23 December, 2011

Radio 4 Listings for 24/12/2011- 30/12/2011

Go to: SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI

SAT SATURDAY 24 DECEMBER 2011 SAT SAT 00:00 Midnight News b018ft2q (Listen) SAT The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. SAT Followed by Weather. SAT SAT 00:30 Book of the Week b018fmss (Listen) SAT The Etymologicon, Episode 5 SAT SAT Abridged by Jane Marshall. SAT SAT Our circular stroll through the English language takes us to SAT Venice and Ancient Rome, to Germany and the Hudson River, in SAT search of the derivations of magazines and salt cellars, SAT fast bucks and bucks that are passed -as we finally end up SAT in the office of President Harry S Truman. SAT SAT Read by Hugh Dennis SAT Produced by Jane Marshall SAT A Jane Marshall Production for BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast b018ft2s (Listen) SAT The latest shipping forecast. SAT SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b018ft2v (Listen) SAT BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes SAT at 5.20am. SAT SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast b018ft2x (Listen) SAT The latest shipping forecast. SAT SAT 05:30 News Briefing b018ft2z (Listen) SAT The latest news from BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day b018jj74 (Listen) SAT Prayer and reflection with Bishop Steven Croft. SAT SAT 05:45 iPM b018ft3w (Listen) SAT Emilia Fox, Rory Kinnear, Diana Rigg and Kenneth Cranham SAT read short stories inspired by listeners' lives and written SAT by listener Calum Kerr. From a henpecked husband to Sandra SAT the postman; from a sax addict to a brand new prime SAT minister. With Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey. SAT iPM@bbc.co.uk. SAT SAT 06:00 News and Papers b018ft31 (Listen) SAT The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers. SAT SAT 06:04 Weather b018ft33 (Listen) SAT The latest weather forecast. SAT SAT 06:07 Open Country b018flps (Listen) SAT This is one of the busiest times of year on the Farne SAT Islands off the Northumberland Coast. Almost 1,500 seal pups SAT are being born and almost half of these will die in their SAT first three weeks. Since 1951, wardens have been counting SAT and tagging the pups born on the Farne Islands. During this SAT time, the number of pups born has trebled, from 500 to 1499, SAT making it the largest English colony of Atlantic grey seals. SAT SAT When the survey began, scientists knew almost nothing about SAT how seals bred, what they ate or where they went during the SAT winter. Those early studies on the Farnes were SAT groundbreaking, setting the standard for all later seal SAT research around the world. SAT SAT The local port, Seahouses, used to be a major fishing town. SAT During the 1960's and 70's, thousands of seals were shot SAT because they were thought to be a threat to local fish SAT stocks. Now the town relies more on tourism than fishing. SAT SAT Jules Hudson visits the Farne Islands to find out more about SAT the research project and to investigate the impact the seals SAT are having on the fishing industry and the local area. SAT SAT 06:30 Farming Today b018ft3y (Listen) SAT Farming Today This Week SAT SAT The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. SAT Presented by Charlotte Smith, Produced by Melvin Rickarby. SAT SAT 06:57 Weather b018ft35 (Listen) SAT The latest weather forecast. SAT SAT 07:00 Today b018ft40 (Listen) SAT With John Humphrys and Justin Webb. Including Sports Desk, SAT Weather and Thought for the Day. SAT SAT 09:00 Saturday Live b018ft4s (Listen) SAT Steve Backshall, Murray Lachlan Young, gorilla surrogate SAT mum, famine relief, transatlantic rowers, macaque attack, SAT Julian Lennon SAT SAT Sian Williams with adventurer Steve Backshall, poet Murray SAT Lachlan Young, a zookeeper who acted as a surrogate mother SAT to a sick baby gorilla, a man who flew the only relief SAT flight into Ethiopia on Christmas Day 1984 with 'Do They SAT Know It's Christmas' playing over the airplane PA, a group SAT of women who are rowing across the Atlantic, a man who was SAT attacked by his neighbour's macaque monkey, the homeless SAT people acting as tour guides and the Inheritance Tracks of SAT musician and Beatle son Julian Lennon. SAT SAT Producer: Dixi Stewart. SAT SAT 10:00 Excess Baggage b018ft4v (Listen) SAT Travel Biography from The Times Cheltenham Literature SAT Festival SAT SAT John McCarthy discusses travel biography at October's SAT Cheltenham Literature Festival with eminent writers in the SAT field; Sir Christopher Ondaatje, Sara Wheeler and Alexander SAT Maitland. SAT Producer: Harry Parker. SAT SAT 10:30 Jack and the Genetically Modified Beanstalk b018ft4x (Listen) SAT Pantoland, that magical place where dreams come true with SAT the help of a sprinkling of fairy dust, a wave of a wand and SAT the odd "Open Sesame". It's all fantasy, dreams and SAT make-believe. Or is it? SAT SAT Join Jack Trott on his seasonal adventure through pantoland SAT with a twist, all the magical devices he finds could soon SAT emerge from the world's laboratories. Shoes that know whose SAT feet they fit; magic carpet ripples helping aircraft fly SAT more efficiently; beanstalks with super strong stems SAT borrowed from forest creepers and all-knowing genies that SAT emerge when you give your smart phone a secret rub. "Oh no SAT they don't!" you say. Well, actually, it's "Oh yes they do!" SAT and maybe sooner than you think. SAT SAT Listen in for a journey like no other - panto meets patent; SAT fantasy meets future; sesame meets science. Listen and SAT wonder what might be lurking under your Christmas tree. SAT SAT Dramatised scenes written by John Peacock SAT SAT Jack ..... Tom Glenister SAT Wily Old Man/Charming/The Queen/Hansel/George ..... Roger SAT May SAT Dame Trott/Dyspesia/PR Man/Widow Twanky/foot fitter ...... SAT Sam Dale SAT Giant/Dandini/Saucy Girl/Genie ...... Keith Drinkel SAT Fairy Godmother/Alopecia ...... Jane Whittenshaw SAT Cinderella/Aladdin/Gretel ...... Sara Markland SAT SAT Presenter: Dr Sharon Ann Holgate SAT Producer: Toby Murcott SAT Director: Celia de Wolff SAT A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 11:00 Week in Westminster b018ft5f (Listen) SAT George Parker of The Financial Times chairs the Week In SAT Westminster's round-up of the political year joined by SAT fellow presenters Jackie Ashley of The Guardian, Steve SAT Richards of The Independent, Peter Oborne of The Daily SAT Telegraph, and Andrew Pierce of The Daily Mail. SAT On the agenda are: SAT The most significant events of 2011, the high points and low SAT points for the party leaders, the survival of the coalition SAT government, and the expectations for 2012. SAT The Editor is Marie Jessel. SAT SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent b018ft5h (Listen) SAT A dead man's suitcase in Cape Town transports Tim Butcher SAT from today's Africa via World War Two Italy to Renaissance SAT Tuscany. The most cosseted pets in the world: it's no dog's SAT life, says Joanna Robertson, for the pampered pooches of SAT Paris. High in the Himalayas Joanna Jolly goes searching for SAT a little yellow idol which once wreaked terrible vengeance. SAT Allan Little shares some of the jokes which have fuelled the SAT big news stories in years gone by and Petroc Trelawny on the SAT extraordinary history of Odessa and its enduring passion for SAT music. SAT SAT 12:00 Money Box b018ft5k (Listen) SAT Paul Lewis and expert panel predict your financial future SAT for 2012. They'll be looking at the future of the troubled SAT Eurozone, saving and investing to pensions and the mortgage SAT market. SAT Guests include: Justin Urquhart Stewart from 7 Investment SAT Management, Malcolm McLean from Barnett Waddingham, Jane SAT King from AshRidge Asset Management and Rachel Thrussell SAT from the price comparison site MoneyFacts. SAT SAT 12:30 The News Quiz b018ft15 (Listen) SAT Series 76, Episode 1 SAT SAT A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi SAT Toksvig. SAT SAT 12:57 Weather b018ft37 (Listen) SAT The latest weather forecast. SAT SAT 13:00 Saturday Play b00rq1w3 (Listen) SAT Goldfinger SAT SAT Ian Fleming's 1959 novel faithfully dramatised by Archie SAT Scottney and directed by Martin Jarvis. Toby Stephens SAT returns as 007, and a glittering cast is led by Ian McKellen SAT in the title role. With cameo roles by top actors - all SAT delighted to contribute to this remarkable Fleming SAT adventure. Rosamund Pike plays wacky gang-boss Pussy Galore SAT and Lisa Dillon is the vengeful Tilly Masterton. John SAT Standing returns as 'M'. Tom Hollander, Tim Pigott-Smith and SAT American star Hector Elizondo as New York City mobsters. SAT Bond and Goldfinger are joined in the famous golf game by SAT Alistair McGowan as the caddie, Hawker. Henry Goodman, Ian SAT Ogilvy and Lloyd Owen contribute to the excitement. And Jon SAT David Yu throws his bowler-hat with deadly effect as SAT 'Oddjob'. SAT SAT Auric Goldfinger is not only a cheat at canasta and golf, SAT he's also an international criminal on a massive scale. His SAT obsession: gold. James Bond is charged by the Bank of SAT England and MI5 to discover what Goldfinger is actually SAT doing with his vast hoards of gold. Is he somehow connected SAT with SMERSH - the feared soviet spy-killing organisation? SAT When 007 becomes an undercover member of Goldfinger's team SAT he soon learns that the madman's plans are more grandiose SAT than even 'M' could possibly have imagined. Amazingly, SAT robbing Fort Knox is on the agenda - and mass murder... SAT SAT Goldfinger ...... Ian McKellen SAT James Bond .....Toby Stephens SAT 'M'..... John Standing SAT Col.Smithers ..... Ian Ogilvy SAT Pussy Galore ......Rosamund Pike SAT Tilly Masterton ..... Lisa Dillon SAT Johnny Solo .....Tim Pigott-Smith SAT Mr Strap .....Tom Hollander SAT Du Pont .....Henry Goodman SAT Hawker ..... Alistair McGowan SAT Helmut Springer .....Hector Elizondo SAT Felix Leiter ..... Lloyd Owen SAT Jed Midnight .....Nigel Anthony SAT Jill Masterton ..... Anna Louise Plowman SAT Oddjob ..... Jon David Yu SAT Alfred .....Alan Shearman SAT Nigel .....Matthew Wolf SAT Fleming .....Martin Jarvis SAT Doctors & Pilot .....Kyle Stoller SAT Nurse .....Tracy Pattin SAT SAT Dramatised by Archie Scottney. SAT Music composed by Mark Holden and Sam Barbour. SAT Producer: Rosalind Ayres SAT Director: Martin Jarvis SAT A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 14:30 Stopping by Woods b018fv67 (Listen) SAT The poem 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' was written SAT about nightfall on the shortest day of the year, though it SAT was actually put to paper at dawn on June 21st, 1922 - the SAT longest day. This has always puzzled Kenneth Steven, a poet SAT captivated by Frost's seemingly effortless mastery of rhyme, SAT metre, language and imagery. SAT SAT Kenneth Steven visits the poet's home in Shaftesbury, SAT Vermont, now a museum. He talks to the curator there, Carole SAT Thompson, and a pair of Frost scholar, Lea Newman and David SAT Sanders, and he walks the very woods that are possibly SAT evoked by the horseman who pauses to watch the snow settle, SAT despite having "promises to keep/And miles to go before I SAT sleep". SAT SAT He makes a pilgrimage to Frost's final resting place in a SAT New England cemetery - his gravestone covered in glinting SAT pennies left by fellow pilgrims - and he reveals compelling SAT new insights into the origins and impact of the poem which SAT Frost himself considered his "best bid for remembrance". SAT SAT Produced by Alan Hall SAT A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 15:00 A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols b018fv69 (Listen) SAT For many people around the world, A Festival of Nine Lessons SAT and Carols, live from the candlelit chapel of King's SAT College, Cambridge, marks the beginning of Christmas. It is SAT based around nine Bible readings which tell the story of the SAT loving purposes of God. They are interspersed with carols SAT old and new, sung by the world famous chapel choir who also SAT lead the congregation in traditional Christmas hymns. SAT SAT Producer: Simon Vivian. SAT SAT Once in royal David's city (descant Cleobury) SAT Bidding Prayer read by the Dean SAT I wonder as I wander (Rütti) SAT First lesson: Genesis 3, vv 8-19 read by a Chorister SAT Remember, O thou man (Ravenscroft) SAT Adam lay ybounden (Ord) SAT Second lesson: Genesis 22 vv 15-18 read by a Choral Scholar SAT Angels from the realms of glory (arr Jacques) SAT Riu, riu, chiu (Flecha) SAT Third lesson: Isaiah 9 vv 2, 6-7 read by a Member of College SAT Staff SAT Nowell sing we now all and some (medieval) SAT Sussex Carol (arr Willcocks) SAT It came upon the midnight clear (descant Cleobury) SAT Fourth lesson: Isaiah 11 vv 1-3a, 4a, 6-9 read by a SAT Representative of the City of Cambridge SAT A spotless rose (arr Ledger) SAT The Lamb (Tavener) SAT Fifth lesson: Luke 1 vv 26-35, 38 read by a Representative SAT of Eton College SAT Blessed be that maid Mary (arr Cleobury) SAT Bogoróditse Dyévo (Pärt) SAT Sixth lesson: Luke 2 vv 1, 3-7 read by the Chaplain SAT Christmas Eve (Tansy Davies - first performance, SAT commissioned by King's College) SAT Sans Day Carol (arr Rutter) SAT Seventh lesson: Luke 2 vv 8-16 read by the Director of Music SAT The Shepherd's Carol (Chilcott) SAT While shepherds watched (descant Cleobury) SAT Eighth lesson: Matthew 2 vv 1-12 read by the Vice-Provost SAT The Three Kings (Cornelius arr Atkins) SAT Illuminare, Jerusalem (Weir) SAT Ninth lesson: John 1 vv 1-14 read by the Provost SAT O come, all ye faithful (arr Willcocks) SAT Collect and Blessing SAT Hark! the herald angels sing (descant Willcocks) SAT SAT Organ voluntaries: SAT In dulci jubilo BWV 729 (Bach) SAT Toccata, Op 104 (Jongen) [broadcast on Radio 3 on Christmas SAT Day only] SAT SAT Director of Music: Stephen Cleobury SAT Organ Scholar: Ben-San Lau SAT SAT 16:30 Woman's Hour b018fvhz (Listen) SAT Weekend Woman's Hour SAT SAT Presented by Jane Garvey. Singer Rebecca Ferguson, North SAT Korea update, Sports Personality Award: Where are all the SAT women? Sex and the Single Girl and highlights from our phone SAT in about the first night with a new baby. SAT SAT 17:00 PM b018fzw2 (Listen) SAT Ritula Shah presents a fresh perspective on the day's news SAT with sports headlines. SAT SAT 17:30 iPM b018ft3w (Listen) SAT [Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 today] SAT SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast b018ft3c (Listen) SAT The latest shipping forecast. SAT SAT 17:57 Weather b018ft3f (Listen) SAT The latest weather forecast. SAT SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News b018ft3h (Listen) SAT The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 18:15 Loose Ends b018fzw4 (Listen) SAT Christmas cheer from Loose Ends as Clive Anderson and Emma SAT Freud talk to some very seasonal and special guests. We have SAT some of the best known celebrities who have ever existed, SAT usually unavailable because they are dead or for some other SAT convincing reason..... SAT SAT William Shakespeare defends accusations of plagiarism and SAT life in Stratford (not the Olympic site, the other one). SAT Cinderella talks to Clive about marrying her Prince SAT Charming. We hope to secure an exclusive interview with SAT Rupert Murdoch and folk singer Kate Rusby introduces us to SAT some special South Yorkshire carols......... SAT SAT Producer: Cathie Mahoney. SAT SAT 19:00 Profile b018fzw6 (Listen) SAT Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams SAT SAT Emily Buchanan profiles the Archbishop of Canterbury and SAT examines his long struggle to stop the Anglican Church from SAT fragmenting. Rowan Williams was tipped at an early age for SAT high office and he is rated as possibly the most SAT intellectually talented Archbishop of Canterbury for a SAT thousand years. Yet after all the high hopes at his SAT appointment, many are disappointed at what they see as a SAT lack of key leadership qualities. SAT SAT Dragged into seemingly endless rows about gay clergy and SAT women bishops, Williams has had to endure a great deal of SAT abuse from some members of the world's 77 million strong SAT Anglican Communion. His period of office has even been SAT described as a crucifixion. Is he misrepresented by SAT Britain's tabloid press or does he actively court SAT controversy? SAT SAT His opposition to the Iraq war, his call for reparations for SAT the slave trade and his candid predictions that last SAT summer's riots could easily be repeated have raised eyebrows SAT among parts of the political establishment. In 2008, he SAT provoked an outcry after saying the application of Sharia SAT law in England under certain circumstances was unavoidable. SAT SAT A former Religious Affairs Correspondent, Emily Buchanan SAT speaks to those who know him well including the Bishop of SAT London, his school friend John Walters, his biographer SAT Rupert Shortt, and the satirist Ian Hislop. She discovers SAT how Rowan Williams' warm and sympathetic character, with the SAT ability to see all sides of a question, is both his great SAT strength and his weakness. SAT SAT Producer: Lucy Ash. SAT SAT 19:15 Saturday Review b018fzw8 (Listen) SAT Tom Sutcliffe and his guests historian Kathryn Hughes, SAT writer Kevin Jackson and Canon Giles Fraser review the SAT week's cultural highlights including The Artist. SAT SAT The Artist is a silent movie which begins in Hollywood in SAT 1927, as silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the SAT arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into SAT oblivion. For young film extra Peppy Miller it seem movie SAT stardom awaits. SAT SAT We wade into the self help genre with our books. The Chimp SAT Paradox by Dr. Steve Peters presents a mind management model SAT that purports to help you become a happy, confident, SAT healthier and more successful person. SAT 18 Minutes, Find your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the SAT Right Things Done is by management and leadership guru Peter SAT Bregman. Will they change the lives of our reviewers? SAT SAT The great Dickens anniversary is almost upon us, and we look SAT at some of the offerings coming up. Great Expectations, SAT Charles Dickens' story of a humble orphan, who suddenly SAT becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor, SAT has been adapted into a major three part drama for BBC SAT television by Sarah Phelps, starring Gillian Anderson as SAT Miss Haversham and Ray Winstone as the convict Abel SAT Magwitch. SAT And in Armando's Tale of Charles Dickens, Armando Iannucci's SAT television feature looks beyond the stature of Dickens as a SAT national institution and instead explores the qualities of SAT his works, which make him one of the best British writers. SAT SAT Your Paintings - Uncovering the Nation's art is the first SAT national online museum of all publicly owned oil paintings SAT in the UK. It was launched in June of this year by the SAT public Catalogue Foundation and the BBC. Now a further SAT 40,000 paintings have been uploaded to the site, over half SAT the national collection. SAT SAT And we round up the year by looking back at the best, when SAT our reviewers and listeners pick their own cultural SAT highlights of 2011 SAT SAT Producer: Anne-marie Cole. SAT SAT 20:00 Open Book b018fzwb (Listen) SAT Funny Books Special SAT SAT Mariella Frostrup and her line up of comedians and authors SAT debate their funniest book. Taking the stage in the Radio SAT Theatre to convince an audience that their choice is the SAT most chortle-worthy will be Jo Brand, Tony Parsons, A L SAT Kennedy, Christopher Brookmyre and John Sessions. They're SAT joined by Professor John Mullin who guides us through the SAT books and authors in question, and by readers Sam Barnett SAT and Alastair Cording. The books being debated are SAT SAT 1066 And All That - W C Sellar and R J Yeatman (John SAT Sessions) SAT The Virgin Soldiers - Leslie Thomas (Tony Parsons) SAT The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh (A L Kennedy) SAT The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged thirteen and three SAT quarters - Sue Townsend (Jo Brand) SAT Swing Hammer Swing - Jeff Torrington (Christopher Brookmyre) SAT SAT From Waugh to Mole, and from subjects as unlikely as SAT guerrilla war and ancient history - which one will get the SAT most laughs? SAT SAT Producer Andrea Kidd. SAT SAT Book List SAT SAT The Virgin Soldiers - Leslie Thomas SAT Swing Hammer Swing - Jeff Torrington SAT The loved One - Evelyn Waugh SAT 1066 And All That - WC Sellar & SAT RJ Yeatman SAT The Secret diary of Adrian Mole - Sue Townsend SAT SAT 21:00 Classic Serial b01888l1 (Listen) SAT Gargantua and Pantagruel, Pantagruel SAT SAT Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais. Dramatised by SAT Lavinia Murray. SAT SAT Ep 2 - Pantagruel. SAT SAT Concluding the bawdy and scatological adventures of Medieval SAT giants. This episode concentrates on the story of SAT Gargantua's son, Pantagruel and his morally dubious friend SAT Panurge, as they go on a quest to discover whether marriage SAT is for them. On the way they have many adventures before SAT they come before the Seer of the Holy Bottle who gives them SAT a definitive judgement. SAT SAT Rabelais.....David Troughton SAT Gargantua....Robert Wilfort SAT Pantagruel....Justin Edwards SAT Panurge...Conrad Nelson SAT Friar Jean....Jonathan Keeble SAT Jacqueline/Seer...Fiona Clarke SAT Librarian/Secretary...Mark Chatterton SAT SAT Producer Gary Brown SAT SAT This tale is a dizzying blend of fantasy, comedy, philosophy