Programme Information

Monday 12 May 2008

BBC RADIO 2 Monday 12 May 2008

Clare Teal presents the second part of the BBC Big Band's concert at the recent Cheltenham Jazz Festival with guest artist Nicola Conte.

The Nicola Conte Jazz Combo joins the BBC Big Band to perform a mix of Bossa Nova, big band and acid jazz, with a dash of Conte's passion for Sixties Italian film scores thrown in for good measure.

Presenter/Clare Teal, Producer/Bob McDowall

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Jools Holland's special guest tonight is one of the UK's foremost exponents of good-time jazz, Ray Gelato. Ray joins Jools and his Rhythm Section on two numbers, playing sax on Night Train and sax and vocals on Sent For You Yesterday.

Jools also performs tracks from his eclectic record collection. Tonight's programme has Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup in the Demo Corner, and features music from Nina Simone and Ray Charles.

Presenter/Jools Holland, Producer/Sarah Gaston

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Paul Gambaccini concludes the series charting the history of Elektra Records from when it was founded by Jac Holzman, in 1950, until he sold his company in 1973.

Holzman recalls the music released on Elektra during his final years with the company (1970 to 1973). The label enjoyed more success with Bread and found a new star – Carly Simon.

Simon's career was launched with the American Top 10 single, That's The Way I Always Heard It Should Be, and, less than two years later, in January 1973, she was enjoying No. 1 success with the single You're So Vain and the album No Secrets.

Holzman's last major signings were singer-songwriter Harry Chapin and, for the USA market, Queen.

Presenter/Paul Gambaccini, Producer/Kevin Howlett

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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BBC RADIO 3 Monday 12 May 2008

Frédéric Chopin was a prodigy, a virtuoso pianist and one of the most loved and influential composers of piano music there has ever been. In the run-up to BBC Radio 3's The Chopin Experience, in which every note written by the composer will be aired, Donald Macleod explores the composer's life, his prodigious early years, his fragile health and his dalliances with women – which famously included writer George Sand. Listeners can also hear his music, beloved of pianists the world over, and the pinnacle of 19th-century romanticism, including a vintage recording each day.

Monday's programme explores Chopin's early years in Warsaw, studying under Jozef Elsner at the conservatoire there. Paganini arrived on tour in 1829 and created a sensation, and listeners hear Chopin's response, his Souvenir de Paganini, a set of variations on a tune he heard the great violinist play. Martha Argerich performs Chopin's Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, written when he was only 20, and today's vintage performance is Alfred Cortot playing the Berceuse in D flat major, recorded in 1949.

There is a dedicated Chopin website at bbc.co.uk/radio 3 and Composer Of The Week is available as a podcast from Friday afternoon.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Kerry Clark

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Conducting is well and truly in the blood for Latvian Mariss Jansons. His father, Arvids Jansons, was a conductor, too, who headed the Leningrad Philharmonic, among other orchestras. Mariss Jansons is now, at the age of 65, one of the most highly regarded conductors in the world.

This week's Afternoon On 3 celebrates his work – especially with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, of which Jansons has been chief conductor since 2003. His "other" orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, no less, also features – conducted by one of Jansons's distinguished colleagues, Bernard Haitink. There are also performances by the Oslo Philharmonic, the orchestra with which Jansons made his name – while he made theirs, too – and a brilliant choir from his homeland, the Latvian Radio Chorus.

Presenter/Louise Fryer, Producer/David Gallagher

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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This year marks the 30th anniversary of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in which hundreds of performers entered the early rounds. The Section Finalists are broadcast on BBC Four in the week before and the event culminates on Saturday and Sunday 10 and 11 May at the Wales Millennium Centre with the finalists performing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under conductor Thierry Fisher.

Tonight’s programme features the full concerto performance from each finalist in Saturday’s concert, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, plus interviews about their choice of concerto. Their performances will be discussed live in the studio with British pianist Lucy Parham, winner of the Young Musician of the Year Keyboard Final in 1984, and member of the judging panel for the Keyboard Final this year.

Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Janet Tuppen

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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BBC RADIO 4 Monday 12 May 2008

Book Of The Week – Twenty Chickens For A Saddle Ep 1/5 Monday 12 May 9.45-10.00am BBC RADIO 4

Anne-Marie Duff reads the Book Of The Week offering – Robyn Scott's acutely observed and affectionately remembered account of growing up in Botswana.

When Robyn Scott was six, her parents moved from New Zealand to a wild and beautiful part of the Botswana bush, where they set up home in a converted cow shed next to the farm belonging to Robyn's eccentric grandfather. As Robyn's father built up his flying doctor's practice across several far-flung clinics, her mother haphazardly and single-handedly home-schooled the three children.

Theirs was a remarkable childhood, in which dissecting a snake was the closest they came to a biology lesson, and working out the area of the bathroom to be covered by tiles was a practical introduction to mathematics. The unconventional home life that set them apart from the other white farmers in the neighbourhood was a source of both pride and embarrassment to Robyn and her brother and sister, but it made for a wonderfully rich and exotic childhood, which Robyn describes with great humour and warmth.

