SATURDAY 23 MAY 2026

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m002wkxh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe by Katja Hoyer (m002wkw7)
1939 and 2026: The Furies of War

The story of the residents of Weimar during the rise and reign of Hitler.

Weimar – On the Edge of Catastrophe is written by Katja Hoyer.
The reader is Sian Thomas.
The abridger is Julian Wilkinson.
The producer is Lu Kemp.

Hiking in the Ettersberg Carl Weirich is conscious of how the concentration camp has ruined the beautiful natural landscape of his local area. Meanwhile the net is drawing in around Rosa, as more and more demands are made to authenticate her heritage.

In the early 2020s historian Katja Hoyer visits Weimar to research the story of the people who lived there, and meets those who remember them.

Weimar explores ‘the question of how and why a nation that prided itself on its culture and civility enabled the catastrophe of Nazism haunts us to this day because we fear a repeat.’ The book is about the tension between individual and collective responsibility and sounds a warning for our own times.

Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian, journalist and the author of the international bestseller Beyond the Wall as well as Blood and Iron. A visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she writes for Bloomberg and Berliner Zeitung and is a commentator on German current affairs for many British newspapers. She was born in Germany and is now based in the UK.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002wkxk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002wkxm)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:30 News Summary (m002wkxp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002wkxr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002wkxt)
From despair to respair

Prayer for the Day presented by Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark.

Good morning.

The world tends to divide into two in the mornings. Some are very sullen and quiet, and others are vivacious and energised. Personally, I take myself up a corner and spend twenty minutes each morning alone with a poem. I’ve always loved words and the struggle to find the ones that open doors onto how we understand things.

I also love discovering when a language has a word for something that we just don’t have the equivalent of in English. Why don’t we have a word like SOBREMESA like the Italians do, a word referring to that lingering at the dinner table to chat after a meal is finished? Most of us would happily live with the Icelandic word SOLARFRI which refers to an unexpectedly sunny day that demands to be taken as an instant holiday. The Buli language of Ghana has the word PELINTI which describes the ‘hahaha’ sound we make when pushing very hot food around our mouth.

And one of my favourites is from an Inuit language. IKTSUARPOK – this refers to the repeated process, when we are both anxious and excited, of us keep going outside and going to the window to check if a long-awaited guest is coming.

One word, however, seems more important than ever to translate into our lives at the moment. It is an English word but has been forgotten. It has only ever been recorded once in the Oxford English Dictionary. But it is one of the lost great positive words of the English language – ‘respair’. It means fresh hope, a recovery from despair.

I pray today for some respair in the world, respair in the hearts of those who are bowed down or struggling, and pray that we may have the will to bring it to those we will meet today to bring a horizon into view.

Amen.


SAT 05:45 The Hackers (m0012fwt)
Series 1

Aaron

Biella explores the legacy of Aaron Swartz. From the age of 14, Aaron was a prolific hacker, inventor and activist. He was integral in the creation of Creative Commons and the Internet Archive, co-founder social media site Reddit, and was passionate in his activism work that culminated in the dismissal of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the USA. But Aaron took his own life at the age of 26 when he was charged with violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, facing decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines - a court case that many at the time felt was completely unjustified.

Biella speaks with Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig who worked with Aaron on the Creative Commons project, and a Lisa Rein, co-founder of ‘Aaron Swartz Day’ that works to carry on projects started or inspired by Aaron’s work, and discusses why it’s important to remember Aaron’s story, the legacy of his work, and to find out if a recent Supreme Court ruling on the CFAA means that people like Aaron may be safer in the future.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m002wshw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m002wkjh)
Bailies of Bennachie

Clare heads up Mither Tap, a distinctive hill in the Bennachie range in Aberdeenshire.

Leading the way are the Bailies of Bennachie, a group of volunteer conservators formed over 50 years ago as a “Voice for the Hill.” Peter Stock, Allan Will, Stella Gauld, Lorna Bell and Anne Watson are just some of the many Bailies who care passionately about Bennachie - its wildlife, archaeology, landscape, history and future.

Their walk begins at the Bennachie Visitor Centre. From there, they climb steadily towards the ancient Pictish hillfort that crowns the summit. After enjoying the views on a very blowy top, they head back down. On the way, they pause to hear the story of the Bennachie Colony and see the remains of this crofting settlement first established in 1825.

The Bennachie Visitor Centre: Grid ref NJ698216
What3Words: ///sedative.info.equal

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m002wshy)
23/05/26 Farming Today This Week: red diesel, Gulf trade deal, Climate Change Committee report, regen tenancies, flowers.

The cost of growing our food is still higher than before the conflict in the Middle East. To counteract some of that, the government's laid out a "Great British Savings" bonanza aimed at making life a little less expensive for everyone. There'll be cuts to tariffs on more than 100 food imports sold in supermarkets and fuel duty on red diesel will be reduced by a third. We visit a strawberry grower in Kent to find out how they're coping with rising costs.

A new trade deal has been announced with a group of six states in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. It'll remove export tariffs and open the door to market expansion. We speak to the International Chamber of Commerce and the NFU for their reaction.

The Climate Change Committee has published a new report about the consequences of a 2% rise in global temperatures and what the UK needs to do about it. We ask what it means for farmers.

A fifth of the Duchy of Cornwall's property, owned by the Prince of Wales, could be sold in the next 10 years to help invest £500m into tackling housing and nature crises. The Duchy has a large number of tenant farmers and is introducing a new tenancy agreement, which concentrates on regenerative farming.

All week we're celebrating British flowers. We visit a commercial grower in Norfolk which grows 35 million tulips every year and supplies most of the UK’s leading supermarkets. It's invested five million pounds in new technology so it can stay competitive and compete with imported blooms. We also visit a flower grower who is trying to connect local producers and florists.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


SAT 06:57 Weather (m002wsj0)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m002wsj2)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m002wsj4)
LIVE at the Hay Festival - Hugh Bonneville, Martha Kearney, Matt Haig, and the Inheritance Tracks of Prue Leith

Martha Kearney is a titan of news and political broadcasting who these days takes a more relaxed approach to her work, swapping the campaign trail for a nature trail.

Matt Haig can do it all, fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books - and we’re all aboard for his latest novel the Midnight Train - but it's Winnie the Pooh that

Ian Fletcher, Earl Grantham, Mr Brown…are but some of the much loved characters of Hugh Bonneville - he’s now turned his hand to a children’s book where, as we’ll hear, the most unbelievable stories within it are true!

All that, plus the Inheritance Tracks of Prue Leith.

Presenter: Adrian Chiles
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Lowri Morgan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards and Josie Hardy
Editor: Andrea Kennedy


SAT 10:00 The History Podcast (m002wsj6)
Sixty Years of Hurt

2. England v Mavericks

'Sixty Years of Hurt with David Baddiel' explores the meaning of England and Englishness through the history of the England Men’s Football team. This is a social and cultural history as much as a sporting one, examining the story England tells about itself and how it's changed, via the medium of the international game.

In episode two, England v Mavericks, David shares a theory that he once unsuccessfully shared with England Manager, Terry Venables. England isn’t good at dealing with talent, specifically with maverick talent, talent that doesn’t play by the rules - the best kind of talent. As a result, England men’s football is littered with wonderous players who won very few caps, and never more than in the 1970s. David thinks the team, in this respect, represents the country and gets to the bottom of how various kinds of Englishness fought to keep the genius Brian Clough away from the manager’s job, and Rodney Marsh, the most talented player of his generation, away from the team.

Across the series, David Baddiel will be joined by contributors including Stephen Fry, Alex James, Maisie Adam, Elis James, Barney Ronay, Roy Williams, Des Lynam, Stuart Pearce, Jean Williams, David Goldblatt, Pippa Grange, Jonathan Wilson, David Seaman, Omid Djalili and many more.

Sixty Years of Hurt with David Baddiel is produced by BBC Studios Audio for BBC Radio 4, in collaboration with Left Bank Pictures who are producing the upcoming drama Dear England for BBC iPlayer and BBC One.

The producers are Rich Power and David Baddiel.


SAT 10:30 Legend (m002wsj8)
The Miles Davis Story

1. Don't Call Me Legend

Clarke Peters explores the life and legacy of a visionary artist whose relentless pursuit of the "new" often scorched his own life and the lives of those around him.

In September 1944, an 18-year-old Miles Davis arrives in New York with a trumpet in his hand and a secret mission. He may have first arrived in New York to take up a place at the prestigious Juilliard School, but in reality Miles was actually patrolling the smoke-filled jazz clubs of 52nd Street, chasing the high-speed sounds of his bebop heroes, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

Across the series, Clarke charts Miles’s ever-evolving artform, starting with this first great transformation of a legend - when the young Miles chose to step into the unknown, seize control of his own creative destiny, and begin his journey as a leader.

Narrator, acclaimed actor and longtime fan, Clarke Peters (The Wire, Treme, Da 5 Bloods) reveals the restless genius and radical evolution of Miles Davis. Growing up in a New York household where his father’s jazz records were the permanent soundtrack, Clarke was captivated by Miles long before he fully appreciated the man behind the music. Across five episodes, Clarke traces a 50 year odyssey of constant reinvention - from a teenage outsider chasing the bebop revolution in 1944 to a global icon who redefined what it meant to be Black, to be cool, and to be an artist.

Blending archival recordings and legendary tracks with fresh perspectives from a range of creators, the series reveals how Miles’ influence ripples far beyond the world of jazz. We discover how his "take no shit" attitude and aesthetic fearlessness impacted on the likes of Oscar-winning filmmakers, celebrated designers and music icons like Prince, Joni Mitchell, Sting and even bands like Radiohead, as well as generations of now also legendary jazz musicians that he championed early in their careers - John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Keith Jarrett and Marcus Miller, to name a few.

The series also grapples with the darker side of Miles’ legacy, including the domestic abuse that left a trail of pain for those closest to him and the substance issues that took a deep toll on his health. It asks difficult questions about how to regard an artist capable of creating the most sublime aesthetic statements while engaging in brutal behaviour.

Clarke Peters, whose own creative journey as an actor was sparked by Miles’s music, leads a searching investigation into a man who refused to be palatable, refused to be a "legend", and simply refused to stop moving forward.

Miles Davis Interview: From Jazz Talking by Ben Sidran, 1986.
The Arsenio Hall Show, Paramount, originally broadcast in 1989.
60 Minutes, CBS News. Originally broadcast in 1989

Presenter: Clarke Peters
Series Producer: Clem Hitchcock
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Production Manager: Emily Duffy
Music Consultant: Guy Barker
Additional Music: Guy Barker
Archivist: Simon Rooks
Script Consultant: Anne Harbin
Technical Production and Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m002wsjc)
Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002wsjf)
Afghanistan: Shaiqa's story

Kate Adie introduces stories on the fate of a sick Afghan girl, a surprising return to Sudan, Armenia's choice between Russia and the West, Germany's culture of remembrance, and a first-time visit to an Irish wake.

In Afghanistan's Hindu Kush, where drought and hunger are rife, Yogita Limaye meets a father who made the unenviable decision to sell his young daughter into marriage to fund her medical treatment. Child marriage is not uncommon in rural communities, and the recent codification of laws under the Taliban government has made it more permissible.

Sudan has entered its fourth year of a brutal civil war, though government forces have reclaimed the capital Khartoum over the past year, driving out the paramilitary Rapid Support forces. Mohanad Hashim grew up Khartoum, and recently returned for the first time since the government took back control.

Armenia is holding key elections next month, which will serve as a major test of the country's political trajectory - to strengthen old ties with Russia, or to accelerate plans to join the EU. Rayhan Demytrie has been in the capital, Yerevan.

Germany’s culture of remembrance has long been seen as a model for how others can reckon with dark episodes of their past. But this has come under some scrutiny after the culture minister announced plans to broaden exactly what the country chooses to remember. Chelsea Coates reports from Berlin.

And finally, Vincent Dowd recently returned to southwest Ireland - somewhere he knows well after many years spent holidaying in the region. But this visit was more tentative than usual, as he was to attend his first traditional Irish wake.

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


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m002wsjh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m002wsjk)
Carers' Pensions and Face-to-Face Banking

Newly released research seen exclusively by this programme suggests a quarter of the UK's nearly 6 million carers have paused or stopped paying into their pension because of the financial pressures of caring for a loved one. Most often, that loved one has complex needs and the costs of caring for them can be high. In the same research, from Carers UK, three quarters of carers said they're worried about their financial futures.

An independent review is to take place into how the closure of bank branches affects people who rely on being able to physically go into their bank and speak to someone. The government says it wants to make sure those needing access to in-person service are protected. It has appointed Richard Lloyd, a former Director at Which?, to review face-to-face banking.

On Wednesday National Savings and Investments will start a year-long process of contacting the executors and personal representatives of 34,000 former customers whose money it had kept after they died, some as long ago as 2008. How will that work?

And a new report looks at the quality of financial guidance being offered by some social media posts.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researchers: Catherine Lund and Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson

(First broadcast at 12 noon on Saturday 23rd May, 2026)


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m002wkwy)
Series 120

6. Brexpressionism

Recorded at Hay Festival, Andy asks the panel the dreaded question - is Brexit back on the table? Also on the menu is Welsh independence, the National Conversation and an update on just how much money has been wasted on HS2.

This week’s panellists are Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Robin Morgan, Stephen Bush and Chloe Petts.

Written by Andy Zaltzman.

With additional material by: Maisie Adair, Catherine Brinkworth, Angela Channell and James Farmer
Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Coordinator: Asha Osborne-Grinter
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Recorded at Hay Festival

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


SAT 12:57 Weather (m002wsjm)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m002wsjp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m002wkx4)
Chris Curtis MP, Mariella Frostrup, Damian Hinds MP, Mark Littlewood

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Warminster Civic Centre in Wiltshire with the Labour MP Chris Curtis, chair of the Labour Growth Group of backbenchers; journalist, broadcaster and campaigner Mariella Frostrup; Conservative MP and former education secretary Damian Hinds; and Mark Littlewood, director of the Popular Conservatism campaign group.

Producer: Paul Martin
Assistant Producer: Jo Dwyer
Production Coordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Lead broadcaster engineer: Mark MacDonald
Editor: Andrea Kennedy


SAT 14:05 Any Answers? (m002wsjr)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 The Archers (m002wkx0)
17 – 22 May 2026
Writer: Katie Hims
Directors: Kim Greengrass and Peter Leslie Wild
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Brian Aldridge … Charles Collingwood
Ben Archer … Ben Norris
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas 
Leonard Berry … Paul Copley
Alice Carter … Hollie Chapman 
Ian Craig …  Stephen Kennedy 
Alan Franks … John Telfer
Bert Horrobin…  David Sterne
Brad Horrobin … Taylor Uttley
Tracy Horrobin … Susie Riddell 
Adam Macy … Andrew Wincott  
Akram Malik ... Asif Khan
Dr Azra Malik … Yasmin Wilde 
Kirsty Miller …. Annabelle Dowler 
Carol Tregorran … Mia Soteriou
Anna Tregorran … Isobel Middleton
Den … Laurence Saunders


SAT 15:00 Spotlight (m0012g5j)
Lola vs Powerman

'Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround' is an album by the Kinks, released in 1970 when the band's iconic songwriter, Ray Davies, was embroiled in a legal battle over the rights to his songs.

Drawing on medieval morality plays, this brand-new drama, adapted from the album by Ray Davies and Paul Sirett, becomes an allegorical journey through a world of deals, devils and demons, where music, power and temptation are always in play.

Cast
SONGWRITER ..... Lee Ross
LOLA ..... Emma Frankland
EVERYMAN ..... Ben Norris
MAMMON ..... Tim McInnerny
SATAN ..... Kyle Soller
LUST ..... Sharon D Clarke
DAD ..... Harry Myers
BROTHER/SOUND ENGINEER ..... Carl Prekopp
MUM/ WIFE ..... Becky Wright

Songs by RAY DAVIES. New versions produced by RAY DAVIES at KONK
Piano & Organ, Harvey Brough
Guitar, Bill Shanley
Sound engineer music, Matt Jaggar

Medley LEE ROSS
You Still Want Me BEN NORRIS/ CARL PREKOPP
Get Back In Line HARRY MYERS
Art School Babe LEE ROSS
Denmark Street BEN NORRIS/ CARL PREKOPP
Got To Be Free THE CAST
Top Of The Pops BEN NORRIS / THE KINKS
Strangers by DAVE DAVIES_ BEN NORRIS/ CARL PREKOPP
This Time Tomorrow BEN NORRIS / EMMA FRANKLAND
The Good Life TIM McINNERNY and The Kinks
Powerman TIM McINNERY / BEN NORRIS
Rats by DAVE DAVIES_ SHARON D CLARKE
This Time Tomorrow BEN NORRIS
Look A Little On The Sunny Side EMMA FRANKLAND
A Long Way From Home HARRY MYERS
Starstruck EMMA FRANKLAND
The Moneygoround BEN NORRIS
Look a LIttle on the Sunny Side EMMA FRANKLAND
Lola EMMA FRANKLAND and The Kinks

Producer/director drama Karen Rose
Sound engineer and designer David Thomas
Production coordinator Sarah Tombling

A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:30 Woman's Hour (m002wsjt)
Weekend Woman’s Hour: Dawn French, Alexis Ohanian, Ladies loos on stage

Comedian, actor and writer Dawn French is best known as one half of one of the UK’s most successful comedy double acts, and as the fictional vicar Geraldine Granger. She’s also a bestselling author, and her latest book, Enough, is her fifth novel — her eighth book in total. It blends dark humour with some tougher themes she thinks are important to explore. She joined Nuala to discuss.

Best known as the co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian is now turning his focus to the future of women’s sport. Once overlooked and underfunded, it is now undergoing rapid change. Alexis is today announcing he's bringing his all-female track and field meet series, Athlos, to London. He tells Anita Rani why, and talks about being married to one of the most successful and well known sports stars of all time - Serena Williams.

We discuss a new play that unfolds entirely in the ladies loos. April Hope Miller wrote and performs in ‘Flush’, it was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and it’s just opened at the Arcola Theatre in London. April and co-star Jazz Jenkins tell Nuala why the real drama on any night out is always to be found in the women’s toilets. And why it took an ensemble cast of five, playing no less 16 different characters between them, to capture something universal about women's lives.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Annette Wells


SAT 17:00 PM (m002wsjw)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m002wsjy)
'What the hell are we doing?' Wes Streeting on his promise to young people, resigning from government, and wanting to be PM

Labour leadership contender and former health secretary Wes Streeting on what prompted his resignation, the challenges of being a working class politician, and his wealth tax plan.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002wsk0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m002wsk2)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002wsk4)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002wsk6)
Hay Festival, Athena Kugblenu, James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, Keith Cameron, Robin Morgan, Georgina Hayden, Cerys Hafna

Recorded in front of an audience at this year's Hay Festival, Clive Anderson is joined by comedian Athena Kugblenu, celebrating failure with her second history book for children, History's Most Epic Fails. Comedian Robin Morgan bears all in his latest stand-up hour, Let's Overshare. Food writer Georgina Hayden's new book is Medesque: Everyday Recipes with Mediterranean Roots. Keith Cameron is the author of 168 Songs of Hatred and Failure: A History of the Manic Street Preachers, telling their story song by song. Keith is joined by James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire from the band. And there's more music from Welsh harpist Cerys Hafana.

Presenter: Clive Anderson
Producer: Jessica Treen


SAT 19:00 Profile (m002wsk8)
Rhun ap Iorwerth

Plaid Cymru's Rhun ap Iorwerth has been confirmed as Wales' first minister, calling it "the greatest privilege of my life".

Born in Tonteg in south-east Wales, ap Iorwerth moved to Anglesey as a young child. His father was a teacher, prominent singer and composer, and an active campaigner for Plaid Cymru. His mother was also a teacher and went on to become president of several organisations promoting the Welsh language.

After graduating from Cardiff University ap Iorwerth became a journalist and spent two decades as a reporter and presenter with BBC Wales. But in 2013, following the death of his mother, he left broadcasting and successfully contested the Ynys Môn by-election, winning the Anglesey seat in the Senedd.

When the Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price resigned in 2023 ap Iorwerth quickly emerged as the obvious successor for many in the party. He was elected unopposed, at the age of 50. Three years later he has become the first Welsh minister from Plaid Cymru.

Presenter: Becky Milligan
Producers: Annabel Deas and Bethan Ashmead
Editor: Justine Lang
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Sabine Schereck
Sound Designer: James Beard


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m002wkhx)
George Saunders

The Booker Prize winning American author George Saunders talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences. He made his name as a writer of satirical or absurdist short stories which often explore contemporary consumerist society, always underpinned with a strong sense of human compassion and empathy. In 2017, his first full length novel Lincoln In The Bardo - about Presidential grief amid a cacophony of spiritual voices - won the Booker Prize and became a global bestseller. His latest novel Vigil once again explores death and the afterlife. George Saunders teaches creative writing at Syracuse University, New York, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in American literature.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m002wskb)
The Sound of Soft Power

In 2025, Voice of America was thrust into the spotlight when the bulk of its funding was taken away. But in an era shaped by the internet and social media revolutions and with the West's funding priorities changing, it wasn't the first international broadcaster to go quiet. The soft power war of the airwaves has now moved to a decisive phase.

Josephine McDermott traces the start of international radio and its heyday through World War II and the Cold War as a tool of soft power. Hear the hosts of shortwave radio, from the Nazi propagandists Lord Haw Haw and Mildred Gillars to Doris Maxina, the presenter of Soviet radio's Moscow Mailbag, plus June Taylor, the New Zealander who became the global voice of communist Albania.

Tune in to the sounds lost to time from Radio Netherlands' Happy Station Show to Radio Berlin International, and the Russian version of the British institution The Archers which came about following the collapse of the USSR.

Featuring:
Thomas Witherspoon, creator of the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive
Jamie Shea, NATO spokesperson from 1993 to 2000
Sir John Tusa, managing director of the BBC World Service from 1986 to 1992
Ivana Stradner, research fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies in the United States
Nic Newman, senior research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University

With archive from the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive, including recordings from Thomas Witherspoon, Paul Watson, Greg Shoom, Mark Hirst, Tom Gavaras and Keith Perron. Moscow Mailbag recording from KSN's Tech Topics on YouTube.

Presenter and producer: Josephine McDermott
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Technical producer: Nicky Edwards
Production coordinator: Phoebe Lomas
Consultant: John Escolme


SAT 21:00 Understand (m002wskd)
Rinsed (2/2)

What's happening to our rivers is a real stinker of a scandal. Kate Lamble asks, who should pay to clean up the mess?


SAT 22:00 News (m002wskg)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m002wkw5)
The BBC Food & Farming Awards 2026 Launch: Belfast here we come

The BBC Food & Farming Awards come from Belfast this year. Jaega Wise heads to the Balmoral Show, the largest agri-food show in Northern Ireland, to find out what makes this such an amazing place for food and farming. Jaega will be meeting head judge Paula McIntyre to talk about why Northern Ireland is home to some of the UK's most exciting food and drink businesses. She also meets Eve Blair, presenter of Your Place and Mine on BBC Radio Ulster and the judge of this year's Northern Ireland award, to talk about why the Balmoral Show is so important to her.

To nominate for this year's awards go to bbc.co.uk/foodawards where you can find the terms and privacy notice. Nominations are open from 6am 22 May 2026 to 12pm 15 June 2026.

Producer: Sam Grist


SAT 23:00 Hajj & Seek (m002wskk)
A spiritual journey like no other… just with more chaos, queueing, and a missing pair of sandals.

Blending storytelling, stand-up and documentary, comedian Ali Shahalom (aka Ali Official) takes us on a deeply personal comic journey through one of the most important acts of worship in Islam: Hajj. What begins as a sacred pilgrimage becomes a test of patience, endurance, and broadband speed.

From battling the notoriously stressful Nusuk booking system (“depression you pay for”) to convincing his entire family to commit to the trip, Ali charts every step of the journey with warmth, honesty and razor-sharp humour. There are frozen bank accounts, passport panics, and a £40,000 leap of faith - and that's all before he’s even left the UK.

Written and performed by Ali Shahalom
Script editor - Laura Major
Sound design - Andy Goddard
Producer - Victoria Lloyd

A Mighty Bunny Production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:30 Round Britain Quiz (m002wjjp)
7. Wales and Scotland - Third place play-off

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

The seventh match is the third place play off between Wales and Scotland.

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:
Wales: Myfanwy Alexander and Cariad Lloyd
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

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

Questions in today's edition:

Q1: (From Joe Wainwright) Why might:
A moaning Muppet
A Venetian violinist’s favourite
A polite pilferer
A Brassica Oleracea
A Viennese chocolate original
all point to the same consonant?

Q2: (From Emma Brown) Why might all of these be your favourite
A bloody pirate’s drink?
A siphonophore, missing its Iberian connection
A salty American scone
And an Italian astronomer

Q3 Music: (From Phil Ware)
Why would the first have a familial bond to a macho man, the second to a Beatles influencer, and the third to someone on the lookout for a jive partner?
And the fourth to someone with a Buffalo Stance.

Q4: (From David Piper) How might each of the following cryptically suggest a possible way of emptying "a quart into a pint pot"?
Offenbach’s “Galop Infernal”
A Gungan from the planet Naboo
A traditional Caribbean festive dish
A young investigative journalist.

Q5: A Galilean fisherman’s triple-shaking of the head
A look back at Jimmy Porter.
A defendant’s plea to a lesser charge to avoid a trial.
Churchill’s shadowy companion.
And the speech every actor claims they haven’t prepared.
What am I going through?

Q6 Music: (From Simon Meara)
I wonder, what narcissistic host might be suggested by the following pieces of music?

Q7: (From Stephen Murphy) I’m going to describe three uniquely brilliant film or TV performances.
Firstly, tell me the names of the films or TV shows, and then tell me why the characters portrayed by these actors were also one of a kind?
Michael Grandage in an ITV show from the 1990s which starred Derek Jacobi.
Oscar Isaac in a 2010 Ridley Scott movie which starred Russell Crowe
Olivia Colman in a 2018 movie by Yorgos Lathimos which co-starred Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz

Q8: (From David Piper) What kind of social or political body might initially turn
A university postgraduate into an Asian fruit?
A military reserve force into an Argentinian dance?
A police officer into an Antipodean animal?
A head of a military unit into one of two African countries?

SUNDAY 24 MAY 2026

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m002wskp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:15 Take Four Books (m002wjjm)
Katie Kitamura

The American writer Katie Kitamura speaks about her Booker-shortlisted novel, Audition, and together with presenter James Crawford they explore its connections to three other literary works.

Audition begins with two people meeting for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. The woman is an accomplished actress and she's meeting a man who is young enough to be her son. But who is he to her, and who is she to him? Two competing narratives unspool and the novel begins to rewrite our understanding of the roles we play every day.

For her three influences Katie, who was a recent finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, chose: Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin from 1967, which was later made into a film directed by Roman Polanski; Tomorrow In The Battle Think Of Me, by Javier Marias, from 1994; and Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant, from 1885.

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


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002wskt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002wskw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:30 News Summary (m002wsky)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002wsl0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m002wsl2)
The church of St Michael Cornhill in the City of London

Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Michael Cornhill in the City of London. Built over the 1st century Roman Basilica, there has been a church on this site since the Norman conquest. In 1666 the church, except for the tower, was destroyed in the Great Fire of London and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. The old tower was replaced in 1722 and held twelve bells. In 2011 a new peal of twelve bells was cast by the John Taylor foundry of Loughborough. The tenor weighs thirty two and a quarter hundredweight and is tuned to the note of D flat. We now hear them ringing Stedman Cinques.


SUN 05:45 In Touch (m002wj87)
Probing the SEND Reforms, RNIB Newsagent Service

The government has recently announced a reform of the provisions for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) pupils. It promises more resources for children in need of support. However, there are worries about how these reforms will work for blind and visually impaired children.

Joining us for this episode is Dr Rachel Hewett from the Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR). Dr Hewett is the author of a report that examines the benefits offered by specialist schools for blind and visually impaired children - and the fear these schools may be overlooked in the new reforms. We’re also joined by Victoria Ward, head of visual impairment education at New College Worcester, a specialist school for children with visual impairments.

The RNIB's "Newsagent" service provides newspapers and magazines in an accessible format. Although now resolved, the service has recently been affected by IT problems. Iain Lackie is a regular user of the service and he joins us to share his concerns about how the problems were handled.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Fern Lulham
Production Coordinator: Helen Surtees

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


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m002wsn8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Beyond Belief (m002wj7m)
The Gospel according to Bob

The Gospel According to Dylan. Sixty years ago, Bob Dylan was on stage at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester when a fan shouted "Judas!" from the audience. Giles is joined by Michael Gray, and writer, poet, philosopher, priest, and blues-singer, Malcolm Guite to discuss the spiritual side of Bob Dylan. He also speaks to Gospel legend, Regina McCrary about touring with Dylan at the height of his Christian period.

Producers: Katharine Longworth and Peter Everett


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m002wsnb)
The Last Generation to Farm?

For four generations, Tom Clarke’s family has farmed the Fenland soil. But after years of bad weather, changing policies and rising pressure on farming, the business is no longer making money. Tom has handed the day-to-day running to contractors for two years to give himself space to think - but the decision ahead is far from easy. Does he hold on to the land his family has worked for generations, or accept that it may be time for a different future?

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton


SUN 06:57 Weather (m002wsnd)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m002wsng)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m002wsnj)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m002wsnl)
Reprieve

Actor Adjoa Andoh makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Reprieve. Reprieve’s lawyers and investigators helps people around the world access justice, including people facing the death penalty.

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 ‘Reprieve’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Reprieve'.
- 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: 1114900. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://reprieve.org/uk/
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites

Producer: Katy Takatsuki


SUN 07:57 Weather (m002wsnn)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m002wsnq)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m002wsns)
Pentecost

Alive City Church, London host a special Sunday Worship for Pentecost Sunday with gospel group Volney Morgan & New Ye.
Led by Pastor Angel Morgan, the service reflects on the power of the Holy Spirit and the story of Pentecost as told in Acts 2 1- 21.
The MOBO award winning group are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year and music will include Volney Morgan & New Ye classics Vacancy and Amazing God as well as gospel favourites I lift my hands to give you glory and Dwell.
The producer is Miriam Williamson.


SUN 08:48 Witness History (w3ct74nx)
The Irish priest who built an airport

In May 1986, a new airport opened in Knock in the west of Ireland. It was the dream of an Irish priest, Monsignor James Horan, who raised millions to have it built.

The location for the airport seemed impossible – set in the boggy, foggy hills of rural County Mayo.

However, Knock attracts more than a million pilgrims every year, who come to visit the supposed site of an apparition by the Virgin Mary and other saints.

So, Horan convinced politicians that this remote western landscape could host a gateway to the world, and service the pilgrims who come to visit the shrine of Knock.

Pearce Concannon was working at the local Knock Shrine when the airport opened and remembers when Horan asked him to quit his job and become a firefighter at his new airport. He speaks to Colm Flynn.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

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

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

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

(Photo: Monsignor James Horan in front of the first plane to arrive at the airport. Credit: Ireland West Airport)


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m002wsnv)
Juliet Vickery on the Woodcock

The CEO of the British Trust for Ornithology, Juliet Vickery, describes an encounter with a patrolling male woodcock 30 years ago, watching it circle its territory from high in the sky. Apart from this display these waders are very hard to see, usually inhabiting dense woods and heathland, which also makes them hard to monitor. However thanks to generations of volunteer observers, we know that the distribution of breeding woodcock in the UK is sadly less than half of what it was in the 1960s.

Produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m002wsnx)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m002wsnz)
Emily Watson, actor

Emily Watson is an award-winning actor, widely regarded as one of the finest character actors of her generation.

She began her career on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company before rising to prominence in 1996, when she was cast as Bess McNeill in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves. The role earned her an Academy Award nomination. She received a second Oscar nomination for Hilary and Jackie, for which she learned to play the cello to portray Jacqueline du Pré.

Watson has built a reputation for a level of commitment that is as intense as it is acclaimed. She describes her craft not merely as a profession but as a profound internal necessity, stating: "I love the sense of creating and inhabiting something. That feeling of making it feel magically real. That's the addiction".

She grew up in London and was a passionate reader before leaving home to study English at Bristol University. Her parents were members of the School of Economic Science which proscribed that followers eschew TV and popular culture. Emily joined in with the university drama productions and followed her passion, with her parents’ blessing, to pursue a career in acting.

Emily Watson lives in London with her husband, and they have two children.

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Desert Island Discs has cast other actors away over the years including Emily’s fellow actor from Hamnet, Jessie Buckley. The writer, Maggie O’Farrell is in there too along with Emily’s friend from university, the writer David Nicholls. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.


SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m002wsp1)
17 – 22 May 2026
Writer: Katie Hims
Directors: Kim Greengrass and Peter Leslie Wild
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Brian Aldridge … Charles Collingwood
Ben Archer … Ben Norris
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas 
Leonard Berry … Paul Copley
Alice Carter … Hollie Chapman 
Ian Craig …  Stephen Kennedy 
Alan Franks … John Telfer
Bert Horrobin…  David Sterne
Brad Horrobin … Taylor Uttley
Tracy Horrobin … Susie Riddell 
Adam Macy … Andrew Wincott  
Akram Malik ... Asif Khan
Dr Azra Malik … Yasmin Wilde 
Kirsty Miller …. Annabelle Dowler 
Carol Tregorran … Mia Soteriou
Anna Tregorran … Isobel Middleton
Den … Laurence Saunders


SUN 12:15 Profile (m002wsk8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 12:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m002wj0q)
Series 33

4. Advertising, The Beatles, Theatre and Underwear

David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they’re able to smuggle past their opponents.

Henning Wehn, Holly Walsh, Miles Jupp and Lucy Porter are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as advertising, The Beatles, theatre and underwear.

The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith.

Producer: Jon Naismith

A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:57 Weather (m002wsp3)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m002wsp5)
A look at the week's big stories and preview of the week to come.


SUN 13:30 Currently (m002x7zz)
When Shiraz Calls

A personal account of day-to-day life in Iran told through the calls of two Iranian sisters – one in the UK, the other in the Iranian city of Shiraz. Since the outbreak of war at the end of February, a near total internet blackout and a shutdown of international phone lines by the Iranian authorities has meant limited information has got out of the country. Despite the risks involved, the sisters have made recordings of their conversations which have been shared with the BBC. They discuss when the bombs land, the destruction of places they love and the realities of an economy that’s being brought to its knees. They struggle to sleep at night. Salaries don’t come through. It’s a roller coaster of emotions. But there are also moments of calm and comfort…a spot of dark humour and the scent of hyacinths.

Actors:
Leila played by Lisa Zahra
Gita played by Zahra Ahmadi

Presenter: Caroline Hawley
Producers: Adele Armstrong and Soroush Pakzad
Sound design: Peregrine Andrews
Editor: Clare Fordham


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002wkwm)
Chelsea Flower Show 2026 - Postbag

Kathy Clugston and Peter Gibbs are at the Chelsea Flower Show for a special postbag episode of Gardeners' Question Time.

From the showground of the world’s most celebrated horticultural event, they're joined by a stellar panel - former Chelsea exhibitor and medal-winning designer Matthew Wilson, one of the world's leading authorities on plant pests and diseases, Pippa Greenwood, and making her press-day debut at Chelsea with GQT, Head Gardener at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Bethan Collerton.

As Kathy and the panel roam the show gardens answering questions submitted by listeners, they catch up with several garden designers behind this year’s show, including Frances Tophill (The RHS and The King’s Foundation Curious Garden), Sarah Fisher and Janice Molyneux (The Sightsavers Garden) and Patrick Clarke (The Children’s Society Garden). They explore the ideas, craftsmanship and planting inspiration behind their Chelsea creations, from sensory container gardens to spaces designed for well-being and connection.

Meanwhile, Peter takes the roving reporter mic inside the Great Pavilion, discovering the science behind our gardens, speaking to exhibitors, and uncovering the latest innovations in horticulture and biodiversity research.

The panel tackles everything from gardening in challenging coastal conditions, to choosing the right trees for privacy and produce, as well as tips on drying flowers for wedding confetti, and solving the mysteries of struggling container plants and stubborn succulents.

Producers: Dan Cocker, Matt Smith and 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.


SUN 14:45 One to One (m0010pv2)
Faces of Fame: Janet Ellis and Sophie Ellis Bextor

Sophie Ellis-Bextor has the kind of fame which brings with it high profile television shows and recognition in the street. Her mum, Janet Ellis was in millions of living rooms every week but the only perk Sophie can remember was jumping the queue at Madame Tussauds. Mother and daughter talk about fame, and how the whole experience has changed over the decades.

Producer Sally Heaven


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m002wsp7)
Milady

Part 4

Milady de Winter has been betrayed. And now she’s out for revenge.

Alexandre Dumas’ iconic femme fatale returns in Lucy Catherine’s wicked retelling of the story of the Three Musketeers’ deadliest adversary.

Milady finds herself at a crossroads. Betrayed by her benefactor and fraternising with dangerous new allies, she has to make a choice. Where should her allegiance lie? Or is the only person she can really trust herself?

Milady . . . . . Selin Hizli
Richelieu . . . . . Carl Prekopp
Marie de Medici . . . . . Hattie Morahan
D'Artagnan . . . . . Ian Dunnett Jnr
King Louis . . . . . Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Rossi . . . . . Simon Scardifield
Gaston . . . . . Josh Bryant-Jones

Sound Design: Sharon Hughes, Peter Ringrose, Alison Craig

Directors: Ben Hollands and Sasha Yevtushenko

A BBC Studios production


SUN 16:00 Take Four Books (m002wsp9)
Deborah Levy

The award-winning writer Deborah Levy speaks to Take Four Books about her latest novel, My Year In Paris With Gertrude Stein, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its three key literary influences.

The new book follows three female friends in Paris. There's Eva an artist in a long-distance marriage, Fanny, a sexually adventurous financier, and making up the trio, is our unnamed narrator, who is attempting to write an essay about the avant-garde American poet and art collector, Gertrude Stein. The three friends cook, walk, argue and attempt to find a lost cat.

Deborah's three choices in this episode are: Virginia Woolf's fifth novel To The Lighthouse from 1927; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, from 1961; and the poem Still I Rise by Maya Angelou which was published in 1978.

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


SUN 16:30 Round Britain Quiz (m002wspc)
8. Northern Ireland and England - Final

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

The eighth and final match in the series is between Northern Ireland and England.

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:
Northern Ireland - Paddy Duffy and Freya McClements
England - Jenny Ryan and Stuart Mconie

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

A BBC Studios Production

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

Questions in today's edition:

Q1:(From Patrick Haigh)
Once you have found the right area of land, use
An expert to extend it
A vessel to take something away from it.
A cheat to make it smaller
An old flame to get a bit of it
Muscles to turn it from something real to something theoretical

Q2: (From Andrew Green)
How might one move from Cape Town’s most famous elevation,
through a yarn,
on to a tipple,
then to Paul Simon’s preferred proper noun.
And along the way what will you, I’d wager, lose?

Q3 Music: Why were the co-writers of these songs never able to hear them?

Q4: (From Stephen Murphy)
How might:
Nick’s right hand, Michael’s crush, Dolly’s roses, John’s river, Roy’s bayou, Duke’s mood, and Wolfgang’s trampled bloom…
…suggest someone who fought and lost?

Q5: How could a STAMP in your passport make…
A diver from a revolutionary Caribbean nation?
A Birmingham favourite in Denpasar?
The power to make something, from the home of the Minotaur?
A peach from Napoleon’s first place of exile?
A small flame from a feudal Channel fiefdom?

Q6 Music: (From Ivan Whetton)
Why is the slow movement of the last due in part to the others?

Q7: Can you pick out the 5 creatures hidden in this riddle, and rearrange their first letters to work out where they might be heading?
First, a giant bird, casting shadows so vast.
Next, from the ashes, a new life is cast.
Then horse and man in union blends,
And up slinks a serpent with a head at both ends.
A face of a woman that’s the head of a pride… Well, that’s me… the riddle’s own guide.
If you can solve the clues, the creatures will be granted passage to a place where they’ll be safe. Where is it?

Q8: (From Nick Miller)
How might these all help soothe a sore throat?
Fate knocks on a symphony’s door
Properly dressed for cricket…
Gives a winning gesture
But a Derby winner turned it rudely around
to add a shocking charge
Forged for Strength - to soothe your pipes


SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct74nv)
Isabel Allende: The House of the Spirits

In 1982, Isabel Allende published her debut novel, The House of the Spirits. The characters are based on her family, and the story reflects Chile’s 20th Century history, including the 1973 military coup in which her relative, President Salvador Allende, was overthrown.

The book began as a letter to her dying grandfather, but it grew into an epic multi-generational story.

The House of the Spirits was an international bestseller and made Isabel one of the most renowned novelists in Latin America’s rich literary history. She speaks to Ben Henderson.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

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

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

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

(Photo: Isabel Allende in 1986. Credit: Louis Monier/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)


SUN 17:10 The Verb (m002wspg)
Dark nights of the Soul, Brian Bilston, JH Prynne, Daljit Nagra, William Blake and Martha Sprackland

Can poetry help us through 'the dark night of the soul'? Ian McMillan finds out with poet and translator Martha Sprackland. And is our 'dark night' anything like the one that St John of the Cross explored in the 16th century?

Ian finds out how to write a poem from internet poetry sensation Brian Bilston - he asks Daljit Nagra why the words of William Blake took him towards a life in poetry (something Daljit explores in his brand new collection), and Ian also hears about the remarkable poetry of JH Prynne from Ira Lightman.


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002wspj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m002wspl)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002wspn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002wspq)
Matthew Sweet

This week we’re all about soft power - between the Bangaranga-goings on of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the Polish underground press and the influence of international radio, there’s lots to pick from geopolitically. Gary O’Donoghue relives the unexpected call he received from the Oval Office, and we reflect on the life of the English soprano Dame Felicity Lott, who has died at the age of 79.

Presenter: Matthew Sweet
Producer: Anthony McKee
Editor: Steven Hobson
Production Coordinators: Finlay McMaster and Sylvie Conway

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.

Programmes featured in this episode include:

Radio 2 Loves Eurovision!: Eurovision Grand Final
Archive on 4: The Sound of Soft Power
Witness History: Poland’s underground newspaper
Desert Island Discs: Gary O'Donoghue
The History Podcast: Sixty Years of Hurt - England v Mavericks
Artworks: Mother: 100 years of Martha Graham Dance
Front Row, 18/05: David Benedict on Felicity Lott
This Cultural Life: Felicity Lott
In the Studio: Thomas Keneally: What’s next for the Schindler’s List author?
Sunday, 17/05: Professor Mary Fulbrook on the Holocaust
Gardeners' Question Time: Serge Hill Project
Through the Night, 24/05: Bulgarian Culture and Cyrillic Day


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m002wsps)
Kate takes the bull by the horns, and Tracy has reservations.


SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m002wspv)
My Sister’s Daughter

When Laura's sister could no longer care for her daughter, Laura had a few hours to decide. If she said yes, she would become a parent again overnight, no training, no paid leave, no warning. If she said no, the little girl would go into care.

She said yes. Most families do.

My Sister's Daughter weaves Laura's story, told through the small, exhausting, tender details of a life rearranged, with the voice of Jo, now in her forties, looking back at her own childhood in kinship care. When Jo's mother died, a quiet constellation of adults closed around her: a stepfather, grandparents, aunts. Nobody called it kinship care, it didn’t have a name then. They just stepped in, and stayed.

Together, Laura and Jo illuminate a world that is largely invisible, not because it is rare, but because it is so deeply woven into how families survive. There are over 130,000 children in kinship care in England and Wales right now. Most are there because someone said yes in a moment of crisis, with no time to think and very little support to follow.

This is a programme about what that decision really means for the children who receive it, and for the adults who give it.

It’s also about what it leaves behind, for the people who care, and for the children who grow up inside it.

Produced and presented by Jo Meek
Executive Producer - Eloise Whitmore
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001qtbl)
Swim

Michael Mosley ventures to his local pool and the sea to explore the unique benefits of going for a swim - from improving memory and mental agility, to boosting longevity. Professor Hirofumi Tanaka, from the University of Texas at Austin, reveals why water-based exercises like swimming are especially good for improving the elasticity of your blood vessels and a new way to exercise in the pool. There really seems to be something special about being in the water that can help your heart, improve joint pain and even boost your brain. Surprisingly, water-based exercise can be more beneficial than land-based exercises!

New episodes will be released on Wednesdays, but if you’re in the UK, listen to new episodes, a week early, first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3zqa6BB

Producer: Nija Dalal-Small
Science Producer: Catherine Wyler
Assistant Producer: Gulnar Mimaroglu
Trainee Assistant Producer: Toni Arenyeka
Executive Producer: Zoe Heron
A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds / BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:00 Word of Mouth (m002wkjk)
The World of Words: editing, typography and print

Michael Rosen finds out about fascinating literary errors from editor Rebecca Lee, the author of Rogues, Widows and Orphans: Mischief and Misadventures in the World of Books. They share favourite famous typos and find out where the phrase "out of sorts" originated.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea, in partnership with the Open University.
Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m002wkwr)
Michael Pennington, Cynthia Shange, Scott Hastings, Beverley Martyn

Kirsty Lang on Michael Pennington, the Shakespearean actor who preferred a life on stage to the glamour of Hollywood. For Dame Judi Dench, he was her 'Mr Plum', she recalls his life.

Cynthia Shange defied apartheid to become the first Black woman to represent South Africa at Miss World.

Scott Hastings the rugby legend, who was once Scotland’s most capped player. He went on to become a well-known commentator and campaigner for mental health charities, following the death of his wife after her long battle with depression.

And Beverley Martyn, the singer songwriter, a star of the British folk scene, who was signed by Beatles producer George Martin aged 16, but her career was not a smooth ride.

Please note this programme references suicide. Support and information is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Interviewee: Dame Judi Dench
Interviewee: Nonhle Thema
Interviewee: John Beattie
Interviewee: Joe Boyd

Producer: Catherine Powell
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Andrea Kennedy

Archive:
Miss World 1972. BBC TV, 01 Dec 1972; Bob Harris Sunday : Beverley Martyn plays live, BBC Radio 2, 27th April 2014; Five Nations, Rugby Union, Scotland v England, 17th March 1990; Scrum V, Live Pro12: 2016/2017, Edinburgh v Blues, 24th Feb 2017; BBC News Breakfast, 21st Dec 2020; Richard II, writer William Shakespeare, dir Gregory Doran, Royal Shakespeare Company, 2013; Gift of Gorgon, writer Peter Shaffer, dir Peter Hall, RSC, 1993; Henry V, dir Michael Bogdanov, The English Shakespeare Company in The War of the Roses, Produced by John Paul Chapple and Andy Ward, A Portman Classics production in association with Contracts International and Windmill Lane Productions, 1990


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m002wsjk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m002wsnl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002wsjf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:30 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m002wspx)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 In Our Time (m002wkhq)
The Levellers

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the group which came to be known as the Levellers and emerged during what would become arguably one of the bloodiest and most turbulent periods of English history. After the First English Civil War, the Levellers started calling for reforms to achieve legal and social equality. They pushed for a new constitution, extended franchise, popular sovereignty, and religious toleration. To do this, the Levellers pioneered the use of pamphlets and petitions, as well as taking to the streets in their thousands to demonstrate wearing their signature sea-green ribbons and sprigs of rosemary. To some they were radical, and to others not radical enough. Though the Leveller movement itself may have been short-lived, the arguments that they made have both inspired and challenged generations since.