SAT and scatological humour. The world's a messy place. All the SAT big mock-heroic novels that followed - Don Quixote, Tristram SAT Shandy, Gulliver's Travels, Ulysses - are about mess, SAT they're about slops and slime, encyclopaedic in their SAT efforts to encompass humanity in all its bawdy, chaotic, SAT grungy, and painful reality. And like Gargantua and SAT Pantagruel they're also very funny. The Rabelaisian world SAT view is founded on the assumption that the humourless are SAT not yet wise - and these tales insist you learn to laugh at SAT humanity. SAT SAT Gargantua and Pantagruel is dramatised by Lavinia Murray, SAT one of our leading radio playwrights whose credits include SAT 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' and 'The Confessions of an SAT English Opium Eater'. SAT SAT 22:00 News and Weather b018ft3k (Listen) SAT The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, SAT followed by weather. SAT SAT 22:15 What the Donkey Saw: UA Fanthorpe's Christmas Poems SAT b018vdhw (Listen) SAT Sheila Hancock reads a selection of poems written especially SAT for Christmas by U. A. Fanthorpe, a poet both popular and SAT critically acclaimed. SAT SAT In 1972 U.A. Fanthorpe and Rosie Bailey started sending new SAT poems as Christmas cards to their friends. They continued, SAT graduating from an old Banda machine to a small Adana SAT moveable type press, up to U.A.'s death in 2009. SAT SAT Fanthorpe was witty, original, and she reworked the SAT Christmas story from quirky angles, such as from the SAT donkey's point of view (the donkey who, it is suggested, SAT later carries Christ into Jerusalem) and from the cat and SAT sheep-dog left out of the stable. There's even a wicked SAT fairy who intrudes from another genre, with alternative SAT gifts for Jesus. SAT SAT These were so popular with their recipients that Enitharmon SAT Press published a collection called 'Christmas Poems', and SAT Sheila Hancock reads a selection from this volume. SAT SAT U. A.'s partner Rosie Bailey, recorded at their home, with SAT the press and some of the cards, introduces the poems. We SAT hear, too, from some of those on their Christmas card list, SAT including the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and writers SAT Lawrence Sail and Jackie Kay. For them receiving U.A's poem SAT was important, a funny but thoughtful beginning to SAT Christmas. SAT SAT Producer: Julian May. SAT SAT 22:45 Afternoon Reading b00wldv9 (Listen) SAT For the Love of a Child, Chocolate Pudding SAT SAT The first of two stories about relationships between adults SAT and children, drawn from real-life. SAT SAT 1. Chocolate Pudding SAT SAT A psychiatrist is perplexed by several cases of coma in a SAT young child. With patience and bowls of chocolate pudding he SAT manages to wake the child, by describing how delicious the SAT pudding is and putting it under the child's nose. The story SAT is inspired by conversations with the psychiatrist and his SAT descriptions of 'Sleeping Beauty Syndrome'. SAT SAT Written and read by the Costa-shortlisted writer Julia SAT Blackburn. The stories are written with the same mesmerising SAT delicacy of touch that Julia brought to her Penn-Ackerley SAT prize-winning memoir 'The Three of Us', demonstrating her SAT extraordinary capacity to find the best in people while SAT encompassing their frailty. SAT SAT Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery SAT SAT Music: Trois Morceaux en Forme de Poire by Eric Satie. SAT SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain b018b7jn (Listen) SAT (6/17) SAT Arranged alphabetically, which is the last book of the Old SAT Testament? SAT SAT If the contestants' general knowledge is up to scratch in SAT this week's Brain of Britain contest, the answer to this SAT question may help them in their bid to become the 59th proud SAT holder of the Brain of Britain title. Russell Davies is SAT joined by four contestants from the North of England in this SAT sixth heat of the series. SAT SAT Producer: Paul Bajoria. SAT SAT 23:30 Midnight Mass b018fzwg (Listen) SAT Live from York Minster, the largest Gothic cathedral in SAT northern Europe, the Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr John Sentamu, SAT Archbishop of York, celebrates the First Mass of Christmas SAT and gives the homily. Richard Shephard's Mass of the SAT Nativity is sung by the St William's Singers accompanied by SAT the York Young Soloists Orchestra, led by Sophie Lockett and SAT under the direction of the composer. Traditional carols SAT include 'It came upon the midnight clear', 'O little town of SAT Bethlehem' and 'O come all ye faithful.' The readings are SAT Isaiah 52 vv7-10 and John 1 vv1-14. The Organist is York SAT Minster's Assistant Director of Music, David Pipe, and the SAT Producer is Stephen Shipley. SAT SAT SUN SUNDAY 25 DECEMBER 2011 SUN SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast b018g0y1 (Listen) SUN The latest shipping forecast. SUN SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b018g0y3 (Listen) SUN BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. SUN SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast b018g0y5 (Listen) SUN The latest shipping forecast. SUN SUN 05:30 News Briefing b018g0y7 (Listen) SUN The latest news from BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday b018g14f (Listen) SUN The bells from the Parish Church of Our Lady and St SUN Nicholas, Pier Head, in Liverpool. SUN SUN 05:45 Profile b018fzw6 (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday] SUN SUN 06:00 News Headlines b018g0y9 (Listen) SUN The latest national and international news. SUN SUN 06:05 Something Understood b018g14h (Listen) SUN In the Company of Children SUN SUN "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them SUN not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of SUN heaven.", Matthew 19 SUN SUN It is an old saying that 'children make Christmas', but in SUN this Christmas Day edition of Something Understood, Mark SUN Tully considers what it is that we can all learn from that. SUN He asks how a 'child-like' attitude to the celebrations of SUN Christ's Nativity can help us get more from the day, both SUN spiritually and socially. SUN SUN In conversation with children's author Michael Morpurgo he SUN discusses both the importance of Christmas traditions that SUN are handed down the generations and what we can learn from SUN children to make the idea of 'a season of peace and good SUN will' more than just a well-meant form of words. SUN SUN The programme includes contributions from children, SUN including specially written verse and music and readings SUN from successive younger generations, fictional and real, SUN from the seventeenth century to the present. There's music SUN from Debussy, Johnny Cash and The St. Petersburg Children's SUN Choir and readings from Ronald Searle, Mary Haley Bell and SUN Jean Jacques Rousseau. SUN SUN The readers are Madeleine Southey, Samantha Bond, Gene SUN Goodman and Jack Shepherd. SUN SUN Producer: Frank Stirling SUN A Unique production for BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 06:35 On Your Farm b018g14k (Listen) SUN As farmers work around the clock to get fresh vegetables SUN from the field to our Christmas dinner plates, some SUN producers are donating their food for free to provide more SUN than 50,000 meals to needy people over the festive period. SUN SUN In this Christmas Day edition of On Your Farm, Anna Hill is SUN in her home county of Norfolk to meet some of the 40 farmers SUN who support The Buckingham Emergency Food Appeal. It is a SUN charity which helps feed homeless people, and struggling SUN families across East Anglia and Lancashire. SUN SUN Anna helps out by bagging up spuds in the packing shed of a SUN farmer who gives around two tonnes of potatoes each year. SUN She also freezes in the chill of -28 degrees centigrade as SUN she shown some of the charities meat supplies including SUN frozen chickens, turkeys, sausages and pies; and she visits SUN a centre for homeless young people who benefit from the SUN donations. SUN SUN This programme is presented by Anna Hill and produced in SUN Birmingham by Angela Frain. SUN SUN 06:57 Weather b018g0yc (Listen) SUN The latest weather forecast. SUN SUN 07:00 Food and Farming Awards b017ckf7 (Listen) SUN Food and Farming Awards 2011 SUN SUN Sheila Dillon with the stories from this year's BBC Food & SUN Farming Awards. From the Best Takeaway to Best Drinks SUN Producer, food tales to inspire and whet your appetite. SUN SUN This autumn a team of 10 judges, including chefs Richard SUN Corrigan and Jeremy Lee took to the road to meet finalists SUN nominated by Radio listeners. The shortlist covered all SUN parts of the UK. SUN SUN The programme reveals what the judges saw and tasted on SUN those visits and at the NEC, Birmingham Sheila Dillon runs SUN through the list of worthy winners SUN SUN Producer: Dan Saladino. SUN SUN 07:50 A Point of View b018ft1f (Listen) SUN Carols at Christmas SUN SUN Lisa Jardine reflects on the power of music to move, SUN especially at Christmas, when the singing of carols unites SUN singers and listeners alike, in an outpouring of community SUN spirit. She also celebrates each advance in technology which SUN has made music available to all, not just an elite, from the SUN fifteenth century mass production of carol books to the SUN screening in cinemas worldwide of opera live from the Met in SUN New York. SUN Producer: Sheila Cook. SUN SUN 07:57 Weather b018g0yh (Listen) SUN The latest weather forecast. SUN SUN 08:00 Sunday b018g14w (Listen) SUN Edward Stourton presents a special Christmas edition of the SUN programme from St Albans on the theme of Pilgrimage. SUN SUN Edward walks the pilgrims way in St Albans with Arun SUN Krataria from St Albans Diocese. SUN SUN We also hear from Trevor Barnes who asks Who colour coded SUN Christmas? SUN SUN Matthew Bell reports from the Holyland on the modern day SUN pilgrim. SUN SUN The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rt Rev Rowan Williams, talks SUN to William Crawley about what pilgrimage means today. SUN SUN And What's a Twelfth Cake? Food Historian Ivan Day explains. SUN SUN Series Producer: Amanda Hancox. SUN SUN 08:55 Radio 4 Appeal b018g14y (Listen) SUN Carers UK SUN SUN Maureen Lipman presents the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the SUN charity Carers UK. SUN Reg Charity: 246329 SUN To Give: SUN - Freephone 0800 404 8144 SUN - Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope SUN Carers UK SUN - Give Online www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/appeal. SUN SUN Carers UK SUN SUN Carers UK is a charity set up to support the 6 million SUN people in the UK who care unpaid for an elderly relative, a SUN sick partner or a disabled family member. Caring is part of SUN life but without the right support the personal costs of SUN caring can be high. Caring can take its toll on your SUN finances, your health, your social life and on your other SUN family and work commitments. Yet without unpaid care our SUN NHS would collapse and the country would face a £119 billion SUN bill it cannot afford. Carers UK provides advice, SUN information and support and runs a network of local groups SUN which break the isolation faced by many carers by putting SUN them in touch with each other and providing a vital SUN listening ear through their volunteering service network. SUN When caring affects you and your family Carers UK is here SUN for you. SUN SUN 08:57 Weather b018g152 (Listen) SUN The latest weather forecast. SUN SUN 09:00 Christmas Service b018g15b (Listen) SUN The Word made flesh. John Bell of the Iona Community leads SUN worship for Christmas morning. Carols, readings and prayers SUN tell the story of God's extraordinary choices in the birth SUN of his Son. Leader: The Revd Nick Bundock. SUN The Daily Service Singers are directed by Andrew Earis, with SUN organist Samuel Hudson. With a congregation gathered in SUN Emmanuel Church Didsbury, in the leafy suburbs of South SUN Manchester. Producer: Clair Jaquiss. SUN SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus b018g260 (Listen) SUN Writer ..... Graham Harvey SUN Director ..... Julie Beckett SUN Editor ..... Vanessa Whitburn SUN SUN Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene SUN Shula Hebden Lloyd ..... Judy Bennett SUN David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck SUN Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch SUN Elizabeth Pargetter ..... Alison Dowling SUN Freddie Pargetter ..... Jack Firth SUN Tony Archer ..... Colin Skipp SUN Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore SUN Helen Archer ..... Louiza Patikas SUN Tom Archer ..... Tom Graham SUN Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde SUN Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen SUN Kathy Perks ..... Hedli Niklaus SUN Clarrie Grundy ..... Rosalind Adams SUN William Grundy ..... Philip Molloy SUN Nic Hanson ..... Becky Wright SUN Neil Carter ..... Brian Hewlett SUN Susan Carter ..... Charlotte Martin SUN Vicky Tucker ..... Rachel Atkins SUN Roy Tucker ..... Ian Pepperell SUN Brenda Tucker ..... Amy Shindler SUN Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd SUN Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler SUN Jazzer McCreary ..... Ryan Kelly SUN Sharon Philips ..... Celia Nelson SUN Rich ..... Luke Hudson SUN Eamonn Philips ..... Stephen Hogan. SUN SUN 11:15 Your Desert Island Discs b018g15j (Listen) SUN Kirsty Young presents a festive collection of stories and SUN music from Your Desert Island Discs where listeners are the SUN castaways. Kirsty and her studio guests - broadcaster and SUN Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley, comedian, actor and musician Bill SUN Bailey and composer and conductor Debbie Wiseman - mull over SUN the choices of Christmas and comedy songs. They'll also SUN discuss some of the musical choices inspired by the SUN castaways' stories from rock to reggae and Beethoven to the SUN Bee Gees, and consider the enduring appeal of record sleeves SUN and the pleasures of singing together. SUN SUN Producer: Alison Hughes. SUN SUN 13:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue b018b8d0 (Listen) SUN Series 56, Episode 6 SUN SUN Back for a second week at the Watford Colosseum, regulars SUN Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined SUN on the panel by Andy Hamilton, with Jack Dee in the chair. SUN Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell. Producer - SUN Jon Naismith. SUN SUN 13:30 Food Programme b018g262 (Listen) SUN The Food Quiz SUN SUN Nowhere else will you find a programme that juggles Elvis SUN Presley's culinary history, questions over the origins of a SUN 1970's crisp brand, references to Elizabeth David and some SUN of the world's most unusual food sounds. SUN SUN Food writer Tim Hayward performs this feat in a special SUN Christmas Day edition of The Food Quiz. Panellists Allegra SUN McEvady, Richard Johnson and Chris Neill pit their SUN gastronomic knowledge, grasp of food trivia and culinary SUN history against each other. SUN SUN Categories include the devious "Into the Museum of Brands", SUN a cult cookbook round as well as "What's Cookin'?" in which SUN the teams have to identify a classic dish from the archives. SUN SUN Producer: Dan Saladino. SUN SUN 14:00 Classic Serial b018g264 (Listen) SUN England Their England SUN SUN Martin Jarvis directs a galaxy of stars in a Classic Serial SUN one-off episode - a Radio 4 Special for Christmas. The cast SUN is led by outstanding Scots actor Tony Curran as Donald. SUN SUN In this classic 1930s comic novel, a young Scot, Donald SUN Cameron, invalided from the Western Front in 1918, finds SUN himself commissioned to write a book about the SUN eccentricities of the English - through 'a foreigner's SUN eyes'. An enthusiastic innocent abroad, Donald encounters an SUN array of richly comic characters. He attends an absurd SUN country house weekend, enjoys drinks with Fleet Street SUN hacks, attempts some book-reviewing, visits The League of SUN Nations as an MP's private secretary and, memorably, plays SUN village cricket - the most famous fictional cricket match in SUN literature. SUN SUN The novel is dramatised by Archie Scottney ('Something SUN Fresh', 'Summer Lightning', 'Goldfinger', 'The Mysterious Mr SUN Quin') and who once took 5 wickets for 36 runs. SUN SUN Martin Jarvis says: 'A joy to direct. The preposterous game SUN of cricket at its heart leaps happily onto the air waves. SUN With Ian Hislop to skipper our all-stars, I felt we had hit SUN some kind of pitch-perfection. The absurdity and SUN blessedness of England and the English remains reassuringly, SUN recognisable.' SUN SUN Donald Cameron .....Tony Curran SUN Evan Davies ..... Ioan Gruffudd SUN Mr Hodge ..... Ian Hislop SUN Tommy Huggins ..... Alfred Molina SUN Rupert Harcourt .. ... Rufus Sewell SUN Mr Bloomer ..... Michael York SUN Sir Henry ..... Ian Ogilvy SUN Gwennie ..... Jill Gascoine SUN Pendragon ..... Lloyd Owen SUN Esmeralda .....Sophie Winkleman SUN Carolyn Seymour, Julian Holloway, Oliver Dillon, JD SUN Cullum,Kenneth Danziger, SUN Darren Richardson, Simon Templeman, Alan Shearman, Matthew SUN Wolf, Daisy Hydon. SUN SUN Sound design: Mark Holden SUN Producer: Rosalind Ayres SUN Director: Martin Jarvis SUN A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 15:00 HM The Queen b018g266 (Listen) SUN The Queen's Christmas message to the Commonwealth and the SUN nation, followed by the national anthem. SUN SUN 15:05 News b018g26d (Listen) SUN The latest news from BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 15:15 Gardeners' Question Time b018fmtp (Listen) SUN Tenterden, Kent SUN SUN A festive GQT recorded with Tenterden & District SUN Horticultural Society in Kent, chaired by Eric Robson. SUN Joining him on the panel are Bob Flowerdew, Matthew Wilson SUN and Bunny Guinness. SUN SUN Anne Swithinbank advises on caring for Christmas plant SUN gifts. SUN In addition, alternatives for dried blood and how to SUN encourage an Emerald Lace Acer to keep its shape. SUN SUN Produced by Lucy Dichmont SUN A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 16:00 Excess Baggage b018g26s (Listen) SUN Christmas Quiz SUN SUN Peter Curran presents an Excess Baggage special quiz for SUN Christmas from the Radio Theatre with Sandi Toksvig, John SUN McCarthy and their special guests Caroline Quentin and SUN Arthur Smith answering questions on the world of travel and SUN travelling the world. SUN SUN Producer: Harry Parker. SUN SUN 16:30 Constantine: The Man Who Invented Christmas b018g26v (Listen) SUN Giles Fraser travels to Bethlehem to reveal the true origin SUN of Christmas - and discovers it was invented over 300 years SUN after Christ's birth. SUN SUN Christmas was unknown to the early church. In fact the SUN festival of Christ's birth wasn't invented until 312AD, and SUN not by a peaceful disciple, but by a military leader, the SUN Roman Emperor Constantine. SUN SUN Following his battlefield conversion, Constantine SUN established Christianity as the official religion of Rome, SUN and he decided that Christ's birth should become a major SUN focus of the Christian year. At the same time he radically SUN reinvented Christianity for his own - military - ends. SUN SUN Giles Fraser visits Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and sees the SUN two major shrines founded by Constantine, which celebrate SUN Christ's birth and death. He argues that by focusing on the SUN birth of Christ, and on his death, Constantine pushed the SUN radical Christ of the early church to the margins of SUN Christianity and replaced him with an infinitely more SUN accommodating religion of the baby and the cross, so the bit SUN in the middle - the radical, questioning life of Christ - SUN was skimmed over. SUN SUN By marginalising Christ's teachings about poverty, humility, SUN and above all peace, Constantine was able to take a religion SUN founded in pacifism and use it for his military machine in SUN pursuit of a 'just war' - something political leaders have SUN been doing ever since. SUN SUN Giles Fraser argues that we should look beyond the trappings SUN of Christmas and return to the true, radical teachings of SUN Christ. SUN SUN Giles Fraser is the former Canon Chancellor of St Paul's SUN Cathedral. An outspoken, enthusiastic and challenging SUN broadcaster, he is a familiar voice on Radio 4's Thought for SUN the Day, and writes a regular column for the Guardian. SUN SUN Producer: Jane Greenwood SUN A Loftus Audio production for BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 17:00 With Great Pleasure b018g26x (Listen) SUN With Great Pleasure at Christmas - Melvyn Bragg SUN SUN A special Christmas edition of the programme in which Melvyn SUN Bragg looks back at the writing which inspired him when he SUN was a young man. His choices include Dickens, Shakespeare SUN and Wordsworth but also Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh and a story SUN from the December 1946 edition of The Wizard comic, in which SUN the hero helps choose likely athletes for the forthcoming SUN London Olympics. Melvyn's readers are Eleanor Bron, Bill SUN Paterson and David Bamber, and choristers from Carlisle SUN Cathedral open the programme with a favourite carol. SUN SUN Producer Christine Hall. SUN SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News b018g0yt (Listen) SUN The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. SUN SUN 18:12 Radio 4 Appeal b018g14y (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 08:55 today] SUN SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week b018g275 (Listen) SUN John Waite makes his selection from the past seven days of SUN BBC Radio. SUN SUN In his Pick of the Week on Christmas day, John Waite will be SUN discovering how sex - for unmarried women - began in 1962, SUN while insulting the French and our other European neighbours SUN is as old as the hills. Professor Brian Cox gets it in the SUN neck for his teeth-whitening products and anti -ageing SUN creams; and a modern Christmas song classic is fashioned out SUN of a drunken, dissolute New York down-and-out. Richard Coles SUN reports from the northern lights - the aurora borealis, not SUN the Blackpool Illuminations. SUN SUN Tales From The Arab Spring - Radio 4 SUN John Peel's Shed - Radio 4 SUN Sex and the Single Girl - Radio 4 SUN Super Troupers - Radio 2 SUN The Infinite Monkey Cage - Radio 4 SUN Count Arthur Strong's Christmas Special - Radio 4extra SUN The Etymologicon - Radio 4 SUN Breadlines and Tinsel - Radio 5live SUN White Christmas - Radio 2 SUN Behind The Fairytale - Radio 2 SUN The Art of Darkness - Radio 4 SUN Liza Tarbuck's Christmas Wrapping - Radio 2 SUN Listen to the Band - Radio 2 SUN SUN Email: potw@bbc.co.uk or www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/potw SUN Producer: Helen Lee. SUN SUN 19:00 The Archers b018g277 (Listen) SUN SUN 19:15 It's Your Round b018g279 (Listen) SUN Series 2, Episode 1 SUN SUN The first in a new series in which the panellists bring SUN their own round for the other panellists to play. SUN SUN Angus Deayton presides over a panel of comedians - Miles SUN Jupp, Fred MacAulay, Josie Long and Nick Helm - all trying SUN to beat each other at their own games. SUN SUN Producer: Sam Michell. SUN SUN 19:45 Stories from Earth Music Bristol b018g29j (Listen) SUN Frost at Midnight SUN SUN Frost at Midnight. A new story by Helen Dunmore. A baby in a SUN crib. Why cry? A story inspired by the themes of the Earth SUN Music Bristol festival and recorded in front of an audience SUN there. Producer: Tim Dee. SUN SUN 20:00 More or Less b018ft11 (Listen) SUN 99 v 1%: SUN Tim Harford asks what we do and don't know about income SUN inequality in the UK, the US, and other countries around the SUN world. He speaks to Professor Sir Tony Atkinson of Oxford SUN University; Stewart Lansley, author of 'The Cost of SUN Inequality'; and Professor Donald Boudreaux of George Mason SUN University in Virginia. SUN SUN Laughing in the face of risk: SUN David Spiegelhalter, the Winton Professor of the Public SUN Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University explains what SUN led him to take on what could be his riskiest venture to SUN date - appearing as a contestant on BBC One's Winter SUN Wipeout. Really. SUN SUN The magic of maths: SUN As a special Christmas treat, we're honoured to have a guest SUN appearance from a top professor of maths and statistics - SUN described by magician (and loyal listener) Paul Daniels as a SUN 'legend'. Persi Diaconis, of Stanford University in SUN California and co-author of "Magical Mathematics", has an SUN enthralling story to tell of how he discovered magic as a SUN boy, and then, as a consequence, a love of maths. And to SUN illustrate how closely maths and magic are linked, Crossing SUN Continents editor and the BBC's in-house magician, Hugh SUN Levinson, performs a mathemagical card trick - see the SUN performance below. SUN SUN Producer: Ruth Alexander. SUN SUN 20:30 Last Word b018ft0z (Listen) SUN Vaclav Havel, Kim Jong-il, Chris Athey, Cesaria Evora and SUN Russell Hoban SUN SUN Matthew Bannister on SUN SUN The mysterious life of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. SUN We hear from the former British Charge D'Affaires in SUN Pyongyang and the film actress who says she was kidnapped by SUN "The Dear Leader". SUN SUN Also Chris Athey - the educational psychologist who SUN championed the Teletubbies SUN SUN Russell Hoban, author of both children's and adult fiction, SUN including his vision of a post apocalyptic world "Riddley SUN Walker" SUN SUN Cesaria Evora - the singer from Cape Verde known as the SUN Barefoot Diva SUN SUN and the Czech playwright and President Vaclav Havel SUN remembered by his friend Ivan Klima and Sir John Tusa. SUN SUN 21:00 Saturday Play b00pb8x1 (Listen) SUN The Wonderful Wizard of Oz SUN SUN Written by L Frank Baum SUN Dramatised by Linda Marshall Griffiths SUN SUN The story made famous by the iconic 1939 musical film is SUN given a distinctly different treatment in our dramatisation SUN by Linda Marshall Griffiths which reinstates some of the SUN events and characters of L Frank Baum's classic book. SUN SUN When a tornado strikes Dorothy's farmhouse in Kansas, she is SUN lifted to the magical world of Oz where she embarks upon a SUN terrifying and perilous journey to find her way back home. SUN SUN Immediately she makes some powerful enemies by accidentally SUN killing the Wicked Witch of the East and claiming her silver SUN shoes. Desperate to return home her adventure takes her to SUN the City of Emeralds to meet the Wizard of Oz. SUN SUN On the way she makes some new friends, a Scarecrow, a Tin SUN Woodman and a Lion who have their own reasons for wanting to SUN see the Wizard. Pursued by the frightening Kalidah beasts, SUN the violent Flying Monkeys and the all seeing Wicked Witch SUN of the West will they make it to the Emerald City and have SUN what they most desire? SUN SUN DOROTHY.............Amelia Clarkson SUN WIZARD OF OZ / KALIDAH / UNCLE HENRY..Jonathan Keeble SUN SCARECROW................Kevin Eldon SUN TINMAN.................Burn Gorman SUN LION......................Zubin Varla SUN WITCH OF THE NORTH / SOUTH / WEST / AUNT EM .......Emma SUN Fielding SUN KING MONKEY / MINER............Andrew Westfield SUN MUNCHKIN / GATEKEEPER.........Graeme Hawley SUN SUN Original Music by Olly Fox SUN Sound Design by Steve Brooke SUN Directed by Nadia Molinari. SUN SUN 22:00 News Review of the Year b018g29l (Listen) SUN 2011 SUN SUN Eddie Mair takes us on a rather eccentric, sometimes over SUN cooked audio tour of an extraordinary year of news events SUN with the aid of some Christmas helpers:the BBC's World SUN Affairs Editor, John Simpson, Home Editor Mark Easton, news SUN presenters Huw Edwards and Sophie Raworth, journalist and SUN stand-up comic Natalie Haynes and of course the inimitable SUN Economics Editor Robert Peston. SUN SUN Plus there will be some interval music provided by Chinese SUN virtuoso pianist Lang Lang from the Last Night of the Proms. SUN SUN Producer : Daniel Tetlow SUN Presenter: Eddie Mair. SUN SUN 23:00 The Film Programme b018fmq6 (Listen) SUN December is a time for looking forward as well as a time for SUN looking back and this week Francine Stock is doing a bit of SUN both. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a glimpse of our SUN immediate celluloid future opening as it does on Boxing Day SUN so Francine has been talking to one of the film's stars, SUN Daniel Craig. Stieg Larsson's story was, he says, a nice SUN change from Bond and it gave him the chance to work with one SUN of his heroes, the director, David Fincher. SUN Shift focus slightly and we find ourselves gazing deep into SUN 2012. Charles Gant of Heat magazine and the independent SUN cinema owner, Kevin Markwick discuss the films we'll be SUN queuing up to see next year as well as the ones that have SUN tickled our fancy over the past twelve months. SUN Then there are the cinematic moments which have made an SUN indelible mark on the imagination of our listeners in 2011 SUN -- everything from Melancholia to Troll Hunter! The SUN programme finishes with a tribute to one of the great SUN originals of British cinema, Ken Russell, who died last SUN month at the age of 84. SUN SUN Producer: Zahid Warley. SUN SUN 23:30 Something Understood b018g14h (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today] SUN SUN MON MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 2011 MON MON 00:00 Midnight News b018g0zg (Listen) MON The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. MON Followed by Weather. MON MON 00:15 Christmas Meditation b018g2yq (Listen) MON The Reverend Mark Oakley, Canon Treasurer of St Paul's MON Cathedral, gives a contemporary reflection on the meaning of MON Christmas. MON MON Producer: Mark O'Brien. MON MON 00:30 Afternoon Reading b01276yj (Listen) MON The British at Table, Episode 3 MON MON By Christopher Driver. MON MON Christopher Driver's thoughts on the evocative and bizarre MON language of food description. MON MON Christopher Driver was a passionate writer, broadcaster, MON second-hand bookshop owner, conscientious objector and MON controversial hand-picked successor to Raymond Postgate as MON editor of The Good Food Guide through the 1970s. His MON descriptions of our changing attitudes towards what we MON allowed to grace our plates between the end of rationing and MON the affluent 1980s, and caustically witty observations of MON the marvels of British catering (such as the waitress who MON uncorked the wine with her teeth), made both informative and MON amusing reading. It is, as he said, "a book about the way we MON eat now in the light of the way we used to eat within MON middle-aged-memory. It is about ourselves as shoppers, MON cultivators, cooks and consumers." MON MON Driver saw the shape of food to come thirty years before the MON rest of us and his accuracy is extraordinary: "The march of MON regulation and technology means that to obtain good bacon it MON will be once again necessary to kill and cure your own pig, MON as in the eighteenth-century. Progress takes odd forms." MON MON It is sixty years since Postgate (known as "Public Stomach MON Number One" after founding his "Society for the Prevention MON of Cruelty to Food") first published the Good Food Guide. MON Here is an opportunity to enjoy part of its history in the MON words of its most eloquent editor, revealing everything from MON the lost world of whale steaks, coypu vindaloo and sweet and MON sour barracuda, to the language of food description that MON embraces such evocative phrases as "the flavour of MON unploughed fields" and "the texture of compressed string." MON MON Read by Tony Gardner MON Abridged by Neil Cargill MON Producer: Neil Cargill MON A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday b018g14f (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday] MON MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast b018g0zj (Listen) MON The latest shipping forecast. MON MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b018g0zl (Listen) MON BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. MON MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast b018g0zn (Listen) MON The latest shipping forecast. MON MON 05:30 News Briefing b018g0zq (Listen) MON The latest news from BBC Radio 4. MON MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day b018g2ys (Listen) MON with Bishop Steven Croft. MON MON 05:45 Farming Today b018g2yv (Listen) MON The Milton family farm cattle, sheep, Exmoor ponies, and MON arable crops on the patchwork of land which makes up Exmoor MON National Park. Brothers Robin and Rex are the fifth MON generation of their family to farm, and two of their sons MON are following suit. Today, Sarah Swadling goes out with MON Robin on his sheep feeding rounds and gets to know the very MON special quality and depth of Exmoor mud! MON MON Produced and Presented by Sarah Swadling. MON MON 05:57 Weather b018g0zs (Listen) MON The latest weather forecast for farmers. MON MON 06:00 Today b018g2yx (Listen) MON With Justin Webb and Evan Davis. Including Sports Desk; MON Weather; Thought for the Day. MON MON 09:00 Start the Week b018g2yz (Listen) MON David Hockney Special MON MON On Start the Week Andrew Marr visits the painter David MON Hockney to find out why he has swapped LA for East MON Yorkshire. Hockney takes him on a tour of the farm tracks MON and woods he has been painting near his home in Bridlington, MON and talks of his fascination at the changes of the season. MON In his vast studio hang pictures of increasing size and MON vibrant colour, many painted using his iPad. He might be in MON his seventies, but Hockney tells Andrew Marr that he's on a MON roll, busier than ever; excited by the new technology and MON full of ideas for his next works of art. MON Producer: Katy Hickman. MON MON 09:45 Book of the Week b018g2z1 (Listen) MON Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be: The Lionel Bart Story, MON Episode 1 MON MON Lionel Bart was a unique musical talent. He found fame with MON the hugely successful musicals Oliver! and 'Fings Ain't Wot MON They Used T'Be', but he was also a hit-making machine for MON some of Britain's first rock'n'roll stars - Tommy Steele, MON Marty Wilde and Cliff Richard, as well as giving the James MON Bond movie franchise its first song. MON MON He socialised with figures from both serious and populist MON culture, and experienced a downfall that was as spectacular MON as his theatrical triumphs. MON MON David and Caroline Stafford's new biography of Bart draws on MON previously unseen archive sources and interviews with those MON closest to him. MON MON Today, Lionel's East End childhood and early exposure to MON music. Read by Alistair McGowan. MON MON The book is published by Omnibus Press. MON MON Abridged by Julian Wilkinson MON Produced by Emma Harding. MON MON 10:00 Woman's Hour b018g2z3 (Listen) MON Women in Music MON MON It's been another bumper year for women in music, with MON female solo artists dominating both the charts and the MON headlines. The Observer's music critic Kitty Empire joins MON Jane to talk about Adele's success going stratospheric, Amy MON Winehouse's posthumous album, and Mercury Music Prize winner MON P J Harvey. There are fantastic sessions from Rumer, Janis MON Ian and Ayanna Witter-Johnson, plus we talk to the legendary MON opera singer Dame Janet Baker, who received a Lifetime MON Achievement Award this year. Presented by Jane Garvey. MON MON Book Details MON MON A Twitter Year – 365 days in 140 characters, compiled by MON Kate Bussmann (Bloomsbury) MON ISBN 978-1-4088-2847-2 MON MON Stories and Social Media: Identities and Interaction by Dr MON Ruth Page (Routledge) MON MON 10:45 Woman's Hour Drama b018g2z5 (Listen) MON Possession, Episode 6 MON MON Roland Michell, an academic research assistant, is MON completing some work in the London Library, when he comes MON across two unfinished letters written by the Victorian Poet, MON Randolph Henry Ash. Theses letters have obviously not been MON found by anyone else and they are not to his wife but to an MON unknown woman. Roland, whose entire academic life has been MON devoted to studying Ash, decides, recklessly to pocket the MON letters and try to determine exactly who they were written MON to. MON MON This is the beginning of a quest that will change literary MON history and with the help of a feminist literary scholar MON Maud Bailey, they are determined to find out the truth MON behind these letters. Certain other characters hear about MON the letters and are eager to get their hands on them for MON their own financial gain and will do so, by any means MON necessary, and so the chase begins. MON MON Roland and Maud retrace the steps of Ash and LaMotte and MON Professor gets wind of the letters and is eager to get his MON hands on them for his collection. MON MON Written by A S Byatt. Dramatised by Timberlake Wertenbaker MON MON Maud ...... Jemma Redgrave MON Roland ...... Harry Hadden-Paton MON Ash ....... James d'arcy MON Lamotte ..... Rachael Stirling MON Blackadder ..... Bill Paterson MON Cropper ..... Matthew Marsh MON George ...... Kenneth Cranham MON Joan ....... Joanna David MON Beatrice Nest ...... Stella Gonet MON Euan ...... Nicholas Boulton MON Fergus ...... Jonjo O'Neil MON Hildebrand ..... Robert Portal MON Val ...... Laura Pyper MON Leonora .... Lorelei King MON Raoul/Toby Byng .... Sam Dale MON Mrs Wapshott/Mrs Cammish/Mrs lees ..... Jane Whittenshaw MON Beth/PA/Mrs Judge/Librarian ...... Rachel Atkins MON Girl ...... Sylvie Goodwin MON MON Director: Celia de Wolff MON A Pier production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 11:00 Dexter and Dodd b018g3mf (Listen) MON The veteran Liverpudlian comedian Ken Dodd writes very long MON jokes and tells shaggy dog stories. The erudite Oxford MON writer Colin Dexter, crossword king and creator of MON 'Inspector Morse', is economic with words and concise in his MON chapters. Yet they are each other's greatest admirers. MON MON Fiona Lindsay, who knows them both, had the inspired idea to MON bring them together for the first time. In this programme MON they compare notes, exchange tips - and present a double act MON on stage before a packed hall at this year's Cheltenham MON Literature Festival. MON MON Despite having collected their bus passes some time ago, MON neither jokesmith Ken Dodd nor crimewriter Colin Dexter will MON ever retire. Still irrepressible in their 80s, the two men MON are amongst our most successful and busy stage entertainers, MON selling out their shows nightly across the UK. MON MON Each is famously private and low key in their domestic MON lives, yet they continue to perfect what they are most loved MON for - making words work. Both are language addicts: their MON obsession with how words are used has endured for over half MON a century. MON MON The golden thread that joins these two greats is not only MON their love of entertaining the public but also their keen MON admiration for each other's linguistic artistry. MON MON If they could have their time over again they'd both still MON choose a career in words. MON Colin says he would love to have been a full time stage MON performer like Ken, using language in the same way as music, MON to convey emotions. Ken says he might have been a journalist MON or novelist, conveying other people's stories through MON carefully assembled written words, as Colin does. MON MON Fiona Lindsay is a regular presenter at literary festivals. MON MON Producer: Chris Eldon Lee MON A Culture Wise production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 11:30 The Pied Piper of Hamelin b018g3n0 (Listen) MON A festive treat for Boxing Day . MON MON David Tennant stars in Robert Browning's poem The Pied Piper MON of Hamelin . MON MON Narrator ............................David Tennant MON The boy ............................Bertie Gilbert . MON MON With music and songs written and performed by John Harle, MON lyrics by Joyce Harle, sung by Thomas Platts, head chorister MON at Canterbury Cathedral with the choir of Wingham School MON Kent. MON MON Director ................................Susan Roberts MON Sound producer ...................Steve Brooke MON MON The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend MON concerning the departure of a great many children from the MON town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages. MON The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in pied MON (multicoloured) clothing, leading the children away from the MON town never to return. In the 16th century the story was MON expanded into a full story - that of the poem , in which the MON piper is a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away MON with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for MON this service, the piper retaliates, turning his magic on the MON children, leading them away to the mountains. Only one boy MON remains behind .. MON MON 12:00 Counterpoint b018g3n2 (Listen) MON Christmas Special MON MON Paul Gambaccini presents a special festive edition of the MON wide-ranging music quiz, with all of the musical clues MON played live by the BBC Philharmonic. Taking part in MON Counterpoint's seasonal celebration are the lyricist Sir Tim MON Rice, world-renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, and MON journalist and BBC Proms presenter Suzy Klein. The questions MON cover a wide range of music, classical and popular, with a MON distinct festive flavour. MON MON At their orchestrated musical party, the panellists will be MON treated to well-known melodies in unfamiliar arrangements, MON unravelling different carols played simultaneously, and MON tucking into their own musical Christmas dinner. MON MON The BBC Philharmonic are on hand, under conductor Clark MON Rundell, to provide plenty of surprises. MON MON Producers: Paul Bajoria & Angela Sherwin. MON MON 12:57 Weather b018g0zv (Listen) MON The latest weather forecast. MON MON 13:00 World at One b018g3n4 (Listen) MON Shaun Ley presents national and international news. MON Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or MON on twitter: #wato. MON MON 13:45 Food for Thought b018g3n6 (Listen) MON Series 2, David Sedaris MON MON Over takeaway sushi in his London kitchen, American essayist MON and humorist David Sedaris talks to Nina Myskow about being MON greedy, good at dieting - for his regular book tours - and MON how he stopped wanting to eat the condiments after he gave MON up smoking drugs. MON MON David's large, idiosyncratic family must play some part in MON his obsession with second helpings. From a thrifty father MON who hoarded titbits and clipped money-off coupons for the MON weekly grocery shop to a mother who spent hours in MON conversation with her six children around the dinner table, MON he still worries that there'll never be enough. MON MON His boyfriend orders for him in restaurants and cooks MON elaborate meals like rabbit in mustard and cream sauce but MON he still relishes the thought of a huge hamburger called the MON 'Widow-maker' and a side order of spinach that comes in a MON dish