SATURDAY 01 NOVEMBER 2025

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m002lfk9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 Every Last Fish by Rose George (m002lfhj)
5. Farming Salmon

The journalist Rose George visits a salmon farm in Norway, encounters 'cleaner' fish, and ponders the future of aquaculture more generally as the world's appetite for fish dinners remains. Dorothy Atkinson reads.

Rose George reminds us that Samuel Coleridge thought of fish as nothing more than ‘slimy things’ in the water. In her new book she observes that today, we see fish mostly as food, and she invites us to reconsider, to think beyond our dinner plates and to go out and wonder at this glorious species and the oceans they inhabit. As our appetites for fish grow and the health benefits of these watery dwellers are widely disseminated, George asks where our lunches, pet food, supplements and garden fertilizers in the shape of fishmeal are going to come through. As fish stocks continue to diminish and artisanal fishing practices are dwindling George asks hard questions. We'll hear about the impact of over fishing; the plight of the Senegalese fishing industry; the question of fish farms, and also a celebration of fishwives, along with stories of the heroic fisherman who saved lives during the world wars and continue do so on our most perilous seas.

Dorothy Atkinson is the reader. She is acclaimed for her work in theatre, film and television. She has appeared in several films by Mike Leigh most notably Mr Turner. She is well known for playing Pauline in the sitcom Mum. Recent work includes Ludwig, Joan, Saltburn, Without Sin, Pennyworth, Harlots and Call the Midwife.

Rose George is the author of A Life Removed: Hunting for Refuge in the Modern World (long-listed for the Ulysses Reportage Prize), The Big Necessity: Adventures in the World of Human Waste (Portobello, 2008; shortlisted for the BMA Book Prize) and Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Brings You 90% of Everything (Portobello, 2013; winner of a Mountbatten Maritime Award), and Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Mysterious, Miraculous World of Blood (Portobello, 2018).

Rose writes frequently for the Guardian, New Statesman and many other publications, and her two TED talks, on sanitation and seafaring, have had 3 million views.

Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Elizabeth Allard


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002lfkc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002lfkf)
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 (m002lfkh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002lfkk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002lfkm)
Doctor or Deadbeat?

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Daniel Sibthorpe

Good Morning.

I'm currently between jobs or should I more accurately say, unemployed.

So when someone asks that classic question "What do you do?" I'm faced with a dilemma.

Do I refer back to my previous employment creating an easy passage to more questions? Maybe I see this as an opportunity to try out my elevator pitch. Listing my skills and talents? I could throw in something more existential like, “I do nothing". Leaving the questioner struggling.

I wonder if this question is just a device to help people place us into their pecking order of value. Is worth measured largely by what we do rather than who we really are? If I make it into the top half of their list they might well stay and talk, if I don’t make the grade they move onto someone seemingly more deserving of their time.
Is it just me, or do we all do this to a certain extent?

When Jesus met people he seemed to look past status or social standing and speak to the intrinsic worth of the individual. Whether a corrupt tax collector, a socially excluded women or a member of the religious elite. Each one had their world view and lives turned upside down after a short encounter with Jesus.

For those curious to know my previous work was as a church leader for 16 years.

So today, I pray that you may be able to see your real value and worth, not in what you may be able to do or not do, but as a unique individual designed in God's image and likeness.

Amen


SAT 05:45 In the Loop (m001nghz)
1. Stone Circle

…a circle has no beginning and no end. It represents rebirth and regeneration, continuity and infinity. From wedding rings to stone circles, in poetry, music and the trajectories of the planets themselves, circles and loops are embedded in our imaginations.

In this five-part series poet Paul Farley goes walking in circles in five very different ‘loopy’ locations. He visits a traffic roundabout, a rollercoaster and a particle accelerator to ask why human beings find rings and circles so symbolic, significant and satisfying.

The earliest civilisations were drawn to the idea of closing a circle and creating a loop; in human relationships we’d all rather be within the circle of trust; and in arts and music our eyes, ears and minds are inexorably drawn towards – and rebel against - the ‘strange loops’ of Bach, Gödel and Escher.

As he puts himself in the loop – sometimes at the centre and sometimes on the circumference – Paul has circular conversations with mathematicians and physicists, composers and poets. Each one propels him into a new loop of enquiry. And that’s because a circle has no beginning and no end…
.
The first episode brings Paul around to the 5000 year-old stone circle at Castlerigg in Cumbria – a ring of stones within a ring of hills. With archaeologists Gill Hey and Richard Bradley he considers what circles represented to our Neolithic forebears and how sites like Castlerigg informed their view of the Universe. And, with Eugenia Cheng, he discovers what a circle actually means to a mathematician .

Producer: Jeremy Grange


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m002lq8d)
The news headlines, including a look at the newspapers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m002lfdy)
Nick Wilson - the Disabled Adventurer

Clare joins Nick Wilson for a circuit around Pitsford Reservoir in Northamptonshire. A former soldier, Nick now uses a powerchair after a spinal injury and years of chronic pain made walking impossible. He has experienced homelessness and battled depression, yet has found the strength to launch his ‘Disabled Adventurer’ project.
Through this initiative, Nick creates social media videos about the accessibility of natural spaces, leads wheelchair skills workshops, and collaborates with national organisations to make the outdoors more inclusive.

Nick and his support worker, Matthew, brought along a spare powerchair for Clare. With their guidance, she navigated a stretch of the reservoir’s wide, accessible paths. As Nick explained, having access to outdoor spaces and continuing to pursue his love of adventure - albeit in a different way - has helped him rediscover a sense of enjoyment, achievement, and purpose.

Map: OS Explorer 223 Northampton and Market Harborough Map Ref: (car park) SP 752 694

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m002lq8g)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m002lq8j)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m002lq8l)
Today (Saturday)


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m002lq8n)
Ken Follett, The FA Cup and Miranda Hart's Inheritance Tracks

Ken Follett joins Adrian Chiles for extraordinary stories from remarkable people.


SAT 10:00 Curious Cases (m002lpfc)
Series 24

Going Viral

Cold and flu season is well and truly upon us, and whilst most of us are busy bemoaning the pesky viruses behind our sniffles and chesty coughs – one of our listeners has other ideas. Elizabeth wants to know whether we’re too hard on these oft-maligned microbes? We’ve all heard that some bacteria can be good for us, but what about viruses? Could they have a softer side too?
Hannah and Dara explore the virome, from prehistoric placental proteins to ultra-precise disease fighting phages to find out if Viruses truly are the villains of the microscopic world or whether they just need a better PR team.

Contributors
Jonathan Ball - Professor of Molecular Virology at the University of Liverpool
Martha Clokie - Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leicester
Marylin Roosinck - Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at Penn State University US,

