Farming, food and countryside news, market trends, and weather

Presented by Brian Redhead and John Timpson
6.30, 7.30, 8.30 News Summary
6.45* Business News With SIMON ROSE
7.0,8.0 Today's News
Read by PETER DONALDSON
7.20* Your Letters
7.25*, 8.25* Sport
With GARRY RICHARDSON
7.45* Thoughtfor the Day
8.35* Yesterday in Parliament

Bringing up children on your own through divorce, bereavement or by choice?
Journalist Liz McNeill Taylor and Julie Kaufmann , general secretary of Gingerbread - both mothers of single-parent families -join Judith Chalmers for your questions and comments.
Produced by the Woman's Hour unit Lines open from 8. 0 am

Reflections on life and politics abroad from the BBC's worldwide team of foreign correspondents Producer ZAREER MASANI

Struck Off by MICHAEL A. PEARSON
Read by Timothy Kightley
'We pedalled on down the long windy road till the twin glass towers of the power station loomed menacingly over us like something out of Dallas. And there, by the side of the road, was a group of scruffy men....' Producer PAMELA HOWE BBC Bristol

Advent Calendar: The Slavery of God's People
NEM, p 13; 0 come, 0 come, Emmanuel (BBC HB 36);
Advent Responsory (Carols for Choirs 2); Exodus 3, vv 1-12; 0 God of Bethel (BBC HB 495) Stereo

Born on Monday
Christened on Tuesday Married on Wednesday Took ill on Thursday Worse on Friday....
In the fifth of six programmes reflecting aspects of life from cradle to grave in the mill towns of North East Lancashire, Phil Smith listens to experiences of growing old. Producer GILLIAN HUSH BBC Manchester

Pattie Coldwell with the latest news and advice for consumers

Browsing through the Sound Archives proves that the best pictures have always been on radio, especially when painted by the voices of such great reporters as James Cameron , Rene Cutforth ,
Stewart Macpherson , Robert Reid and Johnny Morris.
Producer HELEN FRY
(Re-broadcast on Thursday at 6.30pm)

Presented by Sir Robin Day

1.55 Listening Corner Today's story: How the Rooster Saved the Day by ARNOLD LOBEL (R)
2.5 History: Not So Long Ago The Nurse by ARTHUR SCHOLEY (R)
2.25 Contact A Christmas Story by GEOFFREY CURTIS Presented by PAUL MCDOWELL
2.40 Pictures in Your Mind (Stories)
2: Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp by Colin DAVIS (R)

Introduced by Sue MacGregor Who's Laughing Now? Posy Simmonds ,
Claire Bretecher , Christine Roche and Viv Quillen - some of the highly successful women cartoonists who tell JULIA EISNER about their humour, their lives and their work....
Serial: Breath of life (6)

Fanny Rosen 's Bad Debt by SAM JACOBS
It's the late 1940s in Birmingham and Fanny Rosen struggles with her grocery shop, her family and her guilt, helped -just a little - by a certain Sophie Tucker.
Piano music arranged and played by CHUCK MALLETT Director PIERS PLOWRIGHT Stereo

The challenge of the diet and health debate often lies more in disentangling useful information from commercial interest or evangelical zeal. Derek Cooper and his guest Dr David Player , director of the Health Education Council, digest the issues.

Presented by Robert Williams and Valerie Singleton

with BRIAN PERKINS including Financial Report

(Re-broadcast tomorrow at 1.40pm)

Cast for the week: [see below]

BBC Birmingham

Major issues, changing attitudes, important events at home and abroad
Reporter Stuart Simon Producer ROGER HUTCHINS Editor BRIAN WALKER BBC Manchester
(Re-broadcast tomorrow at 4. 5pm)

Geoff Watts reports on the health of medical care - from the research laboratory and the operating theatre to the dentist's chair and the GP's surgery. Producer ALISON RICHARDS
(Re-broadcast on Thursday at 10.0am)

The Great Canadian Novel 2: A Sense of Adventure
Margaret Horsfield talks to Robertson Davies and Timothy Findley
Both write novels in which extraordinary worlds are revealed and anything can happen. Yet both share the limited conservative background of small-town southern Ontario.
Readers ROBERT BEATTY and KERRY SHALE
Producer VANESSA WHITBURN BBC Birmingham

News, views and information for people with a visual handicap

Presented by Peter White

Listeners can phone with enquiries and comments relating to the programme on [number removed] Lines open 8.30-10.0pm

Free quarterly bulletin from [address removed]. Send four large SAEs for a year's supply

'Faith in the City'
This year. rioting and looting have broken out in several inner-city areas. A major report out today is expected to be highly critical of the work of both Church and State in deprived areas. Commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie , Faith in the City is likely to make controversial recommendations. Rosemary Hartill , BBC Religious Affairs
Correspondent, visits one of the areas examined in the report and compares her experience with the Church's evidence. In this first full examination of Faith in the City, the principals involved explain their concerns and hopes and a leading
Christian economist offers a critical evaluation of the report's findings.
Research PHILIP BEAGON Producer DAVID COOMES
Series editor JOHN NEWBURY

Palace of Green Days (7)

Presented by Richard Kershaw

followed by an interlude

Help Yourself to Biology: Human Physiology The Capillary Network a Leaky System and at 12.50 The Circulation System at Work