SATURDAY 25 OCTOBER 2014

SAT 00:00 Book at Bedtime (b00rwx2f)
Naomi Alderman - The Lessons
Love Is Sacrifice
Rory Kinnear reads the Orange New Writer's Award Winner, Naomi Alderman's, second novel, 'The Lessons', a story of ambition, friendship, betrayal and desire. Today: Love is Sacrifice. James tries to pay his way, and ties himself to Mark still further, and Mark reveals a darker and more dangerous side to his character.
Reader Rory Kinnear
Abridger Sally Marmion
Producer Di Speirs
The Lessons is the second novel from Naomi Alderman, winner of the Orange New Writer's Award and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. Set among the dreaming spires of Oxford, it follows the progress of a gilded group of under-graduates drawn together by their dazzling and mercurial fellow student Mark Winters. Fuelled by his trust-fund and resident in his Georgian mansion, they live a charmed life of learning and parties and love-affairs. But university is no grounding for real life and none of the friends will be prepared, some years later, when tragedy strikes.
The Lessons is a novel about friendship, ambition, betrayal and desire, and the fact that only life can teach the lessons you really need to learn.
Naomi Alderman won the Orange New Writers Award for her first novel Disobedience and has subsequently been named as the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. She is a graduate of Lincoln College, Oxford.
Rory Kinnear, fresh from playing Angelo at the Almeida and about to play Hamlet at the National Theatre studied at Balliol College, Oxford and reads his first Book at Bedtime.
SAT 00:15 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's Men of Fashion (b00jrnzd)
The Clothes We're In - The State of Men's Fashion Now
With women's hemlines acting as a social and economic barometer, Laurence asks what men's fashion says about the state we are in.
SAT 00:30 15 Minute Drama (b00pbqv5)
Mike Walker - Scumdog Millionaires
Episode 5
Financial thriller by Mike Walker.
Tim's father appeals to stop the investigations into his alleged unlimited derivatives, but it appears that Tim may already know too much for his own safety.
Tim Ng ...... David Tse Ka-Shing
Kathy ...... Michelle Tate
Father ...... Lobo Chan
Gerry ...... Nigel Hastings
Selma Giddings ...... Kate Leyden
York ...... Rhys Jennings
Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan.
SAT 00:45 Book of the Week (b00mffs3)
William Golding - The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies
Episode 5
Christian Rodska reads from John Carey's biography of the prize-winning author.
In 1983, Golding is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
SAT 01:00 Jest a Minute (b012n3rz)
Series 1
Episode 2
Justin Moorhouse, Rob Deering, Chris Corcoran and Tom Allen hit London in Rhod Gilbert's comedy quiz. From September 2006.
SAT 01:30 Pioneers (b014gh85)
Series 2
Professor Sir Alfred Cuschieri
One of the world's pioneers of 'keyhole' surgery, Professor Sir Alfred Cuschieri, chats to Clare English about how the technique revolutionised the medical profession.
Producer: Philip Sime
First broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in 2011.
SAT 02:00 Cadfael (b007k28z)
Dead Man's Ransom
5. 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.
Cadfael …. Philip Madoc
Hugh Beringar …. Jonathan Tafler
Sister Magdalen …. Susannah York
Elis …. Jason Hughes
Melicent …. Kate Odey
Prince Owain …. Sion Probert
Eliud …. Mark Lewis Jones
Ithel/Herbard …. Shaun Prendergast
Cristina …. Siobahn Flynn
Villager …. David Holt
Narrator …. Michael Kitchen
Music by Peter Salem.
Producer: Lissa Evans
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1991.
SAT 02:30 Thanks for the Memory (b0076xqg)
Nicholas Parsons asks how and why aging impacts so heavily on our minds and memories. He meets scientists at the forefront of research to find out why our memories diminish and speaks to others trying desperately to stop theirs from fading away. Under expert guidance, he exercises his mind and starts training to improve his remembering techniques.
