SATURDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2014

SAT 00:00 Sue Townsend - Adrian Mole (b007js86)
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
Episode 8
Adrian's parents try and patch things up, but in the meantime, he finds himself drawn to new school friends. Read by Nicholas Barnes.
SAT 00:15 A History of the Brain (b017551t)
Einstein's Brain
Dr Geoff Bunn's ten-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.
Episode 10: Einstein's Brain focuses on how advances in neurology have influenced our understanding of human's as 'neurochemical selves'. Examining the recent trend to explain every aspect of personality by underlying brain processes, Geoff Bunn highlights how disciplines from aesthetics to sociology have felt the impact of neuroscience. He acknowledges the benefits supplied by MRI scanning but points out the flaws in promoting an understanding of humanity based entirely on analysis of the brain. If the dissection of Einstein's brain were all we had to go on, we wouldn't know much about the famous physicist's life and character.
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. The original, atmospheric score is supplied by composer, Barney Quinton.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
SAT 00:30 George Eliot - Adam Bede (b007jns8)
Episode 5
As Hetty receives a gift from the captain, Adam waits in the wings hoping she will marry him. Stars Thomas Arnold.
SAT 00:45 Margaret Atwood - Curious Pursuits (b0076rsr)
Mortification; Edinburgh Festival
Two short essays look at some author mishaps and Scotland's fair city through the decades. Read by Liza Ross.
SAT 01:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b00s92p7)
Series 3
Episode 1
Prepare to have your synapses twisted into a string theorist's nightmare, as Professor Lloyd and his new curator, the startlingly insightful comedian Jon Richardson, hurriedly throw the dust covers off the Museum's clump of empty plinths for a brand new series of the BBC's most improving comedy panel show.
This week, fantasy novelist Sir Terry Pratchett offers them a Secret And Personal Extra Day Of The Week; cosmologist and author Marcus Chown donates a bizarre but plausible scientific theory of the afterlife known as the Enigma Point; and Shappi Khorsandi has somehow finds herself in a position to offer none other than Charlie Chaplin.
SAT 01:30 My Life in Five Books (b00tq0ws)
Series 1
Sue Lawrence
3/8
Sue Lawrence's passion for food is well known. A prolific writer of cookery books Sue first came to prominence after winning BBC Master Chef in 1991. Her passion for other books is less well known and in conversation with Stuart Cosgrove she reveals the five titles she'd never be without.
SAT 02:00 Paul Temple (b007rwp2)
Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery
The Visitor
With time running out, can the suave sleuth finally confront who murdered Julia Kelburn?
Francis Durbridge's thriller stars Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve in another intriguing case for BBC radio's smoothest investigator and his glamorous wife.
With James Thomason as Sir Graham Forbes, Simon Lack as Superintendent Raine, Tommy Duggan as Mike Langdon, Julian Somers as George Kelburn, June Tobin as Linda Kelburn, Joan Matheson as Mrs Fletcher, Mary Wimbush as Dr Benkaray, James Beattie as Charlie and Hugh Manning as Larry Cross.
From 1938 to 1969 the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC radio's most popular series. They inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and the men wore cravats - a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed Paul's help with his latest tricky case.
Producer: Martin C Webster
First heard on the BBC Light Programme in 1961.
SAT 02:30 Please Look After This Bear (b0091tm8)
Author Michael Bond's wellington-clad bear was found at Paddington Station and was thus named by the Brown family after the busy London terminus.
To celebrate Paddington's 50th birthday in 2008 - BBC Radio 4 left 50 bears wearing the label "Please Look After This Bear" hidden in train stations all over Britain for people to find and to take home.
Children's author Michael Morpurgo talks to these "finders" to hear what Paddington Bear has meant to them. He hears from creator Michael Bond about the bear's enduring appeal and also unravels the story of the first soft toy Paddington Bear, made by Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson's mother Shirley.
Produced by Laura Parfitt.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2008.
SAT 03:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b04jmd8g)
29 September - 3 October 1914
Last omnibus of Season 1 of Home Front which is set in Great War Britain. The end of the beginning, perhaps, but a long long way from the end.

Written by Katie Hims
Consultant Historian: Professor Maggie Andrews
Music: Matthew Strachan
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
SAT 04:00 William Trevor Short Stories (b007jtxy)
The Forty-Seventh Saturday
Mavie and McCarthy have a weekly assignation, but is he as trapped by marriage as she thinks he is? Read by Denys Hawthorne.
SAT 04:15 Alan Plater - Time Added On for Injuries (b007qw0x)
Passengers on a train uncover the story that linked their families 150 years ago. Stars James Bolam and Alan David.
SAT 05:00 After Henry (b007k47s)
Series 3
Guilty Secrets
'She does have her sensitivities. And this.... for a woman ... any woman ... even my mother - I'd have thought it would strike at the whole image she has of her entire marriage.'
Sarah tidies up husband Henry's study four years after his death.
Simon Brett's comedy about three generations of women - struggling to cope after the death of Sarah's GP husband - who never quite manage to see eye to eye.
Sarah ...... Prunella Scales
Eleanor ...... Joan Sanderson
Russell ...... Benjamin Whitrow
Clare ...... Gerry Cowper
Rod ...... Paul Sirr
Four radio series were made, but instead of moving to BBC TV , Thames Television produced 'After Henry' for the ITV network.
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 1987.
SAT 05:30 Spangles 'n' Tights (b04phhxy)
Medieval Banquet
The Dublin theatrical costumiers dress a medieval banquet in a ghostly castle.
Christopher Fitz-Simon's five-part comedy.
Dessie Doyle ...... David Kelly
Violet Doyle ...... Pauline McLynn
Antony Gogan ...... Eugene O'Brien
Mr McNamara ...... Frank Kelly
Fidelma Fitzpatrick ...... Roma Tomelty
High King ...... Birdy Sweeney
Cliona O'Sloothrahaun ...... Anna Byrne
Cardinal Poggibonsi ...... John Keyes
Court Jester ...... Paddy Scully
Music played by John Trotter.
Directed at BBC Belfast by Roland Jaquarello.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1998.
SAT 06:00 Franz Kafka - The Trial (b04k6p4c)
Joseph K. is an unexceptional man. He lives a quiet life and works in a bank. But one ordinary morning he is woken by two men and finds himself under arrest. What is his crime? From that moment on, Joseph K. enters a strange, bewildering world of nightmare. Mike Gwilym stars as Joseph K. with Miriam Margolyes as Leni, a nurse who becomes his lover.
Dramatised for radio by the award-winning writer and dramatist Hanif Kureishi.
The story of The Trial epitomises something that is 'Kafkaesque', a world of little hope, much despair and small men pitted against the power of a state. Written in German, Kafka always called the book Der Process, but it was changed to The Trial in translation. It was written in 1914 but not published until a year after his death in 1925. Kafka used his own exhausting experiences of a legal case to inform the novel.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1982.
SAT 07:30 The House I Grew Up In (b00d45nh)
Series 2
Joanna Briscoe
Wendy Robbins takes the novelist back to her isolated childhood home in Dartmoor, and an unconventional upbringing. From August 2008.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b00vr62g)
Our Obsession With Weather
The author Iain Sinclair presents a timely illustrated essay on that uniquely British obsession - the weather. Why has the seemingly-mundane weather forecast been an obsession for listeners and viewers since the early days of broadcasting? What does it tell us about our national character and the role of broadcasting in our lives?
The first weather forecasts lasted five minutes and resembled a military briefing. Today they last a couple of minutes but viewers barely pay any attention, they recall little of what the forecasters said. Weather forecasters call for more time but does anyone place too much faith in the BBC's weather forecast anymore?
We'll hear from the forecasters - Michael Fish, Bill Giles and Sian Lloyd - what does it mean to be at the forefront of the British public's interaction with their favourite subject?
Along the way we'll hear evocative archive of extreme weather events like: floods of '53, hard winter of 63, red rain in '68, summer of '76 and the gales of '87.
Messing with the weather is a tricky business. The latest style of TV graphics, the infamous tilting map called the fly over, caused disapproval up and down the country. Why was our Pleasant Land coloured brown not green? Proud Scots protested that their country appeared diminished- surely another example of bias from the South East of England?
Iain will ask what role the weather plays in our culture - any writer purposefully tuned to the language of the moment will be obliged to employ the weather as a moral sub-text, a framing device, a ceiling of depression - weather as prediction. Weather as a liquid mirror in which the writer, reads our future. A curious link develops between the great winds of 16 October 1987 and the collapsing financial markets on "Black Monday."
Producer: Barney Rowntree
A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 09:00 Comedy Greats (b01kjsg3)
Overseas
Captain Barry Cryer welcomes you aboard a special edition of Comedy Greats showcasing a selection of the BBC's hit comedy shows that were adapted for listeners overseas.
During the 1950s to 1970s, a surprising number of series were either edited, rescripted or remade.
Barry reveals bits that never made it out of Blighty to enable shows to be better understood abroad.
* The Clitheroe Kid - Another Mother for Ossie. From November 1965
* The Navy Lark - Going Dutch. From November 1959
* The Men From the Ministry - Birds of a Feather. Re-recording from 1980.
* Hancock's Half Hour - The New Secretary. Re-recorded in November 1958.
* Round the Horne - The Man With the Golden Thunderball. Re-recorded July 1966 with an edited version of the original script.
* I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again - series 3 (10/13). Re-recording from 1966.
Producer: Kerry Reece
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in July 2012. .
SAT 12:00 Tina Pepler - Syria: Bread and Bombs Omnibus (b04t0fxk)
Black comedy set among aid workers in Syria. Jamil likes to do things by the book while Hassan is a maverick, and then there is Samara with her puppets. Stars Paul Chahidi.
SAT 13:15 John Mortimer - Rumpole of the Bailey (b007wq20)
Rumpole and the Vanishing Juror
At a murder trial, the barrister encounters a jury member with a mystifying agenda. John Mortimer's drama stars Timothy West.
SAT 14:00 The Sunday Format (b009x20g)
Series 1
Episode 2
Your radio version of the quality newspapers, plus lifestyle pull-out sections. With Simon Greenall. From February 1999.
SAT 14:30 Masala FM (b007jz5q)
Episode 5
When the Asian radio station's boss gets religion, the on-air result is far from heavenly.
Six-part sitcom written by Meera Syal
Starring Sanjeev Bhaskar, Nitin Sawheny, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia.
Music by Nitin Sawhney.
Producer: Liz Anstee
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1996.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b00vr62g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Franz Kafka - The Trial (b04k6p4c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Hal (b04pr6sy)
Series 1
Death
Hal Cruttenden stars as a 40-something husband and father who, years ago, decided to give up his job and become a stay at home father. His wife, Sam, has a successful business career which makes her travel more and more. His children, Lilly and Molly, are growing up fast, and his role as their father and mentor is diminishing by the day.
Written by Hal Cruttenden and Dominic Holland.
With Dominic Holland, Ed Byrne, Anna Crilly, Gavin Webster, Dominic Frisby and Samuel Caseley.
In this episode, Hal faces a horrifying thought - he might have testicular cancer. So he tries to look mortality in the face - not easy for an overly sensitive and emotional man. He tries to bond with his entrepreneurial stepson Jack, but a visit to a football match doesn't work out as Hal planned.
An unlikely form of salvation arrives when it's suggested that Hal takes part in a charity run. Things take an unexpected turn and Hal actually surprises himself - but not in the way he planned.
Producer: Paul Russell
An Open Mike production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in November 2014.
SAT 18:00 Charles Chilton - Space Force (b007jn5r)
Series 2
Living With Death
Elevated to the priesthood of God-King Ra - the captive crew of Space Force seize a chance to escape.
Charles Chilton's second intergalactic adventure series starring Barry Foster.
