Programme Information

Following their successful summer stint, comedian and actress Liza Tarbuck and Fun Lovin' Criminal and regular BBC 6 Music presenter Huey Morgan sit in for Jonathan Ross this week and are joined by British indie rock band The Noisettes, who perform live in the studio.

Presenters/Liza Tarbuck and Huey Morgan, Producer/Fiona Day

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Welsh rockers Stereophonics

Dermot O'Leary brings listeners live session tracks from The Low Anthem and Stereophonics this week and impressionist Alastair McGowan also joins him in the studio to talk about his favourite music.

The Low Anthem are a folk trio from Rhode Island whose second album, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, was described by Rolling Stone magazine as "solemnly beautiful" and has been shortlisted for Uncut's award for the most inspiring album of the last 12 months.

Welsh rock band Stereophonics have just released their seventh studio album, Keep Calm And Carry On. Last month's homecoming gig at Cardiff castle sold out in just 40 minutes and the band set out on a UK Arena tour early next year.

Presenter/Dermot O'Leary, Producer/Ben Walker

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Eighties icons Spandau Ballet

Following on from The Spandau Ballet Story documentary last week, which looked at the story of the British Eighties New Romantic band, BBC Radio 2 give listeners a chance to enjoy the recently re-formed group in concert for the network at BBC Broadcasting House. The show was recorded last week and features classic hits and tracks from their new album, Once More.

Producer/Sarah Gaston

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Thea Gilmore plays the After Midnight Acoustic Session this week for Bob Harris.

Thea's new winter album, Strange Communion, name-checks Jona Lewie and Julie Andrews; references the poetry of TS Eliot and Louis MacNiece; includes cover versions of obscure songs by Elvis Costello and Yoko Ono; has a duet with Mark Radcliffe; and opens with an invocation to a pagan sun God.

Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Mark Simpson

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Jules Massenet wrote his four-act opera Werther after reading Goethe's novel, The Sorrows Of The Young Werther, while in Bayreuth to hear Wagner's Parsifal. The score was finished in 1887 but the director of the Opéra-Comique in Paris rejected it on the grounds that is was too gloomy for his audiences. So, the first performance was not until 1892 in Vienna. Now, though, it is perhaps Massenet's most popular opera, giving an insight into the deep recesses of the human psyche although on the surface it appears to be a straightforward tale of love and death.

Werther is a story of impossible love between the two central characters; Werther, a passionate young poet and Charlotte, the eldest daughter of a local family. Werther is in love with Charlotte but she has already promised her dying mother that she will marry another man, Albert. Though devastated when he finds this out, Werther cannot ignore his feelings for Charlotte – his passion becomes obsessive, and her love for him, though reciprocated, is simply impossible once she is married. Finally, and tragically, Werther's obsession leads him to take his own life and, in doing so, he destroys the lives of Charlotte and her family.

Tenor Paul Nilon plays the obsessive Werther, and mezzo-soprano Alice Coote is Charlotte. This new production by Opera North is directed by Tom Cairns and is conducted by Opera North's music director, Richard Farnes.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Rebecca Bean

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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This "composed feature" by Nina Perry explores the icy landscapes of Greenland, Iceland and the Highlands of Scotland, through recordings of environmental sounds; interviews with people going about their day-to-day lives; and music that expresses cultural and emotional connections to the weather.

Winter's thaw into spring is a time most often associated with renewal and hope, yet paradoxically, in light of climate change, melting ice has taken on the more ominous connotation of disappearing ice mass and rising sea levels.

Among the voices heard are an Icelandic writer, a Greenlandic fisherman, a drama therapist and an ice-climbing fiddle-playing mountain rescuer from the Cairngorms. Their words are interwoven with spectacular recordings of the Greenland ice sheet and a specially composed musical soundscape to reveal the emotional resonance of the thaw.

Producer/Nina Perry

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Continuing his fascination with maverick American radio DJs, Nick Barraclough tells the story of Alan Freed, the "Pluggers" and the Payola scandal which blew up 50 years ago.

Alan Freed was one of the most popular DJs of the Fifties. Also known as Moondog, Freed became internationally known for promoting black rhythm and blues under the name "rock 'n' roll" – a term he is credited with creating. Black artists including Bo Diddley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry would salute him for his pioneering attitude in breaking down racial barriers among the youth of Fifties America.

Freed also promoted dances and concerts featuring the music he was playing on the radio and was one of the organisers of The Moondog Coronation Ball, in 1952, which was regarded as the first rock 'n' roll concert.

But, in the late Fifties, Freed came into conflict with The American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) as they wouldn't allow their published songs to be played on what they considered to be increasingly vulgar rock 'n' roll radio. Investigations were widened and DJs who had accepted payments for playing records were scrutinized. TV presenter and DJ Dick Clark and Alan Freed were brought up for questioning and sentenced.

Freed refused to accept responsibility, insisting he had accepted payment from a record company because it was "given with gratitude" rather than to pay for plays. He was sacked and took to drink. He died bitter and penniless in 1965, aged 43.

The programme hears from Alan Freed's children Lance and Alana Freed, American TV celebrity Clay Cole, Freed biographer John Jackson and Nashville Radio DJ Gerry House.

