The Communications Workers' Union has sent out ballot papers for a national strike at Royal Mail over pay and job cuts.

Dave Ward, of the CWU, Mark Higson, managing director of Royal Mail Letters, and Sean Rickard, of the Cranfield School of Management, gave their thoughts to John about the issues behind the dispute .

More than 70,000 members of Britain's armed forces have served in Afghanistan since 2001 and the number of personnel killed since the start of operations now totals 214.

A number of mothers of some of those who have died have set up a charity Afghan Heroes .

Denise Harris, the mother of Corporal Lee Scott, and Lucy Aldridge, the mother of Rifleman William Aldridge, discussed the death of their sons and their attempt to show soldiers in Afghanistan they have support at home .

Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw has called for changes to the way the BBC is governed and said there may be "a case" for the licence fee to be cut. John Whittingdale MP, chairman of the culture, media and support committee, considered whether the BBC has reached the limits of its "reasonable expansion" .

The BBC Trust, which sets the corporation's strategy and upholds standards, could not be both "regulator and cheerleader" for ever, Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw says. Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust , defended the Trust's role .

More than 1,000 costumes, 70 acrobats and dancers, 32 horses, 100 doves, three falcons, two eagles, two vultures and two donkeys appear in the stage show Ben Hur Live. Composer and narrator Stuart Copeland, founder of band the Police, told Sarah about the extravaganza based on an 1880 novel which turned into a 1959 Charlton Heston screen epic .

And you can see Stewart Copeland drumming in the today studio here .