Programme Information

Pick Of The Pops

Saturday 29 January

1.00-3.00pm BBC RADIO 2

Tony Blackburn celebrates his birthday with his first live broadcast of Pick Of The Pops

Tony Blackburn counts down the charts from this week in 1966 and 1977, with hits from Roger Miller, The Spencer Davis Group, Leo Sayer and Rose Royce.

Celebrating his own birthday, Tony has one or two surprises in store for this, his first live broadcast of Pick Of The Pops since he took the helm last year.

Presenter/Tony Blackburn, Producer/Phil Swern for Unique Productions

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Acclaimed comedian Jimmy Carr

Jimmy Carr hosts another comedy master class, discussing his passion for all aspects of comedy and playing some of his favourite comedy clips. Tonight's third episode takes a further look at the theory behind jokes.

The featured audio clips include: Tommy Cooper on his holiday experiences; Peter Cook and Dudley Moore ruminating on art; Ardal O'Hanlon on back problems; and Morecambe and Wise trying to have a bath. All these clips and more are supplemented by Jimmy's witty and anarchic take on the world of comedy.

Presenter/Jimmy Carr, Producer/Paul Russell for the BBC

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Gary Fletcher was born in London in the early Fifties and is probably best known as the bass player in The Blues Band, although he is also a well-respected songwriter.

For the past 25 years, as well as playing with the band, he has been writing, recording and touring with his own band. Tonight, he talks to Bob Harris about The Blues Band and his solo work. He also plays live in session.

Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Mark Simpson for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Manual de Falla led the way in a flourishing of Spanish music at the beginning of the 20th century.

Dermot Clinch explores the meaning of "Spanishness" for native composers, including Falla, Joaquin Rodrigo and Roberto Gerhard (later exiled in England).

He looks at their music against the backdrop of the political and cultural upheavals of the Thirties and Forties: the creation of the Republic followed by the Nationalist uprising; the ensuing Civil War; and the subsequent regime of General Franco.

Contributions also come from musicologists Carol Hess, Graham Wade and Samuel Llano and historian Paul Preston, along with an insider's viewpoint from Cecilia Rodrigo, daughter of the composer and keeper of his memory and archive.

Presenter/Dermot Clinch, Producer/Janet Tuppen

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Catherine Bott samples Lully's opera, Bellérophon, with Christophe Rousset and his group, Les Talens Lyriques.

They recently gave the first performance in modern times of this hugely successful "tragedie en lyrique" in the Opera Royal at Versailles, following Rousset's discovery of missing pages of the score in a bookshop in Paris. Rousset talks about his find and about the qualities that make Lully's opera stand out as a masterpiece.

The programme includes comments from Rousset and from tenor Cyril Autivy, who plays the title role, as well as highlights from the Versailles performance.

Presenter/Catherine Bott, Producer/Chris Wines

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Opera On 3 – Live From The Met

Saturday 29 January

6.00-9.00pm BBC RADIO 3

Tosca, Puccini's tale of love, lust, corruption and revenge, comes live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In this revival of Luc Bondy's dramatic production, Sondra Radvanovsky sings the title role for the first time at the Met, starring as the prima donna with the firebrand artist lover. She thinks she knows how to outwit the notorious Baron Scarpia but his desire for Tosca leads to tragedy.

Floria Tosca is sung by soprano Sondra Radvanovsky; Mario Cavaradossi by tenor Marcelo Álvarez; Baron Scarpia by baritone Falk Struckmann; Cesare Angelotti by bass Peter Volpe; Sacristan by bass Paul Plishka; Spoletta by tenor Dennis Petersen; Sciarrone by bass James Courtney; and Jailer by bass Harold Wilson.

Marco Armiliato conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera.

Presenter/Margaret Juntwait, Producer/Tony Sellors

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This Isn't Romance is a tender, violent Korean love story about cultural identity, sex and twisted revenge by award-winning writer In-Sook Chappell. The author, who was born in Korea and adopted into an English family, introduces her work below.

"This story addresses what faces immigrants and asylum seekers when they return to the country of their birth," says In-Sook Chappell. "The inspiration for the play came on a visit back to Seoul. Unable to speak Korean, I was a foreigner in the country I was born in. I had lost my language, my country and my family.

"The sound of Korean upset me, stirred feelings I had as a baby that I'd forgotten. I met a lot of adoptees searching for their biological families, only communicating with them through an interpreter. I decided not to track down my family. Instead, I spoke to some who had, then I imagined and wrote this play.

"On a visit to an orphanage, I met a little boy, aged four, who had been left on the street by his parents. If I had been in a better financial situation, I would have adopted him. He was the starting point for [the character of] Han.

"Growing up in England, I always thought: 'What if I had stayed in Korea, grown up in an orphanage? Would I have ended up a teenage prostitute or a factory worker?' I had a strong sense of guilt for living a privileged life in England. In cross-cultural adoption, we rarely talk about what happens when the children grow up, what they lose as well as gain. The sounds of this play evoke emotions and memories, a sense of dislocation, of being thrown into another world – the alienation of hearing another language clearly spoken with passion and love, but incomprehensible and impossible to respond to."

This Isn't Romance is directed by Lisa Goldman, the cast includes Jennifer Lim as Miso Blake; Mo Zainal as Han; Matthew Marsh as Jack; Sonnie Brown as Naomi/Miss Han; Elizabeth Tan as Bunny/Waitress; and Jay Lim as Ajossi.

