SATURDAY 14 APRIL 2018

SAT 00:00 The Scarifyers (b085zygs)
The King of Winter, Episode 4
As the snow sets in, MI:13's Harry Crow and Professor Dunning race to save Prince George from the homicidal intentions of Lord Blackthorn - and can they save Great Britain from everlasting winter?
Stars David Warner as Harry Crow and Terry Molloy as Professor Dunning.
With Guy Henry, Stephen Critchlow, David Benson, Alex Lowe, Lisa Bowerman and David Bickerstaff.
The Scarifyers follows the exploits of 1930s ghost-story writer Professor Dunning and retired policeman Harry Crow, who together investigate weird mysteries under the auspices of top-secret government department MI:13.
Written by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris.
A Bafflegab Production.
SAT 00:30 Mastertapes (b01p40hr)
Series 1, Ray Davies (the B-Side)
John Wilson continues with his new series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
Programme 5, the B-side. Having discussed the making of two classic Kinks albums, 'Lola Versus Powerman and The Moneygoround, Part One' and 'Muswell Hillbillies' (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Tuesday 27th November and available online), Ray Davies responds to questions from the audience and performs acoustic live versions of some to the tracks from the albums, both of which were released more than forty years ago.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
SAT 01:00 MJ McGrath - White Heat (b01ntrgb)
Exhumation
On the trail of a clue which Inuit hunter and guide Edie has found in stepson Joe's bedroom, she returns with Derek and Willa to his burial place on Craig Island - and they disinter his body.
What they find there leads them to a resolution of the mystery of his death which they could never have imagined possible.
Concluded by Denise Gough.
White Heat is Essex born MJ McGrath's first novel. Abridged by Polly Coles.
Producer: Clive Brill
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Pacificus Productions.
SAT 01:30 Arthur Mee - Encyclopaedist (b00cdr0g)
The story of Arthur Mee, the prolific educationalist, editor and writer whose Children's Encyclopaedia and Children's Newspaper were bought by millions throughout the first half of the 20th century.
Many children remember fondly the place it occupied on their shelves and their knowledge of the world and other cultures came in large part filtered through the eclectic and eccentric lens of Mee's encyclopaedia - Mee was staunchly Christian, patriotic, imperialist and, to present day readers, a racist as well as an energetic campaigner for the temperance movement.
Ian Sansom interviews Mee's biographer Maisie Robson, publishers who have lovingly curated a huge backlist of Arthur Mee titles and people who grew up with his encyclopaedia in pride of place on their bookshelves.
SAT 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b08lk54g)
Sarah Perry - The Essex Serpent, Episode 10
Sarah Perry's award-winning novel set at the end of the nineteenth century and inspired by true events.
Moving between Essex and London, myth and modernity, Cora Seaborne's spirited search for the Essex Serpent encourages all around her to test their allegiance to faith or reason in an age of rapid scientific advancement. At the same time, the novel explores the boundaries of love and friendship and the allegiances that we have to one another. The depth of feeling that the inhabitants of Aldwinter share are matched by their city counterparts as they strive to find the courage to express and understand their deepest desires, and strongest fears.
Episode Ten
The villagers confront the myth of the Essex Serpent for the last time. Cora and Will are forced to re-examine their relationship and their future.
Sarah Perry was born in Essex in 1979. She has a PhD in creative writing at Royal Holloway which she completed under the supervision of Andrew Motion. She has been writer in residence at the Gladstone Library and is the winner of a Shiva Naipaul award for travel writing. Her first novel, After Me Comes The Flood won the East Anglian Book of the Year Award in 2014. The Essex Serpent was Waterstone's Book Of The Year in 2016 and was short-listed for the Costa Novel Award 2016. She lives in Norwich.
Writer: Sarah Perry
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Reader: Ruth Gemmell
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 02:15 Disability: A New History (b02140ny)
A Disabled Identity
In the final part of his series, Peter White reveals the birth of a modern disabled identity in the 19th century - through the lives of some extraordinary independent blind women.
Peter says, 'I'm used to people describing me as disabled. Fair enough, I can't see. But I do wonder sometimes whether putting me into a disabled category really makes much sense. Some of my best friends use wheelchairs, but the truth is our needs could hardly be more different. I fall over them, they run over me! But over the last 40 years, disabled people have needed a collective identity to make change possible, to break down discrimination in jobs, transport, in people's attitudes generally.
People have tended to think that this sense of collective identity in Britain began after the First World War, when so many men returned with very visible injuries. But the evidence I've uncovered making this series reveals it to have begun much earlier.
This evidence comes from new research into the lives of blind women in the 19th century. We hear the stories of two extraordinary women who fought the conventions of their time, Adele Husson and Hippolyte van Lendegem. Independent, critical, angry - their voices are very modern, and research into their lives challenges accepted wisdom about the history of the disability movement.
With historians Selina Mills, David Turner and Julie Anderson, and readings by Emily Bevan and Madeleine Brolly.
Producer: Elizabeth Burke
Academic adviser: David Turner of Swansea University
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 02:30 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09yhpyt)
Born at Last
After the disaster of Tristram's birth, his father thinks up a scheme to help his unfortunate son. Stars Neil Dudgeon. From February 2005.
SAT 02:45 James Bond - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (b07bq049)
Episode 10
Battling the evil Blofeld, Bond joins forces with Draco. All looks plain sailing for 007 and Tracy. Concluded by Joanna Lumley. From November 1989.
SAT 03:00 Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure (b007jq5z)
We Wronged No Man
Sue can no longer go on living with Phillotson as his wife, and elopes with Jude, who's now free of Arabella.
Sue, however, is intensely fearful of further entanglements, and cannot but see Jude's natural feelings for her in a brutal, barbaric light....
Thomas Hardy's 1895 novel dramatised in six parts by Elizabeth North.
Stars Michael Pennington as Jude Fawley, Elizabeth Garvie as Sue Bridehead, June Barrie as Widow Edlin, Elva Makins as Arabella, Hazel Ellerby as Annie, Jesse Lawrence as Father Time, John Linstrum as Dr Vilbert, Barrie Shore as the Rough Woman and Jerold Wells as the Auctioneer.
Produced at BBC Bristol by Brian Miller.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1986.
SAT 04:00 It's Your Round (b018g279)
Series 2, Episode 1
The first in a new series in which the panellists bring their own round for the other panellists to play.
Angus Deayton presides over a panel of comedians - Miles Jupp, Fred MacAulay, Josie Long and Nick Helm - all trying to beat each other at their own games.
Featured rounds:
Miles Jupp's 'Test Match Specialists', a quiz using the rules and regulations of the 'world's finest sport' (Miles' words)
Fred MacAulay's 'Play Your Various Different Categories Right', like 'Play Your Cards Right', but with other variables such as Scottish landmarks, household accident statistics, Radio 4 presenter's heights and, er, the song 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' by Band Aid.
Josie Long's 'Dream Day Job' in which panellists have to guess an audience member's dream day job by asking yes/no questions.
Nick Helm's 'Cream Crackered' in which panellists have to eat as many cream crackers as they can in a minute...commentated on by Test Match Special's very own, Henry Blofeld.
Producer: Sam Michell.
SAT 04:30 After Henry (b007jpt4)
Series 3, Wedding Bells
'Well, I think it's a mother's duty to keep a maternal eye on her daughter's emotional entanglements. That's what I always tried to do with you. You know, subtly. At a distance.'
Eleanor has plans for nuptials in the family, but the family has other ideas...
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 and Gerry Cowper as Clare.
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 September 1987.
SAT 05:00 The Stanley Baxter Playhouse (b06rz89l)
Series 7, The Flying Scotsman
A whodunnit set on the great Flying Scotsman in the days of steam. A rookie Detective Constable and a world weary Detective Inspector combine forces with a recalcitrant train guard to solve a murder and expose Soho gangland supremo Mickey Two Eyes and his side kick Legs Leona.
Stanley Baxter is the guard who rules over the passengers and the timetable with a rod of iron, and he's joined by Beth Marshall and David Mara as Scotland Yard's finest and Cathy Sara as a passenger with a secret.
Written by Rona Munro
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 05:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b09yfqst)
Hexagonal Phase, Episode 6
Simon Jones stars as Arthur Dent in a brand new full-cast series based on And Another Thing..., the sixth book in the famous Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy.
Forty years on from the first ever radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent and friends return to be thrown back into the Whole General Mish Mash, in a rattling adventure involving Viking Gods and Irish Confidence Tricksters, with our first glimpse of Eccentrica Gallumbits and a brief but memorable moment with The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast Of Traal.
Starring John Lloyd as The Book, with Simon Jones as Arthur, Geoff McGivern as Ford Prefect, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Sandra Dickinson and Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Jim Broadbent as Marvin the Paranoid Android and Jane Horrocks as Fenchurch. The cast also includes Samantha Béart, Toby Longworth, Andy Secombe, Ed Byrne, Lenny Henry, Philip Pope, Mitch Benn, Jon Culshaw and Professor Stephen Hawking.
The series is written and directed by Dirk Maggs and based on And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer, with additional unpublished material by Douglas Adams.
Music by Philip Pope
Production research by Kevin Jon Davies
Written and directed by Dirk Maggs
Based on the novel And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer, with additional material by Douglas Adams
Recorded at The Soundhouse Ltd by Gerry O'Riordan
Sound Design by Dirk Maggs
Produced by Dirk Maggs, Helen Chattwell and David Morley
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 06:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03s6jtx)
Anthony Trollope's The Warden
Anthony Trollope's The Warden, dramatised by Michael Symmons Roberts
The Warden is the first story in a series of dramatisations of Anthony Trollope's Barchester Chronicles.
The gentle Mr Harding finds his peaceful life disrupted when his would be son-in-law John Bold calls into question the large income he receives as warden of Barchester alms house. Mr Harding's daughter Eleanor is equally shocked and upset by her suitor's actions and she sets out to discover why the man she loves wants to injure someone as well respected and loved as her mild mannered father.
Mrs Baxter .... Maggie Steed
Mr Harding .... Tim Pigott-Smith
Bishop Grantly .... Andrew Sachs
Eleanor .... Claire Price
John Bold .... Bryan Dick
Archdeacon Grantly .... Malcolm Sinclair
Susan Grantly .... Charlotte Emmerson
Mary Bold .... Georgie Fuller
Bunce .... Sean Murray
Abel Handy .... Nick Brimble
Tom Towers .... David Seddon
Directed by Susan Roberts
Produced by Charlotte Riches
The Barchester Chronicles are Anthony Trollope's much-loved series of witty, gently satirical stories of provincial life set within the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and the surrounding county of Barsetshire. With a focus on the lives, loves and tribulations of the local clergy and rural gentry, the canvas is broad and colourful, with a wonderful set of iconic characters whose lives we become intimately involved in as they grow up, grow old and fall in or out of love and friendship across the years.
SAT 07:30 Freedom Pass (b00ssn7l)
Episode 6
Alan Coren and Christopher Matthew take the train to Southend-on-Sea to recall the holidays of their youth. From September 2005.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b01s02zb)
Dr K
Henry Kissinger is the most celebrated figure in US foreign policy, despite having left office over thirty-five years ago.
His much-vaunted "opening to China" with President Nixon in 1972, his détente policy with the Soviet Union during the Cold War and his shuttle diplomacy across the Middle East, all saw Dr. Kissinger guiding American interests and seeking durable power balances. Ever since then, each US president has sought out Kissinger's sage advice.
But Kissinger's reputation has a darker side. Some critics still find inexcusable the Americans' bombing of Cambodia and involvement in Chile's 1973 military coup. They also deplore what they see as his indifference to human rights.
In this programme, Mark Malloch Brown, a former Foreign Office minister and top official at the United Nations, presents a personal perspective on Dr. K.
As a young man in the 1960s and 1970s, Mark was repelled by what he saw as Kissinger's ruthless realpolitik and apparent downplaying of the plight of peoples from IndoChina to Latin America.
However, over the course of his own long career, Mark's view of Dr K has changed. The collapse of communism, the rise of China and the problems left unresolved by the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have led Mark to view Kissinger's insights into foreign policy - and how to achieve stability and security - more sympathetically.
As Kissinger's 90th birthday nears, Mark asks: what are the lessons of Dr K's thinking and practice for our own times?
Also taking part are the historian, Margaret MacMillan; the colleague and critic of Henry Kissinger, Morton Halperin; the long-standing Kissinger aide, Winston Lord; and the author of the award-winning critique of America's bombing of Cambodia, William Shawcross.
Producer Simon Coates.
SAT 09:00 Frank Loesser - Guys and Dolls (b00czkq3)
Broadway star Mandy Patinkin, Claire Moore, John Challis and Anita Dobson star in an exclusive, complete BBC recording of Frank Loesser's 1950's musical. Introduced by Sheridan Morley.
Set in a New York alive with gamblers, cops, nightclub performers and members of the Salvation Army, the score includes 'Adelaide's Lament', 'Luck Be a Lady' and 'Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat'. A gambler in need of cash bets he can make any girl go to Havana with him. But his pals pick a girl at the Save a Soul Mission in need of recruiting sinners to her cause.
The all-time Broadway classic ran for 1200 performances and won a Tony Award for Best Musical. Music and lyrics written by Frank Loesser based on stories by Damon Runyon, with a book by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling.
