SATURDAY 30 MAY 2026
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m002ww1t)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:30 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
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002ww1w)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002ww1y)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:30 News Summary (m002ww20)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002ww22)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002ww24)
Success is Fleeting
Good morning.
I’ve recently become a golfer, and an enthusiastic one at that! In addition to getting out on the course regularly, I follow top players like World Number One, Scottie Scheffler. This man has extraordinary skill, but he also has deep religious belief. After his win at the British Open last summer, he told the assembled press that his greatest priorities, in rank order, were faith, family, and golf. He also remarked that winning only feels “awesome for about two minutes”. He loves being able to live out his dreams, but he qualified this, by adding “sometimes I just don’t understand the point… it doesn’t fill the deepest desires of my heart”. I found his way of approaching both life and livelihood to be profound, and a model for how we might re-evaluate what’s really important to us.
We all love success, but pursuing it before other things that we should hold most dear can produce great anxiety and fear – particularly if we fail to achieve those goals. Scheffler’s example reminds us that success is fleeting: the emotional high evaporates; the next challenge soon appears. Faith keep things in perspective. It allows us to detach our sense of worth from material outcomes. We can still achieve, without placing personal significance before all else.
Lord God, help us to understand the value and true purpose of the talents we possess, and to remember that they are divine gifts, which we must cherish and nurture. We pray that humility and earnestness will trump more worldly concerns, as we come to know what constitutes our true worth. AMEN.
SAT 05:45 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.
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m002x3pw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 06:07 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
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m002x3py)
30/05/26 - Farming Today This Week: pig supply chain problems, hot weather impacts and singing farmers
Its been a record breakingly hot week across much, though not all, of the UK, and that's brought probems for farmers, with crops struggling and livestock at risk of overheating. We ask what more extreme weather means for the future of British farming.
Independent UK pig farmers face an uncertain future according to the National Pig Association, which this week called for long-term committements from retailers, processors and the foodservice sector. It comes two weeks after the supermarket Morrisons said it will stop buying pigs from some of its farmers, because of an oversupply of pig meat - blaming the 'challenging economic climate.'
And we speak to the Hawkstone Farmers Choir ahead of their participation in the final of Britain's Got Talent. The choir is made up of farmers and others working in agriculture and was originally set up as part of an advertising campaign, but has since been using its growing fame to talk about mental health in farming.
Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Heather Simons
SAT 06:57 Weather (m002x3q0)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m002x3q2)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m002x3q4)
Tom Fletcher, Russell Kane, Poetry in Nature, and the Inheritance Tracks of Katie Razzall
Adrian Chiles with a pop star, a comedian and a writer, but there’s a lot more to each of them than that.
Tom Fletcher was starring on the West End stage at the age of 10. 30 years later he’s been back there writing the music for Paddington - The Musical. In between he’s squeezed in popstardom with the hugely successful band McFly.
Bethany Handley grew up loving life in the great outdoors of Monmouthshire and she has written a memoir, My Body is a Meadow: Finding Freedom in the Outdoors.
And with Russell Kane there’s an awful lot going on. Terrifyingly clever, award-winning comedian, writer, children's book author and now Shakespearean actor.
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Assistant Producers: Ribika Moktan and Sofia Popova
Production co-ordinator: Josie Hardy
Editor: Andrea Kennedy
SAT 10:00 The History Podcast (m002x7m8)
Sixty Years of Hurt
3. England v Hooligans
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 three, David tackles the ‘English disease’ of hooliganism and looks at how it was, if not cured, then certainly treated.
England fans are not defined by hooliganism, but it’s impossible to look at the story of the England team without examining the headline grabbing behaviour of some of its fans. As applause for the 1966 World Cup faded away, the England story didn’t take long to add violence and extremism to its mix of patriotism, enthusiasm and natural sporting tension. Contributors including Cass Pennant, Kevin Day, David Goldblatt, and Roy Williams, share their experience of English football’s violent surges through the seventies and eighties, before a charting a change in fan behaviour as football emerged into the 1990s.
The series delves deep into how national myths are both forged and reflected in the fate of eleven young men with three lions on their shirts. It takes in the view from England’s sporting rivals, from Wales to Argentina, and asks what light the success of England’s Woman casts on the story of England’s Men. 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.
Host: David Baddiel
Producers: Rich Power and David Baddiel
Assistant Producer: Isaac Fisher
SAT 10:30 Legend (m002x3q6)
The Miles Davis Story
2. Back off the Ropes
Clarke Peters explores a period when Miles Davis, the "King of Cool," was nearly knocked out for good.
By the early 1950s, Miles had hit rock bottom - scraped off a Manhattan gutter by a friend and forced to pawn his trumpet to fund a heroin habit that had swallowed his career and his reputation. Clarke follows Miles on a desperate, 20-hour bus ride back to his father’s farm, where he would face his greatest demon in a brutal, solitary fight for his life. We discover how Miles used the grit and physical discipline of his boxing idols, Jack Johnson and Sugar Ray Robinson, to survive a "cold turkey" recovery and find a radical new way to play. Using a Harmon mute to create a dark, aching, and intensely intimate sound that would become his signature, Miles began a high-stakes hustle to reclaim his throne.
From the shame of a prison cell to a last-chance appearance at a major jazz festival, this is the story of a legendary artist fighting his way back from the brink to see if the world was still listening.
Narrator and longtime fan Clarke Peters (The Wire, Treme) explores the restless genius and radical evolution of Miles Davis. Across five episodes, Clarke traces a 50 year odyssey of constant reinvention - from a teenage outsider 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 with fresh perspectives, the series reveals how Miles’s "take no shit" attitude and aesthetic fearlessness influenced everyone from rock stars to Oscar-winning filmmakers.
Yet, Clarke also grapples with the darker truths of Miles’s legacy, including the substance issues and domestic abuse that left a trail of pain for those closest to him. It is a searching investigation into an artist capable of the most sublime beauty and the most brutal behavior - a man who refused to be palatable, refused to be a "legend", and simply refused to stop moving forward.
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 and James Pearson
Archivist: Simon Rooks
Script Consultant: Anne Harbin
Technical Production and Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Commissioning Editors for the BBC: Dan Clarke and Matthew Dodd
Featured tracks (in order of appearance)
"Right Off" - Miles Davis
"Yesternow" - Miles Davis
"Blue n Boogie" - Miles Davis
"Walkin" - Miles Davis
"Love me or Leave me" Rudy van Gelder (featuring Miles Davis)
"it Never Entered my Mind" - MIles Davis
"Oleo" - MIles Davis
"Round Midnight" - Thelonius Monk (featuring Miles Davis)
"So What" - Miles Davis
Jack Johnson, directed by Jim Jacobs, The Big Fights Inc. 1970
Clark Terry from BBC Jazz File, Miles Davis at 80, 2001
SAT 11:00 Radical with Amol Rajan (m002wt3d)
Healthcare, Reinvented: How Dramatic Medical Breakthroughs Are Quietly Changing Your Life (Professor Sir John Bell)
This week, John Burn-Murdoch sits in for Amol to speak to Professor Sir John Bell, one of Britain’s leading medical scientists, about the huge (and often undiscussed) medical breakthroughs changing how we live, age and die. Medical advances have already added 12 years to average life expectancy in the UK in the last 50 years. But the next revolution may be even more radical: earlier cancer detection, personalised vaccines, obesity drugs, AI-driven prevention and treatments that could keep us healthier for longer. But with the science and technology moving this fast, can the health service, the economy, and the public keep up?
GET IN TOUCH
WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
Email: radical@bbc.co.uk
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday. It was made by Rufus Gray and Oscar Pearson. Digital production was by Leona Gaspar. Technical production was by Stephen Bailey. The Senior News Editor is Sam Bonham.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002x3q8)
Cuba's collapsing revolution
Kate Adie introduces stories on Cuba's economic crisis as it feels the strain of the US fuel blockade, Lebanon's shattered ceasefire, the fevered debate over Australia's social media ban, plus dispatches from Greece and Iceland.
Cuba is struggling to cope with the the US government's near-total fuel blockade and the Trump administration increased the pressure on the ruling Communist Party when it issued an indictment against Raul Castro this week. Will Grant has been gauging the mood in Havana.
In southern Lebanon, Israel has stepped up its offensive on Hezbollah with daily strikes, which have killed dozens of civilians. This follows drone attacks launched by the Iran-backed group on communities in northern Israel. John Sudworth reports on the ongoing conflict.
Six months on from Australia's introduction of a social media ban for under 16s, governments around the world are eagerly looking on as they consider rolling out similar policies… but is it working? Katy Watson has been following the debate in Sydney.
In Greece, indignation over new labour laws introduced last October continue to simmer as the summer heat takes hold. The new law, which permits 13-hour working days was met with fierce opposition and nationwide strikes. Heidi Fuller Love heard some full-throated views on the subject in a local taverna
And finally, when a correspondent is on deployment, one of the aspects they have to navigate is a sudden change of plan. Sandra Kanthal found herself diverted by bad weather from an assignment reporting on Iceland’s arctic defences… and founded herself in an unusual museum.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinators: Sophie Hill & Katie Morrison
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m002x3qb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m002x3qd)
Civil Service Pension Debacle and Cheaper Energy?
The PCS union is calling for Capita to lose its contract to administer the Civil Service Pensions scheme six months after it took over. It follows problems which have seen thousands of retired civil servants waiting months for pension payments. The Union says it would like the contract to be managed by the government instead. Capita says it is making progress on getting things 'back to normal levels' and that it’s got extra trained staff working on the backlog.
Why is the take-up of child benefit, which is worth at least £1,400 per year, at its lowest level for more than twenty years? HMRC says it works with 'many partners' to promote take-up and provide information to new parents in hospitals across the UK. But what else can be done?
A debt advice provider calls for a new social energy tariff to give cheaper gas and electricity to those on lower incomes, ahead of price rises in July.
And, the new rare bank note to celebrate Scotland qualifying for the World Cup for first time in more than 25 years.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Hannah Mullane and Jo Krasner
Researcher: Catherine Lund
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast
12pm Saturday 30th May 2026)
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m002ww1c)
Series 120
7. Heat and NEETs
Andy Zaltzman is joined by his panel of political satirists to unpack the critical essays of Tony Blair, the spending habits of Peter Murrell and the SNP, the sweltering heat, social media ban proposals for under 16's and young people in record levels of unemployment.
This week’s panellists are Scott Bennett, Cody Dahler, Ayesha Hazarika and Bella Hull.
Written by Andy Zaltzman.
With additional material by: Angela Channell, Sam Nicoresti, Pravanya Pillay and Peter Tellouche.
Producer: Rajiv Karia
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Coordinator: Asha Osborne-Grinter
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
SAT 12:57 Weather (m002x3qg)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News (m002x3qj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m002ww1k)
Hamish Falconer MP, Baroness Laing, George Monbiot, Richard Tice MP
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from St Norbert's Community Hall in Spalding in Lincolnshire with the Labour MP and Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer; the Conservative peer Baroness Laing; the journalist and author George Monbiot and the Deputy Leader of Reform UK Richard Tice MP.
Producer: Robin Markwell
Assistant Producer: Lowri Morgan
Production Coordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Lead broadcaster engineer: Kate Barker
Editor: Andrea Kennedy
SAT 14:05 Any Answers? (m002x3ql)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?
SAT 14:45 The Archers (m002ww1f)
Lilian admits to Adam in The Bull that her conversation with Brian had been frustrating. In a parallel universe, Brian and Jennifer would be celebrating their Golden Wedding and things would be better. Lilian had checked on Ruairi yesterday and he’s doing better away from Ambridge. Adam discretely confides that he knows about Ruairi, George and the cover-up. Lilian assures Adam that Brian really does love him and Debbie but Adam refutes this.
Ian’s being hounded, because of being on the PTA, by parents worried about the OFSTED report. But he can’t help them, he’s not a governor. He confirms that Kate’s taking some shifts at Grey Gables – she’ll either be brilliant or a nightmare. Adam receives an email from Brian– he’s been sacked! He’s not to set foot on Home Farm. He reassures Ian that he has a plan; with the backing of a lawyer he’s going to invoke the mental incapacity clause in the partnership agreement.
At Glebe Cottage, Carol tells Anna over dinner that she doesn’t want her to put her life on hold – she knows she has no room for a private life. Hopefully the impressive care assessor will be able to suggest more support. Carol confesses that she feels useless, but that she’s still capable, curious and interested. Conversation turns to Richard but Carol doesn’t see the point of talking about her son. Anna suggests they do something in his memory. Carol softens and, unusually, praises Anna. Although she resists losing autonomy, she appreciates how much her daughter does for her – she’s grateful.
SAT 15:00 The King Must Die (m000ydpf)
Episode 1
A new dramatisation by Robin Brooks of Mary Renault's classic book, The King Must Die.
Mary Renault tells the story of Theseus, his adventures on mainland Greece in search of his true identity, and his journey to the heart of the Labyrinth of Knossos, where he must face the Minotaur. Renault is considered by many to be the finest historical novelist of the 20th Century. In this story, she brilliantly evokes a distant age, and explores the eternal conflict between male and female, through the violent career of a warrior king who is enmeshed in dark forces beyond his control.
Episode One:
The young hero Theseus sets out to solve the mystery of his birth and follow his destiny in a perilous world, caught up in elemental conflict.
Cast:
Theseus ..... Shane Zaza
Persephone ..... Rakie Ayola
Poseidon ..... Raad Rawi
Pittheus ..... Lawrence Werber
Aithra ..... Barbara Peirson
Diokles ..... Richard Bates
Kerkyon / Hippon ..... Gavi Singh Chera
Menas / Lukos ..... Charlie Archer
Photios / Iros ..... Sam Henderson
Amyntor / Lysis ..... Jack Heydon
Xanthos ..... Michael Gukas
Aigeus ..... Roderick Smith
Medea ..... Tessa Wojtczak
Phormion / Rizon ..... Joe McArdle
Helike / Maid ..... Sophie Walter
Melantho / Maid ..... Heidi Parsons
Chryse ..... Alexandra Ewing
Nephele ..... Harmony Rose-Bremner
Simo ..... Alexander Finch
Young Theseus ..... Bruno Finch
Dramatised by Robin Brooks
Directed and Produced by Fiona McAlpine
Music composed by Matthew Sheeran
Recorded on location in Suffolk.
Sound Design by Wilfredo Acosta
An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4
Picture Credit (for BBC Sounds page)
Theseus killing the Minotaur
© The Trustees of the British Museum
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m002x3qn)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Rugby star Ellie Kildunne, Kimberlé Crenshaw
World Rugby Player of the Year and World Cup Champion Ellie Kildunne joins Nuala McGovern fresh from a Player of the Match performance at the Six Nations final. She reflects on her rise to the top and the story behind her memoir Game Changer.
What are the implications for girls and young women of Alan Milburn's review for the Government into rising levels of inactivity among 16 to 24-year-olds? There are currently just under a million young people in this age range dubbed NEETs because they are not in education, employment or training. Anita Rani speaks to Baroness Smith, Minister for Skills, as well as the Minister for Women and Equalities.
As part of our special programme on wonder — how to find it and how to hold on to it when life gets in the way —Nuala speaks to Dr Jean Bennett, the research scientist whose medical breakthrough recently restored the sight of a six-year-old girl.
Would you ever consider working from your bed? Perhaps you do, by choice or otherwise? Dermatologist Dr Alexis Granite and The Archers Podcast's Emma Freud are both fans and join Anita to discuss.
When the American Professor of Law Kimberlé Crenshaw was five years old, at the time of the civil rights era in Ohio, USA, she was allowed to portray a witch but not a princess in a nursery play. Puzzled by her teacher’s behaviour, Kimberlé spoke up and never stopped, firmly establishing herself as a Backtalker, the name of her new memoir. Kimberlé joins Anita to talk about becoming a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights and her instinct to question power and challenge what others accept as fair.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Dianne McGregor
SAT 17:00 PM (m002x3qq)
Ebola cases rise in Democratic Republic of the Congo
The medical charity, Médicins Sans Frontières, has warned that Ebola is spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at a 'deeply alarming' rate. We hear from the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the head of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrives. Also, the leader of the Sikh Supreme Council in the UK responds to calls to ban the ceremonial Kirpan knife. And a new trial shows that millions of breast cancer patients might not need chemotherapy.
SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m002x3qs)
“Inequalities don’t happen by accident” Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson on trans rights, Islamophobia, and why equality still matters
Chair of the equalities watchdog, Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, on sex and gender, the right to protest, and doing one of the hardest jobs in Britain.
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002x3qv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m002x3qx)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x3qz)
Charity Warns of DRC Ebola Spread
The charity, Médicins Sans Frontières, has warned that no previous outbreak of Ebola has recorded as many cases at such an early stage as the current one in Democratic Republic of the Congo. The head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has spent the day in the city of Bunia in the north-east of the country - the epicentre of the outbreak.
In other news, it's emerged that Buckingham Palace was handed emails six years ago that appear to show the then-Prince Andrew was sharing confidential government information while he was a trade envoy. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is under investigation on suspicion of misconduct in public office and has consistently denied wrongdoing.
And Liverpool have sacked their manager, Arne Slot, saying the club was looking for a "change of direction."
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002x3r1)
Ben Elton, Sarah Jane Morris & band, Suzi Ruffell, Keith Brymer Jones, Barns Courtney
Comedy writer Ben Elton's autobiography What Have I Done? tells the story of a career of comedy firsts, writing hit shows like Blackadder, The Young Ones and Upstart Crow. His love of words is legendary - as a small child his mother wouldn't let him speak til she was on her second cup of tea to braving the "Oxbridge tutorial" vibe of the Blackadder rehearsal room with Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Rowan Atkinson.
Great Pottery Throw Down judge Keith Brymer Jones is a man so mad about pots they can move him to tears. He's now on the road with a tour about his renovation of a Welsh church complete with pigeon poo that took £40,000 to remove. But did you know he puts his remarkable resilience down to his ballet training?
Comic Suzi Ruffell is also on the road with her stand up show, dressed correctly - 'shirt, tie and mullet', she says - but she's also written a memoir slash how-to-guide, Am I having fun now?, about winning (and laughing) at life in spite of her deep anxiety about it.
And music from Sarah Jane Morris's new album paying tribute to the great women singer songwriters and from Anglo-American rocker Barns Courtney.
Presenter: Stuart Maconie
Producer: Olive Clancy
Assistant Producer: Sam Nixon
Technical Producers: John Cole and Kelly Young
SAT 19:00 Profile (m002x3r3)
Itamar Ben-Gvir
Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has received international condemnation after he posted a video showing himself taunting activists kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs on board a Gaza-bound aid flotilla intercepted by Israeli naval forces.
His actions also drew rare criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said they were "not in line with Israel's values". But the incident is not the first time Ben-Gvir has attracted widespread criticism.
Born in 1976 in Jerusalem, Itamar Ben-Gvir became radicalised during the First Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation. He became a follower of the far right politician Meir Kahane and was frequently arrested for various petty crimes. Unable to join the Israeli Army due to his criminal record, he later became a lawyer where he notoriously defended Jewish arsonists who had set fire to a Palestinian home killing two young parents and their 18-month-old son.
In 2021 Ben-Gvir won a seat in the Knesset and following a period of political instability where Benjamin Netanyahu turned to two far right parties to form a coalition to form a government, Itamar Ben-Gvir became National Security minister of Israel.
Contributors:
Leonie Fleishmann - Senior Lecturer, International Politics and Human Rights, City St George's University of London
Ruth Margalit - Contributing writer for New York Times magazine and the New Yorker
Dvir Kariv - Former Isreali intelligence officer
Production:
Presenter: Mark Coles
Producers: Annabel Deas and Bethan Ashmead
Production coordinators: Maria Ogondele and Sabine Schereck
Sound: Neil Churchill
Editor: Justine Lang
SAT 19:15 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
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m002x3r5)
The Louisville Lip
Muhammad Ali is widely regarded as the greatest sportsperson who ever lived, his battles for civil rights outside the ring as celebrated as his bouts inside it. Ten years on from his passing in 2016, his story is told largely in his own words, through rarely heard audio from the BBC archives.
Featuring interviews, commentary, poetry and song, we follow Ali, the fighter formerly known as Cassius Clay, from his rise to stardom at the Olympics, through his exile from boxing during the Vietnam War, to his extraordinary reclaiming of the heavyweight championship in Zaire. His command of language was so dazzling it earned him the nickname the Louisville Lip. We hear what lay behind it - the wit, the fury, the faith, and the convictions that made him, to so many, simply The Greatest.
Producer: Sean Allsop
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
A TBone production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:00 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. There's been 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, George Pitcher, Andrew Graystone, Julia Hobsbawm;
Producer: Dan Tierney;
Editor: Tim Pemberton.
SAT 22:00 News (m002x3r7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 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.
SAT 23:00 The Many Wrongs of Lord Christian Brighty (m002x3r9)
Series 2
1. The Vicar I Corrupted
After a debauched night partying with a hitherto innocent vicar, Brighty is afraid his quest to right his wrongs will never end. So he goes to seek salvation at church, leaving Babs and Churley to sober up the Reverend Mr Clement. However, the vicar fears the previous evening’s activities may have left him with something more worrisome than a hangover.
Lord Christian Brighty used to be the most notorious rake of the Regency. But after a hazing ritual for a new chambermaid led to a self-inflicted cannonball injury, Brighty, compelled by the chambermaid in question - the uneducated but forthright Babigail – resolves to mend his ways. Accompanying him in his quest are Babs (elevated beyond her station to a chambermaid-cum-adviser role), and his butler, Mr Churlington (although Churley would actually prefer everything to stay exactly as it used to be).
Written by Christian Brighty & Amy Greaves
Cast:
Lord Christian Brighty ….. Christian Brighty
Babs ….. Jessica Knappett
Churlington ….. Colin McFarlane
The Vicar, Mr Clement ….. Joz Norris
Mildred – a church warden ….. Chiara Goldsmith
Harry – an adult altar-boy ….. David Reed
Extremely Handsome Tailor ….. Ben Walker (also producer)
Script Editor ….. David Reed
Sound & Recording ….. Sonica Studios
Photographer ….. Will Hearle
Producer ….. Ben Walker
A DLT Entertainment Production for BBC Radio 4
Christian Brighty and Amy Greaves’ viral sketches based on Bridgerton, Poldark and Jane Austen have catapulted them to viral stardom, securing Christian’s place as the internet’s answer to Mr Darcy and amassing 250 million views across TikTok and Instagram (@brightybuoy). Amy and Christian both have a deep love for the work of Jane Austen, traditional regency romance (not smut), and historical romance set in the regency (smut). The first series of The Many Wrongs of Lord Christian Brighty was nominated for Best Radio Show at the Chortle Awards 2025, and listed in The i's Best Radio Comedies Ever.
SAT 23:30 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
SUNDAY 31 MAY 2026
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m002x3rd)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:15 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 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002x3rg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002x3rj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:30 News Summary (m002x3rl)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002x3rn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m002x3rq)
St Gregory Morville in Shropshire.
Bells on Sunday comes from St Gregory Morville in Shropshire. The church was originally built in 1118 by monks from the nearby Benedictine Abbey in Shrewsbury and subsequently formally attached to Morville Priory until that was demolished in 1545. The predominately Norman Tower holds eight bells including four mid-18th century bells by Abel Rudhall of Gloucester. The tenor weighs eight hundredweight and is tuned to the note of F sharp. We now hear them ringing Nailstone Surprise Major.
SUN 05:45 In Touch (m002wv5q)
Audio Description on Streaming Platforms
Ofcom has recently published a draft code requiring major streaming platforms to provide audio description for at least 10% of their content. This follows provisions in the Media Act 2024.
In this episode - a first for In Touch - Peter White is joined by visually impaired guests, Nia Greer and Glen Turner to discuss the audio description of their chosen programmes.
Our trio follow a broad approach, discussing not only the audio description itself, but also issues such as how easily it could be accessed and whether the 10% minimum provision is reasonable.
The chosen programmes are the first episode of:
The Dinosaurs, available on Netflix;
Scarpetta, available on Amazon Prime Video, and;
The Night Manager (Series 2), available on BBC iPlayer.
Who chose what, did audio description improve their experience and were they inspired to watch the other episodes in the series?
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 (m002x40y)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 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
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m002x410)
Farming with Artificial Intelligence
Joe Towers and his fiancee Hannah Kent are just starting out with a farm of their own. They have taken on a tenancy with the Duchy of Lancaster. They graze beef and sheep with minimal inputs, yet technology is at the heart of their business. The couple use artificial intelligence to inform the daily running of the farm and plan for the future. The AI is a tool which means they know precisely when to sell their stock and how profitable each animal is. It's a high-tech but extensive approach to managing the land.
Produced and presented by Rebecca Rooney
SUN 06:57 Weather (m002x412)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m002x414)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m002x416)
Papal Encyclical; Biblical Diets; Human Composting
This week Pope Leo XIV launched the first encyclical of his pontificate. He broke with tradition and presented it himself and addressed the following challenges: how humanity should respond to the AI revolution, the church's historic complicity in slavery, and whether the church's teaching on Just War Theory is still fit for purpose in an age of drone strikes and AI targeting. William Crawley talks to Anna Rowlands, Professor of Catholic Social Thought and Practice at Durham University.
A diet inspired by the Bible has found new audiences online in America. We hear from an influencer who gives nutritional advice which she claims is rooted in Biblical wisdom and Christian principles, and from Nathan MacDonald, Professor of the Interpretation of the Old Testament at Cambridge University.
And, most of us in the UK face a choice between two options for what happens to our bodies after death: burial or cremation. But there is a growing campaign to make another option available in England and Wales: human composting. William speaks to Kristoffer Hughes, Chief of the Anglesey Druid Order, who is campaigning for change.
Presenter: William Crawley
Producers: Alexa Good and Katy Booth
Studio Managers: Isabelle Whitehead, Phillip Halliwell and Andrew Dick
Editor: Tim Pemberton
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m002x418)
Carers Worldwide
Broadcaster Jo Whiley makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Carers Worldwide. The charity runs support groups across Bangladesh, India and Nepal; countries where there is little recognition or support for unpaid family carers.
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 ‘Carers Worldwide’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Carers Worldwide’.
- 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: 1150214. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://carersworldwide.org/
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites
Producer: Katy Takatsuki
SUN 07:57 Weather (m002x41b)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m002x41d)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m002x41g)
Hail Smiling Morn - Whit Friday in Saddleworth
Every year, on the Friday after Pentecost, thousands fill the villages around Saddleworth to watch brass bands as they march through the streets and take part in a world famous contest. It's called "the greatest free show on earth" and it's a celebration of music and brass band culture. This tradition, which dates back to 1884, began as a Christian act of worship and still begins early in the morning on the Friday after Pentecost with a church procession and outdoor service.
Featuring music by Dobcross Youth Band, the Choir of Holy Trinity Primary School and Saddleworth Musical Society recorded at Holy Trinity Church, Dobcross and performances by Delph Band.
Hymns include:
ALL PEOPLE THAT ON EARTH DO DWELL (Old Hundreth)
LORD OF ALL HOPEFULNESS (Slane)
HAIL SMILING MORN (Spofforth)
BREATHE ON ME, BREATH OF GOD (Trentham)
ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS’ NAME (Diadem)
THE DAY THOU GAVEST (St Clement)
Producer: Katharine Longworth
SUN 08:48 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 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m002x41j)
Mike Dilger on the Whimbrel
For Naturalist Mike Dilger the whimbrel has just as much star power as the curlew. He likes to spot whimbrel on the Severn estuary as they migrate north on route to their breeding grounds in Scandinavia, Iceland and Russia. But to see this wader at its best, Mike recommends heading to their solitary British breeding outpost in Shetland where whimbrel combine their distinctive piping call with a bubbling flight song.
Produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m002x41l)
Essay fever BH
Why has the political world gone mad for essays? Professor Edith Hall and Radio 4 wordsmith Michael Rosen discuss the literary form and its history. It was heartbreak for Arsenal in the Champions League - ex-Gunners goalie Bob Wilson tells us about the pain of penalties. We look ahead to Elon Musk's SpaceX going public - are the heavens being privatised? And we celebrate the Starman, David Bowie, with a new immersive exhibition celebrating his life and legacy. Simon Jack presents.
SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m002x41n)
Guy Martin, presenter and former motorcycle racer
Guy Martin is a television presenter, mechanic and former motorcycle racer. During his career he achieved 17 podium finishes at the Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) Races – one of the most prestigious and dangerous motorcycling events in the world. His television programmes often focus on his daredevil nature and combine two of his greatest loves - engineering and history.
Guy was brought up in the village of Kirmington in North Lincolnshire. When he was five his father, who raced bikes himself, bought him his first motorcycle which he promptly crashed into the rose garden. His father is a mechanic and Guy used to sit and watch him at work in the shed from a young age and at 12 he began working for him at weekends and during school holidays.
Guy’s first race meeting was at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire when he was 19. Less than a minute into the race he crashed. He was not badly injured but the bike was destroyed in the process. In 2004 he made his debut at the biggest road race of them all – the Isle of Man TT, finishing seventh in the Senior race and winning the Newcomers Trophy.
Guy retired from racing in 2015 after a very bad crash at the Ulster Grand Prix. After that he turned to his bicycle and has taken part in several endurance cycling events, including the Tour Divide, to test his resolve and stamina and fill the adrenaline gap.
Guy lives in Lincolnshire with his wife Sharon, their daughter Dottie and three dogs.
DISC ONE: Bam Ba Lam (Here Comes Daddy) - Alabama 3
DISC TWO: Testify - Rage Against the Machine
DISC THREE: Blinded by the Light - The Streets
DISC FOUR: Getaway - The Music
DISC FIVE: Me and my Monkey - Robbie Williams
DISC SIX: Hurt – Johnny Cash
DISC SEVEN: The Day is My Enemy - The Prodigy
DISC EIGHT: With or Without You - U2
BOOK CHOICE: Stealing Speed by Mat Oxley
LUXURY ITEM: The back catalogue of Race Engine Technology magazine
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: With or Without You - U2
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m002x41q)
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
SUN 12:15 Profile (m002x3r3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 12:30 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
SUN 12:57 Weather (m002x41s)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m002x41v)
Is pressure mounting on Putin to end the war?
There are reports of growing pressure within Russia to end the war in Ukraine - now in its fifth year. We have expert analysis on the public mood, with Ekaterina Schulmann, we assess the view of the governing class with former Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Federov and we discuss whether the war is more likely to end through military or political efforts with Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King's College London and Nina Khrushcheva, professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York City.
SUN 13:30 Currently (m002x9wb)
Unlocked: Britain’s Prison Crisis
More than 80,000 people are held in prisons across England and Wales - but those keeping the system running are under growing strain. In Unlocked: Britain’s Prison Crisis, Bara’atu Ibrahim investigates how recruitment pressures, staff shortages and a loss of experience shape daily life inside our jails. She reveals a system increasingly reliant on staff recruited from West Africa - some of whom aren't sure whether they will be allowed to stay in the UK because of a change in visa qualification
Through first-hand testimony from serving and former prison officers plus insights from unions and senior figures, Bara’atu reveals a wider picture of a service struggling to maintain safety and stability, asking not just who is keeping prison doors open - but at what cost? As staffing gaps widen and pressures intensify, what does it mean for officers, prisoners and the public when a system continues to function, but only just?
Producer and Presenter: Bara'atu Ibrahim
Executive Producer: Richard Mcllroy
Editor: Pete Wilson
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002ww11)
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 - At the Bandstand
Gardeners’ Question Time returns to the iconic RHS Chelsea Flower Show Bandstand.
Recorded in the dappled shade of plane trees and surrounded by colour and spectacle, Kathy Clugston is joined by Bunny Guinness, Matthew Pottage and Dr Chris Thorogood to tackle questions taken live from the audience, as well as a few familiar voices spotted among the Chelsea crowds.
Topics include how to recreate the Chelsea Show Garden look on a modest budget, how to rescue a struggling acer and which plants will thrive on an exposed rooftop terrace.
The panellists also offer practical advice on reviving an unhappy olive tree, planting for waterlogged ground and supporting pollinators with the best bee‑friendly plants.
Along the way, there are design tips on balancing bold colour schemes and plenty of inspiration drawn straight from the show gardens themselves. Expect expert guidance, seasonal know‑how and lively horticultural debate — all set against one of gardening’s most celebrated backdrops.
Producers: Matt Smith
Dan Cocker
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 Opening Lines (m002x41x)
Moon Tiger
Writer Penelope Lively’s enduring themes are the connections and interplay between memory, history and time. Nowhere is this more compelling than in Moon Tiger, published in 1987 and widely regarded as one of her best novels. It won the Booker Prize that same year and went on to gain The Golden Booker in 2018 as the stand-out winner of the 1980s.
The novel’s protagonist Claudia Hampton is an historian and war correspondent, ambitious and independent and a 20th Century woman who has defied the conventions of domesticity and motherhood. In the opening lines of the novel she is reflecting back on her life as she lies on her death-bed. It will be ‘a history of the world and in the process my own,’ she promises. Through a series of scenes presented as a kaleidoscopic mosaic of memories Lively pieces together who and what has shaped Claudia during her life, such as the deeply competitive bond she had with her brother Gordon, her lacklustre approach to motherhood with her daughter Lisa and, central to her life, an early love affair with tank commander Tom Southern who she met in Egypt during WW2.
In this episode of Opening Lines John Yorke explores the dazzling technique Penelope Lively employs to draw Claudia’s life together and asks what makes this classic such an extraordinarily compelling novel.
The programme features writer, editor and critic Lucy Scholes and, from the Radio 4 archives, we hear from Penelope Lively herself in Bookclub recorded in 2001.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.
Producer: Julian Wilkinson
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Sound: Iain Hunter
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m002x41z)
Moon Tiger
‘In the middle of my life, in the war, I was in a room in Luxor. On the bedside table was a Moon Tiger, a green coil that slowly burns all night, repelling mosquitoes, dropping away into lengths of grey ash.’
Penelope Lively’s much-loved Booker Prize-winning novel is dramatised by Kate Clanchy.
Starring Geraldine James.
This adaptation – the first for the BBC – is a moving drama about love, loss, the senselessness of war and the importance of memory.
Claudia Hampton – celebrated historian, brave journalist and bad mother – is dying in hospital. Even now she begins writing in her head ‘a history of the world and my place in it’, while her resentful daughter, Lisa, interrogates her about the past. But ‘It is feeling that survives’ Claudia finds, ‘feeling and place’ – above all, some weeks in Egypt in 1942 with her lover, Tom, a tank commander.
Claudia ….. Geraldine James
Lisa ….. Lydia Wilson
Tom ….. Toby Regbo
The composer is Katharine Seaton and the music is performed by John Haslam (piano) and George Balmont (bass).
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling
Sound Designer: David Thomas
Director / Producer: Amber Barnfather
A Flare Path production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Take Four Books (m002x421)
Imani Thompson
Imani Thompson speaks to Take Four Books about her debut novel Honey. Together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other literary works. In Honey, PhD student Yrsa doesn't set out to kill. But after an incident involving a bee sting gone wrong, she suddenly feels alive. So she starts to think about what justice could look like, if she took it in to her own hands...
Imani's three chosen influences for this episode are Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman from 2001; Girl by Jamaica Kincaid from 1978; and Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde from 2016.
Producer: Caitlin Sneddon
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This is a BBC Audio Scotland production.
SUN 16:30 Bookmarks (m002x423)
Episode 1
From the production company behind BBC TV’s QI comes Bookmarks – a brand-new quiz about books.
Hosted by Clare Balding, Bookmarks sees two teams of two players from around the UK go head-to-head in a test of general knowledge about all kinds of fiction and non-fiction titles – everything from Richard Osman to Stephen King, and Donna Tartt to Delia Smith.
A QITV production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct8r34)
The creation of My Little Pony
My Little Pony first appeared in shops in the United States in 1983 and in that decade alone more than 100 million would be sold.
But American toymaker Bonnie Zacherle tells Josephine McDermott how her idea to make a pony you could play with like a doll was turned down several times. She reveals the toys she liked to play with as a child living in Japan, how she updated Mr Potato Head and how her pony design first hit the market as a much bigger, harder model called My Pretty Pony.
She says she told her friend in toy marketing to get out of her office when she first suggested the ponies should come in pastel pinks and purples instead of realistic dun, black and grey colours. But she concedes that market testing showed it was what the customer wanted and she’s very proud of what she’s achieved.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
(Photo: Bonnie's black My Little Pony prototype. Credit: Bonnie Zacherle)
SUN 17:10 The Verb (m002x427)
The Verb at the Hay Festival
In this special edition of The Verb, coming from the Hay Festival, Ian McMillan's guests are:
Nicola Davies, the Children's Laureate Wales, who will be talking about how the natural world inspires her poetry and why she thinks writing is a superpower;
Novelist Joanna Kavenna will be taking on The Verb's Neon Line challenge where a guest chooses a line that they feel shines out from its poem;
Nathan James Dearden is the composer-mentor for this year's Composer's Medal. A former Composer's Medal winner himself, he'll be helping the shortlisted composers create new choral works using the poetry of Waldo Williams. He discusses the art of setting poetry to music.;
clare e potter will be reflecting on her her participation in The Clearing - a Royal Society of Literature project where four poets from the home nations of the UK have written poems separately and together inspired by the myths and stories found in their respective parts of the British Isles.
Presenter Ian McMillan
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002x429)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m002x42c)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x42f)
Nicola Sturgeon Speaks to BBC About Peter Murrell's SNP Embezzlement
The former First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, has insisted she knew nothing about her estranged husband's crimes, after his admission of embezzlement. Peter Murrell pleaded guilty to spending more than £400,000 of Scottish National Party funds. In other news, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered his troops to advance further into Lebanon as Israel fights the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah; and thousands of Arsenal fans have filled the streets of north London to celebrate winning the Premier League for the first time in 22 years.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002x42h)
Elizabeth Alker
This week, we’re getting to see the spiritual side of Bob Dylan, and we meet the man who accused him of being Judas in 1966. There’re some strange sights to be found on the Cornish coastline, but no panic - it’s OK to let your imagination run wild, as the All In the Mind audience discovered at the Hay Festival. Plus, Woman’s Hour provides us a female perspective on wonder and awe.
Presenter: Elizabeth Alker
Producer: Anthony McKee
Editor: Steven Hobson
Production Coordinators: Finlay McMaster, Caoilfhinn McFadden and Sylvie Conway
A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.
Programmes featured in this episode include:
Cerys Matthews, 24/05: Gideon Coe sits in
Beyond Belief: The gospel according to Bob
6Music Stories: The Ghosts of Electricity
The Essay: Miles Beyond - Black Beauty
James Churchfield, 26/05 (BBC Radio Cornwall)
All in the Mind: How does reading fiction impact our imagination and mental health?
Front Row, 28/05
Woman's Hour, 25/05: Women and wonder
On Your Farm: The last generation to farm?
Toast: Wilko
Guy Garvey's Finest Hour, 24/05
Tracks of My Years: Sir Paul McCartney
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m002x42k)
Alice is waiting for Rex to take her on a date whilst Adam tells her how he was sacked by email by Brian. Alice is horrified, but Adam states as the Partnership employs him, not Brian, he will continue to work. Rex arrives and encourages Adam to drop by The Bull later, as rumours of the Aldridge family’s falling out have spread through the village. Later, Alice is ordering lunch at the Bull, when Martyn Gibson comes in complaining about Ian’s service at Grey Gables. When Adam turns up for a drink, Alice tries to warn him before Martyn Gibson asks Adam for a word. Martyn praises Ian’s talent as a chef but questions his management skills, before asking about the rumours of Home Farm.
When passing by Home Farm, Stella sees Brian struggling with a drench backpack. She offers to assist with the yearlings as it’s a lovely day and she’s concerned for him. Brian insists he’s fine and feels better reclaiming the farm as solely his. Brian and Stella work well as team, when Brian asks if Stella would ever consider coming back to Home Farm? Stella quickly shuts that down, but Brian notes that Stella will have her own farm once she’s married Pip.
On the way home, Stella bumps into Alice and asks what is Brian thinking? Alice decides to find someone to help him on the farm. Rex tries to invite Alice back to the boat, but they start to fight as she insists she’s not good company right now.
SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m002x42m)
Voices from the Beach
The young British poet Saili Katebe was born in landlocked Zambia, and grew up with an imagined beach in his mind. Palm trees would grow in the golden sands. The sun would shine all day, and naturally there’d be romance.
Moving to the UK as a teenager, Saili visited a real beach for the first time. He was underwhelmed by the hazy sun and soft ice cream, and the sea at low tide was so far away he could hardly see it, let alone swim in its weedy shallows.
Over the years though, Saili has come to appreciate the quiet charms of the beaches around him as places rich in stories. In Voices from the Beach he listens to lives shaped by the beach in unexpected ways. There’s the ice cream seller, who once fled her own landlocked country. Now her Mr Whippy Van now brings joy along the south coast.
‘It’s an honour to keep the tradition alive,’ she says. ‘I couldn’t live without the sea now.’ Then there’s the fisherman ‘born on the beach’ who tried to move away but couldn’t get his bearings without the sea.
Voices from the Beach features chance encounters and casual conversations with many other people out on the beaches at Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Dover, Lyme Regis, Brighton and Weston Super Mare.
Music Jon Nicholls
Produced by Jon Nicholls with Monica Whitlock
Photograph: Troon beach by Monica Whitlock
A Storyscape production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001r1ms)
Cook Tomatoes
Tomatoes are packed full of goodness & cooked tomatoes are even better for you! In this episode, Michael reveals how cooking your tomatoes - sautéed, or in a sauce or soup - can reduce your blood fat levels, help your body recover from exercise, and even protect your skin from damage. It’s all to do with a beneficial compound called lycopene which is released under heat. Michael speaks to Professor Richard van Breemen from Oregon State University who reveals his studies on lycopene and why cooked tomatoes can help protect against prostate cancer.
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 (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
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m002ww15)
Clarence B Jones, Judith Chalmers, Dr Anna Ritchie, Professor Frank Land
Matthew Bannister on
Clarence B Jones the American lawyer and civil rights campaigner who helped Martin Luther King to write his famous I Have A Dream speech.
Judith Chalmers, the TV and radio presenter best known for her globetrotting holiday series Wish You Were Here.
Dr Anna Ritchie, the archaeologist who excavated some of Orkney’s most revealing ancient sites.
And Frank Land, one of the prime movers in the development of the world’s first business computer - at the Lyons catering company.
Interviewee: Mark Durden Smith
Interviewee: Matt Ritchie
Interviewee: Georgina Ferry
Producer: Catherine Powell
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Josie Hardy
Editor: Andrea Kennedy
Archive used:
Martin Luther King March on Washington, SOUND ARCHIVE Reference: 28322, 28/08/1963;
BBC News special, BBC News, 28/08/2020;
Wish you were Here…? Thames TV, ITV, 10/01/1978. From YouTube upload ThamesTv, 8/08/2020;
Wish you were there, BBC Archive, 28/03/1966;
Tracks of My Years, BBC Radio 2, 28/09/2017;
Smillie’s People: Judith Chalmers, BBC 1, 20/01/1997;
Pebble Mill, BBC 1, 14/05/1993;
Gardeners’ Question Time: Matt Biggs’ House, BBC Radio 4, 27/08/2023;
The House the Picts Built, BBC, 28/08/1974;
Around Scotland: The Scots, BBC1 Scotland, 10/03/1977;
Around Scotland: Early History: The First People, 17/09/1979;
LEO celebration Part 2 - Panel Discussion with Frank Land, Georgina Ferry, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Centre for Computing History and the LEO Computers Society (partnership project), 18/05/2023;
BBC Oral History Collection - Interview with Judith Chalmers, John Escolme History of the BBC, 26/03/1982;
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m002x3qd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m002x418)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002x3q8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:30 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m002x42p)
The latest from Westminster plus, what is 'progressive politics'?
Ben Wrigth is joined by Labour MP Jack Abbott; Conservative former Cabinet minister John Glen; and Lib Dem spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, Pippa Heylings. They discuss the Prime Minister's future and what is meant by "progressive politics". Bloomberg opinion columnist Rosa Prince brings additional insight and analysis. And ahead of a Commons committee hearing on government compensation schemes, Ben interviews former sub-postmaster Lee Castleton about his long-running battle for redress from the Post Office over the Horizon IT scandal.
SUN 23:00 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 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
Reading list:
R. R. Davies, The Age of Conquest: Wales 1063-1415 (Oxford University Press, 2001)
R.R. Davies, Lordship and Society in the March of Wales 1282-1400 (Oxford University Press, 1978)
John Fleming, The Welsh Marcher Lordships II: South-West (Logaston Press, 2023)
Ben Giles, The Welsh Marches: 40 Town and Country Walks (Pocket Mountains, 2012)
Philip Hume, The Welsh Marcher Lordships I: Central & North (Logaston Press, 2021)
Max Lieberman, The March of Wales, 1067–1300: A Borderland of Medieval Britain (University of Wales Press, 2018)
Max Lieberman, The Medieval March of Wales: The Creation and Perception of a Frontier, 1066-1283 (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
D. Huw Owen, The Lordship of Denbigh 1282-1543 (University of Wales Press, 2024)
Mike Parker, All the Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between (HarperNorth, 2024)
Dewi Roberts, Both Sides of the Border: An Anthology of Writing on the Welsh Border Region (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch/Eagle Rock Press, 1998)
Christopher Somerville, The Welsh Borders (Philips, 1991)
David Stephenson, Patronage and Power in the Medieval Welsh March: One Family's Story (University of Wales Press, 2021)
David Walker, Medieval Wales (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
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 (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.
MONDAY 01 JUNE 2026
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m002x42r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 00:15 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
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m002x3rq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002x42t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002x42w)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:00 News Summary (m002x42y)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:04 Last Word (m002ww15)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Sunday]
MON 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002x430)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002x432)
The Seemingly Humble Bagel
Good morning.
A popular food for many is the seemingly humble bagel, which originated in Eastern European Jewish communities of the thirteenth century. Back then, local laws limited the trades in which Jews could engage, to segregate them from Christians. Bakers were given more leeway, and the Gentiles bought bagels, especially during Lent, when richer foods were avoided. These single-serving rings of dough, which were boiled then baked, gained in popularity. Their chewy centres and crusty exteriors maintained freshness longer than loaves of bread. When European Jews emigrated to Western Europe and North America, they brought their bagel knowhow with them, and transformed this largely ethnic foodstuff into a cross-cultural staple.
In this country there are Jewish religious customs associated with bagels. They’re often found at circumcisions and baby-naming ceremonies, and in houses of mourning. Because they have no beginning or end, bagels symbolise the cycle of life. For the more superstitious, bagels ward off the evil eye. Some even view the hole as a necessary space in a perfect circle, illustrating that God left room in creation for humanity to exercise free will, with the aim of improving themselves and the world.
O God Who provides sustenance for all, we give thanks to you for the food we eat. Bless the people and cultures that have provided such a rich variety of textures and tastes for us to enjoy. We pray for the hungry, in the hope that they too will soon be satisfied, and will share in Your immense bounty. AMEN.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m002x434)
01/06/26 Cost of wildfires, methane from sheep, upland farming
The latest analysis of wildfires shows that last year the UK recorded its highest burned area on record, including the country's first documented ‘megafire’ in Scotland, that's a fire which covers more than 10,000 hectares. Researchers from the University of East Anglia led a team of international scientists looking into last year's fires round the globe, they say wildfires are getting more extreme, costly and disastrous. Though less land was affected, globally the fires resulted in more than 300,000 evacuations and the deaths of more than 90 people. .
A three million pound project backed by DEFRA which has been looking at how methane emissions can be reduced in sheep has announced its findings. Various breeds from Scotland to the South Coast were tested as part of the research which gathered data from thirteen and a half thousand lambs. The scientists involved in the “Breed for Change” programme hope sheep farmers will use their data to reduce their carbon footprint.
All week we're focusing on farming in the uplands, places above a thousand feet, landscapes like the Brecon Beacons, the Peak District, and the Highlands: many of the most stunning places in the country, but because of their geography they're generally harder places to farm. MPs on the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee are preparing a report on the challenges facing upland farmers in England and how the Government can best support them. It follows the publication of the Land Use Framework, which identified upland areas as places which could be most suitable for delivering climate and nature targets.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
MON 05:57 Weather (m002x436)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for farmers
MON 06:00 Today (m002x47z)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m002x481)
Searching for economic solutions
What are the biggest problems facing the economy - and how might we set about dealing with them - from inequality to inflation, domestic growth to geopolitics? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday, Tom Sutcliffe leads a conversation exploring what the solutions might look like.
Jeremy Hunt’s new book Can We Be Rich Again?: The Surprising Potential of Britain's Economy makes the case for optimism. The former Chancellor of the Exchequer outlines current problems – low growth, high public debt and taxes, stagnant living standards and divided politics, but he argues Britain still has a lot going for it - the tech sector, financial services and respected institutions. He says if the British economy is to grow again, politicians need to get better at delivering their plans.
Mariana Mazzucato believes we need to rethink the way we manage economics with government and business working together to promote human flourishing. For her, the problems are deepening inequality, the climate crisis and declining public trust. She is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College, London where she is the Founding Director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Her new book The Common Good Economy: A New Compass sets out how the economy could be designed to serve people and the planet better.
And, how has the way that we think and talk about the global economy and national problems changed in recent years? Patrick Foulis is contributing editor at the Financial Times, a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution and author of a forthcoming book on globalisation.
Producer: Ruth Watts
MON 09:45 Mary Bourke: Who Cares? (m002cdgc)
Episode 2: When the system fails
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 two, Mary learns what happens when the system fails - with stand-up from guest Josephine Lacey.
Presenter: Mary Bourke
Producer: Katie Sayer
Executive Producer: Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002x483)
Gisèle Pelicot, Women's Tennis, Osteoporosis, Zoe Birkett
In 2024 Gisèle Pelicot waved her legal right to anonymity for the trial of her then husband, declaring that shame has to change sides. Her then husband had drugged and raped her and invited other men to rape her, filming as they did so. He was found guilty of her aggravated rape, along with 46 other men. Another two were found guilty of attempted rape and a further two were found guilty of sexual assault. Gisèle has now written her memoir, A Hymn to Life and joins Nuala McGovern talk about her decision to have an open court, the devasting effect on her and her family of her ex-husband’s actions and finding love again in her 70s.
For the first time since 2023, a women’s match will take centre stage in the tournament’s primetime night session at the French Open. The coveted slot has been dominated exclusively by men's matches since then. The absence has drawn growing criticism from players and fans, questioning why they’ve been overlooked. But now, a fourth round clash between – Belarus's Aryna Sabalenka current number one player and former number 1 Japan's Naomi Osaka finally breaks that run. Tennis reporter Karthi Gnanasegaram joins us.
72% of those affected by osteoporosis are women. The government promised to roll out fracture liaison services to every NHS Trust in England two years ago. But there is still no progress or plan. Just over half of NHS Trusts currently have them. Nuala speaks to the Royal Osteoporosis Society CEO Craig Jones and expert Dr Nicola Peel, as well as Irene Baker who says her osteoporosis wasn't treated properly for five years as she has no specialist service in her area.
She came to fame on one of the first TV talent shows back in 2002, and twenty four years later Zoe Birkett’s now out on tour with Take That. She’s played Tina Turner in the West End and the lead in The Bodyguard. She tells us all about performing with Gary, Howard and Mark and stepping into Lulu’s shoes on their hit record Relight My Fire for their tour The Circus Live.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Kirsty Starkey
MON 11:00 Siblings Unpicked (m002x485)
The Golden Child
Brother and sister duo Stephen and Anita Mangan explore some of the stereotypes and myths around sibling relationships, as they investigate the role of these lifelong bonds throughout our lives, with the help of psychotherapist Philippa Perry.
Narratives around the favoured firstborn child date back to biblical times, but there are plenty more examples from recent history, and oldest sons, in particular have long been associated with responsibility and duty. As the oldest of three Stephen might like to think of himself as the golden child, but his younger sister Anita questions whether bigger really is better? They hear how ideas around birth order effects on personality and character became popular in Victorian times, while more recent research shows birth order has almost no effect on how we turn out. However Stephen is excited to discover oldest children are ever so slightly more intelligent, and the pair learn this might be down to more than just extra parental attention.
But there are some downsides to being the oldest, as Anita reveals she was stricter with her own first child, then more relaxed with the second. Could such parental expectations be a burden?
Finally, the pair explore the role of rivalry in sibling relationships, which some psychologists say can serve an important role in our development, as healthy competition spurs siblings on to be the best versions of themselves.
Presenters: Stephen Mangan, Anita Mangan
Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem
A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 4
MON 11:45 The Street Clinic by Dorcas Gwata (m002x488)
Amir: The Mosque
Specialist Mental Health nurse Dorcas Gwata reveals the impact of London’s gang culture on young people’s mental health.
In this episode she tells the story of her client Amir who is attacked outside a Pupil Referral Unit in London.
Written by Dorcas Gwata
Abridged by Jude Ho
Read by Josette Bushell-Mingo
Produced by Lu Kemp
A BBC Audio Scotland Production.
Drawing on her own experience of loss and social injustice, and twenty-five years on the NHS frontline, Dorcas offers a bird’s-eye view of London; its multicultural population, wealth inequalities, tireless healthcare professionals, and an NHS that doesn’t always work for everyone. A story of uncomfortable truths about British society, The Street Clinic is a story of resilience, strength and, ultimately, hope.
Dorcas Gwata is an award-winning nurse specialising in mental health, a Global Mental Health consultant and an advisor at Global Health Partnerships. She is an Accident and Emergency specialist nurse and has worked within multi-agency teams in the UK and with global health partnerships focusing on African and Asia.
Her work with young people and families affected by gang culture in London grew out of innovative evidence-based research in low-income countries extrapolated to high-income countries, improving mental health outcomes in vulnerable groups whilst addressing health inequalities in the UK.
MON 12:00 News Summary (m002x48b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m002x48d)
Leaseholds, Baby Food, EU Entry/Exit System
Research has exposed the huge disparity in the amounts people in flats are being asked to pay in service charges. It comes as a group of MPs says the government should go "Further, faster" in leasehold reform - which might also include regulation of property management companies.
The EU's Entry/Exit system has seen thousands of people stuck in hours-long queues at airports at tourist hotspots in the EU and UK. We find out what the latest is and why some countries have been suspending the checks.
The Grocer magazine has reported that the amount spent on branded baby food has crashed in the 12 months to February. It follows BBC Panorama's investigation into the poor nutrient value of pouches.
Plus we find out why we're spending more in vending machines - and how we're buying different things than the usual confectionery and drinks.
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: JAMES WICKHAM
MON 12:57 Weather (m002x48g)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m002x48j)
Israel's prime minister orders the army to target Southern Beirut
Iran warns strikes on Beirut threaten the ceasefire. We hear from there and get Israeli reaction. After Rosamund Pike called someone out for texting during her performance, Juliet Stevenson tells us how it can ruin the magic of theatre. And, as polling suggests trade union members are now just as likely to support Reform UK as they are the Labour party; we speak to the TUC's General Secretary.
MON 13:45 Artworks (m002x48l)
Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe
1. The Orphan
Who was the real Marilyn Monroe? Celebrating 100 years of an icon.
In her final interview, Marilyn Monroe observed: “When you're famous, you run into human nature in a raw kind of way. People think: Who is she? Who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe?”
Who was Marilyn Monroe? It depends who you ask. Some dismissed her as a dumb blonde, others say she was a savvy self-promoter, an influencer before influencers existed. Some labelled her a diva who was late to set and ruined takes, others argue she was an artist fighting back against the studio machine. Many say she was a victim, a martyr, a tragedy – others say she was a survivor.
Celebrating 100 years of Marilyn Monroe, Ellen E Jones overturns the myths of Monroe – many of which she created herself. Speaking with those who knew Marilyn best, Ellen explores five ‘faces’ of the blonde bombshell.
In this episode, we meet Marilyn Monroe: 'The Orphan'. Ellen discovers how Marilyn crafted a sympathetic backstory for herself, blurring reality and fantasy. We hear from Monroe's close friend Amy Greene, her photographer Lawrence Schiller, author of 'Blonde' Joyce Carol Oates, biographer Sarah Churchwell, and BFI programmer Kimberley Sheehan.
Presented by Ellen E Jones
Produced by Alice McKee for BBC Audio
Audio excerpts from Richard Meryman’s interview with Marilyn Monroe for Life magazine, Marilyn Monroe’s last interview, courtesy of the Richard Meryman Estate. Material from 'Marilyn: The Lost Photographs, The Last Interview' used with permission of Jason Greene and Chris Flannery: www.marilynslostphotos.com
MON 14:00 The Archers (m002x42k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Conversations from a Long Marriage (m002x48n)
Series 7
5. Hello, Goodbye
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, Joanna is smitten by two seagull chicks she's spotted nesting on their porch roof. Roger is more concerned that their friend, the recently widowed Ray, has brought an unexpected guest to stay with them, who looks just like Joanna.
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 Opening Lines (m002x41x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Sunday]
MON 15:00 Great Lives (m002x46k)
Cartoonist Naji al-Ali
Naji al-Ali was one of the best known cartoonists in the Arab world. His creation, a little boy called Handala, always stands with his back to the viewer, hands behind his back, watching whatever Naji al-Ali has drawn. He's been picked by the Pulitzer prize winning data journalist Mona Chalabi - but is she picking the artist, or his creation, the observant little boy?
