Programme Information

Zane Lowe returns tonight with the third part of Masterpieces – a series dedicated to the albums that Zane has crowned "masterpieces" for the way they altered the musical landscape at the time of their release.

The 1979 release of London Calling by punk rock group The Clash has been widely accepted as one of the greatest rock albums of all time with songs that defined a generation. The album's mix of defiantly political lyrics and eclectic concoction of pop, soul, rockabilly and reggae was well received both critically and commercially.

As well as playing the album in its entirety, unedited and uninterrupted, Zane is joined by the band's song-writing force Mick Jones to discuss how The Clash crafted bona fide classics such as the title track, thus creating a blueprint for rock music ever since.

Presenter/Zane Lowe, Producers/Rob Lewis and Kat Wong

BBC Radio 1 Publicity

BBC Radio 2 presenter Trevor Nelson

Trevor Nelson plays another hour of soulful tunes and features 1985's A Little Spice, from British R&B group Loose Ends, as his Album Of The Week.

The trio, formed in London in 1980, initially comprised Carl McIntosh on vocals and guitar, vocalist Jane Eugene and writer and founder Steve Nichol on Keyboards. A Little Spice features the UK soul classic track Hangin' On A String (Contemplating).

Presenter/Trevor Nelson, Producer/Dan Cocker

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Recorded yesterday evening at The Law Society, this evening's Performance On 3 celebrates the wealth of contemporary music in the UK, with the British Composer Awards 2009. The awards celebrate new works that received their first UK performance between April 2008 and March 2009.

The shortlist of nominees includes such luminaries as Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Sir John Tavener, Jonathan Harvey and Alexander Goehr, as well as some potential household names of the future, including Bernard Hughes, Christian Mason and Elizabeth Winters, in categories from chamber to liturgical music and, for the first time this year, there is an award for contemporary jazz composition.

Presenter/Martin Handley, Producer/Janet Tuppen

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

In Living Memory Ep 1/4

Wednesday 2 December

11.00-11.30am BBC RADIO 4

BBC Radio 4's contemporary history series, In Living Memory, returns with four more re-examinations of big news stories which have since faded from public memory.

In the first programme, Jolyon Jenkins investigates the Moorgate tube crash of 1975, which remains the worst accident on the London Underground. A driver overshot the platform at Moorgate station and drove his train at full speed into a brick wall – 43 people died. The cause of the accident is still a mystery but there are some who argue that the driver may have committed suicide.

The main champion of this theory is the sitcom writer Laurence Marks, whose father died in the crash and who investigated the accident as a journalist for the Sunday Times. But colleagues of the late driver strongly dispute the suicide claim. They talk to Jolyon about the boredom and disorientation that comes with driving a tube train and the possibility that he may have been confused about which station he was at. Other witnesses to the accident talk about the rescue and salvage operation mounted in the days afterwards.

Later in this series, Jolyon investigates the hijacking of an Afghan airlines flight by a group of Afghan asylum seekers in February 2000, and Chris Ledgard re-examines the controversy in Birmingham over Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs back in 1998 and the arguments over the introduction of Sunday trading in 1994.

Presenter/Jolyon Jenkins,
Producers/Jolyon Jenkins, Isobel Eaton and Chris Ledgard

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Timothy Spall, John Sessions and Amanda Root star in A Dangerous Thing, a new drama by John Sessions about the enduring friendship between two giants of 18th-century literature – Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.

The friendship of the two great Augustan satirists is tested by political and personal events. In May 1744, Alexander Pope is on his deathbed in Twickenham and Jonathan Swift is losing his wits in Dublin. The two friends have not seen each other for 17 years but each is very much on the other's mind.

In his final hours, Pope talks to his emotional and intellectual soulmate, Martha "Pattie" Blount, about his relationship with Swift and the events that conspired to keep the two friends apart for most of their lives. He also recalls Swift's last visit to London when an unexpected encounter with a young burglar put the divergent philosophies of the two friends to the test.

Timothy Spall plays Jonathan Swift; John Sessions plays Alexander Pope; Amanda Root plays Martha "Pattie" Blount; Joe Thomas plays Boy (Tom) and John Gay; Tessa Nicholson plays Amica; Nigel Hastings plays Dr Cheselden/Lord Bolingbroke/Waterman; and John Biggins plays Swift's Servant/Dr Arbuthnot/Matthew/Gentleman.

Producer/Emma Harding

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Laurie Taylor talks to the anthropologist who went to Wall Street to learn how the lives, experiences and ideologies of the investment bankers who work there shaped not just the financial markets, but the very nature of employment across America, in this week's Thinking Allowed.