Producer/Marilyn Imrie

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Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Robert Worby introduce a third programme of highlights from last November's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Tonight's programme includes music from Peter Adriaansz, Timothy McCormack, Peter Ablinger and Graham Fitkin. Robert Worby reports on pianist Philip Thomas's 12-hour performance of John Cage's Electronic Music For Piano in Huddersfield's Art Gallery.

Presenters/Robert Worby and Sara Mohr-Pietsch, Producer/Sam Phillips

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Hugh Ross plays Pope Pius XII in this Saturday Play about the initial response by the Catholic church to Nazi atrocities.

It is 1942 in the Italian city of Rome and Pope Pius XII is being urged to speak out against Nazi atrocities.

As war rages across the globe, Pope Pius XII prepares to deliver his annual Christmas message.

For months beforehand, evidence has been growing of a vast, organised genocide of Jews and other races in German-occupied lands. Now the Vatican is coming under increasing pressure to speak out against Nazi atrocities. In private audiences, the British and American ambassadors to the Holy See urge Pius to show moral leadership by explicitly attacking Hitler in his Christmas message.

It is perhaps the most important public address he will ever give and the Pontiff is facing the starkest dilemma of his reign.

Yet Pius is reluctant to specifically condemn the Holocaust. He is concerned that speaking out risks making things worse. As Pius writes and discards draft after draft of the message, it becomes clear that there are other factors to explain his ambivalence.

Europe's future seems to hang in the balance between Nazism and Bolshevism, and it is the latter ideology that he most fears.

Producer/Eoin O'Callaghan for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Saturday 29 January

12.00noon-6.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch presents live FA Cup fourth-round coverage, plus reports from rugby union's LV Cup third round.

In Sports Report, at 5pm, there are reports, results and reaction from today's big sporting stories and the FA Cup fourth round.

From 5.30pm, there is live FA Cup commentary.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Mike Carr

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Tennis

Saturday 29 January

8.30-11.30am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Listeners can enjoy uninterrupted commentary on the women's singles final at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Producer/Jen McAllister

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Football

Saturday 29 January

2.55-5.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary comes from one of the afternoon's top matches in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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Cricket

Saturday 29 January

3.00-11.30am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary on the fifth One Day International between Australia and England comes live from Brisbane.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

The Forum Ep 1/2

Saturday 29 January

9.05-10.00am BBC WORLD SERVICE

The BBC World Service's landmark discussion programme, The Forum, is recording two special programmes in front of a live audience at the DSC Jaipur Literary Festival in India.

In the first in this series, BBC presenter Bridget Kendall brings together three innovative thinkers, spanning cultural boundaries to discuss 21st-century morality. Sanskrit scholar and former CEO Gurcharan Das joins writer and surgeon Kavery Nambisan and Nepalese novelist Manjushree Thapa.

Presenter/Bridget Kendall

BBC World Service Publicity

Aled Jones says Good Morning Sunday to singer Camilla Kerslake, the first artist to sign to Gary Barlow's record label.

Aled's faith guest is Sarfraz Manzoor, who looks at the news of the week from a faith and ethical perspective, and gives the Moment Of Reflection.

Presenter/Aled Jones, Producer/Hilary Robinson for the BBC

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Actor, singer and BBC Radio 2 presenter Michael Ball

This Sunday it's business as usual as Michael Ball reviews the newspapers and previews the best of the week's movie, DVD, TV and radio entertainment.

This week his special guest is British star of stage and screen, Tom Hollander, who is currently performing as Victor-Emmanuel Chandebise in the critically-acclaimed A Flea In Her Ear at The Old Vic in London.

There's also Ball's Better Than The Original, the Classic Album Track, great music and a surprise or two along the way.

Presenter/Michael Ball, Producer/Jodie Keane for the BBC

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Elaine Paige presents two hours of popular show tunes. She also has the latest showbiz news, another cracking Disney Double, a Gleeful Moment and plenty of listeners' Break A Leg messages. To get in touch with the show, listeners can e-mail elaine@bbc.co.uk.

Presenter/Elaine Paige, Producer/Julie Newman for the BBC

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Johnnie Walker celebrates the Seventies with classic tracks from both sides of the Atlantic.

This week's guest is singer-songwriter and guitarist Peter Frampton, who studied at the Bromley Technical School with David Bowie before enjoying hits with the Herd and Humble Pie. He reflects on a decade which included his decision to go solo and the release of his breakthrough best-selling live album, Frampton Comes Alive!

Presenter/Johnnie Walker, Producer/Natasha Costa Correa for Wise Buddah

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This week, in his series on the Beatitudes, Brian D'Arcy looks at the peacemakers and considers the challenges they face and the rewards they are promised.

Hymns include The Kingdom Of God, Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind and Praise My Soul The King Of Heaven.

Presenter/Brian D'Arcy, Producer/Clair Jaquiss for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Aled Jones talks to Jeffrey Skidmore about his four decades at the head of renowned ensemble Ex Cathedra. They discuss his passion for exploring the hidden corners of early and modern repertoire, and why he decided to establish his choir in Birmingham when so many of his contemporaries headed for London.

Presenter/Aled Jones, Producer/Chris Taylor

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Macbeth is dead. Under cover of night, an English army has swept through the landscape, killed the tyrant and taken the seat of power. Dunsinane is a thrilling sequel to Shakespeare's Macbeth by award-winning playwright David Greig.

