SATURDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2016

SAT 00:00 Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere (b01rcwkv)
The Key
Beneath the streets of London there is another London. A subterranean labyrinth of sewers and abandoned tube stations. A somewhere that is Neverwhere.
An act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his ordinary life into a subterranean world under the streets of London. Stopping to help an injured girl on a London street, Richard is thrust from his workaday existence into the strange world of London Below.
So begins a curious and mysterious adventure deep beneath the streets of London, a London of shadows where the tube cry of 'Mind the Gap' takes on new meaning; for the inhabitants of this murky domain are those who have fallen through the gaps in society, the dispossessed, the homeless. Here Richard meets the Earl of Earl's Court, Old Bailey and Hammersmith, faces a life-threatening ordeal at the hands of the Black Friars, comes face to face with Great Beast of London, and encounters an Angel. Called Islington.
Joining the mysterious girl named Door and her companions, the Marquis de Carabas and the bodyguard, Hunter, Richard embarks on an extraordinary quest to escape from the clutches of the fiendish assassins Croup and Vandemar and to discover who ordered them to murder her family. All the while trying to work out how to get back to his old life in London Above.
A six part adaption of Neil Gaiman's novel adapted by Dirk Maggs, sees James McAvoy as Richard lead a stellar cast which includes Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Sophie Okonedo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Anthony Head, David Schofield, Bernard Cribbins, Romola Garai, George Harris, Andrew Sachs, Lucy Cohu, Johnny Vegas, Paul Chequer, Don Gilet and Abdul Salis.
SAT 00:30 Soul Music (b0076xbb)
Series 5
I Vow to thee my Country
A hymn that has attracted controversy for its patriotism, I Vow To Thee My Country was born just after the First World War.
Ralph Vaughan Williams had the inspirational idea to put together the stirring music from Holst's Jupiter movement and the poem written by American ambassador Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, which was found on his desk when he left office.
Featuring:
Raymond Head
David Burton
Bishop of Hulme, Stephen Lowe
Martin Linton
Battersea Singers
Julian Mitchell
Dr Martin Neary
Producer: Sara Conkey
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
SAT 01:00 Inspector Purbright - Charity Ends at Home (b007jtdj)
Episode 5
As suspicions over Palgrove grow, Inspector Purbright calls on his old friend Lucilla Teatime.
One of Colin Watson's Flaxborough Chronicles dramatised by Christopher Denys in 6 parts.
Stars John Rowe as Inspector Purbright, Paul Downing as Love, Russell Dixon as Dr Fergusson, Ann Rye as Lucilla Teatime, Geoffrey Banks as Mortimer Hive, Kathryn Hunt as Helen and Robin Polley as Sgt Malley.
Producer: Tony Cliff
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1992.
SAT 01:30 Heel, Toe, Step Together (b00wdf4b)
Heel, Toe, Step Together tells the story of two people who met at an east London market one day and the unlikely friendship that blossomed through dance.
Bob Hill, 86, has been dancing on and off since he was 16 and won many competitions with his late wife Iris Hill, who he lived with in Hackney. Katie Burningham, 28, is a radio producer and self-confessed bad dancer. Bob and Katie met by chance one day, shortly after Bob's wife Iris had died, and, three years later, Katie is still having dance lessons with Bob.
This programme brings together recordings of their dancing and explores why it is that Bob, and Katie, need to dance. Touching on themes of loss, loneliness, love and affection, Heel, Toe, Step Together reveals how, through music and movement, friendship can bridge generations.
Heel, Toe, Step Together was produced as part of the European Broadcasting Union's Master School on Radio Features, with the creative advice of Edwin Brys.
Producer: Katie Burningham
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 02:00 Mary Wesley - The Camomile Lawn (b0080sjp)
Episode 10
A funeral sparks a big reunion of old faces at the house in Cornwall.
A house - with a fragrant lawn stretching down to the Cornish cliffs - is the link between the five cousins which neither the war nor adulthood can break.
