SATURDAY 06 DECEMBER 2025
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m002n0sj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:30 Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee (m000n6qg)
5. On Leopoldstadt
Attention turns movingly to Leopoldstadt his most recent play, where he reflects on his family and the Holocaust.
Since 1964, he's been writing for the theatre, big screen, TV and radio. His plays are among the most studied of the last century.
Among the giants of British theatre - in Hermione Lee's evocative and immersive biography, we come to know the man and his work.
Concluded by Alex Jennings.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Producer: Elizabeth Allard
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2020.
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002n0sl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002n0sn)
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 (m002n0sq)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002n0ss)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002n0sv)
All the Lost Things
Good morning. I must confess mornings are a nightmare for me unless I pack my bag the night before. If I don’t, it’s game over. Rather than getting ready, if I haven’t packed everything, ready to go by the door, I will spend ages fixated on finding that missing lip-balm or looking for that one specific top because I absolutely hate the feeling of losing something and not being able to find it. It would be comical if I wasn’t late as often as I am.
Maybe it’s because the things that really haunt me aren’t lost things but lost moments, missed opportunities, lost friendships over the years. And the thing is, I wouldn’t even begin to know how to find those, or even how to repair them, take better care of them and not lose them again.
I heard this phrase “anticipatory grief will be the death of me,” and I thought same girl same. I spend so much time bracing for loss — especially the thought of losing my parents or loved ones hoping that if I think about it enough it won’t shock me or hurt me as much as I am afraid it will.
Once when I couldn’t find my phone in my bag (it was in my jacket pocket), my friend said since I was a Christian I should ask Saint Anthony to sort it out and help me find my phone.
Although I am not Catholic, in the face of all the lost things, past present and future; I have found myself thinking a lot about that moment and my friend and Saint Anthony. So if you still can’t find your car keys this morning you now know which saint to have a little word with.
Anyway, Heavenly father, may all the lost things find their way back to me, all the love all the time all the moments that seem so heart achingly gone and irredeemable. Father God surprise me with gladness in the unfamiliar desert of grief over something lost. Amen
SAT 05:45 New Storytellers (m002hbkl)
In Living Memory
'In Living Memory' is a deeply intimate and sensitive story that follows Shadé Joseph as she sends a voice message to her eldest brother, who died 17 years before she was born. She has the quiet belief that he is somewhere out there, listening. For what felt like a lifetime, Shadé sensed him knocking on the door of her heart, but fear held her back from answering, uncertain of the pain it might awaken in her family. Then, on one seemingly ordinary day in November 2024, she found the courage to let him in. What unfolds is a tender reflection on how his absence became a legacy that shaped the lives of every child in the family who came after him.
New Storytellers presents the work of new student audio producers, and this series features the winners of the Charles Parker Prize 2025 for the Best Student Radio Feature. These awards are presented every year in memory of the pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. The series is introduced by Charles’ daughter, Sara Parker, an award-winning radio producer in her own right.
Shadé Joseph is a student at UCL East studying an MA in Audio Storytelling for Radio and Podcast. The judges said of her Gold Charles Parker Prize winning feature, “I found this programme extremely moving,” commented one judge. “The narrator’s script was honest, vulnerable, at times playful... A small idea with a lot of heart!... overall, a wonderful piece of radio.”
Producer: Shadé Joseph
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m002n7rh)
The news headlines, including a look at the newspapers.
SAT 06:07 This Natural Life (m002mz61)
Emma Pinchbeck
Emma Pinchbeck is the Chief Executive Officer of the Climate Change Committee - the independent body which advises the government on emissions targets and the impacts of climate change. She grew up in the Cotswolds, where Martha Kearney meets her to hear about her love of the Gloucestershire countryside. Emma talks about her childhood in the Stroud valleys, where her family roots go back twelve generations and where she is now bringing up her own children. She explains how deeply-rooted her connection to the natural world is - influencing everything from her choice of college as a teenager to her decision to give up a job in finance and work instead in the environmental sector.
Producer: Emma Campbell
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m002n7rr)
06/12/25 Farming Today This Week: rural traditions supply chain adjudicator, drought, bluetongue, swine fever, winter jobs
Rural traditions, from morris dancing to dry stone walling and tartan weaving, could be internationally protected by UNESCO. The government has launched its search for examples of living heritage to go onto an inventory.
With dairy companies continuing to cut the prices they pay farmers for milk, the man appointed to ensure fairness and transparency in the UK agricultural supply chain says he'll be watching out for any breaches in the coming months. Richard Thompson is the first in the new adjudicator role, looking first at the dairy supply chain. His report says some farmers are still afraid to speak out in case of reprisals.
The UK has temporarily banned all imports of pig products from Spain after an outbreak of African swine fever in wild boars there. It's Spain's first case since 1994. The disease is spread by ticks and can be devastating to commercial herds. The National Pig Association here says it's vital our government puts adequate controls at borders to keep the disease out.
The first cases of bluetongue disease In Northern Ireland have been confirmed. Two cows on a farm in County Down have the disease with a further 44 in the same herd suspected of having it. A 20km control zone has been implemented around Bangor in County Down. There have been more than 200 cases in England and Wales since July this year, though none in Scotland so far.
This year's summer drought has cost arable farmers in England an estimated £828 million. The think tank the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit says crops were hit by a very hot spring and summer as well as the resulting lack of water.
All week we've been looking at winter jobs, including hedge laying and tidying sheds.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
SAT 06:57 Weather (m002n7s1)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m002n7sb)
Today (Saturday)
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m002n7sl)
Chris McCausland, Shipwrecks, Pigeon Fancying, and the Inheritance Tracks of Jacinda Ardern
Chris McCausland, funny, clever, excellent dancer, widely loved. The list goes on. His new autobiography "Keeping Laughing" charts his life and career across a twenty-five-year journey where he lost his sight but found moments of happiness and laughter along the way.
Douglas Roberston, survived being cast adrift in the pacific ocean for 38 days after a killer whale. Just a teenager at the time, he reveals the extremes he had to go to extremes to survive.
Another tackler of apparently insurmountable obstacles is Mila Stanzani a record-holding obstacle course racer hear to give us an insight into one of the newest sports at the next Olympics.
All that plus, an award-winning pigeon fancier and the Inheritance Tracks of New Zealand’s former Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.
Presenter: Adrian Chiles
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Tansley
SAT 10:00 Curious Cases (m002n7mf)
Series 24
Tortoise Tomfoolery
Tortoises have traditionally been the poster child for slowness. These ancient, armoured reptiles are solitary, territorial and all-too-often dismissed as dull.
In fact, tortoises have distinct personalities. They have changeable moods, can learn simple tasks, remember certain useful information for years and even recognise familiar people.
But can they play?
Hot on the trail of tortoise tomfoolery, Hannah and Dara explore the stereotype-smashing studies that show there's far more to these creatures than previously thought; and find out that these complex behaviours might apply not only to the turtle clan, but potentially other reptiles as well...
To submit your question to the Curious Cases team, please email: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk
Contributors:
- Anna Wilkinson, Professor of Animal Cognition at the University of Lincoln
- Unnar Karl Aevarsson, Herpetologist at ZSL London Zoo
- Gordon Burghardt, Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Psychology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee
Producer: Lucy Taylor
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A BBC Studios Production
SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m002n7mk)
Series 50
Haringey
Jay Rayner and the panel are answering questions from an audience of keen home cooks at the Cypriot Community Centre in Haringey, North London.
Joining Jay to share their own tips and recipes are chefs, cooks and food writers Hasan Semay, Georgina Hayden, Tim Anderson and Melek Erdal. Shining a light on Cypriot cooking, Jay and the panel discuss the many uses of halloumi and the unique flavour of sheftalia kebabs. The panellists also offer their best recipes involving cranberries, and how to achieve a smoky kebab flavour without a barbecue, and reveal the biggest fails of their culinary careers.
Produced by Dulcie Whadcock
Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali
A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m002n7t2)
The Daily Telegraph's political editor, Ben Riley-Smith, analyses the latest developments at Westminster.
Following further fallout from Rachel Reeves' Budget, and accusations that she misled the public about the state of the public finances, Ben speaks to two members of the Treasury select committee who have been investigating the issue: Labour MP, Yuan Yang, and Conservative MP, Dame Harriet Baldwin.
After the Prime Minister signalled that the government would make a fresh attempt to reform the welfare system, Ben is joined by the Labour chair of the Work and Pensions select committee, Debbie Abrahams, and the former Conservative Work and Pensions Secretary, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who introduced Universal Credit.
Former Labour Home Secretary, Jack Straw, and former Conservative Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk, debate the government's proposals to reduce the number of jury trials.
And the state of Anglo-German relations was in focus this week following a state visit by the German President. To discuss this Ben brings together two German-born British politicians: Former Labour MP, Baroness Gisela Stuart, and Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bath.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002n7tc)
Israel's ultra-Orthodox conscription bill
Kate Adie introduces stories from Israel, Honduras, Turkey and Lebanon, Georgia and Russia.
Israel is facing an impending crisis over conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli army, and the issue is threatening to undermine Israel's government and split the country. Lucy Williamson reports from the city of Bnei Brak.
Donald Trump surprised many in his own Republican party this week when he signed a pardon releasing the former president of Honduras from a West Virginia prison. Juan Orlando Hernández was serving 45 years for his role in a drug trafficking conspiracy. Will Grant gauges the reaction in Tegucigalpa - and pays a visit to the former president's wife.
Pope Leo chose Turkey and Lebanon as the destinations for his first overseas trip as Pontiff, stopping off in the Turkish city of Iznik – scene of the First Council of Nicaea seventeen hundred years ago, which shaped Christian beliefs for centuries. Aleem Maqbool has been travelling with the Pope.
It’s been a year since demonstrators took to the streets of Tbilisi to protest the Georgian government's suspension of accession talks with the European Union. Rayhan Demytrie reports from the capital Tblisi, where demonstrators continue to voice their objections every day.
It’s nearly four years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, and despite heavy losses to his own country, President Putin seems convinced now is not the moment to stop. Despite punitive laws which discourage people from speaking out, discreet conversations reveal a strong desire among Russian citizens to end the war. Ben Tavener reveals the insights he has gleaned while out walking his dog.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production coordinators: Katie Morrison and Sophie Hill
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m002n7tl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m002n7tw)
Energy Costs for Families and Salary Sacrifice Pensions
New research suggests there are 6 million children across the UK living in fuel poverty, according to the charity National Energy Action. It defines fuel poverty as when a household has to spend at least 10% of its income to keep their home warm. It says the impact on children of living in a home which parents and carers struggle to keep warm can be significant. We'll hear more about what it would like to see change and discuss how the government and suppliers already help those struggling with bills.
Of all the Budget measures perhaps the most misunderstood is the plan to restrict what is called salary sacrifice - giving up some of your pay so your employer can use that money to boost your pension. It won't actually happen until April 2029 but many Money Box listeners have been getting touch with questions. We'll take a look at those.
How to keep Christmas costs low, as a debt charity finds thousands of people used its website for help on Christmas Day.
And how tax relief for people who are asked to work from home is changing.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Jo Krasner
Researcher: Eimear Devlin
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson
(First broadcast on Radio 4 at
12pm Saturday 6th December 2025)
SAT 12:30 The Naked Week (m002n0s0)
Series 3
Parties, polycules, and pardoning
This week, The Naked Week team look at Your Party, join a polycule, and bestow some Christmas pardons.
From host Andrew Hunter Murray and The Skewer's Jon Holmes, Radio 4’s newest 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.
Host: Andrew Hunter Murray
Guests: Rosie Holt, Leanne Yau
The Naked Week Carol Singers: Fiona Mundy, Holly Alderson, Kayley Williams, Molly Punshon
Investigations Team: Cat Neilan, Cormac Kehoe, Freya Shaw
Written by:
Jon Holmes
Katie Sayer
Gareth Ceredig
Jason Hazeley
James Kettle
Additional Material:
Karl Minns
Joe Topping
Cooper Mawhinny Sweryt
David Riffkin
WH Auden
Live Sound: Jerry Peal
Post Production: Tony Churnside
Clip Assistant: David Riffkin
Production Assistant: Molly Punshon
Assistant Producer: Katie Sayer
Producer and Director: Jon Holmes
Executive Producer: Phil Abrams.
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 12:57 Weather (m002n7v7)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News (m002n7vk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m002n0s6)
Baroness Chakrabarti, Christopher Hope, Graham Stuart MP, Gillian Tett
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Northfield School & Sports College in Billingham, Teesside with the Labour peer and civil liberties campaigner Baroness Chakrabarti; GB News political editor Christopher Hope; Conservative MP and former government minister Graham Stuart; and Gillian Tett, columnist and editorial board member at the Financial Times, and provost of King's College, Cambridge.
Producer: Paul Martin
Assistant producer: Lowri Morgan
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Lead broadcast engineer: Owain Williams
Editor: Glyn Tansley
SAT 14:05 Any Answers? (m002n7vv)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Tansley
SAT 14:45 The Archers (m002n0s2)
Susan’s convinced there’ll be bad news about the shop; what if Hazel wants to sell? Neil reckons there’s no point panicking at this stage; there are other options. Susan’s not convinced about Ian’s pizza van double act plan. When Ian comes round later full of ideas Susan begins to employ her strategy of letting him down gently. However she takes a call from Hazel, and just as Neil’s struggling to hold off Ian’s enthusiasm she returns with the fantastic news that the building work’s finished. The shop can re-open next week. Delighted Neil and Susan declare it’s a shame Ian’s collaboration scheme won’t work out. Ian’s philosophical – no creative thinking is ever wasted and it’s opened up his mind to new possibilities.
Ed passes off the bruise on his face as the result of a branch hitting him. Emma’s sympathetic. George calls in and Emma heads off to pick up Keira from the cinema, leaving Ed and George alone. George is shocked at the state of Ed’s eye. He thinks Ed shouldn’t make excuses for him – he’s a monster. The anger took over. Ed understands George couldn’t control it. George thinks he should be back in prison before he does something else. Ed suggests instead that he gets help in the form of counselling. George agrees to make a GP appointment. He doesn’t want his mum to know the reason so they agree they’ll just tell her he’s struggling. George admits he’s been a nightmare. Ed assures him they love him and nothing’s ever going to change that.
SAT 15:00 Drama on 4 (m000xk9t)
Ready Player Marx
“Corruption reigns here, Sonic, I’m sure of it.”
Nell Barlow and Hollie Edwin star in a satirical and emotional drama by Sean Grundy and Cara Jennings about the battles, firings and dirty tactics a group of video game workers face trying to unionise in the £50 billion gaming industry. Inspired by real events.
“Go, SuperMario, Go… Solidarity is built from struggle.”
Video game workers Laura in the UK and Rachel in the US are close to breakdowns with their 100-hour weeks, making violent game content, dealing with industry racism and sexism. They want to start a union to protect themselves and start secret meetings inside virtual gaming worlds where they attract a group of like-minded protestors. But all is not what it seems when the mysterious Marx-XXX appears on the scene. And in the real world they see just how nasty the industry can get when bosses want to bring them down.
“Remember Lara Croft… Revolution is the locomotive of history.”
It’s a story of love, betrayal, socialism and dark secrets when two young people fight for their rights and take on capitalism as they journey through online gameworlds - a bank heist in AutoPimp, undersea adventures in Noctopus, laser battles in Astrattack, beach fun in VolleyUppy, shoot and score in Glasshouse, and fighting demon dragons in Spangenhelm. The couple bring to life the fun of gameworlds and celebrate gaming having a positive role in the world.
“You know, PacMan, real power is in the workplace”
Ready Player Marx is written by Sean Grundy and Cara Jennings, who previously created How to Burn a Million Quid and have been Sony and Tinniswood award nominated.
Cast:
Laura - Nell Barlow
Rachel - Hollie Edwin
Eva - Jennifer English
Steve - Matt Addis
Gary - Paul Panting
Benedict - Jonathan Aris
Mum - Elizabeth Carling
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m002n7w2)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Jacinda Ardern, Women leaving teaching, Friendships with exes
When Jacinda Ardern became Prime Minister of New Zealand in 2017 at the age of 37, she was the youngest female head of government in the world. She also made history as only the second elected leader to give birth while in office. She resigned in 2023 after more than five years in post saying she no longer had enough in the tank and, since then, has engaged in global work focused on empathy in leadership and the prevention of online extremism. As a new documentary film, Prime Minister, is out in cinemas now, Jacinda talks to Kylie Pentelow.
The government has just unveiled its new HIV Action Plan with the stated goal of tackling stigma and to end transmissions in England by 2030. Public Health Minister Ashley Dalton discusses the policy along with Ellie Harrison, who was diagnosed HIV positive when she was 21.
Are friendships with exes a bad idea or a sign of growing up? Journalist Olivia Petter and comedian Rosie Wilby join Nuala McGovern to explore how relationships with ex-partners evolve after a breakup, and why staying in touch can look different in straight and LGBTQ+ communities.
Columnist Sarah Vine started losing her hair as a teenager and was eventually diagnosed with female pattern baldness, a hormonal condition. But now she has decided, after 15 years of wearing wigs, to reveal her own hair on the front cover of a national newspaper. She speaks about her decision to bare all.
We examine new data that reveals the number of teachers leaving the profession after becoming parents. We explore why, and what’s being done about it. Emma Shepherd is the founder of the Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher Project and Branwen Jeffries is the BBC's Education Editor.
Do you like everything to be perfect for dinner party hosting – the spotless house, the elaborate menu, the Instagram-worthy table setting? But what if the secret to a great dinner party isn’t perfection, but scruffy hosting – a trend that is apparently transforming the way we gather together and makes stress-free dinner parties more attainable - perhaps a one-pot dinner, mismatched cutlery, toys under the table or children running around screaming. Helen Thorn, Comedian, Podcaster and one half of Scummy Mummies tells Nuala why she embraces this type of hosting.
Presenter: Kylie Pentelow
Producer: Dianne McGregor
SAT 17:00 PM (m002n7wb)
US report: it's up to European allies to protect the continent
A former commander of the US Army in Europe says it's time for European allies to wake up. Plus: a BBC investigation finds driving instructors across England are being offered hundreds of pounds a month to sell their official test booking logins to touts, as drivers face long waits for tests. And best tips and advice for those travelling to North America for the World Cup.
SAT 17:30 Sliced Bread (m002mz5q)
Toast - Skype
Why did Skype fall out of favour in a world of global video calls?
The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, investigates with the entrepreneur, Sam White, alongside him.
Sam never knows what's coming so, at the end of every episode of Toast, she gives her off-the-cuff and authentic professional opinions on why a brand disappeared based on what she has just heard and her own business knowhow.
In this episode, we learn how Skype worked by using Voice Over Internet Protocol to send audio and video data over the internet. It connected users through a centralized, cloud-based service which allowed free voice and video calls between Skype users.
It really changed the game when it came to keeping in touch with friends and family around the world. It helped grandparents meet their grandchildren for the first time without leaving the house and gave us a way of cutting our phone bills.
Sean interviews:
- Peter Raeburn - an award-winning composer who worked with Skype’s founders to create the iconic sounds that became the familiar sound track to Skype which, at its peak, was used by over 300 million people worldwide.
- Andrew Sinclair - a General Manager for Skype for Business who offers his insight into what happened after Skype was sold by Ebay, and snapped up by tech giant, Microsoft.
-Sam Shead - a journalist who witnessed how Skype changed the world of communication, soaring and then sinking and has taken an in depth look at the names behind the brand, so what did he uncover?
Produced by Linda Walker.
Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
You can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.uk
Feel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes.
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002n7wk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m002n7wt)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002n7x1)
BBC Investigation reveals the driving test touts offering hundreds of pounds to bulk book tests
A BBC investigation has found driving instructors are being offered hundreds of pounds by touts for access to their official accounts so they can bulk book tests. The touts then use social media to sell the slots on to learner drivers for hugely inflated prices.Four protestors have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage -- after food was thrown at a display case housing the Imperial State Crown at the Tower of London. A group called Take Back Power said its supporters had targeted the Crown Jewels as part of a campaign calling for the rich to pay more tax. Also:Ukraine's President Zelensky says he has agreed the "next steps" in efforts to end the war with Russia, after talks with senior US officials.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002n7x8)
Omid Djalili, Neil Morrissey, Elizabeth Day, Clive Anderson, Ania Magliano, Dracapella
Making lemonade from the lemons of life is the theme to this week's Loose Ends.
The comedian Omid Djalili was so incensed by having his shows cancelled after 9/11 due to his Middle Eastern heritage that he devised a stand up tour called Namaste so he could let off steam as well as make us laugh.
Elizabeth Day's How to Fail podcast is, ironically, a massive success but she says her latest novel - a darkly humorous political satire - draws on her own feelings of being an outsider.
Neil Morrissey had an ill-starred childhood but managed to head straight for the limelight in Men Behaving Badly, Line of Duty and is now playing Jacob Marley who brings redemption to Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.
And Taskmaster contestant and comedian Ania Magliano attributes her personality to growing up playing with Sylvanian family toys rather than Barbies - find out how that inspired her new stand up show, Peach Fuzz.
Plus a performance from Dracapella, a comedy retelling of the Dracula story, introduced by its writer Dan Patterson, the creator of Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Producer: Olive Clancy
Assistant producer: Samuel Nixon
Technical Production: Giles Aspen and Gayl Gordon
SAT 19:00 Profile (m002n7v9)
Zak Brown
Stephen Smith profiles the former racing driver and marketing guru who's turned around McLaren's fortunes and led them to Formula 1 glory. Born in California in 1971, friends and colleagues paint a picture of a fiercely competitive man with ‘noble intentions’.
After dropping out of high school Zak Brown’s life changed after meeting former F1 world champion Mario Andretti when he was 15. He traded watches he’d won on the Wheel of Fortune game show to buy a go-kart.
Brown won races as a driver but never really hit the big time. He then set up the world’s most successful motorsports marketing company before being lured to the F1 grid by McLaren in 2016. The team were in dire straits and in serious need of a cash injection. In less than 10 years, Brown has completely turned around the team’s fortunes and led them to back-to-back constructors’ championships. But will his refusal to favour one of his two drivers cost both of them the drivers’ championship?
Contributors:
Mackenzie Astin - childhood friend
Mario Andretti - former F1 champion
Will Buxton - former F1 commentator, journalist, broadcaster
Ben Hunt - motorsport journalist and author of Forever Forward
Lawrence Baretto - F1 commentator
Presenter: Stephen Smith
Producers: Mhairi Mackenzie, Ben Crighton
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound: James Beard
Archive:
The Bottom LIne, BBC
5LIve
Wheel of Fortune - CBS
Sky Sport
SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m002kjvf)
Series 34
Fusion – Ria Lina, Yasmin Andrew and Howard Wilson
Robin Ince and Brian Cox get all fired up, overcome their natural repulsion and come together for this stellar episode on nuclear fusion. They’re joined by plasma physicist Yasmin Andrew, fusion scientist Howard Wilson and comedian Ria Lina to uncover the secrets of star-making here on our planet.
Together the panel discovers how the sun fuses atoms to release energy and why misbehaving, jiggling plasma makes this tricky to recreate on Earth. They explore the competing technological approaches — from giant magnets to the world’s biggest lasers — and find out that the hottest place in the solar system is, in fact, in Oxfordshire. Finally, they ask whether fusion could really provide an unlimited source of clean energy, or whether the technology will forever be “just 20 years away”.
Producer: Melanie Brown
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A BBC Studios Production
SAT 20:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m002n7xk)
From Our Own Correspondent at 70
Anna Foster and some of the BBC’s best-known foreign correspondents are joined by an audience of Radio 4 listeners to celebrate 70 years of ‘From Our Own Correspondent’.
Since the first episode was broadcast on 25th September 1955, FOOC – as it’s affectionately known – has reported from almost every country in the world.
Anna’s guests for the event, recorded in the Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House in London, are Kate Adie, the presenter of FOOC and a former BBC Chief News Correspondent, Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s International Editor, Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, and Steve Rosenberg, the BBC’s Russia Editor.
They discuss what the job of a foreign correspondent is these days when anyone can get on a plane, take a mobile phone and broadcast to the world. They reflect on how to report on a more hostile world.
Together, they offer insights into the world of the foreign correspondent - including the time Jeremy Bowen once told the Mujahideen in Afghanistan that he was Lyse Doucet - and Steve Rosenberg takes to the piano to explain why his hopes for Russia rest with a newspaper vendor in Moscow.
Producers: Adele Armstrong, Serena Tarling and Polly Hope.
Sound mix: Dave O'Neill
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
SAT 21:00 Moral Maze (m002n0jc)
The Jury: Moral Innovation or Historic Relic?
The jury trial has been around for almost 1,000 years. Magna Carta, in 1215, enshrined the principle that “No free man shall be... imprisoned… except by the lawful judgement of his peers.” That could be about to change, under the proposal by the Justice Secretary, David Lammy, to restrict jury trials to the most serious cases. The aim is to deal with an unprecedented backlog in the courts. Britain, thus far, has been in the minority: most countries around the world rely on judges – not juries – to evaluate the evidence, assess guilt, and deliver justice.
Those in favour of juries see them as a moral institution, putting justice in the hands of randomly-selected ordinary people, rather than those of the state or a legal elite, and so reducing the chance of a biased or blinkered verdict. Opponents argue that juries can be obstacles to justice, not immune to prejudiced decisions, and lacking the expertise to weigh up the evidence in complex cases.
While some see the jury system as a redundant relic of the past, others believe the deliberative democratic principle it embodies should be extended to other areas of public life in innovative ways. Should we, as some suggest, replace the House of Lords with a second chamber full of randomly-selected representative voters? Those in favour of citizen juries in politics, as well as in the governance of public institutions, believe they can provide greater democratic legitimacy and lead to better decisions, through a combination of lived experience and expert guidance. Those against citizen juries say they undermine a fundamental democratic principle: one person, one vote.
Chair: Michael Buerk
Panel: Matthew Taylor, Inaya Folarin-Iman, Tim Stanley and Mona Siddiqui
Witnesses: Sir Simon Jenkins, Fiona Rutherford, Anna Coote and Tom Simpson
Producer: Dan Tierney.
SAT 22:00 News (m002n7xr)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m002n0r7)
The Food Books of 2025
Leyla Kazim takes a look at the best food books and writing from 2025, and chats to food writer Ruby Tandoh about her new book looking at why we eat the way we eat now.
We hear picks from the rest of The Food Programme presenters - Sheila Dillon, Dan Saladino and Jaega Wise; books to get you cooking and books to get you thinking.
Tom Tivnan from The Bookseller discusses the latest bestsellers, and Carla Lalli - cookbook author and former Bon Appétit food director - helps bust some common myths and even lies we see in about recipe books and in online recipes.
Food Books for 2025:
* Serving the Public: The Good Food Revolution in Schools, Hospitals and Prisons by Professor Kevin Morgan
* Give It a Grow: Simple Projects to Nurture Food, Flowers and Wildlife in Any Outdoor Space by Martha Swales
* Food Fight: From Plunder and Profit to People and Planet by Stuart Gillespie
* Boustany: A Celebration of Vegetables from My Palestine by Sami Tamimi
* Naturally Vegan: Delicious Recipes from Around the World That Just Happen to Be Plant-based by Julius Fiedler
* WINE: Everything You Need to Know by Olly Smith
* Winter Wellness: Nourishing Recipes to Keep You Healthy When It’s Cold by Rachel de Thample
* Abundance: Eating and Living with the Seasons by Mark Diacono
* Kapusta: Vegetable-Forward Recipes from Eastern Europe by Alissa Timoshkina
* Indian Kitchens: Treasured Recipes from India’s Diverse Food Culture by Roopa Gulati
* All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now by Ruby Tandoh
* Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria by Ozoz Sokoh
Presented by Leyla Kazim
Produced by Natalie Donovan for BBC Audio in Bristol.
SAT 23:00 Time of the Week (m00212rs)
Series 1
3. Perfume, the Menopause, Gen Z
Chloe Slack balances hosting the programme with looking after her niece. Today's topics include perfume, private members’ clubs and Stonehenge.
Sian Clifford stars as self-important journalist Chloe Slack in this comedy series parodying women’s current affairs and talk shows, surrounded by an ensemble cast of character comedians.
Chloe Slack - Sian Clifford
Ensemble cast:
Ada Player
Alice Cockayne
Aruhan Galieva
Em Prendergast
Jodie Mitchell
Jonathan Oldfield
Lorna Rose Treen
Mofé Akàndé
Sara Segovia
Created by Lorna Rose Treen and Jonathan Oldfield
Writing team:
Alice Cockayne
Catherine Brinkworth
Jodie Mitchell
Jonathan Oldfield
Lorna Rose Treen
Priya Hall
Will Hughes
Script Editor - Catherine Brinkworth
Photographer - Will Hearle
Production Coordinator - Katie Sayer
Producer - Ben Walker
A DLT Entertainment Production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 23:30 Punt & Dennis: Route Masters (m0023zj9)
Series 1: From Beer to Eternity
6 – From Hot Air Balloons to The Shipping Forecast
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are on a mission to get from hot air balloons to the Shipping Forecast in the most entertaining way possible, in a warm and witty podcast that celebrates new and half-remembered trivia as they try to find unlikely links between random places, people and things.
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 Angela Barnes
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
Recorded at Maple St Creative
Mixed by Jonathan Last
A Listen production for BBC Radio 4
SUNDAY 07 DECEMBER 2025
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m002n7xw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:15 Take Four Books (m002mz14)
Alexander McCall Smith
International bestseller Sir Alexander McCall Smith joines James Crawford to discuss The Private Side of Friendship, and shares the literary works that influenced it.
After the acclaim of his his The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Sandy has written over a hundred books, selling tens of millions of copies in English alone – not to mention the 46 other languages in which his work has appeared. In his latest novel, he is taking readers to a city he knows very well, as six young Edinburgh students embark on a flatshare, and navigate new friendships, against the backdrop of the social unrest of the 1980s miners’ strikes.
For his three influences Sandy chose: The More Loving One by W.H. Auden (1957), Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationships by Robin Dunbar (2021), and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2011).
Including an extract from the audiobook of Friends by Robin Dunbar, published by Hachette.
Producer: Caitlin Sneddon
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This is a BBC Audio Scotland production.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002n7xz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002n7y4)
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 (m002n7y9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002n7yj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m002n7yg)
The church of St Luke in Hodnet, Shropshire
Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Luke in Hodnet, Shropshire. The 14th century tower is unusual in that it is octagonal for its full height. By 1769 it held six bells all cast by Thomas Rudhall of Gloucester. In 1947 these were augmented to eight bells with two trebles cast by the John Taylor foundry of Loughborough. The tenor bell weighs twelve hundredweight and is tuned to F. We hear them ringing April Day Doubles on the original six heaviest bells.
SUN 05:45 In Touch (m002n10v)
In Touch Goes Shopping
In Touch pays a visit to two East Midlands highstreets to visit shops that have a direct connection to visual impairment. The first one, Seeing Solutions in Nottingham, focuses on specialist technology, provides some training and other technology services. The second store, a pre-loved clothing boutique in Castle Donnington called Wanted Wardrobe, is run by 'The Blind Stylist' Tilly Dowler.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Kim Agostino
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m002n7qn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Beyond Belief (m002n10g)
René Girard: The Catholic thinker influencing Silicon Valley
René Girard was a French intellectual working at Stanford University in San Francisco in the 70s and 80s who came up with some compelling theories about human behaviour and the origin of religion. A decade after his death, he is also being quoted by Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs such as Peter Thiel and Vice-President JD Vance.
Why is Girard having such a moment? What is it about his theories of mimetic desire and scapegoating that resonate right now? And is there a key Christian message being missed out by his new devotees? Rev Giles Fraser has a Girard 101. He's in a discussion with his Girard's friend and biographer Cynthia Haven, theologian Michael Kirwan SJ from Trinity College Dublin and philosopher Dr Alexander Douglas, author of 'Against Identity: The Wisdom of Escaping the Self'
Thanks to Sam Sorich, director of 'Things Hidden: the life and legacy of René Girard' and Professor Robert Pogue Harrison for use of Stanford Radio archive.
Presenter: Giles Fraser
Studio Manager; Mark Ward
Asst Producer: Charlie Filmer-Court
Producer: Catherine Murray
Editor Tim Pemberton
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m002n7qv)
Larry's Ranch: Conservation and Change in South Dakota
Anna Jones meets Midwest cattleman Larry Stomprud on his three-generation ranch in South Dakota, USA. They drive onto the prairie in scorching heat, hazy with smoke drifting south from Canada's wildfires, to locate Larry's herd of Black Angus cattle and explore the plants and wildlife that also call this ranch home, including an abundance of native prairie grasses and fragrant silver sage. They discuss the changes that have taken place since Larry's grandfather staked his claim on this land as a homesteader in 1909, from changing cattle breeds to the use of hormone implants - and why Larry took an economic decision to stop using them. He talks about hunting antelope, watching sharp-tailed grouse dance on their leks and remote life under the big skies of South Dakota - and how his stewardship of the ranch led to being awarded the 2025 South Dakota Leopold Conservation Award.
Produced and presented by Anna Jones.
SUN 06:57 Weather (m002n7r1)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m002n7r6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m002n7rg)
Venezuela; History of Advent; Tom Stoppard
Amid the prospect of an imminent US strike on Venezuela, we look at how a once overwhelmingly Catholic country has seen its evangelical population surge from just 4% in the 1970s to nearly 30% today. This religious shift is unfolding as President Nicolás Maduro faces international rejection of his 2024 victory and mounting pressure from Donald Trump’s White House. William Crawley speaks to Dr Fernando Mora, an academic and former pastor who has spent years studying the rise of Evangelicalism in Venezuela.
On the Second Sunday of Advent, we explore the season’s history. Advent calendars are just one of many traditions that have emerged – and evolved – over centuries in connection with this annual liturgical journey. To guide us through that story, the Sunday programme speaks to Dr Colin Donnelly, Associate Professor in Reformation and Early Modern Christianities at Oxford.
Following the death of Sir Tom Stoppard at the age of 88, we look back at a writer celebrated for incisive wit, emotional depth, empathy and generosity, and for the technical brilliance with which he built imaginative worlds on stage. Stoppard only discovered his Jewish heritage at the age of 55, learning at the same time that all four of his grandparents, and much of his wider family, were murdered in Nazi concentration camps. To understand how that discovery shaped his life and work, we turn to one of his biographers, Ira Nadel, author of Double Act: The Life of Tom Stoppard.
Correction: In the introduction to the last item in the programme, we mentioned the widely quoted figure of more than 7,000 Christians having been killed in Nigeria in 2025. The BBC independently added up the number of deaths from the 70 reports this year and has in fact found that the total was around 3,000 deaths.
Presenter: William Crawley
Producers: Bara'atu Ibrahim & Katy Booth
Studio Managers: Lynsey Akehurst & Sam Biddle
Editor: Rajeev Gupta
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal (m002n7rs)
The 2025 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal with St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity
The Reverend Dr Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, makes the 2025 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal for the work of St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity for people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness.
The Radio 4 Appeal features a new charity every week.
Each appeal then runs on Radio 4 from Sunday 0754 for 7 days.
To Give:
- Call 0800 082 82 84 calls are free from landlines and mobiles
- donate online via the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal website www.bbc.co.uk/R4christmasappeal
- write a cheque to "St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal"
- address your envelope, ‘Freepost St Martin’s Christmas Appeal’
Registered Charity Number: 1156305. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://smitfc.org/christmas
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites
Producer: Katy Takatsuki
SUN 07:57 Weather (m002n7s3)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m002n7sf)
The news headlines, including a look at the newspapers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m002n7sr)
Advent Authors: Dylan Thomas
Father Matthew Roche-Saunders, a Catholic priest working across Wales and Herefordshire in Youth Mission, leads a service from Swansea to mark the second Sunday in Advent. Continuing the theme of Advent Authors, he also reflects on the visions provided by the prophet Isaiah and Swansea's (and possibly Wales's) best loved poet, Dylan Thomas. Father Matthew talks to some of the students of Bishop Vaughan Comprehensive School in Swansea, and visits the birthplace of Dylan Thomas to reflect on the poet's nostalgic vision of Christmas in A Child's Christmas in Wales, and to contrast that with the reality of the blitzed town around him.
The hymns include:
Lo He comes with clouds descending (Helmsley)
Let All Mortal Flesh
Light of the World, sung by the choir of Bishop Vaughan Catholic School
On Jordan's Bank
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Playout: Nun Lob mein Seele (Praetorius)
SUN 08:48 Witness History (w3ct74qx)
The Howard Hughes literary hoax
In 1971, the publishing world was rocked by one of the biggest hoaxes in literary history – a fake autobiography of the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.
Hughes was an aerospace engineer, film producer, record-breaking aviator and business tycoon, who’d built a $2 billion fortune to become one of the richest people in the world.
But for years he’d been living as a recluse, reportedly so terrified of catching a disease that he had almost no contact with the outside world.
That's why the publishers, McGraw Hill, were delighted when Clifford Irving, an American author, persuaded the billionaire to talk. They paid him a $750,000 advance.
But Irving had faked the entire manuscript, and after his scam was discovered, he was sentenced to jail. Jane Wilkinson has been through the BBC archives to find out how it happened.
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: Howard Hughes, 1947. Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images)
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m002n7t4)
Paul Farley on the Starling
In the season where starlings gather to murmurate in our winter skies, poet Paul Farley is admiring this dazzling bird up close. Every spring a pair of starlings used to nest in a hollow wall in the house where Paul grew up, and he never got tired of studying its dark iridescent plumage. Laying in bed at night Paul would hear the starlings' impressive mimicry, and remembers the sound of a radio being tuned and even human voices, imagining that these intelligent birds have been curiously studying us.
Presented by Paul Farley and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.
This programme features a recording by Oliver Swift from Xeno-Canto (XC710439 - Common Starling)
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m002n7tg)
Ukraine's President Zelensky meets Keir Starmer and EU leaders in London tomorrow
Ukraine President Zelensky meets EU leaders and Keir Starmer in London tomorrow. Will it lead to a breakthrough? Also AI lit and three young women on being in care at Christmas.
SUN 09:45 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal (m002n7pc)
Making a Difference
Hugh Dennis reports on how donations to the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal with St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity have helped people experiencing, or who are at risk of, homelessness. Like Gary from North Shields, who is now settled into a flat in time to spend Christmas with his children. Mensah - not his real name - who last year spent time sleeping rough in the capital, and Devon in Oxford who, thanks to the stability a home has brought, is thriving at work.
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:
- Call 0800 082 8284 (Freephone) to donate to the BBC Radio 4 Christmas Appeal
- 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 ‘St Martin-in-the-Fields’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity"
Registered Charity Number: 1156305. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work or donate online visit *https://smitfc.org/christmas
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites
SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m002n7nq)
Margaret Atwood, writer
Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer. She has published more than sixty books spanning novels, poetry, short stories, non-fiction, children’s literature, and graphic novels, and has been called “one of the sharpest and most imaginative novelists writing in English”. She is one of only four writers to have won the Booker Prize twice: for The Blind Assassin in 2000 and for her 2019 follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments.
Margaret was born in Ottawa in November 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the second of three children to Carl Atwood, an entomologist. During her early life, she would spend the warmer months in the remote forests of northern Quebec and Ontario where her father tracked insect infestations, and the winters in the city (first Ottawa, later Toronto). She didn’t attend school for a full year until the age of twelve.
Her childhood scribblings – a “novel” about an ant called Annie, a volume of rhyming poems about cats, and a play about a giant – turned into a more serious ambition to become a writer when Margaret was sixteen.
After studying English at the University of Toronto, where she began publishing poems in the college magazine, her first novel, The Edible Woman, came out in 1969, following five collections of poetry.
Her most famous work, The Handmaid’s Tale, was published in 1985 and depicted a dystopian vision of the United States as a patriarchal and totalitarian place called Gilead. Although it was written during the Reagan era, it has become eerily relevant again in the wake of the election of Donald Trump.
Margaret lost her life partner, the writer Graeme Gibson, in 2019. She lives in Toronto.
DISC ONE: Anchors Aweigh - US Navy Band
DISC TWO: Hearts of Stone - The Charms
DISC THREE: Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann, Giulietta Act: Barcarolle. Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour. Performed by Joan Sutherland (soprano) Huguette Tourangeau (soprano), Plácido Domingo (tenor), Andre Neury (bass), Pro Arte Choir, Lausanne, Choeur Du Brassus, Choeur de la Radio Suisse Romande, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, conducted by Richard Bonynge
DISC FOUR: Four Strong Winds - Ian & Sylvia
DISC FIVE: Barrett’s Privateers - Stan Rogers
DISC SIX: The Handmaid's Tale, Act I Scene 6: The Doctor. Composed by Poul Ruders and performed by Marianne Rorholm, Hanne Fischer (Mezzo-sopranos), Royal Danish Opera Chorus and Royal Danish Orchestra, conducted by Michael Schønwandt
DISC SEVEN: We Praise the Tiny Perfect Moles - Orville Stoeber
DISC EIGHT: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastoral": II. Scene am Bach. Andante molto moto. Composed by Beethoven and performed by Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Otto Klemperer
BOOK CHOICE: How to Survive on a Desert Island by Samantha Bell
LUXURY ITEM: A knife and matchbox
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Hearts of Stone - The Charms
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor
SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m002n7ty)
Writer: Sarah McDonald Hughes
Director: Rosemary Watts
Editor: Jeremy Howe
30th Nov - 5th December
Pat Archer.... Patricia Gallimore
Tony Archer.... David Troughton
Chris Carter.... Wilf Scolding
Neil Carter.... Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter.... Charlotte Martin
Ian Craig.... Stephen Kennedy
Amber Gordon.... Olivia Bernstone
Clarrie Grundy.... Heather Bell
Ed Grundy.... Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy.... Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy.... Emerald O'Hanrahan
George Grundy.... Angus Stobie
Brad Horrobin.... Taylor Uttley
Joy Horville.... Jackie Lye
Alistair Lloyd.... Michael Lumsden
Adam Macy.... Andrew Wincott
Hannah Riley.... Helen Longworth
SUN 12:15 Profile (m002n7v9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 12:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m002n06p)
Series 84
4. Hospital Radio Songbook
The godfather of all panel shows returns to the Hull New Theatre. On the panel are Rory Bremner, Tony Hawks, Lucy Porter and Henning Wehn with Jack Dee in the umpire’s chair.
Regular listeners will know to expect inspired nonsense, pointless revelry and Colin Sell at the piano.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:57 Weather (m002n7vn)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m002n7vy)
Australia's world-first social media ban
Australia is about to become the first country in the world to ban under 16s from having social media accounts. We speak to doctors and leading researchers about the debate over the connection between phones and a rise in mental health problems among children and adolescents.
SUN 13:30 Currently (m002n7mh)
Are You Ready?
We face an increasing range of threats as a nation – from climate change to pandemics and artificial intelligence – and yet, emergency preparedness is seen as a thing of the past that belonged to an era of civil defence and nuclear war.
But as the frequency and severity of extreme events begins to test the ability of emergency services and the government, what is the role of individuals in responding to and recovering from disasters?
Emergency planner and disaster recovery expert Lucy Easthope assesses the state of national resilience today, and by exploring the history of preparedness – from the Second World War to the modern prepper movement – she asks what lessons can be learned.
She finds out how we can break down the mental and practical barriers to resilience, as well as the challenges of creating a culture of preparedness when the threads that connect us as a society are frayed, but she discovers how vital it is that we start regaining these tools, skills and knowledge before the next disaster.
Presenter: Lucy Easthope
Producer: Patrick Bernard
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002n0rp)
Waltham Forest: Coriander, Sow-By-Date and Perennials
How do you grow coriander successfully from seed? Do seeds have a sow-by-date? And will your treasured perennials thrive in the challenging Scottish climate?
Kathy Clugston hosts from the beautiful St Mary’s Church in Walthamstow, where a lively audience puts their gardening dilemmas to an expert panel. Joining Kathy are renowned garden designer and botanist James Wong, horticulturalist Matthew Biggs, and allotment enthusiast Frances Tophill, ready to share their knowledge and practical advice.
Later in the programme, Anne Swithinbank offers her essential tips on preparing your garden to withstand the winter months ahead.
Producer: Matthew Smith
Junior Producer: Rahnee Prescod
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 One to One (m001hp2t)
Critics and the Criticised: Luke Jones meets Sarah Crompton
What's it really like wielding the little notebook of doom or glory? Sarah Crompton, theatre critic for What's On Stage and dance critic for The Observer, tells all to broadcaster Luke Jones, who once dipped his toe into that world himself. They talk warm white wine, the imagined audience, vomiting and the most unforgiveable critical gaffe of all.
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
SUN 15:00 The Princess Bride (m001320k)
The Dramatisation: Part 2
“This is my favourite book in all the world, though I have never read it”. When Goldman discovers The Princess Bride by S Morgenstern is not the swashbuckling fantasy his father read him as a child, but is in fact a patchy and extensive historical satire, he sets out to create the “Good Parts” version…
A tale of true love and high adventure featuring a fighting giant that loves to rhyme, a swordsman on the ultimate quest for revenge, a pirate in love with a princess, a princess in love with a farm boy and a prince in love with war.
First a novel, then a film, now an audio experience:
The Best Bits of the Good Parts Version by Stephen Keyworth.