Attempting to restore peace and put in place a new ruler, the commanding officer is beset by a brutal guerrilla uprising and simmering discontent among his own inexperienced troops. Struggling to grasp the alien customs and politics of this harsh country, he finds himself drawn towards the tyrant's powerful widow in search of someone to share his burden of responsibility. Increasingly isolated from his own men and Scottish allies alike, his efforts to restore order appear futile as the situation spins out of control.

Greig's exhilarating play is a vision of one man's attempt to restore peace in a country ravaged by war.

Directed by Roxana Silbert, the cast includes Jonny Phillips as Siward, Siobhan Redmond as Gruach, Jack Farthing as The Boy Soldier, Brian Ferguson as Malcolm, Ewan Stewart as Macduff, Alex Mann as Egham, Daniel Rose as Edward, Joshua Jenkins as Eric, Sandy Grierson as Lulach and Lisa Hogg as Hen Girl.

Original songs and music, composed by Nick Powell, are performed by Alex Lee, Sarah Wilson and Lisa Hogg.

Producer/David Ian Neville

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Gillian Darley tells the forgotten story of Elisabeth Scott, the young female architect who, in 1928, beat over 70 contenders in an international competition to design the first Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon at a time when women her age didn't even have the vote.

As the newly refurbished Royal Shakespeare Theatre prepares to launch its opening production this coming April, Gillian pieces together the story of Elisabeth, the original architect.

She was the first British woman architect ever to win a major international competition. When her design was chosen for the new theatre (the previous one had been almost completely destroyed in a fire) her name was on the front pages of newspapers across the country, but she is now largely overlooked.

Gillian seeks out architectural experts, feminist writers and elderly female architects to find out about the first generation of women architects. After considerable research, she finds an elderly relative and a former colleague of Scott's who help her paint a vivid and poignant portrait of an architect whose final projects included a small civic theatre at the end of Bournemouth pier, though her legacy is still to be seen on the banks of the Avon.

Presenter/Gillian Darley, Producer/Beaty Rubens

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Journalist and broadcaster Jon Snow

This week's guest on BBC Radio 4's mythical desert island is journalist and broadcaster Jon Snow.

Jon talks to Kirsty Young about his life, his career and his favourite music, and describes how he would cope on a desert island.

Presenter/Kirsty Young, Producer/Leanne Buckle for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Sunday 30 January

8.30-11.30am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Full commentary of the Australian Open 2011 men's final comes live from Melbourne.

Presenter/Vassos Alexander, Producer/Steve Rudge

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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5 Live Sport

Sunday 30 January

12.00noon-6.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Colin Murray presents live FA Cup fourth-round coverage, plus the fifth-round draw. There are also reports from the morning's fifth One Day International between Australia and England in Brisbane and updates from rugby union's Anglo-Welsh Cup third-round ties.

Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Mike Carr

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Cerys Matthews mixes up the alternative spirit with a musical cocktail flavoured with ingredients from ole-time blues to dub and beyond. Cerys is joined by Swiss band Mama Rosin, who are breathing new life into Cajun music from a farm in Geneva.

Presenter/Cerys Matthews, Producer/Paul Thomas

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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In his evocative musical map, first heard on BBC Radio 2, Jarvis Cocker creates a soundtrack of music and memory, encounters and observations about his home town, Sheffield.

He explores his loves and hates, old haunts and the sounds of the city, which feed the vibrant music scene it still has today. He also introduces listeners to some of the city's most famous musical sons and daughters, including Joe Cocker, Cabaret Voltaire, The Human League and Artery.

Presenter/Jarvis Cocker, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Hercules And Love Affair bring their brand of uplifting house and disco to the BBC 6 Music airwaves.

The brainchild of New York DJ and producer Andy Butler, Hercules set tongues wagging three years ago with the release of their disco-infused debut on James Murphy's DFA Recordings. Its stand-out track, Blind – featuring the vocals of Mercury Award-winner Antony Hegarty – became an underground hit, with a remix by legendary producer Frankie Knuckles setting the blogs alight. Since then Butler has toured all over the world, worked with musical hero August Darnell from Kid Creole And The Coconuts and raided the sounds of Eighties Chicago for his sophomore album, Blue Songs, out later this month.

In his 6 Mix, Andy plays a selection of classic disco and house music which inspired the new LP, alongside some of his current favourite music making New York dance floors move.

Listeners can also hear Andy choose his lunchtime playlist with Nemone on Friday.

Presenter/Andy Butler, Producer/Rowan Collison

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Songstress Rumer, who performed at last year's BBC Radio 2 Electric Proms, joins Ken Bruce to choose her first two Tracks Of My Years which are Wedding Bell Blues by 5th Dimension and You Turn Me On I'm A Radio by Joni Mitchell. Choices later in the week include Seasons In The Sun by Terry Jacks and Alfie by Cilla Black.

There's also the mighty Popmaster quiz, the Love Song and a spin of the Record Of The Week, plus listeners will hear a track from the new Album Of The Week.

Presenter/Ken Bruce, Producer/Gary Bones for the BBC

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BBC Radio 2 presenter Paul Jones

Tonight there's a session from the Finnish guitarist and singer Erja Lyytinen who is part of an exciting young generation of European blues artists. She has captivated audiences throughout Europe and recorded albums in her homeland's capital Helsinki but also in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Lyytinen is acclaimed for her slide guitar playing abilities, keen songwriting and smooth vocal delivery.

Presenter/Paul Jones, Producer/Paul Long for the BBC

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Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie feature a live session from New York's Joan As Policewoman, AKA Joan Wasser, whose moniker references an American television police drama starring Angie Dickinson.

Joan has released three studio albums, toured extensively with her unique blend of open and irreverent in-between song banter, and collaborated with musicians including Rufus Wainwright and Antony And The Johnsons. She has just released her latest album, The Deep Field.

Presenters/Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, Producer/Lizzie Hoskin for Smooth Operations

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Donald Macleod explores Shostakovich's brilliant youth – and the work of five extraordinary lost musical souls – amidst the turmoil and extraordinary originality of Twenties Russia.

Many are familiar with the image of Dmitri Shostakovich the doomed, tragic hero, with epic symphonies and cryptic musical messages battling a totalitarian regime. Yet, once upon a time as a young man, he was a brilliant, fearless avant-garde composer, just one of a slew of daringly original musical voices in what was perhaps the world's most heady and exciting artistic melting pot at the time: Twenties Soviet Russia. This was not, yet, a time of purges and gulags, spies and Socialist Realism. Instead artists, film-makers and composers were emboldened by the promise of a bright new Soviet future, composing radically original works that made the country a crucible of new, visionary art and music.

This week, Donald looks at Shostakovich's dazzling work of the Twenties – a period of musical adventurousness and biting musical wit that he would never be allowed to show again. Highlights include excerpts from his surreal opera The Nose, his film music to The New Babylon and his incidental music to the avant-garde play, The Bedbug.

He also re-evaluates Shostakovich's little-played Second and Third Symphonies (with a rare, complete performance of each work) and reveals that, despite their much-derided choral finales, praising the Soviet way, the symphonies are full of extraordinary musical daring.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Steven Rajam

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Yan Pascal Tortelier conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Dreaming By The Fireside by Strauss, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with James Ehnes and Prokofiev's Romeo And Juliet.

Dreaming By The Fireside is a symphonic interlude from Strauss's comic opera Intermezzo, in which the heroine sits alone by her fireplace, day-dreaming of a lover. Her romantic fantasy is mingled with melancholy.

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto belongs to the illustrious group of masterpieces that were savaged by uncomprehending critics at their premières: today, this work holds an outstanding place among all violin concertos.

Shakespeare's timeless tragedy of young lovers and their warring families has stirred the imagination of countless composers. Prokofiev's sumptuous ballet is one of the most ravishing musical versions of the story.

Presenter/Catherine Bott, Producer/Tony Sellors

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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When newspapers last year reported the killing of a stag in Exmoor, there were fierce, horrified reactions. Even though deer can cause huge damage to forests, people are transfixed by their beauty and majesty. They feature in literature and in haunting images like Bambi in the cinema; deer represent something majestic, yet vulnerable and are a unique part of the British landscape.

Poet and writer Ruth Padel begins a series of Essays exploring reactions to five British wild animals, by investigating how reactions to deer have been subconsciously shaped by centuries of folklore, literature and biology.

She charts the history of the deer's links with royalty, traces the evolution of the different species in this country and explores the potency of the image of antlers.

Other animals considered this week are the robin, the badger, the butterfly and the fox.

Producer/Emma Kingsley

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Woman's Hour Drama – The Far Pavilions Ep 1/20

Monday 31 January to Friday 4 February

10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 4

The Far Pavilions is MM Kaye's epic story of love and war set in 19th-century India.

Dramatised by Rukhsana Ahmad, this 20-part series follows the fortunes of Ashton, a young English orphan.

Following the 1857 Mutiny, Ashton is disguised by his nursemaid as her Indian son. And so, as he forgets his true identity, his destiny is set.

MM Kaye's masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that moves from the foothills of the Himalayas, to the burning plains, to the besieged British Mission in Kabul. It is a story of divided loyalties and fierce friendship; of true love made impossible by class and race; and an examination of the cultural and spiritual clash between East and West.

This is the first of 20 episodes spanning the years between the Indian Mutiny in 1857 and the Siege of the British Mission in Kabul in 1879.

Sita, the narrator, is played by Vineeta Rishi, with Inam Mirza as Biju Ram, Sam Dastor as K-Daad, Joseph Samrai as Ashok, Nishi Malde as Anjuli, Sagar Arya as Hiri Lal, Nazim Khan as Lalji, Kaleem Janjua as Daya Ram and Sam Dale as Pelham Martyn.

Producer/Jessica Dromgoole for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Jolyon Jenkins investigates yoga, once a mystical Eastern discipline, practiced in the West only by a handful of committed adherents. But in the last decade it's become mainstream.

Up to a million Britons practice yoga, and it has moved from the ashram, a place of religious retreat, to the sports centre. Yoga chains have set up in business, each offering their own particular brand of the discipline. For example, "Bikram" yoga, where the exercises are done in a sweltering 40-degree heated room.

But as yoga becomes more commercial, traditionalists fear that the spiritual essence of the discipline has been lost. In classical yoga, the postures or poses are merely an aid to meditation, taking their place in an intricate philosophy of ethics and metaphysics.

In this programme, Jolyon Jenkins investigates what's happened to yoga. He asks if the arrival of chains and franchises, all selling an identical product, mean that independent yoga studios will go the same way as independent coffee shops.

Presenter and Producer/Jolyon Jenkins for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Mark Chapman presents football debate and discussion following a big weekend of FA Cup football in The Monday Night Club.

At 9pm Mark Clemmit has the latest news and interviews from the Football League.