the size of a mixing bowl. MON MON "The hard thing about being on a diet is getting off of it" MON he explains, before recounting the unpleasant side effects MON of some French pharmacy diet pills he took, in order to get MON into his 'tour pants.' Eating on tour can be difficult so he MON orders supper at each venue and takes a bite in between MON signing books. MON MON He also tells Nina about his love of Mr Whippy ice cream, MON sticky toffee pudding and why eating chocolate is like MON eating drain cleaner. MON MON What would he choose for his last meal on earth? A MON comforting dish his mother used to make. MON MON Producer: Tamsin Hughes MON A Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 14:00 The Archers b018g277 (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday] MON MON 14:15 Afternoon Play b018g3n8 (Listen) MON A Tale of Two Cities, Recalled to Life MON MON By Charles Dickens MON Dramatised by Mike Walker MON Episode 1/5: Recalled to Life MON MON Robert Lindsay leads a cast which includes Alison Steadman, MON Jonathan Coy, Andrew Scott, Paul Ready and Karl Johnson in a MON new dramatisation of Charles Dickens's classic 'A Tale of MON Two Cities'. With original music by Lennert Busch. MON MON From the echo of the first line 'It was the best of times, MON it was the worst of times' to the final 'It is a far far MON better thing that I do than I have ever done', Dickens's MON novel of the French revolution tells a story of the MON redemptive powers of love in the face of cruelty, violence MON and neglect. MON MON The first radio dramatisation of the book for over twenty MON years is to be broadcast as part of the BBC's celebration of MON the bi-centenary of Charles Dickens's birth. MON MON Written and published in weekly instalments in 1859, A Tale MON of Two Cities is set in London and Paris before and during MON the French Revolution. It shows the plight of the French MON people under the brutal oppression of the aristocracy in the MON years leading up to the revolution, and the corresponding MON savage brutality of the revolutionaries toward the former MON aristocrats in the years immediately following. The story MON follows several characters through these events, notably MON Charles Darnay, a French former aristocrat who falls victim MON to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution, and Sydney MON Carton, a dissipated English barrister who tries to redeem MON his ill-spent life out of love for Darnay's wife, Lucie MON Manette. MON MON Although the events covered in A Tale of Two Cities cover MON eight years, the plot develops and builds powerfully from MON the moment that the story opens, with the coded rumours of MON Dr Manette being 'restored to life' and Dickens orchestrates MON the wider political picture behind the story of Lucie, MON Darnay and Carton, with his customary brilliance. MON MON Charles Dickens...Robert Lindsay MON Jarvis Lorry...Jonathan Coy MON Miss Pross...Alison Steadman MON Lucie Manette...Lydia Wilson MON Dr Alexandre Manette...Karl Johnson MON Charles Darnay...Andrew Scott MON Ernest Defarge...James Lailey MON Therese Defarge...Tracy Wiles MON Gaspard...Simon Bubb MON Jerry Cruncher...Carl Prekopp MON Joe...Rikki Lawton MON With Adam Billington and Christopher Webster MON Music by Lennert Busch MON Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Jeremy Mortimer MON MON 15:00 Brain of Britain b018g3nb (Listen) MON (7/17) MON Would you know which organ of the human body is affected by MON Gerstmann Syndrome? Or what official post was held by MON Bernard de Launay, who became the first prominent casualty MON of the French Revolution? MON MON Russell Davies is in the chair for another heat of the MON evergreen general knowledge contest. This week, contestants MON from South Wales, London and the Home Counties compete for a MON place in the semi-finals. MON MON A Brain of Britain listener will also be hoping to win a MON prize by outwitting the contestants with questions of his or MON her own devising. MON MON Producer: Paul Bajoria. MON MON 15:30 Food Programme b018g262 (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday] MON MON 16:00 Goodnight John Boy b018g3nq (Listen) MON Frank Cottrell Boyce celebrates one of the great TV families MON - 'The Waltons'. MON MON 'Goodnight, John Boy,' became one of the most common MON catchphrases of the 1970s, born as it was from one of that MON decade's most popular TV programmes, 'The Waltons'. Set in MON rural Virginia during the Depression, the show offered MON something very different from the typical television of the MON time, which was chiefly made up of urban shows like 'Kojak', MON 'The Mod Squad' and 'Starsky and Hutch'. Not only was the MON setting different but so was the set of characters - poor, MON blue collar people who were broadly speaking happy with MON their lives - anathema to many commissioning editors. MON MON In 'Goodnight, John Boy', Frank Cottrell Boyce - himself MON father of seven children and a successful TV writer - tries MON to find out precisely why it was such an unlikely TV recipe MON which proved quite so irresistible to many millions of MON viewers, and challenges the commonly held view that it was MON simple nostalgia that played to a Conservative moral agenda. MON MON When George Bush Sr. argued that America needed a lot more MON families like the Waltons and fewer like the Simpsons, he MON failed to recognise that the show and the family were deeply MON rooted in the values of FDR's New Deal. Indeed members of MON the cast such as Will Geer (Grandpa) and Ralph Waite (Pa MON Walton) were themselves very active on the political left, MON with Geer blacklisted as a gay communist and Waite refusing MON to take part in a photo shoot with President Nixon. MON MON Boyce speaks to a number of the cast members (including MON those who played Pa Walton, John Boy, and Elizabeth) as well MON as Earl Hamner, who wrote the books upon which the series MON was based. MON MON 16:30 The Infinite Monkey Cage b018g3ns (Listen) MON Series 5, The Science of Christmas MON MON The Science of Christmas MON MON The Infinite Monkeys Robin Ince and Brian Cox are in a MON festive mood as they discuss the science of Christmas with MON special guests biologist Richard Dawkins, actor and writer MON Mark Gatiss and science journalist Roger Highfield. MON MON Producer: Alexandra Feachem. MON MON 17:00 PM b018g3nv (Listen) MON Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including MON Weather. MON MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News b018g0zx (Listen) MON The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. MON MON 18:15 A Point of View b018g3nx (Listen) MON The End, yet again? MON MON The author and philosopher John Gray on the merits of living MON for the present. MON MON "We tend to look forward to a future state of fulfilment in MON which all turmoil has ceased", Gray writes. But, he says, MON "when we look to the future to give meaning to our lives, we MON lose the meaning we can make for ourselves here and now". MON MON He argues that we should give up our obsession with endings MON and urges us not to be wary of change. "Humans are sturdy MON creatures, built to withstand disruption". MON MON "Conflict never ceases", he says, "but neither do human MON resourcefulness, adaptability and courage". MON MON On Europe, he writes, "wherever Europe's elites turn for MON support, the pillars begin to crumble and shake. Eventually MON every utopian project comes to grief - and while it started MON as a benign creation, the European project has long since MON acquired an unmistakably utopian quality. The efforts that MON are being made to renew the project are only accelerating MON its demise". MON MON "Renewing our lives in the face of recurring evils", he MON concludes, "is the task...that has always faced human MON beings. Looking to an end-time is a way of failing to MON cherish the present - the only time that is truly our own". MON MON Producer: Adele Armstrong. MON MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth b018g3nz (Listen) MON Series 8, The Unbelievable Truth - Series 8 MON MON David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians MON are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another MON to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past MON their opponents. Lee Mack, Jack Dee, Rufus Hound and Graeme MON Garden are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate MON inaccuracy on subjects as varied as: Reindeer, Decorations, MON Boxes and Pantomime. MON MON The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the MON team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. MON MON Producer: Jon Naismith MON A Random Entertainment Production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 19:00 The Archers b018g3p9 (Listen) MON MON 19:15 Front Row b018g3pc (Listen) MON The Boxing Day Quiz MON MON It's the Boxing Day Quiz, as question-master Mark Lawson MON poses cultural brain-teasers to test the knowledge of two MON teams. MON MON Historian Antonia Fraser, actor Dan Stevens and crime-writer MON Mark Billingham compete against playwright Roy Williams, MON comedy performer and writer Natalie Haynes and actor Michael MON Simkins. MON MON Producer Claire Bartleet. MON MON 19:45 Woman's Hour Drama b018g2z5 (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today] MON MON 20:00 How New Is the New Philanthropy? b018g3pf (Listen) MON Two 'New Philanthropies' MON MON As the debate about wealth in British society continues, MON Professor Hugh Cunningham presents a timely history of MON philanthropic giving. MON MON In 1949, William Beveridge, the architect of the welfare MON state, spoke of "a perpetually moving frontier for MON philanthropic giving". MON MON In the third and final programme in this series on British MON philanthropy, Hugh Cunningham contrasts the diminishing role MON that philanthropy played during the middle decades of the MON twentieth century with the increasing calls that are being MON made upon it today. MON MON Hugh grapples with the apparently intractable problem of the MON mismatch between philanthropic giving and actual social need MON in today's cash-strapped Britain. MON MON He asks how contemporary philanthropists might contribute to MON the 'Big Society'. MON MON And he hears about attempts to reclaim the term MON 'philanthropist' for all - not merely those who give £5 MON million a year but those who give £5 a month. MON MON Hugh talks to bankers and politicians, historians, cultural MON commentators and the contemporary philanthropist Sir Peter MON Lampl, founder of the Sutton Trust, to discover a role for a MON truly 'new philanthropy' for the 21st century. MON MON Presenter: Hugh Cunningham is Emeritus Professor of History MON in the University of Kent. He was the academic consultant MON and co-writer of 'The Invention of Childhood', Radio Four's MON 30 part narrative history series on the changing face of MON British childhood, presented by Michael Morpurgo. MON MON Producer: Beaty Rubens. MON MON 20:30 Crossing Continents b018flpd (Listen) MON The Graves of Kashmir MON MON Jill McGivering, the BBC World Service South Asia editor, MON investigates the discovery of thousands of bodies in mass MON graves in Indian Kashmir. Human rights groups suspect they MON are just some of the victims of "disappearances" at the MON hands of the Indian military in this contested region. The MON authorities respond that the bodies are in fact those of MON militants who have infiltrated from Pakistan. Will an MON official investigation reveal the truth? MON Producer: Michael Gallagher. MON MON 21:00 Material World b018fmq8 (Listen) MON This week, Quentin Cooper hears about a new planet the size MON of the Earth, simulating the brain with analogue chips, the MON last four in the long list of potential amateur scientists, MON how robins choose a sexy mate and how a warming climate is MON bad for your Christmas tree. MON MON Producer: Martin Redfern. MON MON The Search for Earth-like Planets MON MON Astronomers using NASA's Kepler satellite have detected what MON they believe to be to rocky planets orbiting a sun-like MON star. Kepler 20 e and 20 f are too close to their star for MON liquid water to exist on their surface or to support life, MON but one of them, Kepler 20 f, is almost exactly the same MON size as the Earth. Lead author of the report in the journal MON Nature, Francois Fressin of the Harvard Smithsonian Center MON for Astrophysics, tells Quentin that this is the first time MON a rocky planet the size of the Earth has been detected and MON raises hopes that habitable planets may soon be found. MON MON Sexy Competition Among the Robins MON MON Robins evolved their red breasts not to drive the Christmas MON card boom of the Victorian era but as a way of broadcasting MON information about themselves. Until now, it was thought that MON the red breast helped robins to distinguish themselves as a MON species, but ecologists in Spain have shown that the breast MON confers information about the sex and age of the individual MON bird too. Quentin is joined on the line from Seville, near MON the Doñana National Park in southern Spain by Roger Jovani, MON who led the research. MON MON So You Want To Be A Scientist: completing the shortlist MON MON The final four shortlisted ideas for So You Want To Be A MON Scientists are revealed: MON MON Mature student Dara Djavan Khoshdel from Bournemouth asks MON whether it is possible to predict the value of a painting MON based on people’s gut instinct as measured through galvanic MON skin responses. MON MON David Prior, a 43 year old transport planner from Gotham, MON wants to know whether the ‘old-wife’s tale about cows and MON rain has a grain of truth. MON MON Leeroy Murray would like to find out whether swimming in MON cold water has any health benefits. MON MON Finally, Val Watham, an organisational consultant from MON Binfield, is wondering whether fabric designs really do have MON an influence on how we perceive someone’s size. MON MON Simulating Brains the way Nature Intended MON MON In spite of the huge advances in digital computing in recent MON years, no one has yet managed to simulate the brain of even MON a simple animal, let alone a human in a digital computer. Dr MON Martin Coath of the University of Plymouth thinks it would MON be better to use analogue computing, as that is closer to MON the way in which our brain cells work and allows parallel MON processing and low power consumption. He is working with an MON analogue chip manufacturer in Zurich and outlines how the MON chips might be used to process sensory information. MON MON Keeping the Needles on your Christmas Tree MON MON Is that Christmas tree beginning to look a bit threadbare MON already? If it is, perhaps you should blame the weather. The MON warm autumn with few frosts has meant that British Christmas MON trees may not have entered winter dormancy early enough to MON prevent needle drop. Roger Hay, secretary of the British MON Christmas Tree Growers Association discusses the problem and MON tells Quentin what growers and the public can do to minimise MON needle drop. MON MON 21:30 Start the Week b018g2yz (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] MON MON 21:58 Weather b018g0zz (Listen) MON The latest weather forecast. MON MON 22:00 The World Tonight b018g3pm (Listen) MON Ritula Shah presents national and international news and MON analysis. MON MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime b018g3pp (Listen) MON The Pursuit of Love, Episode 6 MON MON by Nancy Mitford. Linda falls in love again, but finds that MON parties thrown by communists are frightfully gloomy. MON Abridged by Lauris Morgan-Griffiths and read by Diana Quick. MON MON Fanny Logan tells the story of her beloved and beautiful MON aristocratic cousin, Linda Radlett. Linda's marriage has MON failed and she's left her husband and daughter to live with MON the dashingly idealistic communist Christian Talbot. MON MON Beautifully observed and hilariously funny, the novel is MON also a fascinating hinterland account of the period leading MON to the Second World War and never pulls its punches in MON evoking the painful reality of the times. MON MON Reader...Diana Quick MON Abridger...Lauris Morgan-Griffiths MON Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery. MON MON 23:00 Word of Mouth b018cq02 (Listen) MON Bonds and Bailouts - the language of the financial markets. MON Michael Rosen returns for a new series on words and the way MON we use them. MON The ups and downs of the banking world have moved from the MON financial news to the front pages. We are, we're told, MON witnessing momentous events with far-reaching consequences. MON But how well do we understand the language of global MON economic turmoil? Does financial jargon explain or obscure MON the picture? Michael Rosen talks to money makers, MON anti-capitalists and commentators. MON MON Producer: Chris Ledgard. MON MON 23:30 For One Night Only b00zh1d6 (Listen) MON Series 6, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart MON MON Paul Gambaccini returns with the award-winning series to MON look back at four more occasions on which a classic live MON album was recorded. He hears from those who were there, MON on-stage, backstage and in the audience, to re-create the MON event for all of us who, each time we play the album, think: MON 'If only I could have been there'. MON MON When 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' appeared in 1960 MON it became the first comedy album ever to top the charts. MON From 'The Driving Instructor' to 'Abe Lincoln vs Madison MON Avenue', the sketches that earned Newhart Grammy Awards for MON Best New Artist and Best Comedy Performance were as popular MON in Britain as in the US. And they still raise a laugh more MON than fifty years on. MON MON In this first edition of the new series, Paul Gambaccini MON talks to the now 81-year-old comedy star himself who, before MON the legendary album, was an accountant who leavened the MON office monotony by working up 'phone' routines with a MON colleague. When Chicago DJ Dan Sorkin heard a tape of the MON pair, he thought Bob's end of the act was good enough to MON record and managed to interest George Avakian of Warner MON Brothers Records. Avakian wanted Bob in front of a live MON audience and found a club in Houston - The Tidelands - where MON the manager, Dick Maegle, agreed to let the novice perform. MON Sorkin, Avakian and Maegle have all been interviewed for the MON programme. MON MON So on 12 February 1960 a nervous Bob went out on stage. The MON result is as fresh today as it was then. Paul Gambaccini MON hears the story of the making of this classic album MON MON Also in this series of For One Night Only: BB King's MON classic, Live at the Regal, the LSO's hit live performance MON of Berlioz's The Trojans and Keith Jarrett's unsurpassed MON jazz improvisation, the Cologne Concert. MON MON Producer: Marya Burgess. MON MON TUE TUESDAY 27 DECEMBER 2011 TUE TUE 00:00 Midnight News b018g10k (Listen) TUE The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. TUE Followed by Weather. TUE TUE 00:15 A Point of View b018g3nx (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Monday] TUE TUE 00:30 Book of the Week b018g2z1 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday] TUE TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast b018g10m (Listen) TUE The latest shipping forecast. TUE TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b018g10p (Listen) TUE BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. TUE TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast b018g10r (Listen) TUE The latest shipping forecast. TUE TUE 05:30 News Briefing b018g10t (Listen) TUE The latest news from BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day b018mjv5 (Listen) TUE with Bishop Steven Croft. TUE TUE 05:45 Farming Today b018g5th (Listen) TUE Rex Milton is in charge of one of Exmoor's oldest herds of TUE semi-wild ponies. Sarah Swadling finds out about the history TUE of the herd, and the breed itself. As Rex explains, there's TUE now a niche market for them as riding ponies and show TUE animals. Sarah also learns about the vital role that Exmoor TUE ponies play in keeping down the gorse, so that the moorland TUE heather can thrive. TUE TUE Produced and Presented by Sarah Swadling. TUE TUE 06:00 Today b018g5tk (Listen) TUE With Justin Webb and Evan Davis. Including Sports Desk; TUE Weather; Thought for the Day. TUE TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific b018g5tm (Listen) TUE Colin Pillinger TUE TUE On this day eight years ago, planetary scientist Colin TUE Pillinger was still hopeful that the Beagle 2 Lander that he TUE had spent years designing, building and publicising (with TUE the help of Blur and Damien Hirst) might yet be found TUE somewhere on the surface of Mars. But, as more time passed, TUE it became clear that The Beagle 2 Lander would be forever TUE lost in space. Jim al -Khalili talks to Colin Pillinger TUE about studying moon rock and meteorites from Mars whilst TUE running a successful dairy farm; broken space dreams and TUE why, even if a space project fails, useful scientific TUE lessons can still be learned. TUE TUE 09:30 One to One b018g6wj (Listen) TUE Bridget Kendall with Archbishop Rowan Williams TUE TUE Bridget Kendall takes over the One to One chair and talks to TUE those who are well known in one field but have another TUE compelling area of expertise. Before becoming the BBC's TUE diplomatic correspondent, like her first interviewee, TUE Bridget