Tuesday 29 May 2012
This week, on St Valentine's Day, Aled Jones says Good Morning Sunday to English author Joanna Trollope OBE, while Deborah Hollamby looks at the religious origins of the day that celebrates all things romantic and gives the Moment Of Reflection.
Presenter/Aled Jones, Producer/Hilary Robinson
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Steve Wright presents a special edition of Sunday Love Songs for the most romantic day of the year – St Valentine's Day, where romantic dedications are accompanied by the world's best new and classic love songs.
Presenter/Steve Wright, Producer/Adam Uytman
BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Sir Terry Wogan returns to BBC Radio 2 with a brand new format for Sunday mornings. Weekend Wogan broadcasts live from the Radio Theatre at the BBC's Broadcasting House in central London. Terry brings together a show that combines both live and recorded music, with star guest singers, celebrity interviews and contributions from Terry's listeners, all staged in front of a 300-strong live audience.
Terry is joined by his 11-piece house band led by musical director Elio Pace, and the show includes regulars such as John "Boggy" Marsh and the infamous "Janet and John" stories...
Presenter/Sir Terry Wogan, Producer/Alan Boyd
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
It's a Fifties special this week as Elaine Paige is joined by Ben Freeman, the star of the musical Dreamboats And Petticoats, and there's also live music from Noel Sullivan who currently plays the lead role of Danny in Grease.
Plus, there are your break-a-leg messages and a Big One from Malcolm which this week is taken from hit TV series Glee.
Presenter/Elaine Paige, Producer/Malcolm Prince
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
This week, Johnnie Walker is joined by Helen Scott from American soul group The Three Degrees, who discusses some of the band's biggest Seventies hits and picks her own favourite song from the decade.
Presenter/Johnnie Walker, Producer/Natasha Costa Correa
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
With Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday only a few days away, Brian D'Arcy looks at the background to these holy days of preparation. He plays a selection of hymns including My Song Is Love Unknown, A New Commandment and Thine For Ever God Of Love. The featured choir this week is from the church of the Holy Redeemer, Billericay, directed by Kathy Underhill and the organist is James Devor.
Presenter/Brian D'Arcy, Producer/Janet McLarty
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Koca Mimar Sinan was court architect to one of the most powerful dynasties the world has known: the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Responsible for some 400 sublime and inventive buildings throughout Turkey, the Balkans and the Middle East he is virtually unknown in the West. Architecture Correspondent Jonathan Glancey tells Sinan's astonishing story.
Born a Christian in crumbling Anatolia, Sinan converted to Islam and was taken into the "janissary corps" which fought to extend the Ottoman Empire. He participated in the campaign for Rhodes in the 1520s, learning to build catapults, mosques and caravanserais – all the structures a vast army needed. The experience would stand him in good stead when he became chief architect to Sultan Suleiman I soon after.
Perhaps Sinan's best-known work is the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul, but he also created madrassas, bathhouses and viaducts. Influenced by the Byzantine buildings that surrounded him in Constantinople, it is also likely that he had contact with the designs of Renaissance figures including Michelangelo, who was his contemporary. Jonathan Glancey explores Sinan's artistic reach and whether his reputation extended into Western Europe through the strong links between the Ottoman Empire, and Italy in particular.
Presenter/Jonathan Glancey, Producer/Jane Beresford
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Presenter Lionel Kelleway joins naturalist Phil Gates from Durham University on one of his favourite walks – through Bishop Auckland Deer Park in Durham. It's a landscape with both a fascinating history and some wonderful wildlife, as Lionel soon discovers.
The Deer Park is in the grounds of Auckland Castle, which is the home of the Bishop of Auckland. It is built above the Rivers Wear and Gaunless, 10 miles south west of Durham. It was established about 800 years ago, and in 1822 it became the official residence of the Bishop of Durham.
The grounds would have been a managed forest in medieval times, then converted parkland, so today there's a wonderful collection of slowly disintegrating trees – amazing old sweet chestnuts whose trunks and branches grow twisted like a corkscrew, decaying beeches, giant redwoods, horse chestnuts, poplars, birches and old oaks.
A fine stone deer house still exists which would have been used to shelter the deer. Today, while only the occasional wild roe deer might be spotted in the park, there's a metropolis of meadow ant hills.
Yellow meadow ants live primarily underground in meadows and lawns. The nests are often completely overgrown by grass and mosses and form mounds. Like all ants, meadow ants live in organised social colonies. Where there are meadow ants, there are often green woodpeckers. These birds feed on as many as 2,000 ants a day, digging a hole into the mound and licking up the ants as they rush out.
Presenter/Lionel Kelleway, Producer/Sarah Blunt
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Created in 1971 by Roger Hargreaves, the Mr Men books have been an inherent part of many childhoods.
The books were inspired by the author's son Adam, when he one day inquired: "What does a tickle look like?" and the first character was born.
The Little Miss books followed 10 years later, worldwide sales have exceeded 100 million, and today the brand is flourishing under its new owners.
BBC Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders, takes a look at the Mr Men business and its growth over the years. She speaks to Adam Hargreaves who tells us the story behind the books and what inspired his father to create such a simplistic, yet hugely influential brand. Created in the humble surroundings of a small home office, the characters have reached a global audience, and they appeal to today's children as much as their Seventies counterparts.
Despite his death in 1988, Roger Hargreaves was the third best-selling author of the past decade, outstripping such feted writers as Jacqueline Wilson, Terry Pratchett and John Grisham.
Stephanie examines the appeal of the Mr Men and how these bold, colourful drawings and simple stories continue to capture children's hearts.
Presenter/Stephanie Flanders, Producer/Lizzie Foster
BBC Radio 4 Publicity

David Warner and Jane Lapotaire play the roles of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine in a new series of dramas by Mike Walker chronicling the early years of the Plantagenet dynasty.
The series tells the story of the birth of a new Europe after the dark ages; and confront the issues of control, freedom, belief and the temptations of power.
In the first play, What Is A Man? Henry II is in his early Fifties and appears to have survived the great challenges of his reign. But then his sons, resenting their father's policy of dividing lands between them, start to plot against him. This is a family in turmoil. Hal, Henry's eldest son, finds himself pitted against the combined forces of his father and his younger brother Richard.
In the second play, Lionheart, Richard becomes heir apparent. But still his father plots against him, favouring his younger son John as heir. Richard takes a crusade to the Holy Land and manages to unite the crusading armies and take them to the gates of Jerusalem.
The final play, John By The Grace Of God, tells the story of the fourth son of Henry II, who never expected to succeed to the crown and was famously given no territories of his own. His reign was characterised by French wars and disputes with the Pope. The European wars culminated in defeat at the Battle of Bouvines, which forced the king to accept an unfavourable peace with France. This finally turned the barons against him and he met their leaders at Runnymede, near London on 15 June 1215.
Producer/Jeremy Mortimer
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Colin Murray presents the latest sports news and an afternoon of live sport. There's live commentary of the FA Cup fifth round and updates from Italy versus England in the Six Nations in Rome from 2.30pm. There are also reports from first day's action at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, plus updates from day two of the World Championship athletics trials in Sheffield.
At 4pm, there's live commentary from the FA Cup fifth round.
Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Steve Houghton
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
Uninterrupted Six Nations commentary of Italy versus England comes live from the Stadio Flaminio in Rome.
Producer/Jen McAllister
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
As the latest round of music magazine circulation numbers are released, we take a look at the past, present and future of the sector. There's also a retrospective of 30 years of The Brits and round up of the rest of the week's biggest music news.
Presenters/Julie Cullen and Matt Everitt, Producer/Tom Green
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Huey Morgan meets Roxanne Tataei, aka ROX, a young lady who features heavily on various tips for musical success in 2010. A half-Jamaican, half-Iranian Londoner, her songwriting combines her gospel background with rootsy reggae, Lauryn Hill's sass and whole sack-load of Sade soul.
Huey meets her at the beginning of a year which promises great success. At the tender age of 21 she is poised to release her debut record Memoirs on Rough Trade, ably assisted by Commissioner Gorden (Lauryn Hill, Damien Marley, KRS One) and Al Shux (Jay-Z's Empire State Of Mind). She talks to Huey about her musical influences and heritage, her plans, and how she handles the hype.
Huey also spins a selection of his favourite records from rock to punk, reggae, rap, soul and blues, and in this Valentine's Day special turns Love Doctor to his no doubt bemused listeners.
Presenter/Huey Morgan, Producer/Becky Maxted
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Dave Pearce plays 30 years of classic dance tunes from house to hardcore, via hip-hop, electro and trance.
Dave is joined by soul and disco star Teena Marie, whose 1979 single Behind The Groove was a high watermark of the disco era. Teena was originally signed to Motown Records, working with likes of Rick James, before being signed to Epic Records in the Eighties and being sampled by the Fugees in the Nineties. She'll be telling Dave about her new album, Congo Square, her return to the UK live circuit after over a decade away and revealing her ultimate dance anthem.
There's also another brand-new bedroom producer, listeners' requests and a selection of Dave's biggest tunes from clubland.
Presenter/Dave Pearce, Producer/Rowan Collinson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
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