CROSSING CONTINENTS
Radio 4, 11am
The idea of countries being far away and us knowing very little about them has long been a post-Colonial inexactitude, not least as a result of the work of series such as Crossing Continents. And yet there are still surprises in store, especially during this visit to Bangladesh. Its coastline is dangerously below sea level, at the annual mercy of the weather, and much of its population subsists in direst poverty. But it does have something going for it, or rather coming from it: prawns. One in ten prawns eaten in Britain is farmed in the waters of Bangladesh, and the market for the little critters is getting bigger. But at a cost that has led to calls for Bangladeshi prawns to be banned. Is this a defeat snatched from the jaws of a rare victory? Lucy Ash reports.
BESPOKEN WORD
Radio 4, 11pm
Just to confirm that poetry on Radio 4 does extend beyond Roger McGough, Simon Armitage and Andrew Motion, a return of the show in which the word bespoken is in the form of hip-hop and performance poetry. The first guests of Mister Gee and Doctor Stew include Sophie Woolley and the punk duo Thick Richard.