character of Sadie Smith, a ruthless 34-year-old American undercover agent who is sent by mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France to infiltrate a group of eco-protestors.
For her three influences Rachel chose: Fatale by Jean-Patrick Manchette published in 1977; Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov published in 1962; and The Tribe: Interviews with Jean-Michel Mension, which was originally published and translated into English by City Lights Books in 2001.
The supporting contributor for this episode is the writer and lecturer at the University of Strathclyde, Andrew Meehan.
It was recorded at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.
SUN 16:30 Nature Table (m001g2y7)
Series 3
Episode 3
Celebrating the natural world and all it's funny eccentricities.
Taking the simple format of a 'Show & Tell', in each episode Sue Perkins is joined by celebrity guests from the worlds of comedy and natural history.
Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet's wonderfully wild flora and fauna in a fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.
Recorded at ZSL London Zoo.
In this episode, Sue welcomes:
* Zoologist Yussef Rafik
* Entomologist & Conservation Biologist Dr Karim Vahed
* Comedian Lucy Porter
Written by Catherine Brinkworth, Jon Hunter, Jenny Laville and Nicky Roberts.
Additional material by Kat Sadler.
Producer Simon Nicholls.
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct5yr2)
In event of moon disaster: 'The speech that never was'
“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.”
These are the opening lines of the 'In Event of Moon Disaster' speech, written in 1969 in case the moon landing astronauts did not make it home.
They were composed by President Richard Nixon’s speechwriter, William Safire, who died in 2009, at the age of 79.
The speech continued: “These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.”
Using archive from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and NASA, Vicky Farncombe tells the story of “the speech that never was”.
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: Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin on the moon. Credit: Getty Images)
SUN 17:10 The Invention Of... (m002dz57)
Hungary
Two World Wars and One Failed Revolution
It's easy to forget how entwined Hungary has been in some of the worst events of the last 100 years – losers in the first world war, the country initially sided with the Nazis in the second, tried to change its mind, was invaded by the Germans then taken over by the Soviets, then tried to kick out the Soviets … and failed. What, asks Misha Glenny, are the consequences of this history now, and how does the Hungarian government of Viktor Orban view the Russians today. Recorded on location at the scenes of some of the fiercest fighting in 1956.
"The Hungarian revolution and the Prague spring 12 years later - these were events that had a huge impact on me, and I have to say gave me a romantic infection for Hungarians and their struggles which has never entirely left me."
With contributions from Adam LeBor, author of The Last Days of Budapest: Spies, Nazis, Rescuers and Resistance; plus Paul Lendvai, Tibor Fischer, Simon Winder nd Victor Sebestyen formerly of the FT and writer of Budapest: Between East and West.
The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002h9nc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m002h9nf)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002h9nh)
European Leaders Prepare to Accompany Zelensky to Washington
Sir Keir Starmer and several other senior European leaders are to join the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Washington tomorrow, where he's due to hold talks with Donald Trump at the White House. Downing Street said the "coalition of the willing" would seek robust security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of any deal with Russia. In other news, there have been dozens of arrests in Israel where protestors have taken to the streets demanding a ceasefire and a deal to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza. And the British actor, Terence Stamp, has died at the age of 87.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002h9nk)
Rima Ahmed
This week, get ready with Rima as we hear about healthy nails, and what beauty treatments can tell us about the 16th century and beyond. We’ve got the value of care under scrutiny in Woman’s Hour, the angelic choral works inspired by caring, and the loving care between a rescue dog and their owner set to a doo-wop hit from The Flamingos. And after all that you still care to dance, 6music’s Artist in Residence CMAT has taken particular care in curating not one, but four playlists for you.
Presenter: Rima Ahmed
Producer: Anthony McKee
Production Coordinator: Caroline Peddle
A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m002h9nm)
Amber wants to meet Brad to discuss the wedding and a party for George when he comes out of prison, but Chelsea is sceptical anyone would come. Brad pushes Chelsea to talk to Amber and make up with her. Later, when Amber turns up at Lower Loxley to meet Brad, he has to explain about Chelsea working in the Orangery. Chelsea is keen to work things out with Amber, but not while she’s at work, but hopes Brad can smooth things over in the meantime. However, Amber proves an awkward customer, changing her mind about the coffee she’s ordered after Chelsea’s already made it, then threatening to post a bad review. Chelsea seizes the moment, apologising to Amber for bullying her at school, but Amber rejects the apology, reducing Chelsea to tears in the process. Brad sees how upset Chelsea is and when she explains why, Brad heads off to confront Amber. Amber is stubbornly unrepentant, insisting Chelsea deserves her contempt after what happened between them at school. Angry Brad then tells Amber that she’s the bully now.
Tracy makes an early start at The Bull, preparing tea for the cricket while telling Freddie she was up late, listening to Martyn pour his heart out after being dumped by Marlene. Tracy wants to push Henry to develop his bowling skills and Freddie agrees to try him out at their training session later. Henry then impresses them both, but doesn’t feel ready to bowl in this afternoon’s match. Freddie tries his best to persuade Henry otherwise, but to no avail.
SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m002h9np)
Into the West
The red-billed chough is the most dashing crow in the world. These rare, flamboyant, scarlet-legged, scarlet-billed denizens of Britain’s Celtic coasts are communal and comic, intelligent and daring. They’re also sublime aeronauts, riding the breeze as though they’re made of it.
For writer Horatio Clare, the chough is his totem. He’s loved the bird since he first encountered it in the 1980s during childhood holidays to Pembrokeshire. And more than forty years on from that joyous first encounter he still seeks them out. It’s his annual pilgrimage.
In this episode of Illuminated, we join Horatio on that pilgrimage as he tells the story of a bird with a beak and legs the colour of a saint’s blood… or perhaps a king’s blood; whose cry says its name and whose presence symbolises a nation’s identity. It’s the story of a bird which embodies myths… and creates new ones; a bird which fled into the West over two centuries ago and which is finally returning to a wider world.
Horatio begins his journey on Pen Llŷn, the westernmost spur of North Wales and one of the red-billed chough’s strongholds. His guide as he walks the sea cliffs is naturalist and folklorist Twm Elias. Twm lived alongside chough as he grew up on Llŷn and remembers a childhood visit to Caernarfon Castle, where his friend Dic John made a grab for the Castle’s ‘tame’ chough – and got a painful pecking in return.
Twm sees chough as a symbol of the wild coastal areas of north Wales. But it’s also wrapped up in ideas of Cornish identity too. Dr. Loveday Jenkin grew up on stories of King Arthur becoming a chough when he died. Yet, just as she heard those stories, the very last choughs were dying out in Cornwall.
But then, in 2001, thirty years after the last chough disappeared, three birds from Ireland made landfall in the far west of Cornwall. The following year two of them built a nest and the population grew from there. Hilary Mitchell from Cornwall Birds tells the story of how the avian symbol and spirit of the county returned.
The chough is associated now with the western Celtic coasts. But once upon a time it ranged right across the British Isles. And maybe it will again. Horatio heads in the opposite direction… east… to a place which hasn’t seen chough for at least two centuries, despite the bird being embedded in its iconography.
In Dover he meets Paul Hadaway from Kent Wildlife Trust to discover how a bird which was a symbol of the martyr and saint Thomas a Becket is once again flying in Kentish skies. And Jenny Luddington from the Trust explains how she’s drawn on an old tradition of hooden creatures – carved wooden animal heads on poles – to create a hooden chough and tell the story of the bird’s return to Kent.
Horatio Clare discovers that the chough’s story has come full circle as old myths rehatch and new ones take wing.
Presenter: Horatio Clare
Producer: Jeremy Grange
Editor: Chris Ledgard
A BBC Audio Wales production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001qm8t)
Have a Cup of Tea
Michael gets cosy with a cuppa to find out how drinking tea can boost your heart health, reduce stress and may even benefit your bones! With the help of Professor Andrew Steptoe, Head of Behavioural Science at University College London, Michael learns the surprising benefits of ordinary tea. They discuss the benefits of bioactive compounds in tea, including L-theanine and polyphenols. A tasty brew can not only help you recover from stress, it can even benefit your heart health and reduce inflammation…Meanwhile, our volunteer Kit enjoys adding more tea to her life.
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 (m002h0fj)
Central Intelligence and AI in Radio
It's the final episode of this series of Feedback, and we're ending it with a look at one of BBC Radio's high-end dramas - Central Intelligence. It follows the life of Eloise Page, who was a real-life CIA operative, and stars Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris, and Stephen Kunken. Stephen joins Andrea and director and writer John Scott Dryden to respond to listener comments and discuss what it's like to tell the story of the CIA.
Artificial Intelligence is quickly becoming more and more embedded in everything around us, and radio is no different. Cliff Fluet, a partner at the law firm Lewis Silkin, who specialises in innovation and new technology in broadcasting, discusses the guidance around AI the BBC's output.
And two friends enter our VoxBox to discuss their experience of listening to the Shipping Forecast.
Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Pauline Moore
Assistant Producer: Rebecca Guthrie
Executive Producer: Andrea Catherwood
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m002h09x)
Jim Lovell, Biddy Baxter, Razia Jan, Iris Williams
Matthew Bannister on
Jim Lovell, the astronaut who commanded the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.
Biddy Baxter, the editor who left an indelible stamp on the children’s TV show Blue Peter. Sarah Greene pays tribute.
Razia Jan, the Afghan/American who founded a school for girls in Afghanistan after 9/11.
Iris Williams, the Welsh born singer whose career took off after an appearance on Radio 2.
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Archive used:
The Festival of Politics, The Scottish Parliament, 2009; Jim Lovell on Apollo 13 Mission, permission granted by NASA Media Team; 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle – Apollo 13: Bonus 1. Jim Lovell, 14/04/2020; Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 06/06/2014; Blue Peter, BBC One, 18/11/1963; The Things We Forgot to Remember, BBC Radio 4, 30/05/2005
SUN 21:00 Sliced Bread (m002dpn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m002h9mk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002h9g0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:30 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m002h9nr)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 Artworks (m002h0dt)
What Happened to Counter-Culture?
2. Revolution in the Head
More than just a cultural trend – counter-culture became a social movement so powerful it shaped institutions, businesses, politics and the attitudes and aspirations of whole generations – including everything from haircuts to voting choices. In fact, it became so prevalent that it’s sometimes hard to remember how things have changed under its influence.
Comedian Stewart Lee presents a five-part series exploring the evolution and key ideas that have driven counter-culture from its beginnings with the Beats, folk and jazz in the 1950s, to its heights in the 1960s and 70s including the hippies and the early tech-communalists, the new liberation movements and punk, to the 1980s and early 90s, where political power on both sides of the Atlantic pushed back against the values of the ‘permissive society’.
Talking to artists, musicians, writers, activists and historians, Stewart continues to the present day asking where we are now, in the digital age of social media silos and the so-called ‘culture wars’ – what’s happened to counter-culture? Was it co-opted, did it sell out? Or did its ideas of freedom and identity become so entrenched within mainstream culture it’s legacy has become unassailable? Or has it migrated politically to the Right? Throughout the series, the counter-culture is explored not only in terms of its history, extraordinary cultural output and key events – but also its deeper political and philosophical impact, its continued meaning for our own age.
Part 2: Revolution in the Head. Against the growing political turmoil of the 1960s, this episode looks at the growing counter-culture as first of all a revolution in the head - the changing ideas of freedom and liberation, the power of psychedelics and rock, all culminating in 1967’s Human Be-In and Summer of Love. In London, a network of underground presses, clubs and bookshops, happenings and events like the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream channel the underground in contrast to mainstream culture. But the lines between the counterculture and the mainstream are beginning to blur, as Bob Dylan's decision to 'plug in' at Newport is condemned by the folk scene as selling out, even as the new sound electrifies the underground. The Beatles in particular were a bridge between the ideas of the counter-culture and popular success. The years from 1966-7 especially are a golden age for the counter-culture, where many of its key ideas become entrenched – seemingly progressive, but later weaponised by its opponents. It championed a liberation of the individual against society, but to what ends?
Contributors include music producer Joe Boyd, songwriter and guitarist Johnny Marr, author Olivia Laing, founder of Rolling Stone magazine Jann Wenner, Woodstock photographer Lisa Law, founding member of Blondie and author Gary Lachman, stone carver Emily Young, historian Peter Oborne, journalist and writer John Harris, author Lynsey Hanley, musician and songwriter Robyn Hitchcock and David Cunningham, who writes on 20th century art movements.
Presenter: Stewart Lee
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 23:30 The History Podcast (m0024bg8)
The Lucan Obsession
6. The Golden Hour
With Sandra Rivett lying dead in the basement, Lucan must decide whether to face the police or run.
And so begins the second mystery that has made this case so compelling.
Where did Lucan go that night?
Was he being sheltered by his friends who the police nicknamed The Eaton Square Mafia?
Alex von Tunzelmann pieces together what we know of the hours after the murder, asking whose version should we believe.
She meets an eyewitness who says she was the last person to see Lucan alive, and crawls underground into a bunker where the police were sure he was hiding.
Producer: Sarah Bowen
SUN 23:45 Short Works (m002h09v)
The Listener by Louise Farr
An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the writer Louise Farr. Read by Roísín Gallagher (‘The Dry’).
The Author
Louise Farr is a teacher and writer from Northern Ireland. In 2018, she was won the Benedict Kiely Short Story Competition and The Trisha Ashley Award. In 2019, she won The Ink Tears Short Story Competition and The Dalkey Writing Festival Short Story Competition. In 2020, Louise was shortlisted for the Benedict Kiely Short Story Competition and her story ‘Tinder’ was nominated for the An Post Short Story of the Year Award.
Writer: Louise Farr
Reader: Roísín Gallagher
Producer: Michael Shannon
A BBC Audio Northern Ireland Production for BBC Radio 4.
MONDAY 18 AUGUST 2025
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m002h9nt)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 00:15 Crossing Continents (m002h004)
Tajikistan’s Last, Lonely Hyenas
For decades, conservationists in Tajikistan assumed that the striped hyena – a shy, less vocal cousin of the spotted hyena – was extinct there. But in 2017 a motion-sensitive camera trap in the country’s south-western corner, near the borders with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, detected the presence of a female with cubs. The discovery stunned local observers, and ever since, one man and his colleagues have struggled to find out more about the few remaining Tajik striped hyenas with a view to saving them from oblivion. The challenges are immense, including the international animal parts trade, competition between animals and humans for habitat, and often-negative public perceptions of the hyena itself. Eight years on, Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent travels to the grassy lowlands of Tajikistan to join the small team in their fight to save these elusive, persecuted mammals, and in doing so learns how vital hyenas are to both the ecosystem and human health.
Reporter: Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent
Producer: Mike Gallagher
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound mixer: Neil Churchill
Series editor: Penny Murphy
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m002h9h9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002h9nw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002h9ny)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
MON 05:00 News Summary (m002h9p0)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:04 Last Word (m002h09x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Sunday]
MON 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002h9p2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002h9p4)
Nurturing babies
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Dr Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity
Good morning. It was recently World Breastfeeding Week, a global campaign that always resonates very deeply with me. Breastfeeding my baby daughter was something that I found both incredibly challenging, and eventually a vital and enriching part of becoming a mother. It created a lasting bond between me and my little girl. I have memories of feeding her throughout the quiet of the night that I will always cherish, though of course I seem to have blurred out most of the deep tiredness I felt at the time of those sweet memories. I recognise too that not everyone is able to feed their baby for a whole variety of reasons including lack of support and, something that has been very visible in recent months because of starvation in places like Gaza and Sudan, food insecurity and malnutrition. I have felt haunted by images of tiny, underweight babies who desperately need breastmilk or formula to survive. My heart aches for the mothers who long to feed their children, but wake to their baby’s cries, unable to soothe and nourish them with the milk they need.
The Book of Isaiah tells us: Can a woman forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these might forget yet I will not forget you.
These words remind me of the nurturing love of God. The anguish that I feel for mothers and babies amidst famine coexists in my heart with hope and longing – for God’s loving kindness, goodness, and compassion.
Loving God, our world is very often full of pain and sadness. Help us to find you amidst our grief. We cry out for those who are suffering and ask you to draw close to them in your tenderness and love. Amen
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m002h9p6)
Could a tough autumn lie ahead for UK arable farmers after 3 difficult years in a row? Sliding prices, difficult weather conditions, and a range of pressures have led to low confidence. The National Farmers Union's Combinable Crops Board chair tells us he's heard from once forward-looking farmers now considering their exit strategy. One factor causing concern is the Government's decision last week not to put forward a rescue package for the UK bioethanol, green fuel, industry.
Also in the programme, how freezing trees could make it possible to plant in Summer and we begin a week long look at the UK salad industry.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Sarah Swadling
MON 05:57 Weather (m002h9p8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for farmers
MON 06:00 Today (m002h9sc)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Rory Stewart: The Long History of... (m002gjfz)
Heroism
3. The Death of the Hero
Rory Stewart explores ideas of what it means to be a hero from the ancient world to the present day. How have these ideas changed? Why do heroes matter? Who are the heroes we need today?
With the help of leading historians, psychologists, philosophers and theologians, he examines how heroism is continually questioned and re-invented in every age, and how these contrasting visions of the hero might speak to us in our own time. What does it mean for our moral life? How should we perceive and pursue human excellence?
