SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2015

SAT 00:00 15 Minute Drama (b03h7grn)
Children in Need: Holding On to You
Episode 5
D.L. Weller's powerful drama about child sexual exploitation and grooming.
As Holly is helped to come to terms with the truth, she faces a difficult decision about Jay.
D.L. Weller has done extensive research with victims and their families and professionals working in child protection and safeguarding. Holding On To You, although fictional, is informed and inspired by these interviews. It explores a problem thought to affect tens of thousands of children, of all backgrounds, yet that still remains largely hidden and apparently unaddressed in many regions.
SAT 00:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c6wpj)
Design or Accident - Why Me?
Heather Couper presents a narrative history of astronomy.
Given all that we now know about the formation of stars and planets and the evolution of life on Earth, it might seem as if the mystery is being taken out of the universe. However, every solution seems to throw up a deeper mystery. Within our understanding of physics, there are no known fundamental reasons for much of the astronomical phenomena that we observe. Of course, we can only observe a universe that supports life. This is known as the anthropic principle and has far-reaching implications. Some argue that it makes the universe very special, as if we were meant to be, while others suggest that we inhabit one of the few bio-friendly corners in an almost infinite multiverse of possibilities.
Readers are Timothy West, Robin Sebastian, Julian Rhind-Tutt and John Palmer.
SAT 00:30 Book at Bedtime (b00s5ncd)
A Perpetual Love Affair
Jan Morris's Venice
Henry James felt that the inevitable relationship with Venice was "a perpetual love affair", and certainly many writers have found that to be true.
In today's piece about the city, travel writer Jan Morris notes particularly the children of Venice - and the cats. The reader is Selina Cadell, and the programme is abridged and produced by Christine Hall.
SAT 00:45 Book of the Week (b014m93d)
Tim Jeal - Explorers of the Nile
Episode 5
Having found Dr Livingstone, Stanley is determined to continue the doctor's quest to find the source of the Nile
Nothing obsessed explorers of the mid-nineteenth century more than the quest to discover the source of the White Nile. It was the planet's most elusive secret, the prize coveted above all others. Between 1856 and 1876, six larger-than-life men and one extraordinary woman accepted the challenge. Showing extreme courage and resilience, Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, James Augustus Grant, Samuel Baker, Florence von Sass, David Livingstone, and Henry Morton Stanley risked their lives and reputations in the fierce competition.
Award-winning author Tim Jeal deploys fascinating new research to provide a vivid tableau of the unmapped 'Dark Continent', its jungle deprivations, and the courage as well as malicious tactics of the explorers.
Jeal weaves the story with authentic new detail and examines the tragic unintended legacy of the Nile search that still casts a long shadow over the people of Uganda and Sudan.
Tim Jeal is the author of acclaimed biographies of Livingstone, Baden-Powell, and Stanley, each selected as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and the Washington Post. He lives in London.
Reader: Alex Jennings
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 01:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b015mzzd)
Series 4
Linehan, Sutherland, Scales
Hosted by the Professor of Ignorance from the University of Buckingham John Lloyd C.B.E. and the intensely curious comedian Dave Gorman.
This week's guests:
Coming from a long line of vicars, Robin Ince is the UK's most rational comedian, and he tests his reason to the limit once every year by performing at least four shows a day at the Edinburgh fringe. His infamous Bad Book Club, which in which he invites his fellow comedians to celebrate awful literature, has become an institution, and his massive Christmas show Nine Lessons and Carols For Godless People is now a huge event, featuring the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Dara O Briain and Richard Dawkins.
Roger Highfield is a scientist, science author and the editor of New Scientist, but if you met him, you wouldn't immediately guess that science is his thing. He's jolly and worldly and has the hearty laugh of a comic supervillain. He first made his name as a scientist be being the first person ever to bounce a neutron off a soap bubble. Roger has written and co-written 9 best-selling science books, including a book on the hows and whys of Dolly the sheep, an explanation of the science of Harry Potter and a biography of Einstein.
Gareth Edwards is a filmmaker whose success and methods of achieving it have sent ripples of fear through the studios of Hollywood. His movie Monsters is an apocalyptic blockbuster which he made for one five hundredth of the budget for Avatar by shooting with a small, mobile team, hiring non-actors on the spot and using dazzling-but-cheap CGI effects.
SAT 01:30 My Life in Five Books (b012lnm1)
Series 2
Joanne Harris
Joanna Harris has written eleven novels including Chocolat which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.
Her most recent book, Blueeyedboy has been recently published in paperback.
She picks five books that are important in her life and explains to Stuart Cosgrove how she allows her daughter to read books that were banned in her young life. Joanne explains how she draws inspiration for her own writing and how she was pleased with the film adaptation of her most famous novel.
Joanne's five books:
1: GORMENGHAST by Mervyn Peake
2: SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury
3: PERFUMES by Luca Turin.
4: LES MISERABLES by Victor Hugo
5: SANDMAN SERIES by Neil Gaiman.
First broadcast on BBC Scotland in 2011.
SAT 02:00 Wimsey (b007jvn1)
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
5. At Lady Dormer's
Discovering General Fentiman was poisoned, Lord Peter Wimsey decides to probe Miss Dorland's hobby.
Ian Carmichael stars as the aristocratic sleuth.
Dorothy L Sayers' detective mystery dramatised by Chris Miller.
Lord Peter Wimsey …. Ian Carmichael
Robert Fentiman ...... Allan Cuthbertson
Inspector Parker ...... Gabriel Woolf
Sheila Fentiman ...... Frances Jeater
Ann Dorland ...... Amanda Reiss
Mrs Munns ...... Ysanne Churchman
Nellie ...... Judy Bridgland
Mr Munns ...... Clifford Norgate.
Producer: Simon Brett
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1975.
SAT 02:30 Bob Marley: The Chrysler Year (b00p3p56)
Lifelong reggae fan Jonathan Charles traces the missing year when Bob Marley dropped out of the Jamaican music scene and spent a year driving a forklift truck in the Chrysler car factory in Wilmington, Delaware.
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 03:00 Dave Sheasby - Donkeys Led By Lions (b00vy71t)
Teacher Arthur Willis battles his conscience over fighting in the Great War, with devastating consequences. Stars Ian Dunn.
SAT 04:00 Ghost Stories of E Nesbit (b01nmjlq)
The Ebony Frame
A man inherits a property where he discovers a portrait of a woman that will change his life forever. Read by Anton Lesser.
SAT 04:15 Katie Hims - Lila (b007632j)
Lila has lost her husband. Only his tactless brothers are left. Will life be the same after Ron's death? Starring Denise Black.
SAT 05:00 Beachcomber... By the Way (b0080jmp)
Series 1
Episode 1
Dr Strabismus sets a trap for a mouse, Colonel Wretch gets a visit from Hercules the Mighty, and Mr Justice Cocklecarrot encounters the notorious 12 red-bearded dwarfs for the first time.
Richard Ingrams, John Wells, John Sessions and Patricia Routledge recreate the world of the JB Morton.
Running in the Daily Express from 1924 to 1975 – JB Morton’s surreally comic ‘Beachcomber’ column paved the way for a great deal of modern humour.
Adapted by Michael Barfield with Richard Ingrams.
Announcer: Brian Perkins
Producer: Harry Thompson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1989.
SAT 05:30 Living with the Enemy (b00771ft)
Episode 3
Gyles persuades Nick to help him seek revenge on his estranged wife.
Sitcom about a Tory MP-turned-media celebrity and a comedian-turned-holistic therapist.
Written by and starring Nick Revell and Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandon ...... Gyles Brandreth
Nick Reynolds ...... Nick Revell
Sophie Okuyu ...... Guqu Mbatha-Raw
Mrs Woodman ...... Prunella Scales
Mr Woodman ...... Timothy West
Producer: Ed Morrish
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2006.
SAT 06:00 Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote (b007k0m0)
Episode 2
The Adventures of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de Ie Mancha by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra.
The intrepid Don Quixote is challenged by the Knight of the Mirrors. The classic adventure published in 1605. Adapted by John Arden.
Starring Bob Grant as Don Quixote, Bernard Cribbins as Sancho Panza, Ronald Baddiley as Cervantes, David Sumner as Father Perez and Peter Wheeler as Barber-Surgeon.
Music composed by Stephen Boxer.
Director: Alfred Bradley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1980.
SAT 07:30 Freedom Pass (b00sn9rn)
Episode 4
Sexagenarians Alan Coren and Christopher Matthew use free travel for another chatty trip on their local buses. From September 2004.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b0076pgg)
The Hills Are Alive
4 Extra Debut. Fifty years after The Sound of Music hit the big screen, Mark Kermode hears from the creative team who made it happen. Includes Julie Andrews. From December 2004.
SAT 09:00 The Lives and Work of Somerset Maugham (b054051p)
William Somerset Maugham was one of the most commercially successful English writers ever.
His plays, short stories and novels effortlessly sold in their millions; his work on stage, page and screen drew huge audiences. He remains the English writer most adapted for film and TV. And yet he described himself as possessing only a "knack" for writing and his place among the literary greats as being only "in the first row of the second rate". Despite his huge popularity with a mass audience, the literary establishment dismissed him as "middle brow".
The subjects he wrote about, and his complex and exotic lifestyle moulded the image of the successful 20th century writer - a wide circle of famous friends, a villa in the South of France, the adulation of readers across the globe and the ears of the Empire's leaders. His own long life, too, reads like the plot for a novel. Born when Disraeli was Prime Minister, he died when the 60s were in full swing. He trained as a doctor, dedicated himself to being a writer, and spent time as a First World War spy. He travelled the globe in search of material for stories - chronicling the boredom, frustration and scandals of the colonial class of empire builders.
His private life was complicated. In England he seemed a pillar of the establishment, yet he set up an exotic and promiscuous lifestyle in a villa on the Cote d'Azur with a succession of gay lovers. His last years were marked by an extraordinary, toxic family quarrel, betrayal and a public fall from grace.
He died on December 16th 1965 in Nice, France.
Simon Fanshawe examines the literary legacy and complex private lives of Maugham in the company of writers, performers, biographers and family members.
Producer: Mike Greenwood
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Pier Productions and first broadcast in February 2015.
SAT 12:00 The Henry Experiment (Omnibus) (b054051r)
A mother (Emma Fielding) fears that a child parenting expert (Matthew Marsh) is endangering his own seven-year-old son Henry by testing out his theories of early independence on him.
When Anna finds a boy alone and barefoot on Hampstead Heath, she accompanies him home for his own safety. But she is horrified to discover that he was left there on purpose to develop his independence, by his father, the famous parenting expert Professor Horace Henderson.
A thriller which asks whether our society bubble wraps children, whether we have the right to interfere in other people's children's lives and how we become parents with the spectres of our own childhoods still looming over our shoulders.
Based on the novel by the journalist Sophie Radice and adapted by award-winning writer Charlotte Jones.
Anna ... Emma Fielding
Henderson ... Matthew Marsh
Henry ... Finn Monteath
Mother ... Elaine Claxton
David ... Ian Conningham
Jason ... Paul Heath
Policewoman ... Hannah Genesius
Omnibus producer: Liz Webb
First broadcast in five parts on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.
SAT 13:05 Inheritance Tracks (b04prp0s)
Ruthie Henshall
West End and Broadway star Ruthie Henshall selects Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland and Faure's In Paradisum.
SAT 13:15 John Peacock - London Particulars (b008p9l1)
A Cuckoo in the Nest
A man lost at sea returns to claim his fortune. Bow Street runner Pip and Peeler Thomas investigate. Stars Charles Simpson.
SAT 14:00 The Michael Bentine Show (b008vnrl)
From 12/02/1984
From an old colonial to a herd of operatic cows – it can only be Michael Bentine.
The ultimate one man show written and performed by the host.
Producer: Jamie Rix
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in February 1984.
SAT 14:30 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00sz54y)
Series 4
Episode 4
Can Tim escape the villains? Will Jo do a love scene with King Harold?
More quick-fire sketches, terrible puns, humorous songs and parodies.
Stars Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, David Hatch, Jo Kendall and Bill Oddie.
Written by Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graeme Garden, Eric Idle and Bill Oddie. Plus Andy Smith and Don Currell.
Originating from the Cambridge University Footlights revue 'Cambridge Circus', ISIRTA ran for 8 years on BBC Radio and quickly developed a cult following.
Music and songs by Dave Lee and Bill Oddie.
Producer: Humphrey Barclay
First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in October 1966.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b0076pgg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote (b007k0m0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Gloomsbury (b01ngrwf)
Series 1
A Desperate Attempt to Have Fun
The writer Vera Sackcloth-Vest has to tear herself away from her beloved garden just at the moment when her mammillarias are about to open.
She and her husband Henry have been summoned to London by her bosom chum, the novelist Ginny Fox. Ginny and her husband Lionel have realized that they have never had what is known as "fun" and they beg Vera and Henry to provide it.
Simultaneously, Vera's ardent acolyte Venus Traduces asks Vera to educate her, so she can be taken seriously by the Gloomsbury set. Exhausted by her efforts to educate and entertain, and haunted by the fear that her beloved Henry will soon be posted to the Balkans, Vera endures an emotional crisis at a picnic in Kensington Gardens.
Rescue arrives unexpectedly, and she escapes back to her beloved Sizzlinghurst, just as her mammillarias lift their saucy little faces to the sun.
Cast:
Vera Sackcloth-Vest ..... Miriam Margolyes
Henry Mickleton ..... Jonathan Coy
Venus Traduces ..... Morwenna Banks
Mrs Ginny Fox ..... Alison Steadman
Lionel Fox ..... Nigel Planer
Produced by Jamie Rix
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 18:00 Bruce Bedford - The Gibson (b007js93)
Episode 5
Saul and Elise make a grim discovery in the nursing home.
Bruce Bedford's time-hopping supernatural thriller serial set in - and under - Bath.
Robert Glenister .... Saul Judd
Sharon Duce .... Elise Judd
Freddie Jones .... The Scribe
Kate Binchy .... The Scribe's Wife
Timothy West .... Selwyn Fist
Zoe Hicks .... Miss Dewhurst
Katy Carmichael .... Tracky
Constance Chapman .... Haensel Sethria
Bill Bellamy .... Leaflet Man
Original music composed by Thomas Johnson.
Music realised by Robin Lever.
Special effects: Dick Mills (Radiophonic Workshop)
Directed at BBC Bristol by Andy Jordan
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1992.
SAT 18:30 Paradise Lost in Cyberspace (b007jpgs)
Episode 5
Now a fully-fledged OAP, George Smith is set for a special mission with Andrea Sunbeam and Mrs Cookson.
Colin Swash's dystopian comedy set in 22nd-century Britain, starring Stephen Moore as George Smith.
George ...... Stephen Moore
Doris ...... Patsy Byrne
O'Connell ...... Geoffrey McGivern
Mrs Cookson ...... Edna Dore
Andrea Sunbeam ...... Lorelei King
Wilma P Random ...... Melanie Hudson
Other parts played by Christopher Douglas, Lewis MacLeod and Peter Serafinowicz.
Producer: Richard Wilson.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1998.
SAT 19:00 The Lives and Work of Somerset Maugham (b054051p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Meera Syal's Asian Comedy Night (b01qdwwr)
Episode 1
Meera Syal and Tommy Sandhu introduce a celebration of British Asian stand up comedy from the BBC Radio Theatre in London.
With Shazia Mirza, Imran Yusuf, Humza Badman, Kulvinder Ghir, Hyde Panesar and Pakistan's first stand up comedian Sami Shah.
Producer: Jon Holmes
Made for the BBC Asian Network by Tonic Productions and first broadcast in July 2012.
SAT 22:30 The Lawrence Sweeney Mix (b008vbbw)
Series 1
Episode 1
No script and making it up as they go along!
Faced with a live studio audience and a couple of microphones - masters of improv, Josie Lawrence and Jim Sweeney create sketches from shouted out suggestions.
Producer: Dawn Ellis
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2007.
SAT 23:00 Mark Steel's in Town (b00s782k)
Series 2
Gateshead
Comedian Mark Steel travels to Gateshead to perform to locals who under no circumstances want their town to be confused with Newcastle.

Whilst up there Mark enjoys a memorable night out in a local pub; a telling-off in the Baltic Art Gallery, a visit to the Angel of The North and an ugly car park that some people want to preserve because of its role in a grisly murder. From May 2010.
SAT 23:30 The Jason Byrne Show (b00n1jtw)
Series 1
Medicine
Probing a fresh theme each week, the award-winning comic hosts stand-up and sketches. With Ivan Brackenbury. From August 2008.


SUNDAY 01 MARCH 2015

SUN 00:00 Bruce Bedford - The Gibson (b007js93)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Saturday]
SUN 00:30 Paradise Lost in Cyberspace (b007jpgs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Saturday]
SUN 01:00 Archive on 4 (b0076pgg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 on Saturday]
SUN 02:00 The Henry Experiment (Omnibus) (b054051r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:00 on Saturday]
SUN 03:05 Inheritance Tracks (b04prp0s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:05 on Saturday]
SUN 03:15 John Peacock - London Particulars (b008p9l1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:15 on Saturday]
SUN 04:00 Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote (b007k0m0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Saturday]
SUN 05:30 Gloomsbury (b01ngrwf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:30 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 Children in Need - Holding On to You, Omnibus (b03hmt7l)
Fourteen-year-old Holly can't believe her luck when she is asked out by 20-year-old Jay. Why can't anyone be happy for her? Commissioned by Children in Need.
SUN 07:15 Snapshots in the Dark (b0075qj2)
Lennart Nilsson - The Inner Child
Colin Ford investigates the impact of Nilsson's photograph of a foetus taken inside its mother's womb. From December 1999.
SUN 07:30 Clare in the Community (b015ctw6)
Series 7
Rude Girl
Social Worker, Clare Barker, is concerned she may be linguistically out of touch with today's youth. Brian fails to impress Clare with numerous romantic gestures. A Heating Engineer causes a stir in the Family Centre and Megan causes chaos.
Sally Phillips is Clare Barker the social worker who has all the right jargon but never a practical solution.
A control freak, Clare likes nothing better than interfering in other people's lives on both a professional and personal basis. Clare is in her thirties, white, middle class and heterosexual, all of which are occasional causes of discomfort to her.
Each week we join Clare in her continued struggle to control both her professional and private life
In today's Big Society there are plenty of challenges out there for an involved, caring social worker. Or even Clare.
Episode Three 'Rude Girl' Cast:
SALLY PHILLIPS Clare
ALEX LOWE Brian
NINA CONTI Megan / Nali / Beautician
RICHARD LUMSDEN Ray
LIZA TARBUCK Helen
ANDREW WINCOTT Simon / John Harris / Youth Leader
SARAH KENDALL Libby
NATHAN CATON Daniel
GERARD McDERMOT Mr Truscott / Barman / Paramedic
STEFAN RAMSDEN Thomas
Written by Harry Venning and David Ramsden
Producer Katie Tyrrell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.
SUN 08:00 All Gas and Gaiters (b0082bbs)
Series 1
The Bishop Rides Again
The Bishop works to secure a bequest. Clerical comedy adapted from TV.
The regular characters are the easy-going Bishop, the elderly Archdeacon with an eye for the ladies and who enjoys a tipple, and the naive and accident-prone Bishop's Chaplain. Their wish to live a quiet bachelor life is under continuous threat from the overbearing Dean.
The ecclesiastical sitcom started life as a TV pilot in Comedy Playhouse, ahead of a run on BBC1 from 1966 to 1971. Selected scripts were revised and re-recorded for Radio 4.
CAST:
The Archdeacon …. Robertson Hare
The Bishop …. William Mervyn
Reverend Noote …. Derek Nimmo
The Dean …. John Barron
with Rosalind Adams, Ingrid Bower, Anne Davies and Frank Abbott
Written by husband-and-wife team Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps.
Produced by David Hatch.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1971.
SUN 08:30 Life With The Lyons (b013pdbt)
The Play's the Thing
Barbara is playing Ophelia in the school show - could this be her big break?
Starring real-life American family: Ben Lyon and his wife Bebe Daniels and their children, Richard and Barbara.
With Doris Rogers as Florrie, Molly Weir as Aggie, Horace Percival as Mr Wimple, David Enders and Hugh Morton.
Life With the Lyons was one the BBC's most popular radio sitcoms between1950 and 1961. It was also adapted for BBC TV.
Written by Bebe Daniels, Bob Block and Bill Harding.
BBC Variety Orchestra conducted by Paul Fenoulhet.
Incidental music by Arthur Wilkinson
Producer: Tom Ronald
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in April 1952.
SUN 09:00 Ian Fleming - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (b00zzwfj)
Ian Fleming's magical tale of a car saved from the scrapyard that takes the Pott family on a fantastic adventure. Stars Imogen Stubbs.
SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b05408pd)
Parky at 80
Tony Bennett
4 Extra Debut. From Art Tatum to Sinatra and Stravinsky, the singer Tony Bennett shares his castaway choices with Michael Parkinson. From January 1987.
SUN 10:45 Afternoon Reading (b00tj89v)
Claire Keegan - Foster
Episode 2
By Claire Keegan
Abridged by Neville Teller
A heartbreaking, haunting story of childhood, loss and love by one of Ireland's most acclaimed writers. A small girl is sent to live with her mother's people on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed, and suddenly, she realizes how fragile her idyll is.
Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster will be published in a revised and expanded version by Faber on 2nd September 2010. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.
Claire Keegan's first collection of short stories, 'Antarctica', was completed in 1998 and was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature. Her second short story collection, 'Walk the Blue Fields', was published to enormous critical acclaim in 2007 and won her the 2008 Edge Hill Prize for Short Stories. Claire Keegan lives in County Louth, Ireland.
'Foster' is read by Evanna Lynch, best known to many for her portrayal of Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films.
Producer Heather Larmour.
SUN 11:00 TED Radio Hour (b05408pg)
Series 1
Success
A journey through fascinating ideas based on talks by riveting speakers on the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) stage.
Guy Raz investigates ideas about what makes us successful. With motivation guru Tony Robbins and writer Alain de Botton.
SUN 11:45 Roddy Doyle - Bullfighting (b01dlccp)
Teaching
As a student questions her teacher, he reflects on 23 years in that room waiting for the bell to ring. Short stories by the Irish novelist, read by Conor Mullen.
SUN 12:00 Children in Need - Holding On to You, Omnibus (b03hmt7l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SUN 13:15 Snapshots in the Dark (b0075qj2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 today]
SUN 13:30 Van der Valk - King of the Rainy Country (b01p6tkh)
A handsome middle-aged millionaire disappears - along with a naked girl. Amsterdam’s Commissaris Van der Valk tracks them across Europe.
Nicolas Freeling’s award-winning novel dramatised by Philip Martin.
CAST:
Van der Valk …. Martin Jarvis
Anne-Marie…. Jackie Smith-Wood
Canisius …. Michael Fitzgerald
Arlette …. Sunny Ormonde
Lira …. Roger Hume
Heinz Stossell …. Alan Devereux
Miss Kramer …. Gillian Goodman
Commissaris …. Geoff Serle
Serrailler …. Leon Tanner
Wollek …. Simon Carter
Doctor …. David Vann
Director: Philip Martin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1994.
SUN 15:00 All Gas and Gaiters (b0082bbs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SUN 15:30 Life With The Lyons (b013pdbt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
SUN 16:00 Mel's Mix: The Best of The 4 O'Clock Show (b05409q8)
Blind Stuntman, Jamie Oliver and Sandwiches
Mel Giedroyc introduces the highlights of this week's 4 O'Clock Shows including blind stuntman Deano Dunbar, chef Jamie Oliver and a celebration of the sandwich.
SUN 17:00 Ian Fleming - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (b00zzwfj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SUN 18:00 The Man in Black (b018j7ww)
Series 4
5. The New Boy by Matthew Wilkie
Craig has a new job, but how far will he go to impress his boss?
Mark Gatiss as the sinister raconteur, The Man in Black, introduces Matthew Wilkie's tale.
Craig ...... Simon Bubb
Mr Rubenstein ...... Stephen Greif
Beth ...... Victoria Inez Hardy
Nelson ...... Adam Billington
William ...... Christopher Webster
More horrifying tales from The Man in Black. You might meet him at a luggage carousel in an airport, or behind the desk at an employment agency or he might approach you in the corridor of a care home. Wherever you encounter him, he's eager to pass on his stories. Stories to unsettle and horrify. Stories to haunt you.
Director: Lucy Collingwood
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in December 2011.
SUN 18:30 Alex Jones - Lightbulbs (b038xn76)
Steve returns from abroad after a year away to discover there's something nasty in the shed...
Alex Jones's tale of the supernatural starring Terry Molloy.
Steve .... David Holt
Joan...... Jillie Meers
Bill..... Terry Molloy
Karen... Lorna Laidlaw
Aunt Dot...Joyce Gibbs
Mrs Stanley....Sunny Ormonde
Vicar....Richard Curnow
Felicity... Mia Busby
Music by Alex Jones.
Producer: Sue Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1995.
SUN 19:00 TED Radio Hour (b05408pg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
SUN 19:45 Roddy Doyle - Bullfighting (b01dlccp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 today]
SUN 20:00 All Gas and Gaiters (b0082bbs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SUN 20:30 Life With The Lyons (b013pdbt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
SUN 21:00 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b05408pd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
SUN 21:45 Afternoon Reading (b00tj89v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]
SUN 22:00 Clare in the Community (b015ctw6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 22:30 Elvenquest (b00wqfnn)
Series 2
Episode 6
The noble band of Questers are in a pub and within touching distance of getting their hands on the Sword of Asnagar.
Lord Darkness still has a few tricks up his sleeve and he's not about to let the possibility of eternal dominion over Lower Earth slip through his fingers without pulling out all the stops.
Will the Questers be strong enough to handle the immense power of the Sword? Or, as ever with these things, will they be tempted over to the Dark Side...?
Fantasy-based sitcom set in Lower Earth written by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto.
Sam …. Stephen Mangan
Lord Darkness …. Alistair McGowan
Dean/Kreech …. Kevin Eldon
Vidar …. Darren Boyd
Amis ‘The Chosen One’ …. Dave Lamb
Penthiselea …. Sophie Winkleman
Producer: Sam Michell
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2010.
SUN 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b054c8ld)
The best in contemporary comedy. Tonight, Arthur Smith chats to Ian Moore.
SUN 23:00 Newsjack (b053n0y9)
Series 12
Episode 1
This week's stories lovingly bashed, mashed and moulded into sketches, one-liners and vox-pops by the public. Trying to make sense of it all is our host, Nish Kumar.
Nish is joined this week by Jess Ransom, Mike Wozniak and Ellie White.
SUN 23:30 Meet David Sedaris (b00rz0k6)
Series 1
Picapocketoni; I'll Eat What He's Wearing
From Carnegie Hall to the BBC Radio Theatre - American humourist David Sedaris reads from his extensive collection of published stories and articles. In show 3 of 4: "Picapocketoni" and "I'll Eat What He's Wearing".
The producer is Steve Doherty. This is a Boomerang Plus production for BBC Radio 4.


MONDAY 02 MARCH 2015

MON 00:00 The Man in Black (b018j7ww)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Sunday]
MON 00:30 Alex Jones - Lightbulbs (b038xn76)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Sunday]
MON 01:00 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b05408pd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Sunday]
MON 01:45 Afternoon Reading (b00tj89v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 on Sunday]
MON 02:00 All Gas and Gaiters (b0082bbs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 on Sunday]
MON 02:30 Life With The Lyons (b013pdbt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 on Sunday]
MON 03:00 Clare in the Community (b015ctw6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Sunday]
MON 03:30 Van der Valk - King of the Rainy Country (b01p6tkh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]
MON 05:00 Ian Fleming - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (b00zzwfj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Sunday]
MON 06:00 Wimsey (b007jvn3)
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
6. Ann Dorland
With two suspects missing, Lord Peter Wimsey battles to pinpoint the poisoner.
Ian Carmichael stars as the aristocratic sleuth.
Conclusion of Dorothy L Sayers' detective mystery.
Lord Peter Wimsey …. Ian Carmichael
Robert Fentiman ...... Allan Cuthbertson
George Fentiman ...... Martin Jarvis
Inspector Parker ...... Gabriel Woolf
Ann Dorland ...... Amanda Reiss
Sheila Fentiman ...... Frances Jeater
Dr Penberthy ...... Christopher Emmett
Colonel Marchbanks ...... Wilfrid Carter
Dramatised by Chris Miller.
Producer: Simon Brett
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1975.
MON 06:30 The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (b00c67jq)
Phill Jupitus follows the celebrated ensemble of all-singing, all-strumming ukulele players who command a cult following.
Their unique blend of comedy and music fills venues worldwide and boasts many celebrity fans. Musicologists explain the finer nuances of their subversive and high-quality ukulele playing and arrangements.
Co-founder of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Kitty Lux sadly died in July 2017.
Produced and written by Turan Ali.
Made for BBC Radio 4 by Bona Broadcasting and first broadcast in 2008.
MON 07:00 Know Your Place (b01852w0)
Lift Off
Caretaker Ramsay Potts' love of rules sparks catastrophe for an MP in a lift...
Ramsay Potts is the jobsworth caretaker at a crumbling Edwardian block of flats, pursued by the over-amorous cleaner Elsie Spurgeon.
Starring Roy Dotrice as Ramsay Potts and Patricia Hayes as Elspeth Spurgeon
Sitcom written by Andrew Palmer and Nell Brennan.
With Frank Thornton, John Graham, April Walker and John Glover.
Producer: Edward Taylor
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in January 1982.
MON 07:30 Just a Minute (b053721t)
Series 71
Episode 3
Just how hard can it be to talk for 60 seconds with no hesitation, repetition or deviation? Gyles Brandreth, Marcus Brigstocke, Jenny Eclair and Shappi Khorsandi try their best. Subjects include 'Animal Husbandry', 'The Rights of Spring' and 'The Goons'.
This is this third episode in series 71 of Radio 4's classic panel game in which the contestants are challenged to speak on a given subject for a minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation.
This series, the guests include Jenny Eclair, Stephen Fry, Sheila Hancock, Robin Ince Paul Merton, Graham Norton, and trying his hand at the game for the first time, the tenth doctor, David Tennant.
Recorded at the BBC's Radio Theatre and Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, this long running and popular series enters its 47th year with the same wonderful host, Nicholas Parsons.
MON 08:00 Dad's Army (b007jll5)
Series 1
Sergeant Wilson's Little Secret
Confusion reigns for Sergeant Wilson when Mrs Pike reveals news of a "new arrival".
The comic exploits of a Second World War Home Guard platoon in Walmington-on-Sea.
Adapted for radio from Jimmy Perry and David Croft's TV scripts by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles.
Captain Mainwaring …. Arthur Lowe
Sergeant Wilson …. John Le Mesurier
Corporal Jones …. Clive Dunn
Private Walker …. James Beck
Private Godfrey …. Arnold Ridley
Private Pike …. Ian Lavender
Private Frazer …. John Laurie
Warden Hodges …. Bill Pertwee
Mrs Pike …. Pearl Hackney
Announcer …. John Snagge
Producer: John Dyas
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1974.
MON 08:30 The Michael Bentine Show (b008x0wg)
From 19/02/1984
From Russian spies to a tour of BBC sound effects department.
Michael Bentine in the ultimate one-man show written and performed by the host.
Producer: Jamie Rix
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in February 1984.
MON 09:00 Quote... Unquote (b00rb16j)
Nigel Rees chairs the popular quiz involving the exchange of quotations and anecdotes.
With Mary Beard, Marcel Theroux, Arthur Smith and Ariel Leve.
The reader is Peter Jefferson.
MON 09:30 The Brig Society (b02ykygj)
Series 1
Fashion
Uh-oh - Marcus Brigstocke has been put in charge of a thing! Each week, Marcus finds he's volunteered to be in charge of a big old thing - a hospital, the railways, British fashion, a prison. And each week he starts out by thinking "Well, it can't be that difficult, surely?" and ends up with "Oh - turns out it's utterly difficult and complicated. Who knew...?"
This week, Marcus has volunteered to be the face of British fashion, which is a feather in his cap - coincidentally making his very first fashion mistake there. But as well as promoting the corduroy cagoule and inadvertently releasing his own fragrance, Marcus will be examining the light-hearted topics of Size Zero models and child labour as well as pondering the inexorable rise of the Ugg boot.
Helping him fail to find the answers will be Rufus Jones (Hunderby, Holy Flying Circus), William Andrews (Sorry I've Got No Head) and Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Miranda)
The show is produced by Marcus's long-standing accomplice, David Tyler, who also produces Marcus appearances as the inimitable as Giles Wemmbley Hogg.
Written by Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Salsby, Toby Davies, Nick Doody, Steve Punt and Tom Neenan
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 10:00 Classic Serial (b04bmtpk)
Honoré de Balzac - Eugenie Grandet
Episode 1
Rose Tremain's gripping dramatisation, starring Ian McKellen, of Balzac's tragic novel revolving around Grandet, an ageing vine farmer, and his innocent young daughter Eugenie.
Monsieur Grandet, who has amassed a considerable fortune, is a miser who feigns poverty and runs his household along miserably frugal lines. All changes with the arrival of Eugenie's handsome 22-year-old cousin, Charles Grandet, from Paris. Charles has brought with him a shocking letter from his father, Guillaume, who has committed suicide. He has placed his debts and the care of his son into his brother's hands. It is a fatal decision, with ruinous consequences for the whole family.
Eugenie Grandet is considered by many to be the strongest novel in Balzac's magnificent series, The Human Comedy. It pits a young naive girl against the father she has worshipped and this defiance sets us on course for the playing out of a heart-rending tragedy. Like King Lear, Grandet is a man who deeply loves the daughter who has defied him. He has no other child, no hope, no future but her. But in Balzac's 'human comedy' the tragic and the comic exist side by side and this fruitful conjunction blossoms in Rose Tremain's enthralling adaptation.
Cello and Treble Recorder: Alison Baldwin
Original Music: Lucinda Mason Brown
Produced and directed by Gordon House
A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 11:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b05447xr)
The Great, Grand, Soap-Water Kick
A tramp, unused to speaking, describes the occasional ritual of taking a bath. Remarkable story read by Paul Copley.
When this volume of short stories was published in May 2014 , Christobel Kent in the Guardian described how it is Gardam's gift -
''for showing us what a place of wonders is the world and the hearts that dwell in it, that endows this collection with a dangerous and formidable energy, richer and more concentrated than any novel. She gives us miracle heaped upon miracle, and insists that they should each one be handled with care.'.
MON 11:15 Loose Ends (b053rzvs)
John Sergeant, Alex Wheatle, Odaline de la Martinez, Judy Finnigan, Emma Freud, Carleen Anderson, Dennis Greaves, Mark Feltham
Clive Anderson is joined by John Sergeant, Alex Wheatle, Odaline de la Martinez, Emma Freud & Judy Finnigan. Music from Carleen Anderson and Dennis Greaves & Mark Feltham.
Producer: Sukey Firth.
MON 12:00 Dad's Army (b007jll5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 12:30 The Michael Bentine Show (b008x0wg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 13:00 Wimsey (b007jvn3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 13:30 The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (b00c67jq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 14:00 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b043wvxj)
The Proposition
1) The Proposition
A thriller set in India from the author of "Slumdog Millionaire".
Sapna Sinha works as a sales assistant in a TV showroom in New Delhi. Being the only breadwinner in the family she works long hours to provide for her widowed mother and younger sister. But then a man walks into her life with an extraordinary proposition: pass seven tests and he will make her the CEO of his global empire. Sapna is suspicious. Dramatised from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
Writers:
Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and a best-selling novelist. His first novel "Q & A" was made into the Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" as well as Sony Award winning radio drama serial for BBC Radio .
Ayeesha Menon dramatized Vikas Swarup's other novels SIX SUSPECTS and Q & A, which won a Sony Award for Best Drama. She also wrote for Radio 4 THE MUMBAI CHUZZLEWITS, UNDERCOVER MUMBAI, THE CAIRO TRILOGY and MY NAME IS RED. Her stage play PEREIRA'S BAKERY AT 76 CHAPEL ROAD, which was developed with the Royal Court Theatre, was recently staged by the Curve Theatre, Leicester.
John Dryden wrote the original three-part dramas series SEVERED THREADS, THE RELUCTANT SPY and PANDEMIC, which won the Writer's Guild Award for best radio drama script. His dramatisation of BLEAK HOUSE won a Sony Award for Best Drama. Other dramatisations include A SUITABLE BOY, A HANDMAID'S TALE and FATHERLAND one of the most repeated dramas on R4 Extra.
Production:
Sound Design - Steve Bond
Editing Assistant - Varun Bangera
Script Editor - Mike Walker
Assistant Producer - Toral Shah
Music - Sacha Putnam
Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from the novel "ACCIDENTAL APPRENTICE" by Vikas Swarup.
Producer - Nadir Khan
Director - John Dryden
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 14:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c84pv)
A Star Is Born
Heather Couper presents a narrative history of astronomy.
Infrared radiation was discovered by William Herschel two centuries ago, but only recently has infrared astronomy come of age. Infrared is able to peer inside dark clouds that mask regions of the galaxy such as the Orion Nebula from optical telescopes. Within these clouds we can now see the processes through which the gas clouds contract, heat up and ignite to give birth to a new generation of stars.
Readers are Timothy West, Robin Sebastian, Julian Rhind-Tutt and John Palmer.
MON 14:30 Book of the Week (b03byzzf)
Seamus Heaney - Beowulf
Episode 1
In the years after the funeral of the Dane's warrior King Shield Sheafson, the evil fiend Grendel rises to prowl the land. At the court of Hygelac in Geatland, a great warrior prepares to help King Hrothgar.
Radio 4 pays tribute to Seamus Heaney, Nobel Prize-winning poet, internationally recognised as one of the greatest contemporary voices who passed away earlier this month at the age of 74.
Composed towards the end of the first millennium, the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf is one of the great Northern epics and a classic of European literature. Seamus Heaney's translation , completed near the end of the second millennium is both true, line by line, to the original, as well as being an expression of his own creative, lyrical gift.
Here, in a recording made ten years ago, Seamus Heaney brings his vibrant powerful writing to life as he reads ten fifteen minute extracts from the narrative.
The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then living on, physically and psychically exposed, in that exhausted aftermath. It is not hard to draw parallels between this story and the history of the twentieth century, nor can Heaney's Beowulf fail to be read partly in the light of his Northern Irish upbringing.
But it also transcends such considerations, telling us psychological and spiritual truths that are permanent and liberating.
Produced in Salford by Susan Roberts.
Radio Drama North.
MON 14:45 Book of the Week (b00rl6wf)
Hilary Spurling - Burying the Bones
Episode 1
In "Burying The Bones", distinguished biographer Hilary Spurling takes as her subject Pearl Buck, the highly influential American author whose astonishing life proved even more fantastic than her popular novels of the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
Born to Christian missionaries in 1890s China, Buck's writing helped change Western perceptions of that country forever; in recognition of which she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.
Pearl's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Good Earth" portrayed the lives of ordinary Chinese people and became a worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1932 (it still sells in its thousands each year). Though her work has fallen out of fashion with the public, she is still held in high regard by writers such as Jung Chang, the acclaimed author of "Wild Swans", who described Buck as "One of the greatest writers on China'".
Hilary Spurling is the author of "The Unknown Matisse", listed as one of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of 1998, and "Matisse The Master", which was named Whitbread Book of the Year, and won the Los Angeles Times biography prize, in 2005.
Reader: Lindsay Duncan.
Abridger: Alison Joseph.
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
MON 15:00 Classic Serial (b04bmtpk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
MON 16:00 The 4 O'Clock Show (b04svdkc)
Slimy Slugs, Slippery Snails and Shipwrecks
Mel Giedroyc follows the trail of some slimy slugs and snails in nature feature In Pursuit of the Ridiculous. And we hear the first part of Daniel Defoe's classic Robinson Crusoe.
MON 17:00 A Whole New Ball Game (b00b2txd)
Series 1
Goodbye Gregory
The late Gregory Patterson was a stalwart of the Roman Catholic Parishioners. But how will Mrs Patterson cope now with her headstrong daughter, Barbara? How will young Robert face up to his new responsibilities?
Surely football-crazy priest Father Benedict can help?
A six-part black comedy by Martin Davies
Stars Desmond Barrit as Father Benedict, Brenda Blethyn as Mrs Patterson, Paul Parris as Robert Patterson, Charlotte Coleman as Barbara Patterson, Martino Lazzeri as Guy Entwhistle, Gordon Reid as Mr Plant, Mark Straker as Andy and Claire Skinner as Janet.
Producer: Lissa Evans
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1992.
MON 17:30 Know Your Place (b01852w0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
MON 18:00 Quote... Unquote (b00rb16j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
MON 18:30 A Good Read (b0075jwn)
Gareth Armstrong and Jenny Uglow
Sarah Lefanu and her guests, actor Gareth Armstrong and biographer Jenny Uglow, discuss three favourite paperbacks by Bill Bryson, Penelope Fitzgerald and Jonathan Raban. From 1999.
Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
Publisher: Penguin
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
Publisher: Flamingo
Our Glory by Jonathan Raban
Publisher: Picador.
MON 19:00 Dad's Army (b007jll5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 19:30 The Michael Bentine Show (b008x0wg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 20:00 Wimsey (b007jvn3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 20:30 The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (b00c67jq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 21:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b05447xr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
MON 21:15 Loose Ends (b053rzvs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
MON 22:00 Just a Minute (b053721t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 22:30 The Brig Society (b02ykygj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
MON 23:00 The News Quiz Extra (b0544j3d)
Series 13
Episode 2
Sandi Toksvig is joined by Andy Hamilton, Sara Pascoe and journalist Sam Leith alongside regular panellist Jeremy Hardy.
MON 23:45 Helen Keen's It Is Rocket Science (b00zf34s)
Series 1
Episode 2
Helen Keen's off-beat but true account of the history of space flight.
With Peter Serafinowicz and Susy Kane.
* How Wernher Von Braun went from SS officer to American space supremo to Disney children's presenter
* America's home-grown rocket genius Jack Parsons and his unhealthy interest in Satanism
* The surprising story of Fix the French Space Cat
Written by Helen Keen and Miriam Underhill.
Producer: Gareth Edwards
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.


TUESDAY 03 MARCH 2015

TUE 00:00 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b043wvxj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Monday]
TUE 00:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c84pv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Monday]
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b03byzzf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Monday]
TUE 00:45 Book of the Week (b00rl6wf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Monday]
TUE 01:00 Quote... Unquote (b00rb16j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:30 A Good Read (b0075jwn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:00 Wimsey (b007jvn3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Monday]
TUE 02:30 The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (b00c67jq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Monday]
TUE 03:00 Classic Serial (b04bmtpk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b05447xr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:15 Loose Ends (b053rzvs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Monday]
TUE 05:00 A Whole New Ball Game (b00b2txd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Monday]
TUE 05:30 Know Your Place (b01852w0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Monday]
TUE 06:00 The Blackburn Files (b007jpvg)
Series 2
1. A Case of Frinks and Moores
When an open-air sculpture exhibition is raided, pitman-turned-private eye Steven J Blackburn is thrown into the jungle of international dealing.
CAST:
Stephen J. Blackburn …. Finetime Fontayne
Tracey Duggan …. Judy Flynn
Rollo …. Christopher Wilkinson
Kerenski …. John Graham Davies
Dempsey …. Kieran Cunningham
Scripted by Ian McMillan, Martyn Wiley and Dave Sheasby
Producer: Dave Sheasby
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1991.
TUE 06:30 Meter Mad (b00cwxlr)
Jenny Eclair narrates a eulogy mourning the imminent death of the parking meter, compiled by Josie Barnard. Fifty years after the first parking meter was installed in London in 1958, new methods of paying parking charges by text threaten to make these potent articles of street furniture extinct.
TUE 07:00 Nineteen Ninety-Eight (b01cjd41)
Episode 4
Edward Wilson's quest for truth becomes the Movement. Orwellian sitcom with David Threlfall and Hugh Laurie. From April 1987.
TUE 07:30 Trodd en Bratt Say 'Well Done You' (b0480352)
Series 1
Episode 3
Nominated for Best Comedy in the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2015, Trodd en Bratt Say 'Well Done You' is a comedy sketch show written and performed by Ruth Bratt and Lucy Trodd, stars of Radio 4's Showstoppers.
This week a pair of American tourists visit St Paul's cathedral to confess their sins; there's an unexpected rendezvous at the train station waiting for the 4:18 to Hatfield; and a student council meeting unearths some dark secrets.
Written and performed by Ruth Bratt and Lucy Trodd
Supporting cast: Adam Meggido and Oliver Senton
Script Editor: Jon Hunter
Composer: Duncan Walsh Atkins
Producer: Ben Worsfield
A Lucky Giant production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 08:00 Yes Minister (b007jznv)
Series 1
The Devil You Know
Cabinet reshuffle rumours unsettle MP Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey
Starring Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds.
Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn's satirical sitcom ran on BBC TV between 1980 and 1984. Yes Minister is centred around the hapless Jim Hacker and a collection of civil service underlings headed by the Machiavellian Sir Humphrey Appleby and obsequious Bernard.
Jim Hacker ...... Paul Eddington
Sir Humphrey Appleby ...... Nigel Hawthorne
Bernard ...... Derek Fowlds
Annie ...... Diana Hoddinott
Sir Arnold ...... John Nettleton
George ...... Arthur Cox
Waiter ...... Stuart Organ
Adapted for radio by producer Pete Atkin.
First broadcast on Radio 4 in December 1983.
TUE 08:30 The Ken Dodd Show (b0544p8b)
From 05/07/1964
Doddy's gardening tips from Ivor Lupin and meet the world's worst ape-man.
Starring Ken Dodd.
With Judith Chalmers, John Slater, Patricia Hayes, Peter Hudson, Wallas Eaton and Percy Edwards.
Music from Brian Poole and The Tremeloes.
BBC Revue Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Lockyer
Script by Ken Dodd and Eddie Braben.
Producer: Bill Worsley
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in July 1964.
TUE 09:00 The News Quiz Extra (b0544j3d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]
TUE 09:45 Helen Keen's It Is Rocket Science (b00zf34s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:45 on Monday]
TUE 10:00 Classic Serial (b04c9xcq)
Honoré de Balzac - Eugenie Grandet
Episode 2
The final part of Rose Tremain's gripping dramatisation of Balzac's Eugenie Grandet, starring Ian McKellen as Eugenie's miserly father and Alison Pettit as his lovelorn daughter.
Monsieur Grandet, who has amassed a considerable fortune, is a miser who feigns poverty and runs his household along miserably frugal lines. All changes with the arrival of Eugenie's handsome 22-year-old cousin, Charles Grandet, from Paris. Charles has brought with him a shocking letter from his father, Guillaume, who has committed suicide. He has placed his debts and the care of his son into his brother's hands. It is a fatal decision, with ruinous consequences for the whole family.
Eugenie Grandet is considered by many to be the strongest novel in Balzac's magnificent series, The Human Comedy. It pits a young naive girl against the father she has worshipped and this defiance sets us on course for the playing out of a heart-rending tragedy. Like King Lear, Grandet is a man who deeply loves the daughter who has defied him. He has no other child, no hope, no future but her. But in Balzac's 'human comedy' the tragic and the comic exist side by side and this fruitful conjunction blossoms in Rose Tremain's enthralling adaptation.
Cello and Treble Recorder: Alison Baldwin
Original Music: Lucinda Mason Brown
Produced and directed by Gordon House
A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 11:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b05467nj)
Stone Trees
A widow grieving for her recently dead husband spends an afternoon with some old friends. Read by Sylvestra le Touzel. From March 2015
TUE 11:15 Altaban the Magnificent (b007qb93)
In post-war Berlin, magic is in the air but death is being conjured up. Sebastian Baczkiewicz's drama stars Clive Swift.
TUE 12:00 Yes Minister (b007jznv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 12:30 The Ken Dodd Show (b0544p8b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 13:00 The Blackburn Files (b007jpvg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 13:30 Meter Mad (b00cwxlr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 14:00 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b04471l3)
The Choice
Sapna Sinha works as a sales assistant in a TV showroom in New Delhi. Being the only bread-winner in the family she works long hours to provide for her widowed mother and younger sister. But then a man walks into her life with an extraordinary proposition: pass seven "life" tests of his choosing and she will have wealth and power. At first the tests seem easy, but things are not quite as they seem.
2) The Choice
A thriller set in India from the author of "Slumdog Millionaire".
As Sapna struggles to support her widowed mother and sister, she decides to go ahead and sign a contract which will subject her to a series of "life tests". What the tests are and when they will come, she does not know.
Writers:
Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and a best-selling novelist. His first novel "Q & A" was made into the Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" as well as Sony Award winning radio drama serial for BBC Radio .
Ayeesha Menon dramatized Vikas Swarup's other novels SIX SUSPECTS and Q & A, which won a Sony Award for Best Drama. She also wrote for Radio 4 THE MUMBAI CHUZZLEWITS, UNDERCOVER MUMBAI, THE CAIRO TRILOGY and MY NAME IS RED. Her stage play PEREIRA'S BAKERY AT 76 CHAPEL ROAD, which was developed with the Royal Court Theatre, was recently staged by the Curve Theatre, Leicester.
John Dryden wrote the original three-part dramas series SEVERED THREADS, THE RELUCTANT SPY and PANDEMIC, which won the Writer's Guild Award for best radio drama script. His dramatisation of BLEAK HOUSE won a Sony Award for Best Drama. Other dramatisations include A SUITABLE BOY, A HANDMAID'S TALE and FATHERLAND one of the most repeated dramas on R4 Extra.
Production:
Sound Design - Steve Bond
Editing Assistant - Varun Bangera
Script Editor - Mike Walker
Assistant Producer - Toral Shah
Music - Sacha Putnam
Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from the novel "ACCIDENTAL APPRENTICE" by Vikas Swarup.
Director - John Dryden
Producer - Nadir Khan
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 14:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c84k8)
The Life and Death of Stars
Heather Couper presents a narrative history of astronomy.
Until the modern era of astrophysics, nobody knew what made stars shine. The answer arose from the nuclear age. The sun and stars are like giant hydrogen bombs, controlled nuclear explosions.
In the 1950s, Fred Hoyle and his colleagues showed how new elements are created in stars as they burn hydrogen and helium. In the case of relatively small stars such as our sun, the fuel eventually runs out, the bloated outer layers are lost into space and a slowly cooling white dwarf remains. But massive stars begin to collapse in on themselves when fuel runs out at the core, creating a huge explosion known as a supernova.
Readers are Timothy West, Robin Sebastian, Julian Rhind-Tutt and John Palmer.
TUE 14:30 Book of the Week (b03c31f0)
Seamus Heaney - Beowulf
Episode 2
Beowulf arrives in the land of the Shieldings and explains his mission to Hrothgar, the Danish King.
Produced in Salford by Susan Roberts.
Radio Drama North.
TUE 14:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qf)
Hilary Spurling - Burying the Bones
Episode 2
Lindsay Duncan reads from "Burying The Bones" - the latest book by acclaimed biographer Hilary Spurling. Her subject is Pearl Buck one of the most successful and popular American novelists of the 20th Century.
Though her work has now fallen out of fashion, in her day Pearl was a phenomenal bestseller. The novel that made her name was "The Good Earth" - and it still sells in its thousands - which depicted for the first time the gruelling conditions of China's rural poor. Born to Presbyterian missionaries in 1890s China, Buck's first hand experience of the language and people informed her writing and helped to change Western perceptions of that country forever; in recognition of which she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.
In today's episode, we learn more about Pearl's childhood and the ways in which her father's missionary zeal impoverished his family. A firebrand preacher who was often absent for long periods of time, he invariably spent his meagre wages on a project to translate the New Testament into Chinese. Pearl's mother lost four children to illnesses which could have been treated easily had they better access to food and medicine. This was the potent environment which formed Pearl and inspired her adult imagination.
Abridger: Alison Joseph
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
TUE 15:00 Classic Serial (b04c9xcq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
TUE 16:00 The 4 O'Clock Show (b04sxvfl)
Rollercoasters, Clog Dancing and Extreme Eating
Mel Giedroyc revels in the rush of the rollercoaster ride and gets her clogs on for a Lancashire clog dance. Plus we hear the second part of Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe.
TUE 17:00 Capital Gains (b007qw7j)
Series 1
Stake Capital
Retired gent, Julius Hutch is beset with bills and final demands. Then a sum of £4,601,740.72 is mistakenly paid into his account by an off-shore bank.
So should he return it or not? And whose money is it anyway?
Peter Jones stars as Julius Hutch.
Written by Collin Johnson.
Julius Hutch ...... Peter Jones
Pauline Tone ...... Celestine Randall
Creditor ...... Collin Johnson
Creditor ...... Peter Whitman.
Producer: Andy Jordan
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1995.
TUE 17:30 Nineteen Ninety-Eight (b01cjd41)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
TUE 18:00 Hidden Treasures (b0546cwh)
Harewood House
Undiscovered treasures and porcelain posers.
Enthusiasts and experts come together at Harewood House in West Yorkshire, which is crammed with a fine collection of Chippendale furniture
Lars Tharp chairs the light-hearted Antiques Quiz with Philippa Glanville and Henry Sandon.
Producer: Annie Bristow
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1998.
TUE 18:30 How Tickled Am I? (b007lmc0)
Series 2
Robb Wilton
Mark Radcliffe profiles variety star Robb Wilton, best known as the bumbling, befuddled magistrate - Mr Muddlecombe JP.
A master of the art of storytelling which kept Britain laughing during the Second World War
Featuring Ken Dodd.
Series exploring some of the North's best-loved and most influential comedians.
Producer: Libby Cross
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2000.
TUE 19:00 Yes Minister (b007jznv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 19:30 The Ken Dodd Show (b0544p8b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 20:00 The Blackburn Files (b007jpvg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 20:30 Meter Mad (b00cwxlr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 21:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b05467nj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
TUE 21:15 Altaban the Magnificent (b007qb93)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
TUE 22:00 Trodd en Bratt Say 'Well Done You' (b0480352)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 22:30 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00hkprc)
Series 2
Dame Joan Bakewell
Marcus Brigstocke invites guests to try new experiences.
Dame Joan Bakewell listens to the Arctic Monkeys, has a beat boxing lesson and places a horse racing bet.
TUE 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0556s3b)
The best in contemporary comedy. Tonight Holly Burn chats to Gina Yashere.
TUE 23:00 Delve Special (b007k4nj)
Series 2
Double Agent Russell Nicholson
Reporter David Lander interviews notorious double agent Russell Nicholson at his luxury home in Bulgaria.
Presented by David Lander with assistance from Stephen Fry.
Studio production by Andrew Sachs, Jack Klaff, Brenda Blethyn and Felicity Montague.
Dramatic reconstruction by Robert Bathurst and Tony Robinson.
Researched and compiled by Tony Sarchet.
Editor: Paul Mayhew-Archer
Delve Special ran for four series from 1984 to 1987 and later transferred to TV as: This is David Lander.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 1985.
TUE 23:30 Rudy's Rare Records (b00y8vkb)
Series 3
Rudy's Rare Record
Father and son comedy set in the finest old-school record shop in Birmingham.
With the discovery on one of the rarest records ever recorded on a dusty shelf at the back of the shop, Rudy, Adam and Richie each allow themselves to imagine what life would really be like if they were that rich. Turns out, their dreams are a bit premature...
Written by Paula Hines
Script Edited by Danny Robins
Produced by Lucy Armitage.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.


WEDNESDAY 04 MARCH 2015

WED 00:00 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b04471l3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Tuesday]
WED 00:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c84k8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Tuesday]
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b03c31f0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Tuesday]
WED 00:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Tuesday]
WED 01:00 Hidden Treasures (b0546cwh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:30 How Tickled Am I? (b007lmc0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:00 The Blackburn Files (b007jpvg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Tuesday]
WED 02:30 Meter Mad (b00cwxlr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Tuesday]
WED 03:00 Classic Serial (b04c9xcq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b05467nj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:15 Altaban the Magnificent (b007qb93)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Tuesday]
WED 05:00 Capital Gains (b007qw7j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Tuesday]
WED 05:30 Nineteen Ninety-Eight (b01cjd41)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Tuesday]
WED 06:00 The Blackburn Files (b007jpvw)
Series 2
2. A Case of Hearts and Flowers
When his brother-in-law's Filofax is held to ransom, private eye Steven J Blackburn investigates.
One of four more cases for the private investigator and his government scheme-funded assistant Tracey. Set in a South Yorkshire town that's seen better days.
CAST:
Stephen J. Blackburn …. Finetime Fontayne
Tracey Duggan …. Judy Flynn
Mam …. Rita May
Shirley …. Christine Cox
Scripted by Ian McMillan, Martyn Wiley and Dave Sheasby
Producer: Dave Sheasby
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1991.
WED 06:30 The 19th-Century Greens (b00chy3y)
What would William Wordsworth have made of modern Greens? Professor James Woudhuysen investigates what Britain's 19th-century Romantic poets thought about man and nature, and finds some important differences between them and today's environmentalists.
Producer: Kevin Mousley
WED 07:00 Believe It! (b03lpjpk)
Series 2
Secrets
Jon Canter's "radiography" of Richard Wilson returns for a second series.
Celebrity autobiographies are everywhere. Richard Wilson has always said he'd never write one. Based on glimmers of truth, BELIEVE IT is the hilarious, bizarre, revealing (and, most importantly, untrue) celebrity autobiography of Richard Wilson.
He narrates the series with his characteristic dead-pan delivery, weaving in and out of dramatised scenes from his fictional life-story. He plays a heavily exaggerated version of himself: a Scots actor and national treasure, unmarried, private, passionate about politics, theatre and Manchester United (all true), who's a confidant of the powerful and has survived childhood poverty, a drunken father, years of fruitless grind, too much success, monstrosity, addiction, charity work and fierce rivalry with Sean Connery and Ian McKellan (not true).
The title - in case you hadn't spotted - is an unashamed reference his famous catchphrase.
WED 07:30 Chain Reaction (b053bq55)
Series 10
Reece Shearsmith talks to Bob Mortimer
Co-creator and star of The League of Gentlemen, Psychoville and Inside No.9 Reece Shearsmith talks to one half of comedy double-act Vic & Bob, creators of Shooting Stars and House of Fools, Bob Mortimer.
Chain Reaction is the long running hostless chat show where last week's interviewee becomes this week's interviewer.
Producer: Charlie Perkins
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2015.
WED 08:00 The Navy Lark (b007k3hg)
Series 2
Strike Up the Band
When Number One uses the Comfort Fund accounts for a dance, Pertwee takes action.

Starring Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Stephen Murray as Number One, Richard Caldicot as Commander Povey, Ronnie Barker as AS Johnson, Heather Chasen as Mrs Povey, Michael Bates as Ginger and Tenniel Evans as Uncle Ebenzer.

The Navy Lark ran for an impressive 13 series on BBC Radio between 1959 and 1976.

Scripted by Lawrie Wyman.

Producer: Alastair Scott Johnston.

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in December 1959.
WED 08:30 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00t1tkk)
Series 4
Episode 5
The Spy With My Cold, and Cabaret at the Café Au Lait.
More quick-fire sketches, terrible puns, humorous songs and parodies.
Stars Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, David Hatch, Jo Kendall and Bill Oddie.
Written by Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Chapman, Graeme Garden, Eric Idle. Peter & David Lund and Bill Oddie.
Originating from the Cambridge University Footlights revue 'Cambridge Circus', ISIRTA ran for 8 years on BBC Radio and quickly developed a cult following.
Music and songs by Dave Lee and Bill Oddie.
Producer: Humphrey Barclay
First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in October 1966.
WED 09:00 So Wrong It's Right (b00zslfj)
Series 2
Episode 4
Charlie Brooker hosts the panel show devoted to the art of being wrong with comedians Rufus Hound, Sharon Horgan and Fergus Craig competing to give the best in wrong answers.
Charlie's favourite hobby - the computer game - comes in for the So Wrong It's Right treatment this week. Asked to pitch a terrible idea for a computer game, who will triumph in the battle between Fergus' Football Player Liaison Officer, Sharon's Breast Feeding game and Rufus' innovative third person shooter - You Should Have Seen It Man Like Wow?
Also up for examination are the panel's nominations for modern woes - how will Charlie react to Rufus' nomination for his greatest modern irritant: 'Charlie Brooker'.
The host of So Wrong It's Right, Charlie Brooker, also writes for The Guardian and presents BBC4's satirical series Newswipe & Screenwipe as well as Channel 4's You Have Been Watching. He won Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards 2009 and Columnist of the Year at the 2009 British Press Awards for his newspaper columns.
Produced by Aled Evans
A Zeppotron Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 09:30 Spread a Little Happiness (b00zm3hz)
Series 2
Hope Is the Thing With a Lorry
Maria's ex-boyfriend turns up looking for love.
Debra Stevenson and Nicola Duffet star in episode 5 of John Godber and Jane Thornton's comedy set in a sandwich bar in Beverley, near Hull
'Spread A Little Happiness' is sung by Debra Stevenson.
Cast:
Hope ..... Debra Stevenson
Maria ...... Nicola Duffett
Dave ..... Neil Dudgeon
Mam ..... Anne Reid
Ray ..... Shaun Prendergast
Gavin ..... Ralph Brown
Jenny ..... Sarah Moyle
Anita ..... Sherry Baines
Carrie ..... Elizabeth Godber
Eve ..... Helen Longworth
Bob ...... Ben Crowe
Monty ..... Stephen Critchlow
Blinds man ..... James Weaver
Producer/Director: Chris Wallis
An Autolycus production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 10:00 Classic Serial (b03vzvmc)
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Episode 1
by Jane Austen
Dramatised by Charlotte Jones
Mrs Bennet is determined to get her five daughters married off and secure a future for them all.
And when Mr Bingley a wealthy man arrives in the neighbourhood she wastes no time in making his acquaintance.
Director ..... Sally Avens
Published just over 200 years ago Pride and Prejudice remains one of the Nation's favourite novels; with its intellect and wit it appeals to a broad range of readers. It stands the test of time by dealing with the timeless issues of love, social class, money and mistaken judgements and by having a witty and clever though flawed heroine at its heart. Elizabeth Bennet is a thorough radical for her time and perhaps the first heroine to ask is it possible to have it all?
Pippa Nixon takes on the role of Elizabeth; she received rave reviews for her Rosalind in 'As You Like It' ' a rising young star'.
Jamie Parker (Darcy) has played Henry V at the National and is shortly to portray Hamlet on Radio 4.
Double Olivier Award winner Samantha Spiro takes on Mrs Bennet and Toby Jones Mr Collins.
WED 11:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b0546zg8)
Grace
Clockie Gosport has a diamond under the skin at the back of his neck. Unlikely mysteries and miracles read by Paul Copley. From March 2015.
WED 11:15 Drama (b00tjf5d)
Gavin Mortimer - The Great Swim
Adapted by Anita Sullivan from the book by Gavin Mortimer.
In the roaring twenties the world was changing at an electric pace. In science, commerce and art, everything seemed possible and the challenges were there to be confronted. By 1926, only five men had ever conquered the English Channel, and the race to become the first woman to swim the Channel captivated two continents. Many doubted that a woman could do it.
Gertrude Ederle, a brilliant young swimmer, was the 19-year-old daughter of a German migrant to the United States. Her father Henry Ederle ran a successful butcher's business in New York. Ederle's cross-channel swim was sponsored by the New York Daily News.
The News sent a crime reporter, Julia Harpman, to accompany the swimmer and cover the story and this drama is told through Julia's eyes.
Cast
Julia Harpman ..... Madeleine Potter
Trudy Ederle ..... Emily Bruni
Lillian Cannon ..... Samantha Dakin
Bill Burgess/Rutherford ..... Philip Jackson
Arthur Sorensen ..... Nathan Nolan
Joe Costa/Frank Pegler/Williams ..... Sam Dale
Henry "Pop" Ederle/Abbot ..... Nathan Osgood
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:00 The Navy Lark (b007k3hg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 12:30 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00t1tkk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 13:00 The Blackburn Files (b007jpvw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 13:30 The 19th-Century Greens (b00chy3y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 14:00 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b04471lv)
The Wedding
Sapna Sinha works as a sales assistant in a TV showroom in New Delhi. Being the only bread-winner in the family she works long hours to provide for her widowed mother and younger sister. But then a man walks into her life with an extraordinary proposition: pass seven "life" tests of his choosing and she will have wealth and power. At first the tests seem easy, but things are not quite as they seem. Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
3) The Wedding
A thriller set in India from the author of "Slumdog Millionaire".
Sent to a village outside Delhi to install electrical appliances, TV sales assistant, Sapna Sinha, discovers a wedding about to take place - and that the young bride is being married against her will. What Sapna decides to do about it will be a matter of life and death. Could this be one of the seven tests that she has signed up for?
Dramatised from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
Writers:
Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and a best-selling novelist. His first novel "Q & A" was made into the Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" as well as Sony Award winning radio drama serial for BBC Radio .
Ayeesha Menon dramatized Vikas Swarup's other novels SIX SUSPECTS and Q & A, which won a Sony Award for Best Drama. She also wrote for Radio 4 THE MUMBAI CHUZZLEWITS, UNDERCOVER MUMBAI, THE CAIRO TRILOGY and MY NAME IS RED. Her stage play PEREIRA'S BAKERY AT 76 CHAPEL ROAD, which was developed with the Royal Court Theatre, was recently staged by the Curve Theatre, Leicester.
John Dryden wrote the original three-part dramas series SEVERED THREADS, THE RELUCTANT SPY and PANDEMIC, which won the Writer's Guild Award for best radio drama script. His dramatisation of BLEAK HOUSE won a Sony Award for Best Drama. Other dramatisations include A SUITABLE BOY, A HANDMAID'S TALE and FATHERLAND one of the most repeated dramas on R4 Extra.
Production:
Sound Design - Steve Bond
Editing Assistant - Varun Bangera
Script Editor - Mike Walker
Assistant Producer - Toral Shah
Music - Sacha Putnam
Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from the novel "ACCIDENTAL APPRENTICE" by Vikas Swarup.
Director - John Dryden
Producer - Nadir Khan
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 14:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c84kb)
A Plethora of Planets
Heather Couper presents a narrative history of astronomy.
For centuries, people have been speculating on the origin of the Earth and other planets. As long ago as 1755 the philosopher Imanuel Kant suggested that our solar system may have been born from a rotating cloud or nebula of gas and dust. But it was not until an infrared telescope was sent into space in 1983 that astronomers began to gather images of such dusty discs around other young stars.
In 1955 Eugene Shoemaker showed that a crater in Arizona was blasted out by the impact of a large rock from space. He went on to show that most of the craters on the moon resulted from similar impacts, early in the history of the solar system. The dawn of the space age is enabling us to begin to explore the rocks in our cosmic backyard and speculate about worlds beyond.
Readers are Timothy West, Robin Sebastian, Julian Rhind-Tutt and John Palmer.
WED 14:30 Book of the Week (b03c31kp)
Seamus Heaney - Beowulf
Episode 3
Beowulf's first encounter with the evil monster Grendel.
Produced in Salford by Susan Roberts.
Radio Drama North.
WED 14:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qh)
Hilary Spurling - Burying the Bones
Episode 3
Lindsay Duncan reads another excerpt from Hilary Spurling's new book: "Burying The Bones". The distinguished biographer's new subject is the astonishing life of Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl Buck, one of the most successful and popular American novelists of the 20th Century. (She's best remembered for her novel "The Good Earth", which is still a bestseller.)
Pearl's desire for independence led her to make a hasty marriage of which her family disapproved. Refusing to be cowed by a series of personal tragedies, she discovered that her imagination offered escape from her difficulties and she began to write fiction in earnest.
Abridger: Alison Joseph
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
WED 15:00 Classic Serial (b03vzvmc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
WED 16:00 The 4 O'Clock Show (b04sxzyy)
Goat Kings, Puffin Pianos and Desert Islands
Mel Giedroyc encounters some piano-playing puffins and a town where the goat is literally king. Plus, the third part of Daniel Defoe's classic story Robinson Crusoe.
WED 17:00 Flying the Flag (b007jy0c)
Series 1
Weather Problems
In which a promising retirement is threatened by a freak hailstorm - and Ambassador Mackenzie discovers something worse than a frank exchange of views in an atmosphere of cordiality.
Alex Shearer's Eastern bloc embassy sitcom.
Starring Dinsdale Landen as HM Ambassador Mackenzie, Peter Acre as William Frost, Moir Leslie as Helen Waterson, Michael Bilton as Yakov Korovin, Jonathan Kidd as Mikael Korovin and Christopher Benjamin as Colonel Surikov.
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1987.
WED 17:30 Believe It! (b03lpjpk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
WED 18:00 So Wrong It's Right (b00zslfj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
WED 18:30 Off the Page (b0076kcy)
Risk
Matthew Parris takes a gamble on writer David Tremayne, journalist Melissa Kite and neurotic novelist Geoff Dyer.
Matthew Parris introduces a group of writers of fact and fiction: new talent and established names. In the context of a discussion of one of the ideas and pre-occupations of our times, each presents a piece on this week's topic.
The best new writing and the freshest conversation from 2004.
WED 19:00 The Navy Lark (b007k3hg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 19:30 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00t1tkk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 20:00 The Blackburn Files (b007jpvw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 20:30 The 19th-Century Greens (b00chy3y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 21:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b0546zg8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
WED 21:15 Drama (b00tjf5d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
WED 22:00 Chain Reaction (b053bq55)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 22:30 Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! (b00d4nrv)
Series 2
After-Dinner Speech
The former variety star attempts to get work as an after-dinner speaker. Stars Steve Delaney with guest Barry Cryer.
WED 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0556s45)
The best in contemporary comedy. Tonight Holly Burn chats to Gina Yashere.
WED 23:00 Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off (b01j8byl)
Series 3
Haiti
The gap-year student arrives to help rebuild a village, and tries out some voodoo. Stars Marcus Brigstocke. From February 2005.
WED 23:30 The Penny Dreadfuls (b00gpbcl)
The Brothers Faversham
Theseus Faversham
The story of Victorian Britain's most respected detective - Theseus Faversham.
The comedy sketch trio present swashbuckling tales of four brothers born into the same privileged aristocratic family - Horatius, Theseus, Leonidas and Augustus.
Written by and starring Humphrey Ker, David Reed and Thom Tuck.
Alexandra Faversham ... Ingrid Oliver
Narrator... Miles Jupp.
Producer: Julia McKenzie
Made for BBC Radio 7 and first broadcast in January 2008.


THURSDAY 05 MARCH 2015

THU 00:00 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b04471lv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Wednesday]
THU 00:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c84kb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Wednesday]
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b03c31kp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Wednesday]
THU 00:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Wednesday]
THU 01:00 So Wrong It's Right (b00zslfj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 01:30 Off the Page (b0076kcy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:00 The Blackburn Files (b007jpvw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Wednesday]
THU 02:30 The 19th-Century Greens (b00chy3y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Wednesday]
THU 03:00 Classic Serial (b03vzvmc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b0546zg8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:15 Drama (b00tjf5d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Wednesday]
THU 05:00 Flying the Flag (b007jy0c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Wednesday]
THU 05:30 Believe It! (b03lpjpk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Wednesday]
THU 06:00 The Blackburn Files (b007w5d7)
Series 2
3. A Case of a Golden Smile
When Betty Ackroyd sees her husband Archie on a TV quiz show, it's for the first time since he walked out 30 years ago. Private eye Stephen J Blackburn investigates.
One of four more cases for the private investigator and his government scheme-funded assistant Tracey. Set in a South Yorkshire town that's seen better days.
CAST:
Stephen J. Blackburn …. Finetime Fontayne
Tracey Duggan …. Judy Flynn
Mam …. Rita May
Mrs Ackroyd …. Ann Rye
Ted of Mansfield …. Norman Mills
Nigel Phillips …. John Basham
Scripted by Ian McMillan, Martyn Wiley and Dave Sheasby
Producer: Dave Sheasby
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1991.
THU 06:30 Train Tracks (b00m69ws)
Pianist and broadcaster Simon Townley samples the many different ways in which trains and railways have inspired composers and songwriters and what it is about this particular form of travel that makes it so influential.
They may be a shadow of their former infrastructural selves, but railways still hold a curiously affectionate place in our national life. Nowhere is this more true than in the world of music, where chuffing, whistling, steaming and clackety-clacking have been the inspiration for hundreds of songs. Simon has never described himself as a railway enthusiast, but he has always had an ear for the things that inspire composers and songwriters.
He explores the rhythms, themes and metaphorical uses of the train in music, from Honneger's Pacific 231 to American blues tracks such as Love in Vain and Freight Train Blues.
Country and western star Laura Cantrell, music professor Alan Moore and composer Sir Richard Rodney Bennett contribute their thoughts on this mass transit system which has provided such a rich seam of inspiration over the last 200 years.
THU 07:00 The Pickerskill Reports (b012wxxr)
Series 2
Patrick Trumball
Written and Directed by Andrew McGibbon.
Patrick Trumball's strange fascination for thunderstorms, lightening and other epic forces of nature appear to mark him out as an unusual, otherworldly child confirmed by Pickerskill when he discovers that the boy also possesses a perfect photographic memory.
Cast:
Dr Henry Pickerskill ....... Ian McDiarmid
Fintan Grice ....... Toby Longworth
Patrick Trumball ....... Louis Williams
A.R.F. Somerset Stephenson ....... Mike Sarne
Stealgroynes ........ Jack Edwards
Calman .......Kris Saddler
Moorcroft ...... Joe Cooper
Matron ....... Mia Soteriou
Producers: Nick Romero and Andrew McGibbon
A Curtains For Radio Production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 07:30 Brian Gulliver's Travels (b01mdg8l)
Series 2
Anidara
Brian Gulliver, a seasoned presenter of travel documentaries, finds himself in a hospital's secure unit after claiming to have experienced a succession of bizarre adventures.
More memories as Brian relives his experiences in Anidara where he finds himself put out to stud.
Brian Gulliver ..... Neil Pearson
Rachel Gulliver ..... Mariah Gale
Computer ..... Duncan Wisby
Gem ..... Gerard McDermot
Markl ..... Harry Livingstone
Dorka ..... Vicki Pepperdine
Liberator ..... Duncan Wisby
Master ..... Patrick Brennan
Producer: Steven Canny
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2012.
THU 08:00 Brothers in Law (b007k2pz)
Series 1
Special Damages
New barrister Roger Thursby reckons he's got an easy case, but has he?
Starring Richard Briers as Roger Thursby, Richard Waring as Henry Blagrove and Ann Davies as Sally Mannering. With Patrick Cargill as Chapfield.
Adapted for radio by Richard Waring from the BBC TV scripts.
Restored from BBC Transcription Service tapes - originally edited for sale abroad.
Published in 1955, Henry Cecil's comic legal novel Brothers in Law was adapted first for TV in 1962 by Frank Muir and Denis Norden. It provided the first regular starring role for Richard Briers, who later reprised his role of the idealistic young lawyer Roger Thursby for BBC Radio between 1970 and 1972.
Produced by David Hatch.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1970.
THU 08:30 Not in Front of the Children (b0547v4w)
Series 1
Religious Revival
A dynamic new vicar causes mayhem in the Corner family household.
Starring Wendy Craig and Francis Matthew.
The comedy mishaps of the Corner family - Jennifer and Henry and their three kids Trudi, Amanda and Robin.
Four series were first shown on BBC TV from 1967 to 1970. Richard Waring adapted his own scripts for this radio version, now fully restored from the original reel-to-reel tapes. Wendy Craig won a Best Actress BAFTA award for the TV version of Not in Front of the Children in 1969.
Jennifer Corner ...... Wendy Craig
Henry Corner ...... Francis Matthews
Mary ...... Charlotte Mitchell
Trudi ...... Roberta Tovey
Robin ...... Hugo Keith-Johnston
Reverend John Spenser …... Edward de Souza
Music by Ronnie Hazlehurst
Producer: Trafford Whitelock.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1969.
THU 09:00 It's Your Round (b018g279)
Series 2
Episode 1
The first in a new series in which the panellists bring their own round for the other panellists to play.
Angus Deayton presides over a panel of comedians - Miles Jupp, Fred MacAulay, Josie Long and Nick Helm - all trying to beat each other at their own games.
Featured rounds:
Miles Jupp's 'Test Match Specialists', a quiz using the rules and regulations of the 'world's finest sport' (Miles' words)
Fred MacAulay's 'Play Your Various Different Categories Right', like 'Play Your Cards Right', but with other variables such as Scottish landmarks, household accident statistics, Radio 4 presenter's heights and, er, the song 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' by Band Aid.
Josie Long's 'Dream Day Job' in which panellists have to guess an audience member's dream day job by asking yes/no questions.
Nick Helm's 'Cream Crackered' in which panellists have to eat as many cream crackers as they can in a minute...commentated on by Test Match Special's very own, Henry Blofeld.
Producer: Sam Michell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2011.
THU 09:30 House on Fire (b013fmkv)
Series 2
Makeover
Vicky decides she needs a new body and where better to get one than down the local gym. One session with Hans - a man who put the boot into camp - is enough to convince her she never wants to go back. But Hans has other ideas.
Meanwhile, Matt's parent have other ideas about restructuring their lives....
Cast:
Vicky ..... Emma Pierson
Matt ..... Jody Latham
Colonel Bill ..... Rupert Vansittart
Peter ...... Philip Jackson
Julie ..... Janine Duvitski
Hans ..... Stephen Mangan
Receptionist ..... Kellie Shirley
Producer: Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 10:00 Classic Serial (b03wgzqv)
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Episode 2
by Jane Austen
Dramatised by Charlotte Jones
Elizabeth is determined to hate the Mr Darcy but finds the attentions of her ridiculous cousin, Mr Collins, even more vexing.
Director ...... Sally Avens
Mrs Bennet has five daughters and is desperate to marry them off to eligible men as the family will have no home once their father dies. Jane Bennet has been singled out for attention by a recent wealthy arrival to Hertfordshire, Mr Bingley. Her sister, Elizabeth, has been snubbed by his even wealthier friend, Mr Darcy. Elizabeth is determined to hate Darcy even more so since she has learnt from a member of the militia stationed at Netherfield, a Mr Wickham, that Darcy has cheated him out of his rightful inheritance.
Published just over 200 years ago Pride and Prejudice remains one of the Nation's favourite novels; with its intellect and wit it appeals to a broad range of readers. It stands the test of time by dealing with the timeless issues of love, social class, money and mistaken judgements and by having a witty and clever though flawed heroine at its heart. Elizabeth Bennet is a thorough radical for her time and perhaps the first heroine to ask is it possible to have it all?
Pippa Nixon takes on the role of Elizabeth; she received rave reviews for her Rosalind in 'As You Like It' ' a rising young star'.
Jamie Parker (Darcy) has played Henry V at the National and is shortly to portray Hamlet on Radio 4.
Double Olivier Award winner Samantha Spiro takes on Mrs Bennet and Toby Jones Mr Collins.
THU 11:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b0547wvz)
Missing the Midnight
A woman looks back on the train journey when she left university and travelled home for Christmas. Read by Sylvestra le Touzel. From March 2015.
THU 11:15 After the Break (b00769l5)
Triple spy George Blake's daring defection made headlines. But what about life behind the Iron Curtain? Stars Jack Klaff.
THU 12:00 Brothers in Law (b007k2pz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 12:30 Not in Front of the Children (b0547v4w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 13:00 The Blackburn Files (b007w5d7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 13:30 Train Tracks (b00m69ws)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 14:00 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b04471qc)
The Ring
Sapna Sinha works as a sales assistant in a TV showroom in New Delhi. Being the only bread-winner in the family she works long hours to provide for her widowed mother and younger sister. But then a man walks into her life with an extraordinary proposition: pass seven "life" tests of his choosing and she will have wealth and power. At first the tests seem easy, but things are not quite as they seem. Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
4) The Ring
A thriller set in India from the author of "Slumdog Millionaire".
Bollywood actress Priya Capoor arrives at the showroom to promote a new range of TV's. But when her diamond ring goes missing, the suspicion falls on Sapna.
Dramatised from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
Writers:
Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and a best-selling novelist. His first novel "Q & A" was made into the Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" as well as Sony Award winning radio drama serial for BBC Radio .
Ayeesha Menon dramatized Vikas Swarup's other novels SIX SUSPECTS and Q & A, which won a Sony Award for Best Drama. She also wrote for Radio 4 THE MUMBAI CHUZZLEWITS, UNDERCOVER MUMBAI, THE CAIRO TRILOGY and MY NAME IS RED. Her stage play PEREIRA'S BAKERY AT 76 CHAPEL ROAD, which was developed with the Royal Court Theatre, was recently staged by the Curve Theatre, Leicester.
John Dryden wrote the original three-part dramas series SEVERED THREADS, THE RELUCTANT SPY and PANDEMIC, which won the Writer's Guild Award for best radio drama script. His dramatisation of BLEAK HOUSE won a Sony Award for Best Drama. Other dramatisations include A SUITABLE BOY, A HANDMAID'S TALE and FATHERLAND one of the most repeated dramas on R4 Extra.
Production:
Sound Design - Steve Bond
Editing Assistant - Varun Bangera
Script Editor - Mike Walker
Assistant Producer - Toral Shah
Music - Sacha Putnam
Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from the novel "ACCIDENTAL APPRENTICE" by Vikas Swarup.
Director - John Dryden
Producer - Nadir Khan
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 14:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c84kd)
Worlds Beyond
Heather Couper presents a narrative history of astronomy.
In the 16th century, Giordano Bruno speculated that there must be other planets similar to our own in the universe. He was burned at the stake for this and other heresies.
Even today, with the best telescopes in the world, it remains impossible to see planets around distant stars. But in the last decade, astronomers have gathered indirect evidence for many other planetary systems. The easiest to detect and hence the first to be found were the most amazing - planets bigger than Jupiter orbiting so close to their star that they are almost touching. But evidence is now emerging that solar systems more like our own exist, some with multiple planets and some with planets that may be like Earth.
Readers are Timothy West, Robin Sebastian, Julian Rhind-Tutt and John Palmer.
THU 14:30 Book of the Week (b03c31lq)
Seamus Heaney - Beowulf
Episode 4
Hrothgar, King of the Danes, hosts a victory feast to celebrate Beowulf's defeat of the evil monster Grendel.
Produced in Salford by Susan Roberts.
Radio Drama North.
THU 14:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qk)
Hilary Spurling - Burying the Bones
Episode 4
Lindsay Duncan reads another extract from "Burying The Bones", Hilary Spurling's account of the astonishing life of Pearl Buck.
The first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1938), Pearl's popular novels were rooted in her childhood experiences of growing up in rural China, the daughter of missionaries, at the turn of the 20th century. Jung Chang, the author of "Wild Swans" has described Pearl Buck as "one of the greatest writers on China".
Today's episode explores the extraordinary effect that Pearl's commercial success had on her family. This was most powerfully expressed in the freedom she had to secure a future for her daughters - including the best healthcare for her disabled daughter. But success came at a price: cracks began to appear in her marriage and Pearl became the focus of a divorce scandal that rocked 1930s America.
Abridger: Alison Joseph.
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
THU 15:00 Classic Serial (b03wgzqv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
THU 16:00 The 4 O'Clock Show (b04sydnm)
Stag's Antlers, Morris Gleitzman and Chocolate Heaven
Mel treks through the forest in search of stag's antlers and chats to children's author Morris Gleitzman about his Inheritance Books. Plus the fourth part of Robinson Crusoe.
THU 17:00 No Commitments (b00sytfr)
Series 4
One Gets Better
Just as Victoria thinks her problems with Emily are over, Harriet starts playing up. Stars Nicola Pagett. From August 1996.
THU 17:30 The Pickerskill Reports (b012wxxr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
THU 18:00 It's Your Round (b018g279)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
THU 18:30 Great Lives (b0076hlp)
Bernardo O'Higgins
Writer Brian Keenan chooses Bernardo O'Higgins who liberated Chile in the 19th century. With Humphrey Carpenter.
The biographical series in which a distinguished guest chooses someone who's inspired their life. Will their hero stand up to intensive scrutiny and merit the description of having led a great life? From 2003.
THU 19:00 Brothers in Law (b007k2pz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 19:30 Not in Front of the Children (b0547v4w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 20:00 The Blackburn Files (b007w5d7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 20:30 Train Tracks (b00m69ws)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 21:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b0547wvz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
THU 21:15 After the Break (b00769l5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
THU 22:00 Brian Gulliver's Travels (b01mdg8l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 22:30 Newsjack (b0547zsc)
Series 12
Episode 2
This week's stories lovingly bashed, mashed and moulded into sketches, one-liners and vox-pops by the public. Trying to make sense of it all is our host, Nish Kumar.
THU 23:00 Old Harry's Game (b00j16ky)
Series 7
Episode 4
Why is a baby in Hell? Only God can bring people back to life, but can God be persuaded?
Stars Andy Hamilton as Satan, Annette Crosbie as Edith, Robert Duncan as Scumspawn, Jimmy Mulville as Thomas and Timothy West as God.
Other roles played by Felicity Montagu
Written by Andy Hamilton.
Producer: Paul Mayhew-Archer
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2009.
THU 23:30 Hut 33 (b00lqfm2)
Series 1
Careless Talk
A security breach at Bletchley Park puts the wartime code-breakers under suspicion.
Set in Bletchley Park in 1941, three code-breakers are forced to share a draughty wooden hut, as they try to break German ciphers. Unfortunately, they hate each other.
CAST:
Charles …. Robert Bathurst
Archie …. Tom Goodman-Hill
Minka …. Olivia Colman
Gordon …. Fergus Craig
Joshua …. Alex MacQueen
and Miranda Raison
Written by James Cary.
Producer: Adam Bromley.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2007.


FRIDAY 06 MARCH 2015

FRI 00:00 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b04471qc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Thursday]
FRI 00:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c84kd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Thursday]
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b03c31lq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Thursday]
FRI 00:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Thursday]
FRI 01:00 It's Your Round (b018g279)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Thursday]
FRI 01:30 Great Lives (b0076hlp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:00 The Blackburn Files (b007w5d7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Thursday]
FRI 02:30 Train Tracks (b00m69ws)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Thursday]
FRI 03:00 Classic Serial (b03wgzqv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b0547wvz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:15 After the Break (b00769l5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Thursday]
FRI 05:00 No Commitments (b00sytfr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Thursday]
FRI 05:30 The Pickerskill Reports (b012wxxr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Thursday]
FRI 06:00 The Blackburn Files (b007w3zt)
Series 2
4. A Case of Whistle and Run
A routine case for private eye Stephen J Blackburn starts to look like his final investigation
One of four more cases for the private investigator and his government scheme-funded assistant Tracey. Set in a South Yorkshire town that's seen better days.
CAST:
Stephen J. Blackburn …. Finetime Fontayne
Tracey Duggan …. Judy Flynn
Mam …. Rita May
Angela …. Daryl Fishwick
Rodney …. Christopher Kent
Scripted by Ian McMillan, Martyn Wiley and Dave Sheasby
Producer: Dave Sheasby
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1991.
FRI 06:30 Freedom Song (b008q0sr)
Tony Phillips tells the story of a memorable performance.
On 9th April 1939, 75,000 concert-goers heard African-American contralto Marian Anderson give a solo recital at the Lincoln Memorial. Across America, millions more listened to the live radio broadcast. Yet Anderson was a victim of racism, barred from Constitution Hall, the largest indoor location in Washington DC, because of her colour.
Contributors include historian John Hope Franklin, concert organiser Dorothy Height, Prof Allan Keiler, soprano Barbara Hendricks and Harry Belafonte.
Music includes Schubert's Liebesbotschaft and Ave Maria.
FRI 07:00 Living with the Enemy (b00771l8)
Episode 4
Gyles takes Nick and Sophie to a swanky art exhibition in Mayfair. He's desperate to curry favour and maybe make some money. Can Nick save the day?
Sitcom about a Tory MP-turned-media celebrity and a comedian-turned-holistic therapist.
Written by and starring Nick Revell and Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandon ...... Gyles Brandreth
Nick Reynolds ...... Nick Revell
Sophie Okuyu ...... Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Charles Danbury ...... Nickolas Grace
Richard Dowdeswell ...... Martin Hyder
Jana ...... Maria McErlane
Producer: Ed Morrish
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2006.
FRI 07:30 Gloomsbury (b01nlbff)
Series 1
He's Got to Be Stopped
Vera Sackcloth-Vest is bracing herself for the departure of her adored husband Henry on a Foreign Office posting to Romania.
Her friends Ginny and Lionel Fox have come down to Sizzlinghurst to support her, along with her slightly demented devotee Venus Traduces. Whilst maintaining a veneer of cheerful serenity, Vera is inwardly desperate and hatches several intricate plots to detain him: an ominous dream, a succession of spurious telegrams, an extensive repertoire of ailments. She even attempts, disastrously, to persuade the cook to stage a staff crisis.
Meanwhile, down in the gazebo at midnight, Venus encourages Henry to resist all Vera's attempts to detain him as she will surely give in at the last moment and go with him to Romania.
Cast:
Vera Sackcloth-Vest ..... Miriam Margolyes
Henry Mickleton ..... Jonathan Coy
Mrs Gosling ..... Alison Steadman
Venus Traduces ..... Morwenna Banks
Lionel Fox ..... Nigel Planer
Mrs Ginny Fox ..... Alison Steadman
Mr Gosling ..... Nigel Planer
Produced by Jamie Rix
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 08:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b00j283q)
Series 3
The Jewel Robbery
The lad's getting a new car, so Sid makes the most of the opportunity.
Starring Tony Hancock.
With Bill Kerr, Sidney James. Andree Melly and Kenneth Williams.
Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Theme and incidental music composed by Wally Stott. Recorded by the BBC Revue Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.
Producer: Dennis Main Wilson
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in October 1955.
FRI 08:30 The Men from the Ministry (b011f3pf)
The Foolproof Fool
Lamb finds his true vocation - but how will he cope with his big opportunity?
A weekly tribute to all those who work in government departments.
Stars Richard Murdoch and Deryck Guyler. With Norma Ronald, Ronald Baddiley and John Graham.
Written by Edward Taylor and John Graham.
'The Men from the Ministry' ran for 14 series between 1962 and 1977. Deryck Guyler replaced Wilfrid Hyde-White from 1966. Sadly many episodes didn't survive in the archive, however the BBC's Transcription Service re-recorded 14 shows in 1980 - never broadcast in the UK, until the arrival of BBC Radio 4 Extra.
Producer: Edward Taylor
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in August 1971.
FRI 09:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b015yt4k)
Series 4
Ince, Highfield, Edwards
Hosted by the Professor of Ignorance from the University of Buckingham John Lloyd C.B.E. and the intensely curious comedian Dave Gorman.
This week's guests:
Coming from a long line of vicars, Robin Ince is the UK's most rational comedian, and he tests his reason to the limit once every year by performing at least four shows a day at the Edinburgh fringe. His infamous Bad Book Club, which in which he invites his fellow comedians to celebrate awful literature, has become an institution, and his massive Christmas show Nine Lessons and Carols For Godless People is now a huge event, featuring the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Dara O Briain and Richard Dawkins.
Roger Highfield is a scientist, science author and the editor of New Scientist, but if you met him, you wouldn't immediately guess that science is his thing. He's jolly and worldly and has the hearty laugh of a comic supervillain. He first made his name as a scientist be being the first person ever to bounce a neutron off a soap bubble. Roger has written and co-written 9 best-selling science books, including a book on the hows and whys of Dolly the sheep, an explanation of the science of Harry Potter and a biography of Einstein.
Gareth Edwards is a filmmaker whose success and methods of achieving it have sent ripples of fear through the studios of Hollywood. His movie Monsters is an apocalyptic blockbuster which he made for one five hundredth of the budget for Avatar by shooting with a small, mobile team, hiring non-actors on the spot and using dazzling-but-cheap CGI effects.
FRI 09:30 The Cavity Within (b00770f8)
Episode 2
Marty is settling into his new job at the newly privatised dental practice. But why are there suddenly no patients?
Written by Jim Poyser
Starring Chris O'Dowd as Marty, Jeff Rawle as Pete, Mark Straker as Tim, Christine Kavanagh as Anna, Sarah Crowe as Daisy, Mark Straker as Tim, John Rowe as Mr Holmes, Emma Noakes as Sarah, Tracy Wiles as Mrs Wenkins and Don Gilet as Leo.
Director: Peter Kavanagh
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
FRI 10:00 Classic Serial (b03xcxdx)
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Episode 3
by Jane Austen
Dramatised by Charlotte Jones
Elizabeth has misjudged Wickham's character and he is about to bring further shame on her family. Can she hope to ever see Mr Darcy again after rejecting his offer of marriage?
Directed by Sally Avens
Elizabeth has rejected Darcy's offer of marriage but is beginning to reappraise her judgement of his character after she learns of how Wickham attempted to seduce Darcy's sister. Darcy may have put his proposal badly, pointing out their differences in birth and the behaviour of her family. He may also have attempted to separate her sister Jane from Mr Bingley But it appears he believed that Jane did not love Bingley. And Elizabeth knows that her mother and younger sisters do not always behave with the decorum that might be expected of them and her father is too lazy to correct them. Perhaps the fault is not entirely on Darcy's side.
Published just over 200 years ago Pride and Prejudice remains one of the Nation's favourite novels; with its intellect and wit it appeals to a broad range of readers. It stands the test of time by dealing with the timeless issues of love, social class, money and mistaken judgements and by having a witty and clever though flawed heroine at its heart. Elizabeth Bennet is a thorough radical for her time and perhaps the first heroine to ask is it possible to have it all?
Pippa Nixon takes on the role of Elizabeth; she received rave reviews for her Rosalind in 'As You Like It' ' a rising young star'.
Jamie Parker (Darcy) has played Henry V at the National and is shortly to portray Hamlet on Radio 4.
Double Olivier Award winner Samantha Spiro takes on Mrs Bennet and Toby Jones Mr Collins.
FRI 11:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b054c6gr)
Miss Mistletoe
A large family 'welcomes' a regular Christmas visitor, but one year Miss Mistletoe doesn't join them. Read by Rachel Atkins. From March 2015.
FRI 11:15 Drama (b00771rc)
Juliet Ace - Chocolate Frigates
A naval chef plans a grand farewell dinner for his captain, just as his son is sent to fight in the Iraq war. Stars Todd Carty, Lindsey Coulson, Jamie Kenna and Nick Sayce.
FRI 12:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b00j283q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 12:30 The Men from the Ministry (b011f3pf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 13:00 The Blackburn Files (b007w3zt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 13:30 Freedom Song (b008q0sr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 14:00 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b04471vk)
The Candy Van
Sapna Sinha works as a sales assistant in a TV showroom in New Delhi. Being the only bread-winner in the family she works long hours to provide for her widowed mother and younger sister. But then a man walks into her life with an extraordinary proposition: pass seven "life" tests of his choosing and she will have wealth and power. At first the tests seem easy, but things are not quite as they seem. Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
5) The Candy Van
A thriller set in India from the author of "Slumdog Millionaire".
A van appears in Sapna's neighbourhood, luring children away with sweets, to work in factories. Sapna intervenes, but in so doing sets off a chain of events that lead her into the path of danger. Dramatised from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
Writers:
Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and a best-selling novelist. His first novel "Q & A" was made into the Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" as well as Sony Award winning radio drama serial for BBC Radio .
Ayeesha Menon dramatized Vikas Swarup's other novels SIX SUSPECTS and Q & A, which won a Sony Award for Best Drama. She also wrote for Radio 4 THE MUMBAI CHUZZLEWITS, UNDERCOVER MUMBAI, THE CAIRO TRILOGY and MY NAME IS RED. Her stage play PEREIRA'S BAKERY AT 76 CHAPEL ROAD, which was developed with the Royal Court Theatre, was recently staged by the Curve Theatre, Leicester.
John Dryden wrote the original three-part dramas series SEVERED THREADS, THE RELUCTANT SPY and PANDEMIC, which won the Writer's Guild Award for best radio drama script. His dramatisation of BLEAK HOUSE won a Sony Award for Best Drama. Other dramatisations include A SUITABLE BOY, A HANDMAID'S TALE and FATHERLAND one of the most repeated dramas on R4 Extra.
Overflow and notes:
Production:
Sound Design - Steve Bond
Editing Assistant - Varun Bangera
Script Editor - Mike Walker
Assistant Producer - Toral Shah
Music - Sacha Putnam
Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from the novel "ACCIDENTAL APPRENTICE" by Vikas Swarup.
Director - John Dryden
Producer - Nadir Khan
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 14:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c84kg)
Are We Alone?
Heather Couper presents a narrative history of astronomy.
She looks at the prospects for life elsewhere in our own solar system. Could evidence of life have even been discovered already on Mars? She tells the story of the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence as scientists scan the skies for messages from the stars.
Readers are Timothy West, Robin Sebastian, Julian Rhind-Tutt and John Palmer.
FRI 14:30 Book of the Week (b03c31w7)
Seamus Heaney - Beowulf
Episode 5
After King Hrothgar's great victory feast for Beowulf Grendel's mother appears to avenge the death of her son.
Produced in Salford by Susan Roberts.
Radio Drama North.
FRI 14:45 Book of the Week (b00rp7qm)
Hilary Spurling - Burying the Bones
Episode 5
Lindsay Duncan reads the final extract from Hilary Spurling's new book: "Burying The Bones". The distinguished biographer's subject is the astonishing life of Pearl Buck, one of the most successful and popular American novelists of the 20th Century.
In today's episode we learn that as she entered old age, Pearl's indomitable spirit continued to shine as she shocked and surprised her family with a series of bizarre life choices. Pearl never quite recovered her equilibrium after the death of her second husband and, surrounded by a coterie of flamboyant young men, became increasingly cloistered - receiving visitors in a 'throne' room; a strange echo of the last days of her childhood heroine, the last empress of China.
Though her work has now fallen out of fashion, in her day Pearl Buck was a phenomenal bestseller. The novel that made her name was "The Good Earth" which depicted for the first time the gruelling conditions of China's rural poor. Born to Presbyterian missionaries in 1890s China, Buck's first hand experience of the language and people informed her writing and helped to change Western perceptions of that country forever; in recognition of which she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.
Abridger: Alison Joseph.
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
FRI 15:00 Classic Serial (b03xcxdx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
FRI 16:00 The 4 O'Clock Show (b04sylfh)
Mairi Hedderwick, the Big Apple and Brilliant Baking
Mel Giedroyc explores Scotland's islands with Katie Morag creator Mairi Hedderwick and we hear the final part of Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe.
FRI 17:00 Beachcomber... By the Way (b0081b4f)
Series 1
Episode 2
Moonlight on Mrs Parsons, newts in Lord Shortcake's trouser turn-ups, and the police - as ever - on Captain Foulenough's tail.
Richard Ingrams, John Wells, John Sessions and Patricia Routledge recreate the world of the JB Morton.
Running in the Daily Express from 1924 to 1975 – JB Morton’s surreally comic ‘Beachcomber’ column paved the way for a great deal of modern humour.
Adapted by Michael Barfield with Richard Ingrams.
Announcer: Brian Perkins
Producer: Harry Thompson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1989.
FRI 17:30 Living with the Enemy (b00771l8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
FRI 18:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b015yt4k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
FRI 18:30 My Life in Five Books (b012rbts)
Series 2
Robin Pilcher
Robin Pilcher didn't take up writing until he was 48 years old but he has made up for his late start by publishing many successful books. An Ocean Apart in 1999 was followed by Starting Over and A Risk Worth Taking and all three were adapted for television. His latest novel, A Matter of Trust has now been published in paperback.
Robin is also passionate about short stories and is a co-director of the website Shortbread Stories.
Chatting to Stuart Cosgrove about his 5 books Robin reveals his love of maps, picks a life changing book and they share a love of John Buchan's books.
Robin picks the following five books:
1: Favourite Childhood Book: A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
2: Life-Changing book: I HEARD THE OWL CALL MY NAME by Margaret Craven
3: Favourite Reference Book: AA ROAD MAP OF THE BRITISH ISLES
4:Book you've read most often: THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS by John Buchan
5: Favourite novel no one has heard of: LOVESONG by Alex Miller.
Produced by Mike Walker.
First broadcast on Radio Scotland in 2011.
FRI 19:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b00j283q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 19:30 The Men from the Ministry (b011f3pf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 20:00 The Blackburn Files (b007w3zt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 20:30 Freedom Song (b008q0sr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 21:00 Jane Gardam Stories (b054c6gr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
FRI 21:15 Drama (b00771rc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
FRI 22:00 Gloomsbury (b01nlbff)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
FRI 22:30 The League against Tedium (b03b5qc9)
Episode 4
What happens to Oscar Wilde in customs? Cryptic blend of odd comedy and smooth music, with Simon Munnery. From February 1997.
FRI 23:30 The In Crowd (b008g2dl)
Series 1
Episode 6
Sketch show from Manchester's Comedy Store with Robin Ince, Helen Moon, Smug Roberts and Kate Ward. From January 2002.
FRI 23:45 Self-Storage (b0082dxc)
Series 1
Leaving
Could the time have come at long last for Dave to leave behind his peculiar abode?
Stars Reece Shearsmith and Mark Heap.
Sitcom written by Tom Collinson and Barnaby Power.
Dave …. Reece Shearsmith
Geoff …. Mark Heap
Ron …. Tom Goodman-Hill
Judy ...... Rosie Cavaliero
With Susan Earl.
Producer: Ed Morrish
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2007.