Seriously...

Presenter Anita Anand joins comedian Shaparak Khorsandi and author Andrew Scott Cooper to explore the tragic life, death and legacy of Princess Leila Pahlavi, the last Princess of Imperial Iran. Leila was the daughter of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the last in a long line of Iranian Royalty. But when the 1979 revolution began, Leila and her family were forced to escape. Leila spent the rest of her life in exile and while she had a brief career as a model and 90s It Girl, she tragically died alone in a London hotel. In this episode, we trace her story and the monumental impact it’s left on the Iranian community.

Producer: Rufaro Faith Mazarura

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4

Communities in the Scottish Highlands are facing a housing crisis so bad, it’s been described as a clearance for the 21st century. According to the Convenor of the Highland Council, Bill Lobban, “the species most under threat in the Cairngorms National Park isn’t the Capercaillie but the young family trying to find a home”. Ironically one key cause of the problem is also what brings most into the local economy – tourism.

Across the region the growth of the tourism and hospitality industry is driving the demand for 2nd homes and many houses are now used for short-term holiday lets, with the result that very little accommodation remains for locals searching for somewhere to live, what does remain is usually unaffordable or unsuitable. The knock-on effect is that businesses across the Highlands are struggling to find staff and even when they manage to find them, they often lose them because there’s no rental accommodation locally.

A sector which has been particularly hard hit is hospitality where low wages exacerbate the issue with the result that hotels and restaurants find themselves in the unenviable position of having plenty of customers but not enough staff to serve them. Often, the only way many businesses can secure staff is if they provide accommodation but that’s not always suitable for long term employees and skilled staff who might have young families plus not all businesses can afford to buy or manage housing for their staff.

It’s not just the hospitality sector either which is suffering, the salmon farming industry is being hit hard too and its not just low paid workers, all professions are being priced out of the housing market by too many people chasing too few properties.

In Rental Health: All Work No Homes Pennie Stuart heads first to the northwest Highland village of Ullapool to hear how the business community is responding to the unintended consequences of the tourism boom while further south in Aviemore, in the heart of the Cairngorms national park, she hears about the radical solutions being proposed to bring staff, homes and tourism back into some kind of balance.

Produced by Dan Holland

In May 2020 a group of experts came together, at speed, to form the UK’s Vaccine Task Force. Born in the teeth of a crisis, its efforts were responsible for allowing Britain to be among the first countries in the world to roll out vaccines against Covid-19.

But as memories of the pandemic fade, the urgency it brought to its work has subsided as well. In this edition of Analysis, Sandra Kanthal asks what lessons have been learned from the success of the Vaccine Task Force and if we should be prepared to allocate the time, energy and expense required to be permanently prepared for the next global health emergency.

Presenter: Sandra Kanthal

The roads and byways of the British Isles are home to a new generation of travellers. Alongside the traditional Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities there’s a booming sub-culture of van dwellers who prefer the open road to bricks and mortar. For some it's a lifestyle choice. They spend the summer moving from festival to festival, picking up casual jobs as they go.

They celebrate their light touch on the planet and those who can afford it take the snowbird route for the winter, heading south through Spain. For increasing numbers, however, there's less glamour in 'van life'. Rapidly rising rents force them into vehicles and a long, cold winter searching for welcoming roadside stops with toilets and taps.

Travel writer and broadcaster, Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent has spent many months living out of her own battered VW van. She understands the fantasy and the practical difficulties. In the New Nomads she hears about both sides of van life and discovers new challenges on the horizon. For many travellers- traditional and new- the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act of 2022 feels specifically designed to make their lives as difficult as possible.

It creates a new offence of “residing on land without consent in or with a vehicle” and makes it easier for the police to remove unauthorised encampments. Fresh ideas are helping the increasing number of van dwellers.

In Bristol, brownfield areas are being turned into temporary spaces for vans and caravans. The residents are happy with these cheap and cheerful campsites but demand far outstrips supply. Unless more affordable homes are built it seems inevitable that more and more young people will have little choice but the open road.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Are we running out of water? Britain may be known for its rain but, as our climate changes, there are warnings we could be closer than we think to our taps running dry.

In this episode of Troubled Water, James Gallagher asks why our pipes are being pushed to the brink and what can be done about it, all from the comfort of his bathroom. Huddled in the loo, he talks to Professor Hannah Cloke, OBE, who predicts rainfall events through her work at the University of Reading, Dr Francis Hassard, from the Water Science Institute at Cranfield University, Andrew Tucker who manages water demand at Thames Water and inventor Garry Moore who shows how he's hoping to revolutionise our loos with his air-pressurised Velocity toilet.

Presenter: James Gallagher