SATURDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2018

SAT 00:00 Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space (b007jmt2)
Operation Luna
Episode 5
The stalled rocket ship stops Captain Jet Morgan and his crew from returning to Earth.
Futuristic tale set in 1965 as first broadcast in 1953.
Stars Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, Alfie Bass as Lemmy Barnett, Guy Kingsley-Poynter as Doc, David Williams as Mitch, Other parts by David Jacobs.
Music composed and orchestra conducted by Van Phillips.
Written and produced by Charles Chilton.
Though first heard in 1953, the original recordings were wiped.
Re-recording first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1958.
SAT 00:30 Off the Page (m00016h0)
Seven Deadly Sins
Playwright Amy Rosenthal and sociologist Frank Furedi join Chris Bigsby to discuss Pride, Lust and the other vices.
In each programme, Professor Bigsby introduces a duo of writers of fact and fiction: new talent and established names. In the context of a discussion of one of the ideas and pre-occupations of our times, each presents a piece on this week's topic.
The best new writing and the freshest conversation from 2002.
SAT 01:00 High Table, Lower Orders (m00016gp)
Series 2
Episode 5
While Simon is distracted with his murder investigation, the fellows find themselves undergoing individual performance assessments.
The Master finds the whole idea appalling. The Dean, on the other hand, seems to be relishing every moment
Mark Tavener's comedy thriller set in a Cambridge College riven by argument between traditionalists and modernisers.
Starring Geoffrey Palmer as Gilbert, Samuel West as Simon, Sharon Small as Zoe, Jonathan Coy as Bernard and Michael Maloney as The Dean.
With Michelle Fairley, Kim Wall, Rachel Atkins, Thomas Wheatley, Anthony Glennon, Zoe Gardner and Tom Price.
Producer: Dawn Ellis
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2006.
SAT 01:30 Young, Gifted and Black (b00scjx2)
Adjoa Andoh reflects on the brief but highly influential career of the African American playwright and social activist.
In 1959, Hansberry became the first black woman to have a play produced on Broadway and the youngest recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. An eloquent and impassioned orator for civil rights, Lorraine Hansberry quickly became one of the most famous women in the country.
Friend to the likes of Paul Robeson, James Baldwin and Nina Simone, who composed 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black' in her honour, Hansberry's prescient speeches and artfully constructed drama played a key role in the ongoing civil rights struggle.
In this programme we hear from her sister Mamie Hansberry, poet and playwright Jackie Kay, Chicago Southside historian Timuel Black and theatre directors Michael Buffong and Paulette Randall.
Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 02:00 Thomas Love Peacock (m00016gy)
Nightmare Abbey
5. The Bringer of Mystery
A beautiful mysterious stranger enters Scythrop’s life, to fill a recently created void.
Kenneth Williams continues the Gothic satire poking fun at the Romantic Movement in English literature of the time and its obsession with the morbid.
First published in 1818, ‘Nightmare Abbey’ follows the fortunes of widower Christopher Glowry, who lives with his son, Scythrop, in the dilapidated family mansion- in Lincolnshire, on a dry stretch of land between the sea and the fens.
Abridged in eight parts and produced by Martin Remes.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1979.
SAT 02:15 A History of the Brain (b016x4t1)
The Spark of Being
Dr Geoff Bunn's 10 part History of the Brain is a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of this complex organ in our heads. From Neolithic times to the present day, he reveals the contemporary beliefs about what the brain is for and how it fulfils its functions.
While referencing the core physiology and neuroscience, this is a cultural, not a scientific history. What soon becomes obvious is that our understanding of this most inscrutable organ has in all periods been coloured by the social and political expedients of the day no less than by the contemporary scope of scientific or biological exploration.
In Episode 5: The Spark of Being, the focus is on electricity and communication, within the brain and between the brain and the rest of the body. When John Walsh showed, in 1776, that an eel could generate electricity, it became possible that human consciousness also relied on sparks fizzing within the brain. Coming at a time when Benjamin Franklin - an acknowledged expert on electricity - was signing the Declaration of Independence which asserted that all men are created equal, it generated a new perspective on the workings of the brain; the old hierarchical model was discarded in favour of the doctrine of equipotentiality.
