Recently in Turn off the TV Category

Saturday Play: Utz Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Gregory Norminton adapt Bruce Chatwin’s novel to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of his death. Kaspar Utz is a Prague-based collection of Meissen porcelain, and has managed to preserve his collection throughout his country’s turbulent past. A British academic who met him in the 1960s returns twnety years later to find out what has happened to the man and his collection.

Classic Serial: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Radio 4, Sunday 3pm
The Complete Smiley series returns after John le Carre’s first two novels featuring the gentleman spycatcher first appeared in the Saturday Play slot. Simon Russell Beale is perfect as Smiley, and in this three-part adaptation he is joined by a superb cast including Brian Cox, Ruth Gemmell and Siobhan Redmond.

Drama on 3: Tartuffe Radio 3, Sunday 8pm
Moliere’s classic comedy, as adapted by Roger McGough for the Liverpool Playhouse.

Afternoon Play: In Mates Radio 4, Monday 2.15pm
Pauline Quirke stars in a play by Sue Teddern.Michelle (Quirke) sends audio tapes from he home in Orpington to her pen pal Randall, an inmate on Death Row. She promises herself and Randall that these will be the unexpurgated confessions of a bubbly housewife. But as the relationship unfolds, it becomes clear that she is trapped in her house and she isn’t quite as bubbly as she would like to think.

Arthur Smith’s Balham Bash Radio 4, Tuesday 11pm
Stage columnist Arthur Smith invites an audience into his Balham home for an evening of music and comedy. Pippa Evans costars, with a range of guests including Paul Sinha, Milton Jones and Glenn Tilbrook.

Baggage Radio 4, Wednesday 11.30am
A fourth series of Hillary Lyon’s Edinburgh-based domestic drama. At the end of the last series, Fiona lost her battle with breast cancer, leaving her friend Caroline (Lyon) and ex-husband Roddy (Robin Cameron) to bring up her baby, April. The odd family unit expands in this series to include April’s birth father and Fiona’s Alzheimer-afflicted mother.

Shappi Talk Radio 4, Thursday 6.30pm
Curious mix of stand-up comedy and chat show-style interviews hosted by Shappi Korsandi. Each week the show will have a different theme: in this first show, the subject is racism. Meera Syal and Felix Dexter are guests.

So the first of three Radio 4 Afternoon Plays featuring Cardiff’s least secret top-secret organisation, Torchwood: Asylum, has just finished. If you missed it, it’ll be available on iPlayer for seven days, and for UK licence fee payers is available as an MP3 download for the same period.

So what did you think?

Caution: if you haven’t heard the play yet, proceeding further may reveal spoilers…

A Funny Sort of Sound Radio 4, Saturday 10.30am
An affectionate look at the musical comedy sub-genre of light entertainment acts. Julian Clary is an amiable host as he explores the world of entertainers who use instruments conventional or otherwise (playing the saw, anyone?) to amuse. With contributions from Ken Dodd and Jim Tavare.

The Saturday Play: Journey Into Space: The Host Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Radio 7 often brushes off the original tales of Jet Morgan and his stalwart crew, but this is an all-new production with Toby Stephens taking on the role of Morgan. And in a hat tip to the original series, the original Jet Morgan, David Jacobs, gets a role too — although it is as the deadly Host, whose plan threatens all mankind.

Elaine Paige on Sunday Radio 2, Sunday 1pm
This week’s guests are Daniel Boys and Julie Atherton, the leads in Avenue Q which has settled in nicely at its new home of the Gielgud Theatre. They will be performing a couple of numbers from the show, although I suspect the daytime slot will prevent some of the musical’s ruder numbers from being included.

Drama on 3: Fall Radio 3, Sunday 8pm
When it was staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year, Fall received two accolades from The Stage. The production as a whole was awarded Must See status, while lead actress Geraldine Alexander was nominated in the Best Actress category of the Stage Awards for Acting Excellence. Alexander reprises her role in Zinnie Harris’ play, which Stage reviewer Thom Dibdin described as exploring “the convulsions shaking a country which is trying to drag itself out of post-civil war decline and decide what to do with those who perpetrated the horrors it has had to live through.”. Expect strong language and graphic descriptions of brutality — all the more terrible when the imagery is in our own heads.

Woman’s Hour Drama: Sacred Hearts Radio 4, Monday-Friday 10.45am & 7.45pm
Sarah Dunant’s new novel, dramatised in ten parts over this week and next, chronicles the life of Serafina (Natalie Dormer), locked in a convent in 16th century Italy by her family against her will. Dame Eileen Atkins also stars as the Abbess, while Geraldine James plays Zuana, the convent’s healer.

Stonewall: The Riots That Triggered the Gay Revolution Radio 2, Tuesday 10.30pm
A new documentary marking the 40th anniversary of New York’s Stonewall Riots, which started the gay liberation movement. Raids on private members’ clubs were frequent, but when police stormed the Stonewall Inn just hours after gay icon Judy Garland’s funeral, the gay community started to fight back. Tom Robinson presents, with contributors including the policeman who led the raid, a journalist who was in the bar at the time, and British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell.

Afternoon Play: Torchwood Radio 4, Wednesday-Friday 2.15pm
Ahead of Torchwood’s new series on BBC1, which will run Monday to Friday from July 6, Radio 4 follows up its September 2008 story Lost Souls with a trilogy of plays featuring Cardiff’s least secret top-secret alien hunters. TV regulars John Barrowman, Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd reprise their roles as Jack, Gwen and Ianto in each story, with Tom Price (PC Andy) and Kai Owen (Rhys) also making appearances.

Wednesday’s production, Asylum by Anita Sullivan, features a mysterious teenage runaway who’s found carrying a mysterious weapon; on Thursday, James Goss’s Golden Age sees the team travelling to Delhi and discovering that Torchwood India, presumed shut down 80 years previously, is still gonig strong — and its members haven’t aged a day; while on Friday, The Dead Line by Phil Ford sees Cardiff residents falling into comas seemingly induced by phone calls from a number that hasn’t been active for over 30 years.

Update: As well as being made available via the standard iPlayer, all three Torchwood plays will be available as MP3 downloads to UK listeners.

Devoted Radio 4 listeners could not have missed that last night saw the return to this august radio station of a British institution. But sadly, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue is now tragically missing the institution within the institution - the late, great Humphrey Lyttelton, aka Chairman Humph.

There has been much discussion following the sad death of Lyttelton last year as to whether Clue could - or should - continue without the master of the unwitting innuendo in the chair. But continue they have, and one can’t help feel that the man himself would have approved. I’d like to think he’d be horrified to discover his friends stopped having fun because of him.

And so in last night’s opener of the new series, regulars Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Barry Cryer were joined on stage by Clue virgin Victoria Wood for another half hour of silly games and witty, yet still delightfully school yard banter.

Of course, all ears were going to be on the Chairman, and stepping gamely up for the first of two stints (Rob Brydon and Jack Dee will be on chair duties later in the series) was Stephen Fry. A good, solid, line and length choice for the first time out.

First off, a big thanks to the guys who run the Radio 4 Twitter feed for being so complimentary about our weekly Turn off the TV radio previews. It’s really appreciated.

The Saturday Play: J’Accuse Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Emile Zola’s open letter to the French government about the wrongful imprisonment of Jewish Army Officer Alfred Dreyfus provides the inspriation for this play by Hattie Naylor. Mark Heap play Louis Gregori, who gives his perspective of the events that led him to believe that Dreyfus’ murder was the correct and only action. Conrad Nelson also stars as Zola.

Archive on 4: The First A&R Man Radio 4, Saturday 8pm
A look at the early days of the recording industry, as Paul Gambaccini scours through the archives of EMI to uncover the story of Fred Gaisberg. One of the first record producers, Gaisberg was the first to record the voice of Enrico Caruso.

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2009 Final Radio 3, Sunday 5.30pm
Petroc Trelawney presents live coverage of the grand final from St David’s Hall, Cardiff.

Drama on 3: The Gambler Radio 3, Sunday 8pm
Glyn Maxwell creates a new adaptation of Dostoevsky’s novel about Alexei Ivanovich, a young tutor working for a Russian family who falls in love with the beautiful but unattainable Polina. Sam Crana stars as Alexei, with support from Nicholas Le Provost, Patricia Routledge and Siobhan Hewlett.

Woman’s Hour Drama: Diary of an On-Call Girl Radio 4, Monday-Friday 10.45am & 7.45pm
It started life as a blog, became a book and now is adapted into a radio series by Yvonne Antrobus. Nadine Marshall plays WPC EE Bloggs, aka ‘Bloggsy’, who chronicles the ups and downs of life in the modern police service.

PICK OF THE WEEK: I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue Radio 4, Monday 6.30pm
After the sad passing of our beloved Humph, ISIHAC could have quietly shuffled off into the sunset, but it returns with guest host (and former panel member) Stephen Fry. Regulars Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined by new girl Victoria Wood, who turned down the chance to appear on the show 19 years ago, but hopefully will make many more appearances in future.

Afternoon Play: The Granny Killers Radio 4, Tuesday 2.15pm
Twins Chris and Liddy want to kill their granny, who is the money-obsessed head of a property empire. What they don’t know is that granny herself has murderous plans: to kill her new husband on their wedding night. Lesley Joseph stars in a black comedy by David Hodgson.

Afternoon Play: Desperate Measures Radio 4, Thursday 2.15pm
Last year, Anne Marie di Mambro’s Blaze in the Afternoon Play slot featured husband-and-wife designers Paul and Mhairi Blaze, whose relationship nearly fell apart when the son Paul never knew he had appeared on the scene. In this sequel by David Ian Neville, Paul and Mhairi (Neil MckInven and Gabriel Quigley) are struggling to keep their design company afloat. When the Mary Portas-like Clara (This Life’s Daniela Nardini) turns up with an offer of investment, what dirty secrets about Paul does she know about?

