Monday 27 December
Start The Week
9.00-9.45am
In a special edition of Start The Week, Andrew Marr
looks forward to the year 2005.
He is joined by a panel of guests to discuss their fantasy year.
What do they think will be the big events of the next 12 months and how
would they like them to turn out?
There's plenty of room for poetic licence as a willing audience puts
the panel through its paces.
What will happen in Iraq? Will there be an election? Who would they
like to see making a comeback and who would they be happy to never see
again?
Presenter/Andrew Marr, Producer/Alice Feinstein
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Book Of The Week - Just William: Doin' Good
1/5 9.45-10.00am New Series
Martin Jarvis reads five stories from Richmal Crompton's
famous William tales:
(Monday) William and the Chinese God is a wonderfully constructed
farce in which our scruffy hero is at his most resourceful as he desperately
attempts to return a stolen Chinese figure to his ferocious Headmaster's
antique collection.
(Tuesday) William and the League of Perfect Love is a wickedly
accurate satire on alternative 'new age' societies and their mission to
'bring back the morning to the world.'
Pampered poms and hypocritical control freaks are just two of Crompton's
targets.
William, assisted by his faithful mongrel Jumble, explodes the ridiculousness
of the absurd Mrs Pennyman, who seems to have taken over the minds of
the more gullible residents of the village.
(Wednesday) William and the Psychiatrist. William, with the
trusty Ginger at his side, becomes a psychiatrist himself and attempts
to cure two 'patients' of their depression.
His methods are unorthodox to say the least, but his unerring logic produces
a surprising cure!
(Thursday) Fireworks Strictly Prohibited. William and his friends
The Outlaws have no money for fireworks this year.
But this doesn't stop them from finding an ingenious way of celebrating
5Nov. And if this includes adopting disguises and pitting their wits against
crusty old Colonel Masters, then so much the better.
(Friday) William and the Waits. This is a truly seasonal celebration
of Christmas. The Outlaws go carol singing and William devises an ingenious
plot to ensure they don't, after all, have to accept the usual boring
presents from their relations.
"Five shillin's each" is a much more acceptable gift and William's unorthodox
singing superbly achieves the desired results.
Reader/Martin Jarvis, Producer/Jarvis and Ayres
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
JM Barrie - Man And Boy
1/1 11.00-11.30am
This is an exploration of the childhood of JM Barrie, the man who never
grew up, and his masterpiece Peter Pan, about a boy who never grows up.
It is common knowledge that Barrie was inspired to write Peter Pan after
meeting the Llewelyn Davies boys in Kensington Gardens at the turn of
the last century, but the seed of the work was much earlier.
He was born in 1860 in the small Scottish town of Kirriemuir, the ninth
of ten children whose father worked as a weaver.
But it was his mother, Margaret Ogilvy, who was the dominant person in
his life.
She herself had become a 'child mother' at the age of eight when her
own mother died and she became responsible for her siblings.
She is the model for Wendy in Peter Pan, the mother of the Lost Boys,
and the Wendy House of the play grew out of their backyard washhouse where
Barrie and his friend James Robb put on his first plays aged seven.
His mother Margaret encouraged his storytelling and they voraciously
read Robinson Crusoe and other adventures together.
But the most significant event of his childhood was the death of his
older brother David in a skating accident - an event from which his mother
never recovered.
Producer/Merilyn Harris
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Afternoon Play - Boxing Clever
1/1 2.15-3.00pm
Thelma Barlow stars in this comedy to chase away the
post-Christmas blues.
Never have the Boxing Day sales seemed such a minefield. Moral dilemmas
abound at the front of the queue outside Marshall's department store in
Leeds - and all over a bed.
Pensioner Amy (Thelma Barlow) may have got there first, but as opening
time approaches, she's going to have to use all her cunning to compensate
for her lack of speed.
They've all come for the star buy: a one-off, super king size mahogany
bed and they're all prepared to queue overnight in the freezing cold to
get their hands on it.
Amy's after it so she can spend her last days in a bit of luxury.
Paul and Veronica want it to give their new wharf-side apartment a bit
of a French rustic feel.
Gavin wants it so he can sell it on e-Bay and use the proceeds to pay
for his son's nose job.
And Finn wants to set it on fire to draw attention to the plight of the
orang-utan.
The battle lines are drawn and during the night there is much jockeying
for position as the rivals seek to get themselves best placed to get hold
of that bed.
And they're going to have to remain alert against the subtle, and sometimes
not so subtle, psychological tactics being employed by the wily Amy, a
woman with a closely guarded secret.
Boxing Clever is written by Mike Yeaman.
Producer/Toby Swift
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Peter Pan and Wendy (repeat)
1/5 3.30-3.45pm
Alan Bennett's readings of children's stories have become
classics in their own right.
Now his distinctive voice brings alive JM Barrie's classic story about
the little boy who wouldn't grow up.
Into the night nursery of the Darling children - Wendy, John and Michael
- flies Peter Pan, a motherless half-magical boy.
He teaches the children how to fly and whisks them through the skies
to Never Never Land, a fantastical place peopled with mermaids, wolves,
pirates and the dastardly Captain Hook.
There, with the fairy Tinker Bell and the Lost Boys, the children experience
a series of hair-raising adventures before flying home to their nursery
and a reunion with their family.
Alan Bennett reads Pam Wardell's abridgement in five parts throughout
the week.
Reader/Alan Bennett, Producer/Pam Wardell
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Roy Hudd Stories
1/5 6.15-6.30pm
Veteran comedian and actor Roy Hudd dips into his vast
collection of showbiz tales - gleaned from pubs, clubs and dressing rooms
all over the country and from the Lodge Room of the Grand Order of Water
Rats (the charitable fraternity of comedians, singers and variety entertainers)
- throwing in a song or two for good measure.
From musicians to jugglers, band-leaders to ventriloquists and even stand-up
comedians, Roy has a vast repertoire of tales to tell.
Some are bizarre, some are poignant and some are downright crazy - but
all will delight those who admire the wit and verve of the light entertainment
side of show business.
Roy's cast-list includes such names as Ted Ray, Arthur
Askey, Tommy Trinder, Bud Flanagan,
Arthur English, Jimmy James, Stanley
Unwin, Rob Wilton, and of course Roy's great
hero, Max Miller.
Producer/David Blount
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Best of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
6.30-7.00pm
Humphrey Lyttelton reminds himself and the listeners
of some of the many programme highlights during 2004, featuring programme
regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden
and Tim Brooke-Taylor, plus special guests Jeremy
Hardy, Jack Dee, Linda Smith,
Andy Hamilton and Tony Hawks.
Presenter/Humphrey Lyttelton, Producer/Jon Naismith
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
If The Slipper Fits
1/1 8.30-9.00pm
This is an intriguing programme featuring global variations of the world's
best loved fairy tale, Cinderella.
There are around 64 versions of Cinderella being told around the world.
In Norway it's known as Katie Woodencloak, Chinye in West Africa, Rashin
Coatie in Scotland and in Ireland, Fair, Brown and Trembling.
An example of the striking contrast between the various Cinderella versions
is the character of the fairy godmother.
In Norway she's a black bull, in Scotland a calf, in Kashmir a goat
and in Vietnam, a blue-robed goddess of mercy.
In the Cameroonian version she's a blue fish in the middle of a lake.
In Chinye - the Nigerian version of Cinderella - the fairy godmother
is a wizened elder and the pumpkin is a treasure-filled gourd.
Producer/Kim Normanton, Nigel Acheson
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Printable version