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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Programme Information

Sunday 12 October 2008

BBC RADIO 1 Sunday 12 October 2008

BBC SWITCH Radio 1's Official Chart Show With Fearne And Reggie Sunday 12 October 4.00-7.00pm BBC RADIO 1

Reggie Yates and Fearne
Cotton host a live event for
BBC Switch

The BBC's multi-platform teen brand BBC Switch hosts its first-ever live event exclusively for 14-17-year-olds today at London's Hammersmith Apollo. BBC Switch Live is hosted by Annie Mac, Nick Grimshaw, Kelly Osbourne, Tom Deacon, Greg James and Fearne Cotton.

The event is exclusively headlined by Fall Out Boy and Miley Cyrus – who performs as herself for the very first time in the UK, rather than as her TV alter ego Hannah Montana. Ne-Yo, McFly, Basshunter, N-Dubz and George Sampson complete a line-up of some of the biggest stars in the teen world.

BBC Radio 1's Chart Show warms up at BBC Switch Live today, with Reggie Yates in the studio, while Fearne Cotton is live from Hammersmith Apollo with the sights and sounds from the event – featuring backstage gossip and chats with Radio 1's Switch team Nick Grimshaw, Annie Mac and Kelly Osbourne.

Presenters/Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates, Producer/Laura Sayers

BBC Radio 1 Publicity

BBC SWITCH BBC Switch Live With Annie Mac And Nick Grimshaw Sunday 12 October 7.00-10.00pm BBC RADIO 1

Nick Grimshaw and Annie Mac
host a live event for BBC
Switch

Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw take over the reins, as the BBC's multi-platform teen brand BBC Switch continues its first-ever live event exclusively for 14-17 year olds at London's Hammersmith Apollo.

Listeners can hear exclusive interviews with artists, backstage gossip and all the performances from this afternoon's event.

Presenters/Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw, Producer/Megan Carver

BBC Radio 1 Publicity

BBC RADIO 2 Sunday 12 October 2008

Elaine Paige welcomes a
special guest this week

Legendary composer Burt Bacharach joins Elaine Paige this Sunday afternoon.

Focusing mainly on his work for stage and screen, Burt chats to Elaine about writing the song Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head for the film Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid; composing the Oscar-winning Arthur's Theme; his long association with the Austin Powers's films; creating the 1968 Broadway musical Promises, Promises with writing-partner Hal David, which includes the song I'll Never Fall In Love Again; working for screen legend Marlene Dietrich; his disappointment when the 1973 big screen musical Lost Horizon bombed at the box office; and writing The Look Of Love for the 1967 James Bond film Casino Royale.

Presenter/Elaine Paige, Producer/Malcolm Prince

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Elbow frontman Guy Garvey joins Johnnie Walker live in the studio this afternoon.

Guy recently won the Mercury Music Prize with his band Elbow, and listeners can hear Guy Garvey's Finest Hour every Sunday evening from 10pm over on BBC 6 Music.

Presenter/Johnnie Walker, Producer/Natasha Costa-Correa

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Brian D'Arcy explores issues of crime and punishment in this week's edition of Sunday Half Hour and looks at the work of Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker and prison reformer.

The featured choir is from St Peter's Church, St Albans, and is directed by Nicholas Robinson. The organist is Alexander Flood, and this week's hymns include: He Who Would Valiant Be, Angel Voices Ever Singing and O For A Closer Walk With God.

Presenter/Brian D'Arcy, Producer/Janet McLarty

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

BBC RADIO 3 Sunday 12 October 2008

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats and MP for Sheffield Hallam, shares his Private Passions with Michael Berkeley this afternoon. Born in 1967, Clegg is the third of four children of a half-Russian father and a Dutch mother and is fluent in Dutch, French, German and Spanish.

After beginning his career as a journalist and development aid and trade expert for the European Commission, Nick was elected as an MEP in 1999. Just six years later, he was elected MP for Sheffield Hallam in 2005 and succeeded Menzies Campbell as party leader in December 2007.

Nick admits that being an MP and party leader is such a full-time job that it doesn't leave very much time for leisure activities, but he loves listening to music when he can. His Spanish wife plays the piano, and three of his choices of music are played by pianists he greatly admires – a Schubert Impromptu in E flat minor played by Alfred Brendel; a Chopin waltz played by Claudio Arrau; and the slow movement of Chopin's Second Piano Concerto, played by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

His other choices are Mozart's Laudate Dominum, K339, Schubert's terrifying song Erlkonig, sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Gerald Moore; and Richard Strauss's radiant Beim Schlafengehen, one of the Four Last Songs, sung by Elizabeth Schwarzkopf.

Presenter/Michael Berkeley, Producer/Chris Marshall

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Opera superstar Bryn Terfel, fresh from his appearance at the Last Night Of The Proms, tells BBC Radio 3 that he is waiting for the call for London 2012. Bryn, who performed at the closing ceremony of this year's Ryder Cup golf tournament, is anxious to play his part when the Olympics reach London in four years' time.

"Hopefully I can be a part of it," he tells presenter Chi-chi Nwanoku. "It'll be very interesting to see who's associated with the musical side of the Olympics because, as you saw, the opening and closing ceremonies in Beijing had a substantial amount of music. I think we've got to start drawing on papers now, what styles of music we'll use, so I'm waiting on the other end of the phone."

Presenter/Chi-chi Nwanoku, Producer/Simon Jordan

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Roy McMillan's new adaptation of this iconic Jacobean play stars Sophie Okonedo in the title role and focuses on the personal tragedies of a powerful family ripped apart by lust and betrayal, and is this week's Drama On 3 offering.

When the widowed Duchess marries her steward, Antonio, her choice challenges the accepted social order and brings her into direct conflict with her powerful brothers, the Duke Ferdinand and the scheming Cardinal.

With new music specially written by Arthur Ka Wai Jenkins, this adaptation of The Duchess Of Malfi has an all-star cast with Sophie Okonedo in the title role and Bertie Carvel as the malcontent Bosola, Jonathan Slinger as the Duke Ferdinand and Rory Kinnear as Antonio.

The cast also includes Oliver Senton, Oliver Le Sueur, Becky Hindley, Rachel Bavidge, Michael Griffiths, Paul Panting, Nicholas Gadd and Francis Middleditch.

Producer/Nicolas Soames

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Poet Michael Symmons Roberts embarks on a personal exploration of the elegy and talks to critics and fellow poets about its continuing importance, in this week's Sunday Feature.

There have been many obituaries for poetry as a public art form yet there's one kind of poetry that refuses to die – poems about the dead. From the home-made elegies which appear every day in the "deaths" columns of newspapers to the popularity of WH Auden's Funeral Blues after it was featured in the film Four Weddings And A Funeral, people often instinctively turn to poetry to make sense of grief and loss.