too was a Russian scholar. She talks to Archbishop TUE Rowan Williams about his fascination with Dostoyevsky and TUE why he finds the author's work so helpful in his own. TUE Producer: Lucy Lunt. TUE TUE Bridget Kendall with Archbishop Rowan Williams at Lambeth TUE Palace TUE TUE 09:45 Book of the Week b018sgzx (Listen) TUE Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be: The Lionel Bart Story, TUE Episode 2 TUE TUE Today, Bart meets Joan Littlewood and writes the songs for TUE 'Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be'. Read by Alistair McGowan. TUE TUE Abridged by Julian Wilkinson TUE Produced by Emma Harding. TUE TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour b018g6wl (Listen) TUE Twitter Special TUE TUE Presented by Jane Garvey. This is a look back at the guests TUE and subjects on Woman's Hour that inspired the most comment TUE this year via Twitter. Perhaps inevitably some of it is not TUE for the fainthearted, including a frank interview with Joan TUE Collins, and the moment where Tracey Emin asked Jenni an TUE extremely personal question, as well as some of the funnier TUE moments of the year. To discuss Woman's Hour on Twitter Jane TUE Garvey is joined by Kate Bussmann, who has written the first TUE ever social media almanac, Dr Ruth Page, of the University TUE of Leicester, who has completed an extensive study of the TUE use of social media by women celebrities and by the actress TUE Lorelei King who loves to 'tweavesdrop.' Also on the TUE programme: Grace Dent, Mona Eltahawy, Nancy Dell'Olio, TUE Giorgio Locatelli, Joan Smith, Liz Jones and Mitch Benn. TUE We'll hear why female masturbation is still taboo, why women TUE like horses, why beards are back and why tattoos are so TUE popular. TUE TUE 10:45 Woman's Hour Drama b018g6wn (Listen) TUE Possession, Episode 7 TUE TUE Written by A S Byatt. Dramatised by Timberlake Wertenbaker TUE TUE Director: Celia de Wolff TUE A Pier production for BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 11:00 Yeti's Finger b018g6wq (Listen) TUE High up a remote Himalayan Mountain in Nepal is a Buddhist TUE monastery. The monks say there is no doubt yeti's roam the TUE high forest, they see and hear them and they sometimes even TUE attack people. The tantalising prospect of being the first TUE to prove that this mythical ape like creature actually TUE exists has been the goal many explorers - but the beast has TUE always evaded capture. Then the discovery of a supposed TUE yeti's hand kept in the monastery set off a remarkable chain TUE of events that drew in a mountain explorer, an American oil TUE tycoon, a Hollywood film star and a high tech lab for TUE forensic science in Scotland. But is it a yeti? TUE TUE Some people will go to extraordinary lengths to be the TUE first. Tom Slick, an American oil tycoon, had the money and TUE the desire to try to prove that yetis really do exist. He TUE used his vast wealth to mount expeditions, sending off TUE climber and explorer Peter Byrne into the most remote areas TUE of the Himalayas to follow any leads he came across, and one TUE seemed worth investigating further - a hand of a "yeti" in TUE Pangboche monastery in Nepal. Byrne did a deal with the TUE monks and replaced one finger of the hand with a human TUE finger and arranged to have the yeti finger smuggled back to TUE London. TUE TUE How the finger actually reached London is a most bizarre TUE tale that involved Hollywood film star James Stewart TUE concealing it in his wife's lingerie case. And then the TUE trail went cold. Slick died, Byrne went onto other things TUE and the finger was lost to the world until it was found by TUE chance in a forgotten collection of curiosities in the Royal TUE College of Surgeons in London. New scientific techniques are TUE now applied to see if the yeti's finger really is what it TUE claims to be - or if not - what on earth has a finger like TUE that? TUE TUE Presenter: Matthew Hill TUE Producer: Mary Colwell TUE Editor: Julian Hector TUE TUE 11:30 Beatles Christmas b018g6ws (Listen) TUE Show business enjoys a cosy relationship with Christmas and TUE as we hear The Fab Four responded with a wealth of festive TUE fan club recordings, appeared in panto and (later) their TUE Boxing Day TV film 'Magic Mystery Tour'. 'Beatle Christmas' TUE hears the best of their rare Christmas message recordings TUE revealing a refreshing sense of fun that helped set the Fab TUE Four apart. TUE TUE Presenter Alexei Sayle explores how their fan club messages TUE were recorded with comments from the man who wrote the TUE scripts Beatles publicist Tony Barrow. The fan club TUE recordings are featured and reflect the changing stages of TUE the Beatles career and creativity. The programme also TUE reveals the Beatles played two seasons in panto and we hear TUE what was going on back stage . Christmas 1963 saw The TUE Beatles taking to the stage for 16 shows across the seasonal TUE period and it's surprising they took to wearing pantomime TUE costume so well. TUE TUE The Beatles did a second spell in panto this time playing 21 TUE shows in London Christmas 64 and the programme has comments TUE from supporting acts, singer Elkie Brooks and Barron Knights TUE guitarist Peter Langford. Time is also devoted to the TUE group's Boxing Day broadcast on BBC 1 for their 'Magical TUE Mystery Tour' film and we hears how the movie was made and TUE scheduled for festive family viewing with comments from the TUE film's editor Roy Benson. TUE TUE Presenter Alexei Sayle takes us on a remarkable musical TUE journey through the Christmas recordings of The Beatles. TUE TUE Producer: John Sugar TUE A Sugar Production for BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 12:00 You and Yours b018g6wv (Listen) TUE Call You and Yours TUE TUE The Big Society: Have you got involved and has your TUE community benefited from David Cameron's idea to get TUE volunteers to run services like post offices and libraries? TUE Or are you too busy running your own life to help others? TUE Have you come forward to help but been put off by the amount TUE of red tape? Maybe you see it as an excuse by the government TUE to spend less and get the public to do more. Whether you're TUE helping out in your community or seeing the benefits as more TUE people offer their time to work on your projects, we want to TUE hear from you. Has it helped solve problems in your TUE neighbourhood? Call You and Yours with Julian Worricker. TUE Your chance to share your views on the programme. Email TUE youandyours@bbc.co.uk, text 84844 and we may 'phone you back TUE or call 03700 100 444 (lines open at 10am Tuesday) TUE TUE Producer Sally Abrahams. TUE Presenter Julian Worricker. TUE TUE 12:57 Weather b018g10w (Listen) TUE The latest weather forecast. TUE TUE 13:00 World at One b018g6wx (Listen) TUE Shaun Ley presents national and international news. TUE Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or TUE on twitter: #wato. TUE TUE 13:45 Food for Thought b018g6wz (Listen) TUE Series 2, Yoko Ono TUE TUE Yoko Ono discusses the virtues of vegetables with journalist TUE Nina Myskow . TUE TUE Although reluctant to let even the tiniest piece of inferior TUE confectionery pass her lips, artist and musician Yoko Ono TUE reveals why she finally fell in love with one particular TUE food. She explains that one of husband, John's pleasures was TUE chocolate and how it came to comfort her. TUE TUE A long time devotee of macrobiotics, Yoko tells Nina about TUE the experiences that shaped her tastes: from a Japanese diet TUE low in animal fat to the years, during World War II, when TUE she was evacuated from Tokyo. She made rice and miso soup TUE for her siblings, longed for butter and was forced to barter TUE for food. TUE TUE Odd then perhaps that several years later she would go on a TUE forty day fast with John Lennon. TUE She explains why. TUE TUE Yoko also shares her passion for fish and chips, as well as TUE Korean pickles. And how did she make John eat sushi? TUE TUE Producer: Tamsin Hughes TUE A Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 14:00 The Archers b018g3p9 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday] TUE TUE 14:15 Afternoon Play b018g6x1 (Listen) TUE A Tale of Two Cities, The Old Order TUE TUE Dramatised by Mike Walker TUE Episode 2/5: The Old Order TUE TUE Lucie Manette is a witness at Charles Darnay's trial for TUE treason at the Old Bailey, where his defence team includes TUE the dissolute Sydney Carton. Meanwhile, an incident in a TUE Paris street stirs revolutionary fervour. TUE TUE Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Jeremy Mortimer. TUE TUE 15:00 Home Planet b018gpdd (Listen) TUE Are Our Seasons Changing? TUE TUE This year some magnolias bloomed again in the autumn and TUE other plants such as rhubarb are also showing some TUE particularly unseasonable behaviour. TUE TUE This week one listener wants to know whether this means our TUE seasons are changing, and what might be the probable impact TUE of such a change. You also want to know whether seabirds are TUE taking valuable fish out of the nets of fishermen, or is it TUE we humans doing the same to gulls, auks and gannets? Why do TUE planets always end up orbiting around their star's equator? TUE And what are the mysterious coronal holes that appear in the TUE Sun's atmosphere? TUE TUE On the panel this week are astronomer Dr Carolin Crawford of TUE Cambridge University; Professor Andrew Watkinson, Director TUE of Living with Environmental Change; and Professor Philip TUE Stott and environmental scientist of the University of TUE London. TUE TUE The programme is presented by Richard Daniel. TUE TUE Producer: Toby Murcott TUE A Pier production for BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 15:30 Questions, Questions b012r7tc (Listen) TUE Stewart Henderson presents another sparkling series of TUE Questions Questions - the programme which offers answers to TUE those intriguing questions of everyday life, inspired by TUE current events and popular culture. TUE Each programme is compiled directly from the well-informed TUE and inquisitive Radio 4 audience, who bring their unrivalled TUE collective brain to bear on these puzzlers every week. TUE TUE In the programme this week, Stewart is pondering the TUE universal appeal of the protest chant, he'll also be letting TUE you in on the secret signals frogs use to let each other TUE know the exact day to spawn. Our roving reporter Dave Dodd TUE has been to Dunwich to investigate whether you can hear the TUE church bells from drowned villages tolling under the waves. TUE And County Durham, why is it the only County in England to TUE use the prefix County? A tale of powerful bishops and penny TUE posts unravels a complex history. TUE TUE Producer: Kate Taylor TUE A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth b018g5t3 (Listen) TUE But I've Got a Degree! TUE TUE But I've Got A Degree! Michael Rosen discusses the letters TUE we put before and after our names. Are you a BA, MA, Dr or TUE Dame - or "just a plain Mister"? And does it matter? TUE TUE 16:30 Great Lives b018gpdg (Listen) TUE Series 26, Ludwig II of Bavaria TUE TUE Brian Sewell on his long-standing love of "Mad" King Ludwig TUE II of Bavaria, who built the ultimate fantasy castle at TUE Neuschwanstein. From his first fateful glimpse of one of TUE Ludwig's palaces, Brian's been fascinated with the eccentric TUE King, and his mysterious death, and has become personally TUE involved in the story of his life. Presenter Matthew Parris TUE and contributor Simon Winder find out more... TUE TUE Producer Beth O'Dea. TUE TUE 17:00 PM b018gpdj (Listen) TUE Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including TUE Weather. TUE TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News b018g10y (Listen) TUE The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 18:15 A Point of View b018gpdl (Listen) TUE The Meaning of Debt TUE TUE Sarah Dunant looks at different aspects of debt, including TUE the debt owed to those who have been a force for change in TUE Arab countries. TUE Producer: Sheila Cook. TUE TUE 18:30 Mark Steel's in Town b018gpdn (Listen) TUE Series 3, Douglas (Isle of Man) TUE TUE Episode 4 - In this episode Mark performs a show for the TUE residents of Douglas on the Isle of Man, to discuss space TUE travel, fairy bridges and the mystery - or otherwise - of TUE Gef the Talking Mongoose. TUE TUE Written by Mark Steel with additional material by Pete TUE Sinclair. TUE Produced by Sam Bryant. TUE TUE 19:00 The Archers b018gpdq (Listen) TUE TUE 19:15 Front Row b018gpds (Listen) TUE Singers Joseph Calleja, Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore and TUE Iestyn Davies TUE TUE Mark Lawson talks to three tenors and a counter-tenor: TUE Joseph Calleja (pictured), Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore and TUE Iestyn Davies reflect on repertoire, singing teachers and TUE the perils of phlegm. TUE TUE Producer Georgia Mann. TUE TUE 19:45 Woman's Hour Drama b018g6wn (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today] TUE TUE 20:00 Buying Defence b017mtfc (Listen) TUE The Prime Minister has described the country's defence TUE budget as "a complete car crash", with delays and overspends TUE on military equipment costing the taxpayer hundreds of TUE millions of pounds each year. TUE TUE But why have successive governments found it so hard to get TUE defence procurement right? How did the Ministry of Defence TUE end up with a £38b black hole in its budget? And can they TUE realistically balance the books while keeping the armed TUE forces in tanks, submarines and fighter jets? TUE TUE Defence expert and former soldier Francis Tusa takes us TUE inside the secretive world of defence procurement and tries TUE to work out what has gone wrong and how things can be fixed. TUE He investigates some of the MOD's most costly procurement TUE decisions and asks where the blame lies -with the civil TUE servants, the politicians, the defence industry or the TUE military top brass? Finally, he examines some of the radical TUE solutions being proposed to cut Britain's defence bill. TUE TUE Presenter Francis Tusa in a Scimitar armoured vehicle. TUE TUE 20:40 In Touch b018gpgl (Listen) TUE Peter White meets actor Ryan Kelly - Jazzer in The Archers. TUE 27/12/2011 TUE TUE Actor Ryan Kelly is blind and probably best known for TUE playing the part of Jazzer in The Archers. Landing the role TUE was a dream come true, as he was an avid listener even as a TUE child and one of his heroes was Carole Boyd (who plays Lynda TUE Snell). TUE Encouraged to pursue an acting career by his drama teacher TUE at the Royal National College in Hereford, he went on to TUE become the first blind student to be accepted at the Bristol TUE Old Vic. TUE TUE He talks to Peter White about the way he deals with learning TUE lines and navigating the recording studios and his approach TUE to playing a sighted character - and shows that his time as TUE a busker playing the accordion was not wasted. TUE TUE Producer Cheryl Gabriel. TUE Presenter Peter White. TUE TUE 21:00 Plumbers and Penguins b00wr6qk (Listen) TUE To mark the centenary of the conquest of the South Pole TUE there's another chance to hear the stories of some of the TUE tradesmen who live and work on Antarctica. In the summer of TUE 2009, British Antarctic Survey very publicly recruited 43 TUE plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, electricians and doctors to TUE spend 18 months working on their most southerly research TUE stations - promising "the most exhilarating experience of a TUE lifetime". Chris Eldon Lee discovers what actually happened TUE to the new recruits. Almost 2000 tradesman applied to be TUE parted from their white vans and sent into whiteout TUE conditions. Doctors were also hired to care for their TUE welfare in such extreme conditions. TUE TUE Mark Green, a 48-year-old Bristol plumber, was sent to TUE Halley Research Station on the eastern side of the Antarctic TUE Peninsula. His job is to keep water supplies flowing at TUE temperatures of minus 50 Celsius. 30-year-old Claire Lehman, TUE a recently qualified Wiltshire GP, was posted to Rothera, on TUE the western shore of the Peninsula. TUE TUE Like everybody else in Antarctica, both have had to learn TUE brand new skills to help keep their Bases going. Mark finds TUE himself abseiling down precipitous crevasses and learning to TUE be a sea-ice driver's mate. Claire is refuelling planes and TUE supplying all the field scientists with freshly baked TUE Christmas Cakes. TUE TUE Producer: Chris Eldon Lee TUE A Culture Wise Production for BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific b018g5tm (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] TUE TUE 21:58 Weather b018g110 (Listen) TUE The latest weather forecast. TUE TUE 22:00 The World Tonight b018gpgn (Listen) TUE Ritula Shah presents national and international news and TUE analysis. TUE TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime b018gpgq (Listen) TUE The Pursuit of Love, Episode 7 TUE TUE Reader...Diana Quick TUE Abridger...Lauris Morgan-Griffiths TUE Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery. TUE TUE 23:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage b018g3ns (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Monday] TUE TUE 23:30 For One Night Only b00zq9m8 (Listen) TUE Series 6, BB King Live at the Regal TUE TUE Paul Gambaccini is back with the award-winning series that TUE re-visits the occasions on which a classic live album was TUE recorded. He hears from those who were there, on-stage, TUE backstage and in the audience, to re-create the event for TUE all of us who, each time we play the album, think: 'If only TUE I could have been there'. TUE TUE On 21 November 1964 what's been hailed as one of the TUE greatest blues albums of all time was recorded at Chicago's TUE premier black theatre, The Regal. It's claimed, that TUE musicians from Eric Clapton to John Mayer still play it for TUE inspiration before they go on stage. TUE TUE If BB's studio sessions were electric, it was on stage that TUE he really came into his own. Yet, at a time when live albums TUE were becoming the thing, BB had yet to record one. Enter TUE Johnny Pate, A&R man for ABC Paramount, the label that had TUE recently signed Riley B King. TUE TUE On the night, Chicago DJs Pervis Spann and E Rodney Jones TUE introduced the sets and the enthusiastic audience erupted as TUE BB and his band treated them to a classic performance. TUE TUE Paul Gambaccini listens to memories of that TUE never-to-be-forgotten night from BB King himself and from TUE the sole surviving member of his band, Duke Jethro. Jethro's TUE usual instrument, the HammondB3 Organ, was in the repair TUE shop so he had to play, for the first time in his life, a TUE piano. Yet his tinkling riffs are one of the album's major TUE charms. TUE TUE Paul also hears from the album's producer, Johnny Pate, from TUE WVON DJ Pervis Spann, and from Arthur Gathings, who was in TUE the audience. TUE TUE Producer: Marya Burgess. TUE TUE WED WEDNESDAY 28 DECEMBER 2011 WED WED 00:00 Midnight News b018g11l (Listen) WED The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. WED Followed by Weather. WED WED 00:15 A Point of View b018gpdl (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Tuesday] WED WED 00:30 Book of the Week b018sgzx (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday] WED WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast b018g11n (Listen) WED The latest shipping forecast. WED WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b018g11q (Listen) WED BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. WED WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast b018g11s (Listen) WED The latest shipping forecast. WED WED 05:30 News Briefing b018g11v (Listen) WED The latest news from BBC Radio 4. WED WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day b018mjws (Listen) WED with Bishop Steven Croft. WED WED 05:45 Farming Today b018gqxf (Listen) WED The Milton family farm cattle, sheep, Exmoor ponies, and WED arable crops on the patchwork of land which makes up Exmoor WED National Park. In today's programme, Sarah Swadling WED accompanies Robin Milton as he feeds his very vocal herd of WED pedigree Aberdeen Angus beef cattle. The animals are not WED only a commercial proposition, they help to manage the WED farm's rare Culm Grassland. Ninety per cent of the habitat, WED in the UK, was lost to drainage and land improvement in the WED 20th century. WED WED Produced and Presented by Sarah Swadling. WED WED 06:00 Today b018gqyq (Listen) WED With James Naughtie and Justin Webb. Including Sports Desk; WED Weather; Thought for the Day. WED WED 09:00 Midweek b018gqys (Listen) WED This week Libby Purves is joined by guests Winnie and Frank WED Tovey, Simon Russell Beale, Noo Saro-Wiwa and Anne Wallace. WED WED Winnie and Frank Tovey spent sixteen years in the fifties WED and sixties in India where Frank was a medical missionary. WED They were active in providing clinics to cure leprosy, WED surgery and physiotherapy to restore function and treat WED deformity and have written about their experiences in the WED book 'Cor Blimey! Where 'ave you come from?, published by WED Little Knoll Press. WED WED Simon Russell-Beale is the acclaimed stage and screen actor WED who has played every major Shakespearean and classical drama WED lead over the last twenty years. He is currently playing WED Stalin in the National Theatre production of 'Collaborators' WED by John Hodge. He can also be seen in the films Deep Blue WED Sea and My Week With Marilyn. WED