#bbcradio4 — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #bbcradio4, aggregated by home.social.
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(yet another look at UK education)
Comps
Archive on 4Financial Times columnist turned teacher Lucy Kellaway takes a personal journey through the education revolution launched fifty years ago to replace grammars and secondary moderns with comprehensives. The ambition was noble: the same opportunities for every child. But the story of Comps suggests that when lofty ideals collide with reality, things don’t always turn out as planned.
Lucy visits two very different models of comp trying to reconcile the history and their local demands and priorities, and speaks to three of the most influential politicians responsible for shaping today's state secondary school system - Lords Baker, Blunkett and Gove. She also discovers the deep roots of the tensions and challenges facing today's comps in a journey through a rich archive that charts the evolution of the comprehensive system in the last fifty years.
Producer: Jonathan BrunertShow less
57 minutesOn air
Today
20:00
BBC Radio 4
More episodes -
Loose Ends
Liam Ó Maonlaí, Michael Fry, Emma Southon, Olivia McVeigh, Dónal O'Connor, Neil Martin, Clare Sands
Loose Ends
Stuart Maconie finds himself "i lár an aonaigh" - at the heart of craic, ceol, and much more at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (All-Ireland Fleadh), as Belfast hosts the festival celebrating Irish music and culture for the very first time.
The Fleadh comes second nature to frontman and lead singer of Hothouse Flowers Liam Ó Maonlaí, who was brought up in a household full of traditional Irish music and song. As the band prepares for their "Greatest Hits" tour later this year, Liam reflects on the poignant story behind their hit single "Don't Go", and the time he was left behind by the band's tour bus.
Olivia McVeigh mightn't be in a band, but alongside her fellow podcasters of The Girls Groupchat she's taking the show onstage, alongside Irish girl group legends B*witched and even to ABBA Voyage. She tells Stuart about how her diagnosis of alopecia changed her entire career trajectory, into a world of advocacy and empowering others with the condition.
Emma Southon may have had a very different career as historian if she hadn't hated history so much at school. She talks about her new book Servus: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire, which sets out to give readers a full picture of the reality of enslaved people in Ancient Rome.
And Michael Fry muses on how a period of pure boredom pushed him towards comedy, and why he thinks the medium of radio is ripe for laughs, ahead of his third series of Lunchtime with Michael Fry on BBC Radio Ulster.
Plus, musicians Dónal O'Connor, Neil Martin and Clare Sands give us just a "blaiseadh beag" - a very small taste of the great music coming out of the Fleadh.
Presenter: Stuart Maconie
Producer: Anthony McKee
Technical Producer: Davy Neill
Production Co-ordinators: Sylvie Conway and Caoilfhinn McFaddenShow less
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Last onThu 13 Aug 2026
21:00
BBC Radio 4#BBCRadio4 #BBCLooseEnds #Fleadh
#StuartMaconie #EmmaSouthon -
Loose Ends
Liam Ó Maonlaí, Michael Fry, Emma Southon, Olivia McVeigh, Dónal O'Connor, Neil Martin, Clare Sands
Loose Ends
Stuart Maconie finds himself "i lár an aonaigh" - at the heart of craic, ceol, and much more at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (All-Ireland Fleadh), as Belfast hosts the festival celebrating Irish music and culture for the very first time.
The Fleadh comes second nature to frontman and lead singer of Hothouse Flowers Liam Ó Maonlaí, who was brought up in a household full of traditional Irish music and song. As the band prepares for their "Greatest Hits" tour later this year, Liam reflects on the poignant story behind their hit single "Don't Go", and the time he was left behind by the band's tour bus.
Olivia McVeigh mightn't be in a band, but alongside her fellow podcasters of The Girls Groupchat she's taking the show onstage, alongside Irish girl group legends B*witched and even to ABBA Voyage. She tells Stuart about how her diagnosis of alopecia changed her entire career trajectory, into a world of advocacy and empowering others with the condition.
Emma Southon may have had a very different career as historian if she hadn't hated history so much at school. She talks about her new book Servus: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire, which sets out to give readers a full picture of the reality of enslaved people in Ancient Rome.
And Michael Fry muses on how a period of pure boredom pushed him towards comedy, and why he thinks the medium of radio is ripe for laughs, ahead of his third series of Lunchtime with Michael Fry on BBC Radio Ulster.
Plus, musicians Dónal O'Connor, Neil Martin and Clare Sands give us just a "blaiseadh beag" - a very small taste of the great music coming out of the Fleadh.
Presenter: Stuart Maconie
Producer: Anthony McKee
Technical Producer: Davy Neill
Production Co-ordinators: Sylvie Conway and Caoilfhinn McFaddenShow less
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Available now42 minutes
Last onThu 13 Aug 2026
21:00
BBC Radio 4#BBCRadio4 #BBCLooseEnds #Fleadh
#StuartMaconie #EmmaSouthon -
Loose Ends
Liam Ó Maonlaí, Michael Fry, Emma Southon, Olivia McVeigh, Dónal O'Connor, Neil Martin, Clare Sands
Loose Ends
Stuart Maconie finds himself "i lár an aonaigh" - at the heart of craic, ceol, and much more at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (All-Ireland Fleadh), as Belfast hosts the festival celebrating Irish music and culture for the very first time.
The Fleadh comes second nature to frontman and lead singer of Hothouse Flowers Liam Ó Maonlaí, who was brought up in a household full of traditional Irish music and song. As the band prepares for their "Greatest Hits" tour later this year, Liam reflects on the poignant story behind their hit single "Don't Go", and the time he was left behind by the band's tour bus.
