Programme Information

Tuesday 15 July 2008

BBC RADIO 2 Tuesday 15 July 2008

South Africa's father figure
Nelson Mandela is still
campaigning at 90

Michael Buerk presents a documentary marking the 90th birthday of Robben Island Prisoner No. 46664.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela's lifelong fight against inequality and injustice – he was incarcerated in 1964, released 27 years later and became the first President of South Africa in a fully democratic election – has been well documented but, since his retirement in 1999, he has been far from idle.

As he approaches his 90th birthday, the man known to South Africans as Madiba, or quite simply Dad, has led the campaign to increase global awareness of the HIV/Aids pandemic sweeping South Africa; more than six million people are infected, around half a million people die each year and Mandela himself lost his son Makgatho from Aids in 2005.

Mandela's campaign draws on the universal language of music and South African and Western musicians have rallied to the call with concerts around the world. Twenty years after Wembley hosted a 70th birthday tribute, which called for his release from imprisonment, on 27 June the stadium hosted another concert, this time to celebrate Mandela's 90th birthday.

The programme features contributions from musicians and artists including Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, Zucchero, the Soweto Gospel Choir and prominent South African musicians such as Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Johnny Clegg, who formed the first multi-racial band in apartheid South Africa. It also features interviews with representatives from Mandela's own Foundation and those closest to him, as well as with ordinary South African people living each day with HIV and Aids.

"From the pain comes the suffering, from the suffering comes the dream, from the dream comes the vision, from the vision comes the people, from the people comes the power, from the power comes the change, but if the world could only have one father, the man we would want to be our father is Madiba, Mr Nelson Mandela." Peter Gabriel, 2003.

Presenter/Michael Buerk, Producer/Helen Chetwynd

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Zoe Ball concludes the countdown of The Greatest Dance Records Of All Time by revealing the winning track.

This three part series is an accompaniment to Radio 2's Dance Music Season which remembers the Second Summer Of Love, 20 years after the acid house scene exploded in the UK.

A panel of dance music experts drew up a shortlist of 20 records which spanned those years and reflected on their musical merit and importance in the narrative of UK dance music. Radio 2 listeners were invited to vote for their favourite dance track from the shortlist and tonight's programme tells the story behind the top three.

Presenter/Zoe Ball, Producer/Simon Poole

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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BBC RADIO 3 Tuesday 15 July 2008

This week Donald Macleod takes listeners through the five decades of Bach's music, revealing a fascinating picture of the composer's evolving style.

Today he delves into Bach's creative outpourings during the 1710s, much of which was spent at the court of Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar. Music includes Bach's earliest extant chamber work, a towering masterpiece of the organ literature, and two highly original – and strongly contrasted – cantatas.

It was written in Bach's obituary more than 250 years ago: "If ever a composer showed polyphony in its greatest strength, it was certainly our late lamented Bach. If ever a musician employed the most hidden secrets of harmony with the most skilled artistry, it was certainly our Bach." Macleod argues that this holds true today.

He also says that Bach's musical objectives remained essentially constant through his lifetime – he just became more and more formidably capable of achieving them. Nonetheless, there's a subtle stylistic development through Bach's composing career.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Chris Barstow

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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With recent research suggesting that those who did not talk about their experiences in the aftermath of 9/11 coped better psychologically than those that shared their grief, Philip Dodd hosts a debate asking whether we should resurrect the stiff upper lip.

A recent report into education in Britain argues that "therapy culture" has invaded schools and universities, creating a generation of "infantilised" students and lecturers unable to cope with rigorous academic life. The report's authors argue that people are encouraged to express themselves, but criticism is discouraged, which weakens academic freedom. They say: "Children are becoming neurotic and introverted. The more you obsess about your difficulties, the harder they are to put behind you."

The programme discusses whether people would be psychologically healthier and more successful if they talked less, bottled it up more and just got on with it.

Presenter/Philip Dodd, Producer/Laura Thomas

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BBC RADIO 4 Tuesday 15 July 2008

It's a natural assumption that audiences should be in the presence of magicians and conjurers as they perform their art – the complicity of bafflement seems to require the presence of both parties. But there's a long and honourable tradition of magic performed on the radio to audiences listening, and sometimes participating, at home.

Magician and musician Grant Gordon, lately of The Divine Comedy, explores the rich history of magic on the radio.

