26 December, 2015

Radio 4 Extra Listings for 26/12/2015 - 01/01/2016

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SAT SATURDAY 26 DECEMBER 2015 SAT SAT 00:00 MR James - Oh, Whistle and I'll Come To You b06sqq9z (Listen) SAT 4 Extra Debut. Professor Parkins uncovers a very curious SAT artefact. Special effects by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. SAT Starring Michael Hordern. SAT SAT 00:30 Soul Music b0075zst (Listen) SAT Series 1, Silent Night SAT An exploration of one of the world's most popular Christmas SAT carols, and some of unlikely places where it has been sung. SAT From December 2000. SAT SAT 01:00 Agatha Christie b007k0bk (Listen) SAT The Sittaford Mystery, The Second Seance SAT Mr Rycroft decides that only by re-enacting the séance which SAT announced the murder of Captain Trevelyan, will the identity SAT of his killer finally be revealed. SAT Agatha Christie's whodunit stars Melinda Walker as Emily SAT Trefusis, Stephen Tompkinson as Charles Enderby, Geoffrey SAT Whitehead as Inspector Narracott, Norman Bird as Major SAT Burnaby, Jack May as Ellwood, David Goudge as Martin Dering, SAT John Moffatt as Mr Rycroft and Susan Westerby as Mrs SAT Willett. SAT From the book first published in 1931. SAT Dramatised and directed by Michael Bakewell. SAT First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1990. SAT SAT 01:30 Bringing Holly from the Bongs b06sqkhl (Listen) SAT Christmas 1965: The children of Goostrey Primary School in SAT Cheshire are preparing to perform a special nativity play in SAT the stable of the Crown Inn. Holly from the Bongs has been SAT written especially for them by the famous children's writer SAT Alan Garner (The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon of SAT Gomrath, The Owl Service) who lives locally and worked with SAT them to help create the play. SAT Christmas 2015: The grown-ups who originally performed in SAT the play return to the Crown Inn, 50 years on, to reflect on SAT this unique theatrical experience with Alan Garner - who SAT still regards Holly from the Bongs as his most technically SAT perfect piece of writing. SAT Leslie Pimlott who played the Doctor in the original SAT production, recalls with other cast members the story of how SAT this customised nativity play was created by Alan Garner. SAT The author spent many afternoons walking the children round SAT the village's boundaries, fields and The Bongs, the wooded SAT area behind the school to explore the history and living SAT heritage of Goostrey. Leslie celebrates the excitement of SAT taking part in the original production and its memorable SAT first performance half a century ago. Part nativity SAT play/part mummer's play Holly from the Bongs is a customised SAT piece of theatre written for the voices of the individual SAT children of Goostrey School in 1965. A stylistic lesson in SAT English writing from the middle ages to the 1960's that has SAT a very special place in the hearts of the original cast and SAT the village of Goostrey. SAT Producer: Andy Cartwright SAT Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Soundscape Productions. SAT SAT 02:00 Tom Bodett - Christmastime at the End of the Road SAT b007k0bq (Listen) SAT Yet Another New Year SAT New Year is a time of celebration - and an annual fist SAT fight. But a dense fog descends. Alaskan tales read by SAT author Tom Bodett. SAT SAT 02:15 A Cause for Caroling b03lsdg6 (Listen) SAT Ring in the New SAT Jeremy Summerly concludes his history of the carol in SAT Britain pondering the success of new carols over the last SAT century. While King's College, Cambridge organist Stephen SAT Cleobury insures a supply of newly commissioned carols for SAT his massive international audience Jeremy wonders whether SAT the popular songs from Berlin's 'White Christmas' to Slade's SAT 'Merry Christmas' don't help sustain a more genuine caroling SAT tradition. SAT He also recalls his own first experience of carols at SAT Lichfield cathedral where John Rutter's 'Shepherd's Pipe SAT Carol' was an astonishing discovery for the eager young SAT chorister. SAT And Jeremy also ponders the continued appeal of the carol SAT and why, while it's been in decline throughout its history, SAT it continues to thrive. SAT Series Description: SAT The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when SAT carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back SAT then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots SAT in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would SAT quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song. SAT But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music SAT history because each shift in the story has been preserved SAT in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now SAT and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and SAT modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that SAT happening in any other situation. SAT In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol SAT journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into SAT the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the SAT byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery SAT musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the SAT carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol SAT veer between the sacred and secular even before there was SAT any understanding of those terms. For long periods the SAT church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the SAT virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. SAT Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by SAT the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge. SAT He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the SAT carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, SAT some of which survive to this day and many others which SAT languish unloved but ready for re-discovery. SAT It's a journey full of song describing the history of a SAT people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the SAT coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the SAT heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. SAT Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this SAT music. SAT That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are SAT one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather SAT than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for SAT Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar SAT example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on SAT the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the SAT uninhibited world of folk song and ballad. SAT The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which SAT he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing SAT - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - SAT is the question asked. THis series is an attempt to answer SAT why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In SAT fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood SAT Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he SAT described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on SAT Christmas Eve: SAT 'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time SAT worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally SAT transmitted from father to son through several generations SAT down to the present characters, who sang them out right SAT earnestly." SAT Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the SAT famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC SAT since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service SAT that commands a worldwide audience measured in many SAT millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance SAT in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition SAT that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the SAT choir stalls. SAT Producer:Tom Alban. SAT SAT 02:30 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair b007jvxl (Listen) SAT Episode 10 SAT 1815, the Battle of Waterloo. As George and Rawdon fight, SAT Becky and Amelia wait for news. Narrated by Stephen Fry. SAT SAT 02:45 And June Whitfield b007jvfk (Listen) SAT Episode 5 SAT The final chapter of June's life story so far takes us from SAT the News Huddlines to international fame with Absolutely SAT Fabulous. SAT SAT 03:00 Mystery Theater b06sqp09 (Listen) SAT The Black Museum: Orson Welles 2/2 SAT The Raincoat: Orson Welles' tale inspired by a real case SAT from Scotland Yard's gruesome gallery of crime-related SAT ephemera SAT Even a simple garment like a raincoat can be connected to SAT the brutal murder of a married woman. SAT In The Black Museum, Orson is your host and guide through SAT tales based on the grim and ominous collection of objects SAT connected to significant British crimes. SAT Writer: Ira Marion. SAT Music: Sydney Torch SAT Producer: Harry Alan Towers SAT The films of Orson Welles have guaranteed him a place in the SAT pantheon of film heroes (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent SAT Ambersons, Touch of Evil). This series is one of several SAT fascinating sidesteps into a medium which arguably SAT contributed to Welles' success - radio. Thanks to Harry Alan SAT Towers, British radio was host to his dulcet tones for a SAT spell in the early 1950s - including his famous cinematic SAT anti-hero in The Lives of Harry Lime. SAT Presented by arrangement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer radio SAT attractions SAT Produced by Towers of London and first broadcast in the USA SAT in 1952. SAT 4 Extra's MYSTERY THEATER showcases American radio's golden SAT years of the 1940s and 50s, when many of Hollywood's SAT greatest screen stars were regular performers, often SAT re-enacting film roles. SAT SAT 03:30 Anthony Trollope - Christmas Day at Kirkby Cottage SAT b00pfkw1 (Listen) SAT A young man comes to spend Christmas with the family of his SAT godfather, a clergyman in an English village. Predictably, SAT he falls in love with the beautiful daughter, Isabel - but SAT they need the help of her little sister, Mabel, and the SAT patient counselling of her mother, too, before the course of SAT true love finally runs smooth... SAT Anthony Trollope's Victorian comedy stars Finty Williams as SAT Isabel Lownd, Chris Larkin as Maurice Archer, John SAT Rhys-Davies as the Reverend John Lownd, Julia McKenzie as SAT Alice Lownd and Lizzie Bowling as Mabel Lownd. SAT Mary Wimbush (pictured during recording) makes a delightful SAT cameo - in what turned out to be one of her very last SAT recordings - as Miss Dimbleby. SAT Master novelist Anthony Trollope (1815-82) is best-loved for SAT his Barsetshire Chronicles and Palliser series. But he also SAT wrote a handful of short stories for magazines on Christmas SAT themes, of which this is the most delicate and enchanting. SAT "This comedy of two young lovers is an entertaining glimpse SAT of mid-Victorian England, and to many will be entirely new, SAT for it has been reprinted only rarely since its appearance SAT in Routledge's Christmas Annual for 1870. Trollope was SAT fifty-five when he wrote this story, but his vast energy and SAT his genial, peppery enjoyment of life were still untouched SAT by age. He had bidden farewell to Barsetshire - and resigned SAT from the Post Office - three years earlier. But some of his SAT best novels were still to come, including The Eustace SAT Diamonds and The Way We Live Now." - WILLIAM STRODE SAT A Radio Theatre Production. First broadcast on BBC Radio 7 SAT in 2009. SAT SAT 04:00 The 99p Challenge b06sqn7w (Listen) SAT Series 4, Episode 6 SAT Crazy panel show capers as host Sue Perkins grills Armando SAT Iannucci, Simon Pegg, Marcus Brigstocke and Jon Holmes. SAT The game where someone stands to leave the studio 99p richer SAT than when they came in. SAT Producer: David Tyler SAT First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2003. SAT SAT 04:30 Mind Your Own Business! b009sczf (Listen) SAT Two Fingers of Suspicion SAT There's a leak at a secret defence project. Could Brightco SAT be the source? Stars Bernard Cribbins. From January 1988. SAT SAT 05:00 Dad's Army b007jqrv (Listen) SAT Present Arms SAT Military medal rivalry sparks a shooting contest with SAT another platoon. Adapted from TV with Arthur Lowe. From SAT December 1974. SAT SAT 06:00 Poirot b008hsvg (Listen) SAT Hercule Poirot's Christmas SAT 1938: Tyrannical millionaire Simeon Lee has been estranged SAT from most of his family for years. But now, on Christmas SAT Eve, the old man calls them all together once more. Unable SAT to disobey, the children gather uneasily and wonder what SAT their father's intentions are. Does he want to clear up past SAT misunderstandings or cause fresh mischief? SAT Before they can find out, a deafening crash is heard SAT overhead. Rushing upstairs, they discover a body in a pool SAT of blood. With so many possible suspects, it's lucky for SAT Superintendent Sugden that the Chief Constable has his old SAT friend Hercule Poirot staying with him. It seems to be an SAT impossible case. But, as Poirot knows only too well, things SAT aren't always as they seem. SAT Agatha Christie's whodunit stars Peter Sallis as Hercule SAT Poirot, Edward De Souza as Superintendent Sugden, Manning SAT Wilson as Colonel Johnson, Cyril Luckham as Simeon Lee, SAT Rachel Gurney as Lydia Lee, Nicky Henson as Harry Lee, SAT Deborah Makepeace as Pilar Estravados and Deryck Guyler as SAT Tressilian, the butler. SAT From the book first published in 1938 and dramatised by SAT Michael Bakewell. SAT Director: Enyd Williams SAT First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1986. SAT SAT 07:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06srxqc (Listen) SAT The Semi-Pro SAT Courtesy of The Christie Archive, specially selected SAT excerpts from the Queen of the Crime's personal tapes as she SAT dictated her autobiography to her typist using a dictaphone SAT machine. A fascinating chance to hear Agatha Christie's SAT voice and words before she made any amendments for SAT publication. Her secretary later transcribed the tapes into SAT a typescript, which the author then corrected by hand. SAT Introduced by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard SAT who discovered her tapes. SAT Completed in 1965, the book was first published in the UK in SAT 1977, the year after her death. SAT The author's tapes were edited by Radio 4 Extra only to take SAT out pauses and extraneous noises like microphone rumble. SAT Producer: Peter Reed. SAT SAT 07:30 Marguerite Patten's Century of British Cooking SAT b06srv27 (Listen) SAT Post War Pleasures 1950-1959 SAT Scampi, Cock-a-Leekie Soup, Hamburgers, Tourneos Rossini, SAT Steak Diane, Quiche Lorraine, Lemon Meringue Pie and Crepes SAT Suzette. SAT Marguerite Patten mingles recipes of the 1950s with memories SAT of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the Festival of SAT Britain and the end of rationing - in her 10-part history of SAT British cooking. SAT Marguerite told us how to make the most of our rations SAT during the Second World War in 'Kitchen Front' on the BBC SAT Home Service. She fronted her first BBC TV cookery show in SAT 1947. SAT Born in Bath, the home economist was widely considered to be SAT the first celebrity cook, and wrote more than 170 books with SAT