Looking at life on a farm in Nottinghamshire than a quarter past 2 Vivian Perry Presents The science behind some of rigid Kipling's Just So stories including how the left got its spots and the origins of a camel's hump 2030 Martins wife runs off with her analyst and best friend Palmer they all try and behave normally but the veneer of civilization doesn't last long in our is Murdoch's a severed head. Now new to b.b.c. Radio 4 extra this adaptation is broadcast 90 years after its author died in a French sanatorium on the 2nd of March $930.00 at the age of just $44.00 the Rainbow by d.h. Lawrence tells the story of 3 generations of the prang one family as they faced the decline of the Nazi in ship pastoral life in the face of industrialization the reader is David Bradley. When he was 23 Tom Brangwyn his mother died and he was left alone with his sister Effie. His mother's death was a blow out of the dark for him there was until that time only one kind of woman his mother and sister in the close intimacy of the farm kitchen the woman occupied the supremum position the woman was a symbol for that further life which comprised religion and love are not relative. After this Effie and he quarreled fiercely he stayed out of the house as much as possible he got a special corner for himself a red line crossed with Harry and became a usual figure by the fire steadfastly he looked at the young women to find the one he could marry but not one of them did he want. A fever of restless anger can upon him he wanted to go away right away he dreamed of foreign parts but he was a very strong route which held him to the nosh to his own house and land he drank to get drunk after 3 days of incessant Brandy drinking he had burned out the youth from his blood. When he was 20 he was coming one day down from cos it had with a load of seed out of nothing him he walked steadily beside the halls the load clank behind as the Hill descended steeper he saw a woman approaching she was dressed in black was apparently rather small and slight beneath her long black cloak and she wore a black bonnet. It was a curious absorbed flitting motion as if she were passing on seeing Not everybody that arrested him. She had heard the count and looked up her face was pale and clear she had thick dark eyebrows and a white mouth curiously held that so he said involuntarily. Then as he walked still besotted bridging hawse his eyes met as he looked quickly away pressing Bucky's had a pain of joy running through and. The feeling that they had exchanged recognition possessed him like a madness like a torment How could he be sure well confirmation Heidi. As he was standing with his back to the fire after dinner a few days later he saw the woman passing Oh not that they he asked Tilly the cross-eyed serving woman of 40 who had gotten round gladly to the window to look oh why. She lifted her head and peered with her twisted keen brown eyes why you know who it is it's from the Vicar Ridge the new house keeper she is a woman as an housekeeper don't know housekeeper She's got more to it and that's wishy she's got a name on it she house I don't know till it reclined. That evening he went up to Casa Terry to the Red Lion with the intention of hearing more . She was the widow of a Polish doctor he got that her husband had died a refugee in London she spoke a bit foreign like book you could easily make out what she said she had one little girl named Ana Lensky was a woman's name Mrs Lydia Lenski he felt a curious certainty about her as if she were destined to him it was to him a profound satisfaction that she was a foreigner. One day he met her walking along the road with her little girl the child clung jealously to her mother's side when he looked at her staring with those resentful black eyes but the mother glanced at him again almost vacantly on the verge of vacancy of her look inflamed him. He went for once to church in the tiny place with its mere dozen pews he saw not far off and the stranger there was a fine about her a poignancy about the way she stopped and held her had lifted she was strange from far off yet so intimate. Another day at tea time as he sat alone at the table that can a knock it startled him like a poet and. No one ever not to the front door. When it opened at all the strange woman stood on the threshold. Can you give me a pound of butter she asked in a curious detached way of one speaking a foreign language he stepped aside and she at once and to the house as its adult it being open to admit or not startled him it was a custom for everybody to wait on the doorstep to last inside he went into the kitchen and she followed his key things were spread on the scrubbed deal table a big fire was burning a dog rose from the house and went to her she stood motionless just inside the kitchen. There was a large part of both on a plate on the table almost a pound it was round and stamped with a cones and oak leaves get so much turned out that look for he said to tell a tele bridled her head dusting to say that according to the etiquette of people who bought butter it was no sort of man as well to have a coming to a place school as you like and knocking at the front door asking for a pound as a stop gap. Tom understood perfectly this unspoken speech of Tilly's the Polish lady did not slow the rope now he said loudly Kelly disappeared to live in a dull. I am afraid that I should not come so said the stranger looking at him inquiringly as if referring to him for what it was usual to do he felt confused. She sat in a chair her slim coming through the slits of a cloak resting on her lap. You're not used to these pots he said still standing on the hearth rug with his back to the fire coatless looking with curious directness at the woman. No she said understanding No it is strange. It is already a long time that you have lived in this house yes she asked. We've been at it both 200 years he said I rise Ronin all the time wide open trying to grasp and. Deliberate turn with a large leaf and found it too silent at once he felt it incumbent on him to speak. Bring a little girl down some time to look at the files and also as he said if she'd like it yes she would like it said the stranger and she went. She came twice with a child to the farm by his native good humor Tom gains a child's confidence and even her affection setting out on the host to ride giving her koan for the fowls during the long February nights with the use in late the looking out from the shelter into the flushing stands he knew he did not belong to himself he was nothing but with he would be real. One evening and notch when the wind was rolling outside came the moment to ask. Have you got a clean shirt he asked to leave you know you've got a clean shirt she said and I bring me a white one Tillie brought down one of the linen should see it inherited from his father putting it to thaw and to add at the fire literally a quivering inclination to cry is come of a hot when she did anything for him in his presence. He put on all clean clothes folded his stock carefully and donned his best coat then being ready as grey twilight was falling he went across to the orchard together as a definite hills. Night was falling the bad trees drum and whistled the vicar he knew would be in his study the Polish woman in the kitchen a comfortable room with her child. There was a light streaming on to the bushes at the back when the kitchen window he began to hesitate How could he do this. Looking through the window he saw her seated in the rocking chair with the child already in his night dress sitting on her knee. The mother rose at last with the child clinging round to nyc she must be strong to carry so large a child so easily the mother came down again and began folding the child's clothes . He not she opened wondering a little bit at bay like a foreigner uneasy. Good evening he said Oh just come in a minute. A change went quickly over her face she was unprepared that she could only see the darkly clad man's figure standing there upon her and the grip fist of flowers she could not see the face of the living eyes. I come to have a word with you he said striding forward to the table laying down his hats on the flowers which tumbled apart and lay in a loose heap. I came up he said to ask if you had not heard me you are free Ah yes there was a long silence whilst his blue eyes strangely impersonal looked into her eyes to seek an answer to the truth yes I am free to marry. Still there was suspense and sonnets. He was unable to move he stood looking at her helpless. Then he saw her come to him curiously direct and as if without movement in a sudden flow She put her hand to his coat. Yes I want to she said to him personally looking at him with wide candid newly opened eyes. That is the child yes he said not understanding you will love her. The quick contraction like pain went over him again I love her now he said his 9 was open with wonder he did not know why. You needn't stop here much longer housekeeping he said I like it and also here when one has been in many places it is very nice here he was silent again at this. What was your own home like when you were little he asked. My father was a landowner sheet applied it was a river. This did not convey much to him. She went across the room to a draw taking out a little tray cloth there was something quiet and professional about her she had been a nurse beside her husband both in Warsaw and in the rebellion afterwards. She proceeded to set a tray it was as if she had no Tom Then she came close up to him to his intent black clothes body and laid her hand on his arm do you want to marry me off slowly always uncertain he was afraid lest he could not speak he drew breath hot saying. I do. With one hand lightly resting on his arm she leaned forward a little and with a strange primeval suggestion of embrace held him. It was ugly beautiful and he put his mouth on her and slowly slowly the response came gathering force and passion could he could bear it no more. Common speak to the baker to morrow he said taking his hat. She looked at him Iraq expressionists and full of darkness that'll do won't it he said yes she answered a mere echo without body on meaning good night he said. Good night. He left her standing there expression us and void as she was. Then she went on laying the tray for the vicar. Kneading the table she put the difficult to side on the dresser without noticing them only their coolness touching her hand remained echoing that along while. David Bradley he was reading d.h. Lawrence is the Rainbow Bridge by Linda Cracknell and the producer was Luke and tomorrow the story continues is Tom struggles to come to terms with his marriage to see. How that camels get their humps and how did leopards get their spots Vivian Perry looks at the science behind riddle Kipling's Just So stories starting with how the whale got its throat. In the sea once upon a time my best beloved there was a whale and he fishes. He at the starfish in the guard fish and the crab and the dab and the place and the dates and the skate and his mate and the mac are real and the pick are real and the really truly to really worry you all the fishes he could find an old sea he at with his mouth so to get lost there was only one small fish left in all the sea and he was a small stooped fish and he swam a little behind the whales right here so as to be out of harm's way then the whale stood up on his tail and said I'm hungry and the small stooped fish said in a small stooped voice noble and generous cetacean Have you ever tasted man. Said the whale What is it like nice said the small stoop fish nice but. Then fetch me some said the whale and he made the sea froth up with his tail. As any stewed fish knows finding a man of infinite resource and sagacity is essential when making inquiries about whales I found one of the National Oceanographic Center and South Hampton and his name is how a derecho he took me into a dark cold space filled with rows and rows of Johns and water while loves to eat best that's cruel. Easily shifting toilet across station. A few millimeters in length. So it looks like a kind of soup looked like a sort of. Soup or tiny little Cross station with skeletons in life they sparkle like little jewels because the different colors and they are hugely abundant in the surface layers is another. So how does a whale. It's all the stuff it depends on the whale a right to oil simply opens its mouth and swims slowly through the swarms of Coca-Cola it's more complicated. The roll call is the use of the ones with bleach it throws the word roll call comes from the Norwegian word meaning folks and it's do with the the ventral surface of the whales having folds in them and so like a billy well like a blue well like a fin with like a say like a hump while all of these are wrong. And they all have a very complicated way of expanding their throats and taking in enormous quantities of water and food in mouthfuls all. Up to $150.00 tons per mouthful so they're not just swimming through it actively gulping they are actively gulping it in a thing called London's feeding which is a combination of powered swimming up good thrashing by the tail flukes mouth opening twisting throat expanding tongue inverting out of the way they take in of all you move water which is equal in size to the volume of the whale and they do this in a matter of seconds and then they get it all out again in a matter of seconds and filter off the krill of the plant talking living water and there are calculations which suggest that in dense prey areas new wells can take in something like off a 1000000 killer calories a mouth. If you swim to latitude 50 North longer to 40 west that is magic you will find sitting on a raft in the middle of the sea with nothing on but a pair of blue canvas pitches a pair of suspenders You must not forget the suspenders Best Beloved and a jack knife one Shipwrecked Mariners' who it is only fair to tell you is a man of infinite resource and sagacity So the whale swam and swam to latitude 50 North longer to 40 west as fast as he could swim and on a raft in the middle of the sea with nothing to wear except a pair of blue canvas bitches a pair of suspenders you must particularly remember the suspenders Best Beloved and a jack knife he found one single solitary shipwrecked mariner trailing his toes in the water he had his Mummy's leave to paddle or else he would never have done it because he was a man of infinite resource and sagacity. Then the whale opened his mouth back and back and back till it nearly touched his tail and he swallowed the Shipwrecked Mariners' and the raft he was sitting on and his blue canvas breeches and the suspenders which you must not forget and the jack knife he swallowed them all down into his warm dark inside cupboards and then he smacked his lips so and turned round 3 times on his tail. Lunch feeding has been described by some authors as the largest biomechanical event on Earth this is how the largest animals on the planet feed find a patch of krill or a school of fish and once you've sized up that target then it's to Russia's fast as you can fluke as hard as you can excel or rate up to top speed because when you deploy your mouth open up your mouth really large to engulf that volume of water that contains the prey what you do is d. Accelerate dramatically and you become like a parachute underwater slowing the whole body down. In the Smithsonian Institute Washington was one of the team that discovered and we lost Yeah how Roku whales orchestrate the lungeing it's with that chains during the lunch feeding event when the jaws deploy and open up very large there's the necessity to coordinate all these different Bony and soft tissues that are responsible for the giant accommodation of this water volume and we didn't realize it but that sensory organ is ideally placed right at the tip of the chin to coordinate not only the flexibility of maneuvering of the bony jaws which are actually separate our jaws are fused together at their tip but whales baling whales like many other mammals actually have separate right and left jawbones the individual job on of a blue whale is actually the largest individual skeletal element of any animal in the history of life on earth no single dinosaur bone even rivals it in size so it's no surprise that this whole dramatic sequence of events we think is coordinated in large part by the sensory organ lodged in the chin and it's analogous in some ways to what people long thought dinosaurs had right that animals like the sauropod dinosaurs or stay a source for example were so large that they had to have had secondary brains somewhere else in their body for dinosaurs we know longer think that and certainly for these large whales it's not as if there's a brain lodged in the tip of their chin but there is a large cluster of nervous tissue it in. Didn't within their chin that clearly helps in coordinating