Programme Information

A piece of the Berlin Wall

Jeremy Vine marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by looking at its history, from construction in 1961, to the day it was finally breached on 9 November 1989.

Jeremy visits the city to examine what remains of the Wall and speaks to those who lived on both sides – East and West. He visits some of the key locations in the Wall's history, including: Checkpoint Charlie; the Brandenburg Gate; Bernauer Strasse, which was cut in two in 1961; and Mauerstrasse, where the largest remaining section of the Wall exists today. Jeremy finds out why the Wall was constructed in the first place, why it came down and asks whether the psychological scars of a divided Germany still remain.

The programme contains first-hand testimony from Germans who escaped from the East and those who helped them. It also considers what it was like to live in a state controlled by the secret police or Stasi and hears from a political reformer who was held in the notorious Hohenschönhausen prison.

There are interviews with escapee Joachim Neuman, who spent two years working on tunnels under the Wall to bring his girlfriend to the West; and escapee Irmgard Muller, who escaped from East Berlin under a false passport to be with her husband. We also hear from West Berliner Horst Seeliger, who was in East Berlin on November 9 1989, and one of the first people to cross back through the border into the West; and Vera Lengsfeld, an East German reformist politician who was imprisoned by the Stasi.

Additional contributors include historian Frederick Taylor; Sunday Times journalist Peter Millar and veteran BBC reporter Brian Hanrahan, who both covered the fall of the wall; and Ben Bradshaw, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who was a young BBC reporter in Berlin in 1989.

Presenter/Jeremy Vine, Producer/Simon Jacobs

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Michael Aspel concludes the story of how a poor, shy, bespectacled, Greek girl became one of the most successful female singers of all time.

During her 50-year career, Nana has achieved world-wide sales of more than 300m records in 15 different languages, leaving Madonna and Celine Dion trailing behind her. She is a heroine in her native Greece, and is loved throughout the world. Her charmingly elaborate, shyly delivered introductions to her songs are as distinctive as her trademark glasses.

Nana has sung on many of the great stages of the world, but her success has not come without a price. Her attempt to balance her professional and domestic life, and later a political career, created tensions and unhappiness and threatened her most precious possession – her voice.

In the final episode of the series, Nana fights to get her career back on track, enters politics and embarks on a two-year farewell tour.

Presenter/Michael Aspel, Producers/Lisa Meyer and Brian King

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Foreign Secretary David Miliband

Philip Dodd talks to Foreign Secretary David Miliband in an extended interview recorded in front of an audience at The Sage, Gateshead, as part of BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

David Miliband, MP for South Shields, has made a rapid ascent to the top of Government, becoming Foreign Secretary at the age of 41. His family background is distinctive: his father was an influential political historian; his mother survived by being sheltered from Nazi oppression; and his brother sits alongside him in Cabinet.

In a wide-ranging interview, he discusses his philosophical outlook, cultural cornerstones and personal values.

Presenter/Philip Dodd, Producer/Anthony Denselow

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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The Scottish Chamber Orchestra celebrates the 75th birthday year of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with a performance of his Fourth symphony. The orchestra have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with "Max" and they gave the first performance of this symphony at the BBC Proms 20 years ago. Tonight's conductor, Oliver Knussen, was in the audience for the première. It forms the central point in Sir Peter's cycle of seven symphonies, and is the only one composed for a chamber orchestra.

The concert opens with Knussen's own miniatures, which are based on two Tudor puzzle canons, with his own variations superimposed, and scored for two opposing chamber orchestras. Following this, young Dutch mezzo Helena Rasker sings Mahler's touching and lyrical songs on the poems of Friedrich Rückert, which inspired him to write some of his most profound music.

Presenter/Martin Handley, Producer/Janet Tuppen

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Barrister Paul Moore was head of regulatory risk at troubled bank HBOS. However, he says he was sacked when he tried to warn bosses about reckless consumer lending.

When the bank started to fall apart, Paul made the decision to speak out about what he had seen, despite a gagging order from the bank.

His shocking allegations were to see apologies from banking heads and the resignation of his former boss from his regulatory post.

Paul tells Michael Buerk about how his Catholic faith helped him make the choice to blow the whistle.

