SATURDAY 09 DECEMBER 2017

SAT 00:00 Jane Rogers - The Testament of Jessie Lamb (b09kp2ld)
Episode 5Society is splintering, apocalyptic sects with fundamentalist, ecological or anti-scientific beliefs are springing up. Panic, chaos and fear reign.
When Jessie's own world begins to fall apart and her best friend Sal experiences a shocking act of violence, Jessie realises it is time to take action.
The conclusion of Jane Rogers dramatisation of her award-winning novel.
Stars Holliday Grainger as Jessie, Mark Jordon as Joe, Joanne Mitchell as Cath, Rebecca Ryan as Sal, Oliver Lee as Baz and Nisa Cole as Lisa.
Director: Nadia Molinari
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
SAT 00:15 Elspeth Davie - A Collection of Bones (b012yym2)
The EyelashA humorous diversion into an evening meal, ruined by a small matter which prompts a big discussion. Read by Edith MacArthur. From January 2002.
SAT 00:30 Soul Music (b07865h5)
Series 22, Mozart's RequiemHow Mozart's Requiem, written when he was dying, has touched and changed people's lives.
Crime writer Val McDermid recalls how this music helped her after the loss of her father. Hypnotist Athanasios Komianos recounts how the piece took him to the darker side of the spirit world. And a friend of ballet dancer Edward Stierle, Lissette Salgado-Lucas, explains how Eddie turned his struggle with HIV into a ballet inspired by Mozart's music.
Basement Jaxx used the Requiem in their live shows and on their album Scars - Felix Buxton reveals his love for Mozart and the divine nature of the Requiem.
And Mozart expert Cliff Eisen takes us inside the composer's world: how the orchestra and choir conjure visions of funerals, beauty, hellfire and the confusion of death. He recounts how Mozart was commissioned to write the piece by a nobleman who may have intended to pass off the work as his own. The stern challenge faced by people trying to complete the piece are described by composer Michael Finnissy, who himself wrote a completion of the work.
The Requiem was performed at the funerals of many heroic figures - Beethoven, Napoleon and J F Kennedy, among others. Gordana Blazinovic remembers one extraordinary performance during the horrors of the Bosnian war - a show of defiance and grief from the ruins of Sarajevo City Hall.
Producer: Melvin Rickarby.
SAT 01:00 Unofficial Rosie (b007jlh0)
Count Your BlessingsPrivate-eye Monaghan is trying to solve her first case, but the demands of love, children and her bank manager are pressing in...
Alan McDonald's six-part thriller serial starring Paula Wilcox as Rosie, Elizabeth Estensen as Margie, Christopher Bramwell as Jerry, Dominic Grounsell as Bob, Helen Roberts as Carol, Steve Hodson as Mike, Paul Barber as Martin Bullivant, Kim Wall as Andrew Stephenson, Dominic Letts as Bill Jones, Rachel Atkins as Helen Thackray, Diana Payan as the Old Woman and David Thorpe as Graham.
Music composed by Peter Howell
Director: Tracey Neale
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1993.
SAT 01:30 Folk Song, Art Song (b01gg7dm)
Christopher Maltman is an award-winning opera singer and recitalist. Alongside the lieders, chansons and art songs of his recital repertoire, he loves nothing more than performing folk song settings.
Audiences often respond well, but not all among the folk-singing fraternity are enthusiastic about this genre borrowing. Some contend that folk songs lose much of their impact when refined and beautified for the recital stage.
Christopher talks to folk singer Eliza Carthy and scholars Georgina Boyes and Tim Healey about the uneasy relationship between the two musical worlds.
Is the antagonism musical or to do with very English attitudes to class and accent? And why is it that so many of his opera-singing colleagues from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and further afield, have no such animosity from their respective folk cultures?
Christopher also talks to his regular recital accompanist Julius Drake and senior colleague Sir Thomas Allen about the best way of approaching this music, searching for a performance that is genuine to singer and song alike.
Producer: Tom Alban.
SAT 02:00 Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go (b09jcwjd)
Episode 10Kathy and Tommy make a last attempt to find answers and escape their fate. Kazuo Ishiguro's unsettling, dystopian novel of love, friendship and loss. From June 2016.
SAT 02:15 Cosmic Quest (b00c84kg)
Are We Alone?Heather Couper presents a narrative history of astronomy.
She looks at the prospects for life elsewhere in our own solar system. Could evidence of life have even been discovered already on Mars? She tells the story of the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence as scientists scan the skies for messages from the stars.
Readers are Timothy West, Robin Sebastian, Julian Rhind-Tutt and John Palmer.
SAT 02:30 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (b09hn49h)
Episode 5London, mid-19th century. The dark and unknown sea that rolls round all the world. Stars Alex Jennings and Robert Glenister. From November 2007.
SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b01pcvkw)
Shakespeare's Local - Six Centuries of History Seen Through One Extraordinary Pub, Episode 5Tony Robinson reads Pete Brown's history of British pubs as seen through the story of one remarkable London inn, the George in Southwark, said to be the one-time local of Chaucer, Dickens and Shakespeare.
The George Inn is one of the few remaining galleried coaching inns in Britain, and lies a few minutes' walk from the Thames. 'Shakespeare's Local' takes us on a literary pub crawl through the history of this pub, from its regulars - the watermen, merchants, actors, craftsmen, writers and coachdrivers - as well as the many incarnations of the pub itself - from lawless Southwark tavern to coaching inn, theatre pub to Victorian drinking den, unfashionable boozer to tourist attraction.
Today: the myths and the ghosts of landlords and ladies past.
Reader: Tony Robinson is best known for his role as Baldrick in the Blackadder series. He's also presented Channel 4's 'Time Team' and written numerous books for children.
Author: Pete Brown , the 'Beer drinkers' Bill Bryson' (TLS), was named Beer Writer of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers, and is the author of three other books on pubs and brewing.
Producer: Justine Willett.
SAT 03:00 Margaret Oliphant - Phoebe Junior (b03m7vkc)
A Guilty Bit of PaperIn the final episode of her Carlingford Chronicles, Mrs Oliphant recounts how Mr May, beset on all sides by debt, is swept towards the conclusion of his deceitful action.
Amongst the close little coterie of lovers, there is a surprise and a disappointment.
Stars Elizabeth Spriggs as Mrs Oliphant, Charlotte Attenborough as Phoebe, Junior, Peter Jeffrey as Mr May and Timothy West as Mr Copperhead.
Dramatised from Margaret Oliphant's 1876 novel by Elizabeth Proud.
Producer: Sue Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1994.
SAT 04:00 The Motion Show (b0075wj0)
Series 2, Episode 1Dr Phil Hammond chairs the debating game with Gyles Brandreth, Tony Hawks, Jo Caulfield and Arthur Smith. From January 2000.
SAT 04:30 After Henry (b007jn96)
Series 2, The Romantic ApproachClare's been dumped, Eleanor finds a friend and Sarah's listening.
Simon Brett's comedy about three generations of women - struggling to cope after the death of Sarah's GP husband - who never quite manage to see eye to eye.
Starring Prunella Scales as Sarah, Joan Sanderson as Eleanor, Benjamin Whitrow as Russell, Gerry Cowper as Clare, Lockwood West as Aubrey and David Learner as the Delivery boy.
Four radio series were made, but instead of moving to BBC TV, Thames Television produced 'After Henry' for the ITV network.
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 1986.
SAT 05:00 Capital Gains (b007qw7j)
Series 1, Stake CapitalRetired gent, Julius Hutch is beset with bills and final demands. Then a sum of £4,601,740.72 is mistakenly paid into his account by an off-shore bank.
So should he return it or not? And whose money is it anyway?
Starring Peter Jones as Julius Hutch.
With Celestine Randall as Mrs Pauline Tone.
Other parts played by Collin Johnson and Peter Whitman.
Scripted by Collin Johnson.
Producer: Andy Jordan
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1995.
SAT 05:30 Dot (b0736pkk)
Series 1, Eenie Meenie Miney... Spy!by Ed Harris
War time comedy series by Ed Harris. Dot and the gals are tasked with an important mission, to monitor the Russian Ambassador, Comrade Pavlenti Lavovich. But Lavovich seems more interested in singing sensation, Harriet Pertly.
Director/Producer Jessica Mitic.
SAT 06:00 Noel Coward - A Song at Twilight (b055jzjh)
The surprise emergence of an ex-mistress from his past proves threatening for Hugo Latymer, a grand old man of letters, and his wife Hilde.
The purpose of her visit turns out to be as shocking as it is dramatic - and threatens to destroy the couple's marriage...
The famous wit and observation of character from the Master are as sharp and entertaining as ever. Noel Coward made his farewell stage appearance in 1966 in his own play.
Stars Michael Denison as Hugo Latymer, Jill Bennett as Hilde Latymer, Dulcie Gray as Carlotta Gray and Sean Barrett as Felix.
Producer: David Johnston
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1988.
SAT 07:30 Alain-Fournier's Lost Estate (b01g632l)
A Childhood in SologneJulian Barnes and Hermione Lee travel to France in search of the places and people which inspired his novel of adolescent love Le Grand Meaulnes. Part 1: A Childhood in Sologne.
The village school where Fournier's father taught, the holidays he spent at his grandparents' cottage and the tumbledown house in the woods nearby fed the imagination of Henri Alban-Fournier. He drew on these locations when creating his only finished novel Le Grand Meaulnes, a simply written story of love and longing as an adventuring schoolboy discovers an almost mythical lost estate lived in by a young women, which the writer published under his pen name 'Alain-Fournier'. Auguste Meaulnes' fictional quest to retrace his steps and find the woman he dreams about echoes Fournier's own romantic obsession with a young woman he encountered briefly in Paris - whom he later traced using private detectives.
The novelist Julian Barnes and biographer Hermione Lee compare Le Grand Meaulnes to Dickens, Debussy's opera Pelleas and Melisande and F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and discuss the reputation of the novel in France today.
Producer: Robyn Read
Readings by Philip Franks from a translation by Frank Davison.
SAT 08:00 An Hour With... (b05vhfpg)
Barry NormanFilm critic Barry Norman recalls his career as a journalist and TV presenter and his interviews with Hollywood movie stars such as Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, Peter Sellers and Tom Hanks.
Recorded on tour in November 2003, Barry describes how he became Britain's best-known film critic as the presenter of the 'Film ...' series on BBC TV for more than 25 years. He talks about his favourite and his worst films, as well as his personal encounters with Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Laurence Olivier, Bob Hoskins and others.
Barry also discloses how he was invited to dance and sing 'There Is Nothing Like a Dame' on the BBC's classic 1977 Morecambe and Wise Christmas TV Show.
SAT 09:00 Great Lives - Four Hundred and Counting (b09hw6j5)
From Leon Trotsky to Morecambe and Wise - Matthew Parris on the rows, revelations and rank incompetence behind 400 editions of Great Lives.
Deep in the summer of 2001, a new programme tiptoed out onto Radio 4. The concept was simple - book someone famous to talk about someone dead. Except there was a problem; famous people don't talk much about someone else. In a world of the celebrity plug, getting voices to commit to a radio programme where they couldn't talk about themselves was proving tough. Twelve slots to fill, and nobody signed up.
Four hundred episodes later .... Barbara Castle, Beryl Bainbridge, Bernard Manning, eventually everyone says yes. David Attenborough chose a man who first drew a flea, George Osborne the king who taxed the non-doms. Then there was Christopher Hitchens, so incensed by the presenter that he walked out. "You're a bleeding Tory," he said, "and always have been. Have you done? I have to be somewhere at one."
In Four Hundred and Counting, Matthew Parris and original series producer Miles Warde go behind the scenes to find out how Great Lives was born. Featuring material never previously played - nominators and experts about their hopes and fears; archive of original presenters Joan Bakewell and Humphrey Carpenter; plus a special selection of the very best of Great Lives.
"There's a joy in judging people by their choice of hero. It's one reason Matthew Parris's Great Lives series has run for 40 series." Ben Preston, Radio Times editor, 2016.
Programme extracts include: Penelope Keith on Morecambe and Wise; Michael Sheen on Philip K Dick; Grace Dent on Nancy Mitford; Brian Sewell on Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria; Maureen Lipman on Cicely Saunders.
Produced at BBC Bristol by Miles Warde
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in December 2017.
SAT 12:00 A Date With Nurse Dugdale (b04v986f)
From 12/05/1944The ever-efficient Nurse Dugdale battles to arrange the hospital pageant.
Arthur Marshall's comic creation, Nurse Dugdale was a popular addition to the BBC Home Service schedule in the latter years of the Second World War.
With Marjorie Westbury, John Slater and Jack Jackson. Special guest: Emile Littler.
Music from the Mayfair Hotel Dance Orchestra, Josephine Driver, Dorothe Morrow's Aristocrats, and the singing sailor, Ivor Pye.
Musical arrangements by Peter Akister and Phil Cardew.
Script by Arthur Marshall.
Producer: David Yates Mason.
First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in May 1944.
SAT 12:30 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00936z4)
Series 1, Episode 1Sweethearts Tommy Franklin and Sheila Parr won the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest, but find themselves suddenly thrust back into the limelight when their song's used on TV.
The only snag is they can no longer stand the sight of one another...
Series 1 of Mike Coleman's six-part sitcom stars June Whitfield and Roy Hudd.
With Pat Coombs, Julian Eardley, Joshua Henderson, Chris Pavlo and Terry Wogan.
Music by Frido Ruth.
Producer: Steve Doherty
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1998.
SAT 13:00 Lucy Catherine - Gudrun (b09hwhh2)
Series 2 Omnibus4 Extra Debut. Left to burn by her husband, separated from her daughter and cut off from her homeland, Gudrun longs to die. 11th-century drama set in Iceland. Stars Kate Phillips.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b09hwhh4)
Shazia MirzaComedian Shazia Mirza chooses Verdi's 'Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves' from the opera 'Nabucco' and 'Heroes' by David Bowie.
SAT 14:15 In the Psychiatrist's Chair (b0615ynw)
Ruth RendellQueen of crime Ruth Rendell tells Professor Anthony Clare why she's jaundiced about the idea of the 'happy family'.
Ruth Rendell was born in 1930 and died in 2015.
Psychiatrist Dr Anthony Clare's in depth interviews with prominent people from different walks of life.
Born in Dublin, author Anthony held a doctorate in medicine, a master's degree in philosophy and was a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. After becoming a regular on BBC Radio 4's Stop the Week in the 1980s, he became Britain's best-known psychiatrist and earned his own vehicle, In the Psychiatrist's Chair.
Starting in 1982, this series ran until 2001 and also transferred to TV.
Anthony Clare died suddenly in Paris aged 64 in 2007.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1994.
SAT 15:00 An Hour With... (b05vhfpg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Noel Coward - A Song at Twilight (b055jzjh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Alain-Fournier's Lost Estate (b01g632l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 Afternoon Drama (b01pzs6y)
Paul Evans - Chapel of SkinsRecorded high up in the Shropshire hills of the Welsh Marches, and inspired by a living landscape and its history, the Chapel of Skins is a fictional story about a ghostly meeting of ways, written and narrated by Paul Evans with wildlife sound recordings by Chris Watson.
High in the hills of the Welsh Marches, a remote crossroads is marked by a telephone kiosk and an old stone chapel. It is a mysterious and beautiful place, steeped in history because of the ancient tracks which cross here like the centre of a compass.
North, south, east, west: each direction is a 'way' ; a path or opening affording passage from one place to another. Along each way of travel comes a way of being; a voice telling a story. Each story is set in a different time but arrives in the same place. These voices have very different histories but are drawn by necessity to the mystical yet sinister Chapel of Skins which reflects the beauty and harshness of Nature at this crossroads.
The drama becomes intense as each character must tell their stories to the listener before the chapel bell tolls midnight on the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year. Only at that moment will the chapel door open in a bizarre midnight ritual and the lost souls find sanctuary. So, the Chapel is a way too, a gateway affording passage from one place to another. If they fail to tell their stories, the fate of these restless figures, these voices in the landscape, is to wander the hills for another hundred years.
Wildlife sound recordist: Chris Watson
Directed and Produced by Sarah Blunt.
SAT 18:45 Fay Weldon - Web Central (b09hwr3b)
4 Extra Debut. Josie is aged 132. She's a privileged Heaven-on-Earther, existing way above the underclass. Read by Oliver Ford Davis. From February 1996.
SAT 19:00 Great Lives - Four Hundred and Counting (b09hw6j5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Old Harry's Game (b007k1fk)
Series 1, RebellionThe Devil ponders the meaning of happiness while Elvis Presley gets locked in a crate. Starring Andy Hamilton. From December 1995.
SAT 22:30 The Jason Byrne Show (b01p03v9)
Series 3, Ever Been Proposed to in a Pub?The award-winning funny man muses on the merits of matrimony. With Laurence Howarth and Daisy Haggard. From October 2010.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b09kv9fz)
Mark Steel 2/2The best in contemporary comedy. Arthur Smith chats to Mark Steel.
SAT 23:00 Les Kelly's Britain (b01753jn)
Episode 2Les Kelly (Kevin Bishop) hosts a magazine show from hell. Les is a cross between Jeremy Kyle and a slap in the face. He claims this is the only radio show for 'normal, decent people'.
Les meets Britain's first firm of emergency yodelers, a woman whose claim to fame is that she can walk backwards, and a man with such an embarrassing medical condition that Les refuses to have him on the show.
Written by Bill Dare and Julian Dutton.
Producer Bill Dare.
SAT 23:30 Mark Thomas: The Manifesto (b00qx43h)
Series 2, Episode 4Mark Thomas: The Manifesto. Comedian-activist, Mark Thomas creates a People's Manifesto, taking suggestions from his studio audience and then getting them to vote for the best. The winner of each show will be enforceable by law, so pay attention.
This episode will include policies such as crushing the cars of anyone illegally parked in a disabled space; the legalisation of Viking-style funerals; and consolidating the United Kingdom's national debt into one easy-to-pay loan.
Produced by Ed Morrish.

SUNDAY 10 DECEMBER 2017

SUN 00:00 Afternoon Drama (b01pzs6y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Saturday]
SUN 00:45 Fay Weldon - Web Central (b09hwr3b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:45 on Saturday]
SUN 01:00 Lucy Catherine - Gudrun (b09hwhh2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:00 on Saturday]
SUN 02:10 Inheritance Tracks (b09hwhh4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:10 on Saturday]
SUN 02:15 In the Psychiatrist's Chair (b0615ynw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Saturday]
SUN 03:00 An Hour With... (b05vhfpg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 on Saturday]
SUN 04:00 Noel Coward - A Song at Twilight (b055jzjh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Saturday]
SUN 05:30 Alain-Fournier's Lost Estate (b01g632l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (Omnibus) (b09hx1qc)
Episode 1London, mid-19th-century. At last, a boy is born to Paul Dombey, but at what cost?
Originally published in monthly parts from 1846, Charles Dickens's novel appeared in one volume in 1848. Adapted in 20 parts by Mike Walker.
Charles Dickens..................Alex Jennings
Dombey...............................Robert Glenister
Florence..............................Abigail Hollick
Young Florence...................Eliza Darby
Paul.....................................Jacob Theato
Mr Carker.............................Adrian Lukis
Captain Cuttle.....................Trevor Peacock
Mrs Brown...........................Geraldine James
Dr Blimber...........................Robin Soans
Mrs Pipchin.........................Flaminia Cinque
Dr Peps...............................Karl Johnson
Polly Toodles......................Pam Ferris
Susan..................................Nadine Marshall
Walter.................................Joseph Arkley
Young Walter......................Jordan Clarke
Toots...................................Sam Pamphilon
Other parts played by Ben Crowe, Peter Marinker, Simon Treves, Alex Lanipekun and Lloyd Thomas.
Music by Nicolai Abrahamsen.
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Jeremy Mortimer.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.
SUN 07:15 Vincent McInerney - Food For Thought (b076zs8z)
A hard-drinking sailor tries to buy friendship in Liverpool by promising the meal of a lifetime. Read by Gerard McDermott. From February 1997.
SUN 07:30 Micky Flanagan: What Chance Change? (b00smngp)
1990sThe cockney comedian charts his life story during the 1990s - returning to education and becoming a teacher. Part of Radio 4 Extra's Comedy Club, originally broadcast on Radio 4 in June 2010.
SUN 08:00 The Al Read Show (b01rlngp)
From 10/12/1998A look at the fire brigade and the morning after the night before.
A compilation of the legendary Northern comic's 1950s monologues.
Originally produced at BBC North by Ronnie Taylor.
Compilation produced by Mike Craig.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in October 1998.
SUN 08:30 Spike Milligan (b04vdhcw)
The Army ShowSpike Milligan's military merrymaking with Barry Humphries, John Bluthal, John Bird, Alan Clare, Roddy Maude-Roxby and Phillipe Le Bars. Recorded before an audience of soldiers.
Written by Spike Milligan. Produced by Charles Chilton.
Audio courtesy of The Goon Show Preservation Society
First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in June 1965.
SUN 09:00 Henry Blofeld - Over and Out (Omnibus) (b09hxcnr)
4 Extra Debut. BBC Test Match Special's commentator for 43 years, Henry Blofeld, reads his biography, starting with his early years at the crease.
SUN 10:10 The Listening Project (b01snyk5)
Gill and Wendy - School ReunionFi Glover introduces a conversation full of giggles between two friends remembering their school reunion, in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
SUN 10:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b09hz9rb)
Absent Friends, Colin Dexter4 Extra Debut. From The Beatles to Strauss, Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From January 1998.
SUN 11:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b09hz9rd)
Series 6, Me Myself and I: Stories of Questioned IdentityTrue stories told live in the USA: Sarah Austin Jenness introduces tales of people questioning their own identities.
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 11:50 Inheritance Tracks (b09hz9rg)
Julia DonaldsonEx-Children's Laureate and Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson with 'The Warthog' by Flanders and her own 'The World Inside A Book'.
SUN 12:00 The Al Read Show (b01rlngp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SUN 12:30 Spike Milligan (b04vdhcw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
SUN 13:00 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (Omnibus) (b09hx1qc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SUN 14:15 Vincent McInerney - Food For Thought (b076zs8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 today]
SUN 14:30 Owen Sheers - I Saw a Man (Omnibus) (b05yxlsc)
Episode 2In his neighbour's house, Michael has an unexpected encounter that will have tragic consequences for all. Read by Mark Bazeley. From June 2015.
SUN 15:45 Centurions (b007jxdl)
Buster Keaton - The GeneralFilm historian David Robinson and writer David Thomson celebrate silent film star Buster Keaton and his movie machine. From December 1999.
SUN 16:00 Saturday Drama (b00syrn5)
Simon Passmore - Going to GroundBy Simon Passmore
1940, Kent. England is on full alert in anticipation of a German invasion. As church bells sound the alarm, a secret resistance unit springs into action. Whatever happens, none of them expects to see their families again.
Directed by Toby Swift
******
This wartime drama features the exploits of an English guerrilla unit trained to make things as difficult as possible for the German invasion force.
