Wednesday 24 Sep 2014
Programme Information
Network Radio BBC Week 13: 27 March-2 April
Transmission details in the Network Radio Programme Information
7-day version are not updated after publication. For updates, please see individual day pages.
Network Radio BBC Week 13: Saturday 27 March 2010
BBC RADIO 2 Saturday 27 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Ian Dury's death, and leading straight on from The Craig Charles Funk And Soul Show on BBC 6 Music (7pm), actor Andy Serkis presents a documentary first broadcast on BBC 6 Music in January of this year.
The programme focuses on the extraordinary story of Ian Dury and The Blockheads – of how a disabled art teacher in his mid-thirties fused punk, funk and incredible lyrics to create some of the most important music of the Seventies.
Friends and colleagues, including Chas Jankel, The Blockheads, Suggs, Phill Jupitus and Ian's son, Baxter, reflect on Dury's career from the revolutionary album New Boots And Panties!! through to Ian's early death and the legacy of The Blockheads as the band continue to tour.
Presenter/Andy Serkis, Producer/Neil Cowling
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
British singer-songwriter Lisa Reford joins Bob Harris this evening and performs three tracks live in the studio and also chooses two of her favourite tracks by other artists.
Lisa's music is influenced by singer-songwriters such as Carole King, James Taylor, Neil Young, Chrissie Hynde and Shawn Colvin. Her new album, Clouds With Silver, was recorded in April last year and released at the end of the summer.
The album was co-produced with respected producer and multi-instrumentalist Brad Albetta (Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, Teddy Thompson) who also added some sonic dimensions on bass and keyboards.
Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Mark Simpson
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
BBC RADIO 3 Saturday 27 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
Italian composer Nicola Vicentino shocked and amazed people with his radical, microtonal music. Catherine Bott uncovers Vicentino's remarkable story, exploring what it meant to be a musical innovator in 16th-century Italy.
Imagine an octave divided into 31 parts: 31 very small intervals – "microtones" – rather than the 12 semitones many people are used to today. Vicentino first came up with the idea in the 16th century. He composed microtonal music and he trained choirs to sing it. He built a "superharpsichord" and "superorgan" to play it.
Traditionalists were horrified. Some of the most powerful people in Italy gave Vicentino their patronage. Adoring pupils dubbed him Arcimusico – the "Arch-Musician".
Perhaps the biggest obstacle Vicentino faced is that his music was considered very hard to perform. But, in the 21st century, people are finally beginning to prove that it is possible. Catherine gives it a go herself and also meets other people who have tried, including members of the BBC Singers who tackled Vicentino's music especially for this programme with conductor James Weeks.
Presenter/Catherine Bott, Producer/David Gallagher
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Alyn Shipton first met the late Sir John Dankworth in 1967 when Dankworth composed a piece for the youth orchestra in which Shipton played. Their paths crossed many times and, in recent years, Shipton produced several radio shows with Dankworth, including a BBC Radio 3 series to celebrate the 75th birthdays of Dankworth and his wife Cleo Laine in 2002.
Their easy rapport is immediately obvious from this edition of Jazz Library, in which Dankworth, already a contributor to the series in the programme on Benny Goodman, selects some of his key recordings.
Listeners hear the story behind Cleo Laine's audition for the Seven, experience the John Dankworth Big Band's first appearance in America and delve behind the scenes in writing for films and television.
Presenter and Producer/Alyn Shipton
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Opera On 3 – Live From The Met: Hamlet By Ambroise Thomas
Live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Simon Keenlyside sings the title role in Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas, with Marlis Petersen as Ophelia.
Thomas's Hamlet is a 19th-century romantic interpretation of Shakespeare's tragedy, originally with a happy ending. However, this was subsequently changed to reflect the play a little more closely.
Simon Keenlyside (baritone) is the tormented Prince seeking vengeance for his father's death, in one of the few chances for a baritone to play the lead role. Marlis Petersen (soprano) is his ill-fated love, Ophelia, to whom Thomas gives an extended and truly memorable mad scene. Louis Langrée conducts.
Margaret Juntwait presents with Ira Siff as guest commentator, including live backstage interviews during the interval.
Presenter/Margaret Juntwait, Producer/Janet Tuppen
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Musician David Bramwell delves into the world of Victorian psychic phenomena, modern witchcraft and mind-altering states in search of the story behind a moustache that came to him as an unlikely inheritance from his Great Aunt Sylvia.
Obsessed with finding out the identity of the moustache's owner, Bramwell sets off on a quest to record séances and psychics, the effects of mind-altering Amazonian plants, hippies, and phantom orchestras.
The Haunted Moustache is a meditation on one man's obsession with freak shows, synchronicity, the occult and the existence or not of a spirit world.
Presenter/David Bramwell, Producer/Sara Jane Hall
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
BBC RADIO 4 Saturday 27 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4
Patrick Humphries takes an affectionate look at the little-known story of movie trailers from their early beginnings as simple slides into the spectacular special-effect-filled fanfares of today.
In a bygone age, film was such a novelty that what mattered most was not what you were going to see but the simple fact you were going to the cinema. As the movie-going public became more selective, this fast-growing industry realised the huge importance of publicising their wares more effectively and the trailer was born.
Patrick talks to those who both currently and formerly have been responsible for bringing movie fans the hyperbole, bombast and outlandish headlines people have come to expect from movie advertising.
He uncovers the story of Esther Harris, who dominated British trailer-making from the late Twenties up until the Eighties. The programme hears from the Queen of Trailers herself in a never-before-broadcast interview in which this wonderfully eccentric 90-year-old explains, over a cup of tea, how her extraordinary career began and the problems she encountered with censors and, occasionally, directors – including Michael Winner.
Patrick gets Michael Winner's own thoughts on trailers and on Esther Harris. He talks about the censorship problem, his love of the horror film trailer and also some impressions of his favourites.
Invictus star Adjoah Andoh describes what it is like to see oneself in a trailer for the first time after having spent so long immersed in the film itself. And movie critic Karen Krizanovich gives listeners her own lively take on film advertising.
Veteran trailer-makers Rodney Read and Bob Pritchard describe how it used to be done and Patrick ponders what trailers may have lost in this age of technological wizardry.
Presenter/Patrick Humphries, Producer/Katrina Fallon
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Broadcaster and Doctor Who fan Matthew Sweet travels to The University of Manchester – home of Delia Derbyshire's private collection of audio recordings – to learn more about the wider career and working methods of the woman who realised Ron Grainer's original theme to Doctor Who.
Delia's collection of tapes was, until recently, in the safekeeping of Mark Ayres, archivist for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Her realisation of the Doctor Who theme is just one small example of her genius and the programme reveals how the music was originally created as well as hearing individual tracks from Delia's aborted Seventies version.
Matthew's journey of discovery takes in work with influential poet Barry Bermange, as well as her 1971 piece marking the centenary of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
Presenter/Matthew Sweet, Producer/Phil Collinge
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Saturday 27 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5live
5 Live Sport
Mark Pougatch presents an action-packed afternoon of live sport.
From 12.30pm, there are updates from Hearts versus Rangers in the Scottish Premier League and Crystal Palace versus Cardiff in the Championship (12.45pm), plus reports from the qualifying session of the Australian Grand Prix.
There is also coverage of the afternoon's 3pm football kick-off's, including Chelsea versus Aston Villa, Birmingham versus Arsenal and Tottenham versus Portsmouth in the Premier League and Celtic versus Kilmarnock in the SPL.
At 5.30pm, listeners can hear commentary of Bolton versus Manchester United, live from the Reebok Stadium, in the Premier League.
Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Mark Williams
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA
Saturday 27 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5livesportsextra
Formula 1
Listeners can enjoy uninterrupted commentary on the final practice session for the Australian Grand Prix.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Formula 1
Uninterrupted commentary comes from the qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Football
Uninterrupted commentary comes from one of the afternoon's top matches in the Championship.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
BBC 6 MUSIC Saturday 27 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/6music
The Blockheads are in session on the Funk And Soul Show as BBC 6 Music celebrates the life and times of Ian Dury.
Ten years after his death, his songs are as relevant as ever and a film of his life is demonstrating his enduring impact. Ian Dury And The Blockheads were heavily influenced by funk – as indicated most strongly in their earlier albums.
Craig Charles talks to the band about the influence of black American music.
Listeners can also hear Andy Serkis commemorate the 10th anniversary of Dury's death on BBC Radio 2 this evening at 10pm, in Reasons To Be Cheerful – Ian Dury And The Blockheads.
Presenter/Craig Charles, Producer/Hermeet Chadha
BBC 6 Music Publicity
DJ and Musician Ben Watt brings his Buzzin' Fly radio show to the 6 Mix, showcasing the best new music from his label – as well as tracks which have inspired him as a musician.
Formerly one half of acoustic indie band Everything But The Girl with Tracey Thorn, a life-threatening illness led Ben to discover dance music, leading the duo to collaborate with Massive Attack and have big dance hits with Missing and Walking Wounded in the late Nineties. Since then, Ben has carved himself out a niche as one of the UK's most credible deep-house DJs of the last decade, with tracks like Lone Cat becoming underground hits.
Since starting Buzzin' Fly in 2003, Ben has put out a number of tracks and, this month, celebrates its 50th release, a collaboration between Ben, Stimming and Julia Briel called Bright Star. In this show, Ben plays classic Buzzin' Fly tracks from the past seven years and talks to Mademoiselle Caro about her new LP, plus there's also an exclusive mix in the last half hour.
Presenter/Ben Watt, Producer/Rowan Collinson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
BBC ASIAN NETWORK Saturday 27 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork
Raj and Pablo bring listeners the latest news and reviews from Bollywood.
This week, the duo review new Bollywood film Prince and interview stars Vivek Oberoi and British actor Aruna Shields.
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan also talks about recent Bollywood hits My Name Is Khan and De Dana Dan.
BBC Asian Network Publicity
It's an historic day for the British Asian Music Industry as the world's first Official Asian Download Chart launches on BBC Asian Network.
Bobby Friction counts down the best new Asian music and releases with more listener interaction than ever before.
The chart features key No. 1 moments, with special guest artists. And there is a strong link with Mumbai. Listeners can join Bobby and some very special guests for an afternoon filled with the best tunes and latest music news.
BBC Asian Network Publicity
BBC WORLD SERVICE Saturday 27 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice
In a small, impoverished Punjabi town, the arrival of a new public bath means prosperity for all. But the baths are polluted and Dr Ajit Kohli is determined to expose the risk and protect the community. So, how does he move from being a friend of the people to an enemy of the people?
This BBC World Service production offers a new interpretation of Henrik Ibsen's classic play, moving to India and with an Indian cast, which includes Bollywood star Dalip Tahil playing Dr Ajit Kohli.
The play was adapted by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti and John Foley.
Gurpreet's first play, Behsharam (Shameless), broke box-office records when it played at the Soho Theatre and Birmingham Rep in 2001 and her controversial play, Behzti (Dishonour), won the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the best English language play written by a woman.
John Foley is an actor and writer who has worked on numerous adaptations for World Drama including: Dracula; The Madness Of George III; and The Entertainer. He has translated An Enemy Of The People from the original text for this radio version.
BBC World Service Publicity
Eighteen months ago, Usain Bolt was the outstanding track and field star at the Beijing Olympics. Twelve months later, at the Berlin world championships, he broke his own records.
However, he's just one of a whole host of Jamaicans who've won Olympic and World Championship medals. Why are Jamaican sprinters so good? Some attribute it to the High Schools Track And Field Championships – "champs". As the event celebrates its 100th birthday, Russell Fuller presents Sportsworld from Jamaica to discover the reasons for Jamaica's success.
Sunday Sportsworld, on Sunday 28 March, also comes from Jamaica, where Russell and guests consider other sports on the island and how they can emulate the country's sprinters.
Presenter/Russell Fuller, Producer/Jo Parsons
BBC World Service Publicity
Network Radio BBC Week 13: Sunday 28 March 2010
BBC RADIO 1 Sunday 28 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio1
Comedian and presenter of The 5:19 Show, Tom Deacon, kicks off his new BBC Radio 1 show, bringing plenty of music, talk, interviews and a whole load of humour to brighten up Sunday nights and is joined in the studio this evening by Scouting For Girls.
Award-winning stand-up comedian Tom has presented BBC Switch's The 5:19 Show since September 2008 and has proved to be a hit with its teen audience. The programme transmits live every weekday at 5:19pm on bbc.co.uk/switch and on Saturday afternoons on BBC Two.
Tom's new show forms part of a new line-up on Sunday nights on Radio 1.
Presenter/Tom Deacon, Producer/Laura Sayers
BBC Radio 1 Publicity
BBC RADIO 2 Sunday 28 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2
Aled Jones says Good Morning Sunday to 20-year-old singer Florence Rawlings, whose musical talent was first spotted when she was just 13.
Florence completed her A Levels and immediately signed to a record label. Her music is described as a mix of authentic soul, raw grooves and rhythm and blues and she performs tracks from her debut album, A Fool In Love, live in the studio this morning.
On the eve of Passover, Rabbi Pete Tobias discusses the news of the week from a faith perspective, and gives the Moment Of Reflection.
Presenter/Aled Jones, Producer/Hilary Robinson
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Shirley Jones, star of classic film musicals such as Oklahoma!, Carousel and The Music Man, joins Elaine Paige this Sunday afternoon.
Presenter/Elaine Paige, Producer/Malcolm Prince
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Johnnie Walker is joined this afternoon by American guitarist Elliott Randall, best known for his guitar solo in Steely Dan's Reelin' In The Years.
Presenter/Johnnie Walker, Producer/Natasha Costa Correa
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Alan Titchmarsh brings listeners another edition of Melodies For You, an eclectic mix of tunes from the worlds of classical, opera, operetta, musicals, films, brass and military bands and jazz.
This week's show features music from Phil Harris, Hamish MacCunn and Artie Shaw.
Presenter/Alan Titchmarsh, Producer/Bridget Apps
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Today is known as Palm Sunday, when Christians celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and Brian D'Arcy marks the occasion with a selection of favourite hymns, prayers and reflections.
This week's featured choir are from the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Billericay, directed by Kathy Underhill. The organist is James Devor and hymns featured include Hosanna To The Son Of David and Graham Kendrick's The Servant King.
Presenter/Brian D'Arcy, Producer/Janet McLarty
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
BBC RADIO 3 Sunday 28 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
BBC Radio 3 celebrates Holy Week with a day of live and pre-recorded concerts from around Europe.
Beginning at 12noon, with a rare chance to hear Frank Martin's oratorio Golgotha, live from Madrid's Teatro Monumental, the day features a chance to hear Orthodox chant by Hristov, Tchaikovsky, Chesnokov and Kastalski, performed live from Sofia by the Seven Saints Choir; Rossini's Stabat Mater from Rome; and Elgar's Dream Of Gerontius, live from Dresden.
