SATURDAY 03 DECEMBER 2016

SAT 00:00 Doctor Who (b0187yc3)
Hornets' Nest, Hive of Horror, part 2
In his battle with the sinister Queen of the swarm, the Doctor must come up with a plan...
Conclusion of a five-story adventure written by Paul Magrs.
Starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey and Rula Lenska as The Queen.
Producer: Kate Thomas
Made by BBC Audio.
SAT 00:30 Soul Music (b0137vtp)
Series 12, Mendelssohn's Octet
This exploration of the impact that Mendelssohn's Octet has had on different people's lives, demonstrates the healing power of music in a variety of situations around the world.
Mendelssohn wrote his Octet for double string quartet in 1825 when he was only 16 years old. Despite his youth, this is a mature and brilliant piece of music described in this programme by the interviewees as "carnivalesque", "a romp", "a party".
Choreographer Bill T Jones describes the way in which the Octet showed his company how to keep living during the onslaught of AIDS in the 80's. Cellist Raphael and violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch talk about falling in love whilst learning this music in the 70's. South Korean Lisa Kim tells a story about going on tour with the New York Philharmonic to North Korea and her intense fear and mistrust being replaced by wonder when they played the Octet with a North Korean Quartet. And Matthew Trusler describes the importance of playing this work after the death of his son.
The recording of the Mendelssohn Octet featured in the programme is by the Emerson String Quartet on Deutsche Gramophon.
SAT 01:00 Vintage Crime: Jacques Futrelle - The Thinking Machine (b0848l5q)
The Problem of the Auto Cab
When Hutchinson Hatch is unknowingly involved in a jewel robbery, he turns to The Thinking Machine. Read by Eric Meyers.
Meet America's answer to Sherlock Holmes - Professor Augustus SFX Van Dusen. Tragically, his creator Jacque Futrelle died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.
"Logic, logic, logic. Two plus two makes four, not some of the time, but all of the time." That's the unwavering belief of this crime and puzzle-solving Professor, who harnesses the power of his focused mind to think through any problem. This diminutive egghead scientist and irascible genius is known to the world as 'The Thinking Machine'.
In five stories recorded for BBC Radio 4 Extra, he sets out to prove the infallibility of logic in some extraordinary ways. Each tale features classic elements of an apparently unsolvable problem.
Born in Georgia in 1875, American author Jacques Futrelle wrote almost 50 tales featuring Professor Van Dusen, as magazine serials and published collections.
Abridged by Adrian Bean
Producer: Joanna Green
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Greenlit Productions.
SAT 01:15 15 Minute Drama (b01n3l7r)
Le Donne, Episode 5
Written by Chris Fallon.
Based on an original idea by Rosalynd Ward and Chris Fallon.
5/5 Set in modern day Naples - vibrant, picaresque, and for some, terrifying - where the Camorra has its hands in virtually every enterprise, from prostitution and drug running, to rubbish collection, and street vendors - "Le Donne" ("The Women") focuses on Caterina Riccardi, a beautiful, privileged wife and mother who has - until now - lived in wilful ignorance of her husband's criminal business dealings, and the source of her material wealth.
Caterina, who has managed to reach the age of forty three in relative innocence, adhering to the philosophy of "see no evil, hear no evil", must come to grips with the dark and violent world of the Camorra, and bring her understanding and will to bear on it - or see herself and her family destroyed.
She must quickly awaken from her wilful slumber, learn to exert her power in a predatory and dangerous milieu, and is then forced to make a terrible moral choice.
5/5. Caterina finally knows the truth about Franco. But can she take control of the business and commit murder for the honour of her family?
Chris Fallon is a writer and director. This is his first original radio drama. He has previously written for film and television as well as writing adaptations for radio. He has sold and optioned scripts to Paramount and Warner Bros. His short film "Killing Joe" was nominated for an Academy Award.
Cast includes Indira Varma, Anton Lesser and Haydn Gwynne.
Original music composed and performed by Simon Russell.
Produced by Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 01:30 Change of Art (b015zm9b)
Public artist Andrew Shoben explores a controversial new idea to 'rotate or retire' public artworks.
The last three decades have seen a flourishing of public art in our towns and cities with works adorning every new housing estate, shopping centre or local park. But what was bold and innovative in the eighties may now seem tired, decrepit or meaningless. In a bid to refresh our cities and rescue 'orphaned' works, Andrew sets out to explore the arguments around relocating more of our artworks.
In Trafalgar Square he examines the Fourth Plinth phenomenon with Sandy Nairne of the National Portrait Gallery, and a trip to Antony Gormley's studio reveals the artist's hopes for his most famous creation, Angel of the North. Andrew also visits the Cass Sculpture Park in Sussex where owner, Sir Wilfred Cass, offers works from top sculptors. We hear from local authority art departments about the process of commissioning and de-commissioning work for our communities.
There's a historical precedent too. Italians weren't afraid of moving their public art around, or retiring it and replacing it with something else. Donatello's Judith and Holofernes was moved around Florence three times between 1455 and 1505, before it was replaced with Michelangelo's David.
With his company Greyworld, Andrew has created public artworks for several UK cities, including the robotic bust close to the Tate Modern in London. But who decides how long his works, or any artworks in the public realm should occupy their space?
Tasting his own medicine Andrew speaks to people passing one of his own sculptures to find out if they love it or if they'd prefer that it be replaced by something, anything else.
Producers: Joby Waldman and Kathryn Willgress
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b01ddd1c)
Capital, Episode 10
Identities are revealed - Smitty's, and the individual behind the menacing postcards as the Younts fill a removal van and shut the door on No 51 for the last time.
Capital - the new novel by John Lanchester - is the story of one south London street, which has seen a hundred years of fortunes made and lost, of hearts broken, of first steps and last breaths. And then, one day a card with a simple message drops through each letterbox: 'We Want What You Have'....
Capital interweaves the lives and stories of the residents of Pepys Road in an utterly compelling, post-crash, state-of-the-nation novel told with compassion, humour and truth; epic in scope, yet intimate and contemplative.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 02:15 The Science of DIY (b008x8b5)
Getting in a Twist
The art of construction deconstructed. Screws and screwdrivers - Len Fisher and fellow experts demonstrate how these metal fasteners are in fact levers.
SAT 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01kjn1n)
Where'd You Go Bernadette?, Episode 5
Maria Semple's brilliantly comic debut novel about misplaced genius and mother-daughter love, starring Miranda Richardson, Lydia Wilson and Richard Laing.
In today's episode, as Bernadette becomes increasingly confessional in her emails to her virtual assistant, Manjula, we learn about her lost career as a revolutionary architect and her early life with Elgin.
CAST:
Bernadette ..... Miranda Richardson
Bee .... Lydia Wilson
Elgin .... Richard Laing
Audrey .... Madeleine Potter
Soo Lin .... Laurel Lefkow
Marcus Strang .... Don Gilet
Ollie-O/ Jacob .... Sam Alexander
Paul Jellinek .... Patrick Brennan
Helen/ Gwen Goodyear .... Susie Riddell
Dr Kurtz .... Christine Absalom
Other parts played by members of the company.
Adapted for radio by Miranda Davies
Produced/Directed by Emma Harding
About the author: Maria Semple has written for television shows including Arrested Development, Mad About You, and Ellen. She lives with her family on an island off Seattle. This is her first novel.
SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b008gwys)
No Way Home: A Cuban Dancer's Story, The World Will Be Mine
Jot Davies reads from ballet superstar Carlos Acosta's enchanting and inspirational memoir.
5/5. The World Will Be Mine
Carlos represents Nureyev at the opening of the restored Royal Opera House and becomes the first black principal to dance at Covent Garden.
SAT 03:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07kcj4w)
22-26 August 1916
In the week in 1916 when the East and South East coasts were terrorised by air raids, Folkestone seems brim-full of secrets and lies.
Written by Katie Hims
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
SAT 04:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b03bqchn)
Series 6, Watson, Fletcher, Blashford-Snell
The Museum of Curiosity is the natural meeting place for entertaining experts and expert entertainers. This week, it's flinging open its doors, inaugurating a brand new wing of empty plinths is ready to receive 3 new exhibits. Our host is (as ever) the Professor of Ignorance, John Lloyd, and for this series he is joined by a new curator, the comedian Humphrey Ker. This week's generous donors are Egyptologist Prof. Joann Fletcher, who is presenting us with a hugely significant Roman coin; explorer Col. John Blashford-Snell, who brings a compass that led its owner the greatest one-liner in History; and the comedian Mark Watson, who is offering us something rather small and personal.
SAT 04:30 The Phenomenon Squad (b08490hk)
Episode 2
The Beevers are expecting the Devil at No 42. Can Brabazon's squad save surburbia from Satanism? Stars Roy Kinnear. From October 1986.
SAT 05:00 London Calling (b05qdw48)
The Great Race
DG John Brown has decided that the BBC will broadcast the 1923 Boat Race. So the rest of the staff must rally round to find a way to bring off the transmission.
Written by Jimmy Perry, the man behind Dad's Army and Hi-De-Hi.
Starring Graham Crowden as John Brown, Jimmy Perry as Colonel Beecham, Bill Pertwee as Sergeant Lucas, Jeffrey Holland as Roger Eccles and Roy Hudd as Fred "Keep 'Em Laughing" Hicks.
Producer: Jo Clegg.
First broadcast nightly on BBC Radio 2 in September 1994.
SAT 05:30 John Shuttleworth's Lounge Music (b083m575)
Series 2, Episode 2
John Shuttleworth invites celebrated pop stars to his Sheffield home to perform one of their own songs and also, more importantly, one of his.
This week it's Clare Grogan from Altered Images.
The timing of her visit couldn't be better as it's Doreen Melody's birthday and John is hoping that Clare will go along and sing Happy Birthday to Doreen - after all it's one of her biggest hits. But he's most disappointed when Clare starts singing the wrong tune!
Surprisingly, it's Ken Worthington who saves the day by offering to take Clare on a date, hoping that she'll become Ken's Girl rather than Gregory's!
John will have to console himself with top tips on the telephone from Nick Lowe, who he hopes will solve the problem of Dolby hiss.
Written and Performed by Graham Fellows with special guests Clare Grogan and Nick Lowe.
Produced by Dawn Ellis
A Chic Ken production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 06:00 Molly Keane - Good Behaviour (b03tqzsh)
The St Charles family hit hard times in this 1920s drama set in Ireland. Short of cash and initiative, their estate is in genteel decline. An overweight daughter, philandering father and a cold mother struggle to maintain an aristocratic façade of Good Behaviour. Stars Frances Tomelty, Annette Crosbie and Ronald Pickup.
Molly Keane's novel was dramatised by Shelagh Stephenson. Produced by Eoin O'Callaghan.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996.
SAT 07:30 Lyrical Journey (b01qsrp9)
Series 2, A13, Trunk Road to the Sea
Inspired by the jazz and rock standard Route 66, proud Essex boy Billy Bragg used his poetic licence to fashion a version much closer to home - A13, Trunk Road to the Sea, a paean to the tarmacked beauty of A13, which heads east from Whitechapel in the heart of the East End alongside the Thames for forty miles until it hits the wide sands of Shoeburyness.
As presenter Jonathan Maitland and Billy travel along the busy arterial, the songwriter explains how when he wrote the song some thirty years ago the A13 was a potent symbol of escape to the big city one way and nostalgia for the seaside idyll of his childhood the other. Billy recounts the sights along the way, such as where the old Beckton Gasworks once stood, and gives his own personal perspective on how the landscape and people have changed.
In Stanford-Le-Hope, they meet Thurrock historian Jonathan Catton to discuss the place the author Joseph Conrad once made his home; and, overlooking windswept Hadleigh Castle, historian Judith Williams tells of the area's royal lineage back to medieval times.
As the journey concludes in Shoeburyness, Billy performs the song overlooking the atmospheric spot where the Thames Estuary hits the ocean.
Presenter/Jonathan Maitland
Producer/Stephen Garner.
SAT 08:00 The Mystery of Agatha Christie (b084n0jt)
The Queen of Crime is famed for her best-selling classic mysteries with ingenious murders, featuring the likes of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
But what about the enigma of Agatha Christie's own life and personality? Frances Donnelly sets out to gather clues from relatives and associates, including Harry Keating, Julian Symons, Christianna Brand and Christie's biographer Dr Janet Morgan.
Producer: Pamela Howe
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1984.
SAT 08:45 Afternoon Reading (b00mk71d)
Agatha Christie - The Mysterious Mr Quin, The Coming of Mr Quin
Martin Jarvis reads a trio of stories starring Agatha Christie's personal favourite character - a certain Mr Harley Quin.
When guests at a house party recall the suicide of the previous owner, a mysterious stranger arrives who throws unexpected light on the case. But another mystery remains - who actually is Mr Quin himself?
Producer/Director : Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres Production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 09:00 Jay Rayner Gets Stuffed (b03tr1fv)
Food writer and restaurant critic, Jay Rayner's known for banging on about the awful - and sometimes lovely - things that cooks do to blameless ingredients. Here, he offers up a few of his own.
From a personal selection of deliciously fat-drenched, gut-busting grub-related radio, get your teeth into the decades of us mucking around with our food.
On Jay's mouth-watering menu:
* A generous helping of loudmouth chef Anthony Bourdain
* A rare appearance from Elizabeth David on BBC Radio 4's 'The Food Programme'
* Keith Floyd starring as a Roman chef in a late night BBC Radio 4 comedy
* Nina Myskow talking to essayist David Sedaris, children's author Judith Kerr and dancer Carlos Acosta about what they really eat.
* A dash of Miles Jupp as Damien Trench, 'In and Out of The Kitchen'
* A pinch of sarcasm with 'The Sunday Format' on Gastronimity.
* A taste of a Philadelpia deli in award-winning documentary, 'One Big Kitchen Table'
* A mouthful from a BBC Radio 2 phone-in about the chicken shop with Vanessa Feltz
* And to wash it all down: "Hog lard, of course that's what killed my grandfather...at 94" says a pork-loving chef from the American South. Get fired up for the world of competitive American barbecuing with Russell Davies in 'You Is What You Eat'.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Testbed Productions.
SAT 12:00 Heresy (b01sdrh5)
Series 9, Episode 1
The first in a new series of the programme that dares to commit heresy.
Victoria Coren Mitchell and her guests have fun challenging knee-jerk public opinion, and exposing the wrong-headedness of received wisdom.
In the first programme of the series Victoria Coren Mitchell is joined by comedians Lee Mack and David Schneider, and writer-broadcaster Germaine Greer, to argue about foxes, maths and Andy Murray
Producers: Victoria Coren Mitchell and Daisy Knight
An Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007k2kl)
Pike in Love
Mrs Pike asks Arthur to talk to her son, Frank about the birds and bees...
A seaside saga of pier perpetuation starring John Le Mesurier as Arthur Wilson, Ian Lavender as Frank Pike, Bill Pertwee as Bert Hodges, Vivienne Martin as Miss Perkins and Janet Davies as Mavis Pike.
After a pilot episode was made in 1981, Arthur Lowe sadly died. So this 13-part series was revamped to feature the Dad's Army characters played by Pertwee and 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: Martin Fisher
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in December 1983.
SAT 13:00 Gudrun's Saga: Omnibus (b084n0jr)
11th-century Iceland: Gudrun must forge her way through a world of amazing beauty yet unbending harshness. Stars Kate Phillips.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b084n1h2)
Simon Hopkinson
Food writer Simon Hopkinson picks Perry Como's 'Catch a Falling Star' and King Crimson's '21st Century Schizoid Man'.
SAT 14:15 Down Your Way (b084n1h4)
Sian Phillips in Winchester
After a run of performances on stage in the Hampshire city, actress Sian Phillips returns to explore Winchester.
Sian discovers the history of the locality, including the Theatre Royal, College and Cathedral, and drops in on the green paradise of the Hillier Gardens.
Down Your Way was one of the BBC's longest-running radio series - starting on the BBC Home Service in 1946 and ending its run on BBC Radio 4 in 1992. Using a variety of hosts, including Richard Dimbleby and Brian Johnston, the programme toured villages, towns and cities across the UK. At the height of its success in the 1950s, the series was attracting 10 million listeners a week.
Producer: Kate Whitehead
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1990.
SAT 15:00 The Mystery of Agatha Christie (b084n0jt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 15:45 Afternoon Reading (b00mk71d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:45 today]
SAT 16:00 Molly Keane - Good Behaviour (b03tqzsh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Lyrical Journey (b01qsrp9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 The Scarifyers (b084n1h0)
The King of Winter, Episode 2
MI:13's investigations into a spate of frozen deaths lead them to exclusive gentleman's establishment, The Tartarus Club, whose membership appears to be rapidly dwindling. But what is the club's secret?
To find out, Professor Dunning must travel to the sleepy village of Thornton Gibbet, where the inhabitants are afraid of a 300-year-old ghost, and Harry Crow must join the Freemasons.
Stars David Warner as Harry Crow and Terry Molloy as Professor Dunning.
With Guy Henry, Stephen Critchlow, David Benson, Alex Lowe, Lisa Bowerman and David Bickerstaff.
The Scarifyers follows the exploits of 1930s ghost-story writer Professor Dunning and retired policeman Harry Crow, who together investigate weird mysteries under the auspices of top-secret government department MI:13.
Written by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris.
A Bafflegab Production.
SAT 18:25 The Fanthorpe Investigations (b038f1zl)
The Monk and the Coin
Priest and paranormal investigator Lionel Fanthorpe relates a story from the world of the strange and unexplained.
SAT 18:30 Weird Tales (b01nrrbs)
Series 3, The Burial of Tom Nobody
By Richard Vincent. The second in a series of chilling plays for winter nights.
The Reverend Braiden is forced to embark on a through-the-night road trip by a mysterious trio who threaten him with a terrifying test of faith at its end.
Peter ..... Geoffrey Streatfeild
Silas ..... James Lailey
Sarah ..... Lynne Verrall
Michael ..... Simon Bubb
Eleanor ..... Tracy Wiles
Police Officer .. Paul Moriarty
Director: Gemma Jenkins
THE WRITER
Richard Vincent has written widely for television, including Casualty, Shaun The Sheep and Messiah. His radio work includes Project Purple for BBC Radio 4 Extra's Man In Black series and the psychological horror, The House on Pale Avenue, for BBC Radio 4. Richard has also worked as a script consultant on a number of films, including The Lake, for Luc Besson's EuropaCorp, and Fragile, starring Calista Flockhart. His stage play, Real Estate, was adapted for screen by Granada Film and he is currently working on a trilogy of horror films for Artifice Pictures.
SAT 19:00 Jay Rayner Gets Stuffed (b03tr1fv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 My Teenage Diary (b01kknzp)
Series 4, Jackie Kay
My Teenage Diary returns with six more brave celebrities ready to revisit their formative years by opening up their intimate teenage diaries, and reading them out in public for the very first time.
Comedian Rufus Hound is joined by poet Jackie Kay who revisits her politically active student years in the early eighties, when she went on every demo she possibly could. She shares some of her early poetry, and talks about what a revelation it was to finally meet and make friends with other black women when she was at university.
Producer: Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 22:30 Little Britain (b008l1sx)
Series 1, Episode 5
Back where it premiered, Matt Lucas and David Walliams' oddball TV smash hit - without the cameras. From March 2001.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0854kb6)
The best in contemporary comedy. Arthur Smith chats to Ellie Taylor.
SAT 23:00 The Mary Whitehouse Experience (b007jmpk)
From 20/01/1990
David Baddiel, Rob Newman and Nick Hancock sum up the experience of school and eating out. With Mark Hurst. From January 1990.
SAT 23:30 Elis James's Pantheon of Heroes (b01b5yyr)
Series 1, Adventurers
Henry Morton Stanley, the 1958 Wales World Cup team and Alfred Russell Wallace face the vote. With Ben Partridge and Nadia Kamil. From February 2012.

SUNDAY 04 DECEMBER 2016

SUN 00:00 The Scarifyers (b084n1h0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Saturday]
SUN 00:25 The Fanthorpe Investigations (b038f1zl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:25 on Saturday]
SUN 00:30 Weird Tales (b01nrrbs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Saturday]
SUN 01:00 Gudrun's Saga: Omnibus (b084n0jr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:00 on Saturday]
SUN 02:10 Inheritance Tracks (b084n1h2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:10 on Saturday]
SUN 02:15 Down Your Way (b084n1h4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Saturday]
SUN 03:00 The Mystery of Agatha Christie (b084n0jt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 on Saturday]
SUN 03:45 Afternoon Reading (b00mk71d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:45 on Saturday]
SUN 04:00 Molly Keane - Good Behaviour (b03tqzsh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Saturday]
SUN 05:30 Lyrical Journey (b01qsrp9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 Maria Semple - Where'd You Go Bernadette?: Omnibus (b01kjsg5)
Episode 1
Omnibus. TV comedy writer Maria Semple's debut novel examines misplaced genius and mother-daughter love. Starring Miranda Richardson.
SUN 07:15 A Father for My Son (b01dth55)
Episode 3
Jenny Coverack's trilogy A Father for my Son is adapted from her own one-woman stage play, written with Robert Edwards, based on the autobiography and journals of the sculptor Kathleen, Lady Scott. After living in Paris as an art student, and 'vagabonding' around Europe, Kathleen has at last found the man she wants to be the father of the son she longs for: a celebrated, well-dressed, rather ugly explorer with eyes of a startling blue called Captain Robert Falcon Scott. When their son Peter is two, Captain Scott sets off for the South Pole, and Kathleen begins the journal she has promised to keep for him until his return.
With grateful acknowledgement to novelist Louisa Young, for her biography of her grandmother, Kathleen Scott, 'A Great Task of Happiness'.
Kathleen Scott: Jenny Coverack
Captain Robert Falcon Scott: Mark Meadows
Producer: Sara Davies.
SUN 07:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Open Letters (b00yrfwh)
Series 1, Estate Agents
Through the medium of four open letters, the comedian Tom Wrigglesworth investigates the myriad examples of corporate lunacy and maddening jobsworths in modern Britain.
In this series his subjects range from traffic wardens to estate agents, with Tom recalling his own funny and ridiculous experiences as well as recounting the absurd encounters of others.
Tom asks why we still bother with estate agents.
SUN 08:00 Take It From Here (b01cj179)
From 23/04/1958
The perils of worker relations in a northern town - and Ron Glum needs a new suit, in 'The Glums'
Starring Professor Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and June Whitfield.
Music from Wallace Eaton and the Keynotes and the BBC Revue Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.
Scripted by Frank Muir and Denis Norden.
Producer: Charles Maxwell
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in April 1958.
SUN 08:30 Mixed Doubles (b03mj8xg)
Mixed Doubles in Wimbledon Avenue - a lesson in living.
Observed and written by Bob Monkhouse and Denis Goodwin.
Starring real-life married duo, Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray on one-side of the fence - and Cyril Fletcher and his sister Janet, played by Billie Whitelaw on the other.
With Pat Coombs and Anthea Askey.
Producer: Leslie Bridgmont
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in September 1957.
SUN 09:00 Carlo Rovelli - Reality is Not What It Seems: Omnibus (b084n7jp)
Carlo Rovelli's provocative account of how science affects our understanding of the world around us. Read by Mark Meadows.
SUN 10:10 Inheritance Tracks (b084n81q)
Aggie MacKenzie
Clean Queen Aggie MacKenzie with Andy Stewart's 'Donald Where's Your Troosers?' and Nina Simone's 'Here Comes the Sun'.
