Programme Information

Saturday 11 October 2008

BBC RADIO 2 Saturday 11 October 2008

Jont and Emiliana Torrini perform in session on this week's Dermot O'Leary show.

Jont first performed on Dermot's show three years ago and has since spent his time touring the world, playing his Unlit shows in people's homes – a hybrid of a house-party and gig – featuring various different invited performers in changing locations. He returns to perform the single Let's Roll.

Emiliana Torrini is an Icelandic singer whose credits include co-writing and producing Slow for Kylie. She is back with her own material and this afternoon performs Big Jumps from new album Me And Armini.

Presenter/Dermot O'Leary, Producer/Ben Walker

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Following the recent death of Richard Wright, Radio 2 presents the story of his days in Pink Floyd, narrated entirely by Richard himself.

Drawing from BBC archive and an exclusive interview conducted by producer Mark Hagen in September 2007 – the last radio interview that Wright gave – Richard offers his unique perspective on 40 years as a member of one of the world's great rock bands.

Music, all composed by Richard, includes: Remember A Day; Us And Them; The Great Gig In The Sky; Sysyphus; Echoes; Wearing The Inside Out; and Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Producer/Mark Hagen

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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BBC RADIO 3 Saturday 11 October 2008

Key figures from the arts, media, politics and science offer their personal cultural thoughts for the day in Free Thought, broadcast daily, within Breakfast, on BBC Radio 3.

Free Thought launches Free Thinking 08, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Merseyside's festival of ideas, and marks Liverpool's special role as European Capital of Culture 2008. The speakers include prominent Liverpudlians and a diverse range of figures from the UK and beyond. The two-minute contributions can be a reflection or provocation, or simply shed a light on a corner of Britain's cultural life. They are broadcast in the 100 days leading up to the festival which starts on Friday 31 October.

This week's contributors include screenwriter and author Lynda La Plante and Professor Steve Connor, Professor of Modern Literature at Birkbeck.

Producer/Steve Urquhart

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Jean-Marie Leclair was one of the foremost French violinists and composers of his day. However, in October 1764 he was brutally murdered. Lucie Skeaping considers the evidence.

Leclair's story is one of the most mysterious of the French Baroque period. He began life as a lace-maker before finding a career as a dancer and, eventually, as a virtuoso violinist and composer.

He became so celebrated that he was known as the "French Corelli". He soon came to the attention of the King and his compositions became hugely popular. Then, in 1758, Leclair's marriage broke up and he chose to live in a dangerous area of Paris despite being relatively affluent.

One morning, his gardener, suspicious that Leclair's garden gate had been left open, ventured inside and discovered him lying murdered in a pool of blood. He had been stabbed three times. The Parisian police, under the auspices of the celebrated French Lieutenant General of Police, Antoine de Sartine, held a thorough investigation.

Lucie Skeaping tries to uncover the truth. Did Leclair's nephew, Francois, kill him in a fit of pique or was it Leclair's impoverished wife, Louise? Was it the gardener or could it have been a psychopathic stranger? The programme is illustrated with a selection of Leclair's music.

Presenter/Lucie Skeaping, Producer/Chris Wines

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Lucy Duran travels to Mali to hear traditional and modern players of the African xylophone, the balafon. This instrument has been used for centuries to announce news or simply to play at parties. Following a celebration in a large village, there is a performance by Neba Solo, who thrilled a festival audience of 10,000 with the resonant tones of the Senufo bass balafon. At the sound of the deeply resonant notes of the instrument, the crowd, both young and old, rose to their feet and started dancing.

The balafon has a history that dates back at least to the 12th century. Traditionally, it has been used for celebration and dancing and for conveying messages from one village to another – announcing a birth, a death, the threat of war, or simply a party.

Neba Solo is one of Mali's biggest stars, yet he is little known outside his own country. He values the musician's role as a bringer of social messages, singing about Aids and the problems of poverty.

Presenter/Lucy Duran, Producer/Roger Short

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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This week's Jazz Library celebrates the 80th birthday of pianist Junior Mance, one of the most accomplished players in jazz history.

Alyn Shipton talks to him about his recorded output and, together, they select discs that not only cover Mance's solo work, but his collaborations with the likes of Gene Ammons, Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderley and Lester Young.

Presenter/Producer/Alyn Shipton

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Peter Eotvos's Love And Other Demons, jointly commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, is heard in its world premiere performance recorded at Glyndebourne earlier this year.

Sierva Maria de Todos Los Angeles is a 12-year-old girl who, neglected by her parents, has been brought up by slaves. When she's bitten by a rabid dog, the town's bishop believes her strange behaviour to be caused by demonic possession. He puts his librarian, Father Delaura, in charge of exorcising them. But Delaura soon finds that he's fighting demons of his own as he falls hopelessly in love with the girl.

Based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novella, Peter Eotvos's new opera is a multi-layered story told in Marquez's magical-realist style, where the boundaries between reality and fantasy are intriguingly blurred.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Festival Chorus are conducted by Vladimir Jurowski and the starry cast includes Allison Bell, Felicity Palmer, Jean Rigby and Robert Brubaker.

The broadcast includes interviews with Edward Kemp about the magical realist style, conductor Vladimir Jurowski on the opera's sound world and Peter Eotvos himself explains the composition process.

Presenter/Andrew McGregor, Producer/Ellie Mant

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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The Wire – Random Saturday 11 October 8.50-9.40pm BBC RADIO 3

The first in this brand new series of The Wire, is a radio adaptation of Debbie Tucker Green's acclaimed stage play which was first produced at the Royal Court earlier this year. Nadine Marshall plays four characters in a family whose ordinary day is shattered by unforeseen disaster.

It's just an ordinary day, but for one black family, a random event is going to change everything. At work, sister gets a voicemail message from her mother urging her to come home. When she gets there, two police cars wait outside. Sister and her father have to take a journey to identify her brother's body. He was killed in a random attack.

The cast also includes Petra Letang, Richie Campbell, Manjeet Mann, Jill Cardo, Inam Mirza and Gunnar Cauthery.

Debbie Tucker Green's first radio play, Freefall, was broadcast on Radio 3 five years ago. Her stage plays include Stoning Mary (Royal Court 2005) and the premiere of Random earlier this year also at London's Royal Court Theatre.

Producer/Jeremy Mortimer

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Maurice Duruflé's hauntingly beautiful Requiem, infused with the spirit and arching lines of Gregorian chant, is performed here by the BBC Singers, the BBC Concert Orchestra and soloists Judith Harris and Stephen Charlesworth, recorded in St Albans Abbey.

Maurice Duruflé's life spanned the first nine decades of the 20th century and, for most of his adult years, he was a key figure in the world of the French organ.

The most self-critical of composers, his published works can be counted more or less on two hands. He said he felt incapable of adding anything significant to the piano repertory, viewed the string quartet with apprehension, and envisaged the idea of composing a song with terror. But, in 1947, while working on a suite of organ pieces based on plainsong Mass For The Dead, his publisher suggested an idea which captured Duruflé's imagination: a choral, liturgical, Requiem.

The result was a piece which has become well known as a much-loved choral classic of the 20th century. As a model, Duruflé took Fauré's Requiem – his piece closely shadowing the outline of Fauré's piece, born of the enormous admiration and respect Duruflé felt towards his elder colleague.

Duruflé dedicated his Requiem to the memory of his father. It exists in three versions, for different forces. Tonight's performance, recorded at the 2001 St Albans International Organ Festival, uses the seldom-heard version for chorus, soloists and large orchestra.

Producer/Michael Emery

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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Each month, Rational Rec orchestrate a social occasion – mixing sound, music, text, performance and film.

In this programme, Alwynne Pritchard reports and introduces performances from Rational Rec's lively night at this year's Spitalfields Festival.

Held in the atmospheric and picturesque setting of Wilton's Music Hall in London's East End, there is music spilling out all over the theatre. A cello solo by Christopher Fox is performed in a private space to a privileged few. There are also performances from Plus Minus, Michael Finnissy and The Vacuum Cleaner.

The organisers of Rational Rec (artist Russell Martin, composer Matthew Shlomowitz and live arts organiser and broadcaster Cecilia Wee) talk to Alwynne about their aesthetic aims and experiences after three seasons of this monthly event.

Presenter/Alwynne Pritchard, Producer/Philip Tagney

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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BBC RADIO 4 Saturday 11 October 2008

Taking their name from the Latin word for a black scorpion commonly found in Iraq, Acrassicauda are Iraq's highest-profile heavy metal band. They describe themselves not as children of rock and roll but as children of war. Formed in 2000, during Saddam's reign, they managed to perform in front of wildly enthusiastic audiences, despite the violence and chaos that followed his fall.

Like many other Iraqis, the band members were forced to flee their homes for their own safety. The four band members initially hoped to settle in Syria, but are now living as refugees in Turkey and struggling to continue performing their music.

It is here, in Turkey, where the programme makers caught up with them in rehearsal. Like so many bands, for the good times to roll, they await that elusive record deal. But, unlike others, they also hope for an asylum claim to come good. The musicians hope that, one day, they will be granted entry to the United States - a heavy metal haven.

Producers/Arlen Harris and Peregrine Andrews

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Following on from the story told in last week's Saturday Play, The Last Confession, today's story explores some of the repercussions of the first play's events.

This gripping drama, exposing the backstage intrigue around the most dramatic papal conclave of modern times, takes listeners behind the scenes at one of the Western world's most arcane and sophisticated political events.

Thirty years ago, in 1978, the Catholic Church faced a crisis: its newly elected head, the humble and much-loved John Paul I, died, after barely a month in office. The struggle between progressive and conservative forces to choose his successor was set to be a bitter one. Hugh Costello's dramatic account of these events opens on October 10, four days before the Conclave of Cardinals is to take place.

Half a dozen progressive cardinals meet, informally, in a small room in the Vatican to plan their stratagem. They know Benelli, their candidate, is likely to be derailed by conservative enemies. Suitable Italian candidates are thin on the ground. No non-Italian has held the post since Adrian VI in the early 16th century. But their discussion leads them to a truly radical notion. What if the next Pope wasn't Italian at all?

The cast includes: David Calder as Cardinal Franz Koenig; Alison Reid as Hannah Popper; Nicholas Le Prevost as Cardinal Giovanni Benelli; Andrew Hilton as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla; Nigel Anthony as Cardinal Jean Villot; Paul Humpoletz as Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider; Paul Nicholson as Cardinal Giuseppe Siri; Christian Rodska as Cardinal John Krol; Jonathan Nibbs as Monsignor Virgilio Noe; Bill Wallis as Cardinal Johannes Willebrands; David Collins as Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns; and Paul Dodgson as Uli Melzer.

Producer/Sara Davies

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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David Cannadine traces 75 years of the BBC's relationship with the Royal Family: from the awed reverence of the early Richard Dimbleby broadcasts, through royal deaths, abdications, marriages, divorces, triumphs, tragedies and It's A Royal Knockout.

David discovers how the Palace reacted to the dramatic revelations made by Princess Diana on Panorama and what the BBC's royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell, thought of being publicly branded "that awful man" by the heir to the throne.

Joining Nicholas Witchell in commenting on the ups and downs of the BBC's relationship with the royal family are two former Palace press officers; film-maker Edward Mirzoeff, broadcaster and author of On Royalty; Jeremy Paxman, and the BBC's official historian, Professor Jean Seaton.

Presenter/David Cannadine, Producer/Brian King

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Saturday 11 October 2008

Eamonn Holmes looks ahead to all the weekend's sporting activity, with two hours of chat and interviews with guests from the world of sports and entertainment.

Eamonn is joined by studio regulars Graham Poll, Sam Delaney and Lynsey Horn.

Presenter/Eamonn Holmes, Producer/Anna Stewart

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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5 Live Sport Saturday 11 October 12.00noon-7.15pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Pougatch presents an afternoon of international football, live, from Wembley Stadium, with coverage of the day's 2010 World Cup qualifying matches. Listeners can also enjoy all the sports news and reaction from the qualifying round at the Japenese Grand Prix.

From 3pm, there is live commentary from Hampden Park of Scotland v Norway. From 5.15pm there is live commentary of England's first home fixture of the 2012 World Cup qualifying campaign versus Kazakhstan. There are also regular updates from Wales v Liechtenstein.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Adrian Williams

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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Alan Green hosts the fans' football phone-in, with reaction to all the day's World Cup qualifiers, plus live updates from Slovenia v Northern Ireland.

Listeners can give their views to Alan by phone on 0500 909 693 (free from BT landlines), by text on 85058 (at network rates) or via email on 606@bbc.co.uk

Presenter/Alan Green, Producer/Patrick Campbell

BBc Radio 5 Live Publicity

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Ian Dennis presents live, second-half commentary of the 2010 World Cup qualifier between Slovenia and Northern Ireland from the Ljudski Vrt Stadium.

Presenter/Ian Dennis, Producer/Adrian Williams

BBC Radio Five Live Publicity

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BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA Saturday 11 October 2008

Live commentary of the 2010 World Cup qualifier between Wales and Liechtenstein comes from Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio Five Live Publicity

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BBC WORLD SERVICE Saturday 11 October 2008

The BBC's US08 Election bus tour features BBC journalists travelling from LA to New York, across 16 states. The tour aims to report to the world on what Americans want from the coming election, and on what the rest of the world wants from America.

The bus trip across America aims to stimulate interest and debate about the 2008 US Presidential Election among a world-wide audience. Richard Sambrook, Director of BBC Global News, comments that the bus is a symbol of how BBC World Service has moved into the "tri-media" age.

Steve Titherington, Executive Editor of BBC Global News, says: "It has taken hours of planning, discussions, brainstorms and meetings for a journalistic endeavour the likes of which hasn't been seen before in the BBC's international news services. Thankfully, this is proving an election race which, although pretty interesting months back when the idea was hatched, is one that is now absolutely fascinating."

The multi-media bus – which uses radio, the web and television – is also multilingual. The 12 BBC World Service language services involved include Persian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Arabic, Central Asian, Hindi, Urdu, Pashto, Albanian, Russian, French and Swahili. World News TV and BBC online will also be on board at various stages of the 38-day, 4,000-mile journey.

BBC World Service radio transmits news, interviews, debate and discussion throughout the run-up to the Election, linking to US radio stations, universities, community groups and individual citizens. On the bus is a team seeking to discover what Americans require from their next president and asking what the rest of the world wants from America.

Programming from the tour is broadcast on BBC World Service English and 12 BBC World Service language services, BBC World News, BBC News TV, BBC Arabic TV, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 5 Live, www.bbc.com/uselection and www.bbcworldservice.com/talkingamerica.

BBC World Service Publicity

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