SAT 03:00 Arnold Bennett - Anna of the Five Towns (b01nvmwm)
2. Defiance
Having inherited a fortune on her twenty first birthday Anna Tellwright begins to gain independence and freedom.
But on her return from an eventful holiday with the Suttons and Henry Mynors her joy is marred by some shocking news about one of her tenant's Titus Price. Anna's growing concern for his son William leads her to a defiant act that threatens everything.
Starring Charlotte Riley.
Conclusion of Arnold Bennett's powerful story of love, tyranny and rebellion set against the vitality and harshness of life in the Staffordshire Potteries in the late 19th century.
Dramatised by Helen Edmundson.
Anna.....Charlotte Riley
Tellwright.....David Schofield
Young Agnes.....Emilia Harker
William Price.....Michael Socha
Henry Mynors.....Lee Williams
Beatrice/Older Agnes.....Rosina Carbone
Mrs Sutton.....Olwen May
Mr Sutton/Coroner.....Jonathan Keeble
Sarah Vodrey.....Jacqueline Redgwell
Director: Nadia Molinari
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.
SAT 04:00 Afternoon Reading (b00n881t)
A Glimpse of Stocking
A Silly Gigolo
Series of stories celebrating 70 years of nylon stockings.
By Shena Mackay, read by Joanna Tope .
A shy schoolgirl feels the pull of the stage after a humiliating encounter with a glamorous fellow pupil.
SAT 04:15 Ray Jenkins - From the House at the Top of the World (b007w3b8)
Stolen
German archaeologist, Von Le Coq, gets drawn into a race with Aurel Stein to 'steal' treasures from the Buddhist Monasteries and ancient lost oasis towns along the Silk Road crossing the Taklamaken and Gobi Deserts.
Last of three plays by Ray Jenkins based on the diaries of Catherine, Lady McCartney, wife of the British consul in Kashgar, on the roof of the world in Chinese Turkestan.
Stars Siobhan Redmond as Catherine McCartney, Alex Jennings as George McCartney, Sean Baker as Von Le Coq, Ioan Meredith as Aurel Stein, David Tse as Chiang and Stephen Critchlow as Bartus.
Director: Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
SAT 05:00 King Street Junior Revisited (b00k2qm8)
Series 3
Rumours
Unlike the rolling stone, school gossip at King Street is virtually guaranteed to gather moss...
School comedy created and written by Jim Eldridge. Ten series of this King Street Junior ran between 1985 and 1998. King Street Junior Revisited ran from 2002 to 2005.
Stars Marlene Sidaway as Miss Lewis, Michael Cochrane as Mr Maxwell, Teresa Gallagher as Miss Featherstone, Jacqueline Beatty as Miss Reid, Janice Acquah as Mrs Khan, Paul Copley as Mr Long and Liza Sadovy as Mrs Sampson.
Producer: John Fawcett Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2004.
SAT 05:30 Do Nothing 'Til You Hear From Me (b0076hjw)
Series 1
I Could Write a Book
Roy must face up to life after the loss of Leonard, his beloved trombone. Stars Ram Jam Holder. From October 2003.
SAT 06:00 Sherlock Holmes (b007jl84)
The Adventure of the Speckled Band
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mystery surrounding Helen Stoner, whose twin sister died in mysterious circumstances on the eve of her wedding. She goes to Holmes and Watson looking for answers.
Stars Cedric Hardwicke as Sherlock Holmes and Finlay Currie as Dr Watson.
First heard on the BBC Home Service in May 1945.
SAT 06:30 The Sound of the Baskervilles (b00776s3)
Russell Davies follows the musical clues to discover what music meant to the Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes. From April 2007.
SAT 07:00 Sherlock Holmes (b007znn3)
The Final Problem
John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Orson Welles star in the great detective's encounter at the Reichenbach Falls.
In this adventure, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had hoped to kill the sleuth off, but the public outcry was such that he had to resurrect the character.