worldwide sales of 17 million. SAT A regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour SAT programme from 1946, Marguerite's final appearance was in SAT 2011. She was awarded the OBE in 1991 and CBE in 2011. SAT Born November 4th 1915, Marguerite Patten died just a few SAT months short of her 100th birthday in June 2015. SAT Producer: Ian Willox SAT First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999. SAT SAT 08:00 Meeting Myself Coming Back b01k1ls1 (Listen) SAT Series 4, Clive James SAT Clive James was seldom off our television screens in the 80s SAT and 90s. His shows like "Saturday Night Clive" and "Clive SAT James on Television", featured clips of TV around the world SAT and pioneered many techniques that we take for granted SAT today. SAT But throughout this time, he was also writing memoirs, poems SAT and critical essays. After leaving his native Australia, he SAT began his career writing for literary magazines and later SAT became the TV critic of "The Observer". SAT This more serious side has often been overlooked because of SAT his TV fame. But, having left TV presenting behind and now SAT having been diagnosed with leukaemia, Clive is re-assessing SAT his life and legacy. SAT In "Meeting Myself Coming Back", Clive hears clips from SAT moments in his life and discusses his reaction to them with SAT John Wilson. We hear a recording from his student days in SAT Cambridge performing a comic monologue at a college "Smoker" SAT event. There are clips from early appearances on radio, in SAT the company of the novelist Kingsley Amis and also his first SAT attempts at writing and performing on television. SAT We also hear extracts from his TV shows of the 80s and 90s, SAT when, in addition to his shows about television, he SAT presented travel programmes and a series considering the SAT nature and history of fame in the 20th century. SAT In an honest and penetrating look back at his life, Clive SAT discusses his achievements, his past mistakes and his SAT illness. SAT Producer: Emma Kingsley. SAT SAT 09:00 Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! b011tsc5 (Listen) SAT Extra Strong - Count Arthur Speaks! Mint Extracts SAT Can it be true? Yes, famed memory man, treader of the boards SAT and gourmand of corner shops Count Arthur Strong allows Mark SAT Radcliffe to probe deeply into his past career and deeds, SAT with a selection of episodes from his life. SAT The variety star opens up as never before - his childhood, SAT his early forays into show business, his army days, the lack SAT of hot soup in France, and what happened when he owned a SAT barge with Stan Stennett and Roy Walker. SAT A blistering, some-holds-barred tell-all straight from the SAT mouth of the horse himself. Learn, definitively, how he SAT became a Count. SAT Asking the probing questions is Radio 2 & 6 Music DJ Mark SAT Radcliffe (Mark and Lard), and he knows where the skeletons SAT are hidden - he produced Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show. SAT It features a selection of the finest episodes from Radio SAT 4's Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show, the comic creation of SAT Steve Delaney. SAT SAT 12:00 The Penny Dreadfuls Present b008vt7r (Listen) SAT Revolution SAT The comedy trio tell the epic tale of the French Revolution. SAT Co-starring Richard E Grant and Sally Hawkins. From July SAT 2011. SAT SAT 13:00 I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General - SAT Omnibus b06srwzt (Listen) SAT A Savoy Cocktail - two parts Gilbert and Sullivan and one SAT part the star who sang their famous patter songs. With Simon SAT Butteriss. SAT SAT 14:05 David Attenborough's Life Stories b00pxq7y (Listen) SAT Series 1, Collecting SAT The naturalist comments on the decline in collecting by SAT children, which can lead to an early fascination with the SAT natural world. SAT SAT 14:15 In the Psychiatrist's Chair b06srxx3 (Listen) SAT Yehudi Menuhin SAT The celebrated violinist Yehudi Menuhin tells Professor SAT Anthony Clare about the influences that have shaped his SAT life. SAT Psychiatrist Dr Anthony Clare's in depth interviews with SAT prominent people from different walks of life. SAT Born in Dublin, author Anthony Clare held a doctorate in SAT medicine, a master's degree in philosophy and was a fellow SAT of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. After becoming a SAT regular on BBC Radio 4's Stop the Week in the 1980s, he SAT became Britain's best-known psychiatrist and earned his own SAT vehicle, In the Psychiatrist's Chair. Starting in 1982, this SAT series ran until 2001 and also transferred to TV. Series SAT highlights include conversations with Bob Monkhouse, Cecil SAT Parkinson and Gerry Adams. SAT Anthony Clare died suddenly in Paris aged 64 in 2007. SAT First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1996. SAT SAT 15:00 Meeting Myself Coming Back b01k1ls1 (Listen) SAT [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] SAT SAT 16:00 Poirot b008hsvg (Listen) SAT [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] SAT SAT 17:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06srxqc (Listen) SAT [Repeat of broadcast at 07:25 today] SAT SAT 17:30 Marguerite Patten's Century of British Cooking SAT b06srv27 (Listen) SAT [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] SAT SAT 18:00 Classic Serial b01npb18 (Listen) SAT The Gothic Imagination, Frankenstein, part 2 SAT The second part of a new production of Mary Shelley's SAT heart-breaking modern myth of obsession, pride and the need SAT for love. In attempting to find some peace from his SAT troubles, Frankenstein has gone walking in the mountains, SAT where he is about to come face to face with what he most SAT hates and fears. SAT Dramatised by Lucy Catherine. SAT Directed by Marc Beeby. SAT Credits SAT Frankenstein: Jamie Parker SAT The Monster: Shaun Dooley SAT Elizabeth: Susie Riddell SAT Walton: Alun Raglan SAT Father: Robert Blythe SAT Clerval: Sam Alexander SAT Old Man: Bruce Alexander SAT Agatha: Emma Hook SAT Felix: Joe Sims SAT Lieutenant: Don Gilet SAT Writer: Lucy Catherine SAT Director: Marc Beeby SAT SAT 19:00 Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! b011tsc5 (Listen) SAT [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] SAT SAT 22:00 Irish Micks and Legends b01ntgxf (Listen) SAT Series 1, Deirdre of Sorrows SAT Aisling Bea and Yasmine Akram become Ais and Yaz and are the SAT very best pals. They are taking their role as Ireland's SAT freshest story-tellers to the British nation very seriously SAT indeed but they haven't had the time to do much research, SAT learn their lines or work out who is doing which parts. SAT The girls' unconventional way of telling stories involves a SAT concoction of thoroughly inappropriate modern-day metaphors SAT and references to many of the ancient Irish stories. SAT With a natural knack for both comedy and character voices SAT Yasmine Akram and Aisling Bea will bring you warm, modern SAT re-workings of popular ancient Irish stories. SAT Today it's Deirdre of Sorrows. SAT Written and performed by Aisling Bea and Yasmine Akram SAT Producer: Raymond Lau. SAT SAT 22:15 Mission Improbable b01p7by4 (Listen) SAT Series 1, Egypt! SAT The international adventures of journalist Jane, manhunter SAT Lucy and zookeeper Amelia continue - this time in the SAT Egyptian desert. SAT When Jane's mum reveals that a member of her travel party, SAT the gorgeous Dr Ralph, recently disappeared while they were SAT on a guided tour of King Mufitez's tomb just outside Cairo, SAT Jane reckons she's onto a sure-fire front-pager. SAT Chronically single Lucy is more than happy to drop SAT everything in pursuit of the good doctor and Amelia is SAT enticed along by the promise of a camel ride. However their SAT sandy quest turns out to be far from straightforward. Our SAT heroes are forced to endure extremes of temperature, fierce SAT desert winds and a ten thousand year-old cobra - with only SAT their foul smelling, asthmatic and worryingly cheap camel to SAT help them. SAT Will they make it to King Mufitez's tomb? Will they find Dr SAT Ralph? And will they ever get all that sand out of their SAT pants? SAT Jane...................Catriona Knox SAT Lucy...................Lizzie Bates SAT Amelia................Anna Emerson SAT Angela................Felicity Montagu SAT Written by Anna Emerson, Lizzie Bates and Catriona Knox. SAT Audio production by Matt Katz. SAT Produced by Dave Lamb and Richie Webb. SAT A Top Dog production for BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 22:30 Mordrin McDonald: 21st Century Wizard b00xw1th (Listen) SAT Series 2, Billirock the Black SAT Written by David Kay and Gavin Smith, Mordrin McDonald is a SAT 2000 year old Wizard living in the modern world where SAT settling garden disputes and watching Countdown are just as SAT important as slaying the odd Jakonty Dragon. SAT Step into the magically mundane world that is the life of SAT 21st century wizard Mordrin McDonald. An isolated SAT 2000-year-old sorcerer with enough power in his small finger SAT to destroy a town, yet not even enough clout to get his bins SAT emptied on time by the local council. Even for such a SAT skilful sorcerer - modern life is rubbish! SAT Mordrin is deadpan, dry and makes delicious jams. He SAT initially set up as a plc for income tax relief, but has SAT found it a useful vehicle to help him bolster his Wizard SAT skill set and his range of services. (Even a wizard has to SAT diversify). SAT He's been running Fruity Potions from his cave for the past SAT few years, in between completing the odd quest as instructed SAT by the Wizard Council. In the past his services were to help SAT kings in battles of good and evil, or as he prefers to put SAT it, 'assisting with neighbour disputes.' SAT In this episode Mordrin is recruited to help re-capture evil SAT sorcerer Billirock the Black who has escaped from his prison SAT under Stirling Castle and is hell-bent on exacting his SAT revenge. SAT Cast: SAT Mordrin ..... David Kay SAT Bernard The Blue ..... Jack Docherty SAT Geoff ..... Gordon Kennedy SAT Heather ..... Hannah Donaldson SAT Jill ..... Katrina Bryan SAT Billirock The Black ..... Greg Hemphill SAT Producer/Director: Gus Beattie SAT A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4. SAT SAT 22:45 Steven Appleby's Normal Life b007jqqw (Listen) SAT Series 1, The Normal Mind SAT As the cartoonist faces surgery, his feminine side explores SAT his brain's inner workings. Stars Paul McCrink. From August SAT 2001. SAT SAT 23:00 The Jason Byrne Show b01p2s1y (Listen) SAT Series 3, I Looked Like Gollum at School SAT The award-winning comic lists the liabilities of looking SAT good. With Laurence Howarth and Daisy Haggard. From November SAT 2010. SAT SAT 23:30 Son of Cliché b00p1jb9 (Listen) SAT The Weird Dimension SAT Award-winning sketch comedy from out of this world. Stars SAT Chris Barrie, Nick Maloney and Nick Wilton. From August SAT 1983. SAT SAT SUN SUNDAY 27 DECEMBER 2015 SUN SUN 00:00 Classic Serial b01npb18 (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Saturday] SUN SUN 01:00 I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General - SUN Omnibus b06srwzt (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 13:00 on Saturday] SUN SUN 02:05 David Attenborough's Life Stories b00pxq7y (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 14:05 on Saturday] SUN SUN 02:15 In the Psychiatrist's Chair b06srxx3 (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Saturday] SUN SUN 03:00 Meeting Myself Coming Back b01k1ls1 (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 on Saturday] SUN SUN 04:00 Poirot b008hsvg (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Saturday] SUN SUN 05:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06srxqc (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 07:25 on Saturday] SUN SUN 05:30 Marguerite Patten's Century of British Cooking SUN b06srv27 (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Saturday] SUN SUN 06:00 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair Omnibus SUN b008p53p (Listen) SUN Episode 2 SUN Ambitious Becky abandons marriage plans for a job as a SUN governess. Luckily, this brings new marriage prospects. With SUN Geoffrey Whitehead. SUN SUN 07:15 Unbuilt Britain b01l0g3p (Listen) SUN Edinburgh's Great South Bridge Project SUN In the third in the series, architectural writer and SUN historian Jonathan Glancey looks at some of the most SUN fantastic building projects of Britain and finds out why SUN they didn't make it off the drawing board. In Edinburgh, SUN Robert Adam planned a marvellous street which would act as SUN the gateway to the city for visitors from the south. Called SUN 'South Bridge', the project allowed for a street elevated SUN over the hilly approach, with rich decorations and elegant SUN colonnades. SUN It might have been a wonderful proposal, but there was a SUN price tag attached. Jonathan Glancey finds out more about SUN the reputation of Robert Adam in Edinburgh and the reasons SUN why the city fathers took against the project. SUN SUN 07:25 Inheritance Tracks b06myczx (Listen) SUN Desmond Morris SUN Zoologist and broadcaster Desmond Morris chooses SUN 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' by Ella Fitzgerald and 'Be Cool' SUN by Honor Heffernan. SUN SUN 07:30 Ed Reardon's Week b00qbv2p (Listen) SUN Series 6, Cheese Cricket SUN Ed finds himself a surprise hit when he takes part in a new SUN Radio 4 'topical quiz with a tasty twist'. With Christopher SUN Douglas and Stephanie Cole. From February 2010. SUN Credits SUN Producer: Dawn Ellis SUN SUN 08:00 The Al Read Show b008zdfh (Listen) SUN From 03/12/1998 SUN Hospitals, the Post Office and noisy neighbours. A SUN collection of the Northern comic's 1950s monologues. SUN SUN 08:30 A Life of Bliss b0499n3t (Listen) SUN Office Secrets SUN Bumbling David gets entangled in his secretary's secretive SUN love life. Stars George Cole and Percy Edwards. From August SUN 1957. SUN One of 6 surviving episodes from the sitcom about shy, SUN bumbling bachelor David Alexander Bliss. It began in 1953 on SUN the BBC Home Service and ran for six series of 118 episodes SUN concluding in 1969, when a TV series was made. SUN For the first 7 episodes, David Tomlinson played David, but SUN the rest starred the future star of The St, Trinian's films, SUN destined to find great fame as the dodgy Arthur Daley in SUN ITV's Minder - George Cole. SUN David's best friend is a wired-haired terrier called Pysche SUN played by animal impersonator Percy Edwards. Written by SUN Godfrey Harrison. SUN SUN 09:00 The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees - Omnibus SUN b06ss5jd (Listen) SUN Robert Penn decides to fell a great ash, to find out how SUN many uses there are for one tree. Beginning in a south Wales SUN winter. SUN SUN 10:10 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06ss5jg (Listen) SUN The Method SUN Courtesy of The Christie Archive, specially selected SUN excerpts from the Queen of the Crime's personal tapes as she SUN dictated her autobiography to her typist using a dictaphone SUN machine. A fascinating chance to hear Agatha Christie's SUN voice and words before she made any amendments for SUN publication. Her secretary later transcribed the tapes into SUN a typescript, which the author then corrected by hand. SUN Introduced