Presenter/Nick Barraclough, Producer/Sarah Cuddon

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, MD and How I Met Your Mother) plays Tennessee teacher John Scopes; and Ed Asner (Lou Grant) plays prosecution lawyer William Jennings Bryan in a new version of The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial, adapted from the original trial transcript by Peter Goodchild.

In 1925, the same year that Franz Kafka's novel The Trial was first published, this real-life case was one of the most unusual trials ever seen in a US courtroom. It took place in Dayton, Tennessee, then a small town with a population of less than 2,000, and yet the two lawyers ranged against each other were prestigious. Counsel for the prosecution was three-time democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan, a Christian Fundamentalist. The defence was Chicago lawyer and declared agnostic, Clarence Darrow, who had recently saved two brutal child killers from the death penalty in a high-profile case.

Earlier that year Tennessee had passed The Butler Act, a law forbidding anyone "to teach any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." In other words, the teaching of evolution was outlawed.

In the stifling heat of July 1925, in a courtroom hung with banners proclaiming "Read Your Bible Daily", 24-year-old John Scopes, a part-time teacher, stood trial.

Producer/Kate McAll

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Every day for three months, BBC Radio 4 recreates 1989 in sound – drawing on the BBC and other vivid news archive and the music of the time.

These daily programmes, presented by Sir John Tusa, re-trace the year's major political, cultural and social events as they happened.

Just some of the big stories from the news this week in 1989 include: MPs relishing their day in the limelight as TV cameras are permitted in the House of Commons; Lebanon's President Muawad is killed 17 days after being elected; the Conservative party is facing a leadership challenge as Margaret Thatcher announces she is happy to contest two more elections; school children in Buckinghamshire organise a protest against Nestle for its promotion of dried milk in the Third World; Czechoslovakia's Prime Minister has his first meeting with the country's leading dissident Václav Havel; and Michael Buerk reports from Ethiopia where millions are facing starvation.

A weekly omnibus edition is broadcast on Sunday evenings.

Presenter/Sir John Tusa, Producers/Russell Finch and Barney Rowntree

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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BBC Radio 4 presenter Mark Lawson

From The West Wing to The Thick Of It, politics lends itself to high drama. Politicians themselves often write thinly disguised versions of their own experiences as fiction, and films and TV are awash with fictionalised versions of the political world.

Mark Lawson delves into the seamier side of politics to look at the fascinating line where fact meets fiction, in this edition of Archive On 4. Mark asks if such fictional programmes represent a truthful portrayal of the machinations of government and if fiction can influence those in positions of power.

Presenter/Mark Lawson, Producer/Mark Rickards

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Saturday 21 November

12.00noon-7.20pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch presents an afternoon of live sport kicking off with Premier League commentary of Liverpool versus Manchester City live from Anfield at 12.45pm, plus regular updates from Hearts versus St Johnstone in the Scottish Premier League (kick-off 12.30pm).

At 2.30pm, there's rugby union commentary as England take on New Zealand in the Autumn International series with Ian Robertson and England World Cup winner Matt Dawson, plus regular updates of Wales versus Argentina from the Millennium Stadium. There's also coverage of the day's 3pm football kick-offs, including Chelsea versus Wolves and Sunderland versus Arsenal in the Premier League and Rangers versus Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premier League.

At 5pm there's commentary of Manchester United versus Everton, live from Old Trafford, plus regular rugby union updates from Scotland versus Australia at Murrayfield.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Mark Williams

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Football

Saturday 21 November

2.45-5.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Listeners can enjoy uninterrupted commentary of one of the afternoon's top games in the Premier League.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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Rugby Union

Saturday 21 November

5.00-7.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

• www.bbc.co.uk/rugbyunion

Uninterrupted commentary of Scotland versus Australia comes live from Murrayfield in the Autumn Internationals.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

DJ and producer Erol Alkan returns for the latest instalment of his 6 Mix residency. Currently limbering up to support 2ManyDJs on their European tour throughout December, Erol has also been busy in the studio recording the follow up to his recent single, Wavves.

On the latest edition of his show, there's a heady brew of new music from around the world, including hot electro remixes, exclusive dubplates and bands he's discovered on his travels, plus another secret mix set.

Presenter/Erol Alkan, Producer/Rowan Collinson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Trying, by Erin Browne, is the winning play from the BBC World Service and British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition 2009 for English as a first language.

Erin's play was described by the judges as "exquisite", "human" and "spare" and is a tender three-hander about co-dependency and moving on. Sisters Lena and Chels are getting by just fine, awaiting the arrival of Chels's baby. Then Lena has to go and fall in love with the girl in the bookshop...

The all-American cast stars Melanie Bond (Quantum Of Solace), Sarah Goldberg (A Prayer For Owen Meany, BBC Radio 4) and Sasha Pick (The Road To Guantanamo).

The 2009 competition saw 1,200 script submissions, from which the two first prizes were chosen: for the best play with English as a first language and with English as a second language. The distinguished panel of judges included writer Kwame Kwei-Armah and actor Vincent Ebrahim.

The Prison Graduates, which won first prize for English as a second language, will be broadcast at the same time next week.

BBC World Service Publicity