Programme Information

Desmond Carrington, who is approaching his 30th anniversary of presenting on BBC Radio 2, sorts through his personal record collection of some 250,000 titles for songs and music related to the theme of Heroes and Heroines, before paying musical tribute to the good guys and girls.

Presenter/Desmond Carrington, Producer/Dave Aylott

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Friday Night Is Music Night celebrates the life and work of composer Frank Loesser in his centenary year. Paul Gambaccini presents the show, live from the Mermaid Theatre in London, with special guest Imelda Staunton.

Frank Loesser was born in New York on 29 June 1910. During his lifetime he wrote more than 700 songs. His first attempts came during the Second World War with morale-boosting titles such as Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition. In 1948, he wrote the vaudeville favourite On A Slow Boat To China.

After the war he moved to Hollywood and wrote songs to order for various films including Heart And Soul for A Song Is Born, I Don't Want To Walk Without You from Sweater Girl and Baby It's Cold Outside for Neptune's Daughter, which won Loesser an Academy Award for best song in 1950.

His first stage success came in 1948 with Where's Charley?, a musical based on Brandon Thomas's farce Charley's Aunt. Two years later, Loesser produced his most successful musical, Guys And Dolls, which was based on a tale by Damon Runyon.

Friday Night Is Music Night features songs from Where's Charley?, Guys And Dolls, Hans Christian Anderson, The Most Happy Fella and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.

Tonight's special guest is no stranger to the London stage. Imelda was nominated for a 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for best actress in a musical for her performance in Guys And Dolls.

Presenter/Paul Gambaccini, Producer/Bridget Apps

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

In Izrael Metter's story, translated by Michael Duncan and read by Jonathan Firth, a young man with the briefcase travels to a Moscow suburb to confront an older man with the merciless past.

Ryabov has come to confront Kozhin about the fate of his father. But, strangely, Ryabov is unsure how to handle the situation, despite having the advantage of surprise.

Izrael Metter, who spent most of his life in Leningrad, was a leading novelist, short-story writer and radio satirist after the Second World War. This tale was first published in 1976.

Reader/Jonathan Firth, Producer/Duncan Minshull

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

BBC Radio 4 presenter Peter Snow

Peter Snow marks the 350th anniversary of the Restoration of Charles II to the throne – the concluding chapter in 20 years of regicide, civil war and revolution. An archive newspaper forms the framework for the programme.

The English Revolution was brutal, divisive and politically significant. People of all classes and persuasions dreamed extraordinary dreams, some imagining the world could be "turned upside-down".

But somehow the nation more or less came together again in the spring of 1660 in support of one route out of the chaos that followed Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658: monarchy.

This Random Edition examines, with the help of the Parliamentary Intelligencer "newsbook" for 30 April to 7 May 1660, just how Charles II came to be accepted as king, 11 years after his father had been beheaded for overstepping what the regicides saw as the limits of his authority.

The Intelligencer describes in graphic detail the arrival before both Houses of Parliament of Sir John Grenville, a messenger from Charles, who was in the Dutch town of Breda. Grenville carries the king's Declaration of Breda containing the various guarantees that will make his restoration possible.

Using other extracts from the Intelligencer, Peter examines some of Charles's guarantees – that all in the army will be paid arrears owing to them; that a general pardon will be offered to almost all those who worked against the monarchy in the preceding years; and that freedom of religion will be respected.

Also in the programme, Andrew Green travels to Breda to learn about Charles II's years of exile; Trevor Barnes is in the Midlands to fill out the Intelligencer's story of how militant Republican resistance was snuffed out; and historian Jenny Uglow goes to Deal in Kent to imagine the great fleet preparing to cross the North Sea to bring Charles home from The Netherlands.

Presenter/Peter Snow, Producer/Andrew Green

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Ten years ago Zahid Mubarek was beaten to death by his cellmate, Robert Stewart, in Feltham Young Offenders Institution.

In Neil McKay's new factual drama, prison officer John acts as narrator, leading listeners through an overloaded prison system to reveal how a known racist with psychopathic tendencies ended up sharing a cell with a quiet Asian lad serving only 90 days for petty theft.

