Programme Information

BBC Radio 1 listeners have the opportunity to vote for the British Breakthrough Act of 2010 at this year's Brits and all the nominees drop by for a chat with Fearne Cotton this week.

This year's nominees are an eclectic collection of the best new British talent – Florence & The Machine, Friendly Fires, JLS, La Roux and Pixie Lott. These acts have all performed in Radio 1's Live Lounge and there will be a chance to hear their tracks again in Fearne's show every day this week.

Listeners can vote online at bbc.co.uk/radio1 from 6-12 February 2010 (voting closes at 7pm on the 12th).

Scott Mills will broadcast live, backstage at the Brits, bringing listeners the best backstage gossip and interviews with the artists, on Thursday 16 February from 4-7pm and online at bbc.co.uk/radio1.

BBC Radio 1 Publicity

To top

Presenters including Edith Bowman, Trevor & Gemma, Dev and Nick Grimshaw go under the spotlight this week as BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra look at the subject of body image as part of the Nobody's Perfect campaign.

The DJs will be photographed and airbrushed to demonstrate how celebrity pictures seen in magazines can be altered – often so much that the results are completely artificial. Images like these can give young people unrealistic body image goals, so the Radio 1 volunteers will be unpicking the picture-perfect process to see what happens behind the scenes.

The altered images of Edith, Trevor & Gemma, Dev, Nick, plus Ace & Vis and Tom Deacon will be revealed on Friday 5 February at bbc.co.uk/radio1.

BBC Radio 1 Publicity

BBC 1Xtra launches a three-week long celebration of the best in British black music talent – past, present and future – which includes a chance for 1Xtra listeners to vote for their HomeGrown Hero; interviews with some of the UK's most talented black music artists and live sessions with both established and emerging artists.

From Monday 8 February, the station will be paying homage to some of the UK's finest black music artists from previous years with a week of special programming, including a Live Lounge with celebrated urban collective So Solid Crew, which airs during Max's show on Tuesday (1-4pm).

Each evening between 10pm and 1am the station's specialist music DJs talk to their own HomeGrown Heroes. They are as follows:

On Monday 8 February there's R&B With Ronnie Herel and a spotlight on Tony Blackburn – the man who first played black music on Radio 1; on Tuesday 9 February UKG With Cameo and Sticky, a veteran UKG producer, are featured; D&B with Bailey and Slammin Vinyl – promoters of seminal D&B rave – are on the list for Wednesday 10 February; while Thursday 11 February includes Dancehall with Robbo Ranx and legendary UK reggae producer Jazzwad; finally on Friday 12 February there's hip-hop With DJ Semtex and classic foundation UK hip-hop group Hijack.

1Xtra listeners also have the opportunity to vote for their HomeGrown Hero in an online poll, from a shortlist selected by Radio 1 and 1Xtra DJs including Ras Kwame, DJ Semtex, Zane Lowe and Mistajam. The result is revealed on Sunday 28 February during the 100% HomeGrown Show on 1Xtra.

Producer/Rebecca Frank

BBC 1Xtra Publicity

Ken Bruce is joined by The Flying Scot, former racing-car driver Sir Jackie Stewart, who picks his Tracks Of My Years. His choices include music by ELO, Robbie Williams, Eric Clapton and Supertramp.

There's also the Popmaster music quiz, the Record Of The Week and Album Of The Week.

Presenter/Ken Bruce, Producer/Phil Jones

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

To top

The Ocean Ep 1/4

Monday 8 February

11.30pm-12.00midnight BBC RADIO 2 (Copy updated 25 January)

Musician Richard Hawley

Musician Richard Hawley investigates the way seafaring culture has influenced British music, literature, poetry and art, with a six-day tour of the coast from Cornwall to Aberdeen.

Throughout the series, Richard visits Devon, Liverpool, Robin Hood's Bay, Filey, Glasgow and Aberdeen, and explores a number of themes including work songs, piracy, religion, mysticism, emigration, transportation, shipwrecks and safety at sea.

The four-part series includes contributions from historians, folklorists, musicians and writers, including Belle And Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, Soft Machine's Robert Wyatt, Simon Armitage, The Filey Fisherman's Choir and folk musicians Norma and Mike Waterson.

Programme one looks at the sea as a great trafficker of people and the songs and stories written about people leaving and visiting the UK. Richard finds out how the tradition of writing about emigration and immigration has developed over time.

