SATURDAY 21 JULY 2018
SAT 00:00 James Follett - Earthsearch (b007jp2r)
Earthsearch II, Earthvoice
The crew of spaceship Challenger's search is over, but Earth is not how they left it. Stars Sean Arnold and Amanda Murray.
SAT 00:30 Mastertapes (b02ykg3t)
Series 2, Spandau Ballet (A-Side)
John Wilson concludes the second series of Mastertapes, in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
Programme 5. "True" with Gary Kemp and Tony Hadley
Thirty years ago Spandau Ballet released their third album 'True'. It became a worldwide smash hit featuring tracks such as 'Gold', ''Pleasure', 'Communication' and the title track, which spent 4 weeks at the top of the charts. Singer Tony Hadley and Gary Kemp, the man who wrote all of these songs, both came to the BBC Maida Vale studios to discuss their inspiration and influence.
Released in 1983 'True' became one of the stand out albums of the New Romantic movement. Recorded at the legendary Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, Producers Steve Jolley and Tony Swain gave the band a slicker, more R&B sound aimed at squarely at the charts.
The B-side of the programme, where it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions, can be heard tomorrow at
3.30pmComplete versions of the songs performed in the programme (and others) can be heard on the 'Mastertapes' pages on the Radio 4 website, where the programmes can also be downloaded and other musical goodies accessed.
Producer: Helen Lennard.
SAT 01:00 Paul Temple (b007jzkx)
Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair, A Surprise for Pete Roberts
The death toll mounts - as the suave private detective journeys to an island on the River Thames.
Francis Durbridge's thriller stars Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve in another intriguing case for BBC radio's smoothest sleuth and his glamorous wife.
With James Thomason as Sir Graham Forbes, Brewster Mason as Rupert Dreisler, Hugh Manning as Vosper, James Beattie as Charlie, John Graham as Eric Lansdale, Isobel Dean as Terry Gibson, Simon Lack as Adrian Frost, June Turbin as Judy Milton and Thomas Heathcote as Pete Roberts.
From 1938 to 1969 the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC radio's most popular series. They inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and the men wore cravats - a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed Paul's help with his latest tricky case.
Producer: Martyn C. Webster
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1957.
SAT 01:30 The Flower Fields (b01nb02j)
There's a gold rush in Cornwall; it's been going on for more than a century - producing the first flowers of spring, daffodils especially. Like mining, it's marked the landscape, and there are networks of tiny fields west of Mousehole and in the Isles of Scilly. Smaller than tennis courts, they nestle, safe from the wind between high hedges, warm on south facing terraced cliffs. From these old flower fields, called quillets, came something even more valuable than the 'Golden Harvest' of daffodils that bloomed earlier than anywhere else in Britain - delicate Cornish violets, carnations and anemones. From Victorian times to the 1960s fragrant bunches of these sped overnight by rail to reach the London markets in the morning.
The writer Michael Bird, who lives in St Ives, listens while Bill Harvey works the plots his father tended. They are too small to admit machines and depend on the long-handled Cornish shovel. At Churchtown Farm on St Martins in the Scillies, Keith Low explains how the fields were created, by first building, then moving entire dry stone walls. With the internet and the post these old fields have become key to a modern business.
Michael walks the cliff gardens with the archaeologist Graeme Kirkham, who interprets the landscape they pass through. He draws on the recorded memories of flower farmers and workers to recapture the life of the flower fields and the industry's mysterious skills and traditions - such as boiling the soil in huge cauldrons at the end of the season to sterilise it for next year's anemones. And he meets Bob Paterson at Covent Garden market who remembers selling the violets and anemones that came on the Penzance trains, and hopes he might again.
SAT 02:00 Meera Syal - Anita and Me (b007jvvd)
Episode 10
On the eve of her 11-plus, the exam seems to be the least of Meena's worries. Meera Syal reads her own novel.
SAT 02:15 Sport and the British (b01cwvp9)
The State of Play
Clare Balding with Professors Richard Holt, Tony Collins and Mike Cronin explores the cultural importance of the great triviality that is sport.
The series was made in partnership with The International Centre for Sports History and Culture at de Montfort University.
Producer: Lucy Lunt
Executive Editor: Ian Bent.
SAT 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b009xysg)
Winifred Holtby - The Crowded Street, Episode 5
Diana Griffiths's dramatisation of Winifred Holtby's tale of a woman's journey into self-fulfilment.
5/10. Muriel and her mother visit Scarborough during the War but the Germans are shelling the town. A visit from Godfrey Neale changes the course of Muriel's life.
Muriel ...... Clare Goose
Connie ...... Joanne Froggatt
Godfrey ...... James D'Arcy
Mrs Hammond ...... Brigit Forsyth
Delia Vaughan ...... Deborah McAndrew
Directed by Pauline Harris.
SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b06172qn)
Georgina Howell - Queen of the Desert, Episode 5
The story of Gertrude Bell and her crucial role in the foundation of the state of Iraq.
With the new King, Faisal, safely installed, Gertrude's energies turned to the establishment of a museum in Baghdad to house the extraordinary collection of artefacts that chronicled Iraq's ancient history.
First published in 2006, Queen of the Desert by Georgina Howell has been reissued - partly to coincide with the Werner Herzog film of the same title, but also to provide the long view on the troubled history of a remarkable country.
Using letters written by Gertrude Bell throughout the period, the book tells the story of an extraordinarily talented and determined woman who has often been overshadowed by her more famous friend, T.E. Lawrence.
Read by Sylvestra le Touzel and Deborah Findlay (the letters)
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 03:00 Louis Robinson - Julie and the Prince (b0076kd0)
Louis Robinson's intriguing and romantic story of Queen Victoria's father, Prince Edward, and his long-term mistress. The fourth son of George III, Edward lived in the colonies with Julie until he was put under pressure to marry a German Princess and produce an heir to throne. He faced a choice between giving up his true love or his royal status. With Julia Hills, Timothy Watson, David Timson, Janet Dale. Directed by Peter Leslie Wild.
SAT 04:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b03phd4m)
Series 12, Episode 3
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Henning Wehn, Graeme Garden, Jeremy Hardy and Victoria Coren Mitchell are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as trees, doctors, newspapers and Spain.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 04:30 After Henry (b007qw7k)
Series 4, A Fully Extended Family
"Mother's mind is so devious. She can build up huge edifices of fantasy from the smallest hint".
Clare returns from Australia, but where is Julian? Sarah delves and Eleanor spins.
Simon Brett's comedy about three generations of women - struggling to cope after the death of Sarah's GP husband - who never quite manage to see eye to eye.
Starring Prunella Scales as Sarah, Joan Sanderson as Eleanor, Benjamin Whitrow as Russell and Gerry Cowper as Clare.
Four radio series were made, but instead of moving to BBC TV - Thames Television produced 'After Henry' for the ITV network.
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1989.
SAT 05:00 London Calling (b05p73y9)
It Pays to Advertise
Back to the BBC's early wireless days of 1922.
Colonel Beecham and Admiral Carpenter are concerned that all their hard work producing the BBC's wireless output is beginning to affect their golf swing. Meanwhile, hard-up Children's Hour's Uncle Rex is made an offer he really ought to refuse.
Written by Jimmy Perry, the man behind Dad's Army and Hi-De-Hi.
Starring Graham Crowden as John Brown, Jimmy Perry as Colonel Beecham, Bill Pertwee as Sergeant Lucas and Jeffrey Holland as Roger Eccles.
Producer: Jo Clegg.
First broadcast nightly on BBC Radio 2 in September 1994.
SAT 05:30 Gaby's Talking Pictures (b0b9vjls)
Series 1, Episode 6
Gaby Roslin hosts the funny, entertaining film quiz with impressions by Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona. This week, team captains John Thomson and Ellie Taylor are joined by special guests Stephen Tomkinson and Sally Lindsay.
Presented by Gaby Roslin
Team Captains: John Thomson and Ellie Taylor
Impressionists: Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona
Created by Gaby Roslin
Written by Carrie Quinlan and Barney Newman
Produced by Gordon Kennedy, Gaby Roslin and Barney Newman
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 06:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0676dqj)
Alfie Elkins and His Little Life / Better Than Sex
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
Alfie Elkins and His Little Life
Dane Baptiste introduces the 1962 radio inspiration behind the movie that made Michael Caine a star, Alife Elkins and His Little Life. Written by Bill Naughton, later adapted for the stage and then as "Alfie" for the big screen (starring Michael Caine) in 1966, Alfie Elkins and His Little Life follows the exploits a womaniser, a man purely concerned with seeking and achieving his own pleasure - despite the human cost. It stars Bill Owen - who later became the beloved Compo in BBC TVs Last of the Summer Wine - as the amoral, Alfie.
First heard on the BBC Third Programme in 1962.
Better Than Sex
Dane Baptiste introduces Better than Sex - where four writers celebrate an experience that brings them intense pleasure. In this episode playwright, Timberlake Wertenbaker recalls 5 O'Clock in the Afternoon.
First heard on Radio 4 in 1997.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
SAT 07:30 Michael Bentine - The Reluctant Jester (b01r1cc0)
The Reluctant Jester Strikes Back, The Goon Show
Recalling the start of 'The Goon Show' and the characters who inspired his friend Peter Sellers.
Founding member of The Goon Show and one of the foremost comic minds of his generation - Michael Bentine offers more behind-the-scenes tales of his offbeat and extraordinary life in showbiz.
With extracts from some of his most memorable comic performances and eccentric characters.
Recorded at The Maltings Arts Centre, St Albans.
Michael Bentine CBE was born in 1922 and died in 1996.
Producer: Andy Aliffe
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in November 1994.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b039lmkg)
Bombing Berlin
Stephen Evans, the BBC's Berlin correspondent, tells the story of Wynford Vaughan-Thomas's report recorded aboard a Lancaster Bomber during a raid on Berlin.
In 1943, the RAF contacted the BBC with a dramatic offer - they were willing to send a two-man radio crew on a bombing raid over Berlin. The BBC chose Wynford Vaughan-Thomas for the mission. He accepted, knowing he might never return.
So on the night of 3rd September 1943, Vaughan-Thomas recorded for the BBC live from a Lancaster Bomber during a bombing raid over Berlin.
Wynford Vaughan-Thomas's experiences as a wartime reporter were remarkable; he was at Belsen and at the Normandy landings, reporting as it happened. The recording over Berlin shows his remarkable courage, literally under fire, and his description of the bombing and the views from the plane are rich indeed.
Vaughan-Thomas went on to become one of post-war Britain's most prominent media-intellectuals, a regular commentator and journalist, but those hours aboard the plane clearly remained a defining time in his life. Forty years later, interviewed by Parkinson, he called it "the most terrifying eight hours of my life. Berlin burning was like watching somebody throwing jewellery on black velvet - winking rubies, sparkling diamonds all coming up at you."
Stephen Evans puts Wynford Vaughan-Thomas's recordings in context. He looks at the experience on the ground in Berlin that night, reflects on the place of the broadcast in journalistic history, and dips into a lifetime of reflections from Vaughan-Thomas on a night which changed his life for ever.
Featuring Karin Finell, Max Hastings, Roger Moorhouse, Harold Panton, Jean Seaton, Dietmar Seuss and David Vaughan-Thomas.
Producer: Martin Williams.
SAT 09:00 Take It From June (b011p0j2)
Comedy legend June Whitfield talks to radio drama director Enyd Williams about her amazing career in BBC radio - spanning over 60 years. Though June is a star of BBC TV, from Absolutely Fabulous to Terry and June, radio remains June's true love.
June picks some of her very favourite performances - as we journey with her from her big break on radio, joining the team of Take it From Here in 1953, to working with comedy greats like Ronnie Barker, Frankie Howerd and Bob Monkhouse - to playing Mrs Thatcher on Radio 2's The News Huddlines - and being cast as Radio 4's Miss Marple, by drama director Enyd Williams:
*Take it From Here
From 24/04/1957
Can Mr Glum stop Ron and Eth marrying in a court of law? Stars Jimmy Edwards and June Whitfield. From April 1957.
*Crowther's Crowd
From 07/12/1963
Comedy sketches at the ready with June Whitfield, Ronnie Barker and Leslie Crowther. From December 1963.
*The Frankie Howerd Show
From 07/01/1966
Titters galore from the comedy legend, with June Whitfield, Wallas Eaton and Robertson Hare. From August 1966.
*Punch Line
From 21/05/1980
Can the stars come up with just the right punch line? Starring June Whitfield, Kenneth Connor and Bob Monkhouse. From May 1980.
*The News Huddlines
19/10/2000
Roy Hudd's topical sketch show that ran for 26 years on BBC Radio 2. With June Whitfield and Chris Emmett. From October 2000.
*Murder At The Vicarage
From 28/12/1993
The amateur sleuth looks into the Colonel's murder in the vicar's study. Agatha Christie's thriller stars June Whitfield.
Produced by Peter McHugh
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2011.
SAT 12:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbn6gk)
The Pleasure Telephone / Better Than Sex
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
The Pleasure Telephone
Dane Baptiste ponders what we did for pleasure before the internet, with a prescient story of entertainment home delivery. Edward Seckerson tells the remarkable story of the use of the early telephone to relay live entertainment and news direct to subscribers' homes in the late 19th/early 20th century in The Pleasure Telephone.
First heard on BBC Radio 3 in 2010.
Better Than Sex
Dane Baptiste introduces Better than Sex - where four writers celebrate an experience that brings them intense pleasure. In this episode BAFTA winning novelists Jeanette Winterson recalls Second Hand Pleasures.
First heard on Radio 4 in 1997.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
SAT 13:00 AJ Cronin - The Citadel (Omnibus) (b0bbn6gm)
Crime or incompetence? When Max returns from travelling he discovers that most of his expected inheritance has disappeared. Who is responsible and what has happened to the money?
Melissa Murray's sharp social comedy is absolutely of the moment by a truly original writer. The war between the generations has never been more intense. And this time it's more than personal. It's about money.
Omnibus - first broadcast in five-parts.
Max ..... Tom Forrister
Linsey ..... Isabella Inchbald
Fig ..... Kerry Gooderson
Claire ..... Georgie Glen
Greeley ..... Sean Murray
Directed by Marc Beeby
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2018.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b0bbn6gp)
Stephen McGann
The actor chooses '(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo' by Glenn Miller and 'Within You and Without You' by The Beatles.
SAT 14:15 Archive on 4 (b039lmkg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
SAT 15:15 Berlin Bomber: In Full (b0076rvh)
Dan Snow introduces Wynford Vaughan-Thomas's experience as he joined the crew of an RAF Lancaster Bomber in action over Berlin.
Original audio broadcast on 4th September 1943.
SAT 15:45 The Fosdyke Saga (b007js2d)
Tripe War
"It's got all the makings of a Tripe War!" Roger Ditchley provokes a mob of tripe producers.
Conclusion of a classic tale of struggle, power, personalities and tripe. Bill Tidy and John Junkin's family saga - based on Tidy's Daily Mirror cartoon strip (1971-1985) parodying John Galsworthy's 'The Forsyte Saga' novels.
Starring Stephanie Turner as Rebecca Fosdyke, Philip Lowrie as Josiah Fosdyke, David Threlfall as Tom Fosdyke, Enn Reitel as Albert Fosdyke, Christian Rodska as Roger Ditchley and David Timson as Schmidt.
Other parts played by Nick Maloney, Nick Revell, David English, John Dougall, Christopher Barr, Larry Lamb, John Westerbook and David Ross.
Producer: Alan Nixon
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1983.
SAT 16:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0676dqj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Michael Bentine - The Reluctant Jester (b01r1cc0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 Mike Walker - Omega (b007jl75)
Building what is destined to be the world's tallest tower, civil engineer John Stone comes to question his very existence.
Mike Walker's fascinating vision of the near future.
Stars David Calder as John Stone, Penelope Wilton as Kate, Helen Longworth as Louise, Philip Voss as Brandt, Sarah-Jane Holm as Dr Mary Brown and Karl Prekopp as Harry.
Music composed and played by David Chiltern.
Director: Gordon House.
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 2002.
SAT 19:00 Take It From June (b011p0j2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Old Harry's Game (b007jvgp)
Series 4, Health and Safety
Hell's latest arrival is a health and safety officer who moans to Satan about the lighting. Devilish comedy stars Andy Hamilton. From April 2001.
SAT 22:30 Mark Thomas Presents (b0076w2p)
The Firesign Theatre
Since the mid 1960s, The Firesign Theatre has been one of the best kept secrets in American comedy. A four-man comedy troupe with shades of Monty Python and The Goons, they grew out of a free-form radio show in California. They went on to produce a series of comedy albums which became cult favourites, in which they combined satire with parodies of popular culture and classic drama.
This week on Radio 4 there's a chance to hear an exclusive performance by The Firesign Theatre, their first British appearance for many years, recorded at the London Comedy Store in the autumn.
Expect political comment, a virtuoso range of comic voices, and plenty of verbal ingenuity, as Mark Thomas presents The Firesign Theatre live, on Wednesday evening at half past six.
SAT 23:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbn9zb)
Mastering the Universe: The Workplace
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
Mastering the Universe Series 1 (1/6) The Workplace
Professor Joy Klamp takes a tour of miserable people and places. Stars Dawn French and Christopher Douglas. From November 2005.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
SAT 23:15 This Is Craig Brown (b00dz9jn)
Celebrity
Get all the gossip on the Beckhams and Daffy Duck. The satirist pokes fun with Barry Norman and Rory Bremner. From March 2004.
SAT 23:30 Little Britain (b008l1sx)
Series 1, Episode 5
Back where it premiered, Matt Lucas and David Walliams' oddball TV smash hit - without the cameras. From March 2001.
SUNDAY 22 JULY 2018
SUN 00:00 Mike Walker - Omega (b007jl75)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:00 on Saturday]
SUN 01:00 AJ Cronin - The Citadel (Omnibus) (b0bbn6gm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:00 on Saturday]
SUN 02:10 Inheritance Tracks (b0bbn6gp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:10 on Saturday]
SUN 02:15 Archive on 4 (b039lmkg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 on Saturday]
SUN 03:15 Berlin Bomber: In Full (b0076rvh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:15 on Saturday]
SUN 03:45 The Fosdyke Saga (b007js2d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:45 on Saturday]
SUN 04:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0676dqj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 on Saturday]
SUN 05:30 Michael Bentine - The Reluctant Jester (b01r1cc0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 Winifred Holtby - The Crowded Street Omnibus (b00fvpdw)
Episode 1
Prior to the First World War, Muriel Hammond is trying to find her place in the world.
Muriel unwittingly disgraces herself at her first party and then has to face the harsh reality of boarding school. Life brightens, however, when she befriends the exotic and beautiful Clare Duquesne.
Set in Yorkshire, Winifred Holtby's story about a woman's journey - from her teens to womanhood - into independence and self-fulfilment.
Omnibus of the first five of ten episodes dramatised in by Diana Griffiths.
Muriel ...... Clare Goose
Mrs Hammond ...... Brigit Forsyth
Mr Hammond ...... David Fleeshman
Clare Duquesne ...... Victoria Brazier
Miss Hancock ...... Daryl Fishwick
Young Muriel ...... Ellie Sager
Young Godfrey ...... Jon-Paul Bell
Director: Pauline Harris.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.
SUN 07:15 Alex Shearer - Play Chopsticks for Me (b04d0kl3)
The Great Stromberg is a great piano teacher, but his student begins to suspect that he may be a fraud. Read by Jonathan Keeble.
SUN 07:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b04l3clb)
Series 4, Episode 1
John Finnemore, the writer and star of Cabin Pressure, regular guest on The Now Show and popper-upper in things like Miranda, records a fourth series of his hit sketch show.
In this repeat this is the fifth episode of the brand-new series which sees John create an innovative teaching aid; eavesdrop on two guards who really should be paying more attention; and, well, since you ask him for a tale of honour satisfied, he does have one such sketch.
The first series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme was described as "sparklingly clever" by The Daily Telegraph and "one of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time" by The Guardian. The second series won Best Radio Comedy at both the Chortle and Comedy.co.uk awards, and was nominated for a Radio Academy award. The third series actually won a Radio Academy award.
In this fourth series, John has written more sketches, like the sketches from the other series. Not so much like them that they feel stale and repetitious; but on the other hand not so different that it feels like a misguided attempt to completely change the show. Quite like the old sketches, in other words, but about different things and with different jokes. (Although it's a pretty safe bet some of them will involve talking animals.)
Written by and starring ... John Finnemore
Also featuring ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.
Original music by ... Susannah Pearse & Sally Stares.
Producer ... Ed Morrish
A BBC Studios Production.
SUN 08:00 The Clitheroe Kid (b0bbnxxs)
Nothing But the Truth
Susan bets her schoolboy brother Jimmy five shillings that he can't tell the truth for 24 hours.
Starring Jimmy Clitheroe. With Peter Sinclair as Grandfather, Patricia Burke as Mother, Diana Day as Susan, Danny Ross.as Alfie Hall and Leonard Williams as Theodore Craythorpe,
Just 4 feet 3 inches tall, the success of comic entertainer Jimmy Clitheroe (1921-1973) sprang from a BBC Variety Playhouse try-out in the late 1950s. His naughty schoolboy act was a smash and he even wore school uniform during recordings! At its peak, ten million fans were tuning into 'The Clitheroe Kid' on the BBC Light Programme.
Every week, the Kid's schemes sparked havoc - with the ever present threat of a good spanking from Grandad. The Clitheroe Kid clocked up 16 series in its run from 1956 to 1972.
Theme music by Alan Roper and played by the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra directed by Alan Ainsworth
Scripted by Frank Roscoe.
Producer: James Casey.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in May 1960.
SUN 08:30 Take It From Here (b0bbnxxv)
From 13/03/1956
Jim claims Dick is overweight - and 'The Glums' are off to the Ideal Home Exhibition.
Starring Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley, June Whitfield, Alma Cogan and Wallace Eton.
Classic comedy scripted by Frank Muir and Denis Norden.
Music from The Keynotes and the BBC Revue Orchestra with Harry Rabinowitz.
Announcer. David Dunhill
Producer: Charles Maxwell
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in March 1956.
SUN 09:00 Picnic Comma Lightning (Omnibus) (b0076rtx)
An innovative examination of the nature of reality in the 21st century by award-winning author Laurence Scott - part personal memoir, part philosophical exploration. Read by Stephen Mangan.
When he was in his early 30s, Laurence Scott's parents died soon after one another, and he found his whole world altered beyond recognition. He says, "Death runs like radioactive iodine through your sense of reality, allowing this reality to be looked at in high contrast, its structures glowing. It has a way of making things very true, but also, somehow, less real."
As he begins to navigate this new reality, he realises that in politics and public life, the nature of reality - what is true and what is fake - has become an urgent issue. Questions of how we experience the real world, how we access its truths, have become mainstream concerns. Today, in an age of online personas, alternative truths, constant surveillance and an increasingly hysterical news cycle, our realities are becoming more flimsy and more vulnerable than ever before.
Laurence Scott is a writer, broadcaster, academic and a Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Arcadia in London. He is author of The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize, won the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Prize, and was named the Sunday Times Thought Book of the Year. In 2011 he was named one of ten New Generation Thinkers by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC.
Read by Stephen Mangan
Adapted by Elizabeth Burke
Produced by Alexandra Quinn
A Loftus production first broadcast in five-parts on BBC Radio 4 in July 2018.
SUN 10:10 The Listening Project (b0510b6z)
Pete and Steve - Guitar Guys
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between two men who have been changed by the guitar-making experience and who now want to spend all their time building them, in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
SUN 10:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b0bbnxxx)
Designing Minds, Cath Kidston
4 Extra Debut. From the Rolling Stones to Monty Python, the designer shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From April 2011.
SUN 11:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b0bbnxxz)
Series 7, Sailing on an Alien Sea
True stories told live in the USA:
The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling based in the USA. Since 1997, it has celebrated both the raconteur and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. Originally formed by the writer George Dawes Green as an intimate gathering of friends on a porch in Georgia (where moths would flutter in through a hole in the screen), and then recreated in a New York City living room, The Moth quickly grew to produce immensely popular events at theatres and clubs around New York City and later around the USA, the UK and other parts of the world.
The Moth has presented more than 15,000 stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth podcast is downloaded over 27 million times a year.
Featuring true stories told live on stage without scripts, from the humorous to the heart-breaking.
The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Jay Allison and Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and is distributed by the Public Radio Exchange.
SUN 11:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b00yjtg4)
Series 2, Canopy
1/20. If you walk into a rainforest you are immediately met by quite literally a forest of trees. All the tree trunks look like cathedral pillars, smooth and wet from the rain. Not a single branch emerges from the trunk for tens of metres - and when they do you see a breath-taking interlocking jungle of branches and leaves, ferns and flowers and all number of creatures great and small. The canopy is a bonanza of tropical forest life, in the bright light and gentle breeze - a far cry from the dark and humid underworld of the forest floor. Not surprising then that David Attenborough knew this would be a perfect place to film wildlife.
Written and presented by David Attenborough
Produced by Julian Hector.
SUN 12:00 The Clitheroe Kid (b0bbnxxs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
SUN 12:30 Take It From Here (b0bbnxxv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
SUN 13:00 Winifred Holtby - The Crowded Street Omnibus (b00fvpdw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
SUN 14:15 Alex Shearer - Play Chopsticks for Me (b04d0kl3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:15 today]
SUN 14:30 Sue Townsend - Adrian Mole (b007js72)
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, Omnibus
Sue Townsend is one of our most celebrated comic writers. 'The Growing Pains' is the second book serialised in her exquisitely funny Adrian Mole series, read by Harry McEntire.
Adrian continues to battle valiantly against the slings and arrows of growing up and his own family's attempts to scar him for life. Following on from 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4', it is now 1982 and Adrian is 15.
Adrian's parents are back together and his mother is pregnant, much to Adrian's surprise and embarrassment. As the summer holidays begin, Adrian is still troubled by his spotty skin, but he continues to feel that his intellectual prowess sets him apart from his peers. His aspirations for poetic fame and fortune are undimmed. Whilst his mother heads off with her women's group to Greenham Common, Adrian's own interest in politics starts to grow, alongside his dislike for Margaret Thatcher. As his parents struggle to make ends meet and to sort out their differences, Adrian enjoys a more settled relationship with Pandora but is eager to move things on a stage further.
Omnibus of five episodes abridged by Sara Davies.
Producer: Alexa Moore.
SUN 15:45 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbnxy1)
The Genius of Pleasure / Better Than Sex
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
The Genius of Pleasure
A cautionary drama written by Jack Houlahan. How does a recovering alcoholic - Tom McNeagh, who has just had a heart attack cope with having to give up cigarettes? Is there a secret minimalist way to satisfy the craving for pleasure? It stars Alan McKee.
Better Than Sex
Dane Baptiste introduces Better than Sex - where four writers celebrate an experience that brings them intense pleasure. In this episode Man-Booker prize-winning novelist Howard Jacobson recalls a Meeting with Pelicans.
First heard on Radio 4 in 1997.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
SUN 16:30 Plum House (b044j94v)
Pilot
Every year thousands of tourists flock to the Lake District. But one place they never go to is Plum House - the former country house of minor 18th century poet George Pudding. Now a crumbling museum, it struggles to stay open under its eccentric curator, Peter Knight.
Eager young museum administrator Tom Collyer arrives determined to turn the place round, but finds the incompetent staff very resistant to the C-Word - change. A new comedy written by Ben Cottam and Paul McKenna.
Written by Ben Cottam and Paul McKenna
Directed by Paul Schlesinger
Producer: Sarah Cartwright
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:00 Poetry Extra (b0bbnxy3)
Landmark Poetics
An exploration of the increasing amount of poetry in Britain's outdoors.
In the early 90s, for a bet, Lemn wrote a poem for one of his favourite pubs - Hardy's Well in Rusholme, Manchester. Since then, he and many other poets have written more and more for public spaces in Britain - both urban and rural. Travelling to Hebden Bridge, Little Sparta in Lanarkshire, Manchester and London, he asks what these poems are doing in the outdoors, if they really belong there, and who they are for?
Interviews include Simon Armitage talking about the Stanza Stones poems he wrote for the Pennine Watershed, text artist Robert Montgomery, Canal Laureate of the UK Jo Bell, and the letter carver Pip Hall.
Producer: Philippa Geering
Sound Design: Charlie Brandon-King
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2015.
SUN 17:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b04l3clb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
SUN 18:00 Elizabeth Gaskell - Curious, If True (b00tvmjy)
Lois the Witch
Newly arrived in Salem, Massachusetts, a Warwickshire girl finds herself drawn into a Puritan family's world of visions, malice and - apparently - demonic possession...
Elizabeth Gaskell's collection of intriguing "true" tales dramatised by Sally Hedges.
Stars Elizabeth Spriggs as Mrs Gaskell, Carolyn Backhouse as Lois, Sandra Berkin as Grace and Amy Draper as Prudence.
With Heather Emmanuel, Susan Jeffrey, Richard Avery, Jonathan Wyatt, Andrew Harrison, Stephen Tomlin and Anna Keene.
Producer: Nigel Bryant
An Armada production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 1998.
SUN 18:45 LP Hartley: Short Stories (b0bbnxy5)
Someone in the Lift
Mystery during a family's hotel stay, when only the son can see a mysterious figure when using the lift. Read by Robert Lang.
SUN 19:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b0bbnxxz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 today]
SUN 19:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b00yjtg4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:50 today]
SUN 20:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbnxy7)
Future Proofing: No End of Pleasure / Better Than Sex
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
Future Proofing -No End of Pleasure
How will humans experience pleasure in the near future? What is the shape of things to come? The novelist AL Kennedy conjures a vision of the future where plugging in for pleasure is as easy as logging on. With Will Self. First heard on Radio 4 in 2014.
Better Than Sex
Dane Baptiste introduces Better than Sex - where four writers celebrate an experience that brings them intense pleasure. In this episode writer Adam Thorpe recalls Secret River Bathing.
First heard on Radio 4 in 1997.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
SUN 21:00 Alex Shearer - Play Chopsticks for Me (b04d0kl3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:15 today]
SUN 21:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b0bbnxxx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:15 today]
SUN 22:00 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b04l3clb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
SUN 22:30 Brian Gulliver's Travels (b01m5n7s)
Series 2, Gravinia and Plumpf
by Dan Tetsell
Brian Gulliver, a seasoned presenter of travel documentaries, finds himself in a hospital's secure unit after claiming to have experienced a succession of bizarre adventures. This week Brian relives his adventures in Gravinia, a land where the military are revered above everything.
Brian Gulliver ..... Neil Pearson
Rachel Gulliver..... Mariah Gale
Fillick ..... Marcus Brigstocke
Chaplain ..... Adrian Scarborough
Guest ..... Tracy Wiles
Host..... Patrick Brennan
Stegga ..... Barunka O'Shaughnessy
Barista..... Harry Livingstone
Dragit ..... Nick Mohammed
Glugas Hold ..... Dan Tetsell
Producer ..... Steven Canny
This is the second series of this satirical adventure story created by Bill Dare. The series has attracted an excellent cast led by Neil Pearson and including, Duncan Wisby, Vicki Pepperdine, Lisa Dillon, Colin Hoult, Toby Longworth, Adrian Scarborough, Dan Tetsell, Barunka O'Shaughnessy, Debra Stephenson, Colin Hoult, Nina Conti, Jo Bobin and Marcus Brigstocke.
For years Bill Dare wanted to create a satire about different worlds exploring Kipling's idea that we travel, 'not just to explore civilizations, but to better understand our own'. But science fiction and space ships never interested him, so he put the idea on ice. Then Brian Gulliver arrived and meant that our hero could be lost in a fictional world without the need for any sci-fi.
Gulliver's Travels is the only book Bill Dare read at university. His father, Peter Jones, narrated a similarly peripatetic radio series: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
SUN 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0bdc4kq)
Yuriko Kotani. 2/2
The best in contemporary comedy. Arthur Smith talks to Yuriko Kotani.
SUN 23:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbnxy9)
Mastering the Universe: The Joy of Sulks
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
Mastering the Universe Series 1 (2/6) The Sulk
Professor Joy Klamp takes a tour of miserable people and places. Stars Dawn French and Christopher Douglas. From November 2005.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
SUN 23:15 This Is Craig Brown (b00f8799)
Communications
The world telephone premiere of Romeo and Juliet. The satirist pokes fun, with Harry Enfield and Rory Bremner. From March 2004.
SUN 23:30 At Home With The Snails (b007k2ql)
Series 1, Episode 2
Alex is obsessed with snails, but can women ever replace them in his affections? Stars Gerard Foster. From July 2001.
MONDAY 23 JULY 2018
MON 00:00 Elizabeth Gaskell - Curious, If True (b00tvmjy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:00 on Sunday]
MON 00:45 LP Hartley: Short Stories (b0bbnxy5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:45 on Sunday]
MON 01:00 Winifred Holtby - The Crowded Street Omnibus (b00fvpdw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 on Sunday]
MON 02:15 Alex Shearer - Play Chopsticks for Me (b04d0kl3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:15 on Sunday]
MON 02:30 Sue Townsend - Adrian Mole (b007js72)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:30 on Sunday]
MON 03:45 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbnxy1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:45 on Sunday]
MON 04:30 Plum House (b044j94v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Sunday]
MON 05:00 Poetry Extra (b0bbnxy3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
17:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b04l3clb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 on Sunday]
MON 06:00 Paul Temple (b007jznh)
Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair, Home Again
A murder on a lonely island - as the suave amateur detective spots a clue pointing to Paris.
Francis Durbridge's thriller stars Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve in another intriguing case for BBC radio's smoothest sleuth and his glamorous wife.
With James Thomason as Sir Graham Forbes, Brewster Mason as Rupert Dreisler, Hugh Manning as Vosper, James Beattie as Charlie, John Graham as Eric Lansdale, Isobel Dean as Terry Gibson, Simon Lack as Adrian Frost, June Turbin as Judy Milton and Thomas Heathcote as Pete Roberts.
From 1938 to 1969 the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC radio's most popular series. They inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and the men wore cravats - a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed Paul's help with his latest tricky case.
Producer: Martyn C. Webster
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1957.
MON 06:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbp7tk)
Exchanges at the Frontier
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
Exchanges at the Frontier: Morten L Kringelbach
Philosophy meets neuroscience as AC Grayling talks to Professor of Neuroscience, Morten L Kringelbach about his research into the role of pleasure in our lives, which he believes is pivotal in our development and is intimately linked to emotional, cognitive and reward processing in the brain.
First heard on the BBC World Service in 2010.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
MON 07:00 The Older Woman (b02w8xy7)
Series 1, Episode 5
Roy is temporarily distracted from his obsession with Jane by Dick's rapid descent into alcoholism - and the sudden appearance of Elsa's ex-husband.
However, a night of unbridled passion with Jane looks increasingly likely...
Tony Bagley's romantic comedy drama serial with a twist.
Starring Zoe Wanamaker as Miss Callaghan, Martin Clunes as Roy Hitchcock, Toyah Wilcox as Elsa, David Troughton as Mr Say, Nicky Henson as Chad, Geoff McGivern as Dick, David Holt as Chris, Linda Polan as Charlotte, Jonathan Adams as Eric, Philip Anthony as Martin, John Baddeley as Phil and Matthew Morgan as the Waiter.
Producer: Paul Schlesinger:
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 1993.
MON 07:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b0b9wbfb)
Series 69, Episode 4
The antidote to panel games pays a return visit to the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon. Old-timers Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Rory Bremner and Pam Ayres with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell attempts piano accompaniment.
Producer - Jon Naismith.
It is a BBC Studios production.
MON 08:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007k1sl)
The Bank Loan
1948: Will a visit to the pier in Frambourne-on-Sea pour cold water on the renovation plans?
A seaside saga of pier perpetuation starring John Le Mesurier as Arthur Wilson, Ian Lavender as Frank Pike, Bill Pertwee as Bert Hodges and Vivienne Martin as Miss Perkins.
After a pilot episode was made in 1981, Arthur Lowe sadly died. So this 13-part series was revamped to feature the Dad's Army characters played by Pertwee and Lavender instead. The series was later adapted for ITV by Yorkshire TV.
Written by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles, based on the characters originally created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft.
Producer: Martin Fisher
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in November 1983.
MON 09:00 Dilemma (b017vkrp)
Series 1, Episode 4
Sue Perkins puts Susan Calman, Greg Proops, Simon Evans and Louise Wener through the moral and ethical wringer in the show where there are no "right" answers - but some deeply damning ones...
Guests offer their own dilemmas - from Louise being offered a record deal if she sacked half the band - to Greg's choice between paying his rent or eating.
And what would they do if reporting a crime got them into trouble? - and is cheating on your partner ever acceptable?
Devised by Danielle Ward.
Producer: Ed Morrish.
MON 09:30 King of Bath (b049f20z)
The Clockwork Man
Can detective Beau Nash track down a highway man known as the Avon Avenger?
Arnold Evans' six-part sitcom.
Starring David Bamber as Beau Nash, Simon Ludders as Daniel Brewster, Stephen Thorne as Ned, Eiry Thomas as Annie, Andrew Wincott as Sir Percy and Claire Cage as Sophia.
Composer: John Hardy.
Directed at BBC Wales by Alison Hindell
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1999.
MON 10:00 David Goodland - Making Up (b05y0848)
Darcy White is a Drag Queen whose act is in need of a little inspiration.
When his ex-partner Dennis turns up after 20 years, it's not only the act that gets pulled apart.
David Goodland's play is set against the background of 'The Old Queen' gay club in Bristol.
Darcy......Ronald Pickup
Dennis .... John Duttine
Doreen.... Constance Chapman
The M.C. .... David Monico
Ragnor ... Richard Pearce
Producer: Sue Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1995.
MON 11:00 Joanne Harris - Jigs and Reels (b00cl6vd)
The Ugly Sister
A Cinderella pantomime character wonders if her own Prince Charming is in the audience. Short story read by Lesley Sharp.
MON 11:15 Jennie Buckman - Masks (b0076n2r)
Venice, 1735: An idealistic poet falls in love with beauty in the church of Ospedale della Pieta.
But nothing is what it seems in this Italian city...
Bella .... Geraldine James
Guido .... Raymond Coulthard
Emanuel ....Geoffrey Whitehead
Prudencia ....Katy Cavanagh
Enzo .... Geoffrey Streatfeild
Producer: Marc Beeby
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004.
MON 12:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007m9f5)
Michelangelo 'Ancock
The lad takes up sculpting. But when he runs out of rocks, it's Sid to the rescue.
Starring Tony Hancock, Sidney James, Bill Kerr, Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques.
Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Theme and incidental music composed by Wally Stott. Recorded by the BBC Revue Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.
Producer: Dennis Main Wilson
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in November 1956.
MON 12:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007k1sl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
MON 13:00 Paul Temple (b007jznh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
MON 13:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbp7tk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
MON 14:00 Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (b00761hk)
Episode 1
Miss Pettigrew is sent by her agency on a wrong booking.
Her employer greets her wearing a negligee with a man in her room. In the face of such shocking behaviour, will the innocent spinster blunder or blossom?
Maureen Lipman reads one of her favourite books: Winifred Watson's touching and funny rediscovered bestseller from the 1930s.
Abridged in five-parts by Elizabeth Bradbury.
Producer: Sarah Johnson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2001.
MON 14:15 Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (b06nnbwl)
The Big Time
In the first of ten programmes tracing a century of black British theatre and screen, Lenny Henry begins with the breakthrough moment when Kwame Kwei-Armah's celebrated tragedy Elmina's Kitchen, set on so-called Murder Mile in Hackney, was staged first at the National Theatre to great acclaim in 2003, and then - a first for a black British play - received a major West End transfer to the Garrick Theatre in 2005.
In this programme, Lenny talks to the actor, singer, playwright and now theatre artistic director, Kwame Kwei-Armah about that key moment in his career, and in the history of the black British stage; a moment described at the time by the Daily Telegraph as 'boom-time for black theatre'.
