| 00:00 | 00:00National and international news from BBC Radio 4. 00:15Greg James digs into the BBC's archives, using current stories as a portal to the past. 00:45Bells on Sunday comes from Sheffield Cathedral 00:48The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
| 00:00National and international news from BBC Radio 4 00:15Comedian Tez Ilyas presents a stand-up show about life as a British Muslim. 00:301/5Personal seasonal reflections. The story of a comedian and a Syrian refugee. 00:48The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
| 00:48The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
| 00:00National and international news from BBC Radio 4 00:15A reflection on the meaning of Christmas with actor and comedian Sally Phillips. 00:303/5Personal seasonal reflections. A tennis player falls on hard times and an athlete’s story. 00:48The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
| 00:00National and international news from BBC Radio 4 00:15Looking to the future in the company of some of Britain's centenarians. 00:304/5Personal seasonal reflections. An actress on belonging and a cardiologist on gifts. 00:48The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
| 00:00National and international news from BBC Radio 4 00:15Looking to the future in the company of some of Britain's centenarians. 00:305/5Personal reflections on the festive season by Lyse Doucet and Tindyebwa Agaba. 00:48The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
| 00:00National and international news from BBC Radio 4 00:15Looking to the future in the company of some of Britain's centenarians. 00:30Old friends meet up to discuss their love life and dating later in life. 00:48The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
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| 01:00 | 01:00BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
| 01:00BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
| 01:00BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
| 01:00BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
| 01:00BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
| 01:00BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
| 01:00BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
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| 05:00 | 05:20The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping. 05:30National and international news from BBC Radio 4. 05:43A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Sarah Mullally 05:45A livestock market near Dundee turns festive to help combat rural isolation. 05:56The latest weather forecast for farmers. 05:58A seasonal offering from Tweet of the Day for the Christmas period.
| 05:20The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping. 05:30National and international news from BBC Radio 4. 05:43A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Sarah Mullally 05:45Meet Joe Rabicano - an 18-year-old who has just been awarded a council farm tenancy. 05:58A seasonal offering from Tweet of the Day for the Christmas period.
| 05:20The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping. 05:30National and international news from BBC Radio 4. 05:43A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Sarah Mullally 05:45Emma Campbell visits a farm preparing to take a crop of mistletoe to auction. 05:58A seasonal offering from Tweet of the Day for the Christmas period.
| 05:20The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping. 05:30National and international news from BBC Radio 4. 05:43A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Sarah Mullally 05:45Can traditional farming survive in the Lake District? 05:58A seasonal offering from Tweet of the Day for the Christmas period.
| 05:20The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping. 05:30National and international news from BBC Radio 4. 05:43A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Sarah Mullally 05:45Is it time to rethink the role of single-use plastic guards in tree planting? 05:58A seasonal offering from Tweet of the Day for the Christmas period.
| 05:20The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping. 05:30National and international news from BBC Radio 4. 05:43A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop John Inge 05:45Monisha Rajesh says the romance of train travel is not dead.
| 05:20The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping. 05:30National and international news from BBC Radio 4. 05:43Bells on Sunday comes from St Mary with St Faith and St Francis in Alverstoke, Hampshire 05:45Mark Coles looks at one of Britain’s most celebrated storytellers, Michael Morpurgo
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| 06:00 | 06:00News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
| 06:00News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
| 06:001/2Readings and music from Neil Gaiman and friends with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
| 06:00Murray Lachlan Young traces the rise of hyperbole and asks: Have we reached Peak Hype?
| 06:00Supreme Court President Baroness Hale guest edits the programme.
| 06:00The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers. 06:07Helen Mark considers how composer Gustav Holst's youth in the Cotswolds shaped his work 06:30What's it like farming on the Isle of Iona, which gets more than 100,000 visitors a year? 06:57The latest weather forecast.
| 06:00The latest national and international news headlines. 06:05Mark Tully asks what makes a government, a religion or even a friendship legitimate. 06:35Keen naturalists Hannah Stitfall and Dom Davies compare notes on Spined Loach. 06:57The latest weather forecast.
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| 07:00 | | | 07:00Fi Glover presents the Christmas Special with the writer and podcaster Elizabeth Day.
| 07:00Artist Grayson Perry guest edits the programme.
| | 07:00Journalist & author Charles Moore guest edits the programme.
| 07:00The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers. 07:10The legacy of the Puritans, 400 years after they arrived in New England on the Mayflower. 07:54Mark Doyle makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Chance for Childhood. 07:57The latest weather forecast.
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| 08:00 | | | 08:00Clare Balding shares her life through reading with Hugh Bonneville and Alice Arnold.
| | | | 08:00The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers. 08:10A reflection on those parts of the Christmas story that take place out on the edge. 08:48Rebecca Stott on her fascination with taxidermy. 08:58A seasonal offering from Tweet of the Day for the Christmas period.
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| 09:00 | 09:00Andrew Marr at Westminster Abbey with David Cannadine, Lucy Worsley and Richard Harries. 09:45Christian worship with a Bible reading, prayer and music led by Elizabeth Alker
| 09:00Jonathan Freedland takes the Long View of racism in sports crowds. 09:30Consumerism and Christmas have gone hand in hand for a surprisingly long time 09:45The Dean of King’s the Revd Dr Stephen Cherry presents a meditation for Christmas Eve.
| 09:00A Nativity service from the Wintershall Estate near Guildford. 09:453/5Personal seasonal reflections. A tennis player falls on hard times and an athlete’s story.
| 09:00Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb and what that revealed 09:45Christian worship with a Bible reading, prayer and music led by Rev Dr Isabelle Hamley
| 09:00Stephen Merchant shares the soundtrack of his life with Lauren Laverne. 09:45Christian worship with a Bible reading, prayer and music led by Canon Rachel Mann
| 09:00Julia Georgallis on how to eat your Christmas Tree; Frank Skinner's Inheritance Tracks.
| 09:00The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
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| 10:00 | 10:00Women in Law. The First 100 years with Cherie Booth QC 10:451/5The daily life of a young curate in the border country of England and Wales in the 1870s.
| 10:00Derry Girls, Joanna Scanlan, Nursing at Christmas, Abba exhibition 10:452/5Kilvert has toothache and nightmares - but all is forgotten when he falls in love.
| 10:00Is it time to ditch the turkey and other Christmas traditions? 10:413/5Kilvert begins Christmas Day by sitting down in a bath full of ice. 10:55Mother tells teenage daughter the story of how she came to be joyfully adopted.
| 10:00Winning women in 2019 - what does being a winner feel like, and is it always good to win? 10:454/5The daily life of a Victorian country curate. It's Spring and the young Curate is in love.
| 10:00Star Wars women; Tight pelvic floors; The real Derry Girls; Premature baby app 10:455/5The daily life of a Victorian country curate. Kilvert bids farewell to his beloved Clyro.
| 10:30Jay Rayner and his culinary panel are in Ludlow.
| 10:00It’s Christmas week in The Archers and Tom puts his foot in it.
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| 11:00 | 11:00A choirboy wants to make it to a very special Christmas service, before his voice breaks. 11:30Clive Anderson and guests with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy.
| 11:00Today we expect dad to be at the birth. Fi Glover asks, ‘Is this always the best idea?’ 11:30Prof Kate Williams chronicles the appearances of Queen Elizabeth II on stage and screen.
| 11:00The 'Coventry Carol' tells the story of the Slaughter of the Innocents 11:30Count Arthur sets about launching Malcolm's singing career with some Christmas carolling.
| 11:00Iceland's glaciers are melting and scientists predict they could all be gone in 200 years. 11:30Musician Bishi examines how tech and AI shape the future of music creation.
| 11:00In No Triumph No Tragedy Peter White interviews deaf blind human rights lawyer Haben Girma 11:301/2The irrepressible Maureen Lipman delivers her comic monologues in the BBC Radio Theatre
| 11:00Is the sandwich you buy for a rough sleeper doing more harm than good? 11:30Correspondents reflect on what 'home' means to refugees, migrants, nomads and others.
| 11:15Kimberley Motley, lawyer, shares the soundtrack of her life with Lauren Laverne.
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| 12:00 | 12:00The latest national and international news headlines, followed by the shipping forecast. 12:041/10Lyra and her dæmon Pantalaimon uncover a conspiracy. Book at Bedtime. 12:18Trains, training, and trimming Your Sprouts. 12:57The latest weather forecast
| 12:00The latest national and international news headlines, followed by the shipping forecast. 12:042/10Lyra reads the dead man’s mysterious journals. Book at Bedtime. 12:18Call You & Yours: What was your first Christmas like as a single parent? 12:57The latest weather forecast
| 12:00The latest national and international news headlines, followed by the shipping forecast. 12:043/10No longer safe in Jordan College, Lyra returns to Godstow. Book at Bedtime. 12:18A selection of highlights from the past year on BBC radio
| 12:00The latest national and international news headlines, followed by the shipping forecast. 12:044/10Lyra encounters the secret commonwealth. Book at Bedtime. 12:18Shari Vahl looks at participation rates for a range of sports across the UK. 12:57The latest weather forecast
| 12:00The latest national and international news headlines, followed by the shipping forecast. 12:045/10Lyra seeks the advice of an old friend. Book at Bedtime. 12:18News and discussion of consumer affairs. 12:57The latest weather forecast
| 12:00The latest national and international news headlines, followed by the shipping forecast. 12:04Ruth Alexander revisits two households who took part in The Money Clinic last summer. 12:303/3A show looking back at the decade. 12:57The latest weather forecast
| 12:00The latest national and international news headlines, followed by the shipping forecast. 12:04The Punslinger extraordinaire invites the public to tell Christmas stories. 12:32Josceline Dimbleby, Alison Roman & Alexandra Dudley on how to have friends over for food. 12:57The latest weather forecast
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| 13:00 | 13:00News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4. 13:451/5Chemist Andrea Sella celebrates how the element silver enhances our lives.
| 13:00News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4. 13:452/5Chemist Andrea Sella celebrates how the element aluminium enhances our lives.
| 13:00National and international news from BBC Radio 4. 13:13The latest weather forecast 13:15Reverends Richard Coles, Kate Bottley and Giles Fraser - back for a Christmas Day special. 13:453/5Chemist Andrea Sella celebrates how the element gold enhances our lives.
| 13:00News with Jonny Dymond including how protests in Hong Kong have changed life in the area. 13:454/5Chemist Andrea Sella celebrates how the element helium enhances our lives.
| 13:00News, analysis and comment from BBC Radio 4. 13:455/5Chemist Andrea Sella ends his festive series with fireworks and the element strontium.
| 13:00The latest news from BBC Radio 4. 13:10Lyse Doucet and guests gaze into their crystal balls to predict what 2020 has in store.
| 13:00Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell. 13:30Josie Long celebrates the pleasures of chess as she rekindles her own love for the game.
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| 14:00 | 14:00Rex finally gets an answer 14:15David Threlfall stars as Ken Dodd in a comedy drama about the flamboyant entertainer
| 14:15When Stephen wishes life could be simpler, the unexpected happens!
| 14:15A retelling of the Christmas story from TV dramatist Lucy Gannon.
| 14:15First of two plays celebrating one of Britain's best-loved poets.
| 14:00There's upheaval for The Bull 14:15Second of two plays by Jonathan Smith celebrating the life of the poet John Betjeman.
| 14:00Mark Hodkinson ponders the nature of our personal book collections and why we gather them. 14:30Spike Milligan's madcap Irish border satire starring Ed Byrne and Pauline McLynn.
| 14:00Kathy Clugston and the panel visit the Black Country Living Museum. 14:45Fi Glover presents the omnibus edition of the series.
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| 15:00 | 15:00Nigel Rees hosts the popular celebrity quotations quiz. 15:30Sheila Dillon meets the renowned chef to talk food, family and festive inspiration
| 15:00Christmas carols and readings live from the candlelit chapel of King's College, Cambridge.
| 15:00The Queen's Christmas message to the Commonwealth and the nation. 15:05National and international news from BBC Radio 4 15:152/5Personal reflections from Greg Wise and Emma Thompson on the festive season. 15:30Letters to Santa, why play matters, balancing time between video games and outside play.
| 15:00Helen Mark considers how composer Gustav Holst's youth in the Cotswolds shaped his work 15:27Dame Ellen MacArthur makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust. 15:30Highlights of 2019; Ali Smith, Bernadine Evaristo, Robert Harris, Ann Patchett, Max Porter
| 15:00Kathy Clugston and the panel visit the Black Country Living Museum. 15:45Old friends meet up to discuss their love life and dating later in life.
| 15:30Emer Maguire learns how music is being used to help people living with dementia.
| 15:002/2Mr Pye’s on the horns of a diabolic dilemma in Mervyn Peake's classic.
