Programme Information

This year, Johnnie Walker – the ex-Pirate who became a national radio star – reached pensionable age. In Pirates & Pensioners, Johnnie reflects on a journey that has taken him from life on the ocean wave to the Radio Academy's Hall of Fame and beyond.

Johnnie is joined by other baby boomers who remember the desire of a generation to do something different with the world they inherited in the post-war boom.

By the time those born in 1945 reached adulthood, the Sixties were starting to swing and many were determined to ride the wave with an innocent enthusiasm and a "can do" approach that threw away the constraints accepted by so many of their predecessors.

Richard Feast, for instance, grew up in the Cambridgeshire fens – somewhere that seemed then to be a million miles from the world of publishing – and, by the age of 25, he was editing Autosport magazine. Mike Willis (then known as Steve Merike) started his career with Radio Caroline, progressed to a short spell on BBC Radio 1, ran stations in Australia and now lectures on the radio and in the media.

Martin Blythe is still an active photographer having followed in his father's footsteps from the age of 16, while Tony Ellison discovered that "where there's muck there's money" and set up a business to prove it.

By and large the contributors to this programme were part of a group that sought to make a difference to a war-weary world and who, as they become pensioners, still retain their passion for life. Interwoven with some of the music that has sound-tracked their lives, they look back with perspectives gained over more than half a century.

Presenter/Johnnie Walker, Producer/Tim Blackmore for UBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

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Trevor Nelson invites listeners to explore the depths of his record collection as he presents another hour of the best in timeless soul, rare funky treats and modern classics.

Trevor's Album Of The Week tonight is The Velvet Rope, a 1997 release from Janet Jackson. The Velvet Rope was Jackson's sixth studio album and debuted at No. 1 in the Billboard 200 in America.

Presenter/Trevor Nelson, Producer/Dan Cocker for Somethin' Else

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

BBC PROMS 2010
Performance On 3 – Prom 35

Wednesday 11 August

7.00-10.15pm BBC RADIO 3

• www.bbc.co.uk/proms
• Press pack

Thomas Dausgaard conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and violinist Henning Kraggerud in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, Sibelius's Symphony No. 5, works by Ligeti and a UK première by Langgaard, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Three short choral pieces by György Ligeti – including Lux aeterna, heard in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey – aspire to ethereal heights, while Ligeti himself recognised the mesmeric, free-floating character of Rued Langgaard's 1918 Music Of The Spheres as prefiguring his own style.

Tchaikovsky's captivating concerto and Sibelius's Fifth Symphony, overwhelming in its nobly expansive final-movement Swan Hymn climax, complete the evening.

Andrew McGregor presents the concert, which also features soprano Inger Dam-Jensen and the Danish National Concert Choir and Vocal Ensemble.

This Prom will be repeated on Monday 16 August at 2pm.

Presenter/Andrew McGregor, Producer/Anthony Sellors

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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This charming tale about friendship and old age is by acclaimed Finnish writer Tove Jansson, best known as the creator of the Moomin stories.

Two elderly eccentrics develop an unlikely friendship when they tussle over who gets to sit on a bench in the hothouse of a Finnish botanical garden. Although they are both solitary by nature, they begin to look forward to their weekly encounters in the hothouse and to the lively discussions that ensue.

Read by Andrew Sachs, this thought-provoking story combines sharp observations about human nature with beguiling descriptions of the natural world.

The Hot House is taken from the newly published short story collection, Travelling Light. Written by Jansson in 1987, this is the first time that these stories have appeared in English.

Reader/Andrew Sachs, Producer/Gemma Jenkins

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Fry's English Delight Ep 1/4

Wednesday 11 August

9.00-9.30am BBC RADIO 4

Stephen Fry dons hat and gown to try the Qwerty keyboard, in the first of a new series of Fry's English Delight – The Trial Of Qwerty. Ancient, some believe illogical and inefficient, Stephen asks why it still rules how people write.

The gravest charge against the still ubiquitous Qwerty is that the layout was designed deliberately to slow typing down. Typists in the 1870s became too fast for their machines, the keys would easily stick and they would have to delve under the bonnet to untangle them.

But will the charge against Qwerty stick? Invented in the 1870s before the age of ergonomics and future proofing, it was a result of a commercial race to dominate the new typewriting industry with a universal system. There were typewriting races, too, which resembled today's motor racing.

Alongside contributions from historians and Qwerty experts, Stephen meets a man who has "de-qwertified" himself and adopted Dvorak, a system claimed to be quicker and cleaner than Qwerty. There's also an examination of newer, more modern formats, which may be more efficient but are no match for Qwerty.

Stephen also meets some speedy junior Qwertist primary school pupils who learn to touch type as part of their curriculum. They come up with an idea for the ultimate system for inputting text and, in so doing, demonstrate an important point about how thought relates to language and how any system, using keyboard, pen or even speech, is a compromise.

Presenter/Stephen Fry, Producer/Nick Baker for Testbed Productions

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Head To Head Ep 1/4

Wednesday 11 August

9.30-9.45am BBC RADIO 4

BBC Radio 4 presenter Edward Stourton

In a returning series, Edward Stourton revisits passionate broadcast debates of the Sixties and Seventies when keen intellects clashed on matters of the moment. Each week, Edward explores the ideas, the great minds behind them and echoes of the arguments in present-day politics.

The first week is taken from Prospects Of Mankind (1960), a television series chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, the former US first lady. The subject is Britain's place in the rivalry of the cold war.

At 88, Bertrand Russell, one of the greatest 20th-century thinkers, battles for Britain's neutrality in a dangerous world. In Hugh Gaitskell, some say the grand old man of pacifism meets his match. The then leader of the Labour party argues for Britain's continued close relations with the United States and the need for nuclear arms to avert Armageddon.

Should Britain keep a nuclear deterrent and continue to nurture its "special relationship" with the White House? The current discussion over Trident was never more relevant.

In the studio dissecting the debate are Tony Benn, whose political career goes back to the Gaitskell days, and Ray Monk, Professor of Philosophy at Southampton University and Russell's biographer.

Presenter/Edward Stourton, Producers/Dominic Byrne and Eve Streeter for Blakeaway Productions

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Case Study Ep 1/4

Wednesday 11 August

11.00-11.30am BBC RADIO 4

Claudia Hammond presents a new series of case studies that have unravelled the mysteries of the human mind.

When a 27-year-old man known in text books simply as HM underwent brain surgery for intractable epilepsy in 1953, no one could have known that the outcome would provide the key to extricating one of the greatest mysteries of the human mind – how humans form new memories.

HM was unable to remember anything that happened after the operation, though his life before the surgery remained vivid. For 55 years, until he died in December 2008 at the age of 82, HM – or Henry Molaison as he was identified on his death – was studied by nearly 100 psychologists and neuroscientists. He provided data that enabled them to piece together the memory process.

The research was first coordinated by Dr Brenda Milner of McGill University and then by Professor Suzanne Corkin at MIT. Both women got to know Henry well, but he never got to know them – for him, each meeting with them was the first.

His inability to form new memories meant that HM was unable to look after himself, but he remained cheerful, with a positive outlook on his condition. He was happy, he maintained, to provide information that could help others. And this he continues to do, even after death.

His brain was dissected by Dr Jacopo Annese of the Brain Observatory at UCSD, and is the subject of an ongoing online collaborative study.

Presenter/Claudia Hammond, Producer/Marya Burgess for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Stannie And Jim, by Simon Littlefield, is a fictional romance woven round a comic reimagining of James Joyce's relationship with his brother, Stanislaus, as they fight, write and prepare for war.

When James Joyce went to live in Trieste with his wife, Nora, his younger brother, Stanislaus, joined him there. However, Stannie soon discovered that life with James in Trieste often consisted of bailing his brother out financially, dragging him out of bars and taking his English classes on when Jim couldn't, or wouldn't, teach them.

With the First World War approaching, the City of Trieste is a political melting pot with the Italians keen to win back the City from Austria. Stannie took up the irredentist cause to make Trieste Italian once more, a cause represented via a fictional relationship with Beatrice, a young irredentist.

This play takes a comedic look at what it was like to be the brother of a somewhat unreliable genius.

Andrew Scott stars as Stannie, Aidan McArdle as James, Alison Pettit as Beatrice, Tessa Nicholson as Nora, Michael Shelford as Baron Ralli, David Seddon as Captain, Sam Dale as Dr Silvestri and Tony Bell as Irredentist.

Producer/Sally Avens for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

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Talking To The Enemy Ep 1/3

Wednesday 11 August

8.45-9.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Jonathan Powell lifts the lid on how negotiators engage terrorist organisations in talks, and what they talk about, in a new, three-part series of Talking To The Enemy.

Jonathan, Tony Blair's Chief of Staff, took part in the negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. In this series, he takes listeners into the negotiating room and explains how negotiations with men of violence come about, work or fail and can lead to peace.

Presenter/Jonathan Powell, Producer/David Stenhouse for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

5 Live Sport

Wednesday 11 August

7.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE

Mark Chapman brings listeners all the day's sports news and reaction, in tonight's edition of 5 Live Sport.

From 8pm, there's live commentary of the international football friendly between England and Hungary at Wembley.

Presenter/Mark Chapman, Producer/Danny Garlick

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

Swimming

Wednesday 11 August

3.55-6.00pm BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA

Listeners can enjoy uninterrupted commentary of the European Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Producer/Jen McAllister

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Publicity

Cult musical satirists Half Man Half Biscuit are live in session for Marc Riley this evening.

This four-piece, post-punk outfit hail from Birkenhead and released their debut album, Back In The DHSS in 1986. The band, Nigel and Si Blackwell, Neil Crossley and Paul Wright, have what can only be described as a rather surreal sense of humour. They split up but re-formed, to the relief of fans of wryness and sarcasm, in 1990 and proceeded to release a further string of highly acclaimed albums.

The Trumpton Riots is one of the more famous EPs released by the band. They scored their first chart hit in April 2010 with Joy Division Oven Gloves.

Presenter/Marc Riley, Producer/Michelle Choudhry

BBC 6 Music Publicity

John Sweeney looks at Chairman Mao's China, Saddam Hussein's Iraq and President Ahmadinejad's Iraq, in the concluding part of the series that looks at stories of human rights abuses across the world, including Russia, China, Iraq and Iran, and from the mid-20th century to the present day.

He speaks with China expert Jonathan Mirsky who talks of how, when he visited China, he was confronted by "a brilliantly constructed fiction" and believed the fiction rather than the fact of 40 million deaths.

British politician Tony Benn, meanwhile, explains why he stands by his judgment that Mao was "a great man".

Presenter/John Sweeney, Producer/David Coomes for CTVC Productions

BBC World Service Publicity