Elmina's Kitchen features an all-black cast of characters and is set in a Caribbean café in London,
where family ties, gang violence, inter-generational conflict, tenderness and seething anger all mix in a classic story of jealousy, loyalty, masculinity and betrayal.
Series Consultant Michael Pearce
Producer Simon Elmes.
MON 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b00b01yk)
Winifred Holtby - The Crowded Street, Episode 6
Diana Griffiths' dramatisation of Winifred Holtby's tale of a woman's journey into self-fulfilment.
6/10. Muriel's sister Connie returns home unexpectedly with startling news.
Muriel ...... Clare Goose
Connie ...... Joanne Froggatt
Mr Hammond ...... David Fleeshman
Mrs Hammond ...... Brigit Forsyth
Bobby Collins ...... Sam Curtis
Lady Grainger ...... Daryl Fishwick
Young man ...... Steven Rostance
Directed by Pauline Harris.
MON 14:45 Book of the Week (b037gxxg)
Amana Fontanella-Khan - The Pink Sari Revolution, Episode 1
India's struggle with justice for women in the 21st century is becoming one of the most prominent news stories of the moment. In 2013, another terrible gang rape hit the headlines. Women's collectives are growing up all over the country and beginning to fight back. The most prominent and potent is the Pink Sari Gang. This is their story.
Sampat Devi Pal, raised in India's Uttar Pradesh region, was married off at twelve, had her first child at fifteen, and is essentially illiterate. Yet she has risen to become the fierce and courageous founder and commander in chief of India's Pink Gang, a 20,000-member women's vigilante group fighting for the rights of women in India.
In narrating the riveting story of the Pink Gang's work on behalf of a young girl unlawfully imprisoned at the hands of an abusive politician, journalist Amana Fontanella-Khan explores the origins and tactics of a fiery sisterhood that has grown to twice the size of the Irish army.
Merging courtroom drama, compelling personal history, and a triumphant portrait of grassroots organisation, Pink Sari Revolution highlights the extraordinary work of women who are shaking things up within their own country.
Amana is a Mumbai-based writer of Pakistani and Irish descent. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times and the FT magazine. An honorary gulabi member, this is her first book.
Episode 1
Sampat Pal, grassroots crusader for women's rights, takes on a new case of injustice against women in rural India.
Read by Meera Syal
Written by Amana Fontanella-Khan
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Producer: Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 15:00 David Goodland - Making Up (b05y0848)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 today]
MON 16:00 Dilemma (b017vkrp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 16:30 King of Bath (b049f20z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
MON 17:00 The Older Woman (b02w8xy7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 today]
MON 17:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b0b9wbfb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
MON 18:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007jwnt)
Episode 1
Gregor Samsa wakes one day to find himself hideously transformed into a monstrous insect. His family react with horror at his bizarre transformation but this slowly turns to revulsion - and then monstrous indifference - as he is left to quietly waste away in his bedroom.
First published in 1912, Benedict Cumberbatch reads Franz Kafka's classic novel in four parts.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) ranks among the 20th century's most acclaimed writers. He is often cited as the author whose works best evoke the concerns and preoccupations of modern life. The world in his stories is portrayed as one in which the fantastic is entirely normal, the irrational is rational, and the unreasonable seems reasonable. As Ernst Pawel wrote in his biography of the writer, "Kafka articulates the anguish of being human."
Kafka, although Czech and living in Prague, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, spoke fluent German and Czech and actually wrote in German and thought it his mother tongue. The tensions between those who spoke German and those who spoke Czech were a direct reflection of the rise of nationalism and the quest for national identity.
Metamorphosis was translated by Richard Stokes. Abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2006.
MON 18:30 A Good Read (b0076zdf)
Sir Digby Jones & Rupert Thomson
Martha Kearney and her guests - business leader, Sir Digby Jones and cult novelist, Rupert Thomson - discuss books by Niall Ferguson, PG Wodehouse and Tim O'Brien. From 2006.
Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World by Niall Ferguson
Publisher: Penguin
The Clicking of Cuthbert by PG Wodehouse
Publisher: Penguin
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Publisher: Harper Collins.
MON 19:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007m9f5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:00 today]
MON 19:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007k1sl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
MON 20:00 Paul Temple (b007jznh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
MON 20:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbp7tk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
MON 21:00 Joanne Harris - Jigs and Reels (b00cl6vd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 today]
MON 21:15 Jennie Buckman - Masks (b0076n2r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 today]
MON 22:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b0b9wbfb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
MON 22:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b0076s88)
Quintessential Phase, Fit the Twenty-Fifth
Far away out on the Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Planet Lamuella spins slowly, its iron age culture only occasionally enlivened by the arrival and departure of the Perfectly Normal Beasts, a vast stampede of buffalo-like creatures who appear at one end of the Anhondo mountains, thunder through the Anhondo Valley, and disappear at its far end. These animals provide the simple people of Lamuella with their principal source of protein, and since the arrival of the Sandwich Maker in the Fiery Chariot which Laid Waste the Great Forest, this means many fine Perfectly Normal Beast sandwiches are enjoyed on a daily basis by those who tend the crops which are fertilised by the droppings of the pikka birds, who tend to drop their droppings anywhere, anyway.
It is many moons since the cataclysmic arrival of the Sandwich Maker's fiery chariot which - according to the local shaman, soothsayer and fraud Old Thrashbarg - was responsible for filling the Great Forest with Ghosts, and since the Sandwich Maker recovered from his injuries this bucolic idyll has been, for him, a haven of peace and a chance to recover from years of wandering the Galaxy in pursuit of one thing or another, from white mice to a decent cup of tea to pieces of the Wikkit Gate to a lost girlfriend. Now he can give up rushing about and instead devote his time to the making of a perfect sandwich. Or so he thought till this morning. For into the village clearing has descended a new chariot, not fiery but smooth and with go-faster stripes, bearing within it a woman and a young girl. The woman's name is Trillian and, as Thrashbarg and the villagers scatter in fear, she gazes upon the Sandwich Maker and says, ""Hello Arthur"". For that is his name.
Trillian samples a Perfectly Normal Beast sandwich and explains to Arthur that the teenage girl she has brought with her is in fact their daughter. As Arthur has long financed his trips around the Galaxy with donations to tissue and sperm banks, and as he and Trillian were the only humans from the original Earth to survive its destruction by the Vogons, it was pretty easy for Trillian to find out who the donor was when she felt the need to visit a fertility clinic. Now about to jaunt off to cover the decisive arrival of a battlecruiser in a war which - due to the vagaries of sub-light travel - erupted millennia ago, Trillian is leaving the girl with Arthur. Both are horribly dismayed but Trillian has already gone. Arthur asks his daughter's name, ""Random Frequent Flyer Dent"" is the reply.
Arthur's attempts to bond with his sudden daughter are greeted with little success; Random is a product of a technological civilisation and is bored by the very things he values about life on Lamuella - its simplicity and freedom from gadgetry. When a package arrives from Ford Prefect, addressed to Arthur, the latter correctly surmises that it contains nothing harmless, and is horrified when Random runs off with it.
With her father in pursuit, Random stumbles across the secret of the ghosts in the Great Forest - they are in fact malfunctioning holovids from the in-flight entertainment system of the crashed shuttle which brought Arthur here so long ago. High up in a cave in the Anhondo Mountains she stops and opens the package. Out of it she pulls something looking like an ebony dinner plate, which unfolds itself and flutters to perch on a nearby rock. It is some kind of mechanical bird, but it identifies itself as The Guide Mark II. Calibrating itself so that Random can see and hear it, the bird explains it is her Guide, that it exists across all dimensions and can use Reverse Temporal engineering to show her anything she wants, do for her anything she wants and take her anywhere she likes. It shows her the Earth her mother came from, how it exists in a Plural Zone which is very unstable and where, when one thing is destroyed, another, near-identical one can pop up in its place. It shows her Tricia MacMillan, living on that Earth, a shock for Random who thinks this must be her mother and demands to be taken there. The bird, following orders, immediately reaches back as far into time as is necessary to bring about the instant arrival of a spaceship to take them there. Out of the spaceship emerges Ford Prefect, who Random promptly knocks on the head with a rock. As Random and the bird leave in the ship, Arthur arrives in the clearing outside the cave, discovering Ford's head is under his foot.
MON 23:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbp7tm)
Mastering the Universe: Party On Down
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
Mastering the Universe Series 1 (3/6)
Professor Joy Klamp explores the miserable world of partying. Stars Dawn French and Christopher Douglas. From November 2005.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
MON 23:15 This Is Craig Brown (b00fd63s)
Hallucinations
Revealing all on narcotics and Top of the Pops. The satirist pokes fun with Rory Bremner and John Humphrys. From March 2004.
MON 23:30 The Museum of Everything (b00h3h6c)
Series 3, The Thing
Learn about medieval cooking, and view the most precious exhibit. Stars Marcus Brigstocke and Danny Robins. From August 2006.
TUESDAY 24 JULY 2018
TUE 00:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007jwnt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:00 on Monday]
TUE 00:30 A Good Read (b0076zdf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:30 on Monday]
TUE 01:00 Paul Temple (b007jznh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbp7tk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:00 Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (b00761hk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:00 on Monday]
TUE 02:15 Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (b06nnbwl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:15 on Monday]
TUE 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b00b01yk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:45 Book of the Week (b037gxxg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Monday]
TUE 03:00 David Goodland - Making Up (b05y0848)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:00 Dilemma (b017vkrp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:30 King of Bath (b049f20z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Monday]
TUE 05:00 The Older Woman (b02w8xy7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 on Monday]
TUE 05:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b0b9wbfb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 on Monday]
TUE 06:00 Paul Temple (b007jzpv)
Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair, Dinner at the Stardust
The debonair detective turns his attention from the River Thames to a London nightclub.
After the untimely death of actress Mary Dreisler in her London flat, her theatre impresario father has sent for Paul Temple.
Francis Durbridge's thriller stars Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve in another intriguing case for BBC radio's smoothest sleuth and his glamorous wife.
With James Thomason as Sir Graham Forbes, Brewster Mason as Rupert Dreisler, Hugh Manning as Vosper, James Beattie as Charlie, John Graham as Eric Lansdale, Isobel Dean as Terry Gibson, Simon Lack as Adrian Frost, June Turbin as Judy Milton and Thomas Heathcote as Pete Roberts.
From 1938 to 1969 the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC radio's most popular series. They inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and the men wore cravats - a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed Paul's help with his latest tricky case.
Producer: Martyn C. Webster
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1957.
TUE 06:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbp9rp)
The Food Programme: Guilty Pleasures
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
The Food Programme - Guilty Pleasures
Sheila Dillon celebrates food's guilty pleasures. Food writer and gardener Lynda Brown sings the praises of the doughnut, chef and meat lover Fergus Henderson extolls the virtues of dripping and Dilly Barlow rekindles a childhood passion for toffee and fudge-making, and visits the Burnt Sugar factory in Nottingham. First heard on Radio 4 in 2009.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
TUE 07:00 Second Thoughts (b007jx3l)
Series 1, Marriage of Inconvenience
Bill and Faith get set for a last minute weeding - surely nothing can go wrong?
Sitcom about the battles of divorcees Bill MacGregor and Faith Greyshott trying to forge a relationship whilst balancing the demands of his ex-wife, Liza and her teenage children, Hannah and Joe.
Stars Lynda Bellingham as Faith, James Bolam as Bill, Kelda Holmes as Hannah, Mark Denham as Joe, Belinda Lang as Liza and Nicholas Courtney as Ray.
Series one of four inspired by the real lives of its writers, husband and wife Jan Etherington and Gavin Petrie.
A TV version made by LWT for ITV appeared in 1991 and ran for four series, with a spin-off 'Faith in the Future'.
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1988.
TUE 07:30 My Teenage Diary (b0b9wsb1)
Series 8, Helen Lederer
Helen Lederer reads from her teenage diaries and talks about her school days in South-East London, when she was far more interested in boys than in school work.
Presenter: Rufus Hound
Producer: Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 08:00 As Time Goes By (b007k9n0)
Series 3, Episode 7
Lionel finally seeks to make an honest woman of Jean. Adapted from TV with Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. From March 1999.
TUE 08:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007k13p)
Seal of Office
The blundering civil servants are tasked with organising a military display in London, but there's a terrible mix-up...
Stars Richard Murdoch and Deryck Guyler.
With Norma Ronald, Ronald Baddiley and John Graham.
Written by Edward Taylor and John Graham.
'The Men from the Ministry' ran for 14 series between 1962 and 1977. Deryck Guyler replaced Wilfrid Hyde-White from 1966. Sadly many episodes didn't survive in the archive, however the BBC's Transcription Service re-recorded 14 shows in 1980 - never broadcast in the UK, until the arrival of BBC Radio 4 Extra.
Producer: Edward Taylor
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in August 1976.
TUE 09:00 Where's the F in News (b0b9zg8s)
Series 1, Episode 1
An energetic, intelligent female-anchored show with a female panel - using the events, trends and talking points they think should really be top of the news agenda in a series of fresh and funny challenges.
Host Jo Bunting is joined by a panel of women including London Hughes, Zoe Lyons and Doctor Janina Ramirez.
Jo Bunting is a producer and writer of topical comedy and satire, with credits including Have I Got News For You, the Great British Bake Off spin off show An Extra Slice with Jo Brand, and the successful topical chat show That Sunday Night Show presented by Adrian Chiles on ITV. Jo was a guest interviewer on Loose Ends for several years and a panellist on Loose Women.
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 09:30 Any Other Business (b012xws9)
Episode 2
A hurricane of change in Chesbury, with Labour back in power on a wafer thin majority.
Lucy Flannery's local government sitcom stars Nelson David, John Duttine, James Grout, Rosy Fordham, Nick Hardy, Howard Lew Lewis, Toby Longworth, Jan Ravens, Vivienne Rochester and June Whitfield.
Producer: Liz Anstee
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1995.
TUE 10:00 Classic Serial (b039z4f2)
Jerome K Jerome - Three Men in a Boat, Episode 1
The Now Show's Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt with Julian Rhind-Tutt from Green Wing star in a sparkling new dramatisation of Jerome K Jerome's comic classic.
In Edwardian London, three carefree young men and their dog, Montmorency, plan a rowing holiday down the Thames to Oxford. But nothing goes smoothly.
Episode 1:
Even their packing proves a trial for the trouble-prone J, Harris and George. On the eve of the trip they manage to oversleep, they struggle to find the right train from Waterloo to Kingston and get hopelessly lost in the maze at Hampton Court. They navigate their first lock successfully and end up at yet another hostelry 'for just one drink', but the evening ends on a dangerous note - Harris decides he will sing a comic song. Oh dear.
Three Men In A Boat has never been out of print since its first publication in 1889. In stark contrast to the adventure writers of the time - Kipling, Haggard and Stevenson - Jerome K Jerome gave us a story about three ordinary fellows having a jolly time down the river.
Pub singers............. from Rose Bruford College
Music....................... provided by Gary Yershon, with Eddie Hession on accordion
Dramatised by Chris Harrald
Original and adapted music by Gary Yershon
Sound design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Melanie Harris
Executive Producer: Polly Thomas
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 11:00 Joanne Harris - Jigs and Reels (b00cl32x)
Fule's Gold
After 40 years teaching creative writing, sneaky Mr Fisher discovers a masterpiece. Short story read by Stephen Moore.
TUE 11:15 Afternoon Drama (b037jfmy)
Lenny Henry - Miss You Still
Lenny Henry plays Charlie, a Midlands bus driver, who has shut himself off from the world. Joyce, who works at the bus garage, is a newly appointed lay preacher. She sends Charlie her feisty teenage daughter to help him clean up his life. Joyce's daughter is a wannabe-singer with a gym-obsessed boyfriend. The last thing she wants on her hands is a smelly old man who hears voices.
Directed by Claire Grove
Lenny Henry stars in his second original play for Radio 4. Set in the Midlands Miss You still is a ghost story and a love story. It's about facing the truth. Only by admitting responsibility for the past can Charlie begin to deal with the present. There are four vibrant characters: Charlie, the reclusive bus driver, Joyce, a lay-preacher who works in admin at the bus depot, Roxanne, Joyce's feisty 16 year old daughter and Kulvinder, Roxanne's gym-obsessed boyfriend.
Lenny Henry is currently starring in Fences in the West End, Clare Perkins is Ava Hartman in EastEnders, Bunmi Mojekwu is in Romeo and Juliet at the National Theatre, and Amit Shah is currently filming The Smoke for Sky 1. This is thirteen year old Tranae Sinclair's radio debut and she is also in Fences in the West End.
TUE 12:00 As Time Goes By (b007k9n0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
TUE 12:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007k13p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
TUE 13:00 Paul Temple (b007jzpv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
TUE 13:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbp9rp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
TUE 14:00 Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (b00761j1)
Episode 2
Actress Miss La Fosse is impressed by the curate daughter's quick thinking and histrionic powers. Read by Maureen Lipman.
TUE 14:15 Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (b06nnwhz)
A Long, Hard Road
In the second of ten programmes tracing a century of black British theatre and screen, Lenny Henry focuses on the evolving depiction of African Caribbean society on popular television across fifty years.
He charts the journey from the overt racism of TV sit-coms like Love Thy Neighbour (which nonetheless was a great hit amongst black Britons, simply because it was one of the few places in the 1970s where black Britain was regularly depicted on the nation's TV screens) to more sympathetic programmes like Empire Road. By the time Desmond's hair salon opened on Channel 4, with Norman Beaton and Carmen Munroe in the leading roles, a much more realistic picture of African Caribbean Britain was taking shape on British television.
Series Consultant Michael Pearce
Producer Simon Elmes.
TUE 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b00b0fxj)
Winifred Holtby - The Crowded Street, Episode 7
Diana Griffiths' dramatisation of Winifred Holtby's tale of a woman's journey into self-fulfilment.
7/10. Muriel has gone to stay with Connie in the Yorkshire Moors. Connie, desperate for Muriel's help, receives a letter and discovers the truth concerning a past lover.
Muriel ...... Clare Goose
Connie ...... Joanne Froggatt
Mrs Hammond ...... Brigit Forsyth
Mr Todd ...... Paul McCleary
Mrs Todd ...... Deborah McAndrew
Ben Todd ...... Graeme Hawley
Alice ...... Tahira Dar
Directed by Pauline Harris.
TUE 14:45 Book of the Week (b037pv9j)
Amana Fontanella-Khan - The Pink Sari Revolution, Episode 2
India's struggle with justice for women in the 21st century is becoming one of the most prominent news stories of the moment. In 2013, another terrible gang rape hit the headlines. Women's collectives are growing up all over the country and beginning to fight back. The most prominent and potent is the Pink Sari Gang. This is their story.
Sampat Devi Pal, raised in India's Uttar Pradesh region, was married off at twelve, had her first child at fifteen, and is essentially illiterate. Yet she has risen to become the fierce and courageous founder and commander in chief of India's Pink Gang, a 20,000-member women's vigilante group fighting for the rights of women in India.
In narrating the riveting story of the Pink Gang's work on behalf of a young girl unlawfully imprisoned at the hands of an abusive politician, journalist Amana Fontanella-Khan explores the origins and tactics of a fiery sisterhood that has grown to twice the size of the Irish army.
Merging courtroom drama, compelling personal history, and a triumphant portrait of grassroots organisation, Pink Sari Revolution highlights the extraordinary work of women who are shaking things up within their own country.
Amana is a Mumbai-based writer of Pakistani and Irish descent. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times and the FT magazine. An honorary gulabi member, this is her first book.
Episode 2
Sampat Pal confronts the local police in her quest to find justice for the wrongly accused Sheelu.
Read by Meera Syal
Written by Amana Fontanella-Khan
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Producer: Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:00 Classic Serial (b039z4f2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 today]
TUE 16:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b015bxql)
Series 4, Carr, Bellos, Stavrakopoulou
The Museum of Curiosity is, as ever, hosted by the Professor of Ignorance from the University of Buckingham John Lloyd (now with added C.B.E). For this, the fourth series, he is joined by the intensely curious comedian Dave Gorman as his Curator. Dave is the latest in a line of illustrious Museum curators: Bill Bailey, Sean Lock and Jon Richardson.
The Museum of Curiosity has a unique method for collecting exhibits. Once a week it welcomes three luminaries from widely different specialist fields and asks them to bring with them their most treasured items to donate.
The Museum's collection already boasts The Big Bang When It Was The Size Of A Grapefruit; A Pineapple; A Yard Of Silence; Nothing; A British Railways Bridge Plate; A Telepathic Sheep; A Chimpanzee Rain Dance; An Impossible Rabbit; A Gay Bomb; A Choir Of Singing Sand Dunes; National Ignorance Day (of which we know nothing); and An Icelandic Volcano (long before they were fashionable).
In the first of the new series, John and Dave are joined by comedian Jimmy Carr; documentary maker, theologian (and atheist) Francesca Stavrakapoulou; and the mathematician, Guardian South America correspondent and football author Alex Bellos.
The museum's guests later in the rest of the series are:
Philosopher Alain de Botton
Linguist David Crystal
Filmmaker Gareth Edwards
Comedian Harry Enfield
Solar physicist Lucie Green
Classically-trained comedian Natalie Haynes
New Scientist Editor Roger Highfield
Comedian Alex Horne
Rational Comedian Robin Ince
Graham Linehan
Data Miner David McCandless
Marine biologist Helen Scales
Advertising guru Rory Sutherland
Admiral Alan William John West, Baron West of Spithead GCB DSC PC
Polar explorer Sara Wheeler.
TUE 16:30 Any Other Business (b012xws9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
TUE 17:00 Second Thoughts (b007jx3l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 today]
TUE 17:30 My Teenage Diary (b0b9wsb1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
TUE 18:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k3r4)
Episode 2
Gregor is adapting to his new insect form, but his shocked family find it harder to accept. Read by Benedict Cumberbatch.
TUE 18:30 The Palace of Laughter (b0084hvl)
Series 2, Ayr Gaiety Theatre
Geoffrey Wheeler probes the west coast venue's unique staying power and its connection to Scotland's best-loved bard Robert Burns.
TUE 19:00 As Time Goes By (b007k9n0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
TUE 19:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007k13p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
TUE 20:00 Paul Temple (b007jzpv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
TUE 20:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbp9rp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
TUE 21:00 Joanne Harris - Jigs and Reels (b00cl32x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 today]
TUE 21:15 Afternoon Drama (b037jfmy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 today]
TUE 22:00 My Teenage Diary (b0b9wsb1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
TUE 22:30 Paul Sinha's Citizenship Test (b037vlck)
Episode 1
Paul Sinha is proudly British. He also loves a quiz. So you would have thought that the UK Citizenship Test, which newcomers to this country must pass to become citizens, would have been right up his street. But the questions in the 2012 and 2013 Home Office guides seem either bizarrely easy - "Where is Welsh most widely spoken?" - or infuriatingly vague - "What happened in the First World War?".
So Paul has created his own test, to better reflect the things that aspiring migrants should understand before they can call themselves British. In episode one he deals with the history syllabus, looking at what we know about the most important legal document in our history; the Patron Saints of the Home Nations; provides a guide to our twenty most important cities; and points out a historical error in the official guide. He also tests the studio audience on their knowledge, with those that answer incorrectly being deported.
The series intertwines the sort of comedy Paul has become known for on The Now Show, The News Quiz, and Fighting Talk, as well as his own Radio 4 shows The Sinha Test and The Sinha Games, and the command of facts and figures he demonstrates on the ITV quiz show The Chase.
Written and performed by Paul Sinha.
Producer: Ed Morrish.
TUE 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0bdc5k8)
Carl Donnelly. 1/2
The best in contemporary comedy. Iain Lee talks to Carl Donnelly.
TUE 23:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbpbzv)
Mastering the Universe: Holidays
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
Mastering the Universe Series 1 (4/6)
Professor Joy Klamp explores the miserable world of holidaying. Stars Dawn French and Christopher Douglas. From November 2005.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
TUE 23:15 Don't Start (b06vnmy9)
Series 3, Medical
What do long term partners really argue about? The third series of Frank Skinner's sharp comedy. Starring Frank Skinner and Katherine Parkinson.
In this episode, Kim is not happy when a theoretical debate about her demise reveals Neil's yearning for an accordion.
The first and second series of Don't Start met with instant critical and audience acclaim:
"That he can deliver such a heavy premise for a series with such a lightness of touch is testament to his skills as a writer and, given that the protagonists are both bookworms, he's also permitted to use a flourish of fine words that would be lost in his stand-up routines." Jane Anderson, Radio Times
"Frank Skinner gives full rein to his sharp but splenetic comedy. He and his co-star Katherine Parkinson play a bickering couple exchanging acerbic ripostes in a cruelly precise dissection of a relationship." Daily Mail
"...a lesson in relationship ping-pong..." Miranda Sawyer, The Observer
Don't Start is a scripted comedy with a deceptively simple premise - an argument. Each week, our couple fall out over another apparently trivial flashpoint. Each week, the stakes mount as Neil and Kim battle with words. But these are no ordinary arguments. The two outdo each other with increasingly absurd images, unexpected literary references and razor sharp analysis of their beloved's weaknesses. Underneath the cutting wit, however, there is an unmistakable tenderness.
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:30 The Maltby Collection (b00crj7j)
Series 1, Episode 4
Museum director Walter Brindle has important news and love is in the air for some staff. Stars Geoffrey Palmer. From July 2007.
WEDNESDAY 25 JULY 2018
WED 00:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k3r4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:00 on Tuesday]
WED 00:30 The Palace of Laughter (b0084hvl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:30 on Tuesday]
WED 01:00 Paul Temple (b007jzpv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbp9rp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:00 Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (b00761j1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:00 on Tuesday]
WED 02:15 Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (b06nnwhz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:15 on Tuesday]
WED 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b00b0fxj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:45 Book of the Week (b037pv9j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Tuesday]
WED 03:00 Classic Serial (b039z4f2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b015bxql)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:30 Any Other Business (b012xws9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Tuesday]
WED 05:00 Second Thoughts (b007jx3l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 on Tuesday]
WED 05:30 My Teenage Diary (b0b9wsb1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 on Tuesday]
WED 06:00 Paul Temple (b007jn54)
Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair, A Party of Four
The smooth sleuth gathers together the key players in the musical mystery.
Francis Durbridge's thriller starring Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve in the conclusion of another intriguing case.
With James Thomason as Sir Graham Forbes, Brewster Mason as Rupert Dreisler, Hugh Manning as Vosper, James Beattie as Charlie, John Graham as Eric Lansdale, Isobel Dean as Terry Gibson, Simon Lack as Adrian Frost, June Turbin as Judy Milton and Thomas Heathcote as Pete Roberts.