A two-part dramatisation of swashbuckling adventure plus five bitesize backstories which can be enjoyed as stand-alone stories or to enhance your experience of the drama.
The Dramatisation: Part 2
With Westley captured and Buttercup on the cusp of marrying the dastardly Prince Humperdinck, there are only two people in the world who can save the day – Inigo and Fezzik. But one of them is lost and the other is drunk.
Cast:
Buttercup … Ruby Barker
Fezzik … Tyler Collins
Inigo… Emun Elliott
Count Rugen … Robin Laing
Goldman Snr / Arch Dean / Max …Crawford Logan
Westley … Lorn Macdonald
Prince Humperdinck / William Goldman…Grant O’Rourke
Hellin / Valerie …Rosalind Sydney
Sound recording: Joanne Willott
Sound design: Fraser Jackson
Directed by Kirsty Williams
SUN 16:00 Take Four Books (m002n7w8)
Jo Nesbø
Presenter James Crawford speaks to bestselling crime writer and Norwegian novelist Jo Nesbø about his book, Wolf Hour - a standalone thriller set in Minneapolis, where a dysfunctional detective, Bob Oz, investigates the attempted murder of a crooked gun dealer. The three books that inspired Jo while writing Wolf Hour were: Hunger by Knut Hamsun (1890), The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (1952), and American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis (1991).
Producers: Rachael O’Neill & Hayley Jarvis
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.
SUN 16:30 Punt & Dennis: Route Masters (m0023zjc)
Series 1: From Beer to Eternity
7 – From the Sargasso Sea to the Trombone
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are on a mission to get from everyone’s favourite ocean gyre, the Sargasso Sea, to the trombone in the most entertaining way possible, in a warm and witty podcast that celebrates new and half-remembered trivia as they try to find unlikely links between random places, people and things.
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 Kae Kurd
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 (w3ct744t)
Ravi and George
Following the Beatles final concert tour, George Harrison travelled to India in 1967 to learn sitar under the renowned musician Ravi Shankar.
Fleeing Beatlemania he travelled in disguise to Mumbai and then to Srinagar in Kashmir.
Listening to BBC archive and using excerpts from a Martin Scorsese documentary, we hear one of the world's most famous guitarists challenge himself to learn a new instrument.
The moment influenced George’s spirituality, his burgeoning solo musical career, as well as the Beatles. It also propelled Ravi Shankar further into the limelight.
The musicians remained lifelong friends. Ravi says they last saw each other on 28 November 2001, the day before George died.
Produced and presented by Surya Elango.
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: George Harrison and Ravi Shankar in 1975. Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
This programme has been updated since the original broadcast, with concert dates and song writing credits corrected.
SUN 17:10 Three Ages of Child (m002krl7)
Episode 3: Adolescense
Dr Guddi Singh is a paediatrician looking for answers. She’s worried about the patients whose problems can’t be fixed with a prescription – babies who are not thriving because their parents can’t afford to heat their home or children who are obese because they don’t have access to outdoor space. Children in the UK face some of the worst health outcomes in Europe. Dr Singh wants to find solutions.
In a three-part series, she travels across England through the three ages of childhood: the early years, the primary school years and adolescence. She meets people in the community, from health workers to teachers, on a quest to discover what’s going wrong and what it will take to turn things around.
In the final episode, Guddi looks at mental health in adolescence. She finds out about a project in North Devon that’s been created by young people themselves to support neurodivergent children at school. She travels to Cambridge to learn about plans for a new children’s hospital that will integrate mental and physical health. She talks to Professor Sir Michael Marmot about his ground breaking work on health inequalities and she asks Stephen Morgan MP, Minister for Early Education, about the government’s plans for addressing the challenges to the health of our children.
Presenter: Guddi Singh Producer:
Jo Glanville Editor: Kirsten Lass
Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones
Production Executive: Lisa Lipman
Sound Engineers: Dan King and Jon Calver
Photography of Guddi Singh courtesy of Anad Singh
Commissioning Editor: Daniel Clarke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002n7wn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m002n7ww)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002n7x3)
Lando Norris wins F1 championship
Britain's Lando Norris has won the Formula 1 drivers' championship for the first time. The 26-year-old secured the title by finishing third at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Norris's victory makes him the first driver to break Max Verstappen's four-year winning streak and the first Briton to take the title since 2020.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002n7xc)
Nick Ahad
This week, we reflect on the life and legacy of the playwright Tom Stoppard, strip back the layers of metafiction behind William Goldman's The Princess Bride, and howl at the moon with an episode of Start the Week that's truly out there. Plus as the holiday season kicks off, prepare to wassail across the country with Radio 3, as well as revisit some Christmas greats with the queen of festive pop herself, Mariah Carey.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Anthony McKee
Production Coordinators: Caoilfhinn McFadden and Caroline Peddle
A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m002n7m7)
The flat at the Stables is a complete mess whilst Josh, Paul, and Lily try to pin the blame on each other. The boys question Lily’s Australian tour, as she searches for her passport amongst the rubbish. Lily is determined to go and miss the UK winter despite their ribbing and finds her passport under a broken games console. Paul brokers peace with the bickering over plans for the Sunday roast. Everyone is pitching in with a Brookfield beef roast, cauliflower cheese, sponge pudding and cocktails. Stuffed and slumped, they plan a Christmas dinner to make up for Lily being away. Josh receives a text from Shula: she is coming on Saturday to Ambridge and plans to call in for a visit. The Stables need a deep clean and tidy, but that can wait until tomorrow.
Zainab and Azra discuss their plans for the day. Azra is heading into work to check the IT system records against her manual notes as she’s not convinced the system is recording the data for tests properly. Zainab is looking forward to getting her scooter back. The repairs should have her back on deliveries soon. When Azra arrives at the surgery, she has to quickly call for help. When Zainab picks up, Azra needs Akram urgently as the waiting room is flooded. A shivering Azra arrives home later; the pipes have pinholes and until they’re replaced the surgery will have to go without heating. Azra is left to plan out the week without running water or heat.
SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m002n7xn)
Art Class
The value of art 'has become mysterious', to quote the critic John Berger. Artists, commentators and voices from the BBC Sound Archive consider Berger's question: 'where does this value come from?'
Including extracts from:
The Moral Maze, Radio 4
Private Passions, Radio 3 (featuring Keir Starmer)
Favourite Things, BBC TV (featuring Margaret Thatcher)
Coronation Street, Granada Television
Desert Island Discs, Radio 4 (featuring Maria Balshaw)
Headliners with Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Sounds (featuring Stewart Lee)
Harry & Paul, Tiger Aspect Productions
Yes Minister, BBC TV
Lord Keynes, Home Service, The Arts Council: Its Policy and Hopes
With readings by the poet Dorothy Spencer and the writer Carl Cattermole, including statistics from the Campaign for the Arts/University of Warwick, the Panic! Survey and an Industria inquiry based on Artist Leaks.
Produced by Alan Hall
Archive Producer: Phoebe McIndoe
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal (m002n7pc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m002mz63)
Swear Words and Hearing Loss on Radio 4
What can you say on the radio these days? For some listeners, instances of swear words and racialised language do not belong on Radio 4. Andrea Catherwood sits down with "king of the bleep" Roger Mahony, the Head of Editorial Standards for Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra and On Demand Speech, to discuss listeners' concerns and ask how the decision to give certain words the green light gets made.
And listeners were entranced by a recent Illuminated documentary presented by poet Paul Farley about hearing loss and hearing aids. We put your points to the documentary's producer Geoff Bird.
Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Pauline Moore
Assistant Producer: Rebecca Guthrie
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m002n0rt)
Sir Tom Stoppard, Pam Hogg, Yanxin He, Jack Shepherd
Matthew Bannister has a star-studded cast on this week’s Last Word:
Sir David Hare pays tribute to his friend and fellow playwright Sir Tom Stoppard.
Boy George recalls the flamboyant fashion designer Pam Hogg.
Sir Mark Rylance gives an insight into the many talents of the actor, director and writer Jack Shepherd.
We also remember Yanxin He, one of the last surviving speakers in a village that spoke a secret language that helped women to share their suffering in a patriarchal society.
Interviewee: Sir David Hare
Interviewee: Boy George
Interviewee: Dr Tessa Hartmann
Interviewee: Yehong Wei
Interviewee: Sir Mark Rylance
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Assistant Producer: Catherine Powell
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Tansley
Archive used:
Tom Stoppard, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 12/01/1985; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Hamlet), Official Promo, Director: Tom Stoppard; MGM Studios, 1990; Tom Stoppard interview, BBC One 29/05/1977; Shakespeare In Love, Official Trailer, MiraMax pictures 1998, Directed: John Madden; Pam Hogg interview, Icons of Style, BBC Scotland, 16/03/2025; Pam Hogg interview, BBC Radio 2, 26/09/2012; Pam Hogg music track: Honeyland, pamhogg.com/music; He Yanxin, interview, Hidden Letters Official Trailer, Fish+Bear Pictures, Director: Violet Du Feng; Nushu: The secret Chinese language, BBC Culture, Video by Harriet Constable; Co-produced by Fiona Macdonald; 16/11/2022; Acting with...Jack Shepherd , BBC Two, 15/04/1996; In Lambeth, BBC Two, 04/07/1993; Written and Directed by Jack Shepherd; Play For Today: Through The Night, BBC One, 04/09/1977; Wycliff, ITV Official Trailer, IMDB; Season 1, Episode 1: The Four Jacks; Director: Ferdinand Fairfax;
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m002n7tw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal (m002n7rs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002n7tc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:30 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m002n7y0)
Is the UK ready for war?
Ben Wright discusses the war in Ukraine and the UK's own security with the former Secretary General of Nato, Lord Robertson and panellists - Labour MP Chris Curtis, Conservative Sir Bernard Jenkin and Gawain Towler, a board member of Reform UK. The Daily Mirror political editor Lizzy Buchan brings additional insight and analysis. Ben also interviews Professor Paula Surridge about the fracturing domestic political scene and the voting trends she's identified in a landmark new study of the 2024 general election.
SUN 23:00 In Our Time (m000x6tr)
Shakespeare's Sonnets
To celebrate Melvyn Bragg’s 27 years presenting In Our Time, some well-known fans of the programme have chosen their favourite episodes. Historian and broadcaster Simon Schama has selected the episode on Shakespeare’s Sonnets and recorded an introduction to it. (This introduction will be available on BBC Sounds and the In Our Time webpage shortly after the broadcast and will be longer than the one broadcast on Radio 4). In 1609 Thomas Thorpe published a collection of poems entitled Shakespeare’s Sonnets, “never before imprinted”. Yet, while some of Shakespeare's other poems and many of his plays were often reprinted in his lifetime, the Sonnets were not a publishing success. They had to make their own way, outside the main canon of Shakespeare’s work: wonderful, troubling, patchy, inspiring and baffling, and they have appealed in different ways to different times. Most are addressed to a man, something often overlooked and occasionally concealed; one early and notorious edition even changed some of the pronouns.
With:
Hannah Crawforth
Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at King’s College London
Don Paterson
Poet and Professor of Poetry at the University of St Andrews
And
Emma Smith
Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Stephen Booth, Shakespeare's Sonnets (first published 1978; Yale University Press, 2000)
Hannah Crawforth and Elizabeth Scott-Baumann (eds.), On Shakespeare’s Sonnets: A Poets’ Celebration (Arden, 2016)
Hannah Crawforth, Elizabeth Scott-Baumann and Clare Whitehead (eds.), Shakespeare’s Sonnets: The State of Play (Arden, 2018)
Katherine Duncan-Jones, Shakespeare's Sonnets (The Arden Shakespeare, 1997)
Patricia Fumerton, ‘”Secret” Arts: Elizabethan Miniatures and Sonnets’ (Representations 15, summer 1986, University of California Press)
Kim Hall, Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England (Cornell University Press, 1995), especially chapter 2, ‘Fair Texts/Dark Ladies: Renaissance Lyric and the Poetics of Color’
John Kerrigan, The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint (Penguin Classics, 1986)
Jane Kingsley-Smith, The Afterlife of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
Don Paterson, Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Faber, 2010)
Oscar Wilde (ed. John Sloan), The Complete Short Stories (Oxford World’s Classics), especially ‘The Portrait of Master W.H.’
This episode was first broadcast in June 2021.
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 people, ideas, events and discoveries that have shaped our world
In Our Time is a BBC Studios production
SUN 23:45 Short Works (m002n0rr)
Evening Routine by Natasha Kaeda
Rumour has it the Northern Lights will be seen over Haverfordwest tonight. But how do we experience wonder in a digital age?
Short story by Natasha Kaeda, read by Sara Gregory.
Producer: Fay Lomas
Studio Manager: Catherine Robinson
Production Co-ordinators: Eleri McAuliffe and Lindsay Rees.
MONDAY 08 DECEMBER 2025
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m002n7y7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 00:15 Wokewash (m001w7lb)
Mind Your Business
In the final episode of the series, writer and satirist Heydon Prowse takes a tongue-in-cheek look at corporations and mental health. It’s one of the most talked about issues of our times, but when big business says it cares about our mental wellbeing, does it really mean it?
From emotionally-accepting fast food to kindness clothing, brands nowadays are keen to trumpet their strong support for the mental health of their staff and customers, even building meditation pods in the middle of delivery warehouses. Speaking to experts, corporate consultants, campaigners and more, Heydon puts big business on the couch and asks the multinationals to open up about it all.
He’ll also examine the fast growing wellness industry. Whether it’s a meditation app or a listening-session start up, companies are promising to improve our mental health and profiting while they do it. How do we tell a cynical cash in from an attempt to change things for the better?
If you need support with mental health, details are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline
Contributors:
Dr Mara Einstein, Queens College CUNY and author of Compassion, Inc.
Kati Morton Therapist, Mental Health Speaker and Youtuber
Dr Ashley Frawley, Researcher, University of Kent and author of The Semiotics of Happiness
Geoff Norcott, Comedian, Political Commentator and author of The British Bloke, Decoded
Priya Anand, Bloomberg News
Producer: Sam Peach
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m002n7yg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002n7yn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002n7yv)
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 (m002n7yz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002n7z3)
Alicia McCarthy reports from Westminster as peers debate the age at which someone could ask for an assisted death in England and Wales.
MON 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002n7z7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002n7zb)
Shared Vulnerability
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Ennette C Lainchbury.
Good morning. I was out for dinner the other evening and one by one round the table my colleagues (turned friends) were each sharing one thing they were proud of since we had all last gathered like this. It was almost my turn I knew exactly what I wanted to share but it felt so vulnerable a real inside peak into my life, hopes and dreams outside of work.
I could feel my heart beating faster and faster it was my turn next.
“Well”, I started, “I’ve been putting it off, but I’ve finally done it, I’ve started the whole fertility process and medical paperwork needed to be seen by a fertility specialist.” The floor might as well have disappeared beneath me; all I could feel was the weight of that moment.
I’m 34 years old and I just didn’t think this would be my story. But that evening as we said our goodbyes, one colleague quietly told me how glad he was that I shared. Him and his spouse were in the same situation too. There are actually no words that can convey how seen and grateful I felt.
The thing is I’ve read so many brave stories online from women sharing their fertility journeys, but there was something different about hearing “me too” from someone sitting across the table. A real person. A friend. That shared vulnerability reminded me I wasn’t alone.
There are countless stories of hope and heartache being lived out quietly this morning. I hope you find the courage to share—and receive the miracle gift of hearing those tried and true, most comforting words: me too
Lord, in our dreams, and in our longing, would we feel less alone in our unanswered prayers. Thank you that in all that is unknown, your word unwaveringly says you are good and you are for us.
Amen.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m002n7zg)
08/12/25 Rare breeds, sprout harvest, vets encouraging farmers to visit the doctor
The Governments of the UK need to do more to support native farm animal breeds. That's the view of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust which says that while there have been many warm words about the importance of rare and native breeds, clarification is needed on what the post-Brexit support schemes will offer. And the Trust says government funding should be given to the national gene bank.
The sprout harvest in Scotland is in full swing, with hundreds of tonnes being cut for Christmas. Has it been a good sprout year?
A new project in Northern Ireland is using vets to help farmers look after their health. The ‘Nip It In The Bud’ campaign was launched at a veterinary conference.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
MON 05:57 Weather (m002n7zn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for farmers
MON 06:00 Today (m002n7lk)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m002n7lm)
Histories, emotions and identity
Three prize-winning authors in today's discussion programme hosted by Tom Sutcliffe:
The German Peasants’ War of 1524–1525 was the greatest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution. Tens of thousands of peasants rose up to demand a new, more egalitarian order—only to be crushed in a brutal counterattack that left up to 100,000 dead. The historian Lyndal Roper argues that this rebellion was far from chaotic: it was a coherent mass movement inspired by the radical ideals of the Protestant Reformation. Her book Summer of Fire and Blood is the winner of the 2025 Cundill History Prize.
The neurologist Masud Husain explores the human mind through the stories of seven patients. In asking what it is that makes us who we are, he explores how our identity can shift when we lose just a single cognitive ability. He examines the stories a man who ran out of words, a woman who stopped caring what others thought, and another who, losing her memory, believed she was having an affair with her own husband. His account of the science of identity, Our Brains, Our Selves, won the Royal Society's 2025 Trivedi Science Book Prize.
The historian Hannah Durkin explores the stories of the survivors of the Clotilda, the last ship of the Atlantic slave trade. Based on her original research she uses first hand accounts to tell the stories of the enslaved in their own words. Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade is the winner of the 2025 Wolfson History Prize.
Producer: Ruth Watts
MON 09:45 Wild Bond (m001d5gx)
The Femme Fatale
The name's Bond. James Bond. Everyone's favourite spy has been serving up the guns, the glamour, the girls and the gadgets on the silver screen for 60 years, and we're celebrating... In a slightly unusual way. Emily Knight is taking the iconic characters from the Bond world and re-casting them, from the animal kingdom. Which of our animal cousins would make the best 007? Who do we cast as the Bond Girl? In nature, who comes equipped with the best gadgets? Who are villains, bent on world domination, and who are the henchmen, just following orders?
In this episode, it's the Bond Girl. And not just any Bond Girl... the Femme Fatale. In the Bond world, sex and death are almost inextricably linked, and seduction often comes at a price. So too in the natural world, where feminine wiles are often used as a precursor for violence, trickery, or death. Emily meets a female spider, a mantis, some fireflies and a katydid who are all far 'deadlier than the male'.
With Bond expert Ian Kinane from the University of Roehampton, and biologist Dr Jennifer Verdolin.
Presented and Produced in Bristol by Emily Knight.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002n7lq)
Freebirthing, Author Sarah Mughal Rana, Syria: One year on
Have you heard of Freebirthing? It’s giving birth without any medical help or intervention. A new podcast by The Guardian has investigated an American organisation – the Free Birth Society or FBS – a multimillion-dollar business which professionals claim promotes some dangerous views. Nuala McGovern is joined by Sirin Kale who undertook the investigation along with her colleague Lucy Osbourne. Dr Claire Feeley, midwife and senior lecturer at Kings College London who has done research into freebirthing, discusses the free birth picture here in the UK.
Today marks a year since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. For more than half a century the Assad family ruled Syria with an iron fist and when it came to an end after 13 years of war, many women hoped for a new era. So what's the situation for women in the country 12 months on? We hear from Lina Sinjab, the BBC's Middle East correspondent, who is Syrian and currently in Aleppo.
As part of Radio 4’s annual Christmas Appeal, we hear from NHS Clinical psychologist Sarah Phillips and former Rowan Alba supported-accommodation resident Elvira about how a revolutionary in-house psychologist team is helping homeless women in supported housing in Edinburgh and why they think this model should be rolled out across the UK.
Sarah Mughal Rana is a #BookTok personality and the co-host of On the Write Track podcast. Her debut novel - Dawn of the Firebird -has just been published. It’s an epic, action-packed fantasy story, embracing rich Islamic culture. Sarah joins Nuala to discuss the main protagonist, the discarded daughter of an emperor, who is described as: Daughter, Assassin, Traitor, Saviour.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Kirsty Starkey
MON 11:00 Housing Britain (m002n7ls)
Build Baby Build
Part one of a new series from Vicky Spratt of the I newspaper exploring the state of housing in Britain. 'Build baby build' is a driving mission for Keir Starmer's Labour government- with a target of 1.5 million new homes in England.
But can they do it? Experts line up to tell us they can't. To explore what's getting in the way, we travel to Derbyshire, the Midlands and Home Counties, getting inside the often fractious debate about new housing, delving into the complexities of the planning system, and the 'nimbyism' phenomenon.
UK government ministers tell us the government can meet the 1.5 million new homes target but acknowledge it requires a steep step up in housebuilding towards the end of the parliament.
And as they embark on a plan for 12 new towns in England, what lessons can they learn from one that's being built right now? We visit Houlton in Warwickshire, a thriving new community - complete with relocated newts - on the site of an old radio transmission site.
Clarification: We reported an anecdotal observation about the size of the newts at Houlton. It was not made by an ecologist. We believe the newts in question which were the ‘size of a paper clip’ may have been juvenile newts.
Producer: Leela Padmanabhan
Sound Design: Hal Haines
MON 11:45 Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross (m002n7lw)
Ring
Stretching from midwinter at Stonehenge to midsummer at the Sycamore Gap, journalist Peter Ross takes up the long human story as he visits the ancient places of the British Isles. From stones to shrines, through ritual and commemoration, what are we seeking when we connect with the past?
“Just look. Just feel. And it will speak to you.”
On the shortest day of the year, Ross joins a festival of hope and renewal at an iconic prehistoric structure.
Read by Andy Clark
Written by Peter Ross
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Peter Ross is an Orwell journalism fellow whose writing has appeared in national newspapers and magazines in the UK and US. He won the non-fiction prize at Scotland's National Book Awards with A Tomb With A View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards, and his next book, Steeple Chasing, was a Sunday Times bestseller.
MON 12:00 News Summary (m002n7lz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m002n7m1)
Dodgy Cars, Returns Fraud, Potholes
Second-hand cars are big business.
Over six million were sold in the UK last year, that's according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
But while buying used can save you thousands compared to the cost of a new car, it can also leave you stranded if that car breakdown and claps out soon after.
Under the Consumer Rights Act, you have protections - but what happens when dealers dodge the law and even court orders?
We hear from one father whose daughter saved up £4000 for a car that broke down on it's first long trip...
A type of return-fraud called 'wardrobing' costs UK retailers around £1.3bn every year. Wardrobing is the act of purchasing clothing, wearing for an occasion and then returning it for a refund without disclosing that the item has been worn.
Cases of wardrobing jump by 33% in the peak season between November and January as many of us prepare for nights out, work dos, and family gatherings during the Christmas period.
We hear about how retailers are trying to crack down on it...
Scam text messages claiming to be from the likes of HMRC and asking you to click a link are a nuisance.
Ofcom tells us a hundred million were reported to mobile networks this year. That's an 800% increase since 2023. The criminals behind this are becoming more sophisticated and are often based overseas.
In June a Chinese national on a student visa who was sentenced to a year in prison after 15,000 scam texts were sent from a portable device that was in the back of a car he was driving.
We hear from the Police trying crack down on this type of scam...
PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL
PRODUCER: JAY UNGER
MON 12:57 Weather (m002n7m3)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m002n7m5)
Zelensky arrives for Downing St talks
Sir Keir Starmer hosts Zelensky and European leaders to discuss the latest peace plan for Ukraine. Plus, Lando Norris’ childhood coach on the driver’s secret to success.
MON 13:45 Beautiful Strangeness by Rebecca Stott (m002fv7y)
Episode 1: Daydreaming
The award-winning writer Rebecca Stott grew up in the closed and secretive Christian fundamentalist cult of the Exclusive Brethren. Books, even children’s books, cinema, music were all banned. Imagination, the ministering brothers preached, was a corrupting force.
As a child who had to sit still through eleven hours of church meetings a week during which the brothers preached impenetrable biblical exegesis, Rebecca learned to daydream. That strange childhood, she says, gave her the ability to imagine extraordinary things. And, as an adult, she’s found that she’s comfortable sitting with the inexplicable - she remains fascinated by the mysterious things that flicker at the edges of our vision.
But these tend to be things our society prefers to shut down. We love to close a good mystery. We don’t like not knowing. We are impatient to find rational explanations for everything that happens. And yet there is still so much we don’t know.
In this series of original essays, Rebecca explores how closely beautiful strangeness is woven into the ordinary and the everyday. She asks, in our push to rationalise everything, as well as our fear of being mocked or accused of indulging in magical thinking, are we losing opportunities for shared wonder?
In this first episode, Rebecca describes learning to daydream. She explains how her preoccupation with the strangeness of human experience began in the daydreams of the Brethren meeting room, enriched by the strange poetry of the Bible.
Rebecca Stott, author of the memoir In the Days of Rain which won the Costa Biography Award in 2017, has 14 books to her name. These include the novels Ghostwalk, The Coral Thief, and most recently Dark Earth, as well as the creative non-fiction works Darwin’s Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists and Darwin and the Barnacle. She is a historian and broadcaster (BBC Radio 4, A Point of View) and taught literature and creative writing for over 30 years including as a professor at the University of East Anglia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Written and presented by Rebecca Stott
Producer: Kirsten Lass
Editor: Sara Davies
Sound Engineer: Jon Calver
Image by Maia Miller-Lewis
A Loftus Media Production for BBC Radio 4
Author photo credit :Sarah Weal
MON 14:00 The Archers (m002n7m7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Whatever Happened to Baby Jane Austen? (m002n7m9)
Series 3
Episode 3 – Go West
Selina gets every star’s dream – her own quirky British travelogue show. As she tours Britain on her motorbike, however, she’s soon joined by Florence, who for once fails to ruin everything – at first, anyway.
Meanwhile Mrs Ragnarrok is exploding with the need to know who the father of Lucy’s baby is, while Jonathan continues to appear in his daughter’s life like a methylated spirit.
The first series of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane Austen? won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy and the second series won the British Comedy Guide Award for Best Radio Sitcom for the second year in a row.
“Thank you, Mr Quantick – this is nigh on perfect” Radio Times
Written by David Quantick
Florence - Dawn French
Selina - Jennifer Saunders
Mrs Ragnarrok – Rebecca Front
Lucy – Georgia Tennant
All the men - Alistair McGowan
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:45 Faith, Hope and Glory (m000s188)
Series 1
2. Hope
New series charting the emergence of modern Britain. Today, Hope has made a painful decision for the sake of her baby.
Hope ..... Danielle Vitalis
Writer ..... Roy Williams
Director ..... Mary Peate
Producer ..... Jessica Dromgoole
MON 15:00 A Good Read (m002n7mc)
Gwyneth Lewis and Annabel Abbs
This week's books are:
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner chosen by the Welsh poet and writer Gwyneth Lewis
The LIving Mountain by Nan Shepherd picked by author Annabel Abbs
Emma by Jane Austen chosen by Harriett Gilbert ahead of the writer's 250th birthday in December 2025
Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie Ayre
Photo credit: Edward Brown
MON 15:30 Curious Cases (m002n7mf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Saturday]
MON 16:00 Currently (m002n7mh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:30 on Sunday]
MON 16:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m002n7mk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
MON 17:00 PM (m002n7mm)
Ukraine talks in Downing Street
European leaders discuss the latest Ukraine proposals. But is anybody listening? We hear from the former Prime Minister of Sweden and a recent adviser to Pete Hegseth. Plus, Storm Bram to bring strong winds and heavy rain to UK. Paramount launches rival bid to Netflix to buy Warner Bros. And, wild beaver spotted in Norfolk for first time in centuries. But how did it get there?
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002n7mp)
President Zelensky meets European allies in Downing Street
Sir Keir Starmer has said any ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia must be just and lasting following talks in Downing Street. Also: A nurse says she's "beyond relieved and delighted" after winning a partial victory against NHS Fife over having to share a changing room with a transgender doctor. And the British driver, Lando Norris, has told the BBC he is looking forward to a chance to "just be normal" after being crowned the Formula One world champion.
MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m002n7mr)
Series 84
5. Joe Lycett makes his debut
The godfather of all panel shows comes to us from London's Royal Festival Hall. On the panel are Joe Lycett, Pippa Evans, Richard Coles and Tony Hawks with Jack Dee in the umpire’s chair.
Regular listeners will know to expect inspired nonsense, pointless revelry and Colin Sell at the piano.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random production for BBC Radio 4
MON 19:00 The Archers (m002n7mt)
At the Stables, Paul is smug whilst Lily and Josh feel delicate. Lily blames Josh’s roast. Josh blames Lily’s cauliflower cheese. Paul thinks it’s the third jug of cocktail. Paul’s full fry up is not appreciated by the pair. Josh calls in sick, whilst Lily drags herself to work. Zainab questions Lily over room rates, whilst Lily goes pale and faints. Zainab helps Lily back home and they find Josh in a similar condition. They both think it’s more than the alcohol. Zainab calls her mum Azra to ask for advice on what to do with food poisoning. Azra advises Josh and Lily to stick to plain foods and just water or squash. Paul has forgotten his yearly appraisal with Alistair is today. Alistair’s glad that Paul is still at the vets after the difficult personal events of the last year. Paul is exemplary with patient care, but his lack of a driving licence is causing problems. Paul promises to get on to passing his test. Ben drops stool sample kits to Lily and Josh who aren’t feeling any better. Paul is then forced into the role of nurse.
Ben and Azra set up space heaters from Brookfield in the surgery waiting room. Ben recalls Akram’s copper pipe rant, whilst the portable hand washing stations arrive. Azra and Zainab discuss Akram’s work at the surgery and how Akram wants the family to relocate to Pakistan. Zainab thinks it would be a pretty huge change for them all.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m002n7mw)
Kate Winslet on Goodbye June
Kate Winslet speaks to Samira Ahmed about her directorial debut, Goodbye June. With a screenplay written by her son Joe Anders, the film portrays complex family dynamics colliding with the surreal realities of palliative care.
With talks around a possible peace deal in Ukraine ongoing, we discuss whether the country has effectively used arts and culture to further the national cause. We hear from conductor and founder of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra Keri-Lynn Wilson, and visual artist Pavlo Makov.
Entertainment journalist Al Horner joins from Los Angeles to talk about the latest twist in the on-going battle between Netflix and Paramount to takeover the famed film studio Warner Bros. He also walks us through the winners and snubs from today's Golden Globe nominations.
Filmmaker Noah Baumbach, best known for co-writing the blockbuster Barbie movie with his wife Greta Gerwig, talks about his new film Jay Kelly, which stars George Clooney as one of Hollywood's most famous stars who is struggling to figure out who loves him when the cameras stop rolling.
And we remember the life and career of the acclaimed architect Frank Gehry.
MON 20:00 The Briefing Room (m002mz65)
Are the old robbing the young?
In her budget the Chancellor increased the state pension by 4.8 % in line with the government's triple lock formula. It was good news for pensioners but is it good news for the young? A constant background to spending and economic decisions for well over a decade now has been an argument about generational injustice. That the young are getting poorer. David Aaronovitch and guests look at the facts and ask whether the old are robbing the young and if so what should be done about it?
Guests:
Bobby Duffy, Professor of Public Policy at King’s College, London
Sophie Hale, Principal Economist, Resolution Foundation
Xiaowei Xu, Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Jane Falkingham Professor of Demography, Southampton University
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Caroline Bayley, Cordelia Hemming, Kirsteen Knight
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Engineer: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon
MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct8txn)
A 'functional' cure for HIV?
Almost 40 years ago, the first treatment was approved for HIV, but it came with a warning: “This is not a cure.” On the week of World AIDS Day, Kate Bishop, principal group leader at the Francis Crick Institute, tells us how science may now have finally found a “functional” cure for the virus that causes AIDS.
How are tree rings, volcanoes, trade routes and Europe’s deadly Black Death pandemic connected? Professor Ulf Büntgen from the University of Cambridge explains how matching tree ring data with historical records shows that Italian city-states importing grain accidentally introduced the Black Death to Europe.
Plus science broadcaster Caroline Steel is in the studio to discuss her favourite new scientific discoveries.
To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.
Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producers: Jonathan Blackwell, Ella Hubber, Tim Dodd, Alex Mansfield, and Hannah Fisher
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
MON 21:00 Start the Week (m002n7lm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:45 Wild Bond (m001d5gx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m002n7my)
Syria celebrates first anniversary of fall of Assad
Syrians are out on the streets across the country, celebrating a year on from the end of a fifty-year dictatorship. But with economic issues and sectarian violence persisting, how can Syria move onto a brighter future?
Also in the programme: A new gene therapy proves promising for blood cancer patients; President Trump announces a $12bn support package for US farmers; and Paramount battles Netflix with a new bid to buy Warner Bros.
MON 22:45 Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (m002n7n0)
Episode 6
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix , translated by Helen Stevenson, is inspired by the actual events surrounding the deaths of 27 migrants who drowned in the English Channel in the early hours of the 24th November 2021. As the sea overwhelmed the dinghy they had set out in, the migrants’ telephone calls for help and the French call operator’s responses and frequently off the cuff, callous asides, were recorded, and later published by the French media.
The author takes these events as the starting point for a work of fiction. The narrative is voiced in the words of the French naval coastguard - it was her job , she is at pains to tell the police investigator, to assess the calls for help and allocate the rescue centre’s limited resources according to the most urgent need. But as her increasingly defensive arguments begin to unravel, we witness a mind where intrusive images of drowning figures crowd in. Accused of being a monster for her lack of empathy, the accusation is thrown back at us – where is our humanity and what did we do to save the drowning souls ?
This is a story which puts all of us in the spotlight – complicit in looking the other way, implicated in readily blaming others, and guilty for not wanting to think too much about where responsibility lies for the deaths of those who felt their limbs grow cold and leaden as the black of night gave way to grey dawn.
In an interview with Dua Lipa for her global book club, Service95, Vincent Delecroix observed that "imagination is the first moral faculty". In this work of fiction, he asks us to deploy our own imaginations as fully as we can, before we venture to make any kind of moral judgement.
Producer Jill Waters says, "I have rarely if ever finished a recording session so fired up by the energy of a challenging text brought viscerally to life. Small Boat is a gripping portrait of a woman struggling to deflect guilt, deny responsibility and maintain that these deaths - this journey - was not her idea. But every so often her argument collapses in on itself and we glimpse an internal chasm of doubt and fear. Lydia Wilson gives a superb performance, moving between demotic bluster and brittle sarcasm with devastating moments of guileless indifference, whilst all the time shame gnaws at her soul.
Small Boat was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025 . It was originally published in 2023 in French by Gallimard as "Naufrage".
Read by Lydia Wilson and Tommy Sim’aan (episodes 5 and 6)
Written by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson
Abridged and directed by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:00 Limelight (m001smnb)
Spores: Series 1
4. Rot
A psychological horror story set in rural Wales amid the mysterious world of mycelium.
When social worker Cassie discovers mould in the flat of a vulnerable service user she puts it down to poor quality housing. But then she discovers it in her own house and begins to fear for the safety of her family.
For partner Morgan and young son Bryn, it’s not the mould that troubles them but Cassie’s mental health. As the fungus continues to grow and spread, Cassie resorts to more extreme measures to combat it. But why will no one listen to her when she warns of danger? When Ola proves an uncertain ally, Cassie is forced to turn back to Hywel for help.
In Greek mythology, Cassandra was condemned to speak the truth yet never be believed. A story of trust and what happens when we lose it. And of a hidden threat attacking the very thing that makes us powerful.
Written and created by Marietta Kirkbride
Cassie …… Kate O’Flynn
Ola …… Aggy K. Adams
Interviewer ….. Laurel Lefkow
Hywel ….. Lloyd Meredith
Morgan…… Owain Gwynn
Bryn …… Macsen Ovens
Health Professional ….. Kezrena James
Theo …… Richard Corgan
Young Helen …… Lily Anne Lefkow
Other voices played by the cast
Production Manager: Anna de Wolff Evans
Production Assistant: Teresa Milewski
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Title Music: Ioana Selaru & Melo-Zed
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
Directed and Produced by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002n7n2)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster as a Justice Minister defends the government's plans to restrict access to jury trials in England and Wales.
TUESDAY 09 DECEMBER 2025
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m002n7n4)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross (m002n7lw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002n7n6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002n7n8)
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 (m002n7nb)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002n7nd)
Susan Hulme reports as Ajax armoured vehicles once again hit the headlines.
TUE 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002n7ng)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002n7nj)
Family Matters
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Ennette C Lainchbury
Good morning. A fun fact about me is that my brother was my very first answered prayer. It's such a special memory for me. And this year, I got to go to his wedding and celebrate this huge moment in his life, and it made me think of that very first time I'd dared to hope and pray for something when I was just four years old.
It's coming to that time of year where when we start to think about seeing friends and family over the holidays, trying to slot everyone in. As much as I wanted a big family, my growing extended family is actually made up of a lot of fractured relationships, messy misunderstandings. Maybe you relate a little or a lot. Maybe this festive season highlights your lack of family more than anything.
The reality is being human is hard. No one tests you quite like that family member that knows just what to say to get on your last nerve. And there's no jealousy, quite like that sneaky feeling of inferiority that creeps in all of a sudden when you meet up with your friend for that long overdue catchup and comparison steals all the joy out of the moment.
However, you're approaching the coming holiday period, I am encouraged by the following Bible verse in Psalm 68, verse 6 “God puts the lonely in families.” I love that I get to see this verse come to life in the reality of my church. In my life, time and time again, the church is a place where I've come to and found friendship and belonging. It's not always perfect, mind you, but then again, who's family ever is?
Despite its imperfections, today, I'm grateful for family in all its many forms, for friends who feel like family, for the church that is the family of God. Thank you, Lord, for all these people in my life, these signs of your grace. May my relationship with them be a mirror of my relationship with you.
Amen.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m002n7nl)
09/12/25 Off grid communities, rural road deaths, drought, Lincoln Longwool sheep.
Thousands of people are still not connected to the National Grid and rely on generators for power, according to the energy regulator. Ofgem estimates up to 2000 properties in the UK are still off-grid. Some have been asked to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds if they want a connection. Now a charity in Northumberland, where Ofgem identified a particularly large cluster of off-grid households, says the government should do more to help.
Despite higher than average rainfall across some of the country, other areas are still in drought, following the exceptionally dry and hot summer. The National Drought Group has reported that record breaking rainfall in November helped the Midlands move out of drought, but parts of Sussex remain in drought.
Rural roads are significantly more dangerous than urban ones. The latest figures from the Department for Transport show that 956 people were killed in 2024, that's 72% more than on urban roads. The figures have been analysed by NFU Mutual insurance and it's now calling for more specific training for driving on rural roads, especially for those who break the law.
All week we're catching up with rare and native reeds. Longwool sheep of which there are several breeds, are on the priority list of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. There are just 99 registered flocks of the distinctive Lincoln Longwool and the number of sheep has declined to around eight hundred.
Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
TUE 06:00 Today (m002n7r7)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Reith Lectures (m002n7rf)
Rutger Bregman - Moral Revolution
3. A conspiracy of decency
Dutch historian Rutger Bregman's 2025 Reith Lectures, called "Moral Revolution", explore the moral decay and un-seriousness of today's elites. He argues that small, committed groups can spark moral revolutions, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and long-term vision.
In this third of four lectures, Bregman argues for a new "realist utopia," calling for people to join what he labels" a conspiracy of decency." He says that in the face of rapid technological change, we need to promote ideas like Universal Basic Income, fairer taxation and responsible tech regulation.
The Reith Lectures are presented by Anita Anand who chairs a Q & A. The programme was recorded in front of an audience in Edinburgh.
The series is produced by Jim Frank. The Editor is Clare Fordham.
The programmes are mixed by Neil Churchill.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002n7rq)
Maternity care review, Weight training and weight loss drugs, Bows in fashion
Baroness Amos, who was appointed by the Health Secretary to lead an independent rapid investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal care in England, has said nothing prepared her for the scale of "unacceptable care" that women and families have received. Presenter Krupa Padhy is joined by the BBC’s Social Affairs correspondent Michael Buchanan and Theo Clarke, former Conservative MP who also chaired the UK Birth Trauma Inquiry and hosts the podcast, Breaking the Taboo, to discuss those initial reflections and what comes next.
We examine a new report which highlights the crucial role of strength training and exercise for people on weight loss drugs. Data gathered by fitness professionals, Les Mills and the not-for-profit industry body, ukactive, shows the impact of weight loss drugs on skeletal muscle mass. Their report says that 20-50% of weight loss is lean body mass, which poses significant health risks such as frailty, disability, reduced metabolism, and increased mortality. Physiotherapist Lucy McDonald and Dr Sarah Jarvis join Krupa to discuss the importance of strength training to mitigate muscle loss.
Yesterday, nurse Sandie Peggie, who objected to sharing a female changing room with a transgender doctor, won part of her employment tribunal against NHS Fife. She was suspended from her job after she confronted Dr Beth Upton in 2023. The tribunal ruled she was harassed by NHS Fife but other allegations of discrimination and victimisation were dismissed. We hear more from Lorna Gordon, the BBC's Scotland Correspondent, who has been following the case.
From Kate Garraway’s iconic jumper on The Celebrity Traitors to Lily Allen’s album launch dress, bows are everywhere right now. But are they practical or a deliberate gesture of femininity? And why have we seen this resurgence of bows in fashion? The Guardian’s fashion and lifestyle editor Morwenna Ferrier and Dr Sarah Grant from the V&A join Krupa to discuss the history and sudden popularity of bows.
Presented by: Krupa Padhy
Produced by: Sarah Jane Griffiths
TUE 11:00 Add to Playlist (m002n0s4)
Emma Rawicz and Keelan Carew enjoy the vibes
Pianist Keelan Carew and saxophonist Emma Rawicz join Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe as they add five more tracks, taking us from an unforgettable Nat King Cole classic to a sunken cathedral, a famous submarine, and the Austrian Alps.
Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Unforgettable by Natalie Cole & Nat King Cole
Señor Mouse by Gary Burton and Chick Corea
La Cathédrale Engloutie by Debussy
Stingray by Barry Gray
The Lonely Goatherd by Julie Andrews
Other music in this episode
Particles of Change by Emma Rawicz
Ya Taali’een el-Jabal by Kronos Quartet ft Rim Banna
Unforgettable by Nat King Cole
Memories of You by Louis Armstrong
Under the Sea (from The Little Mermaid) by Samuel E Wright
Theme from Thunderbirds by Barry Gray
TUE 11:45 Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross (m002n7s2)
Chalk
Stretching from midwinter at Stonehenge to midsummer at the Sycamore Gap, journalist Peter Ross takes up the long human story as he visits the ancient places of the British Isles. From stones to shrines, through ritual and commemoration, what are we seeking when we connect with the past?
“The horse is magical… our ancestors are around us.”
Ross joins a party of volunteers keeping the Uffington White Horse sharp and defined, a job carried out by locals for centuries.
Read by Andy Clark
Written by Peter Ross
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Peter Ross is an Orwell journalism fellow whose writing has appeared in national newspapers and magazines in the UK and US. He won the non-fiction prize at Scotland's National Book Awards with A Tomb With A View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards, and his next book, Steeple Chasing, was a Sunday Times bestseller.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m002n7sh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m002n7st)
Call You and Yours: What's your experience of buying a second-hand car?
On today's Call You & Yours we're asking: "What's your experience of buying a second hand car?"
We've been hearing stories on the programme about problems when they've bought used cars.
It's one of the biggest issues you write to us for help with, and we'd like to know your experiences of buying used cars positive and negative , so when it's gone right for you, and when it really hasn't.
The cost of used cars is going up - the average now costs £17,000. The way we buy them has changed a lot - you can do it online now and have it driven to your door.
But what happens if it goes wrong? Where do you go, and what are your rights?
"What's your experience of buying a second hand car?"
You can call 03700 100 444 when our phone lines open at
11am.
Or email youandyours@bbc.co.uk.
PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL
PRODUCER: LYDIA THOMAS
TUE 12:57 Weather (m002n7t3)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m002n7tf)
Report: MI5 tried to cover up truth over 'Stakeknife' spy in IRA
Operation Kenova found the spy, codenamed 'Stakeknife', cost more lives than he saved. We'll ask why the agent was allowed to take part in the murders and whether it's time for the government to confirm his identity. Plus, former children's commissioner Anne Longfield is to chair a controversial inquiry into grooming gangs. Ands should the UK follow Australia in banning under-16s from social media?
TUE 13:45 Beautiful Strangeness by Rebecca Stott (m002fvkd)
Episode 2: The Attic
The award-winning writer Rebecca Stott grew up in the closed and secretive Christian fundamentalist cult of the Exclusive Brethren. Books, even children’s books, cinema, music were all banned. Imagination, the ministering brothers preached, was a corrupting force.
As a child who had to sit still through eleven hours of church meetings a week during which the brothers preached impenetrable biblical exegesis, Rebecca learned to daydream. That strange childhood, she says, gave her the ability to imagine extraordinary things. And, as an adult, she’s found that she’s comfortable sitting with the inexplicable - she remains fascinated by the mysterious things that flicker at the edges of our vision.
But these tend to be things our society prefers to shut down. We love to close a good mystery. We don’t like not knowing. We are impatient to find rational explanations for everything that happens. And yet there is still so much we don’t know.
In this series of original essays, Rebecca explores how closely beautiful strangeness is woven into the ordinary and the everyday. She asks, in our push to rationalise everything, as well as our fear of being mocked or accused of indulging in magical thinking, are we losing opportunities for shared wonder?
In this second episode, Rebecca explores some of the mysteries that confound and fascinate modern scientists by way of a Kashmiri mathematician, Charles Darwin, the spooky world of quantum physics and the beautiful strangeness of slime mould.
Rebecca Stott, author of the memoir In the Days of Rain which won the Costa Biography Award in 2017, has 14 books to her name. These include the novels Ghostwalk, The Coral Thief, and most recently Dark Earth, as well as the creative non-fiction works Darwin’s Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists and Darwin and the Barnacle. She is a historian and broadcaster (BBC Radio 4, A Point of View) and taught literature and creative writing for over 30 years including as a professor at the University of East Anglia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Written and presented by Rebecca Stott
Producer: Kirsten Lass
Editor: Sara Davies
Sound Engineer: Jon Calver
Image by Maia Miller-Lewis
A Loftus Media Production for BBC Radio 4
Author photo credit :Sarah Weal
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m002n7mt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001hx4z)
50 Berkeley Square
London’s most haunted house prepares to give up its secrets in Sami Ibrahim’s ghost story about sweet revenge.
Inspired by the urban myths surrounding this notorious location, the story twists and turns, starting out in the realms of the supernatural before morphing into something entirely more intriguing.
Martha ….. Gwyneth Keyworth
Peter ….. John Heffernan
Robert Warboys ….. Tom Kiteley
James Mallord ….. Hughie O’Donnell
Sarah ….. Chloë Sommer
Uppingham ….. Roger Ringrose
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
Re-imagined by Sami, 50 Berkeley Square is based on his short drama of the same name which premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2020.
TUE 15:00 History's Heroes (m002n7tv)
History's Toughest Heroes
William Marshal: The Greatest Medieval Knight
At the age of 70, does England’s greatest knight still have what it takes to save the realm from invasion?
In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on the edge.
The young Sir William Marshal was handsome, charming, captain of the England Tourney team a sporting hero and right-hand man to many a king of England including Henry the Young King, Henry II, Richard the Lionheart and Bad King John. He was a brilliant rider and very good at jousting. He was even famed for having a ‘large crotch’. But towards the end of his life, in his 70s, when he might have wanted to wind down, the realm was in trouble facing the threat of a French invasion. William Marshal was called upon to fight the ultimate battle and save the day in the Battle of Lincoln.
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 Beyond Belief (m002n7v3)
Nigeria and Religious Persecution
The security of Christians in Nigeria has gained global attention after an intervention by President Trump, who last month ordered the military to prepare for action to tackle Islamist militant groups, accusing the Nigerian government of failing to protect Christians.
The threat came as claims of a genocide against Nigeria's Christians was circulating recently in some right-wing US circles.
The Nigerian Presidency has rejected these claims describing them as "a gross misrepresentation of reality" saying "terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology - Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike".
Giles Fraser explores the complex nature of the insecurity and the all-pervasive role of religion in this secular state with a panel of experts :
Olaronke Alo, BBC reporter
Charles Ekpo, Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Resolution, Arthur Jarvis University, Nigeria
Dr Kabir Adamu, Security Analyst
John Pontifex. Aid to the Church in Need
Presenter: Giles Fraser
Producer: Catherine Murray
Asst Producer: Charlie Filmer-Court
Production Co-ordinator: Ned Stone
Studio Mix: Kelly Young
Editor: Chloe Walker
TUE 16:30 What's Up Docs? (m002n7vt)
Can you be ‘addicted to dopamine’?
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken untangle the confusion around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.
In this episode, they’re diving into dopamine – one of the most talked-about chemicals in modern wellness culture. But what is dopamine, really? What role does it play in pleasure, motivation, learning, and movement? And how accurate are ideas like “dopamine hits”, “dopamine detoxes”, or being “addicted to dopamine”?
Chris and Xand speak to Masud Husain, Professor of Neurology & Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, to cut through the myths and find out what dopamine does, what it doesn’t do, and why understanding it properly might change the way we think about our behaviour and our brains.
If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08000 665 123.
Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken
Guest: Professor Masud Husain
Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
Editor: Jo Rowntree
Researcher: Grace Revill
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 (m002n7w3)
News and current affairs, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002n7wc)
Chair announced for national inquiry into grooming gangs
After months of delays it's been announced that the former children's commissioner and Labour peer, Baroness Longfield, will chair the national inquiry into grooming gangs in England and Wales.
TUE 18:30 One Person Found This Helpful (m002n7wl)
Series 3
4. Bacon Drink or Cheesy Boat?
Frank Skinner and guests Ahir Shah, Louise Young, Freya Parker and Pierre Novellie find out the right way to get frightened by lions, the wrong way to clean a delicious crevice, and what to do if your arms don’t reach the kitchen.
This is the panel game based on what we all sit down and do at least once a day – shop online and leave a review, as an all-star panel celebrate the good, the bad and the baffling.
Everyone has an online life, and when the great British public put pen to keyboard to leave a review, they almost always write something hilarious. And our all-star panel have to work out just what they were reviewing – and maybe contribute a few reviews of their own. So if you’re the person who went on Trip Advisor to review Ben Nevis as “Very steep and too high”, this show salutes you!
Written by Frank Skinner, Catherine Brinkworth, Sarah Dempster, Jason Hazeley, Karl Minns, Katie Sayer & Peter Tellouche
Devised by Jason Hazeley and Simon Evans with the producer David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m002n7sj)
Akram is working hard to try and finish the repairs today. He broaches the idea of moving to Pakistan again. Akram thinks Khalil would do great there. While Zainab is adaptable, and student loans are cheaper if she changes her mind about university. Azra points out that visiting family is not the same as uprooting. Akram wants to be a farmer, not a plumber, and he’s not getting any younger. Ed and Leonard chat in the crowded waiting room. During Ed’s appointment about his wrist, he asks what counselling is available for George’s temper, but Azra says as he’s an adult she’s got to speak to George herself.
Paul has succumbed to whatever is going around the Stables. It clearly isn’t food poisoning. Josh slowly makes some toast. Lily’s stomach doesn’t agree with it. Josh and Lily discuss the job at Grey Gables. Leonard turns up masked and gloved to help the plagued household. He starts on cleaning up the kitchen. The discussion moves onto Lower Loxley and Lily’s lack of inheritance. Leonard suggests to Lily that Josh may feel similar with farm inheritance. Josh states it’s obvious that Pip is the golden girl. Josh confesses he thought it might be his own fault for starting his business. Luckily, Nina is going to pop in on Thursday to give him some TLC.
Azra tells Akram he doesn’t have to go back to Pakistan to be a farmer. Akram explains that land is expensive, besides, Pakistan is their true home, would he really be accepted in farming here?
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m002n7wz)
2025 Turner Prize winner; remembering Martin Parr; Bradford’s year as the UK City of Culture
Tonight, the winner of the 2025 Turner Prize will be announced in Bradford, this year’s City of Culture. Joining Nick to discuss the runners and riders is arts journalist at the Yorkshire Post, Yvette Huddleston.
The death of the photographer Martin Parr was announced over the weekend. His reputation was established with his colourful1980s seaside holiday pictures. To remember his life and legacy, we hear from photographer Stephen McCoy who currently has a show at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol.
Egyptian Queen Nefertiti is rumoured to have been one of the most desirable women in the ancient world but could things turn ugly over the location of the bust of Nefertiti? With the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, there have been renewed calls for it to be returned to Egypt from the Berlin’s Neues Museum where it’s currently on display. Heba Abd el Gawad, Senior Curator of Anthropology at London’s Horniman Museum, and Professor Sebastian Conrad, who has written extensively on Nefertiti, discuss the issues.
Punchdrunk is a theatre company that has been pushing at the boundaries of theatre for over two decades. It pioneered fully immersive experiences, creating worlds where audiences become active participants rather than passive spectators. Their latest show is Lander 23, a live-action video game, set on a distant planet where a previous crew has mysteriously vanished. Nick paid a visit to the company’s home in Woolwich, London.
Arts journalist Yvette Huddleston reflects on Bradford’s year in the spotlight.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
TUE 20:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002n7qw)
An unholy row over bishop accused of bullying.
Anne Dyer is a trailblazer - becoming the first female Bishop in the Scottish Episcopal Church when she was appointed more than seven years ago. But since then, accusations of bullying and misconduct have dominated her period in charge - even for a time leading to her suspension and calls for her resignation.
Bishop Dyer denies any wrongdoing, while the church itself acknowledges there are deep wounds within the diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney.
Now File on 4 Investigates has discovered new complaints against the bishop, which she says are "totally without merit".
Reporter: Steve Swann
Producer: Fergus Hewison
Editor: Tara McDermott
Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m002n7xb)
Blind Matchmakers; Christmas and Mental Health
Blind Matchmakers is a new dating programme from ITV which features three visually impaired dating experts. The pilot programme featured a range of participants looking for love, along with some visually impaired contestants.
In Touch provides tips for visually impaired people who might be struggling to feel festive this Christmas season, with singer and psychotherapist Victoria Oruwari. Victoria has also released a Christmas single, 'Merry Christmas from Afar', and she shares the story behind the inception track and the message it shares.
Presented and produced by: Beth Hemmings
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.
TUE 21:00 Crossing Continents (m002n7xh)
The struggle of Israel's peace movement
Two years ago a group of Jewish and Palestinian peace activists stood almost alone in Israel in calling for a ceasefire, as Israel launched a massive offensive on Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks of 7th October 2023. Emily Wither returns to hear how the lives of these activists have changed. She explores whether their message of peace and coexistence is breaking through at a time when societal divisions are deeper than ever.
The group Standing Together, known for their matching purple t-shirts, is a group of Jewish Israelis and Palestinian citizens of Israel (referred to by the state as Israeli Arabs, the country’s largest minority making up over 20% of the population).
It is unusual in either Israel or Palestine to find a mixed group working together for a shared cause and advocating for coexistence. Standing Together has received criticism from both sides of the conflict; with many Israelis calling them traitors and some Palestinian groups calling for a boycott of the movement. Despite all this the group say the only way to achieve a lasting peace is for the communities to work together.
Reporter: Emily Wither
Producer: Alex Last
Sound Mix: Tony Churnside
Production Co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Series Editor: Penny Murphy
TUE 21:30 Illuminated (m002n7xn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 on Sunday]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m002n7zv)
President Zelensky says he will try to hold Ukraine elections during wartime
President Zelensky says he will seek to change the law to allow Ukraine elections to be held. Donald Trump has doubled down on his criticism of how European countries are being changed by immigration. And an artistic glass ceiling has been broken - as the Turner Prize goes to a sculptor with a learning disability.
TUE 22:45 Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (m002n800)
Episode 7
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix , translated by Helen Stevenson, is inspired by the actual events surrounding the deaths of 27 migrants who drowned in the English Channel in the early hours of the 24th November 2021. As the sea overwhelmed the dinghy they had set out in, the migrants’ telephone calls for help and the French call operator’s responses and frequently off the cuff, callous asides, were recorded, and later published by the French media.
The author takes these events as the starting point for a work of fiction. The narrative is voiced in the words of the French naval coastguard - it was her job , she is at pains to tell the police investigator, to assess the calls for help and allocate the rescue centre’s limited resources according to the most urgent need. But as her increasingly defensive arguments begin to unravel, we witness a mind where intrusive images of drowning figures crowd in. Accused of being a monster for her lack of empathy, the accusation is thrown back at us – where is our humanity and what did we do to save the drowning souls ?
This is a story which puts all of us in the spotlight – complicit in looking the other way, implicated in readily blaming others, and guilty for not wanting to think too much about where responsibility lies for the deaths of those who felt their limbs grow cold and leaden as the black of night gave way to grey dawn.
In an interview with Dua Lipa for her global book club, Service95, Vincent Delecroix observed that "imagination is the first moral faculty". In this work of fiction, he asks us to deploy our own imaginations as fully as we can, before we venture to make any kind of moral judgement.
Producer Jill Waters says, "I have rarely if ever finished a recording session so fired up by the energy of a challenging text brought viscerally to life. Small Boat is a gripping portrait of a woman struggling to deflect guilt, deny responsibility and maintain that these deaths - this journey - was not her idea. But every so often her argument collapses in on itself and we glimpse an internal chasm of doubt and fear. Lydia Wilson gives a superb performance, moving between demotic bluster and brittle sarcasm with devastating moments of guileless indifference, whilst all the time shame gnaws at her soul.
Small Boat was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025 . It was originally published in 2023 in French by Gallimard as "Naufrage".
Read by Lydia Wilson and Tommy Sim’aan (episodes 5 and 6)
Written by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson
Abridged and directed by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:00 Uncanny (m002n805)
Series 5
Case 7: The Magnet
Solicitor Kate upends her rural life in Yorkshire to move into her new partner’s house in London, but before long her new metropolitan existence is blighted by disturbing, seemingly inexplicable phenomena.
Seeking escape, she goes on holiday - but the strange occurrences just seem to follow her. Is it the house, or Kate herself, who is haunted?
Written and presented by Danny Robins
Experts: Callum Cooper and Kate Cherrell
Editing and sound design: Charlie Brandon-King
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme music by Lanterns on the Lake
Commissioning executive: Paula McDonnell
Commissioning editor: Rhian Roberts
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard
A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002n809)
Susan Hulme reports as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announces details of the government's inquiry into grooming gangs.
WEDNESDAY 10 DECEMBER 2025
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m002n80g)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross (m002n7s2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002n80q)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002n80v)
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 (m002n80z)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002n813)
Susan Hulme reports as the government announces details of its grooming gangs inquiry and Wales's first minister faces questions in the Senedd.
WED 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002n816)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002n818)
My Sister
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Ennette C Lainchbury
Good morning. My sister is legally blind and her guide dog isn't trained to go on the escalators. Whenever I meet someone new, I often ask this kind of, go-to conversational question, ‘if you could be prime minister for a day, what three things would you do?’ Guaranteed one of my answers is always the same or a variation on the same theme. I'd initiate a full country renovation of the transport system so that stairs, not escalators, were easily accessible and visible. My little sister's blindness is a quiet truth I carry, like the way a mother carries her heart outside of her body, the very second her baby is born. Often, I feel suspended between two worlds. My one life in which I'm a British citizen living in Nottingham and so happily married, it's nauseating. And then this other world; in that life, I feel responsible for helping my single mother who's trying to make a better life for herself and her children. In that life, I'm a big sister and my heart beats outside of my body. And I wonder if people will be kind to her, treat her with care. I wonder constantly if they know how truly special and important she is to me, and how powerless I feel knowing she lives at the mercy of the kindness of strangers. As I was thinking about all this, though, it dawned on me that all of life is this tight rope between deep pain and indescribable joy. So much of a 365-day year is made up of exactly that, isn't it? What's that trite saying? Without rain, there'd be no rainbows?
God who opened the eyes of the blind, open my eyes today to all the wonderful things I have in my life, amid difficult circumstances, grant me the small miracle today of perspective. Help me appreciate the rainbow, despite all the rain. Amen.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m002n81b)
10/12/25 Swine fever, Turkeys, Rare breeds
The Spanish region of Catalonia is still coping with the arrival of African Swine Fever, which was first diagnosed in wild boar on November 28th. There have now been thirteen confirmed cases in wild boar, and 80,000 pigs are having to be slaughtered as a precaution. The authorities are looking into the possibility that the disease may have leaked from a research facility.
Despite the impact of avian flu, which has been devastating for some turkey farmers, the industry says there will not be a shortage this Christmas. Poultry farms were hit so badly in 2022 that many farmers brought in contingency plans to cope with the possibility of the disease striking them.
All this week we're talking to farmers with rare livestock breeds. Today, we're on the Isle of Lewis where passionate rare breed crofter Paul Rowlston has spent years collecting and preserving rare breeds of Scottish livestock, at the north end of the island.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Sally Challoner.
WED 06:00 Today (m002n7qh)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Currently (m002mz1k)
Four Months in Gaza
A raw and intimate perspective on the terror, anger, and hope of living through war.
As bombs hit ever closer to her home in central Gaza, Hanya Aljamal spots her elderly neighbour tending to his garden. “He's been raking the earth,” she says, “prepping the soil for new seeds. Given everything that's already happening, it's quite interesting seeing him do that right now. I mean, if grandpa thinks it's a good time to put seeds in, then I don't know, maybe there's hope.”
In audio diaries sent from her balcony over four months, Hanya sees impromptu volleyball matches, flying shrapnel, and a hastily constructed tent village as Israel expands its military action. But after she questions whether she will live to see the end of the conflict, a fragile peace is finally agreed and Hanya’s personal situation changes dramatically.
Producer/presenter: Simon Maybin
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound mix: Gareth Jones
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
WED 09:30 Shadow World (m002mr56)
Anatomy of a Cancellation
5. The Rewrite
A sensitivity reader Helen Gould speaks publicly for the first time, revealing the emotional and professional complexities of revising a book already in print.
Katie Razzall interrogates the role of sensitivity readers, and asks: who gets to decide what’s acceptable in literature—and what happens when those boundaries shift?
In Shadow World: Anatomy of a Cancellation, the BBC’s Culture Editor Katie Razzall revisits a story that rocked the UK’s publishing industry in 2021. It led to what some saw as the unjustified cancellation of a prize-winning writer and teacher - but to others, was a long overdue reckoning for the world of publishing. It grew into a culture war about race, class, and who has the right to say what.
Anatomy of a Cancellation explores a range of different perspectives to consider how people now view one of the most controversial literary rows in recent memory.
Presenter: Katie Razzall
Producer: Charlotte McDonald
Additional production: Octavia Woodward
Production co-ordinators: Sophie Hill and Katie Morrison
Sound design and mix: James Beard
Story editing: Meara Sharma
Series producer: Matt Willis
Senior news editor: Clare Fordham
Commissioning executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning editor: Dan Clarke
It was a BBC Long Form Audio production for Radio 4.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002n7qq)
Abuse in the Church, Wages for housework, Youth work today
John Smyth is believed to be the most prolific serial abuser associated with the Church of England. In 2024, an independent review carried out by Keith Makin found that Smyth abused 30 boys and young men in the UK, and around 85 in Zimbabwe and South Africa. A new Channel 4 documentary, See No Evil, reveals the scale of Smyth's abuse and features testimony from victims and survivors, the journalists who uncovered the story, and from Smyth's family. Fiona Rugg, John Smyth's daughter, is part of the documentary and joins Nuala in the studio. Woman's Hour also hears from Madeleine Davies, Senior Writer at the Church Times, who has followed this story closely.
As the government announces plans to spend £500m on youth services in England, what is the state of youth work today? Nuala is joined by Abbee McLatchie, Deputy CEO of the National Youth Agency, who has been working in and around youth services for 25 years, and Letitia Simms, a youth worker for the charity Cranstoun in the Routes youth advisory hub in Dudley in the West Midlands.
Wages for housework was a feminist mantra in the West in the 1970s – feminist campaigners arguing for recognition of the economic value of domestic labour. The debate has been revived in India over the last decade with an estimated 118 million women across 12 states now receiving unconditional cash transfers from their governments. Devina Gupta, a reporter based in Delhi, and Professor Prabha Kotiswaran from King’s College in London unpick the impact of ‘wages for housework’ on women’s lives and the Indian economy.
WED 11:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002n7qw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Tuesday]
WED 11:40 This Week in History (m002n7px)
8th to 14th December
Fascinating, surprising and eye-opening stories from the past, brought to life.
This week: 8th to 14th December
12th December 1963 - Jomo Kenyatta leads Kenya to independence
13th December 2003 - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured by US forces near his hometown of Tikrit
9th December 1952 - The Great Smog of London finally clears
Presented by Jane Steel and Ron Brown
WED 11:45 Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross (m002n7r2)
Grave
Stretching from midwinter at Stonehenge to midsummer at the Sycamore Gap, journalist Peter Ross takes up the long human story as he visits the ancient places of the British Isles. From stones to shrines, through ritual and commemoration, what are we seeking when we connect with the past?
“This isn’t a bronze sword or a stone axe. This is a human being.”
Ross carefully explores some of the ritual, beliefs and creativity around Ireland’s eerie bog bodies.
Read by Andy Clark
Written by Peter Ross
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Peter Ross is an Orwell journalism fellow whose writing has appeared in national newspapers and magazines in the UK and US. He won the non-fiction prize at Scotland's National Book Awards with A Tomb With A View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards, and his next book, Steeple Chasing, was a Sunday Times bestseller.
WED 12:00 News Summary (m002n7r8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m002n7rj)
Fake Restaurant Review; Economic Abuse; TikTok Shop
After a high end restaurant was publicly accused of soliciting fake five star reviews, Shari Vahl unravels what's really going on, and discoveries the reviews are actually nothing to do with the restaurant but the product of a new kind of "task scam" - that's where criminals lure victims with promises of easy money for simple online "tasks". And its on the up.
New research reveals that 18-24 year olds aren't spotting the signs of economic abuse. We hear from a victim about how the impact of this kind of abuse can be both devastating and long lasting.
And as the year grinds to a close we hear about one of the big consumer trends of 2025 - the growth of Tiktok shop.
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: CATHERINE EARLAM
WED 12:57 Weather (m002n7rt)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m002n7s6)
Nobel Peace Prize committee urges Venezuela's President Maduro to 'step down'.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado leaves hiding to claim award. The prize committee urges President Maduro to 'step down'. Euorpean leaders meet to discuss migration laws. Also Turner Prize controversy what makes high art and is it therapy? Critic Waldemar Januszczak and curator Ekow Eshun discuss.
WED 13:45 Beautiful Strangeness by Rebecca Stott (m002fvgq)
Episode 3: Apparitions
The award-winning writer Rebecca Stott grew up in the closed and secretive Christian fundamentalist cult of the Exclusive Brethren. Books, even children’s books, cinema, music were all banned. Imagination, the ministering brothers preached, was a corrupting force.
As a child who had to sit still through eleven hours of church meetings a week during which the brothers preached impenetrable biblical exegesis, Rebecca learned to daydream. That strange childhood, she says, gave her the ability to imagine extraordinary things. And, as an adult, she’s found that she’s comfortable sitting with the inexplicable - she remains fascinated by the mysterious things that flicker at the edges of our vision.
But these tend to be things our society prefers to shut down. We love to close a good mystery. We don’t like not knowing. We are impatient to find rational explanations for everything that happens. And yet there is still so much we don’t know.
In this series of original essays, Rebecca explores how closely beautiful strangeness is woven into the ordinary and the everyday. She asks, in our push to rationalise everything, as well as our fear of being mocked or accused of indulging in magical thinking, are we losing opportunities for shared wonder?
In this third episode, Rebecca explores apparitions, sleep paralysis and hallucinations through a conversation with Oliver Sacks. She asks, if hallucinations are so common, occurring in states of meditation, fasting, grief, waking from sleep, childbirth and so on, why are we quick to dismiss them? By doing so, might we lose opportunities for shared wonder?
Rebecca Stott, author of the memoir In the Days of Rain which won the Costa Biography Award in 2017, has 14 books to her name. These include the novels Ghostwalk, The Coral Thief, and most recently Dark Earth, as well as the creative non-fiction works Darwin’s Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists and Darwin and the Barnacle. She is a historian and broadcaster (BBC Radio 4, A Point of View) and taught literature and creative writing for over 30 years including as a professor at the University of East Anglia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Written and presented by Rebecca Stott
Producer: Kirsten Lass
Editor: Sara Davies
Sound Engineer: Jon Calver
Image by Maia Miller-Lewis
A Loftus Media Production for BBC Radio 4
Author photo credit :Sarah Weal
WED 14:00 The Archers (m002n7sj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Trust (m002n7ss)
Series 6 – 2. Alligators
Jonathan Hall's comedy drama about a Salford secondary school starring Julie Hesmondhalgh.
Yvette is convinced that, wherever possible, kids should stay in school. But transfer pupil Logan is testing those limits. Exclusion is not an easy decision, and Logan's keyboard-warrior father complicates the process. As tensions rise, a late-night confrontation uncovers a pivotal truth.
YVETTE.....Julie Hesmondhalgh
CAROL / QUEENIE.....Susan Twist
TIM.....Ashley Margolis
SIR KEN.....Jonathan Keeble
LOGAN.....Ellis Hollins
MR SHAW.....William Ash
Writer - Jonathan Hall
Director - Pippa Day
Technical Producer - Sharon Hughes
Additional Technical Production - Kelly Young
Production Co-ordinator - Victoria Moseley
A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 4
WED 15:00 Money Box (m002n7t0)
Money Box Live: Impulse Spending and Debt
It’s December, a time of year when there’s pressure to say yes to every night out, buy the perfect presents and spend without really thinking. All that can lead to snap decisions we later regret, whilst for others, impulse spending can be a real issue all year round.
In this programme, Felicity Hannah discusses the psychology behind impulse buying, why do we do it, what are the triggers, and who is impacted most?
We hear from one mum whose impulse spending led to her falling deep in debt and turning to Buy Now Pay Later to pay for the basics, and give advice on where you can get help.
Joining Felicity is Dr Pragya Agarwal, who is a behaviour and data scientist and author, and Vikki Brownridge, chief executive of the debt support charity StepChange.
If you've been affected by the topics raised in this programme, details of organisations offering help and support with debt, hardship or homelessness are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free at any time to hear recorded information on 08000 159 774.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Sarah Rogers
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson.
(This episode was first broadcast on Wednesday the 10th of December 2025)
WED 15:30 Child (m002n7td)
Series 2
6. Awe
India Rakusen explores the awe-inspiring world of awe. Discover how narratives and storytelling, as well as the awesome natural world, have the power to inspire the feeling in all of us - and find out what happens when we let it into our lives.
From an increased sense of optimism and connection to prosocial tendencies and reduced anxiety and depression, join India as she reveals what we can learn from the little people in our lives who reach for awe instinctively. And let her take you on a journey that features a Maori storyteller, an expert on childhood amnesia, and a doctor trying to get the youngest in society out in nature.
Presented by: India Rakusen
Producer: Charlotte Evans-Young
Series Producer: Ellie Sans
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
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002n7tn)
Simon Cowell's PR: Judged!
It's panto season and panto villains don't come much bigger than Simon Cowell.
The music mogul's made a career and fortune playing the Bad Guy on TV talent shows. But is there more to him - and crucially, is it good PR for him to show a different side?
This week, David Yelland and Simon Lewis wade through the blizzard of publicity created ahead of Simon Cowell's latest show - to piece together a PR jigsaw that hints at his attempts to stay relevant while also offering glimpses into his world that he may not have intended.
On the extended edition on BBC Sounds, what happens when a CEO goes missing in action? The good people of Tunbridge Wells are once again disgusted - following a drinking water crisis in the spa town. And their mood has not been helped by the boss of South Eastern Water, David Hinton, refusing to give any interviews.
If the buck stops with you, do you have a duty to show your face in public - or can there be very good reasons for staying invisible when everything is going wrong?
Also, what is going on at HSBC? There's a distinct whiff of chaos around the search for a new CEO. George Osborne had been heavily touted, only for the job to be given to a 76-year-old internal candidate who, by all accounts, might not be hanging around for long. Given it's one of the most prestigious roles in global finance, where is the succession planning? And what does all this confusion at the top mean for the bank's reputation?
Producer: Duncan MIddleton
Editor: Sarah Teasdale
Executive Producer: Eve Streeter
Music by Eclectic Sounds.
A Raconteur Studios production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002n7v0)
The battle for Warner Bros, Eurovision controversy latest over Israel participation, festive TV battles and Meta’s pivot to AI.
Katie Razzall and Ros Atkins on some of the biggest media stories this week:
Hollywood is in turmoil as Netflix agrees to buy Warner Bros Discovery’s film and streaming businesses for $72bn, but Paramount has stepped in with a rival bid that could reshape the industry. We’ll hear from Natalie Jarvey, reporter at The Ankler, and Dade Hayes, Business Editor at Deadline, and Charlotte Henry author of Streaming Wars about what this means for franchises like Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, and for the future of streaming itself.
Eurovision faces its biggest crisis in years, with countries pulling out over Israel’s participation and broadcasters debating whether to air the contest at all - BBC Music Reporter Mark Savage joins us with the latest.
Meanwhile, the Christmas edition of the Radio Times, once as much a part of the season as mince pies and port, fights to remain relevant in the streaming era. We’ll be joined by Shem Law, Brand Editor of the Radio Times.
And as Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta cuts back on its metaverse ambitions, shifting billions into artificial intelligence we talk to Alex Hern, AI writer at The Economist.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Assistant Producer: Lucy Wai
WED 17:00 PM (m002n7vb)
Europe considers changes to European Convention on Human Rights
European countries including the UK have agreed to negotiate a new approach to the continent's main human rights treaty, in a bid to make it easier to deport illegal migrants. The Justice Minister Jake Richards talks to PM about today's meeting in Strasbourg. Tourists could be asked to provide a five-year social media history as a condition of entry to the United States. And, best selling author of the Shopaholic series Sophie Kinsella has died. Her friend and fellow author Jojo Moyes pays tribute.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002n7vq)
European countries mull human rights reform
All 46 countries signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, including the UK, have given themselves until next May to re-think how it should be applied to immigration cases.
Lawyers for eight prisoners who are being held on remand — accused of offences related to Palestine Action — say they are at risk of dying from a hunger strike.
The best-selling author Sophie Kinsella has died at the age of fifty-five from brain cancer.
And the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy becomes the latest prisoner to publish his memoirs.
WED 18:30 Unite (m001n1zg)
Series 2
The Ukrainian
Imogen finds neighbour Tamsin banging on about her volunteering at the local school so irritating that she rashly announces that they have decided to take in a Ukrainian refugee.
While Ashley is splashing on the cologne to welcome Georgiy into the house, Gideon is doing his best to win over Rebecca's judgemental brother Daniel.
Tony gives Georgiy a tour of the house which results in some uncomfortable questioning of his choice of Russian literature. Georgiy has rather more luck when he meets neighbour Tamsin, taking an instant shine to her - and her drinks cabinet. Nigel's decision to take Georgiy to the local organ museum merely cements his wife's burgeoning infatuation with the dashing Ukrainian.
Daniel's attempt to humiliate Gideon by challenging him to a rap battle spectacularly backfires as Gideon unleashes his latent lyricism.
Back at the house a knock at the door exposes Georgiy's troubled past.
It's a welcome return for the critically-acclaimed sitcom. When Tony (Mark Steel), a working class, left wing South Londoner, falls in love and marries Imogen (Claire Skinner), an upper middle class property developer, their sons - Croydon chancer Ashley (Elliot Steel) and supercilious Eton and Oxford-educated Gideon (Ivo Graham) - are forced to live under the same roof and behave like the brothers neither of them ever wanted.
Cast:
Tony - Mark Steel
Imogen - Claire Skinner
Ashley - Elliot Steel
Gideon - Ivo Graham
Rebecca - Ayesha Antoine
Nigel - Simon Greenall
Tamsin - Susannah Fielding
Georgiy - Dan March
Daniel - Kaine Lawrence
Policeman - Ian Pearce
Written by Barry Castagnola and Ian Pearce
(additional material from the cast)
Executive Producer- Mario Stylianides
Producer/Director- Barry Castagnola
Sound Recordist and Editor- Jerry Peal
Broadcast Assistant - Sarah Tombling
Assistant Producer - George O'Regan
Production Assistant - David Litchfield
A Golden Path and Rustle Up production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m002n7vr)
Receptionist Lottie and Azra are relieved to have heating again at the doctors’ surgery. However, their prescription delivery man is ill and they need an appropriate replacement. Azra wonders if Akram could step in. Alan has an appointment to discuss his low energy levels. He notes Lawrence Harrington’s inappropriate manner towards Lottie. She confirms to Alan that she suspects his attitude is racially motivated. During his appointment, Alan and Azra discuss Felpersham mosque’s structural issues. Until it is re-roofed, the Maliks will have to travel to Birmingham for Jummah. Alan suggests a temporary move to Ambridge for Friday prayers, and that he’d ask the Village Hal committee. Touched, Azra says that Akram will be amazed by the offer.
Josh and Lily are weakly attempting one of Joy’s jigsaws when Paul joins them from his sickbed. Paul has been blindsided by his appraisal with Alistair. He’s been warned that he has to pass his driving test to continue working at the vets’, as he’d agreed to get his licence on accepting the job. He confides that he’s terrified about attempting another test as he’s failed 7 times. Lily offers to teach Paul, but he reminds her that she’ll be in Australia for the next year. Josh texts to wish his girlfriend Nina luck for tonight’s big hometown gig. He’s evasive when she doesn’t reply. Paul and Lily are shocked that he is still thinking of funding her next album, when she is obviously not invested in their relationship. How could he not see it?
WED 19:15 Front Row (m002n7yl)
96-year-old actress June Squibb on her lead role in Scarlett Johansson's Eleanor the Great
Actress June Squibb on her lead role in Scarlett Johansson's debut feature Eleanor the Great, in which a woman in her 90s moves back from Florida to Manhattan and forms a friendship with a young journalism student - the film explores themes of grief, the Holocaust, truth and lies.
Jenny Colgan pays tribute to her fellow bestselling novelist Sophie Kinsella, whose death was announced today.
From the daring heist on the Louvre in Paris in October to the theft of Matisse artworks from Brazil's second-largest library just this week, we discuss 2025's spate of museum heists with investigative journalist Riah Pryor and with Sunna Altnoder of UNESCO, who have recently opened a Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects.
Artist Michael Fullerton discusses the symbolism in his portraits of asylum seekers, painted during his time working in the kitchen of a hotel in Carlisle, and which are on display at Edinburgh's City Art Centre until March.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m002n7yt)
Should children be banned from social media?
As Australia begins its pioneering social media ban for under-16s, governments around the world will be watching closely. The move, which represents a significant challenge to Big Tech's dominance, aims to protect children from online harms like cyberbullying, grooming, exposure to violent/misogynistic content, as well as anxiety and depression linked to excessive screen time and addictive platform designs. Should other countries, including the UK, follow suit?
Evidence suggests social media ‘doom scrolling’ changes our brainwave activity, affecting attention spans (children are reading less than in the past), altering reward pathways with dopamine ‘hits’, and influencing emotional regulation and social processing (combined with a decline in outdoor play). Critics argue a blanket social media ban treats all under-16s as a homogeneous risk group, denying them moral agency, rather than distinguishing between responsible and problematic use. Others fear a loss of mainstream online community spaces could lead to further isolation and push some teenagers toward more dangerous platforms or behaviours.
Should children be banned from social media?
Chair: Michael Buerk
Panel: Carmody Grey, Mona Siddiqui, Giles Fraser and Anne McElvoy
Witnesses: Jennifer Powers, Timandra Harkness, James Williams and Tony D Sampson.
Producer: Dan Tierney
WED 21:00 The Reith Lectures (m002n7rf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Tuesday]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m002n7z4)
Government makes last-minute offer to avert doctors' strike
Next week's strike by resident doctors in England may be averted after ministers offered the British Medical Association a fresh deal. Wes Streeting's offer includes a rapid expansion of specialist training posts as well as covering out-of-pocket expenses such as exam fees. The doctors' union has agreed to put the offer to members over the coming days, we hear from one resident doctor.
Also on the programme: The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in an escalation of the Trump administration's pressure campaign on Nicolas Maduro.
And Israeli pop star and actress Noa Kirel condemns a decision by European broadcasters to pull out of next year's Eurovision Song Contest due to Israel's participation.
WED 22:45 Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (m002n7z9)
Episode 8
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix , translated by Helen Stevenson, is inspired by the actual events surrounding the deaths of 27 migrants who drowned in the English Channel in the early hours of the 24th November 2021. As the sea overwhelmed the dinghy they had set out in, the migrants’ telephone calls for help and the French call operator’s responses and frequently off the cuff, callous asides, were recorded, and later published by the French media.
The author takes these events as the starting point for a work of fiction. The narrative is voiced in the words of the French naval coastguard - it was her job , she is at pains to tell the police investigator, to assess the calls for help and allocate the rescue centre’s limited resources according to the most urgent need. But as her increasingly defensive arguments begin to unravel, we witness a mind where intrusive images of drowning figures crowd in. Accused of being a monster for her lack of empathy, the accusation is thrown back at us – where is our humanity and what did we do to save the drowning souls ?
This is a story which puts all of us in the spotlight – complicit in looking the other way, implicated in readily blaming others, and guilty for not wanting to think too much about where responsibility lies for the deaths of those who felt their limbs grow cold and leaden as the black of night gave way to grey dawn.
In an interview with Dua Lipa for her global book club, Service95, Vincent Delecroix observed that "imagination is the first moral faculty". In this work of fiction, he asks us to deploy our own imaginations as fully as we can, before we venture to make any kind of moral judgement.
Producer Jill Waters says, "I have rarely if ever finished a recording session so fired up by the energy of a challenging text brought viscerally to life. Small Boat is a gripping portrait of a woman struggling to deflect guilt, deny responsibility and maintain that these deaths - this journey - was not her idea. But every so often her argument collapses in on itself and we glimpse an internal chasm of doubt and fear. Lydia Wilson gives a superb performance, moving between demotic bluster and brittle sarcasm with devastating moments of guileless indifference, whilst all the time shame gnaws at her soul.
Small Boat was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025 . It was originally published in 2023 in French by Gallimard as "Naufrage".
Read by Lydia Wilson and Tommy Sim’aan (episodes 5 and 6)
Written by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson
Abridged and directed by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:00 Tom & Lauren Are Going OOT (m002n7zj)
Series 2
5. Hen Do, Hen Don't
Lauren is busy trying to find the right excuse to miss the corporate retreat. The idea of log throwing and climbing trees to encourage employee bonding is not how she wants to spend the weekend. Tom encourages her to go anyway, telling her it would be good for her career to take part in the activities.
Meanwhile Tom gets ready for his first ever hen do. Lauren has to explain to him that hen do's are far more complicated that stag do's. Once he discovers the WhatsApp group he has muted, Tom is horrified to find his outfit doesn't fit the theme, and that all activities are compulsory...
Cast:
Tom Machell as Tom
Lauren Pattison as Lauren
Julian Clary as Neil
Writers: Tom Machell & Lauren Pattison
Director: Katharine Armitage
Recording Engineer: Philip Quinton
Sound Design: Philip Quinton
Theme Music: Scrannabis
Producers: Maria Caruana Galizia & Zahra Zomorrodian
A Candle & Bell production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 No-Platformed (m0018gs7)
Series 1
The Hub
Russ, Stuart, and Clara battle a parcel conglomerate and The Railway Children meet an untimely end. Comedy that drives a train through conventional sitcom-land via a platform crowded with silly jokes.
Three members of staff, one dysfunctional railway station, zero passengers. From the team behind the multi award-winning The Skewer and the also-multi-award-winning podcast Cold Case Crime Cuts.
Series stars:
Geoff McGivern (Ghosts / Peep Show / Hitchhiker's Guide .. .oh, hundreds of things)
Tim Downie (Toast of London / Upstart Crow / Good Omens)
Alexandra Mardell (Coronation Street)
With
Olivia Williams (Ten Percent, The Crown, The Father, The Sixth Sense)
Rufus Jones (Paddington / Stan and Ollie / Ch4’s Home)
Tracy Ann Oberman (EastEnders / Toast of London / Friday Night Dinner)
Hugh Dennis (Fleabag / Outnumbered / Mock The Week / The Now Show)
Featuring
Jake Yapp
Naomi McDonald
Yoriko Kotani
Written by Gareth Ceredig
Produced and Directed by Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002n7zq)
Sean Curran reports as the Health Secretary tells MPs about a fresh offer to avert a strike by resident doctors.
THURSDAY 11 DECEMBER 2025
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m002n7zy)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross (m002n7r2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002n806)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002n80f)
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 (m002n80l)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002n80r)
Susan Hulme reports on Prime Minister's Questions and more.
THU 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002n80w)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002n810)
Surprises and Confessions
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Ennette C Lainchbury
Good morning.
This year, my husband finally finished his GP training. It's been a long 15-year journey. To celebrate this huge milestone, I ordered some cakes. I secretly messaged his family to come and visit and surprise him. It took every fibre of my being to keep this secret. I don't know if you've ever had to keep a secret or experienced that same feeling, like the knowledge was eating you alive (for better or worse).
Well, in the aftermath of my successful surprise dinner, I thought a lot about that feeling, that like eruption of relief and joy when finally, it was all out. It got me thinking about this passage in the book of James, which says, “confess your sins to one another so that you may be healed.” Not because I have any answers or have experienced a miraculous healing myself, but because it made me think of all the times, I randomly turn to my husband and I say:
Can I tell you something awful? Can I just say this thing and get it off my chest? Can I tell you something without you judging me?
I've confessed so many frivolous, vulnerable, funny, random, and serious things to him. In this moment now, I realise how incredibly lovely it is to have a person who can accept all of you. Someone to confess the ugliest things to and yet still be considered lovable.
In lieu of a physical person, I'm grateful too for the nearness of God, his quiet kindness and listening ear. Remind me today, oh God, that you are not too holy and unapproachable, but rather so deeply curious about all my confessions. Today I choose to confess all the silly and profound musings of my mind. May my every good and errant thought wander into your kind presence today.
Amen.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m002n814)
11/12/25 Colorado Beetle, fairness in arable supply chain, aid for US farmers, rare breed pigs
The Colorado Beetle which is a major threat to potato crops has been officially eradicated from the UK. It was last identified on a farm in Kent in 2023. It's distinctive, with orange and black stripes and can completely strip the leaves off potatoes and other leafy plants like tomatoes and aubergines.
Farmers are being asked for their views as part of a consultation to ensure fairness in the supply chain for arable crops. Defra wants to hear from growers, processors and industry bodies over the next eight weeks as part of fair dealing reforms. It says it aims to give producers stronger protections against unfair practices.
Donald Trump has announced a 12 billion dollar farm aid package. It comes against a backdrop of the trade dispute with China, and other countries too, over tariffs which have severely disrupted soya bean exports and hit farming profits. What does it mean for the UK?
All week we've been talking about rare breeds of livestock, at just 15 years of age, Sebastian Carr is quite the celebrity in the world of rare breed pigs. He's won awards for his herd of Saddlebacks, in 2023 he scooped gold in the British Pig Association New Pedigree Breeder of the Year, the youngest person ever to do so. His passion for pigs began when he received four piglets as a Christmas present seven years ago, now his whole family’s involved.
Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
THU 06:00 Today (m002n7rv)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b08p5lbp)
Emily Dickinson
To celebrate Melvyn Bragg’s 27 years presenting In Our Time, five well-known fans of the programme have chosen their favourite episodes. Comedian Frank Skinner has picked the episode on the life and work of the poet Emily Dickinson and recorded an introduction to it. (This introduction will be available on BBC Sounds and the In Our Time webpage shortly after the broadcast and will be longer than the version broadcast on Radio 4). Emily Dickinson was arguably the most startling and original poet in America in the C19th. According to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, her correspondent and mentor, writing 15 years after her death, "Few events in American literary history have been more curious than the sudden rise of Emily Dickinson into a posthumous fame only more accentuated by the utterly recluse character of her life and by her aversion to even a literary publicity." That was in 1891 and, as more of Dickinson's poems were published, and more of her remaining letters, the more the interest in her and appreciation of her grew. With her distinctive voice, her abundance, and her exploration of her private world, she is now seen by many as one of the great lyric poets.
With
Fiona Green
Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Jesus College
Linda Freedman
Lecturer in English and American Literature at University College London
and
Paraic Finnerty
Reader in English and American Literature at the University of Portsmouth
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
Reading list:
Christopher Benfey, A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade (Penguin Books, 2009)
Jed Deppman, Marianne Noble and Gary Lee Stonum (eds.), Emily Dickinson and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
Judith Farr, The Gardens of Emily Dickinson (Harvard University Press, 2005)
Judith Farr, The Passion of Emily Dickinson (Harvard University Press, 1992)
Paraic Finnerty, Emily Dickinson’s Shakespeare (University of Massachusetts Press, 2006)
Ralph William Franklin (ed.), The Master Letters of Emily Dickinson (University Massachusetts Press, 1998)
Ralph William Franklin (ed.), The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition (Harvard University Press, 1998)
Linda Freedman, The Myth of the Fall in Nineteenth-Century Literature (Oxford University Press, 2025), especially chapter 3.
Linda Freedman, Emily Dickinson and the Religious Imagination (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
Gudrun Grabher, Roland Hagenbüchle and Cristanne Miller (eds.), The Emily Dickinson Handbook (University of Massachusetts Press, 1998)
Alfred Habegger, My Wars are Laid Away in Books: The Early Life of Emily Dickinson (Random House, 2001)
Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith (eds.), Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson (Paris Press, 1998)
Virginia Jackson, Dickinson’s Misery: A Theory of Lyric Reading (Princeton University Press, 2013)
Thomas H. Johnson (ed.), Emily Dickinson: Selected Letters (first published 1958; Harvard University Press, 1986)
Thomas H. Johnson (ed.), Poems of Emily Dickinson (first published 1951; Faber & Faber, 1976)
Thomas Herbert Johnson and Theodora Ward (eds.), The Letters of Emily Dickinson (Belknap Press, 1958)
Benjamin Lease, Emily Dickinson’s Readings of Men and Books (Palgrave Macmillan, 1990)
Mary Loeffelholz, The Value of Emily Dickinson (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
James McIntosh, Nimble Believing: Dickinson and the Unknown (University of Michigan Press, 2000)
Marietta Messmer, A Vice for Voices: Reading Emily Dickinson’s Correspondence (University of Massachusetts Press, 2001)
Cristanne Miller (ed.), Emily Dickinson's Poems: As She Preserved (Harvard University Press, 2016)
Cristanne Miller, Reading in Time: Emily Dickinson in the Nineteenth Century (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012)
Elizabeth Phillips, Emily Dickinson: Personae and Performance (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988)
Eliza Richards (ed.), Emily Dickinson in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
Richard B. Sewall, The Life of Emily Dickinson (first published 1974; Harvard University Press, 1998)
Marta L. Werner, Emily Dickinson’s Open Folios: Scenes of Reading, Surfaces of Writing (University of Michigan Press, 1996)
Brenda Wineapple, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Anchor Books, 2009)
Shira Wolosky, Emily Dickinson: A Voice of War (Yale University Press, 1984)
This episode was first broadcast in May 2017.