Olivia McVeigh mightn't be in a band, but alongside her fellow podcasters of The Girls Groupchat she's taking the show onstage, alongside Irish girl group legends B*witched and even to ABBA Voyage. She tells Stuart about how her diagnosis of alopecia changed her entire career trajectory, into a world of advocacy and empowering others with the condition.
Emma Southon may have had a very different career as historian if she hadn't hated history so much at school. She talks about her new book Servus: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire, which sets out to give readers a full picture of the reality of enslaved people in Ancient Rome.
And Michael Fry muses on how a period of pure boredom pushed him towards comedy, and why he thinks the medium of radio is ripe for laughs, ahead of his third series of Lunchtime with Michael Fry on BBC Radio Ulster.
Plus, musicians Dónal O'Connor, Neil Martin and Clare Sands give us just a "blaiseadh beag" - a very small taste of the great music coming out of the Fleadh.
Presenter: Stuart Maconie
Producer: Anthony McKee
Technical Producer: Davy Neill
Production Co-ordinators: Sylvie Conway and Caoilfhinn McFaddenShow less
Download
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Available now42 minutes
Last onThu 13 Aug 2026
21:00
BBC Radio 4#BBCRadio4 #BBCLooseEnds #Fleadh
#StuartMaconie #EmmaSouthon -
Loose Ends
Liam Ó Maonlaí, Michael Fry, Emma Southon, Olivia McVeigh, Dónal O'Connor, Neil Martin, Clare Sands
Loose Ends
Stuart Maconie finds himself "i lár an aonaigh" - at the heart of craic, ceol, and much more at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (All-Ireland Fleadh), as Belfast hosts the festival celebrating Irish music and culture for the very first time.
The Fleadh comes second nature to frontman and lead singer of Hothouse Flowers Liam Ó Maonlaí, who was brought up in a household full of traditional Irish music and song. As the band prepares for their "Greatest Hits" tour later this year, Liam reflects on the poignant story behind their hit single "Don't Go", and the time he was left behind by the band's tour bus.
Olivia McVeigh mightn't be in a band, but alongside her fellow podcasters of The Girls Groupchat she's taking the show onstage, alongside Irish girl group legends B*witched and even to ABBA Voyage. She tells Stuart about how her diagnosis of alopecia changed her entire career trajectory, into a world of advocacy and empowering others with the condition.
Emma Southon may have had a very different career as historian if she hadn't hated history so much at school. She talks about her new book Servus: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire, which sets out to give readers a full picture of the reality of enslaved people in Ancient Rome.
And Michael Fry muses on how a period of pure boredom pushed him towards comedy, and why he thinks the medium of radio is ripe for laughs, ahead of his third series of Lunchtime with Michael Fry on BBC Radio Ulster.
Plus, musicians Dónal O'Connor, Neil Martin and Clare Sands give us just a "blaiseadh beag" - a very small taste of the great music coming out of the Fleadh.
Presenter: Stuart Maconie
Producer: Anthony McKee
Technical Producer: Davy Neill
Production Co-ordinators: Sylvie Conway and Caoilfhinn McFaddenShow less
Download
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Available now42 minutes
Last onThu 13 Aug 2026
21:00
BBC Radio 4#BBCRadio4 #BBCLooseEnds #Fleadh
#StuartMaconie #EmmaSouthon -
Loose Ends
Liam Ó Maonlaí, Michael Fry, Emma Southon, Olivia McVeigh, Dónal O'Connor, Neil Martin, Clare Sands
Loose Ends
Stuart Maconie finds himself "i lár an aonaigh" - at the heart of craic, ceol, and much more at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (All-Ireland Fleadh), as Belfast hosts the festival celebrating Irish music and culture for the very first time.
The Fleadh comes second nature to frontman and lead singer of Hothouse Flowers Liam Ó Maonlaí, who was brought up in a household full of traditional Irish music and song. As the band prepares for their "Greatest Hits" tour later this year, Liam reflects on the poignant story behind their hit single "Don't Go", and the time he was left behind by the band's tour bus.
Olivia McVeigh mightn't be in a band, but alongside her fellow podcasters of The Girls Groupchat she's taking the show onstage, alongside Irish girl group legends B*witched and even to ABBA Voyage. She tells Stuart about how her diagnosis of alopecia changed her entire career trajectory, into a world of advocacy and empowering others with the condition.
Emma Southon may have had a very different career as historian if she hadn't hated history so much at school. She talks about her new book Servus: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire, which sets out to give readers a full picture of the reality of enslaved people in Ancient Rome.
And Michael Fry muses on how a period of pure boredom pushed him towards comedy, and why he thinks the medium of radio is ripe for laughs, ahead of his third series of Lunchtime with Michael Fry on BBC Radio Ulster.
Plus, musicians Dónal O'Connor, Neil Martin and Clare Sands give us just a "blaiseadh beag" - a very small taste of the great music coming out of the Fleadh.