Electric Ink Radio 4, Friday 11am
In this consistently entertaining comedy about how new media is changing journalism, young upstart Freddie inadvertently breaks a major political story on Twitter.

Colour My World: The Tony Hatch Story Radio 2, Friday 7pm
First of a three-part profile series on the career of Tony Hatch to celebrate his 70th birthday at the end of the month. Presented by Bill Kenwright, the series looks at his long partnership with Petula Clark that resulted in hits including Downtown, Don’t Sleep in the Subway and I Know a Place, as well as work with Benny Hill, Connie Francis and the Searchers — and, of course, as composer of the themes to TV soap operas Crossroads and Neighbours. Followed by a repeat of January’s Friday Night is Music Night dedicated to his work.

Zoe Ball Radio 2, Saturday 6am
Emma Forbes Radio 2, Sunday 5am
And the weekend schedule for Radio 2 continues to evolve, with two new presenters for the early morning slots. On Saturday, former Radio 1 breakfast show presenter Zoe Ball takes to the microphone, while her fellow Live & Kicking alumna Emma Forbes has the early Sunday shift. It’s enough to make you think that new channel controller Bob Shennan has a thing for former Saturday morning TV presenters. If Sarah Greene and Maggie Philbin turn up any time soon, that’ll confirm it…

Punt, PI Radio 4, Saturday 10.30am
Comedian Steve Punt returns with his whimsical investigation series. This week, did Hitler realy intend to set up his post-invasion base in Balham, south London? With the help of Balham residents, including Stage columnist Arthur Smith, he attempts to find out.

Desert Island Discs Radio 4, Sunday 11.15am
This week’s castaway is Britain’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan. You know, just for once I wish this programme involved a real desert island to despatch Morgan to. He’d have to survive without public attention, but at least he’d have his biggest fan — himself — for company.

Elaine Paige on Sunday Radio 2, Sunday 1pm
In advance of the Tony Awards, EP looks at the contenders for best musical, including Shrek and Billy Elliot. Plus Maria Friedman, shortly to be seen in The King and I at the Royal Albert Hall, sings a number from the show.

Classic Serial: Armadale Radio 4, Sunday 3pm
Robin Brooks dramatises the Wilkie Collins novel. When young Allan Armadale (Alex Robertson) unexpectedly inherits a country seat in Norfolk, he attracts the attentions of the vampish Lydia (Lucy Robinson) who determines to seduce and marry him. But there are other mysteries afoot, not least in the shape of the mysterious Midwinter (Ray Fearon).

Afternoon Play: How You Feeling, Alf? Radio 4, Monday 2.15pm
The Labour government is in disarray, and needs all the support it can muster. Things are so bad that Alf (David Ryall) is summoned to London from his Leeds deathbed. Set in 1979 as Jim Callaghan’s administration was imploding, this production may well have unintended ultra-topical resonance…

Hot Gossip Radio 2, Thursday 10pm
Claudia Winkleman hosts a second series of the comedy panel show revolving around the world of celebrity gossip. Something of a News Quiz for the Heat generation. This week’s studio guests are Robin Ince and Dom Joly.

Friday Night is Music Night Radio 2, Friday 7.30pm
A live performance with the BBC Concert Orchestra and singers Emma Williams and Patrick Clancy, showcasing music from films and musicals. The show comes from the endangered Mermaid Theatre.

Saturday Play: The Complete Smiley - A Murder of Quality Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Radio 4 continues its dramatisation of John le Carré’s novels featuring George Smiley. This week’s instalment is something of a departure from the spy investigation that we may be used to, as Smiley investigates a murder in the prestigious Carne College. Geoffrey Palmer, Marcia Warren and Sam Dale join Simon Russell Beale’s George Smiley.

Archive on 4: Lynne Truss - Did I Really Ask That? Radio 4, Saturday 8pm
These days she’s better known for her book on the declining standards of punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, but in the 1980s Lynne Truss worked as an arts journalist, interviewing many theatrical giants: Arthur Miller, Tom Stoppard, Simon Gray, Anthony Minghella… Truss has dusted off the tape recordings she made of those interviews, and here extracts the best (and the worst) bits. Not only should we get some great opportunities to listen to some of the performing arts world’s biggest names, I for one will also pick up some tips on how not to interview…

Elaine Paige on Sunday Radio 2, Sunday 1pm
This week’s guest is Whoopi Goldberg, producer of Sister Act: The Musical, who talks about her Broadway career as well as plugging the new show.

Newfangle Radio 4, Monday 11.30am
Russell Tovey stars in this new six-part sitcom by Adam Rosenthal (son of Jack) and Viv Ambrose. Newfangle is a proto-human — an ape to you and me — in a race that is on the verge of evolving into humans. In this first episode, Newfangle has fallen for female ape Snaggle (Pippa Evans) and has to invent language so that he can express his love.

Afternoon Play: On Ego Radio 4, Tuesday 2.15pm
Henry Goodman, Susan Lynch and Elliot Levey star in a science fiction about Alex, a man who builds a teleportation device in an attempt to prove his theoyr that humans and emotions are just a bunch of neurons. When his wife falls ill, he is forced to confront his own beliefs.

Scum Radio 4, Thursday 11.30am
Mark Kermode, the Godfather of film criticism, examines the history of Roy Minton’s controversial teleplay Scum, which was deemed too controversial in its portrayal of life in prison, and was banned by the BBC. A subsequent restaging as a feature film turned it into one of the most controversial British films ever. Kermode seeks input from screenwriter Minton, actor Mick Ford and former director of BBC Television Alasdair Milne.

Electric Ink Radio 4, Friday 11.30am
The second new sitcom of the week, scripted by satirist Alistair Beaton, is set in the changing world of the newspaper industry, with Robert Lindsay as an old school print journalist struggling to keep up with modern technology, and railing against the celebrity obsession of the daily tabloids.

Friday Night is Music Night Radio 2, Friday 7.30pm
Anthony Andrews introduces a concert dedicated to the musicals of Lerner and Loewe, whose hits include Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Gigi and Camelot. Vocal perfomances come from Laura Michelle Kelly, Claire moore, Robert Meadmore and Liz Robertson.

David Attenborough’s Life Stories Radio 4, Friday 8.50pm
A new 20-part series of 10-minute vignettes meditating on the lives of certain creatures from the man with one of the most reassuring voices in British broadcasting, starting with the sloth.

Getting the Gongs Radio 4, Saturday 10.30am
Away from the big budget, red carpet extravaganzas such as the Oscars and the Baftas, the industry awards show is a boom business (and, if you can get you foot in the door as a presenter of such things, can be a lucrative sideline). The Now Show’s Steve Punt, himself a veteran of such events, looks at the ceremonies, talking to presenters Gyles Brandreth and Stephen K Amos.

Eurovision Radio 2, Saturday 8pm
While Terry Wogan has passed on his microphone to Graham Norton, Ken Bruce continues his own commentary duties on Radio 2. Oh, and The Stage’s very own Eurovision correspondent Ewan Spence, who has been providing reports from Moscow all week at thestage.co.uk/eurovision, will be providing his alternative commentary from his own website, ewanspence.com.

Desert Island Discs Radio 4, Sunday 11.15am
Castaway this week is veteran actor Peter Sallis, best known for Last of the Summer Wine and Wallace and Gromit.

Drama on 3: Hum Radio 3, Sunday 8pm
Nina Sosanya, Anne Reid and Con O’Neill head an impressive cast in a contemporary drama by Laura Wade. Sound affects us all differently, but it’s increasingly inescapable. Emma is part of a team in Bristol who are called out to investigate cases of noise pollution and finds that a number of cases defy explanation. Can an inexplicable “hum” be to blame?

Woman’s Hour Drama: Falco - Poseidon’s Gold Radio 4, Monday-Friday 10.45am & 7.45pm
A fifth series based on Lindsey Davis’s books about a detective in ancient Rome sees Trevor Peacock join regulars Anton Lesser and Anna Madeley. When Falco’s dead brother Festus turns out to have been involved in a dodgy art scam, Falco ends up in the frame for the murder of one of Festus’s associates.

Afternoon Play: The Moment You Feel It Radio 4, Monday 2.15pm
Alf is very old and his memories get muddled, to say nothing of the conversations he carries on in his head with voices from the past. When Alf’s carer finds a stranger’s coat in his kitchen, the chain of chopped-up and contradictory memories it touches not only reveal the stranger’s identity, but also the story of Alf’s own unhappy marriage and how his wife died so young. Richard Briers stars as Alf, with Rory Kinnear also appearing as a younger Alf.

Afternoon Play: Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders Radio 4, Tuesday 2.15pm
Timothy West reprises his role as the radio voice of John Mortimer’s renowned barrister — but here, he is reminiscing about one of his earliest cases. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the young Rumpole investigating the shooting of two war heroes in the 1950s.

Shakespeare’s Sonnets Radio 3, all day Wednesday
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of their publication and to tie in with the BBC’s poetry season, fourteen of Shakespeare’s sonnets will be performed throughout the day. Ian McKellen is confirmed as a reader, but there may be others.

Happy Birthday Tommy Walker Radio 4, Thursday 11.30am
The Who’s rock opera Tommy is 40 years old this year. First released as a double album in 1969 before Ken Russell’s 1975 film, the subsequent stage musical won five Tony Awards. The programme includes an exclusive new interview with Roger Daltrey, and somehow manages to present the entire project’s somewhat convoluted plotline into a three minute summary.

Bonjour Mr Aznavour Radio 2, Friday 7pm
A former protégé of Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour is now one of the last great French chansonniers. Petula Clark fronts this new four-part series profiling his life, featuring interviews with Aznavour himself as well as Nana Mouskouri, Josh Groban, Herbert Kretzmer, Dee Shipman, Marcel Stellman and others.

Friday Play: A Hit To The Heart Radio 4, Friday 9pm
Nicholas Farrell and Niamh Cusack star as typical middle class parents of Lucy (Angela Terence) whose world falls apart when Lucy is linked with a bomb that explodes in their otherwise sleepy village. By Rachel Joyce.

Saturday Play: Point of Departure Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Controversial African leader Jonah Kotto is attending a peace summit in Belfast where Alec Murray is assigned to his security detail. When security at Stormont is breached Alec fears for Kotto’s life, but is there a real threat, and, if so, how serious is it? George Harris and Patrick Fitzsymons star.

Archive on 4: John Barbirolli: Angel Of The North Radio 4, Saturday 9pm
Sir John Barbirolli was one of Britain’s greatest conductors. With both Italian and French blood in his veins, he became a champion of English music. He was a proud Cockney, whose zest and brilliance when he stood in front of an orchestra marked him out as irresistible. James Naughtie remembers Barbirolli in his own words, as well as through the recollections of colleagues, and through his recordings in the archives. The programme also explores the business of the conductor’s art.

Elaine Paige On Sunday Radio 2, Sunday 1pm
This week’s guests include Jason Donovan, currently starring in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Hannah Waddingham, appearing in A Little Night Music.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Radio 3, Sunday 8pm
As part of Radio 3’s Mendelssohn Weekend, Shakespeare’s play is performed with the composer’s complete incidental music in a new recording of Tim Carroll’s 2005 semi-staged production. As well as being broadcast on Radio 3, a video version will be available rom the website and via the red button on Digital TVs.

Book of the Week: My Name is Daphne Fairfax Radio 4, Monday-Friday 9.45am (rpt 12.30am)
Stage columnist Arthur Smith reads extracts from his new autobiography. To hear an interview with Arthur, including revelations about why he fell out with Billy Connolly and Jonathan Ross, listed to the Stage Podcast.

Not Letting It Be Radio 2, Tuesday 10.30pm
Matt Lucas presents a history of satirical swipes at the music business, from novelty songs to films including This is Spinal Tap.

The Wilson Dixon Line Radio 2, Thursday 10pm
A new series for Radio 2’s comedy hour sees this new character comedy from Jesse Griffin as country and western superstar Wilson Dixon. Observational, culture clash comedy is combined with live sets Wilson and his sidekick Snake Wizzelteats.

Reasons to be Cheerful Radio 4, Saturday 10.30am
This all-too-brief series that’s determined to look at the glass as half-full concludes with an episode presented by comedian (and erstwhile Stage Edinburgh Fringe podcast correspondent) Stephen K Amos. Playing the pessimist role this week is fellow comedian Felix Dexter.

Saturday Play: The Admirable Crichton Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
There’s far more to JM Barrie’s satirical tale about a butler marooned on a desert island with his aristocratic employers than first appears. Fiona Kelcher’s adaptation highlights the cruel, sadistic streak of Crichton — Jeeves he most certainly is not. The wonderful Russell Tovey stars as Crichton.

Opera on 3: Skin Deep Radio 3, Saturday 6pm
With a plot by Armando Iannucci, writer of The Thick of It and its big screen sibling In the Loop, one would expect biting satire in this new operetta which premiered at the Grand Theatre, Leeds in January. According to The Stage reviewer George Hall, though, didn’t seem that impressed:

It’s a darkly comic fantasy, with identities confused as faces are swapped and individuals duplicated, though its progress towards an ineffective third-act climax seems convoluted and over-populated. Despite Sawer keeping the orchestra down, not all the text comes across, and what does lacks the bite of The Thick of It.

From Fact to Fiction Radio 4, Saturday 7pm (repeated Sunday 5.40pm)
A new series of the series in which celebrated writers create fictional responses to the week’s news. Writer for the first episode is playwright Laura Wade, who herself was in the news this week when she talked about the lack of roles for older women.

Elaine Paige on Sunday Radio 2, Sunday 1pm
Spring Awakening star Aneurin Barnard is this week’s guest, singing Left Behind from the musical. Plus actress Sian Phillips, also currently in the West End in Calendar Girls, picks her top musicals.

Ladies of Letters Crunch Credit Radio 4, Monday-Friday 10.45am (repeated 7.45pm)
Lou Wakefield and Carole Hayman’s gloriously comic creations Vera and Irene return, exchanging missives and misunderstandings that produce some glorious comedy. Patricia Routledge and Prunella Scales return to the roles — ITV3’s versions in the form of Anne Reid and Maureen Lipman were fun, but pale shadows of the original.

Afternoon Play: Solo behind the Iron Curtain Radio 4, Tuesday 2.15pm
In the 1960s, Robert Vaughn was possibly the most famous spy in the world, renowned for his role as Napoleon Solo in The Man from UNCLE. 1968 saw him filming a movie in Prague — and if you know your history, you can probably guess what happened next. This comedy thriller recreates the events that saw the film’s cast and crew trapped in the Czech capital as the tanks rolled in. Vaughn plays himself, with support coming from his Hustle costar Robert Glenister playing George Segal.

It’s My Story: Earfull Radio 4, Wednesday 11am
A welcome repeat for last November’s documentary following deaf actor as he prepares to get a cochlear implant which would enable him to recover some of his hearing, interwoven with a recording of his one-man play Earfull.

Afternoon Play: Fifteen Radio 4, Wednesday 2.15pm
15-year-old Ellie is sent into foster care when her addict mother goes into rehab. What she doesn’t reveal is that she is seven months pregnant. Meanwhile, her foster parents’ desparation to have a child is now all they have in common with each other…

Afternoon Play: Dos and Don’ts for the Mentally Interesting Radio 4, Friday 2.15pm
Based on the popular blog The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive by Seaneen Molloy, Louise Ramsden’s adaptation casts Seainin Brennan as Seaneen, charting the highs and lows of living with bipolar disorder. As the blurb states, “You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. You’ll probably do both if you’re a manic depressive like me.”

I Did It My Way: Simon Brett Radio 7, Saturday 10am
Writer and former BBC producer Simon Brett talks about his career, and we hear a selection of his radio work including After Henry, possibly my favourite radio sitcom ever. Later this week, Radio 4 begins a repeat run of Charles Paris mysteries based on Brett’s books (see below).

Saturday Play: The Killing of Sister George Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Sarah Badel stars in the role made famous on stage and screen by Beryl Reid. She plays June Buckridge, whose character of Sister George in a long-running radio serial is under threat as producers try to revive interest in the flagging soap. Anna Massey also stars as the BBC executive who becomes June’s nemesis.

Going Out with Alan Carr Radio 2, Saturday 6pm
The final piece of the new-look Radio 2 weekend schedule slots into place, with the Friday/Sunday Night Project presenter and comedian Alan Carr getting a regular show, co-presented with Emma Forbes. Quite what will occur is anyone’s guess, but Carr’s humour is end-of-the-pier sauciness compared to Russell Brand’s, so it’s unlikely that telephne answering machines will feature…

Elaine Paige on Sunday Radio 2, Sunday 1pm
After recent events, maybe we should class EP as the woman who one day might be as famous as Susan Boyle? Still, Miss Paige is currently the one with the regular radio show - and this week her studio guest is Lionel Blair.

Classic Serial: Troilus and Criseyde Radio 4, Sunday 3pm
The love story set within the walls of beseiged city Troy has been told many times, from Shakespeare to William Walton and even 1960s Doctor Who. Lavinia Greenlaw’s two part adaptation is based upon Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem. Tom Ferguson and Maxine Peake are the eponymoous lovers , with support from Malcolm Raeburn as Pandarus.

Afternoon Play: Two Pipe Problems Radio 4, Monday and Tuesday 2.15pm
Curmudgeonly actors William and Sandy, now in a thesps’ retirement home but who once played Holmes and Watson together, return for two new mysteries. In Monday’s play, they investigate why a fellow resident pulls out of his impending marriage at the last minute, while on Tuesday the pair travel to Buckingham Palace for Sandy’s investiture. Stanley Baxter and Richard Briers star, with support from Julia McKenize and Julia Rhind-Tutt.

Murder Unprompted: a Charles Paris Mystery Radio 4, Wednesday 11.30am
Speaking of actor-sleuths, Bill Nighy’s turn as the philandering alcoholic Charles Paris returns for a repeat run, adapted by Jeremy Front from Simon Brett’s 1982 novel and first broadcast in 2007. A murder is discovered backstage at a West End theatre production, and of course it falls to Charles to work out whodunnit…

Elvenquest Radio 4, Wednesday 6.30pm
TV viewers will shortly get their own fantasy send-up series in the form of new BBC2 show Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire, but Radio 4 sneaks in there first, with this six-part sitcom which series fantasy novelist Sam (Green Wing’s Stephen Mangan) whisked off into a Tolkein-style universe where he must join a quest to find the legendary Sword of Asnagar and save Lower Earth from the clutches of Lord Darkness.

Friday Play: Des Res Radio 4, Friday 9pm
When TV scriptwriter Luke (Ian Puleston-Davies) loses his job, he has to relocate form a leafy suburb to a much rougher area of Salford, in this black comedy by Ed Jones. I wonder if the subject of TV people moving to Salford has any parallels to the BBC’s own move to MediaCity in the near future?

Reasons to be Cheerful Radio 4, Saturday 10.30am
Billed as an antidote to the Grumpy Old Men type of programmes that have tended to prevail in recent years, Peter White, winner of Radio 4’s recent Comic Relief stand-up competition, explaining all the reasons he has to be optimistic. He believes he is cheery enough to take on Grumpy Old Men contributor and regular Stage columnist Arthur Smith.

Saturday Play: Road to Durham Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Two octogenarians, played by Timothy West and the play’s author Douglas Livingstone, travel to the Durham Miners’ Gala to meet after more than sixty years apart. During the war, they were Bevin Boys — young men who were sent down the mines to keep the country’s industry stocked with the coal instead of joining the armed forces. As young men, their political and moral beliefs are challenged at every turn.

Drama on 3: Henry VIII Radio 3, Sunday 6pm
Shakespeare’s play, either co-authored or revised by John Fletcher, is probably the least historically accurate of the Histories (taking liberties with his reign didn’t start with The Tudors, you know). Here, Matthew Marsh plays the king who is struggling to extricate himself from his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon. Patrick Malahide plays Cardinal Wolsey.

Penelope’s People Radio 4, Tuesday-Thursday 3.30pm
Penelope Keith performs a series of three monologues about women who fight back at crisis points in their lives. From a woman who must find new ways to fund her granddaughter’s education when her husband is imprisoned in Roy Apps’ Divorcing Grandpa on Tuesday, she progresses to an Essex woman who is made redundant from a department store in Making Ends Meet by Cathy Feeny on Wednesday. And on Thursday, she becomes Lancastrian Alice, whose determination that once fuelled her stage career gives her the strength to face an uncertain future in Pills by Eric Pringle.

Down the Line: Credit Crunch Special Radio 4, Tuesday 6.30pm
The main trouble I’ve always found with comedy spoof Down the Line is that the material it’s lampooning is just so laughable in and of itself - especially, but not limited to, Any Answers? every Saturday. However, this doesn’t stop this programme being hilarious in its own right, and here it returns to Radio 4 for a one-off special prior to transferring to television.

Afternoon Play: The Gallery Radio 4, Wednesday 2.15pm
I love Alan Plater’s works — the Beiderbecke Trilogy DVDs of the Yorkshire TV comedy dramas starring James Bolam and Barbara Flynn have a permanent spot next to my DVD player. His new comic radio play follows the opening night of a new Tyneside art gallery, which is thrown into jeopardy by the well-meaning but ill-trained staff, who have all been hired to tick a “quota” box.

The Hull Truck Story Radio 4, Thursday 11.30am
To mark the opening of the Hull Truck Theatre company’s new purpose-build venue this week, this documentary charts the year leading up to the move, as well as looking at how the theatre company and its playwright, John Godber, have come to be so influential.

Afternoon Play: The Iceman Goeth Radio 4, Thursday 2.15pm
Unusually for the AP, we have a documentary interview with actor Ian Holm, who talks candidly about the events in his life that have led to three breakdowns. The interview is intercut with a dramatisation of one such episode, with Ian Glen playing Holm in 1976, as he was performing in a run of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh.

Friday Night is Music Night Radio 2, Friday 7.30pm
In the week of Shakespeare’s birthday, FNIMN celebrates the Bard’s role in musical theatre on stage and film. Expect work from Kiss Me, Kate, West Side Story and Shakespeare in Love among others. Shona Lindsay, Tim Rogers and Jimmy Johnson perform with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

ALAN AYCKBOURN SEASON: Saturday Play: Man of the Moment Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
To celebrate Ayckbourn’s 70th birthday, BBC Radio is staging a number of his plays. The first this weekend is this, his 35th, which premiered in Scarborough in 1988 before transferring to London (with a cast including Michael Gambon, Peter Bowles and Samantha Bond) in 1990. Set in the murky world of the cult of celebrity, it’s not really fair to call it prophetic since the situations it satirises were current then as they are now. Vic Parks (Tim Pigott-Smith) is a convicted bank robber who, since his release, has become a television celebrity. Now chat show presenter Jill (Lisa Dillon) wants to reunite him onscreen with Douglas (Alex Jennings), the bank clerk who foiled the robbery and caused Vic to be arrested. But Douglas is quiet, unassuming and forgiving — in short, he’s just not good television material…

ALAN AYCKBOURN SEASON: Drama on 3: A Small Family Business Radio 3, Sunday 8pm
The second new Ayckbourn play of the weekend (like Man of the Moment, directed by Martin Jarvis and produced by Rosalind Ayres, who also plays Poppy in this play) is a new production of 1987’s A Small Family Business, which also starred Michael Gambon in its first London run. Here, the cast is led by Alfred Molina as Jack, an honest, principled businessman who has to investigate how his company’s furniture designs are being stolen and reproduced by rival firms. As the private investigator he has hired digs into the company structure, it appears that all of his family and friends are corrupt to some degree… Theatre trivia fans note: playing Benedict in this radio production is Adam Godley, who also appeared in the 1988 Scarborough premiere of Man of the Moment (see above).

ALAN AYCKBOURN SEASON: The Norman Conquests: Table Manners Radio 7, Sunday 1pm (repeated 1am)
Tying in with the Ayckbourn season, the BBC’s archive channel starts another repeat run of the playwright’s 1973 trilogy, revived on the Old Vic stage last yer. The other two plays, Living Together and Round and Round the Garden, involve the same characters and all three take place over the same weekend in the same house. The trilogy continues next Sunday.

