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Latest Radio 4 Newsletter

Friday 3 – Friday 10 July 2009 Hello fellow listeners, Our George Smiley season picks up again with The Spy Who Came In from the Cold on Sunday at 3.00pm, the first of three episodes. Simon Russell Beale is once again George Smiley, and Brian Cox is Alec Leamas, the old Berlin hand who is recalled to London, seemingly in disgrace. A more fragrant offering perhaps is Wednesday’s The Garden Room Girls, which tells the story of the women (yes, they are all women) who worked as secretaries at 10 Downing Street. For a comprehensive list of all our programmes, see our schedule pages. Don't forget that items and guests can and do change in the live topical programmes, and that some links in this newsletter will be live later today, or later in the week.
	Friday 3 July David Attenborough’s Life Stories, 8.50-9.00pm, repeated Sunday 8.50-9.00am David Attenborough marvels at species who sing.
	Saturday 4 July Open Country, 6.07-6.300pm, repeated Thursday 3.00-3.30pm New series. Helen Mark meets the Orkney islanders determined to become self-sufficient in energy. The tiny island of Westray, home to around 600, people is proving to be the unexpected pioneer of renewable energy in the UK. Gurinder, the Movie, 10.30-11.00am Film director Gurinder Chadha ( Bend it Like Beckham) discusses the influence of her dual Asian and British roots and describes her early life in Southall. Money Box, 12.00-12.30pm, repeated Sunday 9.00-9.30pm Paul Lewis presents. Likely items are: interview with Angela Eagle, the new pensions minister; how well banks are alerting customers to boiler room scams; house prices more positive according to latest figures from Nationwide; problem to insure 17-year-old car drivers; Serious Fraud Squad investigates Keydata. Utz, 2.30-3.30pm By Bruce Chatwin, dramatised by Gregory Norminton. A British academic travels to 1960s Prague to research the art collection of Rudolf II and meets Kaspar Joachim Utz, an eccentric and dogged porcelain collector. With Jack Klaff and Pam Ferris. Loose Ends, 6.15-7.00pm Clive Anderson’s guests are Trisha Goddard, Peter Capaldi, and Benjamin Zephaniah. Emma Freud talks to Valentine Warner. Comedy from Keith Farnan. Music from Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Hafdis Huld. Profile, 7.00-7.15, repeated Sunday 5.40-6.00pm Jonathan Maitland profiles Silvio Berlusconi. Archive on 4: I Did Not Interview the Dead, 8.00-9.00pm, repeated Monday 3.00-3.45pm Alan Dein explores the story of Dr David Boder, who in 1946 travelled through the Displaced Person Camps of the American Zone to record the voices, songs and immediate recollections of both Jewish and non-Jewish survivors of the Nazi concentration camps.
	Sunday 5 July Radio 4 Appeal, Sunday 7.55-8.00am, repeated Sun 9.25-9.30pm, Thurs 3.28pm Lynda Bellingham appeals on behalf of Working Families. The Complete Smiley: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 3.00-4.00pm New series. Berlin,1962. It’s the height of the Cold War and only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. Alec Leamas is a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer - and his East Berlin network is in tatters. Bookclub, 4.00-4.30pm, repeated Thursdeay 4.00-4.30pm James Naughtie and readers meet Northern Irish writer Bernard MacLaverty to talk about his Booker shortlisted novel Grace Notes.  Walking with Whitman, 4.30-5.00pm, repeated Saturday 11.30pm-midnight Stuart Maconie meets devotees of Walt Whitman in Bolton as they gather on the Lancashire Moors. By walking, reciting Walton’s works and sharing from the loving cup, they come together for an unlikely celebration of his work, life and beliefs.
	Monday 6 July Start the Week, 9.00-9.45am, repeated 9.30-10.00pm Andrew Marr’s guests are Arundhati Roy, Karen Armstrong, Tim Garton Ash, and Hermione Lee. Stalin’s Nemesis, 9.45-10.00am, repeated 12.30-12.45am Nigel Anthony reads from Bertrand M Patenaude's account of the exile and subsequent assassination of Leon Trotsky, who was outmanoeuvred for the leadership of the Soviet Communist Party by Josef Stalin. Woman's Hour, 10.00-10.45am The Twins Multiple Births Association claim there is poor care for multiple births; discussion about mobile phones for children; interview with novelist Dubravka Ugresic; interview with clarinettist Emma Johnson. You and Yours, 12.00-1.00pm A holiday lettings website with non-existent holiday homes; discussion about the railways; Olympic Legacy: sustainability; new dental policy; spinal cord repair using stem cells; Newcastle Library open all hours. In Mates, 2.15-3.00pm By Sue Teddern. Michelle from Orpington sends audio tapes to her new pen pal, Randall - who is on Death Row. With Pauline Quirke. Front Row, 7.15-7.45pm Mark Lawson reviews Bruno, starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a gay Austrian fashionista; Stephen Armstrong reports on a day spent entirely in Trafalgar Square, observing the first volunteers to appear on the empty fourth plinth, as part of an artwork by Antony Gormley; and Mark meets the designers of the memorial for the victims of the July 7 bomb attacks in London. To Heaven by Water, 10.45-11.00pm Bill Nighy reads from the novel by Justin Cartwright. Now that his wife is dead, retired TV news anchor David Cross believes that he is more himself than he has been for 40 years. When his wife Nancy was alive, he kept secrets from her.
	Tuesday 7 July The Long View, 9.00-9.30am, repeated 9.30-10.00pm New series. Jonathan Freedland and guests ask how governments can help the unemployed and visit the site of a 1930s labour camp. Guests: James Purnell, Professor Desmond King (historian), Professor Paul Gregg, Ruth Lea, Richard Exell (TUC), Russell Tovey (actor). Woman's Hour, 10.00-10.45am Interview with Florence and the Machine; interview with Dianne Atkinson, author of Elsie and Marie go to War. Call You and Yours, 12.00-1.00pm Railways. John Mayall’s Blues Adventures, 1.30-2.00pm John Mayall recalls the rhythm and blues scene which exploded in Britain in the early 1960s. With Bill Wyman, Zoot Money and Eric Burdon. Home Planet, 3.00-3.30pm New series. Richard Daniel and the team discuss listeners' questions about the world - from astronomy to geology, biology to environmental science. This week’s topics: why are there no green mammals?; why are there no penguins in the northern hemisphere; how do worms get into an elevated compost bin; would farming insects for food be feasible; and how reliable is the science of radio dating? Front Row, 7.15-7.45pm Mark Lawson reports on the pleasures and perils of live TV drama, with guests including the writers Jackie Kay and Michael Dobbs; Charlotte Keatley reviews film The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, directed by Rebecca Miller, who wrote the novel on which it's based. Arthur Smith’s Balham Bash, 11.00-11.30pm New series. Arthur Smith invites an audience into his Balham flat for an evening of music and comedy. Paul Sinha is in the lounge, Milton Jones in the bedroom and Glenn Tilbrook in the kitchen providing music and nourishment in the shape of Welsh rarebit. Loretta Maine (Pippa Evans) lends a hand.
	Wednesday 8 July Woman's Hour, 10.00-10.45am Discussion about female cyclist deaths, women more vulnerable to being hit by HGVs; interview with Sally Vickers, author of Dancing Backwards; interview with Pauline Amos, painter and performance artist; discussion about loneliness. The Garden Room Girls, 11.00-11.30am The elite group of women who worked as secretaries at Downing Street reveal their untold stories. and see photos. You and Yours, 12.00-1.00pm Water rules; house repossessions in the US; Olympic Legacy: tourism; Thanet Earth. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/ Money Box Live, 3.00-3.30pm Paul Lewis and guests David Hollingworth, head of communications, London & Country; Katie Tucker, technical manager, Mortgageforce; and Louise Cuming, mortgage expert, moneysupermarket.com, take your calls and emails on mortgages. Call 03700 100 444 - lines open on Wednesday at 1.30pm. Or email via the webpage from now. Front Row, 7.15-7.45pm John Wilson meets Benny Andersson from Abba, as he releases a new album which draws on Swedish folk traditions; an interview with artists Gilbert and George, whose new works are based on the Union Jack; and a review of TV drama True Blood, a new series from screenwriter Alan Ball, whose credits include Six Feet Under and American Beauty. The Mystery of the Marine Strandings, 9.00-9.30pm Sue Bloom investigates what happened when 26 dolphins were stranded and died in Falmouth Harbour last summer.
	Thursday 9 July In Our Time, 9.00-9.45am, repeated 9.00-9.30pm Melvyn Bragg and his guests Martin Brasier, Richard Corfield and Rachel Wood discuss the Edicara Biota, mysterious life-forms which died out 542 million years ago, whose discovery has proved Darwin right in a way he never imagined. (A change to scheduled subject). Woman's Hour, 10.00-10.45am The rising number of female insolvents; 150th anniversary of the Society for Promoting the Training of Women; interview with poet Laura Dockrill, author of Ugly Shy Girls; infidelity in old age. The Wreck of the Alba, 11.30am-noon Michael Bird tells the story of the painting which captures the moment when the Alba foundered on Porthmeor in January 1938. You and Yours, 12.00-1.00pm Housing special. Shappi Talk, 6.30-7.00pm New series. Shappi Khorsandi looks at what it’s like to grow up in a multi-cultural family. With guest Felix Dexter. Front Row, 7.15-7.45pm Kirsty Lang has the verdict on Desperate Romantics, a drama series about the lives of the Pre-Raphaelite group of artists; an interview with the Booker-shortlisted writer M J Hyland, whose new novel focuses on a loner who flees to a seaside boarding house.
	Friday 10 July Woman's Hour, 10.00-10.45am Workplace help for domestic abuse; working class girls made good. You and Yours, 12.00-1.00pm Fake free range eggs – behind the scenes with DEFRA; UB40 campaign to save Birmingham’s Rainbow Pub; new regulations for Antarctic cruise ships; making pub companies more accountable. Front Row, 7.15-7.45pm Mark Lawson reports on the continuing success of the celebrity memoir in our bookshops, with guests including Paul O'Grady, Michael Parkinson, Julie Walters and Alan Carr. Don't forget that you can meet and chat to your fellow listeners on the Radio 4 messageboards. That's all for this week. Have a great week. Anna and the Radio 4 interactive team. Read this newsletter on our website.
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