About the Boys - Episode 1

In literature and film, night trains are the setting for intrigue and romance, espionage and sudden death. And in real life too they’re places of possibility and the expectation of new adventures. Writer Horatio Clare boards a train to Vienna for a night-time journey across Europe… and into the archive, aboard night trains of decades past. His journey begins at the Gare de l’Est in Paris, the departure point for the original Orient Express. He looks back to the golden age of the Wagons-Lits, sleeper trains with wood-panelled cabins, an attendant in every carriage ready to be summoned and dining cars where evening dress was obligatory. It was an era which provided rich inspiration for writers and Horatio evokes his predecessors who used night trains to tell stories of brief encounters, betrayal and, of course, murder. But luxurious Wagons-Lits are only one part of the story. Other travellers find themselves on very different night-time journeys. There are the rucksack-lugging student inter-railers of the ‘70s and ‘80s, sleeping in train corridors on expeditions of discovery (and self-discovery); the perils of sharing sleeping compartments with strangers; and the Ukrainian refugees reluctantly taking the ‘Rescue Express’ westward as they fled the Russian invasion. After a long period of decline, night trains are on the rise again as new routes open up across Europe. Maybe it’s because we’re tired of the indignities of budget air travel but it’s also driven by the “Flight Shame” and “Train Brag” movements - a growing awareness that travelling by train is better for the planet. “I’m on a train” is no longer an apology for a poor phone signal. Now it’s a claim to the moral high ground.Horatio’s journey doesn’t quite go to plan. But as he overcomes the challenges and navigates his way to Vienna, he discovers that night trains have always taken our imaginations to new destinations.Produced by Jeremy Grange for BBC Audio Wales and West

For the last decade, True Crime has become ubiquitous on television and podcasts. Yet despite its current popularity, it’s not a new phenomenon. In this programme, author Charles Nicholl take us back to a time before podcasts, TV, pulp magazines, even Penny Dreadfuls – all the way to the English stage 400 years ago when, for the first time, playhouses were putting contemporary news onstage.Presenter: Charles NichollActors: Rhiannon Neads, John Lightbody, Michael Bertenshaw, Josh Bryant-Jones, Ian Dunnett Junior Sound design: Peter Ringrose Producer: Sasha Yevtushenko

In this series, teenage boys from all over the UK talk frankly to Catherine Carr about sex, consent, life online, fun and friendship. They discuss porn, their struggles at school and becoming men.In the first episode, they talk candidly about what it is like to be a boy in 2024. They reflect on where they get their ideas about masculinity from, and whether those might be different if they lived elsewhere in the country. They also discuss the importance of role models - if they have them. Catherine also hears from adults making a difference in boys’ lives and finds out how examples of masculinity online can put real pressure on boys thinking about what it means to be a ‘successful man’.To listen to the rest of the series, just search for About the Boys on BBC Sounds.Thanks to South Dartmoor Community College Dr Martin Robb, Open University DRMZ Carmarthen Youth Project Thomas Lynch from Dad's Rock Elliott Rae Founder of MusicFootballFatherhood Cambridge St Giles Cricket Club Dance United Yorkshire Movember Rebecca Asher Author ‘Man Up How Do Boys Become Better Men?’Producer: Catherine Carr Researcher: Jill Achineku Executive Producer: Marie Helly A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

With criminal gangs now controlling most of Haiti's capital and no function government, Mike Thomson explores what caused this spiralling descent to Anarchy in this predominately Christian, Caribbean country, where more than half its eleven million French and Creole speaking people live below the poverty line. Mike looks for answers with help from Haitians, experts and political leaders who’ve lived through many of their nation’s recent social upheavals and natural disasters.Producer: Ed Prendeville BBC Audio in Cardiff