Reader/Anne-Marie Duff, Producer/Sara Davies

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Woman's Hour Drama – Gifted Ep 1/5 Monday 12 to Friday 16 May 10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 4

Nina Wadia and Sadia Ghaffar star in Gifted, a tragic and comic coming-of-age story seen through the lens of immigration, race, maths and sex. Narrated by Archie Panjabi, and scored by composer Vik Sharma, this enhanced reading of Nikita Lalwani's debut novel is adapted for radio by producer Melanie Harris.

Fifteen-year-old Rumi is a talented mathematician with a place at Oxford, but her real battle is to escape her family. Her transition between childhood and adolescence is made distinctive by the family's struggles with a new country (they moved from India to Wales in the Seventies) and by their fierce will to succeed. The generational clashes between Rumi and her mother, Shreene, are funny, painful and inevitable.

When Rumi returns from a family trip to India to discover she's been offered a place at Oxford, her father feels elation and depression. The freedom Rumi dreams of as a student is lost in the confusion and exhaustion of becoming two separate selves with different secrets to hide.

Nikita Lalwani was short-listed for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2007. Gifted was long-listed for the Man Booker prize 2007 and short-listed for the Costa Awards.

Nina Wadia plays Shreene and Sadia Ghaffar plays Rumi.

Producer/Melanie Harris

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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A hundred years on, Robert Elms celebrates the glories of the White City, an oriental fantasy built in West London whose last vestiges have just disappeared beneath a shopping centre.

In 1908, more than eight million visitors descended on Shepherd's Bush to visit the Franco-British Exhibition. It was a dreamlike village of exhibition halls, walkways and lagoons, a White City of airy palaces and oriental fantasy, where snake-charmers vied for attention alongside flower displays, stuffed animals and printing presses. Visitors could ride a rickshaw, kiss the Blarney Stone or risk the Flip Flap – a pair of gargantuan steel arms that, for sixpence, whisked people 200 feet into the air for three minutes of vertigo.

The exhibition coincided with the golden age of the picture postcard – the text message of a century ago. However, unlike texts, postcards have proved surprisingly resilient and many have survived from the White City. In this programme, Robert discovers a wonderful informal archive of messages, observations and jokes that are preserved on White City postcards. They give listeners fascinating first-hand reflections and observations from the White City which, today, has changed beyond recognition.

Presenter/Robert Elms, Producer/Tom Jackson

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Sophie Thompson and Mark Heap feature in today's Afternoon Play, a comedy about new universities, written by Joyce Bryant. Karen is the new head of the geography department at Hayborough University, which has been renamed Geographical Tourism. Not quite part of the elite Russell Group of top universities, Hayborough was first a technical college, then a polytechnic and only now has obtained university status, ranking 132 in the league table.

It is open day for the department, and Karen is keen that she attracts the right students. The only problems are that her arch rival for the job is unco-operative and deliberately obtuse, the brochures haven't been printed, her star lecturer from America has gone missing and her demented dad keeps ringing her up asking where the teabags are.

Producer/Gary Brown

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Jennings' Little Hut Ep 1/5 Monday 12 to Friday 16 May 3.30-3.45pm BBC RADIO 4

Mark Williams reads a new serialisation, abridged by Roy Apps, of one of Anthony Buckeridge's classic school stories, in which Jennings and his loyal friend, Darbishire, build a hut, lose a goldfish, smash a cucumber frame and embarrass the headmaster in front of the school's most distinguished old boy.

The woodland at Lindbury Court School becomes squatters' territory when Jennings comes up with the idea of building huts out of reeds and branches. Jennings and Darbishire are thrilled with their construction, which even includes a patented pre-fabricated ventilating shaft, a special irrigation drainage canal and a pontoon suspension bridge. But things can only go horribly wrong for Jennings when he is put in charge of Elmer, the treasured goldfish, and, even worse, the headmaster pays the squatters a visit.

Buckeridge was sent to boarding school in Sussex at the age of eight. After leaving university he worked as a tutor in a preparatory school, and eventually gave up teaching to write full time. The Jennings stories originally began as radio plays on Children's Hour in 1948. There are 25 Jennings titles in total, which have sold over six million books worldwide. Buckeridge died in 2004.

Reader/Mark Williams, Producer/David Blount

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Just over a year after the death of broadcaster Nick Clarke, his widow, Barbara Want, investigates the way we as a society deal – or fail to deal – with bereavement.

When Nick Clarke died, leading politicians and journalists paid tribute and the BBC Radio 4 website hosted some 3,000 pages of acknowledgment, accolade and condolence. But Barbara's personal experience was a marked contrast.

In this programme, Barbara tries to understand what lies behind a common experience – that society is unable to talk openly about death. She tells her story of how those around her, both close and more distant, have found it almost impossible to address her loss. When words are spoken they are nearly always the same: "I don't know what to say..."

