Programme Information

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

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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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

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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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