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.