SATURDAY 07 MARCH 2020

SAT 00:00 HG Wells - The Invisible Man (m000fx1d)
10. The Hunter Hunted
Griffin is in pursuit of Dr Kemp whose life is under threat and his house under siege.
HG Wells’ gripping 1937 sci-fi novel abridged by Janet Hitchman.
Concluded by Stephen Murray.
Producer: Gordon House
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 1976.
SAT 00:15 Hilary Mantel - Beyond Black (b00r4rdt)
10. Alison's Retribution
Alison knows that in order to banish the demons of her past she must face them and confront the painful truth about what happened in her childhood. With the help of Mrs McGibbet, yet another spirit from her past, Alison learns the worst.
Meanwhile, Colette goes back home to Gavin for a heart-to-heart. And Alison's appalling spirit guide Morris comes to a realisation...
Conclusion of Hilary Mantel's blackly comic novel about a professional medium with a troubled past.
Alison ...... Alison Steadman
Colette ...... Rosie Cavaliero
Morris ...... Bill Wallis
Emmie ...... Katharine Rogers
Aitkenside ...... Simon Armstrong
Gavin ...... Mark Meadows
Mrs McGibbet/Maureen ...... Sheila Hannon
Dramatised by Caroline Harrington.
Director: Sara Davies
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2010.
SAT 00:30 Off the Page (b0076t5v)
The Sum Is Greater than the Parts
Are Matthew Parris, Julian Baggini, Judith Palmer and David Boyle obsessed by small print or just the bigger picture? From 2005.
SAT 01:00 Deep Six (m000fx14)
6. Battle
In the darkness near the Oxford mansion, the setting for the deed he’s been blackmailed into carrying out, Terry Prince prepares to do battle, with whatever forces await him....
The gripping conclusion of John Fletcher’s thriller serial starring Freddie Lees.
Terry ...... Freddie Lees
Thompson ...... John Abineri
Sir James Simpson ...... Conrad Phillips
Fortescue ...... Hubert Rees
Manny Silverman ...... Arnold Diamond
Linda Taylor ...... Madeleine Cemm
Radio voice ...... Roger Leach
Directed at BBC Bristol by Brian Miller.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1984.
SAT 01:30 The Life Sub-Aquatic (b04fzc7m)
Marine biologist and avid scuba diver, Helen Scales, explores the human obsession with inhabiting the depths and meets aquanauts who want to go down and stay down. From Jules Verne to Jacques Cousteau, the dream of a life sub-aquatic has endured. But could it ever become a reality?
At the moment, there is one place on Earth where you can live deep underwater for weeks at a time: The Aquarius Reef Base, a research station run by Florida International University which sits on the seabed some 20 metres down. As Helen discovers herself on a short visit to Aquarius, this is paradise for marine scientists who can wave goodbye to the surface and conduct experiments in situ, 24/7. It also hosts astronauts who use the unique conditions to train for life on the International Space Station as well as voyages deeper into space. Helen talks to Commander Chris Hadfield (recently made famous through his rendition of Space Oddity) about his time testing space suits for NASA and meeting sharks face to face on night time sorties.
Aquarius stands alone today but the dream of working – and living – under the sea has a rich history that began years before we ever stepped foot on the surface of the moon. It was undersea pioneer Jacques Cousteau, co-inventor of the Aqua-Lung, who captured the world's imagination when he created the Conshelf underwater village in the Red Sea. This was followed by the US Navy's Sea Lab and NASA's own 'Tektite' house (built in 1969 by General Electric and described by inhabitant Sylvia Earle as looking like a giant kitchen appliance).
Interest from philanthropists, corporations and even individuals is keeping alive the dream of life as an aquanaut. Helen meets Lloyd Godson, a young Australian adventurer who is working on his third project - BioSub 3 - a submerged habitat powered by sustainable energy. As Helen discovers, there's a long way to go to meet the many challenges this hostile environment throws up - not least how our bodies and our brains cope with the pressure and confined conditions that come with living underwater.
Producer: Helen Scales
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.
SAT 02:00 DH Lawrence - The Rainbow (m000fx1b)
Episode 5
Ursula grows up, ever closer to her young father Will.
Will himself is changing from the naive man he used to be, and his behaviour, rather than repulsing his wife, draws them together.
