Programme Information

Ken Bruce invites Stephen Bishop to select his Tracks Of My Years

Singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop shares his Tracks Of My Years each morning this week on Ken Bruce's show.

Bishop's compositions have been sung by artists including Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Barbra Streisand, Art Garfunkel, Johnny Mathis, David Crosby, The Four Tops, Aswad and Pavarotti.

Presenter/Ken Bruce, Producer/Gary Bones

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Clare Teal presents a special programme in tribute to legendary big band drummer Louie Bellson, who died on 14 February.

Louie was a veteran of many of the great big bands including those of Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Harry James and Duke Ellington.

In this 1999 performance with the BBC Big Band, recorded at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, he performs many classic arrangements including Skin Deep, The Hawk Talks and Cottonmouth.

Presenter/Clare Teal, Producer/Bob McDowall

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Eddie Palmieri and Lilian Vieira are this week's featured artists as John Armstrong introduces some more heart-warming Latin music.

One of the greatest Latin keyboard players, New Yorker Eddie Palmieri has been at the edge of creative music for more than four decades. His early recordings with West Coast vibes giant Cal Tjader quickly marked Eddie out as an innovative player – a tendency that has sometimes alienated Palmieri from the mainstream heartland of his salsa dance music fan base. John talks to Eddie about his Grammy award-winning Latin jazz album Simpatico (released in 2006 under the "Brian Lynch-Eddie Palmieri Project" banner) and finds the set so exceptional that he breaks his "three-track-only" rule, playing four instead.

In 2002, the phrases "electro-bossa" and "nu-Brasil" were suddenly everywhere: and at the cusp of this new wave was Amsterdam-based Zuco 103. Seven years and several albums on, Zuco's sound has returned to a more traditional samba sound, as singer Lilian Vieira explains to John.

John also plays music from the Buenos Aires barrio's voice-of-the-moment Daniel Melingo and Barcelona's street-rumba kings, Macaco. There's also a salsa reworking of The Lady Is A Tramp from New York's Bad Street Boys, as well as a duet from Brazilian pop star Paula Toller and Argentine-American cohort Kevin Johannsen. The rare-vinyl mambo spot comes courtesy of Belmonte And The Afro-Latin 8, circa 1976.

Presenter/John Armstrong, Producer/Graham Pass

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Actor, author and presenter Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry tells the story of how Hitler's huge financial investment in recording for propaganda purposes would eventually give rise to exactly those personal freedoms he was trying to suppress, in the penultimate episode of Third Reich & Roll.

This is story of how the Third Reich – a dictatorship with an advanced appreciation of media manipulation – developed magnetic tape recording, the very technology that led to the birth of rock 'n' roll.

Tonight's programme features the rock 'n' roll years and looks at how the multi-track recording process changed the face of music production forever. Songwriters could now write in a new and liberating way and, for the very first time, artists could record in styles they had never dreamt of before.

Presenter/Stephen Fry, Producer/Steve Levine

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

The London Philharmonic performs Brahms's First Symphony with Christoph Echenbach, and are joined by Daniel Mueller-Schott for Dvořák's Cello Concerto. The concert is followed by a focus on the London Mozart Players leading up to Friday's broadcast of their 60th-birthday concert.

Brahms agonised over every note he composed and, as a result, he took 21 years to complete his first symphony. He said: "It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table." It's known that Brahms envied Dvořák's ability to produce infectious melodies with apparent ease and said of Dvořák's Cello Concerto: "Why on earth didn't I know that one could write a cello concerto like this? If I had only known, I would have written one long ago."

The London Philharmonic are joined by renowned veteran conductor Christoph Eschenbach and young cellist Daniel Mueller-Schott, whose interpretation of the Dvořák Concerto has received rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Tonight's performance was recorded at London's Royal Festival Hall earlier this month.

Presenter/Catherine Bott, Producer/Brian Jackson

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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The Essay – Work/Life Balance Ep 1/5

Monday 23 to Friday 27 March

11.00-11.15pm BBC RADIO 3

This week The Essay presents a fascinating chronological history of the "work/life balance" from the 18th century to the present, shedding light on the conflicting priorities of modern British life.

We talk now of a "work/life balance", as though "work" is something quite separate from "life", and the meaning of both is self-evident. Professor Hugh Cunningham explores the place that work has played in British lives from proto-industrialism in the 18th century to today's post-industrialism through five vivid chronological snapshots. Throughout the series, Hugh returns to two themes: the impact of contemporary consumerism on our working lives and the difference between the work/leisure balance of the past – when the workforce was mainly male – and the so-called work/life balance of today, with women taking the strain.

