SATURDAY 18 JULY 2026
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m002yw97)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:30 Cash Cow by Alev Scott (m002yw77)
Episode 5
Alev Scott had just given birth to her first child, during lock-down in Amsterdam, when she found herself over producing milk. Anxious not to waste this precious, nutrient rich liquid she began to look into the possibility of donation. Soon she found herself in a bewildering world of online marketplaces, and gradually she came to turn her attention to an industry which commodifies every aspect of the maternal body.
She describes how, ‘'The fertility industry is the only legal industry where one person’s biological bad luck can be another person’s gain. A woman who can carry a pregnancy to term can choose to earn money doing exactly that for someone else; a woman who has plenty of breast milk can sell it; a woman with a healthy ovarian reserve can sell her eggs. This is a more direct, quantifiable form of biological luck than that of a professional athlete or model. The trade is as basic as it gets, and despite its ethical complexities it is largely legal, as opposed to its nearest comparable, large-scale trade: human organ trafficking."
From milk to eggs, to the hiring out of a placenta in the form of surrogacy Alev delves into the commercial, and sometime altruistic, transactions that are fuelled by the age-old desire to have children.
Professor Peter Frankopan describes it as "A powerful, intimate and disturbing exploration of the hidden markets built on women's bodies".
Written by Alev Scott
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
Read by Hattie Morahan
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
9Status:
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002yw99)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002yw9c)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:30 News Summary (m002yw9f)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002yw9h)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002yw9k)
Natural Therapy
Prayer for the Day presented by Steve Taylor.
Good morning.
There are many types of therapy – cognitive therapy, aromatherapy, massage therapy, and so on. I’m sure they are all effective to some degree, although they might involve varying degrees of effort and expense.
But for me, the most effective therapy is free and involves very little effort. You don’t even have to make an appointment. It’s always available, for unlimited sessions. The most you might have to do is get on a bus or train or drive out of the city. But even in a city, a park will serve just as well. Even sitting in your back garden may have the same effect.
Over the last few months, I’ve been regularly connecting with nature. I’ve felt its therapeutic power very strongly. It’s so calming to be surrounded by fields and trees, overlooking lakes and valleys, with the open sky above. Worries seemed to ebb away. Problems seem to lose significance. I find it difficult to feel depressed after a few hours in the countryside.
The therapeutic effects of nature are now widely recognised. In psychology, it’s sometimes referred to as ecotherapy. Maybe you’ve heard about the ‘green prescriptions’ that some doctors now offer for some psychological conditions. As I have expressed it poetically:
Nature awakens us to the present
so that the past and future stop disturbing us.
Her radiance spreads through our inner space
so that shadows of fear and worry fade
and love, hope and gratitude arise.
And at the end of the day
we are purified, refreshed
reconnected to our source
reattuned to natural harmony.
So if you have a spare hour or two today, treat yourself to a session of natural therapy. I hope you’ll experience some degree of healing.
Blessings.
SAT 05:45 Living on the Edge (m001n1nv)
Morecambe Bay
Ten coastal encounters, presented by Richard King.
Today: fishing for shrimp in Morecambe Bay with Michael and Joanne Wilson.
Not simply town or countryside, the coastline is a place apart – attracting lives and stories often overlooked.
In these ten programmes, the writer Richard King travels around the UK coast to meet people who live and work there – a sequence of portraits rooted in distinct places, which piece together into an alternative portrait of the UK: an oblique image of the nation drawn from the coastal edge.
Producer: Martin Williams
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m002z5nn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 06:07 This Natural Life (m002yxvb)
Peter Lord
Aardman Animations co-founder Peter Lord takes Martha Kearney to the magical mediaeval Whitcliff Deer Park in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. It's his favourite place to walk in nature and watch the wild fallow and red deer herds that live there inside the old walls, on land that's been left wild for centuries.
Producer Beth O'Dea
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m002z5nq)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
SAT 06:57 Weather (m002z5ns)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m002z5nv)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m002z5nx)
Alan Davies, Trainspotting the Musical, Life After a Ruptured Brain, and the Inheritance Tracks of Adrian Lester
The comedian Alan Davies on what he could live life without, Irvine Welsh on the soundtrack to his writing style, and how Clemency Burton-Hill survived a brain haemorrhage.
SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (m002z5nz)
Anne Bonny and Mary Read: real-life pirates of the Caribbean
Greg Jenner is joined in the eighteenth-century Caribbean by historian and curator Hannah Cusworth and comedian Kemah Bob to learn about the swashbuckling lives of pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. These women and their adventures on the high seas have become the stuff of legend, helped along by the sensational account of their lives written shortly after their capture. Though they are famous for the short period they spent together on a pirate ship, dressed as men to hide their true identities, the two had very different backgrounds. Anne was the well-off and rebellious daughter of a merchant and plantation owner in Carolina, while the working-class Mary already had experience dressing in men’s clothing and working as a sailor and soldier. This episode traces their biographies, exploring their upbringings, romantic entanglements (with men and each other), and time aboard the pirate ship captained by the infamous Captain 'Calico Jack' Rackham, as well as their ultimate fate. And it looks at the wider context of the Caribbean, the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and the Golden Age of piracy which shaped their lives and choices, and asks what place they have in queer and trans histories of the period.
If you’re a fan of swashbuckling pirates, women in male professions, and the complicated history of slavery and colonialism in the Caribbean, you’ll love our episode on Anne Bonny and Mary Read.
If you want more from Kemah Bob, listen to our episodes on Hatshepsut or Prohibition in the USA. And for more swashbuckling women, check out our episodes on duellist and opera singer Julie d’Aubigny, Chinese pirate queen Zheng Yi Sao, or Irish pirate Grainne O’Malley.
You’re Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past.
Hosted by: Greg Jenner
Research by: Naomi Weaver
Written by: Naomi Weaver, Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Dr Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner
Produced by: Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett
Senior Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse
Executive Editor: Philip Sellars
SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m002z5p1)
Series 53
Exeter
Jay Rayner and the panel are in Crediton, just outside Exeter, answering listeners’ culinary questions.
Joining Jay are cooks, chefs and food writers Sophie Wright, Angela Gray and Melissa Thompson, alongside food historian Dr Annie Gray.
The panellists discuss creative ways to cook with apple molasses, the best ways to prepare invasive signal crayfish, the secrets behind perfectly bronzed pretzel buns and the most refreshing fruit-based drinks for hot weather.
Hosted at Sandford Orchards, the programme also explores Devon’s rich cider-making heritage with founder and chief cider maker, Barny Butterfield and chef Tom Chivers of Dart Farm. Together they discuss traditional cider apple varieties, the preservation of historic orchards and the culinary possibilities of apple molasses, from savoury glazes and marinades to decadent desserts.
Producer: Matt Smith
Assistant Producer: William Norton
A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m002z5p3)
Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002z5p5)
Bangladesh's deadly measles outbreak
Kate Adie introduces stories on Bangladesh's deadly measles outbreak, France's military flex on Bastille Day, Albania's 'flamingo revolution', Ecuador's bird-watching boom, and remembering BBC Rome correspondent David Willey.
Bangladesh is experiencing a severe measles outbreak, with around 700 people dying of confirmed and suspected cases since March - most of them children. BBC South Asia Correspondent Azadeh Moshiri reports from a hospital, north of the capital Dhaka.
France celebrated Bastille Day this week, which marks the beginning of the French revolution. This was the last parade under President Emmanuel Macron, who steps down from office next year – but he made sure to make his mark, showcasing French military power and celebrating unity with its allies. James Waterhouse reports from Paris.
In Albania, the pink flamingo has become an unlikely symbol of protest, reflecting environmental concerns over a proposed tourism development that triggered recent protests. But as Guy De Launey discovered, unhappiness among voters runs much deeper.
Ecuador is one of the best places to watch birds anywhere in the world, boasting some 1600 species – twice as many as the whole of Europe. Unsurprisingly, birding tourism is thriving. Stephen Moss has been ticking off some rare spots.
And veteran BBC correspondent, David Willey, died last weekend at the age of 93. Across a career spanning decades, he reported from around the world - covering communist China, the Vietnam war, and Libya during in Gaddafi era. His former producer, Joanne Cayford, remembers her time working with him during his long-standing role as BBC Rome correspondent.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production coordinators: Gemma Ashman & Sophie Hill
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m002z5p7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m002z5p9)
State Pension Age Rise, Gazundering and Air-Con
Urgent action is needed to help people in their sixties on low incomes who face a delay of up to a year before they can claim their State Pension. That is the main recommendation of a new report from the Work and Pensions Committee. Pension age rises over the next two years from 66 to 67 and the committee of MPs fears some of the people affected by that delay face poverty unless the benefit rules are changed to give them more money. The Department for Work and Pensions says in February,
0.02% of the Universal Credit caseload was aged 65 or 66. It also welcomed the report saying it will consider the recommendations in due course.
There’s growing concern in the housing industry over the rise in a practice known as “gazundering”. It’s when people selling homes are told by buyers just days before exchanging, that they must drop the agreed price by thousands of pounds or risk losing the deal. The Conveyancing Association says it’s a growing problem and is urging the government to implement reforms which would stop the practice “without delay”. The government says it's stopping gazundering by introducing "legally binding agreements that prevent buyers from walking away at the last minute without a valid reason, with fines for those who do."
Money Box has found that a grant which can be used to install a heating system than can also act as air conditioning is not up and running, despite being announced in November. We'll investigate why.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth, Jo Krasner and Niamh McDermott
Editor: Jess Quayle
Senior News Editor: Sara Wadeson
Photo Credit: Witthaya Prasongsin via Getty Images
(First broadcast
12pm Saturday 18th July 2026)
SAT 12:30 Dead Ringers (m002yw8p)
Series 27
England out, Starmer out, School's out
The Dead Ringers team train their vocal firepower on the week’s news. This week: England are out of the World Cup, Starmer is out of office, and Katherine Jenkins has a potty mouth.
Starring Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis Macleod, Duncan Wisbey and Jess Robinson.
Produced by: Jon Holmes
Executive Producer:James Robinson
Production Co-ordinator: Giulia Lopes Mazzu
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
SAT 12:57 Weather (m002z5pc)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News (m002z5pf)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m002yw8w)
Baroness Bennett of Manor House, Baroness Coffey, Liam Halligan and Baroness Hazarika
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from The Constable Memorial Hall, East Bergholt, Suffolk, with Conservative peer Baroness Coffey, Green party peer Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, the columnist and journalist Liam Halligan and the Labour peer Baroness Hazarika.
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Assistant producer: Jo Dwyer
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Lead broadcast engineer: Lewis Allsopp
Editor: Andrea Kennedy
SAT 14:05 Any Answers? (m002z5ph)
Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?
SAT 14:45 The Archers (m002yw8r)
Writer: Sarah McDonald Hughes
Director: Marina Caldarone
Editor: Jeremy Howe
Jolene Archer … Buffy Davis
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas
Pat Archer … Patricia Gallimore
Tony Archer … David Troughton
Tom Archer … William Troughton
Harrison Burns … James Cartwright
Alice Carter … Hollie Chapman
Susan Carter … Charlotte Martin
Ian Craig … Stephen Kennedy
Rex Fairbrother … Nick Barber
Amber Gordon … Olivia Bernstone
Adam Macy … Andrew Wincott
Kate Madikane … Perdita Avery
Kirsty Miller … Annabelle Dowler
Fallon Rogers ... Joanna Van Kampen
Lynda Snell … Carole Boyd
Anne-Marie Gordon … Kate Ashfield
SAT 15:00 Dangerous Liaisons (m000z5nl)
Episode 1
By Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, in a new version by Sian Ejiwunmi-LeBerre.
Tanya Moodie, Nicola Coughlan and Ray Fearon star in this dark and scandalously funny masterpiece of eighteenth-century French literature, which has never before been dramatised by BBC Radio 4.
Sian Ejiwunmi-LeBerre’s brand new version plays fast and loose with the letter form of the novel, as clueless ingenue Cecile de Volanges, and lonely wife Lady Tourvel, both become prey in a struggle for seduction between two amoral ex-lovers: Madame de Merteuil and Count Valmont.
As their affairs become entangled, the rivals’ quest for sensation soon becomes a battle for sexual conquest and control.
Cast:
Madame de Merteuil ….. Tanya Moodie
Count Valmont ….. Ray Fearon
Cecile de Volanges ….. Nicola Coughlan
Lady Tourvel ….. Melody Grove
Danceny ….. Sid Sagar
Lady Volanges ….. Juliet Cowan
The Editor ….. Sian Ejiwunmi-LeBerre
Ensemble ….. Alexander Devrient, David Hounslow, Ryan Whittle
Harpist ..... Ruth Faber
Singers ..... Rowan Atkins, Freddie Falzon
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls, Jonquil Panting, Olga Reed
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting
A Jonx production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m002z5pk)
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week
SAT 17:00 PM (m002z5pm)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m002z5pp)
'Our donors are brave people': Reform's Robert Jenrick on wealth, power, and the establishment
As the country reels from the death of Reform's Ann Widdecombe, the party's Treasury Spokesman discusses the threat to politicians, debates whether calling politicians racists and traitors is dangerous, and explains why the ‘cosy club’ of politics is in for a shock.
Producer: Hannah Wilkinson
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002z5pr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m002z5pt)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002z5pw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m002z5py)
Ruthie Henshall, Tez Ilyas, Mica Millar, Joe Pasquale, Dave McCabe
Ruthie Henshall, Tez Ilyas and Joe Pasquale join Kiri Pritchard McLean with music from Mica Millar and Dave McCabe (of The Zutons).
SAT 19:00 Profile (m002z5q0)
James Purnell
The New Labour old boy was at one time a front runner to lead his Party. But after a scandalous resignation from Gordon Brown’s Cabinet, it seemed his political career was over…until now.
James Purnell grew up between France and Guildford. Spending his teenage years at the fee-paying Royal Grammar School, he was known for his distinctive Parisian style and ‘Rupert the Bear’ trousers. A fan of the theatre, golf, and student politics, he began establishing a network that would prove fruitful for a high-flying career. This continued at Oxford - where he studied Politics, Philosophy, and Economics - and spent summers interning with up-and-coming Labour politician, Tony Blair.
His career took off early - serving as a councillor in Islingon, Head of Corporate Planning at the BBC, and then Special Advisor to the prime minister all in his 20s. In 2001, he was elected MP for the northern seat of Stalybridge and Hyde, and soon climbed the ranks of government, serving as a minister in Gordon Brown’s government. Purnell weathered storms and scrutiny, before generating a scandal of his own: a failed coup against the prime minister, resigning from the cabinet in 2009.
Now, after decades out of Westminster - with top jobs at the BBC, University of the Arts London, and a corporate advisory and lobbying firm under his belt - he’s back. Andy Burnham, James Purnell’s former flatmate and football buddy, will become prime minister on Monday. And he’s invited his old friend back as his Chief of Staff.