Presenter/Fiona Talkington, Producer/Ellie Mant
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Highly acclaimed author and comedian AL Kennedy stalks the industrial past of her home city of Glasgow, investigating a group of trailblazing young painters – The Glasgow Boys – who achieved international fame and encouraged Glasgow's new brassy tycoons to nurture a contemporary art scene that continues to thrive today.
To coincide with the first major exhibition of their work in a century, which opens at Glasgow's Kelvingrove gallery before transferring to the Royal Academy, this programme explores Scotland's first modern artists.
Kennedy talks to leading biographer of the Boys, Roger Bilcliffe, to establish how the city's low cultural standing galvanised the painters' defiant attitude – a spirit which would later inspire Charles Rennie Mackintosh and countless others.
Legendary Glasgow author and artist Alasdair Gray describes the unexpected inspiration to be drawn from the great industrial heritage, while painter Sandy Moffat makes a moving case for the enduring relevance of the Boys.
Presenter/AL Kennedy, Producers/Kate Bland and Paddy Langley
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
BBC RADIO 4 Sunday 28 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4
Poet Paul Farley explores the itchy relationship between poets and blood-sucking parasites.
Armed with a mosquito net of poems, Paul goes in search of leeches, fleas and lice to find out how poets from Donne to Rimbaud have represented blood-sucking parasites.
Parasites are not an obvious subject matter for poetry but, in fact, there are a surprising number of poems about these miniature blood-suckers. From Donne's The Flea, to Rimbaud's Lice Hunters and DH Lawrence's Mosquito, it seems that a number of prominent poets have been fascinated by the notion of blood-sucking and by the uncomfortable relationship between man and parasite.
Paul considers this long relationship between poets and parasites as he looks for leeches in the pools of Dungeness, visits the mosquito colonies cultivated under Gower Street in London and marvels at the strange beauty of the flea specimens in the Rothschild Collection of Fleas, at the Natural History Museum.
In the company of entomologists and of fellow poets Susan Wicks, Antony Dunn and Sarah Howe, Paul examines both classic and contemporary poems to discover how parasites have been portrayed – and transformed – in verse.
Presenter/Paul Farley, Producer/Emma Harding
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Sunday 28 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5live
5 Live Sport
Colin Murray presents the latest sports news and an afternoon of live sport.
From 12.30pm, there's commentary of the Lancashire derby, Burnley versus Blackburn, live from Turf Moor, with updates from rugby union's Premiership ties, London Irish versus Sale and Saracens versus Newcastle. There's also a look back at this morning's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
From 4pm, there's more live Premier League commentary of Liverpool versus Sunderland at Anfield.
Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Ben North
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA
Sunday 28 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5livesportsextra
Cycling
Listeners can enjoy uninterrupted commentary from the World Track Championships in Copenhagen this afternoon.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
BBC 6 MUSIC Sunday 28 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/6music
Julie Cullen meets Noel Gallagher to talk about life after Oasis and what the future holds, as he prepares to perform two shows for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Matt Everitt, meanwhile, travels to Paris to meet one of the most successful bands of the last 12 months – Phoenix.
Presenters/Julie Cullen and Matt Everitt, Producer/Roman Tagoe
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Huey Morgan is back from touring and returns to Sunday afternoons on BBC 6 Music.
Inspired by his New York upbringing and his experiences as a musician, Huey accompanies his playlist with personal anecdotes and stories in his own inimitable laid-back style.
A listener gets the opportunity to choose a track they are desperate to hear, in Vinyl Fetish, and Huey is excited to find that he's got mail as elusive mash-up DJ Jaguar Skills has sent in a very special Sharing Is Caring – a track special to him that he'd like to share with Huey and the 6 Music listeners.
Presenter/Huey Morgan, Producer/Becky Maxted
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Stuart Maconie takes a trip in to the unknown with the Freak Zone, featuring live material recorded at New York's Birdland by John Coltrane.
Presenter/Stuart Maconie, Producer/Henry Lopez-Real
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Network Radio BBC Week 13: Monday 29 March 2010
BBC RADIO 1 Monday 29 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio1
Ashley Walters takes BBC Radio 1 listeners to a young offenders' institute to hear what incarceration is really like for UK youths. Featuring freestyles from inmates, and the thoughts of prisoners, family members and victims of crime, Life In Jail, a BBC Three co-commission, reveals what really goes on behind the walls.
BBC Radio 1 Stories explores the musical back-stories of listeners' favourite artists, eras, genres and scenes. Previous episodes of the series have included International Radio 1 and The A-Z Of Vampire Weekend.
Presenter/Ashley Walters
BBC Radio 1 Publicity
BBC RADIO 2 Monday 29 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2
English songwriter Roger Greenaway joins Ken Bruce this week to discuss his Tracks Of My Years each morning.
There's also the Popmaster music quiz and the Record Of The Week and Album Of The Week.
Presenter/Ken Bruce, Producer/Phil Jones
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Clare Teal presents the BBC Big Band in concert performing the music of Henry Mancini and Burt Bacharach. The programme features guest singer Ian Shaw with I'll Never Fall In Love Again and I Say A Little Prayer.
Presenter/Clare Teal, Producer/Bob McDowall
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Jools Holland is joined by the multi-talented entertainer Rolf Harris, who celebrates his 80th birthday this year. Rolf joins Jools and the band for an impromptu version of his hit, Sun Arise.
Presenter/Jools Holland, Producer/Sarah Gaston
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
BBC RADIO 3 Monday 29 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
Listening to his music, many would think 16th-century William Byrd was the very model of an Elizabethan citizen, a refined character capable of producing some of the most beautiful music ever composed for the church as well as inventive keyboard and vocal pieces which charm the ear and mind in equal measure. But, as Donald Macleod discovers, Byrd was also a complex man who pushed the religious mores of his age to the limit and simultaneously indulged in a lifetime of petty-fogging legal cases.
The week begins with a fresh look at Byrd's musical beginnings. New research has revealed that he grew up in Lincoln, not London as previously thought, and also allows listeners a fascinating glimpse of his bookcase – home to the most controversial texts of the day.
Later in the week, Donald also looks at his Catholic defiance. Listeners hear how Byrd was repeatedly reported to the authorities for failing to attend church, and even prevented his servants from worshipping.
Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Kerry Clark
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Belief Ep 1/5
Joan Bakewell returns to BBC Radio 3 each evening this week talking to artists, thinkers and public figures about their belief.
In this first programme, Joan discusses belief with Christian feminist novelist, writer and theologian Sara Maitland. Sara has most recently written of her journey into quietness and solitude in A Book Of Silence and now lives in prayerful isolation in a cottage on the Scottish moors.
In tomorrow's programme, Junaid Bhatti bridges the worlds of finance and Islam. On Wednesday, Joan talks to Emma Restall Orr, who practises and teaches about Druidry, a branch of Paganism. On Thursday, there's another chance to hear Joan talk to Mark Haddon, author of the bestselling book The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time.
In Friday's programme, Joan speaks to James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, an evangelical who engages with major issues of social justice, urban planning and the environment.
Presenter/Joan Bakewell, Producer/Norman Winter
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
BBC RADIO 4 Monday 29 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4
Book Of The Week – Burying The Bones Ep 1/5
Lindsay Duncan reads Burying The Bones, Hilary Spurling's biography of Pearl Buck, one of the most influential American writers of the mid-20th century.
Her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Good Earth, recreated the lives of ordinary Chinese people and became a worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1932. As a phenomenally successful writer, she was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and civil-rights campaigner Pearl did more than almost anyone else in her lifetime to change Western perceptions of China.
