SATURDAY 06 JUNE 2026
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m002x5tc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:30 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.
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002x5tf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002x5th)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:30 News Summary (m002x5tk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002x5tm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002x5tp)
Shabbat shalom
Prayer for the Day presented by Rabbi Warren Elf of the Liverpool Reform Synagogue.
Good morning and Shabbat shalom.
Shabbat or the Sabbath day is probably the most important time of Jewish life, culture and religious life. It is certainly the most important day, not just of the week, but of the year.
All of the other days of the week, in Hebrew, are referred to as Yom Rishon, Yom Sheni… First day, Second day, Third day, up to Sixth day and then Shabbat is the name for the Seventh day. It is as if the whole week revolves around Shabbat – which it does!
The commandment to observe and keep the Sabbath occurs more often than almost any other commandment in Torah. In the Ten Commandments we are told “Remember the Sabbath day to make it holy” and in the version in Deuteronomy it says “Observe the Sabbath day to make it holy”. We are also told “The Israelites shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath as a timeless covenant for all generations.”
We believe it is a sign between God and the Jewish People because God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, so we rest too on the seventh day. There are many other references to Shabbat observance in Torah.
So how do we make it holy? We are told to avoid work and to rest. This makes it a time of prayer, study and renewal; a time for ourselves, with family, friends and community. It is a day set apart, set apart to God, separating ourselves from our everyday tasks and dedicating ourselves to God, to explore what that means for us. We ask God to purify our hearts so that we may serve the Eternal One in truth.
So today I pray that I may inherit God’s holy Sabbath and that I, along with all others who seek holiness, may find within that holiness my rest. And I pray that by keeping the Sabbath, I may rest and be refreshed.
SAT 05:45 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.
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m002xd54)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 06:07 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.
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m002xd56)
06/06/26 - Farming Today This Week: Dartmoor ponies, water voles and land-based jobs
Dartmoor is famous for its semi-wild hill ponies that roam across the moorland. But concerns have been raised by the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association that new agri-environment schemes will require such a steep drop in the numbers of grazing livestock in the area that up to 93 percent of the ponies will be lost. We hear from the association's Secretary, Joss Hibbs.
Next year will be the last that farmers in England receive direct subsidy payments, based on how much land they farm. Direct payments have been particularly important for upland farmers in areas like the Lake District, where they are now being replaced by environmental schemes. Caz Graham speaks to two generations of a Lake District farming family about the continued viability of upland farming.
The Government has published fresh guidance this week for farmers and food businesses to help them prepare for the new sanitary and phytosanitary - or SPS - agreement between the UK and the European Union, which is expected to be brought in in around a year's time. The Government says the SPS agreement will make it easier for British farmers to sell into the EU, but it could also mean a change in the agro-chemicals farmers can legally use on their crops, and if the rules change suddenly, there are concerns farmers could be left with crops grown under the old rules, which they could no longer sell under the new rules.
UK peatlands - an important habitat for wildlife and a major carbon sink - are facing pressure from development, intensive land use and a changing climate, with around 80% believed to be degraded. In Wales however, the National Peatland Action Programme has completed over three and half thousand hectares of restoration work since 2020. In the Cambrian Mountains the project has been so successful that water voles have arrived in the area.
A study out this week from Lantra - a charity which provides training and qualifications in land-based industries - says that there are jobs in farming, fishing and forestry that are not being filled because of a so-called 'skills squeeze'. This comes a week after a much-discussed report, commissioned by the government, which found that job opportunities for young people are shrinking, with one million classed as NEETS - not in education, employment or training. We ask if land-based work is part of the solution.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Jo Peacey. A BBC Audio Bristol production.
SAT 06:57 Weather (m002xd58)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m002xd5b)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m002xd5d)
Victoria Pendleton, Training Dragons, Faith and Science, and the Inheritance Tracks of Russell T Davies
Olympic gold medallist Victoria Pendlenton, How to Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell, and Dame Jocelyn Burnell on how her Quaker upbringing informs her astrophysics career.
SAT 10:00 The History Podcast (m002xd5g)
Sixty Years of Hurt
4. England v The Culture
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 Four, David looks at the 1990s and 2000s. He sees how Italia 90 was a turning point for perceptions of the sport, before turning his attention to the glamour and promise of the 'golden generation' of English players and the subsequent slow descent of the team (and the country) into uncertainly and anger.
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 (m002xd5j)
The Miles Davis Story
3. Miles in Blue
Clarke Peters explores what many consider the apex of Miles Davis’s career: 1959, the year of Kind of Blue.
It was a time of tailored suits, fast cars, and a radical new sound that redefined the 20th-century idea of cool. Clarke takes us inside the legendary Columbia studio to witness the birth of the best-selling jazz album of all time - a recording session where Miles’ scrawled notes transformed the genre forever. But beneath the surface of this "sublime" era, Miles’ life didn't always run as smooth as his music.
Clarke explores the uncomfortable collision of professional triumph and personal volatility, as his relationship with his soon to be wife, dancer Frances Taylor, was tested by the same uncompromising drive that fuelled his art. The episode reaches a pivotal climax just days after the album’s release. Despite his global stardom, a brutal encounter with the police outside a New York club served as a savage reminder that, for a Black man in 1959 America, the "cool" was never a shield from social reality.
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’ "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’ legacy, including the substance issues and domestic abuse that left a trail of pain for those closest to him. It's 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 recorded at Ronnie Scott's by James Pearson and Guy Barker
Archivist: Simon Rooks
Script Consultant: Anne Harbin
Technical Production and Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby
Commissioning Editors for the BBC: Dan Clarke and Matthew Dodd
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Tracks as Featured:
'There is no Greater Love' - Miles Davis Quintet
'Just Squeeze Me' - Miles Davis Quintet
'How am I to Know' - Miles Davis Quintet
'Ah Lei Che' - MIles Davis Quintet
'Freddie Freeloader' - MIles Davis Quintet
'So what' - Miles Davis
'All Blues' - Miles Davis
Flamenco Sketches' - Miles Davis and Bill Evans
'Blue in Green' - Miles Davis and Bill Evans
'Bitches Brew' - Miles Davis
'Pharoes Dance' - Miles Davis
Frances Taylor from BBC Jazz File: Miles Davis at 80, 2001
Jimmy Cobb from interview with Mike Lanchin, 2014
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m002xd5l)
Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002xd5n)
Ebola in the DRC: Fear and Conspiracy Theories
Kate Adie introduces stories on Ebola in the DRC, Ukraine's stoic bus drivers, the rebirth of a river in Oregon, India's ethnic violence, and the return of the Griffon Vulture in Croatia.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing another outbreak of Ebola, but as the virus spreads so too have rumours and conspiracy theories about the cause of the pathogen. Olivia Acland reports from the border between North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
This week Ukraine came under one of the heaviest Russian assaults in months, with the country's energy infrastructure once again hit hard. Vitaly Shevchenko has been in Kherson, where he learned how public transport is now becoming a target for Russian drone operators too.
In America's pacific northwest we go rafting down the Klamath river which is flowing for the first time in a century after a dam was removed - but not without resistance from locals, finds Ash Bhardwaj.
Three years ago, the state of Manipur in India’s north-east erupted in violence, and hundreds of people were killed because of tensions between the Kuki and Meitei communities. Since then, the deeper causes of the conflict haven’t been resolved – and this year, communal violence has broken out again. Raghvendra Rao was there.
Off the coast of Croatia an island’s once dwindling griffon vulture population is back in full flight. Mary Novakovich met the people responsible for the revival, and learns of this bird's vital role in ecological waste management.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinators: Sophie Hill & Katie Morrison
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m002xd5q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m002xd5s)
The latest news from the world of personal finance
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m002x5ss)
Series 120
8. Peter Scandalman
For the final episode of this series, we look at some of the stories that we’re leaving unresolved in our ‘News Quiz 2026 Summer Break Cliffhanger Special’. This includes the latest on the Peter Mandelson scandal and the back and forth between Trump, Israel and Iran. We also discuss the British animals which might make it onto our banknotes, and Andy challenges the panel on their best ways to improve football ahead of this year’s Men’s World Cup.
This week’s panel is Pierre Novellie, Alasdair Beckett-King, Coco Khan and Desiree Burch.
Written by Andy Zaltzman.
With additional material by: Lotte Allan, Angela Channell, Eve Delaney and Katie Storey
Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Coordinator: Asha Osborne-Grinter
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Recorded by David Thomas
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
SAT 12:57 Weather (m002xd5v)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News (m002xd5x)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m002x5sz)
Wendy Chamberlain MP, Richard Holden MP, Sherelle Jacobs, Josh MacAlister MP
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from St Mary's Church in Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, with the Liberal Democrats' chief whip, Wendy Chamberlain MP; Conservative MP and shadow transport secretary, Richard Holden; Daily Telegraph columnist Sherelle Jacobs; and the minister for children and families, Labour MP Josh MacAlister.
Producer: Paul Martin
Assistant Producer: Lowri Morgan
Production Coordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Lead broadcaster engineer: Phil Booth
Editor: Andrea Kennedy
SAT 14:05 Any Answers? (m002xd5z)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?
SAT 14:45 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
SAT 15:00 The King Must Die (m000yl9c)
Episode 2
Part Two of Robin Brooks's new adaptation of Mary Renault's classic book, The King Must Die, starring Shane Zaza.
The King Must Die 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.
Mary Renault is considered by many to be the finest historical novelist of the Twentieth Century. In this story, she evokes a distant age brilliantly, 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 Two:
Theseus has thrown in his lot with the unfortunate youths chosen for sacrifice to the Minotaur, but when he finds himself in the decadent civilisation of Minoan Crete a strange new world opens to him, including the glamour and danger of the bull-dance.
Cast:
Theseus ..... Shane Zaza
Poseidon ..... Raad Rawi
Ariadne ..... Annie Haworth
Minos ..... Richard Braine
Phormion ..... Joe McArdle
Corinthian ..... Harmony Rose-Bremner
Asterion / Priest ..... Theo Fraser Steele
Lukos / Alektryon ..... Charlie Archer
Laia / Lady ..... Tessa Wojtczak
Aktor / Lord / Perimos / Guard ..... Richard Bates
Melantho / Lady / Queen of Naxos ..... Heidi Parsons
Helike / Maenad ..... Sophie Walter
Hippon / Captain / Young King ..... Gavi Singh Chera
Chryse / Girl ..... Alexandra Ewing
Iros / Alexias ..... Sam Henderson
The King Must Die by Mary Renault
Dramatised by Robin Brooks
Music composed by Matthew Sheeran
Directed and Produced by Fiona McAlpine
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 (m002xd61)
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week
SAT 17:00 PM (m002xd63)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m002xd65)
Why Starmer will survive: The Attorney General on human rights, small boats, and his ‘dogged’ friend the Prime Minister
The Attorney General Richard Hermer speaks to Nick about small boats, his most controversial cases, and why his old friend Keir Starmer can survive a leadership challenge.
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002xd67)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m002xd69)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002xd6c)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002xd6f)
Nish Kumar, Holly Jackson, Rachel Parris, Haircut 100, Liam Bailey
Edith Bowman is joined by best-selling author Holly Jackson, whose Young Adult mystery crime series A Good Girl's Guide to Murder has been adapted into a TV series staring Emma Myers as the straight-laced amateur detective Pip. Comedian Nish Kumar is heading out on a new tour later this year 'Angry Humour from a Really Nice Guy', he joins Edith to tell her what makes him angry, (hopefully whilst being really nice about it). Rachel Parris is also going on tour soon, a musical comedy show called 'The Rachel Parris Songbook'. She talks about her greatest hits and also the new series of her podcast 'The Power of A Book'.
And there's music from Haircut 100, back with a new album - their first in 44 years, and Liam Bailey from his new album Shadow Town
Presenter: Edith Bowman
Producer: Jessica Treen
SAT 19:00 Profile (m002xd6h)
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines
SAT 19:15 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
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m002xd6k)
The Alf Ramsey Story
Alf Ramsey was ‘an introvert in an extrovert’s job'. A man who loathed publicity, the press and anything that was pretty much not football. And yet in 1963, fresh to the England manager’s job, he boldly stated ‘we will win the World Cup’. A statement thrown back at him frequently until he proved all the doubters wrong.
David Goldblatt takes the measure of this utterly modest, button downed footballing mono-maniac. Ramsey, from deeply humble Essex roots, took on the world and won. He only became a professional footballer at the age of 26, winning his first England caps as the national team repeatedly failed on the world stage. As a neophyte manager he achieved both successive promotions with lowly Ipswich Town and then won the league with them in 1962. And then Ramsey set out to transform the role of the England manager while contending with a pomposity of blazered FA officialdom, a deeply sceptical press and a largely disinterested English public. Slowly his meticulously shaped team took shape and became legendary lions in 1966.
As results and luck began to turn against him, the furies of the press and enemies within the FA brought about his brutal end. From nothing to the global stage back to nothing by his mid 50s. It was a waste of Ramsey’s enormous footballing insight. Every decade since 1966 is a poignant reminder of his team’s achievement.
With the voices of Grant Bage, author of The Unseen Sir Alf; Duncan Hamilton, author of Answered Prayers; Paul Hayward, author of England Football - the Biography; and Jonathan Wilson, author of Inverting the Pyramid.
Reading: Talking Football- Ben Crowe
My Way performed by organist Martijn Koetsier.
Producer: Mark Burman
A Tell Tale production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:00 Moral Maze (m002x5hm)
Who is morally responsible for Britain's political short-termism?
A Labour leadership challenge would mean Britain could have a seventh prime minister in a decade. Each change of leadership promises renewal, but each delivers fresh disappointment. Meanwhile the problems compound: crumbling infrastructure, polluted waterways, a cost-of-living crisis, a planet warming faster than our policy responses. Why can't a mature democracy fix things it can clearly see are broken?
In the late 1960s, Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel devised a deceptively simple test of human nature. A child is left alone with a single marshmallow and a choice: eat it now, or wait fifteen minutes and receive two. It measures willpower, impulse control, and the capacity to sacrifice immediate satisfaction for a better long-term outcome. Mischel's follow-up studies found that children who waited tended to grow into healthier, better-educated, more emotionally stable adults. But subsequent researchers identified a crucial caveat: children from unstable backgrounds, used to broken promises, were entirely rational to eat immediately, since they didn't trust that the second marshmallow would ever arrive.
Britain, it could be argued, is living through its own national marshmallow test, and the results are troubling. Critics of the current political settlement point out that politicians face structural incentives to fix today's headlines rather than next decade's crises. The five-year electoral horizon means anything beyond it risks being kicked down the road: HS2, the infected blood scandal, Net Zero. Voters, burned by serial betrayal, rationally demand immediate relief on bills, welfare and petrol prices, even when the long-term cost is severe. And hovering over the whole system is the media. Twenty-four hour news demands a fresh scoop every hour, and social media algorithms reward outrage over reflection. If politicians are punished for nuance and rewarded for noise, and voters are algorithmically nudged towards the most inflammatory version of every story, is the entire information environment now rigged against long-term thinking?
If voters rationally distrust politicians, and politicians rationally pander to voters, who bears the moral responsibility for our collective short-termism? And crucially, who bears the responsibility for breaking the cycle? Is it about radical institutional or electoral reform? Does it require a more uncomfortable kind of leadership: politicians willing to tell hard truths, and voters willing to reward them? Who should bear the brunt of any short-term pain? Can we demand courage from leaders we've trained to be cowards? And if so, how do we first rebuild the trust – and the information environment – that makes waiting for the second marshmallow feel rational again?
Chair: Michael Buerk
Panel: Mona Siddiqui, Tim Stanley, Ash Sarkar and James Orr
Witnesses: Paul Dolan, James Williams, Sonia Purnell and Karl Pike
Producer: Dan Tierney
Assistant producer: Peter Everett
Editor: Tim Pemberton
SAT 22:00 News (m002xd6m)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 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
SAT 23:00 The Many Wrongs of Lord Christian Brighty (m002xd6p)
Series 2
2. The Sister I Un-Mistered
Brighty’s holiday in Bath is interrupted by Babs insisting he make amends to his sister, Flan, after he ended her engagement with the entrepreneurial industrialist Mr Poach. Unfortunately the plan to fix the wrong of meddling in his sister’s life, involves more meddling in his sister's life. Meanwhile Churley has to contend with making ‘arrangements’ for an unexpected boxing match.
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 Amy Greaves & Christian Brighty
Cast:
Lord Christian Brighty ….. Christian Brighty
Babs ….. Jessica Knappett
Churlington ….. Colin McFarlane
Lady Flan Brighty ….. Jodie Mitchell
Lavinia – a boxing trainer ….. Chiara Goldsmith
Mr Poach – an industrialist ….. David Reed
Amelia – a lady at the spa ….. Amy Greaves
Pierce Egan – a boxing commentator – Jason Forbes
Bob Gregson – a boxing pundit – Joz Norris
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 Bookmarks (m002x423)
Episode 1
From the production company behind BBC TV’s QI comes Bookmarks – a brand-new quiz about books.
Hosted by Clare Balding, Bookmarks sees two teams of two players from around the UK go head-to-head in a test of general knowledge about all kinds of fiction and non-fiction titles – everything from Richard Osman to Stephen King, and Donna Tartt to Delia Smith.
A QITV production for BBC Radio 4
SUNDAY 07 JUNE 2026
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m002xd6r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:15 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 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002xd6t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002xd6w)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:30 News Summary (m002xd6y)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002xd70)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m002xd72)
The medieval parish church of St Margaret in Leicester in Leicestershire
Bells on Sunday comes from the medieval parish church of St Margaret in Leicester in Leicestershire. Built on Anglo Saxon foundations the building was extensively rebuilt in the 15th century. The 33-metre-high tower houses a ring of twelve bells all of which were cast by the John Taylor foundry of Loughborough in 1921 plus two more recent semitone bells by the same foundry. The Tenor bell weighs thirty two and three hundredweight and is tuned to the note of C sharp. We hear them ringing Stedman Cinques.
SUN 05:45 In Touch (m002x46h)
New Access to Work Recruits, Audio Description on Streaming Services
The Department for Work and Pensions is in the process of hiring nearly 500 new members of staff to help clear the Access to Work backlog and tackle long delays. The Access to Work scheme can help disabled people gain and maintain employment by providing funding for things like support workers and assistive tech. A review of the scheme is currently underway which aims to reform the scheme as it is struggling to keep up with rising demand, these new recruits are a separate measure by the department which aims to quicken the processing of people's claims. In Touch speaks to Minister for Social Security and Disability Sir Stephen Timms about these new roles.
For the first time, the UK communications regulator Ofcom is introducing access requirements for streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus and Netflix. This is following the Media Act 2024, and Ofcom's proposals will not only apply for audio description, but also for subtitling and signing. Cathy Taylor is part of Ofcom's Broadcasting Team and describes to In Touch what these new requirements could look like, and about a consultation which is seeking the views of access service users.
Contact details for Ofcom's consultation are below:
General advice telephone number: 0300 123 3333
Consultation email address: Tier1accessibility@ofcom.org.uk
And the consultation web page: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/accessibility/tier-1-accessibility-code
Closing date for responses: 7th August 2026
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Helen Surtees
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image, wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three individual white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch"; and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one of a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.’
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m002xdbb)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 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
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m002xdbd)
Digging in the past: the arable farmer who's an archaeologist
Arable and archaeology are the two passions in Nick Wilson's life. He farms in the Vale of York but the discovery of a Roman burial site in one of his fields turbo-charged his interest in the past. That was nearly 10 years ago, since then he has studied for a PhD in archaeology and excavated acres of farmland. As well as the Roman tomb, he's unearthed Bronze-age cooking pots, quern stones for grinding corn, jewellery and a hob-nail boot from Roman times.
Produced and presented by Rebecca Rooney.
SUN 06:57 Weather (m002xdbg)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m002xdbj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m002xdbl)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m002xdbn)
The Amber Trust
Beneficiary Lydia Beech makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of The Amber Trust. The charity provides music opportunities to hundreds of vision-impaired children across the UK.
The Radio 4 Appeal features a new charity every week.
Each appeal then runs on Radio 4 from Sunday 0755 for 7 days.
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘The Amber Trust’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Amber Trust’.
- 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: 1050503. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://ambertrust.org/
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites
Producer: Katy Takatsuki
SUN 07:57 Weather (m002xdbq)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m002xdbs)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m002xdbv)
Mercy in an unmerciful world
From the Memorial Chapel of Glasgow University, with Rev Scott Blythe and Rev Roz Lawson of the Inter-Faith Chaplaincy Team.
With Glasgow University Chapel Choir directed by Katy Lavinia Cooper, and organist Kevin Bowyer.
Readings: Psalm 33:1-12 / Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
The Call (Words: George Herbert / Music: Kenneth Tay)
Hymn: O For A Thousand Tongues (Tune: Desert (Lyngham))
Ego Sum Via (Gail Gillespie)
Kyrie (Becky McGlade)
Song of Sorrows (Sheena Phillips)
Let Your Restless Hearts Be Still (Tune: The Lark In The Clear Air; Words: John L Bell & Graham Maule)
Hymn: O Worship The King, All Glorious Above (Tune: Hanover)
Organ Voluntary: Sarabande from A Little Suite by Antony Baldwin
SUN 08:48 Witness History (w3ct8r34)
The creation of My Little Pony
My Little Pony first appeared in shops in the United States in 1983 and in that decade alone more than 100 million would be sold.
But American toymaker Bonnie Zacherle tells Josephine McDermott how her idea to make a pony you could play with like a doll was turned down several times. She reveals the toys she liked to play with as a child living in Japan, how she updated Mr Potato Head and how her pony design first hit the market as a much bigger, harder model called My Pretty Pony.
She says she told her friend in toy marketing to get out of her office when she first suggested the ponies should come in pastel pinks and purples instead of realistic dun, black and grey colours. But she concedes that market testing showed it was what the customer wanted and she’s very proud of what she’s achieved.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
(Photo: Bonnie's black My Little Pony prototype. Credit: Bonnie Zacherle)
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m002xdbx)
Roland Arnison on the Storm Petrel
We join explorer Roland Arnison on a kayaking expedition to the outer Hebrides on a quest to record the call of the storm petrel. These small and elusive seabirds spend most of their time at sea, nesting on rocky isles around the western coasts of the UK. While camping on the coastline of a remote uninhabited island, Roland patiently waited through the night until he heard the digital trill of the 'stormy' ring out in the dark.
This programme features audio recorded by Roland Arnison, and it was produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio Production in Bristol.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m002xdbz)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m002xdc1)
Peter Layton, artist
Peter Layton is a pioneering British glass artist and the founder of London Glassblowing, one of the most influential glass studios and galleries in the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the development of the studio glass movement, helping to establish glass as an artistic medium.
Born in Prague to Jewish parents, he and his family escaped in 1939 and settled in Bradford, where Peter counted the artist David Hockney among his friends. A trip to the United States in the 1960s to teach ceramics led him to his first encounter with glassblowing, and when he returned to the UK he set up a studio called London Glassblowing. Its ethos of collaboration and openness remains the same 50 years after its founding, and members of the public are welcome to see Peter and his colleagues create spectacular pieces of art out of glass.
Peter’s work is influenced by many things: early pieces tackled political issues, and he finds clouds, pebbles and other natural forms particularly inspiring. Peter lives in London with his wife Ann. He has three children and seven grandchildren.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Tim Bano
Desert Island Discs has cast away many artists to the island over the years, including Peter’s friend David Hockney, as well as the sculptor Anthony Gormley and Cornelia Parker. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.
SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m002xdc3)
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
SUN 12:15 Profile (m002xd6h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 12:30 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
SUN 12:57 Weather (m002xdc5)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m002xdc7)
A look at the week's big stories and preview of the week to come.