by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard SUN who discovered her tapes. SUN Completed in 1965, the book was first published in the UK in SUN 1977, the year after her death. SUN The author's tapes were edited by Radio 4 Extra only to take SUN out pauses and extraneous noises like microphone rumble. SUN Producer: Peter Reed. SUN SUN 10:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited b06ss5jj (Listen) SUN Singers, Peggy Seeger SUN 4 Extra Debut. From Ewan MacColl to Bach. Folk singer and SUN songwriter Peggy Seeger shares her castaway choices with Sue SUN Lawley. From July 2001. SUN SUN 11:00 The Moth Radio Hour b06ss5s6 (Listen) SUN Millionaire Hot Seat, Monkey, Assassin SUN True stories told live in the USA: Sarah Austin Jenness SUN introduces a special edition featuring tales from Australia. SUN The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organisation SUN dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling based in the SUN USA. Since 1997, it has celebrated both the raconteur and SUN the storytelling novice, who has lived through something SUN extraordinary and yearns to share it. Originally formed by SUN the writer George Dawes Green as an intimate gathering of SUN friends on a porch in Georgia (where moths would flutter in SUN through a hole in the screen), and then recreated in a New SUN York City living room, The Moth quickly grew to produce SUN immensely popular events at theatres and clubs around New SUN York City and later around the USA, the UK and other parts SUN of the world. SUN The Moth has presented more than 15,000 stories, told live SUN and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. SUN The Moth podcast is downloaded over 27 million times a year. SUN Featuring true stories told live on stage without scripts, SUN from the humorous to the heart-breaking. SUN The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Jay Allison and Atlantic SUN Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and is distributed SUN by the Public Radio Exchange. SUN SUN 11:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories b00pxq7y (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 14:05 on Saturday] SUN SUN 12:00 The Al Read Show b008zdfh (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] SUN SUN 12:30 A Life of Bliss b0499n3t (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] SUN SUN 13:00 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair Omnibus SUN b008p53p (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] SUN SUN 14:15 Unbuilt Britain b01l0g3p (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 today] SUN SUN 14:25 Inheritance Tracks b06myczx (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 07:25 today] SUN SUN 14:30 A Snow Garden and Other Stories - Omnibus b06ss60f (Listen) SUN A woman finds herself in an unusual shop that might just SUN offer her the gift she needs most this Christmas. Read by SUN Rachel Joyce. SUN SUN 15:45 Lynne Reid Banks - Who Shall I Run To? b01295yh (Listen) SUN Sally recalls how she and ex-husband Jeremy celebrated their SUN 35th wedding anniversary in romantic Paris. Read by Sian SUN Phillips. SUN SUN 16:00 Poirot b06ss65l (Listen) SUN Murder in the Mews SUN A young woman is found dead in her flat, the day after Guy SUN Fawkes night. But did she die by her own hand or someone SUN else's? Inspector Japp calls for the assistance of Belgian SUN sleuth, Hercule Poirot. SUN This 1955 broadcast was long thought lost, but a tape was SUN rediscovered in the BBC archive in 2015. SUN Agatha Christie's whodunit stars Richard Williams as Hercule SUN Poirot, Ian Whittaker as Freddie Hogg, Jack Melford as Chief SUN Inspector Japp, Ronald Sidney as Detective-Sergeant Jameson, SUN Duncan McLntyre as Doctor Brett, Monica Grey as Jane SUN Plenderleith and Ella Milne as Monica Grey. SUN Dramatised by Anthony Aspinall from a short-story first SUN published in Woman's Journal in 1936, which later appeared SUN in a book collection in 1937. SUN Produced by David H Godfrey SUN First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in March 1955. SUN SUN 17:00 Poetry Extra b06ss6gv (Listen) SUN The Echo Chamber - Middle Age SUN BBC Radio 4's Poet in Residence, Daljit Nagra revisits the SUN BBC's radio poetry archive. SUN In 'The Echo Chamber', Paul Farley asks whether the middle SUN years are tough for poets. With Paul Muldoon, Kathleen Jamie SUN and Hugo Williams. SUN Producer: Tim Dee. SUN First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013. SUN SUN 17:30 Ed Reardon's Week b00qbv2p (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] SUN SUN 18:00 Fear on Four b00c84nd (Listen) SUN Series 2, Invitation to the Vaults SUN The Man in Black tells of a harrowing comeuppance for a SUN crooked literary agent. SUN Starring Sarah Badel as Madame Freitas, Roger Hammond as SUN Albano Pizar and Edward de Souza as the Man in Black. SUN Fear on 4 brings you more in a series of nerve-tinglers. SUN Adapted by Wally K Daly from a short story by Basil Copper. SUN Producer: Martin Jenkins SUN First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991. SUN SUN 18:30 Susan Hill - The Woman in Black b007jls5 (Listen) SUN Letters and Death Certificates SUN Solicitor Arthur Kipps tries to finally unravel the mystery SUN of the haunted house. Stars Robert Glenister and John SUN Woodvine. SUN SUN 19:00 The Moth Radio Hour b06ss5s6 (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today] SUN SUN 19:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories b00pxq7y (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 14:05 on Saturday] SUN SUN 20:00 The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees - Omnibus SUN b06ss5jd (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] SUN SUN 21:10 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06ss5jg (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 10:10 today] SUN SUN 21:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited b06ss5jj (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 10:15 today] SUN SUN 22:00 Ed Reardon's Week b00qbv2p (Listen) SUN [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] SUN SUN 22:30 My Teenage Diary b039q5ff (Listen) SUN Series 5, Rachel Johnson SUN Another brave celebrity revisits their formative years by SUN opening up their intimate teenage diaries. SUN Comedian Rufus Hound is joined by journalist Rachel Johnson. SUN Rachel's diaries focus on her gap year in Israel, when she SUN worked on a kibbutz with her brother and was wined and dined SUN by an Israeli shepherd. SUN They also include her trip to the Andes with a boyfriend who SUN suffered from vertigo. SUN Producer: Harriet Jaine SUN A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4. SUN Credits SUN Presenter: Rufus Hound SUN Interviewed Guest: Rachel Johnson SUN Producer: Harriet Jaine SUN SUN 23:00 I Think I've Got a Problem b007ynmg (Listen) SUN Series 1, Episode 4 SUN Tom proposes marriage to Sadie with some help from his SUN 'imaginary' band. Stars Suggs and Bob Monkhouse. From August SUN 2001. SUN SUN 23:30 A Look Back at the Future b01s259p (Listen) SUN 2025 SUN Recorded in July 1994, Brian Perkins, Ken Livingstone and SUN Nigel Planer foresee ego transplants and the USA invading SUN Narnia. SUN SUN MON MONDAY 28 DECEMBER 2015 MON MON 00:00 Fear on Four b00c84nd (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Sunday] MON MON 00:30 Susan Hill - The Woman in Black b007jls5 (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Sunday] MON MON 01:00 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair Omnibus MON b008p53p (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Sunday] MON MON 02:15 Unbuilt Britain b01l0g3p (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 on Sunday] MON MON 02:25 Inheritance Tracks b06myczx (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 07:25 on Sunday] MON MON 02:30 A Snow Garden and Other Stories - Omnibus b06ss60f (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Sunday] MON MON 03:45 Lynne Reid Banks - Who Shall I Run To? b01295yh (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 15:45 on Sunday] MON MON 04:00 Poirot b06ss65l (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday] MON MON 05:00 Poetry Extra b06ss6gv (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday] MON MON 05:30 Ed Reardon's Week b00qbv2p (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Sunday] MON MON 06:00 Kipling in Love b06ssm4h (Listen) MON His Wedded Wife MON India, 1885: When a young subaltern joins a high-caste MON regiment he becomes the butt of a captain's jokes. Until MON finally the worm turns ... MON Starring Richard Pearce as Henry, Michael Troughton as MON Watson, Lyndham Gregory as Reynolds and Barry J Gordon as MON Colonel Humphrey. MON The first of eight plays based on short stories by Rudyard MON Kipling, dramatised for radio by Ed Thomason. MON Producer: Adrian Bean MON First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1994. MON MON 06:30 Opening Nights: Oliver b00768h5 (Listen) MON 4 Extra Debut. Based on the Dickens' story, Lionel Bart's MON musical starring Ron Moody opened in 1960. Presented by MON Russell Davies. From July 2002. MON MON 07:00 The Right Time b00cb3bx (Listen) MON Series 3, Episode 6 MON There's a Star Trek shock on the sketch show for people MON growing older disgracefully. Starring Eleanor Bron and MON Graeme Garden. From April 2003. MON MON 07:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue b06s8bpy (Listen) MON Series 64, Episode 4 MON The antidote to panel games pays a return visit to the Grand MON Opera House in York. Regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and MON Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Sandi Toksvig MON with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell attempts piano MON accompaniment. MON Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Radio Comedy MON production. MON Credits MON Presenter: Jack Dee MON Panellist: Barry Cryer MON Panellist: Graeme Garden MON Panellist: Tim Brooke-Taylor MON Panellist: Sandi Toksvig MON Producer: Jon Naismith MON MON 08:00 Dad's Army b007jqbr (Listen) MON Series 3, My British Buddy MON Walmington-on-Sea's warm welcome for American troops MON backfires. MON Starring Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring, John Le Mesurier MON as Sergeant Wilson, Clive Dunn as Corporal Jones, John MON Laurie as Private Frazer, Arnold Ridley as Godfrey, Ian MON Lavender as Private Pike, Bill Pertwee as Hodges, Larry MON Martyn as Private Walker, Jack Watson as Colonel Schultz, MON Mollie Sugden as Mrs Fox and Wendy Richard as Shirley. MON Adapted for radio from Jimmy Perry and David Croft's TV MON scripts by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles. MON Producer: John Dyas MON First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1976. MON MON 08:30 Brothers in Law b007jrhv (Listen) MON Series 2, Statistics MON Lawyer Roger has a bad day at the races, thanks to Joy's MON uncle. Stars Richard Briers and Terence Alexander. From July MON 1971. MON MON 09:00 Quote... Unquote b012fbw4 (Listen) MON The popular quotations quiz, Quote...Unquote, returns for a MON new series hosted by Nigel Rees. This week Nigel is joined MON by a fantastic array of stars: the legendary actress, Sian MON Phillips, sports journalist James Richardson, broadcaster MON Edward Stourton and the comedian and actress, Rebecca Front. MON As well as quizzing about quotations, the guests will share MON anecdotes and nuggets of advice they've picked up over the MON years. MON The reader is Peter Jefferson. MON Produced by Simon Mayhew-Archer. MON MON 09:30 King Street Junior b007jmgt (Listen) MON Series 5, Choices MON Parent Power means troubled times for Mr Sims, while Mrs MON Rudd falls foul of the law. With Karl Howman. From June MON 1990. MON MON 10:00 Mystery Theater b06sspfb (Listen) MON End of the Road: Glenn Ford MON 1947: Danger awaits car salesman Speed Evans as captivating MON dame, Sylvia arrives in his showroom. MON Starring Glenn Ford as Speed Evans and Cathy Lewis as Sylvia MON Ganlon. MON Adapted by Irving Moore and Robert Richards from a story by MON Irving Moore. MON Glenn Ford (1916-2006) A practical man, the MON Canadian-American film star began acting after school - but MON at his father's behest, maintained a number of pragmatic MON skills - wiring, plumbing, roofing. Ford was in both the US MON Marines and the Navy, even serving in Vietnam. MON Big screen roles included Gilda, The Big Heat, Midway, The MON Sheepman, The Gazebo, Pocketful of Miracles, Don't Go Near MON the Water, The Fastest Gun Alive and Superman. MON From CBS Radio's Suspense series which ran in the USA from MON 1942 to 1962. MON 4 Extra's MYSTERY THEATER showcases American radio's golden MON years of the 1940s and 50s, when many of Hollywood's MON greatest screen stars were regular performers, often MON re-enacting film roles. MON MON 10:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06sssg0 (Listen) MON Wartime Writing MON Excerpts from the Queen of the Crime's personal dictaphone MON tapes dictating her autobiography for her typist - before MON she made any amendments for publication. MON Completed in 1965, the book was first published in the UK in MON 1977, the year after her death. MON Introduced by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard MON who discovered her tapes. MON Producer: Peter Reed. MON MON 10:30 Poirot b007yn6z (Listen) MON Murder on the Orient Express, Episode 1 MON A train departs, but one person aboard the Orient Express is MON destined never to arrive. Speeding through the snowy MON European landscape, a bizarre and terrible murder brings the MON train to an abrupt halt. MON The high-class carriages are packed with passengers and one MON of them - Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot - soon realises MON the challenge that awaits him... MON Agatha Christie's whodunit stars John Moffatt as Hercule MON Poirot. With Sian Phillips as Princess Dragmiroff, Francesca MON Annis as Miss Debenham, Joss Ackland as Mr Ratchett, Frank MON Windsor as Pierre Michel, Sylvia Syms as Mrs Hubbard and MON Desmond Llewelyn as Masterman. MON Pianist: Michael Haslam MON From the book published in 1934 and dramatised by Michael MON Bakewell MON Director Enyd Williams. MON First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1992. MON MON 11:00 Midsummer Night in the Workhouse b015ykx1 (Listen) MON A Weekend in the Country MON In A Weekend in the Country by Diana Athill, an invitation MON to Richard's family home finds Elizabeth compelled to make a MON difficult choice. MON The short stories collected in Midsummer Night in the MON Workhouse represent the start of Diana Athill's writing MON career. In the preface to the selection she says: 'I can MON remember in detail being hit by my first story one January MON morning in 1958. Until that moment I had been hand-maiden, MON as editor, to other people's writing, without ever dreaming MON of myself as a writer.' Then she encountered someone who MON reminded her of an episode in her past and that evening she MON wrote her first short story. She went on to win the the MON "Observer" short story competition and writes, 'Bury me, MON dear friends, with a copy of the Observer folded under my MON head, for it was the Observer's prize that woke me up to the MON fact that I could write and had become happy.' MON Diana Athill's stories draw on her own personal experiences MON and her keen observations of others, each is perceptive, MON poignant and funny. MON Diana Athill was born in 1917. In 1946 she joined Andre MON Deutsch and went on to become one of the country's leading MON editors in a career spanning fifty years. She has published MON six volumes of memoirs and a novel. MON Read by Zoe Tapper MON Abridged by Julian Wilkinson MON Produced by Elizabeth Allard. MON MON 11:15 Alex Jones - River's Up b0076ytc (Listen) MON Following severe floods, a couple living by the Severn MON desperately search for dry land and croissants. Stars Peter MON Corey and Annette Badland. MON MON 12:00 Dad's Army b007jqbr (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] MON MON 12:30 Brothers in Law b007jrhv (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] MON MON 13:00 Kipling in Love b06ssm4h (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] MON MON 13:30 Opening Nights: Oliver b00768h5 (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today] MON MON 14:00 Sir Peter Shaffer - Amadeus b00shhrl (Listen) MON Episode 1 MON Dying composer Salieri is fiercely jealous of his young MON rival. F Murray Abraham reads the play about Wolfgang MON Amadeus Mozart. MON MON 14:15 The History of the Future b01mhx6v (Listen) MON The Oracle of Delphi MON Juliet Gardiner begins her journey into the History of the MON Future with a look at the Oracle of Delphi, the place where MON the Ancient Greeks went to consult the Oracle and hear what MON the future held for them. MON Juliet argues that a history of the future is really a MON history of anxiety, and begins her excavation of how the MON futurologists of their day foretold what was to come, and MON what these visions says about the pre-occupations of the MON time. How different were prophesies about the future at MON different points in history? What can ideas about the future MON tell us about the past? MON People seek reassurance about the future, but that desire is MON rooted in their understanding of the present, with its MON specific predicaments, and it is these particularities that MON Juliet will be unearthing. Whose master plan does the future MON represent? Is it determined by God, or gods, or does man MON have the power to change what might seem predetermined? MON This series of ten programmes will range from the MON Apocalyptic visions found in the New Testament Book of MON Revelation, to the enigmatic prophesies of Nostradamus in MON 16th century France to the science fiction dystopias of HG MON Wells and George Orwell. In 5th Century BC Greece, the god MON Apollo and his Oracle at Delphi was central to the idea of MON the future. In a fragmented society made up of warring City MON States with no over-arching authority people flocked to the MON Oracle to see what the future held. The Priestess through MON whom the god Apollo would speak would greet a questioner MON seated on a tripod in an underground chamber chewing bay MON leaves and surrounded by the intoxicating vapours which MON escaped through the fault line in the earth on which the MON Temple was built. Juliet speaks to classicists Nick Lowe and MON Hugh Bowden, and visits a tarot card reader on Brighton MON Pier. MON Produced by Victoria Shepherd MON A Juniper Production for BBC Radio 4. MON MON 14:30 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair b007jvxx (Listen) MON Episode 11 MON Miss Crawley attempts to decide who will inherit her money. MON William Makepeace Thackeray dramatisation with Stephen Fry. MON MON 14:45 Miles Kington - Someone Like Me b00dp3qs (Listen) MON Episode 1 MON Reading his eccentric childhood musings, the much-missed MON broadcaster, writer and musician shares the tale of his MON stolen pram. MON MON 15:00 Mystery Theater b06sspfb (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today] MON MON 15:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06sssg0 (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 10:25 today] MON MON 15:30 Poirot b007yn6z (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 today] MON MON 16:00 Quote... Unquote b012fbw4 (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] MON MON 16:30 King Street Junior b007jmgt (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today] MON MON 17:00 The Right Time b00cb3bx (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today] MON MON 17:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue b06s8bpy (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] MON MON 18:00 Jonathan Aycliffe - The Matrix b01nlwzy (Listen) MON Episode 1 MON A student researching the occult comes under the malign MON influence of an ancient book of spells. Read by Robert MON Paterson. MON MON 18:15 Book at Bedtime b03wpfcd (Listen) MON Lynne Truss - Cat Out of Hell, Episode 1 MON By acclaimed storyteller Lynne Truss, author of the MON bestselling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the mysterious tale of MON a cat with nine lives. And a relationship as ancient as time MON itself and just as powerful. MON The scene - an isolated cottage on the coast, on a stormy MON evening. Inside, Alec a recently bereaved widower and his MON dog. To pass the time Alec explores the contents of a folder MON of documents emailed to him by an acquaintance at the MON library where he used to work. What he discovers is an MON extraordinary story that will change his life forever. MON Reader: Mike Grady MON Abridger: Jeremy Osborne MON Producer: Karen Rose MON A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. MON Credits MON Reader: Mike Grady MON Producer: Karen Rose MON Abridger: Jeremy Osborne MON Author: Lynne Truss MON MON 18:30 A Good Read b06st1m9 (Listen) MON Quentin Blake and Allan Ahlberg MON Louise Doughty and her guests, the first ever Children's MON Laureate Quentin Blake and children's author Allan Ahlberg MON discuss paperbacks by Carson McCullers, Ursula K Le Guin and MON John Masefield. From 2000. MON Books discussed: MON The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers MON Publisher: Mammoth MON A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin MON Publisher: Puffin MON The Box of Delights by John Masefield MON Publisher: Penguin. MON MON 19:00 Dad's Army b007jqbr (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] MON MON 19:30 Brothers in Law b007jrhv (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] MON MON 20:00 Kipling in Love b06ssm4h (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] MON MON 20:30 Opening Nights: Oliver b00768h5 (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today] MON MON 21:00 Pick of the Year b06sg2mk (Listen) MON Pick of the Year 2015 MON An eclectic mix of BBC radio programmes, across all MON networks, including listener requests and selections from MON radio personalities. MON MON 22:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue b06s8bpy (Listen) MON [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] MON MON 22:30 Cabin Pressure b01qdzc4 (Listen) MON Series 4, Xinzhou MON Sitcom by John Finnemore about the pilots of a tiny charter MON airline. MON It's cold, it's dark & there's no food on board. What better MON time for Gertie to decide to fall to bits? And what worse MON time for Arthur to try out his maths skills? MON Cabin Pressure is a sitcom about the wing and a prayer world MON of a tiny, one plane, charter airline; staffed by two MON pilots: one on his way down, and one who was never up to MON start with. Whether they're flying squaddies to Hamburg, MON metal sheets to Mozambique, or an oil exec's cat to Abu MON Dhabi, no job is too small, but many, many jobs are too MON difficult... MON Written by John Finnemore MON Produced & directed by David Tyler MON A Pozzitive production for the BBC. MON Credits MON Carolyn Knapp-Shappey: Stephanie Cole MON 1st Officer Douglas Richardson: Roger Allam MON Capt Martin Crieff: Benedict Cumberbatch MON Arthur Shappey: John Finnemore MON ATC: Lobo Chan MON Writer: John Finnemore MON Director: David Tyler MON Producer: David Tyler MON MON 23:00 Dead Ringers b06scz91 (Listen) MON Christmas Special MON Politicians, media pundits and celebrities are given a MON Christmas roasting, with lashings of satirical gravy. The MON perfect antidote to all the tears you've shed over the MON Christmas TV ads. MON Where can you experience the last ever episode of Downton MON Abbey, a preview of The Archers, and the shock revelation MON that none of the news on Radio 4's Today programme during MON the Christmas season is real. It's all pre-recorded while MON Sara, Jon and the rest of the team sun themselves in the MON Bahamas. All that and more in the Christmas edition of Dead MON Ringers. MON Starring Jon Culshaw, Lewis MacLeod, Jan Ravens, Debra MON Stephenson and Duncan Wisbey. MON Producer...Bill Dare MON A BBC Radio Comedy Production. MON Credits MON Performer: Jon Culshaw MON Performer: Debra Stephenson MON Performer: Jan Ravens MON Performer: Lewis Macleod MON Performer: Duncan Wisbey MON MON 23:30 Weak at the Top b00tjnmq (Listen) MON Series 2, Values MON Marketing maestro John Weak tackles a meeting room crisis MON with a little seduction. Stars Alexander Armstrong. From MON June 2006. MON MON TUE TUESDAY 29 DECEMBER 2015 TUE TUE 00:00 Jonathan Aycliffe - The Matrix b01nlwzy (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Monday] TUE TUE 00:15 Book at Bedtime b03wpfcd (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Monday] TUE TUE 00:30 A Good Read b06st1m9 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Monday] TUE TUE 01:00 Kipling in Love b06ssm4h (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Monday] TUE TUE 01:30 Opening Nights: Oliver b00768h5 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Monday] TUE TUE 02:00 Sir Peter Shaffer - Amadeus b00shhrl (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Monday] TUE TUE 02:15 The History of the Future b01mhx6v (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Monday] TUE TUE 02:30 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair b007jvxx (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Monday] TUE TUE 02:45 Miles Kington - Someone Like Me b00dp3qs (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Monday] TUE TUE 03:00 Mystery Theater b06sspfb (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Monday] TUE TUE 03:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06sssg0 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 10:25 on Monday] TUE TUE 03:30 Poirot b007yn6z (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Monday] TUE TUE 04:00 Quote... Unquote b012fbw4 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Monday] TUE TUE 04:30 King Street Junior b007jmgt (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Monday] TUE TUE 05:00 The Right Time b00cb3bx (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Monday] TUE TUE 05:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue b06s8bpy (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Monday] TUE TUE 06:00 Kipling in Love b06strdn (Listen) TUE Lispeth TUE India, 1886: Her train delayed, an English woman befriends TUE an old Indian woman with a terrible tale to tell. Stars TUE Mamta Kaash. TUE TUE 06:30 James Last - Non Stop Party People b00vsvcy (Listen) TUE Paul Gambaccini investigates the success of German TUE bandleader James Last, and meets some of his devoted fans. TUE From April 2005. TUE TUE 07:00 HR b01cw7kn (Listen) TUE Series 3, Gambled TUE Nigel William's retirement comedy series, starring Jonathan TUE Pryce and Nicholas le Prevost. The two friends, having TUE discovered that their pensions are worthless, take every TUE measure thinkable to survive. This week, they hope for a TUE lottery win. TUE Peter ..... Jonathan Pryce TUE Sam ..... Nicholas Le Prevost TUE Dustman ..... Gerard McDermott. TUE TUE 07:30 Don't Make Me Laugh b06s9d20 (Listen) TUE Don't Make Me Laugh Christmas Special TUE David Baddiel hosts a Christmas edition of the anti-comedy TUE show, where the only task for the guests is to avoid making TUE the audience laugh. TUE Frank Skinner, Hugh Dennis, Ellie Taylor and Dan Schreiber TUE face the challenge of resisting all their natural instincts, TUE talking about a series of funny subjects without making any TUE jokes. TUE Producer: Dave Cribb TUE A So Radio production for BBC Radio 4. TUE Credits TUE Presenter: David Baddiel TUE Panellist: Frank Skinner TUE Panellist: Hugh Dennis TUE Panellist: Ellie Taylor TUE Panellist: Dan Schreiber TUE Producer: Dave Cribb TUE TUE 08:00 Round the Horne b00mw69c (Listen) TUE Series 3, Episode 14 TUE Trouble at sea for Kenneth Horne in 'The Maltese Brass TUE Monkey', while Julian and Sandy go trolling on a bona fox TUE hunt with a twist. TUE With Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill TUE Pertwee. TUE Recorded at the BBC's Paris Studio in Lower Regent Street, TUE London. Announcer: Douglas Smith TUE Round The Horne was born out of the demise of BBC radio TUE comedy Beyond Our Ken, after the end of writer Eric TUE Merriman's involvement. Using the same cast and producer, TUE Barry Took and Marty Feldman were persuaded to write the TUE scripts - which led to four series that ran between 1965 and TUE 1968 - packed full of parodies, recurring characters, TUE catchphrases and double-entendres. TUE Music by Edwin Braden and the Hornblowers and The Fraser TUE Hayes Four. TUE Producer: John Simmonds TUE First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in May 1967. TUE TUE 08:30 The Men From the Ministry b007jw7r (Listen) TUE Christmas Spirit TUE The bumbling civil servants are acting like Scrooge! Stars TUE Richard Murdoch and Deryck Guyler. Re-recording from April TUE 1980. TUE TUE 09:00 Dead Ringers b06scz91 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday] TUE TUE 09:30 Capital Gains b00snlx2 (Listen) TUE Series 2, Development Capital TUE Accidental billionaire Julius Hutch tries to invoke ancient TUE laws in defence of his land. Stars Peter Jones. From August TUE 1987. TUE TUE 10:00 Mystery Theater b06sttwn (Listen) TUE Pete Kelly's Blues: Gus Trudeau TUE An old pal of roaring 1920s jazz cornet player Pete Kelly is TUE suspected of murdering a mobster. TUE Stars Jack Webb as Pete Kelly with his 'Big 7' jazz group. TUE Set in a 1922 Speakeasy at 417 Cherry Street, Kansas City, TUE where a heady mix of gangsters, pulpy thrills and spills are TUE readily available. TUE Pete Kelly's Blues may have only run for three months on TUE American radio, but it spawned a whole film in the TUE mid-1950s. A novel mix of hard-boiled thriller and musical TUE interludes, Jack 'Dragnet' Webb not only stars but also TUE directs. TUE A keen fan of jazz in real life, Webb did not miss the TUE opportunity to get some of the genuine article into the TUE series. It's fair to say happy endings weren't high on the TUE agenda. TUE Written by Joe Eisinger. TUE Music by Dick Cathcart, with scoring by Matty Matlock. TUE First broadcast on NBC in the USA in 1951. TUE 4 Extra's MYSTERY THEATER showcases American radio's golden TUE years of the 1940s and 50s, when many of Hollywood's TUE greatest screen stars were regular performers, often TUE re-enacting film roles. TUE TUE 10:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06stv20 (Listen) TUE Keeping Notes TUE Excerpts from the Queen of the Crime's personal tapes TUE dictating her autobiography for her typist - before she made TUE any amendments for publication. TUE Completed in 1965, the book was first published in the UK in TUE 1977, the year after her death. TUE Introduced by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard TUE who discovered her tapes. TUE Producer: Peter Reed. TUE TUE 10:30 Poirot b007yp1g (Listen) TUE Murder on the Orient Express, Episode 2 TUE The Orient Express is trapped in a snowdrift and in one TUE compartment, a man lies murdered. Fortunately Hercule Poirot TUE is aboard the train. TUE Agatha Christie's whodunit stars John Moffatt as Hercule TUE Poirot. With Frank Windsor as Pierre Michel, Sylvia Syms as TUE Mrs Hubbard and Desmond Llewelyn as Masterman. TUE Pianist: Michael Haslam TUE From the book published in 1934 and dramatised by Michael TUE Bakewell TUE Director Enyd Williams. TUE First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1992. TUE TUE 11:00 Midsummer Night in the Workhouse b0167vmx (Listen) TUE For Rain It Hath a Friendly Sound TUE In Diana Athill's story For the Rain it Hath a Friendly TUE Sound first published in 1961, a phone call leads Kate to TUE reflect on her marriage and her experience of love. TUE The short stories collected in Midsummer Night in the TUE Workhouse represent the start of Diana Athill's writing TUE career. In the preface to the selection she says: 'I can TUE remember in detail being hit by my first story one January TUE morning in 1958. Until that moment I had been hand-maiden, TUE as editor, to other people's writing, without ever dreaming TUE of myself as a writer.' Each of her stories draw on her own TUE personal experiences and her keen observations of others. TUE Diana Athill was born in 1917. In 1946 she joined Andre TUE Deutsch and went on to become one of the country's leading TUE editors in a career spanning fifty years. She has also TUE published six volumes of memoirs and a novel. TUE Read by Emma Fielding TUE Abridged by Julian Wilkinson TUE Produced by Elizabeth Allard. TUE TUE 11:15 Sirens of Fleet Street b01dtsgz (Listen) TUE Free-Minded Albion's Daughter TUE The life of Victorian journalist pioneer, feminist and TUE campaigner, Bessie Rayner Parkes. Lavinia Murray's play with TUE Sarah Parks. TUE TUE 12:00 Round the Horne b00mw69c (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] TUE TUE 12:30 The Men From the Ministry b007jw7r (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] TUE TUE 13:00 Kipling in Love b06strdn (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] TUE TUE 13:30 James Last - Non Stop Party People b00vsvcy (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today] TUE TUE 14:00 Sir Peter Shaffer - Amadeus b00shl8h (Listen) TUE Episode 2 TUE Salieri's jealousy of Mozart ignites a plot for revenge. TUE Read by F Murray Abraham. Adapted from the stage play. TUE TUE 14:15 The History of the Future b01mk2hl (Listen) TUE The Druids TUE Juliet Gardiner continues her journey back to the History of TUE the Future with a look into the society of the Druids and TUE their beliefs about the future. TUE Druids held a crucial role in Britain, Ireland and Gaul TUE until the first Century AD. Very little evidence of their TUE mysterious culture remains and we might think of them now as TUE the Roman writers portrayed them, wearing white robes and TUE wreaths of mistletoe and oak leaves, making animal, even TUE human sacrifices. One thing is for certain: their powers of TUE prophesy were the sources of awe, fear and political threat TUE to the conquering Romans who saw them as an alternative TUE power base. The Druids are said to have predicted the Fall TUE of the Roman Empire. Was this political expediency or TUE something more mysterious? Juliet sees ancient spoons which TUE may have been used by the Druids in divination ceremonies. TUE Produced by Victoria Shepherd TUE A Juniper Production for BBC Radio 4. TUE TUE 14:30 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair b007jvy2 (Listen) TUE Episode 12 TUE Becky has plans to deal with an uncertain financial future. TUE Narrated by Stephen Fry, stars Emma Fielding. TUE TUE 14:45 Miles Kington - Someone Like Me b00dp6f6 (Listen) TUE Episode 2 TUE Frog-like Aunt Flo and Uncle Walter's fascination with fig TUE leaves. The much-missed writer recalls his eccentric TUE childhood. TUE TUE 15:00 Mystery Theater b06sttwn (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today] TUE TUE 15:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06stv20 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 10:25 today] TUE TUE 15:30 Poirot b007yp1g (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 today] TUE TUE 16:00 Act Your Age b00fn0vg (Listen) TUE Series 1, Episode 1 TUE Simon Mayo discovers which generation is the funniest. With TUE Jon Richardson, Lucy Porter and Roy Walker. From November TUE 2008. Episode 1 of 6. TUE TUE 16:30 Capital Gains b00snlx2 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today] TUE TUE 17:00 HR b01cw7kn (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today] TUE TUE 17:30 Don't Make Me Laugh b06s9d20 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] TUE TUE 18:00 Jonathan Aycliffe - The Matrix b01nm0f0 (Listen) TUE Episode 2 TUE Trying to rid himself of an ancient book, student Andrew TUE MacLeod becomes drawn to a sinister group. Read by Robert TUE Paterson. TUE TUE 18:15 Book at Bedtime b03xcd4c (Listen) TUE Lynne Truss - Cat Out of Hell, Episode 2 TUE By acclaimed storyteller Lynne Truss, author of the TUE bestselling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the mysterious tale of TUE a cat with nine lives, and relationship as ancient as time TUE itself and just as powerful. TUE The scene - an isolated cottage on the coast on a stormy TUE evening. Inside, Alec a recently bereaved widower and his TUE dog. To pass the time Alec explores the contents of a folder TUE of documents emailed to him by an acquaintance at the TUE library where he used to work. What he discovers is an TUE extraordinary story that will change his life forever. TUE Episode 2: TUE Alec discovers Roger's incredible life story through TUE interviews transcribed by Wiggy. But what's more TUE unbelievable is that Roger himself is the interviewee. TUE Reader: Mike Grady TUE Abridger: Jeremy Osborne TUE Producer: Karen Rose TUE A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. TUE Credits TUE Reader: Mike Grady TUE Producer: Karen Rose TUE Abridger: Jeremy Osborne TUE Author: Lynne Truss TUE TUE 18:30 The Mysterious Dame Agatha b06stvfg (Listen) TUE Cliff Michelmore presents an 85th birthday tribute to the TUE Queen of whodunits. TUE The prolific author and playwright was desperately shy in TUE public - so what was she really like? TUE With Peter Saunders, Nigel Stock and Julian Symons. TUE Producer: Mitchell Raper TUE First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1975. TUE TUE 19:00 Round the Horne b00mw69c (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] TUE TUE 19:30 The Men From the Ministry b007jw7r (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] TUE TUE 20:00 Kipling in Love b06strdn (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] TUE TUE 20:30 James Last - Non Stop Party People b00vsvcy (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today] TUE TUE 21:00 Midsummer Night in the Workhouse b0167vmx (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today] TUE TUE 21:15 Sirens of Fleet Street b01dtsgz (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today] TUE TUE 22:00 Don't Make Me Laugh b06s9d20 (Listen) TUE [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] TUE TUE 22:30 The Ape That Got Lucky b0081sw3 (Listen) TUE Man or Monkey TUE Chris Addison's spoof lectures exploring human evolution. TUE With Geoffrey McGivern as Professor Austin Herring. From TUE August 2005. TUE TUE 23:00 Twenty Players b06stvjl (Listen) TUE Series 2, Sister Agnes Brown TUE Forgotten sporting heroes. Cliff Morgan tells the story of TUE one of rugby's great coaches, Sister Agnes Brown. From June TUE 1997. TUE TUE 23:15 Sir Henry at Rawlinson End b00s8lgd (Listen) TUE The Hatching TUE Surreal saga of a dynasty delicately balanced on the edge of TUE sanity. Written by and starring Viv Stanshall. From December TUE 1996. TUE TUE 23:30 Think the Unthinkable b007jm43 (Listen) TUE Series 1, Episode 4 TUE The consultants tackle some call centre problems, and Ryan TUE moves to a 'war zone'. Stars Emma Kennedy. From November TUE 2001. TUE TUE WED WEDNESDAY 30 DECEMBER 2015 WED WED 00:00 Jonathan Aycliffe - The Matrix b01nm0f0 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Tuesday] WED WED 00:15 Book at Bedtime b03xcd4c (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Tuesday] WED WED 00:30 The Mysterious Dame Agatha b06stvfg (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Tuesday] WED WED 01:00 Kipling in Love b06strdn (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Tuesday] WED WED 01:30 James Last - Non Stop Party People b00vsvcy (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Tuesday] WED WED 02:00 Sir Peter Shaffer - Amadeus b00shl8h (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Tuesday] WED WED 02:15 The History of the Future b01mk2hl (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Tuesday] WED WED 02:30 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair b007jvy2 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Tuesday] WED WED 02:45 Miles Kington - Someone Like Me b00dp6f6 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Tuesday] WED WED 03:00 Mystery Theater b06sttwn (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Tuesday] WED WED 03:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06stv20 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 10:25 on Tuesday] WED WED 03:30 Poirot b007yp1g (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Tuesday] WED WED 04:00 Act Your Age b00fn0vg (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday] WED WED 04:30 Capital Gains b00snlx2 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday] WED WED 05:00 HR b01cw7kn (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Tuesday] WED WED 05:30 Don't Make Me Laugh b06s9d20 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Tuesday] WED WED 06:00 Kipling in Love b06svtfc (Listen) WED Venus Annodomini WED India, 1886: Adored by all, but the attraction of Venus is WED only skin-deep as one unlucky captain discovers. Stars Alex WED Jennings. WED WED 06:30 Stock Car Sewell b00tjvxc (Listen) WED For many years, art critic Brian Sewell has been a devoted WED fan of Stock Car Racing. In this programme, he explores his WED passion for these battered beasts of the race track, as he WED visits the Wimbledon Stadium for a night at the races. WED Stock car racing was brought to Britain in 1954 by 'Digger' WED Pugh who'd first seen it in America. The idea was to take WED everyday road cars and race them on the track. Unlike other WED forms of racing, contact between cars was allowed, making it WED a hugely popular spectator sport. During Stock Car racing's WED golden era in the Fifties and Sixties, races attracted huge WED crowds to stadia up and down the country. These days, Stock WED Car racing still has a devoted following. WED In this programme, Brian Sewell gets to the bottom of his WED passion, a passion which celebrates speed, exhaust fumes, WED driving skill and pure throbbing horse power. He meets Pete WED Tucker, one of the last surviving drivers to drive in the WED first British Stock Car races, and talks to the people WED involved in Stock Car racing today. WED Brian speaks to Pete Tucker who drove in the first ever WED British Stock Car races; Janice Bell, daughter of Digger WED Pugh, the man who brought stock car racing to Britain; WED George Heath a driver of Banger cars; Paul Hugget, writer WED for Stock Car magazine Wheelspin. WED Producer: Caroline Hughes WED A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 07:00 The Brothers b00nn2hg (Listen) WED Series 2, Episode 1 WED Michael gets a circus obsession and Nigel has an odd WED encounter. Stars Raymond Coulthard and Adam Godley. From WED September 2005. WED WED 07:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups b06s9l5c (Listen) WED Series 3, A Christmas Not Special WED Episode 6, 'A Christmas Not Special'. A ring of the doorbell WED interrupts an already unconventional Wrigglesworth family WED Christmas. WED Series 3 of the sitcom where Tom Wrigglesworth phones home WED for his weekly check-in with his Mum, Dad and Gran, giving WED listeners a glimpse into his family background and the WED influences that have shaped his temperament, opinions and WED hang-ups. WED Episode 6 "A Christmas Not Special": The Wrigglesworths WED receive a Christmas visitor while Tom struggles to get home WED in time for dinner. WED Starring Tom Wrigglesworth, Paul Copley, Kate Anthony, WED Elizabeth Bennett and Chris Pavlo. WED Written by Tom Wrigglesworth and James Kettle with WED additional material by Miles Jupp WED Produced by Richard Morris WED A BBC Radio Comedy Production. WED Credits WED Actor: Tom Wrigglesworth WED Actor: Paul Copley WED Actor: Kate Anthony WED Actor: Elizabeth Bennett WED Actor: Chris Pavlo WED Writer: Tom Wrigglesworth WED Writer: James Kettle WED Writer: Miles Jupp WED Producer: Richard Morris WED WED 08:00 The Navy Lark b013r1vy (Listen) WED A Deliberate Bashing WED Desperate to escape his mother-in-law, can Captain Povey WED rely on the crew to assist? WED Stars Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Leslie WED Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Stephen Murray as the Number WED One, Ronnie Barker as Commander Bell, Richard Caldicote as WED Captain Povey and Tenniel Evans as Taffy Goldstein. WED Laughs afloat aboard British Royal Navy frigate HMS WED Troutbridge. The Navy Lark ran for an impressive thirteen WED series between 1959 and 1976. WED Scripted by Lawrie Wyman WED Producer: Alastair Scott Johnston. WED First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in April 1963. WED WED 08:30 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again b011301y (Listen) WED Series 7, Episode 7 WED Bill Oddie sings the 'Baby Samba' and Professor Prune loses WED his trousers. Stars John Cleese and David Hatch. From WED February 1969. WED WED 09:00 Counterpoint b06swkv9 (Listen) WED 1999, Heat 10 WED Ned Sherrin hosts the first semi-final with David Hunt of WED London, Lancashire's Sue McCombie and Andrew Taylor from WED Cambridge. WED WED 09:30 Beachcomber... By the Way b007jv6b (Listen) WED Series 2, Episode 1 WED JB Morton's whimsies as performed by Richard Ingrams, WED Patricia Routledge, John Sessions and John Wells. From July WED 1991. WED WED 10:00 Mystery Theater b06swkvc (Listen) WED Box Thirteen: Alan Ladd WED 1947: In 'Actor's Alibi' struggling writer Dan Holliday's ad WED for inspirational adventure backfires. WED Stars Alan Ladd as Dan Holliday. With Sylvia Picker as WED secretary Suzy and Edmund MacDonald as Police Lieutenant WED Kling. WED Former hack turned freelance thriller writer Dan needs to WED generate ideas, so places a classified ad in the paper: WED "Adventure wanted - will go anywhere, do anything - Box 13." WED Played by Hollywood film star Alan Ladd (1913-1964), he's WED the very image of a perpetually rent-owing, down-at-heel WED luckless gumshoe wannabe. WED Renowned for being only 5 foot 5 inches or so tall, actor WED Alan Ladd's tough California childhood gave way to small WED roles in theatre, film and radio before silver-screen WED success. His films included: This Gun For Hire, Duel of WED Champions, The Carpetbaggers, One Foot in Hell, The Deep Six WED and The Proud Rebel. WED Box 13 is a syndicated 52-part series created by Alan Ladd's WED company, Mayfair Productions. The series premiered on WED December 31st 1947 on New York radio station WOR. WED WED 10:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06t1b2l (Listen) WED Miss Marple WED Excerpts from the Queen of the Crime's personal tapes WED dictating her autobiography for her typist - before she made WED any amendments for publication. WED Completed in 1965, the book was first published in the UK WED in1977, the year after her death. WED Introduced by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard WED who discovered her tapes. WED Producer: Peter Reed. WED WED 10:30 Poirot b007yrng (Listen) WED Murder on the Orient Express, Episode 3 WED Hercule Poirot has discovered the murder victim has a "past" WED - and is convinced that the murderer is still aboard the WED train. WED Agatha Christie's whodunit stars John Moffatt as Hercule WED Poirot. With Sian Phillips as Princess Dragmiroff, Frank WED Windsor as Pierre Michel, Kate Binchy as Miss Ohlsson and WED Andre Maranne as Monsieur Bouc. WED Pianist: Michael Haslam WED From the book published in 1934 and dramatised by Michael WED Bakewell WED Director Enyd Williams. WED First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1992. WED WED 11:00 Midsummer Night in the Workhouse b016kj76 (Listen) WED An Unavoidable Delay WED In Diana Athill's story, An Unavoidable Delay, first WED published in 1962, Rose is travelling home from her holiday WED in Lubjiana when she encounters Paul and events take an WED unexpected turn. WED The short stories collected in Midsummer Night in the WED Workhouse represent the start of Diana Athill's writing WED career. In the preface to the selection she says: 'I can WED remember in detail being hit by my first story one January WED morning in 1958. Until that moment I had been hand-maiden, WED as editor, to other people's writing, without ever dreaming WED of myself as a writer.' Each of her stories draws on her own WED personal experiences and her keen observations of others. WED Diana Athill was born in 1917. In 1946 she joined Andre WED Deutsch and went on to become one of the country's leading WED editors in a career spanning fifty years. She has also WED published six volumes of memoirs and a novel. WED Read by Emma Fielding WED Abridged by Julian Wilkinson WED Produced by Elizabeth Allard. WED WED 11:15 Sirens of Fleet Street b01dvvt3 (Listen) WED Change of Heart WED The life of pioneer reporter Mea Allan and mentor May WED Chalmers in wartime letters. Felicity Goodall's play with WED Siobhan Redmond. WED WED 12:00 The Navy Lark b013r1vy (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] WED WED 12:30 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again b011301y (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] WED WED 13:00 Kipling in Love b06svtfc (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] WED WED 13:30 Stock Car Sewell b00tjvxc (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today] WED WED 14:00 Sir Peter Shaffer - Amadeus b00shrwn (Listen) WED Episode 3 WED Salieri wrestles with his conscience over seducing Mozart's WED wife. Read by F Murray Abraham. Adapted from the stage play. WED WED 14:15 The History of the Future b01mk71l (Listen) WED The Book of Revelation WED Juliet Gardiner continues her look back into the History of WED the Future with the apocalyptic visions of Divine Judgement WED in the Book of Revelation. WED There is some dispute about its authorship but it is WED generally believed that the Revelations of Jesus Christ were WED communicated to a mystic, John, while in exile on the island WED of Patmos off the coast of Turkey. John wrote them down WED around AD 95 and some interpret the Book of Revelation as WED unveiling events that will take place in the future, when WED Satan will be cast out and the Second Coming will bring WED about paradise on earth, others see it as an allegory of the WED struggle between good and evil. WED Juliet views the Douse Manuscript, a dazzling 15th century WED illuminated Book of Revelation from a period when there was WED a flowering of interest in this vision of future, with its WED images of beasts, fires and plagues. Why did the Book's WED predictions become so pertinent at this particular time? Was WED this connected to anxieties and political aspirations of the WED Crusades? Juliet speaks to Professor of Early Modern ideas, WED Justin Champion. WED Produced by Victoria Shepherd WED A Juniper Production for BBC Radio 4. WED WED 14:30 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair b007jvy5 (Listen) WED Episode 13 WED Becky and Rawdon make a tactical visit to relatives, and WED Becky finds a new companion. With Stephen Fry and Emma WED Fielding. WED WED 14:45 Miles Kington - Someone Like Me b00dpg1d (Listen) WED Episode 3 WED Gossip, siestas and his brother's attempt to play a corpse. WED The much-missed broadcaster recalls his eccentric childhood. WED WED 15:00 Mystery Theater b06swkvc (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today] WED WED 15:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06t1b2l (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 10:25 today] WED WED 15:30 Poirot b007yrng (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 today] WED WED 16:00 Counterpoint b06swkv9 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] WED WED 16:30 Beachcomber... By the Way b007jv6b (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today] WED WED 17:00 The Brothers b00nn2hg (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today] WED WED 17:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups b06s9l5c (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] WED WED 18:00 Jonathan Aycliffe - The Matrix b01nm20n (Listen) WED Episode 3 WED Scholar Andrew MacLeod is taken to North Africa, where he's WED horrified to hear a voice from his past. Read by Robert WED Paterson. WED WED 18:15 Book at Bedtime b03xcdnj (Listen) WED Lynne Truss - Cat Out of Hell, Episode 3 WED By acclaimed storyteller Lynne Truss, author of the WED bestselling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the mysterious tale of WED a cat with nine lives. And a relationship as ancient as time WED itself and just as powerful. WED The scene - an isolated cottage on the coast on a stormy WED evening. Inside, Alec a recently bereaved widower and his WED dog. To pass the time Alec explores the contents of a folder WED of documents emailed to him by an acquaintance at the WED library where he used to work. What he discovers is an WED extraordinary story that will change his life forever. WED Episode 3: WED Winterton's folder reveals more of Roger's extraordinary WED story. But the mystery surrounding Jo's disappearance WED deepens. WED Reader: Mike Grady WED Abridger: Jeremy Osborne WED Producer: Karen Rose WED A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. WED Credits WED Reader: Mike Grady WED Producer: Karen Rose WED Abridger: Jeremy Osborne WED Author: Lynne Truss WED WED 18:30 The Radio Detectives b007jp9j (Listen) WED Series 2, The Little Grey Cells of Hercule Poirot WED Professor Jeffrey Richards investigates the casebook of WED Agatha Christie's Belgian detective and his little grey WED cells. WED WED 19:00 The Navy Lark b013r1vy (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] WED WED 19:30 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again b011301y (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] WED WED 20:00 Kipling in Love b06svtfc (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] WED WED 20:30 Stock Car Sewell b00tjvxc (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today] WED WED 21:00 Midsummer Night in the Workhouse b016kj76 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today] WED WED 21:15 Sirens of Fleet Street b01dvvt3 (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today] WED WED 22:00 Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups b06s9l5c (Listen) WED [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] WED WED 22:30 Old Harry's Game b00wr9vv (Listen) WED Christmas Special 2010, Ring in the New WED The sitcom set in hell. Satan runs his infernal world with WED the assistance of his chief demon, Scumspawn. Amongst those WED he torments are Edith, a murdered historian, and Thomas, the WED most repellent human who ever lived. WED Full of jokes and broad comedy the show is also a WED philosophical study of the human condition, asking such WED questions as whether man is inherently good or evil. WED In this episode Satan decides he needs a holiday. WED Written by Andy Hamilton WED Producer: Paul Mayhew-Archer. WED Credits WED Satan: Andy Hamilton WED Edith: Annette Crosbie WED Scumspawn: Robert Duncan WED Thomas: Jimmy Mulville WED Producer: Paul Mayhew-Archer WED Writer: Andy Hamilton WED Producer: Paul Mayhew-Archer WED WED 23:00 Beauty of Britain b010t6yh (Listen) WED Series 2, Mission Command WED Series 2 of this Radio 4 comedy follows Beauty's continuing WED adventures among the cauliflower-cheese eating population as WED the Featherdown Agency sends her to provide care for those WED who need it - and occasionally some who don't, but all of WED whom have relatives with guilty consciences. Beauty sees WED herself as an inspiration to other African girls hoping to WED live the dream in Britain. Until she gets the nod from God WED about which sector of the economy would most benefit from WED her entrepreneurial skills Beauty will carry on grating the WED Extra Mature Cathedral City, running the assisted baths and WED trying to understand the British character. WED The series breaks the embarrassed silence about what happens WED to us when we get old and start to lose our faculties. WED Beauty sees Britain at its best, its worst and also WED sometimes without its clothes on running the wrong way down WED the M6 with a toy dog shouting 'Come on!' WED Beauty of Britain is a narrative comedy written by WED Christopher Douglas (of Ed Reardon fame) and Nicola WED Sanderson. WED Episode 5 'Mission Command' WED Beauty Oolonga, a Southern African care worker, shares her WED quirky view of Britain. Beauty struggles with an irascible WED gentleman and the Featherdown office struggle with Social WED Services' new pilot scheme for elder care in which the WED 'Assessment exercises are based on the battle principles of WED General von Moltke of the Prussian Army.' WED Beauty ..... Jocelyn Jee Esien WED Derek ..... Oscar James WED Nicole/Topaz/Tiffany ..... Morwenna Banks WED Karen ..... Nicola Sanderson WED Sally ..... Felicity Montagu WED Olivia/PhD Student .....Vicki Pepperdine WED The music for the series was performed by The West End WED Gospel Choir. WED Written by Christopher Douglas and Nicola Sanderson WED The producer is Tilusha Ghelani. WED WED 23:30 Beautiful Dreamers b00vy0pn (Listen) WED Crazy Bird: The Horace Wiggerley Story WED Nat investigates the story behind Laurel Miller's iconic WED photograph 'Crazy Bird', the image that captures the moment WED when ex-con Horace Wiggerley drove across the opening arms WED of the 23rd Street bridge in New York City. Featuring WED contributions from Lucian Msamati, Alibe Parsons, Peter WED Marinker, Ewan Bailey, Sally Orrock, Sean Baker and Lloyd WED Thomas. WED Writers ..... James Lever and Nat Segnit. WED Producers ..... Steven Canny and Sasha Yevtushenko. WED WED THU THURSDAY 31 DECEMBER 2015 THU THU 00:00 Jonathan Aycliffe - The Matrix b01nm20n (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Wednesday] THU THU 00:15 Book at Bedtime b03xcdnj (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Wednesday] THU THU 00:30 The Radio Detectives b007jp9j (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesday] THU THU 01:00 Kipling in Love b06svtfc (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Wednesday] THU THU 01:30 Stock Car Sewell b00tjvxc (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Wednesday] THU THU 02:00 Sir Peter Shaffer - Amadeus b00shrwn (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Wednesday] THU THU 02:15 The History of the Future b01mk71l (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Wednesday] THU THU 02:30 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair b007jvy5 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Wednesday] THU THU 02:45 Miles Kington - Someone Like Me b00dpg1d (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Wednesday] THU THU 03:00 Mystery Theater b06swkvc (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Wednesday] THU THU 03:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06t1b2l (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 10:25 on Wednesday] THU THU 03:30 Poirot b007yrng (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Wednesday] THU THU 04:00 Counterpoint b06swkv9 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday] THU THU 04:30 Beachcomber... By the Way b007jv6b (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Wednesday] THU THU 05:00 The Brothers b00nn2hg (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Wednesday] THU THU 05:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups b06s9l5c (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Wednesday] THU THU 06:00 Kipling in Love b06sx2f5 (Listen) THU The Courting of Dinah Shadd THU India, 1880: Sergeant Terence Mulvaney is a dark horse, THU reflecting on his military and personal ups and downs. Stars THU Jack Klaff. THU THU 06:30 Brian Friel Season b01r55mw (Listen) THU Self Portrait THU The playwright gives a rare insight into his personal past, THU musing on the facts and fictions of his life. From 1971. THU THU 06:50 Inheritance Tracks b0106vf7 (Listen) THU Colm Toibin THU The writer inherits 'I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marbled Halls' sung THU by Joan Sutherland, and passes on Bob Dylan's 'I Threw It THU All Away'. THU THU 07:00 Hazelbeach b0082dtq (Listen) THU Series 1, Wine THU Back in England, Nick finds the mysterious Ronnie Hazelbeach THU in his late dad's house. Stars Jamie Foreman. From October THU 2007. THU THU 07:30 Tina C: Herstory b06s9s02 (Listen) THU Episode 4 THU Country music legend Tina C brings us right up to date with THU a (slightly) festive look at where she is today. Bob Harris THU quizzes her about her ambitions for the future, and a live THU country band take us through some of her biggest hits. THU Written and performed by Christopher Green. THU Additional voices: Susan Jameson & Leo Wan. THU The Band: Duncan Walsh-Atkins, Phil Hardisty, Mark Wraith. THU Produced by Victoria Lloyd. THU THU 08:00 Steptoe and Son b007k1r0 (Listen) THU Series 4, And Afterwards At THU It's a big day for Harold. He's set to tie the knot! But THU Albert's not convinced. THU Starring Wilfrid Brambell as Albert and Harry H Corbett as THU Harold. With Pat Coombes, Patricia Hayes, Margot Boyd, THU Edward Kelsey, Sheila Grant, Martin Friend and Katherine THU Parr. THU Following the conclusion of their hugely successful THU association with Tony Hancock, writers Ray Galton and Alan THU Simpson wrote 10 pilots for the BBC TV's Comedy Playhouse in THU 1962. The Offer was set in a house with a yard full of junk, THU featuring the lives of rag and bone men Albert Steptoe and THU his son Harold and it was the spark for a run of 8 series THU for TV. THU Written for TV and adapted for radio by Ray Galton and Alan THU Simpson. THU Produced by Bobby Jaye THU First broadcast on the BBC Radio 2 in March 1972. THU THU 08:30 The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter THU b007jx9k (Listen) THU Series 1, The Birthday Present THU The convoluted chronicle of an optimistic crime writer. THU Stars Ian Carmichael and Charlotte Mitchell. From March THU 1976. THU THU 09:00 Genius b00802hh (Listen) THU Series 3, Episode 1 THU A whole new realm of swearing opens up as Rob Newman joins THU Dave Gorman for more innovation in everyday life. From THU October 2007. THU THU 09:30 No Commitments b007jnyh (Listen) THU Series 7, A Family Lunch THU A Family Lunch: Victoria's hopes for a happy birthday THU celebration are soon dashed. Stars Angela Thorne and Bill THU Nighy. From February 2001. THU THU 10:00 Mystery Theater b06sx543 (Listen) THU Jeff Regan, Investigator: It All Comes Back to Me Now THU 1950: Jeff gets caught up in a case of missing memories. THU Could a mystery woman carrying a pistol be a murderer? THU Starring Paul Dubov as Jeff Regan and Frank Nelson as THU Anthony Lyon. THU Jeff Regan is a fully registered official private THU investigator working for the Los Angeles-based International THU Detective Bureau. Unlike some of his radio contemporaries, THU Jeff gets the job done through diligence and tenacity - THU rather than gun-toting fisticuffs. THU The series debuted on CBS in the US 1948 starring Jack THU 'Dragnet' Webb. After he left the role on radio, Jeff was THU played by Frank Graham and finally Paul Dubov (1918-1979) THU who appeared in many Hollywood films as a support actor, THU rather than playing the leading man. THU Jeff Regan, Investigator came off-air in 1950. THU 4 Extra's MYSTERY THEATER showcases American radio's golden THU years of the 1940s and 50s, when many of Hollywood's THU greatest screen stars were regular performers, often THU re-enacting film roles. THU THU 10:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06t23wl (Listen) THU The Taxman THU Excerpts from the Queen of the Crime's personal tapes THU dictating her autobiography for her typist - before she made THU any amendments for publication. THU Completed in 1965, the book was first published in the UK in THU 1977, the year after her death. THU Introduced by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard THU who discovered her tapes. THU Producer: Peter Reed. THU THU 10:30 Poirot b007ys7n (Listen) THU Murder on the Orient Express, Episode 4 THU Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot discovers that someone THU aboard the train is lying to him. THU Agatha Christie's whodunit stars John Moffatt as Hercule THU Poirot. With Sylvia Syms as Mrs Hubbard, Francesca Annis as THU Miss Debenham, Peter Polycarpou as Dr Constantine and Siriol THU Jenkins as Countess Andrenyi. THU Pianist: Michael Haslam THU From the book published in 1934 and dramatised by Michael THU Bakewell THU Director Enyd Williams. THU First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1992. THU THU 11:00 A Dalmatian Trilogy b018wb97 (Listen) THU The Lompic Cape THU Episode 1 (of 3): The Lompic Cape by James Hopkin THU An eccentric writer-explorer leads his bemused amanuensis THU over the island. But on the rocks, in the sea and in the old THU town, the two men see very different things. THU James Hopkin has lived and travelled widely in Europe, THU including time spent on the Dalmatian islands off the coast THU of Croatia. These three specially-commissioned stories THU explore the history and landscape of the area, as well as THU providing a colourful journey for the senses. THU Hopkin gained a First Class honours degree in English and THU Philosophy in Manchester, then a Distinction in his MA on THU modern fiction, followed by a British Academy Award for his THU PhD. In September 2002, he won an Arts Council short story THU competition with 'Even the Crows Say Krakow'. THU His novel Winter Under Water (2007) was an assured and THU critically-acclaimed debut marking the arrival of a major THU new writer. He published a small collection of stories in THU 2008, along with the paperback of Winter Under Water. THU James Hopkin's A Georgian Trilogy, also produced by Sweet THU Talk, was broadcast in 2010. THU Reader: Alan Cox THU Producer: Jeremy Osborne THU A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. THU THU 11:15 Sirens of Fleet Street b01dvzm8 (Listen) THU Miss Thingummybob THU The dramatic life of Emilie Peacocke, the first woman THU journalist on the Daily Express. Janys Chambers' play with THU Kathryn Hunt. THU THU 12:00 Steptoe and Son b007k1r0 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] THU THU 12:30 The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter THU b007jx9k (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] THU THU 13:00 Kipling in Love b06sx2f5 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] THU THU 13:30 Brian Friel Season b01r55mw (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today] THU THU 13:50 Inheritance Tracks b0106vf7 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 06:50 today] THU THU 14:00 Sir Peter Shaffer - Amadeus b00sjp2n (Listen) THU Episode 4 THU Will Salieri finally take his revenge on Mozart? Or is his THU quarrel really with God? Read by F Murray Abraham. THU THU 14:15 The History of the Future b01mk92q (Listen) THU Nostradamus THU Juliet Gardiner continues her History of the Future with a THU look into the world of the most famous futurologist of them THU all, Nostradamus. Nostradamus's name is synonymous with THU prediction and his poetic quatrains have not been out of THU print since they were first published in France in 1555. THU The prophesies were an instant bestseller all across Europe THU and struck a chord in London too. Widespread fear in France THU of invasion by the Ottoman Empire made his prophesies with THU their reference to the Anti-Christ seem urgent and people THU were drawn to the predictions for clues to how to act in a THU war-torn present. Five hundred years later people still THU consult the almanacs of Nostradamus and find in its pages THU predictions that seem to have foreseen major current events, THU the most famous of which was the attack on the World Trade THU Centre on 9/11. THU The prophesies are enigmatic, poetically vague and ripe for THU interpretation, but what is striking is that Nostradamus's THU words can represent the anxieties of the time in which they THU were written, and ours today. Juliet speaks to Nostradamus THU experts Peter Lemesurier and Mario Reading. THU Produced by Victoria Shepherd THU A Juniper Production for BBC Radio 4. THU THU 14:30 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair b007jvy8 (Listen) THU Episode 14 THU A cash crisis forces Amelia to make a terrible decision THU about little Georgie's future. With Stephen Fry and Emma THU Fielding. THU THU 14:45 Miles Kington - Someone Like Me b00dpnwr (Listen) THU Episode 4 THU A Sherlock Holmes game unearths some awkward family THU evidence. The much-missed writer recalls his eccentric THU childhood. THU THU 15:00 Mystery Theater b06sx543 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today] THU THU 15:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06t23wl (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 10:25 today] THU THU 15:30 Poirot b007ys7n (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 today] THU THU 16:00 Genius b00802hh (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] THU THU 16:30 No Commitments b007jnyh (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today] THU THU 17:00 Hazelbeach b0082dtq (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today] THU THU 17:30 Tina C: Herstory b06s9s02 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] THU THU 18:00 Jonathan Aycliffe - The Matrix b01nm5jd (Listen) THU Episode 4 THU Now back in Scotland, MacLeod becomes increasingly dependent THU on Mylne's support. Read by Robert Paterson. THU THU 18:15 Book at Bedtime b03xcgm0 (Listen) THU Lynne Truss - Cat Out of Hell, Episode 4 THU By acclaimed storyteller Lynne Truss, author of the THU bestselling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the mysterious tale of THU a cat with nine lives. And a relationship as ancient as time THU itself and just as powerful. THU The scene - an isolated cottage on the coast on a stormy THU evening. Inside, Alec a recently bereaved widower and his THU dog. To pass the time Alec explores the contents of a folder THU of documents emailed to him by an acquaintance at the THU library where he used to work. What he discovers is an THU extraordinary story that will change his life forever. THU Episode 4: THU Wiggy's sister Jo and her dog Jeremy are still missing. THU Suspicion falls on Wiggy himself. THU Reader: Mike Grady THU Abridger: Jeremy Osborne THU Producer: Karen Rose THU A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. THU Credits THU Reader: Mike Grady THU Producer: Karen Rose THU Abridger: Jeremy Osborne THU Author: Lynne Truss THU THU 18:30 Women of Mystery - Queen of Crime b06sx8b4 (Listen) THU 4 Extra Debut. Why was the genteel Agatha Christie so good THU at writing murder stories? With Jessica Mann and biographer THU Janet Morgan. From December 1982. THU THU 19:00 Steptoe and Son b007k1r0 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] THU THU 19:30 The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter THU b007jx9k (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] THU THU 20:00 Kipling in Love b06sx2f5 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] THU THU 20:30 Brian Friel Season b01r55mw (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today] THU THU 20:50 Inheritance Tracks b0106vf7 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 06:50 today] THU THU 21:00 A Dalmatian Trilogy b018wb97 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today] THU THU 21:15 Sirens of Fleet Street b01dvzm8 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today] THU THU 22:00 Tina C: Herstory b06s9s02 (Listen) THU [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] THU THU 22:30 The Secret World b0125n5t (Listen) THU Series 2, Episode 1 THU From Al Pacino to Keith Harris and Orville, Jon Culshaw and THU friends probe the private lives of the famous. From July THU 2010. THU THU 23:00 Bleak Expectations b00nyy8s (Listen) THU Series 3, An Evil Life Sort of Explained THU Comedy Victorian adventure by Mark Evans. THU Pip Bin, Harry Biscuit and Gently Benevolent find themselves THU trapped in the vast emptiness of space. As their doom looks THU increasingly inevitable, Mr Benevolent finally explains just THU why it is that he is so very very evil. THU Sir Philip ...... Richard Johnson THU Young Pip Bin ...... Tom Allen THU Gently Benevolent ...... Anthony Head THU Lovely Benevolent ...... Jane Asher THU Harry Biscuit ...... James Bachman THU Hardthrasher/Sternbeater/Wackwallop ...... Geoffrey THU Whitehead THU Miss Christmasham ...... Sarah Hadland THU Miss Sweetly Delightful ...... Raquel Cassidy. THU THU 23:30 Hamish and Dougal: You'll Have Had Your Tea b008kl37 (Listen) THU Hogmanay Special THU Humphrey Lyttelton and James Naughtie join Barry Cryer and THU Graeme Garden's 'Clue' alter egos for a New Year's Eve THU celebration. From December 2004. THU THU FRI FRIDAY 01 JANUARY 2016 FRI FRI 00:00 Jonathan Aycliffe - The Matrix b01nm5jd (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Thursday] FRI FRI 00:15 Book at Bedtime b03xcgm0 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Thursday] FRI FRI 00:30 Women of Mystery - Queen of Crime b06sx8b4 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Thursday] FRI FRI 01:00 Kipling in Love b06sx2f5 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Thursday] FRI FRI 01:30 Brian Friel Season b01r55mw (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Thursday] FRI FRI 01:50 Inheritance Tracks b0106vf7 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 06:50 on Thursday] FRI FRI 02:00 Sir Peter Shaffer - Amadeus b00sjp2n (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Thursday] FRI FRI 02:15 The History of the Future b01mk92q (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Thursday] FRI FRI 02:30 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair b007jvy8 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Thursday] FRI FRI 02:45 Miles Kington - Someone Like Me b00dpnwr (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Thursday] FRI FRI 03:00 Mystery Theater b06sx543 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Thursday] FRI FRI 03:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06t23wl (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 10:25 on Thursday] FRI FRI 03:30 Poirot b007ys7n (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Thursday] FRI FRI 04:00 Genius b00802hh (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Thursday] FRI FRI 04:30 No Commitments b007jnyh (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Thursday] FRI FRI 05:00 Hazelbeach b0082dtq (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Thursday] FRI FRI 05:30 Tina C: Herstory b06s9s02 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Thursday] FRI FRI 06:00 Kipling in Love b06sx9sy (Listen) FRI In the Pride of His Youth FRI London, 1880: Marrying Bella dashes Dicky's dream of a FRI career in India. What can he do when offered a post? Stars FRI Samuel West. FRI FRI 06:30 The Marx Brothers in Britain b00sp198 (Listen) FRI Author and historian Glenn Mitchell profiles the fascinating FRI visits to Britain of legendary comedy team The Marx FRI Brothers. FRI The Marx Brothers; Groucho, Harpo, Chico and (for a while) FRI Zeppo, inspired a generation of comedians, not least in FRI Britain via The Goon Show and, by extension, Monty Python's FRI Flying Circus. Although Britons knew the Marxes essentially FRI from their American films, they worked in the UK on several FRI remarkable occasions, the first of which pre-dates their FRI movie career. FRI Featuring actor Michael Roberts, famous for playing Groucho FRI on the UK radio series Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel and FRI using archive and new contributions from people that met and FRI worked with them this programme recreates and explores the FRI eventful visits of the brothers. FRI Beginning with their first in 1922, with an ensemble that FRI included future 'boop-oop-a-doop' girl Helen Kane, the FRI opening night at the London Coliseum saw them the target of FRI flying pennies. With the act not working they reverted to an FRI earlier sketch, moving to the Alhambra for the third week FRI prior to appearances in Bristol and Manchester where FRI elsewhere on the bill was a young Sandy Powell. FRI By the time of their next visit, in 1931, the Marxes had FRI gone from vaudeville to being the biggest attraction in FRI Broadway musical-comedy. Two of their shows had been filmed FRI - The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers - and had done FRI sufficient business in the UK for impresario C.B. Cochran to FRI invite them to star at the Palace, London. FRI Audiences were thrilled and the Marxes enjoyed their second FRI stay in London, even when Harpo and Chico, drawn into a FRI protracted card game in an unheated flat, found themselves FRI burning the furniture to keep warm! The journey back saw FRI Groucho and family strip-searched at US Customs when Groucho FRI put down his occupation as 'smuggler'. FRI In 1947, Chico accepted a solo engagement at the London FRI Casino. He returned to Britain in January 1949 for an FRI extensive variety tour, joined briefly by Harpo for a FRI four-week engagement at the London Palladium in June. In a FRI dockside interview - to be heard in the programme - Chico is FRI asked about the Italian accent he used when in character and FRI claims that, after seeing what they'd done to Mussolini, FRI he'd become Greek! FRI Chico's final UK visit was in 1959 for two BBC appearances, FRI one of which, Showtime hosted by David Nixon. FRI There will also be interview material from Groucho's various FRI trips to Great Britain between 1954 and 1971. Some of his FRI activities were professional - such as a British TV version FRI of his quiz show You Bet Your Life - while others were FRI purely social, notably his celebrated meeting with T.S. FRI Eliot. FRI Contributors include actor Ron Moody, Theatre historian FRI Chris Woodward and Marxist fan Peter Dixon. FRI FRI 07:00 1834 b01137b8 (Listen) FRI What Century Are You Living In? FRI After a few drinks, English teacher Jason Slater wakes up in FRI the 19th century. Stars Michael Begley. From June 2003. FRI FRI 07:30 Stop/Start b01jhjsh (Listen) FRI by Jack Docherty FRI A new sitcom about love, marriage and putting up with each FRI other. Stop/Start follows three couples as they do their FRI best to get on with their lives. When things get tricky, the FRI characters are able to stop the action, explain themselves FRI to the audience and start it all up again. FRI Barney ..... Jack Docherty FRI Cathy ..... Kerry Godliman FRI Fiona ..... Fiona Allen FRI David ..... Charlie Higson FRI Evan ..... Steve Edge FRI Alice ..... Katherine Parkinson FRI Producer ..... Steven Canny FRI Jack Docherty FRI Jack has a fantastic record of making stand-out comedy. He FRI first performed at the 1980 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with FRI the comedy sketch group The Bodgers and went on to write for FRI radio and television including: Spitting Image, Alas Smith FRI and Jones, Vic Reeves Big Night Out, Absolutely, The Lenny FRI Henry Show, Max Headroom, Weekending, The News Huddlines and FRI a ton of other things. FRI He has also made guest appearances in The Comic Strip FRI Presents, Sardines, Atletico Partick, The Morwenna Banks FRI Show, Monarch of the Glen, Welcome to Strathmuir, Red Dwarf FRI V and The Old Guys. He has also featured in the Radio 4 FRI comedies Baggage and Mordrin MacDonald - 21st Century Wizard FRI and has appeared on various comedy panel shows including FRI Have I Got News For You and It's Only TV But I Like It. FRI FRI 08:00 Hancock's Half Hour b008v13d (Listen) FRI Series 5, The Sleepless Night FRI The lad tries to get a good night's sleep, but everybody FRI else keeps him awake. Stars Tony Hancock and Sid James. From FRI June 1958. FRI FRI 08:30 The Goon Show b007jmyg (Listen) FRI The Greenslade Story FRI The amazing rise and fall of BBC Home Service announcer FRI Wallace Greenslade. Stars Spike Milligan. From December FRI 1955. FRI FRI 09:00 The 3rd Degree b01d0qth (Listen) FRI Series 2, University of East Anglia FRI Coming this week from the University of East Anglia, "The FRI 3rd Degree" is a funny, lively and dynamic quiz show aimed FRI at cultivating the next generation of Radio 4 listeners FRI whilst delighting the current ones. It's recorded on FRI location at a different University each week, and it pits FRI three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in a FRI genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz. Being FRI a Radio 4 programme, it of course meets the most stringent FRI standards of academic rigour - but with lots of facts and FRI jokes thrown in for good measure. FRI Together with host Steve Punt, the show tours the (sometimes FRI posh, sometimes murky, but always welcoming!) Union FRI buildings, cafes and lecture halls of six universities FRI across the UK. FRI The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General FRI Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the FRI 'Highbrow & Lowbrow' round cunningly devised to test not FRI only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, FRI languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness FRI of television, film, and Lady Gaga... In addition, the FRI Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their FRI Professors in their own subjects, were particularly lively, FRI and offered plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both FRI sides... FRI The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit FRI surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly FRI rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more FRI than just glanced at that reading list... FRI Producer: David Tyler FRI A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 09:30 Mind Your Own Business! b009xyw7 (Listen) FRI The Premature Berth FRI Tycoon Jimmy's lavish new yacht infuriates his head of FRI finance. Stars Bernard Cribbins and Frank Thornton. From FRI January 1988. FRI FRI 10:00 Mystery Theater b06sxbwk (Listen) FRI Sorry, Wrong Number: Agnes Moorehead FRI 4 Extra Debut. 1943: Via crossed phone wires, a woman FRI overhears the plotting of a murder. Agnes Moorehead stars in FRI CBS Radio's suspense series. FRI FRI 10:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06t3wh4 (Listen) FRI Episode 7 FRI Excerpts from the Queen of the Crime's personal tapes FRI dictating her autobiography. Introduced by her grandson, FRI Mathew Prichard. FRI FRI 10:30 Poirot b007ytww (Listen) FRI Murder on the Orient Express, Episode 5 FRI Time is against the Belgian sleuth, as he battles to unmask FRI the murderer's identity. Stars John Moffat and Andre FRI Maranne. FRI FRI 11:00 A Dalmatian Trilogy b01946ws (Listen) FRI Dalmatian Muse FRI Episode 2 (of 3): Dalmatian Muse by James Hopkin FRI Danko lives in a secluded bay on the island. There is a FRI strip of coast-line which he claims represents the whole of FRI life: the island's illegal dumping site; then, further FRI along, an eco-village of simple living and great food and FRI wine; and finally, on the sea itself, the rusting guns of FRI the old military occupation. At night he takes Polyanna out FRI on his boat in search of phosphorescence. FRI James Hopkin has lived and travelled widely in Europe, FRI including time spent on the Dalmatian islands off the coast FRI of Croatia. These three specially-commissioned stories FRI explore the history and landscape of the area, as well as FRI providing a colourful journey for the senses. FRI Hopkin gained a First Class honours degree in English and FRI Philosophy in Manchester, then a Distinction in his MA on FRI modern fiction, followed by a British Academy Award for his FRI PhD. In September 2002, he won an Arts Council short story FRI competition with 'Even the Crows Say Krakow'. FRI His novel Winter Under Water (2007) was an assured and FRI critically-acclaimed debut marking the arrival of a major FRI new writer. He published a small collection of stories in FRI 2008, along with the paperback of Winter Under Water. FRI James Hopkin's A Georgian Trilogy, also produced by Sweet FRI Talk, was broadcast in 2010. FRI Reader: Raquel Cassidy FRI Producer: Jeremy Osborne FRI A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 11:15 Neil Brand - Righteous Brothers b0076cxn (Listen) FRI When a young monk experiments with vocal harmonies, the FRI whole abbey and its order are placed in jeopardy. Stars Tom FRI George and Ioan Meredith. FRI FRI 12:00 Hancock's Half Hour b008v13d (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] FRI FRI 12:30 The Goon Show b007jmyg (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] FRI FRI 13:00 Kipling in Love b06sx9sy (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] FRI FRI 13:30 The Marx Brothers in Britain b00sp198 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today] FRI FRI 14:00 Sir Peter Shaffer - Amadeus b00sjr7d (Listen) FRI Episode 5 FRI Salieri is seething when Mozart writes an Italian opera, so FRI he plots to stop it. Read by F Murray Abraham. FRI FRI 14:15 The History of the Future b01mkzgw (Listen) FRI Leonardo da Vinci FRI Juliet Gardiner continues her History of the Future with a FRI look at the designs of Renaissance Man Leonardo da Vinci. FRI Juliet views his designs for warfare which seem to prefigure FRI the modern tank and helicopter, and tries to understand how FRI the culture of 15th century Florence with its political and FRI religious turmoil as well as artistic flowering spoke to FRI Leonardo's vision of the future. Many of Leonardo's FRI inventions were astonishingly ahead of their time, but he is FRI also a man firmly of his time, a time in which God, and the FRI Revelation of the judgement of the Apocalypse depicted on FRI the roof of the Baptistry would determine the end times for FRI all. Juliet speaks to Evelyn Welch and Martin Kemp. FRI Produced by Victoria Shepherd FRI A Juniper Production for BBC Radio 4. FRI FRI 14:30 William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair b007jvyc (Listen) FRI Episode 15 FRI Becky is delighted to be presented at court, but Rawdon is FRI not happy. With Stephen Fry, Emma Fielding and Stephen FRI Wyatt. FRI FRI 14:45 Miles Kington - Someone Like Me b00dpspz (Listen) FRI Episode 5 FRI A shock at the age of 18 from his sausage-loving father. The FRI much-missed broadcaster recalls his eccentric childhood. FRI FRI 15:00 Mystery Theater b06sxbwk (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today] FRI FRI 15:25 Agatha Christie - Speaking Her Own Words b06t3wh4 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 10:25 today] FRI FRI 15:30 Poirot b007ytww (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 today] FRI FRI 16:00 The 3rd Degree b01d0qth (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today] FRI FRI 16:30 Mind Your Own Business! b009xyw7 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today] FRI FRI 17:00 1834 b01137b8 (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today] FRI FRI 17:30 Stop/Start b01jhjsh (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] FRI FRI 18:00 Jonathan Aycliffe - The Matrix b01nmjxb (Listen) FRI Episode 5 FRI MacLeod witnesses a mysterious ceremony in a former church FRI and meets with his friend's widow. Read by Robert Paterson. FRI FRI 18:15 Book at Bedtime b03xchr6 (Listen) FRI Lynne Truss - Cat Out of Hell, Episode 5 FRI By acclaimed storyteller Lynne Truss, author of the FRI bestselling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the mysterious tale of FRI a cat with nine lives. And a relationship as ancient as time FRI itself and just as powerful. FRI The scene - an isolated cottage on the coast on a stormy FRI evening. Inside, Alec a recently bereaved widower and his FRI dog. To pass the time Alec explores the contents of a folder FRI of documents emailed to him by an acquaintance at the FRI library where he used to work. What he discovers is an FRI extraordinary story that will change his life forever. FRI Episode 5: FRI Whilst Alec waits for Winterton to call, he decides to FRI return to the British Library for the first time since FRI Mary's death. But a terrible shock awaits him. FRI Reader: Mike Grady FRI Abridger: Jeremy Osborne FRI Producer: Karen Rose FRI A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. FRI Credits FRI Reader: Mike Grady FRI Producer: Karen Rose FRI Abridger: Jeremy Osborne FRI Author: Lynne Truss FRI FRI 18:30 Soul Music b0076bpw (Listen) FRI Series 3, Somewhere FRI Exploring what Leonard Bernstein's song from 'West Side FRI Story' means to different people. With Stephen Sondheim. FRI From December 2002. FRI FRI 19:00 Hancock's Half Hour b008v13d (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today] FRI FRI 19:30 The Goon Show b007jmyg (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today] FRI FRI 20:00 Kipling in Love b06sx9sy (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today] FRI FRI 20:30 Brian Friel Season b01r55mt (Listen) FRI Translations FRI Donegal, 1833 - Army mapmakers plan to change the Irish FRI place names to English ones. Stars Dermot Crowley and Samuel FRI Barnett. FRI FRI 22:00 Stop/Start b01jhjsh (Listen) FRI [Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today] FRI FRI 22:30 Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World b007r4mj (Listen) FRI Series 1, Death and the Afterlife FRI The sci-fi star and inventor explains life's big mysteries. FRI Stars Richard Herring, Stewart Lee and Tom Baker. From FRI October 1992. FRI FRI 23:00 The Gobetweenies b01kt6qy (Listen) FRI Series 2, Episode 3 FRI Mark Bonnar and Sarah Alexander star in Marcella Evaristi's FRI comedy of shared parenting. FRI Mimi and Joe are determined to be the best kind of divorced FRI parents, supportive and as good as any traditional set up. FRI Mimi has even salvaged her ex's best suit from the charity FRI shop where it was meanly dumped by Joe's most recent FRI ex-wife. But Joe keeps getting misdirected post from the FRI fetish shop across the road and Mimi cannot keep her prying FRI fingers away from a big fat intriguing parcel. FRI Meanwhile their daughter Lucy has discovered an ethical way FRI of eating that does not involve putting Quorn in her mouth - FRI because her hero Mark Zuckerberg has said eating meat is not FRI immoral if you catch your own dinner. So Lucy is going to FRI steal a chicken. From a back garden in Highgate. It's a FRI brilliant plan, especially since she has told her brother FRI Tom he is saving the chicken bound for a battery farm. FRI But what are all those funny handcuffs doing on her dad's FRI sitting room floor? FRI Director: Marilyn Imrie FRI Producer: Gordon Kennedy FRI An Absolutely Production for BBC Radio 4. FRI Credits FRI Joe: Mark Bonnar FRI Mimi: Sarah Alexander FRI Tom: Finlay Christie FRI Lucy: Phoebe Abbott FRI Jennifer: Emily Bruni FRI Freddie: Oli Dillon FRI Writer: Marcella Evaristi FRI Director: Marilyn Imrie FRI Producer: Gordon Kennedy FRI FRI 23:30 Shappi Talk b00wsr2x (Listen) FRI Series 2, Politics FRI Shappi Khorsandi looks at a variety of subjects close to her FRI Iranian heart - including History, Addiction and, in this FRI programme, Politics. FRI Shappi reveals her thoughts on Margaret Thatcher, how Anne FRI Frank got her into politics and that, while other parents FRI took their children to the zoo, she was taken to Speakers' FRI Corner. FRI She'll be joined by writer and satirist John O'Farrell to FRI discuss how humour and politics are intertwined. Stand-up FRI comedian Ian Stone offers his take on the world of politics FRI and there's a witty song from Duncan Oakley. FRI Producer: Paul Russell FRI An Open Mike production for BBC Radio 4. FRI Credits FRI Presenter: Shappi Khorsandi FRI Interviewed Guest: Ian Stone FRI Interviewed Guest: John O'Farrell FRI Musician: Duncan Oakley FRI Producer: Paul Russell FRI