Born to American missionaries at the end of the 19th century, Pearl grew up in an imperial China unchanged for thousands of years. Her father was zealous in his calling to convert the Chinese to Christianity and his family came a poor second to his work. His wife bore seven children, but only three survived. Pearl spoke Chinese before she learned English and her friends were the children of Chinese farmers. She took it for granted that she was Chinese herself until she was eight years old, when the terrorist uprising known as the "Boxer Rebellion" forced her family to flee for their lives.
Pearl wrote about the realities of the only world she knew in The Good Earth. It was one of the last things she did before being finally forced out of China to settle for the first time in the US. She was unknown and penniless with a failed marriage behind her, a disabled child to support, no prospects and no way of knowing that The Good Earth would sell tens of millions of copies. It transfixed a whole generation of readers just as Jung Chang's Wild Swans would do more than half a century later.
As a teenager, Pearl witnessed the first stirrings of Chinese revolution and, as a young woman, she narrowly escaped being killed in the deadly struggle between Chinese Nationalists and the newly formed Communist Party.
Burying The Bones is abridged by Alison Joseph.
Reader/Lindsay Duncan, Producer/Kirsteen Cameron
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Woman's Hour Drama – David Golder Ep 1/5
David Suchet stars in David Golder, this week's Woman's Hour Drama, a portrait of a man who has a killer instinct when it comes to business – not for his own self-interest but because of his pathological desire to provide for a family he knows does not care for him and which ultimately destroys him.
Written by Irène Némirovsky, the story begins with international financier Golder turning his back on his business partner of many years, Simon Marcus. Without Golder, Marcus's oil business deal falls through and, penniless, Marcus commits suicide.
After attending Marcus's funeral, Golder goes to his luxurious villa in Biarritz where he sees his wife, Gloria, spoilt daughter, Joyce, and the freeloaders he despises who fill the villa. His wife just wants to make sure he keeps working to fund her extravagant lifestyle. Even after suffering a heart attack he carries on working, while Gloria plots with Golder's doctor to keep him and his money under her control. Joyce wants a new fast car and then announces that she plans to live in Madrid with one of the hangers-on so despised by Golder.
The family begins to fall apart, Golder's marriage breaks down, his daughter begs him for help and Golder secures the oil deal and makes himself a very rich man before taking a fateful trip to his childhood home in Russia.
Golder is played by David Suchet and Anna Francolini is the voice of Irène Némirovsky. Elizabeth Bell plays Gloria, Golder's wife, and Francesca Dymond his daughter, Joyce. The story is dramatised by Ellen Dryden.
Producer/Ellen Dryden
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Claudia Hammond investigates the latest research into the working of the five-year-old brain and asks whether they are really designed to cope with today's classrooms.
The programme asks if a deeper understanding of brain development could help educationalists get better results in the classroom and, if so, why aren't they listening? Claudia talks to the researchers challenging the educational establishment and finds out why education policy often takes so long to catch up with the scientific evidence.
Presenter/Claudia Hammond, Producer/Alexandra Feachem
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Afternoon Play – Arabian Afternoons Ep 1/3
Arabian Afternoons are three contemporary dramas inspired by tales from The Arabian Nights.
A king called Shahrayar, once betrayed in love, has a custom where he enjoys his brides on their wedding night and then kills them at dawn. But one woman, Shahrazad, manages to survive, night after night, by telling the king stories.
These three afternoon plays are framed by Shahrazad's voice as she describes rare and strange places for her husband, the murderous king.
The stakes are high – as each tale comes to a close, Shahrazad will learn whether it has earned her a night's reprieve. But Shahrazad's tales are set in 2010, not medieval Arabia. In all the tales, Sirine Saba plays Shahrazad and Shahrayar is played by Kevork Malikyan.
Monday's tale, The Casper Logue Affair, written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz, is an absurd black comedy thriller set in Baghdad. Junior diplomat Bob Goldacre is in trouble: the American businessman he was looking after has vanished from a Baghdad street. Young Iraqi couple Aseera and Rahim are in even more trouble, because they had something to do with it. As the suspects pile up, Goldacre has his work cut out if he wants to save his career and make sure that justice is done.
Betsabeh Emran is Aseera, Sargon Yelda is Rahim, Trevor White is Goldacre, Bruce Alexander is Hammond, Nathan Osgood is Casper, Rufus Wright is Kindermann, John Biggins is Carlton and Alison Pettit is Charlene.
In Rachel Joyce's story, The Porter And The Three Ladies, Shahrazad has one last night to tell a story before the king kills her in the morning. She chooses one about freedom: the adventures of an out-of-luck journalist, Joe, who has been sent by his ruthless editor to find the story that sells newspapers or else he will lose his job. But what Joe discovers in Damascus are three beautiful women with a terrible secret. But will their story save Joe's job and will Joe's story save Shahrazad for another day?
Stephen Tompkinson plays Joe, Joanna Monro is Margot, Indira Varma is Mira, Jasmine Jones is Affyah and Melissa Advani is Juliba.
In Wednesday's tale, A Dish Of Pomegranates, by Peter Jukes, Ajib is stopped by security officers as he tries to fly out of Ben Gurion airport on his way home to the US. They don't think his story adds up, so Ajib has to try to make them believe his story, which might be tricky for even him to believe.
William El-Gardi is Ajib, Betsabeh Emran is Orit, Zubin Varla is Rafi, Allan Corduner is Howard and Keely Beresford is Julia. Other members of the cast include Stefan Kalipha, Mozaffar Shafeie, David Seddon and Rufus Wright.
Producer/Abigail le Fleming
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Click On Ep 1/5
Simon Cox returns for another series exploring the ways the digital world is changing how people live their lives.
Whether it's the device in your pocket, on your desk or built into nearly every part of the world around us, technology is part of the fabric of people's daily lives.
Each week, Simon presents a blend of stories ranging from the very latest cutting-edge developments to the day-to-day practical ways technology impacts on everyone.
As well as responding to the technology stories of the week, the series carries a range of features including subjects such as cyber warfare and whether it will be the "weapons of mass destruction" of the future; whether technology is enabling criminals to continue their activities beyond prison walls; evaluating technologies aiming to translate foreign languages; and the use of three-dimensional animations by forensic teams to show how crimes have allegedly taken place.
Presenter/Simon Cox, Producer/Peter McManus
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
The Unbelievable Truth Ep 1/6
David Mitchell hosts the fifth series of the acclaimed general knowledge-based comedy panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies, and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they are able to smuggle past their opponents.
Each panellist has to deliver a lecture on a given topic, for example Elizabeth I, cats, or the human body, which must be entirely untrue, except for five unlikely facts. The job of their opponents is to challenge if they think they've detected an item of truth.
The series features the comic talents of Graeme Garden, Marcus Brigstocke, Lucy Porter, Henning Wehn, Phill Jupitus, Tony Hawks, Arthur Smith, Catherine Tate, Liza Tarbuck, Susan Calman, Fred MacAulay and Charlie Brooker.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Presenter/David Mitchell, Producer/Jon Naismith
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Presenter Tom Heap investigates Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, which may be the world's first eco-city.
As more and more people are living in cities, Tom visits Abu Dhabi to see if oil money can build a green vision and to find out if the world's first eco-city has become a reality.
Architects, developers and visionaries have been promising eco-cities for the past decade. Dongtan was supposed to be the green Shanghai; the Thames corridor was supposed to be a linear eco-city; Florida is building a car-free city for 100,000; and eco towns were to spread around the UK. But time and time again, economic reality intrudes, plans are shelved or diluted and another commuter suburb is thrown up with a token turbine.
