SATURDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2020

SAT 00:00 Orbiter X (b0788cnv)
Return to Woomera
Patched up Orbiter 2 heads for Earth - but will CSP realise that the incoming incommunicado ship is friendly?
'Orbiter X' is designed to circle Earth, travelling in a rapid polar orbit - boasting synthetic gravity, produced by the rotation around the central hub.
Captain Bob Britton …. John Carson
Captain Douglas McClelland …. Andrew Crawford
Flight Engineer Hicks …. Barrie Gosney
Colonel Kent …. Donald Bisset
Captain Jack Bradley …. John Witty
Sir Charles Day …. Leslie Perrins
Control Officer Brown …. Peter Noel Cook
Written by BD Chapman.
Producer: Charles Maxwell
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in November 1959.
SAT 00:30 Off the Page (b0076svp)
All About Me
Matthew Parris talks about the art of biography, with Lesley Scott, Libby Potter and Paul Barber. From July 2005.
SAT 01:00 Falco (b00k8t30)
Venus in Copper
Episode 3
After a short spell in prison, Falco finds half of Rome is having a party but it seems he isn't invited.
One particular gathering comes to an abrupt halt and as a result, the detective's reputation could be at stake.
Anton Lesser stars as Ancient Rome's favourite detective in a gripping serialisation of Lindsey Davis's best seller.
Marcus Didius Falco …. Anton Lesser
Helena Justina … Ann Madeley
Titus Caesar … Jonathan Keeble
Hyacinthus …. Stephen Critchlow
Viridovix …. Nick Fletcher
Hortensius Felix …. Graham Padden
Severina Zotica …. Tracy Wiles
Pollia …. Julia Hills
Dramatised by Mary Cutler.
Directed at BBC Birmingham by Peter Leslie Wild.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2006.
SAT 01:30 Simon Schama - Baseball and Me (b00j1zzj)
Episode 2
Living for over 40 years in America - English born historian Simon Schama wonders why he's still bewitched by the ever-popular sport of baseball.
Simon watches the Boston Red Sox take on their arch rivals the New York Yankees. Surrounded by 40,000 baying fans, he wonders why baseball, with its slow pace and low scores, has captured the imagination of artists and artisans alike for the last 100 years.
Producer: Philip Sellars
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2009.
SAT 02:00 Paul Murray - The Mark and the Void (b063dgsh)
Episode 5
Claude has asked Paul to help him write his romance with Ariadne, while his imminent report on Royal Irish Bank is revealing all kinds of financial chicanery.
Paul Murray’s madcap novel of institutional folly - a stirring examination of the deceptions carried out in the names of art, love and commerce.
Read by Peter Serafinowicz.
Abridged by Sara Davies.
Producer: Jenny Thompson.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2015.
SAT 02:15 A History of the Infinite (b07wm0l1)
Where does this leave us?
Adrian Moore reaches the end of his journey through two and half millennia of philosophical thought about the infinite.
In this final episode, he comes to the conclusion that his voyage through the worlds of philosophy, theology, mathematics and cosmology has in the end led him to ourselves and our place in the universe.
With the help of writers and philosophers as diverse as Rene Descartes, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Iris Murdoch, Adrian returns to the theme of our finite nature and how that is fundamental to our sense of what is infinite. He considers the relation between the infinite and the transcendent and examines where the desire to look for something beyond ourselves belongs in a secular society.
Throughout the series, Adrian and his cast of philosophers have made connections, performed calculations and looked up at the stars in their attempts to clarify what we mean by the infinite. But, his history tells us, it all comes back to us and how we relate to what surpasses our finite nature.
A Juniper production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2016.
SAT 02:30 MM Kaye - The Far Pavilions (b00y8vbb)
Episode 10
Ash is caught in a dilemma. He cannot bear the thought of losing Anjuli, and yet must negotiate her wedding price.
MM Kaye's epic of love and war, dramatised by Rukhsana Ahmad.
Narrator ..... Vineeta Rishi
Ash ..... Blake Ritson
Anjuli ..... Ayesha Dharker
Jhoti ..... Joseph Samrai
Kaka-Ji Rao ..... Paul Bhattacharjee
Guard ..... Adeel Akhtar
Rana ..... Kaleem Janjua
Directors: Marc Beeby and Jessica Dromgoole
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.
SAT 02:45 Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot (b05pr1jd)
Episode 5
Landing, flying blind and coming home.
Mark Vanhoenacker always had a passion for flying, but didn't ever really consider it as a job, until his research as a young academic began to frustrate him and the tug of the skies once more made its presence felt.
Today he is a long distance pilot for one of the world's major airlines.
Concluded by William Hope
Producer: Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in April 2015.
SAT 03:00 Peter Tinniswood (b05xgv09)
Crossing the Frontier
Jean is 38, attractive and married. She decides to go on a cruise without her husband.
On the first night out, she sees a row of lights sticking straight out to sea. She feels as if she's entering a strange land with different customs, different values. As if she is becoming a different person.
Written by Peter Tinniswood.
Jean …. Shirley Dixon
Roy …. David Buck
Richard …. Stephen Thorne
Producer: Shaun McLoughlin.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1985.
SAT 04:00 Funny You Should Ask (b0b2r0jx)
From 20/04/1978
Peter Jones hosts the entertainment quiz about comedy as he tests a panel of experts:
Barry Took, Derek Roy and Mike Burton recall memories of careers and comic colleagues.
Funny You Should Ask ran for 8 series from 1976 to 1982.
Questions compiled by Michael Pointon.
Producer: Bob Oliver Rogers
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in April 1978.
SAT 04:30 Dry Slopes (b00lvl1l)
Series 1
Families and How to Conceive Them
Friendless, jobless Angus breaks free from his sheltered-life shackles to go on a date.
Nick Ball’s sitcom about the unemployed son of a high-flying mother.
Angus Dry ...... Nick Ball
Mum ...... Louisa Rix
With Robert Harley, Toby Longworth and Julie Gibbs.
Producer: Gareth Edwards
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1995.
SAT 05:00 The Lentil Sorters (b06nq1f8)
Standard Deviation
A sitcom set in the Office of Local and National Statistics which, depending on who you ask, is either where the real power of government resides, or the place where fun goes to die.
In this opening episode, the team uncover an unexpected statistical correlation between eyebrows, strawberries and dangerous dogs.
Meet the team:
Graham Quicks, Head of the People and Places Department of the LNS. There are three things in the world that Graham will always have faith in – statistics, the supremacy of filofaxes over computers and the idea that cardigans will never go out of style.
Audrey Carr is the Survey Researcher. She believes passionately that statistics should be used as a tool to help the man on the street. Fortunately for her, she’s never actually met “the man in the street”. She’s also passionate about Jane Austen, Les Miserables and pretending that she doesn't work in an office with Daniel.
Daniel Porter is the Data Analyst. He used to work in the City, until the City realised he was a colossal waste of space. Daniel divides his time between manipulating statistics to further his vision of capitalism, necking energy drinks and telling people his thighs are really, really strong. He’s terrible.
Mrs. Wilkins has worked as tea lady, archivist and maintenance guru for 15 years. She knows where the bodies are buried. We must stress that that is a figure of speech.
Graham Quicks ...... Vincent Franklin
Audrey Carr ...... Rebekah Staton
Daniel Porter ...... Kieran Hodgson
Mrs Wilkins ...... Julia Deakin
Special guests:
Spanner ...... Steve Brody
Candlestick ...... Phil Whelans
Terry ...... Charlie Quirke
Bookie ...... Morgan Jones
With Jo Unwin as The Narrator.
Written by Jack Bernhardt
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in November 2015.
SAT 05:30 The Skewer (m000f088)
Series 1
Episode 5
From the mind of Jon Holmes comes topical satire like you've never heard it before.
SAT 06:00 Michael Robson - Intent to Deceive (b05tvtzf)
When wealthy Eva Wilderspin is killed by a hit and run driver, her brother Gregory is under suspicion.
Not only does he deny being involved, he also denies that the body is that of his sister...
Thriller written by Michael Robson.
Gregory Wilderspin …. Nigel Anthony
Kim Fairless …. Zelah Clarke
Chief Inspector Turnbull …. Steve Hodson
PC Newton …. Stephen Tomkinson
Director: Shaun MacLoughlin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1989.
SAT 07:30 The Voices of... (b07syrrs)
Annie Briggs
An intimate portrait of the iconic but elusive English folksinger Annie Briggs.
Annie Briggs was a leading figure in the English folk revival of the early 1960s, inspiring Bert Jansch (famously, in Blackwater Side), Sandy Denny, The Watersons and many more. But she was a restless spirit, travelling through the British Isles and Ireland, finding songs and living close to the earth.
As Sandy Denny depicted her in The Pond and the Stream:
Annie wanders on the land.
She loves the freedom of the air.
She finds a friend in ev'ry place she goes.
There's always a face she knows.
I wish that I was there.
And so she remains, now a grandmother living by the water in the west of Scotland. She's always resolutely resisted celebrity and commercial success, withdrawing from the folk scene in the early 1970s, but her legacy - her voice and her attitude - continue to inspire and to carry a link to life as it was once lived in 'the imagined village'.
Annie talks to Alan Hall about childhood holidays singing along with the waves, writing songs while living on a beach in west Ireland, her garden and the wildlife that she shares it with, and the ballad tradition she discovered as a teenager and that she 'belongs to'.
Producer: Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2016.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b00ln0b7)
Soho!
The singer Suggs returns to London's Soho, where he spent much of his unconventional childhood and where his jazz singer mother still lives.
He was introduced to the delights of the Colony Club as a six-year-old, and as a musician he continued to haunt the district.
Recording on location and mining the BBC archive, Suggs investigates how this unique community, complete with red-light district and village school, functions today, and whether it is still, or indeed ever was, a source of inspiration or merely a creative vacuum.
For decades, Soho was regarded as Britain's capital of sleaze and vice, but also a place where artists, writers, musicians and actors came to drink and philosophise. Tales of the area and its inhabitants abound, from painter Francis Bacon and George Melly at Muriel Belcher's infamous Colony Club to Jeffrey Bernard and Keith Waterhouse at the Coach and Horses and Dylan Thomas at The French House.
Soho was the birthplace of British pop, with the skifflers, jazzers and early rock 'n' rollers all making their names in the coffee bars of the 1950s. It was also the home of refugees of every type, including political dissidents, foreigners and homosexuals, from Casanova to Karl Marx, and Quentin Crisp to George Melly.
Yet in the 1950s, a new phrase was coined: 'Soho-itis'. It was said that if you enter Soho you will never get any work done, and you will never, ever leave. Many books, poems, songs and indeed careers were washed away with drink, but some artists, musicians and writers did survive the late nights, the fights and the booze, and took great inspiration from the place.
Producer: Justine Willett.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2009.
SAT 09:00 Howerd's Ways: The Radio Times of Frankie Howerd (b01gvwzh)
The life and BBC radio career of Frankie Howerd – the celebrated King of Titters.
His last agent Tessa Le Bars talks to Peter Reed and shares her memories of this icon of British comedy. Featuring:
* The Frankie Howerd Show:
Doggy doing with the BBC DG and Frankie's memoirs. Titters galore with stand-up and sketches from the legendary comic. With June Whitfield and Ray Fell. (BBC Radio 2 from June 1973)
* Radio Lives – Frankie Howerd:
His highs were high, his lows were low. How did he get to be so funny? Dylan Winter finds out from childhood friends, variety artistes and those who knew Frankie very well. (BBC Radio 4 from July 1995)
* Variety Bandbox:
An early radio appearance for Frankie Howerd on a bill with Philip Slessor, Derek Roy, (Alberto) Semprini, Vanessa Lee and Billy Ternent & His Orchestra. (BBC Light Programme from June 1953)
* Now Listen:
Gags from Frankie Howerd, plus sketches with Carol Allen, Robertson Hare and Kenneth Connor. (BBC Light Programme from April 1965)
* Desert Island Discs:
Frankie Howerd chats to Roy Plomley and makes his castaway choices. (BBC Radio 4 from January 1982)
Producer: Mik Wilkojc
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in April 2012.
