Programme Information

Blockheads' singer Ian Dury

To commemorate the 10^th 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

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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 presenter Catherine Bott

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

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British jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist Sir John Dankworth

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

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Opera On 3 – Live From The Met: Hamlet By Ambroise Thomas

Saturday 27 March

5.00-9.00pm BBC RADIO 3

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

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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

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

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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

5 Live Sport

Saturday 27 March

12.00noon-7.20pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

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

Formula 1

Saturday 27 March

2.55-4.05am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

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

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Formula 1

Saturday 27 March

5.55-7.05am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary comes from the qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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Football

Saturday 27 March

2.55-5.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary comes from one of the afternoon's top matches in the Championship.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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 10^th 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

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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

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

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Bobby Friction counts down the best new Asian music releases

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

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

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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