this incredible feeding event Meanwhile back to that troublesome Mariner but as soon as the mariner who was a man of infinite resource and sagacity found himself truly inside the whale's warm dark inside cupboards he stumped and he jumped and he thumped and he bumped and he promised and he danced and he banged and he clanged and he hit and he bit and he leaped into it creeped and he prowled and he howled and he hopped and he dropped and he cried and he sighed and he crawled and he bowled and he stepped and he leaped and he danced on pipes where he shouldn't and the Whale felt most unhappy indeed have you forgotten suspenders. So he said to the stooped fish this man is very nobly and besides he is making me hook up what shall I do. Tell him to come out sit the stupid fish. I couldn't man be sworn aide and get right into a way of them among could certainly be swallowed by these whales their mouths are enormous and I sat in a way I was in health you can sit in the sun while it was a dead one I said I had only a guess just tell you can you can sit inside the lower jaw and the throat of a rock Oh Well usually you can get several men inside the throat of a big female blue Well the problem would come to swallow it because the throat. Of a blue well which might be 130 feet long might weigh $15160.00 tons its throat is about the diameter of a football and quite how you would get out yes that's the problem is a problem because of the way all takes in these enormous volumes of water very fast it takes seconds for it to feel it then cedes it out again in a matter of seconds and it sit it out with its mouth closed so you probably jam probably. So I always love the stories of Jonah and of course that the man in the Just Say story couldn't possibly happen but he could at the surface and some of these wells do feed sometimes at the surface and you can imagine that if they were at the surface and if they were foolish enough to get in the way then they might get sucked in and they might come out again but I don't recommend it so the whale called down his throat to the Shipwrecked Mariners' come out and behave yourself I've got the hiccups name said the Mariner not so but far otherwise take me to my natal shore on the white cliffs of Albion and I'll think about it. And he began to dance more than ever you had better take him home said the stooge fish to the whale to have warned you lity is a man of infinite resource and sagacity. So the whale swam and swam and swam with both flippers and his tail as hard as he could for the hiccups and at last he saw the Mariners Natal shore on the white cliffs of Albion and he rushed halfway up the beach and opened his mouth wide and wide and wide and said change here for Winchester are sure not Nashua Kunin stations on the road and just as he said Fitch the Mariner walked out of his mouth but something worries me still given all the energy that Wales need for all that I'm going on thrashing there even big mouthfuls of shrimpy things enough to keep body and soul together for an enormous volume of water that may be up to 100 cubic meters in size the whale itself is only actually getting out of that somewhere in the neighborhood of $20.00 to $50.00 kilos of actual prey that's a lot if you're an human but if you're whale that doesn't seem like that much and lot of scientists have debated whether that's enough in one gulp to sustain a blue whale for a given amount of time obviously blue whales do quite well and they feed on nuff krill to satisfy their energetic demands but this is an active area of research and we still don't have a great handle on exactly how much an individual blue whale has to feed to sustain its enormous body size and do krill swim about in the whales inside cupboards before being swallowed what is not by any means resolved is how it gets from the filtering surface of the badly in place which in a way looks exactly like a very giant brush and you can imagine the krill is on the fringes of the brush How does it get from there down this narrow throat into the well stomach which is several feet away in a large Well I don't know and I don't believe anybody else knows either and it's one of the interesting areas which would cause somebody to be very clever in visualizing what is going on inside whale's mouth when it's feeding. While the whale has been. Swimming the mariner who was indeed a person of infinite resource and sagacity had taken his jack knife and cut up the raft into a little square grating all running criss cross and he had tied it firm with his suspenders now you know why you were not to forget the suspenders and he dragged that grating good and tight into the whale's throat and there it stuck then he recited the following Straka which as you have not heard it I will now proceed to relate by means of a grazing I have stopped a rating for the Mariner He was also and he had Bernie an. And he stepped out on to the shingle and went home to his mother who had given him leave to trail his toes in the water and he married and lived happily ever after with so did the whale but from that day on the grating in his throat which he could neither cough up nor swallow down prevented him eating anything except very very small fish and that is the reason why whales nowadays never eat men or boys or little girls. The small stooped fish went and hid himself in the mud under the door sills of the equator he was afraid that the whale might be angry with him. The sailor took the jack knife home he was wearing the blue canvas britches when he walked out on to the shingle. The suspenders were left behind you see to tie the grating with and that is the end