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, Cats vs Dogs, Poetry in Nature, and the Inheritance Tracks of Katie Razzall
Tom Fletcher on the continued success of McFly and Paddington, Russell Kane reveals how to introduce a Chihuahua to a Burmese cat, Bethany Handley on championing access to nature.
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, Ian Carr Estate 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 16s 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 Channel, 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)
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
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)
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week
SAT 17:00 PM (m002x3qq)
Full coverage of the day's news
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)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002x3r1)
Ben Elton, Sarah Jane Morris & band, Suzi Ruffell, Keith Brymer Jones, Barns Courtney
Stuart Maconie and guests with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy.
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)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
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)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
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.
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)
A look at the week's big stories and preview of the week to come.
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)
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: A young girl plays with a pink My Little Pony. Credit: Bloomberg/via Getty)
SUN 17:10 The Verb (m002x427)
Radio 4's poetry programme presented by Ian McMillan
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)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002x42h)
Elizabeth Alker
A selection of highlights from the past week on BBC radio
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m002x42k)
Tensions mount for Rex, and Martyn Gibson attempts to get to the bottom of recent events.
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'?
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
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)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
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)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
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)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m002x48g)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m002x48j)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
MON 13:45 Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe (m002x48l)
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 date 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)
Full coverage of the day's news
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x48s)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
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)
Tom considers his options, and Ian has ground to make up.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m002x48x)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
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)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
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)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
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)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
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)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
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)
The show with the latest evidence on psychology, mental health and neuroscience.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002x459)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
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)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m002x45l)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m002x45n)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
TUE 13:45 Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe (m002x45q)
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 Sanson
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)
Full coverage of the day's news
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x465)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 18:30 One Person Found This Helpful (m002x467)
Series 4
3. 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)
There’s light at the end of the tunnel for Alice, and Ed finds himself on the spot.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m002x46c)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
TUE 20:00 Today (m002x46f)
The Today Debate
An expert panel consider a topical issue in front of a live audience.
TUE 20:45 In Touch (m002x46h)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
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)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
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)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
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)
News, views and features on today's stories in 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)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
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)
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life
WED 09:30 Intrigue (m002x5gg)
To Catch a King
4. The French Escort
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)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
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)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m002x5gv)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m002x5gx)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
WED 13:45 Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe (m002x5gz)
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)
Youth courts and sentencing - what are the rules?
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 why were the three teenage boys given non-custodial sentences?
What is the guidance around youth sentencing?
How do youth courts - and youth custody - work?
And how does the system differ from the adult courts in England and Wales?
Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producers: Ravi Naik and Ivana Davidovic
Editor: Damon Rose
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, the subject of 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)
Who's in the news for all the wrong reasons? With David Yelland and Simon Lewis.
WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002x5h7)
This is the programme about a revolution in media.
WED 17:00 PM (m002x5h9)
Full coverage of the day's news
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x5hc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
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)
Helen is intrigued by a new notion, and relations defrost for Rex.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m002x5hk)
Live from the Belfast Book Festival
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m002x5hm)
Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze
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)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
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)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
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)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
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, 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
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)
Armando Iannucci and guests decode the utterly baffling world of political language.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002x5jq)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
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.
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.
At the end, 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)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
THU 13:45 Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe (m002x5k7)
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)
A weekly show exploring science, its mysteries, and the debates it sparks.
THU 17:00 PM (m002x5kl)
Full coverage of the day's news
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x5kn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
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)
Akram suffers a crisis of confidence, and there’s a clash of ideas at Bridge Farm.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m002x5ks)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
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)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
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)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002x5l9)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
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)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
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)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
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)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
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)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
FRI 13:45 Bombshell: Five Faces of Marilyn Monroe (m002x5s9)
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 Goolyard
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)
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts.
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)
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme
FRI 16:30 More or Less (m002x5gb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m002x5sn)
Full coverage of the day's news
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002x5sq)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m002x5ss)
Series 120
Episode 8
Andy Zaltzman quizzes the week's news with panellists Pierre Novellie, Desiree Burch, Alasdair Beckett-King and Coco Khan.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m002x5sv)
31 May – 5th June 2026
Writer: Shaun McKenna
Director: Mel Ward
Editor: Jeremy Howe
Brian Aldridge … Charles Collingwood
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas
Pat Archer … Patricia Gallimore
Natasha Archer … Mali Harries
Tom Archer … William Troughton
Alice Carter … Hollie Chapman
Ian Craig … Stephen Kennedy
Rex Fairbrother ... Nick Barber
Martyn Gibson … Jon Glover
Eddie Grundy … Trevor Harrison
Ed Grundy … Barry Farrimond
George Grundy … Angus Stobie
Will Grundy … Philip Molloy
Brad Horrobin … Taylor Uttley
Tracy Horrobin … Susie Riddell
Adam Macy … Andrew Wincott
Akram Malik ... Asif Khan
Zainab Malik ... Priyasasha Kumari
Stella Pryor … Lucy Speed
PC Nicola Trueman … Clare Corbett
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)
Topical discussion posing questions to a panel of political and media personalities
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.
6th 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.
5th June 1963: Scandal erupts at Westminster, when John Profumo resigns from government after confessing to an affair with the model Christine Keeler.
5th 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. With:
Vicky Pryce, economist and business consultant
Maha Rafi Atal, Adam Smith Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Glasgow
Dafydd Daniel, Lecturer in Divinity at the University of St Andrews
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002x5t5)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
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.
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