Joining Mona in studio to discuss a life that was cut short is the cartoonist Martin Rowson. Naji al-Ali was assassinated in London in 1987 at just fifty years of age. The case remains unresolved. A powerful programme that includes the voice of Naji al-Ali's son plus news archive from 1987 and 2017, the thirtieth anniversary of his death.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde
MON 15:30 The History Podcast (m002x7m8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Saturday]
MON 16:00 Currently (m002x9wb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:30 on Sunday]
MON 16:30 Legend (m002x3q6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
MON 17:00 PM (m002x48q)
Part two of "Mandelson files" published
The government releases documents relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, which expose criticism of Sir Keir Starmer. Plus: the audience-member turned impromptu understudy on how he stepped in to save a performance in front of 2,500 people.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x48s)
More Mandelson Documents Published
Thousands of documents published by the government have revealed that while Lord Mandelson was the US ambassador, he repeatedly criticised Sir Keir Starmer's leadership in discussions with ministers. The exchanges were released as part of the publication of the second set of documents relating to Lord Mandelson's time in Washington. In other news, Israel's military has told residents of Beirut's southern suburbs to evacuate after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered his forces to target the area; and an international court has ruled that the UK will not have to pay Rwanda costs or compensation for the Labour government's decision to scrap the Conservatives' plan to deport some migrants there.
MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m002x48v)
Series 33
6. Sausages, Fish, Table Tennis and Butterflies
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.
Tony Hawks, Zoe Lyons, Mark Steel and Fern Brady are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as sausages, fish, table tennis and butterflies.
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 (m002x45t)
At Berrow farm, Ian nervously rambles to Martyn Gibson before apologising for yelling at him yesterday. Martyn accepts and agrees to not escalate his complaint further, as his brunch date wasn’t going well anyway. Seeing the pressure of his role on Ian, Martyn offers his advice on working in management over coffee. As they talk about managerial techniques and goals for Ian, Martyn plays bingo with cliché phrases.
Tom is admiring climate-controlled greenhouses online and planning to futureproof Bridge Farm. Natasha encourages him to talk to Helen, but Tom doesn’t want to pitch his ideas until Helen has moved house this weekend. Natasha raises Loxley Barratt School’s negative Ofsted report and how Helen wants Tom and Natasha involved in the PTA when Seren and Nova start in September. As they start to mention considering sending them elsewhere, Pat turns up with the twin’s missing water bottles.
Later, Pat and Tom are working in Bridge Farm’s garden as they admire how all the planting is coming together. Pat mentions the Ofsted report to Tom, who lets slip they’re looking at alternative options to Loxley Barratt. Pat is outraged at the idea of sending the girls to private school and questions how they would even afford it.
Following an appointment at a local Pre-Prep school, Tom and Natasha feel deflated by the cost involved and Natasha suggests a loan or even selling her Summer Orchard business to cover it. Tom takes this as motivation to push on with expanding his veg business through buying a new greenhouse.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m002x48x)
Marilyn Monroe at 100
On what would have been her 100th birthday, we look at the enduring popularity of Marilyn Monroe, with film journalist and fan Kim Morgan and reviewer Angie Errigo
Sathnam Sanghera talks about the meaning of George Michael.
Jazz legend and saxophonist Courtney Pine talks about his career, forty years after his seminal debut album Journey to the Urge Within.
And poet Joelle Taylor, author of Maryville and TS Eliot Prize-winning collection C+nto & Othered Poems, pays tribute to writer and activist Maureen Duffy - one of the first publicly "out" lesbian women, who has died aged 92.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
MON 20:00 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
Hetan 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.
MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977n)
Plankton's untapped potential
From Hay Festival 2026, a dive into a big year for our oceans, with plankton specialist Vincent Doumeizel and physicist turned oceanographer Helen Czerski.
Vincent is author of the Power of Plankton, which describes the crucial history and future of plankton and planktonic life on our planet. Helen's book The Blue Machine looks at the physical oceanic processes that shape the world.
Presented by Tom Whipple
Produced by Alex Mansfield
MON 21:00 Start the Week (m002x481)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:45 Mary Bourke: Who Cares? (m002cdgc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m002x48z)
'Beleaguered and bereft' - Mandelson messages reveal criticism of No 10
Long-awaited documents published by the government have revealed messages between Lord Mandelson and ministers strongly criticising the prime minister, No 10 and Labour MPs. We hear reaction from Labour MP Kim Johnson.
Also in the programme: a new proposal could see abusive air passengers placed on a national blacklist and prevented from flying. And on what would have been her 100th birthday, we reflect on how Marilyn Monroe’s legacy has evolved over the years.
MON 22:45 John of John by Douglas Stuart (m002x491)
Episode 6 - a sia
John drives North to Stornoway but when he gets there he cannot bring himself to ask the questions he needs to ask.
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 (m001nw3z)
Bitter Pill
3. Disconnect
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
Stuart ….. Tony Flynn
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 Today in Parliament (m002x493)
Alicia McCarthy reports as MPs digest another tranche of the papers relating to Peter Mandelson's appointment as US ambassador.
TUESDAY 02 JUNE 2026
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m002x495)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 The Street Clinic by Dorcas Gwata (m002x488)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002x497)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002x499)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:00 News Summary (m002x49c)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002x49f)
Sean Curran reports as MPs digest the latest revelations from the Mandelson files.
TUE 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002x49h)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002x49k)
Repairing the World
Good morning.
In the Jewish calendar, today is the seventeenth of the month of Sivan. By tradition, it was on this day that Noah’s Ark rested on Mount Ararat, a massif now in eastern Turkey. The event is recorded in Genesis chapter 8, and marks the turning point in the flood narrative. Until that moment, humanity’s survival was in doubt: God ordered the torrential rains as punishment for the moral corruption that had consumed the world. The safe landing was our second chance, and we needed to seize the opportunity to restore stability to the world.
Judaism holds dear the concept of Tikkun Olam, or “repairing the world”. It’s a powerful ethical framework for ecological responsibility and sustainability. The world, both in Noah’s time and now, may have been broken, but wasn’t beyond repair. We need to recognise the fragility of life, and that constant vigilance, informed by moral human action, is required on a daily basis, to ensure that catastrophic events don’t recur.
Humans are resilient, inventive, and protective by nature. Surely we have the skill and will to protect our environment, so that we’ll never again have need to engage in desparate measures, as did Noah, to preserve life.
God of heaven above and earth below, we pray that you may grant us the strength and courage to bring healing to our precious world. Grant us the wisdom and restraint to protect our only home, which you created and called good. Guide us to protect it not only for ourselves, but also for the generations to come, that they too may rejoice in its beauty and wonder. AMEN.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m002x49m)
02/06/26 Rural skills gap, upland farming in Wales, Future Countryside.
A new report says there should be plenty of opportunities for young people to take up training and jobs in land-based work - but there's a 'skills squeeze'. The study by Lantra, a charity which provides training and qualifications in land-based industries, says jobs are available but not being filled.
All week we're taking a closer look at upland farming across the UK. In Wales more than half the country is classed as uplands, from dramatic mountain ranges and blanket bogs to rolling heathland and moors. Unlike England, farmers still receive a basic payment from the Welsh government, though it's being phased out, to be replaced with the Sustainable Farming Scheme, which came in this year. We speak to a hill farmer in Ogmore Vale.
It's the fourth year of the Future Countryside Conference, which brings together a wide selection of leaders in farming, conservation and rural issues. It's being held at the Raby Estate in County Durham. This year, it's asking the question “How can we win support for a growing and recovering countryside?” We catch up with one of the organisers.
Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
TUE 06:00 Today (m002x455)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Gift (m002wd90)
Series 3
5. Forbidden
It’s a criminal offence to take an at-home DNA test in France – and Audrey and Arthur must break the law if they want to unlock the truths hidden in their genes.
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
The Gift is a BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 09:30 All in the Mind (m002x457)
Could a keto diet help treat bipolar depression?
Claudia Hammond explores intriguing early evidence that a ketogenic diet - high fat, low carbs - might help treat bipolar depression.
We already know this diet can help with some kinds of epilepsy. But now, after a promising pilot study, the Wellcome trust is funding a £7.9 million trial to look at whether it could also help reduce depression in people living with bipolar disorder. Professor Daniel Smith and research fellow Dr Iain Campbell from the University of Edinburgh, take us into the emerging field of ‘metabolic psychiatry’.
Also in the programme, Professor Nilli Lavie of UCL reveals what happens to our brain’s grey matter as we try to stay focused in an age of constant distraction. As information and entertainment are always within reach, her research asks how these shifting habits may be reshaping our attention - and our brains.
And Professor Daryl O’Connor discusses emerging research into the hormone oxytocin and its surprising role in wound healing, as well as new insights into how cultural experiences might help slow the ageing process.
Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer: Pamela Rutherford
Studio Manager: Tim Heffer
Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
Content Editor: Ilan Goodman
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002x459)
Medical school misogyny, Wales’ fastest woman, Marilyn Monroe, HIV & AIDS
A newly qualified doctor Charlotte Buttercase, has said she was subjected to repeated sexual harassment and intimidation while studying medicine at the University of Manchester. 32 other female students have now come forward to report similar abuse. Charlotte tells Nuala McGovern why she has waived her right to anonymity and written an open letter to the university to request a formal review of sexism within the School of Medical Sciences. More than 1000 women have added their signatures.
Sprinter Hannah Brier holds the Welsh 100m record, and last week became the fastest Welsh woman of all time. She broke her country's long-standing 200m record running it at
22.79 seconds at the Stratford Speed Grand Prix in London. But that time was just a few days after the Team Wales deadline for selection for this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. She explains to Nuala how missing out on the chance to compete at the games pushed her to prove herself all over again.
Is Marilyn Monroe still a name that needs no introduction? Fans were marking her 100th birthday yesterday so we ask why her legacy still endures almost 64 years after her death and what she means to women today. Nuala is joined by Ellen E Jones, a film critic and the presenter of a new radio documentary on BBC Sounds called 'Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe', and Sarah Churchwell, professor of American Literature at the University of London and the author of 'The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe'.
Tenderness and Rage, and the juxtaposition of these contrasting emotions is at the heart of a new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection. It explores the history of HIV from the AIDS epidemic of the 80s and 90s to today. We see stories of protest and of tender care through photography, film and objects belonging to those who faced these illnesses when so little was known about how to treat or survive them. Angelina Namiba was one of them. She was diagnosed with HIV in 1993, and at first, thought it was a death sentence.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Helen Fitzhenry
TUE 11:00 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
Over the Rainbow by Eva Cassidy
Fields of Gold by Sting
Little Things by One Direction
TUE 11:45 The Street Clinic by Dorcas Gwata (m002x45c)
Jevaun: The Football Pitch
Specialist Mental Health nurse Dorcas Gwata reveals the impact of London’s gang culture on young people’s mental health.
In this episode she tells the story of Jevaun, a young footballer whose ascent is interrupted when he falls foul of a local gang.
Written by Dorcas Gwata
Abridged by Jude Ho
Read by Josette Bushell-Mingo
Produced by Lu Kemp
A BBC Audio Scotland Production.
Drawing on her own experience of loss and social injustice, and twenty-five years on the NHS frontline, Dorcas offers a bird’s-eye view of London; its multicultural population, wealth inequalities, tireless healthcare professionals, and an NHS that doesn’t always work for everyone. A story of uncomfortable truths about British society, The Street Clinic is a story of resilience, strength and, ultimately, hope.
Dorcas Gwata is an award-winning nurse specialising in mental health, a Global Mental Health consultant and an advisor at Global Health Partnerships. She is an Accident and Emergency specialist nurse and has worked within multi-agency teams in the UK and with global health partnerships focusing on African and Asia.
Her work with young people and families affected by gang culture in London grew out of innovative evidence-based research in low-income countries extrapolated to high-income countries, improving mental health outcomes in vulnerable groups whilst addressing health inequalities in the UK.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m002x45g)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m002x45j)
Call You & Yours: Have you ever spent money you know you don't have, on stuff you don't really need?
Today on our weekly phone in Call You and Yours and we want to talk about disordered spending of the kind Nicola Sturgeon's husband did. It's on the rise. There are re-rehab clinics reporting growing numbers seeking help.
You might have never have bought luxury pens or cars or coffee machines but have you ever spent money you know you don't have on stuff you don't really need? If you've seen that in yourself and managed to stop, how did you do that?
It can happen for all sorts of reasons, and be spending on anything from second hand clothing, luxury goods, food - and be low cost or high end.
We'll be joined by Ian Hamilton. He is Professor of Addiction at the University of York. He's also a registered nurse. He's worked in the health service with patients with addictions.
He'll help to explain the different kinds of disordered spending and the different drivers involved.
We'll also hear from Sharon Bull who accumulated £50,000 of debt from her addiction to shopping. She now runs an organisation, Compassionate Voices CIC. helping women and girls managing these types of issues.
We want to hear from you. What drove you to do it and if you've ever caught yourself repeatedly spending too much how did you stop doing it?
You can email us at youandyours@bbc.co.uk.
You can call 03700 100 444 after
11am
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: LYDIA THOMAS AND LINDA WALKER
TUE 12:57 Weather (m002x45l)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m002x45n)
Murdered student Henry Nowak told police 'I can't breathe' whilst handcuffed
Bodycam footage released by police shows Henry Nowak in handcuffs telling police officers he can't breathe shortly before he died. The Home Secretary makes a statement in Parliament and we're joined by Reform UK's Home Affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf. Also: a report from Kyiv after one of the biggest Russian missile attacks since the war began. And, the lorry driver and metal detectorist who unearthed a rare Roman ring in a Somerset field.
TUE 13:45 Artworks (m002x45q)
Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe
2. The Dumb Blonde
Who was the real Marilyn Monroe? Celebrating 100 years of an icon.
In her final interview, Marilyn Monroe observed: “When you're famous, you run into human nature in a raw kind of way. People think: Who is she? Who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe?”
Who was Marilyn Monroe? It depends who you ask. Some dismissed her as a dumb blonde, others say she was a savvy self-promoter, an influencer before influencers existed. Some labelled her a diva who was late to set and ruined takes, others argue she was an artist fighting back against the studio machine. Many say she was a victim, a martyr, a tragedy – others say she was a survivor.
Celebrating 100 years of Marilyn Monroe, Ellen E Jones overturns the myths of Monroe – many of which she created herself. Speaking with those who knew Marilyn best, Ellen explores five ‘faces’ of the blonde bombshell.
In this episode, we meet Marilyn Monroe: 'The Dumb Blonde'. Ellen explores how Marilyn self-consciously created this persona, then found herself trapped within it. We hear from Marilyn's close friend and peer Mamie van Doren, her 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' backup dancer George Chakiris, makeup artist Erin Parsons, author of 'Blonde' Joyce Carol Oates, BFI programmer Kimberley Sheehan, and collector Bryan Johns.
Presented by Ellen E Jones
Produced by Alice McKee for BBC Audio
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m002x45t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Our Friends in the North (m0015lx5)
Episode 2: 1966
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.
The second episode opens in 1966, with Mary and Tosker married and bringing up their baby in a brand new high-rise council flat. Both the flat and the marriage are already showing cracks. Geordie’s in London, soon working for porn baron Benny Barratt, who’s facing crackdowns from the police and a Soho turf battle with a rival gang. Geordie is exactly who Barratt needs. In Newcastle, Nicky and Mary miss seeing each other, but she’s pregnant again and determined to make her marriage work. Nicky is increasingly disillusioned with Austin Donohue and his connections with developer John Edwards. He’s on the brink of another life-changing decision.
Cast
Austin Donohue / Charlie: Tom Goodman-Hill
John Edwards: Maanuv Thiara
Nicky: James Baxter
Geordie: Luke MacGregor
Mary / Julia: Norah Lopez-Holden
D.S. Conrad: Andrew Byron
Benny Barratt: Tony Hirst
Tosker / D.I Salway: Philip Correia
Ernie: Des Yankson
Arthur Watson: James Gaddas
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 (m002r5x7)
Eleanor of Aquitaine: Medieval Queen Supreme
Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine was in her 70s when disaster struck in the 1190s. Her sons were often at loggerheads and causing trouble. This time, her crusading son Richard the Lionheart had got into a spot of trouble and got himself kidnapped on his way back from the Holy Land. It was down to Eleanor to save her son, her dynasty and the realm.
Stories of bold voices, with brave ideas and the courage to stand alone. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann shines a light on remarkable people from across history.
A BBC Studios Audio production.
Producer: Suniti Somaiya
Written and presented by Alex von Tunzelmann
Executive Producer: Paul Smith
Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts
TUE 15:30 Thinking Allowed (m002x45x)
Ethics in sociological research
What does it mean to undertake "ethical" research in complex and changing social settings?
Marion Vannier, from the University of Manchester, uses diaries and letters written by prisoners in her research with older men serving life sentences. Her work, including ‘Project Hope’, offers an insight into the experience of ageing behind bars, showing how ideas such as “hope” aren't always a positive. She discusses the difficult questions about trust, representation and responsibility when putting prisoners’ own voices centre stage and in the public domain.
Helen Busby is an independent research Ethics Advisor who has edited a new collection of essays Reframing Qualitative Research Ethics. She argues ethics cannot be reduced to fixed rules or procedural checklists, but are shaped by negotiation, reflection and the realities of research practice. The book brings together detailed case studies of dilemmas encountered in the field, alongside proposals for reform, including a more flexible review processes, discipline-specific approaches and a broader emphasis on research integrity.
Producer: Natalia Fernandez
Editor: Robyn Read
TUE 16:00 Artworks (m002x45z)
Allen Ginsberg’s Last Soup
“Probably the single greatest influence on the American poetical voice since Whitman.” So said Bob Dylan of Allen Ginsberg. To mark the centenary of his birth, and the 70th anniversary of his great poem, Howl, Ian Sansom explores the character and oeuvre of the Beat poet by recreating one of his final works – Allen Ginsberg’s Last Soup.
On 19th March 1997, Ginsberg wrote a shopping list for the fish soup that he cooked and served to friends that evening. Ginsberg died two weeks later, on 5th April. Bob Rosenthal, for two decades Ginsberg’s friend and secretary, came across the left-over soup in the freezer, and couldn’t bring himself to throw it out – partly because Ginsberg had sought Rosenthal’s wife Shelley’s advice on how to make it.
The soup went on to have a saga of its own. It was to have become an exhibit, cryonically preserved in a museum. Bob and Shelley Rosenthal tell its story to Ian Sansom, who delves into the character and work of Ginsberg and pays homage - by recreating one of the generous poet’s last creative acts. He cooks Allen Ginsberg’s Last Soup.
Ian visits Deptford Market – the kind of place Ginsberg would have enjoyed – locally sourcing the ingredients. He’s joined in the kitchen by food historian Dr Annie Gray and the editor of Ginsberg’s Selected Poems, Professor Mark Ford. Chopping leeks, celeriac, shallots and garlic; frying smoked bacon and simmering potatoes, they talk and come to an understanding of the importance of food and feeding people to Ginsberg, his concern with the ethics and politics of food. This finds expression in poems such as A Supermarket in California; Howl; the great elegy for his mother, Kaddish; and the remarkable C’mon Pigs of Western Civilisation Eat More Grease.
As the soup is served, Professor Ford recalls a memorable meeting with Ginsberg when he was a student, and the meal they shared. Mark, Ian and Annie consider the parallels of the processes of writing poetry and cooking, while fully engaging with one of the poet’s final works: eating Allen Ginsberg’s Last Soup.
Presenter: Ian Sansom
Producer: Julian May
A Whistledown production for Radio 4
TUE 16:30 What's Up Docs? (m002x461)
Is a male contraceptive pill closer than you think?
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken explore the ideas shaping our health and wellbeing.
In this episode, they turn their attention to male contraception. We’ve been hearing about a “male pill” for decades, so why don’t we have one yet? They break down how male fertility works, what options currently exist, and the different approaches scientists are exploring, from hormonal gels to non-hormonal treatments.
They also look at the challenges behind developing new contraceptives, from the biology to the strict safety standards and lack of funding that have slowed progress.
To help them unpack it all, they’re joined by Professor Richard Anderson, Professor of Clinical Reproductive Science at the University of Edinburgh.
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 Richard Anderson
Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
Editor: Jo Rowntree
Researcher: Grace Revill
Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable
Visual Producer: Leon Gower
Digital Lead: Richard Berry
Composer: Phoebe McFarlane
Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby
At the BBC:
Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 17:00 PM (m002x463)
Anger over the murder of Henry Nowak
The Prime Minister says police have questions to answer as officer bodycam footage is released. Did anti-racism distort decision-making at the scene? We'll speak to the former chair of the National Black Police Association, Leroy Logan, and the local MP, Satvir Kaur. Also on PM, Kirstie Allsopp takes a stand against fly-tipping and we hear about a new pill which has been shown to shrink tumours in six cancer types. And, as Nicola Sturgeon denies knowledge of her husband's spending - we'll ask whether the way couples manage their finances is changing.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x465)
PM says 'serious questions' for police over student murder
The Prime Minister has said there are "serious questions" for the police to answer about the murder of a student who was handcuffed and arrested while he lay dying - after his killer falsely accused him of racism. Henry Nowak was stabbed as he returned from a night out in Southampton in December last year. Also: New phase of the El Niño could be one of the strongest ever recorded. Evacuations in Ukraine's Kharkiv region as Russian attacks intensify. UK Athletics fined for manslaughter after athlete killed by collapsing shot-put cage. And: Knighthoods and Damehoods for Idris Elba, Torvill and Dean and Meera Syal.
TUE 18:30 One Person Found This Helpful (m002x467)
Series 4
You Say Potatö
Frank Skinner and guests Jo Caulfield, Lily Phillips, Simon Evans and John Tothill review a wide range of meatballs, perfumes, Presidential spouses and people called Heathcliff.
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 (m002x469)
When Alice bumps into Ed in the village shop, she inquires if Ed would be available for extra hours at Home Farm. Ed says he’ll let her know after talking to Emma. As Will and Eddie admire Ed’s Texels, Will warns Ed to stay out of the Aldridge family drama, but Eddie reckons Ed should just keep his head down and take the money. Ed says he’d only go back if the hours were flexible enough to allow him to continue with the tree surgery. George then convinces Ed to be in a social media video on selecting a sheep for Borchester Show. Will and Eddie then heckle awkward Ed, before George banishes them until the filming’s done.
Finding Rex on Alice’s doorstep, Brian confesses the last time he spoke to Alice it didn’t end well. He starts rambling on about her, before Rex cuts him off. Rex thinks it’s inappropriate for Brian to be saying this stuff to him, pointing out that Brian’s ego is a major source of the Aldridge family problems. Rex continues that he knows about fathers who insist on always getting their own way, calling Brian out when Alice appears.
Brian and Alice both hate all the fighting, and Brian wants things to go back to normal. Alice insists that Brian cannot run Home Farm alone and says she’s found someone who could help. To her surprise, Brian agrees to give Ed a chance. Later, Ed visits the Nest, telling Alice he’ll take the extra hours subject to agreeing suitable pay and flexibility.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m002x46c)
Rivals writer Sophie Goodhart on new TV series Alice and Steve; depictions of dogs in art
Award winning jazz saxophonist and broadcaster Soweto Kinch and writer and director of new film Köln 75, Ido Fluk, join Tom to explore the importance of Keith Jarrett’s seminal performance at the Cologne Opera House in 1975, and its subsequent album, which became the bestselling solo album in jazz history.
Sex Education and Rivals writer Sophie Goodhart on her award-winning comedy-drama Alice and Steve, starring Nicola Walker and Jemaine Clement. It’s about best friends turned enemies, after Steve starts dating Alice’s 26-year-old daughter.
Cultural historian Thomas W. Laqueur talks about depictions of dogs in art, as he publishes his new book The Dog's Gaze.
Critic Clarisse Loughrey talks about how small screen directors and creators on YouTube have made the leap to Hollywood's big leagues, with films like Obsession and Backrooms breaking box office records and driving Gen Z to the cinemas.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Presenter: Claire Bartleet
TUE 20:00 Today (m002x46f)
The Today Debate: Is there a crisis of control in AI?
When Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic goes public on the US stock market, as it now plans, it's expected to be valued at nearly one trillion dollars.
This is just the latest sign of us all entering the age of AI, but are we doing so in control of this new technology and how it could transform our society?
The Pope last week called for AI to be disarmed to prevent it from dominating humanity while two former prime ministers - both with links to the AI industry in different ways - underlined its importance in interviews on the Today programme.
Anna Foster chairs an expert panel debating the question: Is there a crisis of control in AI?
TUE 20:45 In Touch (m002x46h)
New Access to Work Recruits, Audio Description on Streaming Services
The Department for Work and Pensions is in the process of hiring nearly 500 new members of staff to help clear the Access to Work backlog and tackle long delays. The Access to Work scheme can help disabled people gain and maintain employment by providing funding for things like support workers and assistive tech. A review of the scheme is currently underway which aims to reform the scheme as it is struggling to keep up with rising demand, these new recruits are a separate measure by the department which aims to quicken the processing of people's claims. In Touch speaks to Minister for Social Security and Disability Sir Stephen Timms about these new roles.
For the first time, the UK communications regulator Ofcom is introducing access requirements for streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus and Netflix. This is following the Media Act 2024, and Ofcom's proposals will not only apply for audio description, but also for subtitling and signing. Cathy Taylor is part of Ofcom's Broadcasting Team and describes to In Touch what these new requirements could look like, and about a consultation which is seeking the views of access service users.
Contact details for Ofcom's consultation are below:
General advice telephone number: 0300 123 3333
Consultation email address: Tier1accessibility@ofcom.org.uk
And the consultation web page: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/accessibility/tier-1-accessibility-code
Closing date for responses: 7th August 2026
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
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.’
TUE 21:00 The Law Show (m002wvfb)
The Renters Rights Act - In Detail
The Renter’s Rights Act came into force at the start of May, and it marked the biggest change to how private rentals work in England in a generation.
There are a host of new protections and legal entitlements for renters, and many potential pitfalls for landlords to consider.
Assured shorthold tenancies have been abolished, and have automatically been converted into rolling tenancies - sometimes known as ‘assured periodic tenancies’.
It means that the tenancy has no automatic end date.
Section 21 notices - also known as "no fault" evictions have been abolished, and Landlords are not allowed to ask for more than 1 months' rent as a deposit. Bidding wars for rental properties are now forbidden, and there are measures to limit rent increases.
But it doesn't apply to all renters in all properties.
What about students? They all rent, but only some students are covered by the Act.
And if landlords don't follow the new laws carefully, they could face fines of thousands of pounds.
So what are the details that property owners and their tenants need to know?
Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Damon Rose
Contributors:
Siobhan Taylor-Ward, a Housing Solicitor at Lawstop on the Wirral
Nermin Suleman, an associate solicitor at Prosperity Law in Manchester
Tim Wrigley a partner at Wrigley’s Solicitors in Leeds
TUE 21:30 Great Lives (m002x46k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:00 on Monday]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m002x46m)
Keir Starmer: Henry Nowak arrest footage raises ‘serious questions’ for police
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is among those saying there are questions for the police to answer after the release of harrowing bodycam footage of Henry Nowak's final moments.
There have been clashes between protestors and police in Southampton near the scene where the student was stabbed by a Sikh man who falsely claimed he had been racially abused. We ask whether anti-racism guidance may have obscured the truth.
Also on the programme: a partial truce between Israel and Lebanon seems to be holding - we have a report from northern Israel and hear from both the Lebanese government and Hezbollah. And the government announces thousands more black men will take part in a trial for prostate cancer screening.
TUE 22:45 John of John by Douglas Stuart (m002x46p)
Episode 7 - a seachd
Unbeknownst to John, Cal and Innes make a plan to meet in Oban, away from the eyes of neighbours and friends.
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 (m002x46r)
Cold Cases
Case 9: The South Shields Poltergeist Part Two
Creepy texts, a ghastly apparition, and a stuffed rabbit with a box cutter.
Danny and the team dip back into the story of the South Shields poltergeist - the first big paranormal case of the digital age.
As the bizarre and terrifying events plaguing a young family in the coastal town of South Shields escalate, Danny and his experts must weigh the evidence. Could there be a rational explanation for what's happening - or is something far stranger at work?
Presented by Danny Robins
Experts: Evelyn Hollow and Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe
Story sections by Victoria Lloyd
Research by Nancy Bottomley
Filming and editing by Robb Leech
Editing and sound design by Charlie Brandon-King
Theme music by Katherine Priddy
Theme co-produced by Jennifer Ann Keller
Incidental music by Evelyn Sykes
Commissioning executive: Paula McDonnell
Commissioning editor: Rhian Roberts
Produced by Simon Barnard and Victoria Lloyd
A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002x46t)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster as the Home Secretary updates MPs about the murder of Henry Nowak.
WEDNESDAY 03 JUNE 2026
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m002x46w)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 The Street Clinic by Dorcas Gwata (m002x45c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002x46y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002x470)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:00 News Summary (m002x472)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002x474)
Alicia McCarthy reports as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood addresses MPs on the 'horrifying' murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak. Also, Wales's new first minister faces his first Senedd question time and there's a new-style FMQs in the Scottish Parliament.
WED 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002x476)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002x478)
Meeting God in Yiddish
My first language is Yiddish, a Jewish vernacular which originated in central and eastern Europe, and was spoken by up to thirteen million people before the outbreak of World War Two. Among them were my parents, who conversed, joked, sang, complained, and expressed love in this tongue, in which German and Hebrew are prominent, together Polish, Russian, and other Slavic elements. It was the language of our home, and my father in particular taught me to read Yiddish newspapers and stories from the likes of Sholom Aleichem, the creator of Tevye the dairyman, who was immortalised in Fiddler on the Roof.
I was always fascinated by Tevye’s conversations with God. In one story Aleichem has him say, “ ‘Master of the Universe,’ I say, not complaining, just asking: if wealth were a crime, I’d be a saint. You’ve given me a head full of thoughts, a mouth full of words, and a pocket full of air. I understand—someone has to be poor. But why me?” This attitude is fascinating, and has influenced my own dialogues with God, which I tend to have in Yiddish. I pray formally, and sing as a Cantor, in Hebrew; but Yiddish allows me to meet God as a friend in discourse: I can argue, joke, reminisce, and expose my vulnerabilities, all to an entity who doesn’t answer back directly, but, I trust, listens intently to my every word.
Gottenyu in Himel, dear God in heaven, we know that you take heed of our rants and our reverence to You. Grant us the conviction to speak freely, and listen deeply
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m002x47b)
03/06/26 EU trade agreement, peat restoration and water voles, Scottish uplands
The government has published fresh guidance for farmers and food businesses to help them prepare for the new sanitary and phytosanitary - or SPS - agreement between the UK and the EU. It's expected to take effect in a year's time. It's supposed to make trade easier, with fewer checks and less paperwork, but there are still many points in the agreement to iron out.
Peatlands are one of the most valuable sources of carbon storage and they provide important habitats for wildlife and plants too. Across Wales the National Peatland Action Programme is working to improve these precious sites. In the Cambrian Mountains the project has been so successful that water voles have now populated the area.
All week we're assessing the state of upland farming across the UK. In Scotland, 70% of agricultural land is classed as uplands. Most of those farms have sheep, many also have beef cattle and forestry is also a big part of Scottish farming. Agriculture is devolved and the Scottish government has, until now, held onto the direct payments which existed under the pre-Brexit EU system. That's being phased out, and upland farmers are concerned that under the new rules they could lose out.
Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
WED 06:00 Today (m002x5g6)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 More or Less (m002x5gb)
Debunking the claim that migrants will get half of new homes
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
(
00:42) The Daily Express claims that ‘Migrants will get half of all new homes’, based on a calculation from the Conservatives. We explain why that’s not what the numbers say, and ask what the Conservatives own record on migration and housing tells us.
(
06:58) Does one in five Welsh pupils leave school functionally illiterate? We take a dive into the world of Welsh education and find the numbers tell a different story - but not an encouraging one.
(
14:44) Accusations are flying about who’s responsible for the UK’s high borrowing costs. Does Liz Truss still cast a shadow over the bond market? Is Labour infighting to blame? Or are we missing the economic wood for the political trees? Duncan Weldon has the answers.
(
23:37) And an answer to a question that literally only one person was asking: how many football pitches would fit inside Wales?
More or Less is the programme that looks at numbers and statistics in news and in life. We’re always looking for questions from listeners - you can contact us on moreorless@bbc.co.uk.
Guests:
Ben Brindle - researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford
James Riding - Living Markets and Sustainability Editor at Inside Housing
Kathy Rastle - Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of London
Duncan Weldon - Economist and author of Blood and Treasure
Rob Eastaway - mathematician and author of Maths on the Back of an Envelope
Presenter: Tim Harford
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Reporter: Nathan Gower
Producers: Josh McMinn, Lizzy McNeill
Editor: Richard Vadon
Programme Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Engineer: James Beard
WED 09:30 Intrigue (m002x5gg)
To Catch a King
4. The French Escort
A hidden location. Migrants awaiting a boat crossing. Who helps them to reach the UK?
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 (m002x5gl)
Lady Brittan on false accusations, playwright Anna Jordan on Mother Courage, author Claire Powell, strength training
New research shows that strength training twice a week can lengthen your life. Sarah Best and Emma Holmes, who are 49 and 51, will compete at an elite indoor fitness competition, the Hyrox World Championships later this month. Only the top 0.5% of competitors worldwide qualify to compete. They tell Nuala about how they achieved this impressive level of fitness and explain how you can be strong at any age.
Lady Brittan is calling on the government to recognise those falsely accused as victims, when a perpetrator is released. This follows the release of Carl Beech who was jailed in part for perverting the course of justice. Beech, whose allegations sparked one of the Metropolitan Police’s most high-profile investigations, Operation Midland, was jailed for 18 years in 2019 after his claims of historic child abuse against prominent figures were proven to be false. Now Lady Brittan is among those saying they should have been informed about his release. She explains why she is is a signatory to a letter to the Justice Secretary, alongside some of those falsely accused by Carl Beech.
Mother Courage and her Children is Bertolt Brecht’s 1939 tale of a wartime profiteer who prefers to see herself as a savvy survivor and devoted mother. Currently on stage at the Globe in London for the first time, Nuala speaks to playwright Anna Jordan who has adapted the story for a modern audience. Why is this story one for retelling now and why does it continue to be performed more than 80 years later around the world?
Author Claire Powell joins Nuala to discuss her latest novel All In. It follows a couple on an all-inclusive holiday with their extended family and explores the strain that IVF can place on a relationship. She tells Nuala why she chose the setting of a luxury resort to explore family dynamics.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Olivia Skinner
WED 11:00 Today (m002x46f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Tuesday]
WED 11:45 The Street Clinic by Dorcas Gwata (m002x5gn)
Louise: The City
Specialist Mental Health nurse Dorcas Gwata reveals the impact of London’s gang culture on young people’s mental health.
This episode follows the story of Louise, a young woman trying to find her place within the working world – despite her precarious background.
Written by Dorcas Gwata
Abridged by Jude Ho
Read by Josette Bushell-Mingo
Produced by Lu Kemp
A BBC Audio Scotland Production.
Drawing on her own experience of loss and social injustice, and twenty-five years on the NHS frontline, Dorcas offers a bird’s-eye view of London; its multicultural population, wealth inequalities, tireless healthcare professionals, and an NHS that doesn’t always work for everyone. A story of uncomfortable truths about British society, The Street Clinic is a story of resilience, strength and, ultimately, hope.
Dorcas Gwata is an award-winning nurse specialising in mental health, a Global Mental Health consultant and an advisor at Global Health Partnerships. She is an Accident and Emergency specialist nurse and has worked within multi-agency teams in the UK and with global health partnerships focusing on African and Asia.
Her work with young people and families affected by gang culture in London grew out of innovative evidence-based research in low-income countries extrapolated to high-income countries, improving mental health outcomes in vulnerable groups whilst addressing health inequalities in the UK.
WED 12:00 News Summary (m002x5gq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m002x5gs)
Email Hacks, Skimpflation, Invasive Bamboo
Our reporter Shari Vahl looks at how a single hacked email account allowed criminals to use a couple’s credit card online. As our resident scam expert, Shari knows a thing or two about how criminals work, but she is still unsure how this rather complex operation was carried out – and she needs your help!
In the 1990s, bamboo became a popular garden plant in the UK. However, when left to grow it can become incredibly invasive and its long roots can cause havoc with house foundations and fencing. Environet, a company that specialises in removing invasive plants, says it had more than a thousand calls about invasive bamboo last year.
In times of economic uncertainty, people often reduce the amount of money they spend on luxuries. As a result, fewer people are willing to spend on big ticket non-essential items like new cabinets or paintings. It has led to a growing 'Art Bartering' scene. Artists around the world are listing on social media the things they will accept for their work instead of money, including building work, plumbing or even holiday accommodation.
You've probably heard of shrinkflation – that's the shrinking of products that stay at the same price – but what about skimpflation? It is a reduction in the quality or amount of ingredients used in products, such as fewer avocados in guacamole or chicken in a curry, whilst keeping it at the same price. According to experts, it may be more common as businesses face higher costs.
PRODUCER: CHARLIE FILMER-COURT
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
WED 12:57 Weather (m002x5gv)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m002x5gx)
Prime minister condemns violence over Nowak death
Unrest in Southampton following the death of Henry Nowak leads the Prime Minister to call for "serious work, not rage" at PMQs. We examine accusations of two-tier policing and discuss police guidance on race with Matthew Ryder, former lawyer for the family of Stephen Lawrence. Also on The World at One, we hear from Russia as a large-scale drone strike hits targets in St Petersburg on the opening day of its flagship Economic Forum, and we take part in a live studio workout with Ele Breitmeyer as a Harvard study suggests weight training can help extend your life.
WED 13:45 Artworks (m002x5gz)
Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe
3. The Diva
Who was the real Marilyn Monroe? Celebrating 100 years of an icon.
In her final interview, Marilyn Monroe observed: “When you're famous, you run into human nature in a raw kind of way. People think: Who is she? Who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe?”
Who was Marilyn Monroe? It depends who you ask. Some dismissed her as a dumb blonde, others say she was a savvy self-promoter, an influencer before influencers existed. Some labelled her a diva who was late to set and ruined takes, others argue she was an artist fighting back against the studio machine. Many say she was a victim, a martyr, a tragedy – others say she was a survivor.
Celebrating 100 years of Marilyn Monroe, Ellen E Jones overturns the myths of Monroe – many of which she created herself. Speaking with those who knew Marilyn best, Ellen explores five ‘faces’ of the blonde bombshell.
In this episode, we meet Marilyn Monroe: 'The Diva'. As Marilyn breaks contract and escapes to New York, rumours swirl of her being late to set and difficult to work with. But Ellen discovers that Marilyn was in fact fighting back against the studio machine. We hear from the daughters of photographer Sam Shaw, Edie and Meta Shaw, and his granddaughter Melissa Shaw; Marilyn's close friend Amy Greene; David Strasberg, son of Marilyn's legendary acting tutor Lee Strasberg; and biographer Sarah Churchwell.