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


SAT 10:30 Legend (m002lpfh)
The Bruce Springsteen Story

4. The Promise

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 is living in Hollywood, L.A, making music without his long-time bandmates. It's a time of Bruce being far away from his roots - and from some of his most loyal fans. But a homecoming concert in his school gym in Freehold, New Jersey marks a turning point.

~~~

“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, former Asbury Park Press music critic Kelly Jane Cotter, and biographers such as Eric Alterman, Steven Hyden and Warren Zanes.

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


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m002lq8q)
Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002lq8s)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m002lq8v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m002lq8x)
The latest news from the world of personal finance


SAT 12:30 The Naked Week (m002lfjm)
Series 3

Episode 1

From host Andrew Hunter Murray and The Skewer's Jon Holmes, Radio 4’s freshest Friday night comedy The Naked Week returns with a blend of the silly and serious. From satirical stunts to studio set pieces via guest correspondents and investigative journalism it's a bold, audacious take not only on the week’s news, but also the way it’s packaged and presented.

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 12:57 Weather (m002lq8z)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m002lq91)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m002lfjv)
Topical discussion posing questions to a panel of political and media personalities


SAT 14:05 Any Answers? (m002lq93)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 The Archers (m002lfjq)
Writer: Sarah Hehir
Director: Helen Aitken
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Josh Archer…. Angus Imrie
Kenton Archer…. Richard Attlee
Pip Archer…. Daisy Badger
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Vince Casey…. Tony Turner
Justin Elliott….. Simon Williams
Miranda Elliott…. Lucy Fleming
Amber Gordon…. Olivia Bernstone
Eddie Grundy…. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O’Hanrahan
George Grundy…. Angus Stobie
Will Grundy…. Philip Molloy
Chelsea Horrobin…. Madeleine Leslay
Tracy Horrobin…. Susie Ridell
Joy Horville…. Jackie Lye
Esme Mulligan…. Ellie Pawsey
Freddie Pargetter…. Toby Lawrence


SAT 15:00 Drama on 4 (m00127ch)
D for Dexter: Coming Home

Skye's been trying to get hold of her little brother Dex for ages and all she gets is his voice on Ed's answerphone message. Her mum Jak is ghosting her as well.

Two weeks is a long time when you're nine.

Skye's just turned eighteen and she's busy working twelve hour shifts in her job as a carer, saving up so she and Dex can have the best Christmas ever. Won't be hard. Bar's not set very high. She's always been the one to look out for Dexter, all his life. So where is he?

In the final chapter in this extraordinary story of ordinary life, things are changing for the King family. They still live in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, but Skye has moved out and got herself a job. Jak says she's not drinking but she's definitely up to something. Ed's impossible to get hold of. And Dexter is nowhere to be found.

A heart-breakingly brave, funny and beautiful story, the concluding episode of a series that was originally part of programming for the BBC Children in Need Appeal on Radio 4.

'D for Dexter' won Best Serial in the BBC Audio Drama Awards in 2016 and was runner-up in 2020. Sydney Wade received a Special Commendation for her performance as Skye in 2019. The same core cast has grown up with the story which has been recorded on location in Lincolnshire for the past eight years.

Created by Amanda Whittington and written by Sarah Daniels

Skye...Sydney Wade
Jak...Una McNulty
Dexter...Alfie McCann-Johnson
Dick...Michael Begley
Alice...Jane Thornton
Lindy...Jasmine Hyde
Aiden Hardy...Will Kirk
Aaliyah (Ali)...Saroja-Lily Ratnavel
Ugne...Tracy Wiles

Guitar by Tom Constantine

Director...Mary Ward-Lowery


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m002lq97)
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week


SAT 17:00 PM (m002lq99)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m002lq9c)
Nick Robinson talks to people who shape our political thinking about what shaped theirs.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002lq9f)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m002lq9h)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002lq9k)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002lpkv)
Danny Robins, Garth Marenghi, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, Donna Thompson, The New Eves

It's a particulary spooky edition of Loose Ends as we're joined by Danny Robins - host of Uncanny and writer of 2.22 a Ghost Story and cult horror author Garth Marenghi. But which of them is the real king of horror? Rebecca Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem brings us her literary debut, A Complicated Woman and there's music from The New Eves with a song from their debut album 'The New Eve is Rising' and Donna Thompson performs 'Gardiner Street'

Presenter: Clive Anderson
Producer: Jessica Treen


SAT 19:00 Profile (m002lq9m)
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines.


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m002lfdc)
Rufus Wainwright

In-depth conversations with some of the world's leading artists and creatives across theatre, visual arts, music, dance, film and more. Hosted by John Wilson.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m002lq9p)
25 Years of the ISS

Out of This World unveils compelling personal tales of bravery, tragedy, ingenuity, political manoeuvring, and triumph, revealing the remarkable story of one of humanity’s greatest ever feats – the International Space Station.

Celebrating 25 unbroken years of humans living in space, engineer and former international director at the UK Space Agency, Alice Bunn charts the shifting geopolitics which led to the East and West putting aside their differences and creating the ultimate symbol of human ingenuity and collaboration – a space station orbiting our planet at 17500 mph, which has been home to over 300 people from 23 different nations.

Using mission audio, news archive and personal stories of those intimately involved in the station’s creation, Alice explores acts of epic survival, inventiveness, humour and selflessness that made the station a reality. She investigates the blueprint for the ISS – Apollo-Soyuz, a joint Soviet/US mission at the height of the Cold War - and why a near fatal disaster on a Russian space station spurred nations to commit to the ISS.

She reveals how a Moscow basement and Hollywood royalty sparked bonding between Russians and Americans and the bromance that fuelled the mission of the first crew to call the ISS home. Alice also discovers how quick thinking and plastic tape saved the station, allowing it to grow to the size of a football pitch and how one astronaut came within seconds of drowning in space.

And looking into the future, Alice questions what is next for the ISS amid such geopolitical turbulence and uncertainty.

This is a timely reminder of the extraordinary feats humanity can achieve when we unite and strive for a common goal.

Producer: Duncan Bulling
Presenter: Alice Bunn
A 2 Degrees West production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:00 News (m002lq9r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m002lfhd)
Eels and Elvers

Dan Saladino looks at why eels numbers are plummeting and asks if the species can be saved. On the River Severn he meets the last of the glass eel fishermen and conservationists.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.


SAT 23:00 Mark Steel's in Town (m002ld62)
Series 14

4. Cambridge

Comedian Mark Steel visits towns across the UK and creates a show for a local audience.


SAT 23:30 Punt & Dennis: Route Masters (m0023dqj)
Series 1: From Beer to Eternity

1 - From Beer to Jurassic Park

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are on a mission from Beer to Eternity, in this warm and witty new podcast that celebrates new and half remembered trivia as they try to find entertaining links between random places, people and things.

Could you make your way from The Starship Enterprise to the Air Fryer, armed only with A Level Economics and a Geography degree? Hugh Dennis is going to have to. While Steve Punt will have to pick his way across Africa, to find what links Machiavelli and Madagascar. Across the series, they’ll be joined by guests including Ken Cheng, Kiri Pritchard McLean, Isy Suttie and Marcus Brigstocke, on a scenic route which takes in Shampoo, The Gruffalo, Watford Gap Services and Yoghurt.

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

A Listen Production for BBC Radio 4

SUNDAY 02 NOVEMBER 2025

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m002lq9t)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:15 Take Four Books (m002ldc4)
Chris Kraus

Presenter James Crawford welcomes American writer, filmmaker, and art critic Chris Kraus to Take Four Books to discuss her latest novel 'The Four Spent the Day Together'. This marks Kraus’ fifth semi-autobiographical novel, following the success of 'I Love Dick', which was adapted into a major television series.

The Four Spent the Day Together blends elements of childhood memoir, the experience of being the partner of a relapsing alcoholic, and an investigation into a real-life crime in a Minnesotan town.

Kraus also shares the three literary influences that inspired the novel: 'The Executioner’s Song' by Norman Mailer (1979), 'Main Street' by Sinclair Lewis (1920), and 'Hinterland' by Phil A. Neel (2018).

Producer: Rachael O’Neill
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002lq9w)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002lq9y)
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 (m002lqb0)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002lqb2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m002lqb4)
The church of St Mary Easebourne, West Sussex

Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Mary Easebourne in West Sussex situated in the centre of the South Downs National Park. The church was heavily restored in the late 19th century but retains some original 12th century fabric including the North-West Tower. There are eight bells, the oldest of which dates from the early 16th century. The Tenor bell weighs eleven hundredweight and is tuned to the note of G. We hear them ringing Superlative Surprise Major.


SUN 05:45 In Touch (m002ld6b)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m002lqb7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Heart and Soul (w3ct6vph)
Mamdani New York

Zohran Mamdani catapulted on to New York’s political scene this summer when he captured the Democratic nomination to run for Mayor this fall. A young politician, Mamdani campaigned on issues that mattered to New Yorkers including lowering the cost of living, but unlike other candidates, was not shy about making his Muslim faith a central talking point on the campaign trail. We explore how a single decision galvanized voters of different faiths across America’s biggest city, and delve into the social issues that divided those casting ballots – including the war in Gaza, Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and the divisiveness of the phrase, “globalize the intifada,” which Mamdani refused on multiple occasions to denounce. What was it about Mamdani that led Muslim voters to feel like they had a voice who will represent them as Mayor of New York City? Do Jewish voters feel let down? Will religion be the driving force behind voter mobilization come November, or will the high cost of living be the motivating factor for many across the Big Apple? We sit down with voters of varying views to find out.

[Photo Description: Zohran Mamdani campaign rally for mayor of New York City, Credit: Andrew Lichtenstein]

Presenter: Victoria Craig


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m002lqb9)
BBC Food and Farming Awards Finalist: Grazing Management

Presenter Charlotte Smith and Natasha from The Archers actress Mali Harries are judging the Farming for the Future category in this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards. In this programme they visit the first of the three finalists, Grazing Management.

Alex and Emily Crawley offer conservation grazing and land management services to improve the biodiversity of wildflower meadows, traditional grasslands, peatlands and other habitats in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire and beyond.

Produced by Chris Ledgard.


SUN 06:57 Weather (m002lqbc)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m002lqbf)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m002lqbh)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m002lpk9)
Anti-Slavery International

Journalist Lucy Watson makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Anti-Slavery International. The charity works with survivors of modern slavery and partner organisations to help people out of exploitation.

The Radio 4 Appeal features a new charity every week.
Each appeal then runs on Radio 4 from Sunday 0755 for 7 days.

To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘Anti-Slavery International’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Anti-Slavery International’.
- 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: 1049160. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://www.antislavery.org/
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites

Producer: Katy Takatsuki


SUN 07:57 Weather (m002lqbk)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m002lqbm)
The news headlines, including a look at the newspapers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m002lqbp)
Sheela Na Gigs - Reclaiming Female Spirituality

Rev Kate Bottley is fascinated by the 12th century stone carvings found on churches and Cathedrals across the UK nicknamed ‘Sheela Na Gigs’. They are more than just a typical ‘gargoyle’ - these female figures with their legs parted, are thought to represent the divine feminine, fertility and were used to ward off evil spirits.

Kate turned 50 this year and she’s starting to think about what being an older Christian woman will look like for her. Kate wants to explore the journey of women who’ve come before her, from women becoming priests just over 30 years ago, to older women in the early church, to what these little known statues can tell us about how women have been viewed.

Kate visits two of the Sheelas closest to her in Nottinghamshire and meets women there to discuss female spirituality and the role and women in Christianity. Kate visits Southwell Minster to see the Sheela there and meets Canon Theologian of Southwell Minster Alison Milbank and women in her theology group. Kate then travels to Austerfield Parish Church to see the Sheela there and to chat to Rev Becky Hancock about their shared experience of being female priests and their hopes for older women in the church.

Reading: Acts 9:36-42
Producer: Miriam Williamson


SUN 08:48 Witness History (w3ct743z)
Dancing in the Street: David Bowie and Mick Jagger

In July 1985, music legends Mick Jagger and David Bowie were asked to perform a duet with a twist at Live Aid, the biggest concert in pop history.

Utilising the latest satellite technology, Mick would perform on the US stage in Philadelphia, while David would perform on the UK stage at Wembley Stadium.

As the technical issues were being discussed, it soon became obvious that a half-second delay in the link between cities would prevent the live performance from happening, so a recording was planned instead.

A short list of songs was discussed before the duo finally settled on the Motown classic Dancing in the Street.

Live Aid press officer Bernard Doherty tells Des Shaw how the duet and video were recorded in just 18 hours and became a highlight of the benefit concert on 13 July 1985. A Zinc Media production.

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

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

(Photo: Mick Jagger and David Bowie performing Dancing In The Street. Credit: Getty Images)


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m002lqbr)
Paul Farley on the Shelduck

Poet Paul Farley welcomes the return of the shelduck to our shores, back after their summer migration to the Wadden Sea. These vast mudflats off the coast of The Netherlands and Germany provide a refuge for shelducks as they go through their so-called 'catastrophic moult' where they simultaneously loose all their flight and tail feathers. Paul imagines this vast gathering of around 200,000 birds as sort of 'Shelduck Glastonbury' where they get completely flightless, and is always glad to see them home.

Presented by Paul Farley and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m002lqbt)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m002lpnf)
Lorraine Kelly, broadcaster

Lorraine Kelly, journalist and broadcaster, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury item she would take with her if cast away to a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.


SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m002lqbw)
Writer: Sarah Hehir
Director: Helen Aitken
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Josh Archer…. Angus Imrie
Kenton Archer…. Richard Attlee
Pip Archer…. Daisy Badger
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Vince Casey…. Tony Turner
Justin Elliott….. Simon Williams
Miranda Elliott…. Lucy Fleming
Amber Gordon…. Olivia Bernstone
Eddie Grundy…. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O’Hanrahan
George Grundy…. Angus Stobie
Will Grundy…. Philip Molloy
Chelsea Horrobin…. Madeleine Leslay
Tracy Horrobin…. Susie Ridell
Joy Horville…. Jackie Lye
Esme Mulligan…. Ellie Pawsey
Freddie Pargetter…. Toby Lawrence


SUN 12:15 Profile (m002lq9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 12:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m002ldhq)
Series 4

Yapping about Leicester

Paul Sinha tests a Leicester audience's knowledge about new words, the people of 2024, and a surprising connection between two modern pop stars. In return they ask him about shipyards, RoboCop, and politicians called James.

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

Original music: Tim Sutton

Recording engineer: Jerry Peal
Mixed by: Rich Evans
Producer: Ed Morrish

A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:57 Weather (m002lqby)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m002lqc0)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world.


SUN 13:30 Currently (m002lpff)
From Anglesey with Love

In the summer of 2020, Radio 4 producer Polly Weston found herself at Nathan Gill’s house. She’d been sent by a random postcode generator, for an episode of The Patch. What followed was a wide-ranging interview about his life and career, how he became involved in UKIP, his involvement in campaigning for Brexit, and his subsequent responsibilities in the Brexit party after they stormed to victory in the 2019 European elections. But the interview also happens to cover the period he was taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia. One year after this interview, Counter Terrorism detectives entered this same house, and they found evidence which contributed to his recent conviction for eight counts of bribery.

“Officers found evidence on his devices that showed how Gill was in contact another individual in Ukraine and that Gill had agreed that, in exchange for money, he would make certain statements that were supportive of pro-Russia media being present in Ukraine. Detectives identified eight such instances between January 2018 and February 2020.”

Gill pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery in September, and faces sentencing on the 21st November – he is expected to receive a prison sentence.

This is his story, up to the time of the events which led to his conviction, as told by the man himself.

Produced and Presented in Bristol by Polly Weston
Editor Chris Ledgard


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002lfj6)
Phyllis Court

Peter Gibbs and a panel of green-fingered gurus head to the Phyllis Court Club in Henley-on-Thames, where a lively audience of passionate gardeners awaits answers to their most pressing plant problems.

Joining Peter are pest and disease specialist Pippa Greenwood, head gardener Matthew Pottage, and the ever-enthusiastic plantswoman Christine Walkden.

Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Junior producer: Rahnee Prescod

A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m002lqc2)
Northanger Abbey - Episode One

Northanger Abbey was Jane Austen’s first book, although it wasn’t published until after her death. It tells the story of Catherine Morland, an impressionable young woman who is introduced to fashionable society when she’s taken by a wealthy neighbour to Bath. There, Catherine’s imagination catches fire when she’s initiated into the thrills of Gothic fiction by new friend, Isabella Thorpe – a pretty, charming but devious gold digger.

Another great reader of Gothic novels is ‘not quite handsome but very near it’ Henry Tilney, whom Catherine finds enchanting. When Henry invites Catherine to stay at Northanger Abbey, the home of his father, General Tilney, she imagines secret passages, haunted catacombs and an evil secret. Catherine does indeed find something wicked at the Abbey but not in the way she expects.

In this first of two episodes John Yorke explores the dual nature of the book - part satire on Gothic fiction and part celebration of the novel form.

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

Contributors: Emma Clery, Literary Critic and Cultural Historian, Professor of English Literature at the Uppsala University, Sweden, and author of Jane Austen: The Banker’s Sister.

Rebecca Romney, author of Jane Austen’s Bookshelf.

Reader: Esme Scarborough
Production Hub Coordinators: Nina Semple and Dawn Williams
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Sound: Iain Hunter
Producer: Kate McAll
Executive Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m002lqc4)
Northanger Abbey

by Jane Austen
dramatised by Clara Glynn

Austen's early novel is a coming-of-age narrative and a satire on the 1790s vogue for the sensationalist Gothic novel.
Broadcast to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen.

Part One
Seventeen year old Catherine Morland is invited to Bath by a rich neighbour. Entering the fashionable society of the city, Catherine finds high drama and peril in every encounter and in every event - often with comic results. And then she receives an extraordinary, and thrilling, invitation.

Catherine Morland ..... Madeleine Gray
Henry TIlney ..... Will Howard
Isabella Thorpe ..... Cecilia Appiah
Mrs Allen ..... Ella Smith
General Tilney ..... John Heffernan
Eleanor Tilney ..... Scarlett Courtney
Mrs Morland/Mrs Thorpe ..... Jasmine Hyde
John Thorpe ..... Josh Bryant-Jones
James Morland/Captain Tilney ..... Django Bevan

Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane

Sound by Keith Graham and Sam Dickinson
Production Coordinator - Bethany Woodhead


SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m002lqc6)
Hallie Rubenhold

Presented by James Naughtie, the writer and historian Hallie Rubenhold takes questions from a Bookclub audience on her prize-winning book The Five: The Untold Lives Of The Women Killed by Jack The Ripper. The book shines a light on Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Kate Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly who were all murdered in Whitechapel, London, in 1888. The Five won the Ballie-Gifford Prize for non-fiction in 2019.

This episode was recorded at The Queen's Reading Room Festival at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan

This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.


SUN 16:30 Punt & Dennis: Route Masters (m0023pvr)
Series 1: From Beer to Eternity

2 - From Chaos Theory to Anne Boleyn

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are on a mission from Chaos Theory to Anne Boleyn with the assistance of Marcus Brigstocke, in a warm and witty podcast that celebrates new and half-remembered trivia as they try to find entertaining links between random places, people and things.

Could you make your way from The Starship Enterprise to the Air Fryer, armed only with A Level Economics and a Geography degree? Hugh Dennis is going to have to. While Steve Punt will have to pick his way across Africa, to find what links Machiavelli and Madagascar. Across the series, they’ll be joined by guests including Ken Cheng, Kiri Pritchard McLean, Isy Suttie and Marcus Brigstocke, on a scenic route which takes in Shampoo, The Gruffalo, Watford Gap Services and Yoghurt.

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

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct744b)
Omar Sharif stars in Lawrence of Arabia

In 1962, Egyptian actor Omar Sharif made his Hollywood debut in Lawrence of Arabia, a sweeping epic that would become one of cinema’s most popular films.

Using archive recordings, Gill Kearsley tells the story of the movie legend’s transformation into the enigmatic Sherif Ali and brings to life the moment he stepped into the desert and onto the world stage.

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: Sherif Ali, played by Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia. Credit: Columbia Pictures via Getty Images)


SUN 17:10 The Verb (m002lqc9)
Hollie McNish, Major General Tim Hodgetts, Julia Nemirovskaya, Robert Chandler

The poetry of war is the thread that runs through today's edition of The Verb, Radio 4's poetry performance and discussion programme led by Ian McMillan.

Hollie McNish talks about her new poetry collection, Virgin, which explores the damaging power of this word and asks for a broader understanding of its possibilities. Her readings on today's programme include her heartbreaking new poem "virgins, to the back" about the young soldiers of the First World War and their battle eve brothel visits.

Major General Tim Hodgetts was Surgeon General To the UK Armed Forces. He discusses his poetry collection, Frontlines and Lifelines, which features the poetry he wrote as an Army doctor to help him process the things he faced as he dealt with the human casualties of combat in theatres of war across the world.

Julia Nemirovskaya has been collecting poetry speaking out against Russia's invasion of Ukraine since February 2022. Her "Kopilka" (coin bank in Russian) archive has led to three collections including Disbelief: 100 Russian Anti-War Poems, and Dislocation: An Anthology of Poetic Response to Russia’s War in Ukraine. She's joined by the distinguished critic and translator of Russian literature, Robert Chandler to discuss why the war has proved to be a major moment for Russian poetry.

Presenter: Ian McMillan
Producer: Ekene Akalawu


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002lqcc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m002lqcf)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002lqch)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002lqck)
Minah Shannon

A selection of highlights from the past week on BBC radio


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m002lpf7)
Helen goes further than she meant to, and Jolene plays matchmaker.


SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m002ln46)
The Piano Boat

The Piano Boat, the floating concert hall where world-renowned concert pianist Masayuki Tayama played, sits empty. His wife, Rhiana, is left with a boat with no captain and a Steinway she was never allowed to play. We join her as she processes her grief and considers the future of The Piano Boat without Masa.

Rhiana and Masa commissioned the boat in 2019 and planned to run concert cruises, on board the boat, along the inland waterways. It was a dream project for both of them – a life designed for two.

But, in 2021 Masa was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and although the chemotherapy turned his fingers numb, he relearned his technique and kept playing. In August 2023, a week after what would be their final round of cruises, Masa was hospitalized for the last time. He died two weeks later.

Will Greenwood, who has seen the boat from creation to present day, journeys with Rhiana on the waterways and as she rebuilds her dreams while coping with her grief. She shares her honest audio diaries, the highs and lows. She is surprised by sorrow and joy as she starts to fill the boat with music once more. Beginning with playing Masa’s piano – something she had never done before.

Craig Terry, Director of Steinway & Sons UK, tells us about the piano and meeting Rhiana and Masa for the first time. Concert Pianist and one of Masa’s former colleagues, Graham Caskey, and music academic, Kris Worsley, talk on the intimacy of The Piano Boat, and show us how the pieces we hear don’t need words to tell a story.

Presented by Will Greenwood
Produced by Will Greenwood and Anna Scott-Brown
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m0018p32)
Take a Break

In this episode, Michael reveals why adding regular breaks to your day can benefit your body, your mind and even your productivity. What’s more, if you allow your mind to wander freely during your breaks - no social media! - the benefits are even greater. Michael speaks to cognitive neuroscientist Professor Moshe Bar from Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv to find out exactly what goes on in our brains when we allow our minds to wander, and why it could be a good thing for mood, problem solving and creativity.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m002lff0)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m002lfjc)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m002lq8x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m002lpk9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002lq8s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:30 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m002lqcm)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 In Our Time (b08wmk5j)
Bird Migration

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 fourth of his choices, we hear Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss bird migration.

Their topic includes why some birds migrate and others do not, how they select their destinations and how they navigate the great distances, often over oceans. For millennia, humans set their calendars to birds' annual arrivals, and speculated about what happened when they departed, perhaps moving deep under water, or turning into fish or shellfish, or hibernating while clinging to trees upside down. Ideas about migration developed in C19th when, in Germany, a stork was noticed with an African spear in its neck, indicating where it had been over the winter and how far it had flown. Today there are many ideas about how birds use their senses of sight and smell, and magnetic fields, to find their way, and about why and how birds choose their destinations and many questions. Why do some scatter and some flock together, how much is instinctive and how much is learned, and how far do the benefits the migrating birds gain outweigh the risks they face?

With

Barbara Helm
Reader at the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine at the University of Glasgow

Tim Guilford
Professor of Animal Behaviour and Tutorial Fellow of Zoology at Merton College, Oxford

and

Richard Holland
Senior Lecturer in Animal Cognition at Bangor University

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


SUN 23:45 Short Works (m002lfj9)
Salt River by Alys Conran

Original Short Fiction by Alys Conran.

Little Angharad is caught between opposing tides - her depressed mother and Anti Mari - to escape she wanders the muddy edges of the Menai Strait, collecting sea snails.

Reader: Lisa Jên Brown
Production Co-ordinator: Eleri McAuliffe
Sound: Nigel Lewis
Producer: John Norton

A BBC Audio Wales Production

MONDAY 03 NOVEMBER 2025

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m002lqcp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 00:15 Soul Music (m002bgm0)
Bésame Mucho

The Mexican pianist and composer Consuelo Velázquez was only 16 years old when she wrote Bésame Mucho, and she was yet to have her first kiss.

Composer and conductor Odaline de la Martinez remembers hearing the song on the radio as a child in Cuba. She translates the Spanish lyrics - "Kiss me, kiss me passionately, as if tonight was the last time... Kiss me, because I'm afraid to lose you, afterwards". It's an achingly romantic bolero that has been translated into more than 20 languages and recorded by hundreds of artists, including João Gilberto, Frank Sinatra, Cesaria Evora, Diana Krall, Josephine Baker, Trio Los Panchos and The Beatles. Music writer Richard Williams talks about the eternal appeal of the melody and how it creates its emotional impact.

German singer and composer Roland Kunz tells the tragic story behind the melody which inspired Consuelo to write the song: a piece by the Catalan composer Enrique Granados, who died the year Velázquez was born. At the height of WWI, Granados and his wife were on their way home to Spain from New York, when their passenger ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat. The story goes that Enrique was picked up by a lifeboat but saw his wife struggling in the water and dived in to save her. They perished, along with 50 other passengers.

We hear stories of three very different couples who loved to dance to the song. Peter and Dorothy Tozer met at a dance school in Acton in 1962 when they were 17 and 16 years old. When the song played during the lesson on the night they met, the dance instructor suggested that - as it was Valentine's Day - everyone should give a kiss to whoever they were dancing with at that moment. The two complete strangers shared a kiss, and have been together ever since.

When Stephen Miller met his Mexican wife Maria, love wasn't on either of their minds. Stephen was in his fifties and had lost his first wife to cancer. Maria had been a single mum for many years. He didn't speak much Spanish, and she didn't speak much English, but they fell in love and had many wonderful adventures together. One day Stephen was backing the car out of the driveway when he hit the wall. He had begun to lose his sight. As the couple were still adjusting to their new reality, Stephen realised that Maria's memory was beginning to slip. He talks about navigating blindness and dementia, and how they would drop everything to dance together to Bésame Mucho, the lyrics of which grew ever more poignant over time.

And Denis Ledoux remembers his wife Martha, who died at 56. They loved to dance to the Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora's version of the song, practicing their dance steps in the living room. After Martha's death, he would listen to the song all the time, sometimes every day. The song became a way to hold onto her and the life they has shared. Denis reflects on how the song's lyric "kiss me, as if tonight was the last time" made him think of all the last times with Martha that he didn't know were last times.

Produced by Mair Bosworth
Mixed by Ilse Lademann
Soul Music is a BBC Audio Bristol production for BBC Radio 4


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m002lqb4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002lqcr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002lqct)
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 (m002lqcw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002lqcy)
News, views and features on yesterday's stories in Parliament


MON 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002lqd0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002lqd2)
And I will try and fix you

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Daniel Sibthorpe

Good morning

I enjoy watching the ‘Repair Shop’ on TV. The concept is simple: a person arrives at the barn with an object of great sentimental value that needs repair. An expert in furniture or fabric lovingly restores it. The show ends with a grand reveal and frequently tears, as owners are reunited with their beautifully restored, often functional, treasure.

Although I appreciate the skill of the craftspeople as they disassemble, clean, and restore each item, it’s the story behind the object that is always the key. The value is not in the object itself, but in what it represents to the owners.

I wonder if we can put ourselves in this scenario: we are God's workmanship, but often our passage through this life causes damage, frayed edges, loss of functionality, and sometimes complete malfunction.

In this context, Jesus said his mission was to seek and restore what was lost. He looks beyond our current state, finds us, and sees the person he always meant us to be, just as the craftspeople see the treasure beneath the damage.

In the repair shop, the goal is not to gloss over the bumps and scrapes of the object's life but rather to bring back functionality and maybe undo years of neglect.
The concept common to both is that your value always exceeds your damage.

So today I pray that, however we feel about our current condition, we are reminded again that we have a loving father whose desire will always be to restore us to our original condition.

Amen


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m002lqd4)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


MON 05:57 Weather (m002lqd6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for farmers


MON 06:00 Today (m002lpdj)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m002lpdl)
Storytelling, with Jeanette Winterson

In her latest novel, One Aladdin Two Lamps, the writer Jeanette Winterson takes inspiration from the legendary story of Shahrazad in One Thousand and One Nights. But she calls on the reader to look again at stories we think we know, unpick how fiction works, and have the courage to challenge and change the narrative.

The saxophonist and presenter Soweto Kinch will perform his new album, Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, with the London Symphony Orchestra (at the Barbican, London, on Friday 14th November), combining British jazz, hip-hop and orchestral music. This is the finale of his acclaimed trilogy of politically charged, genre-defying works that tell different stories of the past, present and future.

The former MP Rory Stewart spent nearly a decade in Britain’s most rural constituency, Penrith and Borders, and wrote a column for a local newspaper. In Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders he’s collected together these fragmentary moments from rural life and local politics to capture a wide-ranging portrait of life and stories from the Cumbrian countryside.

Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez


MON 09:45 Café Hope (m002lpdn)
Thought-provoking talks in which speakers explore original ideas about culture and society


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002lpdq)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


MON 11:00 The Tax Conundrum (m002lpds)
Episode 3: The Politics

What’s blocking us from solving the tax conundrum? Is it risk averse Chancellors who don’t understand how their cynical wheezes and compromises end up messing up the system and holding back growth? Does the fault lie with backbench MPs - like the anti-fuel duty campaigner Robert Halfon, once dubbed the most expensive MP in Britain - who block sensible reform? Does the fault lie with the media, who trumpet the cases of losers from tax reform but ignore the much larger number of winners? Or does it, in the end, come down to all of us - the public? Do we simply not want our illusions to be challenged - and will vote out of power any politician who attempts it? Do we, in the end, get the tax system we deserve?

In the third and final episode of this Radio 4 series Ben Chu gets deep into the political economy of taxation in Britain, speaking to former Chancellor Philip Hammond, the former top civil servant at the Treasury, Nick Macpherson, and former special advisor to George Osborne, Rupert Harrison, about the political reality of tax decision-making behind the door of 11 Downing Street. Ben also joins a focus group run by More in Common to try to get a sense of how ordinary people really feel about tax and its trade offs and to ask whether - as the former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King argues - voters would respect leaders who genuinely levelled with them on tax. He also speaks to one politician - in Wales - who says he’s determined to try something new on tax and who thinks he has the courage and arguments to pull it off.

Presenter: Ben Chu
Producer: Caroline Bayley
Production co-ordinator: Janet Staples
Sound engineer: Rod Farquahar
Editor: Richard Vadon


MON 11:45 Intimate Histories by Hallie Rubenhold (m002lpdv)
1. Peopled History

The historian and bestselling author of The Five and Story of a Murder, Hallie Rubenhold examines what the subject of ‘history’ is and makes the case for keeping it personal.

Her previous books have also included The Covent Garden Ladies which told the stories of the legion of ordinary women whose lives in the sex trade history has chosen to ignore.

History, she argues, is so much more than the brave deeds of ‘Great Men’ as Thomas Carlyle would have us believe. It is instead made up of the ordinary and the often unchronicled lives of people who lived in the houses we live in, who travelled the same streets, maybe planted the same fields and gardens.

Over five essays, Hallie makes a powerful case for the intimacy of history. Careful research can reveal the crucial hinterland to domestic objects which may be hundreds, even thousands, of years old, but this also means that the objects belonging to us or inherited from our parents and grandparents have stories to tell and a role in revealing the social history of our own and recent times.

Hallie Rubenhold was born and grew up in California, her father is English and her mother was American. She studied history in the US and at Leeds University and has lived in the UK for most of her life. Her accent reflects a rich and complex heritage, as nuanced as her work which seeks to give voice to a whole range of hidden narratives often from the marginalized or female side of history.

Written and read by Hallie Rubenhold
Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:00 News Summary (m002lpdx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m002lpdz)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


MON 12:57 Weather (m002lpf1)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m002lpf3)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


MON 13:45 Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line (m002lpf5)
1. Magen

Magen Inon has inherited his parents' belief that peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories cannot be brought about by revenge and violence. He has been sorely tested in this belief since his parents, who had many friends and work colleagues in the Palestinian and Bedouin communities, were brutally murdered in their home on October 23rd 2023.

What does it mean to forgive when you must tell your children that they will never see their beloved grandparents again? Magen explains what he and his brothers and sisters went through as a family to wrench something like forgiveness from the appalling tragedy that engulfed them .

Presented by Marina Cantacuzino
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:00 The Archers (m002lpf7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Disordered (m001t9l6)
Series 1

Episode 2 - Light, Dark, Light

A comedy drama, written by Magnus Mackintosh, and starring Jamie Sives as Hector, an optimistic but struggling 42-year-old single father, with long-term mental health issues, who lives in Edinburgh with his unusually bright 10-year-old son William. He is aided by kindly friend and neighbour Susan and hindered by acerbic ex-partner Amanda.

In episode two, Light, Dark, Light, Hector is frustrated in his attempts to restore his benefits by his terminally unsympathetic benefits advisor and winds up dealing with loan sharks and even somebody helpful before finally the lights go out on him and William. Hector then gets his hands on some cash from an unlikely source, and, as ever, neighbour Susan and William are on hand with plenty good advice.

The writer, Magnus Mackintosh, has personally struggled with mental health issues over 27 years. He openly discusses his own mental health issues on social media in the hope he can help others and raise awareness.

Cast
Hector- Jamie Sives
Susan- Rosalind Sydney
Amanda- Gail Watson
William- Raffi Phillips
Thresher/Bert- Steven McNicoll
Advisor/Check out Person- Jenny Ryan
Gabriel- Moray Hunter
Dodgy- Gordon Kennedy

Studio Engineer and Editor- Lee McPhail
Production Manager- Tayler Norris
Title Music- Just Breathe by Police Dog Hogan
Produced and Directed by Moray Hunter and Gordon Kennedy

Recorded at Castlesound Studios, Pencaitland, East Lothian

An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 14:45 Scenes from a Childhood by Jon Fosse (m001vm5j)
Episode Two: Scenes from a Childhood (Part Two)

A selection of connected short stories by the celebrated Norwegian author Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature - “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. Minimalist and compelling, these pared-back vignettes take us from infancy to awkward adolescence, skirting the line between fiction and autobiography. Episodes one to three draw stories from the titular story sequence 'Scenes from a Childhood'; episodes four and five are taken from the story 'Little Sister'.

'the Beckett of the twenty-first century' - Le Monde

‘Fosse has been compared to Ibsen and to Beckett, and it is easy to see his work as Ibsen stripped down to its emotional essentials. But it is much more. For one thing, it has a fierce poetic simplicity.’ - New York Times

Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Read by John Mackay
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth
Mixed by Ilse Lademann


MON 15:00 A Good Read (m002lpf9)
Nicola Sturgeon and Alistair McGowan