WED Noo Saro-Wiwa is a travel writer and daughter of the WED political activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was murdered in WED Nigeria in 1995. She was brought up in the UK but used to WED hate visiting Nigeria every year on holiday as a child. In WED her book 'Looking for Transwonderland', she describes her WED own journey back, ten years after his death. Looking for WED Transwonderland is published by Granta. WED WED Anne Wallace has worked in the fish and chip shop business WED in Stockport for the last forty-five years. She recently won WED a NatWest Everywoman Gaia Award for Enterprise. When the WED recession hit and neighbouring shops closed down, she bought WED the shop next door and opened it as a coffee shop, WED Startpoint, where they offer everything from providing IT WED skills to the elderly, to courses in Tai Chi and crochet. WED WED Producer: Annette Wells. WED WED 09:45 Book of the Week b018sh0t (Listen) WED Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be: The Lionel Bart Story, WED Episode 3 WED WED Today, Bart gives Cliff Richard his first number one and WED begins work on his own musical masterpiece, 'Oliver!' Read WED by Alistair McGowan. WED WED Abridged by Julian Wilkinson WED Produced by Emma Harding. WED WED 10:00 Woman's Hour b018gqz1 (Listen) WED Shepherdess; jurors; diets; table manners WED WED Jane Kallaway, a shepherdess in Wiltshire; Jenni Murray WED discusses whether we should be supporting jurors distressed WED by evidence that they hear. Calories and Corsets: a look at WED the history of diet and body shape and our sometimes WED complicated relationship with food. And children's table WED manners, when should we start training them and how to cope WED with embarrassment in front of the extended family. WED WED Jury Trauma WED WED If you’re aged 18 to 70 and on the electoral register, you WED can be summoned for jury service. But what if the evidence WED you hear in a criminal case leaves you traumatised? Do the WED courts owe jurors a duty of care? Should the criminal WED justice system pay for therapy? Should each trial have a WED psychological counsellor on call for jurors to talk to? WED Hannah was so distressed by her jury service that she WED suffered nightmares and hair loss, was scared to leave her WED house and had to take time off work. Jenni discusses the WED issues with clinical psychologist, Dr Noelle Robertson, of WED Leicester University, who carried out a survey of jurors and WED found that some – vulnerable women in particular – are WED traumatised by what they see and hear in court. Joining them WED is criminal barrister Narita Bahra. WED WED Children's Table Manners WED WED How important is it for children to have good table manners? WED Are TV dinners eroding key social skills like making polite WED conversation at mealtimes, and even the ability to use a WED knife? Are elbows on the table the worst offence imaginable, WED or should we chill out and let them enjoy their food – even WED if that means they’re under the table while they’re eating WED it? Writers Anna Maxted and Judith Woods join Jenni to WED discuss strategies for successful family meals, and how to WED respond to disapproving glares from fellow diners, or WED indeed, grandparents. WED WED Jane Kallaway - the Wiltshire Shepherdess! WED WED Over the last decade Jane Kallaway has won 14 national WED awards for the meat produced by her rare breed flock of Manx WED Loaghtan (Lockton) sheep, culminating in recently winning WED the National Organic Food award for the best tasting organic WED meat in Britain. Sometimes known as the Wiltshire WED Shepherdess! - she set up her business in 1998 with just 15 WED sheep which have now expanded to almost 350. Felicity Finch WED has been to meet her at her Langley Chase Farm in WED Chippenham. WED WED Calories and Corsets. The history of dieting over 2000 years WED WED Today’s multi-billion pound dieting industry puts constant WED pressure on us to slim down, shape up and lose those WED stubborn extra pounds. Whilst this obsession may be seen as WED a twentieth century phenomenon, historian Louise Foxcroft’s WED new book Calories and Corsets, the history of dieting over WED 2000 years shows that we have been struggling with our diet WED ever since the Ancient Greeks. Louise and The Guardian WED columnist Anna Maxted join Jenni Murray to discuss dieting WED trends throughout history. WED WED Calories and Corsets. A history of dieting over 2000 years WED will be published on 5th January 2012. WED WED 10:45 Woman's Hour Drama b018gqz3 (Listen) WED Possession, Episode 8 WED WED Written by A S Byatt. Dramatised by Timberlake Wertenbaker WED WED Director: Celia de Wolff WED A Pier production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 11:00 Make Me a National Treasure b018gqz5 (Listen) WED Gyles Brandreth discovers what it takes to become a national WED treasure and achieve the cultural status of figures like WED June Whitfield, Sir Alan Bennett and Sir David Attenborough. WED WED Twiggy, Dame Judi Dench and Tony Benn are national WED treasures. But many other public figures are not. WED WED Gyles sets out to discover the process by which a few WED personalities - but only a few - get to become one of our WED celebrity jewels. He finds out whether 'national treasure' WED status comes down to longevity, eccentricity or several WED ungainly appearances on Strictly Come Dancing. WED WED He hears from national treasures including Sir Terry Wogan WED and Dame Edna Everage - who naturally considers herself to WED be an international treasure - and finds out what our WED national treasures reveal about British identity and our WED changing attitudes to heroism, and to our history. WED WED And, using his rigorously devised National Treasure Matrix, WED Gyles assesses his own chances with an exacting focus group WED comprising journalist Danny Finkelstein plus writers and WED broadcasters Natalie Haynes and Bidisha. WED WED Will Gyles's weakness for teddy bears and gaudy jumpers be WED enough? WED WED Producer: Paula McGinley. WED WED 11:30 Dave Podmore's Superinjunction b018gqz7 (Listen) WED As Dave Podmore prepares to give an after-dinner speech at WED Leicestershire Cricket Club, disaster strikes. Pod - usually WED the King of near the knuckle after dinner entertainment - WED has been afflicted by a terrible stammer which means 200 of WED Leicestershire Police Force's finest never get to hear the WED punchline to the joke about the gay giraffe at a Singles WED Bar. WED WED From Mister Clutch openings to Aladdin at the Meatmarket WED Theatre in Droitwich, the work dries up and Pod resorts to WED desperate measures to get himself back in the public eye - WED namely, by keeping himself out of it. WED WED Inspired by recent tabloid stories, Pod changes his name to WED The Sportsman Who Cannot Be Named For Legal Reasons but the WED plan backfires when another sportsman is 'outed' and gets WED all the credit for Pod's misdeeds with Miss Scrumpy Jack in WED 2007. WED WED But Pod goes one further and takes out a Super-injunction WED determined that, if the media won't besmirch him, he'll just WED have to besmirch himself and is set on breaking the WED super-injunction by naming himself, even though his actions WED could land him behind bars. His loyal follower Andy Hamer WED meanwhile vows to help Pod recover his ability to swear in WED an after dinner situation, by drawing on his expertise WED gleaned from frequent viewings of The King's Speech on WED Orange Wednesdays. WED WED Will Andy's unconventional speech therapy methods cure Pod? WED And will Pod succeed in getting himself back in the WED spotlight as a 'trending topic' in the Twittersphere? WED WED Written and performed by Christopher Douglas with Andrew WED Nickolds and Nick Newman. WED WED Producer: Monica Long WED A Hat Trick Production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 12:00 You and Yours b018gqzc (Listen) WED Consumer news with Winifred Robinson WED WED A scheme launched earlier in the year to help first time WED buyers has successfully produced the first new home owners. WED Councils guarantee the bulk of their deposits, the buyers WED have to find just five per cent of the mortgage. The WED councils involved say there are no strings attached and it WED is helping to stimulate the local economy. WED WED It is three years since Todmorden, on the border of WED Lancashire and West Yorkshire, announced its aim to become WED the first town in the country to be self sufficient in food. WED We examine what they have achieved so far. WED WED And the vintage mobile phones which are selling for around a WED thousand pounds- why are they proving so popular? WED WED 12:57 Weather b018g11x (Listen) WED The latest weather forecast. WED WED 13:00 World at One b018gqzf (Listen) WED Shaun Ley presents national and international news. WED Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or WED on twitter: #wato. WED WED 13:45 Food for Thought b018gqzk (Listen) WED Series 2, Andy McNab WED WED 'What do you want before the chip shop closes?' was the WED phrase former Special Forces soldier Andy McNab got used to WED as a child. In Food For Thought, he describes his transition WED from a thirty-six-inch-waisted 'fat kid' to fit career WED soldier, after a spell in juvenile detention. Joining the WED army meant decent food and regular meal times. You could be WED up on a charge if you didn't eat breakfast before Queen's WED Parade. WED WED Over spam, pick'n'mix and with condensed milk in his cuppa, WED Andy talks to Nina Myskow about feeling looked after by the WED army, the daily rituals of preparing dinner in huge Dixie WED pots and how he cooked on an army Hexy burner in the kitchen WED sink when he bought his first house. He was worried about WED the gas bill. These days, he doesn't cook much but makes WED 'Desperate Dan' sausage and mash for a family special WED occasion. And, after a life in the military, the novelty of WED eating out still hasn't worn off. WED WED Andy also details the realities and deprivations of war time WED capture and there's a frank revelation about the worse thing WED he's ever eaten. Not for the squeamish. It's all rather WED different to the boiled eggs and chocolate given to him by WED the Red Cross on his release, and the expensive kobe beef he WED has sampled since. WED WED Producer: Tamsin Hughes WED A Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 14:00 The Archers b018gpdq (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday] WED WED 14:15 Afternoon Play b018gqzp (Listen) WED A Tale of Two Cities, Two Promises WED WED By Charles Dickens WED Dramatised by Mike Walker WED Episode 3/5 - Two Promises WED WED In a Paris wine shop information is exchanged about the WED courtship of Lucie Manette and Charles Darnay, and indeed, WED in London, it appears that a wedding is indeed in the air. WED WED With Adam Billington and Christopher Webster WED Music by Lennert Busch WED Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Jeremy Mortimer. WED WED 15:00 Money Box Live b018gqzr (Listen) WED Paul Lewis and a panel of guests take your calls on consumer WED rights. WED Do you know your rights to refunds and returns for faulty or WED unwanted goods or Christmas presents? WED There were predictions that shoppers would be spending WED slightly less this festive season compared to December 2010 WED because of continuing economic gloom. WED But allowing for a slight drop, that still means that WED billions of pounds have been spent in shops or online. So WED are you clear about your consumer rights? WED Whatever your question, Paul Lewis and a team of experts is WED waiting to help. WED Did your deliveries arrive in time for Christmas? WED What are your rights if goods are faulty or not as expected? WED Do different rules apply if you shop online, by phone or WED with a catalogue? WED Who pays for postage and packing if orders need to be WED returned? WED Perhaps you have a question about online auction sites? WED And what happens if you buy goods in a sale? WED WED Guests: WED David Cresswell, Financial Ombudsman Service WED Jenny Driscoll, Which? WED David Sanders, Trading Standards Institute WED WED Presenter Paul Lewis WED Producer Ben Carter WED WED Lines open at 1pm. The numbr to ring. 03 700 100 444. WED WED 15:30 The Dog and the Whale b00vcpfg (Listen) WED Radio 4 spends a day on a motor boat with Tucker the sniffer WED dog and a team of zoologists in search of killer whale dung, WED floating in the waters off the North American Pacific coast. WED WED Tucker is a black Labrador. He is one of an elite team of WED detection dogs, trained to find the faeces of threatened WED animals in the cause of conservation. WED WED A lump of faeces is packed with information about an WED animal's stress levels, fertility, nutritional status and WED exposure to chemical pollution. There is no other way to WED reap this data from living whales because whales spend most WED of their lives underwater. It is impossible to take blood WED samples from them because of their thick blubber. A trained WED dog's nose enables researchers from the University of WED Washington in Seattle to find whale scat in much greater WED quantities than by relying on their own human senses. WED WED Tucker's work means the scientists can start to piece WED together an explanation for why a special population of WED killer whales in North America is at risk of extinction. WED WED This community of orca lives between Vancouver Island and WED the mainland US Pacific coast. They number about 90 WED individuals and in recent years they have suffered some WED terrible times. Three years ago, about one in ten died. WED Several years earlier, 20% of them were lost. WED WED Could it be the boat loads of whale-watching tourists which WED are fatally disturbing the animals? Or is it declining WED numbers of King Salmon - the staple food of this population WED of killer whales. Alternatively, high levels of industrial WED and agricultural pollutants from the land might be to blame. WED According to Professor Sam Wasser who runs the university's WED Center for Conservation Biology, the hormones and chemicals WED in the orcas' poop which Tucker might finds suggests a WED possible toxic interplay of factors. WED WED Presenter Andrew Luck-Baker also talks to Rosalind Rolland, WED a whale biologist at the New England Aquarium in Boston. Ros WED was the first to use a detection dog to study whales through WED their faeces. WED WED Her species is the gigantic North Atlantic Right Whale whose WED numbers are also perilously low. Her best detection dog was WED a Rottweiler called Fargo who worked in the drugs squad WED before moving into whale conservation. Sadly Fargo died last WED year and is much missed for his work ethic and fearlessness WED in the face of curious 70 tonne marine mammals. WED WED This programme was first broadcast in October 2010. WED WED Producer/presenter: Andrew Luck-Baker. WED WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed b018gqzt (Listen) WED Home Life 4: Shared Home WED WED Is there an age in which people should couple-up and settle WED down? Laurie Taylor visits the home of 6 young people who WED are extending their student sharing habits into their early WED thirties. What is the factor that keeps an increasing amount WED of people living like this - is it economics, good WED friendships or an antipathy towards what other people might WED regard as growing up? Laurie and his two sociological WED companions, Esther Dermott from Bristol University and Josh WED Richards from the University of Manchester accompany him on WED his investigation. WED Producer: Charlie Taylor. WED WED 16:30 The Media Show b018gqzy (Listen) WED The Media Show Special: Children and Television WED WED The media like stories claiming to link TV with harm to WED children, but is the picture so clear? Focussing on two WED recent pieces of research by Prof Dimitri Christakis and WED Prof Angeline Lillard, Steve discusses the extent to which WED media reports of the link can be justified. Joining him are WED David Buckingham who is Professor of Education at the WED Institute of Education at London University and Director of WED the Centre for the study of Children, Youth and Media, WED Baroness Susan Greenfield, a neuroscientist and Professor of WED Synaptic Pharmacology at Oxford University and Hannah WED Devlin, Science Correspondent for the Times with a PhD in WED brain imaging from Oxford University. WED WED The producer is Luke Mulhall. WED WED 17:00 PM b018gr00 (Listen) WED Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie WED Mair. WED WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News b018g11z (Listen) WED The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. WED WED 18:15 A Point of View b018gr02 (Listen) WED Media Malpractice WED WED Will Self reflects on the new landscape for the press WED Producer: Sheila Cook. WED WED 18:30 Heresy b018gr06 (Listen) WED Series 8, Episode 5 WED WED Victoria Coren presents another edition of the show which WED dares to commit heresy. WED WED Her guests this week are comedian Dave Gorman and newspaper WED columnists Matthew Parris and Julia Hartley-Brewer. Together WED they have fun exposing the wrong-headedness of received WED wisdom and challenging knee-jerk public reaction to events. WED WED Arguing against the popular opinion that celebrities WED shouldn't tell people how to vote, former MP Matthew Parris WED says he would much rather listen to an attractive celebrity WED talking rubbish than listen to the garbage spouted by the WED average politician. WED WED Julia Hartley-Brewer defends Chick Lit against its WED detractors on the grounds that you shouldn't judge a book by WED its pink cover, and argues that it's the kind of literature WED Jane Austen would be writing if she were around today. WED WED And Dave Gorman puts his republican views to one side to WED ride to the defence of the extraordinary hat worn by WED Princess Beatrice at the wedding of William and Kate. Though WED the Princess may wish he hadn't. WED WED Producer: Brian King WED A Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 19:00 The Archers b018gr08 (Listen) WED WED 19:15 Front Row b018gr0b (Listen) WED Writers from India and Pakistan WED WED Kirsty Lang examines how writers from India and Pakistan are WED tackling social and political shifts, with Booker-winner WED Aravind Adiga, Aatish Taseer, Mohammed Hanif and Moni WED Mohsin. WED WED All have published fiction in the past year with a focus on WED complex current issues in their respective countries, WED including terrorism in Pakistan and the huge social changes WED brought about by India's economic boom. WED WED They also reflect on the differences between readers in the WED Indian subcontinent and those who live outside it, and WED discuss how - as Aravind Adiga reveals - a warm critical WED reception in the UK is no guarantee of critical praise at WED home. WED WED Producer Rebecca Nicholson. WED WED 19:45 Woman's Hour Drama b018gqz3 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today] WED WED 20:00 Bringing Up Britain b018gr0l (Listen) WED Series 4, Consumer Children WED WED Consumer Children: WED WED It's the week after Christmas, and children across the UK WED will have found their stockings bulging with new toys and WED gadgets. WED WED But how do you decide what you should and shouldn't buy for WED your children? Quite apart from cost, this question has WED become increasingly fraught. WED WED Ethicists and child psychologists, environmentalists and WED politicians, even fellow parents - all have something to say WED about what you buy your children. WED WED So in this programme, Mariella and guests explore how WED parents make these decisions. WED WED She asks how much attention parents should pay to what other WED adults might think. If we buy our children the latest WED gadget, does it make us feel guilty about our values as WED parents? And should it? WED WED Consumer society is unlikely to vanish any time soon - so WED Mariella explores how we are educating the next generation WED of consumers. How can we empower our youngsters by teaching WED them about the need for limits, and about how to judge WED value? Can handling pocket money or learning about planning WED a family budget help teach them useful skills? WED WED But Mariella also questions whether buying products is the WED most effective way to show your child affection. Do we WED decide what to buy in our children's best interests, or are WED we really buying for our own gratification? WED WED We hear from parents who are faced with pester-power and WED explore the choices that they make in these straitened WED times. We also hear about the effects of deprivation on WED children's happiness. WED WED The panel includes Dr. Agnes Nairn, policy researcher and WED author of 'Consumer Kids', Fiona Ellis, who works as an WED advisory member for the Personal Finance Education Group WED which teaches finance in schools, and Donald Hirsch who WED works on issues around minimum income standards. WED WED Producer: Emma Kingsley. WED WED 20:45 Four Thought b018gr0n (Listen) WED Series 2, Episode 36 WED WED Britain, says Tim Smit, is very far from broken. In fact, he WED argues, we are a really good country, and if we learn to WED trust one another again, we could be wonderful. WED WED Pointing to the success of collaborative ventures he WED started, like the Eden Project and Big Lunch, he suggests we WED should set ourselves the goal of energy independence. This, WED he says, would be as much about the symbolism as the WED