Presented by Ellen E Jones
Produced by Alice McKee for BBC Audio
WED 14:00 The Archers (m002x469)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Trust (m0019z0f)
Series 3 – 2. Relocation, Relocation
Trust by Jonathan Hall 2/3
Sir Ken is trying to force through a restructure which means that some staff will be relocated to more challenging schools. The staff are naturally unhappy, so the unions get involved, but the rep is someone Yvette does not want to deal with.
Yvette..........................Julie Hesmondhalgh
Sir Ken.........................Jonathan Keeble
Tim...............................Ashley Margolis
Dhrutti........................Mina Anwar
Carol/Joy....................Susan Twist
Billy...............................Jason Done
Director/Producer Gary Brown
WED 15:00 The Law Show (m002x5h1)
Why were three teen rapists not given custodial sentences?
Note: this episode contains frequent references to rape, sexual assault and physical assault.
There's been public confusion and outrage over the sentences given to three teenage boys, who were convicted of rape.
In November 2024 and January 2025, two girls, then aged 15 and 14, were attacked in separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, by two 14-year-olds. Another boy, then 13, was also convicted for his involvement in the second rape.
The teenage boys were given youth rehabilitation orders and walked out of court with 10 rape convictions between them.
The Prime Minister says the case will be referred to the Court of Appeal. He described the case as distressing and said "there are questions about the sentence". One of the girls who was raped told the BBC that the judge's decision was like a "rock straight in my face".
So what are the likely reasons why the three teenage boys were given non-custodial sentences?
What is the guidance around youth sentencing, and what are youth rehabilitation orders?
How do youth courts - and youth custody - work, and how does the system differ from the adult courts in England and Wales?
And does the adversarial nature of our criminal justice system lead to vulnerable victims being re-traumatised?
Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producers: Ravi Naik and Ivana Davidovic
Editor: Damon Rose
Contributors:
Kirsty Brimelow KC, Chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales
Dr Charlotte Proudman, a barrister who specialises in family law and human rights
Dr Kathy Hampson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Aberystwyth University
WED 15:30 The Artificial Human (m002x5h3)
AI: War Machine?
2. What's driving the military AI policy?
Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong examine the decisions shaping the adoption of military AI in the United States and beyond, asking whether governance is keeping pace — or whether responsibility is being left to the technology’s creators.
A recent dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon revealed that commercial contracts, rather than clear policy, are helping to define how AI can be used by the military. But the disagreement was less about ethics than about timing, with the military pressing ahead to adopt systems before their developers considered them sufficiently reliable.
Dr Brianna Rosen reflects on what this tells us about the lack of detailed policy, regulation and legal frameworks governing AI in warfare, while journalist and author Katrina Manson explains what we can learn from the origins of the US military’s core AI programme as explored in her book,Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare.
Presenters: Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong
Producer: Peter McManus
Sound: Fraser Jackson and Gav Murchie
WED 16:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002x5h5)
BP v 'Shouty' Albert
When PR becomes the story, you know you're in trouble.
And that's where BP finds itself right now - as the dust begins to settle after a tumultuous week for the company.
David Yelland and Lauren Beeching unpick the drama - from the statement announcing the Chairman's shock sacking to the furious response from the man himself. They explain the PR mistakes made by both sides along the way - including creating a vacuum of information and, conversely, saying too much.
And after all is said and done, who is the winner of this PR war?
Also, on the extended edition on BBC Sounds, we're sticking with sacking. The world of redundancies has changed forever. Companies are now hiring crisis PR firms to manage the moment someone gets fired - because at a time where the person losing their job might have half a million TikTok followers, the old HR playbook just doesn't cut it anymore.
And if you've been at the centre of a fan hitter, is it best to slink back to the shadows or try and stay firmly in the limelight? Rebekah Vardy's certainly taking the latter approach. Despite being publicly torn apart during the Wagatha Christie libel trial, she's now invited the cameras in for a new three-part ITV documentary. David and Lauren look at what this could mean for her reputation.
Producer: Duncan Middleton
Editor: Sarah Teasdale
Executive Producer: Eve Streeter
Music by Eclectic Sounds
A Raconteur Studios production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002x5h7)
Laura Kuenssberg, SNP embezzlement story, Rafa documentary, 60 Minutes
The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg joins Ros and Katie to discuss her exclusive interview with Nicola Sturgeon, the first since her estranged husband pleaded guilty to embezzling £400,000 from the SNP. John Ferguson, Political Editor at the Sunday Mail in Scotland, also shares his experience of reporting on the story from the very beginning.
Also on the programme, director Zach Heinzerling discusses how he secured unprecedented access to tennis player Rafael Nadal for his Netflix documentary Rafa. Minal Modha from Ampere Analysis assesses whether we are in the middle of a sports documentary boom. Plus, analysis of the ruptures in CBS’ 60 Minutes newsroom by Michael Grynbaum from The New York Times.
WED 17:00 PM (m002x5h9)
The fallout from disorder following the police's handling of Henry Nowak's murder
The day after disorder in Southampton following the release of police footage of the death of Henry Nowak what next? Reaction from Hampshire's Chief Constable and locals. Is it being used politically or are politicians reflecting public anger? The Lib Dem MP Max Wilkinson and Reform's London Mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham debate. Also a profile of Iran's chances in the World Cup, will they be allowed into the US? And are French philosophers more lauded than their British counterparts? Kathleen Stock and Sandra Laugier argue their cases.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x5hc)
Three die in helicopter crash during Royal Navy exercise
The Princess of Wales has expressed her sorrow at the death of the three Royal Navy personel who died after their helicopter came down during a training exercise in Devon early this morning.
The Chief Constable of Hampshire Policehas has apologised for his force's handling of the murder of the teenager Henry Nowak, which sparked violent unrest in Southampton.
The former Head of MI6 - Sir Alex Younger - has died at the age of 62 after being treated for cancer.
President Trump has suggested he would be willing to meet the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, if an agreement can be reached between Iran and the US.
(Image: PA)
WED 18:30 Stand-Up Specials (m002x5hf)
Ian Smith Is Stressed - Series 2
3. Water
Ian takes a deep dive into the murky world of water. Are we drinking enough? Will water eventually invade the land? Can Ian turn his jeans into a floatation device? Can you be hypnotised into drinking more boring horrible water? Join Ian as he asks and answers all these questions and more.
Written and performed by Ian Smith
Additional Material from Mike Shephard and Rhiannon Shaw
Featuring Alison Thea-Skot and Róisín O'Mahony
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 (m002x5hh)
Natasha helps Helen pack clothes ahead of moving to 5 The Green. Henry’s become very organised, labelling all his boxes, whilst Jack is less helpful. They talk about the dairy and Helen’s excitement over expanding her herd. Natasha confesses she’s almost jealous of Helen’s enthusiasm.
Driving to Shropshire, Tom points out the irony of using the money from selling retired Tony’s Anguses to buy Montey’s from another retired farmer. Helen points out how they’re saving money by not having to bring them over from France. They then admire the cows in the field and Helen tries to persuade Tom to buy the full herd of ten. Tom points out their mobile dairy would struggle to handle the extra cows and Helen reluctantly agrees to only buy the six they came for.
Later, while chatting over a cup of tea, enthusiastic Natasha confesses she has a new business idea for Bridge Farm, to branch out into Botanicals and organic skincare. It could finance sending the twins to private school. Helen tells her to go for it, if that’s what they want to do.
When Rex catches Alice at The Stables, they agree neither wants to break up. Rex then apologises for what he said to Brian. Alice doesn’t know the specifics, so Rex tells her everything. Recalling their fight on Sunday, Alice says she’s inherited the Aldridge habit of lashing out. Rex admits to his own flaws and they agree to put it behind them, before Rex reveals his dad texted him, asking to meet Alice. Would she be up for that?
WED 19:15 Front Row (m002x5hk)
Live from the Belfast Book Festival
As the Belfast Book Festival opens Kirsty Wark is joined by a range of guests at the Crescent Arts Centre.
She'll be discussing reading and freedom of expression with Hilary McCollum, whose new book As A Lover is inspired by the scandal which followed the publication of Radclyffe Hall's story of lesbian love The Well of Loneliness in 1928, and by novelist and short story writer Lucy Caldwell whose work often examines what were once taboo subjects.
Head of Cuba Pictures Dixie Linder, who's made TV adaptations of work by Marian Keyes, MIsha Glenny and Susanna Clarke talks about her approach to adapting much-loved books, and Andrew Reid of Northern Ireland Screen will explain how the Game of Thrones effect has made an enormous cultural and economic impact on the local industry.
The director and one of the cast of Bold Girls - Rona Munro's play about how women held families together during The Troubles - also join us live, as does Donegal-based poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin, who will be reading live from her latest collection Hymn To All the Restless Girls.
Producer: Mark Crossan
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m002x5hm)
Who is morally responsible for Britain's political short-termism?
A Labour leadership challenge would mean Britain could have a seventh prime minister in a decade. Each change of leadership promises renewal, but each delivers fresh disappointment. Meanwhile the problems compound: crumbling infrastructure, polluted waterways, a cost-of-living crisis, a planet warming faster than our policy responses. Why can't a mature democracy fix things it can clearly see are broken?
In the late 1960s, Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel devised a deceptively simple test of human nature. A child is left alone with a single marshmallow and a choice: eat it now, or wait fifteen minutes and receive two. It measures willpower, impulse control, and the capacity to sacrifice immediate satisfaction for a better long-term outcome. Mischel's follow-up studies found that children who waited tended to grow into healthier, better-educated, more emotionally stable adults. But subsequent researchers identified a crucial caveat: children from unstable backgrounds, used to broken promises, were entirely rational to eat immediately, since they didn't trust that the second marshmallow would ever arrive.
Britain, it could be argued, is living through its own national marshmallow test, and the results are troubling. Critics of the current political settlement point out that politicians face structural incentives to fix today's headlines rather than next decade's crises. The five-year electoral horizon means anything beyond it risks being kicked down the road: HS2, the infected blood scandal, Net Zero. Voters, burned by serial betrayal, rationally demand immediate relief on bills, welfare and petrol prices, even when the long-term cost is severe. And hovering over the whole system is the media. Twenty-four hour news demands a fresh scoop every hour, and social media algorithms reward outrage over reflection. If politicians are punished for nuance and rewarded for noise, and voters are algorithmically nudged towards the most inflammatory version of every story, is the entire information environment now rigged against long-term thinking?
If voters rationally distrust politicians, and politicians rationally pander to voters, who bears the moral responsibility for our collective short-termism? And crucially, who bears the responsibility for breaking the cycle? Is it about radical institutional or electoral reform? Does it require a more uncomfortable kind of leadership: politicians willing to tell hard truths, and voters willing to reward them? Who should bear the brunt of any short-term pain? Can we demand courage from leaders we've trained to be cowards? And if so, how do we first rebuild the trust – and the information environment – that makes waiting for the second marshmallow feel rational again?
Chair: Michael Buerk
Panel: Mona Siddiqui, Tim Stanley, Ash Sarkar and James Orr
Witnesses: Paul Dolan, James Williams, Sonia Purnell and Karl Pike
Producer: Dan Tierney
Assistant producer: Peter Everett
Editor: Tim Pemberton
WED 21:00 The Gift (m002wd90)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 All in the Mind (m002x457)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Tuesday]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m002x5hp)
Marco Rubio warns of ‘real risk’ of Ukraine war escalation
The warning from the US Secretary of State comes as Ukraine strikes St Petersburg. We hear how the news is going down in Washington DC.
Also in the programme: after 18-year-old student Henry Nowak was handcuffed and arrested as he lay dying, we hear how police officers are trained. And Barack Obama’s presidential library in Chicago opens its doors to the public in a couple of weeks’ time, but is it any good?
WED 22:45 John of John by Douglas Stuart (m002x5hr)
Episode 8 - a h-ochd
Cal returns home to find his living room packed with Elders, and a steely expectation that Cal will meet their demands.
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 (m001q6j8)
Sarah Keyworth: Are You a Boy or a Girl? S2
4: 'What if you knew me?'
In this final episode, Sarah tells us about some of the moments in their life when they've experienced gender euphoria, it's the opposite of dysphoria and it describes a feeling that absolutely everyone can experience. It’s those moments when you feel joy due to living in the gender you know yourself to be. Sarah looks back on some of these moments, including the time they got a haircut from a family friend that stopped them from looking like a classic five-year-old girl with a blonde Lord Farquaad bob.
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 Jazz Emu: The Sound of Us (m001wpg2)
1. The Sound of Love
Jazz Emu sets out to write his friends the most romantic song ever created, in order to save their crumbling relationship and make everything in his friendship group nice again.
Digging back into his alternative musical archives, Jazz takes inspiration from Barry White, George Michael and ACDC in order to learn about what makes a song romantic.
Armed with misguided understanding and unerring confidence, Jazz is ready to blow some minds. If music be the food of love, it’s lunchtime. Or something like that?
Jazz Emu: musician, 70s lothario-type, ex-Hollywood foley artist and internationally renowned idiot. After a long career in (and often out) of the spotlight, he has decided to present a radio show in order to connect with the average Joes (and Janes, and other boring names) and bestow his expert knowledge of Sound upon the universe.
Written by Archie Henderson and Adrian Gray
Starring Archie Henderson, Adrian Gray, Emmanuel Sonubi, Lorna Rose Treen, Cody Dahler
Produced by Sasha Bobak
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4, first broadcast in February 2024.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002x5ht)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 04 JUNE 2026
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m002x5hw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 The Street Clinic by Dorcas Gwata (m002x5gn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002x5hy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002x5j0)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:00 News Summary (m002x5j2)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002x5j4)
Sean Curran reports on Prime Minister's Questions - and more.
THU 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002x5j6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002x5j8)
Challenges to Adults
One of my congregants, a mature woman, asked me last year if she could have a Bat Mitzvah, that Jewish coming-of-age ceremony that girls ordinarily undertake at the age of twelve. She explained that she missed out as a child, because her synagogue was traditional, and so denied girls the opportunity to perform this ritual. I said of course she could, and that I would develop a programme of study that would allow her to chant from the Torah scroll, and to sing a portion from the Prophets as set out in the liturgical calendar. We’re now meeting weekly, and rehearsing the passages that she’ll need to sing from the pulpit before friends and family.
Undertaking these challenges as an adult is quite different from doing it as a child. The motivation is intensified: it fulfils a yearning for completion that I think most young people don’t think about as early teens. Also, the input of time and effort as a mature person, particularly if you haven’t kept up your Hebrew, competes with responsibilities of family, employment, and everything else that’s the substance of our daily existence. You have to want it more, and in maturity it becomes less about performance, and more about repair: a reclaiming of voice, confidence, and belonging that time or circumstances once withheld.
O God who watches over us as we pass through the various stages of life, walk with us as we revisit unfinished chapters. Bless our striving, honour our perseverance, and help us trust that every sincere return is held tenderly in Your care. AMEN.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m002x5jb)
04/06/26 High Court rules the Food Standards Agency overcharged abattoirs, hydropower funding, upland farmer groups
A judgement from the High Court yesterday ruled that the Food Standards Agency has been 'unlawfully' charging abattoirs too much and that it wasn’t transparent enough about what it was charging for. The ruling comes after a legal challenge by the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers.
Developers of small-scale hydro-energy projects say the industry’s missing out on investment because of a heavy focus on wind and solar. Scotland in particular has long been a pioneer of cheap hydro-electricity, but companies say the current contracts to supply power are squeezing them out of the market.
All week we’re hearing about the current challenges facing upland farmers right across the UK and how they’re dealing with them. Farming in the hills can be an isolated, even lonely, business. But a group of farmers scattered across the uplands of Shropshire have joined forces to pool ideas.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
With thanks to British Pathé Archive.
THU 06:00 Today (m002x5jj)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m002x5jl)
The Evolution of Trees
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the earliest evidence we have of the existence of trees and how even plants we might have on windowsills or as vegetables in gardens can and do, in the right conditions, evolve into trees. Since their emergence around 400 million years ago after low lying plants started to develop stronger stems and grow taller and more upright, trees have transformed our planet, so creating ecosystems, altering the atmosphere and setting the stage for the world as we know it today.
With
Jenny McElwain
1711 Chair of Botany at Trinity College Dublin and Director of Trinity Botanic Gardens
Christopher Berry
Senior Lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Cardiff University
And
Bill Baker
Senior Researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Produced by Conor Garrett
Reading list:
David Beerling: The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History (Oxford University Press, 2008)
C.M. Berry, ‘Palaeobotany: The Rise of the Earth’s Early Forests’ (Current Biology 29, 2019)
Christopher M. Berry and John E.A. Marshall, ‘Lycopsid forests in the early Late Devonian paleoequatorial zone of Svalbard’ (Geology
43:12, 2015)
N.S. Davies, W.J. McMahon and C.M. Berry, ‘Earth’s earliest forest: fossilized trees and vegetation-induced sedimentary structures from the Middle Devonian (Eifelian) Hangman Sandstone Formation, Somerset and Devon, SW England’ (J. Geol. Soc. 181, 2024)
P. Geisen and C.M. Berry, ‘Reconstruction and Growth of the Early Tree Calamophyton (Pseudosporochnales, Cladoxylopsida) Based on Exceptionally Complete Specimens from Lindlar, Germany (Mid-Devonian): Organic Connection of Calamophyton Branches and Duisbergia Trunks’ (International Journal of Plant Sciences 174 (4), 2013)
A. Groover and Q. Cronk (eds), Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics of Angiosperm Trees: Plant Genetics and Genomics (Crops and Models, vol 21. Springer, 2017), especially ‘The Evolution of Angiosperm Trees: From Palaeobotany to Genomics’ by Q.C.B. Cronk and F. Forest
Jennifer McElwain, Marlene Hill Donnelly, and Ian Glasspool, Tropical Arctic: Lost Plants, Future Climates, and the Discovery of Ancient Greenland (University of Chicago Press, 2021)
Harriet Rix, The Genius of Trees: How Trees Mastered the Elements and Shaped the World (Vintage, 2026)
W.E. Stein et al., ‘Mid-Devonian Archaeopteris roots signal revolutionary change in earliest fossil forests’ (Current biology, 30:3, 2020) pp.421-431
William E. Stein, Christopher Mark Berry, Linda VanAller Hernick and Frank Mannolini ‘Surprisingly complex community discovered in the mid-Devonian fossil forest at Gilboa’ (Nature 483, 7387, 2012)
Max Telford, The Tree of Life: Solving Science's Greatest Puzzle (John Murray, 2026)
K.J. Willis, J.C. McElwain, The Evolution of Plants (Oxford University Press, 2014)
James Woodford, The Wollemi Pine: The Incredible Discovery of a Living Fossil from the Age of the Dinosaurs (The Text Publishing Company, 2005)
Alexandre R. Zuntini et al, ‘Phylogenomics and the rise of the angiosperms’ (Nature vol. 629, April 2024)
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 (m002x5jn)
There's Been An Under-Discussion (with Natalie Haynes)
Natalie Haynes joins Armando to look at the differing language used when discussing the benefits and risks of the AI revolution.
Is it just 'a thing' which is beyond debate? What does non-zero actually mean? And we examine the language of Tony Blair's argument, by taking it to its logical conclusion.
In the longer version, you will also hear the ramification of shouting at Harold Pinter, Peter Thiel's unimpeachable jury, and whether we're all living in Armando's diving helmet.
