SATURDAY 14 MARCH 2015

SAT 00:00 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b044jh6l)
The Noose
Sapna Sinha works as a sales assistant in a TV showroom in New Delhi. Being the only bread-winner in the family she works long hours to provide for her widowed mother and younger sister. But then a man walks into her life with an extraordinary proposition: pass seven "life" tests of his choosing and she will have wealth and power. At first the tests seem easy, but things are not quite as they seem. Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
10) The Noose
A thriller set in India from the author of "Slumdog Millionaire".
Sapna must revisit her past to make sense of her present. But nothing can prepare her what she finds there. Dramatised from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
Writers:
Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and a best-selling novelist. His first novel "Q & A" was made into the Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" as well as Sony Award winning radio drama serial for BBC Radio .
Ayeesha Menon dramatized Vikas Swarup's other novels SIX SUSPECTS and Q & A, which won a Sony Award for Best Drama. She also wrote for Radio 4 THE MUMBAI CHUZZLEWITS, UNDERCOVER MUMBAI, THE CAIRO TRILOGY and MY NAME IS RED. Her stage play PEREIRA'S BAKERY AT 76 CHAPEL ROAD, which was developed with the Royal Court Theatre, was recently staged by the Curve Theatre, Leicester.
John Dryden wrote the original three-part dramas series SEVERED THREADS, THE RELUCTANT SPY and PANDEMIC, which won the Writer's Guild Award for best radio drama script. His dramatisation of BLEAK HOUSE won a Sony Award for Best Drama. Other dramatisations include A SUITABLE BOY, A HANDMAID'S TALE and FATHERLAND one of the most repeated dramas on R4 Extra.
Cast:
Sapna ... Rasika Dugal
Acharya ... Vijay Chrishna
Karan ... Neil Bhoopalam
Nirmila Ben / Rosie ... Radhika Mittal
Sapna's Mother ... Shernaz Patel
Raja ... Sumeet Vyas
Kuldeep Singh / Roaji ... Rajit Kapur
Neha ... Amrita Puri
Priya Capoor / Pushpa / Female Judge ... Ayesha Raza
Badan Singh / Politician / Constable ... Kenny Desai
Madan ... Vivek Madan
Neelam / Babli ... Prerna Chawla
Rent Collector ... Satchit Puranik
Production:
Sound Design - Steve Bond
Editing Assistant - Varun Bangera
Script Editor - Mike Walker
Assistant Producer - Toral Shah
Music - Sacha Putnam
Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from the novel "ACCIDENTAL APPRENTICE" by Vikas Swarup.
Director - John Dryden
Producer - Nadir Khan
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:15 Shakespeare's Restless World (b01g65gz)
Swordplay and Swagger
Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, continues his new object-based history. Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.
With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed. He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.
Programme 5. SWORDPLAY AND SWAGGER - The essential accoutrements of any self-respecting gentleman illustrate the extent of violence in Elizabethan London - both onstage and off.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b03c46nt)
Seamus Heaney - Beowulf
Episode 10
The funeral of Beowulf.
Produced in Salford by Susan Roberts.
Radio Drama North.
SAT 00:45 Book of the Week (b00rqqpj)
Graham Robb - Parisians
Episode 5
"The idea was to create a kind of mini Human Comedy of Paris, in which the history of the city would be illumined by the real experiences of its inhabitants."
So says the author Graham Robb about his new book 'Parisians'. And a whole host of characters walk, scuttle jump, run and flounce across his pages, beginning with the French Revolution and ending in more current times. These inhabitants are natives and visitors, and it is the likes of Charles Axel Guillaumot, Marie Antoinette, Alexandrine Zola, Adolf Hitler and Charles de Gaulle who lighten and darken the city's streets
in five episodes for BOOK OF THE WEEK. The series narrator is Stephen Boxer.
In this final episode, we witness gunshots at Notre Dame, which heralds decades of danger for
a new French leader... Reader Stephen Boxer.