Grant encounters Sid and Lesley Piddington and their celebrated radio mind-reading act, the great Sidani confounding Kenneth Horne in a post-war variety show, Uri Geller bending keys whilst sitting in Anthony Clare's psychiatrist's chair, John Wade sawing Barry Wordsworth in half, David Berglas engaged in some magical carpentry and Jack Delvin escaping from a lift in Bush House, the London home of BBC World Service.

Grant hears from magicians Darryl Rose, Paul Zenon, Ali Bongo and Derren Brown; he listens in to Chris Moyles and Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1; and talks to magic buffs Steve Allen and Brian Sibley. To perpetuate the tradition of radio magic Grant persuades magician Darryl Rose to perform a new radio trick involving the BBC Radio 4 website with the listeners to the programme – before your very ears!

Presenter/Grant Gordon, Producer/Roger Elsgood

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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The huge attendance at Ralph Vaughan Williams's memorial service at Westminster Abbey upon his death 50 years ago was a measure of the esteem in which the composer was held.

To many, he was known as "Uncle Ralph" – genial, generous, always anxious to help fellow-composers find their way. Not, then, the most obvious subject for a warts-and-all anniversary programme – except it is now clear that Ralph and his second wife Ursula began an affair in early 1938, 13 years before the death of his first wife, Adeline, who had been fighting arthritis since the early years of their marriage.

Late Love, Late Life hears a range of opinion about the marriage and the composer's so-called "womanising", but also tries to discern what effect Ralph's relationships with Adeline and Ursula had on his music, along with the vital element of his experiences in the Great War.

Presented by renowned cellist and champion of British music Julian Lloyd Webber, the programme begins on location in Arras, France where Vaughan Williams served with the medical corps, witnessing horrific scenes and losing many close friends. Some say his music, barring the occasional masterpiece, was never the same after the war as it had been in the days when works such as the Tallis Fantasia and the Sea Symphony received great acclaim.

Late Love, Late Life includes interviews with Vaughan Williams's biographer Michael Kennedy; Roy Douglas, who worked with RVW on preparing his late scores for performance; friend Belinda Norman-Butler; Sir David Willcocks, formerly director of music at King's College Cambridge; Lord Armstrong, a close friend; and Jerrold Northrop Moore, famed as Elgar's biographer, but also a Vaughan Williams authority, who knew Ursula well.

Presenter/Julian Lloyd Webber, Producer/Andrew Green

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Tuesday 15 July 2008

Arlo White presents the latest sports news and debate, including the build-up to the Open Golf Championship from Royal Birkdale and the Tour de France.

Presenter/Arlo White, Producer/Haydn Parry

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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BBC 6 MUSIC Tuesday 15 July 2008

A Feast Of Fringe continues as Nemone welcomes writer and comic Sarah Millican in to the studio. Sarah started doing stand-up in 2004 and has since been nominated for the BBC New Comedy Awards and Chortle Best Newcomer. She tells Nemone about her Edinburgh show, Sarah Millican's Not Nice, in which she tells the truth about her divorce, about fancying gorillas and about being thrown off the Asda shuttlebus.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Marc Riley welcomes one man band Rob Jones, aka The Voluntary Butler Scheme, in to the studio for a live session.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe introduces special highlights from the BBC archives, including Zero 7 recorded at Glastonbury in 2004 and Maximo Park recorded in the 6 Music Hub back in 2005.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Lisa Kenlock

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Iron Maiden vocalist and BBC 6 Music DJ Bruce Dickinson looks back at memorable years in the rock almanac. In the final part of the series, Bruce assesses 1982 with music from Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, Def Leppard and his own band.

Presenter/Bruce Dickinson, Repeat Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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BBC ASIAN NETWORK Tuesday 15 July 2008

Mushtaq is to unveil the new executive box and stands at Silverhill Rangers, in the latest visit to Silver Street. Rozena and Sameer arrive armed with a camcorder. Arun is avoiding his parents but Pradeep soon catches up with him.

Rita and Pradeep are impressed by the box named after Rita's dad and Rozena and Sameer are touched to see another has been named after Adam. An emotional Rozena announces she is ready to try for another baby, but is it too soon?

Mushtaq is played by Paul Bhattacharjee, Rozena by Pooja Ghai, Sameer by Alex Caan, Arun by Naithan Ariane, Pradeep by Ashvin-Kumar Joshi and Rita by Bharti Patel.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

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