DH Lawrence's novel explores the passionate lives of three generations of the Brangwen family of Nottinghamshire.
Read by David Bradley
Abridged in ten parts by Linda Cracknell
Producer: Lu Kemp
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2004
SAT 02:15 Just So Science (b01pw5s8)
Series 1
The Cat That Walked by Himself
Do we keep cats, or do they keep us? The myths and the mysteries of felis catus explored by Patrick Bateson and John Bradshaw.
Vivienne Parry presents the science behind some of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, with wondrous tales of how things really came to be.
Rudyard Kipling tells us how the leopard got his spots, the camel his hump, the whale his throat and so forth. But what does science make of these lyrical tales? For the most part, just-so stories are to be dismissed as the antithesis of scientific reasoning. They're ad hoc fallacies, designed to explain-away a biological or behavioural trait, more akin to folklore than the laws of science. But on closer inspection, might Kipling's fantasies contain a grain of truth? And might the "truth" as science understands it, be even more fantastic than fiction?
Vivienne meets researchers whose work on some of Kipling's 'best beloved' creatures is helping us to answer a rather inconvenient question: how do traits evolve? Why are some animals the way they are?
Excerpts from five of the Just So Stories are read by Samuel West.
Producer: Rami Tzabar
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2013.
SAT 02:30 Iris Murdoch: A Severed Head (b067b69s)
Episode 5
The merry-go round of partner swapping comes to a grinding halt but just who will end up with who?
There are shocks and surprises right up to the end of Iris Murdoch's blackly comic satire.
Martin ..... Julian Rhind-Tutt
Antonia ..... Victoria Hamilton
Honor Klein ..... Helen Schlesinger
Palmer Anderson ..... Matthew Marsh
Georgie ..... Rhiannon Neads
Alexander ..... Sam Dale
Dramatised by Stephen Wakelam.
Director: Sally Avens
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2015.
SAT 02:45 Peter Moore - The Weather Experiment (b05tq3y6)
Prognostications and Forecasts
The first forecasts prove controversial among the scientific community, and Robert FitzRoy's reputation is threatened.
Peter Moore's vivid account of the 19th century quest to understand the weather.
Concluded by Tim McMullan.
Abridged by Sara Davies
Producer: Elizabeth Allard
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2015.
SAT 03:00 John Buchan - Mr Standfast (b00tlmws)
Episode 2
The action moves to France as intrepid hero Richard Hannay and British agent Mary Lamingon attempt to track down the German spy, Moxon Ivery.
When Ivery changes his identity, the trail goes cold – but Mary has a plan to flush him out. Ivery wants to marry her – and Hannay must agree to let Mary become the bait in a deadly trap....
Conclusion of John Buchan's rip-roaring First World War spy thriller first published in 1919.
Brigadier-General Richard Hannay/Cornelius Brand …. David Robb
Sir Walter Bullivant …. Clive Merrison
The Count von Schwabing …. Struan Rodger
Mary Lamington …. Jasmine Hyde
Peter Pienaar …. Jon Glover
Mrs Amelia Gore-Boothe …. Briony McRoberts
Forbes …. Chris Pavlo
The Prefect …. Ben Onwukwe
Dramatised by Bert Coules.
Director: Bruce Young.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2008.
SAT 04:00 Funny You Should Ask (b0b53jl3)
From 20/08/1979
Peter Jones hosts the entertainment quiz about comedy as he tests a panel of experts:
Barry Cryer, Sid Colin and John Junkin 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 August 1979.
SAT 04:30 Molesworth (m000fx16)
The Office
Grown-up Nigel Molesworth hates office life. Better to dream of sun-kissed Caribbean beaches.
School boy terror Nigel Molesworth, formerly The Curse of St Custard’s, is now all grown-up and determined to share his experience of life.
Starring Willie Rushton.
Series written by Simon Brett based on characters created by Geoffrey Willans and by Ronald Searle.
Molesworth …. William Rushton
Grint …. Clive Swift
Louise …. Penelope Nice
Grabber …. Bob Sinfield
Darryl …. Robert Harley
Carole …. Chrissy Roberts
Music by Oonagh Bernon
Producer: Mark Robson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1987.
SAT 05:00 The Lentil Sorters (b06qkkzp)
False Positives
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 episode, a stag do, a stats conference and a blood test combine to make Graham’s life substantially worse.
