Programme Information

Saxophonist and UK jazz pioneer Courtney Pine

Saxophonist and UK jazz pioneer Courtney Pine performs tunes from his new album Europa in session at the BBC Maida Vale studios, as Jamie Cullum continues to showcase his love for all types of jazz.

Pine has played an important role within the UK jazz scene over the years and, tonight, from the musical map of Europe that is his new album Europa, Courtney introduces each track and explains its significance. He also plays one of his classic tunes.

Presenter/Jamie Cullum, Producer/Karen Pearson for Folded Wing

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Songwriting legend Barry Manilow

Singer-songwriting legend Barry Manilow celebrates Harold Arlen, composer of the Oscar-winning song Over The Rainbow.

Harold was born Hyman Arluck in Buffalo, New York, in 1905. He sang in the synagogue where his father was cantor from the age of seven, and formed his first group (the Snappy Trio) while still in his teens. After moving to New York City in 1925, Arlen achieved fame by writing songs for various reviews and for the shows at Harlem's Cotton Club. Many of his songs, including Stormy Weather, became jazz standards, while songs like That Old Black Magic also had their roots in jazz.

During a long and successful career, Harold wrote more than 400 songs and collaborated with the likes of Ted Koehler, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg.

Presenter/Barry Manilow, Producer/Anthony Cherry for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

A concert of British music which spans the last 100 years – much of it inspired by the stories and music from earlier times – can be heard on tonight's Performance On 3.

James MacMillan's The Sacrifice is based on a collection of ancient Welsh myths that tell a tale of love in a time of civil strife, while his Confession is set among the witch-hunts of the Scottish Reformation. MacMillan calls it "the requiem that Isobel Gowdie never had".

Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia is based on a theme by 16th-century composer Thomas Tallis and is lushly scored for strings alone. Violist Lawrence Power is soloist in Walton's Viola Concerto, one of the most popular works for the instrument.

The concert is recorded in Poole.

Presenter/Petroc Trelawny, Producer/Brian Jackson

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Journalist Natalie Haynes investigates the fashion for keeping chickens in urban back gardens.

Natalie has heard some dark rumours about the true habits of the hen so she speaks to chicken breeders and keepers and ornithologist Mark Cocker, who explains how things look from the chickens' perspective. Poultry and people can be very good for one another but, like any relationship, it does require respect.

Presenter/Natalie Haynes, Producer/Christine Hall for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Founder of Playboy magazine Hugh Hefner

As Hugh Hefner prepares to celebrate his 85th birthday, former Loaded editor James Brown examines his contribution to cultural and social change via Playboy magazine.

A philosophy graduate with a genius IQ, Hefner founded Playboy magazine back in 1953 with a $600 loan and some naked pictures of Marilyn Monroe. It was an instant success, going on to sell seven million copies a month. But by the Sixties, the magazine was much more than just a girlie mag. Under Hefner's strict direction Playboy presented a lifestyle. The magazine placed itself at the forefront of the new consumer society and also featured some heavyweight journalism.

Presenter/James Brown, Producer/James Hale for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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The Spellbound Horses is Julia Blackburn's drama about her father, Thomas, who was a poet and an alcoholic.

He was an alcoholic before he became a poet but, in spite of his drunken rages, his erratic behaviour and his crazy obsession with death, Julia always knew he loved her. But she worries about the impression she has given her son Daniel of his grandfather.

Diana Quick plays Julia, with David Troughton as Tommy and Martin Bonger as Daniel.

Producer/Mary Ward Lowery for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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I Expected The Worst... Ep 1/3

Tuesday 29 to Thursday 31 March

3.30-3.45pm BBC RADIO 4

Three famous directors write about their adventures in films.

On Tuesday, from his memoir My Last Breath, Luis Bunuel recalls making his early film Un Chien Andalou, helped by the Surrealists. It is read by Ian McDiarmid.

Wednesday's programme, read by Ben Miles, features Francois Truffaut's Letters, which reveals his thoughts on dubious actors, terrible music and freedom.

Stephen Dillane reads the final programme, Wings Of Desire in which Wim Wenders describes working with angels on his famous film, based in Berlin.

Presenters/Ian McDiarmid, Ben Miles and Stephen Dillane, Producer/Duncan Minshull for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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In this programme, Geoff Watts looks at the problems faced by surgeons and how they may be overcome.

Surgery is a craft and historically has not been subject to scientific scrutiny. No two patients are the same, and thus no two operations are the same.

Geoff Watts investigates how people can know which operation is best and whether surgery can be submitted to the same rigorous clinical trials as drugs to ensure the right surgical procedures are being carried out.

Presenter/Geoff Watts, Producer/Helen Sharpe for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Tuesday 29 March

7.00-10.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Chapman rounds up the day's sports news and previews England's friendly against Ghana, with live commentary from Wembley at 8pm. There are also regular updates from Northern Ireland's Euro 2012 qualifying game against Slovenia.

Presenter/Mark Chapman, Producer/Mike Carr

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

World Cup Cricket

Tuesday 29 March

9.45am-6.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra brings uninterrupted commentary on the first semi-final at the Cricket World Cup, live from Colombo.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Belfast boys Cashier No. 9 are live in session for Marc Riley tonight. The show also features Cowboy Rob Hughes, who rides into town with his Americana tunes.

Cashier No. 9's new EP is out this week. Produced by David Holmes and mixed by Hugo Nicholson, it was recorded in Belfast, LA and Paris. Accompanying them on the recordings are multi-instrumentalist Jason Falkner (who has played with Sir Paul McCartney, Air and Beck) and harmonica legend Tommy Morgan, who played with Elvis and was on the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

For King Or Country? Ep 1/2

Tuesday 29 March

4.05-4.30pm BBC WORLD SERVICE
9.05-9.30pm BBC WORLD SERVICE

Aristotle stated that monarchy is the only form of government in which power is exercised for the good of all. However, nearly 2,500 years later, does the institution remain preferable to an elected head of state?

These two programmes are given over to a committed republican and an ardent monarchist respectively, to put forward their competing points of view. In programme one, Swedish republican Mona Abou-Jeib Broshammar argues that even her own country's modernised and very limited monarchy is anachronistic, undemocratic – and bad for the royals themselves.

Programme two comes from the United States, a country whose very creation involved rejecting kingship. Here, Anthony McAlister, President of the International Monarchist League's LA Chapter, insists that monarchies are nevertheless more beneficial than republics.

Presenters/Mona Abou-Jeib Broshammar and Anthony McAlister

BBC World Service Publicity