Got a strong message for Armando? Email us at strongmessagehere@bbc.co.uk
Sound editing: Chris Maclean
Production Coordinator: Giulia Mazzu
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Recorded at The Sound Company
Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios production for Radio 4.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002x5jq)
Al Fayed abuse allegations, Co-housing, Ovarian cancer, Queens
Survivors who say they were abused by former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed met Sir Keir Starmer yesterday afternoon, in what campaigners have described as a potentially significant moment. More than 400 allegations of sexual misconduct against Al Fayed, dating back to 1977, have now been made. The meeting was organised by The Survivors Trust and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Survivors of Mohamed Al Fayed and Harrods. Kylie Pentelow was joined by Lucy Duckworth from The Survivors Trust and survivor Carrie Lazell.
A breakthrough drug for ovarian cancer that is kinder on the body and extends lives is now available on the NHS. Victoria Clare from Ovacome and patient Patricia Hill talk to Kylie.
New Ground is the UK’s first purpose-built co-housing community for women over 50, designed and developed on their own terms. Each resident has her own self-contained flat, along with shared spaces. The women moved in 10 years ago, and the community is still going strong. But what’s it really like to live this way? And could co-housing be a model more women should consider? Kylie speaks to two residents, Jude and Ann.
Stories about queens and princesses have shaped some of our most enduring ideas about womanhood. Historian Kate Williams joins Kylie to discuss her new book, Regina: A New History of Women and Power, which spans thousands of years, from the queens of ancient Egypt to the modern day.
Presenter: Kylie Pentelow
Producer: Corinna Jones
THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m002x5js)
Liam Young
Australian-born artist, filmmaker and speculative architect Liam Young discusses his work and cultural influences with John Wilson. Young creates imaginary future worlds through films and art installations to provoke discussion about present-day social and environmental issues – including climate change, energy, migration, and technology. His films, including Planet City and The Great Endeavour, have been shown at the Venice Biennale and museums including MOMA and the Smithsonian and the Barbican Centre in London has staged a major exhibition of his work called In Other Worlds. He holds guest professorships at universities including Princeton, MiT and Cambridge. In the commercial sector, Liam Young works as a consultant to major brands and the film industry on designing visions of the future.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
THU 11:45 The Street Clinic by Dorcas Gwata (m002x5jv)
Zane: The House
Specialist Mental Health nurse Dorcas Gwata reveals the impact of London’s gang culture on young people’s mental health.
In this episode she tells the story of a young man Zane who finds himself burdened with a startling drug-debt.
Written by Dorcas Gwata
Abridged by Jude Ho
Read by Josette Bushell-Mingo
Produced by Lu Kemp
A BBC Audio Scotland Production.
Drawing on her own experience of loss and social injustice, and twenty-five years on the NHS frontline, Dorcas offers a bird’s-eye view of London; its multicultural population, wealth inequalities, tireless healthcare professionals, and an NHS that doesn’t always work for everyone. A story of uncomfortable truths about British society, The Street Clinic is a story of resilience, strength and, ultimately, hope.
Dorcas Gwata is an award-winning nurse specialising in mental health, a Global Mental Health consultant and an advisor at Global Health Partnerships. She is an Accident and Emergency specialist nurse and has worked within multi-agency teams in the UK and with global health partnerships focusing on African and Asia.
Her work with young people and families affected by gang culture in London grew out of innovative evidence-based research in low-income countries extrapolated to high-income countries, improving mental health outcomes in vulnerable groups whilst addressing health inequalities in the UK.
THU 12:00 News Summary (m002x5jx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 The Bottom Line (m002x5jz)
Trainer Wars
The 2026 London Marathon saw new world record times set in both the men's and women's events. Eyes weren't just on the winning athletes but also on the Adidas trainers they were wearing. So what goes into designing and making a pair of trainers and why have some of them become so expensive to buy? Global sales for trainers are in the tens of billions of dollars with hundreds of new styles being produced every year. How does the industry keep up with demand and stay on trend? Giant companies like Nike and Adidas, who dominated the industry for decades, can no longer take anything for granted. Newer brands like On and Hoka have managed to break through and are shaking things up. How have they managed to do it? Evan Davis gets some insights and answers from people who work in the industry.
Guests:
Tony Evans: Managing Director of Jacobson Group
Tom Astrella: Co-founder The Footsoldiers
Wayne Edy: Founder and CEO of Inov8
Presenter: Evan Davis
Producer: Sally Abrahams & Nick Holland
Sounds: Dave O'Neill and Frank McWeeny
Editor: Sam Bonham
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002x5k1)
Toast - EasyCinema
The EasyJet founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Iannou, tried to shake up the cinema industry by introducing low-cost movie theatres.
Tickets were priced as low as 20p for customers who booked in advance.
So, why didn't EasyCinema take off?
Stelios speaks to the BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, reflecting on his attempts in the early 2000s to bring to UK cinemas the same dynamic pricing that had revolutionized the aviation sector.
Sean also hears from Mark Batey (who was chief executive of the Film Distributors' Association when EasyCinema opened) and speaks to Stewart Niblock (who was Easy Group's Head of New Projects so was responsible for refurbishing and opening the cinema) and Angela Chan (who is now Professor of Creative Industries at Royal Holloway, University of London but in 2003 she was a BBC producer/director who was filming a TV documentary about EasyCinema).
At the end, the resident business expert and entrepreneur, Sam White, has to come up with her own conclusions about the fate of EasyCinema 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 (m002x5k3)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m002x5k5)
Starmer criticises Elon Musk over Henry Nowak comments
The prime minister has taken aim at the world's richest man for his comments on X about the Henry Nowak case. We hear from a senior Conservative MP on Elon Musk's role in British politics.
Also on the World at One, Lebanon's president has warned that the deal announced in Washington overnight is the "last chance" for a comprehensive truce with Israel. We hear from a former senior White House advisor.
A week ahead of the World Cup, a dispatch from Mexico on how the police are planning to keep fans safe.
And Sainsbury's says they will ditch brown eggs and only sell white own-brand eggs. We hear why.
THU 13:45 Artworks (m002x5k7)
Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe
4. The Sex Symbol
Who was the real Marilyn Monroe? Celebrating 100 years of an icon.
In her final interview, Marilyn Monroe observed: “When you're famous, you run into human nature in a raw kind of way. People think: Who is she? Who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe?”
Who was Marilyn Monroe? It depends who you ask. Some dismissed her as a dumb blonde, others say she was a savvy self-promoter, an influencer before influencers existed. Some labelled her a diva who was late to set and ruined takes, others argue she was an artist fighting back against the studio machine. Many say she was a victim, a martyr, a tragedy – others say she was a survivor.
Celebrating 100 years of Marilyn Monroe, Ellen E Jones overturns the myths of Monroe – many of which she created herself. Speaking with those who knew Marilyn best, Ellen explores five ‘faces’ of the blonde bombshell.
In this episode, we meet Marilyn Monroe: 'The Sex Symbol'. Even today, Marilyn's image is synonymous with beauty and sexuality - but as she returns to LA, the icon is privately at war with her body. Ellen speaks with Marilyn's close friend Amy Greene; her peer Mamie van Doren; family of photographer Sam Shaw, Edie, Meta and Melissa; culture critic Anjela Freyja; collector Bryan Johns; and biographers Andrew Wilson and Sarah Churchwell.
Presented by Ellen E Jones
Produced by Alice McKee for BBC Audio
Audio excerpts from Richard Meryman’s interview with Marilyn Monroe for Life magazine, Marilyn Monroe’s last interview, courtesy of the Richard Meryman Estate. Material from 'Marilyn: The Lost Photographs, The Last Interview' used with permission of Jason Greene and Chris Flannery: www.marilynslostphotos.com
THU 14:00 The Archers (m002x5hh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002x5k9)
The London Recruits
"If you're caught, you'll be tortured, and imprisoned for a very long time. Are you sure you want to go?"
It's 1970 and the South African regime has crushed all resistance leaving the black population intimidated and demoralised. Apartheid seems unassailable. In London, Bernie, an ANC exile, recruits white sympathisers to fly to South Africa to plant seeds from which resistance can grow.
In 2012, Ken Keable, one of the original London Recruits, edited a collection of first hand accounts in ‘London Recruits – the secret war against apartheid’. From the information gathered in the book, it is clear that the London Recruits did similar agitational work inside South Africa at least once a year from 1967 to 1973.
Written by Gregory Evans.
Annie Parker…Nicola Walker
Young Annie … Jordon Stevens
Peter … Fraser Wall
Bernie … Trystan Gravelle
Adelaide…Nkhanise Phiri
Customs Officer…Stewart Clegg
ANC Voice… Luvo Cornelius
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m002x5kc)
Anglesey/Ynys Môn
Clare explores the south side of Anglesey / Ynys Môn with friends Emily Coates and Nic Parry.
Beginning on the wide sands of Newborough beach, they follow the shoreline toward Holy Island / Ynys Llanddwyn, famed for its links to St Dwynwen - the Welsh patron saint of lovers. After enjoying the sweeping views across the water to the Eryri (Snowdonia) mountain range, they leave the island behind and complete their circular walk with a stroll through Newborough Forest’s Corsican pines.
Along the way, Emily and Nic share what makes this corner of Wales so special to them, and Emily recounts a recent Nepalese adventure that came close to disaster.
They started their walk at the Newborough Lighthouse and Cross car park - What3Words: ///loudness.bucked.post on OS Explorer 263, Grid Ref: SH405634
Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor
Ramblings is made in Bristol for BBC Studios.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m002x418)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Word of Mouth (m002x5kf)
How did people speak throughout history?
Michael Rosen meets popular YouTuber Simon Roper, who tries to recreate how people spoke in the past.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven, 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
THU 16:00 Rethink (m002x5kh)
Rethink... modern monarchy
Of the 195 widely-recognized sovereign countries in the world, only a quarter are monarchies.
And of those 43 monarchies, 15 of those have the same King. That’s Charles III, who’s head of state for Commonwealth territories as large as Australia and Canada, and as far apart as the UK and Tuvalu in the South Pacific.
In the other 28, the ruling monarchs can be called Kings, Emirs, Sultans, and there’s an Emperor on the Chrysanthemum throne in Japan.
Of course, there are also Queens - but some modern monarchies such as Japan and Lichtenstein still don’t allow female succession. In others, eldest daughters are passed over for their younger brothers - and this still happens in Spain and Monaco.
If this all seems a bit medieval, that's because it is! Monarchy is a system of governance that developed hundreds - or in the case of Japan - more than 1000 years ago, so it can look outdated through a 21st century lens.
But it's enduring, and opinion polls suggest it can be popular. So what does monarchy mean in the modern age? Which royal families are not only surviving, but are expanding their spheres of power and influence, and why the newest "monarchies" in the USA, Russia and China are not even royal at all.
Presenter: Professor Ben Ansell
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Damon Rose
Contributors:
Dr Craig Prescott, specialist in UK Constitutional Law, Royal Holloway, University of London
Adam Hanieh, MBI Jaber Chair of Middle East Studies and Professor in the Development Studies Department at SOAS, University of London.
Stacie Goddard, Betty Freyhof Johnson ’44 Professor of Political Science and Associate Provost, Wellesley College, Massachusetts.
Abe Newman, Professor and John Powers Chair in International Business Diplomacy, Director, BMW Center for German and European Studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977p)
How is AI going to change science?
Are we moving away from science as a strictly human endeavour? This is the view of Pushmeet Kohli, head of AI for Science at Google DeepMind. He joins Tom Whipple to discuss the use of the AI tool Co-Scientist as a collaborator in the lab, and the challenges in making Artificial Intelligence that works in science. Clare Bryant from the University of Cambridge also joins the conversation.
And Steve Brusatte, Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh, joins the program to talk about his new book, The Story of Birds, tracing a 150‑million‑year journey from small, feathered dinosaurs to the birds of today.
Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel joins us to discuss the latest scientific discoveries that you might have missed.
Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producers: Dan Welsh and Kate White
Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
Editor: Martin Smith
THU 17:00 PM (m002x5kl)
The Makerfield special
We speak to voters in the constituency and political representatives two weeks ahead of one of the most consequential by-elections in modern political history. Plus: the infamous Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester remembered fifty years on by an attendee, Peter Hook.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x5kn)
Starmer tells Musk: Back off over Henry Nowak murder
The prime minister has accused Elon Musk of 'interfering' in UK politics, after he posted repeatedly on X about the police's treatment of Henry Nowak.
NHS England says it will ban staff from wearing political badges as part of measures aimed at tacking antisemitism and other forms of racism.
Britain's only serving female commando Lieutenant Lily-Mae Fisher has been named as one of the three members of the Royal Navy who died in a helicopter crash yesterday. She was on board the Merlin 4 aircraft alongside 42-year-old Lieutenant Commander Chris Gayson and 24-year-old Petty Officer Owen Green.
Scotland's First Minister John Swinney has said his party may have claimed back tax on items purchased by its former chief executive Peter Murrell, who last week admitted embezzling more than 400 thousand pounds from the SNP.
01:56 Henry Nowak treatment
06:50 NHS antisemitism measures
10:06 Helicopter pilots named
12:05 Lebanon ceasefire
15:04 SNP on Murrell's tax
17:46 World Cup water bottles
20:02 Teacher shortages
21:54 Hampshire rape sentencing
24:30 Strikes in Crimea
27:59 Bob Harris tribute
(Image: Reuters)
THU 18:30 Ellie Taylor's Safe Space (m001kxh6)
Series 3
3: The UK
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 argues that the United Kingdom should break up into lots of little kingdoms, Game of Thrones style! So not just England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - Ellie thinks all the regions and cities should become independent too.
Joining Ellie to prove her point is regular sidekick Robin Morgan.
With special guest: Medieval Historian, Gabby Storey. She chats to Ellie about what the UK was like when it was broken up into lots of kingdoms in medieval times, why history teaches us that independent kingdoms don't always get along and what she'd choose to have on her own flag of independence.
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 (m002x5kq)
Zainab moans to Akram that she wouldn’t have brought Khalil tickets to the T20 if she’d known how much he’d keep talking about cricket. They discuss work – Zainab’s finding Ian easier to work for than Dane, but Akram feels Bridge Farm rather dismissed his idea for a care farm.
Helen tells Tom the farmer accepted their offer for the Monteys: all ten of them. Tom can’t believe Helen went back on her word, but Helen’s convinced it will be good for the farm and asks Tom to be pleased for her. Helen asks Akram to help in the dairy. Akram’s willing to help, but only as a one-off – working in the dairy isn’t the reason why he came to Bridge Farm. Helen then explains why Akram’s care farm idea wouldn’t have worked. Later, Akram talks to Tom about Bridge Farm’s increased focus on dairy, which Helen’s just told him about. Annoyed by Helen seemingly taking control of the farm’s direction Tom starts arguing with her, but Helen walks away. Akram then suggests to Tom that the reason Tracy hasn’t agreed to more hours may be down to how it feels working at Bridge Farm.
At the end of their long days Akram and Zainab decompress, with Zainab wondering whether work should be fun. Akram confesses he’s happiest working with the land, but maybe he should return to plumbing. Zainab reminds him of his own advice to follow his dream, and stick to the path, even when it’s crooked. Akram is grateful for a daughter like her.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m002x5ks)
Review: High Society and film Savage House
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by writer Alexander Larman and critic Arifa Akbar to discuss:
A new production of High Society, Cole Porter's musical showcase at London's Barbican, starring Call the Midwife's Helen George in the role of the amorously vexed Long Island socialite Tracy Lord who finds her heart pulled in every which direction. Also starring Freddie Fox and Felicity Kendal.
The film Savage House starring Richard E. Grant and Claire Foy, a dark satire telling a cautionary tale of greed and social climbing, set against the backdrop of 18th century England, a Pox outbreak and Jacobite Uprising.
And Fiona Mozley's new book about memory, Awake Awake, in which protagonist Mary is struggling to decipher whether her recollections are fact or fiction.
We also speak to the CEO of Arts Council England about their new direction.
THU 20:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002x5h5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Wednesday]
THU 20:15 The Media Show (m002x5h7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:15 on Wednesday]
THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m002x3r1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
THU 21:45 Strong Message Here (m002x5jn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002x5kx)
Andy Burnham says he would seek to enter a leadership contest
Speaking on BBC Question Time, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham says he would join any challenge for the Labour leadership. He would need to win the Makerfield by-election later this month in order to launch an official leadership bid.
The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has told the BBC that conflict over identity politics could eventually lead to a civil war in the UK. We look at whether identity politics has contributed to a fracturing of British society.
Also in the programme:
Are elected Republicans becoming more comfortable challenging President Trump's decisions?
And how did the altar stone of Stonehenge make it from Scotland to Salisbury? Researchers think they finally have the answer.
THU 22:45 John of John by Douglas Stuart (m002x5l1)
Episode 9 - a naoi
Cal and John are shocked from their stalemate by the need to join the search for a missing member of their church.
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 (m002x5l5)
Business Reimagined: Should Firms Have a Purpose Beyond Profit? (Ben & Jerry’s Ben Cohen)
Amol is back from his stint in the Celebrity Traitors castle. This week, while in town for the South by Southwest festival, Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's drops by the Radical studio to talk about what took his ice cream company from a single store in rural America into a billion-dollar business.
Ben Cohen argues that most corporations have trained people to believe profit and purpose are from separate worlds – while he says that a company’s values should be as important to its mission as making money. Cohen makes the case that consumers are not just shoppers – they are citizens with wallets.
He criticises companies that pay lip-service to that through short-term social media campaigns backing the trendy topic of the day, without embedding those values into their business model. But in an age when many companies are dropping their principles when the politics changes, can business really be a force for good – or does purpose melt away when profits are at stake?
GET IN TOUCH
* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: radical@bbc.co.uk
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday.
Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Tom Smithard and Oscar Pearson. Digital production was by Leona Gasper. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The editor is Sam Bonham.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002x5l9)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster as MPs demand tougher action against Russa after it killed at least 23 people in attacks across Ukraine.
FRIDAY 05 JUNE 2026
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002x5lf)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 The Street Clinic by Dorcas Gwata (m002x5jv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002x5ll)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002x5lq)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:00 News Summary (m002x5lv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002x5lz)
Alicia McCarthy reports as MPs question the Foreign Office minister about Russian attacks on civilian buildings.
FRI 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002x5m3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002x5m6)
Lifted to Sublime Summits
Today, and every Friday throughout the year, Jewish people prepare for Shabbat, the Sabbath: a day of rest, freed from worldly concerns, allowing people to devote their time to regeneration, prayer, and music. I’m a Cantor, who leads services in the synagogue through a combination of both solo and congregational singing, designed to praise God, and to give thanks for God’s blessings. During the week we rush through our prayers and don’t sing much, because worldly concerns beckon, and demand our attention; however, on Shabbat and festivals we have more time to be artful and tuneful in our worship, and the music written for these occasions lifts our assemblies to a higher spiritual level.
The musical piece which represents for me the essence of this period of rest is called ‘Lecha Dodi’, or ‘Come, my beloved, to welcome the bride’. It speaks of how the Jewish people are intertwined in a love relationship with Shabbat, imagined as a bride and a queen. We’re invited to greet her by rising and turning to the door as she enters, and, in a mystical metamorphosis, the divine presence rests among us. It’s a beautiful moment of liturgical choreography, where secular becomes sacred, and the accompanying music lifts the soul to sublime summits. We mark the queen’s departure on Saturday night by a separation ceremony, reluctant to let her go, and wishing for her return.