The Clearances in Scotland, the potato famine in Ireland, the collapse of the tin mining industry in southwest England and government strategies to populate areas in Newfoundland through transportation have each led to the mass exodus of people from the UK to unknown territories on the other side of the world. In days when conditions on board ship were poor and sea travel was incredibly dangerous, the trauma of emigration produced a rich tradition of folk songs written by those who faced life in a foreign land, and those who were left behind.

Richard visits the prison museum in Aberdeen, where children were captured before being shipped to British colonies abroad. On a guided tour of Falmouth in Cornwall he hears how people travelled in timber ships sailing to North America.

Today, with air travel and advancements of modern technology, there are fewer artists writing with first-hand experience of sailing to the other side of the world and leaving their families behind forever. Richard discovers how the concept of sea travel still inspires contemporary British artists, albeit metaphorically instead of literally.

The first programme of the series includes contributions from The Watersons in Robin Hood's Bay near Whitby, Stuart Murdoch in Glasgow, Aberdeen’s city council historian, a shanty choir in Devon and poet Simon Armitage.

Presenter/Richard Hawley, Producer/Elizabeth Alker

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

World-famous Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim

Performance On 3 continues its broadcasts of Daniel Barenboim's sold-out Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle with his Berlin Staatskapelle at London's Southbank Centre. Tonight, they perform Beethoven's Third Concerto coupled with Schoenberg's Variations For Orchestra.

Beethoven's Third Concerto, written around 1803, is a far more ambitious work than its predecessors, and with its minor key it brings out the more turbulent side of the composer's personality. It took him several years to complete and even at the première – according to his page-turner – there were still incomplete passages which he improvised.

Like Beethoven, Schoenberg was concerned with the transformation of musical material and in his Op 31 Variations For Orchestra he creates a piece which, although it may have an unfamiliar musical language, still has an underlying structure which Beethoven and his contemporaries would have recognised.

As part of the concert, Barenboim also gives an illustrated talk about the work.

Presenter/Catherine Bott, Producer/Brian Jackson

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

To top

In this week's The Essay author and critic Michael Bracewell, dreaming about a visitation by the legendary musician Brian Eno, is informed that "Germany is your America", and that he should get out there and explore the place.

Following much speculation about all things German, after visits to Cologne, Munich and Berlin, and after immersing himself in the music and art of the country (especially electronic music and postmodern art), Bracewell is ready to pronounce on his romantic and prejudicial responses to the country. There is also its food to consider and its youthful fashions.

Presenter/Michael Bracewell, Producer/Duncan Minshull

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Neil MacGregor, continues his re-telling of human history using 100 objects from the British Museum. This week's broad theme traces the beginnings of science and literature from 1500-700 BC in emerging city states around the world.

The development of the first cities had profound consequences; they helped create the right conditions for the world's first written literature and the development of mathematics and scientific knowledge. Developing populations controlled by ambitious new rulers in expanding territories also led to increased warfare and conflict.

In today's programme, Neil introduces listeners to the British Museum's provocative Flood Tablet – a small clay tablet discovered in modern Iraq and brought back to the British Museum. When it was translated in 1872, it turned out to be an account of a great flood that significantly pre-dated the famous Biblical tale of Noah. This discovery caused a storm around the world and led to a passionate debate about the truth of the Bible – about storytelling and the universality of legend.

Presenter/Neil MacGregor, Producer/Anthony Denselow

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

To top

Woman's Hour Drama – Writing The Century Ep 1/5

Monday 8 to Friday 12 February

10.45-11.00am BBC RADIO 4

Writing The Century explores the 20th century through the diaries and correspondence of real people. This week's series looks at 1966-1969: Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad/True To My Land.

The Sixties were a time of student unrest around the globe and Wales was not immune. For many years, Welsh identity had been under threat but the political climate was changing and the Welsh were beginning to question their place in the world.

In 1966, Sharon Morgan was a schoolgirl about to go to Cardiff University to study history. Sir Glanmor Williams was an eminent historian, a member of both the BBC Board of Governors and the Broadcasting Council for Wales. Despite their differences, in age as well as temperament, the student activist and the establishment figure shared the same passion – for Wales and the Welsh language.

Dramatised by Tina Pepler from documents at the National Library of Wales, listeners are taken through these turbulent years as a nation begins to reassert itself.

The cast features William Thomas as Glanmor; Helen Griffin as Fay; Elin Phillips as Sharon; Sharon Morgan as Mami; Anya Murphy as Gwen; Dewi Rhys Williams as Iwan; Richard Mitchley as John Rowley; Richard Nichols as George Cook; Liam James as Gareth; Sam Jones as Rhys; Scott Arthur as Dewi; Gareth Williams as Mike; and Catrin Stewart as Janet.

Producer/Kate McAll

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

To top

Archaeologist and broadcaster Mike Pitts explores why archaeologists can dig and study the same sites, yet reach vastly different conclusions.

In the first of a two-part series, Mike focuses on Maiden Castle, a spectacular massive earthwork in the Dorset countryside.

Throughout history, Maiden Castle has been a target for excavations but two specific digs have polarised opinions. Firstly, there was Mortimer Wheeler, who dug there with a small army of people in the Thirties, then Niall Sharples, who took a much smaller team back in the Eighties. They came up with rival theories of what Maiden Castle was all about. Wheeler's view was that native Britons were falling under the yoke of the efficient military machine of invading Romans. Sharples, on the other hand, thought Maiden Castle's impressive defences were not about war but ritual and prestige, and the fort was felled not by Roman ballista bolts but by a changing economy.

As well as visiting the site, Mike talks to people involved in both digs – including Beatrice de Cardi, now in her nineties, who was a rookie archaeologist on the Wheeler dig. The programme also hears from Niall Sharples himself, and Peter Woodward, who curates the finds from Maiden Castle at the Dorset County Museum.

Mike brings the digs to life through rare archive recordings, newspaper cuttings, diaries, memoirs and letters.

Presenter/Mike Pitts, Producer/Sian Price

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

To top

Quote ... Unquote Ep 1/6

Monday 8 February

1.30-2.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Quote ... Unquote, the quotations quiz presented by Nigel Rees, returns for a new series.

As ever, a host of celebrities will be joining Nigel as he quizzes them on the sources of a range of quotations and asks them for the amusing sayings or citations they have personally collected on a variety of subjects.

Presenter/Nigel Rees, Producer/Sam Bryant

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

To top

Written by Ian Kershaw Raft To Bondi is a bitter-sweet comedy about loss.

It is July 1990 and everyone is Nessun dorma crazy because England are in the semi-final of the World Cup. Everyone that is, except 15-year-old Jimmy, who's never really liked football – he can't get worked up about men kicking a ball around. He's surprised his dad has taken an interest as he's never even been to a football match.

Jimmy is really sad – so is his dad – but they don't talk. Then Jimmy meets a young, loud lass called Carol, who is building a raft to take her along the Rochdale canal and then out to Australia to see her own dad. Jimmy thinks she's daft but she's great fun and he pretends to go along with it.

Meanwhile, when Jimmy's dad goes to the pub to watch the match, unbeknown to him, he meets Carol's "mam", Kath. She's inebriated and gets them thrown out so they watch the match at his house. But when Kath wants more than friendship he firmly resists. He can't – not yet.

On the canal things come to a head when the raft sinks and Jimmy loses the photo of his mother. He is distraught – the reason for his sadness is her recent death.

When Jimmy gets back home his dad is visibly moved by Gazza's tears on the football pitch. At last, he and Jimmy can express their emotions to each other and finally acknowledge their loss.

Stephen Hoyle plays Jimmy, with Shannon Flynn as Carol, Mark Jordan as Dad and Naomi Radcliffe as Kath.

Producer/Gary Brown

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

To top

Tom Heap explores the cost of delivery goods in this week's Costing The Earth.

According to Freight On Rail, road freight now accounts for eight per cent of UK carbon, while congestion is claimed to cost business £17bn a year. With UK rail lines already feeling the strain, Tom finds out whether rail freight is the answer.

Aviation is commonly seen as the climate change villain but the transport of freight by road and ship is often ignored. Tom investigates just how much pollution is being shifted needlessly by hitching a lift with a 25-year-old Londoner who was named the UK's Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009. His business, Shiply.com, ships people's belongings. The business has been going for just over a year and has already saved over 1.6m kg of CO2 by making use of spare capacities.

On a larger scale, Eddie Stobart is one of Britain's best-known hauliers. The company recently made moves into rail freight but questions remain over just how many deliveries can be made by rail and whether the freight industry as a whole is really facing up to the problem of how to decarbonise transport.

Presenter/Tom Heap, Producer/Helen Lennard

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

To top

Capturing America Readings Ep 1/5

Monday 8 to Friday 12 February

10.45-11.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Mark Lawson has selected short pieces by five American authors for this week's Book At Bedtime and introduces each one as part of BBC Radio 4's Capturing America series.

Today's reading presents selections from the diaries of Tennessee Williams which give a tantalising glimpse into the character and frail ego of the renowned playwright. The apprehension that he felt about being accepted – either by lovers or by the literati – reveals the fragile character underneath the bravura and wit. It is read by Paul Birchard.

On Tuesday, Norman Mailer's short story Our Man At Harvard recalls the fraternal shenanigans at the offices of The Harvard Undergraduate Journal, The Advocate. Sophomore students eagerly submit their pieces to the new editor but dark forces are at play, and the promised attendance of Somerset Maugham distracts the young hopefuls from the deception of office politics.

On Wednesday, two friends chew the fat over dinner in Lorrie Moore's sharp story Starving Again. Mave is an acerbic middle-aged New Yorker mopping up the fall-out from her friend, Dennis's, recent marriage break-up.

Thursday presents John Updike's The Astronomer, which pinpoints a seemingly ordinary occasion, yet a moment in time when someone's entire belief system is questioned. Kierkegaard-obsessive Walter and his wife, Harriet, are the somewhat-reluctant hosts of a dinner party in their Manhattan home.

Friday's reading is still to be confirmed, as are the readers for Tuesday to Friday's stories.

Presenter/Mark Lawson, Producer/Sarah Langan

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

To top

The final programme of Stephen Sackur's two-part series for BBC Radio 4 continues to explore a crucial, but often-hidden, revolution in the way we are fighting wars. Sackur looks at the increased use of robots on the ground in military operations and some of the extraordinary ambitions of those preparing for a much more robotic future, in which it is claimed robots will feed themselves as they move, select their own targets and be programmed to behave ethically.

Presenter/Stephen Sackur, Producer/Chris Bowlby

BBC News Publicity

Mark Chapman joins the BBC Radio 5 Live Sport team full-time as the new Monday night host. Mark has all the day's sports news and is joined by special guests for the Monday Night Club to discuss the latest big issues in football.

From 9.30pm, Mark is joined by Mark Clemmit for 5 Live Football League, with all the news and reaction from the Championship and Leagues One and Two.

Presenter/Mark Chapman, Producer/Ben North

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Jagz Kooner is a UK-born producer who has worked with Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Garbage and Infadels. He has created remixes for Massive Attack, Rammstein, Siobhan Fahey, Ladytron, Adam Freeland, dEUS, Kasabian and more recently Reverend And The Makers.

Jagz also has tinnitus, which he discusses with Nemone on the show as part of this week's National Tinnitus Week.

Presenter/Nemone, Producer/Jax Coombes

BBC 6 Music Publicity

To top

Fanfarlo join Marc Riley as today's live studio band.

Formed in 2006 by the Swedish musician Simon Balthazar, the London-based band make extensive use of trumpet, violin and mandolin as well as more commonplace instruments such as guitars and drums.

Their debut album, Reservoir, recorded in October/November 2008 in the US, was produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol). The album was released in February 2009.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

To top

Gideon Coe presents Faithless in concert from 2003 and archive session tracks from Eighties Scouse dream-poppers the Lotus Eaters, London chill-jazzer Neil Cowley and 2010 hot prospect (and Marc Riley favourite) Jesca Hoop.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Frank Wilson

BBC 6 Music Publicity

Sonia Deol returns to the BBC Asian Network to present a new weekday morning slot. The lifestyle magazine show features a variety of topics, discussing everyday lives across the Asian community. Packed with special guests and celebrity interviews, Sonia gives listeners the low-down on everything from food to beauty and much more.

BBC Asian Network Publicity

To top

Jodie is stressed as everything is going wrong for her, in the week's first visit to Silver Street. Sway isn't feeling great either but being out of work isn't the only thing keeping him indoors.

Simran, meanwhile, plays agony aunt for Jodie. Later it seems Jodie isn't the only one who needs a sympathetic ear.

Khatija gets back and the first thing she wants is an answer as to why Nadia tried to commit suicide. She then shocks Nadia with a confession of her own...

Jodie is played by Vineeta Rishi, Sway by Nicholas Bailey, Simran by Balvinder Sopal, Khatija by Miriam Ali and Nadia by Sohm Kapila.

BBC Asian Network Publicity