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 people, ideas, events and discoveries that have shaped our world
In Our Time is a BBC Studios production
THU 09:45 Strong Message Here (m002n7s9)
Civilisational Erasure (with Stewart Lee)
Is 'Civilisational Erasure' upon us?
This week, Armando is joined again by Stewart Lee to look at this phrase, and others from the US' new National Security Strategy. Would this kind of language have been unthinkable even a few years ago?
We also look at other elements of the strategy, and whether it's time to forget the idea that Trump is playing '3-dimensional chess' with his language. Outside civilisational erasure, we look at whether leaders need to communicate on social media, given Starmer's new TikTok account and Liz Truss' YouTube show both launched this week.
If you want to know what Liz Truss has got against Gails, and why 70s sitcoms are back in the spotlight both sides of the Atlantic, then this programme is for you.
Got a strong message for Armando? Email us on strongmessagehere@bbc.co.uk to have your missive read out in our listener mailbag special.
Sound editing: Chris Maclean
Production Coordinator: Jodie Charman
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Recorded at The Sound Company
Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios production for Radio 4.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002n7sk)
Maria Corina Machado, Netball cardiac screening, Gabby Logan, AI teachers
Venezuelan politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado was met with cheers on a hotel balcony in Norway in the middle of the night this week. It was the first time that she has been seen in public since January, after being forced into hiding. She also gave an exclusive interview to BBC News and spoke about the significance of this moment. So who is Maria Corina Machado? To find out, Anita Rani was joined by Norberto Paredes who is a journalist with BBC Mundo, the BBC's news service for the Spanish speaking world.
When Kaitlin Lawrence was just 22 years old, she collapsed whilst playing netball for the then Super League side Surrey Storm. She was eventually diagnosed with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM), a genetic condition she never knew she had. Following this she was forced to give up her dream of playing professionally for Scotland and has gone on to successfully campaign to get cardiac screening introduced in the Netball Super League next season. She tells Anita her story.
As 2025 draws to a close, it’s clear this has been a landmark year for women’s sport. From the UEFA Women’s Euros to the Rugby World Cup, record-breaking attendances and soaring TV audiences have put female athletes firmly in the global spotlight. One person who’s been at the heart of that story is Gabby Logan. Part of the all-female presenting team for BBC Sports Personality of the Year - returning next week - Gabby has also had a standout year herself, stepping into one of football’s most iconic roles as a new presenter on Match of the Day. She joins Anita live.
Yesterday, we heard the very sad news about author Sophie Kinsella, who has died at the age of 55. Her real name was Madeleine Wickham and she wrote more than 30 books for adults, children and teenagers, which sold more than 50 million copies in more than 60 countries - they have been translated into more than 40 languages. She joined Nuala in October 2024, when she spoke about her last novel, What does it feel like? She described how her personal experience had heavily influenced the novel: the protagonist had brain cancer, a hugely supportive husband and five children, exactly like Sophie. You can listen to Sophie's final Woman's Hour interview on BBC Sounds - it's the episode from 8 October 2024.
A new BBC report looks into the uses of AI in schools, from generating lesson plans to marking and even deepfake teachers. Anita speaks to BBC Education reporter Hayley Clarke about what she found and how it could help with the pressures that teachers are under, plus we hear from CEO of the Great Schools Trust Shane Ierston about the ways they've been putting AI tools to use in the classroom.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Corinna Jones
THU 11:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m002kjvg)
Series 34
Head in the Clouds - Owain Wyn Evans, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Amanda Maycock
Robin Ince and Brian Cox look up to the heavens as they try to ‘de-mistify’ the foggy science of clouds. They’re joined by Cloud Appreciation Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney, climate scientist Amanda Maycock, and former weather presenter and drummer Owain Wyn Evans, for a whirlwind tour of our too often-overlooked aerial realm.
The panel explores how clouds form, why they take such extraordinary shapes, and how satellites and weather balloons help us keep track of them. They discover why low clouds cool the planet but high clouds warm it and why a cloud that weighs as much as a jumbo jet manages to stay up in the sky. From the physics of a crisp packet balancing on a cumulonimbus to the shimmering beauty of noctilucent clouds, tune in for this cirrus-ly fascinating episode.
Series Producer: Mel Brown
Researcher: Alex Rodway
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A BBC Studios Production
THU 11:45 Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross (m002n7t1)
North
Stretching from midwinter at Stonehenge to midsummer at the Sycamore Gap, journalist Peter Ross takes up the long human story as he visits the ancient places of the British Isles. From stones to shrines, through ritual and commemoration, what are we seeking when we connect with the past?
“What are we doing tomorrow? Viking stuff!”
Ross witnesses one of the famous fire festivals of the Shetland archipelago.
Read by Andy Clark
Written by Peter Ross
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Peter Ross is an Orwell journalism fellow whose writing has appeared in national newspapers and magazines in the UK and US. He won the non-fiction prize at Scotland's National Book Awards with A Tomb With A View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards, and his next book, Steeple Chasing, was a Sunday Times bestseller.
THU 12:00 News Summary (m002n7tb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Scam Secrets (m002n7tm)
The WhatsApp Takeover
WhatsApp is part of our daily lives – and criminals know how to weaponise that trust.
In this episode, Shari Vahl and the team hear how a devastatingly simple trick handed the keys for a Scam Secrets listener's WhatsApp account to a scammer. Along with expert linguist Dr Elisabeth Carter and former criminal Alex Wood, Shari finds out what the hacker did next - and how an old friend was tricked into handing over money.
As ever, there will be red flags waving to show you what to watch out for - and essential tips from our guest expert to keep your account secure.
PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL
PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002n7tx)
Toast - C&A's UK Stores
The fashion chain C&A continues to thrive elsewhere so why did it shut all its UK stores?
The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, investigates how they ended up toast, in the company of resident business expert and entrepreneur, Sam White.
C&A used to be one of the biggest fashion retailers on the UK's high streets until a shock decision in 2000 led to the stores' sudden closure.
To help explain what happened, Sean and Sam delve into the BBC archives and hear from expert guests including Donna Bevan - fashion historian, lecturer and course leader at the School of Creative Industries at Southampton Solent University and Stephen McDermott who worked at C&A for 35 years.
Produced by Jon Douglas, Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
If you have a good idea for an interesting Toast topic then tell us about it - email toast@bbc.co.uk
THU 12:57 Weather (m002n7v6)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m002n7vg)
NHS faces 'worst case scenario' as flu cases rise
An 'unprecedented wave' of flu leaves the NHS facing it's 'worst case scenario.' We'll discuss the NATO Secretary General's stark warning over the threat from Russia, and as President Trump trashes Europe - Sarah and Evan consider how the continent matches up to the United States.
THU 13:45 Beautiful Strangeness by Rebecca Stott (m002fwq1)
Episode 4: The Owl
The award-winning writer Rebecca Stott grew up in the closed and secretive Christian fundamentalist cult of the Exclusive Brethren. Books, even children’s books, cinema, music were all banned. Imagination, the ministering brothers preached, was a corrupting force.
As a child who had to sit still through eleven hours of church meetings a week during which the brothers preached impenetrable biblical exegesis, Rebecca learned to daydream. That strange childhood, she says, gave her the ability to imagine extraordinary things. And, as an adult, she’s found that she’s comfortable sitting with the inexplicable - she remains fascinated by the mysterious things that flicker at the edges of our vision.
But these tend to be things our society prefers to shut down. We love to close a good mystery. We don’t like not knowing. We are impatient to find rational explanations for everything that happens. And yet there is still so much we don’t know.
In this series of original essays, Rebecca explores how closely beautiful strangeness is woven into the ordinary and the everyday. She asks, in our push to rationalise everything, as well as our fear of being mocked or accused of indulging in magical thinking, are we losing opportunities for shared wonder?
In this fourth episode, Rebecca explores some of the mysteries of our experience of dying and of grief, drawing on the time she spent with her parents as they died. She looks for common experience in Joan Didion’s memoir A Year of Magical Thinking, which has been called a ‘monument to grief’.
Rebecca Stott, author of the memoir In the Days of Rain which won the Costa Biography Award in 2017, has 14 books to her name. These include the novels Ghostwalk, The Coral Thief, and most recently Dark Earth, as well as the creative non-fiction works Darwin’s Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists and Darwin and the Barnacle. She is a historian and broadcaster (BBC Radio 4, A Point of View) and taught literature and creative writing for over 30 years including as a professor at the University of East Anglia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Written and presented by Rebecca Stott
Producer: Kirsten Lass
Editor: Sara Davies
Sound Engineer: Jon Calver
Image by Maia Miller-Lewis
A Loftus Media Production for BBC Radio 4
Author photo credit :Sarah Weal
THU 14:00 The Archers (m002n7vr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002n7w1)
Odds On
Dark new comedy about grief, friendship and musical theatre from Liv Fowler, a new writer shortlisted for the Best Debut Audo drama Imison Award in 2024. Her latest audio drama reflects on how we feel guilt and grief when loved ones leave us too soon, playing with the stoical trope ‘if you don’t laugh, you cry’.
It’s Maddie’s funeral. She got hit by the 453 after thinking she could get across Old Kent Road in a traffic cone, like Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 2. Her bezzies, Josie and George are in shock. They were convinced she’d get across with ease. They are avoiding Maddie’s family at the wake. See, Maddie’s Mum, Rita, isn’t aware that Maddie was with Josie and George that night. She also doesn’t know that Maddie lost a bet to them which is how she ended up being a corpse. Riddled with guilt, they didn’t think they’d have to answer so many questions!
Writer:
Liv Fowler is a writer from and based in South London. Her first radio commission, Happy Hour for BBC Radio 4, was shortlisted for the prestigious Imison Award at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2024. Liv has recently finished participating in SOHO Theatre’s Stand Up Lab, alongside writing a show with Boundless Theatre and The Customs House about the experiences of young people in South Tyneside. Outside of playwriting, Liv also organises and hosts a comedic poetry night called Rhymes & Stitches - aiming to make sure art and joy are financially accessible to all, while breaking the stigma spoken word holds.
Cast:
Josie ….. Erin Riley
George …. Emika Sesay
Rita ….. Sarah Finigan
Producer ; Jelena Budimir
Sound Designer ; Jon Nicholls
Original music ; Sebastian Walsh and Euan Hill.
Illustration ; Danny Atkinson
Production Manager ; Darren Spruce
Executive Producer ; Polly Thomas
Written by Liv Fowler
A Thomas Carter Projects production for BBC Radio 4
THU 15:00 This Natural Life (m002n7w9)
Jane Anderson
Martha Kearney meets Jane Anderson, one of the UK's leading physicians in HIV medicine, to learn about the living library of plants at Chelsea Physic Garden. Since childhood, Jane has always been a huge lover of plants and their many remarkable uses - for food, for medicine, for health and wellbeing. As they walk around the medicinal plant beds, she speaks about human health and planetary health, and how they are both completely interconnected.
Producer: Becky Ripley
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal (m002n7rs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Feedback (m002n7wm)
The Reith Lectures, and From Our Own Correspondent at 70
The Reith Lectures are one of the most anticipated broadcasts in the radio year, and the conversation around this year's iteration, presented by Dutch historian Rutger Bregman on the theme of 'Moral Revolution', has been making headlines. Bregman complained on social media that one of his lines was edited out of the broadcast of the first lecture - and it set your tongues wagging. Andrea Catherwood catches up with the lectures' commissioner Hugh Levinson to ask about the decisions behind this year's series.
And it's 70 years since From Our Own Correspondent - or FOOC = was first broadcast on the BBC, giving a space for long-form, single-voice reports from correspondents all over the world. Editor Richard Fenton-Smith and Today presenter Anna Foster joins us to hear your thoughts on the programme as it celebrates a big birthday.
Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Pauline Moore
Assistant Producer: Rebecca Guthrie
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown Scotland production for Radio 4
THU 16:00 The Briefing Room (m002n7wv)
Why are early career doctors angry?
In a few days time resident doctors -who used to be known as junior doctors - will go on strike. Just before Christmas and with flu on the rise. This will be the 14th strike by the doctors’ union since March 2023. The ostensible reason is pay but coming up behind it as an issue for younger doctors is the question of their futures- they're very unhappy about their working conditions and their career paths. David Aaronovitch and guests discuss what's going on and ask what the problem is with the way we in Britain train our doctors?
Guests:
Hugh Pym, BBC Health Editor
Sir Andrew Goddard, Consultant Gastroenterologist
Professor Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Mark Dayan, Policy Analyst, Nuffield Trust.
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Caroline Bayley, Kirsteen Knight, Cordelia Hemming
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Engineers: Michael Regaard, Gareth Jones
Editor: Richard Vadon
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct8txp)
Would our ancestors have benefited from early neanderthals making fire?
400 thousand years ago our early human cousins dropped a lighter in a field in the East of England; evidence that was uncovered this week and suggests that early neanderthals might have made fire 350 thousand years earlier than we previously thought. Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes is honorary researcher at the universities of Cambridge and Liverpool and author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. She explains what this new discovery could mean for our own ancestors.
Should we genetically modify our farmed salmon to prevent it breeding with their wild relatives? Dr William Perry from Cardiff University thinks this could help the endangered wild Atlantic salmon recover it’s numbers.
And Lizzie Gibney, Senior Physics Reporter at Nature joins Tom Whipple to dig into the new science released this week.
Think you know space? Head to bbc.co.uk, search for BBC Inside Science, and follow the links to the Open University to try The Open University Space Quiz.
THU 17:00 PM (m002n7x6)
Surge in people being treated for flu in hospital
As cases rise, we explain how people can get vaccinated. Plus, Ukraine hands the US a revised peace plan proposal. A behavioural psychologist explains why drivers struggle to stick to 20 mile per hour speed limits. And FIFA criticised for World Cup ticket prices.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002n7xf)
Surging flu infections leave NHS England facing 'worst case scenario'.
Last week, there was an average of 2660 people a day with flu in England's hospital beds, a 55% increase on the week before. A more virulent, mutated strain is being blamed for the spike in cases. Also: President Zelensky insists Ukraine must have a vote before ceding any territory to Russia. And: ticket prices for next year's football World Cup are revealed.
THU 18:30 Rum Punch (m002n7xp)
Series 1
3. Unfriendly Competition
Marley hears Lydia’s boyfriend is running a marathon, so inevitably he signs up for the same race. Meanwhile, Delroy gets inventive in the kitchen after a new restaurant opens in the area.
Created by Travis Jay, Rum Punch is an award-winning sitcom that follows a multigenerational family as they juggle pursuit of their individual ambitions with their responsibilities to the family business - a Caribbean restaurant in the heart of Lewisham.
Rum Punch cast:
Charlie - Ninia Benjamin
Nicholas - Aaron Fontaine
Des - Kevin Garry (KG Tha Comedian)
Taylor - Kyrah Gray
Lydia - Letitia Hector
Marley - Travis Jay
Angie - Angie Le Mar
Delroy - Eddie Nestor
Writer – Travis Jay
Additional Material – Danielle Vitalis
Script Editor – Atlanta Green
Sound Engineer – David Thomas
Editor – David Thomas
Production Assistant – Sahar Malaika Rajabali, Eunice Oshiguwa, Jessica Fatoye
Producers – Daisy Knight and Jules Lom
Executive Producers – Richard Allen-Turner and Jon Thoday
An Avalon Television Production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (m002n7p7)
Josh and Lily attempt to eat plain rice as their first meal after their illness, now confirmed as norovirus. They do not feel up to tidying the house ahead of Shula’s inspection. Instead of looking forward to Australia, Lily admits that she’s rethinking her trip plans. She’d still like to see her university friend in Perth, but doesn’t want to travel for a year. She wonders if her plans had been motivated by feelings of rejection at Lower Loxley. She is also not sure about her co-traveller Mason as she doesn’t know him very well. Josh’s girlfriend Nina is due to visit but as the day wears on it’s evident that she’s not coming.
Zainab chats to a distracted Azra and suggests a family trip to Deck the Hall at Lower Loxley. Azra confides that her difficult week has included the partners suggesting extended patient hours. Lottie calls from the surgery to say that the locum has called in ill. They are an hour behind schedule when Lawrence Harrington comes for his appointment with Dr Laing. He refuses to see his replacement, Dr Malik, and is rudely offensive to Lottie. His anger rising, Lawrence struggles to breathe and collapses. Azra performs emergency care, despite Lawrence’s protests. She reports later to Zainab that Lawrence has been taken to intensive care. Realising he was the same person who’d been racist to the Malik children, Azra was not sure he’d be grateful for her medical help today. She wonders if Akram was right - would the family be better off in Pakistan?
THU 19:15 Front Row (m002n7xv)
Reviewing Ella McCay plus the film's Oscar-winning writer and director James L. Brooks
Film producer Jason Solomons and literary journalist Suzi Feay join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss the contemporary thriller Lurker which shows what happens when the line between popstar and fan gets blurred.
They also talk about The Pelican Child a short story collection by Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Joy Williams.
And the film Ella McCay is reviewed; a political comedy-drama that follows an idealistic woman juggling being state governor with a complicated family life.
Tom also speaks to the film’s director James L. Brooks, whose Oscar-winning work includes Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets. Brooks also co-created the Simpsons.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Claire Bartleet
THU 20:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002n7tn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Wednesday]
THU 20:15 The Media Show (m002n7v0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:15 on Wednesday]
THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m002n7x8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
THU 21:45 Strong Message Here (m002n7s9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002n7y5)
UK-based Hong Kong activist the target of sexually explicit harassment campaign
A UK-based Hong Kong pro-democracy activist tells us fake, sexually-explicit images were sent to her neighbours.
Also on the programme: As the Trump administration ramps up its campaign against Venezuela's president, it has also been helping the opposition leader leave the country. Encouraging news about efforts to slow climate change. And, a new documentary that looks at the legacy of the reality TV show To Catch A Predator.
THU 22:45 Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq (m002n7yc)
Episode 1
Heart Lamp - by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi - is a collection of 12 stories originally written in Kannada, the official language of the state of Karnataka in southwestern India. The collection chronicles the lives of women living in the patriarchal, largely Muslim communities of the region.
In this story, split into two episodes, the protagonist Mehrun returns unexpectedly to her family home. She is hoping for the support of her parents and brothers against her philandering husband.
The author and translator were jointly awarded the International Booker Prize and £50,000. The collection is published in the UK by And Other Stories.
Receiving the award, Mushtaq said, “In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other’s minds.”
Listen to Banu Mushtaq being interviewed on BBC World Service’s Outlook : https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6xcd
Abridged by Jill Waters
Read by Deepti Gupta
Translated by Deepa Bhasthi
Produced by The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:00 Radical with Amol Rajan (m002n7ym)
Jamie Oliver: Obesity and Debt are Killing Britain
Jamie Oliver thinks diet-related illness and growing levels of debt are killing the country he loves. In this frank and open conversation, he tells Amol why we need to go further to help people understand the nutritional value of the food they eat. And although his campaign for the sugar tax brought significant change, Jamie says there is still more to do on school meals, breakfast clubs and food packaging.
But Jamie’s mission doesn’t stop at food. He wants children to be taught how to manage their money and he also sets out a case for reforming education so it better serves children with diverse ways of learning. Reflecting on his own dyslexia, he emphasises the importance of giving every child the support they need to thrive.
And following the announcement that Jamie’s Italian will return to the UK, Jamie reflects on what went wrong the first time and how he hopes to make the relaunch a success.
(
00:01:42) Reflecting on the cultural shifts throughout his career
(
00:06:12) What he thinks of the current state of Britain
(
00:08:25) Sugar tax
(
00:11:13) Junk food advertising
(
00:13:50) What are we getting wrong with obesity?
(
00:16:58) Decline in cooking
(
00:19:39) School meals and breakfast club standards
(
00:23:17) Neurodiversity
(
00:28:30) How did dyslexia affect him as a child?
(
00:31:00) Why we need to teach financial literacy to kids
(
00:35:14) Jamie’s radical ideas
(
00:39:15) The decline of British pubs
(
00:43:10) Jamie’s Italian – why it failed and why he is bringing it back
(
00:46:55) The ups and downs of fame
(
00:52:37) Reflecting on his childhood
(
00:55:52) Amol’s reflections
GET IN TOUCH
* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: radical@bbc.co.uk
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Your Radical Questions, where you get to put questions to our guests, is released every Monday.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@r4today
Watch on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan
Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002n7yw)
MPs try to find out what Donald Trump's natonal security strategy means for the UK. Susan Hulme reports.
FRIDAY 12 DECEMBER 2025
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002n7z2)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross (m002n7t1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002n7zh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002n7zp)
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 (m002n7zw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002n801)
Sean Curran reports on MPs' reaction to President Trump's national security strategy.
FRI 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002n808)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002n80h)
Glorious Monotony
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Ennette C Lainchbury
Good morning.
These December mornings can be so bleak. My goodness. My Tuesday,
5am commute into work has turned on me from a glorious morning sunrise, mindful moment to this deeply dark dead of night expedition into work. These are the days of the year I find it hardest to find meaning in my work. The job I usually love begins to feel more like an obligation or the necessary evil that pays my bills and upcoming Christmas presents.
And yet Paul in Colossians has the audacity to say, “do everything as if you were doing it for the Lord.” Everything. Everything? Surely not the emails I've been putting off, Lord! Surely not this 5 a.m. commute, Lord! Surely not.
But here's the thing. Work was part of God's original design. woven into the beauty of creation in Genesis, which forces me to face my own discontentment, the monotony of my days and the relentless repetition. I imagine when God made the world, he didn't think to himself, hmm, what's the bare minimum amount of flowers that I can get away with making? But if I'm honest, that's all too often a thought that creeps into my mind when I think about work.
And it's in these moments that I have to try to remember all the ordinary and everyday places God met people: whilst they were minding sheep, fetching water by well, and one of my favourites whilst napping on a rock. Even in my dreary Tuesday morning, God is present with me. I am just all too often unaware.
