Wednesday 30 Dec 2009
Programme Information
Network Radio BBC Week 27: Saturday 4 July 2009
BBC RADIO 2 Saturday 4 July 2009
DISCO SEASON
The Donna Summer Story
BBC Radio 2 kicks off its Disco Season with a new documentary on disco diva Donna Summer.
Recipient of numerous awards, Summer has had many UK single chart entries but is probably best remembered for the classic tracks I Feel Love and Love To Love You Baby, the 17-minute track, co-written and produced by Giorgio Moroder, which is sometimes credited with starting the worldwide disco revolution.
The success of Love To Love You Baby triggered a series of albums that would blend the urgency of disco and funk with symphonic strings and dramatic vocals. Hardcore club DJs played disco epics Spring Affair, Try Me (I Know We Can Make It) and Could It Be Magic, while pop radio indulged in less lengthy but equally compelling songs such as I Love You, MacArthur Park and Hot Stuff.
In the Eighties, Summer collaborated with an illustrious line-up of writers and producers including Quincy Jones, Michael Omartian and Stock, Aitken and Waterman. She had a stream of hits including: State Of Independence; She Works Hard For The Money; This Time I Know It's For Real; Hot Stuff, which spawned the infamous scene in the film The Full Monty; I Don't Want to Get Hurt; and Dinner With Gershwin, from the All Systems Go album.
The programme looks at how Summer's music seems to cross many musical boundaries. Country singers, including Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Reba McEntire have covered Summer's songs. Pop artists such as Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Whitney Houston, Robbie Williams, Britney Spears and Diana Ross have sampled Summer's material; as have electronic dance acts including Moloko; and DJs, re-mixers and producers, including Stuart Price, David Guetta and Moby.
Over the decades, Summer has moved on from disco music to soul and gospel. She continues to make new albums and to tour. The programme features interviews with some of the people who have worked with or been influenced by Summer's music, including Pete Waterman and Moby.
The Disco Season continues on Monday with Dave Pearce's Disco Anthems, when Dave presents a six-part guide to the last 30 years of disco culture.
Producer/Neil Rosser
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Steve Craddock, best known for his work with his band Ocean Colour Scene and Paul Weller, joins Bob Harris in tonight's show.
Steve plays the After Midnight Acoustic Session and discusses his latest solo project, The Kundalini Target, alongside his favourite tracks from other influential artists and touring plans.
Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Mark Simpson
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
BBC RADIO 3 Saturday 4 July 2009
Lucie Skeaping takes a look at what music was performed in 18th-century colonial America, as the Early Music Show marks Independence Day.
From the appearance of the Bay Psalter by the 17th-century Pilgrim Fathers – the first book to be published in America – through to the popular melodies of the War of Independence, it is sometimes thought that early American music is little more than Puritan hymns and marches for fife and drum. However, Lucie finds the music of early America to be rich and varied – a wonderful composite spawned by the many disenfranchised immigrants that arrived on America's shores.
In this special fourth of July edition of the programme, Lucie looks back on the music of characters such as William Billings, one of the country's first important home-grown composers; the important role that the Moravian people had in shaping the nation's music; and the significant musical role that some of the Founding Fathers themselves played – in particular Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Francis Hopkinson. She also looks back on the origin of tunes such as Yankee Doodle and Stars And Stripes Forever.
Presenter/Lucie Skeaping, Producer/Chris Wines
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Rita Ray introduces one of East Africa's biggest stars, Samba Mapangala, with Orchestra Virunga, in concert at the 2009 Sauti za Busara Festival in Zanzibar.
Samba Mapangala brings the infectious sounds of soukous and rumba from Congo-Zaire and blends with traditions from Uganda and Kenya, in this afternoon's edition of World Routes.
Presenter/Rita Ray, Producer/Roger Short
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Continuing BBC Radio 3's partnership with the Royal Opera House, tonight's Opera On 3 features a broadcast of Alban Berg's Lulu, recorded at Covent Garden and conducted by Antonio Pappano.
Agneta Eichenholz plays the title role in Berg's tragic story of the woman who destroys all who come within her orbit. Lulu's journey takes her from society darling of the glittering salons of Vienna and Paris to the pitiful squalor of prostitution in East End London.
The sumptuous score, symphonic in its scope and ambition, is just one element that has ensured Lulu's place as one of the undoubted masterpieces of 20th-century opera.
Director Christof Loy throws light on the dark psychological corners of this disturbing tale. Antonio Pappano conducts an international cast, including Jennifer Larmore as Countess Geschwitz, Michael Volle as Dr Schön/Jack the Ripper and Gwynne Howell as Schigolch.
Presenters/Suzy Klein and Philip Hensher, Producer/David Papp
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
At the back of the Bible hides one of the most influential but misunderstood books of all time: the Apocalypse of St John, also known as the Book of Revelations. Its 22 chapters are packed full of pictures and patterns that have inspired artists and composers – not to mention scientists, kings and politicians – and the book ends with a curse on anyone tampering with its text.
Between The Ears presents an hour-long radiophonic version of the text – from mysterious beginning to epic end – in a communal reading from a number of translations. Decorating and illuminating the sacred text – as it unfolds – is an array of music including iconic fragments from Handel's Messiah and Messiaen's Quartet For The End Of Time.
A Wireless Revelation is the sequel to BBC Radio 3's broadcast A Passion 4 Radio – in which all four gospel accounts of the Passion were read.
John Ashenfelter reads from the English Standard Version alongside vox-pop readings and the voices of regular broadcasters the Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, Richard Coles, Kathryn Knight and Alan Walker.
Producer/Antony Pitts
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
BBC RADIO 4 Saturday 4 July 2009
Gurinder Chadha OBE is one of Britain's most successful movie directors, having made the transition from television director to Asian niche film-maker and blockbuster director. Her credits include Bend It Like Beckham and Bride And Prejudice.
Gurinder was born in Kenya but grew up in Southall in West London – where her mum still lives and which is the setting for her latest film, It's A Wonderful Afterlife.
This programme is a soundtrack of Gurinder's early life – exploring the dual identity she quickly established, her home life and her relationship with her father, a proud Sikh who struggled against the odds to make a living in London. The programme celebrates the collision of cultures that Gurinder has always enjoyed, sometimes found hilarious and from which she has fashioned a series of warm-hearted films, including her first feature, Bhaji On The Beach, in 1993.
Producer/Susan Marling
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Based on Bruce Chatwin's final novel, Utz is dramatised by Gregory Norminton and tells the story of eccentric Kaspar Joachim Utz – who lives in Prague and is obsessed with his collection of Meissen figurines.
In the Sixties, a British academic is introduced to Utz. From this encounter, an extraordinary story of obsession and survival emerges. Utz has protected his vast collection of Meissen figurines from Nazis, Stalinist ideologues and the demands of Communist museum curators.
After the Soviet invasion of 1968, all contact between the men ceases and Utz dies. The British historian returns to Prague to try and discover exactly what happened to Utz's collection.
The Englishman interviews several figures from Utz's life as he tries to piece together the puzzle of the man and his vanished achievement.
Producer/Judith Kampfner
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
In 1946, the tragedy of the Holocaust had no name, no proper vocabulary and no literature – just survivors. Some of their stories were captured in a unique set of recordings only now being archived.
Alan Dein hears the remarkable story of Dr David Boder, the first person to gather these testimonies from those still trying to make sense of their immediate and terrible experiences, in this Archive Hour offering.
During the last days of the Second World War, General Eisenhower invited journalists to see for themselves the horrific discovery of the death camps.
Dr Boder took up his offer and, after a year of negotiating the paperwork and convincing the occupying powers of the worth of his journey, Boder – a psychologist of Jewish Latvian extraction – travelled across a shattered Europe to gather first-hand testimony from survivors.
With him was a state-of-the-art, if unwieldy, wire recorder. Sitting with his back to his interviewees, he began by telling them that no one in America understood what had taken place. He would then ask their name, age and where they were when the war started. He might also have asked for a song or verse that had given them succour during their ordeals. Beyond that, he would have let them tell their story without a formal questionnaire.
Boder returned to Chicago with his terrifying and shattering collection of recordings and tried to make sense of it all. For the next 10 years, he transcribed 70 interviews, began a card index and wrote I Did Not Interview The Dead in 1949, featuring eight interviews. Following his retirement in 1952, his work was ignored and then lost at a time when the Holocaust did not loom large in the public consciousness.
Over the last decade, with the rediscovery of the original recordings, Boder's achievements are now being reassessed and made available to the public and to historians. And, some 50 years on, close to a dozen former interviewees have recalled the day that this man walked into their camp and pointed a microphone at them.
Producer/Mark Burman
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Saturday 4 July 2009
Yes It's The Ashes Ep 1/6
Comedian Andy Zaltzman presents the first of a new, live, topical comedy show, looking at this summer's much-anticipated Ashes series between old foes England and Australia.
Andy is joined by special guests to poke fun at past and present Ashes series.
Presenter/Andy Zaltzman, Producer/Chris Skinner
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
WIMBLEDON 2009
Wimbledon
Clare Balding and Mark Pougatch broadcast live from the All England Lawn Tennis Club for the women's singles final.
Former women's Wimbledon Champion Jana Novotna is part of the commentary team for the women's final, which begins at 2pm.
There is also commentary on the third Test Match between South Africa and the British And Irish Lions, live from Johannesburg, plus updates from the racing at Sandown and the opening day of the Tour de France.
Presenters/Mark Pougatch and Clare Balding, Producer/Steve Rudge
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
BBC 6 MUSIC Saturday 4 July 2009
DJ and producer Erol Alkan presents the first edition of his 6 Mix residency. The founder of London's legendary Trash night at The End nightclub, Erol was a key player in the electro-clash movement in the early part of this century.
More recently, he has produced albums by the Mystery Jets and Late Of The Pier, whilst his remix of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Zero has been hailed as one of the biggest indie-dance crossovers of 2009.
In his first 6 Mix, Erol plays an eclectic selection of electronically influenced music, from future disco to psychedelia, alongside hot new re-workings direct from his studio in North London. Erol is also in the mix for 30 minutes, showcasing the tunes he's playing in clubs and at festivals all over the world.
Presenter/Erol Alkan, Producer/Rowan Collinson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
BBC WORLD SERVICE Saturday 4 July 2009
Lionel Shriver talks to Harriett Gilbert and listeners about her award-winning novel, We Need To Talk About Kevin, in this edition of World Book Club.
The novel tells the profoundly disturbing story of Kevin, a boy who, shortly before his 16th birthday, kills seven classmates, a teacher and a school cafeteria worker.
Grippingly, but unreliably, narrated through the letters of his mother, Eva, We Need To Talk About Kevin raises questions about the nature of evil and the limitations of maternal love.
Presenter/Harriett Gilbert, Producer/Karen Holden
BBC World Service Publicity
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