Presenter: Stuart Maconie
Producer: Anthony McKee
Technical Producer: Davy Neill
Production Co-ordinators: Sylvie Conway and Caoilfhinn McFaddenShow less
Download
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Available now42 minutes
Last onThu 13 Aug 2026
21:00
BBC Radio 4#BBCRadio4 #BBCLooseEnds #Fleadh
#StuartMaconie #EmmaSouthon -
https://www.europesays.com/people/214180/ Burnham and Macron discuss small boats and bringing UK closer to Europe #AndyBurnham #BBCRadio4's #Burnham #DowningStreet #EmmanuelMacron #europe #French #macron #No10 #The"megaDinghies" #UK #Ukraine
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Judging from the words of various Radio 4 announcers and newsreaders today, the following are all on loan from France to the UK:
• the Bayeux tapestry
• the Bayeau tapestry
• the Bayou tapestryFor me, this grates horribly. I find it painful and a bit embarrassing. Especially since discovering that the BBC Pronunciation Unit apparently still exists—it suggests they don't even know that the #pronunciation might need checking.
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Judging from the words of various Radio 4 announcers and newsreaders today, the following are all on loan from France to the UK:
• the Bayeux tapestry
• the Bayeau tapestry
• the Bayou tapestryFor me, this grates horribly. I find it painful and a bit embarrassing. Especially since discovering that the BBC Pronunciation Unit apparently still exists—it suggests they don't even know that the #pronunciation might need checking.
-
Judging from the words of various Radio 4 announcers and newsreaders today, the following are all on loan from France to the UK:
• the Bayeux tapestry
• the Bayeau tapestry
• the Bayou tapestryFor me, this grates horribly. I find it painful and a bit embarrassing. Especially since discovering that the BBC Pronunciation Unit apparently still exists—it suggests they don't even know that the #pronunciation might need checking.
-
Judging from the words of various Radio 4 announcers and newsreaders today, the following are all on loan from France to the UK:
• the Bayeux tapestry
• the Bayeau tapestry
• the Bayou tapestryFor me, this grates horribly. I find it painful and a bit embarrassing. Especially since discovering that the BBC Pronunciation Unit apparently still exists—it suggests they don't even know that the #pronunciation might need checking.
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Chef celebrates inclusion in top food critic’s book https://www.diningandcooking.com/chefs/5596/ #BBCRadio4's #BBCSounds #Chef #cool" #DumplingKing #JayRayner #JayRayner's #McIntyre #McIntyre's #Rayner #RobMcIntyre #TheKitchenCabinet
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Chef celebrates inclusion in top food critic’s book https://www.diningandcooking.com/chefs/5596/ #BBCRadio4's #BBCSounds #Chef #cool" #DumplingKing #JayRayner #JayRayner's #McIntyre #McIntyre's #Rayner #RobMcIntyre #TheKitchenCabinet
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Chef celebrates inclusion in top food critic’s book https://www.diningandcooking.com/chefs/5596/ #BBCRadio4's #BBCSounds #Chef #cool" #DumplingKing #JayRayner #JayRayner's #McIntyre #McIntyre's #Rayner #RobMcIntyre #TheKitchenCabinet
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Andy Burnham praises UK-EU ties in meeting with Emmanuel Macron
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has praised the UK-EU relationship as he holds talks with French President Emmanuel Macron…
#Europe #EU #andyburnham #BBCRadio4's #Burnham #DowningStreet #EuropeanUnion #French #macron
https://www.europesays.com/europe/129690/ -
Cryogenics #Cryogenics
"Frozen Frogs and Preserved People"
Naturebang
Becky Ripley and Emily Knight look to the freeze-thaw abilities of the North American wood frog to ask whether we can freeze ourselves in order to return to a future world...
Early March is breeding season for the North American wood frog. They are frisky because they’ve just thawed out having spent the winter not just in hibernation, but frozen at -18°C. How do they do it, and still survive? And what can we learn from their frozen ways?
Enter the growing field in medicine called cryo-preservation: the process of preserving cells, tissues, or organs by cooling them to very low, or freezing, temperatures. This can grant more time for medical procedures and operations, and help to preserve things like organs during a transplant. And if you take cryopreservation to the extreme, you get to the slightly sci-fi world of cryonics. The practice of cryo-preserving the whole body – immediately upon point of death - in the hope that future medicine can bring it back to life.
Maybe in the future, we will crack the code on how to bring bodies back from the cold. And maybe some of the science lies in the freeze-thaw abilities of the wood frog. Or maybe cryopreserved bodies will remain frozen forever…
Featuring Dr Allison Sacerdote-Velat, Curator of Herpetology at Chicago Academy of Sciences, and Dr Anders Sandberg, senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.
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BBC Radio 4 -
@Cyclist @VE3RWJ @pluralistic Talking of #enshitification, #bbcradio4
did a piece on it this morning with a dentist as the expert guest, 'for balance', who had never seen the thing. It felt more like an advertisement than journalism. Follow the money? I have zero "national pride" in Dyson. -
"a secular version of a christian eschatology where there is an inevitable progress [to an end]"
Rev Giles Frasier criticising the way that so many press, politicians and business people have gone all starstruck over AI
[nb: quote was quickly written by me]
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Eugene V Debs
Reginald D Hunter selects Eugene V Debs
Great LivesEugene Victor Debs, born 1855 in Indiana USA, was a railway worker, a trade unionist and a five time candidate for the presidency. He was imprisoned during the First World War for sedition. He'd urged resistance to the draft; President Woodrow Wilson called him a traitor to the nation, but Debs still ran for the presidency in 1920. His sentence was commuted the following year.
Reginald D Hunter is an American stand-up comedian based in the UK. His many credits include Have I Got News For You and Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South. Last year at Edinburgh his show Fluffy Fluffy Beavers briefly became headline news. In studio with Reginald and presenter Matthew Parris is Professor Clive Webb, author of Vietdamned.
The producer for BBC Studios in Bristol is Miles Warde.
#BBCRadio4 #BBCGreatLives
#EugeneVDebs
#ReginaldDHunter
#MatthewParris -
Here is Gaslighting PART TWO - about how the anti trans gaslighting gave them victory (though that didn’t mean the end)
#gaslighting #translivesmatter #lgbtq #bbcradio4 #psychology
https://www.patreon.com/RobinInce/posts/to-end-part-two-166818254
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Ooh, new #PaulSinha’s Perfect Pub #Quiz. 🙂 #BBCRadio4 #comedy https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00300hy
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'... during Eclipse phases things will seem a little dimmer ...' (my paraphrase)
[ light received in UK path 10% but eyes/vision-system will perceive it as 50% ]
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The midnight BBCNews on Radio4 finally got to the "releasing more dangerous prisoners than [those convicted of manslaughter]" argument.
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(BBCDrama have been doing some adaptations of centuries old works that actually have very contemporary issues -- this one is like listening to scambuster cautionary tales)
Episode Six
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
Episode 6 of 10A classic comic novel from the 18th century.
Life is good to the Reverend Dr Primrose, in his idyllic country parsonage, surrounded by his beloved family. But then his world unravels in a series of misfortunes and calamities.
Episode 6
Dr Primrose is briefly reunited with his son George, before continuing his search for Olivia.Oliver Goldsmith was born in Ireland in 1728. The Vicar of Wakefield was published in 1766. An essayist, dramatist and poet, his other works include the play She Stoops To Conquer and the poem An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog. He died in 1774.
Writer: Oliver Goldsmith
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Reader: Edmund Kingsley
Producer: Jeremy OsborneA Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
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Writing Our Mothers
Archive on 4‘Mothers have such a weight of idealisation and expectation landed upon their bodies and their minds and what women writers can do is to take that apart and explore
its underbelly,’ says feminist writer Jacqueline Rose.Whether worshipped or vilified, treated as lifetime confidantes or rarely trusted, the mothers we meet when we write them are re-inventions. Some may be closer to the
truth than others. Many of them will have roots in the life experiences of the daughter-writer. Virginia Woolf, who lost her mother at the age of 13, said she was obsessed with writing her mother. Eventually she also argued that it was ‘the occupation of the woman writer to kill’ what she called ‘The Angel in the House’ – the perfect, self-sacrificing mother – who may well have been her own maternal influence.Drawing on interviews with Maya Angelou, we hear how for her to write her mother was to ‘write about a hurricane in its perfect power’. She describes how the influence of a mother who ‘abandoned’ her as a child forced her most urgent examinations of class, race and, importantly love. In another frank interview with Marguerite Duras from 1968, she describes writing as a search for connection with her raging and ‘mad’ mother. For Sylvia Plath, the process of writing about becoming a mother herself in the 1950s produced work of a psychic intensity rarely seen before.
What the archive ultimately reveals is that a mother, whether present or absent, loving or cruel, might be as formative an influence on a writer’s work, as in life. ‘When I read about motherhood, I want to be shaken loose from whatever limitations I have when I think about what that means,’ says the writer Siri Hustvedt.
With contributions from Susie Orbach, Jacqueline Rose, Kit de Waal and Siri Hustvedt, and narration from Amaka Okafor.
Produced by Sarah Cuddon
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4Archive sources:
Desert Island Discs with Arundhati Roy (2017)
A Chance to Meet ... Edna O'Brien (1971)
Sylvia Plath, Peter Orr interview (1962)
Audre Lorde, Pacifica Radio Archives and Academy of American Poets www.poets.org
Maya Angelou, BBC News (1985)
Jeannette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (BBC, 1990) and Face To Face (BBC, 1994)
Marguerite Duras, Worn Out With Desire To Write (1985)
Toni Morrison, Brief Encounters (BBC, 2001)
Jackie Kay, Book of the Week (The Waters Company for BBC R4, 2015)
Elena Ferrante, Lying Lives of Adults (BBC, 2020)
Available now57 minutes
#ArundhatiRoy #EdnaOBrien
#SylviaPlath #AudreLorde
#MayaAngelou #JeannetteWinterson
#MargueriteDuras #ToniMorrison
#JackieKay #ElenaFerrante -
Margot Fonteyn
Lauren Cuthbertson on Margot Fonteyn
Great LivesMargot Fonteyn was an icon: a ballerina who helped build and indeed embodied the traditional image of a dancer, just as the artform was finding its feet on the British cultural scene.
From humble beginnings she became an international star, enjoying a dazzling career with the Royal Ballet, a glamorous social life as a diplomat’s wife, and an electric dancing partnership with Rudolf Nureyev. But it was also a life infused with disappointment, controversy and heartbreak; much of which seems to have been hidden behind Margot's smiling public facade.
Dedicated listeners might remember that Margot Fonteyn has been the subject of a previous episode and although we rarely revisit past greats, when we do it’s an opportunity to look afresh and see more. So today, with the assistance of nominating guest Lauren Cuthbertson - herself a dancer who has been with the Royal Ballet for more than 20 years - we take a closer look at the highs and lows of Margot's life.
Joining Matthew and Lauren to share their expert perspectives are Rosie Gerhard, a Lecturer in Dance Studies at the Royal Academy of Dance and creator of the blog 'British Ballet Now & Then'; and the film director and author Tony Palmer, who directed the 2005 film ‘Margot’.
Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Studios Audio by Lucy Taylor.
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23:00
BBC Radio 4 -
Brendan Behan #BrendanBehan
It Must Be Wonderful to Be Free
Archive on 4Irish novelist Megan Nolan presents an intimate study of the late playwright, singer and novelist, Brendan Behan. She reveals a poetic socialist, a fiercely anti-establishment artist concerned with class solidarity, outcasts, liberation, self-revelation and empathy. And she trashes the trivial, stereotyped memory of Behan, as Ireland’s most famous drunk.
She tells his story through the lens of his most prolific years, 1954 - 1958. It was a time of explosive creativity for Behan, which saw the release of three of his most remarkable works - his plays The Quare Fellow and The Hostage, and his work of auto-fiction Borstal Boy. She hears about his determination in these years to recruit language rather than the militarised violence of his youth as a means to valorise life, dignity, humour and queer love, and to advance his vision for his country, forged in his working class roots.
His words paint a picture of a complex character. An intelligent, anti-establishment writer, an Irish beatnik whose talents “would make Jack Kerouac weep with terror” and who even Bob Dylan couldn’t find the courage to “touch the hem of his garment”. A man who met a tragic end, addicted to alcohol and wielding his fame and power in cruel ways.
Marking the 60th anniversary of his death, Megan hears from historians, writers and members of Behan’s family, as well as from the rich archive of the man himself.
Producer: Cat Gough
Executive Producer: Robert NicholsonA Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
With thanks to Iris Klein and Semiotexte for providing archival interview recordings with Brendan Behan made by journalist Sylvere Lotringer in Paris in 1961
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Available now57 minutes
On air
Today
22:00
BBC Radio 4 -
( ... there are possibly some David Sedaris fans out in Fediverseland ... )
David Sedaris
Take Four BooksPresenter James Crawford speaks to American author and humourist David Sedaris on his new collection of essays, The Land and Its People. From navigating the realities of ageing to reflecting on his personal relationships, Sedaris explores a wide range of experiences across the book's 28 essays.
He also discusses the three works that inspired the collection: Raymond Carver's Cathedral (1981), Joy Williams's Taking Care (1982), and Alan Bennett's Talking Heads (1988).
Producer: Rachael O’Neill
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.Show less
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Today
16:00
BBC Radio 4 -
Episode 1
Drama on 4
Libra Episode 1 of 2Don DeLillo’s fictionalised reimagining of the events surrounding the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, adapted for audio by Ben Lewis.
Starring Fisher Stevens and Tucker St. Ivany.A CIA analyst is tasked with pulling together all the facts, theories and suppositions surrounding this founding moment in recent American history. Drawing them together, he tries to imagine how and why JFK was killed. Cutting between the story of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life and two men conspiring to assassinate the president, it builds a picture of a fractured America during the cold war era.
This is a work of fiction inspired by fact. Don DeLillo’s novel - and this adaptation - draw on real events and on some real people. But characters, incidents and dialogue are predominantly works of fiction. Real people have been placed in imagined situations whilst other characters have been created entirely for the purposes of storytelling.
Part of Radio 4’s Story of America - a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.
Cast:
The Analyst… Fisher Stevens
Lee Harvey Oswald…Tucker St. Ivany
The conspirators…Tyler Collins and Michael Nardone
Marguerite Oswald…Nicole Cooper
The Marine…Michael Guest
Bobby Dupard…Reuben Joseph
Marina Oswald…Holly Howden Gilchrist
George de Mohrenschildt…Grant O’Rourke
David Ferrie…Robin LaingAll other parts were played by the company
BBC Audio Scotland Production
Production Co-ordinators: Bethany Woodhead and Minnie Harrop
Studio Production and sound editing: Andrew Hay and Gav Murchie
Sound Design and original scoring: Danny KrassAdapted by Ben Lewis
Directed by Kirsty WilliamsArchive: CBS Evening News, November 22nd 1963
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Release date:09 August 2026
57 minutes
On radioToday
15:00
BBC Radio 4#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4 #BBCDramaOn4
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Libra - Episode One
Opening Lines
For the 100th title to be explored in Opening Lines, John Yorke picks up the 1998 novel Libra by the heavyweight American writer, Don DeLillo. The book centres around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the event DeLillo says marked ‘a turning point in consciousness’ for Americans. He presents a fragmented portrait of the country at the height of the Cold War, following the misfortunes of disaffected loner Lee Harvey Oswald - as well as the large cast of rogue operators planning to use him to bring the President down.
In the first of two-parts, John looks to find what makes this widely acclaimed novel stand out from the hundreds of other books and films spawned by the world-shaking events in Dealey Plaza back in November 1963. He speaks with, among others, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jennifer Egan, a self-proclaimed DeLillo acolyte, who says of Libra that the “sense of the chaos and the noise of contemporary life invading the narrative I was very drawn to, and, you know, have tried to emulate, frankly.”
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.
Libra by Don de Lillo is the 100th title covered by Opening Lines. The series began in January 2023 with Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Since then John Yorke has explored novels from Anna Karenina to Gone with the Wind, plays from Shakespeare to Eugene O’Neill and ground-breaking non-fiction like John Hersey’s Hiroshima. Each episode provides background, context and some expert discussion in advance of Radio 4’s Sunday afternoon drama, and all 100 titles can be heard on BBC Sounds.
Contributors: Pullitzer Prize winning author Jennifer Egan & Professor Jesse Kavadlo.
Sound:
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Producer: Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Sara DaviesA Pier production for BBC Radio 4
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On airToday
14:45
BBC Radio 4#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4
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Shadow World
Breakin' the Cycle Episode 2 of 6
2. A Hood StoryAs Colin and D begin turning their prison-written script into a real production, they recruit former pop stars and emerging actors, building a cast captivated by the promise of an authentic Black British crime story. Their film starts to feel like a genuine cultural moment. But most of the cast and crew are unaware of the true story behind the pair or their journey to becoming film-makers.
Beneath the excitement of the production, the money, power, and instincts that built “Love of Money” are still very much in play. When D’s commitment to turning away from crime is tested, he is drawn back to familiar instincts.
Gripping stories from the Shadows - BBC investigations from across the UK.
Presenter and Producer: Lewis Albrow
Series Producer: Emma Barnaby
Producer: Louis Hollis
Assistant Editor: Georgina Savage
Sound Designer, Composer, and Mix Engineer: Axel Kacoutie
Script Editor: Jason Lewis
Fact Checker: Jessica Hatcher-Moore
Production Manager: Anna-Marie Batho
Production Executive: Letisha Kidza
Head of Production: Nicky Murphy
Production Support: Emma Wood and Olivia Bouton
Executive Producers for Raw: Deborah Dudgeon, David Waters, and Tim Wardle.
Business Affairs: Amy Ofori-Attah, Clotilde Leroux, Damian Kent, and Emma Ong.
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan ClarkeA Raw Production for BBC Radio 4
#BBCRadio4 #BBCShadowWorld #BreakinTheCycleEpisode #StreetCream #MakinMovies #ProductionHell
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Now listening: Crossing Continents - Getting Gaza back online
How amid the tents and the rubble Gaza is developing once again as an unlikely tech hub.
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( ... a pro-Google episode from the newly enGoogle'd BBC ... )
Getting Gaza back online
Crossing ContinentsHow amid the tents and the rubble Gaza is developing once again as an unlikely tech hub.
Even before the October 7th 2023 attack and the subsequent war between Israel and Hamas, NGOs, with the backing of Google, had sought to develop tech start-ups in the Gaza strip. The digital economy was one of the few areas in which young Gazans in particular could seek to earn money for their families.
During the two years of war they struggled for food and water. Forced to move from place to place, most of them lost their homes, their work, sometimes their laptops and plenty lost family members. Now 80% of Gazans are unemployed and have no income. Many of them live amid the rubble in tents. Stable electricity and internet are difficult to come by. And yet co-working hubs have begun to pop up, giving well educated graduates a chance to work remotely for foreign companies as coders, software engineers and app developers. With Israel controlling what comes in and out of Gaza, they still face significant obstacles, not least finding decent internet, electricity and spare parts for their laptops. And with near-daily bombings continuing, Gaza’s wider recovery remains uncertain. Yolande Knell reports on how its tech workers give a glimpse of a brighter, possible future, open to the world beyond Gaza’s borders.
Producer: John Murphy
Studio mix: Gareth Jones
Programme co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Penny Murphy2026-08-04 2100-2130
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Natalie Merchant ('er out of 10,000 Maniacs) sings you to sleep ... near the end ...
2026-08-03 2200-2245
#NatalieMerchant #10000Maniacs
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Claude didn't defeat the guardrails, it was simply meant to be operating in a sandbox but Anthropic hadn't actually configured it to be sandboxed. Reframing human incompetence as Ai super intelligence to leverage it as marketing fluff
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Those looking for a bit of education with their funnies (of vice versa) could do worse than "Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics', this week's episode is well worth a listen, this episode is on Ancient Alexandria, but also includes a pretty good dig at the idiot near the end!
BBC Radio 4 - Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics https://share.google/UeA9VrwZ9bhDqziia
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Intimacy (Radio Version)
1. Did You Just Dribble on Me?
2. I Like Being NakedEpisode 1 of 4
Intimacy coordinator Liza lands a major film on a Greek island, but old tensions resurface. As she meets the cast, setting boundaries proves harder than expected.
Lena Headey as Liza
Tia Bannon as Ruby
Hannah Waddingham as Lou
Alison Steadman as Mum
Simon Kassianides as Rob
Thaddea Graham as Kate
Tom Goodman-Hill as Gary
Maisie Williams as Bunny
Matthew Broome as AlexAdditional Voices:
Dempsey Bovell, Tom Glenister, Mark Kilcawley, James Nicolaou, Paul Panting, Finlay Paul, Nigel Pilkington, Josh Singh Sian, Sam Stafford, Sarah WhitehouseBased on an original idea by Erika Lust
Executive Producers: Sharon Horgan, Faye Dorn
Executive Producer for the BBC: Dylan Haskins
Assistant Commissioner for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna
Written, created and directed by Lena Headey
Constultant Audio Director: Celia De Wolff
Series Producer: Emma Morgan
Story Producer: Maddie Beautyman and Megan Heverin
Production Manager: Archan Mohile
Production Coordinator: Marlene Beauquis Smith
Production Runner: Tobias Davies
Script Assistants: Liis Miik and Jo Troy
Casting Director: Lauren Evans
Intimacy Coordinator: Robbie Taylor Hunt
Recorded at Sound Node
Sound Designer: Martin Schulz
Supervising Sound Editor and Mixer: Daniel Jaramillo
Recording Engineers: David Crane and Giancarlo Granata
Music and Score composed by Max Perryment
Merman Television Managing Director: Rebecca Parkinson
Merman Finance Director: Jackie Sidey
Merman Television Head of Production: Amanda Wasey
Merman Television Finance Manager: Gemma Wilson
Legal and Business Affairs: Mark Rogers and Georges Villeneau
Artwork Photography: Stevan Keane
Behind the Scenes: Michas VanniA Merman Television Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
28 minutes
On airToday
23:00
BBC Radio 4#LenaHeadey #BBCRadio4 #BBCDeama
#BBCIntimacy
#AlisonSteadman #MaisieWilliams -
(Justin Webb is upto shit again ...)
Americast
The anti DEI MAGA activist Christopher Rufo
We’ve been speaking to perhaps the most prominent anti DEI MAGA activist, Christopher Rufo. He’s widely credited for convincing Donald Trump to dismantle Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programmes within the government, and led the campaign which saw Harvard President Claudine Gay resign from her post in 2024.
He's a controversial figure who has who has spearheaded the right-wing movement against what he describes as "gender ideology" and "woke" institutional policies. He’s also concerned about the future direction of the movement he helped to create and worries about splits within MAGA that have seen influencers like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens split with Donald Trump.
In today’s podcast, Justin and Rufo sit down to discuss how successful he thinks the second Trump administration has been, and why Richard Nixon is enjoying a revival among Gen Z Republicans.
HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenterGUEST:
• Christopher Rufo, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan InstituteGET IN TOUCH:
• Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB
• Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480
• Email [email protected]
• Or use #AmericastThis episode was made by George Dabby and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Rohan Madison. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.
You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers.
US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155
Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.
Newscast: https:// www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl
Top Comment: https:// www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001mssm
Radical: https:// www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r
The Global Story: https:/ /www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsdDownload
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Available now27 minutes
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( this is what I imagine a Catholic jazz presenter would sound like )
From Our Rome Correspondent
Archive on 4There are few who can remember the days when David Willey wasn't the BBC's Rome Correspondent. Here, with the help of the BBC's and his own private archive, David looked back at his years acting as our eyes and ears in the Italian capital.
The programme also delves into David's earlier career covering North and East Africa and the early years of the Vietnam War. But it's the understanding of the culture and the politics of Italy that David has made his lifetime's work.
In this very personal reminiscence he explores again the events of his time in the country. He talks to old friends and new arrivals about Italian life and attitudes at a crucial point in the country's story, and he offers his own telling insights into the stories behind the stories, and the importance of gaining and sustaining the trust of those on whom he reports.
There's a particularly telling view of the Vatican and its workings from a man who was largely responsible for the Pope providing Radio Four with a unique 'Thought for the Day'.
There's also a chance to hear the lighter side of David's Roman adventure including a truffle hunt with an eccentric female aristocrat and a conversation with a man who has both a Stradivarius and a Guaneri violin to choose from when he performs.
But it's the extra insights, the tour of Silvio Berlusconi's private tomb and the private conversations with the late Pope John Paul II that make David Willey such a unique and treasured figure in the BBC News story.
Producer: Tom Alban.
Available now57 minutes
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Last Word obit programme
Brenda Fricker: The first Irish woman to win an Oscar
Brenda Fricker became the first Irish woman to win an Academy Award for her performance in the film “My Left Foot”. She began her career with parts in Ireland’s first soap opera Tolka Row, ITV’s Coronation Street, and became a household name as the nurse Megan Roach in Casualty on the BBC. Her friend and fellow actress Anna Friel pays tribute.
The BBC’s long-serving correspondent David Willey was a renowned authority on the Vatican, covering the lives and deaths of five popes. Before he settled in Rome, David had travelled widely for the BBC, reporting from Algeria, the Vietnam War and China just after the communist revolution. Two of his colleagues, former Chief News Correspondent Kate Adie and International Editor Jeremy Bowen, share their memories of working with him.
The name David Austin is forever indelibly associated with the rose growing business. He created some of the most sought after roses, naming new varieties after fictional or real-life people, including Gabriel Oak from Far From the Madding Crowd, the actress Dame Judi Dench and ceramicist Emma Bridgewater - who pays tribute to him alongside Gardeners' World presenter Sue Kent.
Wally Funk broke records as the oldest person to go to space onboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Rocket in 2021. In the early 1960s she was part of a group of women known as the Mercury 13 who were tested to see if they could compete with male astronauts for a place in the American space programme. But the project was abandoned and her hopes dashed. Loretta Hall, who co-wrote her memoir, tells us her story.
( ... also featuring The Pink Panther saxophone guy ...)
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Catherine Powell
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Andrea KennedyArchive:
"My Left Foot", Ferndale Films, Granada Film, RTÉ, Hell's Kitchen Films; BBC One, Wogan, 16/02/1990; 62nd Academy Awards, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 26/03/1990; BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour, 05/03/1997; BBC One, Wogan, 15/02/1991; BBC Radio 4, Sunday, 10/03/2013; BBC Radio 4, Archive on 4, From our Rome Correspondent, 07/04/2012; BBC One, RHS Chelsea Flower Show, 21/05/2007; BBC One, Football Focus, 06/10/2018; BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour, 19/06/2019; BBC News, 19/06/1983; Blue Origin, YouTube, 20/07/2021; Other audio courtesy of Loretta Hall -
(fascinating documentary about someone I've never heard of who spouted a load of bollocks which fascinated easily confused idiots (imho))
Alan Watts: The Brahman of Bromley
Archive on 4Jarvis Cocker wasn’t exactly enthusiastic when his bandmate suggested they listen to some old Buddhist lectures to while away the hours on their tour bus. But when the captivating voice of Alan Watts floated through the speakers, it transformed the way he saw the world.
Alan Watts is considered by many to have been a key translator of Eastern spiritual ideas in the 20th century. His books and lectures took the complex and often intangible concepts of Buddhism, Zen and Taoism, and unpacked them for Western ears with startling clarity and wry humour.