Contributors include poets Douglas Dunn, Michael Longley and Gillian Clarke, who talk about their own elegies, and Andrew Motion discusses the challenges of writing elegies at times of public mourning. Michael himself writes a series of elegies to the elegists of the past and asks whether, in the way it captures lost moments and people, all poetry is, in fact, elegy.

Presenter/Michael Symmons Roberts, Producer/Jeremy Grange

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Jazz Line-Up features alto-saxophonist Bobby Watson in concert at this year's Glasgow International Jazz Festival, introduced by Claire Martin.

Put simply, Bobby Watson is a jazz legend. After completing his tenure as a Jazz Messenger (1977-1981), the gifted Watson became a much sought-after musician, working alongside the likes of Max Roach and Louis Hayes, saxophonists George Coleman and Branford Marsalis, celebrated multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.

With bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Lewis, Watson launched the first edition of Horizon, an acoustic quintet based in many ways after the Jazz Messengers, but one with its own distinct twist. In addition to his work as leader of Horizon, Watson also led a group known as the High Court of Swing – a tribute to the music of Johnny Hodges. In total, Watson has some 26 recordings as a leader.

This recording, exclusively for Jazz Line-Up, was made in June this year at the 2008 Glasgow International Jazz Festival.

Presenter/Claire Martin, Producer/Keith Loxam

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

BBC RADIO 4 Sunday 12 October 2008

Comedian and actor Sanjeev Bhaskar shares his choice of Desert Island Discs with Kirsty Young this week.

Sanjeev is best known for The Kumars At No. 42 and, previously, for his work in the BBC Two comedy series Goodness Gracious Me which, of course, started off on BBC Radio 4. He has also starred in a number of British films including The Guru and Anita And Me.

In 2005, Bhaskar was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year Honours List, and married his collaborator, Meera Syal, who played his grandmother in The Kumars At No.42 and was also his co-star in Anita And Me.

His first book, India With Sanjeev Bhaskar, based on a BBC documentary series, became a Sunday Times bestseller in 2007. This year he made his musical theatre debut as King Arthur in Spamalot, at London's Palace Theatre.

Presenter/Kirsty Young, Producer/Leanne Buckle

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

As a child, John Lennon was taken to the very far north-west of Scotland for his summer holidays. Sarfraz Manzoor retraces the journey and meets John Lennon's cousin, Stan Parkes, who shares the memories of long happy summers in the spectacular landscape of Sutherland.

The young Lennon was introduced to all things Scottish by Stan's father, a Highlander who owned a croft in Durness. Soon, the family were making their way north of the border for their summer holidays. Lennon became so attached to this part of the world that it is said that his song, In My Life, was written to commemorate the people of Durness.

In this fascinating programme, Sarfraz meets the people of Durness who remember playing on the beach with the young boy from Liverpool. He visits the croft where Lennon stayed and hears of a private visit in 1969 when the famous musician returned to the scene of his happy childhood summer holidays with Yoko Ono. This journey, however, went horribly wrong when Lennon overturned his car in a ditch.

Presenter/Sarfraz Manzoor, Producer/Mark Rickards

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Sunday 12 October 2008

Formula One Sunday 12 October 5.00-7.00am BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

David Croft, Maurice Hamilton and Holly Samos bring listeners uninterrupted live commentary of the Japanese Grand Prix from the Fuji Speedway circuit.

Presenters/David Croft, Maurice Hamilton and Holly Samos, Producer/Jason Swales

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Gabby Logan brings listeners more chat and comment on the week's big news, sports and entertainment stories. She also challenges her studio guests to decide which news and sport stories of the week had the biggest impact in the weekly duelling panel show, News v Sport.

Presenter/Gabby Logan, Producer/Rosie Seed

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

5 Live Sport Sunday 12 October 12.00-6.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Eleanor Oldroyd presents live rugby union Heineken Cup coverage, with commentary from Leicester v Ospreys at 1pm and, from 3pm, Wasps v Castres.

Eleanor also has all the day's sports news, reaction from the Japanese Grand Prix and from the weekend's 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

Presenter/Eleanor Oldroyd, Producer/Danny Garlick

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA Sunday 12 October 2008

Listeners have the chance to hear a re-run of this morning's Japanese Grand Prix from the Fuji Speedway circuit.

Producer/Jason Swales

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

BBC 6 MUSIC Sunday 12 October 2008

One of the most successful UK bands of recent times hijack Stephen Merchant's show this afternoon. Singer Ricky Wilson and drummer Nick Hodgson from Kaiser Chiefs step in to Steve's rather large shoes, literally and metaphorically speaking, to play the music that inspires them and coax a few surprise guests in along the way.

They also welcome Calexico into the 6 Music Hub to perform live. From Tucson Arizona, Calexico, aka Joey Burns and John Convertino, have won a loyal following with their cinematic Mexican sound.

Presenters/Ricky Wilson and Nick Hodgson, Producers/James Stirling and Claire Slevin

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Bob Dylan takes Weather as his theme this week, and his choices include songs by The Staple Singers, Stevie Wonder, The Prisonaires and Irma Thomas.

Presenter/Bob Dylan, BBC Series Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Tom Robinson presents an In The City special this morning. From 5 to 7 October, Manchester saw an influx of the movers and shakers from the music industry and Tom was there talking to them. Listeners can catch up on all the proceedings and enjoy some live music from the BBC Introducing night.

Presenter/Tom Robinson, Producer/Dina Jahina

BBC 6 Music Publicity

BBC WORLD SERVICE Sunday 12 October 2008

BBC Diplomatic Correspondent Bridget Kendall hosts The Forum, BBC World Service's weekly discussion programme about ideas.

The Forum explores thoughts, theories, opinions and beliefs from around the world, providing opportunities for intellectual discourse and debate across national, social and cultural divides.

Presenter/Bridget Kendall, Producers/Emily Kasriel and Julian Siddle

BBC World Service Publicity

Programme Information

Monday 13 October 2008

BBC RADIO 2 Monday 13 October 2008

Colin Blunstone of The Zombies selects his Tracks Of My Years all this week, revealing his favourite music and the reasons behind his choices.

Among the songs on his list are It's Late by Ricky Nelson, Superstition by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone's Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood and The Isley Brothers' This Old Heart Of Mine.

Presenter/Ken Bruce, Producer/Gary Bones

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Jools Holland is joined this week by singer Paul Carrack.

Paul talks about his long and varied musical career, which includes working with Ace, Roxy Music, Squeeze (Paul replaced Jools on keyboards for the band's 1981 East Side Story album and sang lead vocals on their biggest hit, Tempted), Mike and The Mechanics and solo releases.

Jools also plays tracks from his eclectic record collection and, in Demo Corner, showcases early recordings by some of the world's finest singers.

Presenter/Jools Holland, Producer/Sarah Gaston

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Clarke Peters continues to tell the fascinating story of the life of Louis Jordan.

