Seriously...

Robert and Jennifer Beckford are married and agree on most things - apart from one issue; was the Windrush Generation better off after coming here or should they have stayed in the Caribbean? And ultimately, whether they should take their teenage children to live in Jamaica. The question is simple, but the arguments are complex and multi-layered, but what about the consequences for the Beckfords?

Robert feels that moving to the UK for the Windrush Generation was an overwhelmingly good thing and that they should be seen as pioneers, who broke frontiers. . Jennifer disagrees, the Windrush migrants would have been better off going back to the Caribbean and using their skills to help re-build their own countries. To make amends she wants to take her family to Jamaica for a new life there, something Robert can't fathom.

This authentic argument is the driver for a critical examination of the legacy of Windrush 75 years since it docked at Tilbury. Each episode will examine a different key quality of life indicator to critically evaluate the legacy of Windrush. Through speaking to family members as well as people both in the UK and Jamaica, Radio 4 listeners will be immersed in this - very personal - debate. In the first of the four-part series the couple look at the Windrush generation’s success in terms of work and money.

Producer: Rajeev Gupta

As the government prepares a major reorganisation of Britain's railways, Daniel Brittain asks what are they for. It's a question which has been ignored in previous reorganisations - which typically take place after a crisis or a disaster. So Daniel travels to Greater Manchester, meeting people on trains, people who want to be on trains, and those who run the railways, to understand how the rail industry has changed, and what its place in Britain's society, economy and culture might be in the future.

Producer: Giles Edwards.

Norwegian jazz musician Jon Larsen was having breakfast one clear spring morning when he noticed a tiny black speck land on his clean, white table. With no wind, birds or planes in sight, he wondered if it fell from space.

Dust from space isn’t as fanciful as it sounds. Billions of microscopic meteorites, dating back to the birth of our solar system, fall onto Earth every year. But they are so tiny, hidden among the copious dust of everyday life, that scientists believe they are impossible to find outside ultra clean environments like Antarctica. But this doesn’t deter Jon, who, against the advice of all experts, decides he is going to be the first person to find an urban micrometeorite.

He takes presenter Caroline Steel and planetary scientist Dr Matthew Genge up onto some roofs, in search of the elusive particles. Can we find stardust on the top of the BBC?

Featuring Jon Larsen, Dr Matthew Genge (Imperial College London) and Svein Aarbostad.

When 8 year old Kim Gordon set off for China in 1965, it set in train a tale of passion, imagination and still unanswered questions. Kim’s parents were committed communists in the thick of Mao’s cultural revolution.

Kim became a Red Guard, one of an army of children and teenagers marshalled in support of Mao and he had a ringside view of the vast rallies in Tiananmen Square. But when the political tide turned against foreigners, the family was imprisoned for two years in a tiny hotel room, Room 421.

The Gordon family had no contact with the outside world for two years and their families back in Britain had no idea where they were. With only a block of paper and a wild imagination for company Kim passed the time by writing letters that could never be sent, and thrilling plays which he’d act aloud playing all the parts himself. His story reveals much about families and loyalties; on the grip of ideology; and the ingenuity of a child shut in an empty room.

A rich and strange reminiscence not just of China but of the human heart. Charlie Brand plays young Kim in this dramatic, intimate documentary.

Producer: Monica Whitlock

25 years since the people of both Northern Ireland and the Republic voted to accept the Good Friday Agreement, another potential referendum looms on the distant horizon. That Agreement, though primarily to end the violence of the Troubles, allows for a future border poll that would determine whether Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, or re-joined the south. But crucially, few people realise that it’s not just up to Northern Ireland voters: consent is required on both sides of the border. And for voters in the Republic, it’s more complicated than you might think.

Andrea Catherwood investigates what the new, highly-educated, liberal, European-focused Irish Republic thinks about the possibility of its northern neighbours, from whom they were parted more than 100 years ago, re-joining their country. Polls suggest a number of issues; symbols, violence, economics. Can Ireland afford it, and does it want to? Is it just too much trouble?

With contributions from the main Irish political parties, as well as economist David McWilliams and Irish Times political editor Pat Leahy, the assumption of a yes vote from the republic isn’t as straightforward as many assume.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood

A BBC NI production for BBC Radio 4

We've been building computers to think like us for years, but our ability to replicate human senses has been impossible. Until now. This technological revolution is starting to profoundly change not only how we interact with the world around us, but is allowing us to see, hear, smell, taste and even touch things we never imagined possible before.

An Artificial Intelligence revolution is super-charging sensing technology, promising us eyes with laser precision, ears that can distinguish every sound in a mile's radius and noses than can sniff out the early signs of forest fires before the first flame forms.

Evolutionary biologist and broadcaster Prof. Ben Garrod, is off to meet some of these sensory innovators and technological pioneers. The archaeologists, ecologists and medics, who are turning our world upside down and inside out.

In episode one, Ben tries seeing further. The visible world to us is tiny, and we are able to detect just a fraction of the light spectrum that is out there. But new technology is pushing the boundary of what is visible. Ground penetrating LIDAR arrays are helping us to peel back the layers of planet Earth, and see the remains of ancient civilisations, previously invisible to us. The same technology is being used on the moons of Jupiter to provide 3D maps of the craters of faraway worlds. In the forests of west Africa, we meet the psychologists using infrared to monitor the stress levels of silverback gorillas being returned to the wild. And in a lab in central London, we meet the extraordinary animals that see hidden patterns in the natural world and perhaps even fields that are entirely invisible to us.

Could these new technologies be redefining what it is to see, hear, smell, and feel? Ben takes us through the amazing adaptations and development under the bonnet, and speculates where else these all seeing eyes may yet gaze.

Produced by Robbie Wojciechowski

In a special episode to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, writer Horatio Clare and psychiatrist Femi Oyebode consider the purpose of anxiety, and how it can manifest in different ways. They look at where it comes from, and hear from firefighter Jonny about his journey with panic attacks and his techniques for coping with them.

You can buy almost everything on social media – how about a British dad for your child? A year long BBC investigation has uncovered a brazen illegal immigration scam in which pregnant migrant women who are in the UK without a visa are paying British men thousands of pounds to pose as fathers to their children.

Divya Talwar reports.

For years, science has had a dirty secret; research has been dogged by claims and instances of fraud, malpractice and outright incompetence. Suspicious-looking data sets, breakthrough results that can’t be replicated, eyebrow-raising statistical sleights of hand - science has been undergoing something of an existential crisis.

And at the forefront of keeping science honest has been a bunch of outsiders, some of them with no formal academic positions, no salaried posts, double-checking the published claims of researchers and academics. Their work is not without controversy, especially when they go public; nevertheless, they’ve achieved impressive results.

Presenter Michael Blastland meets some of these ‘Truth Police’, discovering their methodology and their motives, as well as asking how scientific institutions are reacting to the deep issues they have brought out into the light.

Presenter: Michael Blastland

Adam Shaw peeks behind the curtain of the consultancy industry. Worth hundreds of billions of pounds, consultants stretch across almost every industry, government department and international border.

Since the pandemic there’s been an unprecedented demand for their services and many believe our future is determined by what they think and do. Yet little is known about these largely hidden influencers. They are magnetic and mesmerizing yet, to many of us, shrouded in mystery. Adam asks who these wizards, what do they do and how much do they influence our lives. On the one hand, they're talked of as genius solvers of the world’s greatest problems and masters of the machinery of management.

On other, some think of them in more shadowy terms, whispering their guidance into the ears of the rich and powerful. Adam sets off with missionary zeal to detangle two very different stereotypes. Across the series he hunts for the first ever consultant, finds out how they shape our language and politics and discovers how they bounce back from appalling scandals.

He joins a consultancy fair to meet aspirant consultants, hears stories from the glass towers of late nights and rewards, explores FOMO and addition, turnarounds and triumphs. In this first episode he asks what value do consultants add and why are they seemingly opaque. And he pulls out his wand and performs a rather impressive magic trick of his own.

With contributions from: Tamzen Isacsson, CEO of the Management Consultancies Association, Andrew Sturdy, Professor in Management at The University of Bristol, Dr Chris McKenna, Reader in Business History and Strategy at the Said Business School, Rosie Collington, co-author of The Big Con, author Eric Edstrom and broadcaster Paddy O'Connell.

Producer: Sarah Bowen