With

Teresa Bejan
Professor of Political Theory and Fellow of Oriel College, University of Oxford

Ted Vallance
Professor of History and Dean of Research and Doctoral Study at the University of Roehampton

And

Clare Jackson
Honorary Professor of Early Modern History and Walter Grant Scott Fellow in History at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge

Producer: Martha Owen

Reading list:

Teresa M. Bejan, First Among Equals: Visions of Equality before Egalitarianism (Belknap Press, forthcoming in 2026)

Michael Braddick, The Common Freedom of the People: John Lilburne and the English Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2018)

Rachel Foxley, The Levellers; Radical Political Thought in the English Revolution (Manchester University Press, 2013)

Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down (Penguin, 1972)

Ann Hughes, Gender and the English Revolution (Routledge, 2011)

John Rees, The Leveller Revolution: Radical Political Organisation in England, 1640-1650 (Verso Books, 2016)

John Rees (ed.), John Lilburne and the Levellers: Reappraising the Roots of English Radicalism 400 years on (Routledge, 2017), including 'Reborn John: The Eighteenth-Century Afterlife of John Lilburne' by Edward Vallance

Andrew Sharp (ed.), The English Levellers (Cambridge University Press, 1998)

Edward Vallance, A Radical History of Britain: Visionaries, Rebels and Revolutionaries - the men and women who fought for our freedoms (Abacus, 2010)

Blair Worden, Roundhead Reputations: The English Civil Wars and The Passions of Posterity (Penguin, 2002)

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 (m002wkwp)
Lane Seven by Emily Koch

At his local swimming pool, Jack is confused to see his ex-girlfriend in the next lane. Hadn’t she always said she was afraid of the water?

A new short story written by Emily Koch, read by Sam Swann.

Emily Koch is an award-winning journalist and author of three novels, If I Die Before I Wake, Keep Him Close and What July Knew. Her debut, If I Die Before I Wake, was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Steel Dagger award, won France’s Prix du Bureau des Lecteurs Folio Policier, was longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, and was selected as a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. She lives in Bristol.

Produced by Beth O'Dea and Mair Bosworth in Bristol for BBC Audio

MONDAY 25 MAY 2026

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m002wspz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 00:15 Crossing Continents (m002wj89)
Victim or Accomplice? The Story of Jeffrey Epstein’s Pilot Girlfriend

Nadia Marcinko, originally Marcinková, was born in Slovakia and met Jeffrey Epstein as an 18-year-old model. Later, she became a successful aircraft pilot. For seven years, she was Epstein’s main girlfriend. And she’s one of four women that US prosecutors named in a 2008 plea deal as his “potential co-conspirators”. But she’s never been accused of any crime. And she’s described herself a victim who was abused physically and psychologically by Epstein.
Now, a committee of the US Congress is beginning to address the sensitive question of whether it’s possible for someone to be both a victim and an accomplice, as it takes testimony from two of the “potential co-conspirators”, Epstein’s former assistants Sarah Kellen and Lesley Groff. Nadia Marcinko, who disappeared from public view several years ago, may also be called to testify.
BBC reporter Tim Whewell and independent Slovak journalist Jakub Pohle have talked to people who’ve known her, and dug deep into the Epstein files, to put together the most detailed account yet of her life.

Presented and produced by Tim Whewell and Jakub Pohle
Additional research: Oscar Brophy
Actors: Tara Gadomski, Kerry Shale, Simona Vrabcova, Rebeka Jurcackova, Jozef Radovsky
Sound mixing: Neil Churchill
Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Penny Murphy


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m002wsl2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002wsq1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002wsq3)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:00 News Summary (m002wsq5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:04 Last Word (m002wkwr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Sunday]


MON 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002wsq7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002wsq9)
The saddest word

Prayer for the Day presented by the Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark.

Good morning.

Not too long ago I was giving a talk at the Oxford Literary Festival. Just as I was about to begin, I saw a man come in at the back and sheepishly take a seat on the back row. I could see who it was immediately. It was Peter Fanning, the man who had taught me English at school forty years ago, and the person who instilled in me a deep love of poetry and literature – the subject I was just about to speak about.

I owe so much to him and, after the talk, I was, at last, able to tell him. As he asked me to sign one of my books, I felt tears well up as I knew there never would have been such a book without his passion and brilliant teaching, and there may never be a moment again when I could speak the gratitude for him that I’ve carried in me all my life.

The Japanese say that one day with a great teacher is better than thousand days of diligent study. I experienced that at school, as presumably the disciples did with Jesus all those years ago on the shore. The poet Robert Frost used to say that he didn’t see himself as a teacher but an ‘awakener’. Some people in our lives have awakened loves and perceptions.

Whoever has awakened a love in your heart, please, make sure you thank them one day. Try to do it soon because as Evelyn Waugh used to say, ‘the saddest words in the English language are ‘too late’.

Today. I’m remembering in prayer those who awaken loves in us and so bring light into life.

Amen.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m002wsqc)
25/05/26 - The History of Crofting

Crofting is embedded in life in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, but it's an unusual form of farming, with a family plot rarely able to provide a full living. Many crofters need additional employment to make ends meet. So, where did crofting come from, and how has it survived?

This year marks 140 years since the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 was brought in to protect the rights of crofters and to mark the anniversary, Richard Baynes explores the dark past and brighter future of crofting life.

Produced and presented by Richard Baynes.


MON 05:57 Weather (m002wsqf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for farmers


MON 06:00 Today (m002wsxb)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

Credit: Atonement/Universal Pictures/StudioCanal/Joe Wright

Chichester Festival Theatre stage music for Atonement by Alexandra Faye Braithwaite

Isabella Dempster (as Briony), Jasper Talbot (as Robbie), and Miriam Petche (as Cecilia).


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m002wsxd)
Mythmaking at Hay: from Medea to Rasputin

In front of an audience at the Hay Festival, Tom Sutcliffe hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, bringing together three thinkers who each, in different ways, examine the stories societies tell about themselves, and how those stories become enduring myths.

Historian Antony Beevor investigates the life of Rasputin, a figure who has long hovered between fact and legend. His new work asks how a barely literate peasant from Siberia, the so-called ‘mad monk’, managed to bewitch the Romanovs, and how the wild stories that swirled around him, inexorably led to the Tsar’s downfall.

Philosopher Susan Neiman turns to the moral narratives that underpin contemporary political life. Her work asks whether universal values can still guide societies when myths of division are so compelling.

Classicist, broadcaster and performer Natalie Haynes brings the ancient world into sharp modern focus. Her retellings of Greek myths restore voice and agency to characters, particularly women, who have been sidelined or simplified by centuries of interpretation. Her latest novel, No Friend to This House, puts the abandoned Medea centre stage.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Mary Bourke: Who Cares? (m002cdlp)
Episode 1: Being thrown into the system

Five years ago, Mary Bourke’s husband had a stroke - and she immediately became his carer. It’s a job no one wants - and one that comes with no formal training, and very little support. Guilt, isolation, toilets, and endless, endless admin - welcome to the day-to-day reality of being a carer. There are more than 5 million carers in the UK - but who cares for the carers?

Through a mixture of interviews and stand-up comedy, comedian and carer Mary Bourke investigates, with the help of friends and fellow comedians with caring responsibilities.

In episode one, Mary discovers what it’s like to be thrown into the system - with guest Dreenagh Darrell and stand-up from Al Barrie.

Presenter: Mary Bourke
Producer: Katie Sayer
Executive Producer: Jon Holmes

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002wsxg)
Women and Wonder

We're putting our head in the clouds and going in search of wonder. How do we find it and how do we keep hold of it when life gets in the way?

We know that women still hold the lion’s share of caring responsibilities and typically carry the mental load for home, often on top of work. How do we make space for the perspective that wonder gives us, when we’re distracted by the perpetual to do list? And can a sense of wonder, with its built-in inspiration and aspiration, help us see beyond the day-to-day?

To lead us on this quest we have an eclectic mix of wonder-women: the award-winning children’s author and academic, Katherine Rundell, evolutionary biologist and explorer, Ella Al-Shamahi, the environmentalist-turned-musician Natalie Fée and Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, computer scientist and former ‘wunder-kind’. We’ll also hear from Dr. Jean Bennett, the research scientist whose medical breakthrough recently restored the sight of a six-year-old girl. And joining us from New York, Jenette Khan, the first ever female boss of the Wonder Woman-publisher, DC Comics.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Kirsty McQuire


MON 11:00 Behind the Crime (m00212zx)
David

David Martindale can remember the moment he turned his back on crime. The police were all over his front garden, and he was about to be arrested for his involvement in drug dealing in his home town of Livingston.
His childhood was violent – but it was also dominated by football. He was a gifted player, but didn’t have the sort of homelife that might have propelled him to football stardom. Instead he got involved with local rivalries and a lifestyle that led him to a young offender institution.
Years later, he was back inside, this time serving a long sentence for dealing cocaine.
Yet at his lowest moment, he found an inner resolve that led him to turn his back on crime, focus on his future and end up managing a top-flight football team. His first match in charge of Livingston FC in the Scottish Premier League was in front of 60,000 fans at Parkhead, home of Celtic FC.
This is an astonishing story about reaching the top against the odds.
Dr Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken are forensic psychologists who work in prisons. Their job is to help people in prison understand the harm they’ve caused, identify why it happened and work out how to make changes to prevent further harm after they’ve been released.
In Behind the Crime, they take the time to understand the life of someone whose crimes have led to harm and prison.
For details of organisations that can provide help and support, visit bbc.co.uk/actionline

Producer: Andrew Wilkie
Editor: Clare Fordham
Behind the Crime is a co-production between BBC Long Form Audio and the Prison Radio Association.


MON 11:45 Frostlines by Neil Shea (m002wsxj)
Episode 1

'There can be few better or more enjoyable ways of learning about the many Arctics' - Daily Mail

The Arctic was once a place seemingly frozen in time. Now, while the old cold world can still be glimpsed in the herds of caribou, the hidden lives of narwhals, and the hunting skill of an Inupiat elder, there is a new Arctic emerging.

National Geographic writer Neil Shea travels among the Indigenous peoples of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. In Alaska he tracks the patterns of caribou, now shifting after thousands of years of predictability, and in the European Arctic he explores the new Cold War that is rising between Russia, China, Europe, and the United States over who controls the pole, and who will reap its riches as the ice melts.

Frostlines is an expansive yet intimate revelation of the Arctic during a time of crisis, and a journey along the threshold of this stunning and sometimes frightening world. What Shea finds is not one Arctic but many – all linked by shattering cold, seasons of darkness, and pure, sparkling light.

FROSTLINES
Written and read by Neil Shea
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:00 News Summary (m002wsxm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m002wsxp)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


MON 12:57 Weather (m002wsxr)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m002wsxw)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


MON 13:45 Tick Tock: The Working Week in 5 Days (m002wsy0)
Monday

Where did the working week come from? Phil Tinline charts the progression of the Mon-Fri work week over five days, 100 years since it first appeared in a Ford motor factory.

In this first episode Phil shakes off the Sunday scaries and facing the dreaded Monday morning. His job today is to find out how the working week looked for most of human history, before Henry Ford's introduction of the 40 hour work week in 1926.

He speaks to Maria in Cornwall, whose farm has been around for 800 years, about what the working week looks like for her, and looked like for her forebears. Farmers work in the natural cycle of days and seasons, but why has humanity invented the seven day week to structure our lives? Historian David Henkin may have the answer.

Phil wants to know how a five day 'working week' came to fit into the seven day week model. Sociologist Jan Lucassen, author of 'The Story of Work', offers an insight into why we work and how we came to choose when we did so.

Presenter: Phil Tinline
Producer: Sam Peach

Contributors:
Maria Warne-Elston, farmer and content creator.
David Henkin, author of 'The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms That Made Us Who We Are'
Jan Lucassen, author of 'The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind'


MON 14:00 The Archers (m002wsps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Conversations from a Long Marriage (m002wsy6)
Series 7

4. Changing Ways

Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam return as the loving, long-married couple, in the 7th series of Jan Etherington’s award-winning comedy.

This week, Roger is keen to prove that he can be spontaneous. Auntie Hilda and Jack come for a day by the sea, but on the way home, a phone call reveals Roger has been keeping a secret.

Written by Jan Etherington
Producer: Claire Jones
Production coordinator: Giulia Lopes Mazzu
Studio Engineer: Wilfredo Acosta
Sound Designer: Jon Calver

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4


MON 14:45 One to One (m0010x22)
Faces of Fame: Janet Ellis meets Vee Kativhu

Vee Kativhu has a kind of fame incomprehensible to most people aged over 40. She makes videos in which she struggles with essay deadlines, gives study tips and celebrates getting the keys to her first flat. Tens of thousands of people watch each vlog she posts, so with so much of her life public, how does she maintain her privacy?
Producer Sally Heaven


MON 15:00 Great Lives (m002wsyb)
Cleopatra picked by Kate Williams

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety." She's the most famous character in antiquity, made more famous by Shakespeare and Hollywood films. But this Cleopatra is not the one Kate Williams has come to nominate. She wants to move from the cliches and reclaim her as an astute politician determined to keep Egypt from falling to Rome. The discussion includes Professor of Egyptology Joyce Tyldesley and is presented by Matthew Parris.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde


MON 15:30 The History Podcast (m002wsj6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Saturday]


MON 16:00 Currently (m002wsyg)
Under Fire in the Strait of Hormuz

Sunil was 26 when he went to work on a ship for the first time. He travelled from Rajasthan, India to a port in Dubai for a job on an oil tanker. When he boarded the ship, he met Dalip, who was from a neighbouring village. They helped support each other when they felt homesick, working on a ship so far from home for the first time. But then a few weeks into their contract, Sunil heard a loud bang and felt the ship shake. He ran to the deck and saw oil spreading across the floor and smoke rising from the engine room. Someone told him an Iranian missile had hit their ship. As the oil spread, Sunil feared for his life and jumped into the ocean. He stayed calm until he realised Dalip wasn’t there...

Kayleen Devlin tells the story of three men who were working on ships as the US-Israel war with Iran unfolded. Their stories reveal a system where workers can be recruited through unlawful practices, sent onto ships with little protection, and sometimes left to fend for themselves. Most seafarers come from India and are often offered wages far below international guidelines to work on the cargo ships and oil tankers that keep our day to day lives moving and our economies afloat.

Presenter: Kayleen Devlin
Producer: Phoebe Keane
Translation: Kinjal Pandya
Sound design: Neil Churchil
Editor: Richard Vadon


MON 16:30 Legend (m002wsj8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


MON 17:00 PM (m002wsyl)
Full coverage of the day's news


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002wsyq)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m002wsyv)
Series 33

5. Punishments, Comedy, Hotels and Cars

David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they’re able to smuggle past their opponents.

Alan Davies, Celya AB, Ian Smith and Angela Barnes are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as punishments, comedy, hotels, cars.

The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith

Producer: Jon Naismith

A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4


MON 19:00 The Archers (m002wsyz)
Adam has a fight on his hands, and emotions run high for Carol.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m002wsz3)
Live from Hay with Jack Thorne and Val McDermid

Live from Hay, celebrating reading and writing in many different forms, Samira is joined on stage, by Jack Thorne - multi award-winning screenwriter of the TV sensation Adolescence and his newest drama Falling, about a nun and a priest who fall in love.
Also Tartan Noir titan Val McDermid, talking about crime fiction and her 40 years of writing.
The Ian Fleming estate has granted novelist Vaseem Khan permission to write another book in the Bond-iverse. This time it's set in the world of Q - Bond's gadget supplier.
And Hanan Issa, The National Poet of Wales, joins us to explore Welsh/Iraqi storytelling and poetry

Presenter: Samira Ahmed


MON 20:00 The Briefing Room (m002wkjm)
Is Russia under pressure from Ukraine?

The war between Russia and Ukraine has shifted closer to Moscow. In the past week Ukraine has sent drones, made by Ukraine, to Moscow. While many were intercepted, 3 people died when an apartment block was hit. For many Russians the war - or special military operation as President Putin calls it - has been far away. But not any longer. At the same time though, Russia continues to hit cities across Ukraine and civilians continue to die. David Aaronovitch and his guests discuss whether Putin is under greater pressure now and whether the trajectory of this conflict has changed with the use of drone-warfare?

Guests:
Steve Rosenberg, BBC Russia Editor
Christopher Miller, Ukraine Correspondent, The Financial Times
Angela Stent, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former US National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia

Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Caroline Bayley and Kirsteen Knight
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Engineer: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon


MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977m)
El Niño is nigh, but so what?

With 2023’s El Niño – a recurring pattern of extreme weather across the pacific basin - still leaving a bad taste in people's mouth, 2026 sees an El Niño stirring in the Pacific Ocean and there are warnings that this will be one of the strongest yet.

Roland Pease speaks with Amanda Maycock, a climatologist from Leeds University, to discuss what this climate phenomenon is and how it will impact the world from October to early next year.

He also hears from Scott Evans from the American Museum of Natural History, who has been exploring the Mackenzie mountains of Canada’s Northwest Territory to better understand the biology and ecology of life on earth before anything we might recognize - from the Ediacara era. This was before the explosion of different animal types with hard shells and bones in the later, Cambrian, time. In certain places around the world, much older rocks from the ancient ocean floor reveal an ecosystem abounding with soft, squidgy animal wierdness.

In Canada Scott has found a new trove of these fossils, but from far deeper below the surface of those ancient seas. Did animal life begin deep in the darkest depths rather than paddling in pools nearer the land?

Today, over half a billion years later, bottom trawling, a common fishing method involving dragging heavy nets across the bottom of the seafloor, is an environmentally destructive process that rips up everything in its path to maximise catch. We talked to Amanda Vincent, a professor at the Institute for the Oceans and fisheries of the British Columbia university and founder of the international Project Seahorse conservation group, about what bottom-trawl bans can achieve, in the light of results published about a renaissance of biodiversity off the coast of Scotland in an area where trawling has been banned for several years.

Plus, we talk to science journalist Gareth Mitchell, who explains how bottom trawling can also have negative consequences on technology, as well as other science news you may have missed, including updates on solar storms and robotic wolf shortages in Japan.

Presenter: Roland Pease
Producers: Alex Mansfield and Dan Welsh
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth


MON 21:00 Start the Week (m002wsxd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:45 Mary Bourke: Who Cares? (m002cdlp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m002wsz6)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 John of John by Douglas Stuart (m002wsz8)
Episode 1 - a h-aon

It had taken him less than ten minutes to pack up four years of his life. It had taken a little longer to fold himself away, to hide all the bits of himself that had slowly been unfurling since he had arrived on the mainland. And as he roamed the ferry he wondered if he had always known he would be forced to come home eventually.

John of John
Written by Douglas Stuart
Abridged by Martin O'Connor
Read by Scott Miller
Produced by Lu Kemp
A BBC Audio Scotland Production.

Out of money and with little to show for his art school years on the mainland, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home, called back by his father to the island of Harris. In the windswept croft in which he grew up, Cal reluctantly resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of the local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the island’s hillsides, back in a tight knit Hebridean community where talk is both social currency and a tool for control, and where a rigid adherence to Presbyterian faith clashes with the unspoken desires of its inhabitants, John is dismayed by his son’s long hair and seeming unwillingness to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding the community together become increasingly entangled.

In a narrative both tender and unflinching, Douglas Stuart continues and deepens his exploration of masculinity and the silent struggle of lives lived under a watchful, judgmental eye. John of John examines the weight of family expectation, the painful compromises people make for love, the lies they tell themselves and one another in order to survive, and the profound cost of a life unlived.

Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York where he began a career in fashion design. Shuggie Bain, his first novel, won the Booker Prize and both Debut of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the National Book Award, and in 2025 was selected by The Sunday Times as one of the ‘best novels of the twenty-first century’ as well as one of the ten best Booker winners of all time by the Daily Telegraph. His second novel, Young Mungo, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, and ‘Love, Hope & Grit’, the Imagine documentary Douglas made with the late Alan Yentob, is available on the BBC iPlayer. Douglas Stuart lives in New York.


MON 23:00 Limelight (m001npdw)
Bitter Pill

2. Flashback

An audio drama series about memory and trauma.

After a traumatic car crash, Mary joins a clinical drug trial that promises a cure for PTSD. The medication triggers intense flashbacks of the accident that left her fiancée comatose. But is Mary simply remembering the event, or reliving it? And if she is actually returning to the past, does that mean she can change her future?

Cast:
Mary ….. Séainín Brennan
Jackie ….. Charlotte McCurry
Carl ……. Shaun Blaney
Eoin ….. Seamus O’Hara
Delia ….. Jo Donnelly
Warren ….. Martin McCann
All other roles were played by the cast and crew.

Writers ….. Michael Patrick & Oisín Kearney
Producer ….. Michael Shannon
Executive Editor ….. Andy Martin

Music composed by Denis Clohessy.
Sound Design by Bill Maul.

A BBC Northern Ireland production.


MON 23:30 Soul Music (m001ml4x)
Dancing in the Dark

"Dancing in the Dark was written under duress!" Bruce Springsteen says it was a song about not wanting to write another song.

"I get up in the evening / And I ain't got nothing to say" - By 1984, Bruce Springsteen had been recording songs for his album Born in the U.S.A. for two years, but the producer told him the album still didn't have a lead single. This became a product of that conversation, written in just 40 minutes.

"I ain't nothing but tired / Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself" - Kieran Leonard's mum was a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. After he lost her to cancer, he paid tribute to her by performing his songs dressed as Bruce on stage.

"You can't start a fire / You can't start a fire without a spark" - Ian Gravell was driving to pick up his daughter from nursery on a snowy evening when a lorry appeared out of nowhere. He thought he might never walk again, until hospital staff played his favourite Springsteen album compelling him to his feet.

'Messages keep getting clearer / Radio's on and I'm moving round my place' - Musician Lucy Dacus talks about playing the song on stage with her dad and the genius of the lyrics.

"There's something happening somewhere / Baby, I just know that there is" - Artist Holly Casio found huge comfort in Springsteen's music as a young person growing up gay in a small town in West Yorkshire in the era of Section 28.

"This gun's for hire / Even if we're just dancing in the dark"- when Jackie Heintz brought a Springsteen record home as a teenager, she never imagined that her mum Jeannie would become a huge fan – following Bruce on tour through her 70s and 80s, and dancing on stage with him aged 91.

Producer: Mair Bosworth and Caitlin Hobbs

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2023.

TUESDAY 26 MAY 2026

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m002wszc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 Frostlines by Neil Shea (m002wsxj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002wszf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002wszh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:00 News Summary (m002wszk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:04 Currently (m002wsyg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Monday]


TUE 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002wszm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002wszp)
You old Scrooge!

Prayer for the Day presented by Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark.

Good morning.

One of the many joys of living in London for me is having so many theatres around. I saw a play a few months ago and it has stayed with me. It was a marvellous production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Many of you will know the story centres on Scrooge, a joyless old miser, who Dickens describes as: "Hard and sharp as flint... secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster."

Scrooge is visited by three ghosts, those of Christmas past, present and future, and what he sees turns his heart, defrosts it, and recreates him into a generous, loving and happy man. In the production, there is a tender and poignant moment when the Ghost of Christmas Past is showing Scrooge himself as a young boy, and Scrooge sees how lonely, innocent but full of potential he was as a boy. He goes up to the vision of himself and hugs him and says, ‘I don’t want him to become me’.

Such moments of self-recognition, though painful, are precious and important. They are full of potential and offer a fresh horizon to a life that has begun to feel stilted. The Christian faith has always taught me that God has given us all a great gift – our being. And we are asked to give one gift back in return for it – our becoming. This new day is waiting for me, for you, to be the person we want to meet. For this to happen, says my faith, just like bread, something will have to break, and something will have to give.

I’m praying today that my love will be enlarged, my courage strengthened, and my hope refreshed. May my becoming be blessed with grace and challenge.

Amen.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m002wszr)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 06:00 Today (m002wv4l)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Gift (m002wd8z)
Series 3

4. Puzzles

When the mystery of her past is solved, Kathy is confronted by a shocking true crime story that helps explain who she is.

In The Gift, Jenny Kleeman has always looked at extraordinary truths that unravel when people take at-home DNA tests. For Series 3, Jenny is asking what it means to belong in a world where the global DNA database keeps expanding.

Presenter: Jenny Kleeman
Producer: Conor Garrett
Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

*Archive reproduced with the permission of Idaho Falls Police Department*

The Gift is a BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 09:30 All in the Mind (m002wv4n)
The show with the latest evidence on psychology, mental health and neuroscience.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002wv4q)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


TUE 11:00 Add to Playlist (m002wkx2)
Ben Gernon and Heidi Fardell launch a new series

Conductor Ben Gernon and baroque recorder player Heidi Fardell open the new series alongside Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe as they add the first five tracks, taking us from a steamy New York summer to a celebrated Bach composition that violinist Joshua Bell has described as 'not just one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history'. Throw in Gershwin, Louis XIV and a very serious musical accident, and you've got a cornucopia of an opening episode.

Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Summer in the City by The Lovin’ Spoonful
An American in Paris by George Gershwin
Overture to Phaëton by Jean-Baptiste Lully
Ain’t It Strange by Patti Smith
Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor (the Chaconne) by J.S. Bach

Other music in this episode:

Batman Theme by Neil Hefti & his Orchestra
12 Sonatas Op. 11 'Parensi': No 7 in A Minor: II. Allegro by Robert Valentine, performed by Heidi Fardell
Because The Night by Patti Smith


TUE 11:45 Frostlines by Neil Shea (m002wv4s)
Episode 2

'There can be few better or more enjoyable ways of learning about the many Arctics' - Daily Mail

The Arctic was once a place seemingly frozen in time. Now, while the old cold world can still be glimpsed in the herds of caribou, the hidden lives of narwhals, and the hunting skill of an Inupiat elder, there is a new Arctic emerging.

National Geographic writer Neil Shea travels among the Indigenous peoples of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. In Alaska he tracks the patterns of caribou, now shifting after thousands of years of predictability, and in the European Arctic he explores the new Cold War that is rising between Russia, China, Europe, and the United States over who controls the pole, and who will reap its riches as the ice melts.

Frostlines is an expansive yet intimate revelation of the Arctic during a time of crisis, and a journey along the threshold of this stunning and sometimes frightening world. What Shea finds is not one Arctic but many – all linked by shattering cold, seasons of darkness, and pure, sparkling light.

FROSTLINES
Written and read by Neil Shea
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m002wv4v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m002wv4x)
Today it's our weekly phone in tomorrow, Call You & Yours and we're asking: "Are you working at home, or back in the office?"

Property developer British Land has declared the debate on working from home vs the office as over

It says it's seeing increasing demand for office space from companies who are demanding their workers are back in the office.

Have you seen a change in what's required at your workplace?

If it's always been required you come into your workplace for your job - how have you felt?

"Are you working at home, or back in the office?"

You can call our phone lines at 11am on the number 03700 100 444.

Or you can email us: youandyours@bbc.co.uk. Leave a phone number so we can ring you back.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: LYDIA THOMAS


TUE 12:57 Weather (m002wv4z)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m002wv51)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


TUE 13:45 Tick Tock: The Working Week in 5 Days (m002wv53)
Tuesday

Phil Tinline charts the progression of the working week over five days. Today, how Henry Ford kicked off our obsession with the Monday-Friday 9-5.

In this series Phil Tinline charts the progression of the working week over five days. Some of us head into the office on a Tuesday, but Phil heads to the 95 year old Ford engine plant in Dagenham to learn about the beginnings of the working week as we know it.

Phil finds out how and why Ford implemented his vision of a five day work week, and, speaking to plant workers and managers, whether the model that he created in 1926 lives on today.

But did Henry Ford really invent it, and why did it stick? Speaking to historians, Phil looks into the machinations of early 20th century society from which the 40 hr work week emerged as the go to option. Its midwives included captains of industry, organised labour, technological progress, politics and the growth of consumption.

Presenter: Phil Tinline
Producer: Sam Peach


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m002wsyz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Our Friends in the North (m0015b7l)
Episode 1: 1964

Peter Flannery once famously said of Our Friends in the North, "I've always said it's just a posh soap opera - but it's a posh soap opera with something to say."

Ambitious in scale and scope, the drama chronicles the lives of four friends over three decades beginning in the 1960s. The series tackles corporate, political and police corruption in the 1960s, the rise and fall of the Soho porn empires in the 1970s, the nouveau riche and the Miners’ Strike of the 1980s and the rise of New Labour in the 1990s. Some of the stories are directly based on the real-life controversies involving T. Dan Smith and John Poulson in Newcastle during the 60s and 70s.

This first episode opens in 1964, with 20-year old Nicky Hutchinson meeting his girlfriend Mary on the beach. They’ve been apart all summer while Nicky was involved in the emerging US Civil Rights Movement. Her plans for them to spend the rest of the summer together are scuppered by Nicky’s sudden decision to throw himself into canvassing for the Labour Party ahead of the general election. His friend Geordie can’t see the point. He wants Nicky to join the band he’s putting together with Tosker. But Nicky’s far too busy. By the end of October, with Harold Wilson as PM, all four friends have made decisions that change their lives forever.

Cast
Mary: Norah Lopez Holden
Nicky: James Baxter
Geordie: Luke MacGregor
Tosker: Philip Correia
Felix: Trevor Fox
Florrie: Tracey Wilkinson
Austin Donohue: Tom Goodman-Hill
Eddie Wells: James Gaddas
Bede Connor: Tony Hirst

Writer: Peter Flannery

Studio Engineer: Paul Clark
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Trainee Production Co-ordinator: Emma O'Mahoney
Producer: Melanie Harris
Executive Producer: Jeremy Mortimer

A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:00 History's Heroes (m002r5x9)
Eileen Kampakuta Brown and the Anti‑Nuclear Campaign

When a nuclear programme threatens Eileen Kampakuta Brown's traditional land in Australia, she brings together a group of Aboriginal women to resist. Their campaign across the country in a two-door wagon will take them all the way to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

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 production.

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


TUE 15:30 Thinking Allowed (m002wv56)
Suicide, Society and Liveability

What does Émile Durkheim’s 1897 study of suicide tell us about the social conditions that shape whether life feels worth living and how does a current project add to our understanding?

Laurie Taylor is joined by Alexander Oaten, from the University of Lincoln, and Sarah Huque, from the University of Edinburgh who are involved in Discovering Liveability: Co-producing Alternatives to Suicide Prevention - a seven-year Wellcome Trust funded collaboration. This sets out to challenge the way suicide prevention is usually framed. Rather than focusing on moments of crisis, the project asks a different question: how can we create societies in which life feels more liveable and what insights can you gain from people who have experienced suicidal thoughts?

Producer: Natalia Fernandez
Editor: Robyn Read

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


TUE 16:00 Artworks (m002wv58)
LA: Rising from the Ashes

On January 7th 2025 the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighbourhoods of Los Angeles suffered two of the most destructive fires in the city’s history. 21 people died and 15,000 buildings were destroyed over a combined area the size of Paris.

Architecture critic Jonthan Glancey visits a city still reeling from the scale and intensity of these fires and the challenge of rebuilding areas in which almost nothing remains standing. As the first tentative shoots of recovery begin to appear he meets architects, urban designers and activists. Many of them lost their own homes in the fires and saw their communities displaced. Now they’re trying to help their communities whilst looking for better ways of building in a land where earthquakes, drought and most of all fire are an ever present threat. As man made climate change and urban growth both heighten the risk of fires and worsen their impact Jonathan asks if and how this city can reshape itself for a better future.

Jonathan meets Dan Turner, retired fire chief and Executive Director of Cal Poly’s Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Institute; architect Scott Uriu; Dustin Bramell, Co-Founder of Case Study: Adapt; LA architecture critic Frances Anderton; architect Michael Kovac; architect and social justice advocate Steven Lewis; as well as Cynthia Siegler and Alex Athenson, founders of the Foothill Foundation Catalogue. He also meets fire survivors Ken and Carol Wood whose home, designed by the Foothill Foundation and constructed by Habitat for Humanity volunteers (including many of their neighbours) is one of the first to be completed in Altadena.

Presenter: Jonathan Glancy
Producer: Michael Umney
Executive Producer: Susan Marling
Mixing Engineer: Chris O’Shaughnessy

A Just Radio Production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 16:30 What's Up Docs? (m002wxsx)
Do our lymphatic systems need a detox?

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

In this episode, Chris and Xand explore the lymphatic system, from its vital everyday functions supporting fluid balance and immunity to its more mysterious roles. They look at what happens when things go wrong, examine popular wellness claims around draining and detoxing our lymphatic system, and find out what actually supports good lymphatic health.

Joining them to discuss this is Professor Kristiana Gordon, a Consultant in Dermatology and Lymphovascular Medicine. She’s Clinical Lead at the National Lymphoedema Clinic at City St George's, University of London, and is also a certified lymphoedema therapist.

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 Kristiana Gordon
Producer: Claire Justin
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
Researcher: Samara Linton
Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable
Visual Producer: 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 (m002wv5b)
Full coverage of the day's news


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002wv5d)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 18:30 One Person Found This Helpful (m002wv5g)
Series 4

Pardon My Pterodactyl

Frank Skinner and guests Ian Smith, Rachel Fairburn, Lucy Porter and Christopher Macarthur-Boyd chat about cats, logs, dinosaur sex and the difference between gravitational mass and inertial mass.

Everyone has an online life, and when the great British public put pen to keyboard to leave a review, they almost always write something hilarious. And our all-star panel have to work out just what they were reviewing – and maybe contribute a few reviews of their own. So if you’re the person who went on Trip Advisor to review Ben Nevis as “Very steep and too high”, this show salutes you!

Written by Frank Skinner, Catherine Brinkworth, Sarah Dempster, Jason Hazeley, Karl Minns, Katie Sayer & Peter Tellouche

Devised by Jason Hazeley and Simon Evans with the producer David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m002wv5j)
Susan enters the lion’s den, and Ian attempts damage control.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m002wv5l)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


TUE 20:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002wv5n)
Hair Strand Tests in the Family Court

Hair Strand Tests can show if parents have been using drink or drugs. Such tests play can a central part in Family Court hearings every year as judges decide whether children should go into care or not. Some barristers have been raising the alarm over the way the tests are presented and interpreted in the Famly Court. And, for the first time, File on 4 Investigates talks to mothers who nearly lost their babies – thanks to hair strand tests.

Presenter: Sanchia Berg
Senior Producer: Anna Meisel
Producer: Mary O'Reilly
Technical Producer: Kelly Young
Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m002wv5q)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted


TUE 21:00 Crossing Continents (m002wv5s)
Sierra Leone: the diamond that saved a thousand lives

In 2017, five men digging in an open pit found the third largest diamond ever unearthed in west Africa. It was dubbed the Peace Diamond, in memory of the brutal civil war that had ravaged large parts of the region in the 1990's – a war driven in part by factions competing for control of the diamond trade.
When the Peace Diamond sold for $6.5 million at auction in New York, the government pledged some of the profits would provide solar power, a clinic, a school and a road connection for the Sierra Leonean village where it was found. Each of the diggers and the pit’s owner also got a small share of the spoils. Nine years on, we return to Sierra Leone to see how much the government kept their promise and to what extent the discovery really did transform the lives for those involved for better, or for worse.

Presented and produced by Ed Butler
Studio mix by Neil Churchill
Production coordinator: Katie Morrison
Series editor: Penny Murphy


TUE 21:30 Great Lives (m002wsyb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:00 on Monday]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m002wv5v)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 John of John by Douglas Stuart (m002wv5x)
Episode 2 - a dhà

Cal has returned home to Harris to find himself confronted with the all things he has missed - and dreaded: the quiet, Doll Macdonald, the sea.

John of John
Written by Douglas Stuart
Abridged by Martin O'Connor
Read by Scott Miller
Produced by Lu Kemp
A BBC Audio Scotland Production.

Out of money and with little to show for his art school years on the mainland, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home, called back by his father to the island of Harris. In the windswept croft in which he grew up, Cal reluctantly resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of the local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the island’s hillsides, back in a tight knit Hebridean community where talk is both social currency and a tool for control, and where a rigid adherence to Presbyterian faith clashes with the unspoken desires of its inhabitants, John is dismayed by his son’s long hair and seeming unwillingness to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding the community together become increasingly entangled.

In a narrative both tender and unflinching, Douglas Stuart continues and deepens his exploration of masculinity and the silent struggle of lives lived under a watchful, judgmental eye. John of John examines the weight of family expectation, the painful compromises people make for love, the lies they tell themselves and one another in order to survive, and the profound cost of a life unlived.

Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York where he began a career in fashion design. Shuggie Bain, his first novel, won the Booker Prize and both Debut of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the National Book Award, and in 2025 was selected by The Sunday Times as one of the ‘best novels of the twenty-first century’ as well as one of the ten best Booker winners of all time by the Daily Telegraph. His second novel, Young Mungo, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, and ‘Love, Hope & Grit’, the Imagine documentary Douglas made with the late Alan Yentob, is available on the BBC iPlayer. Douglas Stuart lives in New York.


TUE 23:00 Uncanny (m002wv5z)
Cold Cases

Episode 8

Danny Robins takes a deep dive into a classic supernatural case from the past.


TUE 23:30 Soul Music (m001msqn)
I Only Have Eyes for You

When I Only Have Eyes For You first emerged in 1934 it was a jaunty cinema ditty written by Harry Dubin and Al Warren for the film "Dames".

But it gained huge popularity when the 1950s doo wop group The Flamingos - under Terry Johnson’s musical arrangement - transformed it into a dreamy otherworldly love song.

Terry explains how he turned the song into an evergreen hit that’s been covered by many including Art Garfunkel and Carly Simon.

Musicologist Luis Cruz attributes the genius of the song to its pedal chord - the repeated use of the C note. This adds to the feeling of fixation where the singer can’t see anyone else but the object of his affection.

The song is obviously one that speaks of deep love and Vivian Fransen was one of many who chose the song to play at her wedding. She'd been introduced to the Art Garfunkel version in 1975 when she met the man who was to become her husband.

12 years later he revealed a secret he'd been keeping from her which ended their marriage and caused her to reassess the song's meaning.

Jess Farr Cox would sing the song to her aged rescue dog Pico as his health deteriorated. Only that song - and the theme to Antiques Roadshow - would send him to sleep when he was in pain and distress.

She still gets emotional when she hears it over a year after he was eventually put to sleep. People underestimate the love you get from a rescue dog, she says.

Chris Deerin is a political journalist and part of Scottish band Fat Cops. He recorded a version of I Only Have Eyes For You for the Tiny Changes Young People's Mental Health Charity. This was founded after singer Scott Hutchison died in 2018.

Chris says he and fellow musician Bobby Bluebell had always loved the song and felt it was a fitting tribute to fellow musician Scott.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2023.

WEDNESDAY 27 MAY 2026

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m002wv61)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 00:30 Frostlines by Neil Shea (m002wv4s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002wv63)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002wv65)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:00 News Summary (m002wv67)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:04 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


WED 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002wv69)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002wv6c)
The little poor man of Assisi

Prayer for the Day presented by Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark.

Good morning.

Recently I was on an ecumenical pilgrimage to the beautiful city of Assisi in Italy’s Umbrian hills. It is of course the city of St Francis who died 800 years ago. To commemorate this anniversary, his relics were displayed for a period in the basilica, and we filed past them in silence. We looked down on the tiny body and skull of this spiritual giant. When contemporaries called him ‘the little poor man’ of Assisi, they weren’t kidding.

The life of Francis, who gave up his belongings and began living with some friends, a rule of life that opened the eyes to the creation’s environment and opened the heart to human suffering, this life asks us whether today, with our screens and adverts and fear of missing out, we are living the enviable life rather than the good life. The enviable life, of course, leads nowhere except disappointment. What do we need in life to make us more content, more generous, more attentive? For Francis, the answer lay in recognising that the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. Life asks of us not to think less of ourselves, but to think of ourselves a bit less, and then we hear the deeper voice and see the bigger truth than when the world is simply framed by my own fears and failures.

Today I’m praying with Francis:

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.

Amen.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m002wv6f)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 06:00 Today (m002wvd8)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 More or Less (m002wvdd)
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life


WED 09:30 Intrigue (m002wvdj)
To Catch a King

3. Stormy Weather

A journalist and an ex-soldier search for the identity of a people smuggler believed to be responsible for thousands of illegal crossings to the UK by small boats and lorries.

They start with a false name: Kardo Ranya. A man who has evaded arrest for several years by keeping his real identity a closely guarded secret. It makes it near impossible for law enforcement agencies to issue and international arrest warrant.

Sue and Rob know what he looks like from social media posts advertising his crossings and lifestyle. Their search takes them across Europe and to the Middle East, where they discover a network of powerful smugglers operating from a town in Northern Iraq.

It’s two years since Sue and Rob located a gang leader in their podcast Intrigue: To Catch a Scorpion and the illegal business of migrant journeys is more dangerous and ruthless than before.

Their investigation reveals the inner mechanics of the smuggling trade and shows in close focus the people who currently control it as they search for a kingpin behind dangerous crossings to the UK by boat and lorry.

A secret meeting, a missing person and a worried family. Who is the man connecting them?

The series is recorded and presented by Sue Mitchell

It’s produced by Joel Moors

Original music is by Mom Tudie and sound design and mix is by Tom Brignell


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002wvdn)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


WED 11:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002wv5n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]


WED 11:40 This Week in History (m002wvds)
May 25th to May 31st

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

25th May 1895: Oscar Wilde is sentenced to two years hard labour for the crime of gross indecency.

27th May 1703: St Petersburg is founded on the banks of the Neva River

25th May 1659: Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector, leading to the restoration of the monarchy. Charles II lands at Dover exactly one year later.


WED 11:45 Frostlines by Neil Shea (m002wvdx)
Episode 3

'There can be few better or more enjoyable ways of learning about the many Arctics' - Daily Mail

The Arctic was once a place seemingly frozen in time. Now, while the old cold world can still be glimpsed in the herds of caribou, the hidden lives of narwhals, and the hunting skill of an Inupiat elder, there is a new Arctic emerging.

National Geographic writer Neil Shea travels among the Indigenous peoples of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. In Alaska he tracks the patterns of caribou, now shifting after thousands of years of predictability, and in the European Arctic he explores the new Cold War that is rising between Russia, China, Europe, and the United States over who controls the pole, and who will reap its riches as the ice melts.

Frostlines is an expansive yet intimate revelation of the Arctic during a time of crisis, and a journey along the threshold of this stunning and sometimes frightening world. What Shea finds is not one Arctic but many – all linked by shattering cold, seasons of darkness, and pure, sparkling light.

FROSTLINES
Written and read by Neil Shea
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:00 News Summary (m002wvf0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m002wvf2)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


WED 12:57 Weather (m002wvf4)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m002wvf6)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


WED 13:45 Tick Tock: The Working Week in 5 Days (m002wvf8)
Wednesday

A century since its inception, Phil Tinline charts the progression of the Mon-Fri working week over five days.

Wednesday is hump day...and so Phil is thinking about the weekend.

He looks into how the weekend became formally separated from the Monday to Friday, and what different versions of the weekend have looked like across history. This includes a tradition of 'Saint Monday' among workers who not show up at the beginning of the week after a heavy Sunday off.

Moving to the present day, he considers the modern relationship between work, rest and the responsibilities of life. He considers what the modern weekend is for and why we seem to value the freedom of leisure less today than we used to.

Presenter: Phil Tinline
Producer: Sam Peach


WED 14:00 The Archers (m002wv5j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Trust (m0019yy4)
Series 3 – 1. Lost Time

Trust by Jonathan Hall 1/3
Return of the comedy drama series about an inner city academy school. It is September 2021 and the country is emerging from lockdown. So it's pretty hectic for East Salford academy as they try to deal with time lost due to the pandemic, the Trust's level playing fields initiative and a roll out of injections for students. What they do not need is a student who is constantly challenging them.

Yvette...........Julie Hesmondhalgh
Sir Ken/Eugene...........Jonathan Keeble
Tim..................Ashley Margolis
Carol...............Susan Twist
Nicki.................Erin Shanagher
Ryan............... Daniel Luke Jeffrey
Dave................Lloyd Peters
Students.........Thomas Roberts, Royia Tierney, Iestyn Sofield, Rheanon Shaw, Lauren Taylor
Director/Producer Gary Brown


WED 15:00 The Law Show (m002wvfb)
The Law Show is your guide to the law and the legal decisions that have a bearing on everyone in the UK.


WED 15:30 The Artificial Human (m002wvfd)
AI: War Machine?

1. Is AI transforming Warfare?

The recent strikes in Iran were planned, executed and assessed with Ai. Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong find out how Ai is transforming war and asking is the human still meaningfully in the loop?

We hear from Keith Dear, ex-RAF intelligence officer and one of the first people to advise Number 10 on the potential of Ai for the military. He'll explain how Ai is being used in decision making in conflict and how its made compatible with international law. While Dr Elke Schwarz lays out the ethical challenges and concerns about the gradual squeezing out of human involvement in the identification and elimination of targets.

Presenters: Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fing
Production team: Peter McManus and Rachael O'Neil
Sound: Kris McConnachie and Gav Murchie


WED 16:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002wvfg)
Who's in the news for all the wrong reasons? With David Yelland and Simon Lewis.


WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002wvfj)
This is the programme about a revolution in media.


WED 17:00 PM (m002wvfl)
Full coverage of the day's news


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002wvfn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 18:30 Stand-Up Specials (m002wvfq)
Ian Smith Is Stressed - Series 2

2. Sleep

Ian is torn, should he exercise more or should he just lie down and go to sleep? It’s a toughie. Apparently sleep has incredible health benefits, but it seems counterintuitive to sleep your way through a long life. Ian goes on an adventure to assess his own fitness through a bleep test, before quickly pivoting to sleep.

Written and performed by Ian Smith
Additional Material from Mike Shephard and Rhiannon Shaw
Featuring Dave Green
Assistant Producer - Em Humble
Production Manager - Laura Shaw
Produced by Benjamin Sutton
A Daddy’s SuperYacht Production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m002wt2k)
Alice tries to get to the bottom of recent events, and Lynda offers the benefit of her experience.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m002wvft)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m002wvfy)
Are networks the glue of society or the architecture of privilege?

Michael Buerk chairs a special debate from the Hay Festival examining the morality of networks.

The release of the Epstein files has been a reminder that power often flows not just through formal institutions, but through webs of connection: political friendships, old school ties, and professional circles. Figures such as Peter Mandelson and Prince Andrew have focused attention on how influential networks operate, and how access, opportunity and protection can follow. Critics say such cases expose a world where success depends less on merit than on who you know.

But networks are not confined to the wealthy or the powerful. From journalism and politics to business, academia and religion, informal relationships shape how institutions actually work. People rely on contacts for jobs, introductions and advice. Trust is built through familiarity. Sociologists call this “social capital”, the networks of relationships that allow communities and organisations to function. Anthropologists go further: humans are a networked species, whose survival has long depended on cooperation, loyalty and mutual obligation.

The moral tension is that the same instincts that create trust also draw boundaries. Networks build solidarity, but they also decide who is inside and who is left outside. Opportunity, influence and sometimes harm can circulate within closed circles. What looks like loyalty from the inside can look like exclusion from the outside.

So when does social capital become social injustice? Are networks the glue of society, or the architecture of privilege?

Chair: Michael Buerk;
Panel: Anne McElvoy, Matthew Taylor, Mona Siddiqui and Ella Whelan;
Witnesses: Aaron Reeves, Shaun Butler, Andrew Graystone, Julia Hobsbawm;
Producer: Dan Tierney;
Editor: Tim Pemberton.


WED 21:00 The Gift (m002wd8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 All in the Mind (m002wv4n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m002wvg2)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 John of John by Douglas Stuart (m002wvg5)
Episode 3 - a trì

Cal has returned home to the outer Hebridean island of Harris. Today is the Sabbath – and Cal must do what is expected of him.

John of John
Written by Douglas Stuart
Abridged by Martin O'Connor
Read by Scott Miller
Produced by Lu Kemp
A BBC Audio Scotland Production.

Out of money and with little to show for his art school years on the mainland, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home, called back by his father to the island of Harris. In the windswept croft in which he grew up, Cal reluctantly resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of the local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the island’s hillsides, back in a tight knit Hebridean community where talk is both social currency and a tool for control, and where a rigid adherence to Presbyterian faith clashes with the unspoken desires of its inhabitants, John is dismayed by his son’s long hair and seeming unwillingness to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding the community together become increasingly entangled.

In a narrative both tender and unflinching, Douglas Stuart continues and deepens his exploration of masculinity and the silent struggle of lives lived under a watchful, judgmental eye. John of John examines the weight of family expectation, the painful compromises people make for love, the lies they tell themselves and one another in order to survive, and the profound cost of a life unlived.

Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York where he began a career in fashion design. Shuggie Bain, his first novel, won the Booker Prize and both Debut of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the National Book Award, and in 2025 was selected by The Sunday Times as one of the ‘best novels of the twenty-first century’ as well as one of the ten best Booker winners of all time by the Daily Telegraph. His second novel, Young Mungo, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, and ‘Love, Hope & Grit’, the Imagine documentary Douglas made with the late Alan Yentob, is available on the BBC iPlayer. Douglas Stuart lives in New York


WED 23:00 Stand-Up Specials (m001q0y8)
Sarah Keyworth: Are You a Boy or a Girl? S2

3: 'Think of the women'

Just recently Sarah was out in town with two friends, both of whom present in a very similar way to them (short hair, fresh-faced, white t-shirt). When walking to the loo, a toilet attendant called Beatrice told them they were in the wrong bathroom. Sarah befriended Beatrice and, after spending £10 on a Chupa Chups lollipop, made her realise that they were all welcome in the ladies.

In this episode, Sarah talks about their experience on what it means to be considered a woman, whilst not particularly feeling like one.

Award-winning comedian Sarah Keyworth returns with their Radio 4 series Are You a Boy or a Girl?. Since the first series aired in 2020, the debate around gender has exploded and taken on a life of its own, all culminating with one question ‘should I be allowed to decide who I am?’. Sarah has recently come out as non-binary (a subtle soft-launch in the Guardian newspaper) and is ready to share some more of their own brand of mx-information. That’s gender non-conforming information, the cool non-binary cousin of misinformation.

Written by and starring Sarah Keyworth with additional material from Ruby Clyde. This award-winning series was first broadcast in August 2023.

Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Co-ordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Sound Engineer: Paul Brodgen
Editor: Joshan Chana
Photo credit: Matt Crockett

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4


WED 23:15 Misguided Meditations (m001bl18)
4. The Enchanted Wood

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 listeners 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 Soul Music (m001n1h5)
Ghost Town

Ghost Town was recorded by British two-tone band The Specials as a comment on urban decay and social unrest.

It was released in June 1981 as riots were springing up around the UK and with the help of an iconic video it topped the UK singles charts. It was also the band's final single.
Writer Alex Wheatle first heard 'Ghost Town' in 1981 whilst in a social services hostel in Brixton awaiting his court appearance.

He'd been arrested following a day of action in Brixton to protest against racist treatment of Black people, after rumours of police brutality. He was sentenced to one year in prison and sang 'Ghost Town' in his cell, as he began to find hope and purpose in his life.

Claire Horton grew up in Dudley and says 'Ghost Town' echoed her experiences of watching the shops and nightclubs of this once vibrant town closing down.

Her Dad was made redundant and it had a huge impact on her family, and as a young police officer she would walk the streets and understand why people were getting so frustrated with their situation.

Soul and Reggae DJ Dave Marshall Barrett traces the history of The Specials who formed in Dave's hometown of Coventry in 1977. It's the first thing people mention when he says where he comes from.

John Collins was surprised when Jerry Dammers asked him to produce the record.

John created the initial opening 'ghostly' sounds on a synth at home but he says they now sound more like sirens. The song's success opened doors for John and he loves how it keeps finding new audiences.

Broadcaster Samira Ahmed grew up in London and said her the recession of the early 80s hit her family's catering business hard.

Too young for nightclubs, she remembers the video of 'Ghost Town' playing on Top of the Pops and says the track made a huge impact on her understanding of music and politics.

Jazz singer Beverley Beirne covered 'Ghost Town' for her 2018 album 'Jazz Just Wants to Have Fun' and was reminded of it during the first lockdown when she wasn't able to perform.

Founder of The Specials Jerry Dammers reflects on the inspiration behind 'Ghost Town' and how trombonist Rico Rodriguez was the heart and soul of the band.

Additional research: Melanie Pearson
Technical Producer: Michael Harrison
Editor: Emma Harding

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Toby Field.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2023.

THURSDAY 28 MAY 2026

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m002wvg7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 Frostlines by Neil Shea (m002wvdx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002wvg9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002wvgc)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:00 News Summary (m002wvgf)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:04 More or Less (m002wvdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


THU 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002wvgh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002wvgk)
Prisoners of Conscience

Prayer for the Day presented by Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark.

Good morning.

On this day 65 years ago, a British barrister, Peter Benenson, wrote an article in the Observer newspaper called ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’. In it he expressed his anger that two Portuguese students had been imprisoned in their homeland for raising a toast to ‘freedom’. Benenson asked the public to write letters and protest on behalf of, what he termed, these ‘prisoners of conscience’.

Support for Benenson’s article eventually led to the creation of the organisation Amnesty International, which continues today to campaign on behalf on anyone who is imprisoned for their identity or the non-violent expression of conscientiously held beliefs. ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’, said Martin Luther King Jr.

Human rights can get sniggered at in some places today. They are, however, built on a beautiful and strong perception – that to be a human being is to have dignity, and that dignity demands equal and fair treatment for all. And even when someone abuses that dignity, it mustn’t be responded to by reflecting the abuse, but by maintaining that dignity and protecting it, and especially when it is unpopular to do so.

I’m guessing that most of us are beginning this day in relative freedom. We have things to do, but the day is ours. I’m praying with those words of Nina Simone’s haunting song, for those whose conscience or identity is imprisoned right now as I speak:

I wish I could say
All the things that I should say
Say 'em loud, say 'em clear
For the whole round world to hear’.

Amen.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m002wvgm)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 06:00 Today (m002wt1s)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m002wt1v)
The Welsh Marches

At the Hay Festival, Misha Glenny and guests discuss the impact of the Norman invasion on the people and land of Wales and across the modern border with England in what became known as The Welsh Marches, march being a term for a militarized borderland. Hay was one of the first Marcher lordships. Even before 1066, William the Conqueror knew that he would have to subdue the Welsh if he were to control the English and he allowed more and more Norman warlords to establish virtually their own private kingdoms in these Marches. Later some of the Lords were to use these bases to invade Ireland rather than conquer the rest of Wales. Marcher Lords built numerous castles such as the one at Hay and many new towns would then grow up alongside these where there was one law for the English and another for the Welsh and, though the Acts of Union under the Tudors brought an end to the much of the Marcher Lords' powers, the distinct identity of these Welsh Marches continued.

With

Rhun Emlyn
Lecturer in the Department of History and Welsh History at Aberystwyth University

Helen Fulton
Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Bristol

And

Huw Pryce
Emeritus Professor of Welsh History at Bangor University

Producer: Simon Tillotson

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Production

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


THU 09:45 Strong Message Here (m002wt1x)
Armando Iannucci and guests decode the utterly baffling world of political language.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002wt1z)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m002wt21)
Kristin Scott Thomas

Award-winning actor Kristin Scott Thomas talks to John Wilson about her career and cultural influences. After a breakthrough role in the Evelyn Waugh film adaptation of A Handful Of Dust, she became a global star with Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994. Two years later, was Oscar nominated for The English Patient directed by Anthony Minghella. Her screen roles in the years since have included Gosford Park, The Horse Whisperer and more recently Rebecca and on television, Slow Horses. She has just made her debut as a director and screenwriter with My Mother’s Wedding, inspired by her real life family story.
Her extensive theatre credits include Chekhov’s The Seagull, for which she won an Olivier Award, and she played The Queen in Peter Morgan's drama The Audience. Kristin Scott Thomas has also enjoyed a distinguished stage and film career in France, where she was awarded the Legion of Honour in 2005. In 2014 she was made a Dame for services to drama.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


THU 11:45 Frostlines by Neil Shea (m002wt23)
Episode 4

'There can be few better or more enjoyable ways of learning about the many Arctics' - Daily Mail

The Arctic was once a place seemingly frozen in time. Now, while the old cold world can still be glimpsed in the herds of caribou, the hidden lives of narwhals, and the hunting skill of an Inupiat elder, there is a new Arctic emerging.

National Geographic writer Neil Shea travels among the Indigenous peoples of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. In Alaska he tracks the patterns of caribou, now shifting after thousands of years of predictability, and in the European Arctic he explores the new Cold War that is rising between Russia, China, Europe, and the United States over who controls the pole, and who will reap its riches as the ice melts.

Frostlines is an expansive yet intimate revelation of the Arctic during a time of crisis, and a journey along the threshold of this stunning and sometimes frightening world. What Shea finds is not one Arctic but many – all linked by shattering cold, seasons of darkness, and pure, sparkling light.

FROSTLINES
Written and read by Neil Shea
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:00 News Summary (m002wt25)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Scam Secrets (m002wt27)
The Instagram Takeover Scam

An old friend is posting about how well his investments are doing - and he's offering you the chance to get involved too. Would you know what to do?

In this final episode of the series, the Scam Secrets team unpick a fraud which ripped through a group of close mates. One by one, their Instagram accounts were infiltrated as, believing they were chatting to a friend, they handed over their login details, hoping to join a crypto investment scheme. But that gave the criminals all they needed to take over the account and use it as a platform to try the same trick on all their followers.

It's a modern day pyramid scheme that plays on the victims' desire to make money and their trust in their friends.

Scam Secrets will be back later in the year. In the meantime, you can contact the team at scamsecrets@bbc.co.uk.

PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL

PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002wt29)
Toast - Wilko

Wilkinson - or Wilko as it became known - was a privately-owned family business that had been successful for decades, offering low-priced household products from its chain of high street stores.

So why did it falter during a cost-of-living crisis when people were looking for value?

The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, investigates how its stores ended up toast, in the company of resident business expert and entrepreneur, Sam White.

To help explain what happened, Sean and Sam delve into the parliamentary archives and hear from expert guests including Gordon Brown who was Wilkinson's managing director for 15 years and Patrick O'Brien, Research Director at GlobalData who has followed the fortunes of high street names for over a decade.

At the end, Sam has to come up with her own conclusions about the fate of Wilko based on what she has just heard.

If you have a good idea for an interesting Toast topic then tell us about it - email toast@bbc.co.uk

Produced by Jon Douglas, Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.


THU 12:57 Weather (m002wt2c)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m002wt2f)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


THU 13:45 Tick Tock: The Working Week in 5 Days (m002wt2h)
Thursday

Phil Tinline charts the progession of the working week in five days. On today's agenda: overworking.

By Thursday the working week is beginning to take its toll for many, but for a lot of people, the work never stops. Phil looks into the rise of 'overworking' and heads into the world of people working way beyond the 9-5.

They include proponents of the new 9-9-6 working culture: 9am to 9pm, Monday to Saturday, popular in China and Silicon Valley. Phil meets successful 996 entrepeneur is Harry Stebbings, founder of 20VC. 20VC is Venture Capital firm and podcast company, managing $850m of investment. For Harry, 996 is a mindset to be 'always on' and committed to being better than a competition working Monday to Friday.

Phil examines how the culture of overworking came to be endemic in the the UK, the United States, Japan and beyond. Is it down to the individual, the employer or society at large? He asks who exactly is overworking, whether it is a bad thing for everyone.

Presenter: Phil Tinline
Producer: Sam Peach


THU 14:00 The Archers (m002wt2k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002wt2m)
Artan and Jordan

A West-Country bromance starring Tobie Donovan and Olsen Elezi.

Jordan, a Wilshire lad, and Artan, an Albanian guy, bond over cars and music. Soon they’re best friends. Brothers even.

But when Jordan’s looking for a job and Artan offers to help out, they both find themselves drawn into something so much bigger than they ever realised.

Story by Florence Espeut-Nickless and Tadgh Espeut-Nickless
Written by Florence Espeut-Nickless

Artan ..… Olsen Elezi
Jordan ..… Tobie Donovan
Vinnie ..… Nikolaos Brahimllari
Alfie ..… Ed Kear
Jade ..… Becky Brunning
Jasper ..… Joseph Tweedale

Directed and produced by Jenny Davies
Sound design by Catherine Robinson
Production co-ordinator, Lindsay Rees
Executive producer, Fay Lomas

With thanks to Tom Bevan

A BBC Audio Drama Wales Production


THU 15:00 Ramblings (m002wt2p)
Fetternear, Aberdeenshire

Clare Balding joins the Garioch 50+ Men’s Walking Group for a stroll through the scenic Fetternear Estate near Kemnay in Aberdeenshire.

This long-running group was founded to support men adjusting to life after retirement, offering not just exercise but companionship and conversation. Over the past twelve years, the group has become a lifeline for its members, many of whom have faced health challenges or caring responsibilities. Their ethos is simple: walking together promotes physical fitness, mental wellbeing, and a sense of purpose.

Today’s route is an easy walk through forests and farmland, with views of the River Don and a chance to explore the ruins of a 13th-century Bishop’s Palace. Nearby Kemnay Quarry, famous for its granite used in iconic buildings and the Thames Embankment, adds another layer of history to the outing. Along the way, Clare hears stories from men of varied backgrounds who share how walking has helped them.

Clare and the group met for their walk at a small car park near the Fetternear Estate: What3Words: landowner.stormed.number / AB51 5NL

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m002wsnl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Word of Mouth (m002wt2r)
Words to Love the Living World

The words that we use to label or describe things in nature – words for landscapes, creatures, seasons, the weather – can they help awaken us to the world around us? Drawing on languages from all over the world, Michael Rosen hears about Words to Love a Planet: An Illustrated Dictionary of Language, Landscape and Life from author Ella Frances Sanders.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol, in partnership with the Open University, by Becky Ripley.

Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz


THU 16:00 Rethink (m002wt2t)
Rethink... the Humanities

Every year, fewer students are choosing to study humanities courses such as philosophy, history, religion, languages and literature. This collapse in demand has led many cash-strapped universities to close humanities courses entirely.

Instead, it’s the STEM subjects that are booming – that’s science, technology, engineering and maths - as students see these as a route to a well paid career and paying off tens of thousands of pounds in student debt.

Rightly or wrongly, there is a perception that humanities degrees don’t necessarily lead to a high salary. Cynics cruelly call some of them “Mickey Mouse degrees” and politicians have tended to promote STEM subjects. So should we be rethinking the humanities for a digital age?

Should we be rethinking the content of humanities courses and how they are marketed to students? Should humanities students also have access to modules in STEM subjects? Should we be taking a more inter-disciplinary approach (more on that rather ungainly phrase later).

And then what about artificial intelligence? Will the skills that humanities subjects teach - critical thinking, empathy, reasoning - be the ones that employers actually care more about than say coding or calculating over the next few decades? Will employers want to hire candidates that speak human, can tell stories, formulate arguments and empathise as an essential counter-weight to super intelligent technology? Might AI ironically end up saving our very oldest, dustiest subjects of inquiry?

Presenter: Ben Ansell
Producer: Tom Gillett
Editor: Damon Rose

Contributors:
Elif Shafik, Novelist and writer
Etan Shah, Chief Executive of the British Academy
Professor Sean Kelly, Dean of Arts and Humanities, Harvard University
Dr Peter Sutoris, Associate Professor in Climate and Development at the University of Leeds
Marion Thain, Professor of Culture and Technology at the University of Edinburgh.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977n)
A weekly show exploring science, its mysteries, and the debates it sparks.


THU 17:00 PM (m002wt2y)
Full coverage of the day's news


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002wt30)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 18:30 Ellie Taylor's Safe Space (m001kptb)
Series 3

2: Reality TV

Ellie Taylor welcomes you to "Safe Space", a place where anyone can offload their controversial opinions without fear of judgment.

She talks to members of the public about their gripes and dislikes. This week she wants to prove that reality TV is of cultural significance! It shows people from all walks of life and has provided some of the most memorable TV moments of the last twenty years.

Joining Ellie to prove her point is regular sidekick Robin Morgan.

With special guest: Star of hit BBC reality show The Traitors, Amanda Lovett. She chats to Ellie about what it was like being on The Traitors, why she thinks reality TV is important in bringing people together and why she always carries her Traitors cloak with her.

This series was first broadcast in March 2023.

Written by and starring Ellie Taylor and Robin Morgan.

Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Co-ordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Sound editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios production for Radio 4


THU 19:00 The Archers (m002wt32)
Natasha makes plans for the future, and Kirsty struggles to allay her fears.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m002wt34)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.


THU 20:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002wvfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Wednesday]


THU 20:15 The Media Show (m002wvfj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:15 on Wednesday]


THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m002wsk6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


THU 21:45 Strong Message Here (m002wt1x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002wt38)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 John of John by Douglas Stuart (m002wt3b)
Episode 4 - a ceithir

Avoiding his family, Cal attempts to stay outside the family croft. Loitering outside the bar, Cal runs into Isla – his childhood sweetheart - and together they carefully reframe their friendship.

John of John
Written by Douglas Stuart
Abridged by Martin O'Connor
Read by Scott Miller
Produced by Lu Kemp
A BBC Audio Scotland Production.

Out of money and with little to show for his art school years on the mainland, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home, called back by his father to the island of Harris. In the windswept croft in which he grew up, Cal reluctantly resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of the local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the island’s hillsides, back in a tight knit Hebridean community where talk is both social currency and a tool for control, and where a rigid adherence to Presbyterian faith clashes with the unspoken desires of its inhabitants, John is dismayed by his son’s long hair and seeming unwillingness to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding the community together become increasingly entangled.

In a narrative both tender and unflinching, Douglas Stuart continues and deepens his exploration of masculinity and the silent struggle of lives lived under a watchful, judgmental eye. John of John examines the weight of family expectation, the painful compromises people make for love, the lies they tell themselves and one another in order to survive, and the profound cost of a life unlived.

Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York where he began a career in fashion design. Shuggie Bain, his first novel, won the Booker Prize and both Debut of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the National Book Award, and in 2025 was selected by The Sunday Times as one of the ‘best novels of the twenty-first century’ as well as one of the ten best Booker winners of all time by the Daily Telegraph. His second novel, Young Mungo, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, and ‘Love, Hope & Grit’, the Imagine documentary Douglas made with the late Alan Yentob, is available on the BBC iPlayer. Douglas Stuart lives in New York.


THU 23:00 Radical with Amol Rajan (m002wt3d)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 23:30 Soul Music (m001n8c6)
I Say a Little Prayer for You

When Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David wrote I Say A Little Prayer For You in 1967 the war in Vietnam was raging. The song was intended as message of support for the soldiers there. It was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick and the following year by Aretha Franklin.
Doug Bradley was drafted and served in Vietnam as a war correspondent. He says the music the troops all listened to on AFVN (Armed Forces Vietnam Network) sustained him and others while they were in country. His book We Gotta Get Out of This Place (The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War) documents the vital role music played for the soldiers. Aretha Franklin was a symbol of hope and civil rights for many African American troops and I Say A Little Prayer a soothing and calming message of love.
The singer-songwriter Rumer adored the song and all of Aretha's music as an unhapy teenager in England. She went on to write the hit song Aretha about a young girl whose mother has a mental illness confiding all her worries to the Queen of Soul. Her husband Rob Shirakbari was recruited by both Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach as keyboard player and musical arranger. To him the song with its mixture of time signatures and different interpretations symbolises many happy years playing with two of the musical greats.
Jazz singer Nnenna Freelon has recorded two versions of because it is one she has loved throughout the years but only after the death of her husband Phil in 2019 did it become a song about the expression of grief. Her latest version interprets the song as a plea and a prayer for her late husband as well as for herself. Her podcast Great Grief is a meditation on grief and loss combined with music.
In 1968 Aretha Franklin played in Stockholm. 15 year old Hasse Huss and his friend hung around her hotel hoping to meet her. Not only did they meet her but at her invitation they spent the next day with her as she rehearsed for her show. I Say A Little Prayer fills him with happiness and nostalgia for this happy day in the late sixties and he plans to incorporate the song lyrics into a speech for his son's wedding.
And Professor Daphne Brooks grew up with older siblings and musical parents who introduced her to the song. It has been with her throughout her life representing for her the 'fullness of black womanhood'. The song very recently helped her deal with her beloved mother's passing at the age of 96.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

FRIDAY 29 MAY 2026

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002wt3g)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 00:30 Frostlines by Neil Shea (m002wt23)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002wt3j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002wt3l)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:00 News Summary (m002wt3n)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:04 Rethink (m002wt2t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Thursday]


FRI 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002wt3q)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002wt3s)
Stop Messin’ About!

Prayer for the Day presented by Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark.

Good morning.

Earlier this year I was delighted to put together five morning services for Radio 4 on the life of the actor and comedian Kenneth Williams, whose 100th anniversary of birth falls this year. This followed a programme on Radio 4 called As the Actor Said to the Bishop, in which Bishop James Jones dug out some old recordings he had produced many years ago in which Kenneth reads stories from the Christian gospels.

I knew Kenneth for the last months of his life. He took his Christian faith very seriously. Though often waspish and sometimes acidic, a person who could be desperate to be looked at and yet terrified of being seen, he knew that Christianity called out to the better part of himself and gave him a peace that the entertainment world never could.

He was a man for all emotional seasons – outrageous, melancholic, the heart of a party, a solitary at home. His exaggerations rather gave him away. He loved to tell stories that punctured pomposity. He was man who made many people laugh till the tears fell, someone who helped us burst out of the prim and proper to relish the fun of life, but who, deep down, knew that this life is much more than a mere Carry On and that at some point we need to ‘Stop Messin’ About’. As an actor and as a human being he knew that life asks us to pay attention, and that in return attention will pay us back.

Today I’m praying for all those who make us smile and laugh, those who show us our foibles and silliness, and those who may be helped by our own smiles today.

Amen.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002wt3v)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 06:00 Today (m002ww0g)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m002wsnz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Sunday]


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002ww0j)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m002x5rx)
The Price of Food

The food industry is predicting double digit inflation and are calling on the Government to act. Dan Saladino asks what lies behind the gloomy forecast, who will be most affected by price increases and if anything can be done to avoid the worst case scenario?

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.


FRI 11:45 Frostlines by Neil Shea (m002ww0n)
Episode 5

'There can be few better or more enjoyable ways of learning about the many Arctics' - Daily Mail

The Arctic was once a place seemingly frozen in time. Now, while the old cold world can still be glimpsed in the herds of caribou, the hidden lives of narwhals, and the hunting skill of an Inupiat elder, there is a new Arctic emerging.

National Geographic writer Neil Shea travels among the Indigenous peoples of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. In Alaska he tracks the patterns of caribou, now shifting after thousands of years of predictability, and in the European Arctic he explores the new Cold War that is rising between Russia, China, Europe, and the United States over who controls the pole, and who will reap its riches as the ice melts.

Frostlines is an expansive yet intimate revelation of the Arctic during a time of crisis, and a journey along the threshold of this stunning and sometimes frightening world. What Shea finds is not one Arctic but many – all linked by shattering cold, seasons of darkness, and pure, sparkling light.

FROSTLINES
Written and read by Neil Shea
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m002ww0q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Rare Earth (m002ww0s)
Leaving Fossil Fuels Behind

Tom Heap and Helen Czerski ask if war is accelerating the shift from fossil fuels.

Producer: Emma Campbell

Produced in association with the Open University


FRI 12:57 Weather (m002ww0v)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m002ww0x)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4


FRI 13:45 Tick Tock: The Working Week in 5 Days (m002ww0z)
Friday

Phil Tinline charts the progression of the working week in 5 days. Today, Thank God It's Friday. It's the day many spend the week waiting for, but are we soon to see a four day week?

Phil decides to end the week at the place where its always Friday: TGI Fridays restaurant. He speaks to waiting staff, known as 'Dub Dubs' about the Friday feeling. But their global president says Thursday might be the new Friday, so if the 4 day week finally here?

Having spent the series thinking about the importance of the five day work week, Phil now ponders whether it is time for it to come to an end. The calls for a four day week are getting louder, especially since the pandemic. But is the 4 day week an unrealistic pipedream, or a foregone conclusion? Phil speaks to those at the vanguard of the four day week, from the people behind one of the largest studies into the phenomenon to those working within the model today.

Presenter: Phil Tinline
Producer: Sam Peach


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m002wt32)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m002w9ld)
Wraith

Episode 4: Execute

A cutting-edge thriller about an Artificial Intelligence takeover, written in consultation with leading AI and cybersecurity experts.

In Episode 4, Iain and Mel are forced to run for their lives as military personnel receive deepfaked orders. The AI gains control of internal government communications, and Nisha clashes with cabinet ministers over the right course of action. The London Internet Exchange is compromised, and Iain, Mel and Nisha are forced to consider what price is worth paying for human freedom.

Cast:
Iain - Edward Bluemel
Mel - Corinna Brown
Zaina - Fatima Adoum
Roland - Philip Bretherton
Jess - Alix Wilton Regan
Nisha - Seyan Sarvan
Sam - Kenneth Omole
Andrea - Beth Chalmers
Oliver - Sean Rigby
Marcus - Wilf Scolding
John - Joseph Mydell
Susan - Karen Bryson
Lyssa - Catriona Stirling
Supporting roles - Sean Baker

Created by James Dobbyn and Anthony Povah
Written by James Dobbyn
Original Music by Steven D Griffiths and Isla Noir

Artificial Intelligence consultant: Saffron Huang
Cybersecurity consultant: Adam Orton
Sound Designer: Lucinda Mason Brown
Director: John Wakefield
Story Producer: Sarah Olley
Producer: Chris Grezo
Executive Producer: John Scott Dryden

A Strange Boy production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:45 The Hackers (m0012plm)
Series 1

For the Lulz

Biella and technology journalist Frank Bajak discuss how two teenage hackers, calling themselves Lulzsec Peru, managed to expose corruption and shook the Peruvian government to the core with a massive leak of documents - and in doing so become some of the most impactful hacktivists of the early 2000s.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002ww11)
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts.


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m002ww13)
Under the Mountain by Richard Smyth

In Richard Smyth’s new disorientating original work, we follow the stubbornness of a writer who continues creating in spite of the world and its distractions, interruptions, and tragedies – small and large.
Richard Smyth is an acclaimed novelist, critic and wildlife writer based in Yorkshire. As well as novels and short fiction, Richard writes features, reviews and comment pieces for publications including The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, The New Statesman, The Author, BBC Wildlife, New Humanist, Illustration, New Scientist, Bird Watching, and more. His crosswords – both cryptic and quiz – appear regularly in New Scientist, History Today, New Humanist, BBC Wildlife, History Revealed and The Blizzard. He is part of the team that sets questions for BBC Mastermind, and is a cartoonist, too.
‘Under the Mountain’ is read by Jessica Hardwick and produced by Bethany Woodhead. It is a BBC Audio Scotland production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m002ww15)
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme


FRI 16:30 More or Less (m002wvdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m002ww17)
Full coverage of the day's news


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002ww19)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m002ww1c)
Series 120

Episode 7

Andy Zaltzman quizzes the week's news with panellists Scott Bennett, Bella Hull, Ayesha Hazarika and Cody Dahler.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m002ww1f)
24th May – 29th May 2026
Writer: Katie Hims
Director: Jessica Bunch
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Brian Aldridge … Charles Collingwood
Natasha Archer … Mali Harries 
Tom Archer … William Troughton 
Lilian Bellamy … Sunny Ormonde
Alice Carter … Hollie Chapman 
Susan Carter … Charlotte Martin
Ian Craig …  Stephen Kennedy 
Alan Franks … John Telfer
Brad Horrobin … Taylor Uttley
Tracy Horrobin … Susie Riddell 
Adam Macy … Andrew Wincott
Kate Madikane ... Perdita Avery
Zainab Malik ... Priyasasha Kumari
Kirsty Miller …. Annabelle Dowler 
Lynda Snell ... Carole Boyd
Carol Tregorran … Mia Soteriou
Anna Tregorran … Isobel Middleton
Midwife … Tian Chaudhry


FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m002ww1h)
Fiona Bevan and Keelan Carew mess around

Multi-platinum songwriter and musician Fiona Bevan and pianist Keelan Carew are Jeffrey and Anna's studio guests as they add five more tracks, taking us from Ray Charles letting loose for the first time, to a famous riverboat steamer on the Mississippi via Mozart and Nick Drake.

Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Mess Around by Ray Charles
Kyrie from the Mass in C Minor by Mozart
From the Morning by Nick Drake
Fields of Gold by Eva Cassidy
Proud Mary by Ike & Tina Turner

Other music in this episode:

Soul Bossa Nova by Quincy Jones
Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor (the Chaconne) by J.S. Bach


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m002ww1k)
Topical discussion posing questions to a panel of political and media personalities


FRI 20:55 This Week in History (m002wvds)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:40 on Wednesday]


FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m002ww1m)
Free Thinking at the Hay Festival: Responsibility

Freedom is one of the leading values of our society. But with freedom comes responsibility, which is a much more contested principle. Deciding where responsibility lies, and what it means to take it, is the job of the courts. It is also debated in Parliament and in the media. It is often at issue on the psychotherapist’s couch. For Radio 4’s arts and ideas discussion programme, Shahidha Bari gathers a panel of experts who deal with the concept of responsibility in very different contexts. Recorded in front of an audience at the Hay Festival, Shahidha's guests are:

Baroness Hale served as the most senior judge in the UK. Her books include Spider Woman, and With the Law on Our Side
Psychotherapist and artist Philippa Perry. Her books include The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read, How to Stay Sane and now a crime novel Shrink Solves Murder
Philosopher Simon Critchley. His books include On Mysticism, Tragedy: The Greeks and Us, and What We Think About When We Think About Football
Former Downing Street Director of Communications Guto Harri

Producer: Luke Mulhall


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002ww1p)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 John of John by Douglas Stuart (m002ww1r)
Episode 5 - a còig

While small talk evades them, Cal and his father share the same language of colour. Working together, as much as Cal dreads it, slowly starts to soften the air between them.

John of John
Written by Douglas Stuart
Abridged by Martin O'Connor
Read by Scott Miller
Produced by Lu Kemp
A BBC Audio Scotland Production.

Out of money and with little to show for his art school years on the mainland, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home, called back by his father to the island of Harris. In the windswept croft in which he grew up, Cal reluctantly resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of the local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the island’s hillsides, back in a tight knit Hebridean community where talk is both social currency and a tool for control, and where a rigid adherence to Presbyterian faith clashes with the unspoken desires of its inhabitants, John is dismayed by his son’s long hair and seeming unwillingness to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding the community together become increasingly entangled.

In a narrative both tender and unflinching, Douglas Stuart continues and deepens his exploration of masculinity and the silent struggle of lives lived under a watchful, judgmental eye. John of John examines the weight of family expectation, the painful compromises people make for love, the lies they tell themselves and one another in order to survive, and the profound cost of a life unlived.

Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York where he began a career in fashion design. Shuggie Bain, his first novel, won the Booker Prize and both Debut of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the National Book Award, and in 2025 was selected by The Sunday Times as one of the ‘best novels of the twenty-first century’ as well as one of the ten best Booker winners of all time by the Daily Telegraph. His second novel, Young Mungo, was a number
one Sunday Times bestseller. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, and ‘Love, Hope & Grit’, the Imagine documentary Douglas made with the late Alan Yentob, is available on the BBC iPlayer. Douglas Stuart lives in New York.


FRI 23:00 Americast (w3ct8lz4)
Join Americast for insights and analysis on what's happening inside Trump's White House.


FRI 23:30 Soul Music (m001ng37)
Fast Car

'Fast Car' is one of Tracy Chapman's biggest hits, with listeners from around the world finding striking connections with their own lives in the song's story.

It was released in April 1988, and that summer, the American singer-songwriter performed it to a global audience of 600 million at Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday Tribute. This broadcast catapulted Tracy and the song to super-stardom, as it became a top ten hit on both sides of the Atlantic and received three Grammy nominations.

Ever since, 'Fast Car' has resonated with people around the world. The lyrics describe a working woman trying to escape a cycle of poverty, dreaming of a plan to leave in a "fast car". She speaks of wanting to get out of the life she finds herself in, living in a shelter, and driving towards the city to find something better.

This episode features the personal stories of Fitzroy Samuels in Kingston, Jamaica; Priscilla Munson in Indiana, U.S; Gemma Brown in Gateshead, UK and Dev Cuny in California, U.S. We also hear from Alister Wright in Sydney, Australia whose band, Vlossom, covered Fast Car; and Nigel Williamson, music journalist who has met and interviewed Tracy Chapman many times.

Produced by Eliza Lomas, BBC Audio Bristol