What will the so-called ‘Ant and Dec of New Labour’ do when they take the reigns of government next week?
Production:
Presenter: Becky Milligan
Producers: Tom Gillett, Ellie House
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele, Siobhan Reed
Sound: Neil Churchill
Editor: Justine Lang
Archive:
FA TV
SAT 19:15 How Boarding Schools Shaped Britain (m0027t5m)
2. Codes
What did it mean to grow up in the type of boarding schools where codes of tradition, privilege, and resilience dictated life?
In the second of three programmes, Nicky Campbell hears from ex-boarders about the unspoken rules and survival mechanisms forged in these elite institutions - places that have shaped leaders, but left some with profound scars.
The structures and hierarchies were created to forge great men, but could also be extremely traumatic for some, and could empower abusers. Some men say being sent away at an early age left them in dangerous, violent hands, and has cast long shadows.
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m002z5q2)
Alan Watts: The Brahman of Bromley
Jarvis Cocker wasn’t exactly enthusiastic when his bandmate suggested they listen to some old Buddhist lectures to while away the hours on their tour bus. But when the captivating voice of Alan Watts floated through the speakers, it transformed the way he saw the world.
Alan Watts is considered by many to have been a key translator of Eastern spiritual ideas in the 20th century. His books and lectures took the complex and often intangible concepts of Buddhism, Zen and Taoism, and unpacked them for Western ears with startling clarity and wry humour.
Born in Chislehurst in 1915, Watts moved to America just before the Second World War, where he became a popular public intellectual, “philosophical entertainer” and a thought-leader for the Beat Generation and emergent hippy counterculture.
In the years since his death in 1973, Watts’ reputation has only grown - first in esoteric New Age circles, and now with the millions of viewers online who take comfort from his archive of recorded lectures on YouTube and social media.
With access to his extensive recorded archive, Jarvis Cocker examines Watts’ life, work and digital legacy - featuring interviews with Watts enthusiasts and family members, historians and experts, as well as artists and filmmakers inspired by his work.
Access to Alan Watts' audio lectures provided by Mark Watts at the Alan Watts Organization.
Written and produced by Tom Harrad.
Executive producer: Ant Adeane
Sound mix: Alex Portfelix
A Small Blue production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:00 Politically (m002z5q4)
Ten Years After Brexit: Omnibus 2
It is 10 years since the UK voted to leave the European Union. 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.
In this second episode, Alex and guests discuss how leaving the EU gave the UK more regulatory freedom and the impact on science and academia and fishing and farming. They also talk about how the UK's relationship with the EU has changed in the last ten years and how Brexit changed politics in the UK.
Producers: Ben Carter and Mhairi MacKenzie
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound mix: James Beard
Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
SAT 22:00 News (m002z5q6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m002yw72)
Inside the Chocolate Crisis
Soaring cacao prices broke all records and then they crashed. Dan Saladino explores the fallout, the impact on farmers, their communities, industry players and chocolate lovers.
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino
SAT 23:00 Parish Matters (m0025bd0)
3. 'Bring back hanging?'
A brand-new sitcom sketch hybrid made in Belfast and starring voices from all over Ireland. Each week we join the eccentric inhabitants of the Parish in their weekly council meeting to air their problems and grievances.
The Parish is in a state of total lawlessness when the best and only cop in town goes on holiday and the council meets to discuss law and order. Can they bring this period of chaos to an end? The restrictive curfew is a political hot potato while inventive self-defence classes are proposed and the efficacy of the Parish rehabilitation program is called into question. The council hotly debates the culprit behind the spate of cat burglaries - could it be the same person responsible for the unfolding hostage situation? And can the best (and only) cop in town ever solve the mystery of the missing uniform?
PARISH MATTERS is a half hour window into an everlasting argument and an energetic and original comedy show written by Michael McCullagh and Phil Taggart and starring the writers alongside Michael Fry, Ciara Knight, Hannah Mamalis, Mary Flanigan, Michael Stranney and Peter McGann. Produced by Keith Martin and Exec Produced by Sam Michell. A FABEL radio Production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 23:30 Around the World in 80 Ways (m002yvx7)
1. Europe
What's hidden beneath one of Europe's least visited countries? Where can you visit a Museum of Broken Relationships? And what do retired men in Bologna famously enjoy watching? Find out as Intrepid traveller Simon Reeve hosts a geography quiz where two teams race from country to country in a bid to reach the final destination first.
As each answer moves them across the map, they test their knowledge of geography, history, culture and the wider world. Part travel adventure, part quiz, it's a journey where every border crossed has to be earned and the only way to travel is to know where you're going.
Hosted by Simon Reeve
The Teams are:
Amber & Helen
Amy and Harry
Questions set by Paddy Duffy
Sound by Jerry Peal
Programme Coordinator: Jodie Charman
Producer: Carl Cooper
BBC Studios production for Radio 4.
SUNDAY 19 JULY 2026
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m002z5q8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:15 Take Four Books (m002yvx5)
Elizabeth Strout
Presenter James Crawford speaks to award‑winning American author Elizabeth Strout - winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a two‑time Booker Prize nominee - about her new book The Things We Never Say and its three key literary influences.
In Elizabeth's latest novel, we are taken to the New England coast, where we follow the life of history teacher Artie Dam, who is struggling to cope with the way the modern world is changing around him.
Elizabeth’s three influences are The Stories of William Trevor by William Trevor (1983), Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925), and Middlemarch by George Eliot (1872).
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002z5qb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002z5qd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:30 News Summary (m002z5qg)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002z5qj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m002z5ql)
The church of St Chad in Pattingham, Staffordshire
Bells on Sunday comes from the Church of St Chad in Pattingham, Staffordshire. In 1724 there were six bells cast by the Joseph Smith Founder of Edgbaston with two further bells added in 1864 by the Mears foundry of Whitechapel, London. The Tenor bell weighs twelve and three quarter hundredweight and is tuned to the note of F. We hear them ringing Superlative Surprise Major.
SUN 05:45 In Touch (m002yx49)
The Future of Braille
In Touch discusses braille's future and how it adapts alongside today's variety assistive technologies that can aid with reading, writing and consuming information. We are helped by young braillists from St Vincent's School in Liverpool and three seasoned braille users, Jackie Brown, Ian Macrae and Dave Williams.
Presenter & Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Helen Surtees
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m002z70r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Heart and Soul (w3ct983q)
War, God and the Islamic Republic
Since the outbreak of war involving Iran, Israel and the U.S. in late February 2026, Iranians have been living through months of fear, instability and profound uncertainty. A fragile truce came into effect on April 8, but by May 2026 ceasefire efforts were still under strain, with negotiations continuing and tensions in and around the region far from settled.
In this edition of Heart and Soul, Emily Wither speaks to Iranians inside the country about how war, repression and disillusionment have reshaped their relationship with religion. For some, years of state control in the name of Islam — now intensified by the trauma of recent conflict — have deepened the divide between official religion and personal faith.
Some still pray to God, but in intimate, private ways far removed from state doctrine. Others have drifted away from formal religious belief altogether, finding comfort instead in Persian poetry, music, mysticism and ancient cultural texts such as the Shahnameh. Through anonymous voices from inside Iran, the programme explores a quiet but profound spiritual shift: away from imposed religion, and toward more personal and self-fashioned ways of making meaning.
[Photo Description: An Iranian woman who is not wearing a mandatory headscarf stands in front of the tomb of the 14th-century Iranian poet, Hafez, in Shiraz, Iran, on October 8, 2024. Photo Credit: Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Producer/Presenter: Emily Wither
Series Producer: Rajeev Gupta
Editor: Chloe Walker
Production Coordinator: Mica Nepomuceno
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m002z70t)
Vines in Shropshire
Zoe Evans says she caught the wine bug early. After starting her career working for a major wine retailer, and in vineyards around the world, she returned to the family's Shropshire farm. With her twin sister, Melissa, she planted 7,000 vines in 2020. Rowton Vineyard produced its first vintage in 2022 and is going from strength to strength, making distinctive fruit driven wines. As Zoe puts it, 'wine is a great way to express agriculture', and telling the story of the product from grape to glass is something both sisters love. The vineyard is at the heart of a working farm, each member of the family looks after their own strand of the business: Dad Keith has a herd of beef cattle, Mum Lorraine runs an accommodation business, brother Todd manages the arable crops and a broiler chicken unit. Sarah Swadling meets the family as the vines are basking in the sun, on a day of record breaking temperatures.
Presented and Produced by Sarah Swadling.
SUN 06:57 Weather (m002z70w)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m002z70y)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m002z710)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m002z712)
Parkinson's UK
Journalist and author Rory Cellan-Jones makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Parkinson's UK. The charity funds specialist nurses who work with patients to provide clear, practical advice on the condition.
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 ‘Parkinson's UK’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Parkinson's UK'.
- 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: 258197. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites
Producer: Katy Takatsuki
SUN 07:57 Weather (m002z714)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m002z716)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m002z718)
Winners and Losers
Dr Graham Daniels, a former professional footballer and general director of the organisation Christians in Sport, leads a special service from Cardiff to mark today's FIFA World Cup Final. Dr Daniels will reflect on the highs and lows of winning, and the message that identity is not to be found in either of these, but through faith in Christ. Graham will also be talking to Zak Lyndon-Jones, CEO of Cardiff City Foundation, a charitable wing bringing football and social action together.
Readings are taken from Hebrews 12.1-3 and from Ephesians 2 8-10 and are read by Christians in Sport members Lloyd Thomas and Tasha Morton. Prayers are led by Laura Murdoch.
Hymns include the following:
Let All the World in Every Corner Sing
Yet Not I but Christ in Me
The Servant King
In Christ Alone
Christ Our Hope in Life and Death
SUN 08:48 Witness History (w3ct98dv)
Dada: The birth of an art movement
In 1916, Zurich was a beacon for refugees. Fleeing the death and destruction of World War I, artists and free-thinkers from all over Europe fled to the neutral Swiss city.
And it was here that the people who would start the art movement Dada came together. In a rare interview from 1959, held in the BBC archive, Richard Huelsenbeck describes how the group of young artists and pacifists shared a despair about the war and a disgust for bourgeois values.
At the Cabaret Voltaire, he and the Romanian-born poet Tristan Tzara, the French sculptor Jean Arp and Romanian-born artist Marcel Janco experimented. Performances were known for their spontaneity, chance and absurdity - a departure from the conventional which confronted audiences. It was the beginning of an aesthetic which would spread across Europe and to New York City, eventually influencing Surrealism and later punk. This episode is produced and presented by Josephine McDermott.
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: Scene from the Dadaist film Ballet Mécanique, 1924 from the Collection of Musée national d'art moderne, Paris. Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images.)
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m002z71b)
George McGavin on the Hoopoe
Entomologist George McGavin remembers the first time he saw a hoopoe, an occasional visitor to the UK. The hoopoe is largely insectivorous, and watching it forage for crickets and grasshoppers, and probe deep into the soil for larvae, reminded George just how important insects are for the survival of the majority of birds.
Produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.
This programme features audio by Olivier Swift from Xeno-Canto (Eurasian Hoopoe - XC697952).
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m002z71d)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m002z66b)
Shania Twain, musician
Shania Twain, musician, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury item she would take with her if cast away to a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.
SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m002z71g)
11th – 17th July 2026
Writer: Sarah McDonald Hughes
Director: Marina Caldarone
Editor: Jeremy Howe
Jolene Archer … Buffy Davis
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas
Pat Archer … Patricia Gallimore
Tony Archer … David Troughton
Tom Archer … William Troughton
Harrison Burns … James Cartwright
Alice Carter … Hollie Chapman
Susan Carter … Charlotte Martin
Ian Craig … Stephen Kennedy
Rex Fairbrother … Nick Barber
Amber Gordon … Olivia Bernstone
Adam Macy … Andrew Wincott
Kate Madikane … Perdita Avery
Kirsty Miller … Annabelle Dowler
Fallon Rogers ... Joanna Van Kampen
Lynda Snell … Carole Boyd
Anne-Marie Gordon … Kate Ashfield
SUN 12:15 Profile (m002z5q0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 12:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m002yvs7)
Series 85
6. Yorkshire Sayings
The godfather of all panel shows returns to Leeds Grand Theatre. On the panel are Joe Lycett, Pippa Evans, Miles Jupp and Ian Smith, 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
SUN 12:57 Weather (m002z71j)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m002z71l)
A look at the week's big stories and preview of the week to come.
SUN 13:30 Currently (m002z5ys)
The Rebirth of Orgreave
How South Yorkshire is attracting global companies for manufacturing and research on the ‘Battle of Orgreave’ site.
In 1984, miners clashed with police in one of the most notorious moments of the strikes. An inquiry is underway into the events of that day.
The sounds now heard on the former Orgreave coking plant and colliery in Rotherham are of a high street being created from scratch and the building of thousands of new homes, on the edge of the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).
It was created by academics in 2001, in partnership with Boeing. Since then, companies like Mclaren and Rolls Royce have also set up in the wider park, and other companies come for advice to make their production more efficient.
Sean Farrington finds out how it works, whether it’s benefitting local people and if this is a model for other parts of the UK.
Presenter: Sean Farrington
Producer: Laura Jones
Sound design: Cameron Ward
Production Management Assistant: Liam Morrey
Production Coordinator Apprentice: Ellis Goodwin
Editor: Clare Fordham
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002yw88)
Birmingham: Bonsai, Black Elder, Blueberry and Bees
Recorded at the University of Birmingham’s magnificent Elgar Concert Hall, Kathy Clugston is joined by Bethan Collerton of Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Marcus Chilton-Jones of RHS Garden Bridgewater, and Dr Chris Thorogood from Oxford Botanic Garden.
The panel tackles a wide range of audience gardening dilemmas, from reluctant peonies and coppiced hazel, to a struggling juniper bonsai and an overgrown black elder. They also discuss how to rescue a drought-stressed blueberry, and keep colour flowing through the garden into late summer.
Later in the show, Bethan visits Winterbourne House and Garden to meet local beekeeper Jane Nimmo to discover more about the remarkable lives of honeybees, the challenges facing wild bee populations, and the simple things gardeners can do to help pollinators thrive.
Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
Assistant Producer: William Norton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
* If listening on BBC Sounds and you wish to view the plant list, please go to the Gardeners' Question Time website and open this week's episode page.
SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m002z5yn)
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? takes us into the strange and brutal world of dance marathon competitions dating from the Great Depression in America. It follows Robert and Gloria, a couple who’ve washed up in Los Angeles and whose last hope is to get spotted by talent scouts or win the prize money by being the last dancers standing.