Meet the team:
Graham Quicks is 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 for the department. 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 department's 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 fifteen 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:
The Corporate Manager............Paul Shearer
The Doctor................................Catriona Knox
The Stage Manager..................Tom Crowley
The Graham Gal.......................Tessa Coates
With Jo Unwin as The Narrator
Written by Jack Bernhardt
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2015.
SAT 05:30 Reluctant Persuaders (m0000ngj)
Series 3
Episode 2: Happiest Place On Earth
The mood at Hardacre’s advertising agency is black. After losing the biggest account of their careers – the Cosmos X10 smartphone – the team have slid back down the greasy pole and find themselves once again serving only the smallest and least interesting clients around.
While Joe (Mathew Baynton), Amanda (Josie Lawrence), and Hardacre (Nigel Havers) continue to feel sorry for themselves, Teddy (Ramus Hardiker) is determined to lift their spirits. Appointing himself chief morale officer, he sets out to brighten the mood at the agency with a succession of increasingly ill-advised morale-boosting schemes.
What starts with an innocuous Hawaiian shirt day soon snowballs into a team-building and bonding exercise none of the staff will ever forget.
Cast:
Nigel Havers - Hardacre
Mathew Baynton - Joe
Josie Lawrence - Amanda
Rasmus Hardiker - Teddy
Olivia Nixon - Laura
Holly Morgan - WPC and Crystal
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 06:00 Thomas Love Peacock - Headlong Hall (b06y048x)
Winter, 1815: Harry Headlong, like all Welsh squires, is fond of shooting, hunting and drinking. But he becomes seized with a passion to form the acquaintance of philosophers and dilettanti.
Sir Michael Hordern narrates Thomas Love Peacock's novella.
Escot. the deteriorationist ...... Daniel Massey
Foster, the perfectibilian ...... Ronald Lacey
Jenkison, the statu-quo-ite ...... John Grillo
Cranium, the craniologist ...... John Horsley
Headlong ...... William Simons
Cephalis ...... Polly James
Gaster ...... Alan Dudley
Milestone ...... Andrew Branch
Gall ...... Simon Cuff
Norman ...... BirdPanscope
Tenorina ...... Caroline Gruber
MacLaurel ...... Michael Deacon
O'Prism ...... John Tate
Chromatic ...... John Baddeley
Graziosa ...... Joan Walker
Dramatised by James Saunders.
Producer: Matthew Walters
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1988
SAT 07:30 Reimagining the City (b03tqx9v)
Series 2
Calcutta
In 1999, the novelist Amit Chaudhuri moved from England back to Calcutta. It was a place he had loved in his youth and the place he made his name writing about.
Growing up in Bombay, Amit Chaudhuri used to feel a charge of anticipation on visiting Calcutta. For him, it was his first taste of modernism, of a completely contemporary city.
"This is what I must have had an intuition of, even as a child. And this is why I feel, even now, that the most revealing places in Calcutta are not the museums or the monuments - there aren't many of those - but the houses and lanes."
That Calcutta was one of the great cities of modernity for Amit. He found himself changed by his encounters.
"By modern, I don't mean new or developed, but a self renewing way of seeing, of inhabiting space, of apprehending life."
A colleague of Amit's told him that he loved the city because "you can feel that something happened here".
Amit takes us on a guided tour of the city, and explores whether that city of his childhood still exists or is just a realm of his imagination.
Producer: Rachel Hooper
A Falling Tree production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2014.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b074vs1b)
The Art of the Lyricist
Actor and singer Clarke Peters explores the career and legacy of 'My Fair Lady' lyricist Alan Jay Lerner.
Alan Jay Lerner often said that he sweated for weeks to write a lyric for a song. His words highlighted the struggle that he and the other legendary wordsmiths of musical theatre had as they sought to hone the right words to fit their collaborator's music - words which would sometimes translate into the vernacular and speech of generations afterwards - expressions like "Get me to the Church on Time" (Lerner) or "Everything's Coming Up Roses" (Sondheim).
Clarke explores the art of Alan Jay Lerner as well as other musical theatre lyricists which fill the BBC archives.
Many of the songwriting greats are there - Yip Harburg, writer of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", Dorothy Fields (lyric writer of the hit show "Sweet Charity") and the great Oscar Hammerstein. Also the artists who delivered both words and music - like Irving Berlin and Stephen Sondheim Plus surprises like PG Wodehouse who, as well as writing the famous "Jeeves" books, also wrote lyrics for musical theatre.
Fresh interviews feature with lyricist Charles Hart (writer of words for "Phantom of the Opera" and more recently "Bend it like Beckham"), Millie Taylor, Professor of Musical Theatre at Winchester University and Alan Jay Lerner expert Dominic McHugh.
Clarke Peters presents this journey of crafting the words for the perfect musical theatre song. Discover the pleasures and pitfalls of a lyricist's life as he takes us through from first thought to the opening night.
Producer: Emma Kingsley.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2016 to mark the 60th anniversary of the musical "My Fair Lady.
SAT 09:00 The Lives and Work of Somerset Maugham (b054051p)
William Somerset Maugham was one of the most commercially successful English writers ever.
His plays, short stories and novels effortlessly sold in their millions; his work on stage, page and screen drew huge audiences. He remains the English writer most adapted for film and TV. And yet he described himself as possessing only a "knack" for writing and his place among the literary greats as being only "in the first row of the second rate". Despite his huge popularity with a mass audience, the literary establishment dismissed him as "middle brow".
The subjects he wrote about, and his complex and exotic lifestyle moulded the image of the successful 20th century writer - a wide circle of famous friends, a villa in the South of France, the adulation of readers across the globe and the ears of the Empire's leaders. His own long life, too, reads like the plot for a novel. Born when Disraeli was Prime Minister, he died when the 60s were in full swing. He trained as a doctor, dedicated himself to being a writer, and spent time as a First World War spy. He travelled the globe in search of material for stories - chronicling the boredom, frustration and scandals of the colonial class of empire builders.
His private life was complicated. In England he seemed a pillar of the establishment, yet he set up an exotic and promiscuous lifestyle in a villa on the Cote d'Azur with a succession of gay lovers. His last years were marked by an extraordinary, toxic family quarrel, betrayal and a public fall from grace.
He died on December 16th 1965 in Nice, France.
Simon Fanshawe examines the literary legacy and complex private lives of Maugham in the company of writers, performers, biographers and family members.
Producer: Mike Greenwood
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Pier Productions and first broadcast in February 2015.
SAT 12:00 Booked (b0075sd8)
Series 4
Episode 1
Ian McMillan chairs the irreverent writing game.
Regular panellists Mark Thomas and Dillie Keane are joined by Mark Radcliffe and Miles Kington.
Producer: Marc Jobst
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1998.
SAT 12:30 Ayres on the Air (b007k0pq)
Series 1
Human Deterioration
Pam Ayres kicks off her own poetry and sketch show starting with the theme of deterioration.. of eyesight, figure, memory......the list goes on.
With poems about being Too Fat and buying a Wonderbra.
Plus sketches about being Topless at 60 and how to spice up your love life with a little celebrity fantasy in a sketch called Me and Michael Aspel.
With Geoffrey Whitehead and Felicity Montagu.
Producer: Claire Jones
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2004.
SAT 13:00 The Leopard (Omnibus) (m000g52h)
Episode 1
Giuseppe Di Lampedusa's The Leopard draws us into world of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina - set in Sicily, during the Risorgimento: the unification of Italy.
An irresistible giant of a man whose hands are like paws and who makes the ground tremble when he rises to his feet, the Prince is clear-eyed, intelligent and languid, aptly represented by the leopard on his coat of arms.
Don Fabrizio is about the business of preserving what remains of his family’s feudal power in a period of political turmoil. He realises their best hope lies in his charming and resourceful nephew, Tancredi, who knows that "everything must change so that everything can stay the same".
Set across New Year's Day, The Leopard is a gorgeous masterpiece of European political fiction: beguiling, beautiful and subtle, evoking a centuries-old way of life on the cusp of change.
Omnibus of the first five of ten parts: The Prince and his family are assembling for dinner. Read by Alex Jennings
Translated by Archibald Colquhoun
Abridged by Sara Davies
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2020
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (m000g52l)
Brian Cox
Scottish actor Brian Cox chooses Sonny Boy by Al Jolson and God Only Knows by The Beach Boys.
SAT 14:15 With Great Pleasure (b00j7txy)
Dame Jacqueline Wilson
Multi-award winning children's author Dame Jacqueline Wilson shares her love of literature with a selection of favourite readings and anecdotes.
