Programme Information

Mark Radcliffe presents, live from the 2009 Cambridge Folk Festival, with music from the opening night including Adrian Edmondson And The Bad Shepherds, Pete Molinari and Mumford And Sons, plus festival guests.

This year's festival line up includes Lucinda Williams, The Saw Doctors, Los Lobos, Booker T, The Waterson Family, Eddi Reader, Martin Simpson, Bellowhead, Lau, Cara Dillon and Jim Moray.

The coverage continues with highlights from Mark in Claudia Winkleman's Arts show tomorrow.

Presenter/Mark Radcliffe, Producer/Viv Atkinson

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Irish comic Jason Byrne returns to BBC Radio 2 with the new, six-part, second series of his fast-paced, lively stand-up comedy sketch show.

This second episode, about food, considers how Rice Krispies and caramel illustrate the different relationship that men and women have with food. It also asks: what's the universal signal that means you want to leave a dinner party? And why do other people's food noises leave Jason two steps away from a prison sentence?

The show also stars actors Laurence Howarth and Anna Bengo.

Presenter/Jason Byrne, Producer/Julia McKenzie

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Barbara Orbison is Suzi Quatro's special guest in this week's show.

Barbara talks to Suzi about her late husband, the great Roy Orbison, and chooses the tracks which mean so much to her.

Presenter/Suzi Quatro, Producer/Mark Simpson

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

BBC PROMS 2009
Prom 19 – Hallé

Thursday 30 July

7.30-9.50pm BBC RADIO 3

• www.bbc.co.uk/proms
• Press pack

Although Beethoven made the idea of a symphony with a choral finale famous, Mendelssohn trumped him with his Hymn Of Praise in 1840 – its choral finale so overwhelms the three preceding orchestral movements that Mendelssohn called the result a "Symphony-Cantata". Wildly popular with the Victorians, it's not often heard today. The Hallé and its music director Mark Elder revive Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, "Lobgesang" to celebrate Mendelssohn's 200th birthday.

Before the Mendelssohn performance, two radical masterpieces by another great Beethoven fan, Hector Berlioz. His Benvenuto Cellini – Overture and La mort de Cléopâtre are heard tonight.

Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham performs with the Hallé conducted by Mark Elder.

This BBC Prom will be repeated on Wednesday 5 August at 2pm, it is also on BBC Four.

Presenter/Martin Handley, Producer/Brian Jackson

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Fiona Talkington introduces plainchant from the time of the 12th-century French abbot Bernard de Clairvaux; and more highlights from the Womad Festival, including performances from the French singer-songwriter Hindi Zahra and the Mercury-nominated ensemble the Portico Quartet.

Presenter/Fiona Talkington, Producer/Roger Short

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Writer Ian Samson traces the relationship between authors and their readers through the changing nature of correspondence between the two.

When Ian was a schoolboy of 15, he wrote to the author and editor of a high-toned literary magazine, asking how he might set up his own magazine. To his utter shock, the author wrote back and Ian realised for the first time that authors might actually respond to letters.

These days, readers have many more ways of communicating with the authors they admire. Interactivity has made it much easier for the reading public to ask, and expect answers to, their questions.

The barriers between an author and his or her readership have been broken down by technology; by the popularity of the literary festival; and by the marketing imperative that makes publishers drive their authors onto the "circuit" of media interviews and personal appearances. Some authors love it; some think of it as a necessary duty; others try to avoid it.

Ian hears from Susan Hill, who has written about the hundreds of emails she gets from GCSE students asking about her book on their syllabus, telling her what they think of it and requesting her to reply by the following day so they can get their essays in on time; Geoff Dyer, who has no website but has received some odd – and sometimes illegal – gifts through the post; Toby Litt; Monica Ali; Linda Grant; and the husband-and-wife team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, who write together as Nicci French.

Presenter/Ian Samson, Producer/Sara Davies

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Mediocre novelist Patrick Bradyn decides that his current book – the story of a charming Cambridge-graduate-turned-KGB-spy – will mark his retreat from literary circles, in Christopher William Hill's Afternoon Play offering.

But he is not to know that Hannah Olrod, his French translator, has re-worked the novel into an autobiography, leaving him with a profound moral conundrum.

The eponymous hero of the book is Charles Mabyn, a charming Cambridge graduate turned KGB spy. The character is inspired by Bradyn's own visits to the USSR, where he would occasionally visit Kim Philby in his Moscow apartment, ingratiating himself by arriving with a jar of the former spy's favourite thick-cut Oxford marmalade.

Although Patrick's novels have been unpopular in the UK, he has enjoyed some success in France, thanks to the work of his translator, Hannah Olrod. She has always harboured romantic feelings for Patrick, and is terrified that their professional relationship may now be coming to an end. Convinced that Patrick may reconsider retirement if The Ambivalent Spy is a best seller, she deliberately mistranslates the novel, altering the authorial voice from the third to the first person.

The book becomes a best seller in France and is nominated for the celebrated Prix de Proust. But when attractive Parisian publisher Delphine Barbret becomes romantically involved with Patrick, Hannah fears that her plan may have had the unintentional side effect of driving Patrick into the arms of another woman.

Marmalade for Comrade Philby stars Bill Nighy as Patrick Bradyn, Penelope Wilton as Hannah Olrod and Adrian Scarborough as shady MI5 agent Barlow.

The play is written by the award-winning Christopher William Hill.

Producer/Gordon House

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Mark Pougatch reviews the opening day's play of the third Ashes Test between England and Australia from Edgbaston, as well as the day's sports news and updates from the Uefa Europa League third qualifying round, first-leg matches.

At 8pm in the Phil Tufnell Cricket Show, Tuffers is joined by guests from the world of cricket and showbiz to discuss the latest news from the Ashes series.

From 9pm Window Shopping looks at the latest moves and gossip from the transfer market.

Presenters/Mark Pougatch and George Riley, Producer/Alex Rice

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Test Match Special

Thursday 30 July

10.25am-6.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted coverage of the opening day of the third Ashes Test between England and Australia comes, live, from Edgbaston. Commentary is provided by the TMS team, led by Jonathan Agnew.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Gideon Coe's final archive choices of the week include two concerts from the Reading Festival: Peter Gabriel in 1979 and That Petrol Emotion in 1990. Session tracks come from Frank Chickens and Scream And Dance.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Listeners have another chance to hear the extraordinary story of the song Louie Louie.

More than 50 years after its release, Steve Van Zandt tells how the song survived the wrath of the FBI to become one of the most performed, recorded and influential tracks of all time.

Recorded by Richard Berry as a b-side in April 1957, there are more than a thousand versions of Louie Louie. However, the impact of this song has been felt far beyond the music business. It scared the American establishment enough to trigger an FBI investigation by J Edgar Hoover's notorious G-Men, and it remains the subject of much heated debate to this day.

Presenter/Steve Van Zandt, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Makhan is convinced the band is finished, but Indy tells him to be more optimistic, as the drama continues. Indy isn't so upbeat when he discovers who he is sharing a room with though.

Elsewhere, singer Leela tells Kuljit that she is impressed with his "management" style.

Later, Sway accuses Kuljit of running around with young girls instead of sorting out his problems with Sitaray. Kuljit takes a swing at Sway. Is this the end of the band and their business partnership?

Makhan is played by Rohit Gokani, Indy by Amerjit Deu, Leela by Farzana Dua Elahe, Kuljit by Sartaj Garewal and Sway by Mark Monero.

BBC Asian Network Publicity