Two books featuring teenage killers feature this time. Nicola Sturgeon MSP votes for Elif Shafak's Honour as her good read. It details the reasons behind the so-called honour killing carried out by a young Turkish Kurd living in London in the 1970s. Nicola says it provides valuable cultural insight into the reasons behind a particular form of violence against women.
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet is set in the feudal system of the Highlands in the late 1800s where crofters were at the mercy of the local Laird and his staff. Roddy's father is barely eking out a living from a small patch of land near Applecross. When his family's livelihood is threatened by a local man exerting his power over them, Roddy commits a brutal triple murder. Harriett enjoys it because it traces the events leading up to the event and Roddy's subsequent trial posing the question of whether he is legally insane or criminally violent.
Something gentler is Alistair McGowan's choice. Fair Stood The Wind For France is HE Bates' wartime novel of an RAF airman crash landing in occupied France. As he recovers from his injuries he falls for the daughter of a farming family who take him in. Alistair believes Bates to be one of the finest English writers of last century but being best known for The Darling Buds of May says he's often overlooked.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie Ayre

Photo credit: Charlotte Hadden


MON 15:30 Curious Cases (m002lpfc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Saturday]


MON 16:00 Currently (m002lpff)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]


MON 16:30 Legend (m002lpfh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


MON 17:00 PM (m002lpfk)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002lpfm)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 18:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m002lpfp)
Series 4

Desert Island Quiz

Paul Sinha tests his audience in Sunderland on their knowledge of light bulbs, desert islands, and twin cities, and in return gets tested on his knowledge of city mottos, Vikings and what you cannot do with a giraffe in certain places in America.

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


MON 19:00 The Archers (m002ln3d)
Susan makes a decision she may regret, and Henry has a controversial suggestion.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m002lpfr)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


MON 20:00 The Briefing Room (m002lff2)
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.


MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (m002lff4)
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.


MON 21:00 Start the Week (m002lpdl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:45 Café Hope (m002lpdn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m002lpft)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 O Now by Niall Williams (m002lpfw)
Episode One

A new original fiction serial specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the acclaimed Irish author Niall Williams. As read by Dermot Crowley.

Four nights a week, Bat Considine calls on his neighbour Mossie Crowe; a beloved widower known to all in the townland of Faha by his grand-father name of Ganga. They sit by the fire and, as Bat reads the newspaper aloud, wait to see which of them will die first. One evening, the two old men make a pact in the hope of one day being able to tell the other the mind of God.

Author
Niall Williams is a best-selling and award-winning author. His novels are often set in the fictional townland of Faha in County Clare, Ireland. These include ‘A History of the Rain’ which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2015, ‘This Is Happiness’ which was nominated for The Irish Book Awards 2020 and ‘The Time of The Child’ which won the Kerry Gold Irish Novel of the Year 2025. He also recently adapted his novel ‘Four Letters of Love’ into a 2025 film starring Pierce Brosnan and Helena Bonham Carter.

Reader: Dermot Crowley
Writer: Niall Williams
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 23:00 Limelight (m0025dw1)
Aldrich Kemp and The Rose of Pamir

5. At the Roof of the World

The race across the world for the mysterious and elusive Rose of Pamir reaches the Pamir Mountains and facilitates a family reunion.

Chapter Five: At The Roof of The World

Mountain-top scuffles as loyalties are tested and all is finally revealed.

Clara Page - Phoebe Fox
Aldrich Kemp – Ferdinand Kingsley
Mrs Boone – Nicola Walker
Sebastian Harcourt – Kyle Soller
Nakesha Kemp – Karla Crome
Aunt Lily – Susan Jameson
The Underwood Sisters – Jana Carpenter
Lionel – Steven Mackintosh
Selina – Catherine Kanter
Hazlitt – Ben Crowe
Sabine Seah – Bec Boey

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 (m002lpfy)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament

TUESDAY 04 NOVEMBER 2025

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m002lpg0)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 Intimate Histories by Hallie Rubenhold (m002lpdv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002lpg2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002lpg4)
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 (m002lpg6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002lpg8)
News, views and features on yesterday's stories in Parliament


TUE 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002lpgb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002lpgd)
Ice bath utterances

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Daniel Sibthorpe

Good morning

I regularly swim outdoors, but at this time of the year, that means I’m also a cold water swimmer, one of those adventurous people who take ice cold plunges to kick start their day, supposedly. Where I swim, the seasonal changes have shifted the marine lake's visitors from families and sunbathers to either dedicated winter swimmers or newcomers trying it for the first time. Upon entering the water, the sounds are quite similar: shrieks of shock or joy, mostly the former, along with a fair amount of swearing. This unusual behaviour is occurring throughout the U.K. this morning, but it is not as new as it might seem.

St. Congar, who was born around 470 AD, was a Welsh abbot who crossed the Bristol Channel to settle in Somerset and establish a monastery. Each day, he would enter the cold waters of the local river and remain there until he had recited the Lord’s Prayer three times. After this daily ritual, he would industriously get on with his work, transforming the area's marshes into fertile fields.

Like St Congar, when encountering today's challenges, whether they arise unexpectedly or are of our own making, we too are confronted with a choice. After the initial shock wears off, do we respond with anger and frustration, or do we try to refocus and seek solace through prayer? Are we criticizing God for not preventing these situations, or are we calling upon Him for help?

So today I pray that faced with trials or challenges, we can handle the shock, recover our equilibrium, pray, and endure.

Amen


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m002lpgg)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 06:00 Today (m002ln2q)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m002ln2s)
Professor Julia Simner

Imagine if you were listening to an opera or a Taylor Swift concert, and as the lights in the auditorium dimmed, the music was accompanied by a rainbow of colours only you could see. Perhaps while listening to your friends talking, you simultaneously experience a smorgasbord of tastes, with different words evoking different flavours, maybe a delicious ice cream, or something as disgusting as ear wax...
This merging of the senses is known as synaesthesia, and it’s the rich research world of neuropsychologist Professor Julia Simner. Julia runs the Multisense lab at the University of Sussex and has pioneered research into understanding how special brains process our sensory world in special ways. In the studio she tests Jim to see if he might be a synaesthete or have aphantasia, which is the inability to view images in the mind’s eye. The results are surprising.
Julia’s discovered links to autism, and to different personality types, as well as a number of previously unknown sensory differences.
She describes her career and her life as a series of swerves, or sliding door moments, that have led her to study the subject and the people she’s passionate about. She says that the more she looks for these unusual traits in us the more she finds, and that maybe one day we’ll all be able to map our own sensory differences.


TUE 09:30 All in the Mind (m002ln2v)
The show on how we think, feel and behave. Claudia Hammond delves into the evidence on mental health, psychology and neuroscience.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002ln2x)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


TUE 11:00 Screenshot (m002lfjs)
Frankenstein

Ellen and Mark explore the enduring appeal of Frankenstein.

Mark speaks to director Guillermo Del Toro on his new adaptation of the classic novel and why the Frankenstein story has had such an influence on his career.

Ellen then talks to critic Anne Billson about the history of Frankenstein throughout cinema history as well as speaking to director Bomani J. Story on his interpretation in his film, The Angry Black Girl and her Monster.

Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 11:45 Intimate Histories by Hallie Rubenhold (m002ln2z)
2. Unforgettable

The historian and bestselling author of The Five and Story of a Murder, Hallie Rubenhold examines what the subject of ‘history’ is and makes the case for keeping it personal.

Her previous books have also included The Covent Garden Ladies which told the stories of the legion of ordinary women whose lives in the sex trade history has chosen to ignore.

History, she argues, is so much more than the brave deeds of ‘Great Men’ as Thomas Carlyle would have us believe. It is instead made up of the ordinary and the often unchronicled lives of people who lived in the houses we live in, who travelled the same streets, maybe planted the same fields and gardens.

Over five essays, Hallie makes a powerful case for the intimacy of history. Careful research can reveal the crucial hinterland to domestic objects which may be hundreds, even thousands, of years old, but this also means that the objects belonging to us or inherited from our parents and grandparents have stories to tell and a role in revealing the social history of our own and recent times.

Hallie Rubenhold was born and grew up in California, her father is English and her mother was American. She studied history in the US and at Leeds University and has lived in the UK for most of her life. Her accent reflects a rich and complex heritage, as nuanced as her work which seeks to give voice to a whole range of hidden narratives often from the marginalized or female side of history.

Written and read by Hallie Rubenhold
Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m002ln32)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m002ln34)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


TUE 12:57 Weather (m002ln36)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m002ln38)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


TUE 13:45 Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line (m002ln3b)
2. Lis

Marina Cantacuzino believes that self forgiveness can be the hardest sort. She talks to Lis Cashin whose years growing up were utterly spoiled by an accident in which she killed a schoolfriend when she was 13.

Believing herself to be to blame for the death, Lis's life became one of self destruction until events allowed her to forgive herself and achieve happiness in middle age.

Presented by Marina Cantacuzino
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m002ln3d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002ln3g)
The Dagenham Porkchop

Ronny Moffat aka The Dagenham Porkchop, a once superstar wrestler is living on crumbs, working the holiday camp circuit. When his past body-slams back into his life, Ronny has to wrestle with more than just a 20 stone athlete in a leotard.

CAST
Ronny 'The Dagenham Porkchop' Moffat - Robert Glenister
Terry 'The Pharaoh' - Ron Cook
Virginia 'Vampire' Dawson - Lisa Palfrey
Lorraine - Holli Dempsey
Ray 'Elvis' Evans - Dean Rehman
Tom - Dean Coulson
Dickie Davies, Kent Walton, The Holidaymaker - Dick Bradnum

Production Coordinator: Lindsay Rees
Sound Design: Nigel Lewis
Producer: John Norton

A BBC Audio Wales Production


TUE 15:00 History's Heroes (m002ln3j)
History's Toughest Heroes

Hugh Glass: The Real Story of The Revenant

The real-life Revenant who survived a savage bear mauling and crawled hundreds of miles across the American plains to confront the scoundrels who abandoned him.

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

Immortalised by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2015 blockbuster movie, the real-life Hugh Glass is still a bit of a mystery. This fur trapper and great mountain man of the Wild West became famous in his own lifetime for being absurdly tough – the legend went that he'd escaped pirates, been schooled by native tribes in survival on the often brutal American Plains. He was savaged by a bear, and crawled 200 miles to wreak bitter vengeance on the men who abandoned him.

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

Producer: Suniti Somaiya
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 (w3ct6vp8)
Digitally preserving Armenia’s Christian heritage

In the ancient Yererouk Basilica in Armenia, near the border with Turkey, young engineers are filming. Using 3D digital technology, they’re scanning every part of the building. When the material is put together, it will recreate the church on a screen, in full-colour and in three dimensions.

This is the digital preservation initiative, created by TUMO, the Center for Creative Technologies, based in Armenia’s capital Yerevan. It’s training young people to use new technology, but also connecting Armenian teenagers with their 2000-year-old Christian heritage.

Armenia was the first kingdom to adopt Christianity as its state religion. But in 2023, the country lost control of numerous important religious sites, when the province of Nagorno-Karabakh was taken over by neighbouring Muslim Azerbaijan. The mountainous enclave, known as Artsakh to Armenians, has long been a disputed territory between the two countries. Despite the new peace agreement signed recently, the province is still closed to Armenians. International observers using satellite technology say dozens of important Christian sites have been damaged or destroyed.

For Heart and Soul, Julia Paul travels to Armenia to find out how drones and lasers are helping young Armenians to connect to and preserve their ancient Christian heritage, at a time when many sites are being silently erased from the map.

[Credit: Julia Paul. Photo Description: The team of engineers from digital preservation initiative at the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, at Yererouk basilica in Armenia’s Shirak province.]

Producer/Presenter: Julia Paul
Executive Producer: Rajeev Gupta
Editor: Chloe Walker
Production Coordinator: Mica Nepomuceno


TUE 16:00 Artworks (m002ln3m)
Painting with Scissors

Forget nursery school, round ended scissors and glue sticks – collage is sophisticated, political, complicated and underrated.

So much modern music, audio and film making involves taking bits from everywhere, splicing them up, reassembling and layering them to create new meaning. 