SAT 12:00 Listomania (b0460zm4)
Pilot Episode
Susan Calman hosts the pilot for the series exploring the world of the list – from the magnificent to the mundane – from the humble 'to do' list to the bucket list...
With Lucy Porter, Joe Lycett, Richard Herring and Katherine Ryan.
Written by James Kettle and Gráinne Maguire.
Producers: Adnan Ahmed and Sam Bryant
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 2014
SAT 12:30 One Foot in the Grave (b007jmxg)
Alive and Buried
Grumpy Victor Meldrew arrives at work to learn that he's no longer employed and is set to be replaced by a box.
With time passing very slowly in his enforced retirement, Victor gripes about newsreaders and worries about becoming a lavatory junkie.
Richard Wilson stars as Victor and Annette Crosbie as his long-suffering wife Margaret.
Adapted for radio by David Renwick from his BBC TV script.
Victor Meldrew ...... Richard Wilson
Margaret Meldrew ...... Annette Crosbie
Mrs Warboys ...... Doreen Mantle
Nick Swainey ...... Owen Brenman
With Sally Grace and Jeffrey Holland.
Winning numerous awards, six series were made for TV plus numerous specials on BBC ONE from 1990 to 2000.
Producer: Diane Messias
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in January 1995.
SAT 13:00 24 Kildare Road (Omnibus) (m000ffjr)
Episode 2
Two boys out sledging in their local park find the body of an old woman in the snow.
Gradually, through exchanges between members of the woman's family, between friends and between people she has only met briefly, we learn what led her to that point. A moving and entertaining account of modern life and loves.
PC Hayley Morton is desperate to discover the identity of the body.
Omnibus of the last five of ten episodes.
Marion ..... Marcia Warren
Lee ..... Neil Dudgeon
Saskia ..... Amelia Bullmore
Joe ..... John Rowe
Hayley ..... Christine Bottomley
Baxter ..... Will Kirk
Mick ..... David Reed
Young Woman ..... Scarlett Courtney
Phil ..... Ian Conningham
Shirley ..... Heather Craney
Directed by Mary Peate
Written by Katie Hims
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2010.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (m000ffjt)
Stephen Hough
Pianist Stephen Hough chooses Chopin’s Etude Op25 No 1 played by Alfred Cortot and part of Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols.
SAT 14:15 With Great Pleasure (b00dwhwy)
Diana Athill
Literary editor and memoirist Diana Athill, shares the rich pickings of a life spent among books.
Her favourites include: Coleridge's Kubla Khan, PG Wodehouse's inimitable Jeeves, and Jane Austen's unfinished novel The Watsons.
From the 2008 Cheltenham Literature Festival.
Readers: Pauline Munro and William Hope.
Producer: Mark Smalley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2008.
SAT 14:45 Uncle Mort's North Country (b007jrbn)
Series 2
Dark Satanic Writer
Carter Brandon and his Uncle Mort chew the cud as they tour a museum of northern life.
Peter Tinniswood’s continuing tales of Carter Brandon and his curmudgeonly uncle.
Uncle Mort and his Yorkshire based family first appeared in Tinniswood’s novel ‘A Touch Of Daniel’ which earned them a run of four series of ‘I Didn't Know You Cared’ on BBC TV from 1975 to 1979.
Uncle Mort …. Stephen Thorne
Carter Brandon …. Peter Skellern
Harry Hardcastle …. Norman Bird
Narrator …. Christian Rodska
Producer: Pete Atkin.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1989.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b00ln0b7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Michael Robson - Intent to Deceive (b05tvtzf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 The Voices of... (b07syrrs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 John Wyndham - The Kraken Wakes (m000ffjx)
Episode 1
Radio reporters Mike and Phyllis Watson are drawn into the story when a Northern Lights cruise spots five fireballs landing deep in the ocean.
A terrifying modern retelling of alien invasion and global flooding.
John Wyndham's 1953 novel dramatised in two parts by Val McDermid.
