SATURDAY 28 MAY 2016

SAT 00:00 The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton (b007wqf0)
The Earth in Anarchy
The allies head for the coastal town using horses, then motor cars to outrun their masked pursuers.
Published in 1908, GK Chersterton's most famous novel is read in 13 parts by Geoffrey Palmer.
Director: Lawrence Jackson
Made for BBC Radio 7 by BBC Northern Ireland.
First broadcast in 2005.
SAT 00:30 Soul Music (b00mk6tc)
Series 8
Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme, by Thomas Tallis
Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.
Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis
When Vaughan Williams wrote his Tallis Fantasia in 1910, he changed the course of British music. Here at last was a piece of music which was no longer under the Teutonic influence, but which drew on old English hymn tunes and folk idioms for its themes. As the string music builds to a climax, interviewees tell how this music has brought solace and hope in times of tragedy and changed the course of their lives.
When composers Herbert Howells and Ivor Gurney heard the premiere of Vaughan Williams' Tallis Fantasia in Gloucester Cathedral in 1910, it's said that they walked the streets of Gloucester all night because of the sheer excitement of possibility that this new piece had awakened in them.
This programme tells how the beauty and richness of Vaughan Williams' Tallis Fantasia awakened a life long love of classical music in a nine year old boy at bedtime; how it served as comfort for an artist in despair and how it brought solace to a grieving father
Contributors:
Michael Kennedy
Ian Clarke
EM Marshall
Rolf Jordan
Peter Phillips
Harry Atterbury
Colin Wood
Producer: Rosie Boulton
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2009.
SAT 01:00 Dixon of Dock Green (b012yv9b)
Series 1
London Pride
George Dixon is showing new boy in blue, Andy Crawford, the ropes on the beat of Dock Green in London's East End.
Much to PC Crawford's surprise, Dixon is prepared to bend the rules in order to arrest one of a gang of safebreakers.
Radio revival of BBC TV's famous copper starring David Calder as PC George Dixon and David Tennant as Andy Crawford.
Dixon of Dock Green's roots go back to 1950 film drama 'The Blue Lamp' which ended with Dixon being shot dead. However, Warner's role was resurrected for the BBC TV series running from 1955 to 1976.
PC George Dixon ...... David Calder
PC Andy Crawford ...... David Tennant
Jack Judd ...... MacDonnell
Emmy Judd ...... Avril Elgar
Lenny Judd ...... Jacob Dylan
Agar ...... Jonathan Tafler
Fred Jenkins ...... Eddie Martin
Written by Ted Willis. Dramatised from his TV screenplay by Sue Rodwell.
Produced in Bristol by Jeremy Howe and Viv Beeby.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2005.
SAT 01:30 He Belonged to Glasgow - The Will Fyffe Story (b00vky75)
Born in Dundee in 1885, Will Fyffe became synonymous with a different city when his song 'I Belong To Glasgow' captured the nation's hearts.
After spending his formative years in touring theatre, Will Fyffe switched to comedy and music hall, and became a headline act throughout Scotland. Along with his contemporary Harry Lauder, his humour transcended the regional stage and appearances all over Britain led to five Royal Variety performances.
A leading film star of the 1930s and 40s, he made one Hollywood film, although this burgeoning career was put on hold as war broke out and he returned to entertain the troops.
An accident in 1947 led to his untimely death, but his body of work lives on through his songs, sketches and films.
In this programme, singer-songwriter and Deacon Blue frontman Ricky Ross looks at Fyffe's life, career and legacy with family, film historians and music hall experts, including Professor Jeffrey Richards, and Will Fyffe's daughter, Eileen.
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2010.
SAT 02:00 Kate Grenville - The Secret River (b00nf0tr)
Adam in Paradise
William stakes his claim on Thornhill's Point, but other people have the same idea. Read by Ron Cook.
SAT 02:15 In Search of Ourselves: A History of Psychology and the Mind (b042lp8w)
We Do What We're Told
Following the Second World War, psychologists wanted to understand how so many ordinary Germans could have agreed to participate in the Nazis' atrocities.
Martin Sixsmith looks at their attempts to explain the banality of evil, including the controversial experiments of Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo. And he talks to Oxford Professor Miles Hewstone about how far social psychology has come in clarifying how we think and act within a group.
Series consultant, Professor Daniel Pick, Birkbeck, University of London.
Produced by Sara Parker
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 02:30 The Churchills - Speaking for Themselves (b007jrjy)
Episode 10
Winston writes from Canada. Randolph leaves Oxford for a lecture tour of the USA. With Alex Jennings and Sylvestra Le Touzel. From February 1999.
SAT 02:45 Miles Kington - How Shall I Tell the Dog? (b00yc4vx)
Episode 5
Test your own will to live, and how to write a funny book about cancer. Miles Kington's last letters. With Michael Palin.
SAT 03:00 Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov (b00yc3jw)
Episode 5
Following Ivan's dramatic appearance at his brother's trial, Katerina prepares to deal Dmitry a fatal blow.
Starring Roy Marsden.
Conclusion of Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky's final novel published in 1880.
Dramatised by Melissa Murray.
Dmitry ...... Paul Hilton
Ivan ...... Nicholas Boulton
Alyosha ...... Carl Prekopp
Katerina ...... Juliet Aubrey
Grushenka ...... Katy Cavanagh
Lise ...... Emma Noakes
Mrs Khoklakova ...... Rachel Atkins
Grigory ...... Desmond McNamara
Devil ...... Sam Dale
Judge ...... Ian Masters
Prosecutor ...... Philip Fox
Fetyukovich ...... Mark Straker
Bystanders ...... Paul Richard Biggin/ Saikat Ahamed
Original music by David Pickvance.
Directors: Marc Beeby and Colin Guthrie
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2006.
SAT 04:00 We've Been Here Before (b00ft41b)
Series 2
Episode 1
Clive Anderson hosts the panel show that pokes fun at events of the past.
Second series of the topical historical satirical panel show setting out to prove that there's nothing new under, or in, The Sun.
Gyles Brandreth and Arthur Smith battle it out against John O'Farrell and Arabella Weir.
Producer: Ed Morrish
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2004.
SAT 04:30 The Attractive Young Rabbi (b007k0wh)
Series 1
The New Synagogue
A single phone call turns the comfortable world of Rabbi Fine is turned upside down.
The first of three series of Barry Grossman’s comedy-drama about the collision between the old and the new in the Jewish community of Hillfield.
Starring David De Keyser as Rabbi Abraham Fine. Tracy-Ann Oberman as Rabbi Su Jacobs, Doreen Mantle as Sadie Fine, Henry Goodman as Melvin, Jonathan Kydd as Brian and Sarah Rice as Ruth.
Music: Max Harris.
Producer: John Fawcett Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
SAT 05:00 Crowned Hudds (b00plhpx)
Odd Stuart
A new slant on King Charles II. Roy Hudd's historical royal romp, with June Whitfield and Chris Emmett. From September 1994.
SAT 05:30 Meet David Sedaris (b01211y4)
Series 2
Me Talk Pretty One Day; It's Catching
The multi-award winning American essayist brings his wit and charm to BBC Radio 4 for a series of audience readings. This week the perils of an American learning French in Paris in "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and an essay dealing with a friend's concern for cleanliness; "It's Catching".
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Boomerang production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 06:00 Saturday Drama (b01pf5d7)
Lewis Carroll - Alice through the Looking Glass
By Lewis Carroll, dramatised by Stephen Wyatt It's mid-winter, the snow is falling against the window, and Alice is learning how to play chess but then, on a whim, she goes to the mirror and pretends her black kitten is the Red Queen and suddenly everything changes ...
With Jim Al-Khalili, Roger McGough, Jenni Murray, Jane Garvey, Eric Robson, Pippa Greenwood, Peter Donaldson, Kirsty Young, Andrew Marr, Evan Davies, Garry Richardson & Melvyn Bragg.
This dramatisation brings out the intellectual spine of Lewis Carroll's classic story - while losing none of the fun.
When Alice crashes through the looking glass she enters a world set out like a giant chess board and discovers science, maths, poetry, riddles, and wordplay. It is instantly entertaining and tantalizingly offers the listener more than meets the ear.
In this fast-moving and surrealist world, Alice has to decode the bizarre rules of the mirror-world. If Alice can get to The Eighth Square she will be Queen. Lewis Carroll is ever present. He sets out the chess game for Alice, teasing the listener into having an overview of his story and exploring the ideas within it.
On her chess journey Alice will meet the Red & White Queen, Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledee and Tweedledum (who might be more familiar than the listener can possibly imagine) and the Red & White Knights. But there's a twist here - Alice will also discover that Radio 4 can be found on the other side of the glass.
Published for Christmas 1871 this story is the mirror image of Alice In Wonderland: the characters are chess pieces instead of cards. It is Winter rather than Summer and time runs backwards. Tim Burton's film was 'inspired' by Lewis Carroll's books but it wasn't Lewis Carroll's book. This is a chance for the Radio 4 listeners to discover the real thing and show them why this classic appeals to philosophers, linguists and chess fans, prefaced Modernism, has provoked a wealth of academic study, and in doing so remind them of the bits they loved in childhood (and the bits they've forgotten).
Mathematician Carroll, prefaced his book with a chess problem. It is claimed the game is a part of a sequence of numbers - that Alice's journey is code - that Carroll was flirting with numerology and esotericism. It is intriguing because Carroll loved number games and puzzles. He was frighteningly clever. He regularly invented things. You could say he was the Mark Zuckerberg of his time.
SAT 07:30 Capturing America: Mark Lawson's History of Modern American Literature (b00rfhzx)
The Celebrity Tour
Mark Lawson tells the story of how American writing became the literary superpower of the 20th century, telling the nation's stories of money, power, sex, religion and war.
Among the millions of words written by modern American authors, one of the most important is 'I'. The autobiographical, first-person story - featuring authors in light disguise or even under their own names - has become an increasingly significant literary genre.
Philip Roth and John Updike wrote long sequences of stories about fictional famous American authors - Nathan Zuckerman and Henry Bech - who can be read as versions of their own histories. Later, Roth went further, with several books including characters with his own name, just as Norman Mailer would refer to himself in non-fiction books as 'Mailer'. This is one of the devices of the 'New Journalism', developed by Tom Wolfe and Hunter S Thompson, which put the reporter at the heart of the story.
Conversely, some authors, including JD Salinger and Thomas Pynchon, were so appalled by the prospect of the publicity circuit that they preferred to vanish completely.
Beginning on 'The Philip Roth Tour' of Newark, New Jersey, in which Liz Del Tufo takes tourists to sites featured in the author's work, Mark Lawson reflects on the way in which a celebrity culture has made writers play with their public personalities, talking to Philip Roth, Tom Wolfe, Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney, Dave Eggers and Professor Diane Roberts.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b06vg1ph)
Utopias
First published in 1516, Michael Symmons Roberts examines the intellectual legacy of Thomas More's celebrated book, 'Utopia'. It is a book that generated an idea that has been hotly contested throughout the hundreds of years since its release.
More had been on a trade mission to Antwerp, and spent much of his time talking to fellow humanist scholars like Erasmus about the notion of an ideal society and what it might look like. Out of those conversations came the book, a slippery tale that blurs fact and fiction and which has left readers ever since trying to fathom whether More was indeed presenting his island of Utopia, where equality is paramount and greed attacked, as a model society or as a salutary tale.
Half a millennium on, Michael Symmons Roberts heads to Antwerp himself to find out more about the actual book, that so many make reference without ever having opened its pages. He finds out that partly for safety's sake (the text being one on level a critique of contemporary England) it was published abroad and in Latin; he also hears about its great popularity, how it led many to try and set up their own perfect communities, and examines the irony that More would rather have seen this book about an equal society burned rather than seeing it translated into the vernacular and therefore made available to all.
Along the way, Michael also eavesdrops on figures from the BBC archives describing what their personal Utopias might look like - including Tony Benn, Jeanette Winterson, Aldous Huxley, Nawal El Saadawi and Ian Banks.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2016.
SAT 09:00 Doctor Who (b0076jh7)
Who Made Who
Five decades doesn't mean much to a time traveller, but after fifty years, the Doctor is still a mystery.
Radio 4 Extra doesn't have all the answers, but we can shed a little light. Not just a TV phenomenon, Doctor Who has also taken us into strange new sonic realms and the written word. Mark Gatiss examines the Target novels, which offered a glimpse into those early stories before video. We hear from surviving cast and crew of the original pilot episode, the people who gave the show its unique sound in Dance of the Daleks, and finally we catch up with Susan - the Doctor's Granddaughter, last seen on 22nd-century Earth.
In between, John Lloyd, AL Kennedy and others who recall those monochrome early years examine what makes them so special. Hosting it is Tracy-Ann Oberman, not only a star of Friday Night Dinner and Eastenders but a Doctor Who villainess in her own right.
Tracy-Ann Oberman is an actor and writer with an extensive variety of diverse credits; Big Train, Toast of London and Monroe to name but three. For Doctor Who fans she will be known as Yvonne Hartman - the woman who saw off Rose and set up Torchwood.
SAT 12:00 Charles Parker Prize (b07d2vfx)
2016
Charles Parker was a talented radio producer who worked with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger over 50 years ago to create the famous series of 'radio ballads'.
Each year a team of radio professions meet to decide the winners of an award dedicated to his memory. For the past 12 years the Charles Parker Award has been presented to the best feature made by students studying radio at universities and colleges throughout the UK. In this programme Charles's daughter Sara Parker, herself an award-winning radio producer, reviews this year's competition, talks to the judges, plays extracts from some of the entries, meets the prize-winners and plays their Bronze, Silver and Gold Award-winning features.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Soundscape Productions.
SAT 13:00 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (Omnibus) (b07d2vlz)
Mary Ann in Autumn
2008 in San Francisco and Mary Ann returns with some big news to share with Michael. Stars Kate Harper and Trevor White. From May 2016.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b07d2wt7)
Peter White
Broadcaster Peter White chooses 'Ma She's Making Eyes At Me' by Marie Adams and 'Golden Slumbers' by The Beatles.
SAT 14:15 Frankly Speaking (b07d2z3f)
Allen Lane
Publisher and founder of Penguin books, Allen Lane answers the questions posed by George Scott, Margaret Lane and Walter Allen.
Aged 58 when interviewed, Allen talks of his life as a pioneering paperback publisher and his discovery of DH Lawrence.
Sir Allen Lane was born in 1902 and died in 1970.
Launched in 1952 on the BBC Home Service, Frankly Speaking was a novel, ground breaking series. Unrehearsed and unscripted, the traditional interviewee/interviewer pairing was initially jettisoned for three interviewers firing direct questions. Early critics described it as 'unkempt', 'an inquisition' and described the guest as prey being cornered, quarry being pursued - with calls to axe the unscripted interview. But the format won out and eventually won over its detractors.
Only 40 or so of the original 100 programmes survive.
First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in 1961.
SAT 14:45 Could Do Better (b03p85pm)
Wendy Cope
Robert Booth summons poet and ex-teacher Wendy Cope to his study for a quiet word about her school reports. From November 1988.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b06vg1ph)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Saturday Drama (b01pf5d7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Capturing America: Mark Lawson's History of Modern American Literature (b00rfhzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 Doctor Who (b07d3137)
The Crimes of Thomas Brewster
Episode 1
2010: The Doctor teams up with an old associate to track down an imposter in a battle to save the Earth from rogue androids.
Starring Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe, John Pickard as Thomas Brewster and Anna Hope as DI Menzies.
Writer: Jonathan Morris
Producer: David Richardson
A Big Finish production.
SAT 19:00 Doctor Who (b0076jh7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups (b03fdh2c)
Series 1
Time to Celebrate
When Tom phones home we find out why he hates celebrations, why his mum can't stop organising them and why his father needs an electric whisk.
Classic Wrigglesworth rants combined with a fascinating and hilarious glimpse into his family background and the influences that have shaped his temperament, opinions and hang-ups.
Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang Ups is a 30 minute phone call from Tom ringing his parents for his weekly check-in. As the conversation unfolds, Tom takes time out from the phone call to explain the situation, his parent's reactions and relate various anecdotes from the past which illustrate his family's views. And sometimes he just needs to sound-off about the maddening world around him and bemoan everyday annoyances.
During all this Hang Ups explores class, living away from 'home', trans-generational phenomena, what we inherit from our families and how the past repeats in the present. All in a 30 minute phone call.
'Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-ups' gets underneath the skin of Tom and the Wrigglesworth family, so sit back and enjoy a bit of totally legal phone hacking.
Written by Tom Wrigglesworth and James Kettle
Additional Material by Miles Jupp
Producer: Katie Tyrrell.
SAT 22:30 Armando Iannucci - Facts And Fancies (b007jrmj)
Monster-Eyed Bugs
From diseases to identity cards,
Producer, writer and performer Armando Iannucci concludes his own collection of humorous essays.
Compiled by Jenny Baynes.
Producer: Jonathan James-Moore
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1998.
SAT 22:45 Ida Barr: Artificial Hip Hop (b00v72r5)
Diversity
Ida Barr is a music hall singer who has embraced hip hop and rap, reflecting the cultural diversity of London's East End, where she has been living in retirement for several decades.
With her genuine love of talking to people, Ida sets out investigate a new topic in each episode, creating a unique brand of music hall, hip-hop fusion with beat boxer Shlomo.
Ida’s subject this time is "Diversity".
Written by and starring Christopher Green as Ida Barr.
Producer: Claire Grove
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2010.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b07dbv0k)
The best in contemporary comedy. Arthur Smith chats to Richard Gadd.
SAT 23:00 Masala FM (b007zjm8)
Episode 4
The station's only attracting Z-list Asian celebrities, but then a top member of 'royalty' phones in...
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 September 1996.
SAT 23:30 Everyone Quite Likes Justin (b01292g0)
Series 1
Episode 2
Justin is a Manchester DJ who tries to balance love, work and everything else without much success.
Now his job seems to be on the line.
Starring Justin Moorhouse, Anne Reid and Paul Copley.
Sitcom written by Justin Moorhouse and Jim Poyser.
Despite his messy life, Justin always remains positive. Every new day is a new opportunity, "When life throws you lemons, make lemonade".
Recorded in front of an audience in Manchester.
Anne Reid ..... Gran
Christine Bottomley ..... Lisa
Justin Moorhouse ..... Justin
Lloyd Langford ..... Bryn
Paul Copley ..... Ray
Susan Cookson ..... Tanya
Producer: Steven Canny
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2011