SATURDAY 22 OCTOBER 2016

SAT 00:00 Doctor Who (b007zn1h)
1963 - Fanfare for the Common Men, Episode 4
Mark's true nature is revealed, but could rumours about James scupper Lenny's final plan?
The Doctor first fetched up on Earth in the 1960s - but what does he make of that decade's greatest musical contribution, the Beatles?
It turns out he's a big fan. The Doctor's young companion Nyssa, however, is unfamiliar with Earth's musical heritage - so a trip to the formative days of the Fab Four is in order, to show her what all the fuss is all about.
Yet the Beatles are nowhere to be seen - instead their role in history has been taken by the Common Men, a trio whose rise to fame isn't as wholesome as it first appears...
Peter Davison takes control of the TARDIS in this four-part full-cast audio drama, provided for 4 Extra. Peter is also known and loved for roles in At Home With the Braithwaites, All Creatures Great and Small and A Very Peculiar Practice.
Stars Peter Davison as the Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Mitch Benn as Mark Carville, Andrew Knott as James O'Meara and David Dobson as Korky Goldsmith.
4-part full-cast audio drama written by Eddie Robson
Director: Barnaby Edwards
Made by Big Finish productions.
SAT 00:30 Soul Music (b00yyh92)
Series 11, Mozart's Clarinet Quintet
Mozart's Clarinet Quintet
Written in 1789, two years before Mozart's death, this first ever work for string quartet plus clarinet remains a firm favourite for music lovers around the world. In this programme Professor Paul Robertson describes how his wife played this piece to him whilst he lay in a coma. Clarinettist Peter Furniss tells of the solace the slow movement provided his mother as she lay dying. And Alex Smith explains the importance of this piece in his work to help children with autism, Asperger's, dyslexia and other childhood disorders.
SAT 01:00 John Antrobus - How I Met Franz (b036hzw0)
An uninvited guest brings complications in this "bizarre modem fairy story, set on a housing estate somewhere in London.
Starring Patricia Hayes as the Woman, Robert Glenister as Jack and John Baddeley as George.
The second of two plays especially written for her by John Antrobus.
Director: Martin Jenkins
First broadcast in Thirty Minute Theatre on BBC Radio 4 in 1993.
SAT 01:30 The Priest, the Badger and the Little Green Men (b00yhvx5)
Durning the late 1950's and early 60's, The Rev Lionel Fanthorpe wrote over 150 pulp fiction novels under various names for Badger Books.
His methods of writing are almost as bizarre as the books themselves. While hiding under a rug, Fanthorpe would let stream of consciousness dictate the fate of his characters. While good always prevailed, heroes would sometimes meet a sticky end, only to reappear, mind and body intact, some chapters further down the line.
Through incredible padding illusions and herculean feats of literacy (aided at all times by his trusty thesaurus, just how many ways can you describe Black space?), Rev Fanthorpe, aka Karl Ziegfried, a.k.a, Bron Fane a.k.a John E.Muller, a.k.a Leo Brett, a.k.a Pel Torro, wrote 89 of his books in a three year period. That's one every 12 days, while holding down a teaching job.
Featuring readings from Fanthorpe himself and dramatic recreations of his most interesting and memorable work, The Vicar, The Badger and the little Green Men from Mars - How one man, armed with a mind like a mental grasshopper, a dictaphone and a good rug became the most prolific sci-fi author on the planet.
Producer: Rob Alexander
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b016lkh9)
Anna Funder - All That I Am, Episode 10
Anna Funder shot to fame when her first book, 'Stasiland', about the secret police in East Germany, won the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2004. Now she has taken a true story and written a gripping novel that reveals what happened to the German Left as the Reich took over in the early nineteen-thirties. In a story of fear and fortitude, enormous bravery and terrible betrayal, she reveals not only the lengths the Gestapo went to, to drive the socialists out and to pursue them across Europe, but also the sacrifices made by the émigrés who wanted to tell the truth about what was happening in their homeland.
Anna Funder was inspired by the true story of her friend, Ruth Blatt, and by those of Dora Fabian, Ernst Toller and Hans Wesemann. She has woven history into a story of passion for a cause, for the truth and for life.
Today: Ruth remembers the dark days after Dora's death and how she tried to make amends.
Hattie Morahan, Sara Kestelman and Samuel West read All That I Am by Anna Funder.
It was abridged by Sally Marmion
The producer is Di Speirs.
SAT 02:15 Foreign Bodies (b01mnzb2)
Series 1, Russia and Ukraine - Erast Fandorin
Boris Akunin sets his Erast Fandorin novels in nineteenth century Russia whilst Andrey Kurkov describes twenty first century Ukraine.
Mark Lawson looks at the influence of Bulgakov and Dostoevsky on Russian crime fiction and compares the inside view with those created by outsiders including Martin Cruz Smith and Tom Rob Smith.
Producer Robyn Read.
SAT 02:30 Mary Brunton - Self Control (b011qm90)
Episode 10
Laura has been kidnapped by the love-crazed Hargrave. How will she make her escape? Stars Gerda Stevenson.
SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b018sgp1)
Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be: The Lionel Bart Story, Episode 5
Lionel Bart was a unique musical talent. He found fame with the hugely successful musicals Oliver! and 'Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be', but he was also a hit-making machine for some of Britain's first rock'n'roll stars - Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde and Cliff Richard, as well as giving the James Bond movie franchise its first song.
He socialised with figures from both serious and populist culture, and experienced a downfall that was as spectacular as his theatrical triumphs.
David and Caroline Stafford's new biography of Bart draws on previously unseen archive sources and interviews with those closest to him.
Today, Bart's reputation is in tatters, and he slides towards alcoholism and bankruptcy. But in the 1980s and 90s, revivals of his earlier work provide a return to grace. Read by Alistair McGowan.
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Emma Harding.
SAT 03:00 George Eliot - The Mill on the Floss (b00gszmm)
Loving and Losing
As Philip hatches a plan, Maggie Tulliver's loyalties are sorely tested. With Sylvestra Le Touzel and Richard Pearce.
SAT 04:00 The 3rd Degree (b03zy1c4)
Series 4, The University of Bristol
A quiz show hosted by Steve Punt where a team of three University students take on a team of three of their professors.
Coming this week from the University of Bristol, "The 3rd Degree" is a funny, lively and dynamic quiz show aimed at cultivating the next generation of Radio 4 listeners whilst delighting the current ones.
The Specialist Subjects in this episode are Religion & Theology, English Literature to 1700 and Physics, and the questions range from the Book of Job to the books of Raymond Chandler via scalar bosons & Grumpy Cat
The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in a genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz. Being a Radio 4 programme, it of course meets the most stringent standards of academic rigour - but with lots of facts and jokes thrown in for good measure.
Together with host Steve Punt, the show tours the (sometimes posh, sometimes murky, but always welcoming!) Union buildings, cafés and lecture halls of six universities across the UK.
The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the 'Highbrow & Lowbrow' round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, film, and One Direction... In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, were particularly lively, and offered plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides...
The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more than just glanced at that reading list...
In this series, the universities are Bristol, Kent, Bedfordshire, Birmingham, Nottingham & Aberystwyth.
Overflow (incl Cast Lists)
The host, Steve Punt, although best known as a satirist on The Now Show is also someone who delights in all facets of knowledge, not just in the Humanities (his educational background) but in the sciences as well. As well as "The Now Show" he has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4, on subjects as varied as "The Poet Unwound - The History Of The Spleen" and "Getting The Gongs" - an investigation into awards ceremonies - as well as a half-hour comedy for Radio 4's 2008 Big Bang Day set in the Large Hadron Collider, called "The Genuine Particle". This makes him the perfect host for a show which aims to be an intellectual, fulfilling and informative quiz, but with wit and a genuine delight in exploring the subjects at hand.
The 3rd Degree is a Pozzitive production, produced by David Tyler. His radio credits include Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, Cabin Pressure, Bigipedia, The Brig Society, Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones!, Kevin Eldon Will See You Now, Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off, The 99p Challenge, My First Planet, The Castle and even, going back a bit, Radio Active. His TV credits include Paul Merton - The Series, Spitting Image, Absolutely, The Paul & Pauline Calf Video Diaries, Coogan's Run, The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon and exec producing Victoria Wood's dinnerladies.
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 04:30 No Commitments (b01qrnbc)
Series 11, Foreign Affairs
Victoria frets over Roger, Charlotte misbehaves badly and Anna is stuck in the middle. Stars Rosemary Leach. From January 2005.
SAT 05:00 Winston Back Home (b00pr7lg)
Say It Again, Winston
The old rogue has run away and taken the geese, but Nancy intervenes. Stars Bill Wallis and Maurice Denham. From April 1994.
SAT 05:30 Mark Thomas: The Manifesto (b01rlrjj)
Series 5, Episode 1
Comedian and activist Mark Thomas travels to Bridport, Dorset to compile a People's Manifesto using policies suggested by his studio audience. Producer: Colin Anderson.
SAT 06:00 David Turner - Repertory in Britain: Semi-Detached (b08071rx)
Midland householder, Fred Midway lives with his family in a semi-detached house in a leafy suburb of Dowlihull. But when his carefully maintained world threatens to disintegrate about him, the scheming suburbanite will do whatever it takes to hang on to his respectable position...
Performed by The Belgrade Theatre Company, Coventry.
Starring Leonard Rossiter as Fred Midway, Gillian Raine as Hilda Midway, Thelma Whiteley as Eileen Midway, Bryan Stanyon as Tom Midway and Peter French as Robert Freeman.
David Turner's play premiered at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre in June 1962 with Leonard Rossiter in the lead role. It transferred to London with Laurence Olivier replacing Rossiter and arrived on Broadway in New York in 1963. The 1970 film version 'All the Way Up' starred Richard Briers and Warren Mitchell. The play was revived at the 1999 Chichester Festival.
Adapted for radio by the author.
Produced by Hugh Stewart in the BBC Midland studios.
First broadcast in the 'Repertory in Britain' series on the BBC Home Service in 1964.
SAT 07:30 Lyrical Journey (b015cpfy)
Series 1, Raintown
Deacon Blue's 'Raintown' (from the album of the same name) has a special place in the hearts of many Glaswegians. Released in 1987 at the start of a great period of change for the city, it has come to symbolise home, and a particular attitude.
Ricky Ross is the the band's lyricist and singer - he explains to presenter Jonathan Maitland that his association of Glasgow with rain was inspired partly by shock - shock at how wet the weather was in the city when he moved there from Dundee, and that it is something of a surprise that the name 'Raintown' has come to mean so much to him and others. To find out why this should be the case, Jonathan looks at other representations of rain in Glasgow and discovers that there have been surprisingly few artists and writers who have wanted to dwell on the damp. Many Glaswegians think that carrying an umbrella means you are paying the weather too much attention.
As a finale - Ricky performs a special acoustic version of the song at a piano bar in the city centre; he's joined in the audience by a new Glasgow band who have named themselves after the song, and a music journalist who feels that the song literally changed her life.
SAT 08:00 The Archive Hour (b007777j)
Auntie Beeb and Religion
Jean Seaton explores how the BBC has faced the task of trying to accommodate, explain and negotiate religious beliefs. From director general Lord Reith's reading of Blake's poem Jerusalem on the day the General Strike ended in 1926 to the controversy surrounding the decision to screen Jerry Springer: The Opera, the corporation has always had to tread carefully with regard to the nation's religious sensitivities.
SAT 09:00 The Spike Show: Milligan Remembered (b01chydc)
Recorded at the office where they worked together, Spike Milligan's agent and friend, Norma Farnes remembers the life and work of the comic genius. Featuring:
* Vivat Milligna: A Twenty-One Goon Salute (24/12/2002)
Denis Norden trawls through the archives to tell the story of his friend, Spike's career, and sometimes uneasy relationship with the BBC.
* In the Psychiatrist's Chair: Spike Milligan (25/09/1982)
The writer and comedian tells Professor Anthony Clare about the profound impact of shell shock on his mental health.
* Spike's Fleas Knees and Hidden Elephants (25/12/1995)
Spike Milligan reads some of his magical poems, in his own inimitable style.
* The Goon Show: Fear of Wages (6/03/1956)
Ignoring a telegram about Japan's surrender, Neddie Seagoon and company are still at war. Stars Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Max Geldray and Wallace Greenslade.
* Spike Milligan: The Serious Poet (6/11/2011)
In this award- winning documentary, Spike's three daughters, Sila, Laura and Jane discuss how their father's serious poetry reflected his life and personality.
Producer: Sarah Wade
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2012.
SAT 12:00 Just a Minute (b00lycz6)
Series 55, Episode 3
Nicholas Parsons' 60-second challenges to Paul Merton, Stephen Fry, Charles Collingwood and Jenny Eclair. From August 2009.
SAT 12:30 The Ken Dodd Show (b03q5gb0)
Doddy's Daft Half Hour
The King of Knotty Ash delves into breaking the rules and brings us Happy News. With Peter Goodwright. From January 1971.
SAT 13:00 Incredible Women - Omnibuses (b08074pw)
Series 5 Omnibus
4 Extra Debut. Rebecca Front and Jeremy Front introduce us to an uncannily realistic robot, Astrid. Can they distinguish her from a real woman?
SAT 14:15 Frankly Speaking (b080778r)
Fred Perry
The British three-time Wimbledon tennis champion, Fred Perry (1909 - 1995) is quizzed by Elizabeth Beresford and Denzil Batchelor.
Fred details the obstacles he faced on his path to success on the tennis court - and the determination needed to triumph over his opponents.
Launched in 1952, Frankly Speaking was a novel, ground breaking BBC series. Unrehearsed and unscripted, the traditional interviewee/interviewer pairing was initially jettisoned for three interviewers - later two - firing direct questions. Early critics demanded it was axed, but the format won out and eventually won over detractors.
First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in June 1961.
SAT 14:45 Uncle Mort's North Country (b007jrcg)
Series 2, A Very Occasional Day
As they drive to a sheepdog trial, Carter's uncle has women on his mind. Peter Tinniswood's adventures with Christian Rodska.
SAT 15:00 The Archive Hour (b007777j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 David Turner - Repertory in Britain: Semi-Detached (b08071rx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Lyrical Journey (b015cpfy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 Afternoon Drama (b01dtwlz)
John Dryden - Pandemic, The Past
Written by John Dryden.
At a climate change conference in Copenhagen, a group of radical eco-warriors, led by Josh (Michael Maloney), attempt to discredit a right-wing Danish scientist, by luring him into a sex scandal.
When it all goes wrong, Richard Frankel (Paul Fox), one of the conspirators, gives up 'direct action' and returns to his life in Leeds as a teacher. But when he discovers his co-conspirator and ex-girlfriend, has given birth to a child - a child he believes could be his - he goes in search of her.
It's a journey that takes him into a dangerous world of environmental espionage and a conspiracy that will have a terrible, cruel and profound impact on the world.
Production Team:
Casting: Marilyn Johnson
Production Manager: Sarah Tombling
Sound Recordist: Ayush Ahuja
Sound Design: Steve Bond
Music: Sacha Putnam
Executive Producer: Gordon House
Producer/Director: John Dryden
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 18:45 Edinburgh Haunts (b03ggrql)
The Face at the Window, the Wave of the Hand
By Louise Welsh
Our series of three newly commissioned ghost stories set in Edinburgh concludes with this subtle and uncanny tale from thriller writer Louise Welsh.
'The Face in the Window, the Wave of the Hand' evokes the German folklore of the doppelganger, or double, but is set in a contemporary Edinburgh town house. In traditional tales, your double is a shadow heralding your own death - if you see yourself in passing, it's very bad news.
Read by Monica Gibb.
Produced by Allegra McIlroy.
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 The Simon Day Show (b010y312)
Series 1, Billy Bleach
With no headliner at The Mallard, newcomer Billy Bleach is asked to extend his stand-up set. With Simon Greenall. From May 2011.
SAT 22:30 Little Britain (b007jsvm)
Series 1, Episode 1
The sketch show which takes a look at life in Britain in the new millennium - by following the lives of some less than ordinary folk.
Meet Emily Howard - who's a lady, Marjory Dawes and her fat-fighters - and is Daffyd really the only gay in the village?
It became a TV smash hit, but Matt Lucas and David Walliams' oddball comedy premiered first - on BBC radio.
Written and performed by Matt Lucas and David Walliams. With Jean Ainslie, Tom Baker, Samantha Power and Paul Putner.
Music: David Arnold.
Producer: Ashley Blaker
First broadcast as a pilot on BBC Radio 4 in August 2000.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b08070x9)
From 10pm to midnight, seven days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Jeff Innocent.
SAT 23:00 The League Against Tedium (b03bsl3s)
Episode 5
A 'reservoir of malice' is created in this discordant mix of surreal comedy and easy listening, with Simon Munnery. From February 1997.

SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

SUN 00:00 Afternoon Drama (b01dtwlz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Saturday]
SUN 00:45 Edinburgh Haunts (b03ggrql)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:45 on Saturday]
SUN 01:00 Incredible Women - Omnibuses (b08074pw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:00 on Saturday]
SUN 02:15 Frankly Speaking (b080778r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Saturday]
SUN 02:45 Uncle Mort's North Country (b007jrcg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Saturday]
SUN 03:00 The Archive Hour (b007777j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 on Saturday]
SUN 04:00 David Turner - Repertory in Britain: Semi-Detached (b08071rx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Saturday]
SUN 05:30 Lyrical Journey (b015cpfy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 Mary Brunton - Self Control (b011tt9h)
Omnibus, part 2
Heartache and danger lie ahead for Laura Montreville, as she tries to choose between the love of two men. Stars Gerda Stevenson.
SUN 07:15 Getting on Air: The Female Pioneers (b03ffp9q)
The Voice of Authority
Jane Garvey investigates the stories behind five landmark moments in the history of the female voice on radio and television. How far have women really come since the early days of the wireless? To what extent are female voices now accepted as carrying the same level of authority and expertise as their male counterparts?
In this second programme, Jane Garvey reflects on a forgotten piece of broadcasting history. In 1955 Barbara Mandell became the first woman to read the news on TV.
It was 20 years before Angela Rippon. So, why did it take so long for another woman to assert a voice of authority in the news arena? Jane Garvey talks to Angela Rippon about the reaction she received at the time and whether the position of women in broadcasting has changed over the years. Jean Seaton and Suzanne Franks place the development of female broadcasting in a historical and social context and we hear the voice of Barbara Mandell herself.
Other programmes in the series include: Upping The Tempo, in which Jane meets Annie Nightingale, the first female DJ on Radio 1 and respected as an expert voice in music journalism; Prime Time Woman, which notes the role played by Esther Rantzen as a campaigning and consumer journalist on TV; and A Level Playing Field, with Jacqui Oatley discussing her debut as the first female footballer commentator on 'Match of the Day'.
Producer: Jane Reck
An Alfi Media Ltd production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 07:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b0150grq)
Series 1, Episode 2
John Finnemore, writer and star of Cabin Pressure, regular guest on The Now Show and popper-up in things like Miranda and That Mitchell and Webb Look returns with half an hour of his own sketches, each funnier than the last. Although, hang on, that system means starting the whole series with the least funny sketch. Might need to rethink that. OK, it's a new show filled with sketches written and performed by John Finnemore, but now no longer arranged in strict order of funniness. Also, he's cut the sketch that would have gone first.
This week's show reveals the truth behind the war effort, sty construction, and evolution.
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme is written by and stars John Finnemore. It also features Carrie Quinlan (The News Quiz, The Late Edition), Lawry Lewin (The Life & Times of Vivienne Vyle, Horrible Histories) and Simon Kane (Six Impossible Things).
Producer: Ed Morrish.
SUN 08:00 Take It From Here (b007k3r1)
From 22/03/1949
Professor Jim and company set sail with Desert Island Risks in the Blue Lagoon.
Recorded at the Royal Naval Barracks, Portsmouth in front of an audience of sailors and Wrens.
Starring Professor Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley, Joy Nichols and Alan Dean.
Music from The Keynotes and the BBC Revue Orchestra conducted by Frank Cantell.
Frank Muir and Denis Norden's scripted classic comedy
Producer: Charles Maxwell
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in March 1949.
SUN 08:30 Jerome K Jerome - Three Men in a Boat (b01cvb6v)
Episode 3
"At Abingdon, the river passes by the streets. Abingdon is a typical country town of the smaller order - quiet, eminently respectable, clean and desperately dull."
George, Harris and J encounter a tragedy and some nasty weather, as they conclude their holiday on the River Thames - with Montmorency the dog.
Adapted and performed in three episodes by Jeremy Nicholas.
Music by Jeremy Nicholas. Performed by The Grimethorpe Colliery Band
Producer: Paul Mayhew-Archer
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1984.
SUN 09:00 Walking Away Omnibus (b05zlxjp)
Armed with hat and stick, intrepid poet Simon Armitage walks along the South West Coast Path. First stop - Minehead Butlins.
SUN 10:10 Inheritance Tracks (b05s3cfg)
Caroline Quentin
Actress Caroline Quentin inherits Chopin's ballet Les Sylphides and passes on the theme tune from True Romance by Hans Zimmer.
SUN 10:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b0807v98)
Adventurers, Pen Hadow
4 Extra Debut. From Johannes Brahms to Barry White. Polar explorer Pen Hadow shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From May 2004.
SUN 11:00 TED Radio Hour (b0807vsg)
Series 3, Episode 8
Guy Raz explores why some people find maths so intimidating. It's a world that can help with life's most pressing questions.
A journey through fascinating ideas based on talks by riveting speakers on the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) stage.
SUN 12:00 Take It From Here (b007k3r1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SUN 12:30 Jerome K Jerome - Three Men in a Boat (b01cvb6v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
SUN 13:00 Mary Brunton - Self Control (b011tt9h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SUN 14:15 Getting on Air: The Female Pioneers (b03ffp9q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 today]
SUN 14:30 Jane Rogers - Conrad and Eleanor: Omnibus (b0806wvl)
Episode 2
The police search for Conrad, while Eleanor breaks up with her lover. Read by Penny Downie, Robert Glenister and Jasmine Hyde.
SUN 15:45 William Trevor Short Stories (b0807wn3)
A Day
4 Extra Debut. A lonely wife knows her husband has a lover and imagines one day he will tell her all about it. Read by Alison Sterling.
SUN 16:00 The Quest of Donal Q (b018cbcj)
The Quest of Donal Q
By David Ashton
Based on the template of Don Quixote, The Quest of Donal Q, is the story of two rival brothers who journey through Scotland in search of a childhood sweetheart. Specially written for and starring Brian Cox and Billy Connolly.
DONAL (Billy Connolly) and SANDY (Brian Cox) have been separated as kids in an orphanage. Donal adopted by a rich couple and taken off to grow up in sunny California, Sandy never chosen and left to live all his life in not quite so sunny Dundee.
It's ten years since the brothers last met and at that time they had a fierce falling out. Now Donal is back - turning up out of the blue at Sandy's tobacconist shop, "Paterson's Inferno", to demand that his brother drop everything and travel on an urgent mission.
The Quest is to find a girl they were both in love with at the Orphanage; Jeanette, red haired, fair skinned and beautiful. An ideal princess. Donal claims she has written to say that she's in dire straits and needs a knight in shining armour to come to her rescue.
And so begins a journey - a journey that will make or break both brothers as conflict breaks out between past, present and future.
CAST
Donal ....................... BILLY CONNOLLY
Sandy ...................... BRIAN COX
Hamish/Mr Quigley.... JOHN KIELTY
Jeanette/Leonora ...... SANDY McDADE
Fergus/Mungo .......... FORBES MASSON
Mother/Maybelle ....... LINDY WHITEFORD
Mary ........................ HELEN MACKAY
Margo/Mrs Quigley.... TRACY WILES
Gilchrist.................... CARL PREKOPP
Prester John/Ernie .... DAVID ASHTON
Candy ...................... VICTORIA INEZ HARDY
Producer/Director.......David Ian Neville.
SUN 17:00 Poetry Extra (b0807zy8)
Derek Mahon
BBC Radio 4's Poet in Residence, Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive to highlight the work of Derek Mahon.
Regarded as one of our finest poets writing today, Derek Mahon - born in Belfast in 1941 - talks to Peter Brooke about his background and his attitude to his work.
Producer: Kathryn Porter
First broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster in 1984.
SUN 17:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b0150grq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 18:00 Dangerous Visions (b02y0wpp)
JG Ballard - Concrete Island
By J.G. Ballard
Adapted by Graham White
Driving home one Friday rush hour, a cocky young architect crashes down a motorway embankment. At first he seems bound to be rescued, but as he fails to make the passing commuters notice him, he finds himself trapped on a strange, neglected island between the highways. Can this modern day Crusoe survive in a strange new world?
Directed by Mary Peate
Radio 4's Dangerous Visions Season:
The adjective Ballardian refers to the writer 'JG Ballard's fearful imaginings of what the near future might be like. Even though the master creator of dystopian futures died four years ago, his vision of what our future might become feels as relevant, satirical and as scary as ever. Radio 4's Dangerous Visions is a season of dramas that explore contemporary takes on future dystopias. Dramatisations of Ballard's seminal works, Drowned World and Concrete Island, straddle the season, and we have asked five leading radio writers - Nick Perry, Ed Harris, Michael Symmonds Roberts, Michael Butt and Philip Palmer - to imagine what life might be like in the near future if everything goes wrong - and their Dangerous Visions form the bedrock of the series: clever, imaginative and disturbing takes on just what might happen. What happens if sleep is outlawed? If cloning becomes a matter of course, and your loved ones are capable of being cloned? If North London declares UDI on South London, which has become a wasteland? If human sacrifice becomes a part of society? We are also running a 5 part dramatisation of Jane Roger's award winning terrifying novel The Testament of Jessie Lamb, dramatised by the author
Dangerous Visions - you will be disturbed as you see the present reflected in the glass
of an uneasy future.
SUN 19:00 TED Radio Hour (b0807vsg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
SUN 20:00 Walking Away Omnibus (b05zlxjp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SUN 21:10 Inheritance Tracks (b05s3cfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:10 today]
SUN 21:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b0807v98)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:15 today]
SUN 22:00 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b0150grq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 22:30 Listen Against (b00tpswr)
Series 3, Episode 2
Listen Against: the programme that looks back at a week's worth of radio and TV that never happened. It's a bit like the BBC iPlayer. only with two eyes instead of one. And it's got ears.
This week, ecological and broadcast catastrophe strikes as BBC 3 leaks in to other channels, Edward Stourton and Gaby Roslin tunnel to the centre of the earth for Children in Need, and a preview of the new musical charting the dramatic lives of the Dimblebys: 'News Brothers'. With special guests Marcel Theroux and Julia Hartley-Brewer.
Presented by Alice Arnold and Jon Holmes.
Featuring: James Bachman, Stephen Critchlow, Sarah Hadland and David Schnieder.
SUN 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b080710k)
From 10pm to midnight, seven days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats again to Jeff Innocent.
SUN 23:00 The Lach Chronicles (b036vvrx)
Series 1, The Night Dylan Came
Lach was the King of Manhattan's East Village and host of the longest running open mic night in New York.
He now lives in Scotland and finds himself back at square one, playing in a dive bar on the wrong side of Edinburgh. His night, held in various venues around New York, was called the Antihoot.
He played host to Suzanne Vega, Jeff Buckley and many others, he discovered and nurtured lots of talent - including Beck, Regina Spektor and the Moldy Peaches - but nobody discovered him.
Many people came to see him in New York and, in this episode, Lach remembers the night Bob Dylan arrived.
Written and performed by Lach
Sound design: Al Lorraine and Sean Kerwin
Producer: Richard Melvin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 23:15 Julian Fox: On a Lonely Planet (b0076qhx)
Herne Hill
Herne Hill resident Julian Fox decides to make a travel programme, without leaving his flat in south London. From February 2005.
SUN 23:30 Radio Shuttleworth (b007wwdf)
Series 2, Episode 4
Peter Purves visits Sheffield singer John and gets cast in Ken's production of Peter Pan. With Milton Jones. From March 2000.