of that tale. But it's not the end of the tale best beloved for even those of infinite resource and sagacity like Howard. Still don't really know quite how the whale got it straight but there are quite sure the suspect has nothing to do with. Vivian Perry presented just so science the producer was Rummy's a bar tomorrow at the same time how the leopard got its spots. Now on Radio 4 extra we begin a dramatization of a severed head by Iris Murdoch It's a satirical novel written in 1961 sometimes fast and contains themes about the ruthlessness of being in love starring Victoria Hamilton and Julian Ryan tuts. When mystique. About 5 high lied into a session and 5 who could use to lie to a mistress is when his wife how's her analysis going. Maybe have courses analyzing his. Palm around us and you know he says stuff on a client his half sister she was my tutor supposed to help me with my moral problems got helped me gain bridge. Only she was usually wavy stick some primitive tribe so I missed out a coming of age and some of that sort of thing something primitive about her to. All those tribes probably. You ought to have been a dog you imagine the being a doll is the only proper way of being clever. Koresh is a fine thing. You have a lovely had Georget. Yeah. Oh I don't want to. Part was a friend of yours these last few years Yes Is that advisable in an analyst I mean with Antonia good going to be about the best diving. And then you get one of the experience of analysis why. To be free. Free of all inhibitions whatever she feels holds up back to hang ups that's what is good Oh well she'll be lucky that the people for whom. I dislike the trait that knowing him is paid a lot of difference to me in what way. It's made me Warry less about the room the roots juggling surely became indifferent to the problems long ago. When exactly. Then on the child of nature like you the trouble with you is that you are always looking for a master maybe you don't mean mistress to. Be more like I think that's a different matter. I have. When will I see you next. Well after Christmas we're going to stay with my brother I'd like to meet your brother. But with my wife for Christmas. He cooks. To make more competent and tell us not to cook she also knows your brother that's why I 1st heard your name who I'm not trying to mention the frightening you he sculpted ahead for. Alexander is a very talented man well connected unattached you better off with him. Where will you be this Christmas I don't want to think of you now with some of the graduates from l. And you were the person is and then as sensible as George could I have deceived my wife. She once said that she preferred to think that when I wasn't with her I didn't exist which suited me. But that spring tawdry. 20 years my younger. Had become pregnant. And in the same driveway in which she had accepted our relationship the decision was arrived at between the 2 of us to get rid of the child. It had been a hideous business in which she had cheated me along and I got off with extraordinary. Maybe what follows was my payment for that. I'm a 1000 family phone we lived in Hereford Square. And 10 years session with pharma Anderson was not due to until 6 but I wanted an interval of quiet before my wife arrived generally elated and talkative after such sessions. What. Was the matter we look at both. Been arrested for speeding. Can have a drink. Well the last thing I expect from you is I'm sorry. There's a clear new and get a for very afraid. Oh look Martin it's this I've got to tell you now. It's about me and I have this and for some reason she always called him by his surname Unitas and what. Just that. You mean you're be in love with partner I'm not surprised I'm a bit in love with myself it's not a matter of being a bit in love This is serious I want to divorce Don't be ridiculous. Look these things often happen in the Nalla says no no I want a divorce. Well. You better go to bed with him and you don't talk to me about divorce not in I've already been to bed with him I broke your neck now I probably get off with 3 years because God. Well what about him to deserve this. And how rich is an adventure in developing got say he doesn't say that we aren't getting anywhere Di You mean because we don't have children you are disappointed and what have I ever said that I want doesn't have to get anywhere you know marriage is not a public conveyance I've kept you from growing up what that is here yes that is him is that what you talk about pseudo clinical stuff he wants to see he wants us to behave like civilized people. Want to kick his case and. You don't hate me do you Martin it was the same night I was lying on his divan a few elegant Knightsbridge Could we are civilized people. I thought you were my friend and tell me and I've been very happy I wonder if she's misled you know. And happiness is neither here nor there but some people and Tony as want to conceive of their lives as a progresses you never went to university perhaps making up for that she feels she's been standing still for too long marriage is an adventure in development exactly got and therefore it's time for her to take a more advanced course I wouldn't put it quite like that no I'm not pretending that this is anything but a big thing Martin and there's little point in talking about guilt I mean is inevitable it's like an avalanche can't do anything about it I know when Tony a very wealthy or timidly better in some ways than you that's not your fault but my profession could be struck off for screwing your patient but you've been a child 2020 and she mother to you haven't you sometimes realize the extent to