Programme Information

Dale Winton counts down the charts from this week in 1972 and 1991, with hits from Donnie Elbert, Badfinger, Slade, Queen and R.E.M.

Presenter/Dale Winton, Producer/Phil Swern

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Dermot O'Leary presents the final show of BBC Radio 2 programmes live from Los Angeles.

This week, he is joined in the studio by former X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne and has live music from American indie band She & Him, featuring actress and star of the film (500) Days Of Summer, Zooey Deschanel.

Presenter/Dermot O'Leary, Producer/Ben Walker

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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BBC 6 Music presenter Gideon Coe sits in for Bob Harris and is joined in session by American indie folk band Musée Mécanique.

First conceived in a museum of antique arcade machines and later actualised in a small Victorian home on the banks of the Willamette River, Musée Mécanique's new album, Hold This Ghost, began its journey in a high school literature class, where members Sean Ogilvie and Micah Rabwin met.

Their early friendship fostered a creative partnership that has endured distance, estrangement and more than a decade of their lives. While living in the bay area of California, the two songwriters developed an affinity for the collection of vintage coin-operated games, player pianos and novelties housed at the Musée Mécanique (Mechanical Museum) located on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.

Their Portland, Oregon, home studio, itself a collection of interesting instruments and antiques, is peppered in every corner with second-hand flotsam. Tack pianos, trumpets, musical saws and garage sale keyboards mingle among forgotten amateur landscape paintings, broken Thirties-era radios and hand-cranked ice cream makers.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Simpson

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Opera On 3 – Live From The Met: The Nose

Saturday 13 March

6.00-9.30pm BBC RADIO 3

Live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Valery Gergiev conducts Shostakovich's powerful adaptation of Gogol's absurdist short story, The Nose, with tenor Gordon Gietz in the title role.

Kovalyov (sung by baritone Paulo Szot) has a shave in Yakovlevich's (Vladimir Ognovenko) barber shop. The following morning, Yakovlevich discovers Kovalyov's nose in his freshly baked loaf of bread, much to the annoyance of his wife, who demands that he gets rid of it. He eventually manages to throw it into a river, by which time Kovalyov has noticed that it's missing and begun to hunt for it.

The nose turns up in the Cathedral, human sized, dressed as a State Councillor, and wanting nothing to do with its desperate owner. It then escapes from Kovalyov, who spends the rest of the opera being outwitted by it.

Margaret Juntwait presents and is joined by guest commentator Ira Siff.

Presenter/Margaret Juntwait, Producer/Ellie Mant

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Clare Balding heads for Derbyshire to join the Sheffield Dog Walking Group in the last programme of this series.

When dog owners Chris Bird and Victoria Cooper discovered that their four-footed friends were not always warmly received by all ramblers clubs, they decided to set up their own, where all well-mannered dogs and their owners would be welcome.

They enjoy exploring further afield than just the local parks and they discuss with Clare the joys and downfalls of dogs in the countryside.

Presenter/Clare Balding, Producer/Lucy Lunt

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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This is the tale of an unexpected encounter between 20th-century legends – a meeting which created a new template for global celebrity.

In February 1964, The Beatles flew into Miami sparking Beatlemania as they prepared to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Meanwhile, in a low-rent Miami gym, the underdog Cassius Clay (who later became Muhammad Ali) was training to fight reigning champion Sonny Liston for the world title. The pundits said Clay hadn't a hope. Quite unexpectedly, the paths of these legendary figures crossed.

The Beatles decided to visit Cassius Clay in the gym. Clay picked up Ringo and swung him around the ring as if he was no heavier than a toddler as the other band members lay at his feet. A British photographer captured the scene.

The Beatles were a triumph on TV – and Cassius Clay amazed boxing writers by defeating Liston. They both suddenly found themselves on the cusp of a new kind of stardom – they were young, outspoken and able to capture the global imagination.

John Wilson reports from Miami on the background to this unique encounter, with guests including Sir Paul McCartney; photographer Harry Benson, who was travelling with The Beatles; and writer Robert Lipsyte, who covered the fight for the New York Times as a rookie reporter and also witnessed the moment when Cassius met The Beatles.

Presenter/John Wilson, Producer/John Goudie

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Acclaimed actor Bill Nighy

Bill Nighy and Robert Glenister star in award-winning novelist AL Kennedy's gothic and darkly comic drama about illusion, delusion and desire.

Confessions Of A Medium is based on a true story and set in 1870s London.

Mr Parker (Robert Glenister) is a sincere and kind man. In search of a higher meaning to life, he has moved from conventional religion to seances and spiritualism. He believes he has met his saviour in the guise of Mr Thomson (Bill Nighy), a charming, erudite and utterly mesmerising medium. Unbeknown to Parker, Thomson is a complete fake.

Thomson, the greatest medium of his age, is dashing and entirely convincing. One moment he's a small boy whose mother is desperate to get in touch with her deceased young son, the next he's a lover – a dying soldier with a message for his sweetheart. Both Thomson and Parker are brought together through a deep need – Parker needs to believe in eternal life and Thomson needs an assistant who can deal with the public.

Gently and quietly Thomson begins Parker's first lessons in a medium's technique. But do the spirits ever really appear or is it all a lie – how does Thomson know the unknowable?

Producer/Pauline Harris

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Saturday 13 March

12.00noon-7.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch presents an action-packed afternoon of live sport from Edinburgh, ahead of the day's Six Nations action.

From 12.45pm there's live Premier League commentary of Tottenham Hotspur versus Blackburn Rovers from White Hart Lane.

At 2.30pm there's live commentary of Ireland versus Wales in the Six Nations live from Croke Park, Dublin. There's also coverage of the afternoon's 3pm football kick-offs, including Chelsea versus West Ham, Burnley versus Wolves and Stoke versus Aston Villa in the Premier League.

At 5pm there's more Six Nations action as Scotland take on England live from Murrayfield with Ian Robertson, Alastair Eykyn, Matt Dawson and Gavin Hastings.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Mark Williams

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Test Match Special

Saturday 13 March

3.15-11.00am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary on the second day of the first Test between Bangladesh and England comes live from Chittagong with the Test Match Special commentary team.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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Formula 1

Saturday 13 March

11.00am-12.05pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra brings uninterrupted commentary on the qualifying session of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the opening race of the Formula 1 season.

Producer/Jason Swales

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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Football

Saturday 13 March

2.55-5.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra brings uninterrupted commentary on one of the afternoon's top matches in the Premier League.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

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Football

Saturday 13 March

5.25-7.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted Premier League commentary on Hull City versus Arsenal comes live from the KC Stadium.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Legendary dance duo Orbital return to the 6 Mix for two shows, recounting their personal history of dance music and the part they played in the genesis of the genre.

Best known for seminal dance tunes including Chime and Halcyon, Orbital reformed last year after a five-year hiatus to headline festivals all over the world, including the Big Chill Festival and Get Loaded In The Park. The band also entered the world of BBC 6 Music, presenting three 6 Mix programmes in which they played the music which inspired them, from punk to dub.

In this show, brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll play tunes from React To Rhythm, Joi, Frankie Knuckles and Aphex Twin, sharing their memories of those tunes and the part they played in shaping Orbital's sound.

In the second hour Phil takes to the decks for an exclusive hour-long mix of his current favourite club tunes, including the debut of a brand new Orbital track – their first in five years – called Don't Stop Me.

Presenter/Orbital, Producer/Rowan Collinson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Good Morning Sunday presenter Aled Jones

On Mothering Sunday, Aled Jones says Good Morning Sunday to Kate McCann, mother of missing child Madeleine McCann, who has found comfort from her Roman Catholic faith since her daughter's disappearance.

Becky Silver also discusses the news of the week from a faith perspective, and gives the Moment Of Reflection.

Presenter/Aled Jones, Producer/Hilary Robinson

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Sir Terry Wogan is back on BBC Radio 2

Sir Terry Wogan is live from the BBC Radio Theatre with veteran actress June Whitfield, soul singer Beverley Knight and his 11-piece house band, led by musical director Elio Pace.

Presenter/Sir Terry Wogan, Producer/Alan Boyd

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Elaine Paige is joined this week by singer and Torchwood star John Barrowman, who gives an exclusive performance from his new album, John Barrowman – Gift Box.

Elaine also talks to Glenn Slater, the award-winning lyricist whose credits include The Phantom Of The Opera sequel Love Never Dies and Sister Act.

There are also Break-A-Leg messages as well as Malcolm Prince's Big One, which, this week, comes from Oklahoma!.

Presenter/Elaine Paige, Producer/Malcolm Prince

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Jean Jacques Burnell, bassist from English rock group The Stranglers, reminisces with Johnnie Walker about life in the band in the Seventies.

Presenter/Johnnie Walker, Producer/Natasha Costa Correa

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Brian D'Arcy pays tribute to mothers everywhere with a special programme of hymns for Mothering Sunday.

Featuring the music of the Sydenham Salvation Army band and songsters in Belfast, hymns include O The Deep, Deep Love Of Jesus and O Boundless Salvation. The bandmaster and conductor is Philip Pentland and the accompanist is Joseph Murray.

Presenter/Brian D'Arcy, Producer/Janet McLarty

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Writer of stage and screen, Lee Hall

Michael Berkeley's guest today is playwright Lee Hall, best known as the writer of the smash-hit film and musical Billy Elliot, the radio play Spoonface Steinberg and stage play The Pitmen Painters.

Some of his musical choices reflect his origins from the north-east of England, while others range from Alfred Deller singing Purcell and Maurizio Pollini playing Schumann to works by Conlon Nancarrow and Olivier Messiaen.

Presenter/Michael Berkeley, Producer/Chris Marshall

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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A young woman has gone missing. No-one knows what has happened to her. She is described by an unconnected group of people whose lives she touched in some way on the last day anyone saw her. One or two of them knew her, some met her briefly and some just happened to see her.

The different versions of events slowly build to a disjointed version of who the woman was and what may have happened to her as the fragments of truth are drawn together.

Written and directed by Debbie Tucker Green, Gone is both a fascinating study of the impossibility of discovering one objective version of reality, and a series of beautifully detailed vignettes of the intimate lives of a group of individuals, revealing their troubling secrets, their cruelties and their joys and building a vivid snapshot of how people live today.

The cast includes Sheri-An Davis, Michelle Asante, Emil Marwa, Manjinder Virk, Nadine Marshall, Alex Lanipekun, Naana Agyei-Ampadu, Richie Campbell, Seroca Davis, Alan Williams, Dystin Johnson, Jeffrey Kissoon, Justin Pierre, Nicola Walker, Justin Salinger and Danny Lee Wynter.

Producer/Mary Peate

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Desert Island Discs host Kirsty Young

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is businessman and BBC Two Dragon Duncan Bannatyne.

Duncan tells Kirsty about his life, his career and his favourite music and describes how he would cope on BBC Radio 4's mythical desert island.

Presenter/Kirsty Young, Producer/Leanne Buckle

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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The Secret Of The Art And The Artist – Caravaggio Ep 1/3

Sunday 14 March

2.45-3.00pm BBC RADIO 4

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the painter Caravaggio's death. To celebrate this anniversary, Roger Law embarks on a journey to understand this controversial figure, once portrayed by film-maker Derek Jarman.

This series is made with the contribution of seminal artist Adam Lowe who has worked with such towering figures as Anish Kapoor and Mark Quinn, and has now been commissioned to reproduce the greatest works of Caravaggio. His is a huge and complex task – creating exact replicas in every detail. As he prepares to research the work, Adam makes an extraordinary discovery.

Caravaggio revolutionized the world of art as the Vatican's superstar. The first programme examines the life and work of an itinerant murderer turned religious artist as Roger begins a journey to the heart of art and politics in Rome. Listeners are introduced to this fascinating project to recreate Caravaggio's works and learn exactly what made him an outstanding painter.

Presenter/Roger Law, Producer/Mark Rickards

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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The Classic Serial –
Clarissa: The History Of A Young Lady Ep 1/ 4

Sunday 14 March

3.00-4.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Clarissa lead Richard Armitage appears (above) in BBC period drama North And South

Samuel Richardson's Clarissa is a heartbreaking and compulsive piece of epistolary storytelling and one of the world's greatest novels. Published in 1747, it was the precursor to and inspiration for many of the great European novels which followed in its wake.

The young and beautiful Clarissa is courted by the rake Lovelace, who tricks her into his power, carries her off to London, and rapes her. Clarissa then falls into decline. Lovelace becomes involved in an avenging duel with Clarissa's cousin, and Clarissa's family and friends must live with the guilt and shame of their own neglect and betrayal of her.

This new, four-part dramatisation by Hattie Naylor stars Richard Armitage (BBC One's Spooks) as Robert Lovelace and Zoe Waites (Roxanne, The Bristol Old Vic) as Clarissa Harlowe. The company includes: Alison Steadman; Deborah Findlay; Miriam Margolyes; Oliver Milburn; John Rowe; Julian Rhind-Tutt; Adrian Scarborough; Stephen Critchlow; Cathy Sara; Sophie Thompson; Ellie Beaven; Lisa Hammond; and Linda Broughton.

In this first part, beautiful young heiress Clarissa Harlowe is dangerously attracted by the wiles of the notorious libertine Robert Lovelace. Threatened by an imminent marriage arranged with the odious suitor her family have found for her, Lovelace persuades Clarissa to flee with him.

Producer/Marilyn Imrie

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Sunday 14 March

12.00noon-6.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Colin Murray presents the latest sports news and an afternoon of live sport.

At 1.30pm, there's live commentary on Manchester United versus Fulham at Old Trafford, with regular updates of France versus Italy in the Six Nations, from 2.30pm. There are also reviews of the third day of the first Test between Bangladesh and England in Chittagong, plus reports from the final day of the World Indoor Athletics in Doha.

From 4pm, there's live Premier League commentary of Sunderland versus Manchester City from the Stadium of Light.

Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Steve Houghton

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Test Match Special

Sunday 14 March

3.15-11.00am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary on the third day of the first Test between Bangladesh and England comes, live, from Chittagong, with the Test Match Special commentary team.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

In the week that Orbital unveil new material, as exclusively previewed on last night's 6 Mix, the legendary dance act join Julie Cullen and Matt Everitt to look back over their career and reveal what lies ahead.

Plus, actor Christopher Lee, best known for playing Dracula in hammer horror movies, explains why he's recording a metal concept album about ancient kings.

Presenters/Julie Cullen and Matt Everitt, Producer/Roman Tagoe

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Huey Morgan is off on tour but his boots are ably filled by Tom Ravenscroft.

Tom has previously covered for Marc Riley, Guy Garvey and Tom Robinson on BBC 6 Music, after working in music television, including presenting John Peel's Record Box, where he travelled around Britain and the US interviewing seminal musicians such as Elton John, Jack White and Damon Albarn.

Tom's music tastes reflect the eclecticism which usually guides Huey's show with an eye on new music from genres as diverse as folk to heavy metal, electronica and dubstep. He digs into his own impressive record collection to pull together the perfect alternative Sunday playlist.

He'll also be carrying the baton of Huey's usual features, including Vinyl Fetish, raiding the BBC Grams Library for a listener's favourite vinyl and Sharing Is Caring, where Tom talks to a musician about their personal music tastes.

Presenter/Tom Ravenscroft, Producer/Becky Maxted

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Dave Pearce plays 30 years of classic dance anthems – from rave to trance via hip-hop and house – alongside his biggest tunes from club land.

Dave is joined on the phone by DJ and former Underworld member Darren Emerson. Emerson, who was part of the original Underworld line up responsible for club classics including Born Slippy and King Of Snake, left the band in 2000 to concentrate on his DJ career. He tells Dave about the brand new Balearic-influenced album he's made with Nick Littlemore from Australian band Empire Of The Sun, due for release later this year, as well as picking his ultimate dance anthem. There's also a brand new unsigned bedroom producer track and requests from the last three decades of club culture.

Presenter/Dave Pearce, Producer/Rowan Collinson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

BBC Radio 1's Scott Mills is set to undertake the challenge of a lifetime when he embarks on a week of "miles from hell", all in aid of Sport Relief.

Every day, Chris Moyles (6.30-10am) gives Scott his daily "miles from hell" challenge and Scott heads into the unknown to take on his grim missions. Listeners can hear how Scott gets on by tuning into his afternoon show every weekday (4-7pm).

BBC Radio 1 listeners are encouraged to support Scott's efforts by donating money to Sport Relief and Scott's going to need all the help he can get. In his words he's got "all the gear and no idea".

Producer/Piers Bradford

BBC Radio 1 Publicity

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Where once record labels spent millions on glossy promotional films, bands are now doing it for themselves. Why give your money to a director and an effects team when your mate has got a great concept that could get a million hits on the internet?

BBC Radio 1 presenter Greg James tries to make a video himself for one of his favourite acts Marina And The Diamonds and, along the way, talks to the people that have helped make anyone with a camera into a video director – including Adam Buxton.

Radio 1's Story Of The DIY video is part of a line-up of documentaries that have so far included The Story Of The Noughties and International Radio 1. Alongside Nihal's Review show, and In New DJs We Trust, they sit at the heart of the weeknight schedule at 9pm.

Producer/Alice Lloyd

BBC Radio 1 Publicity

Aled Jones sits in for Sarah Kennedy this week to present The Dawn Patrol.

Presenter/Aled Jones, Producer/Julie Newman

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Ryan Tedder, from American pop-rock group One Republic, joins Ken Bruce this week to discuss his Tracks Of My Years each morning.

Listeners can also hear the Popmaster music quiz, the Record Of The Week and Album Of The Week.

Presenter/Ken Bruce, Producer/Phil Jones

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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American Blues-rock guitarist and singer Joe Bonamassa

Paul Jones presents highlights from a specially recorded gig for BBC Radio 2, featuring American blues-rock guitarist and singer Joe Bonamassa at the BBC Maida Vale Studios last month.

Presenter/Paul Jones, Producer/Paul Long

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie bring listeners a live session from English folk-pop singer-songwriter Laura Marling.

Presenters/Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, Producer/Viv Atkinson

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Clare Teal presents the BBC Big Band and conductor Jiggs Whigham in concert at the Town Hall in Birmingham, performing the music of Henry Mancini.

The programme features compositions and arrangements including Dreamsville, Two For The Road, Breakfast At Tiffany's, Peter Gunn and Stairway To The Stars.

Presenter/Clare Teal, Producer/Bob McDowall

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Donald Macleod explores Prokofiev's music for stage and screen, with extracts from many of Prokofiev's opera and ballet scores alongside a selection of his film and theatre music, in this new Composer Of The Week offering.

Sergei Prokofiev was bitten early by the opera bug – when he was just eight, his parents took him to see Gounod's Faust at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and it was love at first sight. On returning home, he announced that he was going to compose an opera of his own, which he promptly did.

The Giant was no giant leap for mankind but, for the young Prokofiev, it was the first step on a path that would wind throughout his life, culminating in his operatic masterpiece, War And Peace. That early trip to the Bolshoi also exposed the young Prokofiev to Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, sparking a lifelong engagement with ballet – he was putting the finishing touches to his last ballet score on his dying day.

The same fascination for the interaction of sound and story lies behind his incidental music for film and theatre, the latter little-known today, but the former including classic collaborations with the pioneering Russian director Sergei Eisenstein.

Today's programme looks at Maddalena, the first opera Prokofiev gave an opus number to; the Scythian Suite, which started life as Ala And Lolli, an abortive commission from Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes; The Buffoon – another Diaghilev commission that this time went full-term; and an operatic gamble that eventually paid off, The Gambler, which climaxes in a scene of relentless momentum, set in the frenzied atmosphere of a casino.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Chris Taylor

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, in tonight's Performance On 3, and is joined by Peter Jablonksi as soloist in Scriabin's Piano Concerto. The concert begins with Béatrice et Bénédict – the overture by Berlioz inspired by Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Scriabin's Piano Concerto is one of his earlier works – technically demanding but, in a Romantic idiom, full of charm and filigree fingerwork reminiscent of Chopin.

Tchaikovsky found himself briefly free from a catalogue of personal crises in the late 1880s, and his Fifth Symphony reflects this with moments of comfort and warmth. Dazzling shafts of bright optimism are cast like lightning bolts from the brooding orchestral shadows.

Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Peter Thresh

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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The Essay – Karachi Postcards Ep 1/5

Monday 15 to Friday 19 March

11.00-11.15pm BBC RADIO 3

London-based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to Karachi every January to see her family and old friends. For her, the city has a fresh and often surprising quality to it now that she no longer lives there.

Over five "postcards" for The Essay this week, Kamila explores the city of her birth in this uncertain and often intriguing light. In today's programme, the experience of arrival is a big deal. Outside the sleek, spare, deserted airport terminal, all of Karachi's life comes towards you.

Presenter/Kamila Shamsie, Producer/Duncan Minshull

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Book Of The Week –
Chopin: Prince Of The Romantics Ep 1/5

Monday 15 to Friday 19 March

9.45-10.00am BBC RADIO 4

Celebrating 200 years since the birth of the great Romantic composer Frédéric Chopin, this biography charts the composer's brief but eventful life, from Polish child prodigy, to celebrated dandy in Paris, his turbulent relationship with George Sand and early death, penniless, in Paris.

Born in Poland in 1810, Frédéric Chopin's prodigious talent as a pianist was recognised early on. But despite being lauded as the great nationalist hope in his homeland, the teenage Chopin soon became stifled by the provincialism of Warsaw. Arriving in bohemian Paris at the age of 20, he immediately became a celebrated figure in French society, known for his inspirational playing and dandyism. Meanwhile, Poland was being torn apart by revolution, and the young exile realised that he would never see his homeland again.

But behind the glittering career, Chopin had to contend with deteriorating health and an ever-more turbulent private life. His relationship with the most notorious woman of the age – the cigar-smoking, cross-dressing, party-going novelist George Sand – raised eyebrows at the time, but lead him to produce some of his great works. Yet, as the relationship and his health continued to fail, he struggled to find inspiration. After eventful trips to London and Scotland, he returned to Paris. There, relying on the benevolence of his friends, he retreated to his apartment where he prepared for his death. Chopin died, aged 39, in Paris – his carefully orchestrated funeral was recognised as one of the most lavish the city had ever seen.

Reader/Stephen Campbell Moore, Producer/Justine Willett

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Woman's Hour Drama – The Cloths Of Heaven Ep 1/5

Monday 15 to Friday 19 March

10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 4

In Sue Eckstein's dramatisation of her own novel, British diplomat Daniel Maddison on his first posting to West Africa, finds himself rebelling against the traditional round of ex-pat cocktail parties, golf and gossip.

In search of something more stimulating he wanders through the town markets – where he becomes fascinated by Rachel, a white woman who sells cloth for a Lebanese trader. Rachel looks like someone he'd known as a student at Oxford – but, unnervingly, she doesn't seem to recognise him.