Including Shakespeare, Dickens, Dodie Smith and Virginia Woolf.
Readers: Tracy-Ann Oberman and Michael Fenton Stevens.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2009.
SAT 14:45 Uncle Mort's North Country (b007jrcs)
Series 2
2084
Carter Brandon takes his uncle off to ponder growing old over a pint.
Peter Tinniswood’s continuing tales of long-suffering 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
The Barmaid …. Liz Goulding
Narrator …. Christian Rodska
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1989.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b074vs1b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Thomas Love Peacock - Headlong Hall (b06y048x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Reimagining the City (b03tqx9v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 And When You Sleep You Remind Me of the Dead (b094281v)
Young Tracy has a terrifying recurring nightmare, which seems to be connected with the cottage where she lives with her mother.
Tracy dreams about a man hideously wounded in battle, and about a little girl who tries frantically, but in vain, to wake her mother.
What happens when the nightmare becomes real?
Supernatural thriller written by Trevor Walker.
Ross ...... Graham Padden
Angela ...... Natasha Pyne
Dr Craig ...... Gareth Armstrong
John ...... Andrew Branch
Lucy ...... Susie Brann
George ...... Alan Dudley
Alice ...... Pauline Letts
Martin Elliot ...... Peter Howell
Tracy ...... Romy Tennant
Young Alice ...... Emma Grinsell
Directed at BBC Pebble Mill by Peter Windows.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1987.
SAT 18:45 Above The World by Ramsay Campbell (m000g52p)
A man visits the mountainous Lake District location he used to go to with his ex-wife. It’s also the spot where she and her new husband died during a later visit...
Sean Barrett reads Ramsey Campbell’s eerie tale.
Producer: Mitch Raper
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1984.
SAT 19:00 The Lives and Work of Somerset Maugham (b054051p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07wc11v)
Series 1
The Plan
Josh and his wife Monique's big day finally arrives. Josh has the birth ball and all meditation music but typically, at the crucial moment, disaster strikes.
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 Jenny Bede, Carole Dance, Stella Duffy, Caroline Mabey, Debra Tammer and Wendy Wason.
Producer: Ashley Blaker
A Black Hat production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2016.
SAT 22:30 Chain Reaction (b0738kq0)
Series 11
Victoria Coren-Mitchell interviews Sandi Toksvig
Writer and presenter Victoria Coren-Mitchell asks the questions to comedian and writer, Sandi Toksvig about her long career in broadcasting, her foray into politics and gets some advice on how to behave when you're staying at the Icelandic Prime Minister's house.
Chain Reaction is the long running hostless chat show where this week's interviewee becomes next week's interviewer.
Victoria Coren-Mitchell is a columnist for The Observer and GQ amongst other publications and has presented myriad documentaries on subjects as varied as The Bohemians and Mary Poppins. As well as a prolific writing career, she keeps order on the popular and fiendishly difficult television quiz, 'Only Connect'. She is also well-known as one of the world's top professional poker players and has achieved huge success at the card table.
Sandi Toksvig is a prolific writer and broadcaster who chaired the News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 for nine years and over 220 episodes. In 2015 she was a founder member of the Women's Equality Party and was named new host of the long-running BBC TV series, QI.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Radio Comedy production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in March 2016.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (m000gc6g)
Spencer Jones 2/2
From 10.00pm until midnight, seven days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Spencer Jones.
SAT 23:00 Newsjack (m000fwyp)
Series 22
Episode 4
Newsjack is a scrapbook sketch show written entirely by the Great British public.
Host Kiri Pritchard-McLean is joined this week by Jason Forbes, Freya Parker and Henry Perryment.
Script Editors: Ed Amsden and Tom Coles
Production Coordinator: Mabel Wright
Producers: Leila Navabi and Hayley Sterling
Newsjack is a BBC Studios Production.
SAT 23:30 Elis James's Pantheon of Heroes (b07qrrvj)
Series 4
Cities
Comedian Elis James compares Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Bangor, St David's and St Asaph to determine which is Wales's greatest city.
With Benjamin Partridge and Nadia Kamil.
From the Glee Club, Cardiff.
Producer: Sharif Shahwan.
First broadcast on BBC Radio Wales in August 2016.