Programme Information

Graham Norton sits in for Chris Evans this week and, at 9am every day, plays a classic Eurovision entry in the lead up to this year's competition.

Presenter/Graham Norton, Producers/Jessica Rickson and Phil McGarvey

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Bob Harris is joined by award-winning, Louisiana-born singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier, who wrote her first song at the age of 35 after emerging from a life of drug and alcohol addiction.

Given up at birth by her mother and adopted by Catholic Italian parents in Louisiana, Mary's latest album, The Foundling, explores this experience and her subsequent search for meaning and identity.

Mary's music is intensely personal and hugely influenced by her life experience. She spent her early years battling personal demons, which led to her leaving home at 15, living in halfway houses and descending into a world of drugs and alcohol.

After moving to Boston and opening a Cajun restaurant, an arrest for drink driving forced her to face her addictions and led to her getting clean and sober. This gave her the mental clarity to write songs, an ambition she had never been able to fulfil before.

Since starting to write, Mary has released six albums and in 2005 was named best new and emerging artist at the Americana Music Awards in Nashville.

Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Al Booth

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Frank Renton revisits recordings by bands that have celebrated landmark events, either of their own or on a wider stage.

Featured this week is music from Eikanger-Bjorsvik Musikklag, whose 20 Supreme Years celebrated a long association with conductor and composer Howard Snell; Black Dyke's Jewels In The Crown, which marked the band's 150th anniversary; the Band of HM Royal Marines recalling the Battle of Trafalgar 200 years on; and the YBS band, who released an album to celebrate their tour in Australia.

Presenter/Frank Renton, Producer/Terry Carter

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Neither a race nor a battle, Go is unique among board games. Its ancient oriental rules can be learnt in an afternoon but mastering them takes a lifetime.

Chris Ledgard explores the world of the ancient oriental game, which expresses "a psychological essence" of the Far East, according to the British Museum's Dr Irving Finkel. Although ancient, no-one knows quite how old the game is, but the claim that it originated 4,000 years ago is open to question.

What is beyond doubt is Go's place in oriental culture. The remarkable cave of Buddhist treasures discovered at Dunhuang on the Silk Road through China included a sixth-century Go manual now kept in the British Library. Miniature boards and pieces have turned up in ancient burial sites.

In the 20th century, some of Japan's finest writers turned to Go for inspiration, following major games and probing the psychology of the top players. And, as the first atomic bomb fell, two of the world's best exponents were playing a title match on the outskirts of Hiroshima.

Go is little-known in the West, in spite of the efforts of one of the two players in what became known as the Atom Bomb Game, Iwamoto Kaoru, who spent his later years setting up Go centres in Europe and the Americas.

In Why Go?, Chris talks to experts from East and West about the game's history and culture, and examines some ancient artefacts.

Dr Finkel discusses Go's place in the history of games. After Go, he says, "you could argue that the world's board games went downhill". Susan Whitfield, Director of the International Dunhuang Project, brings the 1,500-year-old manual out of storage and explains how it was discovered and what it reveals.

Britain's two foremost experts on the game describe how they became hooked, and Chris visits Amsterdam to examine Iwamoto Kaoru's legacy and find out why, in spite of all the time and money he spent, relatively few people in Europe play the game.

Rob Foster, a translator of the Dunhuang manual, describes the game as "a conversation... it's hand talk". The programme also addresses the key question of whether, as some argue, Go reflects aspects of oriental thinking and is a game few Western players really understand.

Presenter and Producer/Chris Ledgard

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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So You Want To Disappear tells the story of Fraser, a man who once tracked clients who jumped bail.

But Fraser decides to give his business a small, but dramatic twist and now helps people who want to disappear, in this story from BBC Northern Ireland Drama. Receiving a call from Kathryn, a woman with a past from which she desperately needs to escape, Fraser agrees to help her, but leaving is one thing and staying away is quite another.

So You Want To Disappear is written by Mark Wheatley.

Kathryn is played by Lia Williams, Fraser by Neil Pearson, Ali by Tessa Nicholson, Mitch by Michael Shelford and Kyle by Miche Doherty.

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Music from Vivaldi's Gloria features in this live service from St Martin-in-the-Fields, London to mark Ascension Day.

The Very Reverend June Osborne, Dean of Salisbury, is the preacher at this service celebrating Christ's ascension into heaven.

Music is sung by the BBC Daily Service Singers and St Martin's Choir with Sinfonia Britannica, directed by Andrew Earis. The Celebrant is The Reverend Nicholas Holtam and the organist is Martin Ford.

Producer/Simon Vivian

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Eleanor Oldroyd

Eleanor Oldroyd presents all the day's sports news and, from 7.30pm, the latest from the world of athletics in 5 Live Track And Field.

At 9pm, 5 Live Boxing previews Kevin Mitchell's fight for the WBO interim lightweight title against Australian Michael Katsidis at Upton Park on Saturday night.

Presenter/Eleanor Oldroyd, Producer/Claire Ackling

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

5 Live Formula 1

Thursday 13 May

8.55-10.35am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA
12.55-2.35pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Listeners can enjoy uninterrupted commentary on the first (8.55am) and second (12.55pm) practice sessions for the Monaco Grand Prix live from Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo.

Producer/Jason Swales

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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World Twenty20 Cricket

Thursday 13 May

4.00-7.45pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA
8.45pm-12.15am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

The Test Match Special team present uninterrupted live commentary on the first men's semi-final (4pm) and first women's semi-final (8.45pm) of the ICC World Twenty20, live from Gros Islet, St Lucia.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

The makers of the new Bill Hicks documentary join Shaun Keaveny to reveal all about their soon-to-be-released film about the legendary American comic.

Matt Everitt takes a sideways swipe at the day's music news, while a listener is rudely awoken with their favourite track in My Morning Racket.

Presenter/Shaun Keaveny, Producer/Nic Philps

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy joins Lauren Laverne in the studio.

LCD Soundsystem release their new album This Is Happening on 17 May. It follows the band's previous massively influential albums LCD Soundsystem and Sound Of Silver.

James Murphy has claimed that this record will be the very last LCD album so Lauren will be talking to him about this and finding out what the summer holds for the band.

Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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There's a loud and quiet contrast in the choice of concert tracks from The Ramones and Cowboy Junkies from 1992 and 1987 respectively.

Gideon Coe's session highlights include Scottish new wavers The Rich Kids, the ever-eclectic Kevin Ayers, a 1982 Peel session from Skat and another airing for the 18th Day Of May's recent session for Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Fun Lovin' Criminal and Sony Award-winning BBC 6 Music Sunday afternoon host Huey Morgan presents this morning's Live Music Hour.

Having played a string of live dates recently, Huey's appetite for the live music experience has been reinvigorated and he kicks off the hour with an absolute legend as his headliner – BB King, playing at the Golden Bear venue in California in 1986.

Presenter/Huey Morgan, Producer/Claire Slevin

BBC 6 Music Publicity