The series is entirely written and presented by Dr Geoff Bunn of Manchester Metropolitan University, with actors Paul Bhattacharjee and Jonathan Forbes providing the voices of those who have written about the brain from Ancient Egypt to the present day, and actor Hattie Morahan giving the Anatomy Lesson which establishes the part of the brain to be highlighted in each episode - in this instance the Corpus Callosum. The original, atmospheric score is supplied by composer, Barney Quinton.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
SAT 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b08w1d87)
Stories from Hay el Matar
Episode 5
As Sumayya takes full control of the hospital, the fake medicines warehouse is now the centre of everyone's attention.
Stories from Hay el Matar is set in a suburb of Damascus where people of all backgrounds attempt to live their lives while the war is fought around them. It's made by a team of Syrian writers and actors who are themselves living through the kinds of events depicted in the drama.
This is an adaptation from an Arabic language original produced by BBC media Action that is also made on location in Beirut, Lebanon, by a Syrian and Lebanese team, many of whom commute from inside Syria.
Stories from Hay el Matar is written in Arabic by Syrian writer Hozan Akko, adapted into English by British dramatist Jonathan Myerson, and recorded on location in Beirut.
The drama offers a rare glimpse of how normal life is lived inside Damascus during these extraordinary times.
Sound Moe Choicair, Sandra Tabet (DB Studios) and Alisdair McGregor
Music Ziad Ahmadiye
Studio management Karim Beidoun, Guerilla Studios
Translation Samira El Agha
Adaptation Jonathan Myerson
Writer Hozan Akko
Producer/Director Boz Temple-Morris
A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4, adapted from an original BBC Media Action Production.
SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b03mj8ls)
Man Belong Mrs Queen
Episode 5
As a bookish child with a posh accent, growing up on Merseyside in the 1980s, Matthew Baylis identified with the much-mocked Prince Philip as a fellow outsider. He even had a poster of him on his bedroom wall.
Years later, as an anthropology student, Baylis learned of the existence of a Philip cult on the South Sea island of Tanna. Why was it there? Nobody had a convincing answer. Nobody even seemed to want to find one.
His curiosity fatally piqued, he travelled over 10,000 miles to find a society both remote and slap-bang in the shipping-lanes of history. It's a place where US airmen, Lithuanian libertarians, and Graeco-Danish Princes have had as much impact as the missionaries and the slave-traders. On the rumbling slopes of this remarkable volcanic island, banjaxed by frequent doses of the local narcotic, suffering from a relentless diet of yams and regularly accused of being a divine emissary of the Duke, Baylis attempted to get to the bottom of this bizarre cult. In doing so he draws some ironic lessons about our own island 'myths' and comes to respect the pragmatic realpolitik of his South Seas hosts.
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company Production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 03:00 Archive on 4 (b00tk7sf)
Barbara
An appraisal of Barbara Castle in the centenary of her birth.
Barbara Castle - the Red Queen, clever, sexy and single-minded she was the most important female politician the Labour party has produced.
2010 is the centenary of her birth and in this archive hour , her official biographer Anne Perkins, examines her life and legacy. The further we move from the 20th century, the more remarkable her achievements seem. In one of the ironies of politics, she paved the way for Margaret Thatcher .She embodied the spirit of the starry-eyed landslide Labour government of 1945 and was a unique participant in the history of the left.
We hear of her early life growing up in a Yorkshire family -more bourgeois than she'd admit - devoted to the Independent Labour Party and William Morris; tales of climbing out of college windows at Oxford with her friend, the pioneering broadcaster Olive Shapley; her devotion to the open air which led to the founding of the Pennine Way - she tramped the inaugural walk in a tweed skirt and brogues, alongside Hugh Dalton.
Then there were her dogged campaigns for equal pay and child benefit. And that's before we get to the breathalyser and the Unions. Her passionate skills of oratory leap out of the archive, crackling with energy and fire.She was a feminist but was always puzzled by what she saw as the "stridency" the movement took on in the seventies and initially resisted the idea of all-women shortlists.
She wasn't averse to using her great personal charm to negotiate her way out of some of the most monumental political battles of the era - dressed impeccably and no stranger to the hairdresser's. Did she stand out precisely because she was that rare creature : a colourful woman amongst all the grey suits ? Or was it her potent mix of lightning wit, passion, diligence, red bouffant and fierce intellect that helped carve out a place in history for her . And could she have achieved all she did if she'd had children?
We hear intimate archive interviews with Barbara Castle recorded before her death, and new interviews including Baroness Shirley Williams , Baroness Betty Boothroyd ,Janet Anderson , and the veteran political commentator Geoffrey Goodman.
Producer Lindsay Leonard.
SAT 04:00 Guess What? (b061fth0)
Episode 2
Animal, vegetable or mineral?
Barry Took hosts a revised version of popular radio parlour game of 20 questions.
Regular Geoffrey Durham is joined by Hattie Hayridge and Dick Vosburgh.
Written by Michael Dines.
Producer: Andy Aliffe
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1998.
SAT 04:30 Smelling of Roses (m00016gt)
Series 1
A Good Cause
Rosie’s company is tasked to put together a charity gala concert in aid of the Afghans.
But there’s confusion over whether it’s for the people or the dogs?
Rosie’s company hosts a management team building course. It all goes well until the murder mystery dinner, but it isn't Rosie who makes a killing.
Prunella Scales stars in the first of four series of Simon Brett's sitcom following the trials and tribulations of Rosie Burns and her event management company based in Brighton.
With Arabella Weir as Kate, Rebecca Callard as Jo, Duncan Preston as Bob, Annette Badland as Tess, Joanna Munro as Ginnie and Celia Imrie as Lady Helen.
Producer: Maria Esposito
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2000.
SAT 05:00 The Right Time (b0076mmf)
Series 4
Episode 5
Musing on middle-age and a near-death experience turns out mundane.
Sketch show about growing older disgracefully.
Stars Eleanor Bron, Dudley Sutton, Roger Blake, Paula Wilcox. Clive Swift and Barry Cryer.
Written by Colin Bostock-Smith, Jill Brodie & John Pidgeon, Barry Cryer, Dave Dixon, Jan Etherington, Alan Stafford and Chris Thompson & Pete Reynolds.
Script editor: George Poles.
Music by Ronnie & The Rex.
Producer: Katie Marsden
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2004.
SAT 05:30 A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics (b06j2gfy)
Series 1
The Rat-catchers of Yonville
By John Nicholson, Richard Katz and Javier Marzan
In 19th-century provincial France, a pair of vermin controllers seek their fortune. Arriving in the market town of Yonville, things start to go wrong when their rat-catching kit goes missing and then when they find themselves entangled in the marital woes of the town's doctor.
In this new series the comedy troupe Peepolykus assume the roles of minor characters in great works of fiction and derail the plot of the book through their hapless buffoonery.
Cast:
Emma . . . . . Ingrid Oliver
John . . . . . John Nicholson
Javier . . . . . Javier Marzan
Charles . . . . . Richard Katz
Tuvache . . . . . Leo Wan
Hippolyte . . . . . Stephen Critchlow
Justin . . . . . Caolan McCarthy
Homais . . . . . Chris Pavlo
Madame Codoux . . . . . Jessica Turner
Felicite . . . . . Rebecca Hamilton
Director . . . . . Sasha Yevtushenko
SAT 06:00 Richard Huggett - Weekend with Willie (m00016bc)
John and Daphne Maitland are an unsophisticated couple flattered to be invited to dinner by celebrated author W Somerset Maugham at his French villa.
But if they'd known the other guests were to be Willie's brother Freddie. his ex-wife Syrie, and his American friend, Gerald, they might have treated the invitation with slightly more caution...
Richard Huggett's drama stars David March as W. Somerset Maugham AKA Willie; Prunella Scales as Syrie Maugham; Richard Huggett as Sir Frederick Maugham; Barry Dennen as Gerald Haxton; Robert Beatty as John D Hackerman; Andrew Secombe as Pierre; Hayden Wood as John Maitland; and Shirley Cooklin as Daphne Maitland.
Director: David Johnston.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1981.
SAT 07:30 Unmasking the English (m00016bf)
Sir Walter Raleigh
Andrew Marr continues to explore Englishness with the multi-faceted, possibly misunderstood, Sir Walter Raleigh.
Was he a ruthless parvenu who fell from grace, or a multi-faceted Renaissance Man? And is there perhaps more Englishness in the reaction to Raleigh, than in Raleigh himself?
With contributions from AA Gill, Peter York, Anita Anand, Professor Andrew Lambert and Colonel John Blashford-Snell.
Producer: Tom Alban
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b00tk7sf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 03:00 today]
SAT 09:00 Steve Penk's Radio Nightmares (m00016bk)
Broadcaster Steve Penk digs out some of the funniest clips of live radio mistakes and provides listeners with exclusive access to his own collection of audio material from around the world.
Radio bloopers have been around for as long as radio itself. They’re mainly endearing and add a humanising element to the radio and to the presenters on it. A blooper is defined as an embarrassing public blunder, but as long as it's someone else's mistake, most of us are quite capable of getting past the embarrassment to enjoy the humour. The immediacy of live-to-air radio is part of its strength, but also very exposing. If there's a slip of the tongue, it's broadcast into the ether moments later, especially in the early days of broadcast radio when almost everything was done live on the air. There have been some celebrated 'bloopers' over the years - from 'colourful' language, to laughing fits, technical glitches to amusing mispronunciations.
This collection includes new interviews with broadcasters Paul Gambaccini, John Waite and Anna Foster recalling their radio nightmares and archive programmes from Jonathan Hewat presenting a compilation of his series Can I Take That Again and Emily Buchanan introducing a blooper reel from A World In Your Ear.
Producer: Stephen Garner
SAT 12:00 Elephants to Catch Eels (b00v2pbf)
Series 2
Awards
18th-century smuggler Tamsyn Trelawny wants to win the coveted Smuggling Personality of the Year award at the annual Jethro awards.
It's 1793 and in the small Cornish village of Drumlin Bay, heroic smuggler Tamsyn Trelawny is still running rings around the customs men, assisted by her drunken father Jago.
Written by Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain.
Starring Sheridan Smith as Tamsyn Trelawny, John Bowe as Jago Trelawny, Cameron Stewart as Major Thomas Falconer, Andrew McGibbon as Captain Marriot, Martin Hyder as Squire Bascombe, Mark Felgate as Dewey, Mark Perry as Hobbs and India Fisher as Mum.
Producer: Jan Ravens.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2004.
SAT 12:30 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00cbltk)
Series 3
Episode 6
Murray worries that his tubby dad Tommy and Sheila have more rolls than roles.
Ageing showbiz couple Tommy Franklin and Sheila Parr continue their second stab at fame.
Series 3 of Mike Coleman’s six-part sitcom stars June Whitfield and Roy Hudd.
With Pat Coombs, Julian Eardley, Edward Halstead and Tracy-Ann Oberman.
Music by Frido Ruth.
Producer: Steve Doherty
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2001.
SAT 13:00 Children in Need: D for Dexter (m00016bn)
D For Dexter Series 5 Omnibus 2/2
Skye and Dexter are back in this award-winning serial, one of the highlights of the BBC Children in Need Appeal on BBC Radio 4.
Their mum Jak hasn’t had a drink for 11 months now and she’s doing alright. They’ve even got a morning routine. She forgets words sometimes, but she might not have known them in the first place. And that’s how it is, in recovery.
Skye is 15 and Dexter's six, and they live in Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. Skye has always had to look out for Dex. But now Skye ‘s going on a school trip, if she can be sure that Jak will stick to the plan.
This year's story was developed with the help of Action for Young Carers, a free and confidential service that supports young carers in Nottingham, and receives funding for specific projects from BBC Children in Need.
Skye...Sydney Wade
Dexter...Alfie Johnson-McCann
Jak...Una McNulty
Pearce...Beau Anten
Alex...Don Gilet
Alisha...Megan Huntley
Alice...Lauren Bowler
Poem by Octavia Bettis
Writer...Amanda Whittington
Director...Mary Ward-Lowery
Music by The Breeders and David Bowie, performed by Tom Constantine.
First broadcast in five parts on BBC Radio 4 in November 2018.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (m00016bq)
Adam Henson
Farmer and Countryfile presenter Adam Henson chooses Golden Brown by The Stranglers and Life on Mars by David Bowie.
