The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.

Radio-Lists Home Now on 4Extra Contact

RADIO-LISTS: BBC RADIO 4 Extra
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC Radio 4 Extra — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/



SATURDAY 13 AUGUST 2016

SAT 00:00 James Follett - The Destruction Factor (b007jpbx)
Search and Destroy

Despite the national emergency, landowners try to profit from the deadly Exon strain. Stars TP McKenna and Rosalind Adams.

SAT 00:30 Soul Music (b00qvlff)
Series 9, Praise My Soul

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Based on Psalm 103, this hymn was written by Henry Francis Lyte, who also penned Abide With Me, and is most asssociated with the tune by John Goss - even though the two men never met.

Their hymn has become one of the most popular for weddings, and was used at those of the Queen and Prince Philip and Charles and Camilla. Increasingly it is also used at funerals, and the widow of DC Stephen Oake, killed while on duty during an anti-terrorist raid, explains why it's so important to her and her family. It's also the perfect tune for teaching young choristers to sight read music, although these days they often misplace the comma in the line, 'Father like, he tends and spares us'.

SAT 01:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07n39g9)
The Snatchers

When Mr Simmy's electric thief-catcher fails to stop him losing his stock, PC Lee has an ingenious solution. Read by Toby Jones.

In 1909 Edgar Wallace wrote a series of 24 short stories featuring a street-wise London police-constable, PC Lee. Wallace himself features in some, with PC Lee recounting his adventures as a bobby on the beat in and around the district of Notting Dale. Toby Jones brings this wonderful, little-known character to life for BBC Radio 4 Extra in 10 charming and witty tales.

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Greenlit Productions.

SAT 01:15 15 Minute Drama (b01dq55j)
Craven: Series 2, Episode 5

Series 2 of Amelia Bullmore's retuning Police Drama 'Craven' starring Maxine Peake as Sue Craven concludes on Radio 4.

Craven is determined to prove that the dog bite murder of a homeless man, is part of a new wave of organised crime and the 'legal' drugs on sale at the Pet Shop is somehow linked. Her Boss DI Price has other plans.

When one of Adams mates dies of a 'legal' drugs overdose it is clear that the problem is wide spread and a local Pet Shop selling pond cleaner is not all it seems. Craven's 'regular irregular' lover, Macca (Jack Deam) helps out.

As Watende Robinson's wife goes into labour with their first baby, a break, takes the team to a farm in Denshaw where shocking activities and an abandoned child hint at a much bigger crime with big fish Tony Lau at its heart.

But it is the pack mentality of the women on the drug addled estate that brings the investigation to an end. We finish series two as the axe falls on the job of one member of the team.

Producer: Justine Potter
A Red production for BBC Radio 4.

SAT 01:30 Sore Fingers (b011jvys)
It's like Billy Bunter with banjos. The unmistakeable sound of Appalachia in Stow on the Wold: Bluegrass enthusiasts pack up their banjos and fiddles for a week of fast and furious music which has become a fixture on the international Bluegrass calendar.

Bluegrass is a relatively recent form of American folk music - made popular in the 30s and 40s by Bill Monroe. The music has its roots in the folk music of Ireland, Scotland and England - taken over with the early settlers and fused with other American influences. But it's made a return journey back across the Atlantic with burgeoning interest here in American Bluegrass and Old Time music. Every year since 1996 a Summer School and convention for Bluegrass enthusiasts - called Sore Fingers - takes place during the Easter vacation at Kingham Hill school in the Cotswolds. As the pupils depart for the holiday a new set of students arrives - some with moustaches, all with an instrument and, for five days, the Oxfordshire playing fields and quads echo to the sound of Kentucky. The instruments include banjo, fiddle, mandolin, Dobro and guitar. It's called Sore Fingers for a reason: the students and the tutors play all day and late into the night.
The talent is prodigious - the fastest picking you're likely to hear this side of Pike County. Amongst the tutors are world class players flown in from America - including banjo player Tony Trischka, flat picker Jim Hurst and Dobro virtuoso Mike Witcher. Amongst the students there are grizzly beards from Doncaster who've been flat picking and claw hammering for fifty years, alongside teenage virtuosos - including 16 year old Edward Bennett from Cornwall, winner of the Clifftop, West Virginia Banjo competition. This programme eavesdrops on a week at Sore Fingers talking to the players about their lives outside and inside the Bluegrass camp: we hear about the history of the music, its revival in England and dip in to some of the classroom sessions. We hear from the Scouse sheet metal worker who gave it all up to make banjos; the couple who met in the fiddle tutor group and who've been together ever since and the carer sent to Sore Fingers by the council for a respite break who keeps coming back. All this and some fine, uplifting music.

SAT 02:00 Naomi Alderman - Disobedience (b0076x92)
Episode 10

A very special address to the synagogue provides both closure and a new beginning. Concluded by Sara Kestelman and Tracy-Ann Oberman.

SAT 02:15 Sport and the British (b01by9lb)
A Bit of a Flutter

Clare Balding looks at the role gambling has played in our relationship with sport as she continues her exploration into how Britain made sport and sport made Britain.
Betting has played a crucial role in the way games developed, it gave incentive to competition which in turn necessitated clear rules. Establishing who's won and who's lost is crucial but who managed to have a flutter and where was a matter riven with class distinctions as Clare discovers.
Reader, Sean Baker
Producer: Sara Conkey.

SAT 02:30 Charlotte Bronte - The Professor (b00m5wdp)
Victor

Married at last to the woman he loves, William plans a happy future with Frances. Charlotte Bronte dramatisation with Paul Venables and Claire Price.

SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b015b44t)
John Cooper - The Queen's Agent: Francis Walsingham at the Court of Elizabeth I, Episode 5

Written by John Cooper. Abridged by Libby Spurrier

Through his network of spies, Walsingham prepares the country for the defeat of the Spanish Armada. It would be the last triumph of his career.

The Queen's Agent is a story of secret agents, cryptic codes and ingenious plots, set in a turbulent period of England's history. It is also the story of a man devoted to his queen, sacrificing his every waking hour to save the threatened English state.

Reader: Hugh Bonneville

Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.

SAT 03:00 Classic Serial (b016w0nc)
Elizabeth Bowen - The Heat of the Day, Episode 2

Elizabeth Bowen's wartime novel of betrayal adapted from a screenplay by Harold Pinter. Part love story, part spy thriller, in which the beautiful Stella's allegiances are tested.

Stella has discovered that her lover, Robert, who works for British Intelligence, is suspected of selling classified information to the enemy. Harrison, the man who has tracked Robert down, wants Stella herself as the price for his silence. Caught between these two men, not sure whom to believe, Stella finds her world crumbling as she learns how little we can truly know of those around us.

First published in 1949, The Heat of the Day was Bowen's most successful novel. In it she draws heavily on her affair with Charles Ritchie, a Canadian diplomat, to whom the book is dedicated. The tortuous nature of their affair is reflected in the doubts and uncertainties of Stella's relationship with Robert. Robert and Stella share the same ages (and age difference) as Bowen and Ritchie.

Bowen's preoccupation with the cracks below the surface and the psychology of hurt and betrayal is echoed in Harold Pinter's work. Pinter's style and Bowen's dialogue find a perfect marriage in this adaptation.

The Heat of the Day is directed by Tristram Powell and adapted for radio by Tristram Powell and Honor Borwick.

Cast:
Screenwriter ..... Henry Goodman
Harrison ..... Matthew Marsh
Stella ...... Anna Chancellor
Robert ...... Tom Goodman-Hill
Louie/ Anne/ Mary/Waitress ...... Teresa Gallagher
Roderick ...... Daniel Weyman
Ernestine ...... Honeysuckle Weeks
Mrs Kelway ...... Tina Gray
Donovan ...... Nigel Anthony

Producer: Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey Production for BBC Radio 4.

SAT 04:00 The 3rd Degree (b01rl5rg)
Series 3, University of Exeter

A lively and funny quiz show, hosted by Steve Punt, where a team of three University students take on a team of three of their professors.

Coming this week from the University of Exeter, the specialist subjects are Psychology, Philosophy and Biosciences, and the questions range from whistling sailors and George Orwell to Pythagoras and guano.

The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds, and the 'Highbrow and Lowbrow' round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, film, and One Direction.

The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more than just glanced at that reading list.

The host Steve Punt, although best known as a satirist on The Now Show, is also someone who delights in all facets of knowledge, not just in the Humanities (his educational background) but in the sciences as well. He has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4, on subjects as varied as "The Poet Unwound - The History Of The Spleen" and "Getting The Gongs" (an investigation into awards ceremonies), as well as a comedy for Radio 4's Big Bang Day set in the Large Hadron Collider, called "The Genuine Particle".

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

SAT 04:30 Kathmandu or Bust (b07n3djw)
Gut Reaction

On the expedition to Kathmandu, the five travellers hit Europe but mutiny is in the air. Stars David Haig. From June 1996.

SAT 05:00 Winston in Europe (b007wvf0)
Finis

On the family's whistle-stop tour of Europe, Father shows them where he married Mother. Stars Maurice Denham. From April 1992.

SAT 05:30 Sketchorama (b06172dj)
Series 4, Episode 1

Award winning actress and comedian Isy Suttie presents the pick of the best live sketch groups currently performing on the UK comedy circuit in a new series of BBC Radio 4's sketch act showcase. Each week the show spotlights three up and coming groups featuring character, improv, broken and musical sketch comedy.

There are so many incredibly talented and inventive sketch groups on the British Comedy scene but with no dedicated broadcast format. Sketchorama aims to bring hidden gems and established live acts to the airwaves offering a truly distinctive show for Radio 4.

Producer: Gus Beattie
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.

SAT 06:00 August Strindberg - The Ghost Sonata (b07nsfgr)
A poor student chances on a rich old invalid and is invited to a ghost supper where adultery, murder, deceit and betrayal are stripped bare in the house of the living dead...

August Strindberg's ghoulish masterpiece stars Frank Finlay as the Old Man, Alan Cox as the Student, Frederick Treves as the Colonel, Dorothy Tutin as the Mummy, Saskia Wickham as the Daughter and Trevor Peacock as Johansson.

Original music: Andy Price
Translator: Michael Meyer
Producer: Andy Jordan

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1994.

SAT 07:30 Electric Ride (b00ssrkj)
Episode 2

Peter Curran attempts a pioneering 4500 mile drive round Europe in a battery-powered electric car.

Peter travels through Denmark, Norway and Sweden, countries he finds to be very eco-friendly - though at this time of year also very rain-sodden.

He visits Samso, known as Denmark's Energy island and is invited to lead a 100 electric car convoy round Olso, one of the largest ever gatherings of electric cars.

Producer: Kevin Dawson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b01p2vtz)
Great Spy Books: Fact or Fiction?

Peter Hennessy, the leading expert on state secrecy, asks how close the great British spy novels come to reality and explores what they reveal about intelligence and security. By drawing on official papers and what were once top secret intelligence documents, and by interviewing former diplomats and former officers in MI5 and MI6, he compares and contrasts fiction with real espionage.

Much of the appeal lies in their apparent authenticity. But how much do James Bond or George Smiley resemble real spies? And is fact sometimes stranger than fiction?

Peter Hennessy shows that spy books in the early 1900s made a big impact, influencing Britain's first secret service bureau, the forerunner of MI5 and MI6. He traces the development of spy fiction from its early days to the more nuanced spy stories of Somerset Maugham in 'Ashenden' and of Eric Ambler's 1930s' novels. Their more subtle approach is echoed by Graham Greene and John le Carre, whereas Ian Fleming's hero, James Bond, is part spy, part assassin. Cold War novels reflect the deep fear of nuclear war and of betrayal by double-agents ('moles'), but can modern spy fiction achieve the same degree of intrigue and suspense?

Producer: Rob Shepherd.

SAT 09:00 Wright & Forrest - Kismet (b07nsq9w)
A "musical Arabian night" set in ancient Baghdad full of romance and intrigue, recorded for BBC Radio 2 in 1994. Robert Wright and George Forrest's Tony Award-winning musical was first produced on Broadway in 1953, before successfully transferring to London's West End. The MGM film version was released in 1955.

Stars Ethan Freeman as Hajj the Poet, Julia Migenes as Lalume, Stephen Hill as Caliph, Katrina Murphy as Marsinah, Frank Middlemass as Omar Kayyam, David Adler as Wazir, David Healey as Jawan, Frank Jarvis as Hassan Ben, David Kelsey as Chief Policeman and Anny Tobin as Widow Yussef.

Wright & Forrest's classic score is based on the themes of Alexander Borodin, a book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis, and Edward Knoblock's play.

With the Stephen Hill Singers and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Alwyn.

Producer: John Langridge

First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 1994.

SAT 11:35 The Story Behind Kismet (b07nss0z)
Sheridan Morley talks to the creators of the 1953 classic Broadway musical, Kismet - Robert Wright and George Forrest.

Producer: Stella Hanson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 1995.

SAT 12:00 A Whole 'Nother Story (b0076b38)
Series 2, Episode 1

4 Extra Debut. Will Pete and Cassie's friendship survive new romantic interests? Stars Debra Stephenson and David Lamb. From October 2002.

SAT 12:30 Chambers (b007jttl)
Series 1, QC at Any Cost

Hellbent on becoming QC no matter what, John Fuller-Carp employs anyone who can help him. Stars John Bird. From April 1996.

SAT 13:00 Graham Greene - Monsignor Quixote: Omnibus (b07nt0dq)
Episode 1

Father Quixote befriends an Italian bishop with unexpected consequences. Comic take on a classic novel, with Bernard Cribbins.

SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b07nt2mp)
Frederick Forsyth

Novelist Frederick Forsyth chooses 'Ol' Man River' sung by Paul Robeson and 'Fallen Soldier', sung by Melissa Adler.

SAT 14:15 In the Psychiatrist's Chair (b049xlzx)
Hanif Kureishi

The novelist and playwright tells Anthony Clare about trying to make sense of his real self through his work. From October 1998.

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

Born in Dublin, author Anthony 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.

SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b01p2vtz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

SAT 16:00 August Strindberg - The Ghost Sonata (b07nsfgr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

SAT 17:30 Electric Ride (b00ssrkj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

SAT 18:00 The Scarifyers (b007wfgb)
The Thirteen Hallows, Episode 2

Crow and Dunning's investigations lead them to an unremarkable terraced house in South Wales, home to the mysterious Mr Merriman. Is there more to Merriman than first appears?

Meanwhile, Dunning meets famed archaeologist Ralegh Radford, who is on the verge of the greatest discovery of the age. Britain's Tutankhamen, the press are calling it. But could it be something stranger still?

The Scarifyers follows the exploits of 1930s ghost-story writer Professor Dunning and retired policeman Harry Crow, who together investigate weird mysteries under the auspices of top-secret government department MI:13.

Stars David Warner as Harry Crow, Terry Molloy as Professor Dunning, Gareth David-Lloyd as Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr, David Benson as Mr Merriman, Margaret Cabourn-Smith as Lady Miriam Gore and Ewan Bailey as Ralegh Radford.

Written by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris

Music by Edwin Sykes

A Bafflegab Production.

SAT 18:30 Terry Pratchett (b010nyk4)
Night Watch, Episode 2

Stuck in the past, Commander Sam Vimes is known as 'Keel', but he's not the only one with a new name. Stars Philip Jackson.

SAT 19:00 The Sage of Cricklewood - Alan Coren on 4 Extra (b03xzy4b)
Following Alan Coren's death in 2007, Robert Thomson, then editor of the Times, aptly described him as "a witty and thoughtful tour guide through life."

Writer, editor of Punch, The Listener, columnist and commentator for a number of national newspapers and The New Yorker, he was regarded by some as the natural successor to SJ Perelman.

A natural raconteur and broadcaster, he enlivened numerous radio and TV programmes, playing head curmudgeon on The News Quiz for nearly 30 years, puncturing pomposity and folly - but managing to do so with humanity and warmth.

With the help of his son and daughter, Giles and Victoria, and friends, colleagues and commentators, Christopher Matthew is your guide through some of most memorable moments of Alan Coren's radio career - from a poignant early Desert Island Discs, to his humorous columns and contributions to The News Quiz, as well as an edition of the series Christopher made with Alan Coren - Freedom Pass.

"The Sage of Cricklewood" will also be remembered and celebrated by some of those who worked with him and knew him best.

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Pier Productions.

SAT 22:00 My Teenage Diary (b014gggx)
Series 3, Jo Caulfield

My Teenage Diary returns with four more brave celebrities ready to revisit their formative years by opening up their intimate teenage diaries, and reading them out in public for the very first time.

Rufus Hound is joined by comedian Jo Caulfield whose diaries describe her joining a terrible rockabilly band as drummer - despite the fact she can't play the drums.

Producer: Harriet Jaine
A Talkback Production for BBC Radio 4.

SAT 22:30 Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive (b007zd04)
Series 1, Episode 5

The funny man's radio drop-in centre tackles Live 8 and white-collar boxing matches. With David Mitchell. From June 2005.

SAT 23:00 BBC Radio New Comedy Award (b07nwv8j)
2016, Semi-final 2

Mark Watson hosts the second semi-final from the Edinburgh Festival with judges Susan Calman, Julia Mackenzie and Clive Anderson.

SAT 23:40 The Comedy Club Interviews (b07qrgsg)
BBC Radio New Comedy Award Semi-Final 2 - Behind the Scenes

We go behind the scenes at the second semi-final of the BBC Radio New Comedy Award and chat to the winners, the judges and the host.

SAT 23:45 Adam and Joe's Famous Guy (b010m7g6)
'I'm the best at pretending' - a reclusive Hollywood star tells all. Stars Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish. From April 2006.


SUNDAY 14 AUGUST 2016

SUN 00:00 The Scarifyers (b007wfgb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Saturday]

SUN 00:30 Terry Pratchett (b010nyk4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Saturday]

SUN 01:00 Graham Greene - Monsignor Quixote: Omnibus (b07nt0dq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:00 on Saturday]

SUN 02:10 Inheritance Tracks (b07nt2mp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:10 on Saturday]

SUN 02:15 In the Psychiatrist's Chair (b049xlzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Saturday]

SUN 03:00 Archive on 4 (b01p2vtz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 on Saturday]

SUN 04:00 August Strindberg - The Ghost Sonata (b07nsfgr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Saturday]

SUN 05:30 Electric Ride (b00ssrkj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Saturday]

SUN 06:00 Charlotte Bronte - The Professor (b00m9jbj)
Omnibus 2

Now teaching in Belgium, William angers the headmistress when he falls for a young woman he is tutoring. Stars Paul Venables.

SUN 07:15 A Dark History of British Gardening (b07nwvvp)
Snobbery

Writer Jenny Uglow reflects on our garden weaknesses - snobbery has always flourished in the garden.

SUN 07:30 Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully (b01r4ycv)
Series 1, Minimum Volume

Katrina Lyons was only visiting Cresdon Green, the village where she grew up, to borrow some money from her parents. But when she tried to head back to London, it turned out alien beings known as the Geonin had lowered a force field around the village and were refusing to let anyone in or out.

Unfortunately almost everyone in the village is too cowardly, apathetic, polite or stupid to stand up to this alien menace, so Katrina has no choice but to start the resistance movement herself. In the cricket pavilion.

EPISODE TWO: Minimum Volume.

Uljabaan is working on an education programme for after the invasion, creating a list of books suitable for children to read. His chosen advisor is Mrs Leeson from the charity shop. Katrina is confident she could do a better job, and hopes she could use it for subversive purposes - so she volunteers. But can she sneak anything past Uljabaan? And can she convince Lucy she's not really being a traitor?

Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully is written by Eddie Robson (That Mitchell and Webb Sound, Newsjack), and stars Hattie Morahan (Outnumbered, Critic's Circle & Evening Standard Theatre Awards Best Actress'), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Green Wing, The Hour), Jan Francis (Just Good Friends, Emmerdale), Peter Davison (A Very Peculiar Practice, Dr Who), Hannah Murray (Skins, Game of Thrones), and John-Luke Roberts (Spats, BBC Three Live At The Fringe).

SUN 08:00 We're in Business (b07nwwqt)
The Regimental Dinner

Can Dudley and Harry help the Major organise his regimental dinner?

Stars Peter Jones as Dudley, Harry Worth as Harry and Irene Handl as Miss Jubilee Boot. With Dick Emery and Frederick Treves.

Peter Jones is small-time businessman, Dudley Grosvenor who's always out to make a fast buck - usually at the expense of his side-kick, Harry Worth.

Written by Marty Feldman, Barry Took and Peter Jones.

A selection of surviving episodes from two series broadcast between 1959-1960.

Producer: Charles Maxwell.

First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in March 1960.

SUN 08:30 Meet the Huggetts (b00nvyzd)
Clean Linen

A mix-up at the launderette sparks a whole pile of embarrassment for Joe and Ethel Huggett.

Stars Jack Warner as Joe, Kathleen Harrison as Ethel, James Langley as Bobby, Alanna Boyce as Jane, Charles Leno as Fred Stebbings and Alan Keith as the Detective.

Popular working-class family, the Huggetts first hit the cinema screen with a series of Gainsborough films between 1947 and 1949. Their subsequent BBC radio series ran from 1953 to 1962.

Scripted by Eddie Maguire.

Producer: Jacques Brown

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in June 1959.

SUN 09:00 Flaneuse: Women Who Walk the Cities - Omnibus (b07nwyf5)
Author Lauren Elkin strolls great city streets, thinking about distinguished women who did the same. Read by Julianna Jennings.

SUN 10:10 Inheritance Tracks (b07nwyf7)
Mary Portas

Retail consultant Mary Portas chooses 'Into the Mystic' by Van Morrison and 'Crazy on the Weekend' sung by Gavin Clark.

SUN 10:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b07nwyf9)
Olympians, Sir Ben Ainslie

4 Extra Debut. From Carly Simon to Edward Elgar, the Olympic yachtsman shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From January 2014.

SUN 11:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b07nwz3x)
Series 3, Bulls, Bikes, Bullets, Brother

True stories told live in the USA: Jennifer Hixson introduces stories about danger, cycling, reunion and healing.

The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling based in the USA. Since 1997, it has celebrated both the raconteur and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. Originally formed by the writer George Dawes Green as an intimate gathering of friends on a porch in Georgia (where moths would flutter in through a hole in the screen), and then recreated in a New York City living room, The Moth quickly grew to produce immensely popular events at theatres and clubs around New York City and later around the USA, the UK and other parts of the world.

The Moth has presented more than 15,000 stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth podcast is downloaded over 27 million times a year.

Featuring true stories told live on stage without scripts, from the humorous to the heart-breaking.

The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Jay Allison and Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and is distributed by the Public Radio Exchange.

SUN 11:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b011ppq4)
Series 2, Nectar

17/20. The beautiful thick, sweet and luscious tasting delicacy of honey is one of the world's natural goodies. Indigenous peoples from all over the world will go to great lengths to get the honey from wild bees - and for most of us less connected to the natural world, we love this product of bees bought from the shop. Honey is nectar and David Attenborough poignantly points out this "was the first bribe in nature..." - it evolved one hundred million years ago with the flowering plants and drove the evolutionary relationship between animals and plants.

Written and presented by David Attenborough
Produced by Julian Hector.

SUN 12:00 We're in Business (b07nwwqt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

SUN 12:30 Meet the Huggetts (b00nvyzd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]

SUN 13:00 Charlotte Bronte - The Professor (b00m9jbj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

SUN 14:15 A Dark History of British Gardening (b07nwvvp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 today]

SUN 14:30 Reading Europe: Italy - The Parrots Omnibus (b07nx09c)
Italy - The Parrots

As the authors fight for the literary prize, the beginner has much to lose. Read by Sam Rix, Anthony Head and Oliver Ford Davies.

SUN 15:45 Frederic Raphael - Rosebuds (b00769sb)
4 Extra Debut. Pete and Freddie wonder what on earth has become of their old friend, 'family man' Johnny Olive. Story read by Tom Conti.

SUN 16:00 GB Shaw - Androcles and the Lion (b039ljct)
Recorded in 1967, George Bernard Shaw interprets of one of Aesop's Fables, first published in 1912.

Although a comedy, the piteous plight of the early Christians under their Roman masters gives Shaw a forum for his thoughts on human frailty, religion and martyrdom.

Starring Leslie French as Androcles and John Graham as the Lion. With Antony Viccars, Peter Baldwin Carol Marsh and Sian Davies.

Adapted by Peggy Wells

Producer: Archie Campbell

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1967.

SUN 17:00 Poetry Extra (b07nx3l4)
Adventures in Poetry - Not Waving but Drowning

BBC Radio 4's Poet in Residence, Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive with an episode of Adventures in Poetry.

Peggy Reynolds asks what it is about Stevie Smith's poem 'Not Waving but Drowning' which has kept it relevant since 1957. The phrase itself turns up endlessly in newspapers, both red-tops and broadsheets, and is particularly loved by writers on sports pages - not, you might think, the obvious place to look for soul-searching poetry. But underneath the snappy economy of the first line runs a complex and universal emotional truth, examined here by a Samaritan, a sports writer and Stevie Smith's biographer.

Adventures in Poetry is a series focussing on classic poems whose lines or images have entered our national consciousness.

Producer: Christine Hall

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.

SUN 17:30 Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully (b01r4ycv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

SUN 18:00 The Price of Fear (b007jn9k)
The Ninth Removal

Horror legend Vincent Price's unnerving tale of a secretary's murderous revenge.

Co-starring Freda Jackson, Richard Pearson, Clare Sutcliffe, Michael Segal and Alan Rowe.

Written by R Chetwynd-Hayes and dramatised by Barry Campbell.

Producer: John Dyas

First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1974.

SUN 18:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b007jm0m)
Primary Phase, Fit the Third

A whale meets an unfortunate end, as Arthur Dent and company meet the Earth's creators. By Douglas Adams. From March 1978.

Arthur Dent is - so far - the only survivor from Earth, demolished to make way for a by-pass. He survived thanks to his friend, Ford Prefect (who hails not from Guildford, but somewhere near Betelgeuse), a writer for the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, "the most successful book ever to have come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor". Now paired with fellow Earth survivor Trillian and duplicitous two-headed hustler Zaphod Beeblebrox, Arthur and Ford are about to learn more startling truths about the universe.

The global multi-media success story that is "Hitchhiker's" started life as a Radio 4 series in March 1978. The original scripts by the late Douglas Adams then went on to spawn a series of novels, a feature film, at least three stage shows, a TV series, a computer game, a collection of comic books - and various towels.

Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge and died in 2001 at the age of 49. He suffered a fatal heart attack after working out at his gym in California.

With Peter Jones, Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Mark Wing-Davey and Stephen Moore. Produced by the late Geoffrey Perkins.

SUN 19:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b07nwz3x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]

SUN 19:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b011ppq4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:50 today]

SUN 20:00 Flaneuse: Women Who Walk the Cities - Omnibus (b07nwyf5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

SUN 21:10 Inheritance Tracks (b07nwyf7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:10 today]

SUN 21:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b07nwyf9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:15 today]

SUN 22:00 Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully (b01r4ycv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

SUN 22:30 Warhorses of Letters (b03pdhkq)
Series 3, Episode 1

First in a new series of the world's best-loved epistolary equine comedy-romance, as we reveal more of the recently-discovered, passionate letters between the Duke of Wellington's horse Copenhagen (played by Daniel Rigby) and Napoleon's steed Marengo (played by Stephen Fry), with an introduction by Tamsin Greig.

Beginning at the height of the Battle of Waterloo and Marengo's close brush with death our heroes deal with the aftermath of battle as Marengo becomes part of the spoils of war. Will defeat bring him exile to St Helena at his master's side, or will be be untied with his true love Copenhagen? And if the latter, should they rebrand themselves as hot new power-couple Mopenhagen? Or Carengo?

Written by Robbie Hudson and Marie Phillips
Produced by Gareth Edwards.

SUN 22:45 Tina C (b00dshmq)
Tina C Goes Down Under: The Aborogynal Monologues, Alice Springs

Country music icon and 2008 presidential hopeful Tina C looks at the Australian obsession with country music and the relationship with the indigenous owners of the land. Tina visits the little people of this vast continent which is damn big and kinda empty.

Written and performed by Christopher Green
Additional voices by Julia Morris
Music production by Duncan Walsh Atkins.
Director Claire Grove.

SUN 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b07qrgzk)
BBC Radio New Comedy Award Winner

Arthur Smith chats to this year's winner of the BBC Radio New Comedy Award, straight from the stage at the final at the Edinburgh Fringe.

SUN 23:00 Think the Unthinkable (b01mtkqn)
Series 4, Be Happy

The bumbling management consultants grapple with physical perfection for Phil's gym. Stars Marcus Brigstocke. From October 2005.

SUN 23:30 The Young Postmen (b00xjv0s)
Everest (The Mountain)

Fearing the sack, Derek goes mountaineering to prove he's employable. Stars Ben Miller and John Thompson. From December 1992.


MONDAY 15 AUGUST 2016

MON 00:00 The Price of Fear (b007jn9k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Sunday]

MON 00:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b007jm0m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Sunday]

MON 01:00 Charlotte Bronte - The Professor (b00m9jbj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Sunday]

MON 02:15 A Dark History of British Gardening (b07nwvvp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 on Sunday]

MON 02:30 Reading Europe: Italy - The Parrots Omnibus (b07nx09c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Sunday]

MON 03:45 Frederic Raphael - Rosebuds (b00769sb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:45 on Sunday]

MON 04:00 GB Shaw - Androcles and the Lion (b039ljct)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]

MON 05:00 Poetry Extra (b07nx3l4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday]

MON 05:30 Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully (b01r4ycv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Sunday]

MON 06:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07nxhp4)
A Case for Angel Esquire

When a young cashier is attacked in an alleyway and £500 disappears without a trace, Mr Angel from the Yard is drafted in to help solve the crime. Read by Toby Jones.

In 1909 Edgar Wallace wrote a series of 24 short stories featuring street-wise London police-constable, PC Lee. Wallace himself features in some, with PC Lee recounting his adventures as a bobby on the beat in and around the district of Notting Dale. Toby Jones brings this wonderful, little-known character to life for BBC Radio 4 Extra in 10 charming and witty tales.

THE AUTHOR:

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born on 1st April 1875 to actress Polly Richards. At nine days old, he was adopted by a Billingsgate fish porter. Aged 11, he began his working life on Fleet Street selling newspapers at Ludgate Circus. He was to become a prolific writer. Wallace wrote numerous best-selling novels - including the Four Just Men and Mr JG Reeder series - and many plays, poetry and non-fiction. Specialising in the crime genre, PC Lee was his first venture into the world of the short story.

THE READER:

Actor Toby Jones' list of film credits includes: Tale of Tales, Dad's Army, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Hunger Games, Frost/Nixon, My Week with Marilyn and the Harry Potter series. TV roles include: The Secret Agent, Capital, The Detectorists, Marvel's Agent Carter, Marvellous, The Girl, Dr Who, The Old Curiosity Shop and The Way We Live Now.

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Greenlit Productions.

MON 06:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5dwb)
Craven, Episode 1

The police drama by Amelia Bullmore, starring Maxine Peake, returns for a new series - with a strange case that is set to get more bizarre as the week unfolds.

"You have to be careful of the bizarre, because one man's odd is another man's system."

The episode begins when the body is found of a strangled man, with a missing finger and an extra front tooth. For Craven, alarm bells ring and she suspects the trade mark maiming of criminal mastermind Tony Lau.
The trail leads the team to a domestic address that has been converted into a cannabis factory.

This popular series is created by an all female production crew in Manchester and stars Maxine Peake as DCI Sue Craven.

Produced by Justine Potter
A Red Production Company production for BBC Radio 4.

MON 06:30 Loud Organs His Glory (b0103wyx)
Anyone who has watched a BBC Prom or visited St Paul's or Salisbury or Hereford or Truro Cathedral will have seen a "Father Willis" organ. This programme tells the story of the man who through a blend of engineering ability, musical ambition and massive self-confidence became the dominant organ builder of the Victorian era. It was an era in which huge organs were suddenly required in both cathedrals and the new town halls appearing all over the country.

Simon Townley tells the story of 'Father' Henry Willis from his relatively humble beginnings as the son of a London builder to the heights of Victorian society. By winning a competition at the Great Exhibition in 1851, Willis set himself on a road which was to lead to the building of over a thousand organs. Many are still working today, even if they've been altered over the years. What makes the Willis organs special, and makes organists today acknowledge their greatness in hushed tones, is the subject of this programme.

Simon visits the current Willis factory in Liverpool where new organs are still built and old Willis machines are revitalised.

He plays the organ in Winchester Cathedral, the organ that won the Great Exhibition competition and was squeezed into the Cathedral by the then organist S.S.Wesley, and he finds out more about the man whose love of yachting was matched only by his belief that anything was possible when it came to the building of organs. If that meant splitting an organ in two, putting the two parts on either side of a cathedral transept and linking the whole lot through a system of subterranean pipes then that's what he would do... and he did, in the case of St Paul's Cathedral.

But essentially the Father Willis story is about the details that earned his reputation. The reed technology that no one at the time could match, the use of new steam-generated wind and the design of organ consoles that gave organists like Willis himself a control that they'd never enjoyed before.

It's a story of the king of instruments built at a time of supreme national self-confidence by a man who embodied the spirit of the age and gave it voice.

Producer: Tom Alban.

MON 07:00 Elephants to Catch Eels (b00vl38x)
Series 2, London

Smuggler Jago is kidnapped, but can he survive in polite city society? Stars Sheridan Smith and Alison Steadman. From May 2004.

MON 07:30 Just a Minute (b07mwqfw)
Series 76, Episode 1

Nicholas Parsons and guests return for the 76th series of the panel show where participants must try to speak for 60 seconds without hesitation, deviation or repetition. No repetition? That's no small order after nearly 50 years.

Episode one features Paul Merton, Katherine Ryan, Gyles Brandreth and Josie Lawrence.

Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.

Produced by Matt Stronge.

It was a BBC Studios production.

MON 08:00 Behind the Scenes of Just a Minute (b07nxrg9)
Chair of the long-running panel show since 1967, the legendary Nicholas Parsons talks to Gyles Brandreth about its history and enduring success.

Nicholas shares his views on some of the many panellists who've battled to speak for one minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation - from Kenneth Williams and Sheila Hancock through to Paul Merton and Miles Jupp.

Interviewed in Edinburgh, Nicholas also takes questions from the audience - so find out what else the whistle-blower does apart from blowing the whistle?

Recorded for BBC Radio 4 Extra by BBC Scotland.

MON 08:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b011jx7v)
Series 2, Chameleon

16/20. Many of the world's chameleons live on the huge continental island of Madagascar off the Eastern coast of Africa. Some are tiny, as small as a finger nail - others in comparison are giants. Sir David Attenborough gives us a personal insight into the natural history of chameleons through one very special individual - a chameleon he had as a pet, called Rommel. In this life story you will feel as if you've met Rommel personally and with the delightful embrace with which Sir David writes, you smile all the way through.

Written and presented by David Attenborough
Produced by Julian Hector.

MON 09:00 The Write Stuff (b00vkxj4)
Series 14, Stephenie Meyer

Bestselling writer of the "Twilight" series, Stephenie Meyer, is this week's "Author of the Week".

The teams set about answering questions about her life and work as well as solving other literary conundrums. They will as ever finish with one of their own pastiches of Meyer's work - this time imagining what the twilight series might have sounded like had it been set in a typical British comp.

Guest panellists are bestselling crime writer and "Tom Thorne" creator, Mark Billingham, and "Horrid Henry" author, Francesca Simon.

MON 09:30 A Whole New Ball Game (b00fzwp9)
Series 2, Brief Encounter

A tale of jealousy, deceit and football unfolds when Robert attends a rival school. Stars Desmond Barrit. From November 1994.

MON 10:00 Classic Serial (b017lbqk)
Stefan Zweig - Beware of Pity, Episode 1

By Stefan Zweig. Dramatised for radio by Stephen Wyatt.

Stefan Zweig is a remarkable writer who had a remarkable life, but is not nearly as well known as he deserves to be, as Simon Gray discovered when he was attracted by the cover of his only novel, Beware of Pity.

Simon Gray took the book on holiday with him and used it as an escape from worrying about his cancer and the likely prognosis, "it being too good to read except with the closest attention" and he became immersed in the story of "a young man betrayed by his own unwonted impulses, his own nature........ it's the way that the novel single-mindedly, almost obsessively, illustrates and analyses the destructive power of a single emotion -if that's what pity is - that makes it unique, at least in my experience."

Simon Gray embarked on a dramatisation of the book for Radio 4, but it was unfinished at his death in 2008. Another writer, Clare McIntyre, was also attracted by the story and wrote a stage version, but she too died before it was completed. Stephen Wyatt has taken on the task of writing a two part radio version based on Clare McIntyre's material, which will be broadcast on Radio 4 on 27 November and 4 December, with a cast that includes Piers Wehner, Bryony Hannah, Ronald Pickup, Jasper Britton & Michael Jayston.

Cast:
Anton Hofmiller ...... Piers Wehner
Edith ...... Bryony Hannah
Kekesfalva ...... Ronald Pickup
Dr Condor ....... Jasper Britton
Josef ...... Michael Jayston
Ilona ...... Mabel Clements
Ferencz ...... Jack Chedburn
Jozsi/Flowerseller ..... Tai Lawrence
The Apothecary ..... Jason Devoy

Director: Jane Morgan
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.

MON 11:00 William Trevor Short Stories (b007jvyb)
The Distant Past

Two Irish Protestants live contentedly in the past, until the present catches up with them. Read by Denys Hawthorne.

MON 11:15 Philip Palmer - The King's Coiner (b00767dn)
Royal Mint warden Isaac Newton goes to any length to pursue notorious counterfeit coiner William Chaloner. Stars Ian McDiarmid.

MON 12:00 Behind the Scenes of Just a Minute (b07nxrg9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

MON 12:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b011jx7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:50 today]

MON 13:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07nxhp4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

MON 13:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5dwb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 today]

MON 13:30 Loud Organs His Glory (b0103wyx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]

MON 14:00 Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (b0129d4w)
Episode 1

'Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee...'

Sian Thomas begins Marina Lewycka's witty and tender novel about emigrating and immigration, family history and sisterly rivalry, tractors - and the lure of a green satin brassiere.

Abridged by Sally Marmion

Producer: Di Speirs

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2005.

MON 14:15 Sport and the British (b01c7lkd)
Cricket and the English Hero

Clare Balding continues her investigation into how sport shaped Britain and Britain shaped sport.
In this weeks programmes she looks at how sport unites us all when we get behind out national teams and no more so, than when the character of that team can be personified by one person.
If there's one sport that embodies Englishness, it's cricket and in this programme she looks at how and why W.G.Grace, in the nineteenth century and Jack Hobbs, in the twentieth, became the epitome of a national sporting hero. Clare visits Lords Cricket ground and the Oval to discover more.
She also talks to Professor Richard Holt from The International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University, Simon Rae, a biographer of W.G.Grace and broadcaster David Rayvern Allen. The readers are:Jo Munro and Brian Bowles.
The programme is produced in Birmingham by Garth Brameld.

MON 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01d0kyz)
JL Carr - The Harpole Report, Episode 1

1/5. Comic drama. Idealistic young teacher, George Harpole, decides to shake things up when he becomes acting head of Tampling St Nicholas Primary School - but he encounters stiff resistance from all quarters in J.L Carr's novel, dramatised by Jonathan Smith.

George Harpole...........Shaun Dingwall
Emma Foxberrow..........Hattie Morahan
Mr Tusker.............Christian Rodska
Mr Theaker.............Sam Dale
Mrs Blossom..........Lesley Nicol
Mrs Rita Grindle-Jones......Jane Whittenshaw
Mr James Pintle.........David Holt
Mrs Sue Byrd...........Susie Riddell
Other parts played by the cast.
Producer/director: Bruce Young.

MON 14:45 Book of the Week (b015mzkt)
Christopher Hitchens - Arguably, Believe Me - It's Torture

In 'Believe Me - It's Torture', journalist Christopher Hitchens confronts the issue of whether waterboarding is torture, by being waterboarded himself.

Christopher Hitchens is a British-born political journalist and reviewer, who has been based in the USA for over 25 years (he is now a US citizen). His journalism, invariably polemical, has appeared in a variety of publications, mainly in the USA, but in the UK too. Arguably is the fifth collection of his journalism - the columns defined as 'Essays' in the book.

The five 'Essays'selected for Book Of The Week all originally appeared in The Atlantic Journal.
They are:
'Believe Me - It's Torture'
Hitchen's experience of being waterboarded (2008).
'Let Them Eat Pork Rinds'
How the rich perceive the poor (2005).
'The Vietnam Syndrome'
The ongoing tragedy of Agent Orange victims (2006).
'The Swastika and the Cedar'
The two faces of Beirut (2009).
'Flaw Of Gravity'
A review of Peter Ackroyds' biography of Isaac Newton (2008).

"...one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining writers we have"
The New York Times

"...this is a tremendous book"
The Daily Telegraph

Written by Christopher Hitchens.
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Read by Roger Allam

Producer: Gordon House
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.

MON 15:00 Classic Serial (b017lbqk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]

MON 16:00 The Write Stuff (b00vkxj4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

MON 16:30 A Whole New Ball Game (b00fzwp9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]

MON 17:00 Elephants to Catch Eels (b00vl38x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]

MON 17:30 Just a Minute (b07mwqfw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

MON 18:00 James Follett - The Destruction Factor (b007k4t9)
World Without Fire

Before American action, the British government must track down all the deadly Exon seeds. Stars TP McKenna and Paul Copley.

MON 18:30 A Good Read (b007697q)
Pamela Stephenson-Connolly & Peter Florence

Psychotherapist and former comedian, Pamela Stephenson-Connolly, and Peter Florence, the director of the Hay-on-Wye Festival, join Rosie Boycott to discuss by Cormac McCarthy and Andrew Solomon. From 2002.

Eureka Street by Robert McLiam Wilson
Publisher: Vintage

The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon
Publisher: Vintage

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Publisher: Picador.

MON 19:00 Behind the Scenes of Just a Minute (b07nxrg9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

MON 19:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b011jx7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:50 today]

MON 20:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07nxhp4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

MON 20:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5dwb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 today]

MON 20:30 Loud Organs His Glory (b0103wyx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]

MON 21:00 William Trevor Short Stories (b007jvyb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]

MON 21:15 Philip Palmer - The King's Coiner (b00767dn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]

MON 22:00 Just a Minute (b07mwqfw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

MON 22:30 That Mitchell and Webb Sound (b00mr4w3)
Series 4, Episode 5

A date with a slightly disappointing superhero. Sharp sketches starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. From September 2009.

MON 23:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b07mz0hn)
Series 9, Noble, Shanahan, Dent

This week, the Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Noel Fielding welcome the freewheeling superstar Geordie comedian Ross Noble; science journalist and rainforest ecologist Dr Mike Shanahan; and the famous, renowned, celebrated, prominent and popular lexicographer from Countdown, Susie Dent.

This week, the Museum's Guest Committee appreciate the significance of figs; the joys of long-distance football; and thoughts of an 18th Century spy.

The show was researched by Mike Turner and Anne Miller of QI.

The producers were Richard Turner and James Harkin.

It was a BBC Studios Production.

MON 23:30 Arthur Smith's Balham Bash (b00s0hn9)
Series 2, Episode 2

Comedy and music from the Arthur Smith residence. With Paloma Faith, Miles Jupp and Tom Wrigglesworth.


TUESDAY 16 AUGUST 2016

TUE 00:00 James Follett - The Destruction Factor (b007k4t9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Monday]

TUE 00:30 A Good Read (b007697q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Monday]

TUE 01:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07nxhp4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Monday]

TUE 01:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5dwb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 on Monday]

TUE 01:30 Loud Organs His Glory (b0103wyx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Monday]

TUE 02:00 Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (b0129d4w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Monday]

TUE 02:15 Sport and the British (b01c7lkd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Monday]

TUE 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01d0kyz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Monday]

TUE 02:45 Book of the Week (b015mzkt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Monday]

TUE 03:00 Classic Serial (b017lbqk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Monday]

TUE 04:00 The Write Stuff (b00vkxj4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Monday]

TUE 04:30 A Whole New Ball Game (b00fzwp9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Monday]

TUE 05:00 Elephants to Catch Eels (b00vl38x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Monday]

TUE 05:30 Just a Minute (b07mwqfw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Monday]

TUE 06:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p0phj)
Mouldy the Scrivener

The story of a dubious character named Mouldy, as PC Lee charts his adventures as a literary criminal. Read by Toby Jones.

In 1909 Edgar Wallace wrote a series of 24 short stories featuring a street-wise London police-constable, PC Lee. Wallace himself features in some, with PC Lee recounting his adventures as a bobby on the beat in and around the district of Notting Dale. Toby Jones brings this wonderful, little-known character to life for BBC Radio 4 Extra in 10 charming and witty tales.

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Greenlit Productions.

TUE 06:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5hht)
Craven, Episode 2

Starring Maxine Peake.

The case involving a cannabis farm and a strangled, maimed South East Asian man's body is getting more and more bizarre as there are indications of serious organised crime at its heart.

The web of crime is getting ever more tangled, with more severed fingers than bodies and the hopeful shrines left in the Cannabis factories suggest desperate people in need of help and hope.

And then there's Craven's regular irregular love life with ex colleague Macca, which is about to hit serious problems when their unusual set up is challenged.

Producer: Justine Potter
A Red Production Company production for BBC Radio 4.

TUE 06:30 Too Clever by Half (b012wdjt)
The stories of women who've been in relationships where there's an intellectual mismatch. Presented by Stephanie Calman.

One aspect of romantic relationships which remains largely taboo is the issue of intellect. Somehow it still raises eyebrows when a woman is obviously much brighter than her male partner... but what exactly is the problem? Stephanie Calman explores this, through the stories and experiences of several women.

TUE 07:00 Two Doors Down (b008fdj0)
Series 2, The Feminine Thrust

Marlborough Road's Clare is giving a lecture, with cleaner Sally smoothing the way. Stars Stella McCusker. From July 2002.

TUE 07:30 The Missing Hancocks (b04pvk1j)
The New Neighbour

Between 1954 and 1959, BBC Radio recorded 102 episodes of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's comedy classic Hancock's Half Hour. The first modern sitcom, it made stars of Tony Hancock, Sid James and Kenneth Williams, and launched Galton and Simpson on one of the most successful comedy-writing partnerships in history. But 20 episodes of the show are missing from the BBC archives, and have not been heard since their original transmission nearly sixty years ago. Now, five of those episodes have been lovingly re-recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre, featuring a stellar cast led by Kevin McNally as The Lad Himself.

Tonight's episode: The New Neighbour. Tony has a new neighbour, whose night-time routine is very, very suspicious.....

Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and with the classic score newly recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, the show stars Kevin McNally, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall, Robin Sebastian and Susy Kane. The New Neighbour was last broadcast in March 1956.

Produced by Ed Morrish and Neil Pearson.

TUE 08:00 Steptoe and Son (b00s5xtn)
Series 1, Steptoe a la Carte

After meeting Monique on his round, Harold's hoping he's found true love with a French twist. But what will she make of his dad Albert?

Starring Wilfrid Brambell as Albert, Harry H Corbett as Harold and Gwendolyn Watts as Monique.

Following the conclusion of their hugely successful association with Tony Hancock, writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson wrote 10 pilots for the BBC TV's Comedy Playhouse in 1962. The Offer was set in a house with a yard full of junk, featuring the lives of rag and bone men Albert Steptoe and his son Harold and it was the spark for a run of 8 series for TV.

Adapted for radio from Galton and Simpson's TV script by Gale Pedrick.

Produced by Bobby Jaye

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in August 1966.

TUE 08:30 The Men From the Ministry (b017srm4)
A Merry Dance

The bungling bureaucrats suspect each other of espionage. Stars Deryck Guyler and Richard Murdoch. From August 1975.

TUE 09:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b07mz0hn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]

TUE 09:30 Chambers (b007jnjc)
Series 1, The Right to Silence

Incompetent pompous barrister John Fuller-Carp ends up on the wrong side of the law. Stars John Bird. From April 1996.

TUE 10:00 Classic Serial (b017vk97)
Stefan Zweig - Beware of Pity, Episode 2

By Stefan Zweig. Dramatised for radio by Stephen Wyatt.

What had seemed to Hofmiller to be merely a social blunder has had unforeseen consequences and he's now embarked on a most perilous course of deception.

Stefan Zweig is a remarkable writer who had a remarkable life, but is not nearly as well known as he deserves to be, as Simon Gray discovered when he was attracted by the cover of his only novel, Beware of Pity.

Simon Gray took the book on holiday with him and used it as an escape from worrying about his cancer and the likely prognosis, "it being too good to read except with the closest attention" and he became immersed in the story of "a young man betrayed by his own unwonted impulses, his own nature........ it's the way that the novel single-mindedly, almost obsessively, illustrates and analyses the destructive power of a single emotion -if that's what pity is - that makes it unique, at least in my experience."

Simon Gray embarked on a dramatisation of the book for Radio 4, but it was unfinished at his death in 2008. Another writer, Clare McIntyre, was also attracted by the story and wrote a stage version, but she too died before it was completed. Stephen Wyatt has taken on the task of writing a two part radio version based on Clare McIntyre's material, which will be broadcast on Radio 4 on 27 November and 4 December, with a cast that includes Piers Wehner, Bryony Hannah, Ronald Pickup, Jasper Britton & Michael Jayston.

Cast:
Anton Hofmiller ..... Piers Wehner
Edith ...... Bryony Hannah
Kekesfalva ....... Ronald Pickup
Dr Condor ..... Jasper Britton
Colonel/ Josef ...... Michael Jayston
Ilona ..... Mabel Clements
Ferencz ..... Jack Chedburn

Director: Jane Morgan
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.

TUE 11:00 Linda Cracknell - The Fall (b04tv1mp)
A husband and wife go hill-walking, and cross a Rubicon. Short story read by Ann Scott Jones.

TUE 11:15 RD Wingfield (b0089kpv)
Daylight Robbery

Miss Pickering has an ulterior motive for a newspaper ad, as do the four gents who reply. Stars Monica Grey and Norman Shelley.

TUE 12:00 Steptoe and Son (b00s5xtn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

TUE 12:30 The Men From the Ministry (b017srm4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]

TUE 13:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p0phj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

TUE 13:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5hht)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 today]

TUE 13:30 Too Clever by Half (b012wdjt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]

TUE 14:00 Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (b012lty7)
Episode 2

Despite the 48-year age difference, Nadia's widower father is determined to marry his new love Valentina. Read by Sian Thomas.

TUE 14:15 Sport and the British (b01c7pqj)
Anyone But England

Clare Balding continues her investigation into how sport shaped Britain and Britain shaped sport. Today we join her at Hampden Park in Glasgow as she explores the part football has played in shaping Scotland's national identity and its changing relationship with England. Clare talks to Hugh McIlvaney about why supporting, 'anyone but England' is still part of the Scottish mindset.
This series has been made in partnership with the The International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montfort University
The readers are James Lailey and Jonathan Forbes.
The programme is produced in Birmingham by Sara Conkey.

TUE 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01dd3gd)
JL Carr - The Harpole Report, Episode 2

2/5. Comic drama. Harpole's missionary zeal is dented by the loss of his moveable spanner and a disappointing set of eleven plus results. J.L Carr's novel is dramatised by Jonathan Smith.

TUE 14:45 Book of the Week (b015qzt0)
Christopher Hitchens - Arguably, Let Them Eat Pork Rinds

In 'Let Them Eat Pork Rinds', journalist Christopher Hitchens sees in the reactions to New Orleans floods, how the haves in society have always disdained the have nots.

Christopher Hitchens is a British-born political journalist and reviewer, who has been based in the USA for over 25 years (he is now a US citizen). His journalism, invariably polemical, has appeared in a variety of publications, mainly in the USA, but in the UK too. Arguably is the fifth collection of his journalism - the columns defined as 'Essays' in the book.

The five 'Essays' selected for Book Of The Week all originally appeared in The Atlantic Journal.

".one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining writers we have"
The New York Times

".this is a tremendous book"
The Daily Telegraph

Written by Christopher Hitchens
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Read by Roger Allam

Producer: Gordon House
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.

TUE 15:00 Classic Serial (b017vk97)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]

TUE 16:00 Jest a Minute (b017gnw5)
Series 2, Episode 4

Elis James, Jon Richardson, Lloyd Langford and Chris Corcoran join Rhod Gilbert's comedy quiz from Cardiff. From December 2008.

TUE 16:30 Chambers (b007jnjc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]

TUE 17:00 Two Doors Down (b008fdj0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]

TUE 17:30 The Missing Hancocks (b04pvk1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

TUE 18:00 William Golding - Lord of the Flies (b02x5lyj)
Fire on the Mountain

Ralph, Piggy, Jack and Simon are amongst a group of schoolboys who survive a plane crash and find themselves marooned on a deserted island. With no means of contacting the world beyond, the boys come together in an attempt to initiate rescue and survive the surrounding perils. But as time passes, and memories of home grow faint, tensions mount and their unity and order is sorely tested.

First published in 1954, William Golding's classic fable of mankind's capacity for good and evil is one of the masterpieces of 20th-century literature, so much so that has it long ago reached the status of a cultural referent. Judith Adams' four-part dramatisation captures the adventure, atmosphere and chilling undertones of Golding's tragic vision.

With Finn Bennett as Ralph, Richard Linnell as Jack, Kasper Hilton Hille as Piggy and Jack Kane as Simon. Ruth Wilson narrates. Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.

TUE 18:30 Lives in a Landscape (b0076swk)
Clapham Mothers

Documentary series telling original stories about real lives in Britain today.

Frances, Arlene and Melissa live in an ordinary south London street near Clapham Common. In between her pre-dawn power exercise, piano lessons, Italian classes, book groups and dog walking, Frances is up to her ears organising the local fete.

TUE 19:00 Steptoe and Son (b00s5xtn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

TUE 19:30 The Men From the Ministry (b017srm4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]

TUE 20:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p0phj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

TUE 20:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5hht)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 today]

TUE 20:30 Too Clever by Half (b012wdjt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]

TUE 21:00 Linda Cracknell - The Fall (b04tv1mp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]

TUE 21:15 RD Wingfield (b0089kpv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]

TUE 22:00 The Missing Hancocks (b04pvk1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

TUE 22:30 The Maltby Collection (b00ct1wk)
Series 1, Episode 5

Senior museum staff head to a conference on the Isle of Wight, leaving Rod in charge. Stars Geoffrey Palmer. From July 2007.

TUE 23:00 Clare in the Community (b00fslwd)
Series 2, Past Caring

The social worker organises a birthday dinner for Brian, but there's a mystery guest. Stars Sally Phillips. From November 2005.

TUE 23:30 Delve Special (b00t5zzv)
Series 1, The Shifton Scandal, part 4

In his town demolition expose, David Lander looks at the trial and disturbing aftermath. Stephen Fry stars as the spoof investigative journalist. From August 1984.


WEDNESDAY 17 AUGUST 2016

WED 00:00 William Golding - Lord of the Flies (b02x5lyj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Tuesday]

WED 00:30 Lives in a Landscape (b0076swk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Tuesday]

WED 01:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p0phj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Tuesday]

WED 01:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5hht)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 on Tuesday]

WED 01:30 Too Clever by Half (b012wdjt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Tuesday]

WED 02:00 Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (b012lty7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Tuesday]

WED 02:15 Sport and the British (b01c7pqj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Tuesday]

WED 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01dd3gd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Tuesday]

WED 02:45 Book of the Week (b015qzt0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Tuesday]

WED 03:00 Classic Serial (b017vk97)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Tuesday]

WED 04:00 Jest a Minute (b017gnw5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday]

WED 04:30 Chambers (b007jnjc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday]

WED 05:00 Two Doors Down (b008fdj0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Tuesday]

WED 05:30 The Missing Hancocks (b04pvk1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Tuesday]

WED 06:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p18gx)
The General Practitioner

Swearing he's left the tale-pitching business, Toppy White aims to show PC Lee what 'real genius can do'. Read by Toby Jones.

In 1909 Edgar Wallace wrote a series of 24 short stories featuring a street-wise London police-constable, PC Lee. Wallace himself features in some, with PC Lee recounting his adventures as a bobby on the beat in and around the district of Notting Dale. Toby Jones brings this wonderful, little-known character to life for BBC Radio 4 Extra in 10 charming and witty tales.

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Greenlit Productions.

WED 06:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5n7n)
Craven, Episode 3

Starring Maxine Peake.

Craven's new boss is unlikely to give her any slack and the discovery of the "Green Tsunami" of Cannabis factories in Manchester seems to be throwing up an ever increasing list of missing people.

An illegally trafficked Vietnamese immigrant who was caught gardening the crop at a Cannabis factory is not helping, and Craven can't concentrate because her regular irregular lover Macca has finally called the shots and their relationship appears to be over.

Not one of Craven's best days.

Producer: Justine Potter
A Red Production Company Production for BBC Radio 4.

WED 06:30 Late Nights at the Blue Boar (b012fcyk)
Music journalist Pete Paphides tells the story of the M1's improbable 1960s music meeting place - Blue Boar cafe at Watford Gap services.

There surely can't be any less likely rock'n'roll hangouts than the M1 Blue Boar cafe at Watford Gap services. Nevertheless, by the late 1960s, Britain's first ever service station was a thriving meeting point for any London-based musicians driving home from a show between midnight and 6am. Legend has it that Jimi Hendrix thought that Blue Boar was the name of a cool London club because so many of his fellow rock stars would refer to it. In 1977, Roy Harper paid tribute to its cuisine on his album Bullinamingvase, with a song called Watford Gap -'Watford Gap, Watford Gap/A plate of grease and a load of crap' although later versions of the album had the song removed as a member of the EMI board was also a member of Blue Board's board of directors.

Using first-hand testimonies from musicians Francis Rossi, Chas Hodges, Pete Langford, Shelia Ferguson from the 3 Degrees, seminal photographer to the Rolling Stones, Philip Townsend, beat poet Pete Brown, DJ Johnnie Walker, and David Lawrence, author of 'Food on the Move', 'Late Nights and the Blue Boar' aims to shine a light on the experience of the touring musician in the late 60s, before the era of air conditioned tour buses and salubrious hotel stopovers. It will capture and analyse a certain moment in rock history painting vivid pictures of the era. Among the other participants in the programme will be the original waitress charged with the job of cracking open eggs for hungry rock stars and the security guard at the time - shading in a picture of an improbable time and place in music (and motorway) history.

Producer: Laura Parfitt
A White Pebble Media Production for BBC Radio 4.

WED 07:00 A Whole 'Nother Story (b0076b6f)
Series 2, Episode 2

Cassie is worried about Pete's happiness in his new relationship. Stars Debra Stephenson and David Lamb. From October 2002.

WED 07:30 To Hull and Back (b07mxth9)
Series 2, This Must Be It

Lucy Beaumont stars as the daughter trying to escape her overbearing mother played by Maureen Lipman in the second series of this warm hearted sitcom set in Hull.

"It's like a cross between a Victoria Wood Sketch and a Mike Leigh film". Radio Times

Episode 1 - This Must Be It

It seems that Sophie will finally manage to escape the family home and the clutches of her overprotective mother. She pegs her hopes on an acting audition and reluctantly enlists the help of her mother, who takes her role a bit too seriously. Will this prove to be the break Sophie has been waiting for?

Writer ..... Lucy Beaumont
Producer ..... Carl Cooper
Production Co-ordinator ..... Sophie Richardson

This is a BBC Studios Production.

WED 08:00 The Navy Lark (b01nw97t)
The Sabotaged Floggle-Toggle-Box

The crew are confined to ship over fears of underhand interference aboard HMS Troutbridge.

Stars Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Stephen Murray as the Number One, Richard Caldicot as Captain Povey, Heather Chasen as Mrs Povey, Ronnie Barker as AS Johnson, Tenniel Evans as LS Goldstein and Michael Bates as the Padre.

Laughs afloat aboard British Royal Navy frigate HMS Troutbridge. The Navy Lark ran for an impressive thirteen series between 1959 and 1976.

Scripted by Lawrie Wyman

Producer: Alastair Scott Johnston.

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in September 1965.

WED 08:30 Hancock's Half Hour (b007k0pd)
The Sheik

The lad signs to Sid's new studio, but filming doesn't quite go to plan.

Starring Tony Hancock, Moira Lister, Bill Kerr, Sidney James 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 February 1955.

WED 09:00 The 99p Challenge (b007js0s)
Series 2, Episode 1

Crazy panel show capers as Sue Perkins grills Jack Docherty, Pater Baynam, Armando Iannucci and Simon Pegg. From March 2004.

WED 09:30 Hobby Bobbies (b037jn8d)
Series 1, Dangerous Dogs

New sitcom where Britain's longest serving PCSO and Britain's laziest make quite a pairing.

Written by Dave Lamb (voice of Come Dine With Me) and starring Richie Webb (Horrible Histories) & Nick Walker.

This week, our heroes are dispatched to investigate a nuisance caller and her dangerous dog - but stumble into the local drugs racket.

Producer: Steve Doherty
A Top Dog Production for BBC Radio 4.

WED 10:00 Howard Spring - Fame Is the Spur (b012129m)
Born in Captivity

The story of John Hamer Shawcross - from his boyhood on the streets of Ancoats, Manchester to his pursuit of power and fame.

Set against the wider current of events in England in the early 19th century.

Howard Spring's novel freely adapted for radio in eight episodes by Ken Whitmore.

Stars Ian McKellen as John Hamer Shawcross, Gary Carp as John as a boy, Phillip Politt as Tom Hannaway as a youth, David Riley as Arnold Ryerson as a youth, Geoffrey Banks as Grandfather, Rosalie Williams as Ellen and Ian Flintoff as Gordon Stansfield.

Director: Trevor Hill

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1979.

WED 11:00 Made in Bristol (b01f6cgs)
Series 2, Birdsong Man

In the first of a series of specially commissioned sound stories from the More Than Words Festival in Bristol, Paul Mundell reads Birdsong Man by Timothy X Atack. Every morning, out in the forest, an hour before dawn, Birdsong Man fixes microphones to the trees and in between the rocks. And every night, in the lonely hours, he gets a phone call asking for his progress. Who are the recordings for, and why has he been asked to make them?

Timothy X Atack is a scriptwriter, film director and musician who makes fictions for stage, screen, audio and installation in which music and sound are integral to the storytelling. He's in a band called Angel Tech and is co-founder of performance group Sleepdogs.

Producer: Sara Davies.

WED 11:15 Gillian Tindall - The Night House (b04b6fy8)
When a young bride moves into a former school, she starts sensing that tragic events happened there in the past. Stars Susie Fugle.

WED 12:00 The Navy Lark (b01nw97t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

WED 12:30 Hancock's Half Hour (b007k0pd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]

WED 13:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p18gx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

WED 13:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5n7n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 today]

WED 13:30 Late Nights at the Blue Boar (b012fcyk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]

WED 14:00 Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (b012b1yx)
Episode 3

Nadia and Vera bury the hatchet to plot how to prevent their aged father from marrying the voluptuous Valentina. Read by Sian Thomas.

WED 14:15 Sport and the British (b01c7rh1)
Welsh Rugby and its National Heroes

Clare Balding's at Cardiff Arms Park for this edition of the series that explores how sport made Britain and Britain made sport. Here she looks at the vital role rugby has played in shaping Welsh identity; the stadium was built to be an emblem of national pride, a fortress for Welsh sport in its capital city.
She talks to the legendary Welsh captain and scrum half, Gareth Edwards about Wales' glory days of the sixties and seventies and the impact the introduction of professionalism had on the national side. She also talks to Professor Tony Collins from The International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montfort University

The reader is Alun Raglan.
Producer : Lucy Lunt.

WED 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01dd3h1)
JL Carr - The Harpole Report, Episode 3

3/5. Comic drama. Mr Theaker, the caretaker, reacts badly to Harpole's reforming efforts.

J.L Carr's novel is dramatised by Jonathan Smith.

WED 14:45 Book of the Week (b015r0jc)
Christopher Hitchens - Arguably, The Vietnam Syndrome

Christopher Hitchens' disturbing report from Vietnam in 2006 on the continuing devastation caused by the use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam war.

Christopher Hitchens is a British-born political journalist and reviewer, who has been based in the USA for over 25 years (he is now a US citizen). His journalism, invariably polemical, has appeared in a variety of publications, mainly in the USA, but in the UK too. Arguably is the fifth collection of his journalism - the columns defined as 'Essays' in the book.

The five 'Essays' selected for Book Of The Week all originally appeared in The Atlantic Journal.

"...one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining writers we have"
The New York Times

"...this is a tremendous book"
The Daily Telegraph

Written by Christopher Hitchens.
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Read by Roger Allam

Producer: Gordon House
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.

WED 15:00 Howard Spring - Fame Is the Spur (b012129m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]

WED 16:00 The 99p Challenge (b007js0s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

WED 16:30 Hobby Bobbies (b037jn8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]

WED 17:00 A Whole 'Nother Story (b0076b6f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]

WED 17:30 To Hull and Back (b07mxth9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

WED 18:00 William Golding - Lord of the Flies (b02yl7vs)
Painted Faces

The boys' hair has grown and their clothes have begun to fall apart since they were first marooned. Narrated by Ruth Wilson.

WED 18:30 Off the Page (b00cqhr5)
Winning Ugly

Dominic Arkwright chairs the lively discussion series.

He is joined by prospective MP Wilfred Emmanuel Jones, writer Susannah Jowitt and former rugby international Brian Moore, who played on the losing side in the World Cup Final in 1991 and remains haunted by the event.

WED 19:00 The Navy Lark (b01nw97t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

WED 19:30 Hancock's Half Hour (b007k0pd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]

WED 20:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p18gx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

WED 20:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5n7n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 today]

WED 20:30 Late Nights at the Blue Boar (b012fcyk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]

WED 21:00 Made in Bristol (b01f6cgs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]

WED 21:15 Gillian Tindall - The Night House (b04b6fy8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]

WED 22:00 To Hull and Back (b07mxth9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

WED 22:30 The Castle (b01jrt6b)
Series 4, Give Me the Flaming Torch

Hie ye to The Castle, a rollicking sitcom set way back then, starring James Fleet ("The Vicar Of Dibley"), Neil Dudgeon ("Life Of Riley"), Martha Howe-Douglas ("Horrible Histories") & Ingrid Oliver

The Olympics are coming to Woodstock, so what better time for Sir William to go on a go-slow & for Henry to hunt for dragons? Meanwhile, Sir John tries to get fit and Charlotte tries to get into her beach volleyball costume.

Written by Kim Fuller & Paul Alexander
Music by Guy Jackson
Produced and directed by David Tyler.

WED 23:00 Cowards (b00fq6rq)
Series 2, Episode 4

Sketch show with a comic slant on human frailties. With Tom Basden, Tim Key and Lloyd Woolf. From December 2008.

WED 23:30 At Home With The Snails (b007k2h6)
Series 1, Episode 1

Fed-up Alex has done nothing since university, but then he discovers an unusual hobby. Stars Geoffrey Palmer. From June 2001.


THURSDAY 18 AUGUST 2016

THU 00:00 William Golding - Lord of the Flies (b02yl7vs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Wednesday]

THU 00:30 Off the Page (b00cqhr5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesday]

THU 01:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p18gx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Wednesday]

THU 01:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m5n7n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 on Wednesday]

THU 01:30 Late Nights at the Blue Boar (b012fcyk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Wednesday]

THU 02:00 Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (b012b1yx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Wednesday]

THU 02:15 Sport and the British (b01c7rh1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Wednesday]

THU 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01dd3h1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Wednesday]

THU 02:45 Book of the Week (b015r0jc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Wednesday]

THU 03:00 Howard Spring - Fame Is the Spur (b012129m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Wednesday]

THU 04:00 The 99p Challenge (b007js0s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]

THU 04:30 Hobby Bobbies (b037jn8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Wednesday]

THU 05:00 A Whole 'Nother Story (b0076b6f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Wednesday]

THU 05:30 To Hull and Back (b07mxth9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Wednesday]

THU 06:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p5082)
Pear Drops

PC Lee recalls a case from back in his Lambeth days involving anarchists, bombs - and confectionery. Read by Toby Jones.

In 1909 Edgar Wallace wrote a series of 24 short stories featuring a street-wise London police-constable, PC Lee. Wallace himself features in some, with PC Lee recounting his adventures as a bobby on the beat in and around the district of Notting Dale. Toby Jones brings this wonderful, little-known character to life for BBC Radio 4 Extra in 10 charming and witty tales.

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Greenlit Productions.

THU 06:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m68v5)
Craven, Episode 4

Starring Maxine Peake.

The statistics across the globe for modern day slavery are around 27 million and Craven is fast discovering that the trade is still very much alive and well in Manchester.

The Cannabis factory discoveries have revealed the tip of the iceberg of illegally trafficked Vietnamese children and adults, brought in to work as gardeners in a serious case of organised crime.

On top of that there's a "blobby gingernut" on the loose who escaped from a factory where his accomplice was left with a hammer in his head, more bodies to account for...... and then there's a phone call. What Craven really doesn't need is this news from her mother. But when did her relationship with her mother ever feel convenient? And where is Craven's on-off relationship with Macca now?

Producer: Justine Potter
A Red Production Company production for BBC Radio 4.

THU 06:30 David Hume and the Triumph of Reason (b010lyyb)
Recorded on location in Edinburgh, Allan Little pays a 300th anniversary tribute to his hero, the philosopher David Hume.

Hume was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment at a time when Edinburgh was 'a hotbed of genius'. His scepticism and alleged atheism got him into trouble - but broke the shackles of the old beliefs and paved the way for new thinking in science and politics and economics.

We hear not only about these radical thoughts but about Hume the man - intensely convivial, a bon viveur and cook - he was the toast of Paris and became, eventually, the highest paid man of letters ever to write in English.

We hear from Hume biographer Roderick Graham and from academics Miranda Fricker, Nicholas Phillipson, Tom Devine, Simon Blackburn and Michael Fry.

Brian Pettifer plays the part of David Hume.

We hear too how Hume's ideas are still relevant - how 'Enlightenment for the 21st Century' has become the new strap line for the RSA.

Presenter: Allan Little

Producer: Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.

THU 07:00 The Little World of Don Camillo (b00t5xd8)
Series 1, Episode 3

Has the provoked priest gone too far by fighting three men in the pub? Stars Alun Armstrong and Joss Ackland. From March 2001.

THU 07:30 Simon Evans Goes to Market (b07myxkp)
Series 3, Episode 3

Simon Evans' comedy lecture on four of the big life stages that mark our journey through life and how economics is part of every one of those stages, whether we like it or not.

As always, he is joined by Financial Times columnist and presenter of Radio 4's 'More or Less', economist Tim Harford, and by financial guru and editor of Money Week, Merryn Somerset Webb.

This week Simon looks at Birth.

Also on stage are Andy and Sophie who are thinking about having children. From an economic point of view, should they at all? If they do, how many should they have? And when should they have them?

This week's special guest is Professor James Sefton who talks about the optimal birth rate for the country, economically-speaking.

Presenter: Simon Evans, with Tim Harford and Merryn Somerset Webb
Guests: Professor James Sefton, Sophie Richardson
Written by Simon Evans, Benjamin Partridge, Andy Wolton and Guy Venables.
Producer: Claire Jones.

THU 08:00 The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter (b008pbxl)
Series 4, The VIPs

With author Gerald's publisher and his wife due for summer drinks, the sprinkler comes out.

The convoluted chronicle of an optimistic author starring Ian Carmichael as Gerald C Potter and Charlotte Mitchell as his wife, Diana.

With Judy Franklin, Preston Lockwood and John McAndrew.

Written by Basil Boothroyd.

Producer: Bobby Jaye

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1981.

THU 08:30 Radio Active (b007jvxw)
Series 6, Stop That Crime UK

The phone lines are open - as the radio team create their own, very special reconstructions to help catch criminals.

Starring Helen Atkinson-Wood, Angus Deayton, Geoffrey Perkins, Philip Pope and Michael Fenton-Stevens.

Music by Philip Pope and Angus Deayton.

Written by Angus Deayton and Geoffrey Perkins with Michael Fenton-Stevens and Jon Canter.

Producer: David Tyler

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1986.

THU 09:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b019rlnl)
Series 8, Episode 5

David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents. Mark Watson, Henning Wehn, Roisin Conaty and Alex Horne are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as: Competitions, Chickens, Sweets and The Romans.

The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment Production for BBC Radio 4.

THU 09:30 The Elephant Man (b007jsfp)
Endangered Species

Peter Serafinowicz stars in DA Barham's sitcom about the life of Terry Lyon, an elephant keeper at his local zoo. He gets on better with animals than people. As the zoo lurches towards bankruptcy, his future looks bleak. Co-stars Chris Emmet as Leonard.

DA Barham - alias Debbie Ann - used her gently gender-obscured writing name. Aged just 15, she'd sent in scripts to BBC comedy programmes. In 2003 she tragically died from heart failure due to anorexia, aged only 26. In her short, brilliant comedy career, she'd written for The News Huddlines, Spitting Image, The News Quiz, Weekending, Loose Ends, as well as big names like Bob Monkhouse, Graham Norton, Rory Bremner and Clive Anderson.

Produced by Richard Wilson.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996.

THU 10:00 Howard Spring - Fame Is the Spur (b0121lh9)
Thrown to the Wolves

As Hamer starts work, he studies, preaches and keeps fit, preparing to change the world. 19th-century saga with Ian McKellen.

THU 11:00 Made in Bristol (b01dj7sv)
Series 2, Reality Check

Tania Hershman's three short pieces of flash fiction commissioned for the More Than Words Festival in Bristol are linked by the theme of science. A professor confronts a childhood ghost during a storm at sea; a scientist is visited in the lab by a character from fiction; and a group of biochemists find themselves the life and soul of a party.

Tania Hershman writes short stories, poetry and flash fiction, is writer in residence at the Science Faculty at Bristol University and has a second short story collection, My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions coming out shortly.

Producer: Sara Davies.

THU 11:15 Nick Warburton - The Interviews (b00tb9nw)
A year in the life of three primary school children, as seen through the eyes of their parents and teacher. Stars Tracy Childs.

THU 12:00 The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter (b008pbxl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

THU 12:30 Radio Active (b007jvxw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]

THU 13:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p5082)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

THU 13:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m68v5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 today]

THU 13:30 David Hume and the Triumph of Reason (b010lyyb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]

THU 14:00 Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (b012b8j7)
Episode 4

Valentina continues her conspicuous consumption as cracks in the months-old marriage begin to show. Read by Sian Thomas.

THU 14:15 Sport and the British (b01c7sn1)
Ireland, Politics on the Pitch

Clare Balding visits Croke Park in Dublin, to discover the story behind the formation of the Gaelic Athletic Association and it's founder Michael Cusack. All this week in Sport and the British Clare has been exploring how sport defined and gave an independence to the nations of the British Isles, nowhere is this more evident and vocal than in Ireland. The GAA defined what it was to be Irish - meaning how far removed that is from being English and hurling and Irish football were a way of exemplifying that. Clare talks to Dr Paul Rouse of University College Dublin and Professor Michael Cronin of Boston College Ireland about the history and future of the GAA.
The reader is Jonathan Forbes
Producer: Lucy Lunt.

THU 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01dd3jg)
JL Carr - The Harpole Report, Episode 4

4/5. J.L. Carr's comic novel, dramatised by Jonathan Smith. The Widmerpool children run riot in class until Harpole unexpectedly succeeds in teaching them to read.

THU 14:45 Book of the Week (b015r0xc)
Christopher Hitchens - Arguably, The Swastika and the Cedar

Christopher Hitchens' has a brutal confrontation in Beirut, but finds that is only one face of a remarkable city.

Christopher Hitchens is a British-born political journalist and reviewer, who has been based in the USA for over 25 years (he is now a US citizen). His journalism, invariably polemical, has appeared in a variety of publications, mainly in the USA, but in the UK too. Arguably is the fifth collection of his journalism - the columns defined as 'Essays' in the book.

The five 'Essays' selected for Book Of The Week all originally appeared in The Atlantic Journal.

Written by Christopher Hitchens. Abridged by Pete Nichols
Read by Roger Allam

Producer: Gordon House
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.

THU 15:00 Howard Spring - Fame Is the Spur (b0121lh9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]

THU 16:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b019rlnl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

THU 16:30 The Elephant Man (b007jsfp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]

THU 17:00 The Little World of Don Camillo (b00t5xd8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]

THU 17:30 Simon Evans Goes to Market (b07myxkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

THU 18:00 William Golding - Lord of the Flies (b0331rqn)
Beast From the Air

Until now, the boys believed they were alone. Then a mysterious shape prompts rumours of a beast. Narrated by Ruth Wilson.

THU 18:30 Great Lives (b007llg0)
Series 12, George Bernard Shaw

4 Extra Debut. Dr Phil Hammond chooses the Nobel Prize-winning playwright, George Bernard Shaw. With Matthew Parris. From May 2007.

THU 19:00 The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter (b008pbxl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

THU 19:30 Radio Active (b007jvxw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]

THU 20:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p5082)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

THU 20:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m68v5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 today]

THU 20:30 David Hume and the Triumph of Reason (b010lyyb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]

THU 21:00 Made in Bristol (b01dj7sv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]

THU 21:15 Nick Warburton - The Interviews (b00tb9nw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]

THU 22:00 Simon Evans Goes to Market (b07myxkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

THU 22:30 Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World (b007jtpd)
Series 2, The Sea

The sci-fi star probes the oceans. With Richard Herring, Stewart Lee and Tom Baker at Liverpool University. From August 1993.

THU 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b07ps77y)
The best in contemporary comedy. Arthur Smith chats to Lucie Pohl.

THU 23:00 Old Harry's Game (b00c6jfr)
Series 5, Moral Leadership

Hell is close to bursting, so to stem the flow, Satan ponders his entry policy. Devilish sitcom stars Andy Hamilton. From September 2005.

THU 23:30 The Shuttleworths (b007jnzg)
Series 3, Radio Shuttleworth

John Shuttleworth starts a new station for Sheffield, but can he count on Mary and Ken? Stars Graham Fellows. From October 1997.

THU 23:45 The In Crowd (b00890vn)
Series 1, Episode 3

Sketch show from Manchester's Comedy Store with Robin Ince, Helen Moon, Smug Roberts and Kate Ward. From August 2001.


FRIDAY 19 AUGUST 2016

FRI 00:00 William Golding - Lord of the Flies (b0331rqn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Thursday]

FRI 00:30 Great Lives (b007llg0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Thursday]

FRI 01:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p5082)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Thursday]

FRI 01:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m68v5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 on Thursday]

FRI 01:30 David Hume and the Triumph of Reason (b010lyyb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Thursday]

FRI 02:00 Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (b012b8j7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Thursday]

FRI 02:15 Sport and the British (b01c7sn1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Thursday]

FRI 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01dd3jg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Thursday]

FRI 02:45 Book of the Week (b015r0xc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Thursday]

FRI 03:00 Howard Spring - Fame Is the Spur (b0121lh9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Thursday]

FRI 04:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b019rlnl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Thursday]

FRI 04:30 The Elephant Man (b007jsfp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Thursday]

FRI 05:00 The Little World of Don Camillo (b00t5xd8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Thursday]

FRI 05:30 Simon Evans Goes to Market (b07myxkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Thursday]

FRI 06:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p6c5g)
The Silence of PC Hirley

PC Lee investigates the mystery of the Ladbroke Gardens murder and discovers a distinct sting in the tale. Concluded by Toby Jones.

In 1909 Edgar Wallace wrote a series of 24 short stories featuring a street-wise London police-constable, PC Lee. Wallace himself features in some, with PC Lee recounting his adventures as a bobby on the beat in and around the district of Notting Dale. Toby Jones brings this wonderful, little-known character to life for BBC Radio 4 Extra in 10 charming and witty tales.

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Greenlit Productions.

FRI 06:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m6b52)
Craven, Episode 5

Starring Maxine Peake.

The case is looking too big to solve and the body count is rising. Craven and Macca may finally get to talk, if her mum doesn't get in the way - but Craven's priorities are exposed when work, family and love life collide.

Craven must find La Thu Huyen if she has any chance of solving this case. And she must work out a strategy to deal with her mother and her lover at home.

This case concludes - Craven returns as an Afternoon Drama on Radio 4 on Monday 3rd September.

Producer: Justine Potter
A Red Production Company production for BBC Radio 4.

FRI 06:30 Classics Illustrated: The Comic Book Unbound (b016812s)
Bill Paterson marks the 70th anniversary of the launch of the comic book series Classics Illustrated.

Marking the 70th anniversary of the comic book series Classics Illustrated, actor Bill Paterson explores the publication's impact and recent revival on Britain's bookshelves.

Classics Illustrated, the comic book adaptations of classic literature, began in America in 1941, starting with an adaptation of The Three Musketeers, followed by Ivanhoe and The Count of Monte Cristo, and soon became a favourite reading material for children and many adults.

Paterson reveals his lifelong passion for the comic as he charts the fortunes of Russian Jewish immigrant Albert Kantner, who conceived the idea of a comic book series as self-contained abridgments of a literary work into a single comic book.

Over a thirty year period a vast range of literary classics were adapted; from The War of the Worlds, to Sherlock Holmes, Moby Dick, Treasure Island, Faust and Dr No. These publications later became popular in Britain but the series regularly came under fire for distracting children from reading the original stories.

Contributors include Professor John Sutherland and British bookseller Jeff Brooks who in recent years revived the comic book versions using the original artwork with new covers.

Readings are provided by Buzz Hawkins, Jayne Ashbourne and Barnaby Gordon.

The programme is written by Roger Dobson and produced in Manchester by Stephen Garner.

FRI 07:00 Dave Sheasby - One Flat Summer (b0075243)
The Craven Stakes

Newly redundant Ken is drawn into the tempting world of gambling. Stars Gerard McDermott and Gillian Bevan. From August 1997.

FRI 07:30 Fresh from the Fringe (b07npz1f)
Fresh from the Fringe: 2016, Part 1

Fresh from the Fringe will once again bring highlights of the best in sketch, stand-up and musical comedy from the Edinburgh Fringe.

FRI 08:00 Something to Shout About (b07p6k99)
Series 1, Episode 7

The advertising agency is hired to put a glamorous spin on a dreary seaside holiday camp in Gritley Bay.

Starring Michael Medwin as Michael, Fenella Fielding as Janet, Joan Sims as Mavis, Eleanor Summerfield as Maggie, Nicholas Phipps as Adrian and Warren Mitchell as Mr Plankton.

"A light-hearted exposé of the advertising world!". Set in a London ad agency called 'Apsley, Addis, Cohen, Barbican, Blythe, Giddy & Partners', Something To Shout About ran to 54 episodes over three series

Written by Myles Rudge and Ronnie Wolfe.

Music by The Jingle Belles and The Bernie Fenton Quartet, under the direction of Cliff Adams.

Producer: John Simmonds

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in August 1960.

FRI 08:30 The Goon Show (b007jp91)
The Treasure in the Tower

Neddie Seagoon and friends are on the London trail of long-buried valuables. Stars Spike Milligan. From October 1957.

FRI 09:00 The 3rd Degree (b01rqnf1)
Series 3, University of Edinburgh

A lively and funny quiz show, hosted by Steve Punt, where a team of three University students take on a team of three of their professors.

Coming this week from the University of Edinburgh, the specialist subjects are Biological Sciences, History of Art and International Relations and the questions range from Lady Chatterley and Aubrey Beardsley through to laughing gas and Carly Rae Jepson.

The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds, and the 'Highbrow and Lowbrow' round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, film, and One Direction.

The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more than just glanced at that reading list.

The host Steve Punt, although best known as a satirist on The Now Show, is also someone who delights in all facets of knowledge, not just in the Humanities (his educational background) but in the sciences as well. He has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4, on subjects as varied as "The Poet Unwound - The History Of The Spleen" and "Getting The Gongs" (an investigation into awards ceremonies), as well as a comedy for Radio 4's Big Bang Day set in the Large Hadron Collider, called "The Genuine Particle".

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

FRI 09:30 Kathmandu or Bust (b07p6ksb)
Turkish Delight

The travellers arrive in Turkey, but will they all be able to explore the land of Kismet? Stars David Haig. From June 1996.

FRI 10:00 Howard Spring - Fame Is the Spur (b0122k4h)
The Fight for St Swithin's

Hamer's political campaign starts in Bradford with rousing speeches to the crowds. 19th-century saga starring Ian McKellen.

FRI 11:00 Made in Bristol (b01g65h5)
Series 2, Hood

A man walks through the city late at night. He hears footsteps, sees a figure behind him. It's dark, he's alone, and there's only one way this can end. Edson Burton has written a gripping, atmospheric story that explores the power of sound to drive the imagination.

Edson Burton is a poet, playwright, performer, storyteller and historian who has written five plays for BBC radio. Last Autumn a theatrical staging of his first poetry collection, Seasoned, opened in Bristol on the same night as his new play, Raising Kamila.

Producer: Sara Davies.

FRI 11:15 John Graham - Resting (b01p7j2n)
Murder, theft and romance in a home for elderly actors. Stars Googie Withers, Wendy Hiller, Michael Dennison and Jimmy Jewel.

FRI 12:00 Something to Shout About (b07p6k99)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

FRI 12:30 The Goon Show (b007jp91)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]

FRI 13:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p6c5g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

FRI 13:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m6b52)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 today]

FRI 13:30 Classics Illustrated: The Comic Book Unbound (b016812s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]

FRI 14:00 Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (b012brz6)
Episode 5

Father and his young wife Valentina argue over her visa appeal, but everyone has a cunning plan. Read by Sian Thomas.

FRI 14:15 Sport and the British (b01c7wxb)
Ireland, North of the Border

While sport is endlessly talked of as a force for unity, in today's edition of Sport and the British, Clare Balding's in Belfast on the Falls Road, where it's clear that here sport was just another arena to reinforce divisions that rent the community in two.
In Northern Ireland the sporting choices for people were, for so long, based on their religious and political backgrounds. In soccer there was one team for the Catholics, Belfast Celtic, Linfield for the Protestants. Clare hears about the violent clashes that always ensued when these two teams met, finally leading to the disbandment of Celtic. Boxer, Barry Mcguigan talks about how he tried to be identified with neither side and we hear about the only sporting hero that did manage to straddle the divide, uniting both sides, George Best
Producer: Lucy Lunt.

FRI 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01dd3kk)
JL Carr - The Harpole Report, Episode 5

Councillor Blossom makes an improper suggestion to Harpole, but true romance may be just around the corner. Stars Lesley Nicol.

FRI 14:45 Book of the Week (b015sz8r)
Christopher Hitchens - Arguably, Flaws of Gravity

Hitchens' uses Peter Ackroyd's biography of Isaac Newton as a springboard for a nostalgic rumination on science and Cambridge.

Christopher Hitchens is a British-born political journalist and reviewer, who has been based in the USA for over 25 years (he is now a US citizen). His journalism, invariably polemical, has appeared in a variety of publications, mainly in the USA, but in the UK too. Arguably is the fifth collection of his journalism - the columns defined as 'Essays' in the book.

The five 'Essays'selected for Book Of The Week all originally appeared in The Atlantic Journal.

Written by Christopher Hitchens
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Read by Roger Allam

Producer: Gordon House
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.

FRI 15:00 Howard Spring - Fame Is the Spur (b0122k4h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]

FRI 16:00 The 3rd Degree (b01rqnf1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

FRI 16:30 Kathmandu or Bust (b07p6ksb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]

FRI 17:00 Dave Sheasby - One Flat Summer (b0075243)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]

FRI 17:30 Fresh from the Fringe (b07npz1f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

FRI 18:00 William Golding - Lord of the Flies (b036j238)
Gift for Darkness

Since the crash, the survivors have maintained a signal fire. A split has developed and tensions rise. Narrated by Ruth Wilson.

FRI 18:30 Soul Music (b00r0smn)
Series 9, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

When Mendelssohn wrote his Violin Concerto in 1844 he could hardly have imagined how famous and well loved it would become. In this programme, people tell how it has played an important part in their lives.

Violinist Daniel Hope tells how he got caught practising this concerto secretly locked in the bathroom at school. Harry Atterbury remembers hearing the Mendelssohn for the first time on the night before a Second world War air raid which turned his life upside down. Composer Stephen Pratt describes discovering that his father had played this concerto to cheer fellow soldiers in the jungle in Burma, and explains how this inspired him to write his own violin concerto.

To find out more about Stephen Pratt's Violin Concerto, go to:

http://www.liverpoolphil.com./1132/rlpo-recordings/stephen-pratt-lovebytes.html

The recording of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto featured in this programme was by violinist Maxim Vengerov with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur. Teldec 4509-90875-2.

FRI 19:00 Something to Shout About (b07p6k99)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]

FRI 19:30 The Goon Show (b007jp91)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]

FRI 20:00 Vintage Crime: Edgar Wallace - PC Lee stories (b07p6c5g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]

FRI 20:15 15 Minute Drama (b01m6b52)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:15 today]

FRI 20:30 Classics Illustrated: The Comic Book Unbound (b016812s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]

FRI 21:00 Made in Bristol (b01g65h5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]

FRI 21:15 John Graham - Resting (b01p7j2n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]

FRI 22:00 Fresh from the Fringe (b07npz1f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]

FRI 22:30 The Comedy Club at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (b07pdjkm)
2016, Episode 1

News, reviews and much more, from the Edinburgh Fringe and beyond.

FRI 22:35 Absolute Power (b019dqxr)
Series 4, Episode 4

Spin doctor Charles heads across the pond, leaving Martin to fend alone. Stars Stephen Fry and John Bird. From February 2004.

FRI 23:05 The Comedy Club at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (b07pdjsh)
2016, Episode 2

News, reviews and much more, from the Edinburgh Fringe and beyond.

FRI 23:10 Detective Sergeant Nick Mohammed (b018fllw)
Series 1, Episode 3

There's a Riot going on... Topical! Join DS Nick Mohammed and co. as they tackle a full-on student protest complete with professional Sloane: Cordelia Jasmine Beatrice de Beatrice Grimes (as featured in IN BITS).

Written & performed by Nick Mohammed, with Anna Crilly & Colin Hoult.

Produced by Victoria Lloyd.

FRI 23:40 The Comedy Club at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (b07pdk83)
2016, Episode 3

News, reviews and much more, from the Edinburgh Fringe and beyond.

FRI 23:45 Ivor Cutler - A Stuggy Pren (b00bxv1v)
Episode 1

Poems, songs and relaxation tips from Ivor Cutler and friends. Including fishy verse and how to jazz up mince. From May 1994.