The existence of the covert Auxiliary Units during World War II only became widely known in the 1990s. They were patrols of 4 to 8 men with orders to disappear as soon as the bells sounded. Southern England was dotted with dozens of secret underground bunkers which served as their bases. Trained and equipped with the best guerrilla weapons available, their orders were to sabotage and snipe at the invading army; to gather information on troop movements. Completely cut off by design, they operated in total secrecy and isolation. Their life expectancy was calculated officially at 14 days.
SUN 17:00 Poetry Extra (b09hzd3k)
Time For Verse - Liz Lochhead 3 to 4/5Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive with 'Time for Verse'.
George MacBeth in conversation with poet Liz Lochhead.
Reader: Janette Foggo
Produced at BBC Bristol by Alec Reid.
Featuring episodes 3 and 4 from a 5-part series first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1988.
SUN 17:30 Micky Flanagan: What Chance Change? (b00smngp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 18:00 Classic Serial (b00hs8xn)
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C Clarke - Rendezvous with RamaMike Walker's dramatisation of the novel by Arthur C Clarke, set in the 22nd Century.
When the mysterious space object known as Rama appears in the solar system, the crew of the SV Endeavour are sent to investigate.
William Norton ...... Richard Dillane
Li Kwok ...... Paul Courtenay Hyu
Pieter Rousseau ...... Jimmy Akingbola
Jimmy Pak ...... Robert Lonsdale
Aruna Calvert ...... Archie Panjabi
Gerry ...... Inam Mirza
Ruby Barnes ...... Janice Acquah
Laura Ernst ...... Ania Sowinski
Indira Gopal ...... Shelley King
Erl King ...... Peter Marinker
Tamara Ruiz ...... Jill Cardo
Tan Sun ...... Jonathan Tafler
Henning ...... Paul Rider.
SUN 19:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b09hz9rd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
SUN 19:50 Inheritance Tracks (b09hz9rg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:50 today]
SUN 20:00 Henry Blofeld - Over and Out (Omnibus) (b09hxcnr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SUN 21:10 The Listening Project (b01snyk5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:10 today]
SUN 21:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b09hz9rb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:15 today]
SUN 22:00 Micky Flanagan: What Chance Change? (b00smngp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 22:30 Cabin Pressure (b012llrz)
Series 3, Ottery St MaryWritten by John Finnemore
This week - Martin is a man with a van, Douglas flies a plane with an otter and Carolyn dates a pilot with a problem with sheep. And two mysteries are solved - the name of Carolyn's dog and the rules of "Yellow Car"
With special guest Anthony Head
Cast:
Carolyn Knapp-Shappey ..... Stephanie Cole
1st Officer Douglas Richardson ..... Roger Allam
Capt. Martin Crieff ..... Benedict Cumberbatch
Arthur Shappey .... John Finnemore
Capt. Herc Shipwright ..... Anthony Head
Mrs. Laurel ..... Flip Webster
Mr Hardy ..... Ewan Bailey
Produced and directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 23:00 I Think I've Got a Problem (b00cm91h)
Series 2, Episode 4Tom and the troublesome band in his head set off for the Tower of London. Stars Bob Monkhouse and Suggs. From April 2003.
SUN 23:30 Jelly Mountain (b00fd63q)
Episode 1Ivor Cutler's unique views on language, justice and scratching people's backs. With Craig Murray-Orr. From May 1996.
SUN 23:45 Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (b00s09s1)
Sir Henry EntertainsSurreal saga of a dynasty delicately balanced on the edge of sanity. Written by and starring Viv Stanshall. From December 1996.

MONDAY 11 DECEMBER 2017

MON 00:00 Classic Serial (b00hs8xn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Sunday]
MON 01:00 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (Omnibus) (b09hx1qc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Sunday]
MON 02:15 Vincent McInerney - Food For Thought (b076zs8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 on Sunday]
MON 02:30 Owen Sheers - I Saw a Man (Omnibus) (b05yxlsc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Sunday]
MON 03:45 Centurions (b007jxdl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:45 on Sunday]
MON 04:00 Saturday Drama (b00syrn5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:00 Poetry Extra (b09hzd3k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:30 Micky Flanagan: What Chance Change? (b00smngp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Sunday]
MON 06:00 Unofficial Rosie (b007jlhs)
In DreamsMerseyside private eye Rosie Monaghan concludes her investigation - but will the guilty be brought to justice?
Conclusion of Alan McDonald's six-part thriller serial starring Paula Wilcox as Rosie, Elizabeth Estensen as Margie, Christopher Bramwell as Jerry, Dominic Grounsell as Bob, Helen Roberts as Carol, Steve Hodson as Mike, Kim Wall as Andrew Stephenson, Paul Barber as Martin, David Thorpe as Graham, Pauline Yates as Dorothy, Rachel Atkins as Helen, Jillie Meers as Auntie and Dominic Letts as the Deputy Chief Constable.
Music composed by Peter Howell.
Director: Tracey Neale
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1993.
MON 06:30 The Blues Dance (b00b7bcs)
Don Letts tells the story of the Blues Dance or Jamaican private club in Britain. Crowds gathered to listen and dance to heavy bass lines of reggae, pumped out from huge speakers. The first wave of West Indian immigrants set up informal basement parties in West London, but the phenomenon would later gain prominence across the UK.
Contributors include Linton Kwesi Johnson, Vivien Goldman, Jazzie B, King Tubby, Trevor Sax, Daddy G, Ali Campbell, Caroline Coon, Lenny Henry and Tippa Irie.
MON 07:00 Winston (b007qzh8)
Winston Comes to Town, Has Anyone Seen Winston?The family has moved to London. Old rogue Winston spends hours up a tree in the garden, but nd then he disappears...
Peter Tinniswood's bawdy comedy serial stars Bill Wallis as Winston, Maurice Denham as Father, Shirley Dixon as Nancy, Liz Goulding as Rosie and Christian Rodska as William.
Director: Shaun MacLoughlin.
First broadcast on BBC Radio in January 1990.
MON 07:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b09h2tkg)
Series 68, Episode 4The antidote to panel games pays a return visit to the Winter Gardens in Margate. Old-timers Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Tony Hawks and Andy Hamilton with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell attempts piano accompaniment. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
MON 08:00 Hello Cheeky (b013qzgn)
From 21/10/1979Red Rum, sound effects galore and more fast-moving pun-tastic fun.
Starring John Junkin, Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor.
Script by John Junkin and Barry Cryer.
Music by the Denis King Trio.
Producer: David Hatch
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1979.
MON 08:30 Dad's Army (b007jqpj)
Series 3, The Royal TrainCaptain Mainwaring gets up steam when the Home Guard platoon receive sealed orders regarding the King.
Starring Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring, John Le Mesurier as Sergeant Wilson, Clive Dunn as Corporal Jones, John Laurie as Private Frazer, Arnold Ridley as Godfrey, Ian Lavender as Private Pike, Bill Pertwee as Hodges, Larry Martyn as Private Walker and Frank Williams as the Vicar.
Adapted for radio from Jimmy Perry and David Croft's TV scripts by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles.
Producer: John Dyas
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1976.
MON 09:00 Just a Minute (b00tt56z)
Radio 4's long running and popular panel game hosted by Nicholas Parsons. The panellists attempt to speak for a minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation. This week they are Paul merton, Tony Hawks, Ross Noble and Sheila Hancock. Subjects include 'The Joke Book' and 'Learning to Play Golf'. It seems Paul Merton has taken up golf recently and Ross Noble is not very happy about it. Last in the current series.
Producer: Tilusha Ghelani.
MON 09:30 Living with Betty (b09hzpfb)
Series 1, Episode 4Muriel fails to impress the neighbours with Bill's truck parked up outside.
The East End meets Cheshire in Arline Whittaker's six-part sitcom.
Stars Barbara Windsor as Betty, Peter Sallis as Harold, Glynn Edwards as Bill, Rosalind Knight as Muriel, Simon Molloy as Trevor, Diana Mather as Katherine, Chris Ellison as the Mechanic and Rosalie Williams as Mrs Brightwell.
Producer: Mike Craig
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 1986.
MON 10:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jm85)
Episode 1Shipwrecked literary critic Humphrey Van Weyden is rescued by Wolf Larsen, demonic skipper of the seal-hunting schooner Ghost.
Jack London's 1904 tale of heroism, survival and love on the high seas, dramatised in four parts by Ed Thomason
Starring Jack Klaff as Wolf Larsen, Kerry Shale as Humphrey, Ian Dury as Mugridge, Jeffrey Gear as Johnson, Scott Farrell as Leach, David Bannerman as Charley, William Roberts as Ferry Passenger, Terence Edmond as Owen, Norman Jones as Kelly, Nigel Anthony as Louis, Brett Usher as Svenson, Anthony Jackson as Smoke, Richard Pearce as Harrison, Peter Penry-Jones as Latimer, Clarence Smith as Horner and Andrew Wincott as Henderson.
Music: Elizabeth Parker - BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Singer: Sarah Connolly
Director: Adrian Bean
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
MON 11:00 HE Bates - Sugar for the Horse (b007jvls)
The WidderThe incorrigible Uncle Silas heads off to sup wine with a widow.
David Neal reads the first of five stories featuring one of HE Bates' best-loved characters - Uncle Silas, who lived a life of wine, women and constant sunshine in an idyllic part of the English countryside.
Producer: Cherry Cookson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1992.
MON 11:15 Ray Jenkins - From the House at the Top of the World (b0075npw)
Chinese Garden1895: Lady McCartney, wife of the British Consul in Chinese Turkestan, meets determined Swedish explorer Sven Hedin, intent on mapping the dangerous Taklimakan Desert.
The first of three plays by Ray Jenkins based on the diaries of Catherine, Lady McCartney, a British Consul wife based in one of the loneliest places on earth.
Stars Siobhan Redmond as Catherine McCartney, Alex Jennings as George McCartney, Steve Hodson as Sven Hedin, Stephen Critchlow as Islam Bai, David Allister as James Borland, Tessa Worsley as Mother and Harry Myers as Islam Akhum.
Director: Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
MON 12:00 Hello Cheeky (b013qzgn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 12:30 Dad's Army (b007jqpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 13:00 Unofficial Rosie (b007jlhs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 13:30 The Blues Dance (b00b7bcs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 14:00 Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day (b0076gcf)
Darlington HallStevens looks back on a lifetime of service as butler in one of the great stately homes of England. At the end of his career, belatedly puts his life into perspective. Read by John Moffatt.
1989 Booker Prize winner abridged by Catherine Czerkawska.
Producer: Marilyn Imrie
A BBC Radio 4 Book At Bedtime from January 1990.
MON 14:15 A Cause for Caroling (b03kpnk3)
A Carol's a Carol, to Begin WithThe first programme in a ten part series in which choral conductor and scholar Jeremy Summerly tells the story of the Christmas Carol in Britain. He begins by trying to capture something of the caroling traditions of today and then heads back into the misty caroling past discovering what he believes is the first carol in the English language.
Series Description:
The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.
But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.
In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.
He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.
It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.
That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.
The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. This series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:
'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."
Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.
Producer:Tom Alban.
MON 14:30 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (b09hzrvj)
Episode 6Dombey is in deep mourning for his son. Florence turns to her father for solace, but he turns away.
Originally published in monthly parts from 1846, Charles Dickens's novel appeared in one volume in 1848. Adapted in 20 parts by Mike Walker.
Charles Dickens..........Alex Jennings
Dombey......................Robert Glenister
Edith...........................Helen Schlesinger
Florence.....................Abigail Hollick
Captain Cuttle............Trevor Peacock
Mr Carker...................Adrian Lukis
Major..........................Nicky Henson
Walter........................Joseph Arkley
Mrs Brown.................Geraldine James
Mrs Skewton............. Fenella Fielding
Susan........................Nadine Marshall
Toots.........................Sam Pamphilon
Toodles.....................Ben Crowe
Rob............................Lloyd Thomas
Other parts played by Alex Lanipekun and Simon Treves.
Music by Nicolai Abrahamsen.
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer and Jessica Dromgoole.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.
MON 14:45 The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away (b07dkkk0)
Episode 1August 2003. A virus has attacked the heart of a 15 year-old Scottish boy named Marc McCay and it will take a miracle to save him. Meanwhile, in Grantham, 16 year-old Martin Burton collapses at home. Writer and journalist Cole Moreton tells the story of what happens when the death of a child miraculously allows others to live.
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 15:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jm85)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
MON 16:00 Just a Minute (b00tt56z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
MON 16:30 Living with Betty (b09hzpfb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
MON 17:00 Winston (b007qzh8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
MON 17:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b09h2tkg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 18:00 Haunted (b01qxztt)
The Lamp, by Agatha ChristieA sickly young boy settles at a new address, but his ghostly playmate has other ideas...
Agatha Christie's creepy tale dramatised by Patricia Mays.
Stars Judy Cornwell as Mrs Lancaster, Timothy Bateson as Mr Windburn, Marco Ferraro as Geoffrey, William Eadle as Radnor, Arnold Diamond as the Doctor and Simon Meacock as the Child.
Director: Derek Hoddinott
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1984.
MON 18:30 A Good Read (b09hzvng)
Simon Blackburn and Carmen CallilSue MacGregor and her guests - philosopher, Simon Blackburn and founder of Virago, Carmen Callil - discuss books by Joseph Conrad, David Hume and Hanan Al-Shaykh. From 2005.
Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Publisher: Oxford World's Classics
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Only In London by Hanan Al-Shaykh
Publisher: Bloomsbury.
MON 19:00 Hello Cheeky (b013qzgn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 19:30 Dad's Army (b007jqpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 20:00 Unofficial Rosie (b007jlhs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 20:30 The Blues Dance (b00b7bcs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 21:00 HE Bates - Sugar for the Horse (b007jvls)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
MON 21:15 Ray Jenkins - From the House at the Top of the World (b0075npw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
MON 22:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b09h2tkg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 22:30 Absolute Power (b007t3kk)
Series 2, Episode 1Prentiss McCabe try to save New Labour from total voter humiliation. Starring Stephen Fry and John Bird. From January 2001.
MON 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b09kv9md)
Ahir Shah 1/2The best in contemporary comedy. Tom Wrigglesworth chats to Ahir Shah.
MON 23:00 The Now Show (b09h6yw4)
Series 51, Episode 6Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week in topical stand-up and sketches, with help from Angela Barnes, Fern Brady, Helen Arney and Kwame Asante.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production.
MON 23:30 The Problem With Adam Bloom (b00hhrhp)
Series 2, StressThe comedian muses on coping strategies and how stressful this series was to make. With Brendon Burns. From December 2004.
MON 23:45 Brian Appleton's History of Rock 'n' Roll (b00fw5m7)
A Lot of KnowledgeThe forgotten Thompson Twin reveals why rock 'n' roll can be a cruel mistress. Stars Graham Fellows. From October 2001.

TUESDAY 12 DECEMBER 2017

TUE 00:00 Haunted (b01qxztt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Monday]
TUE 00:30 A Good Read (b09hzvng)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Monday]
TUE 01:00 Unofficial Rosie (b007jlhs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:30 The Blues Dance (b00b7bcs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:00 Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day (b0076gcf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Monday]
TUE 02:15 A Cause for Caroling (b03kpnk3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Monday]
TUE 02:30 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (b09hzrvj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:45 The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away (b07dkkk0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Monday]
TUE 03:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jm85)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:00 Just a Minute (b00tt56z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:30 Living with Betty (b09hzpfb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Monday]
TUE 05:00 Winston (b007qzh8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Monday]
TUE 05:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b09h2tkg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Monday]
TUE 06:00 VI Warshawski (b0089j85)
Killing Orders, Remembrance of Things PastChicago private eye, VI Warshawski, is not happy to be asked for help by her Aunt Rosa who hates her - and the feeling's mutual...
Sara Paretsky's thriller stars Kathleen Turner as VI Warshawski.
With Martin Shaw as Roger Ferrant, Avril Clark as Gabriella, William Hootkins as Albert, Eileen Way as Rosa, Don Fellows as Father Carroll, Colin Stinton as Father Pelly and Peter Penry-Jones as Father Jablonski.
Sara Paretsky created one of the most popular female sleuths in modern crime fiction. Her heroine, VI Warshawski, is a strong female character in a male-dominated world. VI is comfortable packing heat and trailing nasty suspects but she never loses touch with her basic femininity. Paretsky says of her Warshawski: "I was troubled by the way women were portrayed in (detective fiction) they always seemed either evil or powerless. I thought it was time for a tough, smart, likeable female private investigator".
Kathleen Turner also starred in the same role in the 1991 film 'VI Warshawski'.
Dramatised by Michelene Wandor.
Director: Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
TUE 06:30 The Cabinet of Animosities (b01m0kjd)
The Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb exhibits objects left behind at the end of love affairs. Everyday things: the shared belongings, mementos and gifts that are no longer wanted - or are wanted too much.
In this audio-guide for radio, Cathy FitzGerald takes a tour of its woebegone collection and meets the broken-hearted lovers who have donated objects from all around the world. Tales of love won and lost, told through the things we give, the things we treasure, and the things we fling at one another when it all goes wrong.
Produced by Cathy FitzGerald and Matt Thompson
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 07:00 1834 (b0121lh5)
Victorian PrinciplesThe young Queen Victoria is coming to Woolsley House for a visit. But when 21st century Jason invents the electric guitar, he unwittingly changes the course of history.....
In Jim Poyser's riotous comedy, Jason has been transported back to the 18th century as Tarquin, third son of Lord Belport with faithful valet, Ned.
Stars Michael Begley as Jason Slater, Joe Caffrey as Ned, Kenneth Alan Taylor as Hoskins, Mark Chatterton as Lord Belport, James Nickerson as Henry and Caroline Harding as Queen Victoria.
Directed at BBC Manchester by Polly Thomas.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2003.
TUE 07:30 Mark Steel's in Town (b09h3rc9)
Series 8, BedfordMark Steel's In Town - Bedford
Mark Steel returns to Radio 4 with the 8th series of his award winning show that travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents.
In the first episode Mark visits Bedford.
Everyone has heard of Bedford but not many seem to know where it is or what goes on there. It is a town full of surprises; it has the highest concentration of Italians in the country, it is the home of the biggest airship in the world and it has a museum dedicated to a cult called The Panacea Society, who believe The Garden of Eden is actually in Bedford.
Written and performed by ... Mark Steel
Additional material by ... Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator ... Hayley Sterling
Sound Manager ... Jerry Peal
Producer ... Carl Cooper
Picture Credit ... Tom Stanier.
TUE 08:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b007jx2y)
From 07/06/1964Doddy reports from the Knotty Ash Eisteddfod and introduces the world's worst uncle.
Starring Ken Dodd.
With Judith Chalmers, Patricia Hayes, Duncan Macrae, Peter Hudson, Wallas Eaton, Percy Edwards and The Bachelors.
BBC Revue Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Lockyer.
Script by Ken Dodd and Eddie Braben.
Producer: Bill Worsley
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in June 1964.
TUE 08:30 The Men From the Ministry (b012yngx)
Don't Let Them Needle YouThe truth will out - with the bureaucrats' mix-up over a flu vaccine.
A weekly tribute to all those who work in government departments.
Stars Richard Murdoch and Deryck Guyler. With Norma Ronald, Ronald Baddiley, John Graham and John Cole.
Written by Edward Taylor and John Graham.
'The Men from the Ministry' ran for 14 series between 1962 and 1977. Deryck Guyler replaced Wilfrid Hyde-White from 1966. Sadly many episodes didn't survive in the archive, however the BBC's Transcription Service re-recorded 14 shows in 1980 - never broadcast in the UK, until the arrival of BBC Radio 4 Extra.
Producer: Edward Taylor
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in March 1973.
TUE 09:00 The Now Show (b09h6yw4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]
TUE 09:30 The Small World of Dominic Holland (b007tm46)
DomesticityThe comedian looks at the ups and downs of domesticity.
Six-part series illustrating the Domedic minutiae of life.
Stand-up and sketches with Simon Greenall, Sally Grace and Dave Lamb.
Producer: Maria Esposito
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2000.
TUE 10:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jm8h)
Episode 2The schooner 'Ghost' journeys on to the seal herds with ruthless captain, Wolf Larsen at the helm.
Jack London's 1904 tale of brutality and survival on the high seas, dramatised in four parts by Ed Thomason
Starring Jack Klaff as Wolf Larsen, Kerry Shale as Humphrey, Shelley Thompson as Maud Brewster, Ian Dury as Mugridge, Nigel Anthony as Louis, Anthony Jackson as Smoke, Jeffrey Gear as Johnson, Scott Farrell as Leach, Norman Jones as Kelly, Richard Pearce as Harrison, Andrew Wincott as Henderson, Peter Penry-Jones as Latimer, Terence Edmond as Owen and Clarence Smith as Horner.
Music: Elizabeth Parker - BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Singer: Sarah Connolly.
Director: Adrian Bean.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
TUE 11:00 HE Bates - Sugar for the Horse (b007jvlz)
The Blue FeatherLoveable rogue Uncle Silas gets caught poaching. HE Bates's country tale is read by David Neal. From September 1992.
TUE 11:15 Ray Jenkins - From the House at the Top of the World (b0075nwj)
The Forger1900: the brilliant archaeologist Aurel Stein visits Lady McCartney, in search of lost cities on the Silk Road, and to uncover a clever forgery...
The second of three plays by Ray Jenkins based on the diaries of Catherine, Lady McCartney, wife of the British consul in Kashgar, Chinese Turkestan.
Stars Siobhan Redmond as Catherine McCartney, Alex Jennings as George McCartney, Ioan Meredith as Aurel Stein, Harry Myers as Islam Akhun, Stephen Critchlow as Islam, Tessa Worsley as Mrs Borland and David Allister as Mr Borland.
Director: Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
TUE 12:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b007jx2y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 12:30 The Men From the Ministry (b012yngx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 13:00 VI Warshawski (b0089j85)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 13:30 The Cabinet of Animosities (b01m0kjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 14:00 Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day (b07gbrtg)
On the Way to SalisburyInspired by a view on his trip to Cornwall, Stevens ponders the qualities of what makes a great butler. Read by John Moffatt. From January 1990.
TUE 14:15 A Cause for Caroling (b03kqf08)
Spreading the Medieval Word Made FleshThe second programme in Jeremy Summerly's ten part series tracing the history of the Christmas Carol in Britain. Today he discovers the impact of the Franciscans in using the carol to make the birth of Jesus a focus for the church and harnessing the energy of popular music to that end.
Series Description:
The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.
But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.
In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.
He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.
It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.
That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.
The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. This series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:
'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."
Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.
Producer: Tom Alban.
TUE 14:30 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (b09j0qc3)
Episode 7A trip to Leamington brings Dombey into the circle of the formidable Mrs Skewton. Stars Nicky Henson and Fenella Fielding. From November 2007.
TUE 14:45 The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away (b07f4k5f)
Episode 2It's August 2003 and life hangs in the balance for two teenage boys. A virus has attacked the heart of a Scottish boy called Marc McCay. Only 15 years old - he is slowly dying. Meanwhile further south an English boy is in grave danger. 16-year-old Martin Burton collapsed at home in Grantham at 2 o'clock in the morning and his mother has called the emergency services. Writer and journalist Cole Moreton tells the story of what happens when the death of a child miraculously allows others to live.
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jm8h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
TUE 16:00 Wordaholics (b04kf5zv)
Series 3, Episode 6Radio 4's word-obsessed comedy panel game - with stars from across the world of wordplay coming together to score points off each other, under the well-read eye of chairman Gyles Brandreth.
Today's panellists are Irish comedian Ed Byrne, Tasmanian stand up and art expert Hannah Gadsby, punmaster general Milton Jones and classics boffin Natalie Haynes.
Today's Letter of the week is 'Z'. Ed Byrne is asked what a 'Zigger-Zagger' is; Natalie 'a Zombie Title'; Hannah is asked about the German expression 'zugzwang', and Milton is as what he thinks a 'zafty' might be.
Also on the show the panellists are asked to coin their own topynyms. Tune in to find out what Natalie meant by Hackney and Alaska. And what did Milton imagine you'd find in Antandectwerp?
In a round called 'Eat It Or Not' the panel have to guess whether the foreign words hurled at them by Gyles are edible or not.
They then get a chance to add their own new word to the dictionary. Milton's is 'parashambles'; Hannah's is 'shelve'; Natalie's is 'fraudience' and Ed's is 'cheerbleeders'. But what are their definitions?
Finally the panellists are asked to delve into 'A Dictionary of Americanisms' from 1848. The phrases they are asked to muse on are: 'a hurra's nest'; a 'talking iron'; 'wamble-cropped' and 'shooting your grandmother'.
Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.
Producer: Claire Jones.
TUE 16:30 Semi Circles (b007jtsz)
Series 2, A Family TimeBen and Helen squabble over spending Christmas with her mother. Stars Paula Wilcox and David Wood. From November 1982.
TUE 17:00 1834 (b0121lh5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
TUE 17:30 Mark Steel's in Town (b09h3rc9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 18:00 Haunted (b01qylzp)
The Liberated Tiger, by R Chetwynd-HayesRoland is dying. But could he possibly be haunting his wife while he's still alive?
R Chetwynd-Hayes's creepy tale dramatised for radio by Patricia Mays.
Stars Rosemary Leach as Mary, Leslie Sands as Roland and Hilda Schroeder as Mrs Parkins.
Director: Derek Hoddinott
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1984.
TUE 18:30 Dad Made Me Laugh (b007k1mb)
Annabel MeredithChic Murray's daughter chats to Sally Magnusson about her life with the legendary Scottish comedian. From October 2005.
TUE 19:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b007jx2y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 19:30 The Men From the Ministry (b012yngx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 20:00 VI Warshawski (b0089j85)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 20:30 The Cabinet of Animosities (b01m0kjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 21:00 HE Bates - Sugar for the Horse (b007jvlz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
TUE 21:15 Ray Jenkins - From the House at the Top of the World (b0075nwj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
TUE 22:00 Mark Steel's in Town (b09h3rc9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 22:30 Richard Herring's Objective (b0174gl1)
Series 2, The WheelchairRichard Herring's Objective
Episode 2: 'The Wheelchair'
Richard Herring examines 'The Wheelchair' the representative symbol of disability on disability access signs and asks if there is equal access. He wonders if it is still the case that we see the disability rather than the person.
Written by and starring Richard Herring, with Emma Kennedy and special guest, comedian Francesca Martinez.
Produced by Tilusha Ghelani
The second series of Richard Herring's Objective pokes and prods a variety controversial objects and see if the controversy falls out. Through vox pops, interviews and stand up comedy Richard examines the objects' history, meaning and significance and challenges our assumed logic and stereotypes. Can we reclaim these objects away from their unfortunate associations?
In series one the comedian investigated 'The Hitler Moustache', 'The Hoodie' and 'The St. George's Flag' and in the new series he'll be training his beady eye on 'The Golliwog', 'The Wheelchair', 'Page 3' and 'The Old School Tie'.
TUE 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b09kv9sj)
Ahir Shah 2/2The best in contemporary comedy. Tom Wrigglesworth chats to Ahir Shah.
TUE 23:00 Elvenquest (b00k49s9)
Series 1, Episode 2Lord Darkness has Amis and wants the sword. Can Sam stop him? Fantasy comedy starring Darren Boyd and Dave Lamb. From May 2009.
TUE 23:30 Lucy Montgomery's Variety Pack (b00w7c95)
Series 1, Episode 2Lucy Montgomery's Variety Pack is a multi-paced, one woman Fast Show for Radio 4 showcasing the exceptional talent of Lucy Montgomery. Featuring Lucy Montgomery, Philip Pope, Sally Grace, Waen Shepherd and Natalie Walter.
In this episode we meet Daisy, the chattering public school girl's, parents and find out why the Mona Lisa has been dumped by the Laughing Cavalier. Plus, a Police Officer who can't find the right words, a street survey that probes too far and Candi Karmel's sister makes an appearance.
Written by Lucy Montgomery with additional material by Steven Burge and Dan Tetsell.
Music by Philip Pope
Producer by Katie Tyrrell.

WEDNESDAY 13 DECEMBER 2017

WED 00:00 Haunted (b01qylzp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Tuesday]
WED 00:30 Dad Made Me Laugh (b007k1mb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Tuesday]
WED 01:00 VI Warshawski (b0089j85)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:30 The Cabinet of Animosities (b01m0kjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:00 Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day (b07gbrtg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Tuesday]
WED 02:15 A Cause for Caroling (b03kqf08)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Tuesday]
WED 02:30 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (b09j0qc3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:45 The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away (b07f4k5f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Tuesday]
WED 03:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jm8h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:00 Wordaholics (b04kf5zv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:30 Semi Circles (b007jtsz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]
WED 05:00 1834 (b0121lh5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Tuesday]
WED 05:30 Mark Steel's in Town (b09h3rc9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Tuesday]
WED 06:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqc3)
Killing Orders, Forging AheadCousin Albert has called private eye, VI Warshawski off the investigation into the forged securities at the Priory. But she doesn't give up so easily...
Sara Paretsky's thriller stars Kathleen Turner as Chicago private eye, VI Warshawski.
With Martin Shaw as Roger Ferrant, Maurice Denham as Uncle Stefan, Miriam Karlin as Lotty Herschel, John Bennett as O'Faolin, Avril Clark as Gabriella, Don Fellows as Father Carroll, Lorelei King as Agnes Paciorek, William Hootkins as Albert, Kerry Shale as Murray Ryerson, Eileen Way as Rosa, Adjoa Andoh as Sal and Andrew Wincott as Derek Hatfield.
Sara Paretsky created one of the most popular female sleuths in modern crime fiction. Her heroine, VI Warshawski, is a strong female character in a male-dominated world. VI is comfortable packing heat and trailing nasty suspects but she never loses touch with her basic femininity. Paretsky says of her Warshawski: "I was troubled by the way women were portrayed in (detective fiction) they always seemed either evil or powerless. I thought it was time for a tough, smart, likeable female private investigator".
Kathleen Turner also starred in the same role in the 1991 film 'VI Warshawski'.
Dramatised by Michelene Wandor.
Director: Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
WED 06:30 A Shared Vision (b00xj0hp)
Poet John Hegley visits Zanzibar in East Africa with an old pair of his glasses in the hope that someone might be able to use them. From April 2003.
WED 07:00 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00954vf)
Series 1, Episode 2It's time for singing duo Tommy and Sheila's comeback appearance - they're on after the stripper!
Winners of the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest, sweethearts Tommy Franklin and Sheila Parr are back in the limelight. The only snag is they can't stand the sight of each another...
Series 1 of Mike Coleman's six-part sitcom stars June Whitfield and Roy Hudd.
With Pat Coombs, Julian Eardley, Joshua Henderson, Chris Pavlo, Edward Halsted and Rachel Smith.
Singers: John Barr and Lisa Peace.
Music by Frido Ruth.
Producer: Steve Doherty
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1998.
WED 07:30 All Those Women (b06fkd21)
Series 1, Episode 4It's Maggie's 60th birthday, so bring on the surprise present! And also some unwelcome revelations and a lot of facts about ballooning...
All Those Women explores familial relationships, ageing, marriages - it's about life and love and things not turning out quite the way that you'd expected them to. Every week we join Hetty, Maggie, Jen and Emily as they struggle to resolve their own problems, and support one another.
Written by KATHERINE JAKEWAYS
Script editor Richard Turner
Producer Alexandra Smith
A BBC Radio Comedy Production.
WED 08:00 The Navy Lark (b007k3hg)
Strike Up the BandWhen Number One uses the Comfort Fund accounts for a dance, Pertwee takes action.
Starring Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Stephen Murray as Number One, Richard Caldicot as Commander Povey, Ronnie Barker as AS Johnson, Heather Chasen as Mrs Povey, Michael Bates as Ginger and Tenniel Evans as Uncle Ebenzer.
The Navy Lark ran for an impressive 13 series on BBC Radio between 1959 and 1976.
Scripted by Lawrie Wyman.
Producer: Alastair Scott Johnston.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in December 1959.
WED 08:30 A Very Private Man (b09j2l7l)
Episode 4Panic stations for Helen, as her mother arrives unannounced. Can she keep her away from husband David?
Terry Gregson's sitcom stars Rodney Bewes as David Parkinson, Ann Bell as Helen Parkinson, Daphne Oxenford as Mrs Henderson, Paula Tildrook as Mrs Arthur and Peter Wheeler as Mr Sands.
Produced at BBC Manchester by Ron McDonnell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in February 1981.
WED 09:00 Act Your Age (b0106rvc)
Series 3, Episode 4Simon Mayo hosts the three-way battle between the comedy generations to find out which is the funniest. Will it be the Up-and-Comers, the Current Crop or the Old Guard who will be crowned, for one week at least, as the Golden Age of Comedy. This week Holly Walsh is joined by Tom Deacon, Rufus Hound teams up with Henning Wehn and Ted Robbins is paired with Billy Pearce.
Devised and Produced by Ashley Blaker and Bill Matthews.
WED 09:30 Life, Death and Sex with Mike and Sue (b01nbzs8)
Series 2, Episode 2Sofa-bound TV presenters Mike and Sue look at work and travel, plus "Missing Persons".
Series 2 of Bill Dare's sitcom stars Robert Duncan and Jan Ravens.
With Roger Blake, Bill Dare, Alistair McGowan and Sally Philips.
Music by Mark Burton.
Producer: Jo Clegg
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1997.
WED 10:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jmc9)
Episode 3With Maud Brewster aboard, the real danger on the schooner's voyage is yet to begin...
Jack London's 1904 tale of brutality and survival on the high seas, dramatised in four parts by Ed Thomason.
Starring Jack Klaff as Wolf Larsen, Kerry Shale as Humphrey, Shelley Thompson as Maud Brewster, Ian Dury as Mugridge, Nigel Anthony as Louis, Anthony Jackson as Smoke, Charles Millham as Telefson, Norman Jones as Kelly, Clarence Smith as Horner, Andrew Wincott as Henderson and Peter Penry-Jones as Latimer.
Music: Elizabeth Parker - BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Singer: Sarah Connolly.
Director: Adrian Bean.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
WED 11:00 HE Bates - Sugar for the Horse (b007jvm8)
Queenie WhiteMischievous Uncle Silas recalls an amorous brush with a buxom publican's wife. HE Bates's country tale read by David Neal. From September 1992.
WED 11:15 Ray Jenkins - From the House at the Top of the World (b007w3b8)
StolenGerman archaeologist, Von Le Coq, gets drawn into a race with Aurel Stein to 'steal' treasures from the Buddhist Monasteries and ancient lost oasis towns along the Silk Road crossing the Taklamaken and Gobi Deserts.
Last of three plays by Ray Jenkins based on the diaries of Catherine, Lady McCartney, wife of the British consul in Kashgar, on the roof of the world in Chinese Turkestan.
Stars Siobhan Redmond as Catherine McCartney, Alex Jennings as George McCartney, Sean Baker as Von Le Coq, Ioan Meredith as Aurel Stein, David Tse as Chiang and Stephen Critchlow as Bartus.
Director: Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
WED 12:00 The Navy Lark (b007k3hg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 12:30 A Very Private Man (b09j2l7l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 13:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqc3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 13:30 A Shared Vision (b00xj0hp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 14:00 Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day (b07gcksh)
Early DaysStevens remembers what happened when his father, also a butler, joined the staff at Darlington Hall. Read by John Moffatt. From January 1990.
WED 14:15 A Cause for Caroling (b03ktz0k)
From Coventry to AgincourtIn the third programme in the series Jeremy finds a developing professionalism in carol singing and writing in the details of a manuscript held by Cambridge University, and he reveals the background of the Coventry carol's mystery play setting. The combination of energetic drama and more refined singing men makes this period a caroling golden age but with clouds on the horizon.
Series Description:
The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.
But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.
In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.
He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.
It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.
That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.
The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. THis series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:
'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."
Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.
Producer: Tom Alban.
WED 14:30 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (b09j2mbk)
Episode 8Captain Cuttle seeks news of young Walter Gay, missing at sea. Starring Ben Crowe and Abigail Hollick. From November 2007.
WED 14:45 The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away (b07f4ls8)
Episode 3August 2003 - life hangs in the balance for two teenage boys. A virus has attacked the heart of a Scottish boy called Mark McCay and he is slowly dying in a hospital bed in Newcastle. His only hope is a new heart. Down in Nottingham, 16 year-old Martin Burton is in intensive care with damage to the brain. His mother Sue had just been told there was no chance of recovery. His father Nigel has rushed home from the United States to be by his side. Writer and journalist Cole Moreton tells the story of what happens when the death of a child miraculously allows others to live.
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jmc9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
WED 16:00 Act Your Age (b0106rvc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
WED 16:30 Life, Death and Sex with Mike and Sue (b01nbzs8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
WED 17:00 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00954vf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
WED 17:30 All Those Women (b06fkd21)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 18:00 Haunted (b01qyswf)
The Grey Ones, by JB PriestleyA patient fears evil is at work in the shape of a sinister conspiracy. Will his psychiatrist be able to help?
JB Priestley's creepy tale dramatised for radio by Patricia Mays.
Stars Tony Britton as Patson and Jack May as Dr Smith.
Producer: Derek Hoddinott
Director: Martin Williamson
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1984.
WED 18:30 Musical Legends (b0183jlk)
Paul Jones1/1 Paul Jones's musical career stretches back to the 1960's where he enjoyed chart success as front-man with the group Manfred Mann.
As a solo pop artist he continued that success with songs like 'High Time' and 'I've been a Bad Bad Boy'.
Paul turned to acting and his career in television include appearances in Z cars, Space 1999 and The Sweeney. He's also appeared in films and on stage.
Amongst his numerous gold albums is one for the original recording of Evita.
Paul founded The Blues Band in the late 1970's and is still regularly touring with the band.
He's recorded with some of the biggest names in the business including Tina Turner, Percy Sledge and Katie Melua.
Paul tells Tom Morton about his musical journey from 1960's pop star to DJ and music critic and he explains how he became President of the National Harmonica League.
WED 19:00 The Navy Lark (b007k3hg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 19:30 A Very Private Man (b09j2l7l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 20:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqc3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 20:30 A Shared Vision (b00xj0hp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 21:00 HE Bates - Sugar for the Horse (b007jvm8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
WED 21:15 Ray Jenkins - From the House at the Top of the World (b007w3b8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
WED 22:00 All Those Women (b06fkd21)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 22:30 Before They Were Famous (b03hwd2h)
Series 2, Episode 6Even the most successful of writers have, at some point, had to take day jobs to pay the bills.
Ian Leslie presents the second series of this Radio 4 spoof documentary, which sheds light on the often surprising jobs done by the world's best known writers in the days before they were able to make a living from their art.
In a project of literary archaeology, Leslie unearths archive examples of early work by great writers, including Fortune Cookie messages written by Germaine Greer, a political manifesto by the young JK Rowling, and a car manual written by Dan Brown. In newspaper articles, advertising copy, and company correspondence, we get a fascinating glimpse into the embryonic development of our best-loved literary voices.
We may know them today for their novels, plays or poems but, once upon a time, they were just people with a dream - and a rent bill looming at the end of the month.
Producers: Anna Silver and Claire Broughton
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 22:45 No Tomatoes (b0082dsm)
Retro RocketA harp goes back in time with Paul Copley and Helen Moon. Sketch show mixing up language and sounds. From October 2007.
WED 23:00 Mr and Mrs Smith (b01bgp22)
Pilot Episode - The Anniversary
A weekend break to celebrate their anniversary ends in disaster for Will and Annabelle. Will's terrible anniversary present is the last straw so Annabelle signs them up for marriage counselling.
Guy mediates between Will and Annabelle, with flashbacks to the events that spawned the argument. By the end, the couple find marital equilibrium once more. Sort of.
A repeat of the pilot episode from last year, ahead of the new series which begins next week. Sitcom by Will smith.
EPISODE CAST DETAILS:
Will Smith ..... Will Smith
Annabelle Smith ..... Sarah Hadland
Guy, Darryl ..... Paterson Joseph
John, TV repairman ..... Geoffrey Whitehead
Receptionist, Sally ..... Morwenna Banks
Written by ..... Will Smith
Produced by ..... Tilusha Ghelani
ABOUT THE SERIES
The writer and comedian Will Smith leads the starry cast of Mr and Mrs.Smith. Sarah Hadland (Miranda, The Mitchell and Webb Look, Moving Wallpaper) stars as Will's wife Annabelle. Paterson Joseph (Peep Show, Survivors, Green Wing) plays Counsellor Guy. The series also includes Geoffrey whitehead (Reggie Perrin, Worst Week of My Life) , Susie Blake (Coronation Street; Victoria Wood as Seen on TV) and Morwenna Banks (Absolutely; Skins; Saxondale).
Will's writing credits include Armstrong and Miller (BBC1), Harry and Paul (BBC1), Moving Wallpaper (ITV1), Time Trumpet (BBC2), the multi-award winning The Thick Of It (BBC2) in which he also appears as Phil Smith, and the upcoming Veep (HBO).
WED 23:30 Clayton Grange (b01n11xj)
Series 1, Episode 2by Neil Warhurst with additional material by Paul Barnhill
Episode 2
In Clayton Grange, Anthony Head leads a team of brilliantly stupid scientists who have a mission to think the unthinkable. But can't. This week, they attempt to solve the global fuel crisis. With a hamster.
Saunders ..... Anthony Head
Geoff ..... Neil Warhurst
Roger ..... Paul Barnhill
Jameson ..... Stephanie Racine
Helen/Lionel ..... Don Gilet
Alan Dobson ..... Paul Stonehouse
Director ..... Sally Avens.

THURSDAY 14 DECEMBER 2017

THU 00:00 Haunted (b01qyswf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Wednesday]
THU 00:30 Musical Legends (b0183jlk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesday]
THU 01:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqc3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Wednesday]
THU 01:30 A Shared Vision (b00xj0hp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:00 Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day (b07gcksh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Wednesday]
THU 02:15 A Cause for Caroling (b03ktz0k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Wednesday]
THU 02:30 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (b09j2mbk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:45 The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away (b07f4ls8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Wednesday]
THU 03:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jmc9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:00 Act Your Age (b0106rvc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:30 Life, Death and Sex with Mike and Sue (b01nbzs8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Wednesday]
THU 05:00 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00954vf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Wednesday]
THU 05:30 All Those Women (b06fkd21)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Wednesday]
THU 06:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqcj)
Killing Orders, Acid TestVI Warshawski's best friend Agnes Paciorek has been murdered, but is there a connection with her investigation at the Priory and the anonymous phone calls?
Sara Paretsky's thriller stars Kathleen Turner as Chicago private eye, VI Warshawski.
With Martin Shaw as Roger Ferrant, Miriam Karlin as Lotty Herschel, William Hootkins as Bobby Mallory, John Bennett as O'Faolin, Helen Horton as Mrs Paciorek, Colin Stinton as Father Pelly, Stuart Milligan as Phil, Kerry Shale as Murray Ryerson, Avril Clark as Gabriella, Adjoa Andoh as Regina, Lorelei King as Alicia, Norman Jones as Dr Paciorek and Theresa Streatfield as Phyllis Lording.
Sara Paretsky created one of the most popular female sleuths in modern crime fiction. Her heroine, VI Warshawski, is a strong female character in a male-dominated world. VI is comfortable packing heat and trailing nasty suspects but she never loses touch with her basic femininity. Paretsky says of her Warshawski: "I was troubled by the way women were portrayed in (detective fiction) they always seemed either evil or powerless. I thought it was time for a tough, smart, likeable female private investigator".
Kathleen Turner also starred in the same role in the 1991 film 'VI Warshawski'.
Dramatised by Michelene Wandor.
Director: Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
THU 06:30 Earworms (b01ng2qz)
Earworms are those nagging songs you find yourself humming on the bus.
In this programme, music presenter Shaun Keaveny meets fellow sufferers and scientists to find out why songs get stuck in our head. He asks songwriter Guy Garvey from Elbow how to write a catchy tune and discovers the Holy Grail of musicians everywhere - the 'earworm formula'.
For the past three years on his 6 Music breakfast show, Shaun has been asking listeners to send in their earworms. When psychologist Dr Lauren Stewart found out, she was fascinated by this strange mental phenomenon. Together they've compiled the largest study on earworms to date, with over 10,000 reports from people around the world.
Lauren and her team at Goldsmiths have found that some people are particularly susceptible to earworms. Plus they are starting to discover that certain songs are more 'earwormy' than others.
So is there a secret formula behind the world's catchiest tunes?
Producer: Michelle Martin.
THU 07:00 Double Income, No Kids Yet (b007zkzz)
Series 2, Episode 4When their new and 'ever so slightly unbearable' friends invite them to dinner, Lucy wants to return the offer. But Daniel, who's expected to cook, is less than convinced...
The second series of David Spicer's comedy drama about modern life and parenthood, as seen through the eyes of two 30-something non-parents.
Starring David Tennant as Daniel, Liz Carling as Lucy, Samantha Spiro as Katie, Tony Gardner as Andy, Joanna Brookes as Alison, Jonathan Aris as Steve and Carla Mendonca as Linda.
Producer: Liz Anstee
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2002.
THU 07:30 Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On (b09h6k15)
Series 2, GardeningSusan Calman is the least relaxed person she knows. She has no down time, no hobbies (unless you count dressing up your cats in silly outfits) and her idea of relaxation is to sit on her sofa playing Assassin's Creed, an hour into which she is in a murderous rage with sky high blood pressure. Her wife had to threaten to divorce her to make her go on holiday, and she's been told by the same long-suffering wife that unless she finds a way to switch off, and soon, she's going to be unbearable.
Susan decided her best bet was to try to immerse herself in the pursuits that her friends find relaxing, to find her inner zen and outer tranquillity. In the first series of this show she attempted to ditch the old Susan Calman and attempted to find the new Susan Calm, by watching Cricket; going Hillwalking; visiting an Art Gallery and being spontaneous. She enjoyed these pursuits, but all too soon found herself slipping back into her old ways. So she's trying again. This week she takes a trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh to learn about Gardening with Val McDermid, in the hope of one day being able to tell her Euphorbia from Euphoria.
In other episodes Susan will go to a music festival with Robin Ince, try her hand at baking with Selasi Gbmormittah and have a go at birdwatching with Emma Kennedy.
Keep Calman Carry On is an audience stand up show in which Susan reports on how successful she's been - both at relaxing and at the pursuit itself - as well as playing in and discussing a handful of illustrative clips from her efforts. It's an attempt to find out how people find solace or sanctuary in these worlds and how Susan can negotiate her own place in them.
Produced by Lyndsay Fenner. A BBC Studios Production.
THU 08:00 Not in Front of the Children (b05p9vz3)
Series 1, While the Brood's AwaySending the children off for a holiday with friends is one thing - but what do you do with your life while they're away?
Starring Wendy Craig as Jennifer Corner and Francis Matthews as Henry Corner.
The comedy mishaps of the Corner family: Jennifer and Henry and their three children Trudi, Amanda and Robin. Family sitcom, Not in Front of the Children originally ran for four series from 1967 to 1970 on BBC TV. Richard Waring adapted his own scripts for this radio version, now fully restored from the original reel-to-reel tapes.
Wendy Craig won a Best Actress BAFTA award for the TV version of Not in Front of the Children in 1969. This was the first of several housewife roles that Wendy Craig was to play on television. Later series included And Mother Makes Three and Butterflies.
Music by Ronnie Hazlehurst
Producer: Trafford Whitelock.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1969.
THU 08:30 The Goon Show (b007jtp6)
Robin HoodIt's ye Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Wallace Greenslade in ye olde worlde Robin Hood. From December 1956.
THU 09:00 Counterpoint (b007llch)
Series 21, Semi-final 2Edward Seckerson chairs the second semi-final of the music quiz with Chris Gibson from Blackpool, Sean Gilligan from London and Stephen Whitaker from Chester. From May 2007.
THU 09:30 King Street Junior (b007jndm)
Series 8, Mr ChipsA school inspection's due, but the visitor in the playground is not from OFSTED.
Created by Jim Eldridge, ten series of this comedy about a junior school ran between 1985 and 1998. King Street Junior Revisited ran from 2002 to 2005.
Written by Paul Copley.
Stars Karl Howman as Mr Sims, James Grout as the Headmaster, Deirdre Costello as Mrs Patterson, Paul Copley as Mr Long, Marlene Sidaway as Miss Lewis, Margaret John as Mrs Stone, Vivienne Martin as Mrs Rudd, Trevor Peacock as Mr Chips, Joseph Spinks as Rupert, Luke Nugent as Craig and Lucy Kent as Sunitra.
Producer: John Fawcett Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1995.
THU 10:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jmcl)
Episode 4Humphrey and Maud dash for freedom from cruel captain, Wolf Larsen, but Japan is 600 miles away...
Jack London's 1904 tale of brutality and survival on the high seas, dramatised in four parts by Ed Thomason.
Starring Jack Klaff as Wolf Larsen, Kerry Shale as Humphrey and Shelley Thompson as Maud Brewster.
Music: Elizabeth Parker - BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Director: Adrian Bean.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
THU 11:00 HE Bates - Sugar for the Horse (b007jvmc)
The Singing PigThe incorrigible Uncle Silas gets nostalgic over a melodic porker. HE Bates's country tale read by David Neal. From September 1992.
THU 11:15 Afternoon Drama (b03hxjrl)
Robin Brooks - Lewis and Tolkien - The Lost RoadWhether you like or loathe elves and talking lions, J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis each created compelling fictional worlds whose influence has become global.
C S Lewis was an academic and broadcaster whose prolific publication of literary criticism, novels, Christian apologia and the Narnia books for children brought him an international reputation in his lifetime.
By the time of his death in 1973, J R R Tolkien's 'The Lord of The Rings' and 'The Hobbit', (along with other published stories and poems which drew upon the mythology of Middle Earth), had already made him a cult figure around the world.
Haydn Gwynne, Tom Goodman-Hill and Pip Torrens star in Robin Brooks' playful tribute to the long friendship between the two men, and the way it shaped their achievements.
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
THU 12:00 Not in Front of the Children (b05p9vz3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 12:30 The Goon Show (b007jtp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 13:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqcj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 13:30 Earworms (b01ng2qz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 14:00 Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day (b07gg740)
The Conference ApproachesStevens remembers an international conference at Darlington Hall that tested all his skills as a butler. From January 1990.
THU 14:15 A Cause for Caroling (b03kv1f3)
Carol Crisis? What Crisis?In the fourth programme in the series Jeremy describes the impact of the Reformation and later Puritan attitudes to music in general and carols in particular. The development of the Medieval carol may have been arrested but there was never a serious threat to folk caroling and it wasn't long after the Commonwealth that carols, or rather one particular carol, was back in church.
Series Description:
The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.
But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.
In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.
He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.
It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.
That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.
The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. THis series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:
'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."
Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.
Producer: Tom Alban.
THU 14:30 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (b09j304r)
Episode 9Cold, disdainful Edith wins the hearts of Dombey and his manager. Stars Helen Schlesinger and Fenella Fielding. From November 2007.
THU 14:45 The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away (b07f4q8h)
Episode 4A virus has attacked the heart of a 15 year-old Scottish boy called Mark McCay who is in hospital in Newcastle. 16 year-old Martin Burton suffered irreversible brain damage, and his parents agreed for his organs to be donated. His heart has gone to 15 year-old Marc McCay, in hospital in Newcastle, who remains unconscious. Writer and journalist Cole Moreton tells the story of what happens when the death of a child miraculously allows others to live.
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 15:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jmcl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
THU 16:00 Counterpoint (b007llch)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
THU 16:30 King Street Junior (b007jndm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
THU 17:00 Double Income, No Kids Yet (b007zkzz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
THU 17:30 Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On (b09h6k15)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 18:00 Haunted (b01qyrxk)
The Dead Man of Varley Grange, by AnonymousJack is set for a good time in a friend's new property, but why do strange rumours persist about the house?
Dramatised for radio by Patricia Mays.
Stars George Baker as Fred Lester, Jeremy Clyde as Jack Darrant.
Other parts were played by Adrian Egan, Gareth Armstrong, David Ashford, Jane Thompson, and Narissa Nights.
Producer: Derek Hoddinott
Director: Martin Williamson
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1984.
THU 18:30 Great Lives (b00scvqk)
Series 21, Carl SaganPhysicist Brian Cox tells Matthew Parris how Carl Sagan's Cosmos tv show changed his life.
As a young boy of 13, Brian Cox stared at his television screen every Wednesday evening, as Carl Sagan took him on a journey across the Cosmos. The programme was a ground-breaking piece of television by a brilliant young scientist who could be inspiring and infuriating in equal measure.
Sagan was a complex character. Driven to succeed, he came from a relatively poor background to become a millionaire, and one of the most influential scientists of his era. His popularity left him open to both criticism and jealousy amongst his colleagues, and whilst he was passionate about the need to educate the populace, he could also be arrogant and dismissive of his fellow scientists.
So just how good a scientist was he, and what is his legacy?
Producer: John Byrne.
THU 19:00 Not in Front of the Children (b05p9vz3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 19:30 The Goon Show (b007jtp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 20:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqcj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 20:30 Earworms (b01ng2qz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 21:00 HE Bates - Sugar for the Horse (b007jvmc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
THU 21:15 Afternoon Drama (b03hxjrl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
THU 22:00 Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On (b09h6k15)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 22:30 Sean Lock - 15 Storeys High (b09j3dct)
Series 1, Episode 2Flat dweller Sean's bad-tempered and reckless past comes back in the shape of a dead swan. With Peter Serafinowicz. From December 1999.
THU 23:00 Sarah Millican's Support Group (b0113086)
Series 2, Episode 3Award winning comedian Sarah Millican is back for a second series playing Sarah, modern day agony aunt dishing out real advice for real people.
Solving the nations problems with her Support Group, she wants you to live life to the upmost, and she's got tons of ideas of how to help. Together with her team of experts of the heart - man of the people local cabbie Terry, and self qualified counsellor Marion - Sarah tackles the nation's problems head on and has a solution for everything, (which normally encompasses cake, tea and hugs).
This week the team tackle two problems - "I'm a cherry childless and proud of it" and "I'd like to be romantic but I have a voice that makes children cry"
Sarah Millican Sarah
Ruth Bratt Marion
Simon Day Terry
Bridget Christie Jenny
Joe Wilkinson Keith.
THU 23:30 The Show What You Wrote (b01r52xj)
Series 1, Sci-Fi and FantasyThe Show What You Wrote is a brand new sketch show, which is made up entirely from sketches sent in by the public. Recorded in Manchester in front of a live audience, and starring John Thomson, Helen Moon, Fiona Clarke and Gavin Webster, with a special appearance by Gyles Brandreth.
We've picked the best sketches from thousands of submissions to make each show, and every week we'll be covering a different theme, from kitchen sink drama, to suspense heavy thrillers. This week's episode is Sci Fi and Fantasy.
Script editor ...... Jon Hunter
Producers ..... Carl Cooper and Alexandra Smith
Written by..... Jack Bernhardt, Elise Bramich, Peter Brush, Alex Buchanan, Simon Carter, Andy Flood, Robert Frimston & Edward Rowett, Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch, Peter Jump, Adam Perrott, Melissa Phillips, Eddie Robson, Paul Solomons, Jimmy Weeks & Jess Bunch, and Ash Williamson.

FRIDAY 15 DECEMBER 2017

FRI 00:00 Haunted (b01qyrxk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Thursday]
FRI 00:30 Great Lives (b00scvqk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Thursday]
FRI 01:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqcj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Thursday]
FRI 01:30 Earworms (b01ng2qz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:00 Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day (b07gg740)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Thursday]
FRI 02:15 A Cause for Caroling (b03kv1f3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Thursday]
FRI 02:30 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (b09j304r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:45 The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away (b07f4q8h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Thursday]
FRI 03:00 Jack London - The Sea Wolf (b007jmcl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:00 Counterpoint (b007llch)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:30 King Street Junior (b007jndm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Thursday]
FRI 05:00 Double Income, No Kids Yet (b007zkzz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Thursday]
FRI 05:30 Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On (b09h6k15)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Thursday]
FRI 06:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqct)
Killing Orders, The Fire Next TimeThe private eye is convinced Agnes's murder is linked to a covert takeover bid for Ajax insurance, but can she prove it?
Sara Paretsky's thriller stars Kathleen Turner as Chicago private eye, VI Warshawski.
With Martin Shaw as Roger Ferrant, Avril Clark as Gabriella, Don Fellows as Father Carroll, Eileen Way as Rosa, Lorelei King as Barbara Paciorek, Helen Horton as Mrs Paciorek, William Hootkins as Bobby Mallory, John Bennett as O'Faolin, Kerry Shale as Murray Ryerson, Colin Stinton as Father Pelly and Peter Penry-Jones as Father Jablonski.
Sara Paretsky created one of the most popular female sleuths in modern crime fiction. Her heroine, VI Warshawski, is a strong female character in a male-dominated world. VI is comfortable packing heat and trailing nasty suspects but she never loses touch with her basic femininity. Paretsky says of her Warshawski: "I was troubled by the way women were portrayed in (detective fiction) they always seemed either evil or powerless. I thought it was time for a tough, smart, likeable female private investigator".
Kathleen Turner also starred in the same role in the 1991 film 'VI Warshawski'.
Dramatised by Michelene Wandor.
Director: Janet Whitaker
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
FRI 06:30 Going to Pieces in the Box (b00p61zg)
Janet Ellis, host of the 1980s Children's BBC series Jigsaw, presents a celebration of the history and the art of the jigsaw puzzle.