Presenter/Michael Buerk, Producer/Amanda Hancox

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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1989 – A German Story Ep 1/3

Tuesday 3 November

11.00-11.30am BBC RADIO 4

Three of Germany's finest, award-winning feature-makers have come together to present their very personal take on the changing face of Germany since 1989. In this series, Thomas Franke, Helmut Kopetzky and Jens Jarisch author and shape three completely different views of the old and new Germany.

In the first programme, Under One Flag, Thomas Franke travels with members of the former East German army to Kosovo, where they are serving as peacekeepers, to unpick the process of the unification of two armies.

Next week, Helmut Kopetzky tells the life story of Wolf Kaiser in The Sad Death Of Mack The Knife. Seventeen years ago, Helmut made a long and revealing recording with one of East Germany's biggest stars, Wolf Kaiser, a stalwart of Brecht's Berliner Ensemble and veteran of many TV shows and films. A matter of weeks later, Kaiser died after throwing himself from his balcony. Under Communism, he had been a state hero. In the West, he felt that he was merely a washed-up, old actor.

In the final programme, Jens Jarisch returns to the canvas of his beloved Berlin to examine places that changed – or stayed the same – as Germany metamorphosed around them. He looks at places like Schoppenstube on Schonhauserallee, Berlin's legendary gay bar before and after 1989; and the Tränenpalast, which switched from being the GDR's station farewell spot for loved ones, to a hip night club.

Presenters/Jens Jarisch, Thomas Franke and Helmut Kopetzky, Producer/Simon Elmes

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Poet and closet campanologist Ian McMillan pursues a childhood dream of visiting the UK's oldest manufacturing business, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.

The foundry has a list of head craftsmen going back over five centuries. Big Ben was their greatest ever challenge, so large that the Tower of Westminster had to be built around this giant of instruments. Built to the clockmaker's specification, and contrary to Whitechapel's blueprint, the bell cracked almost immediately. The resulting bodged repair gives Big Ben the characteristic "bong" many have come to love.

But many of Whitechapel's stories are much more Earthbound. Harold Rogers is probably one of the UK's oldest bell ringers. Aged 90, he still rings regularly at the church in south-west London where he met his bell-ringing wife.

The programme meets the colourful characters behind this typically proud East-End institution. Nigel masterminds the moulding; Steve and his young apprentice prefer the relative tranquillity of the handbell workshop, full of the delicate sounds of miniature bells being tuned to perfection. Leading them all is Alan, the Master Founder, who inherited the business from his father and his grandfather before him.

He tells of the foundry's unique work during the war, turning its skills to the production of submarine detection equipment for the Admiralty. And, from the foundry's safe, Alan pulls some remarkable documents charting the foundry's history, including the inside story on what really went wrong with Big Ben.

Presenter/Ian McMillan, Producer/Michael Surcombe

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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All In The Mind Ep 1/8

Tuesday 3 November

9.00-9.30pm BBC RADIO 4

Claudia Hammond returns with a new series of All In The Mind.

From the latest discoveries in neuroscience, the most revealing experiments in psychology and human behaviour, to the big, important debates in mental-health care, All In The Mind explores the wonderful and mysterious workings of the human brain.

Presenter/Claudia Hammond, Producers/Fiona Hill

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Tuesday 3 November

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch presents all the day's sports news. From 7.45pm, there is live Champions League group stage coverage of Manchester United versus CSKA Moscow and Athletico Madrid versus Chelsea.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Graham McMillan

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Marc Riley unveils a trio of musical joy with Grizzly Bear, Daniel Johnston and Laura Marling, live, in the studio in Manchester.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe presents Gang Of Four in session from 1979 and, from the same year, Big In Japan, plus bluesman Billy Boy Arnold in session in 1977 and haunting American singer Joan As Police Woman with Edgar Broughton, live, in concert.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Krishan wants revenge after discovering that Roopa embarrassed him on Facebook, in today's visit to Silver Street. He is curious when he overhears "Bunty" on the phone to a client. Krishan wants a job too but Rita says it's difficult. Just look at poor Roopa! Will Krishan tell Rita what he knows?

Roopa makes her way to Parkside hoping for work. Deepika tells her to watch this space but then suddenly becomes all ears when Roopa divulges an interesting piece of information...

Krishan is played by Rahual Das, Roopa by Rakhee Thakrar, Rita by Bharti Patel, Deepika by Babita Pohoomull and Vinnie by Saikat Ahamed.

BBC Asian Network Publicity