Programme Information

As BBC Radio 2 continues to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, comedian Richard Herring irreverently intertwines the fall of Communism with the rise of David Hasselhoff.

In 1989, David Hasselhoff was between jobs. TV show Knight Rider had been cancelled a few years earlier and Baywatch had yet to rescue his career. So he decided to become a pop star, with some success. His single, Looking For Freedom, reached No. 1 in Austria, Switzerland and West Germany, helped by Hasselhoff's idea of bringing the talking car from Knight Rider on stage with him.

Meanwhile, communist Hungary removed its travel restrictions with Austria, allowing thousands of East German tourists to escape to Austria and enter West Germany. While weekly protests grew, Hasselhoff's song pumped away relentlessly in the discos of West Berlin. On 9 November 1989, the Wall fell and to ring in the new era, there was no question who would best symbolize a new beginning and freedom – The Hoff. After spending almost two months at No. 1, David Hasselhoff performed Looking For Freedom live on top of the Berlin Wall in front of hundreds of thousands of Germans – and walked into the history books.

Richard Herring casts an eye back over this extraordinary episode in modern history and gets into the swing of things by taking a ride in a Trabant and learning the Lipsi Dance, the German Democratic Republic's official answer to rock 'n' roll. He also speaks to key figures in the Berlin music scene including the Klaus Renft Combo, who were banned by GDR authorities, and Berliners whose lives were affected by the Wall.

The programme features interviews with the producer of Looking For Freedom, fans who witnessed Hasselhoff atop the Wall and The Hoff himself.

Presenter/Richard Herring, Producer/Simon Barnard

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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That Western Swing Thing Ep 1/5

Tuesday 10 November

11.30pm-12.00midnight BBC RADIO 2

As part of BBC Radio 2's celebration of this year's Country Music Association awards, Ray Benson, founder and lead singer of Grammy Award-winning western swing band Asleep At The Wheel, charts the history and development of this style of music.

In this new five-part series, he celebrates the people who created, developed and refined the "western swing" sound, and joins some of the players, enthusiasts and fans keeping this unique part of America's musical history alive for the next generation.

In the Thirties, when the urban dance halls of America were ringing to the swing sounds of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie, a unique form of dance music was taking hold in the rural south west. Exposed to big band influences through the radio, rural string bands took jazz and big band music and adapted it for their traditional instruments. Country fiddles, banjos and steel guitars played alongside horns, drums and pianos. Also feeding into this music were the diverse cultural influences prevalent in Thirties Texas and Oklahoma.

This was an area filled with the sounds of different communities. Czech and German polka, Mexican mariachi, Cajun and blues were all part of the soundtrack of the south west and fed into the new style, which would later become known as "western swing" – a sound that became the lifeblood of the Texan dancehall for the next 20 years.

The first programme explores the cultural and musical background of the American south west, which gave rise to the development of this music. Ray explores the rural dance halls of Texas, hears some of the music that surrounded western swing bandleader Bob Wills during his early career and examines Wills's relationship with former cigar salesman Milton Brown, which led to the formation of The Light Crust Doughboys – the precursors to the western swing sound.

The series features contributions from Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett and The Hot Club Of Cowtown, plus former members of Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys, Johnny Gimble, Herb Remington, Bobby Koefer, Louise Rowe and Leon Rausch.

Presenter/Ray Benson, Producer/Al Booth

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

The career of American writer Michael Goldfarb was changed by 1989. In the late Eighties he was a cultural correspondent covering the outpouring of expression triggered by Gorbachev's Glasnost. Then came the fall of the Wall, the convulsions of a superpower collapsing and the demise of a global ideology.

Five years later, Goldfarb had swapped the arts for the military, and covered the conflicts in Iraq and Bosnia, which had been triggered by the new world order.

Michael writes four short essays for Night Waves and looks back on how 1989 changed both his life and the world.

This programme is part of BBC Radio 3's 1989 Season, which marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the most potent symbols of the Cold War.

Presenter/Michael Goldfarb, Producer/Matthew Dodd

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Rhodri Davies was born into an upper-class family with close connections to the Royal Family. He served in the Household Cavalry and later married and had two sons. But he'd always had a secret; he'd always thought of himself as a girl. Late in life he made the choice to change sex – with devastating consequences.

Now known as Miranda Ponsonby, she tells Michael Buerk how she made that difficult choice.

Presenter/Michael Buerk, Producer/Amanda Hancox

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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In this programme, writer, comedian and rock drummer Andrew McGibbon tells the true story of a 150-year-old cymbal and explores the magic of cymbals – plates of bronze and tin alloy metal beaten into a concave shape and "tuned" on a lathe.

A Cymbal Tale tells the story of cymbals: how they are made and the dazzling varieties they come in; how they evolved from their first recorded appearance in Ancient Assyria and China to their arrival in Europe in the 1670s; their restrained use in orchestras and marching bands; their unlimited deployment in the avant-garde and jazz of the 20th century; and finally to the present day, where mass produced, contemporary cymbals form part of every rock drummer's kit.

