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SAT SATURDAY 21 DECEMBER 2013 SAT SAT 00:00 Midnight News b03lsdkr (Listen) SAT The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. SAT Followed by Weather. SAT SAT 00:30 Book of the Week b03ls7xw (Listen) SAT Darling Monster, Episode 5 SAT SAT This new book contains the letters sent from aristocrat, SAT society darling and actress of stage and early screen, Lady SAT Diana Cooper, to her only son, John Julius Norwich. SAT SAT When Lady Diana married rising political star Duff Cooper, SAT they became the golden couple who knew everyone who was SAT anyone. Her letters serve as a portrait of a time, capturing SAT some of history's most dramatic events and most important SAT figures with immediacy and intimacy. But they also give us a SAT touching portrait of the love between a mother and son, SAT separated by war, oceans and the constraints of the time SAT they lived in. SAT SAT Her letters span the years 1939 to 1952, taking in the SAT Blitz, Diana's short spell as a farmer in Sussex, a trip to SAT the Far East when husband Duff was collecting war SAT intelligence, the couple's three years in the Paris embassy, SAT as well as a great number of journeys around Europe and SAT North Africa. SAT SAT In the final episode, John Julius Norwich is now a student SAT at Oxford, while his mother Lady Diana Cooper continues to SAT live in France. Her husband Duff is offered a peerage. SAT SAT Read by John Julius Norwich and Patricia Hodge SAT Producer: David Roper SAT Abridger: Barry Johnston SAT SAT A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast b03lsdkt (Listen) SAT The latest shipping forecast. SAT SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b03lsdkw (Listen) SAT BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes SAT at 5.20am. SAT SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast b03lsdky (Listen) SAT The latest shipping forecast. SAT SAT 05:30 News Briefing b03lsdl0 (Listen) SAT The latest news from BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day b03lsdv5 (Listen) SAT A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the SAT Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Chaplain to the Archbishop of SAT Canterbury. SAT SAT 05:45 iPM b03lsdv7 (Listen) SAT 'Our voices are part of people's lives' - on the invitation SAT of a listener, we bring together Brian Perkins and Peter SAT Donaldson to discuss the role of Radio Announcer. Email SAT iPM@bbc.co.uk. SAT SAT 06:00 News and Papers b03lsdl2 (Listen) SAT The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers. SAT SAT 06:04 Weather b03lsdl4 (Listen) SAT The latest weather forecast. SAT SAT 06:07 Open Country b03ls15q (Listen) SAT Royal Haslar Hospital SAT SAT The Royal Haslar Hospital in Gosport was created in the 18th SAT century to provide care for the sick and injured from naval SAT conflicts. It later treated other military personnel and in SAT the last few decades before its closure in 2009 went on to SAT treat civilian patients. SAT SAT The site bursts with centuries of history, having seen SAT patients from battles including Trafalgar, the Crimean War, SAT both World Wars and many others. The staff treated allied SAT troops and prisoners of war. Felicity Evans explores the SAT site, hearing from former staff who treated patients at SAT different periods and have become fascinated by its history. SAT She takes in the range of buildings from the Admiral's SAT house, to the medical wards - including G block where those SAT with shell shock were treated - staff quarters and the SAT memorial gardens and she pays tribute to the thousands SAT buried in unmarked graves in the Paddock. SAT SAT The site is held with high affection locally and Felicity SAT also speaks to the developers behind plans to reopen the SAT site, building on its heritage of health care. SAT SAT Presented by Felicity Evans. Produced in Bristol by SAT Anne-Marie Bullock. SAT SAT 06:30 Farming Today b03m3j6p (Listen) SAT Farming Today This Week SAT SAT The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. SAT Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Anna Jones. SAT SAT 06:57 Weather b03lsdl6 (Listen) SAT The latest weather forecast. SAT SAT 07:00 Today b03m3j6r (Listen) SAT Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in SAT Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day. SAT SAT 09:00 Saturday Live b03m3j6t (Listen) SAT Lyricist Don Black and Sir Cliff Richard's Inheritance SAT Tracks SAT SAT Richard Coles and Anita Anand with lyricist Don Black and SAT Sir Cliff Richard's Inheritance Tracks. SAT SAT Producer Harry Parker. SAT SAT 10:30 The Playlist Series b03m3j6w (Listen) SAT The Duke of Wellington's Playlist SAT SAT The Duke of Wellington's military achievements, including SAT his victory over Napoleon, are well-known. Much less SAT well-known is the Duke of Wellington, the musician. SAT SAT His father was a composer and music was the only consolation SAT of a lonely, unloved childhood - the only thing he was good SAT at was playing the violin. But as a young man, in a SAT theatrical gesture of renunciation, he burnt his violin and SAT vowed to give up music altogether as too much of a SAT distraction from his military career. But despite the grand SAT gesture, the Duke had a passion for music all his life. And SAT music played an important role in warfare too, with military SAT bands marching into battle and vying for supremacy. SAT SAT This programme discovers and records the Duke's music, SAT including long-forgotten songs about the Battle of Waterloo. SAT Musician David Owen Norris gives old songs a new twist and SAT sets them for jazz singer Gwyneth Herbert and classical SAT singer Thomas Guthrie. He then plays them to a trio of SAT Wellington experts - Royal historian Kate Williams, military SAT historian Tim Clayton, and the Duke of Douro (the Duke's SAT direct descendent). SAT SAT The programme is recorded on location in Apsley House on SAT Hyde Park Corner and includes performances on the Duke's own SAT Grand Piano. SAT SAT David Owen Norris is a pianist and composer and Professor of SAT Music at Southampton University. SAT SAT Producer: Elizabeth Burke SAT A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 11:00 Week in Westminster b03m3j6y (Listen) SAT Jackie Ashley of The Guardian looks behind the scenes at SAT Westminster. SAT Why the concern over more Bulgarians and Rumanians coming to SAT this country in January? Can Ed Miliband make housing a key SAT plank of Labour party policy? Plus the empowerment of MPs SAT over the last year, and where you can find true harmony in SAT the Palace of Westminster. SAT SAT The Editor is Marie Jessel. SAT SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent b03m3j70 (Listen) SAT Good to See You Again! SAT SAT Good to see you again! Mark Doyle is reunited with his SAT spectacles, which were lost on a battlefield, and gets to SAT see some of the lesser reported glories of Somalia. The SAT Greek central bank forecasts an end to six years of SAT recession and Mark Lowen, in Athens, talks of the resilience SAT of the Greek people and their love of life. Reasons to be SAT cheerful in the eastern German city of Leipzig too: Chris SAT Bowlby's there talking to locals about a huge transport SAT project ready after lengthy delays; Susie Emmett sees signs SAT of energy, ingenuity, integrity and community in Kenyan SAT farming but is less impressed by the colour of her bath SAT water and James Fletcher is grounded by an Arctic storm SAT while out news gathering in Greenland. Can he make it home SAT in time for Christmas? SAT SAT From Our Own Correspondent is produced by Tony Grant. SAT SAT 12:00 Money Box b03m3j72 (Listen) SAT Bye-bye to Bitcoin?; Gender-blender insurance; World's most SAT expensive moneybox SAT SAT Forget metal, paper and plastic is the future of currency SAT virtual? Bitcoin is the oldest and best known of these SAT virtual payment systems that are outside the banking system SAT and free from state control or backing. That leaves the SAT currency open to wild market fluctuations rising like a SAT rocket then falling like a stick. So is virtuality the SAT future of currency? Or is Bitcoin about to bite the dust? A SAT Money Box listener and bitcoin enthusiast debates the pros SAT and cons with a critic. SAT SAT A year ago insurers were banned from using sex (or, as they SAT prefer to call it, 'gender') when fixing insurance rates SAT despite the fact that men and women differ in many insurable SAT traits - including road accidents. One year on how have the SAT predictions of major changes in premiums in fact worked out? SAT SAT Filling in your self-assessment tax return and paying your SAT tax may not be fun but at least the online process itself is SAT free. So how can firms get away with charging people from SAT £100 to £1000 for letting them do it? HMRC explains how it SAT is policing copycat sites. SAT SAT A moneybox can be anything from a house to a pig to a SAT complex mechanical device. Invented in America after the SAT civil war, down the ages they have been used as promotional SAT devices by banks to get us to save. And with interest rates SAT as low as they are many people think they might as well keep SAT the money in a box as in an account paying next to nothing. SAT But the older moneyboxes might make you money themselves - SAT they can fetch hundreds or even thousands of pounds. So SAT Money Box looks at moneyboxes. SAT SAT 12:30 The News Quiz b03lsdgq (Listen) SAT Series 82, Episode 7 SAT SAT A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi SAT Toksvig. SAT SAT 12:57 Weather b03lsdl8 (Listen) SAT The latest weather forecast. SAT SAT 13:00 News b03lsdlb (Listen) SAT The latest news from BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 13:10 Any Questions? b03lsdgx (Listen) SAT Michael Portillo, Chris Mullin, Nikki King, Mark Damazer SAT SAT Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion SAT from St Andrew's Church in Middlesex with former SAT Conservative minister Michael Portillo, Former Labour SAT minister now diarist Chris Mullin, business woman Nikki SAT King, and Mark Damazer who's the Master of St Peter's SAT College, Oxford. SAT SAT 14:00 Any Answers? b03m3j74 (Listen) SAT A chance for Radio 4 listeners to have their say on the SAT issues discussed on Any Questions? With Julian Worricker. SAT SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama b03m3j76 (Listen) SAT Kneehigh's The Wild Bride SAT SAT Adapted for radio by Carl Grose and Emma Rice SAT SAT Down at the crossroads, the dust-bowl wind blows as the SAT Devil sits in a rocking chair and begins to tell a story. SAT It's a tale of love and war, good and evil; the tale of a SAT young girl, whose father accidentally sells her soul to the SAT Devil. The girl chooses to walk into the wilderness. She SAT rejects not only the Devil, but also her home and must SAT survive the ravages of nature and time. A dark blues infused SAT musical fairy tale, from the critically acclaimed Kneehigh SAT Theatre. SAT SAT Kneehigh is celebrated as one of Britain's most innovative SAT theatre companies. For 30 years they've created popular and SAT challenging theatre for audiences throughout the UK and SAT beyond. This epic and poetic wondertale is classic Kneehigh: SAT Instinctive storytelling, devilish humour, a uniquely SAT realised other-world and a fantastic blues music score. The SAT show was first produced at the Kneehigh Asylum in Cornwall SAT in 2011, directed by Emma Rice. Since then it has delighted SAT audiences from the West End to Broadway. Radio 4's SAT adaptation is a Christmas treat not to be missed. SAT SAT Original text and lyrics... Carl Grose SAT Adapted for radio by Carl Grose and Emma Rice SAT SAT Composer... Stu Barker SAT Musical Director... Ian Ross SAT Violinist... Patrycja Kujawska SAT Sound Design... Simon Baker and Nigel Lewis SAT SAT Directed by James Robinson SAT A BBC Cymru Wales Production. SAT SAT The Devil: Stuart McLoughlin SAT The Wild Bride: Audrey Brisson SAT Father: Stuart Goodwin SAT King: Stuart Goodwin SAT King's Mother: Emma Rice SAT Writer: Carl Grose SAT Adaptor: Emma Rice SAT Director: James Robinson SAT SAT 15:30 Soul Music b03lpfww (Listen) SAT Series 17, Brahms' German Requiem SAT SAT How Brahms' German Requiem, written as a tribute to his SAT mother and designed to comfort the grieving, has touched and SAT changed peoples lives. SAT SAT Stuart Perkins describes how the piece arrived at the right SAT time in his life, after the death of his aunt. SAT SAT Axel Körner, Professor of Modern History at University SAT College London, explains the genesis of the work and how the SAT deaths of Brahms' friends and family contributed to the SAT emotional power of the piece. SAT SAT Daniel Malis and Danica Buckley recall how the piece enabled SAT them to cope with the trauma of the Boston marathon SAT bombings. SAT SAT Simon Halsey, Chief Conductor of the Berlin Radio Choir, SAT explores how Brahms' experience as a church musician enabled SAT him to distil hundreds of years of musical history into this SAT dramatic choral work. SAT SAT For Imani Mosley, the piece helped her through a traumatic SAT time in hospital. Rosemary Sales sought solace in the SAT physical power of Brahms' music after the death of her son. SAT And June Noble recounts how the piece helped her find her SAT voice and make her peace with her parents. SAT SAT Producer: Melvin Rickarby. SAT SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour b03m3j78 (Listen) SAT Weekend Woman's Hour: X Factor's Sam Bailey; Powerlister SAT Nicola Sturgeon; Jack Monroe SAT SAT X Factor's Sam Bailey on the win that's changed her life. SAT How being broke and unemployed spurred on Jack Monroe to SAT challenge complacency about food poverty. We talk to her in SAT her Southend kitchen. The feminist appeal of Gone With the SAT Wind seventy five years on with Professor Helen Taylor and SAT journalist Hannah Betts. Anne-Marie Cockburn on losing her SAT only child, Martha, to drugs and her struggle with the gap SAT left by her daughter's death. A young woman describes her SAT experience of reporting being raped to the police, and we SAT discuss how specialist police teams are working to improve SAT the way allegations of sexual violence are dealt with. MSP SAT and Powerlister Nicola Sturgeon on the political career SAT that's led to her becoming deputy first minister of Scotland SAT and playing a central role in the independence referendum. SAT Former Great British Bake Off contestant James Morton and SAT his Cook the Perfect festive stollen. SAT SAT Presented by Jane Garvey. SAT Producer: Katie Langton. SAT Editor: Anne Peacock. SAT SAT 17:00 PM b03m3j7b (Listen) SAT Full coverage of the day's news. SAT SAT 17:30 iPM b03lsdv7 (Listen) SAT [Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 today] SAT SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast b03lsdld (Listen) SAT The latest shipping forecast. SAT SAT 17:57 Weather b03lsdlg (Listen) SAT The latest weather forecast. SAT SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News b03lsdlj (Listen) SAT The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 18:15 Loose Ends b03m3j7d (Listen) SAT Sting, Harry Hill, Nick Lowe, David Quantick, Orla Brady SAT SAT Clive finds a Message In A Bottle from singer-songwriter SAT Sting, who talks about fronting The Police and his SAT successful solo career. He performs the title track to new SAT album 'The Last Ship', which draws upon his memories of SAT growing up in the shadow of the Swan Hunters Shipyard in SAT Wallsend and explores the complexity of relationships, SAT community and the passage of time. An intimate live SAT performance, recorded in New York 'Sting: When The Last Ship SAT Sails' is on 22nd December at 22.55 on BBC One. SAT SAT Clive takes off in the Tardis with actress Orla Brady, who's SAT starring in the Christmas episode of Doctor Who. Orbiting a SAT quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe's SAT deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that SAT echoes out to the stars - and amongst them, the Doctor. SAT 'Doctor Who - The Time Of The Doctor' is on Christmas Day at SAT 19.30 on BBC One. SAT SAT David Quantick talks to musician and Jesus of Cool, Nick SAT Lowe. A pivotal figure in UK music, Nick has recorded a SAT string of solo albums. 'Quality Street - A Seasonal SAT Selection For All The Family' is a twinkling blend of SAT traditional hymns, forgotten gems and Lowe originals that SAT conjure up all the nostalgia, good cheer and warmth of the SAT season. Nick also performs 'Christmas At The Airport'. SAT SAT It's Sausage Time for Clive, who has a festive mash-up with SAT comedian Harry Hill, now in a cinema near you with 'The SAT Harry Hill Movie'. Under the mistaken impression that his SAT pet hamster, Abu, is ill, matters deteriorate when Harry and SAT his Nan are wrongly informed by the Vet that Abu's days are SAT numbered. Unbeknownst to them, the Vet is the henchman of SAT Harry's evil twin brother Otto, who plans to kidnap Abu for SAT a plastinated hamster world he's creating in his evil lair SAT SAT Producer: Sukey Firth. SAT SAT 19:00 Profile b03m3j7g (Listen) SAT Vitali Klitschko SAT SAT As the drama of street protests in Ukraine continues, Mark SAT Coles profiles 'Dr Ironfist', the world boxing champion SAT turned opposition political leader Vitali Klitschko. He's SAT the son of a Soviet air force officer, one of two top boxers SAT with a PhD (the other is his brother Vladimir) and he's nice SAT to his mum. But can he make it in the murky world of SAT Ukrainian politics? SAT SAT Producers: Chris Bowlby, Laura Gray. SAT SAT 19:15 Saturday Review b03m3j7j (Listen) SAT New novel by Christos Tsiolkas; Stephen Ward the Musical SAT SAT Australian novelist Christos Tsiolkas' previous book The SAT Slap became an international best seller. His latest SAT 'Barracuda' explores the mind of a young competitive swimmer SAT who won't countenance the idea of failure; how does his SAT obsession affect all those around him? SAT Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Stephen Ward The Musical' tells the SAT story of 1963's Profumo Affair, from the point of view of SAT the man who many believe was scapegoated to protect The SAT Establishment - 50 years later transcripts of the court SAT proceedings are still not available to the public, is a SAT musical the right medium to address a very old miscarriage SAT of justice? SAT SAT Death Comes to Pemberley- the BBC's sumptuous Christmas day SAT costume drama - is PD James' detective story based around SAT the characters from Pride and Prejudice. The programme has SAT an ensemble cast and a look to die for, but does it work as SAT a whodunnit for modern TV viewers? SAT SAT 9 years ago the US comedy film Anchorman became a cult hit - SAT fans eagerly repeating phrases voiced by the idiotic SAT characters. And now a sequel Anchorman 2 The Legend SAT Continues returns to Ron Burgundy and his team as they begin SAT work on a brand 24 hour news channel. As Ron says "that is SAT the dumbest thing I ever heard"- could the same be said of SAT this sequel? SAT SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 b03m3j7l (Listen) SAT When Comedy and Politics Collide SAT SAT Satire is supposed to be a cleansing force - but is comedy SAT now harming rather than helping our politics? In a journey SAT through 50 years of broadcasting archives since the satire SAT boom took off, Matthew Flinders explores how comedy and SAT politics have affected each other - for better and for worse SAT - in the modern broadcasting age. SAT SAT The programme hears from those who have created and moulded SAT the comedy - from Sir Antony Jay, who helped develop That SAT Was the Week that Was and created Yes Minister, to John SAT Lloyd, creator of Spitting Image, and performers like Rory SAT Bremner. Presenter Matthew Flinders also hears from SAT politicians who have been the butt of satire and who have SAT tried to fight back. SAT SAT Producer: Jonathan Brunert. SAT SAT 21:00 Roddy Doyle on Radio 4 b03lknpn (Listen) SAT The Commitments SAT SAT Jimmy Rabbite is on a mission - he wants to spread the SAT gospel of soul to Dublin. Barrytown is about to become SAT Motown as Jimmy decides to put a band together. SAT SAT The first of Roddy Doyle's Barrytown series of novels, all SAT to be dramatized by BBC Radio 4. Roddy Doyle's SAT ground-breaking classic is the story of a working class SAT Dublin band -The Commitments. SAT SAT With Joey the Lips Fagan on trumpet, Billy The Animal Mooney SAT on drums, Derek the Meatman Scully on bass, Dean Good Times SAT Fay on sax, L. Terence Foster on guitar, James the Soul SAT Surgeon Clifford on piano and - not forgetting the singers - SAT Declan Blanketman Cuffe and The Commitmentettes, Sonya, SAT Sofia and Tanya. This Dublin band are ready to bring some SAT serious soul, the working man's rhythm, to Dublin's SAT Northside. SAT SAT Dramatised by Eugene O'Brien. Directed on location in Dublin SAT by one of Ireland's finest filmmakers, Jim Sheridan (In the SAT Name of The Father, In America, My Left Foot, The Field.) SAT SAT The young cast is comprised of a new generation of talented SAT young Irish actors and the music is by the emerging Dublin SAT band, The Riptide Movement. SAT SAT THE BAND SAT Guitar ..... JP Dalton SAT Bass ..... Gerard McGarry SAT Drums ..... Garrett Byrne SAT Sax ..... Ciaran