Programme Information

Film critic and broadcaster Mark Kermode, who presents a review programme with BBC Radio 2's Drivetime host, Simon Mayo, every Friday afternoon on BBC Radio 5 Live, joins Aled Jones this Sunday morning.

Writer Peter Stanford discusses the sacred sites in Britain that have inspired pilgrimages for hundreds of years, looks at the week's news from a faith perspective and also gives the Moment Of Reflection.

Presenter/Aled Jones, Producer/Hilary Robinson

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

To top

Otis Williams from The Temptations and Duke Fakir from The Four Tops discuss their respective careers in the Seventies this week.

Presenter/Johnnie Walker, Producer/Natasha Costa Correa

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

To top

Brian D'Arcy continues his reflections on life in the wilderness and, this week, takes time for contemplation, in the second in his series of programmes for the season of Lent.

Through music and prayer, he explores ways in which to seek and to know God more. This week's featured choir are the choristers of Jesus College Cambridge, directed by Simon Lole. The organist is Tim Lambourn. Hymns include Immortal Love Forever Full, I Lift My Eyes and All I Once Held Dear.

Presenter/Brian D'Arcy, Producer/Janet McLarty

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

League Of Gentlemen writer and actor Mark Gatiss

Actor and writer Mark Gatiss, who is perhaps best known as one of the team that created the award-winning comedy series The League Of Gentlemen, shares his Private Passions with Michael Berkeley this week.

Mark has also written for, and acted in, Doctor Who; appeared in the macabre BBC Three sitcom Nighty Night, with Julia Davis; featured as Ratty in The Wind In The Willows; and written, acted in and co-produced the three-part ghost story Crooked House, broadcast on BBC Four in 2008. He is currently filming a new version of Sherlock Holmes.

Mark's musical choices range from the Liebestod, from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, to an extract from Purcell's King Arthur and So In Love from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate.

Presenter/Michael Berkeley, Producer/Chris Marshall

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

Maggie talks to Kirsty about her life, her career and her favourite music and describes how she would cope on BBC Radio 4's mythical desert island.

Presenter/Kirsty Young, Producer/Leanne Buckle

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

To top

It seems Britain is in the grip of snowdrop mania. Kerry Ten Kate looks into the passions, the jealousies and the murky underworld of snowdrop collecting among the enthusiasts who have a big obsession with the small plant.

Last year a single snowdrop bulb was auctioned for more than £150. But even that price is worth paying for the growing band of galanthophiles who are caught up in the contemporary similar to that of 17th-century Holland's tulip mania.

The term "galanthophile" was coined in the early 1900s by a snowdrop obsessive called Edward Bowles and, a century later, the phenomenon is still going strong. Kerry meets one of Britain's leading galanthophiles, Joe Sharman, known as "The Pope of Snowdrops". At his 2010 snowdrop auction, Kerry asks him what it is about this tiny flower that creates such big passions.

Kerry also meets the enthusiasts who flock to Joe's gala and auction to bid for some of the rarest of the 700 varieties of snowdrop. She discovers the code of secrecy and trust among collectors who guard the rarest varieties and asks how a collector can be sure that the little bulb they've bought is actually the rarity they've been promised.

But, as the popularity and price of snowdrops rise, there's been a worrying upsurge in thefts of one of Britain's favorite wild flowers. Kerry also discovers how snowdrops are now being stolen to order.

Presenter/Kerry Ten Kate, Producer/Gwenan Pennant Jones

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

To top

The cast of Of Mice And Men: David Tennant, Jude Akuwudike, Richard Madden, Liam Brennan, Neil McKinven, Christopher Fairbank

David Tennant and Liam Brennan star in Donna Franceschild's dramatisation of John Steinbeck's seminal novel about migrant workers in Thirties California, whose dream of one day owning a place of their own is tragically destroyed.

Of Mice And Men explores the friendship between George Milton and Lennie Small via the last three days in Lennie's life.

On the run from a town where Lennie has been accused of rape, they pick up new jobs on a ranch further north – a place where the boss has recently married a flirtatious young woman.

She's trouble, however, and George knows it, so he warns Lennie about the woman. They dream about a better life – a life they think is just around the corner. The boss's wife then finds Lennie alone in the barn and their dream is ripped apart.

David Tennant stars as George Milton and Liam Brennan as Lennie Small. The cast also features Jude Akuwudike as Carlson/Crooks; Christopher Fairbank as Candy; Melody Grove as Curley's wife; Neil McKinven as Slim; and Richard Madden as Curley.

Producer/Kirsty Williams

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

To top

James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to Douglas Coupland about his worldwide best-selling novel that defined a generation – Generation X – in this week's edition of Book Club.

In the early Nineties, Canadian writer Coupland's first novel was a worldwide success. Set in a time of yuppies and youth unemployment, the characters in Generation X are in their late twenties. They're all highly educated but have no ambition. They live in poor housing on the edge of the Californian desert and work in bars and tell each other stories. Generation X presents a society that has lost the certainties and solidities of the world the characters' parents had grown up in.

Douglas tells Book Club most movingly – and with insight of how a writer works – of the origin of Generation X and describes how, as a young man, he found his way as a writer. Preparing for the recording, he found it painful to return to his first novel and to re-read it. He was reminded of a time when he, too, was lost and miserable. Coupland's literary career bloomed after this novel and he went on to write the Microserfs and All Families Are Psychotic.

Presenter/James Naughtie, Producer/Dymphna Flynn

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Sunday 7 March

12.00noon-6.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Colin Murray presents the latest sports news and reaction to yesterday's FA Cup quarter-final results.

Listeners can hear live FA Cup quarter-final commentary and there are updates from the day's other games.

Presenter/Colin Murray, Producer/Adrian Williams

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

It's Jon Richardson's final show on BBC 6 music before he leaves the station to concentrate on his already successful career as a stand-up comedian.

Jon invites old friends back to send him off in style and hears listener's good deeds of the week, while Fordy gives his last marathon training update to the nation.

Presenter/Jon Richardson, Producer/Adam Hudson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

To top

New York singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant talks The Music Week through her first studio album in seven years – a collection of songs adapted from the work of various classic and contemporary poets including Charles Causley, Robert Graves and Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Also, as previously unreleased Jimi Hendrix material hits the shops, Julie Cullen and Matt Everitt look back at the iconic guitarist's work.

Presenters/Julie Cullen and Matt Everitt, Producer/Tom Green

BBC 6 Music Publicity

To top

In his now critically acclaimed show, Jarvis Cocker shares his eclectic record collection and invites listeners to plug the gaps in his musical knowledge in the regular feature, Are They Any Good?.

Presenter/Jarvis Cocker, Producer/Alicia Brown

BBC 6 Music Publicity