SATURDAY 23 AUGUST 2025

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m002hbll)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 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


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002hbln)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002hblq)
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 (m002hbls)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002hblv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002hblx)
Self Portraits

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Rabbi Charley Baginsky

Good Morning!

When I prepare a sermon it begins long before I sit down to write. A phrase from a song, a scene in a film, a news headline, all get stored away like pieces of a jigsaw, waiting for the picture to emerge.

One of those pieces for me is always Bob Dylan. In 1970, during a time of protest and upheaval, he released an album of gentle introspective covers, music people didn’t want to hear. They were looking for anthems, not self-portraits. But Dylan was making a statement: sometimes the work isn’t to speak for the moment, but to turn inwards and ask, Who am I really?

That question can be uncomfortable. We all carry a picture of ourselves in our minds, the kind, patient, interesting person we hope others see. But every so often, it’s worth holding up the mirror and asking whether that picture is still true.

We might find things to celebrate, small acts of generosity, moments we stayed calm under pressure, times we showed up for someone who needed us. We might also find places where we’ve fallen short.

The danger comes when we never look at all. Then the picture grows less true, gathering dust in the attic of the soul.

May we have the courage to paint honest self-portraits, ones that include the scars and the hope, the mistakes and the learning. May we see ourselves clearly, and choose the colours for the person we still want to become. And may that clarity shape the way we meet the days ahead.

Amen.


SAT 05:45 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


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m002hkdy)
The news headlines, including a look at the newspapers.


SAT 06:07 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


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m002hkf0)
23/08/25 Farming Today This Week: early apples, bioethanol industry in trouble, rise in avian flu

The cider apple harvest has started already. Most apples are picked in the autumn and even varieties which ripen early aren’t usually ready yet, and the apple harvest looks likely to buck this year's trend and be good.

The Government's decision last week not to offer a rescue package to two plants producing bioethanol is a cause for worry for farmers. This week the Vivergo bioethanol plant on the Humber near Hull stopped production and started laying off staff. It had been buying around a million tonnes of wheat a year, distilling it into bioethanol which is added to petrol to reduce emissions. It also produced large quantities of cattle feed as a by-product. A separate business, Ensus on Teesside is continuing for now; it produces bioethanol and also carbon dioxide which is used in abattoirs and the food industry. The plants have been rendered economically unviable by the US trade deal, which removed tariffs from bioethanol imports from the States. We hear how the UK has been dependent on American bioethanol for some time now.

Avian flu is on the rise again. In England new rules on game birds are being introduced after warnings of a 'heightened risk' of the virus. The Government says there have been more new cases, particularly in coastal areas and places with a significant number of shoots.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m002hkf2)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m002hkf4)
Today (Saturday)


SAT 09:00 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


SAT 09:30 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


SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (m002hkf6)
Alexandria: city of knowledge and culture

Greg Jenner is joined in Egypt by historian Professor Islam Issa and comedian Athena Kugblenu to learn all about the history of science and philosophy in the city of Alexandria. Founded by ancient conqueror Alexander the Great, Alexandria from its earliest days was a city at the forefront of scientific discoveries, philosophical enquiry and religious debate. At its height, the city’s famous library housed nearly one million texts, and attracted thinkers like Hypatia of Alexandria, Euclid and Heron (who invented the steam engine). This episode tells the story of this incredible site of knowledge and culture, taking in its epic founding, the rise of Christianity and its impact on the city, its fate during the Crusades, the coming of Napoleon, and its role in the rise of the Arab nationalism movement.

If you’re a fan of the history of science, brainy philosophers and incredible architectural achievements, you’ll love our episode on Alexandria.

If you want more from Athena Kugblenu, check out our episodes on the Haitian Revolution and Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba. Or for another journey through a historical city, listen to our episode on Istanbul in the Ottoman Golden Age.

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: Emma Bentley
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 The Kitchen Cabinet (m002hkf8)
Series 49

Eastleigh

Jay Rayner and the expert panel are answering questions from an audience of food lovers in Eastleigh, Hampshire with inspiration for carrot-based dishes and inventive ways of cooking with pears.

They help conjure suppers out of corner-shop finds, explain the art of preparing sweetbreads and tap into the area’s maritime heritage as they sail through the history of dining on the high seas.

On this week’s panel are chefs, cooks and food writers Jocky Petrie, Sophie Wright and Shelina Permalloo, alongside resident food historian Dr Annie Gray.

Senior Producer: Dom Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 Radical with Amol Rajan (m002hkfc)
Homelessness and the Housing Crisis: How To End Rough Sleeping (Sabrina Cohen-Hatton)

Homelessness is on the rise in Britian with record numbers of people living in emergency accommodation.

Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, Chief Fire Officer of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, spent time sleeping rough on the streets of Newport in Wales as a teenager.

Now, she is working to end homelessness and stop people getting stuck in poverty.

Amol and Sabrina discuss what can be done in schools to prevent homelessness, the stigma facing homeless people and how to stop professions from being dominated by the elites.

They also talk about Sabrina’s work with Prince William's charity, Homewards, and how poverty becomes a trap.

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 Philip Bull. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002hkff)
Putin, Trump and the art of no deal (yet)

Kate Adie presents stories from Alaska, Washington, South Korea, Chile and France.

From the military fly-past to the grandiose entrance on the red carpet, to the press conference, without any questions, the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin drew dismay from Western governments. Steve Rosenberg was in Alaska - and reflects on the aftermath.

After the pomp and pageantry of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin, six European leaders rushed to Washington DC this week to meet with the US President in a show of solidarity with Volodymyr Zelensky. Tom Bateman followed the twists and turns and reflects on what was actually achieved at the White House.

Vladimir Putin has come to rely on support from North Korea to bolster his troops in Ukraine. Pyongyang is now sending thousands of construction workers, to help fill a huge labour shortage created by the war. Jean Mackenzie has spoken to six workers who’ve managed to escape.

In the hills of southern Chile there is an alluring tourist destination - a German-style village - but it was once home to a religious sect run by a manipulative and abusive leader. The Chilean government wants to expropriate some of its land to create a memorial for the people who were tortured and killed there during Pinochet’s regime. But Grace Livingstone finds, it's proving divisive.

In the Loire valley the summer months bring both extended bank holiday weekends in France and the return in the last few decades of the 'Guinguettes', waterside outdoor bars and dance halls which were once popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Jamie Smith-Maillet went to soak up the atmosphere

Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison & Sophie Hill
Editor: Richard Vadon


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m002hkfh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Sliced Bread (m002dzyj)
Toast - Homebase

Homebase was once one of our leading home improvement chains so, why did it have to close all of its stores?

The BBC Business journalist Sean Farrington investigates.

Alongside him is the entrepreneur Sam White, who at the end of the show has to reach her own conclusions, based only on what she has heard and her own business acumen.

Homebase was established by the supermarket chain Sainsbury's and a Belgian retailer which was already running a DIY business in Europe and America.

The first Homebase store opened in Croydon in 1981 and it had to be temporarily closed by the police after visiting crowds caused a traffic jam.

The chain expanded across the UK and had more than 300 stores.

It went through some highs, and some serious lows, with various owners but what ultimately caused the closure of its shops?

Sean and Sam hear from expert guests including:

- Allison Foster, curator of the Sainsbury Archive, which is based at London Museum Docklands

- Dave Elliott, a former Trading Director then later Commercial Director at Homebase under different owners

- Matt Walton, senior data analyst at GlobalData

While Homebase's standalone stores are toast, the brand continues to trade online under new ownership. Homebase garden centres and products are also being included within branches of The Range.

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 (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


SAT 12:57 Weather (m002hkfk)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m002hkfm)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 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


SAT 14:05 Any Answers? (m002hkfp)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 The Archers (m002hbl8)
Writer: Jessica Mitic
Director: Peter Leslie Wild
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Henry Archer…Blayke Darby
Chris Carter … Wilf Scolding
Martyn Gibson … Jon Glover
Amber Gordon … Charlotte Jordan
Ed Grundy … Barry Farrimond
Lawrence Harrington … Rupert Vansittart
Brad Horrobin … Taylor Uttley
Chelsea Horrobin … Madeleine Leslay
Tracy Horrobin … Susie Riddell
Zainab Malik … Priyasasha Kumari
Jazzer McCreary … Ryan Kelly
Freddie Pargetter … Toby Laurence
Fallon Rogers … Joanna van Kampen
Jenna … Nia Gwynne


SAT 15:00 Drama on 4 (m002hkfr)
Faith Healer

Travelling faith healer Frank Hardy, his lover Grace and his manager Teddy give differing accounts of their life on the road together in four powerful, lyrical monologues, the realities of which shift as each of them tries to make sense of what has happened.

Everyone believes in Frank’s healing powers, but his gift is unreliable and his charisma comes with a destructiveness which all three struggle to understand or live with.

This major new production of Brian Friel’s masterpiece marks the 10th anniversary of his death and features a superb cast. Friel is sometimes referred to as the Irish Chekhov.

Faith Healer is a profound, poetic exploration of the creative and destructive qualities of the artist; the subjectivity of memory and the pain of exile.

Ben Brantley, writing in the New York Times, describes perfectly how the play ‘unfolds as a quietly devastating study of pain recollected and the transfiguring nature of memory. It is one of those rare works of art audiences are destined to recall as a deeply personal experience, and you'll find yourself trying to sort out the different visions of reality… long after the play is over.’

With strong language.

Cast:
Frank ..... Aidan Gillen
Grace .... Michelle Fairley
Teddy ..... Daniel Mays

Sound Design ..... Peter Ringrose
Composer ..... Jon Nicholls

Written by Brian Friel

Directed and produced by Jessica Dromgoole and Mary Peate

A Hooley production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 17:00 PM (m002hkft)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 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


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002hkfw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m002hkfy)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002hkg0)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002hkg2)
Jon Culshaw, Harriet Dyer, Jon Watts, Nadia Reid, Yazmin Lacey

Stuart is joined by Jon Culshaw, the star of the much loved comedy series Dead Ringers, which is about to hit the road for its 25th anniversary tour. Harriet Dyer is Easily Distra.... so let's hope she doesn't wander off halfway through the show. Jon Watts discovered his love of cooking in custody. After being taken under the wing of Jamie Oliver he's now a culinary star in his own right, about to publish his third book. And there's music from the Manchester based, New Zealand born singer songwriter Nadia Reid from her acclaimed third album Enter Now Brightness and soul singer Yazmin Lacey.

Presenter: Stuart Maconie
Producer: Jessica Treen


SAT 19:00 The Bottom Line (m002hkg4)
The Decisions That Made Me

Richard Farleigh (Dragon’s Den, entrepreneur)

Richard Farleigh grew up poverty-stricken in outback Australia as one of eleven children. When he was an infant, he was taken into care and spent most of his childhood in a foster home. A love of puzzles, a determination to prove himself, and some teachers who believed in his abilities, helped him gain a scholarship to university. From there he became a successful investment fund manager, eventually retiring at 34 to become an entrepreneur, and later an angel investor. The former dragon talks to Evan Davis about his new book Humble Stumbles, and how some of his early entrepreneurial decisions didn’t work out quite as well as he’d hoped.

Production team:
Producers: Eleanor Harrison-Dengate, Georgiana Tudor
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound: John Scott
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Photo credit: Visual Marvels


SAT 19:15 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


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m002hkg6)
Outrage Inc

From Suffragette arsonists to soup on sunflowers – why the stunt still matters.

Legendary publicist Mark Borkowski takes a no-prisoners look at the history of the protest stunt – the noisy, theatrical interventions that have rattled the establishment for over a century.

With fascinating examples from the BBC archive and interviews with Led By Donkeys, The Centre for Political Beauty, Joey Skaggs, The Yes Men, veteran activist Jamie Kelsey Fry and Clare Farrell from XR.

Written and presented by Mark Borkowski
Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith
Researcher: Ellie Dobing
Executive Producer: Julian Mayers.

A Yada-Yada Audio production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 Illuminated (m0025m7h)
Voices from the Bog

For 2000 years beneath layer upon layer of peat, the remains of two bodies - a man and a woman - lay buried in the earth. Within 12 months of each other, they were discovered on Lindow Moss, the cut-over peat bog in Cheshire.

It's now more than 40 years since the remains of Lindow Man were found, the best-preserved bog body ever discovered in the UK. A year before that, the skull of Lindow Woman was found, with major ramifications for a modern-day mystery. We still don’t know who these people were or in the case of Lindow Man, why he met his violent death. Was it ritual sacrifice to the gods, private scores settled or a public execution?

Their spirits remain in the place of their burial - a small corner of Cheshire filled with myth, mystery and history. Together with one of the original peat cutters at that time, the first journalist on the site, a professor of pre-history, a conservator and material from archive, we tell the story of this remarkable archaeological discovery.

And a slight twist - listening in on proceedings are Lindow Man and Lindow Woman. What might they make of the celebrations around the discovery of the bodies in the bog?

Contributors: Melanie Giles Professor in European Prehistory, University of Manchester; Stephen Dooley, former peat cutter; Rachel Pugh, writer and journalist; Velson Horie, conservation consultant and the late Rick Turner (archive) former County Archaeologist, Cheshire. Lindow Man is played by Fisayo Akinawe and Lindow Woman by Eve Shotton.

Produced and written by Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Mel Harris
Sound Engineer: Eloise Whitmore
Music composed & performed by Laetitia Stott & mixed and mastered by Geoff Southall
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:30 Music To Scream To - The Hammer Horror Soundtracks (m001f6bj)
* Curse of the Werewolf
* The Brides of Dracula
* Frankenstein
* The Monster from Hell

These are just some films from the height of Hammer Films’ prolific cinema output in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Many of the musical soundtracks were composed by leading British modernists of the late 20th Century.

Hammer’s music supervisor Philip Martell hired the avant-garde composers of the day.

The likes of Malcolm Williamson (later Master of the Queen’s Music), Elisabeth Lutyens, Benjamin Frankel and Richard Rodney Bennett all made a living scoring horror films alongside their concert hall work.

Prising open Dracula’s coffin to unearth the story of Hammer’s modernist soundtracks, composer and pianist Neil Brand explores the nuts and bolts of scary music – how it is designed to psychologically unsettle us – and explores why avant-garde music is such a good fit for horror.

On his journey into the abyss, Neil visits the haunted mansion where many of the Hammer classics were made, Bray Studios in Berkshire

Neil gets the horrifying low-down from:

* Hammer aficionado, Wayne Kinsey
* Film music historian, David Huckvale
* Composer Richard, Rodney Bennett
* On-screen Hammer scream queen, actress Madeline Smith.

Producer: Graham Rogers

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2022.


SAT 22:00 News (m002hkg8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 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.


SAT 23:00 Crybabies Present... (m002hkgb)
Series 1

All or Nothingham

With bailiffs threatening to shut them down, the employees of Starkers Stripping Men’s Club have only one choice. Enter the Dropping a Coin on a Table and Guessing what Type of Coin it is while Blindfolded Championship.

A heartwarming story of friendship, family and the sound coins make when you drop them on a table. Get ready for a plucky underdog story as Crybabies bring the big screen to your normal sized radio.

Written and performed by Michael Clarke, James Gault & Ed Jones.

Featuring Celeste Dring, Amy Gledhill & Greg James.

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 (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.

SUNDAY 24 AUGUST 2025

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m002hkgd)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:15 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 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002hkgg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002hkgj)
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 (m002hkgl)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002hkgn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m002hkgq)
St Peter’s Church, Chertsey, Surrey

Bells on Sunday comes from St Peter’s Church in Chertsey, Surrey. The church has eight bells, the oldest of which is believed to have come from Chertsey Abbey after the Abbey’s bell tower collapsed in 1370. In 1905 all the bells were rehung by Mears and Stainbank of Whitechapel. The Tenor bell weighs nineteen and a half hundredweight and is tuned to the note of E. We now hear them ringing Little Bob Major.


SUN 05:45 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.


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m002hkzp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 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)


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m002hkzr)
Farmland Inferno

Scotland's biggest moorland wildfire in living memory has been extinguished. The helicopters have left and the fire engine sirens fallen silent, but the blaze which raged for days has left its mark, not just on the charred trees and ravished land, but on farmers who were depending on thousands of hill acres to graze their sheep this autumn.
With the smell of smoke still hanging in the air, Nancy Nicolson joins Alex and Moyra Gray out on their hillside as they recount their terrifying experience and contemplate the almost impossible task of finding costly temporary grazing or having to sell some of their livestock.


SUN 06:57 Weather (m002hkzt)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m002hkzw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m002hkzy)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m002hkxw)
The Matt Hampson Foundation

Founder Matt Hampson makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of The Matt Hampson Foundation. The charity runs rehabilitation centres for young people who have sustained life-changing injuries where they receive physiotherapy, personal training, counselling and mentoring.

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 Matt Hampson Foundation’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Matt Hampson Foundation’.
- 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: 1139823. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://matthampsonfoundation.org
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites
Producer: Katy Takatsuki


SUN 07:57 Weather (m002hl00)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m002hl02)
The news headlines, including a look at the newspapers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m002hl04)
Hope in the Heart of Cumbria

Many know Cumbria and the Lake District for its stunning landscapes — the mountains and lakes that draw people from near and far. But Cumbria is more than its scenery. Alongside the fells and valleys lie the coastal towns of Whitehaven, Workington, and Barrow, and the regional centres of Carlisle and Penrith — places shaped by a proud industrial heritage of shipbuilding, mining, and steel.

That heritage continues to bring strength and identity, while also presenting real challenges as communities adapt to change. In this service, we’ll hear stories of mission and ministry rooted in this diverse landscape, from the coast at Workington to the market town of Penrith in the east, each reflecting how faith is lived and shared in different contexts across the county.

The service is led by Rob Saner-Haigh, the new Bishop of Carlisle.

Producer: Andrew Earis


SUN 08:48 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 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m002hl06)
Amy-Jane Beer on the Song Thrush

The song thrush's morning proclamations remind naturalist and writer Amy-Jane Beer that she's home. In this episode Amy describes how she finds the confident delivery of this species' song reassuring and grounding in troubled times.

Produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m002hl08)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Reunion (m002bgwt)
L!ve Tv

Launched in 1995, L!ve TV was a television channel unlike any other. For four years it was the home to topless darts, handy hunks, trampolining dwarfs, and the weather in Norwegian.

Its newsreaders delivered the breaking stories while, over their shoulder, a giant rabbit – aka the “news bunny” – emoted in the background. Bunny gave the thumbs up for good stories, and rubbed his eyes in distress for the sad ones.

The station was a bold experiment in tabloid television. It combined the populist chutzpah of the former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, with the dayglow zeitgeist of TV executive Janet Street Porter, the woman who infamously brought “yoof” TV to the BBC.

It broadcast from the freshly constructed shell of London’s Canary Wharf. Programmes were made for a fraction of the cost of anything else on television at the time, and L!ve TV helped launch the career of some of the biggest stars in the industry today.

Joining Kirsty Wark are producer Ruth Wrigley; Kelvin MacKenzie, Mirror TV’s former Managing Director who came up with many of LIVE’s most famous shows; Rhodri Williams, LIVE’s original breakfast show presenter; Simon London, presenter and the original producer of Topless Darts; former investment banker Richard Horwood who worked closely with David Montgomery to devise the Mirror’s television strategy; and from Namsos in Norway, Anne Marie Foss, now a TV executive, who was L!ve TV’s weather presenter.

Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Emily Williams
Additional Research: Howard Shannon
Editor: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m002hl0b)
Writer: Jessica Mitic
Director: Peter Leslie Wild
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Henry Archer…Blayke Darby
Chris Carter … Wilf Scolding
Martyn Gibson … Jon Glover
Amber Gordon … Charlotte Jordan
Ed Grundy … Barry Farrimond
Lawrence Harrington … Rupert Vansittart
Brad Horrobin … Taylor Uttley
Chelsea Horrobin … Madeleine Leslay
Tracy Horrobin … Susie Riddell
Zainab Malik … Priyasasha Kumari
Jazzer McCreary … Ryan Kelly
Freddie Pargetter … Toby Laurence
Fallon Rogers … Joanna van Kampen
Jenna … Nia Gwynne


SUN 12:15 The Bottom Line (m002hkg4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 12:30 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.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m002hl0d)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m002hl0g)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world.


SUN 13:30 Currently (m002hkw3)
Germany: United and Divided

A programme marking the 35th anniversary of the Treaty of Unification that brought East and West Germany together after 40 years of separation.

Historian Katja Hoyer was born in East Germany in the 1980s. Then, her home town of Guben was a bustling hub of the GDR's chemical industry, shrouded in smog and crowded with people. Today, it is clean and beautifully rebuilt, but also rather desolate and depopulated as residents debate how best to revitalise the region. 40% of people in Guben now vote for the right wing AfD party and express disappointment with life 35 years after reunification. Why?

Katja reports from Guben and discovers that people in the east feel hugely underrepresented in every sphere of German life. They believe that the united Germany is run on western terms and resent government intrusion from Berlin – especially the imposition of ‘green’ infrastructure. The AfD wins approval with its policies on this and migration, as well as a more pro-Russian stance on the war in Ukraine.

Katja talks to the city mayor, librarian, AfD politician, journalists, a rapper, pub owner and people who grew up in the GDR.
.
Presenter: Katja Hoyer
Producer : Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:00 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


SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m002hl0j)
Treasure Island

John Yorke looks at Treasure Island, the great swash-buckling adventure by Robert Louis Stevenson that inspired almost every pirate tale to follow.

Stevenson wrote the story to amuse his stepson on a wet holiday in the Scottish Highlands, with the original title The Sea Cook. Looking back at his time as a boy, narrator Jim Hawkins recounts his thrilling adventures on land and at sea in the pursuit of buried treasure, and we discover that the sea cook is none other than archetypal pirate Long John Silver, one-legged and with a parrot on his shoulder, one of Stevenson’s great literary creations.

John Yorke argues that Treasure Island has a profound and lasting impact even in the age of Minecraft, Reality TV and YouTube length dramas, and in this episode of Opening Lines he will explain why.

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

Contributor:
Louise Welsh, author and Professor of Creative Writing, Glasgow University

Extracts from:
Michael Morpurgo, Twice Upon a Time podcast produced by Hat Trick Productions Ltd, 2022
Claire Harman, BBC Radio 4’s Great Lives, 2005

Reader: Crawford Logan
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Nina Semple
Producer: Mark Rickards
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m002hl0l)
Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale vibrantly reimagined.

Jim lives and works with his parents at their inn on the coast.

But when an old buccaneer comes to stay, their world is turned upside down, and Jim finds himself on a quest for buried treasure accompanied by a group of bloodthirsty pirates.

Written and performed by Gary McNair
Original music written and performed by Michael John McCarthy and Malin Lewis

Production co-ordinator: Ellie Marsh
Studio production: Fraser Jackson
Sound design: Michael John McCarthy

Directed by Kirsty Williams


SUN 16:00 Take Four Books (m002hl0n)
Sarah Hall

Presented by James Crawford, Take Four Books, speaks to the writer Sarah Hall about her new novel, Helm, and explores its connections to three other literary works. This new novel has been twenty years in the making and features a wind called Helm as its principal character. A number of other narratives interweave and interact differently with Helm: a Neolithic tribe tries to placate it, a Dark Age wizard priest wants to banish it, a Victorian steam engineer attempts to capture Helm, and a farmer’s daughter simply loves Helm. The contemporary narrative follows a weather researcher who fears human pollution is killing Helm.

For her three influences Sarah chose: Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders which was published in 2017 and won the Booker prize that same year; Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber from 1979; and Margaret Baker’s Discovering the Folklore of Plants from 1969.

The supporting contributor for this episode is literary editor and founder of the independent publisher thi wurd - Alan McMunnigall.

Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.


SUN 16:30 Nature Table (m001g924)
Series 3

Episode 4

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 Lucy Cooke
* Ethnobotanist James Wong
* 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.


SUN 17:00 BBC Proms: 100 Years of the Shipping Forecast (m002hl0q)
From the BBC Proms, a special evening of words and music with the Ulster Orchestra and conductor Chloé van Soeterstède celebrating the centenary of the Shipping Forecast, heard daily on BBC Radio 4, a lifeline to all those at sea and a poetic salve for countless others on land. With presenters from Radio 4’s Continuity team, music and readings inspired by the oceans and the elements, and a new work by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and his group LYR, this is an event that speaks to the heart of our island nation.

Presented by Caroline Nicholls and Al Ryan


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002hl0s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m002hl0v)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002hl0x)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002hl0z)
John Toal

This week, Radio 4 is tackling the architectural woes of the so called 'blandemic' with the help of designer Thomas Heatherwick, whilst the World Service is bringing us to the heavenly heights of the Sagrada Familia - so much so, Gaudi's on the route to a sainthood. Outside of the city, we're transported via sound to the harvest of bulrushes on the River Great Ouse, chough-watching on the Llyn Peninsula, and Martha Kearney crafting an aeolian harp on Cambridgeshire's Wicken Fen. And after all that, you can wash ashore with the sounds of fairies, and the Shipping Forecast, whichever is sweeter.

Presenter: John Toal
Producer: Anthony McKee
Production Coordinator: Caroline Peddle

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m002hkvz)
There's trouble on the cricket pitch, and Robert has something on his mind.


SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m002hpf0)
The Watch Case

Watchmaker Rebecca Struthers has been invited to come and examine a watch which its owners claim is the world's oldest - but is it?

Until now, Rebecca had only heard rumours of this watch - about the reputation of its famous maker, about the extraordinary circumstances in which it was found, about its unbelievable valuation. It is famous, or infamous, in antiquarian horology circles. But until Rebecca wrote her book 'Hands of Time' (a Radio 4 Book of the Week), few outside that small world had heard much about it.

Now, thanks to her book, a mysterious lawyer has emailed to ask if she'd like to examine the watch. So she's on her way to Switzerland with a lot of questions. Not least - is it the real deal or, as so many of the watch's detractors claim, nothing more than a forgery.

Producer: Giles Edwards


SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001rh1k)
Practice Pilates

It’s a low-impact, low-intensity exercise that can make you stronger, more flexible, and benefit your posture and balance. It’s proven to reduce lower back pain and it can even enhance your exercise performance! No surprise that tennis star Andy Murray uses it in his training routine. In this episode, Pilates expert Professor Ruth Melo from the University of San Paulo reveals all about the benefits of Pilates on our cardiovascular endurance, core strength and healthy ageing. Meanwhile, Michael challenges keen tennis player Rambali to take up Pilates and see if he can improve his serve.

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 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


SUN 20:30 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 Stamp, the pioneering computer scientist and founder of her own software company

Kay Dunbar who founded the Ways with Words literacy 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


SUN 21:00 Sliced Bread (m002dzyj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m002hkxw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002hkff)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:30 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m002hl11)
Guests including the Labour leader in Scotland Anas Sarwar join Nick Eardley for an hour of political discussion


SUN 23:00 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


SUN 23:30 The History Podcast (m0024bgb)
The Lucan Obsession

7. The Investigation

Police traipsed through 46 Lower Belgrave St on the night of Sandra Rivett’s murder, but did they contaminate the evidence?

The police files are still closed. Where there have been unanswered questions, enticing myths and conspiracies have filled the void.

Alex von Tunzelmann pieces together what we can know of the investigation, trying to separate fact from fiction.

She hears from two policemen who worked on the Lucan case and reassesses the forensics with an ex-Metropolitan Police detective.

Stories emerge about close relations between the press and police and she wonders if booze, bribes and class deference may have obscured the truth.

Producer: Sarah Bowen
Content Producer: Becca Bryers


SUN 23:45 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

MONDAY 25 AUGUST 2025

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m002hl13)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 00:15 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


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m002hkgq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002hl15)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002hl17)
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 (m002hl19)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:04 Last Word (m002hbkz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Sunday]


MON 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002hl1c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002hl1f)
The Empty Chairs

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Rabbi Charley Baginsky

Good morning!

When I was a child, my father would read me a poem by A. A. Milne about "James James Morrison Morrison", who warns his mother never to go to the end of the town without him. Of course, one day she does - and is never seen again.

In my family, we each saw something different in that poem. My father, a teacher, saw the way children sometimes care for their parents. My brother, a child protection social worker, saw a child’s fear that a parent might leave and not come back. For me, it has always been about loss, the simple truth that people leave us, and there is nothing we can do to change it.

We all know what it is to have an empty chair in our lives, someone who used to be there and now is not. The space they leave can feel impossibly large. And yet, in another sense, they are still with us. I believe those we have loved live on in us: in our words, our values, the way we greet the day, the way we love others. Their presence is felt, even in their absence.

There is a line in the Bible when Jonathan says to David, knowing they may never see each other again: “Your chair will be empty. You will be missed.”

May we carry the memory of those we love with tenderness. May we live in a way that honours what they gave us. And may we choose life, as they would have wanted for us.

Amen.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m002hl1h)
In a special programme, Kathleen Carragher travels to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides to find out how transhumance, the summer migration of livestock, lasted in one area of the island into the 1970s. Whole communities moved their animals to common grazings to protect their crops – it was called going to the Shielings, named after the small huts they built as temporary homes. We hear crofters' memories of working, playing and praying on the moors during the summer months.

Presented and produced by Kathleen Carragher


MON 05:57 Weather (m002hl1k)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for farmers


MON 06:00 Today (m002hkvg)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Rory Stewart: The Long History of... (m002gjg2)
Heroism

4. Poster Heroes

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 from the middle of the 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 (m002hkvj)
Series 2

Making 'Making' Great Again

Our cities have been built like machines – efficient, repeatable, and soulless. In this second episode, Thomas Heatherwick argues it’s time to put the hand back into architecture.

Can embracing craft, imperfection – even AI as a creative partner – help us make buildings that feel human again?

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 (m002hkvl)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


MON 11:00 The History Podcast (m002gjdt)
The Second Map

2. The Secrets in the Safe

In Episode 2 of The Second Map, the war against Japan enters a new phase. Some of the most significant battles of the Second World War were fought on the Asian front - including by the 14th Army, which was known as ‘The Forgotten Army’, even at the time. It was formed after a string of defeats to Japan and was made up of nearly a million men, the majority from India and across the British empire. Their main aim: to win Burma back. Assisting them was a remarkable British woman from North London who became known as “The Jungle Queen,” and the tribal group she was living with. Their intervention would be critical. And we hear rare voices from Japanese forces, as the war shifts against them. 

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.


MON 11:45 Blood Lands (m0006zx5)
Blood on the Wall

Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.

At dusk on a warm evening in 2016, two men arrive, unexpectedly, at a remote South African farmhouse. The frenzy that follows will come to haunt a community, destroying families, turning neighbours into traitors, prompting street protests and threats of violence, and dividing the small farming and tourist town of Parys along racial lines. Blood Lands is a murder investigation, a political drama, a courtroom thriller, and a profound exploration of the enduring tensions threatening the “rainbow nation". Over the course of three years, correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an explosive trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution.

Presenter, Andrew Harding
Producer, Becky Lipscombe
Editor, Bridget Harney


MON 12:00 News Summary (m002hkvn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m002hkvq)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


MON 12:57 Weather (m002hkvs)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m002hkvv)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


MON 13:45 Naturebang (m002hkvx)
Magpies and Altruism

Why do we help each other out? Even when it gets us nothing in return? Becky Ripley and Emily Knight explore the existence of altruism, with the help of some mischievous magpies.

Featuring Professor Dominique Potvin from the University of the Sunshine Coast, and Dr Abigail Marsh from Georgetown University.

Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.


MON 14:00 The Archers (m002hkvz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (m002hkw1)
2025 Special

2025's instalment of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme is forty-five minutes of the funniest things John thought of in the last year, performed by John and his regular cast of Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan, with composer Susannah Pearse at the piano and Sally Stares on the cello.

Please note that listening to these sketches about seahorses, time travel and sirens may cause side effects, unless you're listening to the placebo version of the show.

Written and performed by … John Finnemore
Ensemble … Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Ensemble … Simon Kane
Ensemble … Lawry Lewin
Ensemble … Carrie Quinlan

Original music … Susannah Pearse
Piano … Susannah Pearse
Cello … Sally Stares

Recording … Jerry Peal & Jon Calver
Editing … Rich Evans

Production Manager … Katie Baum
Executive Producer … Richard Morris

Producer … Ed Morrish

John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme is a BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


MON 15:00 Great Lives (m002hkqs)
Miles Jupp on JL Carr, author of A Month in the Country

"I find his novels extraordinarily beautiful .. and they're an excellent length."

Miles Jupp picks an author he loves, but knows little about. JL Carr was born in Yorkshire and was a teacher, mapmaker, and an eccentric. Joining the comedian in studio to discuss Carr is a man who knew him well - DJ Taylor - who paints a picture of a man who hated London literary parties and knew how to have fun with anyone sent to interview him. A delightful episode that includes archive of Carr himself, plus Kenneth Branagh reading from his biography, God's Englishman by Byron Rogers.

Carr's novel - A Month in the Country - was shortlisted for the Booker and turned into a film starring Kenneth Branagh, Colin Firth and Natasha Richardson in 1987.

The producer for BBC Studios in Bristol is Miles Warde


MON 15:30 You're Dead to Me (m002hkf6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Saturday]


MON 16:00 Currently (m002hkw3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]


MON 16:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m002hkf8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


MON 17:00 PM (m002hkw5)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002hkw7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m002hkw9)
Series 95

2. Where's the live, laugh, love?

Sue Perkins challenges Tony Hawks, Desiree Burch, Gyles Brandreth and Emma Sidi to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation. Subjects include the perfect pair of pyjamas, checking one’s moles and getting the ‘ick’.

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 (m002hkpr)
George has a controversial brainwave, and Henry admits the truth.


MON 19:15 Artworks (m002hkwc)
Hollywood and The Adland Five

1. Transforming Ads, Transforming Movies

The UK’s foremost film director Sir Christopher Nolan and the leading cultural historian Sir Christopher Frayling unite to assess the impact of one of the biggest, boldest - and least celebrated - eras in filmmaking history.

Meet the Adland Five - five British directors who stormed Hollywood in the late 1970s and early 1980s, having already revolutionised the world of advertising.

Hugh Hudson, Adrian Lyne, Alan Parker, Ridley and Tony Scott went from working side by side in London’s Soho ad business - on 30 second TV spots for the likes of Hovis and Heineken - to transforming the film industry with movies including Alien, Chariots of Fire and Top Gun. So why have critics never taken them seriously?

Christopher Nolan’s own love for the work of the Adland Five can be traced back to a childhood visit to the Pinewood set of Bugsy Malone in 1976. The film’s director Alan Parker was the first of the group to break into cinema, and it was the success of his debut – a prohibition-era musical starring kids, with adults providing singing voices - that led Parker’s friend and colleague Ridley Scott to move into the movies himself, with 1977’s Napoleonic drama The Duellists.

Without the impact of the Adland Five some decades before, Christopher Nolan’s own Hollywood career - with films like The Dark Knight, Inception and Oppenheimer - might never have seemed within reach. Now he believes it’s time they were given their due…

Producer - Jane Long
Executive Producer - Freya Hellier
Additional research - Edward Charles, Heather Dempsey and Queenie Qureshi-Wales
Sound mix - Jon Calver
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


MON 19:45 New Storytellers (m000y5f8)
The Bathing Place

Cultural historian George Townsend leads us through his research into Parson’s Pleasure, a male-only nude bathing place on the outskirts of Oxford.

A unique site, Parson’s Pleasure offered exercise and repose to men from many walks of life, for at least 400 years. It formed a centre of muscular Christianity for the Victorians and a hub for the sunbathing craze between the wars. It was also a cruising spot and sanctuary for gay men until its demolition in 1992, and remains a part of the city’s collective imagination to this day.

Through poetry and stories from old regulars, we explore the river island where Parson’s Pleasure sits, and discover surprising echoes of its history among the younger generation of today.

Touching on social and landscape history and the history of sexuality, The Bathing Place offers an insight into the city of dreaming spires like no other.

New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features the five winners of the 2021 Charles Parker Prize for Best Student Radio Feature. The award is 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.

Winning producer of The Bathing Place, Hunter Charlton studying an MA at Goldsmiths, University of London, was commended by the judges for having made ‘a lovely engrossing listen, with a great mix of oral history, music, poetry and effects.’

Presenter: George Townsend
Producer: Hunter Charlton
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


MON 20:00 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


MON 20:30 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.


MON 21:00 The Patch (m002cpqv)
Bruton

One random generated postcode and a story you probably haven't heard before. Today it's Bruton, Somerset.

This small town in rural Somerset has become a magnet for contemporary art, celebrities, and newspaper journalists who like to write about "the new Notting Hill" and "the new Montecito", interchangeably. It's a new challenge for producer Polly Weston, who is not used to being sent to such well documented destinations. Ten years ago, the international contemporary art titans, Hauser and Wirth, decided to open a gallery here. A decade on, and rarely a week goes by without a journalist writing a spread about the town. But what Polly finds most surprising is the number of smaller art galleries she notices on her first visit. How does this contemporary art business work? And what does the town make of it all?

Produced and presented by Polly Weston
Editor: Chris Ledgard
Mixed by Ilse Lademann


MON 21:45 One to One (m001149b)
Re-inventing Yourself: Malaika Kegode with Rev Paul Cowley

Malaika Kegode took a chance and left her rural Devon home in her early twenties, to escape what she describes as a toxic situation, when drugs and violence became part of her daily life. She made the massive life change with the support of her parents and she’s now a successful Bristol-based writer and performer. She’s always been drawn to stories of people who manage to re-invent themselves and in the first of two programmes, Malaika talks to Rev Paul Cowley, a man who has re-invented himself through-out his life, from prisoner to soldier and eventually to priest.
Produced by Jo Dwyer for BBC Audio in Bristol


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m002hkwg)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


MON 22:45 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (m002hkwj)
Episode Six

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 (p0fbhlzb)
Who Killed Aldrich Kemp?

4. The Murder Clowns

Dr Hazlitt sends Aldrich and Clara on a mission to unexplored and dangerous territory.

Chapter Four – more questions than answers?

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
Forsaken McTeague and the Underwood Sisters – Jana Carpenter.
Sabine Seah – Rebecca Boey
Remington Schofield– Barnaby Kay
Mrs Bartholomew – Kate Isitt
Dr Hazlitt - Ben Crowe
Film Director – 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... (m00282q2)
Series 4

5. Comic Relief

On the eve of Comic Relief’s 40th birthday, Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman are joined by Richard Curtis and Sir Lenny Henry to hear the inside story of the charity they founded in 1985, which has gone on to raise more than a £1.6 billion for good causes.

They explain the origins of the idea, reveal some of their favourite moments, and talk about what they hope Comic Relief might achieve in its next 40 years.

Producer: Owen Braben
An Expectation Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4

TUESDAY 26 AUGUST 2025

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m002hkwl)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 Blood Lands (m0006zx5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002hkwn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002hkwq)
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 (m002hkws)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:04 Currently (m002hkw3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]


TUE 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002hkwv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002hkwx)
Finding the Breeze

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Rabbi Charley Baginsky

Good Morning!

We’ve had some hot days this summer. The sort of heat where the air feels thick and everything takes twice as long. Where tempers fray, sleep vanishes, and even my dog refuses to go for a walk.

I was at a bus stop recently. Two women were fanning themselves with folded delivery menus. One turned to the other and said, “This is what I imagine purgatory feels like, nothing dramatic, just slightly unbearable.”

It made me laugh, but it also made me think.

There are stretches of life like that. Not extreme crisis. Just a slow wearing down. A feeling of being stuck, short on energy, short on patience, waiting for some shift - in the weather, in circumstances, in ourselves.

In Jewish tradition, we speak of "ruach", a word that means breath, or wind, or spirit. It carries the idea that something invisible can shift everything. A breath of air in a still room. A kind word that eases loneliness. A change in tone, in mood, in outlook. The smallest shift, and suddenly it feels possible to begin again.

Whatever the forecast, I’m looking out for a breeze - or at least, for small moments of relief: a shaded bench, an unexpected kindness, a conversation that lifts the air a little.

May we find: A breath of fresh air when things feel stuck, Some shade when the world feels too much, And the chance to be that bit of relief for someone else. Just enough to help us get through the heat, and carry us, one breath at a time, into whatever comes next.

Amen


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m002hkwz)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 06:00 Today (m002hkp5)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (m002hkp7)
Series 11

Hestia

The overlooked Olympian who was the resolutely unmarried goddess of the hearth and home. In fact, Zeus awarded her a glorious gift for remaining unmarried, a tradition Natalie very much feels should be continued. In Hestia's Roman form of Vesta her Vestal Virgins guarded the sacred flame in her temple.

Edith Hall thinks she's like Nigella, a domestic goddess, which may explain why references to her are hard to find, but that her importance both to men and women at the time cannot be overestimated.

'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.

Edith Hall is Professor of Classics at Durham University, specialising in ancient Greek literature. She has written over thirty books and is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Producer...Beth O'Dea


TUE 09:30 Inside Health (m002hkp9)
The Revolution in Cystic Fibrosis Care That is Changing Lives

In 1964, the future for children born with Cystic Fibrosis was grim - most faced a life cut tragically short. Today, the majority of people living with CF in the UK are adults, a testament to extraordinary medical progress.

We meet Annabelle who lives with Cystic Fibrosis, and once believed she might not see her 18th birthday. And we hear from Dr Imogen Felton, a respiratory consultant at Royal Brompton Hospital, with expertise in cystic fibrosis, who tells us about the therapies crucial to this extended prognosis.

The EDITH trial (Early Detection using Information Technology in Health) is testing how AI can help radiologists identify breast cancer at an earlier stage, transforming the future of diagnosis. We speak to Professor Sian Taylor-Philips, Professor of Population Health at the University of Warwick and co-leader of the trial.

In 2024, participation in Run Clubs across the UK surged by 64%. But does running in a group lead to better performance? To find out, James laces up for a jog around Hyde Park with the Monday Mood Booster Run Club and speaks with Arran Davis, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, who’s exploring the links between social interaction and physical activity.

Presenter: James Gallagher
Producers: Debbie Kilbride, Minnie Harrop & Tom Bonnett
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production coordinator: Ishmael Soriano
This episode was produced in partnership with The Open University.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002hkpc)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


TUE 11:00 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’.


TUE 11:45 Blood Lands (m0006zty)
Say Nothing

Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.

A white farming family falls silent following the brutal deaths of two black workers. Were the dead men really thieves? Or has South Africa’s tortured past come back to haunt a racially divided community? Blood Lands is a murder investigation, a political drama, a courtroom thriller, and a profound exploration of the enduring tensions threatening the “rainbow nation". Over the course of three years, correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an explosive trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution. When a whole community is on trial, who pays the price?

Presenter, Andrew Harding
Producer, Becky Lipscombe
Editor, Bridget Harney


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m002hkpf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m002hkph)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


TUE 12:57 Weather (m002hkpk)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m002hkpm)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


TUE 13:45 Naturebang (m002hkpp)
Red Deer and Authority of Voice

Do lower voices demand more power? Do we take them more seriously? And is this a bias that needs to be challenged more in today’s world? Becky Ripley and Emily Knight compare the bellowing roars of red deer stags to dig deeper into the psychology of human and animal voice.

Featuring David Reby, Professor of Ethology at Jean Monnet University, and David Puts, Professor of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m002hkpr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001fczg)
Rise

Lorna French’s compelling drama explores the importance of history and the human spirit. It introduces us to Aimee, a, looked-after British Black girl, who finds inner strength from looking at, and learning from, her past, including an unexpected link to some of the pioneers of gospel music. As she untangles her own web of identity, discovery and belonging, she starts to rise – literally.

15-year-old Aimee Long's History homework is entitled Tell Us Your History. The problem for this cared-for Black girl is that history is something that she thinks she doesn’t have. When her key worker Dani introduces Aimee to life story worker Rose, her life changes, as she discovers that she has a history as rich, deep and close, as her beloved Entwhistle reservoir.

Featuring Laurietta Essien (Rules of the Game, Eastenders, Eden), and Andrea Crewe (Waterloo Road, Coronation Street, Line of Duty), the cast is completed by newcomer Olivia Triste as Aimee, alongside Rosa Brooks and Femi Nylander, all making their BBC Radio 4 debut in this heart-warming drama.

Recorded on location, this contemporary drama set in Bolton is directed by Dermot Daly, who co-produced sections of the first series of United Kingdoms for BBC Radio 4 and recently directed the critically acclaimed theatre show, My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored which won the Lustrum Award during its Edinburgh Fringe Festival run and saw him nominated as Best Director at the 2022 Black British Theatre Awards.

The writer Lorna French is a two-time winner of the Alfred Fagon Award. She is currently under commission to Pentabus Theatre Company and Limbik Theatre, with recent work on the Hear Me Now monologues series (Titlola Dawudu and Tamasha Theatre Company) published by Methuen Drama. Her audio work includes The Last Flag for Radio 4, short radio drama NFA for Menagerie Theatre Company and Cambridge University, October 2020. Her play Esther was shortlisted for Theatre Uncut Political Playwright Award 2 in 2021 and shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2020.

Cast:
Aimee..........................................Olivia Triste
Rose............................................Laurietta Essien
Dani.............................................Rosa Brooks
Mrs Taylor / Grandmother...........Andrea Crewe
Isaac William Cisco.....................Femi Nylander


Writer............................................Lorna French
Director ……………………………..Dermot Daly
Sound Recordist……………………Louis Blatherwick
Sound Designer…………………….Sami El Enany
Illustration……………………………Tessie Orange-Turner
Production Manager………………..Darren Spruce
Producer……………………………..Polly Thomas
Executive Producer…………………Eloise Whitmore

A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:00 Extreme (m0027h5x)
Peak Danger

6. Descent into Madness

What was first a tragedy now morphs into a full blown catastrophe. In the aftermath of the avalanche, stranded climbers are battling their way back to Camp.

What they don’t know is that they’re searching for a path down K2 that no longer exists.

Some will risk it all to climb down in total darkness, while others wait out the night on K2’s slopes.

Rescue missions are being planned. Who can hold on long enough for help to reach them?

Featuring climbers Wilco van Rooijen, Pasang Lama, Chhiring Dorje Sherpa, Eric Meyer and Kim Jae-Soo. Also featuring June Yoon as the voice of Kim Jae-Soo.

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 (w3ct6vp2)
Escaping North Korea

North Korea is considered one of the most secretive countries in the world. It is officially an atheist state. The ruling party sees religion as a threat to its authority. Instead North Koreans are expected to show complete devotion to the ruling Kim family, who many view as godlike. There are believed to be a small number of Christians practicing in secret inside the hermit kingdom, but entire families can be sent to prison camps for practicing religion. Even owning a Bible can lead to detention or even death.

There are an estimated 33,000 North Korean defectors living in South Korea. The exact number of North Korean Christians living in the south is unknown, but it is believed that a significant number of defectors now identify as Christians. BBC Correspondent Danny Vincent travels to the South Korean capital of Seoul to meet a family of defectors he first met a decade earlier while fleeing Northern China. They recall their defection from North Korea and their journey from devotion to a dictator, to belief in Christ.

Producer/presenter: Danny Vincent
Producer: Jen Kwon
Editor: Chloe Walker

(Photo: People pay tribute to the statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hil. Credit: Kim Won Jin)


TUE 16:00 Artworks (m002hkpw)
The Farmer's Guide to Animal Farm

George Orwell’s Animal Farm was published 80 years ago this week. It’s often interpreted as a satire of Soviet communism under Stalin. But to mark its anniversary writer and academic Lisa Mullen seeks out a new perspective by asking, what if we read it as a book about farming instead? As Lisa travels from the rich sandy loam of East Anglia to the hill farms of the Cotswolds, George Orwell emerges as a man committed to life as a smallholder, and as a writer deeply involved in the agricultural debates of the 20th century – debates that have shaped the English countryside as it is today.
With contributors Nathan Waddell, Professor of 20th Century Literature at the University of Birmingham and author of A Bright Cold Day: The Wonder of George Orwell; Ian Wilkinson, co-founder and director of FarmED; Melissa Abbot, Growing Officer at the Food Museum, Stowmarket; Dr Ollie Douglas, Curator at the Museum of English Rural life in Reading; Dr Sophie Scott Brown, Fellow of the Institute of Intellectual History at the University of St Andrews and author of The Radical Fifties: Activist Politics in Cold War Britain

Producer: Luke Mulhall


TUE 16:30 What's Up Docs? (m002hkpy)
Is our noisy world killing us?

Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken cut through the noise around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.

This week, Chris and Xand speak to Professor Charlotte Clark, Environmental Epidemiologist at City St George’s, University of London. She explains how being exposed to transport noise over long periods of our life can have disastrous consequences for our cardiovascular systems, brains and minds. But how big a problem is this? And is there anything we can do to protect ourselves from the effects of noise?

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: Professor Charlotte Clark
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 (m002hkq0)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002hkq2)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 18:30 Room 101 with Paul Merton (m002hkq4)
Series 3

Richard Ayoade

Paul asks Richard Ayoade what he would like to put into Room 101.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m002hkq6)
Kenton takes the bait, while Zainab has a bone to pick.


TUE 19:15 Artworks (m002hkq9)
Hollywood and The Adland Five

2. The British are Coming!

Sir Christopher Nolan and Sir Christopher Frayling tell a new story of British cinema.


TUE 19:45 New Storytellers (m000y6jt)
Outsider Sisters

'I remember a girl calling me a black pig...' - Kat Francois.

Through poetry, music, sounds and interviews, producer Chantal Herbert brings to life the emotions and experiences of women and non-binary persons of colour who grew up or migrated to the UK. With powerful spoken word, stories and real-life accounts of racism, Outsider Sisters gives you an uncomfortable snapshot into the everyday shared life experience of many people of colour living on this small island.

New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features the five winners of the 2021 Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature.

Outsider Sisters was produced by Chantal Herbert, who graduated from the University of Sunderland's MA Radio course last year. The competition judges praised the feature’s 'skilled and creative use of the medium and vivid contributions … It had a great flow and groove ... A lovely piece.’

Producer: Chantal Herbert
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 20:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002hqb7)
Leila Nathoo investigates the risk assessment system for domestic abuse, and asks whether it is any longer fit for purpose.

The DASH form is the gateway for victims and survivors of domestic abuse - used by the police, charities and social workers to assess people who may be at risk of domestic abuse. It is deeply embedded in the whole system and plays a central role in deciding what further support victims receive. But Leila reveals troubling evidence that DASH too often incorrectly identifies those at the highest risk, meaning they do not get the support they need. And people across the system tell her that the form has not kept pace with the latest research about domestic abuse. Leila asks those who use the form, those who have studied its use, and those who developed it, what improvements need to be made, and why it has taken so long.

Producer: Daniel Kraemer.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m002hkqh)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted


TUE 21:00 Crossing Continents (m002hkqn)
Suing 'Alligator Alcatraz': Immigration in the US

President Trump has called illegal immigration an “invasion” and what's followed is a huge rise in the arrest and detention of migrants. Some have ended up in ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ - an immigration detention centre that was speedily constructed in June, deep in the Florida swampland. It has become a focal point for debates around immigration. Outside its gates, some take proud selfies with the ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ sign; others protest, following reports of poor conditions inside.

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is now subject to a number of lawsuits. Immigration attorneys say they haven’t been granted proper access to clients inside; environmentalists claim the detention centre is harming the protected wetlands that surround it. Within the last few days, a judge has that ruled that much of the detention centre must be dismantled and no new migrants taken there. It’s a preliminary ruling - and the case will continue to be litigated. The government immediately filed an appeal.

Josephine Casserly follows immigration lawyer Mich Gonzalez as he attempts to meet his client inside the detention centre. She reports from Florida - America’s new frontline on immigration.

Produced by Ellie House


TUE 21:30 Great Lives (m002hkqs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:00 on Monday]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m002hkqw)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


TUE 22:45 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (m002hkr0)
Episode Seven

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 (m002ddbc)
9. Squeaky Fans

“A tense environment and a good villain” are the perfect ingredients for mass hysteria, according to psychologist and epidemiologist Professor Simon Wessley. It’s a phrase so toxic, it was removed from the diagnostic manual in the late 1960s. But as neurologist and mystery illness expert Suzanne O’Sullivan explains, “We are all vulnerable. We just need to meet the right circumstance.”

In the penultimate episode of Havana Helmet Club, Jennifer Forde and Sam Bungey investigate high-profile cases of mass hysteria – now known as mass psychogenic illness or conversion disorder - for clues about Havana Syndrome. Could it be the solution to the puzzle, or a way for the CIA to dig themselves out of a hole?

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

Havana Helmet Club is a Yarn production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.


TUE 23:30 Illuminated (m0029yq6)
The Big Ask

How many questions have you asked today? How many were rhetorical, “boomer-asking”, passive/aggressive or just boringly functional?

Did you know that our appetites for question-asking peak at the age of five, then steadily diminish? That kids ask an average of 40,000 questions between the ages of 2 and 5, while adults ask fewer than ten questions a day? Why are we asking fewer, meaningful questions? In an age where antisocial behaviour has become normal — where it’s entirely acceptable to spend most of the time looking down at our phones, or ranting on social media — shouldn’t we be asking what we’re losing in the process?

Can journalist Ian Wylie, who uses the five Ws daily, reignite our curiosity and appetite for asking questions? And can he discover better questions that unlock bigger stories and deeper conversations? What will he learn from professional question-askers, including barrister Melanie Simpson, detective Steve Hibbit, philosopher Lani Watson and priest Leanne Roberts? Is artificial intelligence likely to discourage us from asking deep, open-ended questions? Or could it force us to ask clearer, sharper, more precise questions?

Can Ian create his documentary entirely from questions? Or will he slip up?

A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4

WEDNESDAY 27 AUGUST 2025

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m002hkr6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 00:30 Blood Lands (m0006zty)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002hkrb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002hkrg)
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 (m002hkrm)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:04 BBC Inside Science (m002hb9f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


WED 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002hkrr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002hkrv)
Unexpected Joy

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Rabbi Charley Baginsky

Good morning!

The other day I found an old photograph tucked between the pages of a book. I did not even remember owning the book, never mind the photo. It was of a day ten years ago when my kids were very small, and I could not get them to pose for a picture. In the end, I gave up and started taking a selfie. The moment they saw me, they jumped in, laughing.

And then something happened. Looking at that photo, I could suddenly smell the suntan lotion on their small heads and feel the stickiness of ice lollies on their fingers pressed against my face, the smell of pure joy. It was as though no time had passed at all.

In Jewish thought, there is a word, "zicharon", meaning remembrance. It is not only about facts or dates, but about bringing the past alive in the present. The memories that do this are not always the grand ones.

Sometimes it is the sound of a song, the smell of a kitchen, the feel of a familiar jumper.

I am grateful for the unexpected ways memory finds us. These moments remind me that joy is still possible, that kindness is worth offering, that the love we have known still shapes the life we live now.

May we stumble upon something today, a picture, a smell, a taste, that reminds us of what is good. And may that reminder carry us gently forward into whatever lies ahead.

Amen.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m002hks0)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 06:00 Today (m002hksj)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Sideways (m002hksl)
77. Crazy Cat Lady

Anna Go-Go has always defied expectations - she was a drummer (still rare for a woman), then a comedian and now a mass Go-Go dance instructor - always with her beloved cats by her side. But when she turned 40, she noticed people’s attitudes changed towards her. They saw her as an older woman living alone with cats and really began to treat her like a ‘crazy cat lady’.

The idea of a woman living alone with cats has caused cultural panic for centuries. In 2021 when US vice-president JD Vance was a Senate candidate, he described how his country was run by a bunch of ‘childless cat ladies’ - miserable at their lives and the choices they made. The comments went viral and were heavily criticised but they also drew attention to the modern-day use of the cat lady trope.

In this episode, with the help of history and science, Matthew Syed explores how and why this centuries-old shaming tactic has travelled through time and still echoes today.

With performer, mass dance master and author of Cat Lady Manifesto, Anna Go-Go; Dr Corey Wrenn, Lecturer of Sociology at the University of Kent; historian and author of the book Catland, Kathryn Hughes; and evolutionary biologist at Washington University in St Louis and author of The Age of Cats, Professor Jonathan Losos.

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Vishva Samani
Editor: Hannah Marshall
Sound Design and Mix: Mark Pittan
Theme music by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


WED 09:30 Shadow World (m002hksn)
The People vs McDonald's

3. Flipping Burgers!

When McDonald's discloses internal company documents to the court, they reveal somebody has been watching...

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 (m002hksq)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


WED 11:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002hqb7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]


WED 11:40 This Week in History (m002hkss)
August 25th - August 31st

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 25th - August 31st
- 27th August 1896. The British Empire defeat the sultanate of Zanzibar in the shortest recorded war in History.
- 26th August 1994. Arthur Cornhill receives the world's first 'Bionic Heart'.
- 29th August 1930. The evacuation of the archipelago of St Kilda.

Presented by Jane Steel and Ron Brown.
Produced by Chris Pearson and Luke Doran.


WED 11:45 Blood Lands (m00070hc)
Shaking the Tree

Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.

Police investigating a suspected double murder in a small South African farming community uncover crucial new evidence. But will it be enough to break the farmers’ wall of silence and solve a case that has divided a town on racial lines? Blood Lands is a murder investigation, a political drama, a courtroom thriller, and a profound exploration of the enduring tensions threatening the "rainbow nation". Over the course of three years, correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an explosive trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution.

Presenter, Andrew Harding
Producer, Becky Lipscombe
Editor, Bridget Harney


WED 12:00 News Summary (m002hksv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m002hksx)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


WED 12:57 Weather (m002hksz)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m002hkt1)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


WED 13:45 Naturebang (m002hkt3)
Running Wild and the Science of Endurance

Why do animals move the way they do? And why do we humans love to run? Becky Ripley and Emily Knight enlist dogs, horses, armadillos, and some uncooperative rabbits to find out.

Featuring Professor Lewis Halsey from the University of Roehampton, and Dr Andrew Yegian from Harvard University.
Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.


WED 14:00 The Archers (m002hkq6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001b459)
Knock of the Ban-Sithe

A contemporary ghost story based on Gaelic folklore. Three siblings return to the family croft on the Isle of Lewis to visit their dying mother – but their childhood home is haunted by unsettling memories and fears as they wait through the night for the arrival of the dreaded Ban-Sithe.

By Kenny Boyle.

Kirstin………..Helen Mackay
Mairi………….Sophia Mclean
Calum……….Kenny Boyle
Peggi………..Mairi Morrison
Titan…………Aora

Producer/director: Bruce Young


WED 15:00 Politically (m002gg6x)
Reflections: Series 3

Steve Baker

Steve Baker was a pivotal figure in the Brexit turmoil that engulfed the Conservatives. Becoming an MP in 2010 order to help achieve Britain's severance from the European Union, he came to prominence as chair of an influential group of Eurosceptic rebels who helped bring down the prime ministership of Theresa May.

Having lost his seat in the general election of 2024, the former Royal Air Force engineer talks to James Naughtie about how to organise a rebellion, his Christian faith, the state of the Conservative party and the toll political life took on his mental health.

Producer: Leela Padmanabhan


WED 15:30 The Hidden History of the Wall (m001thzr)
Cultural Sociologist Rachel Hurdley travels round England and Wales to uncover what walls tell us about how we live, from iron age roundhouses to Victorian mansions, medieval halls to terraced workers’ cottages, castles to the domestic interiors of today.

Rachel explores how walls, which we often take for granted, define the spaces we inhabit and make sense of everyday life and our place in the world, talking to a range of experts and academics including architectural writer Jonathan Glancey.

She tries her hand at making wattle and daub for roundhouses at Castell Henllys in Wales, with archaeologist Dr David Howell . She climbs through the thick stone walls of the Norman castle at Conisbrough in South Yorkshire, with buildings archaeologist James Wright and English Heritage curator Kevin Booth.

From the top of the tower, Rachel explores ideas of status and wealth, where building the tallest tower was as much about impressing the neighbours, as it was about military defence and protecting the vast wealth of the aristocratic elite. She also visits St Fagans National Museum of History Wales – a living museum of vernacular buildings throughout the ages.

Rachel looks at the way walls have redefined our living spaces from medieval times, such as the longhouses where farmers lived side by side with their animals and the great medieval halls. Here, daily life carried on in one space – masters and servants - until the ruling family was wealthy enough to seek privacy by building first floor solars. Now in modern day Britain, privacy can be at a premium in warehouses and factories converted into rented accommodation to meet to housing demand in sought after areas such as Hackney in London.

She also hears stories of horror and superstition – people and animals incarcerated in walls – as well as the use of burn marks at Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire to keep evil spirits away and visits one of the oldest medieval houses to survive in England, the National Trust’s Ightham Mote in Kent, to see centuries of change through its walls with conservation architect Stuart Page and collections manager Amanda Doran,

She looks at how fashions and styles have changed with a visit the Museum of the Home where Director Dr Sonia Solicari tells Rachel more about social change through the Museum room sets. Wallpaper was a game changer, a much cheaper alternative to tapestries or rich wall paintings. She hears some surprising facts - the introduction in the 18th century of wallpaper tax, and also how the arsenic in some of the wallpaper pigments was poisoning people. Yet it was the industrial revolution which brought wallpaper and the other mass produced trappings of the home to almost everyone and a chance to curate our spaces - like those of British born Caribbean playwright and artist Michael McMillan, who remembers from his childhood the power of the front room to impress and reveal who we are.

Presenter: Rachel Hurdley
Producer: Sara Parker
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4


WED 16:00 Human Intelligence (m0026v8w)
Teachers: Michael Faraday

The modern world is inconceivable without this son of a blacksmith and his meticulous, relentless brain. Naomi Alderman meets the mind behind huge scientific advances – who made breakthroughs in the understanding of electricity, changed the technology by which we live and contributed to our theoretical understanding of the forces underpinning the universe. Faraday also devoted his life to spreading the understanding of science into public life via his lectures at the Royal Institution.

Special thanks to Frank James, Professor of the History of Science at University College London.

Produced by BBC Studios Audio in partnership with The Open University.


WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002hkt5)
Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this is the programme about a revolution in media.


WED 17:00 PM (m002hkt7)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002hkt9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 18:30 The Edinburgh Comedy Awards Gala 2025 (m002hktc)
Best Newcomer

Comedy fans can catch the nominees for The Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2025 in this showcase for BBC Radio 4.

Guaranteed to be packed with laughs, this special will be hosted by last year’s Best Comedy Show winner, Amy Gledhill.

Recorded at The Gilded Balloon, the show will give listeners around the UK the chance to get a taste of what people can’t get enough of at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Host: Amy Gledhill
Producer: Georgia Keating
Production Co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Edited by Giles Aspen
Recorded by Sean Kerwin

Recorded at The Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh.
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


WED 19:00 The Archers (m002hktf)
Jolene has serious reservations, and Pat is not amused.


WED 19:15 Artworks (m002hkth)
Hollywood and The Adland Five

3. A New Brand of Moviemaking

Sir Christopher Nolan and Sir Christopher Frayling tell a new story of British cinema.


WED 19:45 New Storytellers (m000y6np)
Read my Lips

Danielle was born with a cleft lip and palate and knows what it is like to be different in a world focused on appearance.

She has experienced first-hand the effect of looks on everyday life. For her, the mental effects of 28 operations have required a much higher resilience than the sheer physical endurance. She has had to cope with missing a lot of school and the challenge of keeping friendships, struggling to find a sense of identity as her face constantly changed through surgery.

Now Danielle hopes her first-hand experience will help others. A researcher at the University of the West of England (UWE), she is studying the psychology of those affected by craniofacial conditions.

New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features all five winners of this year’s prize for Best Student Radio Feature. The award is presented every year in memory of pioneering radio producer Charles Parker, who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.

This was the first feature made by producer Isobel Howe - an MA student studying audio journalism at UWE. The judges praised the piece as ‘a beautifully told personal story’ which was ‘completely absorbing’, saying ‘Danielle, the subject and principal speaker, is articulate, funny and open’ with ’some visceral and moving moments’.

Producer: Isobel Howe
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m002hktk)
Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories.


WED 21:00 Walt Disney: A Life in Films (p0fxbtvs)
9. Mary Poppins

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, the “practically perfect in every way” Mel descends from the clouds to tell the tale of Mary Poppins. The film is a colourful, joy filled romp, but its creation was far from a jolly holiday for Walt Disney. Mel reveals the lengths Disney went to secure the rights to Mary Poppins and the highly antagonistic relationship he had with the author of the original book upon which his iconic film is based.

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


WED 21:30 Inside Health (m002hkp9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m002hktm)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


WED 22:45 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (m002hktp)
Episode Eight

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


WED 23:00 Stand-Up Specials (m002hdcw)
Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Dying

4. Estate of Affairs

What profession charges every 6 minutes? Get your mind out of the gutter!
In this episode, Stuart wades through all the legal documents involved after losing a loved one and the surprising financial costs involved.

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 (m0010jjd)
Do You Have Democracy?

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.

This episode details the colonisation of Kenya, and the torrid experiences that her family and the Gikuyu tribe went through. Just three generations ago, Njambi expertly shares a history that many in the UK will not be familiar with, comparing modern day politics to the brutality and camps of the late 1800s.

Produced by Julia Sutherland
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 Illuminated (m002525p)
The Sun Does Shine

The story of Anthony Ray Hinton who spent years on death row for crimes he didn't commit, with a soundtrack composed by Harvey Brough and performed by Vox Holloway Community Choir.

In June 1988, Mr Hinton was convicted of two murders, in one of the most shockingly cynical miscarriages of justice in US history. He spent the next 28 years on death row, before all charges were dropped and he was finally released in April 2015.

The Sun Does Shine is the title of his memoir, in which he tells how he found life and freedom on death row. His story reflects the compassion, faith and heroic courage of a remarkable man. In prison he befriended Henry Hays, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, who was convicted and eventually executed for a racist murder.

The unlikely friendship of Hinton and Hays lies at the heart of this story.

The Sun Does Shine features an extended interview with Hinton, in which he talks about how he survived years of imprisonment, facing the constant threat of execution, and how the multiple appeals launched by his lawyer Bryan Stevenson ultimately led to his release.

His words are accompanied by an oratorio composed by Harvey Brough, based on Hinton's memoir and performed by the Vox Holloway Community Choir. Vox Holloway’s work on The Sun Does Shine was supported by Arts Council England

Since leaving prison, Anthony Ray Hinton has worked tirelessly, alongside Bryan Stevenson, campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty and for reforms to the criminal justice and prison systems in America

PRESENTER: Christina Gill
PRODUCERS: Abigail Morris and Sam Liebmann with Osman Teezo Kargbo
COMPOSER: Harvey Brough
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Andrew Wilkie and Tricia Zipfel
A Vox Holloway / Prison Radio Association production for BBC Radio 4

THURSDAY 28 AUGUST 2025

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m002hktr)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 Blood Lands (m00070hc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002hktt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002hktw)
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 (m002hkty)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:04 Sideways (m002hksl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


THU 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002hkv0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002hkv2)
Do you have Chutzpah?

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Rabbi Charley Baginsky

Good morning!

Chutzpah is one of those words that refuses to sit quietly in a neat translation. In Yiddish, it can mean arrogance and entitlement, but it can also mean boldness, courage, and the willingness to speak up when it matters. The difference is in whether it’s used for ourselves alone, or for something bigger.

There’s a story in the Bible about Balaam’s donkey that captures the good kind. Balaam is travelling along a narrow road, intent on his mission, when an angel steps into the path, invisible to him, but not to the donkey.

She swerves, crushes his foot against a wall, and finally sits down. Balaam lashes out in frustration.

And then, the donkey speaks.

She asks why, after all her years of service, he can’t imagine there might be a reason for her behaviour.

It’s only then that Balaam’s eyes are opened and he sees the danger ahead.

That’s chutzpah.

Not arrogance, but the courage to stop when others are pushing forward. The clarity to notice what’s being missed. The nerve to speak up, even to someone more powerful, when the moment calls for it.

Sometimes we need that kind of chutzpah ourselves - to question, to pause, to steer away from harm even if it makes us unpopular. And sometimes we need to hear it from others and be willing to stop, listen, and see with new eyes.

May we notice what others miss. May we have the courage to pause when the path ahead isn’t safe. And may we speak up, kindly but firmly, when the moment demands it.

Amen.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m002hkv4)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 06:00 Today (m002hkx1)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 Artworks (m002hkx3)
What Happened to Counter-Culture?

28/08/2025

Stewart Lee explores the story and ideas of counter-culture and its importance today.


THU 09:30 How to Play (m002hkx5)
Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique with Anja Bihlmaier and the BBC Philharmonic

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Anja Bihlmaier invite us into their rehearsal room as they prepare for a Proms performance of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

Hector Berlioz was a French composer and his Symphonie Fantastique - first performed in 1830 - is a work of high Romanticism. It is a dramatic five-movement symphony, using vivid orchestral colours and effects to depict the story of a young artist who, driven to despair by unrequited love, falls into an hallucinatory state after taking opium. It progresses through a series of visions and dreams, from a ball and a pastoral scene to a frightening march to the guillotine and a grotesque witches' Sabbath.

Featuring Anja Bihlmaier, conductor; Zoe Beyers, violin; Paul Patrick, percussion; and Kenny Sturgeon, oboe

Thanks to Jess Mills, Stephen Rinker and all at the BBC Philharmonic.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002hkx7)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m002hkx9)
Eric Idle

Comedian, writer, musician and actor Eric Idle talks to John Wilson about his creative influences. A founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, he wrote and performed across their four television series and films, including The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. As a songwriter, he was responsible for much of the Python’s musical comedy, including Always Look on the Bright Side of Life and The Galaxy Song.

He created the comedy series Rutland Weekend Television and the Beatles parody band The Rutles, which toured and released albums. In 2005, Eric Idle created the Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot, based on the film Monty Python and The Holy Grail which, for over 20 years, has run twice in London’s West End and on Broadway and has been staged in 14 countries around the world.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


THU 11:45 Blood Lands (m00070n8)
Betrayal

Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.

A family betrayal leads to a murder trial in a small farming town in South Africa. But who is telling the truth about a frenzied attack that left two black farm workers dead, and a community bitterly divided on racial lines? Blood Lands is murder investigation, a political drama, a courtroom thriller, and a profound exploration of the enduring tensions threatening the "rainbow nation". Over the course of three years, correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an explosive trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution.

Presenter, Andrew Harding
Producer, Becky Lipscombe
Editor, Bridget Harney


THU 12:00 News Summary (m002hkxc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Scam Secrets (m002hkxf)
Investment Scam: The Crypto Coach

A trusted celeb seems to be promoting a crypto investment. Would you know what to do?

In this episode of Scam Secrets, Shari Vahl, Dr Elisabeth Carter and former criminal Alex Wood hear how an apparent endorsement from a trusted celebrity paved the way for the relentless psychological manipulation of a couple, with devastating consequences.

The team discuss how helpless people can even be made to lie to their own banks while under the spell of criminals, and they highlight the red flags to watch out for so you can spot what the fraudsters are doing.

PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL
PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002hkxh)
Dough - The Future of Cars

Will your car be driving you by 2050?

Greg Foot, host of the BBC Radio 4 show Sliced Bread, now brings you Dough.

Each episode explores future wonder products that might rise to success and redefine our lives.

Experts and entrepreneurs discuss the trends shaping what today's everyday technology may look like tomorrow, before a leading futurist offers their predictions on what life might be like within five, ten and fifty years.

The series kicks off with a look at the future of cars.

Will new battery technology transform the range and price of electric cars?
Why are fully autonomous vehicles still not yet allowed on the UK's public roads?
Which self-driving vehicles are we most likely to see first? Will we really let our cars do the driving for us anyway?
Could vehicles communicating with streetlights make journeys quicker for select motorists?

Alongside Greg in the passenger seat is the futurist Tom Cheesewright and expert guests including:

-Phil Blythe CBE - a former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK's Department for Transport and Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University
-Paul Shearing - Director of the Zero Institute at Oxford University and the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Battery Technologies
-Paul Newman - Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Oxa, a UK-based company developing software for self-driving vehicles

Produced by Jon Douglas. Dough is a BBC Audio North Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.


THU 12:57 Weather (m002hkxk)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m002hkxm)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


THU 13:45 Naturebang (m002hkxp)
Photosynthetic Clams and the Problem of Power

How do we extract the maximum amount of power from the sun? Becky Ripley and Emily Knight enlist the help of a giant, thousand-year old clam. And end up in the depths of space...

Featuring Professor Alison Sweeney at Yale University, and Mike Garrett from the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics.
Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley


THU 14:00 The Archers (m002hktf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002hkxr)
Lyra

Comedy drama starring Joe Barnes, Henry Perryment, Rose Matafeo and Charlotte Ritchie.

When old friends Mike and Hunter find a baby in a crater in the woods, they’re faced with the obvious question - did she fall from space? Hunter’s always wanted to make contact with alien life, Mike’s always wanted a baby, so their discovery changes everything.

Since being nominated for Best Show at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards (as double act Goodbear), Joe Barnes and Henry Perryment have cropped up in some of the biggest shows on TV (Starstruck, Cheaters, Big Boys, Bridgerton). Now they bring their trademark blend of comedy and wonder to the world of audio.

Joining them in the cast are fellow funny people Rose Matafeo (Starstruck), Charlotte Ritchie (Ghosts) and Ed Kear (Here We Go).

Mike: Joe Barnes
Hunter: Henry Perryment
Maggie: Rose Matafeo
Aubrey: Charlotte Ritchie
Glenn: Ed Kear

Music: Max Perryment
Sound design: Peregrine Andrews
Production co-ordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Producer: James Robinson

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4


THU 15:00 Open Country (m002hkxt)
Exploring the Lakes by wheelchair

Caz Graham tries out Miles without Stiles, a scheme which helps disabled people access the Lake District. She joins a group of people in a fleet of mobility vehicles on a route from Sizergh Castle near Kendal, and visits the Keswick to Threlkeld path which was rebuilt after Storm Desmond but attracted controversy when it was surfaced with tarmac.

Will Clark explains how the scheme helps him continue to enjoy the countryside after a mountain biking accident left him paralysed from the neck down. He explores the lakes and fells using a power chair which he operates with his chin.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m002hkxw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Word of Mouth (m002hkxy)
Keeping My Family's Language Alive

Michael Rosen talks to Samantha Ellis, author of Chopping Onions on My Heart, about her efforts to keep alive the language of her parents: Judeo-Iraqi Arabic.

Samantha grew up in London hearing her parents speak the language they spoke in their homeland of Iraq. Now she's keen to try and speak it herself, and to share the poetic expressions of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic with her son.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven, 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 (m002hky0)
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m002hky2)
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.


THU 17:00 PM (m002hky4)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002hky6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 18:30 The Edinburgh Comedy Awards Gala 2025 (m002hky8)
Best Show

Comedy fans can catch the nominees for The Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2025 in this showcase for BBC Radio 4.

Guaranteed to be packed with laughs, this special will be hosted by last year’s Best Comedy Show winner, Amy Gledhill.

Recorded at The Gilded Balloon, the show will give listeners around the UK the chance to get a taste of what people can’t get enough of at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Host: Amy Gledhill
Producer: Georgia Keating
Production Co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Edited by Giles Aspen
Recorded by Sean Kerwin

Recorded at The Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh.
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


THU 19:00 The Archers (m002hkyb)
Emma is on the warpath, and Lynda thinks revenge may be best served cold.


THU 19:15 Artworks (m002hkyd)
Hollywood and The Adland Five

4. The Need for Speed

Sir Christopher Nolan and Sir Christopher Frayling tell a new story of British cinema.


THU 19:45 New Storytellers (m000y7t5)
Remembering the New Cross Fire

Commemorating the tragedy of a house fire in New Cross, South East London in 1981, where 13 young black teenagers died at the joint birthday party of Yvonne Ruddock ,16, who was one of those who lost their life, and Angela Jackson,18, who survived after leaving the party early.

To this day, no-one has been found responsible for the fire which is believed by some to have been a racist arson attack. At the time, the families and community criticised the police investigation. The government’s lack of action and press disinterest led to a Black People’s Day of Action, which has continued every year, campaigning for racial justice. The historic first protest saw 20,000 march from the Moonshot Youth Club in New Cross into Central London.

Forty years on, Remembering the New Cross Fire weaves together protest and memories including that of Lewisham community leader Sybil Phoenix OBE who ran the Moonshot, the first black youth club in the area, with music created in response to the fire and a poem by Linton Kwesi Johnson. Magdalena Moursy (2021 Gold winner of the Charles Parker Prize) also recorded at this year’s Black People’s Day of Action in March where many gathered, despite pandemic restrictions, to continue to remember and demand justice for those who died and their families.

New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features all five winners of this year’s prize for Best Student Radio Feature.

The judges praised Magdalena Moursy, an MA student at Goldsmiths, University of London, for 'an extremely moving and well-crafted feature that is true to the spirit of Charles Parker while doing something fresh and entirely its own'.

Producer: Magdalena Moursy
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


THU 20:00 Human Intelligence (m0026v8w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Wednesday]


THU 20:15 The Media Show (m002hkt5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:15 on Wednesday]


THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m002hkg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


THU 21:45 One to One (m0011cpt)
Re-inventing Yourself: Malaika Kegode chats to Polly Meech

Malaika Kegode has always been drawn to stories of people who manage to re-invent themselves and this is what inspired her to leave her rural Devon home in her early twenties, to escape a situation where drugs and violence had become part of her life. She made the decision to leave and try to start again with the support of her parents and she’s now a successful Bristol-based writer and performer. In this programme, Malaika talks to someone she met in the theatre world at the very start of her own career. Polly Meech was a theatre manager at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory venue. But losing her mother to cancer and her own diagnosis with the same disease, led Polly to re-assess her life and make some pretty big changes.

Produced by Jo Dwyer for BBC Audio in Bristol


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002hkyg)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


THU 22:45 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (m002hkyj)
Episode Nine

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 and descriptions of violence against and persecution of Jews.

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 Radical with Amol Rajan (m002hkyl)
Conversations about tomorrow, from Today.


THU 23:30 Artworks (m002hkpw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday]

FRIDAY 29 AUGUST 2025

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002hkyn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 00:30 Blood Lands (m00070n8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002hkyq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002hkys)
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 (m002hkyv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:04 The Briefing Room (m002hky0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Thursday]


FRI 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002hkyx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002hkyz)
This Too Shall Pass

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Rabbi Charley Baginsky

Good morning.

In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan asks: “Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it?”

I will admit, I am Daisy. The phrase “this too shall pass” is one I return to often. It reminds me that pain and illness will end, and there is a better future ahead. But most of all, it reminds me to pause and be present, because moments pass too quickly.

Last night I came home late, exhausted. The house looked like the chaos only three teenagers, one dog, and two cats can cause. I was tempted to leave it all for the morning, but my son had been hinting all week that he fancied a particular dinner. So, clearing a space in the kitchen, I sweated and swore my way through the recipe he’d requested.

I wondered at my own madness, indulging the whims of a teenager, but then this boy who now towers over me threw his arms around me and said, “Mum, you are the very, very best.” Suddenly he was six months old again, asleep on my lap.

In Judaism, for these moments, we say the Shehecheyanu: “Blessed are you… who has given us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.” It is said for firsts, but also for private moments no one else will notice.

Imagine if we lived as though every day contained a once-in-a-lifetime moment, one that too will pass and made sure to catch it before it slips away.

May we notice them. May we bless them. And may we treasure them before they’re gone.

Amen.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002hkz1)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 06:00 Today (m002hmqd)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 The Reunion (m002bgwt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Sunday]


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002hmqg)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m002hmqj)
Cooking From Landscape: Rethinking Scottish Food

Historian Polly Russell and chef Pam Brunton explore Scotland's landscapes to answer the question, 'what is modern Scottish food?'.
On a road trip through landscapes, old and new, they encounter deer stalkers, robot milking machines and a bean to bar chocolate maker.

Why is it we end up with a fixed view of what a nation's food culture looks and tastes like and how easy is it to create a change?

Produced by Dan Saladino.


FRI 11:45 Blood Lands (m000712l)
Common Purpose

The final episode of Blood Lands - a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.

A group of white men are on trial accused of murdering two black South Africans, but as a long and explosive trial comes to an end, could muddled medical evidence see them walk free? Blood Lands is a murder investigation, a political drama, a courtroom thriller, and a profound exploration of the enduring racial tensions threatening the "rainbow nation". Over the course of three years, correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an dramatic trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution. When a whole community is on trial, who pays the price?

Presenter, Andrew Harding
Producer, Becky Lipscombe
Editor, Bridget Harney


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m002hmql)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Rare Earth (m002hmqn)
Creatures of the Night

A celebration of the wildlife that works while we sleep. Tom Heap and Helen Czerski explore the world of animals that provoke fear and wonder in equal measure.

Producer: Emma Campbell

Rare Earth is produced in collaboration with the Open University


FRI 12:57 Weather (m002hmqq)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m002hmqs)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


FRI 13:45 Naturebang (m002hmqv)
Grooming Apes and the Origins of Kissing

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight discover the hairy history of the human kiss. Where did it come from? Why do we like doing it? And how is it good for us?

Featuring Dr Adriano Lameira, primatologist turned evolutionary psychologist from the University of Warwick, and Dr Dean Burnett, neuroscientist, lecturer, and author of The Idiot Brain and The Happy Brain, among others. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m002hkyb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m002hmqx)
Mothercover

Episode 1: Camera Obscura

Gwen is recruited to spy on another mum in her local baby group. But how long can she keep up the act?

An Aberystwyth-set thriller, by BAFTA Cymru nominee Fflur Dafydd, with original music by Mercury Prize nominees Gwenno and Rhys Edwards.

CAST
Gwen .... Alexandra Roach
Liz .... Remy Beasley
Owen .... Sacha Dhawan
Geraint .... Matthew Gravelle
Yoga Teacher .... Lisa Zahra
Group Leader .... Nadia Wyn Abouayen
Mums .... Aoife Moss and Bethan Mclean
Ioan .... Liam Donnelly
Theo .... Cai Roberts

Original Music, Gwenno and Rhys Edwards

Sound design, Rhys Morris
Production Co-ordinators, Lindsay Rees and Eleri McAuliffe
Directed by Fay Lomas
Produced by Fay Lomas and John Norton, BBC Audio Drama Wales


FRI 14:45 Uncharted with Hannah Fry (m00230wc)
17. The Golden Spike

At a conference in Mexico, one scientist’s outburst launches a global quest.

Hannah Fry follows a group of researchers on the hunt for a ‘golden spike’: the boundary, marking a shift into a dramatic new geological period dominated, not by volcanoes and asteroids, but the influence of humans.

From plastics and concrete to nuclear fallout, the data they uncover reveals a planet profoundly changed. But can these scientists persuade their colleagues - and the world?

Producer: Ilan Goodman
Sound Designer: Jon Nicholls
Story Editor: John Yorke


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002hmr0)
Claygate Surrey

Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts.


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m002hmr2)
Apis Mellifera by Philip Hensher, read by Mark Heap

Sally is driving through Pimlico with her dog Reggie in her tangerine Honda Civic when a bee flies into her car. The bee sets off a chain of events that will change her life.

A new short story read by Mark Heap.

Philip Hensher is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. A novelist and journalist, he's the editor of The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story and The Penguin Book of the British Short Story. He's also the author of two collections of short stories: The Bedroom of the Mister's Wife and Tales of Persuasion.

Produced by Beth O'Dea in Bristol for BBC Audio, Wales and West of England


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m002hmr4)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.


FRI 16:30 Sideways (m002hksl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m002hmr6)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002hmr8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 18:30 Too Long; Didn't Read (m002hmrb)
Series 2

Episode 6

Columns. Analysis. The Guardian's Long Read. Who has time? Catherine Bohart, that's who, and she's going beyond the headlines to give you the lowdown on one of the biggest stories this week, with the help of comedy guests and experts, and our regular roving correspondent Sunil Patel.

Written by Catherine Bohart, with Madeleine Brettingham and Leila Navabi
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 (m002hmrd)
Writer: Katie Hims
Director: Dave Payne
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Brian Aldridge.... Charles Collingwood
Henry Archer.... Blayke Darby
Jolene Archer.... Buffy Davis
Kenton Archer.... Richard Attlee
Pat Archer.... Patricia Gallimore
Emma Grundy.... Emerald O'Hanrahan
George Grundy.... Angus Stobie
Brad Horrobin.... Taylor Uttley
Chelsea Horrobin.... Madeleine Leslay
Adam Macy.... Andrew Wincott
Zainab Malik.... Priyasasha Kumari
Freddie Pargetter.... Toby Laurence
Fallon Rogers.... Joanna Van Kampen
Lynda Snell.... Carole Boyd
Robert Snell.... Michael Bertenshaw
Lawrence.... Rupert Vansittart


FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m002hmrg)
Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe explore the rich web of connections in music.


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m002hmrj)
Topical discussion posing questions to a panel of political and media personalities.


FRI 20:55 This Week in History (m002hkss)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:40 on Wednesday]


FRI 21:00 The Verb (m002hmrl)
The Adverb at the Hay Festival 2025

For this edition of The Adverb recorded at this year’s Hay Festival, The Barnsley Bard Ian McMillan is joined by a veritable paean of poets.

For over five decades national treasure Michael Rosen has been writing poetry praised for its “ability to address the most serious matters of life in a spirit of joy, humour and hope”.

Len Pennie has won acclaim and admirers for her muscular use of the Scots language.

Alex Wharton is currently Children’s Laureate Wales but he writes poems for everyone and his fans include racing driver Sir Lewis Hamilton who had one of Alex’s poems stitched into his Met Gala suit last year.

Natalie Ann Holborow describes poetry as “a powerful and precious thread that runs through the tapestry of our lives”. With three poetry collections under her belt, the thread is strong in this one.

To mark sixty years since the death of Eleanor Farjeon, there’s a tribute to the distinguished children’s writer with a special reading of one of her most loved poems – Cats Sleep Anywhere.

Presenter: Ian McMillan
Producers: Ekene Akalawu and Jessica Treen


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002hmrn)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (m002hmrq)
Episode Ten

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 and details of the persecution of the Jewish community.

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 (w3ct7t5v)
Join Americast for insights and analysis on what's happening inside Trump's White House.


FRI 23:30 Illuminated (m002hpf0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Sunday]