SAT 01:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b0167zkv)
Series 4
Haynes, McCandless, Crystal
Hosted by the Professor of Ignorance from the University of Buckingham John Lloyd C.B.E. and the intensely curious comedian Dave Gorman.
This week's guests:
Natalie Haynes is an author, comedian and critic. Her book, The Ancient Guide To Modern Life is all about the wisdom and lifestyles of the ancient Greeks and Romans and uses them to give us a better perspective of our own time. Natalie is bubbling with facts and loves busting cherished myths about the classical past. Natalie is also a massive fan of detective fiction, to which she has applied her prodigious intellect. An obsessive Diagnosis Murder fan, Natalie would give up a year of her life to live in the time in which Dick Van Dyke was the "biggest star in the world".
David McCandless is a journalist and the author of Information Is Beautiful, a book which uses imaginative new ways to display complex statistical information, using novel graphics. David was also once the UK's Doom video game champion, narrowly beaten in the world final by a 14-year-old boy with a moustache.
David Crystal is the Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. He is without doubt Britain's top linguist. He has written over a hundred books on the subject, including the standard texts read by every linguistics student in the country, and edited the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English language. He knows exactly how many different words there are in an average edition of the Sun, because he's counted them, knows just why people are wrong when they say that txtspk is the death of English, and once sold two dozen adjectives at a shilling each.
SAT 01:30 My Life in Five Books (b012x1hy)
Series 2
Andy Merriman
Andy Merriman was born into a life of comedy. His father Eric was one of the first radio comedy writer's producing scripts for the likes of Kenneth Horne and Dave Allen.
Andy has written biographies of Margaret Rutherford and Hattie Jacques but it is his book called A Minor Adjustment which is the story of his daughter Sarah who has Down's syndrome which has had the biggest impact on him.
Talking to Stuart Cosgrove he explains why he's loves these books:
THE IDYLL OF MISS SARAH BROWN by DAMON RUNYON
THE RADIO TIMES GUIDE TO TV COMEDY by MARK LEWISOHN
A MINOR ADJUSTMENT by ANDY MERRIMAN
THE GLORY GAME by HUNTER DAVIES
BIRD LIVES by ROSS RUSSELL.
Produced by Mike Walker.
First broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in 2011.
SAT 02:00 Jedediah Berry - The Manual of Detection (b01q1h08)
Chapter 18
All Unwin's dreams of returning to his day job rest on rescuing his boss Travis. But will he make it in time? The dark forces of Enoch Hoffmann are closing in. Concluded by Toby Jones.
Somewhere in an unnamed, rainy city, Charles Unwin, a lowly but efficient clerk in a big detective agency, has found his world turned upside down when his detective boss, Travis Sivart, disappears.
Suddenly promoted to the role - Unwin's been forced out into the field for the first time in his life. Unprepared and untrained, armed only with his trusty umbrella and The Manual of Detection. His first mission is to find out what happened to his boss.
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Pacificus Productions.
SAT 02:30 The Man Who Was Bojangles (b00d1ypt)
4 Extra Debut. Kwame Kwei-Armah unravels the myths behind the man and soubriquet bestowed on tap dancer Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson. From August 2008.
SAT 03:00 RL Stevenson - Kidnapped (b01cj9yd)
Across the Forth
Still a fugitive, David Balfour is near Edinburgh and looks to the law to help him claim his inheritance. Robert Louis Stevenson's historical adventure stars Paul Young.
SAT 04:00 Winston Graham Short Stories (b03yqp4r)
Meeting Demelza
Shortly before his death in 2003, Winston Graham wrote a story for the Cornish magazine, Scryfa. He recounts an imaginary meeting with his best-loved and most spirited creation. Read by Ewan Bailey
Winston Graham was one of the most successful and prolific novelists of the 20th century. He wrote in many genres but his best known body of work was undoubtedly the 12 historical novels set in Cornwall at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries which became known as The Poldarks.
Although it's the Poldarks that brought Winston Graham the most fame, he also wrote more than 30 other novels, six of which have been filmed including the thriller, Marnie directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1964.
