Programme Information

This week's Tracks Of My Years are selected by Alexandra Burke. The winner of The X Factor in 2008 reveals two of her favourite records each day this week.

There's also the regular Record and Album Of The Week features, and the Popmaster quiz which can now be played online at bbc.co.uk/ken-bruce/popmaster.

Presenter/Ken Bruce, Producer/Fiona Day

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Chris Tarrant returns to BBC Radio as he sits in for Steve Wright all week, playing three hours of top tunes and talking to celebrity guests.

Chris last presented on BBC Radio 2 with pop star and songwriter Nik Kershaw in December 2009, profiling the Great British Songbook Of The Eighties.

Chris has a rich and diverse history of broadcasting, ruling the London airwaves from 1987 to 2004 as the host of the legendary Capital Radio Breakfast Show, as well as changing the face of the television game show as presenter of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? from 1998 until today.

Presenter/Chris Tarrant, Producer/Adam Uytman

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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The Divine Comedy, aka Neil Hannon, is live in session on Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie's show this evening.

Neil will be performing tracks from his forthcoming album Bang Goes The Knighthood, which is The Divine Comedy's 10th studio album.

Presenters/Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, Producer/Viv Atkinson

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Jools Holland's guest this week is Paul Weller.

Paul joins Jools and his band to perform an impromptu version of the Dinah Washington song What A Difference A Day Makes.

Weller recently played a concert for BBC Radio 2 at the Radio Theatre for the first Radio 2 In Concert, performing classic hits and tracks from his new album Wake Up The Nation plus exclusive numbers for BBC 6 Music.

Presenter/Jools Holland, Producer/Sarah Gaston

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Musically speaking, "verismo" is a term that probably has more exceptions than rules, inviting debate to the point where some academics have stated that the concept should be "handled with great care, if at all".

Happily ignoring that particular advice, as part of the Opera On The BBC season, Roger Parker, an authority on Italian opera, joins Donald Macleod to map out the ways in which "verismo" can be applied to opera from Verdi to the 20th century.

From the anguish of Elisabeth in Verdi's Don Carlo, to the ghastly murder that draws the curtains on Puccini's Il Tabarro, Composer Of The Week explores the passion, ecstasy and heartbreaking tragedy, realised in sumptuous musical colour by grand masters of the genre.

The week promises a feast of music by Puccini, Leoncavallo and Mascagni, along with lesser known but equally colourful characters including Cilea, made famous by Enrico Caruso; Ponchielli, probably best known for the comedic realisation of Dance Of The Hours in Disney's Fantasia; and Catalani, whose best-known aria was used in the French film Diva. There's also an aria from an alternative Bohème, written by Leoncavallo at the same time as Puccini's big hit.

Monday's programme begins in the 1870s, in the aftermath of a newly unified Italy. Responding to the prevailing artistic restlessness, composers were keen to break away from the operatic conventions of the past and found inspiration in an avant-garde literary movement led by Giovanni Verga.

It was against this backdrop that the grand old man of Italian opera, Giuseppe Verdi looked to Paris and grand opera, wishing to produce something new and distinctly modern. Soon enough a tide of younger composers rushed to follow in his wake.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Johannah Smith

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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From the Bridgewater Hall, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda continues its critically acclaimed cycle, Mahler in Manchester, celebrating 150 years since the composer's birth, with his Seventh Symphony, often labelled Song Of The Night.

Before that, David Matthews's Seventh Symphony, commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for this cycle, contrasts modern pieces with the legacy of the Austrian composer.

Presenter/Jonathan Swain, Producer/Juan Carlos Jaramillo

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

Philip Dodd talks to film director Erik Gandini, whose new documentary about Silvio Berlusconi has generated controversy and censure in Italy.

Gandini's film Videocracy probes the television and celebrity culture that surrounds the Italian Prime Minister and contains some revealing interviews with Berlusconi's inner circle of advisers and neighbours.

