SATURDAY 04 APRIL 2026

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m002tbvt)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 The Radio Universe (m002tbt7)
5. The Dark Side of the Moon

How to explore space, without leaving earth.

Astrophysicist Emma Chapman takes us on an electrifying voyage through the cosmos using one of the most powerful, yet overlooked, tools in science: the radio wave. Chapman reveals how these invisible messengers glide through space, bounce off planets, tunnel through clouds and slip past galactic dust - carrying secrets of the universe that no other kind of light can uncover.

Episode Five: The Dark Side of the Moon
From the ruins of Arecibo to the silent far side of the Moon, as Earth grows noisier, radio astronomers consider relocating.

Read by Jasmine Hyde.
Produced and abridged by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002tbvy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002tbw3)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:30 News Summary (m002tbw7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002tbwc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002tbwh)
The Roman Centurion - a mystery to ponder

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop David Walker

Good Morning

Each day, today and next week, my inspirations for prayer will come from one of the biblical characters who was profoundly changed by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

For Gaius, a career Roman Centurion, first century Palestine was not the assignment he might have hoped for. Little chance for the plunder that followed military victories, just constant vigilance against a truculent local population with their alien religion and propensity to rebel unexpectedly. And of course there was the regular task of keeping order during public punishments, not least crucifixions. But yesterday has been different. The man on the middle cross, the one who’d apparently claimed to be King of the Jews, had gone to his death, not pleading or cursing like any ordinary terrorist or criminal, but petitioning his God to forgive his killers.

The words had come from Gaius’s mouth involuntarily, “Truly this man was a son of God”. He prayed nobody had heard his utterance. To be found ascribing the status to a convicted terrorist normally reserved for emperors might consign him to this provincial backwater for the rest of his career.

But now, on this Saturday morning, when he could relax in the assurance that the Jews would be focussed on their sabbath religious rituals, the words that had sprung from his lips kept coming back. What would it mean if this strange convict was indeed of divine blood? Maybe a few more years here would give him opportunity to reflect on his unexpected assertion.

Today, as we await the joy of Easter, I pray that, like that perplexed centurion, as we wait for events to unfold, we may marvel at the mystery of Christ’s death and ponder its import for our lives.


SAT 05:45 Lent Talks (m002tbwm)
Power and Community

A series of personal reflections on power inspired by the story of Jesus’ Passion.

Six essays tracing the hidden currents of power in everyday life: how it shapes us, how it works, how it wounds, and how it can be resisted, claimed, and reclaimed.

In this episode, the theologian and author, Luke Bretherton, explores power and community.

Producer: Dan Tierney.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m002tpf7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m002tc07)
In Celebration of the Daffodil

Thriplow Daffodil Weekend in Cambridgeshire started as a way of raising money for a church roof in 1968. Nearly sixty years later, it is thriving. More than 40,000 bulbs are planted each year to create the incredible displays and a small village of just 250 residents welcomes more than 10,000 visitors over the weekend. Martha Kearney joins them to discover what’s involved, meeting the organiser Paul Earnshaw and ‘daffodil Tom’ who spends his winter planting the bulbs.

Daffodils are ubiquitous in spring in Britain. We see them on vergesides and gardens across the country, but the flower is not native to the UK. Martha visits Cambridge Botanic Garden to find out more about the history and use of the humble daff. There are around 30,000 varieties of daffodil, or narcissus, grown - but some varieties are extremely rare. The Royal Horticultural Society is asking gardeners to log any pink blooms, to find out how many are left.

Celebrated in literature and used for centuries in medicine, there is much more to the daffodil - as Martha finds out on her travels in Cambridgeshire.

Producer: Helen Lennard


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m002tpf9)
Warnings that animal welfare is at risk on some Scottish Islands because of widespread disruption to ferry services.

Ripples from conflict in the Middle East are felt in UK ports; the fishing industry is asking the Government for help with fuel costs.

Every spring in a quiet corner of England on the Herefordshire Gloucestershire border carpets of wild daffodils can still be seen in the fields and woodlands, thanks to carefully managed farming and forestry practices.

And as it's lambing time, so we’re learning the ropes with a student vet.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m002tpfc)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m002tpff)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m002tpfh)
Bear Grylls, Music Composition, Flaming Feasts, and the Inheritance Tracks of Lesley Joseph

Today an adventurer, a chef and a composer.

From special forces to chief scout Bear Grylls likes a challenge, his latest being nothing less than a successful re-write of the story of Jesus.

Our chef is Chris Roberts, aka Flamebaster, whose key ingredients are food, fire and frightening levels of enthusiasm.

And our composer is Liz Lane, the sometime child prodigy, who found her gift for composition suited the sound of brass bands down to the ground.

All that, plus the rescue dog from Kampala who needed rescuing a second time by a man in a white van on a roundabout in Saffron Walden - and the Inheritance Tracks of Lesley Joseph.

Presenter: Adrian Chiles
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Catherine Powell
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Powell


SAT 10:00 Opening Lines (m002tpb9)
Celebrating Stoppard

Tom Stoppard was of course best known for his work writing for stage and screen - but the dramas he created for radio were also an extremely important part of his career and his development as a writer. Across five decades he continued to return to a medium that suited him so well; without the constraints of visuals, his deft structural turns, linguistic pyrotechnics and imaginative leaps could flourish. In this special episode of Opening Lines for Radio 4’s Celebrating Stoppard season, John Yorke examines how Stoppard benefitted from and contributed to a golden age in BBC Radio drama.

The programme features extracts from ‘The Dissolution of Dominic Boot’, ‘Albert’s Bridge’ and ‘The Dog It Was That Died’, as well as contributions from Stoppard’s biographer Professor Hermione Lee and archive of Stoppard himself.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.

Producer: Geoff Bird
Contributor: Professor Hermione Lee
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Reader: Daniel Weyman
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 10:15 Spotlight (b007s75v)
Celebrating Stoppard: The Dissolution of Dominic Boot

Tom Stoppard's The Dissolution of Dominic Boot is part of Radio 4's Celebrating Stoppard collection.

Dominic needs to pay his taxi fare, but to raise the money he needs to travel across London, in a taxi. The fare keeps rising, and so does the panic. Fifteen minutes of early Stoppard: sharp, funny and already fully himself.

This is a 1978 production of his first play for BBC Radio, written in 1964.

Dominic ..... Derek Fowlds
Vivian ..... Maria Aitken
Taxi Driver ..... John Junkin
Girl Clerk ..... Amanda Murray
Shepton ..... Jon Glover
Man ..... Peter Wickham
Miss Bligh ..... Eva Stuart
Cartwright ..... Anthony Newlands
Mother ..... Noel Hood
Father ..... William Fox

Producer: Glyn Dearman


SAT 10:30 Artworks (m002tbl2)
Stoppard at Work

This documentary, part of the Celebrating Stoppard season, asks what it was like to be in a room with the playwright Tom Stoppard, who died in November 2025. What was he like to work with, rehearsing one of his plays or preparing a text for publication?

Actors, directors, producers and more share insights into the man at work, giving us a glimpse of how he navigated the great collaboration of production: in development, in rehearsal, in moments of doubt and disapproval.

Famously glamorous in public, generous and charming in private, Stoppard engaged fully with every stage of the process of bringing his work to audiences and readers: revising, debating, listening, sharing. It is the collegiate Stoppard that this programme investigates.

Presented by Emma Fielding with contributions from actors Bill Nighy, Adrian Scarborough and Toby Jones; Stoppard’s editor at Faber, Dinah Wood; dramaturg Jack Bradley; producer Sonia Friedman; and director and playwright Patrick Marber.

Sound design by Peter Ringrose

Producers: Jessica Dromgoole and Mary Peate

A Hooley production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 Radical with Amol Rajan (m002tc0y)
Rethinking Democracy: Would Citizens Do a Better Job than Politicians? (Hélène Landemore)

In this week’s episode, Amol sits down with Yale political theorist and author of ‘Politics Without Politicians’, Professor Hélène Landemore, to discuss her argument to revive citizen‑led governance. She explains why she believes our current electoral systems fall short of representing the full diversity of the population and lays out a practical roadmap for what she calls an “open democracy.”

Hélène also addresses the most common critiques of her approach and highlights real-world examples of citizen assemblies – how would they work at scale? Who would (and wouldn’t) be allowed on them? And what if people simply aren’t interested?

GET IN TOUCH

* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: radical@bbc.co.uk

Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday. Previous episodes are available 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, Anna Budd and Rufus Gray. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The editor is Sam Bonham.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002tpc1)
Viktor Orbán's anti-Ukraine election gambit

Kate Adie introduces stories on the Hungarian elections, the Kurdish fighters readying to fight Iran, the Nigerian farmers working under armed guard, the Philippines fuel crisis, and how tourists are staying away from Jerusalem's holy sites.

Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán is facing a tough reelection battle, with the opposition centre right Tisza party ahead in the polls. During the campaign, Orbán's Fidesz party has stoked fears about the malign influence of Ukraine and the EU. Nick Thorpe reports from Budapest.

On the Iraq-Iran border, Kurdish forces are gathering in preparation for a potential ground war in Iran, though there is caution about joining US forces, as Kurdish leaders say they were abandoned by the US coalition in Syria, despite thousands giving their lives to help defeat Islamic State. Jiyar Gol met them at their mountain base.

In Borno State in northeast Nigeria, farmers have to tend to their fields under armed guard because of the threat posed by Islamist militants. Ijeoma Ndukwe travelled to Maiduguri, where she met farmers hit by the pervasive threat of violence.

The Philippines became the first country to declare an energy emergency after fuel prices more than doubled since the Iran war began. Suranjana Tewari met transport drivers in Manila, who are struggling to make a living.

And in Israel, the closure of holy sites due to the heightened security threat caused by the war with Iran has led to disappointment among local business owners as the droves of tourists who typically visit at this time of year have decided to stay away, reports Sebastian Usher.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison and Sophie Hill
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m002tpfl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m002tpfn)
Pension Age Rise and April Tax Changes

Millions of people in their sixties will now wait up a year longer before they can claim their state pension. From Easter Monday the current state pension age of 66 will gradually increase over the next two years until it reaches 67 affecting everyone born on 6th April 1960 or later. How will it work for those affected?

Rent arrears, council tax debt and unpaid utility bills are the main reason more than 400,000 people in Britain are homeless. A new report by the Centre for Homelessness Impact published next week sets out ways to reduce or even end homelessness. What does it recommend?

Millions of drivers are in line for hundreds of pounds of compensation for mis-sold finance deals. We'll have 5 top tips on who gets what and how to claim.

And there are some tax changes from Monday as well, we'll round up what's happening to dividends and inheritance tax.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Sarah Rogers
Researchers: Catherine Lund and Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 12pm on Saturday 4th April 2026)


SAT 12:30 The Naked Week (m002tbty)
Series 4

Jesus Christ Superstarmer, and Dark Satanic Mills

The team pile in on Mills and the Moon. (Mills and Moon sounds like a series of romantic novels. Just to manage your expectations, that's not where we're going with this). Also, just in time for Easter, the world premiere of Jesus Christ Superstarmer.

From The Skewer’s Jon Holmes and host Andrew Hunter Murray comes The Naked Week; a fresh way of dressing the week’s news in the altogether and parading it around for everyone to laugh at.

With award-winning writers and a crack team of contemporary satirists - and recorded in front of a live audience - The Naked Week delivers a topical news-nude straight to your ears.

Written by:
Jon Holmes
Katie Sayer
Gareth Ceredig
James Kettle
Jason Hazeley

Additional Material:
Karl Minns
Helen Brooks
Sophie Dickson
Molly Punshon
Cooper Mahwinny Sweryt
Joe Topping
Kevin Smith

Investigation team:
Cat Neilan
Becky Pinnington
Emily Channon

Guests: Rosie Holt, Space Lawyer Heather Allansdottir.

Production Team: Tony Churnside, Jerry Peal, David Riffkin.

Production Coordinator: Molly Punshon
Assistant Producer: Katie Sayer
Executive Producer: Philip Abrams

Produced and Directed by Jon Holmes

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 12:57 Weather (m002tpfq)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m002tpfs)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m002tbv9)
Lord Falconer, Heledd Fychan MS, Ben Maguire MP, Dame Penny Mordaunt

James Cook presents political debate from Stanley Arts in Croydon, south London with the Labour peer Lord Falconer; Plaid Cymru spokesperson for finance, Welsh language and culture Heledd Fychan MS; Liberal Democrat shadow attorney general Ben Maguire MP; and former Conservative cabinet minister Dame Penny Mordaunt.

Producer: Paul Martin
Assistant producer: Lowri Morgan
Production coordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Lead broadcast engineer: Mark MacDonald
Editor: Glyn Tansley


SAT 14:05 Any Answers? (m002tpfv)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 The Archers (m002tbv1)
Robert’s weary with Easter Promises volunteering, while Lynda complains about criticism of her over the pub cricket team. Robert confesses he has spoken with Oliver and sorted access for them to the cricket ground. Lynda accuses Robert of being part of the ‘mutiny’ against her, but softens when he flatters her. She concludes that she’s happy to pass the baton onto Robert, while he insists that he will still need her help.

Miranda joins Oliver for lunch at The Bull, where Lilian gets drawn in to their discussion about Brian and defends his actions. Brian then arrives and makes things awkward, pushing to have a private moment with Miranda, but she resists. Oliver criticises Brian, revealing he knows about his recent actions towards Miranda. Brian becomes petulant before agreeing to leave, with Miranda’s assurance that she’ll contact him when she’s ready to talk.

Lilian asks Brian why he got cold feet over the move, wondering why his concern over Ruairi is enough to end a relationship. Brian admits he doesn’t want to lose Miranda and Lilian urges him to tell Miranda the truth. They’re interrupted by Lynda and Robert, with Lynda surprising Lilian by talking about the need to sort out the new logo and kit for the cricket team. Lilian wonders where Lynda’s change of heart has come from.

Brian catches Miranda outside the pub and pleads with her – he wants them to be together. But when Miranda presses him on moving in with her, Brian maintains it’s complicated. Miranda then declares she’s heard enough – it’s over.


SAT 15:00 Spotlight (m0003smv)
Celebrating Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

1. In the Wings

"Eternity's a terrible thought - I mean where's it going to end?"

As part of the Celebrating Stoppard season, a collection of Stoppard plays, Mathew Baynton, Andrew Buchan and Toby Jones star in the play that made Sir Tom Stoppard's reputation when it first appeared as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear in Shakespeare's Hamlet, as the prince's unlucky attendant lords. In Stoppard's comedy, these two minor characters must watch the action of Hamlet unfold before them as they stay in the wings trying to pass the time.

Rosencrantz ..... Mathew Baynton
Guildenstern ..... Andrew Buchan
The Player ..... Toby Jones
Tragedian ..... Sam Dale
Alfred ..... Ronny Jhutti
Ophelia ..... Sarah Ovens
Polonius ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Hamlet ..... Parth Thakerar
Claudius ..... Don Gilet
Gertrude ..... Clare Corbett

Music arranged and performed by Clare Salaman, Philip Hopkins and Amelia Shakespeare from The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments

Director: Emma Harding

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2019.


SAT 16:00 Spotlight (m0003sz6)
Celebrating Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

2. Mission

"Eternity's a terrible thought - I mean where's it going to end?"

As part of the Celebrating Stoppard season, a collection of Stoppard plays, Mathew Baynton, Andrew Buchan and Toby Jones star in the play that made Sir Tom Stoppard's reputation when it first appeared as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966.

Two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet can only watch from the wings as major events unfold around them.

Rosencrantz ..... Mathew Baynton
Guildenstern ..... Andrew Buchan
The Player ..... Toby Jones
Tragedian ..... Sam Dale
Alfred ..... Ronny Jhutti
Ophelia ..... Sarah Ovens
Polonius ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Hamlet ..... Parth Thakerar
Claudius ..... Don Gilet
Gertrude ..... Clare Corbett

Music arranged and performed by Clare Salaman, Philip Hopkins and Amelia Shakespeare from The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments

Director: Emma Harding

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2019.


SAT 17:00 PM (m002tpfx)
President Trump says Tehran has 48 hours to make a deal

The President pressures Tehran as the search intensifies for the missing US crew member whose fighter jet came down yesterday over southern Iran. We'll speak to a former RAF pilot captured in Iraq during the first Gulf War. Also on PM, five Metropolitan police officers are removed from front-line duties. We'll ask how a bag containing firearms came to be found near the London Mayor's home. And, 25 years since Bridget Jones first graced our screens, its director explains her enduring appeal.


SAT 17:30 Sliced Bread (m002tbzx)
Collagen (2026 update)

What's the latest on Collagen?

The new series of Sliced Bread kicks off with an update on one of the wonder products most-requested by listeners. Presenter Greg Foot first looked at Collagen in 2022 and returns to the subject to find out what has changed in the scientific landscape since then. Could there be new evidence that it really can do what the manufacturers claim: rejuvenate skin, nails and hair - and even help with joint and bone health?

To find out, Greg is rejoined by the expert from that original episode four years ago, dermatologist Dr Emma Wedgeworth, alongside Professor Jayne Tierney from University College London who specialises in reviewing evidence.

Together they do a deep-dive on the latest science, including a new study from one of the brands featured in 2022, Absolute Collagen. Does it stand up to scrutiny?

If you’ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or send a voice note to our WhatsApp number, 07543 306807.

RESEARCHER: PHIL SANSOM
PRODUCERS: PHIL SANSOM AND GREG FOOT


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002tpfz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m002tpg1)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002tpg3)
President Trump issues ultimatum to Iran

Donald Trump tells Iran to make a deal.Also: A fourth person has been arrested in connection with an arson attack on four ambulances in London. Preparations for Storm Dave begin.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002tpg5)
Jen Brister, Angelique Kidjo, Giles Terera, Jojo Moyes, Tessa Rose Jackson

Clive Anderson is joined by comedian Jen Brister, currentl touring her show 'Reactive', she's on a mission to see if she can chill out. Actor Giles Terera is starring in a new production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest at the Old Vic and best-selling novelist Jojo Moyes' latest book is 'We All Live Here'.

Angélique Kidjo is back with her first new album in five years, inspired by her mother, it's called 'HOPE!!'. Tessa Rose Jackson performs from her album The Lighthouse.

Presenter: Clive Anderson
Producer: Jessica Treen


SAT 19:00 Profile (m002tpb1)
Jed Mercurio

From over-worked medics to bent coppers, for the last 30 years Jed Mercurio has been responsible for some of the UK’s most successful TV series, including Cardiac Arrest, Bodies and Bodyguard. But Line of Duty is arguably his biggest hit, and recording has started for the much-anticipated seventh series.

The award-winning screenwriter, director and producer grew up in a working-class family in Staffordshire. His parents, Italian immigrants, were keen he fit in, but friends say Jed was unique from the get-go with big dreams and a determination to be the best.

He initially trained to be a doctor and demonstrated his sharp, witty writing in a medical school magazine. Half-way through his medical training, he joined the RAF and was taught to fly fighter jets, before pivoting to screenwriting.

Mark Coles looks back at his career so far.

Producer: Ben Carter
Researcher: Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Justine Lang
Sound engineer: James Beard.
Production co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck.


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m002tbzn)
Don McCullin

Award-winning photographer Sir Don McCullin talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences and formative experiences. He started out in the late 1950s documenting the working-class lives in the north London neighbourhood in which he had grown up. Employed by the Observer newspaper, and later the Sunday Times, McCullin photographs captured scenes of struggle, despair and violence. Travelling to the front lines of conflict zones in Cyprus, Beirut, Vietnam, Cambodia, Biafra, Northern Ireland and elsewhere, McCullin earned a hard-won reputation as one of the greatest war photographers of all time. In recent years he has focused his lens on the beauty of the natural world, particularly the landscape around his home in Somerset. His work is held in permanent collections around the world including the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A. He was knighted in 2017 for services to photography.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m002tpg7)
Tom Stoppard: Verbatim

As part of BBC Radio 4's Celebrating Stoppard season in tribute to Sir Tom Stoppard, one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation, Tom Stoppard: Verbatim features the acclaimed Playwright and Screenwriter’s life story in his own words.

It draws on a wide range of archive audio sourced from five decades of Sir Tom’s musings, recollections and observations - through various phases of his professional life as a journalist, drama critic, essayist and radio writer, before becoming a wildly successful and influential playwright.

A Zinc Media production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 Spotlight (b038xr3n)
Celebrating Stoppard: Darkside

As we celebrate the life and work of the legendary playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, another chance to hear this drama from 2013, written to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. The album topped the charts on its release in 1973, and it remained in the charts for 741 weeks from 1973 to 1988. With an estimated 50 million copies sold it is the band's most commercially successful work and is frequently ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time.

Sir Tom Stoppard was first approached with the suggestion of writing a play based on the album by a friend in 1973. 40 years later he created a fantastical story about fear, philosophy and madness, which is woven together with the original music.

Written by Sir Tom Stoppard.

Emily McCoy: Amaka Okafor
The Boy: Iwan Rheon
Doctor Antrobus / The Witch Finder: Bill Nighy
Mr Baggott / Ethics Man: Rufus Sewell
Fat Man: Adrian Scarborough
The Wise One: Peter Marinker
Banker: Robert Blythe
Politician: Ben Crowe
Emily's Mother: Philippa Stanton

Directed by James Robinson


SAT 22:00 News (m002tpg9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m002tbt5)
Generation Z

Generation Z, young adults aged roughly 18 to 30, are coming of age in a world defined by uncertainty. With difficult job and housing markets many are experiencing prolonged adolescence, often living with parents far longer than previous generations. At the same time, they are the first true digital natives: a generation growing up with the internet as a central part of their lives.