environmentalism: a vivid demonstration that far from being WED a dying culture, we are in fact a vigorous one. WED WED Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought WED provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded in front WED of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the WED stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, WED interests and passions that affect our culture and society. WED WED Producer: Giles Edwards. WED WED 21:00 The Teetotaller's Guide to Boozing b00wp55d (Listen) WED Sarfraz Manzoor is teetotal, During his time at Manchester WED University and in his professional life he has got used to WED being on the edge of things as a non-drinker in the UK. In WED this feature he looks at the reliance on booze in the UK and WED asks, 'How British can you be if you don't drink?' WED With more and more people choosing to abstain this may be a WED changing situation, but with New Year parties looming, WED alcohol still has a major role to play in both leisure and WED business. WED Sarfraz Manzoor on the highs and lows of booze in Britain, WED and how to get by without it. WED WED 21:30 Midweek b018gqys (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] WED WED 21:58 Weather b018g121 (Listen) WED The latest weather forecast. WED WED 22:00 The World Tonight b018gr0q (Listen) WED National and international news and analysis. WED WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime b018gr0s (Listen) WED The Pursuit of Love, Episode 8 WED WED Reader...Diana Quick WED Abridger...Lauris Morgan-Griffiths WED Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery. WED WED 23:00 Detective Sergeant Nick Mohammed b018fllw (Listen) WED Episode 3 WED WED There's a Riot going on... Topical! Join DS Nick Mohammed WED and co. as they tackle a full-on student protest complete WED with professional Sloane: Cordelia Jasmine Beatrice de WED Beatrice Grimes (as featured in IN BITS). WED WED Written & performed by Nick Mohammed, with Anna Crilly & WED Colin Hoult. WED WED Produced by Victoria Lloyd. WED WED 23:30 For One Night Only b00zxn8s (Listen) WED Series 6, Berlioz's Les Troyens WED WED Paul Gambaccini presents the award-winning series that WED re-visits the occasions on which a classic live album was WED recorded. He hears from those who were there, on-stage, WED backstage and in the audience, to re-create the event for WED all of us who, each time we play the album, think: 'If only WED I could have been there'. WED WED In December 2000 at The Barbican, Sir Colin Davis conducted WED the London Symphony Orchestra in the epic Berlioz opera, Les WED Troyens. Featuring a fine line-up of soloists, including Ben WED Heppner, Michelle de Young and Petra Lang, Sir Colin's WED championing of the unfashionable composer brought Berlioz's WED unwieldy account of the fall of Troy and the founding of WED Rome to exhilarating life. WED WED The resulting recording was released on the LSO Live label WED and met with international approval, assuring the new WED label's success. The album was the unanimous critics' choice WED at the Classical Brits awards - chaired that year by our WED presenter, Paul Gambaccini. It also won two Grammy Awards - WED for best opera recording and classical recording. WED WED Now he hears from Sir Colin Davis himself about his memories WED of the exceptional recording. Members of the cast, including WED Ben Heppner, Petra Lang and Toby Spence recall their WED experience of the opera, as do members of the orchestra and WED the audience. WED WED Producer: Marya Burgess. WED WED THU THURSDAY 29 DECEMBER 2011 THU THU 00:00 Midnight News b018g12m (Listen) THU The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. THU Followed by Weather. THU THU 00:15 A Point of View b018gr02 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Wednesday] THU THU 00:30 Book of the Week b018sh0t (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday] THU THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast b018g12p (Listen) THU The latest shipping forecast. THU THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b018g12r (Listen) THU BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. THU THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast b018g12t (Listen) THU The latest shipping forecast. THU THU 05:30 News Briefing b018g12w (Listen) THU The latest news from BBC Radio 4. THU THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day b018mjx3 (Listen) THU with Bishop Steven Croft. THU THU 05:45 Farming Today b018grhh (Listen) THU The Milton family farm cattle, sheep, Exmoor ponies, and THU arable crops on the patchwork of land which makes up Exmoor THU National Park. Robin Milton and Sarah Swadling take a stroll THU in the farm's cornfields, to explore how last season's crop THU is now providing winter food for the birds. Robin is also THU paid to plant wild bird seed crops, as part of the THU Environmental Stewardship Scheme. Sarah and Robin discuss THU whether it is possible to combine increased food production THU and conservation. THU THU Produced and Presented by Sarah Swadling. THU THU 06:00 Today b018grhk (Listen) THU With James Naughtie and Sarah Montague. Including Sports THU Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day. THU THU 09:00 In Our Time b018grhm (Listen) THU Macromolecules THU THU Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the giant molecules that THU form the basis of all life. Macromolecules, also known as THU polymers, are long chains of atoms which form the proteins THU that make up our bodies, as well as many of the materials of THU modern life. Man's ability to mimic the structure of THU macromolecules has led to the invention of plastics, paints, THU adhesives and nylon. One of the most famous macromolecules THU is DNA, an infinitely more complex polymer than man has ever THU managed to produce. We've only known about macromolecules THU for just over a century, so what is the story behind them THU and how might they change our lives in the future? THU THU Producer: Natalia Fernandez. THU THU FURTHER READING THU THU Walter Gratzer, ‘Giant Molecules: From Nylon to Nanotubes’ THU (OUP, 2011) THU THU A. Y. Grosberg and A. R. Khokhlov, ‘Giant Molecules: Here, THU There, and Everywhere’, 2nd edition (World Scientific Press, THU 2010) THU THU Paul J. Flory, ‘Principles of Polymer Chemistry’ (Cornell THU University Press, 1953) THU THU Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, ‘Scaling Concepts in Polymer THU Physics’ (Cornell University Press, 1979) THU THU Robert J. Young and Peter A. Lovell, ‘Introduction to THU Polymers’, 3rd edition (CRC Press, 2010) THU THU 09:45 Book of the Week b018sh1v (Listen) THU Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be: The Lionel Bart Story, THU Episode 4 THU THU Oliver! opens to great acclaim. THU THU 10:00 Woman's Hour b018grhp (Listen) THU Celebrating, informing and entertaining women. Presented by THU Jenni Murray. THU THU 10:45 Woman's Hour Drama b018grhr (Listen) THU Possession, Episode 9 THU THU Back in Lincoln, Maud's American feminist friend Leonora THU Stern pays her a visit, bringing with her a letter that adds THU to the mystery. THU THU Written by A S Byatt. Dramatised by Timberlake Wertenbaker THU THU Director: Celia de Wolff THU A Pier production for BBC Radio 4. THU THU 11:00 Crossing Continents b018grht (Listen) THU Reports from around the world. THU THU 11:30 The Tale of A Tale of Two Cities b018grhw (Listen) THU Crime novelist Frances Fyfield takes us into the heart of THU Dickens' creative process: his handwritten manuscripts. THU THU When Dickens wrote 'A Tale of Two Cities' in 1859 it was, THU for him at least, both the best of times and the worst of THU times. THU THU He'd separated from his wife, started a new weekly journal THU and was becoming more and more familiar as a performer of THU his own works. THU THU But the process of creation for his new novel was the same THU as ever. THU THU A tightly written manuscript on individual leaves was THU whisked off to the printers, proof-read and edited by the THU author and then made available, instalment by instalment, to THU a loyal public. THU THU Frances Fyfield has been given access to that manuscript, THU held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and along THU with the scholar Robert Patten and actor David Timson, she THU explores the frantic handwriting, the ferocious self-editing THU and the sheer energy of Dickens' original pages. THU THU And she also visits a print museum to get an idea of just THU what a challenge it was, turning these pages into print THU against the deadlines Dickens had set himself. THU THU Producer: Tom Alban. THU THU 12:00 You and Yours b018grvh (Listen) THU Road building, regional supermarkets and Cuban cigars THU THU Consumer news with Winifred Robinson. THU THU Computer fraudsters are freezing personal PC's and then THU demanding a fine is paid before the computer can be THU unlocked. The demand comes via an email purporting to be THU from the Police but it's a fake. THU THU Should we build more roads? Broadcaster and columnist THU Matthew Parris thinks so; He says there's a marked change in THU car use and new roads would now be unlikely to induce more THU traffic as in the past. THU THU Economic recession may be tough for industry but it is a THU good time to invent something- many of the key innovations THU that drive the modern world were developed during recession THU - why? THU THU Booths, the Lancashire food store, is a thriving regional THU supermarket but despite its success it has no imitators in THU the rest of the UK; is there a gap between the convenience THU store and superstore that enterprises elsewhere in the UK THU could and should exploit ? THU THU The Segway, an electric powered two wheeled platform, was THU hailed as the urban transport of tomorrow ten years ago; why THU has it failed to thrive in the UK? THU THU and the enduring attraction of the Cuban cigar- the THU champagne of smokes. THU THU 12:57 Weather b018g12y (Listen) THU The latest weather forecast. THU THU 13:00 World at One b018grvk (Listen) THU Shaun Ley presents national and international news. THU Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or THU on twitter: #wato. THU THU 13:45 Food for Thought b018grvm (Listen) THU Series 2, Episode 4 THU THU Settled in a local Italian restaurant that's become a home THU from home, much-loved children's author and illustrator, THU Judith Kerr reminisces with Nina Myskow about the food that THU brings back memories of her peripatetic childhood. THU THU Known to generations of children as the author of the Mog THU picture books and The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Judith was born THU in Berlin but was forced to flee Hitler's Germany with her THU parents and brother in 1933. An exile in Switzerland and THU France before arriving in England, prior to the Second World THU War, she explains the importance of food and family, THU especially during the Blitz. THU THU What did she miss? Iced kuchen with nuts in a Berlin cafe or THU a birthday cake made with love, and strawberries, by the THU housekeeper they left behind? In London her father eked out THU a jar of fish paste for lunch every day. Turnip pie was a THU staple. She bought two ounces of toffee for the air raid. THU What did the family eat when, as refugees, it was difficult THU to make ends meet? THU THU In The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Judith's fictional family eat THU sausage and chips at a cafe after the tiger eats them out of THU house and home. In her books, food is for sharing. It's THU celebratory. Mog's reward for catching a burglar is a boiled THU egg for breakfast. Still writing, with grown up children and THU grandchildren, but without her husband Tom who died in 2006, THU how enjoyable is eating these days? And what does Judith THU feed her cat? THU THU Producer: Tamsin Hughes THU A Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4. THU THU 14:00 The Archers b018gr08 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday] THU THU 14:15 Afternoon Play b018grvp (Listen) THU A Tale of Two Cities, The Grindstone THU THU Episode 4/5 - The Grindstone THU THU Much against the wishes of his new wife, Charles Darnay is THU determined to travel to Paris to go to the aid of a family THU retainer who has been imprisoned by the revolutionary THU committee. THU THU With Adam Billington, Rikki Lawton, Christopher Webster THU Music by Lennert Busch THU Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Jeremy Mortimer. THU THU 15:00 Open Country b018grvr (Listen) THU The fisherman’s gansey (a word thought to derive from THU ‘guernsey’) is a seamless woollen pullover worn by THU generations of seamen for work and at leisure. It was THU comfortable, practical and tough enough to provide some THU protection from the elements, and every community had its THU own pattern (possibly in an effort to identify drowned THU fishermen) although these patterns were seldom committed to THU paper. The ganseys of the Moray Firth coastline, the 500 THU miles between Duncansby Head and Fraserburgh, have become THU the focus of a three-year project aiming to preserve the THU heritage of the fishing communities and save the gansey from THU becoming a historical curiosity. Project workers are working THU to save existing ganseys, helping local knitting groups to THU create new ones and encouraging modern interpretations of THU this most traditional of garments. The gansey, it turns THU out, is more than a fisherman’s jumper: it’s a potent THU symbol of lives past and of a community in danger of losing THU touch with its early fishing roots. THU THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal b018g14y (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 08:55 on Sunday] THU THU 15:30 Open Book b018fzwb (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday] THU THU 16:00 The Film Programme b018grz9 (Listen) THU Francine Stock is joined by historian Ian Christie and film THU composer Neil Brand to explore the enduring appeal of the THU silent era. THU THU Tipped for Oscar success and opening this week in the UK, THU The Artist is a film with almost no dialogue and which THU chronicles the transition from silent to talkies. We hear THU from its director Michel Hazanavicius. THU THU As a child actor Diana Serra Carey appeared in hundreds of THU shorts and features between 1920 and 1924 as 'Baby Peggy'. THU Now 93 she looks back as one of the last surviving stars of THU the era. THU THU Producer: Craig Smith. THU THU 16:30 Material World b018gs8y (Listen) THU In this special edition, Adam Rutherford finds out which THU four finalists will be competing for the title of BBC THU Amateur Scientist of the Year. THU THU Over 1,000 people entered 'So You Want to Be a Scientist?' THU hoping to put their scientific questions to the test. During THU the last few weeks on Material World, we've met the 10 THU amateur scientists on this year's shortlist. But which of THU them will make the final four to turn their idea into an THU experiment? THU THU Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir Paul Nurse chairs the THU judging panel and is joined by astronomer Dr Lucie Green, THU statistician Dr Yan Wong from Bang Goes the Theory and THU science journalist Mark Henderson. They'll decide which THU entries show the most scientific promise and discuss how THU these budding amateur scientists might go about designing THU their experiments. THU THU Producer: Michelle Martin. THU THU 17:00 PM b018gs90 (Listen) THU Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including THU Weather. THU THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News b018g130 (Listen) THU The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. THU THU 18:15 A Point of View b018gs8w (Listen) THU The Memory Business THU THU Simon Schama reflects on how the world - ten years on - THU remembered the events of 9/11. And he ponders why it's vital THU to remember. "Ten years is an aeon in tweet-time", he THU writes, but 9/11 "bleeds - in every sense - into today's THU front pages". THU THU Producer: Adele Armstrong. THU THU 18:30 Elvenquest b0170c13 (Listen) THU Series 3, Episode 5 THU THU The Questers continue their search for the Sword of Asnagar THU and are happy to be welcomed into the palace of the White THU Wizard, a man who is nothing but sweetness and light and, THU consequently, the very opposite to Lord Darkness. But THU extremism of any kind, whether for good or evil, is a THU dangerous thing - and Penthiselea (Sophie Winkleman) soon THU begins to smell that there's something not altogether THU unfishy about the White Wizard. THU THU Meanwhile, Kreech and Lord Darkness are off to the Land of THU Dunes for their annual holiday... THU THU Starring: THU THU Darren Boyd as Vidar THU Kevin Eldon as Dean/Kreech THU Dave Lamb as Amis, aka the "Chosen One" THU Alistair McGowan as Lord Darkness THU Stephen Mangan as Sam THU John Sessions as the White Wizard THU and THU Sophie Winkleman as Penthiselea THU THU Written by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto THU Producer: Sam Michell. THU THU 19:00 The Archers b018gs92 (Listen) THU THU 19:15 Front Row b018gs94 (Listen) THU Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Bruce Forsyth and Jack Jones THU THU John Wilson talks to singers Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, THU Jack Jones and Bruce Forsyth, whose careers began before THU rock and roll, and whose combined experience totals over 200 THU years. They reflect on their inspirations, and the art of THU sustaining a career in a business which has changed THU radically over seven decades. THU THU Producer Jerome Weatherald. THU THU 19:45 Woman's Hour Drama b018grhr (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today] THU THU 20:00 The Report b018gsd9 (Listen) THU Iran's Soft Power THU THU Relations between Iran and Britain are at a low ebb. The THU British Embassy in Tehran was attacked in November and now THU Iranian diplomats have been expelled from the UK. But Iran THU does not just rely on its embassy to influence people in THU Britain. THU THU In The Report this week Linda Pressly looks into the THU satellite TV channel Press TV, funded by the Iranian state THU and edited from Tehran. Press TV has come under fire in THU recent weeks after it aired the forced confession of THU Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari and critics now THU want to see it closed down. The Foreign Office has sought THU ways to curtail the channel's activities and Ofcom is THU forcing the broadcaster to move its licence to Tehran by the THU start of the New Year. THU THU Present and former Press TV journalists tell the story of THU the channel's creation in 2007 and explain how it has sought THU to provide an alternative view of the news with prominent THU presenters like Yvonne Ridley and George Galloway. Human THU rights activists explain why they continue to complain to THU Ofcom about the airing of suspected forced confessions; THU freelancer Jody Sabral recounts how the channel's coverage THU of the Syrian uprisings lead to her resignation earlier this THU year. THU THU Many Iranian dissidents and activists see Press TV as part THU of a wider network of religious, cultural and educational THU organisations funded by the government. The Report asks what THU the Iranian government hopes to achieve through these THU centres and what role they will play with the official THU embassy closed. THU THU Producer: Lucy Proctor THU Presenter: Linda Pressly. THU THU 20:30 In Business b018gsdc (Listen) THU A Glass of Its Own THU THU For decades now, gin has been regarded as an old-fashioned THU drink for old fashioned drinkers. But now that may be THU changing, thanks in part to the efforts of some tiny new THU British drinks entrepreneurs with big ideas. THU After centuries of decline, London's distilling industry is THU picking up again, fuelled by small-scale producers and THU European rules changes that recognise London dry gin as a THU distinct drinks category. At a festive time of the year, THU Peter Day meets some of the entrepreneurs behind the trend THU and raises a glass or two to home-grown UK businesses. THU THU Producer: Mike Wendling THU Editor: Stephen Chilcott. THU THU 21:00 Yeti's Finger b018g6wq (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Tuesday] THU THU 21:30 In Our Time b018grhm (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] THU THU 21:58 Weather b018g132 (Listen) THU The latest weather forecast. THU THU 22:00 The World Tonight b018gwv3 (Listen) THU Felicity Evans presents national and international news and THU analysis. THU THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime b018gwv5 (Listen) THU The Pursuit of Love, Episode 9 THU THU Reader...Diana Quick THU Abridger...Lauris Morgan-Griffiths THU Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery. THU THU 23:00 Weird Tales b018gwv7 (Listen) THU Series 3, Night Terrors THU THU by Lizzie Nunnery THU THU The pressure's getting too much for clever clogs Victoria. THU She can't sleep at night. She has nightmares. But it's okay THU because they're just bad dreams . Until one day the dreams THU become real. THU Eddie Marsan stars in the final terrifying episode from a THU series of chilling plays for winter nights. THU THU Dad ... Eddie Marsan THU Victoria ... Katie Angelou THU Laura ... Georgia Groome THU Mum ... Sally Orrock THU Jane ... Francine Chamberlain THU THU Produced by Helen Perry THU THU 23:30 For One Night Only b0103z8j (Listen) THU Series 6, Keith Jarrett: The Cologne Concert THU THU