A top secret little-known mission that changed the outcome of World War II. Not Alan Turing's Enigma code-breaking mission but a daring foray, conducted behind enemy lines on the shores of Normandy.

Harrison Lewis and wetland scientist Christian Dunn re-enact one of the most remarkable feats of the Second World War and discover the intricate details of the daring but forgotten science that underpinned D-Day.

Are British politicians at breaking point?

In this new digital age with its high level of public scrutiny, the sheer amount of abuse, disdain and direct threat politicians get is causing their mental health to take a real hit.

And this matters. Broken politicians equal broken politics and that’s bad news for us all.

Few can dispute that in the wake of a near constant stream of scandals, public perceptions of politics and politicians have become increasingly cynical and toxic.

So what impact is this all having on our politicians and our politics?

Jennifer Nadel - Co-Founder of Compassion in Politics - hears raw personal testimony from MPs across the House who have reached breaking point and worse, asking what this means for the health of our democracy?

In this Radio 4 investigation into the mental health and wellbeing of politicians, MPs talk candidly about the incessant pressures of the job and the escalating mental health crisis in parliament.

The programme reveals shocking testimony including one former government minister who tells us ‘Politics has left me a broken human being.’ A young MP describes attempting to take his own life, revealing to the BBC that he is not alone.

This programme asks whether the mental health crisis is affecting MPs' ability to govern. Many say it does, and that good people are simply being driven out or away from public life.

In the face of these mounting personal testimonies Radio 4 asks MPs what can be done?

If you have particular experiences or a story related to this podcast that you would like to share in confidence with the programme makers, you can e-mail: [email protected]

Producer: Daniel Tetlow

25th April 2024 marked the 50th anniversary of Portugal's 'Carnation Revolution', which overthrew the authoritarian dictatorship of the Estado Novo ('New State') which had governed Portugal since the 1920s. A largely bloodless revolution, marked by the carnations that were placed in the rifles of the soldiers, it led to the successful establishment of democracy in Portugal and the integration of more than half-a-million 'retornados' - returnees - Portuguese citizens from its former African colonies.

Portugal's revolution was indeed televised, and recorded in sound. One of those who bore witness to its aftermath was journalist, and former Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow, who reported from Portugal at the time for LBC Radio. At this important anniversary, he remembers his time there, and tells the story of what unfolded, through archive and interviews with those who organised and lived through those heady days of April 1974.

Presenter: Jon Snow

With thanks to RTP (Rádio e Televisão de Portugal) and LBC for archive.

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 Nicholl

Actors: Rhiannon Neads, John Lightbody, Michael Bertenshaw, Josh Bryant-Jones, Ian Dunnett Junior

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

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.

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.)

It's 25 years since London suffered three vicious nail bomb attacks - holdalls filled with 4-inch nails and hand-made explosives planted in Brixton market, Brick Lane and in the bar of the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho, intended to cause damage to those in the immediate vicinity and to the notion of a tolerant, diverse capital city.

The attacks are recorded in photographs shared at the time by the press - of London streets strewn with damaged buildings and injured people, an x-ray of a toddler with a nail embedded in his skull, the wedding photograph of two victims (one killed, the other severely injured) and the police mugshot of the perpetrator, a far right terrorist who hoped to start a 'racial war in this country'.

Fragments looks again at these images - some taken by Chris Taylor who happened to be on assignment in Soho's market photographing vegetables - to consider what it means for an instant to be captured and to endure in our memories and understanding of traumatic events.

Including contributions from photographer Chris Taylor; Jonathan Cash, who survived the Soho attack, Emdad Talukder, who was injured in Brick Lane and business owner Leo Epstein.

Music composed by Alan Hall, with Eleanor McDowall (chimes) and Alan Hall (trumpet)

Producer: Alan Hall

(Photo credit: ChrisTaylorPhotography.com)