Episodes

SeriesEpisodeTitleFirst
Broadcast
RepeatedComments
20100928

Britain is the second largest destination in the world for international students, after the US.

They contribute £3 billion to the British economy and are a key source of revenue for UK higher education. Yet in the media foreign students seem to appear only as suspected terrorists (in the wake of the arrest of the former UCL student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab) or as cash cows for British universities, and most recently as possible illegal immigrants.

What does it feel like to be seen as cash cow, possible illegal immigrant or possible terrorist? Are the British as hospitable as we like to think, and exactly how world class is British higher education? Why do foreign students come to study in Britain and how does the dream measure up against the reality?

This programme also explores another story: how the presence of foreign students reveals the tensions and contradictions within a UK 'national' education system now operating in a globalised world driven by market forces. If Britain thinks of foreign students as a problem, they will go elsewhere (Sweden now offers degrees in English with no fees at all for foreign students) and UK higher education will become the Bates Motel of the global education world, somewhere off the main road.

Presenter: Philip Dodd

Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4.

Why do foreign students come to study in Britain and is the dream different from reality?

2010092820101003 (R4)

Britain is the second largest destination in the world for international students, after the US.

They contribute £3 billion to the British economy and are a key source of revenue for UK higher education. Yet in the media foreign students seem to appear only as suspected terrorists (in the wake of the arrest of the former UCL student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab) or as cash cows for British universities, and most recently as possible illegal immigrants.

What does it feel like to be seen as cash cow, possible illegal immigrant or possible terrorist? Are the British as hospitable as we like to think, and exactly how world class is British higher education? Why do foreign students come to study in Britain and how does the dream measure up against the reality?

This programme also explores another story: how the presence of foreign students reveals the tensions and contradictions within a UK 'national' education system now operating in a globalised world driven by market forces. If Britain thinks of foreign students as a problem, they will go elsewhere (Sweden now offers degrees in English with no fees at all for foreign students) and UK higher education will become the Bates Motel of the global education world, somewhere off the main road.

Presenter: Philip Dodd

Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4.

Why do foreign students come to study in Britain and is the dream different from reality?

The Bethlehem Murders2018030420180310 (R4)Schoolteacher Omar Yussef turns amateur sleuth in this crime fiction set in Palestine.

Yussef tries to save the life of his former student George Saba, a Christian recently returned to his home town of Bethlehem, who has fallen foul of a Palestinian militia group.

In doing so, Yussef uncovers a world of corruption, cynicism and fear which makes him regret the passing of a time when Christians and Muslims lived peacefully side by side.

Matt Rees has turned his observations from working as Time magazine's Jerusalem bureau chief into a set of Palestine-based murder mysteries.

Dramatised by Jennifer Howarth.

Omar Yussef - Peter Polycarpou

Habib Saba / Marwan Natsha - Vincent Ebrahim

Khamis Zeydan - Nabil Elouahabi

George Saba - Zubin Varla

Dima Rahman - Sirine Saba

Abdel Rahman / Jihad Awdeh - Selva Rasalingam

Hussein Tamari - Philip Arditti

Abu Jeriez - Carlos Chahine

Ramiz - Amir El-Masry

Director: Mary Peate

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2018.

Palestinian crime drama. Schoolteacher Omar Yussef tries to clear a student of murder.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0101Belgium, Hercule Poirot And Jules Maigret2012102220121026 (R4)Mark Lawson looks at modern European history through the device of crime fiction.

In the first programme, he's assisted in his inquiries by Jules Maigret and Hercule Poirot as he probes Belgium's unexpected prominence in the history of detective fiction. Poirot was created by an English woman and Maigret, a French detective, created by a Belgian Georges Simenon.

With Val McDermid, Lord Grey Gowrie, Andrea Camilleri and David Suchet.

Crime fiction reflects society's tensions. Helped by famous literary detectives, Mark shows how crimes reflect Europe's times from the 20th-century world wars to the Eurozone crisis and nationalist tensions of the 21st.

In crime fiction, everyday details become crucial clues: the way people dress and speak, the cars they drive, the jobs they have, the meals they eat. And the motivations of the criminals often turn on guilty secrets: how wealth was created, who slept with whom, what somebody did in the war. For these reasons, detective novels often tell the story of a place and a time much better than more literary novels and newspapers which can take a lot of contemporary information for granted.

Mark Lawson's series focuses on some of the celebrated investigators of European fiction and their creators: from popular modern protagonists - including Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander, Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole and Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano - through Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus and Lynda La Plante's DCI Jane Tennison back to Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Inspector Barlach and Josef Skvorecký's Lieutenant Boruvka.

Producer: Robyn Read.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Investigating Europe through crime fiction, Mark Lawson finds two big clues in Belgium.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

Mark Lawson looks at modern European history through the device of crime fiction.

In the first programme, he's assisted in his inquiries by Jules Maigret and Hercule Poirot as he probes Belgium's unexpected prominence in the history of detective fiction. Poirot was created by an English woman and Maigret, a French detective, created by a Belgian Georges Simenon.

With Val McDermid, Lord Grey Gowrie, Andrea Camilleri and David Suchet.

Crime fiction reflects society's tensions. Helped by famous literary detectives, Mark shows how crimes reflect Europe's times from the 20th-century world wars to the Eurozone crisis and nationalist tensions of the 21st.

In crime fiction, everyday details become crucial clues: the way people dress and speak, the cars they drive, the jobs they have, the meals they eat. And the motivations of the criminals often turn on guilty secrets: how wealth was created, who slept with whom, what somebody did in the war. For these reasons, detective novels often tell the story of a place and a time much better than more literary novels and newspapers which can take a lot of contemporary information for granted.

Mark Lawson's series focuses on some of the celebrated investigators of European fiction and their creators: from popular modern protagonists - including Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander, Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole and Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano - through Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus and Lynda La Plante's DCI Jane Tennison back to Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Inspector Barlach and Josef Skvorecký's Lieutenant Boruvka.

Producer: Robyn Read.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Investigating Europe through crime fiction, Mark Lawson finds two big clues in Belgium.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0102Germany, Inspector Barlach20121023Mark Lawson's history of Europe seen through the pages of crime fiction investigates the ideas of guilt, responsibility and justice in the writing of Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990).

Durrenmatt's Inspector Barlach books were published in Switzerland in 1950 and 1951 using elements of the crime genre in plays including The Pledge and The Visit.

Theatre directors Josie Rourke and Simon McBurney, Hollywood scriptwriters Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromolowski; Professor and crime blogger Katharina Hall and German lawyer turned bestselling author Ferdinand von Schirach share their passion for Dürrenmatt's clear-eyed depictions of the impact of German and Swiss actions in the Second World War.

Producer: Robyn Read

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Mark Lawson uncovers German history in the crime novels of Friedrich Durrenmatt.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0103Czechoslovakia, Lieutenant Boruvka20121024When Josef Skvorecky published the Mournful Demeanour of Lieutenant Boruvka in 1966 he had to refer obliquely to the Czech political situation but following the Prague spring he emigrated to Canada and his writing became more explicit.

Mark Lawson discusses his writing with translator and former member of the Plastic People of the Universe, Paul Wilson, who argues that the country was a crimescape and that Skvorecký's interest in the crime genre went beyond his Boruvka series.

Producer: Robyn Read

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Mark Lawson explores Czech history in the crime fiction of Josef Skvorecky.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0104Netherlands, Commissaris Van Der Valk20121025The Van der Valk novels written by Nicholas Freeling became a popular Thames TV series starring Barry Foster in the 1970s. A British chef who lived first in Holland and then France, Freeling's books depict both post-war Europe and the development of closer European ties in the European Union.

Mark Lawson's series exploring European history through crime fiction continues with a trip to Amsterdam in search of Van der Valk. Lord Grey Gowrie remembers interviewing Nicholas Freeling before his death in 2003, and Dutch author Saskia Noort describes her books about crimes involving women which draw on trends in Dutch society now.

Producer: Robyn Read

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Mark Lawson visits Amsterdam in search of the detective Van Der Valk.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0105Sweden, Inspector Martin Beck20121026In 1965 husband and wife Maj Sj怀wall and Per Wahl怀怀 published the first of their series of 10 police procedurals featuring Inspector Martin Beck and his team. Written during a time when Stockholm saw demonstrations against the Vietnam War, the arming and re-organisation of the police force and stresses on the welfare state, the Beck novels deliberately used the crime genre to depict changes in Swedish society.

Current crime best sellers Jo Nesbø, Henning Mankell, ŀsa Larsson, Camilla Lackberg, Jens Lapidus, Val McDermid and Gunnar Staalesen are amongst those discussing the influence of the Martin Beck series with Mark Lawson as part of his series looking at European history through crime fiction.

Producer: Robyn Read

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Mark Lawson discusses the influence of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo's Martin Beck novels.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0106Uk, Commander Dalgliesh And Chief Inspector Wexford20121029PD James's Adam Dalgliesh and Ruth Rendell's Reginald Wexford first appeared in novels written in 1962 and 1964.

Mark Lawson continues his series about the way crime fiction has depicted modern European history by looking at the shifts in UK society they have encountered from rural racism and road rage to fears about changes in the Church of England and the rise of an environmental movement.

Producer: Robyn Read

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Catch an extended interview with PD James on the Front Row Crime Writers' Archive.

How PD James's Dalgliesh and Ruth Rendell's Wexford have charted changes in UK society.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0107Sicily, Inspector Rogas20121030Leonard Sciascia used crime stories to highlight Mafia crimes. The Sicilian was the author of novels including The Day of the Owl, A Simple Story and Equal Danger - which features Inspector Rogas.

Paul Bailey, Gianrico Carofiglio, Andrea Camilleri and Petra Reski discuss with Mark Lawson the influence of Leonardo Sciascia and the continuing presence of the Mafia in Italian life.

Producer: Robyn Read

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Leonardo Sciascia created crime stories to depict the power of the Mafia in Sicily.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0108Spain, Pi Pepe Carvalho20121031In his Pepe Carvalho novels, Manuel Vကzquez Montalbကn created a Barcelona-based private eye with a gastronomic passion, whose investigations are set against political developments in post-Franco Spanish society.

Mark Lawson continues his series looking at European history through crime fiction - discussing the books of Montalbကn with Antonio Hill and Jason Webster - whose own crime novels depict contemporary Spain.

Producer: Robyn Read

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Manuel Vazquez Montalban's Pepe Carvalho novels dramatise tensions in post-Franco Spain.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0109Britain, Dci Jane Tennison20121101Dame Helen Mirren's portrayal of DCI Jane Tennison created a new image of women police officers in Britain. Lynda La Plante describes the creation of her character and what serving officers taught her about the macho culture of British policing before the millennium.

The Granada TV series which first aired in 1991 was sold around the world. Dutch best seller Saskia Noort and Scottish authors Ian Rankin and Val McDermid discuss its impact with Mark Lawson.

Producer: Robyn Read

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Lynda La Plante's DCI Jane Tennison changed police procedurals, argues Mark Lawson.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0110Italy, Inspector Montalbano20121102Andrea Camilleri discusses the influence of both the Spanish writer Montalbကn and Belgian author Georges Simenon on the creation of his Sicilian detective Inspector Montalbano.

In a conversation recorded at his home in Rome with Mark Lawson, he describes the way he uses his crime stories to comment upon the effects of both the Mafia and Berlusconi's leadership on Italian society today.

Producer: Robyn Read

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Andrea Camilleri's crime stories depict corruption, politics and power in Italy.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0111Germany, Pi Kemal Kayankaya20121105German author Jakob Arjouni returns periodically to write fiction featuring his Turkish PI Kemal Kayankaya. Mark Lawson visits him in Berlin to discuss the way his crime novels have reflected upon events including re-unification and the war in Yugoslavia, and drawn on more recent debates about what view of Islam it's appropriate to show in cartoons and films.

Producer: Robyn Read.

German writer Jakob Arjouni's Turkish sleuth, Kemal Kayankaya, reflects a reunited Germany

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0112Scotland, Di John Rebus20121106Mark Lawson meets Ian Rankin, whose crime stories reflect social changes in Scotland.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0113Sweden, Kurt Wallander And Lisbeth Salander20121107If the Martin Beck novels of Sj怀wall and Wahl怀怀 set the template for the social commentary found in Scandinavian crime fiction - Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels and Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy have both used the form to focus on racist attitudes in modern Sweden.

Henning Mankell, Kenneth Branagh, Liza Marklund, Camilla L䀀ckberg and Eva Gabrielsson - Stieg Larsson's partner, share their views about whether the Swedish state can still be held up as an ideal as Mark Lawson continues his series about the way modern European history is reflected through the pages of crime fiction.

Producer Robyn Read.

Mark Lawson investigates how Swedish society reflects in the novels of Larsson and Mankell

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0114Norway, Harry Hole20121108Jo Nesbø's novels, featuring detective Harry Hole top best seller lists across the world - the latest example of the boom in Scandinavian crime fiction.

Mark Lawson talks to Nesbø, Liza Marklund and Gunnar Staalesen about the impact of Norwegian oil on the economy, the divisions caused by the Second World War and the effect of random acts of violence in Sweden and Norway with the assassination of politicians and the killing spree on Utøya island.

Producer Robyn Read.

How does Jo Nesbo's Norwegian detective reflect changes in Scandinavian society?

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0115Russia And Ukraine, Erast Fandorin20121109Boris Akunin sets his Erast Fandorin novels in nineteenth century Russia whilst Andrey Kurkov describes twenty first century Ukraine.

Mark Lawson looks at the influence of Bulgakov and Dostoevsky on Russian crime fiction and compares the inside view with those created by outsiders including Martin Cruz Smith and Tom Rob Smith.

Producer Robyn Read.

Russian and Ukrainian crime writers Akunin and Kurkov. Is Dostoevsky still an influence?

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0201Greece - Inspector Costas Haritos20130708

To accompany BBC Radio 4's dramatisations of the Martin Beck novels, which established crime fiction as a form for exploring social change, Mark Lawson presents five more 'Foreign Bodies' focusing on Greece, Argentina, Northern Ireland, South Africa and fictional TV crime-scenes including Broadchurch.

Examining subjects including the way in which crime novels have portrayed transitional societies in South Africa and Northern Ireland and explored the legacy of military rule in Argentina, in this first programme Lawson, in Athens, talks to writers including Petros Markaris, whose detective series featuring Inspector Costas Haritos has both predicted and depicted the Greek financial crisis.

Mark talks to Petros Markaris, whose crime series prophesied the Greek financial crisis.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0202Argentina - Superintendent Perro Lascano20130709How Argentinian writers have dramatised the transition from dictatorship to democracy.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0203Ireland - Inspector Benedict Devlin20130710Mark meets novelist Brian McGilloway, whose books explore the long shadows of the Troubles

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0204South Africa - Detective Captain Bennie Griessel20130711

Translated from Afrikaans, the detective novels of Deon Meyer have become international best-sellers. Mark Lawson talks to Meyer about the fact and fiction of criminality in post-apartheid South Africa and meets Sifiso Mzobe, whose award-winning debut book features a young criminal in a Durban township.

Mark Lawson talks to Deon Meyer about the criminality in post-apartheid South Africa.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0205Screenland - DS Ellie Miller, DI Sarah Lund, Captain Laure Berthaud20130712Mark Lawson examines the rise of female investigators in TV crime dramas.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0301Cuba20141117

To complement Radio 4's major dramatisations of The Havana Quartet by Cuba's leading crime writer, Leonardo Padura, Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels have reflected five different political systems in a new series of Foreign Bodies.

In today's programme Mark Lawson explores fictional investigations of Cuba after the Castro revolution with Leonardo Padura, author of The Havana Quartet, and Caroline Garcia-Aquilera, a Cuban-American writing from exile in Miami.

Mark Lawson explores fictional investigations of Cuba after the Castro revolution.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0302Usa20141118To complement Radio 4's major dramatisations of The Havana Quartet by Cuba's leading crime writer, Leonardo Padura, Mark Lawson, in a new series of Foreign Bodies, examines how mystery novels have reflected five different political systems.

Today Laura Lippman and Walter Mosley - creators of private eyes Tess Monaghan and Easy Rawlins - discuss with Mark Lawson how they introduced the experience of women and black Americans into crime fiction dominated by men and a McCarthyite fear of outsiders.

Two novelists tell Mark Lawson how they introduced new themes to US crime fiction.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0303Poland20141119

To complement Radio 4's major dramatisations of The Havana Quartet by Cuba's leading crime writer, Leonardo Padura, Mark Lawson, in a new series of Foreign Bodies, examines how mystery novels have reflected five different political systems.

Zygmunt Miloszewski and Joanna Jodelka reflect on how Polish crime fiction has reflected the country's occupation by both Nazis and Communists, the transition to democracy through the Solidarity movement and lingering accusations of racism and anti-Semitism.

Zygmunt Miloszewski and Joanna Jodelka on the changing politics in Polish crime fiction.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0304Australia20141120

To complement Radio 4's major dramatisations of The Havana Quartet by Cuba's leading crime writer, Leonardo Padura, Mark Lawson, in Foreign Bodies, examines how mystery novels have reflected five different political systems.

Australia's leading crime novelist, the South African-born Peter Temple -- whose books include The Broken Shore and Truth -- talks to Mark Lawson about depicting a society shaped by both British colonialism and American power and why Australian crime fiction should contain as few words as possible.

Peter Temple on portraying a society shaped by both British colonialism and American power

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

0305Nigeria20141121

To complement Radio 4's major dramatisations of The Havana Quartet by Cuba's leading crime writer, Leonardo Padura, Mark Lawson, in Foreign Bodies, examines how mystery novels have reflected five different political systems.

The writers Helon Habila, whose books include the award-winning Oil on Water, and CM Okonkwo talk to Mark Lawson about how a flourishing new tradition of Nigerian crime fiction explores British legacy, tribal tradition and the new "corporate colonialism" as global companies exploit the country's mineral reserves.

Helon Habila and CM Okonkwo on the flourishing new tradition of Nigerian crime fiction.

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.