Sutton SAT Trumpet ..... Robert Grant SAT Piano ..... Enda Collins SAT SAT Written by Roddy Doyle SAT Dramatised by Eugene O'Brien SAT Producer: Gemma McMullan SAT Director: Jim Sheridan. SAT SAT 22:00 News and Weather b03lsdll (Listen) SAT The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, SAT followed by weather. SAT SAT 22:15 Whatever Happened to Community?: The Debate b03lrzjk (Listen) SAT Giles Fraser, former Canon Chancellor of St Paul's SAT Cathedral, is now the priest of a run-down parish in SAT Elephant and Castle. This has set him thinking about the SAT nature of community, which he's been exploring in Radio 4's SAT three-part series Whatever Happened to Community? SAT SAT Now, he now brings together four key players to debate the SAT nature of community and what's happening to it in 21st SAT century Britain. Baroness Warsi is Minister for Faith and SAT Communities and Hilary Benn is Shadow Secretary of State for SAT Communities and Local Government. Jane Wills, Professor of SAT Human Geography at Queen Mary, University of London, and SAT writer and philosopher Roger Scruton complete the panel. SAT SAT In front of an audience of local people at his church in SAT South London, Giles askes whether communities are in crisis. SAT What should the Government do to strengthen community bonds SAT - or must change come from grass roots and local organisers? SAT The audience will also put their own questions to the panel. SAT SAT Polemical, refreshingly candid, and unafraid to ask SAT uncomfortable questions, Giles and his guests will get to SAT the heart of how we live now. Do we really want to live SAT together like this? SAT SAT Recorded on location at St Mary's Church, Newington, South SAT London. SAT SAT Produced by Jane Greenwood and Jo Coombs SAT A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain b03lpbzt (Listen) SAT (2/17) SAT Competitors from Oxfordshire, West Sussex, London and Kent SAT join Russell Davies for the second heat in the current SAT series of the longest-lived general knowledge quiz on SAT British radio. SAT SAT The eventual winner after heats, semi-finals and Final will SAT be named the sixty-first Brain of Britain in the spring of SAT 2014. SAT SAT As always, the contestants will also pool their brainpower SAT to tackle questions from a listener hoping to win a prize by SAT 'Beating the Brains'. SAT SAT Producer: Paul Bajoria. SAT SAT CONTESTANTS IN THIS PROGRAMME SAT SAT MARCUS CAVALIER, a patent attorney from Stadhampton in SAT Oxfordshire; SAT SAT ANDY CRANE, a former business analyst from Putney in London; SAT SAT NICHOLAS FLINDALL, an accountant, now retired, from Haywards SAT Heath; SAT SAT MARK GRANT, an accountant from Bromley. SAT SAT 23:30 Poetry Please b03lknps (Listen) SAT Poetry Please Special: Edge SAT SAT 'Edge' is an extraordinary new poem that brings together two SAT major talents in a confluence of science and art. The poem SAT is a journey through space, in words by Katrina Porteous, SAT and music for computer by the pioneering composer Peter SAT Zinovieff. It was recorded, live, in front of an audience in SAT the planetarium at the Centre for Life in Newcastle during SAT this year's British Science Festival. SAT SAT 'Edge' visits four moons, each representing one of the SAT primary elements: Water, Fire, Earth and Air. They are SAT Jupiter's fiery moon Io; two of Saturn's moons, icy SAT Enceladus and methane-rich Titan, which could possibly host SAT primitive life. The fourth is Earth's own Moon, that witness SAT to life on Earth. SAT SAT The poem is performed by Katrina Porteous and the actor SAT David Seddon. It draws on a range of dramatic voices - SAT whispers, chants and incantations. Peter Zinovieff's music SAT incorporates sounds collected from space - from Sputnik, the SAT Apollo and Voyager missions, and the landing of the SAT Cassini-Huygens probe on Titan. SAT SAT 'Edge' follows a tidal structure, visiting and revisiting SAT each 'world', exploring the relation between chaos and SAT cosmos. Along the way, we pick up clues to the possibility SAT of the first stirrings of life, and finally, from Earth's SAT Moon, we catch sight of our own planet, distinguished by the SAT emergence not only of life but of consciousness and SAT imagination. SAT SAT 'Out of the stuff of stars - SAT Gas, dust, ice - SAT Someone is painstakingly SAT Threading a necklace.' SAT SAT Extract II (Saturn's moon, Titan) SAT SAT At the Centre for Life 'Edge' was accompanied by a sequence SAT of images of the moons and the cosmos beyond compiled by SAT planetarium supervisor Christopher Hudson. This will be SAT streamed on the Radio 4 website as 'Edge' is broadcast. SAT SAT Producer: Julian May. SAT SAT SUN SUNDAY 22 DECEMBER 2013 SUN SUN 00:00 Midnight News b03m38w7 (Listen) SUN The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. SUN Followed by Weather. SUN SUN 00:30 O Henry Stories b018fmtr (Listen) SUN The Gift of the Magi SUN SUN The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. SUN A young couple struggle to find the money for a really SUN special Christmas present for each other. SUN SUN A Christmas classic by a cherished American writer, to warm SUN the soul and intrigue the listener with satisfyingly SUN unexpected plot twists. SUN SUN Reader...John Guerrasio SUN Abridger...Annie Caulfield SUN Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery. SUN SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast b03m38w9 (Listen) SUN The latest shipping forecast. SUN SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b03m38wc (Listen) SUN BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes SUN at 5.20am. SUN SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast b03m38wf (Listen) SUN The latest shipping forecast. SUN SUN 05:30 News Briefing b03m38wh (Listen) SUN The latest news from BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday b03m3kqp (Listen) SUN The bells of Durham Cathedral. SUN SUN 05:45 Profile b03m3j7g (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday] SUN SUN 06:00 News Headlines b03m38wk (Listen) SUN The latest national and international news. SUN SUN 06:05 Something Understood b03m3kqr (Listen) SUN Walking and the Mind SUN SUN John McCarthy explores the effects of walking on the mind - SUN on our creative and spiritual well-being. SUN SUN We all know that a good walk is physically good for us, but SUN we rarely stop to consider its impact on our mental states. SUN Was Friedrich Nietzsche right when he said, "all truly great SUN thoughts are conceived by walking"? SUN SUN Walking, especially walking in countryside, has been SUN important to many creative artists and writers. Beethoven, SUN Erik Satie and Benjamin Britten all used their daily walks SUN for inspiration, as did William Wordsworth as he tramped the SUN paths of the Lake District with his sister Dorothy. SUN SUN John McCarthy looks at the act of walking as inspiration and SUN also considers its spiritual function. Why do so many SUN people, from a wide variety of religious beliefs, walk to SUN display their devotion and increase their spiritual SUN understanding? Around the world, millions set out each year SUN along the great pilgrimage routes, and often travel on foot. SUN SUN John McCarthy talks to the British artist Richard Long, SUN whose work often describes walks he has undertaken or SUN imagined. He also talks to Colin Thubron - one of our finest SUN writers about discovery and place - who recently made the SUN arduous journey on foot around Mount Kailash in Tibet, SUN sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. SUN SUN Produced by Anthony Denselow. SUN A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 06:35 On Your Farm b03m3kqw (Listen) SUN Reindeer Herd SUN SUN In 1952, a herd of reindeer from Scandinavia was brought to SUN live in the Cairngorms, a habitat remarkably close to the SUN one they left behind. Today, the herd is 150-strong, still SUN roaming the hills, and teams of specially-trained 'Christmas SUN reindeer' become an integral part of many families' SUN festivities at this time of year, travelling from their home SUN near Aviemore to make public appearances around the country. SUN Caz Graham greets one team as they return to the hills and SUN hears how their temperament and training allow them to greet SUN excited Christmas crowds and hostile winter conditions with SUN the same patient equanimity. SUN SUN Reindeer herding is in the blood for the family which owns SUN and manages them: Tilly and Alan Smith have worked with the SUN reindeer for well over thirty years, and bought the herd SUN after the death of the original owners, Dr Ethel Lindgren SUN and Mikel Utsi. Now their daughter Fiona and son Alex are SUN continuing the tradition: it's as if, says Fiona, a giant SUN bungee drags her back whenever she goes away. This won't be SUN hard to understand for those visitors who bring their SUN children to glimpse the reindeer which, they hope, might SUN pull Santa's sleigh towards their homes on Christmas Eve: SUN the only difficulty for Tilly's staff comes when those SUN children ask how reindeer fly ... SUN SUN Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Moira Hickey. SUN SUN 06:57 Weather b03m38wm (Listen) SUN The latest weather forecast. SUN SUN 07:00 News and Papers b03m38wp (Listen) SUN The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers. SUN SUN 07:10 Sunday b03m3kqy (Listen) SUN History of Father Christmas; Winter Solstice; Tackling SUN Islamic extremism SUN SUN Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme. SUN SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal b03m3kr0 (Listen) SUN Mind SUN SUN Stephen Fry presents the Radio 4 Appeal for Mind. SUN Reg Charity: 219830 SUN To Give: SUN - Freephone 0800 404 8144 SUN - Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope SUN 'Mind'. SUN SUN Mind SUN SUN Every year, one in four of us will experience a mental SUN health problem. SUN SUN But hundreds of thousands of people are still struggling to SUN get the support they need. Still unable to access the SUN services that could change their life. Still facing SUN prejudice and misunderstanding. SUN SUN Mind won't give up until everyone experiencing a mental SUN health problem gets the support and respect they deserve. SUN SUN 07:57 Weather b03m38wr (Listen) SUN The latest weather forecast. SUN SUN 08:00 News and Papers b03m38wt (Listen) SUN The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers. SUN SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship b03m3kr2 (Listen) SUN The Coming of Christ as a Child SUN SUN The coming of Christ as a Child - Singing Mary's song SUN today... SUN The Advent season continues with a service live from St SUN Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London. The news of SUN the coming of Christ as a child caused Mary to sing a SUN prophetic song of justice. But how can we sing Mary's Song SUN today? Readings: Isaiah 7.10-16, Luke 1: 46-55 SUN Preacher: The Revd Dr Sam Wells. With the Choir of St SUN Martin-in-the-Fields, directed by Andrew Earis. SUN Producer: Clair Jaquiss. SUN SUN 08:48 A Point of View b03lsdgz (Listen) SUN Islamo-Christian Heritage SUN SUN William Dalrymple offers a reflection on a topical issue. SUN SUN Producer: Sheila Cook SUN SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day b03k5bwv (Listen) SUN Shelduck SUN SUN Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about SUN our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. SUN SUN David Attenborough presents the shelduck. Shelducks are SUN birds of open mud and sand which they sift for water snails SUN and other tiny creatures. They will breed inland and they SUN nest in holes. Disused rabbit burrows are favourite places SUN and they'll also settle down in tree cavities, sheds, SUN out-buildings and even haystacks. SUN SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House b03m3nhf (Listen) SUN Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation SUN about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy SUN O'Connell. SUN SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus b03m3nhh (Listen) SUN Leonie is feeling lonely. Meanwhile Jennifer tries to help. SUN SUN Credits SUN Jill Archer: Patricia Greene SUN David Archer: Timothy Bentinck SUN Ruth Archer: Felicity Finch SUN Helen Archer: Louiza Patikas SUN Tom Archer: Tom Graham SUN Jennifer Aldridge: Angela Piper SUN Eddie Grundy: Trevor Harrison SUN Emma Grundy: Emerald O'Hanrahan SUN Edward Grundy: Barry Farrimond SUN Neil Carter: Brian Hewlett SUN Susan Carter: Charlotte Martin SUN Caroline Sterling: Sara Coward SUN Leonie Snell: Jasmine Hyde SUN Lynda Snell: Carole Boyd SUN Kirsty Miller: Annabelle Dowler SUN Jess Titchener: Rina Mahoney SUN Rob Titchener: Timothy Watson SUN Rosa Makepeace: Anna Piper SUN Mark: Andrew Frame SUN Director: Kim Greengrass SUN Editor: Julie Beckett SUN Writer: Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti SUN SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs b03m3nhk (Listen) SUN Miranda Hart SUN SUN Kirsty Young's castaway is Miranda Hart. SUN SUN She writes and stars in the hit sitcom "Miranda" and has SUN congaed her way to the top of TV comedy by exploiting the SUN universal truth that awkwardness lies at the heart of the SUN human condition. Slapstick and misunderstanding underpin her SUN work along with the impression that she's just a really, SUN jolly, lovely 'girl': her father was a naval commander and SUN her mother has devoted much of her life to tending a SUN glorious garden. SUN SUN Making her mark has been something of a slog. After her SUN first appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe it was another 11 SUN years before she could give up her job as a P.A. - for a SUN good while she was photocopying scripts rather than SUN performing them. SUN SUN She says: "I started writing comedy because it was more fun SUN inside my head than the real world, but that's no longer SUN true." SUN SUN Producer: Cathy Drysdale. SUN SUN 12:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue b03lpc02 (Listen) SUN Series 60, Episode 6 SUN SUN Back for a second week at the Milton Keynes Theatre, SUN regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor SUN are joined on the panel by David Mitchell, with Jack Dee in SUN the chair. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell. SUN SUN Producer - Jon Naismith. SUN SUN 12:32 Food Programme b03m3nhm (Listen) SUN Nutmeg: The Smell of Christmas? SUN SUN For cook and author Nigel Slater, 'Nutmeg and citrus are the SUN scents of Christmas' but Sheila Dillon needs convincing. SUN SUN Together they look at the versatility of nutmeg as a spice SUN that can bring life to mulled wine, egg custards, meats and SUN puddings. SUN SUN People take it for granted now but nutmeg was highly prized SUN in the kitchens of 16th and 17th century Europe. Traders SUN ventured to the ends of the earth to secure it because of SUN its value. The Dutch and the English vied for nutmeg SUN supremacy and, in December 1616, Nathaniel Courthope and his SUN small army saw off all competitors to gain control of the SUN valuable nut so it could be shipped back to Britain for the SUN culinary elite to enjoy. SUN SUN Today in Grenada the spice is so important it features on SUN the national flag. But when Hurricane Ivan struck in 2004 it SUN devastated the entire crop and hit the economy with a SUN vengeance. Almost ten years on the nutmeg crop seems to be SUN well on its way to recovery and we find out how it is used SUN on the island. SUN SUN Producer : Perminder Khatkar. SUN SUN 12:57 Weather b03m38ww (Listen) SUN The latest weather forecast. SUN SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend b03m3nhp (Listen) SUN The latest national and international news, including an SUN in-depth look at events around the world. Email: SUN wato@bbc.co.uk; twitter: #theworldthisweekend. SUN SUN 13:30 Hardeep's Sunday Lunch b03m3nhr (Listen) SUN Series 2, Fisherman's Friends SUN SUN Hardeep Singh Kholi continues his gastronomic story telling SUN journey across the UK. This week he visits the picturesque SUN fishing village of Port Isaac on the north Cornish coast. SUN There he finds nine men known as the Fishermen's Friends, SUN whose regular performances on the harbour side caught the SUN attention of a major record label in 2010, catapulting them SUN to unexpected fame and commercial success. But at the start SUN of 2013 a terrible tragedy changed their worlds forever and SUN the voices of the Fishermen's Friends fell silent. With SUN Christmas approaching Hardeep gathers the men together for SUN an evening of freshly caught and cooked seafood which he SUN offers up in return for the their story and, he hopes, a SUN song. SUN SUN Producer: Catherine Earlam. SUN SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time b03lsdgc (Listen) SUN 1870s Special at Beamish SUN SUN Eric Robson chairs a special 1870s themed episode of GQT SUN from Beamish, The Living Museum of the North. Answering the SUN audience's historical gardening questions are Chris SUN Beardshaw, Bob Flowerdew and Christine Walkden. SUN SUN The panel travels back in time to explore a fascinating SUN moment in the horticultural history which still influences SUN the way in which we garden today. Eric Robson visits SUN Gravetye Manor to find out how William Robinson's SUN influential book, The Wild Garden, set English gardening on SUN a new and exciting course. SUN SUN Produced by Howard Shannon SUN Assistant Producer: Darby Dorras SUN A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4 SUN SUN 14:45 The Listening Project b03m3nht (Listen) SUN Fi Glover introduces children's views on having a sister SUN with Down's Syndrome, pursuing a career in ballet, being a SUN twin, and silencing a younger brother with imaginary gaffer SUN tape, proving yet again that it's surprising what you hear SUN when you listen. SUN SUN Producer: Marya Burgess. SUN SUN 15:00 Roddy Doyle on Radio 4 b03m3nhw (Listen) SUN Roddy Doyle's The Van SUN SUN The third of Roddy Doyle's Barrytown series of novels, all SUN to be dramatized by BBC Radio 4. SUN Jimmy Rabbitte is unemployed and at an all-time low. Even SUN Ireland qualifying for the 1990 World Cup has not pulled him SUN out of the doldrums, he needs money and fast. So when his SUN best mate Bimbo buys a dilapidated "chipper" van and offers SUN him the chance of a partnership, this might well be the SUN opportunity Jimmy has been waiting for. SUN SUN What could be better than working with your best mate? SUN SUN Written by Roddy Doyle SUN Dramatised by Eugene O'Brien SUN Producer: Gemma McMullan SUN Director: Eoin O'Callaghan. SUN SUN Jimmy: David Wilmot SUN Bimbo: Simon Delaney SUN Veronica: Angeline Ball SUN Sharon: Aoife Duffin SUN Maggie: Tina Kellegher SUN Bertie: Mark Doherty SUN Jimmy Jnr: Gavin Drea SUN Darren: Cal Kenealy SUN Des O'Callaghan: Mark Lambert SUN Linda: Aisling Franciosi SUN Tracey: Amy McAllister SUN Writer: Roddy Doyle SUN Adaptor: Eugene O'Brien SUN Director: Eoin O'Callaghan SUN Producer: Gemma McMullan SUN SUN 16:00 Open Book b03m3nhy (Listen) SUN Year of the Women Writers SUN SUN In a special programme Ellah Allfrey, Sally Gardner, Sarah SUN Hall, Lennie Goodings and James Runcie discuss with Mariella SUN Frostrup why 2013 has been the Year of the Women Writers SUN SUN Producer: Andrea Kidd. SUN SUN 16:30 Poetry in Translation b01sdnqh (Listen) SUN Just how do you translate a poem? Daljit Nagra explores the SUN different approaches that poets take, and there's more to it SUN than just knowing another language. The Magazine Modern SUN Poetry in Translation was founded by Ted Hughes and Daniel SUN Weissbort in 1965. It's hard to believe that before this SUN British poetry had no real access to work beyond its SUN borders. Modern Poetry in Translation has just changed SUN editorship, and we hear from outgoing editor David SUN Constantine and new editor Sasha Dugdale about the SUN magazine's history and future. Daljit speaks to poets Jo SUN Shapcott, Pascale Petit, WN Herbert and Yang Lian, who share SUN the pleasures and pitfalls of their methods of translation. SUN SUN Presenter: Daljit Nagra SUN Producer: Jessica Treen. SUN SUN 17:00 Lines in the Sand b03lph8y (Listen) SUN Mark Doyle charts the challenge from Islamist militants in SUN Europe's backyard, and asks if a series of separate SUN conflicts are becoming part of a wider front. SUN SUN In January this year armed extremists in Mali took over a SUN large swathe of the country before being beaten back by SUN French forces. The Islamists were killed and dispersed - but SUN they were far from beaten. Across the edge of the Sahara, a SUN large number of other violent, Islamist-related incidents SUN followed or came into focus. One of the men who had led the SUN occupation of northern Mali, Mochtar Bel Mochtar, SUN audaciously attacked a BP oil installation in southern SUN Algeria, across Mali's northern border. Islamists attacked a SUN uranium mine and a military barracks in Mali's neighbour, SUN Niger. Suicide bombers began operating in both countries for SUN the first time. And most significantly, the conflict in SUN Northern Nigeria intensified. The Boko Haram group, which SUN has reported links to the Mali insurgents, occupied SUN significant parts of the most populous country in the SUN region. The lines in the Saharan sand are much broader than SUN we thought - and they are shifting. The wider international SUN community has now followed the French. A United Nations SUN peacekeeping force is on the ground in Mali. European SUN soldiers, including British, are retraining the Malian army. SUN It has been decided that the fight against Saharan threat is SUN worth blood and treasure. SUN SUN BBC International Development Correspondent Mark Doyle is a SUN veteran reporter of the continent. He gives listeners a SUN visual picture of this new battleground, and investigates SUN what the fighting is really about. Through on-the-ground SUN reportage in Libya, Mali, Nigeria and Somalia, and SUN interviews with African and European players, he asks if the SUN tactics the domestic and international forces deploy will SUN work. SUN SUN Producer: Neal Razzell. SUN SUN 17:40 Profile b03m3j7g (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday] SUN SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast b03m38wy (Listen) SUN The latest shipping forecast. SUN SUN 17:57 Weather b03m38x0 (Listen) SUN The latest weather forecast. SUN SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News b03m38x2 (Listen) SUN The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week b03m3ntt (Listen) SUN Gerry Northam chooses the best of the previous seven days of SUN BBC Radio. SUN SUN 19:00 The Archers b03m3ntw (Listen) SUN Eddie is insistent, and David is feeling unsociable. SUN SUN 19:15 Meet David Sedaris b03m3nty (Listen) SUN Series 4, Company Man; Diary Extracts SUN SUN One of the world's funniest storytellers is back on BBC SUN Radio 4 doing what he does best. SUN SUN This week, the pros and cons of being grown up enough to SUN have a guest room in "Company Man", and some more extracts SUN from his hilarious diary, which he has kept nightly for over SUN 30 years. SUN SUN Producer: Steve Doherty SUN A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 19:45 Modern Welsh Voices b03m3nv0 (Listen) SUN The Eyas SUN SUN The Eyas by Jim Perrin. The second of our original stories SUN by modern Welsh writers. SUN When a young boy becomes obsessed with taming wild birds SUN nature finds a way of retaliating. SUN SUN Read by Stefan Rhodri SUN Directed by Helen Perry SUN SUN A BBC Cymru Wales Production. SUN SUN 20:00 More or Less b03lsdgj (Listen) SUN Britain's 80,000 homeless children SUN SUN Eighty thousand children will wake up homeless on Christmas SUN Day, according to the housing charity Shelter. Tim Harford SUN explores this statistic. SUN SUN It's been reported that there's a global wine shortage. But SUN there seems to be plenty of wine available for the More or SUN Less Christmas bash. Tim Harford fact-checks the claim. SUN SUN Mathemagical mind-reading: Jolyon Jenkins, amateur magician SUN and presenter of BBC Radio 4's Maths and Magic programme, SUN reveals the maths behind a classic long-distance SUN mind-reading card trick. SUN SUN It's said that the four Christmas football fixtures are SUN crucial to Premier League teams. But do the numbers back SUN this up? SUN SUN As Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders leaves the BBC, More SUN or Less airs what is perhaps her finest broadcasting moment. SUN SUN Presenter: Tim Harford SUN Producer: Ruth Alexander. SUN SUN 20:30 Last Word b03lsdgg (Listen) SUN Peter O'Toole, Lord Roberts of Conwy, Colin Wilson, Joan SUN Fontaine, Ronnie Briggs SUN SUN Matthew Bannister on: SUN SUN The actor Peter O'Toole, acclaimed for his performances as SUN Lawrence of Arabia and Jeffery Bernard and notorious for his SUN hell raising exploits. SUN SUN The long serving Welsh Office minister Lord Roberts of Conwy SUN - a passionate champion of the Welsh language. SUN SUN The author Colin Wilson, who was hailed as a major new SUN talent when he published The Outsider at the age of 24, but, SUN despite writing many other books, never repeated his SUN mainstream success. SUN SUN The Hollywood star Joan Fontaine, best known for playing the SUN second wife in Hitchcock's Rebecca, who carried on a long SUN term feud with her sister Olivia De Havilland. SUN SUN And the Great Train robber Ronnie Biggs. SUN SUN Producer: Laura Northedge SUN SUN 21:00 Money Box b03m3j72 (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 12:00 on Saturday] SUN SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal b03m3kr0 (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 today] SUN SUN 21:30 In Business b03ls167 (Listen) SUN Curtain Up SUN SUN Pantomime is a very British tradition, still as popular as SUN ever with audiences. But it's also an important annual cash SUN cow for regional theatres and big production companies. In SUN Business goes to Nottingham to follow the progress of the SUN city's two rival pantomimes: one made in-house at the SUN Nottingham Playhouse, with a much-loved dame on his SUN thirtieth (and last) pantomime and the other at the Theatre SUN Royal, bought in from a big pantomime making production SUN company starring the American Baywatch actor, known as "The SUN Hoff". Peter Day finds out what's involved and why SUN pantomimes matter so much to regional theatres. SUN SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour b03m3p7k (Listen) SUN Preview of the week's political agenda at Westminster with SUN MPs, experts and commentators. Discussion of the issues SUN politicians are grappling with in the corridors of power. SUN SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say b03m3p7m (Listen) SUN Nosheen Iqbal of the Guardian looks at how papers covered SUN the week's biggest stories. SUN SUN 23:00 The Film Programme b03ls15s (Listen) SUN The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; American Hustle; All Is SUN Lost; Location scouting SUN SUN Francine Stock talks to Ben Stiller about The Secret Life of SUN Walter Mitty. Based on a short story by James Thurber, he SUN both stars as Walter and directs. Walter daydreams his way SUN through life, while yearning for his co-worker, played by SUN Kirsten Wiig. Stiller describes what attracted him to this SUN tale and why his 2001 comedy Zoolander remains close to his SUN heart. SUN American Hustle, a grifters story set in the 1970s, has SUN already been nominated for awards including the Golden SUN Globes. It's directed by David O Russell, whose last outing SUN Silver Linings Playbook picked up an Oscar for Jennifer SUN Lawrence who also appears in American Hustle. Russell SUN explains why he finds the 1970s an era of innocence. SUN SUN Steve Mortimore is the man you need to call should you SUN require an aircraft carrier to film on at a few weeks SUN notice.. As a location manager, he has worked on World War Z SUN starring Brad Pitt and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy among SUN others. The Film Programme went along to his latest set in SUN Sussex where he's working in a railway tunnel on The Secret SUN Service, a comic book adaptation directed by Matthew Vaughn. SUN SUN And the director who has been dragging Robert Redford SUN underwater. JC Chandor's All Is Lost stars Redford as a man SUN lost at sea as he battles to survive. He gives an insight SUN into the actor's dedication to authenticity and doing his SUN own stunts as much as possible, though he's now in his 70s. SUN SUN Producer: Elaine Lester. SUN SUN 23:30 Something Understood b03m3kqr (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today] SUN SUN MON MONDAY 23 DECEMBER 2013 MON MON 00:00 Midnight News b03m38y3 (Listen) MON The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. MON Followed by Weather. MON MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed b03lpjy0 (Listen) MON Couples and Chronic Illness; Fashion and Dress in Later Life MON MON Fashion and dress in later life: Laurie Taylor talks to the MON sociologist, Julia Twigg, about her study into the links MON between clothing and age. Throughout history certain forms MON and styles of dress have been deemed appropriate for people MON as they get older. Older women, in particular, have been MON advised to dress in toned down, covered up styles. Drawing MON on fashion theory and cultural gerontology, Professor Twigg MON interviewed older women, fashion editors, clothing designers MON and retailers. She asks if the emergence of a 'grey market' MON is finally shifting cultural norms and trends. The MON broadcaster, writer and fashion enthusiast, Robert Elms, MON joins the discussion. MON MON Also, Research Student, Eloise Radcliffe, discusses her MON study into how couples cope when one develops a chronic MON illness. MON MON Producer: Jayne Egerton. MON MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday b03m3kqp (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday] MON MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast b03m38y5 (Listen) MON The latest shipping forecast. MON MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b03m38y7 (Listen) MON BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. MON MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast b03m38y9 (Listen) MON The latest shipping forecast. MON MON 05:30 News Briefing b03m38yc (Listen) MON The latest news from BBC Radio 4. MON MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day b03pzytx (Listen) MON A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the MON Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Chaplain to the Archbishop of MON Canterbury. MON MON 05:45 Farming Today b03m40zd (Listen) MON The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. MON Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Lucy Bickerton. MON MON 05:56 Weather b03m38yf (Listen) MON The latest weather forecast for farmers. MON MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day b03k5cbg (Listen) MON Lesser Redpoll MON MON Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about MON our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. MON MON David Attenborough presents the lesser redpoll. You can spot MON Lesser Redpolls hanging like tiny acrobatic parrots among MON the slender twigs, while a rain of papery seeds falls down MON around them. They're lively birds which allow you to get MON fairly close, and then sometimes flocks will explode en MON masse for no apparent reason and fly around calling. MON MON 06:00 Today b03m40zg (Listen) MON Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; MON Weather; Thought for the Day. MON MON 09:00 Start the Week b03m40zj (Listen) MON Clive James MON MON In a special programme Andrew Marr looks back over the long MON career of Clive James. Even at the height of his fame as the MON star of weekend television, Clive James was always writing: MON poetry, essays and a series of memoirs. Now in his 70s and MON suffering from serious illness, he has been nominated for an MON award for his translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy. MON James explains how this last phase of his life has brought MON him a new seriousness; 'a late sublime'. MON MON Producer: Katy Hickman. MON MON 09:45 Book of the Week b03m40zl (Listen) MON Love, Nina: Despatches From Family Life, Being a Nanny Is MON Great MON MON Mary Poppins meets Adrian Mole in Nina Stibbe's letters from MON the heart of 1980s literary London. MON MON Nina writes hilarious letters home to her sister Vic in MON Leicester describing her trials and triumphs as a nanny to a MON London family. Fascinating insights into their domestic life MON emerge including illuminating suppertime chats about life, MON love and food, regular visits from the playwright up the MON road who's surprisingly good at fixing things and in episode MON one, Nina is faced with the problem of an 8 ft Christmas MON tree too big for the house. MON MON Read by Rebekah Staton MON Abridged by Penny Leicester MON Produced by Gemma Jenkins. MON MON 10:00 Woman's Hour b03m40zn (Listen) MON French and Saunders; Fern Britton; Sara Khan MON MON An advent treat with French and Saunders. The sister of UK MON doctor Abbas Khan on her family's struggle to come to terms MON with his death in Syria and establish the truth about his MON alleged suicide. As North by Northamptonshire returns to MON Radio 4, writer Katherine Jakeways on what has been MON described as 'the bleakest sit-com ever'. Liliane Lijn, the MON artist who's hoping her work will make it to Trafalgar MON Square's Fourth Plinth. What might you find in Fern MON Britton's kitchen? We take a rare peek inside. MON MON Presented by Jane Garvey. MON Producer: Louise Corley. MON Output Editor: Anne Peacock. MON MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama b03m40zq (Listen) MON The Tales of Beatrix Potter, Episode 1 MON MON Beatrix Potter's famous tales are celebrated this Christmas. MON MON Her love of the British landscape and its inhabitants - MON coupled with her world famous ability for storytelling - MON means she has been one of the most celebrated children's MON authors of the last hundred years. MON MON This suite of five of her tumultuous tales, including some MON of the lesser-known stories, brings comedic surprise, MON comfort and joy to the Christmas audience. MON MON Their timeless wonders pit the delight and childlike MON innocence of the very human characters against the dark and MON dramatic ruthlessness of the food-chain-led underbelly of MON Cumbria's fields and hedgerows. MON MON Adapted and Directed by Sean Grundy MON MON Produced by Sally Harrison MON A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 11:00 Mr Cole Comes to Kensington b03m40zs (Listen) MON Christopher Frayling explores the legacy of Henry Cole, MON dynamic founder of London's Victoria and Albert Museum and MON the vibrant design partnership with the Royal College of MON Art. MON MON At the time of the Great Exhibition in 1851, British design MON was fast losing out to the Continent. But by 1871, the South MON Kensington Museum (now the V&A) with its pioneering public MON restaurant, free admission days and evening openings, had MON become a blueprint for design museums worldwide. MON MON The man behind this remarkable achievement was Henry Cole, MON inventor of the commercial Christmas card, who had helped MON introduce the Penny Post. A bustling, rotund figure with a MON mane of white hair, 'Old King' Cole transformed what had MON been a teaching collection of plaster casts into a MON world-leading museum of art and design. But despite the MON patronage of Prince Albert, it proved an arduous journey, MON often fraught with opposition from a suspicious MON Establishment. MON MON Christopher Frayling is a former Rector of the Royal College MON of Art and former V&A Trustee. MON MON Contributors include British fashion designer and RCA MON graduate Zandra Rhodes and former V&A Director Sir Roy MON Strong. MON MON Producer: Catriona Oliphant MON A Chrome Radio production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 11:30 North by Northamptonshire b03m40zv (Listen) MON Series 3, Episode 1 MON MON by Katherine Jakeways MON MON Sheila Hancock narrates the bittersweet adventures of the MON residents of a small market town in Northamptonshire. MON Relationships have come and gone but life continues in MON Wadenbrook and Ken and Keith have a birthday to celebrate. MON MON Producer: Steven Canny MON MON As is well-known: Yorkshiremen wear flat caps and Essex MON girls wear short skirts; Liverpudlians are scallies and MON Cockneys are wideboys. Northamptonians gaze wistfully at MON these stereotypes and wish for an identity of any kind and a MON label less ridiculous than Northamptonians. MON Northamptonshire, let us be clear, is neither north, nor MON south nor in the Midlands. It floats somewhere between the MON three eyeing up the distinctiveness of each enviously. Now MON Katherine Jakeways is giving Northamptonshire an identity. MON And she waits, eagerly, for her home-county to thank her. MON And possibly make her some kind of Mayor. MON MON Joined by nearly all of the incredible cast which graced MON Series One and Two - including Sheila Hancock as the MON Narrator, Penelope Wilton, Felicity Montagu, Geoffrey Palmer MON and Kevin Eldon - and with the exciting addition of Tim Key MON and Nathaniel Parker - North by Northamptonshire hopes (and MON promises) to once again delight audience and critics. MON MON 'The laughs are cruel, but the monsters of suburbia are MON curiously sympathetic, and the characters so well drawn and MON well played that this could run and run.' Time Out. MON MON Credits MON Narrator: Sheila Hancock MON Rod: Tim Key MON Frank: Rufus Wright MON Mary: Penelope Wilton MON Jonathan: Kevin Eldon MON Esther: Katherine Jakeways MON Keith: John Biggins MON Norman: Geoffrey Palmer MON Jan: Felicity Montagu MON Producer: Steven Canny MON Writer: Katherine Jakeways MON MON 12:00 You and Yours b03m40zx (Listen) MON Consumer news with Winifred Robinson. MON MON 12:57 Weather b03m38yh (Listen) MON The latest weather forecast. MON MON 13:00 World at One b03m38yk (Listen) MON National and international news. Listeners can share their MON views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato. MON MON 13:45 One to One b038xrj7 (Listen) MON Frank Gardner talks to Tim Rushby-Smith MON MON After a life changing injury or incident one of the things MON that makes a huge difference on how you then move on with MON the rest of your life is what you can still do and can't do. MON MON The BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner regards MON himself lucky that he was able to carry on doing journalism MON after being shot 9 years ago in Saudi Arabia by terrorists. MON Some of those bullets hit the core of his body and damaged MON his spinal nerve - he can no longer use his legs and is in a MON wheelchair for the rest of his life. However, being able to MON return to work and continue with his profession has been one MON of the biggest factors in his own recovery. MON MON In this second programme for the series 'One to One', Frank MON meets Tim Rushby-Smith who fell from a tree and had to face MON the fact he would no longer be able to carry on with his MON profession and livelihood. MON MON Producer : Perminder Khatkar. MON MON 14:00 The Archers b03m3ntw (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday] MON MON 14:15 Afternoon Drama b03m7tlk (Listen) MON The Christmas of Inspector Steine MON MON Written by Lynne Truss. MON MON Brighton, Christmas 1957 was memorable in all sorts of ways. MON It was the year of the Queen's first Christmas broadcast for MON one thing, as well as Mrs Groynes' first Christmas married MON to Captain Hoagland of the Royal Engineers. MON MON A happy time then? Well, apparently not! MON MON Music by Anthony May MON MON Sound design by David Thomas. MON MON Producer: Karen Rose MON A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON Credits MON Inspector Steine: Michael Fenton Stevens MON Mrs Groynes: Samantha Spiro MON Captain Hoagland: Robert Bathurst MON Constable Twitten: Matt Green MON Sergeant Brunswick: John Ramm MON Gloria's mother: Janet Ellis MON Writer: Lynne Truss MON Producer: Karen Rose MON MON 15:00 Brain of Britain b03m43fs (Listen) MON (3/17) MON Russell Davies is in Salford this week, for the third heat MON of the contest to find the 61st Brain of Britain champion. MON The competitors come from Sunderland, County Durham, MON Cheshire and Greater Manchester. As always, there will also MON be the chance for a listener to challenge the contestants MON with questions of his or her own, in the 'Beat the Brains' MON feature. MON MON Producer: Paul Bajoria. MON MON 15:30 Food Programme b03m3nhm (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday] MON MON 16:00 Signs Taken for Wonders b03m43fv (Listen) MON Science writer and broadcaster Vivienne Parry explores the MON meeting point between classic fiction and scientific MON discovery. MON MON The dialogues and debates that occur in both the emerging MON sciences and the literary fiction of the period of the novel MON are fascinating. Take, for example, the creative and MON psychological power of electricity in Mary Shelly's MON Frankenstein. MON MON Vivienne Parry considers the literary imagination's response MON to marginal sciences such as mesmerism, galvanism and MON spiritualism, and literature's interrogation of scientific MON sites and conflicts, from the laboratory to the séance room. MON MON With authors, scientists and critics, Vivienne also opens up MON the changing nature of literary vision as engineered by MON scientific discovery, and reflects on how the boundaries of MON classic fiction were continually breached by scientific and MON technological innovation - from Mary Shelly, Wilkie Collins MON and HG Wells to present-day writers, like Ian McEwan, who MON champion a renewed dialogue between science and fiction. MON MON Producer: Simon Hollis MON A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 16:30 The Infinite Monkey Cage b03m43fx (Listen) MON Series 9, Science and Spin MON MON This week on the Infinite Monkey Cage, Brian Cox and Robin MON Ince take to the stage at Manchester University, to discuss MON the state of science communication. Is the public engaged MON enough with the complexities of science? Are scientists MON engaging enough with the hoi polloi or still stuck in their MON ivory towers? And when was the 'golden age' of TV science, MON if it ever existed? Joining our presenters are scientists MON Matthew Cobb and Sheena Cruikshank, comedian Helen Keen and MON legendary science TV presenter and writer, James Burke, MON