SATURDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2011

SAT 00:00 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (b007xrtx)
3. Dark Forces
Both fighting for the affections of the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel, the rivalry between Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones continues apace.
And now it seems that supernatural forces are about to get involved.
Washington Irving's supernatural classic about two love rivals and a headless horseman:
Concluded by Martin Jarvis.
Musical score and sound design by award-winning composer, David Pickvance.
The Sleepy Hollow choir:
Ayesha Antoine
Delroy Brown
John Cummins
Gerard McDermott
Carolyn Pickles
Sophie Roberts
Nick Sayce
Ella Smith
Producer: Gemma Jenkins
Made for BBC 7 and first broadcast in December 2005.
SAT 00:30 Methuselah's Children by Robert A Heinlein (b007rsz2)
5. New World
After entering the alien temple, a colonist returns as a broken man.
Paul Birchard continues Robert Heinlein's sci-fi novel.
Set up in the late 19th century, the aim of the Howard Foundation is to prolong human life via selective breeding and financial encouragement.
Abridged by Bert Coules.
Produced at BBC Scotland by Bruce Young.
Made for BBC 7 and first broadcast in July 2007.
SAT 01:00 Book Club (b0088z0q)
Sebastian Faulks
Sebastian Faulks on his bestselling book Birdsong, the moving story of an Englishman's harrowing experiences fighting in the First World War.
SAT 01:30 Bill Murphy - Hallows End (b007k2zc)
Wealthy Dubliner Dermot McPhail misguidedly buys a Gothic mansion on the wild coast of west Cork, but things start going dramatically wrong when the unscrupulous property developer and his pampered wife Clodagh move in.
Is someone sabotaging Dermot's dream, or is the ancient curse of Hallows End at work?
Bill Murphy's whodunit stars Gerry O'Brien as Dermot, Ann Marie Horan as Clodagh, Darragh Kelly as Patrick, Helen Norton as Aoife and Simon Delaney as Martin/Barman.
Producer: Lawrence Jackson
Made for BBC Radio 7 by BBC Northern Ireland.
First broadcast in 2007.
SAT 02:00 Semi Circles (b007jts2)
Series 2
A Complete Break
Ben's exhausted after working hard on his company’s new bedtime drink. So he and his wife Helen plan a holiday...
The improving story of life and improving times in an improving neighbourhood.
Starring Paula Wilcox as Helen and David Wood as Ben
Written by Simon Brett
Helen ...... Paula Wilcox
Ben ...... David Wood
Mrs Kelly ...... Pay Heywood
Alastair ...... Tony Millan
Kevin ...... Stuart Organ
Julian ...... Mark Wing-Davey
Maureen ...... Miranda Forbes
Doctor ...... Robert Rietty
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1982
SAT 02:30 Foul Play (b007jqy5)
Series 1
Dead Broads Don't Talk
Crime writers Ruth Dudley Edwards and Simon Shaw tackle the case of a redhead shot dead. Written and chaired by Simon Brett.
SAT 03:00 Michael Morpurgo - War Horse (b00vy70n)
First World War tale of a boy's extraordinary bond with his horse. Stars Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn and Bob Hoskins.
SAT 04:00 Dorothy Whipple - The Closed Door (b016z738)
Summer Holiday
A child's innocent remark has devastating consequences for a nursemaid. Patience Tomlinson reads Dorothy Whipple's story.
SAT 04:15 Israel Horovitz - Man in Snow (b007jx59)
A climber reminisces as he escorts a group of honeymooners up Alaska's highest mountain. Written by and stars Israel Horovitz.
SAT 05:00 Ring Around the Bath (b00p8fk7)
Series 1
New House
Patrick and Stella find their dream house, but will the children scupper their move? Stars Duncan Preston. From September 2003.
SAT 05:30 The Alan Davies Show (b0089kpx)
Episode 4
The struggling actor and mate Murray try out a global food café, while Kate has a bad day.
Alan Davies stars in his own sitcom.
Written by Ben Silburn, Tony Roche and Alan Davies.
Alan ...... Alan Davies
Murray ...... Alan Francis
Kate ...... Ronni Ancona
With Debra Stephenson, Alistair MacGowan and Dave Lamb.
Producer: Jane Berthoud
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1998.
SAT 06:00 A Game of Golf (b007jrr3)
Two couples' marital problems come to a head on the golf course. Part of Ayckbourn's Intimate Exchanges. With Robin Herford and Lavinia Bertram.
SAT 07:30 Grasshead Racers (b00x58v4)
To honour the great motor racing commentator, Murray Walker, who died last month aged 97, Radio 4 is repeating the programme that, in 2004 , tempted him out of retirement - Grasshead Racers.
In his long career as a commentator Murray Walker covered all manner of motor sports, so when radio producer Julian May told him about lawn mower racing he was intrigued. He agreed to present a programme exploring it, on one condition - that he would not have to commentate.
At the Le Mans (if he’s not mistaken) of the lawn mower racing world - a field dotted with straw bales in Kingston Maurwood, Dorset, Murray spends a summer's day with members of the British Lawn Mower Racing Association and discovers this is a sport with wide appeal. Sir Stirling Moss reveals he was a keen lawn mower racer; Oliver Reed was as enthusiastic, but less controlled. Murray meets one competitor with more world championships than Michael Schumacher.
So impressed is Murray by these grasshead racers and their diligently fettled machines that he can't resist picking up the announcer's microphone and painting the scene in words, commentating one last time on this most spectacular and democratic motor sport.
Lawnmowers, Murray reveals, have a surprisingly sexy provenance: Mr Benz of Mercedes launched his career making lawn mowers; Royal Enfield, more famous for their guns and motorcycles, made mowers. So did Rolls Royce!
But the real enthusiasts, like Bugatti owners, like to mount their chariots and tank them. Murray Walker joins them, enjoying the heady aroma of 2 stroke and grass clippings as, lap after lap, the grasshead racers gun their classic mowers over Kingston Maurwood's greensward at speeds approaching a dizzying 35mph.
Presenter: Murray Walker
Producer: Julian May
SAT 08:00 Garrison Keillor's Radio Show (b01704sz)
Series 7
Episode 4
From St Augustine in Florida, the American funny man welcomes the Nashville Bluegrass Band and local vocalist JJ Grey. From 2010.
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 Writing the Century - Omnibus (b017ljpc)
The Camel Hospital
Writing The Century -
The Camel Hospital,
Inspired by the diaries of Sara Wilsdon
dramatised by Karen Brown
The series which explores the 20th century through the diaries and correspondence of real people:
Sara Wilson was a V.A.D (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse posted to Egypt in January 1918.
The drama charts her journey through three different military hospitals,one of which is a canvas hospital in the desert, where she meets and marries the love of her life.Her diary spans a tour de force period in Sara's life, when this young woman from a sheltered background encounters death and love.
Sara ...... Rebecca Callard
Mary ...... Jessica Blake
Matron ....... Jacqueline Redgewell
Italian boy ...... Peter Singh
American Officer ...... James Nickerson
Research consultant - Professor Alison Fell
Directed by Pauline Harris
Sara was a VAD Nurse (Voluntary Aid Detachment) a unit which provided medical assistance in time of war. VADs like Sara were young women eager to "do their duty".. Sara at 24 years of age travels from 'Connaught Hospital' Aldershot to '31 General Hospital' Cairo with 22 other nurses. There she nurses the wounded and dying and sees the devastating effects of Typhus and Malaria on our troops. And yet she writes with good humour and energy, a fresh and vivid voice, taking a wondrous interest in the beauty of the landscape and the country's exotic atmos. Unfazed by danger she takes every opportunity to explore her surroundings. In Cairo Sara finds out that her brother Newton has been killed in action. She bears her grief quietly, continuing to do her duty and hiding it from the injured men in her care.
In July 1918, Sara is transferred to a tented hospital in the desert in Kantara. There she meets and gradually falls in love with Ray Wilsdon. Her diary documents her growing affection for him, his transition from friend to fiancee. When the war ends in November Sara's devotion to duty continues. Her soldiers are still being killed, dying of their injuries and typhoid. She and Ray get engaged . In May 1919 orders come through that Sara must transfer to the 'Citadel Hospital' Cairo where there are localised uprisings. Sara asks to be be demobbed and is waiting to go home when Ray sends a wire asking her to marry him right away. Sara is faced with a difficult decision whether to go back home or stay with Ray in Egypt.
Professor Alison Fell has published several articles and chapters on women and the First World War. She is the co-editor with Christine Hallett of Visions and Revisions: Studies on First World War Nursing (London: Routledge, 2012) and is currently writing a book entitled Back to the Front: Women as Veterans in Interwar France and Britain. She is also leading the Legacies of War 2014-2018 project at the University of Leeds, coordinating activities around the First World War Centenary - http://arts.leeds.ac.uk/legaciesofwar/.
SAT 13:15 Maigret (b00fzc3q)
Series 1
Madame Maigret's Own Case
The sleuth's spouse looks after a child. Could this be related to a murder case? With Nicholas Le Prevost and Julian Barnes.
SAT 14:00 The Goon Show (b0080j61)
Series 6
Sale of Manhattan
Neddie Seagoon learns that he is the rightful owner of New York and tries to reclaim his land.
Groundbreaking, surreal BBC radio comedy written by Spike Milligan.
Starring:
Peter Sellers
Harry Secombe
Spike Milligan
First billed as Crazy People, ten series of The Goon Show were recorded between 1951 and 1960, but sadly many of the earliest shows weren’t kept in the archive.
With the Ray Ellington Quartet and Max Geldray.
Orchestra conducted by Wally Stott.
Announcer: Wallace Greenslade
Producer: Peter Eton
First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in November 1955.
SAT 14:30 Steptoe and Son (b007jzsd)
Series 3
Steptoe and Son and Son
A visitor brings Harold Steptoe some unexpected news.
Starring Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H Corbett.
Following the conclusion of their hugely successful association with Tony Hancock, writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson wrote 10 pilots for the BBC TV's Comedy Playhouse in 1962.
The Offer featured the lives of rag and bone men Albert Steptoe and son Harold - and was the spark for a run of eight series on TV.
Albert ...... Wilfrid Brambell
Harold ...... Harry H Corbett
Girl ...... Gwendolyn Watts
Sailor ...... Richard Griffiths.
Adapted for radio from their TV scripts by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Producer: Bobby Jaye
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in May 1971.
SAT 15:00 Garrison Keillor's Radio Show (b01704sz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 A Game of Golf (b007jrr3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 What's So Funny? (b016z6pc)
Series 2
Episode 6
Ed Byrne, Danny Robins and Stephen Armstrong review some controversial comedy and David Quantick on life as a comedy muse.
SAT 18:00 Oscar Wilde (b008lz2g)
The Canterville Ghost
Episode 3
Troublesome ghost of a dead nobleman, Sir Simon is determined to oust the Otis family from his ancestral home. So his hauntings are becoming more and more elaborate...
First published in 1887, Oscar Wilde's novella is concluded by Alistair McGowan.
Producer: Gemma Jenkins.
Made for BBC 7 and first broadcast in December 2007.
SAT 18:30 Fantastic Journeys (b00hql36)
Peter F Hamilton - If At First ...
Some of the very best classic and contemporary sci-fi and fantasy writers come together in this series of four fantastic journeys featuring flights of fancy, time travel, magical transporters and alternate realities
How does multi-millionaire businessman, Marcus Orthew, always manage to stay one step ahead of the game - he refers to the names of technological devices before they've been invented; he seems to have an uncanny knack of being able to predict the downfall of high-profile public figures years before the event? Detective Inspector, David Lanson, is interviews a suspect arrested for stalking the multi-millionaire. During the course of this interrogation, Orthew's incredible story is revealed.
Written by Peter F. Hamilton.
Read by Sam Dale.
Series abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 7 in 2009.
SAT 19:00 Salutes You, Sir! Forces Fun from the BBC (b0085hk1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Comedy on the Boat (b017054v)
Windsor, Jo Caulfield, Pat Cahill and Ian Stone are rocking The Tattershall Castle with laughter on London's River Thames.
SAT 22:45 Greg at The Stand (b01705ws)
Episode 6
Greg McHugh welcomes a final batch of comics to the famed Glasgow comedy venue. With Henning Wehn and Kevin Eldon. From July 2011.
SAT 23:00 VI Warshawski (b007jnl3)
Deadlock
Deadlock
VI Warshawski flies to Canada to continue her investigation on the giant freighter the Lucella Weisser. But she's in for a shock when they sail through the Great Lakes Lock.
Sara Paretsky's thriller stars Kathleen Turner as VI Warshawski. With Eleanor Bron as Lottie, William Dufris as Captain Bemis and Keith Drinkel as Mike Sheridan.
Sara Paretsky has created one of the most popular female sleuths in modern crime-fiction. Her heroine, VI Warshawski, is a strong female character in a male-dominated world. VI is comfortable packing heat and trailing nasty suspects but she never loses touch with her basic femininity. Paretsky says of her Warshawski: "I was troubled by the way women were portrayed in (detective fiction) they always seemed either evil or powerless. I thought it was time for a tough, smart, likeable female private investigator".
Kathleen Turner also starred in the same role in the 1991 film 'VI Warshawski'.
Dramatised by Michelene Wandor.
Director: Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1993.
SAT 23:30 Pulp Fiction (b01705wv)
Series 2
Hell on Wheels
Sex, violence and death - a ride in a fast car is a prelude to murder. Peter Marinker reads Thomas Roche's gritty short tale.