Adam also remembers his father Joe Henson, a farmer and TV presenter, who worked with the likes of Johnny Morris; and his grandfather, Leslie Henson, an entertainer, who knew Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2018.
SAT 14:15 Women in Politics (m00016bs)
It's 100 years since the 1918 The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act was passed allowing women to stand for Parliament on 21st November 1918.
This programme, not heard since its original broadcast in 1972, finds out what it felt like to be a female politician. The presenter is Anthony King.
In 1972, 54% of the electorate were women - yet out of 630 MPs, there were only 26 women and only one in the Cabinet.
Why do so few women enter politics? Why is there so much prejudice against them?
Anthony King investigates what was happening in the early 1970s with Barbara Castle MP, Pat Hornsby-Smith MP, Margaret Thatcher MP and Shirley Williams, and recordings from BBC Sound Archives, including the first woman in Parliament, Nancy Astor, and the first woman Cabinet Minister, Margaret Bondfield.
Producer: Anne Buncan-Jones
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1972.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b00tk7sf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 03:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Richard Huggett - Weekend with Willie (m00016bc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Unmasking the English (m00016bf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 Colin Finbow - Emily's Ghost (b05p2h6p)
Young Emily goes to live with her family in an inherited country house. When she begins to see and hear strange things, Emily fears that she is being haunted.
Colin Finbow's unusual ghost story is set in Victorian England.
Stars Anna Jones as Emily, Kate Buffery as Mama, John Rowe as Papa and Anna Massey as Miss Rabstock.
Director: Cherry Cookson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1994.
SAT 19:00 Steve Penk's Radio Nightmares (m00016bk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Paul Sinha's History Revision (b04v3cxr)
Series 1
Communication
In Paul Sinha's History Revision the acclaimed stand-up and eleventh best UK quizzer Paul Sinha looks through all of human history and examines how we came to be where we are. He starts with something everyday, something we all know to be true; he then reveals the quirks of history and the fascinating stories that led up to this point.
In this first edition, Paul looks at the modern's youth's obsession with a device that can be used to email, text, surf the web, play games and, very occasionally, make telephone calls - the telephone. The story of how it came, legally, into being obviously involves electro-shock therapy and an exploding boat. Paul also looks at a more positive aspect of young people, and tells a story of how the introduction of gin to the United Kingdom inspired the seventeenth century equivalent of the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Paul Sinha is an acclaimed stand-up who was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy award for his show Saint or Sinha?. He frequently appears on The News Quiz, The Now Show, and Fighting Talk. He is a resident 'chaser' on the ITV quiz show The Chase. He wrote and starred in one-offs The Sinha Test (2011) and The Sinha Games (2012) on Radio 4 and in 2013 had his own four-part series, Paul Sinha's Citizenship Test.
Written and performed by Paul Sinha.
Produced by Ed Morrish.
SAT 22:30 Chain Reaction (b00tq1vw)
Series 6
Stephen Merchant interviews Jarvis Cocker
The last in the current series of the tag team talk show where last week's guest, multi award-winning co-creator of The Office and Extras, and famously tall funny man Stephen Merchant takes the microphone to interview Pulp frontman and successful solo artist, dandy Englishman Jarvis Cocker.
Stephen asks Jarvis about the perils of being a glasses wearer, his protests against pop and what really happened with that famous Michael Jackson incident.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (m0001c1q)
Kerry Godliman 1/2
From 10.00pm to midnight, seven days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Kerry Godliman.
SAT 23:00 Rhod Gilbert's Bulging Barrel of Laughs (b00tml87)
Episode 2
Welsh comic Rhod Gilbert introduces regulars Lloyd Langford and Greg Davies, plus Sarah Millican who takes a weekly look at The Six Stages of Woman.
With live music from Athlete, including hits Superhuman Touch and Half Light.
Guest comedian is Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Russell Kane.
Hear Rhod rant on road rage, plus Rhod’s Confessions where Lloyd Langford reveals an unusual passion for Star Wars figures and see if Greg Davies can tempt you with his Indecent Proposal.
Producers: Julia Mckenzie and Lianne Coop.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in September 2010.