John Gielgud plays Sherlock Holmes with Ralph Richardson as Dr Watson. In the series, Holmes brother - Mycroft - was played by Gielgud's brother, Val.
Co-produced with the American Broadcasting Company, the influence of the US producers meant the inclusion of high-ranking American actors, including Orson Welles as Professor Moriarty.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in December 1954.
SAT 07:30 Yes Yes Yes (b007kvwh)
Series 2
A Shot in the Dark
John Rawling recalls the final day of the third test in Pakistan in 2000 when Captain Hussain lifted English spirits from doom. From February 2001.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b01cvcr6)
Playing Doctors and Nurses
Since the broadcasts of the Radio Doctor encouraged the British to open their bowels during the Second World War, the bowels of broadcasting organisations have filled up with factual and fictional series featuring doctors and nurses.
Mark Lawson visits the BBC's written archives centre in Caversham and reads through programme files detailing reactions to some of the Radio Doctor scripts, worries about the accuracy of early documentary dramas and behind the scenes information about the making of well known series including Dr Finlay's Casebook, The Singing Detective and Angels.
He meets the doctor turned writer Richard Gordon, whose name adorns the jackets of the Doctor in the House books, which have been adapted as film, tv and radio series. And he talks to the former medic Jed Mercurio, who created the TV series Cardiac Arrest, which is regularly voted the most realistic medical drama in polls of medical professionals.
Actor Alan Alda explains how his role in Mash helped to save his life and we hear whether Hugh Laurie (star of House) and Helen Baxendale (star of Cardiac Arrest) believe doctors should be seen as heroic figures. Mal Young, the former head of continuing drama serials at the BBC, discusses having to answer complaints about realism, graphic footage and political bias in Casualty and Holby City. Programme makers' responsibilities are debated by Roger Graef, whose many documentaries about aspects of medicine include Inside Great Ormond Street, and who chairs the Mental Health Media Awards: honouring accurate depictions of psychiatric illness in medical fact and fiction.
Dramas which have been condemned by the medical profession for giving patients false hopes of salvation or resuscitation are now used to train would be doctors - what does Richard Gordon think of this trend?
Producer: Robyn Read.
SAT 09:00 I Did It My Way (b009qh5q)
Andy Hamilton
The devil himself talks! The writer and star of 'Old Harry's Game' talks to Peter Reed about his radio life and times.
Featuring The Million Pound Radio Show (July 1991), Old Harry's Game (July 1995 and April 1998), Revolting People (February 2000) and Trevor's World of Sport (Mar 2007).
Andy Hamilton has been involved with some of the finest television comedies of the last four decades - Not the Nine O'Clock News, Drop the Dead Donkey and latterly Outnumbered. Television alone is not the only successful arena for Andy- Old Harry's Game, Revolting People and Trevor's World of Sport are just some of his radio triumphs. 2014 saw Andy's film What We Did On Our Holiday reach cinemas featuring David Tennant, Rosamund Pike and Billy Connolly.
Produced by Martin Dempsey.
SAT 12:00 The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (Omnibus) (b04mbwdy)
In Rachel Joyce's best-selling novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Queenie Hennessy is told she has days to live. She sends a letter bidding goodbye to Harold Fry. It's a letter that inspires a walk, a cast of well-wishers, a journey of its own. Harold will save her. Harold's story began its life as an award-winning Radio 4 play.
In this Omnibus of the five-part dramatisation of this novel, there's a second letter - a quieter, longer, more complicated letter. Queenie reveals the shocking and beautiful truth of her life - a love song to the man she loves.
'It's all very well for a man to step out of his front door and tell his friend to wait while he walks the length of England. It's an entirely different kettle of fish when you are the woman at the other end.'
Queenie ..... Sophie Thompson
Harold ..... Paul Venables
Sister Mary Inconnue ..... Roslyn Hill
David ..... Monty D'Inverno
Sister Catherine ..... Elaine Claxton
Sister Lucy ..... Hannah Genesius
Finty ..... Jane Slavin
Mr Henderson ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Napier ..... Shaun Mason
Director: Tracey Neale.
First broadcast in five parts on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
SAT 13:15 Dickens Confidential (b01mxtjb)
Series 2
Murder in the Red Barn
Reporter Dan investigates a disturbing discovery in the Thames, while Charles Dickens has a royal audience. Stars Dan Stevens.
SAT 14:00 Doctor at Large (b00939rq)
The Deep End
The medical mishaps of freshly qualified doctors Simon Sparrow, Taffy Evans and Tony Benskin go on and on...
The misadventures of newly qualified doctor, Simon Sparrow - adapted for radio by Ray Cooney from Richard Gordon's 'Doctor at Large' published in 1955.
Starring Richard Briers as Simon Sparrow, Geoffrey Sumner as Sir Lancelot Spratt, Ray Cooney as Tony Benskin and Edward Cast as Taffy Evans.
Special guest stars: Dandy Nichols as the Old Lady and Bill Fraser as Mr Smith.
Producer: David Hatch
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1969.
SAT 14:30 The Navy Lark (b00vtwxw)
Series 1
The Gun Mechanism Test
Commander Povey decides the island is an ideal spot to try a prototype - on Pertwee's birthday.
Starring Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Dennis Price as Number One, Richard Caldicot as Commander Povey, Heather Chasen as Heather, Ronnie Barker as AS Johnson, Michael Bates as the Professor and Tenniel Evans as Taffy.
The Navy Lark ran for an impressive thirteen series on BBC Radio between 1959 and 1976.
Scripted by Lawrie Wyman.
Producer: Alastair Scott Johnston.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in May 1959.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b01cvcr6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Sherlock Holmes (b007jl84)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 16:30 The Sound of the Baskervilles (b00776s3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
SAT 17:00 Sherlock Holmes (b007znn3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! (b00x40p1)
Series 6
The Curse of Count Arthur
With all things 'horror' on his somewhat confused mind, Arthur receives a phone call from his good friend Barry Cryer to say that they have somehow lost Barry's briefcase containing the tickets they require to attend a lunchtime Hammer Horror convention at which they are due.
They decide to re-trace their steps from the previous night, which includes taking in a visit to some local haunts and shops, as well as the Shoulder of Mutton.
With the briefcase (and thus the tickets) nowhere to be found, Arthur and Barry are left to decide what they should do - try and get in to the convention by relying on their good names and reputations alone, or risk missing out on the Hammer Horror lunch...?
Cast:
Count Arthur Strong ..... Steve Delaney
Dracula/Himself ..... Barry Cryer
Sally ..... Melanie Giedroyc
Gerry/Jack ..... Dave Mounfield
Shop Assistant/Wally/
Bouncer/Wilf ..... Alastair Kerr
Producers: Richard Daws, Mark Radcliffe & John Leonard
A Komedia Entertainment & Smooth Operations production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 18:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k3xn)
Episode 3
Now a monstrous insect, Gregor strives to stay close to his family - but his father turns on him. Read by Benedict Cumberbatch.
PROMOTION NOTE
"When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect."
This shocking opening introduces one of the twentieth century's most famous stories.
Gregor's family react with horror at his bizarre transformation but their horror slowly turns to revulsion and then monstrous indifference as he is left to quietly waste away in his bedroom.
Metamorphosis was first published in 1912.
Benedict Cumberbatch reads this surreal classic in four parts.
Stage and screen actor, Benedict Cumberbatch was Bafta nominated for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in the BBC TV drama, "Hawking". Most recently he appeared in the TV dramatisation of William Golding's seafaring trilogy, "To The Ends of The Earth". He also won critical acclaim playing Hedda's husband, George, in last year's West End production of "Hedda Gabler".