In this programme, Jaega Wise explores how these seismic social and economic shifts are reshaping the way young people eat and think about food. She speaks with author Chloe Combi about the cultural forces that are driving Gen Z’s evolving food identities. She also meets Sumayah Kazi, the youngest-ever Bake Off contestant, to talk about how social media is effecting how young people cook and eat. BBC reporter Emse Winterbotham lives at in her family home in London. She finds out more about the practicalities of living and eating with your mum and dad when you are an adult. Jaega also travels to Stourbridge to meet Will Griffin and his dad steve to talk more about how the generations are sharing the kitchen.

Presenter: Jaega Wise
Producer: Sam Grist


SAT 23:00 The Matt Forde Focus Group (m002tc0p)
Series 2

4. The Politics of Utopia

We like to think politics is about pragmatism. But what if it's always really been about utopia? Top political comedian Matt Forde convenes his Focus Group in front of a live theatre audience with a sharp and varied panel — journalist and broadcaster Jo Coburn, former Cabinet minister Michael Gove and comedian Ahir Shah - to ask whether the dream of a perfect society is the secret engine of political life.

From new towns built from scratch with names designed to start arguments, to a Home Secretary who wants the eyes of the state on every citizen at all times, and why we're still working five days a week when Keynes promised us we'd be living a life of leisure and writing poetry by now — this is an episode about vision and ambition, and the considerable gap between the two.

Written and presented by Matt Forde
With additional Material from Karl Minns, Ruth Husko and Richard Garvin
Produced by Richard Garvin
Sound Design and Edit: David Thomas
Executive Producers: Jon Thoday and Richard Allen Turner
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:30 Counterpoint (m002td3y)
Series 39

Final, 2026

Paul Gambaccini hosts radio's most challenging music quiz. Now in its 39th series, contestants from around the country have assembled to be tested on their knowledge of music from across the centuries, and across every genre.

This week, in the series final, our three finalists pick from topics including ‘Britpop and Trip-hop', 'What's cooking?' and 'BBC Children's TV Of The 20th Century'.

Producer: Tom Du Croz
Production coordinator: Jodie Charman

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4

If you are interested in taking part in a future series of Counterpoint, please email counterpoint@bbc.co.uk

SUNDAY 05 APRIL 2026

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m002tpgc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:15 Take Four Books (m002td3w)
Yann Martel

The much-loved Canadian writer and former Booker Prize winner, Yann Martel, speaks to Take Four Books this week about his new novel, and first for a decade - Son Of Nobody - and together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other literary works. The book follows a classical scholar, Harlow Donne, as he gets a chance to study at Oxford and uncovers a lost account of the Trojan war. The fictional Homeric poem unfolds across the top of the page, while Harlow's often heartfelt footnotes, addressed to his young daughter, Helen, run below.

Yann, who won the Booker in 2002 for his novel Life Of Pi, chose as his three influences: Stephen Mitchell's 2011 translation of The Iliad; Alice Oswald's Memorial, which is her translation of the Iliad's "atmosphere" and was also published in 2011; and Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, which was first staged in 1962.

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


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002tpgf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002tpgh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:30 News Summary (m002tpgk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002tpgm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m002tpc3)
The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Wilfrid, Ripon in North Yorkshire

Bells on Sunday comes from the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Wilfrid, Ripon in North Yorkshire. Ripon is the oldest of the three Cathedral Churches within the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales. The South West Tower contains a peal of twelve bells; Taylors of Loughborough cast them as a peal of ten in 1933 and two trebles were added in 2008. The tenor weighs twenty three hundredweight and is tuned to E flat. We hear them ringing Cambridge Surprise Maximus


SUN 05:45 In Touch (m002tbll)
Payment Card Accessibility, Changes to the Motability Scheme

The UK's leading trade association for the UK banking and financial services sector, UK Finance has just launched a new set of guidelines pertaining to the accessibility of payment cards. They claim that 80% of the financial industry across the UK are actioning the recommendations, which include the standardisation of larger text sizes, and notches to identify different types of cards. Adam Scarrott is UK Finance's Director of Payments and he tells In Touch more about why these guidelines were brought about and we discuss the ongoing issue of touch screen payment terminals.

The Motability Scheme enables disabled people to use certain benefits to lease a vehicle. But, the scheme is about to introduce some changes as a result of the government's Autumn budget. Nigel Fletcher is the Motability Foundation's CEO and he tells In Touch what these changes are, provides more detail about why they came about and when.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Helen Surtees
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 (m002tp96)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Heart and Soul (w3ct6vq9)
Leaving Isis: Is redemption possible?

In 2014, Tareena Shakil, then 24, made a decision that would change her life forever. She secretly left the UK, telling her family she was on holiday, and travelled with her young son to Syria to join the Islamic State group. Within months she found herself in the heart of the extremist stronghold, and later fled to Turkey before returning to the UK, where she was arrested and became one of the first British women to be convicted for membership of Isis and encouraging terrorism.

Shakil was sentenced to six years in prison but was released after serving half her term. In the years since, she has publicly expressed regret for her actions, accepted responsibility for lying about her journey when first questioned by police, and described her experience as a time when she “lost her way”.

Rajeev Gupta meets Tareena in Birmingham as she reflects on a path that took her from belief to extremism and the long, difficult process of finding her footing again. In candid conversation, she explores how identity, faith, family and the search for meaning intersected in the decisions she made, and what she believes now about forgiveness and moving forward.

Presenter: Rajeev Gupta
Producer: Matt O’Donoghue
Production co-ordinator: Mica Nepomuceno
Editor: Chloe Walker

(Photo: Tareena Shakil and the BBC's Rajeev Gupta. Credit: Matt O'Donoghue)


SUN 06:35 Sunrise Service at Laudato Si' Centre (m002tp98)
Reverend Grace Thomas meets with the Bishop of Salford, the Right Reverend John Arnold at the Laudato Si' Centre in Salford and we hear how the garden inspires volunteers and children amidst the busy urban landscape.

Music:
Ten Thousand Reasons by Matt Redman
Reuse it or Lose it, written by Hannah King from the Salford Song book and performed by pupils from Christ the King Roman Catholic Primary School in Manchester
Thine be the Glory performed by Westminster College Choir

Producer:
Carmel Lonergan


SUN 06:57 Weather (m002tp9b)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m002tp9d)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m002tp9g)
Less than two weeks since her installation as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally is to give her first Easter sermon in the role. There is also controversy with the news that the King is not publishing an Easter message this year. Some point out that the King published a video message with greetings to Muslims during Ramadan, and wonder why the Supreme Governor of the Church of England is seemingly silent on the most important day in the Christian calendar.

At a White House Easter event on Wednesday, evangelical pastors compared Donald Trump’s political troubles and a failed assassination attempt to the experience of Jesus on the cross, calling him God’s chosen champion in a “spiritual" battle that included the Iran war. Pope Leo and others believe peace-making is not only necessary, but possible.

The crew of Artemis II are on their way to the moon, one of the personal items is a copy of the bible. Many astronauts have spoken of their experience of seeing the earth from deep space in spiritual terms, describing what has been described as an 'overview effect' - a sense of awe upon looking at Earth suspended in space.

Presenter: William Crawley
Producers: Katy Booth and James Leesley
Studio managers: Lynsey Akehurst and Catherine Everatt
Editor: Tim Pemberton


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m002tp9j)
The Leprosy Mission

Broadcaster Pam Rhodes makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of The Leprosy Mission. The charity works in nine countries across Africa and Asia, running hospitals, medical camps, school screening and community awareness programmes to find and cure children before leprosy disables them.

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

To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘The Leprosy Mission’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Leprosy Mission’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
- Please ensure you are donating to the correct charity by checking the name of the charity on the donate page.

Registered Charity Number: 1050327. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://www.leprosymission.org.uk/
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites

Producer: Katy Takatsuki


SUN 07:57 Weather (m002tp9l)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m002tp9n)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m002tp9q)
Live from Canterbury Cathedral

The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Rev. and Rt Hon. Sarah Mullally is the preacher at this live service from Canterbury Cathedral which features music from her installation and Matthew King’s, Canterbury Missa Brevis – a new mass specially composed for the service. 

The service is led by the Dean, The Very Reverend David Monteith and the music is directed by David Newsholme and the organist is Jamie Rogers.

The

MUSIC
Canterbury Missa Brevis - composed for this service
Matthew King

Psalm 150: ‘O praise God in his holiness'
Matthew Martin

Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)
Now the green blade rises from the buried grain (NOEL NOUVELET)
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son (MACCABEUS)

ORGAN VOLUNTARY
Finale: Allegro assai, from Organ Sonata no. 1 in d, op. 42
Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)

Producer: Katharine Longworth


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m002tp9s)
Jo Wimpenny on the Red Kite

The zoologist and writer Jo Wimpenny shares a story of a close encounter with a red kite in the Chiltern Hills, which swooped in to steal some food. This has become a more common experience in the area with the bird's population having grown by over 1,000% since the 1990s. Jo points out that although the return of a species that lives so well alongside humans won't always be welcomed, it's helpful to remember our shared past, like when hundreds of years ago red kites were valued for clearing streets of carrion and waste.

Produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

This programme features audio recorded by Simon Elliott from Xeno-Canto (Red Kite - XC1070598).


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m002tp9v)
Second airman rescued in Iran

President Trump has announced that the US has rescued the missing crew member of a military jet that was downed over Iran. Also the attraction of the far side of the moon.


SUN 10:00 The Reunion (m002tp9x)
Scotland at the World Cup 1998

Scotland can boast of having one of the oldest football cultures in the world. The Scottish Football Association was founded in 1873 and is the second oldest in the world.

The men’s national football team has qualified for the FIFA World Cup eight times, but Scotland have never managed to progress beyond the group stage of the tournament. Avoiding being knocked out at the first hurdle was certainly the plan in France in 1998 when Scotland last took part in a World Cup.

The road to qualification hadn’t been smooth. It wasn’t helped by Scotland facing a crucial qualifying match against Belarus the same day as the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.

At the tournament itself, 60,000 members of the Tartan Army were estimated to have descended on Paris and Scotland was given the honour of opening the tournament on 10th June 1998 with a match against their regular foes, Brazil.

Joining Kirsty Wark are 1998 squad members and midfielders Paul Lambert and Craig Burley, Andy Mitchell of the Scottish Football Association, BBC Scotland’s main sports presenter Dougie Donnelly, match commentator Rob Maclean and reporter Rhona McLeod, and from the Tartan Army supporters club John and Marion Daly.

Producer: Howard Shannon
Editor: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m002tp9z)
29th March - 3rd April 2026
Writer: Jessica Mitic
Director: Marina Caldarone
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Brian Aldridge … Charles Collingwood
Pip Archer … Daisy Badger
Henry Archer … Blayke Darby 
Pat Archer …   Patricia Gallimore 
Tony Archer … David Troughton 
Tom Archer … William Troughton 
Natasha Archer … Mali Harries 
Lilian Bellamy … Sunny Ormonde
Miranda Elliot … Lucy Fleming
Azra Malik … Yasmin Wilde 
Stella Pryor … Lucy Speed 
Lynda Snell … Carole Boyd
Robert Snell … Michael Bertenshaw 
Oliver Sterling … Michael Cochrane
Carol Tregorran … Mia Soteriou


SUN 12:15 Profile (m002tpb1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 12:30 Unspeakable (m002tbhr)
Series 3

3. Pains, Trains and Forgetfulness

This episode we hear Nish Kumar's word for people who forget movies, Harriet Kemsley's description for when an accident happens to you and nobody sees it, and Ivo Graham's word for the most horrible place to sit on a train.

Ever struggled to find the right word for a feeling or sensation? Unspeakable sees comedian Phil Wang and lexicographer Susie Dent invite celebrity guests to invent new linguistic creations, to solve those all too relatable moments when we're lost for words.

Hosts: Phil Wang and Susie Dent
Guests: Ivo Graham, Harriet Kemsley and Nish Kumar
Created by Joe Varley
Writers: Matt Crosby and James Farmer
Recorded by Jerry Peal
Producer: Jon Harvey
Executive Producers: Joe Varley and Akash Lockmun

A Brown Bred production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:57 Weather (m002tpb3)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m002tpb5)
Trump, the Pope and Iran

On Easter Sunday, we examine the tension reportedly brewing between the US administration and the Pope, with a focus on the use of religious rhetoric in relation to the Iran war. Also on the programme: the latest update on the US airman rescue mission.


SUN 13:30 Currently (m002t12r)
Licence to Hate - Racism on the Front Line

New data from the 2025 NHS Staff Survey, one of the largest workforce surveys in the world, shows that 1 in 5 minority ethnic staff report facing discrimination from patients or the public, compared with 1 in 20 of their white colleagues. The Royal College of Nursing reports that calls to their advice line about racism at work have increased by 55% in three years. This documentary listens closely to the experiences of nurses, GPs and care workers to try and understand if the current climate is different.

Presenter: Farhana Haider
Producers: Farhana Haider and Emma Close
Editor: Clare Fordham
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound mix: James Beard


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002tpb7)
Postbag Edition: Mary Berry's House

Peter Gibbs and the GQT panel have traded parks and community gardens for a visit to the Oxfordshire home of Dame Mary Berry. On this week's panel are Matthew Pottage, Christine Walkden and Bunny Guinness.

Among today’s questions, the panellists troubleshoot evergreen roses plagued by black spot, unravel the mystery of why clematis keep failing on one side of a small London garden, and help a listener planning a late‑August wedding by suggesting plants that peak at the tail end of summer.

Later in the programme, Mary shares her own gardening triumphs, from peaches ripened under winter covers, to treasured raised beds of herbs, strawberries and asparagus.

Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: William Norton
Producer: Matt Smith

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m002tpb9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Saturday]


SUN 15:00 Spotlight (m002tpbc)
Celebrating Stoppard: Albert's Bridge

Tom Stoppard's Albert's Bridge is part of Radio 4's Celebrating Stoppard collection.

This is a 1988 production of the play first broadcast in 1967, the year Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead opened at the National Theatre.

Albert is a philosophy graduate who turns the painting of a vast railway bridge into a comic, quixotic search for meaning. Up on the ironwork, suspended above a world that looks reassuringly like a model railway set, he has found something rare: perspective. The only question is how long it can last.

Funny, strange and with serious foundations worn lightly, Albert's Bridge won the Prix Italia and an award at the International Radio Play Festival in Prague.

Albert ..... Paul Copley
Kate ..... Diane Bull
Fraser ..... Geoffrey Matthews
Chairman ..... George A Cooper
Fitch ..... Peter Baldwin
Dave ..... Richard Tate
George ..... John Sampson
Mother ..... Eva Stuart
Father ..... Alan Dudley
Painters ..... Norman Bird & Stephen Rashbrook

Director: David Hitchinson


SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m002tpbf)
Dorothy Koomson

Led by presenter James Naughtie, the writer Dorothy Koomson takes questions from a Bookclub audience about her 2010 novel The Ice Cream Girls. The novel follows the characters of Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe who are tried for the murder of predatory schoolteacher, Marcus Hansley. Poppy is jailed, while Serena is allowed to walk free, and, among other things, the novel examines how the teenagers' experiences with Marcus have far-reaching consequences.

Described by the Independent newspaper as "one of the biggest selling black authors in Britain" Dorothy Koomson has been writing novels since she was thirteen years old. In 2022 she was a judge for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

Author image credit: Niall McDiarmid.

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


SUN 16:30 Round Britain Quiz (m002tpbh)
1. England v Scotland

Teams from all over the UK nations will face Kirsty Lang's cryptic questions across the series, with Kirsty offering support and the odd hint where it might be needed.

First up are the pairs from England and Scotland.

The rivalry promises to be fierce as last year's champions Jenny Ryan and Stuart Maconie representing the newly formed England team, face Val McDermid and Alan McCredie for Scotland, on home soil, as this series takes place in Edinburgh.

As always, they'll drop points every time they need a clue from the chair to steer them towards the right solution.

You can follow the questions for this episode which will appear below on the day of the match.

Teams:
England - Jenny Ryan and Stuart Maconie
Scotland - Val McDermid and Alan McCredie

Host: Kirsty Lang
Recorded by: Phil Booth
Sound Design: Chris Maclean
Production Coordinator: Caroline Barlow
Producer: Carl Cooper

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4

Questions set by Lucy Porter, Martin Mor and by you, the listeners!

Questions in today's edition:

Q1 Where would you remember, a Vicious boy, a Precious Pearl, the old-age owner of a walking device, a Welsh son of the sea and a black and white snapper?

Q2 (from Hugh Betterton)
From savannah to suburbia with this one - a large African antelope’s name evolves into a Tudor antiquary, then a Lancashire motor town, and finally a huge, horticultural horror that is bound to annoy the neighbours.
What is it?

Q3 (from Helena Minton) Music:
How might one put their houses in order?

Q4 (from Stephen Murphy)
How might: A Doctor’s floral assistant, some Dominican monks, Poirot’s last case, and a worldly but tasty thistle, kill a few hours for a few pennies?

Q5: (from Michael Hipkins) Whose death led to:

The Arabian Nights pantomimically
A 1905 operetta by a prolific Austro-Hungarian composer
A venomous arachnid
A prominent feature of the sinciput
A product of Reims

Q6 Music: If Andy Warhol designed the packaging for these tracks, why would you need to check your fly before listening?

Q7: A recipe…
First, take some Sole Meunière
Then fry it rapidly on a high heat, tossing frequently
Next, melt grated Gruyère with wine, garlic, lemon juice, and cornflour
Accompany this with a cold coffee

Then explain why you might top it off with a chewy meringue?

Q8 (based on question idea from Alan Hay) We’re going to end with a question sent in by… well, I won’t give you her name, as it’s one of the clues… Let’s just say she’s ‘A Lady of Letters’, and Victoria Wood was a big fan…

Final question for Scotland. Val and Alan, we’re going to end with a question sent in by… well, I won’t give you her name, as it’s one of the clues…
Let’s just say she’s ‘A Lady of Letters’, and Victoria Wood was a big fan of hers.
She says:
First, you’ve got Harold Lloyd Jenkins who, despite sounding like a firm of solicitors in Huddersfield, was actually a singer of the country persuasion.
Then there’s that Philadelphia Flyers mascot, that looks like a ginger hearthrug that’s had a nasty shock.
Next, we’re dealing with the sort of man who goes out for a tin of sardines and comes back having daydreamed he’s liberated occupied France.
And then a Lady Who Vanishes without so much as a by-your-leave.
And what I want to know is, why these characters might lead you to a car for Caractacus?


SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct7458)
The invention of the mobility scooter

In 1967, American plumber Al Thieme promised his wife with multiple sclerosis that he would find her an alternative to a wheelchair.

He came up with a battery-powered seat on wheels.

He called it an ‘amigo’ and soon other people wanted one too. In 1968, he started selling his vehicles around the world.

He speaks to Rachel Naylor.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about 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 how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.

We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.

You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.

(Photo: Al Thieme with an early model. Credit: Amigo Mobility International)


SUN 17:10 Understand (m002r3jy)
An American Journey

4. Life and Liberty

As James Naughtie concludes his series about the ideas tying America's birth 250 years ago to the United States today, he examines freedom, asking whose freedom, and what kind?

He begins in Gettysburg, attending a re-enactment on the battlefield made famous by an address from President Abraham Lincoln in which he asked whether the United States "could long endure". That question is being asked again now, as Americans experience profound disagreements over many of the ideas in this series - economic opportunity, justice, freedom; even what it means to be an American. As he hears, American history itself has become a battlefield. And so speaking to historians with different perspectives, and senior political leaders from both parties, James assesses how dangerous this moment is for United States.

Producer: Giles Edwards


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002tpbl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m002tpbn)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002tpbq)
President Trump celebrates downed airman's rescue from Iran

Iran has escalated its own attacks on Gulf States, targeting power stations and desalination plants. Also: Dame Sarah Mullally holds her first Easter sermon as Archbishop of Canterbury, calling for Middle East peace. Pope Leo also makes his first Easter address. And: the astronauts on board NASA's Artemis II mission are entering the Moon's sphere of influence.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002tpbs)
Dr Annie Gray

This week, we’re walking amongst the daffodils of Thriplow and under the rafters of harrier angels in a Cambridgeshire church. Si King reveals where he gained his devotion to food from, and hear from chefs trying to improve kitchen culture. Plus, we stand in the shadow of a demolished wall in North Oxford that’s still dividing communities, decades later.

Presenter: Dr Annie Gray
Producer: Anthony McKee
Production Coordinator: Caoilfhinn McFadden

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m002tpbv)
Alan tells Usha he found the dawn service on Lakey Hill very moving, before she updates him on what people have offered for the Easter Promises tree. Later, while Alan’s delivering his sermon at St Stephens, part of the ceiling crashes down. The church wardens evacuate everyone and no-one is hurt. Relieved Usha then helps Alan to reconvene the service – al fresco in the churchyard.

When Adam mentions word is getting around about Brian and Miranda, Brian tells Adam to mind his own business. But Adam’s invested in Home Farm and gets Brian’s attention when he asks about Ruairi: with Ruairi busy at Berrow, what’s the plan for Home Farm? Brian explains that Berrow is a test and he’s discovering that Ruairi isn’t ready to be a farmer. Brian then wrongfoots Adam, proposing that Adam should take over managing Home Farm and inherit the land. Brian’s happy to change his will to give Adam a majority share of the vote in the family partnership, but suggests not telling the others yet. Stunned Adam agrees.

Robert has an unexpected birthday gift when Lynda finds a parcel on the doorstep: an empty bird cage with a note from Khalil, explaining that a budgie will be delivered later today. Robert isn’t keen, but Lynda thinks it’s wonderful. Once the budgie’s been delivered, with instructions, Robert insists on giving it back to Khalil. But Lynda knows how upset Khalil will be, having more or less rescued the bird. It can have a much better little life with them than where it was before.


SUN 19:15 Spotlight (m002trzj)
Celebrating Stoppard: Rock ‘n’ Roll

Tom Stoppard's play about loyalty, compromise, love and music is on Radio 4 for the first time as part of the Celebrating Stoppard collection. In 1968, Czech student Jan returns home "to protect rock 'n' roll" from the Soviet tanks crushing the Prague Spring. Max, a Communist don in Cambridge, watches his ideology collapse until the Velvet revolution of 1990 allows student and master to meet again. The politics and music have changed but have the people also?

Max ..... Bill Paterson
Jan ..... Daniel Evans
Eleanor ..... Penny Downie
Esme ..... Amanda Root
Ferdinand ..... Bertie Carvel
Young Esme ..... Jaimi Barbakoff
Alice ..... Jasmine Hyde
Nigel ..... Ron Cook
Lenka ..... Britta Gartner
Stephen ..... Joseph Kloska
Milan ..... John Dougall
Candida ..... Liza Sadovy
Gillian ..... Jasmine Callan

Directed by Alison Hindell


SUN 21:40 Radio 4 Appeal (m002tp9j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001z66y)
Deep Calm - with Michael Mosley

Deep Calm - Episode 1: Using Your Breath

Sit back, leave behind the cares of the day and take a sonic journey with Dr Michael Mosley. In this new podcast series, designed to help you let go and unwind, each episode focuses on a scientifically-proven technique for activating the body’s built-in relaxation response, and takes a deep dive to explore what’s happening inside as we find stillness and calm.

By deliberately slowing your breath you can help bring peace and calm to your body and mind. We discover a sweet spot (it’s around six breath per minute but varies from individual to individual) where bodily rhythms align to enhance this relaxation response, and encounter the wandering Vagus Nerve with its central, critical role in all of this.

Guest: Mara Mather, professor at the University of Southern California.

Series Producer, sound design and mix engineer: Richard Ward
Researcher: William Hornbrook
Production Manager: Maria Simons
Editor: Zoë Heron
Specially composed music by Richard Atkinson (Mcasso)
A BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Sounds / BBC Radio 4.


SUN 22:00 Archive on 4 (m0029yhw)
Kenneth Williams: Said the Actor to the Bishop

Kenneth Williams’s Christian faith was a significant part of his life and impacted him deeply. He was a complex but deeply thoughtful character and he grappled with how Christianity fitted with his career and sexuality. At the height of his fame in the 1970s he was asked to record excerpts from the Bible. Those recordings haven’t been broadcast until now.

Williams was a master storyteller, on Jackanory he had the audience beguiled, and he brings that artistry to the telling of Bible stories such as the Parable of the Good Samaritan and the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

The recordings were the creation of James Jones, who went on to become the Bishop of Liverpool, and to mark the start of Easter he presents a special Archive on 4 showcasing Williams’s Bible readings and exploring the faith of the man who would be approaching his 100th birthday.

Bishop James discovers how much Williams contemplated his faith personally and with others. He meets Williams’s friend Mark Oakley, a student at the time of their friendship and now Dean of Southwark, to learn more about the role of God in the last couple of years of the Carry On star’s life. And, by talking to those who knew Williams well, Gyles Brandreth, and who have written about him, Wes Butters, Bishop James explores the longing for affirmation at the root of his many friendships and his faith.

To explore the gift Kenneth Williams had for storytelling, author and Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell Boyce dissects the techniques used to narrate these Biblical chronicles. And Bishop James meets Anna Home and Jeremy Swan, who recognised Williams’s storytelling credentials and invited him to be on Jackanory. They reflect on the compelling way he could enthral an audience with any narrative.

The Bible stories, read by Kenneth Williams, weave throughout the programme to highlight the message and teachings of Jesus - and how his own human story illustrates them so poignantly.

With thanks to Scripture Union and Jennifer Robertson.

Presenter: Bishop James Jones
Production Co-ordinator: Mica Nepomuceno
Editor: Richard McIlroy

Producer: Alexa Good


SUN 23:00 In Our Time (m002tbzg)
The Spanish-American War 1898

Misha Glenny and guests discuss a turning point in world affairs in 1898 that left Spain greatly reduced as an imperial power and the US the owner of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico, with a significant influence over the newly independent Cuba where the war broke out. The US had been eyeing Cuba for decades, waiting for the right moment and the right kind of action, and in April 1898 intervened in the long-running fighting on the island for independence from Spain. With a much stronger navy it was a very uneven battle and the US soon triumphed over Spanish forces from Manila to Santiago de Cuba. This brief war confirmed the US as a power on the world stage and made a shocked Spain turn inwards to ask what had gone wrong. Meanwhile, people in the Philippines were about to attempt a new and bloody independence fight with the US.

With

Frank Cogliano
Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh

Mary Vincent
Professor of Modern European History at the University of Sheffield

And

Stephen Wilkinson
Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Buckingham

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

Sebastian Balfour, The End of the Spanish Empire, 1898-1923 (Clarendon Press, 1997)

Sebastian Balfour, ‘Riot, Regeneration and Reaction: Spain in the Aftermath of the 1898 Disaster’ (The Historical journal 38.2, 1995)

Ada Ferrer, Cuba: An American History (Scribner, 2021)

Greg Grandin, America, América: A New History of the New World (Torva, 2025)

Richard Kluger, Seizing Destiny: How America Grew from Sea to Shining Sea (Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2007)

Robert W. Merry, President McKinley: Architect of the American Century (Simon & Schuster, 2017)

Walter Nugent, Habits of Empire: A History of American Expansion (Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2008)

Louis A. Pérez Jr., Cuba Between Empires, 1878–1902 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1983)

John Lawrence Tone, War and Genocide in Cuba, 1895-1898 (University of North Carolina Press, 2006)

Mary Vincent, Spain, 1833-2002: People and State (Oxford University Press, 2007), especially chapter 3

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Production

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


SUN 23:45 Short Works (m002tf8m)
Union Jacq by Bita Taghavi

‘Sometimes it feels like nothing changes, doesn't it? Like every day’s the same. And then one day you wake up and you can’t recognise a thing. Not even yourself.’

Jacqui’s lived in the same Southwest town all her life. She thought that she knew her neighbours, she thought that she knew herself. Turns out she was wrong.

A new story about self-discovery, courage and hope.

Written and read by Bita Taghavi
Produced by Alison Crawford

Bita Taghavi is a writer and actor based in Bristol. She's originally from Newcastle and this is her second piece for Short Works.

MONDAY 06 APRIL 2026

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m002tpbz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 00:15 From Our Own Correspondent (m002tpc1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:30 on Saturday]


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m002tpc3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002tpc5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002tpc7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:00 News Summary (m002tpc9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:04 Last Word (m002tn1t)
Robert Fox, Mary Rand MBE, Sir Tony Hoare, Biruté Galdikas

John Wilson on

Robert Fox the producer who had a career that spanned theatre, film and television. We have tributes from Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Robert’s brother, the actor Edward Fox.

Mary Rand MBE, the first British woman to win an Olympic athletics gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Sir Tony Hoare, one of the world’s leading computer software designers who developed algorithms and languages which have become industry standards.

Biruté Galdikas, the primatologist and conservationist whose years of studying orangutans in their natural habitat helped understand and protect the primates.

Interviewee: Edward Fox
Interviewee: Rupert Everett
Interviewee: Colin Firth
Interviewee: Wendy Sly
Interviewee: Professor Bill Roscoe
Interviewee: Professor Erin Vogel

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Tansley

Archive used: Another Country movie promo, Another Country Trailer, 1984, director Marek Kanievska, writer Julian Mitchell, Goldcrest Films International,, YouTube Uploaded by Sundance Now, 04/10/2017; Another Country, Queen’s Theatre, directed by Stuart Burge, written by Julian Mitchell, 1982, broadcast on Newsnight, BBC Two, 02/03/1982; Mary Rand at the 1964 Olympics, BBC Sound Archive, commentary by David Coleman, 1964 Tokyo Olympics, 14/01/1964; An Interview with Tony Hoare, ACM 1980 A.M. Turing Award Recipient, Interviewer: Cliff Jones, Newcastle University, 24/11/2015, uploaded to Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) YouTube channel on 25/10/2016; Biruté Galdikas interview, Good Morning, BBC One, 15/02/1995; Biruté Galdikas, Great Apes Documentary, BBC Two, 29/02/1976; Biruté Galdikas interview, Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4, 16/02/1995;


MON 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002tpcc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002tpcf)
Mary Magdalene - called by name

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop David Walker

Good Morning

This week, my inspirations for prayer will come from the biblical characters who were profoundly changed by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

How could she have done it? How could she have mistaken one she had followed so closely, whose every word she had devoured, for a gardener? She was used to self-blame, indeed she was used to blame from all directions. Her past offences had put her well beyond the bounds of polite society. But when she remembered her first words to the Risen Jesus, her cheeks burned red again.

But quickly she remembered how his response had been simply to call out her name. In that moment, for Mary Magdalene, everything had changed. Here was the man she loved, the man she had seen die, and whose burial place she had noted, the man whose corpse she had come to preserve at least a little while longer with her spices, yet impossibly, here he was alive, and calling her by name!

One of my regular practices during my early morning prayers is simply to repeat the few words, “My God, God of all”. It translates a phrase often recited repeatedly by St Francis of Assisi. It helps me recall that the one who is God of everything is also a God who knows and loves me personally. The Jesus Mary met that first Easter morning is the same Jesus who calls me by my name today. The Jesus whose love for me is entirely unaffected by my failings, just as he loved Mary.

Lord Jesus, you know me by name, and love me for who I am. Help me to abide in that love throughout this day. Amen.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m002tpch)
06/04/26 Fifty Years of Photographing Farmers

Devon-based photographer Chris Chapman has been photographing Dartmoor and the people who live there for more than 50 years. He's turned his camera many times on farmers and agricultural workers to depict daily life in the countryside.

Chris tells reporter Fiona Clampin about documenting the changing face of agriculture over the course of half a century, including in 2001 a series of harrowing images taken on one Devon farm at the height of the foot and mouth crisis. The resulting book, Silence at Ramscliffe, is a testament to the power of photography to capture history in the making.

Produced and presented by Fiona Clampin.


MON 05:57 Weather (m002tpck)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for farmers


MON 06:00 Today (m002tpmd)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m002tpmg)
Zoos, sex and conservation

How have the evolutionary forces that shaped animal sex and behaviour influenced the ways humans conserve, study and coexist with other species? As the Zoological Society of London, the precursor to the zoo, celebrates its 200th anniversary, Adam Rutherford is joined by three guests whose work uncovers the scientific, historical and ethical threads connecting humans with the wider animal world.

Biologist Lixing Sun introduces his new book On the Origin of Sex - the Weird and Wonderful Science of how our Planet is Populated, uncovering how mating strategies and reproductive behaviour evolved across species. From Californian Condors to clownfish, the dazzling array of ways in which the animal kingdom procreates is both baffling and astonishing.

Cultural historian Elsa Richardson, from the University of Strathclyde, discusses her latest research into the archives of Edinburgh Zoo, revealing a rich and little‑known record of early zoological observation, public spectacle and the shifting moral landscapes of how people have imagined, displayed and interpreted animal behaviour.

And Sarah Forsyth, Curator of Mammals at ZSL, reflects on the history of the organisation and offers insights into the crucial conservation work that the Zoo is involved in today. From field programmes to breeding initiatives, Sarah explores how modern zoos can help safeguard species and shape our understanding of animals in a rapidly changing world.

Producer: Natalia Fernandez
Senior Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Café Hope (m002tpmj)
Autism considerate communities

Nuala MacDonald tells Rachel Burden how she made her village in the Highlands become autism-friendly. She has encouraged businesses to have a quiet hour where no music is played, or have heat maps on display which show busy areas that can be noisy.

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

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

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

Presenter: Rachel Burden
Series Producer: Uma Doraiswamy
Producer: Jill Collins
Researcher: Daisy Herman
Sound Design: Nicky Edwards
Editor Clare Fordham


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002tpml)
Women and their relationships with light

Easter Monday in the Christian calendar means Christ is risen and symbolises a shift from darkness and death to life, hope and light. We’re also in the middle of Passover which signifies spiritual illumination, freedom, and the transition from darkness to light. So in this special edition of Woman's Hour, Nikki Bedi focuses on women and light. How does light inspire and motivate us, and how can we harness it and use it to our advantage?

Nikki speaks to GP Dr Radha Modgil about the impact of light on our health and wellbeing.

We hear from Paule Constable, an award-winning lighting designer with Olivier and Tony awards for best lighting design for her work spanning theatre, opera, dance and pop music. She is joined in the conversation with Nikki by Ruth Kelly Waskett, a lighting director at engineering consultancy Hoare Lea where she advises architects and engineers on lighting choices in public buildings.

In May last year we dedicated a whole programme to women and farming. When thinking about the impact of light on our lives, who better to ask than early rising farmers? We catch up with Sinead Fenton, an edible flower and herb farmer in East Sussex, and dairy farmer Lorna Burdge.

We discuss light's influence on how our ancestors behaved and what they believed with Carolyne Larrington, Emerita Professor of medieval European literature, University of Oxford and Dr Jennifer Wexler, curator of history for English Heritage.

How can you recreate light in other art forms? Cecilia McDowall, who is one of the UK’s leading composers of sacred and secular choral music, tells Nikki about writing music inspired by light and the changes in the seasons.

Presenter: Nikki Bedi
Producer: Corinna Jones


MON 11:00 The Invention Of... (m002tpmn)
More history than you can consume!

Churchill may have said that the Balkans produce more history than it can consume, but in this episode Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head out to discover if it's true. This is a road trip through Bosnia, Belgrade and northern Greece. The aim? To explore the collapse of the Ottoman empire and see how it fed into the start of World War One. There's also a also pause for sausage in Serbia, while they find themselves in a massive street protest in Thessaloniki. This is history from the ground, and features contributions from Dubravka Stojanovic, Ivan Krastev, Maria Todorova, James Heneage and Hannah Lucinda Smith, author of Hinterlands. And at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle they meet Dr Konstantinos Papanikolaou and Vangelis Kansizoglou.

This is series eighteen of The Invention of ... on Radio 4, following on from previous visits to Taiwan, Turkey, Brazil and beyond.
Misha Glenny is the author of McMafia and The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers. The producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde


MON 11:45 Lifeboat at the End of the World by Dominic Gregory (m002tpmq)
Episode 1

Dungeness is an extraordinary spur of land jutting out from the Kent coast, made up of billions of sea worn flint shards rounded into pebbles, extending 12 square miles and in some places, 20 metres deep. It is home to a nature reserve, a nuclear power station, and two lighthouses. As well as to Derek Jarman’s famous ‘Prospect Cottage’ with its flotsam garden and the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. It is also the location of the Dungeness lifeboat station.

When he moved to Dungeness, Dominic Gregory decided to volunteer with the lifeboat. After some hesitation, he rang the number he’d been given by a neighbour and spoke to the coxswain, Stuart Adams. And so began ‘the volunteer’s story’, the first published account of what it is to be part of a lifeboat crew.

From the meticulous, repetitive training to the first experience of a call out, Dominic Gregory charts the experience of being part of this rare community of people. The lifeboat family is full of ordinary men and women who drop everything at the sound of the pager, day or night to do something which is quite simply, remarkable.

Call outs may be to a trawler or a tanker in distress, a yacht with engine difficulties, a day tripper blown out to sea or a swimmer caught by the current. But it is when inflatable dinghies – overloaded with desperate people – begin arriving on the shores of Dungeness that the lifeboat crew must face perhaps their greatest test.

‘Dominic Gregory hasn’t just delivered a survey of courage and determination – Lifeboat at the End of the World is a hymn to human decency, and that makes it a very timely book indeed’ Tim Winton

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a public fundraising charity that provides a full-time lifeboat service for the coastlines of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The charity remains independent of government, and over 95 per cent of its shore and boat crews are volunteers. There are 238 lifeboat stations around the coast of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, each providing life-saving search and rescue coverage 24 hrs, 7 days a week. The Dungeness lifeboat was first established on the Romney coast exactly two hundred years ago.

Written by Dominic Gregrory

Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters and The Waters Company

Read by James Lailey

Location sounds recorded on Dungeness by the author.


MON 12:00 News Summary (m002tpmt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m002tpmw)
High Street Banks, Gig Ticket Cancellations, Cost Per Wear Clothing

Two thirds of all bank branches have closed since 2015, according to consumer group Which?. Barclays Bank had been closing physical branches, but its CEO has now announced plans to strengthen its presence on the high street.

Ticket companies like Ticketmaster are using software to try to stop ticket touts jumping to the front of virtual queues. However, the computer programmes are also causing real fans to have their tickets cancelled too. We hear from one fan whose ticket was cancelled three days before a gig and discuss what you can do if you are in this situation.

What can you do if your flight is not cancelled but you are concerned about how safe your destination is? The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder joins us to talk through the latest travel disruption and the aftermath of Storm Dave.

A quarter of homeowners over the age of 55 say that their current home is not suitable for their long-term mobility needs according to research commissioned by mobility firm Uplifts. Bungalows are a great option for people with limited mobility, but they only represented one per-cent of newly built properties last year.

Have you ever worked out what the most valuable item in your wardrobe is on a cost per wear basis? Cost per wear is calculated by dividing the amount of wears you can expect to get from an item, by its price. An academic research study has found that if shoppers are given cost per wear information at point of sale, it can shift choices to clothes that last longer.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

PRODUCER: CHARLIE ILMER-COURT


MON 12:57 Weather (m002tpmy)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m002tpn0)
Is President Trump about to commit a war crime?

Iranian bridges and power plants are under threat from strikes says the US President. We'll ask a leading lawyer Sir Geoffrey Nice if that would constitute a war crime. Plus, another major sponsor pulls out of Wireless Festival over its booking of Kanye West for its headline slot. Is the reputational damage worth it for the organisers?


MON 13:45 Puffed Up: Inventions Out of Thin Air (m002tpn2)
Wind-struments

Puffed Up reveals the inventive ways humans have turned compressed air into progress transforming our music, our tools, our transport and even our reach into space.

In the first episode, Professor Mark Miodownik takes a deep breath and blows open the hidden history of music, revealing how humans have been making melodies with nothing more than air, lungs and a bit of ingenuity.

Joined by pre‑historic instrument expert Simon O’Dwyer, Mark explores the earliest wind instruments: conches, horns, bones and shells that turned compressed breath into culture long before orchestras took the stage. We hear how ancient instrument makers discovered the power of back‑pressure and how new materials from bronze to brass expanded the range of what music could become.

With musical acoustics specialist Professor Murray Campbell, Mark uncovers the revolutionary invention of the valve and the moment brass instruments evolved from fanfares to symphonies, whilst raising the controversial question of whether a plastic brass band might sound just as good.

Producer: Mel Brown
Assistant Producer: Alex Rodway
Presenter: Mark Miodownik
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem


MON 14:00 The Archers (m002tpbv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Spotlight (m000hvnj)
Celebrating Stoppard: In the Native State

Tom Stoppard's In the Native State is part of Radio 4's Celebrating Stoppard collection.

It's 1930, and a young English poet with a scandalous reputation is sitting for a portrait while in India for her health. Sixty years later, the portrait resurfaces, and with it come difficult questions about Indian history and the story behind the painting itself.

Later reworked as Stoppard's stage play Indian Ink, this is the original 1991 production. Winner of a Giles Cooper Award, with a Sony Award for Best Performance for Felicity Kendal. And Dame Peggy Ashcroft, in her final performance.

Mrs Swan ….. Peggy Ashcroft
Flora Crewe ….. Felicity Kendal
Nirad Das ….. Sam Dastor
Anish Das ….. Lyndam Gregory
Rajah ….. Saeed Jaffrey
David Durance ….. Simon Treves
Mr Pike ….. William Hootkins
Coomaraswami ..... Renu Setna
The Resident ….. Brett Usher
Nazrul ….. Amerjit Deu
Francis Swan ….. Mark Straker
Nell ….. Emma Gregory
Englishwoman/Reader ….. Auriol Smith

Written by Tom Stoppard
Directed by John Tydeman

Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 21st April 1991


MON 16:30 Great Lives (m002tpn6)
Beverley Knight on Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock and roll

She influenced Elvis, Johnny Cash, Churck Berry, Little Richard and host of British blues acts of the 1960s. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, with her Gibson SG and wondrous voice, was a pioneer, and she's been nominated for Great Lives by Beverley Knight, singing star turned west end actress. The programme also features the great Joe Boyd, who was tour manager of the Blues and Gospel Caravan that came to Britain in 1964 with Sister Rosetta and Muddy Waters too. This is a show you have to hear.
Also features archive of Little Richard, Dionne Warwick, and Sister Rosetta's biographer Gayle Wald, author of Shout, Sister, Shout!

Beverley Knight's hits include Shoulda Coulda Woulda and she won an Olivier award for her role as Emmeline Pankhurts in Sylvia at the Old Vic in London; she is currently appearing in Marie and Rosetta in the West End. The presenter is Matthew Parris, the producer Miles Warde.

Future guests on the series include Alistair McGowan, Coco Khan, Ade Edmondson and Count Binface who has picked Peter Cook.


MON 17:00 PM (m002tpn9)
President Trump signals "significant step" in Iran talks

With 32 hours to go until the President's deadline, we bring you the latest on ceasefire negotiations between the US and Iran. Also on the programme, Evan is in RHS Garden at Wisley in Surrey, looking at the search for the best tulips.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002tpnf)
Artemis II prepares to make history

Astronauts on board the Artemis II mission are set to break a record, travelling further than anyone has before as they loop around the far side of the Moon. President Trump claims proposals from Iran represent 'a very significant step' towards ending the war. Kanye West's right to enter the UK is reportedly under review after an outcry over his planned appearance at a festival -- despite his anti-Semitic comments.