Published in 1984, Mary Wesley novel abridged in ten parts by Elizabeth Bradbury.
Concluded by Sian Phillips.
Producer: Tracey Neale
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1989.
SAT 02:15 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04b2wzn)
Lumping and Splitting
By 1850 identifying and classifying plants had become far more important than mere list making. Establishing the global laws of botany - what grew where and why - occupied the well travelled naturalist Joseph Hooker - son of Kew's director William Hooker and close friend of Charles Darwin. Kathy Willis hears from historian Jim Endersby on how Hooker was to acquire species from all over the world to build up the first accurate maps of the world's flora.
Mark Nesbitt, curator of Kew's economic botany collection, reveals how gifts to Hooker in the collection reveal the relationship between the amateur collector in the field and Hooker back at Kew was one built on trust and mutual understanding.
But, as Jim Endersby explains, the relationships were frought with tension when it came to naming new plants. Arguments between those claiming they had found new species (often called "splitters") versus cautious botanists, such as Hooker, who would often "lump" together species as variants of the same, raised new debates about what constitutes a new species. And as Mark Chase, Keeper of Kew's Jodrell Laboratory reveals, the arguments continue today.
Producer: Adrian Washbourne
Presenter: Kathy Willis is director of science at Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. She is also professor of long-term ecology and a fellow of Merton College, both at Oxford University. Winner of several awards, she has spent over 20 years researching and teaching biodiversity and conservation at Oxford and Cambridge.
SAT 02:30 Jacqueline Susann - Valley of the Dolls (b00mbmd1)
Episode 5
Anne has fallen for Lyon Burke, but her friendship with Helen is put to the test. Jacqueline Susann drama with Madeleine Potter.
SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b00yz54n)
Bird Cloud
Episode 5
Pulitzer prize-winning writer, Annie Proulx, sets out to build her perfect home in a remote corner of Wyoming.
Proulx's first work of non-fiction in twenty years tells a personal story of designing and constructing a house in harmony with her interests, work and personality.
Living for her first year at Bird Cloud, Annie Proulx enjoys the range of bird and wildlife that inhabits her property. But it becomes clear that the remoteness and the snow will force her to reassess her dream.
Read by Laura Brook
Abridged by Elizabeth Reeder
Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
SAT 03:00 Pilgrim by Sebastian Baczkiewicz (b04vdnbz)
Series 6
Jackson's Mill
by Sebastian Baczkiewicz. A new series of dark fantasies featuring William Palmer, the immortal wanderer. Pilgrim discovers that an old friend is being haunted by a malevolent spirit. Meanwhile, homeless people are disappearing from a local shelter.
1 of 4
CAST
Pilgrim ..... Paul Hilton
Morgan ..... Justin Salinger
Hartley ..... Matthew Tennyson
Liam ..... Shaun Mason
Karen ..... Bettrys Jones
Gabriel ..... Paul Heath
Gaynor ..... Jane Slavin
The Girl ..... Agnes Bateman
Directed by Marc Beeby
SAT 03:45 Pilgrim by Sebastian Baczkiewicz (b04vk72d)
Series 6
St Lewin
by Sebastian Baczkiewicz.
In search of silver and gold, Pilgrim comes to St Lewin where the malevolence of a powerful old enemy is causing havoc in the lives of ordinary people .
2 of 4
Pilgrim ..... Paul Hilton
Mister Truffles ..... Zubin Varla
Binnie ..... Helen Longworth
Mirabella ..... Janice Acquah
Jerry ..... Ian Conningham
Francis ..... Paul Heath
Jose ..... Shaun Mason
Maurice ..... David Acton
Little Truffles ..... Bettrys Jones
The Girl ..... Agnes Bateman
Directed by Marc Beeby
SAT 04:30 Pilgrim by Sebastian Baczkiewicz (b04wtgjs)
Series 6
Ouldmeadow Jack
by Sebastian Baczkiewicz.
3 of 4
Still in search of gold to rescue the people trapped in Hartley's mine, Pilgrim comes to Ouldmeadow where he helps an old friend make a final river trip.
CAST
Pilgrim ..... Paul Hilton
George ..... Karl Johnson
Baz ..... Paul Ready
Val ..... Elaine Claxton
Maeva ..... Roslyn Hill
Directed by Marc Beeby
SAT 05:15 Pilgrim by Sebastian Baczkiewicz (b04xnd01)
Series 6
Daventree Mansions
by Sebastian Baczkiewicz.
Having acquired copper silver and gold, Pilgrim returns to Jacksons Mill where his friend Morgan and the spirit Hartley have prepared a nasty surprise. Last in series.
4 of 4
CAST
Pilgrim ..... Paul Hilton
Morgan ..... Justin Salinger
Mattias ..... Nicholas Jones
Siri ..... Vineeta Rishi
Hartley ..... Matthew Tennyson
Liam ..... Shaun Mason
Karen ..... Bettrys Jones
Gaynor ..... Jane Slavin
Directed by Marc Beeby
SAT 06:00 Hood (b071y1z2)
Warriors' Harvest
The rains have come and Philip De Nicholay, the Lord High Sherriff of Nottingham, has a famine on his hands.
It's 1201 and with rain destroying the grain stores, everyone is driven to the brink of starvation. The only person who can help the Sheriff is Robin Hood who's hiding in Sherwood Forest with plundered grain.
The Sheriff negotiates the King's pardons if the outlaws help to feed the starving and fight the marauding Celts, who have reached the outskirts of Nottingham. Will they be able to return to normal life?
Stars Lee Ingleby as Philip de Nicholay, Anthony Milles as Robert de Loxley, Peter Greenall as Little John, Damian Cooper as Will Scarlet, Sean Connolly as Friar Tuck, Sarah McKendrick as Lady Marian and Billy Miller as William de Warrene.
Director: Iain Meadows.
Produced by Iain Meadows and Matt Hopper for Spiteful Puppet Entertainment.
SAT 07:30 Tony Hawks's Guide to the Guides (b0075w3h)
Holidays With Pets
Comedian and writer Tony Hawks tests the guide books that claim to help us navigate our way around our holidays.
Testing the plethora of reference books to the limit, Tony sets off with golden retriever, Billy to seek some pet-friendly locations in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.
Producer: Lucy Willmore
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2000.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b01kjgxc)
The Night of the Long Knives
Fifty years ago, Harold Macmillan instigated a purge that shocked British politics to its core. It was the most dramatic government reshuffle in modern history. In one evening he sacked seven members of his Cabinet including his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Selwyn Lloyd. It was meant to be a show of strength but to everyone else, it was a catastrophic admission of weakness signalling the beginning of the end of his premiership and Tory party leadership.
In the late 50s, Macmillan had earned the nickname Supermac for rescuing the country from the wake of Suez and ushering in a period of unrivalled affluence. But Local Elections had gone badly and the by-elections worse. The government's tight economic policies, thanks to Chancellor Selwyn Lloyd, were unpopular with the voters. Selwyn Lloyd's attempts to keep both inflation and wages under control had led to public sector wages being frozen. Nurses and teacher were getting poorer while the rich were getting richer. The public was furious, and Macmillan was feeling the pressure. The Cabinet was fractious and there were complaints of a lack of leadership. He had to make an example of his Chancellor. The Night of the Long Knives had begun.
In modern politics these events have become shorthand for a botched reshuffle. The scale of the event has never been repeated since, but the tension between a PM and the Chancellor remains.
Through a combination of archive material and original interviews with historians and eyewitnesses such as Jonathan Aitken who, as private secretary to Selwyn Lloyd, captured the drama of that night in his hitherto unknown diary.
Producer: Kati Whitaker
A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 09:00 Comedy Greats (b007k35z)
1990s
Episode 1
Decade by decade, Barry Cryer showcases some of the funniest and finest shows ever broadcast by the BBC.