which you now regard yourself both as a child and as an old man this it pains me to say it was very acute nonsense things were very well between me and Antonia before you even turvy even hardly my dear Martin. There was your failure to give her a child or her failure as we don't know the biological evidence was inconclusive to know what i need of your serenity your certainty your religion you mean my profession Yes I don't subscribe to it you are magicians all smoke and mirrors and wonder and tell me at once you will be too clever for me that doesn't say much for her and I've drunk less than you this evening that's all and Tony has said you had wanted to Already she returned you before I arrived yes you see why did I come running to you rather than summoning you to me. Is that it's an Intel you know it's my sister and she's staying the night. Oh sorry I thought you finished with your patients I'm not one of his patients or this is Martin Lynch given I have mentioned him as an old friend of mine a buddy Marden this is on a climb How do you do on our teachers at Cambridge you know my brother yes I met one of your students but yes girl you looked after you with moral tutor I think guess that's what you call it Yes Who is that. Someone is teaching the l.s.e. I forget her name now she opened a bottle I gave you all her doesn't know essential I thought you said it needed to be open for at least 3 out Christ sake it's only. Alex. I know the seniors are happy. He's been dividing a day between me and Hereford square and him in Pelham Crescent the warm suggestion was that I should spend Christmas with but I couldn't stomach you know. Part of their happiness consists clearly in looking after me but I've been blind drunk or by the time I get to bed I'm blind like maybe I should go on the wagon funny time for a while maybe after my brother is a sculptor well regarded he lives in our old family house which overlooks the river stout not far from Oxford It's a place even at the best of times I find reassuring among the you and box hedges my mother plant I want consolation I want the love there we all you've done well all. Right perhaps I'm still a child No you've been undermining. Thought I've never said he's hardly human 3 years older than me Alexander had never married and my wife loves him he's very powerful so his sister she bought a piece from me very primitive she said which I took as a compliment. And then one of the jungle tribes might know better than me what to do I've lost the moment of action what would you have done killed one or both of them my wife No I have no wife. People get divorced Martin all the time and some have more sense than to get married you love my wife in order not leave. Alex who is putting the finishing touches towards an exhibition when he works which is a lot of the time he usually wears a creamy white smock self consciously old fashioned dressed as if to represent a miller in an opera. So usually where I'm going out for a flat it was somewhere Hereford square elegance seems like an antique shop a superior antique shop. With a pane works through things objects 1st class help you move them you've got your exhibition my time you're my brother thanks and good to know. When you are here all of the Members Only don't pay the earth for a flat Ok after. Switching on Anglepoise lamp he lit up a population of plaster cast torsos swinging headless bodies and heads mounted on rough wooden stands and there was a clay head in the 1st stages of composition roughly filled out a real wire frame while I was working on this. Well I don't know who this is that's the problem is the portray looks quasar human could be a monster I never were quite like this but imaginary realistic head I suppose the Greeks did it it's gone now I'm trying to discover more about what's real not straightforward missis how we got here we still have that bust of Antonia. And she's here. And there she was in bronze on a bracket above the work table join the full light on net I was never happy with it and didn't want to part with all that happens. We thought would be vanity to have been around the house. You see I'm sorry this hey I don't think I like has adopted had alone illicit illicit Freud who made use of the head can represent the female genitals but feared not designed there are other meanings of course Blimey and meanings of fancy just incomplete. Well I you know while you're very self-contained Oh my well that as well because of years of Clara Yes I should've thank you and the port and the brandy I wish there was one more of us to help get going on the. Season of goodwill and cheer. I really could do with a stiff drink have you been faithful to Antonia Yes. I lied. Tomorrow at the same time Martin has to decide how he feels about his new mistress. This weekend on b.b.c. Radio 4 extra a fight for survival on a volatile planet in Brian all this is hot house at a nightmare breaks free in a supernatural thriller from Trevor Walker she's possessed Ros what she has dreams and when I try to weaker I have to pull her out of bed and standing up and still it takes a long time it's this house was about this house is doing it you tune in for the best fantasy horror inside fi in the 7th Dimension let me make bricks this Saturday and Sunday at 6 pm here on b.b.c. Radio 4 extra. Radio full extra. Now Peter Moore's book telling the story of the adventurous quest to understand the weather and our charismatic naval officer Robert Fitzroy confront storms on the high seas to McMullin reads the weather experiments and to start we have the music of Fingal's Cave. You are never far from a weather forecast. You can wake in the morning to the sparkling enthusiasm of a breakfast weather present and be lulled off at night to the rhythms of radio four's shipping forecast the kind tenor of their broadcasts the mild manners the crisply delivered chunks of meteorological caution can fool you into thinking they are paragons of conservatism their reality is completely different these forecasters are in fact the product of one of the most notorious and daring scientific experiments of the 19th century the daunting task of decoding the atmosphere and coordinating response was achieved through the industry and intellect of a remarkable group of individuals who lived between the years 180870 they were sailors artists chemists inventors astronomers hydrographers businessmen mathematicians and adventurous they coined radical theories invented instruments established networks and convinced governments that they had a model duty to protect their citizens they laid the foundations for the meterological science of today and gave us the ability to glimpse into the future in 1800 the weather remained a mystery many still referred to the heavens a catchall expression that encompassed clouds rainbows meteorites and stars it was a suitably vague and deferential term for such an uncertain Quicksilver space. The sky was the last part of nature to be classified a relic of the arcane chaotic world that had existed before Newton and the scientific revolution but discovery of the core gases hydrogen oxygen and nitrogen had given fresh personality to the air that floated around people's heads people began to look at the skies in new ways by the aging thirty's meterological articles and reports were filling scientific journals meterological societies were being formed and networks of weather watchers were being established when the 1st weather predictions were issued in 861 the project was fraught with difficulty it was only 2 years since Charles Darwin had plunged the church into an existential crisis with the publication of On The Origin of Species now science with its forecasts was threatening to explain the future just as the theory of evolution had explained the past by a quirk of history the man behind these forecasts Robert Fitzroy had been Darwin's captain on the h.m.s. Beagle is famous for age 30 years earlier today we are familiar with Darwin story from prospective country parson to revolutionary evolutionary theory assist we are less familiar with Fitzroy. Fitzroy quest to understand the weather began on a previous less famous for age to the coast of South America in the late afternoon of Friday the 30th January 18th 29 the Beagle and her new commander were beating West down the Rio de la Plata until now the journey had gone smoothly the Beagle skimming along the Atlantic coast under a summer sun the Beagle was a dextrous bark of just 1000 feet tiny in comparison to the monsters ships of the Napoleonic wars. But she was flexible she had the ability to hug shorelines and could be beached for running repairs advantages that made her ideal for surveying work Fitzroy had kept his eye on the weather that afternoon but it had been difficult to read by half past 4 it was gathered and unsettled at 5 the sky was overcast and Fitzroy noticed thunder and lightning to the southwest at 520 he had trimmed the top gallant sails and ordered the main So he stood in their place there was something else he noticed to his barometer dept but before he could act just after 540 a tremendous and sudden squall struck the ship the crew midway through western the main still had it ripped out of their hands the lines and yards were carried overboard as was a young sailor blown into the water from 30 feet suddenly the beagles prowl was twisting in the sea waves crashing into her bows it was a pump arrow everyone on board had heard of these viciously powerful southwesterly gales that rose with mounting force over the Argentine Pampers and exploded across the platter they could whip up a terrifying school in minutes brief ferocious deadly They were the meterological equivalent of a Purana attack the fragile bark one of a class ridiculed as Coffin breaks by naval men was helpless in the face of the assault her top masts and just boom was sheared off along with a handful of spies at one terrifying moment she was pitched back on her beam ends in the rolling sea within a few degrees of capsizing it was only when Fitzroy cut away the best bower in small bower anchors that she was brought to the wind and righted by 6 pm just 15 minutes after the pump arrow it hit. The worst had passed but not before a 2nd seaman had been lost overboard in bad sees the margins between speed safety and disaster were perilously thin this incident on his very 1st cruise as a commander would haunt Fitz-Roy charged with the ship and the lives of its crew he had come within a whisker of being wrecked he particularly 12th on his failure to heed the barometer signs in the sky the barometric evidence and temperature showed what was coming but want of faith of such indications and the impatience of a very young commander in sight of his admiral's flagship induced disregard arest a critic dashing to the eye and fiercely capable Fitzroy was among the Navy's finest young hopes he had been born into a family with impeccable Tory credentials his mother Lady Frances Stuart was the harsh sister of the Statesman Lord Castle Ray his grandfather the Duke of Grafton served as prime minister but it was the sea and not politics or society that had caught Fitzroy imagination at the Royal Naval College in Portsmouth he emerged a star pupil and he climbed the professional ladder with noticeable