Programme Information

Desmond Carrington goes through his collection of 250,000 titles to share some good tunes, some unexpected ones and a few that listeners may have never heard before.

This week's theme is Rodgers And Hart, as Desmond celebrates the songwriting partnership behind Blue Moon and other hits.

Presenter/Desmond Carrington, Producer/Dave Aylott

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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The Single Story Ep 1/4

Tuesday 10 March

11.30pm-12.00midnight BBC RADIO 2

Sixty years ago this year, RCA Victor launched a small, round, plastic and – weirdly – green disc on the listening public, which heralded a revolution in popular music. Following his BBC Radio 2 series on the story of the LP in December, David Quantick now charts our 60-year love affair with the 45 rpm single.

Initially the result of what might now be called an "audio format war" between record companies, the single was always aimed at the younger generation while the LP originally catered for a middle-aged, middle-class, well-heeled audience. The vinyl single launched rock 'n' roll, pop and the teenager on the world and provided a lynchpin for Western popular culture.

David looks at the extraordinary impact the single has had on the way music has been listened to for the last 60 years and examines one of the most important revolutions in the modern music business.

In the first programme he looks at the war of the speeds and the early glory days of the vinyl single, which pitted stars like Judy Garland against Frank Sinatra, then brought us Elvis and Bill Haley. All this set against a brave new world of cheap "portable" record players, exotic new vinyl juke boxes and the birth of the singles charts.

Contributors include Tom Jones; actor Martin Freeman; Myleene Klass; songwriter Diane Warren; musician Soweto Kinch; Bob Stanley from Saint Etienne; Michael Bradley from The Undertones; the Reverend Run; DJ Cosmo; Pete Shelley from The Buzzcocks; Pete Waterman; Mike Read; David Jensen; Johnnie Walker; Bob Harris; and Neil Fox.

Presenter/David Quantick, Producers/Frank Stirling and Anna Harrison

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Continuing the survey of Ligeti's works, today's Composer Of The Week offering focuses on his chamber music. It includes an extract from the composer's String Quartet No. 2, in which the composer said he had sought to write music the way Cézanne painted; his magnificent Chamber Concerto, in which all 13 players are soloists; and the controversial Horn Trio, written in "homage" to Brahms.

Presenter/Donald Macleod, Producer/Chris Barstow

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Call Yourself A Feminist Ep 1/3

Tuesday 10 March

9.00-9.30am BBC RADIO 4

Bettany Hughes presents the first of three themed discussion programmes for a new series, Call Yourself A Feminist.

Sonia Pressman Fuentes, Ann Leslie, Elaine Showalter and Sally Alexander join Bettany this week to discuss the founding of feminist groups in the Sixties in the UK and US.

Sonia was a founder of NOW (National Organisation for Women), WEAL (the Women's Equity Action League) and FEW (Federally Employed Women) and the first woman attorney in the General Counsel's Office at the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

Ann was a female pioneer who was never seen as a feminist icon. She became foreign correspondent for the Daily Mail in the late Sixties but, despite having a successful career, Ann was still unable to get a mortgage in her own name – even in 1970 – as women needed the signature of a male guarantor to secure a mortgage.

Elaine is an American literary critic, feminist and writer on cultural and social issues. She is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, developing the concept and practice of "gynocritics".

Sally is Professor of Modern History at Goldsmiths College. Her research focuses on the history of social movements, feminism in particular. In 1970, Sally was part of her local Women's Liberation Movement group and took part in protests against the Miss World contest and was arrested for her efforts.

Presenter/Bettany Hughes, Producers/Robyn Read and Debbie Kilbride

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Comedian, actor and poet Chris Addison abbreviates the route from 18th-century literary culture to our brave new digital world.

Chris explores the expressive elements of text language via the insights of authors Ian Rankin and Will Self, with some of Britain's most distinguished academics and some everyday thumb-of-the-mill "texters".

Considering the current debates surrounding text language and the paradoxical debates about language that arose during the latter half of the 18th century, Chris looks at how texting can be seen to echo a ludic art-form that became popular in the Romantic era.

He asks how texting can help to define individual identity in a multi-media world and how it may actually help to improve literacy, enhance poetic use of language and preserve unique accents and dialects.

Of course Chris considers there are counter-creative arguments, including the frustrations that "predictive text" creates. Poet Scott Tyrell offers listeners the aural treat of a Rudyard Kipling classic filtered through the medium of the mobile phone predictive text function.

This programme takes the chance to sound out contrasts and parallels between the cultures, time periods and technologies in question, whilst simultaneously exploring how the creative use of language could be uniting the bus stops and playgrounds of modern Britain with the desks and quills of literary giants.

Presenter/Chris Addison, Producer/Sally Harrison

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Ken Clarke's Jazz Greats Ep 1/4

Tuesday 10 March

1.30-2.00pm BBC RADIO 4

In his seventh series of Jazz Greats for BBC Radio 4, Ken Clarke shares his enthusiasm for some of the great names in jazz.

The subject of today's programme is one of the founding fathers of the bebop jazz movement, Charlie Parker. A player of breathtaking virtuosity and musicality, Parker was brought up in Twenties and Thirties Kansas City which, as a commercial cross roads of the American mid-West, attracted the great bands and musicians of the era.

Outgrowing the dance bands of his home town, he moved to New York where he came to the attention of trumpeter Dizzie Gillespie and those pushing the boundaries of jazz into a style that became known as bebop. However, Parker's career and life was blighted by heroin addiction which killed him at the age of 34.

Ken is joined by British alto-sax player Soweto Kinch to talk about the man whose musical gene must surely run through every saxophonist. Other artists to be featured in this series include pianist Fats Waller; clarinettist and band leader Benny Goodman; and vibraphone player Milt Jackson.

Presenter/Ken Clarke, Producer/Paul Evans

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Anaesthesia is a docu-drama written by biographer Richard Holmes about the true story of Humphrey Davy's discovery and subsequent addiction to laughing gas in Bristol, 1800.

At the Bristol Pneumatic Institute, Davy lodges with his boss, the eccentric radical Thomas Beddoes (short, fat and asthmatic) and his boss's wife, Anna, who ends up falling for him.

The anaesthetic strengths of laughing gas were discovered in Davy's sessions but were then overlooked because those taking part were rendered so incapable by the powers of the gas. Their guinea pigs included the famous poet Coleridge and Roget of the Thesaurus, who was lost for words when it came to describing the effect of the drug.

This compelling story features experiments going wrong, crazy inventors, rival inventors and would-be upright citizens tripping through 18th-century Bristol.

Cast details to be confirmed.

Producer/Tim Dee

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Abroad Ep 1/3

Tuesday 10 to Thursday 12 March

3.30-3.45pm BBC RADIO 4

Abroad presents three edgy tales of people on holiday, by Bafta-nominated writer and director Virginia Gilbert, and read by Philip Jackson, Sorcha Cusack and Brian Gilbert.

Beautifully observed and unpredictable, Virginia pinpoints that slightly uncomfortable holiday feeling – with too much time on one's hands you suddenly see yourself, or your nearest and dearest, in quite a different light.

The first tale, Hesitation, is about a man on holiday with his wife who is tested to the limit with the tantrums of a young boy he just can't help being annoyed by. When the boy gets into difficulties in the pool one evening, the man's hesitancy to help the boy forces his wife to look at him in a new light.

Wednesday's story, Sisters, is about two sisters on holiday. Older sister May gradually recognises the truth of her standing with her younger sister.

The Conversation is the final story on Thursday about a husband and wife on holiday. Disturbed from his sleep by a couple talking loudly in the next room, the man listens into their conversation which gives him pause for thought. But his wife is uninterested and wrapped up in her own needs.

Producer/John Simpson

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Next month the Royal Military Police (RMP) will come under judicial scrutiny after concerns about the quality and independence of their investigations into civilian deaths in Iraq.

Defence lawyers, court martial judges and a former attorney general have all criticised the RMP for flaws in the way they have investigated cases and have questioned whether they have the resources and experience to carry out such inquiries.

But it is not just the military police's record during operations which is under the spotlight. File On 4 has uncovered other cases which raise concern about how the military police follow the process of law in peacetime including destroying and failing to disclose vital evidence which has led to the dropping of serious criminal charges against soldiers.

Some lawyers now argue that responsibility for investigating alleged serious crimes should be handed over to the civilian police and army personnel given the opportunity to choose trial by jury in a civilian court.

This edition of File On 4 will be repeated on Sunday 15 March at 5pm.

Reporter/Simon Cox, Producer/Paul Grant

BBC News Publicity

The Cheltenham Festival

Tuesday 10 to Friday 13 March

1.00-4.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

John Inverdale presents live coverage of the opening day of the 2009 Cheltenham Festival, the biggest week in the National Hunt racing calendar.

One of the most successful jump jockeys of all time, and former Grand National and Gold Cup winner, Mick Fitzgerald, will provide an indispensible guide to the day's racing alongside multiple champion jockey Peter Scudamore, BBC Radio 5 Live's racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght and Clare Balding. Comedian Kevin Day will be out and about among the crowds, getting their reaction to the day's events and giving his own insight into the day's proceedings.

John Hunt and Luke Harvey will provide commentary for all the big races of the day, including the Champion Hurdle.

Presenter/John Inverdale, Producer/Steve Rudge

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

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5 Live Sport

Tuesday 10 March

7.00-10.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Saggers presents all the day's sports news including all the action from the first day of the Cheltenham Festival.

From 7.45pm there's live coverage of the first knockout round second-leg Uefa Champion's League ties between Juventus and Chelsea and Liverpool versus Real Madrid.

Presenter/Mark Saggers, Producer/Adrian Williams

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Test Match Special

Tuesday 10 March

1.45-9.30pm BBC 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary of the fifth and final day's play in the Fifth Test between the West Indies and England comes live from the Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad, with the Test Match Special commentary team of Jonathan Agnew, Tony Cozier and Christopher Martin-Jenkins. Vic Marks, Geoffrey Boycott and Sir Vivian Richards are on hand as expert summarisers.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp have announced the release of their third studio album, Junior, set for release at the end of March. Röyksopp chat to Nemone about the making of the album and what life in their home town, Bergen, is like.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Former "Bunnyman" Ian McCulloch performs a live set at Leicester's Summer Sundae festival, in tonight's programme and Gideon Coe also revisits The Specials, sounding very relevant, live, in session for John Peel in 1980.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Rozena is fed up with Kenny's excuses for the team's poor performance on the pitch, as the Asian drama continues. Kenny turns to Mushtaq for help but he is preoccupied with internet shopping. It's obvious Mushtaq is buying for a female, but who?

Elsewhere, Rozena has moved on to interfering in the running of one of the other businesses, while Nadia persuades Sway to talk to Kuljit about working at the recording studio. Sway isn't against the idea but has some doubts...

Rozena is played by Pooja Ghai; Kenny by Brian Croucher; Mushtaq by Paul Bhattacharjee; Nadia by Sheena Bhattessa; Sway by Mark Monero; and Kuljit by Sartaj Garewal.

BBC Asian Network Publicity