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| 16:00 | 16:001/4Natalie Haynes stands up for Aristotle, with Dr Adam Rutherford and Professor Edith Hall. 16:30Ernie Rea and guests discuss the Christian themes in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
| 16:30How can Enid Blyton not be a great life?
| 16:00Glenda Jackson stars in a delightfully quirky Christmas story by Neil Gaiman. 16:30John Kearns pulls up his sleigh to share recordings of family Christmas dinners gone by.
| 16:00Frank Cottrell-Boyce on Local Hero 16:30The hidden history in our DNA - Part 1 - Sex and Disease
| 16:00Julian Worricker on a journalist, a writer, an ornithologist, a darts administrator. 16:30The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience. 16:55Friends aged 11 and 8 talk about how close they are and how much they miss each other.
| 16:00Highlights from the Woman's Hour week including Edna O'Brien and Women In Law
| 16:00Louise Doughty, Lawrence Osborne and Peter James on the great 20th century master of plot 16:30A collaboration between the poet John Burnside and composer Erland Cooper.
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| 17:00 | 17:00Afternoon news and current affairs programme. 17:54The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
| 17:00Afternoon news and current affairs programme. 17:54The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
| 17:00Clive Anderson with a choice selection of music performed live in the Loose Ends studio. 17:54The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
| 17:00Afternoon news and current affairs programme. 17:54The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
| 17:00Afternoon news and current affairs programme. 17:54The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
| 17:00Full coverage and analysis of the day's news, plus the sports headlines. 17:30Despite heroic efforts to vaccinate against this crippling disease, why does it persist? 17:54The latest shipping forecast. 17:57The latest weather forecast.
| 17:00Nadim Ednan-Laperouse reflects on his extraordinary religious experience. 17:40Mark Coles looks at one of Britain’s most celebrated storytellers, Michael Morpurgo 17:54The latest shipping forecast. 17:57The latest weather forecast.
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| 18:00 | 18:00The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. 18:15John Lloyd and Bridget Christie with Glyn Johns, Shazia Mirza and JK Rowling.
| 18:00Prince Philip joins Royal Family at Sandringham after leaving hospital in London 18:15Kelly Macdonald reads a new Christmas story from Alexander McCall Smith. 18:30The Punslinger extraordinaire invites the public to tell Christmas stories.
| 18:00The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. 18:15Thierry Mabonga reads a new Christmas story from Alexander McCall Smith. 18:305/8Hancock is looking forward to Christmas, but then his call-up papers arrive...
| 18:00A British father and his two children who drowned in Spain have been named. 18:15Meera Syal reads a new Christmas story from Alexander McCall Smith 18:304/4Exploring what happens when Tom Allen's calm and collected exterior collapses.
| 18:00Survivors describe Bek Air plane shaking on take-off; at least 12 people are killed. 18:15Adam Courting reads a new Christmas story from Alexander McCall Smith. 18:303/3A show looking back at the decade.
| 18:00The Cabinet Office has apologised after the details were accidentally published online. 18:15Clive Anderson and Nikki Bedi pick their Loose Ends highlights from 2019
| 18:00Andrew Cuomo says he wants new laws to prosecute hate-fuelled violence. 18:15The best of BBC Radio this week.
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| 19:00 | 19:15The Goes Wrong Show, Slow Painting in Leeds, and reviving the high street with culture. 19:451/5The daily life of a young curate in the border country of England and Wales in the 1870s.
| 19:15Amanda Coe discusses her screenplay for TV drama The Trial of Christine Keeler 19:452/5Kilvert has toothache and nightmares - but all is forgotten when he falls in love.
| 19:15Legendary Motown songwriters Brian and Eddie Holland 19:453/5Kilvert begins Christmas Day by sitting down in a bath full of ice.
| 19:00There's upheaval for The Bull 19:15Candice Carty-Williams and Bernardine Evaristo discuss their dazzling literary year. 19:454/5The daily life of a Victorian country curate. It's Spring and the young Curate is in love.
| 19:00There's a shock in store for Philip 19:15An exploration of the evolving role of art in churches and cathedrals 19:455/5The daily life of a Victorian country curate. Kilvert bids farewell to his beloved Clyro.
| 19:00Mark Coles looks at one of Britain’s most celebrated storytellers, Michael Morpurgo 19:15Listeners' cultural highlights of 2019
| 19:00There’s trouble at Grey Gables 19:15A tribute to Ted Kelsey - The Archers' Joe Grundy - who died earlier this year. 19:459/10Cathy gathers their fellow runners together to help Yana. Written by David Park.
