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 10 NOVEMBER 2018

SAT 00:00 Mind's Eye (b007jyvk)
Lodgers

Maeve Hamilton runs a busy bed and breakfast in Dublin, but only she seems to be able to see the guests. Psychotherapists Lorcan and Aoife investigate...

Five tales of the paranormal written by Gemma McMullan and Gerry Casey.

Stars Dermot Crowley as Lorcan Molloy, Cathy Belton as Aoife Molloy, Mark Lambert as Fergus Rainer, Richard Orr as Brian Walsh, Stella McCusker as Maeve Hamilton, Miche Doherty as Daniel Hamilton and Aine McCartney as Gillian Power.

Director: Eoin O'Callaghan

Made for BBC Radio 7 by BBC Northern Ireland.

First broadcast in 2006.


SAT 00:30 Off the Page (b00766xc)
On the Run

Poet Carole Satyamurti and humourist Guy Browning make unlikely fugitives, but the theme is what it means to flee.

In each programme, Professor Bigsby introduces a duo of writers of fact and fiction: new talent and established names. In the context of a discussion of one of the ideas and pre-occupations of our times, each presents a piece on this week's topic.

The best new writing and the freshest conversation from 2002.


SAT 01:00 Dick Francis (b011qm8r)
Whip Hand
5. The Finish

Sid Halley believes he knows the truth behind the doping and phoney racing syndicates, but dare he reveal it? Stars Mick Ford.

Stars Mick Ford as Sid Halley, Patricia Gallimore as Rosemary Caspar, Kim Durham as Chico Barnes, Philip Molloy as Rammileese and Alan Devereux as George Casper.

Dramatised by Alan England
Producer: Philip Martin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.


SAT 01:30 The FAE Sonata (b00sjbsx)

Frei Aber Einsam - 'free but lonely' - was the motto of the great 19th century violinist Joseph Joachim. It's also the name of a Violin Sonata played by Joachim, accompanied by Clara Schumann, that resulted from a collaboration between the composer Robert Schumann and two of his pupils, Johannes Brahms and Albert Dietrich.

On the 200th anniversary of Schumann's birth, Tom Robinson examines the complex relationships between these romantic artists through the prism of this piece of music. Schumann's passionate love for his wife Clara is matched only by Brahms' devotion to her during and following Schumann's decline into mental illness.

Brahms was also a close champion of Joachim, until the violinist's divorce, when they fell out over the composer's support for Joachims' wife. And the FAE Sonata itself was neglected - an innocent victim - until long after Brahms' death.

Tom unpicks the romantic and turbulent story of a musical collaboration with the help of pianist and Schumann champion Lucy Parham, violinist Tasmin Little, Robert John Godfrey of 'The Enid' and Radio 3's Andrew McGregor.

Producer: Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 02:00 First World War 100: Poetry's Passing Bells (b0bqqx9h)
Anthem For Doomed Youth, A Record of War

Poetry's Passing Bells

Poet and presenter of Poetry Extra, Daljit Nagra, leads Radio 4 Extra’s memorial to the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War – on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month in 1918. Daljit introduces programmes from the BBC radio archive that traces the impact the First World War had upon poets, both soldiers, and those left behind.

Beginning each edition will be the poetry, and letters, of Wilfred Owen, who died in the weeks before the end of the Great War, in November 1918, aged only 25.

In Anthem for Doomed Youth (Radio 3, 1993), Kenneth Branagh reads some of the most profoundly moving artistic responses to the terrible impact of war ever written.

A Record of War (1981)
The 1914-18 war has been recalled mainly in the writings and reminiscences of the men who fought in France. But women too shared the suffering, the heartbreak and the loss. In 1981, this programme attempted to put the record straight, with readings from the then newly published Scars Upon My Heart, an anthology of women's poetry and verse of the First World War, and from Vera Brittain's published war diary, Chronicle of Youth, also published in 1981.

Presenter: Daljit Nagra
Producer: Peter McHugh


SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b03m80qr)
Love, Nina: Despatches From Family Life
Dissertations, Romance and Subterfuge

Mary Poppins meets Adrian Mole in Nina Stibbe's letters from the heart of 1980s literary London. Dissertation crises, spotting Samuel Beckett and employing subterfuge to save face.

Read by Rebekah Staton
Abridged by Penny Leicester
Produced by Gemma Jenkins.


SAT 03:00 Voices of the First World War (b0bqqx9c)
1917

Reaching 1917, Dan Snow explores the events of the year through the recollections of those who were there. As the fighting became more and more desperate, in the air, on the Western Front - even below ground in extensive mining operations - the morale of those being sent into battle was at times becoming dangerously low. We reach the darkest days of the war with the Third Battle of Ypres. Dan Snow, based on location in Ypres and listening to the accounts of those who survived the place a century ago, attempts to grasp the unimaginable horror that marked this period of the war on the Western Front.

As they inched their way towards Passchendaele from July to November 1917, men witnessed scenes that would stay vividly with them for the rest of their lives. As Norman Macmillan, officer of the Royal Flying Corps, surveying the Battle of Passchendaele from the sky, said of it: 'Never at any time had I passed through such an extraordinary experience... Real damnation on the ground. And as we came out of it I felt that we had escaped from one of the most evil things I had ever seen at any time during that war'.


SAT 04:00 Guess What? (b00757gr)
Episode 1

Animal, vegetable or mineral?

Barry Took hosts a revised version of popular radio parlour game of 20 questions.

Regular Geoffrey Durham is joined by Sir Jeremy Hanley and Helen Atkinson Wood.

Written by Michael Dines.

Producer: Andy Aliffe

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1998.


SAT 04:30 Smelling of Roses (b007k0d2)
Series 1
Survival of the Fittest

Rosie’s company hosts a management team building course. It all goes well until the murder mystery dinner, but it isn't Rosie who makes a killing.

Prunella Scales stars in the first of four series of Simon Brett's sitcom following the trials and tribulations of Rosie Burns and her event-management company based in Brighton.

With Arabella Weir as Kate, Rebecca Callard as Jo, Duncan Preston as Bob, Annette Badland as Tess, Lee Simpson as Barry, Chris Pavlo as Alex and David Holt as Dick.

Producer: Maria Esposito

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2000.


SAT 05:00 The Right Time (b0076mj9)
Series 4
Episode 4

Getting mad at the milkman, a rocking DJ – and a very intuitive answerphone.

Sketch show about growing older disgracefully.

Stars Eleanor Bron, Dudley Sutton, Roger Blake and Paula Wilcox.

Written by Nicholas Barber & Glenn Dakin, Jill Brodie & John Pidgeon, Dave Dixon, Mike Haskins, George Poles, Alan Stafford, Dudley Sutton and Chris Thompson & Pete Reynolds.

Script editor: George Poles.

Music by Ronnie & The Rex.

Producer: Katie Marsden

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2004.


SAT 05:30 A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics (b06grwnt)
Series 1
Mr Gray's Decorators

By John Nicholson, Richard Katz and Javier Marzan

In 19th-century London, a butler struggles to keep pace with the destructive lifestyle of his employer, a hauntingly good-looking and impressionable young man of means. The butler hires painter-decorators to carry out repairs but when they accidentally damage a portrait hidden in the attic, they find that it has alarming effects on the young man.

In this new series the comedy troupe Peepolykus assume the roles of minor characters in great works of fiction and derail the plot of the book through their hapless buffoonery.

Cast:

Richard . . . . . Richard Katz
Javier . . . . . Javier Marzan
John . . . . . John Nicholson
Dorian Gray . . . . . Blake Ritson
Sybil . . . . . Rebecca Hamilton
Lord Henry . . . . . Stephen Critchlow
Basil . . . . . Sam Dale
Young Dorian . . . . . Evie Killip

Director . . . . . Sasha Yevtushenko

Peepolykus (pronounced people-like-us) has exported its brand of irreverent comic theatre to over 100 towns and cities across four continents, often under the auspices of the British Council. The company's varied CV includes two tours of Bangladesh, winning the audience award at The Tehran Festival, performing to royalty in Brunei, to Indian states people in the Himalayas, a truly disastrous run in Barbados, an unforgettable stint on The Price is Right in Australia and other occasional bits of telly for the BBC. Their theatre scripts are licensed world wide and their award-winning musical with NYMT:UK is pencilled for re-launch. The company has also played for 3 months in the West End and collaborated with numerous organisations including Neal Street Productions, Aardman, NT, The Kevin Spacey Foundation and currently with Brunel University on STUCK - working with schools to adopt improvisation into the curriculum. Past forays on Radio 4 have included a co-penned series with Rik Mayall, a star-studded adaptation of A Christmas Carol and a live recording of The Hound of The Baskervilles. Peepolykus is produced by Eleanor Lloyd Productions.


SAT 06:00 JCW Brook - The Doppelganger (b007jv9r)

Adam and Jane are off on a make-or-break second honeymoon; but at Oxford station Adam sees his possibly dead mother.

Then at the hotel he meets Beth, a 25-year-old girl with the mind of a child of seven, who looks like Jane.... "a doppelganger is your other self - your dark brother of myth, who wishes to take your place in this world..."

JCW Brook’s spine-chilling drama stars Nigel Anthony as Adam Oxton, Elizabeth Lindsay as Beth Harris, Penelope Lee as Sarah Steadman, Emily Richard as Jane Oxton, Geoffrey Collins as Ralph Steadman, Mary Wimbush as the Woman and Jack May as the Man.

Music by Paddy Kingsland of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Director: Ian Cotterell

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1977.


SAT 07:30 Unmasking the English (b007ypjj)
Mr Jorrocks

Andrew Marr continues his look at quintessentially English characters with RS Surtees' fictional Mr Jorrocks.

He heads to the hunt, joins a shoot at a stag party, meets some petrolheads, and talks to journalists AA Gill, Simon Barnes, and James Brown, to find the modern-day equivalent of Surtees' cockney hunting enthusiast. Could it be Jeremy Clarkson?

Producer: Tom Alban

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.


SAT 08:00 The Original Godfather (b009kgnd)

Legendary writer and TV presenter Denis Norden chats to Paul Jackson about the legacy of his radio comedy partnership with Frank Muir.

The history of British sitcom is peppered with outstanding writing teams, not least Galton & Simpson, Clement & La Frenais, French & Saunders, Curtis & Elton and Aherne & Cash. But the very first - the veritable Godfathers of broadcast comedy - were Denis Norden and Frank Muir.

Born within two years of each other (Frank in 1920, Denis two years later), they shared similar RAF backgrounds and entertainment apprenticeships. After the Second World War, Muir landed a job with the BBC, writing for fellow ex-airman Jimmy Edwards and Norden joined a variety agency, writing for as many as 163 comedians.

Finally in 1947 they were brought together over lunch by Charles Maxwell (other reports claim it was fellow scriptwriter Ted Kavanagh) in the hope that they might hit it off. Thus started a 40 (plus) year partnership which kicked off with Take It From Here (1947-58) – still to be heard on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Their partnership continued into the early 1990s via My Word! (1956-1990) and My Music (1967-1991). Both series are still repeated in Australia and USA.

In between they wrote for countless stars from Bernard Braden and Peter Sellers to Benny Hill and Bob Monkhouse.

Paul Jackson explores their legacy with Denis himself, and hears from their long suffering secretary, Brenda Talbot and fellow writers Dick Vosburgh, Eric Sykes, Ray Galton, Alan Simpson and Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais.

Frank Muir passed away in 1998 and Denis Norden in 2018.

Producer: Paul Kobrak

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.


SAT 09:00 Salutes You, Sir! Forces Fun from the BBC (b0085hk1)

Dad's Army's very own Private Pike aka Ian Lavender presents an homage to the humour generated for and by the British Armed Forces. Featuring:

* Merry-Go-Round - Army edition: 'Stand Easy' With Charlie Chester and Arthur Haynes (14/09/1945)

* The Victory edition of ITMA - It's That Man Again. Starring Tommy Handley (10/05/1945)

* Merry-Go-Round: Naval edition: 'HMS Waterlogged' With Eric Barker and Jon Pertwee (08/08/1945)

* The Navy Lark 'Mysterious Radio Signals' Starring Leslie Phillips, Stephen Murray and Jon Pertwee. (06/06/1971)

* Merry-Go-Round - RAF edition: 'Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh' Starring Richard Murdoch, Kenneth Horne and Sam Costa (11/04/1945)

* Dad's Army - 'Sergeant, Save My Boy' Stars Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Ian Lavender (11/03/1975)

Ian Lavender played Private Frank Pike in the much-loved BBC TV sitcom Dad's Army (1968-77) and also appeared in the BBC radio adaptations still to be regularly heard on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Producer: Mik Wilkojc

First broadcast on BBC Radio 7 in November 2006.


SAT 12:00 A Whole New Ball Game (b00b2txd)
Series 1
Goodbye Gregory

The late Gregory Patterson was a stalwart of the Roman Catholic Parishioners. But how will Mrs Patterson cope now with her headstrong daughter, Barbara? How will young Robert face up to his new responsibilities?

Surely football-crazy priest Father Benedict can help?

A six-part black comedy by Martin Davies

Stars Desmond Barrit as Father Benedict, Brenda Blethyn as Mrs Patterson, Paul Parris as Robert Patterson, Charlotte Coleman as Barbara Patterson, Martino Lazzeri as Guy Entwhistle, Gordon Reid as Mr Plant, Mark Straker as Andy and Claire Skinner as Janet.

Producer: Lissa Evans

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1992.


SAT 12:30 Hancock's Half Hour (b007yntz)
Series 5
The Male Suffragettes

The lad says women are holding men back, so he forms a group to re-establish male superiority.

Stars Tony Hancock. With Sidney James, Bill Kerr, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams.

Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

Theme and incidental music written by Wally Stott.

Producer: Tom Ronald

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in February 1958.


SAT 13:00 Curious Under the Stars (b0br5b62)
Series 6 Omnibus - Shincyn's Moon

Gareth and Diane have some unwelcome visitors – Diane’s mother Gertrude and an infestation of rats.

Magical drama set in Glan Don, a mysterious village perched on the wild Welsh coast.

Gareth.... Elis James
Diane.... Emma Sidi
Emlyn..... Ifan Huw Dafydd
Megan.... Aimee Ffion Edwards
Gertrude…. Joanna Scanlan

Written by Alan Harris

Series created by Meic Povey

Director: James Robinson

A BBC Cymru Wales Production first broadcast in five parts on BBC Radio 4 in 2018.


SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b0br5b64)
Ken Bruce

BBC Radio 2's Ken Bruce chooses 'I've Got You Under My Skin' by Frank Sinatra and a very special live performance from Joe Brown.


SAT 14:15 Battlefield Ramblings (b0br5b66)
Series 1
Armada

Muriel Gray walks the sunny South Devon coast with the writer Neil Hanson and debunks a few myths about the Armada en route.

As they cross the cliff tops, they discuss piracy; warning beacons; a succession of Spanish mistakes; and whether Francis Drake really did finish that game of bowls.

Series exploring the areas around our greatest battlefields.

Producer: Lucy Lunt

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004.


SAT 14:45 15 Minute Drama (b0467pj5)
Val McDermid - Deadheading
Episode 4

Fear stalks the herd when there's a predator on the loose in Val McDermid's comedy detective story starring Julie Hesmondhalgh and Miriam Margolyes. And with only two episodes to go, surely we must be getting nearer to solving the crime?

This fourth episode builds to the moment of truth when the suspects are invited to turn on each other. The unravelling of the detective story so often depends on one person betraying another. It's one of the things this species is particularly adept at.

Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore
Writer: Val McDermid

Directed and Produced by Justine Potter
A Savvy Production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 15:00 The Original Godfather (b009kgnd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


SAT 16:00 JCW Brook - The Doppelganger (b007jv9r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


SAT 17:30 Unmasking the English (b007ypjj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


SAT 18:00 Mike Walker - Alpha (b0080p6l)

An all-knowing computer appears to have an independent life of its own - an abomination for those who believe in a supreme creator.

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

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

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

Original music composed and played by David Chilton.

Producer: Gordon House

First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 2001.


SAT 19:00 Salutes You, Sir! Forces Fun from the BBC (b0085hk1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


SAT 22:00 Paul Sinha's History Revision (b04tlfsr)
Series 1
Music

In Paul Sinha's History Revision the acclaimed stand-up and eleventh best UK quizzer Paul Sinha looks through all of human history and examines how we came to be where we are. He starts with something everyday, something we all know to be true; he then reveals the quirks of history and the fascinating stories that led up to this point.

In this first edition, Paul takes as his starting point Dolly Parton's standout performance at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival. How did 120,000 people in a Somerset field, plus many millions more at home, come to be watching a 68-year-old woman from Tennessee on a Sunday afternoon? The story inevitable takes in a Haitian rebellion, Slovenian hunting, Scottish whisky, Italian electronics and the American son of a Russian farmer who didn't like music. Because nothing and no-one exist in a vacuum.

Paul Sinha is an acclaimed stand-up who was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy award for his show Saint or Sinha?. He frequently appears on The News Quiz, The Now Show, and Fighting Talk. He is a resident 'chaser' on the ITV quiz show The Chase. He wrote and starred in one-offs The Sinha Test (2011) and The Sinha Games (2012) on Radio 4 and in 2013 had his own four-part series, Paul Sinha's Citizenship Test.

Written and performed by Paul Sinha.
Produced by Ed Morrish.


SAT 22:30 Chain Reaction (b00tmtfp)
Series 6
Harry Shearer interviews Stephen Merchant

The new series of the tag team talk show continues as last week's guest, voice of The Simpsons, face of Derek Smalls and political satirist Harry Shearer takes the microphone to interview multi award-winning co-creator of The Office and Extras, and famously tall funny man Stephen Merchant.

Harry asks Stephen what its like to be part of a creative double act with Ricky Gervais, broadcasting radio from the bushes and sharing a hot tub with playboy bunnies.


SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (m00016d4)
Adam Rowe 1/2

From 10.00pm to midnight, 7 days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Adam Rowe.


SAT 23:00 Rhod Gilbert's Bulging Barrel of Laughs (b00tkmcl)
Episode 1

Welsh comic Rhod Gilbert introduces regulars Lloyd Langford and Greg Davies, plus Sarah Millican who takes a weekly look at The Six Stages of Woman.

With live music from Scouting for Girls, including their hit She's So Lovely,

Guest comedian is country and western singer Wilson Dixon.

Find out whether whales can paint and what annoys Rhod about supermarket potatoes.

Producers: Julia Mckenzie and Lianne Coop.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in September 2010.



SUNDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2018

SUN 00:00 Mike Walker - Alpha (b0080p6l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Saturday]


SUN 01:00 Curious Under the Stars (b0br5b62)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:00 on Saturday]


SUN 02:10 Inheritance Tracks (b0br5b64)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:10 on Saturday]


SUN 02:15 Battlefield Ramblings (b0br5b66)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Saturday]


SUN 02:45 15 Minute Drama (b0467pj5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Saturday]


SUN 03:00 The Original Godfather (b009kgnd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 on Saturday]


SUN 04:00 JCW Brook - The Doppelganger (b007jv9r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Saturday]


SUN 05:30 Unmasking the English (b007ypjj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 Ladies of Letters (b007k3xg)
Ladies of Letters Go Global
Omnibus

Irene and Vera are back and this time they are going global.

Determined to escape the aftermath of their respective Christmases from Hell, first Vera nabs a package to Ibiza, then Irene sets out to rescue her friend when she falls prey to the charms of Gaston the seductive Gascon.

Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge star as grandmothers, Irene Spencer and Vera Small.

Series of comic emails written by Carole Hayman and Lou Wakefield.

Producer: Claudine Toutoungi

First broadcast in five parts on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.


SUN 07:15 Rudyard Kipling - The Gardener (b00nrvp3)

An aunt's grief for a nephew killed by a splinter shell on the Somme. A poignant tale of Remembrance read by Patricia Hodge. From November 2000.


SUN 07:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (b03z9gmm)
Series 1
Sophocles

A fresh look at the ancient world.

Natalie Haynes, critic, writer and reformed stand-up comedian, brings the ancient world entertainingly up to date. In each of the four programmes she profiles a figure from ancient Greece or Rome and creates a stand-up routine around them. She then goes in search of the links which make the ancient world still very relevant in the 21st century.

Episode 2: Sophocles invents modern drama with Oedipus the King. Spoiler alert! – it doesn't end well. This episode includes handy hints on how to get in the mood for a classical tragedy (bring a bottle.) With Professor Edith Hall, poet and playwright Frank McGuinness and TV critic Andrew Collins.

Producer Christine Hall


SUN 08:00 The Jason Explanation of... (b007jpwr)
Money

David Jason's probe of modern life sets out to comprehend cash. With Miriam Margolyes and Royce Mills.

Following in the footsteps of Lord Clark, Dr Bronowski and Professor Galbraith, David Jason unravels the mysteries of the universe and the meaning of life.

Scripted by Colin Bostock Smith, Andy Hamilton and Barry Pilton.

Music by John Owen Edwards
Producer: Geoffrey Perkins
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in September 1977.


SUN 08:30 Take It From Here (b01fhp18)
From 26/02/1959

Putting a hat on with a West End musical spoof, plus trouble over a wedding ring for 'The Glums'.

Starring Professor Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and June Whitfield.

Music from Wallace Eaton and the Keynotes and the BBC Revue Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.

Scripted by Frank Muir and Denis Norden.

Producer: Charles Maxwell

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in February 1959.


SUN 09:00 Book of the Week (b0br5d8f)
In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin (Omnibus)

Lindsey Hilsum's compelling biography is a tribute to the courageous and inspiring journalist who sought always to bear witness to the brutal truths of war. Read by Juliet Aubrey.

Lindsey Hilsum's new book tells the story of Marie Colvin, the brave and daring journalist who, throughout a career distinguished by bravery and compassion, was driven to shine a light on the realities of some of the world's most devastating conflicts, from the 1980s until 2012 when she was killed covering the war in Syria. Away from the battlefield, she was a hard-drinker and had a reputation for throwing wild parties. She was a great friend, but her personal life was often troubled and rackety. After she was hit by a grenade in Sri Lanka in 2001, she was tormented by debilitating nightmares, and was eventually diagnosed with PTSD, nevertheless, she continued her work documenting the suffering of ordinary people enduing war.

Lindsey Hilsum is the International Editor for Channel 4 News and has covered many conflicts, sometimes alongside Marie Colvin.

Abridged by Penny Leicester
Produced by Elizabeth Allard

First broadcast in five parts on BBC Radio 4 in November 2018.


SUN 10:10 The Listening Project (b06bp2vk)
Dennis and Daniel - Marmite for the Gorillas

Fi Glover introduces a conversation recorded in the Booth at Durrell Wildlife Park in Jersey between two zoo workers who give an entirely new meaning to a day’s work: it can involve handing over flamingos in a car park… Another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess


SUN 10:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b06p52bx)
Comedians
Jackie Mason

4 Extra Debut. From Patsy Cline to Dina Washington, the American comedian shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From March 2012.


SUN 11:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b0br5d8h)
Series 8
I Will Be Your Father Figure

True stories told live in in the USA: Sarah Austin Jenness introduces fatherly stories, from joking to tender moments.

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 12:00 The Jason Explanation of... (b007jpwr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


SUN 12:30 Take It From Here (b01fhp18)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


SUN 13:00 Ladies of Letters (b007k3xg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


SUN 14:15 Rudyard Kipling - The Gardener (b00nrvp3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 today]


SUN 14:30 Book at Bedtime (m00016d2)
Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years
Omnibus 1/2

The third book in the exquisitely funny Adrian Mole series by Sue Townsend, one of our most celebrated comic writers. The Wilderness Years is read by Harry McEntire
Following on from The Secret Diary and The Growing Pains, it is now 1991 and our diarist is 23.
Adrian is still infatuated with his childhood sweetheart Pandora and is living in her box room in Oxford. Already in possession of a husband and a boyfriend, and sick of his attentions, Pandora recommends a therapist to help Adrian move on.
Unfulfilled by his job at the Department of the Environment, Adrian’s aspirations to become a poet and author are undimmed. Whilst working on his first novel, ‘Lo! The Flat Hills of my Homeland’, he is plagued by the literary success of his old nemesis, Barry Kent.
Adrian struggles to understand why he is so unsuccessful with women but his perseverance eventually pays off. How the female brain works remains a mystery to him, however.
As he continues to battle valiantly with the slings and arrows that life throws at him, Adrian starts to feel less of an outsider and more at ease with himself.
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Alexa Moore
A Pier Production


SUN 15:45 The Generation Gap (b00qszz5)
Series 1: Respect
Nobility

Series of programmes in which two people from different generations discuss a topic that reveals the changing nature of Britain.

The theme of the first five programmes is Respect.

Viscount De L'Isle and his daughter The Hon Sophia Sidney, whose family have owned Penshurst Place for the past 400 years, discuss the changing attitudes towards the aristocracy during their lifetimes.

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 16:00 Voices of the First World War (b0br5d8m)
1918

Dan Snow introduces a selection of programmes covering the events of the war in 1918.

The year didn't begin well for the British. After a few months of relative quiet over the winter, British soldiers experienced the massive onslaught of the first German Spring Offensive in March.

In interviews recorded by the BBC in 1964 and the Imperial War Museums in the 1980s, men recall their devastating experiences of shelling, retreat, serious injury and imprisonment in the wastelands of the Somme during Operation Michael. But American troops started to arrive in large numbers, and by August there were significant breakthroughs at Amiens.

When the end finally came in November 1918, there were common themes in veterans' reactions to the Armistice: relief and disbelief, but also a sense of emptiness, with some reporting feeling drained of all emotion.


SUN 17:00 Poetry Extra (b0br5g4j)
Coming Home

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive with Coming Home.

In 2014 Andrew Motion visited the British army camp at Bad Fallingbostel, 40 kilometres north of Hanover in Germany. It's where the 7th Armoured Brigade - the Desert Rats - are based and where they returned after Operation Herrick 19, their final tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Here he talked to a range of soldiers, and back in England he also talked to the mother of a soldier who had been killed on duty in Helmand. He has used these conversations as the basis for a series of new poems reflecting on what it is like for British soldiers to come home after their long and dangerous campaign in Afghanistan. The poems explore the particular nature of the Afghan conflict, while showing certain continuities that flow from wars through the generations.

In this programme, the interviews and poems are set side by side, creating a unique poetry event by Andrew Motion to mark Remembrance Day.

Writer & Presenter: Sir Andrew Motion

Contributors:

• Lance Bombardier Stephen North
• Padre David Anderson
• Sharon Anderson
• Major Wendy Faux
• Lance Corp. Ben Johnson
• Sgt. Vicky Clarke
• Margaret Evison

Producer: Melissa FitzGerald

A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2014.


SUN 17:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (b03z9gmm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


SUN 18:00 Sheila Hodgson - Here Am I Where Are You? (b074c5ct)

The tale of a cursed professor with a special red book, his very wayward nephew and an 18th century tankard.

Written by Sheila Hodgson - based on an idea by MR James

Stars David March as James, Lockwood West as Professor Zetterholm, Susan Sheridan as Paul Mallory and Joan Newell as Mrs Marriott.

Directed by David Johnstone

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1977.


SUN 18:45 Ghost Story (b0br5g4n)
The Crowd, by Ray Bradbury

After Mr Spallner crashes his car, people start to gawp. But it's only the beginning of the horror. Read by Joss Ackland. From December 1986.


SUN 19:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b0br5d8h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]


SUN 20:00 Book of the Week (b0br5d8f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


SUN 21:10 The Listening Project (b06bp2vk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:10 today]


SUN 21:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b06p52bx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:15 today]


SUN 22:00 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (b03z9gmm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


SUN 22:30 My First Planet (b04b261q)
Series 2
Sample of Terror

A sitcom set in a hapless Space Colony.

It's Day 30 on the colony and Brian has to win the Tour De France to save the contents of Lillian's freezer. Meanwhile, Mason discovers that a nuclear core is not the best venue for some role-play.

The return of the hit sitcom starring Nicholas Lyndhurst and Vicki Pepperdine ("Getting On") set on a shiny new planet.

Welcome to the colony. We're aware that, having been in deep cryosleep for 73 years, you may be in need of some supplementary information.

Personnel:
Unfortunately, Burrows the leader of the colony has died on the voyage so his Number 2, Brian (Nicholas Lyndhurst), is now in charge. He's a nice enough chap, but no alpha male, and his desire to sort things out with a nice friendly meeting infuriates the colony's Chief Physician Lillian (Vicki Pepperdine), who'd really rather everyone was walking round in tight colour-coded tunics and saluting each other. She's also in charge of Project Adam, the plan to conceive and give birth to the first colony-born baby. Unfortunately, the two people hand-picked for this purpose - Carol and Richard - were rather fibbing about being a couple, just to get on the trip.

Add in an entirely unscrupulous Chief Scientist, Mason and also Archer, an idiot maintenance man who believes he's an "empath" rather than a plumber, and you're all set to answer the question - if humankind were to colonise space, is it destined to succumb to self-interest, prejudice and infighting? (By the way, the answer's "yes". Sorry.)

Written by Phil Whelans
Produced & directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 23:00 On the Hour (b008s3k9)
Series 1
Episode 3

Campaigning to tighten the letter of the law, and war is declared.

The show that's in the thick of the action with a microphone – plus all the sport from Alan Partridge.

Savagely satirical award-winning comedy starring Chris Morris.

With Steve Coogan, David Schneider, Rebecca Front, Patrick Marber and Doon Mackichan.

Written by Chris Morris, Richard Herring, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, David Quantick and Stewart Lee.

Editor: Armando lannucci

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 1991.


SUN 23:25 The Comedy Club Interviews (m00016d6)
Adam Rowe 2/2

From 10.00pm - midnight, 7 days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Adam Rowe.


SUN 23:30 Ectoplasm (b007wwd6)
The Case of the Stupid Ignorant Americans

Lord Zimbabwe and Dr Lilac are moon-bound, pursuing abducted hillbillies. With Dan Freedman and Nick Romero. From August 2000.



MONDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2018

MON 00:00 Sheila Hodgson - Here Am I Where Are You? (b074c5ct)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Sunday]


MON 00:45 Ghost Story (b0br5g4n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:45 on Sunday]


MON 01:00 Ladies of Letters (b007k3xg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Sunday]


MON 02:15 Rudyard Kipling - The Gardener (b00nrvp3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 on Sunday]


MON 02:30 Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (b0br5d8k)
Omnibus 1/2

It's 1991. Adrian is 23 and still infatuated with the now-married Pandora. What does the future hold? Read by Harry McEntire.


MON 03:45 The Generation Gap (b00qszz5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:45 on Sunday]


MON 04:00 Voices of the First World War (b0br5d8m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


MON 05:00 Poetry Extra (b0br5g4j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday]


MON 05:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (b03z9gmm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Sunday]


MON 06:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016bv)
Series 2
Episode 1

College is battling against ever present finance savings and Simon finds himself bereft of a job.

Could this be the perfect opportunity for Gilbert to furnish the college with a more popular course and upset the Dean in the process?

Series two of Mark Tavener's comedy thriller set in a Cambridge College riven by arguments between traditionalists and modernisers.

Starring Geoffrey Palmer as Gilbert, Samuel West as Simon, Sharon Small as Zoe, Jonathan Coy as Bernard and Michael Maloney as The Dean.

With Tracy Wiles, Stephen Hogan and David Bannerman.

Producer: Dawn Ellis

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2006.


MON 06:30 Maths and Magic (b03ls7y2)

Maths and magic go back a long way - the oldest written card trick was by Luca Pacioli, a friend of Leonardo, and appears in a treatise which also contains the first account of double entry book keeping. Many tricks in the working magician's repertoire rely on maths.

But this is surprising. Maths is about logic, magic is about illusion. How can it be possible to fool someone with logic? What does it tell us about the way our minds work? Can things seem magical just because we don't understand them?

Magician Jolyon Jenkins investigates the link between these two apparently disparate worlds. He learns of the simple algebra-based trick that repeatedly fooled Albert Einstein. And he sets himself the challenge of learning a maths-based trick that can not only fool working mathematicians, but seems genuinely magical. It culminates in a public performance in front of a group of mathematicians at the MathsJam festival.

Presenter/producer: Jolyon Jenkins.


MON 07:00 The Older Woman (b039wqbg)
Series 2
Episode 5

Roy Hitchcock has surprisingly managed to interest TV in his video diary. Should he now become celibate in order to be an artist of integrity?

Meanwhile, Jane resolves to remain celibate - at least as far as Colin's romantic intentions are concerned...

Series two of Tony Bagley’s romantic comedy drama serial mixing fantasy with reality.

Starring Martin Clunes as Roy Hitchcock, Geraldine James as Jane Gallaghan, Nicky Henson as Chad Mann, David Troughton as Colin, Tilly Vosburgh as Marina and Sue Roderick as Wynn.

Other parts played by Alistair McGowan, Melanie Hudson and Peter Serafinowcz.

Producer: Paul Schlesinger:

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 1994.


MON 07:30 The Museum of Curiosity (m000111g)
Series 13
Episode 6

Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Lee Mack welcome comedian and writer Bridget Christie, writer and historian Andrea Wulf and Oscar-winning documentary-maker Vikram Jayanti.

This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee discover the therapeutic value of spontaneous crying, look hard into the mirror and make neat little labels for their herbs and spices.

The show was researched by Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus of QI.

The Producers were Richard Turner and Anne Miller.

A BBC Studios Production.


MON 08:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007jnf8)
Series 5
The Insurance Policy

Shrewd Miss Pugh urges the lad to get insured. But is Sid's policy such a wise buy?

Stars Tony Hancock. With Sidney James, Bill Kerr, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams.

Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

Theme and incidental music written by Wally Stott.

Producer: Tom Ronald

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in February 1958.


MON 08:30 Parsley Sidings (b01p47pg)
Series 1
The 1890 Rocket

Station master Horace Hepplewhite decides to renovate his grandfather's rusting old steam engine, to get it back on the rails once more.

Starring Arthur Lowe as Horace, Ian Lavender as Bert, Kenneth Connor as Percy, Liz Fraser as Gloria and John Graham as Phineas Perkins.

Jim Eldridge's eponymous series is set in a sleepy railway station. The Hepplewhites have run 'Parsley Sidings' station for generations and the current Station Master, Horace, hopes that his son Bert will continue the line. Mild-mannered Ticket Clerk Bert wants to work anywhere but on the railways. His colleague, Station Announcer Gloria Simpkins, secretly loves him. Porter Percy Valentine is an archetypal wheeler-dealer and the ancient Signalman, Bradshaw, causes havoc and dispenses home-made remedies in equal measure. The 'Parsley Sidings' nemesis is Phineas Perkins, the station master of Potwhistle Halt, one stop down the line.

Recreated Announcements by Keith Skues.
Producer: Edward Taylor
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in January 1972.


MON 09:00 Just a Minute (m00016bx)
Series 60
From 20/06/2011

Paul Merton, Stephen Fry, Sue Perkins and Fi Glover join Nicholas Parsons to talk for 60 seconds. From June 2011.


MON 09:30 Snap (m00016bz)
Series 2
Episode 5

Doug is dating Kaz's PE teacher but just when the relationship gets a bit more intimate he begins to feel uncomfortable.

Grannie Annie and Ernie are hunky dory so that just leaves Kaz on her own. If Kaz is cool with that why isn't anyone else happy?

Paul Mendelson’s sitcom stars Rebecca Lacey as Molly, Paul Venables as Doug, Soumaya Keynes as Kaz, Jessie Sullivan as Ryan, Marlene Sidaway as Annie, Samantha Spiro as Dawn and Jonathan Tafler as Raymond.

Producer: David Ian Neville

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2004.


MON 10:00 Classic Serial (b00pj463)
Edith Wharton - The Custom of the Country
Episode 1

Dramatisation by Jane Rogers of Edith Wharton's 1913 satire of marriage and money in early 20th-century American society.

When the beautiful Undine Spragg arrives in New York, she sets her sights on Ralph Marvell, but will he live up to her expectations?

Undine Spragg ...... Rebecca Night
Mrs Spragg ...... Barbara Barnes
Mrs Heeny ...... Lorelei King
Abner Spragg/Popple ...... Jonathan Keeble
Peter Van Degan ...... William Houston
Mr Dagonet ...... Paul McCleary
Laura Fairford ...... Provence Maydew
Elmer Moffatt ...... Tom Hollander
Ralph Marvell ...... Dan Stevens
Mabel Lipscombe ...... Tessa Nicholson

Directed by Nadia Molinari.


MON 11:00 Anton Chekhov (b00qb9x3)
Stories by Anton Chekhov
An Incident

Two children, two pets, one stranger. Then a small domestic disaster. Alistair McGowan reads a tale from the Russian master.


MON 11:15 Nan Woodhouse (b0075k2l)
Encore

"Let's work together, you said. Strictly professional, you promised. A Shot in the arm for our careers. Why did I listen?"

If all the world's a stage, then Henry and Sheila's reunion might become a farce...

Stars Timothy West as Henry and Julia McKenzie as Sheila.

Director: Tracey Neale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.


MON 12:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007jnf8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


MON 12:30 Parsley Sidings (b01p47pg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


MON 13:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016bv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


MON 13:30 Maths and Magic (b03ls7y2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]


MON 14:00 Thomas Love Peacock (m00016c2)
Nightmare Abbey
The Changer of Worlds

Once raised by his father in the bleak family mansion, Scythrop Glowry vows to change the world.

Kenneth Williams reads the Gothic satire poking fun at the Romantic Movement in English literature of the time and its obsession with the morbid.

First published in 1818, ‘Nightmare Abbey’ follows the fortunes of widower Christopher Glowry, who lives with his son, Scythrop, in the dilapidated family mansion- in Lincolnshire, on a dry stretch of land between the sea and the fens.

Abridged in eight parts and produced by Martin Remes.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1979.


MON 14:15 A History of the Brain (b016w808)
A Hole in the Head

Dr Geoff Bunn's 10 part History of the Brain is a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of the most complex thing in the known universe. From Neolithic times to the present day, Geoff journeys through the many ideas of what the brain is for and how it fulfils its functions. While referencing the core physiology and neuroscience, this is a cultural, not a scientific history. What soon becomes obvious is that our understanding of this most inscrutable organ has in all periods been coloured by the social and political expedients of the day no less than by the contemporary scope of scientific or biological exploration.

In Episode 1: A Hole in the Head, the focus is on trepanation, the practice of drilling holes in the skull believing that such operations might correct physiological or spiritual problems. Trepanation reveals much about the understanding of the brain from Neolithic to recent times. The Ancient Egyptians, however, rarely trepanned, even though their Secret Book of the Physician, one of the oldest medical texts in the world, shows that they recognised how damage to the brain can paralyze limbs on opposite sides of the body. Believing the heart to be the core organ, they discarded the brain altogether at death, since it had no part to play in the afterlife.

The series is written and presented by Dr Geoff Bunn of Manchester Metropolitan University. Actors Paul Bhattacharjee and Jonathan Forbes provide the voices of those who have written about the brain across the ages. Actor Hattie Morahan gives the Anatomy Lesson establishing the part of the brain to be highlighted in each episode - in this instance the cranium and the meninges. The original, atmospheric score is supplied by composer, Barney Quinton. The producer is Marya Burgess.


MON 14:30 Drama (b08twfh6)
Stories from Hay el Matar
Episode 5

Running a hospital in Damascus is hard enough for the Hilmi family but, when Louai expands the counterfeit pharmaceuticals business to raise extra cash, things start to go very wrong indeed.

Stories from Hay el Matar is set in a suburb of Damascus where people of all backgrounds attempt to live their lives while the war is fought around them. It's made by a team of Syrian writers and actors who are themselves living through the kinds of events depicted in the drama.

This is an adaptation from an Arabic language original, produced by BBC Media Action, that is also made on location in Beirut, Lebanon, by a Syrian and Lebanese team, many of whom commute from inside Syria.

Stories from Hay el Matar is written in Arabic by Syrian writer Hozan Akko, adapted into English by British dramatist Jonathan Myerson, and recorded on location in Beirut.

The drama offers a rare glimpse of how normal life is lived inside Damascus during these extraordinary times.

Sound Moe Choicair, Sandra Tabet (DB Studios) and Alisdair McGregor
Music Ziad Ahmadiye
Studio management Karim Beidoun, Guerilla Studios
Translation Samira El Agha
Adaptation Jonathan Myerson
Writer Hozan Akko
Producer/Director Boz Temple-Morris

A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4, adapted from an original BBC Media Action Production.


MON 14:45 Book of the Week (b03mcmwz)
Man Belong Mrs Queen
Episode 1

As a bookish child with a posh accent, growing up on Merseyside in the 1980s, Matthew Baylis identified with the much-mocked Prince Philip as a fellow outsider. He even had a poster of him on his bedroom wall.

Years later, as an anthropology student , Baylis learned of the existence of a Philip cult on the South Sea island of Tanna. Why was it there? Nobody had a convincing answer. Nobody even seemed to want to find one.

His curiosity fatally piqued, he travelled over 10,000 miles to find a society both remote and slap-bang in the shipping-lanes of history. It's a place where US airmen, Lithuanian libertarians, and Graeco-Danish Princes have had as much impact as the missionaries and the slave-traders. On the rumbling slopes of this remarkable volcanic island, banjaxed by frequent doses of the local narcotic, suffering from a relentless diet of yams and regularly accused of being a divine emissary of the Duke, Baylis attempted to get to the bottom of this bizarre cult. In doing so he draws some ironic lessons about our own island 'myths' and comes to respect the pragmatic realpolitik of his South Seas hosts.

Abridged and produced by Jill Waters

A Waters Company Production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 15:00 Classic Serial (b00pj463)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]


MON 16:00 Just a Minute (m00016bx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 16:30 Snap (m00016bz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]


MON 17:00 The Older Woman (b039wqbg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]


MON 17:30 The Museum of Curiosity (m000111g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


MON 18:00 Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space (b007jmqp)
Operation Luna
Episode 1

1965: Jet Morgan is in Australia, preparing for 'Operation Luna,' set to be man's first trip to the Moon.

Futuristic tale as first broadcast in 1953.

Stars Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, Alfie Bass as Lemmy Barnett, Guy Kingsley-Poynter as Doc, David Williams as Mitch, Other parts by John Cazabon.

Music composed and orchestra conducted by Van Phillips.

Written in thirteen parts and produced by Charles Chilton.

Though first heard in 1953, the original recordings were wiped.

Re-recording first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1958.


MON 18:30 A Good Read (m00016c6)
Roger Cook and Andrew Motion

Sue MacGregor and her guests - poet Andrew Motion and investigative journalist Roger Cook - discuss books by Evelyn Waugh, Orhan Pamuk and JA Baker.

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
Publisher: Penguin Classics

The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk (translated by Victoria Holbrook)
Publisher: Faber

The Peregrine by JA Baker
Publisher: New York Review Books

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.


MON 19:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007jnf8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


MON 19:30 Parsley Sidings (b01p47pg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


MON 20:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016bv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


MON 20:30 Maths and Magic (b03ls7y2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]


MON 21:00 Anton Chekhov (b00qb9x3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]


MON 21:15 Nan Woodhouse (b0075k2l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]


MON 22:00 The Museum of Curiosity (m000111g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


MON 22:30 Date With Fate (b008zq34)
Along for the Ride

Colin impersonates a film producer with dangerous consequences. Stars Charles Gray and Michael Troughton. From February 1996.


MON 22:45 My Booze Hell, by Little Johnny Cartilage (b007jvc7)
Sugar, Der Der Der Der Der Der, Ah Honey, Honey

The faded 70s idol fails to impress Melvyn Bragg while plugging his book. With Johnny Meres and Ben Miller. From October 1996.


MON 23:00 The Now Show (m0001295)
Series 53
Episode 3

Hugh Dennis presents the week via topical stand-up and sketches.

Hugh and the team look at the mid-terms, Lloyd Langford investigates the Proud Boys, Felicity Ward has something to help the Australian cricket team and Jess Robinson tackles the biggest story this week - the Spice Girls reunion.

Gemma Arrowsmith and Luke Kempner provide additional voices.

It was written by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis and the cast, with additional material by Gareth Gwynn, Ian Smith, Mike Shephard and Laura Sleep.

The song was written and arranged by Jess Robinson, Matthew Crosby and Michael Roulston.

The production coordinator was Sarah Sharpe.

It was a BBC Studios production.


MON 23:30 Concrete Cow (b0076js0)
Series 1
Episode 3

The complication of ordering coffee and finding Captain Oates. Sketch show with Robert Webb and Olivia Colman. From August 2002.



TUESDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2018

TUE 00:00 Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space (b007jmqp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Monday]


TUE 00:30 A Good Read (m00016c6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Monday]


TUE 01:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016bv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Monday]


TUE 01:30 Maths and Magic (b03ls7y2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Monday]


TUE 02:00 Thomas Love Peacock (m00016c2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Monday]


TUE 02:15 A History of the Brain (b016w808)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Monday]


TUE 02:30 Drama (b08twfh6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Monday]


TUE 02:45 Book of the Week (b03mcmwz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Monday]


TUE 03:00 Classic Serial (b00pj463)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Monday]


TUE 04:00 Just a Minute (m00016bx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Monday]


TUE 04:30 Snap (m00016bz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Monday]


TUE 05:00 The Older Woman (b039wqbg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Monday]


TUE 05:30 The Museum of Curiosity (m000111g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Monday]


TUE 06:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016c8)
Series 2
Episode 2

While Simon is struggling in his new status as don, the Dean finds his popularity with the students on the increase.

Meanwhile, Gilbert faces the rather grave task of dealing with a student found cheating.

And there's grim news for Simon...

Mark Tavener's comedy thriller set in a Cambridge College riven by argument between traditionalists and modernisers.

Starring Geoffrey Palmer as Gilbert, Samuel West as Simon, Sharon Small as Zoe, Jonathan Coy as Bernard and Michael Maloney as The Dean.

With Michelle Fairley, Stephen Hogan, Matt Green, Anthony Glennon, Tom Price and Zoe Gardner.

Producer: Dawn Ellis

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2006.


TUE 06:30 Freedom Song (b008q0sr)

Tony Phillips tells the story of a memorable performance.

On 9th April 1939, 75,000 concert-goers heard African-American contralto Marian Anderson give a solo recital at the Lincoln Memorial. Across America, millions more listened to the live radio broadcast. Yet Anderson was a victim of racism, barred from Constitution Hall, the largest indoor location in Washington DC, because of her colour.

Contributors include historian John Hope Franklin, concert organiser Dorothy Height, Prof Allan Keiler, soprano Barbara Hendricks and Harry Belafonte.

Music includes Schubert's Liebesbotschaft and Ave Maria.


TUE 07:00 A Whole New Ball Game (b00c5r8c)
Series 1
The Mould in the Gold

Father Benedict is holding a Golden Oldie night in honour of the late Gregory Patterson. But is it the right occasion for a eulogy from his only son, Robert?

Not when Barbara Patterson is determined to ruin the evening.

A six-part black comedy by Martin Davies

Stars Desmond Barrit as Father Benedict, Brenda Blethyn as Mrs Patterson, Paul Parris as Robert Patterson, Charlotte Coleman as Barbara Patterson, Martino Lazzeri as Guy Entwhistle, Mark Straker as Andy, Claire Skinner as Janet and Jill Meers as the Manageress.

Producer: Lissa Evans

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 1993.


TUE 07:30 Gloomsbury (m000128d)
Series 5
I Wouldn't Say No

Henry’s sister Gwen is recuperating at Sizzlinghurst after a major operation. She is very religious and Vera is influenced by this, to Henry’s atheistical disgust. Vera also has a fleeting longing for a third child and promises Henry that she will never kiss another woman again in her life, if he will just agree to make one with her.

So Ginny's new idea, inspired by Aristophanes and Lysistrata, that the women of Britain must stop the looming war by refusing to sleep with their husbands comes at a tricky time.

Meanwhile, Lionel goes to Westminster to meet Henry and hear a debate. He meets - and is slightly smitten by - Nancy Astor. Churchill advises Henry to take Vera to Paris for a fling before the war starts. And Gwen, curious about same-sex relationships, asks Vera for a kiss.

It's not long before they both regret it.

Cast:
VERA………………………….MIRIAM MARGOLYES
HENRY………………………..JONATHAN COY
GWEN STAUBYN……………MORWENNA BANKS
MRS GOSLING………………ALISON STEADMAN
LIONEL FOX…………………NIGEL PLANER
GINNY FOX………………….ALISON STEADMAN
NANCY ASTOR………………MORWENNA BANKS
WINSTON CHURCHILL…….NIGEL PLANER

A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 08:00 The Code of the Woosters (m00016cb)
Spode's Fangs are Drawn

Bertie Wooster must face angry relatives and awkward misunderstandings.

PG Wodehouse romp adapted by Chris Miller.

Starring Michael Hordern as Jeeves, Richard Briers as Bertie Wooster, Vivian Pickles as Aunt Dahlia and James Villiers as Roderick Spode.

Producer: David Hatch

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1973.


TUE 08:30 The Men From the Ministry (b019m141)
Series 14
The Country Caper

The bungling bureaucrats must enforce stringent regulations for over-sized rhubarb

The first of 14 shows not kept in the archive and re-recorded in 1980 – previously never broadcast in the UK, until the arrival of BBC Radio 4 Extra.

‘The Men from the Ministry’ ran for 14 series between 1962 and 1977.

Stars Richard Murdoch and Deryck Guyler (who replaced Wilfrid Hyde-White from 1966).

With Norma Ronald, Ronald Baddiley and John Graham.

Written and produced by Edward Taylor.
Re-recording of ‘'The Rhubarb Pirates' made in April 1980.


TUE 09:00 Whose Line Is It Anyway? (b008pbnv)
Episode 4

Clive Anderson hosts more ad-lib fun with Stephen Fry, John Sessions, Kate Robbins and Griff Rhys-Jones. From January 1998.


TUE 09:30 Gilbert Without Sullivan (m00016cf)
Series 2
A Colossal Idea

On holiday with his wife in Margate, Mr Yellowboy claims to be preparing the 123rd edition of an encyclopaedia but his activities are not that innocent.

The second series of short stories by WS Gilbert dramatised by Stephen Wyatt.

Starring Jonathan Coy as Gilbert, Tina Gray as Mrs Badger, Tim Hudson as Wellington Yellowboy, Bella Merlin as Amelia, Sarah Hadland as Arabella and James Howard as Jack.

Playwright and humourist, Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) is best known for his comic opera collaborations with Sir Arthur Sullivan, which first captivated audiences across the English-speaking world in the late 19th century.

Director: Jenny Stephens

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004.


TUE 10:00 Classic Serial (b00pnp9c)
Edith Wharton - The Custom of the Country
Episode 2

Dramatisation by Jane Rogers of Edith Wharton's 1913 satire of marriage and money in early-20th century American society.

Leaving her husband and child in New York, Undine travels to Paris where she meets a charming French aristocrat.

Mrs Heeny ...... Lorelei King
Elmer Moffatt ...... Tom Hollander
Undine Spragg ...... Rebecca Night
Mrs Spragg ...... Barbara Barnes
Abner Spragg ...... Jonathan Keeble
Ralph Marvell ...... Dan Stevens
Clare Van Degen ...... Lucy Gaskell
Peter Van Degan ...... William Houston
Mabel Lipscombe ...... Tessa Nicholson
Laura Fairford/Princess Estradina ...... Provence Maydew
Raymond De Chelles ...... Joseph Kloska

Directed by Nadia Molinari.


TUE 11:00 Anton Chekhov (b00qb9x9)
Stories by Anton Chekhov
A Play

She insists on showing him her terrible work. He takes drastic action. Alistair McGowan reads a tale from the Russian master.


TUE 11:15 Afternoon Drama (b00y2xn6)
Stephen Wyatt - Double Jeopardy

Patrick Stewart stars as Raymond Chandler and Adrian Scarborough is Billy Wilder in this entertaining glimpse inside the Hollywood film industry. In 1944 the two men came together to work on a screen adaptation of James M Cain's novel Double Indemnity. Billy Wilder is a 36 year old German Jewish émigré just making his name as a director and Raymond Chandler is a reformed alcoholic with a developing reputation as a novelist but absolutely no experience of writing for movies. The play follows their famously difficult collaboration.
Directed by Claire Grove

Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler are legendary. The English-educated, middle-aged , would-be intellectual versus the ambitious young German émigré. Paramount Studios put Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder together because none of the big names would touch James M Cain's novel. With its adulterous lovers, and a crime that could be copied, it was judged too controversial to adapt because of the censorious Production Code guidelines. Chandler and Wilder famously hated each other but in a space of some four months locked in an office together they created an outstanding screenplay for a ground-breaking classic film .


TUE 12:00 The Code of the Woosters (m00016cb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


TUE 12:30 The Men From the Ministry (b019m141)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


TUE 13:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016c8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


TUE 13:30 Freedom Song (b008q0sr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]


TUE 14:00 Thomas Love Peacock (m00016ch)
Nightmare Abbey
The Seeker of Love

Having lost his first love, will Marionetta now meet with Scythrop’s father’s approval?

Kenneth Williams continues the Gothic satire poking fun at the Romantic Movement in English literature of the time and its obsession with the morbid.

First published in 1818, ‘Nightmare Abbey’ follows the fortunes of widower Christopher Glowry, who lives with his son, Scythrop, in the dilapidated family mansion- in Lincolnshire, on a dry stretch of land between the sea and the fens.

Abridged in eight parts and produced by Martin Remes.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1979.


TUE 14:15 A History of the Brain (b016wzrd)
The Blood of the Gladiators

Dr Geoff Bunn's 10 part History of the Brain is a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of this complex organ in our heads. From Neolithic times to the present day, he reveals the contemporary beliefs about what the brain is for and how it fulfils its functions.

While referencing the core physiology and neuroscience, this is a cultural, not a scientific history. What soon becomes obvious is that our understanding of this most inscrutable organ has in all periods been coloured by the social and political expedients of the day no less than by the contemporary scope of scientific or biological exploration.

In Episode 2: The Blood of The Gladiators, the focus is Ancient Greek scholarship, with Hippocrates' astonishingly prescient belief in the brain as the chief organ of control and his debunking of the myth of the 'sacred disease' with his assertion that epilepsy was the result of natural causes. Yet the belief that a cure lay in the magical properties of blood persisted for centuries.

The series is entirely written and presented by Dr Geoff Bunn of Manchester Metropolitan University, with actors Paul Bhattacharjee and Jonathan Forbes providing the voices of those who have written about the brain from Ancient Egypt to the present day, and actor Hattie Morahan giving the Anatomy Lesson which establishes the part of the brain to be highlighted in each episode - in this instance the cerebrum and cerebellum. The original, atmospheric score is supplied by composer, Barney Quinton.

Producer: Marya Burgess.


TUE 14:30 Drama (b08w1c6b)
Stories from Hay el Matar
Episode 2

Louai tries to re-establish the counterfeit medicines business way from his father's hospital and starts working with Assaf, the Captain of the government checkpoint.

Stories from Hay el Matar is set in a suburb of Damascus where people of all backgrounds attempt to live their lives while the war is fought around them. It's made by a team of Syrian writers and actors who are themselves living through the kinds of events depicted in the drama.

This is an adaptation from an Arabic language original produced by BBC Media Action that is also made on location in Beirut, Lebanon, by a Syrian and Lebanese team, many of whom commute from inside Syria.

Stories from Hay el Matar is written in Arabic by Syrian writer Hozan Akko, adapted into English by British dramatist Jonathan Myerson, and recorded on location in Beirut.

The drama offers a rare glimpse of how normal life is lived inside Damascus during these extraordinary times.

Sound Moe Choicair, Sandra Tabet (DB Studios) and Alisdair McGregor
Music Ziad Ahmadiye
Studio management Karim Beidoun, Guerilla Studios
Translation Samira El Agha
Adaptation Jonathan Myerson
Writer Hozan Akko
Producer/Director Boz Temple-Morris

A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4, adapted from an original BBC Media Action Production.


TUE 14:45 Book of the Week (b03mjkw0)
Man Belong Mrs Queen
Episode 2

As a bookish child with a posh accent, growing up on Merseyside in the 1980s, Matthew Baylis identified with the much-mocked Prince Philip as a fellow outsider. He even had a poster of him on his bedroom wall.

Years later, as an anthropology student , Baylis learned of the existence of a Philip cult on the South Sea island of Tanna. Why was it there? Nobody had a convincing answer. Nobody even seemed to want to find one.

His curiosity fatally piqued, he travelled over 10,000 miles to find a society both remote and slap-bang in the shipping-lanes of history. It's a place where US airmen, Lithuanian libertarians, and Graeco-Danish Princes have had as much impact as the missionaries and the slave-traders. On the rumbling slopes of this remarkable volcanic island, banjaxed by frequent doses of the local narcotic, suffering from a relentless diet of yams and regularly accused of being a divine emissary of the Duke, Baylis attempted to get to the bottom of this bizarre cult. In doing so he draws some ironic lessons about our own island 'myths' and comes to respect the pragmatic realpolitik of his South Seas hosts.

Episode 2: On the island of Tanna, Chief Jack makes vague promises but gives little away.

Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company Production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:00 Classic Serial (b00pnp9c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]


TUE 16:00 The 3rd Degree (b08twgyf)
Series 7
The University of Hull

A funny and dynamic quiz show hosted by Steve Punt - this week from the University of Hull with specialist subjects including American Studies, History and Business and Management and questions ranging from Credit Card Fraud to Cthulhu with a fretful porpentine thrown in for good measure.

The programme is recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in an original and fresh take on an academic quiz.

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, sport, and quite possibly Justin Bieber. In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds see students take on their Professors in their own subjects, offering plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides.

Other Universities featured in this series include Roehampton, Liverpool, Queen's University Belfast and St John's College, Cambridge.

Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 16:30 Up the Garden Path (b007wpnk)
Series 1
Tangled Webs

The complex life and loves of Izzy Comyn, with her propensity for telling lies.

Tumbling from one love entanglement to another, 30 something teacher Izzy Comyn has a predilection for inappropriate men.

Adapted by Sue Limb from her 1984 novel into 3 radio series which ran from 1987 to 1993. Granada also adapted the series for ITV.

Imelda Staunton stars as Izzy. With Marty Cruickshank as Maria, Nicholas Le Prevost as Michael and Mike Grady as Dick
With Sarah Doyle, Kerryann White, Sam Smart and Mark Monero as Class 4C
Producer: Jonathan James-Moore

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1987.


TUE 17:00 A Whole New Ball Game (b00c5r8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]


TUE 17:30 Gloomsbury (m000128d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


TUE 18:00 Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space (b007jmrp)
Operation Luna
Episode 2

Jet Morgan and his crew battle to make their 1965 landing on the moon as the world looks on.

Futuristic tale as first broadcast in 1953.

Stars Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, Alfie Bass as Lemmy Barnett, Guy Kingsley-Poynter as Doc, David Williams as Mitch, Other parts by John Cazabon and Alan Keith.

Music composed and orchestra conducted by Van Phillips.

Written and produced by Charles Chilton.

Though first heard in 1953, the original recordings were wiped.

Re-recording first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1958.


TUE 18:30 The Robert Peston Interview Show (with Eddie Mair) (b05zhm88)
Denis Norden

Eddie Mair and Robert Peston jump in a taxi to record an interview with the comedy writer and TV host Denis Norden.

Denis reflects on his long and distinguished career, including 29 years of It'll Be Alright On The Night and reaching audiences of 20 million with Take It From Here.

He also remembers an early career as a cinema manager; entertaining the troops whilst serving in the RAF; being involved with D Day; and stumbling across the atrocities at Bergen-Belsen, whilst on a straightforward mission to secure some lighting.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.


TUE 19:00 The Code of the Woosters (m00016cb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


TUE 19:30 The Men From the Ministry (b019m141)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


TUE 20:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016c8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


TUE 20:30 Freedom Song (b008q0sr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]


TUE 21:00 Anton Chekhov (b00qb9x9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]


TUE 21:15 Afternoon Drama (b00y2xn6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]


TUE 22:00 Gloomsbury (m000128d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


TUE 22:30 Little Britain (b008m9f5)
Series 2
Episode 1

Back where it started out. Matt Lucas and David Walliams' oddball TV smash hit, without the cameras. From February 2002.


TUE 23:00 The Skivers (b00j5l87)
Series 3
Episode 3

Nightclubbing in London, courtesy of Peter Stringfellow. Sketch show with Nick Golsen and Tim de Jongh. From January 1997.


TUE 23:30 Ed Reardon's Week (b03j9h7c)
Series 9
The Berkhamstead Job

Ed Reardon leads us through the ups and down of his week, complete with his trusty companion, Elgar, and his never-ending capacity for scrimping and scraping at whatever scraps his agent, Ping, can offer him to keep body, mind and cat together.

When Ed's flat burns down his old nemesis, Jaz Milvain, rides to the rescue. As a "National Treasure" lots of people want to work with Jaz (or so he says) and he's got some serious investors who want him to make a movie - an action-adventure with a quirky sci-fi twist. Ed is not keen until Alex offers him a rather nice hotel to work from. So it is that Ed starts writing 'Doctor Bond', or is it 'Harry Hobbit'.....

Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis.



WEDNESDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2018

WED 00:00 Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space (b007jmrp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Tuesday]


WED 00:30 The Robert Peston Interview Show (with Eddie Mair) (b05zhm88)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Tuesday]


WED 01:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016c8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Tuesday]


WED 01:30 Freedom Song (b008q0sr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Tuesday]


WED 02:00 Thomas Love Peacock (m00016ch)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Tuesday]


WED 02:15 A History of the Brain (b016wzrd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Tuesday]


WED 02:30 Drama (b08w1c6b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Tuesday]


WED 02:45 Book of the Week (b03mjkw0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Tuesday]


WED 03:00 Classic Serial (b00pnp9c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Tuesday]


WED 04:00 The 3rd Degree (b08twgyf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday]


WED 04:30 Up the Garden Path (b007wpnk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


WED 05:00 A Whole New Ball Game (b00c5r8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Tuesday]


WED 05:30 Gloomsbury (m000128d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Tuesday]


WED 06:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016cl)
Series 2
Episode 3

One of the students has been found hanged in what appears to be a suicide - but Simon is not convinced.

He feels the college may once more have a murder on its hands...

Mark Tavener's comedy thriller set in a Cambridge College riven by argument between traditionalists and modernisers.

Starring Geoffrey Palmer as Gilbert, Samuel West as Simon, Sharon Small as Zoe, Jonathan Coy as Bernard and Michael Maloney as The Dean.

With Michelle Fairley, Rachel Atkins, Anthony Glennon and Elizabeth Bell.

Producer: Dawn Ellis

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2006.


WED 06:30 Prisoner Soul (b01rtzdx)

In the 1960s and early 1970s, a number of U.S. prisons allowed inmates to form bands and produce commercially available LPs. Today, many of those records are collectors' items.

Gary Younge tracks down some of the men who were in these groups, finding out how the music shaped their lives and hearing from those who supported this progressive initiative in the face of the old punitive regime.

Gary travels to Huntsville, Texas, where a bespoke studio was built within the prison. Visiting the maximum security Wynne Unit, Gary is joined by the scheme's former music director, Harley Rex. This is the first time Harley has returned to the unit in over thirty years and he details the scale and impact of the project. Outside the prison's high walls, Gary and Harley meet ex-inmate John Indo who explains how the music affected the 17 years he served inside.

Over on the East Coast, in New Jersey's Rahway prison, Reginald Haynes was another inmate with a similar initiative. Reginald was spotted at a convict talent show by established music producer George Kerr and a group now known as The Legendary Escorts was formed. Reginald tells the extraordinary story of how the group's first album was produced, and of the changes the scheme would bring to his later life on the outside.

Back in Texas Gary meets the local people who live near the prison and finds out what impact commercially releasing the music had on people's perceptions of the prisoners. He'll hear how inmates performed locally, including at the always popular prison rodeo.

Produced by Vivienne Perry

A Like It Is production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 07:00 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00cbltk)
Series 3
Episode 6

Murray worries that his tubby dad Tommy and Sheila have more rolls than roles.

Ageing showbiz couple Tommy Franklin and Sheila Parr continue their second stab at fame.

Series 3 of Mike Coleman’s six-part sitcom stars June Whitfield and Roy Hudd.

With Pat Coombs, Julian Eardley, Edward Halstead and Tracy-Ann Oberman.

Music by Frido Ruth.

Producer: Steve Doherty

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2001.


WED 07:30 Ankle Tag (m00010z6)
Series 2
The Nappy Advert

The family need to increase their income, so Big Bob gets a job.

Bob – Steve Speirs
Gruff – Elis James
Alice – Katy Wix
Lauren – Ruth Bratt
Receptionist – Adelayo Adedayo
Canteen Guy – Naz Osmanoglu
Nappy Advert v/o - Anna Brophy Leon

Written by Benjamin Partridge & Gareth Gwynn
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production


WED 08:00 The Navy Lark (b01kncz6)
Series 6
The Submerged Island

The crew of HMS Troutbridge must attempt an important scientific undersea mission.

Stars Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Stephen Murray as the Number One, Richard Caldicote as Captain Povey, with Ronnie Barker and Michael Bates as the Potarneylanders.

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 December 1963.


WED 08:30 Beyond Our Ken (m00016cp)
From 23/04/1959

Kenneth Horne takes in a new West End crime musical and ‘Hornerama’ probes housing.

With Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee.

Written by Eric Merriman and Barry Took

Music from Pat Lancaster, the Fraser Hayes Four and the BBC Variety Orchestra conducted by Paul Fenoulhet.

Announcer: Douglas Smith

A madcap mix of sketches and songs, Beyond Our Ken hit the airwaves in 1958 and ran to 1964 – featuring regulars like Arthur Fallowfield, Cecil Snaith and Rodney and Charles.

The precursor to ‘Round The Horne’ – sadly only 15 shows survive from the original run of 21 episodes in Series 2. Audio restored using both home and overseas (BBC Transcription Service) recordings.

Producer: Jacques Brown

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in April 1959.


WED 09:00 Who Goes There? (b00fnq9s)
Series 3
Episode 4

Martin Young chairs the quiz which looks at the noteworthy and the notorious from history.

Tackling the biographical teasers are team captains Francis Wheen and Fred Housego with guests Sue Cook and Annabel Giles.

Producer: Liz Anstee

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2000.


WED 09:30 Elephants to Catch Eels (b00v2pbf)
Series 2
Awards

18th-century smuggler Tamsyn Trelawny wants to win the coveted Smuggling Personality of the Year award at the annual Jethro awards.

It's 1793 and in the small Cornish village of Drumlin Bay, heroic smuggler Tamsyn Trelawny is still running rings around the customs men, assisted by her drunken father Jago.

Written by Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain.

Starring Sheridan Smith as Tamsyn Trelawny, John Bowe as Jago Trelawny, Cameron Stewart as Major Thomas Falconer, Andrew McGibbon as Captain Marriot, Martin Hyder as Squire Bascombe, Mark Felgate as Dewey, Mark Perry as Hobbs and India Fisher as Mum.

Producer: Jan Ravens.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2004.


WED 10:00 Classic Serial (b00psqvj)
Edith Wharton - The Custom of the Country
Episode 3

Dramatisation by Jane Rogers of Edith Wharton's 1913 satire of marriage and money in early-20th century American society.

Undine's plans to secure a better future for herself move on apace, but will she ever find real happiness?

Mrs Heeny ...... Lorelei King
Elmer Moffatt ...... Tom Hollander
Ralph Marvell ...... Dan Stevens
Undine Spragg ...... Rebecca Night
Marquise de Chelles ...... Olwen May
Raymond de Chelles ...... Joseph Kloska
Princess Estradina ...... Provence Maydew
Paul ...... Daniel Rogers

Directed by Nadia Molinari.


WED 11:00 Anton Chekhov (b00qb9zv)
Stories by Anton Chekhov
The Old House

The landlord shows one of his properties, but the memories are traumatic. Alistair McGowan reads the Russian master's tale.


WED 11:15 Louise Oliver - Word From Cupid (b0076f1w)

A husband and wife try to re-ignite their relationship with a little help from a parrot called Cupid.

Louise Oliver’s drama stars Alison Steadman as Lolly and George Costigan as Jim.

Cupid played by parrots, Percy and Poppy.

With original music by Clive Bell.

Directed in Manchester by Nadia Molinari.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2003.


WED 12:00 The Navy Lark (b01kncz6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


WED 12:30 Beyond Our Ken (m00016cp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


WED 13:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016cl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


WED 13:30 Prisoner Soul (b01rtzdx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]


WED 14:00 Thomas Love Peacock (m00016cr)
Nightmare Abbey
The Manipulator of Affections

With the partner approved for him gone, can Scythrop cope with coquettish Marionetta’s antics?

Kenneth Williams continues the Gothic satire poking fun at the Romantic Movement in English literature of the time and its obsession with the morbid.

First published in 1818, ‘Nightmare Abbey’ follows the fortunes of widower Christopher Glowry, who lives with his son, Scythrop, in the dilapidated family mansion- in Lincolnshire, on a dry stretch of land between the sea and the fens.

Abridged in eight parts and produced by Martin Remes.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1979.


WED 14:15 A History of the Brain (b016x234)
The Origin of Common Sense

Dr Geoff Bunn's 10 part History of the Brain is a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of this complex organ in our heads. From Neolithic times to the present day, he reveals the contemporary beliefs about what the brain is for and how it fulfils its functions.

While referencing the core physiology and neuroscience, this is a cultural, not a scientific history. What soon becomes obvious is that our understanding of this most inscrutable organ has in all periods been coloured by the social and political expedients of the day no less than by the contemporary scope of scientific or biological exploration.

In Episode 3: The Origin of Common Sense, the focus is on Ancient Rome with Galen's 'animal spirits' gently inflating the ventricles and making thought possible, and on how early Christian scholarship placed the soul in the brain's ventricles. But with the Dark Ages, it was Islamic scholars who continued to explore the brain: Al Razi studied apoplexy or stroke, while Ibn Sina proposed that thoughts travelled through the brain in a predictable sequence and identified the 'common sense' in the front ventricle.

The series is entirely written and presented by Dr Geoff Bunn of Manchester Metropolitan University, with actors Paul Bhattacharjee and Jonathan Forbes providing the voices of those who have written about the brain from Ancient Egypt to the present day, and actor Hattie Morahan giving the Anatomy Lesson which establishes the part of the brain to be highlighted in each episode - in this instance the ventricles. The original, atmospheric score is supplied by composer, Barney Quinton.

Producer: Marya Burgess.


WED 14:30 Drama (b08w1c9s)
Stories from Hay el Matar
Episode 3

Assaf, Captain of the Government checkpoint, wants to trade the counterfeit medicines all over Syria, even to opposition held areas. But, as usual, the war is about to make its presence felt and will change everything.

Stories from Hay el Matar is set in a suburb of Damascus where people of all backgrounds attempt to live their lives while the war is fought around them. It's made by a team of Syrian writers and actors who are themselves living through the kinds of events depicted in the drama.

This is an adaptation from an Arabic language original, produced by BBC Media Action, that is also made on location in Beirut, Lebanon, by a Syrian and Lebanese team, many of whom commute from inside Syria.

Stories from Hay el Matar is written in Arabic by Syrian writer Hozan Akko, adapted into English by British dramatist Jonathan Myerson, and recorded on location in Beirut.

The drama offers a rare glimpse of how normal life is lived inside Damascus during these extraordinary times.

Sound Moe Choicair, Sandra Tabet (DB Studios) and Alisdair McGregor
Music Ziad Ahmadiye
Studio management Karim Beidoun, Guerilla Studios
Translation Samira El Agha
Adaptation Jonathan Myerson
Writer Hozan Akko
Producer/Director Boz Temple-Morris

A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4, adapted from an original BBC Media Action Production.


WED 14:45 Book of the Week (b03mjkzm)
Man Belong Mrs Queen
Episode 3

As a bookish child with a posh accent, growing up on Merseyside in the 1980s, Matthew Baylis identified with the much-mocked Prince Philip as a fellow outsider. He even had a poster of him on his bedroom wall.

Years later, as an anthropology student , Baylis learned of the existence of a Philip cult on the South Sea island of Tanna. Why was it there? Nobody had a convincing answer. Nobody even seemed to want to find one.

His curiosity fatally piqued, he travelled over 10,000 miles to find a society both remote and slap-bang in the shipping-lanes of history. It's a place where US airmen, Lithuanian libertarians, and Graeco-Danish Princes have had as much impact as the missionaries and the slave-traders. On the rumbling slopes of this remarkable volcanic island, banjaxed by frequent doses of the local narcotic, suffering from a relentless diet of yams and regularly accused of being a divine emissary of the Duke, Baylis attempted to get to the bottom of this bizarre cult. In doing so he draws some ironic lessons about our own island 'myths' and comes to respect the pragmatic realpolitik of his South Seas hosts.

Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company Production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 15:00 Classic Serial (b00psqvj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]


WED 16:00 Who Goes There? (b00fnq9s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 16:30 Elephants to Catch Eels (b00v2pbf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]


WED 17:00 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00cbltk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]


WED 17:30 Ankle Tag (m00010z6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


WED 18:00 Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space (b007jms4)
Operation Luna
Episode 3

Captain Jet Morgan is disturbed by visions and a sense of foreboding, as his rocket fails to respond...

Futuristic tale set in 1965 as first broadcast in 1953.

Stars Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, Alfie Bass as Lemmy Barnett, Guy Kingsley-Poynter as Doc, David Williams as Mitch, Other parts by David Jacobs and Duncan McIntyre.

Music composed and orchestra conducted by Van Phillips.

Written and produced by Charles Chilton.

Though first heard in 1953, the original recordings were wiped.

Re-recording first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1958.


WED 18:30 How Tickled Am I? (b007mw9s)
Series 3
Arthur Askey

'Big-hearted', but also a comedic radical. Mark Radcliffe profiles one of Britain's most successful comic performers.

Series exploring the tradition of influential northern comedians.

Producer Libby Cross

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2000.


WED 19:00 The Navy Lark (b01kncz6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


WED 19:30 Beyond Our Ken (m00016cp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


WED 20:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016cl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


WED 20:30 Prisoner Soul (b01rtzdx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]


WED 21:00 Anton Chekhov (b00qb9zv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]


WED 21:15 Louise Oliver - Word From Cupid (b0076f1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]


WED 22:00 Ankle Tag (m00010z6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


WED 22:30 Shedtown (b03zy4hz)
Episode 2

Washed up by a storm, and life, the Shedists clamber onto a pier. In the middle of the sea.

Lights flashing, wheels spinning. Connected to nothing.

There, with its lunatic rides and its candyfloss stalls, they have found a new place. One that might finally deliver them not from temptation, but save them from starvation.

A salty salvation.

Cast:
Jimmy................... Stephen Mangan
Barry.................... Tony Pitts
Wes..................... Warren Brown
Father Michael......James Quinn
Dave.................... Shaun Keaveny
Diane................... Rosina Carbone
Diane (in wigs)......Debra Stephenson
William................ ..Seymour Mace
Deborah.............. ..Emma Fryer
Eugenius............. ..Neil Maskell
Norma No Rules.....Juliet Oldfield

Narrated by Maxine Peake
Written and Directed by Tony Pitts
Music by Richard Hawley and Paul Heaton

Produced by Sally Harrison
A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:00 Arthur Smith's Balham Bash (b00lgj3p)
Series 1
Episode 1

Arthur Smith invites an audience into his home for music and comedy.

Paul Sinha in the lounge, Milton Jones in the bedroom and Glenn Tilbrook in the kitchen provide music and nourishment in the shape of Welsh rarebit, and Pippa Evans - as singer-songwriter Loretta Maine - lends a hand.


WED 23:30 Dan and Nick: The Wildebeest Years (b0089c0y)
Jelly Stinger

Dan Freedman and Nick Romero's pun-fest, where salty talk show host Jelly Stinger meets some fishy guests.



THURSDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2018

THU 00:00 Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space (b007jms4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Wednesday]


THU 00:30 How Tickled Am I? (b007mw9s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesday]


THU 01:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016cl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Wednesday]


THU 01:30 Prisoner Soul (b01rtzdx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Wednesday]


THU 02:00 Thomas Love Peacock (m00016cr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Wednesday]


THU 02:15 A History of the Brain (b016x234)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Wednesday]


THU 02:30 Drama (b08w1c9s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Wednesday]


THU 02:45 Book of the Week (b03mjkzm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Wednesday]


THU 03:00 Classic Serial (b00psqvj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Wednesday]


THU 04:00 Who Goes There? (b00fnq9s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


THU 04:30 Elephants to Catch Eels (b00v2pbf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Wednesday]


THU 05:00 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00cbltk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Wednesday]


THU 05:30 Ankle Tag (m00010z6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Wednesday]


THU 06:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016ct)
Series 2
Episode 4

One of the students has confessed to murder, but Simon's not convinced he's guilty.

But the investigation is put on hold when Simon finds himself debating against a Government minister about modernisation.

Mark Tavener's comedy thriller set in a Cambridge College riven by argument between traditionalists and modernisers.

Starring Geoffrey Palmer as Gilbert, Samuel West as Simon, Sharon Small as Zoe, Jonathan Coy as Bernard and Michael Maloney as The Dean.

With Stephen Hogan, Michelle Fairley and David Bannerman.

Producer: Dawn Ellis

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2006.


THU 06:30 Tom Ravenscroft's One Man Band (b039cbsz)

With a guitar in hand, harmonica in mouth, cymbals and bells and a big drum strapped to the back, Tom Ravenscroft goes in search of the musical characters who prefer to go solo.

One Man Bands have a surprisingly long history, documented in pictures and writings from France and Spain as far back as the middle ages. Entertaining and enterprising men, they started with a flute and a drum and, over the centuries, have literally added whistles and bells - as well as cymbals, harmonica, accordion, trumpet, and the list goes on.

Contemporary one man band legends include North Carolina's Jim Garner, Georgia's Jesse Fuller and West Virginia's Hasil Adkins who have all influenced current players such as Bloodshot Bill and Washboard Hank - who Tom tracks down.

Charmed by their inventiveness and talent, Tom visits the one man band festival, an annual event in Montreal where the world's most musical solitary figures perform. He finds some eccentric characters with rich stories following traditions that stretch way back into British and American folk and blues music. Meeting performers such as Bob Log III, Dana Schecter (also known as Insect Ark) and Spain's 'Hyperpotamus', Tom learns what it takes to become a one man band.

Producer: Jo Meek
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 07:00 One Flat Summer (b00752gw)
The Derby

For Ken, the stakes have been raised by a big win at Newmarket and the attentions of the mysterious Racecourse Rita.

Meanwhile the home front has been badly neglected...

Dave Sheasby's six-part comedy drama.

Starring as Gerard McDermott as Ken, Gillian Bevan as Margaret, Anthony Ofoegbu as Curly, Rachel Atkins as Christine, Keith Marsh as Dad, Andrea Pickering as Janice, Stephen Thorne as Tanker, David Brooks as Super Yankee, Tracy-Ann Oberman as the Shop Assistant, Hugh Dickson as the Bank Manager, Janet Maw as Rita an Tom Georgeson as Tam.

Director: David Hunter

First broadcast on BBC Radio in August 1997.


THU 07:30 Reluctant Persuaders (m000118z)
Series 3
Holidays Are Coming

It’s Christmas Eve, and Joe Starling (Mathew Baynton) sits alone in his favourite bar telling the barman (Mark Evans) his troubles. He’s quit his job at Hardacre’s advertising agency.

A few hours earlier on Christmas Eve and Hardacre’s are having a party. Rupert Hardacre (Nigel Havers) has pulled out all the stops to celebrate the agency’s most successful year ever. By creating a wildly popular TV ad for Walton’s department store, Hardacre’s have reached the Promised Land - the reputation of the agency is restored and their future is secured. And it’s all thanks to Joe.

Joe, Hardacre, Amanda (Josie Lawrence), and Teddy (Rasmus Hardiker) gather to celebrate their achievement, get drunk, sing some karaoke and ring in Christmas. For once, everything at Hardacre’s has gone right and everyone is happy.

So how has Joe ended up in that bar?

Cast:
Hardacre.............................................Nigel Havers
Joe.........................................................Mathew Baynton
Amanda...............................................Josie Lawrence
Teddy...................................................Rasmus Hardiker
Narrator..............................................Victoria Rigby
Bartender...........................................Mark Evans
Christmas Ad Voice Over.............Gordon Kennedy

An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4


THU 08:00 Yes Minister (b007k1mq)
Series 2
The Moral Dimension

Thirsty Jim Hacker's trip to an Arab state sparks diplomatic disarray.

Starring Paul Eddington as Jim Hacker, Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby and Derek Fowldes as Bernard.

Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn's satirical sitcom ran on BBC TV between 1980 and 1984. Yes Minister is centred around the hapless Jim Hacker and a collection of civil service underlings headed by the Machiavellian Sir Humphrey Appleby and obsequious Bernard.

Adapted for radio by producer Pete Atkin.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1984.


THU 08:30 The Goon Show (b00cghns)
Series 8
The Junk Affair

Neddie combs the world for junk, hoping to corner the market and make a packet. Stars Harry Secombe. From October 1957.


THU 09:00 Puzzle Panel (b00yb2vg)
Episode 6

More testing brain teasers with Chris Maslanka, Paul Lamford, Val Gilbert and Professor David Singmaster. From July 1998.


THU 09:30 Romantic Friction (b00764j4)
Episode 3

Romance writer, Anna is blissfully happy, Brian is finding that grading sand paper is fun when he's thinking about Anna, and even faithful cockney muse Minnie is happy because it looks as if Anna's new-found romance is spilling over into her prose.

But could there be a cloud on the horizon when Brian's old friend Dougie unexpectedly turns up with the tempting offer of building fibreglass ducks in the Shetland Islands?

Michelle Read's four-part comedy-drama stars Samantha Bond and Hugh Bonneville.

With Beth Chambers, Michelle Read, Kammy Darweish, Adjoa Andoh, Andrew Wincott, Sue Elliott-Nicholls, Michael Fenton Stevens and Ewan Bailey.

Producer: Dawn Ellis

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2001.


THU 10:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b04vd69p)
Anthony Trollope's The Small House at Allington
Episode 1

Anthony Trollope's The Small House at Allington by Michael Symmons Roberts

The arrival of the handsome Adolphus Crosbie causes quite a stir at Allington, especially with Lily Dale, who lives at the Small House due to the benevolence of her rich uncle. Crosbie's ambitions to marry into high society are in danger of being dashed by the charming Lily, but can a straight-talking country girl ever be enough for him?

Music composed by David Tobin, Jeff Meegan and Julian Gallant.

Written by Michael Symmons Roberts
Directed by Gary Brown
Produced by Charlotte Riches

The Small House of Allington is the fifth instalment of The Barchester Chronicles, Anthony Trollope's much-loved series of witty, gently satirical stories of provincial life set within the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and the surrounding county of Barsetshire. With a focus on the lives, loves and tribulations of the local clergy and rural gentry, the canvas is broad and colourful, with a wonderful set of iconic characters whose lives we become intimately involved in as they grow up, grow old and fall in or out of love and friendship across the years.


THU 11:00 Anton Chekhov (b00qbb8m)
Stories by Anton Chekhov
Ivan Matveyitch

An old academic and a young boy. It's a topsy-turvy friendship, but it endures. Alistair McGowan reads the Russian master's tale.


THU 11:15 Afternoon Drama (b03jdw6f)
Amah in the Bathtub

It's 1967 and the women who are members of a British swimming club in colonial Singapore take their social events seriously - but not all of them know what's going on at home.

A young mother, Connie Conport, is particularly clueless about problems developing between her two young boys and their nanny. She has hired an amah, a servant from China, who is a member of a group dedicated to domestic service.

Ah Chat belongs to a sisterhood of 'black and whites'. They wear a traditional uniform and swear an oath to remain celibate. On their rare days off, they meet up at their headquarters, the kongsi house. It's a refuge and a support group. These women are her only family in Singapore.

Elderly Ah Chat has good references - seventeen British families have employed her previously - but this position seems to have serious problems.

Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
Written, directed and produced by Judith Kampfner

A Corporation for Independent Media production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:00 Yes Minister (b007k1mq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


THU 12:30 The Goon Show (b00cghns)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


THU 13:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016ct)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


THU 13:30 Tom Ravenscroft's One Man Band (b039cbsz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]


THU 14:00 Thomas Love Peacock (m00016cx)
Nightmare Abbey
The Evader of Facts

A visitor comes in search of the most elusive of creatures. Is Marionetta’s effect on Scythrop waning?

Kenneth Williams continues the Gothic satire poking fun at the Romantic Movement in English literature of the time and its obsession with the morbid.

First published in 1818, ‘Nightmare Abbey’ follows the fortunes of widower Christopher Glowry, who lives with his son, Scythrop, in the dilapidated family mansion- in Lincolnshire, on a dry stretch of land between the sea and the fens.

Abridged in eight parts and produced by Martin Remes.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1979.


THU 14:15 A History of the Brain (b016x2k4)
Spirits in the Material World

Dr Geoff Bunn's 10 part History of the Brain is a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of this complex organ in our heads. From Neolithic times to the present day, he reveals the contemporary beliefs about what the brain is for and how it fulfils its functions.

While referencing the core physiology and neuroscience, this is a cultural, not a scientific history. What soon becomes obvious is that our understanding of this most inscrutable organ has in all periods been coloured by the social and political expedients of the day no less than by the contemporary scope of scientific or biological exploration.

In Episode 4: Spirits in the Material World, the focus is on Thomas Willis, the 17th century physician after whom the 'Circle of Willis' - the circuit of arteries supplying blood to the brain - is named. Willis' Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves was a groundbreaking attempt to correlate brain anatomy with mental function. A friend of Christopher Wren, the humbly-born Willis was one of the founder members of the Royal Society. Yet his ideas were not universally accepted. The Cambridge philosopher, Henry More, considered the brain no more than 'a bowl of curds'', with no possibility that it could house reason.

The series is entirely written and presented by Dr Geoff Bunn of Manchester Metropolitan University, with actors Paul Bhattacharjee and Jonathan Forbes providing the voices of those who have written about the brain from Ancient Egypt to the present day, and actor Hattie Morahan giving the Anatomy Lesson which establishes the part of the brain to be highlighted in each episode - in this instance the Circle of Willis and the tiny pineal gland. The original, atmospheric score is supplied by composer, Barney Quinton.

Producer: Marya Burgess.


THU 14:30 Drama (b08w1d4s)
Stories from Hay el Matar
Episode 4

Sumayya gets her chance to take over the hospital but is stuck between Waleed, who wants to close the counterfeit medicines business, and Captain Assaf, who's always there to remind her how much money is there to be made.

Stories from Hay el Matar is set in a suburb of Damascus where people of all backgrounds attempt to live their lives while the war is fought around them. It's made by a team of Syrian writers and actors who are themselves living through the kinds of events depicted in the drama.

This is an adaptation from an Arabic language original produced by BBC Media Action that is also made on location in Beirut, Lebanon, by a Syrian and Lebanese team, many of whom commute from inside Syria.

Stories from Hay el Matar is written in Arabic by Syrian writer Hozan Akko, adapted into English by British dramatist Jonathan Myerson, and recorded on location in Beirut.

The drama offers a rare glimpse of how normal life is lived inside Damascus during these extraordinary times.

Sound Moe Choicair, Sandra Tabet (DB Studios) and Alisdair McGregor
Music Ziad Ahmadiye
Studio management Karim Beidoun, Guerilla Studios
Translation Samira El Agha
Adaptation Jonathan Myerson
Writer Hozan Akko
Producer/Director Boz Temple-Morris

A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4, adapted from an original BBC Media Action Production.


THU 14:45 Book of the Week (b03mjlzn)
Man Belong Mrs Queen
Episode 4

As a bookish child with a posh accent, growing up on Merseyside in the 1980s, Matthew Baylis identified with the much-mocked Prince Philip as a fellow outsider. He even had a poster of him on his bedroom wall.

Years later, as an anthropology student , Baylis learned of the existence of a Philip cult on the South Sea island of Tanna. Why was it there? Nobody had a convincing answer. Nobody even seemed to want to find one.

His curiosity fatally piqued, he travelled over 10,000 miles to find a society both remote and slap-bang in the shipping-lanes of history. It's a place where US airmen, Lithuanian libertarians, and Graeco-Danish Princes have had as much impact as the missionaries and the slave-traders. On the rumbling slopes of this remarkable volcanic island, banjaxed by frequent doses of the local narcotic, suffering from a relentless diet of yams and regularly accused of being a divine emissary of the Duke, Baylis attempted to get to the bottom of this bizarre cult. In doing so he draws some ironic lessons about our own island 'myths' and comes to respect the pragmatic realpolitik of his South Seas hosts.

Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company Production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 15:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b04vd69p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]


THU 16:00 Puzzle Panel (b00yb2vg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 16:30 Romantic Friction (b00764j4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]


THU 17:00 One Flat Summer (b00752gw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]


THU 17:30 Reluctant Persuaders (m000118z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


THU 18:00 Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space (b007jmsm)
Operation Luna
Episode 4

Captain Jet Morgan and his crew face catastrophe when their rocket loses power.

Futuristic tale set in 1965 as first broadcast in 1953.

Stars Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, Alfie Bass as Lemmy Barnett, Guy Kingsley-Poynter as Doc, David Williams as Mitch, Other parts by David Jacobs.

Music composed and orchestra conducted by Van Phillips.

Written and produced by Charles Chilton.

Though first heard in 1953, the original recordings were wiped.

Re-recording first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1958.


THU 18:30 Great Lives (b01b9kdd)
Series 26
Razia Sultana

Co-chairman of the Conservative party, Baroness Warsi recalls her Pakistani-born father during her Yorkshire childhood telling her about the heroic martial deeds conducted by a thirteenth century Indian princess, Razia Sultana.

Descended from humble stock, the much mythologized Sultana ruled for less than four years in the 1230s, but has long been celebrated as the first female Indian Muslim leader. Sayeeda Warsi explains why she's fascinated by this character whose reign was abruptly brought to an end by the jealous rivalries of the male nobility around her who could not tolerate the fact that she had been chosen by her father above the heads of her brothers. We'll hear whether Sayeeda draws inspiration from Razia's model of bold leadership, and whether she finds parallels with her own experience of British politics today within the senior ranks of the Conservative Party.

Writer and expert on India, William Dalrymple sets the scene, explaining how and why Turkish Muslims had an empire that reached as far as the Himalayas, at a time when northern India was having to withstand the Mongol incursions of Genghis Khan.

Producer: Mark Smalley.


THU 19:00 Yes Minister (b007k1mq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


THU 19:30 The Goon Show (b00cghns)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


THU 20:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016ct)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


THU 20:30 Tom Ravenscroft's One Man Band (b039cbsz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]


THU 21:00 Anton Chekhov (b00qbb8m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]


THU 21:15 Afternoon Drama (b03jdw6f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]


THU 22:00 Reluctant Persuaders (m000118z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


THU 22:30 Newsjack (m00016cz)
Newsjack Unplugged, Series 2
Episode 4

A scrapbook sketch show written entirely by the great British public.


THU 22:45 All the World's a Globe (b007jwrt)
The Scythians and Mongols

From Vikings to Normans, the National Theatre of Brent present their definitive history of Earth. Stars Patrick Barlow. From May 1990.


THU 23:00 That Mitchell and Webb Sound (b03kqg03)
Series 5
Episode 3

Pedantic 'Gardener's Question Time' and an enchanted stationery cupboard. Stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb. From December 2013.


THU 23:30 Hut 33 (b00vs38k)
Series 2
Royal Visit

The Bletchley Park codebreakers hit panic stations when a royal visitor arrives. Stars Robert Bathurst. From May 2008.



FRIDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2018

FRI 00:00 Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space (b007jmsm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Thursday]


FRI 00:30 Great Lives (b01b9kdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Thursday]


FRI 01:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016ct)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Thursday]


FRI 01:30 Tom Ravenscroft's One Man Band (b039cbsz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Thursday]


FRI 02:00 Thomas Love Peacock (m00016cx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Thursday]


FRI 02:15 A History of the Brain (b016x2k4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Thursday]


FRI 02:30 Drama (b08w1d4s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Thursday]


FRI 02:45 Book of the Week (b03mjlzn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Thursday]


FRI 03:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b04vd69p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Thursday]


FRI 04:00 Puzzle Panel (b00yb2vg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Thursday]


FRI 04:30 Romantic Friction (b00764j4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Thursday]


FRI 05:00 One Flat Summer (b00752gw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Thursday]


FRI 05:30 Reluctant Persuaders (m000118z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Thursday]


FRI 06:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016gp)
Series 2
Episode 5

While Simon is distracted with his murder investigation, the fellows find themselves undergoing individual performance assessments.

The Master finds the whole idea appalling. The Dean, on the other hand, seems to be relishing every moment

Mark Tavener's comedy thriller set in a Cambridge College riven by argument between traditionalists and modernisers.

Starring Geoffrey Palmer as Gilbert, Samuel West as Simon, Sharon Small as Zoe, Jonathan Coy as Bernard and Michael Maloney as The Dean.

With Michelle Fairley, Kim Wall, Rachel Atkins, Thomas Wheatley, Anthony Glennon, Zoe Gardner and Tom Price.

Producer: Dawn Ellis

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2006.


FRI 06:30 Young, Gifted and Black (b00scjx2)

Adjoa Andoh reflects on the brief but highly influential career of the African American playwright and social activist.

In 1959, Hansberry became the first black woman to have a play produced on Broadway and the youngest recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. An eloquent and impassioned orator for civil rights, Lorraine Hansberry quickly became one of the most famous women in the country.

Friend to the likes of Paul Robeson, James Baldwin and Nina Simone, who composed 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black' in her honour, Hansberry's prescient speeches and artfully constructed drama played a key role in the ongoing civil rights struggle.

In this programme we hear from her sister Mamie Hansberry, poet and playwright Jackie Kay, Chicago Southside historian Timuel Black and theatre directors Michael Buffong and Paulette Randall.

Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 07:00 The Right Time (b0076mmf)
Series 4
Episode 5

Musing on middle-age and a near-death experience turns out mundane.

Sketch show about growing older disgracefully.

Stars Eleanor Bron, Dudley Sutton, Roger Blake, Paula Wilcox. Clive Swift and Barry Cryer.

Written by Colin Bostock-Smith, Jill Brodie & John Pidgeon, Barry Cryer, Dave Dixon, Jan Etherington, Alan Stafford and Chris Thompson & Pete Reynolds.

Script editor: George Poles.

Music by Ronnie & The Rex.

Producer: Katie Marsden

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2004.


FRI 07:30 A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics (b06j2gfy)
Series 1
The Rat-catchers of Yonville

By John Nicholson, Richard Katz and Javier Marzan

In 19th-century provincial France, a pair of vermin controllers seek their fortune. Arriving in the market town of Yonville, things start to go wrong when their rat-catching kit goes missing and then when they find themselves entangled in the marital woes of the town's doctor.

In this new series the comedy troupe Peepolykus assume the roles of minor characters in great works of fiction and derail the plot of the book through their hapless buffoonery.

Cast:

Emma . . . . . Ingrid Oliver
John . . . . . John Nicholson
Javier . . . . . Javier Marzan
Charles . . . . . Richard Katz
Tuvache . . . . . Leo Wan
Hippolyte . . . . . Stephen Critchlow
Justin . . . . . Caolan McCarthy
Homais . . . . . Chris Pavlo
Madame Codoux . . . . . Jessica Turner
Felicite . . . . . Rebecca Hamilton

Director . . . . . Sasha Yevtushenko


FRI 08:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00j3f8d)
Series 9
Episode 2

Radio Prune presents A Kick in the Arts, and So You Think You've Got a Feed Line?

Starring Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graeme Garden, David Hatch, Jo Kendall and Bill Oddie.

Sketches written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie.

Originating from the Cambridge University Footlights revue ‘Cambridge Circus’, ISIRTA ran for 8 years on BBC Radio and quickly developed a cult following.

Music and songs by Bill Oddie, Liam Cohen and Dave Lee.

Producers: David Hatch/Bob Oliver Rogers

First broadcast on the BBC Radio 2 in November 1973.


FRI 08:30 The News Huddlines (m00016gr)

Back to the headline-makers of 1979 – from Elton John and the European Elections to a rampaging Welsh sheep.

Roy Hudd stars with Chris Emmett and Janet Brown.

Music by the Nic Rowley Quintet.

Written by Andy Hamilton, Laurie Rowley, John Walker, John Langdon, Terry Ravenscroft, Richard Quick, Jeremy Browne, Jimmy Mulville, Ray Binns, Peter Hickey, Reginald Widdas, David Kind, Tom Harris and Malcolm Stephens.

Producer: John Lloyd

First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in June 1979.


FRI 09:00 Guess What? (b061fth0)
Episode 2

Animal, vegetable or mineral?

Barry Took hosts a revised version of popular radio parlour game of 20 questions.

Regular Geoffrey Durham is joined by Hattie Hayridge and Dick Vosburgh.

Written by Michael Dines.

Producer: Andy Aliffe

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1998.


FRI 09:30 Smelling of Roses (m00016gt)
Series 1
A Good Cause

Rosie’s company is tasked to put together a charity gala concert in aid of the Afghans.

But there’s confusion over whether it’s for the people or the dogs?

Rosie’s company hosts a management team building course. It all goes well until the murder mystery dinner, but it isn't Rosie who makes a killing.

Prunella Scales stars in the first of four series of Simon Brett's sitcom following the trials and tribulations of Rosie Burns and her event management company based in Brighton.

With Arabella Weir as Kate, Rebecca Callard as Jo, Duncan Preston as Bob, Annette Badland as Tess, Joanna Munro as Ginnie and Celia Imrie as Lady Helen.

Producer: Maria Esposito

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2000.


FRI 10:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b04vk031)
Anthony Trollope's The Small House at Allington
Episode 2

Anthony Trollope's The Small House at Allington by Michael Symmons Roberts

Adolphus Crosbie is determined to enjoy all the pleasures of high society including the attentions of Lady Alexandrina during his stay at Courcy Castle. Back at the Small House in Allington, Lily Dale devotedly continues to plan their wedding, despite a worrying lack of correspondence from her betrothed.

Music composed by David Tobin, Jeff Meegan and Julian Gallant

Written by Michael Symmons Roberts
Directed by Gary Brown
Produced by Charlotte Riches

The Small House of Allington is the fifth instalment of The Barchester Chronicles, Anthony Trollope's much-loved series of witty, gently satirical stories of provincial life set within the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and the surrounding county of Barsetshire. With a focus on the lives, loves and tribulations of the local clergy and rural gentry, the canvas is broad and colourful, with a wonderful set of iconic characters whose lives we become intimately involved in as they grow up, grow old and fall in or out of love and friendship across the years.


FRI 11:00 Podcast Radio Hour (m00016gw)
David McGuire: Multi Story

Including a new podcast from BBC Local Radio - Multi Story, personal stories from across England.


FRI 12:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00j3f8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


FRI 12:30 The News Huddlines (m00016gr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


FRI 13:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016gp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


FRI 13:30 Young, Gifted and Black (b00scjx2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]


FRI 14:00 Thomas Love Peacock (m00016gy)
Nightmare Abbey
The Bringer of Mystery

A beautiful mysterious stranger enters Scythrop’s life, to fill a recently created void.

Kenneth Williams continues the Gothic satire poking fun at the Romantic Movement in English literature of the time and its obsession with the morbid.

First published in 1818, ‘Nightmare Abbey’ follows the fortunes of widower Christopher Glowry, who lives with his son, Scythrop, in the dilapidated family mansion- in Lincolnshire, on a dry stretch of land between the sea and the fens.

Abridged in eight parts and produced by Martin Remes.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1979.


FRI 14:15 A History of the Brain (b016x4t1)
The Spark of Being

Dr Geoff Bunn's 10 part History of the Brain is a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of this complex organ in our heads. From Neolithic times to the present day, he reveals the contemporary beliefs about what the brain is for and how it fulfils its functions.

While referencing the core physiology and neuroscience, this is a cultural, not a scientific history. What soon becomes obvious is that our understanding of this most inscrutable organ has in all periods been coloured by the social and political expedients of the day no less than by the contemporary scope of scientific or biological exploration.

In Episode 5: The Spark of Being, the focus is on electricity and communication, within the brain and between the brain and the rest of the body. When John Walsh showed, in 1776, that an eel could generate electricity, it became possible that human consciousness also relied on sparks fizzing within the brain. Coming at a time when Benjamin Franklin - an acknowledged expert on electricity - was signing the Declaration of Independence which asserted that all men are created equal, it generated a new perspective on the workings of the brain; the old hierarchical model was discarded in favour of the doctrine of equipotentiality.

The series is entirely written and presented by Dr Geoff Bunn of Manchester Metropolitan University, with actors Paul Bhattacharjee and Jonathan Forbes providing the voices of those who have written about the brain from Ancient Egypt to the present day, and actor Hattie Morahan giving the Anatomy Lesson which establishes the part of the brain to be highlighted in each episode - in this instance the Corpus Callosum. The original, atmospheric score is supplied by composer, Barney Quinton.

Producer: Marya Burgess.


FRI 14:30 Drama (b08w1d87)
Stories from Hay el Matar
Episode 5

As Sumayya takes full control of the hospital, the fake medicines warehouse is now the centre of everyone's attention.

Stories from Hay el Matar is set in a suburb of Damascus where people of all backgrounds attempt to live their lives while the war is fought around them. It's made by a team of Syrian writers and actors who are themselves living through the kinds of events depicted in the drama.

This is an adaptation from an Arabic language original produced by BBC media Action that is also made on location in Beirut, Lebanon, by a Syrian and Lebanese team, many of whom commute from inside Syria.

Stories from Hay el Matar is written in Arabic by Syrian writer Hozan Akko, adapted into English by British dramatist Jonathan Myerson, and recorded on location in Beirut.

The drama offers a rare glimpse of how normal life is lived inside Damascus during these extraordinary times.

Sound Moe Choicair, Sandra Tabet (DB Studios) and Alisdair McGregor
Music Ziad Ahmadiye
Studio management Karim Beidoun, Guerilla Studios
Translation Samira El Agha
Adaptation Jonathan Myerson
Writer Hozan Akko
Producer/Director Boz Temple-Morris

A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4, adapted from an original BBC Media Action Production.


FRI 14:45 Book of the Week (b03mj8ls)
Man Belong Mrs Queen
Episode 5

As a bookish child with a posh accent, growing up on Merseyside in the 1980s, Matthew Baylis identified with the much-mocked Prince Philip as a fellow outsider. He even had a poster of him on his bedroom wall.

Years later, as an anthropology student , Baylis learned of the existence of a Philip cult on the South Sea island of Tanna. Why was it there? Nobody had a convincing answer. Nobody even seemed to want to find one.

His curiosity fatally piqued, he travelled over 10,000 miles to find a society both remote and slap-bang in the shipping-lanes of history. It's a place where US airmen, Lithuanian libertarians, and Graeco-Danish Princes have had as much impact as the missionaries and the slave-traders. On the rumbling slopes of this remarkable volcanic island, banjaxed by frequent doses of the local narcotic, suffering from a relentless diet of yams and regularly accused of being a divine emissary of the Duke, Baylis attempted to get to the bottom of this bizarre cult. In doing so he draws some ironic lessons about our own island 'myths' and comes to respect the pragmatic realpolitik of his South Seas hosts.

Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company Production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 15:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b04vk031)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]


FRI 16:00 Guess What? (b061fth0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


FRI 16:30 Smelling of Roses (m00016gt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]


FRI 17:00 The Right Time (b0076mmf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]


FRI 17:30 A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics (b06j2gfy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


FRI 18:00 Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space (b007jmt2)
Operation Luna
Episode 5

The stalled rocket ship stops Captain Jet Morgan and his crew from returning to Earth.

Futuristic tale set in 1965 as first broadcast in 1953.

Stars Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, Alfie Bass as Lemmy Barnett, Guy Kingsley-Poynter as Doc, David Williams as Mitch, Other parts by David Jacobs.

Music composed and orchestra conducted by Van Phillips.

Written and produced by Charles Chilton.

Though first heard in 1953, the original recordings were wiped.

Re-recording first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1958.


FRI 18:30 Off the Page (m00016h0)
Seven Deadly Sins

Playwright Amy Rosenthal and sociologist Frank Furedi join Chris Bigsby to discuss Pride, Lust and the other vices.

In each programme, Professor Bigsby introduces a duo of writers of fact and fiction: new talent and established names. In the context of a discussion of one of the ideas and pre-occupations of our times, each presents a piece on this week's topic.

The best new writing and the freshest conversation from 2002.


FRI 19:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00j3f8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


FRI 19:30 The News Huddlines (m00016gr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]


FRI 20:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016gp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


FRI 20:30 Young, Gifted and Black (b00scjx2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]


FRI 21:00 Podcast Radio Hour (m00016gw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]


FRI 22:00 A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics (b06j2gfy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


FRI 22:30 Henry Normal's Encyclopaedia Poetica (m00016h2)
Volume 2

Henry Normal opens volume two with poems about courtship and the language of love.

He covers early Greek poets, and British greats like Donne and Shakespeare, with a nod to French language and Italian art. Henry is also joined on stage at the Contact Theatre, Manchester, by the poets Belinda Burton and John Hegley.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1994.


FRI 23:00 The Mary Whitehouse Experience (b007jn3d)
Series 3
From 10/03/1990

The Al Fayed purchase of Harrods is mocked. Sketches, stand-up and general ranting from David Baddiel, Rob Newman, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. From March 1990.


FRI 23:30 Will Smith's Midlife Crisis Management (b00g0536)
Will Smith's Midlife Crisis Management
Episode 1

Comedy series in which comedian Will Smith seeks help and advice - primarily from his godfather Peter - on coping with the onset of middle age. Peter invites Tory MP George to help Will speak his mind.

With Roger Allam, Geoffrey Whitehead, Jill Cardo, Gunnar Cauthery, Roger Drew, Donnla Hughes, Robert Lonsdale, Dan Starkey, Malcolm Tierney.




LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)

15 Minute Drama 14:45 SAT (b0467pj5)

15 Minute Drama 02:45 SUN (b0467pj5)

A Good Read 18:30 MON (m00016c6)

A Good Read 00:30 TUE (m00016c6)

A History of the Brain 14:15 MON (b016w808)

A History of the Brain 02:15 TUE (b016w808)

A History of the Brain 14:15 TUE (b016wzrd)

A History of the Brain 02:15 WED (b016wzrd)

A History of the Brain 14:15 WED (b016x234)

A History of the Brain 02:15 THU (b016x234)

A History of the Brain 14:15 THU (b016x2k4)

A History of the Brain 02:15 FRI (b016x2k4)

A History of the Brain 14:15 FRI (b016x4t1)

A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics 05:30 SAT (b06grwnt)

A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics 07:30 FRI (b06j2gfy)

A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics 17:30 FRI (b06j2gfy)

A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics 22:00 FRI (b06j2gfy)

A Whole New Ball Game 12:00 SAT (b00b2txd)

A Whole New Ball Game 07:00 TUE (b00c5r8c)

A Whole New Ball Game 17:00 TUE (b00c5r8c)

A Whole New Ball Game 05:00 WED (b00c5r8c)

Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years 02:30 MON (b0br5d8k)

Afternoon Drama 11:15 TUE (b00y2xn6)

Afternoon Drama 21:15 TUE (b00y2xn6)

Afternoon Drama 11:15 THU (b03jdw6f)

Afternoon Drama 21:15 THU (b03jdw6f)

All the World's a Globe 22:45 THU (b007jwrt)

Ankle Tag 07:30 WED (m00010z6)

Ankle Tag 17:30 WED (m00010z6)

Ankle Tag 22:00 WED (m00010z6)

Ankle Tag 05:30 THU (m00010z6)

Anton Chekhov 11:00 MON (b00qb9x3)

Anton Chekhov 21:00 MON (b00qb9x3)

Anton Chekhov 11:00 TUE (b00qb9x9)

Anton Chekhov 21:00 TUE (b00qb9x9)

Anton Chekhov 11:00 WED (b00qb9zv)

Anton Chekhov 21:00 WED (b00qb9zv)

Anton Chekhov 11:00 THU (b00qbb8m)

Anton Chekhov 21:00 THU (b00qbb8m)

Arthur Smith's Balham Bash 23:00 WED (b00lgj3p)

Battlefield Ramblings 14:15 SAT (b0br5b66)

Battlefield Ramblings 02:15 SUN (b0br5b66)

Beyond Our Ken 08:30 WED (m00016cp)

Beyond Our Ken 12:30 WED (m00016cp)

Beyond Our Ken 19:30 WED (m00016cp)

Book at Bedtime 14:30 SUN (m00016d2)

Book of the Week 02:45 SAT (b03m80qr)

Book of the Week 09:00 SUN (b0br5d8f)

Book of the Week 20:00 SUN (b0br5d8f)

Book of the Week 14:45 MON (b03mcmwz)

Book of the Week 02:45 TUE (b03mcmwz)

Book of the Week 14:45 TUE (b03mjkw0)

Book of the Week 02:45 WED (b03mjkw0)

Book of the Week 14:45 WED (b03mjkzm)

Book of the Week 02:45 THU (b03mjkzm)

Book of the Week 14:45 THU (b03mjlzn)

Book of the Week 02:45 FRI (b03mjlzn)

Book of the Week 14:45 FRI (b03mj8ls)

Chain Reaction 22:30 SAT (b00tmtfp)

Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space 18:00 MON (b007jmqp)

Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space 00:00 TUE (b007jmqp)

Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space 18:00 TUE (b007jmrp)

Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space 00:00 WED (b007jmrp)

Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space 18:00 WED (b007jms4)

Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space 00:00 THU (b007jms4)

Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space 18:00 THU (b007jmsm)

Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space 00:00 FRI (b007jmsm)

Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space 18:00 FRI (b007jmt2)

Classic Serial 10:00 MON (b00pj463)

Classic Serial 15:00 MON (b00pj463)

Classic Serial 03:00 TUE (b00pj463)

Classic Serial 10:00 TUE (b00pnp9c)

Classic Serial 15:00 TUE (b00pnp9c)

Classic Serial 03:00 WED (b00pnp9c)

Classic Serial 10:00 WED (b00psqvj)

Classic Serial 15:00 WED (b00psqvj)

Classic Serial 03:00 THU (b00psqvj)

Concrete Cow 23:30 MON (b0076js0)

Curious Under the Stars 13:00 SAT (b0br5b62)

Curious Under the Stars 01:00 SUN (b0br5b62)

Dan and Nick: The Wildebeest Years 23:30 WED (b0089c0y)

Date With Fate 22:30 MON (b008zq34)

Desert Island Discs Revisited 10:15 SUN (b06p52bx)

Desert Island Discs Revisited 21:15 SUN (b06p52bx)

Dick Francis 01:00 SAT (b011qm8r)

Drama 14:30 MON (b08twfh6)

Drama 02:30 TUE (b08twfh6)

Drama 14:30 TUE (b08w1c6b)

Drama 02:30 WED (b08w1c6b)

Drama 14:30 WED (b08w1c9s)

Drama 02:30 THU (b08w1c9s)

Drama 14:30 THU (b08w1d4s)

Drama 02:30 FRI (b08w1d4s)

Drama 14:30 FRI (b08w1d87)

Ectoplasm 23:30 SUN (b007wwd6)

Ed Reardon's Week 23:30 TUE (b03j9h7c)

Elephants to Catch Eels 09:30 WED (b00v2pbf)

Elephants to Catch Eels 16:30 WED (b00v2pbf)

Elephants to Catch Eels 04:30 THU (b00v2pbf)

First World War 100: Poetry's Passing Bells 02:00 SAT (b0bqqx9h)

Freedom Song 06:30 TUE (b008q0sr)

Freedom Song 13:30 TUE (b008q0sr)

Freedom Song 20:30 TUE (b008q0sr)

Freedom Song 01:30 WED (b008q0sr)

Ghost Story 18:45 SUN (b0br5g4n)

Ghost Story 00:45 MON (b0br5g4n)

Gilbert Without Sullivan 09:30 TUE (m00016cf)

Gloomsbury 07:30 TUE (m000128d)

Gloomsbury 17:30 TUE (m000128d)

Gloomsbury 22:00 TUE (m000128d)

Gloomsbury 05:30 WED (m000128d)

Great Lives 18:30 THU (b01b9kdd)

Great Lives 00:30 FRI (b01b9kdd)

Guess What? 04:00 SAT (b00757gr)

Guess What? 09:00 FRI (b061fth0)

Guess What? 16:00 FRI (b061fth0)

Hancock's Half Hour 12:30 SAT (b007yntz)

Hancock's Half Hour 08:00 MON (b007jnf8)

Hancock's Half Hour 12:00 MON (b007jnf8)

Hancock's Half Hour 19:00 MON (b007jnf8)

Henry Normal's Encyclopaedia Poetica 22:30 FRI (m00016h2)

High Table, Lower Orders 06:00 MON (m00016bv)

High Table, Lower Orders 13:00 MON (m00016bv)

High Table, Lower Orders 20:00 MON (m00016bv)

High Table, Lower Orders 01:00 TUE (m00016bv)

High Table, Lower Orders 06:00 TUE (m00016c8)

High Table, Lower Orders 13:00 TUE (m00016c8)

High Table, Lower Orders 20:00 TUE (m00016c8)

High Table, Lower Orders 01:00 WED (m00016c8)

High Table, Lower Orders 06:00 WED (m00016cl)

High Table, Lower Orders 13:00 WED (m00016cl)

High Table, Lower Orders 20:00 WED (m00016cl)

High Table, Lower Orders 01:00 THU (m00016cl)

High Table, Lower Orders 06:00 THU (m00016ct)

High Table, Lower Orders 13:00 THU (m00016ct)

High Table, Lower Orders 20:00 THU (m00016ct)

High Table, Lower Orders 01:00 FRI (m00016ct)

High Table, Lower Orders 06:00 FRI (m00016gp)

High Table, Lower Orders 13:00 FRI (m00016gp)

High Table, Lower Orders 20:00 FRI (m00016gp)

How Tickled Am I? 18:30 WED (b007mw9s)

How Tickled Am I? 00:30 THU (b007mw9s)

Hut 33 23:30 THU (b00vs38k)

I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again 08:00 FRI (b00j3f8d)

I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again 12:00 FRI (b00j3f8d)

I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again 19:00 FRI (b00j3f8d)

Inheritance Tracks 14:10 SAT (b0br5b64)

Inheritance Tracks 02:10 SUN (b0br5b64)

JCW Brook - The Doppelganger 06:00 SAT (b007jv9r)

JCW Brook - The Doppelganger 16:00 SAT (b007jv9r)

JCW Brook - The Doppelganger 04:00 SUN (b007jv9r)

Just a Minute 09:00 MON (m00016bx)

Just a Minute 16:00 MON (m00016bx)

Just a Minute 04:00 TUE (m00016bx)

Ladies of Letters 06:00 SUN (b007k3xg)

Ladies of Letters 13:00 SUN (b007k3xg)

Ladies of Letters 01:00 MON (b007k3xg)

Like They've Never Been Gone 07:00 WED (b00cbltk)

Like They've Never Been Gone 17:00 WED (b00cbltk)

Like They've Never Been Gone 05:00 THU (b00cbltk)

Little Britain 22:30 TUE (b008m9f5)

Louise Oliver - Word From Cupid 11:15 WED (b0076f1w)

Louise Oliver - Word From Cupid 21:15 WED (b0076f1w)

Maths and Magic 06:30 MON (b03ls7y2)

Maths and Magic 13:30 MON (b03ls7y2)

Maths and Magic 20:30 MON (b03ls7y2)

Maths and Magic 01:30 TUE (b03ls7y2)

Mike Walker - Alpha 18:00 SAT (b0080p6l)

Mike Walker - Alpha 00:00 SUN (b0080p6l)

Mind's Eye 00:00 SAT (b007jyvk)

My Booze Hell, by Little Johnny Cartilage 22:45 MON (b007jvc7)

My First Planet 22:30 SUN (b04b261q)

Nan Woodhouse 11:15 MON (b0075k2l)

Nan Woodhouse 21:15 MON (b0075k2l)

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics 07:30 SUN (b03z9gmm)

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics 17:30 SUN (b03z9gmm)

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics 22:00 SUN (b03z9gmm)

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics 05:30 MON (b03z9gmm)

Newsjack 22:30 THU (m00016cz)

Off the Page 00:30 SAT (b00766xc)

Off the Page 18:30 FRI (m00016h0)

On the Hour 23:00 SUN (b008s3k9)

One Flat Summer 07:00 THU (b00752gw)

One Flat Summer 17:00 THU (b00752gw)

One Flat Summer 05:00 FRI (b00752gw)

Parsley Sidings 08:30 MON (b01p47pg)

Parsley Sidings 12:30 MON (b01p47pg)

Parsley Sidings 19:30 MON (b01p47pg)

Paul Sinha's History Revision 22:00 SAT (b04tlfsr)

Podcast Radio Hour 11:00 FRI (m00016gw)

Podcast Radio Hour 21:00 FRI (m00016gw)

Poetry Extra 17:00 SUN (b0br5g4j)

Poetry Extra 05:00 MON (b0br5g4j)

Prisoner Soul 06:30 WED (b01rtzdx)

Prisoner Soul 13:30 WED (b01rtzdx)

Prisoner Soul 20:30 WED (b01rtzdx)

Prisoner Soul 01:30 THU (b01rtzdx)

Puzzle Panel 09:00 THU (b00yb2vg)

Puzzle Panel 16:00 THU (b00yb2vg)

Puzzle Panel 04:00 FRI (b00yb2vg)

Reluctant Persuaders 07:30 THU (m000118z)

Reluctant Persuaders 17:30 THU (m000118z)

Reluctant Persuaders 22:00 THU (m000118z)

Reluctant Persuaders 05:30 FRI (m000118z)

Rhod Gilbert's Bulging Barrel of Laughs 23:00 SAT (b00tkmcl)

Romantic Friction 09:30 THU (b00764j4)

Romantic Friction 16:30 THU (b00764j4)

Romantic Friction 04:30 FRI (b00764j4)

Rudyard Kipling - The Gardener 07:15 SUN (b00nrvp3)

Rudyard Kipling - The Gardener 14:15 SUN (b00nrvp3)

Rudyard Kipling - The Gardener 02:15 MON (b00nrvp3)

Salutes You, Sir! Forces Fun from the BBC 09:00 SAT (b0085hk1)

Salutes You, Sir! Forces Fun from the BBC 19:00 SAT (b0085hk1)

Shedtown 22:30 WED (b03zy4hz)

Sheila Hodgson - Here Am I Where Are You? 18:00 SUN (b074c5ct)

Sheila Hodgson - Here Am I Where Are You? 00:00 MON (b074c5ct)

Smelling of Roses 04:30 SAT (b007k0d2)

Smelling of Roses 09:30 FRI (m00016gt)

Smelling of Roses 16:30 FRI (m00016gt)

Snap 09:30 MON (m00016bz)

Snap 16:30 MON (m00016bz)

Snap 04:30 TUE (m00016bz)

Take It From Here 08:30 SUN (b01fhp18)

Take It From Here 12:30 SUN (b01fhp18)

That Mitchell and Webb Sound 23:00 THU (b03kqg03)

The 3rd Degree 16:00 TUE (b08twgyf)

The 3rd Degree 04:00 WED (b08twgyf)

The Barchester Chronicles 10:00 THU (b04vd69p)

The Barchester Chronicles 15:00 THU (b04vd69p)

The Barchester Chronicles 03:00 FRI (b04vd69p)

The Barchester Chronicles 10:00 FRI (b04vk031)

The Barchester Chronicles 15:00 FRI (b04vk031)

The Code of the Woosters 08:00 TUE (m00016cb)

The Code of the Woosters 12:00 TUE (m00016cb)

The Code of the Woosters 19:00 TUE (m00016cb)

The Comedy Club Interviews 22:55 SAT (m00016d4)

The Comedy Club Interviews 23:25 SUN (m00016d6)

The FAE Sonata 01:30 SAT (b00sjbsx)

The Generation Gap 15:45 SUN (b00qszz5)

The Generation Gap 03:45 MON (b00qszz5)

The Goon Show 08:30 THU (b00cghns)

The Goon Show 12:30 THU (b00cghns)

The Goon Show 19:30 THU (b00cghns)

The Jason Explanation of... 08:00 SUN (b007jpwr)

The Jason Explanation of... 12:00 SUN (b007jpwr)

The Listening Project 10:10 SUN (b06bp2vk)

The Listening Project 21:10 SUN (b06bp2vk)

The Mary Whitehouse Experience 23:00 FRI (b007jn3d)

The Men From the Ministry 08:30 TUE (b019m141)

The Men From the Ministry 12:30 TUE (b019m141)

The Men From the Ministry 19:30 TUE (b019m141)

The Moth Radio Hour 11:00 SUN (b0br5d8h)

The Moth Radio Hour 19:00 SUN (b0br5d8h)

The Museum of Curiosity 07:30 MON (m000111g)

The Museum of Curiosity 17:30 MON (m000111g)

The Museum of Curiosity 22:00 MON (m000111g)

The Museum of Curiosity 05:30 TUE (m000111g)

The Navy Lark 08:00 WED (b01kncz6)

The Navy Lark 12:00 WED (b01kncz6)

The Navy Lark 19:00 WED (b01kncz6)

The News Huddlines 08:30 FRI (m00016gr)

The News Huddlines 12:30 FRI (m00016gr)

The News Huddlines 19:30 FRI (m00016gr)

The Now Show 23:00 MON (m0001295)

The Older Woman 07:00 MON (b039wqbg)

The Older Woman 17:00 MON (b039wqbg)

The Older Woman 05:00 TUE (b039wqbg)

The Original Godfather 08:00 SAT (b009kgnd)

The Original Godfather 15:00 SAT (b009kgnd)

The Original Godfather 03:00 SUN (b009kgnd)

The Right Time 05:00 SAT (b0076mj9)

The Right Time 07:00 FRI (b0076mmf)

The Right Time 17:00 FRI (b0076mmf)

The Robert Peston Interview Show (with Eddie Mair) 18:30 TUE (b05zhm88)

The Robert Peston Interview Show (with Eddie Mair) 00:30 WED (b05zhm88)

The Skivers 23:00 TUE (b00j5l87)

Thomas Love Peacock 14:00 MON (m00016c2)

Thomas Love Peacock 02:00 TUE (m00016c2)

Thomas Love Peacock 14:00 TUE (m00016ch)

Thomas Love Peacock 02:00 WED (m00016ch)

Thomas Love Peacock 14:00 WED (m00016cr)

Thomas Love Peacock 02:00 THU (m00016cr)

Thomas Love Peacock 14:00 THU (m00016cx)

Thomas Love Peacock 02:00 FRI (m00016cx)

Thomas Love Peacock 14:00 FRI (m00016gy)

Tom Ravenscroft's One Man Band 06:30 THU (b039cbsz)

Tom Ravenscroft's One Man Band 13:30 THU (b039cbsz)

Tom Ravenscroft's One Man Band 20:30 THU (b039cbsz)

Tom Ravenscroft's One Man Band 01:30 FRI (b039cbsz)

Unmasking the English 07:30 SAT (b007ypjj)

Unmasking the English 17:30 SAT (b007ypjj)

Unmasking the English 05:30 SUN (b007ypjj)

Up the Garden Path 16:30 TUE (b007wpnk)

Up the Garden Path 04:30 WED (b007wpnk)

Voices of the First World War 03:00 SAT (b0bqqx9c)

Voices of the First World War 16:00 SUN (b0br5d8m)

Voices of the First World War 04:00 MON (b0br5d8m)

Who Goes There? 09:00 WED (b00fnq9s)

Who Goes There? 16:00 WED (b00fnq9s)

Who Goes There? 04:00 THU (b00fnq9s)

Whose Line Is It Anyway? 09:00 TUE (b008pbnv)

Will Smith's Midlife Crisis Management 23:30 FRI (b00g0536)

Yes Minister 08:00 THU (b007k1mq)

Yes Minister 12:00 THU (b007k1mq)

Yes Minister 19:00 THU (b007k1mq)

Young, Gifted and Black 06:30 FRI (b00scjx2)

Young, Gifted and Black 13:30 FRI (b00scjx2)

Young, Gifted and Black 20:30 FRI (b00scjx2)