Jordan started out playing alto sax with the big band of Chick Webb, singing alongside Ella Fitzgerald, but he wanted to lead his own outfit. In the second programme of this four-part series, Clarke looks at how Jordan and his Tympani Five, a band he formed in 1938, created jump-jive music, the feel-good small band sound that bridged the swing era with R&B.

Presenter/Clarke Peters, Producer/Terry Carter

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

BBC RADIO 3 Monday 13 October 2008

Composer Of The Week – Monteverdi Ep 1/5 Monday 13 to Friday 17 October 12.00-1.00pm BBC RADIO 3

Donald Macleod travels to Venice to walk in Monteverdi's footsteps for this week's Composer Of The Week.

In today's opening programme Donald makes his way, via the Grand Canal and the famous Campanile, to the composer's workplace, the Basilica di San Marco, where he speaks to the current vice maestro di capella Justine Rapaccioli – the first woman to occupy the position in the 700 years of the choir's existence. Donald talks to her about music-making in the basilica then and now. The music comes from Monteverdi's epoch-making Vespers Of The Blessed Virgin, which dates to 1610, and his deeply personal Sixth Book Of Madrigals.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Chris Barstow

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

This week, in The Essay, five writers examine the passions that led them to embark upon life-long relationships with the enigmatic nation of Russia. In today's specially commissioned Essay, theatre director Declan Donnellan talks about working in Russian theatre and reflects on the unexpected discoveries he made while working with Russian artistes.

The rest of this week's Essay is a repeat from the original broadcast of this series. The other writers featured in the series include: Simon Franklin, Head of Slavonic Studies at Cambridge University; journalist and author Vanora Bennett; writer, broadcaster and journalist Lesley Chamberlain; and historian and writer Simon Sebag Montefiore.

Producer/Sasha Yevtushenko

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Jez Nelson presents a gig by the Sonny Simmons Quartet recorded earlier this month at London's Vortex jazz club.

Born in Louisiana, Simmons moved to New York via Los Angeles to join the emerging free jazz movement of the Sixties. His albums, Staying On The Watch and Music From The Spheres, are now considered classics. But his story took a tragic twist – after his marriage broke down in the mid-Seventies, he dropped out of music and began drinking and taking drugs. After 15 years of playing on the streets of San Francisco, he was rediscovered and made a come-back in 1994 with his album Ancient Ritual. He has since recorded several well-received albums as a leader.

Although Simmons does not limit himself purely to avant-garde strains of jazz, his role in the development of the tradition is vital, having worked with musicians such as Eric Dolphy and Sonny Rollins. His current UK quartet features Derek Saw on trumpet and trombone, John Jasnoch on guitar and oud and Charlie Collins on drums and cajon.

Presenter/Jez Nelson, Producer/Robert Abel

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

BBC RADIO 4 Monday 13 October 2008

Book Of The Week – The Age Of Wonder Ep 1/5 Monday 13 to Friday 17 October 9.45-10.00am BBC RADIO 4

Richard Holmes, prize-winning biographer of Coleridge and Shelley, explores the scientific ferment that swept across Britain at the end of the 18th century, in his ground-breaking new biography The Age Of Wonder – read, in this week's Book Of The Week, by Douglas Hodge.

The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook's first Endeavour voyage, stepping onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, hoping to discover Paradise. Many other voyages of discovery swiftly follow, including the fantastical first balloon flights and the discoveries of the chemist Humphry Davy, who went on to establish British chemistry as the leading professional science in Europe.

Holmes, who introduces the series, also explores the startling impact of discovery on great writers and poets, such as Mary Shelley, Coleridge, Byron and Keats. With his trademark sense of the human drama, he shows how great ideas and experiments are born out of lonely passion, how scientific discoveries (and errors) are made, how intense relationships are forged and broken by research and how religious faith and scientific truth collide. The result is breathtaking in its originality, its story-telling energy and, not least, in its intellectual significance for the contemporary reader.

Reader/Douglas Hodge, Producer/Jill Waters

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Letters To Myself is a feature made up of letters people have written to themselves, to be opened years later when they are older and wiser.

Writing a letter to oneself may sound a bizarre activity but, for many people, it is an essential way of making sense of their lives. Like a diary, the letter is a place to document intimate dreams, deepest worries, magical moments and blackest moods. But, unlike a diary, which remains a memento from the past, the letter comes to life again when it is opened – with questions and advice from you to you.

Letters To Myself follows a group of young adults as they open letters that they wrote to themselves years ago as school leavers. Listeners can eavesdrop on a child writing a letter to be opened when she's moved to secondary school and hear sample letters that have been sent to a website which acts as a temporary library for people's correspondence to their selves.

Producer/Sandhya Suri

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Badly injured in a traffic accident, Steven's physiotherapy sessions haven't been going well and he has grown depressed and despondent. Keen to motivate him, his physiotherapist Cate decides to try some hydrotherapy in the pool. But the first session goes badly and, unable to move his leg, Steven grows increasingly frustrated. "Its not as if I'll ever swim around Ireland, is it?" he cries.

Cate, however, has an idea to prove that Steven can do just that. For every move or kick Steven makes in the pool, they'll travel 10 kilometres around Ireland, plotting their progress on a map. And so begins an unusual journey of imagination and discovery as Steven and Cate set out to "swim" around Ireland.

Martin Meenan, a regular contributor on BBC Radio Foyle, has written four series of Baldi for Radio 4. His previous work includes the short film Everybody's Gone and stage plays All In The Head and The Last Ghost Dance.

Steven is played by Michael Colgan with Dawn Bradfield as Cate. The cast includes Kieran Lagan and John Hewitt.

Producer/Heather Larmour

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Cheltenham Literature Festival Readings Booker 40 Selection Ep 1/5 Monday 13 October 3.30-3.45pm BBC RADIO 4

The Man Booker Prize is 40 years old this autumn and, to mark the anniversary, BBC Radio 4 broadcasts five pieces of new writing performed on stage at the Cheltenham Literature Festival by its Booker prize-winning guests.

The five writers, among Britain's finest writers of prose fiction, span more than two decades of the Booker prize. They are John Banville (author of winning novel The Sea in 2005), Graham Swift (Last Orders, 1996), Penelope Lively (Moon Tiger, 1987), DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little, 2003) and Ben Okri (The Famished Road, 1991).

Producer/Sara Davies

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Traveller's Tree Ep 1/8 Monday 13 October 4.30-5.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Traveller's Tree returns for a new series as Katie Derham steps in as host.

Retreats, holistic holidays, spa and life-coaching breaks – there are many names for the rapidly growing phenomenon known as the "wellbeing holiday". In the first edition of the new series, listeners discover why the idea of a holiday that is both a mental and spiritual restorative has become so popular. Alain de Botton, author of The Art Of Travel, offers some possible explanations.

There's also a report from listener Kevin Osborne on a life-coaching holiday in the Picos mountains of northern Spain, and the programme hears from participants of a therapeutic singing weekend in Somerset.

Dr Susan Horsewood-Lee, an expert on spa therapies, explains what to expect from those holiday treatments and programmes of detox and Caroline Sygle, author of Body And Soul Escapes, is in the studio to share her expertise.

Presenter/Katie Derham, Producer/Susan Marling

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

On an October morning last year, Claire Prosser's life changed for ever. Her eldest son Tom, a bright and funny 14-year-old, died suddenly from an undiagnosed heart-related condition during the night.

Clare was devastated. As a BBC journalist, she began to appreciate the real meaning of words she'd written so many times, words like "tragedy, anguish, heart-broken..."

Life After Tom charts Claire's first year without her son, and explores the process of re-building after the unimaginable has happened.

After "the first two weeks of utter shock... the funeral... the hearse led by a friend's Ferrari at 100mph up the M40..." it was the mundane tasks that were the hardest for Claire: "Taking my daughter to the dentist when the last time I went I took two kids not one... cancelling Tom's tennis club subscription..."

But as the months passed, Claire has acquired a new life, very different to the one she led before. "I now have counselling twice a week, go singing, swimming, have a massage with a healer who tells me that Tom wants me to get a dog – it's a shame Paul (Claire's husband) is allergic to them..."

And Tom's death didn't just change Claire. It fundamentally changed many people's responses to her too.

Presenter/Claire Prosser, Producer/Linda Pressly

BBC News Publicity

Edi Stark explores the impact of a little-known eye condition, undiagnosed and untreated, which is blighting the lives of thousands of adults and children in the UK. Binocular Instability affects up to 20 per cent of the population and Through The Looking Glass investigates the seeming lack of action from the Department Of Health to tackle this hidden disability.

New research reveals that Binocular Instability is an underlying problem in thousands of children in the UK, many of whom have been misdiagnosed with learning disabilities including dyslexia and dyspraxia. The true cause of these problems is a lack of binocularity, which means that the sufferer's eyes don't converge at precisely the same point. The effect is to make reading and looking at a screen incredibly tiring. Binocular Instability is easily detected by a simple test and cured by a short course of treatment and corrective glasses. But the condition can't be picked up in a standard eye test, and there are fewer than 100 optometrists in the UK qualified to spot it.

Sufferers are plagued with severe headaches and a lack of self esteem as a result of being excluded from normal learning processes. Edi explores the devastating impact on the lives of sufferers and asks why the Chief Medical Officer in England continues to ignore the problem.

Presenter/Edi Stark, Producer/Amanda Hargreaves

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Monday 13 October 2008

Mark Saggers presents all the day's sports news and is joined at 8pm by John Motson, Ian McGarry and Paul Elliot for The Monday Night Club, discussing the latest football developments. From 9.30pm, there is a more in-depth discussion with Paul Elliot about the anti-racism Kick It Out campaign.

Presenter/Mark Saggers, Producer/Steve Houghton

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

BBC 6 MUSIC Monday 13 October 2008

Hailing from Athens, Georgia, rather than Canada, Of Montreal have been purveyors of indie pop for more than 10 years. Currently on tour to promote their latest album, the band pops in to talk to George Lamb ahead of their only London gig.

Presenter/George Lamb, Producer/Mike Hanson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Nemone talks to one of the founders of the physical art of free running, Sebastian Foucan, who has appeared in Bond movie Casino Royale and showcased his talents in Madonna's video for Hung Up.

The video of the week comes from CSS and Nemone catches up with the man behind it, director Keith Schofield.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Gideon Coe presents sessions from American songwriter Tanya Donelly, concert highlights from The Smiths, captured at the height of their career at the Manchester Apollo, and folk-tronica man Adem, recorded especially for the BBC at the 2006 Summer Sundae Festival.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Lisa Kenlock

BBC 6 Music Publicity

There's another chance for listeners to hear this series first broadcast in 2001, as ABC vocalist Martin Fry recalls the heady days of the New Romantic movement.

Presenter/Martin Fry, Repeat Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

BBC WORLD SERVICE Monday 13 October 2008

Seven years into the global war on terror, is al-Qaeda winning? BBC World Service has asked this deceptively simple question in Riyadh, Peshawar, Baghdad, London, Brussels and Washington.

Owen Bennett-Jones tests the big promises governments have made about the financial war on terror, in the penultimate episode of the series. Is money really al-Qaeda's "lifeblood" or "oxygen"? He speaks to leading officials at the US Treasury and the UN Security Council's al-Qaeda and Taleban monitoring committee, and learns how al-Qaeda continues to raise, move and spend money with relative ease.

Presenter/Owen Bennett-Jones, Producer/Neal Razzell

BBC World Service Publicity

Programme Information

Tuesday 14 October 2008

BBC RADIO 2 Tuesday 14 October 2008

BBC Radio 2's Guitar Season continues with another chance to hear Gary Moore's tribute to blues-inspired rock guitarist Rory Gallagher, who died in 1995 at the age of 47.

This documentary features rare archive recordings and contributions from Johnny Marr, Brian May, Jack Bruce and Georgie Fame.

Radio 2's Guitar Season celebrates some of the outstanding musicians who have kept the guitar at the forefront of music-making across the genres and features documentaries on artists ranging from Howlin' Wolf to Led Zeppelin.

Imagine – The Story Of The Guitar begins on BBC One on Sunday 5 October.

Presenter/Gary Moore, Producer/Steve Groves

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

David Quantick continues to take listeners by the hand and lead them through the mean streets of country music.

The Blagger's Guide To Country sets its sights on the cheatin', drinkin', shootin' and cryin' world of country music with the clumsy assistance of fake archive footage, made-up adverts, imaginary trailers for imaginary movies, counterfeit recordings and some old fashioned gags.

The series is the right place for listeners to come to find out how Patsy Cline died; hear a long lost advert for Now That's What I Call Cecil Sharp's English Folk Songs From The Southern Appalachians; impress, or bore, friends by going on about the cultural significance of northern Louisiana; and discover the three best Willie Nelson songs of all time.

Tonight's second programme focuses on matters concerning Dolly Parton, country and politics, Willie Nelson and Nashville.

Presenter/David Quantick, Producer/Anna Harrison

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

BBC RADIO 3 Tuesday 14 October 2008

Donald Macleod continues his travels to Venice to walk in composer Monteverdi's footsteps. In today's Composer Of The Week offering, Donald explores the music Monteverdi wrote for St Mark's Basilica in his capacity as Director of Music, and visits Venice's State Archive, a remarkable institution chronicling the past 1,000 years of Venetian life.

Donald talks to the Basilica's vice maestro di capella, Justine Rapaccioli, about the demands of the liturgical schedule. He then crosses the Grand Canal to the Venice State Archive and finds such treasures as a letter written in Monteverdi's own hand, telling the story of an ugly dispute with one of his singers, Domenico Aldegati. Music includes the splendidly festive Magnificat in 8 voices and the serene Mass in 4 Voices, Monteverdi's "updating" of Palestrina.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Chris Barstow

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

For the next two weeks, Afternoon On 3 celebrates the rich variety of music festivals that took place over the summer in Europe and North America. The fortnight takes in around 24 different countries, with choral music, chamber, large orchestral and early music all represented.

Today, listeners can hear the rarely performed Handel chamber opera, Clori, Tirsi et Fileno, an elegant story of a classic love triangle recorded at the Saint-Michel en Thiérache Early and Baroque Music Festival in France.

Presenter/Louise Fryer, Producer/Elizabeth Funning

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Max Reinhardt presents field recordings from China and from the Hugh Tracey archive, a taste of the Japanese avant-garde from Natsuki Tamura, in this edition of Late Junction.

There's also a chance for listeners to hear Colin Fallows's prepared electric guitars and a slice of vintage gospel from Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers.

Presenter/Max Reinhardt, Producer/Felix Carey

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

BBC RADIO 4 Tuesday 14 October 2008

Between Ourselves Ep 1/3 Tuesday 14 October 9.00-9.30am BBC RADIO 4

Tony Little, Head of Eton, and Michael Wilkins, Head of Outwood Grange comprehensive school, discuss their roles and offer an illuminating comparison between two very different institutions, in a new, three-part series.

In this edition of Between Ourselves, both head teachers have the same aim – to produce happy, confident and well-qualified young people – yet they start with very different material. Tony, himself an old Etonian, has a rigorous selection procedure which allows him to populate his school with the brightest and most motivated boys. As boarders, they have round-the-clock attention and a wide range of opportunities.

It's very different for Michael, however, who takes students of all abilities and backgrounds into his huge comprehensive school near Leeds. Since his appointment, Michael has turned Outwood Grange around and the percentage of pupils getting good GCSE grades has almost doubled.

So, what difference can the head teacher make? Olivia O'Leary meets both head teachers to look at the power and responsibility they hold and how they handle the young lives in their hands.

Producer/Karen Gregor

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Hamish Henderson has been called "the most important Scottish poet since Burns", yet is better known overseas than in the rest of the UK. Nelson Mandela sought him out after his release from Robben Island and Pete Seeger gamely attempted some of his Scots dialect poetry. Ask anyone outside of Scotland to name the leading Scottish poets and most would get stuck after Robert Burns, but Henderson's name deserves more recognition.

Henderson was not just a poet and songwriter of international stature, but also a various man – one with a range of talents and interests that added up to a colourful and influential life. Winner of the Somerset Maugham prize in 1949 for his war poetry, Henderson was also a folklorist who pioneered use of the tape recorder and led the Scottish folk revival. He was also a prime mover in the creation of Edinburgh University's School of Scottish Studies and one of the earliest anti-apartheid campaigners.

This programme mixes performance of some of Henderson's poetry and song with new interviews on location and a variety of rare archive clips. The programme is presented by Edinburgh University's Dr Fred Freeman, a specialist in Hamish Henderson and Robert Burns and their work.

Presenter/Dr Fred Freeman, Producer/Mike Hally

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

As the global banking crisis deepens, a flood of multi-million dollar lawsuits is threatening to shed more light into the secret world of international finance.

Michael Robinson examines some of the claims now being put before the courts – including accusations of insider dealing and the deception of investors – in this week's edition of File On 4.

The allegations are all hotly contested so, as the big names begin to sue and counter-sue, what is likely to be revealed about how banking business was conducted?

Reporter/Michael Robinson, Producer/David Lewis

BBC News Publicity

Fabulous Ep 1/4 Tuesday 14 October 11.00-11.30pm BBC RADIO 4

Faye is feeling anxious. She knows that today's women are fabulous – they have the job, the house, the colour co-ordinated capsule wardrobe and they cope with singledom, marriage and having kids with peanut allergies. It seems that they all do it effortlessly, with nothing more than a copy of Prima and a poem by Pam Ayres to guide them. So why can't she pull it off?

In this second series of Fabulous, Faye tries to get through her day smiling. Inside, however, she is angry and annoyed, obsesses over imagined slights and chastises herself for the slightest mistake. Faye constantly struggles to appear cool, calm and in control, but she is hindered by a monosyllabic boyfriend, a demanding mother, a disturbed elder sister and a frankly pathological hatred for her "I'm-slightly-better-than-you" work-mate, Edith.

There's also Faye's friend and workmate, Denise, who follows fashion religiously, and Joan the naturalist, who works at the coal-face of romance, writing trashy novels for Mills & Boon.

Between seeking self-improvement and scanning the media for solutions to her imagined problems, Faye has to deal with some real issues and gets a proposal she can't refuse. She hires some builders to refurbish her kitchen, which causes no end of anxiety and, meanwhile, tries to find her father, who has disappeared, as well as endeavouring to win Edith's job while she is on maternity leave.

The series is written by Lucy Clarke and the cast includes Daisy Haggard, Katy Brand, Justin Edwards, Joanna Neary, Jo Scanlan and Anne Reid.

Producer/Simon Nicholls

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Tuesday 14 October 2008

Mark Saggers presents all the day's sports news live from Minsk, Belarus, and previews all the following day's 2010 World Cup qualifying games – including Belarus v England.

From 8pm, there's live commentary of the crucial second leg of the Uefa Championship play-off between England Under 21s and Wales Under 21s.

Presenter/Mark Saggers, Producer/Claire Ackling

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Danny Baker continues to bring his own unique style to 606.

Fans can watch the debate on interactive digital TV via the Red button, and give their views to Danny by phone to 0500 909 693 (free from BT landlines), text to 85058 at network rates or email 606@bbc.co.uk.

Presenter/Danny Baker, Producer/Patrick Campbell

BBC Radio Five Live Publicity

BBC 6 MUSIC Tuesday 14 October 2008

Arctic Monkey Matt Helders visits the BBC 6 Music studios today for a chat with George Lamb and the crew.

Presenter/George Lamb, Producer/Mike Hanson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Nemone catches up on the road with Tim Burgess from the Charlatans this afternoon.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Ralfe Band, who hail from Oxford, London and Berlin, are Mark Riley's guests this evening.

Presenter/Mark Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Gideon Coe delves deep into the archives once more and unearths some more of the best sessions and live sets recorded for the BBC.

Gideon revisits the Beastie Boys, recorded live at the Glastonbury Festival from 1994, and session tracks from hardcore indie group Jesus Lizard and modern folk rock group 18th Day Of May.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Lisa Kenlock

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Programme Information

Wednesday 15 October 2008

BBC RADIO 2 Wednesday 15 October 2008

This week's programme features an interview with John Spiers and Jon Boden from the award-winning folk big band Bellowhead.

Spiers and Boden formed the 11-piece group four years ago and have since been recognised as best live act at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards a record three times. Their critically acclaimed debut album was one of the biggest-selling folk albums of 2006 and 2007 and led to appearances on BBC Two's Later ... With Jools, at the Royal Opera House and the Cambridge Folk Festival.

From established talent to burgeoning new talent, Mike updates listeners on the six acts who have progressed to the final of this year's Radio 2 Young Folk Award, following the semi-final selection process in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Presenter/Mike Harding, Producer/Kellie While

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Trevor Nelson hosts another hour of the best in soulful music.

Trevor's Album Of The Week is R&B trio Lucy Pearl's self-titled debut, released a year after the supergroup was formed in 1999 by Raphael Saadiq, formerly of Tony! Toni! Tone!, along with Dawn Robinson from En Vogue and Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest.

The album combines the live instrumentation of soul, with the sampling and DJ-ing techniques of hip hop, creating lush backing tracks for Saadiq and Robinson's vocal performances. With additional collaborators Snoop Dog and Q-Tip also featuring on the album, it is no surprise that Lucy Pearl went on to sell more than a million copies world-wide.

Tonight's playlist also includes tracks by Barry White, Aretha Franklin and Robin Thicke, while Your Jam features another listener dedication.

Presenter/Trevor Nelson, Producer/Ollie Embden

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

BBC RADIO 3 Wednesday 15 October 2008

On top of his day-job at the Basilica di San Marco, Monteverdi was in huge demand throughout Venice as a composer and music director. In today's programme, Donald Macleod explores the composer's lucrative "extra-curricular" activities, and visits two venues where he is known to have directed performances – the Dandolo Palace (now the Danieli Hotel), and the Church of St John the Almsgiver near the Rialto Bridge. He also finds time to drop in to the historic Marciana Library where he talks to David Bryant, director of music research at the Cini Foundation, about the extraordinary quantity and diversity of Venetian music-making in Monteverdi's day.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Chris Barstow

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Afternoon On 3 continues its two-week celebration of the rich variety of music festivals that took place over the summer in Europe and North America. The fortnight takes in around 24 different countries, with choral music, chamber, large orchestral and early music all represented.

Starting today is a complete performance of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in a bold production from the 2008 Bayreuth Festival by 29-year-old Katharina Wagner, the composer's great-grand-daughter. Each day, for the next three days, there is a chance to hear one act from 2pm. The cast includes Franz Hawlata as Hans Sachs and the Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra is conducted by Sebastian Weigle.

Presenter/Louise Fryer, Producer/Elizabeth Funning

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Performance On 3 – BBC National Orchestra Of Wales Wednesday 15 October 7.00-9.15pm BBC RADIO 3

Live from Swansea's Brangwyn Hall, Jac Van Steen, Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, leads music inspired by two great mythical tales, one Greek one Welsh.

Stravinsky's edgy neo-classical Oedipus Rex is the perfect vehicle for the ritualistic drama, driving the action forward as Sophocles's hero searches for the cause of the curse on Thebes, with the inevitable realisation that he is the contagion and has fulfilled the fate that he would kill his father and marry his mother.

James Gilchrist is Oedipus and Susan Bickley is Jocasta. The cast also includes Timothy Robinson, Neal Davies, Darren Jeffery, Stephen Richardson and Philip Madoc.

Gutu Puw's ...onyt agoraf y drws takes its inspiration from the closing section of the Branwen tale from the Welsh folk legend the Mabinogion, a group of warriors who have been allowed to feast for 80 years without any memories of their past ordeals – just so long as they don't open the forbidden door.

Presenter/Tom Service, Producer/Brian Jackson

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

BBC RADIO 4 Wednesday 15 October 2008

Sometimes letters go missing. They can be sent to the wrong address and simply put to one side. So what happens when a letter suddenly turns up 50 years after it was first posted? Surely, whatever the revelations, its contents cannot shake the bedrock of a marriage. Or can they?

The cast includes Anne Reid, Ian Lindsay, Joanna David, Ellie Beaven, Patrick Kennedy and Leanne Rowe.

Wendy Oberman is a journalist and novelist and was a founding member of London Films. She dramatised PS I Love You and wrote the serial Conversations With My Bailiff for radio and is currently working on various screenplays.

Producer/Gemma McMullan

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Wednesday 15 October 2008

5 Live Sport Wednesday 15 October 7.00-10.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Saggers presents full live commentary of the 2010 World Cup qualifier between Belarus and England from the Dinamo Stadium in Minsk.

There will also be regular updates from the evening's other World Cup qualifiers, including Germany v Wales, Northern Ireland v San Marino and the Republic of Ireland v Cyprus.

Presenter/Mark Saggers, Producer/Mark Williams

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Tim Lovejoy presents the UK's biggest football phone-in, discussing the action from this evening's World Cup qualifiers.

Fans can watch the debate on interactive digital TV via the Red button, and give their views to Tim by phone 0500 909 693 (free from BT landlines), text 85058 at network rates or email 606@bbc.co.uk

Presenter/Tim Lovejoy, Producer/Patrick Campbell

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA Wednesday 15 October 2008

Football Wednesday 15 October 7.35-9.45pm BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

BBC Sport presents full uninterrupted commentary of the 2010 World Cup qualifier between Northern Ireland and San Marino live from Windsor Park, Belfast.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

BBC 6 MUSIC Wednesday 15 October 2008

Canadian band The Dears talk to George and play live tracks from their latest album in the 6 Music Hub.

Presenter/George Lamb, Producer/Mike Hanson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Nemone chats to Robert Harvey, singer of Leeds band The Music.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Gideon Coe's selection of concert highlights tonight come from Scottish group Del Amitri and a recent set from And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. There's also a 1991 session by Meat Puppets recorded especially for John Peel. And finally Folk Implosion featuring Sebadoh man Lou Barlow.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Lisa Kenlock

BBC 6 Music Publicity

BBC WORLD SERVICE Wednesday 15 October 2008

There's another chance to hear this documentary about the My Lai massacre, presented by American military journalist, Robert Hodierne, himself a Vietnam veteran.

Forty years ago, as many as 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians were killed by US soldiers. It became known as the "My Lai" massacre and proved to be a turning point in the Vietnam War.

For a year after My Lai, the rapes and murders were covered up. Much of what is known thereafter came from the widely publicised court martial of Lieutenant William Calley in 1970/71. He was the only man ever found guilty of any offences at My Lai. But the massacre was much more than the actions of a few rogue individual soldiers. It was carefully planned and a high body count was the main aim.

Before Calley's trial, The US Army itself held its own investigation into the massacre. The inquiry heard evidence behind closed doors inside the Pentagon from December 1969 to March 1970. Over 14 weeks, Lieutentant General William Peers and his panel took statements from 403 witnesses: soldiers, senior officers, chaplains, journalists and Vietnamese civilians. The findings of the investigation, which amount to some 400 hours of tape, were so uncomfortable for the US Military that they were classified and suppressed until now.

The tapes of the Peers Inquiry prove that US soldiers raped and killed hundreds of civilians in not just one, but three villages that day. They prove that two companies – not only the infamous Charlie Company – were involved. They show how badly trained and ignorant of the laws of war many of the young soldiers were and prove that orders "to leave nothing alive" came from senior officers. The Peers Inquiry's key recommendations about the training of soldiers fighting insurgents and the responsibility of leaders in wartime issues, still have huge resonance today in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Presenter/Robert Hodierne, Producer/Rosie Goldsmith

BBC World Service Publicity

Programme Information

Thursday 16 October 2008

BBC RADIO 2 Thursday 16 October 2008

Bob Harris is joined by roots rocker John Mellencamp, whose career has spanned more than 30 years, produced hit singles such as Jack And Diane and Hurts So Good, and seen him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

John's latest album moves him away from heartland rock and into the realms of atmospheric folk and country blues. Entitled Life, Death, Love And Freedom, it is produced by T Bone Burnett, the man behind Robert Plant and Alison Krauss's Mercury-nominated album, as well as the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which was credited with helping start the current bluegrass revival.

Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Al Booth

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Bob Dylan turns to the subject of locks and keys, playing an eclectic mix of tracks and chatting about Harry Houdini, St Peter, chastity belts, piano keys and safe-breaker Jimmy Valentine along the way.

Tonight's music includes Lock And Key by Bessie Smith, Unlock The Door by Jimmy Nelson, Key To The Highway by Little Walter and You're Bound To Look Like A Monkey by Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies.

Presenter/Bob Dylan, BBC Series Producer/Phil Hughes

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

BBC RADIO 3 Thursday 16 October 2008

All of the music in this week's penultimate edition of Composer Of The Week is associated with a single day – 21 November 1631. On this day, Venice celebrated deliverance from the plague which had wiped out one third of its entire population, and Monteverdi's music provided the soundtrack.

Donald Macleod tells the story of the plague and visits the church that Venice built to celebrate its end – Santa Maria della Salute took more than 50 years to complete, but now stands as one of the city's most iconic symbols.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Chris Barstow

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Sir Simon Rattle conducts
Sibelius's Fifth

Liverpool-born conductor Sir Simon Rattle returns to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was once Assistant Conductor, to conduct the first symphony he ever performed with the Orchestra, Sibelius's mighty Fifth.

The pale Nordic colours that glimmer in Sibelius's score find an excellent balance in two extracts from Wagner's epic drama of Norse legend, The Ring (Siegried's Rhine Journey and Siegried's Funeral Music), while the world première of Australian composer Brett Dean's Songs Of Joy, commissioned by The Liverpool Culture Company for 2008, is sung by baritone Peter Coleman-Wright.

Presenter/Tom Service, Producer/Brian Jackson

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

BBC RADIO 4 Thursday 16 October 2008

Literary editor and memoirist Diana Athill shares the rich pickings of a life spent among books with an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, in this week's edition of With Great Pleasure.

Born in 1917, Diana's Norfolk childhood was spent, as she puts it in her memoir, "riding out of doors and reading indoors". After studying English, she met André Deutsch during the Second World War and, together, they published a stunning list of writers, including VS Naipaul, Philip Roth, John Updike, Jean Rhys, Stevie Smith, Margaret Atwood and Brian Moore.

Extracts from some of their works rub shoulders with Chekhov, PG Wodehouse and Jane Austen's unfinished novel, The Watsons, in this fascinating programme.

Diana's notable 50-year career in publishing continued until she was 75 but, surprisingly, it was one that she fell into after her original plans for marriage and children fell through.

Producer/Mark Smalley

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Thursday 16 October 2008

Dan Walker presents all the day's sports news, plus a review of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers with David Pleat.

From 8pm, there are reports on Team GB's Olympic and Paralympic medallists' parade of honour in London from earlier in the day.

Presenter/Dan Walker, Producer/Ben North

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA Thursday 16 October 2008

Formula One Thursday 16 October 3.00-4.30am BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra brings uninterrupted commentary in the early hours of Friday morning on the first practice session of the Chinese Grand Prix from the Shanghai International Circuit.

Producer/Jason Swales

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

BBC 6 MUSIC Thursday 16 October 2008

Self-confessed folktronica pioneer James Yuill performs live in the BBC 6 Music Hub.

Presenter/George Lamb, Producer/Mike Hanson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Gideon Coe raids the archives once again and plays a Fleetwood Mac concert recorded at The Paris Theatre for BBC Radio in 1970. He also finds a South By South West concert recording from The Brakes and session tracks from Grandaddy from 2006.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Lisa Kenlock

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Programme Information

Friday 17 October 2008

BBC RADIO 2 Friday 17 October 2008

Howard Goodall heads to the BRIT School in Croydon, in the final part of his series showcasing exceptional young musical talent in the UK.

BRIT stands for British Record Industry Trust. It is Britain's only free performing arts and technology school and provides vocational training and general education for 14-19-year olds.

The long list of famous alumni includes Leona Lewis, Adele, Katie Melua, Kate Nash and Luke Pritchard of the Kooks, and could one day include some of the youngsters featured on tonight's programme.

Howard discovers two diverse ensembles preparing sets for the Glastonbury festival – jazz/funk fusion band Buddha Tears and energetic rockers Jenners Field. The programme also hears from Charlotte Campbell, a singer-songwriter with a big future.

Presenter/Howard Goodall, Producer/Cali Snook

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Clare Teal introduces the BBC Concert Orchestra performing at London's LSO St Luke's, with special guests British jazz guitarist Martin Taylor and singer Alison Burns.

Martin is an award-winning musician whose inimitable playing style has seen him recognised as a leading exponent of solo jazz guitar.

Martin has enjoyed a remarkable musical career spanning four decades, playing at concert halls around the world and collaborating with musicians from many different genres, including Chet Atkins, Bill Wyman, George Harrison, Dionne Warwick, Sacha Distel, Bryn Terfel and Jamie Cullum.

Martin is joined on stage by Alison Burns, a Scottish jazz singer who sang with the three-part female harmony group The Penny Dainties before releasing her debut solo album last year.

Presenter/Clare Teal, Producer/Bridget Apps

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

BBC RADIO 3 Friday 17 October 2008

Donald Macleod explores the extraordinary "Indian summer" of Monteverdi's final years in the last of this week's programmes. He also visits the sites of the world's first and second public opera houses, where the composer's late operatic masterpieces – The Return Of Ulysses To His Homeland and The Coronation Of Poppea – first saw the light of day.

Donald ends his Venetian pilgrimage with a trip to the Venice State Archive, where he examines the official record of Monteverdi's death; then on to the composer's modest tomb in the church of the Frari.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Chris Barstow

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Violinist and conductor Thomas Zehetmair – the artistic director of the Northern Sinfonia – conducts the orchestra in an all-Beethoven concert to begin their Beethoven Symphony cycle. They play the Egmont Overture, written for a production of Goethe's play of the same name, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 1. Zehetmair is also soloist in the performance of Beethoven's mighty Violin Concerto.

Presenter/Tom Service, Producer/Brian Jackson

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

BBC RADIO 4 Friday 17 October 2008

The days of "Our brave boys" are now long gone and, for the past decade, a quiet revolution has been going on in the British Armed Forces. Today, it's more appropriate to say: "Our brave boys and girls". There are now around 17,000 women in uniform, making up more than nine per cent of the boots on the ground. The last six years alone have seen a 12 per cent increase in their numbers. But, according to some, they don't "do" combat.

That certainly wasn't the case for Sarah Bryant, a sergeant from the Intelligence Corps, who became the first female British solider to be killed in Afghanistan last June, or leading seaman and mother Faye Turney, who was captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The families of the five women personnel who've now been killed in Iraq wouldn't agree with that statement, either. In modern asymmetric warfare, there's no such thing as a front line and that's the way the women in the Forces want it.

In this series, former BBC correspondent Martin Bell, who has reported from 18 different wars, travels to Afghanistan to meet the women who are on the front line and often beyond it; serving in some of the harshest and most dangerous areas in the same way as men.

There have been enormous changes in the make up of the British military since the abolition of the separate women's services in the Nineties. That decision paved the way for women to serve on fighting ships and fly in combat zones. The arguments over leadership and courage may be being won, but there's still a question mark about real equality under fire. Do women have the physical strength and the capacity for aggression, and what is their effect on the male troops they serve with? Ultimately, is society prepared to accept the inevitable increase in casualties as women extend their roles in the military?

Presenter/Martin Bell, Producer/Phil Pegum

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

In an isolated house, an old man is found dead. In another room is his sister. She, too, is dead, her lifeless body having been there for many years.

Written and narrated by Paul Evans, Owls is a fictional story of how a brother and sister were bound by a wish sworn on a barn owl feather; and of how that wish became a curse that proved fatal. Isolation, human desire and the supernatural are explored in this unsettling drama about the relationship between hope and despair, man and nature.

It is summer and the piping sounds of snipe, redshank and lapwing accompany Paul Evans as he approaches a derelict stone cottage on a vast open moorland. An old man is heard singing a nursery rhyme, but is this voice real or imagined? As the narrator explores the stone ruins, the distinction between fact and fiction becomes blurred and the narrator becomes embedded in a fictional drama.

Recorded on location, the sound recordists for this special Afternoon Play include internationally acclaimed wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson and sound engineer Mike Burgess. The drama is a unique collaboration between the BBC Natural History Unit and the Audio and Music Department in Bristol.

Jimmy Yuill plays the old man with Alyth McCormack as the Sister/Gaelic Singer.

Producer/Sarah Blunt

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Friday 17 October 2008

Mark Pougatch looks ahead to the weekend's sporting action. He is joined by Steve Claridge to preview to the weekend's football, including the games between Middlesbrough and Chelsea and Manchester United v West Brom.

Presenter/Mark Pougatch, Producer/Louise Sutton

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

5 Live Formula One Friday 17 October 9.30-10.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

David Croft, Maurice Hamilton and Holly Samos preview this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit, the penultimate race of the Championship.

Presenters/David Croft, Maurice Hamilton and Holly Samos, Producer/Jason Swales

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA Friday 17 October 2008

Formula One Friday 17 October 7.00-8.30am (Second practice session) BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA 4.00-5.05am (Third practice session) BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra brings uninterrupted commentary of the second practice session of the Chinese Grand Prix from the Shanghai International Circuit, which takes place early on Friday morning UK time, followed by the third and final practice session, which takes place in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Producer/Jason Swales

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

BBC 6 MUSIC Friday 17 October 2008

Nemone is joined by comic magician Peter Firman, who brings his anarchic, off-beat humour and dazzling array of magical skills in to the studio and makes Nemone his glamorous assistant for the afternoon.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Tom Robinson is joined by Ben Watt, one half of Everything But The Girl and a successful DJ, remixer and author. Ben's autobiography, which charted his battle with a rare life-threatening disease, was the Sunday Times Book Of The Year in 2006. He talks to Tom about his amazing career.

Presenter/Tom Robinson, Producer/Henry Real-Lopez

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Finnish metal five-piece Kiuas are the guests on tonight's edition of Bruce Dickinson's Rock Show.

Having formed back in 2000, Kiuas's sound is aggressive yet melodic, combining thrash, power and even folk strains. Their lyrics concentrate on subjects such as ancient Finnish mythology and paganism, and the "Epic Metallers" have previously toured with Children of Bodom.

Presenter/Bruce Dickinson, Producer/Ian Callaghan

BBC 6 Music Publicity

BBC WORLD SERVICE Friday 17 October 2008

In 1993, the audio diaries of two Chicago teenagers, LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, brought listeners stories of their childhood in one of Chicago's worst housing projects. Like seasoned war veterans, old before their time, the two boys described hearing the sounds of machine guns at night and seeing the effects of a thriving drugs scene on their community.

Ghetto Life 101 became one of the most acclaimed programmes in American public radio history, going on to win a host of awards, including the Prix Italia. It has been broadcast world-wide but never before on the BBC.

LeAlan and Lloyd are now grown men with very different lives. One is a teacher, the other is unemployed and training to be a truck driver.

The Chicago they describe, the ghetto of their housing projects, has, to a large degree, vanished. It has been replaced in urban renewal and is rapidly being turned into luxury housing. However the violence, poverty and drugs that informed their old world remain endemic problems for many Chicago citizens.

Once again, LeAlan and Lloyd take to the microphone and tell it like it is, only now from an adult's perspective and in anger fuelled by experience.

Producer/Mark Burman

BBC World Service Publicity

Listeners have another chance to hear this documentary exploring how architects and designers seek to create sacred spaces, both in traditional places of worship and in secular buildings.

Architect Daniel Libeskind was born in Poland, the son of Holocaust survivors. In one of his most famous buildings, the Jewish Museum in Berlin, he used concepts of absence, emptiness, and the invisible to express the disappearance of Jewish culture from the city.

Japanese architect Ryuichi Ashizawa created the award-winning Setre Chapel in Kobe as a chapel for all faiths. The building contains no religious iconography, but uses the wonder of nature to imbue the space with a sense of the sacred.

And Turkish designer Zeynep Fadillioglu was the first woman to redesign a mosque in the centre of Istanbul.

Presenter and Producer/Katy Hickman

BBC World Service Publicity