|
Today is broadcasting live from London's South Bank Centre, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain and looking at how Britain has changed in the decades since. To speed up the loading time for this running order, we have replaced the audio with links. To hear the reports, interviews and discussions, just click on the links. Get in touch via
email
,
Twitter
or
Facebook
or text us on 84844. 0607
The Festival of Britain
opened almost 60 years ago at London's South Bank, on 3 May 1951. Jude Kelly, artistic director at the South Bank Centre, explains her vision for the four-month festival being held to celebrate the anniversary. 0615 Business news with Lesley Curwen: Our Good Friday boss is Andreas Whittam-Smith, First Church Estates Commissioner, and the man who controls the Church of England's investment money. And Alex Jeater from Datamonitor talks about the impact of rising prices on the petrol pump this Easter.
Download the podcast.
0639 The Today Programme is being broadcast live from London's South Bank Centre today, the main site of the Festival of Britain 60 years ago. Listen to a montage of
the sounds of 1951.
0647 The Festival of Britain was designed to bring joy and lift the spirits in a time of austerity, something that certainly resonates today.
Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway,
who set up the fashion label Red or Dead several recessions ago in the early 1980s, discuss how creativity can flourish in a period of hardship. 0709 In response to the rising number of super-injunctions being used to silence the media, David Cameron has said that parliament, not judges, should decide the balance between freedom of the press and the right to privacy. Director of the Press Complaints Commission, Stephen Abell,
examines if current privacy rulings are working.
0713 We are broadcasting from London's South Bank Centre today, the site of the Festival of Britain in 1951. One man who got an early break at the festival was designer Sir Terence Conran, who describes the public reaction to a new wave of
modernist architecture.
0717 Business news with Lesley Curwen. 0720 In just a few weeks time, Britain will decide in a referendum whether to change the electoral system to the Alternative Vote system. James Naughtie reports from Edinburgh on
how the issue of AV is being taken up in Scotland.
0726 Sports news with Garry Richardson. 0732 One of the most fiercely contested parts of Afghanistan has been the Arghandab valley, which US troops have promised to repair with compensation payouts, and to where many civilians are now returning. Quentin Sommerville reports from the region. And Major Greg Nardi, second-in-command of the 1st Battalion, US 66th Armor Regiment, considers
if US troops are buying, rather than winning, hearts and minds.
0737 Paper review. 0740
How have our eating and drinking habits changed
in the 60 years since the Festival of Britain? Heston Blumenthal, proprietor of the Fat Duck, which has been rated the world's best restaurant, and the wine critic Jancis Robinson, who also writes for the Financial Times, chew the fat. 0747 Thought for the Day with the Right Reverend Graham James, Bishop of Norwich. 0750 Foreign Secretary William Hague has expressed concern over human rights abuses in Bahrain, where
dozens of doctors are reported to have been detained
in a crackdown by government security forces. Richard Sollom, author of the report by the group, Physicians for Human Rights, analyses why medical staff are being singled out. And Professor Kevin Burnand, a consultant surgeon who knows one of the arrested doctors well, considers the future for Bahrain. 0810 The Church of England says
it wants to change its rules on offering places in its schools
after reports that many parents pretend to be practising Anglicans to get their children into Church-run establishments. The Reverend George Curry, a vicar and governor at Newcastle's St Paul's Primary School, looks at why people go so far. And the Bishop of Oxford, John Pritchard, who chairs its board of education, explains his view that schools should end the bias towards children from religious homes. 0817 A couple of weeks ago, Radio 4's More or Less Programme joined The Today programme to carry out a more emotional version of the national census. Presenter
Tim Harford reveals the results.
0820 Sixty years ago, the organisers of the Festival of Britain wanted to exemplify the best of British village life, choosing the village of Trowell in Nottinghamshire to demonstrate how community and self-help were key to post-war recovery. The BBC's Tom Bateman went to Trowell
to discover what the village is like now.
0825 Sports news with Garry Richardson. 0833 The United States is planning to use
armed Predator drones to carry out missions in Libya,
as rebels continue to clash with Colonel Gaddafi's troops. Aleem Maqbool reflects on America's past use of drones. And Jeremy Bowen examines Tripoli's reaction. 0837 The debate over whether or not to adopt the Alternative Vote system for Westminster elections does not appear to have captured the imagination of many people. From London's South Bank Centre, Jonathan Bartley, vice-chair of the Yes to AV campaign, and Stephen Parkinson, national organiser of the official No to AV campaign,
debate the main issues.
0843 Business news with Lesley Curwen. 0846 The prime minister has said that judges have been using the European Court of Human Rights to deliver a privacy law which left him feeling "a little uneasy", adding that Parliament should decide on the balance between freedom of the press and the right to privacy. Hugh Tomlinson QC, a barrister who has been involved with many of the super-injunction cases, and John Whittingdale, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee,
debate the need for extensive privacy legislation.
0852 How does Britain in 2011 compare to Britain in 1951, the year of the Festival of Britain? Jude Kelly, artistic director of the South Bank Centre, Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, one-time chief executive of the Millennium Dome, and cultural historian Robert Hewison,
reflect on the triumphs and failures of post-war Britain.
|
Bookmark with:
What are these?