Captain Saxon Berry ...... Barry Foster
Chipper Barnett ...... Nicky Henson
Magnus Carter ...... Nigel Stock
Lodderick Sincere ...... Tony Osoba
With Wendy Murray, Willoughby Goddard and Bernard Brown.
Charles Chilton wrote and produced many popular and successful radio programmes for the BBC - including the classic 1950s serial 'Journey into Space' - charting the adventures of Captain Jet Morgan. This fired the imagination of millions, years before the first moon landing. It was the last radio drama to record higher ratings than the new young upstart television!
Producer: Paul Mayhew-Archer
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in June 1985.
SAT 18:30 Planet B (b00yhwsx)
Series 3
Doing Time
Held in the world's toughest jail, can Kip escape prison brutality? Virtual reality saga by Nick Perry. Stars Lloyd Thomas.
SAT 19:00 Raw Meat Radio (b04sp5pq)
Chris Morris is known by most for his ground-breaking film and television work but, like most good things he 'started on the radio'. Described by the man who suspended him from Radio 1 (Matthew Bannister) as 'one of the greatest talents working in British broadcasting', Morris developed his anarchic and surreal style in local radio. It was at BBC Bristol and GLR in the late 80s and early 90s that he honed his trademark technical skills and first adopted some of the sketches and personas that would later help make his name.
He went on to be responsible for some of the most exciting, innovative radio comedy ever made including On The Hour (Radio 4), Why Bother (Radio 3)and Blue Jam (Radio 1). BBC Radio 4 Extra airs a three hour retrospective of his work including material that hasn't been aired since it was first broadcast.
From his local radio days to On the Hour, Why Bother and Blue Jam, Raw Meat Radio is presented by Mary Anne Hobbs (Morris' last radio outing was a guest DJ slot on her Radio 1 show: The Breezeblock) and features original interviews with Armando Iannucci, Matthew Bannister, Peter Baynham, David Quantick, Paul Garner, Adrian Sutton and Lucian Randall.
Produced by Sophie Black.
SAT 22:00 Mark Watson's Live Address to the Nation (b017chqv)
Passion
Mark Watson continues his quest to improve the world, nimbly assisted by Tim Key and Tom Basden.
As broadcast live in November 2011 - Mark will be asking the big questions that are crucial to our understanding of ourselves and society - in a dynamic and thought provoking new format he opens the floor to the live audience and asks them to jump into the conversation via tweets and messages to work out how we can all make the world a better place.
This time Mark looks at "Passion" - Passion encompasses some of our most human qualities: emotion, energy desire. But is it a dangerous thing? In their hit Desire, U2 sang: 'Desire!/Desire!' But that isn't hugely helpful, that's just repeating the word over and over again. So we'll go into a bit more detail.
We are all passionate about something, whether it's sex, personal satisfaction, or sexy personal satisfaction. Without passion we're inert. But with passion, we can sometimes be all too ert. Where do we draw the line between normal passions, and being one of these guys like Othello who let themselves down and kill a girl over a hanky?
Producer: Lianne Coop.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2011.
SAT 22:30 Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive (b007zd04)
Series 1
Episode 5
The funny man's radio drop-in centre tackles Live 8 and white-collar boxing matches. With David Mitchell. From June 2005.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b04vhtq1)
From 10pm - midnight, 7 days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Marlon Davis.
SAT 23:00 The Mark Steel Revolution (b00fz849)
The American Civil War
Radical comic Mark Steele asks if the battling was part of a revolution.
A series of lectures on the theme of revolution, Mark examines some of the major historical forces at work during revolutions as well as holding up a mirror to our own age.
With Martin Hyder and Carla Mendonca.
Producer: Phil Clarke
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1998.
SAT 23:30 Ivor Cutler - A Stuggy Pren (b00cqd9l)
Episode 3
Ivor Cutler and his friends present dark tales, offbeat songs and some tips for aspiring poets. From June 1994.
SAT 23:45 No Tomatoes (b0081snn)
Doctor Doom
A moody fridge speaks out to Paul Copley and Helen Moon. Sketch show mixing up language and sounds. From October 2007.