Starring Mandy Patinkin as Sky Masterson, Claire Moore as Sarah Brown, John Challis as Nathan Detroit, Anita Dobson as Adelaide, Patrick Clancy as Nicely Nicely Johnson, Michael Cahill as Benny Southstreet, Stephen Hill as Rusty Charlie, Matt Zimmerman as Harry the Horse, James Smillie as Big Jule, Don Fellows as Arvid Abernathy, Pamela Cundell as General Cartwright, Peter Harding as Lt Brannigan/Narrator and David Kelsey as Joey Biltmore.
With the Stephen Hill Singers and the BBC Concert Orchestra led by Cynthia Fleming and conducted by Michael Reed.
Script Associate: David Kelsey
Sound Balancer: Mike Robinson
Producer: John Langridge
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in July 1994.
SAT 11:30 Russell Davies (b00svvss)
Russell Davies on Guys and Dolls
Russell Davies spotlights the award-winning American composer, Frank Loesser through his all-time classic Broadway musical, Guys and Dolls.
Recorded to mark Loesser's centennial year.
Producer: Roy Oakshott
First broadcast in 'The Russell Davies Show' made by Wise Buddah productions for BBC Radio 2 in 2010.
SAT 12:00 Just a Minute (b00vrt93)
Series 58, Episode 1
Paul Merton, Tony Hawks, Kit Hesketh-Harvey and Alun Cochrane are the panellists for this, the first of the new series of Just a Minute.
This is the long-running panel game which tests whether people have the gift of the gab. Panellists try to speak on a given subject without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Much more difficult than it sounds...
The suave and usually unflappable Nicholas Parsons is chairman as ever. Today the panellists struggle with a huge range of subjects as diverse as My First Kiss, Conkers and Having a Duvet Day.
This show comes from The Quays Theatre at The Lowry Centre in Salford.
SAT 12:30 Take It From Here (b09yd9y9)
From 11/10/1955
The cast take oaths of allegiance - and 'The Glums' go to the pictures.
Starring Professor Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley, June Whitfield, Alma Cogan and Wallace Eton.
Music from The Keynotes and the BBC Revue Orchestra.
Classic comedy scripted by Frank Muir and Denis Norden.
Producer: Charles Maxwell
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in October 1955.
SAT 13:00 How Does That Make You Feel? (Series 9 Omnibus) (b09z6205)
For several months, MP Richard Fallon has managed to avoid scandal and humiliation, but as ever he is desperate to strike a balance between peace and stability and his craving for recognition.
And so alarm bells start ringing when he reveals to his therapist Martha - in total secrecy - that he has had an approach from a popular reality TV show...
The ninth series by Shelagh Stephenson, starring Roger Allam as Richard Fallon and Frances Tomelty as Martha.
Director: Eoin O'Callaghan
First broadcast in 5 parts on BBC Radio 4 in 2018.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b09z6207)
Joanna Trollope
Novelist Joanna Trollope inherits 'La Mer' by Charles Trenet and passes on 'Mythical Kings and Iguanas' by Dory Previn.
SAT 14:15 Sentimental Journey (b0076z1t)
Germaine Greer
Arthur Smith accompanies academic, writer and critic Germaine Greer to southern Italy, where she spent the summer of 1967.
Producer: Vibeke Venema
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
SAT 14:45 Robb Wilton - I Should Say So (b01l7rsc)
Series 1, The Carnival
Robb Wilton (1881-1957) was one of the most popular music hall and radio comics of the 1930s and 1940s.
Famed as an all-round pessimist - what would he have made of 1980s Britain - trying to solve an unusual problem?
Michael Williams stars as Robb Wilton - making as little sense out of life as he did 40 years before...
Written by Allen Saddler.
Producer: Brian Miller
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 1986.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b01s02zb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03s6jtx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Freedom Pass (b00ssn7l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 Afternoon Drama (b012fbw8)
Torchwood - The Lost Files, The Devil and Miss Carew
Martin Jarvis and Juliet Mills join the regular cast for this latest Torchwood adventure by Rupert Laight.
When Rhys's elderly Uncle Bryn has a heart attack while listening to the shipping forecast, it seems like another routine death at Ivyday Nursing Home. But when Rhys and Gwen go to collect the old man's effects, Gwen's suspicions are roused by another elderly resident. The conversation is cut short, though, by a fire alarm, one of many consequences of the mysterious power cuts that are sweeping the nation. Gwen has a hunch that something is wrong and her search leads her to Miss Carew, a suspiciously fit and strong octogenarian who, despite having supposedly terminal heart disease, has left Ivyday and gone back to work at the Computer firm she used to run. Miss Carew has been offered a deal by Fitzroy, a wandering alien with an aversion to electricity who is looking for a home. It's a deal that Miss Carew can't refuse. But the consequences for planet Earth are unthinkable.
Rupert Laight is one of the writers of The Sarah Jane Adventures
Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis.
A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.
SAT 18:45 Edinburgh Haunts (b03dvx6d)
I Remember Yesterday
By Val McDermid.
A young woman haunts 'the Serpent's Back' of The Royal Mile in Edinburgh, seeking revenge to the 70s strains of Donna Summer's song 'I Remember Yesterday'. Read by Hannah Donaldson
The first of three brand new ghost stories from leading Scottish writers set in Edinburgh. Bestselling crime writer Val McDermid, whose Tony Hill detective novels were dramatised as TV series Wire in the Blood, kicks off our haunted Edinburgh tales.
The series continues with Susie Maguire's tale of an actor at the Edinburgh Festival whose performance of a Robert Louis Stevenson short story begins to take hold of him uncannily.
And thriller writer Louise Welsh concludes with a story that evokes the folklore of the doppelganger, or double, but is set in a contemporary Edinburgh town house. In traditional tales, your double is a shadow heralding your own death - if you see your own doppelganger in passing, it's very bad news.
Producer: Allegra McIlroy.
SAT 19:00 Larry Adler, All Mouth Organ (b07hnqrq)
Nick Baker explores the remarkable life of virtuoso musician Larry Adler.
Larry Adler's achievement was to take the harmonica, until then thought of as a children's toy, onto the concert stages of the world. He did this with a parallel career as a celebrity, a raconteur, writer and funny man.
This celebration of his work includes rare archive and new contributions from broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, author Michael Freedland along with musician Philip Achille and those close to him.
* "The Adler Archives" - A selection of hidden gems.
* "Nice Work if You Can Get It (part one) - The Tin Sandwich"
Russell Davies explores Adler's early days in Baltimore, tours of the United States and how his virtuoso harmonica playing inspired composers. Originally broadcast in 2001
* "Deconstructing Larry"
A brand new programme sees Nick Baker attempting to unravel the mercurial world of the infamous mouth organist.
* "Blow Suck - The World's Most Successful Instrument"
Nick Baker traces the history of the harmonica. First broadcast in 1987
* "Nice Work if You Can Get It (part two) - It Ain't Necessarily So"
Russell Davies concludes his series on Adler with more anecdotes and musical tales. Originally broadcast in 2001
Producer: Stephen Garner
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in June 2016.
SAT 22:00 My Teenage Diary (b03b2j7f)
Series 5, Janet Ellis
Another brave celebrity revisits their formative years by opening up their intimate teenage diaries.
Comedian Rufus Hound is joined by actress and presenter Janet Ellis, whose teenage diaries show that her love of arts and crafts started long before she got the job on Blue Peter.
Producer: Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 22:30 Cowards (b00fq6rq)
Series 2, Episode 4
Sketch show with a comic slant on human frailties. With Tom Basden, Tim Key and Lloyd Woolf. From December 2008.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0b060z1)
Shazia Mirza 2/3
Arthur Smith chats to the award-winning comedian Shazia Mirza.
SAT 23:00 That Mitchell and Webb Sound (b00mwm67)
Series 4, Episode 6
The new yoghurt for women, and meet Britain's best police tortoise. Stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb. From September 2009.
SAT 23:30 Think the Unthinkable (b007k4wm)
Series 2, Barrington Comprehensive
The management consultants try reversing the fortunes of an inner city school. Stars Marcus Brigstocke. From November 2002.

SUNDAY 15 APRIL 2018

SUN 00:00 Afternoon Drama (b012fbw8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Saturday]
SUN 00:45 Edinburgh Haunts (b03dvx6d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:45 on Saturday]
SUN 01:00 How Does That Make You Feel? (Series 9 Omnibus) (b09z6205)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:00 on Saturday]
SUN 02:10 Inheritance Tracks (b09z6207)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:10 on Saturday]
SUN 02:15 Sentimental Journey (b0076z1t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Saturday]
SUN 02:45 Robb Wilton - I Should Say So (b01l7rsc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Saturday]
SUN 03:00 Archive on 4 (b01s02zb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 on Saturday]
SUN 04:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03s6jtx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Saturday]
SUN 05:30 Freedom Pass (b00ssn7l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z66f4)
Omnibus 1/2
18th-century gentleman Tristram tries to tell his tragi-comic life story through accounts of his family and friends, his experiences and his ideas. But he continually finds he must digress...
Laurence Sterne's ground-breaking comic novel dramatised in 10 parts by Graham White.
Stars Neil Dudgeon as Tristram, Julia Ford as Mother, David Troughton as Father, Adrian Scarborough as Toby, Paul Ritter as Trim, Tony Rohr as Dr Slop, Stephen Hogan as Obadiah, Helen Longworth as Susannah, Ndidi Del Fatti as Great-Grandmother, Stuart Mcloughlin as Great-Grandfather, Stuart Mcloughlin as Pontificating Man and Hugh Dickson as Bishop Hall.
Director: Mary Peate
First broadcast in 10 parts on BBC Radio 4 in 2005.
SUN 07:15 Maeve Binchy - Needy (b070pd53)
Heather learns that all Valentine's Day declarations of love should be viewed with suspicion. Read by Patricia Hodge. From February 1997.
SUN 07:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b03brkf1)
Series 3, Episode 5
John Finnemore, the writer and star of Cabin Pressure, regular guest on The Now Show and popper-upper in things like Miranda, presents a third series series of his hit sketch show.
The first series was described as "sparklingly clever" by The Daily Telegraph and "one of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time" by The Guardian. The second series won Best Radio Comedy at both the Chortle and Comedy.co.uk awards, and was nominated for a Sony award.
This time around, John promises to stop doing silly sketches about nonsense like Winnie the Pooh's honey addiction or how goldfish invented computer programming, and concentrate instead on the the big, serious issues.
This fifth episode of the series reveals the truth behind some famous anecdotes and a curious tale of a hard-bitten dame. Part of this show are in 3-D. Unfortunately, it's a horrible part.
Written by and starring John Finnemore, with Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.
Producer: Ed Morrish.
SUN 08:00 Ray's a Laugh (b007jrkl)
From 21/09/1950
Ted and Kitty return from their holidays, and George tackles an art theft.
Starring Ted Ray. With Kitty Bluett, Peter Sellers, Patricia Hayes, Fred Yule and Leslie Perrins.
Ray's a Laugh - the successor to ITMA - follows the comedy exploits of Ted's life at home with his 'radio' wife Kitty, as well as in a variety of jobs. It ran from 1949-1961.
Scripted by Eddie Maguire and Ted Ray with George Wadmore.
Music from Bob & Alf Pearson and The Beaux and The Belles.
BBC Dance Orchestra conducted by Stanley Black.
Producer: George Inns
First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in September 1950.
SUN 08:30 Take It From Here (b09z66f6)
From 18/10/1955
Trouble at Prufrock's matrimonial agency, and Ethel wants to open a sweet shop in 'The Glums'.
Starring Professor Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley, June Whitfield, Alma Cogan and Wallace Eton.
Music from The Keynotes and the BBC Revue Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.
Announcer: David Dunhill
Classic comedy scripted by Frank Muir and Denis Norden.
Producer: Charles Maxwell
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in October 1955.
SUN 09:00 Alberto Manguel - Packing My Library (Omnibus) (b09xjb68)
Alberto Manguel has had consistent 5-star ratings for his books on reading, books and libraries. With regret, he packs up his library of 35,000 volumes and prepares to move from a vast property in rural France to a small apartment on Manhattan's West Side.
Choosing which books to keep, store or cast out, Manguel finds himself in deep reverie on the nature of relationships between books and readers, books and collectors, order and disorder, memory and reading.
In this poignant re-evaluation of his life as a reader, he illuminates the highly personal art of reading and affirms the vital role of public libraries. Manguel's musings range widely - from delightful reflections on the idiosyncrasies of book lovers to deeper analyses of historic and catastrophic book events, including the burning of ancient Alexandria's library and contemporary library lootings at the hands of ISIS.
With insight and passion, the author underscores the universal centrality of books and their unique importance to a democratic, civilised and engaged society.
Read by Oliver Cotton
Abridger : Barry Johnston
Producer : David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production first broadcast in 5 parts on BBC Radio 4 in 2018.
SUN 10:10 The Listening Project (b03kk9br)
Ali and Peg - Love, Life and Leeds United
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between friends about how football has seen them through divorce and re-marriage, even if Elland Road isn't the best place to find a new partner.
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 (b09z66f8)
Artists, Maggie Hambling
4 Extra Debut. From George Melly to Marilyn Monroe, artist Maggi Hambling shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From December 2005.
SUN 11:00 Radiolab (b09z66fb)
Series 3, Birthstory
Radiolab explores a story featuring a sperm and an egg, two wombs and four countries. With Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich.
Radiolab is a Peabody-award winning show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy and the human experience.
First broadcast on public radio in the USA.
SUN 12:00 Ray's a Laugh (b007jrkl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SUN 12:30 Take It From Here (b09z66f6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
SUN 13:00 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z66f4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SUN 14:15 Maeve Binchy - Needy (b070pd53)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 today]
SUN 14:30 Ruth Rendell - Dark Corners (Omnibus) (b06rv3jc)
Episode 2
For a while, all was looking rosy for budding crime writer Carl. He'd inherited a house in Maida Vale from his late father, published his first novel, Death's Door, to mild acclaim and his lovely girlfriend Nicola had accepted his invitation to come and live with him. But a series of unfortunate events has led to the unravelling of this almost perfect life.
Carl's first mistake was to rent the top floor of his house to the first person who answered his advert, Dermot. Second was selling slimming pills, found in his late father's bathroom cabinet, to his actress friend Stacey who died as a result of their nasty side effects. Dermot witnessed the 'transaction' and has used this knowledge to blackmail Carl and live rent free ever since.
As the weeks have passed, Dermot has placed more and more pressure upon Carl - so much, in fact, that he's almost reached breaking point...
Ruth Rendell's final novel is a dark and atmospheric tale of psychological suspense concluded by Patricia Hodge.
Acclaimed by her literary peers and beloved by her readers, Ruth Rendell wrote over sixty novels in a career that spanned fifty years. She received numerous awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with A Demon in My View, a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986, and the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990. In 2013 she was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer. She died in May 2015, aged 85.
Abridger Robin Brooks.
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.
First broadcast in 10 parts on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.
SUN 15:45 Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities (b04lsxhf)
Chicago and New York
Long In 1959, Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was commissioned by the Sunday Times to explore some of the world's most exotic cities. Travelling to the Far East and then to America, he left the bright main streets for the back alleys, abandoning tourist sites in favour of underground haunts, and mingling with celebrities, gangsters and geishas. The result is a series of vivid snapshots of a mysterious, vanished world.
Fleming wote, 'On November 2nd, armed with a sheaf of visas...one suitcase...and my typewriter, I left humdrum London for the thrilling cities of the world. All my life I have been interested in adventure and abroad. I have enjoyed the frisson of leaving the wide, well-lit streets and venturing up back alleys in search of the hidden, authentic pulse of towns. It was perhaps this habit that turned me into a writer of thrillers.'
In today's episode, Fleming flies to the USA and visits the garage in Chicago where the St. Valentine's Day Massacre took place. In New York, he thrills at the sight of the traffic lights changing from red to green in unison all the way down Park Avenue.
Read by Simon Williams
Abridged by Mark Burgess
Copyright Ian Fleming Publications Ltd 1963
Produced by David Blount
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 16:00 Thornton Wilder - The Bridge of San Luis Rey (b09z66fd)
"Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan."
The finest bridge in all Peru collapses and five people plunge to their deaths. An eyewitness sets himself the task of explaining why it was the fate of those five to die...
Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel dramatised by Judith Adams.
Stars Annette Badland as Madre Maria del Pilar, Michael Feast as Uncle Pio, Frederick Forge as Jaime, Robert Glenister as Brother Juniper, Tom Goodman-Hill as Esteban, Jasmine Hyde as Pepita, Helen McCrory as Camila, la Perichole and Sian Phillips as the Marquesa de Montemayor.
Director: Gaynor MacFarlane.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2002.
SUN 17:00 Poetry Extra (b09z66fj)
The Poet and the Murderer
Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive with 'The Poet and the Murderer'.
Simon Worrall reveals how convicted double murderer Mark Hofmann forged an Emily Dickinson poem so perfect it fooled leading scholars and experts. A gripping true story of poetry, murder and the art of forgery.
Dickinson famously lived much of her life as a recluse, producing her works of concentrated brilliance from the bedroom of her father's house in Amherst, Massachusetts. She chose not to publish during her lifetime and hand-sewn booklets containing some 1,800 poems were discovered in a locked box in her room after her death.
Why does Dickinson continue to fascinate, and what might Hofmann's fake poem tell us about the true poet's work and life?
Producer: Mair Bosworth
First broadcast on BBC Radio in 2015.
SUN 17:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b03brkf1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 18:00 Terry Pratchett (b00b50xj)
Small Gods, Episode 2
Novice priest Brutha has been selected by Deacon Vorbis to go on a secret mission to the infidel city of Ephebe.
The Great God Om, who is stuck in the body of a small tortoise, is going with him in a little wicker basket.
Terry Pratchett's comic fantasy stars Anton Lesser as the Narrator, Patrick Barlow as Om, Carl Prekopp as Brutha, Alex Jennings as Vorbis, Philip Fox as Aktor, Sean Barrett as Xeno, Gerard McDermott as the Captain and John Cummins as the Sergeant.
Dramatised by Robin Brooks.
Producer: Claire Grove
Director: Gordon House
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2006.
SUN 18:30 Weird Tales (b00vknlv)
Series 1, The Fly
Series of four chilling and intimate plays.
Lonely, middle-aged computer programmer Alan knows everything there is to know about flies. Then one day, online, he meets Amber, a Californian lady who knows everything there is to know about spiders.
Lovecraft/Colby ...... Stephen Hogan
Mother ...... Stella Gonet
Alan ...... Alec Newman
Amber ...... Rachel Ogilvy
Other parts played by Caroline Guthrie, Janice Acquah and Paul Rider.
Directed by Luke Fresle.
SUN 19:00 Radiolab (b09z66fb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
SUN 20:00 Alberto Manguel - Packing My Library (Omnibus) (b09xjb68)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SUN 21:10 The Listening Project (b03kk9br)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:10 today]
SUN 21:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b09z66f8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:15 today]
SUN 22:00 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b03brkf1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 22:30 Brian Gulliver's Travels (b00z58bb)
Series 1, Osminia
Brian Gulliver, a seasoned presenter of travel documentaries, finds himself in a hospital's secure unit after claiming to have had a number of bizarre adventures.
This week he travels to Osminia, a land where marriage is outlawed.
Produced by Steven Canny
Brian Gulliver's Travels is a new satirical adventure story from Bill Dare. The series has attracted an excellent cast led by Neil Pearson and award winning star of the RSC's current season, Mariah Gale. Cast includes fantastic actors Tamsin Greig, John Standing, Paul Bhattacharjee, Christopher Douglas, Catherine Shepherd, Vicky Pepperdine, Phil Cornwell, Antonia Campbell Hughes, Jo Bobin and Katherine Jakeways.
For years Bill Dare wanted to create a satire about different worlds exploring Kipling's idea that we travel, 'not just to explore civilizations, but to better understand our own'. But science fiction and space ships never interested him, so he put the idea on ice. Then Brian Gulliver arrived and meant that our hero could be lost in a fictional world without the need for any sci-fi.
Satirical targets over the series: the medical profession and its need to pathologize everything; the effect of marriage on children; spirituality and pseudo-science; compensation culture; sexism; the affect of our obsession with fame.
Gulliver's Travels is the only book Bill Dare read at university. His father, Peter Jones, narrated a similarly peripatetic radio series: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
SUN 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0b0617b)
Shazia Mirza 3/3
Arthur Smith chats to the award-winning comedian Shazia Mirza.
SUN 23:00 John Shuttleworth's Lounge Music (b04c9xd3)
Series 1, Leee John of Imagination
Aspiring singer/songwriter John Shuttleworth has been posting audio cassettes of his "finest songs to date" to pop stars throughout the land, in the hope that someone would record his material. But all to no avail.
However, the BBC has very kindly given John a series and asked him to invite pop stars to bring their music to his Sheffield home. So it is that Chas and Dave, Heaven 17, Toyah Willcox and Leee John find themselves in John's lounge having tea with wife Mary, being flirted with by Mary's friend Joan and hassled by John's agent Ken Worthington, as they try and perform not only one their greatest hits but more importantly, one of John's.
It's the last show in the series this week but John is feeling a little stressed despite the fact all the jingles are recorded. John's final guest is Leee John from Imagination who's a very busy man involved with charity work, singing, acting and making a documentary - and John is worried that Leee is doing too much and should take things a bit easy. Maybe they could take a trip to the reservoir to check the levels as that's a very relaxing thing to do?
But Leee has been working since the age of 13 and is still full of energy so he's ready to sing one of John's songs, and indeed one of his own. As Leee prepares to sing Body Talk, John settles down to listen and by the end of it feels quite relaxed. But things get tense once more as Ken tries one last desperate attempt to woo a star to his stable. Will Leee be interested? And will Ken finally get to present the item Ken in the Konservatory?
Also, there are top tips on the telephone from Anita Harris.
Written and Performed by Graham Fellows with special guests Leee John and Anita Harris.
Producer: Dawn Ellis
A Chic Ken production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 23:30 2000 Years of Radio (b007jnj7)
Series 1, Steaming - Radio Victoriana
Steam powered fun from the Great Exhibition of 1851, plus the latest inventions. Stars Marcus Brigstocke. From November 2000.
SUN 23:45 Quando, Quando, Quando (b0082bz0)
The Christmas Rush
When the Christmas snipping gets out of hand and the salon clients get too crazy, Carlo decides he's had enough. It's time to do something about it...
Brothers Rene, Carlo and Charlie Quando chop, snip and crimp their lucky clients into shape at London's finest hair salon.
Six-part comedy written and performed by Rainer Hersch and Mark Maie. With Stephen Greif and Catherine Tate.
Producer: Claire Jones
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1999.

MONDAY 16 APRIL 2018

MON 00:00 Terry Pratchett (b00b50xj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Sunday]
MON 00:30 Weird Tales (b00vknlv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Sunday]
MON 01:00 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z66f4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Sunday]
MON 02:15 Maeve Binchy - Needy (b070pd53)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 on Sunday]
MON 02:30 Ruth Rendell - Dark Corners (Omnibus) (b06rv3jc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Sunday]
MON 03:45 Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities (b04lsxhf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:45 on Sunday]
MON 04:00 Thornton Wilder - The Bridge of San Luis Rey (b09z66fd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:00 Poetry Extra (b09z66fj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b03brkf1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Sunday]
MON 06:00 Richard Marsh - An Illustration of Modern Science (b007jq1h)
Convinced she will soon be murdered, stage artiste Beauffie Buckingham enlists the help of a London barrister to make her will...
Richard Marsh's thriller read by Joanna Riding.
Richard Marsh was the pseudonym of British author Richard Bernard Heldmann. (1857-1915) best known for his supernatural thriller 'The Beetle'.
Producer: Katherine Beacon
Made for BBC 7 and first broadcast in 2003.
MON 06:30 Knutas on Britain (b00yqtxp)
Pipe organs, spas and hound trailing. Eclectic reflections on Brits by Finnish tango expert and reporter John Knutas. From January 2004.
MON 07:00 Millport (b0076bfv)
Series 3, Wild Rover
The Cumbrae Club is up and running and the islanders are already arguing over how it should be run.
Meanwhile back at Bruce House, Moira is in hysterics over her missing pet pooch. But will Irene risk missing the ferry and losing her job to help her unhappy sister?
Bittersweet comedy written by and starring Lynn Ferguson as 30-something barmaid Irene Bruce, who hankers after a better life on the mainland.
With Janet Brown as Agnes / Moira, Lewis McLeod as Alberto Ferryman / Robert the dog / Morris, Gabriel Quigley as Ena / Bunty, Robert Paterson as the Minister / Bob, and Kenneth Bryans as Dougie.
Producer: Lucy Bacon
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2002.
MON 07:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b09yd065)
Series 20, Episode 2
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Richard Osman, Elis James, Sindhu Vee and Alan Davies are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as Google, rugby, bananas and crabs.
Produced by Richard Turner.
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 08:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007k251)
The Marrow Contest
The green-fingered lad takes on the authorities to save his pride and joy.
Starring Tony Hancock, Bill Kerr, Sidney James. Andree Melly and Kenneth Williams.
Announcer: Kenneth Williams
Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Theme and incidental music composed by Wally Stott. Recorded by the BBC Revue Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.
Producer: Dennis Main Wilson
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in June 1955.
MON 08:30 Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel (b0080jsp)
Series 2, Episode 1
Shady lawyer, Waldorf T Flywheel needs patients - in his latest scam as a doctor.
Recreation of the Marx Brothers' lost shows charting the adventures of shady lawyer Waldorf T Flywheel and his assistant, Emmanuel Ravelli. Originally broadcast with sponsors on America's NBC radio network in the 1930s. The scripts were rediscovered in 1988.
Starring Michael Roberts as Groucho Marx as Waldorf T Flywheel and Frank Lazarus as Chico Marx as Emmanuel Ravelli
With Lorelei King, Graham Hoadly and Vincent Marzello.
Written by Nat Perrin and Athur Sheekman. Adapted by Mark Brisenden.
Music arranged and conducted by David Firman.
Producer: Dirk Maggs
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1991.
MON 09:00 Just a Minute (b00vxz2w)
Series 58, Episode 2
The well-loved, long-running panel game with Nicholas Parsons at the helm. This week's panellists are Paul Merton, Sue Perkins, Kevin Eldon and Julian Clary.
The panellists are asked to speak on subjects given to them for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Much more difficult than it sounds...
This week Sue Perkins describes her experience of Waiting Rooms reducing Nicholas to helpless giggles along the way, new-boy Kevin Eldon talks tantalisingly about Dressing Provocatively and Julian Clary teases Paul Merton about his subject My Comedy Hero.
MON 09:30 King Street Junior (b007jnmj)
Series 9, Crossed Lines
An angry visitor, a naughty boy and a girl with a 'problem' make for an uncomfortable day.
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 Jim Eldridge.
Stars Karl Howman as Mr Sims, James Grout as the Headmaster, Margaret John as Mrs Stone, Deirdre Costello as Mrs Patterson, Paul Copley as Mr Long, Marlene Sidaway as Miss Lewis, Vivienne Martin as Mrs Rudd, Tom Watson as Mr Holliday, Pat Coombs as Betty Austin, Brian Bowles as Nicholas Austin, Jason Blake as Daniel Kreizman and Sophie Ward as Louise.
Producer: John Fawcett Wilson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1997.
MON 10:00 Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure (b007t2h6)
The Letter Killeth
Into their lives comes little Father Time, the child of Jude and Arabella.
Sue finds herself bowed down with domestic drudgery and hardship. Jude returns to his humbler trade of baking because his consumption cannot withstand the outdoor life of a stonemason.
Once again there's the old longing to return to Christminster, and Jude makes a resolution...
Conclusion of Thomas Hardy's 1895 novel dramatised in six parts by Elizabeth North.
Stars Michael Pennington as Jude Fawley, June Barrie as Widow Edlin, Elizabeth Garvie as Sue Bridehead, John Normington as Phillotson, Elva Makins as Arabella, Hazel Ellerby as Annie, Jesse Lawrence as Father Time, Brian Jackson as Tinker Taylor, Gregory Phillips as Jack Stagg, John Linstrum as Dr Vilbert, Alexa Romanes as the Landlady, Judy Gibson as the Woman and Brian Gear a as Man in Crowd.
Produced at BBC Bristol by Brian Miller.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1986.
MON 11:00 Rebecca F John - Clown's Shoes (b06nxb16)
Bullet Catch
1920s Vienna: Showman Victor Dahl is developing a dangerous obsession. Read by Lloyd Hutchinson.
An ambitious debut collection of short stories by Rebecca F John, dipping into the shadows and spotlights of life.
Rebecca F John is from Pwll, a village on the South Wales coast, and works as a Ski Instructor. Her short story The Dog Track was broadcast on Radio 4 as part of The Time Being series in 2013, and Crow Road was broadcast in the Nights Of The Hunter series in 2015.
The Glove Maker's Numbers was shortlisted for The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award in 2015. Rebecca won the PEN International New Voices Award for her story Moon Dog in October 2015.
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Sweet Talk Productions.
MON 11:15 Juliet Ace - Mattie: The New Look (b0075kfg)
Tailor's Tacks
1946: Young Mattie loves spending time next door in the tailor's workroom where the adults often forget that she's there and say things they shouldn't.
Juliet Ace's trilogy of plays about the South Wales childhood of Mattie Jones.
Stars Vanessa Mullaley as Young Mattie, Jennifer Hill as Older Mattie, Margaret John as Hannah, Viv Moore as Lizzie, Siriol Jenkins as Ceridwen, William Thomas as Mr Matthias, Viv Goodfield as Mrs Matthias and Shelley Miranda Barrett as Beeny.
Directed at BBC Wales by Tanya Nash
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
MON 12:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007k251)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 12:30 Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel (b0080jsp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 13:00 Richard Marsh - An Illustration of Modern Science (b007jq1h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 13:30 Knutas on Britain (b00yqtxp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b039pfsw)
Jonathan Coe - Expo 58, Episode 1
London 1958: Unassuming civil servant Thomas Foley is plucked from his desk at the Central Office of Information and sent on a six-month trip to Brussels. His task - to keep an eye on The Britannia, a brand new pub which will form the heart of the British presence at Expo 58, the biggest World's Fair of the century and the first to be held since the Second World War.
As soon as he arrives at the site, Thomas feels that he has escaped a repressed, backward-looking country and fallen headlong into an era of modernity and optimism. He is equally bewitched by the surreal, gigantic Atomium, which stands at the heart of this brave new world, and by Anneke, the lovely Flemish hostess who meets him off his plane.
But Thomas's new-found sense of freedom comes at a price. The Cold War is at its height, the mischievous Belgians have placed the American and Soviet pavilions right next to each other - and why is he being followed everywhere by two mysterious emissaries of the British Secret Service?
Expo 58 may represent a glittering future, both for Europe and for Thomas himself, but he will soon be forced to decide where his public and private loyalties really lie.
Written by Jonathan Coe
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Read by Tim McInnerny
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 14:15 Shakespeare's Restless World (b01dp526)
England Goes Global
Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, returns to Radio 4 with a new object-based history. Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.
With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed. He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.
Programme 1. ENGLAND GOES GLOBAL - How Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the globe changed the way Shakespeare's audiences viewed the world and their country's place on it. For the first time, England was engaging with the whole world.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
MON 14:30 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z6dcz)
What's in a Name?
Having recovered from the disastrous incident with Tristram's nose, his father is dealt another blow.
18th-century gentleman Tristram tries to tell his tragi-comic life story through accounts of his family and friends, his experiences and his ideas. But he continually finds he must digress...
Continuing Laurence Sterne's ground-breaking comic novel dramatised in 10 parts by Graham White.
Stars Neil Dudgeon as Tristram, Julia Ford as Mother, David Troughton as Father, Adrian Scarborough as Toby, Deborah Findlay as Widow Wadman, Stephen Hogan as Obadiah, Paul Ritter as Trim, Tony Rohr as Dr Slop, Helen Longworth as Susannah, Ndidi Del Fatti as Bridget, Hugh Dickson as Le Fever and Stuart Mcloughlin as Death,
Director: Mary Peate
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2005.
MON 14:45 Book of the Week (b01rfz5s)
Simon Morrison - The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev, Music and Romance
Simon Morrison's new biography of Lina Prokofiev tells the story of the remarkable woman who married the brilliant composer Serge Prokofiev. Today, music and romance.
Lina Prokofiev's compelling story unfolds with the intrigue of a spy novel. Serge Prokofiev's glamorous wife fell madly in love with the brilliant composer while she was working as a secretary in Brooklyn where she lived with her Russian emigre parents. She soon followed him to Paris where his star continued to rise, and where they married and started a family. Their sophisticated lifestyle was irrevocably altered when Serge was lured back to Moscow in 1936 by false promises of artistic and personal freedom. After Serge and Lina's marriage crumbled, she fell foul of the worst excesses of Stalin's regime and ended up spending eight years in the Gulag.
Simon Morrison is Professor of Music History at Princeton. He is the author of The People's Artist, a definitive account of Prokofiev's career.
The reader is Sian Thomas. Abridged by Richard Hamilton. Produced by Elizabeth Allard
Show More
Show Less.
MON 15:00 Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure (b007t2h6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
MON 16:00 Just a Minute (b00vxz2w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
MON 16:30 King Street Junior (b007jnmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
MON 17:00 Millport (b0076bfv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
MON 17:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b09yd065)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 18:00 GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday (b007jw4p)
The Unusual Soiree
When young poet Gabriel Syme meets Lucien Gregory, he is introduced to a mysterious Edwardian London secret society.
Published in 1908, GK Chersterton's most famous novel is read in 13 parts by Geoffrey Palmer.
Director: Lawrence Jackson
Made for BBC Radio 7 by BBC Northern Ireland.
First broadcast in 2005.
MON 18:30 A Good Read (b09z6w92)
Michael Berkeley and Kerry Shale
Sue MacGregor and her guests - BBC Radio 3's presenter of Private Passions, Michael Berkeley and actor Kerry Shale - discuss their favourite paperbacks by Raymond Radiguet, Josephine Tey and Charles Bukowski. From January 2006.
The Devil in the Flesh, by Raymond Radiguet
Publisher: Marion Boyars
Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tay
Publisher: Arrow Books
Post Office, by Charles Bukowski.
Publisher: Virgin Books.
MON 19:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007k251)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 19:30 Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel (b0080jsp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 20:00 Richard Marsh - An Illustration of Modern Science (b007jq1h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 20:30 Knutas on Britain (b00yqtxp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 21:00 Rebecca F John - Clown's Shoes (b06nxb16)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
MON 21:15 Juliet Ace - Mattie: The New Look (b0075kfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
MON 22:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b09yd065)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 22:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b007jlzj)
The Primary Phase, Fit The First
Arthur Dent is trying to stop his house being demolished to make way for a by-pass. But his friend, Ford Prefect is more concerned about the imminent destruction of the Earth.
Ford is a writer for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "the most successful book ever to have come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor" and he may just know how to avoid being evaporated by the Vogons...
An epic adventure in time and space including some helpful advice on how to see the Universe for less than 30 Altairian dollars a day.
Starring Peter Jones as The Book, Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Bill Wallis as The Vogon Captain, Jo Kendall as Lady Cynthia and David Gooderson as the Barman.
The original scripts by Douglas Adams (1952-2001) went on to spawn a series of novels, a feature film, at least three stage shows, a TV series, a computer game, a collection of comic books - and various towels.
Radiophonic sound and music by Paddy Kingsland.
Producer: Simon Brett.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1978.
MON 23:00 News Quiz Extra (b09z6x0s)
Series 23, Episode 1
Made for 4 Extra. Miles Jupp chairs a satirical review of the week's news in an extended version of Friday's programme.
MON 23:45 Helen Keen's It Is Rocket Science (b03zd3jk)
Series 3, Episode 1
A new series of Helen Keen's comic but scientifically accurate look at the science and history of space exploration.
This week's episode looks at how we might one day travel to Mars and beyond, and discusses the problems of long space voyages, with tips on a rather unsavoury way to stop cosmic rays and what to do if you feel like eating your crewmates.
Starring Helen Keen, Peter Serafinowicz and Susy Kane
Written by Helen Keen and Miriam Underhill
Produced by Gareth Edwards.

TUESDAY 17 APRIL 2018

TUE 00:00 GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday (b007jw4p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Monday]
TUE 00:30 A Good Read (b09z6w92)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Monday]
TUE 01:00 Richard Marsh - An Illustration of Modern Science (b007jq1h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:30 Knutas on Britain (b00yqtxp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b039pfsw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Monday]
TUE 02:15 Shakespeare's Restless World (b01dp526)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Monday]
TUE 02:30 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z6dcz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:45 Book of the Week (b01rfz5s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Monday]
TUE 03:00 Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure (b007t2h6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:00 Just a Minute (b00vxz2w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:30 King Street Junior (b007jnmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Monday]
TUE 05:00 Millport (b0076bfv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Monday]
TUE 05:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b09yd065)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Monday]
TUE 06:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl7v)
The Net and the Canal, Waking Up to Nessun Dorma
Feisty Detective Superintendent Julie Enfield investigates a series of mysterious murders along London's Regent's Canal.
Atmospheric thriller written by Nick Fisher.
Starring Imelda Staunton as Julie Enfield, Geoffrey Matthews as Dad, Ross Livingstone as DS Lawrence Evans, Denys Hawthorne as Goodfellow and Kim Wall as Jimmy.
Producer: Richard Wortley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996.
TUE 06:30 Forever 22 (b00hc948)
Roger Daltrey explores the turbulent relationship between Buddy Holly and his manager and producer, Norman Petty.
Niki Sullivan and JI Allison, guitarist and drummer with The Crickets, and Buddy's widow Maria Elena reveal that all was not well between the pair, and the tensions led to a split. Roger hears how Petty made a series of unusual business decisions on behalf of the band, and accrued writing credits - and consequently royalty payments - to himself which are still causing financial difficulties some 50 years on.
TUE 07:00 Arrested Development (b0075vxs)
Episode 4
Can Bob manage to woo Kate back? What future for jilted bride Penny?
Stars Letitia Dean as Penny, Phil Cornwell as Dave, Julian Rhind-Tutt as Andy and Susannah Doyle as Kate.
Simon Warne's 4 part-comedy serial.
Producer: Tracey Neale
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2000.
TUE 07:30 Love in Recovery (b075q02q)
Series 2, Coming Clean
Second series of the award-nominated comedy drama set in Alcoholics Anonymous, written by Pete Jackson and inspired by his own road to recovery. Stars Sue Johnston, John Hannah, Eddie Marsan, Rebecca Front, Paul Kaye and Julia Deakin.
Love in Recovery follows the lives of five very different recovering alcoholics. Taking place entirely at their weekly meetings, we hear them moan, argue, laugh, fall apart, fall in love and - most importantly - tell their stories.
In this fourth episode, Julie (Sue Johnston) is having a tough time with her new bloke, and Danno (Paul Kaye) has a secret to share with the group. A big secret. A shameful secret. A secret he thought he'd never have to reveal.
Writer Pete Jackson is a recovering alcoholic and has spent time in Alcoholics Anonymous. It was there he found support from the unlikeliest group of disparate souls - with one common bond. As well as offering the support he needed throughout a difficult time, AA also offered a weekly, sometimes daily, dose of hilarity, upset, heartbreak and friendship.
There are lots of different kinds of AA meetings. Love in Recovery is about meetings where people tell their stories. There are funny stories, sad stories, stories of small victories and milestones, stories of loss, stories of hope, and those stories that you really shouldn't laugh at - but still do, along with the storyteller.
Cast:
Marion...........Julia Deakin
Fiona.............Rebecca Front
Simon............John Hannah
Julie...............Sue Johnston
Danno............Paul Kaye
Andy..............Eddie Marsan
Written and created by Pete Jackson
Producer/Director: Ben Worsfield
A Lucky Giant production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 08:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b05y0vd9)
From 07/09/1975
Doddy and chums friends set out to celebrate all the good things in life...
Starring Ken Dodd.
With Jo Manning Wilson, Gretchen Franklin, Talfryn Thomas, Chris Emmett and Michael McClain.
Devised and written by Ken Dodd with Dave Dutton, David McKellar, Norman Beadle and Philip.
Doddy's Diddy Orchestra conducted by Geoff Alderson.
Producer: Bobby Jaye
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 2 in September 1975.
TUE 08:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jzd0)
That's My Baby
Love-struck civil servant Lamb is fast-tracked into fatherhood.
Stars Richard Murdoch and Deryck Guyler. With Norma Ronald, Ronald Baddiley, John Graham, Pat Coombs and Cass Allen.
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 June 1975.
TUE 09:00 News Quiz Extra (b09z6x0s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]
TUE 09:45 Helen Keen's It Is Rocket Science (b03zd3jk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:45 on Monday]
TUE 10:00 Drama (b06sf10d)
The Bed-Sitting Room
Three years since the nuclear misunderstanding which led to the third world war ("and it's no idle boast when I remind you that this was the shortest world war on record... two minutes twenty eight seconds... including the signing of the Peace Treaty which is now on sale at Her Majesty's Stationery Office with a free T-shirt") survivors gather together on the former-streets of London. In amongst the rubble, Captain Kak and his fiancee Penelope find Lord Fortnum, who is convinced he's turning into a bed-sitting room. With property prices what they are, Kak should be on to a good thing.
This atmospheric, surrealist play was originally written by John Antrobus and Spike Milligan, and has been adapted for radio by John Antrobus and Paul Merton.
Music and FX by Jerry Peal.
Directed by Sam Michell.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
TUE 11:00 Rebecca F John - Clown's Shoes (b06nxwlk)
The Glove Maker's Numbers 1/2
Convinced the Devil visited her after she was traumatised by the death of her brother, Christina has been recovering in a sanatorium, and must have her photograph taken before she leaves. Read by Ruth Gemmell.
An ambitious debut collection of short stories by Rebecca F John, dipping into the shadows and spotlights of life.
Rebecca F John is from Pwll, a village on the South Wales coast, and works as a Ski Instructor. Her short story The Dog Track was broadcast on Radio 4 as part of The Time Being series in 2013, and Crow Road was broadcast in the Nights Of The Hunter series in 2015.
The Glove Maker's Numbers was shortlisted for The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award in 2015. Rebecca won the PEN International New Voices Award for her story Moon Dog in October 2015.
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Sweet Talk Productions.
TUE 11:15 Juliet Ace - Mattie: The New Look (b0075klp)
Beeny's Camiknickers
Winter, 1947: Mattie spends most of her time with Beeny in the bakery, where she learns to make faggots and discovers the perils of flirting with boys...
Juliet Ace's trilogy of plays about the South Wales childhood of Mattie Jones.
Stars Stephanie Wookey as Young Mattie, Jennifer Hill as Older Mattie, Shelley Miranda Barrett as Beeny, Donna Edwards as Mrs Edwards, Catherine Tregenna as Mair, Rhian Morgan as Mona, Rhodri Hugh as Frankie Sherlock and Christian Patterson as Ieuan.
Directed at BBC Wales by Tanya Nash
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
TUE 12:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b05y0vd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 12:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jzd0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 13:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 13:30 Forever 22 (b00hc948)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b039rnyy)
Jonathan Coe - Expo 58, Episode 2
London 1958: Unassuming civil servant Thomas Foley is plucked from his desk at the Central Office of Information and sent on a six-month trip to Brussels. His task - to keep an eye on The Britannia, a brand new pub which will form the heart of the British presence at Expo 58, the biggest World's Fair of the century and the first to be held since the Second World War.
As soon as he arrives at the site, Thomas feels that he has escaped a repressed, backward-looking country and fallen headlong into an era of modernity and optimism. He is equally bewitched by the surreal, gigantic Atomium, which stands at the heart of this brave new world, and by Anneke, the lovely Flemish hostess who meets him off his plane.
But Thomas's new-found sense of freedom comes at a price. The Cold War is at its height, the mischievous Belgians have placed the American and Soviet pavilions right next to each other - and why is he being followed everywhere by two mysterious emissaries of the British Secret Service?
Expo 58 may represent a glittering future, both for Europe and for Thomas himself, but he will soon be forced to decide where his public and private loyalties really lie.
Written by Jonathan Coe
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Read by Tim McInnerny
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 14:15 Shakespeare's Restless World (b01g61vf)
Communion and Conscience
Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, returns to Radio 4 with a new object-based history. Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.
With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed. He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.
Programme 2. COMMUNION AND CONSCIENCE - The communion cup that Shakespeare may well have used sheds light on the dramatic religious changes that came in the aftermath of the Reformation
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
TUE 14:30 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z70pv)
Another Misfortune
Yet another misfortune befalls the boy Tristram as his father receives awful news. Stars Neil Dudgeon. From February 2005.
TUE 14:45 Book of the Week (b01rg220)
Simon Morrison - The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev, European Adventures
Simon Morrison's new biography of Lina Prokofiev tells the story of the remarkable woman who married the brilliant composer, Serge Prokofiev. Today, European adventures.
Simon Morrison is Professor of Music History at Princeton. He is the author of The People's Artist, a definitive account of Prokofiev's career.
The reader is Sian Thomas. Abridged by Richard Hamilton. Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
TUE 15:00 Drama (b06sf10d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
TUE 16:00 It's Not What You Know (b060ztxq)
Series 3, Episode 2
What was Seann Walsh's worst gig? What was Dane Baptiste's nickname at school? What is Sara Cox's all time favourite food?
All these burning questions, and more, will be answered in the show hosted by Miles Jupp, where panellists are tested on how well they know their nearest and dearest.
In this case, comedians Seann Walsh and Dane Baptiste pick their old school mates, and DJ Sara Cox asks her best friend to answer questions about each other.
Producer: Matt Stronge.
TUE 16:30 Ballylenon (b007jx40)
Series 4, Episode 4
A phone call gives Phonsie the ammunition to deal with Packy McGoldrick.
Series set in the sleepy town of Ballylenon, Co Donegal in 1955.
Written by Christopher Fitz-Simon.
Starring TP McKenna as Phonsie Doherty, Margaret D'Arcy as Muriel McConkey, Stella McCusker as Vera McConkey, Aine McCartney as Vivienne Boal, Gerard Murphy as Rev Hawthorne, Cathy White as Josie Doherty and Tim Loane as Packy McGoldrick.
Music arranged and performed by Stephanie Hughes.
Director: Eoin O'Callaghan
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1997.
TUE 17:00 Arrested Development (b0075vxs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
TUE 17:30 Love in Recovery (b075q02q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 18:00 GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday (b007jw50)
The Anarchists' Council
In an underground HQ, poet Gabriel Syme witnesses Lucien Gregory addressing the Central Anarchist Council.
Published in 1908, GK Chersterton's most famous novel is read in 13 parts by Geoffrey Palmer.
Director: Lawrence Jackson
Made for BBC Radio 7 by BBC Northern Ireland.
First broadcast in 2005.
TUE 18:30 Pioneers (b014qz46)
Series 2, The Samaritans
Father Roy Day and Mike Tunstall chat to Clare English about the history of the first 24-hour helpline in the UK, the Samaritans.
The duo recall how the charity's founder, Chad Varah, provided a lifeline to many vulnerable people.
Producer: Philip Sime
First broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in 2011.
TUE 19:00 The Ken Dodd Show (b05y0vd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 19:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jzd0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 20:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 20:30 Forever 22 (b00hc948)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 21:00 Rebecca F John - Clown's Shoes (b06nxwlk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
TUE 21:15 Juliet Ace - Mattie: The New Look (b0075klp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
TUE 22:00 Love in Recovery (b075q02q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 22:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b007jm03)
The Primary Phase, Fit The Second
Arthur Dent is - so far - the only survivor from Earth, demolished to make way for a by-pass. He survived thanks to his friend, Ford Prefect (who hails not from Guildford, but somewhere near Betelgeuse), a writer for the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, "the most successful book ever to have come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor". Both are now at the mercy of the Vogon Captain, and even worse, powerless in the face of his poetry. The only thing which can save them now is an unlikely coincidence or two - and it may lead to an encounter with a certain bipolar automaton.
The global multi-media success story that is "Hitchhiker's" started life as a Radio 4 series in March 1978. The original scripts by the late Douglas Adams then went on to spawn a series of novels, a feature film, at least three stage shows, a TV series, a computer game, a collection of comic books - and various towels.
The Guide helpfully informs us that the most obscene expletive in the Galaxy is "Belgium".
Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge and died in 2001 at the age of 49. He suffered a fatal heart attack after working out at his gym in California.
The answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything is 42.
With Peter Jones, Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Mark Wing-Davey and Stephen Moore. Produced by the late Geoffrey Perkins.
TUE 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0b061h7)
James Acaster 1/2
Laura Lexx chats to Kettering's most famous export, James Acaster.
TUE 23:00 Elvenquest (b00wdjz9)
Series 2, Episode 4
The search for the Sword of Asnagar is put on hold when Vidar is summoned home by his father. Meanwhile Lord Darkness also returns home from his Necromancer's convention, proud holder of the "Medal of Chang", the prize for being "Necromancer's Necromancer". However, it turns out that Lord Darkness may not have won it entirely fairly so he sets about trying to cover his tracks.
The fates of Lord Darkness and the Questers are drawn together when they both end up having to cross the Gorge of Doom. But first they must pass the mysterious Bridge Keeper who controls the only passage across. And he charges a heavy price...
An all-star cast, featuring:
Stephen Mangan as "Sam",
Alistair McGowan as "Lord Darkness",
Gus brown as "The Bridge Keeper"
Kevin Eldon as "Dean/Kreech",
Darren Boyd as "Vidar",
Dave Lamb as "Amis - The Chosen One"
Sophie Winkleman as "Penthiselea"
Written by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto (Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars At No.42)
The producer is Sam Michell.
TUE 23:30 The Lawrence Sweeney Mix (b00k9pcb)
Series 1, Episode 2
Making it up as they go along, Josie Lawrence and Jim Sweeney's improvised sketches driven by the audience. From March 2007.

WEDNESDAY 18 APRIL 2018

WED 00:00 GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday (b007jw50)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Tuesday]
WED 00:30 Pioneers (b014qz46)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Tuesday]
WED 01:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:30 Forever 22 (b00hc948)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b039rnyy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Tuesday]
WED 02:15 Shakespeare's Restless World (b01g61vf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Tuesday]
WED 02:30 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z70pv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:45 Book of the Week (b01rg220)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Tuesday]
WED 03:00 Drama (b06sf10d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:00 It's Not What You Know (b060ztxq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:30 Ballylenon (b007jx40)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]
WED 05:00 Arrested Development (b0075vxs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Tuesday]
WED 05:30 Love in Recovery (b075q02q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Tuesday]
WED 06:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl86)
The Net and the Canal, Communicating With the President
With a fresh body pulled from Regent's Canal, Detective Superintendent Julie Enfield must turn to the internet in her quest to solve the murder mystery.
Atmospheric thriller written by Nick Fisher.
Starring Imelda Staunton as Julie Enfield, Geoffrey Matthews as Dad, Ross Livingstone as DS Lawrence Evans, Denys Hawthorne as Goodfellow and Alice Arnold as Mac.
Producer: Richard Wortley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996.
WED 06:30 The Goddess of English (b01p0hj6)
India has a new deity, the Goddess of English, worshipped by former Untouchables who see the language as their deliverer from poverty and ignorance. Zareer Masani investigates.
The English language and the educational legacies of the Raj are still hotly contested. Lord Macaulay, the 19th century imperialist who introduced Western education, is reviled by Indian nationalists. The term "Macaulay's Children" is still used by as a pejorative label for anglicised Indians.
Yet Macaulay's ideas have been enthusiastically adopted today by India's Dalits, the former 'Untouchables', For them, English is a liberating force. Their saviour from caste oppression is personified as a goddess, modelled on the Statue of Liberty, in a sari and mounted on a computer.
Zareer visits the elite Cathedral school, where he was a pupil, a English medium school for poorer people, and one that teaches in the local language, Marathi. Talking to teachers, students, business people and politicians, in classrooms, by the pool at the Willingdon club, and in a cramped Dalit flat, Zareer explores the education of upper-class "Macaulay children", and the hunger for English among poor Indians.
English is essential to upward mobility: politicians committed to education in indigenous languages send their own children to English medium schools. Servants spend half their salaries to get their children into these. Yet the teachers themselves might not speak English well. So, is a foreign language really the best medium of instruction for India's educational system? What is the impact on India's indigenous languages? Zareer ponders, too, whether English has now become as native to India as any of its own languages, in its vibrant Indianised form known as 'Hinglish'.
Producer: Julian May.
WED 07:00 Ring Around the Bath (b00tvqmr)
Series 2, Space Perception
Desperate to sell up and move to the country, Stella tries burying the hatchet with the neighbours.
Series 2 of Lucy Clare and Ian Davidson's sitcom about topsy-turvy family life.
Stars Duncan Preston as Patrick, Penny Downie as Stella, Claudie Blakley as Alison, Bruce MacKinnon as Rick, Catherine Shepherd as Xanthe, Daniela Denby-Ashe as Egg and Roise Armstrong as the Fitness Instructor.
Producer: Elizabeth Freestone
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2004.
WED 07:30 Sketchtopia (b09yfnn7)
Series 1, Episode 2
Broadcaster and comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli sets out to find the next generation of white, black, Asian and minority ethnic satirical sketch writers, with a keen eye on finding the funny in a multicultural Britain.
Traditionally, some of the best UK sketch comedy shines a satirical light on social issues of the time, finding comedy from difficult subject matter or awkward social convention. When it comes to multiculturalism, sketch team Goodness, Gracious Me kicked open the door with their classic 90s sketch show, including the legendary Going For An English routine.
Sketchtopia aims to make sharp observations about modern Britain and, most importantly, allow shared experiences, common points of reference and authenticity to come together and hold a mirror up to our society and tell us a truth about ourselves.
Stand-ups and comedy writers from diverse backgrounds have been invited to give us a comic snapshot of UK society through their own observations and experiences. In these divisive times, Sketchtopia aims to poke fun at our multicultural society and tries to discover a diverse, multi-ethnic Utopia through good old-fashioned British sketch comedy.
In this episode - charity adverts, the potential loss of Eurovision, diversity in the workplace, and a young Indian traveller returns from his gap year in the UK with exciting new experiences...in a Tesco Metro.
Host: Hardeep Singh Kohli.
Performer: Vivienne Acheampong
Performer: Luke Manning
Performer: Jamie-Rose Monk
Performer: Nimisha Odedra
Performer: Paul G Raymond.
Script Editors: Sanjeev Kohli and Donny Mcleary
Writers: Sadia Azmat, Asmara Gabrielle, Kai Samra, Lizzie Bates, Anna Emerson, Athena Kugblenu, Joanne Lau, Jim Felton and In Cahoots.
Producer: Gus Beattie.
A Gusman production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 08:00 The Navy Lark (b007wpr5)
Mount Rumpus Atoll
Povey has no trouble in naming a useless frigate to be a target in a NATO exercise.
Starring Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Stephen Murray as the Number One, Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Richard Caldicot as Captain Povey, Ronnie Barker as Lt Commander Stanton, Tenniel Evans as AS Goldstein, Heather Chasen as Heather and Michael Bates as Lieutenant Bates.
Laughs afloat aboard British Royal Navy frigate HMS Troutbridge. The Navy Lark ran for an impressive thirteen series between 1959 and 1976
Scripted by Lawrie Wyman
Producer: Alastair Scott Johnston.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in December 1960.
WED 08:30 Round the Horne (b00j7qhl)
Series 1, Episode 16
Kenneth Horne spies cosmic traffic wardens, Charles and Fiona are losing their grip, plus melodramas galore at Bona Productions thanks to Julian and Sandy.
With Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee.
Recorded at the BBC's Paris Studio in Lower Regent Street, London. Announcer: Douglas Smith
Round The Horne was born out of the demise of BBC radio comedy Beyond Our Ken, after the end of writer Eric Merriman's involvement. Using the same cast and producer, Barry Took and Marty Feldman were persuaded to write the scripts - which led to four series that ran between 1965 and 1968 - packed full of parodies, recurring characters, catchphrases and double-entendres.
Music by Edwin Braden and the Hornblowers and The Fraser Hayes Four.
Producer: John Simmonds
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in June 1965.
WED 09:00 The Write Stuff (b09z77pk)
Series 17, Gerard Manley Hopkins
Radio 4's literary panel show, hosted by James Walton. Recorded at the Hay Festival with team captains Sebastian Faulks and John Walsh and guests Russell Davies and Sue Limb.
This week's author is Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Produced by Alexandra Smith.
WED 09:30 Life, Death and Sex with Mike and Sue (b0075nzw)
Series 3, Episode 4
Sofa-bound TV presenters Mike and Sue tackle stress and honesty, plus an everyday problem for Miriam Stoops.
Starring Robert Duncan and Jan Ravens. With Ronnie Ancona, Alistair McGowan, Roger Blake and Tim De Jongh.
Written by Tim De Jongh from a format by Bill Dare.
Music by Mark Burton
Producer: Aled Evans
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1998.
WED 10:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03sg4s2)
Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, The New Bishop
1 of 3: The New Bishop
by Anthony Trollope; dramatised by Nick Warburton
Four years have passed since Mr Harding was forced to relinquish the wardenship of Hiram's Hospital.
Now the cathedral town of Barchester is changing again, with the arrival of a new Bishop, his wife and Chaplain from London throwing all Barchester into disarray. And Eleanor Bold is to meet them all and discover a potential rival in the beautiful but lame Madeline Neroni.
Music composed by David Tobin, Jeff Meegan and Julian Gallant
Directed by Marion Nancarrow
Barchester Towers is the sequel to The Warden. Starting 4 years later, it follows Mr Harding, his daughter Eleanor and his son-in-law, Archdeacon Grantly. Mr Harding thinks he's found a sort of peace, having accepted that he's lost the Wardenship of Hiram's Hospital. But there's been a shocking occurrence between the two books which has had a profound effect on his younger daughter, Eleanor. And now the world of Barchester is to be rocked again, with the arrival of newcomers who threaten the sleepy tranquillity of the cathedral town.
The Barchester Chronicles is Anthony Trollope's much-loved series of witty, gently satirical stories of provincial life set within the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and the surrounding county of Barsetshire. With a focus on the lives, loves and tribulations of the local clergy and rural gentry, the canvas is broad and colourful, with a wonderful set of iconic characters whose lives we become intimately involved in as they grow up, grow old and fall in or out of love and friendship across the years.
WED 11:00 Rebecca F John - Clown's Shoes (b06nzlt0)
The Glove Maker's Numbers 2/2
Christina is released and returns home, but tries finding refuge from her thoughts in the imagery of numbers. Concluded by Ruth Gemmell.
An ambitious debut collection of short stories by Rebecca F John, dipping into the shadows and spotlights of life.
Rebecca F John is from Pwll, a village on the South Wales coast, and works as a Ski Instructor. Her short story The Dog Track was broadcast on Radio 4 as part of The Time Being series in 2013, and Crow Road was broadcast in the Nights Of The Hunter series in 2015.
The Glove Maker's Numbers was shortlisted for The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award in 2015. Rebecca won the PEN International New Voices Award for her story Moon Dog in October 2015.
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Sweet Talk Productions.
WED 11:15 Juliet Ace - Mattie: The New Look (b0075krx)
Celluloid Lady
1948: Mattie is now fascinated by Mona Morgan and her daydreams about Hollywood film stars as she pulls pints in her father's pub...
Juliet Ace's trilogy of plays about the South Wales childhood of Mattie Jones.
Stars Stephanie Wookey as Young Mattie, Jennifer Hill as Older Mattie, Rhian Morgan as Mona, Ifan Huw Dafydd as Garfield, Shelley Miranda Barrett as Beeny, Cler Stephens as Doris, Jeremi Cockram as Tom and lestyn Jones as Bryn.
Directed at BBC Wales by Tanya Nash
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999.
WED 12:00 The Navy Lark (b007wpr5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 12:30 Round the Horne (b00j7qhl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 13:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl86)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 13:30 The Goddess of English (b01p0hj6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b039rnzm)
Jonathan Coe - Expo 58, Episode 3
London 1958: Unassuming civil servant Thomas Foley is plucked from his desk at the Central Office of Information and sent on a six-month trip to Brussels. His task - to keep an eye on The Britannia, a brand new pub which will form the heart of the British presence at Expo 58, the biggest World's Fair of the century and the first to be held since the Second World War.
As soon as he arrives at the site, Thomas feels that he has escaped a repressed, backward-looking country and fallen headlong into an era of modernity and optimism. He is equally bewitched by the surreal, gigantic Atomium, which stands at the heart of this brave new world, and by Anneke, the lovely Flemish hostess who meets him off his plane.
But Thomas's new-found sense of freedom comes at a price. The Cold War is at its height, the mischievous Belgians have placed the American and Soviet pavilions right next to each other - and why is he being followed everywhere by two mysterious emissaries of the British Secret Service?
Expo 58 may represent a glittering future, both for Europe and for Thomas himself, but he will soon be forced to decide where his public and private loyalties really lie.
Written by Jonathan Coe
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Read by Tim McInnerny
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 14:15 Shakespeare's Restless World (b01drtc2)
Snacking through Shakespeare
Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, returns to Radio 4 with a new object-based history. Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.
With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed. He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.
Programme 3. SNACKING THROUGH SHAKESPEARE - A luxury fork discovered on the site of the Rose theatre helps explain what people were nibbling on when they first heard: "Is this a dagger I see before me?"
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
WED 14:30 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z78kj)
An Act of Kindness
Tristram recalls a typical act of kindness by Toby and the time his uncle fell in love. Stars Neil Dudgeon. From February 2005.
WED 14:45 Book of the Week (b01rggq1)
Simon Morrison - The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev, Moscow Beckons
Simon Morrison's new biography of Lina Prokofiev tells the story of the remarkable woman who married the brilliant composer Serge Prokofiev. Today, Moscow beckons.
Simon Morrison is Professor of Music History at Princeton. He is the author of The People's Artist, a definitive account of Prokofiev's career.
The reader is Sian Thomas. Abridged by Richard Hamilton. Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
WED 15:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03sg4s2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
WED 16:00 The Write Stuff (b09z77pk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
WED 16:30 Life, Death and Sex with Mike and Sue (b0075nzw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
WED 17:00 Ring Around the Bath (b00tvqmr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
WED 17:30 Sketchtopia (b09yfnn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 18:00 GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday (b007w5jd)
The Tale of a Detective
When Gabriel Syme turns the tables on Lucien Gregory, the Central Anarchist Council take action.
Published in 1908, GK Chersterton's most famous novel is read in 13 parts by Geoffrey Palmer.
Director: Lawrence Jackson
Made for BBC Radio 7 by BBC Northern Ireland.
First broadcast in 2005.
WED 18:30 Sounds Natural (b07hwrh5)
Spike Milligan
From Rhesus Monkeys to Kookaburras. Star of The Goon Show, Spike Milligan talks to Derek Jones about his enthusiasm for wild animals and his concern for their future - aided by recordings from the BBC Sound Archives.
Spike Milligan KBE: born 1918 - died 2002.
Producer: John Burton.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 1972.
WED 19:00 The Navy Lark (b007wpr5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 19:30 Round the Horne (b00j7qhl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 20:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl86)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 20:30 The Goddess of English (b01p0hj6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 21:00 Rebecca F John - Clown's Shoes (b06nzlt0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
WED 21:15 Juliet Ace - Mattie: The New Look (b0075krx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
WED 22:00 Sketchtopia (b09yfnn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 22:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b007jm0m)
The Primary Phase, Fit The Third
A whale meets an unfortunate end, as Arthur Dent and company meet the Earth's creators. By Douglas Adams. From March 1978.
Arthur Dent is - so far - the only survivor from Earth, demolished to make way for a by-pass. He survived thanks to his friend, Ford Prefect (who hails not from Guildford, but somewhere near Betelgeuse), a writer for the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, "the most successful book ever to have come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor". Now paired with fellow Earth survivor Trillian and duplicitous two-headed hustler Zaphod Beeblebrox, Arthur and Ford are about to learn more startling truths about the universe.
The global multi-media success story that is "Hitchhiker's" started life as a Radio 4 series in March 1978. The original scripts by the late Douglas Adams then went on to spawn a series of novels, a feature film, at least three stage shows, a TV series, a computer game, a collection of comic books - and various towels.
Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge and died in 2001 at the age of 49. He suffered a fatal heart attack after working out at his gym in California.
With Peter Jones, Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Mark Wing-Davey and Stephen Moore. Produced by the late Geoffrey Perkins.
WED 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0b061nt)
James Acaster 2/2
Laura Lexx chats to Kettering's most famous export, James Acaster.
WED 23:00 As Told to Craig Brown (b00bbnxt)
Series 1, Episode 5
Craig Brown introduces a mixture of satire, social observation and nonsense.
Narrated by Juliet Stevenson and Steve Wright, with John Humphrys, Ronni Ancona, Jon Culshaw, Lewis MacLeod, Sally Grace, Ewan Bailey and Margaret Cabourn-Smith.
WED 23:30 The Consultants (b0076pvy)
Series 2, Episode 4
Taking register at stunt school and Tarzan learns the alphabet. Sketch comedy with Neil Edmond and Justin Edwards. From December 2003.

THURSDAY 19 APRIL 2018

THU 00:00 GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday (b007w5jd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Wednesday]
THU 00:30 Sounds Natural (b07hwrh5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesday]
THU 01:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl86)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Wednesday]
THU 01:30 The Goddess of English (b01p0hj6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b039rnzm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Wednesday]
THU 02:15 Shakespeare's Restless World (b01drtc2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Wednesday]
THU 02:30 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z78kj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:45 Book of the Week (b01rggq1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Wednesday]
THU 03:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03sg4s2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:00 The Write Stuff (b09z77pk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:30 Life, Death and Sex with Mike and Sue (b0075nzw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Wednesday]
THU 05:00 Ring Around the Bath (b00tvqmr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Wednesday]
THU 05:30 Sketchtopia (b09yfnn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Wednesday]
THU 06:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl8k)
The Net and the Canal, Tarantulas in Trojan Horses
A mysterious internet hacker is complicating murder inquiries for Julie Enfield - and there's a fresh find along Regent's Canal.
Atmospheric thriller written by Nick Fisher.
Starring Imelda Staunton as Julie Enfield, Geoffrey Matthews as Dad, Ross Livingstone as DS Lawrence Evans, Denys Hawthorne as Goodfellow and John Hollis as Honest Jack.
Producer: Richard Wortley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996.
THU 06:30 Children of Wealth (b00f1qwx)
Jim White spends a week with the children of Citi Private Bank's richest clients as they contemplate their future. Over a week of cossetting at London's Dorchester Hotel, they are tutored on how to keep, spend and give away their wealth by some of the finest financial minds in the world.
THU 07:00 Hopes and Desires (b0076dx4)
Series 1, Vongole
Professor Swann's favourite pastime is seducing female students over a languorous meal of Spaghetti Vongole.
But what is he really looking for? And can he improve before he is landed in deeper water than the ornate Italian clam he so relishes?
Hopes and Desires is a series of comedies about unconscious yearnings.
Michael Butt's comedy drama stars Bill Nighy as Tristram, Emma Callander as Minnie, Miranda Colchester as Helen, Stephen Critchlow as Freddie and Carolyn Jones as Mamma.
Director: Peter Kavanagh
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2003.
THU 07:30 My Obsession (b09yclxr)
Paul Merton and Suki Webster star in a warm-hearted and surprising comedy play about a comedian meeting his number one fan.
Danny Heywood wakes in his hotel room to find that he is not alone. Sheryl, a fan on a mission, has let herself into the room and is determined not to leave until she gets what she wants. But what exactly does she want?
The ensuing stand off is a hilarious game of verbal cat and mouse as they both endeavour to maintain control of a very bizarre situation. This comic play - staged in real time - observes the obsessive, narcissistic culture of so-called celebrity - the desire to be famous and the urge to be near it.
My Obsession enjoyed a sold out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014, where it garnered excellent reviews.
Cast:
Danny - Paul Merton
Sheryl - Suki Webster
Written by Suki Webster
Producer - Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 08:00 Marriage Lines (b068r53p)
Series 2, Episode 13
It's baby's christening day and George is packing for Africa.
Richard Briers and Prunella Scales star in their second series based on the mutual love and mistrust of a young married couple.
With Edward De Souza and Joan Sanderson.
Originating on BBC TV, it was adapted for radio due to its popularity by Richard Waring from his own TV scripts.
A decade later, Richard Briers was starring as Tom Good in The Good Life whilst Prunella Scales starred as Sybil in Fawlty Towers. They remained friends until Richard Briers' death in 2013.
Producer: Charles Maxwell
Recorded at the BBC Paris Studio in London.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in June 1967.
THU 08:30 The Goon Show (b09z7br2)
The Missing Scroll
Can ace translator Neddie Seagoon recover the lost ancient manuscript of Purdom?
Starring Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe.
Beginning in May 1951 as 'Crazy People', The Goon Show ran for 10 series stretching the boundaries of radio comedy in new and influential directions concluding in January 1960.
The team reunited in October 1972 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the BBC for The Last Goon Show of All.
Scripted by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes.
With the Ray Ellington Quartet and Max Geldray
Orchestra conducted by Wally Stott.
Announcer: Wallace Greenslade
Producer: Peter Eton
First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in February 1955.
THU 09:00 Listomania (b09z7br4)
Series 1, Episode 3
Susan Calman hosts the series exploring the world of the list - from the magnificent to the mundane - from the humble 'to do' list to the bucket list and many more...
With Sara Cox, James Acaster, Miles Jupp and Jocelyn Esien.
Written by James Kettle and Gráinne Maguire with Max Davis and Gabby Hutchinson Crouch.
Producers: Sam Bryant and Adnan Ahmed.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 2015.
THU 09:30 HR (b01c7rgv)
Series 3, Disinherited
In Nigel Williams' comedy series the two 60-something chums have just lost their pensions. Sam (Nicholas lePrevost) and Peter (Jonathan Pryce) resort to desperate measures. Which now include visiting an aged - very wealthy - aunt.
Sam....Nicholas le Prevost
Peter...Jonathan Pryce
Aunt Norah... Dillie Keane
Maud...Kate Layden
Directed by...Peter Kavanagh.
THU 10:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03tr7j6)
Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, Things Unsaid
2/3: Things Unsaid
by Anthony Trollope, dramatised by Nick Warburton
Dr Arabin is 40, an Oxford man and adversary in Archdeacon Grantly's fight against the odious clerical newcomer, Slope. Arabin, however, knows nothing of women. But now he's seen Eleanor Bold, looking out over the fields to Barchester.....
Director ..... Marion Nancarrow
Music composed by David Tobin, Jeff Meegan and Julian Gallant.
THU 11:00 Rebecca F John - Clown's Shoes (b06p01qd)
Matchstick Girls
Warsaw, 1943: Ewa tries to protect her little sister Zofia from the cold, dangerous life on the street. Read by Ruth Gemmell.
An ambitious debut collection of short stories by Rebecca F John, dipping into the shadows and spotlights of life.
Rebecca F John is from Pwll, a village on the South Wales coast, and works as a Ski Instructor. Her short story The Dog Track was broadcast on Radio 4 as part of The Time Being series in 2013, and Crow Road was broadcast in the Nights Of The Hunter series in 2015.
The Glove Maker's Numbers was shortlisted for The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award in 2015. Rebecca won the PEN International New Voices Award for her story Moon Dog in October 2015.
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Sweet Talk Productions.
THU 11:15 Juliet Ace - Mattie: Blind (b00769qy)
1953: 15-year-old Mattie must spend her Saturdays cooking for her grandfather and her blind aunt Catherine Jane, but making pastry is not the only challenge she has to face...
Follow up to The New Look, Juliet Ace's trilogy of plays about the South Wales childhood of Mattie Jones.
Stars Mali Harries as Young Mattie, Jennifer Hill as Older Mattie, Sharon Morgan as Catherine Jane, Howell Evans as Dadda and Eiry Thomas as Merle.
Directed at BBC Wales by Gilly Adams.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2002.
THU 12:00 Marriage Lines (b068r53p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 12:30 The Goon Show (b09z7br2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 13:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl8k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 13:30 Children of Wealth (b00f1qwx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b039rqqp)
Jonathan Coe - Expo 58, Episode 4
London 1958: Unassuming civil servant Thomas Foley is plucked from his desk at the Central Office of Information and sent on a six-month trip to Brussels. His task - to keep an eye on The Britannia, a brand new pub which will form the heart of the British presence at Expo 58, the biggest World's Fair of the century and the first to be held since the Second World War.
As soon as he arrives at the site, Thomas feels that he has escaped a repressed, backward-looking country and fallen headlong into an era of modernity and optimism. He is equally bewitched by the surreal, gigantic Atomium, which stands at the heart of this brave new world, and by Anneke, the lovely Flemish hostess who meets him off his plane.
But Thomas's new-found sense of freedom comes at a price. The Cold War is at its height, the mischievous Belgians have placed the American and Soviet pavilions right next to each other - and why is he being followed everywhere by two mysterious emissaries of the British Secret Service?
Expo 58 may represent a glittering future, both for Europe and for Thomas himself, but he will soon be forced to decide where his public and private loyalties really lie.
Written by Jonathan Coe
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Read by Tim McInnerny
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 14:15 Shakespeare's Restless World (b01g637c)
Life without Elizabeth
Radio 4 with a new object-based history. Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.
With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed. He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.
Programme 4. LIFE WITHOUT ELIZABETH - Painted in 1571 to justify and celebrate Elizabeth I's position in the Tudor succession, by the 1590s, with no direct Tudor heir, this image had very different implications.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
THU 14:30 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z7c9m)
Uncle Toby Falls in Love
Widow Wadman bustles her way into Uncle Toby's sentry box and then into his heart. Stars Neil Dudgeon and Deborah Findlay. From February 2005.
THU 14:45 Book of the Week (b01rgm9j)
Simon Morrison - The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev, Difficult Times Ahead
Simon Morrison's new biography of Lina Prokofiev tells the story of the remarkable woman who married the brilliant composer Serge Prokofiev. Today, difficult times lie ahead.
Simon Morrison is Professor of Music History at Princeton. He is the author of The People's Artist, a definitive account of Prokofiev's career.
The reader is Sian Thomas. Abridged by Richard Hamilton. Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
THU 15:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03tr7j6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
THU 16:00 Listomania (b09z7br4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
THU 16:30 HR (b01c7rgv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
THU 17:00 Hopes and Desires (b0076dx4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
THU 17:30 My Obsession (b09yclxr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 18:00 GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday (b007w43w)
The Feast of Fear
Gabriel Syme meets his fellow anarchists at a breakfast meeting in London's Leicester Square.
Published in 1908, GK Chersterton's most famous novel is read in 13 parts by Geoffrey Palmer.
Director: Lawrence Jackson
Made for BBC Radio 7 by BBC Northern Ireland.
First broadcast in 2005.
THU 18:30 Great Lives (b00x95hm)
Series 23, JB Priestley
Barry Cryer nods to his Yorkshire roots in choosing JB Priestley, the Bradford born author of The Good Companions and An Inspector Calls. Barry knew JB for the last ten years of his life, and fondly recalls visiting a man he loved with two members of Monty Python. Other memories include a trip to the Cafe Royal, and thoughts on Priestley's notorious love of women.
Martin Wainwright, northern editor of the Guardian, presenter of last year's radio documentary about the Postscripts, also brings to life a prolific writer nearly killed in World War One. Some say he wrote so much to avoid the memories of that war. Recorded in front of an audience at the Arnolfini in Bristol, the programme includes colourful clips of JB Priestley and also Priestley's son, Tom. The only discordant note is raised by presenter Matthew Parris: "It's awfully watchable, awfully readable ... but where's the magic ? Is Priestley really very good ?"
The producer is Miles Warde.
THU 19:00 Marriage Lines (b068r53p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 19:30 The Goon Show (b09z7br2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 20:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl8k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 20:30 Children of Wealth (b00f1qwx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 21:00 Rebecca F John - Clown's Shoes (b06p01qd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
THU 21:15 Juliet Ace - Mattie: Blind (b00769qy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
THU 22:00 My Obsession (b09yclxr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 22:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b007jm12)
The Primary Phase, Fit The Fourth
Arthur learns the lucrative answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything. By Douglas Adams. From March 1978.
Arthur Dent is one of only two survivors from Earth, demolished to make way for a by-pass. He survived thanks to his friend, Ford Prefect (who hails not from Guildford, but somewhere near Betelgeuse), a writer for the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, "the most successful book ever to have come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor". Now paired with fellow Earth survivor Trillian and duplicitous two-headed hustler Zaphod Beeblebrox, Arthur and Ford are on legendary planet Magrathea - and Arthur in particular is about to understand his demolished home world in a new and startling way.
The global multi-media success story that is "Hitchhiker's" started life as a Radio 4 series in March 1978. The original scripts by the late Douglas Adams then went on to spawn a series of novels, a feature film, at least three stage shows, a TV series, a computer game, a collection of comic books - and various towels.
Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge and died in 2001 at the age of 49. He suffered a fatal heart attack after working out at his gym in California.
With Peter Jones, Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Mark Wing-Davey and Stephen Moore. Produced by the late Geoffrey Perkins.
THU 23:00 Wondermentalist Cabaret (b00y8vsn)
Series 1, Episode 2
2 of 4. Poet, performer, enemy of all that's difficult and upsetting, Matt Harvey presents this comedy-infused, musically-enhanced, slightly interactive poetry cabaret. Recorded in front of an audience at the Swindon Arts Centre, he's joined by the poet and musician Zena Edwards and one man house band Jerri Hart. Fellow poets AF Harrold and Kate Fox battle it out with Zena in a Dead Poets' Slam, while the audience compose their own highly flavoured poem on the subject of cheese.
Producer: Mark Smalley.
THU 23:30 Bleak Expectations (b00nyy8s)
Series 3, An Evil Life Sort of Explained
Comedy Victorian adventure by Mark Evans.
Pip Bin, Harry Biscuit and Gently Benevolent find themselves trapped in the vast emptiness of space. As their doom looks increasingly inevitable, Mr Benevolent finally explains just why it is that he is so very very evil.
Sir Philip ...... Richard Johnson
Young Pip Bin ...... Tom Allen
Gently Benevolent ...... Anthony Head
Lovely Benevolent ...... Jane Asher
Harry Biscuit ...... James Bachman
Hardthrasher/Sternbeater/Wackwallop ...... Geoffrey Whitehead
Miss Christmasham ...... Sarah Hadland
Miss Sweetly Delightful ...... Raquel Cassidy.

FRIDAY 20 APRIL 2018

FRI 00:00 GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday (b007w43w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Thursday]
FRI 00:30 Great Lives (b00x95hm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Thursday]
FRI 01:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl8k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Thursday]
FRI 01:30 Children of Wealth (b00f1qwx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b039rqqp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Thursday]
FRI 02:15 Shakespeare's Restless World (b01g637c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Thursday]
FRI 02:30 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09z7c9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:45 Book of the Week (b01rgm9j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Thursday]
FRI 03:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03tr7j6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:00 Listomania (b09z7br4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:30 HR (b01c7rgv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Thursday]
FRI 05:00 Hopes and Desires (b0076dx4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Thursday]
FRI 05:30 My Obsession (b09yclxr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Thursday]
FRI 06:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl8s)
The Net and the Canal, Beyond the Firewall
Detective Superintendent Julie Enfield thinks she's moving closer to a solving the murder mystery, but her internet tormentor has other ideas...
The conclusion of Nick Fisher's atmospheric thriller.
Starring Imelda Staunton as Julie Enfield, Geoffrey Matthews as Dad, Ross Livingstone as DS Lawrence Evans, Denys Hawthorne as Goodfellow and Jane Whittenshaw as Charmaine.
Producer: Richard Wortley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996.
FRI 06:30 Death By Chocolate (b00ybzdh)
From Brighton's chocolate-cream poisoner to chocolate hand grenades, Jo Brand looks at the sinister history of the sweet treat. From March 2007.
FRI 07:00 The Stanley Baxter Playhouse (b06s9j7d)
Series 7, Two Desperate Men
Inspired by a story by O. Henry, we travel to Perthshire in the days when the streets had more horses than horsepower. We encounter two 1930s tricksters who get their just deserts when they attempt to kidnap and hold to ransom a young lad who's learned a thing or two from the Wild West.
Stanley Baxter and Joe Caffrey are those two desperate men and young member of the Royal Lyceum Youth Theatre Tom Borley is the lad who gets the better of them in this classic screwball comedy.
Written by Colin MacDonald
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 07:30 Ruby Wax: Frazzled (b09z3dkg)
Ruby Wax talks about mental health in her inimitable style, focusing on how we are all frazzled, how we got to be that way and what we can do about it - using comedy, mindfulness and chat with the audience.
There is so much to say about mental health and feeling frazzled and Ruby has the knowledge - a Master's degree in mindfulness-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. She also has the experience after years of struggles with mental health. And of course she has the comic gifts to say it in an articulate, funny and entertaining way
In this show, she wants to make us laugh at her and at ourselves, make our lives feel more manageable, and share tools for how to cope.
Written and performed by Ruby Wax
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 08:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00dyb12)
Series 6, Episode 10
Problem corner with Marjorie Droops, and Robinson Prunestone gets marooned.
Starring Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graeme Garden, David Hatch, Jo Kendall and Bill Oddie.
Written by Simon Brett, Graeme Garden and Jo Kendall.
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 Liam Cohen, Dave Lee and Bill Oddie.
Producer: David Hatch/Peter Titheradge
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 2 in June 1968.
FRI 08:30 Brothers in Law (b007k2fg)
Series 2, In Reverse
Lawyer Roger Thursby is touting for work, meaning some sweet-talking to both Joy and Sally.
Starring Richard Briers as Roger Thursby, Julia Lockwood as Sally, Bridget Armstrong as Joy, Blake Butler as Alec, Nigel Pegram as Biggs and Andrew Cruickshank as the Judge.
All other parts played by Gerald Cross, William Fox, Garard Green, Peter Tuddenham and Douglas Blackwell.
Written by Henry Cecil and Basil Dawson.
Published in 1955, Henry Cecil's comic legal novel Brothers in Law was adapted first for TV in 1962 by Frank Muir and Denis Norden. It provided the first regular starring role for Richard Briers, who later reprised his role of the idealistic young lawyer Roger Thursby for BBC Radio between 1970 and 1972.
Producer: David Hatch.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 1971.
FRI 09:00 It's Your Round (b018wb95)
Series 2, Episode 2
Angus Deayton presides over another episode of the show conceived not for the panellists but by them. This time, Sandi Toksvig, Clive Anderson, Humphrey Ker and Milton Jones have each brought their own rounds for them all to play.
The rounds this episode include:
Clive Anderson's "I Fought The Law", a selection of questions based around the idiosyncrasies of British Law.
Sandi Toksvig's "Lost for Words", in which panellists must guess the meaning of various foreign words that have no direct translation in English.
Humphrey Ker's "Pet, Lunch or Hat", a variation on "Snog, Marry, Avoid".
And Milton Jones' "Joke Jeopardy" in which panellists are given punchlines to cracker jokes and the panellists must guess the set-ups.
Producer: Sam Michell.
FRI 09:30 After Henry (b007jpwp)
Series 3, Poor Relations
"No, they're lovely. They'd never make me feel awkward. They'll keep inviting me, even if I never ask them back. That's not the problem. It's my pride. I want to be equal with them. I don't want to traipse around in their wake like something out of Anita Brookner."
Proud Sarah suffers her mother's nosiness, as well as some unexpected advances.
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 Ian Thompson as Neville.
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 September 1987.
FRI 10:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03vd163)
Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, Games at Ullathorne
3/3
Games at Ullathorne
by Anthony Trollope, dramatised by Nick Warburton
Miss Thorne brings the whole of Barchester together for a summer Fete - and unwittingly introduces the two adversaries, Mr Arabin and Mr Slope. But now their rivalry is at a height, each having realised their love for the widow, Eleanor Bold.
Music composed by David Tobin, Jeff Meegan and Julian Gallant
Director: Marion Nancarrow
Barchester Towers is the sequel to The Warden. Starting 4 years later, it follows Mr Harding, his daughter Eleanor and his son-in-law, Archdeacon Grantly. Eleanor has returned home after Archdeacon Grantly has accused her of wanting to marry Obidiah Slope. Her disappointment in Francis Arabin has increased, as he seems to be more interested in the tantalising Madeline Neroni. Unknown to Eleanor, Madeline is encouraging her brother, Bertie, to pursue Eleanor too. And on top of all this, there are still two unanswered questions: who will be Warden of Hiram's Hospital and who will replace the old Dean if he dies?
The Barchester Chronicles is Anthony Trollope's much-loved series of witty, gently satirical stories of provincial life set within the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and the surrounding county of Barsetshire. With a focus on the lives, loves and tribulations of the local clergy and rural gentry, the canvas is broad and colourful, with a wonderful set of iconic characters whose lives we become intimately involved in as they grow up, grow old and fall in or out of love and friendship across the years.
And the Barchester Chronicles return with "Dr Thorne" in May.
FRI 11:00 Podcast Radio Hour (b09zb3wj)
Simon O'Hagan: 'Everyone Else' and 'The Tip Off'
Amanda Litherland is joined by Simon O'Hagan from the Radio Times to recommend some favourite podcasts.
Featuring investigative journalism podcast The Tip Off and photographic podcast Everyone Else, produced by Eva Krysiak who comes in for a chat.
FRI 12:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00dyb12)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 12:30 Brothers in Law (b007k2fg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 13:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl8s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 13:30 Death By Chocolate (b00ybzdh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b039rwdj)
Jonathan Coe - Expo 58, Episode 5
London 1958: Unassuming civil servant Thomas Foley is plucked from his desk at the Central Office of Information and sent on a six-month trip to Brussels. His task - to keep an eye on The Britannia, a brand new pub which will form the heart of the British presence at Expo 58, the biggest World's Fair of the century and the first to be held since the Second World War.
As soon as he arrives at the site, Thomas feels that he has escaped a repressed, backward-looking country and fallen headlong into an era of modernity and optimism. He is equally bewitched by the surreal, gigantic Atomium, which stands at the heart of this brave new world, and by Anneke, the lovely Flemish hostess who meets him off his plane.
But Thomas's new-found sense of freedom comes at a price. The Cold War is at its height, the mischievous Belgians have placed the American and Soviet pavilions right next to each other - and why is he being followed everywhere by two mysterious emissaries of the British Secret Service?
Expo 58 may represent a glittering future, both for Europe and for Thomas himself, but he will soon be forced to decide where his public and private loyalties really lie.
Written by Jonathan Coe
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Read by Tim McInnerny
Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 14:15 Shakespeare's Restless World (b01g65gz)
Swordplay and Swagger
Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, continues his new object-based history. Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.
With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed. He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.
Programme 5. SWORDPLAY AND SWAGGER - The essential accoutrements of any self-respecting gentleman illustrate the extent of violence in Elizabethan London - both onstage and off.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
FRI 14:30 Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (b09zb3wl)
All Good Things Come to an End
Widow Wadman makes a discovery and Tristram brings his life story to a surprising conclusion. Stars Neil Dudgeon. From February 2005.
FRI 14:45 Book of the Week (b01rgmcq)
Simon Morrison - The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev, A parcel changes everything
Simon Morrison's new biography of Lina Prokofiev tells the story of the remarkable woman who married the brilliant composer Serge Prokofiev. Today, a parcel delivery changes everything.
Simon Morrison is Professor of Music History at Princeton. He is the author of The People's Artist, a definitive account of Prokofiev's career.
The reader is Sian Thomas. Abridged by Richard Hamilton. Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
FRI 15:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b03vd163)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
FRI 16:00 It's Your Round (b018wb95)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
FRI 16:30 After Henry (b007jpwp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
FRI 17:00 The Stanley Baxter Playhouse (b06s9j7d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
FRI 17:30 Ruby Wax: Frazzled (b09z3dkg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
FRI 18:00 GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday (b007w525)
The Exposure
Sunday unmasks one of the anarchists as a Scotland Yard detective, leaving Gabriel Syme in despair.
Published in 1908, GK Chersterton's most famous novel is read in 13 parts by Geoffrey Palmer.
Director: Lawrence Jackson
Made for BBC Radio 7 by BBC Northern Ireland.
First broadcast in 2005.
FRI 18:30 Mastertapes (b01p41h4)
Series 1, Corinne Bailey Rae (the A-Side)
John Wilson continues with his new series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea. Four years after her number one debut album, Grammy-award-winning Corinne Bailey Rae returns to its follow-up, released in 2010. An extremely personal album, it explored a range of human emotions from grief and loss to love and joy. In a revealing interview, Corinne describes not just her musical upbringing and influences, but also talks movingly about the impact that the death of her husband had on the making of this album. Together with pianist Steve Brown, she performs an exclusive live version of the title track from the album.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, where a new series of Mastertapes began on 11th November.
FRI 19:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b00dyb12)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 19:30 Brothers in Law (b007k2fg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 20:00 Julie Enfield Investigates (b007jl8s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 20:30 Death By Chocolate (b00ybzdh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 21:00 Podcast Radio Hour (b09zb3wj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
FRI 22:00 Ruby Wax: Frazzled (b09z3dkg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
FRI 22:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b007jm1h)
The Primary Phase, Fit The Fifth
Arthur and company are blown up, but still find time for a bite at a very exclusive eatery. By Douglas Adams. From April 1978.
Arthur Dent is one of only two survivors from Earth, demolished to make way for a by-pass. He survived thanks to his friend, Ford Prefect (who hails not from Guildford, but somewhere near Betelgeuse), a writer for the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, "the most successful book ever to have come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor". Now paired with fellow Earth survivor Trillian and duplicitous two-headed hustler Zaphod Beeblebrox, Arthur and Ford were on the legendary planet Magrathea when the Galactic Police attacked them and an explosion occurred - they find themselves in a restaurant with a rather sensational selling point.
The global multi-media success story that is "Hitchhiker's" started life as a Radio 4 series in March 1978. The original scripts by the late Douglas Adams then went on to spawn a series of novels, a feature film, at least three stage shows, a TV series, a computer game, a collection of comic books - and various towels.
Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge and died in 2001 at the age of 49. He suffered a fatal heart attack after working out at his gym in California.
With Peter Jones, Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Mark Wing-Davey and Stephen Moore. Produced by the late Geoffrey Perkins.
FRI 23:00 Spike Milligan - Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (b00fwz6h)
Episode 1
A new gunner is recruited for the Second World War. The late Spike Milligan reads from his own idiosyncratic military memoir. From December 2008.
FRI 23:30 A Look Back at the Nineties (b007jqvx)
1998
The Queen makes a decision, England's shocker, and The Archers go on strike.
Recorded in 1993, Brian Perkins, Kate Robbins and Jack Dee 'look back' at 1998, a year that was yet to happen.
A satirical review set on New Year's Eve 1999 - the Sony Gold award-winning comedy recalls the events from 1995 to 1999.
Predicted by 'Spitting Image' writers Mark Burton, John O'Farrell and Pete Sinclair.
Producer: Caroline Leddy
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1993.