SUN 13:30 Currently (m002xdc9)
England’s Identity Crisis
England’s men's football team is once again preparing to shoulder the hopes of millions across the nation. A World Cup is traditionally a time to come together, but this tournament takes place in a tense political moment, when the question of who is – and isn’t - English is being contested.
Should Englishness be linked to ancestry and ethnicity, to living in the country for generations, as some senior politicial figures claim? Is Englishness conditional? If so, on what? Should anyone living in England be able to claim national identity? Why is Englishness so hard to define?
Newsnight's Political Editor Nick Watt reports from the frontlines of the battle for Englishness, speaking to senior figures in politics and cultural commentators. He visits Castle Point in Essex, the area where the most people chose English as their national identity in the 2021 census.
He hears from the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, Labour's Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and the writer and GB News presenter Matt Goodwin.
The interviews took place before Vickrum Digwa was jailed for the murder of Henry Nowak.
Credit: The TRIGGERnometry podcast and YouTube show, produced and presented by Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster
Producer: Leela Padmanabhan
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002x5sg)
Diss: Gravel Gardens, Camellia Care and Ways to Weather Drought
Peter Gibbs and the Gardeners’ Question Time panel visit Diss, on the Norfolk–Suffolk border, where heavy clay soils meet some of the driest conditions in the country; a combination that keeps gardeners firmly on their toes.
Peter is joined by Bob Flowerdew on his home turf, alongside Christine Walkden and Bunny Guinness as they answer questions from a live audience. They advise on improving your strike rate with cuttings, diagnosing sooty mould on camellias, and deciding whether a bay tree is best kept in a pot, or given room to roam.
Along the way, the panel also explore how to turn a tired lawn into a stylish, drought‑resistant gravel garden, debate whether lavender really needs feeding, and suggest small spring‑flowering trees that can deliver a real seasonal show.
Later in the show, Bob shares hard‑won lessons from gardening in East Anglia, offering practical tips on coping with drought and making the most of every drop of water.
Producer: Matt Smith
Producer: William Norton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
* If listening on BBC Sounds and you wish to view the plant list, please go to the Gardeners' Question Time website and open this week's episode page.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp2f/episodes/guide
SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m002xdcc)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog
John Yorke examines Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, ten semi-autobiographical short stories in which Dylan Thomas looks back and observes himself growing into the artist – the writer – that he became in adult life. The stories highlight Thomas’s contradictory nature. At school he failed every other subject apart from English, in which he came top. He’s a town boy who loves the countryside. He’s a bookish child who devours his father’s library of 6,000 books ‘with his eyes out on stalks’ by day, and a bit of a lad who roams Swansea by night, observing the goings-on of the city. Dylan Thomas was called a wastrel and an alcoholic, yet was incredibly productive, writing 300 pages of poems, 500 pages of radio scripts, 600 pages of film scripts and 1000 pages of letters. He began the short stories in 1938, a year after he had married Caitlin MacNamara and they’d settled with their first child in Laugharne, a small town on the coat of Carmarthenshire. Ten years later he would move into the famous Boathouse where he would live for the remainder of his life.
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.
Contributors: John Goodby, Professor of Arts and Culture at Sheffield Hallam University, author of Critical Lives: Dylan Thomas. Joe Dunthorne, novelist, poet and journalist.
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Co-ordinator: Dawn Williams
Sound: Iain Hunter
Producer: Kate McAll
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m002xdcf)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog
Returning to Swansea after the blitz, Dylan Thomas is overwhelmed by memories of his childhood and adolescence.
From summers at Fern Hill, to failed camping trips on the beach; from plagiarised poetry to drunken first love, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog is a story of what it is to grow up.
Comic, nostalgic, with a host of vivid characters, Dylan Thomas’s masterpiece is adapted by Joe Dunthorne (Submarine, Children of Radium) and stars Gerran Howell (The Pitt) as Dylan Thomas.
Based on the short stories by Dylan Thomas
Adapted by Joe Dunthorne
Dylan Thomas… Gerran Howell
Aunt Annie/Gwyneth/ Mrs Evans/ Mother… Carys Eleri
Uncle Jim/ Mr Thomas/ Mr Matthews/ Mr O’Brien… Ben Addis
Mrs Williams/ Mrs Thomas/ Mrs Franklin/ Female Stranger… Melanie Walters
Dan Evans… Iwan Davies
Lou/Jean/Nancy… Mia Khan
Brazell/ Gwilym/ Older Sidney… Jacob Ifan
George Hooping/ Barman… Gwïon Morris Jones
Skully/ Chauffeur/ Male Stranger… Shaheen Jafargholi
Young Dylan… Leon Raphael Mullins
Young Sidney…. Toby Founds
Production Co-Ordinator… Eleri McAuliffe
Sound Design by Rhys Morris
Produced and directed by Fay Lomas, BBC Audio Drama Wales
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m002xdch)
Kirstin Innes
The award-winning Scottish writer, Kirstin Innes, speaks to Bookclub, presented by James Naughtie, about her second novel, Scabby Queen. The book, published in 2020, explores the life of one-hit wonder and political activist, Clio Campbell, who is found dead three days before her fifty-first birthday.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.
SUN 16:30 Bookmarks (m002xdck)
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 (w3ct745c)
Anthony Bourdain's 'Don't Eat Before Reading This'
In April 1999, Anthony Bourdain's essay Don't Eat Before Reading This was published.
It was an unfiltered look into restaurant kitchen culture. It launched his career as a celebrity chef.
He changed the way television told stories about food. Surya Elango speaks to Philippe Lajaunie, his friend and former boss at Les Halles restaurant, in New York.
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: Anthony Bourdain. Credit: Fairfax Media via Getty Images)
SUN 17:10 The Verb (m002xdcn)
Poetry - a bullet-proof vest for the soul
Ian McMillan is joined by Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4 News' International Editor, who shares poems that have sustained her while reporting from conflict zones around the world.
Richard Skinner, editor of 14, the annual poetry publication dedicated to 14-line poems, chooses this week's Neon Line.
Kym Deyn discusses their debut poetry collection Folkish which reimagines the folklore of Northern England for a contemporary reader.
Cara Thompson, Nottingham's first Nature Poet Laureate, talks about her new project, Needle, which fuses poetry and textiles.
Presented by Ian McMillan
Produced by Ekene Akalawu
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002xdcq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m002xdcs)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002xdcv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002xdcx)
Len Pennie
This week, we’re all about the power of poetry – from the Hay Festival in Wales to across the Irish Sea at the Belfast Book Festival. We hear how regional dialects have come about on Word of Mouth, and a captivating interview from Woman’s Hour with Gisèle Pelicot. Plus, between São Paulo and Saddleworth, there are marching bands raising the roof galore.
Presenter: Len Pennie
Producer: Anthony McKee
Editor: Steven Hobson
Production Coordinator: Findlay Adams and Sylvie Conway
A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.
Programmes featured in this episode include:
The Verb, 31/05
Word of Mouth: How did people speak throughout history?
Front Row, 03/06: Live from the Belfast Book Festival
John for John by Douglas Stewart - Episode 5 - a còig
Prayer for the Day, 03/06: Meeting God in Yiddish
Thinking Allowed: Suicide, Society and Liveability
You & Yours, 02/06: Call You and Yours - Have you ever spent money you know you don't have, on stuff you don't really need?
Loud and Proud All-Dayer, 01/06: Loud and Proud mix - Jinkx Monsoon
Take Four Books: Imani Thompson
Woman’s Hour, 01/06
Sunday Worship, 31/05: Hail Smiling Morn - Whit Friday in Saddleworth
In the Studio: São Paulo's carnival competition
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 19:00 The Archers (m002xdcz)
Ed finds himself caught in the middle, and Tracy receives a surprising offer.
SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m002xdd1)
The House in the Hole
On a hot summer’s day in 1991, a violent crime took place that shook Consett, a town in the North East of England. When threatened with the legal demolition of a property he owned, a former steelworker called Albert Dryden went on a murderous rampage, killing the council’s chief planning officer and seriously wounding a policeman and a journalist. Furthermore, the brutal crime was filmed and broadcast on national news.
But what made the crime even more perplexing was its controversial aftermath. While the majority of people condemned Dryden’s actions, a vocal minority came to see him as something of a folk hero. This wasn’t the usual morbid fascination that can sometimes gather around certain violent criminals; it was admiration. Crowds cheered outside his court hearings and “Free Albert Dryden” posters were not an uncommon sight around town – even songs were written about him.
How can a cold-blooded killer ever gain public support? Writer Joe Zadeh takes a close look at details surrounding this incident in an attempt to examine these rare yet recurring moments in history, when moral values turn upside down and everyday citizens find themselves excusing the most horrific crimes.
Written and presented by Joe Zadeh
Producer: Hunter Charlton
Mixing Engineer: Alex Portfelix
Composer: Jess Howard
Executive Producer: Ant Adeane
Photograph: Albert Dryden taken by Michael Peckett
An Ember production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001r7xq)
Breathe Through Your Nose
Take a nice deep breath in… through your nose. It’s a simple way to get healthier gums, a better memory, and improved lung function. How? Well, it may partly be due to a special molecule called nitric oxide. Michael Mosley speaks to Professor Jon Lundberg from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who made the fascinating discovery that nitric oxide is produced in your nose and travels to your lungs where it has some surprising benefits, including boosting oxygen uptake and possibly helping you fight off infections. Our volunteer Joe tries out a few tips to make nasal breathing a habit.
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 (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
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m002x5sl)
Larry King: The man behind Billie Jean King’s feminist tennis revolution
Larry King teamed up with his wife Billie Jean King to start the women’s professional tennis circuit in the USA.
Baroness Ramsay was MI6 Head of Station in Helsinki during the Cold War and then became a leading figure in Labour politics.
Caroline Marland transformed the financial fortunes of The Guardian newspaper as a senior executive in the 1980s and 90s.
Valie Export challenged centuries of misuse of the female body from male artists by exhibiting her own form for controversial performances.
Archive used: Women’s Tennis Association, 03/2024; VisNews, 01/05/1981; BBC News, 12/09/1985; Secrets and Spies: A Nuclear Game, BBC Two, 08/05/2024; BBC Parliament, 02/12/2015; The Money Programme, BBC Two, 14/02/1988; Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, 01/06/2000
Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Josie Hardy
Editor: Andrea Kennedy
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m002xd5s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m002xdbn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002xd5n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:30 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m002xdd3)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 In Our Time (m002x5jl)
The Evolution of Trees
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the earliest evidence we have of the existence of trees and how even plants we might have on windowsills or as vegetables in gardens can and do, in the right conditions, evolve into trees. Since their emergence around 400 million years ago after low lying plants started to develop stronger stems and grow taller and more upright, trees have transformed our planet, so creating ecosystems, altering the atmosphere and setting the stage for the world as we know it today.
With
Jenny McElwain
1711 Chair of Botany at Trinity College Dublin and Director of Trinity Botanic Gardens
Christopher Berry
Senior Lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Cardiff University
And
Bill Baker
Senior Researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Produced by Conor Garrett
Reading list:
David Beerling: The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History (Oxford University Press, 2008)
C.M. Berry, ‘Palaeobotany: The Rise of the Earth’s Early Forests’ (Current Biology 29, 2019)
Christopher M. Berry and John E.A. Marshall, ‘Lycopsid forests in the early Late Devonian paleoequatorial zone of Svalbard’ (Geology
43:12, 2015)
N.S. Davies, W.J. McMahon and C.M. Berry, ‘Earth’s earliest forest: fossilized trees and vegetation-induced sedimentary structures from the Middle Devonian (Eifelian) Hangman Sandstone Formation, Somerset and Devon, SW England’ (J. Geol. Soc. 181, 2024)
P. Geisen and C.M. Berry, ‘Reconstruction and Growth of the Early Tree Calamophyton (Pseudosporochnales, Cladoxylopsida) Based on Exceptionally Complete Specimens from Lindlar, Germany (Mid-Devonian): Organic Connection of Calamophyton Branches and Duisbergia Trunks’ (International Journal of Plant Sciences 174 (4), 2013)
A. Groover and Q. Cronk (eds), Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics of Angiosperm Trees: Plant Genetics and Genomics (Crops and Models, vol 21. Springer, 2017), especially ‘The Evolution of Angiosperm Trees: From Palaeobotany to Genomics’ by Q.C.B. Cronk and F. Forest
Jennifer McElwain, Marlene Hill Donnelly, and Ian Glasspool, Tropical Arctic: Lost Plants, Future Climates, and the Discovery of Ancient Greenland (University of Chicago Press, 2021)
Harriet Rix, The Genius of Trees: How Trees Mastered the Elements and Shaped the World (Vintage, 2026)
W.E. Stein et al., ‘Mid-Devonian Archaeopteris roots signal revolutionary change in earliest fossil forests’ (Current biology, 30:3, 2020) pp.421-431
William E. Stein, Christopher Mark Berry, Linda VanAller Hernick and Frank Mannolini ‘Surprisingly complex community discovered in the mid-Devonian fossil forest at Gilboa’ (Nature 483, 7387, 2012)
Max Telford, The Tree of Life: Solving Science's Greatest Puzzle (John Murray, 2026)
K.J. Willis, J.C. McElwain, The Evolution of Plants (Oxford University Press, 2014)
James Woodford, The Wollemi Pine: The Incredible Discovery of a Living Fossil from the Age of the Dinosaurs (The Text Publishing Company, 2005)
Alexandre R. Zuntini et al, ‘Phylogenomics and the rise of the angiosperms’ (Nature vol. 629, April 2024)
Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.
SUN 23:45 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
MONDAY 08 JUNE 2026
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m002xdd5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 00:15 The Artificial Human (m002x5h3)
AI: War Machine?
2. What's driving the military AI policy?
Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong examine the decisions shaping the adoption of military AI in the United States and beyond, asking whether governance is keeping pace — or whether responsibility is being left to the technology’s creators.
A recent dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon revealed that commercial contracts, rather than clear policy, are helping to define how AI can be used by the military. But the disagreement was less about ethics than about timing, with the military pressing ahead to adopt systems before their developers considered them sufficiently reliable.
Dr Brianna Rosen reflects on what this tells us about the lack of detailed policy, regulation and legal frameworks governing AI in warfare, while journalist and author Katrina Manson explains what we can learn from the origins of the US military’s core AI programme as explored in her book,Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare.
Presenters: Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong
Producer: Peter McManus
Sound: Fraser Jackson and Gav Murchie
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m002xd72)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002xdd7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002xdd9)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:00 News Summary (m002xddc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002xddf)
Susan Hulme reports as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, calls for better regulation of artificial inteligence. Also, as Parliament debates legislation to help recreate the glory days of the London Olympics, a business leader behind the Games reveals what made them tick.
MON 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002xddh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002xddk)
Jewish Culture Month
Prayer for the Day presented by Rabbi Warren Elf of the Liverpool Reform Synagogue.
Good morning.
You may not be aware but we are three-quarters of the way through the first ever Jewish Culture Month in the UK. It is running from 16th May to 16th June, coinciding with the Jewish month of Sivan.
There have been a whole range of different activities to highlight the contribution of the Jewish community and the way the Jewish community in Britain has evolved and changed over time. There are events in and around museums, guided walks, arts, culture, literature, music, drama, comedy, historical, heritage trails, pastimes, gastronomic and many more events right across the country.
I am going to an interfaith lunch today at a Jewish community hub that will be bringing together different people from a range of different faiths, to explore themes of faith, identity, and community in creative and accessible ways. It will be an afternoon of connection, conversation, and shared learning, with informal discussion helping us to develop and build positive relationships.
This is one aspect of faith and interfaith work that I find to be so important. We are all part of a wonderful and creative society and world. We have so much in common and there are so many ways that we can learn from each other and enrich each other.
I believe that we are all made in the image of God and that we are all unique, special and have something to offer. I don’t think any of us have a monopoly on truth, on God, on right or on morality. We live in a difficult and changing world.
So, I pray that I can always learn from others and always find ways to share humanity, love and compassion, while embracing those aspects of others.
I pray that I may strengthen my identity and my commitment to a better future for our world through my positive relationships with others.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m002xddm)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:57 Weather (m002xddp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for farmers
MON 06:00 Today (m002xg73)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m002xg75)
Scientific discovery and misunderstanding
How have we made discoveries about the world around us and how has our understanding changed when we got it wrong? Adam Rutherford hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, asking about the the nature of scientific discovery, understanding and changing our mind.
Andrea Wulf's latest book is The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and his Search for Humanity. She has reassessed the botanist and ethnologist who accompanied Captain Cook's second voyage, taking him from Antarctica to the tropical islands of the South Pacific. During this time, Forster studied diverse people, culture and nature and returned a confirmed opponent of empire, racism and slavery: he was celebrated in his lifetime, but has since been largely forgotten by history.
The geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden argues that the latest research complicates our ideas about blame, punishment and moral responsibility. In her new book Original Sin: The Genetics of Wrongdoing, the Problem of Blame and the Future of Forgiveness, she looks at the area where human behaviour meets inherited biology. She thinks we must look again at questions of wrong doing and free will, reassessing old ideas of guilt and accountability.
We are all hormonal all of the time, because to be hormonal is to be human says Saira Hameed, a leading endocrinologist. Hormones are the often misunderstood signalling system that makes our bodies function which she explain in her new book, Signals: The Inside Story of Our Hormones, separating medical breakthroughs from the obsessions of wellness influencers.
Producer: Ruth Watts
MON 09:45 Mary Bourke: Who Cares? (m002cf04)
Episode 3: The professional caring industry.
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 three, Mary learns about the professional care system from Pope Lonergan (comedian and care worker) and Michael Akadiri (comedian and junior doctor).
Presenter: Mary Bourke
Producer: Katie Sayer
Executive Producer: Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002xg77)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
MON 11:00 Siblings Unpicked (m002xg79)
Stuck in the middle
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.
This week they ask whether Middle Child Syndrome is really a thing? It's often said middle children are ignored or overlooked, but how does Anita feel about being sandwiched between two siblings? While she might have dyed her hair red to stand out from the crowd, the pair hear that middle children might actually be the family peacemakers. But there's also a theory that this ability to get on with everyone is actually a subtle form of manipulation.
For developmental psychologists, the arrival of a second child has important consequences for how siblings relate to each other, and research shows children with siblings develop empathy more quickly than those without.
But while many of us may take our brothers and sisters for granted a shocking one in four people is estranged from their sibling. The Mangans discover that in some cases this might be a good thing, and we shouldn't romanticise what are often our most tricky relationships.
Presenters: Stephen Mangan, Anita Mangan
Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem
A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 4
MON 11:45 The Butterfly Season by Lea Korsgaard (m002xg7c)
Episode 1
Lea Korsgaard searches for all of Denmark’s butterfly species in one year. She discovers secret places and learns about the rich natural and symbolic history of butterflies.
Butterflies are an intrinsic part of the ecosystem, pollinating plants and acting as food for larger creatures. Their existence is entwined with the plant life and landscapes they make home, but habitats are reducing and with this, butterfly populations are under threat.
Learning about the potential loss of habitat and butterflies, journalist Lea Korsgaard goes on a quest to see all of Denmark’s 64 butterfly species in a single year.
She is a butterfly novice, but over the course of the year, she learns about the extraordinary facts of butterfly metamorphosis, meets passionate experts who show her the secret places where butterflies still proliferate and finds out about the history of collectors for whom butterflies had become an obsession. She finally learns that she has become as hooked as the experts she has met.
In episode 1, after procrastinating for some time, Lea works out a method and system for locating and visiting the sites where she thinks the species of butterfly she is looking, proliferate around Denmark.
She starts to learn about the habits and behaviours of butterflies, including the migratory patterns of some butterflies and the miraculous way that offspring find their way back to Denmark having been conceived as far away as the Sahara. She also learns about the habitat of other butterflies who overwinter in Denmark.
After learning and waiting, she finally finds her first butterfly species-but has she the knowledge and the tenacity to find the remaining 63?
Read by Nicola Walker
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Lisa Lipman
Sound design by Jon Calver
Executive producer: Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 12:00 News Summary (m002xg7f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m002xg7h)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m002xg7k)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m002xg7m)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
MON 13:45 Politically (m002xjkx)
Ten Years After Brexit
1. The Economy
It is 10 years since the Brexit referendum. In this series Alex Forsyth, a BBC correspondent who’s covered Brexit from both Brussels and Westminster, looks at what impact the decision to leave the EU has had on various aspects of public and political life.
The effect of leaving the EU on the economy has been one of the most contested aspects of Brexit . From dire warnings about multi-billion pound budgetary black holes ahead of the referendum to assertions that the UK would become “Singapore-on-Thames” if freed from the orbit of Brussels, there have been bold - and at times - unfounded claims.
To get a sense of the arguments around the economic consequences of Brexit, Alex Forsyth talks to Julian Jessop, an independent economist and Economics Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs and David Smith, Economics editor at the Sunday Times.
Presenter: Alex Forsyth
Producers: Ben Carter and Mhairi MacKenzie
Editor: Richard Vadon
Studio engineer and sound mix: James Beard
Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
MON 14:00 The Archers (m002xdcz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Conversations from a Long Marriage (m002xg7p)
Series 7
6. Beyond The Sea
Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam return as the loving, long-married couple, in the 7th series of Jan Etherington’s award-winning comedy.
This week, Roger is furious when Joanna invites his least favourite person, the adventurer Rix Roden, to open the village fete, and then they go swimming together.
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 (m002xdcc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Sunday]
MON 15:00 A Good Read (m002xg7r)
Kelly Cates and Tom Rob Smith
Three books that deal with the intricacies of relationships and marriage.
Not That Sort of Girl by Mary Wesley
Aftermath by Rachel Cusk
Three Days In June by Anne Tyler
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Maggie Ayre
MON 15:30 The History Podcast (m002xd5g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Saturday]
MON 16:00 Currently (m002xdc9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:30 on Sunday]
MON 16:30 Legend (m002xd5j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
MON 17:00 PM (m002xg7t)
Full coverage of the day's news
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002xg7w)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m002xg7y)
Series 85
1. Bad Bond Film Club
The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to the Brighton Dome. On the panel are Richard Coles, Tony Hawks, Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke, with Jack Dee in the umpire’s chair. Regular listeners will know to expect inspired nonsense, pointless revelry and Colin Sell at the piano.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random production for BBC Radio 4
MON 19:00 The Archers (m002xdl7)
Pip faces some difficult decisions, and opportunity knocks for George.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m002xg81)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
MON 20:00 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
MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977p)
How is AI going to change science?
Are we moving away from science as a strictly human endeavour? This is the view of Pushmeet Kohli, head of AI for Science at Google DeepMind. He joins Tom Whipple to discuss the use of the AI tool Co-Scientist as a collaborator in the lab, and the challenges in making Artificial Intelligence that works in science. Clare Bryant from the University of Cambridge also joins the conversation.
And Steve Brusatte, Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh, joins the program to talk about his new book, The Story of Birds, tracing a 150‑million‑year journey from small, feathered dinosaurs to the birds of today.
Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel joins us to discuss the latest scientific discoveries that you might have missed.
Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producers: Dan Welsh and Kate White
Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
Editor: Martin Smith
MON 21:00 Start the Week (m002xg75)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:45 Mary Bourke: Who Cares? (m002cf04)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m002xg83)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Jensen: Black Water by Heidi Amsinck (m002xg85)
Episode 1
A new case, set in Copenhagen, for the investigative reporter.
Jensen is now a single mother, and her own mother, Marion, is living with her to help with childcare. But not even an eight month old daughter is going to stop Jensen from working as she has always worked, digging deepest into a case and annoying her old flame DI Henrik Jungersen.
Late at night, celebrity vegan chef Sonny Velin is found dead in the basement of his prestigious Michelin-starred restaurant, Plant. Some things point to suicide, but if so, why was he found arranged in such a peculiar manner?
And why did he arrange for Jensen to be first on the scene?
Episode 1
Jensen is invited to interview the chef Sonny Velin, at the famous restaurant Plant at midnight, and makes a shocking discovery.
Copenhagen-born Heidi Amsinck has written numerous short stories for radio. Her collection Last Train To Helsingør, was published in 2018. The fifth novel in her ‘Jensen’ series, The Woman In The Wall, was published in April 2026.
Writer: Heidi Amsinck
Reader: MyAnna Buring
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:00 Limelight (p0fyppwc)
Bitter Pill
4. Trust Issues
An audio drama series about memory and trauma.
After a traumatic car crash, Mary joins a clinical drug trial that promises a cure for PTSD. The medication triggers intense flashbacks of the accident that left her fiancée comatose. But is Mary simply remembering the event, or reliving it? And if she is actually returning to the past, does that mean she can change her future?
Cast:
Mary ….. Séainín Brennan
Jackie ….. Charlotte McCurry
Carl ……. Shaun Blaney
Eoin ….. Seamus O’Hara
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 (m002xg87)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 09 JUNE 2026
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m002xg89)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 The Butterfly Season by Lea Korsgaard (m002xg7c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002xg8c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002xg8f)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:00 News Summary (m002xg8h)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002xg8k)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUE 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002xg8m)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002xg8p)
Tikkun Olam, the repair of the world
Prayer for the Day presented by Rabbi Warren Elf of the Liverpool Reform Synagogue.
Good morning.
One important component for me about Judaism is the commitment to Tikkun Olam, the repair of the world.
This recognises that the world is not perfect and that we have a responsibility to do something about it, to try to improve things even though we cannot put everything right.
Years ago, I was introduced to a rabbinic saying, by Rabbi Tarfon - as a song, long before I learnt it from the text – “It is not your duty to finish the work but neither are you free to neglect it”. I recall hundreds of young people on summer camps singing the song in Hebrew with gusto, long before they grasped what it was really about.
The words can be applied to all sorts of things but it was very deliberately linked to what God expects of us and what we have to do.
Yet it does not specify what the work is or even in what area it should be focused. We know that there is so much room for improvement in our world, in so many areas, and yet we also know that we, as individuals cannot do everything.
Which is one reason why I think we are stronger when acting together, trying to improve things in our world. And each of us has to decide which areas we want to focus on. I know that I cannot do everything that I would like to act upon. In fact, there are times that I wonder if I am making any real difference in our world or making any improvement whatsoever?
I believe and hope that I am but I am also aware of my failings. So, I pray that every day I can find a way of making even the smallest positive contribution to our world.
I pray that I always find partners to help repair the world, and that I do what I can, bit by bit to make that difference, with others each step of the way.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m002xg8r)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 06:00 Today (m002xdkp)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Gift (m002wd93)
Series 3
6. Deleted
After one of the biggest brands in at-home DNA testing is put up for sale - along with the genetic codes of millions of its customers - Jenny decides if she wants to continue to belong to the global DNA database.
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 (m002xdkr)
The show with the latest evidence on psychology, mental health and neuroscience.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002xdkt)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 11:00 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
TUE 11:45 The Butterfly Season by Lea Korsgaard (m002xdkw)
Episode 2
Lea Korsgaard searches for all of Denmark’s butterfly species in one year. She discovers secret places and learns about the rich natural and symbolic history of butterflies.
Butterflies are an intrinsic part of the ecosystem, pollinating plants and acting as food for larger creatures. Their existence is entwined with the plant life and landscapes they make home, but habitats are reducing and with this, butterfly populations are under threat.
Learning about the potential loss of habitat and butterflies, journalist Lea Korsgaard goes on a quest to see all of Denmark’s 64 butterfly species in a single year.
She is a butterfly novice, but over the course of the year, she learns about the extraordinary facts of butterfly metamorphosis, meets passionate experts who show her the secret places where butterflies still proliferate and finds out about the history of collectors for whom butterflies had become an obsession. She finally learns that she has become as hooked as the experts she has met.
In this episode, Lea pursues her search for all the butterfly species in Denmark, ticking off fuce at pace. She learns about the miraculous process of metamorphosis of butterflies, in which the caterpillar munches up its old home. She finds the aptly named green butterfly, the only green one in Denmark, but soon realizes that having seen only six butterflies in two months, the task ahead is more immense than she’d imagined. Can she possibly hope to see them all in a year?
Read by Nicola Walker
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Lisa Lipman
Sound design by Jon Calver
Executive produce:, Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m002xdkz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m002xdl1)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m002xdl3)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m002xdl5)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
TUE 13:45 Politically (m002xjkv)
Ten Years After Brexit
2. Trade
During the Brexit referendum, the Leave campaign argued that exiting the EU would allow the UK to sign more lucrative independent trade deals with other nations. Remainers warned that leaving the single market and customs union would increase friction with the EU, our nearest and largest trading partner. What can we say about Brexit's impact on UK trade, five years on from leaving the single market and customs union?
In this episode Alex Forsyth speaks to Sam Lowe, head of Trade and Market Access at Flint Global, and Soumaya Keynes, economics columnist at the Financial Times and co-author of the book “How to Win a Trade War”, about whether the trade off has been worth it.
Presenter: Alex Forsyth
Producers: Ben Carter and Mhairi MacKenzie
Editor: Richard Vadon
Studio engineer and sound mix: James Beard
Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m002xdl7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Our Friends in the North (m0015vhz)
Episode 3: 1967
Peter Flannery once famously said of Our Friends in the North, "... 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 1964. The series tackles corporate, political and police corruption in the 1960s, the rise and fall of the Soho porn empires in the 1970s, 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 adapted series now ends with a new, tenth episode by writer Adam Usden, bringing the story up to the present day.
The third episode opens in 1967. Nicky has turned his back on the Labour Party and is now looking to the anarchists for solutions, Mary and Tosker’s new high-rise flat in Newcastle is almost uninhabitable and, in London, Geordie has fallen in love with his boss’s mistress Jools - a dangerous game. The government are desperate to clean up Soho - Scotland Yard’s Dirty Squad, together with porn baron Benny Barratt, come up with a solution.
Cast
Geordie: Luke MacGregor
DI Salway / Tosker: Philip Correia
DS Conrad: Andrew Byron
Julia / Mary: Norah Lopez-Holden
Benny Barratt / Eddie Wells: Tony Hirst
Commander Harold Chapple: James Gaddas
Austin Donohue / Claud Seabrook: Tom Goodman-Hill
John Edwards: Maanuv Thiara
Sandra: Tracey Wilkinson
Helen: Eve Shotton
Writer: Peter Flannery
Studio Engineer: Paul Clark
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
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 (p0n0y19p)
Sophie Blanchard Takes to the Skies
In 19th Century France, a young woman escapes a life of drudgery, faces her fears and finds worldwide fame as an aeronaut. Sophie Blanchard performs for Napoleon and eventually becomes the official aeronaut of the Restoration. But as her hot air balloon shows become more and more ambitious, can she keep cheating death?
Stories of bold voices, with brave ideas and the courage to stand alone. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann shines a light on remarkable people from across history.
A BBC Studios production.
Producer: Lorna Reader
Written and presented by Alex von Tunzelmann
Executive Producer: Paul Smith
Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts
TUE 15:30 Thinking Allowed (m002xdlb)
Football and gambling
As a new World Cup approaches, what does it mean that gambling now sits so close to the heart of football - and how far has the game travelled from its local roots?
Laurie Taylor explores two distinct ways of understanding football’s place in contemporary society. He’s joined by Darragh McGee from the University of Bath, whose book Imitation Games charts the rapid rise of gambling and its growing entanglement with the sport. McGee reflects on how this shift has been normalised, particularly among younger supporters, and considers the broader social consequences of an increasingly immersive and continuous online gambling environment.
Adam Dinsmore from Manchester Metropolitan University's Institute of Sport focuses not on football’s global reach but on its local meanings. Drawing on research with supporters in post-industrial towns such as Blackburn and Middlesbrough, he examines how football clubs continue to function as powerful symbols of place-identity. In communities shaped by de-industrialisation, where traditional forms of work and collective life have eroded, the local club often remains one of the last enduring institutions linking past and present.
Producer: Natalia Fernandez
Editor: Robyn Read
TUE 16:00 Poetry Please (m002xdld)
At the Hay Festival
A special edition recorded with an audience at the Hay Festival.
Roger McGough celebrates the show with a selection of the most requested poems on Poetry Please sprinkled with a few of his own. He’s joined by impressionist, actor and comedian Alistair McGowan who also writes poetry. Expect a journey through some of the nation’s favourite poems as well as a few laughs as well as some unexpected ‘guest appearances’ courtesy of Alistair.
Producer: Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio, Bristol.
TUE 16:30 What's Up Docs? (m002xdlg)
Are friends good for your health?
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where identical twin doctors Chris and Xand van Tulleken cut through the confusion around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.
In this episode, the Docs take a look at the impact our friendships have on our physical health. Why different friendship styles are important and how we can maintain and nurture our social connections.
Joining them is Dr Tiffany Watt Smith, a writer and cultural historian interested in the histories of emotion and medicine.
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: Tiffany Watt Smith
Producer and researcher: Faye Lyons-White
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable
Visual Producer: Leon Gower
Digital Lead: Richard Berry
Composer: Phoebe McFarlane
Sound Design: Ruth Rainey
At the BBC:
Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 17:00 PM (m002xdlj)
Full coverage of the day's news
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002xdll)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 18:30 One Person Found This Helpful (m002xdln)
Series 4
Trouble with Lint
Frank and guests Rajiv Karia, Scott Bennett, Bella Hull and Laura Smyth learn about fat necks, ice sculptures and the most fun you can have while sweating in a boiler suit. Clue - it doesn’t involve lizards!
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 and Peter Tellouche, with additional material by Darren Phillips and Kevin Smith.
Devised by Jason Hazeley and Simon Evans with the producer David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m002xdlq)
Jazzer offers his opinion, and Kirsty receives support from an unlikely source.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m002xdls)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 20:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002xdlv)
Award-winning current affairs documentary series
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m002xdlx)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 The Law Show (m002x5h1)
Why were three teen rapists not given custodial sentences?
Note: this episode contains frequent references to rape, sexual assault and physical assault.
There's been public confusion and outrage over the sentences given to three teenage boys, who were convicted of rape.
In November 2024 and January 2025, two girls, then aged 15 and 14, were attacked in separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, by two 14-year-olds. Another boy, then 13, was also convicted for his involvement in the second rape.
The teenage boys were given youth rehabilitation orders and walked out of court with 10 rape convictions between them.
The Prime Minister says the case will be referred to the Court of Appeal. He described the case as distressing and said "there are questions about the sentence". One of the girls who was raped told the BBC that the judge's decision was like a "rock straight in my face".
So what are the likely reasons why the three teenage boys were given non-custodial sentences?
What is the guidance around youth sentencing, and what are youth rehabilitation orders?
How do youth courts - and youth custody - work, and how does the system differ from the adult courts in England and Wales?
And does the adversarial nature of our criminal justice system lead to vulnerable victims being re-traumatised?
Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producers: Ravi Naik and Ivana Davidovic
Editor: Damon Rose
Contributors:
Kirsty Brimelow KC, Chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales
Dr Charlotte Proudman, a barrister who specialises in family law and human rights
Dr Kathy Hampson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Aberystwyth University
TUE 21:30 The Bottom Line (m002x5jz)
Trainer Wars
The 2026 London Marathon saw new world record times set in both the men's and women's events. Eyes weren't just on the winning athletes but also on the Adidas trainers they were wearing. So what goes into designing and making a pair of trainers and why have some of them become so expensive to buy? Global sales for trainers are in the tens of billions of dollars with hundreds of new styles being produced every year. How does the industry keep up with demand and stay on trend? Giant companies like Nike and Adidas, who dominated the industry for decades, can no longer take anything for granted. Newer brands like On and Hoka have managed to break through and are shaking things up. How have they managed to do it? Evan Davis gets some insights and answers from people who work in the industry.
Guests:
Tony Evans: Managing Director of Jacobson Group
Tom Astrella: Co-founder The Footsoldiers
Wayne Edy: Founder and CEO of Inov8
Presenter: Evan Davis
Producer: Sally Abrahams & Nick Holland
Sounds: Dave O'Neill and Frank McWeeny
Editor: Sam Bonham
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m002xdlz)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Jensen: Black Water by Heidi Amsinck (m002xdm1)
Episode 2
A new case, set in Copenhagen, for the investigative reporter.
Jensen is now a single mother, and her own mother, Marion, is living with her to help with childcare. But not even an eight month old daughter is going to stop Jensen from working as she has always worked, digging deepest into a case and annoying her old flame DI Henrik Jungersen.
Late at night, celebrity vegan chef Sonny Velin is found dead in the basement of his prestigious Michelin-starred restaurant, Plant. Some things point to suicide, but if so, why was he found arranged in such a peculiar manner?
And why did he arrange for Jensen to be first on the scene?
Episode 2
Why was Sonny arranged in death like a character from book of nursery rhymes? While Jensen and Gustav interview one of Sonny’s rivals, CC footage leads Henrik to make an arrest.
Copenhagen-born Heidi Amsinck has written numerous short stories for radio. Her collection Last Train To Helsingør, was published in 2018. The fifth novel in her ‘Jensen’ series, The Woman In The Wall, was published in April 2026.
Writer: Heidi Amsinck
Reader: MyAnna Buring
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:00 Uncanny (m002xdm4)
Cold Cases
Case 10: The Great Amherst Mystery
Danny and the team travel back to Canada in the 1870s to investigate the Great Amherst Mystery - one of the most famous and perplexing paranormal cases to come to light during the Golden Age of Spiritualism.
18 year old Esther Cox is the centre of a series of inexplicable, possibly paranormal events - phantom knocking, ghostly messages, and a series of spontaneous fires that start inside the walls of her house.
But is she the victim of a possible paranormal entity, or the mastermind of a devious hoax?
Presented by Danny Robins
Experts: Evelyn Hollow and Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe
Story sections by Sarah Morgan
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 (m002xdm6)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE 2026
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m002xdm8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 The Butterfly Season by Lea Korsgaard (m002xdkw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002xdmb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002xdmd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:00 News Summary (m002xdmg)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002xdmj)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WED 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002xdml)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002xdmn)
Food brings us together
Prayer for the Day presented by Rabbi Warren Elf of the Liverpool Reform Synagogue.
Good morning.
I come across many Jewish people who would identify themselves as cultural Jews. By that I think many of them mean that they are not religious, are not big on God, do not necessarily keep many of the religious rules and traditions and even do not ‘do’ most of the festivals and holy days.
The way that many of them might connect with religious life and special days is gastronomically, through traditional (or not so traditional) foods.
It is often joked that the essence of most Jewish holidays is ‘they’ tried to kill us, God saved us, let’s eat!
Of course there are other reasons for Jewish festivals, but food is often a reason that people get together to celebrate, even when the religious side is not important to them.
Food is important and can bring us together in so many ways. Someone who asked “what is Jewish food” was told “the food that Jews eat”! It’s as simple, or as complicated, as that and probably depends on where in the world our families come from and what foods we ate in those countries or regions.
In the Ashkenazi world, gefilte or chopped and fried fish, brisket, and chicken soup are essential. For Sephardim, the Shabbat stew adafina, pastries like bourekas, and stuffed vegetables are vital. Ethiopian Jews often celebrate Shabbat with the spiced chicken dish doro wat, Bukharians are known for the herb-laced dish bahksh, and Romans for their artichokes. There are so many more!
So today I pray that whatever I choose to eat and whoever I choose to eat with, I am always grateful to those who helped get the food to my table. May I always thank God and the farmers and the producers of my food with blessings and other expressions of gratitude.
And may I always try to share what I have with others around me, especially with those who may not always have food.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m002xdmq)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 06:00 Today (m002xdnw)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 More or Less (m002xdny)
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life.
WED 09:30 Intrigue (m002xdp0)
To Catch a King
5. Travel Agents
A Turkish smuggler and his money man reveal more about alliances between criminal gangs.
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 and Rob Lawrie
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 (m002xdp2)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 11:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002xdlv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Tuesday]
WED 11:40 This Week in History (m002xdp4)
June 8th to June 14th
Fascinating, surprising and eye-opening stories from the past, brought to life..
8th June 793: A Viking raid on the island of Lindisfarne marks the beginning of the Viking Age in Europe.
9th June 1975: The first live transmission from the House of Commons is broadcast on the radio.
9th June 1898: China leases Hong Kong to Britain for 99 years.
WED 11:45 The Butterfly Season by Lea Korsgaard (m002xdp6)
Episode 3
Lea Korsgaard searches for all of Denmark’s butterfly species in one year. She discovers secret places and learns about the rich natural and symbolic history of butterflies.
Butterflies are an intrinsic part of the ecosystem, pollinating plants and acting as food for larger creatures. Their existence is entwined with the plant life and landscapes they make home, but habitats are reducing and with this, butterfly populations are under threat.
Learning about the potential loss of habitat and butterflies, journalist Lea Korsgaard goes on a quest to see all of Denmark’s 64 butterfly species in a single year.
She is a butterfly novice, but over the course of the year, she learns about the extraordinary facts of butterfly metamorphosis, meets passionate experts who show her the secret places where butterflies still proliferate and finds out about the history of collectors for whom butterflies had become an obsession. She finally learns that she has become as hooked as the experts she has met.
In episode 3, Lea goes in search of the rarest butterfly in Denmark and gets advice from an expert about where she will find it. She learns about how early 20th century collectors would kill their discoveries and preserve them, a practise not used today. Getting into the swing of collecting herself, she learns to document her discoveries with a camera instead.
Her discovery of the rarest butterfly is bittersweet as she discovers from the experts accompanying her that they have been rapidly on the decline in numbers due to habitat loss and could become extinct. Armed with this new information, her quest acquires more urgency as she hopes she’ll find her 64 species, while they still survive.
Read by Nicola Walker
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Lisa Lipman
Sound design by Jon Calver
Executive produce:, Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:00 News Summary (m002xdp8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m002xdpb)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m002xdpd)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m002xdpg)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
WED 13:45 Politically (m002xjqy)
Ten Years After Brexit
3: Immigration
The debate on immigration was at the heart of the Brexit referendum, and sparked strong emotions from both Leave and Remain voters. Those who voted for Brexit saw it as an opportunity to ‘take back control’ of the country’s borders and, by implication, lower immigration. But in the years immediately after Brexit, the country saw its highest ever levels of net migration. Did Brexit fail in its promise to voters on immigration? And why does the issue continue to be such a central concern in our politics today?
Alex Forsyth speaks to James Bowes, a data analyst at the University of Warwick, and Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, about how we should assess Brexit’s success in tackling immigration.
Presenter: Alex Forsyth
Producers: Ben Carter and Mhairi MacKenzie
Editor: Richard Vadon
Studio engineer and sound mix: James Beard
Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
WED 14:00 The Archers (m002xdlq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Trust (m0019z4v)
Series 3 – 3. Going Green
Trust by Jonathan Hall 3/3
East Salford Academy has just had a biomass boiler fitted. Whilst acknowledging that the school has to go green, Yvette discovers it is costly and unreliable. And with the vaccination roll out for the kids in progress, a dodgy boiler is the last thing she needs.
Yvette..........................Julie Hesmondhalgh
Sir Ken.........................Jonathan Keeble
Tim...............................Ashley Margolis
Dhrutti........................Mina Anwar
Carol/Joy....................Susan Twist
Billy...............................Jason Done
Gunner.........................James Quinn
Director/Producer Gary Brown
WED 15:00 The Law Show (m002xdpj)
The Law Show is your guide to the law and the legal decisions that have a bearing on everyone in the UK.
WED 15:30 The Artificial Human (m002xdpl)
3. Can AI help us win the World Cup?
The 2026 World Cup is just around the corner, with England and Scotland heading overseas to play for their countries. FIFA has called it the most technologically advanced tournament yet, with all 48 teams given access to the same AI tools, designed to democratise elite football intelligence.
So how will this year’s competition look, with every team now using AI as part of their training and strategy? And could it help us win the World Cup?
We’ll be speaking to Stuart Fenton from Reading FC, the first Head of AI appointed by an English club, who’ll explain how they’re using AI to transform the club and push towards the Premier League.
Plus, we’ll hear from Agnieszka Antoszkiewicz, CEO of OrdoStrategica and former Integrity Manager at FIFA, on how AI-driven changes are impacting the game, and whether the rules and safeguards are keeping up.
Presenters: Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong
Producer: Rachael O'Neill
Sound: Niall Young
WED 16:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002xdpn)
Who's in the news for all the wrong reasons? With David Yelland and Simon Lewis.
WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002xdpq)
This is the programme about a revolution in media.
WED 17:00 PM (m002xdps)
Full coverage of the day's news
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002xdpv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 18:30 Stand-Up Specials (m002xdpx)
Ian Smith Is Stressed - Series 2
4. Fertility
Ian Smith takes us on a personal journey through his own struggles with male fertility. Personal battles with micro-plastics, bus-timetables, superfast wi-fi, shamans and more in the series finale of Ian Smith is Stressed.
Written and performed by Ian Smith
Additional Material from Mike Shephard and Rhiannon Shaw
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 (m002xdpz)
It’s last chance saloon at Home Farm, and Amber faces a dilemma.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m002xdq1)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m002xdq3)
Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze
WED 21:00 The Gift (m002wd93)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 All in the Mind (m002xdkr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Tuesday]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m002xdq5)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Jensen: Black Water by Heidi Amsinck (m002xdq7)
Episode 3
A new case, set in Copenhagen, for the investigative reporter.
Jensen is now a single mother, and her own mother, Marion, is living with her to help with childcare. But not even an eight month old daughter is going to stop Jensen from working as she has always worked, digging deepest into a case and annoying her old flame DI Henrik Jungersen.
Late at night, celebrity vegan chef Sonny Velin is found dead in the basement of his prestigious Michelin-starred restaurant, Plant. Some things point to suicide, but if so, why was he found arranged in such a peculiar manner?
And why did he arrange for Jensen to be first on the scene?
Episode 3
Sonny’s widow, Katrine, and his sous chef, Mia, hold a press conference. But for Jensen, it poses more questions than it answers.
Copenhagen-born Heidi Amsinck has written numerous short stories for radio. Her collection Last Train To Helsingør, was published in 2018. The fifth novel in her ‘Jensen’ series, The Woman In The Wall, was published in April 2026.
Writer: Heidi Amsinck
Reader: MyAnna Buring
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:00 The Big Idea with Alistair Green (m002xdq9)
Series 1
Punk Squirrel founder Matt Matthews
Alistair welcomes into the studio one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country. Matt Matthews has caused quite the stir since he burst onto the scene with his viral video #TastesLikePiss, and has since gone on to build a behemoth of a craft beer brand - Punk Squirrel IPA - which is currently valued at £540 million.
Prodded by Alistair’s probing and insightful questions, Matt goes deep. Over the course of this raw and unfiltered 14 minute interview Matt explains the thinking behind the game changing brand name Punk Squirrel, how the minus 53% employee satisfaction rating was actually a positive thing, and how Punk Squirrel Property Management marks a new and exciting chapter for him, and him alone.
The Big Idea with Alistair Green is brought to you by Are You Okay? Mental Health. I do love you.
Written and performed by Alistair Green.
Produced by Alex Burnard.
A Cup & Nuzzle production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:15 Jazz Emu: The Sound of Us (p0hbnpch)
2. The Sound of the Future
Artificial Intelligence puts Jazz’s musical career in jeopardy when a robot clone of Jazz begins storming the charts. Human Jazz must beat his electronic counterpart for a spot in the UK Top 40 and convince the London Palladium that HE is the real Jazz Emu.
