Programme Information

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