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) ranks among the twentieth-century's most acclaimed writers. He is often cited as the author whose works best evoke the concerns and preoccupations of modern life. The world in his stories is portrayed as one in which the fantastic is entirely normal, the irrational is rational, and the unreasonable seems reasonable. As Ernst Pawel wrote in his biography of the writer, "Kafka articulates the anguish of being human."
Translated by Richard Stokes
(Abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins).
SAT 18:30 William Golding - Lord of the Flies (b02yl7vs)
Painted Faces
The boys' hair has grown long and their clothes have begun to fall apart since they first found themselves marooned on a deserted island.
Ralph has been appointed leader and marshalled the others into maintaining a signal fire. But a faction of boys abandon their responsibilities in favour of hunting and his authority is called into question.
Judith Adams' dramatisation captures the adventure, atmosphere and chilling undertones of William Golding's tragic vision.
Ralph . . . . . Finn Bennett
Jack . . . . . Richard Linnell
Piggy . . . . . Kasper Hilton Hille
Simon . . . . . Jack Kane
Maurice . . . . . Barney Herrin
Sam . . . . . Bradley Shedden
Eric . . . . . Tomi Fry
Roger . . . . . Edward Bracey
Bill . . . . . Gabriel Brody
Littleun . . . . . Isaac Andrews
Mother . . . . . Stephanie Racine
Narrator . . . . . Ruth Wilson
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2013.
SAT 19:00 I Did It My Way (b009qh5q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Ross Noble Goes Global (b01cvr0t)
Series 2
Egypt
The comedian entertains bewildered Bedouins in the desert and ponders the merits of doing a wildlife show. From May 2003.
SAT 22:30 Lucy Montgomery's Variety Pack (b01322dm)
Series 2
Episode 3
The human chameleon's host of comic characters from a chicken shop worker to a honeymooner.
Multi-paced, one woman Fast Show starring Lucy Montgomery.
With:
Philip Pope
Sally Grace
Waen Shepherd
Natalie Walter
Iris Walker
Written by Lucy Montgomery with additional material by Steve Burge, Jon Hunter, Barunka O'Shaughnessy and Fay Rusling.
Script Editor: Dan Tetsell
Producer: Katie Tyrrell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2011.
SAT 23:00 Tina C Goes Down Under: The Aborogynal Monologues (b00f41z2)
Tamworth
Country singer and US presidential hopeful Tina C, the comic creation of Christopher Green, looks at the Australian obsession with country music.
Tina looks up Auriel Andrew, famous for her song Truck Drivin' Woman.
SAT 23:15 What to Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else (b0151pz1)
Series 2
Travel
Andrew Lawrence explores how we go about the various journeys we take in everyday life - whether it's the journey to work or to a holiday destination, or just down to the shops.
Another short comedic monologue taking a light-hearted look at various aspects of conventional living and the pressure we feel to conform to social norms and ideals.
Written by Andrew Lawrence.
Producer: Jane Berthoud
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2011
SAT 23:30 Steven Appleby's Normal Life (b00slvww)
Series 2
Normal Time
Cartoonist Steven Appleby claims dinosaurs mastered the 3Rs - reading, writing and riding bicycles.
Paul McCrink stars as Steven Appleby with what he laughably describes as "insights into normal, everyday life".
With:
Rosalind Paul
Ewan Bailey
Nigel Betts
Rachel Atkins
Written by Steven Appleby
Producer: Toby Swift
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2003
SAT 23:45 iGod (b00xhjry)
Religion
We all worry about the end of the world, as economists and environmentalists speak in apocalyptic terms everyday. iGOD says that trying to predict the end of the world is as pointless as moisturising an elephant's elbow.
An unnamed, all-seeing narrator (David Soul) shows us that it is stupid to be worrying, as he looks back at some of the most entertaining apocalypses on parallel Earths.
In this episode a parallel earth is obliterated when Ian inadvertently mucks up global religion.
Starring Simon Day and David Soul.
Written by Sean Gray.
Producer: Simon Nicholls
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2011.