The book’s author, Horace McCoy, had first hand experience of these competitions, which could last months, having worked as a bouncer at one himself. As John Yorke discovers, it’s a bleak tale from a difficult time, whose nihilistic underpinnings led Simone de Beauvoir to call it the first existentialist American novel. But McCoy shows just empathy for the doomed characters to make the story, in the words of contributor Denise Hamilton, hit home like a stiletto to the heart.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes 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: Denise Hamilton, novelist and editor of ‘LA Noir’
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Producer: Geoff Bird
Reader: Eric Stroud
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
A Pier production for BBC Radio
SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m002z71n)
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
Los Angeles, 1935. With nowhere to go and nothing to lose, Robert and Gloria enter a marathon dance on the Santa Monica pier, one of hundreds of couples competing to stay on their feet for weeks at a time for a prize of a thousand dollars. As the days blur into nights and the competition grows merciless, their unlikely bond deepens into something neither of them can name, and a reckoning neither can avoid.
George MacKay (1917, Rose of Nevada) stars as Robert alongside Leah Brotherhead (Hullraisers, RSC's Wolf Hall) as Gloria.
Horace McCoy's 1935 novel is one of the founding texts of American noir, previously adapted as Sydney Pollack's acclaimed 1969 film with Jane Fonda. This is its first ever audio adaptation, brought to radio by adaptor Kerry Shale.
Story of America is a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.
Robert . . . . . George MacKay
Gloria . . . . . Leah Brotherhead
Rocky . . . . . Kerry Shale
Mrs Layden . . . . . Laurel Lefkow
Pedro . . . . . Joseph Balderama
Rollo . . . . . Ben Crowe
Jim . . . . . David Menkin
Ruby . . . . . Laura Dos Santos
Adapted by Kerry Shale.
Production co-ordinators: Sara Benaim, Jonathan Powell
Technical producers: Keith Graham, Neva Missirian, Kira Golightly
Sound design: Sharon Hughes
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
A BBC Studios production.
SUN 16:00 Take Four Books (m002z71q)
Liz Nugent
The award-winning Irish writer, Liz Nugent, speaks to Take Four Books about her latest novel, The Truth About Ruby Cooper, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other works of fiction. Ruby Cooper and her sister, Erin, live an idyllic life in their close-knit church community in Boston. But when Ruby is sixteen, she is involved in an incident that causes her family’s world to implode.
For her three influences Liz chose: Ian McEwan's Atonement from 2001, the book was later adapted into a film of the same name starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy; Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy from 1992; and Patrick Süskind’s 1985 novel, Perfume.
This episode was recorded in front of an audience at the Hay Festival 2026.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.
SUN 16:30 Around the World in 80 Ways (m002z71s)
2. Africa
Why did one African country change its name? Which nation celebrates divorce? And where are crocodiles treated as honoured guests?
Find out as Simon Reeve hosts a geography quiz where two teams race across West Africa. Travelling from country to country, they'll test their knowledge of geography, history, culture and the wider world as they compete to reach the destination first.
Hosted by Simon Reeve
The Teams are:
Ross & Ian
Nathan and Juliet
Questions set by Paddy Duffy
Sound by Jerry Peal
Programme Coordinator: Jodie Charman
Producer: Carl Cooper
BBC Studios production for Radio 4.
SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct8r3b)
The Mexican song that captivated lovers during World War II
In 1944, as World War II was drawing to a close, the Mexican love song Besame Mucho crossed the Atlantic and became one of the most recognisable melodies of the post-war era. Its lyrics were daring for the time: an open plea for a passionate kiss.
The song had been written years earlier by Consuelo Velazquez, a young woman who composed romantic melodies for pleasure but kept her authorship a secret, fearing it could damage her career as a classical pianist.
When Consuelo’s secret got out, her song Bésame Mucho topped the charts in the US and became one of the most covered songs in Spanish, with versions by The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
Stefania Gozzer speaks to her son, Mariano Rivera Velazquez, about his mother's unexpected worldwide success.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
(Photo: A couple kiss by the West Gates at Pennsylvania Station, New York City. Credit: Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
SUN 17:10 Church Going, with Giles Fraser (m002yvr9)
Episode 1
Giles Fraser is a priest in the Church of England, concerned about the current state of church attendance. His parish is doing well but like most priests, he's nervous about the numbers and notes the overall decline in worship since the sixties. He considers the poem 'Church Going' by Philip Larkin as his starting point. It imagines what will happen to these buildings, and to Christian faith, when we stop going to church entirely. Is Giles now a missionary in a world that is indifferent to what he has to say? With this thought, he sets off to work out where we are, talking to people on the ground and experts in the field.
In this first episode of three, Giles will find out how fellow clergy cope with the stress that comes with falling numbers, witness the last service at a Methodist church in Northumberland, return to Oxford where he trained as priest and find out why we have so many churches in the first place.
Presenter: Rev Dr Giles Fraser
Producer: Catherine Murray
Asst Producer: Peter Everett
Additonal recording by Jon Douglas
Editor: Tim Pemberton
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m002z71w)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m002z71y)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002z720)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m002z722)
John Gallagher
This week, zombie ants whose minds have been taken over by a parasitic fungus, the jellyfish influx that took out a powerplant and had people fearing a military coup, and the endless admin involved in canonising medieval saints. Plus a deep dive into the online breastmilk marketplace, a teenage Shania Twain helps her mum and siblings escape an abusive household, and the newly discovered letters that tell a wartime tale of two gay lovers.
Presenter: John Gallagher
Producers: Caitlin Sneddon
Editor: Steven Hobson
Production Coordinator: Caoilfhinn McFadden
A BBC Audio Scotland and Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.
Programmes featured in this episode include:
Loose Ends, 11/07
I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, S85 E6: Yorkshire Sayings, 13/07
The Food Chain: What do World Cup footballers eat?, 09/07
Cash Cow by Alev Scott: Episode 1, 14/07
The Art of Being A Zombie Ant Fungus, 14/07
The Day The Jellyfish Came, 14/07
Heart and Soul: Diving for Yuko, 12/07
Illuminated: Dear Gilbert, Dear Gordon, 12/07
Desert Island Discs: Shania Twain, 12/07
You’re Dead To Me, 10/07
Ancient Lives With Mary Beard, 15/07
Currently: Decency Politics, 12/07
Alan Watts: Brahman of Bromley, 18/07
Here Comes the Fleadh: A Beginner’s Guide, 12/07
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m002z5yl)
Opportunity knocks for Harrison, and Rex takes a step in the right direction.
SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m002z724)
A Most Magickal Encounter
Writer Tim Dee is trying to make a most extraordinary Zoom Call that will transport him across the centuries to have a most magical encounter with a scholarly looking guy with a white beard who is his namesake.
Dr John Dee was astronomer and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I. He was a wizardly necromancer with a Europe wide reputation who ended up desperately trying to converse with angels to unlock the secrets of the universe.
As attempts at making a connection go ahead, Tim also goes on a quest in search of Dr Dee. He talks with biblical scholar, former Archbishop of Canterbury and poet Rowan Williams to understand more about the importance of Angels in Dee’s time.
On the site of Dr Dee’s house by the Thames at Mortlake, he meets Ann Dingsdale, a real flesh and blood relative of the Renaissance genius. Ann is his ten times great granddaughter.
At the British Library, Tim looks over Dee’s legible and miraculously preserved Angel Diaries with the poet Camille Ralphs. Such is her fascination, Camille has written a sequence of poems in Dee’s voice and reads extracts from them.
The Royal College of Physicians has several unique volumes from Dr Dee’s library, which was the largest of its time in the whole of Europe. With Tim to peruse these, and to understand the connections between Science and Magic in the Elizabethan age, is Renaissance expert Charles Nicholl.
All this plus Dee’s voice heard at intervals coming through the ether, and a heavenly soundtrack that includes Aretha Franklin, The Who, Nina Simone, Dr John, Jimi Hendrix and The Clash.
Presenter: Tim Dee
Producer: Alastair Laurence
Executive Producer: David Prest
Sound Design: Jake Wittlin
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001slnt)
Listen to Music
Bring on the tunes! In this episode, Michael explores the power of music, from reducing pain to forging strong family relationships. Neuroscientist Dr Psyche Loui from Northeastern University in Boston reveals how just eight weeks of music listening can change activity in the brain, impacting our reward centres in our brain, and why this could be important for healthy ageing. Our volunteer Roberta has a go at “mindful” music listening with an eclectic range of music from Bollywood music to opera.
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 Feedback (m002yxvg)
Life and Time, 6Music Extension, and World Tonight Interview
The radio drama Life and Time finished its third series recently. The six inter-linked plays explore the experiences of prisoners and prison staff. The main theme running through all the plays is the system of imprisonment for public protection sentences - IPPs. These were open-ended sentences with no fixed release date, which was instead decided by parole boards. Listeners have been getting in touch with their thoughts and critiques and Andrea Catherwood puts your views on the series to its award-winning writer James Fritz.
It was recently announced that 6Music would be getting an extension - Indie Forever, a 24 hour stream set to launch on BBC Sounds on 22nd July. It follows the extensions to BBC Radio 1 and Radio 3, made public last year. But do listeners want more indie? We hear from you.
Also, there's another nomination for our Interview of the Year. This week listener Barbara puts forward an interview she heard on The World Tonight. Presenter James Coomarasamy was talking to Natalie Needham, whose baby died after being discharged from a NHS maternity ward in Nottingham. The interview followed the findings of an inquiry into the largest maternity scandal in NHS history.
If you'd like to get in touch with the Feedback team, you can send a WhatsApp voice note to Oh Three, Triple Three, Triple Four, Five Double Four [03 333 444 544]. You can also ring that number and leave a voice message. On X and instagram it’s @BBC R4Feedback. The email is feedback@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Pauline Moore
Assistant Producer: Rebecca Guthrie
Executive Producer; David Prest
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m002yw8f)
Sam Neill: the silent child with a stutter who became a movie star
Sam Neill starred in over fifty films and numerous television series, playing often wildly different roles, from a palaeontologist in Jurassic Park to a repressed husband in The Piano. When he was seven years old the family moved from Northern Ireland to his father’s native New Zealand, a country which Sam grew to love, and, as his friend and fellow actor Oscar Kightley told Matthew, which also came to love Sam. We also hear from writer and journalist Hadley Freeman.
Phyllis Kinney became known as one of the most influential figures in traditional Welsh music, although she was born many miles from Wales in Michigan, USA. She moved to London to further her training as an opera singer, when on a trip to Wales, she met and fell in love with folk musician Meredydd Evans. The two married and together performed and edited collections of Welsh songs that came to be regarded as the definitive reference works of Welsh traditional music. Her friend, poet Arwel Jones, tells her story.
Acclaimed chef Bill Poon brought authentic Chinese cooking to the UK and set about changing the negative perception of Chinese food across the country. In 1980 his was only the second Chinese restaurant in Britain to be awarded a Michelin Star. His daughter Amy Poon remembers him.
For almost seventy years Patricia “Paddy” Greene, starred as Jill Archer, the matriarch of the central farming family. As a trainee actor Paddy had been told that her mic technique would never pass muster. Then In 1957, as she was about to go on tour with a theatre company, she got a call to audition for a role in The Archers. They were looking for a temporary cast member to be a love interest for Philip Archer. As the current editor of The Archers, Jeremy Howe explains – the audition went well.
Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Andrea Kennedy
Archive:
Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 27/12/2015; The Archers, BBC Radio 4, Jan 1959; The Archers, BBC Radio 4, 25/07/2017; The Archers, BBC Radio 4, 20/12/2023; The Archers, BBC Radio 4, 17/02/2019; Wogan, BBC Radio 2, 15/11/1985; Sam Neill Instagram post; Conversations with Sarah Kanowski, ABC Radio National, 2023; Beti a'i Phobol, BBC Radio Cymru, 06/03/1997
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m002z5p9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m002z712)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m002z5p5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:30 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m002z726)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 Artworks (m002yxt2)
Who Did We Think We Were?
2. The 1938 Empire Exhibition in Glasgow
75 years after the Festival of Britain offered a tonic to a Blitz-hit nation, Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum, returns to Radio 4 with a three-part series, examining how celebrations of British identity and togetherness over the past century or so can help us better understand and define who we are now.
In this episode, he visits Glasgow, which hosted a vast Empire Exhibition in 1938, in part a celebration of British industry and engineering, as the threat of another world war loomed over Europe. The clean, bright modern pavilions and streamlined architecture were worlds away from the grimier realities of the Clydeside shipyards.
It was also a year of campaigning on another front: the battle to save our countryside, so often closely linked with British identity. The book Britain and the Beast was a collection of polemical essays about the many threats to rural Britain, including - according to the novelist E M Forster - our own Ministry of Defence, who demanded land for military exercises.
Neil examines what these activities said about what it meant to be British at the time - and their legacy today.
Producer Paul Kobrak
SUN 23:30 More Wow (m0022kn3)
2. The Earth Below
What is awe, and where do we find it? Exploring how the elusive emotion of awe can be a vital force in our lives.
As something usually associated with intense experiences and extreme environments, for many of us awe can often seem difficult to attain. Science journalist Jo Marchant tracks down individuals who live awe-filled lives, uncovering where we might find it ourselves and how it can alter body and mind.
Episode two: Jo is in the depths of Wookey Hole caves with one of the most experienced divers in the world, Phil Short, who calls them his spiritual home. Phil has discovered one of the world's deepest caves in Mexico, has recovered ancient artefacts from shipwrecks and reunited the sunken remains of veterans from crashed World War II aircraft with their families. Yet he reflects on how a life of awe has led him to appreciate wonder in the smallest of things.
Featuring: Phil Short, cave diver and underwater training lead at DEEP research labs;
Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder;
Helen De Cruz, Professor of Philosophy at St Louis University, Missouri and author of Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think.
Presented by Jo Marchant, author of Cure, The Human Cosmos and Decoding the Heavens.
Producer: Eliza Lomas
Editor: Chris Ledgard
SUN 23:45 Short Works (m002yw8c)
Afterdrop by Jane Fraser
Original short story set on the Gower, South Wales. After her husband’s sudden death, Sarah finds comfort in a daily walk where she watches a group of women sea-swimming all through the winter. Their resilience inspires her to confront both the ‘afterdrop’ of grief and her fear of the water.
Written by Jane Fraser
Read by Rhian Morgan
Produced by Alice McKee, BBC Audio Wales
MONDAY 20 JULY 2026
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m002z728)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 00:15 Inside Health (m002yx39)
Could we eliminate cervical cancer?
Earlier this summer, there was some incredible progress in cervical cancer. Women who have been vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV) now have an almost zero chance of dying from cervical cancer before the age of 30. But does that mean women will no longer need cervical screening? Dr Jo Morrison, a consultant gynaecological oncologist from Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, joins James Gallagher and resident GP Dr Margaret McCartney to discuss.
The government has announced school dinners will soon be overhauled in England, in order to reduce the amount of salt, sugar and fat, and boost the amount of fibre and nutrients offered to schoolchildren. James is joined by Dr Maria Traka, head of the food and nutrition national bioscience research infrastructure at the Quadram Institute in Norwich, to find out what the new dinners will look like. He also pays a visit to the Food Museum in Suffolk, where curator Katherine Bridges takes him on a trip through the decades, to see whether school dinners are healthier than ever.
Also, have you seen the buzz surrounding creatine on social media? Gym-goers promise it can help you get stronger and build bigger muscles, but there is also some debate about whether it could boost your brain too. To dig into the science, James chats with Dr Damian Bailey, a professor of physiology and biochemistry at the University of South Wales.
Presenter: James Gallagher
Producer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production coordinator: Stu Laws
Sound engineer: Steve Greenwood
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m002z5ql)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002z72b)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002z72d)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:00 News Summary (m002z72g)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:04 Last Word (m002yw8f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Sunday]
MON 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002z72l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002z72n)
Return to the Present
Prayer for the Day presented by Steve Taylor.
Good morning.
In the 17th century, the French philosopher Pascal complained that human beings rarely live in the present. As he wrote, ‘We wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does…We dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is… Thus we never actually live, but hope to live.’
Human beings haven’t changed very much over the last four centuries. In my view, the fact that we don’t spend much time in the present is the reason why we often feel discontented. Most of our unhappiness comes from thinking about the future or the past. We think about the future we feel anxious. We think about the past and feel emotions like regret and guilt.
But what happens when we think about the present? In actual fact, we can’t really think about the present. We just experience it. As soon as you start thinking, you are no longer present. Living in the present just means paying attention to your surroundings, or to how you feel right now.
Maybe today, try to keep your attention in the present. Focus on the buildings, people and objects around you. Pay attention to the natural phenomena around you – the trees, the sky, the clouds, the flowers. Be aware of your breathing and your body. Hopefully you’ll find that you immediately start to feel more contented. As I have expressed it poetically:
Only the now is real.
An unreal past can’t hurt you
as a shadow can’t break the ground.
An unreal future can’t hurt you
as a reflection can’t break the surface of a lake.
Only your mind can hurt you
when it wanders away from now
and loses itself in restless thoughts
of unreal times and places.
Blessings.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m002z72q)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:57 Weather (m002z72s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for farmers
MON 06:00 Today (m002z5xw)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Common Ground (m002z5xy)
Class
In Common Ground, Evan Davis travels around the UK to find out how divided we really are. The series asks whether our society is really becoming increasingly polarised and what people across the country are doing to build stronger communities and connections. In this episode Evan interrogates what we actually mean when we talk about class today and how it affects how well we live together. Reporter Katie travels to Bristol to hear from a couple who have married across class lines. How important is a class when it comes to our relationships? Does it still define our life trajectory and if so, what does that mean for the way we live and interact? He’ll also be joined by an expert panel to dig deeper into these questions.
Presenter: Evan Davis
Reporter: Katie Haseldine
Producers: Emma Close and Katie Haseldine
Editor: Alicia Queiro
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: James Beard and Neil Churchill
MON 09:30 Politically (m002z5y0)
Reflections: Series 4
Caroline Lucas
The former Green Party leader speaks to James Naughtie about her years in Parliament, and how it feels to see her party thrive just as she stands down.
In fourteen years, Caroline Lucas never held ministerial office and so had to find other ways to exercise power and influence. She discusses working with others, listening to people you disagree with, and getting arrested for your beliefs.
Producers: Giles Edwards and Najiba Feroz.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002z5y2)
Andy Burnham’s intray, Dr Emma Chapman, Snail Mail
As Andy Burnham takes over as Prime Minister, we ask leading campaigners and experts on women’s issues what they think he should prioritise on day one of his premiership. Clare McDonnell is joined by Labour MP and former Violence against Women and Girls minister Jess Phillips, senior midwife Donna Ockenden who led the recent review into maternity care failings in Nottingham, and Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society Penny East.
How can we explore distant stars, buried water on Mars, or witness the first moments after the Big Bang? And what can we see without having to leave our back garden? Dr. Emma Chapman an award-winning radio astronomer based at the University of Nottingham, and a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin research fellow. She will be appearing at the Buxton International Festival this Friday. She joins Clare McDonnell to discuss the radio universe, the upcoming Perseid Meteor Shower and a partial solar eclipse.
English Heritage has warned the tradition of sending postcards could become “a distant nostalgic memory", after half of Brits surveyed said they never send them. But with the rise in popularity of 'Snail Mail', largely driven by social media, how are women leading the charge to stay connected through post? To discuss, Clare McDonnell is joined by Great British Bake Off finalist Alice Fevronia, who set up The Artful Baker Club, and Rebecca McMillan, who co-founded The Sunday Letter Project.
Presented by Clare McDonnell
Producer: Louise Corley
MON 11:00 Church Going, with Giles Fraser (m002z9cq)
Episode 2
Giles Fraser is a vicar in the Church of England concerned about the current state of church attendance. His parish is doing well but like most priests, he's nervous about the numbers and notes the overall decline in worship. He considers the poem 'Church Going' by Philip Larkin as his starting point. It imagines what will happen to these buildings, and to Christian faith, when we stop going to church entirely. Is Giles now a missionary in a world that is indifferent to what he has to say? With this thought, he sets off to work out where we are, talking to people on the ground and experts in the field.
In this second episode of three, he explores the idea of England as a Christian country, talking to historians Tom Holland and William Whyte and archaeologist and Humanist, Alice Roberts.
He looks at anxieties over the growth of Islam and the rise of Christian Nationalism in this country attending a secret outdoor baptism organised by the man who converted Tommy Robinson to Christianity.
He also speaks to Bishop Arun Arora, Professor Emerita Grace Davie, Pastor Rikki Doolan, Revd Canon Dr Christian Selvaratnam, Nick Spencer from Theos, Professor Linda Woodhead and journalist, Tim Wyatt.
Presenter: Rev Dr Giles Fraser
Producer: Catherine Murray
Asst Producer: Peter Everett
Studio mix: Liam Juniper
Editor: Tim Pemberton
MON 11:45 A Meditation on Mud by Rebecca Stott (m002z5y4)
Episode 1: The walk
Award-winning writer Rebecca Stott likes to unearth the overlooked and forgotten.
While taking a long walk in Sussex to mark the first anniversary of her mother’s death, Rebecca’s focus shifts to the mud all around her. Noticing it for the first time in detail, she sets off on a journey to discover its hidden depths and meanings. She finds herself peeling back layers of literature, culture, science and geology; she discovers the rich literary history of marsh monsters, dips her toes into Darwin’s mud experiments, treads in the footsteps of soldiers in the trenches during World War One and finds out how mud cores extracted from the sea bed can shed light on the planet’s past and future.
In this first episode of a series of new writing, Rebecca asks if paying attention to mud might help her ‘take in’ her mother’s death.
Written and narrated by Rebecca Stott
Producer, Lisa Lipman
Editor, Kirsten Lass
Sound engineer and mix, Jon Calver
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Award-winning writer Rebecca Stott likes to unearth the overlooked and forgotten.
MON 12:00 News Summary (m002z5y7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m002z5y9)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:30 World at One (m002z5yf)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
MON 13:45 Buried (m002z5yh)
Dead Rabbit
1. Dead Rabbit
It starts like a horror film. In the dead of night, 20 dead animals are left outside a village school. Who left them there - and why? In this new investigation, reporters Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor stumble into something sinister lurking in the British countryside. Is it the first flash of a monster?
Buried is the multi award-winning investigative podcast series digging into some of the most disturbing environmental stories in history. In this series, Dan and Lucy team up with the wildlife presenter Chris Packham, whose own dead-animal death threats escalated into a car bomb outside his house. The dead animals lead them into uncovering a criminal underworld in the British countryside.
Dead Rabbit is a Smoke Trail Production for BBC Radio 4.
Produced and presented by Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Sound design, mixing and AP: Jarek Zaba
Original music and sounds by Phil Channell
Executive Producers: Philip Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
MON 14:00 The Archers (m002z5yl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Alone (m001bbtx)
Series 4
Episode 2 - The Longest Brief Thing
A sitcom, written by Moray Hunter and starring Angus Deayton, Abigail Cruttenden, Pearce Quigley, Kate Isitt and Bennett Arron, about five, mainly single, middle aged neighbours living in flats in a converted house in North London.
Mitch (Angus Deayton) is a widower and part-time therapist who is looking to put his life back together now that he is single and living with Will (Pearce Quigley), his younger, more volatile half-brother. Mitch is currently in a new relationship with Ellie (Abigail Cruttenden) who is a somewhat shy, nervous and sensitive schoolteacher. Overly honest, frustrated actress Louisa (Kate Isitt), and socially inept IT nerd Morris (Bennett Arron) complete the line-up of mis-matched neighbours.
In episode two, things get fraught when Louisa tries to make friends with Nina, (Jocelyn Jee Esien) Morris’ sort of ex, after they had a brief half-a-night stand a while back, and then it gets even more complicated when Will gets involved as well. Ellie meanwhile makes it her mission to look after Morris and persuades a very reluctant Mitch to help her.
Cast:
Angus Deayton - Mitch
Abigail Cruttenden - Ellie
Pearce Quigley - Will
Kate Isitt - Louisa
Bennett Arron – Morris
Jocelyn Jee Esien - Nina
Written by Moray Hunter
Directed by Moray Hunter and Gordon Kennedy
Scripted Edited by Ian Brown and James Hendrie
Edited and Studio Managed by Jerry Peal
Production Manager - Sarah Tombling
Production Runner -Kareem Elshehawy
Recorded at The Shaw Theatre, London
Based on an original idea developed in association with Dandy Productions
Producer - Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:45 Opening Lines (m002z5yn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Sunday]
MON 15:00 A Good Read (m002z5yq)
Cariad Lloyd and Geoff Dyer
Writer, actor and comedian Cariad Lloyd and writer Geoff Dyer join Harriett Gilbert for an enthusiastic and robust discussion about favourite books.
The books are:
The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard, chosen by Geoff Dyer
Question 7 by Richard Flanagan, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
The Others by Sheena Kalayil, chosen by Cariad Lloyd
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Eliza Lomas
Join us over on Instagram @agoodreadbbc
MON 15:30 You're Dead to Me (m002z5nz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Saturday]
MON 16:00 Currently (m002z5ys)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:30 on Sunday]
MON 16:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m002z5p1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
MON 17:00 PM (m002z5yv)
Full coverage of the day's news
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002z5yx)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m002z5yz)
Series 97
1. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?
We're back with a bang this week with some of our toughest subjects to date. They include my advice for a blind date, I refuse to go back to..., and the last time I made a citizen's arrest. Plus who makes the classic repetition mistake of saying BBC?
Host: Sue Perkins
Players: Paul Merton, Lucy Porter, Rachel Parris, Gyles Brandreth
Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Coordinator: Jodie Charman
Production Manager: Katie Baum
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Additional material by Angela Channell
An EcoAudio certified production.
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
MON 19:00 The Archers (m002z5z2)
Chris has reservations about a loved one, and emotions run high for Carol.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m002z5z4)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
MON 20:00 The Briefing Room (m002yxvl)
Will a devolution revolution help boost the economy?
Power to the people! Or, at any rate power to the mayors! As government prepares for yet another new prime minister it is keenly aware that this one has moving power away from the centre to the English regions as his big idea. His central idea. The argument is that such devolution will lead to more and better economic growth. But how does that actually work? Would you get more growth that way?
Guests:
Jennifer Williams, Northern correspondent at the Financial Times
Tony Travers, Professor in Practice in the LSE Department of Government
Liam Sides, Associate Director in the Cities and Regions team at Oxford Economics
Thomas Pope, Chief Economist at the Institute for Government
Production team
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Ben Carter, Nathan Gower and Kirsteen Knight
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound engineers: Sarah Hockley and Neil Churchill
Production co-ordinators: Siobhan Reed, Maria Ogundele
MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977w)
How might we spot nukes in space?
A few years ago a satellite speeding through the Van Allen belt in earth orbit raised concerns that it may include a nuclear weapon. An explosion in that orbit would take out much of our global space infrastructure. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 specifically prohibits such a thing, but it has proven technologically impossible to verify and monitor over the decades. Tom Whipple is joined by Prof Areg Danagoulian, Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT to explore a clever concept to spot such a thermonuclear device in orbit that he has published in this month’s Nature journal.
Also on the show, Professor of Science Communications Gareth Mitchell discusses how the way toddlers waddle can teach robots how to play football, and how to win. He also examines a new global database on food consumption which aims to help answer some of the world’s most pressing questions on our diets and the environment.
Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producer: Alex Mansfield & Tabitha Taylor Buck
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
MON 21:00 Common Ground (m002z5xy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:30 Politically (m002z5y0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m002z5z6)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (m002z9p0)
Episode 1
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.
Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.
A novel of breathtaking twists and dizzying beauty, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.
Cast:
Rowan: Jane Slavin
Dominic: Ian Conningham
Fen: Phoebe Loveday Raymond
Raff: Tom Glenister
Orly: Jack Max
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:00 Limelight (m001jw4z)
Galapagos
5. Face to Face
Speculative thriller about big tech, data manipulation and the undermining of democracy, by Simon Scardifield and Andrew Day.
As Wales embraces independence, Bryony realises that tech company Shapeshift has been grooming her for a very specific role.
Bryony.....Hannah Daniel
Sydney.....Ashleigh Haddad
Gaynor.....Sara Gregory
Omar.....Danny Ashok
Euan…..Jamie Redford
Sam…..Claire Cage
Max.....Ewan Bailey
Shapeshift Man.....Hasan Dixon
Production Co-ordinators.....Eleri McAuliffe and Lindsay Rees
Sound Design.....Catherine Robinson and Nigel Lewis
Directed by Philippa Swallow, John Norton and Emma Harding, BBC Audio Drama Wales
MON 23:30 Naturebang (m0013hxx)
Octopuses and the Mind-Body Problem
What is this thing we call "consciousness"? It feels like a non-physical thing that somehow exists as a separate entity to our physical body. We might think of it as being located up in our brain where our internal chatter is generated, but the 'mind' still somehow feels separate to the 'brain'.
Then along comes an octopus to complicate the matter. Octopuses clearly have consciousness and high intelligence. But the last common ancestor between us and them is a flatworm that trawled the sea floor about 750 million years ago, so it's not surprising that their brains have evolved to be very different to ours. In fact, some people say they have nine brains. This is due to a complex neural network that runs throughout their body, meaning they have the ability to make different decisions from all eight arms without having to send messages back up to the central brain.
So how can the mind of an octopus be seperate to its body? And does this mean that our mind and body are also one and the same?
Featuring writer Sy Montgomery, author of 'The Soul of an Octopus', and philosopher Julian Baggini, author of 'How the World Thinks'.
MON 23:45 Today in Parliament (m002z5z8)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 21 JULY 2026
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m002z5zb)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 A Meditation on Mud by Rebecca Stott (m002z5y4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002z5zd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002z5zg)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:00 News Summary (m002z5zj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:04 Currently (m002z5ys)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:30 on Sunday]
TUE 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002z5zl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002z5zn)
Radio 4's daily prayer and reflection
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m002z5zq)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 06:00 Today (m002z731)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Ancient Lives with Mary Beard (m002z733)
Being Greek
The Godfather of Athens
Controlling the 2nd century city of Athens with their enormous wealth and intimate connections to the most powerful families in Rome were a local mobster, Herodes Atticus and his young Roman wife, Regilla. They spent their riches on lavish display, building theatres and athletic stadiums, sponsoring the Olympic Games and endowing temples where she was installed as the priestess of the gods. But this carefully curated world of influence came crashing down with accusations of corruption, deceit and murder.
It’s a story that’s fascinated the film director Martin Scorsese for many years and he joins Mary to analyse Herodes- a man caught between two worlds as a proud Greek profiting from his relationship with the empire that’s conquered his country.
He married when he was in his 40s, choosing a bride from a powerful Roman family who was only 14. Herodes had shown signs of a violent temper from an early age- even daring to get in a fist fight with a future Roman emperor. His reputation was sealed when Regilla, eight months pregnant, was killed by the blows of one of his lackeys.
A Greek man had apparently ordered the murder of a Roman woman from a family intimately connected to the imperial court. Surely nothing could save Herodes from his inevitable downfall?
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Researcher: Anna Charalambou
Actors: Stavros Demetraki as Philostratus with other readings by Robert Wilfort
Expert Contributors: Rebecca Sweetman of the British School at Athens, Martin Scorsese, Helen Dorey of Sir John Soane's Museum and Carrie Vout of Cambridge University
Sound Design: Ilse Lademann
Commissioned for BBC Radio Four by Daniel Clarke
Special thanks to the British School at Athens, Sir John Soane's Museum, the Archaeological Museum of Marathon and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture
TUE 09:30 Inside Health (m002z735)
Staying fit in the heat and do we need electrolytes?
We’ve had two heatwaves already this summer with warnings that even young and healthy people should rethink their fitness routines in the heat.
So how can we keep exercising when it’s so hot you barely want to move?
James chats with physiologist Damian Bailey from the University of South Wales.
Next, James is at Rother Valley Country Park in Sheffield to meet Calli Hauger-Thackery who made headlines for running the Boston marathon while 22 weeks pregnant and physiotherapist Ros Cooke to find out what changes in the body during pregnancy - and see what exercise is safe.
So we’ve worked up a sweat… but what’s the best way to recover?
We’re in the lab at the University of Westminster to put electrolytes to the test with Dr Lewis Mattin and we cool off with Ros Cooke while chatting about active recovery versus total rest.
Presenter: James Gallagher
Special appearance: Hannah Fisher
Producer: Gerry Holt
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production coordinator: Stu Laws
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002z737)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 11:00 Screenshot (m002yw8t)
The Swinging Sixties
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode revisit the decade that transformed Britain’s image around the world, focusing on how film and TV captured - and helped shape - the spirit of Swinging London, from Blow-Up to Alfie.
Mark speaks to the "Face of 1966", model and fashion icon Twiggy, about what she was watching as the sixties started to swing - and how closely the films of the era reflected the world she experienced.
Meanwhile, Ellen speaks to cultural historian Matthew Sweet about why Richard Lester and The Beatles proved such a turning point, and how films including The Sorcerers and Two Gentlemen Sharing offer a different perspective on the Swinging Sixties story.
And Mark also talks to the iconic actress Rita Tushingham, whose remarkable run of 1960s films - including The Knack... and How to Get It, A Taste of Honey and Smashing Time - mirrored British cinema's shift from gritty black-and-white social realism to vibrant pop culture.
Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 11:45 A Meditation on Mud by Rebecca Stott (m002z739)
Episode 2: Writing Mud
Award-winning writer Rebecca Stott likes to unearth the overlooked and the forgotten.
While taking a long walk in Sussex to mark the first anniversary of her mother’s death, Rebecca’s focus shifts to the mud all around her. Noticing it for the first time in detail, she sets off on a journey to discover its hidden depths and meanings. She finds herself peeling back layers of literature, culture, science and geology; she discovers the rich literary history of marsh monsters, dips her toes into Darwin’s mud experiments, treads in the footsteps of soldiers in the trenches during World War One and finds out how mud cores extracted from the seabed can shed light on the planet’s past and future.
In Episode 2, Rebecca examines how bogs and mudflats appear as places of mystery and sometimes horror in British literature from as early as Beowulf and later in stories by Susan Hill, Arthur Conan Doyle and J.R.R Tolkein. She discovers how the master poet of mud-writing, Seamus Heaney, found his inspiration in the bogs of Denmark.
Written and narrated by Rebecca Stott
Producer, Lisa Lipman
Editor, Kirsten Lass
Sound engineer and mix, Jon Calver
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m002z73c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m002z73f)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m002z73h)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m002z73k)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
TUE 13:45 Buried (m002z73m)
Dead Rabbit
2. Different Killers
Someone in the New Forest is on a killing spree, with dead animals left in lots of different places. Could the dead animals left outside the school be some kind of satanic sacrifice? Chris Packham steps in to help Dan and Lucy investigate.
Buried is the multi award-winning investigative podcast series digging into some of the most disturbing environmental stories in history. In this series, reporters Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor team up with the wildlife presenter Chris Packham, whose own dead-animal death threats escalated into a car bomb outside his house. The dead animals lead them into uncovering a criminal underworld in the British countryside.
Dead Rabbit is a Smoke Trail Production for BBC Radio 4.
Produced and presented by Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Sound design, mixing and AP: Jarek Zaba
Original music and sounds by Phil Channell
Executive Producers: Philip Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m002z5z2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Our Friends in the North (p0c6f6q2)
Episode 9: 1995
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.
In episode 9, it's now 1995. Nicky has returned from Italy to Newcastle, Mary is now a Labour MP, and Tosker and Elaine are about to launch their new business - a floating nightclub on the Tyne.
Cast
Florrie / Mrs Wilkinson: Tracey Wilkinson
Priest: Andrew Byron
Nicky: James Baxter
Sean Collins: Alfie Williams
Geordie / Anthony: Luke MacGregor
Tosker: Philip Correia
Elaine: Eve Shotton
Felix: Trevor Fox
Mary: Norah Lopez Holden
Christopher Collins: Tom Goodman-Hill
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 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (m002z73p)
Lady on Trial
Christabel Russell - Scandalous Divorce
Lucy Worsley is back with a new series where courtroom drama meets history…with a twist.
In Lady on Trial we hear the voices of women from the past who ended up in court charged with everything from murder, adultery and theft to civil disobedience. And Lucy is asking if their true crime could have been to be born female. Lucy is also telling the story of the fight for legal rights for women over three centuries, and wondering what still needs to be done for women to achieve true equality under the law.
In this episode Lucy explores the extraordinary case of Christabel Russell, whose decade-long fight for the legitimacy of her child leads to one of the most famous, and salacious, divorce cases of the 20th century.
When, in the spring of 1921, Christabel Russell discovers she’s pregnant, her aristocratic husband John is appalled. He says this baby cannot possibly be his - it must be the consequence of his wife committing adultery because, he claims, their marriage is unconsummated. What follows is a sexually explicit courtroom drama that grips the nation and drives the outraged King George V to call for a change in the law.
Lucy wants to know what the Russell's lack of knowledge about sex revealed at this trial tells us about women’s lives a hundred years ago. How did this case contribute to the modernisation of divorce law? And how different is it for women going through the divorce courts today?
Lucy is joined by Professor Rosalind Crone from the Open University and by the solicitor Ayesha Vardag, described as Britain’s top divorce lawyer and ‘the diva of divorce’ who specialises in high-net-worth, high-profile divorce cases. Together they unpick ‘the case of the virgin birth’ to explore the ways divorce law in the 1920s discriminated against women, and to find out whether women are treated more fairly today.
Producer: Jane Greenwood
Readers: Clare Corbett, William Hope, Jonathan Keeble and Ruth Sillers
Historical consultant: Professor Rosalind Crone
Head of Production: Claire Myers
Sound design: Chris Maclean
Senior producer: Julia Hayball
Executive producer: Kirsty Hunter
A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Heart and Soul (w3ct983l)
Fighting for the Children of Chernobyl
Forty years ago, the world’s worst nuclear accident took place at Chernobyl, in what was then the Soviet Union. When news of the disaster began to emerge beyond the Iron Curtain, one of those paying close attention was Adi Roche in Ireland.
At the time, Adi was working as a peace educator, teaching about nuclear weapons and Cold War tensions. She went on to found Chernobyl Children International, which became one of the most significant and sustained humanitarian responses to the disaster. Over the years, she brought aid and medical support to Ukraine, Belarus and other affected regions, established a paediatric cardiac programme for children born with heart defects, and helped arrange for children from Belarus to be adopted in Ireland.
In this edition of Heart and Soul, Colm Flynn meets Adi Roche to hear about the work that has shaped her life, and the Christian faith that she says has sustained her through it. Together, they reflect on suffering, compassion and the question of how a loving God can make sense in the face of such tragedy.
Colm also meets Raisa Miknovitch Carolan, who was just six years old when Adi first encountered her in Belarus. A survivor of the Chernobyl disaster, Raisa was abandoned in an orphanage before later being adopted by an Irish family. Now 29, and having undergone 25 operations for serious health conditions linked to radiation exposure, she reflects on survival, loss and the difficult knowledge that while she was given a new life, many others were left behind.
Producer/presenter: Colm Flynn
Series producer: Rajeev Gupta
Production co-ordinator: Mica Nepomuceno
Editor: Chloe Walker
(Photo: Adi Roche at the Chernobyl Nuclear. Credit: Chernobyl Children International)
TUE 16:00 Artworks (m002z73s)
The Writing Life of Sylvia Plath
1. Childhood, Youth and Motherhood
Sylvia Plath was an extraordinarily talented writer. She wrote with rare force and wit, hers was a singular voice. She is the author of the classic coming of age novel The Bell Jar, and one of the 20th century’s most important poetry collections, 1965’s Ariel. But her words have been overshadowed by the details of her biography; her marriage to fellow poet Ted Hughes, its dissolution, and her death by suicide in 1963.
In this new three part series, the focus is firmly on Sylvia Plath’s writing as Mariella Frostrup aims to paint a more nuanced picture of Plath as a poet and novelist, cutting through the noise to see her more clearly and putting her life in the context of her work, rather than the other way around.
In this first episode we look at her Childhood, Young Womanhood and Motherhood. As a child, Sylvia Plath already knew that poetry was to be her calling. Her happy childhood was shattered by the how the death of her father Otto when she was eight years old. Her father would go on to inspire her bee poems, as well as her famous poem Daddy.
We find out how Plath’s coming of age experiences informed her only novel, The Bell Jar, inspired by her time working for a magazine in New York and her subsequent breakdown. We also hear from some of the young women for whom it is a touchstone.
And we meet Sylvia Plath the mother. Her poems about motherhood show a tender side of her that is often overlooked, and she wrote groundbreaking poems about childbirth and miscarriage such as Three Women and Parliament Hill Fields.
Contributors include Siri Hustvedt, Katherine Rundell, Fiona Benson, Sean Borodale, Toria Garbutt, Jessica Zhan Mei Yu, Heather Clark and Peter K Steinberg.
Readings by Lydia Wilson
Presenter Mariella Frostrup
Producer: Jessica Treen
TUE 16:30 What's Up Docs? (m002z73w)
How can you look after your eyes?
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where identical twin doctors Chris and Xand van Tulleken cut through the confusion around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.
In this episode, Chris and Xand van Tulleken discuss eyes and how to check and protect them. From finding a proper pair of sunglasses to mythbusting common beliefs about eyes, the twins explore the intricacies of an organ that can often be overlooked, especially if you’ve never needed glasses.
To help navigate the maze of online advice, Chris and Xand are joined by Mr Raj Das-Bhaumik, a consultant ophthalmic and oculoplastic surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital, one of the world's leading eye hospitals. Together, they break down what everyone needs to look out for when it comes to their eyes.
Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken
Guest: Mr Raj Das-Bhaumik
Producer: Dr Samara Linton
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
Researcher: Mili Ostojic
Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable
Visual Producer: Leon Gower
Digital Lead: Richard Berry
Composer: Phoebe McFarlane
Sound Design: Olga Reed
At the BBC:
Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 17:00 PM (m002z73y)
Full coverage of the day's news
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002z740)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (m001k121)
Series 9
4. Eat the Rich!
"I told him that I followed a strict hegan diet. “Vegan?” he asked. “No,” I said. “Hegan. I only eat things that were male. I’m hoping that’s all clearly marked on your menu.”
Three shorter comic essays, in this week's show: In "Eat The Rich", David Sedaris plays with the modern world of often highly particular dietary requirements, where almost anything can be ‘a thing, now’. His commencement speech to the students of Oberlin College in the USA is re-lived in "A Speech To The Graduates" with a very particular and characteristically unorthodox array of lifestyle steers - including the choice of scented candles and the importance of saying thank you. Finally, "Best Wishes" throws light on his experiences signing books for his readers.
With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, the globetrotting, trash-picking, aisle-rolling storyteller has become one of America’s pre-eminent humour writers. Sedaris has recently been enrolled into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m002z742)
Fallon has something on her mind, and Jolene makes a generous offer.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m002z744)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
TUE 20:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002z746)
News-making original journalism.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m002z748)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 The Art of Being a Zombie Ant Fungus (m002yx7w)
Cultural entomologist Bridget Nicholls investigates an intriguing natural phenomenon.
An ant becomes infected by a fungus which takes over its nervous system, turning the ant into a vehicle for the fungus’s reproduction and killing the ant in the process. It sounds like science fiction, but it's happening in rainforests around the world.
It's a parasitic relationship that has inspired the TV series The Last of Us, but it also reveals a great deal about control, autonomy and the interconnectedness of the natural world.
With:
Merlin Sheldrake, mycologist and writer
Philip Ball, science writer
Mark Brown, director of the University Museum of Zoology at Cambridge University
Nura Sidarus, Lecturer in Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London
Lore Lixenberg, mezzo-soprano and sound artist
and
Jason Singh, sound artist and composer. Jason's recordings and compositions feature throughout this documentary.