whose classic series 'Connections' captivated audiences MON around the world. Producer: Rami Tzabar. MON MON 17:00 PM b03m43fz (Listen) MON Coverage and analysis of the day's news. MON MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News b03m38ym (Listen) MON The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. MON MON 18:30 Just a Minute b03m43g1 (Listen) MON Just a Christmas Minute MON MON Nicholas Parsons ho-ho-hosts a Christmas edition of the MON deviously, divine linguistic panel show with Pam Ayres, MON Stephen Mangan, Gyles Brandreth and Paul Merton being MON challenged to talk on Christmas themed subjects without MON hesitation, deviation or repetition for Just A Minute. MON MON Producer: Tilusha Ghelani MON MON 19:00 The Archers b03m43g3 (Listen) MON Helen has high hopes. Meanwhile Robert offers his support. MON MON 19:15 Front Row b03m43g5 (Listen) MON People of the Year 2013, part 1 MON MON With Mark Lawson, who in the first of two special MON programmes, talks to Front Row's People of the Year : our MON choice of the artists who have made headlines in the world MON of arts, culture and entertainment in 2013. MON MON Tonight's selection is : MON David Suchet - for his portrayal of the detective Poirot who MON appeared for the last time this year MON Zawe Ashton - star of Fresh Meat on Channel 4 MON Lucy Kirkwood - award winning playwright for "Chimerica" MON Hilary Mantel - winner of the Costa book of the year for MON "Bringing Up The Bodies" MON Marin Alsop - the first woman to conduct Last Night of the MON Proms MON Eleanor Catton - youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize MON MON The second programme is on Christmas Eve. MON MON Producers: Dymphna Flynn and Rebecca Armstrong. MON MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama b03m40zq (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today] MON MON 20:00 Return to Angola b03m43g7 (Listen) MON Luanda, the capital of Angola, is currently the most MON expensive city in the world. Along the seafront, recently MON revamped at a cost of $350 million, Africa's most expensive MON one-bedroom apartment was snapped up for $9million, and a MON hamburger will set you back $30. MON MON Yet forty years ago it was a war zone. Angola won its MON independence and hundreds of thousands of Portuguese MON colonialists fled in panic. MON MON Now they're coming back and BBC Africa Editor Mary Harper MON finds out why. She meets some of the Portuguese who are MON leaving the economic crisis at home to cash in on Angola's MON oil-driven boom, and uncovers the tensions this reversal of MON fortunes is creating between the once-colonised and their MON former rulers. The migrant flood has been recent and rapid. MON In 2006, only 156 Portuguese emigrated to Angola. In 2012, MON there were 30,000. MON MON Among the Portuguese returnees, is a scuba diving instructor MON from the Algarve, now earning double in Luanda, and a young MON family from Portugal raising their children as Angolans. MON MON As well as providing jobs, and lucrative construction and MON engineering contracts, Angolans are also propping Portugal MON up by investing heavily on Portuguese soil - in the banking, MON energy and telecoms sectors. But just days before the Radio MON 4 team arrived in Luanda, the usually taciturn Angolan MON president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, gave an outspoken MON speech, saying all was not well with Portuguese relations. MON MON Producer: Eve Streeter MON A Pier production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 20:30 Crossing Continents b03ls15d (Listen) MON Bangladesh: Trials of Strength MON MON Farhana Haider investigates the prosecution of alleged war MON criminals and asks if the trials are being used to target MON the opposition. MON MON There were numerous reports of atrocities during the brutal MON war of 1971 between Pakistan on one side and the new state MON which was to become Bangladesh, which had support from MON India. The Pakistani Army and Islamic sympathisers in MON Bangladesh were accused of rape and of mass killings which MON some have described as genocide. In 2010 the governing Awami MON League set up war crimes trials which have started to hand MON down convictions this year, attracting strong public MON support. However, many international observers have MON criticised the conduct of the trials as less than free and MON fair. And supporters of the largest Bangladesh's largest MON Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami have reacted furiously to the MON conviction of several of their leaders, saying the process MON is politically motivated. MON MON Farhana Haider asks whether the legal process will really MON enable Bangladesh to come to terms with its bloody MON beginnings. MON MON Producer: John Murphy. MON MON 21:00 Shared Planet b03lpfwt (Listen) MON Noise in the Environment MON MON Before the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th MON Century many believe the planet was largely a silent place. MON However what this overlooks is that the natural world is an MON incredibly noisy environment as species communicate between MON each other sometimes over vast distances. What has changed MON is that from around 1800 one species on the planet is MON arguably losing its ability to hear the presence of natural MON sound, and that species is Homo sapiens. Today the amount of MON anthropogenic noise 7 billion people produce across this MON planet is for many resulting in a disconnection with our MON natural neighbours and an inability to experience silence. MON If we can no longer hear the natural world, are we possibly MON becoming disconnected from everything around us? Monty Don MON explores this question through the difficulty of hearing MON natural sounds in the countryside without the interference MON of human noise. MON MON Producer : Andrew Dawes. MON MON 21:30 Start the Week b03m40zj (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] MON MON 21:58 Weather b03m38yr (Listen) MON The latest weather forecast. MON MON 22:00 The World Tonight b03m443r (Listen) MON In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective. MON MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime b03m443t (Listen) MON The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and MON Disappeared, Episode 1 MON MON A picaresque tale of a centenarianpolice and thieves, and MON moments in world history. As his mother put it, "Things are MON what they are, and whatever will be will be." MON MON At 100 years-old, Allan Karlsson is a reluctant birthday MON boy. In the old people's home they've prepared a party for MON him. The Mayor and the local press will be there. But this MON party never gets started. Still in his bedroom slippers, MON Allan makes his getaway through the window and begins an MON unlikely adventure. MON MON Allan is no stranger to adventure, as the stories of his MON earlier life reveal - a life in which he dined with world MON leaders such as Franco, Truman and Stalin and found himself MON behind the scenes during major events of the twentieth MON century. MON MON Jonas Jonasson was born in 1961 in Vaxjö, Sweden. After MON starting up and then running the successful media company MON OTW for twenty years, he sold the business and moved to MON Switzerland. There he completed The Hundred-year-Old Man Who MON Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared. Jonas lives on MON the island of Gotland in Sweden. MON MON Translated by Rod Bradbury. MON MON Episode 1: MON It's 2 May 2005 and, at the old people's home in Malmköping, MON it is Allan Karlsson's one hundredth birthday. MON MON Reader: Martin Jarvis MON Abridger: Jeremy Osborne MON Producer: Rosalynd Ward MON A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 23:00 Word of Mouth b03lph1g (Listen) MON Prime Suspects MON MON Michael Rosen has just 24 minutes to crack the case of the MON police interview. His hard-bitten squad of investigators MON includes top crime authors Peter James and John Harvey and MON the writer of ITV's 'Scott and Bailey', Sally Wainwright . MON MON Until the 1980s the police had no formal training in MON interviewing techniques. When a suspect entered the MON interrogation room he could have faced a barrage of foul MON language, veiled threats and downright lies. There was MON usually no solicitor present and no recordings of the MON interview. A successful interrogation was one where the MON suspect 'coughed', admitting to the crime as quickly as MON possible. MON MON Today things are considerably more restrained. The word MON 'interrogation' has been banned in England and Wales. Every MON 'investigative interview' is captured electronically and MON every policeman gets training in the latest psychological MON techniques to draw out suspect and witness testimony. The MON changes might be good for justice but they're a nightmare MON for novelists and dramatists. MON MON Without the threats, the bullying and the violence what's MON left for the crime writer who enjoys the language of MON villains and crimefighters under extreme pressure? Michael MON talks to best-selling novelists Peter James and John Harvey MON and TV writer Sally Wainwright about the delicate path they MON tread between the dull reality of police official language MON and the tempting darklands of their violent imaginations. MON MON Producer: Alasdair Cross. MON MON 23:30 Down the Line b03mjp26 (Listen) MON A Tribute to Felix Dexter MON MON ...Felix Dexter. Spoof phone-in show presented by Gary MON Bellamy. MON MON Credits MON Actor: Paul Whitehouse MON Gary Bellamy: Thomas Rhys MON Actor: Amelia Bullmore MON Actor: Charlie Higson MON Actor: Simon Day MON Actor: Lucy Montgomery MON Producer: Charlie Higson MON Producer: Paul Whitehouse MON MON TUE TUESDAY 24 DECEMBER 2013 TUE TUE 00:00 Midnight News b03m390d (Listen) TUE The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. TUE Followed by Weather. TUE TUE 00:15 Food for Thought b018g3n6 (Listen) TUE Series 2, David Sedaris TUE TUE Over takeaway sushi in his London kitchen, American essayist TUE and humorist David Sedaris talks to Nina Myskow about being TUE greedy, good at dieting - for his regular book tours - and TUE how he stopped wanting to eat the condiments after he gave TUE up smoking drugs. TUE TUE David's large, idiosyncratic family must play some part in TUE his obsession with second helpings. From a thrifty father TUE who hoarded titbits and clipped money-off coupons for the TUE weekly grocery shop to a mother who spent hours in TUE conversation with her six children around the dinner table, TUE he still worries that there'll never be enough. TUE TUE His boyfriend orders for him in restaurants and cooks TUE elaborate meals like rabbit in mustard and cream sauce but TUE he still relishes the thought of a huge hamburger called the TUE 'Widow-maker' and a side order of spinach that comes in a TUE dish the size of a mixing bowl. TUE TUE "The hard thing about being on a diet is getting off of it" TUE he explains, before recounting the unpleasant side effects TUE of some French pharmacy diet pills he took, in order to get TUE into his 'tour pants.' Eating on tour can be difficult so he TUE orders supper at each venue and takes a bite in between TUE signing books. TUE TUE He also tells Nina about his love of Mr Whippy ice cream, TUE sticky toffee pudding and why eating chocolate is like TUE eating drain cleaner. TUE TUE What would he choose for his last meal on earth? A TUE comforting dish his mother used to make. TUE TUE Producer: Tamsin Hughes TUE A Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 00:30 Book of the Week b03m40zl (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday] TUE TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast b03m390g (Listen) TUE The latest shipping forecast. TUE TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b03m390j (Listen) TUE BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. TUE TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast b03m390l (Listen) TUE The latest shipping forecast. TUE TUE 05:30 News Briefing b03m390n (Listen) TUE The latest news from BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day b03m74r2 (Listen) TUE A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the TUE Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Chaplain to the Archbishop of TUE Canterbury. TUE TUE 05:45 Farming Today b03m74rb (Listen) TUE British hop farming has been in long term decline but the TUE industry is on the brink of a renaissance, according to TUE growers Ali and Richard Capper. Ali tells Sarah Swadling TUE that 2013 has been a tricky year, with the late spring and TUE hot July hampering growth. Ali's long term view is that TUE British hops could find exciting new export markets. She TUE says that brewers in America, Germany, and New Zealand are TUE beginning to discover the subtle flavours that only British TUE hops can deliver. The Cappers also grow eating, cooking, and TUE cider apples. Ali tells Sarah that niche export markets TUE could also await the fruit. TUE TUE Produced and presented by Sarah Swadling. TUE TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day b03k6rrj (Listen) TUE Dipper TUE TUE Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about TUE our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. TUE TUE David Attenborough presents the dipper. On a cold winter's TUE day when few birds are singing, the bright rambling song of TUE a dipper by a rushing stream is always a surprise. Dippers TUE sing in winter because that's when the males begin marking TUE out their stretch of water, they're early breeders. TUE TUE 06:00 Today b03m74rd (Listen) TUE Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; TUE Weather; Thought for the Day. TUE TUE 09:00 The Making of the Modern Arab World b03m79cg (Listen) TUE The Rise of Islamism TUE TUE Egyptian author Tarek Osman uncovers the history of the TUE modern Arab world by tracing some of the great political TUE dreams that have shaped it, from the nineteenth century to TUE the Arab Spring. TUE TUE Throughout the series, he focuses on two countries that are TUE currently high on the news agenda: Egypt and Syria. As Tarek TUE discovers, these are also the states from which many of the TUE crucial characters and ideas in this story emerged. TUE TUE In the third programme, he explores the many forces which TUE converged and led to the unexpected rise of Islamism or TUE political Islam from the 1970s onwards, a force which came TUE to fill the vacuum left by Arab Nationalism. TUE TUE Tarek examines the reasons for the re-emergence of the TUE Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and across the region, and the TUE gradual cultural shift that changed the landscape of the TUE Arab world . TUE TUE 09:45 Book of the Week b03m79cj (Listen) TUE Love, Nina: Despatches From Family Life, Alan Bennett's TUE Cookery Tips TUE TUE Mary Poppins meets Adrian Mole in Nina Stibbe's letters from TUE the heart of 1980s literary London. TUE TUE Nina exchanges cookery tips with Alan Bennett and finds TUE Thomas Hardy irritating. TUE TUE Read by Rebekah Staton TUE Abridged by Penny Leicester TUE Produced by Gemma Jenkins. TUE TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour b03m79cl (Listen) TUE Jane Garvey presents the programme that offers a female TUE perspective on the world. TUE TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama b03mt4k8 (Listen) TUE The Tales of Beatrix Potter, Episode 2 TUE TUE Adapted and Directed by Sean Grundy TUE Produced by Sally Harrison TUE A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 11:00 Shared Planet b03m79cn (Listen) TUE Are There Too Many People for Wildlife to Thrive? TUE TUE "Are there too many people on earth for wildlife to thrive?" TUE This is the question we will be asking in a special edition TUE of Shared Planet recorded with a live audience in the Great TUE Hall of the University of Bristol. Together with questions TUE asked by Shared Planet listeners and members of the public TUE in the Great Hall, Monty hosts guests Fred Pearce, an TUE environment writer and author of The Last Generation: How TUE nature will take her revenge for climate change and Kierán TUE Suckling, Executive Director of the Center for Biological TUE Diversity. And of course Shared Planet correspondent Kelvin TUE Boot will make an appearance. TUE TUE Producer Mary Colwell. TUE TUE 11:30 Soul Music b03m79cq (Listen) TUE Series 17, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas TUE TUE Soul Music tells the story of the song, Have Yourself a TUE Merry Little Christmas, and talks to people for whom it has TUE special meaning. TUE TUE 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas', was first TUE performed by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me In TUE St Louis', for the now famous scene in which Garland and her TUE seven year old sister, played by Margaret O'Brien are TUE downcast about the prospect of moving away from their TUE beloved home. TUE Garland asked the composer, Hugh Martin to modify his TUE original lyric, explaining it to be too depressing for her TUE to sing, or the audience to hear. TUE Martin's collaborator and friend, John Fricke, explains the TUE importance this song had for the composer and the joy he TUE experienced in hearing it covered by every major artist TUE since, from Frank Sinatra to Chrissie Hynde, Punk band Fear TUE to Cold Play, Rod Stewart to James Taylor. TUE It's clear that the song's enduring power lies in a TUE beautiful melody with a melancholic feel that sums up our TUE emotional ambivalence to the Christmas season. We hear from TUE those who have a special connection to the song. TUE Producer Lucy Lunt. TUE TUE 12:00 You and Yours b03m79cs (Listen) TUE The value of giving away money and time TUE TUE Radio 4's consumer programme normally looks at the way we TUE spend money, but this programme is purely about giving TUE things away. TUE TUE Antz Junction in Swinton, Greater Manchester, was created by TUE Martin Ainscough after selling his crane hire company for TUE 255 million pounds. It's a centre for anyone interested in TUE running a small business or charity to help people back into TUE work. TUE TUE The office space and bills are paid for, but anyone who uses TUE Antz Junction has to give something back, in skills or time. TUE TUE Winifred Robinson visits to see how it works and speak to TUE some of the people being pulled back into life after TUE thinking they were finished. TUE TUE To discuss the effect and motivation of giving away time and TUE money, Winifred is joined by one of the UK's wealthiest TUE entrepreneurs, a social historian and a charity pioneer. TUE TUE John Caudwell made his personal fortune from mobile phones. TUE He's thought to be the UK's highest individual taxpayer, and TUE has taken the Gates Foundation Pledge of giving away the TUE majority of his 1.5 billion pound wealth through TUE philanthropic projects. TUE TUE Camila Batmanghelidjh founded her first charity in her early TUE twenties, and runs Kids Company, which works with neglected TUE and abused children in London and Bristol. TUE TUE Hugh Cunningham is Emeritus Professor of Social History at TUE the University of Kent and has studied the history of TUE charitable giving. TUE TUE Presenter: Winifred Robinson TUE Producer: Joel Moors. TUE TUE 12:57 Weather b03m390q (Listen) TUE The latest weather forecast. TUE TUE 13:00 World at One b03m390s (Listen) TUE National and international news. Listeners can share their TUE views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato. TUE TUE 13:45 One to One b039cbsq (Listen) TUE Frank Gardner talks to Deborah Impiazzi TUE TUE Frank Gardner was shot several times by terrorists in Saudi TUE Arabia in 2004, and suffered damage to his spinal nerve. He TUE lost the use of his legs and is in a wheelchair for the rest TUE of his life. TUE TUE It was a catastrophic change to his life but having a TUE supportive partner and being able to go back to work and TUE continue with his career as a journalist for the BBC has TUE been a key factor in his own recovery. In his third and TUE final interview for the series 'One to One ', Frank meets TUE Deborah Impiazzi who lost her sight and with it her job and TUE her husband and explores how she is coping with this life TUE changing trauma. TUE TUE Producer: Perminder Khatkar. TUE TUE 14:00 The Archers b03m43g3 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday] TUE TUE 14:15 Afternoon Drama b01dj7sl (Listen) TUE Is Anything Broken? TUE TUE by Daniel Davies TUE TUE A real-time comedy drama about modern life, set during one TUE of the most stressful journeys known to humanity - the trip TUE from Arrivals Hall to Departure Gate. TUE TUE Directed by Marc Beeby TUE TUE Patrick, an architect en route to a major pitch, is TUE negotiating the airport obstacle course when he learns that TUE his son has had an accident at school. TUE TUE Already running late, Patrick and his assistant Oriane must TUE now juggle multiple simultaneous phone calls and security TUE scans, Blackberry emails and duty-free queues, as they cope TUE with Patrick's over-complicated work and home life. The TUE emotional rollercoaster of arranging childcare, managing a TUE marital breakdown, call centre delays and emergency TUE conferences are added to the gruelling airport triathlon - a TUE circle of hell newly opened for the super-connected of the TUE 21st century. TUE TUE This is Daniel Davies' first play for radio. TUE TUE Credits TUE Patrick: Adam Kotz TUE Oriane: Emerald O'Hanrahan TUE Oscar: Kasper Hilton-Hille TUE Maya: Tracy Wiles TUE Emily: Susie Riddell TUE Kimberley: Christine Absalom TUE Norbert: Don Gilet TUE Peter: Gerard McDermott TUE Tibor: Peter Hamilton-Dyer TUE Steward: Harry Livingstone TUE Tannoy: Beverly Tagg TUE Writer: Daniel Davies TUE Director: Marc Beeby TUE TUE 15:00 A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols b03m79cv (Listen) TUE Live from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge TUE TUE Hymn: Once in Royal David's City (desc. Cleobury) TUE Bidding Prayer read by the Dean TUE Ding, Dong! merrily on high (arr. Williamson) TUE First lesson: Genesis 3, vv 8-19 read by a Chorister TUE Jesus Christ the apple tree (Poston) TUE Hear the voice of the Bard (Musgrave - first performance, TUE commissioned by King's College) TUE Second lesson: Genesis 22 vv 15-18 read by a Choral Scholar TUE Love came down at Christmas (Morris, arr. Cleobury) TUE Joy to the world (Holford, arr. Keyte and Parrott) TUE Third lesson: Isaiah 9 vv 2, 6-7 read by a Member of the TUE College Staff TUE Illuminare, Jerusalem (Weir) TUE Hymn: Unto us is born a Son (arr. Willcocks) TUE Fourth lesson: Isaiah 11 vv 1-3a, 4a, 6-9 read by a TUE Representative of the City of Cambridge TUE The Lamb (Tavener) TUE A New Year Carol (Britten) TUE Fifth lesson: Luke 1 vv 26-35, 38 read by a representative TUE of the sister College at Eton TUE Angelus ad Virginem (arr. Cleobury) TUE Hymn to the Virgin (Britten) TUE Sixth lesson: Luke 2 vv 1, 3-7 read by the Chaplain TUE Away in a manger (arr. Willcocks) TUE A Boy was born (Britten) TUE Seventh lesson: Luke 2 vv 8-16 read by the Director of Music TUE The Shepherd's Carol (Chilcott) TUE Hymn: While shepherds watched (desc. Cleobury) TUE Eighth lesson: Matthew 2 vv 1-12 read by the Vice-Provost TUE Susanni (Bennett) TUE I saw three ships (arr. Preston) TUE Ninth lesson: John 1 vv 1-14 read by the Provost TUE Hymn: O come, all ye faithful (arr. Willcocks) TUE Collect and Blessing TUE Hymn: Hark, the Herald Angels Sing (desc. Cleobury) TUE TUE Organ voluntaries: TUE In dulci jubilo (BWV 729) (Bach) TUE Dieu parmi nous (Messiaen) [broadcast on Radio 3 on TUE Christmas Day only] TUE TUE Director of Music: Stephen Cleobury TUE Organ Scholar: Douglas Tang TUE Producer: Simon Vivian TUE TUE For many people around the world, A Festival of Nine Lessons TUE and Carols, live from the candlelit Chapel of King's TUE College, Cambridge, marks the beginning of Christmas. It is TUE based around nine Bible readings which tell the story of the TUE loving purposes of God. They are interspersed with carols TUE old and new, sung by the world-famous chapel choir who also TUE lead the congregation in traditional Christmas hymns. TUE TUE 16:30 Great Lives b03m79cx (Listen) TUE Series 32, Meg Rosoff on Isabella Bird TUE TUE At home in Edinburgh Isabella Bird was the very picture of TUE the ailing Victorian spinster but the moment her tiny feet TUE hit the gangway of a steamer or squeezed into the stirrups TUE of a horse she was transformed. Taking a doctor's advice to TUE travel for the sake of her health Isabella headed for TUE Australia, Japan, Korea and Hawaii before finding her TUE spiritual home amongst the most rotten scoundrels of TUE America's West. TUE TUE In 'Great Lives' the award-winning author of novels TUE including 'How I Live Now' and 'The Bride's Farewell', Meg TUE Rosoff explains why Isabella's transformation has inspired TUE her books and her love of horses. TUE TUE She's joined by David McClay from the National Library of TUE Scotland who maintains an archive of Isabella's colourful TUE correspondence from the farthest flung corners of the Earth. TUE TUE Credits TUE Presenter: Matthew Parris TUE Interviewed Guest: Meg Rosoff TUE Producer: Alasdair Cross TUE TUE 17:00 PM b03m79w8 (Listen) TUE Coverage and analysis of the day's news. TUE TUE 17:57 Weather b03mfrv3 (Listen) TUE The latest weather forecast. TUE TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News b03m390z (Listen) TUE The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 18:15 15 Minute Musical b03m79wb (Listen) TUE Series 8, It's a One-Hit-Wonderful Life TUE TUE Cast: Richie Webb, Dave Lamb and Pippa Evans. TUE Written by; Dave Cohen, David Quantick and Richie Webb TUE Music Composed, Performed and Arranged by: Richie Webb TUE Music Production: Matt Katz TUE Producer: Katie Tyrrell TUE TUE 18:30 Old Harry's Game b00wqfn8 (Listen) TUE Christmas Special 2010, Christmas Spirit TUE TUE The sitcom set in hell. Satan runs his infernal world with TUE the assistance of his chief demon, Scumspawn. Amongst those TUE he torments are Edith, a murdered historian, and Thomas, the TUE most repellent human who ever lived. TUE TUE Full of jokes and broad comedy the show is also a TUE philosophical study of the human condition, asking such TUE questions as whether man is inherently good or evil. TUE TUE In this episode Satan decides to ban Christmas. TUE TUE Written by Andy Hamilton TUE Producer: Paul Mayhew-Archer. TUE TUE Credits TUE Satan: Andy Hamilton TUE Edith: Annette Crosbie TUE Scumspawn: Robert Duncan TUE Thomas: Jimmy Mulville TUE Writer: Andy Hamilton TUE Producer: Paul Mayhew-Archer TUE Producer: Paul MayhewArcher TUE TUE 19:00 The Archers b03m7ffw (Listen) TUE There's Christmas joy at Ambridge View. Meanwhile Leonie TUE feels conflicted. TUE TUE 19:15 Front Row b03m7ffy (Listen) TUE People of the Year 2013, part 2 TUE TUE In new interviews, Mark Lawson talks to the people who have TUE had exceptional years in the world of arts, culture and TUE entertainment in 2013, in the second of two special TUE programmes. TUE TUE David Tennant talks about his roles in the two most highly TUE anticipated television events of 2013 - the Doctor Who 50th TUE anniversary special and the final episode of Broadchurch. He TUE discusses which accent he decided on for his roles in The TUE Escape Artist, the Politician's Husband and to play TUE Shakespeare's Richard II on stage. TUE TUE Dame Helen Mirren, who won the Evening Standard Best Actress TUE award for her role in The Audience, talks about playing TUE Queen Elizabeth II for the second time. TUE TUE Olivia Colman remembers the night she won two Bafta Awards, TUE for Accused and Twenty Twelve, and reveals her strategies TUE for avoiding unwanted attention from the paparazzi. TUE TUE Stephen Frears talks about working with Judi Dench and Steve TUE Coogan on his hit film Philomena and why he is drawn to make TUE films about real people and events. TUE TUE Director Clio Barnard won critical acclaim for her second TUE film The Selfish Giant, an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde TUE fairy tale. She discusses taking The Selfish Giant to the TUE Cannes Film Festival and explains why she will always work TUE with children and animals. TUE TUE Producer: Olivia Skinner. TUE TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama b03mt4k8 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today] TUE TUE 20:00 The Shared Experience b03m7fg0 (Listen) TUE Saving a life TUE TUE Fi Glover brings together a disparate group of people all TUE with one thing in common. This week people who have saved TUE someone's life discuss the experience and how it affects TUE them afterwards. TUE Producer: Maggie Ayre. TUE TUE 20:30 In Touch b03m7fg2 (Listen) TUE Blind identical twins Dan and Michael Smith TUE TUE In a special edition Peter White talks to Dan and Michael TUE Smith, identical twins who both have a rare genetic eye TUE condition which caused them both to lose over ninety per TUE cent of their sight within eighteen months of each other. TUE TUE They talk to Peter about the impact their rapid sight loss TUE had on their studies, their families and their TUE relationships. TUE TUE 21:00 All in the Mind b03m7fg4 (Listen) TUE How the brain responds to music could lead to exciting new TUE therapies. TUE TUE 21:30 The Making of the Modern Arab World b03m79cg (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] TUE TUE 21:58 Weather b03lkmdd (Listen) TUE The latest weather forecast. TUE TUE 22:00 The World Tonight b03m7fg6 (Listen) TUE 2013 was a year when feminism, or women's issues, were in TUE the media spotlight - from the serious to the bizarre. TUE TUE There was Lily Allen's feminist anthem (or not), the Jane TUE Austen banknote, and Mylie Cyrus twerking. Also, female TUE genital mutilation, where to wear the Niqab, twitter trolls TUE and growth of campaigns like The Everyday Sexism Project and TUE No More Page Three. So, have British women rediscovered TUE feminism? If so, is there a connection to the more obviously TUE revolutionary times of the late 60's and early 70's, when TUE young women fought for equal rights? TUE TUE Sheila Dillon went to Leeds to try and find answers. She TUE meets a woman whose campaigning was inspired by the murders TUE committed by Peter Sutcliffe, the so-called Yorkshire ripper TUE and discovers how much has changed in 30 years. She meets TUE students at Leeds university and even attends a pole dancing TUE class. She also talks to women footballers who play for the TUE Millwall Lionesses TUE TUE A distinguished panel of feminists - journalist, Dame Ann TUE Leslie, writer Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, and campaigner, TUE Laura Bates who runs the Everyday Sexism website - reflect TUE on the issues facing women in the UK. TUE TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime b03m7fg8 (Listen) TUE The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and TUE Disappeared, Episode 2 TUE TUE Translated by Rod Bradbury. TUE TUE Episode 2: TUE Allan and his new friend Julius receive an unwelcome visitor TUE at the station house in Byringe. TUE TUE Reader: Martin Jarvis TUE Abridger: Jeremy Osborne TUE Producer: Rosalynd Ward TUE A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 23:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage b03m43fx (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Monday] TUE TUE 23:30 Midnight Mass b03m7fgb (Listen) TUE Live from The Metropolitan Cathedral and Basilica of St Chad TUE in Birmingham. The Most Rev'd Bernard Longley, Archbishop of TUE Birmingham celebrates the First Mass of Christmas and gives TUE the homily. The choir of St Chad's under the direction of TUE David Saint sings carols to welcome the birth of Christ. TUE Organist: Nigel Morris. TUE TUE Producer: Stephen Shipley. TUE TUE WED WEDNESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2013 WED WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast b03m3938 (Listen) WED The latest shipping forecast. WED WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b03m393b (Listen) WED BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. WED WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast b03m393d (Listen) WED The latest shipping forecast. WED WED 05:30 News Briefing b03m393g (Listen) WED The latest news from BBC Radio 4. WED WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day b03m7md5 (Listen) WED A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the WED Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Chaplain to the Archbishop of WED Canterbury. WED WED 05:45 Farming Today b03m7md7 (Listen) WED Spring 2013 saw some of the worst snow the UK has seen in WED decades. Thousands of farm animals were buried under drifts. WED The only way to rescue them was by digging them out, by WED hand, with a spade. Gareth Wyn Jones, a Welsh sheep farmer WED became the public face of the disaster, after using social WED media to highlight the desperate struggle to rescue animals WED trapped deep beneath the snow. He was seen by TV audiences WED worldwide and earned the nickname the 'tweeting farmer'. He WED lost 80 of his Welsh Mountain sheep in total, but managed to WED rescue just as many. Caz Graham has been to visit Gareth on WED his farm near Conwy in North Wales to see how he - and his WED sheep - have recovered. WED WED Produced and presented by Caz Graham. WED WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day b03k6slx (Listen) WED Robin WED WED Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about WED our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. WED WED David Attenborough presents the robin. Christmas cards WED became popular around 1860 and robins often featured, WED carrying letters in their beaks or lifting door-knockers and WED were often referred to as the 'little postmen'. Until 1861, WED postmen wore red coats and were nick-named redbreasts or WED Robins, so the association between a familiar winter bird WED and the person who brought Christmas greetings was WED irresistible. WED WED 06:00 Archive on 4 b01pf5sv (Listen) WED What Big Teeth You Have... WED WED Once upon a time in Kassel, two brothers set out to record WED the traditional oral tales of their country, gathering WED uniquely Germanic stories from the peasant folk to be WED preserved, unchanged, throughout the ages. Except… that WED romantic idea of the Grimms is probably the biggest fairy WED tale of all. WED WED Children's author Anthony McGowan untangles the surprising WED origins of the Grimm fairy tales and explores how the WED stories have been used and abused, bowdlerized, distorted WED for propaganda, given voice to the oppressed and were reborn WED as therapy for sick children, before finally coming back to WED us as endless playground for our imaginations, and a WED boundless resource for storytellers. WED WED With expert insights from Jack Zipes, Valerie Paradiz, Hanne WED Castein, Maria Tatar and Bruno Bettleheim, classic readings WED and dramatisations of the Grimm tales and excerpts of Nazi WED era fairy tale propaganda never before heard on the BBC. WED WED Archive Compiled by Elizabeth Ann Duffy WED Produced by Liza Grieg and Mark Rickards WED WED 07:00 Frost on 4 b03mjlk1 (Listen) WED Over a period of more than forty years, David Frost moved WED from the forefront of the 60s satire boom, to make his mark WED as one of the UK's most prominent journalists, and latterly WED became the politicians' favourite interviewer. WED WED In recent years Frost celebrated his long career on BBC WED Radio 4 in three series where many wise and respected guests WED joined him to reflect on his memorable interviews. WED WED In this special tribute to the veteran broadcaster we WED feature selected highlights from these remarkable programmes WED exploring the symbiotic worlds of comedy, journalism, WED religion and politics with lively discussions and WED fascinating archive. WED WED Frost's career spanned journalism, comedy writing and WED daytime television presenting, including That Was The Week WED That Was, The Frost Report and Frost On Sunday. Since the WED mid-1960s, he has interviewed almost every prominent WED statesman, leader, dictator, entertainer and otherwise WED influential figure. He was perhaps the first interviewer of WED the television age to become as famous as the people he WED interviewed. His series of filmed encounters with former WED President Richard Nixon, over twelve days in 1977, made WED worldwide news; they, and the events leading up to them, WED have recently been the subject of the Hollywood movie WED Frost/Nixon. WED WED As Frost and guests discuss favourite moments from WED television interviews from the past forty years we reveal WED many other moments just as compelling as Nixon in the dozens WED of other interviews in his canon of work. WED WED 07:30 Stig at Fifty b03m7mdc (Listen) WED The classic children's book 'Stig of the Dump' has never WED been out of print since it was first published 50 years ago. WED At the heart of the story is an unlikely hero, a filthy WED caveman who communicates only in grunts and lives in an WED unstable chalk pit beyond the adult world of rules and WED conventions. He is the perfect friend for bored and restless WED eight year old Barney, a boy on the margins, nagged by his WED grandmother, lectured to by his bossy sister and ambushed by WED a gang of ruffian older boys, the Snargets. WED WED The award-winning children's author David Almond, whose own WED book 'Skellig' also features a grubby and inarticulate WED other-worldly hero, explores the appeal of Stig half a WED century after publication. He meets the book's author Clive WED King, who turns 90 next year, and discovers why readers are WED still so fascinated by Stig the prehistoric WED part-man/part-boy. WED WED Almond recalls the electrifying effect the book had on his WED class of Tyneside children when he worked as a teacher and WED acknowledges the profound influence on his own fiction. He WED meets children for whom Stig is still a natural hero, and WED adult devotees like the poet and author of 'Edgelands' Paul WED Farley, natural history writer Patrick Barkham, and the WED former chair of the National Trust Dame Fiona Reynolds, who WED all acknowledge the influence of Stig on their own lives and WED careers. WED WED And in an age where children are rarely allowed to roam WED free, as Barney once did, he considers what contemporary WED children have lost fifty years after Stig first emerged from WED the dump. WED WED Producers: Caroline Beck, Andy Cartwright WED A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 08:00 Radio 4 Comedy Advent Calendar b03m7mdf (Listen) WED On Christmas Day gorge on a bumper edited compilation of all WED 24 'windows' from the Radio 4 Comedy Advent Calendar WED featuring some of your favourite presenters, performers and WED comedians. WED WED Produced by Lyndsay Fenner and Sam Michell. WED WED 09:00 Christmas Service b03m7mdh (Listen) WED Shepherds' Delight - A Christmas celebration from Chester WED Cathedral reflecting on the enthusiasm of the shepherds WED despite their lowly reputation in the eyes of the world. WED Their haste to get to the place of Jesus's birth testifies WED to their spiritual preparedness and eagerness for the coming WED of the Messiah. With meditations from the Rt Revd Peter WED Forster, Bishop of Chester, and traditional and modern WED carols by Peter Warlock, David Willcocks, Carl Rutti and WED Bryan Kelly sung by the Cathedral Choir with the Phoenix WED Brass Ensemble under the direction of Philip Rushworth. WED Organist: Benjamin Chewter. Producer: Stephen Shipley. WED WED 09:45 Book of the Week b03m7mdk (Listen) WED Love, Nina: Despatches From Family Life, Sometimes You Just WED Have to Lie WED WED Mary Poppins meets Adrian Mole in Nina Stibbe's letters from WED the heart of 1980s literary London. Alan Bennett's handyman WED skills come to the rescue and Nina finds herself in a WED situation where she just has to lie. WED WED Read by Rebekah Staton WED Abridged by Penny Leicester WED Produced by Gemma Jenkins. WED WED 10:00 Woman's Hour b03m7mdm (Listen) WED Nigel Slater; Evan Davis; Puppini Sisters WED WED Jane and Jenni open up the Woman's Hour studio and invite WED you in to spend Christmas morning with them and other Radio WED 4 presenters Evan Davis, John Humphrys and Sheila Dillon. WED They're joined by Nigel Slater to give last-minute tips for WED a tasty Christmas dinner. Gyles Brandreth leads the party WED games, while Victoria Moore gives advice on some cocktails WED to help the day go with a swing and there's music from the WED Puppini Sisters. We'll also be hearing from the woman in WED charge of a British Antarctic Survey research base about her WED Christmas at the South Pole and we visit The Reverend Canon WED Katrina Scott at her parish in Coventry. And David WED Attenborough introduces Tweet of the Day...the robin. WED WED Presenters: Jane Garvey and Jenni Murray WED Producer: Steven Williams WED Output Editor: Jane Thurlow. WED WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama b03mt7l4 (Listen) WED The Tales of Beatrix Potter, Episode 3 WED WED Adapted and Directed by Sean Grundy WED Produced by Sally Harrison WED A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 11:00 Woman's Hour b03m7pzl (Listen) WED Nigel Slater; Evan Davis; Puppini Sisters WED WED 11:30 Believe It! b03m7p12 (Listen) WED Series 2, Danger Man WED WED Jon Canter's "radiography" of Richard Wilson returns for a WED second series. WED WED Celebrity autobiographies are everywhere. Richard Wilson has WED always said he'd never write one. Based on glimmers of WED truth, Believe It is the hilarious, bizarre, revealing (and, WED most importantly, untrue) celebrity autobiography of Richard WED Wilson. WED WED He narrates the series with his characteristic dead-pan WED delivery, weaving in and out of dramatised scenes from his WED fictional life-story. He plays a heavily exaggerated version WED of himself: a Scots actor and national treasure, unmarried, WED private, passionate about politics, theatre and Manchester WED United (all true), who's a confidant of the powerful and has WED survived childhood poverty, a drunken father, years of WED fruitless grind, too much success, monstrosity, addiction, WED charity work and fierce rivalry with Sean Connery and Ian WED McKellan (not true). WED WED The title - in case you hadn't spotted - is an unashamed WED reference his famous catchphrase. WED WED Cast: WED Richard Wilson......................himself WED Ian McKellan.........................himself WED Young Richard.......................tba WED Mother/Muriel Grant..............Arabella Weir WED