Billions of US dollars have been committed by the government to ensure Masdar City in Abu Dhabi is the first zero-carbon conurbation. And Norman Foster has been employed to create a car- and skyscraper-free city powered by the sun. If anyone can do it then the hugely ambitious rulers of Abu Dhabi are the men to back.
With the great and good of the sustainability movement gathered together in Masdar City in early 2010, it's a perfect opportunity to test the concept.
Presenter/Tom Heap, Producer/Helen Lennard
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Book At Bedtime – Dancing Backwards Ep 1/10
This week's Book At Bedtime is Salley Vickers's new novel, Dancing Backwards, read by Dame Eileen Atkins.
Violet Hetherington's husband has recently died. Alone, she decides to take a cruise-ship crossing to visit her old friend, Edwin, in New York.
As she journeys across the Atlantic, the quiet Violet begins to blossom, learning to ballroom dance and befriending a famously seething theatre critic. In her time alone, she reminisces about her early adulthood as a student at Cambridge. It's at Cambridge that she met Edwin. Edwin, it soon becomes clear, is someone she's betrayed and someone of whom she is both terrified and desperate to see again. The story that unfolds about the young Violet holds the secret to that betrayal.
Reader/Dame Eileen Atkins, Producer/Kirsty Williams
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Monday 29 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5live
5 Live Sport
Mark Chapman has all the day's sports news and is joined by special guests for the Monday Night Club to discuss the latest big issues in football.
At 8pm there's Premier League commentary of Manchester City versus Wigan, live from Eastlands, with regular updates from Newcastle's game against Nottingham Forest in the Championship.
From 10pm, Mark is joined Tim Lovejoy for Football Express, taking a quick-fire look at the latest big football stories.
Presenter/Mark Chapman, Producer/Francesca Bent
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA
Monday 29 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5livesportsextra
Swimming
Uninterrupted commentary from the British Championships and Commonwealth Trials comes live from Sheffield.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Football
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra brings uninterrupted commentary on Newcastle United versus Nottingham Forest in the Championship.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
BBC 6 MUSIC Monday 29 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/6music
Phoenix, French pioneers of all things electro indie pop, join Lauren Laverne for a live session in the BBC 6 Music studios. Their 2009 album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, was a career high point for the Parisians both critically and commercially, picking up a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album in January this year.
Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Gideon Coe presents music from Orbital and Jeff Buckley, both recorded live at the Glastonbury Festival in 1995. There are also BBC session tracks from American singer-songwriter Kurt Vile, recorded for Marc Riley, a BBC 6 Music session from Speck Mountain, the legendary "agit" post-punk group The Au Pairs recorded for John Peel in 1980 and, from 1970, a super-rare recording of UK progressive rockers Fairfield Parlour.
Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Paolo Hewitt tells the story of The Who – the band whose final gig may be this week. They are due to perform Quadrophenia at the Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust, but Pete Townshend's tinnitus may get the better of him and bring their touring days to a close.
This programme was first broadcast in 2002.
Presenter/Paolo Hewitt, Producer/Frank Wilson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
BBC ASIAN NETWORK Monday 29 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork
Ravi Shankar may be about to turn 90 but he's still inspiring today's British Asian DJs and artists. BBC Asian Network celebrates his birthday and looks at how he brought Indian music to the world stage, paving the way for generations to come. Performing in front of hippies "getting high" in the Sixties to collaborating with underground DJs and pop musicians in the Noughties, Ravi Shankar has worked hard to have the art of the sitar respected.
In this Asian Network Report Special, musicians Karsh Kale, Bishi and Diamond from Swami explain how Shankar has inspired them and why, at 90 years of age, his influence is still relevant today.
BBC Asian Network Publicity
One of the first British Asian bands, Asian Dub Foundation, is reforming for a one-off concert as part of the Bangladesh Day celebrations in East London. Bobby Friction features this very special performance in his show this evening.
BBC Asian Network Publicity
Network Radio BBC Week 13: Tuesday 30 March 2010
BBC RADIO 2 Tuesday 30 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2
In his final Tuesday evening show before moving to his new Friday slot next week, Desmond Carrington rummages through his collection of 250,000 titles from his home in Perthshire, and looks at music with the theme of "getting away from it all" with ideas for an Easter break.
Desmond says:"When I was asked to introduce a record programme in 1981, the contract was for three months. With one or two changes, the latest being the move to Friday evenings at 7pm just after Easter, that three months will soon be 30 years! Thank you, BBC Radio 2, for keeping me young."
Presenter/Desmond Carrington, Producer/Dave Aylott
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
BBC RADIO 3 Tuesday 30 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
HK Gruber makes his debut as the BBC Philharmonic's composer/conductor with the UK première of his trumpet concerto Busking, performed with soloist Håkan Hardenberger, as well as music by Weill and Stravinsky.
Gruber starts his tenure with a programme with a typically 20th-century slant, presenting excerpts from Weill's Threepenny Opera as well as Stravinsky's Symphony In Three Movements, alongside his own work.
His own music is strongly influenced by jazz and cabaret and he is fascinated by the wealth of classical repertoire from the last century, which he believes to be under-explored. Busking is a three-movement concerto for string orchestra in which the soloist plays on three different trumpets, getting the instruments to variously twang, squeak and squawk, depending which mute is used.
Producer/Mike George
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
BBC RADIO 4 Tuesday 30 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4
Betwen Ourselves continues this week as an Iraqi Kurd and an Iranian Azeri discuss life as a refugee in the United Kingdom.
Mohamed is from Iran and became a refugee in 2009, while Zirak was granted refugee status in 2002 and now has British citizenship.
They talk about what it is like to leave family and friends behind in your home country, possibly never to return, and whether they might have put them in danger by leaving. The men also discuss whether it is easy to settle in the UK, what kinds of prejudices they face and how it feels to be labelled a "refugee".
Zirak was involved with an organisation that wanted a free Kurdistan. When the group was discovered, two of his friends were arrested and tortured; one of them who had a heart condition subsequently died. He started receiving threatening letters and knew he had to leave. He left in 2002 and, from Turkey, was smuggled out in a lorry. When he eventually arrived in the UK, he didn't know what country he was in, and couldn't speak any English.
Mohamed travelled here to study music and became involved with Azeri politics; as a result a family member and his lawyer back home were arrested, and he realised that he, too, would be arrested if he returned to Iran. He applied for refugee status, which was quickly granted. He hopes to return home one day.
Presenter/Olivia O'Leary, Producer/Karen Gregor
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
A Musical Trip To South Africa – With Lenny Henry Ep 1/5
Lenny Henry experiences South Africa through its music, in this new series of five programmes.
South Africa has an extremely rich musical tradition with a wealth of talent to match. Lenny meets the cream of that talent – from the legendary trumpeter Hugh Masekela to the country's best-selling recording artist, Rebecca Malope.
Lenny begins the whole series centre pitch at Soccer City in Jo'burg to the accompaniment of a chorus of Vuvuzelas – the deafening trumpets that blast out at football matches. He's invited onto YFM youth radio station to hear about Kwaito, aka "township house" music, and finds himself in a recording studio with some of the country's hottest bands.
In other programmes Lenny looks at the role of music in the struggle against apartheid, the role of the church in South African music making and at the "lost tribes" of music makers – including white Africaaners who are having a punk revolution of their own. And, finally, he looks at the international ambitions – with world-class talent from Lira to Samson Diamond, the internationally acclaimed classical violinist.
Presenter/Lenny Henry, Producer/Susan Marling
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Chris Ledgard investigates how living in the shadow of a nuclear power station has shaped a community, and visits the Somerset village of Stogursey, two miles from Hinkley Point.
In medieval times, the village of Stogursey on the edge of the Quantock Hills was a market town. Over the centuries, its importance diminished. Then work began on a nuclear power station on the Somerset coast just two miles away, and Stogursey found itself in demand again – families flooded in and the school sent its overspill to the village hall.
In Hinkley's Shadow is a portrait of a nuclear community. The first generation of Britain's nuclear power workers are now retired. At Hinkley, their children are now working on the site.
Chris talks to people who work in and around Hinkley, including a mud horse fisherman, said to be the last in the world, who fishes with a sledge he pushes out into Bridgwater Bay.
And as the debate on the new station, Hinkley Point C, develops, the anti-nuclear protestors enter another battle.
Presenter and Producer/Chris Ledgard
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Poet Owen Sheers travels to one of the wildest corners of the country to discover the tragic tale of Britain's lost school of Post-Impressionism.
A century ago, Augustus John, doyen of the Café Royal and celebrity portraitist to London's top literary figures and socialites, fled the debauchery of London's bohemia to find a new purity – in one of the nation's most remote wildernesses. He had been tempted there by a unique kindred spirit – a fellow painter and bohemian wild child – whose rich imagination and relentless lust for life was spurred by the knowledge that he had just months to live.
John's friend, James Dickson Innes, has been virtually forgotten since his tragic death from tuberculosis aged just 27, yet is described by one critic as "indispensable" to British landscape art.
Their Eden was the Arenig Valley in North Wales – a sliver of craggy, swirling peaks and haunting, silent plateaux east of Snowdonia, between Bala and Ffestiniog. There, buffeted by the wind and blinded by the rain, they painted feverish, delirious landscapes together in the open air, a unique blaze of creativity amid the desolate countryside.
Yet after barely 18 months, their fire was extinguished as the spectre of war, illness and death abruptly drew a curtain upon their work. And, while John was to live on for nearly half a century, his reputation and infamy undiminished, Innes was to die barely a year later, his work unappreciated and unloved, in a Kent hospice. After Arenig, neither man was to paint landscapes ever again.
The programme features contributions from the famed travel writer Jan Morris, herself haunted by the Arenig Valley, which she describes as "hallucinogenic ... like entering a dream" – as well as Augustus John's biographer, Michael Holroyd, and the contemporary Welsh landscape artist Iwan Gwyn Parry.
Presenter/Owen Sheers, Producer/Steven Rajam
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
British musician and composer Nitin Sawhney explores the life of his musical hero, Ravi Shankar.
Most people outside of India are familiar with the sitar player and composer thanks to his association with The Beatles. But this one career highlight out of a cast of many often overshadows his extraordinary achievements as a world-class musician.
The great violinist Yehudi Menuhin once said of him: "To me, his genius and humanity can only be compared to that of Mozart's."
As Shankar approaches his 90th birthday this April, Sawhney meets up with his hero to discuss his life and music.
His story began 80 years ago when Shankar began his career as a professional dancer. By the time he was 18 he had chosen to master the sitar and began an intense period of training, often practising up to 14 hours a day.
By the Sixties he was performing in front of hundreds of thousands of people and on his way to collaborating with leading musicians such as Philip Glass and André Previn. But before Shankar could introduce the rest of the world to Indian classical music he first had to change the way this deeply traditional music was performed and presented – now listeners can find out how he did that.
As well as an exclusive new interview with Shankar there are contributions from his daughter, Anoushka Shankar, the famous Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain, George Harrison's wife, Olivia, The Who's Pete Townshend and music historian Ken Hunt.
Presenter/Nitin Sawhney, Producer/James Hale
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
This programme explores how a questionnaire devised at a kitchen table became the preferred professional development tool of some of the world's largest corporations.
It was created by a mother-and-daughter team, neither of whom were trained as psychologists, yet today it is the world's most widely used personality indicator, used as a professional development aid by leading companies like Procter and Gamble, Shell and Vodaphone.
Mariella Frostrup tells the story of The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), created by Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. Participants are asked a series of questions intended to reveal information about their thinking, problem-solving and communication styles.
At the end of the process each participant is handed one of 16 four-letter acronyms, which describes their "type". ENTPs are extrovert inventors, ISTJs are meticulous nit-pickers.
Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers devised their questionnaire during the Second World War to help women identify the sort of war-time jobs where they would be "most comfortable and effective". It was a long and arduous struggle to convince the bosses of IBM and General Motors that there was anything in it for them. Even today many psychologists question its validity, describing it as "so vague as to be meaningless", "unscientific" and "like a party game".
Myers-Briggs also seems to fit suspiciously well with the human resources ethos of the modern work place: no personality "type" is better than any other, teams and organisations benefit from having multiple perspectives, disagreements are all down to "where you are coming from".
Mariella asks what Myers-Briggs tells people that they couldn't have found out before?
Presenter/Mariella Frostrup, Producer/Lucy Adam
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Novelist Louise Welsh investigates how a comic-book vampire brought horror to Glasgow's south side and its impact on Britain's censorship laws.
Glasgow's Southern Necropolis is an eerie place at the best of times but when two local policemen answered a call in September 1954 they encountered a bizarre sight. Hundreds of local children, ranging in ages from four to 14, were crammed inside, roaming between the crypts, armed with sharpened sticks, knives stolen from home and stakes. They said they were hunting down "a vampire with iron teeth" that had kidnapped and eaten two local boys.
The policemen dispersed the crowd, but they came back at sundown the next night and the next. The local press got hold of the story and it soon went national.
There were no missing boys in Glasgow at that time, and press and politicians cast around for an explanation. They soon found one in the wave of American horror comics with names like Astounding Stories and Tales From The Crypt, which had recently flooded into the West of Scotland.
Academics pointed out that none of the comics featured a vampire with iron teeth, though there was a monster with iron teeth in the bible (Daniel 7.7) and in a poem taught in local schools. Their voices were drowned out in a full-blown moral panic about the effect that terrifying comics were having on children. Soon the case of the Gorbals Vampire was international news.
The British Press raged against the "terrifying, corrupt" comics and, after a heated debate in the House of Commons where the case of Gorbals Vampire was cited, Britain passed the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955 which, for the first time, specifically banned the sale of magazines and comics portraying "incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature" to minors.
This programme explores how the Gorbals Vampire helped bring the censorship of comic books onto the statute books.
Presenter/Louise Welsh, Producer/David Stenhouse
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Tuesday 30 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5live
5 Live Sport
Mark Pougatch has all the day's sports news and, from 7.45pm, live Uefa Champions League quarter-final first-leg coverage. There are also updates from the night's Championship, Leagues One and Two matches.
Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Ben North
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA
Tuesday 30 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5livesportsextra
Swimming
Uninterrupted commentary from the British Championships and Commonwealth Trials comes live from Sheffield.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
BBC 6 MUSIC Tuesday 30 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/6music
Vampire Weekend join Nemone this afternoon and handpick tracks for this week's lunchtime playlist. They choose an eclectic mix of tracks including Matias Agvay, Tanlines, Yousou N'Dou, Interpol, DJ Kool and Serge Gainsbourg.
The Brooklyn-based band, from New York City, formed in 2006 and signed to XL Recordings. They released their second album, Contra, in January, which has seen them rise from underground heroes to the summit of the US album charts.
Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Alongside his selection of brand new and classic tracks, Gideon Coe presents the unique Kraftwerk recorded concert in 1997 and a Baaba Maal live set from 1998. Listeners can also hear tracks from Sonic Youth's first Peel session, BBC session tracks from spectral US "psyche folk" band Espers recorded in 2006, G Lewis And DC Gilbert from Wire make an experimental sounds circa 1980 and, from 2004, a session from American beardie-boys Midlake.
Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Network Radio BBC Week 13: Wednesday 31 March 2010
BBC RADIO 2 Wednesday 31 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2
Trevor Nelson invites listeners to explore the depths of his record collection, presenting an hour of the best in timeless soul, rare funky treats and modern classics.
Trevor's Album Of The Week is the 1974 album Rejuvenation by American funk band, The Meters.
Presenter/Trevor Nelson, Producer/Dan Cocker
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
British indie pop band Scouting For Girls join Simon Mayo in the studio today. They perform their new single, This Ain't A Love Song, from their latest album, Everybody Wants To Be On TV, due for release later in the spring. They also give a live performance of a classic track from BBC Radio 2's Great British Songbook Library.
Presenter/Simon Mayo, Producer/Andy Warrell
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
BBC RADIO 4 Wednesday 31 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4
The last of BBC Radio 4's annual Lent talks is given by The Revd Dr Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor at St Paul's Cathedral and teacher of ethics for the Defence Academy.
In his talk for Holy Week, Dr Fraser examines the nature of sacrifice and its place not only in the Passion narrative but also in the lives of the military.
Presenter/Revd Dr Giles Fraser, Producer/Simon Vivian
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Wednesday 31 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5live
5 Live Sport
Mark Pougatch has all the day's sports news and, from 7.45pm, live Champions League quarter-final first-leg coverage.
Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Mark Williams
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA
Wednesday 31 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5livesportsextra
Swimming
Uninterrupted commentary of the British Championships and Commonwealth Trials comes live from Sheffield.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
BBC 6 MUSIC Wednesday 31 March 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/6music
Lauren Laverne is joined by British folk-rock band Erland And The Carnival for a live session in the BBC 6 Music studios. The group's debut album was released at the beginning of this year.
Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Alongside his pick of brand-new and classic tracks, Gideon Coe continues to explore the BBC's music archives. Tonight, he presents two Glastonbury recordings: the first is from David Bowie in 2000 and the second is New Order recorded back in 1987.
There's also a unique BBC session from Indie group The Field Mice, a 2004 session from Edinburgh band Aberfeldy, music from space rock combo Quickspace from 1996 and a John Peel session treat from the light-hearted Balkans/London folk collective 3 Mustaphas 3.
Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Network Radio BBC Week 13: Thursday 1 April 2010
BBC RADIO 2 Thursday 1 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2
Suzi Quatro remembers the cream of male singing stars of the Seventies in a programme which includes music from Marvin Gaye, Jim Croce, Andy Kim, Kansas, Billy Paul and Michael Jackson.
Presenter/Suzi Quatro, Producer/Mark Hagan
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
BBC RADIO 3 Thursday 1 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
Anne McElvoy goes to Canterbury Cathedral to talk to artist Maggi Hambling about her numerous portrayals of the Crucifixion.
For almost 25 years, Hambling has painted a cross every Good Friday. It's a kind of personal ritual – a tradition started when she created the first one in memory of her mother in the Eighties. This year, Hambling's varied images of the crucifix are being displayed in the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral, alongside Easter images by another renowned painter, artist Craigie Aitchison, who died in December.
However, as Anne discovers, it seems Hambling and Aitchison are not alone in the artistic community in being so attracted to the Crucifixion, despite the secular tone of most of today's art. Artists, both religious and non-religious, are continually drawn to the cross in their work – in many cases for sensitively exploring secular and personal topics.
Beyond the Cathedral, Kent is hosting an exploration of the use of the cross in modern art across the county – with works by Tracey Emin, Stanley Spencer and Marc Chagall.
Hambling shows Anne around the history of her Crucifixion paintings – and Anne presses her on a key question of what, for Hambling, is the chief artistic power of this symbol.
Presenter/Anne McElvoy, Producer/Kirsty Pope
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
BBC RADIO 4 Thursday 1 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4
In the last programme of this series, Mark Lawson traces the way fiction in the USA is being renewed by writers from different backgrounds but also threatened by commercial pressures.
The great post-Second World War generation of authors – including Norman Mailer, John Updike, Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut Jr – and their surviving contemporaries such as Gore Vidal and Philip Roth, often expressed gloom about the future of serious novels and plays, fearing they would be pushed out by a pressure towards more commercial and personal stories.
Lawson argues that an underlying change in the status of the literary novel is epitomised by the fact that, whereas in the Sixties John Updike was featured on the cover of Time magazine, more recently it was Dan Brown.
However, a new wave of so-called "hyphenated"' writers – Indian-American, Korean-American, Dominican-American – has been renewing US libraries in the way they always had been – through immigration.
Taking final stock, Mark Lawson reflects on whether American Literature has reached a full stop or perhaps achieved a new dash. He talks to authors including: John Ashbery, Rita Dove, Chang-rae Lee, Junot Diaz, Lorrie Moore, Walter Mosley and James Patterson.
Presenter/Mark Lawson, Producer/Robyn Read
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Paul Watson's play, Last Family Standing, is set in 1946 and tells the story of a family's struggle to survive at any cost.
Britain, newly emerged from the shadow of war, is in a time of austerity. Five million victorious men and women have returned from the war effort to a peace time of few jobs. Money, food and decent housing are also scarce. The government has failed to stem accumulating social problems. The jubilation of VE day has evaporated. Life is difficult; the party is over.
Paul Watson's play is the account of one waiting family in 1946 – the Truscott family. Charles, Marjorie and their grown-up children's struggle to survive at any cost brings tragic consequences as remembered by the only surviving family member, Dorothy. It is her anger and contempt for the establishment that fuels Last Family Standing.
Producer/Paul Watson
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Thursday 1 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5live
5 Live Sport
Eleanor Oldroyd has all the day's sports news and reaction. From 8pm, there's live Europa League quarter-final first-leg coverage.
Presenter/Eleanor Oldroyd, Producer/Ed King
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA
Thursday 1 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5livesportsextra
Swimming
Listeners can enjoy uninterrupted commentary live from Sheffield from the British Championships and Commonwealth Trials.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Rugby League
Uninterrupted commentary comes from Leeds versus Bradford in the Super League.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Formula 1
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra brings listeners uninterrupted commentary on the first practice session of the Malaysian Grand Prix, live from Sepang.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
BBC 6 MUSIC Thursday 1 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/6music
Lauren Laverne is joined by American singer-songwriter Harper Simon for a live session in the BBC 6 Music studios.
Son of the legendary Paul Simon, Harper releases his self-titled debut album in April this year, which includes two songs co-written by his father.
Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Thursday is Roundtable day, and Moshi Moshi Records boss Stephen Bass joins Steve Lamacq in the studio to chat about interesting new releases.
The label has a long history of finding new talent, releasing early singles from artists such as Florence And The Machine, James Yuill, Fanfarlo and The Drums. There is also music from the likes of Rival Schools, The Clash and Camera Obscura.
Presenter/Steve Lamacq, Producer/Paul Sheehan
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Alongside his selection of new releases and classic tracks, Gideon Coe continues to explore the BBC's music archive of Glastonbury Festival recordings.
Tonight, he features highlights of The Chemical Brothers 1996 set and Gil Scott Heron recorded in 1986. There are also unique BBC session tracks from Flying Saucer Attack, recorded for John Peel in 2004, a 1993 session from short-lived riot-girl band Skinned Teen, the debut Soft Cell session recorded for BBC Radio 1 in 1981 and Australian indie guitar heroes The Go-Betweens, recorded in 1996.
Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Network Radio BBC Week 13: Friday 2 April 2010
BBC RADIO 2 Good Friday 2 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2
Salisbury Cathedral is the setting for BBC Radio 2's meditation in words and music for Good Friday, hosted by Aled Jones and featuring the atmospheric music of acclaimed composer Karl Jenkins.
The BBC Concert Orchestra comes together with the voices of Salisbury Festival Chorus in front of a live audience to perform selected movements from Jenkins's Mass For Peace The Armed Man, Requiem and Stabat Mater. The programme also features complete performances of his smaller works Palladio and Adiemus.
Jenkins's music will be interspersed by the drama of the Bible's Passion story and selected reflections from award-winning writer Sara Maitland's new meditation Stations Of The Cross to create that essential moment of Good Friday meditation for the BBC Radio 2 audience who gather "At The Foot Of The Cross".
Presenter/Aled Jones, Producer/Philip Bilson
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
BBC RADIO 3 Good Friday 2 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
Performance On 3
The broadcast première of James MacMillan's St John Passion features in today's Good Friday edition of Performance On 3, live from King's College, Cambridge.
Baritone Mark Stone sings the role of Christ and is accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Choirs, conducted by Stephen Cleobury.
The Passion story, as told by St John, is given a very personal setting by composer James MacMillan. This version of the Easter story is the one with which MacMillan feels most intimately acquainted, hearing it recited or sung every Good Friday in the Catholic liturgy.
In this musical retelling, he infuses it with his love of both Gregorian chant and opera and creates music that is at turns sparse and yet dramatic. Set in English and Latin, the piece is scored for one principal soloist, Christ, sung tonight by baritone Mark Stone, with a chamber choir that narrates the story and a large chorus which takes the role of the other main characters of the Passion.
Presenter/Louise Fryer, Producer/Neil Varley
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
BBC RADIO 4 Good Friday 2 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4
As a new generation of fans await the debut of the 11th incarnation of the Doctor, long-time fan Jon Culshaw travels back in time to look at the man who changed Doctor Who for ever – Douglas Adams.
After years toiling for success as a writer, in 1978 Douglas's world turned upside down. Just weeks after the radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy was commissioned, so was his first script for Doctor Who.
The following year, just as Hitchhiker's was taking off, he was offered the job as script editor – one of the most demanding jobs in television.
The scripts he wrote for Doctor Who – The Pirate Planet, City Of Death and Shada – still stand as a benchmark for the series today. But his time on the series was beset by problems. Technician strikes would seriously affect production, inflation was squeezing the series budget and Douglas was exhausted by the simultaneous demands of Hitchhiker's and Doctor Who.
Nevertheless, Douglas left an indelible mark on Doctor Who, bringing in a sharp wit that hadn't been seen before in what was ostensibly a children's TV series.
Jon looks at Douglas's work on a television institution, talking to the writers, directors and actors who worked with him, and considers the legacy of his work on Doctor Who with new executive producer Steven Moffat.
Presenter/Jon Culshaw, Producers/Simon Barnard and Kieron Moyles
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Meet David Sedaris Ep 1/4
Humorist David Sedaris performs a series of recordings to an audience at the BBC Radio Theatre, especially for BBC Radio 4.
The hilarious and highly individual essays cover a wide variety of topics, from Christmas in the Netherlands to his father's eating habits, drawn largely from his own life experiences.
This series samples writing from across his seven-book canon and includes some previously unpublished material.
In this week's opener, David examines the different traditions surrounding Christmas around the world – inspired by the Dutch tradition of former Bishop of Turkey Saint Nicholas arriving by boat from Spain to administer gifts, or admonishment, to the children of Holland.
Presenter/David Sedaris, Producer/Steve Doherty
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Paul Gambaccini hosts a special Easter celebrity edition of the wide-ranging music quiz, featuring musical clues performed live by the BBC Philharmonic from Manchester.
Newscaster Katie Derham, comedian Kit Hesketh Harvey and musician and comedian Rainer Hersch join Paul for questions and games based on musical extracts.
The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra perform all the musical clues, live in the studio, and are conducted by Clark Rundell.
Presenter/Paul Gambaccini, Producer/Paul Bajoria
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Cries of the Passion, with Professor of Christianity and the Arts, the Reverend Professor Ben Quash, traces the way of the cross through the sounds and cries he hears on his daily walk to work across London.
The cries of the Passion tell the story as Ben's pilgrimage moves from the roaring crowds of the Arsenal stadium, past the joyful shouting of children in Coram's Fields playground, the cries of the market place in Covent Garden, into the box of darkness in Tate Modern. The journey starts in the chant of the crowd and ends in a solitary cry.
Presenter/Reverend Professor Ben Quash, Producer/Clair Jaquiss
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Good Friday 2 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5live
5 Live Sport
George Riley presents a special Good Friday edition of 5 Live Sport and brings listeners live Premier League commentary of Fulham versus Wigan, from Craven Cottage.
Presenter/George Riley
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
Colin Murray is joined by regular guests Pat Nevin and Perry Groves for Kicking Off With Colin Murray, taking a look ahead to the weekend's sporting action, which includes the top-of-the-table clash between Manchester United and Chelsea, Arsenal versus Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley versus Manchester City.
At 8.30pm, Colin is joined by David Croft and guests from 5 Live Formula 1 as they look ahead to this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.
Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Ed King
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA
Good Friday 2 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/5livesportsextra
Formula 1
Listeners can hear uninterrupted commentary on the second practice session of the Malaysian Grand Prix, live from Sepang.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Rugby League
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra has uninterrupted commentary this afternoon of the match between Hull KR and Hull in the Super League.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Rugby League
Uninterrupted commentary on St Helens versus Wigan, in the Super League, can be heard this afternoon.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Football
Listeners can enjoy uninterrupted commentary on West Bromwich Albion versus Leicester City in the Championship.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
BBC 6 MUSIC Good Friday 2 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/6music
Don Letts continues his tradition of bringing a reggae flavour to bank holidays as he eases listeners through Good Friday with a menu of reggae, ska, rocksteady, dub and dancehall.
Presenter/Don Letts, Producer/Frank Wilson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
It's been 13 years since the demise of BBC Radio 1's legendary Evening Session, the programme that sound-tracked the Nineties for a generation of indie kids.
In this special one-off programme, BBC 6 Music reunites Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley as they choose their favourite live tracks from their time on the Evening Session and are quizzed on events from the past. The programme also features the welcome return of New Band/Old Band and Steve and Joe bring listeners a selection of new and archive music in session.
Presenters/Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley, Producer/Paul Sheehan
BBC 6 Music Publicity
American heavy metal band White Wizzard join Bruce Dickinson on his Rock Show this evening. Influenced by older British heavy rock greats, White Wizzard rebel led against modern screamo metal to bring back Eighties-inspired melody and song writing. The group discusses the recent change of line-up, their debut album, Over The Top, and their experience of working with Iron Maiden artist Derek Riggs.
Presenter/Bruce Dickinson, Producer/Ian Callaghan
BBC 6 Music Publicity
BBC ASIAN NETWORK Good Friday 2 April 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork
The BBC Asian Network devotes a whole day to the Nineties this Good Friday and this definitive Desi decade.
The station re-lives Bollywood classics, including Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Bombay, and brings listeners a special day of music, celebrity interviews and performances from the BBC archives.
BBC Asian Network Publicity
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