MONDAY 24 OCTOBER 2016

MON 00:00 Dangerous Visions (b02y0wpp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Sunday]
MON 01:00 Mary Brunton - Self Control (b011tt9h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Sunday]
MON 02:15 Getting on Air: The Female Pioneers (b03ffp9q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 on Sunday]
MON 02:30 Jane Rogers - Conrad and Eleanor: Omnibus (b0806wvl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Sunday]
MON 03:45 William Trevor Short Stories (b0807wn3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:45 on Sunday]
MON 04:00 The Quest of Donal Q (b018cbcj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:00 Poetry Extra (b0807zy8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b0150grq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Sunday]
MON 06:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016vlc5)
The Coin of Dionysius
Is an old coin real - or a clever fake? An old friend, Louis Carlyle approaches suave sleuth Max Carrados for help. Read by Arthur Darvill ( who played companion Rory Williams to the 11th Doctor Who, Matt Smith).
What Louis doesn't know, is that due to an accident, Max is now blind. But that doesn't stop him from proving, in some style, just how formidable an amateur private detective he could become.
Max Carrados first featured in a series of mystery books in 1914. Carrados also shared top billing alongside Sherlock Holmes in 'The Strand Magazine". The character often boasts how much his blindness means his other senses are heightened.
Ernest Bramah excelled in his detailed writing and uncovering of clues. The beneficiary of a large inheritance from an American relative, Carrados is foremost a gentleman who undertakes sleuthing only as an avocation. Though equipped with a keen observer in the perfect manservant Parkinson, Carrados doesn't just sit around deducing. He makes his own observations with ears, nose and fingertips.
Abridged by Paul Kent.
Producer: Neil Gardner
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Ladbroke Radio Productions and first broadcast in 2011.
MON 06:30 Exploding Cinema (b00xj2pw)
Exploding Cinema, or 'Exploding' for the initiated, began in 1991 and is still going strong. A collective of filmmakers and film-lovers, it pledges to screen any film that someone submits. No selection, no censorship, Exploding Cinema holds firmly by the principle that, the question of what's good and what's not, is solely for the audience to decide.
Their screening events are legendary. Usually held in some disused warehouse or factory - and never at a cinema - to enter an Exploding Cinema show is to step into a grotto of film. There is colour everywhere, vintage super 8 footage ticking away on a constant lop, covering every bit of wall in shimmering light and images, comedy, horror, animation, a live band playing and, on the main screen, there's a succession of about 20 short films, people sitting on cushions watching them or wandering about chatting and drinking.
Asif meets with the founders of Exploding Cinema to rummage through their archive of films and to hear how the group emerged from some strange filmic goings on at a disused suntan oil factory in South London's Brixton neighbourhood - The Cool Tan, which, in the early 90s, a bunch of film makers had claimed as a squat.
We hear from filmmakers who currently show their work at Exploding Cinema: interactive filmmaking group Genetic Moo describe their maggot-themed installations which feed off the light emitted from other films, Mucky Puppets talk about their shadow puppet films exploring the darker side of well-known fairy tales, and we follow Ryd Cook as he films the sequel to his "60 Second Documentary About The Stuff What Is In This Room".
Now that it is possible for anyone to show pretty much any film online via video sharing websites like YouTube and Vimeo, we ask what that means for a group like Exploding Cinema? Does it still have a place?
Producer: Hannah Rosenfelder
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 07:00 Heated Rollers (b007qv82)
Episode 3
Granny in space, and Mrs Slocombe the locum. All-women sketch show with Lynda Bellingham and Gwyneth Strong. From March 1999.
MON 07:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b07z4151)
Series 17, Episode 3
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Tony Hawks, Richard Osman, Clive Anderson and Vicki Pepperdine are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as chairs, medicine, prisons and video games.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 08:00 The Burkiss Way (b007jr1v)
Series 3, Not to Be Unwrapped the Burkiss Way
Queen Victoria needs some help with a personal problem - and all is revealed 'Upstairs Downstairs'.
Starring Fred Harris, Jo Kendall, Nigel Rees and Chris Emmett .
Cult sketch comedy series which originally ran from 1976 to 1980.
Scripted by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall.
Producer: John Lloyd.
MON 08:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007jpd9)
Loyal Support
Originally un-broadcast pilot episode of the seaside saga of pier perpetuation, with Arthur Lowe's only appearance due to his subsequent death.
This sequel to 'Dad's Army' begins in 1948. Life post-Home Guard, sees Arthur Wilson now managing a bank and his former Captain and boss, George Mainwaring arrives in need of a loan...
Starring Arthur Lowe as Mainwaring and John Le Mesurier as Wilson. With Josephine Tewson, Dougie Brown and Haydn Wood.
To replace Arthur, the following full series had to be revamped to feature the Dad's Army characters played by Bill Pertwee and Ian Lavender instead. The series was later adapted for ITV by Yorkshire TV.
Written by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles, based on the characters originally created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft.
Producer: Jonathan James-Moore.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in July 1981.
MON 09:00 Just a Minute (b00m10h9)
Series 55, Episode 4
Nicholas Parsons' 60-second challenges to Paul Merton, Kit Hesketh-Harvey, Gyles Brandreth and Shappi Khorsandi. From August 2009.
MON 09:30 The Change (b00nd0tk)
Series 1, Episode 1
"Life for George and Carol was just fine and now that their daughter is married they'll have time for themselves again. Carol's looking forward to it being just the two of them. George, however, thinks the time is right to finally be honest with his wife and introduce her to Georgina."
Sitcom about a troubled hormonal wife and her transvestite husband.
Stars Lynda Bellingham as Carol, Chris Ellison as George and Sylvia Syms as Violet.
Scripted by Gavin Petrie and Jan Etherington.
Producer: Maria Esposito
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2001.
MON 10:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007jr8r)
Springtime
Gudrun returns to the Midlands mining town of Beldover, intending to join her sister, Ursula in teaching. At a society wedding, the sisters attract the attention of Gerald Critch and Rupert Birkin.
Both are very different gentlemen - with very different responses to love.
DH Lawrence's passionate novel was first published in 1920.
Stars Stella Gonet as Gudrun, Clare Holman as Ursula, Douglas Hodge as Gerald and Nicholas Farrell as Rupert.
Dramatised in four parts by Elaine Feinstein.
Music composed by Anthea Gomez.
Director: Sue Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996.
MON 11:00 Where Were You... (b01mhtl4)
The Electric Box
Read by Nathan Nolan.
Where were you when Kennedy was shot? That was the starting point for this series in which five writers are asked to build a story around a significant historical event and explore it in fiction. As well as the assassination of JFK, the writers explore the meltdown of Chernobyl, the Tottenham riots, Columbine and the splitting of the lithium atom.
People often ask the "Kennedy Question" to highlight the magnitude of the event itself. And occasionally we find ourselves in the thick of the moment. But just as interesting are the polarities, disjunctions and weird connections between the moment that shakes the world and the life of the everyday.
Episode One: The Electric Box by Louise Stern.
In the late 1980s teenager Ricky looks on with detachment as his family host a Fourth of July barbecue for their immediate neighbourhood. Passions come to a head, until the sight of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on television rescues an awkward social situation.
Louise Stern grew up in Fremont California and is the fourth generation of her family to be born deaf. She now lives and works in London as an artist and writer. She is also the founder and publisher of "Maurice", a contemporary art magazine for children. "Chattering", her first collection of short stories, was published in 2010.
The Electric Box is Louise's first commissioned story for Radio 4.
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 11:15 Nick Darke - Hooked (b0076hky)
4 Extra Debut. A stranger from London comes to Cornwall seeking advice on fishing for bass. Peter and Myrna aren't impressed. Stars Mark Bazeley.
MON 12:00 The Burkiss Way (b007jr1v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 12:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007jpd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 13:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016vlc5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 13:30 Exploding Cinema (b00xj2pw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b018wvn7)
Honoré de Balzac - Cousin Bette, Episode 1
Cousin Bette is one of the best loved and most admired of Honore de Balzac's novels, written when his powers were at their height and marking the culmination of his extraordinary chronicle, La Comedie Humaine.
A tale of seductive women and philandering men, of passionate affairs and spiralling debts, Cousin Bette paints a vivid portrait of Paris in the 1830s and '40s. It's a city full of temptations, in which money is king, morals are loose and the appeals of the virtuous are usually in vain. In the midst of it all sits a poor relation, Cousin Bette, like a spider in her web. Fuelled by bitterness and jealousy, she is determined to weave destruction into the lives of her extended family, the socially superior Hulots.
With her friend and accomplice, the beautiful Madame Marneffe, Bette sets out to manipulate events so that men are brought to their knees and their wives to despair, and she attains the power and prestige she seeks.
Cousin Bette was written in less than a year, in serial instalments, often only completed just before the deadline. Within its pages, Balzac conjures a kaleidoscope of characters from all walks of life, chronicles the rise of a grasping bourgeoisie and tells a gripping tale of jealousy, passion and treachery.
Honore de Balzac remains one of France's greatest writers. The author of over ninety novels and stories, his great work is the epic series of interlocking novels, La Comedie Humaine, designed to portray the radical changes France experienced after the Revolution and Empire. Balzac died three years after completing Cousin Bette, in 1850.
The Reader is Alex Jennings, who is currently appearing in The Collaborators as Mikhail Bulgakov at the National Theatre and will shortly be seen in Silk on BBC One. His many readings for Radio 4 include Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, Casino Royale by Ian Fleming and Speaking for Themselves, the letters of Clementine and Winston Churchill.
Cousin Bette is translated by Marion Ayton Crawford and the abridger was Sally Marmion.
The producer is Di Speirs.
MON 14:15 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's History of Home (b009j657)
Mr Voysey - The Architect of Middle England
The history of our homes from the 1920s to the present day, beginning with a profile of the 'father of the English suburb'.
MON 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01c7lk4)
Ed Harris - The Resistance of Mrs Brown, Episode 1
by Ed Harris
Amanda Root stars in a stirring British thriller with a difference.
It's 1944, and after the British defeat at Dunkirk and the Americans' decision to stay out of the war, we find ourselves at home in bomb-strewn suburbia with Mrs Brown. She is very ordinary, her husband died in the invasion, and now she pushes a tea trolley for the Nazi Military Administration in Whitehall.
Mrs Brown wants nothing more than to be a nobody. Determined above all to survive, and to protect her daughter, she never misses an opportunity to go unnoticed. But when she's contacted by the Resistance, will she keep her resolution?
Mrs Brown is given a task.
She will have one week to complete it.
One week to decide.
One week to prepare.
One week to live.
1/5 Mrs Brown advertises for a lodger.
Joan Brown ..... Amanda Root
Maisie Brown..... Ellie Kendrick
Mrs Crace ..... Adjoa Andoh
Miss Fry ..... Marlene Sidaway
Oberst Vitte ..... Simon Wilson
Gwen Evans ..... Tracy Wiles
Sturmbannfuhrer Smith ..... James Lailey
Mr Thomas ..... Paul Moriarty
Wode ..... Simon Bubb
Molly ..... Francine Chamberlain
Hans ..... Mark Edel-Hunt
Translations by Johannes Mirbach and Miguel Frank
Produced and Directed by Jonquil Panting
In 2011, the writer Ed Harris won the Writer's Guild Award for Troll, wrote MONGREL ISLAND for Soho Theatre and was nominated for the Prix Europa for his prescient play for BBC Radio 3: The Wall.
Before finding his feet as a playwright, Ed had spent several years working as a binman, occasional stand-up poet and (for one unbearably cold season) as a husky trainer in Lapland. Other plays for theatre include SUGARED GRAPEFRUIT for Old Vic New Vocies, LUCY for Chichester Festival Theatre, NEVER EVER AFTER for Chalkfoot (nominated for the Meyer-Whitworth Prize), THE COW PLAY and TOTAL for Squaremoon. For radio, his plays include TROLL, THE MOMENT YOU FEEL IT, AROMATHERAPY and PORSHIA.
MON 14:45 Book of the Week (b018hhmq)
Craig Taylor - Londoners, Episode 1
By Craig Taylor. Abridged by Pete Nichols.
Craig Taylor's book has given new voice to Londoners; the rich and the poor, the native and the immigrant; men and women. It continues an oral tradition that goes back to Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, published in the mid-nineteenth century.
Taylor gives us the squatter and the teacher; the bicycle mechanic and the registrar; the plumber and the rickshaw rider; the lost property clerk and the Wiccan priestess, who casts the remnants of her spells into the Thames.
These remarkable snapshots of the city dwellers are moving, funny and informative.
"What makes Londoners as valuable as any sociological treatise is Taylor's appreciation of the ways in which his subjects are themselves surveying, analysing and theorising the turbulent city in which they live.... At more than 400 pages, the book could easily have been twice as long... But this remains a remarkable volume, from the heaving, contradictory energy of its countless funny, terrifying, epic stories" Sukhdev Sandhu in The Guardian.
The Teacher ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 15:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007jr8r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
MON 16:00 Just a Minute (b00m10h9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
MON 16:30 The Change (b00nd0tk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
MON 17:00 Heated Rollers (b007qv82)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
MON 17:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b07z4151)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 18:00 Short Stories by Robert Heinlein (b00l3pzz)
Ordeal in Space
Deeply traumatised astronaut, William Cole is back on earth recuperating from a terrible accident.
After being jettisoned into outer-space, he's been left with a debilitating fear of falling. Facing the prospect of never returning to a job he loves, he's struggling to adapt to life as a civilian...
Read by Adam Sims.
Robert A Heinlein (1907-1988) is recognised by many as one of the great masters of sci-fi.
Produced and abridged by Gemma Jenkins.
Made for BBC Radio 7 and first broadcast in 2007.
MON 18:30 A Good Read (b0076cbs)
Sue Limb and Philippa Gregory
Rosie Boycott and her guests - writers Sue Limb and Philippa Gregory - discuss books by Isabelle Allende, William Golding, and Nick McDonell. From 2003.
Portrait in Sepia by Isabelle Allende
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pincher Martin by William Golding
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Twelve by Nick McDonell
Publisher: Atlantic.
MON 19:00 The Burkiss Way (b007jr1v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 19:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007jpd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 20:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016vlc5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 20:30 Exploding Cinema (b00xj2pw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 21:00 Where Were You... (b01mhtl4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
MON 21:15 Nick Darke - Hooked (b0076hky)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
MON 22:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b07z4151)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 22:30 Chain Reaction (b03q8z47)
Series 9, Neil Innes talks to Graham Linehan
Chain Reaction is Radio 4's long running hostless chat show where last week's interviewee becomes this week's interviewer.
The chain continues this week with ex-Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band member and Monty Python collaborator Neil Innes talking to comedy writer and director Graham Linehan.
Producer ... Carl Cooper.
MON 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b081c3xt)
The best in contemporary comedy. Tiff Stevenson chats to Lily Brazier, aka Miche from People Just Do Nothing.
MON 23:00 News Quiz Extra (b080cqz7)
Series 18, Episode 7
Jeremy Hardy, Chris Addison, Rebecca Front and Zoe Lyons join Chairman Miles Jupp for the latest edition of the long-running satirical quiz of the week's news.
Trump/Clinton, The Labour Party and Heathrow are just some of the topics tackled by the panel.
Producer: Paul Sheehan.
A BBC Studios Production.
MON 23:45 Quando, Quando, Quando (b007xry7)
Big Head
The president of Uruguay arrives at the Quando brothers' hair salon. Stars Rainer Hersch and Catherine Tate. From November 1999.

TUESDAY 25 OCTOBER 2016

TUE 00:00 Short Stories by Robert Heinlein (b00l3pzz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Monday]
TUE 00:30 A Good Read (b0076cbs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Monday]
TUE 01:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016vlc5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:30 Exploding Cinema (b00xj2pw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b018wvn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Monday]
TUE 02:15 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's History of Home (b009j657)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Monday]
TUE 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01c7lk4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:45 Book of the Week (b018hhmq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Monday]
TUE 03:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007jr8r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:00 Just a Minute (b00m10h9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:30 The Change (b00nd0tk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Monday]
TUE 05:00 Heated Rollers (b007qv82)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Monday]
TUE 05:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b07z4151)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Monday]
TUE 06:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016ywr3)
The Knight's Cross Signal Problem
After a shocking train disaster, blind amateur private detective, Max Carrados is called upon to uncover the truth. Was the driver at fault, or did the signal-man get it wrong?
As Max investigates, it soon becomes clear to him - if not to his friend Louis Carlyle - that something much more nefarious is going on...
Read by Arthur Darvill.
Max Carrados first featured in a series of mystery books in 1914. Carrados also shared top billing alongside Sherlock Holmes in 'The Strand Magazine". The character often boasts how much his blindness means his other senses are heightened.
Ernest Bramah excelled in his detailed writing and uncovering of clues. The beneficiary of a large inheritance from an American relative, Carrados is foremost a gentleman who undertakes sleuthing only as an avocation. Though equipped with a keen observer in the perfect manservant Parkinson, Carrados doesn't just sit around deducing. He makes his own observations with ears, nose and fingertips.
Abridged by Paul Kent.
Producer: Neil Gardner
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Ladbroke Radio Productions and first broadcast in 2011.
TUE 06:30 Pocket Cinema (b00xp1fk)
We've come a long way since French scientist, Phillipe Kahn, accidentally discovered that he could use his mobile phone to send pictures of his new born baby to relatives back in 1997; and yet, as Matthew Sweet finds out, we're only just scratching the surface of what can be done with film and phones.
These are exciting times for pocket film. Matthew hears from artists, film studios and advertisers about how films either made on or viewed on mobile phones are opening a host of possibilities and shaping a new future for the moving image.
At the centre of the programme is a specially commissioned "Pocket Film" by director Gurinder Chadha, which will be available to view via the Film Season's BBC webpage.
We visit the Paris Pocket Film Festival and join a group of children at a film-making workshop in London's East End on a mission to shoot a fashion video on their phones. We trail artist film-maker, Sylvie Prasad as she uses her mobile phone to shoot a film about, with and for her mother who has Alzheimer's and we hear from director Clio Barnard about her reasons for choosing a mobile phone to shoot her film "Dark Glass" about the unconscious and family memories.
Matthew talks to the people behind a land-mark road safety campaign film which was both shot on a mobile phone and illustrates the perils to pedestrians in doing - well, just that. He meets with John Maclean, whose film "Man on a Motorcyle", starring Michael Fassbender, was shot on a mobile phone, and finds out why the mobile film is here to stay, even though, now that you can shoot in HD on many smart phones, the low-res, pixelated aesthetic quality that used to characterise mobile films is a thing of the past.
What does the future hold for "pocket cinema"? We hear from an exec at Babelgum, a pioneering company behind most of the film/mobile link-ups we've seen with for example Sally Potter's "Rage", a film that premiered not in cinemas but on mobile phones. Hailed as the 'first independent online television company to cross over into full mobile internet', Babelgum is part of a network of companies at the coalface of exciting "transmedia" projects, bringing immersive video and films using geotagging to mobiles and other pocket device, and set to transform the pocket film...all over again.
Producers: Susan Marling and Hannah Rosenfelder
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 07:00 Edgar Wallace - Educated Evans (b03y7ldm)
Inside Information
Skint horse tipster Evans gets an unlikely helping hand from a self-righteous police inspector.
Roy Hudd stars as a self-styled "sporting authority" in 1920's Camden Town in London.
Edgar Wallace's 1924 novel dramatised by Richard Quick. Narrated by Freddie Jones.
With Andrew Sachs as Inspector Pine, Michael Roberts as The Miller and Pat Coombs as Mrs Rankin.
Music by Philip Glassborow and Rick Cardinall
Director: Dirk Maggs
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1996.
TUE 07:30 Ed Reardon's Week (b07z44bl)
Series 11, Generation Why Bother
Episode 3: 'Generation Why Bother'
Ed Reardon leads us through the ups and downs of his University Week.
Escaping a 'Wealth Protection Day' being held at the university Ed, armed with a carrier bag, cushion and sleep mask, heads up to the Oval for a relaxing day at the cricket where he meets a surprisingly interesting accountant who informs him he may be owed money by the HMRC. His agent, Ping, has no intention of helping him pursue this though as she's far too busy flirting with the chap with a 'man-bun' in the office across the road.
Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis.
TUE 08:00 Steptoe and Son (b00t4d75)
Series 2, The Piano
Harold and Albert strike the wrong chord with a grand piano in a top-floor flat.
Starring Wilfrid Brambell as Albert and Harry H Corbett as Harold. With Brian Oulton.
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 July 1967.
TUE 08:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jq45)
Mission Inedible
The civil servants botch a British food promotion in New York. Stars Richard Murdoch and Deryck Guyler. From July 1977.
TUE 09:00 News Quiz Extra (b080cqz7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]
TUE 09:45 Quando, Quando, Quando (b007xry7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:45 on Monday]
TUE 10:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007jrcj)
Water Games
Gerald excites Gudrun with his physical brutality, but Ursula is infuriated by Rupert's prevarication. Stars Douglas Hodge.
TUE 11:00 Where Were You... (b01mnqqx)
Chernobyl
Read by David Carlyle.
Where were you when Kennedy was shot? That was the starting point for this series in which five writers are asked to build a story around a significant historical event and explore it in fiction. As well as the assassination of JFK, the writers explore the meltdown of Chernobyl, the Tottenham riots, Columbine and the splitting of the lithium atom.
People often ask the "Kennedy Question" to highlight the magnitude of the event itself. And occasionally we find ourselves in the thick of the moment. But just as interesting are the polarities, disjunctions and weird connections between the moment that shakes the world and the life of the everyday.
Episode Two: Chernobyl by Simon Stephenson.
Fort William is a long way from the Ukraine. But for a long time now a thirteen-year-old boy and his sister have been obsessed with the Cold War - both to escape from, and also to understand, the escalating cold war between their parents.
Simon Stephenson is a writer and doctor who lives in London. Previous writing honours include being a runner-up in the Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition judged by John Burnside and selection for BBC Scotland's Tartan Shorts scheme. For several years he earned his living as a television screenwriter and received numerous commissions from all the major broadcasters. Let Not The Waves Of The Sea, a memoir about his journey following the loss of his brother Dominic in the Indian Ocean tsunami, was Book of the Week on Radio 4 in July 2011.
TUE 11:15 Stephen Dunstone - The Drought (b007jw1l)
Submerged in a reservoir, Jean's childhood home is uncovered during a drought. But her visit is distressing. Stars Kathleen Helme.
TUE 12:00 Steptoe and Son (b00t4d75)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 12:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jq45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 13:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016ywr3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 13:30 Pocket Cinema (b00xp1fk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b018xs8y)
Honoré de Balzac - Cousin Bette, Episode 2
Cousin Bette is one of the best loved and most admired of Honore de Balzac's novels, written when his powers were at their height and marking the culmination of his extraordinary chronicle, La Comedie Humaine.
A tale of seductive women and philandering men, of passionate affairs and spiralling debts, Cousin Bette paints a vivid portrait of Paris in the 1830s and '40s. In a city full of temptations, money is king, morals are loose and the appeals of the virtuous are usually in vain. In the midst of it all sits a poor relation, Cousin Bette, like a spider in her web. Fuelled by bitterness and jealousy, she is determined to weave destruction into the lives of her extended family, the socially superior Hulots.
With her friend and accomplice, the beautiful Madame Marneffe, Bette sets out to manipulate events so that men are brought to their knees and their wives to despair, and she attains the power and prestige she seeks.
In today's episode, the incorrigible Baron Hector Hulot meets a captivating young woman, Madame Marneffe, and Cousin Bette tries to bind the young sculptor, Count Wenceslas Steinbock, that she has 'adopted', ever closer.
Cousin Bette was written in less than a year, in serial instalments, often only completed just before the deadline. Within its pages, Balzac conjures a kaleidoscope of characters from all walks of life, chronicles the rise of a grasping bourgeoisie and tells a gripping tale of jealousy, passion and treachery.
The reader is Alex Jennings.
The translator was Marion Ayton Crawford and the abridger was Sally Marmion.
The producer is Di Speirs.
TUE 14:15 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's History of Home (b009j65c)
Modernism
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen explores the history of our homes from the 1920s. The modernist social experiment came close to being realised with the blocks of flats built in the 1930s.
TUE 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01c7pq6)
Ed Harris - The Resistance of Mrs Brown, Episode 2
by Ed Harris
Amanda Root stars in a stirring wartime thriller with a difference.
After the British defeat at Dunkirk, and the death of her husband, Mrs Brown has found herself pushing a tea trolley for the new Nazi Military Administration in London.
Determined to survive, she makes sure she is unremarkable. But when she's contacted by the Resistance, can she keep her resolution?
2/5 In the corridors of Whitehall, Mrs Brown must turn from tea lady to spy.
Joan Brown ..... Amanda Root
Maisie Brown..... Ellie Kendrick
Mrs Crace ..... Adjoa Andoh
Miss Fry ..... Marlene Sidaway
Oberst Vitte ..... Simon Wilson
Gwen Evans ..... Tracy Wiles
Sturmbannfuhrer Smith ..... James Lailey
Mr Thomas ..... Paul Moriarty
Wode ..... Simon Bubb
Molly ..... Francine Chamberlain
Hans ..... Mark Edel-Hunt
Translations by Johannes Mirbach and Miguel Frank
Produced and Directed by Jonquil Panting.
TUE 14:45 Book of the Week (b018scrk)
Craig Taylor - Londoners, Episode 2
By Craig Taylor. Abridged by Pete Nichols.
Craig Taylor's book has given new voice to Londoners; the rich and the poor, the native and the immigrant; men and women. It continues an oral tradition that goes back to Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, published in the mid-nineteenth century.
Taylor gives us the squatter and the teacher; the bicycle mechanic and the registrar; the plumber and the rickshaw rider; the lost property clerk and the Wiccan priestess, who casts the remnants of her spells into the Thames.
These remarkable snapshops of the city dwellers are moving, funny and informative.
"What makes Londoners as valuable as any sociological treatise is Taylor's appreciation of the ways in which his subjects are themselves surveying, analysing and theorising the turbulent city in which they live.... At more than 400 pages, the book could easily have been twice as long... But this remains a remarkable volume, from the heaving, contradictory energy of its countless funny, terrifying, epic stories" Sukhdev Sandhu in The Guardian.
The Wiccan priestess ..... Lesley Manville
The rickshaw rider ..... Tom Brooke
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007jrcj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
TUE 16:00 Counterpoint (b080dwb7)
2006, Heat 8
Ned Sherrin's musical questions for Jonathan Noble of Knutsford, Paul McKenna of Sutton Coldfield and Andrew Wilson of Didsbury.
TUE 16:30 Chambers (b007jp6n)
Series 2, The Phantom Barrister
A new worker puzzles John Fuller-Carp, and Ruth's mum visits. Stars John Bird, Sue Johnston and Robert Bathurst. From May 1998.
TUE 17:00 Edgar Wallace - Educated Evans (b03y7ldm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
TUE 17:30 Ed Reardon's Week (b07z44bl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 18:00 Short Stories by Robert Heinlein (b00lblq5)
The Green Hills of Earth
Rhysling, the blind singer of the spaceways, captures the beauty of space and complexities of being a spaceman in songs about his heroic adventures.
Snatches of his music are interwoven with the story of how he lost his sight and became Earth's unofficial chronicler of the universe.
Read by Adam Sims.
Written in 1947, 'The Green Hills of Earth' is recognised as one of the best-ever sci-fi stories by master writer, Robert A Heinlein (1907-1988).
Produced and abridged by Gemma Jenkins.
Made for BBC Radio 7 and first broadcast in 2007.
TUE 18:30 Lives in a Landscape (b00770d5)
Series 2, Episode 5
Documentary series telling original stories about real lives in Britain today.
5/6. The Garden Square
Behind the ivy-clad railings of Notting Hill lie secret gardens, accessible only to residents with a key. What goes on within this apparent urban utopia?
TUE 19:00 Steptoe and Son (b00t4d75)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 19:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jq45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 20:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016ywr3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 20:30 Pocket Cinema (b00xp1fk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 21:00 Where Were You... (b01mnqqx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
TUE 21:15 Stephen Dunstone - The Drought (b007jw1l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
TUE 22:00 Ed Reardon's Week (b07z44bl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 22:30 The Maltby Collection (b00xmvwb)
Series 2, Episode 5
The museum staff pitch their ideas for a special exhibition. Stars Geoffrey Palmer and Julian Rhind-Tutt. From June 2008.
TUE 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b081c4nk)
The best in contemporary comedy. Tiff Stevenson chats to Lily Brazier, aka Miche from People Just Do Nothing.
TUE 23:00 Brian Gulliver's Travels (b00zlfh9)
Series 1, Erosia
Brian Gulliver, a seasoned presenter of travel documentaries, finds himself in a hospital's secure unit after claiming to have had a number of bizarre adventures.
This week he travels to Erosia which has a very different view of sexual politics.
Written by Bill Dare
Produced by Steven Canny
Brian Gulliver's Travels is a new satirical adventure story from Bill Dare. The series has attracted an excellent cast led by Neil Pearson and award winning star of the RSC's current season, Mariah Gale. Cast includes fantastic actors Tamsin Greig, John Standing, Paul Bhattacharjee, Christopher Douglas, Catherine Shepherd, Vicky Pepperdine, Phil Cornwell, Antonia Campbell Hughes, Jo Bobin and Katherine Jakeways.
For years Bill Dare wanted to create a satire about different worlds exploring Kipling's idea that we travel, 'not just to explore civilizations, but to better understand our own'. But science fiction and space ships never interested him, so he put the idea on ice. Then Brian Gulliver arrived and meant that our hero could be lost in a fictional world without the need for any sci-fi.
Satirical targets over the series: the medical profession and its need to pathologize everything; the effect of marriage on children; spirituality and pseudo-science; compensation culture; sexism; the affect of our obsession with fame.
Gulliver's Travels is the only book Bill Dare read at university. His father, Peter Jones, narrated a similarly peripatetic radio series: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
TUE 23:30 Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off (b00p87r0)
Series 4, Greece
He's back! But this time, he's got a computer! Budleigh Salterton's most famous citizen has been grounded by both the Home Office and his father, so he's set up GWH Travvel ("2 Ms, 2 Gs, 2 Vs - bit of a mix up at the printers").
Run from his bedroom in Budleigh Salterton, with the help of his long-suffering former Primary School teacher Mr Timmis and the hindrance of his sister Charlotte, it's a one-stop Travel/Advice/Events Management/Website service, where each week his schemes range far and wide - whether it's roaming the country lecturing would-be overlanders on how to pack a rucksack ("If in doubt, put it in. And double it"), or finding someone a zebra for a corporate promotion ("I'll look in the Phone Book - how hard can it be? Now, "A to D"...), GWH Travvel stays true to its motto - "We do it all, so you won't want to".
In this episode we see the struggle between the Apollonian and Dionysian principles as Giles travels to Greece on a desperate rescue mission and eats far too much halloumi.
Starring Marcus Brigstocke as Giles.
Cast:
Giles Wemmbley Hogg ..... Marcus Brigstocke
Professor Bakoyannis ..... Jack Klaff
Mr Timmis ..... Adrian Scarborough
Charlotte Wemmbley Hogg ..... Catherine Shepherd
Jeremy ..... James Bachman
Luke ..... Mark Evans
Aphrodite ..... Nina Millns
Colonel Yiannis ..... Chris Pavlo
Written by Marcus Brigstocke & Jeremy Salsby.
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.