In February 2024, the NHS dental crisis hit the headlines as hundreds of people queued outside a dental practice in Bristol to register as NHS patients. It was the latest sign of the severity of the national shortage of NHS dentists.The Nuffield Trust have declared that NHS dentistry faces its 'most perilous point' in 75-year history and the government have responded pledging to improve access and funding for dentistry.At the centre of this crisis are the dentists who serve our communities. A Dentist's Life follows one Cornwall based dentist, Dr Jenna Murgatroyd, as she treats patients needing vital care, manages a practice facing financial risk and trains the next generation of dentists. As a second generation dentist, Dr Murgatroyd also reflects on the past and the future of the profession and asks what it means to be a NHS community dentist today.Produced by Mugabi Turya

What do Artificial Intelligence and digital technology mean for actors and their relationship with audiences?Leading acting coach Geoffrey Colman, who has spent his working life on the sets of Hollywood movies, in theatrical rehearsal spaces, and teaching in the UK's most prestigious classrooms, wants to find out. AI, he says, may represent the most profound change to the acting business since the move from silent films to talkies. But does it, and if so how are actors dealing with it? What does that mean for the connection between actors and audiences?Geoffrey's concern is rooted in acting process: the idea that the construction of a complex inner thinking architecture resonates with audiences in an authentic almost magical way. But if performance capture and AI just creates the outer facial or physical expression, what happens to the inner joy or pain of a character’s thinking? The implications for the actor’s technique are profound.To get to the bottom of these questions Geoffrey visits some of those at the cutting edge of developing this new technology. On the storied Pinewood lot he visits Imaginarium Studios, and is shown around their 'volume', where actors' every movement is captured. In East London he talks to the head of another studio about his new AI actor - made up from different actors' body parts. And at a leading acting school he speaks to students and teachers about what this new digital era means for them. He discusses concerns about ethical questions, hears from an actor fresh from the set of a major new movie, quizzes a tech expert already using AI to create avatars of herself, and speaks to Star Wars fans about how this technology has allowed beloved characters to be rejuvenated, and even resuscitated.Producer: Giles Edwards

Richard King explores the past and present of the second homes debate in Wales, revisiting the story of Meibion Glyndwr – active terrorists on British soil for almost 15 years. The proliferation of second homes is a problem in many parts of the UK. They contribute to pushing up house prices, often in low-income areas, effectively locking young people out of the housing market. It’s a problem with different characteristics in different places. In Wales it is compounded by the fate of Cymraeg, the Welsh language. It is felt by many that second homes contribute to the fragmentation of Welsh-speaking communities and pose a threat to the survival of the language. It's nothing new. Beginning in 1979, Meibion Glyndwr – Sons of Glyndwr (Owain Glyndwr being a soldier who led a revolt against English rule in the 1400s) – responded to this threat by carrying out hundreds of arson attacks and fire-bombings. Initially targeting second homes and holiday cottages in Welsh-speaking areas, the campaign later expanded to target estate agents, English-owned businesses and the offices of police and politicians, accompanied by stencilled letters containing extravagant nativist threats. Hundreds of properties were damaged and destroyed. It lasted until 1994 and only one person was ever convicted of a related offence.The Meibion Glyndwr campaign was audacious and shocking – and utterly ineffective. In the thirty years since the last attack Wales has gained its own parliament and with it a measure of power to decide its own fate. And as elsewhere in the UK, the issues around second homes have only become more urgent. One of the newer policies enacted by the Welsh government is a council tax premium on second homes, with local authorities able to decide how much of a levy to apply, up to a possible 300%.Writer Richard King visits Abersoch on the Llyn Peninsula, a village very much at the sharp end of the current situation and hears from some of those who lived through the Meibion Glyndwr campaign.Featuring Robat Gruffudd, Amanda Jones, Richard Wyn Jones, Alun Lenny, Louise Overfield and Eifiona Wood.With grateful thanks to Sian Howys, Meic Parry and Dylan Roberts.(The programme contains an archive recording which refers to RS Thomas as a non-conformist minister. RS Thomas was a priest in the Anglican Church in Wales.)

How many medicines can you think of created for just one person? The likelihood is none - which is why the world hasn’t heard of milasen yet. But its creation, and the efforts behind it, could build a pathway towards some of the greatest advances in genomic medicine, and a new initiative being trialled in Britain has a huge role to play in making this happen. At the age of seven, Mila Makovec became the first person in the world to be treated with a medicine created just for her. A bubbly young girl from Colorado, Mila suffered from a very rare genetic disorder called Batten disease, which leads to a painful early death in children. Mila’s mother, Julia Vitarello, resolutely sought out scientists to try to discover a way to save her daughter. After relentless efforts, one doctor, Timothy Yu from Boston Children’s Hospital, imagined a possible treatment for Mila. The challenge was it involved making a completely unique treatment for Mila’s specific genetic mutation. It would be novel and very expensive - but it was her only option. Julia raised the millions of dollars required through a charity she set up in her daughter’s name, and in 2018 Mila became the one patient in the world to receive the drug milasen. Initially, it worked, and Mila’s condition stabilised and improved. However, the treatment was given after the disease had done a great deal of damage to a small child, and Mila died when she was ten years old.There are an estimated 7,000 rare diseases in the world, affecting more than 400 million people - and most are genetic. The majority have no effective treatment. New medicines for these conditions can’t be put through clinical trials on groups of patients because they are so rare. So, currently, such novel therapeutics can only be legally given after lengthy and costly work that is uncommercial for drug firms. Having got so achingly close to saving her daughter, Mila’s mother is now leading efforts to make these new genetic medicines available to other children with rare diseases - and Britain is where her campaign is about to take a huge step forward. The launch of the Rare Therapies Launch Pad is bringing together efforts from Mila’s Miracle Foundation, the UK medicine’s regulator the MHRA, Genomics England and Oxford University in an world leading attempt to build a new streamlined regulatory pathway to allow one-off drugs to be designed and approved for use in individual patients with rare diseases. Natasha Loder, Health Editor at the Economist, tells this very personal story of how one mother’s determination to try and save her daughter could lead to a revolution in personalised medicine - one that has the potential to bring hope to millions of families. Producer: Sandra Kanthal

Take a trip around the supermarket and you'll see shelves of products claiming to be 'high in protein'. Scroll through your social media and you'll find beautiful, sculpted people offering recipes and ideas for packing more protein into your diet. Science presenters Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber have noticed this too. They wanted to unpick the protein puzzle to find out what it does in our bodies and how much we really need. Can this macronutrient really help us lose weight, get fit and be healthier?Along the way, they speak to Professor Giles Yeo from the University of Cambridge, Bridget Benelam from the British Nutrition Foundation, Paralympian hopeful Harrison Walsh, and food historian Pen Vogler.Presenters: Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber Producer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell Editor: Martin SmithCredits: @thefitadam/@TSCPodcast/@tadhgmoody/@meg_squats/@aussiefitness

Victoria Uwonkunda makes an emotional journey back to Rwanda, where she grew up. It’s the first time she’s visited since the age of 12, when she fled the 1994 genocide with her family.Victoria retraces her journey to safety out of the capital Kigali, to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.Along the way Victoria speaks to survivors of the violence – both victims and perpetrators – to find out how the country is healing, through reconciliation and forgiveness.Victoria meets Evariste and Narcisse, who work together on a reconciliation project called Cows for Peace. Evariste killed Narcisse’s mother during the 1994 genocide. Cows are important in the Rwandan culture. Evariste and Narcisse explain their own journeys to forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. And Victoria meets Claudette, who suffered unimaginable horrors at the hands of a man, Jean Claude, sitting next to her as she tells her story.Victoria Uwonkunda finds that Rwanda, and its people, are healing. There are those who say that the steps Rwanda has taken do not go far enough and question freedom of expression in Rwanda. But Victoria finds hope in the country, a desire to move on for a younger generation – and she finds her own peace with the country that she was born in.