God, we find our rest in You. May the peace we receive in sacred time linger beyond its bounds, steadying our labour, enlarging our compassion, and echoing quietly in all that we do. AMEN.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002x5m8)
05/06/26 Dartmoor ponies, upland economics, Open Farm Sunday
Concerns have been raised that new agri-environment schemes will require such a steep drop in the numbers of grazing livestock that 90% of Dartmoor ponies will be lost.
We’re talking about upland farming all this week, and this morning we hear how the phasing out of the old EU farm payments are affecting English hill farmers, with two generations of a Lake District farming family.
It’s twenty years ago this summer that a group of farmers put their heads together and decided to set aside a particular day when they’d all open up their farms to the general public. It was a fairly radical idea at the time, driven by a desire to address the disconnect between urban populations and farming, and inspired by a similar project in Denmark. That was the very first Open Farm Sunday which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
FRI 06:00 Today (m002x5rs)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m002x41n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Sunday]
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002x5rv)
Emergency C-sections, Hannah Murray, Strip clubs
The way women give birth is changing, according to BBC analysis, which has discovered that one in four births in England are now emergency caesareans. The current figure is 26% - an increase of 8% in the past five years - and the rate of elective caesareans has also gone up. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists say the system is struggling to cope with this increased level of unplanned surgeries. To discuss what's behind the rise and the potential impact on women, presenter Kylie Pentelow is joined by BBC Health Correspondent Catherine Burns, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr Alison Wright, and Helen Cheyne who’s a Professor of Maternal and Infant Health Research at the University of Stirling.
Hannah Murray was at the height of her fame as an actor in 2016, having found fame as the much-loved Cassie in E4’s teen drama Skins, she was now a regular in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones as Gilly. But behind the scenes Hannah was struggling with her mental health, and she found herself involved in an organisation which offered courses in magical healing. The following year, Hannah was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She’s since retired from acting and written a memoir about those turbulent times, called The Make-Believe – A Memoir of Magic and Madness.
Women’s rights charity FiLiA has launched a new national campaign to get Sexual Entertainment Venues, commonly referred to as strip clubs, off the streets. This is informed by new research examining how the venues are viewed and experienced by women living, working and moving nearby. They spoke to more than 700 women across Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester, with 55% of women opposed to the venues, and 8% expressing supportive views. Dr Laura Favaro, Director of Research at FiLiA, joins Kylie to discuss their report.
The female CEO of dating app Hinge has said that Gen Z "need AI to start conversations on dating apps because they lack the confidence of older generations". Jackie Jantos told the BBC that daters in their 20s are spending less time with other people, compared to two decades ago, has affected their ability to meet and chat in person. To discuss whether AI could help or hinder dating, and the challenges of meeting people IRL, Kylie is joined by author and journalist Olivia Petter and Jessica Evans, founder of events company BODA, which stands for Bored of Dating Apps.
And BBC Music correspondent Mark Savage joins us to discuss the breaking news that Kayna King, the entrepreneur and founder of the Mobo awards, has died aged 57 from colon cancer. The Mobo Organisation called her one of the UK music industry's "most fearless champions".
Presenter: Kylie Pentelow
Producer: Sarah Jane Griffiths
FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m002ww0l)
Inside England’s School Food Shake‑Up
Sheila Dillon looks at the plans to overhaul England’s school food standards, from cutting back on fried food, puddings and processed meat to serving more fruit and veg. She hears from pupils, caterers and campaigners who all want better school meals, but don’t always agree on how to get there. With concerns about cost and practicality, she asks what these changes might really mean for schools trying to make them work, and what the School Food System in Japan might tell us about the nations health.
Featuring interviews recorded at Penwortham Girls' High School in Preston; Anna Taylor from The Food Foundation; Writer Heather Parry; Luke Consiglio from caterers The Pantry; Belfast Paediatrican Dr Jonathan Henderson, chef and food writer Suzie Lee; Naomi Duncan from Chefs in Schools; and Colette Fox from ProVeg International.
The consultation period for the new School Food Standards for England closes on June 12th 2026.
Produced by Natalie Donovan for BBC Audio in Bristol
FRI 11:45 The Street Clinic by Dorcas Gwata (m002x5rz)
Alex: The School
Specialist Mental Health nurse Dorcas Gwata reveals the impact of London’s gang culture on young people’s mental health.
Here she tells the story of Alex – a young man who has gone to great lengths to keep himself safe at school – and is about to be excluded from mainstream education.
Written by Dorcas Gwata
Abridged by Jude Ho
Read by Josette Bushell-Mingo
Produced by Lu Kemp
A BBC Audio Scotland Production.
Drawing on her own experience of loss and social injustice, and twenty-five years on the NHS frontline, Dorcas offers a bird’s-eye view of London; its multicultural population, wealth inequalities, tireless healthcare professionals, and an NHS that doesn’t always work for everyone. A story of uncomfortable truths about British society, The Street Clinic is a story of resilience, strength and, ultimately, hope.
Dorcas Gwata is an award-winning nurse specialising in mental health, a Global Mental Health consultant and an advisor at Global Health Partnerships. She is an Accident and Emergency specialist nurse and has worked within multi-agency teams in the UK and with global health partnerships focusing on African and Asia.
Her work with young people and families affected by gang culture in London grew out of innovative evidence-based research in low-income countries extrapolated to high-income countries, improving mental health outcomes in vulnerable groups whilst addressing health inequalities in the UK.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m002x5s1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Rare Earth (m002x5s3)
Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog
Amphibians are the most threatened type of vertebrates on the planet since the dinosaurs- and some of the most fascinating. Tom Heap and Helen Czerski are joined by a panel of amphibi-fans to celebrate the very best in frogs, toads, newts and salamanders. What can we do to reverse their rapid decline?
Jeanne Tarrant, founder of Anura Africa is an expert on the extraordinary diversity of frog life in South Africa, Jeff Streicher is Head of Zoology at National Museum Cardiff and James Herd is Director of Reserve Management at the Surrey Wildlife Trust.
Helen also takes a visit to London Zoo to meet our largest and smallest amphibians and discuss captive breeding programmes with Ben Tapley, ZSL's Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles. Finally we hear from two field ecologists working to save amphibians in the highlands of Cameroon and the tea gardens of Darjeeling. Marina Kameni and Barkha Subba are two of the winners at this year's Whitley Fund for Nature awards.
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Assistant Producer: Toby Field
FRI 12:57 Weather (m002x5s5)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m002x5s7)
Pressure in St Petersburg
As President Putin gives a major speech, we'll assess how Moscow and Kyiv are viewing the war. Our Moscow correspondent, Steve Rosenberg and former British Ambassador Sir Tony Brenton join us live. A new report from MPs warns that the asylum system is dysfunctional. We'll hear from the chair of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee. And, while your plants are loving the rain - so are the slugs that feast on them. We'll hear advice for gardeners from the Royal Horticultural Society.
FRI 13:45 Artworks (m002x5s9)
Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe
5. The Tragedy
Who was the real Marilyn Monroe? Celebrating 100 years of an icon.
In her final interview, Marilyn Monroe observed: “When you're famous, you run into human nature in a raw kind of way. People think: Who is she? Who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe?”
Who was Marilyn Monroe? It depends who you ask. Some dismissed her as a dumb blonde, others say she was a savvy self-promoter, an influencer before influencers existed. Some labelled her a diva who was late to set and ruined takes, others argue she was an artist fighting back against the studio machine. Many say she was a victim, a martyr, a tragedy – others say she was a survivor.
Celebrating 100 years of Marilyn Monroe, Ellen E Jones overturns the myths of Monroe – many of which she created herself. Speaking with those who knew Marilyn best, Ellen explores five ‘faces’ of the blonde bombshell.
In this episode, we meet Marilyn Monroe: 'The Tragedy'. Since her death, Monroe's life story has been repackaged as one of victimhood - but those who knew her best say this couldn't be further from the truth. Ellen speaks with close friends of Marilyn, including Amy Greene, Mamie van Doren and the Shaw family; photographer Lawrence Schiller, who was one of the last people to see Marilyn alive; biographers Sarah Churchwell and Andrew Wilson; Marilyn impersonator Erika Smith; and BFI programmer Kimberley Sheehan.
Presented by Ellen E Jones
Produced by Alice McKee for BBC Audio
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m002x5kq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m002x5sc)
The Courier
Episode 1
When Mo, a Sudanese delivery rider working in Cardiff enters a house to drop off two pizzas, he finds a dead body. Convinced that if he alerts the authorities he will either be suspected of murder or arrested for working illegally and deported, Mo flees the crime scene. When the murder is reported as a suicide, Mo can't stop thinking about the dead woman. He knows what he saw.
Series creators Eno Mfon and Darragh Mortell
Episode 1 by Eno Mfon
CAST
Mo - Mohamed Elsandel
Elli - Maeve Courtier-Lilley
Omar - Ali Goolyad
Mama - Alaa Taha
Amna - Fatima Seedahmed
The Priest - Geraint Morgan
Alexa - Laura dos Santos
Woman - Lisa Greenwood
Football commentator - Ben Crowe
Original Music by Tom Tripp
Oud Music by Nabra.
Sound: Catherine Robinson and Rhys Morris
Production Coordinators: Maggie Olgiati and Eleri McAuliffe
Script consultant: Majid Hassan
Director: John Norton
A BBC Audio Drama Wales Production
FRI 14:45 The Hackers (m0012qy3)
Series 1
Sharing
One of the core beliefs in the many subsets of hacker culture is that information should be freely accessible and shared. But there are two distinct ways of achieving this freedom of information - Piracy, and The Open Source.
Biella talks to Peter Sunde, co-founder of the Pirate bay, and Karen Sandler of the Software Freedom Conservancy, to discover how both movements have become entwined with the hacker community over the years, and which has the most potential to disrupt the increasingly monopolised world of tech development.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002x5sg)
Diss: Gravel Gardens, Camellia Care and Ways to Weather Drought
Peter Gibbs and the Gardeners’ Question Time panel visit Diss, on the Norfolk–Suffolk border, where heavy clay soils meet some of the driest conditions in the country; a combination that keeps gardeners firmly on their toes.
Peter is joined by Bob Flowerdew on his home turf, alongside Christine Walkden and Bunny Guinness as they answer questions from a live audience. They advise on improving your strike rate with cuttings, diagnosing sooty mould on camellias, and deciding whether a bay tree is best kept in a pot, or given room to roam.
Along the way, the panel also explore how to turn a tired lawn into a stylish, drought‑resistant gravel garden, debate whether lavender really needs feeding, and suggest small spring‑flowering trees that can deliver a real seasonal show.
Later in the show, Bob shares hard‑won lessons from gardening in East Anglia, offering practical tips on coping with drought and making the most of every drop of water.
Producer: Matt Smith
Producer: William Norton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
* If listening on BBC Sounds and you wish to view the plant list, please go to the Gardeners' Question Time website and open this week's episode page.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp2f/episodes/guide
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m002x5sj)
Palimpsest by Keza O'Neill
At a school reunion in Aberystwyth, university professor Archie Dupont confronts the teenager she used to be.
Original short story Keza O'Neill, winner of the Rhys Davies Prize.
Read by Eiry Hughes.
Production coordinator... Eleri McAuliffe
Produced by Fay Lomas
Sound design by Rhys Morris
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m002x5sl)
Larry King: The man behind Billie Jean King’s feminist tennis revolution
Larry King teamed up with his wife Billie Jean King to start the women’s professional tennis circuit in the USA.
Baroness Ramsay was MI6 Head of Station in Helsinki during the Cold War and then became a leading figure in Labour politics.
Caroline Marland transformed the financial fortunes of The Guardian newspaper as a senior executive in the 1980s and 90s.
Valie Export challenged centuries of misuse of the female body from male artists by exhibiting her own form for controversial performances.
Archive used: Women’s Tennis Association, 03/2024; VisNews, 01/05/1981; BBC News, 12/09/1985; Secrets and Spies: A Nuclear Game, BBC Two, 08/05/2024; BBC Parliament, 02/12/2015; The Money Programme, BBC Two, 14/02/1988; Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, 01/06/2000
Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Josie Hardy
Editor: Andrea Kennedy
FRI 16:30 More or Less (m002x5gb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m002x5sn)
Rapist's 24-year sentence is an 'insult', says Malkinson
Andrew Malkinson has said the sentence given to the rapist responsible for the attack for which he was wrongly imprisoned for 17 years is an 'insult'. Former victim's commissioner Vera Baird hails the judge's remarks about the 'heroic' woman who testified about her attack.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x5sq)
Rapist faces justice after another man wrongly jailed for 17 years
A man has been sentenced to a minimum of 14 years in prison after being found guilty of the rape of a woman more than two decades ago. Andrew Malkinson served 17 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of the crime. The Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, has dismissed President Zelensky's proposal for a meeting to end the war. Also: astronauts on the International Space Station told to take emergency shelter.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m002x5ss)
Series 120
8. Peter Scandalman
For the final episode of this series, we look at some of the stories that we’re leaving unresolved in our ‘News Quiz 2026 Summer Break Cliffhanger Special’. This includes the latest on the Peter Mandelson scandal and the back and forth between Trump, Israel and Iran. We also discuss the British animals which might make it onto our banknotes, and Andy challenges the panel on their best ways to improve football ahead of this year’s Men’s World Cup.
This week’s panel is Pierre Novellie, Alasdair Beckett-King, Coco Khan and Desiree Burch.
Written by Andy Zaltzman.
With additional material by: Lotte Allan, Angela Channell, Eve Delaney and Katie Storey
Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Coordinator: Asha Osborne-Grinter
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Recorded by David Thomas
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m002x5sv)
After a sleepless night, Ian worries over his temporary promotion and Adam despairs over Brian’s chaotic rule at Home Farm. Adam reckons his lawyer thinks their case -that Brian’s incapable of managing the farm - isn’t watertight.
Brad and Zainab catch up at Grey Gables, where Zainab confesses to missing Fletcher, the budgie. After a strange staff meeting, they question Ian’s mad new management style, while Zainab admits she lied during Ian’s team bonding activity. Later, Brad asks for advice as George wants to name his baby Brad, if it’s a boy. It feels wrong to Brad, but he supposes he’ll get used to it.
When Adam turns up for work at Home Farm, Brian warns he’s not welcome, having been fired by email with immediate effect. Adam insists his contract is with the partnership and goes off in the Land Rover to spray the barley. Martyn catches Adam, who’s parked up complaining to Ian about Brian’s behaviour. Martyn’s concerned by the wild rumours flying round about Home Farm and needs to know if it will affect BL’s contract. Then a police officer comes up looking for Adam, while he’s trying to reassure Martyn. The Land Rover’s been reported stolen by a Mr Aldridge and Adam named as the thief. After calling Brian to clarify the situation PC Trueman advises the pair to resolve the issue between them. Adam then tells Martyn that Brian has lost the plot. Martyn decides this has gone far enough and resolves to call a meeting between them as soon as possible.
FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m002x5sx)
Lucy Parham and Nicky Spence explore some familiar Radio 4 theme tunes
Classical pianist Lucy Parham and operatic tenor Nicky Spence are Jeffrey and Anna's studio guests as they compile another five-track playlist. Starting with a memorable scene from Werner Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo, they end up at the queen of the power ballad, stopping off to reveal the background to two very popular tunes regularly played on Radio 4.
Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Quartet from Rigoletto by Verdi
La Flor de la Canela by Chabuca Granda
The Minute Waltz by Chopin
My Native Heath, Suite IV: Barwick Green by Arthur Wood
The Reason by Celine Dion
Other music in this episode:
Cantaloop by Us3
Proud Mary by Ike & Tina Turner
Approaching Menace by Neil Richardson
The Archers Theme by The Yetties
My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m002x5sz)
Wendy Chamberlain MP, Richard Holden MP, Sherelle Jacobs, Josh MacAlister MP
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from St Mary's Church in Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, with the Liberal Democrats' chief whip, Wendy Chamberlain MP; Conservative MP and shadow transport secretary, Richard Holden; Daily Telegraph columnist Sherelle Jacobs; and the minister for children and families, Labour MP Josh MacAlister.
Producer: Paul Martin
Assistant Producer: Lowri Morgan
Production Coordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Lead broadcaster engineer: Phil Booth
Editor: Andrea Kennedy
FRI 20:55 This Week in History (m002x5t1)
June 1st to June 7th
Fascinating, surprising and eye-opening stories from the past, brought to life.
6 June 1944: Allied forces begin their assault on Nazi occupied France in an invasion officially called Operation Overlord but more commonly known as D-Day.
5 June 1963: Scandal erupts at Westminster, when John Profumo resigns from government after confessing to an affair with the model Christine Keeler.
5 June 1833: Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage meet at a party at Babbage's London townhouse. The two friends' work laid the foundation for modern computing.
FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m002x5t3)
Wealth
Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the concentration, distribution and morality of wealth now and look back at An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published by the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith in 1776, which gives an early account of what builds nations' wealth and introduced concepts such as free markets, the division of labour, and productivity.
Our guests for this episode of BBC Radio 4's Friday night ideas discussion programme are:
Vicky Pryce, economist and business consultant and co-author of Mismanaged Decline What Politicians Won’t Tell You About the Economy
Maha Rafi Atal, Adam Smith Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Glasgow and author of the forthcoming book When Companies Rule: Corporate Power from the East India Company to Silicon Valley. The University is holding a series of events to mark the 250th anniversary of the publication of The Wealth of Nations.
Dafydd Daniel, Lecturer in Divinity at the University of St Andrews
Allister Heath, business journalist
Hettie O'Brien, Guardian writer and author of The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself
Producer: Eliane Glaser
You can hear another discussion about searching for economic solutions in the most recent episode of Start the Week, Radio 4's Monday morning discussion programme where Tom Sutcliffe was joined by Mariana Mazzucato, Jeremy Hunt and Patrick Foulis.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002x5t5)
Father of Nottingham attack victim says Henry Nowak killing is different
Dr Sanjoy Kumar’s daughter Grace was one of three people killed in the 2023 Nottingham stabbings. He tells Shaun Ley that the authorities have different questions to answer after the murder of Henry Nowak in Southampton last year.
Also in the programme: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield responds to news that crew on the International Space Station (ISS) were ordered to shelter in an attached spacecraft after the structure sprung a leak. And a new exhibition celebrates 50 years of the Undercroft Skate Space below London’s Southbank Centre.
FRI 22:45 John of John by Douglas Stuart (m002x5t7)
Episode 10 - a deich
Cal’s world shifts on its axis as he comes to understand his father’s relationship with Innes.
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 (w3ct8lz5)
Why Democrats think they can win back Iowa from Trump
Could Democrats flip Iowa from the Republicans? It’s a state Trump has won three times and Republicans have dominated for more than a decade. The last senate race the Democrats won there was Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, before he went on to win the presidential nomination. But now, overnight primary results from Iowa are leaving Democrats feeling optimistic.
Justin, Sarah and Anthony break down the key races, including a well-funded, gun-owning Democratic gubernatorial candidate who is appealing to voters across party lines, versus a Republican outsider who won without Trump’s endorsement. Does this signal an end to Trump’s winning streak when it comes to picking Republican candidates?
Democrats are also hoping to flip the senate, with a paralympian gold medallist who was backed by Chuck Schumer and the party establishment.
We analyse how important Iowa is for the Democrats to win, and for Republicans to keep hold of.
HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Sarah Smith, North America Editor
• Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent
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This episode was made by Alix Pickles and Purvee Pattni. The technical producer was Stephen Bailey. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002x5t9)
Susan Hulme reports as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, calls for better regulation of artificial inteligence. Also, as Parliament debates legislation to help recreate the glory days of the London Olympics, a business leader behind the Games reveals what made them tick.