WEDNESDAY 26 OCTOBER 2016

WED 00:00 Short Stories by Robert Heinlein (b00lblq5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Tuesday]
WED 00:30 Lives in a Landscape (b00770d5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Tuesday]
WED 01:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016ywr3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:30 Pocket Cinema (b00xp1fk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b018xs8y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Tuesday]
WED 02:15 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's History of Home (b009j65c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Tuesday]
WED 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01c7pq6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:45 Book of the Week (b018scrk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Tuesday]
WED 03:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007jrcj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:00 Counterpoint (b080dwb7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:30 Chambers (b007jp6n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]
WED 05:00 Edgar Wallace - Educated Evans (b03y7ldm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Tuesday]
WED 05:30 Ed Reardon's Week (b07z44bl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Tuesday]
WED 06:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016z2cw)
The Tragedy at Brookbend Cottage
Blind amateur sleuth, Max Carrados investigates a dastardly husband's plot to murder his wife.
Out in the London suburbs, mystery piles upon mystery. What does the urgent telegram say? Why is there a metal plate bolted to the floor? Max thinks he knows, but can he halt the deadly machinations?
Read by Arthur Darvill.
Max Carrados first featured in a series of mystery books in 1914. Carrados also shared top billing alongside Sherlock Holmes in 'The Strand Magazine". The character often boasts how much his blindness means his other senses are heightened.
Ernest Bramah excelled in his detailed writing and uncovering of clues. The beneficiary of a large inheritance from an American relative, Carrados is foremost a gentleman who undertakes sleuthing only as an avocation. Though equipped with a keen observer in the perfect manservant Parkinson, Carrados doesn't just sit around deducing. He makes his own observations with ears, nose and fingertips.
Abridged by Paul Kent.
Producer: Neil Gardner
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Ladbroke Radio Productions and first broadcast in 2011.
WED 06:30 Stars of the 50s - Alma Cogan (b080dyjr)
Britain's highest paid female entertainer of her era is profiled by Chris Stuart. Alma tragically died aged just 34. From February 1993.
WED 07:00 Robin and Wendy's Wet Weekends (b008h4qy)
Series 2, About Some Boys
Robin is soaking. Derek is excited. Maureen is furious. Whatever next? Stars Kay Stonham and Simon Greenall. From June 2003.
WED 07:30 Rich Hall's (US Election) Breakdown (b07z4djf)
Multi award-winning comedian and US Citizen Rich Hall follows the closing stages of the US Presidential race, offering an acerbic look at the electoral system and the two candidates vying for the most important job in the world.
A combination of stand-up, sketch and interview, Rich Hall's (US Election) Breakdown broadcasts live from the fictional IBBC network in Washington to the whole of the United States.
Rich and his producer Nick Doody take calls from every corner of the United States to hear the concerns of voters, offering their take on the issues troubling the American electorate.
WED 08:00 The Navy Lark (b007k188)
Seeing Red
Can the inept crew of HMS Troutbridge manage to take Sir Willoughby Todhunter-Brown to a secret rendezvous?
Stars Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Stephen Murray as the Number One, Richard Caldicot as Captain Povey, Heather Chasen as the Russian Minister, Ronnie Barker as Dorps, Tenniel Evans as Sir Willoughby Todhunter Brown and Michael Bates as the Russian Frigate Captain.
Laughs afloat aboard British Royal Navy frigate HMS Troutbridge. The Navy Lark ran for an impressive thirteen series between 1959 and 1976.
Scripted by Lawrie Wyman.
Producer: Alastair Scott Johnston.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in September 1967.
WED 08:30 Hancock's Half Hour (b0186wj0)
The Blackboard Jungle
The lad is a young master in a school full of juvenile delinquents. A parody of the controversial 1955 movie of the same name.
Starring Tony Hancock, Bill Kerr, Sidney James, Andree Melly and Kenneth Williams.
Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Theme and incidental music composed by Wally Stott. Recorded by the BBC Revue Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.
Producer: Dennis Main Wilson
Recovered episode first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in November 1955.
WED 09:00 Dilemma (b01r9rtd)
Series 2, Episode 5
Sue Perkins sets more moral and ethical posers for Jason Cook, Cerys Matthews, David Aaronovitch and Sara Pascoe. From March 2013.
WED 09:30 Up the Garden Path (b007xwbq)
Series 1, Into the Lion's Den
With Michael messing her about, Izzy's quest to find love gets even more muddled. Stars Imelda Staunton. From November 1987.
WED 10:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007k1yl)
Moonlight
Rupert proposes, but this decisive action leads to more questions rather than answers. With Clare Holman and Nicholas Farrell.
WED 11:00 Where Were You... (b01mtt0x)
The Indivisible
Read by Hattie Morahan
Where were you when Kennedy was shot? That was the starting point for this series in which five writers are asked to build a story around a significant historical event and explore it in fiction. As well as the assassination of JFK, the writers explore the meltdown of Chernobyl, the Tottenham riots, Columbine and the splitting of the lithium atom.
People often ask the "Kennedy Question" to highlight the magnitude of the event itself. And occasionally we find ourselves in the thick of the moment. But just as interesting are the polarities, disjunctions and weird connections between the moment that shakes the world and the life of the everyday.
Episode Three: The Indivisible by Nick Walker.
It's 14 April 1932. In Rutherford's laboratory in Cambridge, Cockroft and Walton fire a proton beam to split a lithium atom and make a breakthrough in the science of nuclear fission. But elsewhere, on a station platform, a mother says goodbye to her son and feels her own world splitting apart.
Nick Walker is part of the Coventry-based mixed media experimentalists Talking Birds whose work has been presented extensively in the UK as well as in Sweden, Ireland and the USA. He has worked with some of the country's leading new work theatre companies including Stan's Cafe, Insomniac, and Theatre Instituut Nederlands. He is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels, Blackbox and Helloland. His plays and short stories have often been featured on BBC Radio 4, including Arnold In A Purple Haze (2009), the First King of Mars stories (2007 - 2010), Life Coach (2010) and Dig Yourself (2011) - all of them Sweet Talk productions.
Produced by: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 11:15 David Pownall - Assassins (b0075hlr)
The Virgin Knife
On 13 July 1793, why did Charlotte Corday travel to Paris with the sole aim of killing Jean-Paul Marat? Stars Samantha Bond.
WED 12:00 The Navy Lark (b007k188)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 12:30 Hancock's Half Hour (b0186wj0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 13:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016z2cw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 13:30 Stars of the 50s - Alma Cogan (b080dyjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b018xts4)
Honoré de Balzac - Cousin Bette, Episode 3
Cousin Bette is one of the best loved and most admired of Honore de Balzac's novels, written when his powers were at their height and marking the culmination of his extraordinary chronicle, La Comedie Humaine.
A tale of seductive women and philandering men, of passionate affairs and spiralling debts, Cousin Bette paints a vivid portrait of Paris in the 1830s and '40s. In a city full of temptations, money is king, morals are loose and the appeals of the virtuous are usually in vain. In the midst of it all sits a poor relation, Cousin Bette, like a spider in her web. Fuelled by bitterness and jealousy, she is determined to weave destruction into the lives of her extended family, the socially superior Hulots.
With her friend and accomplice, the beautiful Madame Marneffe, Bette sets out to manipulate events so that men are brought to their knees and their wives to despair, and she attains the power and prestige she seeks.
In today's episode, as Bette and Madame Valerie Marneffe find common cause and prepare to entrap Baron Hulot, Bette learns some unwelcome news about her young sculptor Wenceslas.
Cousin Bette was written in less than a year, in serial instalments, often only completed just before the deadline. Within its pages, Balzac conjures a kaleidoscope of characters from all walks of life, chronicles the rise of a grasping bourgeoisie and tells a gripping tale of jealousy, passion and treachery.
The reader is Alex Jennings.
The translator was Marion Ayton Crawford and the abridger was Sally Marmion.
The producer is Di Speirs.
WED 14:15 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's History of Home (b009j65h)
Utility
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen visits a pre-fab and considers ways in which the post-war government urged a reluctant public to embrace 'good design'.
WED 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01c7rgq)
Ed Harris - The Resistance of Mrs Brown, Episode 3
by Ed Harris
Amanda Root stars in a stirring wartime thriller with a difference.
After the British defeat at Dunkirk, and the death of her husband, Mrs Brown has found herself pushing a tea trolley for the new Nazi Military Administration in London.
Determined to survive, she makes sure she is unremarkable. But when she's contacted by the Resistance, can she keep her resolution?
3/5 Is saying no more dangerous than saying yes?
Joan Brown ..... Amanda Root
Maisie Brown..... Ellie Kendrick
Mrs Crace ..... Adjoa Andoh
Miss Fry ..... Marlene Sidaway
Oberst Vitte ..... Simon Wilson
Gwen Evans ..... Tracy Wiles
Sturmbannfuhrer Smith ..... James Lailey
Mr Thomas ..... Paul Moriarty
Wode ..... Simon Bubb
Molly ..... Francine Chamberlain
Hans ..... Mark Edel-Hunt
Translations by Johannes Mirbach and Miguel Frank
Produced and Directed by Jonquil Panting.
WED 14:45 Book of the Week (b018scss)
Craig Taylor - Londoners, Episode 3
By Craig Taylor. Abridged by Pete Nichols.
Craig Taylor's book has given new voice to Londoners; the rich and the poor, the native and the immigrant; men and women. It continues an oral tradition that goes back to Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, published in the mid-nineteenth century.
Taylor gives us the squatter and the teacher; the bicycle mechanic and the registrar; the plumber and the rickshaw rider; the lost property clerk and the Wiccan priestess, who casts the remnants of her spells into the Thames.
These remarkable snapshots of the city dwellers are moving, funny and informative.
"What makes Londoners as valuable as any sociological treatise is Taylor's appreciation of the ways in which his subjects are themselves surveying, analysing and theorising the turbulent city in which they live.... At more than 400 pages, the book could easily have been twice as long... But this remains a remarkable volume, from the heaving, contradictory energy of its countless funny, terrifying, epic stories" Sukhdev Sandhu in The Guardian.
The plumber ..... Ruby King
The squatter ..... Adrian Bower