Andrew speaks to leading orchestral percussionist Heather Corbett from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, as she rehearses a cymbal-featured composition by John Adams during the BBC Proms; Archeomusicologist, Richard Dumbrell from the British Museum on the oldest cymbals yet found, which are currently stored in the British Museum; and John Keeble from Spandau Ballet who explains the fabulous layout of his live cymbal array and what cymbals mean to him as he prepares for Spandau Ballet's comeback.

Andrew also talks to cymbal manufacturers such as Zildjian to further explore the intriguing delights of the cymbal – and how many consider it a beautiful thing to behold, and very satisfying to hit!

Presenter/Andrew McGibbon, Producer/Nick Romero

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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This funny and touching play by James Graham looks at the not-entirely-congenial world of Albert Einstein's final years.

Towards the end of his life, Einstein was convinced that if he could just come up with his elusive unified field theory – his famed "theory of everything" – he could amalgamate his ideas – space with mass, mass with sound, sound with light, light with love, love with hate, terror with fear – everything. But as his visitor, Bucky, points out – how can he unify the cosmos when he can't even unify his socks!

The real bogey getting between Albert and lucidity is altogether more personal and grave. Albert has been negligent of his two sons since he abandoned them and his wife years ago for another woman. Eduard is schizophrenic and Hans is dismayed that all communications from Albert are chiding or correctional in tone and that he hasn't visited for many years. Perhaps more hurtful, as the letter that Bucky brings makes clear, the ageing, ever-more eccentric, genius has now cut both boys out of his will.

The well-intentioned Bucky tries to find out why this is as, surely, Albert should move now to rectify the wrongs before he dies?

Victor Spinetti plays Albert, reprising his role from an earlier version of this award-winning play at West London's Finborough Theatre, and Richard Laing plays Bucky.

Producer/Peter Kavanagh

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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The Diaries Of Edith Appleton Ep 1/3

Tuesday 10 to Thursday 12 November

3.30-3.45pm BBC RADIO 4

Three readings to commemorate Remembrance Day feature extracts from the diaries of Edith Appleton, a nurse working close to the front line during the First World War.

Edith Elizabeth Appleton, known as Edie, was born in Deal, Kent in 1877. She served in France for the duration of the war and, throughout her time there, she kept a handwritten diary detailing all the horrors of war, including the first use of poison gas. But Edie also records some rare lighter moments; how she and her colleagues spent their time off duty and what life was really like for nurses on the Western Front.

After the Armistice in November 1918, she joined 42 Ambulance Train and, in February 1919, was appointed to the staff of Dame Maud McCarthy, Matron-in-Chief, at Boulogne. She was demobilised on 22 December 1919 and after the war she worked at Bedford College in London.

Edie, who died in 1958 at the age of 81, was awarded the Military OBE, the Royal Red Cross and the Belgian Queen Elizabeth medal. In 1926 she married Lieutenant Commander John Bonsor Ledger, they had no children.

Reader/Rachel Atkins, Producer/Joanna Green

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Jo Caulfield Won't Shut Up! Ep 1/4

Tuesday 10 November

6.30-7.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Jo Caulfield returns to BBC Radio 4 with a new show where she, once again, portrays her unique mix of waspish likeability and foot-in-mouth populism – but always with charm.

In the new show, Jo will, as ever, be failing to Shut Up about love, marriage, dating, celebrity, newspapers, money, cats, sex, pubs, parties and, quite possibly, Scotland.

Presenter/Jo Caulfield, Producer/David Tyler

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Mark Pougatch presents all the day's sports news and from 8.30pm is joined by football journalists Brian Woolnough, Henry Winter and Shaun Custis for The Report Card; giving their mid-term assessment of the football season.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Graham McMillan

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Soy Un Caballo are live in session on Marc Riley's show this evening. They're a Belgian couple who have a Spanish name meaning "I Am A Horse". Muller and Thomas Van Cottom live in Brussels from where they write, perform and record songs with musicians such as Bonnie "Prince" Billy (Will Oldham), members of Raymondo and producer Sean O'Hagan. The band's debut album is titled Les heures de raison.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe's archive selections tonight include Edwyn Collins in concert plus a loud session from Grindcore pioneers and John Peel favourites – for whom they recorded four sessions – Extreme Noise Terror.

More soothing sessions follow from Cocteau Twins and State Broadcasters and Leicester's psychedelic blues rockers Family.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Paul Sexton tells the story of Al Green's fateful meeting with Memphis artist and producer, Willie Mitchell, and their subsequent collaboration, as the series continues.

This programme was first broadcast in 2005.

Presenter/Paul Sexton, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Sway's big studio booking has arrived at the cafe, as the drama continues. Meanwhile Simran is shocked when she hears Jodie's confession about her new love interest.

Elsewhere, Mary declines Deepika's olive branch. Mary is planning to make life even harder for the new Parkside Manager and heads off to tell Vinnie what he needs to do...

Jaggy has produced a financial spreadsheet and confronts Simran about credit card bills, but how will she respond?

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

BBC Asian Network Publicity