Barbara challenges people in her local community about her feelings of isolation since Nick's death and mirrors her journey with an investigation into the British psyche, trying to find out what it is about our culture that makes us so uncomfortable with bereavement, when other cultures have specialised rituals to support and allow the pain, sorrow, and sometimes madness, of grief.

Presenter/Barbara Want, Producer/Jo Coombs

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Book At Bedtime – The Behaviour Of Moths Ep 1/10 Monday 12 to Friday 16 May 10.45-11.00pm BBC RADIO 4

This week's Book At Bedtime offering features a memorable debut novel from Poppy Adams about secrets, grief, loss and moths. Seventy-year-old Ginny lives as a recluse in Bulberrow Court, the house she grew up in. Standing at the window of the crumbling old house, she waits for her first visitor for years – her adored younger sister, Vivien. It's been over 40 years since Vivien was home, whereas Ginny, who has spent her life studying moths, has rarely ventured outside it.

The novel takes place over the course of a single weekend, following Vivien's arrival. Grief, loss and old rivalries build up over the weekend – they talk about their childhood together at Bulberrow, their mother's sudden death, Vivien's departure into the outside world and the request Vivien made of Ginny when she married and couldn't bear her husband a child. As Ginny's memories unfold, it becomes clear that she may not just be an elderly and eccentric narrator, but an extremely unreliable one as well.

Reader/TBC, Producer/Sara Davies

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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With their modern take on the gang show, IF.comedy award-nominees Pappy's Fun Club became the hit of last year's Edinburgh Fringe.

Featuring Ben Clarke, Matthew Crosby, Brendan Dodds and Tom Parry, their mixture of gag-heavy writing and exuberant performance style seems able to cheer the most cynical of audiences and leads to a radio show lying somewhere between Round The Horne, TFI Friday and The Muppet Show.

Barry Cryer and singer Lyla Foy guest star.

Producer/Colin Anderson

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Monday 12 May 2008

Mark Saggers hosts tonight's edition of 5 Live Sport and takes a look at all today's latest stories, offering expert analysis.

At 8pm, the Monday Night Club features lively football debate looking at the big talking points from the weekend, including Mark Clemmit's take on the pick of the stories from the Coca-Cola Football League.

Presenter/Mark Saggers, Producer/Louise Sutton

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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BBC 6 MUSIC Monday 12 May 2008

Shaun Keaveny chats to LA rock and pop band Sparks. Comprising of brothers Ron and Russell Mael, Sparks are best known for their quirky approach to songwriting and the contrast between Russell's wide-eyed hyperactive frontman antics and Ron's sedentary scowling.

Shaun welcomes them in to the studio to talk about their upcoming record-breaking residency at London's Islington Academy, where they will be performing their discography of 21 albums in chronological order over 21 nights.

At 9.30pm, listeners have another chance to hear This Town Ain't Big Enough – The Story Of Sparks, on 6 Music Plays It Again.

Presenter/Shaun Keaveny, Producer/TBC

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip join George Lamb and perform a live session in the BBC 6 Music Hub this evening. The band play tracks from their new album, Angles, which is released today.

Presenter/George Lamb, Producer/Mike Hanson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Sparks fan Mark Radcliffe charts the life and times of one of pop's most enigmatic bands. The programme concludes tomorrow.

Ron and Russell Mael from Sparks are Shaun Keaveny's special guests this morning, from 7am.

Presenter/Mark Radcliffe, Repeat Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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BBC ASIAN NETWORK Monday 12 May 2008

The consultant tells Fatima's parents she won't recover from her injuries, as the Asian drama returns for another week. Jamil and Firdos are devastated. When Zak arrives in handcuffs, Firdos screams out that it is all Zak's fault. Khatija takes Zak aside to break the terrible news.

Both families later say their goodbyes to Fatima and leave Zak alone with his wife. Zak tells Fatima how scared he is about having to carry on without her, as he breaks down and sobs his heart out.

The consultant is played by Terry Pearson, Fatima by Gia Avan, Jamil by Shiv Grewal, Firdos by Sameena Zehra, Zak by Jetinder Summan and Khatija by Miriam Ali.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

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After a Welsh student is excluded from her school for wearing a Kara – a religious bangle – Symbol-ed Out asks whether all religious symbols should be allowed to be worn in schools. It also asks why some schools have a liberal approach and others opt for a more draconian rigid uniform policy.

In a survey commissioned for the BBC's Asian Network, the programme also asked British respondents how they felt about the wearing of religious symbols. The results of this exclusive poll will be released on 7 May.

Producer/Perminder Khatkar

BBC Asian Network Publicity

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BBC WORLD SERVICE Monday 12 May 2008

Misha Glenny charts the explosion of international crime since the fall of the Soviet Bloc and the end of Apartheid and, in today's penultimate episode, explores Brazil's connections with cyber-crime.

Presenter/Misha Glenny, Producers/John Murphy and
Linda Pressly

BBC World Service Publicity

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