Each essay tells the story of a particular period while shedding new light on contemporary assumptions about the often conflicting priorities of paid work, family life, social commitments, consumerism and leisure today. Today's programme focuses on the "leisure preference" of the 18th century to the long hours of work in the Industrial Revolution.

Hugh Cunningham is Emeritus Professor of Social History at the University of Kent. He was the academic consultant and co-writer on BBC Radio 4's The Invention Of Childhood.

Presenter/Professor Hugh Cunningham, Producer/Beaty Rubens

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Book Of The Week – The Tent, The Bucket And Me Ep 1/5

Monday 23 to Friday 27 March

9.45-10.00am BBC RADIO 4

People growing up in the Seventies were on the brink of the modern age. But despite a brave new world of hand-held calculators and digital watches, one thing remained the same – the family holiday. For the Seventies' child, summer holidays didn't mean the joy of exclusive holiday centres or the sophistication of a Tuscan villa. They meant being crammed into a car with grandma and heading to the coast. With just a tent for a home and a bucket for the necessities, families would set off on new adventures each year stoically resolving to enjoy themselves.

For Emma Kennedy and her mum and dad, disaster always came along for the ride no matter where they went. Whether it was being swept away by a force 10 gale on the Welsh coast or suffering copious amounts of food poisoning on a brave trip to the south of France, family holidays always left them battered and bruised. But they never gave up.

Emma's memoir, The Tent, The Bucket And Me, is this week's Book Of The Week offering and is a painfully funny reminder of just what it was like to spend summer holidays in the cold and damp but with sand between your toes.

Reader/Emma Kennedy, Producer/Jill Waters

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Woman's Hour Drama –
This Book Will Save Your Life Ep 1/5

Monday 23 to Friday 27 March

10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 4

This Book Will Save Your Life is a five-part adaptation of AM Homes's popular satirical novel about a middle-aged man falling apart in present-day Los Angeles, and is this week's Woman's Hour Drama. He's then put back together by a series of strange events – a meditation retreat; his discovery of a taste for donuts; a super-hero style rescue of a kidnapped woman; and a reconnection with a lost child.

Richard Novak has it all. He trades stocks and shares as he jogs on his running machine in his million-dollar home in Los Angeles.

Then things begin to go wrong. He is hit by sudden and inexplicable pain but the doctors cannot help him. His cleaning lady and his nutritionist are horrified when he takes to munching donuts and hanging about with Anhil, the Indian donut maker.

His doctor recommends a retreat and he meets another lost soul, Cynthia, who is being driven nuts by her husband and children who expect everything but don't notice her. A hole appears behind his house and landslides begin to threaten the whole city.

And so the story of a man broken and remade gets underway.

Narrated by Darcy Halsey, the cast stars: Tony Pasqualini as Richard; Adriana Sevan as Cecilia; Logan Fahey as Ben; JB Blanc as Nic and Dr Lusardi; Mueen Jahan Ahmad as Anhil; and Lisa Pelikan as Cynthia.

Narrator/Darcy Halsey, Producer/Tim Dee

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Truck driver Edward Coyle is delivering a cargo of fish on a new route in Ireland when he comes across a woman who lives her life and makes her living on the road, moving from one truck to another – The Road Wife.

Driving into town with his delivery, Coyle gives a lift to a female Asian hitchhiker but soon discovers she is more of a passenger than he bargained for, especially when his truck is stopped by immigration officers and he and his illegal occupant are taken in for questioning.

Finding himself implicated in her case, Coyle soon discovers that his own past is returning to haunt him, but he cannot remember what he was trying to forget.

Today's Afternoon Play – The Road Wife, by Eoin McNamee – stars Stuart Graham, Su-Lin Looi, Alison McKenna, Gerard McSorley and Samantha Heaney.

Producer/Heather Larmour

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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SoundScape – The Lion Pride Ep 1/5

Monday 23 March

3.45-4.00pm BBC RADIO 4

SoundScape – The Lion Pride is an intimate portrait of one of the greatest predators on Earth – the story of a male lion from birth to adulthood, and his life among his pride in the Masai Mara in south-west Kenya.

Narrated by Hugh Quarshie, this fictional series based on fact, combines a powerful narrative with location recordings by wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, which takes listeners into the very heart of a lion pride in Africa.

Life for this pride is not easy. Early in the series, they have to face the harsh realities of life when two nomadic lions chase the pride's male out of his territory, before killing his cubs and mating with the females to sire their own young. Among the newborn cubs is Kidogu, and the series continues following his life.

Newborn cubs are helpless and highly vulnerable to attacks from hyenas, pythons, eagles and leopards. Half of all cubs fail to survive their first year and, whilst only a few weeks old, Kidogu witnesses two of his siblings being killed by hyenas, before being separated from his mother during a terrifying ordeal when a herd of buffalo attack the pride. But Zuri, his mother, does not abandon her son and, after finding and being reunited with him, she provides the security and protection Kidogu needs until he is old enough to leave his family and find a territory of his own.

Narrator/Hugh Quarshie, Producer/Sarah Blunt

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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The Unbelievable Truth Ep 1/6

Monday 23 March

6.30-7.00pm BBC RADIO 4

David Mitchell hosts the third series of this acclaimed general knowledge-based comedy panel game, in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they are able to smuggle past their opponents.

Each panellist has to deliver a lecture on a given topic which must be entirely untrue, except for five unlikely facts. The job of their opponents is to challenge if they think they've detected an item of truth.

Panellists for this third series include Graeme Garden, Jack Dee, Sean Lock, Fred MacAulay, Jeremy Hardy, Will Self, Sue Perkins, Arthur Smith, Clive Anderson, Miranda Hart and Tony Hawks.

The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

Presenter/David Mitchell, Producer/Jon Naismith

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Document Ep 1/3

Monday 23 March

8.00-8.30pm BBC RADIO 4

Mike Thomson returns with BBC Radio 4's investigative history series which examines documents that shed new light on past events.

In the first edition, Mike uncovers papers which accuse the BBC of biased reporting as Iran descended into revolution in 1978 and 1979.

The documents show that the BBC's Persian Service found itself attacked on all sides, with the most vociferous critics claiming that the Corporation was not simply reporting events but influencing them in favour of regime change. As Ayatollah Khomeini sat in exile in Paris, the BBC stood charged with galvanising the radical cleric's supporters and acting as his mouthpiece in Tehran.

The Shah's government was notorious for its suppression of all opposition and its ambassador to London even advocated the blowing up of BBC boosting transmitters to stop the broadcasts. But the accusations of bias don't just stem from the government of the Shah in Iran. Confidential memos cabled from Tehran – only just released into the public domain – show that the British Ambassador himself was very concerned that the BBC was adopting an anti-Shah approach to the political upheaval and that he wanted it to be stopped.

Thomson examines the documents and talks to former Foreign Secretary Lord Owen – the then Iranian Ambassador – and senior BBC figures to get to the truth of what took place during those turbulent times. Key academic experts evaluate the allegations of bias and assess the role of the BBC Persian Service during the crucial months that determined Iran's transition to an Islamic Republic.

Presenter/Mike Thomson, Producer/Laurence Grissell

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Arlo White presents all the day's sports news and is joined by special guests for The Monday Night Club to discuss all the latest football issues.

From 9.30pm, BBC Radio 5 Live's tennis correspondent, Jonathan Overend, is joined by fellow commentator David Law, in Miama, for 5 Live Tennis ahead of the ATP Tennis Masters Series event.

Presenter/Arlo White, Producer/Graham McMillan

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Nemone's Video Of The Week is My Girls by Animal Collective – the new single from their eighth studio album, Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe features an archive concert by dance-duo Lemon Jelly from 2002, as well as a gig from 1996 from Lush, in tonight's show.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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There is a rare chance for listeners to hear this acclaimed series, first broadcast in 1985, which tells the story of the British teenager through music, archive and reminiscence. Introduced by the late John Peel, episode five is entitled In A Broken Dream and deals with the era of long hair, skinheads and tartan-trousered teenyboppers.

The second part of episode five is broadcast at the same time tomorrow.

Presenter/John Peel, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Rita discovers Kamla is hurt about Sean getting Mary a Mother's Day gift but nothing for her, in the week's first visit to Silver Street. Rita, however, tries to convince Kamla not to be so sensitive.

Meanwhile, Imran's journey home from the airport is a nightmare. Jungli's mum, Sakina, is back from Pakistan and Imran ends up paying for her extra luggage. Later, Imran drops a private letter when getting out of the cab and Jungli wastes no time in jumping to conclusions...

Rita is played by Bharti Patel, Kamla by Surendra Kochar, Imran by Narinder Samra, Jungli by Adil Ray and Sakina by Indira Joshi.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

Jane Little concludes her investigation into the ageing process, exploring the challenges that growing older pose for individuals and communities in five different countries.

She hears from people who've dared to think the unthinkable in managing the challenges of old age – and those who have insights to share about how to age well.

Highlights include the man who thinks we can live to 1,000 years and still run marathons at 500 (but do we want to?) and the woman who believes people should be able to ask their doctors to kill them if they develop Alzheimer's – and how relatives of Alzheimer patients feel about the idea. There's also the opportunity to share contributors' philosophies of good ageing and glimpse pioneering new lifestyles.

Presenter/Jane Little, Producer/Kristine Pommert

BBC World Service Publicity