Stewart's manipulative actions get him moved around the country from one Young Offenders Institution to another as his behaviour becomes increasingly violent and erratic – from tattooing RIP onto his forehead, to inciting the murder of a fellow inmate during a cookery class. He eventually ends up in the huge and overcrowded Feltham, where cells designed for one hold two, and boys are locked up for 23 hours a day. Astonishingly, Stewart's long record of violence and racist behaviour fails to reach Swallow wing, where the only spare bed is in Zahid's cell.

The cast stars Matthew NcNulty as Robert Stewart, Ross Boatman as John and Darren Kuppan as Zahid Mubarek with Jamie Barnes as Ashley Gerlach, Fiona Clarke as Karen Stewart and nurse, Nick Underwood and Greg Wood as prison officers, John Cattrell as Travis and James Adler as Simmo.

Bafta-winning TV dramatist Neil McKay specialises in dramatising stories about real lives.

Producer/Melanie Harris

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

GENERAL ELECTION 2010
Election Special

Friday 7 May

10.00am-7.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

• Press pack

Peter Allen and Shelagh Fogarty present BBC Radio 5 Live's General Election coverage as the results come through and the national picture emerges. John Pienaar will be on hand to provide analysis on the results.

From 12noon, Aasmah Mir takes over from Shelagh as the coverage continues with all the latest news, analysis and listener reaction to the results.

Presenters/Peter Allen, Shelagh Fogarty and Aasmah Mir

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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Regular guests Pat Nevin and Perry Groves join Kicking Off With Colin Murray for a look ahead to the final weekend of the Premier League season, including West Ham United versus Manchester City, Chelsea against Wigan Athletic, Arsenal versus Fulham, Manchester United versus Stoke City and Hull City versus Liverpool.

At 8.30pm, David Croft and guests preview this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix in 5 Live Formula 1.

Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Ed King

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

5 Live Formula 1

Friday 7 May

8.55-10.35am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Listeners can enjoy uninterrupted commentary on the first practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, live from Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

Producer/Jason Swales

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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World Twenty20 Cricket

Friday 7 May

2.15-9.45pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

As the final eight teams compete for a place in the ICC World Twenty20 semi-finals, live from Bridgetown, Barbados, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra provides uninterrupted commentary on two matches.

Play in the Super Eight round-robin stage starts in the first game at 2.30pm and 6.30pm for the day's second match, with commentary from the Test Match Special team.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Tom Robinson features a live session from Southend art rock four-piece These New Puritans.

The band play tracks from their second album, Hidden, which was released in January.

Presenter/Tom Robinson, Producer/Adam Hudson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Iron Maiden front-man and BBC 6 Music presenter Bruce Dickinson

Welsh rockers Bullet For My Valentine return with their eagerly anticipated new album, Fever.

The album has been described by the band as "bigger and darker" than anything they've done before. Their previous two albums, The Poison and Scream Aim Fire, quickly propelled the band to worldwide star status – a rare feat for a young UK band.

Bullet For My Valentine take over the show for an hour to talk about the making of the new album. They discuss the huge pressure on them, their growth as musicians, how producer Dan Gilmore pushed them to breaking point in pursuit of the best performances and how late-night writing sessions and The Witching Hour inspired some of their best-ever riffs.

The band also choose some of their favourite music and discuss how those songs influenced and inspired them as fans and musicians.

Presenter/Bruce Dickinson, Producer/Ian Callaghan

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Two special Asian Network Reports cover the results of the General Election with details of the changes to Britain's political landscape.

Speaking to people around the UK, the programme investigates the effects of the results and the impact upon Asian issues, families and businesses.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

Tristan Whiston chronicles his year-long gender transition from woman to man, through the change in his singing voice, in the third programme in this series of Global Perspective documentaries.

Documentary makers from around the world have each produced a programme based on the theme At The Edge. Each documentary provides a different, local perspective on the theme. This programme is produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Tristan first performed as a solo soprano at the age of six. Years of hard work led to an accomplished singing career. But two years ago, Tristan decided to give up the most precious thing a singer has – the voice.

For a year, Tristan kept audio diaries, including such milestones as the first testosterone shot, the first time shaving and the chest reconstruction surgery – but the most striking thing about these diaries is the transformation of the singing voice.

At the start of the documentary, Tristan is a soprano whose voice soars into the high notes. As the testosterone takes effect, that sublime voice is ripped to shreds and has to be completely recast, just like Tristan's identity.

Presenter/Tristan Whiston, Producers/Tristan Whiston and Carma Jolly

BBC World Service Publicity