Young Murray........................tba WED Old Murray/Marcos................David Tennant WED LA kid....................................tba WED WED Other parts played by members of the cast. WED WED Written by Jon Canter WED WED Produced and Directed by Clive Brill WED A Pacificus Production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 12:00 With Great Pleasure b03m7p14 (Listen) WED With Great Pleasure at Christmas 2013 WED WED John Lloyd is joined by Hugh Laurie, Miriam Margolyes, WED Julian Rhind-Tutt and Howard Goodall to perform his WED favourite pieces of writing, comedy and music. A special WED Christmas edition of With Great Pleasure recorded in front WED of an audience at the BBC Radio Theatre. WED WED John Lloyd is a comedy guru, the brains behind QI and the WED producer of Blackadder - and Hugh Laurie revisits his WED sublime portrayal of the Prince Regent from Blackadder the WED Third in a couple of previously unperformed pieces written WED by John. His other choices include a performance by all the WED cast of a wickedly funny short story by Saki and extracts WED from Hay Fever by Noel Coward, in which John made his stage WED debut while at school. WED WED And taking us through John's life in comedy are sound WED archive extracts from Julian and Sandy from Round The Horne, WED Peter Cook from Beyond the Fringe, and Humphrey Lyttelton WED from I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. WED WED Books that have been important in John's life include The WED Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff, How The Mind Works WED by Steven Pinker, The Man of Property by John Galsworthy and WED poetry collections ranging from Auden to Alice Oswald. Words WED of wisdom from Douglas Adams and Viz Top Tips are also WED quoted. WED WED Howard Goodall plays the song he composed for John's WED wedding, which is sung by John's daughter. WED WED Producer Beth O'Dea. WED WED 13:00 News b03mygp9 (Listen) WED The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. WED WED 13:13 Weather b03m393q (Listen) WED The latest weather forecast. WED WED 13:15 Lives in a Landscape b03m7p16 (Listen) WED Series 15, Christmas at Sandringham WED WED As the Royal Family sit down to their festive dinner on the WED Queen's Norfolk estate, Alan Dein invites Radio 4 listeners WED to spend Christmas at a rather different Sandringham - the WED Sandringham Hotel in Weston super Mare. WED WED Alan joins the seafront hotel's 'Turkey & Tinsel' WED celebrations as three coachloads of revellers - mostly WED retired people - head south to celebrate Christmas in WED November. WED WED "We're not the bees' knees, we're not the finest hotel in WED Weston super Mare..." says Ken Perrett, the hotel's owner. WED And it's true - the hotel is a little rough around the WED edges. Yet Ken must be getting something right - nearly a WED hundred people have checked in for five days of early WED festivities. WED WED Amidst the laughter, turkey and tinsel, a bittersweet story WED emerges - as Alan discovers many are here celebrating WED without the ones they love. WED WED Producer: Laurence Grissell. WED WED 13:45 One to One b01s89mk (Listen) WED Ritula Shah talks to Satish Kumar WED WED Ritula Shah was brought up as a Jain, which has renunciation WED as one of its central tenets. Ritula has always been WED fascinated by this idea and in this series she wants to WED explore what it means to give up something that still has WED value to those around you. Why do it? Where does it leave WED your relationships with those people whose choices you will WED have contradicted or undermined by your own? What happens WED when you waver (as surely you must)? WED WED In this first programme she explores the theory with ex-Jain WED monk, Satish Kumar. He explains his own personal journey to WED renunciation of both the material and the spiritual while WED still a young man and why he ultimately rejected it as a way WED of improving the world. WED WED Producer: Maggie Ayre. WED WED 14:00 The Archers b03m7ffw (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday] WED WED 14:15 Afternoon Drama b03m7p9z (Listen) WED National Velvet, Episode 1 WED WED Fourteen year old Velvet is mad about horses. She knows WED 'there are pleasures earlier than love. Earlier than love, WED nearer heaven' in the form of horses. WED WED When she wins a piebald horse in a raffle, she recognises WED he's something special. He can easily clear five-foot WED fences, and he'll do anything for her. Soon, she and WED butcher's assistant Mi have their sights set on the biggest WED race in England. But how can a girl in 1930s England get WED near Aintree? WED WED Peter Flannery rescues National Velvet from Hollywood, WED returning 14 year old Velvet to her Sussex butcher's family WED in the 1930s. A welcome return for Enid Bagnold's strange, WED inventive fairytale about a young amateur girl rider who WED takes an untrained horse over the stiffest course in the WED world and wins. WED WED Sound design: Eloise Whitmore WED Dramatised by Peter Flannery WED Director/Producer: Melanie Harris WED Executive Producer: Polly Thomas WED WED A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED Credits WED Velvet: Sophie Rundle WED Mi Donald: John Sessions WED Mrs Brown: Alison Steadman WED Mr Brown: Jonathan Keeble WED Young Donald: Dylan Issberner WED Malvolia: Tamsin Topolski WED Meredith: Charity Wakefield WED Edwina: Charity Wakefield WED Blacksmith: Sam Lupton WED Groom: Sam Lupton WED Steward: Sam Lupton WED Director: Melanie Harris WED Producer: Melanie Harris WED Adaptor: Peter Flannery WED Author: Enid Bagnold WED WED 15:00 HM The Queen b03m7plk (Listen) WED The Queen's Christmas message to the Commonwealth and the WED nation, followed by the national anthem. WED WED 15:05 News b03mygpc (Listen) WED The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. WED WED 15:15 Pick of the Year b03m7plm (Listen) WED Pick of the Year 2013 WED WED The BBC in London has moved to a brand new building and WED Sandi Toksvig unpacks the boxes of BBC Radio, choosing her WED favourite moments from 2013. WED WED Her choices include a newsreader's nightmare with a tongue WED twister of a name containing 36 letters and 19 syllables; an WED inspirational 16 year old; an unwelcome studio pest; a love WED story and a tennis player, a man's ear and Morecombe and WED Wise making beautiful music together. WED WED In Britten's Footsteps - Radio 4 WED The Chris Evans Breakfast Show: Yodelling Woman - Radio 2 WED News read by Neil Sleat - Radio 4 WED The Unsent Letters of Erik Satie - Radio 4 WED Shelagh Fogarty - 5Live WED Mark Thomas: The Manifesto - Radio 4 WED The Danny Baker Show - 5Live WED Today Programme: The Reduced Shakespeare Company - Radio 4 WED Hello, I'm Half-Caste - Radio 4 Extra WED Saturday Drama: Air Force One - Radio 4 WED That Mitchell & Webb Sound - Radio 4 WED Who is the Doctor? - Radio 2 WED Afternoon Drama: Love, War and Trains - Radio 4 WED Return to Japan - Radio 4 WED PM: Malala Yousafzai - Radio 4 WED WED If there's something you'd like to suggest for next week's WED programme, please e-mail potw@bbc.co.uk. WED WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed b03m7plp (Listen) WED Santa Helpers; Christmas Tradition WED WED A Thinking Allowed special on our construction of Christmas WED tradition. What does Christmas mean to you - a visit to WED Santa's grotto with the little ones, the opening of presents WED before breakfast, a house festooned with sparkly lights and WED wreaths of ivy? Or is your Christmas an understated and low WED key affair? Perhaps you don't even recognise it for cultural WED or religious reasons. WED WED Professor Philip Hancock discusses his study into the WED 'elite' squad of Santa helpers who dispense seasonal cheer WED and gifts to children in department stores up and down the WED country. How do they maintain their 'ho, ho hos' in the face WED of 500 length queues? What special challenges does this WED unique branch of interactive service work present? Also, WED Professor Jennifer Mason talks about her research into how WED people create the Christmas experience, drawing on the WED rituals of their childhoods and negotiating conflicting WED traditions. The writer, Antony Lerman, joins the discussion. WED WED Producer: Jayne Egerton. WED WED 16:30 Ed Reardon's Week b01pfwhg (Listen) WED Ed Reardon at Christmas WED WED It Started in August WED WED Celebrate Christmas with Radio 4's favourite curmudgeonly WED author, Ed Reardon, and his faithful companion Elgar. WED WED It's Christmas Day and where is Ed Reardon spending it? The WED scepticism of his writing class back in August about where WED Ed would be hanging his stocking, wasn't entirely misplaced, WED and receiving a Christmas card from one's girlfriend signed WED without a kiss and her surname added in brackets probably WED doesn't bode well. However, all is not lost as Ed's jocular WED round robin email to his family inviting himself to join WED their Christmas celebrations wasn't all in vain - there was WED at least one member of the family who didn't bounce it back. WED So, following assurances that his requirements would be WED minimal, his levels of merriment would be Dionysian and a WED small caveat about what he regards as permissible Christmas WED viewing Ed is encouraged to think that he won't be spending WED Christmas alone. Or he could be looking at a day with only WED Elgar, an Oxo cube and a cinnamon stick. WED WED Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas WED Produced by Dawn Ellis. WED WED Credits WED Ed Reardon: Christopher Douglas WED Fiona: Jenny Agutter WED Olive: Stephanie Cole WED Jaz Milvain: Philip Jackson WED Pearl: Rita May WED Ping: Barunka O'Shaughnessy WED Stan: Geoffrey Whitehead WED Writer: Andrew Nickolds WED Writer: Christopher Douglas WED Producer: Dawn Ellis WED WED 17:00 Radio 4 Comedy Advent Calendar b03m7mdf (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] WED WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News b03m393n (Listen) WED The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. WED WED 18:15 15 Minute Musical b03m7pzp (Listen) WED Series 8, Julian and the Assanging Technicolour Download WED WED A series of satirical, barbed, bittersweet fifteen-minute WED comedy musicals. WED WED Cast: Richie Webb, Dave Lamb and Jess Robinson WED Written by: Dave Cohen, David Quantick and Richie Webb WED Music Composed, Performed and Arranged by: Richie Webb WED Music Production: Matt Katz WED Producer: Katie Tyrrell. WED WED 18:30 What Does the K Stand For? b03m7pzs (Listen) WED The First Noel WED WED The Amos family plan to fly out to celebrate Christmas in WED Lagos, Nigeria. WED WED Written by Jonathan Harvey with Stephen K Amos WED Produced by Colin Anderson. WED WED Credits WED Stephen K Amos: Stephen K Amos WED Young Stephen: Shaquille Ali-Yebuah WED Stephanie Amos: Fatou Sohna WED Virginia Amos: Ellen Thomas WED Vincent Amos: Don Gilet WED Miss Collins: Gemma Whelan WED Check-in attendant: Harry Jardine WED Producer: Colin Anderson WED Writer: Jonathan Harvey WED Writer: Stephen K Amos WED WED 19:00 The Archers b03m7pzv (Listen) WED Tom reveals his surprise gift, and the Grundys welcome a WED Christmas guest. WED WED 19:15 Front Row b03m7pzx (Listen) WED Sir Derek Jacobi WED WED In conversation with Mark Lawson, Sir Derek Jacobi looks WED back over a career that has spanned half a century. WED WED It was the role of the damaged Roman emperor Claudius, in WED the 1976 BBC television drama serial, I Claudius, that WED brought Sir Derek public fame. However he had already WED attracted attention in theatrical circles when in the early WED 1960s, at the age of 23, he was invited to become one of the WED founder members of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre. WED WED Sir Derek talks to Mark about the support he received from WED his non-theatrical parents when he decided to make a life WED for himself on the stage. He reflects on the advice he's WED been given by distinguished directors, and why he thinks his WED face came between him and the role of Hannibal Lecter. He WED shares the experience of being struck by stage fright at the WED height of his success in the theatre, and discovering over WED dinner with Margaret Thatcher that the then Prime Minister WED felt that when it came to connecting with an audience they WED had much in common. WED WED Producer Ekene Akalawu. WED WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama b03mt7l4 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today] WED WED 20:00 Start the Week b03gv7xm (Listen) WED Andrew Marr on poet George Herbert WED WED Andrew Marr returns to Start the Week for a special WED programme on the early 17th century poet George Herbert. His WED English poetry was never published in his lifetime, but he WED hoped it would act as consolation 'of any dejected poor WED soul', and his latest biographer John Drury argues that with WED its focus on love over theology, his poetry still speaks to WED and for modern readers. The composer Sir John Tavener and WED the writer Jeanette Winterson discuss prayer in a secular WED age, and the power of music and words to soothe the soul. WED WED This programme was recorded before the sad announcement of WED Sir John Tavener's death. WED WED Producer: Katy Hickman. WED WED 20:45 Jared Diamond: How Geography Creates History WED b03mtcvj (Listen) WED In this talk, recorded in his study in Los Angeles, the WED geographer and polymath Jared Diamond argues that apparently WED slight differences in geography can have profound WED consequences for the culture and history of nations. WED WED He takes as his examples Britain and Japan. "When one WED examines a globe," he says, "one's first impression is that WED no country would be more similar to the United Kingdom than WED is Japan. Japan and the British Isles look like mirror WED images of each other, as the big archipelagos flanking the WED Eurasian continent respectively to the east and to the WED west." WED WED And yet, he argues, "it would be hard to find two modern WED industrial societies more dissimilar to each other than are WED Japan and Britain." The comparison, he argues, "reveals the WED big effects of even modest geographic differences." WED WED Producer: Sheila Cook. WED WED 21:00 Archive on 4 b015bj1z (Listen) WED The Oldest Music Hall WED WED "A palace of entertainment" - so Paul Merton, Presenter, WED describes the Leeds City Varieties music hall . WED He delves into the BBC archives to examine the life and WED death of Britain's music hall tradition in a funny and WED affectionate look at the City Varieties - once one of the WED most famous theatres in the world - as a result of 30 years WED transmission of The Good Old Days TV show. WED WED With fresh interviews with former Good Old Days stars Ken WED Dodd, Barry Cryer and Roy Hudd, plus original archive clips WED of music hall stars and Good Old Days celebrities - this WED Archive on 4 documentary examines how the City Varieties WED mirrored the rise and fall of variety - and with a new multi WED million pound facelift - discovers whether such Yorkshire WED optimism in the future of this particular variety theatre is WED well founded. WED WED Paul Merton is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide to WED the subject - not only has he performed at the theatre - he WED also is a fan of variety and its more rumbustious, red WED blooded predecessor, music hall. He discovers how the City WED Varieties launched the careers of international stars such WED as Frankie Vaughan and Ken Dodd - and also what made the WED iconic "Good Old Days" a staple of BBC tv schedules for WED three decades. He hears showbiz anecdotes, scandals and WED finds out just why twenty first century theatre-goers are WED enjoying a new appetite for variety as a result of the WED current TV talent shows. WED WED 21:58 Weather b03m393q (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 13:13 today] WED WED 22:00 The Reunion b03m7slh (Listen) WED The Fast Show WED WED The first episode of The Fast Show in 1994 had twenty seven WED sketches in just half an hour. Charlie Higson and Paul WED Whitehouse, former writers for Harry Enfield, created a WED concept which re-invigorated the sketch show format and WED crammed it with catch-phrases. WED WED In this special Christmas night edition of The Reunion, Sue WED MacGregor brings the cast back together to reflect on the WED series which launched their careers. WED WED Higson and Whitehouse recruited young stand-up comedians WED whose worked they liked, such as Caroline Aherne , John WED Thomson , Simon Day and Felix Dexter, alongside actors such WED as Mark Williams and Paul Shearer. This process involved WED each 'auditioning' their proposed character in front of the WED ensemble. WED WED Competitive Dad, the obscene Suits You tailors, Jazz Club, WED Does My Bum Look Big in This?, and the touching repressed WED romance of Ted and Ralph, scored a very high strike rate for WED introducing catchphrases and comedy characters to schools WED and work places around the country. WED WED Some characters prompted spin-offs, such as Swiss Tony WED (Higson) the coiffed car salesman who compares everything to WED 'making love to a beautiful woman', and football pundit Ron WED Manager (Whitehouse). WED WED We also hear from collaborators such as Kathy Burke, Harry WED Enfield, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, as well as TV critic WED Matthew Norman who wrote a famously fierce review of the WED first series. WED WED Producer: Peter Curran WED Series Producer: David Prest WED WED A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime b03m7slk (Listen) WED The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and WED Disappeared, Episode 3 WED WED Translated by Rod Bradbury. WED WED Episode 3: WED At the station house in Byringe, Allan and Julius's troubles WED are only just beginning. WED WED Reader: Martin Jarvis WED Abridger: Jeremy Osborne WED WED Producer: Rosalynd Ward WED A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 23:00 Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere b01r527b (Listen) WED London Below WED WED Beneath the streets of London there is another London. A WED subterranean labyrinth of sewers and abandoned tube WED stations. A somewhere that is Neverwhere. WED WED An act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his WED ordinary life into a subterranean world under the streets of WED London. Stopping to help an injured girl on a London street, WED Richard is thrust from his workaday existence into the WED strange world of London Below. WED WED So begins a curious and mysterious adventure deep beneath WED the streets of London, a London of shadows where the tube WED cry of 'Mind the Gap' takes on new meaning; for the WED inhabitants of this murky domain are those who have fallen WED through the gaps in society, the dispossessed, the homeless. WED Here Richard meets the Earl of Earl's Court, Old Bailey and WED Hammersmith, faces a life-threatening ordeal at the hands of WED the Black Friars, comes face to face with Great Beast of WED London, and encounters an Angel. Called Islington. WED WED Joining the mysterious girl named Door and her companions, WED the Marquis de Carabas and the bodyguard, Hunter, Richard WED embarks on an extraordinary quest to escape from the WED clutches of the fiendish assassins Croup and Vandemar and to WED discover who ordered them to murder her family. All the WED while trying to work out how to get back to his old life in WED London Above. WED WED A six part adaption of Neil Gaiman's novel adapted by Dirk WED Maggs, sees James McAvoy as Richard lead a stellar cast WED which includes Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Sophie WED Okonedo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Anthony WED Head, David Schofield, Bernard Cribbins, Romola Garai, WED George Harris, Andrew Sachs, Lucy Cohu, Johnny Vegas, Paul WED Chequer, Don Gilet and Abdul Salis. WED WED Credits WED Richard Mayhew: James McAvoy WED Lady Door: Natalie Dormer WED Marquis de Carabas: David Harewood WED Hunter: Sophie Okonedo WED Croup: Anthony Head WED Vandemar: David Schofield WED Old Bailey: Bernard Cribbins WED Jessica: Romola Garai WED Gary: Paul Chequer WED Anaesthesia: Yasmin Page WED Lord Ratspeaker: Johnny Vegas WED Iliaster: Paul Stonehouse WED Varney: Stephen Marcus WED Letting Agent: Stephen Marcus WED Sylvia: Karen Archer WED Lord Portico: John Glover WED Mr Figgis: Neil Gaiman WED Fop (with no name): Neil Gaiman WED Writer: Neil Gaiman WED Director: Dirk Maggs WED Producer: Heather Larmour WED WED THU THURSDAY 26 DECEMBER 2013 THU THU 00:00 Midnight News b03m394q (Listen) THU The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. THU Followed by Weather. THU THU 00:15 Christmas Meditation b03m7twp (Listen) THU A reflection on the meaning of Christmas with author and THU columnist Peter Hitchens. THU THU For many, Christmas Day is a special time of celebration THU with family and friends after weeks of excited preparation. THU For others, it's a time of solitude to be dreaded following THU weeks of commercial and social pressures. THU THU As another Christmas Day draws to a close, Peter Hitchens THU draws on his own memories and experiences as he reflects on THU the questions: What was it all for? and Was it all worth it? THU THU 00:30 Book of the Week b03m7mdk (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday] THU THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast b03m394s (Listen) THU The latest shipping forecast. THU THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b03m394v (Listen) THU BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. THU THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast b03m394x (Listen) THU The latest shipping forecast. THU THU 05:30 News Briefing b03m394z (Listen) THU The latest news from BBC Radio 4. THU THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day b03m7twr (Listen) THU A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the THU Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Chaplain to the Archbishop of THU Canterbury. THU THU 05:45 Farming Today b03m7twt (Listen) THU After snow and freezing temperatures hit farms in Cumbria THU and Wales at the height of lambing season in the Spring, THU Andrew Ward was moved to help farmers who were running THU desparately low on feed. From his Lincolnshire farm he THU co-ordinated collections of forage and straw, calling the THU project 'Forage Aid'. He shares his experiences with Sarah THU Swadling and describes how it felt to meet some of the THU people he helped. THU THU Produced and presented by Sarah Swadling. THU THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day b03k6t6c (Listen) THU Red Kite THU THU Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about THU our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. THU THU David Attenborough presents the red kite. After centuries of THU persecution red kites were almost wiped out but in 1989 a THU project to restore the red kite back into the wild began. THU Since then kite numbers have soared, so that now these birds THU are foraging even around the outer suburbs of London. THU THU 06:00 Today b03m7z06 (Listen) THU Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; THU Weather; Thought for the Day. THU Tim Berners-Lee THU THU 09:00 In Our Time b03m7z08 (Listen) THU The Medici THU THU Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Medici family, who THU dominated Florence's political and cultural life for three THU centuries. The House of Medici came to prominence in Italy THU in the fifteenth century as a result of the wealth they had THU built up through banking. With the rise of Cosimo de' THU Medici, they became Florence's most powerful and influential THU dynasty, effectively controlling the city's government. THU Their patronage of the arts turned Florence into a leading THU centre of the Renaissance and the Medici Bank was one of the THU most successful institutions of its day. As well as THU producing four popes, members of the House of Medici married THU into various European royal families. THU THU With: THU THU Evelyn Welch THU Professor of Renaissance Studies at King's College, THU University of London THU THU Robert Black THU Professor of Renaissance History at the University of Leeds THU THU Catherine Fletcher THU Lecturer in Public History at the University of Sheffield THU THU Producer: Victoria Brignell. THU THU 09:45 Book of the Week b03m7z0b (Listen) THU Love, Nina: Despatches From Family Life, Being a Student Is THU Great THU THU Mary Poppins meets Adrian Mole in Nina Stibbe's letters from THU the heart of 1980s literary London. Nina starts college, has THU an uncomfortable theatre trip and frets about a romance. THU THU Read by Rebekah Staton THU Abridged by Penny Leicester THU Produced by Gemma Jenkins. THU THU 10:00 Woman's Hour b03m7z0d (Listen) THU The Woman's Hour Archive Collection THU THU Jenni Murray presents highlights from the new Woman's Hour THU online archive, outstanding women from sixty three years of THU the programme. From a young Mary Quant and Judi Dench, to THU Marguerite Patten, Winnie Mandela, Nina Simone and Hillary THU Clinton. Jenni and her guest, Sue MacGregor, discuss their THU memories of presenting the programme. Sue recalls drinking THU gin with Bette Davis and borrowing Margaret Thatcher's THU heated rollers and you can hear Jenni's interview with Mrs THU Thatcher which one reviewer described as 'the only time ever THU my radio had frozen over'. THU THU Presenter: Jenni Murray THU Producer: Louise Corley. THU THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama b03mtfrj (Listen) THU The Tales of Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Mr Toad THU THU Adapted and Directed by Sean Grundy THU Produced by Sally Harrison THU A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4. THU THU 11:00 Crossing Continents b03m7z0g (Listen) THU Brazil: Fighting Slavery THU THU Brazil's anti-slavery hit-squads are unique. Since 1995, THU these committed bands of labour inspectors, accompanied by THU heavily armed police, have rescued 46,000 people deemed to THU be working as slaves. But Brazil's legal definition of THU slavery is contentious. It includes degrading conditions of THU work, which campaigners say amount to coercion. Some THU employers reject that. And now the stakes have been raised THU by proposals to confiscate land from bosses found to be THU flouting the anti-slavery standards. In a journey that takes THU her from cattle country on the edge of the Amazon, to the THU parched, rocky badlands of the north-east, Linda Pressly THU meets the campaigners, employers and politicians on both THU sides of the argument, and hears powerful testimony from the THU workers trapped in the middle. THU THU Producer: Stephen Hounslow. THU THU 11:30 The Lost Tapes of Orson Welles b03m7z0j (Listen) THU Episode 2 THU THU This two-part programme is a revealing series of informal THU conversations with the man best known as America's great THU cultural provocateur and one of the finest of filmmakers. THU THU Director Orson Welles was asked to write his life story in THU his later years. He declined but was convinced by his friend THU Henry Jaglom to discuss his life over a weekly lunch at THU their favourite Hollywood restaurant, Ma Maison. The THU hundreds of tapes, recorded from 1983 to 1985, reveal THU extraordinary, frank, conversations between Welles and the THU independent director Jaglom. THU THU The tapes gathered dust in a shoebox in the corner of THU Jaglom's production office for over thirty years - until THU now, but this programme provides an opportunity to hear the THU amazing material they contain for the first time. THU THU Welles talks intimately, disclosing personal secrets and THU reflecting on the people of the time. At times the tapes THU display the great film maker as a world champion grudge THU keeper, rather different from the amiable character who THU appeared in interviews when he was alive. As we hear, he THU hated the way Charlton Heston always called Touch of Evil THU (directed by Welles) a 'minor film'. Welles also found the THU work of fellow directors, Woody Allen, Charlie Chaplin and THU Alfred Hitchcock, difficult to embrace. But, as we hear, he THU had some unexpected enthusiasms. THU THU Presenter Christopher Frayling reveals the great director THU free to be irreverent and Welles is sometimes cynical and THU romantic, sentimental but never boring, and often wickedly THU entertaining. The programmes also feature the thoughts of THU fellow diner Henry Jaglom, film author Peter Biskind, as THU well as actor and Welles scholar Simon Callow. THU THU Producer: John Sugar THU A Sugar production for BBC Radio 4. THU THU 12:00 You and Yours b03m7z0l (Listen) THU It's Boxing Day and a time to draw breath. THU THU You've done the big Christmas thing and we thought maybe THU your mind is on the future - thinking about the year ahead. THU THU Could this be the year you fulfil that dream of setting time THU a side to improve yourself. THU THU You might want to turn your wilderness into a garden of THU eden, perhaps you'd like to play an instrument: THU THU Or you might learn a language, or sort out your finances or THU get fit, or learn how to cook. THU THU Today - we've got together some people who've managed to THU learn something new, something that has really changed their THU lives for the better - and we'll be hearing from the THU fertility specialist Professor Robert Winston, the historian THU Sir Max Hastings and Alvyn Hall the financial expert. THU THU We think they'll inspire you... THU THU 12:57 Weather b03m3951 (Listen) THU The latest weather forecast. THU THU 13:00 World at One b03m3956 (Listen) THU National and international news. Listeners can share their THU views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato. THU THU 13:45 One to One b01sdg27 (Listen) THU Ritula Shah talks to Mark Boyle THU THU Ritula Shah was brought up as a Jain, which has renunciation THU as one of its central tenets. Ritula has always been THU fascinated by this idea and in this series she wants to THU explore what it means to give up something that still has THU value to those around you. Why do it? Where does it leave THU your relationships with those people whose choices you will THU have contradicted or undermined by your own? What happens THU when you waver (as surely you must)? THU THU In this second episode in a series of three programmes, she THU talks to Mark Boyle who lived without money for almost three THU years. What did he think it could achieve? THU THU Producer: Maggie Ayre. THU THU 14:00 The Archers b03m7pzv (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday] THU THU 14:15 Afternoon Drama b03mtfrl (Listen) THU National Velvet, Episode 2 THU THU Fourteen year old Velvet is mad about horses. She knows THU 'there are pleasures earlier than love. Earlier than love, THU nearer heaven' in the form of horses. THU THU When she wins a piebald horse in a raffle, she recognises THU he's something special. He can easily clear five-foot THU fences, and he'll do anything for her. Soon, she and THU butcher's assistant Mi have their sights set on the biggest THU race in England. But how can a girl in 1930s England get THU near Aintree? THU THU Peter Flannery rescues National Velvet from Hollywood, THU returning 14 year old Velvet to her Sussex butcher's family THU in the 1930s. A welcome return for Enid Bagnold's strange, THU inventive fairytale about a young amateur girl rider who THU takes an untrained horse over the stiffest course in the THU world and wins. THU THU Author: Enid Bagnold THU Dramatised by Peter Flannery THU Director/Producer: Melanie Harris THU Executive Producer: Polly Thomas THU A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4. THU THU Credits THU Velvet: Sophie Rundle THU Mi Donald: John Sessions THU Mrs Brown: Alison Steadman THU Mr Brown: Jonathan Keeble THU Young Donald: Dylan Issberner THU Malvolia: Tamsin Topolski THU Meredith: Charity Wakefield THU Edwina: Charity Wakefield THU Blacksmith: Sam Lupton THU Groom: Sam Lupton THU Steward: Sam Lupton THU Director: Melanie Harris THU Producer: Melanie Harris THU Adaptor: Peter Flannery THU Author: Enid Bagnold THU THU 15:00 Open Country b03m7z9z (Listen) THU Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire THU THU Helen Mark visits Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire to talk THU about how the estate's shoot forms part of the landscape THU management and a desire for locally-sourced produce. It also THU provides the farm shop and restaurant with festive fare, THU including pigeon burgers. THU THU James Birch is Doddington's owner, (his wife's family have THU owned the estate continuously for around four hundred THU years). Shooting has always been part of life here and even THU now there's a full-time gamekeeper, who doubles as security THU guard and fly-tipping preventer. THU THU The game from the shoot is used in the restaurant and is THU cooked by Chris Maclure, senior sous-chef, who makes sure THU nothing goes to waste. Helen talks to university lecturer- THU turned-florist Rachel Petheram, who loves the challenge of THU using only locally-grown flowers and herbs in her Christmas THU displays. THU THU Helen also goes beating with Will Birkett, a young THU gamekeeper preparing for a day's shooting with his gun dogs. THU THU Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery. THU THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal b03m3kr0 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 on Sunday] THU THU 15:30 Open Book b03m3nhy (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday] THU THU 16:00 The Film Programme b03m7zb1 (Listen) THU Teenagers on Film THU THU Francine Stock explores the spirit of the teenager on film THU through the decades with Kim Newman, Pamela Hutchinson, THU Hadley Freeman and Charlie Lyne. From Andy Hardy to The THU Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen, the programme charts the THU rise of the teenager from pre-war in-betweeners to fully THU fledged rebels. The director Matt Wolf discusses his THU documentary Teenage which takes a look at adolescence in the THU first half of the 20th century. There's debate about the THU conservatism of teen film guru, the director John Hughes THU whose work includes The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day THU Off and Weird Science. And we unpick why 1995 marked the THU beginning of a ten year boom in teen flicks, from Clueless THU to Mean Girls. THU THU Credits THU Presenter: Francine Stock THU Interviewed Guest: Kim Newman THU Interviewed Guest: Pamela Hutchinson THU Interviewed Guest: Hadley Freeman THU Interviewed Guest: Charlie Lyne THU Producer: Elaine Lester THU THU 16:30 Inside Science b03m7zb3 (Listen) THU Professor Alice Roberts and guests illuminate the mysteries THU and challenge the controversies behind the science that's THU changing our world. THU THU Covering everything from the humble test tube to the depths THU of space, Inside Science is your guide not just to the THU research that makes the headlines, but to how science itself THU is evolving, transforming our culture, and affecting our THU lives. THU THU 17:00 PM b03m7zb5 (Listen) THU Full coverage and analysis of the day's news. THU THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News b03m3958 (Listen) THU The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. THU THU 18:15 15 Minute Musical b03m7zb7 (Listen) THU Series 8, The Last Days of Farage THU THU Cast: Richie Webb, Dave Lamb, Jess Robinson and Pippa Evans. THU Written by: Dave Cohen, David Quantick and Richie Webb THU Music Composed, Performed and Arranged by: Richie Webb THU Music Production: Matt Katz THU Producer: Katie Tyrrell. THU THU 18:30 The Secret World b03m7zb9 (Listen) THU Series 4, Episode 5 THU THU Bishop Rowan Williams gets in deep water after deciding to THU celebrate Boxing Day with a game of knock down ginger, THU William Hague finds himself stranded in a snow drift with THU only some Belgian truffles for food, and John Lydon ends up THU killing sir Anthony Hopkins. It can only be the weird goings THU on in the show that imagines the private lives of public THU people: A Boxing Day edition of The Secret World. THU THU With Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Jon Culshaw, Julian Dutton, THU Lewis Macleod, Jess Robinson and Duncan Wisbey. THU THU 19:00 The Archers b03m7zmn (Listen) THU Susan is looking for someone to blame. Meanwhile James needs THU advice. THU THU 19:15 Front Row b03m7zmq (Listen) THU Front Row Special on Buffy the Vampire Slayer THU THU With Naomi Alderman. THU THU The last episode of cult TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer THU was broadcast in Britain ten years ago. At the time, Naomi THU believed that the show would lead to the creation of a host THU of other strong and complex female leads - who would inspire THU young women in the same way Buffy had inspired her. So where THU are all the "daughters of Buffy"? Naomi explores Buffy's THU legacy with the help of Buffy's creator Joss Whedon, and THU with actor Anthony Head, writers Neil Gaiman and Rhianna THU Pratchett, TV executives Jane Root and Susanne Daniels, and THU mega-fans Blake Harrison and Bim Adewunmi. THU THU Producer: Rebecca Nicholson. THU THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama b03mtfrj (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today] THU THU 20:00 The Report b03m7zms (Listen) THU Banking IT crisis THU THU The 'Cyber Monday' computer meltdown that affected RBS and THU NatWest customers as they tried to bag bargains in the THU run-up to Christmas was just the latest in a string of IT THU glitches that have plagued the big UK banks in recent years. THU THU But is there a greater problem than the inconvenience caused THU for shoppers? Melanie Abbott talks to those who have worked THU on the huge, ageing computer systems at the heart of the UK THU banking system and finds out that banks like RBS face a THU massive dilemma - spend billions replacing their THU 'mainframes' or risk bigger, more serious problems in the THU next few years. THU THU Melanie finds out about the scale and size of the IT systems THU behind our everyday transactions as she becomes the first THU journalist allowed access to one of the secret data centres THU that power the banking payments system at Vocalink. And she THU hears from Andrew Tyrie, chair of the Treasury Select THU Committee, about the urgent need to solve the banks' IT THU problem before they damage the entire financial system. THU THU 20:30 In Business b03m7zmv (Listen) THU Kenya's Mobile Money Revolution THU THU Kenya is the surprising world leader in high-tech mobile THU money. Almost a third of the country's economy now goes THU through the mobile phone-based system M-Pesa. Even the THU company that launched it six years ago, Safaricom, didn't THU anticipate the gusto with which Kenyans would adopt its THU virtual currency. THU In a country with fewer than 10,000 credit cards and where THU four-fifths of the population does not have a bank account, THU M-Pesa has emerged as a secure and easy way to pay and THU transfer money to anyone, anywhere across the country, and THU even abroad. THU Now the system has morphed from a method of payment into a THU platform for all sorts of businesses. In Nairobi there are THU startups aiming to boost fundraising for funerals and THU weddings, help landlords collect rent, loan mobile phone THU credit, and much more, all based on the M-Pesa system. And THU alongside the flowering of new businesses, the Kenyan THU government has pinned its hopes on the high-tech sector for THU the future of the country's economic growth. THU Peter Day talks to traces the story of how a mobile payment THU experiment kick-started an emerging tech economy. THU THU Contributors: THU Bob Collymore - chief executive, Safaricom THU David Mark - co-founder, M-Changa THU Kamau Wanyoike - director, MoVAS THU Nancy Wang - co-founder, M-Kazi THU Duncan Muchangi - co-founder, Manyatta Rent THU Nikolai Barnwell - director, 88mph Nairobi THU Joe Mucheru - Sub-Saharan ambassador, Google THU Tony Mwai - general manager, IBM East Africa THU Sam Gichuru - co-founder and director, Nailab THU Kate Kiguru - co-founder and chief innovator, Ukall THU Will Mutua - founder, Afrinnovator. THU THU 21:00 Inside Science b03m7zb3 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today] THU THU 21:30 In Our Time b03m7z08 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] THU THU 21:58 Weather b03m395b (Listen) THU The latest weather forecast. THU THU 22:00 The World Tonight b03m7zmx (Listen) THU In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective. THU THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime b03m7zmz (Listen) THU The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and THU Disappeared, Episode 4 THU THU Translated by Rod Bradbury. THU THU Episode 4: THU With both the police and the Never Again gang on their THU trail, Allan and Julius are heading soutg, driven by their THU new chauffeur, Benny. THU THU Reader: Martin Jarvis THU Abridger: Jeremy Osborne THU Producer: Rosalynd Ward THU A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. THU THU 23:00 Alice's Wunderland b03m7zn1 (Listen) THU Series 2, Episode 3 THU THU A trip to Wunderland, the Poundland of magical realms. This THU week, the Wunderlanders' thoughts turn to the future, and THU all that it could bring. THU THU Sketch show by Alice Lowe. THU THU Also starring Richard Glover, Simon Greenall, Rachel THU Stubbings, Clare Thompson and Marcia Warren. THU THU Produced by Lyndsay Fenner. THU THU Credits THU Writer: Alice Lowe THU Performer: Alice Lowe THU Performer: Richard Glover THU Performer: Simon Greenall THU Performer: Rachel Stubbings THU Performer: Clare Thomson THU Performer: Marcia Warren THU Producer: Lyndsay Fenner THU THU 23:30 Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere b01rb2c1 (Listen) THU Earl's Court THU THU Beneath the streets of London there is another London. A THU subterranean labyrinth of sewers and abandoned tube THU stations. A somewhere that is Neverwhere. THU THU An act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his THU ordinary life into a subterranean world under the streets of THU London. Stopping to help an injured girl on a London street, THU Richard is thrust from his workaday existence into the THU strange world of London Below. THU THU So begins a curious and mysterious adventure deep beneath THU the streets of London, a London of shadows where the tube THU cry of 'Mind the Gap' takes on new meaning; for the THU inhabitants of this murky domain are those who have fallen THU through the gaps in society, the dispossessed, the homeless. THU Here Richard meets the Earl of Earl's Court, Old Bailey and THU Hammersmith, faces a life-threatening ordeal at the hands of THU the Black Friars, comes face to face with Great Beast of THU London, and encounters an Angel. Called Islington. THU THU Joining the mysterious girl named Door and her companions, THU the Marquis de Carabas and the bodyguard, Hunter, Richard THU embarks on an extraordinary quest to escape from the THU clutches of the fiendish assassins Croup and Vandemar and to THU discover who ordered them to murder her family. All the THU while trying to work out how to get back to his old life in THU London Above. THU THU A six part adaption of Neil Gaiman's novel adapted by Dirk THU Maggs, sees James McAvoy as Richard lead a stellar cast THU which includes Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Sophie THU Okonedo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Anthony THU Head, David Schofield, Bernard Cribbins, Romola Garai, THU George Harris, Andrew Sachs, Lucy Cohu, Johnny Vegas, Paul THU Chequer, Don Gilet and Abdul Salis. THU Credits THU Richard Mayhew: James McAvoy THU Lady Door: Natalie Dormer THU Marquis de Carabas: David Harewood THU Hunter: Sophie Okonedo THU Croup: Anthony Head THU Vandemar: David Schofield THU The Earl of Earl’s Court: Christopher Lee THU Islington: Benedict Cumberbatch THU Old Bailey: Bernard Cribbins THU Writer: Neil Gaiman THU Director: Heather Larmour THU Producer: Heather Larmour THU THU FRI FRIDAY 27 DECEMBER 2013 FRI FRI 00:00 Midnight News b03m3968 (Listen) FRI The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. FRI Followed by Weather. FRI FRI 00:15 Food for Thought b018g6wz (Listen) FRI Series 2, Yoko Ono FRI FRI Yoko Ono discusses the virtues of vegetables with journalist FRI Nina Myskow . FRI FRI Although reluctant to let even the tiniest piece of inferior FRI confectionery pass her lips, artist and musician Yoko Ono FRI reveals why she finally fell in love with one particular FRI food. She explains that one of husband, John's pleasures was FRI chocolate and how it came to comfort her. FRI FRI A long time devotee of macrobiotics, Yoko tells Nina about FRI the experiences that shaped her tastes: from a Japanese diet FRI low in animal fat to the years, during World War II, when FRI she was evacuated from Tokyo. She made rice and miso soup FRI for her siblings, longed for butter and was forced to barter FRI for food. FRI FRI Odd then perhaps that several years later she would go on a FRI forty day fast with John Lennon. FRI She explains why. FRI FRI Yoko also shares her passion for fish and chips, as well as FRI Korean pickles. And how did she make John eat sushi? FRI FRI Producer: Tamsin Hughes FRI A Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 00:30 Book of the Week b03m7z0b (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday] FRI FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast b03m396b (Listen) FRI The latest shipping forecast. FRI FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b03m396d (Listen) FRI BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. FRI FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast b03m396g (Listen) FRI The latest shipping forecast. FRI FRI 05:30 News Briefing b03m396j (Listen) FRI The latest news from BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day b03m80qk (Listen) FRI A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the FRI Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Chaplain to the Archbishop of FRI Canterbury. FRI FRI 05:45 Farming Today b03m80qm (Listen) FRI This time last year farmer's daughter Caryl Hughes was FRI working 40 hours a week in a hotel. Twelve months on and at FRI the age of just 23, she's now running one of Wales most FRI iconic farms. Llyndy Isaf is a 615 acre chunk of Snowdonia, FRI just below the slopes of Snowdon. It's said to be where the FRI victorious red Welsh dragon slew the white English one. It FRI was bought by the National Trust after a celebrity-led FRI public appeal in 2012 and now the Trust is offering year FRI long scholarships to Welsh young farmers to give them FRI valuable experience of farm management. FRI FRI Caryl is the first recipient of the Llyndy Isaf scholarship FRI and it's down to her to buy the livestock and set the FRI foundations for the way this land will be farmed for FRI generations to come. Caz Graham went to see how she's FRI getting on. FRI FRI Produced and presenter by Caz Graham. FRI FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day b03k7177 (Listen) FRI Knot FRI FRI Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about FRI our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. FRI FRI David Attenborough presents the knot. Knot are dumpy waders FRI which breed in the high Arctic but winter in hundreds of FRI thousands on our estuaries and salt-marshes. Crammed FRI together shoulder to shoulder at the water's edge, you can FRI see how they got their scientific name Calidris canutus...a FRI tribute to King Canute who discovered, despite his best FRI attempts, that he didn't have the power to turn back the FRI tides. FRI FRI 06:00 Today b03m80qp (Listen) FRI Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; FRI Weather; Thought for the Day. FRI Eliza Manningham-Buller: Terror FRI Desert Island Discs, 2007 FRI FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs b03m3nhk (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday] FRI FRI 09:45 Book of the Week b03m80qr (Listen) FRI Love, Nina: Despatches From Family Life, Dissertations, FRI Romance and Subterfuge FRI FRI Mary Poppins meets Adrian Mole in Nina Stibbe's letters from FRI the heart of 1980s literary London. Dissertation crises, FRI spotting Samuel Beckett and employing subterfuge to save FRI face. FRI FRI Read by Rebekah Staton FRI Abridged by Penny Leicester FRI Produced by Gemma Jenkins. FRI FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour b03m80qt (Listen) FRI Sheila McClennon presents the programme that offers a female FRI perspective on the world. FRI FRI Producer: Ian Bent FRI FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama b03mthnm (Listen) FRI The Tales of Beatrix Potter, Episode 5 FRI FRI Adapted and Directed by Sean Grundy FRI Produced by Sally Harrison FRI A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 11:00 Extreme Commuting b03m80qw (Listen) FRI The word 'commuter' was coined in the United States during FRI the early days of rail travel, when reduced or 'commuted' FRI fares were made available to people travelling from outlying FRI areas to work in cities. FRI FRI This programme tells the story of the modern-day extreme FRI commuters - people who spend more than 3 hours a day FRI travelling to and from work. For some, there is no option FRI but to go where the work is, for others it's a lifestyle FRI choice. FRI FRI Marcus has chosen to live in deepest Suffolk so his children FRI can have a rural childhood. This means his journey to work FRI can take him up to 6 hours a day involving two trains and a FRI twenty five minute walk. FRI Meanwhile Marion, a single mother, has no choice but to make FRI a daily, 5 hour return journey from Essex into London. FRI FRI Some people do it for the work, some for the lifestyle; some FRI hate it, others love it for the freedom and time alone it FRI gives them. FRI FRI As the numbers of people who are doing extreme commuting FRI looks set to rise, what is the impact on their lives? FRI FRI Producer: Karen Gregor. FRI FRI 11:30 The Stanley Baxter Playhouse b01pt9nc (Listen) FRI Series 5, Hector's House of Windsor FRI FRI Hector's House of Windsor FRI By Colin Hough FRI FRI A warm hearted comedic tribute to the Queen's jubilee year. FRI FRI The Queen's Scots gillie aids her in a cunning plan to put FRI her unruly prime minister and deputy firmly in their place FRI when they visit her at Windsor and she invites them to join FRI her on a canter round the park. FRI FRI Her own superior wisdom, cunning and diplomatic skills are FRI revealed while Her Majesty's wise and wily old Scots gillie FRI looks on and enters into the fun. FRI FRI Stanley Baxter plays the gillie and Phyllida Law takes the FRI imperial role in this affectionate fictional account of what FRI just might have happened when the prime minister of the day FRI and his deputy pay Her Majesty a visit. FRI FRI Written by Colin Hough FRI Directed by Marilyn Imrie FRI A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI Credits FRI Hector Wilkie: Stanley Baxter FRI The Queen: Phyllida Law FRI Prime Minister: Pip Torrens FRI Deputy Prime Minister: David Holt FRI Writer: Colin Hough FRI Director: Marilyn Imrie FRI Producer: Catherine Bailey FRI FRI 12:00 You and Yours b03m819w (Listen) FRI Consumer news with Peter White. FRI FRI 12:52 The Listening Project b03m819z (Listen) FRI Eileen and Amanda - Costume Drama FRI FRI Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a wardrobe FRI mistress and her assistant about the costumes they sew and FRI their current preparations for The Snow Queen. FRI FRI Producer: Marya Burgess. FRI FRI 12:57 Weather b03m396l (Listen) FRI The latest weather forecast. FRI FRI 13:00 World at One b03m396n (Listen) FRI National and international news. Listeners can share their FRI views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato. FRI FRI 13:45 One to One b01sj1sr (Listen) FRI Ritula Shah talks to Dr Michael Irwin FRI FRI In the third of her interviews on the concept of FRI renunciation, Ritula Shah talks to Dr Michael Irwin about FRI the idea of renouncing life in old age or when faced with a FRI terminal illness. Dr Irwin is a retired GP who campaigns for FRI voluntary euthanasia and has accompanied people to the Swiss FRI clinic Dignitas when they have chosen to end their lives. He FRI talks to Ritula about his belief that people should have a FRI choice as to when and how to die and about his thoughts on FRI the end of his own life. FRI FRI Producer: Maggie Ayre. FRI FRI 14:00 The Archers b03m7zmn (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday] FRI FRI 14:15 Afternoon Drama b011vhdc (Listen) FRI The Chess Girls FRI FRI The emergence of the Polgar sisters in the 1970s and 80s FRI rocked the chess world. In a heavily male dominated game, FRI the three Hungarian girls broke record after record. The FRI youngest, Judit, was talked of as a potential world FRI champion. FRI FRI The Chess Girls is the story of their parents, Laszlo and FRI Klara Polgar, and how they defied the Communist authorities FRI to conduct a remarkable educational experiment. Laszlo FRI Polgar, convinced that any healthy child can be trained to FRI become a genius, set out to prove his theory with his own FRI children. FRI FRI This is a drama-documentary with excerpts from an interview FRI with Laszlo and Klara Polgar recorded for the play. The FRI writer, Lavinia Greenlaw, takes their account and re-creates FRI the lives of the young Polgar family in their tiny Budapest FRI flat. The fictional Laszlo is played by Kerry Shale, and FRI Klara by Sally Orrock. FRI FRI Director: Chris Ledgard. FRI FRI Credits FRI Writer: Lavinia Greenlaw FRI Laszlo Polgar: Kerry Shale FRI Klara Polgar: Sally Orrock FRI Director: Chris Ledgard FRI FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time b03m81b1 (Listen) FRI The Met Office, Exeter FRI FRI Peter Gibbs presents a special edition of GQT from The Met FRI Office in Exeter, with Bunny Guinness, Matthew Wilson and FRI Anne Swithinbank. FRI FRI Produced by Victoria Shepherd FRI A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 15:45 Saki b03m81b3 (Listen) FRI The Seventh Pullet FRI FRI by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) FRI FRI When his boring stories of unusually large potatoes fail to FRI elicit any interest at all from fellow travellers on the FRI daily commute, John Blenkinthrope begins to invent FRI increasingly ludicrous and elaborate fantasies. A gently FRI funny story about the diminishing rewards of the daily FRI grind. FRI FRI Read by Richard Greenwood. FRI Produced by Allegra McIlroy. FRI FRI 16:00 The Inheritance Collection 2013 b03nh34g (Listen) FRI The Revd Richard Coles presents a selection of the stories FRI and music featured on Saturday Live's Inheritance Tracks FRI throughout 2013 from Queen of clean Aggie McKenzie, comedian FRI Graham Fellowes aka John Shuttleworth, soul guitarist George FRI Benson, singer Maria Friedman, musician Gary Barlow, FRI Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon, Kite Runner author FRI Khaled Hosseini, composer Django Bates, MOBOs founder Kanya FRI King and baking supremo Mary Berry. FRI FRI Producer: Lizz Pearson. FRI FRI 16:30 More or Less b03m81b7 (Listen) FRI Numbers of the year FRI FRI A guide to 2013 in numbers - the most informative, FRI interesting and idiosyncratic statistics of the year FRI discussed by More or Less interviewees. FRI FRI Contributors: David Spiegelhalter, Winton professor for the FRI public understanding of risk at Cambridge University; Linda FRI Yueh, BBC chief business correspondent; Simon Singh, author FRI of The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets; Dr Pippa FRI Malmgren, president and founder of Principalis Asset FRI Management; Paul Lewis; presenter of BBC Radio 4's Money Box FRI programme; Dr Hannah Fry, Centre of the Advanced Spatial FRI Analysis at University College London; Merryn Somerset-Webb, FRI editor-in-chief of MoneyWeek; Helen Arney, comedian. FRI FRI Producer: Ben Carter. FRI FRI 16:56 The Listening Project b03m81b9 (Listen) FRI Antonio and Leondre - Father's Footsteps FRI FRI Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a 12-year-old FRI rapper with a social conscience and his father, who has FRI passed on his passion for music, family life and social FRI justice. FRI FRI Producer: Marya Burgess. FRI FRI 17:00 PM b03m81bc (Listen) FRI Coverage and analysis of the day's news. Including Weather FRI at 5.57pm. FRI FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News b03m396q (Listen) FRI The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 18:15 15 Minute Musical b03m81bf (Listen) FRI Series 8, Heaven Knows I'm Middle-Aged Now FRI FRI Cast: Richie Webb, Dave Lamb and Pippa Evans. FRI Written by: Dave Cohen, David Quantick and Richie Webb FRI Music Composed, Performed and Arranged by: Richie Webb FRI Music Production: Matt Katz FRI Producer: Katie Tyrrell. FRI FRI 18:30 Chain Reaction b03m81pm (Listen) FRI Series 9, Terry Christian talks to Kevin Bridges FRI FRI Chain Reaction is Radio 4's long running hostless chat show FRI where last week's interviewee becomes this week's FRI interviewer. FRI FRI In the first in the new series, Manchester's very own Terry FRI Christian talks to Scotland's newest comedy superstar Kevin FRI bridges. FRI FRI Producer ... Carl Cooper. FRI FRI 19:00 The Archers b03m81pp (Listen) FRI Rob finally phones, and Leonie comes to a decision. FRI FRI Credits FRI Jill Archer: Patricia Greene FRI Shula Hebden Lloyd: Judy Bennett FRI David Archer: Timothy Bentinck FRI Ruth Archer: Felicity Finch FRI Elizabeth Pargetter: Alison Dowling FRI Pat Archer: Patricia Gallimore FRI Helen Archer: Louiza Patikas FRI Tom Archer: Tom Graham FRI Matt Crawford: Kim Durham FRI James Bellamy: Roger May FRI Peggy Woolley: June Spencer FRI Joe Grundy: Edward Kelsey FRI Eddie Grundy: Trevor Harrison FRI Clarrie Grundy: Heather Bell FRI Emma Grundy: Emerald O'Hanrahan FRI Edward Grundy: Barry Farrimond FRI Susan Carter: Charlotte Martin FRI Robert Snell: Graham Blockey FRI Leonie Snell: Jasmine Hyde FRI Lynda Snell: Carole Boyd FRI Kirsty Miller: Annabelle Dowler FRI Rob Titchener: Timothy Watson FRI Rosa Makepeace: Anna Piper FRI Mark: Andrew Frame FRI Writer: Simon Frith FRI Director: Sean O'Connor FRI Editor: Sean O'Connor FRI FRI 19:15 Front Row b03m81pr (Listen) FRI Front Row Music Special FRI FRI John Wilson presents a special programme in which he talks FRI to leading artists - including Mercury Prize winner James FRI Blake, Laura Marling and Sir Paul McCartney - about the big FRI stories of the musical year. FRI FRI Producer: Philip Sellars. FRI FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama b03mthnm (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today] FRI FRI 20:00 With Great Pleasure b03m7p14 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 12:00 on Wednesday] FRI FRI 20:50 A Point of View b03mckql (Listen) FRI Two Cheers for Human Rights FRI FRI A weekly reflection on a topical issue. FRI FRI Credits FRI Presenter: John Gray FRI Producer: Sheila Cook FRI FRI 21:00 Saturday Drama b01pgnbt (Listen) FRI Red Shoes FRI FRI This dark tale collected by Hans Christian Andersen is FRI reimagined for radio by Frances Byrnes and stars Lizzy Watts FRI as the teenage Karen whose vanity and skittishness compel FRI her to demand a forbidden pair of red shoes. But as she had FRI been warned on countless occasions, the red shoes are so FRI imbued with sin and lasciviousness that they utterly destroy FRI her both spiritually and corporally. In so doing, this FRI version of The Red Shoes shirks none of Anderson's FRI ruthlessness or darkness. Fairytale this may be but its FRI bleak warning against wanton behaviour under threat of a FRI violent and bloody demise, holds nothing back from young and FRI old alike. FRI FRI In The Red Shoes is reimagined for Radio by Frances Byrnes. FRI FRI The Red Shoes was directed in Belfast by Eoin O'Callaghan. FRI FRI Credits FRI Karen: Lizzy Watts FRI Give: Lizzy McInnerny FRI Old Lady: Barri Adair FRI The Soldier: Richard Dormer FRI The Shoemaker: David Horowitz FRI The Pastor: Patrick Fitzsymons FRI The Executioner: Mark Lambert FRI The Little Girl: Amy Lee Farmer FRI Writer: Frances Byrnes FRI Director: Eoin O'Callaghan FRI FRI 21:58 Weather b03m396s (Listen) FRI The latest weather forecast. FRI FRI 22:00 The World Tonight b03m820c (Listen) FRI In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective. FRI FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime b03m820f (Listen) FRI The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and FRI Disappeared, Episode 5 FRI FRI Translated by Rod Bradbury. FRI FRI Episode 5: FRI Allan, Julius and Benny have found temporary refuge at Lake FRI Farm with The Beauty, her dog and her elephant. But Chief FRI Inspector Aronsson is on their case. We also learn about FRI Allan's contribution to the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. FRI FRI Reader: Martin Jarvis FRI Abridger: Jeremy Osborne FRI Producer: Rosalynd Ward FRI A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 23:00 Great Lives b03m79cx (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday] FRI FRI 23:27 Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere b01rbsc4 (Listen) FRI The Angel Islington FRI FRI Beneath the streets of London there is another London. A FRI subterranean labyrinth of sewers and abandoned tube FRI stations. A somewhere that is Neverwhere. FRI FRI An act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his FRI ordinary life into a subterranean world under the streets of FRI London. Stopping to help an injured girl on a London street, FRI Richard is thrust from his workaday existence into the FRI strange world of London Below. FRI FRI So begins a curious and mysterious adventure deep beneath FRI the streets of London, a London of shadows where the tube FRI cry of 'Mind the Gap' takes on new meaning; for the FRI inhabitants of this murky domain are those who have fallen FRI through the gaps in society, the dispossessed, the homeless. FRI Here Richard meets the Earl of Earl's Court, Old Bailey and FRI Hammersmith, faces a life-threatening ordeal at the hands of FRI the Black Friars, comes face to face with Great Beast of FRI London, and encounters an Angel. Called Islington. FRI FRI Joining the mysterious girl named Door and her companions, FRI the Marquis de Carabas and the bodyguard, Hunter, Richard FRI embarks on an extraordinary quest to escape from the FRI clutches of the fiendish assassins Croup and Vandemar and to FRI discover who ordered them to murder her family. All the FRI while trying to work out how to get back to his old life in FRI London Above. FRI FRI A six part adaption of Neil Gaiman's novel adapted by Dirk FRI Maggs, sees James McAvoy as Richard lead a stellar cast FRI which includes Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Sophie FRI Okonedo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Anthony FRI Head, David Schofield, Bernard Cribbins, Romola Garai, FRI George Harris, Andrew Sachs, Lucy Cohu, Johnny Vegas, Paul FRI Chequer, Don Gilet and Abdul Salis. FRI FRI Credits FRI Richard Mayhew: James McAvoy FRI Lady Door: Natalie Dormer FRI Marquis de Carabas: David Harewood FRI Hunter: Sophie Okonedo FRI Croup: Anthony Head FRI Vandemar: David Schofield FRI Islington: Benedict Cumberbatch FRI Old Bailey: Bernard Cribbins FRI Jessica: Romola Garai FRI Writer: Neil Gaiman FRI Director: Heather Larmour FRI Producer: Heather Larmour FRI FRI 23:55 The Listening Project b03m820h (Listen) FRI Abi - Talking to Catherine FRI FRI Fi Glover introduces a mother who is finally able to put FRI into words all that she wishes she'd said while her daughter FRI was still alive. FRI FRI Producer: Marya Burgess. FRI
20 December, 2013
Radio 4 Listings for 21/12/2013 - 27/12/2013
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