Programme Information

Singer, actress and award-winning star of musical theatre Elaine Paige

This week, Elaine Paige talks to dancer and actress Donna McKechnie about her starring role in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line. Donna also reveals her favourite Essential Musicals, including tracks from Company, Showboat, Follies and Oklahoma!.

Presenter/Elaine Paige, Producer/Malcolm Prince

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Every year, tens of thousands of Christmas cards are sent wishing family and friends a peaceful Christmas. This week, Brian D'Arcy explores what the peace of the Advent season really means and where it can be found.

The featured choir is Beverley Chamber choir, directed by Mark Pybus. The organist is Jeffrey Makinson and hymns featured include Be Still My Soul and For The Healing Of The Nations.

Presenter/Brian D'Arcy, Producer/Janet McLarty

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Turner Prize-nominated artist Sam Taylor-Wood

Michael Berkeley meets Turner Prize-nominated conceptual artist and film-maker Sam Taylor-Wood, whose latest work, Nowhere Boy, is a film about the early life of John Lennon.

Much of her work has been inspired by music, from opera to Bach, and her choices today range from the opening of Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, to an Indian raga, Nina Simone singing Wild Is The Wind and film scores by Ry Cooder and Michael Nyman.

Presenter/Michael Berkeley

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Steve Waters's contemporary drama, starring Will Paxton and Sarika Chatterjee, imagines a government in crisis as it deals with the biggest storm to hit Britain since the Fifties.

This new version of the highly acclaimed play, originally staged at The Bush Theatre, is a chilling prediction of life in the near future. As Britain faces catastrophic floods and politicians and scientists argue over what action to take, a young scientific adviser urges immediate action.

Producer/Peter Leslie Wild

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Chilean writer and politician Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda is a literary Che Guevara – an idolised figure, much loved, but not much scrutinised. Sunday Feature reassesses Neruda, taking a close look at his work and his life; in particular his role in getting refugees out of fascist Spain, and what this unknown but highly significant story reveals about him.

In 1938, while Neruda was a diplomat representing Chile in Paris, he chartered a ship, the SS Winnipeg, to convey 2,000 Spanish Republicans to Chile. Standing on the quay in a white hat, waving them off, he wrote the poem Let Me Explain A Few Things, in which he disowned his previous romantic and lyrical self and committed himself to exposing the world's injustices.

It has been alleged, however, that Neruda was a kind of reverse Schindler, with a list of people who were not going to get on the Winnipeg. As a diplomat, he had access to passports and he made sure that these went only to those who shared his particular left-wing beliefs (which were Stalinist). According to Neruda's critics, the anarchists and more moderate socialists were rejected and were therefore interned in France. Many were executed soon after the Nazis arrived.

Nick Rankin investigates this episode in Neruda's life, talking to his latest biographer, Adam Feinstein; writer Stephen Schwarz; anarchist publisher Stuart Christie; poet Jane Duran; and also to Victor Pey in Santiago, who was one of those who sailed on the Winnipeg.

Presenter/Nick Rankin, Producer/Julian May

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Lord Sebastian Coe talks to Kirsty Young about his life, his career, his favourite music and how he might cope on BBC Radio 4's mythical desert island.

Born in 1956, Lord Coe achieved world-wide fame as a British middle-distance runner, winning Olympic gold medals in 1980 and 1984. He set eight outdoor and three indoor world records and was the first man to break the 1 minute 43 second and then 1 minute 42 second barriers in the 800metres.

He was widely considered to have been one of the greatest middle-distance runners of all time. Audiences revelled in the great rivalry between, then, Seb Coe, and fellow British athlete Steve Ovett.

After retiring from athletics, Sebastian served as a Conservative MP from 1992 to 1997 and became a life peer in 2000.

As Lord Coe, he led London's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics and later became chairman of the London Organising Committee overseeing the development of the London Olympic Games.

Presenter/Kirsty Young, Producer/Leanne Buckle

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Sunday 13 December

12.00noon-6.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Colin Murray presents an afternoon of live sport featuring, from 1.45pm, live Championship commentary on the match between Middlesbrough and Cardiff. There are also updates from the day's European Rugby Cup matches between Harlequins and Sale from 12.45pm and Bath against Edinburgh from 3pm.

From 4pm there's Premier League commentary on Liverpool against Arsenal, live from Anfield.

Presenter/Colin Murray

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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5 Live At The BBC Sports Personality Of The Year 2009

Sunday 13 December

7.00-10.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

BBC Radio 5 Live presenter John Inverdale

John Inverdale is backstage with Clare Balding, Matt Dawson and Steve Parry at BBC Sports Personality Of The Year in Sheffield. Discussing the sporting year, John will be speaking to the award winners and guest presenters as the night unfolds.

Presenter/John Inverdale, Producer/Steve Rudge

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

NFL American Football

Sunday 13 December

9.00pm-12.30am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Arlo White presents coverage of Dallas Cowboys versus San Diego Chargers from the Cowboys Stadium.

Arlo is also joined by Neil Reynolds with all the news from around the NFL.

Presenter/Arlo White

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

The Music Week gets Christmassy with singing siblings Martha and Rufus Wainwright as they put on their Not So Silent Night spectacular at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Presenters/Julie Cullen and Matt Everitt, Producer/Tom Green

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Bob Dylan takes a "Big Clearance Sale" as his theme this week and plays songs that he was unable to fit into previous shows. His bargain-basement tracks include songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys, Clarence "Frogman" Henry and Dusty Springfield.

Presenter/Bob Dylan, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity