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Programme InformationNetwork Radio Week 23Saturday 31 May 2008 |
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Comedian Russell Kane returns to host a fifth series of Out To Lunch.
Russell serves up a 30-minute mix of character, sketch and stand-up comedy, with the help of seasoned Lunchers Dan Antopolski, Micky Flanagan and Colin & Fergus, as well as this week's special guest, Stephen K Amos.
The show's resident German comedy ambassador, Henning Wehn, is back solving listeners' problems in his Saturday Surgery, while new feature My Life In A Trailer sees a member of the studio audience receive the Hollywood treatment as an incident in their life gets turned into a film pitch.
Presenter/Russell Kane, Producer/Mark Augustyn
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Caroline Quentin and Andy Taylor return for a second series of BBC Radio 2's web 2.0 sitcom On The Blog, which takes a satirical sideswipe at the follies of the internet.
Andy Taylor plays anorak war game enthusiast Andrew Glasgow, who still lives at home with his terrifying Czech mother (Caroline Quentin), blogging obsessively about his online quest for love, life and historically accurate re-enactments of famous battles through the ages.
In the first episode, a chance online encounter leads Andrew to the bright lights of London in search of true love and cagoules.
Writers/Dave Marks, Kris Dyer and Andy Taylor,
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
As BBC Radio 2 celebrates Liverpool's year as European City Of Culture with two weeks of themed programming, Dermot O'Leary is joined by celebrated Merseyside band The Zutons.
Emerging at the same time as Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs back in 2004 – and in the wake of fellow Liverpudlians The Coral – The Zutons' hook-laden pop music made an instant connection with the British public. Their first album, Who Killed The Zutons? spawned the hit singles Pressure Point and Confusion, and secured the band a Mercury Music Prize nomination. Their third album, You Can Do Anything, is released this month.
Dermot also has live tracks from Texas front woman Sharleen Spiteri, who releases her debut solo album, Melody, next month. Not only did Sharleen write the whole album but she also produced it: "It's my dream Nancy and Lee Hazlewood record, but with Johnny Cash, Motown, Elvis, The Righteous Brothers, all these things thrown in. That's what it boils down to... my own ultimate personal fantasy record."
Presenter/Dermot O'Leary, Producer/Ben Walker
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
As BBC Radio 2 marks Liverpool's status as European City Of Culture, Steve Lamacq celebrates one of the city's musical landmarks – a club called Eric's.
Eric's opened in Liverpool city centre on 1 October 1976 on the same street as the legendary Cavern Club. Even though the club closed just four years later, and its reputation has been overshadowed by The Cavern, Eric's impact on the Merseyside music scene was significant.
Just as The Cavern played party host to the rock 'n' roll explosion of the Sixties, Eric's championed the music of the late Seventies, embracing jazz, reggae, folk music, performance poetry and punk along the way. The list of performing alumni includes Blondie, The Clash, The Jam and Ultravox, as well as then little-known groups such as The Police and the Sex Pistols, who played Eric's on their way to stardom.
The club was run by Roger Eagle, Ken Testi and Pete Fulwell, who had strong local music ties and whose open-door policy encouraged bands to form and perform. OMD initially formed for a one-off show at Eric's, while Echo & The Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes played their first gigs there.
A host of contributors, including Echo & The Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch, remember the birth of a whole new Liverpool music scene that would travel far beyond the city centre.
Presenter/Steve Lamacq, Producer/Danny O'Connor
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Lucy Duran introduces a profile of Bassekou Kouyate, double winner in this year's BBC Radio 3 Awards For World Music, recorded in his home town of Ségou in central Mali.
Winner of the African category and Album Of The Year for his debut album Segu Blue, Bassekou is a virtuoso player of the ngoni, a four-stringed African lute, often said to be the predecessor of the banjo. Bassekou's ngoni quartet, Ngoni Ba, accompanied by percussion and the vocals of his wife, Amy Sacko, creates a brand of deep Malian blues which has gathered widespread acclaim and a host of high-profile endorsements from, among others, Taj Mahal, Damon Albarn and Fatboy Slim. Segu Blue celebrates the music of Ségou, Bassekou's home region on the river Niger in Mali.
World Routes hears Ngoni Ba performing on the floating stage at the Festival On The Niger in Segou, where Bassekou is something of a local hero. There is also a performance recorded at his family village close to the banks of the Niger, featuring a song with his mother Yakare Damba, a veteran singer who was a much-resepcted griot (West African poet/wandering musician) in her own right.
Presenter/Lucy Duran, Producer/Roger Short
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Sir Harrison Birtwistle's latest opera, The Minotaur, commissioned by the Royal Opera and recorded at Covent Garden, was much praised at its world prèmiere in April and now opera lovers have the chance to hear it on BBC Radio 3.
It's the latest in a long line of operas by Birtwistle that have at their heart a larger-than-life, mythical creature. The first came 40 years ago with Mr Punch in Punch And Judy (which will be broadcast in Opera On 3 on 21 June). Almost 10 years later came the eponymous hero of Gawain, along with Orpehus and the Green Knight, and then – perhaps the oddest of all these strange creatures – King Kong in The Second Mrs Kong.
Birtwistle returns to Greek myth for The Minotaur, and the opera follows the famous story pretty faithfully. Hidden away deep in the labyrinth in Crete lies the man with the bull's head – the Minotaur – who feeds on young men and women sent as tribute from Athens. One day the hero, Theseus, arrives among these innocents. With the help of Ariadne and her thread, he ventures into the labyrinth and kills the beast.
So what is the Minotaur? Is it man or beast? The ambiguity is precisely what interested Birtwistle and his librettist David Harsent, and the result of their collaboration is a masterpiece of musical theatre. John Tomlinson, a devotee of Birtwistle's music, takes the title role, with Christine Rice as Ariadne and Johan Reuter as Theseus. The Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera are conducted by Antonio Pappano.
Presenter/Ivan Hewett, Producer/Anthony Sellors
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Between The Ears – The Wash is an extended radio poem by poet laureate Andrew Motion about the bleak, beautiful and atmospheric Lincolnshire and Norfolk Wash. This great, shallow and treacherous place is half landscape, half seascape and all dreamscape. It is very hard to get on to it, there is no way across it and it takes hours to get around it. It is a muddy space waiting to be filled with water and the imagination. Things lost there are rarely found.
The poem explores the Wash and its hinterland, taking a trip out to the banks – Breast Sand, Bulldog Sand, Roger Sand and Old South Sand – fens, dykes and ditches, brought to life by Motion's prose and an evocative soundscape including the sonic boom of fighter planes, bird song, the keening of bells and buoys and the sluice and suck of the tide in channels and across sandbanks.
Presenter and Writer/Andrew Motion, Producer/Tim Dee
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Bringing listeners bang up to date with the best new music from leading young composers around Central Europe, Hear And Now offers the chance to hear the first performances in the UK of contemporary work by German trio Enno Poppe, Charlotte Seither and Iris ter Schiphorst, recorded specially for the programme and performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and pianist Mark Knoop.
Enno Poppe is a composer with a strong rhythmic drive and an ear for the strangest instrumental combinations. His music drifts in and out of Western tuning, adding to the generally surrealistic atmosphere. Charlotte Seither is largely concerned with creating new sound-colours in her Music For Orchestra, including a range of unusual percussion instruments; and Iris ter Schiphorst reflects the influence of film and TV images in her composing, building a sequence of "snapshots" in sound which fade in and out, overlap and appear in different perspectives.
Presenter Alwynne Pritchard also interviews Poppe and Seither about their music and aesthetic concerns.
Presenter/Alwynne Pritchard, Producer/Philip Tagney
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Journalist Miranda Sawyer was one year old in 1968. In this new series, she casts a fresh, irreverent eye over the British cultural landscape of 40 years ago.
In this first programme, Miranda explores clichés about sex in the late Sixties by going back to some of the key films, plays and TV dramas of the time. This is the year in which theatre censorship was finally abolished, and Miranda talks to actor and singer Paul Nicholas about starring in the London production of Hair, complete with full-on nudity and a hymn to the joys of oral sex.
Miranda also examines the truth about the era of supposed sexual liberation. She talks to Beatles biographer Hunter Davies about why he decided to write about teenagers in Stevenage, and groundbreaking feminist writer Germaine Greer discusses how British culture was really tuning into – and driving – changes in British society.
Miranda discovers how some writers depicted sexual relationships, portraying them as manipulative, even violent, power games – from David Mercer's TV drama Let's Murder Vivaldi (an adaptation of which can be heard in the Saturday Play at 2.30pm today), to the Mick Jagger movie Performance and Christopher Hampton's play Total Eclipse, which explored the destructive affair of the French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.
This series is part of BBC Radio 4's 1968 – Myth Or Reality? season, marking the 40th anniversary of a remarkable year which saw extraordinary upheavals worldwide.
Presenter/Miranda Sawyer, Producer/Phil Tinline
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Haydn Gwynne and Patrick Malahide star in this adaptation of David Mercer's groundbreaking 1968 TV drama.
Monica and Gerald aren't happy together. Gerald keeps bringing home sensitive young women for strawberries and Bartók; the latest one is Julie and she's not happy with her boyfriend, Ben, either. Ben keeps throwing her possessions around and threatening her with violence.
When Julie walks out on Ben and Monica suggests divorce to Gerald, Julie and Gerald decide they should go away together. They think that spending a night on the Suffolk coast might resolve everything – in one way or another.
Haydn Gwynne plays Monica, Patrick Malahide plays Gerald, Clare Lawrence plays Julie and Toby Stephens plays Ben.
Let's Murder Vivaldi was first produced in 1968 as a BBC TV Wednesday Play – the predecessor of Play For Today. Playwright David Mercer (1928-1980) was considered a major innovator in screen drama, his TV plays exploiting the intimacy of the medium while utilising bold, often unsettling, dialogue. This broadcast is part of BBC Radio 4's 1968 – Myth Or Reality? season, marking the 40th anniversary of a remarkable year which saw extraordinary upheavals worldwide.
Producer/Peter Kavanagh
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Sir John Tusa continues to trace, day by day, the major political, cultural and social events of 1968 as they happened, drawing on the BBC and other vivid news archive and the music of the time.
This week's programmes reflect the week in which Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe gets married; 34 men, one woman and a dog get ready to set sail from Plymouth; one of the last public executioners shows his sensitive side; Biafran peace talks collapse; and bingo threatens pony rides at Epsom.
There are anti-Vietnam War protests in Delhi; British diplomats plead with Yugoslavia for the freedom of coach driver Philip Dobson; singer Andy Williams performs in the UK for the first time; pop artist Andy Warhol is shot; and film stars Peter Sellers and Britt Ekland split up.
Meanwhile, Scientologists are turned away from the UK; teachers start supporting the Hornsey students' protest; French President Charles De Gaulle is forced to borrow $310 million from the IMF; and Scottish yachtsman Chay Blyth embarks on a round-the-world sail.
US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy is shot, the Pope gives a speech of support, and police hold gunman Sirhan Sirhan. When Kennedy dies, the Rolling Stones rewrite a line in Sympathy For The Devil to reflect the assassination.
This series is part of BBC Radio 4's 1968 – Myth Or Reality? season, marking the 40th anniversary of a remarkable year which saw extraordinary upheavals worldwide.
Please note: A weekly omnibus edition of Day-By-Day is broadcast on Sunday evenings.
Presenter/John Tusa, Producers/Barney Rowntree, Sam Bryant and Lucy Dichmont
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
The big names in the business world join Evan Davis for a new series of The Bottom Line, the programme that makes sense of sales, shops and share prices to get at the stories behind the business headlines.
The Bottom Line is an entertaining and conversational programme aimed at a busy but non-specialist audience. In the programme chief executives and entrepreneurs talk to each other about the issues of the day and the challenges they face – bringing insight into business from the people at the top.
Guests in the forthcoming series include the chief executives of British Land, VirginMedia, and Tate And Lyle.
Previous programmes have featured the head of the UK's biggest bus and rail operator talking about handling complaints; the boss of John Lewis sharing his approach to encouraging staff loyalty; and the chief of the UK's leading engineering consultancy speculating about commercial property prices.
Presenter/Evan Davis, Producer/Neil Koenig
BBC News Publicity
As the football season ends, Colin Murray presents a look back at the best of Fighting Talk, revealing such gems as who won the most points for their punditry and who lost points with a mistimed gag. It's an entertaining reminder of Fighting Talk's best moments and guests, plus their take on the past season of sport.
Normally this spells the end of the season for the programme, but this year Colin will be back next week to host four special Euro 2008 Fighting Talks throughout the tournament.
Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Simon Crosse
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
Arlo White presents live commentary of the Guinness Premiership final at Twickenham, with Ian Robertson and Alastair Hignell on commentary duty. Kick-off is at 3pm.
The programme also features all the latest from the French Open tennis, golf and cricket.
Presenter/Arlo White, Producer/Ed King
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
There is a chance for football fans to eat humble pie or declare "I told you so!" in this review of the season told through past calls to 606, the national football phone-in.
Hot topics include whether Jose Mourinho's departure was the disaster Chelsea fans once predicted, and whether Kevin Keegan met Toon Army expectations. With the benefit of hindsight, listeners can add their voices to the debate by calling (free from BT landlines) 0500 909 693; texting 85058 (network rates); or emailing 606@bbc.co.uk.
Producer/Patrick Campbell
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
Julie Parsons's play The Sweet Smell Of Cigarette Smoke is an atmospheric and chilling examination of obsession.
Perfume saleswoman Miriam Daly has an acute sense of smell. "I'd know if you were ever involved with another woman. I'd smell her off your skin," she warns her husband, Jack.
When Jack falls in love with Grace Lynch, he throws caution to the winds. Because Grace doesn't wear make-up or perfume and is, like him, a confirmed smoker, he's sure that Miriam will never uncover his affair. But Miriam's sensitivity to smell alerts her to his infidelity. Her wrath turns the smouldering embers of her jealousy into a full-scale conflagration of rage – with terrifying results.
Playwright Julie Parsons is the author of six best-selling thrillers which have been translated into many languages.
Director and Producer/Kevin Reynolds for RTE, Ireland
BBC World Service Publicity |
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Programme InformationNetwork Radio Week 23Sunday 1 June 2008 |
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Elaine Paige talks to one of Britain's best-known composers, Mike Batt.
Mike had eight hit singles and four gold albums with The Wombles and has secured further hits and five Ivor Novello Awards working on projects as diverse as Watership Down (he wrote the music and lyrics for Art Garfunkel's No.1 single, Bright Eyes) and The Phantom Of The Opera. He has also collaborated with artists including David Essex, Vanessa Mae and, more recently, Katie Melua.
Mike also discusses his Essential Musicals, which include: Chess, My Fair Lady, Evita, Camelot and Into The Woods.
Presenter/Elaine Paige, Producer/Malcolm Prince
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Janice Long has live music from Liverpool Sound – the concert at Anfield Football Stadium which marks Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture.
From The Beatles' early gigs at the Cavern Club, through to contemporary bands such as The Zutons, The Wombats and Hot Club De Paris, the sound of Liverpool has continued to evolve. Liverpool's most famous son, Sir Paul McCartney, headlines with support from Kaiser Chiefs and others.
Extended highlights of Sir Paul's one-off performance in front of more than 30,000 people can be enjoyed next Saturday (7 June) at 7.00pm on BBC Radio 2.
Presenter/Janice Long, Producer/Sarah Gaston
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Michael Berkeley's guest is artist Maria Chevska, Head of the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford.
Maria's musical choices for Private Passions begin with a well-known work, the second movement of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, played by Yehudi Menuhin and Georges Enescu. She also chooses three pieces from early 20th-century Vienna: the Farewell from Mahler's Song Of The Earth, sung in 1952 by Kathleen Ferrier, in one of her last performances; one of Schoenberg's radical Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11; and an extract from Berg's "Lulu" Suite.
Maria's requests then move to Eastern Europe and feature Shostakovich's 9th String Quartet; a piece for cello and accordion by the Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina; and a jazz number by the Polish composer Krzystof Komeda, played by the Tomasz Stanko Septet.
Presenter/Michael Berkeley, Producer/Sarah Cropper
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Words And Music presents a un-narrated sequence of poems, prose and music exploring the body – a "soft machine" of dazzling complexity.
Facts about the body are not in short supply. They are wonderful but strangely baffling: nerve impulses travel as fast as 170 miles per hour; each human body contains 60,000 miles of blood vessels; the surface area of a human lung is equal to that of a tennis court; feet have 500,000 sweat glands and can produce more than a pint of sweat a day; and the human nose can recall 50,000 different scents.
But scientific knowledge is only one of the forces shaping the human relationship with the body. The human fascination and frustration with the mechanics of the flesh has often found expression in music and literature.
Actors Anna Maxwell Martin and John Rowe read work by Whitman, Homer and Auden, as well as Seamus Heaney, Vicki Feaver and Ezra Pound.
Featured music includes the tiptoeing of Tchaikovsky's Sugar Plum Fairy and Alvin Lucier's intimate grappling with his own whirling kingdom of infinite space.
Readers/Anna Maxwell Martin and John Rowe, Producer/Zahid Warley
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Celebrated writer Jan Morris joins Bookclub to discuss her book about Venice, which was first written nearly 50 years ago and has come to be regarded as a classic.
Jan is the author of over 30 books, and most famously, she writes about places that have intrigued her – places such as Venice, Oxford, Trieste and New York.
Among the many books on Venice, Jan's hymn to the city is considered by many critics as the best. She first wrote the book in 1960 when she was James Morris. In 1972, at the age of 46, Jan had a sex-change operation.
When Jan first knew the city of Venice, at the end of the Second World War, it retained the "strange isolation" that had made it so unique for many centuries.
But Jan hopes that those who visit Venice in the 21st century will still recognise their own pleasures in the book.
Now aged 81, and living in rural Wales, Jan makes a rare appearance on BBC Radio 4.
Presenter/James Naughtie, Producer/Dymphna Flynn
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Professional cynic and satirist Marcus Brigstocke is forced to meet some of his political targets and reassess his own prejudices about the character of politicians, in this two-part edition of Westminster Hour – On Closer Inspection.
Marcus may spend his professional life lambasting politicians, but he never gets the chance to see them in their natural habitat. So, political reporter Mandy Baker introduces him to the ways of Westminster: in the Commons chamber; at news conferences; in the corridors; and, of course, at the bar.
This is a witty and irreverent insight into the Westminster "village" for a cynic who may just be converted.
Presenter/Marcus Brigstocke, Producer/Mandy Baker
BBC News Publicity
Dom Joly sits in for Gabby Logan, offering his inimitable brand of incisive chat and comment on the week's big stories.
Presenter/Dom Joly, Producer/Keith Bunker
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
Russell Fuller presents a busy day of sport, featuring French Open tennis, rugby league's The Carnegie Challenge Cup quarter-finals and England v Barbarians at Twickenham.
There are also regular updates from the football international between Holland and Wales.
Presenter/Russell Fuller, Producer/Louise Sutton
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
Jonathan Legard presents live football with coverage of the friendly international between Trinidad and Tobago and England.
John Murray, Alan Green and Chris Waddle provide the commentary.
Presenter/Jonathan Legard, Producer/Jim Hollis
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
In an exclusive interview recorded at his own Black Barn Studios, Paul Weller chats to Julie Cullen about his latest album, looks back over his career and forward to what lies ahead as he turns 50.
In a 30-minute special, The Music Week also hears from some of those who've worked with Paul over the years, including Graham Coxon and many more.
Presenters/Julie Cullen and Matt Everitt, Producer/Roman Tagoe
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Stuart Maconie presents a rare session from legendary folk group Pentangle.
This is the first radio session recorded by the band since 1972, and the four-track session is an exclusive for the Freak Zone broadcast ahead of the band's tour.
Pentangle can also be heard in conversation with Mike Harding on BBC Radio 2 on Wednesday 4 June at 7pm.
Presenter/Stuart Maconie, Producer/Henry Lopez-Real
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Chris Hawkins welcomes listeners to Vintage American Bandstand, a series of concerts recorded in America during the Seventies.
This week's sessions include a rare treat of a performance from Gladys Knight and The Pips, recorded at California's Beverley Theatre.
Presenter/Chris Hawkins, Producer/Frank Wilson
BBC 6 Music Publicity |
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Programme InformationNetwork Radio Week 23Monday 2 June 2008 |
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Special guests including Irish singing star Daniel O'Donnell join Sarah Kennedy this week to explain why faith is a feature of their lives and work in Pause For Thought.
Also reflecting on the moments of inspiration that prompted a reappraisal of their spirituality are: fitness guru Rosemary Conley; comedy double act Cannon & Ball; Charlotte and Daisy from classical girl group All Angels; and Cash In The Attic presenter Alistair Appleton.
Presenter/Sarah Kennedy, Producer/Carmela DiClemente
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Jools Holland is joined by Billy Bragg, along with Kirsty MacColl's mother, Jean, for a programme remembering the talented singer-songwriter.
Jean talks about the book she has written, charting her daughter's life, music career and untimely death, and Billy performs A New England, the song he wrote and with which Kirsty had a Top 10 hit in 1985. He also joins Jools and his Rhythm Section for a performance of I Keep The Faith, from his new album, Mr Love & Justice.
Presenter/Jools Holland, Producer/Sarah Gaston
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Brassed Off star Stephen Tompkinson continues this celebration of the UK's long love affair with brass music with a look at what that film did for brass banding in Britain. Contributors include composers Nigel Hess and Michael Nyman, who reflect on how brass bands have permeated popular culture, from film and TV scores to pop music.
Presenter/Stephen Tompkinson, Producers/Rosemary Foxcroft and Ashley Byrne
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
François Couperin belonged to a dynasty of musicians that is to France what the Bach family is to Germany. From the late 16th century to the middle of the 19th century, four generations of Couperins held important positions in the musical life of France, with half a dozen in Royal service. However, François's nickname – "Couperin le Grand" (Couperin the Great) – distinguished him from other members of this extraordinary clan. Today, he is best known for his exquisite and plentiful harpsichord music, organ works and gorgeous sacred choral music, which feature througout this week's programmes.
Donald Macleod begins the composer's story by exploring the rise of the Couperins, from rural life in Chaume-en-Brie to their establishment as professional musicians in Paris.
Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Johannah Smith
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Venice in all its glory is celebrated throughout this week in Afternoon On 3, which features music spanning four centuries.
Arias heard for the first time during the 19th century in the city's famous opera house, La Fenice, are a major feature of this afternoon's programme. There is also a chance to hear an acclaimed musical recreation of one of Venice's most famous events,"Lo Sposalizio" – celebrating the wedding of Venice to the Adriatic Sea – performed by The King's Consort. Beginning as a simple devotional service, offering prayers to San Nicolò to ask for his continued protection of mariners, the ceremony grew into a large festival which included the symbolic wedding.
Presenter/Louise Fryer, Producer/Helen Garrison
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
The Ulster Orchestra gives a concert of much-loved music from around the world, under the baton of Kenneth Montgomery, recorded at Belfast's Waterfront Hall.
The evening begins with Aaron Copland's popular classic, El salón México, an evocation of a Mexican dance hall, packed with Latin American rhythms with which Copland hoped to capture the "humanity, dignity and charm" of the Mexican people.
Belfast-born pianist Barry Douglas joins the Orchestra for Beethoven's tenderly lyrical Fourth Piano Concerto, and the concert ends with Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony – music which, as the composer put it, "glorifies the human spirit". Written in wartorn Moscow in 1944, it was a tremendous success.
Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Anthony Sellors
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
There are more Greek And Latin Voices on the airwaves as The Essay returns with an exploration of Ancient Greek lyric poet, Sappho, perhaps the most intriguing of all the authors covered in the series.
Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos from around 630BC and her talents as a musician and poet were hugely celebrated in ancient times. Of the nine books of lyrics she is said to have composed, just a single poem survives complete, the rest are fragments. However, mere mention of her name continues to conjure up ideas of love, desire, sex, marriage and lesbianism.
In the first essay of the week, Christopher Pelling, Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford and Greek consultant to the series, introduces Sappho's work, discussing the challenge of piecing it together from numerous scattered fragments found on ancient papyri, and reflects on its appeal to contemporary audiences.
Presenter/Christopher Pelling, Producer/Beaty Rubens
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Lopa Kothari presents highlights of a concert by Malian singer, percussionist and n'dan player Adama Yalomba, recorded in Belgium last year.
Adama Yalomba grew up in a farming village in rural Mali. His father was a farmer but was also a virtuoso on n'dan, a six-stringed instrument that is traditionally played to welcome home those who have been abroad. Adama became an accomplished singer, percussionist and n'dan player himself and formed his own band.
Lopa also introduces Brazilian songs from Gilberto Gil, a track from the new CD by the so-called "king of falafel techno", Max Pashm, and an outrageous take on English nursery songs by veteran Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle.
Presenter/Lopa Kothari, Producer/Roger Short
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
BBC Radio 4 submerses itself in Katherine Ashenburg's unsanitised history of washing.
Today it's taken for granted that the daily shower is a routine ritual for most Westerners, but we haven't always thought that way. From the Romans' bawdy baths to lice-ridden French aristocrats and 21st-century germophobes, the history of civilisation has never looked so dirty...
Brimming with literary references, examples of some fantastically euphemistic advertising and tales of downright mucky monarchs, Katherine Ashenburg peeks behind the shower curtain of Western history to get to the grubby bottom of how our notion of what's "clean" has shifted throughout the ages.
Writer Ashenburg has worked as an academic, CBC Radio producer and as arts and books editor for the Globe And Mail. She has written for the New York Times and her books include The Mourner's Dance.
Readers to be confirmed.
Producer/Clive Brill
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Last June, the North of England experienced some of its worst flooding for 60 years. In this series, BBC Radio 4 hears from two communities who have been struggling to get their lives back to normal ever since.
Reporter Kate Betts tells the stories of the residents of Toll Bar, a village near Doncaster, in the first programme. When villagers were forced out of their homes by flooding last June, 50 families decided to accept the local council's offer to house them on a nearby caravan site so that they could stay together as a community. As the one-year anniversary approaches, Kate learns how they coped and hears from those who remain on the site, wondering when they will be able to move back into their homes.
Listeners can hear the second part of the series, After The Floods – Hull: One Year On on Wednesday 4 June.
Presenter/Kate Betts, Producer/Sarah Taylor
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Julian Rhind-Tutt and Geoffrey Palmer return in a new series of the sitcom set in a museum, written by David Nobbs, creator of Reginald Perrin.
Rod Millett (Rhind-Tutt) continues his battle to modernise the beleaguered London museum, negotiating love interests, mid-life crises, count-the-dog competitions and a wedding along the way.
The cast also includes: Rachel Atkins, Ben Willbond, Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Geoffrey McGivern, Julia Deakin, Michael Smiley, Helen Atkinson-Wood, Chris Pavlo and Barry Cryer.
Producer/Colin Anderson
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Gwen Taylor stars as Bella, a woman who wants an obituary to die for, in Juliet Ace's play.
Bella realises that she needs to cover her tracks if she's to keep her children in happy ignorance of her life's murkier moments, so she invests in a shredder. Starting with her birth certificate, which reveals her unfortunate real name, Bella sets about destroying the past. She hopes to have sanitised her life before she reaches her 70th birthday – an occasion her children plan to celebrate with a party and some rather surprising guests.
The cast also includes Stephen Thorne, Avril Elgar, Helen Longworth, Nyasha Hatendi, Steve Hodson and Stephen Critchlow. Juliet Ace has written for EastEnders and The Archers, as well as a number of single plays for radio.
Producer/Jane Morgan
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
A week of outstanding American and British readers treat listeners to a treasure trove of classic spy stories from the 1800s to the present day.
The week begins with Alphonse Daudet's The Child Spy, read by Martin Jarvis. Set during the Siege of Paris in 1870, it features a young boy whose attempts to raise a few francs provoke the most terrible consequences.
On Tuesday, American actor Stacey Keach reads Parker Adderson, Philosopher, by Ambrose Bierce. It describes an encounter between a dignified Confederate general and a captured spy during the American Civil War.
Wednesday's A Double Double-Cross, by Peter Cheyney, is read by Rosalind Ayres. In this romantic tale of counter-espionage, a beautiful French spy and an affable British Intelligence agent find themselves in competition with each other.
Ted Allbeury's The Rocking-Horse Spy is read by big-screen star Alfred Molina on Thursday. A modern tale of espionage, it begins with a chance encounter at the Science Museum in London that leads to an agonising moral dilemma.
The week would not be complete without an appearance by Britain's most famous spy and, on Friday, Martin Jarvis brings 007 to the airwaves as he reads Ian Fleming's Risico, in which James Bond is sent to Rome to investigate a case of drug-trafficking.
Readers/Various, Producers/Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Arlo White presents an evening of sports news and debate. At 8pm, the Monday Night Club tackles the main football issues. At 9pm, 5 Live Boxing packs a punch with all the latest news and big-name interviews. The evening also features news from the French Open tennis at Roland Garros.
Presenter/Arlo White, Producer/Ed King
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
Sports Extra serves up live commentary from the second week of the Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros.
Producer/Steve Rudge
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
British electro-rockers Does It Offend You, Yeah? perform live in the 6 Music Hub and chat to George Lamb.
Presenter/George Lamb, Producer/Mike Hanson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
As Prince prepares to celebrate his 50th birthday, 6 Music gives listeners another chance to hear Mica Paris tell his story.
In the first programme, Mica examines Prince's best releases of the Eighties, from the controversial funk rock of Dirty Mind to the breakthrough success of 1999 and the epoch-defining Sign O' The Times. She also explores his work as a producer for such artists as Sinead O'Connor, The Bangles and Alicia Keys.
The programme features contributions from Chaka Khan, Alexander O'Neal and former member of The Time, Jimmy Jam, plus members of The Revolution.
Presenter/Mica Paris, Repeat Producer/Frank Wilson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Nadia and Simran catch up over coffee, as the Asian soap returns for another week. Nadia tells Simran that she wishes her folks would accept Sway being around, and Simran confides that she had to take drastic action to repair the relationship with her father.
Meanwhile, Krishan is hanging around the café again. Jodie notices a necklace and thinks that it's another surprise gift from Kuljit. Later, Roopa says that she has one just like it – and that the bracelet Jodie is wearing looks just like the one Rita has lost...
Nadia is played by Sohm Kapila, Simran by Balvinder Sopal, Krishan by Rahual Das, Jodie by Vineeta Rishi and Roopa by Rakhee Thakrar.
BBC Asian Network Publicity
In a special documentary as part of BBC Asian Network's Bollywood Month, Love Bollywood presenters Raj and Pablo ask whether a British Asian could be the next Shahrukh Khan.
Actor Upen Patel reflects on his journey from Wembley to Mumbai and what it was like to star in the 2007 film Namastey London. It's not been an easy ride, he explains, as prejudices and his Hindi have held him back. Raj and Pablo also hear from Geeta Basra from Portsmouth, who talks about being one of Bollywood's sexiest item girls and her ambition to be a female lead.
With a new Bollywood acting school opening in Ealing later this year, Asian Network Report asks whether the path will become a little easier for the ordinary, working-class British Asians who dream of Bollywood – or whether model looks, family connections and pots of money are the only way in.
Presenters/Raj and Pablo, Producer/Perminder Khatkar
BBC Asian Network Publicity
Gerry Northam investigates claims that the abuse of human rights and civil liberties in China have worsened in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games.
When China won the bidding war to host the Olympics, its political leaders had to promise to clean up its human rights record or risk at best censure or at worst cancellation. However, with weeks to go, Beijing smog seems of more concern than issues of freedom, equality and justice. Tibet has proved to be a bit of an embarrassment – one can hardly ignore pictures of protesting and injured monks – but widespread claims of internal injustice do not seem to have been given the same oxygen of publicity as the mounting sense of athletic ambition and patriotic pride.
The International Olympic Committee says now that the Olympics and human rights are an unhealthy and unhelpful mix and that the Olympics "transcend politics". This seems to contrast with the Olympic Charter, which demands respect for "universal fundamental ethical principles" and the promotion of a "peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity".
Many believe that behind the Olympic gloss and glamour there lies a story of human rights abuses that governments and the International Olympic Committee are ignoring for the sake of the success of the Games in the short term and business interests in the long term.
Presenter/Gerry Northam, Producer/David Coomes
BBC World Service Publicity |
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Programme InformationNetwork Radio Week 23Tuesday 3 June 2008 |
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Phil Redmond – the man behind TV hits Grange Hill and Brookside, and creative director of the Liverpool Culture Company – celebrates his home's cultural achievements and considers why the city has produced such an abundance of talent.
Merseyside has spawned a lot more than The Beatles. Gerry And The Pacemakers, The Searchers, The Mojos, Billy J Kramer and Billy Fury also emerged from the Liverpool music scene – and the creativity didn't start and end with the Sixties.
A diverse list of Liverpool hitmakers includes Lita Roza – the first British woman to have a No. 1 hit in the charts with How Much Is That Doggie In The Window? in 1952 – Teardrop Explodes, Echo & The Bunnymen, OMD, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Lightning Seeds, The La's, Mel C, Atomic Kitten, the Coral, the Zutons, Ladytron, Hot Club de Paris and The Wombats.
And that's just music. In comedy, today's roll-call includes Paul O'Grady and Lee Mack, who follow in the comic footsteps of greats such as Tommy Handley, Ted Ray, Arthur Askey, Ken Dodd, Jimmy Tarbuck, Kenny Everett and Alexei Sayle.
Given such riches, Phil asks if there's something in the Liverpool air – or maybe the Mersey water. He reflects on whether it could have something to do with the fact that this port city faces not only inwards to Lancashire but also outwards to the world. In his tour of the city's cultural hot spots, he speaks to a wealth of Liverpool talent, including Jimmy McGovern, Pete Postlethwaite and Roger McGough.
Presenter/Phil Redmond, Producer/Marya Burgess
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Paul Morley continues his exploration of contemporary music's many genres by trying to get to grips with perhaps the most elusive of them all: emo.
Paul turns to Billy Bragg, Kerrang! editor Paul Brannigan, power-pop legend Pete Shelley and members of young British band Enter Shikari, in the hope that they can shed some light on a music category so popular with angst-ridden teenagers.
Presenter/Paul Morley, Producer/Paul Kobrak
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Donald Macleod continues his exploration of the life of François Couperin "le Grand" – star member of a dynasty of French musicians.
The focus of the second programme is the church of Saint-Gervais in Paris, where seven generations of Couperins were employed. Their dynastic grip began in Louis XIV's time with François Couperin's uncle Louis, and ended with Gervais-François Couperin's death in 1826, a decade after Napoleon's time. The most exalted Couperin to work there was undoubtedly François, who early on in his career produced the two brilliant organ masses introduced by Donald Macleod today.
Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Johannah Smith
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
The Bath International Music Festival turns 60 this year and BBC Radio 3 is joining the celebration with a rich mix of broadcasts from the city, which have already included Jazz Line-Up, Iain Burnside and a Performance On 3 recorded in Bath Abbey. Louise Fryer ends the season with four lunchtime concerts recorded in the Austen-like splendour of the city's Assembly Rooms, the first of which features the Alison Balsom Ensemble.
Trumpeter Alison Balsom, a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, is very much the hot property of the brass world. At the age of just 29, she already boasts a Classical Brit and a Gramophone Award to her name. Her blend of virtuosity and musical intelligence has proved a hit with the recording business, too, landing her an exclusive deal with EMI.
For Bath, she has put together a typically colourful programme, travelling from the coolness of Italian Baroque with a Vivaldi concerto, to the dance halls of South America with music by tango innovator Astor Piazzolla. She is joined by violinist Magnus Johnstone, cellist Marie McCleod and pianist/harpsichordist Tom Poster.
Presenter/Louise Fryer, Producer/Helen Garrison
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Revered pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, a towering figure in South African music, joins the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Big Band for a concert recorded in London's Barbican Hall on 17 May.
Ibrahim brings together the rich diversity of his South African heritage with a deeply felt understanding of American jazz. Steve Gray's arrangements for orchestra and big band are complemented by the UK première of a suite written for Ibrahim's trio, guest saxophonist Iain Ballamy and a stellar vocal quintet featuring Cleveland Watkiss, Ian Shaw, Mario Frendo, Ian Mackenzie and Peter Churchill.
Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Anthony Sellors
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Sappho's sexual interests come under the spotlight, as The Essay continues its exploration of the Ancient Greek lyric poet.
In the second essay of the week, Margaret Reynolds, Senior Research Fellow at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, critic, broadcaster and author of The Sappho Companion, explores the poet's sexuality and her erotic poetry, both apparently heterosexual and homosexual.
Presenter/Margaret Reynolds, Producer/Beaty Rubens
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Professor Jonathan Spence, one of the world's leading historians on China, delivers this year's BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.
The lectures are one of the corporation's oldest public service programmes. They were introduced by Lord Reith, founder of the BBC, to try to advance public understanding and debate about significant issues of contemporary interest. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Reith Lectures.
British by birth, Jonathan Spence is the Sterling Professor of History at Yale University in the United States. Professor Spence's body of work on China is extraordinary: he has written many acclaimed books on Chinese civilisation and the role of history in shaping modern China, and is considered by many of his peers to be the doyen of historians on China.
As the build-up to the Olympic Games intensifies, China is more than ever in the global spotlight. In his lectures, entitled Chinese Vistas, Professor Spence discusses the need to focus on the long view in order to properly understand China. His lectures bring different and fresh perspectives to his audiences, challenging assumptions and outlining why China's current political, economic and social terrain is intricately enmeshed with its past.
Sue Lawley presents and chairs the series.
Presenter/Sue Lawley, Producer/Jim Frank
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Allan Ahlberg is an institution in children's literature. His books, including Burglar Bill, Each Peach Pear Plum, The Jolly Postman and Peepo, were immediate hits with children and parents alike and have remained hugely popular since their publication. As Ahlberg turns 70, Janet Ellis meets him and profiles his career.
Ahlberg has been writing children's fiction for over 30 years. His popularity is such that he has sold 17 million copies of his 150-plus titles. He has been among the top 10 most-borrowed children's authors every year for the past decade.
Ahlberg was adopted and grew up in the Black Country. At the age of 13, he says he became an intellectual snob and joined three libraries. On leaving school, he worked as a postman, soldier, plumber's mate and gravedigger, before the superintendent of parks and cemeteries suggested that he become a teacher.
He began writing in his thirties, when his wife, Janet, asked him to write something for her to illustrate. He sought "to produce William Morris books at Penguin prices".
Janet Ellis read his books to her children. She uses archive, readings and expert opinion to assess Ahlberg's life and work.
Presenter/Janet Ellis, Producer/Geoff Bird
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Five years ago, Eleanor's older sister, Amy, disappeared. She simply walked out of her house one day and into the records of the "missing". Despite a police investigation, no trace of Amy has been found and the family have been living under the shadow of her disappearance ever since.
But a discovery has been made which opens up old wounds and brings the memories flooding back. It brings Eleanor back home to Belfast and back to the questions about her sister that were never answered.
The cast includes Alana Kerr, Joe Armstrong, Maggie Cronin, Kieran Lagan and Andy Moore.
Writer Lucy Caldwell is an award-winning young Northern Irish dramatist and novelist, whose first stage play, Leaves (Royal Court Theatre), won the George Devine Award in 2006. Her first novel, Where They Were Missed (2006), was shortlisted for the inaugural EDS Dylan Thomas Prize. Lucy has previously written short stories for BBC Radio 4 and a weekly column for The Independent. She is currently working on her second novel and a stage play.
Producer/Heather Larmour
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Sue MacGregor is back in the presenter's chair for a new run of the series in which well-known people talk about the books they love, inspire listeners to read them and discover some new favourites of their own.
The first guests of the new series are radio guru Trevor Dann and Times columnist and novelist Kate Muir. Trevor picks Kumiko Kakehashi's Letters From Iwo Jima, the Japanese eyewitness stories that inspired Clint Eastwood's recent film. Kate chooses Room Temperature by Nicholson Baker, which she says she's given to every new father she knows. Finally, Sue picks an award-winning children's book, Montmorency, by Eleanor Updale.
Other guests lined up for the series include: Gareth Malone, presenter of BBC Two's The Choir and Boys Don't Sing; TV presenter Andrea Catherwood; author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid; documentary film-maker Roger Graef; actor and comedian Les Dennis; writer Maureen Freely; actor Michael Simkins; and archaeologist Barry Cunliffe.
Presenter/Sue MacGregor, Producers/Beth O'Dea,
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
This month sees anti-terrorist experts from across the globe meet in London. They will be asking what Britain has achieved in the past year when it has been leading the global efforts to cut off funding from terrorist organisations.
Ministers say that progress has been made but the Council of Europe complains that the regime for freezing terrorists' assets simply doesn't work. Two years after the Government told police they would get state-of-the art technology to help identify offenders, the programme looks at whether their old computer system is still struggling to cope.
As the Government appeals against a court ruling that some of its financial sanctions are unlawful, Fran Abrams asks if the financial war on terror is being lost.
Presenter/Fran Abrams, Producer/Rob Cave
BBC News Publicity
Psychologist Claudia Hammond is in the chair for a new run of the programme that explores how people think and behave.
Claudia considers what motivates people and what makes them feel and act in particular ways, and reveals the often surprising scientific findings that inform what people believe about themselves.
From the very latest discoveries in neuroscience, to the growth of talking therapies in the NHS, All In The Mind focuses on the brain, the mind and the wider mental health agenda.
The presenter of BBC World Service's weekly global health programme, Health Check, Claudia has fronted many Radio 4 series. She lectures in health psychology for Boston University's UK base in London and writes for Psychologies Magazine. Her first book, Emotional Rollercoaster, has been translated into six languages.
Presenter/Claudia Hammond, Producer/Fiona Hill
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Vassos Alexander presents sports news and debate, including tennis action from the French Open and a look ahead to tomorrow's Friends Provident Trophy cricket quarter finals.
Presenter/Vassos Alexander, Producer/Graham MacMillan
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
Sports Extra serves up live tennis commentary from the second week at Roland Garros, as the action at the French Open heats up.
Producer/Steve Rudge
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Toronto-based punksters Tokyo Police Club perform live in the 6 Music Hub.
Presenter/George Lamb, Producer/Mike Hanson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Natasha Khan from Bat For Lashes joins the lunchtime show, with Nemone still away on holiday. Taking a break from the band's touring schedule, Natasha talks about the band's plans for new material and reveals what it was like to support Radiohead.
Presenter/tbc, Producer/Jax Coombes
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Jodie is furious to learn that Krishan has a crush on her and that Kuljit let her believe that he sent the mystery gifts. She returns the jewellery to Rita, who realises it's time for a grown-up chat with Krishan.
Meanwhile, Ranbir and Kuljit are at the studio. Kuljit loses control when Ranbir spills a drink over the expensive desk. Scared by his reaction, Ranbir runs off. Later, Kuljit tells Jodie that Ranbir is better off without him.
Jodie is played by Vineeta Rishi, Krishan by Rahual Das, Rita by Bharti Patel, Ranbir by Ashwin Bolar and Kuljit by Sartaj Garewal.
BBC Asian Network Publicity |
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Programme InformationNetwork Radio Week 23Wednesday 4 June 2008 |
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Mike Harding catches up with Bert Jansch and Jacqui McShee, from legendary British folk group Pentangle, just ahead of their 40th anniversary reunion tour of the UK.
For six years, spanning 1967-73, this folk jazz supergroup pushed boundaries and explored new musical avenues. In 2007, the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards paid tribute to Pentangle by awarding them a Lifetime Achievement Award. In a moment of folk history, Bert, Jacqui and the other three original members – John Renbourn (guitar), Terry Cox (drums) and Danny Thompson (bass) – re-formed for a special performance.
Mike chats to Bert and Jacqui to find out how the group first got together and what it's been like to revisit material that they haven't played in almost 40 years.
Pentangle can also be heard in session on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone on BBC 6 Music on Sunday 1 June at 5pm.
Rising folk star Bella Hardy also reveals what she's currently listening to in Tour Bus Tunes. Her selections include Swedish group The Cardigans and Ella Fitzgerald.
Presenter/Mike Harding, Producer/Kellie While
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Trevor Nelson is joined by UK R&B star Craig David, who is touring the UK after the release of his fourth album late last year.
Trevor also revisits classic soul with an Album Of The Week from Chic, while other music comes from King Floyd, Marvin Gaye and Jamiroquai.
Presenter/Trevor Nelson, Producer/Ollie Embden
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Venice in all its glory is celebrated throughout the week on Afternoon On 3 with music spanning four centuries.
The ducal chapel of San Marco was the most important centre for music throughout Renaissance times, reaching a peak during the Baroque period. Monteverdi, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli and their Venetian contemporaries all feature prominently through the week.
A week of music from Venice would not be complete without a performance of the Vespers of 1610 by Monteverdi, which features in this afternoon's programme. This concert was performed by La Capella Ducale and Musica Fiata in the reverberant acoustics of Speyer Cathedral as part of the Schwetzingen Festival, using solo voices.
Presenter/Louise Fryer, Producer/Helen Garrison
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Tenor Mark Padmore continues his series of Wednesday evening Schubert song cycles, specially recorded at London's Wigmore Hall for Performance On 3, with Die Winterreise, partnered by pianist Julius Drake.
The songs – settings of poems by Wilhelm Müller – depict the sorrow of the disregarded lover. After his beloved has married someone else, he quits the town and follows the river and the steep ways to a village. Having longed for death, he is at last reconciled to his loneliness. The cold darkness and barren winter landscape mirror the feelings in his heart, and he encounters various people and things along the way which form the subject of the successive songs during his lonely journey.
Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Anthony Sellors
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
The Essay – Greek And Latin Voices continues with an exploration of the Ancient Greek lyric poet, Sappho.
Award-winning Irish poet Eavan Boland recalls her first encounter with Sappho, as a young graduate student at Trinity College Dublin, and how she integrated the persona and poetry of Sappho into her own work. She reads from her own poem, The Journey, a celebration of the discovery of antibiotics in which the figure of Sappho, Dante-like, accompanies her on a journey to the Underworld, where she witnesses the suffering of so many women of the past.
Presenter/Eavan Boland, Producer/Beaty Rubens
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Michelle Dewberry, former winner of BBC One's The Apprentice, revisits her home town of Hull one year after the city was devastated by flooding, in the concluding part of After The Flood.
Michelle returns to the city to find out why it flooded in the first place, and what the chances are of it happening again. She investigates why the consequences of this flooding were so devastating and how effective the clean-up has been.
Michelle felt very involved in the consequences of the flooding because it touched her personally. Michael Barnett, who died trapped in a storm drain while the emergency services tried vainly to free him, was an old school friend and Michelle's brother and his young family were made homeless by the flooding. Even her old school, Sydney Smith Secondary, lay under three feet of filthy water.
The first part of After The Floods – The Toll Bar Refugees can be heard on Monday 2 June at 11am.
Presenter/Michelle Dewberry, Producers/Isobel Williams and Fiona Cotterill
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Katherine Helmond and Forrest Landis star in this atmospheric coming-of-age adventure story by American author Jim Lynch, adapted for radio by Rebecca Trick-Walker.
At night, 13-year-old Miles goes out in a boat on his own, exploring the Pacific coast near his parents' house and looking for rare sea creatures to sell to the local aquarium. One night he comes across a startling and remarkable sight: a giant squid. A news team arrives to report on this enormous monster, and Miles becomes a local celebrity. He gets carried away and predicts a freak high tide, and that even more amazing discoveries will come before it.
Forrest Landis plays Miles, with Katherine Helmond as Florence and Missy Yager as Angie. Jim Lynch's debut novel, The Highest Tide, won the prestigious Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award in 2006.
Producer/Kate McAll
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Michael Buerk returns with a new series of The Moral Maze, and welcomes back regular team members – writer, broadcaster and former MP Michael Portillo; journalist and Director of the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University, Ian Hargreaves; journalist and author Melanie Phillips; and religious affairs specialist Clifford Longley – for a live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories.
Each week, Michael and his guests cross-examine expert witnesses on a particular topic for a combative, provocative and engaging listen. Recent topics have included whether, as the world's people are growing hungry, it is morally acceptable to grow crops for fuel; and how far parental choice should be allowed when it comes to selecting embryos for IVF.
Presenter/Michael Buerk, Producer/Phil Pegum
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Mark Saggers presents a round-up of all the sports news of the day, followed at 8pm by 5 Live Sport's preview of Euro 2008 – including the latest news and big-name interviews ahead of the tournament, which starts this weekend.
Presenter/Mark Saggers, Producer/Haydn Parry
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra brings listeners coverage from all four cricket quarter finals of the 50-over-a-side knockout competition.
Producer/Adam Mountford
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
As Nemone continues her holiday, Tim Simenon from Bomb The Bass joins the lunchtime show for a chat. The band were one of the leading innovators from the Eighties and Nineties Acid House movement, and also had one of the first sample-based chart hits.
Presenter/tbc, Producer/Jax Coombes
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Vinnie and Arun are competing for the flat above the restaurant, in today's visit to Silver Street. Arun ups the stakes by offering to do the onions for a month, but Vinnie reckons he can top that. Mani realises there is an opportunity here and puts both boys to work.
Jaggy and Sameer spend the evening together. Jaggy chats about his forthcoming wedding, and Sameer says he isn't looking forward to going back to work. Maybe it's time for a change of direction...
Vinnie is played by Saikat Ahamed, Arun by Naithan Ariane, Mani by Kaleem Janjua, Jaggy by Jay Kiyani and Sameer by Alex Caan.
BBC Asian Network Publicity
Award-winning journalist Peter Taylor explores four significant militant attacks of the last 30 years, with special radio adaptations of his acclaimed recent TV series tracing the modern history and development of terrorism through these major acts of terror.
Combining interviews with the people involved and archive material, each programme analyses an event which has influenced our world, politics, psychology and culture.
Peter begins with the story of the 1976 El Al plane hijack. The Israeli plane, hijacked by Palestinian members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and German Marxist members of the Baader-Meinhof gang, was flown to Uganda. The crisis culminated after a week, with an Israeli commando raid on Entebbe airport – a resolution which has become a legendary point of reference for any national government responding to terrorism to this day.
Presenter/Peter Taylor, Producer/Neal Razzell
BBC World Service Publicity |
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Programme InformationNetwork Radio Week 23Thursday 5 June 2008 |
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Bob Harris features a live session from the Felice Brothers on his Country show this evening.
An authentic outlaw country band from the Catskill Mountains of New York, Ian, James and Simone Felice are three brothers (of seven children) who formed the band in 2006 with their friend Christmas Fraley, who was previously a travelling dice player.
Over the last two years, they have spent time touring America in a dilapidated school bus, experiencing life on the road "with arrests and genuine panhandler fun".
Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Al Booth
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
It's Ladies' Night on tonight's edition of Theme Time Radio Hour, as Bob Dylan turns his attention to the theme of Women's Names.
Music featured on the programme includes: Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly; Lola by The Kinks; Mandy Is Two by Billie Holiday; Claudette by Rob Orbison; Mona by Bo Diddley; and Zindy Lou by The Chimes.
Presenter/Bob Dylan, BBC Series Producer/Phil Hughes
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Charles Hazlewood conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in an all-Satie programme recorded at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on Tuesday 3 June.
Tonight's Performance On 3 gives full rein to Satie's quirky eccentricity, including the iconoclastic ballets Parade – requiring a siren, a revolver and a typewriter – and Relâche, which created a stir for exposing the pretentiousness of "serious" theatre. Along with echoes of the music hall, the "grimaces" written for a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and the ever popular Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes, this rare all-Satie selection proves how serious the composer was about the absurd – despite Debussy's description of him as "a gentle Medieval musician lost in this century".
One of the most fascinating figures in music, Satie lived his early adulthood in poverty. "We didn't eat every day, but we never missed an aperitif," claimed a friend. A bohemian and scandalist, he cultivated interests in mysticism and gothic art, took to eating only "white food" and calmly continued to challenge the comfortable complacency of bourgeois society.
Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Anthony Sellors
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Matthew Sweet and guests explore Lawrence Of Arabia and the stories behind its making, as part of a Night Waves Landmark series which examines great cultural works.
A century after the birth of film director David Lean, Night Waves takes an in-depth look at his 1962 epic. Its hero is the enigmatic British soldier Thomas Edward Lawrence and stars Peter O'Toole in the title role, alongside Omar Sharif and Alec Guinness. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars and won seven, including Best Director for Lean.
Presenter/Matthew Sweet, Producer/Sally Spurring
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
BBC Radio 3's The Essay – Greek And Latin Voices concludes this evening with the final essay of the week exploring the life and work of the Ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho.
Although Sappho's talents as a musician and poet were hugely celebrated in ancient times only one poem, of the nine books of lyrics Sappho is said to have composed, has survived complete – the rest are fragments. This adds to her enigmatic image and is perhaps one of the things which make her so appealing to contemporary audiences.
Barbara Graziosi, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham, considers why people sometimes value the fragmentary over the whole.
Presenter/Barbara Graziosi, Producer/Beaty Rubens
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Fifty years ago, Chinua Achebe's first novel, Things Fall Apart, set the literary landscape ablaze by depicting a previously unseen Africa.
Its themes of how a culture becomes corrupted, the clash of civilisations and father-son tensions still resonate and Achebe's success is such that the book has sold more than 10 million copies and has been translated into 55 different languages.
In this celebration of the novel, Zina Saro-Wiwa travels to New York to meet Chinua to find out why he believes the book has such a lasting legacy. Zina also speaks to Orange literary prize-winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who, some say, is Achebe's 21st-century daughter.
Presenter/Zina Saro-Wiwa, Producers/Elizabeth Idienumah and Mark Rickards
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Modern astrophysics is tackling fundamental questions such as "What is the origin and fate of our Universe?", "How were its basic blocks assembled?" and "Are we alone?" To tackle these issues, modern astrophysics relies on the combined power of both space and ground-based observatories, which collect data covering the whole electromagnetic spectrum – from gamma-rays to very low radio frequencies and the new world of neutrinos and gravitational waves.
A major component in this worldwide strategy is to deploy huge ground-based optical collectors with exquisite image quality – dubbed ELT (Extremely Large Telescopes). One is planned for North America and Europe has proposed its own. In this week's edition of Material World, Quentin Cooper is joined by researchers who are at the forefront of plans for the creation of Europe's first ELT.
Presenter/Quentin Cooper, Producer/Fiona Roberts
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Mark Saggers presents sports news and debate including French Open tennis and the first day of the Third Test between England and New Zealand.
At 8pm, Darren Gough's cricket show debates the sport's main issues with big-name guests.
Presenter/Mark Saggers, Producer/Mark Williams
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
Jonathan Agnew leads the commentary on the opening day of the Third Test between England and New Zealand at Trent Bridge.
Presenter/Jonathan Agnew, Producer/Adam Mountford
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Californian folk four-piece Port O'Brien guest on George Lamb's show today and perform live in the 6 Music Hub.
Presenter/George Lamb, Producer/Mike Hanson
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Bill hasn't been sleeping since Fatima's accident but hopes things will improve after tomorrow's inquest, as the Asian drama continues. Dr Masud tells Bill he's off to the surgery to clear his desk, but he gets a pleasant surprise when he arrives.
Jaggy and Simran, meanwhile, discover a cancellation means they could bring their wedding forward to August. Simran starts to panic, however, and things get worse when she realises she is losing control of the most important day of her life.
Bill is played by Robin Bowerman, Dr Masud by Saeed Jaffrey, Jaggy by Jay Kiyani and Simran by Balvinder Sopal.
BBC Asian Network Publicity
Major flaws in carbon offsetting, the UN's main mechanism for dealing with climate change, are investigated in this One Planet two-parter.
Carbon offsetting allows the developed world to offset its carbon emissions by paying for emission-cutting projects in the developing world. Integral to this is the "additionality" test whereby the developing world projects must show that without the additional (carbon-credit) money, the projects would not, and could not be, implemented.
If these projects would have taken place in any case, then no emissions are being saved and millions of dollars will have been wasted.
Presenter/Mark Gregory, Producer/David Edmonds
BBC World Service Publicity |
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Programme InformationNetwork Radio Week 23Friday 6 June 2008 |
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Ken Bruce presents a special live show to mark the centenary of Friday Night Is Music Night's founding conductor and one of the great names of light music – Sidney Torch.
Sidney Torch was born Sidney Torchinsky on 5 June 1908 in the hustle and bustle of London's Tottenham Court Road. His early career involved playing for silent films and he soon graduated to the organ, becoming one of Britain's leading theatre organists during the Thirties.
During the war he served in the RAF and, as conductor of the RAF Concert Orchestra, he became fascinated by the art of the orchestral arranger and started composing – sometimes in his own name and often using the anagram Denis Rycoth.
After the war, Torch worked extensively in radio on programmes such as Much Binding In The Marsh and, in 1953, he devised the successful formula for BBC Radio's Friday Night Is Music Night, in which he conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra regularly until his retirement in 1972.
In tonight's show, live from London's Mermaid Theatre, the BBC Concert Orchestra pay tribute to the man who started the show 55 years ago, and perform some of his finest arrangements, including Hungarian Rhapsody, The Desert Song, All Strings And Fancy Free, On A Spring Note, Golden Earrings and Waltzing With The Ladies.
Presenter/Ken Bruce, Producer/Jodie Keane
BBC Radio 2 Publicity
Donald Macleod concludes his look at the life of François Couperin "le Grand" by focusing on Couperin "the dramatist", in this week's final Composer Of The Week offering.
Little detail is actually known about Couperin's private life and the documents relied upon to map out his life are, in the main, lists and legal documents. Here, Donald draws out the elusive character of the man as defined in his music, and explores the reasons why he never tried his hand at writing stage works.
Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Johannah Smith
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Simon Holt's new Percussion Concerto, A Table Of Noise, offers a vivid and quirky portrait of the composer's childhood memories of his great uncle, who was a taxidermist. With movement titles such as Fly, Skennin, Mary and A Drawer Full Of Eyes, it is sure to offer up a few surprises.
A Table Of Noise receives its world première in this concert by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, under conductor Martyn Brabbins, recorded at Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Young Scottish percussionist Colin Currie performs the solo part.
The concert also features a centenary tribute to Rimsky-Korsakov in the shape of the colourful suite from his fairy-tale opera The Golden Cockerel and in Rachmaninov's last orchestral work, the thrilling and ever-popular Symphonic Dances.
Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Anthony Sellors
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Jazz Library celebrates the his work of legendary jazz saxophonist, composer and producer Teo Macero and, in an exclusive interview with Alyn Shipton recorded before Macero's death in February 2008, he selects the highlights of his recorded catalogue.
As well as considering Macero's own recordings as an instrumentalist, including his work with Charles Mingus, the programme focuses on his two decades as Miles Davis's producer and on such remarkable examples of their collaboration as Porgy And Bess, Sketches Of Spain, Bitches Brew and In A Silent Way.
"I vowed not to do another interview about Miles," says Macero at the beginning of the interview, before he relented to give chapter and verse on his long association with the great trumpeter.
Macero gives the inside story of Sketches Of Spain, Kind Of Blue, Bitches Brew, On The Corner and a host of other classic sides by Davis, as well as his productions for Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington and Count Basie – including the famous Battle Royal in which their big bands were ranged against each other in the studio for one of the greatest competitive jams of all time. There are accounts of other battles in the studio, too: fisticuffs with the famously pugnacious Davis, and also with Mingus, in whose band Macero started out as a saxophonist.
Presenter and Producer/Alyn Shipton
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
Jez Nelson presents a session from two key figures in the European improvised avant-garde scene – British drummer Eddie Prévost and German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach – in this week's edition of Jazz On 3.
The duo's tour of the UK earlier this year was, perhaps surprisingly, their first collaboration and this wholly improvised session – recorded in the immediate aftermath of the tour – showcases the pair's individual virtuosity as well as their innate sense of ensemble.
Eddie Prévost founded the seminal improvising ensemble AMM in 1965, a group he continues to work with and whose considerable influence is heard beyond the realms of jazz and improv. Alexander von Schlippenbach founded the Globe Unity Orchestra in 1966, since which time many of the European improvising scene's biggest names have passed through its ranks – including Peter Brötzmann, Willem Breuker, Steve Lacy and Albert Mangelsdorff.
Presenter/Jez Nelson, Producer/Robert Abel
BBC Radio 3 Publicity
On the eve of Euro 2008, writer and comedian Danny Robins visits Rome to discover if the Catholic Church can inject new morality into Italy's national obsession with football.
While match fixing, bungs, corruption and bad behaviour on the terraces and pitch blight the Italian game, the Catholic Church has stepped in to address morality in football. A senior Cardinal, and a former football radio commentator, has said that he wants the Vatican football team to join Fifa, and the Vatican has sanctioned a tournament strictly for Rome's seminaries – the Clericus Cup. The Church has also had a hand in buying the Ancona football team, but Danny asks if they really can restore faith and good sportsmanship in the Italian game.
Recorded during the final stages of the Clericus Cup in Rome, the programme follows the teams, made up of trainee priests, as they foster team spirit and sportsmanlike behaviour. No footballer on pitch is allowed to answer back to a referee, praying before the match is compulsory and many priests support enthusiastically from the sidelines.
Danny Robins is the son of a lapsed Catholic and is a lapsed playground footballer.
Presenter/Danny Robins, Producer/Laura Parfitt
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
 Felicity Montagu and Robert Bathurst star as Alice and Alan, reassessing their 20-year marriage – to tumultuous effect... Felicity Montagu and Robert Bathurst star in today's Afternoon Play, a new comedy drama by award-winning writer Rachel Joyce.
The instructions for William's 10th birthday present just say "Take One Night". And so it does, as Alice and Alan begin a journey of their own back to the night they met. As they find the words to speak honestly to each other for the first time in their 20-year marriage, the walls begin to shake and Alan's pride and joy – their conservatory – begins to collapse.
Rachel Joyce has written extensively for radio. Her play To Be A Pilgrim (Radio 4) won the 2007 Peter Tinniswood Award and was described as "A radio play whose deceptive simplicity conceals a rich, complex emotional tapestry". Other recent plays include Feather (Radio 4), Quintessence (Radio 4) and In The Wind (Radio 3). Rachel is currently adapting Henry James's The Portrait Of A Lady for BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial.
Felicity Montagu plays Alice with Robert Bathurst as Alan and Charlie Rowe as William.
Producer/Jeremy Mortimer
BBC Radio 4 Publicity
Mark Saggers hosts tonight's edition of 5 Live Sport and features a full preview of tomorrow's Derby with Cornelius Lysaght and the team.
Listeners can also catch a full round-up of all the other sports news of the day.
Presenter/Mark Saggers, Producer/Mark Williams
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
David Croft revs into action tonight, live from Montreal, and brings listeners all the latest news ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.
Presenter/David Croft, Producer/Jason Swales
BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity
Listeners can hear full commentary on the second day of the Third Test between England and New Zealand at Trent Bridge.
Coverage of this Test continues daily on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra.
Presenter/Jonathan Agnew, Producer/Adam Mountford
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra has commentary on one of the night's top matches in the engage Super League. Tonight's games are Leeds v Hull, St Helens v Hull KR and Wigan v Huddersfield.
Producer/Jennifer McAllister
BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity
Walking is Bob Dylan's theme this week, and his selections include: I'm Walkin' by Fats Domino; Walking By Myself by Jimmy Rogers & Big Walter Horton; The Mills Brothers and Louis Armstrong's My Walking Stick; and The Walk by Jimmy McCracklin.
Presenter/Bob Dylan, Producer/XM Satellite Radio
BBC 6 Music Publicity
US heavy metal band Disturbed join Bruce Dickinson on his Rock Show this evening.
Formed in Chicago in 1997, Disturbed are regarded as one of America's finest current rock exports with their last two albums both reaching No. 1 in the Billboard chart and their last release, Ten Thousand Fists, going two-time Platinum in the US.
Disturbed have just released their new album, Indestructible, and the guys are also set to perform at this summer's Download festival. Bruce catches up with the band and chats to them about the tragic story behind their current single, and what it was like to self produce their new album for the very first time.
Presenter/Bruce Dickinson, Producer/Ian Callaghan
BBC 6 Music Publicity
Bill breaks down as he describes how Fatima ran out in front of his car, in the last of this week's visits to Silver Street. The inquest proves too much for Zak, however, and he heads outside. Later, the coroner delivers a verdict of death by misadventure.
Zak tells Talib he has a right to be at the inquest as Fatima's friend, but the pair will never be friends again. Zak tells Fatima's parents there is one more thing he needs to do and heads off to speak to Bill.
Bill is played by Robin Bowerman, Fatima by Gia Avan, Zak by Jetinder Summan and Talib by Rachid Sabitri.
BBC Asian Network Publicity
The outspoken opinions of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's spiritual mentor, are threatening to undermine Obama's presidential campaign.
Remarks such as "God Bless America. No, no, no. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human," and his criticism of US foreign policy for contravening the teachings of the Bible, have made him a highly controversial figure.
Reverend Wright argues that he is defending black Church traditions, and that white people are outraged by him because they don't understand this way of preaching. Matt Wells explores the extent to which the pastor's views reflect issues and grievances felt in America's black churches, in this week's edition of Heart And Soul.
Presenter/Matt Wells, Producer/Katy Hickman
BBC World Service Publicity |
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