The teapot - a British tradition under threat? Kathleen Ferrier, IVF Breakthrough and the Russian presidential election

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Presented by Jenni Murray. In the past five years sales of that icon of British social life - the teapot - have fallen by nearly forty percent. Now a leading British store has started a campaign to bring back the civilised art of tea drinking. But can we stop the tradition of making a pot of tea from going down the spout? A breakthrough in fertility treatment which could increase the chances of a successful pregnancy by a quarter. Kathleen Ferrier was a British contralto singer who died in 1953 from breast cancer. Her professional career had lasted just 14 years but in that time she had had become an international star, singing at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne and Carnegie Hall; not bad for someone who had no formal training as a singer and who left school to work in the Blackburn telephone exchange. Kathryn Rudge, former winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Young Singer's Bursary Award and Ferrier's biographer, Dr Christopher Fifield, join Jenni to discuss what made Kathleen Ferrier such a loved and celebrated singer. Russian Presidential elections are being held on Sunday 4 March. But while much of Europe has seen a steady increase in female representation at the highest level, is Russia lagging behind? Richard Sakwa, Professor in Russian Politics at the University of Kent examines women's political participation in Russia.