So as we face this new day of work ahead of us, Lord, would you bless it afresh? Remind me again that this commute and indeed this whole day of work is more than a means to an end, but rather holy ground, ripe with the possibility of experiencing your goodness and nearness.
Amen.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002n80n)
12/12/25 Abattoirs, Farm sitters, Welsh rare breeds
The Food Standards Agency has agreed to a public consultation on the fees it takes from abattoirs. They are charged by the FSA for their official vets and meat hygiene inspectors who monitor food safety and animal welfare. The smallest abattoirs already get a 90 percent discount, but under the new system being proposed that reduction would benefit more businesses.
We’ve been exploring the world of rare and native livestock breeds all this week, and they don’t come much rarer than the Ancient Cattle of Wales. There are only around 200 of them left. Earlier this year they were added to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist, and now the Ancient Cattle of Wales Society is on the case, trying to reverse the decline in numbers by promoting the breed.
And we meet a couple of retired tenant farmers who now go around the country offering holiday relief for farmers, who struggle to leave their livestock for holidays.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Sally Challoner.
FRI 06:00 Today (m002n7nn)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m002n7nq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Sunday]
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002n7ns)
SEND, Race Across the World, Toxic masculinity
The Government has announced a £3 billion investment to create around 50,000 new specialised places for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. The aim is to speed up support for families and improve provision in both mainstream schools and bespoke facilities. To discuss what that means in practice, Anita Rani is joined by the BBC's Education Correspondent Vanessa Clarke and Sharon Smith, co-director of Special Needs Jungle, a parent-led UK website and resource hub providing news, information, and advocacy for families with children with special educational needs.
One of the unexpected stars of this year's Celebrity Race Across The World has been Anita's Dad, Bal, with many people commenting on their touching father/ daughter relationship. Since reaching the finish line, he's now discovered his wanderlust and Anita catches up with him on a Christmas cruise to look back at their time travelling together.
The Government’s long-delayed strategy to tackle violence against women and girls is set to be unveiled next week. According to the Movember Foundation, two-thirds of young men regularly engage with masculinity influencers online. A new campaign, Same Side, launched today by UN Women UK, is aiming to counter that with the help of some leading sports stars. One is the former Manchester City and QPR defender Nedum Onuoha. He joins Anita along with Tabitha Morton, Executive Director of UN Women UK.
Have you already overindulged at a few parties? Could you imagine getting though the festive season without booze? Well Laura Antonia Jordan hasn't had a drink, or even a mildly tipsy Christmas, for 10 years now. A journalist, she's written about navigating the festive season completely sober after years of living by, as she calls it 'the doctrine of hedonism'. She tells Anita why the cultural pressure can be tough, but dry December does not have to be boring.
Boudoir photography, stripping down into lingerie and posing for a photographer may sound like something from the world of supermodels and glossy magazines, but there are lots of women from all walks of life who are choosing to pay for professional intimate photos, as gifts for partners, or just to feel good about themselves.
Joining Anita to discuss this increasingly popular world are boudoir photographer Laura Slater and Joley Gordon, who booked herself a session two years ago and has never looked back.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Andrea Kidd
FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m002n7nv)
Going Cold Turkey: Alternative Christmas Dinners
Annie Gray always rejects turkey and the trimmings at Christmas. She believes they are a construct of a bygone era and will often eat pizza on the big day instead.
She explores alternative dinners from Christmases past, present and future. She visits Bath to discover what would have been eaten over Christmas in the Regency period and bakes traditional mince pies - made with minced meat. She'll look at how Christmas is celebrated differently around the world and will discuss Christmas dinners to come with a food futurologist.
Presented by Dr Annie Gray
Produced in Bristol by Robin Markwell for BBC Audio
FRI 11:45 Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross (m002n7nx)
Scion
Stretching from midwinter at Stonehenge to midsummer at the Sycamore Gap, journalist Peter Ross takes up the long human story as he visits the ancient places of the British Isles. From stones to shrines, through ritual and commemoration, what are we seeking when we connect with the past?
“This was a kind of shrine.”
Ross ends his tour of the ancient monuments of the British Isles at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, in a place where absence is felt keenly.
Read by Andy Clark
Written by Peter Ross
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Peter Ross is an Orwell journalism fellow whose writing has appeared in national newspapers and magazines in the UK and US. He won the non-fiction prize at Scotland's National Book Awards with A Tomb With A View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards, and his next book, Steeple Chasing, was a Sunday Times bestseller.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m002n7nz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Rare Earth (m002n7p1)
City Transport: Faster, Cheaper, Greener
How we get around town has never been more political, with controversies over low traffic neighbourhoods and 15 minute cities, and rows about congestion charging and public transport breaking out all over the country. Tom and Helen are in search of the kind of consensus that makes things faster, cheaper and smoother for all of us. What works and what’s been a complete flop? Should we all stop moaning and get on our bikes? Who is the reshaping of traffic flows working - and not working - for? And could Milton Keynes have all the answers?
With contributions from:
Chris Boardman, Commissioner of Active Travel England.
Stephen Potter, Emeritus Professor of Transport Strategy at the Open University
Karen Lucas, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Manchester and Director of the Manchester Urban Institute
Natalie Ashton. Senior Engagement Officer (North) at Transport for All
Presenters: Tom Heap & Helen Czerski
Producers: Beth Sagar-Fenton & Alasdair Cross
Assistant Producer: Toby Field
Editor: Alasdair Cross
Rare Earth is produced in association with the Open University.
FRI 12:57 Weather (m002n7p3)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m002n7p5)
The economy shrinks by 0.1%
The economy shrank 0.1% in the three months to October. Phones4U founder John Caudwell tells us what is stopping businesses from growing. Also: as the armed forces minister warns that ‘the shadow of war is knocking on Europe’s door’, we ask how prepared Great Britain is for war. And the opera by legendary film score composer Ennio Morricone receives its first performance.
FRI 13:45 Beautiful Strangeness by Rebecca Stott (m002fwjv)
Episode 5: The Flickering
The award-winning writer Rebecca Stott grew up in the closed and secretive Christian fundamentalist cult of the Exclusive Brethren. Books, even children’s books, cinema, music were all banned. Imagination, the ministering brothers preached, was a corrupting force.
As a child who had to sit still through eleven hours of church meetings a week during which the brothers preached impenetrable biblical exegesis, Rebecca learned to daydream. That strange childhood, she says, gave her the ability to imagine extraordinary things. And, as an adult, she’s found that she’s comfortable sitting with the inexplicable - she remains fascinated by the mysterious things that flicker at the edges of our vision.
But these tend to be things our society prefers to shut down. We love to close a good mystery. We don’t like not knowing. We are impatient to find rational explanations for everything that happens. And yet there is still so much we don’t know.
In this series of original essays, Rebecca explores how closely beautiful strangeness is woven into the ordinary and the everyday. She asks, in our push to rationalise everything, as well as our fear of being mocked or accused of indulging in magical thinking, are we losing opportunities for shared wonder?
In the final episode, Rebecca explores some of the uncanny aspects of writing fiction by way of a meteor shower, and by enlisting the insights of Noel Gallagher, George Saunders, Stephen King and the spirit of the late Hilary Mantel.
Rebecca Stott, author of the memoir In the Days of Rain which won the Costa Biography Award in 2017, has 14 books to her name. These include the novels Ghostwalk, The Coral Thief, and most recently Dark Earth, as well as the creative non-fiction works Darwin’s Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists and Darwin and the Barnacle. She is a historian and broadcaster (BBC Radio 4, A Point of View) and taught literature and creative writing for over 30 years including as a professor at the University of East Anglia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Written and presented by Rebecca Stott
Producer: Kirsten Lass
Editor: Sara Davies
Sound Engineer: Jon Calver
Image by Maia Miller-Lewis
A Loftus Media Production for BBC Radio 4
Author photo credit :Sarah Weal
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m002n7p7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m002n141)
Murder on Mars
Episode 5
Mars, 2048. The first settlers, a mix of international workers and the super-rich. And the first unexplained death.
When a body turns up in the corridor between a scrappy warehouse and a half-built luxury hotel, no-nonsense Harbourmaster Rita Siddiqui finds herself in charge. With Earth temporarily out of contact and no official law enforcement on Mars, she ropes in Vice Captain Jaz Hickson, a wide-eyed young pilot who’s only just landed.
But murder's not their only problem. Atmospheric tests have triggered a dangerous storm. Paranoia grows as the power fails. Lights, gravity, oxygen: everything is at risk.
Rita and Jaz must navigate a growing list of suspects, a dwindling supply of patience, and a killer who’s not finished yet.
Because even 140 million miles from Earth, people still have secrets. And someone’s willing to kill to keep them.
With the hub evacuated, Rita and Jaz are alone. Can they find the murderer in time?
Written by Tim Foley
CAST
RITA SIDDIQUI ..... NISHA NAYAR
JAZ HICKSON ..... LUKE NEWBERRY
WARD ..... STEFFAN RHODRI
NILS ..... DAVID MENKIN
GRACE ….. ELIZABETH AYODELE
MAX ..... SIDHANT ANAND
Sound: Sharon Hughes, Keith Graham and Neva Missirian
Production Co-ordinator: Luke MacGregor
Director: Anne Isger
Casting Manager: Alex Curran
A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 14:45 New Storytellers (m002h9w3)
Life in Numbers
Living with a chronic condition feels like living with a full-time job and no days off. Musician Sarah Warren knows this well and offers a creative, unfiltered insight into living a life where numbers are vital to survival. With a medical history comparable to that of someone three times her age, Sarah’s story is a stark reminder that you can never tell what someone else has to cope with every day of the year.
Diabetes affects around 5.8 million people in the UK, so Sarah’s journey with Type One diabetes is not an uncommon story. This feature is a personal, witty and creative take on the lessons she has learnt, and how medical advances and digital monitoring have evolved since she was first diagnosed 14 years ago. Diabetes used to be something that Sarah tried to keep from others now it’s something she wants to share proudly. Think of this as your permission to stare.
‘Life in Numbers’ gives you access to a world through sounds you’ve never heard before. You can’t see it, but you can listen.
New Storytellers presents the work of new audio producers and this series features the winners of the Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Audio Feature 2025.
Sarah Warren worked on her feature while at Transmission Roundhouse, based in London, who run audio production training courses. The Judges praised Sarah Warren’s feature as “a good personal, informative account of living with diabetes… a very easy listen and the personality really shines through … with great illustrative sound design.”
Producer: Sarah Warren
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002n7p9)
Dundee: Amaryllis, Monkey Puzzles and Australian Plants
What is the best way to take cuttings of a monkey puzzle tree? What plants that are grown in Australia and would thrive in Dundee? Why hasn’t my Amaryllis flowered?
Kathy Clugston brings together a perfectly curated panel of gardening experts at the V&A Dundee to tackle these questions from an enthusiastic, plant-loving audience.
Joining Kathy on the panel are garden designers, botanists and allotmenteers Matthew Pottage, Kirsty Wilson and Neil Porteous.
Also, Matthew Pottage slips away for an exclusive look at the V&A Dundee’s fascinating exhibition Garden Futures: Designing With Nature, guided by curator James Wylie.
Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Junior Producer: Rahnee Prescod
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal (m002n7pc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Sunday]
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m002n7pf)
Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Vera Weisfeld, Frank Gehry, Martin Parr
Matthew Bannister on
Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the zoologist who devoted his life to the study and conservation of African elephants.
Vera Weisfeld, the businesswoman whose chain of What Every Woman Wants stores offered fashion designs at bargain prices.
Frank Gehry, the architect best known for his flamboyant designs for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles
Martin Parr whose celebrated colourful photographs showed the messy details of British life.
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Tansley
Archive used
The Late Show, BBC Two, 11/11/1992; Imagine… Frank Gehry: The Architect Says "Why Can't I?", BBC Two, 25/08/2015; The John Tusa Interview, BBC Three, 09/01/2005; The Simpsons – "The Seven-Beer Snitch", Created by Matt Groening, Directors: Matthew Nastuk, David Silverman; Writers: Bill Odenkirk, Daniel Chun; Production companies: Gracie Films, 20th Century Fox Television; 8/05/2025; This Cultural Life: Martin Parr, BBC Radio 4, 10/04/2023; Britain in Focus: A Photographic History – Series 1 Episode 3, BBC Four, 21/01/2020; I Am Martin Parr, BBC Four, 01/09/2025; The Natural World: Ivory Wars, BBC Two, 01/09/2025; Encounters with Animals: Last Stand in Eden, BBC Two, 08/10/1989; Encounters with Animals, BBC Two, 15/08/1980; Outlook, BBC World Service, 02/12/2010; Millionaires, BBC One, 17/12/1990; Reporting Scotland 2019: What Everyone Wants, BBC One Scotland, 23/11/2019; What Every Woman Wants had all the clothes for women at Christmas 1985, UK ADS Uploaded to YouTube 27/12/2023
FRI 16:30 Illuminated (m002l23l)
The Findhorn Garden
This is a story about a community on the north east coast of Scotland that talked to plants with miraculous results.
Established in 1962, the Findhorn community gained international recognition for 40lb cabbages, 8-foot delphiniums, and roses that bloomed in snow.
With seemingly no gardening experience, community founders Peter and Eileen Caddy and their friend Dorothy Maclean transformed the barren sand dunes surrounding the 30-foot caravan they were living in, into a modern-day garden of Eden.
The public wanted to know how this was possible. What was the source of this horticultural miracle?
People flocked to Findhorn from around the world to witness this incredible transformation first-hand.
An extraordinary story began to emerge. Peter, Eileen and Dorothy - along with Scottish writer and supernatural enthusiast Robert Ogilvie Crombie (ROC) - attributed their success to one thing: collaboration with the ‘intelligence of nature’.
They claimed they had pierced the veil of the nature spirit realm, and were regularly receiving guidance from fairies, floral spirits and angelic forms Dorothy called 'Devas' - the ‘architects’ of the natural world. Moreover, they had been called upon by these entities to transform the Findhorn Garden into a centre of spiritual light.
What started with a single family in a caravan quickly grew into a thriving international village of hundreds of people united by shared social, spiritual and ecological values.
Inspired by the media's enduring fascination with Findhorn's supernatural origins, sound designer Jonathan Webb travels to Findhorn in search of transmissions from the nature spirit realm.
Trawling through the archives, in conversation with community elders, and in pursuit of sonic traces of higher elemental worlds, Jonathan brings into focus the echoes and reverberations of Findhorn’s strange and magical past.
Produced, Edited & Sound Designed by Jonathan Webb
Executive Producer: Carys Wall
A Bespoken Media Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
Additional field recordings by Brenda Hutchinson.
With grateful thanks to Jonathan Caddy, Judy McAllister and Karl Jay-Lewin, whose kindness and generosity made this programme possible.
Thank you to the Findhorn Foundation for providing access and permission to use recordings from the Findhorn Foundation archive.
The Findhorn Garden includes excerpts from ‘The River’ by Lark Batteau and ‘Love One Another’ by David Spangler and Milenko Matanovic, performing as The New Troubadours (Findhorn community band, 1970-1973)
Jonathan Webb makes no claim to authorship or ownership over any of the quotations or repurposed recordings used in the production of this work, and for practical and artistic reasons it has not been possible to reference and cite them individually. Jonathan Webb’s authorship is in the overall conception, arrangement, treatment and presentation of this audio artwork in its context.
FRI 17:00 PM (m002n7ph)
Will Europe unlock frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine's defence?
The Belgian PM meets Sir Keir Starmer to discuss legal concerns about using billions of euros of frozen Russian funds – the majority of which are held by Euroclear in Belgium – to fund Ukraine’s war effort. Also on PM, the latest in our MP constituency series. This time we broadcast from St Alban's City in Hertfordshire – the constituency of Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper-to find out what issues are important to voters there.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002n7pk)
More photos from Jeffrey Epstein's estate released.
The former US President, Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and the film maker, Woody Allen, are also included in some of the 19 images. There is no suggestion that the photos imply any wrongdoing. Also: a man from Devon who was previously cleared of killing his wife on self-defence grounds in 2016 is convicted of her murder. And: the best selling author, Joanna Trollope, dies.
FRI 18:30 Dead Ringers (m002n7pm)
Christmas Specials 2025
Dead Ringers Christmas: Ep 1. Farage Goes to School, The Snowman v Keir, and Alan Carr: Special Negotiator
The Dead Ringers team are back to train their vocal firepower on the week’s news with an armoury of impressive impressions.
This week: Farage goes to a new school, The Snowman takes Keir Starmer on a Christmas journey, and Alan Carr: Special Negotiator.
This week's impressionists are Jan Ravens, Jess Robinson, Kieran Hodgson and Josh Berry.
The episode was written by: Nev Fountain and Tom Jamieson, Laurence Howarth, Tom Coles, Sarah Campbell, Sophie Dickson, Jon Holmes, Alice Bright, Rachel E Thorn, Jennifer Walker, Joe Topping, Alex Buchanan and G Watson.
Created by Bill Dare
Producer: Jon Holmes
Executive Producer: Richard Morris
Production Co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m002n7pq)
Josh and Lily nurse a recovering Paul, updating him that Josh’s girlfriend Nina did not turn up on Thursday. Josh admits that he finds her captivating on stage, but that he deserves more than he’s getting in the relationship. Lily reveals that she’s not going to travel with Mason in Australia but is just going to spend a short time in Perth. They no longer need to look for a new housemate. Lily will speak to Dane about the wedding planner job. Now that she’s staying around, she’s motivated to get the house clean before Shula arrives tomorrow, despite them feeling ill. Leonard arrives and suggests a refreshing walk ahead of cleaning. Toasting Lily’s birthday in The Bull with lemonade, Paul shares that he is booking a driving instructor who specialises in nervous students. Returning home to The Stables, the grateful flatmates find that Leonard and Joy have completely cleaned the house.
Akram has been reflecting on the proposed move to Pakistan. Over the week he’s really noticed the impact Azra makes in the community. His family’s happiness is the most important - the children have made good friends and Azra is so at home in Ambridge. He has found it humbling. Azra admits that her earlier wishes to move had been her reaction to a bad week. Akram suggests that they take a family walk down to the Green for the Christmas lights switch on, as they all belong in this village now, him included.
FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m002n7ps)
Katy Richardson and Ben Gernon head to Mongolia
Conductor Ben Gernon and Music Director Katy Richardson join Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe as they add another five tracks, taking us from the Mongolian landscape to a sunrise in Lesbos, a famous TV theme, and some seriously wronged wives.
Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Wolf Totem by The HU
Daybreak (Lever du jour) by Maurice Ravel
Stranger Things Theme by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein
Madeline by Lily Allen
Ex-Wives from SIX: The Musical
Other music in this episode:
Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich
Creep by Radiohead
The Lonely Goatherd by Julie Andrews
Morgul by Ay-Kherel
Dancing On My Own by Robyn
Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics
I Feel Love by Donna Summer
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) by Kate Bush
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m002n7pv)
Sir Jake Berry, Tobias Ellwood, Josh Simons MP, Sonia Sodha
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Wigan & Leigh College with former Conservative Party chair, now Reform UK member, Sir Jake Berry; defence analyst and former Conservative MP, Tobias Ellwood; Labour MP and Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons; and journalist and broadcaster Sonia Sodha.
Producer: Paul Martin
Assistant producer: Lowri Morgan
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Lead broadcast engineer: Phil Booth
Editor: Glyn Tansley
FRI 20:55 This Week in History (m002n7px)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:40 on Wednesday]
FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m002n7pz)
Idleness
Is idleness ever a virtue? In a world that seems to privilege utility and productivity above all else, Matthew Sweet considers whether we can rethink the importance of doing nothing. His guests for Radio 4's late night ideas discussion programme are:
Tom Hodgkinson, editor of The Idler and author of books including Idle Thoughts: Letters on Good Living, How to Live Like a Stoic: A Handbook for Happiness
Polly Dickson, a literary scholar at the University of Durham, who’s researching the art of doodling
Katrien Devolder, Professor of Applied Ethics at the University of Oxford
Gavin Francis, doctor and author of many books including The Bridge Between Worlds and coming in Feb 2026 The Unfragile Mind, Making Sense of Mental Health
Steve Connor, cultural historian, Director of Research of the Digital Futures Institute, King’s College, London.
Producer: Luke Mulhall
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002n7q1)
King Charles shares 'good news' about his cancer
The King said in a personal message that his cancer treatment will be reduced next year, thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and an adherence to doctors' orders.
Also on the programme: the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has said he is not 'comfortable' with a puberty blockers clinical trial that's set to go ahead in January, even though the clinical advice was to proceed with it. We hear from Gazans who having survived war and mass displacement, now face a winter storm and flooding. And, we reflect on the life and legacy of Scottish comedian Stanley Baxter, who has died at the age of 99.
FRI 22:45 Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq (m002n7q3)
Episode 2
Heart Lamp - by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi - is a collection of 12 stories originally written in Kannada, the official language of the state of Karnataka in southwestern India. The collection chronicles the lives of women living in the patriarchal, largely Muslim communities of the region.
In this story, split into two episodes, the protagonist Mehrun returns unexpectedly to her family home. She is hoping for the support of her parents and brothers against her philandering husband.
The author and translator were jointly awarded the International Booker Prize and £50,000. The collection is published in the UK by And Other Stories.
Receiving the award, Mushtaq said, “In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other’s minds.”
Listen to Banu Mushtaq being interviewed on BBC World Service’s Outlook : https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6xcd
Abridged by Jill Waters
Read by Deepti Gupta
Translated by Deepa Bhasthi
Produced by The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
FRI 23:00 Americast (w3ct8byv)
How far will Trump go in his 'war' with Venezuela?
What’s going on between the United States and Venezuela? The Trump administration has been defending its seizure of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast. In a dramatic video shared by the US Attorney General, armed camouflaged soldiers are shown swinging down ropes from low flying helicopters, and running along the vessel’s decks.
The US claims the tanker is used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran in an "illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations". The Venezuela government in response has called the seizure blatant theft, claiming Trump is after the country’s rich oil and energy resources.
In this episode, Sarah and Justin unpack how far Donald Trump is willing to go in his ongoing campaign against the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. In recent months, the US president has accused Maduro of “forcing” criminals into the US and facilitating drug smuggling, which Maduro denies. And this week, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has defended the killing of over 80 people in US military strikes on alleged drug boats as the “Al Qaeda of our hemisphere”.
The Americast team also look at how this fits in with other South American countries, with Trump recently offering Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández a ‘full and complete pardon’.
Presenter: Justin Webb, and Sarah Smith
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This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Michael Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.
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FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002n7q7)
Alicia McCarthy reports on the assisted dying bill. Also - do we need British money for British start-up companies? And the story of Westminster's "maddest Christmas", which led to the English Civil War