Programme Information

To celebrate the centenary of the birth of award-winning lyricist Johnny Mercer – the man responsible for such classics as Moon River and In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening – BBC Radio 2 presents a special evening in his honour: Friday Night Is Mercer Night.

In the first programme of the evening singer and actor Clarke Peters explores how Johnny's birthplace, Savannah, Georgia, influenced his songs.

Although Johnny found fame in Hollywood and on Broadway, he came from a very different background to most of his fellow songwriters. While they were often urban New Yorkers, Johnny was a country boy at heart and took every opportunity to go back to his beloved Savannah in the American South.

The images with which he was surrounded, such as moss, birds, pine trees, trains and, of course, deep rivers, made their way into songs like Moon River, Blues In The Night and Lazybones. His early experiences of African-American music and rhythms led him to an understanding of jazz idioms and an ability to mix the vernacular with the abstract.

Clarke Peters tells the story of Johnny's earliest years in Savannah and how the place influenced him throughout his life. There are new interviews with singer Andy Williams, lyricist Alan Bergman and jazz pianist and singer Daryl Sherman, as well as Johnny's daughter Amanda and his niece Nancy. In addition, archive contributions include Johnny Mercer himself, Bing Crosby and Henry Mancini.

Presenter/Clarke Peters, Producer/Emma Kingsley

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Friday Night Is Mercer Night

Friday 13 November

7.30-9.15pm BBC RADIO 2

A special edition of Friday Night Is Music Night, presented by American singer-songwriter and saxophonist Curtis Stigers, continues the centenary celebrations for lyricist Johnny Mercer, live from London's Mermaid Theatre.

An all-star line-up from the world of television and musical theatre, including Nigel Harman (Guys And Dolls/EastEnders), Sally Ann Triplett (Mamma Mia!), Ruthie Henshall (Woman In White) and Curtis Stigers himself, bring the Mercer songbook to life, accompanied by the 70-piece BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Tony award-nominated Larry Blank.

The concert features some of Johnny's most famous songs, including Hooray For Hollywood, Autumn Leaves, Jeepers Creepers, Fools Rush In, Come Rain Or Come Shine and Moon River.

Between 8.15pm and 8.30pm, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett looks at Mercer the performer in a programme during the interval of the concert – Mercer Sings Mercer.

Johnny didn't just write songs, he performed them as well, making numerous records throughout his life. He was a renowned interpreter of other people's songs and became a top radio star, with appearances on many of the best-known American music radio shows of the time. Sir Richard Rodney Bennett – who has recently released a CD of his own versions of Johnny's songs – analyses his particular brand of showmanship, and, with the help of Johnny's recordings, asks what made him a unique performing talent. This interval programme is produced by Emma Kingsley.

Presenter/Curtis Stigers, Producer/Jodie Keane

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Musical icon Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow presents a personal view of Johnny Mercer in the final programme of Friday Night Is Mercer Night, celebrating the centenary of the birth of the award-winning lyricist.

After Johnny's death, his widow, Ginger, found a selection of his lyrics which appeared never to have been set to music. She approached Barry Manilow and asked him to compose melodies for them. Manilow's first song with the lyrics, When October Goes, has become a standard and many others followed, recorded by the likes of Nancy Wilson, Monica Mancini and Barry himself.

In this programme, Barry talks about the work he did to set the lyrics, featuring examples from recordings and others which have never before been released.

In addition, he tells the story of Johnny's later years and analyses how his genius developed. Johnny kept finding opportunities to write, even when the fashion for musical films was fading. There's a glimpse into his personal relationships, including an affair with Judy Garland, and there are insights into his final pieces and his last recordings.

New interviewees include singer Andy Williams; conductor and composer André Previn, who wrote a London stage musical with Johnny; and lyricist Alan Bergman, to whom Johnny was a mentor.

Presenter/Barry Manilow, Producer/Emma Kingsley

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Dale's Pick Of The CMAs

Friday 13 November

10.00pm-12.00midnight BBC RADIO 2

BBC Radio 2 presenter Dale Winton

Live from Nashville, country music fan Dale Winton celebrates the biggest night in the country music calendar – the 43rd Annual Country Music Association Awards.

Dale introduces highlights from the Awards ceremony held in Nashville on Wednesday evening, including the best performances and backstage interviews with this year's winners. During his visit, he also catches up with some of country music's biggest stars, including four-time female vocalist winner Reba McEntire and Hootie And The Blowfish front man and now chart-topping country artist Darius Rucker.

The nominations for this year's CMAs are dominated by singer, songwriter and guitarist Brad Paisley who, in addition to co-hosting the ceremony with Carrie Underwood, is nominated for six awards including entertainer, male vocalist and best album. Other acts nominated for multiple awards include Jamey Johnson, George Strait and Zac Brown. Taylor Swift, who tours the UK later this month, has four nominations, including one for the evening's most coveted award, entertainer of the year.

Swift also performs at the Awards as part of a line-up which includes Tim McGraw, Reba McEntire, Sugarland, Keith Urban, George Strait, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley and Brooks And Dunn.

Presenter/Dale Winton, Producer/Al Booth

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs live at the Barbican Hall in London featuring a work by young British composer/conductor Ryan Wigglesworth.

Although only just 30, Ryan has already forged an international reputation. He scored a critical hit in 2008 by deputising at short notice for James Levine at Tanglewood Festival and received plaudits last February when he made his BBC Symphony Orchestra debut, and again following his BBC Proms world première last July.

Tonight's programme sees the world première of his orchestral song-cycle Augenlieder, sung by soprano Claire Booth. This is set alongside two dramatic overtures by Beethoven and masterpieces by Stravinsky – the strikingly original Symphonies Of Wind Instruments, which has a foundation in Russian Orthodox Church music, and his neoclassical Symphony in C.

Presenter/Martin Handley, Producer/Janet Tuppen

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young

Kirsty Young's guest this week is prominent lawyer and writer Anthony Julius.

Anthony is perhaps best known for representing Diana, Princess of Wales in her divorce from HRH the Prince of Wales and for his defence of historian Deborah Lipstadt in the libel case brought by David Irving.

Anthony speaks to Kirsty about his life, his favourite music and how he would cope on BBC Radio 4's mythical island.

Desert Island Discs has been moved from its usual Sunday slot this week to make way for programmes marking Remembrance Sunday 2009.

Presenter/Kirsty Young, Producer/Leanne Buckle

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

With England's friendly international against Brazil in Qatar on the agenda, Colin Murray is joined by regular guests Pat Nevin and Perry Groves to preview the weekend's football, in Kicking Off With Colin Murray. There are also regular updates from rugby union's autumn international between Wales and Samoa from the Millennium Stadium, with Iain Carter.

From 9.30pm, Colin is joined by Tim Lovejoy for Murray And Lovejoy's Sports Express, in which Colin and Tim take a quick-fire look at the current burning issues in sport. Murray And Lovejoy's Sports Express is also available as a podcast to download at bbc.co.uk/5live.

Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Louise Sutton

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Martha Wainwright plays tracks from her new release, Martha Wainwright's Piaf Record – an album of Edith Piaf covers.

The daughter of American folk/blues musician Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian folk singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle, Martha, along with her older brother, Rufus, was raised in Montreal, Canada.

Presenter/George Lamb, Producer/Alicia Brown

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Japanese punk metal rockers Electric Eel Shock join Bruce Dickinson on tonight's Rock Show.

Formed in Tokyo a decade ago, the trio came together through a mutual obsession with Black Sabbath. They are now considered to be one of rock's hardest working bands. In their early days they recorded and released their own albums, paying their way by selling merchandise and their self-recorded album, Slayers Bay Blues, at gigs which, of course, they booked themselves.

On tour almost constantly since the start, EES have now performed in more than 30 countries and return to play more dates around the UK this autumn. They talk to Bruce about how they funded their new album, Sugoi Indeed, and their love of fishing.

Presenter/Bruce Dickinson, Producer/Ian Callaghan

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Vinnie finally convinces Mary to go to the quiz weekend, as the drama continues. They could really use Bill on the team too. Later, Vinnie finds himself eating humble pie when Deepika throws a spanner in the works.

Elsewhere the big studio booking ends well. Sway thinks Kuljit did a great job considering what he is going through. Jodie then tells Sway that she knows about his loved-up calls with Nadia, is he sure that's where his heart really lies?

Vinnie is played by Saikat Ahamed, Mary by Carole Nimmons, Deepika by Babita Pohoomull, Sway by Nicholas Bailey, Jodie by Vineeta Rishi and Apache Indian by himself.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

Seventy years after the start of the Second World War there remains an overwhelming impression of a conflict fought on the battlefields of Europe by white troops, however Britain's war effort was bolstered by soldiers from across the Empire and Commonwealth. Often overlooked is the contribution of one million African troops who participated in the conflict, fighting their way through the jungles of Burma, across the Libyan deserts and in the skies over London.

For Africa, this war began in 1935, when Italian forces backed by Eritrean troops invaded Ethiopia. Ethiopian guerrilla forces, known as the Patriots, continued fighting even after Emperor Haile Selassie fled to England. After 1939 Britain began an intensive programme of recruiting soldiers from across its African colonies – some were conscripted by force, while others were only too keen to sign up. An intensive schedule of training turned raw recruits, many of whom had never left their own village, into soldiers.

This new documentary, presented by Martin Plaut, features the first-hand accounts of African troops who participated in the war. For many of them the experience of leaving home to fight on foreign soil transformed them.

Those who went to India included men who met, talked to and were inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. When they finally returned home they found little had changed, but their own experiences were entirely new and some went on to fight for the liberation of their own countries from colonial rule.

Presenter and Producer/Martin Plaut

BBC World Service Publicity