Programme Information

Presenter Paul Gambaccini

With the clocks due to go forward on Sunday, Friday Night Is Music Night has a spring in its step as it takes listeners on a whirlwind tour of the four seasons.

This performance, presented by Paul Gambaccini, features the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Martin Yates, and special guests, live from London's Mermaid Theatre.

Presenter/Paul Gambaccini, Producer/Jodie Keane

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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As part of the Brass In Concert Championships, The Stavangar Band gave a gala concert entitled When Edward Met Edward At An Exhibition.

Conducted by Allan Withington, highlights of the concert can be heard in this week's edition of Listen To The Band, including the music of Elgar and Grieg with such favourites as Nimrod and Morning.

Presenter/Frank Renton, Producer/Terry Carter

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

The London Mozart Players celebrate their 60th birthday with a gala extravaganza at their home, Croydon's Fairfield Hall. Joining the orchestra are soloists who've had long associations with the ensemble: soprano Dame Felicity Lott, violinist Isabelle van Keulen and pianist/conductor Howard Shelley.

Founded in 1949 by violinist and conductor Harry Blech to perform in a concert of Mozart at the Wigmore Hall, the LMP became a permanent orchestra after the success of that concert persuaded Blech there was an audience for the music of the Viennese classical composers. Since then, concert-goers have reacted enthusiastically to their top-quality performances not only of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert, but also to their lesser-known contemporaries, through to the music of today. Some of these strands are evident in this concert – Mozart is obviously on the bill, but also later romantic composers Mendelssohn and Rossini and, more surprisingly, a Shostakovich symphony.

Presenter/Catherine Bott, Producer/Brian Jackson

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Booker Prize winner Graham Swift is best known for novels including Last Orders and Waterland, but on The Verb this week, he reveals a little-discussed aspect of his writing – his poetry.

Tonight's programme also gives listeners a chance to hear a rare interview with dissident Lithuanian poet and translator Tomas Venclova. Stripped of Soviet citizenship for his political views in 1977, he was forced into exile. His latest collection, The Junction, reflects on the aftermath of totalitarianism in his native Lithuania.

Presenter/Ian McMillan, Producer/Laura Thomas

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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In the final episode in this week's series looking at the chronological history of the so-called "work/life balance", shedding light on the conflicting priorities of British life today, Professor Hugh Cunningham looks at the ongoing battle by women past and present.

Presenter/Professor Hugh Cunningham, Producer/Beaty Rubens

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

In a unique and challenging project, eight contemporary singer-songwriters are holed up for a week in a remote 16th-century farmhouse to write new songs about the life and work of Charles Darwin.

The selected musicians have 15 BBC Folk Awards between them. They are Chris Wood; Scottish Borders singer Karine Powart; veteran performer Jez Lowe; Emily Smith; international touring American artists Krista Detor and Mark Erelii; Stu Hanson of the folk duo Megson; and Rachael McShane of folk/rock band Bellowhead.

The programme features their daily creative life in the farmhouse, their expeditions into the hinterland that young Darwin knew and the première performance of their songs at Shrewsbury's new Theatre Severn – close to Darwin's birthplace.

Producer/Chris Eldon Lee

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Stream, River, Sea is a new play by Peter Souter. It is a romantic comedy about the effect a sudden death has on two dysfunctional adults and a precocious 13 year old.

Hugh and Bella are running to the same timetable, the timetable you're on if someone you love has just died. They meet briefly by the snack machine where a distraught Bella is trying to buy some chocolate for Daisy, her 13-year-old daughter. The chocolate bar gets stuck and Hugh helps free it.

It is a chance encounter in which both parties, numb with grief, do not even exchange names. They keep running into each other – they visit the same undertakers at the same time and even end up in the same bereavement-counselling group. Yet they are very different people. Hugh's heart is like a toy that has never been taken out of the box; Bella's is like a beautiful crystal glass that's been dropped from a 30-storey building.

They become friends. In different circumstances they might have become more, not that the innocence of the friendship stops Daisy loathing Hugh on sight. In her simple terms the fact that this Hugh guy gets to breathe in and out is an outrageous injustice, particularly as he is breathing in and out near her mum, and giving every impression of enjoying it...

Alex Jennings plays Hugh, Juliet Stevenson plays Bella and Lizzy Watts plays Daisy.

Producer/Gordon House

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Mark Pougatch presents the day's sports news plus a look ahead to the weekend's big sporting events. Mark is joined by guests to preview Saturday's international football friendly between England and Slovakia at Wembley, as well as the 2010 World Cup qualifiers: Netherlands versus Scotland, Wales versus Finland, Northern Ireland versus Poland and the Republic Of Ireland versus Bulgaria.

From 9.15pm there is a preview of the rest of the weekend's action, including rugby union's EDF Energy Cup semi-finals, the ATP Tennis Masters Series event in Miami and the opening race of the Formula One season, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Louise Sutton

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Formula One

Friday 27 March

5.30-7.00am BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary of the second practice session for the Australian Grand Prix, the opening race of the 2009 Formula One season, comes live from Albert Park, Melbourne, with commentary from Maurice Hamilton, Ian Phillips and pit-lane reporter Holly Samos.

Producer/Jason Swales

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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Cricket

Friday 27 March

1.15-9.30pm BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary of the third One Day International between the West Indies and England comes live from the Kensington Oval, Barbados, with commentary from Simon Mann, Simon Hughes, Tony Cozier, Sir Vivian Richards and Colin Croft.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Tom Robinson's show includes a live session from Billy Childish's Medway Blues outfit, The Chatham Singers.

Presenter/Tom Robinson, Producer/Henry Lopez-Real

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Northern Irish punk-rockers Therapy? join Bruce Dickinson to discuss their new studio album, Crooked Timber.

The band, consisting of Andy, Michael and Neil, formed 20 years ago and their music is characterised by an anthemic, accessible and alternative style of rock.

The trio join Bruce to discuss the album and its title's philosophic references.

Presenter/Bruce Dickinson, Producer/Ian Callaghan

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Pradeep treats Rita to a day at the spa for her birthday, as the drama continues. Rozena goes with her and, while they are pampering themselves, Rita discovers how different their views on motherhood are.

Elsewhere, Mushtaq is shocked when he sees the business phone bill. Imran is making endless calls to Spain. Mushtaq confronts Imran and asks him about his "secret" business trip at the same time. Imran offers some hasty explanations but will Mushtaq believe him?

Pradeep is played by Ashvin-Kumar Joshi, Rita by Bharti Patel, Rozena by Pooja Ghai, Mushtaq by Paul Bhattacharjee and Imran by Narinder Samra.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

BBC news correspondent Jonathan Charles finds out about the poetry being written as a result of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In this programme, which features mostly unpublished work, Jonathan seeks to discover how the thoughts, emotions and ideas of soldiers, relatives and others connected with Iraq and Afghanistan are being translated into powerful poetry.

Jonathan spends a great deal of time in Baghdad and other conflict zones. He always travels with an anthology of war poems, both as a comfort and talisman. He has become aware of a growing number of people writing war poetry – from British troops and their families to established poets. There is a flourishing section of contemporary war poetry developing on sites such as warpoetry.co.uk (which has a political slant) and the Army runs an annual poetry competition.

Here, Jonathan talks to soldiers and relatives of soldiers who have died about how poetry has helped them.

Presenter/Jonathan Charles, Producer/Laura Parfitt

BBC World Service Publicity