Art historian, critic and writer Ruth Millington uncovers the history of collage. Where did it begin and why did it become the essential creative medium for outsiders and revolutionaries?

Ever since Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque began to stick bits of found materials into their painting, collage has allowed artists to access bold new ideas. Dada artists used collage and photomontage to criticise German culture after the First World War. The surrealists used collage to access their inner minds. The pop artists, like Peter Blake, used the juxtaposition of images, from commercials to literature, to challenge ideas on the avant-garde. From The Beatles and Rolling Stones album covers to radical feminist artists like Linder and Chila Singh Burman, collage has been used to make new ideas recognisable and to play with meaning and context. John Stezaker has used collage to find a third space, a way of reclaiming the image in a world which is saturated by visual displays. Today, digital artists like Cold War Steve create collages on social media that reflect the work of the early Dada artists Hannah Höch and John Heartfield. We see collages on our social feeds, hear sound montages and samples in hip-hop and pop and watch videos which cut together art, film, photos and text. It seems that collage is now everywhere we look but it may still be a tool to shift the status quo. Ruth takes her scissors, scalpel and glue to find out why collage matters.


TUE 16:30 What's Up Docs? (m002ln3p)
How can you look after your amazing heart?

In a special episode recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Radio Theatre in London, What's up Docs? explores the wonders of the human heart.

"The heart is more than just a pump- it's a marvel of engineering and history, and in this episode, we're pulling it apart to see how it all works!”

Join Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken as they discover how reliable the human heart can be, beating on average a hundred thousand times a day - that's more than 2.5 billion beats in a lifetime!

The doctors are joined on stage by two guests - Sian Harding is Emeritus Professor of Cardiac Pharmacology at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London. She is also author of the book “The Exquisite Machine: the new science of the heart”. Also taking part is Professor Stephen Westaby, one of the world's leading heart surgeons. Over the course of his career, he has performed over 11,000 heart operations and is renowned for his ground-breaking work in artificial heart technology.

Together they'll look back at the history of heart surgery (it's messy!), reveal some of the latest breakthroughs in heart science and surgery, including the future of artificial hearts, and discuss how best to look after your own heart.

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
Guests Professor Sian Harding and Professor Stephen Westaby
Producers: Maia Miller-Lewis & Rami Tzabar
Executive Producer: Jo Rowntree
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Assistant Producer: Grace Revil
Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable
Social Media: Leon Gower
Digital Lead: Richard Berry
Composer: Phoebe McFarlane
Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby

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

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 17:00 PM (m002ln3r)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002ln3t)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 18:30 Mark Steel's in Town (m002ln3w)
Series 14

Episode 5

Comedian Mark Steel visits towns across the UK and creates a show for a local audience.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m002ln3y)
Alan offers salvation, and Alice is put on the spot.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m002ln40)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


TUE 20:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002ln42)
News-making original journalism investigating stories at home and abroad


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m002ln44)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted


TUE 21:00 Illuminated (m002ln46)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Sunday]


TUE 21:30 The Bottom Line (m002lfdk)
Evan Davis hosts the business conversation show with people at the top giving insight into what matters.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m002ln48)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 O Now by Niall Williams (m002ln4b)
Episode Two

A new original fiction serial specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the acclaimed Irish author Niall Williams. As read by Dermot Crowley.

Four nights a week, Bat Considine calls on his neighbour Mossie Crowe; a beloved widower known to all in the townland of Faha by his grand-father name of Ganga. They sit by the fire and, as Bat reads the newspaper aloud, wait to see which of them will die first. One evening, the two old men make a pact in the hope of one day being able to tell the other the mind of God.

Author
Niall Williams is a best-selling and award-winning author. His novels are often set in the fictional townland of Faha in County Clare, Ireland. These include ‘A History of the Rain’ which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2015, ‘This Is Happiness’ which was nominated for The Irish Book Awards 2020 and ‘The Time of The Child’ which won the Kerry Gold Irish Novel of the Year 2025. He also recently adapted his novel ‘Four Letters of Love’ into a 2025 film starring Pierce Brosnan and Helena Bonham Carter.

Reader: Dermot Crowley
Writer: Niall Williams
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 23:00 Uncanny (m002m2sm)
Series 5

Case 2: Old Jim

Danny Robins returns for more spine-chilling tales from listeners.


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002ln4f)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament

WEDNESDAY 05 NOVEMBER 2025

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m002ln4h)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 00:30 Intimate Histories by Hallie Rubenhold (m002ln2z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002ln4k)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002ln4m)
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 (m002ln4p)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002ln4r)
News, views and features on yesterday's stories in Parliament.


WED 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002ln4t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002ln4w)
15 minutes of grace

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Daniel Sibthorpe

Good morning

There seems to be a new trend in my area to charge for parking. Whilst reading the terms and conditions on one of those shiny new signs, I was struck by this sentence. “Free parking for 15 minutes, no grace thereafter”.

The word 'grace' has many meanings, but for me, it’s something I associate more with church than car parks.

In my own life, I often run out of grace. I reach the end of my patience with someone or a particular situation. I feel I’ve done enough, listened enough, empathized enough. Usually for me I become unkind and start dictating solutions.

Perhaps because of this, I can feel that God is like this with me—of course there is a period of grace where I can do stupid things and still receive mercy and love but this is obviously limited and could run out at any minute.

Charles Wesley, the great Methodist hymn writer, would not agree. Writing these amazing lines.

He left his Father's throne above — so free, so infinite his grace —
Emptied himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free; for, O my God, it found out me!

It is a wonderful thing to understand that there is no limit to God’s grace.

So, today I pray that despite our mistakes and failures we would find that goodness and mercy are still following us, that we develop greater patience with ourselves and others and that we would dwell in the ‘grace filled’ house of the Lord forever.

Amen


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m002ln4y)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 06:00 Today (m002ln7f)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Life Changing (m002ln7h)
I shook hands with the man who nearly killed me

It was a summer evening in 2014, when four men barged into Paul Kohler’s family home and began a savage assault on him. They believed erroneously that he had a large amount of money hidden there. The speed of the police response meant that Paul was saved from almost certain death, and the four men were later arrested, charged and imprisoned. Although he felt vindicated by the sentencing, Paul’s worldview was changed forever when he and his family were invited to visit one of the attackers in prison, as part of a Restorative Justice scheme.

In an episode recorded in front of a live audience at the Hay Literary Festival, Paul tells Dr Sian Williams about that Life Changing confrontation, and how frustration with the way his ordeal was reported led to him into politics.

Producer: Tom Alban


WED 09:30 The History Podcast (m002kt8j)
The Magnificent O'Connors

6. Undermine, Explain or Accept

Ragnar and the family try to understand what the confession from the basement means. Is it the truth? Or was it just another story that Jimmy spun? Determined to find something to disprove the statement, they head to the National Archive in search of answers.

While the family have been grappling with the confession and what it means for them, Louise Shorter has been going through the evidence around the case with an experienced Kings Council. And what they have to say could put new life in a story that’s over 80 years old. The question is, do the O’Connors have one more fight in them?

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 (m002ln7k)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


WED 11:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002ln42)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]


WED 11:40 This Week in History (m002ln7m)
Fascinating, surprising and eye-opening stories from the past, brought to life.


WED 11:45 Intimate Histories by Hallie Rubenhold (m002ln7p)
3. Home

The historian and bestselling author of The Five and Story of a Murder, Hallie Rubenhold examines what the subject of ‘history’ is and makes the case for keeping it personal.

Her previous books have also included The Covent Garden Ladies which told the stories of the legion of ordinary women whose lives in the sex trade history has chosen to ignore.

History, she argues, is so much more than the brave deeds of ‘Great Men’ as Thomas Carlyle would have us believe. It is instead made up of the ordinary and the often unchronicled lives of people who lived in the houses we live in, who travelled the same streets, maybe planted the same fields and gardens.

Over five essays, Hallie makes a powerful case for the intimacy of history. Careful research can reveal the crucial hinterland to domestic objects which may be hundreds, even thousands, of years old, but this also means that the objects belonging to us or inherited from our parents and grandparents have stories to tell and a role in revealing the social history of our own and recent times.

Hallie Rubenhold was born and grew up in California, her father is English and her mother was American. She studied history in the US and at Leeds University and has lived in the UK for most of her life. Her accent reflects a rich and complex heritage, as nuanced as her work which seeks to give voice to a whole range of hidden narratives often from the marginalized or female side of history.

Written and read by Hallie Rubenhold
Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:00 News Summary (m002ln7r)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m002ln7t)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


WED 12:57 Weather (m002ln7w)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m002ln7y)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


WED 13:45 Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line (m002ln80)
3. Marie

Causing death by dangerous driving was the crime for which a Romanian lorry driver was imprisoned for eight years. Among the victims were Marie Johnson's mother and step father who died in horrific circumstances.

Can Marie find a way to ease her pain and forgive the driver? By deciding to meet him in prison through a process of restorative justice, she has a chance to try.

Presented by Marina Cantacuzino
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


WED 14:00 The Archers (m002ln3y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002ln82)
Undercover: Make It Count - Episode 1

Third series of the returning detective drama that explores the morally ambiguous, complex and challenging world of undercover police operations.

In Rebekah Harrison's series 'Make it Count' an undercover operative infiltrates a boxing gym in a Northern British town following an arson attack on a local Mosque, to investigate if the young members are at risk of extreme right-wing radicalisation.

KELVIN.....Ian Puleston-Davies
ANDY.....Ben Batt
GEMMA.....Manjinder Virk
JAYDEN.....Samuel Bottomley
SINEAD.....Erin Shanager
SAJID.....Shaban Dar
KARL and INVESTIGATING OFFICER.....Simon Naylor

Other parts were played by students from The Arden School of Theatre:
Kyle Barnett, Bea Bell, Maja Booth, Lucy Chapman, Lola Rose Clark, Angelique Emery, Joe Gamble, Ruby Glavin, Lydia Griffiths, Jermain Harris, Umar Haroon, Aiden Hope, Lydia Klosa, Joseph Lymer, Millie Matheson, Roisin Murphy, Xander Parsons, Dylan Peacock, Ethan Philliips, Vita Prescott, Millie Slater, Alan Tarkil, Livvy Taylor, Millie Trodden, Omair Usman, Benji Watson, Glorencia Wakudyanaye, Jessica Williams, Pippa Williams.

Writer - Rebekah Harrison
Director-Nadia Molinari
Technical Production and Sound Design - Sharon Hughes
Production Co-ordinator - Ben Hollands
Assistant Technical Production - Kelly Young
Technical Apprentice - Elijah Waddington

A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 15:00 The Law Show (m002ln84)
Conversation about the laws making headlines, and the laws that shape everyday life.


WED 15:30 Child (m002ln86)
Series 2

1. Happiness

India Rakusen dives into the emotional lives of toddlers, starting with the complex and often misunderstood emotion of happiness. Through giggling games of peekaboo, insights from neuroscientists, historians, and global perspectives on parenting, the episode unpacks how toddlers experience joy and how early emotional development shapes who we become. Experts reveal the science behind brain plasticity, the importance of caregiver connection, and the myths we hold about emotions. India also explores how society pressures parents to “keep kids happy” and how that links to broader cultural ideas—like the pursuit of happiness in politics and history and challenges us to rethink what happiness really is, for our children and for ourselves.

Presented by: India Rakusen.
Producer: Ellie Sans
Assistant Producer: Charlotte Evans-Young
Executive producer: Alex Hollands
Commissioning Exec: Paula McDonnell
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
Original music composed and performed by The Big Moon and Eska Mtungwazi
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King

Child is a Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4


WED 16:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002ln89)
Who's in the news for all the wrong reasons? With David Yelland and Simon Lewis.


WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002ln8c)
Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this is the programme about a revolution in media.


WED 17:00 PM (m002ln8f)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002ln8h)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 18:30 Stand-Up Specials (m002ln8k)
Scott Bennett: Blood Sugar Baby

Scott Bennett: Blood Sugar Baby tells the amazing true story of Scott and Jemma Bennett’s infant daughter Olivia and her battle with a rare genetic condition, how she was nearly fatally misdiagnosed and how Scott challenged the hospital to improve their care - by taking his dad’s advice to “Put a tie on”.

First-time parents Scott and Jemma are taken from the apparently idyllic world of having a new-born baby who sleeps through the night and suddenly plunged into months of misguided treatments, genetics, bizarre side effects and private jets.

Recorded in Scott and Jemma’s home town of Nottingham - where the real-life story began - this is an emotional show about a critically ill baby but it’s also a really funny one with a happy and hopeful ending.

Written and Performed by Scott Bennett
Produced by Ben Walker

A DLT Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m002ln8m)
Disaster strikes for Chris, and Mick tries something different.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m002ln8p)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.


WED 20:00 AntiSocial (m002lfhs)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.


WED 20:45 Superhead (m00237mm)
Episode 5 - Lacks Personal Responsibility

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

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

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

In Episode 5, John puts the details of the scandal to Trevor himself.

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


WED 21:00 The Life Scientific (m002ln2s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 All in the Mind (m002ln2v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m002ln8s)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 O Now by Niall Williams (m002ln8v)
Episode Three

A new original fiction serial specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the acclaimed Irish author Niall Williams. As read by Dermot Crowley.

Four nights a week, Bat Considine calls on his neighbour Mossie Crowe; a beloved widower known to all in the townland of Faha by his grand-father name of Ganga. They sit by the fire and, as Bat reads the newspaper aloud, wait to see which of them will die first. One evening, the two old men make a pact in the hope of one day being able to tell the other the mind of God.

Author
Niall Williams is a best-selling and award-winning author. His novels are often set in the fictional townland of Faha in County Clare, Ireland. These include ‘A History of the Rain’ which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2015, ‘This Is Happiness’ which was nominated for The Irish Book Awards 2020 and ‘The Time of The Child’ which won the Kerry Gold Irish Novel of the Year 2025. He also recently adapted his novel ‘Four Letters of Love’ into a 2025 film starring Pierce Brosnan and Helena Bonham Carter.

Reader: Dermot Crowley
Writer: Niall Williams
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:00 Tom & Lauren Are Going OOT (m0022l58)
Series 1

4. Three's a Crowd

Becca, Lauren’s cousin, has recently been dumped by her girlfriend, and is now staying with Tom and Lauren. Exasperated by Becca’s outbursts, Tom decides to use emotional regulation techniques he uses at school to help Becca cope with her emotions.

Lauren is dreaming of a quiet night at home, but things get complicated when Neil pops round to complain about Becca and Tom has a secret activity planned for him and Lauren.

Special guest appearance by Julian Clary as Neil and Louise Young as Becca.

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

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 (m002ln8x)
4. Nuns, Nightlife & Newcastle

In a special night time episode of Humanwatch, the team look at the wonderous world of stag and hen dos. They also consider the symbiotic relationship of humans and dogs, while roving reporter Phil makes a surprising confession about his time in the Swindon set.

Written and presented by Marjolein Robertson and Gareth Waugh

With Phil Ellis and Katia Kvinge

Produced by Lauren Mackay

Sound by Fraser Jackson

Photographer: Chris Quilietti

A BBC Scotland production for Radio 4.


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002ln8z)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament

THURSDAY 06 NOVEMBER 2025

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m002ln91)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 Intimate Histories by Hallie Rubenhold (m002ln7p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002ln93)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002ln95)
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 (m002ln97)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002ln99)
News, views and features on yesterday's stories in Parliament


THU 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002ln9c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002ln9f)
God loves a party

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Daniel Sibthorpe

Good morning

Last month, my son got married. We all dressed up, reconnected with family members, enjoyed delicious food, shared good wine, cheered and clapped and danced late into the night, all in the same Church building.

Although there were of course weeks of preparation and planning, and much activity in the days leading up to the event, my overriding memory of the day will be that it was fantastic fun.

Many people imagine that the weddings and parties Jesus attended were quiet and orderly. But at the famous wedding in Cana, the celebration was so lively that they ran out of wine. Today, most party planners might have said it was time to switch to water. But Jesus chose to keep the celebration going by providing even better wine than before.

I know how easy it is for me to see God as a bit of a killjoy, always quick to shut the fun down in favour of seemingly more spiritual activities. Interestingly Jesus was to be found very often at gatherings, enjoying meals, and creating space for fun and laughter.

Jesus was vilified for much of this activity; and the religious leaders of the day called him “a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of the outcasts.” His regular attendance at unreligious gatherings seemed to have been, not to their liking.

So today I pray that we would know the favour of God on our lives, we will feel his smile in our relaxed times as well as our more spiritual ones and that we would know he wants to be our invited guest at every event.

Amen


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m002ln9h)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 06:00 Today (m002lpjh)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (b08kscgb)
Pauli's Exclusion Principle

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958), whose Exclusion Principle is one of the key ideas in quantum mechanics. A brilliant physicist, at 21 Pauli wrote a review of Einstein's theory of general relativity and that review is still a standard work of reference today. The Pauli Exclusion Principle proposes that no two electrons in an atom can be at the same time in the same state or configuration, and it helps explain a wide range of phenomena such as the electron shell structure of atoms. Pauli went on to postulate the existence of the neutrino, which was confirmed in his lifetime. Following further development of his exclusion principle, Pauli was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1945 for his 'decisive contribution through his discovery of a new law of Nature'. He also had a long correspondence with Jung, and a reputation for accidentally breaking experimental equipment which was dubbed The Pauli Effect.

With

Frank Close
Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College, University of Oxford

Michela Massimi
Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Edinburgh

and

Graham Farmelo
Bye-Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge

Producer: Simon Tillotson.


THU 09:45 Strong Message Here (m002lpjl)
Armando Iannucci and guests decode the utterly baffling world of political language.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002lpjn)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m002lpjq)
Jennifer Lawrence

In-depth conversations with some of the world's leading artists and creatives across theatre, visual arts, music, dance, film and more. Hosted by John Wilson.


THU 11:45 Intimate Histories by Hallie Rubenhold (m002lpjs)
4. Reel History

The historian and bestselling author of The Five and Story of a Murder, Hallie Rubenhold examines what the subject of ‘history’ is and makes the case for keeping it personal.

Her previous books have also included The Covent Garden Ladies which told the stories of the legion of ordinary women whose lives in the sex trade history has chosen to ignore.

History, she argues, is so much more than the brave deeds of ‘Great Men’ as Thomas Carlyle would have us believe. It is instead made up of the ordinary and the often unchronicled lives of people who lived in the houses we live in, who travelled the same streets, maybe planted the same fields and gardens.

Over five essays, Hallie makes a powerful case for the intimacy of history. Careful research can reveal the crucial hinterland to domestic objects which may be hundreds, even thousands, of years old, but this also means that the objects belonging to us or inherited from our parents and grandparents have stories to tell and a role in revealing the social history of our own and recent times.

Hallie Rubenhold was born and grew up in California, her father is English and her mother was American. She studied history in the US and at Leeds University and has lived in the UK for most of her life. Her accent reflects a rich and complex heritage, as nuanced as her work which seeks to give voice to a whole range of hidden narratives often from the marginalized or female side of history.

Written and read by Hallie Rubenhold
Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:00 News Summary (m002lpjv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 The Bottom Line (m002lpjx)
Evan Davis hosts the business conversation show with people at the top giving insight into what matters.


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002lpjz)
Greg Foot investigates the so-called wonder products making bold claims.


THU 12:57 Weather (m002lpk1)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m002lpk3)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


THU 13:45 Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line (m002lpk5)
4. Gethin

Gethin Jones tells the story of his troubled and disrupted childhood which led to a life of crime and drug abuse. Marina hears how he lost faith in other people and became unreachable and isolated.

He blamed his mother for his ruined life, but it was forgiveness for her and for himself that, aged 34, saved him from almost certain death.

Presented by Marina Cantacuzino
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


THU 14:00 The Archers (m002ln8m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001c6gl)
In Moderation

by Katie Bonna

Esther ..... Aisling Loftus
Connor ..... Jonathan Forbes
Issam ..... David Mumeni
Alison ..... Dorothy Atkinson
Nick ..... Hughie O'Donnell
Pamela ..... Ruth Everett
Voice of the Internet ..... Tom Kiteley
Co-Worker ..... Chloë Sommer

Directed by Sally Avens

Esther's sister has taken her own life after watching self harm videos online so Esther is on a mission to clean up the internet.
She takes a job as a content moderator but soon finds herself struggling to cope in a world far darker and more complex than she could possibly have imagined.


THU 15:00 Ramblings (m002lpk7)
Whispering Rocks with Anjana Khatwa

Clare joins Earth Scientist and author Anjana Khatwa for a cliffside walk in Dorset exploring the landscapes that shaped her life, and her book The Whispers of Rock – Stories from the Earth.

Starting at Spyway Barn near Langton Matravers, the route takes in clifftops, caves, and the fossil-rich coastline, revealing stories of geology and belonging. Anjana shares her journey from growing up in Slough in a traditional Indian family to becoming a leading voice in earth science.

From Spyway Barn, at the National Trust car park, they walked down to Dancing Ledge, along the coast path past Winspit Caves, and up to the village of Worth Matravers before heading back to the car park. This walk is packed with stories – from landscapes that inspired Enid Blyton to geology, quarrying, and fossils.

Grid Reference for Spyway Barn: SY 998 776
Map: OS Explorer 116 – Lyme Regis & Bridport

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer for BBC Studios: Karen Gregor


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m002lpk9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Feedback (m002lpkc)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience


THU 16:00 The Briefing Room (m002lpkf)
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m002lpkh)
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.


THU 17:00 PM (m002lpkk)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002lpkm)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 18:30 Call Jonathan Pie (p0fsytjk)
8. Drugs

Pie is doing a phone-in show about drugs policy in the UK, a subject Pie knows absolutely nothing about. Pie enlists the help of Sam to guide him through the country’s drug culture. When Pie’s narcissistic coke-fuelled agent pops in, things take a turn for the bizarre and Pie ends the evening knowing a lot more about drugs than he did at the start.

Jonathan Pie ..... Tom Walker

Jules ..... Lucy Pearman

Sam ..... Aqib Khan

Roger ..... Nick Revell

Agent ..... Daniel Abelson

Voiceovers ..... Bob Sinfield and Rob Curling


Callers ... Daniel Abelson, Ed Kear, Nick Revell, Thanyia Moore and Jonathan Tafler.


Writer ..... Tom Walker

Special thanks to Julie Smith and Peter Burns
Script Editor ..... Nick Revell

Producer ..... Alison Vernon-Smith

Production Coordinator ..... Ellie Dobing

Executive Producer ..... Julian Mayers

Sound Designer ..... Julian Mayers

Original music composed by Jason Read



Additional music Leighton James House

A Yada-Yada Audio Production


THU 19:00 The Archers (m002lpkq)
It’s an emotional day for one resident, and David is forced to intervene.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m002lpks)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


THU 20:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002ln89)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Wednesday]


THU 20:15 The Media Show (m002ln8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:15 on Wednesday]


THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m002lpkv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


THU 21:45 Strong Message Here (m002lpjl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002lpkx)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 O Now by Niall Williams (m002lpkz)
Episode Four

A new original fiction serial specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the acclaimed Irish author Niall Williams. As read by Dermot Crowley.

Four nights a week, Bat Considine calls on his neighbour Mossie Crowe; a beloved widower known to all in the townland of Faha by his grand-father name of Ganga. They sit by the fire and, as Bat reads the newspaper aloud, wait to see which of them will die first. One evening, the two old men make a pact in the hope of one day being able to tell the other the mind of God.

Author
Niall Williams is a best-selling and award-winning author. His novels are often set in the fictional townland of Faha in County Clare, Ireland. These include ‘A History of the Rain’ which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2015, ‘This Is Happiness’ which was nominated for The Irish Book Awards 2020 and ‘The Time of The Child’ which won the Kerry Gold Irish Novel of the Year 2025. He also recently adapted his novel ‘Four Letters of Love’ into a 2025 film starring Pierce Brosnan and Helena Bonham Carter.

Reader: Dermot Crowley
Writer: Niall Williams
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:00 Artworks (b017ldlh)
v. by Tony Harrison

The poet Tony Harrison (1937-2025) recorded this complete reading of his controversial poem v. in 2013 and it is repeated to mark his death in September 2025. It is broadcast in this programme alongside a discussion around the poem's significance, also from 2013. This was the first broadcast of v. on British radio. It was recorded in his hometown of Leeds.

Harrison wrote the poem in 1985, after being angered by graffiti sprayed on his parents' grave by football fans.

The writer Blake Morrison introduces us to v. and talks to others who were caught up in the storm of controversy around it. Melvyn Bragg, Simon Armitage and Julie Bindell, as well as then-MP Gerald Howarth, consider its impact.

A filmed version of the poem caused controversy in 1987 when it was announced that it was to be broadcast on Channel 4. The poem, which includes repeated strong and racist language, was denounced by some newspapers as a "torrent of filth". A group of MPs signed an Early Day Motion to have the programme pulled from schedules. At that time, Gerald Howarth said that Harrison was "Probably another bolshie poet wishing to impose his frustrations on the rest of us". Harrison retorted that Howarth was "Probably another idiot MP wishing to impose his intellectual limitations on the rest of us".

Others defended the poet's right to use such language to draw attention to the wanton desecration of his family's grave. It was also seen against the backdrop of the miners' strike and racial intolerance in British cities. Beeston, the poem's setting, was later under focus as the home of Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the 7/7 bombers.

Poetry Production: Graham Frost
Feature Production: Lucy Dichmont
Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

FRIDAY 07 NOVEMBER 2025

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002lpl1)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 00:30 Intimate Histories by Hallie Rubenhold (m002lpjs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002lpl3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002lpl5)
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 (m002lpl7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:04 The Briefing Room (m002lpkf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Thursday]


FRI 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002lpl9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002lplc)
Sympathy for the devil

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Daniel Sibthorpe

Good morning

Sympathy for the Devil is the opening track on the Rolling Stones 1968 album Beggar’s Banquet. It caused quite a stir at the time, and may still raise a few eyebrows.

Although I may disagree with the song title, I do feel sympathy for certain individuals in the bible who seem to have been unfairly labelled. If you look at baby name lists, Peter is still riding high at 360, whereas Judas is over 10 thousand places lower.

In my reading of the bible, they both did their fair share of betraying. Peter called down curses on himself, denying he had anything to do with Jesus. Judas gave crucial intelligence on where to find Jesus, but seems to have come off far worse in our collective memory.

Perhaps this is due to the later interaction between Jesus and Peter, which is detailed at the end of John's Gospel.

Jesus is having a beach barbecue and still instructing the disciples on how to catch fish. Peter jumps into the water to reach Him first, and in a profound act of reconciliation, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him, mirroring Peter's three denials.

Judas’s final moments reveal deep regret as he returns the silver pieces to the priests and declares that he has betrayed an innocent man.
This makes me wonder what the conversation would have been if Judas were present at that breakfast with Jesus.

Today, I pray that we may come to understand how immense God's love is for us; that nothing we have said or done can prevent us from being invited to a reconciling encounter with Him.

Amen


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002lplf)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 06:00 Today (m002lpnc)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m002lpnf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Sunday]


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002lpnh)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m002lpnk)
Investigating every aspect of the food we eat


FRI 11:45 Intimate Histories by Hallie Rubenhold (m002lpnm)
5. London Lives

The historian and bestselling author of The Five and Story of a Murder, Hallie Rubenhold examines what the subject of ‘history’ is and makes the case for keeping it personal.

Her previous books have also included The Covent Garden Ladies which told the stories of the legion of ordinary women whose lives in the sex trade history has chosen to ignore.

History, she argues, is so much more than the brave deeds of ‘Great Men’ as Thomas Carlyle would have us believe. It is instead made up of the ordinary and the often unchronicled lives of people who lived in the houses we live in, who travelled the same streets, maybe planted the same fields and gardens.

Over five essays, Hallie makes a powerful case for the intimacy of history. Careful research can reveal the crucial hinterland to domestic objects which may be hundreds, even thousands, of years old, but this also means that the objects belonging to us or inherited from our parents and grandparents have stories to tell and a role in revealing the social history of our own and recent times.

Hallie Rubenhold was born and grew up in California, her father is English and her mother was American. She studied history in the US and at Leeds University and has lived in the UK for most of her life. Her accent reflects a rich and complex heritage, as nuanced as her work which seeks to give voice to a whole range of hidden narratives often from the marginalized or female side of history.

Written and read by Hallie Rubenhold
Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m002lpnp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m002lpnr)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


FRI 12:57 Weather (m002lpnt)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m002lpnw)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


FRI 13:45 Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line (m002lpny)
5. Lejla

Lejla Damon was born as a result of a terrible campaign of rape carried out against Muslim women in the Bosnian war. She was given up by her birth mother who wanted nothing to do with the baby.

Two British journalists, working at the time to report on the war, adopted her and provided a loving life. But Marina hears that the stigma and the shame of her origin have clouded Lejla's life.

Forgiveness has been part of her route back to a happier life and a fulfilling bond with the mother who abandoned her 30 years ago.

Presented by Marina Cantacuzino
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m002lpkq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m002ktsj)
The Betrayed

Episode 5. Manhunt

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

STELLA … Jane Slavin

SORCHA … Amy McAllister

MARYAM … Lara Sawalha

Directed by Eoin O’Callaghan
A Big Fish/BBC N Ireland Production for Limelight


FRI 14:45 In the Loop (m001np4k)
2. Traffic Roundabout

…a circle has no beginning and no end. It represents rebirth and regeneration, continuity and infinity. From wedding rings to stone circles, in poetry, music and the trajectories of the planets themselves, circles and loops are embedded in our imaginations.

Poet Paul Farley goes walking in circles in five very different ‘loopy’ locations. He visits a stone circle, a rollercoaster and a particle accelerator to ask why human beings find rings and circles so symbolic, significant and satisfying.

The earliest civilisations were drawn to the idea of closing a circle and creating a loop; in human relationships we’d all rather be within the circle of trust; and in arts and music our eyes, ears and minds are inexorably drawn towards – and rebel against - the ‘strange loops’ of Bach, Gödel and Escher.

As he puts himself in the loop – sometimes at the centre and sometimes on the circumference – Paul has circular conversations with mathematicians and physicists, composers and poets. Each one propels him into a new loop of enquiry. And that’s because a circle has no beginning and no end…

Paul begins the second episode in orbit around one of the largest traffic roundabouts in Europe – the Coryton Interchange near Cardiff. He explores its interior with ecologist Elen Hall and roundabout enthusiast Kevin Beresford and discovers an island of the unexpected. Engineer John Parkin shares the secret of a good roundabout. And poet Paul Muldoon recalls a childhood memory of a special day out to visit the first one in Northern Ireland.

Producer: Jeremy Grange


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002lpp0)
Postbag Edition: Bicton House Gardens

Kathy Clugston and a panel of passionate horticulturalists soak up the sights, scents and inspiration at Bicton House Gardens in Exeter while digging into the GQT postbag, to solve your trickiest gardening conundrums.

Joining Kathy under the big top are houseplant specialist Anne Swithinbank, award-winning garden designer Chris Beardshaw, and allotment aficionado Frances Tophill - ready with expert advice, clever solutions, and a few laughs along the way.

Senior Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Junior Producer: Rahnee Prescod

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m002lpp2)
Homing by Marie-Louise McGuinness

An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the writer Marie-Louise McGuinness. Read by Charlotte McCurry (BBC One's Leonard and Hungry Paul.)

The Author
Marie-Louise McGuinness writes from Omagh, Northern Ireland. She has work published in numerous literary magazines including Banshee, The Forge and Fictive Dream. She has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, longlisted in the Bath Short Story Award and her very short story "When She Falls", first published in Milk Candy Review, was selected as a winner for Best Microfictions 2025. She writes from a sensory perspective.

Writer: Marie-Louise McGuinness
Reader: Charlotte McCurry
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland Production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m002lpp4)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.


FRI 16:30 Life Changing (m002ln7h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m002lpp6)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002lpp8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 18:30 The Naked Week (m002lppb)
Series 3

Episode 2

A bold, audacious take on the week’s news, with a blend of the silly and the serious.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m002lppd)
Writer: Shaun McKenna
Director: Pip Swallow and David Payne
Editor: Jeremy Howe

David Archer…. Timothy Bentinck
Helen Archer…. Louiza Patikas
Henry Archer…. Blayke Darby
Jolene Archer…. Buffy Davis
Ruth Archer…. Felicity Finch
Tom Archer…. William Troughton
Alice Carter…. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter…. Wilf Scolding
Neil Carter…. Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter…. Charlotte Martin
Mick Fadmoor…. Martin Barrass
Alan Franks…. John Telfer
George Grundy…. Angus Stobie
Esme Mulligan…. Ellie Pawsey
Carly…. Louise Brealey
Driver…. Django Bevan


FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m002lppg)
Melodrama

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode celebrate melodrama as the Hollywood classic All That Heaven Allows turns 75.

Ellen talks to film critic Pamela Hutchinson about the history of melodrama and the Women’s picture.

Mark then talks to director and the modern master of the genre, Todd Haynes, about how he brought Melodrama to the 21st century. Mark also speaks to director Fyzal Boulifa about his connection to melodrama and why it resonates with queer cinema.

Producer: Jane Long

A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m002lppk)
Topical discussion posing questions to a panel of political and media personalities.


FRI 20:55 This Week in History (m002ln7m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:40 on Wednesday]


FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m002lppp)
The end of civilisations and societies

‘Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping’, said a new headline earlier this month. Whether it’s ecological crisis or a breakdown in law and order, fear of societal collapse seems to lurk in the background of a lot of discussion in politics and wider society. But what does it mean? When has it happened in the past? And how can we avoid it – or survive it – in the future?
With Luke Kemp from the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, classical historian Neville Morley, historian of modern politics Phil Tinline, Rhiannon Firth, sociologist at University College London, and the writer and commentator Peter Hitchens.
Presented by Shahidha Bari

Producer: Luke Mulhall


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002lpps)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 O Now by Niall Williams (m002lppv)
Episode Five

A new original fiction serial specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the acclaimed Irish author Niall Williams. As read by Dermot Crowley.

Four nights a week, Bat Considine calls on his neighbour Mossie Crowe; a beloved widower known to all in the townland of Faha by his grand-father name of Ganga. They sit by the fire and, as Bat reads the newspaper aloud, wait to see which of them will die first. One evening, the two old men make a pact in the hope of one day being able to tell the other the mind of God.

Author
Niall Williams is a best-selling and award-winning author. His novels are often set in the fictional townland of Faha in County Clare, Ireland. These include ‘A History of the Rain’ which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2015, ‘This Is Happiness’ which was nominated for The Irish Book Awards 2020 and ‘The Time of The Child’ which won the Kerry Gold Irish Novel of the Year 2025. He also recently adapted his novel ‘Four Letters of Love’ into a 2025 film starring Pierce Brosnan and Helena Bonham Carter.

Reader: Dermot Crowley
Writer: Niall Williams
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


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