SATURDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2015

SAT 00:00 Elspeth Davie - A Collection of Bones (b012yym2)
The Eyelash

A humorous diversion into an evening meal, ruined by a small matter which prompts a big discussion. Read by Edith MacArthur. From January 2002.


SAT 00:15 MR James (b00pfljb)
MR James Stories

Number 13

Dr Anderson's obsessive interest in why the hotel he's staying at doesn't include a number 13 puts him in terrible danger.

Derek Jacobi - as the voice of MR James - introduces classic ghost stories.

Dramatised by Chris Harrald.

Stars Julian Rhind-Tutt as Dr Anderson, Jan Delukowicz as Herr Lund, Simon Treves as Herr Scavenius and Ben Onwukwe as the Voice.

Producer: Gemma Jenkins

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.


SAT 00:30 Soul Music (b0076412)
Series 2

Amazing Grace

John Newton's near-death experience prompted his hymn Amazing Grace.

With Martin Bell, Judy Collins and Bob Zellner

Series about music that makes the hairs stand up on the back of our necks.

Producer: Sara Conkey

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2001.


SAT 01:00 Miss Marple (b007jnl4)
A Murder Is Announced

Episode 5

A further murder has been committed, but just as Miss Marple is piecing her thoughts together - she disappears...

Conclusion of Agatha Christie's whodunit starring June Whitfield as the deceptively mild sleuth, Miss Jane Marple.

Dramatised by Michael Bakewell.

Miss Marple ...... June Whitfield
Inspector Craddock ...... Ian Lavender
Letty Blacklock ...... Sarah Lawson
Colonel Easterbrook ...... Jack Hedley
Laura Easterbrook ...... Joanna McCallum
Bunch Harmon ...... Molly Gaisford
Patrick Simmons ...... Jamie Glover
Mitzi ...... Jenny Funnell
Julia Simmons ...... Angela Sims
Phillipa Haymes ...... Sarah Rice

Director: Enyd Williams

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 1999


SAT 01:30 The Ghost Trains of Old England (b00vhhcf)
Just one train a week runs between Stockport and Stalybridge. It never returns. "There is no service from Stalybridge to Stockport", says a platform sign, cryptically. The Stockport-Stalybridge service is what's known as a "parliamentary train" and exists only so that the rail company can avoid going through formal closure proceedings. Running the single weekly service costs only £50, but to close it down would cost far more. Of the intermediate stops on the line, Network Rail notes: "Data collection including observation has been unable to record any use of these stations".

In this programme, Ian Marchant travels these little used lines and forgotten stations. There is Teesside Airport station, the least-used stop in Britain, with just 44 passengers a year. It has only one train a week, is a 20 minutes walk from the airport (a journey which involves negotiating a locked gate), and the airport has a different name anyway.

Then there is the train that goes from Manchester to Brighton - except that since the Manchester to Brighton direct service has been abolished, a semi-secret replacement bus travels once a week from Ealing Broadway to Wandsworth Road, two stations that were never on the Manchester-Brighton route anyway.

Most bizarre is the case of Newhaven Marine, a station which is technically open, and is served by one train a day. But the station is behind a locked fence and passengers are forbidden to get on the train, which does not appear on any timetable. The company offers to provide a taxi service to any passenger "in possession of a valid ticket". But it is impossible to buy a ticket.
Who are the people who use these secret trains which are also buses and taxis? Mostly rail enthusiasts and hobbyists who collect rail tickets. But occasionally a real passenger stumbles across a service and uses it almost by accident. And what does it say about the British attitude to rules that we stick within the letter of the law while entirely subverting their intention?


SAT 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b00yhygl)
David Vann - Caribou Island

Episode 10

Caribou Island is set in David Vann's native Alaska, amid the icy, glacier fed lakes and the remote islands covered in alder and Sitka spruce. And it is on such island, far from any habitation, that Gary, a medievalist who fled to Alaska thirty years ago with his young wife Irene, in search of an unattainable idyll, is now determined to begin once again. He will build a simple cabin there and at last find peace. Irene joins him in his endeavour, understanding, unlike her husband, that there are costs.

Meanwhile her daughter Rhoda dreams of marriage with Jim, a dentist, who is about to enter his own 'mid-life crisis'.

Fluid and sometimes raw, David Vann explores the depths an unravelling marriage can sink to and the hopes the young still entertain.

Today: While Rhoda fears for her parents on the island and tries to find a way reach them, Irene confronts her loneliness and finds a stark and uncompromising solution.

The reader is William Hope
The abridger is Sally Marmion
The producer is Di Speirs.


SAT 02:15 Noise: A Human History (b01rw8xt)
Capturing Sound

Sounds were ephemeral until recording technology made it possible to capture them.

Professor David Hendy of the University of Sussex introduces bottled moments from the past, including the voices of Robert Browning and Florence Nightingale and 9/11 answerphone messages.

30-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.

Signature tune composed by Joe Acheson.
Producer: Matt Thompson
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 02:30 Elizabeth Gaskell - Mary Barton (b007jqj4)
Episode 10

Margaret has an admirer, and Jem hears Mary's secret via a mysterious stranger. 1840s Manchester tale stars Emma Rydal, Roy Hudd and Teresa Gallagher.


SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b00w48g8)
Giles Tremlett - Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen

Episode 5

A compelling account of the life of the Spanish Infanta who changed the course of Tudor history. At Henry's urging, Parliament has passed the Act of Succession annulling the marriage of the king and queen. However Catherine still has influential allies across Europe.

Yolanda Vazquez reads Giles Tremlett's new biography of Catherine of Aragon, the tenacious woman whose marriage lasted twice as long as those of Henry's five other wives put together.

Abridged by Alison Joseph
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie.


SAT 03:00 Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time (b0076qrn)
The Prisoner and the Fugitive

Hiding away from his turbulent love affair with Albertine, Marcel receives a devastating telegram. Stars James Wilby.


SAT 04:00 The 99p Challenge (b0075w2m)
Series 4

Episode 1

Crazy panel show capers as host Sue Perkins grills Simon Pegg, Armando Iannucci, Bill Bailey and David Quantick.

The game where someone stands to leave the studio 99p richer than when they came in.

Producer: David Tyler

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2003.


SAT 04:30 Albert and Me (b007jsm1)
Series 1

The Homecoming

Single dad Bryan gets worried when his son's mum wants to visit.

Stars Richard Beckinsale as Bryan Archer, Pat Coombs as Mum/Albert and John Comer as Dad. With Robert Gillespie as the Police Sergeant and Diana Berriman as Rose.

Written by Jim Eldridge.

Producer: John Fawcett Wilson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in December 1977.


SAT 05:00 Winston (b007qq36)
Winston Comes to Town

Line of Communication

Cunning rogue Winston has stowed away in a yellow removal van to follow the family to London.

Peter Tinniswood's bawdy comedy serial.

Winston ...... Bill Wallis
Father ...... Maurice Denham
Nancy ...... Shirley Dixon
Rosie ...... Liz Goulding
William ...... Christian Rodska

Director: Shaun MacLoughlin.

First broadcast on BBC Radio in January 1990.


SAT 05:30 Instant Sunshine (b00lh3hd)
From 29/08/1988

Humorous songs performed by the comedy musical cabaret group, Instant Sunshine:

Featuring David Barlow, Peter Christie, Miles Kington and Alan Maryon-Davis

Producer: David Rayvern Allen

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1988.


SAT 06:00 Hercule Poirot (b00rl44w)
Five Little Pigs

Sixteen years after her mother was convicted of murdering her father, Carla Lemarchant desperately seeks the help of Hercule Poirot.

Convinced her mother was innocent, Carla is prepared for whatever discovery the Belgian sleuth might make.

But this is a formidable challenge even for the remarkable detective - especially as he's nothing to go on - except five suspects who fit strangely into the pattern of a children's nursery rhyme...

John Moffatt stars as Hercule Poirot.

First published in 1943, Agatha Christie's whodunnit dramatised by Michael Bakewell. ,

Hercule Poirot …. John Moffatt
Carla Lemarchant …. Clare Heyhoe
Sir Montague Depleach …. John Woodnutt
Elsa Greer …. Suzy Aitchison
Caroline Crale …. Jemma Churchill
Amyas Crale …. John Hartley
Cale Jonathan …. David Kossoff
Philip Blake …. Derek Waring
Meredith Blake …. Graham Crowden
Miss Williams …. Carmel McSharry
Angela Warren …. Charlotte Attenborough

Actor John Moffatt (1922-2012) played Hercule Poirot in 25 productions for BBC Radio.

Director: Enyd Williams

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1994.


SAT 07:30 Marguerite Patten's Century of British Cooking (b0075jp1)
The End of an Era: 1900-1909

Kedgeree, Devilled Kidneys, Stuffed Mutton, Lamb Cutlets Reform, Peach Melba and Victoria Sponge. Food guru Marguerite Patten demonstrates classic recipes from the first decade of the 20th Century in her 10-part history of British cooking.

Marguerite told us how to make the most of our rations during the Second World War in 'Kitchen Front' on the BBC Home Service. She fronted her first BBC TV cookery show in 1947.

Born in Bath, the home economist was widely considered to be the first celebrity cook, and wrote more than 170 books with worldwide sales of 17 million.

A regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme from 1946, Marguerite's final appearance was in 2011. She was awarded the OBE in 1991 and CBE in 2011.

Born November 4th 1915, Marguerite Patten died just a few months short of her 100th birthday in June 2015.

Producer: Ian Willox.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.


SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b00jwqlg)
Working for Margaret

Matthew Parris, who worked for Margaret Thatcher before becoming a political journalist, delves into the Brook Lapping archive to hear from some of her former staff, ministers, civil servants, speechwriters and advisors about what she was like to work for.

Was she any gentler with her staff than she was with her Cabinet colleagues? Matthew finds out about the Margaret Thatcher that only her closest circle saw.

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 09:00 Inspiring Alice (b06q43pl)
'I can't go back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.' - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

Lewis Carroll's book 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' is one of the most influential, best loved Victorian English novels. 150 years after the first book was published, it is still inspiring film makers, artists, poets and even chefs.

But who or what inspired Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), and just why has the book been so inspirational to others?

Mel Giedroyc and her guest, children's author Philip Ardagh dive headlong into the rabbit hole after the secret of Carroll's spell.

Archive includes:

* Gyles Brandreth, Just A Minute

* Lewis Carroll, Great Lives

* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland part 1, read by Alan Bennett

* Christchurch, Open Book

* Mad Hatter's Tea Party, The Food Programme

* Mock Turtle Soup, Historic Heston

* The Hatter, Digging Up Your Roots

* The Dodo, Science in Action

* Shrinking Heads, Questions Questions

* The Crying Game

* Lewis Carroll, The Unbelievable Truth

* Alice in Wonderland around the world, The Fifth Floor

* Wonder.land, Front Row

* The Sleep Diaries

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in November 2015.


SAT 12:00 Booked (b0075lcp)
Series 2

Episode 1

Piglet bumps into the Greek Chorus, Inspector Clouseau takes Blanche Dubois to a dance, and Hunter S Thompson writes a public school prospectus.

Outrageous parody, wit and original writing from Mark Thomas, Dillie Keane, Miles Kington and Roger McGough in the irreverent literary game.

Chaired by Ian McMillan.

Producer: Marc Jobst

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 1997.


SAT 12:30 The Leopard in Autumn (b00rvzkq)
Series 2

Considering the Lillies of the Field

Prince Ludovico of Monte Guano - besieged ruler of the pettiest state in Italy - battles to raise enough money from his meagre subjects to pay for the new Pope's tribute.

Second series of the comedy drama set in Renaissance Italy devised by Neal Anthony.

Written by Roger Danes.

Stars David Swift as Ludovico, Sian Phillips as Plethora, Graham Crowden as Francesco, Saskia Wickham as Rosalie, Nick Romero as Salvatori, Paul Bigley as Alessandro, Christopher Kelham as Guido and Kim Wall as Vitelozzo.

Producer: Helen Williams

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2002.


SAT 13:00 15 Minute Drama (b06q4402)
How Does That Make You Feel

Series 6 Omnibus

Made for 4 Extra. Therapist Martha braces herself for the arrival of the newly re-elected Richard Fallon MP. With Roger Allam and Frances Tomelty.


SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b06q444c)
Guy Chambers

Songwriter Guy Chambers chooses 'Tomorrow Never Knows' by The Beatles and Ravel's 'Piano Concerto in G', second movement.


SAT 14:15 In the Psychiatrist's Chair (b06q4568)
Joanna Lumley

The Absolutely Fabulous actress and activist Joanna Lumley shares her anxieties and regrets with Professor Anthony Clare.

Psychiatrist Dr Anthony Clare's in depth interviews with prominent people from different walks of life.

Born in Dublin, author Anthony Clare held a doctorate in medicine, a master's degree in philosophy and was a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. After becoming a regular on BBC Radio 4's Stop the Week in the 1980s, he became Britain's best-known psychiatrist and earned his own vehicle, In the Psychiatrist's Chair. Starting in 1982, this series ran until 2001 and also transferred to TV. Series highlights include conversations with Bob Monkhouse, Cecil Parkinson and Gerry Adams.

Anthony Clare died suddenly in Paris aged 64 in 2007.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October July 1994.


SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b00jwqlg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


SAT 16:00 Hercule Poirot (b00rl44w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


SAT 17:30 Marguerite Patten's Century of British Cooking (b0075jp1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


SAT 18:00 Mike Walker - Alpha (b0080p6l)
An all-knowing computer appears to have an independent life of its own - an abomination for those who believe in a supreme creator.

Father Marquez is sent to interrogate ‘Alpha’ to decide whether or not it can be allowed to exist. During their conversations, Marquez finds out far more than he expects about both Alpha and - much more disturbingly - himself...

Mike Walker’s chilling drama won Gold at the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2001.

Stars David Calder as Father Marquez, Sarah-Jane Holm as Alpha, John Moffatt as Cardinal Correlli, Ana Sofrenovia as Katerina, Daniel O'Grady as Tom and Lexi Ross as Sophia.

Original music composed and played by David Chilton.

Producer: Gordon House

First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 2001.


SAT 19:00 Inspiring Alice (b06q43pl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


SAT 22:00 Concrete Cow (b0076jvx)
Series 1

Episode 4

The personal problems of King Midas who's not sure whether life is as good as gold? - and a man hunting a pig in his living room.

This show is the product of a CD player, a beardy man pressing a button, a shiny disc that spins round really fast, a laser, some wires, a transmitter, an aerial, your ears and your brain.

Starring Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins, Steven Kynman, Chris Pavlo and Robert Webb.

Written by James Cary, Sally Hawkins, Catherine Shepherd, Tim Higham, Stuart Barker and Adam Bromley.

Producer: Adam Bromley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2002


SAT 22:30 Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive (b00dhxn7)
Series 4

Episode 6

The comedy banker awards laughter bonuses. With Chris Addison, Miranda Hart and David Quantick. From September 2008.


SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b06s98x1)
From 10.00pm to midnight, seven days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats again to Rory McGrath.


SAT 23:00 Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off (b017m14c)
Series 5

Local Hero

When an American mogul tries to buy up every last pebble in lovely Budleigh, Giles decides to run for Mayor. Meanwhile his sister Charlotte goes on a tent protest...

Budleigh Salterton's most famous citizen is back! But this time, he's got a computer! Giles Wemmbley Hogg has been grounded by both the Home Office and his father, so he's set up GWH Travvel ("2m's 2g's 2v's, bit of a mix up at the printers").

Run from his bedroom in Budleigh Salterton, with the help of his long-suffering former Primary Schoolteacher Mr Timmis and the hindrance of his sister Charlotte, it's a one-stop Travel/Advice/Events Management/Website service, where each week, his schemes range far and wide - whether it's roaming the country lecturing would-be overlanders on how to pack a rucksack ("If in doubt, put it in. And double it"), or finding someone a zebra for a corporate promotion ("I'll look in the Phone Book - how hard can it be? Now, "A to D".....), GWH Travvel stays true to its motto - "We do it all, so you won't want to".

Starring Marcus Brigstocke as Giles

And featuring -

Mr. Timmis ...... Vincent Franklin
Charlotte Wemmbley Hogg ...... Catherine Shepherd
Annie ...... Rebecca Front
Ronald Crump ..... Stuart Milligan
Mayor Netherclap ..... Flip Webster
Gabe Bjesterveldt ...... David Armand

Written by Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Salsby & Toby Davies

Producer/Director: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 23:30 The Problem With Adam Bloom (b019jtl7)
Series 3

Technology

The comedian explores the barriers and dilemmas which technology creates in normal everyday relationships.

Fast-paced and inventive comedy, written and starring Adam Bloom

With Rob Rouse, Hattie Hayridge and Stefano Paolini.

Producer: Adam Bromley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2005.