Born in Chislehurst in 1915, Watts moved to America just before the Second World War, where he became a popular public intellectual, “philosophical entertainer” and a thought-leader for the Beat Generation and emergent hippy counterculture.
In the years since his death in 1973, Watts’ reputation has only grown - first in esoteric New Age circles, and now with the millions of viewers online who take comfort from his archive of recorded lectures on YouTube and social media.
With access to his extensive recorded archive, Jarvis Cocker examines Watts’ life, work and digital legacy - featuring interviews with Watts enthusiasts and family members, historians and experts, as well as artists and filmmakers inspired by his work.
Access to Alan Watts' audio lectures provided by Mark Watts at the Alan Watts Organization.
Written and produced by Tom Harrad.
Executive producer: Ant Adeane
Sound mix: Alex PortfelixA Small Blue production for BBC Radio 4
Available now57 minutes
Last onYesterday
20:00
BBC Radio 4 -
Interesting episode of More or Less this week, particularly factchecking the greenwash around the “carbon capture” from restoring whale populations (which we should do because it is good to do regardless, not for bullshit financial/monetised benefits).
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Longtime BBC panellist admits ‘I don’t know how long I’ve got to live’ in last appearance on gardening show https://www.allforgardening.com/1770887/longtime-bbc-panellist-admits-i-dont-know-how-long-ive-got-to-live-in-last-appearance-on-gardening-show/ #BbcRadio4 #garden #GardenersQuestionTime #gardening #MatthewBiggs #PalliativeCare #SergeHillProject
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The BBC have said they will stop transmitting BBC Radio 4 on Long Wave, LW, on Sunday 21st June 2026 😭☹️🤬☹️😭
#Radio #BBC #BBCRadio #BBCRadio4 #LW #LongWave #SaveLongWave #SaveRadio #Radio4
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Overuse of interference in telephony service when callers are talking about Iran this week.
#BBCRadio #BBCRadio4 #BBCAnyQuestions #BBCAnyAnswers #BBCRadio5 #GCHQ
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2026-03-10 2100-2130
The plans to limit jury trials in England and Wales
The Law ShowThe courts system in England and Wales is in an unprecedented crisis. The backlog has reached 80,000 cases, and some defendants are being told they won't be able to have a criminal trial until 2030.
The government has introduced the Courts and Tribunals Bill, which contains a raft of measures to tackle delays and bring down the backlog; but the Justice Secretary David Lammy has admitted that things are going to get even worse before they get better.
The most controversial change is a plan to restrict the number of jury trials. The right to judgement by your peers has existed for more than 800 years, but for some offences, that's going to end.
Defendants will lose the right to choose between a jury trial or a magistrate's hearing in so-called "either-way" offences.
Magistrates will get increased sentencing powers - up from 12 months to 18 months.
More serious criminal cases, with likely sentences of up to three years will now be heard by a single judge - and no jury.
And only the most serious "indictable" offences, like murder, manslaughter and rape and any other offence with a sentence of longer than three years will be heard by a jury.
But will the reforms make a difference?
Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producers: Ravi Naik and Charlotte Rowles
Editor: Tom BigwoodContributors:
Sarah Sackman KC, courts and legal services minister
Chris Kinch, KC, who until 2024 was a senior judge at Woolwich Crown Court in south London
David Ford, national chair of the Magistrates AssociationShow less
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#BBCRadio4 #BBCTheLawShow #DavidLammy #SingleJusticeProcedure
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(... the_WORST_episode_of_this_series_on_BBC_Radio4 ...)
Café Hope -- Change Please
Cemal Ezel, from Change Please, tells Rachel Burden how they help address homelessness by selling coffee. The social enterprise trains homeless people for employment through the sale of coffee, offering them a living wage, housing and therapy support.
Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell us what they're doing to make things better in big and small ways. Think of us as sitting in your local café, cooking up plans, hearing the gossip and celebrating the people making the world a better place.
We're all about trying to make change. It might be a transformational project that helps an entire community or it might be about trying to make one life a little easier. And the key here is in the trying. Not everything works, and there are struggles along the way. But it's always worth a go.
You can contact us on [email protected]
Presenter: Rachel Burden
Series Producer: Uma Doraiswamy
Sound Design: Nicky Edwards
Editor: Clare Fordham(QuangoNote: The interviewee advocates for #PreEmploymentChecks (- and probably adhers to #WorkReady or #JobReady -) which is part of the fuck-knuckle jobnobbling strategy of Ian Duncan Smith, Tim Montgomerie and the neverending identity checks of our lame-ass security-intelligence community. Their approach is a right-wing capitalist one.)
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#TrumpingTheUSA A Trumper on #BBCRadio4 just confidently told us the UK has been destroyed by immigration. I can't say I've noticed. It has been damaged by #Brexit isolationism though. Don't swallow the #fascistpropaganda.
We're all far more likely to be destroyed by lies. -
#BakeForUkraine on😃#BBCRadio4
#TheFoodProgramme #podcast!On BBC Radio 4
📻👍⏯ https://bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001np4rAnyone can SUPPORT them via their WE AID page
😇💛➡ https://WE-AID.org/en/initiativesn/initiatives/bake-for-ukraine/#yesWEAID #humanitarian #relief #emergencyaid #radio #airplay #bread #baking #bakingbread #bakery #education #recipe #socent #entrepreneur #startup #liveunited #unitedway #uplifting #inspiring #solution #giveback #news