Yo! Well wicked Baz presents six fave shows plucked from the 1990s schedules of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5:-
* A Look Back At The Nineties
(2/5) 1996:
Recorded in 1993 - Brian Perkins, Kate Robbins and Chris Barrie "look back" at the decade that was yet to happen.
* Hair in the Gate
Series 1 (3/6)
Camilla revamps the TV arts show to keep her cutting edge lover. Stars Harriet Thorpe and Alistair McGowan. From 1993.
* The Now Show
Series 3 (4/13)
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis poke fun at events of 1999 via sketches, songs and stand-up. With Bert Tyler-Moore, George Jeffrie, Mitch Benn and Marcus Brigstocke.
* Goodness Gracious Me
Series 3 (6/6)
'The Archers' and 'The Waltons' with a twist and The Minx Twins tackle feminism. Stars Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal, Nina Wadia and Kulvinder Ghir. From 1998.
* On The Town With The League of Gentlemen
(4/6) Gunpowder, Treason and Plot
The eccentric locals of the town of Spent get an unusual new guy for the bonfire. Pre-TV sitcom with Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith. From 1997.
* On The Hour
Series 2 (5/6)
Ireland hits the headlines, as the programme celebrates its 33rd birthday. Chris Morris fronts the news satire. With Steve Coogan, David Schneider, Rebecca Front, Doon Mackichan and Patrick Marber. From 1992.
Produced and scripted by Peter Reed
Made for BBC 7 and first broadcast in July 2003.
SAT 12:00 Dad's Army (b007jqzq)
Series 3
The Recruit
With Captain Mainwaring in hospital, the Vicar and the Verger spark unrest in the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard platoon.
The comic exploits of a Second World War Home Guard platoon in Walmington-on-Sea.
Adapted for radio from Jimmy Perry and David Croft's TV scripts by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles.
Captain Mainwaring …. Arthur Lowe
Sergeant Wilson …. John Le Mesurier
Corporal Jones …. Clive Dunn
Private Frazer …. John Laurie
Private Godfrey …. Arnold Ridley
Private Pike …. Ian Lavender
Warden Hodges …. Bill Pertwee
Private Walker …. Larry Martyn
Vicar …. Frank Williams
Verger …. Edward Sinclair
Announcer/Newsreader …. John Snagge
Producer: John Dyas
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1976.
SAT 12:30 Educating Archie (b07216wl)
From 04/02/1954
Brough goes to the fair and Archie visits the future.
Radio ventriloquism from Peter Brough and schoolboy, Archie Andrews.
With Harry Secombe, Beryl Reid, Hattie Jacques, Bernard Miles and Peter Madden.
Running from 1950-1958, Educating Archie introduced a number of soon-to-be household names to listeners, including Tony Hancock, Benny Hill, Harry Secombe, Dick Emery, Hattie Jacques, Bruce Forsyth and Max Bygraves - all taking a turn in tutoring Archie.
Script by Eric Sykes, Walter Ridley and Ronald Wolfe
With Ronald Chesney and the BBC Revue Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.
Producer: Roy Speer
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in February 1954.
SAT 13:00 Joanna Trollope - Second Honeymoon: Omnibus (b015bf2m)
Edie must try to cope with an empty nest and a husband looking forward to the second honeymoon. Stars Christine Kavanagh.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b072181l)
Jeff Lynne
ELO's Jeff Lynne chooses 'If I Loved You' from Carousel by Rodgers and Hammerstein and 'Only the Lonely' by Roy Orbison.
SAT 14:15 Drama (b01gc3hb)
Katie Hims - Lilo
Childhood sweethearts meet up after nearly 20 years, wondering should they have stayed together? But a childhood act of violence somehow attracts and repels them in equal measure.
Starring Maxine Peake and Trystan Gravelle, Lilo is a play about love, loss and trying to make sense of the past.
Trystan and Simone haven't seen each other for eighteen years. They went to school together, grew up together and fell in love. It ended badly and then Trystan went off to university. To Trystan's disappointment Simone is still married, to his arch enemy no less. They even have kids. Trystan has no family but a successful career. They both claim to be happy. They both claim to have no regrets. But as the evening progresses they get down to the heart of the matter. Have they wasted the last eighteen years? Should they be together now? And how much did Simone's act of violence in the swimming pool, as a child, change the shape of both their lives? When the pub kicks them out they make their way to Trystan's hotel room. They have never slept together. Are they going to sleep together now?
We meet Trystan and Simone at 11, 18 and 36 and piece together the story of their friendship which seems to have foundered on an incident in the pool that completely alters the course of their lives.
Katie Hims writes for radio, stage and television. She has written on the BBC's long-running series Casualty as well as penning numerous radio plays, including her award winning debut, Earthquake Girl, which won the Richard Imison Award 1998, and an adaptation of the best selling novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Katie's series of three new afternoon plays for Radio 4 called Lost Property have just been broadcast. She is writing an original stage play for Clean Break Theatre Company.
Cast:
Simone ...... Maxine Peake
Trystan ..... Trystan Gravelle
Simone (11 yrs) ..... Shannon Flynn
Trystan (11 yrs) ..... Euan Brown
Sound Design by Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Melanie Harris
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b01kjgxc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Hood (b071y1z2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Tony Hawks's Guide to the Guides (b0075w3h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 David Ashton - The Two Sisters (b0721g5y)
A lecherous salesman stumbles into the claustrophobic world of two sisters with a grim secret.
Starring Joan Sims and Barbara Jefford.
David Ashton 's darkly humorous horror story has several decidedly "unsisterly" twists and turns.
Henrietta ...... Barbara Jefford
Abigail ...... Joan Sims
The Nephew ...... Robert Glenister
Producer: Martin Jenkins
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1996
SAT 19:00 Comedy Greats (b007k35z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Richard Herring's Objective (b017mt04)
Series 2
The Old School Tie
Richard Herring examines 'The Old School Tie' an object that has come to represent public school networks and contacts. Richard asks if it is acceptable to be prejudice against the posh?
Series in which Richard Herring pokes and prods a variety of controversial objects and sees if the controversy falls out. Through vox pops, interviews and stand up comedy Richard examines the objects' history, meaning and significance and challenges our assumed logic and stereotypes.
Can we reclaim these objects away from their unfortunate associations?
Written by and starring Richard Herring.
With Emma Kennedy and special guest Alexei Sayle.
Producer: Tilusha Ghelani
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2011.
SAT 22:30 Alun Cochrane's Fun House (b01s0dld)
Bedroom
Comedian Alun Cochrane has a 25 year mortgage which he can only pay off by being funny. In this series he takes us on a room by room, stand up tour of his house.
He has a fridge that beeps at him when he doesn't move quickly enough and a fire alarm he can't reach. His relationship with his house is a complicated one.
A hoarder of funny and original observations on everyday life, Alun invites us to help him de-clutter his mind and tidy his ideas into one of those bags that you hoover all the air out of and keep under your bed. This show will help Alun and his house work through their relationship issues and prevent a separation that Alun can ill afford; at least not until the market picks up anyway.
Starring ... Alun Cochrane and Gavin Osborn
Written by ... Alun Cochrane and Andy Wolton
Produced by ... Carl Cooper.
First broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b07302l1)
The best in contemporary comedy. Arthur Smith is joined by Mark Thomas.
SAT 23:00 Pleased to Meet You (b007k3c3)
Series 1
Episode 4
90-something good-time girl Dora Dale spills the beans spills the beans on a famous singer, the man who played Kojak and a famous newsreader gets his funk on.
Betraying confidences and breaking unwritten rules galore, the friend of the stars reveals some surprising and salacious secrets.
Written by and starring Martin Kelner and Jake Yapp.
Made for BBC7 and first broadcast in August 2006.
SAT 23:30 Mark Thomas: The Manifesto (b00fm3lj)
Series 1
Episode 1
The renowned comedian and activist attempts to piece together working policies with the aid of you, the people. From June 2009.