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| 20:00 | 20:00Three decades after the execution of Nicolae Ceausescu, how has Romania changed? 20:30The Finnish fisherman who believes he has a solution to climate change
| 20:00Nadim Ednan-Laperouse reflects on his extraordinary religious experience. 20:40Four visually impaired musicians share anecdotes and play some tunes
| 20:00John Lloyd and Bridget Christie with Glyn Johns, Shazia Mirza and JK Rowling. 20:45Monisha Rajesh says the romance of train travel is not dead.
| 20:00Is the sandwich you buy for a rough sleeper doing more harm than good? 20:30Clemmie Burton-Hill looks at the little-known story of Beethoven, the entrepreneur.
| 20:00Lyse Doucet and guests gaze into their crystal balls to predict what 2020 has in store. 20:50Rebecca Stott on her fascination with taxidermy.
| 20:00Novelist Deborah Levy assesses the life and work of American writer Susan Sontag.
| 20:00The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience. 20:30Julian Worricker on a journalist, a writer, an ornithologist, a darts administrator.
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| 21:00 | 21:00Timandra Harkness scrutinises sat nav. How does it affect our brains and well-being? 21:30Andrew Marr at Westminster Abbey with David Cannadine, Lucy Worsley and Richard Harries.
| 21:00Letters to Santa, why play matters, balancing time between video games and outside play. 21:30Jonathan Freedland takes the Long View of racism in sports crowds.
| 21:00Did Newton's theory of gravity really come to him after seeing an apple fall? 21:30The 'Coventry Carol' tells the story of the Slaughter of the Innocents
| 21:00The hidden history in our DNA - Part 1 - Sex and Disease 21:30Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb and what that revealed
| 21:001/2Philippe Sands investigates a story of love, denial, a senior Nazi and a curious death.
| 21:002/4The mystical, timeless man finds himself an unwilling guest at a sinister hotel. 21:457/10Rabbit is reunited with his wife, Janice and swears to turn over a new leaf.
| 21:00Ruth Alexander revisits two households who took part in The Money Clinic last summer. 21:25Mark Doyle makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Chance for Childhood. 21:30Clemmie Burton-Hill looks at the little-known story of Beethoven, the entrepreneur.
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| 22:00 | 22:00Journalist killed at Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year 22:451/10Lyra and her dæmon Pantalaimon uncover a conspiracy. Book at Bedtime.
| 22:00Offensive by Syrian-government forces, backed by Russia, in province of Idlib 22:452/10Lyra reads the dead man’s mysterious journals. Book at Bedtime.
| 22:00Clare Balding shares her life through reading with Hugh Bonneville and Alice Arnold. 22:453/10No longer safe in Jordan College, Lyra returns to Godstow. Book at Bedtime.
| 22:00Most serious internal challenge PM has faced in a decade in power 22:454/10Lyra encounters the secret commonwealth. Book at Bedtime.
| 22:00Putin claims weapons can penetrate any existing or future missile shields 22:455/10Lyra seeks the advice of an old friend. Book at Bedtime.
| 22:00From Beyond the Fringe to atheism, Sir Jonathan Miller relives his life in sound.
| 22:00A look back at some of the stories that hit the headlines in 2019.
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| 23:00 | 23:00George’s relationships continue to fall apart as his mind descends into a battlefield. 23:30The composer and producer explores the increasing variety of everyday sound.
| 23:00Festive short documentaries and adventures in sound presented by Josie Long. 23:30The Mass of the Nativity of the Lord, live from St George's Cathedral Southwark
| 23:00Patrick Marber and Peter Curran talk in-depth nonsense late at night in a bunk bed. 23:30Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam, married ‘for ever’, plan the perfect Christmas 'a deux'.
| 23:002/4Margaret and Ken invite all the family round to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary 23:30Mark Lawson examines how four cultural hits from 1999 have stood up to the test of time
| 23:00How can Enid Blyton not be a great life? 23:25Comedian James Veitch struggles to create a new challenge-based format for Radio 4. 23:55Half-sisters talk about how one of them came to know who her birth father was.
| 23:00Nigel Rees hosts the popular celebrity quotations quiz. 23:30Poetry, music and meditations for the shortest days of winter.
| 23:00Frank Cottrell-Boyce on Local Hero 23:30Comedian James Veitch is juggling his Radio 4 challenge series with other problems.
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