Daniel decides to explore the "real" country inland – where he unexpectedly crosses paths again with Rachel – and discovers the truth about Rachel's relationship with the wealthy cloth merchant Kamal.

As a student at Oxford, Rachel had been in love with Kamal's twin brother before his sudden death after a short illness. Her decision to take up with Kamal in West Africa has been a fruitless attempt to have a child and so maintain a blood link with her dead lover.

At first Rachel is angry at the thought that she might be being stalked by Daniel but gradually they drift into an affair – with surprising results.

Ruth Gemmell stars as Rachel, Matthew Pidgeon as Daniel and Raad Rawi as Kamal. The cast also inlcudes David Robb, Briony McRoberts, Damian Lynch, Bruce Alexander, Joanna Munro and Nigel Hastings.

Producer/Bruce Young

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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BBC Radio 4 presenter Sandi Toksvig

Sandi Toksvig explores the new Human Library movement, which offers the chance to borrow living people instead of books – an idea which aims to tear down prejudices about people.

"Borrow a person you normally think you wouldn't like", says Danish anti-violence campaigner Ronni Abergel, who came up with the idea.

Even those who claim to be entirely free of prejudice find they do have pre-conceived ideas about certain kinds of people.

Ronni believes that only by sitting down for a totally frank – even blunt – half-hour, face-to-face talk can someone establish the truth or otherwise of their pre-conceptions. People can ask the kind of questions they never hear asked in the public domain.

The idea spread from Denmark to Sweden, where, realising that books are not the only things being judged by their covers, libraries gave visitors the opportunity to borrow "books" including a Muslim, a lesbian, a transexual, a pro-lifer, a male nanny, a bank robber and a Dane.

Human Libraries are spreading across the world, and have now arrived in the UK. This year the government are funding Human Library events at libraries around the UK.

Sandi talks to those who have become involved, both as "readers" and "books", borrows some "books" and may even volunteer to be a living book herself.

Presenter/Sandi Toksvig, Producer/Beth O'Dea

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Afternoon Play – Hitched Ep 1/2

Monday 15 March

2.15-3.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Hitched is today's Afternoon Play offering, and features the wedding day of Emma and Richard from the viewpoints of their respective families – including the dress, the food, the speeches, the music, who wore what, who said what, what cost what, the secrets, the lies, the smiles and the tears.

Emma and Richard have done their best to keep their respective families apart but, as their wedding day approaches, it is time for the in-laws-to-be to finally meet. But how will Emma's atheist father, Max, and "slightly too fond of the grape" mother, Ellie, divorced, not exactly amicably, get along with Richard's bullish and opinionated father, Barry, and rather put-upon mother, Jenny?

With Emma's grandfather, Chas, and Richard's grandmother, Ruby, both along for the ride, the stage is set for a fiery clash of personalities before the reception has even started.

Two Afternoon Plays track the events of one couple's big day, creating a social satire on the modern-day obsession with weddings.

Written by acclaimed dramatist Doug Lucie, Hitched goes behind the scenes as one couple promise to love each other "for better or worse", but who knows which it will be?

The cast features Lydia Leonard as Emma, William Gaunt as Chas, Joe Armstrong as Richard, Sylvia Syms as Ruby, Stephen Moore as Max and Ian Reddington as Barry. Other cast members include Frances Barber, Michale Colgan, Cheryl Campbell, Nicky Henson and Michael Shelford. The vicar is played by Guy Henrie.

Producer/Heather Larmour

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Rory Bremner meets Barry Murphy, dubbed the "Don of Irish comedy" by the Irish Times, as the three-part comedy series which engages topical comics, satirists and comedians from different countries about their cultures continues.

Each show features plenty of performance material, intimate comic exchanges between Rory and a guest, providing an understanding of the differences between our cultures.

Presenter/Rory Bremner, Producer/Andrew McGibbon

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Monday 15 March

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Chapman has all the day's sports news and is joined by special guests for the Monday Night Club to discuss the latest big issues in football.

From 8pm there's Premier League commentary of Liverpool versus Portsmouth, live from Anfield.

Presenter/Mark Chapman, Producer/Tom Peach

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Test Match Special

Monday 15 March

3.15-11.00am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary on the fourth day of the first Test between Bangladesh and England comes live from Chittagong with the Test Match Special commentary team.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

BBC 6 Music presenter Lauren Laverne

Brooklyn-based indie folk band Grizzly Bear are back in the UK to play two sold-out dates at The Roundhouse, in Camden. They join Lauren Laverne in conversation and play two live tracks from last year's album, Veckatimest.

Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Singer-songwriter, and member of Jack White's band The Raconteurs, Brendan Benson, handpicks a selection of his favourite songs for this week's lunchtime playlist. Brendan recorded his fourth solo album, My Old Familiar Friend, in Nashville and London with Gil Norton.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Marc Riley introduces London-based band Wolf People to listeners this evening as they perform live in session.

Wolf People is made up of Jack Sharp (guitar and vocals), Joe Hollick (guitar), Tom Watt (drums) and Daniel Davies (bass).

The band has had consistent support from BBC 6 Music presenter Stuart Maconie since their inception in 2006, a badge of honour indeed.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe's archive sessions come courtesy of Lloyd Cole And The Commotions playing for BBC Radio 1 in 1984, Joni Mitchell from 1968, Snuff from 1989, plus former Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall playing a session for Marc Riley, recorded in July last year.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Record producer Craig Leon tells the story of American punk rock – from the Sixties garage bands of the Pacific North West through to the Stooges, the New York punk scene and beyond.

This programme continues at the same time all week, concluding on Thursday.

Presenter/Craig Leon, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Dr Masud goes through some old family photos and even finds some of the Bradys, in the first visit of the week to Silver Street. He and Mary agree to have a proper trip down memory lane soon.

Elsewhere, Sway is struggling to get the van started and awkwardly tells Kuls he is running late for a job interview. Will Kuls help him or has the old friendship soured too much?

Meanwhile, Rita is delighted when the Chauhans get a surprise visitor but Kamla seems unhappy...

Dr Masud is played by Saeed Jaffrey, Mary by Carole Nimmons, Sway by Nicholas Bailey, Kuljit by Sartaj Garewal, Rita by Bharti Patel and Kamla by Surendra Kochar.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

BBC Radio 2 presenters Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie

Tonight Stuart Maconie talks to Duke Fakir from the legendary Four Tops.

Presenters/Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, Producer/Viv Atkinson

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Michael Ball fulfils his long-time ambition to meet Dolly Parton, the woman who embodies country music.

In the second and concluding part of a long and revealing conversation, Michael finds out what makes Dolly tick, how she keeps her family life private, how she became a canny businesswoman and how she even she takes her wig off sometimes.

Dolly talks about her Led Zeppelin cover, why her friend Tammy Wynette never gave up her beautician's licence and offers some comic revelations about what she thinks of her own image and her rather impressive British accent. She also discusses how she reworked Cole Porter bluegrass-style and talks about favourite duet partners from Kenny Rogers, to Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt.

There's also an opportunity to hear more tracks from her new Live From London album, including Little Sparrow and Backwoods Barbie as well as many of her best-loved studio recordings.

Presenter/Michael Ball, Producer/Paul Sexton

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Behind The Brel – The Story Of A Musical Genius Ep 1/3

Tuesday 16 March

11.30pm-12.00midnight BBC RADIO 2

Icon of British music Marc Almond

Marc Almond invites BBC Radio 2 listeners to explore the music and unconventional life of one of France's most revered singer-songwriters, Jacques Brel.

Born in Belgium, Jacques Brel is considered one of the great songwriters of the 20th century, whose lyrical content is poetically introspective and delivered with an honesty few could deny.

Tackling subjects such as love, death and social issues, his music has been translated by artists such as David Bowie, Scott Walker, Shirley Bassey, Joan Baez, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, Rod McKuen, Terry Jacks, Nirvana and Vera Lynn.

Brel songs, which became major hits in the English-speaking world, include Ne Me Quitte Pas (If You Go Away), Seasons In The Sun and Jacky And Amsterdam.

In this three-part series, Marc Almond investigates why some Brel songs translated well and others didn't.

In the Fifties, French society was heavily influenced by the philosophy espoused in Jean-Paul Sarte's Existentialism Is A Humanism and Marc examines how this had a direct impact on Brel's songwriting and unconventional lifestyle.

Dubbed "the eternal adolescent", Brel lived alone in Paris, despite having a wife and three children in his home town of Brussels, in order to preserve his "artistic inspiration". A man incapable of living a "pipe and slippers" life, Brel had a sense of freedom that was so strong, that he attempted to circumnavigate the globe on a sailing boat after sensationally quitting singing while at the peak of his career.

Contributors to the series include Rod McKuen; Brel's daughter France Brel; Seasons In The Sun singer Terry Jacks; Irish singer Gavin Friday; French-Irish singer Camille O'Sullivan; singer Nick Currie (aka Momus); opera singer Toby Spence; Peter Straker; translator Paul Buck; singer-songwriter Robb Johnson, who released an album celebrating the work of Brel on his own record label; actress Elly Stone and Jean-Michel Boris from the Paris Olympia, where Brel performed his last concert.

Presenter/Marc Almond, Producer/Daniel Manicolo

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Iván Fischer conducts the Orchestra Of The Age Of The Enlightenment as part of the orchestra's Beethoven Symphonies Series at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

In tonight's programme the mighty Fifth Symphony is partnered by two of Beethoven's lighter, sprightlier symphonies, No. 1 and No. 8.

Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Peter Thresh

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

The Castle of Otranto – believed to be the site of the first gothic novel in English literature

Rory McGrath explores the origins of gothic horror, manifest in The Castle Of Otranto by Horace Walpole, generally regarded as first ever novel about a haunted castle.

The mysterious castle in Otranto, Italy, is haunted by an ancient prophecy, where supernatural events are as common as the sudden changes of mood. It is also a place where a young woman's virtue is sorely challenged by a deranged and lustful baron, and where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons until the third and fourth generation.

Presenter Rory McGrath guides us round the site of what is believed to be the first gothic novel in English literature, one of the great unread novels, a book that, as critic Dale Townsend points out, is both flimsy and yet astonishingly influential. The story gave birth to an entire genre, the forerunner of Frankenstein, Dracula and a host of shocking novels, plays and films.

In this tour of Otranto, Rory explores the secret underground passage through which the heroine escapes from the most extreme jeopardy, the sombre chapel in which a young man's life is crushed by an unnaturally large sable helmet and the spooky gallery in which a portrait steps out of its frame.

As well as uncovering the sheer delightful daftness of Walpole's novel, Rory discovers the castle has a very real counterpart in the mock gothic edifice constructed by Walpole at Strawberry Hill. As Curator Michael Snodin points out, there are many parallels with the world of Otranto, and indeed this whole extraordinary mock-gothic edifice was Walpole's own inspiration, which captured his imagination during one particularly torrid dream.

Presenter/Rory McGrath, Producer/Geoff Ballinger

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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The fourth programme of this five-part series which explores pieces of music that make hairs stand up on the back of necks features He's Got The Whole World In His Hands which has gospel origins but was made famous when it hit the US charts in the 1958.

The song has been famously covered by Mahalia Jackson, Perry Como and Nina Simone.

The programme includes contributions from people whose lives have been deeply affected by the song including the Reverend Sharon Watkins, who led Barack Obama's first presidential prayers which included a moving performance of He's Got The Whole World In His Hands.

Producers/Lucy Lunt and Rosie Boulton

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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An Elegy For Easterly Ep 1/3

Tuesday 16 to Thursday 18 March

3.30-3.45pm BBC RADIO 4

An Elegy For Easterly features three stories taken from a collection of writings by Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah's debut collection.

They are powerful and poignant stories populated by characters struggling to live in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Despite the hardships of their everyday lives, they are resilient and imaginative, and not without a wry sense of humour.

In The Mupandawana Dancing Champion, a nimble-footed coffin maker enjoys a little local celebrity, and some relief from the daily struggle to make ends meet. However, a political intervention cramps his style, and the joy that his fame spread among the villagers comes to an unexpected end.

Our Man In Geneva Wins A Million Euros, tells the story of an embassy official posted to Geneva who contemplates new-found wealth as he gets to grips with his first computer, and some new acquaintances he encounters by email.

In My Cousin-Sister Rambanai, Rambanai returns from the United States to Zimbabwe with an irresistibly exuberant sparkle, but her stories of success turn out to be made up of half truths, and a series of troubling disappointments soon follow.

Producer/Liz Allard

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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John Oxford and Dorothy Crawford, two leading virus experts, join Sue MacGregor to discuss their favourite paperback books in today's edition of A Good Read.

Their choices include Daniel Defoe's fascinating description of the Great Plague, and a classic tale of institutional repression set in a Fifties psychiatric hospital.

Presenter/Sue MacGregor, Producer/Jolyon Jenkins

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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In the third programme of Am I Normal? Vivienne Parry investigates at what point a reasonable concern about health becomes an anxiety that can actually have an impact on a person's health.

Someone who discovers a bruise on their arm and becomes convinced they have leukaemia, making frequent doctor's appointments, demanding unnecessary tests and never being satisfied with a diagnosis, is likely to have form of severe and persistent health anxiety.

Health anxiety in its most severe form, the diagnosis hypochondriasis, has been recognised for centuries. It's a fear or belief that real or imagined symptoms are signs of a serious illness, despite medical reassurance and other evidence to the contrary. The anxiety can take over lives, drive families and GPs to distraction and cause a great deal of distress.

But is it an illness in itself? Many psychiatrists and psychologists now prefer to describe hypochondriasis as a health anxiety. It is similar to both Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and panic disorders and is starting to be recognised as a serious psychological problem that can be helped with cognitive behaviour therapy.

In patients with hypochondria, ordinary discomforts are paid much more attention and appear to register more intensely than they do for other people. With more and more people looking up symptoms and health advice on the internet, some individuals feel empowered and informed about health while, for others, it can become cyberchondria, where every twinge and symptom is searched online, leaving them convinced that they definitely have the rarest and deadliest of diseases.

The programme asks how doctors assess levels of heath anxiety, how they decipher the sinister from the benign, real from the imagined symptoms and whether they think increased access to health information is making the problem worse.

Presenter/Vivienne Parry, Producer/Fiona Roberts

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Showstopper! The Improvised Musical is a brand new comedy in which the Showstopper! team of musicians, singers and comedians create an improvised musical on the spot and cram it in to half an hour. The songs, plot and characters are based entirely on suggestions from the live studio audience.

There's no script, no score and no planning – the team has to improvise the entire thing purely from audience suggestions, gathered by the show's Master Of Ceremonies.

Showstopper! is the most experienced musical improvisation group in the country. The core members – Pippa Evans, Ruth Bratt, Lucy Trodd, Sean McCann, Oliver Sentin – regularly perform Showstopper! in London, Edinburgh and Bristol.

Producer/Sam Bryant

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live At Cheltenham

Tuesday 16 March

2.00-4.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

John Inverdale presents live coverage of the opening day of Cheltenham Festival 2010, the biggest week in the National Hunt calendar.

Clare Balding and BBC Radio 5 Live's racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght are joined by former Gold Cup winning jockey Mick Fitzgerald and multiple champion jockey Peter Scudamore for all the latest news and predictions.

Comedian Kevin Day is out and about around the course chatting to the punters soaking up the festival atmosphere.

John Hunt and Luke Harvey provide commentary on the day's big races including the Champion Hurdle at 3.20pm.

Presenter/John Inverdale, Producer/Steve Rudge

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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5 Live Sport

Tuesday 16 March

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch has all the day's sports news and from 7.45pm introduces live Champions League commentary of the second-leg of the first knockout-round match between Chelsea and Inter Milan and updates of Wigan against Aston Villa in the Premier League.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch Producer/Ben North

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Test Match Special

Tuesday 16 March

3.15-11.00am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

The Test Match Special commentary team present uninterrupted commentary on the final day of the first Test between Bangladesh and England, live from Chittagong.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Martin Raymond joins Lauren Laverne's radio family as a regular Tuesday contributor.

Martin is co-founder of The Future Laboratory and editor-in-chief of Viewpoint magazine among many other things. He showcases what's worthwhile on the web and looks into the future at the online trends heading our way.

Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe picks another selection of classic sessions form the BBC's archive including Can from 1975, Half Man Half Biscuit performing in 1986, French singer Emily Oiseau from last year and Fence Collective alumni King Creosote (aka Kenny Anderson) also from 2009.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Pradeep suggests that Vinnie should put his management skills to use at the sheesha lounge, as the drama continues. Is Pradeep trying to get rid of him? Suddenly Roopa bursts in with news about the restaurant's new sign. It seems Pradeep has made a mistake...

Elsewhere, Suresh tells Sean not to give up on his dream about moving to America. His little "problem" can be overcome. Sean's phone rings, but there's no-one there and the number is withheld.

Pradeep is played by Ashvin-Kumar Joshi, Vinnie by Saikat Ahamed, Roopa by Rakhee Thakrar, Suresh by Pal Aron, Sean by Lloyd Thomas, Mary by Carole Nimmons and Rita by Bharti Patel.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

SUPERPOWER SEASON
Digital Planet – SXSW

Tuesday 16 March

8.30-9.00pm BBC WORLD SERVICE

• www.bbc.co.uk/superpower

Digital Planet will be hosting a special event at this year's SXSW interactive festival in Austin Texas.

The programme's presenters Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson will host an interactive radio quiz recorded live in front of a SXSW audience.

Two opposing teams, composed of top-name speakers at the festival – including TED Director June Cohen and Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg – must answer questions on current and future tech trends.

From the radical to the ridiculous, the live audience will then vote to decide which team has given the most entertaining or enlightening answer. The programme will use an innovative mobile phone application that allows the audience to vote and comment on the quiz as it happens.

This edition of Digital Planet is part of Superpower – a season on the BBC's international news services: BBC World Service, BBC World News and bbc.com, exploring the power of the internet.

Presenters/Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson, Producer/Michelle Martin

BBC World Service Publicity

According to official UK Defence Statistics, there has been a five per cent rise in the number of women joining the military in the UK, compared to two decades ago. BBC Radio 1Xtra News speaks to young servicewoman about their roles and explores changing attitudes.

In an all-female tent in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, the duvets are mostly pink and women talk about the pros and cons of make-up, while one admits: "It's sometimes hard to keep your girliness."

Even though they can't fight in the infantry, some women are right in the thick of the action. Flight Lft Eleanor Lodge has flown wounded soldiers to safety under fire from the Taliban and doesn't mind being teased by the men.

Bomb disposal Captain Judith Gallagher, meanwhile, is one of only two women to have so far served in Afghanistan as part of an elite bomb disposal unit and wants to go back, despite protests from her family.

Listeners also hear from military men, including one nameless soldier who admits to feeling uncomfortable about the idea of looking over and seeing a female comrade, rather than a male one, lying next to him with a rifle.

Producer/Debbie Ramsay

BBC Radio 1Xtra Publicity

BBC Radio 2 presenter Mike Harding

Mike Harding celebrates St Patrick's Day with an hour of the very best in Irish folk, roots and acoustic music.

The programme includes classic tracks from Paul Brady and The Dubliners, as well as songs from more recent albums by Karan Casey and Christy Moore. There is also a song from Cara Dillon's latest album, Hill Of Thieves, which won the award for Album of the Year at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Presenter/Mike Harding, Presenter/Kellie While

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Trevor Nelson invites listeners to explore the depths of his record collection, presenting an hour of the best in timeless soul, rare funky treats and modern classics.

Trevor's Album Of The Week is Medicine 4 My Pain, a 1997 debut release from Lynden David Hall. Trevor remembers the London-born singer who went on to win the best newcomer award at the 1998 MOBOs but who sadly died in 2006, after a battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Presenter/Trevor Nelson, Producer/Dan Cocker

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Conductor and composer John Adams

John Adams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in the European première of his City Noir, along with music by Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky, in tonight's Performance On 3.

Adams's latest symphonic work draws on the moody ambience of classic film noir from the Forties and Fifties, evoking its sleaze, threat and moments of sudden panic along with its romance.

Young American pianist Jeremy Denk is the soloist in Stravinsky's neoclassical Concerto For Piano And Wind Instruments, and two sets of orchestrated piano pieces complete the programme: Ravel's own orchestration of his Valses nobles et sentimentales and Colin Matthews's orchestral renderings of some of Debussy's Preludes.

Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Peter Thresh

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Cadbury Is Our Longbridge Ep 1/3

Wednesday 17 March

11.00-11.30am BBC RADIO 4

Two years in the making, Cadbury Is Our Longbridge is the story of an historic chocolate factory near Bristol caught up in a huge global tale.

In the recent press coverage of the Kraft takeover, one story was less reported – Cadbury had already begun reducing their workforce, in large part due to shareholder pressure from abroad.

In October 2007, Cadbury announced the phased closure of Somerdale, a factory in Keynsham between Bristol and Bath. Production of their iconic brands was moving to Poland instead. Presenter Miles Warde began following what happened next.

With contributions from key members of the workforce, this moving series is about a small Somerset town – there were 500 employees at the Somerdale plant – who found themselves entangled in globalisation and, ultimately, out of work.

Among the many stories in this series is Bristol's historic role in chocolate manufacture. Somerdale opened in 1921 under the Fry's name. This Quaker family is credited with the invention of the chocolate bar two centuries ago.

Today's opening programme features an interview with Francis Fry, who declares the closure a betrayal.

Presenter and Producer/Miles Warde

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Walking On Sunshine is a heart-warming comedy by Leah Chillery, starring Nicholas Bailey (EastEnders).

Elijah enjoys going for walks in the countryside but, one day, his girlfriend points out that he is the only black person they have seen all day.

Spurred into action, Elijah decides to start a walking group for black people. A motley bunch turn up – Boasy, a bird-watching Rastafarian; Vernon, an obese youth who is only joining the group to please his mother; and Elijah's brother, Malachi, who is doing it because, if he doesn't, his brother will stop subbing him.

The group enjoy some adventures until, one day, their car breaks down and a well-meaning man called Frank invites them into his house while they wait for a pick-up truck to arrive.

The next day, Frank calls Elijah to tell him that someone has stolen a valuable statuette from his cottage.

Producer/Gary Brown

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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This year, each of BBC Radio 4's Lent Talks explore how faith and religion interact with a variety of aspects in society, such as the military, arts and culture, the financial world, politics and science – and, as faith and religion become an increasingly important and influential aspect behind both global and local headlines, how this relationship may develop in the future, for better or for worse.

Tonight, Sister Elizabeth Obbard explores how people's personal faith is affected and shaped by formal religion.

Sister Elizabeth is a Carmelite solitary (hermit) attached to Aylesford Priory in Kent.

Presenter/Sister Elizabeth Obbard, Producer/Simon Vivian

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live At Cheltenham

Wednesday 17 March

2.00-4.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

John Inverdale presents live coverage of the second day of the 2010 festival, the biggest week in the National Hunt calendar.

Clare Balding and BBC Radio 5 Live's racing correspondent, Cornelius Lysaght, are joined by former Gold Cup-winning jockey Mick Fitzgerald and multiple champion jockey Peter Scudamore for all the latest news and predictions.

Comedian Kevin Day, meanwhile, is out and about around the course chatting to the punters and soaking up the festival atmosphere.

John Hunt and Luke Harvey provide commentary on the day's big races, including the Queen Mother Champion Steeple Chase at 3.20pm.

Presenter/John Inverdale, Producer/Steve Rudge

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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5 Live Sport

Wednesday 17 March

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch brings listeners all the day's sports news and has live football commentary of one of the night's top matches.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Mark Williams

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Darling of the new folk scene, singer-songwriter Laura Marling, is back with her second album, I Speak Because I Can, set for release on 22 March.

She performs a couple of songs from the album and chats to Lauren Laverne about how 2010 is shaping up so far for her.

Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Concert highlights from The Beatles and Richard Hawley are Gideon Coe's main attractions tonight, and listeners can also hear some classic BBC sessions from Sisters Of Mercy and Blonde Redhead.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Sean worries about the music on St Patrick's night at the pub, as the drama continues. He decides Kuljit might be a good contingency plan but what does Sean have in mind?

Elsewhere, Vinnie confides that Pradeep is hiring a new chef so he can focus on managing the restaurant. Dr Masud, however, insists the food wouldn't be the same without Pradeep. They need a plan and there's only one person who can help...

Kamla, meanwhile, is mortified about forgetting an important anniversary.

Sean is played by Lloyd Thomas, Kuljit by Sartaj Garewal, Vinnie by Saikat Ahamed, Pradeep by Ashvin-Kumar Joshi, Dr Masud by Saeed Jaffrey and Kamla by Surendra Kochar.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

Comedian Matt Lucas hosts And The Winner Is…

Matt Lucas continues to host the most prestigious awards ceremony of the year – the perfectly titled Lucases.

Each week, Matt welcomes three guests on to the show to nominate people, places, songs, films and all sorts of other things before Matt decides on the winner of the coveted award.

This week's awards include the Lucas for Most Disappointing Film Sequel, the Lucas for the Most Unhelpful Proverb, the Lucas for Greatest Ever Couple and the Lucas for Most Depressing School Subject.

The nominations are provided by the guests and, this week, they are Stephen K Amos, Jo Caulfield and Jon Richardson. But the ultimate decision is down to the whim of the host. Who will walk off with their very own Lucas?

Matt is no stranger to radio comedy as he co-wrote and starred in Little Britain, which originated on BBC Radio 4 and won a Sony Silver award. Matt is once again re-united with his Little Britain radio producer, Ashley Blaker, who produces And The Winner Is... and devised the series with Bill Matthews.

Presenter/Matt Lucas, Producer/Ashley Blaker

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Suzi Quatro continues to remember the music she heard in her formative years, from doo-wop to Motown and rock 'n' roll, taking listeners through the Fifties and Sixties to the present day.

Tonight, Suzi breaks with tradition and remembers the girls from the decade of disco as she explores the Seventies in a programme that includes music from Diana Ross, Freda Payne, Cher, Carly Simon, Roberta Flack and Thelma Houston.

Presenter/Suzi Quatro, Producer/Mark Hagan

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Osmo Vänskä conducts the Minnesota Orchestra in Sibelius's Karelia Suite, and is joined by Päivi Nisula (soprano) and Hannu Niemelä (baritone) as soloists in Kullervo, which is based on a dark and bitter tale from Finnish epic the Kalevala.

Sibelius wrote the Karelia Suite originally for a student association in the Karelian city of Viipuri for music to accompany a series of tableaux depicting important moments in Karelia's history. Karelia itself was one of the centres of Finnish nationalism and it was from Karelian folk sources that the Tales Of The Kalevala were gathered.

Kullervo was the first of Sibelius's works to draw on this epic and he chose a dark and bitter tale. As a young man, Kullervo suffers the slaughter of his family and is trapped in a life of difficulty and poverty. One day, he encounters a young woman in a sleigh and attempts to seduce her. Repeatedly rebuffed, he eventually ravishes her and only then discovers that she is his long-lost sister. Overcome with guilt, Kullervo must redeem himself.

Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Peter Thresh

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

BBC Radio 4 presenter Mark Lawson

In this week's programme, Small Wars, Mark Lawson looks at how authors, including Norman Mailer, Don DeLillo, Jay McInerney and Charles McCarry, have reflected American foreign policy – from Vietnam to 9/11 – in fiction about protests, lies, spies and terrorists.

As America enjoyed the peace and wealth resulting from victory in a Second World War, the Pentagon and the State Department constructed a new foreign policy. Major international conflicts would in future be avoided by "small" or "proxy" wars or "police actions", aimed at neutralising ideological threats abroad.

Vietnam combatants David Rabe and Tobias Wolff dramatised their experiences on stage and in fiction, while EL Doctorow used historical parallels to reflect on recent campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Former CIA man Charles McCarry used his time undercover as material for a series of espionage masterpieces, and Jay McInerney, who had chronicled the wealthy recklessness of Eighties New York in books such as Bright Lights, Big City, now turned to the very different mood of the city after 9/11.

Norman Mailer, Jay McInerney, Jonathan Safran Foer and EL Doctorow are among the authors discussing the way American literature reflected these decades of theoretically small wars – and Mark reveals his candidate for the most unfairly neglected modern American writer.

Presenter/Mark Lawson, Producer/Robyn Read

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Scrooby Trevithick Ep 1/6

Thursday 18 March

11.00-11.30pm BBC RADIO 4 (Title change 10 March)

Andy Parsons returns to BBC Radio 4 with a new series of Scrooby Trevithick.

This second series continues to follow the exploits of the hapless Scrooby (Andy Parsons), a well-meaning but flawed young man who is desperately trying to better himself through his own website, where he's left his web diaries.

Each episode features him trying another pastime or possible new venture. This time, he is helped by his good friend, Sasha (Kerry Godliman). Sadly, each new venture doesn't go the way Scrooby had planned and, in so doing, he gets increasingly frustrated at his lack of success.

This time, Scrooby tries his hand at becoming: a writer; a paparazzo; a councillor; a journalist; a performer; and, to kick off the new series, an entrepreneur – following the surprise demise of his aunt.

Written by and starring Andy Parsons, the cast also includes Dara O Briain, Russell Howard, Hugh Dennis, Russell Kane, Rufus Hound, Alun Cochrane, Dominic Frisby, Paul Thorne and Barunka O'Shaugnessy.

Producer/Paul Russell

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live At Cheltenham

Thursday 18 March

2.00-4.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

John Inverdale presents live coverage of the third day of the Cheltenham Festival 2010 – Ladies Day.

Clare Balding and BBC Radio 5 Live's racing correspondent, Cornelius Lysaght, are joined by former Gold Cup-winning jockey Mick Fitzgerald and multiple champion jockey Peter Scudamore for all the latest news and predictions. Comedian Kevin Day is out and about around the course, chatting to the punters who are soaking up the festival atmosphere.

John Hunt and Luke Harvey provide commentary on the day's big races, including the World Hurdle at 3.20pm.

Presenter/John Inverdale, Producer/Steve Rudge

BBC Radio 5 live Publicity

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5 Live Sport

Thursday 18 March

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Eleanor Oldroyd has all the day's sports news and live Europa League coverage. There is also a look ahead to the weekend's Six Nations action and a review of the final day of the first Test between Bangladesh and England.

Presenter/Eleanor Oldroyd, Producer/Adrian Williams

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Brooklyn-based brothers French Horn Rebellion are in the studio and in session playing two live songs for Lauren Laverne. And comedian and indie travel guru Danny Robins guides Lauren and the listeners around another top city destination.

Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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There's double trouble on Marc Riley's show tonight with sessions from The Magnetic Field's Stephin Merritt, who plays solo on his ukulele, and The Kabeedies, who perform a full electric session.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe plays classic session tracks by Shriekback from 1982 and veteran Delta Bluesman Son House from 1970, plus more recent offerings from Newcastle's first family of folk, The Unthanks and Rhode Island Americana outfit the Low Anthem.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Pradeep is impressed during a tasting session designed to help him decide on the new chef, in today's visit to Silver Street. But he is shocked when Vinnie reveals the chef's name.

Kamla feels guilty for forgetting the anniversary of her husband's death. She is also pining for someone else. Elsewhere, Dr Masud shares a secret with Mary about an old photo.

Meanwhile, Kuljit awkwardly congratulates Sway on his new job. Does this mean they are friends again?

Pradeep is played by Ashvin-Kumar Joshi, Vinnie by Saikat Ahamed, Kamla by Surendra Kochar, Dr Masud by Saeed Jaffrey, Mary by Carole Nimmons, Kuljit by Sartaj Garewal and Sway by Nicholas Bailey.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

As part of BBC World Service's Superpower season, which explores the extraordinary power of the internet, Assignment asks: "How much of a trace do we leave behind on the worldwide web?"

In this programme, presenter Mike Williams explores how secure or vulnerable society has become in the digital world. He asks a professional investigator to use the internet to discover how much of his online life can be traced by computer experts. Firstly, the investigator uses only legal search methods before conducting a second trawl using any method he chooses.

Mike also hears from some people who have decided that digital anonymity is better than the rush for social networking.

Presenter and Producer/Mike Williams

BBC World Service Publicity

Friday Night Is Music Night

Friday 19 March

7.30-9.15pm BBC RADIO 2

The BBC Concert Orchestra is the undisputed star of the show in this week's special edition of Friday Night Is Music Night, presented by Paul Gambaccini, live from London's Mermaid Theatre, as the programme shines a spotlight on the orchestra and its soloists.

Richard Balcombe conducts tonight's box of delights which includes All The Things You Are; Rumpole Of The Bailey, arranged specially for the orchestra's bassoon players; and a show-stopping turn from the percussion section.

Presenter/Paul Gambaccini, Producer/Jodie Keane

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Eve Pollard celebrates World Poetry Day this week and interviews guests from the art world.

Presenter/Eve Pollard, Producer/Jessica Rickson

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Performance On 3

Friday 19 March

7.00-9.15pm BBC RADIO 3

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor Jiří Bĕlohlávek continue their cycle of Martinů with Synphony No. 5, along with Brahms's German Requiem, live from the Barbican in London.

Martinů's Fifth Symphony, written for the Czech Philharmonic and premièred by the orchestra at the Prague Spring Festival in 1947, sets out the composer's vision of truth in music of tender lyricism, rhythmic animation and crystalline structural clarity.

Brahms, like Martinů, is central to Jiří Bĕlohlávek's repertoire. The conductor turns here to the German Requiem and its uplifting message of comfort to those who mourn. Ana María Martínez (soprano) and Markus Eiche (baritone) are tonight's soloists.

Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Peter Thresh

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

China – manufacturer of Nunzilla the fire-breathing Nun; Mummified Mike, the Egyptian mummy-shaped elastic band holder; and the Dashboard Jesus.

Britain – home of the creative types who send these often ironic, and sometimes blasphemous, novelty gift designs to the Chinese for manufacture.

Writer and comedian Anna Chen asks what these throwaway gifts tell the British about both its society and its relationship with China. She looks at how although their economic relationship flourishes, their respective cultures perhaps remain poles apart.

Anna follows a novelty toy from design through manufacture to the gift shops. Workers on the production lines in a South Chinese factory give their take on just what it is they're making and British designers try their best to deconstruct the joke.

Presenter/Anna Chen, Producer/Sally Heaven

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live At Cheltenham

Friday 19 March

2.00-4.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

John Inverdale presents live coverage of the final day of the Cheltenham Festival 2010, Gold Cup day.

Clare Balding and BBC Radio 5 Live's racing correspondent, Cornelius Lysaght, are joined by former Gold Cup-winning jockey Mick Fitzgerald and multiple champion jockey Peter Scudamore for all the latest news and predictions.

Comedian Kevin Day, meanwhile, is out and about around the course chatting to the punters and soaking up the festival atmosphere.

John Hunt and Luke Harvey are also on hand to provide commentary on the day's big races, including the Gold Cup at 3.20pm.

Presenter/John Inverdale Producer/Steve Rudge

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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Colin Murray is joined by regular guests Pat Nevin and Perry Groves for Kicking Off With Colin Murray, taking a look ahead to the weekend's sporting action, including Arsenal versus West Ham United, Aston Villa versus Wolves and Manchester United versus Liverpool.

Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Francesca Bent

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Rugby League

Friday 19 March

7.55-9.45pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted Super League commentary of St Helens versus Warrington Wolves comes live from Knowsley Road this evening.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Vitalic joins Nemone for this afternoon's Friday re-mix. French-born Vitalic, aka Pascal Arbez, first illuminated the world's dance floors in 2005 with his debut OK Cowboy. His latest album, Flashmob, continues in the same vein as OK Cowboy, with pummelling compressed shards of intense mentalist disco and brain-frazzling wonkiness.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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The impressively coiffured Claudio Sanchez, lead singer of progressive hard rockers Coheed and Cambria, joins Bruce Dickinson on his Friday Rock Show this evening.

Claudio chats to Bruce about the band's fifth studio album, Year Of The Black Rainbow, and what it was like working with producers Atticus Ross (Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction) and Joe Barresi (Queens Of The Stone Age and Tool).

Claudio also reveals why he chose to co-write a new novel which accompanies special edition copies of the new record.

Presenter/Bruce Dickinson, Producer/Ian Callaghan

BBC 6 Music Publicity

A distraught Mary shouts for help when Dr Masud suddenly collapses while they are walking down the street laughing, in the final visit of the week to Silver Street.

Elsewhere, Sean comes face to face with his father, Jai, who has been on the run. Jai begs for a chance to explain but will Sean listen?

Later, Rita tells the family about Dr Masud while, at the hospital, Mary breaks down at his bedside.

Mary is played by Carole Nimmons, Dr Masud by Saeed Jaffrey, Sean by Lloyd Thomas, Jai by Ravin Ganatra and Rita by Bharti Patel.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

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Spurred on by recent guests Dame Kelly Holmes, Lawrence Dallaglio and a host of British-Asian stars, Tommy Sandhu previews the weekend's Big Bollywood Mile in Birmingham, part of Sport Relief.

Presenter/Tommy Sandhu

BBC Asian Network Publicity

In China, people are unable to use the internet in ways that many around the world take for granted. Many sites are out of bounds, the use of certain words triggers alarm bells and China's net is dominated by names like the search engine Baidu and the shopping website Alibaba.

In this documentary Weiliang Nie of the BBC Chinese Service, meets Chinese internet users and finds out more about the censorship often referred to as "The Great Firewall". China's economic miracle has, in many ways, been driven by its technological revolution, but the web also presents the authorities with issues about control and access.

Hillary Clinton recently spoke about the importance of internet freedom and against blocking but, as this documentary reveals, users in China are browsing a different kind of internet.

The Other Internet – Beyond China's Great Firewall is part of Superpower, a major season on BBC World Service, BBC World News and bbc.com, exploring the extraordinary power of the internet.

Presenter/Weiliang Nie, Producer/Tim Mansel

BBC World Service Publicity