Programme Information

Bob Harris continues his journey through the world of Album Orientated Rock (AOR), playing the biggest hits and the hidden gems from a genre that drove album sales into the triple millions.

This week's show features music by Asia, Bob Seger, The Wallflowers and a rarely heard version of a Mott The Hoople classic.

Powered by the West Coast experimental music scene and the release of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper LP, AOR first burst onto American radio in San Francisco in 1967 and by the mid-Seventies had become the most successful radio format in America.

Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Neil Myners

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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BBC Radio 2 DJ Trevor Nelson

Trevor Nelson's Album Of The Week is the 1978 release Natalie Live! from American singer-songwriter Natalie Cole.

The daughter of classic crooner Nat King Cole, Grammy award-winning Natalie has enjoyed success on both sides of the Atlantic with hits such as Wild Women Do from the soundtrack of Pretty Woman, This Will Be and Pink Cadillac.

Presenter/Trevor Nelson, Producer/Dan Cocker

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski

The London Philharmonic Orchestra, under their Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski, perform Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante and Myaskovsky's Symphony No. 6 in a programme which highlights a musical friendship between two Russian composers with very different personalities. Nikolai Mysakovsky began his music studies at the St Petersburg Conservatory at the mature age of 25, where he met the brash, 15-year-old Prokofiev, and their friendship blossomed.

As Russia lurched into turbulence in the early 1900s, Myaskovsky had a ringside seat as a serving officer, trying to fulfil his duty as a military engineer following in his father's footsteps, while also pursuing his passion for music. He witnessed first-hand the events which culminated in the First World War and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. After the revolution he began work on his Sixth Symphony, which became a monumental choral symphony of heroism and revolution, including themes from French revolutionary songs and a Russian sacred text. But for its large scale, it is also a deeply personal testament.

Prokofiev left Russia after the revolution but returned in the Thirties. His Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra, written near the end of his life, was prompted by Mstislav Rostropovich, whose playing had reawakened Prokofiev's interest in the cello, inspiring him to re-work an earlier concerto into this new piece. Danjulo Ishizaka is tonight's soloist.

Presenter/Ian Skelly, Producer/Janet Tuppen

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

A Perpetual Love Affair Ep 1/3

Wednesday 5 May

10.45-11.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Henry James described his relationship with Venice as "a perpetual love affair", and in Byron's case this is very apt. Byron arrived in Venice in 1816, following great scandal in England. He had not meant to stay long but soon fell in love – notably with the wife of his landlord – and his letters chronicle the development both of this affair and of his eccentric decision to learn Armenian.

The first programme – Byron In Venice – presents Byron's witty and outrageous letters from Venice, read by Mark Meadows.

In the second programme, Selina Cadell reads a selection of Henry James's writing on Venice; the transmission date is to be confirmed.

In the final programme in this series – Jan Morris's Venice – Garrick Hagon reads The Venetian Way by Jan Morris.

The series is abridged and produced by Christine Hall.

Readers/Mark Meadows, Selina Cadell and Garrick Hagon, Producer/Christine Hall

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Wednesday 5 May

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch has all the day's sports news and from 8pm Premier League commentary of Manchester City versus Tottenham Hotspur, live from Eastlands.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Brooklyn-based band The National perform live and in session for Lauren Laverne ahead of their two London gigs and the much-anticipated release of their third album High Violet.

Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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A member of the Young British Artists movement, Sam Taylor-Wood is an established conceptualist artist whose work includes photography and cinema. She joins Andrew Collins in the studio in her latest incarnation as the director of Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy.

Presenter/Andrew Collins, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe introduces concert archive from Talk Talk and sweeping glacial sounds from Sigur Ros, beloved of the BBC's Natural History Unit. Session tracks range from Leonard Cohen at BBC Radio 1 in 1968 to a 2008 Those Dancing Days session for BBC 6 Music, plus The Sea And Cake and The Kinks's Ray Davies playing for Simon Mayo in 1994.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Adil Ray speaks to MC Riz, one of the stars of the new British comedy The Four Lions. He chats to the star about the "comic tour de force" that tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to breaking point. The film is intertwined with tragic stories and Rizwan Ahmed talks to Adil about how the film conveys these messages, while still maintaining its comic sensibility.

Presenter/Adil Ray

BBC Asian Network Publicity

To many people, the name Guantanamo conjures up images of detainees in orange. But to those who live there, Guantanamo means green hills and stunning beaches, distinctive changui music and mouth-watering Jamaican and French-influenced cuisine.

In this programme, award-winning travel writer Polly Evans goes in search of "the other Guantanamo", talking to local people about their home and how they feel about it becoming synonymous with what Amnesty International called "the gulag of our times".

She delves into the history of the open-ended American lease of this corner of Cuba and asks whether the nearly 10,000 Cubans who held lucrative construction jobs on the site have different feelings about it.

Polly examines the personal, political and cultural stories of a place almost never out of the news – from a perspective that is seldom considered.

Presenter/Polly Evans

BBC World Service Publicity