Before reaching high office and the current scandals surrounding his love life, Berlusconi made his fortune in the Seventies and Eighties with entertainment-heavy Italian TV so that now, Gandini says, "the president of television is the president of the whole country".

Gandini's resulting film was deemed offensive by the state broadcaster RAI, which also banned all broadcasts of its trailer.

Philip asks Erik about the outraged reaction to Videocracy and probes him on the extent to which Italy has really undergone a cultural revolution, as the director claims.

Presenter/Philip Dodd, Producer/Lisa Davis

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

A History Of The World –
Coin With Head Of Alexander

Monday 17 to Friday 21 May

9.45-10.00am BBC RADIO 4

British Museum director Neil MacGregor begins the second part of his global history told through objects from the Museum

Neil MacGregor begins the second part of his global history told through objects from the British Museum in London.

This week he looks at a subject of topical interest – the great rulers of the world, but this time from 2,000 years ago.

Neil explores the lives and methods of powerful rulers around the world 2,000 years ago, and asks what enduring qualities are needed for the perfect prosecution of power.

He begins with one of history's most famous leaders, one with a divine aura – Alexander the Great, a ruler whose empire was to stretch from Egypt almost as far as China and who has left an impressive legacy on the world today.

He tells the story of Alexander through a small silver coin, one made years after his death, which portrays an idealised image of the leader as a vigorous young man.

Political commentator Andrew Marr considers Alexander as a model for future rulers and the historian Robin Lane-Fox explains the motivation behind his extraordinary ascent.

Presenter/Neil MacGregor, Producers/Philip Sellars, Paul Kobrak, Anthony Denselow and Jane Lewis

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Woman's Hour Drama – The Rabbit House Ep 1/5

Monday 17 to Friday 21 May

10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 4

Laura Alcoba was the daughter of members of the Montoneros, a militant left-wing organisation engaged in a bitter and violent conflict with the military government in Argentina in what later came to be called the "dirty war" of the Seventies.

The Rabbit House is Laura's memoir of a turbulent Argentinian childhood, a powerful and moving account of political upheaval seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old child, who knows enough to be frightened, but not enough to understand.

With her father in prison, Laura and her mother move to a safe house in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, where they run a rabbit breeding business as a cover for the backroom operation of the Montoneros' clandestine printing press, turning out copies of their revolutionary newspaper for distribution all over the city.

Laura is brought up amid secrecy, subterfuge and silence, and learns very early the importance of keeping her mouth shut, and the danger of loose talk or careless behaviour. But there's also love and laughter in the Rabbit House, and a comforting sense of loyalty and friendship, which she only later discovers to have been betrayed most horribly.

Laura Alcoba's story of living through violence and political turbulence is about the Argentina of only 30 years ago. She now lives in Paris.

Translated by Polly McLean and dramatised by Sheila Yeger, The Rabbit House cast includes Saira Todd as adult Laura; Bethan Barke as young Laura; Jenny Coverack as Laura's mother; Jay Villiers as her father; Merelina Kendall as her grandmother; Rod Beacham as her grandfather; and Lisa Coleman as Diana. Other members of the cast include Vincenzo Pellegrino, Sonia Elliman and Charlotte Ellis.

Producer/Sara Davies

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Simon Miller is 17 and angry with the world. Britain is in recession, his father faces redundancy and, living in the shadow of Sellafield, Simon is haunted by fears of nuclear holocaust.

In The End of the World by Danny Brocklehurst, part of a series of radio plays by leading writers set in the Eighties to tie-in with BBC Two's season about the decade, Simon falls in love with Tasha, a beautiful anti-nuclear activist and sees his chance to make a difference.

When he leaves home to join her in a squat with other anti-nuclear activists, Simon is soon out of his depth and has to face some tough decisions. Music and news archive from the time are interwoven into the play.

Bryan Dick plays Simon, Olivia Hallinan plays Tasha, Jake Norton plays Jo-Jo, Neil Dudgeon plays Kenneth, Jacqueline Leonard plays Liz, Aidan Parsons plays Mickey and John Catterall plays Iain. Other parts are played by Emma Hartley-Miller, Balvinder Sopal and Russell Richardson.

The next play in the series, Lennon – A Week In The Life by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, can be heard on Monday 24 May at 2.15pm.

Producer/Nadia Molinari

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Monday 17 May

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Chapman presents a round up of all today's sports news and, from 7.45pm, live coverage of the second leg of the first League One play-off semi-final.

Presenter/Mark Chapman

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Lauren Laverne is joined by Canadian band Wintersleep for a live session in the BBC 6 Music studios.

Wintersleep found success during 2008 and 2009 with their album Welcome To The Night Sky. They return to the UK this month with their fourth studio album, New Inheritors.

Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Andrew Collins celebrates the work of music video director Spike Jonze, who provides the visuals for the Video Of The Week, Drunk Girls by LCD Soundsystem.

Presenter/Andrew Collins, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Marc Riley is joined in the studio this evening by Jeffrey Lewis and Kimya Dawson's anti-folk super group The Bundles who play a live session.

Along with Jeffrey and Kimya, The Bundles also feature Jeffrey's brother Jack, Karl Blau and Anders Griffen. Kimya is formerly of the Mouldy Peaches and best known for her contributions to the Juno soundtrack.

The band originally formed as long ago as 2001, but it has taken them a decade to record and release their eponymous debut album, which came out in March.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe's trawl through the BBC archives this evening results in vintage post punk from Magazine, in concert from 1980, plus session tracks from Blondie.

Also featured are sessions from Serious Drinking and Noseflutes (both for John Peel) and Miracle Fortress with a BBC 6 Music session from 2007.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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The Live Music Hour takes an Eighties theme tonight with a classic concert by Culture Club, live from Golders Green Hippodrome and session highlights from Visage.

Session tracks from non-Eighties band Hope Of The States also feature.

Presenter/Chris Hawkins, Producer/Claire Slevin

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Once unheard of in the UK, acid attacks are now on the increase.

According to National Health Service statistics, the number of people hospitalised as a result of cases involving acid increased from 44 to 67 in just two years and a leading a charity is now so concerned, that it is to conduct the first ever detailed research to be carried out in the UK.

This Asian Network Reports Special, presented by Konnie Huq, talks to those who have been affected and examines what lessons can be put in place to combat these attacks.

One man speaks about how he had acid thrown into his face and how he's suffered great trauma as no-one has ever been arrested for the attack. We also hear from a 24-year-old woman, who describes how she has undergone endless hours of pioneering surgery after she also had acid thrown into her face.

Hearing from these acid victims, Konnie also talks to the experts who want to stop the horrifying increase of acid attacks in Britain.

Presenter/Konnie Huq, Producer/Perminder Khatkar

BBC Asian Network Publicity

Soft Power Ep 1/2

Monday 17 May

8.00-8.30pm BBC WORLD SERVICE

Culture, lifestyle, values and ideals are increasingly important factors as US States compete for global economic and political dominance. This kind of influence – attracting and persuading others to adopt your goals – is known as soft power. It thrives on influence, not coercion, and many 21st-century leaders are keenly aware of its importance.

Since Barack Obama took office, the media has widely reported on American soft power – an aspect that many believe declined during George Bush's presidency. But who will challenge Washington to be the world's No. 1 soft power in the future?

Philip Dodd examines how the global soft power battle is shaping up and what weapons are being deployed – from global sporting fixtures and cultural events to China's soft power offensive in Africa.

Philip speaks to a range of international figures about this concept, including former European Commission President Romano Prodi; Joseph Nye, the US policymaker and the man who first forged the phrase soft power; AR Rahman, the composer of the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire; Yu Long, Music Director of the China Philharmonic orchestra; and Zhou Li Bo, one of the most famous comedians in China.

Presenter/Philip Dodd, Producer/Michael Gallagher

BBC World Service Publicity