The personal trainer ..... Osi Okerafor
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007k1yl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
WED 16:00 Dilemma (b01r9rtd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
WED 16:30 Up the Garden Path (b007xwbq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
WED 17:00 Robin and Wendy's Wet Weekends (b008h4qy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
WED 17:30 Rich Hall's (US Election) Breakdown (b07z4djf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 18:00 John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos (b007jmfp)
Episode 1
The mystery deepens when all the residents of the rural village of Midwich suddenly fall into a state of unconsciousness...
The classic 1957 sci-fi novel by John Wyndam (1903-1969) adapted in 3-parts by William Ingram.
Starring Charles Kay as Colonel Bernard Westcott, William Gaunt as Richard Gayford, Manning Wilson as Gordon Zellaby and Pauline Yates as Angela Zellaby.
Music specially composed by Roger Limb of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Producer: Gordon House
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1982.
WED 18:30 Off the Page (b00ktprr)
Stripping Off
Dominic Arkwright, Zoe Simon, Catherine Blyth and Phil Hilton discuss whether being revealing is art or obscenity? From June 2009.
WED 19:00 The Navy Lark (b007k188)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 19:30 Hancock's Half Hour (b0186wj0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 20:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016z2cw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 20:30 Stars of the 50s - Alma Cogan (b080dyjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 21:00 Where Were You... (b01mtt0x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
WED 21:15 David Pownall - Assassins (b0075hlr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
WED 22:00 Rich Hall's (US Election) Breakdown (b07z4djf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 22:30 Andrew O'Neill: Pharmacist Baffler (b04vf439)
Episode 2
Comedian Andrew O'Neill looks at what makes up our sexual identity and why some people are so offended by homosexuality. He is a married, heterosexual transvestite. As such he totally confuses some people who assume he's gay, offends some who can't cope with the outfits and baffles people who aren't sure what he's all about.
He asks why people are so offended by homosexuality, what lies underneath their hostility and what other sorts of sexuality there might be.
With Stephen Carlin.
Written and Performed by Andrew O' Neill
Producer; Alison Vernon-Smith.
WED 23:00 Hearing With Hegley (b03sb6t8)
Series 2, Episode 7
Comedian John Hegley makes a spectacle of himself in Barnet with visionary poems and songs. With Nigel Piper and the Popticians. From September 1998.
WED 23:15 All the World's a Globe (b007jwv5)
Episode 6
Battles galore in the National Theatre of Brent's definitive history of Earth. Stars Patrick Barlow. From May 1990.
WED 23:30 Radio 2's Comedy Showcase (b007kc2k)
Ready, Steady, Sink!
The crew on the rotting ship broadcasting Radio Splash - Britain's 11th most popular pirate radio station - miserably endure each other's foul personal habits and constant lack of essential supplies. Stars Peter Kay. From January 2000.

THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

THU 00:00 John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos (b007jmfp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Wednesday]
THU 00:30 Off the Page (b00ktprr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesday]
THU 01:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b016z2cw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Wednesday]
THU 01:30 Stars of the 50s - Alma Cogan (b080dyjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b018xts4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Wednesday]
THU 02:15 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's History of Home (b009j65h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Wednesday]
THU 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01c7rgq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:45 Book of the Week (b018scss)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Wednesday]
THU 03:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007k1yl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:00 Dilemma (b01r9rtd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:30 Up the Garden Path (b007xwbq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Wednesday]
THU 05:00 Robin and Wendy's Wet Weekends (b008h4qy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Wednesday]
THU 05:30 Rich Hall's (US Election) Breakdown (b07z4djf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Wednesday]
THU 06:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b017071f)
The Last Exploit of Harry the Actor
After a spate of mysterious thefts from the supposedly impregnable Lucas Street Depository, blind amateur sleuth Max Carrados discovers that infamous American con-man, Harry the Actor's been at work...but to what end?
Read by Arthur Darvill.
Max Carrados first featured in a series of mystery books in 1914. Carrados also shared top billing alongside Sherlock Holmes in 'The Strand Magazine". The character often boasts how much his blindness means his other senses are heightened.
Ernest Bramah excelled in his detailed writing and uncovering of clues. The beneficiary of a large inheritance from an American relative, Carrados is foremost a gentleman who undertakes sleuthing only as an avocation. Though equipped with a keen observer in the perfect manservant Parkinson, Carrados doesn't just sit around deducing. He makes his own observations with ears, nose and fingertips.
Abridged by Paul Kent.
Producer: Neil Gardner
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Ladbroke Radio Productions and first broadcast in 2011.
THU 06:30 New Conversation (b01460dl)
Olivia O'Leary follows historian and philosopher Theodore Zeldin as he tries to change the way people talk to each other. He wants to make the world a better place - starting with the London Borough of Lewisham.
Prof Zeldin believes there are substantial social benefits to be gained from encouraging people to strip away social conventions and talk about things which go beyond gossip, argument and chit chat. He wants people to talk about who they really are, and what they want from life. He calls it 'new conversation.'
Guests at his 'conversation dinners' spend several hours talking to just one other person. They are required to follow a menu of conversational gambits such as : When have you felt isolated and what do you do about it? What would make the world a better place and how could you make that happen?
Olivia follows Prof Zeldin as he introduces his 'new conversation' to a wide range of people including former MPs, Pilates teachers, furniture store staff and unemployed teenagers. She asks why such people would want to be told how to talk to each other by an elderly Oxford academic.
Prof Zeldin's ambitious plan is to turn the borough of Lewisham into a place where the entire quarter of a million inhabitants can get to know each other. He argues that his approach will break down isolation and alienation, and even create more satisfying jobs.
But Prof Zeldin's efforts to sweep all along with him on his adventure hit a barrier when conversation dinner guests accuse him of staging a glorified version of Blind Date. And he meets resistance elsewhere from community groups who refuse to talk to people from other parts of the borough.
But with the support of the local council, Prof Zeldin pushes on; staging a mass conversation dinner in a park, and even hatching a scheme to enable local GPs to get to know their patients better.
It's an uphill struggle, but Prof Zeldin is not a man to give up easily.
Producer: Brian King
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 07:00 Any Other Business (b0132mxz)
Episode 3
The new mayor has to chair his very first council meeting - and he's scared witless.
Lucy Flannery's local government sitcom stars Nelson David, John Duttine, James Grout, Rosy Fordham, Nick Hardy, Howard Lew Lewis, Toby Longworth, Jan Ravens, Vivienne Rochester and June Whitfield.
Producer: Liz Anstee
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1995.
THU 07:30 It's Not What You Know (b07z728r)
Series 4, Episode 4
Joe Lycett discovers how well a panel of celebrity guests know their nearest and dearest.
THU 08:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b03sb51j)
Doddy's Daft Half Hour
From the Wright Brothers to baked beans, it's more quick-fire gagging from the mirth-meister. With Pat Coombs. From August 1972.
THU 08:30 Radio Active (b00hk2dn)
Series 7, The Mega Phone-In
The biggest ever phone-in attempted on radio gives you the opportunity to dial in from anywhere in the world - and talk to the engaged signal.
Starring Helen Atkinson-Wood, Angus Deayton, Geoffrey Perkins, Philip Pope and Michael Fenton-Stevens.
Music by Philip Pope and Steve Brown.
Written by Angus Deayton and Geoffrey Perkins.
Producer: David Tyler
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1987.
THU 09:00 It's Your Round (b019rgtc)
Series 2, Episode 5
Angus Deayton hosts the show which is totally different every time, as it's the panellists themselves that devise the format. Each of the contestants has brought their own round for the other panellists to play. But will they be beaten at their own games?
The rounds featured this episode are:
Lucy Porter's "Who's the Daddy?" in which the other three, childless, male panellists must complete the quote from a 70's parenting bible.
Tom Wrigglesworth's "Dodo's Den" in which each contestant must pitch their idea for a new invention that they think will make them their millions. Examples include the "Herring Aid" and the intriguingly titled "Bam".
Robert Popper's brilliant parlour game, "ORAG" aka "The Opposite Rhyming Animal Game", which is pretty much, er, self-explanatory...
And Lloyd Langford devises a quiz based on Welsh talisman and eccentric, Dr William Price, in his round "The Price Is Right".
Producer: Sam Michell.
THU 09:30 Crazy Big Fish (b0075z7z)
Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves
Despite opposition, the Hull women pull out all the stops to get Rita to the read-through. From November 2000.
THU 10:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007k1zw)
Mountain Snows
A looming tragedy cements the future of Rupert, Gerald, Ursula and Gudrun. With Clare Holman, Stella Gonet and Douglas Hodge.
THU 11:00 Where Were You... (b01n0vhj)
The Sandy
Read by Ryan McCluskey
Where were you when Kennedy was shot? That was the starting point for this series in which five writers are asked to build a story around a significant historical event and explore it in fiction. As well as the assassination of JFK, the writers explore the meltdown of Chernobyl, the Tottenham riots, Columbine and the splitting of the lithium atom.
People often ask the "Kennedy Question" to highlight the magnitude of the event itself. And occasionally we find ourselves in the thick of the moment. But just as interesting are the polarities, disjunctions and weird connections between the moment that shakes the world and the life of the everyday.
Episode Four: The Sandy by Toby Litt
In April 1999, a young beach bum in California gets word from his family in Colorado about a shooting at his sister's school - Columbine. But how will he react to the news?
Toby Litt was born in 1968 and grew up in Bedfordshire. In 2003, he was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. His most recent novel, King Death,was published in 2010. His stories, The Melancholy (2010) and People Carry Roses (2011) featured in previous Sweet Talk series for BBC Radio 4.

Produced by Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 11:15 David Pownall - Assassins (b05vrjr8)
A Mere Five Thousand Pounds
How aggrieved timber merchant John Bellingham shot prime minister Spencer Perceval dead in May 1812. Stars David Horovitch.
THU 12:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b03sb51j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 12:30 Radio Active (b00hk2dn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 13:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b017071f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 13:30 New Conversation (b01460dl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b018xwth)
Honoré de Balzac - Cousin Bette, Episode 4
Cousin Bette is one of the best loved and most admired of Honore de Balzac's novels, written when his powers were at their height and marking the culmination of his extraordinary chronicle, La Comedie Humaine.
A tale of seductive women and philandering men, of passionate affairs and spiralling debts, Cousin Bette paints a vivid portrait of Paris in the 1830s and '40s. In a city full of temptations, money is king, morals are loose and the appeals of the virtuous are usually in vain. In the midst of it all sits a poor relation, Cousin Bette, like a spider in her web. Fuelled by bitterness and jealousy, she is determined to weave destruction into the lives of her extended family, the socially superior Hulots.
With her friend and accomplice, the beautiful Madame Marneffe, Bette sets out to manipulate events so that men are brought to their knees and their wives to despair, and she attains the power and prestige she seeks.
In today's episode, as Hulot's debts spiral further out of control, Bette seizes on a new plan to destroy her detested family.
Cousin Bette was written in less than a year, in serial instalments, often only completed just before the deadline. Within its pages, Balzac conjures a kaleidoscope of characters from all walks of life, chronicles the rise of a grasping bourgeoisie and tells a gripping tale of jealousy, passion and treachery.
The reader is Alex Jennings.
The translator was Marion Ayton Crawford and the abridger was Sally Marmion.
The producer is Di Speirs.
THU 14:15 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's History of Home (b009j65q)
DIY
Laurence Llewelyn Bowen explores the history of our homes from the 1920s to the present day.
Skills were in short supply after World War II and DIY was presented as an essential and democratic component of every marriage.
THU 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01c7smq)
Ed Harris - The Resistance of Mrs Brown, Episode 4
by Ed Harris
Amanda Root stars in a stirring wartime thriller with a difference.
After the British defeat at Dunkirk, and the death of her husband, Mrs Brown has found herself pushing a tea trolley for the new Nazi Military Administration in London.
Determined to survive, she makes sure she is unremarkable. But when she's contacted by the Resistance, can she keep her resolution?
4/5 A copy of Signal magazine brings a visitor to Mrs Brown's home.
Joan Brown ..... Amanda Root
Maisie Brown..... Ellie Kendrick
Mrs Crace ..... Adjoa Andoh
Miss Fry ..... Marlene Sidaway
Oberst Vitte ..... Simon Wilson
Gwen Evans ..... Tracy Wiles
Sturmbannfuhrer Smith ..... James Lailey
Mr Thomas ..... Paul Moriarty
Wode ..... Simon Bubb
Molly ..... Francine Chamberlain
Hans ..... Mark Edel-Hunt
Translations by Johannes Mirbach and Miguel Frank
Produced and Directed by Jonquil Panting.
THU 14:45 Book of the Week (b018scvj)
Craig Taylor - Londoners, Episode 4
By Craig Taylor. Abridged by Pete Nichols.
Craig Taylor's book has given new voice to Londoners; the rich and the poor, the native and the immigrant; men and women. It continues an oral tradition that goes back to Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, published in the mid-nineteenth century.
Taylor gives us the squatter and the teacher; the bicycle mechanic and the registrar; the plumber and the rickshaw rider; the lost property clerk and the Wiccan priestess, who casts the remnants of her spells into the Thames.
These remarkable snapshots of the city dwellers are moving, funny and informative.
"What makes Londoners as valuable as any sociological treatise is Taylor's appreciation of the ways in which his subjects are themselves surveying, analysing and theorising the turbulent city in which they live.... At more than 400 pages, the book could easily have been twice as long... But this remains a remarkable volume, from the heaving, contradictory energy of its countless funny, terrifying, epic stories" Sukhdev Sandhu in The Guardian.
The registrar ..... Claire Rushbrook
The bike mechanic ..... Sophie Stanton
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 15:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007k1zw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
THU 16:00 It's Your Round (b019rgtc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
THU 16:30 Crazy Big Fish (b0075z7z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
THU 17:00 Any Other Business (b0132mxz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
THU 17:30 It's Not What You Know (b07z728r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 18:00 John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos (b007jmg5)
Episode 2
The alien children born in the rural village start to make their presence felt. Stars Charles Kay and Pauline Yates.
THU 18:30 Great Lives (b008fwlc)
Series 14, Thora Hird
Series of biographical discussions with Matthew Parris.
1/7. Jan Ravens champions Dame Thora Hird. Biographer Morris Bright and Thora's daughter Janette Scott provide expert advice on an actress once described as the Queen Mum of British stage and screen.
THU 19:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b03sb51j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 19:30 Radio Active (b00hk2dn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 20:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b017071f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 20:30 New Conversation (b01460dl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 21:00 Where Were You... (b01n0vhj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
THU 21:15 David Pownall - Assassins (b05vrjr8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
THU 22:00 It's Not What You Know (b07z728r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 22:30 Strangers on Trains (b00d75p2)
Episode 2
Heated views on climate as travellers reveal their faith and beliefs. Stars Nat Segnit and Stewart Wright. From September 2008.
THU 22:45 One (b00771by)
Series 1, Episode 2
Sketch show where no sketch features more than one voice.
Written by David Quantick and starring Dan Maier, Lizzie Roper, Graeme Garden, Deborah Norton, Andrew Crawford, Dan Antopolski, Simon Greenall, Kate Gielgud and Bill Oddie as himself.
THU 23:00 The Harri-Parris' Radio Show (b06847tt)
Series 1, The Leaving Do
Mami and Deiniol throw a surprise engagement party for Anni and Ben, who may have other less popular plans.
THU 23:30 The Masterson Inheritance (b007jqqh)
Series 3, The Masterson's Magical Marquee, pt 1
The improvised historical family saga's two-part romp about a Victorian travelling circus. Stars Paul Merton. From July 1995.

FRIDAY 28 OCTOBER 2016

FRI 00:00 John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos (b007jmg5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Thursday]
FRI 00:30 Great Lives (b008fwlc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Thursday]
FRI 01:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b017071f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Thursday]
FRI 01:30 New Conversation (b01460dl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b018xwth)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Thursday]
FRI 02:15 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's History of Home (b009j65q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Thursday]
FRI 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01c7smq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:45 Book of the Week (b018scvj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Thursday]
FRI 03:00 DH Lawrence - Women in Love (b007k1zw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:00 It's Your Round (b019rgtc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:30 Crazy Big Fish (b0075z7z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Thursday]
FRI 05:00 Any Other Business (b0132mxz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Thursday]
FRI 05:30 It's Not What You Know (b07z728r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Thursday]
FRI 06:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b01709qq)
A Game Played in the Dark
The British Museum contacts blind amateur sleuth, Max Carrados over a horde of stolen ancient coins. Out on his hunt for the currency, Max comes face-to-face with some of his old adversaries. But who will win..?
Read by Arthur Darvill.
Max Carrados first featured in a series of mystery books in 1914. Carrados also shared top billing alongside Sherlock Holmes in 'The Strand Magazine". The character often boasts how much his blindness means his other senses are heightened.
Ernest Bramah excelled in his detailed writing and uncovering of clues. The beneficiary of a large inheritance from an American relative, Carrados is foremost a gentleman who undertakes sleuthing only as an avocation. Though equipped with a keen observer in the perfect manservant Parkinson, Carrados doesn't just sit around deducing. He makes his own observations with ears, nose and fingertips.
Abridged by Paul Kent.
Producer: Neil Gardner
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Ladbroke Radio Productions and first broadcast in 2011.
FRI 06:30 The Thing about Hank (b015n6wd)
He influenced a generation of guitarist players with his wide grin, black specs and red Stratocaster. Hank Marvin changed the way we see the guitar and in 'The Thing About Hank' we hear how. The programme explores Marvin's unique sound which Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page reveals, he tried to emulate as a teenager. Page was not the only aspiring guitar hero adapting Hank's style Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits front man) goes back to his schooldays explaining how he and his pals learnt the Shadows tunes after class.
No programme exploring the music of Hank and The Shadows would be complete without comments from Britain's answer to Elvis, Cliff Richard. As we hear it was Cliff who purchased Hank's first Fender Stratocaster imported from America. Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera believes that "Strat" guitar was crucial to the Hank Marvin sound that became a key feature of The Shadows success. The guitar with its red polished body and tremolo arm became a signature instrument for the young Marvin. Later two models would bear Hank's name "The Burns Marvin" and the "Stratocaster Hank Marvin" model. Hank Marvin talks about this accolade and explores some of the Shadows best known tunes, 'Apache', 'Wonderful Land" and 'Footapper'. Hank also talks us through The Shadows 'Walk" which British teenagers copied when ever a Shadows tune hit the airways.
Presented by John Sugar
Producer: John Sugar
A Sugar Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 07:00 Winston Back Home (b00pync3)
A Born Natural
The old rogue's plot to be alone with Nancy gets a boost from Father. Stars Maurice Denham and Bill Wallis. From April 1994.
FRI 07:30 Mark Thomas: The Manifesto (b01rw3ym)
Series 5, Episode 3
Comedian Mark Thomas compiles audience policy ideas from The Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury. Tonight's manifesto includes demands that farmers stop spraypainting sheep, that we abandon the recycling of plastic bottles and that a Land Value Tax replace all other taxation. Produced by Colin Anderson.
FRI 08:00 Yes Minister (b007jmj1)
Series 1, The Writing on the Wall
Finally losing patience with Sir Humphrey, MP Jim Hacker's big plans to slim down the Civil Service come home to roost.
Starring Paul Eddington as Jim Hacker, Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby and Derek Fowldes as Bernard.
With Bill Nighy as Frank Weisel, Peter Cellier as Sir Frederick and Tenniel Evans as the Foreign Secretary.
Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn satirical sitcom ran on BBC TV between 1980 and 1984. Yes Minister is centred around the hapless Jim Hacker and a collection of civil service underlings headed by the Machiavellian Sir Humphrey Appleby and obsequious Bernard.
Adapted for radio by producer Pete Atkin.
First broadcast on Radio 4 in 1983.
FRI 08:30 The Goon Show (b007jv86)
The White Neddie Trade
Fearless Neddie launches a career as a nude piano dancer with a difference. Starring Spike Milligan. From February 1958.
FRI 09:00 The 3rd Degree (b040hjy2)
Series 4, The University of Kent
University of Kent
A quiz show hosted by Steve Punt where a team of three University students take on a team of three of their professors.
Coming this week from the University of Kent, "The 3rd Degree" is a funny, lively and dynamic quiz show aimed at cultivating the next generation of Radio 4 listeners whilst delighting the current ones.
The Specialist Subjects in this episode are Anthropology, Journalism and Computing, and the questions range from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Engelbert Humperdinck via database hacking and Babar the Elephant
The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in a genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz. Being a Radio 4 programme, it of course meets the most stringent standards of academic rigour - but with lots of facts and jokes thrown in for good measure.
Together with host Steve Punt, the show tours the (sometimes posh, sometimes murky, but always welcoming!) Union buildings, cafés and lecture halls of six universities across the UK.
The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the 'Highbrow & Lowbrow' round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, film, and One Direction... In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, were particularly lively, and offered plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides...
The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more than just glanced at that reading list...
In this series, the universities are Bristol, Kent, Bedfordshire, Birmingham, Nottingham & Aberystwyth.
Overflow (incl Cast Lists)
The host, Steve Punt, although best known as a satirist on The Now Show is also someone who delights in all facets of knowledge, not just in the Humanities (his educational background) but in the sciences as well. As well as "The Now Show" he has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4, on subjects as varied as "The Poet Unwound - The History Of The Spleen" and "Getting The Gongs" - an investigation into awards ceremonies - as well as a half-hour comedy for Radio 4's 2008 Big Bang Day set in the Large Hadron Collider, called "The Genuine Particle". This makes him the perfect host for a show which aims to be an intellectual, fulfilling and informative quiz, but with wit and a genuine delight in exploring the subjects at hand.
The 3rd Degree is a Pozzitive production, produced by David Tyler. His radio credits include Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, Cabin Pressure, Bigipedia, The Brig Society, Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones!, Kevin Eldon Will See You Now, Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off, The 99p Challenge, My First Planet, The Castle and even, going back a bit, Radio Active. His TV credits include Paul Merton - The Series, Spitting Image, Absolutely, The Paul & Pauline Calf Video Diaries, Coogan's Run, The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon and exec producing Victoria Wood's dinnerladies.
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 09:30 No Commitments (b01qyntd)
Series 11, A Life More Ordinary
Roger is set to retire, but Victoria struggles to broaden her husband's cultural interests. Stars Bill Nighy. From February 2005.
FRI 10:00 Classic Serial (b014f5tj)
Jessie Kesson - Another Time, Another Place
by Jessie Kesson.
Dramatised by Sue Glover.
1944. To a tiny faming community in the far north-east of Scotland come three Italian POWs. Until now, the war has scarcely touched this isolated world and the Italians are regarded by the locals as dangerous. However, to Janie, the young wife of the cattleman, the Italians are thrilling and exotic. Their experience of imprisonment and yearning mirror her own feelings and she is gradually drawn to the vibrant Neapolitan, Luigi.

Janie ... Claire Knight
Robert ..... Robert Jack
Luigi ..... Cesare Taurasi
Kirsty ..... Vicki Liddelle
Elspeth ..... Meg Fraser
Umberto ..... Tony Kearney
Finlay ..... Paul Young
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane

Jessie Kesson is one of Scotland's best loved authors. She was born in 1916 and died in 1994, living most of her life in northern Scotland. Born into poverty, raised in orphanages and trained as farmhand and domestic servant, she wrote about her experiences in The White Bird Passes and Another Time, Another Place. Both of these novels were made into feature films.
Sue Glover is one of Scotland's leading playwrights. Her work has been performed worldwide.
FRI 11:00 Where Were You... (b01n60m4)
Solo, A Cappella
Read by: Daniel Kaluuya
Where were you when Kennedy was shot? That was the starting point for this series in which five writers are asked to build a story around a significant historical event and explore it in fiction. As well as the assassination of JFK, the writers explore the meltdown of Chernobyl, the Tottenham riots, Columbine and the splitting of the lithium atom.
People often ask the "Kennedy Question" to highlight the magnitude of the event itself. And occasionally we find ourselves in the thick of the moment. But just as interesting are the polarities, disjunctions and weird connections between the moment that shakes the world and the life of the everyday.
Episode Five: Solo, A Cappella by Alison MacLeod
Valentine is a sixteen-year-old African girl with a voice like an angel. So what is she doing in the eye of the storm in Tottenham on 7 August 2011?
Alison MacLeod's hard-hitting story and fictional characters take their inspiration from the alleged events, theories and rumours that circulated regarding the trigger for the riots in London that summer.
Alison MacLeod lives in Brighton. Her story "The Heart of Denis Noble" was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award in 2011. Her next novel will be published in the autumn of 2012. Alison is Professor of Contemporary Fiction at the University of Chichester.
Produced by: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:15 David Pownall - Assassins (b0075hyg)
Sic Semper Tyrannis
14 April 1865 at the Ford Theatre, Washington. John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln dead. Stars Nathan Osgood.
FRI 12:00 Yes Minister (b007jmj1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 12:30 The Goon Show (b007jv86)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 13:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b01709qq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 13:30 The Thing about Hank (b015n6wd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b018xyl2)
Honoré de Balzac - Cousin Bette, Episode 5
Cousin Bette is one of the best loved and most admired of Honore de Balzac's novels, written when his powers were at their height and marking the culmination of his extraordinary chronicle, La Comedie Humaine.
A tale of seductive women and philandering men, of passionate affairs and spiralling debts, Cousin Bette paints a vivid portrait of Paris in the 1830s and '40s. In a city full of temptations, money is king, morals are loose and the appeals of the virtuous are usually in vain. In the midst of it all sits a poor relation, Cousin Bette, like a spider in her web. Fuelled by bitterness and jealousy, she is determined to weave destruction into the lives of her extended family, the socially superior Hulots.
With her friend and accomplice, the beautiful Madame Marneffe, Bette sets out to manipulate events so that men are brought to their knees and their wives to despair, and she attains the power and prestige she seeks.
In today's episode, the arrival of a brooding Brazilian has upset the careful balance of lovers that Valerie Marneffe had contrived. Briefly Hulot and Crevel find themselves allies, not rivals, for her love.
Cousin Bette was written in less than a year, in serial instalments, often only completed just before the deadline. Within its pages, Balzac conjures a kaleidoscope of characters from all walks of life, chronicles the rise of a grasping bourgeoisie and tells a gripping tale of jealousy, passion and treachery.
The reader is Alex Jennings.
The translator was Marion Ayton Crawford and the abridger was Sally Marmion.
The producer is Di Speirs.
FRI 14:15 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's History of Home (b009j65v)
David Hicks
Laurence looks at the career of a flamboyant and influential decorator, who became a superstar of the 1960s, in his history of our homes from the 1920s to the present day.
FRI 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01c7lk4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Monday]
FRI 14:45 Book of the Week (b018scwh)
Craig Taylor - Londoners, Episode 5
By Craig Taylor. Abridged by Pete Nichols.
Craig Taylor's book has given new voice to Londoners; the rich and the poor, the native and the immigrant; men and women. It continues an oral tradition that goes back to Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, published in the mid-nineteenth century.
Taylor gives us the squatter and the teacher; the bicycle mechanic and the registrar; the plumber and the rickshaw rider; the lost property clerk and the Wiccan priestess, who casts the remnants of her spells into the Thames.
These remarkable snapshots of the city dwellers are moving, funny and informative.
"What makes Londoners as valuable as any sociological treatise is Taylor's appreciation of the ways in which his subjects are themselves surveying, analysing and theorising the turbulent city in which they live.... At more than 400 pages, the book could easily have been twice as long... But this remains a remarkable volume, from the heaving, contradictory energy of its countless funny, terrifying, epic stories" Sukhdev Sandhu in The Guardian.
The lost property clerk ..... Paul Ritter
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:00 Classic Serial (b014f5tj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
FRI 16:00 The 3rd Degree (b040hjy2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
FRI 16:30 No Commitments (b01qyntd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
FRI 17:00 Winston Back Home (b00pync3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
FRI 17:30 Mark Thomas: The Manifesto (b01rw3ym)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
FRI 18:00 John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos (b007jmh3)
Episode 3
The mysterious powers of the alien children start to become destructive. Stars Manning Wilson and Pauline Yates.
FRI 18:30 Soul Music (b00z5c89)
Series 11, Simple Gifts
Simple Gifts started life as a Shaker Hymn and became incorporated into the hymn Lord of the Dance and Aaron Copland's ballet suite Appalachian Spring.
In this programme, Nora Guthrie describes the central place this tune has played throughout her life. Pete Lashley tells how he heard it unexpectedly whilst touring in New Zealand. Michael Carter explains why his father chose this tune for his famous hymn "Lord of the Dance" and Scott Malchus describes running a marathon whilst listening to this music.
Producer, Rosie Boulton.
FRI 19:00 Yes Minister (b007jmj1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 19:30 The Goon Show (b007jv86)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 20:00 The Tales of Max Carrados (b01709qq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 20:30 The Thing about Hank (b015n6wd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 21:00 Where Were You... (b01n60m4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
FRI 21:15 David Pownall - Assassins (b0075hyg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
FRI 22:00 Mark Thomas: The Manifesto (b01rr7z8)
Series 5, Episode 2
Comedian and activist Mark Thomas creates a People's Manifesto using policies suggested by his BBC Radio Theatre audience.
Agenda:
1) Bedroom tax to be applied to MPs' second homes
2) Re-nationalise the railways
and
3) Make politicians more directly accountable
Researcher: Susan McNicholas
Producer: Colin Anderson.
FRI 22:30 Nurse (b03vgnk5)
Series 1, Episode 1
A brand new series starring Paul Whitehouse and Esther Coles, with Rosie Cavaliero, Simon Day, Cecilia Noble and Marcia Warren.
The series follows Elizabeth, a Community Psychiatric Nurse in her forties, into the homes of her patients (or Service Users in today's jargon). It recounts their humorous, sad and often bewildering daily interactions with the nurse, whose job is to assess their progress, dispense their medication and offer comfort and support.
Compassionate and caring, Elizabeth is aware that she cannot cure her patients, only help them manage their various conditions. She visits the following characters throughout the series:
Lorrie and Maurice: Lorrie, in her fifties, is of Caribbean descent and has schizophrenia. Lorrie's life is made tolerable by her unshakeable faith in Jesus, and Maurice, who has a crush on her and wants to do all he can to help. So much so that he ends up getting on everyone's nerves.
Billy: Billy feels safer in jail than outside, a state of affairs the nurse is trying to rectify. She is hampered by the ubiquitous presence of Billy's mate, Tony.
Graham: in his forties, is morbidly obese due to an eating disorder. Matters aren't helped by his mum 'treating' him to sugary and fatty snacks at all times.
Ray: is bipolar and a rock and roll survivor from the Sixties. It is not clear how much of his 'fame' is simply a product of his imagination.
Phyllis: in her seventies, has Alzheimer's. She is sweet, charming and exasperating. Her son Gary does his best but if he has to hear 'I danced for the Queen Mum once' one more time he will explode.
Herbert is an old school gentleman in his late Seventies. Herbert corresponds with many great literary figures unconcerned that they are, for the most part, dead.
Nurse is written by Paul Whitehouse and David Cummings, who have collaborated many time in the past, including on The Fast Show, Down the Line and Happiness.
Written by Paul Whitehouse and David Cummings with additional material from Esther Coles
Producers: Paul Whitehouse and Tilusha Ghelani
A Down the Line production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 22:45 Jigsaw (b01qmbk2)
Series 1, Mousetrap
Stand-up comedians Dan Antopolski, Tom Craine and Nat Luurtsema combine their talents to piece together a rapid-fire and surreal sketch show.
Produced by Colin Anderson.
FRI 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b081n965)
The best in contemporary comedy. Arthur Smith chats to Steve Hall.
FRI 23:00 Blue Jam (b080yyq7)
Series 3, Episode 1
The mind of Chris Morris leaks onto radio in this dreamlike combination of comedy and music. With Julia Davis, Kevin Eldon, Sally Phillips and Mark Heap.
Are you still lying curare-still, seeking relief in feigning dead? Then welcome, oo-tazz welcome. Chris Morris is here to help you wallow in the melancholy, for third and final series of this subversive radio classic.
Immediately prior to Blue Jam's initial burst on radio, Chris Morris had caused a furore with Channel 4's Brass Eye. Yet Blue Jam managed to be a total departure from his previous work. Originally airing in the early hours on BBC Radio 1, it's a blend of ambient music, deadpan (sometimes brutal) sketches and offbeat monologues. A whole audio landscape of the subconscious, the ad-hoc low-fi sheen of production lending it a kind of verisimilitude.
In sharp contrast with the personality-led comedies of recent years, Blue Jam makes a virtue of anonymity. Borat scribe Pater Baynham and Father Ted creator Graham Linehan are among the writers. Rightly winning a clutch of Sony Radio Awards, it remains unique - nothing before or after was remotely like it.
Producer: Chris Morris
First broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in January 1999.