MON 18:30 Unspeakable (m002tpnk)
Series 3

4. Awkwardly, Anecdotally, Indecisively

This episode we hear Hugh Dennis's word for decision fatigue, Katy Wix's coinage for when you find yourself stuck telling a story in public to break an awkward silence, and Jess Fostekew's word for that nuggety squashed sock you find stuck inside a duvet cover.

Ever struggled to find the right word for a feeling or sensation? Unspeakable sees comedian Phil Wang and lexicographer Susie Dent invite celebrity guests to invent new linguistic creations, to solve those all too relatable moments when we're lost for words.

Hosts: Phil Wang and Susie Dent
Guests: Hugh Dennis, Jess Fostekew and Katy Wix
Created by Joe Varley
Writers: Matt Crosby and James Farmer
Recorded by Jerry Peal
Producer: Jon Harvey
Executive Producers: Joe Varley and Akash Lockmun

A Brown Bred production for BBC Radio 4


MON 19:00 The Archers (m002tpnp)
Robert finds Lynda following the guidelines by chatting to the budgie, then admits he cannot reconcile himself to keeping a caged bird. They’ll have to re-home it, but without hurting Khalil’s feelings. They agree to name the budgie Elgar and concoct a barely plausible story for Khalil, before quickly realising the only solution is to tell Khalil honestly that they don’t want the bird. But when Khalil calls, Robert scuppers their plan, to Lynda’s despair. Flustered by Khalil’s delight at his budgie idea, Robert changed his tune and even renamed the bird Fletcher, after the TV sitcom, ‘Porridge’.

George appreciates the new Meadow Farm garden gate Chris has made, out of horseshoes sourced by George, as a ‘welcome to Ambridge’ gift for Esme. George dodges having a beer with Chris and says he won’t be joining the pub cricket team. Although tomorrow is George’s birthday, he just wants to get through it. Chris then notices something on George’s ankle and George explains the alcohol tag. Chris feels guilty as he was one of the people who reported George for drunken behaviour, and promises not to say anything about the tag. George knows it’s good for him, but it’s embarrassing. Chris is off to Grange Farm for Keira’s birthday, but George doesn’t feel welcome. Chris persuades George to go with him and wait outside, while he speaks to Keira. When Chris then reports that Keira doesn’t want George there he offers to take George somewhere else instead. But George cycles off, urging Chris to go back to the party.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m002tpnt)
The Birth of Television: A Forgotten History

100 years ago, inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated his new 'televisor' to the public for the first time. In this special edition of Front Row, Samira Ahmed and guests explore the origins of television in the UK, charting how those early experimental days set a template for this exciting new medium.

Guests:
TV producer and historian Professor John Wyver, whose new book Magic Rays of Light tells the story of the early days of TV
Lisa Kerrigan, senior curator of TV at the BFI
Francis Spufford, whose new novel Nonesuch is partly set in the BBC studio at Alexandra Palace in 1939
Joy Whitby, TV producer and creator of iconic programmes including Play School and Jackanory

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Tim Bano


MON 20:00 How Did We Get Here? (m002rvnf)
Israel and the Palestinians

9: From the Second Intifada to Netanyahu’s Re-election

In the ninth of ten programmes exploring the origins and tracing the history of the Middle East conflict, presenter Jonny Dymond is joined by journalist and film-maker Jane Corbin, who has been reporting from the region for more than 30 years, and by the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen.

They begin by examining the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising – bloodier than the first – which began on the West Bank and in Gaza in 2000 and lasted till 2005.

They go on to discuss Israel’s construction, from 2002 onwards, of the West Bank separation barrier, the last years and legacy of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005, the rise of Hamas, its victory in the Palestinian elections of 2006, and its violent takeover of Gaza in 2007.

Jonny and his guests examine reactions in Israel and in the international community to Hamas rule in Gaza and discuss the blockade of the territory. They finish this episode by looking at how the Middle East conflict was affected by the election of Barack Obama as US president in 2008, and the re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu for a second term as Israeli prime minister in 2009.

'Israel and the Palestinians' is a BBC News Long Form Audio production.
The presenter is Jonny Dymond and the editor is Penny Murphy.
The Radio 4 commissioners are Hugh Levinson and Dan Clarke.
The studio engineers are Neil Churchill, James Beard, Rod Farquhar, Mike Regaard and David Crackles.


MON 20:30 Spotlight (m000j1pf)
Celebrating Stoppard: The Voyage of the St Louis

Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Daniel Kehlmann's play is part of Radio 4's Celebrating Stoppard collection.

In May 1939, over 900 Jewish refugees board the ocean liner St. Louis in Hamburg, their papers in order, their hopes pinned on a new life abroad. But the passengers of the St. Louis are not quite like those in other dramas. They already know how their story ends. And they're going to tell you themselves.

At times darkly funny and at times devastating, this is an account of ordinary people caught inside an extraordinary failure of the world's conscience. Winner of Best Adaptation at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2021.

Based on the book The Voyage of the Damned by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts.

Schiendick ..... Paul Ritter
Schroeder ..... Philip Glenister
Berenson ..... Toby Jones
Bru ..... Alan Corduner
Benitez ..... Joseph Balderrama
Spanier ..... Philip Arditti
Pozner ..... Shai Matheson
Hoffman ..... John Dougall
Clasing ..... Roger Ringrose
Babette ..... Bettrys Jones
Jockl ..... Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Aber .... Sargon Yelda
Elise ..... Rachel Essex
Charlotte ..... Elizabeth Counsell
Bergman ..... Hasan Dixon
Fischer ..... John Lightbody
Marianne ..... Rosie Boore
Renata ..... Amy-Jayne Leigh
Evelyne ..... Taya Tower

Sound by Anne Bunting
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m002tpp0)
Artemis astronauts see far side of the moon

The astronauts on the Artemis Two mission have taken humanity deeper into space than ever before. The four crew members have travelled further from Earth than any other human, beating the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. Their craft will now make its journey round the far side of the Moon.

Also on the programme: President Trump issues his latest warning to Iran; we hear about the impacts of new laws governing the ownership of primates and can curling become the new darts? We hear from one of the captains competing tonight.


MON 22:45 Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (m002tpp4)
Episode 6

Described by 2025 Booker judges as, "A book about dreams, an exploration of class and family, a celebration of the power and the glory of music, a challenge to the limits of realism, and - stunningly - a love story."

The Lancashire coast, the early 1960s. On the day that we meet Thomas Flett as he goes about his daily drudgery, out of the rain-soaked mist the new world comes to him – Edgar Acheson, a Hollywood director, spies him out in the bay with his horse and cart and tracks him down as he returns home from a frustrating few hours shanking for shrimps.

The American wants Thomas’ skills and knowledge of the bay in the fictional town of Longferry which is a location he has scouted for his next film. Over the next 48 hours we become intensely involved in this collision of the two worlds.

Thomas has very few people in his life – both his father and grandfather are dead. The first disappeared to join the army around the time he was born, and he was brought up by his mother and his grandfather, Pop. Friendships at school were difficult as nothing confers outsider status more than being the child of a vanished father and a teenaged unmarried mother in the 1940s. So Acheson’s charismatic presence and warmly open manner strikes a chord with this lonely young man.

The narrative unfurls with the daily tides, which ebb and flow around the twice daily low water - early in the morning and again in the evening. It is the sea and the treacherous sinkpits in the sand of the wide shoreline that dominate Thomas’ life.

Benjamin Wood has crafted a quietly profound story of the margins, a place where the ordinary and the extraordinary can co-exist , and dreams flicker vividly at the edges of reality.

Read by Richard Fleeshman
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4

Music - The Jolly Waggoner (Traditional folk song) Performed by Richard Fleeshman


MON 23:00 Start the Week (m002tpmg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 23:45 Café Hope (m002tpmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]

TUESDAY 07 APRIL 2026

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m002tpp9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 Lifeboat at the End of the World by Dominic Gregory (m002tpmq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002tppf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002tppk)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:00 News Summary (m002tppp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:04 Currently (m002t12r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]


TUE 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002tppt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002tppz)
The Emmaus travellers - hope rekindled

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop David Walker

Good Morning

This week, my inspirations for prayer will come from the biblical characters who were profoundly changed by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It had been a dispiriting walk, a trudge more like, from Jerusalem towards Emmaus. All their hopes for Israel had come crashing to Earth with the arrest and execution of their leader. Nothing to do now but to go back home and pick up the pieces.

The stranger who had caught up with them along the road had seemed entirely ignorant of the turmoil that had engulfed the city these last few days. And yet when they described the events, he calmly set them in the context of the scriptures. Slowly, their hearts began to burn again, a tiny spark of hope rekindling within them. Perhaps there was more to this than they had hitherto understood. That was why they’d urged him to stay with them when they reached their destination, not simply because it was late in the day to be travelling further. As long as he was with them, it began to feel bearable, more than bearable.

And then he broke the bread. And then they recognised him. And then he vanished. And then they sprinted back along the road they’d come, oblivious of the falling darkness, ignoring the risks of nighttime travel. Back all the way to Jerusalem, bursting to share the news that Jesus was alive.

Almighty God, when my heart grows cold, rekindle in it the fire of your love. Grant that whenever I meet with my sisters and brothers, breaking bread in remembrance of him, such fresh joy and renewed hope, at his risen presence, as those first disciples knew in Emmaus long ago, may be in my heart. Amen.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m002tpq3)
More government funding for security and extra spot checks is the only way to stem the tide of illegal meat being smuggled into the UK. That’s according to Dover Port Health Authority who say they intercepted more than 14.2 tonnes of illegal meat in the last week of March. It’s not just a health risk to those who might eat it, there’s also the danger of highly contagious animal diseases like swine fever and foot and mouth disease entering the country in contaminated meat. With foot and mouth outbreaks in both Greece and Cyprus last month, the threat to livestock here, is making farmers increasingly concerned.

Scientists at the Lincoln Institute of Agri-Food Technology are using geothermal energy to grow crops under glass. Unlike ground source heat pumps, which make use of solar energy stored in the ground, geothermal energy takes heat from the earth’s core. We speak to the scientists and growers who are testing out new ways of producing strawberries all year round.

Spring is in the air, or it certainly should be, and for arable farmers that means sowing the seeds that will grow up into this summer’s harvest. We’re going to take a look at spring planting all through this week. What kind of impact has the wet winter weather had on spring planting - and what about soaring fuel and fertiliser costs?

Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


TUE 06:00 Today (m002tpnb)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m002tpng)
Hiranya Peiris on unravelling the story of the universe

Hiranya Peiris is playing a starring role in a movie that promises to tell perhaps the greatest story of all time. However, it’s a movie with a difference – there’s no director and no script. The Legacy Survey of Space and Time is one of the most ambitious projects in the world of astronomy, with a mission to create a decade-long time-lapse movie of the visible universe, to answer fundamental questions about its origin, evolution and, ultimately, its fate.

Hiranya is Professor of Astrophysics 1909, the prestigious Chair at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University. Over her career she’s been one of the pioneers of a revolution in astronomy, bridging fundamental physics with the observational data coming back from space, to establish the first evidence-based standard model for the origin, evolution and fate of the universe. The endeavour has transformed the field from the ‘wild west’ of physics to the modern era of precision cosmology.

Ironically, it was another movie, of sorts, Carl Sagan’s documentary series ‘Cosmos’, that first sparked Hiranya’s interest in the universe as a young girl. Always keen to inspire women to follow in her footsteps and choose careers in science, if this interview were a live show she’d have reserved the front row for schoolgirls.

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced by Beth Eastwood
A BBC Studios production


TUE 09:30 Through Persian Eyes (b01k1ngy)
Episode 1

Many in the west have described Iran as a rogue state. Yet this so-called rogue state has a recorded history that tracks back more than 3000 years. It is a civilization that has given rise over the millennia to philosophies and religions, to science and medicine, to architecture and the arts.

But these are contributions that are often overlooked. We tend to construct history through the prism of the Greek and Roman empires. We see their influences on contemporary western civilisation. But the Persians fought the Greeks to a standstill and successfully withstood the might of the Roman Empire. Embracing the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster, they built a culture in 500 BC that helped shape the Near East and beyond. In the 11th century AD, Iran was home to the golden age of Islam.

From that great age we recognize the Persian polymath Omar Khayyam. But there are others that few in the West know, poets and thinkers like Avicenna, Hafiz, Saadi and Ferdowsi who continue to have pride of place with Iranians today.

In this three-part series Professor Ali Ansari argues that world history takes on a different hue when seen through Persian eyes, as he takes the listener on a grand journey from ancient past to immediate present.

Professor Ansari is one of the world's leading experts on Iran and its history. Professor Ansari's books include Iran, Islam and Democracy: the politics of managing change, Confronting Iran and The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002tpnl)
Children and happiness, Miscarriage leave, Extramarital pairings

Women in Northern Ireland who have had a miscarriage - along with their partners - will now be entitled to two weeks paid leave. The government is planning to bring in at least one week of leave for families in England, Scotland and Wales next year. Nuala McGovern is joined by Niamh Campbell, Reporter for the Belfast Telegraph and Erin Sharkey who is a volunteer with the Miscarriage Association in Northern Ireland.

Last August, 250 harvest mice were released into a nature reserve in Devon to replenish the natural stocks of this little animal that is under-threat. The project wasn’t conceived by a big conservation group or local wildlife centre – in fact it barely involved adults at all. It was the dedication of two 13-year-old naturalists, Eva Wishart and Emily Smith, who bred the mice at home in empty fish tanks, using plants from their garden, and a custom-built release enclosure. We hear from them and we have an update on the success of their project.

Do you think that having kids makes you happy? A new study from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus suggests not. It drew on data from more than 5,000 participants in ten countries, including the UK, and concluded that there is no strong evidence that parenthood leads to a measurable increase in positive emotions. To discuss the findings and weigh up their own experiences, we hear from two mothers of two - Ella Whelan author of ‘What Women Want,’ and Iko Haruna, a family photographer and former presenter of ParentLand, the BBC World Service’s podcast.

Thousands of rapes are reported every year across the UK in fact, and the numbers continue to rise. ‘Sophie’ was raped by a man pretending to be a taxi driver after a night out in Glasgow in 2022. She decided she wanted to talk publicly about her experience and approached BBC Scotland newsreader Laura Miller, presenter of Scotcast, who tells us more of Sophie's story.

What if people who have affairs were sent off, in their extramarital pairings, to an unknown city to spend time together? All the while their 'real' lives were put on pause and waited for them to come back. How long would the paradise last for? This is the premise of a new book, Permanence by Sophie Mackintosh. Sophie joins Nuala to discuss it.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Kirsty Starkey


TUE 11:00 Screenshot (m002tbv5)
Fishing

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode swap film reels for fishing reels, to ponder why fishing onscreen has got us hooked. The net is cast wide to consider everything from industrial scale fleets showcased in films like The Perfect Storm and long running series, Deadliest Catch, to more leisurely endeavours like The River Runs Through It, and the BBC’s Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.

With guests, Mark Jenkin, John Lurie and Gagga Jónsdóttir.

Mark speaks to Cornish film director Mark Jenkin about why fishing has continued to have such a strong presence in his films, and how the industry has often been romanticised onscreen. Jenkins 2019 feature debut Bait dramatised clashes between tourists and locals in a once flourishing fishing village, and in his newest film, Rose of Nevada, a fishing vessel lost for 30 years mysteriously reappears in a derelict harbour.

The actor, painter and frequent Jim Jarmusch collaborator, John Lurie, shares with Ellen how his 90s cult TV show, Fishing With John, hauled away the conventions of late night cable fishing shows, and what it was like onboard with the actors, Dennis Hopper and Willem Defoe.

Ellen also talks to the Icelandic writer-director, Gagga Jónsdóttir, about her documentary, Strengur, and some of her unexpected cinematic sources of inspiration. The film follows the journey of four teenage girls challenging traditional gender roles on the River Laxá, as seventh generation angling guides.

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


TUE 11:45 Lifeboat at the End of the World by Dominic Gregory (m002tpnq)
Episode 2

Dungeness is an extraordinary spur of land jutting out from the Kent coast, made up of billions of sea worn flint shards rounded into pebbles, extending 12 square miles and in some places, 20 metres deep. It is home to a nature reserve, a nuclear power station, and two lighthouses. As well as to Derek Jarman’s famous ‘Prospect Cottage’ with its flotsam garden and the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. It is also the location of the Dungeness lifeboat station.

When he moved to Dungeness, Dominic Gregory decided to volunteer with the lifeboat. After some hesitation, he rang the number he’d been given by a neighbour and spoke to the coxswain, Stuart Adams. And so began ‘the volunteer’s story’, the first published account of what it is to be part of a lifeboat crew.

From the meticulous, repetitive training to the first experience of a call out, Dominic Gregory charts the experience of being part of this rare community of people. The lifeboat family is full of ordinary men and women who drop everything at the sound of the pager, day or night to do something which is quite simply, remarkable.

Call outs may be to a trawler or a tanker in distress, a yacht with engine difficulties, a day tripper blown out to sea or a swimmer caught by the current. But it is when inflatable dinghies – overloaded with desperate people – begin arriving on the shores of Dungeness that the lifeboat crew must face perhaps their greatest test.

‘Dominic Gregory hasn’t just delivered a survey of courage and determination – Lifeboat at the End of the World is a hymn to human decency, and that makes it a very timely book indeed’ Tim Winton

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a public fundraising charity that provides a full-time lifeboat service for the coastlines of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The charity remains independent of government, and over 95 per cent of its shore and boat crews are volunteers. There are 238 lifeboat stations around the coast of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, each providing life-saving search and rescue coverage 24 hrs, 7 days a week. The Dungeness lifeboat was first established on the Romney coast exactly two hundred years ago.

Written by Dominic Gregrory

Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters and The Waters Company

Read by James Lailey

Location sounds recorded on Dungeness by the author.


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m002tpnv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m002tpnz)
Call You and Yours: GP Appointments

For Call You and Yours, we want to know what it's like trying to get a GP appointment where you live.

For many years, waiting on hold first thing in the morning has been part of the experience of trying to make a GP appointment. The idea of online booking systems is to end the 8am scramble, and make it easier for patients to book non-urgent appointments or ask questions. For the past six months, the government has told surgeries across England to offer this service. But a charity that represents older people claims many are struggling with this change.

How is it working for you? Do you have a good experience to share, or are you finding it difficult getting booked in? Are you one of an increasing number of people paying to use private GP services - if so, how's that worked for you? If you're a GP, how has online booking changed the way you work?

Email us now - youandyours@bbc.co.uk, and don't forget to leave a phone number so we can call you back. After 11am on Tuesday 6 April, you can call us on 03700 100 444.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY


TUE 12:57 Weather (m002tpp3)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m002tpp6)
Strikes across Iran as President Trump's deadline nears

We'll ask the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee whether British bases could be used to target infrastructure in Iran. Also on the programme, we have the latest in the row over Kanye West's performance at a London festival and speak to the UK boss of Palantir as calls grow to end the US tech giant's contract with the NHS. And, with animals set to replace historical figures on bank notes, Michael Morpurgo makes the case for the humble hare to be included.


TUE 13:45 Puffed Up: Inventions Out of Thin Air (m002tppb)
Pumped Up and Pedalling

Hop on and hold tight as Professor Mark Miodownik goes for a joyride through the bouncy and brilliantly unlikely history of the inflatable tyre, the simple puff of air that changed the world.

In this second episode of Puffed Up, Mark traces the bicycle’s evolution from the bumpy and uncomfortable ‘running machines’ to the smooth‑rolling safety bicycle, with its game changing pneumatic tyres that transformed travel forever.

He’s joined by journalist and technology historian Tom Standage, who reveals how bikes made us faster, freer and a lot more connected - potentially even changing our genetic makeup. Also joining Mark for the ride is sociologist Professor Kat Jungnickel who shares the wonderful and often rebellious story of how women used bicycles to push against Victorian constraints, invent new clothing, and reclaim the open road.

From face‑planting penny‑farthing riders to inflatable flamingos, this is the surprising tale of the humble inflatable rubber tube that set humanity in motion.

Producer: Mel Brown
Assistant Producer: Alex Rodway
Presenter: Mark Miodownik
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m002tpnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002tppg)
Celia's Secret

Episode 1

Adapted and directed by Martin Jarvis. A woman called Celia Rhys-Evans wonders if newly-discovered documents have a direct bearing on what happens in Frayn’s play, Copenhagen.

A two-part mystery. With a moral?

Intriguing, thrilling, funny - Michael Frayn and actor David Burke, with director Michael Blakemore, try to unravel the enigma. Burke even wonders ‘Is it a hoax?’ ‘No way’ says Blakemore.

Cast
Celia ….. Janie Dee
Michael Frayn ….. Alex Jennings
David Burke ….. Roger Allam
Michael Blakemore ….. Peter Forbes
German/Trevor ….. Matthew Wolf
Petra ….. Moira Quirk
Sara Kestelman ….. Herself
Matthew Marsh ….. Himself

Sound Design: Olly Thompson. Mark Holden
Music composed and played by A-Mnemonic

Directed by Martin Jarvis
Produced by Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:00 History's Heroes (p0lwzb9g)
William Dodd Fights the Factories

In the industrial revolution, a worker takes on the factory system and demands an end to brutal conditions.

Stories of bold voices, with brave ideas and the courage to stand alone. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann shines a light on remarkable people from across history.

A BBC Studios Audio production.

Producer: Lorna Reader
Written and presented by Alex von Tunzelmann
Executive Producer: Paul Smith
Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts


TUE 15:30 Heart and Soul (w3ct983c)
God, grief and the chatbot

When Megan Garcia travelled to Rome, she carried with her a mother’s grief.

At the Vatican she met the Pope and asked him to pray for her son Sewell, who died last year at the age of 14. In the months after his death, Megan discovered something she says she had never imagined: for more than a year, Sewell had been spending hours talking to an artificial-intelligence chatbot which he believed was a real person. He formed a deep emotional attachment to it, confiding in it about his life and feelings.

Megan believes that relationship played a part in her son’s death. She is now pursuing legal action against the company behind the chatbot, arguing that safeguards for young users were inadequate. The company disputes the claims.

But this is not only a story about technology. It is also a story about faith.

Rather than losing her belief, Megan says her tragedy intensified it. She turned to prayer and devotion to the Virgin Mary, finding comfort in the idea of a mother who also knew the pain of losing a child.

“I felt like Our Lady was grieving for me as a mother who lost a child,” she says. “And I was grieving for her as a mother who lost a child. We were grieving together.”

For Heart and Soul, we hear Megan’s story in her own words — a deeply personal journey through grief, belief, and the new moral questions raised by artificial intelligence: what happens when machines become companions, and where do faith, responsibility and protection meet in a digital world?

[Photo Description: Megan Garcia with her son Sewell, Photo Credit: Megan Garcia]

Presenter: Colm Flynn
Series Producer: Rajeev Gupta
Editor: Chloe Walker
Production Coordinator: Mica Nepomuceno

If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, you could speak to a health professional or an organisation that offers help. Details of support available in many countries can be found at Befrienders Worldwide — that’s befrienders dot org.


TUE 16:00 Artworks (m002tpps)
Band of Mothers

When a group of female students at Oxford Poly formed a band called Beaker in the early 1990s, they had a lot of fun and were successful enough to attract a record label and appear on Steve Lamacq's Radio One Sound City programme. This was a golden era when bands such as Radiohead and Supergrass emerged from Oxford's independent music scene.

But then careers and parenthood intervened. Now, in their mid-50s, Beaker has re-formed. So what are the realities for a band their age - truly a Band of Mothers?

Beaty Rubens has been following Beaker for the last six months, attending Sunday rehearsals, Friday night gigs and summer festivals, and talking with drummer Clare Howard-Saunders, vocalists Sam Battle and Emma Hunter, bass-player T.J Ward, and Hayley Wright.

Pretty much exactly the average age of the Radio 4 audience, this 'Band of Mothers' has much to consider. There’s been a bit of a change of the lineup since their student days but they are still Beaker. Three are now schoolteachers, one a university administrator and one a seamstress, all have children and other family responsibilities and, over the years, all maintained their love of music .

As they release a new single - a number penned by Sam about the shocking experience of Gisele Pelicot - how might they position themselves, how welcoming might the music industry be to an all-female band their age, and what kind of success are they actually after?

With music from Beaker and a new interview with Steve Lamacq (who, it turns out, has kept two early Beaker releases in his personal CD collection for all these decades), this is a programme about friendship, second chances, and the pure pleasure of collective music-making.

Producer/Presenter: Beaty Rubens
A Just Radio Ltd production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 16:30 What's Up Docs? (m002tppx)
How should we think about cholesterol?

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 take on one of nutrition’s most misunderstood topics: fat. What is it, and why does our body need it? At what point does something normal and essential become something we worry about? What do cholesterol blood tests actually measure, and how well do they predict disease?

Chris and Xand also explore the relationship between diet and cholesterol, asking how much influence what we eat really has, whether certain fats deserve their bad reputation, and what gets lost when we focus on single nutrients instead of overall dietary patterns.

They’re joined by Nita Forouhi, Professor of Population Health and Nutrition at the University of Cambridge, to help separate evidence from hype and offer a clearer way to think about fat, cholesterol, and healthy eating.

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 Nita Forouhi
Producer: Faye Lyons-White
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: Olga Reed

At the BBC:

Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 17:00 PM (m002tpq0)
Trump: Whole civilisation will die tonight

President Trump ratchets up his threats to Iran ahead of tonight's deadline for a peace deal. International Editor Jeremy Bowen assesses the US leader's rhetoric while the Norwegian Refugee Council's Jan Egeland explains the situation for Iran's people. Plus, the Wireless festival is cancelled after the government rescinds Kanye West's permission to enter the UK, and Monica Grady gets a first glimpse of Artemis's pictures of the dark side of the Moon.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002tpq4)
Government Stops Kanye West Entering UK

Kanye West has been blocked from entering the UK because of a backlash against anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi comments he'd made in the past -- forcing the cancellation of a music festival he had been due to headline. The Home Office told BBC News his application had been refused because his presence "would not be conducive to the public good". In other news: President Trump has increased the pressure on Iran's leaders -- warning that a "whole civilisation will die" if Tehran doesn't agree to a deal to end the war. And the health secretary, Wes Streeting, has said a six-day doctors' strike, which began this morning, will leave some patients "waiting in pain or anxiety".


TUE 18:30 Nature Table (m002tpq6)
Series 5

1: Puffins, Armadillos and the Badass Tongue-Eating Louse

In this first episode of a new series, puffins’ super beaks and the badass Tongue-eating water louse wow and stupefy the team.

‘Sue Perkins’ Nature Table - possibly the funniest “natural science” series, ever.’ Pick of the Week, The Telegraph

For this new series of Sue Perkins’ ARIA-winning ‘Show and Tell’ wildlife comedy, Team Nature Table is joined by special guests: comedian Amy Gledhill, zoologist Lucy Cooke and entomologist Professor Karim Vahed of Buglife.

This episode’s varied subjects include: Puffins and their disposable beaks, Snails’ love darts, intrepid Armadillos and the fiendishly parasitic Tongue-eating louse.

Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate our planet’s wonderfully wild (and funny) flora and fauna in a fun accessible way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.

Hosted by: Sue Perkins
Guests: Amy Gledhill, Lucy Cooke & Professor Karim Vahed.
Written by: Jon Hunter and Jenny Laville.
Additional material by: Jade Gebbie.
Researcher: Catherine Beazley
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Sound Editor: Jerry Peal
Music by: Ben Mirin
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls & Caroline Barlow
Producer: Simon Nicholls

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m002tpq9)
David notes Adam’s happy mood and prises from him the good news about the Home Farm succession, agreeing to keep the news to himself. This gets them talking about inscrutable Josh, who seems to be enjoying life in Patagonia.

While inspecting the rubble at St Stephens with Usha, having been inspired by the Promises Tree initiative, Oliver offers his services to Alan as liaison between Church officials and the builders, to help sort everything out. Usha then has a worrying call from Alan, which she shares with Oliver. One of the congregation has complained anonymously to the Archdeacon, claiming compensation for injury from the fallen ceiling, even though Alan was sure no-one was in that part of the church.

Emma teases George about his birthday, before he makes an excuse about why he wasn’t at Keira’s party yesterday. Emma and Amber have both baked cakes, and George jokes that he wouldn’t dare say which is better. He’s delighted by Emma and Ed’s gift – a mini-break for George and Amber in the Forest of Dean. As Emma praises Amber, George notes Emma’s change of heart over the pregnancy. She admits she still worries, but credits Will for offering to swap bedrooms to give the couple more room. George wants to know if Emma thinks he’ll be a good dad, then gets angry when she doesn’t give him a straight answer. When pushed, Emma admits she worries about George’s temper. He’ll need a lot of patience as a dad, but his tendency to lash out scares Emma. He has to control that.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m002tpqc)
Was Queen Victoria coercively controlled by Prince Albert?

Writer Daisy Goodwin on Victoria: A Queen Unbound. Was the marriage between Victoria and Albert as idyllic as it has been portrayed? Her new play explores the idea that Prince Albert exerted coercive control over Queen Victoria.

Following the launch of the Official UK Christian & Gospel Singles Chart, we speak to the founder of the chart's partner organisation, O'Neil Dennis, and Mobo winning Christian rapper Guvna B, who's playing live in studio.

Tayari Jones, Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction, discusses on her new novel, Kin.

Ben Beaumont-Thomas reports on the cancellation of this year's Wireless festival following the row over Kanye West as the headlining artist.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer Harry Graham


TUE 20:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002tpqf)
The Experiments

Jack Butcher investigates allegations that children in West German welfare institutions were subjected to widespread medical abuse, including medical experiments.

During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, many children found themselves in West Germany's sprawling network of children's institutions. In recent years, Germany has been shocked by revelations that some were used as guinea pigs for powerful new drugs, including potent anti-psychotics, as doctors worked hand in hand with pharmaceutical companies to observe the effects of new medications on young children.

The allegations were first brought to public attention by Sylvia Wagner, a pharmaceutical historian who grew up in a care home, and whose own brother was a victim of medical abuse.

Pulling together Sylvia's research, speaking to victims and digging through the documentation, Jack Butcher and reporter Ilona Toller, who led a major investigation of the scandal for German national radio, lay bare the horrendous human cost and tell the story of the tenacious activists who have challenged the conscience of their nation.

Producer and Presenter: Jack Butcher
With reporting from Ilona Toller and Anouk Millet, and additional research by Leonie Mombaur.
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design: Phoebe McIndoe
Mix: Arlie Adlington
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m002tpqh)
Running, Reading, Radioing

In Touch speaks with three visually impaired people about their current work and projects. Clarke Reynolds, aka Mr Dot, is an artist and a runner who is taking on the Brighton marathon with the help of Rayban Meta smart glasses and Be My Eyes. Jixie Dye is trying to inspire young readers with her latest children's book, The Welsh Witch and the Queen's Curse and Frazer Tibbitts is the 2026 winner of one of the Make a Difference Awards and is an avid football fan. Frazer has turned his passion for football into a regular slot on his local radio station, BBC WM and Beacon Vision's talking newspaper.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Helen Surtees
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 (m002tpqk)
Albania: Land, Money and the Sea

Albania has had many different faces over the last hundred years. Once ruled by the Ottomans, it became a kingdom before turning into a totalitarian communist state after the Second World War. During this time, no one was allowed in or out; all private property became state-owned, and bunkers sprang up across the country. After the fall of the communist regime, Albania descended into chaos. In 1996, a pyramid scheme that three quarters of the population had paid into, collapsed. People lost everything, and the country, especially the south, erupted into violence.

These days, Albania is aiming to shake off its past and transform its reputation from a country marked by corruption to one known for luxury tourism. With its miles of unspoilt beaches, snow capped mountains, and olive groves that could rival anything Greece has to offer, it’s unsurprising that it’s quickly attracting investors. Among them are Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who are hoping to build a resort on an island off the coast of Vlorë. They have visited the secluded beaches of Zvërnec and Nartë; currently home only to endangered monk seals, sea turtles, and a few sheep. They, like others, hope to benefit from new government incentives to build luxury 5 star plus resorts.

However, ghosts of Albania’s communist past remain. Land disputes, allegations of corruption, and a lack of infrastructure could derail these resorts before they’ve even broken ground. For Crossing Continents, Emily Wither travels to Albania to find out whether it will be able to re-brand itself, and whether its dream of luxury escapism will become a reality.

Producer: Lizzy McNeill
Programme Mix: Neil Churchill
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Editor: Penny Murphy


TUE 21:30 Great Lives (m002tpn6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Monday]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m002tpqm)
Trump’s Iran deadline approaches

The US president has given Iran until 1am UK time to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying that otherwise ‘a whole civilisation will die tonight’. Pope Leo, an American, has condemned Trump’s threats, while Pakistan has called on the US to extend the deadline by two more weeks. 

Also on the programme: US Vice President JD Vance travels to Hungary to endorse its right-wing Prime Minister Victor Orban ahead of this weekend’s general election. 

And we hear from historian William Dalrymple about three millennia of Persian history.


TUE 22:45 Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (m002tpqp)
Episode 7

Described by 2025 Booker judges as, "A book about dreams, an exploration of class and family, a celebration of the power and the glory of music, a challenge to the limits of realism, and - stunningly - a love story".

The Lancashire coast, the early 1960s. On the day that we meet Thomas Flett as he goes about his daily drudgery, out of the rain-soaked mist the new world comes to him – Edgar Acheson, a Hollywood director, spies him out in the bay with his horse and cart and tracks him down as he returns home from a frustrating few hours shanking for shrimps.

The American wants Thomas’ skills and knowledge of the bay in the fictional town of Longferry which is a location he has scouted for his next film. Over the next 48 hours we become intensely involved in this collision of the two worlds.

Thomas has very few people in his life – both his father and grandfather are dead. The first disappeared to join the army around the time he was born, and he was brought up by his mother and his grandfather, Pop. Friendships at school were difficult as nothing confers outsider status more than being the child of a vanished father and a teenaged unmarried mother in the 1940s. So Acheson’s charismatic presence and warmly open manner strikes a chord with this lonely young man.

The narrative unfurls with the daily tides, which ebb and flow around the twice daily low water - early in the morning and again in the evening. It is the sea and the treacherous sink pits in the sand of the wide shoreline that dominate Thomas’ life.

Benjamin Wood has crafted a quietly profound story of the margins, a place where the ordinary and the extraordinary can co-exist, and dreams flicker vividly at the edges of reality.

Read by Richard Fleeshman.
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters.
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4.

Music - The Jolly Waggoner (Traditional folk song) Performed by Richard Fleeshman


TUE 23:00 Uncanny (m002tpqr)
Cold Cases

Case 1: The Black Monk of Pontefract

Danny Robins investigates a potential poltergeist haunting in the very first episode of Uncanny Cold Cases, a new series investigating some of the spookiest paranormal events ever documented. The series kicks off with a two-part story that’s been called Britain's most violent ever poltergeist case - The Black Monk of Pontefract.

When the Pritchard family move into 30 East Drive in Pontefract, doors slam, objects fly, and the family quickly realise they're not alone in the house. They call the mischievous entity Mr Nobody. Is something supernatural stalking the Pritchards? Or can the team find a more straightforward explanation?

Presented by Danny Robins
Experts: Evelyn Hollow and Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe
Story sections by Joel Morris and Will Maclean
Research by Nancy Bottomley and John West
Filming and editing by Robb Leech
Editing and sound design by Charlie Brandon-King
Theme music by Katherine Priddy
Theme co-produced by Jennifer Ann Keller
Incidental music by Evelyn Sykes
Commissioning executive: Paula McDonnell
Commissioning editor: Rhian Roberts
Produced by Simon Barnard and Victoria Lloyd

A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:30 Last Word (m002tn1t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:04 on Monday]

WEDNESDAY 08 APRIL 2026

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m002tpqv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 00:30 Lifeboat at the End of the World by Dominic Gregory (m002tpnq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002tpqz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002tpr1)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:00 News Summary (m002tpr3)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:04 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977d)
Responding to your science questions

This week, we’re letting you run the airwaves. Victoria Gill puts your science questions to Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at University College London, and Penny Sarchet, Managing editor of New Scientist.

If you’ve ever wondered why men have nipples, how gravity slingshots work, or whether photosynthesis could solve our energy problems, that’s all on this week’s BBC Inside Science.

Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Ella Hubber & Debbie Kilbride
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth


WED 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002tpr5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002tpr7)
St Peter - a new life begun

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop David Walker

Good Morning

This week my inspirations for prayer will come from the biblical characters who were profoundly changed by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Peter had seen his friend’s tomb broken open, the stone rolled away, the body gone. One further indignity, did it even matter? But now it was evening. The few of them who hadn’t scattered, had huddled together in that same room where they had eaten the Passover meal with Jesus. Safety in numbers. The doors locked tight lest they should be the next for arrest and execution.

Then suddenly here was Jesus among them. He showed them the evidence of his crucifixion; holes pierced in his flesh, marks made by nails and a spear. The impossible had happened. Slowly, Peter began to think over words Jesus had uttered over many weeks and months. Slowly the impossible became the inevitable. This was how it had to be. If only they could have understood back then, perhaps all this grief could have been spared.

And yet perhaps they had had to empty themselves of every human ambition and expectation, to be ready to receive not the old Jesus, back again, but this Risen Jesus. For Peter and his companions too, there needed to be a crucifixion of the old, a sloughing off their former selves to embrace the new. This was something like a rebirth. Finally, Peter felt ready to take on the mantle Jesus was offering him.

Lord Jesus, help me today, to place my confidence solely and completely in you, that by your grace, and in the strength of knowing you risen from the dead I, like Peter may accomplish all that you have set before me. Amen.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m002tpr9)
08/04/26 Avian influenza, tenant farmer code in Wales, spring barley.

Free range poultry in England and Wales will be able to once more venture outside as the government lifts mandatory housing measures. The deputy chief vet says the risk of bird flu is now low enough to let commercial poultry range outdoors.

Mutual respect, better communication and clarity of both intentions and expectations - those are the key principles behind the new ‘Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice’ for Wales, just published by the Welsh government.

Planting spring barley as a break crop.

Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


WED 06:00 Today (m002tprp)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Life Changing (m002tprr)
I fled for my life at 16 to escape the Iranian regime

In an interview recorded before the recent conflict between Israel, the USA and Iran, but after the reprisals following the public protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr Sian Williams talks to 19 year-old Rozhan about her flight from Tehran and subsequent journey to the UK.

At just 16, Rozhan's life changed forever when the Iranian authorities discovered that her mother was attending an underground Christian church – and her immediate family felt they had no choice but to flee for their lives.

Rozhan tells Dr Sian Williams about the heartbreak of abandoning her old life, and her terrifying journey across Europe - which almost ended in disaster aboard a terrifying small boat.

Rozhan, her sister and mother have now been granted leave to remain in the UK, and like any teenager, she is trying to pass her exams and build a new life in a land that has given her life and freedom. But the agony of watching those she has left behind, both family and friends, remains.

Producer: Tom Alban


WED 09:30 Everything Is Fake (m002styk)
Everything Is Fake and Nobody Cares

5. Doctor’s Orders

Jamie sits down with Dr Aseem Malhotra, the cardiologist who reaches millions through alternative media with his claims about Covid vaccines - and who is, he says, nervous about talking to the BBC. Jamie goes through his arguments carefully, with an open mind. But the harder question isn't whether Malhotra is right or wrong. It's what it means that so many people trust him more than they trust the institutions that are supposed to tell us the truth.

Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Series Producer: Tom Pooley
Sound Design: Rob Speight
Production Coordinator: Neena Abdullah
Original music: Coach Conrad
Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002tprt)
Arrest of stalked woman, Endometriosis, Ageism at work, Egg donation

Student Jodie Morrow talks to Nuala McGovern about her ordeal of being arrested after her stalker falsely accused her of stalking him. He has now been jailed after pleading guilty to harassment and perverting the course of justice, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland has acknowledged "shortcomings" in how the case was handled. Jodie is now helping the police to try to improve how they handle stalking cases.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Endometriosis is launching an Inquiry into endometriosis and the workplace. The inquiry follows the latest data from Endometriosis UK showing it takes on average nine years and four months for diagnosis of endometriosis in the UK, a statistic that hasn’t improved in over a decade. Labour MP Kirsteen Sullivan, who chairs the inquiry, and Bethan Allen, who has the condition, discuss how this can be improved and what employers should do to support sufferers.

If you’re in your 50s and feeling as though the workplace is quietly moving on without you, overlooked or pushed out, you’re not alone. Author Lucy Standing argues that this could in fact be the most powerful decade of your working life, if you rethink how a career should look. And Eleanor Mills, who runs a website for midlife women, or “Queenagers” as she calls them, argues this period of life is not about decline, but about being on the cusp of something transformative.

Each year egg donation enables between 2,000 and 3,000 women to have children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to. One woman, Gini Bhogal, helped someone in this way after donating her eggs to a woman she met randomly on a London Tube. It began on a crowded carriage in the early 90s, and when she spoke about it on social media she says the reaction was overwhelming. Gini and Christopher, the child born from that donation, explain how he came to be conceived and how he found out about his origins.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Melanie Abbott


WED 11:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002tpqf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]


WED 11:40 This Week in History (m002tprw)
April 6th to April 12th

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

10th April 1815 - Mount Tambora erupts, the largest in recorded history. For two years particles stay in the air across the globe, inspiring various artworks.
6th April 1994 - A plane carrying President Habyarimana of Rwanda and the Burundian President Ntaryamira is shot down, sparking the start of the Rwandan Genocide.
7th April 1853 - Queen Victoria uses chloroform to relieve the pain of childbirth, a pioneering moment for obstetric medicine.


WED 11:45 Lifeboat at the End of the World by Dominic Gregory (m002tpry)
Episode 3

Dungeness is an extraordinary spur of land jutting out from the Kent coast, made up of billions of sea worn flint shards rounded into pebbles, extending 12 square miles and in some places, 20 metres deep. It is home to a nature reserve, a nuclear power station, and two lighthouses. As well as to Derek Jarman’s famous ‘Prospect Cottage’ with its flotsam garden and the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. It is also the location of the Dungeness lifeboat station.

When he moved to Dungeness, Dominic Gregory decided to volunteer with the lifeboat. After some hesitation, he rang the number he’d been given by a neighbour and spoke to the coxswain, Stuart Adams. And so began ‘the volunteer’s story’, the first published account of what it is to be part of a lifeboat crew.

From the meticulous, repetitive training to the first experience of a call out, Dominic Gregory charts the experience of being part of this rare community of people. The lifeboat family is full of ordinary men and women who drop everything at the sound of the pager, day or night to do something which is quite simply, remarkable.

Call outs may be to a trawler or a tanker in distress, a yacht with engine difficulties, a day tripper blown out to sea or a swimmer caught by the current. But it is when inflatable dinghies – overloaded with desperate people – begin arriving on the shores of Dungeness that the lifeboat crew must face perhaps their greatest test.

‘Dominic Gregory hasn’t just delivered a survey of courage and determination – Lifeboat at the End of the World is a hymn to human decency, and that makes it a very timely book indeed’ Tim Winton

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a public fundraising charity that provides a full-time lifeboat service for the coastlines of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The charity remains independent of government, and over 95 per cent of its shore and boat crews are volunteers. There are 238 lifeboat stations around the coast of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, each providing life-saving search and rescue coverage 24 hrs, 7 days a week. The Dungeness lifeboat was first established on the Romney coast exactly two hundred years ago.

Written by Dominic Gregrory

Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters and The Waters Company

Read by James Lailey

Location sounds recorded on Dungeness by the author.


WED 12:00 News Summary (m002tps0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m002tps2)
Fuel Prices, Subscription Charges, Pokemon Cards

The rise in the price of petrol and diesel in March was the highest on record. As global oil prices fall this morning, what's going to happen to prices at the pumps here in Britain?

Heating oil has gone up too. So how might the government's new 'Future Homes Standard' help better insulate our properties and bring down bills?

So called 'bro-brands', menswear labels often founded by brothers or friends, are on the rise. Emma Finamore from the magazine Drapers explains why the rise in popularity.

With the cost of living rising further, are more of us turning to ultra-bargain supermarkets for the latest deals? The big frozen food discounters - Iceland, Farmfoods and Heron Foods - have been adapting their ranges.

And how many subscriptions do you have? New rules to end unfair practices and traps won't come into effect for another year. Rob Lilley-Jones is from Which? which campaigned for the changes to the law due next Spring.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

PRODUCER: HARRY BLIGH


WED 12:57 Weather (m002tps4)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m002tps6)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


WED 13:45 Puffed Up: Inventions Out of Thin Air (m002tps8)
A Trip to the Dentist

Lie back, relax and open wide as Professor Mark Miodownik peers into the air-powered world of dentistry. From the dreaded whine of the dental drill to the futuristic precision air jets that can carve – and even help rebuild – our teeth, this episode of Puffed Up explores how compressed air has completely resculpted dentistry.

Joined by Professor of Tooth Decay Avijit Banerjee and Rachel Bairsto from the British Dental Association, Mark looks back at the somewhat uncomfortable history of dentistry and discovers just how much scarier a trip to get your teeth seen was before compressed air hissed its way into the clinic.

But dentistry isn’t the only medical field that’s supported by compressed air. Critical-Care Physician Dr Jean Bonnemain reveals that air powered technologies reach deep into our hospitals too – from the medical gases that help patients breathe to inflatable devices that support failing organs.

And on the cutting edge of medicine, Mark explores how compressed air is powering a new generation of soft robots: devices that could assist breathing, mimic the movements of living tissue, and deliver drugs precisely where they’re needed inside the body.

Producer: Mel Brown
Assistant Producer: Alex Rodway
Presenter: Mark Miodownik
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem


WED 14:00 The Archers (m002tpq9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002tpsb)
Celia's Secret

Episode 2

Forged documents. Now, differently, Frayn continues the duping. Truth and fiction, hard to separate.

Finally, thankfully, Michael admits he discovered all. And had pretended he hadn’t. He confesses to deception in reverse. David Burke says, ‘People will believe anything; they prefer to believe the unlikely.’

Frayn (and Burke) bare their souls.

Celia’s Secret is a bizarre drama of narration and ensemble - a true story. How near we always are to thin ice. Questions of authenticity, art and life abound.

A literary hall of mirrors

Cast
Celia ….. Janie Dee
Michael Frayn ….. Alex Jennings
David Burke ..… Roger Allam
Michael Blakemore ..… Peter Forbes
Jurgen/Trevor ….. Matthew Wolf
Sara Kestelman ..… Herself
Matthew Marsh ..… Himself

Sound Design: Olly Thompson. Mark Holden.
Music composed and played by A-Mnemonic

Directed by Martin Jarvis
Produced by Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4


WED 15:00 Money Box (m002tpsd)
Money Box Live: Changes to Rights at Work

The Employment Rights Act has been called the most significant change to workers rights in a generation, so what does it mean for your money?

The new law will introduce a raft of new rules for employees and employers over the next 18 months. From April 6th statutory sick pay has been enhanced and will be available from the first day of illness. Also, fathers will have a right to paternity leave on joining a workplace, rather than after six months' service.

In January protection from unfair dismissal will become a right after six months of being in a job, instead of two years, and there will be a clamp down on zero hours jobs with workers given the right to request 'guaranteed hours'.

Felicity Hannah is joined by John Palmer a senior adviser at the conciliation service ACAS and Kaajal Nathwani, an employment lawyer at Osborne & Wise. Felicity also speaks to the employment rights minister Kate Dearden.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producers: James Graham
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Henry Jones

(First broadcast 3pm Wednesday 8th April 2026)


WED 15:30 Currently (m002tf9x)
Power to The People: Rewiring Britain

Britain is turning electric, but the shift to renewable energy will require a major rewire. Business and Economy editor Douglas Fraser follows the journey of power generated on the north coast of Scotland to the socket in your living room, to discover the scale and the challenges of re-hauling the near century-old national grid.
From windfarms in Caithness, pylons in the Highlands and huge undersea cables transporting power from Aberdeenshire to North Yorkshire, Douglas looks at the environmental and financial impact of the planned changes to the country's energy infrastructure. He also asks if Britain can meet a future surge in demand for electricity to power electric cars, heat pumps and AI data centres, while achieving its ambitious net zero targets.

Presenter: Douglas Fraser
Producer: Hayley Jarvis
Executive Producer: Peter McManus


WED 16:00 The Bottom Line (m002gzhs)
The Decisions That Made Me

Alan French (Thomas Cook, CEO)

When high street travel firm Thomas Cook collapsed in 2019, it triggered the biggest ever peacetime repatriation, with 150,000 holidaymakers needing to be brought home. Alan French was the Group Strategy and Technology director at the time and had to preside over the disaster. Despite that, he was determined to revive the company, and the next year relaunched Thomas Cook as a digital only brand. The travel executive talks to Evan Davis about how he managed to turn his fortunes around and resurrect the Thomas Cook name.

Production team:
Producer: Drew Hyndman, Georgiana Tudor
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound: John Scott
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

(Photo credit: Alan French)


WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002tpsg)
Ronan Farrow on investigating OpenAI and Sam Altman, Misha Glenny, Bel Trew & Madhumita Murgia

This week on "The Media Show" with Katie Razzall we hear from Ronan Farrow about his major New Yorker investigation into OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman.

Madhumita Murgia, the Financial Times’ Artificial Intelligence Editor, examines how the media should scrutinise AI leaders and whether tech journalism risks oversimplifying personalities at the centre of vast systems.

Misha Glenny reflects on historic parallels in the concentration of technological power, drawing on his new series "Race to Control the World" his role as the new presenter of "In Our Time".

And Bel Trew, The Independent’s Chief International Correspondent, reports on the realities of covering the war with Iran from access and safety, to misinformation and the growing role of AI in shaping narratives.

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson


WED 17:00 PM (m002tpsj)
Israel strikes Lebanon despite Iran ceasefire

Israel insists Lebanon is not covered by America's ceasefire deal with Iran. The ceasefire also appears to have been breached in Lebanon, Kuwait, UAE and Iran. Lyse Doucet and Tom Bateman assess the fragility of the ceasefire. Hugo Bachega reports from the scene of strikes in Beirut and Professor Margaret MacMillan and Lord Dannatt discuss whether this moment marks a turning point for the world order. Also on PM, are some of our political parties cold calling people asking them to be candidates for the upcoming English local elections? And on the hottest day of the year so far, when should you put your winter coat away?


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002tpsl)
The US and Iran agree a ceasefire

A day after threatening to annihilate a whole civilisation, Donald Trump has hailed an agreement with Iran under which both sides will observe a ceasefire for the next two weeks. Also: Israel has carried out its biggest airstrikes on Lebanon since the start of the Middle East war. And Tehran has said it will reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but has warned ships waiting to pass through the waterway that they need Iranian permission, or they will be destroyed.


WED 18:30 Stand-Up Specials (m002tpsn)
Amy Annette: I Survived the Noughties

The Noughties are back. When award winning comedian Amy Annette first saw a visible thong re-emerging from the waistband of a cargo pant, she knew a Labour government was inevitable... And with Oasis back on the road, there can be no doubt.

With the teenagers of the Noughties now in positions of power (politicians, teachers, coffee shop baristas), Amy undertakes a comic investigation - a Panoramahaha, if you will - into the decade which gave us girls magazines, ballet flats and Trinny and Susannah.

We need someone to teach the next generation how to withstand the 00s lure of ‘Nothing Tastes as Good As Skinny Feels’... Amy Annette is that woman.

Written and performed by Amy Annette
Script Editor: Sarah Campbell
Produced and Directed by Lyndsay Fenner
Sound: David Thomas

A Mighty Bunny production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m002tpsq)
Out in the fields David waxes lyrical about Magic Day grass, but notices how distracted Pip is. It’s obvious when Pip makes mistakes that something’s wrong, and she finally admits that she’s found a lump in her breast. She reassures emotional David that she’s having it looked into. Pip doesn’t want to worry Ruth, but David feels she’d want to know. Later Pip gently berates David for tiptoeing around her, trying to encourage normality. Pip doesn’t want to stir up old memories for Ruth, but admits to feeling in limbo herself.

Khalil goes round to see Fletcher the budgie, with a bell as a gift for him. Awkward Lynda starts to explain that Fletcher can’t stay. However, she can’t bring herself to disappoint Khalil.

Azra’s grateful to Lynda for talking to her again about her mental health initiative, following Lynda’s help with the radio interview. They brainstorm ideas for going out into the community with a stall and recruiting key people like Ben Archer. Lynda encourages Azra to communicate directly with people, before admitting her dismal failure in communicating with Khalil earlier about the budgie. This is news to Azra who takes Khalil round to Ambridge Hall later, insisting he apologise to Lynda and, separately, to absent Robert. Azra then says they’ll take the bird off Lynda’s hands. Fletcher can stay with Azra until Khalil finds a friend who will take him on. As Azra and Khalil depart, Khalil bets that Azra will secretly love Fletcher, while Lynda mutters a sad farewell to the bird.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m002tpss)
W1A creator John Morton on Twenty Twenty Six

Writer and director John Morton, one of the team behind 2012 and W1A, on the new comedy Twenty Twenty Six, set in the run up to this year's football World Cup.

Artist Lachlan Goudie's new book The Secrets of Painting explores the creative big bangs in art over the centuries which have given us artistic movements - from Giotto and Rembrandt's use of oil paint to Berthe Morisot's use of an outdoor easel and Jackson Pollock's use of materials intended for industrial use, Goudie tells us how he has undergone a series of experiments to inform his understanding of pioneering techniques.

A new gig theatre production at The Mac in Belfast honours the Women's Coalition in Northern Ireland whose activism was an important force behind the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Writer Vittoria Cafolla joins us to tell us their story.

And as we go on air, the winners of this year's Windham-Campbell Awards for writing are announced. Each recipient receives $175,000, and we'll hear from one of the winners, as well as the Director who heads up the judging panel.

Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Mark Crossan


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m002tpsv)
What is education for?

Universities across the country are cutting back on humanities courses – philosophy, history, modern languages – subjects long seen as central to a well-rounded education. The reason is familiar: falling student numbers, financial pressure, and a growing insistence that degrees must demonstrate clear economic value. If a course doesn’t lead to a well-paid job, why should anyone fund it?

That points to a deeper divide about what education is for. Is it an intrinsic good: valuable in itself, shaping critical thinking, moral judgment, and an understanding of the world? Or is it an extrinsic one: a means to an end, justified by the jobs it produces and the growth it delivers?

For centuries, from Socrates onwards, education has been tied to human flourishing – to forming citizens, not just workers. But today, the language has shifted. Students are consumers. Universities compete. Courses are judged by salary. And the tensions don’t stop there. If education is a public good, why does access remain so uneven, divided between state and private schools, with women significantly underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) – opportunity shaped as much by background as by ability? And as our understanding of neurodiversity deepens, a further challenge emerges. What if the system itself – built around standardisation, testing, and conformity – has actively hindered the prospects of many it was meant to serve?

So what, ultimately, is education for? Is it possible to maximise economic potential and enable every individual to flourish? And if our system does the former at the expense of the latter, can it still claim to be a moral one?

Chair: Michael Buerk
Panel: Mona Siddiqui, Tim Stanley, Carmody Grey and Giles Fraser.
Witnesses: Maxwell Marlow, Julian Baggini and Jess Wade and Chris Bonnello.
Producer: Dan Tierney
Editor: Tim Pemberton.


WED 21:00 The Life Scientific (m002tpng)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 Through Persian Eyes (b01k1ngy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m002tpsx)
Can the US-Iran truce survive?

Both Iran and the US declare victory as the ceasefire approaches its 24th hour, but can the truce survive? Iran says continued Israeli airstrikes violate its terms, while questions remain over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Also on the programme: will Keir Starmer be banking on an electoral boost from his handling of the conflict?

And the World Cup furore after fans notice unsightly bulges in some national kits.


WED 22:45 Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (m002tpsz)
Episode 8

Described by 2025 Booker judges as, "A book about dreams, an exploration of class and family, a celebration of the power and the glory of music, a challenge to the limits of realism, and - stunningly - a love story".

The Lancashire coast, the early 1960s. On the day that we meet Thomas Flett as he goes about his daily drudgery, out of the rain-soaked mist the new world comes to him – Edgar Acheson, a Hollywood director, spies him out in the bay with his horse and cart and tracks him down as he returns home from a frustrating few hours shanking for shrimps.

The American wants Thomas’s skills and knowledge of the bay in the fictional town of Longferry which is a location he has scouted for his next film. Over the next 48 hours we become intensely involved in this collision of the two worlds.

Thomas has very few people in his life – both his father and grandfather are dead. The first disappeared to join the army around the time he was born, and he was brought up by his mother and his grandfather, Pop. Friendships at school were difficult as nothing confers outsider status more than being the child of a vanished father and a teenaged unmarried mother in the 1940s. So Acheson’s charismatic presence and warmly open manner strikes a chord with this lonely young man.

The narrative unfurls with the daily tides, which ebb and flow around the twice daily low water - early in the morning and again in the evening. It is the sea and the treacherous sinkpits in the sand of the wide shoreline that dominate Thomas’s life.

Benjamin Wood has crafted a quietly profound story of the margins, a place where the ordinary and the extraordinary can co-exist, and dreams flicker vividly at the edges of reality.

Read by Richard Fleeshman.
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters.
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4.

Music - The Jolly Waggoner (Traditional folk song) Performed by Richard Fleeshman


WED 23:00 Brian & Roger (m002tbqf)
2. The Bet

A new series of the hit podcast specially recorded for Radio 4.

Brian’s had a big one down at the Wetherspoons and Roger’s willing to help him out of a spot of bother.

Brian and Roger are friends that met at a support group for divorced men.
Both are starting again, both are finding it hard.
One of them is nice.

Written and performed by Harry Peacock and Dan Skinner.
Produced by Joel Morris and Sally Harrison.
Music by Bach, arranged by Hywel Davies.
Hywel Davies (piano), Luke Belcher (bass), Tilly Tremayne (vocals).

Executive Producer: Johnny Vegas
A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:15 Misguided Meditations (m001b43w)
2. Wintery Wonderland

The self-care and mindfulness trend is booming. With the popularity of apps like Calm, Headspace, and Breethe, the well-being meditation genre is ripe for satire. Misguided Meditations is a loving spoof of the popular guided meditation sleep stories.

So breathe in…then breathe out…and enjoy each episode led by our narrator Mina Anwar, that will take you on a delightfully surreal late-night adventure that descends into a total nightmare cringe-fest. A trip to the enchanted forest might result in someone naked in front of their entire class having forgotten their homework. A midnight dip in the mermaid lagoon might be ruined by an encounter with the cursed starfish of procrastination. Oh, and we couldn't miss Fluffy Bunny Island – whose inhabitants ask hard-hitting questions about your life choices.

Written by Joanne Lau.
Starring Mina Anwar.
Produced by Gus Beattie.
A Gusman production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:30 Money, Influence and the NHS (m002sr0q)
Nice shoes, now about those drugs!

Margaret is a GP and academic who has campaigned to expose hidden influences in medicine. She goes back to the powerful 2005 Health Select Committee; a parliamentary investigation called The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry, to discover what they found.

THURSDAY 09 APRIL 2026

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m002tpt1)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 Lifeboat at the End of the World by Dominic Gregory (m002tpry)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002tpt3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002tpt5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:00 News Summary (m002tpt7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:04 Crossing Continents (m002tpqk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002tpt9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002tptc)
Mary - a mother consoled

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop David Walker

Good Morning

Newborn, she had held him to her breast. Weaned, she had watched him grow steadily to manhood. She’d enjoyed those next three decades, surrounded by her growing family, even after Joseph had died. Yet always she had remembered the words spoken by that old man in the temple, that a sword would pierce her own soul too. And now it had. The one she had embraced at his birth, Mary had embraced again, as his body was lowered gently from that cross on which he had been so cruelly executed.

Just as she had cared for him in childhood, so too he had cared for her in her old age, commending her into the keeping of his beloved friend John, even as his breath was being dragged out of him, on the tree.

Yet now he was back again, something that old temple prophet had not foretold. The sword that had pierced her heart no longer pained her, any more than the marks of crucifixion seemed to be impairing him. And whilst soon she would see him on Earth no longer, she would find her place among his followers, and live her remaining years to the full, until she could be forever united with her beloved son, in that kingdom he had spoken of so passionately.

Lord Jesus Christ, you consoled your mother Mary with your risen presence. May the recognition of your nearness be my consolation in times of sorrow and of loss. And may the knowledge of that place you have prepared for me, spur me on to be your faithful servant here on Earth, until I too am united with those I have loved and lost, in your heavenly kingdom. Amen.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m002tptf)
09/04/26 C02 plant back up and running, planting in a bog, oilseed rape

Farmers in the North East of England have welcomed the re-opening of the UK’s only carbon dioxide production plant after 6 months of inactivity. It was mothballed last year, after the US trade deal made it unprofitable. But the war in the Middle East has led to government concerns about CO2 shortages, and they’ve awarded a £100 million pound grant to the Ensus bioethanol factory at Redcar to re-start production.

Paludiculture is the practice of farming on wetlands, like bogs or re-wetted peatlands and fens. Defra awarded grants to 12 projects to look at growing crops in lowland peat; the UK’s peatlands store 3 billion tonnes of carbon and keeping peat wet means locking it in the earth, so it’s not lost as C02 contributing to global warming.
The Holker Estate on the southern coast of Cumbria is one of those exploring the potential of paludiculture.

And oilseed rape is having a good year.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


THU 06:00 Today (m002tpth)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m002tptk)
Handel's Messiah

Misha Glenny and his guests discuss the most famous oratorio of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and his librettist Charles Jennens (1700-1773). For his libretto, Jennens drew from Old and New Testament texts: prophecies about the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, the nativity, the suffering of Christ and his death and the Day of Judgement and redemption for all. Handel's Messiah had its premiere in 1742 in a secular Dublin music hall to great acclaim with a packed audience and Handel continued to adapt his Messiah for later performances, often shaping the work to the choirs or individual singers available. Messiah proved to be one of his most popular works, becoming a favourite of massed choirs around the world far beyond the scale of Handel’s original.

With

Donald Burrows
Emeritus Professor of Music at the Open University

Ruth Smith
Trustee and Council Member of the Handel Institute

And

Larry Zazzo
Countertenor, and Senior Lecturer in Music at Newcastle University

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

Donald Burrows, Messiah (full score, 2 vols, Hallische Händel Ausgabe, forthcoming)

Donald Burrows, Messiah (Edition Peters, 1987)

Donald Burrows, Messiah, Cambridge Music Handbooks (Cambridge University Press, 1991)

Donald Burrows, Handel: Master Musicians series, 2nd edition (Oxford University Press, 2012)

George Frideric Handel (ed. Donald Burrows et al.), Collected Documents vol. 3 (1734-42), vol 4 (1742-50), (Cambridge University Press, 2019, 2020)

G.F. Handel, facsimile ‘Messiah’: the composer’s autograph manuscript (British Library, 2009)

G.F. Handel, facsimile the composer’s Conducting Score of Messiah (Scolar Press, 1974)
Arthur Holroyd, Reassuring 18th-Century Protestants: The Librettist’s Intended Message for Handel’s ‘Messiah’ (Quacks Books, 2018)

Charles King, Every Valley: The Story of Handel’s Messiah (Doubleday/Bodley Head, 2024)

Jens Peter Larsen, Handel’s Messiah: Origins, Composition, Sources (Adam and Charles Black, 1957)

Richard Luckett, Handel’s Messiah: A Celebration (Victor Gollancz, 1992)

Watkins Shaw, A Textual and Historical Companion to Handel’s ‘Messiah’ (Novello and Co, 1965)

Ruth Smith, ‘The Achievements of Charles Jennens (1700–1773)’ (Music & Letters, 70, 1989)

Ruth Smith, Charles Jennens: The Man behind Handel’s ‘Messiah’ (Handel House Trust/The Gerald Coke Handel Foundation, 2012)

Ruth Smith, Handel’s Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

Calvin R. Stapert, Handel’s Messiah: Comfort for God’s People (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010)

Judy Tarling, Handel’s Messiah: A Rhetorical Guide (first published 2014; Punnett Press, 2025)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios production

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


THU 09:45 Strong Message Here (m002tptm)
Righteous Targets for Violence (with Hugo Rifkind)

Hugo Rifkind joins Armando for a chat about the religious language in politics.

After a quick detour round the far side of the moon, we find out Trump's favourite bible passage (sort of), why the Pope has rebuked Pete Hegseth, and if invoking a higher power can be used to dodge accountability.

In the extended version, we also look at how parties in the UK trade in religious language, why how AI is getting hiring humans, and answer the age-old question - which Easter has been best, militarily?