Floods have recently devastated parts of Britain. But what if the flood waters never subsided? What if an apparent meteor shower was actually the invasion fleet of an alien race?
Mike Watson ...... Paul Higgins
Phyllis Watson ...... Tamsin Greig
Becker ...... Richard Harrington
Denzel ...... Richard Harrington
Dr Emma Chisholm ...... Sally Carman
Aziz ...... Abdullah Afzal
Humza ...... Abdullah Afzal
Bill ...... Gareth Cassidy
Jonah ...... Gareth Cassidy
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon ...... Nicola Sturgeon
Performed 'as live' with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
Conductor: Clark Rundell.
Composer: Alan E. Williams.
Director and Producer: Justine Potter.
A Savvy production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in May 2016.
SAT 19:00 Howerd's Ways: The Radio Times of Frankie Howerd (b01gvwzh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07sz52p)
Series 1
The Travel System
Josh attempts to buy a pram on the cheap while also trying to convince his mechanic to give him a good deal.
Sitcom in which stand-up comic Josh comes to terms with the impending birth of his first child.
Starring Josh Howie and Pippa Evans.
Written by Josh Howie.
With Nej Adamson, Gavin Forward and Jo Romero.
Producer: Ashley Blaker
A Black Hat production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2016.
SAT 22:30 Chain Reaction (b0717cpt)
Series 11
Ed Byrne interviews Al Murray
Two heavyweights of stand-up are in conversation as Ed Byrne interviews Al Murray.
Ed tackles Al on a vast array of topics from Thackeray's attitude to the Irish to the thorny issue of offence in comedy via how best to talk to McFly.
Ed Byrne is an Irish stand-up comedian and actor who has been a favourite on the international comedy scene for 20 years. His celebrated observational routines made him a leading light of the UK stand-up circuit in the mid nineties and he went on to tour internationally, playing festivals and theatres across the world. In 1998 he was nominated for the prestigious Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival alongside eventual winner Tommy Tiernan, Peter Kay and Al Murray.
After an early foray into stand-up as a character called 'The Murderer', Al Murray created his famous Pub Landlord character in the mid nineties as part of a touring show with Harry Hill. The Pub Landlord went on to tour venues and festivals worldwide before making his own chat show and sitcom for Sky. Outside of the Pub Landlord, Al is well known as a presenter of history documentaries and stood against Nigel Farage in South Thanet during the 2015 UK General Election.
Chain Reaction is the long running hostless chat show where this week's interviewee becomes next week's interviewer.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Radio Comedy production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in February 2016.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (m000flvn)
Alexei Sayle (1/2)
From 10.00pm until midnight, seven days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Alexei Sayle.
SAT 23:00 Colin Hoult's Carnival of Monsters (b04wwqcy)
Series 2
Episode 1
Enter the Carnival of Monsters, a bizarre and hilarious world of sketches, stories and characters, presented by the sinister Ringmaster.
Master character comedian Colin Hoult returns with the second series of his sinister sketch show.
A host of characters are the exhibits at the Carnival - all played by Colin himself.
Meet such monstrous yet strangely familiar oddities as: Wannabe Hollywood screenwriter Andy Parker; Anna Mann - outrageous star of such forgotten silver screen hits such as 'Rogue Baker', 'Who's For Turkish Delight' and 'A Bowl For My Bottom'; plus characters ranging from acid jazz obsessives, to mask workshop coordinators.
Writers Guild Award-winner Colin Hoult is best known for his highly acclaimed starring roles in Paul Whitehouse's 'Nurse', 'Being Human', Rickey Gervais' 'Life's Too Short' and 'Derek', and 'Russell Howard's Good News', as well as his many hit shows at the Edinburgh Festival. He has also appeared and written for a number of Radio 4 series including 'The Headset Set' and 'Colin and Fergus' Digi-Radio'.
Producer: Sam Bryant.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2015.
SAT 23:30 Mark Thomas Presents (b0076w9l)
Shelley Berman
Famed for his pioneering one-sided phone calls, American icon Shelley Berman brings his unique observational wit to the UK.
Series in which Mark Thomas introduces iconic American comedy performers.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2005.