speed while it see he found time to study Latin and Greek French Italian and Spanish he kept pace with the latest scientific news and developed a particular relish for for Knology an odd boisterous science that sought to expose links between the size and shape of the human head and the character of the individual soon most in the Navy had heard of the handsome aristocrat with the fierce work ethic and the brooding temper and in 1829 he had been co-opted on to the South American survey as the commander of the Beagle. Newly free from a generation of war the Admiralty had decided to turn Britain's naval mastery and surplus of ships to different ends still poorly charted South America had a powerful allure though Britain's possessions in the region were restricted to the folk and islands the government had plans to extend its interests as a Christian nation that thought itself uniquely blessed by God it was Britain's duty to civilize the continent and to liberate its untapped mineral deposits in this vast and distant wilderness the Beagle and her bodes with tiny cells of scientific endeavor along with her anchors and cables horses and carriages she carried a full complement of philosophical instruments that allowed Fitzroy to continue with his endless round of measurements sextants quadrants and compass is for navigation levels gauges and balances for soundings and chronometers for calculating long to you on board were also a variety of meteorological tools for monitors approve your meter for measuring rainfall and a lightweight and portable mercury free barometer that Fitzroy favored above all increasingly fascinated by the weather Fitzroy started to analyze it with closer attention from his journal he emerges as half scientific observer and half weatherwise sailor looking to expose telling patterns or templates for future reference at the end of the year he was told to chart the southern coastline of Tierra del Fuego in the months that followed Fitzroy had to use all his skill to navigate gales that constantly drove them towards the shoreline only on clear days could he take measurements or organize boat trips to the land and in April he succeeded in leading a bold expedition to the summit of Horn Island at the very foot of the continent. Here he turned his attention to a commemoration of his visit a tower of stones 8 feet high once it was built the men crowded round a Union Jack and drank the health of King George the 4th. 18 months later captain Francis Beaufort hydrographer to the Royal Navy was studying Fitzroy charts of tio del Fuego of the Admiralty in Whitehall over its life had followed a colorful course he had travelled to the far corners of the world survived a shipwreck and an attack by pirates and serve the king a dozen times in battle he worked on Ireland's 1st optical Telegraph experiments and carried out a hydrographic survey of the southern coast of Asia Minor his Asia Minor charts were admired as gems of draftsmanship and he had risen to a position at the apex of government Beaufort met Fitzroy on his return from Tierra del Fuego in the autumn of 1830 there was an instant bond between the men and soon there was talk of a new scheme plans for a new South American survey emerged suddenly a voyage of 6 months had become a circle navigation of the globe an enterprise of several years not wanting to be intellectually isolated for such a long time he asked Beaufort to find him a gentleman companion the obvious candidate to accompany Fitzroy was a young naturalist who would assume a role similar to that of Joseph Banks on Captain Cook's Endeavor voyage over 70 years earlier news of Beaufort search extended to a recently graduated theology student and talented botanist called Charles Darwin on the 1st of September 831 Darwin wrote If the appointment is not already filled up I shall be very happy to have the honor of accepting it a dinner in London between Fitzroy and Darwin went well. All was soon arranged Darwin wrote although he added afterwards on becoming very intimate with Fitzroy I heard that I had run a very narrow risk of being rejected on account of the shape of my nose he doubted whether anyone with my nose could possess sufficient energy and determination for the voyage by the 24th of October Darwin had joined Fitzroy Plymouth for final preparations as Beaufort wrote up the hydrographic orders for the beagles next South American survey now he felt the time was ripe to test his long treasured weather system and he asked Fitzroy to keep a careful meterological register with twice daily barometric and temperature readings to the end of his instructions he attached his Windscale barely altered from the one that he had jotted down in his journal 24 years before it described escalating strengths of wind from 0 car one faint breeze not just a calm to light air 3 light breeze and so on up to 10 fresh gale 11 hard Gale 12 hard gale with heavy gusts 13 storm this wind scale would in trying both its name in meteorological history in December the Beagle was ready to set sail. To McMullin continues to read the weather experiment by Peter Moore at the same time tomorrow and there is innovation at the observatory in Greenwich the average I was sorry Davies and the producer was Elizabeth Allard. Alec Baldwin acclaimed Podcast Series here's the thing continues on for extra this week and this time it's a conversation recorded a few years ago with the late star of stage and screen Elaine Stritch who shared her memories of performing for over 70 years you want a new school for drama your 1st acting expects Persian abnormal warm What do you think about when. I sat next to my own.