Programme Information

Bob Harris is joined in session with country duo Laura and Lydia Rogers, otherwise known as The Secret Sisters.

The two sisters' debut album was co-produced by American producer T Bone Burnett. The album was recorded in Nashville's Blackbird studios using authentic Fifties equipment, including vintage microphones and analogue tape. No computers or digital equipment were even allowed near the sessions. The result is a mixture of country, folk and classic pop, with sibling harmonies that have been compared to The Everly Brothers.

From a family with a deep musical history, who honed their singing talents in their local church, Laura and Lydia were spotted by a Nashville producer at an open audition in 2009. In a matter of days, the girls were flown to Los Angeles to record some demos and within weeks they had a record deal.

In tonight's show, The Secret Sisters perform tracks from their new self-titled album which was released in the UK last month.

Presenter/Bob Harris, Producer/Al Booth for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Frank Renton presents the Whitburn Band playing music especially recorded for the programme, including Funiculi Funicula, My Funny Valentine and the Stevie Wonder hit You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.

Presenter/Frank Renton, Producer/Terry Carter for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

Acclaimed conductor and pianist Antonio Pappano

From the Cadogan Hall in London, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House under Music Director Antonio Pappano present a concert offering rare insights into the music of Mahler and Wagner. However, it's Pappano the pianist who opens the concert, when he directs Mahler's Piano Quartet in A minor – the composer's only chamber work – which was written when the composer was just 16 years old. Wagner's Siegfried Idyll was an intimate and passionate gift to his wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son, with the musicians famously standing on the stairs of the Wagner house to serenade Cosima and her baby.

The programme ends with Mahler's Das lied von der Erde – as seen through the eyes of Schoenberg, who made a delightful chamber version of this monumental cycle of songs. It is performed tonight by soloists tenor Klaus Florian Vogt and baritone Thomas Hampson.

Another instalment of a recital given by soprano Amanda Roocroft, accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau, follows as part of the Wigmore Hall's 100 Years of German Song series. Liszt, Cornelius, Jensen, Bruch and Brahms are the composers featured throughout the week as the cycle reaches the 1860-1870 decade.

Presenter/Martin Handley, Producer/Juan Carlos Jaramillo

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

A huge and iconic stained glass window hangs in a church in the US state of Alabama, paid for by the people of Wales, after the church was destroyed by bombers in 1963, killing four little girls.

Gary Younge tells the story of what links the people of Wales with one of the worst atrocities of the American Civil Rights movement.

In 1963, racist bombers blew up the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The murder of children marked another low in the violent resistance to civil rights.

News of the bombing was broadcast worldwide. Welsh sculptor John Petts heard about it on the radio as he worked in his studio and wanted to do something to help. He contacted a local newspaper and a campaign was launched to raise money to help rebuild the devastated church. No one was allowed to give more than half a crown – to ensure that no rich benefactor could take credit for the money raised. There were reports of children, black and white, queuing up in Cardiff to donate their pocket money.

Tens of thousands of people contributed to the fund. With the money that was raised, Petts was commissioned to create a new stained-glass window for the church. Grand in scale, it depicted the crucified Christ as a black man.

The window is now a focus of worship and has become one of the most famous pieces of art to come out of the darkness of the civil rights period. At its foot is a simple message: "Given by the people of Wales".

Presenter/Gary Younge, Producer/Nicola Swords for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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A Sleepwalk On The Severn by award-winning poet Alice Oswald is an evocation of the experience of moonrise over the Severn Estuary.

Its subject is moonrise, which happens five times in different forms: new moon; half moon; full moon; no moon; and moon reborn. Various characters – some living and some dead but all based on real people from the Severn catchment – talk in the moments leading up to moonrise.

Set to original music by Roger Goula and performed by the Raven Quartet and Rowland Sutherland, the piece is performed by Ron Cook, Sam Dale, Emma Fielding, Tom Goodman-Hill, James Laurenson and Helen Longworth.

Producer/Gaynor Macfarlane for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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So Wrong It's Right Ep 1/6

Thursday 10 March

6.30-7.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Charlie Brooker hosts the comedy panel show that celebrates glorious failure – with a team of three top comedians competing to supply the best "wrong" answers and stories.

In this game of competitive ineptitude, the aim is for the guest panellists to come up with the "wrongest" answer to each question.

Presenter/Charlie Brooker, Producer/Aled Evans for Zeppotron Ltd

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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The reliability of fingerprint evidence is called into question in Fingerprints On Trial.

Fingerprints have long been "gold standard" evidence. But critics claim that high-profile errors, where the experts simply got it wrong, mean urgent reform is needed.

Claudia Hammond investigates whether fingerprint evidence can still be trusted. She hears from those whose prints were identified in error and about the trauma of facing jail for a crime they did not commit.

When American lawyer Brandon Mayfield was imprisoned after the Madrid train bombings, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was "100 per cent certain" that his fingerprints were at the scene. Fingerprint examiners, one after the other, agreed with the identification and maintained that the prints were Mr Mayfield's. But, when the Spanish police arrested the real culprit, the FBI had to admit that it had made a terrible mistake.

Claudia talks to the critics who claim that the procedures and methods in this branch of forensic science are unverifiable and that its personnel are complacent about the need for change. And she speaks to those working within the fingerprint community, who acknowledge that the most difficult-to-read fingerprint matches do require new treatment, but underline that in the vast majority of cases, fingerprint evidence remains reliable, trustworthy and, above all, safe.

Presenter/Claudia Hammond, Producer/Fiona Hill for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Eleanor Oldroyd presents a comprehensive round-up of the day's sports news.

Presenter/Eleanor Oldroyd, Producer/Mike Carr

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Swimming

Thursday 10 March

5.45-7.40pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Uninterrupted commentary comes from the World Championship Trials, live, from the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Lauren Laverne is joined by Caitlin Rose for a live session in the BBC 6 Music studios.

The Texan alternative country singer released her debut album, Own Side Now, last year – to much acclaim. She joins Lauren to play tracks from the album.

Presenter/Lauren Laverne, Producer/Gary Bales

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe presents concert highlights from Franz Ferdinand in 2004 and Siouxsie And The Banshees from 1988.

Bluesy sessions include The Yardbirds, Fifties legend and Sun Records recording artist Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, reformed Sixties rockers The Sonics and wistful pop-Americana from Aimee Mann.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity