SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER 2025

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m002ks6r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin (m002ks57)
Episode 5

In October 1929, the world watched in shock as the US stock market went into freefall, wiping out major fortunes and small-town savings, and igniting a depression that would re-shape a generation.

Best-selling author and journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin charts the inside story of the greatest financial crash in history, as the rollercoaster that gripped Wall Street in that year of chaos accelerated. Through dizzying highs and brutal lows, he follows the players at the heart of America’s financial markets - the bankers, investors, traders and speculators who disregarded increasingly loud alarm bells as they risked everything to save themselves and the institutions that had brought them wealth, fame and power.

This is a story about money, but it’s also about power, influence and illusion. In this account of the most pivotal market collapse of all time, Sorkin offers an electrifying insight into the cycles of speculation, the forces that drive financial upheavals and the warning signs that precede them. The lessons are as urgent as ever.

Andrew Ross Sorkin is the author of Too Big to Fail, about the 2008 financial crisis. He is a long-time journalist at The New York Times and the co-creator of the television drama Billions.

Reader: Demetri Goritsas
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Sound engineer: Matt Bainbridge
Programme Co-ordinators: Nina Semple, Henry Tydeman, Dawn Williams
Producer: Sara Davies
Executive Producer: Peter Hoare

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002ks6t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002ks6w)
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 (m002ks6y)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002ks70)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002ks72)
A Prayer for When You Don’t Know What to Ask For

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Saarah Hamayun

My first proposal was one I’ll never forget. I was in my early twenties when my three-year-old cousin got down on one knee, clutching a bouquet of plastic flowers, and declared his undying love for me. Naturally, I accepted. He proceeded to make me an imaginary cup of tea, which seemed like a logical start to married life, then we spun around the garden hand in hand.

Our whirlwind romance ended rather abruptly when, without warning, he shouted, “You have to do the housework!” and pointed to the broom…

But of course, I adore him still and today, he’s an incredibly bright and mischievous seven-year-old. The day he was born, however, was a different story, he was born very prematurely, and my uncle will never forget that moment, when the doctor listed the terrifying risks for my cousin and his mother.

He recalls the numbness he felt, the helplessness and the uncertainty as he wandered through the hospital corridors until he found himself drawn to the prayer room; he remembers saying these words:

You know me in my heart of hearts, so only give me that burden which you know I can bear and whatever you give me, I will trust that I have the strength to carry it.

My uncle’s prayer always stayed with me. It’s more beautiful than asking God for everything to work out how you want it to. God already knows what we desire, but sometimes what is more honourable, is recognising that life isn’t about having every wish granted– it’s about cherishing what you have and hoping you have the strength to get through the difficult times.

I pray for patience to endure in times of hardship, and that we may emerge with the strength to continue forward. May we learn to face life’s challenges not with fear, but with quiet trust, knowing that grace can carry us through.

Amen


SAT 05:45 Untaxing (m0029jjz)
4. The Porn Star Tax Lawyer

A football club in ruins. Thousands of people facing financial devastation. And one man at the centre of it all - a tax lawyer turned porn mogul.

But how did he get away with it? And why did HMRC struggle to stop him?

Producer: Tom Pooley
A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m002l1yj)
The news headlines, including a look at the newspapers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m002kq3h)
Walk for Wendy - Chater Valley

Clare explores a six-mile loop of the Chater Valley in this week’s Ramblings. Her companion is Will Hetherington who wrote to the programme inviting Clare to join him. He wanted to share his story of sudden bereavement, and the positivity that ultimately emerged from it.

Tragically, in 2017, Will’s first wife, Wendy, took her own life. It was an enormous shock, bringing with it what Will describes as “complicated grief.” However, a remark at her funeral about a long walk Will and Wendy had once done together led to the suggestion that he organise a group walk in her name. Sixty people turned up for that first hike, and it’s now grown into a regular event known as Walk for Wendy.

Will says walking has been a wonderful way for him to process his emotions, and for others to step away from the daily grind and open up about the things that affect them. His passion for the outdoors has even led him to publish a series of books about walking in the local area.

Clare and Will met in North Luffenham, continued onto Pilton, Wing, Lyndon and then completed their circuit by returning to North Luffenham. This is Clare's second consecutive walk in Rutland... check out last week's episode where she ambled around the Hambleton Peninsula with the comedian, Mark Steel.

Map: OS Explorer 234 - Rutland Water (approaching the southern edge of the map)
Map Ref: SK 935 033 for Church Street where they started - and ended - the walk

If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, including urgent support, a list of organisations that can help is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m002l1yl)
18/10/25 Farming Today This Week: No U-turn on farm inheritance tax, environmental scheme extension "too late", farming in Gaza

There will be no U-turn on the Government’s plans for inheritance tax for farmers, according to the Farming Minister. Dame Angela Eagle says planned changes will go ahead in next month’s budget, in spite of press reports to the contrary.

"Too little too late", that’s what we’re hearing from some farmers who’ve already ploughed up and planted fields that were being farmed for nature. They say this is because the Government took too long to come up with an extension to their environmental funding.

Red Tractor, the UK’s largest farm assurance scheme, has had a TV advert banned by the Advertising Standards Authority. The watchdog says the advert exaggerated the environmental credentials of the scheme and misled customers.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m002l1yn)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m002l1yq)
Today (Saturday)


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m002l1ys)
Peter James, Hedgelaying, Prosthetics, and Philippa Gregory's Inheritance Tracks

Peter James is one of the UK's bestselling authors who's Detective Grace series now hosts Queen Camila in a staring role, by Royal request, in his latest novel "The Hawk is Dead". But this isn't his first familial involvement with the Royal family, as his mother was the official glovemaker to Queen Elizabeth II.

Jim Ashworth-Beaumont was a former army veteran and skilled prosthetics expert - until one day a dramatic crash with a lorry, whilst out cycling, left him needing his own expertise.

Elizabeth Ashdown is one of only 4 remaining passementerie artists in the UK – a trade that creates elaborate decorative trimmings, such as tassels and trim for the clothing of Kings and furnishings of stately homes.

Also, someone else who is keeping ancient heritage skills alive is Russell Parker who comes to us LIVE from the Cotswold Hedgelaying championships to tell us all about the craft.

All that...plus the Inheritance Tracks of Philippa Gregory.

Presenter: Adrian Chiles
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Lowri Morgan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Colin Patterson


SAT 10:00 Curious Cases (m002l1yv)
Series 24

Just My Luck

Are you a lucky person? Do the cards just fall well for you? Whether it's always finding a parking spot when you need one or chance encounters that change your life's trajectory for the better, some people seem to have more luck than others. Hannah and Dara explore the world of probability and psychology to figure out if some people are luckier than others, and if there's anything we can do to turn things around.

You can send your everyday mysteries for the team to investigate to: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk

Contributors
David Spiegelhalter - Emeritus Professor of Statistics in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge
Richard Wiseman - Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology University of Hertfordshire
Maia Young - Professor of Organization and Management at UC Irvine, California US
Edward Oldfield

Producer: Emily Bird
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem
A BBC Studios Production


SAT 10:30 Legend (m002l1yx)
The Bruce Springsteen Story

2. Born to Run

How did Bruce become The Boss, and what did it cost him to get there? Laura Barton explores the extraordinary life story of Bruce Springsteen, taking a front-row seat at five important gigs to reveal the life behind the legend.

Bruce’s story continues in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where he's living above a beauty parlour, broke, writing songs amongst the hairdryers. It's here he writes his first album, Greetings From Asbury Park. And in 1975, when New York is in turmoil and America in crisis, Springsteen releases his landmark album, Born To Run. This launches him to stardom.

London Hammersmith, 1975. Bruce's wildest dreams come true when the opportunity comes to perform in the home country of his greatest musical heros. But what follows is far from the Springsteen shows of exuberant legend. And this newfound fame soon comes to replace Freehold, New Jersey, as the town he wants to flee.

~~~

“I'm here tonight to provide proof of life to that ever elusive, never completely believable, particularly these days, us. That's my magic trick.”

In Legend: The Bruce Springsteen Story, we uncover the magic trick to discover how a scrawny, long-haired introvert from small-town New Jersey became the iconic, muscular, and oft-misunderstood rock star of the 1980s, to the eloquent elder statesmen he is now. What can his story tell us about America today?

In each episode, Laura takes us to the front row of a live performance that reveals a different side of The Boss, and hears him across the decades in his own words from the archive. We'll also hear from fellow worshippers in the Church of Springsteen and disciples from the E Street Band, including drummer Max Weinberg, tributes from those influenced by Bruce, such as Bryce Dessner from The National, as well as Freehold town historian Kevin Coyne and music critics and biographers such as Richard Williams, Eric Alterman, Steven Hyden, Warren Zanes and Diane H. Winston.

The Bruce Springsteen Story comes from the production team behind BBC Radio 4’s award-winning Joni Mitchell Story, and the podcast Soul Music – “… the gold standard for music podcasts…” (Esquire).

Producer: Eliza Lomas
Series Developer: Mair Bosworth
Production Coordinator: Stuart Laws
Research: Sarah Goodman
Series Editor: Emma Harding
Sound Design and Original Music: Hannis Brown
Commissioning Editors: Daniel Clarke and Matthew Dodd


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m002l1yz)
Financial Times political editor George Parker assesses the latest developments at Westminster.

Following the big political row over the China spying allegations, George speaks to Helena Kennedy, a Labour peer and human rights lawyer, and Peter Ricketts, former National Security Adviser and now a crossbench peer.

To discuss Rachel Reeves' options in next month's Budget, George is joined by Helen Miller, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and Rupert Harrison, a former adviser to George Osborne and now a senior adviser at the wealth management company Pimco.

The Government's latest amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill have attracted criticism from environmental groups. Labour MP Chris Curtis and Green MP Ellie Chowns debate the plans.

And, in the week that Margaret Thatcher would have turned 100, George speaks to the man that tried to replace her: Conservative grandee Michael Heseltine.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002l1z1)
Trump's Middle East victory lap

Kate Adie presents stories from Israel and Egypt, Haiti, Italy and Ireland.

President Trump received a hero’s welcome when he landed in Israel this week, following his central role in brokering the Gaza ceasefire and hostage exchange deal. He also flew into the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he declared ‘an historical turning point’ to the gathered world leaders. Tom Bateman travelled with the president on Air Force One.

Mr Trump was short on detail when it came to how peace will proceed over the coming weeks, months - and years. That leaves the question: what happens next? Jeremy Bowen reflects on this moment in the region's long history – and wonders if there will ever be reconciliation.

In Haiti, armed criminal gangs still have a firm grip on the capital's impoverished neighbourhoods. On a recent visit, Jasmin Dyer saw the ruined communities the gangs have left in their wake, and met some of the young victims of their brutality.

Last month, a London-born boy became the first millennial saint. Carlo Acutis died of leukaemia aged 15, but in his short life he built websites documenting miracles as a means of spreading Catholic teaching – and became known as 'God’s influencer'. Isabella Redmayne met pilgrims in the hilltop town of Assisi.

And it’s perhaps a bit of a cliché when travelling to the US for locals to boast of their ancestry – part English, part German, part Scots and, more often than not, part Irish. On a recent visit to Ireland’s south coast, James Helm bumped into some trans-Atlantic travellers and learned more about the country’s enduring international appeal.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m002l1z3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m002l1z5)
Unauthorised Recurring Card Payments and Overpaying Mortgages

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute is warning people to keep a close eye on their bank and credit card accounts after thousands of unsuspecting shoppers have said they're having money taken without their knowledge. Individual payments are usually quite low, but if not spotted, they can quickly start to add up. Trading Standards say it's "outrageous" these payments are being taken without explicit consent. How can you spot and stop these payments?

Two thirds of first time buyers are overpaying their mortgage and one in six hope to be mortgage free by the time they're 40 according to a report from TSB. Is it the same for other mortgage holders and what should you think about if you're considering overpaying on your mortgage?

More than half of adults in the UK do not have a will. So if they die they will have no say in how their money, property, and possessions are distributed. WillAid, where solicitors all over the UK make free wills and suggest a donation to charity in exchange. How does it all work and what happens if someone dies without a will?

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researchers: Eimear Devlin and Jo Krasner
Producers: Robert Cave
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson

(First broadcast at 12pm on Saturday 18th October 2025)


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m002ks64)
Series 118

7. Forecast for Inflation and Flooding

In a week of budget talks, IMF forecasts of Inflation on the British horizon, flood risk reports and approval of solar farms, Andy Zaltzman is joined by Adam Kay, Zoe Lyons, Ria Lina and Stephen Bush to break down this week's news.

Written by Andy Zaltzman.

With additional material by: Daman Bamrah, Ruth Husko, Christina Riggs and Peter Tellouche.
Producer: Rajiv Karia
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Coordinator: Giulia Lopes Mazzu
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


SAT 12:57 Weather (m002l1z7)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m002l1z9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m002ks6b)
Ann Davies MP, Tom Giffard MS, Huw Irranca-Davies MS, Gawain Towler

Ben Wright presents political debate from the Vale of Rheidol Railway in Aberystwyth, with Plaid Cymru MP Ann Davies; Conservative Senedd member Tom Giffard; the deputy first minister of Wales, Labour's Huw Irranca-Davies; and Reform UK board member Gawain Towler.

Producer: Paul Martin
Lead broadcast engineer: Owain Williams


SAT 14:05 Any Answers? (m002l1zc)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?

Producer: Ed Prendeville
Assistant Producer: Lowri Morgan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Tansley


SAT 14:45 The Archers (m002ks66)
Zainab tells Brad that shadowing Oliver was unbelievably boring. Brad admits that shadowing Mick went a bit wrong after he was accused of stalking Paul. When Zainab then talks about organising something for Oliver’s birthday Brad’s keen to hear more. Back at Number 6 The Green they’re joined by Tracy, as Zainab explains her idea of contacting Oliver and Caroline’s foster children to organise a reunion. Tracy suggests starting with Carly, who was one of them; she knows they stayed close. She’ll ask Susan if she knows how to get in touch with Carly.

Joy and Tracy are mystified at being called in for a staff meeting. Tracy’s more bothered than Tracy about Lilian’s subterfuge over the Awards ceremony, before Lilian admits her guilt. After Fallon joins them Jolene tells everyone she’s consulted Kenton about getting in a temporary replacement: George Grundy. Lilian walks straight out and it quickly becomes clear that no-one else wants George there either. Jolene agrees to tell him it’s a no, but first finds Lilian, who’s incensed the idea was even considered in the first place, given what he did to Fallon and put Alice through. Jolene feels they have to look forward and find a way of living together with George, in the village. Lilian then accuses George of blackmail, after helping them find Markie. Jolene still thinks he deserves a chance, but Lilian’s defiant and wants Jolene to bar George from The Bull. And if Jolene doesn’t agree then Lilian will take her money out of the pub, leaving Jolene on her own.


SAT 15:00 Drama on 4 (m000rmck)
Star of the Sea

Episode Two

It is 1847 and American journalist Grantley Dixon is investigating a murder on board the Star of the Sea of bankrupt landowner, husband and father Lord David Merridith. The ship is bound for New York and full of fleeing refugees escaping from Ireland and the Potato Famine that has torn the country they have left apart.
The ship is full of characters, all of whom may have a reason as to why they would want to kill Lord Merridith, but who is the actual murderer. Someone on board this ship is hungry for vengeance and and has a need to see justice executed…
Could it be Laura his wife, or their maidservant Mary or the pitiful Pius Mulvey who drags his maimed leg behind him as he stalks the deck at night….
There are many characters for Grantley to choose from.

Few novels have been written about the Irish Potato famine by the great writers but Joseph O’Connor shows us in glorious technicolor just what effect this famine had on Ireland and its people.

Cast
Grantley Dixon ... Kyle Soller
Lord David Merridith ... Johnny Flynn
Laura ... Georgina Beedle
Pius ... Rory Keenan
Mary ... Charlene McKenna
Captain ... Daniel Flynn
Leeson ... Carl Prekopp
David's father ... Stephen Critchlow
Doctor Mangan ... Niall Buggy
Nicholas Mulvey ... Kwaku Fortune
Jonathan ... Ronan Casey
Robert ... Alfie Hurley
Young Mary ... Joni Martin
Young David ... Hugo Mallon
Mary's mother ... Tallulah Bond

Writer, Joseph O'Connor
Dramatized by Claire McGowan
Director, Celia de Wolff
BBC Northern Ireland Production


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m002l1zf)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Tilda Swinton, Dads at work, Karen Carney, Living with Tourette Syndrome, Bobbi Brown

Half of working dads feel nervous asking for time off to care for their children, more than 20% have been asked ‘where’s your wife/partner?’ when requesting flexibility and 44% say employers treat mothers more favourably in terms of flexible working. These are the findings of a new study ‘Barriers to Equal Parenting’ by the charity Working Families. Nuala McGovern is joined by Elliott Rae founder of Parenting Out Loud and Penny East, chief executive of the Fawcett Society.

Tilda Swinton is one of the UK’s most singular and celebrated performers. Over four decades she has delivered unforgettable and varied screen performances, notably Orlando, The Chronicles of Narnia, Michael Clayton and Asteroid City and collaborated with artists and filmmakers. She joins Anita Rani to talk about a new exhibition in Amsterdam celebrating her work and the enduring relationships that have inspired her.

There is a new film out now in cinemas called I Swear. It is inspired by the life and experiences of John Davidson, and charts his journey from a misunderstood teenager in 1980s Britain to a present-day advocate for greater understanding of Tourette syndrome. John was also featured in a BBC documentary back in 1989 called John's Not Mad. There is more recognition of the syndrome now, singers Lewis Capaldi and Billie Eilish have both openly talked about living with Tourette's and it's estimated over 300,000 children and adults in the UK have it. The key features are tics which cause people to make sudden, involuntary sounds and movements. To hear more about the condition and how it impacts women and girls Nuala talks to Wilamena Dyer, musician and Tourette syndrome advocate and Dr Tara Murphy, Consultant psychologist in the NHS, and Trustee of the support and research charity Tourettes Action.

Karen Carney is one of the most capped female footballers for England. The former Lioness joins Anita to talk about how she is using Strictly to help her 'rebuild confidence' after being 'crushed' by the sexist abuse she faced as a football pundit and her vision to improve women’s sport.

Bobbi Brown is a make-up artist turned entrepreneur who created her now famous eponymous line in 1990. Her fresh-faced approach went against 80s and 90s trends at the time for bright colour and contouring and instead aimed to celebrate and enhance women’s natural beauty. She made millions selling her brand to Estée Lauder and has gone on to create a new multimillion brand. On the release of her memoir, she joins Nuala to talk about her life and work.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Simon Richardson


SAT 17:00 PM (m002l1zh)
Prince Andrew gives up his dukedom

Reaction after Prince Andrew gives up his titles, including that of Duke of York. Also on PM: As President Zelensky fails to secure American Tomahawk missiles, we hear about the damage Ukraine is managing to inflict on Russia.


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m002l1zk)
Net Zero has become a religion: Claire Coutinho on climate, identity and cooking

The Shadow Energy Minister has transformed her party's approach to climate policy.

In this extended conversation, Claire Coutinho sets out what changed her mind on net zero, a shift that has brought her into fierce debates with her opposite number, Ed Miliband.

She also shares her feelings about what she calls a rising "ethno-nationalism" on the right of British politics, as well as her reaction to her colleague Robert Jenrick's comments about Birmingham.

Nick asks how she ended up being sacked by Nigella Lawson, and sets up a future dinner party with Miliband.

Producer: Daniel Kraemer
Research: Chloe Desave
Sound: Jed Sudlow and Andy Mills
Editor: Jonathan Brunert


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002l1zm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m002l1zp)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002l1zr)
Prince Andrew drops his royal titles

The family of Virginia Giuffre - who accused Prince Andrew of sexual abusing her when she was a teenager - have welcomed the announcement that he is to stop using his Royal titles. He has faced continuing revelations about his links to the convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, and said in a statement that the accusations against him were distracting from the King's work. Andrew again stressed that he vigorously denied all the claims against him. Virginia Giuffre took her own life earlier this year, and her memoir is about to be published.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002l1zt)
Brian Bilston, Chris Smither, Teresa Livingstone, Jolene O'Hara, Stick in the Wheel, AOIBHA

Clive kicks off in Belfast's Black Box as the Belfast International Arts Festival begins to light up venues around the city. Poet Brian Bilston is in town after putting some of his poetry to music with the help of The Catenary Wires. US folk and blues musician Chris Smither tells all about his musical journey spanning over six decades. Someone else who knows a lot about blues as of recent is opera singer Jolene O'Hara, who has taken on the role of County Down musician and 'godmother of British blues' Ottilie Patterson in the one-woman show, Ottilie. Plus, Teresa Livingstone has plenty of embarrassing stories from former jobs and her own work in stand-up, so she's channelling it all into gathering the same from other comedians in her podcast Scundered.

Belfast's AOIBHA reflects on her year of her debut EP Insignificance, and folk-duo Stick in the Wheel chat about their current tour as they bring a bit of Tudor-era satire with their track The Cramp.

Presenter: Clive Anderson
Producer: Anthony McKee

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m002l1zw)
Luke Littler

Luke Littler, the 18-year-old darts star, is already one of the most famous people in British sport. This week he won yet another title, the World Grand Prix.

Born in Warrington, he started throwing arrows while he was still wearing nappies. By the time he was 10, Littler was competing in under-21 competitions and would win his first senior title at 14.

He shot to national fame in early 2024 when he reached the world championship final aged 16. Despite losing the match, he sparked ‘Littlermania’, drawing huge crowds and introducing a whole new generation to the sport. Earlier this year, he managed to do one better and became the youngest ever World Darts Champion.

Stephen Smith traces his meteoric rise.

Production
Presenter: Stephen Smith
Producers: Ben Crighton, Mhairi MacKenzie and Alex Loftus
Editor: Justine Lang
Sound Editor: Neil Churchill


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m002kq2v)
Rose Tremain

Dame Rose Tremain is one of Britain’s most prolific and popular writers, having written 17 novels and five collections of short stories over the last 50 years. She was one of only six women on Granta magazine's inaugural 1982 list of the best young British novelists, alongside Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and others. Her fifth novel Restoration was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1989, she won the Whitbread Prize for Music And Silence in 1999, and was awarded the 2008 Orange Prize - the precursor to the Women’s Prize for Fiction - for her novel The Road Home. Having already been made a CBE in 2007, she became Dame Rose Tremain in 2020 for services to writing. Her most recent work is a short story called The Toy Car.

Rose Tremain tells John Wilson how her father, a largely unsuccessful playwright called Keith Thomson, inspired her childhood interest in storytelling, although he never encouraged her to write. She recalls how she first started writing fiction to help her cope with loneliness in a household where there was little parental affection.
Rose recalls how it was a teacher at her boarding school who first recognised her ability and encouraged her to apply for an Oxbridge university place, only to be dissuaded by her mother, who sent her to a finishing school in France instead. She credits the novelist Angus Wilson, one of her English Literature tutors at the University Of East Anglia, for giving her the confidence to write her first novel. She also chooses The Diary Of Samuel Pepys as a major inspiration on her 1989 Booker-shortlisted novel Restoration, which was later turned into a Hollywood film starring Robert Downey Jnr. and Meg Ryan.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m002l1zy)
A People's History of Gaza

The back-story of Gaza, from the 1940s to the 2010s, told mainly through the personal experiences of a wide variety of ordinary people - a teacher, a smuggler, a bird-watcher, musicians, doctors and others. Tim Whewell finds out how the tiny territory was created, how it first filled with refugees, how people lived, worked and died, how they survived invasions, wars and blockade, how hopes for peace rose and fell - under the rule of Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas.
How did refugees arrive in Gaza in 1948? Why is the Strip so important to Palestinian identity - and the wider Palestinian-Israeli conflict? How did living conditions gradually improve? How did the 1967 Six Day War change people's lives? Why did the two intifadas of 1987 and 2000 break out? When were the best times for Gazans in recent history? What changed for them after Hamas took control in 2007? Tim asks these and many other questions in this journey through the recent history of a sliver of land that has often dominated world news.

(Image: Palestinian refugee Ayish Younis with his grandmother Khadija Khalima (left) and his mother, also Khadija Khalima, 1955 Credit: family archive)


SAT 21:00 The History Podcast (m002l200)
The Fort. Omnibus 2

A Taliban ambush has forced Zulu Company to withdraw from Jugroom Fort.
But Lance Corporal Mathew Ford is missing back at the enemy stronghold - and a daring plan from pilot Tom O'Malley has seen Three Royal Marines and a Royal engineer volunteer to head straight back into danger to get him back - by perching on the stub wings of two Apache attack helicopters.
The volunteers are in a desperate race to find their comrade.
After the operation, a reckoning takes place - but some sacrifices can't be measured.

Charlotte Madison spoke to Woman's Hour in 2010.
The Fort is told solely by current and serving members of the Armed Forces.

Produced by Kev Core


SAT 22:00 News (m002l202)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m002ks53)
Feeding Britain: Can Our Best Food Producers Deliver?

Sheila Dillon and this year’s head judge of the BBC Food and Farming Awards, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, hit the road to meet the finalists in the Best Food Producer category. From sourdough pioneers Aidan Monks and Catherine Connor at Lovingly Artisan in Kendal, and regenerative grower Calixta Killander at Flourish Produce in Cambridgeshire, to cheese champions Andy and Kathy Swinscoe at The Courtyard Dairy in North Yorkshire — they explore how these exceptional producers might hold clues to a more resilient food future. Inspired by Professor Tim Lang’s recent report, Just in Case: narrowing the UK civil food resilience gap, the episode asks: could these small but significant businesses be part of the solution to Britain’s food security crisis?

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan


SAT 23:00 Mark Steel's in Town (m002krhw)
Series 14

2. Wrexham

Second stop of the new series is Wrexham in North Wales.

Wrexham has gone from industrial workhorse to global celebrity, thanks to two Hollywood actors who bought the local football club.
It’s a place where five of the Seven Wonders of Wales are apparently within walking distance of a Screwfix, where children learn “risk management” on playgrounds made from drainpipes salvaged at the council tip, and where an underground tunnel network may or may not have been built for priests sneaking to the pub... or for inmates tunnelling into prison for a game of pool.

This is the 14th series of Mark's award-winning show where he travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. As well as Wrexham, in this series, Mark be will also be popping to Oakham, Cambridge, Lewisham and, Lerwick and Unst in Shetland.

There will also be extended versions of each episode available on BBC sounds.

Written and performed by Mark Steel

Additional material by Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator Caroline Barlow and Katie Baum
Sound Manager Jerry Peal
Producer Carl Cooper

A BBC Studios production for Radio 4


SAT 23:30 The 3rd Degree (m002krbz)
Series 15

5. Manchester Metropolitan University

This episode coming from Manchester Metropolitan University, The 3rd Degree is a funny, upbeat and brainy quiz show.

The specialist subjects this week are Mental Health Nursing, Law and Digital Marketing, so there’ll be questions on the serious topic of Epigenetic Development Theory, the very serious topic of what legal form you need to ask about your drains, and the incredibly serious topic of what McDonalds tweeted back to Kanye West. And just what is going on with Blackpool’s postcode?

The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in this fresh take on an academic quiz. The General Knowledge rounds include a quickfire bell-and-buzzer finale and the Highbrow & Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of history, art, literature and politics, but also their Professors’ awareness of TV, music and sport. Meanwhile there are the three Specialist Subject rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, and where we find out whether the students have actually been awake during lectures.

In this series, universities include Bristol, Queen Mary University of London, Kent, Worcester College Oxford, and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Producer: David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4

SUNDAY 19 OCTOBER 2025

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m002l204)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:15 Take Four Books (m002krbx)
John Banville

Booker Prize winning Irish author John Banville speaks about his new novel Venetian Vespers and together with presenter James Crawford they explore its connections to three other works of literary art.

Set in the year 1899, Venetian Vespers is told from the perspective of the unfortunate Evelyn Dolman, a self-confessed hack-writer who marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat, but in the midst of a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, Evelyn’s plans of a substantial inheritance are thrown into doubt.

For his three influences John chose: the Daphne Du Maurier short story, Don’t Look Now, from 1971, which is also the inspiration for director Nicolas Roeg’s classic film of the same name; The Aspern Papers by Henry James from 1888; and Death In Venice by Thomas Mann, from 1912.

Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan

This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002l206)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002l208)
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 (m002l20b)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002l20d)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m002l20g)
The Church of St Mary Magdalene, Richmond in Greater London

Bells on Sunday comes from the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Richmond in Greater London. The earliest reference to the church is in 1100 from the records of nearby Merton Abbey. The church was rebuilt in the 15th century and the tower is the only remaining part of that Tudor church. There are eight bells dating from the late 17th and mid-18th centuries. The tenor bell weighs eighteen and half hundredweight and is tuned to the note of F. We now hear them ringing Plain Bob Major.


SUN 05:45 In Touch (m002krj4)
Sir Stephen Timms on Access to Work

Minister for Social Security and Disability Sir Stephen Timms provides In Touch with updates on the Access to Work scheme. AtW is the government programme that provides disabled people with support in the workplace; be that funding for support workers or things like specialist equipment. Throughout the course of this year, In Touch has been hearing many rumours about potential cuts to the scheme, which caused fear and anxiety amongst the scheme's recipients. Sir Stephen Timms addresses these concerns and provides updates on his recent consultations which were based on what the future of the scheme may look like.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Pete Liggins
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside 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 (m002l21y)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Beyond Belief (m002krhk)
Consciousness

Giles Fraser explores Dr. Iain McGilchrist’s brain hemisphere theory, which argues that the left and right hemispheres of the brain perceive the world in radically different ways—and that modern society has become dangerously dominated by the left hemisphere’s analytical, fragmented, and controlling mode of thought. He describes how the two hemispheres of the brain perceive reality in fundamentally different ways. The left hemisphere, he argues, sees a fragmented, abstract world—focused on control and acquisition—while the right hemisphere perceives a flowing, interconnected reality, rich in context, meaning, and mystery.

We unpack this theory with our panel of experts: Dr. Philip Goff, philosopher and professor at Durham University. Philip is known for his work in panpsychism, a philosophical view which proposes that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the universe—not just something that emerges from complex brains, but something that may be present even at the level of basic matter. His research focuses on the philosophy of mind and the nature of consciousness.

Canon Dr. Joanna Collicutt, psychologist and theologian from the University of Oxford. Joanna brings a unique perspective that bridges psychology, spirituality, and pastoral care—exploring how religious experience shapes and is shaped by the human mind.

And Professor Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist and a leading figure in the emerging field of neurotheology—which explores the relationship between brain function and religious or spiritual experience. Andrew is Professor in the Department of Integrative Medicine and Nutritional Sciences and Director of Research at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in the United States.

Also on the programme, The Sacred podcaster Elizabeth Oldfield, shares a powerful spiritual experience—one that defied easy explanation and left a lasting imprint on her spiritual life.

Beyond Belief is a BBC Audio North production for Radio 4.

Presenter: Giles Fraser
Producer: Bara'atu Ibrahim
Assistant Producer: Jay Behrouzi & Linda Walker
Editor: Tim Pemberton


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m002l220)
The Hebridean Tree Project

Laura McEwan is a self-confessed dendrophile: a tree lover. She can talk for hours about her favourite - the aspen - and other varieties including the alder, willow, hazel and downy birch which are being planted in a mosaic of small woodlands on underused crofts across the Outer Hebrides.

Nearly a quarter of a million trees have been planted so far in the Western Isles Croft Woodland Project. It is largely funded by the Point and Sandwick Trust which owns a community wind farm on the Isle of Lewis.

Kathleen Carragher visits a couple of participating crofts with Laura including a small planting project started by retired minister, Murdo Smith. Murdo's saplings are being grazed by deer, a common problem on Lewis. Laura has been advising him on the use of a spray deterrent made from sheep fat, which seems to be having some success in keeping them at bay.

Presented by Kathleen Carragher and produced by John Deering.


SUN 06:57 Weather (m002l222)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m002l224)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m002l226)
King and Pope to make history; Canterbury Cathedral graffiti row; Diwali on Roblox

This week, King Charles will pray alongside Pope Leo in the Sistine Chapel: the first time a British Monarch and a Pontiff have done so since the Reformation. It's part of a state visit by the King and Queen, and is seen as an important symbol of strengthened ties between the two churches.

A new graffiti art installation inside Canterbury Cathedral has provoked a scathing backlash from critics from around the world, describing it as “sacrilegious”, “a desecration”, and part of the “suicide” of the Church of England. What are the theological questions it raises?

As Diwali is about to get underway, the BBC has created an online space for children on the gaming platform Roblox, which explores the multifaith festival in a fun and interactive way, and which features the Asian Network presenter Nikita Kanda as a character.

Presenter: Julie Etchingham
Producers: Dan Tierney and Bara'atu Ibrahim
Editor: Tim Pemberton


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m002l228)
The PSP Association

Trustee Jon Garrard makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of The PSP Association. Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), is a rare and incurable neurological condition and the charity provides support for families from across the UK who are affected in some way by the disease.

The Radio 4 Appeal features a new charity every week.
Each appeal then runs on Radio 4 from Sunday 0754 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 PSP Association’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘The PSP Association’.
- 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: 1037087. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://www.pspassociation.org.uk/
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites

Producer: Katy Takatsuki


SUN 07:57 Weather (m002l22b)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m002l22d)
The news headlines, including a look at the newspapers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m002l22g)
Lost and Found: The Parables

Swarzy Shire from BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra hosts a series across Sunday Worship and Daily Service exploring some of Jesus’s best stories - The Parables - with musicians from different genres. As Swarzy says 'Jesus is a master storyteller - using imagery and word pictures to help us understand heavenly truths - and so I thought I’d chat with some super talented people in the music who write and compose and sing and bless us with great stories too.'

Swarzy sits down with Keisha Buchanan from The Sugababes and David Melodee from The Compozers to unpack their favourite parables and finds out how Jesus’ teachings help them navigate their faith so authentically in the music industry, from influencing lifestyle choices, to what they write or sing about. David picks The Parable of the Talents and Keisha picks The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, and they choose a gospel track each that means something to them.

Music:
Guide me o thou great jehovah - Rachel John
Amazing Grace - Melodees from Heaven
Your world - Jonathan McReynolds
I give myself away - William McDowell
Yet - Maverick City
Jesus I do - Mariah Carey and The Clark Sisters


SUN 08:48 Witness History (w3ct7461)
Lunch atop a Skyscraper

In 1932, a photo was taken showing 11 New York ironworkers casually eating their lunch while sitting on a steel beam at the top of a skyscraper.

No safety harnesses, no helmets. Their legs dangled freely over the death-defying drop. 'Lunch atop a Skyscraper' is now one of the most famous pictures in the world but it's an image surrounded in mystery.

For years, the identity of its photographer and the 11 men have been unknown. Christine Roussel, archivist at the Rockefeller Center, tells Vicky Farncombe about her mission to uncover the photo’s secrets.

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: Lunch atop a Skyscraper. Credit: Getty Images)


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m002l22j)
Roland Arnison on the Leach's Petrel

In 2024 and 2025 expedition leader and film-maker Roland Arnison kayaked along the west coast and isles of Scotland to find and record the sounds of seabird species. His quest took him 40 miles out into the Atlantic to St Kilda in search of the Leach's petrel, one of Britain's rarest birds that only nests on a handful of offshore rocky islands. We join Roland scrambling up a cliff at midnight to hear the extraordinary call of this nocturnal bird.

Presented by Roland Arnison and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

This programme features audio recorded on St Kilda by Roland Arnison.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m002l22l)
Prince Andrew: what next?

Fresh damaging reports about Prince Andrew. Veteran royal watcher Jenny Bond gives her verdict. Also: gambling job loss warnings, sauna culture and the cut-off Island of Tiree.


SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m002l22n)
Mary Greenwell, makeup artist

Mary Greenwell is a makeup artist who has worked with some of the most famous faces in the world including Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, David Bowie and Cate Blanchett. Her less-is-more approach has won her plaudits in the beauty industry and she became Princess Diana’s makeup artist of choice.

Mary was born in Sussex and left school at 16. By the mid-1970s she was living in Los Angeles where she started out on the door at the legendary Joe Allen restaurant, escorting the likes of Paul Newman and Jack Lemmon to their tables. She received her one and only makeup lesson from the award-winning Ilana Harkavi and shortly afterwards created a look for 12-year-old actor Brooke Shields.

Mary’s big break came when she moved to Paris in 1984 and began working with the original supermodels; Christy Turlingon, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Tatiana Patitz. In 1990 she met Princess Diana on a Vogue photo shoot and became her go-to makeup artist and friend.

In 2025 Mary was appointed an MBE for services to the beauty and fashion industries and her charity work.

Mary lives in London.

DISC ONE: Lay Lady Lay - Bob Dylan
DISC TWO: I Am Enough - Tallulah Rendall
DISC THREE: Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
DISC FOUR: Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed
DISC FIVE: Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
DISC SIX: Cold Little Heart - Michael Kiwanuka
DISC SEVEN: Diamonds - Rihanna
DISC EIGHT: Heroes - David Bowie

BOOK CHOICE: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
LUXURY ITEM: A bed
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Am Enough - Tallulah Rendall

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley

There are more than 2000 programmes in our archive available for you to listen to. We’ve cast away other hair and beauty experts including the makeup artist Pat McGrath, and hairdressers Vidal Sassoon and Trevor Sorbie. Cate Blanchett, one of Mary’s clients, is in our archive too. You can find their episodes on BBC Sounds or on our Desert Island Discs website.


SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m002l22q)
WRITER: Shaun McKenna
DIRECTOR: Marina Caldarone and David Payne
EDITOR: Jeremy Howe

12-17th October

David Archer.... Timothy Bentinck
Jolene Archer.... Buffy Davis
Ruth Archer.... Felicity Finch
Lilian Bellamy.... Sunny Ormonde
Leonard Berry.... Paul Copley 
Clarrie Grundy.... Heather Bell
Eddie Grundy.... Trevor Harrison
George Grundy.... Angus Stobie
Brad Horrobin.... Taylor Uttley
Tracy Horrobin.... Susie Riddell 
Akram Malik.... Asif Khan
Khalil Malik.... Krish Bassi
Zainab Malik.... Priyasasha Kumari
Fallon Rogers.... Joanna Van Kampen
Oliver Sterling.... Michael Cochrane
Esme Mulligan.... Ellie Pawsey


SUN 12:15 Profile (m002l1zw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 12:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m002krlw)
Series 4

Walking In A Sinha Sunderland

Paul Sinha tests his audience in Sunderland on their knowledge of white suits, local football heroes and literary icons in a splendiferous half-hour of edutainment.

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

Original music: Tim Sutton

Recording engineers: Sean Kerwin & Hamish Campbell
Mixed by Rich Evans
Producer: Ed Morrish

A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:57 Weather (m002l22s)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m002l22v)
What is the US doing in Venezuela?

We start with the latest on the theft of priceless jewels at the Louvre museum in Paris. Plus, we examine US policy towards Venezuela after President Trump this week authorised the CIA to operate inside the country. With 10,000 US troops deployed near the Venezuelan coast, is this a new push in America's war on drugs, or an attempt to bring down the Venezuelan president?


SUN 13:30 Currently (m002kfjl)
The Split

David Baker’s Jewish identity and faith have always been central to who he is - and so is his affiliation with Israel. But he has been re-evaluating that relationship since Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the war in Gaza.

For many decades after the founding of Israel, most British Jews were unequivocal in their support. And that is still the case for many Jews in Britain. But there is evidence that those ties are weakening for a younger generation and some older Jews, too, are criticising the actions of Israel’s current right-wing government and the devastation of Gaza.

In a search for answers, David talks to other British Jews who are responding in different ways. Some are taking political action, some are deepening their bonds with Israel and others are re-examining their connection with the Jewish state.

Presenter: David Baker
Producer: Jo Glanville
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002ks5t)
Postbag Edition: RHS Wisley Greening Skills Garden

Peter Gibbs and the Gardeners Question Time panel visit the RHS Wisley Greening Skills Garden in Woking, an exciting new project designed to inspire and equip the next generation of horticulturists. No postbag edition is complete without your questions, so the panel dip into the GQT inbox to answer your gardening conundrums.

Joining Peter are head gardeners and garden designers Pippa Greenwood, Matthew Pottage and Matthew Biggs.

Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Junior Producer: Rahnee Prescod

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 One to One (m001q67d)
Aleighcia Scott's Reggae Heroes: Benji Webbe

Benji Webbe's memories of Reggae began with his parents' record collection and the 'blues' parties his brother held when their Dad was away, when the furniture in the front room was replaced with huge wardrobe speakers and curried goat would be cooking in the kitchen. After several attempts to forge a career in Reggae, Benji started writing rock songs with a friend in what became the band Dub War, and the blend of heavy metal riffs with Benji's roots in Reggae and dance hall started opening doors. It's an ethos that's continued with the band Skindred and Benji maintains it's about spreading those same positive messages of peace, love and unity.

Aleighcia and Benji talk about the culture of Reggae in South Wales, and how coachloads of people used to come to Cardiff and Newport to listen to the music and see live bands. They talk about Benji's relationship with the genre and how it has come full-circle again with the band Skindred, and why when they go further afield some people are surprised to find out there is any Reggae music (and black people) in Wales.

Presenter: Aleighcia Scott
Produced by Toby Field for BBC Audio Bristol


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m002l22z)
Stormy Applause

Episode 2

Stormy Applause, adapted from Rostislav Dubinsky’s memoir, tells how the Borodin Quartet rose from idealistic students in Moscow to cultural ambassadors of the Soviet Union, their music shaped as much by politics as by artistry. In America, they are dazzled by the abundance and openness of the West, but success abroad brings new strains at home. Tempers flare, loyalties fray, and the bond that once held them together is pushed to breaking point, as each must decide whether to bend to the state, betray a friend, or gamble everything on escape.

Cast:

Jacob Fortune-Lloyd
James Corrigan
Danny Ashok
Django Bevan
Eric Meyers
Ronan Summers
Maggie Service
Aoife Moss
Sasha McCabe

Musicians:

Andrew O’Reilly
Isabell Karlsson
Vivek Dinesh
Yixuan Ren

Sound design: Peter Ringrose.

Adapted by Nick Perry.

Produced & directed by Sasha Yevtushenko and Luke MacGregor.

A BBC Studios production.


SUN 16:00 Take Four Books (m002l231)
Philippa Gregory

Celebrated historical novelist Phillipa Gregory speaks to James Crawford about her latest novel Boleyn Traitor and explores its connections to three other works of literature.

Philippa’s intimate portrayals of the machinations of the Tudor court have made her a bestseller and a household name. In her latest dive in to 16th Century England, she returns to the world of King Henry VIII, seen through the eyes of Jane Boleyn, confidante to five of Henry’s six wives – but was she a loyal friend, or a duplicitous spy?

For her three influences Phillipa chose: The Golden Bowl by Henry James (1904), A Room With A View by EM Forster (1908), and The Country and the City by Raymond Williams (1973).

Producer: Caitlin Sneddon
Editor: Gillian Wheelan

This is a BBC Audio Scotland production.


SUN 16:30 The 3rd Degree (m002l233)
Series 15

6. University of Edinburgh

The 3rd Degree is a funny, upbeat and brainy quiz show.

With this episode coming from the University of Edinburgh, the Specialist Subjects are Theology, Jewellery & Silversmithing and Medicine - so naturally we’ll be learning the true meaning of univocity, the proper method of sintering, the correct usage of fluoroisotopes and the best way to eat Dubai Chocolate. Oh, and how to pronounce Kirkcudbrightshire. More or less.

The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors. The General Knowledge rounds include a quickfire bell-and-buzzer finale and the Highbrow & Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of history, art, literature and politics, but also their Professors’ awareness of TV, music and sport. Meanwhile there are the three Specialist Subject rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, and where we find out whether the students have actually been awake during lectures.

In this series, the universities include Bristol, Queen Mary University of London, Kent, Worcester College Oxford, Manchester Metropolitan University and Edinburgh

Producer: David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct74jk)
Brazil’s biggest bank heist

In August 2005, a gang of theives tunnelled their way into a Brazilian bank vault in a heist straight out of the movies.

Three months before, the thieves had set up a landscaping business, Grama Sintetica - or Synthetic Grass, from a house close to the Banco Central in Fortaleza. But it was a plot to disguise their real activity.

Working in shifts, they dug an 80 metre tunnel from the house, under a neighbouring street and into the vault before escaping with more than 160million reais, then the equivalent of $70m.

Antonio Celso Dos Santos, then a federal police chief, was one of the detectives who tracked down the gang. He spoke to Jane Wilkinson about the investigation.

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 the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.

We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher.

You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: Police and journalists examine the Banco Central tunnel, 2005. Credit: AP Photo/Tuno de Vieira, Diario do Nordeste)


SUN 17:10 The Verb (m002l236)
Poetry by Tony Harrison, US Poet Laureate Arthur Sze, Sinéad Morrissey, David Morley, and Daniel Sluman

Ian McMillan celebrates an iconic poem that inspired a generation of poets and readers - Tony Harrison's 'Them and Uz'.
His guests include the new US Poet Laureate Arthur Sze, the former Poet Laureate of Belfast Sinéad Morrissey who brings us an autumnal 'Neon Line', zoologist and poet David Morley on his new book 'Passion', and Daniel Sluman on a landmark anthology 'Versus Versus - 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets' - edited by Rachael Boast, with the help of an Advocacy and Advisory Panel (including Daniel). Poets included in the anthology will be reading at London's Southbank Centre on 25th October.

Presented by Ian McMillan
Produced by Faith Lawrence


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002l238)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m002l23b)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002l23d)
Thieves steal eight priceless objects from the Louvre Museum

French police are searching for a gang who stole priceless treasures from the Louvre in Paris this morning .Officers found a damaged nineteenth century crown near the gallery. The item was covered with 1,300 diamonds, and was among several taken when thieves scaled a ladder, broke a window and escaped on motorbikes.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002l23g)
Guvna B

There’s a theme of writing this week, as Radio 1’s Richie Brave covers the sometimes controversial world of spoken word poetry on 1Xtra Talks. Dame Rose Tremain is on This Cultural Life, discussing how writing helped her process a difficult childhood, and Illuminated brings us the enduring appeal (and life span) of the simple message in a bottle. Plus, one very special young photographer who is capturing hearts as well as photos on PM.

If you need support with bereavement or mental health, details are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Presenter: Guvna B
Producer: Emily Esson
Production Coordinators: Caroline Peddle and Caoilfhinn McFadden

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m002l23j)
Ruth brings Josh to Meadow Farm and introduces him to Esme. Josh then asks Ruth how long they’re going to be helping out, before Ruth gets a call and rushes back to Brookfield, leaving Josh to do the milking on his own. After he’s finished, Josh chats to Esme over tea and biscuits, listening sympathetically to her distracted ramblings about the mess her dad’s left behind and having to organise his funeral. However, Esme doesn’t know the password for his computer to find his will and is running out of ideas, before she breaks down in tears, realising she’s never going to see her dad again.

Jolene tells George he won’t be working at The Bull - and he’s barred from the pub as well. Angry George reckons he’s done his time, said sorry and risked his life saving Fallon - plus helped put Markie back in prison. What was the point of doing all that? Lilian intervenes, offering to take George on in a fight, if he wants. When George accidentally smashes a glass, Lilian threatens to call the police before he agrees to leave. Later, Lilian comes across George on the Green, explaining it wasn’t Jolene who wanted to bar him, it was her. George isn’t surprised but says he’s done his time. When George asks when he’ll be forgiven, Lilian retorts when he understands what he’s done. George then takes a cheap shot at Alice for being an alcoholic. Lilian responds by spelling out just how close he came to destroying both Alice and Martha. She really can’t forgive him for that!


SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m002l23l)
The Findhorn Garden

This is a story about a community on the north east coast of Scotland that talked to plants with miraculous results.

Established in 1962, the Findhorn community gained international recognition for 40lb cabbages, 8-foot delphiniums, and roses that bloomed in snow.

With seemingly no gardening experience, community founders Peter and Eileen Caddy and their friend Dorothy Maclean transformed the barren sand dunes surrounding the 30-foot caravan they were living in, into a modern-day garden of Eden.

The public wanted to know how this was possible. What was the source of this horticultural miracle?

People flocked to Findhorn from around the world to witness this incredible transformation first-hand.

An extraordinary story began to emerge. Peter, Eileen and Dorothy - along with Scottish writer and supernatural enthusiast Robert Ogilvie Crombie (ROC) - attributed their success to one thing: collaboration with the ‘intelligence of nature’.

They claimed they had pierced the veil of the nature spirit realm, and were regularly receiving guidance from fairies, floral spirits and angelic forms Dorothy called 'Devas' - the ‘architects’ of the natural world. Moreover, they had been called upon by these entities to transform the Findhorn Garden into a centre of spiritual light.

What started with a single family in a caravan quickly grew into a thriving international village of hundreds of people united by shared social, spiritual and ecological values.

Inspired by the media's enduring fascination with Findhorn's supernatural origins, sound designer Jonathan Webb travels to Findhorn in search of transmissions from the nature spirit realm.

Trawling through the archives, in conversation with community elders, and in pursuit of sonic traces of higher elemental worlds, Jonathan brings into focus the echoes and reverberations of Findhorn’s strange and magical past.

Produced, Edited & Sound Designed by Jonathan Webb
Executive Producer: Carys Wall

A Bespoken Media Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

Additional field recordings by Brenda Hutchinson.

With grateful thanks to Jonathan Caddy, Judy McAllister and Karl Jay-Lewin, whose kindness and generosity made this programme possible.

Thank you to the Findhorn Foundation for providing access and permission to use recordings from the Findhorn Foundation archive.

The Findhorn Garden includes excerpts from ‘The River’ by Lark Batteau and ‘Love One Another’ by David Spangler and Milenko Matanovic, performing as The New Troubadours (Findhorn community band, 1970-1973)

Jonathan Webb makes no claim to authorship or ownership over any of the quotations or repurposed recordings used in the production of this work, and for practical and artistic reasons it has not been possible to reference and cite them individually. Jonathan Webb’s authorship is in the overall conception, arrangement, treatment and presentation of this audio artwork in its context.


SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m00187ws)
Read

In this episode, Michael enters the world of creative fiction to discover how simply reading a story for half an hour a day can bring big benefits to your body and brain - from reducing stress and helping stave off depression, to strengthening your social skills and even helping you live longer! With the help of Professor Raymond Mar from York University in Toronto, Canada, Michael discovers why reading for pleasure could have such a significant impact on overall health and longevity, and delves into research revealing the unique benefits of reading narrative fiction.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m002kq3m)
Politics Editor Chris Mason. Interview of the Year. Desert Island Discs with Ronnie Wood

With a summer of political turmoil over, and party conference season near an end, Andrea Catherwood talks to Chris Mason about how BBC audio coverage has reflected the key political players. The Feedback inbox has been receiving messages that question the amount of coverage given to Nigel Farage's Reform UK party. Chris responds to your questions and weighs in on what he says is a change in UK politics we haven't seen in decades.

And our search for BBC audio's best interview of 2025 continues. One listener has nominated an interview conducted by presenter Evan Davies in a recent episode of PM. He spoke to an unnamed asylum seeker from Somalia, currently waiting on an asylum application in the Bell Hotel in Epping. What they discussed revealed a different side of a story that has seized the attention of the nation this year.

Finally, we've heard from a listener who has thoughts about a recent episode of Desert Island Discs - in which Rolling Stone's guitarist Ronnie Wood seemed to request an endless array of luxury items for his island getaway.

Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Pauline Moore
Assistant Producer: Rebecca Guthrie
Executive Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m002ks5y)
Peter Gurney, Diane Keaton, Peter Hall, Angela Bond

Matthew Bannister on

Peter Gurney, the George Medal winning bomb disposal expert who regularly risked his life to defuse explosive devices, including the mortars that were fired at 10 Downing Street by the IRA in 1991.

Diane Keaton, the actor best known for her collaboration with Woody Allen in Annie Hall and Manhattan.

Peter Hall, the pioneering English winemaker from Sussex who turned his Breaky Bottom grapes into acclaimed sparkling wines.

Angela Bond, who saved the much-loved Bush Theatre in West London from closure. The director Josie Rourke and the writer Jack Thorne pay tribute.

Producer: Ed Prendeville
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Tansley

Archive used:
BBC News, BBC, 07/02/1991; Newsnight, BBC, 26/10/1981; It’s My Story: The Long Walk, BBC Radio 4, 26/03/2012; The Food Programme: A Vintage Year for Homegrown Wine, BBC Radio 4, 22/11/2018; Food and Drink, BBC, 10/08/1982; Annie Hall, MGM, 1977; Cast: Diane Keaton; Director: Woody Allen; Producers: Fred T. Gallo, Robert Greenhut, Jack Rollins, Charles H. Joffe; Screenwriters: Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman; Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, 15/11/2011; Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 19/06/2017; Diane Keaton – Seems Like Old Times, Columbia Pictures, 1980


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m002l1z5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m002l228)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002l1z1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:30 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m002l23n)
Ben Wright hosts lively political chat

Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 In Our Time (m00139nw)
Thomas Hardy's Poetry

After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects he and his experts have tackled. In this second of his choices, we hear Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss one of his favourite poets.

Their topic is Thomas Hardy (1840 -1928) and his commitment to poetry, which he prized far above his novels. In the 1890s, once he had earned enough from his fiction, Hardy stopped writing novels altogether and returned to the poetry he had largely put aside since his twenties. He hoped that he might be ranked one day alongside Shelley and Byron, worthy of inclusion in a collection such as Palgrave's Golden Treasury which had inspired him. Hardy kept writing poems for the rest of his life, in different styles and metres, and he explored genres from nature, to war, to epic. Among his best known are what he called his Poems of 1912 to 13, responding to his grief at the death of his first wife, Emma (1840 -1912), who he credited as the one who had made it possible for him to leave his work as an architect's clerk and to write the novels that made him famous.

With

Mark Ford
Poet, and Professor of English and American Literature, University College London.

Jane Thomas
Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Hull and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leeds

And

Tim Armstrong
Professor of Modern English and American Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Melvyn Bragg and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world


SUN 23:45 Short Works (m002ks5w)
The Cottage

A new short work from award-winning writer Callum McSorley.

Labouring for your dad in the summer holidays is grim enough without factoring in a ruined cottage where normal rules don't apply.
Read by Scott Miller
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie

Callum McSorley is a writer based in Glasgow.
His short stories have appeared in Gutter Magazine, New Writing Scotland, Typehouse Literary Magazine, The Glasgow Review of Books, Monstrous Regiment, and many more. His debut novel, SQUEAKY CLEAN, featuring DCI Alison McCoist, won The McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2023. Its sequel, PAPERBOY, was published this year and is shortlisted for the same award.

"The Cottage" is a BBC Scotland Audio Production for BBC Radio 4.

MONDAY 20 OCTOBER 2025

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m002l23q)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 00:15 Soul Music (m0029ygx)
Ae Fond Kiss by Robert Burns

Burns began a correspondence with Agnes McElhose, also known as Clarinda and Nancy, a married woman he was besotted with. When she left Scotland to reunite with her husband he wrote Ae Fond Kiss as a heartfelt farewell. It was later set to music and is one of his most famous 'songs' along with Auld Lang Syne and My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose.

Karen Matheson the singer with Capercaillie talks about its meaning to her and how performing it at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 was a very special moment.

Joan Donaldson from Michigan grew up with Scottish music and has called her latest historical novel Ae Fond Kiss. She says she channelled her grief into the characters as a way of dealing with a devastating loss.

Sir Geoff Palmer discovered the song when he arrived in Edinburgh in the 1960s. He has traced Burns' and the song's connection to his home country of Jamaica and feels proud of the links he discovered.

For film maker Karen Guthrie from Ayrshire - Burns' birthplace - coping with and caring for her estranged parents meant long drives home through the countryside he inhabited. It was a journey of rediscovering Scotland's national poet and relating her family's story to Ae Fond Kiss.

Musician Seonaid Aitken plays both versions of the song on the violin and explains how the music conveys the feelings of longing after an unresolved love affair.

Producer: Maggie Ayre


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m002l20g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002l23s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002l23v)
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 (m002l23x)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002l23z)
Susan Hulme looks back on 80 years of our sister programme, Today in Parliament.


MON 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002l241)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002l243)
Peppered with Glimmers

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Saarah Hamayun

I work in a children’s hospice, and I’ve listened to the stories of many bereaved parents. The strength of these parents is inspiring, but one thing that really moves me is the legacy of love these little souls leave. By teaching their parents the true essence of love, light and strength can enter a parent’s heart once again.

Even in our bereavement groups, laughter often finds its way in. As parents share stories of mischievous moments and the unique quirks that made their children who they were, the room fills with warmth. Their little ones may be gone, but their light still ripples through every memory.

These parents carry the weight of love, loss, and memories every day, and yet every single day they make the decision to rise again, to carry on like everything is normal, even to begin to laugh once more, and enjoy time with friends and family. The world carries on around them, people are busy and distracted with the demands of life but for a bereaved parent, not a day passes by without the beautiful memory of their child coming to mind. It is near impossible to find the words to describe the depth of that love, or the ache of their absence and the hole that it leaves in life.

I pray that the memory of those we have lost is kept alive because in remembrance, in speaking of them, that’s where their life is honoured. Not defined by their illness or their passing, but by the joy, the light, and the love they brought into our world, no matter how long or short their time here was. And I pray for all parents, who carry that love forward every single day.

As one mum said, sometimes even grief can be “peppered with glimmers” and that’s not wrong. It’s love, still alive.

Amen


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m002l245)
20/10/25 Planning reform, beer and growing hops.

The Government’s bill to ‘get Britain building’ returns to the House of Lords for its report stage. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill gained more than sixty Government amendments earlier this month to streamline the process and give ministers more power to grant permission for big planning projects. However conservation campaigners are not happy about the developments, and the Government's rhetoric.

All this week we’re taking a look at the beer and cider industry, and the UK growers who make it possible. There are around 45 hop growers across the country, around half of them in the West Midlands. We speak to a farmer in Herefordshire as he harvests his crop and ask the Campaign for Real Ale about the market for home-grown hops.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


MON 05:57 Weather (m002l247)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for farmers


MON 06:00 Today (m002l36h)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m002l36k)
Maps – lost, secret and revealing

The Library of Lost Maps by James Cheshire, Professor of Geographic Information and Cartography, tells the story of the discovery of a treasure-trove at the heart of University College London. In a long-forgotten room James found thousands of maps and atlases. This abandoned archive reveals how maps have traced the contours of the world, inspiring some of the greatest scientific discoveries, as well as leading to terrible atrocities and power grabs.

But maps have not always been used to navigate or reveal the world, according to a new exhibition at the British Library on Secret Maps (from 24 October 2025 to 18 January 2026). Jerry Brotton, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London, and author of Four Points of the Compass, explains how mysterious maps throughout history have been used to hide, shape and control knowledge.

The biographer Jenny Uglow celebrates a different kind of mapping in her new book, A Year with Gilbert White: The First Great Nature Writer. In 1781 the country curate Gilbert White charted the world around him – from close observation of the weather, to the migration of birds to the sex lives of snails and the coming harvest – revealing a natural map of his Hampshire village.

Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez


MON 09:45 Café Hope (m002l36m)
A refuge for everyone

Susan Mansaray, founder of Purple Rose, tells Rachel Burden how the community interest company supports refugees and their families, alongside Stockton residents. Purple Rose provides a space for socialisation and integration, where people can make new friends whilst enjoying a hot meal cooked by volunteers.

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

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

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

Presenter: Rachel Burden
Series Producer: Uma Doraiswamy
Sound Design: Nicky Edwards
Researcher: Maeve Schaffer
Editor: Clare Fordham


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002l36p)
Maternity services inquiry, Women in architecture, Witches

The government has announced an independent inquiry into repeated failings in maternity services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Earlier this year, a BBC investigation revealed that the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers over the past five years at the Trust could perhaps have been avoided. BBC correspondent Divya Talwar joins Nuala McGovern, alongside Lauren Caulfield and Amarjit Kaur Matharoo, who both tragically lost their babies while receiving care at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust.

This month, the Ironman World Championships were held in Kona, Hawaii, where Britain’s Kat Matthews won silver. The men’s and women’s championships, previously held simultaneously, were split into separate events in 2023. However, they are set to reunite next year. Questions have been raised about the impact this change may have on female competitors. To discuss the championships and celebrate Kat’s achievement, Nuala is joined by Kat Matthews and Jordan Blanco, a contributor to Triathlete magazine who attended the event.

A new report reveals that progress towards gender equity in the architecture profession still remains too slow. Inequalities remain deeply rooted — with pay disparities, toxic and exclusionary workplace cultures, and half of female respondents surveyed said they had been bullied, and a third had experienced sexual harassment at work. Nuala hears from Valerie Vaughan-Dick, Chief Executive of Royal Institute of British Architects, and Helen Lee who was the project architect on a social housing development in London for the elderly which has just won this year’s Stirling Prize for Architecture.

The Essex witch trials represent one of the darkest chapters in British history. A new Sky History series, Witches of Essex, revisits the real lives of women accused of witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries, drawing on newly examined court records and the latest historical research. Historian Dr Eleanor Janega joins Nuala to discuss.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Dianne McGregor


MON 10:55 A Carnival of Animals (m002ktsm)
The Chicken

In this episode, Katherine Rundell looks at the chicken - the most numerous bird on Earth, with 23 billion alive today and 60 billion consumed each year. Their bones may be one of the most enduring traces of human civilisation. Since the Second World War, chickens have been bred to grow faster and larger, making today’s broiler chickens biologically distinct from their ancestors.

Chickens were first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and have played many roles in human culture - from sacred animals believed to predict the future, to pets and food. There are over 500 breeds, and despite their reputation, chickens are intelligent animals. They can solve problems, play games, and even adjust their behaviour depending on who’s watching.

With their long history and surprising abilities, this episode asks us to reconsider the chicken not just as a food source, but as a remarkable and complex animal.

Written and presented by Katherine Rundell
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan


MON 11:00 The Tax Conundrum (m002l36r)
Episode 1: The Problem

On 26th November Rachel Reeves will present her second budget and the overwhelming expectation is that she will be reluctantly forced to raise taxes once again to stick to her borrowing rules. Expect anger and accusations that the Chancellor has betrayed promises. Yet, perhaps worse, our tax system is a complex mess, with apparently zero appetite from politicians of any party to reform it. So expect more complexity, more economic damage and even greater national frustration over tax later this autumn. Why do we find it so hard to have a grown-up national conversation about tax? Why are we seemingly so stuck? That’s what the economics journalist Ben Chu will be asking in the Tax Conundrum, a major new three part series for BBC Radio 4.

In the first episode Ben will hear from an impressive range of senior voices on the reasons the UK tax system has become such a mess and why we should all care. Former chancellor Philip Hammond talks frankly about his own failed battle to reform the system. Mervyn King, the former Bank of England governor - and author of a seminal textbook on the British tax system - explains the damage being done and critiques the popular idea that middle earners are currently overtaxed. Along the way, Ben meets a tax barrister who makes a bizarre living arguing in court over whether or not mega marshmallows are eaten with the fingers. He also takes a trip to an Essex care home, to see for himself why loading ever greater tax costs onto employers - in order to spare workers - is no free lunch.

Presenter: Ben Chu
Producer: Caroline Bayley
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar
Editor: Richard Vadon


MON 11:45 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry (m002l36v)
1. Sugared doughnuts and circus tricks

"Now I understand there are no ordinary lives – that every death is the end of a single event in time’s history: an event so improbable as to be miraculous, and irreplaceable in every particular."

Booker Prize-longlisted author Sarah Perry's father-in-law, David, died at home nine days after a cancer diagnosis having previously been in good health. The speed of his illness outstripped that of the NHS and social care, so the majority of nursing fell to Sarah and her husband. They witnessed what happens to the body and spirit, hour by hour, as it approaches death.

Death of an Ordinary Man is an unstinting account of death by cancer, a reportage into the experience of caring, an exploration of the structural conditions of dying in the UK, and most importantly a testament to David’s life, that of an ordinary man.

Unflinching and profoundly moving, Sarah Perry confronts the taboo surrounding death and how the saddest thing she has ever seen is also the best thing she's ever done.

Episode One
A day of sugared doughnuts and circus tricks glimmers with joy, yet already carries the shadow of David's final summer, as daughter-in-law Sarah Perry recalls the small treasures that define a life.

Reader: Louise Brealey
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:00 News Summary (m002l36x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m002l36z)
Subscription Traps, Online Shopping Scam and Charity Shops

We hear from people whose addresses and phone numbers have appeared as the contact details for bogus shopping sites - to their horror, they've been deluged by calls from angry customers and are even receiving returns in the post. Fraud reporter Shari Vahl unravels what's going on.

Some charities have been announcing they're closing lots of shops - what's behind it and what will it mean for the high street? Meanwhile the government tells us what it's doing to try to help struggling rural pubs to survive.

And we'll also have a recording of the moment one of our listeners was cold called and signed up to a club she says she'd never agreed to.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY


MON 12:57 Weather (m002l371)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m002l373)
Should Prince Andrew be stripped of his titles?

We hear calls for Parliament to have a say on Prince Andrew's titles, following fresh allegations against him – which he denies. Plus: an internet outage knocks major banks, websites and apps offline.


MON 13:45 The History Podcast (m002l461)
The House at Number 48

1. Made in Britain

When Antony Easton’s enigmatic father passes away, he goes through his Dad's suitcase, filled with cryptic clues: neatly stacked German money, a family tree he doesn’t recognise, and books filled with sprawling notes. He also finds his father’s birth certificate, but bearing a different name. Confronting his dad’s double identity, Antony begins a ten-year quest to uncover the truth. Piece-by-piece he comes to understand his family’s dark history as he attempts to reclaim his grandfather’s property and art empire, and expose the historic robbery and murder of his relatives.

Antony is determined to find the descendants of those who looted his family’s assets, and continue to live off their wealth today. He wants to meet them face to face.

The House at Number 48 is presented by Charlie Northcott.
The series producer is Jim Frank.
Sound design and mixing by Tom Brignell.
Music by Anna Papadimitriou.
The Editor is Matt Willis.


MON 14:00 The Archers (m002l23j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Alone (m000bg44)
Series 2

Friday Nights, Saturday Mornings

Will’s new girlfriend Hannah has a problem with Mitch being around all the time and, to Ellie’s dismay, Will finds himself having to make a difficult decision. Meanwhile, Louisa is convinced her acting career is collapsing and she is determined to get her retaliation in first.

Sitcom about five single, middle-aged neighbours living in flats in a converted house in North London.

Mitch is a widower and part-time therapist, looking to put his life back together now that he is single and living with Will, his younger, more volatile and unhappily divorced half-brother.

Elsewhere in the building is schoolteacher Ellie who is shy, nervous and holds a secret candle for Mitch. Overly honest, frustrated actress Louisa, and socially inept IT nerd Morris complete the line-up of mis-matched neighbours.

Mitch ................................... Angus Deayton
Will ....................................... Pearce Quigley
Ellie ...................................... Abigail Cruttenden
Hannah and Rebecca......Carrie Quinlan
Louisa ................................. Kate Isitt
Morris ................................. Bennett Arron

Written and created by Moray Hunter

Producer: Gordon Kennedy

Based on an original idea developed in association with Dandy Productions

An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in November 2019.


MON 14:45 Mrs Bridge by Evan S Connell (m0019rsp)
Episode 10

Evan S. Connell's Mrs Bridge is an extraordinary tragicomic portrayal of suburban life and one of the classic American novels of the twentieth century. Mrs Bridge, a conservative housewife in Missouri, has three children and a kindly lawyer husband. Her married life begins in the early 1930s – and soon after she and her young family move to a wealthy country club suburb of Kansas City. she spends her time shopping, going to bridge parties and bringing up her children to be pleasant, clean and have nice manners. The qualities that she values above all else. And yet she finds modern life increasingly baffling, her children aren't growing up into the people she expected, and sometimes she has the vague disquieting sensation that all is not well in her life. In a series of comic, telling vignettes, Evan S. Connell illuminates the narrow morality, confusion, futility and even terror at the heart of a life of plenty.

First published in 1959 it was perhaps overshadowed by the critical attention paid to contemporaries like Philip Roth and John Updike. Although Mrs Bridge was a finalist for the National Book Award in that year. Ten years later Connell published Mr Bridge which follows that same events largely from the point of view of Walter Bridge. In 1990 James Ivory directed the film Mr and Mrs Bridge based on both novels and starring Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward. Fans of the book today include the novelist David Nicholls and Tracey Thorne, author and singer.

Mrs Bridge by Evan S. Connell
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 A Good Read (m002l375)
Chris Tarrant and Mike Gayle

OPEN by Andre Agassi
SONIC YOUTH SLEPT ON MY FLOOR by Dave Haslam
THE SECRET HOURS by Mick Herron

Television and radio broadcaster Chris Tarrant nominates the autobiography of tennis legend Andre Agassi, and novelist Mike Gayle has gone for Dave Haslam’s memoir of his time spent DJing at Manchester’s famous Hacienda. Harriett is hoping the two of them will enjoy an espionage novel by Slow Horses author Mick Herron.

Producer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven

Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc


MON 15:30 Curious Cases (m002l1yv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Saturday]


MON 16:00 Currently (m002kfjl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]


MON 16:30 Legend (m002l1yx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


MON 17:00 PM (m002l377)
New treatment helps blind to read again

'Life-changing' technique places microchip at the back of the eyes of people with AMD. We speak to a British surgeon involved. Plus, higher education fees to rise with inflation, and the Met will stop investigating non-crime hate incidents.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002l379)
Calls grow for Prince Andrew to be permanently stripped of his royal titles

Buckingham Palace has urged people to focus on the King's royal work and not be distracted by the scandal surrounding his brother Prince Andrew because of his relationship with the sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Also: The pilot of a new treatment for a form of blindness that affects a quarter of a million people in the UK has been welcomed by specialists and medical charities. And online access returns after a major outage at Amazon Web Services.


MON 18:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m002l37c)
Series 4

Episode IV: A New Pope

Paul Sinha tests his audience in Ayr on their knowledge of universities, Popes and islands. In return, they get to quiz him about notable Scottish footballing achievements and the Scottish Grand National.

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

Original music: Tim Sutton

Recording engineer: Hamish Campbell
Mixed by Rich Evans
Producer: Ed Morrish

A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4


MON 19:00 The Archers (m002l350)
At Home Farm Adam and Ruairi are confident everything’s going well in Brian’s absence, when Adam gets a call from Xander’s school saying he may have broken his wrist. Then Ruairi calls Alice in a panic, telling her his tractor’s on fire. Unimpressed Alice heads to Home Farm and has a dig at him over his lack of farming experience. Confident Ruairi is undaunted, claiming he will be ready to take over as manager within a couple of years. Alice reckons he’s mad to think Adam will just retire gracefully when it suits Ruairi, who then reveals Brian has promised him the running of the farm one day. Alice counters that she’s been promised the same thing. Back at the Office Alice and Ruairi tell Adam about the promises Brian has made. Adam’s put out, maintaining he’s best qualified to run Home Farm but hasn’t been promised anything. What the hell is Brian playing at?
Tracy tells Jolene that Brad and Zainab have tracked down three of Oliver’s foster children to invite to his surprise birthday buffet. She’ll check with Oliver that he hasn’t made any other arrangements. Talk turns to George and Tracy offers to deal with Emma if she complains about him being barred. Later Oliver returns Tracy’s call saying he can’t face doing anything for his birthday, but Tracy quickly informs him that he’s coming to The Bull on Saturday for a whisky with her. Later though, Oliver rings back to cancel that plan – he’s booked a flight to New York to see his daughter instead.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m002l37f)
Cathy Tyson on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Cathy Tyson stars in the Leicester Curve Theatre production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. She talks about the demanding, drunken role of Martha.

Jewellery expert Joanna Hardy discusses the robbery of France's Crown Jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris.

As AI becomes an increasingly powerful tool, we speak to two artists who are experimenting with technology in music production, Todd Rundgren and Holly Herndon.

And Samira talks to the Booker shortisted author David Szalay about his novel, Flesh.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Harry Graham


MON 20:00 The Briefing Room (m002kq3q)
Is the UK in a data crisis?

As Rachel Reeves approaches a tricky budget, her job has got that much harder. Some of our most fundamental economic data, statistics that policymakers are used to accepting at face value, suddenly have major question marks over their accuracy.

The UK’s top stats agency, the Office for National Statistics, finds itself under considerable pressure as falling response rates to its surveys leave politicians flying blind.
David Aaronovitch asks what this means for government decisions and how the ONS can rebuild confidence in its most vital statistics.

Guests:
Georgina Sturge, research affiliate at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford
Professor Denise Lievesley, former Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford
Chris Giles, economics commentator at the Financial Times.
Peter Lynn, Professor of Survey Methodology at the University of Essex

Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Producers: Nathan Gower, Kirsteen Knight, Cordelia Hemming
Studio engineer: Duncan Hannant
Editor: Richard Vadon


MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (m002kq3t)
Why do we love to play games?

Inside Science explores the science and maths of games: why we play them, how to win them and the rise of gamification in our lives - with a particular focus on The Traitors - in a special programme with a live audience at Green Man Festival in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park.

Presenter Victoria Gill looks into whether humans are innately programmed to play games with Gilly Forrester, professor of evolutionary and developmental psychology at the University of Sussex, and investigates how maths can help us strategise and win games with mathematician and maths communicator Dr Katie Steckles.

We encounter the Prisoner’s Dilemma with broadcaster Jaz Singh of The Traitors series 2 fame – will he share or steal? Jaz also dives into the immersive world of The Traitors discussing his gameplay, the stakes and what makes an effective Faithful!

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

Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Jonathan Blackwell and Clare Salisbury
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth


MON 21:00 Start the Week (m002l36k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:45 Café Hope (m002l36m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m002l37h)
Met Police will no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents

The Metropolitan Police says the change will allow officers to "focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations". The announcement came as the Met confirmed it was dropping a probe into Father Ted creator Graham Linehan.

Also in the programme: Israeli writer David Grossman reflects on how the world should view his country now a Gaza ceasefire is in place.

And after thieves make off with priceless crown jewels from the Louvre, will the easily identifiable items be broken down before being sold on, or handed over intact to a mystery buyer?


MON 22:45 North Woods by Daniel Mason (m002l37k)
Episode 1

Daniel Mason's North Woods is a time-spanning novel chronicling four centuries of human and natural history centred on a yellow house and its surrounding woods in Massachusetts, New England.

Through varied narrative styles, the book follows a diverse cast of fascinating inhabitants, from Puritan lovers to a lovelorn painter, a fraudulent mystic, a farmer, a slave hunter, a detectorist, twin sisters, a crime reporter. It even includes the stories of panthers and beetles, whilst exploring themes of memory, fate, and the interconnectedness of life with the environment.

The novel also incorporates historical documents and diverse literary formats to create a genre-defying tapestry of stories and music within the same location.

Read by
Hannah Traylen &
Daniel Weyman

Abridged by Lucy Ellis

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:00 Limelight (m0025dvx)
Aldrich Kemp and The Rose of Pamir

3. American Cryptography

Aldrich Kemp and the gang are back with some new faces as the race for the mysterious and elusive Rose of Pamir moves from London to Paris, New York to Amsterdam and the Maldives to Tajikistan.

Chapter Three: American Cryptography

Clara Page and Aldrich Kemp travel to New York and call in a favour, but who else is lurking in Manhattan? Meanwhile, Mrs Bartholomew and Mrs Boone are facing challenges of their own back in Blighty.

Clara Page - Phoebe Fox
Aldrich Kemp – Ferdinand Kingsley
Mrs Boone – Nicola Walker
Nakesha – Karla Crome
Sebastian Harcourt – Kyle Soller
Aunt Lily – Susan Jameson
The Underwood Sisters & Forsaken McTeague – Jana Carpenter
Mrs Bartholomew – Kate Isitt
Lionel – Steven Mackintosh
Selina – Catherine Kanter
Vartan - Ben Crowe

Written and directed by Julian Simpson
Music composed by Tim Elsenburg.

Sound Design: David Thomas
Producer: Sarah Tombling
Production Assistant: Ethan Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Karen Rose

New episodes available on Fridays. Listen first on BBC Sounds

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002l37m)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster as the culture secretary condemns the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from next month's match against Aston Villa.

TUESDAY 21 OCTOBER 2025

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m002l37p)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry (m002l36v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002l37r)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002l37t)
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 (m002l37w)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002l37y)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster as the culture secretary condemns the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from next month's match against Aston Villa.


TUE 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002l380)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002l382)
Kindness without Applause

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Saarah Hamayun

Several years ago, I visited Rome with my mum and sister; we were wandering through the alleyways towards a crowded square when something – or someone- caught my eye. I saw a man who had no limbs sitting on the ground, beside him sat a nun and she was feeding him with a spoon. Around them the square was alive with people, drinking espresso, taking photos, busy with their day, nobody else really noticed them.

I watched how her attention was fixed as she patiently waited between each spoonful, surrounded by indifference, they shared a moment of grace that belonged only to them. I believe there is something very noble in the lives of those who devote themselves to helping others. It requires a great deal of sacrifice of worldly comforts to serve God from the moment you wake up to when you sleep at night. And yet, the most striking aspect is not the sacrifice itself, but the humility with which it is offered. True devotion, I realised that day, is not measured by grandeur or fame, but by silent, selfless love.

Though we hold tightly to our comforts, there is a lesson for all of us in the tenderness she embodied - To care for others, to show compassion and kindness is the greatest form of devotion. The truest service often happens when no one is watching, in those moments, we act not for glory, but simply because love compels us.

I pray that we might cultivate such compassion in our own lives and show loving care to those around us without seeking recognition or reward, even in the smallest acts - a cup of tea, a hug, a listening ear. These small acts feed our spirit, connect us to one another and brings us closer to the divine. Let our daily acts of love become like quiet hymns of gratitude echoing softly in the lives we touch.

Amen


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m002l384)
21/10/25 Welfare report on CO2 and the slaughter of pigs; producing cider

An independent review of the way pigs are slaughtered has called for the use of carbon dioxide gassing to be prohibited, because it causes too much distress and pain to the animals. 90% of pigs reared in England and Wales are slaughtered this way. The report was carried out by the Animal Welfare Committee, an independent expert committee from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Scottish government and the Welsh government. It recommends that argon gas should be used instead. We speak to vet Dr Jane Downes, who led the Animal Welfare Committee at the time the report was prepared. We also speak to the National Pig Association.

All week we're looking at beer and cider. One of the biggest cider producers in the UK, producing 65 million litres every year, is Westons, based in Herefordshire. The business started in 1880, and now works with 180 apple growers and orchard owners in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire – the heart of apple country. We visit the production line.

Presenter: Anna Hill
Producer: Rebecca Rooney


TUE 06:00 Today (m002l34d)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m002l34g)
AP De Silva on building molecular fluorescence sensors for healthcare

From humble beginnings in his native Sri Lanka, to a more than 40 year academic career at Queen’s University Belfast, Prof. AP (Amilra Prasanna) De Silva’s research into molecular photosensors has led to a pioneering career in that’s evolved from chemistry to medical diagnostics on one hand, to information processing on the other.

Prof. De Silva challenged cultural expectations and overcame the lack of opportunities in chemistry that were available in Sri Lanka in the early 1970s. He first moved to Belfast to pursue research in photochemistry at Queen’s University. Inspired by his grandmother’s struggle with high blood pressure he engineered a unique sodium photosensor by marrying fluorescent molecules with chemical receptors. As a result of his international collaborations, a commercial, portable sensor was developed to detect salts and minerals in the blood. Its speed of analysis has since saved countless lives and improved healthcare around the world.

AP talks to Jim Al-Khalili about his passion for engineering molecules and how his photochemical innovations have since crossed into computer science. They’ve been developed to perform molecular computations far inside the human body - where silicon microchips fear to tread. A new deeper understanding of life inside our tissues and cells beckons.

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced by Adrian Washbourne
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A BBC Studios Production


TUE 09:30 All in the Mind (m002l34j)
Are there multiple subtypes of autism, and how vivid are your memories?

Autism tends to be viewed as a spectrum, but a new study published this month in Nature suggests that there are both genetic and behavioural differences between early and later diagnosed autism. So is autism still a spectrum, or should we be thinking of it as having multiple different subtypes? Claudia Hammond talks to Professor Uta Frith, who has pioneered autism research for decades, about what this means for how we view autism now.

The universities of Cambridge and Durham are launching a study to help them unlock the secrets of vivid memory. Postdoctoral researchers Kasia Mojescik and Martha McGill tell Claudia how they plan to find out what makes a memory vivid, why some memories are more vivid than others, and how people can get involved in their work.

And Claudia is joined in the studio by Catherine Loveday, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Westminster. Catherine brings us new research on how state-level income inequality can impact how children’s brains develop, and the myriad ways music can affect dining experiences.

If you'd like to take part in the vivid memories research survey, you can find it here: https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/memory/get-involved/

Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer: Sophie Ormiston
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald
Production coordinator: Jana Holesworth


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002l34l)
Grooming gangs, Eve Muirhead, Lily King, Menopause

Two sexual abuse survivors have resigned from their roles on the national inquiry into grooming gangs. Fiona Goddard and Ellie Reynolds both stood down from the victims' liaison panel which was overseeing the process. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in the summer that there would be a full national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs covering England and Wales. Ellie Reynolds joins Nuala McGovern.

Lily King is the award winning writer of six novels. She talks to Nuala about her latest work - a love story set on a university campus exploring early experiences of romance, emotional risk, temptation and loss.  

Women’s health academics at University College London are calling for an education programme to combat misinformation and unregulated advice on the menopause.Their study found that millions of women are being exploited by what they call the ‘menopause gold rush’ amid a lack of reliable information. The lead author of the study is Professor Joyce Harper, from UCL’s Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health - she and presenter and journalist Kirsty Wark discuss.

'Ice Queen' Eve Muirhead is considered a titan of British Sport. She became the first woman to captain a British team to Olympic Gold in curling and is the Chef De Mission for Team GB at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. She discusses the significance of this being the first time a British team has reached 47% female participation and she also talks about her recently published memoir.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Kirsty Starkey


TUE 10:55 A Carnival of Animals (m002ktsq)
The Snake

In this episode, Katherine Rundell explores the snake - a creature often feared, partly due to myth and partly perhaps because of its unblinking stare. Of more than 4,000 snake species, only around 250 are dangerous to humans, yet snakebites still kill over 100,000 people each year, mostly in areas with poor access to healthcare. Despite this, snakes are remarkable animals: the death adder can strike and return to position in just 0.15 seconds.

But snake populations are in sharp decline due to habitat loss, roads, and climate change. Some species, like the Round Island Burrowing Boa, are already extinct, while others, such as the harmless Ornate Ground Snake, number fewer than twenty. Katherine Rundell considers what we lose when we let fear overshadow the ingenuity and fragility of these animals.

Written and presented by Katherine Rundell
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan


TUE 11:00 Screenshot (m002ks68)
Translation

This week, Ellen and Mark read between the lines, and find out what can get lost in translation.

Mark speaks to the film critic, Manuela Lazic, who discusses the impossibility of translation, and her experiences of watching films and television across languages. Next, the translator and film critic, Irina Margareta Nistor details her role in overdubbing bootlegged VHS tapes during the Ceaușescu dictatorship in Romania. During the 1980s, her work allowed local audiences an escape from the regime through the medium of foreign cinema.

Meanwhile, Ellen discusses the poetry of translation with Darcy Paquet. The translator has produced subtitles with collaborators including the South Korean film director, Bong Joon Ho, on the Oscar award winning film, Parasite. Darcy shares the challenges found in a set character count, and some of the cultural specificities he's noted along the way.

Producer: Mae-Li Evans
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 11:45 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry (m002l34n)
2. A trip to the GP

"Now I understand there are no ordinary lives – that every death is the end of a single event in time’s history: an event so improbable as to be miraculous, and irreplaceable in every particular."

Booker Prize-longlisted author Sarah Perry's father-in-law, David, died at home nine days after a cancer diagnosis having previously been in good health. The speed of his illness outstripped that of the NHS and social care, so the majority of nursing fell to Sarah and her husband. They witnessed what happens to the body and spirit, hour by hour, as it approaches death.

Death of an Ordinary Man is an unstinting account of death by cancer, a reportage into the experience of caring, an exploration of the structural conditions of dying in the UK, and most importantly a testament to David’s life, that of an ordinary man.

Unflinching and profoundly moving, Sarah Perry confronts the taboo surrounding death and how the saddest thing she has ever seen is also the best thing she's ever done.

Episode Two
As concern for David's health grows, Rob persuades him to see a doctor.

Reader: Louise Brealey
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m002l34r)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m002l34t)
Call You and Yours - How has your social life changed?

On this week's Call You and Yours we're asking: How has your social life changed?

Its a challenging time for pubs and restaurants. Social habits have changed. People aren't going to the pub like they used to and eating out has become a once in a while treat for many. Online streaming and take-aways are popular. Sports and leisure activities are growing. And we've seen the rise of the 'experience economy' with consumers prioritising spending on events and experiences rather than goods.

So how has your social life changed?

Our phones lines open at 11am, the number to call is 03700 100 444.

You can email us at youandyours@bbc.co.uk

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER; CATHERINE EARLAM


TUE 12:57 Weather (m002l34w)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m002l34y)
Survivors quit grooming gangs advisory panel

Two survivors have quit the panel advising the grooming gangs inquiry, accusing the government of 'gaslighting' them over whether it will deal with the ethnicity of perpetrators. Plus, the autistic volunteer terminated by Waitrose after asking for paid work, and the woman who played the clarinet while undergoing brain surgery for Parkinsons.


TUE 13:45 The History Podcast (m002l45x)
The House at Number 48

2. The Secret Suitcase

After the death of his enigmatic and distant father, Antony Easton finally gets to go through his Dad's secret suitcase: "This was his life," Antony says. As he forensically trawls through its contents, Antony discovers a series of clues which are about to change his life forever. And, after decades, a woman from Antony's childhood gets in touch. For her, time is running out. She says she must see him one last time...

The House at Number 48 is presented by Charlie Northcott.
The series producer is Jim Frank.
Sound design and mixing by Tom Brignell.
The Editor is Matt Willis.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m002l350)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001dxdf)
monday

A new drama by award-winning writer/director debbie tucker green. Set over one day, four lives cross paths revealing aspects of themselves, events of the day and four different accounts of what they did and saw.

Mum ..... Cherrelle Skeete
Dad ..... Don Gilét
Son ..... Hayden McLean
Woman/Barista ..... Maddy Hill
Piercer/Ms Nexton ..... Manjinder Virk
Mr James ..... Jonathan Forbes

Written and directed by debbie tucker green
Produced by Toby Swift

debbie tucker green's last original radio drama, lament, won the gold award for 'Best Fictional Storytelling' in the ARIAS.


TUE 15:00 History's Heroes (m002l352)
History's Toughest Heroes

Robert Smalls: Last Chance for Freedom

For an enslaved man like Robert Smalls during the American Civil War, there was only way out of Charleston: through the harbour and past hostile Confederate forts. He just needed a ship...

In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on the edge.

Robert Smalls was born a slave in the American South. His one chance at escape and freedom hung on a key act of bravery on a single night. He’d have to sail right under the noses and massive cannons of the Confederate ships and forts . If he hoped to survive with his fellow fleeing slaves, he’d have to be bold, be a great actor, don a cunning disguise and have nerves of steel to pull it off.

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producer: Michael LaPointe
Development Producer: Georgina Leslie
Executive Producer: Paul Smith
Written by Imogen Robertson
Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts


TUE 15:30 Heart and Soul (w3ct6vpg)
Searching for hope as a hostage in Gaza

After two long years President Trump has announced a ceasefire agreement which should see the remaining hostages returned home in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.

How have the families of Israeli hostages and their loved ones, held captive in dark tunnels for hundreds of days, managed to hold onto hope? Do people deepen their faith during periods of immense suffering, or turn away from religion?

For this edition of Heart and Soul, Naomi Scherbel-Ball explores how, two years on since the October 7th attacks, hostages and their families see their lives and their faith.

Many of those held hostage in Gaza come from the kibbutzim, largely secular communities that border Gaza, or were taken from the Nova music festival. Some of those released have spoken about reconnecting with their Jewish faith, with one female hostage even translating her prayers into Arabic so she would be allowed to continue to pray by her captors. Others speak of the strength they found in their family, the kibbutzim movement and community.

65-year-old American-Israeli Keith Siegel, who was kidnapped with his wife Aviva, explains how his connection to Judaism deepened during nearly 500 days in captivity. On his release, his daughter asked what he would like for their first family shabbat meal together after nearly 500 days. “What I want most is a kippah and a kiddush cup”, he answered, referring to the head covering worn by observant Jewish men and the symbolic cup that is held during the Friday night blessing in Judaism. Now back with his family in Israel, he says his heart is not whole until the remaining hostages return.

Produced and Presented by Naomi Scherbel-Ball
Executive Producer: Rajeev Gupta
Editor: Chloe Walker


TUE 16:00 Artworks (m002l355)
When Kevin Met Sadie

At the beginning of the Troubles, an author called Joan Lingard decided to write a series of novels for young people about a Catholic boy named Kevin and a Protestant girl called Sadie. Set initially in 1970s Belfast, the stories were some of the first written for young people about the conflict in Northern Ireland. BBC Ireland Correspondent Chris Page first read them as a boy and they’ve stayed with him ever since. He hears from generations of readers in Northern Ireland about how the novels shaped their understanding of the place they were from.

He starts in Bangor, near where he grew up, with his friend Ann-Marie Foster who first read the novels in the 1970s. Lingard’s eldest daughter Kersten England tells him how Joan Lingard’s childhood inspired the novels and about how an unlikely visitor shaped their first pages. Writer Jan Carson sits down with Chris in front of Lingard’s manuscripts held at the Linen Hall Library in central Belfast to explore Lingard's continued influence on writers in Northern Ireland.

Chris follows in the footsteps of Kevin and Sadie, walking down the towpath by the River Lagan – a place where the characters retreat. He meets Dr Kevin de Ornellas, Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at Ulster University, to discuss Lingard’s use of Shakespearean stories. Dr Kevin talks to Chris about what he made of characterisation when he read the novels as a young boy.

For Chris, the novels also gave him the idea that young people could strike out for a better future. He explores how the five novels progress, visiting students at Integrated College Dungannon, who have studied Joan Lingard’s novels in class. They tell him what they think Kevin and Sadie would have made of Northern Ireland today.

Presenter: Chris Page
Reader: Aoife Moss
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Studio Manager: Ilse Lademann

With material from:
Joan Lingard, The Twelfth of July, Hamish Hamilton, 1970
Joan Lingard, Across the Barricades, Hamish Hamilton, 1972
Joan Lingard, Into Exile, Hamish Hamilton, 1973
Joan Lingard, A Proper Place, Hamish Hamilton, 1975

Archive used:
Book Week NI, BBC Radio Ulster, 27 October 2010; Across the Barricades, BBC Radio Ulster, 8 November 1985; Children in Crossfire, BBC TV, 12 March 1974; Treasure Islands, BBC Radio 4, 11 December 1991; Stark Talk, BBC Radio Scotland, 20 October 2011; The Usual Suspects: Joan Lingard, BBC Radio Scotland, 1998; Kevin and Sadie, BBC Radio Ulster, 11 July 2010


TUE 16:30 What's Up Docs? (m002l357)
Should you take naps?

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.

In this episode, they’re asking, what’s the deal with naps? Some people nod off in minutes, while others can’t manage it at all. So why is napping so different from person to person? Is it actually good for us? Is there a “right” way to nap - and should we all be making time for it? Also, they uncover what’s really happening inside the brain when we drift off.

To help answer these questions, they’re joined once again by Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford.
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 Russell Foster
Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar and Jo Rowntree
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Researcher: Grace Revill
Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable
Social Media: Leon Gower
Digital Lead: Richard Berry
Composer: Phoebe McFarlane
Sound Design: Ruth Rainey

At the BBC:
Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 17:00 PM (m002l359)
Third resignation in grooming gang inquiry

Another setback for the grooming gang inquiry, as a third abuse victim resigns from the survivors panel. Also in the programme, we speak to the man who found out by chance he's Himmler's grandson.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002l35c)
Senior politicians add to the mounting scrutiny of Prince Andrew

Senior politicians have added to the mounting scrutiny of Prince Andrew, as the discussion around his connection to the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, has thrown the spotlight on his living arrangements. Also: A third abuse survivor resigns from the Government's grooming gang inquiry, because of concerns about its direction. And the British designer, Grace Wales Bonner, becomes the first black woman to lead design at a major fashion house, after signing as creative director of menswear at Hermes.


TUE 18:30 Mark Steel's in Town (m002l35f)
Series 14

3. Lewisham

Mark Steel visits Lewisham in south London and creates a show for the local audience.

There will also be extended versions of each episode available on BBC sounds.

Written and performed by Mark Steel

Additional material by Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator Caroline Barlow and Katie Baum
Sound Manager Chris Maclean
Producer Carl Cooper

A BBC Studios production for Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m002l35h)
Lying in bed with Amber, George complains that she’s always on her phone. Amber defends herself, that’s how influencing works, but suggests taking George for a drink in Felpersham. George doesn’t want her driving him everywhere though, paying for everything. He thinks they should move away from Ambridge and start afresh. Amber isn’t keen, pointing out that living rent-free with George’s dad is a big reason to stay, comparing Will favourably to her own father. George is luckier than he thinks he is. But when George sees Tracy later he reckons being barred from The Bull is cruel and unnecessary. Tracy corrects him: what he did to Alice was cruel and unnecessary.

At the Stables Alice is distracted, still thinking about the conversation yesterday with Ruairi and Adam. Lilian’s surprised to hear she’s interested in managing Home Farm. She’d expected Alice to take over at the Stables one day. However, Alice is more concerned about Brian’s promises which don’t mean anything. Oliver turns up for a ride, explaining his reason for the last-minute trip to see his daughter. He was inspired by Tracy’s suggestion to celebrate his birthday. Estranged from his two other children Oliver envies how close Brian is to his offspring, especially Alice. Alice suggests wryly that after all the mistakes Brian’s made he’s lucky his children still talk to him.

Later, at The Bull, Lilian suggests to Alice that Brian’s duplicity should come as no surprise and Alice has to agree. Lilian continues that Brian will always do what serves him best.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m002l35k)
Steve Martin and Alison Brown talk bluegrass and banjos

Comedy giant Steve Martin on making new bluegrass music with pioneering banjo player Alison Brown with their new album, Safe, Sensible, and Sane.

Filmmaker Nia DaCosta on her cinematic retelling of Ibsen's classic play, Hedda Gabbler.

Sharon Heal, Director of the Museums Association on British industrial heritage emerging from the cultural shadows.

Senior curator at the Horniman Museum, Heba Abd el Gawad, and Egyptologist Dr Campbell Price on the enduring influence of Egyptology on culture.

Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu


TUE 20:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002lgxg)
Abused for Our Food

When journalist Georgie Styles is sent unpublished videos of farm workers in Britain being ‘treated like animals’, she begins to investigate the dark side of our food system.

She uncovers numerous referrals of labour exploitation, and hears allegations of workers living in moldy caravans, being trafficked, verbally abused and forced to urinate in bottles.

Her year-long investigation goes from farm workers to our favourite supermarkets.

With gripping first-person testimony, unheard recordings and new documents, this File on Four documentary makes you think about the food in front of you in a new way.

Presenter: Georgie Styles
Producers: Georgie Styles and Dan Ashby
Sound Design: Jarek Zaba
Executive Producer: Philip Abrams
Commissioning Editor: Hugh Levinson

Abused For Our Food is a Smoke Trail production for BBC Radio 4 and was produced as part of the Bertha Challenge Fellowship.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m002l35p)
Changes at the Macular Society; Prima Implants

Changes at the Macular Society continue to generate a significant proportion of the contact we get from In Touch listeners. With the consultation exercise now at an end, we're joined by the Society's CEO, Ed Holloway. We discuss a range of issues with Ed, including the rationale for making the changes, what the new organisational structures will look like and what it means for those who provide the charity's services and those who use them.

Another development regarding macular disease is the clinical trial of Prima implants. The trial involves inserting a microchip with the thickness of a human hair under the retina with the aim of restoring a degree of vision. The BBC's Medical Editor Fergus Walsh joins us to explain the technology in more detail and with news of encouraging results.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Fern Lulham
Production Coordinator: Pete Liggins

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


TUE 21:00 How to Play (m002j74d)
Max Richter's Four Seasons Recomposed with Elena Urioste and Odyssey Ensemble

Violinist Elena Urioste and the brand new Odyssey Ensemble invite us to eavesdrop on rehearsals as they prepare to perform one of this century's best loved instrumental works.

German-born British composer Max Richter's moving and atmospheric music has made him one of the most influential of his generation, with over 3 billion streams. He describes his reinterpretation of the Four Seasons as an "off-road trip through Vivaldi's landscape"- using the baroque masterpiece as a blueprint to develop fragments of the melodies and cast them in a new light. From Spring through to Winter, his suite is infectious, dramatic and packed with emotion. Behind the rehearsal room doors, we hear from players as they "unlearn" Vivaldi, bring their own layers of interpretation and try to emulate heat and ice through their instruments.

Featuring violinist/director Elena Urioste, 2nd violinist Steven Crichlow, cellist Sarah Ayoub and double bassist Noah Daniel.

With thanks to Josh Asokan and the rest of Odyssey Ensemble - the UK’s first professional orchestra exclusively dedicated to amplifying real-life stories of asylum-seekers and refugees through orchestral music.

Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio

Photo credit: Odyssey Ensemble/Monika S. Jakubowska


TUE 21:30 The Bottom Line (m002kq32)
Human Resources: Is HR Out of Control?

Once known as “personnel”, Human Resources seems to have become a real centre of power in modern business. No longer just handing out payslips or organising the Christmas party, HR now shapes company culture, influences major decisions and – some say – acts as a kind of corporate police force and judiciary. The profession has doubled in size over the past two decades and grown in authority. How did it rise so fast and what does its growing influence mean for the workplace? Evan Davis and guests discuss how HR seemingly took control of the corporate agenda and ask whether company bosses have delegated too much power to a profession that comes with its own code of values and priorities.

Guests:
Neil Morrison, HR Director, Severn Trent
Nicole Whittaker, Associate Director of HR Consultancy, Peninsula
Pamela Dow, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Civic Future

Production team:
Presenter: Evan Davis
Producer: Sally Abrahams
Production Co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
Sound: Pat Sissons and Duncan Hannant
Editor: Matt Willis


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m002l35r)
Pressure mounts on Prince Andrew over rent deal

Prince Andrew's living arrangements are being scrutinised as controversy continues over his connections to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A Democrat tells us her committee in the US House of Representatives wants to hear more from Prince Andrew about his relationship to Epstein.

We visit the London site of the new proposed Chinese mega-embassy.

And as a White House delegation visits Israel, we examine how fragile the Gaza ceasefire is.


TUE 22:45 North Woods by Daniel Mason (m002l35t)
Episode 2

Daniel Mason's North Woods is a time-spanning novel chronicling four centuries of human and natural history centred on a yellow house and its surrounding woods in Massachusetts, New England.

Through varied narrative styles, the book follows a diverse cast of fascinating inhabitants, from Puritan lovers to a lovelorn painter, a fraudulent mystic, a farmer, a slave hunter, a detectorist, twin sisters, a crime reporter. It even includes the stories of panthers and beetles, whilst exploring themes of memory, fate, and the interconnectedness of life with the environment.

The novel also incorporates historical documents and diverse literary formats to create a genre-defying tapestry of stories and music within the same location.

Read by
Hannah Traylen &
Daniel Weyman

Abridged by Lucy Ellis

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:00 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (m0021x2x)
Series 10

Tacitus

Tacitus is the great historian of imperial Rome. His writing is beautiful, unsettling, extraordinarily persuasive. We know many of his likes and dislikes about people and politics, but facts about his personal life? Not so much.

His memoir of Agricola tells us much fascinating detail about Roman Britain: that it's an island (the Roman fleet sailed all the way round, just to check), that it's very close to Spain (with only Ireland in between); that invading Anglesey was a great victory for the Romans. He notes that it rains a lot, but omits to mention the Druids. He is also, he says, dedicated to writing impartially. Natalie may disagree. Who needs evidence when you have Tacitus' persuasive prose? It's not as if we can cross-check, because so little of the written record of the time survives to us. Natalie's guest, (modern) historian Dan Snow, finds this hard to fathom. Her other guest, Professor Llewelyn Morgan, knows it's unwise to lament the lost work. We should value what remains and hope that some new bits of Tacitus may appear in the future.

And it turns out that by boat, Britain IS actually close to Spain. Travelling overland was hard going in Tacitus' day, so compared to that, the sea journey to Spain was easy.

Rock star mythologist’ and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed with the ancient world. Here she explores key stories from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They might be biographical, topographical, mythological or epic, but they are always hilarious, magical and tragic, mystifying and revelatory. And they tell us more about ourselves now than seems possible of stories from a couple of thousand years ago.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002l35x)
Sean Curran report as the Conservatives question the Government about the inquiry into the rape gangs scandal.

WEDNESDAY 22 OCTOBER 2025

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m002l35z)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 00:30 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry (m002l34n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002l361)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002l363)
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 (m002l365)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002l367)
Susan Hulme reports as MPs debate the controversy over the process for setting up the inquiry into grooming gangs.


WED 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002l369)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002l36c)
The Art of Flying a Kite

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Saarah Hamayun

In a small village in South Asia, a young Afghan boy once taught me how to make a kite with a plastic bag, two sticks and some string. He then spent the evening teaching me how to make it fly. I ran and leapt and threw it into the air and hung it off the wall and then jumped some more but I couldn’t even get it a metre off the ground; I passed it to him and with a flick of his wrist he skilfully raised the kite until it was just a speck in the dusky sky. I stood watching him guide the kite as it danced on the breeze, the horizon now alive with colourful, rustling tissue-paper kites and the laughter of children rising through the evening air.

There is an ancient wisdom in life on the Eastern side of the world, where the sense of urgency can be as distant as the highest kite in the sky. Here in contrast, we may struggle to find the time for everything and everyone. We make plans and write lists as if God has granted us the certainty of tomorrow. Too often, we forget to pause.

There, I found a slower movement of time, a pace in which I can catch up with myself, a place where I no longer neglect myself. The world even seems to breathe slower, and I begin to match its rhythm, as the car twists around the bends of the mountain road and my head is in a haze, my eyelids heavy from travel, even though I can’t bear to miss the view. But my mind and body are at ease, knowing they have time to recharge, a moment away from all the distractions and excess.

I pray we each give ourselves time to recharge, to listen to our body when it whispers for rest because in the slowing, something sacred happens - the water clears, the heart steadies. May we learn that stillness is not a bad thing, it is healing, and it is renewal.

Amen


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m002l36f)
22/10/25 Water Grid, Perry Pears, Sugar Beet Prices

It's a familiar idea that batteries store electricity and now a new European project, called Water Grid, is encouraging farmers to create ponds as 'water batteries' for storing rainwater, to draw on in times of drought. Researchers think they could even be used to top up rivers. The Water Grid project will run across 13 European countries, and the 22 partners involved are being coordinated by the Westcountry Rivers Trust.

We visit the National Perry Pear Collection in Gloucestershire, as it's the season for pressing fruit to make perry. Thecollection has just won an award from the Campaign for Real Ale and Cider.

The sugar beet campaign, or harvest, is underway but farmers are looking ahead to lower prices next year.

Presenter: Anna Hill
Producer: Sarah Swadling


WED 06:00 Today (m002l3cy)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Life Changing (m002l3d0)
A traumatised veteran’s unlikely saviour

Like so many who serve, Falklands veteran Geoff Stear took trauma away with him - in his case a very particular reaction to the smell of meat. It was so powerful and debilitating that it made his life almost impossible, leading him to injure himself and endanger others as he tried to get away from the perceived danger. On several occasions it left him hospitalised – once with a broken neck - with no recollection of how he had got there. His life hit rock-bottom, until a chance meeting with a stranger changed everything.

In this heartwarming episode, Geoff introduces Dr Sian Williams to his unlikely saviour Charlie, whose capacity to intervene when danger threatens has given Geoff back his freedom and sense of worth.

Producer: Tom Alban


WED 09:30 The History Podcast (m002kt88)
The Magnificent O'Connors

4. The Rise and Fall of Jimmy O'Connor

The fortunes of the O’Connors flip almost overnight. Nemone is no longer allowed to practice law, even after appealing to the highest authority, the Lord Chancellor. Meanwhile Jimmy’s confrontational style of writing attracts the attention of the BBC, landing him several prime-time TV plays. All the while Jimmy’s conviction is a constant shadow in their marriage.

Meanwhile, in the present, the family continue to investigate the case. They uncover brand new documents that have never been seen before. Could these hold the key to getting Jimmy’s conviction overturned?

Presenter: Ragnar O’Connor
Producer: Emily Esson, Victoria McArthur
Research: Elizabeth Ann Duffy, Louise Yeoman
Script Assistant and Additional Research: Marisha Currie
Script Writers: Emily Esson, Jack Kibble-White
Original Music: Lomond Campbell
Theme Music: Barry Jackson
Addition mixing and sound effects: Charlie McPhee, Kayleigh Raphel
Story Consultant: Jack Kibble-White
Script Editor: Graham Russell
Executive Editor: Gillian Wheelan
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

A BBC Audio Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

Thanks to Cheryl Field, Richard Field and Kirsty Williams


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002l3d2)
The Nocebo effect, Women sports photographers, Parental involvement in family courts

We’ve heard about the placebo effect, when belief in a treatment makes us feel better, but what do you know about the nocebo effect? It’s when our negative expectations of a treatment, medicine or procedure - or even mistrust of our health care services - can actually make us feel worse. And it’s a growing area of scientific research. Professor Giuliana Mazzoni from the Department of Psychodynamics and Clinical Psychology at the University of Rome and Dr Annabel Sowemimo, NHS Consultant in Sexual & Reproductive Health tell us more.

A landmark change to the Family Courts has been announced today - the court will no longer work on the presumption that having contact with both parents is in the best interest of the child. Domestic abuse campaigners have said the move will save children's lives. Nuala McGovern talks to Claire Throssel MBE, one of the campaigners who has driven this change. In October 2014, her two sons, Jack, who was 12, and Paul, who was nine, were deliberately killed by their father. He had been awarded five hours weekly access to the boys despite Claire's warnings that he was a danger to them.

Earlier this month, for the first time, every match across England’s top two tiers of women’s football was photographed exclusively by female photographers. So how important is it that breakthrough moments in women's sport are captured and told through the eyes of women? We speak to Eileen Langsley, a pioneering sports photographer who has captured moments from some of the world’s biggest sporting events over the last five decades, and Morgan Harlow, who was part of the all-female photography team for the Women's Super League.

Long queues for the toilets are something women are very used to, whilst often watching the men dash in and out quickly. We speak to two women who are trying to resolve this issue, Amber Probyn and Hazel McShane, who have invented flat packed ‘female urinals’. They have already been deployed at Glastonbury and the London Marathon. They've just secured almost £1m investment, enabling them to take their invention around the world.


WED 10:55 A Carnival of Animals (m002ktsr)
The Eel

In this episode, Katherine Rundell introduces one of the ocean’s most mysterious creatures: the eel. At 19, Sigmund Freud dissected hundreds in search of their reproductive organs - a futile mission, as we now know European eels only develop them when they begin their long journey to the Sargasso Sea to spawn. Their lifecycle remains one of nature’s great enigmas: after hatching, young eels travel 6,500 kilometres to live in European rivers for decades before returning to the ocean to reproduce.

There are over a thousand species of eel, many with striking appearances - from the fangtooth moray with its vivid yellow head to the pelican eel with its enormous, gaping mouth. But the most urgent mystery is their rapid decline. Once common, eels are now critically endangered, with populations plummeting due to habitat loss, climate change, and overfishing.

Written and presented by Katherine Rundell
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan


WED 11:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002lgxg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]


WED 11:40 This Week in History (m002l3d4)
October 20th - October 26th

Fascinating, surprising and eye-opening stories from the past, brought to life.

This week: 20th October to 26th October

- 25th October, 1400 - The death of the 'Father of English Poetry', Geoffrey Chaucer.
- 21st October, 1805 - The Battle of Trafalgar: a British naval victory that would shape the nation's imperial future and identity.
- 21st October, 1966 - A colliery spoil tip collapses in the village of Aberfan, South Wales, engulfing a school and killing 144 people, 116 of them children.

Presented by Ron Brown and Jane Steel.
Producers: Carys John and Sofie Vilcins.


WED 11:45 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry (m002l3d6)
3. The diagnosis

"Now I understand there are no ordinary lives – that every death is the end of a single event in time’s history: an event so improbable as to be miraculous, and irreplaceable in every particular."

Booker Prize-longlisted author Sarah Perry's father-in-law, David, died at home nine days after a cancer diagnosis having previously been in good health. The speed of his illness outstripped that of the NHS and social care, so the majority of nursing fell to Sarah and her husband. They witnessed what happens to the body and spirit, hour by hour, as it approaches death.

Death of an Ordinary Man is an unstinting account of death by cancer, a reportage into the experience of caring, an exploration of the structural conditions of dying in the UK, and most importantly a testament to David’s life, that of an ordinary man.

Unflinching and profoundly moving, Sarah Perry confronts the taboo surrounding death and how the saddest thing she has ever seen is also the best thing she's ever done.

Episode Three
David's health continues to deteriorate as he finally receives a diagnosis.

Reader: Louise Brealey
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:00 News Summary (m002l3d8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m002l3db)
Inflation, Removals, Payphones and William Morris

We take a look at inflation figures after the rate unexpectedly holds steady at 3.8%. The rise in food and non-alcoholic drinks prices has slowed for the first time since May last year, but people tell us they're still feeling it at the shops.

Removal firms are asking the government to ban the practice of people who are buying houses, exchanging contracts and completing the sale, on the day they move in.

Nearly a hundred and thirty years after the death of British designer, William Morris, his colourful designs suddenly seem to have gone viral? What is his enduring appeal?

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: HELEN LEDWICK


WED 12:57 Weather (m002l3dd)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m002l3dg)
PMQs: Starmer defends grooming gangs inquiry

The PM says the inquiry will not be watered down and will examine the 'ethnicity and religion of the offenders'. Kemi Badenoch echoes victims' criticism calling it a 'cover up'. We're joined by Labour MP and abuse survivor Natalie Fleet. Plus, an adviser to Vladimir Putin, and exiled Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, on the Ukraine war.


WED 13:45 The History Podcast (m002l45z)
The House at Number 48

3. The Eisners

Antony Easton begins to investigate his family's history. What he finds astonishes him: his relatives were owners of a huge steel empire worth billions today. But what has happened to this family fortune?

The House at Number 48 is presented by Charlie Northcott.
The series producer is Jim Frank.
Sound design and mixing by Tom Brignell.
The Editor is Matt Willis.


WED 14:00 The Archers (m002l35h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002l3dj)
Murder in Aland

Episode 4

In Episode 4, the truth about the murders - and Astrid’s dark secret - unravels in a deadly game of espionage. As the Baltic crisis peaks, Pekka discovers the shocking betrayal that changes everything - and faces the lethal consequences of love, trust, and lies.

Cast:
Pekka ..... Pelle Heikkilä
Astrid ..... Laura Malmivaara
Andrei ..... Pääru Oja
Linn ..... Satu-Tuuli Karhu
Birthe ..... Anna Victoria Erikkson
Fagerudd ..... Jaana Saarinen

Other parts played by Anna Airola, Thomas Dellinger, Asta Sveholm, Akseli Kouki, Riitta Havukainen, Mikko Kouki, Kari-Pekka Toivonen, Sanna Stellan, Pihla Penttinen

Created by: Suomen Podcastmedia and Hannu-Pekka Komonen
Written by Satu Rasila, Akseli Kouki and Mikko Kouki

Sound Design - Samuli Welin and Steve Bond
Producers - Alex Hollands and Jenni Kaunisto
Director - Mikko Kouki

Recorded in Helsinki, in Finnish and English
A Goldhawk production for YLE Finland and BBC Radio 4


WED 15:00 Money Box (m002l3dl)
Money Box Live: First-Time Buyers

For some it's the dream, for others it's the plan, for most it's an effort. On this programme we look at buying a first home. It's rarely easy but plenty of people are making the jump. The property site Zoopla says first time buyers accounted for 40% of sales in the first half of the year.

But the picture can be so different depending on where you live and how much family support you can tap into. We'll hear from those who've just bought as well as others struggling to make it work because their salaries are out of step with prices.

Felicity Hannah is joined by Richard Donnell who heads the research and insights team at the property website Zoopla and Jane King a mortgage adviser at the firm, Ash Ridge.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producers: James Graham
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson
(This episode was first broadcast at 3pm on Radio 4 on Wednesday the 22nd October 2025).


WED 15:30 The Artificial Human (m002l3dn)
Did AI Fuel the Charlie Kirk Rumour Mill

Aleks & Kevin explore how people turned to Ai to solve Charlie Kirk's murder, enhancing grainy CCTV pictures or asking chatbots to help them investigate, but did it help or hinder?

They're joined by Lauren Fichten and Julia Ingram from US broadcaster CBS; they watched in real time as the Ai generated content began to trickle in after the shooting finally reaching a frenzy of activity. They then turn to deep fake and misinformation expert Henry Ajder to understand the motivations of those so desperate for information after such events that they turn to Ai to fill in the blanks.

Presenters: Aleks Krotoski & Kevin Fong
Production team: Elizabeth Ann Duffy, Rachael O'Neill and Peter McManus
Sound: Laura Hay


WED 16:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002l3dq)
The Prince Andrew Crisis

No more Duke of York, no more Order of the Garter. But he is still Prince Andrew. And he is still the King's brother.

This week, David Yelland and Simon Lewis look at how Buckingham Palace is trying to distance the Royal Family from the constant slew of damaging headlines. But many questions remain about the way it's being handled.

Why was Prince Andrew allowed to sound like he was giving up his titles voluntarily, in a statement that may be argued to show little contrition, focussing instead on his innocence? If it was a decision based on short-term PR pain, has it backfired spectacularly?

Buckingham Palace has asked the public to look at the King's Royal work rather than the scandals involving his brother. But if you're having to ask, have you already lost the argument?

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


WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002l3ds)
Reporting on the Prince Andrew scandal, 'slow journalism' and how AI is influencing how we consume news

Ros Atkins talks to Paul Salopek the journalist who’s walking around the world in search of stories. We catch up with him in Alaska.
We’ll hear about new research on how AI is influencing how we consume news - and what impact that is having on the information we trust - with Luke Tryl, from the think tank More in Common, and Niamh Burns, senior analyst in Tech and Media at Enders Analysis.
And how have the media reported the Prince Andrew scandal with royal biographer Robert Hardman, broadcaster Simon McCoy and royal correspondent Emily Andrews.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Content Producer: Lucy Wai


WED 17:00 PM (m002l3dv)
Migrant deported to France returns to UK in small boat

A migrant who was deported to France under the one in one out agreement has returned to the UK on a small boat. Also, Piers Morgan tells PM woke is dead.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002l3dx)
A second candidate to chair the grooming gang inquiry has withdrawn

The government's beleaguered inquiry into grooming gangs has run into further difficulty with the final significant candidate to chair it ruling himself out, and a fourth survivor stepping down from the panel. Also: A migrant has returned to the UK on a small boat after being removed to France under the "one in, one out" scheme. And the director of the Louvre blames under-investment in equipment for weaknesses in the museum's security.


WED 18:30 Carbon Lifeforms (m002l3dz)
The Fashion Footprint

Jon Long and Dr Tara Shine join forces for more of the hybrid comedy-magazine show that emits jokes and facts that (carbon) capture all things climate to demystify the issues and offer advice on how to make positive choices in our everyday lives.

This week - The Fashion Footprint with special guests Bo Carter and Phoebe English.

In previous episodes we’ve covered Food, Travel and Christmas, so what’s next? Well, it turns out that our previous episodes did not solve the climate crisis on their own. So, for this series, we will be looking at the topics of The Carbon Cost of Tech, The Internet, and AI, Waste Management and Recycling, and The Fashion Footprint.

Expect new in-studio guests and on-location experts, more games, more practical advice, more cold hard stats, and the return of Greenwash of the Week to shout out the heroes and villains of the climate crisis.

Presenters: Jon Long and Dr Tara Shine
Guests: Bo Carter and Phoebe English
Producer: Laura Grimshaw
Executive Producer: Jon Holmes
Live Sound: Jerry Peal
Post-production Sound: Tony Churnside

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m002l3f1)
Adam and Ruairi discuss Brian’s imminent return, before Ruairi breaks off with news about the castle he sourced for Peggy’s legacy holiday: there’s a huge discount if they bring forward their booking to three-and-a-half weeks’ time. Adam’s clear, he’s not taking Xander out of school and he’s pretty sure others will feel the same way. Kate though is all for it when she phones Alice, only for Alice to rebuff her as Adam predicted. Kate then reminds Alice she’s coming to dinner tonight, with Adam and Ruairi. At dinner Ruairi’s bullish about the holiday going ahead, before bringing up Brian’s promises to him and Alice. Kate assumed Adam and Ruairi were in charge now, with Alice admitting her disappointment about that. Adam regards Ruairi as just an apprentice, while Kate wants to be considered for a management role too, believing Brian should talk to all of them. Join the back of the queue, Adam suggests.

Esme tells David she still hasn’t cracked her dad’s computer, and without a Will she’s struggling to make progress. David thinks one of the cows needs a vet, suggesting Alistair could do it as a favour. At least Esme’s cleaned the kitchen and organised her father’s papers, though. To David’s surprise Esme praises Josh for being nice the other day, when she was upset. She then suggests solving her financial problems by selling the cows to David, but he lets her down gently. Esme still doesn’t know how she’ll pay for the funeral, suggesting bleakly that it feels like she’s on a boat that’s sinking.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m002l3f3)
John Grisham on his new thriller, The Widow

Bestselling thriller writer John Grisham on his latest book, The Widow, in which a smalltown lawyer from Virginia finds himself accused of a serious crime after he develops a professional relationship with a wealthy woman who may not be all that she seems.

We hear from writer-director Kelly Reichardt and from actor Josh O'Connor who plays an art thief in her latest film The Mastermind.

Dutch art historian and detective Arthur Brand gives an update on the real-life robbery of France's crown jewels from The Louvre in Paris at the weekend, and tells us about the broader spate of museum thefts across Europe right now.

And as arts organisations come together in Glasgow for a State of the Nation culture summit, we ask why now, and what might it achieve?

Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan


WED 20:00 AntiSocial (m002ks5h)
Graffiti, church, and Western civilisation

An art exhibition in Canterbury Cathedral has enraged traditionalists who believe that it doesn’t fit with the holy site’s beauty or the church’s mission. The works consist of a set of temporary vinyl stickers with questions like “Why did you create hate when love is by far more powerful?” and “Does our struggle mean anything?” The questions for God were devised after artist Alex Vellis and curator Jacquiline Creswell consulted a series of marginalised groups.
The organisers say the stickers were tested to make sure they did not damage the cathedral’s ancient walls. But they have faced criticism on artistic grounds and questions about the appropriateness of the art and the values behind it.
Among the outraged were Vice President JD Vance, who called the stickers “ugly”, and Elon Musk, who called it an affront to western civilisation
They in turn were faced with supporters of the exhibition who argued it reflected the church’s mission and spread a message of inclusiveness and tolerance.
Art has always been intrinsically tied to religion and the Anglican Church, so how far back does this culture war battle really go – and why did political leaders in America jump into the controversy?
Presenter: Adam Fleming
Production team: Natasha Fernandes, Ellie House, Mike Wendling
Studio manager: Andy Mills
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Editor: Richard Vadon


WED 20:45 Superhead (m00237vr)
Episode 3 - Needs Improvement

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

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

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

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

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


WED 21:00 The Life Scientific (m002l34g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 All in the Mind (m002l34j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m002l3f6)
Migrant removed to France returns to UK on small boat

The migrant was removed to France under the "one in, one out" scheme less than a month ago, BBC News understands. We hear what life is like in France for some of those returned there.

Also on the programme: Good news for the lowest paid as another record rise to the national living wage is announced. But could there be unforeseen consequences?

And former Clinton staffer and writer for The West Wing TV programme, Eli Attie, gives his reaction to news that President Trump is building a new ballroom on the East Wing of the White House.


WED 22:45 North Woods by Daniel Mason (m002l3f8)
Episode 3

Daniel Mason's North Woods is a time-spanning novel chronicling four centuries of human and natural history centred on a yellow house and its surrounding woods in Massachusetts, New England.

Through varied narrative styles, the book follows a diverse cast of fascinating inhabitants, from Puritan lovers to a lovelorn painter, a fraudulent mystic, a farmer, a slave hunter, a detectorist, twin sisters, a crime reporter. It even includes the stories of panthers and beetles, whilst exploring themes of memory, fate, and the interconnectedness of life with the environment.

The novel also incorporates historical documents and diverse literary formats to create a genre-defying tapestry of stories and music within the same location.

Read by
Hannah Traylen &
Daniel Weyman

Abridged by Lucy Ellis

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:00 Tom & Lauren Are Going OOT (m00224kr)
Series 1

2. Puppy Love

Tom and Lauren take care of a puppy for a friend. Lauren should go to her Nanna Doreen’s surprise 90th birthday party but is finding it hard to leave the puppy alone at home. Neil is concerned that Barbara can sense the puppy and it’s causing her to smash his china. Tom would prefer to be at the match instead of surrounded by Nanna Doreen’s flirtatious friends.

Special guest appearance by Julian Clary as Neil.

Cast:
TOM MACHELL as Tom
LAUREN PATTISON as Lauren
JULIAN CLARY as Neil

Writers: Tom Machell & Lauren Pattison
Director: Katharine Armitage
Recording Engineer: Tom Glenwright
Sound Design: Philip Quinton
Theme Music: Scrannabis
Producers: Maria Caruana Galizia & Zahra Zomorrodian

A Candle & Bell production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:15 Humanwatch (m002l3fb)
2. Hobbies, Hotels & Hot Dates

The team look at human hobbies and wonder, what is the point?
Gareth goes on a date, purely for research purposes, and roving reporter Phil is back at the Swindon nest to observe his favourite family...from a safe and morally appropriate distance.

Written and presented by Marjolein Robertson and Gareth Waugh

With Phil Ellis and Katia Kvinge

Additional voice by Kai Humphries

Produced by Lauren Mackay

Sound by Fraser Jackson

Photographer: Chris Quilietti



A BBC Scotland production for Radio 4.


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002l3fd)
Susan Hulme reports on Prime Minister's Questions - and more. The Liberal Democrat leader calls for Prince Andrew to face questions from MPs, peers discuss the details of a Bill to legalise assisted dying and the former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner delivers her resignation statement.

THURSDAY 23 OCTOBER 2025

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m002l3fg)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry (m002l3d6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002l3fj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002l3fl)
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 (m002l3fn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002l3fq)
News, views and features on yesterday's stories in Parliament


THU 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002l3fs)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002l3fv)
Pineapple Fields in Maui

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Saarah Hamayun

I once saw a captivating photograph of a pineapple field in Maui, a beautiful island in Hawaii. For a long time after I dreamt of living there and eating papayas for breakfast, wandering through lush forests, and stumbling upon mystical waterfalls.

I imagined that peace would come easily in a place like that - that it would be simpler to feel grounded and content when the world around me was drenched in colour and light. But the truth was, I lived in a humble corner of Bradford, and I wasn’t moving to Maui any time soon. I realised I couldn’t withhold my happiness waiting for some perfect place or perfect life. I had to learn to see the beauty here.

It’s easy to focus on the grey skies, the wail of the sirens and the damp creeping up the old brick walls. But if I look more closely, there’s a lilac evening sky above the terraced houses, the healing smell of toast in the morning, children laughing as they race down the street. The same God who made the waterfalls of Maui made this, too. Perhaps beauty isn’t only found in a tropical paradise, but in the patience to notice what’s already around us. Even the greyest day holds a trace of gold if you pause long enough to see it.

I pray that our hearts learn to notice beauty even in seemingly mundane places, to meet the morning not with hurry, but with wonder. Let it remind you, when we look up at the morning sky, that this same beauty stretches above us all, wherever we may be.

And may the seemingly ordinary moments, the kettle boiling, the sound of rain, footsteps in the hallway, remind us that life is holy, even when it feels unremarkable.

Amen


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m002l3fx)
23/10/25 Environmental regulation in Northern Ireland. Malting barley for beer. Food system report

Northern Ireland needs a new independent environmental regulator, properly staffed and financially resourced to tackle the many challenges it will face. That’s one of the recommendations of a comprehensive review of the country’s environmental governance which its authors describe as a ‘call to action’. The review was prompted by a number of environmental concerns including extensive and repeated blooms of blue-green algae in Lough Neagh which supplies forty percent of drinking water. The report also said there was “starkly lacking clarity “ over roles, responsibilities and accountability. We speak to Dr Viviane Gravey from Queen’s University in Belfast who chaired the review panel.

We’re talking about beer and cider all this week on Farming Today and one crucial part of beer is malting barley. We visit a maltster in the heart of Norfolk

A new report says the UK must radically transform the way it produces and consumes food if it is to avoid a cycle of escalating crises. The authors say action is needed on a scale not seen since the Second World War to safeguard food security, protect public health and meet climate targets. The Roadmap for Resilience: A UK Food Plan for 2050 argues that urgent reform is essential to reboot the economy, reduce pressure on the NHS and prevent repeated shocks from rising food prices, supply chain disruption and climate disasters.

Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


THU 06:00 Today (m002l3gy)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (b07vs3v1)
Zeno's Paradoxes

After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects he and his experts have tackled. In this third of his choices, we hear Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Greek philosophy.

Their topic is Zeno of Elea, a pre-Socratic philosopher from c490-430 BC whose paradoxes were described by Bertrand Russell as "immeasurably subtle and profound." The best known argue against motion, such as that of an arrow in flight which is at a series of different points but moving at none of them, or that of Achilles who, despite being the faster runner, will never catch up with a tortoise with a head start. Aristotle and Aquinas engaged with these, as did Russell, yet it is still debatable whether Zeno's Paradoxes have been resolved.

With

Marcus du Sautoy
Professor of Mathematics and Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford

Barbara Sattler
Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews

and

James Warren
Reader in Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge

Producer: Simon Tillotson
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Production

Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Melvyn Bragg and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world


THU 09:45 Strong Message Here (m002l3h1)
In Hindsight (with Ria Lina and Tim Shipman)

This week, Armando is joined again by comedian Ria Lina, and Political Editor of The Spectator, Tim Shipman.

We're looking back at looking back. In a week where a scandal-hit Prince renounces his titles and the Chinese spy case continues to pose questions of language for the government, people's previous decisions are being put under the spotlight, we look at how public figures respond to the repercussions of their past. Of course, hindsight is 20:20.

Speaking of 2020, there's also chat about the covid inquiry, and whether we're getting the results we need, or just lurid detail?

Got a strong message for Armando? Email us on strongmessagehere@bbc.co.uk

Sound editing: Chris Maclean
Production Coordinator: Jodie Charman
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Recorded at The Sound Company

Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios production for Radio 4.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002l3h3)
Wes Streeting, Virginia Giuffre memoir, Pacific Ocean rowers

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting joins Anita Rani to announce new government policy on women’s health.

Anita speaks to Amy Wallace, the writer and journalist who worked with Virginia Giuffre on her posthumously published memoir Nobody’s Girl. After two years of conversations, emails and extensive fact-checking, the book lays bare the life-wrecking impact of power, corruption and industrial-scale sex abuse, but it is also the story of how a young woman survived and became an advocate for sex trafficking survivors and continued to work toward justice.

The Government have announced that the SEND White Paper expected this autumn is delayed until next year. BBC Education reporter Kate McGough joins Anita to tell us more.

After 165 days at sea, two British women have just made history becoming the first pair to row non-stop and unsupported across the Pacific Ocean, from South America to Australia. Jess Rowe, 28, and Miriam Payne, 25, set off from Lima in May and arrived in Cairns in Australia on Saturday, completing more than 8,000 miles in their nine-metre boat, Velocity. Along the way they faced storms, broken equipment, and even navigated by the stars when their systems failed - they join Anita to talk about the highs and lows of their Pacific adventure.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Corinna Jones


THU 10:55 A Carnival of Animals (m002ktst)
The Capybara

In this episode, best-selling author Katherine Rundell brings us the capybara - the world’s largest rodent and one of its most unexpectedly charming. Native to South America, capybaras are semi-aquatic animals with eyes and nostrils set high on their heads, allowing them to spend long hours submerged in water to escape the heat. They’re strong swimmers, surprisingly adaptable, and in at least one case, even trainable: a blind farmer in Suriname once taught a rescued capybara to act as his guide.

Capybaras exist in two species. The greater capybara is thriving. In Argentina’s gated community of Nordelta, they’ve returned in large numbers, roaming lawns and tennis courts in what some see as justice for the wetlands that were destroyed to build the development.

But not all capybaras are so fortunate. The lesser capybara is threatened by deforestation, polluted water, and hunting, and is listed as Data Deficient.

Written and presented by Katherine Rundell
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan


THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m002l3h5)
Mark Ronson

Having spent his early years in London, Mark Ronson grew up in Manhattan, began working as a DJ as a teenager and quickly made a name for himself on the New York club scene of the 1990s. He moved into music production and, in 2006, co-wrote and co-produced the Amy Winehouse album Back To Black. The record won five Grammys and Mark Ronson himself scooped the Producer of the Year Award.  Since then, he has released five solo albums and worked with some of the most successful names in pop including Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Queens Of The Stone Age and Paul McCartney. The winner of ten Grammys and two Brits, he added an Academy Award to his list of accolades in 2018 as co-writer of the song Shallow from the film A Star Is Born. He was also Oscar nominated for his work as executive producer, composer and songwriter for the soundtrack to the Barbie movie. More recently he has written a book called Night People, a memoir about his time as a DJ in 90s New York.  

Mark Ronson tells John Wilson about the influence of his music-loving parents, who often threw parties at their north London home when he was a child. He talks about the influence of his stepfather Mick Jones, songwriter, guitarist and producer of the 80s rock band Foreigner, who allowed Mark to experiment with equipment in his home studio in New York and encouraged his early interest in production. He remembers how hearing the 1992 track They Reminisce Over You by Pete Rock and CL Smooth led him to pursue a career as a club DJ and become renowned for the diverse range of music he played in clubs - from soul and hip-hop to classic rock - an eclectic approach which later informed his work as a producer. Mark Ronson also recalls first meeting Amy Winehouse and how they wrote and recorded the songs for her Back To Black album.  

Producer: Edwina Pitman


THU 11:45 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry (m002l3h7)
4. Choices

"Now I understand there are no ordinary lives – that every death is the end of a single event in time’s history: an event so improbable as to be miraculous, and irreplaceable in every particular."

Booker Prize-longlisted author Sarah Perry's father-in-law, David, died at home nine days after a cancer diagnosis having previously been in good health. The speed of his illness outstripped that of the NHS and social care, so the majority of nursing fell to Sarah and her husband. They witnessed what happens to the body and spirit, hour by hour, as it approaches death.

Death of an Ordinary Man is an unstinting account of death by cancer, a reportage into the experience of caring, an exploration of the structural conditions of dying in the UK, and most importantly a testament to David’s life, that of an ordinary man.

Unflinching and profoundly moving, Sarah Perry confronts the taboo surrounding death and how the saddest thing she has ever seen is also the best thing she's ever done.

Episode Four
As illness overtakes him, David faces blunt questions about his end-of-life care wishes.

Reader: Louise Brealey
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:00 News Summary (m002l3h9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 The Bottom Line (m002l3hc)
Introverts: Can Quiet Voices Conquer The Corporate World?

Do you ever feel the world is stacked in favour of the extrovert people – the most gregarious, the most outwardly confident, the perhaps sometimes sharp-elbowed, the loudest? What can natural introverts do to try and level the playing field and create a positive impression? Evan Davis asks Richard Etienne from the Introvert Space, Clare Farthing from South Somerset meet ups and Heather Vernon, co-founder of Woburn Partners.

Produced by Bob Howard.


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002l3hf)
Fake Tans

Listener Julie has been reaching for the fake tan every spring to add a "bit of colour" to her legs, but after much trial and error with foams, lotions and gels, she got in touch with Sliced Bread to ask what is actually IN fake tan? How does it work - and is there a particular kind that might suit her best?

Greg Foot is joined by Consultant Dermatologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester Dr Jean Ayer, as well as Cosmetic Scientist and Science Communicator who runs the blog LabMuffin Dr Michelle Wong, to find out. 

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?

At Sliced Bread, we're hungry for your suggestions so we can keep making fresh batches! 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: KATE HOLDSWORTH AND GREG FOOT


THU 12:57 Weather (m002l3hh)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m002l3hk)
Former paratrooper soldier F found not guilty of Bloody Sunday murders

Former paratrooper soldier F found not guilty of Bloody Sunday murder charges. Analysis and reaction from local MP Colum Eastwood and former head of British Army Lord Dannatt.


THU 13:45 The History Podcast (m002l4ff)
The House at Number 48

4. The Silver Arrow

As the net closes in on the Eisners, Antony's grandfather, Rudolph, has come up with an ingenious plan to save his family and their business empire. Will it work?
And who is this mysterious man who enters the lives of the Eisners? Is he a friend or foe?

The House at Number 48 is presented by Charlie Northcott.
The series producer is Jim Frank.
Sound design and mixing by Tom Brignell.
The Editor is Matt Willis.


THU 14:00 The Archers (m002l3f1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001lrgc)
Leaving (Part 2)

by Tessa Gibbs

A darkly funny family drama about love, loss and legacy - and why doing the right thing can seem like the wrong thing to do.

Part Two
Drew and Isla are still being held by the police.

Catriona ..... Georgie Glen
Isla ..... Anita Vettesse
Drew ..... Robin Laing
Esme ..... Anneika Rose
DS Wallace ..... Kyle Gardiner
Murdo .... Simon Donaldson

Produced/Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane

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


THU 15:00 Ramblings (m002l3hm)
Crime and Punishment in the Peak District

Clare joins writer Kate Morgan on a walk from Monsal Head to Tideswell in the Peak District. Along the way, they explore how the use of gallows and gibbets in public punishment has influenced rural place names. Gibbet Rock, a striking limestone outcrop also called Peter’s Stone for its resemblance to the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, was once used to ‘gibbet’ or display the bodies of executed criminals. Kate tells the story of Anthony Lingard, who was convicted in 1815 of murdering a local woman, Hannah Oliver, and became the last person to be gibbetted at the site.

Kate is currently researching her third book, which will be on this subject. Her previous two books are Murder: The Biography which explores the legal history of the crime of murder in English Law, and The Walnut Tree which looks into the major legal changes affecting women in the 19th and early 20th centuries. (https://amheath.com/authors/kate-morgan)

Map:OS Explorer OL24 The Peak District White Peak Area, Buxton Bakewell, Matlock & Dove Dale
Map Ref: SK185715 for the start of the walk at Monsal Head car park

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m002l228)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Feedback (m002l3hp)
Saturday Live. BBC Sounds website. Jonathan Anderson on This Cultural Life.

Saturday Live is a staple of BBC Radio 4's weekend schedule, and for years it was presented by Reverend Richard Coles and Nikki Bedi. Andrea interviewed Richard as he departed in 2023 when the programme moved to Cardiff. The lead presenter post was covered in the interim by Nikki Bedi with different co-hosts. Now, Adrian Chiles has entered the chat, as the new presenter of Saturday Live. Feedback listeners have been telling us what they think of this change. Andrea Catherwood puts your comments to Colin Paterson, Head of Audio for BBC Wales and the West of England.

There's also been tweaks to how some listeners access BBC Sounds when using a browser, leading to widespread confusion. We've got an answer about the changes from the BBC Sounds team.

Last week Andrea spoke to BBC Political Editor Chris Mason about how the BBC has been covering Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage. We'll hear what you thought of the discussion.

And finally, one listener has nominated John Wilson's interview with Northern Ireland fashion designer Jonathan Anderson, who has recently been appointed Creative Director at French fashion house Christian Dior, for Interview of the Year. As we learned in the interview, it's a far cry from Mid Ulster, where he grew up.

Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Pauline Moore
Assistant Producer: Rebecca Guthrie
Executive Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


THU 16:00 The Briefing Room (m002l3hr)
Is there a crash coming?

Some of the biggest figures in finance, from the CEO of JPMorganChase to the Governor of the Bank of England, have been warning of potential shocks to the global economy.

As excitement continues to build about the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence, the US stock market has boomed, potentially forming a fragile bubble. Meanwhile, recent bankruptcies in America have raised worries that a rapid growth in lending by private companies (so-called shadow banks) might be built on shaky ground - and have invoked memories of the subprime mortgage debacle that kicked off the Great Financial Crisis in 2007. And if that wasn’t enough, the threat that Donald Trump might reignite his tariff-driven trade war still looms over the global economy.

So how worried should we be? David Aaronovitch speaks to the top experts to find out.

Guests:
Katie Martin, markets columnist at the Financial Times
Duncan Weldon, economist and author of Blood and Treasure
Simon French, Chief Economist and Head of Research at investment company Panmure Liberum

Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Nathan Gower, Kirsteen Knight
Editor: Richard Vadon
Programme Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Engineer: Duncan Hannant


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m002l3ht)
Have scientists created a bionic eye?

The 'bionic eye' may make you think of Star Trek’s Geordi La Forge. Now, scientists have restored the ability to read in a group of blind patients with advanced dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). And they’ve done it by implanting a computer chip in the back of their eyes. Professor Francesca Cordeiro, Chair of Ophthalmology at Imperial College London explains how bionic technology might provide future solutions for more people with sight loss.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have come up with a way of extracting hormones from human remains dating as far back as the 1st century AD. Marnie Chesterton speaks to Brenna Hassett, bioarchaeologist at the University of Lancashire to find out how pregnancy testing skeletons could cast new information on human evolution.

In a world of automation and AI, its easy to forget that every day, people around the UK record weather observations which contribute to our understanding of climate science. Marnie meets Met Office volunteer Stephen Burt and climate scientist at the University of Reading, Professor Ed Hawkins to find out more. And science broadcaster Caroline Steel brings us brand new discoveries changing the way we understand the world around us.

If you want to find out more about volunteering to collect rain data, you can email: nationalhydrology@environment-agency.gov.uk. If you’re in Scotland, visit the SEPA website: https://www2.sepa.org.uk/rainfall/GetInvolved

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

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producer(s): Clare Salisbury, Ella Hubber, Jonathan Blackwell, Tim Dodd
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Coordinator: Jana Holesworth


THU 17:00 PM (m002l3hw)
Bloody Sunday soldier found not guilty

The only British soldier ever to be prosecuted over the Bloody Sunday shootings is found not guilty - we hear from Tony Doherty, whose father, Patrick, was killed that day. Plus, the government announces emergency measures to tackle the housebuilding crisis in London - a property developer give his reaction.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002l3hy)
A former paratrooper is cleared of murder on Bloody Sunday

A British Army veteran, known only as Soldier F, has been cleared of murdering two people in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday in 1972. Also: Three metropolitan police officers have been sacked for gross misconduct after featuring in an undercover report by the BBC’s Panorama. And The hosts of Strictly Come Dancing, Tess Daly and Claudia Winkelman, have announced they are to leave the programme at the end of the current series.


THU 18:30 Call Jonathan Pie (p0fsypw8)
6. Women

When Roger warns Pie that he must widen his demographic, Pie decides to dedicate an entire show to “women’s issues”. Pie’s combative and contrary style does not suit the topic and Pie is taught a lesson or two by the female callers. Jules also gets involved by threatening Pie with quite serious bodily harm if he doesn’t shut his “rancid instant-coffee stinking mouth”. Pie is dismayed as he never touches instant coffee.


Jonathan Pie ..... Tom Walker

Jules ..... Lucy Pearman

Sam ..... Aqib Khan

Roger ..... Nick Revell

Voiceovers ..... Bob Sinfield and Rob Curling


Callers ... Ellie Dobing, Sarah Gabriel, Thanyia Moore and Emma Thornett.


Writer ..... Tom Walker

Script Editor ..... Nick Revell

Producers ..... Alison Vernon-Smith
 and Julian Mayers
Production Coordinator ..... Ellie Dobing

Original music composed by Jason Read



Additional music Leighton James House

A Yada-Yada Audio Production.


THU 19:00 The Archers (m002l3j1)
Tracy badgers Oliver into meeting her for lunch at The Bull. But when he gets there Oliver finds that Carly, one of his foster children, is joining him instead. Carly praises Oliver and Caroline for turning her life around, before filling Oliver in on her life since they last met. She mentions two other foster children, before spilling the beans about the original plan for a party. Carly apologises to Tracy, but Oliver thinks his birthday surprise has worked out perfectly.

Adam and Ruairi give Brian a cool reception when he walks into the Eco Office, back from his holiday. Adam is particularly scathing about Ruairi’s lack of experience regarding the management succession issue, while his own impressive qualities have been overlooked. Ruairi objects to this, while Brian claims he was simply trying to cover all bases and make the best decision over who will end up in charge at Home Farm. Adam points out he gave up his job to rescue Brian when he was in crisis, before adding bitterly that he’s never been Brian’s kind of farmer. Ruairi switches subject to the holiday – he needs a decision from Brian by tomorrow. Adam is still against it and says Alice is too. At which point Brian decides he needs to call Alice, but doesn’t get an answer. Later, Brian tells Ruairi that Miranda’s put in an offer for the house at Home Farm. The plan is that he’d move in with her and Ruairi, if that’s what Ruairi wants. But honestly, Ruairi can’t answer that right now.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m002l3j3)
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere - Tom and guests deliver their verdict

Tom Sutcliffe and guests review the Bruce Springsteen film, Deliver Me From Nowhere, which tells the story of his recording of the album Nebraska
Also there's a new book from the late Harper Lee: The Land of Sweet Forever, comprising newly discovered short stories and previously-published essays and magazine pieces. Is it a posthumous intellectual property trawl or does it offer an insight that can increase our appreciation of her undisputed masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird.
And Nick Payne's new play, The Unbelievers has opened at London's Royal Court Theatre. It stars Nicola Walker in the lead role as a mother trying to cope with the disappearance of her 12 year old son.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Reviewers: Christina Newland and Sarfraz Manzoor


THU 20:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002l3dq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Wednesday]


THU 20:15 The Media Show (m002l3ds)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:15 on Wednesday]


THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m002l1zt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


THU 21:45 Strong Message Here (m002l3h1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002l3j5)
Search for new grooming inquiry head will 'take months'

The search is expected to take months after two leading candidates pulled out. We speak to survivor Samantha Walker-Roberts who’ll only support the inquiry if Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips continues in her role.

Also on the programme: A new report concludes support for children with special educational needs in England is fundamentally flawed.

And former judge on Strictly Come Dancing, Dame Arlene Phillips, on whether the show can survive the announced departure of hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.


THU 22:45 North Woods by Daniel Mason (m002l3j7)
Episode 4

Daniel Mason's North Woods is a time-spanning novel chronicling four centuries of human and natural history centred on a yellow house and its surrounding woods in Massachusetts, New England.

Through varied narrative styles, the book follows a diverse cast of fascinating inhabitants, from Puritan lovers to a lovelorn painter, a fraudulent mystic, a farmer, a slave hunter, a detectorist, twin sisters, a crime reporter. It even includes the stories of panthers and beetles, whilst exploring themes of memory, fate, and the interconnectedness of life with the environment.

The novel also incorporates historical documents and diverse literary formats to create a genre-defying tapestry of stories and music within the same location.

Read by
Hannah Traylen &
Daniel Weyman

Abridged by Lucy Ellis

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


THU 23:00 Radical with Amol Rajan (m002l3j9)
ChatGPT and Google: The Tech Billionaire Taking On AI Companies (Matthew Prince)

Artificial Intelligence is fundamentally changing the internet. But Matthew Prince, CEO of cybersecurity giant Cloudflare, thinks there is a way to ensure content creators and publishers earn enough to operate — even as their work feeds AI.

Cloudflare has put up digital firewalls around its clients’ sites, which blocks the bots that copy content to train large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. It is then up to its customers to choose whether to allow those so-called AI “crawlers” to access their sites.

Matthew spoke to Amol ahead of his appearance at the Thomson Reuters Foundation's Trust Conference, about how he hopes his decision will lead to a better deal for publishers as ‘search engines’ become ‘answer engines’ in the era of AI overviews and chatbots.

They also talk about the debate between artists like Sir Elton John and the UK government over plans to exempt technology firms from copyright laws.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has designated Google with strategic market status in general search, which includes AI Overview and AI Mode. But Google says “many of the ideas for interventions that have been raised in this process would inhibit UK innovation and growth, potentially slowing product launches at a time of profound AI-based innovation.” The company also disputes Matthew’s claim that traffic to websites has fallen since the launch of AI Overview.

(00:03:52) How the internet is changing

(00:08:05) How AI is reducing web traffic

(00:11:34) Why it's important to compensate content creators

(00:18:50) AI is a platform change

(00:21:38) How AI could improve content creation

(00:26:29) The story behind Cloudflare

(00:31:42) Why he decided to block AI “crawler” bots

(00:42:33) AI and copyright laws in the UK

(00:45:19) Google’s market power

(00:51:37) Advice for becoming a tech entrepreneur

(00:54:01) Amol’s reflections

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 Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Ricardo McCarthy and Dafydd Evans. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002l3jc)
Sean Curran reports as MPs questions why the government is spending millions of pounds on an empty prison that may never re-open.

FRIDAY 24 OCTOBER 2025

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002l3jf)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 00:30 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry (m002l3h7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002l3jh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002l3jk)
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 (m002l3jm)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002l3jp)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster as a committee of MPs quiz civil servants over the future of the lease on Dartmoor Prison.


FRI 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002l3jr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002l3jt)
A Little Light with Your Coffee?

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Saarah Hamayun

I used to work in a café, and I can remember the winter mornings, I’d catch the early bus through the quiet streets of Bradford, the town still half-asleep. The cold would bite at my bones as I opened up, switching on the lights and waking the coffee machine from its slumber. The divine smell of the coffee would welcome me as I pulled the first shot of espresso.

Soon, the rosy-faced commuters would arrive all carrying their own stories. I saw people on days when they’d just lost their job, or ended a relationship, or finished an exam. And every day, I tried to meet them with a smile. Sometimes I’d write a little message of hope on their cup or gift a blueberry muffin to soften a hard day, or simply open the door to someone who just needed the warmth. I still remember the morning a chap came in before work, he dropped his change and bent to pick it up when his trousers suddenly split right down the seam! We scrambled to find a fleece to spare him the embarrassment, but we all had a good laugh.

I didn’t realise it then, but that tiny café was its own small world; a refuge where a word, a look, or a warming cup of coffee could make all the difference to someone’s day.

Now, in my role at a children’s hospice, I meet families in our Sanctuary – which itself feels like a little refuge nestled in the hospice gardens, I don’t know what burdens they carry when they walk through the door, I just know that I’ll meet them where they are, with compassion and with kindness.

We sometimes think impact belongs to people in powerful places, but we can turn even the quietest corner of the world into a sanctuary.

Every encounter holds the chance to lighten someone’s load, to remind another person that they are seen.

I pray that we bring light to the corners of the world we inhabit where even a smile is a small act of charity. These are the lights that warm the world.

Amen


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002l3jw)
"Anger, dismay and sense of betrayal”. That’s how the SNP described the response of Scottish coastal communities to the allocation of money to Scotland from the UK’s new ‘Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund‘ in parliament yesterday. The £360 million pound fund was first announced back in May and aims to modernise Britain's fishing fleet, enhance workforce skills, and revitalise coastal communities. However Scotland says it's getting less than 8 percent of the fund, despite accounting for more than 60% of the UK’s fishing capacity and producing more than 60% of UK seafood exports.

A project in a tiny corner of Somerset is currently identifying and documenting the rich variety of apple trees around the village of Kingsbury Episcopi. The Kingsbury Pomona project, set up by pomologist or apple expert Liz Copas and cider maker Tim Gray aims to uncover lost apple varieties and help keep the different genetic strains alive.

Farming is a long game, but there aren’t many who’ve been playing it quite as long as David Lightfoot from Cornwall. He started his career with a couple of cows he milked by hand and a few rented fields. He went on to farm for Prince Charles, before he became King, and now as he reaches his hundredth birthday he shares his farming memories.

Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


FRI 06:00 Today (m002l3p5)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m002l22n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Sunday]


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002l3p7)
First mum in space, Tiggy Walker, Recruiting women to Formula 1

50 years ago today - in 1975 - 90% of women in Iceland took part in a nationwide protest over inequality. Instead of going to the office, doing housework or childcare, 25,000 women took to the streets, forcing factories and banks to close. It was known as the 'Women's Day Off' and fifty years on, Iceland still leads the world in gender parity, topping the Global Gender Gap Report for the 16th straight year. Anita Rani is joined by Tatjana Latinović, President of Icelandic Women's Rights Association and on the organising committee of today's strike, and Kristín Ástgeirsdottir, former Women’s Alliance MP and former director of the Icelandic Centre for Gender Equality.

Tiggy Walker was married to the legendary BBC broadcaster Johnnie Walker, for 23 years before his death last year. Johnnie presented his 'Sounds of the 70s' show on Radio 2 right up until two months before he died. Tiggy was his full-time carer and joins Anita to talk about the emotional toll of caring for her soulmate Johnnie after his terminal diagnosis, as described in her new book, Both Sides Now.

Former NASA astronaut Anna Fisher talks about becoming the world’s first ‘mom in space’. In 1978 Anna, an American emergency doctor, was accepted by NASA onto their astronaut programme, during the space agency’s largest and most diverse recruitment drive. In 1984, Anna took off on the Space Shuttle Discovery, leaving behind her 14-month-old daughter. Anna joins Anita to talk about how that decision triggered intense media scrutiny and looks back on her trailblazing career, as featured in a new BBC 2 documentary, ‘Once Upon a Time in Space.’

Stephanie Travers is a trailblazer with an impressive list of firsts during her career. She became the first black female trackside fluid engineer in Formula 1 after beating 7,000 other applicants. She is also the first black woman to stand on an F1 podium after being personally invited by the team to collect the Constructor's Trophy at the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix. Today, she’s moved into a new role as Senior Impact Manager at Mission 44, Sir Lewis Hamilton’s foundation which is focused on diversity and inclusion. Stephanie joins Anita to discuss diversifying motorsports and making STEM and motorsport careers more accessible to young people from underrepresented backgrounds.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Rebecca Myatt


FRI 10:55 A Carnival of Animals (m002ktsw)
The Hermit Crab

In this episode, Katherine Rundell explores the hermit crab - a creature known for its resourcefulness and quiet ingenuity. Most hermit crabs are small and vulnerable, making their homes in scavenged shells. When a new shell appears, crabs will sometimes form orderly queues, waiting and holding claws until one fits. But not all hermit crabs are so gentle: the coconut crab, the world’s largest land crab, can crack open coconuts and has been known to strip a carcass clean.

Hermit crabs have found their way into human lives too - sometimes as pets, often to their detriment. Many die in captivity, while others are threatened by plastic pollution, habitat loss, and hunting.

Written and presented by Katherine Rundell
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan


FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m002l3p9)
Keeping It Local: A Suffolk Story

It's twenty years since the Aldeburgh Food Festival began. Sheila Dillon examines its impact in this small Suffolk seaside town where food producers work together to forge strong local supply chains. She speaks to the festival's co-founder Lady Caroline Cranbrook who has been a passionate advocate of Suffolk's rich food ecosystem. She goes on a shopping trip with local restaurateur and hotelier George Pell, a self-styled "blow-in" from London. They visit a fishing family, a butcher and a farmer supporting a start-up serving crullers in a town where collaboration is king.

Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Robin Markwell


FRI 11:45 Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry (m002l3pc)
5. End of an Ordinary Life

"Now I understand there are no ordinary lives – that every death is the end of a single event in time’s history: an event so improbable as to be miraculous, and irreplaceable in every particular."

Booker Prize-longlisted author Sarah Perry's father-in-law, David, died at home nine days after a cancer diagnosis having previously been in good health. The speed of his illness outstripped that of the NHS and social care, so the majority of nursing fell to Sarah and her husband. They witnessed what happens to the body and spirit, hour by hour, as it approaches death.

Death of an Ordinary Man is an unstinting account of death by cancer, a reportage into the experience of caring, an exploration of the structural conditions of dying in the UK, and most importantly a testament to David’s life, that of an ordinary man.

Unflinching and profoundly moving, Sarah Perry confronts the taboo surrounding death and how the saddest thing she has ever seen is also the best thing she's ever done.

Episode Five
David is fast-tracked to end-of-life care at home, surrounded by family and watchful carers.

Reader: Louise Brealey
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m002l3pf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m002l3ph)
Racism and reparations

Sir Lenny Henry has called for the UK government to pay £18tn in slavery reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, and argued that every black Briton also deserves compensation. The comedian, co-author of a new book titled The Big Payback, says the payments would help repair damage caused in parts of the Americas, especially the Caribbean, and argues slavery has contributed to modern day racism and poorer outcomes for black people in the UK. Opponents have argued it's unfair to hold modern Britons responsible for past wrongs and called the £18tn figure absurd and divisive - we find out where that figure came from, and what calculations went into it. Many in this debate point out that, although Britain profited from slavery, it also abolished it - we look at the reasons behind that shift and what it meant for slaves and slave owners. Plus, reparations used to be all about wars - how else have they been applied throughout history?

Presenter: Adam Fleming
Producers: Simon Tulett, Mike Wendling, Natasha Fernandes
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Studio engineer: Andrew Mills


FRI 12:57 Weather (m002l3pk)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m002l3pm)
Defeat for Labour in its Welsh heartland

We assess what went wrong for Welsh Labour in Caerphilly, and hear from Wales' deputy first minister. Plus, as Ukraine's allies gather for a summit in London, the EU's former foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton tells us how the West can put pressure on Russia.


FRI 13:45 The History Podcast (m002l4g6)
The House at Number 48

5. The Final Ticket

Antony Easton's relatives, the Eisners were one of the richest Jewish families in Berlin. The patriarch, Rudolph Eisner, has done everything he possibly could to steer them safely through the rise of the Nazis. But now, as the net finally closes in, what will they do?

The House at Number 48 is presented by Charlie Northcott.
The series producer is Jim Frank.
Sound design and mixing by Tom Brignell.
The Editor is Matt Willis.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m002l3j1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m002ktsd)
The Betrayed

Episode 3. The Network

A five-part drama about a family - and a society - divided by far-right populist extremism.

When Louise a senior officer in the Garda Síochána sees her brother Frank on the news, taking part in an aggressive far-right protest she is shocked. Not least because she is and she had no idea Frank had been influenced by the populist extremists who hurl accusations of being 'traitors' at police and politicians alike.

In the aftermath, Frank's face doesn't show up on CCTV. But when she threatens to have him arrested, he accepts the deal she reluctantly offers - she will cover for him if he promises to stay away from demos and protests.

But then Louise learns that Frank is connected to a much wider network. He's in touch with organised extremists throughout Europe, Louise realises that Frank is on a path that could bring Ireland, and other countries, to the brink of chaos. The time has come to break up his network, whatever the family consequences.

LOUISE KENNY … Niamh Algar

FRANK KENNY … Jonathan Forbes

KEVIN … Stephen Hogan

TONY … Aidan O'Callaghan

DERVLA … Karen Ardiff

MICHAEL GRIFFITHS … Jonathan Harden

BASTIAN … Nicholas Murchie

SUZANNE … Jane Slavin

JOE … James Downie

SORCHA … Amy McAllister

Directed by Eoin O’Callaghan
A Big Fish/BBC N Ireland Production for Limelight


FRI 14:45 Untaxing (m0029hw8)
5. The £10 Billion Fridge

A fruit and veg supplier installs a fridge. A tax advisor claims it’s a scientific breakthrough, and urges a claim for R&D tax relief.

That fridge is just the tip of a £10 billion scandal. How did HMRC let it happen? And why is no one talking about it?

Producer: Tom Pooley
A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002l3pp)
Two Dales

Which seeds would you take to a desert island? How can I improve my success planting bulbs? Which easy-to-grow plants have you managed to kill?

Peter Gibbs and a panel of gardening experts are in Two Dales to share their top horticultural advice. Joining Peter are garden designer Bunny Guinness, RHS curator Marcus Chilton-Jones, and alpine specialist Bethan Collerton.

Later in the programme, Marcus stops to chat to Steve Porter, Head of Gardens and Landscape at Chatsworth House about the history of camellias and how best to grow them.

Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Producer: Matt Smith

A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4

Plant List:

Q — 2 minutes, 45 seconds
Which easy-to-grow plant have you managed to kill?

Marcus Chilton-Jones
Swiss cheese plant
Mother in law’s tongue

Bethan Collerton—
Gorse

Bunny Guinness—
Bacchia
Pelagonium

Q — 4 minutes, 41 seconds
 I've got a prickly pear cactus and  the outer surface layer appears to be getting eaten in patches. Why?

QM
I want to re-plant a board backed by a 6ft wooden fence. What would the panel recommend?

Bethan Collerton—
Evergreen ferns
Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’
Brunnera macrophylla ’Silver heart’

Bunny Guinness—
Lavender
Yew
Allium ‘Globe master’
Hydrangea seemannii

Marcus Chilton-Jones —
Physocarpus
Camellia
Lobelia
cotinus
Hydrangea seemannii

Q 15 minutes, 30 seconds
Cornus kousa ‘green sleeves’
Cornus kousa ‘milky way’

Bunny Guinness —
Cornus mas ‘Cornelian cherry’

Q -- 25 minutes, 37 seconds
 Could the team advise how to improve my  success rate of my bull planting?

Q -- 30 minutes, 30 seconds
How should I prune a Victoria plum tree?

QF 37 mins 25
Which two packets of seeds would you take to a desert island?

Bethan Collerton—
Courgette
Rice

Bunny Guinness—
Edamame
Fig

Marcus Chilton-Jones —
Tomatoes
Sunflower


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m002l3pr)
Harry Swithenback's Private Visit by Alan Warner

The award-winning Scottish writer Alan Warner’s new and specially-commissioned story sees an antiques expert off the telly – Harry Swithenback – arrive in an unnamed harbour town for what he hopes is a few days of rest and relaxation, however, the townspeople have other ideas. Stuart McQuarrie reads.

Alan Warner was born in Oban on the west coast of Scotland in 1964 and is the author of several novels including: Morvern Callar (1995), which won the Somerset Maugham Prize and was adapted for the cinema by director Lynne Ramsay in 2002. It is published as a Vintage Classic. He also wrote These Demented Lands (1997), which won the Encore Award and The Sopranos/Our Ladies (1998), which won the Saltire Book of the Year Award. His novel The Stars in the Bright Sky (2010) was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Stuart McQuarrie is a television, film and theatre actor who has appeared in shows such as Taggart, Rab C Nesbitt, London’s Burning and Silent Witness. In film, he's also had notable roles in 28 Days Later, Terminator: Dark Fate and White Bird.

The producer is Dominic Howell.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m002l3pt)
Raila Odinga, Bill Colley, Baroness Rosalind Howells, Sister Marion Irvine

Matthew Bannister on

The influential Kenyan politician Raila Odinga, who was detained for his pro-democracy campaigns, but went on to be the country’s Prime Minister.

Bill Colley, who designed and built traditional wooden racing boats.

Baroness Rosalind Howells of St Davids, who campaigned for racial equality and supported the family of Stephen Lawrence after his murder.

And Sister Marion Irvine, the American nun who took up marathon running in middle age and went on to break many records.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Tansley

ARCHIVE USED:
Raila Odinga interview about his struggles in Kamiti, NTV Kenya YouTube channel uploaded 26/01/2020; Raila Odinga state funeral, BBC World Service, 17/10/2025; Raila Odinga profile, Reuters, BBC News Channel, 19/10/2025; Raila Odinga on anti-government protests in Kenya, BBC Africa, 27/03/23; The interview: Leader of the National Super Alliance, Kenya - Raila Odinga, BBC World Service, 07/02/2018; Bill Colley: The Last wooden racing boat builder, Real Time series, BBC News, 05/12/2013; The Boys in the Boat, Official Trailer, Warners Bros. UK and Ireland, Director George Clooney, Warner Bros YouTube Channel, uploaded 18/10/2023; The Boys in the Boat | Bill Colley Featurette, Amazon MGM Studio, YouTube channel, 23/11/2023; Rasalind Howells interview from the New Cross Fire report, Newsnight, BBC News, 15/01/2001; The Powerlist Interviews - Rosalind Howells, Powerful Media, YouTube Upload, 23/05/2018; BBC News report, New Cross Fire, 18/01/1981; BBC Newsroom South East, 1993; BBC Newsroom South East, 08/10/1997; National Theatre War Horse Trailer, Music Comp Adrian Sutton, Production National Theatre, YouTube uploaded 14/01/2016; Sister Marion Irvine interview, Silver Into Gold, Writer and Dir: Lynn Mueller, Publisher: Barr Films, Irwindale, CA, 1986;


FRI 16:30 Life Changing (m002l3d0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m002l3pw)
London hosts European leaders to pledge further support for Ukraine

‘The coalition of the willing’ meet in London to discuss ongoing support for the war in Ukraine. We hear from former Ukrainian ambassador to London, Vadim Prystaiko. Also, after Labour’s defeat in the Caerphilly by-election, we ask how fragmented the country is politically with former Wales Secretary, Labour Peer, Lord Hain. And Sir David Hare defends casting celebrities in theatre productions after criticism this week.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002l3py)
The asylum seeker who was jailed for a sexual assault in Epping has been released by mistake

It's been confirmed that an asylum seeker who was jailed last month for a year for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping has been released from prison by mistake. Also: Plaid Cymru celebrates a decisive victory in the Senedd by-election in Caerphilly, a stronghold for Labour for a century. And one of England's oldest football clubs, Sheffield Wednesday, goes into administration.


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m002l3q0)
Series 118

Titles, Jewels and 'Chocolate' Bars

Alasdair Beckett-King, Laura Lexx, Ahir Shah and Ava Santina join Andy Zaltzman for this week's quiz.

Brace yourselves for stories about the stripping of both Royal Titles and Royal Crown Jewels as well as the big question of the moment, are things better or worse than they used to be?

Written by Andy Zaltzman
Additional material by: Milo Edwards, Cameron Loxdale, Ruth Husko and Marty Gleeson
Producer: Gwyn Rhys Davies
Exec Producer: Richard Morris
Production Coordinator: Giulia Lopes Mazzu
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m002l3q2)
While Josh is milking the cows at Meadow Farm he tells Ruth he’s spotted another case of mastitis, so they really need Alistair. Later, Ruth confirms Alistair’s coming and Josh offers to wait for him there – he reckons that Esme might need some company. They talk about music for the funeral and Josh helps Esme decide what might be best. Then Esme suggests inviting the Archers to be guests of honour there and wonders whether the song “Bring Me Sunshine” should be played at the end. This inspires the thought that her dad’s computer password might be Eric Morecambe – and it works! Esme quickly finds the Will, acknowledging she’ll have to start making decisions now.
Brian finds unhappy Alice at the Stables. She berates Brian for screwing things up over Home Farm. Brian chastises himself for ruining Alice’s birthday, asking her to celebrate Adam and Ruairi taking over. Brian’s excuse is that no-one had actually committed to running the farm, though Alice reckons Brian should have known it’s what Adam has always wanted, especially after he gave up working at Bridge Farm. Alice then tells him that she’s fine with the idea of Brian and Miranda moving into Home Farm together. Ruairi calls and they both tell him it’s a “no” to the holiday in three weeks’ time. When Ruairi turns up for supper later though he informs them he’s gone ahead and booked the holiday anyway, even though some people won’t be able to go. Brian’s unhappy and Alice explodes at Ruairi for being unbelievably selfish.


FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m002l3q4)
The Naked Civil Servant

Mark and Ellen celebrate 50 years of the ground breaking TV drama, The Naked Civil Servant.

Mark speaks to Rob Halford of Judas Priest about how The Naked Civil Servant changed his life. Mark then talks to filmmaker and drag queen Amrou Al-Kadhi about how forward thinking the show was and its influence on their own work.

Ellen talks to historian Stephen Bourne about the impact of The Naked Civil Servant on British television.

Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m002l3q6)
Mims Davies MP, Lindsey German, Georgia Gould MP, Isabel Hardman

Alex Forsyth hosts political debate from All Saints Weston Church in Esher, Surrey, with the shadow cabinet minister, Mims Davies MP; convenor of Stop The War Coalition, Lindsey German; the minister for school standards, Georgia Gould MP; and Spectator assistant editor, Isabel Hardman.

Producer: Paul Martin
Lead broadcast engineer: Chris Weightman


FRI 20:55 This Week in History (m002l3d4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:40 on Wednesday]


FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m002l3q8)
Rational and Irrational decision making

From economics to dreams: Anne McElvoy and guests consider the value of irrationality. How often is emotion, instinct and unsound thinking behind the decisions taken by governments, financial markets and citizens? And does it matter if long term strategic thinking relying on calm assessments of the trade offs, conventional wisdom and the lessons of experience take a back seat. Is there a value in irrationality? Guests include: Bronwen Maddox, Director and CEO of Chatham House, the international think tank; Lionel Barber, author of Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan's Masayoshi Son; Salma Shah, who sits on the boards of Policy Exchange and the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge; Patrick Foulis, the foreign editor at the Economist and, Jonathan Egid, philosopher and BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker.

Producer: Ruth Watts


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002l3qb)
Manhunt after jailed Epping hotel asylum seeker mistakenly released

A former asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl was released from prison by mistake. Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was jailed for 12 months over the attack in Epping, Essex, last month.

Also on the programme: The director of public prosecutions has said the China spy case collapsed because a top national security official could not say the country had been classed as an "enemy" when the Conservatives were in power. We speak to former Tory Defence Secretary Sir Grant Shapps.

And art expert and host of the television series ‘Fake or Fortune?’ Philip Mould on the discovery of millions of euros' worth of forged art claiming to be by Picasso, Rembrandt and Frida Kahlo.


FRI 22:45 North Woods by Daniel Mason (m002l3qd)
Episode 5

Daniel Mason's North Woods is a time-spanning novel chronicling four centuries of human and natural history centred on a yellow house and its surrounding woods in Massachusetts, New England.

Through varied narrative styles, the book follows a diverse cast of fascinating inhabitants, from Puritan lovers to a lovelorn painter, a fraudulent mystic, a farmer, a slave hunter, a detectorist, twin sisters, a crime reporter. It even includes the stories of panthers and beetles, whilst exploring themes of memory, fate, and the interconnectedness of life with the environment.

The novel also incorporates historical documents and diverse literary formats to create a genre-defying tapestry of stories and music within the same location.

Read by
Hannah Traylen &
Daniel Weyman

Abridged by Lucy Ellis

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 23:00 Americast (w3ct7t63)
Inside Mamdani’s campaign to be mayor of New York City

Voting starts on Saturday for one of America’s biggest and most prominent political positions. How did Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, emerge as the frontrunner to be the next mayor of New York, despite being virtually unknown at the start of his campaign?

Sarah, Justin and Anthony look in more detail at his policies, and in particular the centrepiece of his campaign around the cost of living. Mamdani says he will make New York more affordable, by increasing housing stock, raising taxes for the rich and bringing down the cost of rent. How realistic are his promises and how much could it matter if he can’t deliver? We also unpack his views on Israel and Gaza, and how his views on Gaza could affect the Jewish vote in New York, the biggest outside of Israel.

We get an inside track on Mamdani’s campaign from Eric Lach, staff writer at the New Yorker, who has been following him on the campaign trail, from before he won the primaries, to having dinner at Mamdani’s apartment in Queens. He also shares his views on how Mamdani will handle the NYPD, the country’s largest police department, after calling for the police to be defunded in 2020.

Donald Trump has made clear he thinks Mamdani is a radical left communist, so how might he handle the US president if he is elected as mayor? And how might Donald Trump target New York in return?

HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Sarah Smith, North America Editor
• Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent

GUEST:
• Eric Lach, Staff Writer at the New Yorker

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This episode was made by Purvee Pattni, Grace Reeve and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was James Piper. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002l3qg)
Alicia McCarthy reports on moves to tackle ticketless fans getting into football matches and MPs hold their first debate on hoarding disorder. Also, the rules on debating royal affairs in the Commons and th 75th anniversary of the chamber re-opening after bomb damage during World War II.