More art - typically sentimental, traditional art - has made its way into more homes via the jigsaw puzzle than virtually any other medium. While it has since become the purveyor of comforting landscapes to the masses, it started life as an educational tool championed by the likes of philosopher John Locke. In 1760, London mapmaker John Spilsbury mounted one of his maps on hardboard and cut it into pieces to help children learn geography.
Janet tells the story of how, since then, it has become such a core feature of childhoods across the world. She hears how jigsaws hit their first major peak during the Great Depression, when 10 million a week were bought by families looking for cheap pastimes, and how they were used by immigration officers on Ellis Island to determine who should be allowed into the land of the free. Janet also explores how popular culture has flirted with the jigsaw, in novels and films as diverse as Mansfield Park, Citizen Kane and, most powerfully, Georges Perec's novel, Life: A User's Manual. She hears from academics and enthusiasts including Margaret Drabble, who explain the jigsaw's great allure.
Janet hears how jigsaws continue to be incredibly popular, having evolved into 3-D puzzles and of course made their way onto the internet, where no young children's games site is without one.
FRI 07:00 Capital Gains (b007r5d3)
Series 1, Venture CapitalAbsconding with £4,601,740.72 of someone else's money proves more challenging than it sounds for Julius Hutch.
Starring Peter Jones as Julius Hutch.
With Celestine Randall as Mrs Pauline Tone, Justine Midda as Kate, Peter Whitman as Peter Fang, Jeffrey Wickham as Sexton Lewis and Collin Johnson as the News Reader.
Scripted by Collin Johnson.
Producer: Andy Jordan
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1995.
FRI 07:30 Jeeves Live (b09hpg6t)
Series 3, The Aunt and the SluggardMartin Jarvis performs the first of two beloved Jeeves stories by P G Wodehouse in front of an enthusiastic, invited audience at the Riverhouse Barn Theatre, Walton on Thames in Surrey.
In The Aunt and the Sluggard, Martin tells an extraordinary tale in the character of Bertie Wooster. While living in New York, Bertie has to persuade his brainy manservant Jeeves to concoct a spiffing plan, so that his poet pal Rocky can continue receiving a financial allowance from a rich aunt. The trouble is the aunt wants Rocky to have a good time visiting the fleshpots of Manhattan and to write her letters about it. But Rocky prefers to live as a recluse on Long Island, miles away. How on earth can it be done? Can Jeeves find a solution?
Director: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 08:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00cbcpl)
Series 5, Episode 6Extreme cat taming - and a magnificent Roman epic.
More quick-fire sketches, terrible puns, humorous songs and parodies.
Stars Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, David Hatch, Jo Kendall and Bill Oddie.
Written by Lizzie Evans, Eric Idle and Bill Oddie with Derek Farmer and Graeme Chapman.
Originating from the Cambridge University Footlights revue 'Cambridge Circus', ISIRTA ran for 8 years on BBC Radio and quickly developed a cult following.
Music and songs by Dave Lee, Leon Cohen and Bill Oddie.
Producer: Humphrey Barclay
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in May 1967.
FRI 08:30 Albert and Me (b007jsgr)
Series 1, Mind That BabySingle dad Bryan gets wrapped in red tape at the benefits office.
Stars Richard Beckinsale as Bryan Archer, Pat Coombs as Mum/Albert and John Comer as Dad. With Dilys Laye as the Welfare Lady/Mrs Featherstone-Haugh.
Written by Jim Eldridge.
Producer: John Fawcett Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in November 1977.
FRI 09:00 The Motion Show (b0075wnx)
Series 2, Episode 2Dr Phil Hammond chairs the debating game with Tony Hawks, Simon Fanshawe, Stuart Maconie and Steve Punt. From January 2000.
FRI 09:30 After Henry (b007jnh1)
Series 2, The ColdSarah, her mother Eleanor and daughter Clare battle with colds - and each other.
Simon Brett's comedy about three generations of women - struggling to cope after the death of Sarah's GP husband - who never quite manage to see eye to eye.
Starring Prunella Scales as Sarah, Joan Sanderson as Eleanor, Benjamin Whitrow as Russell, Gerry Cowper as Clare and Peter Howell as the Doctor,
Four radio series were made, but instead of moving to BBC TV - Thames Television produced 'After Henry' for the ITV network.
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 1986.
FRI 10:00 Saturday Drama (b01slm1l)
Niccolo Machiavelli - The PrinceFive hundred years after writing his most provocative political tract, Niccolo Machiavelli appears before an infernal court to appeal against the harsh treatment his works have received over time.
Rather than being seen as a description of political cynicism and opportunism, he argues that "Machiavellian" should be a compliment and The Prince has in fact been an infallible guidebook followed closely by all successful leaders.
The Prince By Niccolo Machiavelli
Adapted by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:00 HE Bates - Sugar for the Horse (b007jvmk)
Aunt TibbyA cunning landlady proves to be as resourceful as the mischievous Uncle Silas. HE Bates's country tale read by David Neal. From September 1992.
FRI 11:15 Afternoon Drama (b04v5pgh)
Dogfood Diaryby Laura Bridgeman and Charles Lambert.
A heartbreaking and heartwarming seasonal drama.
Twelve year old Dean has been left home alone. It seems great at first but Christmas is coming and there's no sign of Mum. Where is she?
Choir ..... Jordanhill School Senior Choir
Producer/director ..... Gaynor Macfarlane.
FRI 12:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00cbcpl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 12:30 Albert and Me (b007jsgr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 13:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqct)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 13:30 Going to Pieces in the Box (b00p61zg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 14:00 Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day (b07gk2qv)
A Triumphant EveningWith the conference underway, Stevens's abilities as a butler are tested when his father is taken ill. Read by John Moffatt. From January 1990.
FRI 14:15 A Cause for Caroling (b03kvby7)
The Ghosts of the West GalleryIn the fifth programme of his series telling the story of the Christmas Carol Jeremy Summerly visits Dorchester where Thomas Hardy captured the caroling tradition that had matured through the 17th and 18th century but which faced extinction in the 19th. The West Gallery tradition of musicians and singers in parish churches was an integral part of community life in Hardy's Wessex as elsewhere. Jeremy explains the origins of that tradition and the fuguing carols so beloved at the time and why it was that their days were numbered.
Along with folk musician Tim Laycock he gets to see the carol manuscripts from which Hardy's great grandfather played and sang on Christmas night in 1800.
Series Description:
The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.
But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.
In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.
He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.
It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.
That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.
The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. THis series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:
'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."
Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.
Producer: Tom Alban.
FRI 14:30 Charles Dickens - Dombey and Son (b09j42cg)
Episode 10Florence meets her new mama and something stirs in Edith's cold heart. Stars Helen Schlesinger and Abigail Hollick. From November 2007.
FRI 14:45 The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away (b07f4sw0)
Episode 5In August 2003, 16 year-old Martin Burton suffered irreversible brain damage, and his parents Nigel and Sue agreed for his organs to be donated. Martin's corneas were frozen for future use, his right kidney was transplanted into an older woman, his left kidney into an older man. Martin's liver saved the life of Andrew Seely, a man in his thirties. Martin's heart has gone to 15 year-old Marc McCay.
In the final part of the series, journalist and writer Cole Moreton joins Nigel and Sue Burton as they travel up to Scotland to see Marc. Cole wants to find out how life has been for him these past 13 years since the transplant that saved his life. Cole is going to ask Marc to let Sue put a hand on his chest and feel the heart that came from her son beating inside him.
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:00 Saturday Drama (b01slm1l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
FRI 16:00 The Motion Show (b0075wnx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
FRI 16:30 After Henry (b007jnh1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
FRI 17:00 Capital Gains (b007r5d3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
FRI 17:30 Jeeves Live (b09hpg6t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
FRI 18:00 Haunted (b01qyntg)
Which One? by R Chetwynd-Hayes1940: A fire warden team are put to the severest test during a bombing raid. Will they all survive?
R Chetwynd-Hayes's creepy tale dramatised for radio by Patricia Mays.
Stars Reginald Marsh as Drayton. Garrard Greene as Hughes, Robert Glenister as Raymond, Adrian Egan as Smithers, Nigel Graham as Jackson and David Graham as Conway.
Director: Derek Hoddinott
First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1984.
FRI 18:30 Soul Music (b06s9d1h)
Series 21, Fairytale of New YorkThe tragi-comic tale of love gone sour and shattered dreams eloquently depicted in the Christmas classic Fairytale of New York is the focus of this edition of Soul Music. James Fearnley, pianist with The Pogues recounts how the song started off as a transatlantic love story between an Irish seafarer missing his girl at Christmas before becoming the bittersweet reminiscences of the Irish immigrant down on his luck in the Big Apple, attempting to win back the woman he wooed with promises of 'cars big as bars and rivers of gold'.
Gaelic footballer Alisha Jordan came to New York to play football aged 17 from County Meath in Ireland. Despite being dazzled by the glamour and pace of New York City, she missed her family and friends and stencilled the words 'Fairytale of New York' on her apartment wall as an affirmation of her determination to make the most of her new life in the city. When she was later attacked on the street by a stranger, the words came to signify her battle to recover and not to
let the horrific facial injuries she suffered defeat her or her ambition to captain her football team.
Rachel Burdett posted the video of the song onto her friend Michelle's social media page to let her know she was thinking of her and praying for her safe return when Michelle went missing suddenly one December. Stories of redemption and of a recognition that Christmas is often not the fairytale we are sold, told through a seasonal favourite.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
FRI 19:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00cbcpl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 19:30 Albert and Me (b007jsgr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 20:00 VI Warshawski (b007jqct)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 20:30 Going to Pieces in the Box (b00p61zg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 21:00 HE Bates - Sugar for the Horse (b007jvmk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
FRI 21:15 Afternoon Drama (b04v5pgh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
FRI 22:00 Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups (b06s9l5c)
Series 3, A Christmas Not SpecialEpisode 6, 'A Christmas Not Special'. A ring of the doorbell interrupts an already unconventional Wrigglesworth family Christmas.
Series 3 of the sitcom where Tom Wrigglesworth phones home for his weekly check-in with his Mum, Dad and Gran, giving listeners a glimpse into his family background and the influences that have shaped his temperament, opinions and hang-ups.
Episode 6 "A Christmas Not Special": The Wrigglesworths receive a Christmas visitor while Tom struggles to get home in time for dinner.
Starring Tom Wrigglesworth, Paul Copley, Kate Anthony, Elizabeth Bennett and Chris Pavlo.
Written by Tom Wrigglesworth and James Kettle with additional material by Miles Jupp
Produced by Richard Morris
A BBC Radio Comedy Production.
FRI 22:30 Radio Shuttleworth (b007s5ds)
Series 1, Episode 4Sheffield's aspiring singer-songwriter John Shuttleworth takes over the BBC airwaves. With Vanessa Feltz. From November 1998.
FRI 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b09lkh0m)
Robin InceArthur Smith presents the best in contemporary comedy and Jessica Fostekew challenges Robin Ince to a Christmas Quiz!
FRI 23:00 Listen Against (b008drpb)
Series 1, Episode 4A cheeky round-up of a week's worth of BBC radio that never happened.
Rewinding and mangling real programmes from across the networks, Alice Arnold and Jon Holmes take liberties with Steve Wright, Woman's Hour and Eddie Mair.
The brain-child of writer, comic and broadcaster Jon Holmes.
Producer: Bill Dare and Jon Holmes
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2007.
FRI 23:30 Life: An Idiot's Guide (b01q03l3)
Series 2, Facing Your FearsStephen K Amos is joined by stand-ups Michael Redmond, Holly Walsh, Boothby Graffoe and a particularly nervous audience member to compile and Idiot's Guide to Facing Your Fears.