Paul Gambaccini presents the award-winning series that THU re-visits the occasions on which a classic live album was THU recorded. He hears from those who were there, on-stage, THU backstage and in the audience, to re-create the event for THU all of us who, each time we play the album, think: 'If only THU I could have been there'. THU THU Keith Jarrett had made his name as a jazz pianist working THU with Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. But in the THU 1970s he began to give solo performances, frequently THU improvised. On 24 January 1975, at the Opera House in THU Cologne, Germany, he played an entirely improvised concert THU to a packed house. Lasting over an hour, it was released on THU ECM, the new jazz label founded by Manfred Eicher. Keith THU Jarrett: The Cologne Concert was to become not only the THU best-selling solo album in jazz history, but also the THU best-selling piano recording ever. THU THU The concert promoter was an amateur jazz enthusiast: Vera THU Brandes, who was only 17 at the time. For this programme she THU returns to the Cologne Opera House, sharing her memories of THU an extraordinary evening with others who were there, THU including sound engineers Martin Wieland and Eva THU Bauer-Oppelland, and members of the audience. She recalls THU how she begged and borrowed to set up the concert, revealing THU the drama of her discovery that the wrong grand piano had THU been placed on the stage and her futile efforts to find a THU replacement. It turns out that for this record-breaking THU album, Jarrett improvised on an out-of-tune piano with a THU smattering of mute keys! THU THU Recapturing the magical intensity of Jarrett's epic THU performance, Paul Gambaccini hears those who were there THU recall a night of emotion and euphoria which they've never THU forgotten, and conveys through Jarrett's masterly THU performance a sense of history being made. THU THU FRI FRIDAY 30 DECEMBER 2011 FRI FRI 00:00 Midnight News b018g13n (Listen) FRI The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. FRI Followed by Weather. FRI FRI 00:15 A Point of View b018gs8w (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Thursday] FRI FRI 00:30 Book of the Week b018sh1v (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday] FRI FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast b018g13q (Listen) FRI The latest shipping forecast. FRI FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes b018g13s (Listen) FRI BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. FRI FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast b018g13v (Listen) FRI The latest shipping forecast. FRI FRI 05:30 News Briefing b018g13x (Listen) FRI The latest news from BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day b018mjzk (Listen) FRI with Bishop Steven Croft. FRI FRI 05:45 Farming Today b018gy4q (Listen) FRI The Milton family farm cattle, sheep, Exmoor ponies, and FRI arable crops on the patchwork of land which makes up Exmoor FRI National Park. Brothers Robin and Rex are the fifth FRI generation of their family to farm, and two of their sons, FRI Chris and Tim, are following suit. They are in the in the FRI fortunate 50% of farms to have a successor to take over the FRI business. FRI FRI Produced and Presented by Sarah Swadling. FRI FRI 06:00 Today b018gy4s (Listen) FRI With James Naughtie and Sarah Montague. Including Sports FRI Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day. FRI FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs b018gy4v (Listen) FRI Professor Brian Cox FRI FRI Kirsty Young's castaway is the scientist Professor Brian FRI Cox. FRI FRI In the press he's been called 'the pin-up professor' and his FRI enormously popular TV series have been credited with FRI creating the 'Brian Cox effect' - a surge in the number of FRI would-be scientists applying to university. As a teenager he FRI decided he wanted to be a rock star; he toured the world as FRI a member of the band Dare and performed on Top of the Pops FRI with his second group D:Ream. FRI FRI He says:"I hope, we're beginning to treat ideas almost like FRI we treated rock and roll - I hope so, it would be wonderful, FRI wouldn't it, if ideas were the new rock and roll?" FRI FRI Producer: Corinna Jones. FRI FRI 09:45 Book of the Week b018sgp1 (Listen) FRI Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be: The Lionel Bart Story, FRI Episode 5 FRI FRI Today, Bart's reputation is in tatters, and he slides FRI towards alcoholism and bankruptcy. But in the 1980s and 90s, FRI revivals of his earlier work provide a return to grace. Read FRI by Alistair McGowan. FRI FRI Abridged by Julian Wilkinson FRI Produced by Emma Harding. FRI FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour b018gy4x (Listen) FRI Presented by Jenni Murray. Memories from the Lancashire film FRI extras and from Hayley Mills, as the legendary film Whistle FRI Down the Wind celebrates 50 years. Former teacher Tom FRI Burkard claims a school staffed by ex- soldiers could solve FRI truancy - Jenni hears from some teenagers about why they FRI skip school. The holiday season can be a lonely time for the FRI bereaved, but a widow in her 70s says there is life after FRI loss- her book has some timely advice for "merry widows". FRI And are we heading for communication meltdown? The good, the FRI bad and the ugly of hi tech communication - with FRI futurologist Nicola Millard and internet expert Alex FRI Krotoski. FRI FRI 10:45 Woman's Hour Drama b018gy4z (Listen) FRI Possession, Episode 10 FRI FRI News of the stolen letters has now spread across the FRI academic vaults and everyone is keen to get their hands on FRI them. Roland and Maud escape to France in the hope of FRI getting to the truth first. FRI FRI Written by A S Byatt. Dramatised by Timberlake Wertenbaker FRI FRI Director: Celia de Wolff FRI A Pier production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 11:00 UK Confidential b018gy51 (Listen) FRI 1981 FRI FRI It was the year of the Royal Wedding, urban riots and FRI soaring unemployment. Leading economists despaired of the FRI government's handling of the economy, while spending cuts FRI were considered too deep, and relations with European allies FRI fragile. This was 1981. FRI FRI Martha Kearney reviews newly-released government papers from FRI 1981 with guests including former Ministers, government FRI advisers and leading opponents. There are fascinating FRI insights to be gleaned from Margaret Thatcher's personal FRI files, containing secret memos, letters from Ministers and FRI foreign leaders, often furiously annotated with her FRI immediate response. Minutes of Cabinet meetings reveal FRI divisions between departments over the government's handling FRI of key policies. FRI FRI This was the year in which Mrs Thatcher visited the newly FRI instated Ronald Reagan, ten IRA prisoners died on hunger FRI strike in Northern Ireland, and trouble flared in British FRI cities, with looting and rioting in Brixton, Moss Side and FRI Toxteth. Martha and guests will look beyond the headlines to FRI see how key government decisions were made, and where FRI tensions between Ministers lay. FRI FRI Producer: Deborah Dudgeon FRI A Wingspan and Whistledown co-production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 12:00 You and Yours b018gylq (Listen) FRI Franchises for three of the UK's long distance rail routes FRI will be up for grabs next year, so what will it mean for FRI passengers? FRI FRI Will more changes to nutritional labelling on food lead to FRI more confusion for the consumer? FRI FRI And we find out why cage fighting is becoming one of FRI Britain's fastest growing sports. FRI FRI 12:57 Weather b018g13z (Listen) FRI The latest weather forecast. FRI FRI 13:00 World at One b018gylv (Listen) FRI Edward Stourton presents national and international news. FRI Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or FRI on twitter: #wato. FRI FRI 13:45 Food for Thought b018gylx (Listen) FRI Series 2, Carlos Acosta FRI FRI In a rehearsal studio at the Royal Opera House, over an FRI impromptu picnic of tostones (fried plantains) and moros y FRI cristianos (rice with black beans), dancer Carlos Acosta FRI recalls a lifetime of counting the carbs, and his blessings, FRI during a successful career in ballet. FRI FRI From the food ration in his native Cuba, to the abundance of FRI sugar on the island that left him with an explicably sweet FRI tooth, Carlos tells Nina about stealing mangoes as a boy to FRI fund trips to the cinema. He also explains how, arriving in FRI Europe as a teenager, he had to adapt his tastes, his FRI attitudes and his body. He eats a steak before each FRI performance and avoids carbohydrates after six o'clock, FRI despite the fact that he dances for over eight hours almost FRI every day of the week. FRI FRI Eating well is crucial to Carlos' livelihood and eating FRI badly could end his career but the Royal Ballet's principal FRI guest artist still chows down on ice cream, chicken korma FRI and gets drunk, occasionally. He also tells Nina where you FRI can get the perfect mojito. FRI FRI Producer: Tamsin Hughes FRI A Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 14:00 The Archers b018gs92 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday] FRI FRI 14:15 Afternoon Play b018gzm8 (Listen) FRI A Tale of Two Cities, The Substance and the Shadow FRI FRI By Charles Dickens FRI Dramatised by Mike Walker FRI Episode 5/5 - The Substance and the Shadow FRI FRI Sydney Carton is in Paris with Lucie and her father, FRI determined to try and save Charles Darnay's life. An FRI encounter in a Paris street with someone from the FRI import-export trade may just provide the ghost of a chance. FRI FRI Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Jeremy Mortimer. FRI FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time b018gzmb (Listen) FRI Mickleton, Gloucestershire FRI FRI Peter Gibbs chairs a forward-looking programme from the FRI village of Mickleton. On the panel are Chris Beardshaw, FRI Matthew Biggs and Pippa Greenwood. In addition, what makes a FRI grafted plant send out suckers? Why you should mind your FRI French when talking about medlar fruit. FRI Also includes the GQT quiz and an insight into becoming a FRI garden volunteer. FRI FRI Produced by Howard Shannon FRI A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4 FRI FRI 15:45 O Henry Stories b018gzmd (Listen) FRI Mammon and the Archer FRI FRI Mammon and the Archer by O.Henry. FRI A young man is encouraged to pursue the love of his life by FRI his father. But is it cupid or cold hard cash that decides FRI his fate? FRI FRI A Christmas classic by a cherished American writer, to warm FRI the soul and intrigue the listener with satisfyingly FRI unexpected plot twists. FRI FRI Reader...John Guerrasio FRI Abridger...Annie Caulfield FRI Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery. FRI FRI 16:00 Mighty Be Their Powers: Three Women's Struggle for FRI Peace b018nspv (Listen) FRI Bridget Kendall profiles the three female human rights FRI activists awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize: Liberian FRI president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist FRI Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni journalist and campaigner, Tawakkul FRI Karman. FRI FRI Kendall explores the political and social backgrounds from FRI which the Peace Prize laureates come and the context in FRI which they emerged as powerful advocates for peaceful FRI solutions within their countries. FRI FRI The three Laureates, all mothers, are united by their FRI non-violent struggle for women's rights. Together they have FRI overcome oppression to highlight the unique qualities female FRI leadership can bring in peace building. Ellen Johnson FRI Sirleaf, elected in 2005 as Africa's first female head of FRI state, has put a spotlight on women's rights as she leads FRI her shattered country to stability. As she says, the prize FRI is, "recognition of what women have done to empower FRI themselves, it's a major encouragement for women in Liberia, FRI in Africa, in the world". FRI FRI Leymah Gbowee led a movement of women who called for an end FRI to Liberia's brutal civil war. During the 2003 peace talks FRI she and hundreds of women, dressed in white, surrounded the FRI hall where the discussions were being held, refusing to let FRI delegates leave until they had signed the treaty. FRI FRI And as the first Arab woman to be awarded the prize, FRI Tawakkul Karman has played a leading part in Yemen's FRI non-violent revolution. As she says, "The role of women in FRI Yemen's revolution has distanced women from being seen as FRI mere victims, women have shown that they are able to bring FRI down regimes!". FRI FRI Containing interviews with the three Laureates, their close FRI friends and families, this programme gives a unique insight FRI into the women's lives, hopes and their continued work FRI towards peace. FRI FRI Producer: Melissa FitzGerald FRI A Blakeway Production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 16:30 More or Less b018gzqx (Listen) FRI A guide to interesting, informative or just plain FRI idiosyncratic numbers of the year. Plus, does probability FRI really exist? FRI Contributors: David Spiegelhalter, Professor of the Public FRI Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University; Owen FRI Spottiswoode, Fullfact.org; Tracey Brown from Sense about FRI Science; Jil Matheson, UK Statistics Authority; George FRI Monbiot; Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust; FRI Money Box presenter Paul Lewis; Sports Statistician, Robert FRI Mastrodomenico; Dr Linda Yeuh Economics Correspondent at FRI Bloomberg; Stand up Mathematician Matt Parker. FRI FRI 17:00 PM b018gzqz (Listen) FRI Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including FRI Weather. FRI FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News b018g141 (Listen) FRI The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 18:15 The News Quiz b018gzr1 (Listen) FRI Series 76, Oh No It Isn't... The News Quiz FRI FRI Sandi Toksvig & Andy Hamilton embark on a quest to recover FRI the Greenwich Pips, which have been stolen by an masked FRI stranger and scattered around the distant and mysterious FRI Radio 4 Island. Will they manage to recover them in time for FRI the 7 O'Clock News..? Oh no they won't! Or, in fact, will FRI they? FRI FRI Featuring all your favourite News Quiz regulars and a host FRI of top-secret Radio 4 names. FRI FRI Produced by Lyndsay Fenner & Victoria Lloyd. FRI FRI 19:00 The Archers b018h182 (Listen) FRI FRI 19:15 Front Row b018h184 (Listen) FRI Writers including PD James and Anthony Horowitz take on FRI classic characters FRI FRI Mark Lawson talks to novelists who have taken on another FRI writer's characters, including P D James, who wrote a Pride FRI and Prejudice sequel, Anthony Horowitz, creator of a new FRI Sherlock Holmes story, Jeffery Deaver, author of the latest FRI James Bond book, and Frank Cottrell Boyce, who took on FRI another of Ian Fleming's creations - Chitty Chitty Bang FRI Bang. FRI FRI And what happens to a novel left unfinished when a writer FRI dies? Incomplete manuscripts left by British novelist Beryl FRI Bainbridge and American writer Michael Crichton were FRI posthumously brought to publication this year, with the help FRI of editor Brendan King and scientific journalist Richard FRI Preston respectively. They discuss how they approached this FRI poignant task, and A N Wilson, writer and friend of Beryl FRI Bainbridge, reflects on the process. FRI FRI Producer Katie Langton. FRI FRI 19:45 Woman's Hour Drama b018gy4z (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today] FRI FRI 20:00 Correspondents Look Ahead b018h186 (Listen) FRI The turmoil on the world's economic markets was anticipated FRI but no-one predicted the revolution which swept the Middle FRI East in the so-called Arab Spring. So what is likely to FRI happen in 2012? FRI FRI Owen Bennett Jones chairs a discussion with the BBC's FRI special correspondent Lyse Doucet, North America Editor Mark FRI Mardell, Newsnight's Economics Editor Paul Mason and FRI diplomatic correspondent James Robbins. FRI FRI Paul Mason was right about one thing last year, anticipating FRI the problems faced by the Eurozone. Lyse Doucet can lay FRI claim to have predicted the death of Osama bin Laden but she FRI was one year out - she thought it would happen in 2010 and FRI failed to mention it in last year's programme. Mark Mardell FRI also had his eye on the Euro and will, no doubt, have FRI something to say about America's concerns about the global FRI effect of the European crisis in 1012. James Robbins FRI correctly predicted anger against austerity cuts in those FRI countries worst hit but he was wrong about Italy where he FRI thought prime minister 'Silvio Berlusconi would sail FRI serenely on'. FRI FRI Join our panel as they polish up their crystal ball and try FRI to identify the key trends in a fast-moving world. FRI FRI Producer Mark Savage. FRI FRI 20:50 A Point of View b018h188 (Listen) FRI Glamour in Austerity FRI FRI Lisa Jardine remembers 2011 for the spectacle of the Royal FRI Wedding, reflecting on the historic power of regal glamour FRI in times of austerity. Queen Elizabeth I "used ostentation FRI and opulence in her dress as a political tool to increase FRI national confidence in the solvency of her regime." FRI Producer: Sheila Cook. FRI FRI 21:00 Afternoon Play b0184vhg (Listen) FRI Beyond Borders FRI FRI Written by Mike Walker. FRI FRI 1950, much of Europe still lies in ruins from the Second FRI World War. Germany is crushed and the Allies are divided FRI about allowing the country to rebuild in the face of a FRI growing Soviet threat. FRI FRI Jean Monnet is charged with planning the reconstruction of FRI France. Appalled by the devastation of two world wars, he is FRI a highly efficient technocrat and a thinker who knows how to FRI influence politicians. For years he has believed in European FRI collaboration to secure a peaceful and prosperous future. FRI Monnet's vision is for a radical realignment of Europe, not FRI by one nation asserting itself over another, but by FRI negotiation, integration and ultimately, through political FRI and economic unification. FRI FRI Monnet knows he has to move swiftly. Within days the Allies FRI will decide the future of Germany at a conference in London. FRI He gathers a small group in his cottage outside Paris to FRI thrash out a revolutionary plan to bring the coal and steel FRI industries of France and Germany together. Working with the FRI Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, Monnet plots how far to FRI press his idea. His grand vision of unification remains in FRI the background - the focus is on the practicalities of FRI getting the two nations on board. FRI FRI Monnet's team produces 9 drafts, arguing intensely about FRI what can be achieved and how it should be implemented. With FRI a radical plan agreed, Schuman dispatches a secret envoy to FRI the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer to bring him on FRI board. FRI FRI When on 9th May Schuman outlines the plan that bears his FRI name and leads to the formation of the European Coal and FRI Steel Community, many in the room are taken aback at its FRI boldness, but few predict how the Schuman Declaration will FRI become the founding document for the European Union, and a FRI catalyst for those pursuing Monnet's vision of a United FRI States of Europe. FRI FRI Producer: Richard Clemmow FRI A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 21:45 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal b017n1vc (Listen) FRI Received With Thanks FRI FRI To give to this year's appeal call: 0800 082 82 84. Or FRI donate online via the Radio 4 website. Or send cheques FRI payable to St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal, FRI Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 4JJ FRI FRI "It's easy to walk in your home town when you're a success, FRI but when things are not going your way you want to be FRI somewhere where nobody knows anything about you." Ben, FRI formerly a project manager in construction from Glasgow, FRI found himself homeless in London for the first time: "I had FRI no sleeping bag, I had no skills, I'd lived an ordinary FRI life." He is one of the many people who have been helped by FRI the Christmas Appeal this past year. He received shelter, FRI food, help and advice at the Connection at St Martins. For FRI 85 years radio listeners have been giving to this St FRI Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal. The money also FRI maintains a special Vicar's Relief fund which makes FRI thousands of one off grants to people in need across the UK. FRI It might be a grant to help someone secure a tenancy and FRI prevent homelessness or money for a family needing basic FRI furniture - a bed, a cooker as they move from a hostel into FRI temporary accommodation. FRI FRI 22:00 The World Tonight b018h2hs (Listen) FRI Felicity Evans presents national and international news and FRI analysis. FRI FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime b018h2hv (Listen) FRI The Pursuit of Love, Episode 10 FRI FRI by Nancy Mitford. Now certain of Fabrice's feelings, Linda FRI returns to the family home to await the end of the war. FRI Abridged by Lauris Morgan-Griffiths and read by Diana Quick. FRI FRI Reader...Diana Quick FRI Abridger...Lauris Morgan-Griffiths FRI Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery. FRI FRI 23:00 With Great Pleasure b018g26x (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday] FRI