This selection celebrates the range of his work and offers a glimpse into the enduring appeal of his most famous characters, Ross and Demelza who are set to return to BBC screens in a new adaptation.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by The Waters Partnership.
SAT 04:15 Neil Brand - Joanna (b00r9xm6)
An old piano recalls the hands that played her, and the passion and pain she has observed. Musical drama starring Haydn Gwynne.
SAT 05:00 Beachcomber... By the Way (b0081s34)
Series 1
Episode 3
Cads and Swine, The Giddy Girlhood of Mrs Wretch, plus a few problems with parrots.
Richard Ingrams, John Wells, John Sessions and Patricia Routledge recreate the world of the JB Morton.
Running in the Daily Express from 1924 to 1975 – JB Morton’s surreally comic ‘Beachcomber’ column paved the way for a great deal of modern humour.
Adapted by Michael Barfield with Richard Ingrams.
Announcer: Brian Perkins
Producer: Harry Thompson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1989.
SAT 05:30 Living with the Enemy (b00771qx)
Episode 5
Sophie is mistaken for an asylum seeker, and Nick and Gyles are desperate to help her.
Sitcom about a Tory MP-turned-media celebrity and a comedian-turned-holistic therapist.
Written by and starring Nick Revell and Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandon ...... Gyles Brandreth
Nick Reynolds ...... Nick Revell
Sophie Okuyu ...... Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Piers ...... Martin Hyder
Immigration officer ...... Dan Mersh
Olga ...... Barunka O'Shaughnessy
Producer: Ed Morrish
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2006.
SAT 06:00 Noel Coward - Nude With Violin (b055f6vq)
Paris 1956: Paul Sorodin, the world-famous artist, has just died.
His family, gathered together for the funeral, is shocked by the discovery that during his life Sorodin had perpetrated an enormous hoax on the international art world.
Only Sebastien, his former valet, knows all the answers ...
Noel Coward’s comedy of manners dramatised by Peggy Wells.
Sebastien ..... Aubrey Woods
Isobel Sorodin ..... Joyce Carey
Jane Patricia ..... Routledge
Cherry-May Waterton ..... Barbara Mitchell
Anya Pavlikov ..... Betty Huntley-Wright
Jacob Friedland ..... Wilfrid Carter
Pamela ..... Margaret Wolfit
Colin Allan ..... Cuthbertson
Clinton Preminger ..... Junior Kerry Francis
Lauderdale ..... Rufus Frampton
Producer: Glyn Dearman
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1970.
SAT 07:30 Freedom Pass (b00ssn7l)
Episode 6
Alan Coren and Christopher Matthew take the train to Southend-on-Sea to recall the holidays of their youth. From September 2005.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b03g89cl)
Gloria and Me
Growing up in Belfast, the writer Glenn Patterson assumed that everything that moved him musically came from afar. To begin with, it was England and Glam Rock, but gradually strange sounds began to infiltrate from even further afield. A school friend introduced him to Patti Smith. Patti Smith introduced him to 'Gloria'. It was a convoluted route by which the song finally reached him - only a couple of miles from where it was written.
At a gig in the USA in 1988, Bruce Springsteen shouted "lets take it back to where it all started" as he launched into a version of Gloria. It's a song that's been covered by everyone from Simple Minds to Ricky Lee Jones to The Doors.
Glenn talks to Mickey Bradley, bass player with the Undertones, who remembers Gloria being one of the first songs the band learned to play. The simple three chord structure makes it deceptively straightforward - although Glenn's attempt to learn it might disprove that theory - but the song has always held a strange magic for him. Even now, he says, he would fight his corner to say it's one of the best songs Van Morrison has ever written.
Mickey and his fellow Undertones were learning to play Gloria while listening to Nuggets, an album of garage rock highlights put together by Patti Smith's guitarist, Lenny Kaye. His relationship with Gloria starts with the Patti Smith band and both he and Patti talk about why they picked this song to re-work.
And Glenn unearths a rare recording of the famously taciturn Van Morrison discussing the song, with a young Rolling Stone journalist, Cameron Crowe.
Produced by Rachel Hooper
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Four.
SAT 09:00 Edgar Wallace: The Man Who Wrote Too Much? (b055fy0h)
How can a writer, whose publisher declared him the 'King of Thrillers', and was thought to be responsible for a quarter of all new books read in Britain by the late 1920s, be largely forgotten today?
In this 3 hour archive special, crime writer Mark Billingham investigates the life of the man called the 'fiction factory', the best-selling author, journalist, playwright, film director and creator of King Kong – Edgar Wallace.
Wallace's life seems the stuff of fantasy. An illegitimate child in London, largely self-educated, he was the newspaper boy who became one of the most famous writers in the world. He sold millions of books, but he was plagued by debts. He died in Hollywood in 1932, aged 56, after writing the original story for King Kong. His body was returned by ocean liner in honour to Britain, only to be reunited with an ocean of outstanding bills.
Mark presents some of the best adaptations and documentaries about Edgar Wallace from the BBC Radio archive:
* A 1951 version of one of Wallace's biggest successes, The Ringer
* One of Wallace’s best crime creations, The Mind of Mr JG Reeder
* Loveable racing 'turf tipster' Educated Evans, starring Roy Hudd and Andrew Sachs.
And though he died in 1932, Mark has a hunch that he may be able to hear from Edgar Wallace himself.
His work was the source of countless 50s and 60s TV and film adaptions. His books have sold in their multi-millions. But from the 'Golden Age' of crime fiction it is Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie who are really remembered today. Was Edgar Wallace just a man who wrote, and did, too much?
Producer: Peter McHugh
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in March 2015.
SAT 12:00 Anne Tyler - Ladder of Years (Omnibus) (b055fy0k)
Episode 1
An unexpected romantic encounter in the grocery aisle sparks the beginning of a new adventure for homely Delia Grinstead.
Anne Tyler's unsettling story about marriage, family and hope.
Omnibus of the first five of ten parts dramatised by Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
Delia ...... Nancy Crane
Adrian ...... Ian Conningham
Sam ...... Nathan Osgood
Eliza ...... Jessica Turner
Rosemary ...... Rhiannon Neads
Skipper ...... David Acton
Carroll ...... Sam Valentine
Driscoll ...... Mark Edel-Hunt
Susie ...... Roslyn Hill
Director: David Hunter
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2015.
SAT 13:15 John Peacock - London Particulars (b008pbr7)
The Kitten Houser
With a frightened young girl in danger, Pip and Thomas investigate a sophisticated vice ring. Stars Charles Simpson.
SAT 14:00 Round the Horne (b00j05vh)
Series 1
Episode 1
The bona beginnings of one of the BBC's most popular comedies. The story so far, the BBC's Backroom Boys and part one of The Clissold Saga.
Starring Kenneth Horne. With Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee.
Recorded at the BBC's Paris Studio in Lower Regent Street, London. Announcer: Douglas Smith
Round The Horne was born out of the demise of BBC radio comedy Beyond Our Ken, after the end of writer Eric Merriman's involvement. Using the same cast and producer, Barry Took and Marty Feldman were persuaded to write the scripts - which led to four series that ran between 1965 and 1968 - packed full of parodies, recurring characters, catchphrases and double-entendres.
Music by Edwin Braden and the Hornblowers and The Fraser Hayes Four.
Producer: John Simmonds
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in March 1965.
SAT 14:30 Not in Front of the Children (b0552w74)
Series 1
A Drop of the Soft Stuff
The facts-of-life conversation is enough to drive Henry to drink.
Starring Wendy Craig and Francis Matthew.
The comedy mishaps of the Corner family - Jennifer and Henry and their three kids Trudi, Amanda and Robin.
Four series were first shown on BBC TV from 1967 to 1970. Richard Waring adapted his own scripts for this radio version, now fully restored from the original reel-to-reel tapes. Wendy Craig won a Best Actress BAFTA award for the TV version of Not in Front of the Children in 1969.
Jennifer Corner ...... Wendy Craig
Henry Corner ...... Francis Matthews
Mary ...... Charlotte Mitchell
Mr Barratt ...... Felix Felton
Trudi ...... Roberta Tovey
Robin ...... Hugo Keith-Johnston
Amanda: ...... Jill Riddick
Music by Ronnie Hazlehurst
Producer: Trafford Whitelock.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1969.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b03g89cl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Noel Coward - Nude With Violin (b055f6vq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b01l1dl0)
Series 2
Episode 1
John Finnemore, the writer and star of Cabin Pressure, regular guest on The Now Show and popper-upper in things like Miranda and Family Guy, records a second series of his hit sketch show.
The first series was described as "sparklingly clever" by The Daily Telegraph and "one of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time" by The Guardian. It featured Winnie the Pooh coming to terms with his abusive relationship with honey, how The Archers sounds to people who don't listen to the Archers and how Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde decided whose turn it was to do the washing up.
This episode doesn't feature any of those things, but it does feature an awkward celestial relationship, surprisingly easy contract negotiations, and a trailer for a film about the only mode of transport that hasn't had a film made about it yet.
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme is written by and stars John Finnemore. It also features Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan. It is produced by Ed Morrish.
SAT 18:00 Simon Guerrier - Graceless (b01l1h2g)
Series 1
The Sphere
Abby and Zara are not real. They were created by pan-dimensional beings to help save space and time. Starring Ciara Janson.
Abby - Ciara Janson
Zara - Laura Doddington
Marek - Fraser James
Daniel - David Warner
Nan - Patricia Brake
Nicholas - Alex Mallinson
Written by Simon Guerrier
Directed by Lisa Bowerman
A Big Finish Production.
SAT 19:00 Edgar Wallace: The Man Who Wrote Too Much? (b055fy0h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 4 Extra Stands Up (b055g0kz)
Series 2
Episode 2
Richard Melvin introduces a selection of more exciting stand up comedians.
Tiff Stevenson reveals her experience at a cinema in New York with her particularly Scottish boyfriend, whilst Boothby Graffoe discovers that he may have psychic ability.
Scottish comedian Jojo Sutherland reveals how she spies on her own children and her countryman Raymond Mearns is bemoaning his children as they leave home for the first (and last) time.
Having moved to London, Fern Brady explains how she seeks revenge on her friends who imitate her broad accent and distinguished headliner Fred MacAulay proves himself to be the Godfather of Scottish comedy.
Recorded at Edinburgh's comedy club The Stand.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Dabster Productions.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b05h7t3c)
From 10pm to midnight, seven days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Margaret Thatcher: Queen of Soho.
SAT 23:00 Goodness Gracious Me (b008x8fx)
Series 1
Episode 1
The teenage Bhangramuffins are DJing, the Maharisha Yogi is lecturing - and the hungry comedy team go for an 'English'.
Stars Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Nitin Sawhney, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia.
Gold Winner of the Sony Radio Academy Awards. The sketch comedy show originally ran on BBC Radio 4 from 1996 to 1998, later transferring to TV on BBC Two from 1998 to 2001.
Scripted by Sharat Sardana, Richard Pinto and the cast.
Produced by Gareth Edwards and Anil Gupta.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1996.
SAT 23:30 The Last Hurrah - Interview With the Snowman (b055g0pl)
Episode 2
Rik Mayall is Elton, the last remaining talking Snowman - an alcoholic, war-mongering, immortal, immoral tyrant. Duncan Pow is Ed Mullet.
Elton's interview with Ed sprawls onwards, in the depths of the dangerously secret and disgusting gentlemen's club, The Last Hurrah, moving gracelessly from the time he invented Y-Fronts to his highly suspicious escape from East Germany.
Specially adapted for radio from the original series "The Last Hurrah" - the late Rik Mayall is at his anarchic best, in his last great leading role.
Produced by Sweetchuck Productions.