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
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002xdqf)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 11 JUNE 2026
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m002xdqh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 The Butterfly Season by Lea Korsgaard (m002xdp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002xdqk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002xdqm)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:00 News Summary (m002xdqp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002xdqr)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THU 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002xdqt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002xdqw)
Family
Prayer for the Day presented by Rabbi Warren Elf of the Liverpool Reform Synagogue.
Good morning.
Many people have told me over the years that one thing they admire about Judaism is the emphasis on family and family life.
On one level I understand that and on another I am surprised by it.
A lot of Jewish life revolves round the family and the home. There is a duty to respect, even honour, our parents. There is also a duty to raise and protect our children, teaching them Torah, a trade and to swim. I think that covers moral and religious teaching, earning a living to support ourselves and a family, and keeping ourselves alive and saving others.
There is also the duty to look after the elderly and respect them.
Yet not all Jewish families are as united and cohesive as we might hope for and there can be all sorts of issues, family break down, fall outs and more. Families are families, in any community, and we try to be the best we can but it does not always work out.
In fact, if you look at the early examples of families in the Bible, I am not sure that Abraham or Isaac or Jacob were the best role models. Quite the opposite in some ways! And later Biblical families were not much better – and some a darn sight worse.
But family and community are important, with the family being the basic unit as part of a community. The ideal family would be one where there is love and respect and care for each other, unconditionally.
So my prayer this morning is that I always love, respect and have compassion for all members of my family, unconditionally. I pray that when I slip up or fall short of this, I am big enough to apologise and work to restore the right relationship. I also pray that I can help others to do the same.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m002xdqy)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 06:00 Today (m002xgyz)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m002xgz1)
Machado de Assis
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the towering figures of Brazilian and world literature, Machado de Assis (1839 - 1908). He was the descendant of slaves and built his career while slavery was still in place in Brazil (abolished 1888) and many of his characters were from the slave-owning class who were also the readers of his books. At the time, those readers were delighted to see themselves represented and it was only later in the 20th Century that critics realized just how much Machado was satirising them. While he brings 19th Century Brazil vividly to life, Machado's works transcend time and place and, according to Salman Rushdie, they seem to have been written yesterday not 100 years ago.
With
Ana Cláudia Suriani da Silva
Associate Professor in Brazilian Studies at University College London
Claire Williams
Professor of Brazilian Literature and Culture at the Faculty of Modern Languages at the University of Oxford, fellow of St. Peter's College
And
Viviane Carvalho da Annunciação
Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics at the University of Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Production
Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.
THU 09:45 Strong Message Here (m002xgz3)
Armando Iannucci and guests decode the utterly baffling world of political language.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002xgz5)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m002xgz7)
In-depth conversations with some of the world's leading artists and creatives across theatre, visual arts, music, dance, film and more.
THU 11:45 The Butterfly Season by Lea Korsgaard (m002xgz9)
Episode 4
Lea Korsgaard searches for all of Denmark’s butterfly species in one year. She discovers secret places and learns about the rich natural and symbolic history of butterflies.
Butterflies are an intrinsic part of the ecosystem, pollinating plants and acting as food for larger creatures. Their existence is entwined with the plant life and landscapes they make home, but habitats are reducing and with this, butterfly populations are under threat.
Learning about the potential loss of habitat and butterflies, journalist Lea Korsgaard goes on a quest to see all of Denmark’s 64 butterfly species in a single year.
She is a butterfly novice, but over the course of the year, she learns about the extraordinary facts of butterfly metamorphosis, meets passionate experts who show her the secret places where butterflies still proliferate and finds out about the history of collectors for whom butterflies had become an obsession. She finally learns that she has become as hooked as the experts she has met.
In this episode, Lea discovers that over the course of history, some lepidopterists became obsessional about collecting. She discovers the symbolic meaning of butterflies in mythology, and their place in different cultures from pre-Colombian to Japan. As she ticks of many more butterflies on the list, her journey takes her in search of some of the rarest butterflies, to discover they are rare for a reason. Habitats are disappearing and with them, the insect life, specifically butterflies that makes it their home. Has she missed her chance to see the Danish butterfly species that are fast disappearing?
Read by Nicola Walker
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Lisa Lipman
Sound design by Jon Calver
Executive producer: Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m002xgzc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 The Bottom Line (m002xgzf)
Evan Davis hosts the business conversation show
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002xgzh)
Toast - Paperchase
Why did the popular stationery chain, Paperchase, end up closing all of its shops?
The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, investigates in the company of resident entrepreneur, Sam White.
Paperchase was founded by two former art students in the late 1960s and went on to become the design darling of the high street, known for its charming greeting cards, wrapping paper, stationery, gifts and art materials.
It expanded across Britain and beyond to America, the Middle East and parts of Europe.
What made Paperchase so special? And how could decades of success slide into decline then shop closures?
Sean speaks to:
-Chris and Rebecca Pond whose father, Eddie Pond, was Paperchase's co-founder
-Timothy Melgund - who ran Paperchase under different ownership for over 20 years and led two management buyouts.
-Liz Faulkner - from Jelly Armchair, a company that designs greeting cards and supplied Paperchase.
At the end, Sam White has to come up with her own conclusions about the fate of Paperchase 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 (m002xgzk)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m002xgzm)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
THU 13:45 Politically (m002xjr0)
Ten Years After Brexit
4: Northern Ireland
When the UK voted to leave the EU, Northern Ireland became one of the most contentious aspects of the Brexit negotiations. The prospect of a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland threatened to undermine the Good Friday agreement, and resurfaced divisions about Irish reunification. Although the Windsor Framework was eventually introduced in 2023, the political and economic uncertainty of the negotiation years has had lasting implications.
Alex Forsyth is joined by John Campbell, BBC Northern Ireland’s Business and Economics Editor, and Katy Hayward, Professor of Political Sociology at Queens’ University, Belfast, to look at how Brexit has shaped Northern Ireland in the decade since the referendum vote.
Presenter: Alex Forsyth
Producers: Sally Abrahams
Editor: Richard Vadon
Studio engineer and sound mix: James Beard
Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
THU 14:00 The Archers (m002xdpz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002xgzp)
The Goalkeeper’s Guide to Absurdism
Algiers, 1930. Albert Camus, philosopher, novelist, playwright, journalist, future Nobel Prize winner and current goalkeeper is about to play the football match of his life… the game that would be his last.
Before Albert Camus was causing existential crises, he was saving goals. Step inside the mind of one of the world’s greatest thinkers as he plays the final game of his career before succumbing to ill-health. As he stands in goal, he falls into the grip of a fever dream and is assailed by the greatest minds - Hegel, Aristotle, Kierkegaard - all offering advice on the biggest questions:
what is the meaning of life?
Does God exist?
And what is the offside rule?
Written by Paul Sirett
Cast:
Albert Camus... Arthur Darvill
Amandine ...Cecelia Appiah.
Directed by Carl Prekopp
Sound Design by Jon Nicholls
Produced by Wilkinson Productions for BBC Radio 4
Production Co-ordinator : Eleanor Mein
Script supervisor/Associate Producer : Emily Reader
Producer : Richard Shannon
Senior Producer : Andy Wilkinson
Executive Producer : Lucinda Mason Brown
Artwork by Thea Mae
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m002xgzr)
Mending Footpaths in Eryri
Clare walks with a group of British Mountaineering Council volunteers who’ve been working to repair footpaths in Eryri, formerly known as Snowdonia National Park.
These ‘Get Stuck In’ events give people a chance to spend time with like-minded folk, in beautiful landscapes, improving the paths that walkers depend upon.
The work takes place over two days under the guidance of experienced volunteer leaders and a local ranger, followed by a shared walk, giving the group a chance to enjoy the landscape they've been working in.
Clare joined volunteers and staff from the BMC and the National Trust at the start their walk on the shores of Llyn Ogwen at Grid Reference SH659602 on OS Map OL17 Yr Wdffya/Snowdon. They hiked under the dramatic peak of Tryfan in the Ogwen Valley.
https://www.thebmc.co.uk/en/get-involved-volunteering
Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor
Ramblings is a BBC Studios Audio production.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m002xdbn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Word of Mouth (m002xgzt)
Smell
Michael Rosen finds out about the different ways of describing smells around the world. Asifa Majid is Professor of Cognitive Science at Oxford and her research has found that odours are expressible in language, as long as you speak the right language.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth O'Dea, in partnership with the Open University
Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz
THU 16:00 Rethink (m002xgzw)
Rethink... how we age
Have you ever wondered why some people age better than others?
We all know someone who looks great for their age, and is also in robust health. And yet someone else who is exactly the same age might look older, and may be living with an age-related illness.
Chronological age is not always be a good indicator of how well someone is maturing. So, if our skin - which is our largest organ - suggests how well, or badly, we're aging, then the state of our other organs and the systems that keep them running may also indicate how old we are.
This measure is called your biological age.
And there are many ways of measuring biological age, from the simple - the strength of your hand grip, to the detailed - looking at the changes in chemical markers attached to your DNA, called epigenetic markers.
They lie "on top of" the DNA, without changing it - much like an instruction written on a post-it note attached to a piece of sheet music. The instruction means the music can be expressed differently, without changing the tune. Epigenetics explains why the DNA in every one of our cells is the same, and yet the cells can look very different from one another. They can be heart cells, blood cells, hair cells and so on, because the markers cause different genes on the same DNA to be expressed.
Epigenetics has allowed scientists to create clocks to tell you your biological age: the latest one can even tell you how fast you're aging. Advances in epigenetics have led to the new science of cellular regeneration.
And the world's first clinical trials are underway in the USA for a treatment that transforms old, dysfunctional and damaged cells into young healthy ones - treating aging itself.
Presenter: Ben Ansell
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Damon Rose
Contributors:
Andrew Steele PhD, author of Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old. and director of the Longevity Initative
Dr Nessa Carey, molecular biologist, visiting Professor at Imperial College London and author of The Epigenetics Revolution
Dr Daniel Belsky, Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, and developer of the algorithm for the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock
Dr Sharon Rosenzweig-Lipson, Chief Scientific Officer at cellular rejuvenation company Life Biosciences
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977q)
A weekly show exploring science, its mysteries, and the debates it sparks.
THU 17:00 PM (m002xgzz)
Full coverage of the day's news
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002xh01)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 18:30 Ellie Taylor's Safe Space (m001l2bw)
Series 3
4: Billionaires
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. In the final episode of this series, she tries to convince her audience that billionaires are actually a good thing. They're high achievers and set us an example of something to aim for, plus without billionaire Jeff Bezos we wouldn't be able to order Amazon Prime next day delivery.
Joining Ellie to prove her point is regular sidekick Robin Morgan.
With special guest: Journalist and curator of The Sunday Times Rich List, Robert Watts. He chats to Ellie about how people actually become billionaires, why there are more male billionaires in the world and if he thinks they can be useful for society.
This series was first broadcast in March 2023.
Written by and starring Ellie Taylor and Robin Morgan.
Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: Richard Morris
Production Co-ordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Sound editor: Marc Willcox
A BBC Studios production for Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m002xgx2)
Stella makes a big declaration, and Helen eagerly anticipates an answer.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m002xh03)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
THU 20:00 When It Hits the Fan (m002xdpn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Wednesday]
THU 20:15 The Media Show (m002xdpq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:15 on Wednesday]
THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m002xd6f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
THU 21:45 Strong Message Here (m002xgz3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002xh05)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Jensen: Black Water by Heidi Amsinck (m002xh07)
Episode 4
A new case, set in Copenhagen, for the investigative reporter.
Jensen is now a single mother, and her own mother, Marion, is living with her to help with childcare. But not even an eight month old daughter is going to stop Jensen from working as she has always worked, digging deepest into a case and annoying her old flame DI Henrik Jungersen.
Late at night, celebrity vegan chef Sonny Velin is found dead in the basement of his prestigious Michelin-starred restaurant, Plant. Some things point to suicide, but if so, why was he found arranged in such a peculiar manner?
And why did he arrange for Jensen to be first on the scene?
Episode 4
Jensen and Gustav keep digging, meeting with a former colleague of Sonny’s and visiting Katrine at her home.
