'Any Question' from Taunton. Major Lewis Hastings, Lady Violet Bonham-Carter, Ralph Wightman and St. John Ervine, the team of experts answering questions put to them by members of the audience during the broadcast from the Corfield Hall, Taunton. 1 October 1948.

You'll have noticed that this week's Any Questions (and, as a consequence, Any Answers) was cancelled and replaced by a programme of material from the archive (and an extra Bookclub). So I thought I'd bring you some Any Questions pictures from the BBC picture library.

The captions are the originals and you'll notice that the third is from 1941 and thus precedes the first transmission of Any Questions by some years - it must be from a predecessor programme, although it's not clear which one. All three pictures are from before Radio 4 itself came into being in 1967. It's fun to look up the great and the good of their era - and you'll notice that Ralph Wightman ('wildlife expert') appears twice - clearly a man of substance.

Rt Hon Gaitskell, M.P., talking to Mr C.T. Melling, CBE, M.Sc. Tech., (President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers) and Mrs. Melling; Mr. R.D.A Marriott, Assistant Director of Sound Broadcasting talks to Ralph Wightman. One of the events to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the BBC was the production of 'Any Questions' on Friday 16th November 1962 from former home of the BBC in Savoy Hill.

Margery Fry, Julian Huxley, Commander Campbell, Robert Graves, CEM Joad and WDH McCullough, 20 June 1941.

Paul Murphy is acting editor of the Radio 4 blog

• Transport allowing, Any Questions will be back next Friday at 2000 (and again on Saturday at 1310, followed by Any Answers at 1400).

Tony Hancock opened tonight's Archive on 4 about Face to Face, the hugely influential interview programme that ran on BBC television from 1959 to 1962. In the programme, produced by Chris Ledgard, Sue MacGregor interviews producer and creator of the programme Hugh Burnett. We learn about its presenter John Freeman - who didn't want to participate in this programme - and the many remarkable people who appeared in the Face to Face chair.

According to Wikipedia, Freeman interviewed 35 guests during the first series of Face to Face (the programme was later revived - between 1989 and 1998), only two of whom were women - Edith Sitwell and Simone Signoret. These photographs of Face to Face guests, taken during production by unnamed staff photographers, come from the BBC's picture library. The captions are just as they appear in the archive.

Listen to the programme on the Radio 4 web site and watch BBC Two's heartbreaking profile of Hancock on the iPlayer.

2. Gilbert Harding

Gilbert Harding appeared in Face To Face on 18th Sept 1960

3. Martin Luther King

Dr Martin Luther King, Minister of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, talks with producer Hugh Burnett in artist Feliks Topolski's home before taking part in BBC TV's 'Face To Face' programme on Sunday, 29th October 1961. The Negro leader in the struggle for civil rights in the Southern States of America flew to London for this special live transmisson of 'Face To Face'.

4. Edith Sitwell

On May 6th 1959 the distinguished author and poet Dame Edith Sitwell was interviewed on her life, her ideals and ambitions by John Freeman

5. Stirling Moss

Stirling Moss. World famous racing driver appeared on Face To Face with John Freeman on 12th June 1960

6. Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton with Felix Topolski and Hugh Burnett on 18th February 1962

7. Bertrand Russell

John Freeman, Bertrand Russell and Hugh Burnett, 4th March 1959. The last survivor of a dead epoch - this is how the distinguished philosopher describes himself. Now is his eighty-seventh year, he has used his long life to challenge the accepted ideas and conventional attitudes of the day. Lord Russell discusses with john Freeman his appearance, his achievements and his unfulfilled ambitions

8. Carl Jung

Professor Carl Gustav Jung and John Freeman in Jung's home in Zurich in 1959

9. Henry Moore

Picture shows Henry Moore being interviewed by John Freeman in 'Face To Face' (for transmission Sunday 21st February 1960). The programme moved out of its usual setting in the studio. For the first time in the series the interview was recorded by television cameras in the subject's home; in this case, Mr. Moore's studio at Much Hadham in Hertfordshire. An interview with Henry Moore is something of a rarity, for he says 'It is a mistake for the sculptor to speak or write very often about his job. It releases tensions needed for his work'.

10. John Reith

The subject of 'Face To Face' on Sunday, October 30th 1960 at 9.45pm is John Reith - first Lord Reith of Stonehaven - the man who inspired the pattern of broadcasting not only in Britain but in all the other countries which took the BBC as a model when setting up their own broadcasting systems. He was Director-General when the BBC started the world's first regular television service in 1936, but this will be the first time he has taken part in a television programme.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

Radio 4 reporter Hugh Sykes is in Egypt. He presented the Cairo end of today's extended The World This Weekend and he's been providing reports for Broadcasting House, PM, From Our Own Correspondent and many other programmes and bulletins while he's been there. If you're a regular listener you'll know that his speciality is intimate, humane conversations with ordinary people in the troubled places he visits.

If you're a regular reader of the PM blog you'll also be familiar with his photographs. He carries a camera on all his assignments and, during today's The World This Weekend, he mentioned the latest batch from Tahrir Square. So I rushed off an email to Hugh, asking if I might have some for the blog and he emailed me these. They were all taken "in and around Tahrir Square" in the last twenty-four hours.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

• Listen to Hugh's The World This Weekend (co-presented with Shaun Ley) and to his contribution to this week's From Our Own Correspondent on the Radio 4 web site.
• Hugh has made dozens of contributions to the PM blog, many of which make use of his photographs.
• In this short video, on the From Our Own Correspondent web site, Hugh discusses his career and methods.

Editor's note: Sally Flatman, producer of all the Radio 4 Appeal programmes, brings us news from St Martin's. Make your own donation to the appeal on the Radio 4 web site - SB.

We've had an amazing start to this year's appeal - on Sunday, taking calls in London and Belfast from 8am till 10pm we received over £100,000. That is a record but you'll understand why we are still holding our breath - we don't underestimate the challenge of reaching last year's total of £900,000 particularly in the current economic climate.

The job of opening the post is really only just beginning but the team of volunteers is in place and working hard. (there are usually sacks of mail) As ever there are extraordinary donations like the postal orders which total £750 from someone who simply says that they: "spent two nights in the night shelter in 2001... thank you very much all involved".

We will keep in touch as the post gets opened. Thank you to all of you who have given via the web - again we are seeing more donations this year from the web but does this mean there will be fewer cheques? We still don't know at this stage.

If you haven't yet given and would still like to then please call 0800 082 82 84 or send your cheque made payable to St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal to Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 4JJ. If you are giving via the web do spare a couple of minutes to watch Jamie Winter's slideshow: The World Through the Eyes of a Homeless Photographer.

In the meantime we thought we would share this picture with you - the post being answered back in 1950 ...note the sign on the wall - 'PLEASE DON'T TALK' And what a lot of hats...

Sally Flatman is producer of The Radio 4 Appeal

• Listen to the Radio 4 St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal and make a donation on the Radio 4 web site.
• Listen to Libby Purves' Received with Thanks about how your donations are used.
• The BBC Radio 4 Appeal has a Facebook page. Like the page for updates on the weekly appeal which raised a total of £1.5M for 52 charities last year.

You always feel nervous at 7.55am when you are waiting for the Vicar's Radio 4 Christmas Appeal to go out on air - will the phones really start ringing any second. But I need not have worried, our Radio 4 listeners don't let us down - they were ringing to give to this the 84th annual appeal all day on Sunday.

The Reverend Nicholas Holtam says: "The volunteers answering the phones were marvellous. I kept hearing snippets of conversation. Someone gave £5, someone else £1,000, I was really struck that as the volunteers left at the end of their shift answering the phones they nearly all said, "Thank you. It is a privilege to be able to help." This is a very personal appeal with a lot of warmth and generosity."

Many were moved by the story in Received with Thanks, Libby Purves' report back programme how the money from the appeal is spent, of the homeless man who gives his shoes to an older homeless man whose shoes had been stolen. One listener wrote a cheque but also sent two pairs of men's shoes with a note which read: "I hope you can make good use of these - I wish you well."

Others liked hearing from Rosemary Morgan who first heard the Christmas Appeal when she was growing up in Wales, "it touched a spot" and she has been giving to it ever since. She is now 81 years old. The current vicar of St Martins thinks she must have been listening to the Rev Eric Loveday who was at the church from 1941-1947.

If you haven't seen Jamie Winter's photographs and slideshow do spare a couple of minutes to take a look. We knew we wanted to put a slideshow together for this year's appeal and the idea emerged to give clients at the Connection disposable cameras. A photography group was set up and very quickly we realised how powerful these pictures were. Now that photography group has won the Talk Talk Digital Heroes award.

Ben Richardson who runs the group said: "the group are bowled over - it's a huge recognition and everyone is very excited about the potential for doing something in the new year... it opens doors."

These pictures have the power to reveal to us things we don't know about homelessness. Libby Purves says:

Meeting people at the Connection is always fascinating and - despite the harshness of the lives they have come from - oddly heartening. It is extraordinary to meet a young man like Jamie, emerging from a loneliness and alienation so traumatic that he did not speak for months, and find him friendly, creative, and above all filled with hope that he will have a home and a job before long. His achievement - still in progress - is considerable, but so is the achievement of those who over those long months stuck by Jamie, encouraged him, and suggested outlets for his considerable gift of quirky creativity. I felt honoured that he was willing to talk to me and show me his witty, thoughtful photographs.

Sally Flatman is producer of The Radio 4 Appeal

• The Vicar's Christmas Appeal will be repeated at 3.25 on Thursday afternoon Make a donation on the Radio 4 web site.
• Received with Thanks will repeat at 3.45 on Thursday afternoon.
• Pictures by The Connection's photography group are on Flickr.
• The BBC Radio 4 Appeal has a Facebook page. Like the page for updates on the weekly appeal which raised a total of £1.5M for 52 charities last year.
• Picture of telephones by Dan Brady. Some rights reserved.

Editor's note: this blog post begins with a slideshow made by homeless photographer Jamie Winter, a member of a photography group run by The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields - SB

I once edited a Radio 4 debate about homelessness... We based it in the heart of London near Shaftesbury Avenue. The platform was filled with good people who worked hard and we drew out policy differences and approaches in the way we do at the BBC. A little way into the discussion the hall began to fill up with homeless people. Soon it was packed and the debate took a different turn as we responded to the voices of those who lived on the streets.

The atmosphere sharpened and simmered. A young woman, dark, with long hair, spoke up. I recall she said something like this: "If we took all you do-gooders and put your salaries together and split them up we could buy a flat for all of us homeless... why don't you just stop talking for once and think about that." I often think of her when it's cold - good time now perhaps to stop talking and support the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal.

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and Radio 7

• The Radio 4 Christmas Appeal begins on Sunday morning at 0755. Make a donation on the Radio 4 web site.
• Pictures by The Connection's photography group are on Flickr.
• The BBC Radio 4 Appeal has a Facebook page. Like the page for updates on the weekly appeal which raised a total of £1.5M for 52 charities last year.

Editor's note: Joshua Rozenberg launched Law in Action, Radio 4's magazine programme about the law, over a quarter of a century ago and now, after 23 years away, he's back to present the programme again. In his first programme he covers the changing law about photography in public places - SB.

"You can't take pictures of my building," I was told by the rather insistent woman who identified herself as the building manager.

My producer and I had been following an architectural photographer around the City of London. The man with the camera had told us what might happen.

First, the private security guards would order us to stop taking photographs from the public footpath - even though they were taking pictures of us on CCTV.

If we refused to stop, they would call the police. We could then expect to be searched under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Officers could inspect the pictures recorded on our camera.

Then - unless we really were terrorists - we could carry on taking pictures for as long as we liked.

All this went through my mind as the building manger and a burly security guard tried to shoo us away. What should we do?

To begin with, we stood our ground. The photographer carried on snapping. I continued holding a large and very visible microphone. And my loyal producer, wearing headphones, continued recording.

Eventually, the building manager lost patience. "Call the police," she ordered the guard standing behind her.

Two thoughts went through my mind. An audio recording of me being searched under anti-terrorism powers would be a great way to start the new series of Law in Action. On the other hand, it might just persuade the BBC that I should never present the programme again.

For one thing, we were shortly to interview the Assistant Commissioner of the City Police. He might be slightly less generous with his time if we had wasted the time of his constables.

And, for another, I have managed to reach the age of 60 without troubling the police over any more than a couple of minor motoring matters. Did I really want my name linked to anti-terrorist searches on a police computer somewhere?

I made an excuse and left. We began Law in Action with the building manager instead.

And the police later assured me that I hadn't been breaking the law.

Joshua Rozenberg is presenter of Law in Action on BBC Radio 4.

• The first in the new series of Law in Action is on the Radio 4 web site. The next episode is on Tuesday 15 June at 1630.
• The Terrorism Act 2000 is on the OPSI web site.
• The Press Gazette covered Joshua's return to Radio 4.
• The picture, taken at a protest against the Act in Trafalgar Square, is by Sarah. Used under licence.