SUN 10:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b084n8dv)
Absent Friends, Dame Zaha Hadid
4 Extra Debut. From Adele to Harry Nilsson. Architect Zaha Hadid shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From February 2016.
SUN 11:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b084nd1q)
Series 4, REM, Car Wrecks and the Circus
True stories told live in in the USA: Catherine Burns introduces stories that explore 'what went wrong'.
The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling based in the USA. Since 1997, it has celebrated both the raconteur and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. Originally formed by the writer George Dawes Green as an intimate gathering of friends on a porch in Georgia (where moths would flutter in through a hole in the screen), and then recreated in a New York City living room, The Moth quickly grew to produce immensely popular events at theatres and clubs around New York City and later around the USA, the UK and other parts of the world.
The Moth has presented more than 15,000 stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth podcast is downloaded over 27 million times a year.
Featuring true stories told live on stage without scripts, from the humorous to the heart-breaking.
The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Jay Allison and Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and is distributed by the Public Radio Exchange.
SUN 11:55 The Fanthorpe Investigations (b039b74y)
The Catacomb Phenomenon
Priest and paranormal investigator Lionel Fanthorpe relates a story from the world of the strange and unexplained.
SUN 12:00 Take It From Here (b01cj179)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SUN 12:30 Mixed Doubles (b03mj8xg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
SUN 13:00 Maria Semple - Where'd You Go Bernadette?: Omnibus (b01kjsg5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SUN 14:15 A Father for My Son (b01dth55)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 today]
SUN 14:30 Ian McEwan - Nutshell: Omnibus (b084nd1s)
Episode 1
A riff on Hamlet told from the perspective of an unborn child, 'bounded in the nutshell' of Trudy's womb. Read by Tim McInnerny.
SUN 15:45 Anthony Horowitz - Blackfriars Bridge (b012s2gc)
A cuckolded husband intends to murder his rival. What could go wrong with his fastidious plan? Anthony Horowitz's thriller, read by Robert Bathurst.
SUN 16:00 Saturday Drama (b00ncf8t)
Robert L Pike - Bullitt
Dramatisation of Robert L Pike's gritty detective story, set in New York's rough 52nd Precinct in 1963.
Lieutenant Clancy, head throbbing from days without sleep, is assigned to protect important Mafia witness Johnny Rossi. But when he is found dead, Clancy has only a matter of hours to find the killer before his enemy, Assistant District Attorney Chalmers, finds out.
Lieutenant Clancy ...... Jason Isaacs
Ada Chalmers/Barnett/Renick/Johnny Rossi ...... Kerry Shale
Detective Kaprowski ...... Lou Hirsch
Captain Wise/Johnny Rossi/Ships Officer ...... John Biggins
Dr Willard/Pete Rossi ...... Stephen Hogan
Doc Freeman/Sergeant ...... Bruce Alexander
Detenctive Mark Kelly ...... Sasha Pick
Ann Renick/LAPD Officer ...... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Hotel Manager/Chalmers' Secretary ...... Kate Layden
Directed by Pauline Harris.
SUN 17:00 Poetry Extra (b084nd1v)
Lyrical Ballads - 5/5 Man and Nature
BBC Radio 4's Poet in Residence, Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive with Man and Nature.
Steve Connor concludes his exploration of the effect on English literature and thought of Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads.
Producers: Julian May and Abigail Appleton.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in October 1998.
SUN 17:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Open Letters (b00yrfwh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 18:00 The Man in Black (b018j7ww)
Series 4, The New Boy
Mark Gatiss introduces Matthew Wilkie's tale. Craig has a new job, but how far will he go to impress his boss? Stars Stephen Greif.
SUN 18:30 Mary Shelley - The Mortal Immortal (b007jw60)
Frankenstein author, Mary Shelley's fantastical tale explores man's fascination with eternal life and elixirs. Read by Shaun Dooley.
A young man works for a powerful alchemist. Feeling jilted in love and consumed with jealousy towards a rival, he secretly drinks one of his Master's potions hoping to cure himself of these emotions. Instead, he's soon facing a living hell...
Romantic novelist, biographer and editor, Mary Shelley is best known as the author of Frankenstein (1818), published when she was just 21. The radical scientific ideas explored in her first novel attracted wide criticism during her lifetime. Writing nearly 100 years before HG Wells, Shelley is now recognised as one of sci-fi's founding figures.
Producer: Gemma Jenkins
Made for BBC Radio 7 and first broadcast in 2005.
SUN 19:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b084nd1q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
SUN 19:55 The Fanthorpe Investigations (b039b74y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:55 today]
SUN 20:00 Carlo Rovelli - Reality is Not What It Seems: Omnibus (b084n7jp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SUN 21:10 Inheritance Tracks (b084n81q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:10 today]
SUN 21:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b084n8dv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:15 today]
SUN 22:00 Tom Wrigglesworth's Open Letters (b00yrfwh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 22:30 Dave Podmore (b007qcsw)
Dave Podmore's Cricket Fix, Episode 2
The star cricketer injures Felicity Kendall in a charity celebrity cricket match. Stars Chris Douglas. From May 2001.
SUN 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0854kc4)
The best in contemporary comedy. Arthur Smith chats to Ellie Taylor.
SUN 23:00 History Retweeted (b03w18g1)
The Premiere of Romeo and Juliet
History Retweeted sends us back in time as we hear people from the past comment on a series of major world events, in 140 characters or fewer.
It's the opening night of Romeo and Juliet and you are cordially invited to the premiere of a brand new play by the up-and-coming playwright Billy Shakespeare. Much the same as any other playwright, Shakespeare ponders how the play will be received. He needn't worry anymore as the 16th century now comes complete with wifi.
Bloggers review the show, fan-made plays are rife and the stars are interviewed on YouTube as one of Shakespeare's greatest blockbusters is 're-tweeted'.
Turning statuses into sounds, History Retweeted transports us to timelines gone by, feeding hashtags, trolls and trending topics into moments from history.
Featuring the voices of Tim Barnes and Simon Berry, Wayne Forester and Annabelle Llewellyn, Peter Temple and Jelly Macintosh - with Lucy Beaumont as the voice of The Computer.
Written by Tim Barnes and Simon Berry.
Produced by Sally Harrison
A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 23:15 My Booze Hell, by Little Johnny Cartilage (b007jvc7)
Sugar, Der Der Der Der Der Der, Ah Honey, Honey
The faded 70s idol fails to impress Melvyn Bragg while plugging his book. With Johnny Meres and Ben Miller. From October 1996.
SUN 23:30 The Skivers (b007zn0j)
Series 2, Episode 3
Peter Sissons and Alan Hansen's secrets are revealed. Nick Golson and Tim de Jongh welcome guest Henry Cooper. From February 1995.

MONDAY 05 DECEMBER 2016

MON 00:00 The Man in Black (b018j7ww)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Sunday]
MON 00:30 Mary Shelley - The Mortal Immortal (b007jw60)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Sunday]
MON 01:00 Maria Semple - Where'd You Go Bernadette?: Omnibus (b01kjsg5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Sunday]
MON 02:15 A Father for My Son (b01dth55)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 on Sunday]
MON 02:30 Ian McEwan - Nutshell: Omnibus (b084nd1s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Sunday]
MON 03:45 Anthony Horowitz - Blackfriars Bridge (b012s2gc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:45 on Sunday]
MON 04:00 Saturday Drama (b00ncf8t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:00 Poetry Extra (b084nd1v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Open Letters (b00yrfwh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Sunday]
MON 06:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jncv)
Series 3, No Sinecure
AJ Raffles is dead - and Bunny must face the world alone. Then comes an invitation to answer a newspaper advertisement...
The stories of EW Hornung in the continuing adventures of cricketer and gentleman thief, Arthur J Raffles, and his chronicler, Harry "Bunny" Manders.
Starring Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles, Michael Cochrane as Bunny, Gordon Reid as Dr Theobald and John Hartley as Maturin.
Dramatised by Olwen Wymark.
Signature tune composed by Jim Parker.
Director: Gordon House
A BBC Radio 4/ BBC World Service production first broadcast in 1992.
MON 06:30 Roller Girls (b01130pj)
An American import, Roller Derby is part race/part contact sport, in which young women violently jostle and elbow their opponents in an attempt to steer them off course. Adopting alter-egos on the track characters like Anna Mosity, Grievous Bodily Charm, Vaga-blonde and Debbie does Malice don war paint, vibrantly-coloured costumes and roller skates as they skid, smash and knock into each other.
Leagues are currently springing up in cities across the UK with demand rapidly outstripping the number of places available. These women often end up bruised and battered - so what has propelled the rise of this aggressive 'sports entertainment' amongst Britain's young women?
In this programme we explore the stories of two young skaters from the London Roller Girls - Auntie Terror, who skates in the main league, and Hannah Harding, who skates in the practice league.
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 07:00 A Whole 'Nother Story (b0076h4z)
Series 3, Episode 3
Pete has found out about PJ. He is unhappy, so are Cassie and Bill, and Janet is using soothing tones. Stars Dave Lamb. From October 2003.
MON 07:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b083n15g)
Series 66, Episode 3
The nation's favourite wireless entertainment pays a visit to the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton. Old-timers Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Susan Calman and Richard Osman with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell provides piano accompaniment. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
MON 08:00 The Burkiss Way (b007jtxx)
Series 3, Bruce's Choice and Start New Series the Burkiss Way
Long ago in a radio galaxy far away - space film spoofing, the best of 'Bruce Forsyth' and a quiz "live from Norwich".
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
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1978.
MON 08:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007jps8)
The Friends of Frambourne Pier
Frank Pike and Bert Hodges try to enlist some volunteers to help restore the pier.
A seaside saga of pier perpetuation starring John Le Mesurier as Arthur Wilson, Ian Lavender as Frank Pike, Bill Pertwee as Bert Hodges, Vivienne Martin as Miss Perkins and Glynn Edwards as Fred Guthrie.
After a pilot episode was made in 1981, Arthur Lowe sadly died. So this 13-part series was revamped to feature the Dad's Army characters played by Pertwee and 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: Martin Fisher
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in December 1983.
MON 09:00 Just a Minute (b00mw196)
Series 55, Episode 10
Nicholas Parsons chairs the devious word game. Featuring Graham Norton and Paul Merton on how to outdo the other panellists, Gyles Brandreth on the subject of pretentious vocabulary, and Pauline McLynn on junk mail.
MON 09:30 The Change (b0076cp6)
Series 2, Episode 1
Kicking out transvestite husband George, Carol wants a new life. Stars Lynda Bellingham and Chris Ellison. From February 2003.
MON 10:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07kcj63)
29 August - 2 September 1916
In the week in 1916 when the Battle of Verdun finally came to a close, emotions are volatile in Folkestone.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole
Story-led by Katie Hims
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
MON 11:00 Thrilling Stories of the Railway (b00fwcpc)
The Affair of the German Dispatch-Box
Can daring amateur sleuth, Thorpe Hazell help to intercept a German dispatch-box containing a highly confidential document stolen from the British Government?
Benedict Cumberbatch reads Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's tales about the speciality detective who uses his locomotive expertise to solve the audacious and ingenious crimes plaguing the Edwardian railways.
Eccentric Thorpe Hazell is in many ways a man before his time: a vegetarian and health fanatic using his encyclopaedic railway knowledge to tackle Britain's most ingenious smugglings, thefts, kidnaps and murders. A man of independent means, he thrives on working to his own whims - and operating outside the law when it suits him.
English reverend, railway enthusiast and popular mystery writer (1868 - 1933) - Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's immaculate plots were much admired by Dorothy L Sayers and Ellery Queen. He was one of the first authors to submit his stories to Scotland Yard so they could vet his police procedures.
Adapted and produced by Fiona Kelcher.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2008.
MON 11:15 Bruce Bedford - Carnival King (b00lvyny)
A London city slicker tries to win the cup for his float in a Somerset village parade. Stars James Grout and Sarah Neville.
MON 12:00 The Burkiss Way (b007jtxx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 12:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007jps8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 13:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jncv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 13:30 Roller Girls (b01130pj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 14:00 Ian McEwan - Saturday (b0076r01)
Episode 1
15th February, 2003. The happy London life of surgeon Henry Perowne is dramatically interrupted.
Ian McEwan's gripping novel read by Robert Glenister.
One day in the life of neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne who's comfortable and happy with his London life - until world events dictate otherwise. Events are set to make him face a local danger too...
Abridged in 10 parts by Alison Joseph.
Producer: Duncan Minshull
First broadcast as BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime in 2005.
MON 14:15 World Agony (b04966ry)
Cheryl Strayed, USA
Irma Kurtz, Cosmopolitan magazine's Agony Aunt for over 40 years, talks to a different agony aunt from around the world for each programme in this series.
She speaks to Aunts from America, India, Australia, Egypt and South Africa, and reflects on the universal and contrasting problems that occur in their particular society. These Aunts, many of whom have dramatic personal lives themselves, offer advice in newspaper columns, on radio phone-ins and on-line.
Irma draws on her ample experience to offer a useful perspective on their approach to problem solving. Together they discuss the problems specific to their communities and listeners hear examples of some of the letters they receive and the advice given.
Programme 1: Cheryl Strayed, U.S.A.
Irma talks to Cheryl Strayed, an American agony aunt who has received thousands of queries to her 'Dear Sugar' online column. Cheryl has grappled with many problems herself, including sexual abuse, bereavement and divorce. It's no surprise then that her strap line reads, "From someone who has been there".
Irma and Cheryl compare notes. They consider American optimism compared with the perceived attitude of the British stiff upper lip and reflect on why so many men write to Dear Sugar.

Producer: Ronni Davis
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01kjqzs)
Where'd You Go Bernadette?, Episode 6
Maria Semple's brilliantly comic debut novel about misplaced genius and mother-daughter love, starring Miranda Richardson, Lydia Wilson, Richard Laing and Madeleine Potter.
When 15 year old Bee wins perfect grades, she calls in her parents' promise of a graduation present of 'anything she wants'. This turns out to be a family trip to Antarctica - a prospect that will challenge her mother Bernadette's deep dislike of travel and of dealing with other people. But first Bernadette needs to take on some of the other mothers at Bee's school, or as she calls them - 'the Galer Street gnats'.
In today's episode, Elgin confronts Bernadette about the mudslide incident.
Adapted by Miranda Davies
Produced/ directed by Emma Harding
About the author: Maria Semple has written for television shows including Arrested Development, Mad About You, and Ellen. She lives with her family on an island off Seattle. This is her first novel.
MON 14:45 Book of the Week (b01bwmvy)
Europe in the Looking Glass, Episode 1
Europe in the Looking Glass is Robert Byron's travel classic, recounting a car journey across Europe in 1926, and providing a mirror on events and nationhood both then and today. Byron (a descendant of the poet) found acclaim as the author of The Road to Oxiana - an account of a trip to Afghanistan and Persia.
It tells the story of three young Englishmen travelling across the neighbouring continent in an unreliable car - encountering the rise of Italian fascism and the anarchy of Greece along the way. In other words, the book offers a compelling mirror on Europe today (a world of technocrats and populists...) with the additional benefit of being witty, colourful and full of apercus about such types as loud American tourists and unwashed German backpackers.
The conclusion offers the travellers (and all of us) a new perspective on their homeland as well as the countries and cultures they explore together.
In part one, they leave Grimsby and motor through northern Germany.
Read by Rupert Penry-Jones.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 15:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07kcj63)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
MON 16:00 Just a Minute (b00mw196)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
MON 16:30 The Change (b0076cp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
MON 17:00 A Whole 'Nother Story (b0076h4z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
MON 17:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b083n15g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 18:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007jwnt)
Episode 1
Gregor Samsa wakes one day to find himself hideously transformed into a monstrous insect. His family react with horror at his bizarre transformation but this slowly turns to revulsion - and then monstrous indifference - as he is left to quietly waste away in his bedroom.
First published in 1912, Benedict Cumberbatch reads Franz Kafka's classic novel in four parts.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) ranks among the 20th century's most acclaimed writers. He is often cited as the author whose works best evoke the concerns and preoccupations of modern life. The world in his stories is portrayed as one in which the fantastic is entirely normal, the irrational is rational, and the unreasonable seems reasonable. As Ernst Pawel wrote in his biography of the writer, "Kafka articulates the anguish of being human."
Kafka, although Czech and living in Prague, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, spoke fluent German and Czech and actually wrote in German and thought it his mother tongue. The tensions between those who spoke German and those who spoke Czech were a direct reflection of the rise of nationalism and the quest for national identity.
Metamorphosis was translated by Richard Stokes. Abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2006.
MON 18:25 The Fanthorpe Investigations (b038l0d7)
The Croglin Grange Vampire
Priest and paranormal investigator Lionel Fanthorpe relates a story from the world of the strange and unexplained.
MON 18:30 A Good Read (b00751r2)
Jo Brand and Jonathan Meades
Tom Sutcliffe and his guests - comedienne, Jo Brand and critic, Jonathan Meades - discuss books by Michel Tournier, John Carey and John Banville. From 1997.
The Ogre by Michel Tournier
Publisher: John Hoplins Press
The Book of Evidence by John Banville
Publisher: Minerva Publications
Faber Book of Reportage edited by John Carey
Publisher: Faber.
MON 19:00 The Burkiss Way (b007jtxx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 19:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007jps8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 20:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jncv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 20:30 Roller Girls (b01130pj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 21:00 Thrilling Stories of the Railway (b00fwcpc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
MON 21:15 Bruce Bedford - Carnival King (b00lvyny)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
MON 22:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b083n15g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 22:30 The Mark Steel Lecture (b00sbcrc)
Series 3, Mary Shelley
The radical comedian offers his humorous assessment of the life and career of the creator of Frankenstein. From October 2002.
MON 23:00 The Now Show (b083r9x9)
Series 49, Episode 5
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by Nish Kumar, Dane Baptiste, Rachel Parris. Luke Kempner and Jess Ransom to present the news via topical stand up and sketches.
This week the team look at Trump, Ed Balls, the current state of Brexit negotiations and UKIP's new leader...
Written by the cast with additional material from Sarah Morgan, Jane Lamacraft, Robin Morgan and Sophie Duker.
Producer Adnan Ahmed
BBC Studios Production.
MON 23:30 Will Smith Presents the Tao of Bergerac (b007tz8w)
Episode 1
Comedian Will Smith is obsessed with 1980s detective series Bergerac, so uses an audio book of its star, John Nettles, reading the Tao, to navigate the minefield of his life, with the help of a special guest.
Will seeks justice.
With Adam Buxton, John Nettles, Matt Holness, Simon Greenall, Dan Tetsell.
Written by Will Smith and Roger Drew.

TUESDAY 06 DECEMBER 2016

TUE 00:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007jwnt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Monday]
TUE 00:25 The Fanthorpe Investigations (b038l0d7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:25 on Monday]
TUE 00:30 A Good Read (b00751r2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Monday]
TUE 01:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jncv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:30 Roller Girls (b01130pj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:00 Ian McEwan - Saturday (b0076r01)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Monday]
TUE 02:15 World Agony (b04966ry)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Monday]
TUE 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01kjqzs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:45 Book of the Week (b01bwmvy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Monday]
TUE 03:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07kcj63)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:00 Just a Minute (b00mw196)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:30 The Change (b0076cp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Monday]
TUE 05:00 A Whole 'Nother Story (b0076h4z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Monday]
TUE 05:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b083n15g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Monday]
TUE 06:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jndt)
Series 3, To Catch a Thief
London's glittering High Society suffers some audacious jewel robberies - but for once, the cracksman is not Raffles.
The stories of EW Hornung in the continuing adventures of cricketer and gentleman thief, Arthur J Raffles, and his chronicler, Harry "Bunny" Manders.
Starring Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles, Michael Cochrane as Bunny, Henry Stamper as Inspector MacKenzie and Gordon Reid as Dr Theobald.
Dramatised by Olwen Wymark.
Signature tune composed by Jim Parker.
Director: Gordon House
A BBC Radio 4/ BBC World Service production first broadcast in 1992.
TUE 06:30 Boy Racers (b011j7v1)
Two young motor racing drivers battle it out at speeds of 150 mph to become stars on the track. Aasmah Mir follows their fortunes and find out what it takes to make it motor sport. In a multi-million pound industry, she discovers it is not just dedication you need, but very deep pockets.
With dreams of becoming Formula One Champion, teenagers Alex Lynn and Oliver Rowland are team mates and rivals racing in the British Formula Renault UK Championship. Aasmah goes trackside to join them on the important first race weekend of the championship at Brands Hatch. Off track, she goes behind the scenes in the pit, where the drivers psych themselves up for the race and parents nervously wait to see who will make it to pole position and onto the podium; she also hears from world champions and international stars Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button on their journey to that pinnacle of achievement.
From very different backgrounds, seventeen year old Alex from Essex only passed his driving test last October and is financially supported by family and sponsors. Eighteen year old karting champion Oliver, whose father died last year, recently moved from his home in Sheffield to Northampton to pursue his career and is funded by a racing foundation, as well as working in the Silverstone shop. For these two teenagers, motor racing is a way of life.
Both drivers are part of the British Racing Drivers Club's Superstars scheme, a mentoring programme, which recognises emerging talent and potential champions. But in a hugely competitive sport, the stakes are high, with very few succeeding to the top.
Producer: Tamsin Barber.
TUE 07:00 Dave Sheasby - Sharing Fatman (b0075klm)
White Swan Sailing
Now that they own Mr Fatman, Margaret and Ken advertise for others to join a syndicate. Stars Gillian Bevan. From May 1999.
TUE 07:30 Clare in the Community (b083p889)
Series 11, Unfaithful
Episode 3 - Unfaithful
Brian's been going through Clare's emails and made an upsetting discovery. He's insisted on a couple's therapy session although Clare isn't taking proceedings entirely seriously.
Sally Phillips is Clare Barker the social worker who has all the right jargon but never a practical solution.
A control freak, Clare likes nothing better than interfering in other people's lives on both a professional and personal basis. Clare is in her thirties, white, middle class and heterosexual, all of which are occasional causes of discomfort to her.
Each week we join Clare in her continued struggle to control both her professional and private life In today's Big Society there are plenty of challenges out there for an involved, caring social worker. Or even Clare.
Written by Harry Venning and David Ramsden
Producer Alexandra Smith
A BBC Studios production.
TUE 08:00 Steptoe and Son (b007jlll)
Series 3, Tea for Two
A famous by-election visitor sparks party wars for the rag and bone duo.
Starring Wilfrid Brambell as Albert and Harry H Corbett as Harold. With John Rye and Edward Kelsey.
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 April 1971.
TUE 08:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jqkj)
Take Your Pick
The freezing civil servants head to Wales to tackle a coal shortage. Stars Richard Murdoch and Deryck Guyler. From August 1977.
TUE 09:00 The Now Show (b083r9x9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]
TUE 09:30 The Stanley Baxter Playhouse (b01pt9nc)
Series 5, Hector's House of Windsor
Hector's House of Windsor
By Colin Hough
A warm hearted comedic tribute to the Queen's jubilee year.
The Queen's Scots gillie aids her in a cunning plan to put her unruly prime minister and deputy firmly in their place when they visit her at Windsor and she invites them to join her on a canter round the park.
Her own superior wisdom, cunning and diplomatic skills are revealed while Her Majesty's wise and wily old Scots gillie looks on and enters into the fun.
Stanley Baxter plays the gillie and Phyllida Law takes the imperial role in this affectionate fictional account of what just might have happened when the prime minister of the day and his deputy pay Her Majesty a visit.
Written by Colin Hough
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 10:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07kswfr)
5-9 September 1916
In the week, in 1916, when ambulance driver Dorothie Feilding was the first woman to be awarded a Military Medal, there are some lesser but notable firsts in Folkestone.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Story-led by Katie Hims
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
TUE 11:00 Thrilling Stories of the Railway (b00fy0tm)
Sir Gilbert Murrell's Picture
When a goods train carrying valuable paintings arrives at its destination with one missing carriage, the owners turn to amateur sleuth, Thorpe Hazell. How did the thieves remove it from a non-stopping service?
Benedict Cumberbatch reads Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's tales about the speciality detective who uses his locomotive expertise to solve the audacious and ingenious crimes plaguing the Edwardian railways.
Eccentric Thorpe Hazell is in many ways a man before his time: a vegetarian and health fanatic using his encyclopaedic railway knowledge to tackle Britain's most ingenious smugglings, thefts, kidnaps and murders. A man of independent means, he thrives on working to his own whims - and operating outside the law when it suits him.
English reverend, railway enthusiast and popular mystery writer (1868 - 1933) - Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's immaculate plots were much admired by Dorothy L Sayers and Ellery Queen. He was one of the first authors to submit his stories to Scotland Yard so they could vet his police procedures.
Adapted and produced by Fiona Kelcher.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2008.
TUE 11:15 Ashes to Antarctica (b01pj1l1)
Antarctica: Setting off to scatter her husband's ashes, a widow discovers more than she bargained for. Stars Carolyn Pickles.
TUE 12:00 Steptoe and Son (b007jlll)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 12:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jqkj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 13:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jndt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 13:30 Boy Racers (b011j7v1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 14:00 Ian McEwan - Saturday (b0076r0k)
Episode 2
15th February, 2003: Henry is looking forward to playing squash, but outside trouble is looming. Read by Robert Glenister.
TUE 14:15 World Agony (b049y3mc)
India
Irma Kurtz, Cosmopolitan magazine's Agony Aunt for over 40 years, talks to a different agony aunt from around the world for each programme in this series.
She speaks to Aunts from America, India, Australia, Egypt and South Africa, and reflects on the universal and contrasting problems that occur in their particular society. These Aunts, many of whom have dramatic personal lives themselves, offer advice in newspaper columns, on radio phone-ins and on-line.
Irma draws on her ample experience to offer a useful perspective on their approach to problem solving. Together they discuss the problems specific to their communities and listeners hear examples of some of the letters they receive and the advice given.
Programme 2: Bachi Kakaria, India.
Irma talks Bachi Kakaria, who writes her advice column Giving Gyan in two Indian newspapers, the Mumbai Mirror and the Bangalore Mirror.
Giving Gyan translates roughly as 'laying it on the line', and Bachi certainly does that. This is a very different style of agony aunting to the one we're used to. She is level headed and empathetic but doesn't wrap her advice in any sentiment, as her strap line intimates: 'There are agony aunts and then there's Bachi, she'll sort you out'.
Her qualifications, she says, are none - other than a close observation of life, personal and professional. Her post bag reflects the concerns particularly of young people who, after years of Indian socialism, have been plunged into consumerism. On the one hand there is liberalism and, on the other, conservatism - so there is confusion and conflict in the minds of India's young.
Produced by Ronni Davis
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01kjsg1)
Where'd You Go Bernadette?, Episode 7
Maria Semple's brilliantly comic debut novel about misplaced genius and mother-daughter love, starring Miranda Richardson, Lydia Wilson, Richard Laing and Madeleine Potter.
15 year old Bee and her parents are preparing for their imminent family trip to Antarctica, but Elgin is increasingly worried about Bernadette and her run-ins with the other Galer Street mothers.
In today's episode, Elgin is paid a visit by an agent from the FBI, who makes a shocking revelation about Bernadette's life online.
Adapted for radio by Miranda Davies
Produced/Directed by Emma Harding
About the author: Maria Semple has written for television shows including Arrested Development, Mad About You, and Ellen. She lives with her family on an island off Seattle. This is her first novel.
TUE 14:45 Book of the Week (b01cdl28)
Europe in the Looking Glass, Episode 2
Europe in the Looking Glass is Robert Byron's travel classic, recounting a car journey across Europe in 1926, and providing a mirror on events and nationhood both then and today. Byron (a descendant of the poet) found acclaim as the author of The Road to Oxiana - an account of a trip to Afghanistan and Persia.
In part two, they leave Germany for Austria, and on to Italy.
Read by Rupert Penry-Jones.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07kswfr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
TUE 16:00 Counterpoint (b084ntgk)
2006, Special
Ned Sherrin's general knowledge music quiz special with Julian Lloyd Webber, Steve Harley and Denise Leigh. From June 2006.
TUE 16:30 Flying the Flag (b00dp3qj)
Series 4, Little Extras
Ambassador Mackenzie witnesses the movie-making prowess of the People's Republic up close. Stars Dinsdale Landen. From July 1992.
TUE 17:00 Dave Sheasby - Sharing Fatman (b0075klm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
TUE 17:30 Clare in the Community (b083p889)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 18:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k3r4)
Episode 2
Gregor is adapting to his new insect form, but his shocked family find it harder to accept. Read by Benedict Cumberbatch.
TUE 18:30 Comic to Comic (b007znnn)
Series 2, Miles Jupp
From gag writing to appearing in Balamory - the self-styled posh stand-up tells the story of his career to Bruce Morton.
TUE 19:00 Steptoe and Son (b007jlll)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 19:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jqkj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 20:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jndt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 20:30 Boy Racers (b011j7v1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 21:00 Thrilling Stories of the Railway (b00fy0tm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
TUE 21:15 Ashes to Antarctica (b01pj1l1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
TUE 22:00 Clare in the Community (b083p889)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 22:30 The Richest Man in Britain (b00nz1bk)
The African Village
Sitcom by Nick Hornby and Giles Smith about an ageing rock star and his search for fulfilment.
Trillionnaire rocker Dave Mabbutt contemplates the purchase of an African village to complement his afternoons-only radio station.
Dave Mabbutt ...... Mark Williams
Dom ...... Russell Tovey
Naomi, the Charity Worker ...... Ayesha Antoine
Dave's Mum ...... Lynda Bellingham
Ken, the Maintenance Man ...... Phil Cornwell.
TUE 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b086dz2h)
The best in contemporary comedy. Jess Fostekew chats to Rosie Jones.
TUE 23:00 Beauty of Britain (b00njwd9)
Series 1, Colour Me Wow
Comedy by Christopher Douglas and Nicola Sanderson. Beauty Olonga works as a carer for the Featherdown Agency and sees herself as an inspiration to other African girls hoping to achieve their goals in the land of semi-skimmed milk.
Beauty has a particularly difficult client, but is distracted by her latest business venture. Lynette assures Beauty that 'Colour Me Wow' is no pyramid scheme, while Anil shows a surprising new side to himself.
Beauty ...... Jocelyn Jee Esien
Lynette ...... Doon Mackichan
Sandra ...... Nicola Sanderson
Sally ...... Felicity Montagu
Karen ...... Nicola Sanderson
Mrs Gupte ...... Indira Joshi
Anil ...... Paul Sharma
Dr Kavanagh ...... Phyllida Law
Hilary ...... Rachel Atkins
Clare ...... Doon Mackichan
Music by The West End Gospel Choir.
TUE 23:30 The Harpoon (b007lnx3)
Series 1, Episode 4
A veritable fascinating feast from the nostalgic spoof of boys' adventure story papers. With Peter Baynham. From September 1991.

WEDNESDAY 07 DECEMBER 2016

WED 00:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k3r4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Tuesday]
WED 00:30 Comic to Comic (b007znnn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Tuesday]
WED 01:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jndt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:30 Boy Racers (b011j7v1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:00 Ian McEwan - Saturday (b0076r0k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Tuesday]
WED 02:15 World Agony (b049y3mc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Tuesday]
WED 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01kjsg1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:45 Book of the Week (b01cdl28)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Tuesday]
WED 03:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07kswfr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:00 Counterpoint (b084ntgk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:30 Flying the Flag (b00dp3qj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]
WED 05:00 Dave Sheasby - Sharing Fatman (b0075klm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Tuesday]
WED 05:30 Clare in the Community (b083p889)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Tuesday]
WED 06:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jnfb)
Series 3, An Old Flame
Raffles has had many worthy combatants, both on the cricket field and in his more nefarious pursuits. But none prove so formidable as Jacques Saillard - an old flame.
The stories of EW Hornung in the continuing adventures of cricketer and gentleman thief, Arthur J Raffles, and his chronicler, Harry "Bunny" Manders.
Starring Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles, Michael Cochrane as Bunny, Gudrun Ure as Mrs Fisher and Peter Forbes as Druce.
Dramatised by Olwen Wymark.
Signature tune composed by Jim Parker.
Director: Gordon House
A BBC Radio 4/ BBC World Service production first broadcast in 1992.
WED 06:30 Falling for Francoise (b0118bgw)
It was on a language-learning trip to Paris that John Andrew first heard the music of Francoise Hardy and fell for the sexy but shy singer. He was not alone - she was the dreamgirl of many an English schoolboy in the early 1960s.
In 'Falling for Francoise', he revisits Paris and the streets in which he first lost his heart and he talks to others who've suffered the same fate - the Hardy fan website curator, Yorkshireman Warren Gilbert; musician Ben Christophers, who's written songs for the mature Francoise; journalist Laura Barton, who's besotted with the whole French 60s 'ye ye' scene... and in a real coup, John gets to meet the singer herself, falling for Francoise all over again!
Producer: Alan Hall
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 07:00 The Attractive Young Rabbi (b007k31j)
Series 2, Babies
The rabbis are submerged in baby talk, while Melvin struggles with his conscience. Stars Tracy-Ann Oberman. From October 2000.
WED 07:30 Women Talking About Cars (b083pchj)
Dawn French
Victoria Coren Mitchell interviews Dawn French in the first of a new series in which famous women look at their lives from the perspective of the cars they have known, the journeys they've been on and the things they keep in their boot for emergencies.
Hear what Dawn wrote on the back of her first car; find out which comedian totalled her beloved Cortina; and discover the advantages of the refrigerated glove compartment.
Car descriptions read by Josette Simon.
A BBC Studios production.
WED 08:00 The Navy Lark (b0178zz9)
The Put-a-Horse-Out-to-Graze Fund
Chief Petty Officer Pertwee starts fundraising for a very special cause - his own financial black hole...
Stars Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Stephen Murray as the Commanding Officer, Richard Caldicot as Captain Povey, Heather Chasen as Rita, Tenniel Evans as the Admiral and Michael Bates as the Padre.
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 May 1971.
WED 08:30 Hancock's Half Hour (b007k4d6)
Back From Holiday
On his return from a disastrous break, the lad discovers that Sid's rented his house out.
Starring Tony Hancock, Sidney James, Bill Kerr 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
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in October 1956.
WED 09:00 Heresy (b01sjjyf)
Series 9, Episode 2
Victoria Coren Mitchell presents another edition of the show which dares to commit heresy.
Her guests this week are comedians David Mitchell and Alex Horne, and writer and broadcaster Germaine Greer. Together they have fun exposing the wrong-headedness of received wisdom and challenging knee-jerk public reaction to events.
Topics up for discussion are videogames, outer space and horse lasagne.
Produced by Victoria Coren Mitchell and Daisy Knight
An Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 09:30 Rent (b00752lq)
Series 3, Episode 4
Maria turns agony aunt, but is Paul finally turning all grown-up and responsible? Stars Barbara Flynn. From February 1997.
WED 10:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07ksx4c)
12-16 September 1916
In the week in 1916 when tanks were deployed for the first time with great optimism, it's a week of decisive action in Folkestone.
Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole
Story-led by Katie Hims
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
WED 11:00 Thrilling Stories of the Railway (b00fy2qk)
The Affair of the Corridor Express
The son of multi-millionaire is snatched from a moving train, can Thorpe Hazell foil the kidnappers' dastardly plan?
Benedict Cumberbatch reads Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's tales about the speciality detective who uses his locomotive expertise to solve the audacious and ingenious crimes plaguing the Edwardian railways.
Eccentric Thorpe Hazell is in many ways a man before his time: a vegetarian and health fanatic using his encyclopaedic railway knowledge to tackle Britain's most ingenious smugglings, thefts, kidnaps and murders. A man of independent means, he thrives on working to his own whims - and operating outside the law when it suits him.
English reverend, railway enthusiast and popular mystery writer (1868 - 1933) - Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's immaculate plots were much admired by Dorothy L Sayers and Ellery Queen. He was one of the first authors to submit his stories to Scotland Yard so they could vet his police procedures.
Adapted and produced by Fiona Kelcher.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2008.
WED 11:15 Steve Chambers - Victoria Station (b084nzw1)
Series 2, Tickets Please
Wednesday December 4th 1896: Painful impositions and necessary extractions at Bridgford's railway station.
The second series of Nottingham-born author Steve Chambers' drama series set in Victoria Station, Bridgford in 1896. Each is a self-contained story featuring the day-to-day doings of the station staff.
Stars Sean Baker as Station Master Joe Braddock, Christopher Scott as Tidmarsh, John Hartley as Union activist Fred Roberts, Gavin Muir as Area Manager Mr Cripps and Colleen Prendergast as Josie.
Director: David Hunter
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1996 and set a century before.
WED 12:00 The Navy Lark (b0178zz9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 12:30 Hancock's Half Hour (b007k4d6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 13:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jnfb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 13:30 Falling for Francoise (b0118bgw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 14:00 Ian McEwan - Saturday (b0076r12)
Episode 3
15th February, 2003: With anti-war marches in London, Henry meets the jittery, malevolent Baxter. Read by Robert Glenister.
WED 14:15 World Agony (b04bmz8s)
Australia
Irma Kurtz, Cosmopolitan magazine's Agony Aunt for over 40 years, talks to a different agony aunt from around the world for each programme in this series.
She speaks to Aunts from America, India, Australia, Egypt and South Africa, and reflects on the universal and contrasting problems that occur in their particular society. These Aunts, many of whom have dramatic personal lives themselves, offer advice in newspaper columns, on radio phone-ins and on-line.
Irma draws on her ample experience to offer a useful perspective on their approach to problem solving. Together they discuss the problems specific to their communities and listeners hear examples of some of the letters they receive and the advice given.
Programme 3: Kate de Brito, Australia
Kate de Brito writes her advice blog 'Ask Bossy' for the news.com.australia website. Her strap line reads 'Got a question? Ask Bossy. It's the advice your friends and relatives are probably too polite to give.' And Kate, who is one of the few agony aunts with qualifications in counselling and psychotherapy, does indeed give practical and clear-sighted advice. The two agony aunts discuss attitudes to gender differences in Australia, problems concerning the aboriginal community, and the importance of referring serious issues on for specialised counselling.
Produced by Ronni Davis
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01kknt8)
Where'd You Go Bernadette?, Episode 8
Maria Semple's brilliantly comic debut novel about misplaced genius and mother-daughter love, starring Miranda Richardson, Lydia Wilson, Richard Laing and Madeleine Potter.
15 year old Bee and her parents have been preparing for a family trip to Antarctica, but the day before they are due to travel, her mother Bernadette vanishes.
In today's episode, a frantic Elgin travels to Argentina in an attempt to find his wife.
Adapted and directed by Emma Harding
About the author: Maria Semple has written for television shows including Arrested Development, Mad About You, and Ellen. She lives with her family on an island off Seattle. This is her first novel.
WED 14:45 Book of the Week (b01cdl2v)
Europe in the Looking Glass, Episode 3
The men encounter problems at the Italian customs post before trying to become members of the Fascist Party.
Europe in the Looking Glass is Robert Byron's travel classic, recounting a car journey across Europe in 1926, and providing a mirror on events and nationhood both then and today. Byron (a descendant of the poet) found acclaim as the author of The Road to Oxiana - an account of a trip to Afghanistan and Persia.
The conclusion offers the travellers (and all of us) a new perspective on their homeland as well as the countries and cultures they explore together.
Read by Rupert Penry-Jones.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07ksx4c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
WED 16:00 Heresy (b01sjjyf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
WED 16:30 Rent (b00752lq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
WED 17:00 The Attractive Young Rabbi (b007k31j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
WED 17:30 Women Talking About Cars (b083pchj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 18:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k3xn)
Episode 3
Now a monstrous insect, Gregor strives to stay close to his family - but his father turns on him. Read by Benedict Cumberbatch.
PROMOTION NOTE
"When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect."
This shocking opening introduces one of the twentieth century's most famous stories.
Gregor's family react with horror at his bizarre transformation but their horror slowly turns to revulsion and then monstrous indifference as he is left to quietly waste away in his bedroom.
Metamorphosis was first published in 1912.
Benedict Cumberbatch reads this surreal classic in four parts.
Stage and screen actor, Benedict Cumberbatch was Bafta nominated for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in the BBC TV drama, "Hawking". Most recently he appeared in the TV dramatisation of William Golding's seafaring trilogy, "To The Ends of The Earth". He also won critical acclaim playing Hedda's husband, George, in last year's West End production of "Hedda Gabler".
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) ranks among the twentieth-century's most acclaimed writers. He is often cited as the author whose works best evoke the concerns and preoccupations of modern life. The world in his stories is portrayed as one in which the fantastic is entirely normal, the irrational is rational, and the unreasonable seems reasonable. As Ernst Pawel wrote in his biography of the writer, "Kafka articulates the anguish of being human."
Translated by Richard Stokes
(Abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins).
WED 18:30 Off the Page (b00nks89)
Leaving the Comfort Zone
Is leaving your comfort zone a form of masochism, or the only way to develop in life? Dominic Arkwright is joined by comedian Rhona Cameron, mountaineer Andy Cave and journalist Agnes Poirier to write about and discuss comfort and pain.
WED 19:00 The Navy Lark (b0178zz9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 19:30 Hancock's Half Hour (b007k4d6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 20:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jnfb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 20:30 Falling for Francoise (b0118bgw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 21:00 Thrilling Stories of the Railway (b00fy2qk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
WED 21:15 Steve Chambers - Victoria Station (b084nzw1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
WED 22:00 Women Talking About Cars (b083pchj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 22:30 Mark Thomas Presents (b0076w5y)
Episode 3
Pioneering American political comic of the 1950s and 60s, Mort Sahl, in a special one-off performance. From December 2005.
WED 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b086dz40)
The best in contemporary comedy. Jess Fostekew chats to Rosie Jones.
WED 23:00 We Know Everything (b084p1sk)
Episode 4
When Parmesan goes rotten, what does it smell of? Dan Gaster and Paul Powell tackle audience quirky questions. From July 1995.
WED 23:15 Sir Ralph Stanza's Letter from Salford (b0076f4x)
Series 2, A View From the Stanza
Ralphie advises his student Bob that comedy is the 'foot and mouth' of poetry. By James Quinn with Tony Melody. From May 2003.
WED 23:30 Hut 33 (b00vy861)
Series 2, Pigs n Spivs
The codebreakers run out of rations. Can special new recruit Willis save their bacon? Stars Robert Bathurst. From May 2008.

THURSDAY 08 DECEMBER 2016

THU 00:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k3xn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Wednesday]
THU 00:30 Off the Page (b00nks89)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesday]
THU 01:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jnfb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Wednesday]
THU 01:30 Falling for Francoise (b0118bgw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:00 Ian McEwan - Saturday (b0076r12)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Wednesday]
THU 02:15 World Agony (b04bmz8s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Wednesday]
THU 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01kknt8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:45 Book of the Week (b01cdl2v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Wednesday]
THU 03:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07ksx4c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:00 Heresy (b01sjjyf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:30 Rent (b00752lq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Wednesday]
THU 05:00 The Attractive Young Rabbi (b007k31j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Wednesday]
THU 05:30 Women Talking About Cars (b083pchj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Wednesday]
THU 06:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jnfw)
Series 3, The Raffles Relics
Bunny is appalled to hear Raffles calmly announce that he intends to visit New Scotland Yard to view an exhibition of his own craftsman's tools...
The stories of EW Hornung in the continuing adventures of cricketer and gentleman thief, Arthur J Raffles, and his chronicler, Harry "Bunny" Manders.
Starring Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles, Michael Cochrane as Bunny, Gudrun Ure as Mrs Fisher and Peter Forbes as Druce.
Dramatised by Olwen Wymark.
Signature tune composed by Jim Parker.
Director: Gordon House
A BBC Radio 4/ BBC World Service production first broadcast in 1992.
THU 06:30 The Way Out: The Disabled Avant-Garde (b00zdl1w)
Can art and irony achieve what mainstream politics never has and give the disability movement its own revolution?
Disability has never had its revolutionary moment: no Suffrage, Stonewall or Watts Riots. Rather it's been perceived as the poor relation of civil rights, last on the agitation pecking order. Performance artist Aaron Williamson (who is profoundly deaf) presents a feature exploring whether performing arts practice can do what political agitation never has - radicalize, even revolutionise, mainstream public perceptions of disability. Williamson's collective, the (probably ironically named) 'Disabled Avant-Garde' has performed cabaret, stand-up, played live, staged political pranks, and even made short films depicting a world in which a violent, insurrectionary gang of 'disability terrorists' has brought the government to its knees à la Baader Meinhof/ Angry Brigade - a sort of missing film about an absent revolution.
These artists, as well as affiliate organizations like 15mm Films, set out to challenge popular perceptions of disabled people as well as explore disabled artists' own physical differences from the norm.
This feature will look at their work in contrast to mainstream public thinking on disability (eg.the Equality and Human Rights Commission) and ask whether the radical possibilities opened up by disability politics have been co-opted by endless subsidy and 'minority' box ticking. It will also explore whether this is the one remaining area of identity politics where art still has the edge. Featuring interview, audio and sound art from the 'Disabled Avant-Garde'.
Presenter: Aaron Williamson
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 07:00 Bristow (b007s5dp)
Series 2, Mr Bristow Regrets
The Chester-Perry Dinner Dance is out of bounds to the buying clerk - until he falls in with Tom Paine, troublemaker...
Michael Williams stars as Bristow, the buying clerk from Frank Dickens' famous newspaper cartoon strip. Syndicated internationally, it ran for 41 years in London's Evening Standard.
With Rodney Bewes as Jones, Dora Bryan as Mrs Purdy, Owen Brenman as Hewitt and Jon Glover as Tom Paine.
RSC talent and popular stage and TV actor, Michael Williams died in 2001
Music: John Whitehall
Producer: Neil Cargill
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1999.
THU 07:30 The Fair Intellectual Club (b083r1jj)
An Engagement with Mr Hogarth
Public and private morality come under the spotlight in the latest episode of Lucy Porter's 18th Century sitcom. A young painter named William Hogarth (Gus Brown) has been employed to paint Edinburgh Society beauty Ishbel (Caroline Deyga). Science whizz Alison (Jess Hardwick) is making potions for her brother Robert (Simon Donaldson). Hogarth finds inspiration but Alison faces ruin unless Marjory (Samara Maclaren) and Kennedy (Gordon Kennedy) can save the day.
With music by Aly Macrae
Director: Marilyn Imrie
Producer: Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 08:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b03wpcj4)
They Can't Touch You for It
Prepare for an onslaught of one-liners from the King of Knotty Ash and his team of fellow funny folk. From September 1975.
THU 08:30 The Michael Bentine Show (b008vnrl)
From 12/02/1984
From an old colonial to a herd of operatic cows, it's the ultimate one-man show, written by the host. From February 1984.
THU 09:00 The Personality Test (b00n02yq)
Series 2, Claire Rayner
The agony aunt quizzes a panel about herself. With Sue Perkins, Will Smith and Robin Ince. From January 2007.
THU 09:30 The Atkinson People (b007k1z5)
George Dupont
The French philosopher remains an enigma, despite an exhaustive biography. Rowan Atkinson's satirical probe. From April 1979.
THU 10:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07ksxlp)
19-23 September 2016
In the week in 1916 when people began to believe that the latest innovation - tanks, might end the war, the people of Folkestone find new life, new death, and new love.
Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Story-led by Katie Hims
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
THU 11:00 Thrilling Stories of the Railway (b00fwq9b)
The Stolen Necklace
A passenger begs for Thorpe Hazell's help after her Aunt's valuable diamonds are stolen from her luggage.
Benedict Cumberbatch reads Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's tales about the speciality detective who uses his locomotive expertise to solve the audacious and ingenious crimes plaguing the Edwardian railways.
Eccentric Thorpe Hazell is in many ways a man before his time: a vegetarian and health fanatic using his encyclopaedic railway knowledge to tackle Britain's most ingenious smugglings, thefts, kidnaps and murders. A man of independent means, he thrives on working to his own whims - and operating outside the law when it suits him.
English reverend, railway enthusiast and popular mystery writer (1868 - 1933) - Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's immaculate plots were much admired by Dorothy L Sayers and Ellery Queen. He was one of the first authors to submit his stories to Scotland Yard so they could vet his police procedures.
Adapted and produced by Fiona Kelcher.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2008.
THU 11:15 Mrs Bradley - The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop (b00943r6)
An Offal Discovery
When Rupert Sethleigh vanishes, amateur sleuth Mrs Lestrange Bradley probes some alarming events in the village of Wandles Parva.
Stars Mary Wimbush as Mrs Bradley, Richard Pearce as Aubrey Harringay, Christopher Scoular as James Redsey and David King as the Vicar of Wandles.
Glady's Mitchell's story of mayhem and murder dramatised by Elizabeth Proud.
Producer: Sue Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
THU 12:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b03wpcj4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 12:30 The Michael Bentine Show (b008vnrl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 13:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jnfw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 13:30 The Way Out: The Disabled Avant-Garde (b00zdl1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 14:00 Ian McEwan - Saturday (b0076r1m)
Episode 4
15th February, 2003: Henry tries to forget his encounter, but squash brings out his competitive side. Read by Robert Glenister.
THU 14:15 World Agony (b04cb5sk)
Egypt
Irma Kurtz, Cosmopolitan magazine's Agony Aunt for over 40 years, talks to a different agony aunt from around the world for each programme in this series.
She speaks to Aunts from America, India, Australia, Egypt and South Africa, and reflects on the universal and contrasting problems that occur in their particular society. These Aunts, many of whom have dramatic personal lives themselves, offer advice in newspaper columns, on radio phone-ins and on-line.
Irma draws on her ample experience to offer a useful perspective on their approach to problem solving. Together they discuss the problems specific to their communities and listeners hear examples of some of the letters they receive and the advice given.
Programme 5: Youssra el-Sharkawy, Egypt.
Youssra el-Sharkawy had an advice column in The Egyptian Gazette, an English speaking newspaper. Agony Aunts are usually older than the people who write to them, but Youssra is young - only 27 years old. Her career as an agony aunt began when she joined an all-women theatre troupe and became drawn into helping her fellow actors with their problems. Her correspondents tend to be young and idealistic and Youssra deals with their concerns with a rational and mature approach. The revolutionary events in Egypt mean that some of the women who write to her are alone and depressed. She talks to Irma about the position of women in her country and her frustration at being a free-thinking woman in a country where many women are far from liberation.
Produced by Ronni Davis
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01kkr46)
Where'd You Go Bernadette?, Episode 9
Maria Semple's brilliantly comic debut novel about misplaced genius and mother-daughter love, starring Miranda Richardson, Lydia Wilson, Richard Laing and Madeleine Potter.
15 year old Bee and her parents have been preparing for a family trip to Antarctica, but the day before they are due to travel, her mother Bernadette vanishes. From her credit card charges, it appears that Bernadette has travelled to Antarctica on her own, but after that, the trail gets very cold indeed.
In today's episode, Bee and her father Elgin travel to Antarctica on Bernadette's trail.
Adapted and directed by Emma Harding
About the author: Maria Semple has written for television shows including Arrested Development, Mad About You, and Ellen. She lives with her family on an island off Seattle. This is her first novel.
THU 14:45 Book of the Week (b01cdl48)
Europe in the Looking Glass, Episode 4
In part four, the men discover the issues facing Greece between the wars.
Europe in the Looking Glass is Robert Byron's travel classic, recounting a car journey across Europe in 1926, and providing a mirror on events and nationhood both then and today. Byron (a descendant of the poet) found acclaim as the author of The Road to Oxiana - an account of a trip to Afghanistan and Persia.
The conclusion offers the travellers (and all of us) a new perspective on their homeland as well as the countries and cultures they explore together.
Read by Rupert Penry-Jones.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 15:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07ksxlp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
THU 16:00 The Personality Test (b00n02yq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
THU 16:30 The Atkinson People (b007k1z5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
THU 17:00 Bristow (b007s5dp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
THU 17:30 The Fair Intellectual Club (b083r1jj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 18:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k43b)
Episode 4
Now a monstrous insect, Gregor strives to stay close to his family - but his father turns on him. Read by Benedict Cumberbatch.
PROMOTION NOTE
"When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect."
This shocking opening introduces one of the twentieth century's most famous stories.
Gregor's family react with horror at his bizarre transformation but their horror slowly turns to revulsion and then monstrous indifference as he is left to quietly waste away in his bedroom.
Metamorphosis was first published in 1912.
Benedict Cumberbatch reads this surreal classic in four parts.
Stage and screen actor, Benedict Cumberbatch was Bafta nominated for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in the BBC TV drama, "Hawking". Most recently he appeared in the TV dramatisation of William Golding's seafaring trilogy, "To The Ends of The Earth". He also won critical acclaim playing Hedda's husband, George, in last year's West End production of "Hedda Gabler".
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) ranks among the twentieth-century's most acclaimed writers. He is often cited as the author whose works best evoke the concerns and preoccupations of modern life. The world in his stories is portrayed as one in which the fantastic is entirely normal, the irrational is rational, and the unreasonable seems reasonable. As Ernst Pawel wrote in his biography of the writer, "Kafka articulates the anguish of being human."
Translated by Richard Stokes
(Abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins).
THU 18:25 The Fanthorpe Investigations (b038xly1)
The Green Children of Woolpit
Priest and paranormal investigator Lionel Fanthorpe relates a story from the world of the strange and unexplained.
THU 18:30 Great Lives (b009qr2r)
Series 15, Peter Cushing
Series of biographical discussions with Matthew Parris.
Actor and writer Mark Gatiss champions the life and work of one of his heroes of horror. Cushing found fame with the Hammer films of the seventies, but his career on stage, screen, radio and television stretched over forty years, from Laurel and Hardy's stooge, to Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars.
THU 19:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b03wpcj4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 19:30 The Michael Bentine Show (b008vnrl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 20:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jnfw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 20:30 The Way Out: The Disabled Avant-Garde (b00zdl1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 21:00 Thrilling Stories of the Railway (b00fwq9b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
THU 21:15 Mrs Bradley - The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop (b00943r6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
THU 22:00 The Fair Intellectual Club (b083r1jj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 22:30 Brian Gulliver's Travels (b01lz1cj)
Series 2, Chamanoa
by Bill Dare
Brian Gulliver, a seasoned presenter of travel documentaries, finds himself in a hospital's secure unit after claiming to have experienced a succession of bizarre adventures.
This week Brian relives his experiences in Chamanoa, a land where naturites battle nurturites, where genetics is pitted against education.
Brian Gulliver & Thake ..... Neil Pearson
Rachel Gulliver..... Mariah Gale
Kath & Hendl ..... Lisa Dillon
Bordle ..... Toby Longworth
Violinist ..... Amy Butterworth
Producer ..... Steven Canny
This is the second series of this satirical adventure story from Bill Dare. The series has attracted an excellent cast led by Neil Pearson and including, Duncan Wisbey, Vicki Pepperdine, Lisa Dillon, Colin Hoult, Toby Longworth, Adrian Scarborough, Dan Tetsell, Barunka O'Shaughnessy, Debra Stephenson, Colin Hoult, Nina Conti, Jo Bobin and Marcus Brigstocke.
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.
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.
THU 23:00 Old Harry's Game (b00wtb2v)
Series 6, Ginger
Satan resolves Edith's murder, while she is astonished by humans descended from angels. Satanic sitcom stars Andy Hamilton. From November 2007.
THU 23:30 Night Class (b007697r)
Episode 1
Johnny Vegas is a failed Redcoat forced onto extended leave. The job centre insists he accept a job as a pottery teacher. From August 2002.

FRIDAY 09 DECEMBER 2016

FRI 00:00 Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis (b007k43b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Thursday]
FRI 00:25 The Fanthorpe Investigations (b038xly1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:25 on Thursday]
FRI 00:30 Great Lives (b009qr2r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Thursday]
FRI 01:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jnfw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Thursday]
FRI 01:30 The Way Out: The Disabled Avant-Garde (b00zdl1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:00 Ian McEwan - Saturday (b0076r1m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Thursday]
FRI 02:15 World Agony (b04cb5sk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Thursday]
FRI 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b01kkr46)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:45 Book of the Week (b01cdl48)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Thursday]
FRI 03:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07ksxlp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:00 The Personality Test (b00n02yq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:30 The Atkinson People (b007k1z5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Thursday]
FRI 05:00 Bristow (b007s5dp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Thursday]
FRI 05:30 The Fair Intellectual Club (b083r1jj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Thursday]
FRI 06:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jngf)
Series 3, The Knees of the Gods
Raffles and Bunny leave England to fight for queen and country in the South African war. For one of them there will be no return...
The stories of EW Hornung in the continuing adventures of cricketer and gentleman thief, Arthur J Raffles, and his chronicler, Harry "Bunny" Manders.
Starring Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles, Michael Cochrane as Bunny, Sean Barrett as Connell, Gudrun Ure as Mrs Fisher and Peter Penry-Jones as the General.
Dramatised by Olwen Wymark.
Signature tune composed by Jim Parker.
Director: Gordon House
A BBC Radio 4/ BBC World Service production first broadcast in 1992.
FRI 06:30 Blowing in the Wind: Dylan's Spiritual Journey (b011c0s2)
To coincide with Dylan's birthday (24th May 2011) presenter Emma Freud explores the singers spiritual journey revealing a side to the performer often over looked.
The programme opens with how Dylan grew up a small-town Jew in Hibbing, Minnesota. We hear from Cantor Neil Schwartz he also grew up in the same town and his mother was Bob's Sunday school teacher.
Author of 'Prophet, Mystic, Poet' Seth Rogovoy reflects on Dylan's early years and his Barmitzvah. We explore early Dylan music and author Clinton Helylin believes Dylan not only drew on early negro spirituals but the Old testament for his more engaging material. Helping makes sense of some of the more complex theological messages is Nick Baines The Bishop of Bradford and a life long admirer of Bob Dylan.
It was in the late 1970s, Dylan became a born again Christian and 1979 album 'Slow Train Coming' championed Jesus. Author of 'Down The Highway' Howard Sounes finds Dylan's three Christian albums a "difficult listen". Whether they meant something significant to his audience is another matter, but Al Kasha who helped Dylan with his understanding of the scriptures is convinced you can't doubt the depth of Dylan's religious conversion.
Dylan's embrace of Christianity was unpopular with some of his fans and his album "Shot Of Love" recorded the spring 1981, featured Dylan's first secular compositions in more than two years, mixed with explicitly Christian songs. Essentially Dylan's venture into Christianity seemed to be coming to an end.
As we discover with all things Dylan, its tricky to work out what is going on inside the singer's mind but 'Blowing In The Wind - Dylan's Spiritual Journey" will go someway to exploring his thoughts and spiritual beliefs through his songs and these revealing interviews.
Producer: John Sugar
A Sugar Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 07:00 Never Too Late (b011d6rc)
Mildred and the Man
Man-mad Mildred's passions are aroused by the return of an old flame. Stars Thora Hird and Joe Gladwyn. From January 1981.
FRI 07:30 John Shuttleworth's Lounge Music (b0848sqq)
Series 2, Episode 3
John Shuttleworth invites celebrated pop stars to his Sheffield home to perform one of their own songs and also, more importantly, one of his.
This week it's Nick Heyward from Haircut 100.
Ken is very excited as he's heard that Nick has had a spiritual awakening and he's keen to learn how he can have one of his own. John feels that Ken is being silly wearing a kaftan and beads, but Ken is convinced that Nick can help him and ignores John.
Also, Mary is not happy with the smell of the josticks that Ken has lit so he's ejected by John while Nick wins Mary over with his rendition of Can't Go Back To Savoury Now.
In Top Tips on the Telephone, John learns from Tony Christie about coping with Eurovision failure!
Written and Performed by Graham Fellows with special guests Nick Heyward and Tony Christie.
Produced by Dawn Ellis
A Chic Ken production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 08:00 Yes Minister (b007jltg)
Series 2, The Greasy Pole
Blending jobs with chemicals makes an explosive mixture for MP Jim Hacker.
Starring Paul Eddington as Jim Hacker, Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby and Derek Fowldes as Bernard.
With Brenda Blethyn as Joan Littler MP, Freddie Earlle as Sir Wally Macfarlane, Jerome Willis as Professor Henderson and Moira Stuart as herself.
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 1984.
FRI 08:30 The Goon Show (b00fl188)
The Evils of Bushey Spon
Neddie is called in to oversee the decoration of a council lamppost. With special guest star AE Matthews. From March 1958.
FRI 09:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b03c2zwb)
Series 6, Palmer, Sommer, O'Neill
This week, the Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Humphrey Ker welcome the crowd-sourcing rock star Amanda Palmer, evolutionary anthropologist Professor Volker Sommer and occult comedian Andrew O'Neill to discuss steam punk, cross-dressing, rock, sex, death, religion, humans and other great apes.
The show was researched by James Harkin and Stevyn Colgan of QI.
The producers were Richard Turner and Dan Schreiber.
FRI 09:30 The Phenomenon Squad (b084p6qt)
Episode 3
The undercover police squad try to foil a massive art fraud. But Crispin Pollock has other ideas. Stars Roy Kinnear. From October 1987.
FRI 10:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07kt28q)
26-30 September 1916
In the week, in 1916, when Lloyd George declared 'there is no end of the war in sight', in Folkestone it's a week of parting, and small miracles.
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole
Story-led by Katie Hims
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
FRI 11:00 Thrilling Stories of the Railway (b00fwcsp)
The Affair of the Birmingham Bank
Can daring Edwardian sleuth, Thorpe Hazell manage to foil a gold bullion train robbery?
Benedict Cumberbatch reads Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's tales about the speciality detective who uses his locomotive expertise to solve the audacious and ingenious crimes plaguing the Edwardian railways.
Eccentric Thorpe Hazell is in many ways a man before his time: a vegetarian and health fanatic using his encyclopaedic railway knowledge to tackle Britain's most ingenious smugglings, thefts, kidnaps and murders. A man of independent means, he thrives on working to his own whims - and operating outside the law when it suits him.
English reverend, railway enthusiast and popular mystery writer (1868 - 1933) - Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch's immaculate plots were much admired by Dorothy L Sayers and Ellery Queen. He was one of the first authors to submit his stories to Scotland Yard so they could vet his police procedures.
Adapted and produced by Fiona Kelcher.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in 2008.
FRI 11:15 Mrs Bradley - The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop (b00947vh)
The Bones of the Matter
Rupert Sethleigh is missing and a headless corpse's been found jointed in the Butcher's Shop.
Rupert's cousin Jimsey is under suspicion, but Mrs Lestrange Bradley has other ideas...
Stars Mary Wimbush as Mrs Bradley, Richard Pearce as Aubrey Harringay, Christopher Scoular as James Redsey, David King as the Vicar of Wandles, Teresa Gallagher as Felicity Broome, Terence Edmond as George William Saville and Norman Bird as Superintendent Bidwell
Glady's Mitchell's story of mayhem and murder dramatised by Elizabeth Proud.
Producer: Sue Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
FRI 12:00 Yes Minister (b007jltg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 12:30 The Goon Show (b00fl188)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 13:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jngf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 13:30 Blowing in the Wind: Dylan's Spiritual Journey (b011c0s2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 14:00 Ian McEwan - Saturday (b0076r23)
Episode 5
15th February, 2003: Squash game over, Henry food shops for the night's reunion, but he feels troubled. Read by Robert Glenister.
FRI 14:15 World Agony (b04d1bjr)
South Africa
Irma Kurtz, Cosmopolitan magazine's Agony Aunt for over 40 years, talks to a different agony aunt from around the world for each programme in this series.
She speaks to Aunts from America, India, Australia, Egypt and South Africa, and reflects on the universal and contrasting problems that occur in their particular society. These Aunts, many of whom have dramatic personal lives themselves, offer advice in newspaper columns, on radio phone-ins and on-line.
Irma draws on her ample experience to offer a useful perspective on their approach to problem solving. Together they discuss the problems specific to their communities and listeners hear examples of some of the letters they receive and the advice given.
Programme 5: Criselda Kananda, South Africa.
In the final programme of this series, Irma Kurtz talks to Criselda Kananda - an agony aunt in South Africa, where more than six million people are living with HIV. She tells Irma that the practical and optimistic responses she gives to the many letters she receives from people who are coping with the condition comes from first hand experience. Criselda was diagnosed HIV positive 15 years ago and knows only too well the ignorance and confusion that such a diagnosis can cause. Criselda talks about her own relationships, the letters that lift her spirits and her mission to remove the stigma of HIV.
Produced by Ronni Davis
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b01kksqy)
Where'd You Go Bernadette?, Episode 10
Maria Semple's brilliantly comic debut novel about misplaced genius and mother-daughter love, starring Miranda Richardson, Lydia Wilson and Richard Laing.
In today's episode, Bee and Elgin continue their search for the missing Bernadette on the forbidding continent of Antarctica.
CAST:
Bernadette ..... Miranda Richardson
Bee .... Lydia Wilson
Elgin .... Richard Laing
Audrey .... Madeleine Potter
Soo Lin .... Laurel Lefkow
Marcus Strang .... Don Gilet
Ollie-O/ Jacob .... Sam Alexander
Paul Jellinek .... Patrick Brennan
Helen/ Gwen Goodyear .... Susie Riddell
Dr Kurtz .... Christine Absalom
Other parts played by members of the company.
Adapted and directed by Emma Harding
About the author: Maria Semple has written for television shows including Arrested Development, Mad About You, and Ellen. She lives with her family on an island off Seattle. This is her first novel.
FRI 14:45 Book of the Week (b01cdl53)
Europe in the Looking Glass, Episode 5
The men eventually make their way home.
Europe in the Looking Glass is Robert Byron's travel classic, recounting a car journey across Europe in 1926, and providing a mirror on events and nationhood both then and today. Byron (a descendant of the poet) found acclaim as the author of The Road to Oxiana - an account of a trip to Afghanistan and Persia.
The conclusion offers the travellers (and all of us) a new perspective on their homeland as well as the countries and cultures they explore together.
Read by Rupert Penry-Jones.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07kt28q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
FRI 16:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b03c2zwb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
FRI 16:30 The Phenomenon Squad (b084p6qt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
FRI 17:00 Never Too Late (b011d6rc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
FRI 17:30 John Shuttleworth's Lounge Music (b0848sqq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
FRI 18:00 Kurt Vonnegut - The Euphio Question (b0088zh5)
Kurt Vonnegut's tale of the dilemmas facing scientists over discovering how to manufacture happiness. Read by Stuart Milligan.
FRI 18:30 Soul Music (b013f96w)
Series 12, Wichita Lineman
Wichita Lineman, the ultimate country/pop crossover track, is the subject of this week's Soul Music.
David Crary is a lineman from Oklahoma. He describes his job - storm-chasing to mend fallen power-lines; travelling on 'dirt roads, gravel roads, paved roads... up in the farmlands of Illinois and Missouri... down south in the Swamplands... it ain't nothing to swerve in the middle of the road in your bucket-truck to miss an alligator '.
He recalls the first time he heard Wichita Lineman, travelling in the back of his family's Station Wagon, listening to the radio... thinking that being a lineman 'must be a cool job' if someone's written a song about it. Also a part-time musician, David has recorded his own version of the song which sums up his working life... on the road, working long hours, away from his wife and six kids.
Wichita Lineman was written by Jimmy Webb for the Country star Glen Campbell. It tells the story of a lonely lineman in the American midwest, travelling vast distances to mend power and telephone lines.
Released in 1968 it's an enduring classic, crossing the boundary between pop and country. It's been covered many times, but it's Glen Campbell's version which remains the best loved and most played.
Johnny Cash also recorded an extraordinary and very raw version. Peter Lewry, a lifelong Cash fan, describes how this recording came about, towards the end of Cash's career.
Meggean Ward's father was a lineman in Rhode Island... her memories of seeing him in green work trousers, a plaid shirt and black boots, wrapping his cracked hands in bandages every morning before setting off to climb telephone poles are interwoven forever with Wichita Lineman... as a child she always felt the song was written for her father, who else?
Glen Campbell also gave an interview for this programme. Shortly after the interview was recorded, Campbell went public about his diagnosis of Alzheimer's. His contribution to the programme is brief, and includes an acoustic performance of the song. It was a real privilege to record this, appropriately enough, down the line.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
FRI 19:00 Yes Minister (b007jltg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 19:30 The Goon Show (b00fl188)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 20:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b007jngf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 20:30 Blowing in the Wind: Dylan's Spiritual Journey (b011c0s2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 21:00 Thrilling Stories of the Railway (b00fwcsp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
FRI 21:15 Mrs Bradley - The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop (b00947vh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
FRI 22:00 John Shuttleworth's Lounge Music (b0848sqq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
FRI 22:30 Nurse (b03yqcx7)
Series 1, Episode 6
A 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 (b01rgj27)
Series 1, Episode 6
Dan Antopolski, Nat Luurtsema and Tom Craine piece together a selection of silly, clever, dark sketches. Produced by Colin Anderson.
FRI 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0875spx)
The best in contemporary comedy. Arthur Smith chats to Sophie Willan.
FRI 23:00 Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive (b007w3c6)
Series 3, Episode 1
Armando Iannucci offers a heady mix of topical comedy, chat, bluster and kerfuffle with guests Stewart Lee and Mark Watson. From August 2007.
FRI 23:30 Hamish and Dougal: You'll Have Had Your Tea (b007k0x6)
Series 2, The Vampire of the Glen
The Scotsmen dig a suspicious hole for a coffin-shaped wardrobe. Stars Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden. From February 2004.
FRI 23:45 Self Storage (b01g97vg)
The Storage Unit
No woman, no job. Dave has no choice but to stow everything. With Reece Shearsmith and Mark Heap. From September 2007.