Zombie Ant Fungus: The chemistry of Control is a show created and produced by Bridget Nicholls, and written and directed by Wade McCollum who also performs in the show and composed its music. The original production premiered as a Pestival commission at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
Presenter: Bridget Nicholls
Producer: Eliane Glaser
TUE 21:30 The Bottom Line (m002yxtl)
Twenty Years in Business
The Bottom Line has been on BBC Radio 4 for twenty years. The programme was first broadcast in 2006. Back then smartphones weren't on sale, Facebook had only just gone public and people still went to Blockbuster to rent videos and DVDs. Tony Blair was prime minister, a litre of fuel cost 90p and interest rates stood at 4.5 per cent. Since then there's been a financial crash, we've had energy price shocks, Brexit and a pandemic. Evan Davis is joined by a panel of guests, who first appeared in the early years of the show, to reflect on how the business landscape has changed over that period of time.
Guests:
Nicola Horlick: CEO of Money & Co
Robin Wight: Advertising Guru
Kim Winser: Luxury Brand Consultant
Alex Cheatle: CEO and founder of Ten Lifestyle Group Plc
Presenter: Evan Davis
Producer: Sally Abrahams & Nick Holland
Sound: Dave O'Neil
Production Coordinator: Katie Morrison
Editor Sam Bonham
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m002z74b)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (m002z9p3)
Episode 2
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.
Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.
A novel of breathtaking twists and dizzying beauty, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.
Cast:
Rowan: Jane Slavin
Dominic: Ian Conningham
Fen: Phoebe Loveday Raymond
Raff: Tom Glenister
Orly: Jack Max
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:00 Uncanny (m002zk17)
Summer Specials 2026
3. Little Biter
Rebecca has lived in the same Victorian house in the seaside town of Ramsgate for her whole life. For over 30 years, members of her family have repeatedly dreamed of a little girl who bites them while they sleep. Sometimes they catch glimpses of her in the house, with a bucket and spade.
After finding the skeleton of a dog buried on their garden, they start hearing a phantom dog running around the house's corridors. Rebecca's family live happily alongside their spectral visitors, but at certain times of year a darker, male presence seems to manifest. Who are the little girl and the man, and what is the dark history of the Ramsgate house?
Written and presented by Danny Robins
Editing and sound design: Charlie Brandon-King
Filming and editing: Robb Leech
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme music by Lanterns on the Lake
Commissioning executive: Paula McDonnell
Commissioning editor: Rhian Roberts
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard
A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
TUE 23:30 Naturebang (m0013hr5)
Bull Elephants and the Importance of Dads
Becky Ripley and Emily Knight get to grips with fatherhood in the animal kingdom by way of the largest land animal on earth, a fully grown bull elephant. Like the majority of mammals, male elephants aren't directly involved in raising the youngsters - that's left to the matriarchal herd composed of grandmothers, mothers and daughters. But you'd be wrong to think that means they don't have an influence. Via an extraordinary physiological phenomenon unique to elephants, known as 'musth', elephant bulls have a huge role in helping the teenage males navigate their tricky teenage years. And when it goes wrong, tragedy can strike.
Back in the human world, dads play a major role in their children's upbringing. Human men are what's known as 'investing fathers', with powerful brain chemistry bonding them to their partners AND to their babies. The skills of fatherhood, which have evolved over millennia, are instinctive, biologically innate and hugely impressive, yet often get overshadowed by our culture's (perhaps understandable) focus on motherhood. Perhaps it's time for a rethink?
Featuring conservationist Gus Van Dyk, and evolutionary anthropologist Dr Anna Machin.
TUE 23:45 Today in Parliament (m002z74d)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 22 JULY 2026
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m002z74g)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 A Meditation on Mud by Rebecca Stott (m002z739)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002z74j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002z74l)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:00 News Summary (m002z74n)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:04 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
WED 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002z74q)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002z74s)
The Meaning of Success
Prayer for the Day presented by Steve Taylor.
Good morning.
What does it mean to be successful? The normal definition of success is achievement – getting more qualifications, rising high in your profession, receiving accolades and awards. Or we think in terms of material success – earning a lot of money, buying goods - a big house, a fast car and other glittering possessions.
However, research in psychology has shown that material success doesn’t have much effect on well-being. It works up to a certain point, but beyond that, once you’re freed from financial pressures, it doesn’t make much difference. Beyond that threshold, no matter how much money people earn, they don’t gain anymore well-being, even if they become billionaires.
So if the conventional idea of success is false, what does success really mean?
Success means giving to others. A successful life means a life of caring, support and service. It means supporting your family, neighbours and community. It means helping strangers, alleviating other people’s suffering, encouraging their development. In these terms, a life of failure is a life of selfishness, of trying to satisfy your own desires while disregarding other people’s well-being.
Significantly, research shows that acts of kindness do increase our well-being. Sometimes this is referred to as the ‘helper’s high.’ We feel more connected to others and our lives have more meaning and purpose. As I have expressed it poetically:
If you want to make a mark on the world
live quietly and simply.
Be attentive to the needs of others
sensitive to their suffering
giving as much of yourself as you can.
The achievements of the ego pass away
like monuments that tourists gaze at admiringly
then forget once out of sight.
But acts of kindness never fade.
Our souls absorb them, and carry them forever
as marks of trust and love.
Blessings.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m002z74v)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 06:00 Today (m002z79x)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Sideways (m002z673)
Stick to the Script
Rob Broderick aka ‘Abandoman’ grew up surrounded by classic comedies like Laurel and Hardy, and with a teacher mother who inspired his fascination with wordplay. When Rob discovers freestyle rap as a teenager, all these influences coalesce to inspire him to step into the world of stand up comedy.
Only Rob doesn’t want to hone a rigid ‘tight ten’ of material. In fact, Rob doesn’t want to prepare anything at all - he steps out on stage and improvises everything - no script whatsoever.
Matthew Syed uncovers the remarkable neurological processes that take place when we improvise and allow our inner critic to take a back seat.
With contributions from hip-hop musical comedian Rob Broderick (Abandoman); Professor Charles Limb, Chief of Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco; Professor Keith Sawyer, creativity researcher based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and George Lewis, composer, technologist, musicologist and professor of music at Columbia University.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Vishva Samani
Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Production Manager: Joe Savage
Sound Design and Engineering: Nicholas Alexander
Theme tune by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
Featuring archive from Abandoman performing on The Al Porter Show, produced by Kite Entertainment for RTÉ2 and broadcast on 24 December 2015; Abandoman performing on The Deirdre O'Kane Show, produced by Kite Entertainment for Sky One and broadcast in November 2022; and Professor Charles Limb’s personal recording of his 2008 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study on jazz improvisation.
WED 09:30 Shadow World (m002x6dn)
Stolen Years
4. Closing Arguments
Will justice finally prevail? For Shadow World: Stolen Years, the trial of Paul Quinn reaches its verdict. After more than two decades will the victim of the brutal rape finally see the right man convicted?
And at the conclusion of the trial will Andy feel a sense of closure? With two separate investigations still examining the failures in his case, the verdict is not the end of the story.
Shadow World: Gripping stories from the shadows - BBC investigations from across the UK.
Presenter and Producer: Jemma Gander
Series Producer and Editor: Fran Robertson
Assistant Editor: Christopher Whyte
Composer: Sholto
Sound design and mix: Chris Maclean
Executive Producer for Goldhawk: Kate Holland
Commissioning executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning editor: Dan Clarke
A Two Step Films production in association with Goldhawk for Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002z79z)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 11:00 File on 4 Investigates (m002z746)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Tuesday]
WED 11:40 This Week in History (m002z67l)
July 20th - July 26th
Fascinating, surprising and eye-opening stories from the past, brought to life.
25th July 1978: Louise Joy Brown, the world's first successful IVF baby, is born at Oldham General Hospital.
24th July 1851: The Window Tax, based on the number of windows on a house, is abolished in the UK.
21st July 365 AD: A tsunami devastates the Egyptian city of Alexandria.
WED 11:45 A Meditation on Mud by Rebecca Stott (m002z7b1)
Episode 3: The origins of mud
Award-winning writer Rebecca Stott likes to unearth the overlooked and the forgotten.
While taking a long walk in Sussex to mark the first anniversary of her mother’s death, Rebecca’s focus shifts to the mud all around her. Noticing it for the first time in detail, she sets off on a journey to discover its hidden depths and meanings. She finds herself peeling back layers of literature, culture, science and geology; she discovers the rich literary history of marsh monsters, dips her toes into Darwin’s mud experiments, treads in the footsteps of soldiers in the trenches during World War One and finds out how mud cores extracted from the seabed can shed light on the planet’s past and future.
In Episode 3 Rebecca delves into how mud came about 458 million years ago.
Written and narrated by Rebecca Stott
Producer, Lisa Lipman
Editor, Kirsten Lass
Sound engineer and mix, Jon Calver
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:00 News Summary (m002z7b3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m002z7b5)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m002z7b7)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m002z7b9)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
WED 13:45 Buried (m002z7bc)
Dead Rabbit
3. An Unspoken Suspect
The killers strike again at a village shop, just a few miles away from where dead animals were dumped outside a school. And this time, it is far worse, with more than fifty hares piled up, blood smeared on the shop windows and birds impaled on the door handles. Local people are scared to talk about it - but slowly, Dan and Lucy realise that they know who is behind it.
Buried is the multi award-winning investigative podcast series digging into some of the most disturbing environmental stories in history. In this series, reporters Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor team up with the wildlife presenter Chris Packham, whose own dead-animal death threats escalated into a car bomb outside his house. The dead animals lead them into uncovering a criminal underworld in the British countryside.
Dead Rabbit is a Smoke Trail Production for BBC Radio 4.
Produced and presented by Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Sound design, mixing and AP: Jarek Zaba
Original music and sounds by Phil Channell
Executive Producers: Philip Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
WED 14:00 The Archers (m002z742)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 United Kingdoms (m000z5w2)
Fearing
A groundbreaking five-part series from exciting new writers celebrating and revealing life across the United Kingdoms in short, sharp drama, comedy, news reports, song and poetic monologue. Stories, lives and voices making a kaleidoscope of now.
Each episode features five short dramas by different writers - a total of 50 writers and 100 actors have been brought together, showcasing new writing and performing talent from every corner of the United Kingdom.
Episode 1: Fearing – a moving and powerful look at 21st Century United Kingdoms.
• MUSSELBURGH - An exhausted woman retires to bed for three days and reflects on her failings, only to realise they are a key to hope not fear.
• ERYRI, SNOWDONIA - A narrative song that explores how a child overcomes their fear about fitting in to a Welsh-speaking community. Sound Design by Nigel Lewis
• RANDALSTOWN, COUNTY ANTRIM - A conversational poetic monologue that discusses how fear uses semantics as camouflage and a place to hide in, as though fear is a spirit that inhabits words and is loosed into our neural pathways as a result.
• UNTHANK - A surreal comedy about your life shrinking, literally. Ivy is learning to live with her wheelchair, but fear of change has a dramatic effect on her Cumbrian farmhouse.
• TANKERTON - When house-mates leave and your zero hours contract ends, where else is there to turn in lockdown, if not home? But home is no place for the in-between, the non-conforming, so they pitch their tent on the edge of the sea and allow the waves, the sky and land to be home.
Musselburgh written by Hannah Lavery
Performed by Nalini Chetty
Produced by Kirsty Williams
Eryri written by Lisa Jên Brown
Performed by Lisa Jên brown and Martin Hoyland
Sound Design by Nigel Lewis
Produced by Martin Hoyland and James Robinson
Randalstown written and performed by Clare Dwyer Hogg
Sound Design Lucinda Mason Brown
Produced by Celia de Wolff
Unthank written by Karen Featherstone
Performed by Cherylee Houston (Ivy), Kerry Willison-Parry (Reporter) and Lekhani Chirwa (Rose)
Sound Design by Eloise Whitmore
Co-Produced by Polly Thomas and Dermot Daly
Original Music composed by Niroshini Thanbar
Tankerton written by Shelley Silas
Performed by Tigger Blaze
Sound Design by Lucinda Mason Brown
Produced by Celia de Wolff
Programme Illustration by Eleanor Hibbert
Episode Sound Designers: Lucinda Mason Brown and David Chilton, Essential Music Ltd
Curated by Celia de Wolff for Pier Productions and BBC Northern Ireland for BBC Radio 4
WED 15:00 Money Box (m002z7bf)
The latest news from the world of personal finance
WED 15:30 The Documentary (w3ct8ywm)
The Dream Makers
In Christopher Nolan’s 2010 blockbuster Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio’s protagonist is paid to implant an idea into a target’s subconscious. If you look the film up, its genre is listed as being ‘science fiction’ - but could that soon have to be revised?
Dream engineering is an experimental new field - with scientists, dream researchers and engineers pursuing the goal of influencing our thoughts as we sleep.
For some, the idea holds the promise of a bright future, with benefits for our memories, creativity and wellbeing.
On the other hand, though, the ethical issues it causes amid the unregulated world of an emerging technology have led to warnings of a future where our very dreams could be for sale.
In The Dream Makers, Anand Jagatia investigates the fascinating potential and developing concerns over what the future of dream engineering could hold.
Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Dan Welsh
With special thanks to The MIT Museum, Seth Riskin, The Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard Library, The Trustees of the E. E. Cummings Trust, Dr. Suzanne Fairless-Aitken at Bloodaxe Books
Credits:
Tomas Tranströmer, New Collected Poems, tr. Robin Fulton (Bloodaxe Books, 2011)
E. E. Cummings, Xaipe (W W Norton & Co Inc, 1997)
WED 16:00 The Power of Guilt (m002gfzg)
The First Hour
This is a deeply personal story of guilt – how to live with it, and its power to transform us.
Four years ago, producer Dave Anderson caused a climbing accident that badly injured his partner, Cassie. In this series, Dave and Cassie try to piece together their very different experiences of what happened. Through difficult and intimate conversations, they tell the whole story, from the first traumatic seconds to the emotional fallout years later.
For Dave, the guilt has been overwhelming. Now, he’s searching for ways of living with it, talking to people with unique perspectives on this painful emotion. What are we misunderstanding about guilt? And how can we tap into its hidden power?
In Episode 1, Cassie and Dave grapple with their unreliable memories of the accident and try to understand how the first hour set their course for years to come.
Presenter and Producer: Dave Anderson
Sound-design and mix engineer: Charlie Brandon-King
Executive Producer: Anishka Sharma
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:15 The Media Show (m002z796)
This is the programme about a revolution in media.
WED 17:00 PM (m002z7bh)
Full coverage of the day's news
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002z7bk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 18:30 Ivo Graham's Obsessions (m0024p0r)
Series 1
6. Mike Bubbins & Sian Lloyd
In the last of the series, Ivo Graham travels to Cardiff to find out what obsesses his Welsh guests
Ivo is joined by writer and star of BBC Two's Mammoth, Mike Bubbins, and former weather reporter and Welsh national treasure Siân Lloyd.
Mike loves the 70s, and what's more 70s than American cop show The Rockford Files? Siân has a remarkable sweet tooth and love of baking. Ivo also finds out what the Cardiff audience are obsessed with, before being joined by a Very Obsessed Person, or VOP. Cath Pendleton aka the Merthyr Mermaid talks about her love of cold water swimming, and the unbelievable feats she has accomplished in sub-zero temperatures.
Hosted by Ivo Graham
Featuring Mike Bubbins, Siân Lloyd and Cath Pendleton
Written by Ivo Graham and Tom Craine
Additional Material by Ruth Husko, Eleri Morgan, Christina Riggs and Peter Tellouche
Recorded at Cardiff Glee Club by Chris MacLean
Sound edited by Charlie Brandon-King
Production Coordinators: Katie Baum and Jodie Charman
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies, a BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4
An EcoAudio certified production
Show image: Matt Stronge
WED 19:00 The Archers (m002z78n)
Emotions run high for Tracy, and Alan makes a breakthrough.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m002z7bm)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
WED 20:00 AntiSocial (m002yw7h)
Speaking ill of the dead
The suspected murder of Ann Widdecombe - and the reaction to it - prompts a debate about what we should and shouldn't say about someone when they die. The former politician was celebrated by some, but pilloried by others for her lifestyle and political views. So is it ever OK to speak ill of the dead and, if so, when and in what way? Plus, we explore the origins of the phrase itself, and speak to an obituary writer about which details to include, and which to leave out.
Presenter: Adam Fleming
Production team: Annabel Deas, Mhairi MacKenzie and Simon Tulett
Studio manager: Hal Haines
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Editor: Penny Murphy
WED 20:45 Café Hope (m002qrwb)
Thought-provoking talks in which speakers explore original ideas about culture and society.
WED 21:00 Ancient Lives with Mary Beard (m002z733)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Inside Health (m002z735)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Tuesday]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m002z7bq)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
WED 22:45 Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (m002z9q0)
Episode 3
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.
Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.
A novel of breathtaking twists and dizzying beauty, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.
Cast:
Rowan: Jane Slavin
Dominic: Ian Conningham
Fen: Phoebe Loveday Raymond
Raff: Tom Glenister
Orly: Jack Max
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:00 Sunil Patel: An Idiot's Guide To (m002z7bs)
Living Forever
3: How to Travel Your Meat Brain to the Future
Sunil’s current options for eternal life are looking slim, so he turns to technology. Is the answer behind a computer algorithm or within a cryogenic chamber?
In this episode, Sunil speaks to an avatar creation company, gets chilly with a cryonic expert in a mortuary, and is betrayed by AI.
Starring Sunil Patel
Featuring Helen Bauer
Written by Sunil Patel, Charlie Dinkin, Em Humble and Benjamin Sutton
Produced by Benjamin Sutton and Laura Shaw
A Daddy’s SuperYacht Production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 Damien Slash (m0015vg5)
The Damien Slash Mixtape. Series 4
Episode 4
Multi-character YouTube star Damien Slash is back for a third round of zeitgeisty sketches in this new fast-paced, one-man sketch comedy show. In the final instalment, we hear a landlord who loves to check on his tenants, a meeting between FIFA and Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup, and a Pingu adventure for our times.
Written by and starring Damien Slash (aka Daniel Barker)
Additional material by Tom Savage
Guest starring Natasia Demetriou.
Production Coordintator: Sarah Sharpe
Sound Editor: Rich Evans
Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios production
WED 23:30 Naturebang (m0013jdn)
Cockatoos and the Power of the Beat
Rhythm is everywhere in the biological world. The rhythm of heartbeat, the rhythm of breathing, the rhythm of gait and walking. In fact, in 'The Descent of Man', Charles Darwin wrote that the perception of rhythm is "probably common to all animals and no doubt depends on the common physiological nature of their nervous system.” And yet, recent studies have shown that even our closest living relatives, the great apes, can't seem to keep a beat. Becky Ripley and Emily Knight investigate.
Enter YouTube sensation Snowball the Cockatoo. Much to the intrigue of evolutionary biologists, Snowball loves to dance to anything with a strong beat. Especially The Backstreet Boys. How is it that chimpanzees can't keep a beat and yet this parrot - which is more closely related to a dinosaur than a human - clearly loves to groove? What's going on in the brain of this bird? And how does that link to our own beat-keeping brains?
Back in the human world, there's serious neurological benefit to this beat-based research. The more we understand how and why people move to a beat, the more we can appreciate its powerful therapeutic effects. It unites our brains with our bodies, which can help to relieve symptoms of movement-based neurological disorders like Parkinson's, and it unites us to each other.
Featuring cognitive neuroscientist Aniruddh Patel and dance psychologist Peter Lovatt.
WED 23:45 Today in Parliament (m002z7bv)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 23 JULY 2026
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m002z7bx)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 A Meditation on Mud by Rebecca Stott (m002z7b1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002z7bz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002z7c1)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:00 News Summary (m002z7c3)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:04 Sideways (m002z673)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002z7c5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002z7c7)
Suffering and Growth
Prayer for the Day presented by Steve Taylor.
Good morning.
It probably hasn’t escaped your attention by now that life can sometimes be challenging. Even the most privileged people in the world can’t escape stress, crises and trauma. As the Buddha stated, life involves suffering. The Buddha identified different types of suffering, both physical and mental. He highlighted the physical suffering of illness, old age and dying, and the mental suffering of desires that can’t be satisfied, and the instability of life.
However, in psychology, research shows that suffering may have positive long-term effects. The concept of ‘post-traumatic growth’ is well-established and is underpinned by detailed research. After trauma, around half of all people will undergo some form of positive development. In my own research, I have coined the term ‘transformation through turmoil’ to describe the dramatic positive effects that may arise from crises and challenges.
This doesn’t mean that we should welcome suffering or purposely seek it out. I don’t want to minimise the pain that trauma and turmoil can bring. But even if that pain remains with us to some degree, we may emerge from our suffering as deeper and stronger people. As I have expressed it poetically:
When life is comfortable, we fall asleep
as if we’re inside a stuffy old house
where the heating’s too high and all windows are
closed.
That’s when misfortune arrives, out of nowhere.
It bursts through our door in the middle of the night
and turns life upside down, to wake us up.
But this is how we grow:
after the shock of upheaval and the pain of loss
broken fragments fuse together.
A new structure forms – a sturdy new self
that feels more alert and alive
and holds more love and wisdom.
Misfortune doesn’t come to break us down
but to wake us up and help us grow.
Blessings.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m002z7c9)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 06:00 Today (m002z77y)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Artworks (m002z780)
Who Did We Think We Were?
3. The Festival of Britain 1951 and the Coronation 1953
75 years after the Festival of Britain offered a tonic to a Blitz-hit nation, Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum, returns to Radio 4 with a three-part series, examining how celebrations of British identity and togetherness over the past century or so can help us better understand and define who we are now.
"The question of who we are, of national identity, of the Union Jack itself, is now the subject of angry political debate," Neil says. "In these three programmes I want to take a step back – to look at six moments over the last hundred years when, as a country, we came together to assert a national purpose, to celebrate and to explore who we thought we were, and to consider our place in the world."
"Asking 'who did we think we were then?' might help us answer the question - 'who do we think we are now?'. And to understand why – as a country – we have, for over a century, found that question so difficult to answer."
This week he focuses on the 1951 Festival of Britain, with its emphasis on new design and technology, and the 1953 Coronation, with its emphasis on centuries of history - and he finds out how technology turned the Coronation into a global event.
Producer Katy Hickman
THU 09:30 Artworks (m002z782)
Art That Conquered the World
Guernica
Picasso's Guernica has become the defining 20th century image of civilian suffering in war. Endlessly reproduced, it has been held aloft at demonstrations and reworked by artists around the world - a version even hangs outside the UN Security Council chamber. But how did a work designed as a fund-raiser, a canvas rolled up like a carpet and shipped around the world, become a global icon ?
In this series, art historian Dr James Fox traces the twists of fate and happy accidents that pushed a handful of artworks to the forefront of pop culture. For Guernica, it's a journey that began at the World's Fair in Paris in 1937, taking in both a car showroom in Manchester and a palazzo in Milan, as well as many years at New York's MoMA and its current, contested home in Madrid.
Throughout that odyssey, Guernica has remained a touchstone for politics and for protest, as James discovers.
Producer – Julia Johnson
Executive Producer – Jonathon Mayo
Junior Producer - Jamie Adam
Sound Design - Tom Burchell
Production Manager – Sera Baker
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002z784)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 11:00 How Boarding Schools Shaped Britain (m00282gw)
3. Modern boarding
Boarding schools have long been cornerstones of British tradition and leadership, shaping the elite and influencing society. But how are they adapting to a changing society?
In the last of three programmes, Nicky Campbell explores the evolution of boarding schools as they balance their social history with the demands of the modern world, and examines whether boarding schools can reinvent themselves for a more inclusive future.
From state-of-the-art facilities to inclusive bursary programmes, today's boarding schools aim to create opportunities for a diverse range of students. With the challenges of rising costs, societal change and VAT implications, these schools must navigate uncertain times to remain relevant. Are they still breeding grounds for future leaders? What values and visions will they instil in the next generations?
THU 11:45 A Meditation on Mud by Rebecca Stott (m002z786)
Episode 4: Mud and War
Award-winning writer Rebecca Stott likes to unearth the overlooked and the forgotten.
While taking a long walk in Sussex to mark the first anniversary of her mother’s death, Rebecca’s focus shifts to the mud all around her. Noticing it for the first time in detail, she sets off on a journey to discover its hidden depths and meanings. She finds herself peeling back layers of literature, culture, science and geology; she discovers the rich literary history of marsh monsters, dips her toes into Darwin’s mud experiments, treads in the footsteps of soldiers in the trenches during World War One and finds out how mud cores extracted from the seabed can shed light on the planet’s past and future.
In Episode 4, Rebecca traces her own tragic family history: two newly discovered letters reveal that two of her family members lost their lives on mud-drenched battlefields, one in Mesopotamia and the other in France.
Written and narrated by Rebecca Stott
Producer, Lisa Lipman
Editor, Kirsten Lass
Sound engineer and mix, Jon Calver
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m002z788)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 The Bottom Line (m002z78b)
Evan Davis hosts the business conversation show
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002z78d)
Sliced Bread - Series 17
Language Learning Apps
Greg Foot investigates the so-called wonder products making bold claims.
THU 12:57 Weather (m002z78g)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m002z78j)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
THU 13:45 Buried (m002z78l)
Dead Rabbit
4. Caught in the Headlights
After the wild rumours they heard about hare coursing in the villages, Lucy and Chris Packham join a stakeout to see it for themselves. It means driving over remote fields late at night, with only a volunteer called John and his friends to keep them safe. It feels like this is leading them into something new - could it be dangerous?
Buried is the multi award-winning investigative podcast series digging into some of the most disturbing environmental stories in history. In this series, reporters Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor follow a trail left after dozens of dead animals were left in villages in the British countryside. They team up with the wildlife presenter Chris Packham, whose own dead-animal death threats escalated into a car bomb outside his house. The dead animals lead them into uncovering a criminal underworld in the British countryside.
Dead Rabbit is a Smoke Trail Production for BBC Radio 4.
Produced and presented by Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Sound design, mixing and AP: Jarek Zaba
Original music and sounds by Phil Channell
Executive Producers: Philip Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
THU 14:00 The Archers (m002z78n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m002z78q)
The Big Payback
Written by Sir Lenny Henry.
While taking part in a celebrity ancestry TV show, Jack Braddock, a white actor in a globally popular TV hospital drama series, discovers that he is descended from a brutal 18th century plantation manager called Lachlan Braddock who was in the habit of issuing particularly vicious punishments to his enslaved workers. He also discovers that he is related to a family of Lachlan's Black British descendants.
In a high risk PR exercise, he goes to lunch with the Birmingham Braddocks, Shelton, Delyce, Amelia and Glenroy.
A comedy with a dead serious heart.
Sir Lenny Henry is a celebrated comedian, actor, writer, and activist. A pioneering figure in British comedy, Sir Lenny is the co-founder of Comic Relief and a committed campaigner for diversity in the media. Sir Lenny is the co-author of several books on the reparations issue with journalist and academic Marcus Ryder. This audio drama evolved out of a stage play written for their book of the same title.
The accounts of the fictional Lachlan Braddock's cruelty to his enslaved workers are taken from real accounts from Jamaican plantation owners - notably Thomas Thistlewood - and from accounts written by Baptist missionary Henry Blepy.
Cast
Jack ..... Oliver Chris
Dane ..... Richie Campbell
Delyce ..... Claire Benedict
Shelton ..... Roger Griffiths
Amelia ..... Amaka Okafor
Glenroy ..... Kascion Franklin
Annie ..... Felicity Montagu
Director, Driver, 1st AD ..... James Lailey
Sound by Peter Ringrose
Directed by Mary Peate
Produced by Jessica Dromgoole
A Hooley production for Radio 4
THU 15:00 This Natural Life (m002z9hz)
Roma Agrawal
The writer and structural engineer behind The Shard, Roma Agrawal, takes Martha Kearney to Kilburn Grange Park in north-west London. The park was an oasis for Roma during some of the most difficult periods of her life.
Roma shares how she sees the world through the lens of a structural engineer, reflecting on materials, society and the ways we organise our cities. She tells Martha about her upbringing in Mumbai, India, and the natural world that surrounded her there, comparing it with the landscapes she experiences in the UK today. The pair also visit a special spot in the park – the rose garden – which holds memories of Roma's turbulent thirties.
Roma worked as an engineer on The Shard, the tallest building in western Europe, and her books include Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures, and the childrens' book How to Build a Chocolate Bridge: Extraordinary Builds Using Everyday Things.
Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio Bristol
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m002z712)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Feedback (m002z78s)
Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations.
THU 16:00 The Briefing Room (m002z78v)
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (w3ct977x)
A weekly show exploring science, its mysteries, and the debates it sparks.
THU 17:00 PM (m002z78y)
Full coverage of the day's news
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002z790)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 18:30 P.O.V. (m002z792)
Series 2
S2 E6: What If This Was a Sketch Show, Though?
This week on P.O.V., it sounds like we've got the internet's funniest video comedians to make an audio sketch show. And even if we haven't, doesn't it say something that it seems like we have? There's also some breaking news about podcasts, a prank that makes the victim look like a right mug, and a guided meditation for haters.
Written and performed by Jake Bhardwaj, Kylie Brakeman, Stephen Buchanan, The Exploding Heads, Rachel Fairburn, Daniel Foxx, Matt Green, Larry & Paul, Kelechi Okafor, Will Sebag-Montefiore, and Ed Night & Paddy Young.
Recorded at The Soundhouse Studios and Guilt Free Post, London; Sonido Studios, Clydebank; Oscillate Recordings, Manchester; and Maximum Fun, Los Angeles.
Sound design: Rich Evans at Synbox Post.
Producer: Ed Morrish
Executive producer: Lyndsay Fenner
A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m002z66x)
Bert causes concern, and Elizabeth makes a surprising offer.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m002z794)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
THU 20:00 At Your Own Peril (m0027l5n)
The Gamble
The modern world is full of risks, from natural hazards such as flooding to the existential threat of nuclear war, artificial intelligence and climate change.
With the scientific and technological progress of the past few centuries, we’ve created new hazards that threaten our very survival and, in this series, emergency planner and disaster recovery expert Lucy Easthope explores the history of risk to find out how it’s understood, perceived and managed, and to ask how we can become more resilient as individuals, as a society and as a planet.
The Ancient Romans had a passion for dice and would even consult them to predict the future, but despite a love of gambling - and a life of danger - they didn’t have a theory of risk. Fate was in the hands of the gods.
With the discovery of probability during a game of chance between a French nobleman and two brilliant mathematicians in the middle of the 17th century, there was a revolution in human thought as, for the first time in history, we could calculate risk and begin to look - however dimly - into the future.
But did this give us mastery over our fate or simply the illusion of control? Is prediction an art or a science? Are the ‘superforecasters’ of today like the oracles of the past? And how much are we simply gambling with our future, playing with dice while the volcano smokes in the distance.
Lucy Easthope is the co-founder of the After Disaster Network in the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at the University of Durham, Professor in Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the University of Bath and the author of When The Dust Settles.
Presenter: Lucy Easthope
Producer: Patrick Bernard
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
THU 20:15 The Media Show (m002z796)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:15 on Wednesday]
THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m002z5py)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
THU 21:45 The Cows Are Mad (m001rrj2)
3. Dissidents
Dissident researchers are convinced the scientific establishment is wrong on BSE, and one microbiologist is convinced a major human health disaster is imminent. Microbiologist Steve Dealler and his boss, Professor Richard Lacey are veterans of food safety scandals and when BSE hits, it’s right up their street.
Steve is tasked with working out how many people have been exposed - and the news is not good. He’s convinced a major human health disaster is imminent - but the government keeps insisting beef is safe. The disconnect between his reality and everyone else’s nearly breaks him.
Written, presented and produced by Lucy Proctor.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002z798)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (m002z9q3)
Episode 4
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.
Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.
A novel of breathtaking twists and dizzying beauty, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.
Cast:
Rowan: Jane Slavin
Dominic: Ian Conningham
Fen: Phoebe Loveday Raymond
Raff: Tom Glenister
Orly: Jack Max
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:00 Radical (m002z79b)
Conversations about the global forces reshaping our world and ideas defining the future.
THU 23:30 Naturebang (m0013hj7)
Cuckoo Chicks and the Supernormal Stimulus
Why do we want the things we want? What really drives us? And how in control of our instincts are we? All questions you might ask the humble cuckoo. This dastardly bird - a 'brood parasite' - famously leaves its eggs in another bird's nest and flies off, never to be seen again. The enormous chick hatches, kills all its nest-mates, then runs its adoptive parents ragged with round-the-clock feedings. But why on earth do the poor host-parents fall for the con?
To find the answer, Becky Ripley and Emily Knight delve into the history of animal behavioural research to uncover the 'Supernormal Stimulus', a curious phenomenon in which an animal's most basic instincts can be over-ridden, twisted and manipulated, to make them behave in extraordinary ways. Often against their own best interests.
And if you think humans are far too smart to be manipulated in this way, think again. Take a look at the things you like, and ask yourself why? Why do you like fast food when it's so bad for you? Why is porn so appealing, when it's so unrealistic? And why can't you put your smart-phone down? Perhaps just like the parasitised victims of the cuckoo chicks, you're not completely in control of what you want.
Featuring evolutionary biologist professor Rebecca Kilner and evolutionary psychologist Becky Burch
THU 23:45 Today in Parliament (m002z79d)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 24 JULY 2026
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002z79g)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 A Meditation on Mud by Rebecca Stott (m002z786)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002z79j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002z79l)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:00 News Summary (m002z79n)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:04 The Briefing Room (m002z78v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Thursday]
FRI 05:34 Shipping Forecast (m002z79q)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002z79s)
The Power of Idleness
Prayer for the Day presented by Steve Taylor.
Good morning.
I’ve often thought that human beings are the most inappropriately named species on Earth, in that we don’t spend much time being. That is, we don’t spend much time inactive, doing nothing in particular. We prefer doing to being. Many of us feel guilty if we’re idle for long.
But idleness is important. It allows us to slow down and recharge. It allows us to reconnect with ourselves.
Even more than that, idleness can be a great source of creativity.
Many of the greatest ideas and inventions in human history have emerged from doing nothing. The concept of coordinate geometry suddenly occurred to Rene Descartes when he was half asleep in bed, watching a fly buzz around the room. One night, the physicist Nils Bohr was drifting off to sleep, and had a vision of the nucleus of the atom, with the electrons spinning around it, just like the solar system with the sun and planets. In this way he ‘discovered’ the structure of the atom and won the Nobel Prize.
Many great songs and poems have emerged from sleep and daydreaming too. For example, Paul McCartney woke up one morning with the whole of the song, Yesterday, playing inside his head.
Often, when we’re busy, our minds are full of associational thoughts, chattering away about things we have to do and or that have happened recently, so there is no space for creative insights to arise.
But when our minds are quiet, our mental boundaries seem to grow softer, allowing inspiration to flow through.
Maybe today, if you can, treat yourself to some idleness, when you’re not active and your mind isn’t focused on a screen or a device.
Don’t think of idleness as unproductive. It’s essential for your well-being, and may yield some of the most inspired ideas of your life.
Blessings.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002z79v)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 06:00 Today (m002z668)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m002z66b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Sunday]
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m002z66d)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m002z66g)
What Happened Next?
Leyla Kazim revisits some of The Food Programme's most memorable stories to ask: what happened next? From 500kg of eels stranded in a holding tank in Gloucestershire and English olive oil being pressed in Lincolnshire, to the future of halloumi in Cyprus following an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease, and the impact of global politics on vegetables grown in Africa for UK consumers. Leyla returns to the people behind these stories to hear what happened after the programmes were broadcast.
Listen to the original programmes:
English Olive Oil
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002f00z
Why Is Africa Feeding Us?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002m1mz
Halloumi and hellim: The story of an island and its cheese
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jsc7
Eels and Elvers
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002lfhd
Consider the Eel: Part 2
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002t2kh
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan
FRI 11:45 A Meditation on Mud by Rebecca Stott (m002z66j)
Episode 5: Life and Death
Award-winning writer Rebecca Stott likes to unearth the overlooked and the forgotten.
While taking a long walk in Sussex to mark the first anniversary of her mother’s death, Rebecca’s focus shifts to the mud all around her. Noticing it for the first time in detail, she sets off on a journey to discover its hidden depths and meanings. She finds herself peeling back layers of literature, culture, science and geology; she discovers the rich literary history of marsh monsters, dips her toes into Darwin’s mud experiments, treads in the footsteps of soldiers in the trenches during World War One and finds out how mud cores extracted from the seabed can shed light on the planet’s past and future.
In the fifth and final episode, Rebecca traces Darwin’s fascinating experiments with owl pellets, stork poo, and a breakfast cup of mud. Darwin - and Rebecca - find their answers and admire the astonishing, life-giving quality of mud.
Finally, through her examination of mud’s multi-layered meanings across the series, Rebecca comes to an understanding about her mother’s death - and life.
Written and narrated by Rebecca Stott
Producer, Lisa Lipman
Editor, Kirsten Lass
Sound engineer and mix, Jon Calver
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m002z66l)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m002z66n)
Peace talks for the culture wars. In an era of polarisation, propaganda, and pile-ons, Adam Fleming helps you work out what the arguments are really about.
FRI 12:57 Weather (m002z66q)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m002z66s)
News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4
FRI 13:45 Buried (m002z66v)
Dead Rabbit
5. Final Day
In broad daylight, 70 people storm a farm, tear up fields and rob a petrol station. People fear for their lives. Is something bigger at play? When he turns up to investigate, Dan is shown something special.
Buried is the multi award-winning investigative podcast series digging into some of the most disturbing environmental stories in history. In this series, reporters Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor follow a trail left after dozens of dead animals were left in villages in the British countryside. They team up with the wildlife presenter Chris Packham, whose own dead-animal death threats escalated into a car bomb outside his house. The dead animals lead them into uncovering a criminal underworld in the British countryside.
Dead Rabbit is a Smoke Trail Production for BBC Radio 4.
Produced and presented by Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Sound design, mixing and AP: Jarek Zaba
Original music and sounds by Phil Channell
Executive Producers: Philip Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m002z66x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m002yzjf)
Central Intelligence: Series 3
Episode 3
1964. At the Pentagon, America’s future in Vietnam is played out in two rooms. The war game is meant to test whether bombing North Vietnam can force a communist retreat. But the simulation points to a devastating conclusion - whatever America does, the North will keep fighting, the Viet Cong will keep being supplied, and the war cannot be won on Washington’s terms.
The CIA sees the warning clearly. John McCone tries to make LBJ listen. But the hawks in the administration dismiss the game as theory — and when the Gulf of Tonkin gives them the trigger they need, America steps towards a war the Agency already knows is doomed.
Starring Kim Cattrall, Kelsey Grammer and Johnny Flynn.
Eloise Page..........Kim Cattrall
Lyndon Baines Johnson..........Kelsey Grammer
Richard Helms..........Johnny Flynn
Young Eloise Page..........Elena Delia
Robert ‘Bob’ McNamara..........Rob Benedict
Desmond Fitzgerald..........Donald Sage Mackay
John McCone..........Tim Ahern
Peer de Silva..........Ian Porter
Barbara Robbins..........Lily Lefkow
Admiral Grant Sharp..........David Menkin
Tom Karamessines..........Akie Kotabe
Gerri Whittington..........Nettie Chickering
All other parts played by the cast
Original music by Sacha Puttnam
Written by Greg Haddrick, who created the series with Jeremy Fox
Sound Design and Editing by Adam Woodhams, Andreina Gomez Casanova and John Scott Dryden
Assistant Director: Flynn Hallman
Sonica Studio Sound Engineers: Mat Clark & Paul Clark
Margarita Sound Engineer: James Moore
Sonica Runner: Lily Lefkow
Director: John Scott Dryden
Producer & Casting Director: Emma Hearn
Executive Producers: Howard Stringer, Jeremy Fox, Greg Haddrick and John Scott Dryden.
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 14:45 Living on the Edge (m001n8pg)
East Neuk
Ten coastal encounters, presented by Richard King.
Today: at Anstruther harbour with Ellie Deas.
Not simply town or countryside, the coastline is a place apart – attracting lives and stories often overlooked.
In these ten programmes, the writer Richard King travels around the UK coast to meet people who live and work there – a sequence of portraits rooted in distinct places, which piece together into an alternative portrait of the UK: an oblique image of the nation drawn from the coastal edge.
Producer: Martin Williams
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m002z66z)
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts.
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m002zd0v)
I, Pondweed by Rose Biggin
An original story from Rose Biggin.
Produced by Beth O'Dea in Bristol for BBC Audio
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m002z671)
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme
FRI 16:30 Sideways (m002z673)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m002z675)
Full coverage of the day's news
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m002z677)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 18:30 Current-ish (m002z679)
Episode 1
Lucy Porter and three comedian guests chew over the stories everyone is talking about.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m002z67d)
Writer: Sarah McDonald Hughes
Director: Jesscia Bunch
Editor: Jeremy Howe
Jolene Archer … Buffy Davis
Harrison Burns … James Cartwright
Alice Carter … Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter … Wilf Scolding
Susan Carter … Charlotte Martin
Rex Fairbrother … Nick Barber
Alan Franks … John Telfer
Bert Horrobin … David Sterne
Brad Horrobin … Taylor Uttley
Chelsea Horrobin … Madeleine Leslay
Tracy Horrobin …. Susie Riddell
Elizabeth Pargetter … Alison Dowling
Fallon Rogers … Joanna Van Kampen
Lynda Snell … Carole Boyd
Carol Tregorran … Mia Soteriou
FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m002z67g)
24 Hour Movies
On the 40th anniversary of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at films that confine their action to a single day (and occasionally, night) - from the high-stakes urban odyssey of After Hours to the romantic tension of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset trilogy.
Guest interviews include author David Nicholls.
Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m002z67j)
Topical discussion posing questions to a panel of political and media personalities.
FRI 20:55 This Week in History (m002z67l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:40 on Wednesday]
FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (m00212vt)
A Brief History of Strangers
The American writer Joe Queenan follows up his wild programmes on blame, shame, and lust with a dive into a new world. He begins with an account of a journey to Fargo, North Dakota. "I was the stranger in town." He didn't enjoy it much.
But in this hour of strangers, wanderers, commuters, foreigners, migrants, outcasts, interlopers and aliens, Queenan grapples with what strangers have brought to our world. Includes archive of Decca Aitkenhead on the joys of hitching, Harry Allen the Media Assassin on why skin marks you out, and poet Elvis McGonagall with a bravado stand up performance on why he wants to be foreign.
Plus new interviews with Catherine Carr (host of Where Are You Going?) and Emma Garland, who recounts flying to New York to see a man she'd only known online. It didn't go well. Plus Alexei Sayle (presenter of Strangers on a Train) and Professor Edith Hall on why the Greek word xeno can mean friend, alien and guest.
This is Joe Queenan's twelfth brief history for Radio 4. He's an Emmy award winning broadcaster and writer whose books include Balsamic Dreams: A Short But Self-Important History of the baby Boomer Generation.
The producer for BBC studios in Bristol is Miles Warde
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m002z67n)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (m002z9q5)
Episode 5
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.
Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.
A novel of breathtaking twists and dizzying beauty, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.
Cast:
Rowan: Jane Slavin
Dominic: Ian Conningham
Fen: Phoebe Loveday Raymond
Raff: Tom Glenister
Orly: Jack Max
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 23:00 Americast (w3ct8lzd)
Join Americast for insights and analysis on what's happening inside Trump's White House.
FRI 23:30 A Good Read (m001cpbx)
Duncan Campbell and Mark Hodkinson
Writers Duncan Campbell and Mark Hodkinson discuss their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Duncan chooses the Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm, a book on the ethics of journalism with a very provocative opening sentence. Mark has gone for Contempt, Italian novelist Alberto Moravia's portrait of a disintegrating marriage. Harriett stays in Italy and introduces The Beautiful Summer by César Pavese, a coming-of-age novel set in the 1930s.
Producer Sally Heaven
follow us on instagram @agoodreadbbc