From 9.30pm Mark Chapman and Dave Vitty bring listeners bang up to date with all football's burning issues in Football Express.

Then, at 10pm there's more on one of the day's big sports stories.

Presenters/Mark Chapman, Mark Clemmit and Dave Vitty, Producer/Mike Carr

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Fun Lovin' Criminals front man and BBC Radio 6 Music presenter Huey Morgan

Huey Morgan is joined by The Go Team for a live session in the BBC 6 Music studios. The Brighton band releases their third album, Rolling Blackouts, in February which features contributions from the likes of Deerhoof and Bethany Cosentino from Best Coast. The band starts an 18-date UK tour in February.

They come in to play their new single Buy Nothing Day and another track from the album.

Presenter/Huey Morgan, Producer/Gary Bales

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe plays archive session tracks from prog-rock pioneers The Nice, Brummie indie soundscapers Felt, German post-techno duo Mouse On Mars and the Egyptian world music fusion veteran Ali Hussan Kuban And The Nubian Band.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Desmond Carrington presents words and music from stars whose records were first heard during the Fifties, using archive from Radio Luxembourg and the BBC Light Programme.

Each programme features stars interviewed by John Hannam, among them Nat Gonella, Edmund Hockridge, Russ Conway, Frankie Vaughan, Lonnie Donegan, Ruby Murray, and Lionel Bart. This week, he remembers Irish songstress Ruby Murray and American singer and actor Al Martino.

Throughout the series, Desmond's guest is veteran singer and broadcaster Teddy Johnson who, 60 years ago, was the first British presenter of the first-ever radio series of Top 20 record programmes.

Presenter/Desmond Carrington, Producer/David Aylott for Foldback Media Ltd

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in music by Eötvös, Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Alexander Markovich, and Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony.

Peter Eötvös's Shadows receives the UK première of its orchestral version.

With Liszt's thunderous piano concertos the age of the virtuoso was born, a fusion of Beethoven's single-mindedness and Paganini's breathtaking virtuosity. Alexander Markovich is the featured pianist.

Zemlinsky's setting of Hindu poetry by Rabindranath Tagore is an alluring, mysterious masterpiece of late Romanticism in which soprano and baritone drape alternate verses over a kaleidoscopic orchestra. Melanie Diener is the soprano, with baritone Thomas Hampson.

Presenter/Catherine Bott, Producer/Tony Sellors

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

The Long View Ep 1/4

Tuesday 1 February

9.00-9.30am BBC RADIO 4

Jonathan Freedland presents the history series that discovers the past behind the present and explores a moment in history which throws light on a contemporary debate.

Presenter/Jonathan Freedland, Producer/Julia Johnson for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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The Call Ep 1/5

Tuesday 1 February

9.30-9.45am BBC RADIO 4

Dominic Arkwright meets people who have made life-changing phone calls.

In the first episode of this series, he talks to Alice Brooking who was on the phone to her sister Nathalie in London when an Air France Concorde crashed into her Paris hotel.

It was 25 July 2000 and Alice was in the Hotelissimo in Gonesse, near Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. A language student working through her holidays as a tour guide, Alice was waiting for a party of young musicians to arrive from England. Torn between having a nap, having a shower and calling her sister for a chat, she picked up the phone to London. Halfway through the conversation there was a loud bang and the phone went dead. She went to the door of her room, to be met by searing heat and a wall of flame.

Alice recalls: "I ran barefoot across the fields, because I'd left my shoes in my room, then tried calling the attention of the car drivers ... If I'd chosen to take a shower or a nap I'd be dead."

Presenter/Dominic Arkwright, Producer/John Byrne for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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In Memoriam is an adaptation of Tennyson's long sequence of poems of grief and hope written after the death of his close friend Arthur Hallam.

Hallam was born 200 years ago and died in 1833 in Vienna. He and Tennyson had met at university and had become friends; Hallam became engaged to marry Tennyson's sister. His sudden and unexpected death prompted some of the most personal poetry Tennyson ever wrote and some of the most moving and powerful poetry of loss and grief in the language.

Tennyson returned over several years to write more and more poems in an accumulating sequence about his friendship with Hallam, the agony of the news of his death, the journey of his body back to his family home in Clevedon and the life denied Hallam.

Tennyson wanted to know why Hallam had died, what emotional purpose could be served by death and what faith had to say about loss.

The sequence includes several poems that have given phrases to the common language, such as "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

In Memoriam is performed by David Bamber and features music by Jon Nicholls.

Producer/Tim Dee for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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A Poet's Year Ep 1/3

Tuesday 1 to Thursday 3 February

3.30-3.45pm BBC RADIO 4

Poet Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales and winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2010, reads from her journal about life in rural West Wales where she lives on her smallholding.

This three-part series opens with a blizzard of snow, blocked roads and a frozen water pump which tests survival skills.

Wednesday's reading features bees, hay and swallows making a bountiful summer.

In the final programme, the autumn crops – potatoes, beetroot, blackberries and apples – are gathered in, and the honey is harvested. And the pond has a mysterious nocturnal visitor.

The Welsh landscape and the healing power of nature are both driving forces in Gillian Clarke's poetry and prose. These readings are adapted from her prose writings At The Source.

Producer/Kate McAll for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah chooses Marcus Garvey, the inspirational black nationalist leader, as his choice for the final programme in this series of Great Lives.

Presented by Matthew Parris, the programme also features biographer Colin Grant.

Presenter/Matthew Parris, Producer/Beth O'Dea for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Wondermentalist Cabaret Ep 1/4

Tuesday 1 February

11.00-11.30pm BBC RADIO 4

Matt Harvey hosts his own comedy infused, musically enhanced and mildly interactive poetry cabaret, featuring guests such as Elvis McGonagall, and one-man house band Jerri Hart.

Poet, performer, enemy of all that is difficult and upsetting, Matt brings his own particular style of cabaret to the airwaves.

Recorded in front of an audience in Bristol, he's joined by Elvis McGonagall and Jerri Hart, and fellow poets Lucy English and Byron Vincent battle it out with Elvis in a Dead Poets' Slam, while the audience compose their own poem on the subject of Sundays.

Presenter/Matt Harvey, Producer/Mark Smalley for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Tuesday 1 February

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch presents the day's sports news and the build-up to tonight's Premier League action.

At 8pm there's live commentary from one of the top games, which include Manchester United versus Aston Villa, Sunderland against Chelsea, Arsenal versus Everton and Birmingham City hosting Manchester City.

From 10pm The Final Whistle has all the reaction to the night's action.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Mike Carr

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Football

Tuesday 1 February

7.40-9.45pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

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

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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Cricket

Tuesday 1 February

3.00-11.30am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary on the sixth One Day International between Australia and England comes live from Sydney with the Test Match Special team.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Nemone is joined in the studio for a lunchtime chat with Milwaukee's Heidi Spencer And The Rare Birds.

A wayward traveller and burgeoning film-maker as well as a musician, Heidi embarked on a career making short films and travelling around America. Heidi's father, the late Jim Spencer, was a driving force behind Milwaukee's underground scene in the Seventies, a co-founder of countercultural poetry journal FREEK magazine and member of psychedelic folk group Major Arcana, whose original pressings are now extremely sought after by record collectors.

Jim cultivated Heidi's growth as an artist at an early age and she taught herself to sing and play aged 15. She has already drawn comparisons to the likes of Dolly Parton, Joanna Newsom and Edie Brickell. Heidi Spencer releases her debut UK album, Under Streetlight Glow, on the Bella Union label in March.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe plays archive sessions from Seventies English punk band X-Ray Spex alumnus Laura Logic, noisy Noughties band The Archie Bronson Outfit, Stereolab singer Laetitia Sadier and melodic, acoustic-tinged Swedes Dungen.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman

Simon Mayo talks to Oscar-winning Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman.

The star of Eyes Wide Shut, The Hours and Moulin Rouge! talks about her new movie Rabbit Hole, where she plays a grieving mother. Rabbit Hole also marks her debut as a film producer.

Presenter/Simon Mayo, Producer/Andy Warrell

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Singer-songwriter and BBC Radio 2 presenter Mike Harding

Mike Harding presents an hour of the very best in folk, roots and acoustic music including an interview with Scottish singer Emily Smith about her fourth solo album, Traveller's Joy.

Long tipped for great things by Mike, Emily joins him to discuss a record full of music inspired not only by travelling traditions but also her own recent times on the road.

The new album – produced once again by Jamie McClennan – features a familiar blend of traditional arrangements and original songs by Emily, as well as a cover of Waltzing's For Dreamers by Richard Thompson, who invited her to join the line-up of his Meltdown Festival last year.

Emily tells Mike all about the album and updates the listeners on her relatively short but burgeoning career as one of Scotland's leading voices.

Next Monday 6 February, Mike will be co-hosting the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2011 with Barbara Dickson. The ceremony will be broadcast live from The Brewery, London.

Presenter/Mike Harding, Producer/Kellie While for Smooth Operations

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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In tonight's show, Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie have a live session from the Ivor Novello-winning Scottish songstress KT Tunstall, as she prepares to tour the UK.

Presenters/Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, Producer/Lizzie Hoskin for Smooth Operations

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Deacon Blue front man Ricky Ross presents highlights of Celtic Connections 2011 from Glasgow where a stellar line-up of some of the world's finest folk, roots, world, traditional, indie and jazz musicians have been celebrating the festival's 18th birthday over 18 days in January.

The festival concluded on Sunday 30 January and Ricky is back tonight with the second, and final, programme of highlights talking to the artists from this year's event and introducing live music and exclusive performances.

Some of the highlights can also be seen at bbc.co.uk/radio2.

Presenter/Ricky Ross, Producer/Richard Murdoch for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Performance On 3

Wednesday 2 February

7.00-9.15pm BBC RADIO 3

Presented live from the Barbican Hall, chief conductor Jiří Bělohlávek conducts Mahler's Sixth Symphony with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, joined by Lars Vogt in Mozart's Piano Concerto No 16 in D major, K451.

Mahler's vast Sixth Symphony, first performed in 1906, is recognised today for its extraordinary insights into the human condition. The work comes to a climax with the "hammer blows of fate" which seem to pre-figure tragic events in the composer's life. The concert opens with an exquisite but rarely performed piano concerto by Mozart, performed by master pianist Lars Vogt.

Presenter/Catherine Bott, Producer/Tony Sellors

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Wednesday 2 February

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch presents the day's sports news and a look ahead to the night's Premier League games.

From 8pm there's coverage from around the games, including regular updates from Blackburn versus Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham versus Newcastle United and Liverpool against Stoke City.

The Final Whistle at 10pm brings reaction to tonight's Premier League action.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Mike Carr

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Huey Morgan is joined by one of his favourite bands – The Duke Spirit – for a live session in the BBC 6 Music studios. The London five-piece release their much anticipated third album, Bruiser, in the spring, and have recently supported Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on their tour across the UK. Their new EP, Kusama, hits stores early February which coincides with the band's own headline UK tour the very same month.

Lead singer Leila and the band come in to chat to Huey and play their latest single Everybody's Under Your Spell plus another track from the album.

Presenter/Huey Morgan, Producer/Gary Bales

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe plays live archive session tracks from Glaswegian modern folk trio Sparrow And The Workshop, Birmingham reggae legends Steel Pulse, solo punk eccentric Patrick Fitzgerald and London eclectic electronicists, Laika.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity

The Wednesday Documentary –
One Block In Harlem Ep 1/2

Wednesday 2 February

3.00-3.30pm BBC WORLD SERVICE
8.00-8.30pm BBC WORLD SERVICE

Michael Goldfarb traces the story of Harlem from 1910 to the present, from the perspective of a single street in this iconic neighbourhood, in this two-part series.

Around the world, the name Harlem is synonymous with people's knowledge of the black experience in America. But in the past decade the neighbourhood has been going through dramatic changes.

Bill Clinton opened his post-White House office here and as the Manhattan real estate bubble inflated the rich began moving in. Goldfarb explores life in Harlem as it used to be, and as it is today, and asks what price has been paid by long-time residents for the area's gentrification.

Presenter/Michael Goldfarb

BBC World Service Publicity

In session with Bob Harris tonight is Clawhammer banjo player and singer-songwriter Abigail Washburn.

Abigail emerged in the early 2000s with the all-female string band Uncle Earl and released a solo album a few years later. In 2008, on the album Abigail Washburn And The Sparrow Quartet, she joined forces with a group of acclaimed acoustic musicians, including banjoist Béla Fleck, and explored the connections between old-time Americana and traditional Chinese poetry and folk songs.

In tonight's show she plays acoustic songs from her latest solo album, City Of Refuge.

Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Al Booth for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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BBC Radio 2 In Concert

Thursday 3 February

8.00-10.00pm BBC RADIO 2

BBC Radio DJ and presenter Jo Whiley

Jo Whiley presents a headline gig from legendary synth pop group OMD, live from the Mermaid Theatre in London. OMD were one of the pioneers of synth pop in the early Eighties with hits including Souvenir, Enola Gay and If You Leave, which was on the soundtrack to the Eighties teen movie Pretty In Pink.

In support this week there is an acoustic performance from singer and guitarist Jonathan Jeremiah. There's also a round-up of all the live music on BBC Radio 2 in the past week.

Presenter/Jo Whiley, Producer/Radio 2 Live Music for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Frank Renton presents music especially recorded for the programme by The Scottish Co-op Funeral Care Band. With conductor Archie Hutchison they play the famous Entry Of The Gladiators, Cry Me A River, the peaceful Mid All The Traffic and two numbers from West Side Story, Mambo and Somewhere.

Presenter/Frank Renton, Producer/Terry Carter for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Andy Kershaw goes in search of music from jungles in the Solomon Islands

For this major series to accompany BBC One's Human Planet, Andy Kershaw and Lucy Duran go in search of music from some of the world's remotest, as well as some more familiar, locations visiting many of the places featured in the TV series. This week's programme focuses on jungles.

In the Solomon Islands, Andy teams up with musicians in Honiara, who use giant rainforest bamboo trees to give a monster bass sound to their songs.

In the Congo, Lucy presents a profile of the Mbendjele people of northern Congo, a pygmy hunter-gatherer group whose music echoes the sound of the forest that feeds them.

In Burma, Andy visits the Thai town of Mae Sot on the border with Burma where he records musicians from one of the giant refugee camps, meets a Burmese protest singer who has just finished a 10-year jail sentence, and drops in on the local Karen-rebel guerrilla centre disguised as a restaurant.

Presenters/Andy Kershaw and Lucy Duran, Producers/Roger Short and James Parkin

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

To tie-in with BBC Radio 4's new versions of the Raymond Chandler classic thrillers, Harriett Gilbert presents a reappraisal of the life and legacy of the man from Upper Norwood who invented the Private Investigator as we know him.

Philip Marlowe has become, in many people's minds, the archetypal American detective anti-hero, yet his creator was educated at an English public school, took the Civil Service exam and started a career in the Admiralty.

This programme assesses him as an uneasy Englishman abroad and analyses his love-hate relationship with Hollywood, as well as his writing.

Contributors and interviewees to the programme include best-selling writer Sarah Dunant, who was inspired to write crime after reading Chandler as a teenager; Professor John Sutherland; David Thomson; and David Fine, author of a book about mythic LA.

Tomorrow's Afternoon Play, Double Jeopardy, features Patrick Stewart playing Raymond Chandler.

Presenter/Harriet Gilbert, Producer/Rebecca Stratford for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Kate Clanchy's tough and touching play exposes the truth about two women on either side of a cultural divide, both with a razor-sharp wit.

Xhensila has lost a child. Leona has lost a child. As the play uncovers the where, the how and the why of their missing children, listeners discover exactly why parenthood is not a fairytale.

A Nursery Tale is written by Kate Clanchy and stars Eri Shuka as Xhensila, Pooky Quesnel as Leona, Balvinder Sopal as DI Shah, John Ramm as Peter and Vivienne Roshier-Mead as Lisa.

The music accompanying the programme is sung by Sister Mildred Barker.

Producer/Jonquil Panting for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Tom Wrigglesworth's Open Letters Ep 1/4

Thursday 3 February

6.30-7.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Comedian Tom Wrigglesworth uses four open letters to investigate "jobsworths" in modern Britain

Through the medium of four open letters, comedian Tom Wrigglesworth investigates the countless examples of corporate lunacy and maddening "jobsworths" in modern Britain.

In this series his subjects range from traffic wardens to estate agents, with Tom recalling his own funny and ridiculous experiences as well as recounting the absurd encounters of others.

In the first episode, Tom finds himself baffled by the weird world of parking enforcement.

Producer/Simon Mayhew Archer for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Thursday 3 February

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Eleanor Oldroyd presents the day's sport news.

From 8pm Matt Dawson is live in Wales with the Six Nations 2011 Preview taking a look ahead to this season's tournament.

At 10pm there's more coverage on one of the day's top sports stories.

Presenters/Eleanor Oldroyd and Matt Dawson, Producer/Mike Carr

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Shaun Keaveny is joined in the studio by actor, director and comedian Dan Clark.

Star of BBC Three sitcom How Not To Live Your Life, Dan tells Shaun about taking his unique brand of comedy on the road with his first UK stand-up tour since 2007.

Presenter/Shaun Keaveny, Producer/Lisa Kenlock

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe delves into the BBC sound archives to play live tracks from band of the moment The Vaccines, who played a session for Marc Riley last December.

Session archive comes from American lo-fi veteran Lou Barlow, former Pipette-turned-solo-star Rose Elinor Dougall and ska septet Matumbi with a Peel session from 1978.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity

BBC Radio presenter and journalist Claudia Winkleman

With theatre audiences at an all-time high, the musical continues to take centre stage in 2011. Ghost – The Musical and Shrek are just two of many new productions opening on the London stage this year. And The Lion King set the record for the highest takings in West End history for the second year in a row in 2010.

With the curtain about to rise on Andrew Lloyd Webber's new production of The Wizard Of Oz, Claudia accompanies some of the cast and crew along the Yellow Brick Road to discover more about the latest stage adaptation of one of the world's best-loved movies.

Presenter/Claudia Winkleman, Producer/Jessica Rickson for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Performance On 3

Friday 4 February

7.00-9.15pm BBC RADIO 3

Presented live from the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, François-Xavier Roth conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Viktoria Mullova in Beethoven's Violin Concerto and in music by Liszt and Bartók.

An enduring favourite with audiences, Beethoven's Violin Concerto is performed tonight by acclaimed violinist Viktoria Mullova. From a concerto with one soloist to another with nearly 100, Bartók's Concerto For Orchestra spotlights every member of the orchestra – an Everest for orchestras the world over.

Presenter/Catherine Bott, Producer/Tony Sellors

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Distinguished film, television and stage actor Sir Patrick Stewart OBE

Ahead of BBC Radio 4's Classic Chandler collection (beginning tomorrow with hardboiled crime novel The Big Sleep), Patrick Stewart stars as Raymond Chandler and Adrian Scarborough is Billy Wilder in this entertaining glimpse inside the Hollywood film industry.

In 1944, the two men came together to work on a screen adaptation of James M Cain's novel, Double Indemnity. Billy Wilder is a 36-year-old German Jewish émigré, just making his name as a director, and Raymond Chandler is a reformed alcoholic with a developing reputation as a novelist but absolutely no experience of writing for movies. The play follows their famously difficult collaboration.

Double Jeopardy is dramatised by Stephen Wyatt.

Producer/Claire Grove for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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David Eldridge's play follows a marriage as it falters over 25 years of political change.

Gillian and Ray meet at university. She is from a privileged background. His father works in a hardware shop and his mother is a dinner lady. Despite this disparity, they embark on a relationship.

As their lives progress, listeners are given an intimate portrait of the ups and downs of marriage and the political and social changes that help shape their lives.

Like Minded People is written by David Eldridge and stars Ruth Wilson as Gillian and Tom Brooke as Ray.

Producer/Sally Avens for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Friday 4 February

7.00-10.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Colin Murray previews the weekend's sport, plus the build-up to the start of the Six Nations first match tonight between Wales and England, in Kicking Off.

From 7.45pm, there is live Six Nations rugby union commentary of Wales versus England, plus regular Championship updates from Reading versus Queens Park Rangers.

Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Mike Carr

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Football

Friday 4 February

7.40-9.45pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Listeners can enjoy uninterrupted commentary on Reading versus Queens Park Rangers in the Championship.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Nemone's lunchtime playlist is chosen by this week's 6 Mixers – Hercules And Love Affair.

Their self-titled debut was named as Breakthrough Album Of The Year in The New York Times and featured in Pitchfork's Top 10 albums of 2008, with single Blind also gaining critical acclaim.

The new album, Blue Songs, has main man Andy Butler shifting the focus gently away from the New York house and disco forms of the debut – relocating to Denver and recording the album in Vienna with techno-producer Patrick Pulsinger. Kim Ann Foxman returns on vocals and is joined in starring roles by Venezuelan singer Aerea Negrot, fan-turned-collaborator Shaun Wright and Kele Okereke (Bloc Party).

The band hand-pick tracks by artists including Cabaret Voltaire, Brian Eno, OMD, Yazoo and Meat Beat Manifesto.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity