Programme Information

Lenny Henry chooses A Matter Of Life And Death as his favourite film, as the series in which well-known figures select The Movie That Changed My Life continues. Lenny also reviews the film with the assistance of expert contributors.

This 1946 Powell and Pressburger film was intended to soothe post-war animosity between Britain and America. It stars David Niven as Peter Carter, a fighter pilot who escapes his burning plane as it crashes in the Channel.

He finds and falls in love with an American wireless operator (played by Kim Hunter) – the last voice he heard before he bailed out. But Carter is troubled by hallucinations ... the powers in Heaven have slipped up and want him there; he must flight for the right to live.

Contributors to the programme include Ian Christie, Powell's widow Thelma Schoonmaker and director Martin Scorsese.

Please note: this programme was originally billed in BBC Week 28 Radio Programme Information on Friday 17 July.

Producers/Kate Bland and Susan Marling

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

BBC New Generation Artist jazz artist Tom Arthurs is both composer and performer in today's world première of a special BBC Radio 3 commission for the City of London Festival.

Postcards From Pushkin is a series of pieces composed by trumpeter Arthurs to perform with his duo-partner, pianist Richard Fairhurst. The work is centred on small, inspirational and rich quotations from the poetry of Aleksandr Pushkin.

Presenter/Louise Fryer, Producer/Emily Kershaw

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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BBC PROMS 2009
Prom 10 – Orchestre National de Lyon

Friday 24 July

7.30-10.30pm BBC RADIO 3

• www.bbc.co.uk/proms
• Press pack

A concert tracing the musical cross-fertilisation between East and West and France and Spain, featuring the Orchestre National de Lyon, conducted by Jun Märkl, is tonight's BBC Prom offering, live from London's Royal Albert Hall.

Takemitsu's Ceremonial showcases the Japanese shō, a bamboo-piped mouth organ, while the main influence on Takemitsu's Green was "a wish to enter into the secrets of Debussy's music". Debussy himself was influenced by Eastern music and culture – evident in the use of oriental scales in his Pagodes – and he had a Japanese woodblock print of a wave above his desk while composing La mer, which can also be heard tonight. The shō reappears in Hosokawa's Cloud And Light which, despite its Debussyan title, was inspired by an image of the Buddha, and receives its UK première tonight.

Akiko Suwanai, who is the violinist in Ravel's Tzigane and Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy, was the youngest winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Tonight's Prom is repeated on Tuesday 28 July at 2.15pm.

Presenter/Tom Service, Producer/Brian Jackson

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Womad Live 2009

Friday 24 July

11.15pm-1.00am BBC RADIO 3

Andrew McGregor, Charlie Gillett, Lopa Kothari and Lucy Duran bring listeners a weekend of broadcasts from the globe's leading festival of world music, live from the Womad festival site in Charlton Park in Wiltshire.

Tonight, there are performances from the Buena Vista Social Club's Eliades Ochoa and Saharawi singing star Mariam Hassan from the Sahara Desert, from the Open Air Stage; the Portico Quartet from the Siam Tent; plus the Dennis Bovell Dub Band and Bhangra pioneer Channi Singh on BBC Radio 3's own stage in the shady arboretum.

Listeners can also hear interviews and truck sessions, kicking off more than eight hours of live broadcasting from Womad.

Presenter/Mary Ann Kennedy, Producer/Roger Short

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Hardeep Singh Kohli follows in the footsteps of the famous tightrope walker Blondin, to mark his first crossing of Niagara Falls 150 years ago.

Blondin, who was born in France, was always keen on turning his talents into commercial success – after his first crossing on 30 June 1859, he crossed Niagara Falls a further 16 times. He transferred his talents to this country at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and continued his feats all over the world until his final walk in Belfast in 1896 at the age of 73 – half-blind and no longer the slender athlete of his youth. By then, he had settled into the English way of life and lived in Niagara House, Ealing.

In this programme, Hardeep trains among the students at one of the country's leading circus academies before setting off for Zippos Circus to meet Los Marinhos – Ernesto and his son, Chico. Hardeep ascends to the platform 27 metres high, but finds his safety harness gets in the way of any further endeavours.

Other contributors to the programme include: Hermine Demoriane, singer and former tightrope-walker, who has devoted much of her time to making sure the feats of Blondin are remembered; Philippe Petit, who recalls his journey across the Twin Towers; and Britain's most experienced slackline walker, Jon Ritson, who talks about his attempt to cross the Cheddar Gorge.

Presenter/Hardeep Singh Kohli, Producer/Richard Bannerman

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Friday 24 July

7.00-10.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Tonight's edition of 5 Live Sport, presented by Vassos Alexander, features London Grand Prix Athletics from Crystal Palace at 7pm, with commentary from Mike Costello and Darren Campbell.

The Weekend Preview Show looks ahead to the weekend's sporting action, athletics from Crystal Palace; swimming from the world championships in Rome; and the Tour de France.

David Croft, Anthony Davidson and Holly Samos also look ahead to this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, in 5 Live Formula 1.

Presenter/Vassos Alexander, Producer/Louise Sutton

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Formula 1

Friday 24 July

8.55-10.35am BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA
12.55-2.45pm BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary on the first and second practice sessions for the Hungarian Grand Prix comes, live, from Budapest.

Producer/Jennifer McAllister

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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Rugby League

Friday 24 July

7.55-9.45pm BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Listeners can hear live, uninterrupted commentary on Wigan versus Leeds in the Super League.

Producer/Jennifer McAllister

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Lauren Laverne sits in for Cerys Matthews this week and is joined by puppeteer Sammy J.

Following a total sell-out and critically acclaimed run at last year's Fringe Festival and London's West End, this much loved cult-adult-comedy-musical-puppetry hit returns to Edinburgh this year.

Sammy J and Heath McIvor chat to Lauren about their show, which takes audiences on an adventure into a magical forest where creatures live in harmony, picking berries for their King, and which features stunning visual effects and a cast of 14 puppets.

Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Ex-Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson

Bruce Dickinson is joined on his Rock Show tonight by Dani Filth of Cradle Of Filth; Bill Steer of Carcass; and Joey Tempest from Sweden's biggest-selling rock band, Europe, who select some of their favourite tracks and discuss their inspirations over the years. They also look ahead to their upcoming performances at the Bloodstock Open Air Festival this August.

Presenter/Bruce Dickinson, Producer/Ian Callaghan

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Roopa and Jonni make their peace at the Bollywood wrap party, in the final visit of the week to Silver Street. Roopa later advises Danyal to go easy on Jonni – it can't be easy being forced to lead a double life and Danyal knows this more than most.

Kuljit and Sway, meanwhile, discuss their Bhangra band tour next week but Sway is worried about something Nadia said to him.

Elsewhere, Danyal and Jonni have a chat about what happened between them but will they resolve their differences?

Roopa is played by Rakhee Thakrar, Jonni by Divian Ladwa, Danyal by Jag Sanghera, Kuljit by Sartaj Garewal and Sway by Mark Monero.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

BBC World Service continues it series from six documentary makers from around the world who have produced a programme on the central theme of "islands". Each documentary provides a very different local perspective on this topic.

Tonight's documentary, Across The Water, sees Nick Rankin travel to Fair Isle, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the British Isles, to see how newcomers find their place in a small and tight-knit community – on a rocky island where the Atlantic Ocean meets the North Sea.

At times in the last century, Fair Isle's population became so low that there was talk of evacuation – which happened on the island of St Kilda. But Fair Isle is an outward-looking island which has always traded things like its famous patterned knitwear, and its community has survived because of its capacity to absorb newcomers and make them its own.

In September 2005, the Fair Isle community of around 65 people advertised for a family to join them and, after interest from all over the world, Tommy Hyndman, a hat-maker from Saratoga Springs, New York; his wife, Lis Musser; and their young son, Henry, were the successful applicants. Nick talks to them and other incomers of different generations to Fair Isle about creating a life there, as well as to the "indigenous" islanders they have joined.

Producer/Kate Howells

BBC World Service Publicity