In this episode, Rory explores ideas of the hero in the early 20th century.
Presenter: Rory Stewart
Producer and sound design: Dan Tierney
Editor: Tim Pemberton
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
MON 09:30 Building Soul: with Thomas Heatherwick (m002h9sf)
Series 2
Rational People Making Irrational Buildings
Designer Thomas Heatherwick returns with a bold proposition - it's time to cure the ‘blandemic’.
This series isn't just about what's gone wrong - it's about how we fix the modern scourge of soulless urban landscapes.
Thomas explores how rethinking building design, reviving craftsmanship and reigniting public passion can transform our cities to bring us together and inject joy into our cities. It's not just an architectural challenge - Thomas argues it’s a cultural movement.
In this first episode, he asks why so much of our urban landscape feels like it was designed by a spreadsheet. Is it architects clinging to outdated dogmas, developers chasing profit, or politicians with no vision?
Producer: Anouk Millet
Series Producer: Nadia Mehdi
Mix Engineer: Will Fitzpatrick
A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002h9sj)
Mounjaro price rise, The Real Housewives of London, Nail bars
As Mounjaro increases its prices, there are fears that more women will turn to black market drugs. Nuala McGovern talks to pharmacist Sehar Shahid about how easy it is to swap brands of the weight loss drug, and to Jeanie Annan-Lewin, who buys the medicine privately, about whether she will still be able to afford it.
If you pop into a nail bar in a big city in the UK, you may notice the technician might be Vietnamese – and they could be here illegally. UK Border Force has been carrying out a series of raids on nail bars here in the UK and there have been several arrests. We speak to journalist Shayma Bakht from The Times about her investigation into how the workers get here and a link between a nail academy in Vietnam and a smuggling ring.
As The Real Housewives of London launches, we explore why the TV franchise is so successful, what it does for women, and why high drama, female friendships and expensive houses make such compelling viewing. The author of The Real Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Housewives, Brian Moylan, and Guardian columnist Sarah Ditum discuss what makes the show so popular.
Kerry Evans is the disability liaison officer for Wrexham AFC. When Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney realised they had to win over the supporters of the football club they wanted to buy, Kerry was one of the people they called! She was born with cerebral palsy and suffered a brain bleed that left her in a wheelchair. Her memoir, Stronger Than You Think, tells how she found herself again through football, as a fan and then by providing a voice for football supporters with disabilities.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Melanie Abbott
MON 11:00 The History Podcast (m002gjdr)
The Second Map
1. Bonnie Laddie
We all know the heroic story of Britain fighting the Nazis in World War Two. But what’s less well-known in popular memory is the war on the Asian front, against Japan. Yet it touched many families across Britain. Their descendants are still uncovering stories today.
On the same day as Japan’s attack on the US Naval bases at Pearl Harbor there were simultaneous strikes on British territories in South East Asia.
Episode 1 of The Second Map charts the humiliating defeats that the British suffered by Japanese forces as they rapidly took key colonies in South East Asia. We hear from eyewitnesses who were in Singapore when it fell, and were then later captured and held prisoner. We hear from a 104-year-old veteran, who desperately wanted independence for India, but decided to fight alongside the British against Japan. And we explore why this part of the war is not as well known as the one against the Nazis.
This is the other story of the Second World War.
Creator, Writer and Presenter: Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ellie House
Script Editor: Ant Adeane
Sound designer: James Beard
Series Editor: Matt Willis
Production Coordinators: Sabine Scherek, Maria Ogundele
Commissioners for Radio 4 and The World Service: Dan Clarke, Jon Zilkha
Original music: Felix Taylor
Archive Curator: Tariq Hussain
Voice actor: Dai Tabuchi
Translators: Hannah Kilcoyne, Sumire Hori
With thanks to Dr Diya Gupta, Dr Vikki Hawkins, Dr Peter Johnston, Professor Rana Mitter and Tejpal Singh Ralmill.
Includes archive material from ‘Singapore 1942: End of Empire’ (2012), Electric Pictures.
MON 11:45 Beyond Lonely (m0029zdd)
A Lonely Life
Loneliness is something all of us will experience at some point in our lives. For some it's a transitory feeling, for others a more chronic condition. As a child Jason Arday was diagnosed with autism and global development delay. He learnt to speak aged eleven, and to read and write at eighteen. His rise through the ranks of academia has been meteoric and he became Professor of the Sociology of Education at Cambridge aged thirty-seven. But for him success has come at a cost. Jason is lonely. In this five part series he explores his own reasons for being lonely as well as hearing from others the reasons they experience it.
Contributors include therapist Rotimi Akinsete and Noreena Hertz, economist and author of The Lonely Century: A Call To Reconnect
Producer: Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio Bristol
Presented by Professor Jason Arday
MON 12:00 News Summary (m002h9sl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m002h9sn)
University cost of living, Situationships, Bangernomics
Would you tell your other half how much money you have?
Well, more than a quarter of people in relationships are in a ‘financial situationship’ - that's apparently long term partners who share their lives but not their money. That research is from a new report by Legal and General - they're a financial services company.
Based on a survey of 3,000 adults in a relationship, the research suggests that when it comes to money, couples are in no rush to make it official, waiting nearly five years before managing their finances together. They also found 17% of people avoid the conversation altogether...
We speak to two people about their financial arrangements...
It’s been a big week for students across the country, with A-Level results. And for many, it marks the start of something huge - planning a brand new life away from home at university. However, is the rising cost of living making it nearly impossible for students to afford the Uni lifestyle?
A new study from the Higher Education Policy Institute - suggests it just might be.
Research found that the average student in the UK now needs around £61,000 over the course of a typical three-year degree just to maintain what’s called a “minimum socially acceptable standard of living" - and that doesn’t even include tuition fees.
We hear about how the cost of living is impacting students at university.
'Bangernomics' is the art of buying cheap, reliable cars - or 'bangers' - and running them into the ground, rather than splashing out on brand-new models. It's about smart motoring on a tight budget, focusing on value, practicality, and minimal depreciation.
Driving a “banger” might not sound glamorous - but with car prices rising, more people are turning to 'Bangernomics' as a way to stay mobile without breaking the bank. We hear from two 'Bangernomic' enthusiasts about how to find the prefect "banger".
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Jay Unger
MON 12:57 Weather (m002h9sq)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m002h9ss)
Zelensky given land for peace ultimatum
Ahead of a fresh Oval Office showdown, President Trump urges Ukraine to give up Russian-held land in return for unspecified security guarantees. Plus, the UK's last piano maker.
MON 13:45 New Storytellers (m002h9sv)
My Toy Soldier
At birth Thomas Callaghan was 11 inches long, smaller than an action toy soldier.
This is the story of Thomas’s battle for life told through the words of his mother Tracy, father Andrew and grandmother Linsay. The feature explores, from the baby’s first breath, what it was like for the family faced with the unexpected and frightening premature birth of their first born child and grandchild.
New Storytellers presents the work of new student audio producers, and this series features the winners of the Charles Parker Prize 2025 for the Best Student Radio Feature. These awards are presented every year in memory of the pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. The series is introduced by Charles’ daughter, Sara Parker, an award-winning radio producer in her own right.
This winning feature was produced by Kieran Callaghan, a second year BA Media Production student at the University of Sunderland, the judges said of My Toy Soldier “This simple story was beautifully told, and I loved all the little sonic details which elevated the feature and took it to a different level.”
Producer: Kieran Callaghan
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:00 The Archers (m002h9nm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Believe It! (m0017cqr)
Series 6
Stuff
This is the sixth series of Jon Canter's "radiography" of Richard Wilson - exploring elements of Richard's life that are very nearly true.
Expect visits from David Tennant, Sir Ian McKellen, Arabella Weir and Stephen Mangan to name but four.
Written by Jon Canter
Starring
Richard Wilson
Stephen Mangan
and Arabella Weir
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:45 Mrs Bridge by Evan S Connell (m0019jz2)
Episode 2
Evan S. Connell's Mrs Bridge is an extraordinary tragicomic portrayal of suburban life and one of the classic American novels of the 20th century.
Mrs Bridge, a conservative housewife in Missouri, has three children and a kindly lawyer husband. Her married life begins in the early 1930s – and soon after she and her young family move to a wealthy country club suburb of Kansas City. She spends her time shopping, going to bridge parties and bringing up her children to be pleasant, clean and have nice manners. The qualities that she values above all else. And yet she finds modern life increasingly baffling, her children aren't growing up into the people she expected, and sometimes she has the vague disquieting sensation that all is not well in her life.
In a series of comic, telling vignettes, Evan S. Connell illuminates the narrow morality, confusion, futility and even terror at the heart of a life of plenty.
First published in 1959 it was perhaps overshadowed by the critical attention paid to contemporaries like Philip Roth and John Updike - although Mrs Bridge was a finalist for the National Book Award in that year. Ten years later Connell published Mr Bridge which follows that same events largely from the point of view of Walter Bridge. In 1990, James Ivory directed the film Mr and Mrs Bridge based on both novels and starring Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward. Fans of the book today include the novelist David Nicholls and Tracey Thorne, author and singer.
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Written by Evan S Connell
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
MON 15:00 Great Lives (m002h9sx)
Helen Castor on Richard II
Today's great life is possibly more famous as a Shakespearean character - King Richard II who was deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. He's been chosen by historian Helen Castor, author of The Eagle and the Hart, who shines a light on what really happened towards the end of his reign. Also helping is Professor Emma Smith who explains why the play was a hit two hundred years later under Elizabeth I.
With archive of John Hurt as Richard and David Suchet as his cousin and usurper, Henry Bolingbroke.
The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde
MON 15:30 You're Dead to Me (m002h9fx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Saturday]
MON 16:00 Assignment (w3ct6rbr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:30 on Sunday]
MON 16:30 Soul Music (m001n1h5)
Ghost Town
'Ghost Town' was recorded by British two-tone band The Specials as a comment on urban decay and social unrest. It was released in June 1981 as riots were springing up around the UK and with the help of an iconic video it topped the UK singles charts. It was also be the band's final single.
Writer Alex Wheatle first heard 'Ghost Town' in 1981 whilst in a social services hostel in Brixton awaiting his court appearance. He'd been arrested following a day of action in Brixton to protest against racist treatment of Black people, after rumours of police brutality. He was sentenced to one year in prison and sang 'Ghost Town' in his cell, as he began to find hope and purpose in his life.
Claire Horton grew up in Dudley and says 'Ghost Town' echoed her experiences of watching the shops and nightclubs of this once vibrant town closing down. Her Dad was made redundant and it had a huge impact on her family, and as a young police officer she would walk the streets and understand why people were getting so frustrated with their situation.
Soul and Reggae DJ Dave Marshall Barrett traces the history of The Specials who formed in Dave's hometown of Coventry in 1977. It's the first thing people mention when he says where he comes from.
John Collins was surprised when Jerry Dammers asked him to produce the record. John created the initial opening 'ghostly' sounds on a synth at home but he says they now sound more like sirens. The song's success opened doors for John and he loves how it keeps finding new audiences.
Broadcaster Samira Ahmed grew up in London and said her the recession of the early 80s hit her family's catering business hard. Too young for nightclubs, she remembers the video of 'Ghost Town' playing on Top of the Pops and says the track made a huge impact on her understanding of music and politics.
Jazz singer Beverley Beirne covered 'Ghost Town' for her 2018 album 'Jazz Just Wants to Have Fun' and was reminded of it during the first lockdown when she wasn't able to perform.
Founder of The Specials Jerry Dammers reflects on the inspiration behind 'Ghost Town' and how trombonist Rico Rodriguez was the heart and soul of the band.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Toby Field
Additional research: Melanie Pearson
Technical Producer: Michael Harrison
Editor: Emma Harding
MON 17:00 PM (m002h9sz)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002h9t1)
President Zelensky prepares to begin crucial talks with Donald Trump
President Zelensky and several European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, have arrived at the White House for meetings with Donald Trump to discuss the future of Ukraine. Also: A Hamas source tells the BBC that it has agreed to the latest Egyptian proposal for a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel. And the Cambridge Dictionary has added six-thousand new words to its latest edition.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m002h9t3)
Series 95
1. The time I went to Sue Perkins’ birthday party
Sue Perkins challenges Paul Merton, Lucy Porter, Zoe Lyons and Stephen Mangan to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation. Subjects include sharing is caring, Mr. Darcy and the worst piece of advice I've ever been given.
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Additional material by Eve Delaney
An EcoAudio certified production.
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
MON 19:00 The Archers (m002h9t6)
Martyn delivers a bottle of wine to Tracy in gratitude for her support over Marlene. Martyn then gives Tracy a sob story about the sadness of eating alone, so Tracy invites him to join her and Jazzer for tea. When Jazzer returns later he covers his irritation by helping himself to Martyn’s wine, before they all enjoy the meal and Martyn invites Jazzer to play golf. Jazzer then excuses himself to go to band practice, despite Tracy’s protestations that they have a guest. Once Jazzer’s gone Martyn is envious of Jazzer’s hobby and Tracy wishes Chelsea had one too. Martyn then extols the virtues of Tracy’s chaotic family life, lamenting his single status and supposing he puts women off by being too serious. Tracy reckons the best thing Martyn can do is just have fun.
Fallon returns some shears she’s borrowed from Ed and suggests a drink before band practice tonight. She’s disappointed she hasn’t heard back from Ash about rejoining Dross, but Ed reckons he might just turn up anyway. At The Bull they mull over Stella doing the harvest, Fallon and Harrison’s anniversary, and Amber being in a foul mood this morning. But their main focus is the band’s reunion gig. Their good mood is punctured though, when Fallon gets a text telling her that Ash died a year ago, leaving a young family behind. Ed and Fallon struggle to take in the news, before Jazzer joins them and is equally shocked. Fallon reports that Ash’s wife, Jenna, wants to meet them tomorrow to talk about something, but hasn’t said what.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m002h9t8)
Should Stephen Fry play Lady Bracknell? Author R.F. Kuang and Marlowe and Shakespeare
As the National Theatre’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest transfers to the West End with Stephen Fry taking the role of Lady Bracknell, but do older actresses lose out when men are cast in women’s roles? Nikolai Foster, Artistic Director of the Leicester Curve Theatre and Nicky Clark, founder of the Acting Your Age Campaign discuss.
The bestselling author of Yellowface, R.K. Kuang, discusses her new novel Katabasis.
Director Daniels Evans talks about his production of Born With Teeth which sees actors Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel reimagine the relationship of Marlowe and Shakespeare.
And we hear archive of the late actor Terence Stamp, one of the defining cinematic figures of his generation talking about working with Federico Fellini.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ruth Watts
MON 20:00 The Briefing Room (m002h0fl)
UK Resilience 1: How prepared are we for climate change?
The UK is getting hotter. And wetter. Extreme weather events in the UK are happening more often. And that trend won’t stop any time soon. It all means more flooding and fire risk. Enter the R word - resilience - how well are we coping with what’s going on now, and how advanced is our planning for what’s coming? In the first of our three part mini series looking at how the resilient the UK might be in dealing with potential future crises we ask how prepared are we to deal with the changing climate?
Guests:
Mark Maslin, professor of Climatology at University College London
Richard Dawson, professor of Engineering at Newcastle University
Jess Neumann, Associate professor of hydrology at the University of Reading
Producers: Ben Carter, Kirsteen Knight and Sally Abrahams
Productions co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon
MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (m002h0fn)
What will we be wearing in the future?
What are you wearing today? What processes, chemical and otherwise, have gone into creating the garments in your wardrobe? And how might they be improved, honed, transformed in the future?
Professor of Materials & Society at UCL, Mark Miodownik, Dr Jane Wood, Lecturer at the University of Manchester and expert in textile technology, and materials scientist, writer and presenter Dr Anna Ploszajaki join Marnie Chesterton to take a closer look at possibly the most familiar materials we own, our clothes.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Clare Salisbury and Lyndon Jones
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
MON 21:00 The Patch (m002cdlb)
Bulford
One random postcode, and a story you probably haven't heard before. The series returns with a new set of destinations.
Today, the military town of Bulford, Wiltshire. When producer Polly Weston first arrives, she's a little puzzled about where to begin, in a postcode where everyone is likely to be subject to the Official Secrets Act. But it turns out that this postcode is the home of the Bulford Military Court. It's the service equivalent of the Crown Court, and it's a public court, so she is free to go and visit.
The British Military has its own justice system, which isn't just responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes associated with service, like desertion, but everything up to rape and murder. On her first visit, the court is sentencing an Army Sergeant for rape. Polly starts out by trying to understand why the court exists and how it differs from the civilian system, but soon discovers that it is the tip of a military justice iceberg - and that this postcode is also home to something called the Defence Serious Crime Unit. It's the CID of the military, and it's their job to investigate the most serious crimes. The unit was formed in 2022, for reasons which are fascinating and timely... and this particular random postcode takes us into a world most of us won't even have realised existed.
Produced and presented in Bristol by Polly Weston
Editor: Chris Ledgard
Mixed by Suzy Robins
MON 21:45 One to One (m001tbg7)
Parenting advice in the age of social media: Samira Shackle and Lucy Jones
Since becoming a parent to a now-toddler, Samira Shackle has been bombarded with advice on social media - sometimes useful, sometimes not-so. She meets Lucy Jones, mother-of-three, to discuss navigating this online world and the affect it has on mothers, in particular.
Samira Shackle is a journalist and the author of Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Contested City; Lucy Jones is the author of Matrescence: On The Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood.
Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m002h9tb)
Trump, Zelensky and Europeans meet at White House
Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders have been holding Ukraine war talks with Donald Trump at the White House. We're live in Washington DC and get reaction from both sides of the Atlantic.
Also on the programme:
We hear from the man behind Britain's first bottled water menu.
MON 22:45 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (m002h9td)
Episode One
Crooked Cross was first published in 1934 and was based on Sally Carson’s first-hand experience of travelling through Bavaria where she witnessed the inexorable and devastating rise of fascism and antisemitism. Long out of print, it was discovered by Persephone Books and republished in 2025.
We are in Bavaria in a small provincial town outside Munich. There, on Christmas Eve of 1932, we first meet the Kluger family, a happy band of Frau and Herr Kluger, and their three grown up children, Helmy, Lexa and Eric. Life is not always easy: jobs are scarce, money is tight; they are living under the shadow of defeat in the Great War. But by 1933 Hitler has won the election and become Chancellor and everything is about to change for all of them. None more so than for Moritz Weissmann, Lexa’s fiancé, a young Catholic doctor but with a Jewish name, who first and foremost thought of himself as German. But now his country is starting to turn against him.
'Too much power and too sudden power makes men lose all sense of proportion: blood turns such men into madmen.'
Sally Carson’s novel explores how relationships between family, friends, lovers and neighbours all begin to subtly shift until confidence in the new fascist regime and the hope it offers empowers, gives licence, to many to commit atrocities that would eventually lead to another World War and the Holocaust.
The setting of a very ordinary small town allows Carson to chart how over six months this can happen against the backdrop of catastrophic political upheaval. Carson was only 38 when she died in 1941 of breast cancer, so she never lived to see the end of the war which makes Crooked Cross and her foresight even more extraordinary.
'It doesn’t seem like propaganda and it makes you feel that grim sense of uncertainty and fear which must come upon any people under a rule of terror.' The Saturday Review August 1934
Sally Carson wrote two sequels both still out of print: The Prisoner published in 1936 and A Traveller Came By published in 1938. But despite the excellent reviews for Crooked Cross (which also enjoyed a successful theatrical adaptation) all three books, and their author disappeared. Until now.
Reader: Scarlett Courtney
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Caroline Raphael
Production Co-ordinator: Henry Tydeman and Nina Semple
Sound by Matt Bainbridge
Recorded at Fitzrovia Studios
Crooked Cross is published by Persephone Books
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:00 Limelight (m001kpzk)
Who Killed Aldrich Kemp?
3. Liberty Flights
Clara and Sabine battle through undergrowth and language barriers as Nakesha and Sebastian follow the Liberty Flights lead in Vienna.
Chapter Three - Liberty Flights don’t file flight plans.
Cast:
Clara Page - Phoebe Fox
Aldrich Kemp – Ferdinand Kingsley
Mrs Boone – Nicola Walker
Sebastian Harcourt – Kyle Soller
Nakesha Kemp – Karla Crome
Aunt Lily – Susan Jameson
Nurse – Jana Carpenter.
Sabine Seah – Rebecca Boey
Remington Schofield – Barnaby Kay
Miss Lotte Amutenya – Cherrelle Skeete
Mrs Bartholomew – Kate Isitt
Dr Hazlitt - Ben Crowe
Camera Assistant – James Joyce.
Created and written by Julian Simpson
Recorded on location in Hove.
Music composed by Tim Elsenburg.
Sound Design: David Thomas
Director: Julian Simpson
Producer: Sarah Tombling
Executive Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:30 What's Funny About... (m0027sxb)
Series 4
4. Alma's Not Normal
Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman are joined by Sophie Willan to hear the story of how she created her BAFTA winning series Alma’s Not Normal.
Sophie talks about Alma’s combination of fearlessness and fragility, and how important the cocktail of those traits are to her character. And she tells us about her sense of mission around the series - the importance of telling authentic stories that show how people’s lives have been impacted by cuts to social care services.
Producer: Owen Braben
An Expectation Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
TUESDAY 19 AUGUST 2025
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m002h9th)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 Beyond Lonely (m0029zdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002h9tk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002h9tm)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:00 News Summary (m002h9tp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:04 Assignment (w3ct6rbr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:30 on Sunday]
TUE 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002h9tr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002h9tt)
Through the eyes of children
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Dr Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity
Good morning. I recently read Lily King’s wonderful novel Writers and Lovers, which features the painting The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit by John Singer Sargent. This painting, created in 1882, has fascinated viewers for nearly 150 years. It depicts the four young daughters of the American expatriates Edward Darley Boit and Mary Louisa Cushing Boit in their Paris apartment at the turn of the nineteenth century. In the painting, the girls all wear white pinafores and stand in varying degrees of light and shadow near two large Japanese vases. The painting has often been understood as a charming portrait of childhood.
I looked it up and wondered how my four-year-old daughter would respond, as she loves images of children at play. The first time she laughed when viewing art was when she watched little girls at play in the film My Neighbour Totoro. So, I showed her The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and asked her what she thought. She looked curiously at the girls and said, ‘I think they are angels, but where are their wings?’ She also wondered if some of the girls might be sad. I loved this. My daughter’s idea of the Boit daughters as spiritual intermediaries completely changed the way I viewed the painting, and her tender observation of their sadness was so insightful.
Perhaps we should ask children more often what they notice about art and life. Their observations, honest and unaffected by the desire to seem worldly or sophisticated, have the power to reframe our world and shed new light on things.
That’s at the forefront of my mind this month as Edinburgh, where I work, has come alive with art, music, theatre and new voices for the annual festivals. I’m wondering whether we might rediscover our childlike fascination for the world and find new perspectives.
Loving God, grant us the grace to see our world with a child’s eyes. Bless us with the gifts of wonder and fresh perception. Amen.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m002h9tw)
Changes to bluetongue restrictions mean farmers can transport vaccinated livestock from Wales into England without the need for a costly pre-movement test. Sheep and cattle that have been jabbed can be taken to a market within 12 miles of the Welsh border such as Hereford, Ludlow and Oswestry. Since the start of July, trade in livestock between England and Wales has been affected by restrictions designed to stop the spread of bluetongue disease. The midge-borne virus poses no threat to public health or food safety but can be fatal for animals like sheep, cattle and goats.
Routine border checks on live animal imports from the European Union are to be suspended, ahead of the introduction of the UK's new SPS - or sanitary and phystosanitary - deal with the EU. The government said the agreement would cut costs and red tape for businesses, while speeding up trade in food.
Synthetic fertiliser is one of the biggest costs for salad production, not to mention its environmental impacts. One big producer, G's, on the Cambridgeshire Fens says trials of a new composting technique called Johnson-Su has led to a reduction in fertiliser use as well as increased crop health.
A new rural crime strategy in Wales has made heritage crime or damage to ancient monuments a particular focus. There are fears treasure thieves are targeting Wales’ most ancient sites – in an attempt to unearth rare and valuable artefacts for the black market. Nighthawkers use the cover of darkness to sneak onto protected sites and use their metal detectors. Authorities say they receive up to 20 reports of nighthawking at Wales’ most precious historical monuments each year.
Presenter = Steffan Messenger
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
TUE 06:00 Today (m002h9vl)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (m002h9vn)
Series 11
Catullus
The brilliant Roman love poet is the poster boy for teen angst. He feels everything intensely, from the stealing of his favourite napkin to the death of his lover Lesbia's pet sparrow. And then he dies young. Of course the Romantics loved him, as do his biographer Dr Daisy Dunn and Professor Llewelyn Morgan.
Born to an aristocratic family in Verona, Catullus is fearless in abusing in sophisticated verse his father's friend Julius Caesar, his ex-lover Lesbia and the poets unlucky enough to be his contemporaries. Satirical, scurrilous and obscene, his popularity endures.
'Rockstar mythologist' Natalie Haynes is the best-selling author of 'Divine Might', 'Stone Blind', and 'A Thousand Ships' as well as a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greek and Rome.
Dr Daisy Dunn is an award-winning classicist. Her books, Catullus’ Bedspread: The Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet, and The Poems of Catullus: A New Translation, were published in 2016 and earned her a place in the Guardian‘s list of leading female historians.
Producer...Beth O'Dea
TUE 09:30 Inside Health (m002h9vq)
Potential Break Through in Dementia Treatment
Dementia is now the UK’s leading cause of death - but could a vaccine one day help prevent it? New data from Wales suggests the shingles vaccine is linked to a 20% lower risk of developing dementia in later life, adding to evidence that viral infections can influence brain health.
Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer, Assistant Prof of Medicine at Stanford University discusses his findings and the further evidence required to prove this link, along with Prof Tara Spires-Jones, Group Leader in the UK Dementia Research Institute.
The UK has begun using the world’s first gonorrhoea vaccine - though it was originally developed for meningitis. With antibiotic-resistant strains increasing, we speak to Dr Suneeta Soni about why gonorrhoea has been so hard to target with vaccines.
At the Bristol Robotics Lab, engineers are creating devices to support mobility in older age. James meets Jonathan Rossner and tries out “The Right Trousers” - an inflatable exoskeleton designed to help people walk and to strengthen their muscles.
Presenter: James Gallagher
Producers: Debbie Kilbride, Tom Bonnett & Minnie Harrop
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production coordinator: Ishmael Soriano
This episode was produced in partnership with The Open University.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002h9vs)
Karen Gillan, Children's exposure to porn, Lexi Chambers
If you knew the world was about to end, what would you do? That’s the dilemma Karen Gillan’s character faces in new film, The Life of Chuck, in which she stars opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor. Karen tells Nuala McGovern about her latest role, her evolving relationship with the Marvel films and her hope to return to directing.
'This report must act as a line in the sand…it should be read as a snapshot of what rock bottom looks like.’ That’s the warning from the Children’s Commissioner, two years on from her landmark report on the scale of children’s exposure to pornography online. Research out today from the Commissioner’s Office finds that more children are being exposed to pornography, with a growing number stumbling across it by accident, some younger than six. Much of the content children encounter is violent. The report also reveals troubling attitudes towards women and girls: nearly half of 16- to 21-year-olds agreed with the statement, 'Girls may say no at first but can be persuaded to have sex.' Joining Nuala in the studio is the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza.
As excitement builds ahead of the Women’s Rugby World Cup, we hear from endurance athlete Lexi Chambers. The five-time world record holder is in the middle of another epic challenge, wheeling 322 miles from Twickenham Stadium to Sunderland’s Stadium of Light to deliver the official match whistle in time for Friday’s opening game between England and the USA. Lexi, who lives with multiple chronic pain conditions, is aiming to complete 10 ultramarathons in 10 days using her every day, non-sport wheelchair. She takes a break to fill Nuala in on her progress and explain why she’s taken on such a challenge.
When Ukrainian President Zelensky went to the White House this week, he handed over a letter to President Trump. It was a message from his wife Olena Zelenska to Melania Trump, thanking the First Lady for the letter she had sent to Vladimir Putin highlighting the issue of the Ukrainian children removed by Russian forces. It’s believed that at least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of their parents since the full-scale invasion. Nuala is joined by Ukrainian filmmaker Shahida Tulaganova and BBC Ukraine journalist Irena Taranyuk to discuss.
TUE 11:00 Add to Playlist (m002gl77)
Victoria Canal and Roderick Williams launch a brand new series
Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe return with a new series, in the company of two studio guests - Spanish-American singer-songwriter and composer Victoria Canal, and baritone and composer Roderick Williams. Kicking things off with that Rickrolling earworm, the first five tracks include a celebrated Bizet composition and some playful Lovecats with a very distinctive bassline.
Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley
Au fond du temple saint by Georges Bizet
Paper Planes by M.I.A.
Paper Bag by Fiona Apple
The Lovecats by The Cure
Other music in this episode:
Finale of the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini, arr Hans Zimmer
Paradise by Coldplay
Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley (from Pianoforte)
Straight to Hell by The Clash
TUE 11:45 Beyond Lonely (m0029zbb)
Young and Lonely in the Connected World
When he was a teenager Jason Arday spent hours alone practising snooker shots. His experience of autism meant he relished the focus and solitude of the snooker hall. But he now recognises that this has contributed to his sense of loneliness. This episode looks at his teenage experience of isolating himself from others and asks why the Gen Z generation of 16-24 year olds despite having technology at their fingertips feel more lonely and disconnected than any other age group. With contributions from academic and essayist on loneliness Amelia Worsley, author Noreena Hertz and Jameson and Lucy of the Luddite Club in New York.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
Presented by Professor Jason Arday of the University of Cambridge
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m002h9vv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m002h9vx)
Call You & Yours: how bad is fly-tipping in your area?
Today on Call You & Yours we're asking: "How bad is fly-tipping in your area?"
Fly-tipping is on the rise - latest data shows local authorities in England dealt with
1.15 million fly-tipping incidents last year, an increase of 6% on the previous year.
Farmers are running a campaign to tighten laws around fly-tipping - because they have to pay to clear it up and it costs them thousands of pounds.
Beauty spots have been ruined by waste being dumped- there's been an increase in waste dumped on bridleways and public footpaths. Have you seen waste being dumped and reported it? What did the council do?
Perhaps you have fly-tipping on your street, near your house or on your property, and you've had to pay to remove it?
Tell us: "How bad is fly-tipping in your area?"
Our lines open at
11am, you can call 03700 100 444
Email youandyours@bbc.co.uk
PRESENTER: PETER WHITE
PRODUCER: LYDIA THOMAS
TUE 12:57 Weather (m002h9vz)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m002h9w1)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
TUE 13:45 New Storytellers (m002h9w3)
Life in Numbers
Living with a chronic condition feels like living with a full-time job and no days off. Musician Sarah Warren knows this well and offers a creative, unfiltered insight into living a life where numbers are vital to survival. With a medical history comparable to that of someone three times her age, Sarah’s story is a stark reminder that you can never tell what someone else has to cope with every day of the year.
Diabetes affects around 5.8 million people in the UK, so Sarah’s journey with Type One diabetes is not an uncommon story. This feature is a personal, witty and creative take on the lessons she has learnt, and how medical advances and digital monitoring have evolved since she was first diagnosed 14 years ago. Diabetes used to be something that Sarah tried to keep from others now it’s something she wants to share proudly. Think of this as your permission to stare.
‘Life in Numbers’ gives you access to a world through sounds you’ve never heard before. You can’t see it, but you can listen.
New Storytellers presents the work of new audio producers and this series features the winners of the Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Audio Feature 2025.
Sarah Warren worked on her feature while at Transmission Roundhouse, based in London, who run audio production training courses. The Judges praised Sarah Warren’s feature as “a good personal, informative account of living with diabetes… a very easy listen and the personality really shines through … with great illustrative sound design.”
Producer: Sarah Warren
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m002h9t6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002h9w5)
Curry Canyon
In the heart of Glasgow’s “Curry Canyon” during the 2009 recession, aspiring journalist Halima returns home to help at her family’s struggling tandoori restaurant, just as a campaign erupts to crown chicken tikka masala a Scottish national treasure.
While her dad sees opportunity in the publicity, Halima’s exposé on the roots of the dish sparks unintended consequences that could upend everything. A warm-hearted drama exploring family, food, and the price of telling your truth.
This drama is fictional, but is inspired by the real 2009 campaign to recognise Chicken Tikka Masala as a Glaswegian invention.
CAST (in order of appearance)
Halima .... Talia Marwaha
Waseem ..... Shahan Hamza
Zainab ..... Zara Janjua
Usama ..... Archie Lal
Jennifer ..... Aoife Moss
News Reporter/Officer ..... Jason Barnett
Writer ..... maatin
Director ..... Anne Isger
Sound ..... Andy Garrett and Keith Graham
Production Co-ordinator ..... Ben Hollands
A BBC Studios Audio Production
MAATIN
maatin is a British Indian, London-based writer, dramaturg, and producer who focuses on Muslim storytelling, working across theatre, radio, television, and film.
His debut play, Duck, ran at the Arcola Theatre in London in 2023. His play Friday at the masjid is a winner of the RSC’s 37 Plays, and longlisted for The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2022 and the Soho Theatre’s Verity Bargate Award 2022. This is maatin's second play for BBC Radio 4; his first was Yusuf and the Whale (2024).
TUE 15:00 Extreme (m0027h5w)
Peak Danger
5. Love Is in the Air
When Cecilie Skog met Rolf Bae, it was love at first sight. A whirlwind romance quickly followed, as they climbed the world’s tallest mountains, shoulder to shoulder.
Now recently married, she and Rolf wanted to tick off a K2 summit before settling down and starting their family.
But as they descend, darkness is falling - and before long they’ll find themselves caught in the crosshairs of a devastating avalanche.
Featuring climbers Cecilie Skog, Lars Nessa, Eric Meyer, Fredrik Sträng and Wilco van Rooijen.
Special thanks to Fredrik Sträng for providing archival footage.
Host and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela
Producers: Leigh Meyer & Amalie Sortland
Editor: Josephine Wheeler
Production Manager: Joe Savage
Sound Design and Mix by Nicholas Alexander, with additional engineering from Daniel Kempson.
Original Music by Adam Foran, Theme music by Adam Foran and Silverhawk
Executive Producers: Max O’Brien & Craig Strachan
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
A Novel production for the BBC
TUE 15:30 Heart and Soul (w3ct6vp1)
France’s new Christians
The number of adults getting baptised in France has tripled in the last three years. Why are so many more adults joining the Church in France? We meet two of France’s new Christians - one baptised this Easter, one last Easter - and hear why they chose the path they took and ask whether Catholicism is changing from a religion that baptises infants to one that baptises adults and whether that is a good thing.
Presenter: John Laurenson
Executive producer: Rajeev Gupta
Editor: Chloe Walker
Production co-ordinator: Mica Nepomuceno
[Photo: The Mass was at the church of Nogent-le-Roi. Credit: John Laurenson)
TUE 16:00 Artworks (m002h9w9)
No Criticism
2. The Machine as Taste-Maker
Theatre critic Arifa Akbar explores whether the art of criticism is in crisis. From identity politics to the internet, social and technological change is challenging the ideals that have underpinned the work of critics for centuries. What does this mean for criticism and for culture at large?
Once, the critic was an almighty figure - a powerful voice able to assume a large audience, a tastemaker and gatekeeper, dispensing judgment on books, plays, exhibitions, film and television. Today it feels as the role is under intense scrutiny, as social change and contemporary cultural politics challenge the ideals on which criticism has rested for centuries - the authority and universality of the critic’s voice; even the need for, and value of, criticism itself.
In this episode, Arifa looks at how social media, algorithms and AI are shaping, and possibly undermining, the art of criticism. She meets the voices who are thriving in the digital space, and explores how they are rethinking the role and responsibilities of the critic on social media platforms. With the new pressures on culture criticism - from influencers, to algorithms, to Chat GPT, can the form survive in the digital age?
With Bernardine Evaristo, Jack Edwards, Phil Daoust, Barry Pierce, Gus Casely-Hayford, Anita Singh, Ashanti Omkar, AO Scott, Kyle Chayka and James Marriott.
Special thanks to the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Producers: Melissa FitzGerald & Sarah O'Reilly
Sound design by Tony Churnside
A Zinc Audio production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 16:30 What's Up Docs? (m002h9wc)
How to look after your kidneys
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken tackle the confusion around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.
Chris and Xand have always found the kidneys somewhat mysterious and elusive, going all the way back to medical school. Now they want to understand what makes this pair of organs so complex, and why they are so much more than simple filters. How do the kidneys work? What can happen when they go wrong? And how can we keep them healthy for as long as possible?
To answer these questions and more, the Docs are joined by Dr Kate Bramham, Consultant Nephrologist at King’s College Hospital and Reader at King's College London.
If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08000 665 123.
Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken
Guest: Dr Kate Bramham
Producers: William Hornbrook and Jo Rowntree
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Assistant Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis
Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable
Social Media: Leon Gower
Digital Lead: Richard Berry
Composer: Phoebe McFarlane
Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby
At the BBC:
Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 17:00 PM (m002h9wf)
Epping Forest District Council wins High Court case
As the High Court rules in favour of Epping Forest District Council over an asylum hotel we will bring you the details of the ruling and speak to the leader of the Council. We'll reflect back on the past week of talks on Ukraine as President Trump gives an interview on what he thinks will happen next, and we discuss the legal, moral and philosophical implications of an increasingly human-like AI chat bot.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002h9wh)
Epping Council wins an injunction to stop the government housing asylum-seekers in a hotel
A local authority in Essex has been granted a temporary court injunction to prevent asylum seekers from being housed at a hotel in Epping that's been besieged by violent protests. Also: President Trump rules out sending US troops to Ukraine to guarantee a peace deal, but suggests he may provide aircraft to support European forces on the ground. And why whales play a part in preventing global warming by absorbing carbon.
TUE 18:30 Room 101 with Paul Merton (m002h9wk)
Series 3
Janet Street Porter
Paul finds out what Janet Street Porter would like to send to Room 101.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m002h9wm)
Tracy talks to Brad about what happened with Amber and Chelsea at Lower Loxley. Tracy’s proud that Brad stood up for his sister, even if he feels terrible about it now. Brad worries about what Amber’s said about him to George but Tracy tells him not to worry – this will work itself out.
At Berrow, Martyn thanks Jazzer for last night, suggesting a session at the golf driving range, before agreeing to let Jazzer leave early to meet Ash’s wife. At The Bull, Fallon apologises for asking Tracy and Joy to cover her for the same reason. She assumes Jenna will tell them what happened to Ash, then muses on her own reaction to the trauma of nearly drowning in the Am. Fallon admits that she and Harrison don’t always have the time or energy to share their feelings. Later, Martyn tells Brad that he’s booked a session for Jazzer to join him on the driving range tomorrow. Brad is gobsmacked.
When Jenna arrives she tells Jazzer and Ed she’s been on a pilgrimage to Ash’s old haunts. Fallon joins them and Jenna explains it was a cardiac arrest that killed Ash, while he was out on a run. They take Jenna up Lakey Hill, one of Ash’s favourite places, before Jenna asks if they will come to a celebration of Ash’s life, in the Lakes. There’s going to be a sponsored swim in Buttermere before having a party. Ed and Jazzer are keen, but Fallon covers her unease, assuring Ed it’s just a lot to take in.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m002h9wp)
Tom Hiddleston on becoming a dancing accountant in new Stephen King film, The Life of Chuck
Tom Hiddleston on becoming a dancing accountant in new Stephen King inspired film, The Life of Chuck. Sir Anish Kapoor on making a protest artwork in the North Sea with Greenpeace. A report from Bradford as artist Luke Jerram works with local communities to create a giant ball of yarn for new work, A Good Yarn, which celebrates the region's textile heritage. Michael Frayn's play Noises Off is a landmark of British theatre which relies on showing the two sides - on stage and off stage - of a theatre production for its powerful comedic punch. Artistic director Paul Robinson discusses the challenge of presenting the play in the round at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
TUE 20:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002h9wr)
Rivers of Lead
There are over 6,000 abandoned lead mines across the UK leaking hundreds of tons of metals into our rivers each year. With climate change causing an increase in flooding, contamination is likely to get worse. Is this lead ending up in our food chain, water system and blood?
Presented by Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby
Producers: Pūlama Kaufman and Kelly Windsor Burgin
Researcher: Charlie West
A Bite Your Tongue production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m002h9wt)
New Pricing of JAWS the Screen Reader
JAWS is a screen reader that allows visually impaired people to access information on their computers. It works by reading aloud information such as emails, financial information, documents and more. But the company who produce the screen reader have recently announced rises to the cost of the software, along with some of their other assistive technology products, and it has caused worry amongst its users. In Touch hears from Vispero, the parent company of Freedom Scientific who develop JAWS, Fusion and ZoomText, and to Sight and Sound who are the sole distributor of the softwares in the UK. They tell us what these new pricing models will look like for UK customers, why these changes are happening and what is the best course of action for current and new users of JAWS.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Paul Holloway
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 of 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 (m002h9ww)
Europe’s migrant crisis: the truck that shocked the world
In the summer of 2015, tens of thousands of people left their homes in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq in the hope of finding a safe haven in Europe. The journeys they took were often hazardous and not everyone reached their destination. In one of the most notorious cases, 71 migrants were found dead in the back of a refrigerated truck on a motorway in Austria. They had all suffocated. Could this tragedy have been prevented? For Crossing Continents, Nick Thorpe speaks to two of the people smugglers who are now serving life sentences in a Bulgarian prison. He visits a man in northern Iraq who lost his younger brother and two children aboard the truck and asks the police in Hungary if they could have acted sooner.
Presenter: Nick Thorpe
Producer: Tim Mansel
Local Producer: Yana Pelovska
Sound mixer: Hal Haines
Series editor: Penny Murphy
TUE 21:30 Great Lives (m002h9sx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:00 on Monday]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m002h9wy)
Court orders removal of asylum seekers from Epping hotel
A High Court judge has upheld a bid by Epping Forest District Council to block the use of a local hostel to house asylum seekers. An 11th-hour bid by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to get the case dismissed was refused by the judge.
Also on the programme: we hear from two brothers caught up in America’s crackdown on irregular migration; and the first victim of the Horizon IT scandal to return to work at their former Post Office.
TUE 22:45 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (m002h9x0)
Episode Two
Crooked Cross was first published in 1934 and was based on Sally Carson’s first-hand experience of travelling through Bavaria where she witnessed the inexorable and devastating rise of fascism and antisemitism. Long out of print it was discovered by Persephone Books and republished in 2025.
We are in Bavaria in a small provincial town outside Munich. There, on Christmas Eve of 1932, we first meet the Kluger family, a happy band of Frau and Herr Kluger, and their three grown up children, Helmy, Lexa and Eric. Life is not always easy: jobs are scarce, money is tight; they are living under the shadow of defeat in the Great War. But by 1933 Hitler has won the election and become chancellor and everything is about to change for all of them. None more so than for Moritz Weissmann, Lexa’s fiancé, a young Catholic doctor but with a Jewish name, who first and foremost thought of himself as German. But now his country is starting to turn against him.
'Too much power and too sudden power makes men lose all sense of proportion: blood turns such men into madmen.'
Sally Carson’s novel explores how relationships between family, friends, lovers and neighbours all begin to subtly shift until confidence in the new fascist regime and the hope it offers empowers, gives licence, to many to commit atrocities that would eventually lead to another world war and the Holocaust.
The setting of a very ordinary small town allows Carson to chart how over six months this can happen against the backdrop of catastrophic political upheaval. Carson was only 38 when she died in 1941 of breast cancer, so she never lived to see the end of the war which makes Crooked Cross and her foresight even more extraordinary.
'It doesn’t seem like propaganda and it makes you feel that grim sense of uncertainty and fear which must come upon any people under a rule of terror.' The Saturday Review August 1934
Sally Carson wrote two sequels both still out of print: The Prisoner published in 1936 and A Traveller Came By published in 1938. But despite the excellent reviews for Crooked Cross (which also enjoyed a successful theatrical adaptation) all three books, and their author disappeared. Until now.
Reader: Scarlett Courtney
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Caroline Raphael
Production Co-ordinator: Henry Tydeman and Nina Semple
Sound by Matt Bainbridge
Recorded at Fitzrovia Studios
Crooked Cross is published by Persephone Books.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:00 Havana Helmet Club (m002ddbb)
8. The Cart Before the Flying Donkey
When the Cubans announce an international science conference in Havana, American spies try to nip it in the bud, suspecting a sophisticated disinformation campaign. With politics and bad blood threatening to cloud out the science story, a group of scientists get together and a very different theory for Havana Syndrome is put forward.
Credits
Havana Helmet Club is written and presented by Jennifer Forde and Sam Bungey
Editor: Guy Crossman
Story editing: Mike Ollove Producer: Larry Ryan
Sound designer: Merijn Royaards
Additional mixing: Ger McDonnell
Theme music: Tom Pintens, with additional music composed by Merijn Royaards
Fact checking: Stanley Masters. Additional reporting: Isobel Sutton, Pascale Hardey Stewart and Stanley Masters
Archive producers: Miriam Walsh and Helen Carr
Production executive: Kirstin Drybrugh
Editorial advisor: Jesse Baker
Commissioner: Dylan Haskins
Assistant commissioners: Sarah Green and Natasha Johansson
Archive sourced from NBC and El Ministerio de Salud Pública de Cuba
Havana Helmet Club is a Yarn production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
This episode was edited and updated on 13th August 2025 to correct two factual errors in the original version, namely that we quote Dr Stephen Hampton not Dr Randal Swanson in relation to the first uPenn paper, and that 'Adam' did not attend Walter Reed hospital in relation to his symptoms.
TUE 23:30 Illuminated (m00297vd)
A Georgian Polyphonic Feast
Welcome to the feast! We’re invited to a traditional Georgian ‘Supra’ to immerse ourselves in the magic of Georgian polyphonic singing.
The table groans with food, the wine flows, and the singing fills the heart. Led by toastmaster Levan Bitarovi, diners are guided through a narrative, weaving together their personal and collective experiences, through song.
At home in the mountains, in Georgia's "singing village" Lakhushdi, people sing like they breathe. A lullaby, a grieving song, a song when the belly is full, a song for milking the cow. It’s a part of everyday life and forms the connective tissue of the community.
For Paris-based singer Luna Silva, these songs bring her the comfort and sense of togetherness of her childhood circus home. Since first hearing the music as an ethno-musicology student in London, she has made several trips to the Georgian mountains to immerse herself in the musical tradition, and now teaches polyphonic singing to her French choir. She even took them with her to Lakhushdi. Now, the French choir has invited their Georgian hosts to attend their first Supra in Montreuil, Paris.
In the pauses during the Supra, as people talk and eat, we hear from singers and diners what makes the Supra so important in Georgia. Luna and Levan also dissect the polyphonic singing style, as voices are added and removed to demonstrate how individual pitches and harmonies are brought together. They are layered over each other, surrounding the listener in a bath of sound which touches the soul.
As the Supra draws to a close, everyone joins together to sing a song to life.
You can hear more from the musicians at https://adilei.ge/en/about-us/
You can also find Lakhushdi, the Singing Village on various music streaming websites. Search for ‘The Singing Village Lakhushdi’.
Presented by singer and ethno-musciologist Luna Silva
Featuring singers Levan Bitarovi, Madona and Ana Chamgeliani, Avto Turkia and Lasha Bedenashvili
Produced by Amanda Hargreaves
Executive producer: Carys Wall
Sound recordist: Léonard Ibañez
Sound designer: Joel Cox
With thanks to the Choeur d'Aronde in Montreuil
A Bespoken Media production for BBC Radio 4
WEDNESDAY 20 AUGUST 2025
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m002h9x3)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 Beyond Lonely (m0029zbb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002h9x5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002h9x9)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
WED 05:00 News Summary (m002h9xf)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:04 BBC Inside Science (m002h0fn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
WED 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002h9xk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002h9xp)
Those small blessings
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Dr Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity
Good morning. Earlier this summer, the American poet Fanny Howe died at the age of eighty-four. The author of more than twenty books of poetry, novels, essays, and short stories, Fanny Howe was a celebrated and accomplished writer who was finalist for the 2015 International Booker Prize and was awarded the prestigious Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize by the Poetry Foundation in 2009.
One of the works of Howe’s that struck me very deeply around the time that her death was announced is the poem ‘I Won’t Be Able to Write From the Grave’. This poem is very short, made up of only seven lines, and yet it speaks powerfully about the good things in life. The poem’s speaker names simple pleasures – good, wholesome food and drink, the beauty of poems and songs, the elements, children, companionship, and ‘the short northern nights’. There is something so uncomplicated, but so beautiful and true about the poem’s cataloguing of things which make up a life and offer consolation and pleasure. The poet Christian Wilman captures exactly how special Howe’s work is when he says that it ‘makes you more alert and alive to the earth.’
This month, Edinburgh, where I teach, is filled with new voices, including those of poets, as we enjoy festival time. Even if you aren’t a fan of poetry, I invite you to consider some of your simplest and dearest pleasures, as the speaker of Howe’s poem does. What makes you feel more alive and alert to the earth? What do you cherish in the world? For me, this might include feeding garden birds, making my little daughter laugh, taking long walks with my husband, and treasuring the friendships that sustain me.
Loving God, help us to count the smallest of our blessings in a difficult and complicated world. May we find your presence and grace in the midst of our ordinary existence. Amen.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m002h9xt)
County councils say major changes to the way the government calculates funding for local authorities will penalise rural areas. The government says the new system will mean fairer funding and more stability which will help deliver better public services. However the County Councils Network says rural council tax payers will ‘shoulder the burden’ of redistributing hundreds of millions of pounds to urban areas and warn some councils will face deep cuts to their services.
Growing spinach in the soaring heat - a seasonal look at producing salad.
The Vivergo bioethanol plant on the Humber near Hull has now stopped production and started laying off staff after the government said it wouldn’t provide support for the plant. The future of the business had been in doubt since tariffs were removed on bioethanol imports from the US in the recent trade agreement with Donald Trump. The company, owned by Associated British Foods, bought in locally grown wheat, around a million tonnes a year, and distilled it into bioethanol which is added to petrol to reduce emissions, and also produced large quantities of cattle feed. It's one of two plants in the UK. We speak to a renewable energy expert Dr Michael Short from the University of Surrey.
Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
WED 06:00 Today (m002hb5s)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Sideways (m002hb5v)
76. When Time Slows Down
Movie stuntman Brian Hite often experiences a dramatic slowing down of time while performing complex stunts in a matter of seconds, like car hits - entering the fabled place often described by top sportspeople as “the zone”. It’s something Matthew’s experienced himself during his professional table-tennis career. Brief, heightened moments in which the ball feels larger, the racquet becomes an extension of the body, and everything slows down.
These intense slow-motion experiences are generally explained as a trick of memory. But could they be something more - could it be that time is less rigid than we think? After all, modern theories of physics already challenge our everyday experience of time. Civil engineer Philip Wade experienced time in slow-motion twice while on holiday skiing too. It was so powerful, it set him on a path of meditation, and entirely changed his perspective on time.
Delving into new scientific theories and transpersonal psychology, Matthew Syed examines these experiences more deeply and asks whether such encounters suggest the way we think of time itself is an illusion.
With professional stuntman and sports performance psychologist Dr Brian Hite; Transpersonal Psychologist at Leeds Beckett University and author of the book Time Expansion Experiences, Dr Steve Taylor; Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London, Bernard Carr; and spiritual guide Philip Wade, creator of The Living Soul App.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Vishva Samani
Editor: Hannah Marshall
Sound Design and Mix: Mark Pittam
Theme music by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 09:30 Shadow World (m002hb5x)
The People vs McDonald's
2. Burger, Nugget, Ketchup, Spy
The London Greenpeace numbers have been dwindling until new faces start turning up at meetings...but something isn't right.
In 1986, members of environmental group, London Greenpeace, published a leaflet called ‘What’s wrong with McDonald’s?’ It claimed McDonald’s was exploiting workers, destroying rainforests, torturing animals, and promoting food that could make people sick, even cause cancer...
McDonald’s said the claims in the leaflet were untrue and defamatory and the company demanded an apology.
Helen Steel, a gardener, and a former postman named Dave Morris, refused.
Mark Steel takes us into the murky world of McDonald’s Corporation vs Steel & Morris – aka 'McLibel' - the longest-running trial in English history which would turn the spotlight on the way big business operates. As well as bringing issues like rainforest destruction and advertising to children into the mainstream, it would also be the moment our current Prime Minister first comes to prominence. If that isn’t enough, this story would ultimately have connections with a dark and shameful secret at the heart of the British state - something which Mark discovers he himself had been a victim of.
Shadow World: Gripping stories from the Shadows – BBC investigations from across the UK.
Presenter: Mark Steel
Producer: Conor Garrett
Executive Producer: Georgia Catt
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Production Coordinator: Dan Marchini
Sound Mix: Tim Heffer
Music Score: Phil Kieran
*Archive excerpts from director Franny Armstrong’s ‘McLibel,’ reproduced with the permission of Spanner Films
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002hb5z)
Sister Bliss, Maternity reports, River women, Karis Kelly
Sister Bliss started out DJing on London’s gay club scene, before co-founding Faithless in 1995 and became one of the few women of her generation to help shape UK dance culture. Faithless have sold more than 20 million albums and amassed close to a billion streams. 30 years on from the hit dance anthem Insomnia, she joins Nuala McGovern to discuss their latest album - Champion Sound.
Too many recommendations, not enough implementation - these are the findings of the latest report into maternity services in England, from the Health Services Safety Investigations Body. It has pressed pause on its own investigation to make way for a new government rapid review to be led by Baroness Valerie Amos. So why are the findings of multiple reports and reviews not yet leading to change? Nuala finds out with BBC Social Affairs correspondent Michael Buchanan, and maternity campaigner Emily Barley, who lost her own daughter due to maternity failings in 2022.
Winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2022, Karis Kelly’s play Consumed is described as a pitch-black and twisted comedy of dysfunctional family dynamics, generational trauma and national boundaries set in Northern Ireland. Currently well-received on stage at the Edinburgh Festival, Karis explains why she chose to focus her story on the lives of four generations of women from the same family.
You might love your local river, but enough to marry it? One woman felt so strongly about protecting the River Avon in Bristol that she took part in a wedding to it...she is part of a group of women bathers and activists who want the watercourse to have the right to be free from pollution. Megan Trump, or Mrs Meg Avon as she is now known, and Charlotte Sawyer are in the Woman's Hour studio.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Kirsty Starkey
WED 11:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002h9wr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Tuesday]
WED 11:40 This Week in History (m002hb61)
August 18th - August 24th
Fascinating, surprising and eye-opening stories from the past, brought to life.
BBC Radio 4 explores the history books and archives to see what has happened on this same week throughout history.
With short vignettes of the events that have shaped the world and made us who we are today.
This week: August 18th - August 24th
- 20th of August 1968. Soviet-led forces invade Czechoslovakia and crush the reform movement known as the “Prague Spring”.
- 22nd of August 1485. The Battle of Bosworth Field ends The Wars of the Roses.
- 23rd of August 1973. A bank siege leads to the identification of a contested psychiatric condition; Stockholm syndrome.
Presented by Caroline Nicholls and Ron Brown.
Produced by Stuart Ross.
WED 11:45 Beyond Lonely (m0029yxk)
Ever So Lonely
Jason Arday looks at loneliness in the workplace and how those of working age are experiencing increased feelings of isolation. The pandemic has changed the way we work and although it's meant greater flexibility to work alone from home it's also exacerbated loneliness in many people. For Jason lockdown meant burying himself in work writing research papers. While he freely admits this has made him very successful professionally, he also recognises that his 'unhealthy' habit of locking himself away to work has increased his feelings of loneliness. He seeks the thoughts and experiences of others who discuss navigating the world of work post pandemic. Contributors include therapist Rotimi Akinsete and Holly Cooke who set up a meetup group during the pandemic - The Lonely London Girls Club - that has burgeoned into a nationwide network of over 130,000 members.
Presented by Professor Jason Arday, University of Cambridge
Producer: Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio Bristol
WED 12:00 News Summary (m002hb63)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m002hb65)
EU Travel; Commodore Computer and Digital Detox; eBay at 30
Are you heading to the EU soon? Well from the 12th of October it could feel very different for British passport holders at EU border control. It’s because the EU is rolling out its long-delayed ‘entry-exit system’ - a high-tech border control scheme that replaces the old system of stamping passports. The aim is to tackle crime, prevent overstaying, and tighten checks on non-EU visitors. Simon Calder gives us the full run down of what to expect.
Commodore, a name from computing’s golden age of the 80s and 90s, is making headlines once again after being brought by a fan-led consortium who have big plans for the brand. The Commodore C64 remains the best-selling desktop computer of all time - Guinness World Records say 12.5 million of them were sold between 1982 and 1994, before the company went bankrupt. We’ll be talking to the new CEO of Commodore, and hearing about their plans to be a digital detox brand.
And eBay is turning 30 soon, but how has it changed how we buy and sell, and what impact has that had on the high street?
Presenter – Peter White
Producer – Dave James
WED 12:57 Weather (m002hb67)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m002hb69)
Where next for asylum seekers in hotels?
Tough choices for the Home Office after a court ruling that an Essex hotel should close. Plus, inflation rises to nearly double the Bank of England target. Our celebration of British crafts continues. And the pioneering BBC drama series Play for Today is due to return - this time on Channel 5.
WED 13:45 New Storytellers (m002hb6c)
The T-Shirt
The T-shirt has been kept at the bottom of a drawer for 15 years. Jenny's bedroom is a mess. To make space for her partner, a clear out is definitely needed. The history and dark significance of the T-shirt is shared... and this time, the feelings it holds are handled with care.
New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features the winners of the Charles Parker Prize 2025 for the Best Student Radio Feature. Jenny Davies made her prize-winning feature ‘The T-Shirt’ as part of an ‘In the Dark’ summer course and the judges called it “an incredibly powerful, poignant listen…a small masterpiece…beautifully written, delivered and constructed with an inevitable climax that’s a remarkable section of scripted audio.”
This feature contains references to sexual assault. If you have been affected by the issues raised in this programme contact the BBC Action Line - www.bbc.co.uk/actionline
Producer: Jenny Davies
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
WED 14:00 The Archers (m002h9wm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002hb6f)
Balls
Ella’s got ADHD burnout, has walked out of her summer exams, and now won’t leave her room. Through the door her mum Ceri can hear her listening to endless football podcasts, playing FIFA, devouring anything about the Women’s Euros.
As Ceri tries to support, she struggles to hold things together herself. Might football offer a way to help them through?
Writer... Siân Owen
Ceri... Sophie Melville
Ella... Mia Khan
Lou... Bethan-Mary James
Cass... Nadia Wyn Abouayen
Betsan... Melanie Walters
Mr Gittens/ Steve... Matthew Gravelle
Gail... Maggie Service
Sound Design... Nigel Lewis
Production Co-Ordinator... Lindsay Rees
Directed and produced by Fay Lomas, BBC Audio Drama Wales
WED 15:00 Politically (m002g4pb)
Reflections: Series 3
Malcolm Rifkind
Edinburgh-born former lawyer Sir Malcolm Rifkind was first elected as a Conservative MP in 1974. A former Defence and Foreign Secretary, he served continuously as a minister for 18 years under Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
In conversation with James Naughtie, he looks back on his relationship with the 'Iron Lady', meeting Mikhail Gorbachev, the poll tax controversy, Tory Brexit wars and the personal side of political life.
Producer: Leela Padmanabhan
WED 15:30 The Hidden History of the Attic (m001l8yv)
Rachel Hurdley climbs up into the attic to discover the hidden meanings behind this shadowy and mysterious part of the home.
The attic can be a strange part of the house – somewhere which is rarely visited and often forgotten. But it can also be a place to preserve precious memories, a refuge, or even somewhere a bit sinister.
Rachel reveals the many uses to which attics have been put over the centuries and what this tells us about our history and changes in society.
Attics are a relatively recent development and Rachel starts at the 16th-century King’s House within the walls of the Tower of London. The building has some of the earliest attics in the country and she finds out about the social changes which led to this innovation in domestic architecture.
But it wasn’t long before people realised that, as well as being handy for storage, attics could be the perfect hiding place. At Harvington Hall, Rachel uncovers the role that the Hall’s attics played in the religious turmoil of Elizabethan England.
As well as being used for storage or living, attics have often provided working space. Rachel travels to Newtown in mid-Wales to see the attics of an unusual early factory and hears about the arduous working lives of the weavers who toiled there.
The 19th century saw something of a heyday for the attic. The Victorians were all too aware of social class and this meant that servants (and sometimes children) could be banished to attic bedrooms and nurseries. But this was also the height of the Industrial Revolution, with factories mass producing all manner of goods. People suddenly had far more ‘stuff’ – and of course they needed somewhere to put it all. At Scotney Castle in Kent, Rachel explores the attics of a grand country house whose owners spent more than a hundred years cramming them with thousands of objects.
And what of the attic today? In an age of smaller houses, loft conversions and flats, how do we cope without an attic? Rachel enters the world of self-storage where you can store as much as you like for as long as you like.
As she picks through the attic’s contents, Rachel also considers how writers have used attics as a sometimes sinister setting for their characters, and the psychology of what we choose to keep in our attics.
Interviewees:
Sonia Solicari, Director of The Museum of the Home
Jonathan Glancey, Architectural Writer and Historian
James Wright of Triskele Heritage, spoke at the King’s House, Tower of London
Phil Downing, Hall and Programmes Manager, Harvington Hall
Lola Jaye, Author of The Attic Child
John Evans, Curator, Newtown Textile Museum
Helen Davis, Collections and House Manager, Scotney Castle
Sophie Bagnall, Marketing Director, Attic Self Storage
Presenter: Rachel Hurdley
Producer: Louise Adamson
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:00 Human Intelligence (m0026ppb)
Disruptors: Malcolm X
While in prison, Malcolm X read furiously after lights-out and changed his entire life trajectory. Naomi Alderman looks at his extraordinary capacity for learning. Prominent as a black nationalist, skilled orator and remarkable organiser in the black freedom struggle in mid-20th century America, Malcolm X was, above all, a learner – a thinker prepared to change his mind. He left hustling behind for a Spartan, ascetic existence, dedicated to the cause.
Special thanks to Clarence Lang, Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts and Professor of African American studies at Penn State.
Excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley (Penguin Modern Classics 2001).
Produced by BBC Studios Audio in partnership with The Open University.
Presenter: Naomi Alderman
Executive editor: James Cook
Assistant producer: Sarah Goodman
Researcher: Harry Burton
Production coordinator: Amelia Paul
Script consultant: Sara Joyner
WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002hb6h)
Trading off the news, Edinburgh TV Festival, how the global media covered White House peace talks
Ros Atkins talks to Hollywood insider and founder of the digital media company Puck Matt Belloni and Camilla Lewis from Curve Media at the Edinburgh TV Festival. Sam Koppelman from Hunterbrook Media on his new business model to trade off the news and how has the global media covered the Ukraine peace talks at the White House. It was the first day in her new role as US Editor for Channel 4 News for Anushka Asthana for the summit which included a unprecendented delegation of European leaders. We also talk to Ekaterina Kotrikadze news director and anchor at TV Rain about Russian media coverage.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
WED 17:00 PM (m002hb6k)
More councils could sue to close migrant hotels
Former DPP Lord Macdonald says international law should be rewritten to limit asylum claims. And we speak to a retired colonel, 75, arrested on a Palestine Action protest.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002hb6m)
More councils signal they will take legal action to stop local hotels housing asylum seekers
A number of councils have signalled they will follow Epping Forest in Essex by taking legal action to stop hotels housing asylum seekers. Also: A former evangelical priest in Sheffield is found guilty of sexually assaulting women in his group in the 1980s and 1990s. And the Welsh Rugby Union has insisted that cutting the number of professional clubs from four to two is the "radical step" needed to save the game in Wales.
WED 18:30 Thanks a Lot, Milton Jones! (m0017kb1)
Series 5
The Repair Bear Bunch
Inspired by Pauline's favourite teddy bear, Milton opens a cherished items repair shop, but soon discovers he's bitten off more than he can mend.
Mention Milton Jones to most people and the first thing they think is ‘Help!’. Because each week Milton and his trusty assistant Anton (played by Milton regular, Tom Goodman-Hill) set out to help people and soon find they’re embroiled in a new adventure. When you’re close to the edge, Milton can give you a push...
“Milton Jones is one of Britain’s best gagsmiths with a flair for creating daft yet perfect one-liners” – The Guardian.
“King of the surreal one-liners” - The Times
“If you haven’t caught up with Jones yet – do so!” – The Daily Mail
Written by Milton with James Cary (Bluestone 42, Miranda), and Dan Evans (who co-wrote Milton’s Channel 4 show House Of Rooms), the man they call “Britain’s funniest Milton" returns to the radio with a fully-working cast and a shipload of new jokes.
The cast includes regulars Tom Goodman-Hill ( Spamalot, Mr. Selfridge) as the ever-faithful Anton, Josie Lawrence and Dan Tetsell (Peep Show, Upstart Crow)
With music by Guy Jackson.
Produced and Directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m002hb6p)
Jazzer tells Chelsea he isn’t in the mood for socialising, but can’t get out of going to the driving range with Martyn. Chelsea then suggests tagging along with Zainab – they’ll make Martyn regret ever asking Jazzer. At the range Martyn explains tediously how to hit the ball, only for Zainab to drive it beautifully on her first attempt. Unlike Jazzer she has a natural talent for golf. Chelsea though is low in self-confidence after Amber’s insults, Martyn unwittingly adding to this by damning her with faint praise. Nevertheless Zainab and Chelsea console Martyn over being dumped by Marlene, advising him to focus on his wellbeing.
Ironically, Jazzer then gets upset when he finds out Martyn hasn’t invited him next time, presuming Martyn thinks he’s rubbish. But Tracy knows better. Thinking of Ash, she reckons they should appreciate what they’ve got, because you never know how long it will last.
Tracy scoffs at the idea of Jazzer doing cold water swimming. Freddie too thinks it would be a sight to see. They are both despondent about the cricket team’s latest defeat, despite Henry’s promising performance with the bat. They just need to build up his confidence to bowl as well. Later, during practice, Tracy complains about tweaking a muscle strain, while Freddie encourages Henry to bowl shorter and faster, worried that he might be holding back for some reason. Tracy’s pleased Chelsea’s got a new hobby: playing golf with Zainab, Jazzer and Martyn. Freddie jokes about the late-night emotional support Tracy’s been giving Martyn, but Tracy feels sorry for him.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m002hb6r)
Indigenous Australian didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton performs live
Theatre producer Nica Burns, who has run the Edinburgh Comedy Awards since 1984, and judge Ashley Davies discuss the acts shortlisted for this year's prize, the most prestigious annual award for comedy in the UK, which has previously been won by the likes of Steve Coogan, Jenny Eclair, The League of Gentlemen and Tim Minchin.
The founder of theatre company Complicité, Simon McBurney, who himself won that award back in 1985, joins us in the studio to talk about Figures In Extinction, a collaboration with Nederlands Dans Theater and acclaimed choreographer Crystal Pite, which addresses urgent questions about climate change.
Writer and performer Edgar Jacques of Teater Cego in Brazil and actor and stand-up comedian Jasmine Thien discuss their theatre productions - Another Sight and I Dream In Colour - which draw on their experiences of blindness.
And ahead of a performance at the Edinburgh International Festival, indigenous Australian didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton performs live in the Front Row studio.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan
WED 20:00 AntiSocial (m002h09g)
Asylum hotels
Anger has flared outside hotels used to house asylum seekers. Protestors say they are worried about illegal migration, cost to the taxpayer and a lack of consultation, but one issue seems to spark even more concern - the safety of women and children. Opponents have accused protestors of racism and whipping up hate.
Is there any evidence that asylum seekers are more likely to commit sexual offences? We trace the clamour for more data to answer that question.
Police have been given new guidance on disclosing the ethnicity and nationality of suspects in criminal cases - especially high profile ones. What might be the effect?
And why are so many asylum seekers currently housed in hotels anyway? We hear how the system is supposed to work and how it’s evolved.
Presenter: Adam Fleming
Producers: Simon Tulett, Natasha Fernandes, Emma Close and Tom Gillett
Editor: Penny Murphy
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Studio engineer: Annie Gardiner
WED 20:45 Café Hope (m00237gq)
Pick you up post
Rachel Burden hears from Alison Hitchcock and Brian Greenley, who started From Me to You, where people write letters to strangers with cancer to try to reduce the loneliness associated with the disease.
The idea came from when Brian was diagnosed with bowel cancer and Alison started writing to him to try to cheer him up during his treatment. They say that receiving a letter, even from someone you don’t know, can form a connection and bring comfort in a worrying time.
Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell Rachel Burden what they’re doing to make things better in big and small ways. You can contact us on cafehope@bbc.co.uk
WED 21:00 Walt Disney: A Life in Films (p0fxbtc1)
8. Disneyland
Through the stories of ten of his greatest works, Mel Giedroyc examines the life of Walt Disney, a much mythologised genius. A man to whom storytelling was an escape from an oppressive father and a respite from periods of depression.
His name is truly iconic, but how much do we really know about this titan of the entertainment industry? Who was the real Walt and why did a man who moulded Western pop culture in his image end up on his deathbed, afraid that he’d be forgotten?
In this episode, Mel tells the tale of Walt’s most outlandish project to date, a project that would see his magic leap off the screens. This is the story of Disneyland, one of Walt’s most personal triumphs.
During the construction phase, Walt applied a “spare no expense” approach, determined to create a magical kingdom that was truly extraordinary. A building project like no other, Disneyland would revolutionise the idea of the American amusement park, make the Disney company financially viable at last and allow fans from all over the world to engage with and celebrate Walt’s creations.
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 21:30 Inside Health (m002h9vq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Tuesday]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m002hb6v)
Israel says Gaza City offensive has begun
Israel's military says it's in the first stage of a new offensive to capture and occupy Gaza City, and has authorised the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists. One reservist who's refused to serve tells us many more will do the same.
Also tonight:
The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has released a letter telling Tory council leaders to fight asylum hotels in their areas. As the government comes under growing pressure over asylum, we discuss whether international laws on refugees need to be rethought.
And the feud brewing in the remotest reaches of the UK: with two Scottish islands claiming the title of the “UK’s most remote inhabited island”, a resident from each of them will make their case.
WED 22:45 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (m002hb6x)
Episode Three
Crooked Cross was first published in 1934 and was based on Sally Carson’s first-hand experience of travelling through Bavaria where she witnessed the inexorable and devastating rise of fascism and antisemitism. Long out of print it was discovered by Persephone Books and republished in 2025.
We are in Bavaria in a small provincial town outside Munich. There, on Christmas Eve of 1932, we first meet the Kluger family, a happy band of Frau and Herr Kluger, and their three grown up children, Helmy, Lexa and Eric. Life is not always easy: jobs are scarce, money is tight; they are living under the shadow of defeat in the Great War. But by 1933 Hitler has won the election and become chancellor and everything is about to change for all of them. None more so than for Moritz Weissmann, Lexa’s fiancé, a young Catholic doctor but with a Jewish name, who first and foremost thought of himself as German. But now his country is starting to turn against him.
'Too much power and too sudden power makes men lose all sense of proportion: blood turns such men into madmen.'
Sally Carson’s novel explores how relationships between family, friends, lovers and neighbours all begin to subtly shift until confidence in the new fascist regime and the hope it offers empowers, gives licence, to many to commit atrocities that would eventually lead to another World War and the Holocaust.
The setting of a very ordinary small town allows Carson to chart how over six months this can happen against the backdrop of catastrophic political upheaval. Carson was only 38 when she died in 1941 of breast cancer, so she never lived to see the end of the war which makes Crooked Cross and her foresight even more extraordinary.
'It doesn’t seem like propaganda and it makes you feel that grim sense of uncertainty and fear which must come upon any people under a rule of terror.' The Saturday Review August 1934
Sally Carson wrote two sequels both still out of print: The Prisoner published in 1936 and A Traveller Came By published in 1938. But despite the excellent reviews for Crooked Cross (which also enjoyed a successful theatrical adaptation) all three books, and their author disappeared. Until now.
This episode contains antisemitic language.
Reader: Scarlett Courtney
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Caroline Raphael
Production Co-ordinator: Henry Tydeman and Nina Semple
Sound by Matt Bainbridge
Recorded at Fitzrovia Studios
Crooked Cross is published by Persephone Books.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:00 Stand-Up Specials (m002hb6z)
Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Dying
3. Coffin Up the Cash
Stuart has hired the same undertaker 6 times for family members - so you think by now he would have learnt how to pronounce the word funeral! This episode takes you through the different options available and might just have you reconsidering that cardboard coffin.
When it seems like everything is getting more expensive; comedian, former banker and serial funeral-organiser Stuart Mitchell breaks down the true Cost of Dying. Using his own experience Stuart aims to find out if can we even afford to kick the bucket? You’ll learn so much about the hidden costs of dying, you may well decide not to bother doing it!
Written and Performed by Stuart Mitchell
Producer: Lauren Mackay
Sound: Andy Hay and Chris Currie
WED 23:15 Njambi McGrath: Becoming Njambi (m00108c1)
Confrontation
Kenyan-born comedian Njambi McGrath goes on a challenging journey of self-discovery, as she traces the roots of her upbringing and the British influences that shaped her life.
In this episode, Njambi revisits the confrontations that changed her and her families lives forever, before moving to Britain and engaging in an all too familiar culture.
Produced by Julia Sutherland
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 Illuminated (m0024626)
Rebirth
When Clive Hammond was 31, he had a cardiac arrest. His heart stopped for eight minutes. But he can't remember any of it.
What happens when the heart stops - and then what happens next?
Clive sets out to piece together what happened to him. He speaks to his wife Victoria about what went on while he was unconscious, and the impact it had on their lives. He compares notes with fellow cardiac arrest survivor Meg Fozzard about what it's like to have a cardiac arrest as a young person. Former head of first responders at London Ambulance Chris Hartley-Sharpe tells him what goes on in the body during a cardiac arrest, and how they can affect medical professionals afterwards. And he hears the incredible story of Steve Morris, who started carrying a defibrillator in his car after having a cardiac arrest - and then used it to help save someone else's life.
Presenter: Clive Hammond
Producer: Lucy Burns
Editor: Clare Fordham
Technical production: Richard Hannaford
THURSDAY 21 AUGUST 2025
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m002hb72)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 Beyond Lonely (m0029yxk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002hb76)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002hb79)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
THU 05:00 News Summary (m002hb7c)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:04 Sideways (m002hb5v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002hb7f)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002hb7h)
A good run
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Dr Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity
Good morning. The best thing that I have done for myself in the last year is beginning to run. My husband runs regularly, and I have long envied the freedom it offers him. I can see how elated he is by running, and how it allows him to spend more time out of doors. I was quite convinced that if I started, I would give up on running because I would feel discouraged by being slow, or that I’d injure myself.
Eventually I decided that I would give it a try. In October last year, I joined a Jog Scotland group that offered a weekly couch-to-5k programme. I signed up with no small amount of trepidation. I’ve never been a very sporty person, and while I love taking long walks, I spend a lot of time stopping to identify flowers, look at birds, and take photos, so it’s never been a very high-energy activity. I went along nervously to the first run, sure that I would decide that it wasn’t for me. Instead, I found that I love it. After I completed couch-to-5k, I joined a follow-on running group, and every week I enjoy the companionship and pleasure of a social run. I’ve run 5k races with friends, and I love the camaraderie of Park Runs, where you don’t compete against other runners – you just turn up and see how you get on that week, competing against yourself or just enjoying the chance to move on a Saturday morning. I relish the exhilaration of solo runs too – especially if I have the chance to run by the sea. I’ve signed up to my first 10k race in September, something I never thought I’d do.
Loving God, in whom ‘we live, and move, and have our being’, thank you for the joy of movement and the courage to try new things. Inspire us to keep learning and growing throughout our lives. Amen.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m002hb7k)
21/08/25 Bird flu and game birds, bluetongue, peat-free salad trials, David Richardson remembered
New rules on game birds are being introduced in England after warnings of a 'heightened risk' of avian flu. The Government says there have been more new cases, particularly in coastal areas and places with a significant number of shoots. English shoots will now have to introduce stricter biosecurity, for instance cleaning and covering feed and water to protect them from wild bird droppings, which can spread the infection, disinfecting vehicles and keeping records of any visits.
Rules on moving animals in and out of Scotland are being eased, they were introduced to help control bluetongue and stop the disease moving from England into Scotland. Bluetongue is a virus, spread by biting midges which affects sheep, cattle and goats but not humans. The whole of England became a restricted area earlier this year which meant that animals moving into Wales and Scotland faced costly pre-movement tests. Welsh rules have been relaxed and from next month the rules on animals going into Scotland will also change.
Removing peat from commercial veg production is proving problematic. Despite successive Governments intending to ban peat from horticulture, there's currently no date set. Growers are battling to overcome practical issues with peat free compost, particularly where salad crops are concerned. We visit field trials where tomatoes and lettuce are being grown without peat.
Farmer, journalist and broadcaster David Richardson has died at the age of 87. Alongside running his own farm in Norfolk he wrote for newspapers, the farming press, presented on TV and presented, and contributed to Farming Today. He also became the first presenter of our long-running sister programme On Your Farm.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
THU 06:00 Today (m002hb8k)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Artworks (m002hb8m)
What Happened to Counter-Culture?
3. Beauty in the Streets
More than just a cultural trend – counter-culture became a social movement so powerful it shaped institutions, businesses, politics and the attitudes and aspirations of whole generations – including everything from haircuts to voting choices. In fact, it became so prevalent that it’s sometimes hard to remember how things have changed under its influence.
Comedian Stewart Lee presents a five-part series exploring the evolution and key ideas that have driven counter-culture from its beginnings with the Beats, folk and jazz in the 1950s, to its heights in the 1960s and 70s - including the hippies and the early tech-communalists, the new liberation movements and punk, to the 1980s and early 90s, where political power on both sides of the Atlantic pushed back against the values of the ‘permissive society’.
Talking to artists, musicians, writers, activists and historians, Stewart continues to the present day asking where we are now, in the digital age of social media silos and the so-called ‘culture wars’ – what’s happened to counter-culture? Was it co-opted, did it sell out? Or did its ideas of freedom and identity become so entrenched within mainstream culture it’s legacy has become unassailable? Or has it migrated politically to the Right? Throughout the series, the counter-culture is explored not only in terms of its history, extraordinary cultural output and key events – but also its deeper political and philosophical impact, its continued meaning for our own age.
Leading to the revolt and turbulence of May 68 in Paris, London and around the world, this episode explores how the ‘revolution in the head’ fuses with the revolution in the streets as counter-culture becomes more expressly political and actively dangerous to the forces of order. From attempts to levitate the Pentagon in Washington to organising conferences on liberation and violence in London, Stewart investigates the influence of the Avant Garde in the politics of ‘68 in Paris, of the flourishing of Black counter-culture and free jazz in America, especially the work of musician Sun Ra. ‘Happenings’ in London become more participatory and political, anticipating future technologies – even as the new tech-communalists of the West Coast dream of a fully networked planet, laying the foundations for the internet in the name of a non-hierarchical counter-culture.
Contributors include musician Damon Albarn and artist Hazel Albarn, author Iain Sinclair, journalist and author John Harris, founding member of Blondie and specialist on counter-culture and the occult Gary Lachman, poet Sonia Sanchez, author and critic Kevin Le Gendre, artist Nelly Ben Hayoun, French historian Richard Vinen, writer on cyber-culture Fred Turner and author-musician Robyn Hitchcock.
Presenter: Stewart Lee
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4
THU 09:30 Across the Red Line (m002hb8p)
Series 8
Anne McElvoy explores rising UK defence spending with military and anti-nuclear voices in sharp disagreement.
Anne McElvoy presents Across the Red Line, the programme where opposing voices meet, not just to debate, but to interrogate assumptions and listen across the divide. This episode tackles one of the biggest recent shifts in UK policy: defence spending.
The Starmer government has announced an £8 billion increase in the military budget over two years, the largest in a generation. Defence is now set to become one of the fastest-growing areas of public spending, rivaling core services and outpacing inflation. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has framed the move as essential for national resilience, economic growth, and global stability.
But is this surge in spending a necessary response to global threats, or a dangerous prioritisation of militarism over social investment?
Joining Anne are Major General Jonathan Shaw former Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff, who supports the increase, and Sophie Bolt, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, who strongly opposes it. Together, they explore the values, risks, and realities behind Britain’s new defence strategy.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002hb8r)
Jess Folley, Boudicca's Daughter, Alzheimer's research
Jess Folley has been a popstar for almost a decade and she's still only 22. At 14 she won The Voice Kids and later triumphed on X Factor: The Band, with pop group RLY. Since then she's been carving out a career as a songwriter and releasing music under her own name. Jess tells Datshiane Navanayagam about stepping into the corset and heels made famous by Christina Aguilera to play the lead role of Ali Rose in Burlesque the Musical in the West End.
Women whose data was leaked after they signed up to a dating safety app have become the target of harassment online. Tea Dating Advice, or Tea as it’s known, was set up in the US with a view to allowing women-only-users to do background checks and share their experiences of men they had been dating. But a data breach has seen images, posts and comments from more than 70,000 women who signed up leaked. Datshiane speaks to BBC World Service reporter Jacqui Wakefield and sociologist Dr Jenny van Hooff about the risks of online dating.
Research has been published which could pave the way for reducing the incidence of Alzheimer's in women. It shows women with the disease have lower levels of omega fatty acids than men. There's been debate about whether we should be taking fish oil supplements for some time, so will this answer the question? Datshiane is joined by Dr Cristina Legido Quigley, the lead researcher for this study from Kings College London and Dr Susan Kohlhaas from Alzheimer's Research UK which helped fund the work.
Former journalist-turned-bestselling-author Elodie Harper has gained a reputation for re-drafting ancient history to centre the women hidden in the margins. Her trilogy The Wolf Den breathed life into the prostituted, enslaved women whose names can still be seen graffitied on the walls of the brothel at Pompeii. Elodie talks to Datshiane about her latest book, Boudicca's Daughter, in which she’s turned her imagination to ancient Britain and the women who rose up against Roman rule in the First Century AD, led by the warrior queen Boudicca.
Presenter: Datshiane Navanayagam
Producer: Andrea Kidd
THU 11:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m002fxn5)
Series 33
Illuminating Light - Jess Wade, Russell Foster and Bridget Christie
What is light? How has it shaped our understanding of the universe, our biology, and even our culture?
In this illuminating episode Brian Cox and Robin Ince shine a spotlight on the fascinating science and history of light. From sun and circadian rhythms to the dazzling complexity of quantum, they explore how humans have understood and been influenced by light across time.
Joining them to shed light on the subject are physicist Dr Jess Wade, Neuroscientist Professor Russell Foster and comedian Bridget Christie. Together, they trace the story of light from early scientific theories to the cutting-edge research of today. Expect tales of light emitting eyes, the mystery of wave-particle duality and why Bridget thinks that if we had understood light better, we’d never have believed in ghosts!
Series Producer: Melanie Brown
Assistant Producer: Olivia Jani
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
BBC Studios Audio Production
THU 11:45 Beyond Lonely (m0029zng)
All the Lonely People
Jason Arday credits his Mum Gifty for bringing him out of himself and encouraging him to socialise and learn from others. As his parents age he considers loneliness in later life and how he might take steps to overcome his own sense of it as he grows older.
In hearing from other people, including Amy Perrin founder of the loneliness charity The Marmalade Trust and 63-year-old Phil, he hopes to gain tools to guard against isolation.
Presenter Jason Arday is Professor of the Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge
Producer: Maggie Ayre
THU 12:00 News Summary (m002hb8v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Scam Secrets (m002hb8x)
Fake Company In Your House
A letter arrives at your home - addressed to a company you've never heard of. Would you know what to do?
Criminals are registering companies at innocent people's addresses at a shocking scale - sometimes covering an entire street at a time. In this episode, Shari Vahl, Dr Elisabeth Carter and former fraudster Alex Wood find out the alarming consequences if your home is targeted - and how to fight back.
Fake companies expert Graham Barrow joins the programme to explain what the criminals are after, and to discuss whether Companies House's latest crackdown is working.
PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL
PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002hb8z)
Smart Doorbells
Is it worth getting a Smart Doorbell?
Greg Foot pushes all the right buttons as he gathers consumer and crime experts to get answers for listener Derek, who's keen to learn more about the various features, prices and security elements in the growing market of smart doorbells.
Each episode Greg investigates the latest ad-hyped products and trending fads promising to make us healthier, happier and greener. Are they really 'the best thing since sliced bread' and should you spend your money on them?
This episode is the last in the current series of Sliced Bread, but we're hungry for your suggestions so we can prepare another batch! If you’ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk OR send a voice note to our WhatsApp number, 07543 306807.
RESEARCHER: PHIL SANSOM
PRODUCERS: SIMON HOBAN AND GREG FOOT
THU 12:57 Weather (m002hb91)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m002hb93)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
THU 13:45 New Storytellers (m002hb95)
Ukraine to Scotland: A Musical Journey
A creatively moving musical feature which tells the story of Sofiia, a 16 year old refugee from Ukraine, and her escape from her war-torn homeland to a music technology course in a Scottish university. A personal perspective of a teenager caught up in war.
This series of New Storytellers is presenting the winners of the Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature 2025. This award-winning feature was created by Sofiia Fylypiv who is studying for a Higher National Certificate at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Perth. According to the judges her feature was “thought-provoking, emotionally engaging, with highly skilled radio production values for one so young and totally original use of music…this feature showed expressiveness, storytelling skill, combined with subtle mix of music and effects…. Moving, memorable and quite dazzling.”
Producer: Sofiia Fylypiv
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
THU 14:00 The Archers (m002hb6p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001d5hd)
Susan and Sam
Susan’s dad died on the day she was born and all her life she’s felt his absence. But then she meets an elderly man called Sam. And Sam seems to think that Susan is his daughter.
Comedy drama about an unlikely friendship from writer-performer Faebian Averies, starring David Hargreaves, Gaby French and Keiron Self.
CAST
Susan…..Faebian Averies
Sam…..David Hargreaves
Liz…..Gaby French
Martin…..Keiron Self
All other parts…..Laura Dalgleish and Richard Sumitro
Production co-ordinator…..Lindsay Rees
Sound design…..Nigel Lewis
Directed by Emma Harding, BBC Audio Wales
THU 15:00 Open Country (m002hb97)
Aeolian harps on Wicken Fen
Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire is one of the few remaining fragments of England’s original fenland. A place loved by naturalists for generations, it was Victorian botanists and entomologists who led the efforts to ensure the land was entrusted to the National Trust, which has protected it for 125 years.
Today, Wicken Fen is a thriving mosaic of flowering meadows, sedge and reedbeds. It is one of the most species-rich areas in Britain, home to endangered species such as the crane, bittern, marsh harrier and great crested newt.
Martha Kearney explores the unique history and ecology of this remarkable landscape alongside sound artist Kathy Hinde. Together, they craft a handheld aeolian harp – a stringed instrument played solely by the wind. Kathy Hinde has created sound sculptures across Wicken Fen to celebrate 125 years of this special place, called 'Listen to the Voices of the Fen'.
Martha also meets local volunteer Gerard Smallwood, who demonstrates how the last surviving wooden windpump in the Fens, an iconic piece of machinery, is now used to re-wet the land. Ajay Tegala, a National Trust warden, shares recent wildlife sightings, offering a glimpse into the lives that flourish in this delicate ecosystem.
Producer: Eliza Lomas
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m002h9mk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Word of Mouth (m002hb99)
Speech difficulties
Michael Rosen asks what happens to people's sense of identity and social being when speaking becomes hard. Jonathan Cole has interviewed people with conditions such as cerebral palsy, vocal cord palsy, spasmodic dysphonia and post-stroke aphasia. They describe in their own words what the experience of not being able to express themselves is like, the frustration and isolation as well as the adaptation and resilience.
Jonathan Cole is the author of Hard Talk: When Speech Is Difficult and a consultant in Clinical Neurophysiology at University Hospitals, Dorset.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea, in partnership with the Open University.
Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz
THU 16:00 The Briefing Room (m002hb9c)
UK Resilience 2: How prepared are we for cyber threats?
From councils disrupted by ransomware, leaked defence data or individuals duped by deep fakes, the UK faces increasing cyber threats. David Aaronovitch asks his guests how prepared we are - whether as government defending critical infrastructure or as individuals guarding our digital identities.
Guests:
Sadie Creese, Professor of Cyber Security in the department of computer science, Oxford University
Dr Aybars Tuncdogan, Associate Professor in digital innovation and information security, Kings College, London
Emily Taylor, CEO of Oxford Information Labs and Associate Fellow, Chatham House
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Ben Carter, Sally Abrahams and Kirsteen Knight
Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
Sound Engineers: Dave O’Neill and James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m002hb9f)
Could solar panels in space be the energy source of the future?
As new research looks at the financial and environmental case for solar panels in space, we explore how likely the technology could be to power our future energy needs back on Earth.
Marnie Chesterton hears from the author of a new study into the topic, Dr Wei He from King’s College London, and is joined by Professor Henry Snaith from Oxford University to look at the future of solar panel technology.
We also hear from conservation scientist Adam Hart about his views on whether allowing trophy hunting could actually help to protect threatened species in the long term.
Marnie also speaks to the author of one of the books shortlisted for the annual Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize, Simon Parkin. His book, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, explores the story of the botanists working at the world’s first seed bank during World War Two, and the extraordinary lengths they went to to protect the specimens they were keeping. We also hear from one of the judges of the awards, the crime writer Val McDermid.
And science journalist Caroline Steel joins us to highlights the week’s most fascinating new pieces of research.
THU 17:00 PM (m002hb9h)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002hb9k)
A record 111,000 asylum applications were made to the UK in the year to June
Figures from the Home Office show that there were a record number of asylum applications made last year. Also: Teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland open their GCSE and BTEC results. And the celebrity judge, Frank Caprio, has died at the age of 88.
THU 18:30 Tim Key's Poetry Programme (m001y278)
Series 6
4. Wild West
The team hit the road in an Americana special, with guest stars Morgana Robinson and Simon Armstrong.
A poetry show like no other – over the course of 6 series Key has performed magic, music, cookery and witchcraft; he’s delivered a baby, gone underground, up the Shard and into space.
And sometimes he finds time to read poems.
This series, regulars Tom Basden and Katy Wix are joined by guest stars Stephen Merchant, Lolly Adefope, Mike Wozniak, Sam Campbell, Simon Armstrong and Morgana Robinson.
Written and presented by Tim Key
Produced by James Robinson
A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4
An EcoAudio certified production
THU 19:00 The Archers (m002hb9m)
Amber clears the air with Brad, after George told her he doesn’t want any hard feelings with Chelsea. They share stories of being bullied at school, before Amber agrees to forgive Chelsea, adding that George is looking for forgiveness too. When they go to the Tearoom Amber tells Chelsea she regrets the way she behaved, before asking Chelsea to admit she’s ashamed about what happened at school. Chelsea does and apologises to Amber who reckons Chelsea and Brad are lucky to have each other.
While watching Martha at the playground Chris admits to Fallon that living with his parents is driving him mad. When Fallon asks if there’s any coconut milk amongst the excess stock Chris invites her to meet him at Ambridge View. Ed then asks Fallon if she can make the date for the swim in Buttermere, before Fallon admits she hasn’t swum for over a year and has a panic reaction whenever she goes near water. Ed apologises, feeling stupid for not realising how difficult it would be for Fallon.
Later, when Fallon sees just how crammed with stock Ambridge View is, she offers to put Chris and Martha up at Woodbine Cottage. Then Ed catches Fallon at The Bull and she agrees she’ll go and watch Ed and Jazzer do the swim, before Chris tells Fallon he’d really like to move in with Martha, so long as Harrison’s okay with it. Fallon says they’re very welcome, because Harrison’s job has been extended and he won’t be coming back until it’s finished.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m002hb9p)
Review: Historical TV epic King and Conqueror, and Boudicca's Daughter by Elodie Harper
Critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Medieval English Literature lecturer Dr Eleanor Parker join Samira Ahmed to discuss the BBC’s historical epic King and Conqueror starring James Norton. They’ve also read Boudicca’s Daughter by Elodie Harper, and watched Young Mothers by the award-winning filmmakers the Dardenne Brothers.
Plus Samira talks to artistic director Seán Doran about the Arts Over Borders project FrielDays, which over the course of five years will celebrate work of dramatist Brian Friel by staging all 29 of his plays either side of the Irish border.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Claire Bartleet
THU 20:00 Human Intelligence (m0026ppb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Wednesday]
THU 20:15 The Media Show (m002hb6h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:15 on Wednesday]
THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m002h9gn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
THU 21:45 One to One (m001tgkv)
Parenting advice in the age of social media: Samira Shackle and Helen Oliver
Since becoming a parent to a now-toddler, Samira Shackle has been bombarded with advice on social media - sometimes useful, sometimes not-so. She meets Helen Oliver, mother to two teenagers and school counsellor, to discuss navigating this online world and the affect it has on mothers, in particular.
Samira Shackle is a journalist and the author of Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Contested City.
Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002hb9r)
The Gaza students hoping to be evacuated to the UK
More than 80 Palestinian students have received offers from UK universities. For some there is uncertainty over whether they can come, but we'll speak to one, Mohamed, who has been told that he will soon be evacuated.
THU 22:45 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (m002hb9t)
Episode Four
Crooked Cross was first published in 1934 and was based on Sally Carson’s first-hand experience of travelling through Bavaria where she witnessed the inexorable and devastating rise of fascism and antisemitism. Long out of print it was discovered by Persephone Books and republished in 2025.
We are in Bavaria in a small provincial town outside Munich. There, on Christmas Eve of 1932, we first meet the Kluger family, a happy band of Frau and Herr Kluger, and their three grown up children, Helmy, Lexa and Eric. Life is not always easy: jobs are scarce, money is tight; they are living under the shadow of defeat in the Great War. But by 1933 Hitler has won the election and become chancellor and everything is about to change for all of them. None more so than for Moritz Weissmann, Lexa’s fiancé, a young Catholic doctor but with a Jewish name, who first and foremost thought of himself as German. But now his country is starting to turn against him.
'Too much power and too sudden power makes men lose all sense of proportion: blood turns such men into madmen.'
Sally Carson’s novel explores how relationships between family, friends, lovers and neighbours all begin to subtly shift until confidence in the new fascist regime and the hope it offers empowers, gives licence, to many to commit atrocities that would eventually lead to another World War and the Holocaust.
The setting of a very ordinary small town allows Carson to chart how over six months this can happen against the backdrop of catastrophic political upheaval. Carson was only 38 when she died in 1941 of breast cancer, so she never lived to see the end of the war which makes Crooked Cross and her foresight even more extraordinary.
'It doesn’t seem like propaganda and it makes you feel that grim sense of uncertainty and fear which must come upon any people under a rule of terror.' The Saturday Review August 1934
Sally Carson wrote two sequels both still out of print: The Prisoner published in 1936 and A Traveller Came By published in 1938. But despite the excellent reviews for Crooked Cross (which also enjoyed a successful theatrical adaptation) all three books, and their author disappeared. Until now.
Reader: Scarlett Courtney
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Caroline Raphael
Production Co-ordinator: Henry Tydeman and Nina Semple
Sound by Matt Bainbridge
Recorded at Fitzrovia Studios
Crooked Cross is published by Persephone Books.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:00 The Edinburgh Comedy Awards Gala 2025 (m002hb9w)
The Edinburgh Comedy Awards Gala 2025
Comedy fans can catch the nominees for The Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2025 in this showcase for BBC Radio 4.
The prestigious Awards turns 45 this year and is recognising a Best Newcomer and a Best Show. In this gala, hosted by 2024 Best Show winner Amy Gledhill, we'll hear from all the nominees to give listeners around the UK the chance to hear the cream of this year’s Edinburgh crop. The gala was recorded at the Gilded Balloon, one of the Edinburgh Fringe’s iconic comedy venues.
Nominated for Best Show are:
Ian Smith, Katie Norris, Ed Night, Sam Jay, John Tothill, Sam Nicoresti, Creepy Boys and Dan Tiernan
Nominated for Best Newcomer are:
Molly McGuinness, Toussaint Douglass, Ada & Bron, Elouise Eftos, Ayoade Bamgboye, Kate Owens and Roger O'Sullivan.
Host: Amy Gledhill
Producer: Georgia Keating
Production Co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Edited by Giles Aspen
Recorded by Sean Kerwin
Recorded at Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh.
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
FRIDAY 22 AUGUST 2025
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002hb9y)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 Beyond Lonely (m0029zng)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002hbb0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002hbb2)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:00 News Summary (m002hbb4)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:04 The Briefing Room (m002hb9c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Thursday]
FRI 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002hbb6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002hbb8)
Big connections in small moments
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Dr Linden Bicket, a teacher of literature and religion at Edinburgh University's School of Divinity
Good morning.
The Edinburgh International Festival’s theme this year is ‘The Truth We Seek’, and many performances express with deep poetry that very human yearning for a greater truth, a sense of something bigger than ourselves. For me, that means a search for connection with something sacred.
Poetry offers me this connection, and over the past few months I’ve been reading the work of Marie Howe, an American writer who is very attuned to the spiritual and the sacred dimensions of our human existence.
Marie Howe’s poem, entitled ‘Prayer’, feels like it could have been written for me. The poem’s speaker addresses someone directly, explaining that every day she tries to speak with them, but things get in the way: shopping, daily tasks, noise, and clutter. She admits that she forgets to share the story of her nights and days with the one she addresses, and even as she writes the poem, she is making plans to stand up and get on with the rest of her day. It seems clear, doesn’t it, that the speaker is addressing God, and acknowledging the difficulties of maintaining the habit of prayer. I understand this well. Life is so busy, distractions are constant, and there is so much demanding our attention. For years I have tried to set aside some time aside at the end of the day for prayer, and I used to feel frustration with myself if I drifted off to sleep in these moments. But these days I think how lovely it is to connect with God and be carried away by the gentleness of sleep in that quiet moment. And prayer can happen any time; even a short walk can provide a moment of connection. Listening now, perhaps this moment, too, can become sacred.
Loving God, may we find small moments of connection and peace with you whenever possible. We entrust ourselves to you and thank you always for the quiet blessings of the everyday. Amen.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002hbbb)
22/08/25 Bird flu, high-tech lettuce growing, early apples, aftermath of wildfires
Avian flu is on the rise again and this summer increase in cases is being linked with seabirds. New stricter biosecurity rules have been introduced for shoots in England after a number of outbreaks in game birds, and there are also more coastal cases of the disease. Bird flu is usually associated with the winter and migratory birds, but seabirds were very badly hit in 2022 and researchers say the H5N1 virus is again affecting them. A consortium of UK scientific organisations form FluMap which is studying bird flu. We speak to Dr Tom Peacock from the Pirbright Institute who says gulls are currently spreading the virus.
It's peak salad season and we visit a producer who uses state-of-the-art technology to grow lettuce under glass using aeroponics. The plant's roots are grown in the air, and the nutrients they need are delivered in a vapour which itself is created using ultrasonics, or sound waves.
The cider apple harvest has started early in some orchards. Most apples are picked in the autumn and even varieties which ripen early aren’t usually ready yet but as we’ve been reporting this year many harvests have been earlier than usual. We find out what this year's apple harvest's looking like.
Farmers are still dealing with the aftermath of Scotland's biggest ever wildfires. In June and July this year more than 29,000 acres of land in the Highlands were affected by fire - with firefighters joined by gamekeepers, farmers and local communities to tackle them. The damage has been described as 'devastating'. We hear from a couple who may have to sell some of their livestock if they can't find alternative grazing soon.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
FRI 06:00 Today (m002hbk3)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m002h9my)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Sunday]
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002hbk5)
Woman's Hour Special: Women's Rugby World Cup
Join Anita Rani as she broadcasts live from Blaydon Rugby Club in Gateshead ahead of the first game of the Women's Rugby World Cup. Tonight England kick off the tournament on home soil by facing the USA in Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. To preview tonight's game and the tournament to come, we are joined by former England player and World Cup winner Kat Merchant.
We also hear from the Managing Director at World Rugby, Sarah Massey on how she hopes to ensure this World Cup is a success.
Blaydon Rugby Club have a thriving women's side and they invited Anita to join them in a training session. KP, Hayley and Rosie, who play for the club, join Anita live to discuss not only being team mates but being family too!
The England player Abbie Ward talks about her dream of finally lifting the World Cup trophy after being beaten in two finals. Abbie was the first player to benefit from the Rugby Football Union's landmark maternity policy for players. And tonight she will walk out at The Stadium of Light as she begins her dream of becoming world champion. She speaks to Anita about her hopes ahead of the World Cup.
All four home nations have qualified for the Women's Rugby World Cup. Given England are hosting, it means fans from across Scotland, Wales, Ireland - who play with Northern Ireland - and of course England are within touching distance of one of the stadium's hosting. Four fans share their good luck messages for their teams.
And with some saying rugby is the most accessible sport, why is it such a powerful tool for encouraging a positive body image? Joining Anita to discuss is Kat Merchant, now a personal trainer who celebrates her strength, and players of Blaydon Rugby Club.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Emma Pearce
FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m002hbk7)
Butter Is Back
Butter superfan Felicity Cloake asks whether the movement against ultra-processed foods is linked to a recent rise in popularity of her favourite kitchen staple. Her investigations take her to the rich grasslands of the West Country as she visits Wyke Farms, Quicke's and Ivy House Farm Dairy. She looks at how flavoured butter is taking off and finds out more about the tradition of cheesemakers making whey butter.
Professor Sarah Berry from King's College London gives advice on how much butter we should be eating as part of a healthy diet and food historian Regina Sexton looks at the relationship between butter and Ireland. Felicity also has a turn at making her own butter using an historic dash churn at The Butter Museum in Cork.
Presented by Felicity Cloake
Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Robin Markwell
The programme features a short excerpt of the song "Please Leave My Butter Alone" by Elsie Carlisle.
FRI 11:45 Beyond Lonely (m0029zfx)
Loneliness Is Not The Same As Being Alone
Jason Arday considers the concept of solitude as opposed to loneliness and wonders if we should consider embracing solitude more. In an increasingly hectic and connected world, many people are feeling more lonely than ever. But others are choosing to disconnect and enjoy the freedom of being alone. In this episode, Jason hears from Rachel Denton who is a religious hermit. After taking a vow with the Church's blessing twenty years ago, Rachel has lived simply and silently ever since. She shares her experiences of happiness, gratitude and fulfilment that could perhaps teach us all to find contentment in being alone from time to time. Meanwhile Jason is taking steps to feel less lonely by accepting invitations to social events. This is a start, he says, to changes he wants to make as a direct result of making this series.
Beyond Lonely is presented by Professor Jason Arday
Producer: Maggie Ayre
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m002hbk9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Rare Earth (m002hbkc)
The Risk Takers
Can the insurance industry save the planet? With the nod from insurance companies a must for everything from coal mines to new homes, is the industry ready and willing to wield its power?
When huge swathes of Los Angeles were destroyed by wildfire in 2025 the spotlight shone on the insurance industry. Would insurers pay out billions of dollars to rebuild in exactly the same way, in exactly the same place, in a region in which the risk of wildfire is only going to increase?
Tom Heap and Helen Czerski take a deep dive into the role of the insurance industry in the climate crisis. Why can new homes in floodplains be insured? Are the rest of us subsidising risky behaviour with our own premiums? And are those in the industry trying to take revolutionary steps to prevent further climate damage?
Contributors include:
- Dr Lisa Dale, Senior Lecturer at Columbia University’s Climate School
- Dr Franziska Arnold-Dwyer, Associate Professor of Law at UCL and author of 'Insurance, Climate Change and the Law’
- Lee Harris, insurance correspondent at the Financial Times
- Lindsay Keenan, environmental campaigner
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Rare Earth is produced in collaboration with the Open University
FRI 12:57 Weather (m002hbkf)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m002hbkh)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
FRI 13:45 New Storytellers (m002hbkl)
In Living Memory
'In Living Memory' is a deeply intimate and sensitive story that follows Shadé Joseph as she sends a voice message to her eldest brother, who died 17 years before she was born. She has the quiet belief that he is somewhere out there, listening. For what felt like a lifetime, Shadé sensed him knocking on the door of her heart, but fear held her back from answering, uncertain of the pain it might awaken in her family. Then, on one seemingly ordinary day in November 2024, she found the courage to let him in. What unfolds is a tender reflection on how his absence became a legacy that shaped the lives of every child in the family who came after him.
New Storytellers presents the work of new student audio producers, and this series features the winners of the Charles Parker Prize 2025 for the Best Student Radio Feature. These awards are presented every year in memory of the pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. The series is introduced by Charles’ daughter, Sara Parker, an award-winning radio producer in her own right.
Shadé Joseph is a student at UCL East studying an MA in Audio Storytelling for Radio and Podcast. The judges said of her Gold Charles Parker Prize winning feature, “I found this programme extremely moving,” commented one judge. “The narrator’s script was honest, vulnerable, at times playful... A small idea with a lot of heart!... overall, a wonderful piece of radio.”
Producer: Shadé Joseph
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m002hb9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m002gw5x)
Central Intelligence: Series 2
Episode 10
The story of the CIA, told from the inside out by veteran agent Eloise Page. Starring Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris, and Johnny Flynn.
In Episode 10... It’s 1963. Vietnam is spiralling. President Kennedy, convinced the war is un-winnable, authorises secret support for a South Vietnamese military coup. But cracks are forming within both the CIA and the White House. Then, in Dallas, the unthinkable happens. The most famous assassination in history changes everything. What if Kennedy had lived to pull back from the brink?
Cast:
Eloise Page..........Kim Cattrall
Allen Dulles..........Ed Harris
Richard Helms..........Johnny Flynn
Young Eloise Page..........Elena Delia
Bob McNamara..........Rob Benedict
Ngo Diệm.......... Jon Jon Briones
John ‘Jack’ F. Kennedy..........Armand Schultz
Lou Conein..........Philip Desmeules
Madam Nhu……….Lourdes Faberes
Bobby Kennedy……….Eric Sirakian
Roger Hillsman……….Rufus Wright
John McCone……….Tim Ahern
Ngô Đình Nhu……….Yung
Quang..........Thaiger Nguyen
Henry Cabot Lodge ……….Kerry Shale
Jock Richardson……….Greg Lockett
All other parts played by members of the cast.
Written by Greg Haddrick
Created by Greg Haddrick & Jeremy Fox
Directed by John Scott Dryden
Original music by Sacha Puttnam
Sound Designers & Editors: John Scott Dryden, Adam Woodhams, Martha Littlehailes & Andreina Gomez Casanova
Script Consultant: Misha Kawnel
Script Supervisor: Alex Lynch
Trails: Jack Soper
Sonica Studio Sound Engineers: Paul Clark & Paul Clark
Sonica Runner: Flynn Hallman
Marc Graue Sound Engineers, LA: Juan Martin del Campo & Tony Diaz
Director: John Scott Dryden
Producer & Casting Director: Emma Hearn
Executive Producers: Howard Stringer, Jeremy Fox, Greg Haddrick and John Scott Dryden
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 14:45 Uncharted with Hannah Fry (m0022z38)
16. A Drop in the Ocean
A fisherman is stranded in the ocean late at night. Completely alone, the clock is ticking. How do you find one man lost in the open ocean? Can he be rescued in time?
Producer: Lauren Armstrong Carter
Sound Designer: Jon Nicholls
Story Editor: John Yorke
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002hbkq)
Postbag Edition: Rutland Flower Show
Our pear tree, which was once thriving has died, what should I do with it? Are weeds plants with attitude or is it the other way round? What are your thoughts on using a wound sealer after pruning?
Join Gardeners’ Question Time for a floral-filled adventure at the Rutland Flower Show. This week, Peter Gibbs and a panel of passionate horticulturalists soak up the sights, scents and seasonal inspiration while digging into the famous GQT postbag, to solve your trickiest gardening conundrums.
Joining Peter under the big top are proud plantswoman Christine Walkden, and top garden designers Matthew Wilson and Adam Frost - ready with expert advice, clever solutions, and a few laughs along the way.
Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Junior Producer: Rahnee Prescod
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m002hbkv)
The Fishing Lesson by Brian Friel
A very special edition of Short Works is a newly unearthed story by Brian Friel, known as the Irish Chekhov for his plays Translations, Dancing at Lughnasa and Philadelphia Here I Come!
Friel originally wrote this story for BBC radio whilst he was still working as a maths teacher in rural Ireland. It was originally broadcast 1958, but hasn't been heard or read since.
Nearly 70 years later, the story has been rediscovered in the BBC Archives and newly recorded with actor Dermot Crowley. It has been specially commissioned by Radio 4 as part of a celebration of Brian Friel's work 10 years after his death, which also includes a new production of Faith Healer.
The Fishing Lesson shows Friel at his lyrical best, brimming with his trademark pathos, dry wit and a troubled relationship with the past which would later define his work. Though it was penned early in Friel's career, it tells the story of a regret-ridden man who is older but perhaps not, yet, wiser.
Reader: Dermot Crowley
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m002hbkz)
Terence Stamp, Stephanie Shirley, Kay Dunbar, Eric Midwinter
John Wilson on:
Actor Terence Stamp, the Oscar nominated 60s screen icon who went onto play many villains in his later film career
Baroness Stephanie Shirley, the pioneering computer scientist and founder of her own software company
Kay Dunbar who founded the Ways with Words literary festival which ran in Devon for 30 years
Eric Midwinter was one of the three co-founders of u3a to encourage continued learning in retirement
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Archive used:
Desert Island Discs, BBC, 12/03/2006; Billy Budd, Rank Film Distributors, 1962; Superman II, Warner Bros, 1980; Far from the Madding Crowd, Warner-Pathe Distributors, 1967; Front Row, BBC, 16/05/2013; Morning Live, BBC, 08/03/2022; HARDtalk, BBC, 07/03/2000; Spotlight, BBC News Plymouth, 11/07/2023; Spotlight, BBC News Plymouth, 02/09/1996; Archive on 4: Kindertransport, BBC, 09/2015; Lifespan, AS Choices, 16/08/1987; Armchair Discussions with u3a, u3a UK, n.d.; You and Yours, BBC, 12/12/2016
FRI 16:30 Sideways (m002hb5v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m002hbl2)
Famine confirmed in Gaza City
A major UN-backed report confirms the extreme scarcity of food in parts of Gaza. We hear from an aid worker there, and from Sir Ed Davey. The women's Rugby World Cup kicks off in Sunderland tonight. Ex Labour Home Secretary Lord Blunkett reflects on the big news relating to asylum hotels this week. Plus, when is it too hot to work outside?
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002hbl4)
A famine has been confirmed in Gaza City
A United Nations-backed body has confirmed there is now famine in Gaza, with more than half a million people in the strip's largest city facing "starvation, destitution and death". The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dismissed the report as an "outright lie". Also: The government seeks the right to appeal against a court ruling preventing it from becoming involved in a case about a hotel housing asylum seekers. And the former Doctor Who star, Noel Clarke, loses a libel action against the Guardian.
FRI 18:30 Too Long; Didn't Read (m002hbl6)
Series 2
The Special Relationship
With UK-US relations in the spotlight, Catherine Bohart wants to know just what the special relationship means in 2025. With the help of Felicity Ward, Amb. John Bolton and our regular roving correspondent Sunil Patel, Catherine's asking what makes the special relationship 'special'? Are the US and the UK really exclusive? And does anyone have the number of that nice girl, the EU?
Written by Catherine Bohart, with Madeleine Brettingham, Catherine Brinkworth and Priya Hall
Producer: Alison Vernon Smith
Executive Producers: Lyndsay Fenner & Victoria Lloyd
Sound Design: David Thomas
Production Co-ordinator: Katie Sayer
A Mighty Bunny production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m002hbl8)
Zainab and Chelsea are back at the Driving Range with Martyn, telling him they’ve been following a female golf pro online. As Zainab prepares to hit the ball Lawrence appears and starts mansplaining how she’s going wrong. When Zainab hits the ball sweetly he scoffs it was beginner’s luck. Later, in the Club Shop, Zainab tells Martyn about Lawrence’s racism towards her brother. Back on the Range Lawrence gives Chelsea unsolicited advice on her stance, then criticises the way she is dressed. When Chelsea accuses him of being sexist and ridiculous Lawrence loses his rag. Lawrence then makes further offensive remarks and insinuations about Chelsea to Martyn, who surprises Lawrence by threatening to report him to the Club Captain. His behaviour will not be tolerated.
Chris and Fallon drink tea in the garden at Woodbine after moving his and Martha’s belongings in. Fallon lets slip she knows how worried Alice has been about Martha’s development and the reason for it. Chris reckons Alice is even more stressed now they’ve been told no-one can tell until Martha’s six. Chris is sure everything’s fine, but worries that Alice’s anxiety will rub off on Martha, even though he understands it’s just Alice’s sense of guilt coming through. Fallon reassures Chris it will all work out in the end, before admitting how tough the last week has been for her and how lonely she feels. Chris is sympathetic, drawing on his own experience, while Fallon looks forward to bonding with Martha over peanut butter.
FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m002gl7b)
Alison Balsom and Linton Stephens celebrate the BBC Proms
With three weeks remaining of this year's BBC Proms, Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe present a Proms-themed edition. Studio guests are the celebrated trumpeter Alison Balsom, who'll be performing in this year’s Last Night of the Proms, and bassoonist, Radio 3 and Proms presenter Linton Stephens. Expect music from the Proms and beyond as we head from a live, scaled-back Springsteen anthem to the Outer Hebrides, via Mendelssohn, Shostakovich and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Born in the USA (live) by Bruce Springsteen
2nd movement of the Symphony No 10 in E Minor by Dmitri Shostakovich
Superstar from Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice
Andante: 2nd movement of the Violin Concerto in E minor by Felix Mendelssohn
Hùg air a’ Bhonaid Mhòir (Celebrate the Big Bonnet) by Julie Fowlis
Other music in this episode:
A Night on the Bare Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
Trumpet Concerto in E flat major by Johann Nepomuk Hummel
The Lovecats by The Cure
Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen
I Don't Know How to Love Him by Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice, sung by Yvonne Elliman
Touch the Sky (from the film Brave) by Julie Fowlis
You can listen to every Prom and unmissable moments from across the season on BBC Sounds. Just search ‘Proms’.
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m002hblb)
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Alice Thomson
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Stogursey and District Victory Village Hall, near Bridgwater, Somerset, with columnist and broadcaster Yasmin Alibhai-Brown; former Conservative MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg; Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, the Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations); and Alice Thomson, columnist with The Times.
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Lead broadcast engineers: Tanya Bhoola and Andrew Smillie
FRI 20:55 This Week in History (m002hb61)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:40 on Wednesday]
FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (m0019rb0)
Generation Games
Can video games change lives? And, if so, how? 50 years after the arrival of Pong, gamer and writer Keza MacDonald considers what gaming has done for us. Using the rich BBC Archives, she explores how video games grew from a niche pursuit to a cultural phenomenon which stokes the imagination of, and offers agency to, those who fall for its charms.
Games now influence who we are, what we think and how we act. Keza speaks to collectors, competitive gamers, psychologists, games designers and, mostly importantly, gamers young and old to find out what impact games have had on us. We hear about the deep relationships that millions cherish with Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong, and illustrate the entanglement of life and gaming that is increasingly impossible to sever.
Presenter: Keza MacDonald
Producer: Gary Milne
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002hbld)
Major UN-backed report confirms famine in Gaza City
A major UN-backed report has confirmed that there is a famine in Gaza City and the surrounding area, calling the crisis ‘entirely man-made’. The report was labelled an "outright lie" by Israel.
We speak to a doctor in one of the city’s last remaining hospitals, and former Foreign Secretary and President of the International Rescue Committee David Miliband.
Also in the programme: How Sweden drastically reduced the number of asylum applications; and the Nobel Peace Prize winning Russian historian on opposition to Putin.
FRI 22:45 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (m002hblg)
Episode Five
Crooked Cross was first published in 1934 and was based on Sally Carson’s first-hand experience of travelling through Bavaria where she witnessed the inexorable and devastating rise of fascism and antisemitism. Long out of print it was discovered by Persephone Books and republished in 2025.
We are in Bavaria in a small provincial town outside Munich. There, on Christmas Eve of 1932, we first meet the Kluger family, a happy band of Frau and Herr Kluger, and their three grown up children, Helmy, Lexa and Eric. Life is not always easy: jobs are scarce, money is tight; they are living under the shadow of defeat in the Great War. But by 1933 Hitler has won the election and become chancellor and everything is about to change for all of them. None more so than for Moritz Weissmann, Lexa’s fiancé, a young Catholic doctor but with a Jewish name, who first and foremost thought of himself as German. But now his country is starting to turn against him.
'Too much power and too sudden power makes men lose all sense of proportion: blood turns such men into madmen.'
Sally Carson’s novel explores how relationships between family, friends, lovers and neighbours all begin to subtly shift until confidence in the new fascist regime and the hope it offers empowers, gives licence, to many to commit atrocities that would eventually lead to another world war and the Holocaust.
The setting of a very ordinary small town allows Carson to chart how over six months this can happen against the backdrop of catastrophic political upheaval. Carson was only 38 when she died in 1941 of breast cancer, so she never lived to see the end of the war which makes Crooked Cross and her foresight even more extraordinary.
'It doesn’t seem like propaganda and it makes you feel that grim sense of uncertainty and fear which must come upon any people under a rule of terror.' The Saturday Review August 1934
Sally Carson wrote two sequels both still out of print: The Prisoner published in 1936 and A Traveller Came By published in 1938. But despite the excellent reviews for Crooked Cross (which also enjoyed a successful theatrical adaptation) all three books, and their author disappeared. Until now.
Reader: Scarlett Courtney
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Caroline Raphael
Production Co-ordinator: Henry Tydeman and Nina Semple
Sound by Matt Bainbridge
Recorded at Fitzrovia Studios
Crooked Cross is published by Persephone Books.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 23:00 Americast (w3ct7t5t)
Is Donald Trump losing his Latino base?
One of the biggest stories of last year’s presidential election was Donald Trump’s success with Latino voters which led him to win crucial swing states in the battle for the White House.
While the Democrats still won the popular vote nationwide, there was no question that Trump’s messaging on the economy appealed to voters worried about the cost of living.
Eight months on from that victory, are Latinos still with Trump? Recent polling suggest that doubts are growing about the president’s ability to ease the cost of living. With the midterm elections roughly a year away, are Latino voters going to turn their back on the president, and will they go back to the Democrats?
Justin and Sarah are joined by veteran Latino pollster Mike Madrid, who talks us through why Latinos could leave Trump as quick as they arrived, and why it shouldn’t be assumed that they’ll go back to the Democrats.
HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Sarah Smith, North America Editor
GUEST:
• Mike Madrid, Latino Republican pollster & author of ‘The Latino Century’
GET IN TOUCH:
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This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Radical: BBC Sounds - Radical with Amol Rajan - Available Episodes
FRI 23:30 Illuminated (m002h9np)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 on Sunday]