Programmes

Programmes 2008

BBC Radio 4 - Where's The Femur?

Tuesday 1st January 2008 at 8pm

Clare English investigates the crisis in medical training which is causing grave concern for the medical establishment. In recent years an increasing emphasis has been placed on social and communication skills in medical training. This is undoubtedly an important area, but it has been at the expense of more traditional, and fundamental elements such as pharmacology and anatomy. The programme gets to the heart of the changes in medical training and discovers how tutors, senior doctors, nurses and students feel about it. Producer: Deborah Dudgeon

BBC Radio 4 - Spy School

Thursday 17th January 2008 at 8pm

Nick Haslam tells the story of MECAS, a small language school in the mountains of Lebanon whose graduates were major players in the top echelons of both government and the civil service. In a vivid blend of interview, newly released archive material and meetings with former graduates, Nick discovers a curious blend of brilliance and intrigue at one of the most influential British institutions in the Middle East. Producer: David Prest.

BBC Radio 4 - Traveller's Tree

Thursday 17th January to Thursday 21st February at 3pm

On the outskirts of remote villages in Africa and South America, you'll often find a gnarled old tree where tips and advice are pinned for passing travellers. BBC Radio 4 brings the concept to British radio, with the return of Traveller's Tree presented by Fi Glover and Charlie Connelly. Cheap flights, specialist websites, and ever expanding travel opportunities now mean that good information and sound advice is often hard to come by. This is where "Traveller's Tree" comes in with honest and down to earth tips from people who've actually been and done it. In this series we look at Barcelona, riding holidays, the celebration weekend, family holidays, musical tourism and learning holidays. Producer: David Prest and Susan Marling

BBC Radio 4 - Munich and The Making of Manchester

Saturday 2nd February 2008 at 8pm

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Munich Air disaster on 6th February 1958, in which eight members of Manchester United's "Busby Babes" lost their lives, Michael Crick talks to survivors, family members and other commentators to recall the momentous events of that foggy, snowbound day and the unprecedented wave of public sympathy that flooded over Manchester United afterwards. Producer: Chris Green

Churchill Confidential: Return to Power

Monday 4th February 2008 at 2.15pm

Charles Wheeler guides us through the dusty notebooks of former cabinet secretary Norman Brook, hailed by historians as "one of the most important document finds for many years". These notebooks contain Brook's extraordinary verbatim account of the cabinet's discussions during the period October 1951 - April 1955 when the Tory Party returned to power with a majority of only 18 and Winston Churchill led the country for the last time. In this drama-documentary, the Brook notebooks recall in vivid detail the actual words of those taking part, and give a dramatic new look at the relationships between the main members of Churchill's post war cabinet. Cast: Ewan Bailey, Michael Cochrane, Sam Dale, Jonathan Keeble, Michael N. Harbour, David Ryall, Gary Waldhorn. Director: Penny Leicester, Producer: Eleanor Thomas

BBC Radio 4 - 1968: The Year of Revolutions

Tuesday 18th March 2008 at 9am (short version repeat at 9pm)

1968 was a year without precedent - a year of revolutions. Young people across the globe rose up against authoritarianism and the old guard. In this series of four live feature/discussion programmes, Sir John Tusa tells the story of what happened in four different countries and examines the legacy of the events of this exceptional year. In this first programme recorded in London, he marks the anniversary of the Grosvenor Square riots and is joined by Joan Bakewell, Ann Leslie, Peter Hain, Douglas Hurd, Martin Kettle and Anthony Barnett. Producer: Louise Adamson

BBC Radio 4 - Border Blaster: In Search of the Wolf

Saturday 22rd & 29th March 2008 at 10.30am

In this two part series, Nick Barraclough tells the story of one of the first pirate radio stations which sprung up across the Rio Grande in Mexico in the 1950s and paved the way for the extraordinary career of maverick DJ and wild man, 'Wolfman Jack.' Throughout the 1950s, Station XER in Acuna, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas, was America's most powerful border radio station. The station and its catenation of voices caught the ear of teenager Bob Smith in New Jersey in the early 50s. Ten years later when Bob, now calling himself Wolfman Jack, took over XER, he did so with the aid of sandbags, pick axes and a small machine gun. When he wasn't fighting off the Mexican bandits he assaulted his microphone. Nick visits the old station, meets those who broadcast and fought alongside Wolf, and talks to notable fans whose lives were changed by the unearthly sound as it blasted up from the border. Producer: Sarah Cuddon

BBC Radio 4 - Questions, Questions

Thursday 3rd April to Thursday 5th June at 3pm

"Questions, Questions", presented by our dear Liverpudlian Stewart Henderson is now in its thirteenth series. In fact it has become something of an institution on BBC Radio 4, providing informed and ingenious answers to questions such as, why do rainbows arc? what happens to a Stag's antlers when they drop? when ipod 'shuffles', what's really going on and where do all those Italian pasta shapes come from? The idea for the programme comes out of a long and popular tradition of answer finding columns and programmes. In print with the famous Victorian newsletter "Bream's Factfinder" of the 1890's to the long running "Notes and Queries" in the Guardian and on radio from "The Brains Trust" to "Enquire Within". Each programme is compiled directly from an inquisitive Radio 4 audience, who bring their unrivalled collective brain to bear on these puzzlers every week. Some guests on the programme have included Desmond Morris, Anne Widdecombe, Antonio Carluccio, Fay Presto and Benedict Allen. Producers: Sarah Cuddon and Kevin Dawson.

BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion: Bletchley Park

Sunday 6th April 2008 at 11.15am (repeated Friday April 11th at 9am)

For the first programme in the new series of The Reunion, Sue MacGregor gathers together five people who were part of a group known by Winston Churchill as, "the geese that laid the golden eggs, and never cackled" - the Bletchley Park code-breakers. Together the group remembers their life at Bletchley Park as young men and women, the unquestioned code of silence, the long hours and hard work as well as the social life, the romances, the visiting Americans and the elation as codes were broken and the information they yielded began to be of vital importance. Producer: Katrina Fallon

BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion: The National Lottery

Sunday 13th April 2008 at 11.15am (repeated Friday April 18th at 9am)

Sue MacGregor gathers together five people who were key to the planning, launch and establishment of the UK National Lottery. Some were accused of being fat cat directors, others naïve civil servants, but what they created has raised millions for charity and become a national institution. The guests recall the pressures and challenges, the accusations of underhand dealings and the euphoria of new found millionaires. Producer: Kevin Dawson

BBC Radio 4 - The Return of King Arthur

Monday 14th April 2008 at 11am

In April 2008, The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, Burne Jones's last work, will make its way from Puerto Rico to Tate Britain after nearly 200 years in exile. The enormous canvas, shows a scene from Mallory's 'Le Morte D'Arthur', where Arthur's sister and other beautiful women wait by the mortally wounded King, to see if he will wake. In this programme we tell the story of the painting, punctuated by short readings from Mallory's Morte D'Arthur and the words of the artist at the time as preserved by his studio assistant Thomas Rooke in the book 'Burne Jones Talking'. Producer: Celia Quartermain

BBC World Service - Elegy for the Tech

Wednesday 16th April 2008 - Saturday 19th April 2008

Award winning poet and author Fred D'Aguiar, is head of creative writing at Virginia Tech. He was sitting in his office when 34 students and staff were shot dead last year. He has had to deal with his own personal demons. He lost one of his students in the shootings. A former psychiatric nurse, he wondered for some time whether he should have been more concerned by the violent writings of his pupil Seung-Hui Cho, the young man who went on to cause so much carnage. As a writer Fred has never shied away from writing about difficult and emotive events. His 'Bill of Rights', was about the Jonestown Massacre of 1978 and was a finalist for the T.S Eliot Prize. He has spent the months since the tragedy putting his own thoughts into words, and encouraging some of his students to do the same 12 months on they reflect on their writing. Producer: Kevin Dawson

BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion: D.C.Thomson comics

Sunday 20th April 2008 at 11.15 (repeated Friday April 25th at 9am)

The comics produced by Scottish publishers DC Thomson have enraptured generations of children. They have chuckled at the capers of characters such as Desperate Dan (and his infamous cow pies), and the naughtiness of Beryl the Peril, Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger and The Bash St Kids, whose cheeky antics have copped a constant snook at authority. The Dandy, first published in 1937, is Britain's longest lasting children's comic - while its sister publication, The Beano, celebrates its 70th birthday in July 2008. They have survived changing times: in particular the way society now views children (and, indeed how children see the world), and how political correctness shaped the focus the content of DC Thomson's comics characters. Others weren't so lucky - The Topper, The Beezer, Victor and Sparky are long lamented titles to bite the dust. Sue McGregor gathers together editors, cartoonists and scriptwriters to recall the halcyon days of the DC Thomson comics to recall the characters they created, the comic strips they drew and the challenges the industry faces in an ever-increasing multimedia age. Producer: Chris Green

BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion: Strangeways

Sunday 27th April 2008 at 11.15am (repeated Friday May 2nd at 9am)

Eighteen years ago Britain's worst prison riot took place in a Victorian building in Manchester which typified Britain's ageing and overcrowded places of detention. Strangeways was designed to hold just over 1000 prisoners. At the time it was holding over six hundred more than that. The riot urned into a siege lasting 25 days. Rebuilding the prison cost £55 million. The Woolf inquiry into what happened at Strangeways led to recommendations of a major overhaul of prison policy, including the end of slopping out, and of putting 3 men in one cell. Sue MacGregor brings together some of the Prison's staff, prisoners, and a journalist who reported on the riot from outside the perimeter fence and they recall the fraught and violent days of the riot. Producer: Deborah Dudgeon

BBC Radio 4 - 1968: The Year of Revolutions

Tuesday 29th April 2008 at 9am (short version repeat at 9pm)

As we continue BBC Radio 4's special season to mark the 40th anniversary of 1968, we're in Paris for the second in a series of discussions - presented by Sir John Tusa - which tell the story of this extraordinary year and explore its legacy. The student protests which hit the city of Paris in May of 1968 are often seen as the most iconic event of the year. In France the year had started quietly - President de Gaulle spoke of greeting the New Year with "serenity." But students across Europe were beginning to raise their voices against the war in Vietnam, and these demonstrations reached their height in Paris. Recorded in Paris, many of the leading players recall the dramatic events of May 1968. Producer: Louise Adamson

BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion: Withnail and I

Sunday 4th May 2008 at 11.15 (repeated Friday May 9th at 9am)

'Withnail and I' is the ultimate British Cult Feature Film. In this special edition of The Reunion, Sue MacGregor brings together Richard E Grant (Withnail), Paul McGann (I), Ralph Brown (Danny the drug dealer) and writer/director Bruce Robinson. There is even a special contribution from Richard Griffiths (Uncle Monty). Recorded in front of a live audience at London's BFI Southbank, the cast and director discuss the origins of the ideas, they recall how it nearly didn't happen at all, and consider such imponderables as 'how do you get a chicken to stand on a table for a whole afternoon'? Producer: Kevin Dawson

BBC World Service - Living With Chico Mendes

Wednesday 14th May 2008, various times

Marking 20 years since his assassination in 1988, BBC World Service marks the life of highly significant green activist, Chico Mendes. Chico Mendes fought to stop the logging of the Amazon Rainforest and founded a national union of rubber tappers in an attempt to preserve their profession and the rainforest that it relied upon. He was assassinated in 1988, by those opposed to his activism. With exclusive interviews with the Mendes family and surviving supporters, this revelatory documentary reflects on how the changing face of the rainforest, galvanized Chico Mendes into action. It looks at how his actions highlighted the plight of the Amazon internationally and how he can be directly credited with creating reserves and preserving vast tracts of land. Today, there are more than 8 million acres protected.

BBC Radio 4 - The Ping Pong Diplomats

Saturday 21st June 2008 at 10.30am

As the 2008 Beijing Olympics gets under way Garry Richardson casts a wry eye back to the early seventies and an unusual sporting exchange which marked the beginning of the end of Chinese isolation when, in 1971, table tennis players set out on a sporting adventure and succeeded in relaxing tensions between Beijing and the West. An unexpected meeting between the American player Glenn Cowan, a long haired hippy, and Chinese player Zhuang Zedong at a competition in Nagasaki led to a surprise invitation being extended to the US team by China. Juxtaposing archive interviews and fresh interviews with members of the 1971 teams, the players will relive the drama of the original tour, the suspense of the matches and explore the lasting impact of the cultural exchange on themselves and in a broader political context. Producer: Emily Williams.

BBC Radio 4 - Charles Wheeler: In His Own Words

Saturday 5th July 2008 at 11am

A memorable 2003 meeting between the veteran BBC reporter & foreign correspondent and Jeremy Paxman is the basis for this Radio 4 tribute to Charles Wheeler who died on July 4th 2008. It covers his extraordinary wartime experiences, journalistic postings to Berlin, India and most importantly the United States where he reported on one of the most turbulent periods in American history. He also talks about his ground-breaking documentary work on television and radio, and recalls his clashes with BBC officialdom. Producer: David Prest.

BBC Radio 4 - The Jewish Connection

Sunday 6th & 13th July 2008 at 10.45pm

July 23rd 2008 marks the 150th anniversary of the Jews Relief Act, which enabled Jewish politicians to take up their seats in the House of Commons for the first time. Since then, Parliament has never been without Jewish members, and their influence spans the political spectrum. In this two part series, author and journalist Ruth Cowen looks at the history of the Jewish influence in Parliament, including Britain's first Jewish MP, the Liberal banker Lionel de Rothschild, Labour MP Manny Shinwell and Margaret Thatcher's very Jewish cabinet. A range of former and serving Jewish politicians give their views. Producer: David Prest

BBC Radio 4 - Charles Wheeler

Monday - Friday July 21st - 25th

A week long series of programmes in tribute to the radio documentaries of Charles Wheeler who died earlier this month. Included are an edition of his 2000 Sony Award winning series "Evacuation: The True Story", an episode from the 2001 series on National Service, "The Peacetime Conscripts", and one of the most pieces of radio he was ever involved with: an edition of the 2003 Radio 4 series "The Child Migrants". Producer: David Prest.

BBC Radio 4 - Petrov's Dilemma

Monday July 28th at 8pm

25 years after the last big nuclear close call of the Cold War, Jonathan Charles presents a dramatic first-hand testimony from the man who went with his gut feeling and in doing so potentially saved the world from an all out nuclear disaster. Offering a real life Dr Strangelove experience, this revelatory programme revisits one of the most incredible incidents of the nuclear age: the day a false alarm signalled a US nuclear missile attack. Petrov found himself with his finger on the red button but decided not to press it. Reflecting back from his Moscow flat, he talks about the aftermath of the event, why he left the army and how the incident has continued to affect him. A funny and terrifying personal drama from the coal face of the Cold War. Producer: Emily Williams

BBC Radio 4 - The Last Nazi Hunter

Tuesday 5th August 2008 at 8pm

For Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, time is running out. He's been hunting Nazis for 25 years but he's in a battle against the clock; he thinks he has just three to four years to catch those who are still alive. However, his last ditch attempt to bring Nazis to justice is being criticised by some holocaust organisations. They believe any culprits are getting on in years and will be too old to withstand interrogation or trial. Jonathan Charles follows him as he travels across Europe to hunt down Nazis. Producer: David Prest

BBC Radio 4 - Meter Mad

Saturday 9th August 2008 at 10.30am

It is 50 years since the first parking meter was installed in London's exclusive Mayfair district. Now, new methods of paying parking charges by text threaten to make these potent articles of street furniture extinct. Bringing us much more than a history of the parking meter, this programme takes us on a journey round the historical parking meter sights of Britain and also tells a very personal story of how he, a long-time hater, is a newly converted lover of the parking meter who will, to his own surprise, mourn their demise. Producer: Josie Barnard.

BBC Radio 4 - Love At The Lighthouse

Saturday 9th August 2008 at 8pm

Marie Stopes, one of the most influential woman of the 20th century, was a tireless campaigner for something women now take for granted, access to contraception. 50 years after her death, as Britain battles with epidemic levels of teenage pregnancies and STDs, Sue MacGregor takes to the archive to explore Stopes's life, not only as the founder of modern birth control, but also of the Portland Museum, where locals remember her more for her nudism and litter campaigns. Responsible for improving the lives of millions of women in her lifetime and beyond, this programme uncovers a complex, contradictory woman, and considers what her legacy means today. Producer: Jackie Curthoys

BBC Radio 4 - 1968: The Year of Revolutions

Tuesday 19th August 2008 at 9am (short version repeat at 9pm)

In the third part of Sir John Tusa's world tour marking the 40th anniversary of 1968, we're in Prague. On the anniversary of the Russian tanks rolling into Czechoslovakia, today's programme tells the story of the rising hopes of Alexander Dubcek's Prague Spring, and its brutal suppression by the Soviet authorities. In the programme, John Tusa is joined by some of those who remember the heady freedom they enjoyed at the start of 1968, and the dreadful moment in the middle of August when Soviet tanks rolled into Prague, meeting fierce resistance. Producer: Louise Adamson

BBC Radio 4 - The Man Who Was Bojangles

Saturday 23rd August 2008 at 10.30am

If awards were presented for the song with the most intriguing back-story, Mr Bojangles would be a sure-fire winner. Legend says it evolved after a chance meeting in a New Orleans jail and that it does not actually refer to the real Bojangles but to an impersonator. So what is the real story one of the most frequently covered songs in popular music? And who was the real Bojangles? Written in 1968 by country folk musician Jerry Jeff Walker, the song has fixed the name Bojangles firmly in our musical vocabulary but few of us who listen to or perform it know anything of Bill Bojangles Robinson. We unpick the myths and piece together a truly fascinating narrative. Producer: Elaine Williams.

BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion: new series

Sunday 24th August 2008 to September 21st at 11.15am (repeated Friday April 11th at 9am)

A new series of The Reunion. Sue MacGregor returns with more gatherings of groups of people who made the news, or had an extraordinary impact on the lives of others. "Make an orphan of whatever you have planned for tomorrow night and catch The Reunion" The Daily Telegraph. "The Reunion is a wonderful format, combining solid historical journalism with real investigative insight" Sunday Express. This series includes: The Navy Lark, Ranulph Fiennes' Trans Polar Expedition, The Hitler Diaries, The Channel Tunnel and the Windsor castle Fire.

BBC Radio 4 - Coward, the Poet

Sunday 24th August 2008 at 4.30pm

Noel Coward is rightly revered for many things: as a playwright, actor, songwriter, director, singer, musician and general wit-about-town. One aspect of his remarkable career that has always been overlooked, however, is the significant amount of poetry he wrote throughout his life. Featuring little-heard archive recordings of Coward performing his own verse as well as other Coward poems, and opinions from leading Coward and poetry aficionados long term fan Charlie Connelly argues that The Master's verse deserves wider acclaim and recognition in its own right. Producer: Charlotte Austin

BBC Radio 4 - 1968: The Year of Revolutions

Tuesday 26th August 2008 at 9am (short version repeat at 9pm)

Marking the end of BBC Radio 4's special season to mark the 40th anniversary of 1968, we're in Chicago for the last in a series of debates, chaired by Sir John Tusa, which tell the story of this extraordinary year and explore its legacy. 1968 was a momentous year in the USA, and the situation in America then has many parallels with 2008, not least as this was also an election year. With the country facing an increasingly difficult war in Vietnam, there were protests at home and abroad as the US found itself at the centre of much of the protest which was unfolding around the world. Among everything which happened in the USA in 1968, two particularly traumatic events stand out - the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, leading to riots at the Democrat convention in Chicago in August of 1968. Producer: Louise Adamson

BBC Radio 4 - Musical Comedy Was My Dish

Tuesday 23rd September 2008 at 1.30 pm

He wrote the lyrics for countless songs, collaborated with world famous composers, and was a founding father of the American stage musical, yet P.G. Wodehouse's influential career as a lyricist is almost completely forgotten. In 1917, he had five shows running simultaneously on Broadway, and he wrote librettos for around 40 musical comedies in all. With a rich mix of performance, archive and interviews with the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice and Trevor Nunn and Stephen Fry, this is a witty account of this little known side of one of the nations favourite comic novelists. Producer: Caroline Hughes

BBC Radio 4 - Questions, Questions

Thursday 4th September to Thursday 6th November at 3pm

A new series of Questions Questions. Stewart Henderson returns with more of your nagging questions answered. Producers: Sarah Cuddon and Kevin Dawson

BBC Radio 4 - Dreaming of Toad Hall

Tuesday 30th September 2008 at 11.30

Published in 1908, Kenneth Grahame's classic tale Wind in the Willows was based on a series of letters Grahame wrote to his son who he nicknamed Mouse. But behind the world of Mr Toad and Ratty lay a frustrated man in a desperate quandary whose personal flight from reality happened to chime with the popular zeitgeist. With dramatized readings from Grahame's own letters woven in with archives and interviews, John O'Farrell tells the dramatic, poignant and sometimes hilarious story of this childrens' classic which is celebrating its centenary. Producer: Emily Williams.

BBC Radio 4 - Traveller's Tree

Mondays 13th October - December 1st, at 4.30pm

On the outskirts of remote villages in Africa and South America, you'll often find a gnarled old tree where tips and advice are pinned for passing travellers. BBC Radio 4 brings the concept to British radio, with the return of Traveller's Tree - in a new time slot - presented by Katie Derham. Cheap flights, specialist websites, and ever expanding travel opportunities now mean that good information and sound advice is often hard to come by. This is where "Traveller's Tree" comes in with honest and down to earth tips from people who've actually been and done it. Producer: David Prest and Susan Marling

BBC World Service - The World Without Cows

Thursday 5th November, various times

Frederick Dove contemplates what the world would be like without the existence of cows in this entertaining and informative series. Includes: Hannah Velten (author), Raj Patel (academic), Vijay Rana (journalist), Prof Robin Shattock (medical expert), Rhada Monohan Das (Buddhist farmer), Raul Curio (Uruguayan Architect). Producer: Kate Taylor

BBC World Service - The World Without Copper

Thursday 12th November, various times

Frederick Dove contemplates what the world would be like without the existence of copper in this entertaining and informative series. Includes: Hal Stillman (technologist), Harry McArdle (academic) Paul Archibald (head of brass at Guildhall School) Prof Tom Elliott (microbiologist) and Sara Ellis (nurse). Producer: Kate Taylor

BBC Radio 4 - The Morricone Affair

Saturday 1st November 2008 at 10.30 am

Ennio Morricone, the Caesar of film music, will be eighty years old in November 2008. In this one off programme, Sir Christopher Frayling, a long-time devotee of Morricone, pays an unusual tribute to this cinema legend. Contributors include David Puttnam, Allison Goldfrapp and Nitin Sawney. Producer: Sarah Cuddon.

BBC Radio 2 - Bob's Big Freeze

Tuesday 25th November at 10.30pm

During the freezing winter of 1962/63 Bob Dylan made his first trip to London. In a follow up to last year's Whistledown production, 'Mr Simon's Big Trip', we tell the story of Dylan's extraordinary three month stay in the UK. We hear from the people who bumped into him and sent him on his way from the folk clubs of Accrington to the tailors of Carnaby Street. Phillip Saville, Evan Jones, David Warner and Martin Carthy will share their memories of the young Bob Dylan on that formative first trip and ask the inevitable question: How did the frail Dylan survive that bitter winter of 63? Producer: Katrina Fallon

BBC Radio 4 - Back in the Wax Museum

Saturday 29th November at 8pm

Alan Dein presents a look at the great American Oral Historian 'Studs' Terkel who died ealier this month. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century Terkel hosted a legendary radio show, The Wax Museum in Chicago, presenting listeners with his remarkable take on an eclectic range of music from opera and classical to folk and blues. Iconic music-makers of the twentieth century such as Louis Armstrong, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Guthrie, Janis Joplin, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Ravi Shankar all visited the studios and 'opened up' to Studs about their work, whilst revealing much about their lives and politics thanks to his unrivalled interviewing techniques. Producer: Christina Captieux

BBC Radio 4 - A Dream of Eleanor

Friday 5th December at 11am

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, looks at the role Eleanor Roosevelt had in producing the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which is 60 years old this year. Appointed by her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to the United Nations General Assembly in 1946, it was the delegates to the Commission on Human Rights who actually elected Eleanor Roosevelt as their Chairperson, recognizing her unparalleled humanitarian convictions. Eleanor's enthusiasm for her work with the UN was rooted in her humanitarian beliefs and steady faith in human dignity and worth. In a world filled with Scholars and Law experts, Roosevelt joked that her greatest assets were her intellect and compassion. She called the Declaration "the international Magna Carta of all mankind", reflecting her deep rooted concern with the plight of the common man and woman. As an international ambassador for humanitarian causes, we explore why she became a role-model for generations of politicians and activists. Contributors to the programme include: Geoffrey Robertson QC, Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty, Eleanor's grandson Curtis Roosevelt, biographer and US Ambassador to the Holy See, Mary Ann Glendon, and Baroness Perry. Producer: Kate Taylor

BBC Radio 4- Young Governors Take Control

Monday 8th and 15th December at 11am

Clare English presents two programmes which give us an update on the careers of the trainee prison governors featured in 2006's 'The Young Governors', as they start to assume real responsibility and take on their first postings as Governors in an increasingly strained prison system. When 'The Young Governors' was broadcast in April 2006, the prison service was under great strain, with overcrowding reaching dangerous levels. Since then the Home Office has crumbled under the pressure of successive high profile failures. This series examines how the political pressure to reform the criminal justice system impacts on the real world inside prison, and how our young graduates are dealing with it. Producer: Deborah Dudgeon

BBC Radio 4 - Behind the Scenes with Carbon Dioxide

Monday 8th December, 9pm

Chris Rapley, the Director of the Science Museum and ex-Director of the British Antarctic Survey, explores the story of Joseph Black, the Scottish chemist who described carbon dioxide for the first time. At the same time, he places the eighteenth century Enlightenment against a second enlightenment in the twenty-first century in which we have come to recognise the threat to the planet posed by CO2. Producer: Louise Dalziel.

BBC World Service - The Priest of Para

10th December, various times

Father Henri Des Roziers is a French Dominican priest and lawyer working with the poor, landless people in the region of Para in Northern Brazil. Clashes over land in this part of Brazil lead to daily violence and frequent killings. Father Henri's work fighting for the rights of the poor has made him many enemies in the region and he now lives under 24-hour police protection because of death threats against his life. Nick Maes visited Father Henri to find out more about his work, his life, his faith and to talk to those who live alongside him and work with him. Producer: Sarah Cuddon.

BBC World Service - Time Line

Friday 5th, 12th and 19th December (various times)

A new series for BBC World Service presented by George Arney. A topical and lively programme in which contemporary stories and events are explored through the archive of what has gone before, triggering examination with the benefit of hindsight by a mix of those who were there at the time, and writers and specialists in the field. Producer: Kevin Dawson.

BBC Radio 4 - The Dirty Dozens

Tuesday 23rd December at 11.30pm

Renowned for his own high-octane, power-performance poetry Benjamin Zephaniah tells the surprising story of The Dozens, the 17th century language game and precursor to today's rap battles. In this celebration of the inventive wit and verbal dexterity of The Dozens, Zephaniah decodes the linguistic wizardry and dark humour in the lyrics and tells the story of its rise in Western Africa and evolution to modern rap clubs in South London and atmospheric bars in Lebanon. Having honed his skills along the way, Zephaniah faces the final challenge of playing the game in front of a live audience; we are transported to the heart of a rap battle to experience the drama and tension as the game unfolds. Will he be up to the task? Producer: Emily Williams

BBC Radio 4 - U.K. Confidential

Tuesday 30th December at 11am

Martha Kearney unearths new stories from the Government archives of 1978, released for the first time under the 30 year rule. The programme includes comment and analysis from David Owen, Ken Clarke, Tom McNally and Mathew Parris, and reports from Jonathan Charles and Michael Crick. The year of growing industrial strife, unease in Southern Africa, heightened tensions with Russia, and a domestic Government under Jim Callaghan clinging to power. Producer: Emily Williams