Karen Ho, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, spent a year working in a Manhattan Investment Bank, followed by months of in-depth interviews with bankers with companies including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. By studying in detail their daily lives, the culture of work and the practices of the bankers themselves, she presents an alternative take on the world of financial collapse.

Laurie talks to Karen about the fascinating detail of everyday life on Wall Street and she punctures the aura of the abstract, all-powerful market to show how financial markets, particularly booms and busts, are constructed. She also describes how a financially dominant but highly unstable market system is understood, justified and produced through the restructuring of corporations and the larger economy.

Presenter/Laurie Taylor, Producer/Pam Rutherford

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Wednesday 2 December

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch presents all the day's sports news and live coverage of one of tonight's League Cup quarter-final matches.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Driver Drive Faster make their way to Manchester for a live studio session with Marc Riley this evening.

Driver Drive Faster consists of three former members of the band Polytechnic; Peet Earnshaw, Dylan Giles and Yuri Caul. They have just finished a mini-tour supporting The Answering Machine.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Yo La Tengo are Gideon Coe's studio guests for the first hour of tonight's show, and perform some of their favourite songs and tracks from their new album, Popular Songs.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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There's a double helping of Marc Riley every night this week as listeners have another chance to hear Marc dip into the BBC's archives to unearth seminal and tantalising rock interviews, as part of a series first broadcast on BBC Radio 2.

In tonight's programme Iggy Pop and Marvin Gaye are the artists under the spotlight.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Sway and Jodie snatch some secret time together at the old warehouse, as the Midlands-set drama continues. Jodie wishes that they didn't have to sneak around and worries that Kuljit won't cope with being "just friends". Kuljit phones Jodie and Sway dashes off, saying that he arranged to meet Kuljit for a drink.

Meanwhile, at the pub, Brian warns Kuljit that it's a rocky path staying friends with an ex. Sway bursts in, apologising for being late, and asks what tonight's hot topic of conversation is...

Sway is played by Nicholas Bailey, Jodie by Vineeta Rishi, Kuljit by Sartaj Garewal and Brian by Gerard McDermott.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

Can China Go Green? Ep 1/2

Wednesday 2 December

8.00-8.30pm BBC WORLD SERVICE

Renowned writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development, Jonathon Porritt, is in China amid the power stations and burgeoning numbers of cars, in this new two-part series questioning whether the country can build a more sustainable future.

Much has been written and said about China's rapid industrial expansion and the environmental impact of this growth. But, in this series, Jonathan attempts to explore what is actually happening on the ground across this vast country and, in the process, discovers some pioneering green solutions.

He finds a country which, he argues, has the most enormous amounts of wind power available to it, the most aggressive expansion programme for renewable sources of energy of any country in the world and has set some extremely tough targets for improving both energy efficiency and water efficiency. He also argues that it is just about the only country in the world to have done any serious work to introduce a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) that takes into account the environmental and climate costs.

Jonathan argues that China is effectively "leap frogging" the older industrial societies of Europe and America and bringing on real long-term environmental solutions, sustainable power and eco design.

Presenter/Jonathon Porritt, Producers/Kate Bland and Susan Marling

BBC World Service Publicity

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Exchanges At The Frontier Ep 1/5

Wednesday 2 December

8.30-9.00pm BBC WORLD SERVICE

Exploring the frontiers of science, philosopher AC Grayling talks to the world's leading scientists about their work, in this new five-part series recorded as part of a unique series of events created by BBC World Service and the Wellcome Collection.

The subjects of climate change, the origin of the universe, life on other planets, the nature of consciousness and one of the most ambitious and expensive science projects, the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, are all presented through the unique insights of some of the world's leading authorities in their fields.

The US cosmologist Lawrence Krauss, the Ghanaian British nuclear physicist Tejinder Virdee, the Canadian neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland, the Indian economist and Nobel Prize-winner Rajendra Pachauri and the American astronomer Seth Shostak present a truly international line up for exploring the frontiers of science.

With the help of a public audience, AC Grayling discusses the Large Hadron Collider at Cern with the man behind the building of the CMS machine and explores the latest breakthroughs in neuroscience with an expert who says free will is an illusion and the deliberations of the mind are automatic responses.

In the first episode, ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenagen, AC Grayling is in conversation with Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change.

Presenter/Anthony Grayling, Producer/Charlie Taylor

BBC World Service Publicity