From 1938 to 1969 the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC radio's most popular series. They inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and the men wore cravats - a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed Paul's help with his latest tricky case.
Producer: Martyn C. Webster
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1957.
WED 06:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbpcl0)
Mark Steel Does Hip-Hop
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
Mark Steel Does Hip Hop
Dane Baptiste thinks one of the joys of radio is listening to other people talk about things that bring them (surprisingly) pleasure - in this case fellow comedian Mark Steel's love of hip-hop in foreign languages.
First heard on Radio 4 in 2017.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
WED 07:00 Ring Around the Bath (b01hpx39)
Series 3, Seeking Lost Gardens
It's open day at the Bartholomew residence - with Alison due to give birth at any minute.
Who will arrive first - the garden visitors or the latest family addition?
Series 3 of Lucy Clare and Ian Davidson's sitcom about topsy-turvy family life.
Stars Duncan Preston as Patrick, Pippa Haywood as Stella, Claudie Blakley as Alison, Bruce MacKinnon as Rick, Catherine Shepherd as Xanthe and Daniela Denby-Ashe as Egg.
Director: Elizabeth Freestone
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2006.
WED 07:30 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07qbcb8)
The Letter
Stand-up comic Josh comes to terms with the impending birth of his first child.
In this second episode, Josh and his wife Monique go to the hospital to attend their twenty week scan. Unfortunately Monique has forgotten the appointment letter, which is the only thing Josh can now think about.
Written by Josh Howie
Produced by Ashley Blaker
A Black Hat production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 08:00 The Navy Lark (b01dldrl)
First Day Out of Dock
After their TV excursion, the crew of HMS Troutbridge set sail with a new commander.
Stars Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Stephen Murray as the Number One, Ronnie Barker as Able Seaman Johnson and Richard Caldicote as Captain Povey.
Laughs afloat aboard British Royal Navy frigate HMS Troutbridge. The Navy Lark ran for an impressive thirteen series between 1959 and 1976.
Scripted by Lawrie Wyman
Producer: Alastair Scott Johnston.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in April 19.
WED 08:30 Beyond Our Ken (b008fd3n)
From 01/07/1958
The first outing of Kenneth Horne's revered comedy troupe poking fun at tax bills and atomic power, plus some advice from Miss Romney Marsh.
Starring Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden, Ron Moody and Stanley Unwin.
Written by Eric Merriman and Barry Took
Music from Pat Lancaster, the Malcolm Mitchell Trio and the BBC Review Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.
Announcer: Douglas Smith
A madcap mix of sketches and songs, Beyond Our Ken hit the airwaves in 1958 and ran to 1964 - featuring regulars like Arthur Fallowfield, Cecil Snaith and Rodney and Charles.
The precursor to 'Round The Horne' - sadly only 13 shows survive from the original run of 21 episodes in Series 1. Audio restored using both home and overseas (BBC Transcription Service) recordings.
Producer: Jacques Brown
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in July 1958.
WED 09:00 Wordaholics (b01dtkjd)
Series 1, Episode 6
Gyles Brandreth hosts a comedy panel show in which guests are challenged to display their knowledge of words and language. In this edition he is joined by Jack Whitehall, Milton Jones, Natalie Haynes and Countdown's Susie Dent.
This week's letter of the week is P which really packs a punch.
We learn why Susie Dent's favourite word is 'blurb', we find out what a Chicago Piano was and we listen as Jack Whitehall struggles to reduce to a tweet a particularly fruity passage from his father's autobiography.
Writers: James Kettle and Jon Hunter.
Producer: Claire Jones.
WED 09:30 The Right Time (b00c90g4)
Series 3, Episode 1
Gym shenanigans, finding a fox - and can you feel sexy at 60?
The sketch comedy for people growing older disgracefully.
Stars Eleanor Bron, Graeme Garden, Neil Innes, Clive Swift, Roger Blake and Pam Ayres.
Written by Pam Ayres, Mike Coleman, Jan Etherington, Graeme Garden, Neil Innes, Colin Bostock-Smith, Bob Sinfield, Chris Thompson, Pete Reynolds, Tony Bagley, Richard Turner and Phil Nice,
Script Editor: Geoff Parsons.
Music by Ronnie & The Rex and Neil Innes.
Producer: Claire Jones
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2003.
WED 10:00 Classic Serial (b03bg7gv)
Jerome K Jerome - Three Men in a Boat, Episode 2
The Now Show's Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt with Julian Rhind-Tutt from Green Wing star in a sparkling new dramatisation of Jerome K.Jerome's comic classic.
In Edwardian London, three carefree young men and their dog, Montmorency, plan a rowing holiday down the Thames to Oxford. But nothing goes smoothly.
Episode 2:
Harris, unable to recollect words or tune, attempts a comic song - to the dismay of J, George and other revellers. J buys a round for the whole pub to compensate. After a meal of cold beef but no mustard, they cheer up at the prospect of pineapple - but they've forgotten the tin opener. And nothing - not the penknife, the scissors, the hitcher, a sharp stone or the mast - can break into that tin. Their last night on the river involves another sing-song at another pub of course, but not before Harris and Montmorency survive a serious encounter with swans.
Three Men In A Boat has never been out of print since its first publication in 1889. In stark contrast to the adventure writers of the time - Kipling, Haggard and Stevenson - Jerome K Jerome gave us a story about three ordinary fellows having a jolly time down the river.
Pub singers ............from Rose Bruford College
Music...................... provided by Gary Yershon, with Eddie Hession accordion
Dramatised by Chris Harrald
Original and adapted music by Gary Yershon
Sound design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Melanie Harris
Executive Producer: Polly Thomas
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 11:00 Afternoon Reading (b00fnqcx)
John B Keane Readings, Protocol
Five readings from the work of the late Irish novelist and essayist John B Keane.
It is obvious from Timmy Binn's demeanour that this evening's visit is different from all the others: tonight he is on a special mission. Read by Dermot Crowley.
WED 11:15 Tommies (b09w10b5)
21 March 1918
Caught up in the surprise British retreat of 1918, three signallers face a terrifying choice between thick fog and German Stormtroopers, in this front line adventure starring Lee Ross and John Macmillan.
Mickey Bliss is back on the Western Front, where the Allies have spent the autumn gaining just five miles of soil over fourteen weeks at Passchendaele.
After today's extraordinary events, they will lose forty miles in just two weeks.
Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war, exactly 100 years ago.
And through it all, we follow the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers. They are the cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years.
Captain Mickey Bliss ..... Lee Ross
Sapper Juma Gubanda ..... John Macmillan
Sergeant Desmond Dixon ..... Daniel Weyman
Sapper Ezekiel Warmby ..... Tom Vallen
Major George Fenniman ..... Philip Bretherton
Captain Hubert Puckle ..... Simon Wilson
Sergeant Castle ..... Ryan Early
Sapper John Quennell ..... Nick Underwood
WAAC Florrie Fanshawe ..... Karen Bartke
Messengers ..... Lukie Bailey, Ryan Whittle
Commentator ..... Indira Varma
Series created by Jonathan Ruffle
Written by Jonathan Ruffle
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: Jonquil Panting.
WED 12:00 The Navy Lark (b01dldrl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
WED 12:30 Beyond Our Ken (b008fd3n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
WED 13:00 Paul Temple (b007jn54)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
WED 13:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbpcl0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
WED 14:00 Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (b07bt8vp)
Episode 3
The shy spinster is transformed for a party and gets the chance to sort out Miss Du Barry's love life. Read by Maureen Lipman.
WED 14:15 Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (b06nq1fd)
Othello Across the Ages
In the third of ten programmes tracing a century of black British theatre and screen, Lenny Henry uses Shakespeare's character of Othello to tell the story of how the Moor of the play has for nearly 200 years offered black actors a part to savour - and also provoked debates about who can play the role.
In 2009, Lenny himself took the role in a production by Northern Broadsides at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, and subsequently in London. It won him the Evening Standard newspaper's Newcomer of the Year award, and was generally acknowledged a triumph.
Yet nearly 200 years ago, in 1833, the black American-British actor Ira Aldridge (known as 'the negro tragedian') played Othello with the Covent Garden players for just two nights until deplorable racist reviews, objecting to "this wretched upstart", forced the management to close the production.
Even well into the twentieth century, those 19th century newspapers' complaints about Desdemona being 'pawed' by a black actor were echoed when the great Paul Robeson took the role, and white actors in blackface have regularly played Othello right up to the modern era.
Featuring an interview with Lolita Chakrabarti, whose award-winning play Red Velvet, depicted Aldridge's Othello.
Series Consultant Michael Pearce
Producer Simon Elmes.
WED 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b00b0gyt)
Winifred Holtby - The Crowded Street, Episode 8
As the war comes to an end, Muriel hears news of Delia and comes to a decision. Stars Claire Goose and Deborah McAndrew.
WED 14:45 Book of the Week (b037pvjm)
Amana Fontanella-Khan - The Pink Sari Revolution, Episode 3
India's struggle with justice for women in the 21st century is becoming one of the most prominent news stories of the moment. In 2013, another terrible gang rape hit the headlines. Women's collectives are growing up all over the country and beginning to fight back. The most prominent and potent is the Pink Sari Gang. This is their story.
Sampat Devi Pal, raised in India's Uttar Pradesh region, was married off at twelve, had her first child at fifteen, and is essentially illiterate. Yet she has risen to become the fierce and courageous founder and commander in chief of India's Pink Gang, a 20,000-member women's vigilante group fighting for the rights of women in India.
In narrating the riveting story of the Pink Gang's work on behalf of a young girl unlawfully imprisoned at the hands of an abusive politician, journalist Amana Fontanella-Khan explores the origins and tactics of a fiery sisterhood that has grown to twice the size of the Irish army.
Merging courtroom drama, compelling personal history, and a triumphant portrait of grassroots organisation, Pink Sari Revolution highlights the extraordinary work of women who are shaking things up within their own country.
Amana is a Mumbai-based writer of Pakistani and Irish descent. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times and the FT magazine. An honorary gulabi member, this is her first book.
Episode 3
Sampat continues to investigate the case of Sheelu, whose harrowing story has now emerged.
Read by Meera Syal
Written by Amana Fontanella-Khan
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:00 Classic Serial (b03bg7gv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 today]
WED 16:00 Wordaholics (b01dtkjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 16:30 The Right Time (b00c90g4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
WED 17:00 Ring Around the Bath (b01hpx39)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 today]
WED 17:30 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07qbcb8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
WED 18:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k3xn)
Episode 3
Now a monstrous insect, Gregor strives to stay close to his family - but his father turns on him. Read by Benedict Cumberbatch.
PROMOTION NOTE
"When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect."
This shocking opening introduces one of the twentieth century's most famous stories.
Gregor's family react with horror at his bizarre transformation but their horror slowly turns to revulsion and then monstrous indifference as he is left to quietly waste away in his bedroom.
Metamorphosis was first published in 1912.
Benedict Cumberbatch reads this surreal classic in four parts.
Stage and screen actor, Benedict Cumberbatch was Bafta nominated for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in the BBC TV drama, "Hawking". Most recently he appeared in the TV dramatisation of William Golding's seafaring trilogy, "To The Ends of The Earth". He also won critical acclaim playing Hedda's husband, George, in last year's West End production of "Hedda Gabler".
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) ranks among the twentieth-century's most acclaimed writers. He is often cited as the author whose works best evoke the concerns and preoccupations of modern life. The world in his stories is portrayed as one in which the fantastic is entirely normal, the irrational is rational, and the unreasonable seems reasonable. As Ernst Pawel wrote in his biography of the writer, "Kafka articulates the anguish of being human."
Translated by Richard Stokes
(Abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins).
WED 18:30 Comic to Comic (b007vmc3)
Series 1, Jeremy Hardy
Comedian Jeremy Hardy looks back over his career and discusses satire, bad singing and the romance of cardigans...
Series in which Bruce Morton talks to top stand-up comedians about life, the universe and comedy.
Producer: Carol Purcell
First broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in September 2005.
WED 19:00 The Navy Lark (b01dldrl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
WED 19:30 Beyond Our Ken (b008fd3n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
WED 20:00 Paul Temple (b007jn54)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
WED 20:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbpcl0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
WED 21:00 Afternoon Reading (b00fnqcx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 today]
WED 21:15 Tommies (b09w10b5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 today]
WED 22:00 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07qbcb8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
WED 22:30 Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully (b04md4nr)
Series 2, Questioning Loyalties
3/6 Questioning Loyalties. Field Commander Uljabaan's loyalty cards, rewarding villagers for their collaboration, are not only ruining Katrina's plans but also Richard's chances in the weekly pub quiz. They turn to Ron, the landlord of the Rose & Crown for help in scuppering the scheme.
Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully is a sitcom about an alien race that have noticed that those all-at-once invasions of Earth never work out that well. So they've locked the small Buckinghamshire village of Cresdon Green behind an impenetrable force field in order to study human behaviour and decide if Earth is worth invading.
The only inhabitant who seems to be bothered by their new alien overlord is Katrina Lyons, who was only home for the weekend to borrow the money for a deposit for a flat when the force field went up. So along with Lucy Alexander (the only teenager in the village, willing to rebel against whatever you've got) she forms The Resistance - slightly to the annoyance of her parents Margaret and Richard who wish she wouldn't make so much of a fuss, and much to the annoyance of Field Commander Uljabaan who, alongside his unintelligible minions and The Computer (his hyper-intelligent supercomputer), is trying to actually run the invasion.
Written by Eddie Robson
Script-edited by Arthur Mathews
Produced by Ed Morrish.
WED 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0bdc5rc)
Carl Donnelly. 2/2
The best in contemporary comedy. Iain Lee talks to Carl Donnelly.
WED 23:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbpdg1)
Mastering the Universe: Food and Drink
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
Mastering the Universe Series 1 (5/6) Food and Drink
Professor Joy Klamp's tour of miserable relationships. Stars Dawn French. From December 2005.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
WED 23:15 Hamish and Dougal: You'll Have Had Your Tea (b007k1wk)
Series 2, The Monster in the Loch
The elderly Scotsmen have a monstrous encounter in the great outdoors. Stars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Alison Steadman. From March 2004.
WED 23:30 Delve Special (b007k469)
Series 2, Whose Baby?
David Lander reports on the implications of revolutionary methods of baby production. Stephen Fry stars as the spoof investigative reporter. From September 1985.
THURSDAY 26 JULY 2018
THU 00:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k3xn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:00 on Wednesday]
THU 00:30 Comic to Comic (b007vmc3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:30 on Wednesday]
THU 01:00 Paul Temple (b007jn54)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 on Wednesday]
THU 01:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbpcl0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:00 Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (b07bt8vp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:00 on Wednesday]
THU 02:15 Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (b06nq1fd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:15 on Wednesday]
THU 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b00b0gyt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:45 Book of the Week (b037pvjm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Wednesday]
THU 03:00 Classic Serial (b03bg7gv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:00 Wordaholics (b01dtkjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:30 The Right Time (b00c90g4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Wednesday]
THU 05:00 Ring Around the Bath (b01hpx39)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 on Wednesday]
THU 05:30 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07qbcb8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 on Wednesday]
THU 06:00 Miss Marple (b007jpp2)
The Murder at the Vicarage, Episode 1
Even the vicar of St. Mary Mead detests a certain member of his flock. But murder seems to be carrying things a bit far?
Agatha Christie's whodunit stars June Whitfield as Miss Marple and Francis Matthews as the Rev Leonard Clement, Imelda Staunton as Griselda Clement and Nigel Davenport as Dr Haydock.
Dramatised by Michael Bakewell
Director Enyd Williams
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1993.
THU 06:30 Rock 'n' Roll in Four Movements (b01m182x)
When Rock 'n' Roll began, it was music of rebellion, fighting against the strait-laced world of classical music. The two worlds seemed far apart until the late Jon Lord wrote his Concerto for Rock Group and Orchestra which combined the forces of his heavy rock group Deep Purple with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The work was premiered in the Royal Albert Hall in London under the baton of Malcolm Arnold in 1969. From then until the arrival of Punk in the late seventies rockers like the Nice, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Rick Wakeman embraced this hybrid genre with great energy and enthusiasm. Rick Wakeman in particular became known for stage shows which matched the ambition of his music.
Stuart Maconie talks to Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson about the genre's excesses. We hear from Roy Wood about the early days of the Electric Light Orchestra. And the late Jon Lord, in his last ever recorded interview, talks about his passion for writing classical music, inspired by his early experiment with his Concerto.
Stuart Maconie casts a fairly benevolent eye on the genre - in his view some of it was actually very good. But classical music critic Ivan Hewett is pleased that the genre was largely killed off by punk - although in his view there are more modern examples where classical and pop sensibilities are successfully combined, by the likes of Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and Damon Albarn.
THU 07:00 North by Northamptonshire (b03m40zv)
Series 3, Episode 1
by Katherine Jakeways
Sheila Hancock narrates the bittersweet adventures of the residents of a small market town in Northamptonshire. Relationships have come and gone but life continues in Wadenbrook and Ken and Keith have a birthday to celebrate.
Producer: Steven Canny
As is well-known: Yorkshiremen wear flat caps and Essex girls wear short skirts; Liverpudlians are scallies and Cockneys are wideboys. Northamptonians gaze wistfully at these stereotypes and wish for an identity of any kind and a label less ridiculous than Northamptonians. Northamptonshire, let us be clear, is neither north, nor south nor in the Midlands. It floats somewhere between the three eyeing up the distinctiveness of each enviously. Now Katherine Jakeways is giving Northamptonshire an identity. And she waits, eagerly, for her home-county to thank her. And possibly make her some kind of Mayor.
Joined by nearly all of the incredible cast which graced Series One and Two - including Sheila Hancock as the Narrator, Penelope Wilton, Felicity Montagu, Geoffrey Palmer and Kevin Eldon - and with the exciting addition of Tim Key and Nathaniel Parker - North by Northamptonshire hopes (and promises) to once again delight audience and critics.
'The laughs are cruel, but the monsters of suburbia are curiously sympathetic, and the characters so well drawn and well played that this could run and run.' Time Out.
THU 07:30 Joe Lycett's Obsessions (b0b9zbpj)
Series 1, Katherine Ryan and Greg James
Joe Lycett explores the nation's weird and wonderful obsessions by getting to know a selection of famous and not so famous guests. Joining Joe on the sofa this week, comedian Katherine Ryan shares her love of the Kardashians, whilst Radio 1 DJ Greg James introduces Joe to the world of cricket. Joe also welcomes members of the public to share their secret passions, as well as this week's VOP (very obsessed person), Mattie Faint the curator of The Clown Gallery and Museum.
Joe Lycett's Obsessions was written and performed by Joe Lycett, with material from James Kettle and additional material from Laura Major and Mike Shepherd. The production coordinator was Hayley Sterling. The producer was Suzy Grant and it was a BBC Studios production.
THU 08:00 J Kingston Platt (b01s9hds)
The Scriptwriter's Revenge
Jacko spins a sad yarn of overwhelming revenge with a tinge of praise, in the last episode. Written and read by Peter Jones.
THU 08:30 The Goon Show (b007jnj2)
The Macreekie Rising of '74
Neddie Seagoon has a 60-foot caber hidden under his kilt, but the Scots want it back. Stars Spike Milligan. From October 1956.
THU 09:00 The Personality Test (b00mk68l)
Series 2, Rick Wakeman
Progressive rock legend, Rick Wakeman quizzes a panel about all things Wakeman.
With Sue Perkins, Lucy Porter, Will Smith and Robin Ince.
Series with changing hosts who quiz the panel,
Script by Richard Turner and Simon LIttlefield
Devised and produced by Aled Evans.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
THU 09:30 What Ho! Jeeves: Joy in the Morning (b00bwtw9)
Fancy Dress
Bertie Wooster helps his fearsome Uncle Percy with a spot of dressing up.
PG Wodehouse romp adapted in seven-parts by Chris Miller.
Starring Michael Hordern as Jeeves, Richard Briers as Bertie Wooster, Jonathan Cecil as Boko Fittleworth, Peter Woodthorpe as Percy, Lord Worplesden, Rosalind Adams as Nobby Hopwood and Michael Kilgarriff as Stilton Cheesewright.
Producer: Simon Brett
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978.
THU 10:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbt6ry)
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, pt 1/2
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
The Picture of Dorian Gray Part 1/2
Oscar Wilde's classic gothic tale of desire, pleasure and self-destruction. When Dorian Gray gazes at his portrait he is struck by his own youth and beauty and wishes they will last forever. The portrait becomes a point of transference for his life of debauchery - corrupting and becoming vile as he remains beautiful. It stars Ian McDermid.
First heard on the BBC World Service in 2000.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
THU 11:00 Afternoon Reading (b00fnqbm)
John B Keane Readings, A Tale of Two Furs
Five readings from the work of the late Irish novelist and essayist John B Keane.
Jack Murphy learns that a woman's affection cannot be bought. Or can it? Read by Dermot Crowley.
THU 11:15 Tommies (b09wt17v)
28 March 1918
As the British Army's retreat in the face of the unexpected German advance escalates, the women of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps based at Flixecourt have to decide whether to assert their independence and stay or head towards the coast.
Series created by Jonathan Ruffle
Written by Nick Warburton
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: David Hunter.
THU 12:00 J Kingston Platt (b01s9hds)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
THU 12:30 The Goon Show (b007jnj2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
THU 13:00 Miss Marple (b007jpp2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
THU 13:30 Rock 'n' Roll in Four Movements (b01m182x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
THU 14:00 Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (b07c6340)
Episode 4
The shy spinster goes to a night club for the first time and meets a man of her own age called Joe. Read by Maureen Lipman.
THU 14:15 Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (b06nrs7t)
Caribbean Voices
In the fourth of ten programmes tracing a century of black British theatre and screen, Lenny Henry, himself the son of Jamaican immigrants who settled in the west Midlands, tells the story of Caribbean migration as reflected in the work of such playwrights as Errol John, and the poet Una Marson who first came to Britain from Jamaica in 1932.
With Michael Buffong, artistic director of Talawa Theatre Company, whose production of John's 1958 play, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, at the National Theatre was an acclaimed revival.
Series Consultant Michael Pearce
Producer Simon Elmes.
THU 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b00b0jqd)
Winifred Holtby - The Crowded Street, Episode 9
Diana Griffiths's dramatisation of Winifred Holtby's tale of a woman's journey into self-fulfilment.
9/10. Muriel moves from Yorkshire to London to live with Delia. She quickly adjusts to her new life until she receives an unexpected visit.
Muriel ...... Clare Goose
Delia Vaughan ...... Deborah McAndrew
Godfrey ...... James D'Arcy
Mrs Hammond ...... Brigit Forsyth
Directed by Pauline Harris.
THU 14:45 Book of the Week (b037pvs4)
Amana Fontanella-Khan - The Pink Sari Revolution, Episode 4
India's struggle with justice for women in the 21st century is becoming one of the most prominent news stories of the moment. In 2013, another terrible gang rape hit the headlines. Women's collectives are growing up all over the country and beginning to fight back. The most prominent and potent is the Pink Sari Gang. This is their story.
Sampat Devi Pal, raised in India's Uttar Pradesh region, was married off at twelve, had her first child at fifteen, and is essentially illiterate. Yet she has risen to become the fierce and courageous founder and commander in chief of India's Pink Gang, a 20,000-member women's vigilante group fighting for the rights of women in India.
In narrating the riveting story of the Pink Gang's work on behalf of a young girl unlawfully imprisoned at the hands of an abusive politician, journalist Amana Fontanella-Khan explores the origins and tactics of a fiery sisterhood that has grown to twice the size of the Irish army.
Merging courtroom drama, compelling personal history, and a triumphant portrait of grassroots organisation, Pink Sari Revolution highlights the extraordinary work of women who are shaking things up within their own country.
Amana is a Mumbai-based writer of Pakistani and Irish descent. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times and the FT magazine. An honorary gulabi member, this is her first book.
Episode Four
As the legislator steps up his threats against both Sheelu's family and Sampat herself, Sampat enlists the accused girl's terrified father to help in her quest for justice.
Read by Meera Syal
Written by Amana Fontanella-Khan
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 15:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbt6ry)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 today]
THU 16:00 The Personality Test (b00mk68l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 16:30 What Ho! Jeeves: Joy in the Morning (b00bwtw9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
THU 17:00 North by Northamptonshire (b03m40zv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 today]
THU 17:30 Joe Lycett's Obsessions (b0b9zbpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
THU 18:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k43b)
Episode 4
Now a monstrous insect, Gregor strives to stay close to his family - but his father turns on him. Read by Benedict Cumberbatch.
PROMOTION NOTE
"When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect."
This shocking opening introduces one of the twentieth century's most famous stories.
Gregor's family react with horror at his bizarre transformation but their horror slowly turns to revulsion and then monstrous indifference as he is left to quietly waste away in his bedroom.
Metamorphosis was first published in 1912.
Benedict Cumberbatch reads this surreal classic in four parts.
Stage and screen actor, Benedict Cumberbatch was Bafta nominated for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in the BBC TV drama, "Hawking". Most recently he appeared in the TV dramatisation of William Golding's seafaring trilogy, "To The Ends of The Earth". He also won critical acclaim playing Hedda's husband, George, in last year's West End production of "Hedda Gabler".
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) ranks among the twentieth-century's most acclaimed writers. He is often cited as the author whose works best evoke the concerns and preoccupations of modern life. The world in his stories is portrayed as one in which the fantastic is entirely normal, the irrational is rational, and the unreasonable seems reasonable. As Ernst Pawel wrote in his biography of the writer, "Kafka articulates the anguish of being human."
Translated by Richard Stokes
(Abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins).
THU 18:30 Great Lives (b0137ynp)
Series 25, Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson's reclusive life has long gripped her biographers, but Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis gives short shrift to any romantic or sentimental readings of her choice of a great life. Dickinson, she argues, was fiercely independent and passionate, that she "had a bomb in her breast". Matthew Parris is told by Dickinson biographer Lyndall Gordon how the American poet paradoxically turned her back on the world in order to better engage with it, and how her appeal has only broadened since her death. She died in the 1880s having only had a handful of poems published, but the boldness of her voice speaks directly to modern audiences. The reader is Lia Williams.
Producer: Mark Smalley.
THU 19:00 J Kingston Platt (b01s9hds)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
THU 19:30 The Goon Show (b007jnj2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
THU 20:00 Miss Marple (b007jpp2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
THU 20:30 Rock 'n' Roll in Four Movements (b01m182x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
THU 21:00 Afternoon Reading (b00fnqbm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 today]
THU 21:15 Tommies (b09wt17v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 today]
THU 22:00 Joe Lycett's Obsessions (b0b9zbpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
THU 22:30 Newsjack (b0bbt7pg)
Newsjack Unplugged, Episode 8
Made for 4 Extra. Brand new podcast from the team behind the long-running main show, hosted Tez Ilyas.
THU 22:45 The Shuttleworths (b00sg2n0)
Series 5, A Gig With Billy Joel
When agent Ken Worthington offers John an unpaid gig in a remote village hall, John refuses. But the promise of his own designated parking space causes a serious rethink.
John is created and performed by Graham Fellows, and the series is produced by Dawn Ellis.
THU 23:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbt7pj)
Mastering the Universe: Christmas
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
The Pleasure Principle Series 1 (6/6)
Dane Baptiste introduces Professor Joy Klamp visit to the miserable world of relationships. Stars Dawn French and Christopher Douglas. From December 2005.
Professor Joy Klamp explores ways to make the festive season truly miserable. Stars Dawn French. From December 2005.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
THU 23:15 Don't Start (b06wg843)
Series 3, Driving
What do long term partners really argue about? The third series of Frank Skinner's sharp comedy. Starring Frank Skinner and Katherine Parkinson.
In this episode, Kim and Neil's return home from a funeral involves a missed left turn, a backseat stenographer and the planet Zobula.
The first and second series of Don't Start met with instant critical and audience acclaim:
"That he can deliver such a heavy premise for a series with such a lightness of touch is testament to his skills as a writer and, given that the protagonists are both bookworms, he's also permitted to use a flourish of fine words that would be lost in his stand-up routines." Jane Anderson, Radio Times
"Frank Skinner gives full rein to his sharp but splenetic comedy. He and his co-star Katherine Parkinson play a bickering couple exchanging acerbic ripostes in a cruelly precise dissection of a relationship." Daily Mail
"...a lesson in relationship ping-pong..." Miranda Sawyer, The Observer
Don't Start is a scripted comedy with a deceptively simple premise - an argument. Each week, our couple fall out over another apparently trivial flashpoint. Each week, the stakes mount as Neil and Kim battle with words. But these are no ordinary arguments. The two outdo each other with increasingly absurd images, unexpected literary references and razor sharp analysis of their beloved's weaknesses. Underneath the cutting wit, however, there is an unmistakable tenderness.
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:30 Dave Podmore (b007qx6y)
Dave Podmore's Cricket Fix, Episode 3
On a chaotic overseas tour, the star cricketer's private life takes a turn for the worse. Stars Chris Douglas. From May 2001.
FRIDAY 27 JULY 2018
FRI 00:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k43b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:00 on Thursday]
FRI 00:30 Great Lives (b0137ynp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:30 on Thursday]
FRI 01:00 Miss Marple (b007jpp2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 on Thursday]
FRI 01:30 Rock 'n' Roll in Four Movements (b01m182x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:00 Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (b07c6340)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:00 on Thursday]
FRI 02:15 Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (b06nrs7t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:15 on Thursday]
FRI 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b00b0jqd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:45 Book of the Week (b037pvs4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Thursday]
FRI 03:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbt6ry)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:00 The Personality Test (b00mk68l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:30 What Ho! Jeeves: Joy in the Morning (b00bwtw9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Thursday]
FRI 05:00 North by Northamptonshire (b03m40zv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 on Thursday]
FRI 05:30 Joe Lycett's Obsessions (b0b9zbpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 on Thursday]
FRI 06:00 Miss Marple (b007jppk)
The Murder at the Vicarage, Episode 2
Much to the Vicar's embarrassment, a murder has been committed in his study. But who killed Colonel Protheroe? Jane Marple is on the case.
Agatha Christie's whodunit stars June Whitfield as Miss Marple and Francis Matthews as the Rev Leonard Clement, Imelda Staunton as Griselda Clement and Nigel Davenport as Dr Haydock.
Dramatised by Michael Bakewell
Director Enyd Williams
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1993.
FRI 06:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbt7zb)
With Great Pleasure: Sir Trevor McDonald
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
With Great Pleasure
Veteran broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald chooses his favourite words and poetry for With Great Pleasure, including Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken which brought him comfort far from home in a war zone.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
FRI 07:00 London Calling (b05ps2ns)
Little Willie Saves the Day
Back to the BBC's early wireless days of 1922.
The Daily Sketch says the BBC's programmes are boring. Will DG John Brown finally agree to broadcast some light entertainment, or will his peccadillo with Auntie Phyllis force him over the edge? Either way, Fred "Keep 'Em Laughing" Hicks has got an unusual new act for radio.
Written by Jimmy Perry, the man behind Dad's Army and Hi-De-Hi.
Starring Graham Crowden as John Brown, Jimmy Perry as Colonel Beecham, Bill Pertwee as Sergeant Lucas, Jeffrey Holland as Roger Eccles and Roy Hudd as Fred "Keep 'Em Laughing" Hicks.
Producer: Jo Clegg.
First broadcast nightly on BBC Radio 2 in September 1994.
FRI 07:30 Believe It! (b08lhg9p)
Series 3, Knight Fever
The third series of Jon Canter's not quite true autobiography of Richard Wilson. Believe what you like!
Richard was unwell last year. He had a heart attack. But now he's recovered and is fighting fit. With a new lease of life - he considers those things most likely to make him happy in the future. What's on his bucket list? Get a Knighthood of course!
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 08:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b011tzml)
Series 7, Episode 11
A complete guide to London - and Professor Prune's Time Trousers materialise in gangster-ridden Chicago.
Starring Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graeme Garden, David Hatch, Jo Kendall and Bill Oddie.
Sketches written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie
Originating from the Cambridge University Footlights revue 'Cambridge Circus', ISIRTA ran for 8 years on BBC Radio and quickly developed a cult following.
Music and songs by Bill Oddie, Liam Cohen and Dave Lee.
Producer: David Hatch/Peter Titheradge
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 2 in March 1969.
FRI 08:30 Listen to Les (b01nh8zx)
From 10/03/1985
Les Dawson with tales of Britain's first space hero, and the Cosmo show discusses birds.
With Daphne Oxenford, Eli Woods and Colin Edwynn.
Music by Brian Fitzgerald.
Scripted and produced by James Casey.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in March 1985.
FRI 09:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b03q6crl)
Series 12, Episode 4
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents. Lloyd Langford, Lucy Porter, Tom Wrigglesworth and Fred MacAulay are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as women, Japan, owls and potatoes.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 09:30 After Henry (b007jqn4)
Series 4, Sunday Lunch
"In certain circumstances you steam fish when someone's ill or something. You don't steam potatoes.'
Sarah and her mother Eleanor argue over cooking the veg.
Simon Brett's comedy about three generations of women - struggling to cope after the death of Sarah's GP husband - who never quite manage to see eye to eye.
Starring Prunella Scales as Sarah, Joan Sanderson as Eleanor, Benjamin Whitrow as Russell and Gerry Cowper as Clare.
Four radio series were made, but instead of moving to BBC TV - Thames Television produced 'After Henry' for the ITV network.
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1989.
FRI 10:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbt9ww)
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, pt 2/2
'The Pleasure Principle' host, comedian, Dan Baptiste, continues his exploration of our desire for pleasure using the BBC radio archive by introducing:
Dane Baptiste introduces Oscar Wilde's classic gothic tale of desire, pleasure and self-destruction.
The aristocrat is living a life of selfish pleasure. But is retribution on the horizon? Stars Ian McDiarmid and Jamie Glover.
When Dorian Gray gazes at his portrait he is struck by his own youth and beauty and wishes they will last forever. The portrait becomes a point of transference for his life of debauchery - corrupting and becoming vile as he remains beautiful. It stars Ian McDermid. First heard on the BBC World Service in 2000.
'The Pleasure Principle' season on 4 Extra is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Peter McHugh.
FRI 11:00 Podcast Radio Hour (b0bbt9x1)
David McGuire: Swipe Left Swipe Left and Love + Radio
Made for 4 Extra. David McGuire joins Amanda Litherland to recommend favourite podcasts, including Swipe Left Swipe Left, and Love + Radio.
FRI 12:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b011tzml)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
FRI 12:30 Listen to Les (b01nh8zx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
FRI 13:00 Miss Marple (b007jppk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
FRI 13:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbt7zb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
FRI 14:00 Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (b00761kk)
Episode 5
After such fun, Miss Pettigrew dreads the future. But it is time to let people know who she really is. Read by Maureen Lipman.
FRI 14:15 Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (b06nrzr8)
Pressure, Conflict and Creativity
To end the first week of Raising the Bar, in the fifth of ten programmes tracing a century of black British theatre and screen, Lenny Henry takes a journey back to the 1960s and 70s to catch the spirit of protest and violent anger that welled up as the result of years of overt or thinly-veiled racism.
With the advent of the Black Power movement, British African Caribbeans found a new and angry voice - it expressed itself on stage and on screen, notably in Horace Ové's film Pressure, that tells the story of a young black British boy growing up under powerful influences: his old parents' rectitude, his own desire to make his way in the society he's been born into, and the angry, uncompromising voices of his Black Power advocate brother.
Horace Ové talks to Lenny Henry about the world that inspired this famous first British feature film by a black director.
Series Consultant Michael Pearce
Producer Simon Elmes.
FRI 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b00b0qj8)
Winifred Holtby - The Crowded Street, Episode 10
Diana Griffiths's dramatisation of Winifred Holtby's tale of a woman's journey into self-fulfilment.
10/10. Muriel returns to Marshington in Yorkshire for the annual fete and is faced with a life-changing decision.
Muriel ...... Clare Goose
Godfrey ...... James D'Arcy
Mrs Hammond ...... Brigit Forsyth
Directed by Pauline Harris.
FRI 14:45 Book of the Week (b037pw6g)
Amana Fontanella-Khan - The Pink Sari Revolution, Episode 5
India's struggle with justice for women in the 21st century is becoming one of the most prominent news stories of the moment. In 2013, another terrible gang rape hit the headlines. Women's collectives are growing up all over the country and beginning to fight back. The most prominent and potent is the Pink Sari Gang. This is their story.
Sampat Devi Pal, raised in India's Uttar Pradesh region, was married off at twelve, had her first child at fifteen, and is essentially illiterate. Yet she has risen to become the fierce and courageous founder and commander in chief of India's Pink Gang, a 20,000-member women's vigilante group fighting for the rights of women in India.
In narrating the riveting story of the Pink Gang's work on behalf of a young girl unlawfully imprisoned at the hands of an abusive politician, journalist Amana Fontanella-Khan explores the origins and tactics of a fiery sisterhood that has grown to twice the size of the Irish army.
Merging courtroom drama, compelling personal history, and a triumphant portrait of grassroots organisation, Pink Sari Revolution highlights the extraordinary work of women who are shaking things up within their own country.
Amana is a Mumbai-based writer of Pakistani and Irish descent. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times and the FT magazine. An honorary gulabi member, this is her first book.
Episode Five
Deploying all the might of the Pink Gang, Sampat wins the day, and Sheelu is released from jail, but it is plain that this is only one battle in a long and ongoing war that Indian women must fight.
Read by Meera Syal
Written by Amana Fontanella-Khan
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:00 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbt9ww)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 today]
FRI 16:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b03q6crl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
FRI 16:30 After Henry (b007jqn4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
FRI 17:00 London Calling (b05ps2ns)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:00 today]
FRI 17:30 Believe It! (b08lhg9p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
FRI 18:00 Kurt Vonnegut - Report on the Barnhouse Effect (b0085hqx)
Professor Barnhouse discovers a way of channelling his mind to control the forces of nature. The phenomenon becomes known as the "Barnhouse Effect". The academic sees his skill as a marvellous opportunity to secure world peace. However, the American government has other ideas...
Read by Stuart Milligan.
Report On The Barnhouse Effect was Kurt Vonnegut's first short story to be published in 1950.
Abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins.
Made for BBC Radio 7 and first broadcast in 2007.
FRI 18:30 Mastertapes (b02ykrdg)
Series 2, Spandau Ballet (B-Side)
John Wilson concludes the series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
Programme 5, the B-side. Having discussed the making of Spandau Ballet's international hit album 'True' (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 24th June and available online), Gary Kemp and Tony Hadley responds to questions from the audience and performs live versions of some of the songs from the album, which was made 30 years ago.
Producer: Helen Lennard.
FRI 19:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b011tzml)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:00 today]
FRI 19:30 Listen to Les (b01nh8zx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:30 today]
FRI 20:00 Miss Marple (b007jppk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:00 today]
FRI 20:30 The Pleasure Principle (b0bbt7zb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:30 today]
FRI 21:00 Podcast Radio Hour (b0bbt9x1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 today]
FRI 22:00 Believe It! (b08lhg9p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:30 today]
FRI 22:30 BBC New Comedy Award (b0bbt9xd)
2018, Heat 4 - Manchester
Made for 4 Extra. The fourth heat of the BBC New Comedy Award 2018, recorded at the Comedy Store in Manchester, hosted by Kiri Pritchard-Maclean.
FRI 23:25 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0bdpz2v)
Gary Delaney. 1/2
From
10pm - midnight, 7 days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Gary Delaney.
FRI 23:30 Chain Reaction (b00mkbyl)
Series 5, Frank Skinner interviews Eddie Izzard
Chat show in which a previous week's interviewee becomes this week's interviewer.
Frank Skinner interviews Eddie Izzard, asking him about performing up lamp-posts, the secret to improvising and (literally) breaking in to Hollywood.