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

Sound editing: Chris Maclean
Production Coordinator: Asha Osborne-Grinter & Caroline Barlow
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 (m002tptp)
Forced adoption, Queen Elizabeth II's outfits exhibition, Indigo Reign

The Church of England is planning to issue an apology for its role in forced adoption, according to a draft seen by the BBC. During the 1950s, 60s and 70s tens of thousands of babies were forcibly taken from their unmarried mothers, women who had been sent away to homes run by the Church and state. The news of a potential apology comes just a fortnight after the House of Commons education committee published a report of their inquiry into the issue and called for a state apology from the Government. Anita Rani is joined by Labour MP Helen Hayes, chair of that committee, along with Diana Defries, Chair of the Movement for an Adoption Apology, whose daughter was taken away 12 days after she gave birth.

The largest display of Queen Elizabeth II’s clothing ever to be staged will open on 10 April at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. The exhibition, called Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style, marks the centenary of the late Queen’s birth and includes around 200 items, about half of which are on display for the first time. It charts clothing worn in all 10 decades of Queen Elizabeth’s life, many designed by Norman Hartnell, and it spans the full breadth of her wardrobe, from couture eveningwear to impeccably tailored off-duty clothing. Ahead of the exhibition opening to the public, Anita went to meet its curator, Caroline de Guitaut, to take a tour.

Once thought politically unstoppable, recently Italian voters said 'no' to Giorgia Meloni’s proposed judicial reforms in a referendum. So what does that rejection tell us about her current political position after more than three years in charge? And why, earlier this morning, did she feel the need to address the Italian Parliament? In October 2022 she became Italy’s first female Prime Minister and as of September this year she will have had the longest continuous term in office in Italy since the Second World War, surpassing the late Silvio Berlusconi’s record. Anita is joined by senior BBC European reporter Laura Gozzi and Director of the Institute of International Affairs Nathalie Tocci.

Indigo Reign, formerly known as Lady MC, is one of the first female MCs in jungle music. She's just been part of a landmark moment for global music culture, bringing the "godfathers" of drum and bass, Fabio and Grooverider, to headline the first-ever jungle and drum & bass festival in East Africa, called NURAFest and it took place in Kenya. Born in prison, she grew up around gang culture and found her voice in jungle music, becoming an award-winning MC and artist, who turned disadvantage on its head. She's also the founder of the Young Urban Arts Foundation, helping thousands of young people through music.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Andrea Kidd


THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m002tptr)
Danielle de Niese

John Wilson talks to the Australian born opera singer Danielle de Niese. A soprano renowned for her vibrant stage presence, she made her professional operatic debut with the Los Angeles Opera at the age of 15 and, and four years later she became one of the youngest singers to perform at Metropolitan Opera in New York. Her international breakthrough came in 2005 at the Glyndebourne Festival, where her performance as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare established her as a major operatic star. Since then she has sung leading roles at opera houses around the world, specialising particularly in Baroque repertoire, and has recorded six studio albums of music by composers including Handel and Mozart. She is the recipient of the 2026 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


THU 11:45 Lifeboat at the End of the World by Dominic Gregory (m002tptt)
Episode 4

Dungeness is an extraordinary spur of land jutting out from the Kent coast, made up of billions of sea worn flint shards rounded into pebbles, extending 12 square miles and in some places, 20 metres deep. It is home to a nature reserve, a nuclear power station, and two lighthouses. As well as to Derek Jarman’s famous ‘Prospect Cottage’ with its flotsam garden and the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. It is also the location of the Dungeness lifeboat station.

When he moved to Dungeness, Dominic Gregory decided to volunteer with the lifeboat. After some hesitation, he rang the number he’d been given by a neighbour and spoke to the coxswain, Stuart Adams. And so began ‘the volunteer’s story’, the first published account of what it is to be part of a lifeboat crew.

From the meticulous, repetitive training to the first experience of a call out, Dominic Gregory charts the experience of being part of this rare community of people. The lifeboat family is full of ordinary men and women who drop everything at the sound of the pager, day or night to do something which is quite simply, remarkable.

Call outs may be to a trawler or a tanker in distress, a yacht with engine difficulties, a day tripper blown out to sea or a swimmer caught by the current. But it is when inflatable dinghies – overloaded with desperate people – begin arriving on the shores of Dungeness that the lifeboat crew must face perhaps their greatest test.

‘Dominic Gregory hasn’t just delivered a survey of courage and determination – Lifeboat at the End of the World is a hymn to human decency, and that makes it a very timely book indeed’ Tim Winton

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a public fundraising charity that provides a full-time lifeboat service for the coastlines of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The charity remains independent of government, and over 95 per cent of its shore and boat crews are volunteers. There are 238 lifeboat stations around the coast of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, each providing life-saving search and rescue coverage 24 hrs, 7 days a week. The Dungeness lifeboat was first established on the Romney coast exactly two hundred years ago.

Written by Dominic Gregrory

Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters and The Waters Company

Read by James Lailey

Location sounds recorded on Dungeness by the author.


THU 12:00 News Summary (m002tptw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Scam Secrets (m002tpty)
Following the Trail

A message pops up. It's a scam, you can spot that. But who sent it? Where in the world did it come from? And how has it ended up in your inbox? For this special episode of Scam Secrets, the team visit the United Nations Global Fraud Summit in Vienna. Pretty much everyone engaged in the world fight against scams is there too, from politicians and police to the biggest tech companies on the planet. Challenged by listener Catherine to find out more about the criminals who stole £200,000 from her dad in the previous episode, Shari Vahl, Dr Lis Carter and Alex Wood ask Interpol why it isn't easier to track criminals down. And the organised crime chief of the United Nations tells us how networks of global organised crime lie behind that message you received - and offers harrowing evidence of why the scammers are often victims too.

PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL
PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002tpv0)
Earwax Removers

Almost everyone is guilty of fiddling with their ears, especially if they can feel a build-up of earwax in there. But what actually works to get rid of it, and should we be messing with them in the first place?

Listener Martin got in touch after finding out his earwax build-up was returning - and wanted to know if drops alone would solve his problem, or if he needed to seek professional help to remove it?

Greg Foot speaks to professor of Audiology at Manchester University, NIHR senior Investigator and former chairman of the British Society of Audiology, Kevin Munro - to find out. 

All of our episodes start with YOUR suggestions. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk OR send a voice note to our WhatsApp number, 07543 306807.

RESEARCHER: PHIL SANSOM

PRODUCER: KATE HOLDSWORTH & GREG FOOT


THU 12:57 Weather (m002tpv2)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m002tpv4)
Does the US-Iran ceasefire apply to Lebanon?

Iran's President says it won't abandon the Lebanese people in the face of ongoing Israeli attacks but the US insists Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire deal. Aaron David Miller examines whether Donald Trump will force his Israeli counterpart to stop the strikes to save the ceasefire. Plus, the UK reveals a month-long operation tracking Russian submarines and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall makes a pitch for new bank notes to feature the pike.


THU 13:45 Puffed Up: Inventions Out of Thin Air (m002tpv6)
When the Balloon Bursts

As we’ve heard so far in Puffed Up, compressed air has changed the world in many wonderful ways – but not every air-powered invention stood the test of time. In this episode, Professor Mark Miodownik looks at the promising pneumatic technologies that just ran out of steam…

With technology historian Tom Standage, Mark first unearths the remarkable pneumatic postal networks of the 19th century. These air-powered tube networks shot messages beneath the streets of cities like London, Paris and New York – almost like a Victorian email system. At their peak, the networks stretched for hundreds of kilometres and could carry small parcels… and, on one famous occasion, even a bewildered cat.

And self-described ‘sewing sociologist’ Kat Jungnickel reveals that the Victorians were also using it in fashion garments. From inflatable hoop skirts to blow-up bustles, Mark discovers how compressed air briefly made a foray into women’s clothing: helping them take up more space in new and sometimes controversial ways.

Nevertheless, outcompeted by flashier tech, these bright ideas just weren't destined to stay afloat.

Producer: Mel Brown
Assistant Producer: Alex Rodway
Presenter: Mark Miodownik
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem


THU 14:00 The Archers (m002tpsq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002tpv8)
Hope Bourne

A biographical drama by Zalie Burrow, written especially for Eileen Atkins, about a fiercely independent writer and artist who lived and worked on the remote moorlands of Exmoor.

A growing friendship develops between her and a London publisher who comes to discuss turning her journals into a book.

HOPE BOURNE……Eileen Atkins
ANTHONY DENT…Alex Jennings

Sound: Jon Calver
Producer: Sarah Golding
Director: Cherry Cookson
A Wireless Theatre production for BBC Radio 4

Set on the remote moorlands of Exmoor, this biographical drama explores a pivotal period in the life of the writer and artist Hope Bourne [1918-2010] who lived for several decades alone without electricity, surviving by hunting, growing her own food and maintaining a fiercely independent way of life. Despite her geographical isolation, Hope was an accomplished intellectual and artist, once offered a place at the Slade at the age of eleven.

The drama centres on her relationship with the publisher Anthony Dent, who becomes intrigued when she sends him an untidy but compelling draft of her journals, illustrated with striking drawings. His subsequent visits to Exmoor to discuss publishing lead to an unlikely friendship that develops over several years, during which time Dent’s assumptions about society, success and fulfilment are gradually challenged. The publication of these works led to her becoming quite a celebrity later in life.

The play was written specifically for Eileen Atkins, who will be 92 in June, acting alongside Alex Jennings. The two actors last notably worked together on The Crown, playing Queen Mary and her son the Duke of Windsor.


THU 15:00 Open Country (m002tpvb)
Carrifran Wildwood

Martha Kearney visits one of the UK’s earliest environmental restoration projects. Southern Scotland was once covered in broadleaf woodland, rich scrub, heath and bog. That was before sheep, humans and conifers took hold. Now a group of visionary volunteers are restoring that landscape in what they call the ‘wild heart of southern Scotland’.

Set in a 1600 acre glacial valley in lowland Scotland, Carrifran Wildwood is the first tranche of a wider restoration area which aims to wheel back six thousand years. The idea is to recreate the primeval forest that proliferated back then. It will act as a carbon sink, a flood mitigator and a generator of biodiversity.

The planting schedule is drawn from a catalogue created from evidence in the ancient peat bog. Unlike other ‘rewilding’ projects, Carrifran Wildwood aims to exclude human beings from this valuable space, an unusual step which the founders see as crucial to its success.

Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m002tp9j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Feedback (m002tpvd)
Broadcasting House, and When It Hits the Fan

Andrea Catherwood meets with Paddy O'Connell, longtime presenter of Broadcasting House. But this time we're going behind the scenes as Paddy has granted the Feedback team special access to the programme's inbox - and like Feedback's listeners, Broadcasting House's listeners have a lot to say. And how do you get the balance right when reporting on news during a day that is supposed to be dedicated to calm? Paddy gives his thoughts.

And some listeners had questions about a recent episode of Any Answers. Why did it only deal with one subject?

Finally, it's time for another edition of our VoxBox - this time it's two friends and PR professionals, Lauren and Dan, giving their take on the BBC's programme all about crisis management, When It Hits The Fan. Does the series do its best to inform, educate, and entertain, or is it all spin?

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

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


THU 16:00 The Briefing Room (m002tpvg)
Will Trump take Cuba?

If you sail 90 miles from Key West in Florida you’ll make landfall on the island of Cuba, run by a regime that America has never liked. And since this is the year of bombs, drones and talk of regime change, the island has not escaped close attention.

Donald Trump has talked about taking Cuba but could he? Would he? And And what would that even mean for Cubans and Americans?

Step into the Briefing Room and together we’ll find out.

Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Ben Carter, Sally Abrahams and Kirsteen Knight
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production co-ordinator: Janet Staples
Sound engineers: Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977f)
Return to the moon

This week, humans once again looked down on the magnificent desolation of the lunar surface, from the orbit of the moon itself. They saw earth rise and earth set. They named the craters on the far side. They travelled further from Earth than any human has travelled before. Now, the Artemis mission returns home. Libby Jackson, Head of Space at the Science Museum, joins Inside Science to illuminate whether this lunar flyby is nothing but a test ride or significant for the future of human spaceflight and science.

Nasa believes Artemis II will pave the way to not only land on the moon but establish a lunar base. Kelly Weinersmith, author of A City on Mars, joins Tom to discuss the complications that are likely to arrive when and if humans attempt to establish a semi-permanent presence on the lunar surface. Is it really possible?

Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producer: Harrison Lewis and Katie Tomsett
Editor: Martin Smith


THU 17:00 PM (m002tpvk)
Israel asks for direct talks with Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders his cabinet to begin direct negotiations with Lebanon. We hear the latest.
On the same day, the UK warns that Russian submarines have been hovering near undersea cables. At a challenging time for NATO, PM hears from Rose Gottemoeller, who helped to lead the alliance during President Trump's first term.
Also on PM, surge pricing may be coming to supermarkets. And Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi, tells us why he decided to read the Iliad for the first time in his fifties, and how it inspired his new novel.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002tpvm)
Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel wants direct talks with Lebanon

The Israeli Prime Minister says he's instructed his cabinet to open direct negotiations with the Lebanese government as soon as possible. Also: The Defence Secretary warns Moscow against the sabotage of undersea cables and pipes, after revealing the Navy and RAF had uncovered a covert Russian submarine operation. And Doug Allan, the man who shot some of the most memorable footage used in Sir David Attenborough's wildlife programmes, has died.


THU 18:30 The Matt Forde Focus Group (m002tpvp)
Series 2

5. The Politics of Denial

The cheese is locked up. The Navy can't sail to a war. Reform won't touch the triple lock pension. And nobody, apparently, has anything to answer for. Top political comedian Matt Forde convenes his Focus Group in front of a live theatre audience with a forensically matched panel — journalist and author Helen Lewis, conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie, and former SNP MP Mhairi Black — to ask whether denial has become the default setting in British politics.

From a shoplifting epidemic that politicians have decided not to notice, to the vast gap between Britain's naval self-image and its actual capacity to put to sea, and the cross-party conspiracy of silence around a pension policy everyone suspects is unaffordable but nobody will touch, this is an episode about the uncomfortable distance between what politicians know and what they're prepared to say.

Written and presented by Matt Forde
With additional material from Karl Minns, Ruth Husko and Richard Garvin
Produced by Richard Garvin
Co-Producer: Daisy Knight
Sound Design and Edit: David Thomas
Executive Producers: Jon Thoday and Richard Allen Turner
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4


THU 19:00 The Archers (m002tpvr)
Bumping into Adam at Grey Gables, Oliver mentions he’s helping Miranda measure up the farmhouse. However, Miranda hasn’t been cheered up by their lunch and Oliver wants to know what Brian’s playing at there. Adam can’t shed any light. With his sudden change of heart and irrational behaviour, Oliver wonders whether Brian is alright.
When Adam goes to Brian and asks the same question, Brian is put out, insisting he’s fine. Adam should forget about it. While debating a couple of contrasting ideas for the farm’s future, Brian’s reminded of his earlier promise and assures Adam he’ll get on to his solicitor next week about changing his will. Later, Adam relays back to Oliver that Brian is perfectly fine and making rational decisions. Oliver still feels for Miranda, though.

When Usha and Carol get chatting about the Promises Tree and Emma mentions she’s signing up, Carol wastes no time recruiting Emma to clean her windows. However, Emma pushes back when asked to wash and re-hang Carol’s curtains. Carol suggests Alan could at least do the re-hanging.

At St Stephens Alan’s grateful for George and Chris’s help, but explains the work on repairing the ceiling can’t start until paperwork is signed off and hoops are jumped through – plus there’s an injury claim to deal with. Later, Alan gets George to open up to him, before they discuss Alan’s vocation. George then shares his dream of one day having his own flock of sheep. However, having been let down recently by a potential cash investor, George is resolved to go it alone.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m002tpvt)
Review: Is it ok to film theatre curtain calls on your phone?

On the review show this week: critics Muriel Zagha and Tahmima Anam review Francois Ozon's film The Stranger., based on the Albert Camus novel which has often been described as unfilmable.

Amitav Ghosh's novel Ghost Eye, set in India and dealing with parallel timelines, multiple global locations, environmental catastrophe and a young girl with mysterious powers.

Jim Jarmusch's latest film Father Mother Sister Brother won the Golden Lion award at Venice. Are our critics won over?

Plus, is it ok for theatre audiences to take pictures at curtain calls? Following Lesley Manville's complaints on last week's Front Row, Tom Sutcliffe debates the issue with theatre critics David Benedict and Kate Maltby.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Oliver Jones


THU 20:00 The Bottom Line (m002gzhs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Wednesday]


THU 20:15 The Media Show (m002tpsg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:15 on Wednesday]


THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m002tpg5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


THU 21:45 Strong Message Here (m002tptm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002tpvw)
Israel to hold talks with Lebanon but no ceasefire

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will enter into direct peace talks with Lebanon but that there will be no immediate truce. Donald Trump is reported to have called Netanyahu to encourage him to enter into negotiations. We get the latest from Jerusalem and Beirut.

Also on the programme: US First Lady Melania Trump makes a rare public statement on Jeffrey Epstein.

And we hear about the hardware Russians are using in covert operations near the UK’s vital undersea cables.


THU 22:45 Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (m002tpvy)
Episode 9

Described by 2025 Booker judges as, "A book about dreams, an exploration of class and family, a celebration of the power and the glory of music, a challenge to the limits of realism, and - stunningly - a love story".

The Lancashire coast, the early 1960s. On the day that we meet Thomas Flett as he goes about his daily drudgery, out of the rain-soaked mist the new world comes to him – Edgar Acheson, a Hollywood director, spies him out in the bay with his horse and cart and tracks him down as he returns home from a frustrating few hours shanking for shrimps.

The American wants Thomas’s skills and knowledge of the bay in the fictional town of Longferry which is a location he has scouted for his next film. Over the next 48 hours we become intensely involved in this collision of the two worlds.

Thomas has very few people in his life – both his father and grandfather are dead. The first disappeared to join the army around the time he was born, and he was brought up by his mother and his grandfather, Pop. Friendships at school were difficult as nothing confers outsider status more than being the child of a vanished father and a teenaged unmarried mother in the 1940s. So Acheson’s charismatic presence and warmly open manner strikes a chord with this lonely young man.

The narrative unfurls with the daily tides, which ebb and flow around the twice daily low water - early in the morning and again in the evening. It is the sea and the treacherous sink pits in the sand of the wide shoreline that dominate Thomas’ life.

Benjamin Wood has crafted a quietly profound story of the margins, a place where the ordinary and the extraordinary can co-exist, and dreams flicker vividly at the edges of reality.

Read by Richard Fleeshman.
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters.
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4.

Music - The Jolly Waggoner (Traditional folk song) Performed by Richard Fleeshman


THU 23:00 Radical with Amol Rajan (m002tpw0)
The Reading Recession: Are We Making Ourselves Less Intelligent? (James Marriott)

This week, the columnist and writer James Marriott argues that reading is essential to the rise and fall of liberal democracy. He proposes that reading helps the spread of information, encourages critical thinking, and forces people to structure their ideas logically.

But he’s concerned the shift from deep reading to digital skim-reading - driven largely by screens - is weakening our ability to think in complex, reflective ways. He suggests the decline has political consequences - that a less literate, more screen-dependent public may be more vulnerable to misinformation and less capable of meaningful democratic participation.

GET IN TOUCH

* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: radical@bbc.co.uk

Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday. Your Radical Questions is released every Monday.

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, and he’s the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and the editor of The Independent newspaper.

Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers and Rufus Gray with Anna Budd, Cordelia Hemming and Oscar Pearson. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Johnny Hall. The editor is Sam Bonham.


THU 23:30 Money, Influence and the NHS (m002t1j0)
It’s Time Patients Knew

GP and academic, Dr Margaret McCartney continues her story of a 20-year quest to reveal conflicts of interest in medicine. What might be the financial influences that can impact your treatments and how do they affect trust? Margaret tracks progress in 2016, with a new way to find out if your doctor has had payments from industry. And explores some surprising evidence that being more open about commercial relationships might play out differently than expected.

FRIDAY 10 APRIL 2026

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002tpw2)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 00:30 Lifeboat at the End of the World by Dominic Gregory (m002tptt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002tpw4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002tpw6)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:00 News Summary (m002tpw8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:04 The Briefing Room (m002tpvg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Thursday]


FRI 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002tpwb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002tpwd)
St Thomas - doubts assuaged

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop David Walker

Good Morning

It had all happened so quickly that he hadn’t heard the plan to gather together that Sunday evening, so he’d missed the big moment. The moment they claimed when Jesus himself had appeared in the locked room and convinced them that it was genuinely him, back from the dead. “Not a ghost”, they said, “We gave him something to eat to prove he was real.” But Thomas wasn’t taking anything so momentous merely on the assertion of others. Did they understand what such a comeback would actually mean? He did. It would make Jesus God, endowing him with a divinity far beyond that claimed by those Emperors that the Romans pressed them to worship. They all died and stayed dead.

He’d made sure that next Sunday he was there with everyone, waiting to see if anything happened. And then it did. Was Jesus chiding him for demanding physical evidence, or thanking him for being the first to realise what such a resurrection implied? What he was sure about was that this would be the defining moment of the rest of his life. And so it had proved. Now, an old man, in a land far from his birth, he could look back on how he spent those long years seeking to draw to Jesus those who would never share his own privilege of having met the risen Christ in the flesh. “Blessed are those”, as Jesus had said to him that night so many years ago, “Who have not seen, but yet believe”.

Lord Jesus, may we, who rely on the evidence not of our eyes but of our hearts, ever live our lives as those who know your risen presence. Amen.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002tpwg)
10/04/12 Wildfire season and recovery after moorland fires last year, planting herbs

The Derbyshire Fire Service is urging people to take more care after they were called to a wildfire across 18,000 square metres on Tuesday. This week has also seen two wildfires in West Yorkshire - where fire crews tackled another one last month, as well as a fire on heathland in Dorset. After the wet winter you might have thought that fires were less likely but fire officers warn that although the ground is damp, the recent dry spell means grass can catch light quickly and spread the blaze. We discuss the prospects for wildfires this year and catch up with a sheep farmer who had to save his flock fires last year on the North York Moors.

All this week we're looking at spring planting - today we hear from a herb business which began 30 years ago with 11 acres, and is now planting out on 600 acres. They specialise in herbs used in traditional Asian cooking. Grown on the edge of Wolverhampton, they’re distributed to wholesalers all over the country.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


FRI 06:00 Today (m002tql1)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 The Reunion (m002tp9x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Sunday]


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002tql3)
Riki Lindhome, Dutch appeal, Student loans, Author Lucy Apps

Police in the Netherlands have taken the unusual step of launching a campaign on social media to track down women and girls who were blackmailed into sharing explicit pictures of themselves on line. Detectives have found 50 alleged victims of the man who has pleaded guilty. They're aged 13 to 20 and include those in the UK. But they believe there may have been many more. Our reporter Anna Holligan, in the Netherlands, has been following this.

Riki Lindhome is a comedy songwriter and actor who went viral for her song Hysteria, about medically induced orgasms, and her break up anthem, So Long Farewell, on behalf of Baroness Schraeder from The Sound of Music. She's also appeared in cult TV series The Big Bang Theory and played therapist Dr Valerie Kinbott in the the hugely popular Netflix sequel to The Addams Family, Wednesday. Currently on stage at the Soho Theatre in London, she talks to presenter Anita Rani about her very personal and poignant one-woman comedy, Dead Inside, which documents her own experiences of infertility and longing for a family as well as having a child through surrogacy.

Student loans have made the headlines multiple times this year with critics calling them unfair. But does student debt affect women differently? Amy Brooker from the feminist economics group the Women's Budget Group thinks so. This week she's written a blog post to highlight her own student loan story and why women may be impacted more than men in repaying their loans. This comes as the Government’s Treasury Committee calls for people to share their experiences of student loans. Amy joins us along with Kate Ogden, a Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies who focuses on higher education.

Lucy Apps’ debut novel, Gloria Don’t Speak, has recently been longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction. The novel paints a tender portrait of 19-year-old Gloria, a young woman with a learning disability. When she forms an unlikely friendship with a man named Jack, it offers her a new sense of connection - but after an act of violence, their relationship is forced to come to an end. Lucy speak to Anita about her book and why she wanted to explore themes of vulnerability, connection, and agency.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Sarah Jane Griffiths


FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m002tql5)
About the Girls

Sheila Dillon discusses the rise of eating disorders among young women as part of Radio 4’s “About the Girls” series, which is hearing from teens across the UK about life in 2026.

As the number of young girls suffering from eating disorders increases in the UK, Sheila Dillon hosts a discussion about what's causing the rise, and what can be done to improve treatment outcomes.

Details of help and support with eating disorders are available at BBC Action Line

Produced by Natalie Donovan for BBC Audio in Bristol


FRI 11:45 Lifeboat at the End of the World by Dominic Gregory (m002tql7)
Episode 5

Dungeness is an extraordinary spur of land jutting out from the Kent coast, made up of billions of sea worn flint shards rounded into pebbles, extending 12 square miles and in some places, 20 metres deep. It is home to a nature reserve, a nuclear power station, and two lighthouses. As well as to Derek Jarman’s famous ‘Prospect Cottage’ with its flotsam garden and the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. It is also the location of the Dungeness lifeboat station.

When he moved to Dungeness, Dominic Gregory decided to volunteer with the lifeboat. After some hesitation, he rang the number he’d been given by a neighbour and spoke to the coxswain, Stuart Adams. And so began ‘the volunteer’s story’, the first published account of what it is to be part of a lifeboat crew.

From the meticulous, repetitive training to the first experience of a call out, Dominic Gregory charts the experience of being part of this rare community of people. The lifeboat family is full of ordinary men and women who drop everything at the sound of the pager, day or night to do something which is quite simply, remarkable.

Call outs may be to a trawler or a tanker in distress, a yacht with engine difficulties, a day tripper blown out to sea or a swimmer caught by the current. But it is when inflatable dinghies – overloaded with desperate people – begin arriving on the shores of Dungeness that the lifeboat crew must face perhaps their greatest test.

‘Dominic Gregory hasn’t just delivered a survey of courage and determination – Lifeboat at the End of the World is a hymn to human decency, and that makes it a very timely book indeed’ Tim Winton

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a public fundraising charity that provides a full-time lifeboat service for the coastlines of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The charity remains independent of government, and over 95 per cent of its shore and boat crews are volunteers. There are 238 lifeboat stations around the coast of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, each providing life-saving search and rescue coverage 24 hrs, 7 days a week. The Dungeness lifeboat was first established on the Romney coast exactly two hundred years ago.

Written by Dominic Gregrory

Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters and The Waters Company

Read by James Lailey

Location sounds recorded on Dungeness by the author.


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m002tql9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m002tqlc)
The Guides and single sex organisations

The organising body of the Girl Guides says that trans girls - biological males - will have to leave by the 6th September to conform with a ruling by the Supreme Court last year. Whatever the perceived rights and wrongs of this decision, it's another chapter in the debate about whether we need single sex groups at all, from the Brownies to the gentleman's club.

We look into the history of the Girl Guides and the Scouts; hear what the law says about single sex organisations and ask whether girls really do better when boys aren't around?

Presenter: Adam Fleming
Production team: Lucy Proctor, Simon Tullet and Tom Gillett
Studio manager: Andrew Mills
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Vadon


FRI 12:57 Weather (m002tqlf)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m002tqlh)
All eyes on Islamabad ahead of US Iran peace talks

With talks uncertain, we'll have a report from Pakistan's capital and speak to a former head of the Foreign Office. And, as the Prime Minister warns that UK must become more resilient to deal with a "volatile and dangerous" world, we'll ask what lessons the last six weeks have taught us about Britain's readiness and resilience. We'll preview this Sunday's Hungarian election and hear from actor Brian Cox as he makes his directorial debut.


FRI 13:45 Puffed Up: Inventions Out of Thin Air (m002tqlk)
Space Inflations

Throughout Puffed Up, we’ve seen how compressed air has shaped life here on Earth. But what happens when we leave our planet behind? In this final episode, Professor Mark Miodownik explores how this invisible material could help humanity venture further into space than ever before.

Joined by space engineer and architect Maxim De Jong, Mark discovers how inflatable space habitats might provide the solution to one of space travel’s biggest problems: having enough space! Packed up tightly for launch and then expanded like a balloon once up there, inflatable structures could help astronauts live more comfortably on space stations, the moon, or even on long journeys to Mars and beyond.

And speaking to aerospace engineer Anita Sengupta, Mark hears about another technology developed for space, but that could transform life back here on Earth: hydrogen fuel cells. Powered by hydrogen and compressed air, Anita argues that this renewable technology could power the planes of the future.

From inflatable homes among the stars to cleaner flight here on Earth, in this final episode, Mark discovers that there may still be a few giant leaps left to be squeezed out of compressed air.

Producer: Mel Brown
Assistant Producer: Alex Rodway
Presenter: Mark Miodownik
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m002tpvr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m001wnsq)
Sabine

Episode 2

Elly’s been staying in Sabine’s flat to pack up her things. But after finding some surprising evidence in her sister's room, Elly’s desperate to find out who ‘F’ is.

When Sabine’s body is found beneath the cliffs in an apparent suicide, her sister Elly is convinced she was murdered. Elly's hunt for the killer takes her deep into the secret life in Brighton her sister kept hidden. Sabine is a new five-part murder mystery by Mark Healy.

CAST
Elly ..... Sorcha Groundsell
Sabine ..... Freya Mavor
Oakley ..... Rupert Evans
Daniel ..... Ivanno Jeremiah
Gabe ..... Tommy Sim’aan
Mia ..... Aisling Loftus
Ziggy ..... Ian Dunnett Jr
Poppy ..... Juliana Lisk

Written by Mark Healy
Directed by Anne Isger
Sound by Keith Graham, Ali Craig and Pete Ringrose
Production Co-ordination by Gaelan Davis-Connolly

Sabine is a BBC Audio Production for Radio 4


FRI 14:45 Life Without (m002tqlm)
Life Without Standard Time

Spring Forward, Fall Back or what if we just didn’t? In this episode of Life Without, Alan Davies looks at how our circadian rhythms would be impacted if we simply stopped changing the clocks.

Some scientists have argued to do away with the twice-yearly clock change in order to see some beneficial impacts on our health. So why have some parts of the world adopted this system while places like Russia and Mexico don’t use it at all?

This episode features Aarti Jagannath, a leading chronobiologist and Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, and Dr Rebecca Struthers who is a watchmaker, author, historian and Honorary Research Fellow at University of Birmingham.

An ITN production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002tqlp)
Edgworth & District

Kathy Clugston and the Gardeners' Question Time panel visit the picturesque Lancashire village of Edgworth, nestled on the edge of the West Pennine Moors.

This week, the team are being hosted by the Edgworth and District Horticultural Society. Kathy is joined by Matthew Wilson, Christine Walkden and Marcus Chilton‑Jones, answering questions from an enthusiastic local audience.

The team shares practical advice on topics from choosing the best potatoes to grow for chips, to bee‑friendly planting in boggy conditions, and share reflections on the sentimental value of well‑loved gardening tools.

Later in the programme, Matthew Pottage delivers a timely spring masterclass on dividing grasses and perennials.

Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Assistant Producer: William Norton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

* If listening on BBC Sounds and you wish to view the plant list, please go to the Gardeners' Question Time website and open this week's episode page.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp2f/episodes/guide


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m002tqlr)
Nora's Abyss by Aimée Walsh

An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the writer Aimée Walsh. Read by Nicky Harley.

The Author.
Aimée Walsh is a writer from Belfast. Her short stories have been longlisted for the London Magazine Short Story Prize and published in Extra Teeth. Her non-fiction and book criticism has appeared in The Irish Times, The Observer, RTÉ Culture, Dazed and The Independent amongst others. Walsh holds a PhD in Irish Literature and Cultural History. Her debut novel ‘Exile’ was published in 2024.

Writer: Aimée Walsh
Reader: Nicky Harley
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland Production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m002tqlt)
Sir Craig Reedie, Bronwen Naish, Geoff Yeadon, Margareta Magnusson

Matthew Bannister on

Sir Craig Reedie, the sports administrator who led London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympics and went on to become President of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Lord Coe pays tribute.

Bronwen Naish, the musician who devoted her life to promoting the joys of the double bass.

Geoff Yeadon, the world record breaking cave diver from Yorkshire.

And Margareta Magnusson, best known as the author of the book “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning”.

Producer: Ed Prendeville
Assistant Producer: Catherine Powell
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Tansley

Archive:
Daytime Live, BBC One, 21/01/1988; Edinburgh Festival Fringe, YouTube Upload, Browen Naish, 01/09/2020; Bartholomew, YouTube Upload, Bronwen Naish, 04/09/2020; Wogan, BBC One, 01/07/1985; A Visit with Bronwen Naish, Bass-Talk with Hagen and Heyes, YouTube Upload, 25/02/2024; Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, 09/01/2018 Conversation Piece, BBC Radio 4, 07/05/1982; Behind the Ears, BBC Radio 3, 15/06/2025; BBC Look North, BBC, June 1983; BBC News, BBC, 06/06/2005; Newsnight, BBC One, 21/07/2016; Mixed Zone interview of Sir Craig Reedie – The ANOC Awards 2022; BBC News, BBC, 06/07/2005; The Daily Politics, BBC 2, 14/01/2003


FRI 16:30 Life Changing (m002tprr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m002tqlw)
US Vice-President Vance flies to Pakistan for talks with Iran

US Vice-President Vance flies to Pakistan for talks with Iran. What are the chances of peace? And the risks of re-entry of Artemis II to the Earth's atmosphere with Helen Sharman.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002tqly)
The US Vice President heads to Islamabad for peace talks with Iran

The US Vice President is heading to Islamabad for peace talks with Iran but there's no confirmation yet that the Iranian delegation is on its way. Also: In the Republic of Ireland there are warnings that hundreds of fuel pumps could run dry as protests continue against rising prices. And the astronauts of Artemis prepare for their homecoming.


FRI 18:30 The Naked Week (m002tqm0)
Series 4

Swearing, Steeplechase and Strikes

Following Trump's tirade, The Naked Week team bleep the hell out of the bleeping news, swear at a steeplechase, and stage a walk out.

From The Skewer’s Jon Holmes and host Andrew Hunter Murray comes The Naked Week; a fresh way of dressing the week’s news in the altogether and parading it around for everyone to laugh at.

With award-winning writers and a crack team of contemporary satirists - and recorded in front of a live audience - The Naked Week delivers a topical news-nude straight to your ears.

Written by:
Jon Holmes
Katie Sayer
Gareth Ceredig
James Kettle
Jason Hazeley

Additional Material:
Karl Minns
Jane Fae
Molly Punshon
Darren Phillips
Kevin Smith

Investigation team:
Cat Neilan
Becky Pinnington

Guest Correspondent: Katie Norris

Production Team: Tony Churnside, Jerry Peal, David Riffkin.

Production Coordinator: Molly Punshon
Assistant Producer: Katie Sayer
Executive Producer: Philip Abrams

Produced and Directed by Jon Holmes

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m002tqm2)
Pip informs David she’s decided to tell Ruth about the lump in her breast. She’d really like Ruth to come to her appointment too, but won’t put pressure on by asking her.

Later, Ruth’s glad Pip has told her and also pleased Pip’s been checking and caught it early. Ruth shares some memories of her own experience with cancer and advises Pip to lean on family, friends and medical staff who want to help. Ruth then admits to David that, although she put on a brave face with Pip, she found it hard going. David remembers how desperate he felt at the time, not being able to do anything that made a difference. Ruth’s just happy he was there to hold her hand. They agree they’ll do the same for Pip – that and hope.

Azra demands to know when Fletcher the budgie will be rehoused, warning Khalil not to spoil him. Khalil’s supposed to help make dinner, but Azra lets him off when he mentions seeing a friend who might take Fletcher. Before going Khalil briefs Azra on feeding and talking to Fletcher, plus a problem with his feathers. Azra then calls in Alistair, who suggests the issue might be due to stress from changes to Fletcher’s environment. Later, Khalil reports finding a potential home for Fletcher, but Azra wants to concentrate on settling him. Alone with Fletcher, Azra talks soothingly, sharing several things on her mind. Khalil then confirms his mate Barney can take the bird, but Azra reveals a change of heart – Fletcher’s staying right where he is.


FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m002tqm4)
Telephones

Alexander Graham Bell made the first ever telephone call 150 years ago this spring. That single moment of connection would transform communication - and provide storytellers with a rich device for drama, comedy, intimacy and tension. Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode trace the history of the phone on screen, and examine how the movies have handled the thorny problem of the smartphone.

Mark speaks to author and critic Kim Newman about some of the most iconic telephone calls in cinema, from Dr Strangelove to Scream.

Meanwhile, Ellen delves into how film and TV are responding to the smartphone age, with the help of critic Kayleigh Donaldson. And she speaks to American filmmaker Janicza Bravo, whose 2015 film Zola made inventive use of the cellphone.

Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m002tqm6)
Douglas Alexander MP, Miles Briggs, Stephen Flynn MP, Gillian Mackay

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from The Parish Church of St Cuthbert, Edinburgh with the Secretary State for Scotland Douglas Alexander MP; the Scottish Conservatives Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Miles Briggs; Stephen Flynn, the Scottish National Party MP for Aberdeen South and the party’s leader at Westminster; and the co-leader of the Scottish Green Party Gillian Mackay;

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Assistant producer: Jo Dwyer
Production coordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Lead broadcast engineer: Gav Murchie
Editor: Glyn Tansley


FRI 20:55 This Week in History (m002tprw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:40 on Wednesday]


FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (m00230sd)
Bowie in Berlin

How David Bowie saved his life and career in 1970s Berlin. Bowie had become a superstar by creating musical characters. Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke were alter egos through which he could tell stories. They helped him achieve global fame and wealth, and yet by 1976 his notorious excess had become the cause of his deep depression. Living in Los Angeles, addicted to cocaine and financially broke, he was feeling artistically washed-up and suicidal. David Bowie stood at a crossroads: become yet another rock ‘n roll casualty or face his demons.

“I started getting very very worried for my life and just had to get myself out of that situation….so I ended up in Berlin”

In 1976, moving to the epicentre of the Cold War more than saved his life and career. It allowed him to rediscover his youthful creative passions for art and literature, and - as one of the most famous people on the planet - to hide in plain sight. Dressed in simple check shirt and jeans, Bowie enjoyed relative anonymity on the streets of Berlin. With Iggy Pop as his flatmate, he lived in a cheap apartment in a working-class district of the city. And in Hansa Studios, alongside musical collaborator Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti, he began one the most artistically ambitious periods of entire career, honing a completely new sound with the albums Low and Heroes.

For many years his time in Berlin between 1976 and 1978 has been mythologised and romanticised by writers, filmmakers, critics and by Bowie himself. There’s no footage of Bowie in Berlin and very few photographs. But now documentary filmmaker Francis Whately reveals what really happened thanks to the testimonies of three women who knew Bowie intimately, all talking publicly about their relationships with him for the first time. Artist and former RSC actor Clare Shenstone, performer and legendary nightclub owner Romy Haag, and former journalist Sarah-Rena Hine all shared time with him in Berlin. Exclusive interviews with these remarkable muses, alongside other first-hand witnesses and a cache of previously unheard archive interviews, help tell a completely new story. Bowie In Berlin reveals how he drew upon the history, culture and anonymity of the German city to recuperate and regenerate.

Over those Cold War months of rain and beer, cycle-rides and cigarettes, Bowie wrenched himself from his past and thrust himself towards the future. For the first time we can hear how, in Berlin, David Bowie reinvented himself…as himself.

Writer and presenter: Francis Whately
Producer: John Wilson
A Blackstar production for BBC Radio 4
Interviewees: Clare Shenstone, Romy Haag, Sarah-Rena Hine, Esther Freidman, Michael Rother, Tony Visconti, Earl Slick, Carlos Alomar.
Archive: David Bowie, Iggy Pop


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002tqm8)
Artemis astronauts prepare to return to Earth

Having travelled further from Earth than any of their predecessors, the four astronauts aboard the Orion capsule are preparing to splash down in the Pacific Ocean. We speak to our correspondent at mission control in Houston and hear from two young astronomers on what the expedition has meant to them.

Also on the programme: The UK government shelves its Chagos Islands deal. And in the first case of its kind, a man in Scotland has been jailed for killing his wife even though she took her own life – we hear from the case’s prosecutor.


FRI 22:45 Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (m002tqmb)
Episode 10

Described by 2025 Booker judges as, "A book about dreams, an exploration of class and family, a celebration of the power and the glory of music, a challenge to the limits of realism, and - stunningly - a love story".

The Lancashire coast, the early 1960s. On the day that we meet Thomas Flett as he goes about his daily drudgery, out of the rain-soaked mist the new world comes to him – Edgar Acheson, a Hollywood director, spies him out in the bay with his horse and cart and tracks him down as he returns home from a frustrating few hours shanking for shrimps.

The American wants Thomas’s skills and knowledge of the bay in the fictional town of Longferry which is a location he has scouted for his next film. Over the next 48 hours we become intensely involved in this collision of the two worlds.

Thomas has very few people in his life – both his father and grandfather are dead. The first disappeared to join the army around the time he was born, and he was brought up by his mother and his grandfather, Pop. Friendships at school were difficult as nothing confers outsider status more than being the child of a vanished father and a teenaged unmarried mother in the 1940s. So Acheson’s charismatic presence and warmly open manner strikes a chord with this lonely young man.

The narrative unfurls with the daily tides, which ebb and flow around the twice daily low water - early in the morning and again in the evening. It is the sea and the treacherous sink pits in the sand of the wide shoreline that dominate Thomas’s life.

Benjamin Wood has crafted a quietly profound story of the margins, a place where the ordinary and the extraordinary can co-exist, and dreams flicker vividly at the edges of reality.

Read by Richard Fleeshman.
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters.
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4.

Music - The Jolly Waggoner (Traditional folk song) Performed by Richard Fleeshman


FRI 23:00 Americast (w3ct8lyx)
Is Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth waging a holy war against Iran?

Why has Hegseth fired top generals from the military, and how does he use religion to justify America’s war aims? We look at the frontman for the US war in Iran, the former Fox News host, Pete Hegseth. A key feature of his Pentagon press briefings are his religious rhetoric, which may reveal the motivation behind his reforms of the U.S. military.

Despite only narrowly making it through the confirmation process to become defense secretary in the first place, Hegseth has become a key figure in the White House as he looks to reshape the Pentagon by rolling back on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies and removing many key figures at the top of the Pentagon.

Justin Webb and Anthony Zurcher, speak to Eric Schmitt from The New York Times, a longtime national security correspondent who recently left his press desk inside the Pentagon after refusing to accept new Trump administration rules that restrict their movements and who they can talk to. Justin and Eric discuss the reasons why Donald Trump wanted Hegseth in post, the impact so far of the changes he is making inside the Pentagon, and whether he is eyeing up a presidential run of his own one day.

Presenter: Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter and Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent
Proudcer: George Dabby with Alix Pickles
Technical producer: Mike Regaard
Editor: 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. 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.

Newscast: bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl
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FRI 23:30 Money, Influence and the NHS (m002tbpq)
New World Order

GP and academic, Dr Margaret McCartney thinks medicine remains conflicted, despite her 20-year quest to reveal the financial influences that can impact your treatments. She learns about today’s increase in partnerships with industry within the NHS and explores new ways of reducing conflicts of interest in medicine where possible.

Presenter: Margaret McCartney
Producer: Erika Wright
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth