SATURDAY 06 JULY 2019

SAT 00:00 John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids (m0006fx1)
World Narrowing

'The utter loneliness was beginning to get on my nerves.'

Killer plants are on the rampage across the countryside. Bill sets-off in search of Josella but finds a new companion...

First published in 1951, John Wyndham's classic sci-fi novel dramatised by Giles Cooper.

Gary Watson …. Bill Masen
Barbara Shelley …. Josella Playton
Jill Cary …. Susan
Freda Dowie …. Mary
David Brierley …. Dennis
Margaret Robertson …. Joyce

Music composed by David Cain.

Producer: John Powell.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1968.


SAT 00:30 Off the Page (b0076jxf)
Middle Age

Novelist Carol Clewlow, TV writer and novelist David Nicholls and veteran soul singer Tony Cassidy discuss 'middle age'.

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

The best new writing and the freshest conversation from 2004.


SAT 01:00 Cadfael (b007k28z)
Dead Man's Ransom

A Helping Hand

With a strong case against Elis, will Brother Cadfael solve the sheriff's murder?

Conclusion of Ellis Peters’ medieval thriller dramatised by Bert Coules.

It’s 1141. Beyond the walls of Shrewsbury’s Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, civil war rages. The Deputy Sheriff of Shropshire returns from the Battle of Lincoln with disastrous news that King Stephen has been captured. The Sheriff himself has been kidnapped by the Welsh, and England’s very future is uncertain.

Philip Madoc …. Cadfael
Jonathan Tafler …. Hugh Beringar
Susannah York …. Sister Magdalen
Jason Hughes …. Elis
Kate Odey …. Melicent
Sion Probert …. Prince Owain
Mark Lewis Jones …. Eliud
Shaun Prendergast …. Ithel/Herbard
Siobahn Flynn …. Cristina
David Holt …. Villager
Michael Kitchen …. Narrator

Music by Peter Salem.

Producer: Lissa Evans

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.


SAT 01:30 Van Gogh: Seeing Red (b00pfrzs)
Art historian Richard Cork explores the mind of the painter Vincent van Gogh through his extraordinary letters.

Richard Cork explores the mind of Vincent van Gogh through his correspondence.

A keen and expressive correspondent who regaled acquaintances with his views on love, religion and sex, he put pen to paper with the same creative vigour as he put paintbrush to canvas.

By the time he walked into a field in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise and shot himself in the chest, the 37-year-old van Gogh had left behind a rich literary legacy that would, like his painting, outlive his short and tortured life.

Producer: Kate Bland

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2009.


SAT 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b06t608f)
The Provincial Lady Goes Further

Episode 5

E M Delafield was great friends with Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda, and became a director of Time and Tide magazine.

When the editor "wanted some light middles", preferably in serial form, she promised to "think of something". And so it was, in 1930, Delafield began writing her largely autobiographical novels detailing the day-to-day life of a Devonshire-dwelling upper-middle class lady and her attempts to keep her somewhat ramshackle household from falling into chaos.

Substituting the names of Robin and Vicky for her own children, Lionel and Rosamund, The Diary of a Provincial Lady has never been out of print.

In this second book, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, written in 1932, our Lady is now a published author. Success and a sizeable royalty cheque allow her to travel further afield. She attends a literary conference in Brussels, takes a lease on a small flat in London and the family goes on holiday to Brittany.

But while she endeavours to embrace the London literary scene, things at home remain reassuring the same. Mademoiselle weeps on the sofa and refuses to eat when Vicky decides she'd like to go away to school, Robert is his usual monosyllabic self, snoozing behind a copy of the Times, and there's a seemingly endless stream of visitors arriving at the house.

This second volume is just as appealing, charming and wickedly witty as the first.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 02:15 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04b2wzn)
Lumping and Splitting

By 1850 identifying and classifying plants had become far more important than mere list making. Establishing the global laws of botany - what grew where and why - occupied the well travelled naturalist Joseph Hooker - son of Kew's director William Hooker and close friend of Charles Darwin. Kathy Willis hears from historian Jim Endersby on how Hooker was to acquire species from all over the world to build up the first accurate maps of the world's flora.

Mark Nesbitt, curator of Kew's economic botany collection, reveals how gifts to Hooker in the collection reveal the relationship between the amateur collector in the field and Hooker back at Kew was one built on trust and mutual understanding.

But, as Jim Endersby explains, the relationships were frought with tension when it came to naming new plants. Arguments between those claiming they had found new species (often called "splitters") versus cautious botanists, such as Hooker, who would often "lump" together species as variants of the same, raised new debates about what constitutes a new species. And as Mark Chase, Keeper of Kew's Jodrell Laboratory reveals, the arguments continue today.

Producer: Adrian Washbourne

Presenter: Kathy Willis is director of science at Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. She is also professor of long-term ecology and a fellow of Merton College, both at Oxford University. Winner of several awards, she has spent over 20 years researching and teaching biodiversity and conservation at Oxford and Cambridge.


SAT 02:30 Mary Brunton - Self Control (b011qm90)
Kidnapped

Kidnapped by the love-crazed Hargrave, Laura will inherit a fortune - if she agrees to marry him...

Conclusion of Mary Brunton’s romantic tale set in Perthshire and London - dramatised by Gerda Stevenson.

In a world where polite society and sexual hypocrisy rub shoulders easily, can Laura Montreville choose wisely between passion and virtue?

Narrated by Maureen Beattie

Laura ...... Gerda Stevenson
Mrs Falkland ...... Barbara Leigh-Hunt
Hargrave ...... Andrew Wincott
Mrs Dougalas ...... Phyllida Law
Annie ...... Tracy-Ann Oberman
Mary ...... Emma Woolliams
Robert ...... Stuart McGugan

Producer: Bruce Young

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2003.


SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b04fc2k9)
On Silbury Hill

Episode 5

Silbury Hill in Wiltshire - together with Stonehenge, Avebury and the remains of numerous barrows - forms part of a Neolithic landscape about which very little is known or understood.

Adam Thorpe describes his book as '"a marble cake of different soils. Memoir, data, theory, streaks of poetry, swirls of fiction" - but he is not alone in having been drawn to explore the meaning of the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. Artists and archaeologists as well as various cults and neo-pagan traditions have focussed on the blank canvas that the hill presents as a way of exploring our complicated relationship with the past and the people who lived there.

"An estimated million hours spent on construction rather than herding or cooking or stitching must have had a point, but we don't get it. Is conjecture a species of fiction? To muddy the difference further, Silbury insisted on being called 'she'. I obeyed, not out of New Age winsomeness but from the influence of country dialect, in which neuter pronouns are as alien as robot leaf blowers."

This chalkland memoir told in fragments and snapshots, takes a circular route around the hill, a monument which we can no longer climb, and celebrates the urge to stand and wonder.

Episode 5:All Hallow's Eve 2013 – Silbury and the stone circle at Avebury, shadows and rituals.

Abridged, directed and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 03:00 Mrs Henry Wood - East Lynne (m0006fwx)
The Keepers of the Dead

Lord Mount Severn has died suddenly, leaving his daughter, the Lady Isabel, destitute.

Meanwhile young Richard Hare has risked his life, wanted as he is for the murder of Hallijohn, by returning secretly to West Lynne in a desperate attempt to clear his name.

Novel by Mrs Henry Wood dramatised by Michael Bakewell.

Mrs Henry Wood ... Rosemary Leach
Lady Isabel ... Moir Leslie
Mr Carlyle ... David Collings
Francis Levison ... Anthony Edridge
Miss Cornelia ... Maxine Audley
Barbara Hare ... Julie Berry
Lord Vane ... Stephen Thorne
Vane's butler ... Michael Tudor Barnes
Dill / 2nd Creditor ... Tim Reynolds
Marvel / Servant ... Susie Brann
Warburton /Lambert ... Paul Gregory
Joyce ... Jo Kendall
William Vane ... Alexander Goodman

Director: David Johnston

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1987.


SAT 04:00 Say the Word (b00764zg)
Episode 5

Frank Delaney's panel game revolving around the English language.

With Andrew Sachs, Felix Dexter, Helen Lederer and Kathy Lette.

Plus words of wit from the Nimmo Twins

Producer: Simon Elmes

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2001.


SAT 04:30 A Whole 'Nother Story (b007641j)
Series 1

It's a Fig, Not a Date

Cassie and Pete launch into the world of dating agencies.

Cassie's blind date is Simon. He sounds attractive, but his occupation is shrouded in mystery.

Meanwhile, Pete's blind date leads him to realise a few things about Cassie who in turn has been realising a few things about Pete...

Amanda Murphy’s comedy-drama series about a friendship between a man and a woman.

Starring Debra Stephenson as Cassie and David Lamb as Pete.

PJ ...... Brendan Burns
Dad ...... Mike Grady
Mum ...... Anne Reid
Simon ...... Shaun Dooley
Check Out Girl ...... Victoria Ashley

Producer: Graham Frost

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2001.


SAT 05:00 Charles Dickens (b00s2zbh)
Sketches by Boz: Series 2

The Steam Excursion

Mr Percy Noakes was a friend to all until the organisation of a river trip proves to be his undoing.

Gloriously comic stories of London Life by Charles Dickens - dramatised by Stephen Wyatt.

Boz ...... Nicholas Farrell
Percy Noakes ...... Marston Bloom
Mrs Taunton ...... Shirley Dixon
Mrs Briggs ...... Joanna Monro
Cousin Hardy ...... Jeremy Swift
Julia Briggs ...... Becky Hindley
Alexander Briggs ...... Ben Crowe
Captain Helves ...... Stephen Critchlow

Director: Sally Avens

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1999.


SAT 05:30 A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics (b08k4zw1)
Series 2

The Auction

By John Nicholson

In early 20th-century Russia, the future of a large family estate hangs in the balance. It risks being turned into a golf course.

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

Director . . . . . Sasha Yevtushenko.


SAT 06:00 James Follett - The Light of a Thousand Suns (b007jv75)
A bizarre chain of unforeseen coincidences sparks a 1990s British nuclear submarine to prepare to launch an all-out attack. Devastating, unpreventable, unless...

James Follett's thriller starring Manning Wilson as Captain Harrison.

Lieutenant Sinclair ...... John Rye
Stride ...... Ian Thompson
Floyd ...... Michael Shannon
Louise Arnott ...... Sheila Mitchell
Wallis ...... James Hayes
The Prime Minister ...... Conrad Phillips
Aitkin ...... Sion Probert
Master-at-Arms ...... Nigel Graham
Fisher ...... John Bull
Theodore Pike ...... Vernon Joyner
1st Rating ...... Hugh Ross
2nd Rating ...... Roger Gartland
Computer Operator ...... Carole Boyd

Producer: Margaret Etall

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1974


SAT 07:30 Jarvis and Matthew (b07nrzjb)
Setting Out

Close friends and closet raconteurs, Christopher Matthew and Martin Jarvis take to the streets to share their memories of entering the world of work in the 1960s - Martin in the theatre, Christopher in advertising.

As a distinguished past member of the National Youth Theatre and a prize winning graduate from RADA, Martin's career began at the Library Theatre, Manchester, where, among other triumphs, he and Patrick Stewart starred in a play called The Princess and the Swineherd. Martin got the biggest laugh of the evening by entering with a large cucumber in one hand and crying, 'Look, father, twelve inches long and not a kink in it!'

Meanwhile Christopher was making a smaller, but no less determined, name for himself as a junior copywriter in various London advertising agencies where he achieved distinction with his slogan for the Cheese Bureau - "Cheese Tastes Quite Nice Sometimes".

Producer: Paul Kobrak

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.


SAT 08:00 The Jon Pertwee Files (m0006lvy)
Sean Pertwee celebrates his father Jon’s broadcasting career in this special centenary documentary.

Featuring rediscovered archive material, rare interviews and behind the scenes recordings.

From his radio days playing a disreputable postman and a chief petty officer in The Navy Lark, to his TV portrayals of the dandy Doctor Who and the anarchic scarecrow, Worzel Gummidge.

Producers: Richard Latto and Stuart Manning.


SAT 09:00 Putting You Through, Caller (b098hjv5)
In 1958, the Queen made the first direct trunk telephone call. It was the beginning of the end for the female operators known as the 'Hello Girls'.

Telephone operators had connected callers since the earliest days of the telephone, eighty years before. Despite the intimacy of telephone conversations, subscribers willingly accepted the presence of a third voice on the line.

In this three-hour showcase, Shaun Ley uses drama and comedy from the BBC archives to demonstrate how the telephone operator became a valuable dramatic device. With the aid of GPO's own recordings and the BT archive, Shaun explores the role of the operator, the strict rules governing their work and some official secrets.

Including extracts from Liz and Sally, a 1960s post office recruitment film, Burn Your Phone - a BBC Radio 4 play from 1995, in which Alan Cumming plays a telephone operator beset by voices, requests and problems, and the 1966 radio play, “If you’re Glad, I’ll be Frank”.

Producer: Adam Bowen

Made for BBC for Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2017.


SAT 12:00 Genius (b00850j1)
Series 3

Charlie Brooker

Speeding motorway services? Two year dogs?

Dave Gorman asks writer and humourist Charlie Brooker to select the public's best loopy idea.

Award-winning comedian Dave Gorman and a celebrity guest chew over the ridiculous, unworkable but sometimes genius inventions, schemes and policies of the public.

Producer: Simon Nicholls

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2007.


SAT 12:30 The Goon Show (b007jyp0)
Dishonoured - Again

Neddie Seagoon gets a bank job, but is it wise to put him in charge of the gold vault? Stars Spike Milligan. From January 1959.


SAT 13:00 Daphne: A Fire in Malta (Omnibus) (m0006lw0)
Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's top investigative reporter. She dedicated her life to holding power to account; investigating allegations of organised crime, cronyism and corruption on this tiny island state. On the afternoon of October 16th, 2017, she was driving to the bank to regain control of her account, which had been frozen at the request of a government minister, when she was killed after a bomb exploded under her car. Half a kilo of explosives - hidden under the driver's seat - were detonated remotely. She was 53 years old.

Daphne was often described as fearless. Her provocative, uncompromising style made her work both controversial - and high risk. But what compelled Daphne to take on these influential forces? Across the series, we explore five episodes from Daphne's life and investigative work. In telling her story, there is much we cannot know so some we have imagined. Like Daphne, we draw on various sources - and sometimes conflicting accounts - in an attempt to piece together a picture of what might have happened behind the headlines.

Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones, Suits, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 24) plays Daphne.

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko.

Omnibus written by Lizzie Nunnery.
Reporting by Alys Harte

First broadcast in five parts on BBC Radio 4 in 2019.


SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (m0006lw2)
Francis Rossi

Francis Rossi of Status Quo chooses Cathy's Clown by The Everly Brothers, and In the Army Now by Bolland and Bolland. .


SAT 14:15 Pam Ayres' Open Road (b007kd7k)
Series 1

The Lake District

Pam Ayres follows in the rugged Cumbrian footsteps of children's author, Beatrix Potter and the world's most famous Snowman, created by Raymond Briggs.

Series in which poet and raconteuse, Pam Ayres takes to the open road, visiting eight places in Britain to hear tales from the people who live there.

Producer: Simon Elmes

First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 2000.


SAT 14:45 Ernest Fontwell versus the Experts (m0006lw4)
The Communications Experts

From telephones to the dictation machine, Ernest tackles the communication experts

How to beat the fiends in white coats and overalls at their own game.

Written by Lawrie Wyman.

Starring Frank Thornton as Ernest Fontwell.

With Patsy Rowlands, Gordon Clyde and David Tate.

Producer: Geoffrey Perkins

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1979.


SAT 15:00 The Jon Pertwee Files (m0006lvy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]


SAT 16:00 James Follett - The Light of a Thousand Suns (b007jv75)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]


SAT 17:30 Jarvis and Matthew (b07nrzjb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]


SAT 18:00 Yevgeny Zamyatin - We (b0076l2s)
Rationality

In a post-revolutionary future, OneState is ruled according to the principles of rationality. The penalty for dissent is death.

D-503, the chief engineer of the state, meets the beautiful 1-330. Her initial intentions seem innocent, but soon D starts to question her identity and indeed his own.

The first great dystopian novel of the 20th century, written in secret in early Soviet Russia by Yevgeni Zamyatin.

D-503 ...... Anton Lesser
R-13 ...... Don Warrington
U ...... Brigit Forsyth
1-330 ...... Joanna Riding
0-90 ...... Julia Rounthwaite
Benefactor ...... Russell Dixon
Tannoy ...... Emma Clarke
Babushka ...... Judith Davis
S ...... Patrick Bridgman
2nd ...... EngineerPaul Viragh

Dramatisd in two-parts by Sean O'Brien.

Director: Jim Poyser

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004.


SAT 19:00 Putting You Through, Caller (b098hjv5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


SAT 22:00 Mark Steel's in Town (b07wtd76)
Series 7

Lynton and Lynmouth

Don't mention the goats!

Mark visits the lovely seaside towns of Lynton and Lynmouth in North Devon, lovely that is until he mentions the goats, then the rest of the show doesn't go entirely to plan.

Mark Steel's seventh series of the award winning show that travels around the country, researching the history, heritage and culture of six towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness, and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents.

Written and performed by ... Mark Steel
Additional material by ... Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator ... Hayley Stirling
Producer ... Carl Cooper

A BBC Radio Comedy production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016. .


SAT 22:30 Chain Reaction (b03s71cz)
Series 9

Graham Linehan talks to Adam Buxton

The final episode in this series sees Father Ted and IT crowd writer Graham Linehan talking to comedian, actor and one half of Adam and Joe, Adam Buxton.

Chain Reaction is the long running host-less chat show where last week's interviewee becomes this week's interviewer.

Producer: Carl Cooper

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.


SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (m0006q4y)
Sam Baines 1/2

From 10.00pm until midnight, seven days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Sam Baines.


SAT 23:00 Armando Iannucci (b007jzls)
Series 2

Episode 4

Sex education, mountaineering and the news from a baby’s perspective.

Armando lannucci hosts wry comical discussion, sketches and music.

With Rebecca Front, David Schneider, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.

Written by Armando Iannucci, Peter Baynham, Richard Herring, Stewart Lee and Ben Moor.

Producer: Sarah Smith

First broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in March 1994.