Copenhagen-born Heidi Amsinck has written numerous short stories for radio. Her collection Last Train To Helsingør, was published in 2018. The fifth novel in her ‘Jensen’ series, The Woman In The Wall, was published in April 2026.
Writer: Heidi Amsinck
Reader: MyAnna Buring
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:00 Radical with Amol Rajan (m002xh09)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002xh0c)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 12 JUNE 2026
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002xh0f)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 The Butterfly Season by Lea Korsgaard (m002xgz9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002xh0h)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002xh0m)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:00 News Summary (m002xh0r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:04 Yesterday in Parliament (m002xh0t)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRI 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002xh0w)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002xh0y)
World Day Against Child Labour
Prayer for the Day presented by Rabbi Warren Elf of the Liverpool Reform Synagogue.
Good morning.
Today is the 25th World Day Against Child Labour. Established in 2002, numerous events are held around the world on June 12th to mark the World Day Against Child Labour and call attention to the problem.
Child labour is especially rampant in many developing countries - but even in industrialised nations many children are forced to work.
In 2011, there were an estimated 215 million children having to work in the world - 115 million of whom were involved in hazardous work.
Since 2000, the world had been making steady progress in reducing this. But recent conflicts, crises and the COVID-19 pandemic, plunged more families into poverty – and forced millions more children into child labour.
This is unacceptable and we need to do everything we can to address this. We need to reduce and eradicate child exploitation, stand up for children’s rights and transform the lives of vulnerable children.
Child trafficking, sexual exploitation and dangerous work are the worst forms but we need to call out all forms of child labour and exploitation.
So, I pray that we find ways of protecting more children, of challenging the abusive employment practices that harm so many of them. I pray that we in our communities and as a society can reach out to help end child labour and trafficking in every situation.
I pray for a fairer world where children can live, grow and develop positively and healthily, in freedom.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002xh10)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 06:00 Today (m002xgwk)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m002xdc1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Sunday]
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002xgwm)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m002xgwp)
Food on the Move
Sheila Dillon heads out on the highway to investigate the world of food at motorway service stations. Historically they have been a place viewed as a functional stop-off for a "tea and a pee" and often maligned for the quality of their food. Motorway services enthusiast Dr David Lawrence from Kingston University talks through a short history of the Great British service station from Watford Gap and Newport Pagnell in 1959 through to present day.
AA President Edmund King briefs Sheila on how his membership views motorway service food and Robin Markwell reports on the opinions of lorry drivers from Chippenham Pit Stop on the M4 in Wiltshire where more healthy eating options are now appearing on the menu. Dan Sutton from Roadchef - one of the largest motorway service operators - also gives his thoughts on what the British motorist is looking for when wanting to be fed on the motorway and argues that familiarity of brands is key.
Sheila takes a trip to Tebay Services on the M6 in Cumbria to understand a different way of providing motorway service food. She meets the Dunnings family who have since opened services at Gloucester, Cairns Lodge in Lanarkshire and will soon open another at Tatton in Cheshire. Their ethos includes an emphasis on locally sourced, homecooked food. Sheila meets with their coffee and bread suppliers as well as touring their farm to understand how service areas might also be an engine for the local economy.
Produced by Robin Markwell in Bristol for BBC Audio.
FRI 11:45 The Butterfly Season by Lea Korsgaard (m002xgwr)
Episode 5
Lea Korsgaard searches for all of Denmark’s butterfly species in one year. She discovers secret places and learns about the rich natural and symbolic history of butterflies.
Butterflies are an intrinsic part of the ecosystem, pollinating plants and acting as food for larger creatures. Their existence is entwined with the plant life and landscapes they make home, but habitats are reducing and with this, butterfly populations are under threat.
Learning about the potential loss of habitat and butterflies, journalist Lea Korsgaard goes on a quest to see all of Denmark’s 64 butterfly species in a single year.
She is a butterfly novice, but over the course of the year, she learns about the extraordinary facts of butterfly metamorphosis, meets passionate experts who show her the secret places where butterflies still proliferate and finds out about the history of collectors for whom butterflies had become an obsession. She finally learns that she has become as hooked as the experts she has met.
In this episode, Lea learns about the concept of an endling - the very last of a species before it becomes extinct - and she wonders if she’s looking at the endlings of the rare butterflies she’s journeyed around Denmark to find. She spots the extraordinarily beautiful silver washed fritillary, but she still has many more to find before the year is over. She mulls on the marvels she has seen, all she has learnt, and how much she cares about butterflies now and wonders if it will matter in the end, if she doesn’t complete her task.
Read by Nicola Walker
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Lisa Lipman
Sound design by Jon Calver
Executive producer: Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m002xgwt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Rare Earth (m002xgww)
Hotter Than Hell
How can Britain- and the world- prepare itself for extreme heat? Tom Heap and Helen Czerski hear from the experts and from the people facing up to the hottest temperatures on the planet.
David Shukman, former BBC Science Editor asks how Britain should react to the threat in his new book, The Response, while Alex Riley, author of Super Natural guides us through the strategies used by animals that thrive in the hottest places on Earth. Tom and Helen are also joined from Bangalore by Chandni Singh of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements who shares her knowledge of the Indian response to heatwaves that can push the mercury to 48 degrees centigrade and make human life impossible to sustain.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Assistant Producer: Toby Field
FRI 12:57 Weather (m002xgwy)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m002xgx0)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
FRI 13:45 Politically (m002xjr4)
Ten Years After Brexit
5: The Union
When Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, politicians in Scotland and Wales hoped that the UK’s departure would mean more freedom for their governments over national matters. But in the decade since, uneasy constitutional questions have surfaced. Is devolution compatible with strengthened Westminster parliamentary sovereignty? And has Brexit deepened support for independence amongst the devolved nations?
Alex Forsyth speaks to Nicola McEwen, Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Glasgow, and Richard Wyn-Jones, Professor of Welsh Politics at Cardiff University about how Wales and Scotland viewed the referendum, and the political ramifications that the Brexit vote continues to have today.
Presenter: Alex Forsyth
Producers: Ben Carter and Mhairi MacKenzie
Editor: Richard Vadon
Studio engineer and sound mix: James Beard
Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m002xgx2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m002xgx4)
The Courier
Episode 2
Tormented by his conscience, Mo drifted into the dead woman's funeral and now her stepdaughter Elli, who is convinced that it wasn't suicide, has persuaded him to help her solve the mystery of what really happened to Rosa. Elli's pretty certain the death had something to do with the notorious Parnell family. How long can Mo keep lying to her, to his best friend Omar, and his mother? Will he get out of this tangled web before something else goes wrong?
Series creators: Eno Mfon and Darragh Mortell
Episode 2 by Eno Mfon
CAST
Mo - Mohamed Elsandel
Elli - Maeve Courtier-Lilley
Omar - Ali Goolyad
Mama - Alaa Taha
Amna - Fatima Seedahmed
Henry Parnell - Rick Yale
Mrs Parnell - Zoe Davies
Ryan Parnell - Callum Lloyd
Rosa - Laura dos Santos
Newsreader - 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 (m0012q2m)
Series 1
End User
In the past, state sponsored hacking focused on espionage, stealing sensitive information and disrupting technological system. Nowadays, the focus has shifted. Rather than hacking technology, state sponsored hackers are targeting people. Biella speaks with Darren Linvill about a new kind of malevolent hacking, and how by playing to the algorithms on various social networks, these professional agents can sow chaos, and rope lay users into spreading rage and misinformation across societies.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002xgx6)
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts.
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m002xgx8)
The Silence by Mahsuda Snaith
In this new story from Mahsuda Snaith, a woman struggles to keep a deathbed promises as she comes to terms with the loss of her dad.
Read by Anjli Mohindra
Mahsuda Snaith is a writer of novels and short stories. An ‘Observer New Face of Fiction’, her novel ‘How to Find Home’ was a Fiction Serial on BBC Radio 4. She is the winner of the SI Leeds Literary Prize and Bristol Short Story Prize. Her short story ‘The Panther’s Tale’ is included in ‘Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold’ and Mahsuda is currently working on her third novel.
Anjli Mohindra has starred in dramas Saviour (ITV), Half Man (BBC) and The Lazarus Project (Sky).
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m002xgxb)
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme
FRI 16:30 More or Less (m002xdny)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m002xgxd)
Full coverage of the day's news
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002xgxg)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 18:30 Dead Ringers (m002xgxj)
Series 27
Episode 1
Satirical impressions from the team headed up by Jon Culshaw and Jan Ravens.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m002xgxm)
6th – 12th June 2026
Writer: Liz John
Director: Andy Partington
Editor: Jeremy Howe
Brian Aldridge … Charles Collingwood
David Archer … Timothy Bentinck
Pip Archer …Daisy Badger
Ruth Archer … Felicity Finch
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas
Susan Carter …Charlotte Martin
Martyn Gibson … Jon Glover
Amber Gordon … Olivia Bernstone
Ed Grundy … Barry Farrimond
George Grundy … Angus Stobie
Jakob Hakansson … Paul Venables
Tracy Horrobin …Susie Riddell
Alistair Lloyd … Michael Lumsden
Adam Macy … Andrew Wincott
Jazzer McCreary … Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller … Annabelle Dowler
Stella Pryor … Lucy Speed
FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m002xgxp)
Guy Pratt and Amy Harman and the art of hocketing
Bass guitarist, composer and songwriter Guy Pratt and bassoonist Amy Harman are Jeffrey and Anna's studio guests as they add five more tracks. Starting with an early ska classic, they explore the art of 'hocketing' before heading to the beach with Einstein.
Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Miss Jamaica by Jimmy Cliff
Rock On by David Essex
Finale of Symphony No 6 in B Minor by Tchaikovsky
Hockets for Two Voices: 1 by Meara O’Reilly
Knee Play 5 from Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass
Other music in this episode:
Ain't No Doubt by Jimmy Nail
Like a Prayer by Madonna
The Reason by Celine Dion
I'm Alive by Vybz Kartel
Be My Guest by Fats Domino
Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed
The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd
9th Symphony by Gustav Mahler
Zap Mama by Babanzélé
Gamelan by the Bali Gamelan Orchestra
Money by Pink Floyd
Welcome to the Machine by Pink Floyd
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m002xgxr)
Topical discussion posing questions to a panel of political and media personalities.
FRI 20:55 This Week in History (m002xdp4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:40 on Wednesday]
FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m002xgxt)
Satire and Gulliver's Travels
300 years after the publication of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Matthew Sweet looks at satire, past and present. How can satirists reflect critically and humorously on political events in an age of social media saturation and at a time when reality can seem stranger than fiction?
He is joined by:
Andrew Hunter Murray, comedian, writer and host of Radio 4's The Naked Week
Jan Ravens, actor and impressionist, known for her work on Spitting Image and Radio 4's Dead Ringers
Rosie Holt, actor and comedian, currently performing in her play Churchill's Urinal
Tom Peck, Parliamentary sketch writer for The Times.
Producer: Eliane Glaser
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002xgxw)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Jensen: Black Water by Heidi Amsinck (m002xgxy)
Episode 5
A new case, set in Copenhagen, for the investigative reporter.
Jensen is now a single mother, and her own mother, Marion, is living with her to help with childcare. But not even an eight month old daughter is going to stop Jensen from working as she has always worked, digging deepest into a case and annoying her old flame DI Henrik Jungersen.
Late at night, celebrity vegan chef Sonny Velin is found dead in the basement of his prestigious Michelin-starred restaurant, Plant. Some things point to suicide, but if so, why was he found arranged in such a peculiar manner?
And why did he arrange for Jensen to be first on the scene?
Episode 5
Jensen and Gustav are closing in on the identity of Sonny’s killer. But just who is “Sausage Else”?
Copenhagen-born Heidi Amsinck has written numerous short stories for radio. Her collection Last Train To Helsingør, was published in 2018. The fifth novel in her ‘Jensen’ series, The Woman In The Wall, was published in April 2026.
Writer: Heidi Amsinck
Reader: MyAnna Buring
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 23:00 Americast (m002xgy0)
Join Americast for insights and analysis on what's happening inside Trump's White House.
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m002xgy2)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.