SATURDAY 04 JULY 2015

SAT 00:00 The Price of Fear (b007jshy)
Lot 132
Horror legend Vincent Price tells the artistically horrifying tale of a painting. With Douglas Blackwell, Alexander John, Elizabeth Morgan and Vincent Price
SAT 00:30 Fry's English Delight (b00t9t6r)
Series 3
The Trial of Qwerty
All rise for Judge Stephen Fry, in whose court the Qwerty keyboard stands trial.
The gravest charge against the still ubiquitous Qwerty is that the layout was designed deliberately to slow typing down.
Typists in the 1870's got too fast for their machines. The keys would easily stick. Typists would have to delve under the bonnet to untangle them.
Messy business. Dirty Mr Qwerty.
But will the charge against Qwerty stick? Invented in the 1870's before the age of ergonomics and future proofing, it was a result of a commercial race to dominate the new typewriting industry with a universal system. The father of formats. There were typewriting races too, which resembled today's motor racing. Hyped up typists, competing systems and publicity hungry manufacturers proved only one thing: the new fangled typewriting machines could be very noisy.
Alongside contributions from historians and qwerty experts, Stephen meets a man who has deqwertified himself and adopted Dvorak, a system claimed to be quicker and cleaner than Qwerty. There's also an examination of newer, more modern formats, which may be more efficient but are no match for qwerty.
We also meet some speedy junior qwertists' primary school pupils who learn to touch type as part of their curriculum. They come up an idea for the ultimate system for inputting text and in so doing demonstrate an important point about how thought relates to language, and how any system, using keyboard, pen or even speech is a compromise.
But will Qwerty be acquitted?
Producer: Nick Baker
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 01:00 Falco (b00qyr9t)
The Iron Hand of Mars
Episode 4
After making enquiries with Claudia, the missing legate's mistress, Falco decides he has to cross the Rhine into Barbarian territory. Accompanied by Justinus, Helveticus and a motley crew of raw recruits, he sets off on his most dangerous journey yet.
Things begin to look ominous when they find a deserted Roman camp in the heart of the forest.
Starring Anton Lesser as Marcus Didius Falco, Anna Madely as Helena Justina, David Holt as Xanthus and Gary Lewis as Helveticus.
Dramatised by Mary Cutler.
Directed at BBC Birmingham by Peter Leslie Wild.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.
SAT 01:30 A Short History of the Fork (b0075ztd)
If you think about it - which you probably never have - the fork is an odd instrument - four curved, sharpened prongs emanating from a fat ridge joined to a handle.
But where did it come from, and how should it be used?
Joe Farrell tucks into the tale with a little help from collectors, manufacturers and fans of the fork.
Producer: Miles Warde
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2000.
SAT 02:00 Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's (b0089htv)
Episode 10
Henry Goodman reads Truman Capote's vivid and witty novel about the relationship between young writer, Paul Varjak and captivating girl-about-town, Holly Golightly, in 1940s New York.
With her tousled blond hair and upturned nose, dark glasses and chic black dresses, Holly Golightly is top notch in style and a sensation wherever she goes. Her brownstone apartment vibrates with martini-soaked parties as she plays hostess to millionaires and gangsters alike. Yet Holly never loses sight of her ultimate goal - to find a real life place like Tiffany's that makes her feel at home.
Truman Capote's 1958 novella abridged in 10-parts by James Robertston.
Born in New Orleans in 1925, Truman Capote left school at 15 to work for the New Yorker - his first, and last, regular job. He's the author of many highly praised books, including A Tree of Night and Other Stories, The Grass Harp, In Cold Blood, Music for Chameleons and Answered Prayers. Truman Capote died in 1984.
Producer: Bruce Young
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2001.
SAT 02:15 Life at 24 Frames a Second (b00xhfg3)
You Must Remember This
"Every movie is about time passing away and memory trying to say it was a story."
Author David Thomson continues his idiosyncratic journey through the collective dream of cinema.
Producer: Mark Burman.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2011.
SAT 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b00jwy2c)
ME Braddon - Lady Audley's Secret
Episode 5
Dramatisation of the classic Victorian thriller by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
Robert leaves the splendour of Audley Court to continue his search for his missing friend at a draughty hilltop inn. When he interviews Lady Audley's former maid, he provokes a surprising result.
Mary Braddon ...... Hattie Morahan
Lucy, Lady Audley ...... Charlotte Emmerson
Robert Audley ...... Alex Wyndham
Phoebe Marks ...... Lizzy Watts
Luke Marks ...... Benjamin Askew
Directed by Julie Beckett and Fiona Kelcher.
SAT 02:45 Book at Bedtime (b009fspj)
Sadie Jones - The Outcast
Desecration
Increasingly alone and at odds with the world, self-loathing Lewis makes a dramatic gesture of despair. Read by Emma Fielding.
SAT 03:00 Anthony Trollope - The Pallisers (b007jwgm)
Episode 5
Phineas Finn's political career is on the rise, but he is short of money. Glencora worries over her children's inheritance.
SAT 04:00 The 99p Challenge (b01rtwl1)
Series 5
Episode 5
Crazy panel show capers with Sue Perkins, Marcus Brigstocke, Miranda Hart, Nick Frost and Armando Iannucci. From September 2004.
SAT 04:30 Sneakiepeeks (b00pfv03)
Special Relationship
A CIA man spends the day with Team Beagle on an exchange visit.
But will his past come back to haunt him?
Comedy by Harry Venning and Neil Brand about a team of inept, backstabbing surveillance operatives.
Bill ...... Richard Lumsden
Sharla ...... Nina Conti
Mark ...... Daniel Kaluuya
Colonel ...... Ewan Bailey
Bristow ...... John Biggins
Sean ...... Joseph Cohen Cole
Lenny ...... Piers Wehner
Ignatius/Fuego ...... Nigel Hastings
Man ...... Rhys Jennings
Producer: Katie Tyrrell
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2009.
SAT 05:00 Little Blighty on the Down (b00tr63g)
Series 4
Episode 3
Council leader John tries to impress a delegation with a village cover-up. Political satire with John Baddeley. From July 1991.
SAT 05:30 The Price of Happiness (b060724p)
Series 1
A Big White Wedding
Stand-up poet Kate Fox explores some of the things she doesn't want and has cheerfully failed to achieve in life, despite feeling society constantly reminds her that, as a woman, she should.
This time, Kate looks at the subject of "A Big White Wedding". Is it every little girl's dream to be walked down the aisle feeling like a Disney Princess, looking like she's been swallowed by taffeta? What if you're more Lightwater Valley Lass than Disney Princess?
Kate got married in a lighthouse, with guests waiting to cross the causeway because the lighthouse keeper drew up the wrong tide times. The wedding cost under a thousand pounds and guests brought their own food. To Kate, it was perfect. But would this somewhat unconventional day cost other brides their wedding smiles?
Statistics show that males and females still divide domestic duties up in traditional ways, although in Kate's household these roles are almost completely reversed. Is there such a thing as the perfect formula for marriage or is it a tradition as outdated as Morris Dancing with only slightly fewer hankies and bells?
Kate Fox is a comedian and poet from the North East of England. She has contributed poems and comic pieces to many Radio 4 shows including Saturday Live, Wondermentalist Cabaret, From Fact to Fiction, Woman's Hour and Arthur Smith's Balham Bash.
Producer: Lianne Coop
An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2015
SAT 06:00 Saturday Drama (b007674j)
Ian Curteis - The Falklands Play
Controversial account of how Margaret Thatcher's government went to war to regain the Falkland Islands in 1982.
Starring Patricia Hodge as Margaret Thatcher MP, John Standing as William Whitelaw MP, Michael Cochrane as Nicholas Ridley MP, Clive Merrison as John Nott MP and Robert Hardy as Sir Anthony Parsons.
The BBC commissioned the TV play from writer Ian Curteis in 1986, but notoriously shelved it for 16 years because of its pro-Thatcher stance ahead of a general election. The decision to halt it was taken by then BBC 1 Controller Michael Grade, creating a press furore over claims of bias and censorship.
A TV version was also produced for BBC Four with Patricia Hodge once again portrayed Margaret Thatcher.
Directed by Jeremy Howe.
First heard on Radio 4 2002.
SAT 07:30 Fabulous Flops (b0131ylr)
More Fabulous Flops
Episode 1
Was Bat Boy fang-tastic? Paul Roseby searches New York and London for musical failures. With Elaine Stritch and Sandi Toksvig.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b01qsqfp)
The Devil's Horn
The saxophone is the most important musical invention of the last 170 years. Lauded for its adventurous sound, its sensuality and seemingly never-ending versatility, the brass woodwind horn has become one of the most popular instruments in the world. Today, it's at home in classical music as it is in pop with hundreds of famous composers writing significant pieces for its shapely curves. Neither of these musical homes compare to its place in jazz, where its presence is so influential it's hard to think of another instrument more associated with the genre.
But for some the sax produces a devilish sound, whether that's down to taste or decency. It's been shunned by polite society, banished from orchestras and even denounced by governments. Much worse, in recent times it has been accused of blandness and crowned the king of elevator music.
British jazz musician Soweto Kinch examines the saxophone's place in history in Radio 4's Archive on 4. An alto player himself, Kinch investigates the instrument's captivating and somewhat turbulent journey through musical and spoken archive. Aiding Soweto with expert analysis are his friend and fellow sax player Courtney Pine, leading classical saxophonist Amy Dickson, historian Dr Paul Cohen, director of the 2012 World Saxophone Congress Richard Ingham and comedian David Quantick.
SAT 09:00 Jay Rayner Gets Stuffed (b03tr1fv)
Food writer and restaurant critic, Jay Rayner's known for banging on about the awful - and sometimes lovely - things that cooks do to blameless ingredients. Here, he offers up a few of his own.
From a personal selection of deliciously fat-drenched, gut-busting grub-related radio, get your teeth into the decades of us mucking around with our food.
On Jay's mouth-watering menu:
* A generous helping of loudmouth chef Anthony Bourdain
* A rare appearance from Elizabeth David on BBC Radio 4's 'The Food Programme'
* Keith Floyd starring as a Roman chef in a late night BBC Radio 4 comedy
* Nina Myskow talking to essayist David Sedaris, children's author Judith Kerr and dancer Carlos Acosta about what they really eat.
* A dash of Miles Jupp as Damien Trench, 'In and Out of The Kitchen'
* A pinch of sarcasm with 'The Sunday Format' on Gastronimity.
* A taste of a Philadelpia deli in award-winning documentary, 'One Big Kitchen Table'
* A mouthful from a BBC Radio 2 phone-in about the chicken shop with Vanessa Feltz
* And to wash it all down: "Hog lard, of course that's what killed my grandfather...at 94" says a pork-loving chef from the American South. Get fired up for the world of competitive American barbecuing with Russell Davies in 'You Is What You Eat'.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Testbed Productions.
SAT 12:00 Steptoe and Son (b00sbh9h)
Series 1
The Bath
Harold's plan for a proper bathroom upset his father Albert.
Starring Wilfrid Brambell as Albert and Harry H Corbett as Harold.
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 was set in a house with a yard full of junk, featuring the lives of rag and bone men Albert Steptoe and his son Harold and it was the spark for a run of 8 series for TV.
Adapted for radio from Galton and Simpson's TV script by Gale Pedrick.
Produced by Bobby Jaye
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in September 1966.
SAT 12:30 Dad's Army (b007jmyj)
Series 2
Boots, Boots, Boots
The Home Guard platoon take action when Captain Mainwaring becomes obsessed with their feet.
Starring Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring, John Le Mesurier as Sergeant Wilson, Clive Dunn as Corporal Jones, John Laurie as Private Frazer, Ian Lavender as Private Pike and Arnold Ridley as Godfrey.
Adapted for radio from Jimmy Perry and David Croft's TV scripts by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles.
Producer: John Dyas
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1975.
SAT 13:00 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (Omnibus) (b0615xzs)
Significant Others
1980s San Francisco. Mrs Madrigal and her children are back. Kate Harper stars in Lin Coghlan's Tales of the City dramatisation. From July 2015.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b04bw4sd)
Chris Froome
Chris Froome shares his Inheritance Tracks - 'All You Need Is Love' by the Beatles and 'Scatterlings of Africa' by Johnny Clegg.
SAT 14:15 In the Psychiatrist's Chair (b0615ynw)
Ruth Rendell
Queen of crime Ruth Rendell tells Professor Anthony Clare why she's jaundiced about the idea of the 'happy family'.
Ruth Rendell was born in 1930 and died in 2015.
Psychiatrist Dr Anthony Clare's in depth interviews with prominent people from different walks of life.
Born in Dublin, author Anthony held a doctorate in medicine, a master's degree in philosophy and was a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. After becoming a regular on BBC Radio 4's Stop the Week in the 1980s, he became Britain's best-known psychiatrist and earned his own vehicle, In the Psychiatrist's Chair.
Starting in 1982, this series ran until 2001 and also transferred to TV.
Anthony Clare died suddenly in Paris aged 64 in 2007.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1994.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b01qsqfp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Saturday Drama (b007674j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Fabulous Flops (b0131ylr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 Stanislaw Lem - Solaris (b00pf4xk)
Episode 2
Psychologist Kris is falling in love with his replica wife and wants to take her back to Earth with him. His colleagues are simultaneously plotting to destroy the planet.
Stanislaw Lem's famous modern sci-fi classic, dramatised by Hattie Naylor.
Starring Ron Cook as Kris, Stuart Richman as Sartoris, Tim McMullan as Snow and Joanne Froggatt as Rheya.
Music by Alice Trueman
Sound Design: Steve Brooke
Directed at BBC Manchester by Polly Thomas
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.
SAT 19:00 Jay Rayner Gets Stuffed (b03tr1fv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Hardeep at The Stand (b01qq813)
Series 3
Episode 1
Join Hardeep Singh Kohli for some hilarious stand-up comedy from a selection of the best comedians working in the world right now. Hardeep at The Stand captures the entire comedy experience, there's backstage revelations, jokes, anecdotes and lots and lots of laughter.
In this episode, Australian funny woman Sarah Kendall talks about aeroplane travel with a baby, Tanyalee Davis shares her experiences of being three foot six inches tall and Damien Crow shares his thoughts on being a Goth!
SAT 22:15 The Problem With Adam Bloom (b00g3xwp)
Series 2
Problems
Adam Bloom has a problem. He's fed up with having problems.
But would not having problems really be any better?
With Rob Rouse and Stefano Paolini.
Written by Adam Bloom.
Producer: Adam Bromley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2004.
SAT 22:30 Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive (b007xs3b)
Series 3
Episode 4
The comedic alchemist brews up a potent comic potion. With David Cross, Clive Anderson and Mark Watson. From September 2007.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0623d5w)
From 10pm to midnight, seven days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Ivo Graham.
SAT 23:00 Alan Parker's 59 Minutes of Truth (b007jvkb)
Episode 1
The Urban Warrior clambers on to his soapbox to impart more undeniable truths to a nation crying out for direction and guidance.
The comedy and music mix includes a cure for apathy, if he can be bothered.
Written by and starring Simon Munnery.
With Peter Serafinowicz.
Producer: Aled Evans
First broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in February 1995.