The rest of this week’s previews are after the jump…

Eyes Down on Clubland Radio 4, Saturday 10.30am
The working men’s club has been an important staple in the professional career of many a reader of The Stage, and we have sadly been reporting on the industry’s decline in recent years. In this one-off programme, comedian Dave Spikey (who cowrote clubland comedy Phoenix Nights with Peter Kay) explores the history of this British institution. As the recession bites, could venues with free entertainment and cheap alcohol actually make a comeback?

Celebrate the Burkiss Way Radio 7, Saturday 10am (repeated 8pm)
From today, Radio 7 starts its new schedule, with children’s programmes running from 5am to 10am on weekends, and 5am-8am to 4pm-5pm on weekdays. As a result, the archives shows which used to start at 9am on Saturday now start an hour later - starting with this plundering of the archives of sketch show The Burkiss Way, written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick.

The Saturday Play: Lambeth Palace Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
Christopher William Hill’s play examines the politics behind the appointment of a fictional Archbishop of Canterbury. With an ultra-Establishment conservative and a barely-believing Liberal both in the running for the job, how far will each of them go to win the position?

The Reunion: National Theatre Radio 4, Sunday 11.15am (repeated Friday 9am)
Sue MacGregor’s series reuniting the people behind momentous events returns with a meeting of some of the actors involved in the opening of the National Theatre under Laurence Olivier in 1963. Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright and Bill Gaskill reminisce.

Elaine Paige on Sunday Radio 2, Sunday 1pm
Paul O’Grady Radio 2, Sunday 5pm
Some tweaks to Radio 2’s weekend format, which will later this month see Alan Carr take up a residency on Saturday evenings, this week result in EP’s show extended to two hours. This week, she is joined by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, who celebrate the 25th anniversary of the recording of Chess, and the 10th anniversary of the Mamma Mia! stage show.

Later, Paul O’Grady, who only recently finished a stint covering for Paige, gets his own show on Radio 2 at last, including listener letters and dedications and what is euphemistically described as a “camp-friendly” playlist.

Woman’s Hour Drama: Restless Radio 4, Monday-Friday 10.45am (repeated 7.45pm)
Dame Eileen Atkins heads the cast of a ten-part adaptation (continuing next week) of William Boyd’s thriller. Ruth (Fenella Woolgar) finds that her mother (Atkins) was not born Sally Fairchild, but Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian who spied for the British in the Second World War.

Blonde on Blonde Radio 2, Tuesday 10.30pm
Hollywood Charmers Radio 2, Tuesday 11.30pm
Two series profiling some of Hollywood’s most iconic performers start tonight. Mariella Frostrup’s three part series starts with an hour-long look at the life and career of Doris Day, followed by a half-hour profile of the suave actor David Niven, presented by fellow thesp Michael York.

I’m Spartacus Radio 2, Thursday 10.30pm
The aforementioned changes to Radio 2’s weekend schedule mean that its comedy hour moves to Thursday evenings. After a half-hour of the ever-dependable Clive Anderson’s Chat Room, this pilot panel show hosted by Adam Buxton pitches funny people, including Radio Times film editor Andrew Collins and recent Book of the Week author Emma Kennedy against one another in film-related tasks.

Navy Lark Special: Left Hand Down a Bit Radio 7, Saturday 9am (repeated 8pm and 3am)
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the classic radio sitcom, which originally ran from 1959 to 1977, Radio 7 collects six classic episodes from the series’ run, each introduced by cast member Leslie Phillips. Also as part of the celebrations, look out for a repeat of the recent edition of Radio 4’s The Reunion, with Sue MacGregor talking to cast members (Sunday 9.15am and repeated), and Jon Pertwee giving a one-man show about his career, from The Navy Lark to Doctor Who and Worzel Gummidge (Sunday 12pm and repeated). Fellow cast member Tenniel Evans has also been interviewed, and his segments will be broadcast throughout the week.

Galton and Simpson’s Half Hour: The Blood Donor Radio 2, Saturday 1.30pm
When Paul Merton performed in some rejigged Galton and Simpson comedies on ITV in the late 1990s, he did attempt some of the classic Hancock’s Half Hour/Hancock episodes, but wisely steered clear of the classic Blood Donor. No such luck here, as possibly the most well-known episode of Tony Hancock’s sitcom stars Merton in the last of this series of radio adaptations. All in all, it’s been an odd series — the delivery and content often sounding antiquated and jarring with some of the contemporary updates.

• Paul Merton In Galton And Simpson’s… - The Complete Series [DVD]

The Saturday Play: The Complete Ripley: Ripley Under Water Radio 4, Saturday 2.30pm
I missed last week’s Ripley play, The Boy Who Followed Ripley, off last week’s radio preview — and so of course it turned out to be the best of the run so far. This week sees the conclusion of the series, as Ian Hart’s Tom Ripley becomes concerned that his new neighbours are taking an unhealthy interest in his past…

Drama on 3: The Government Inspector Radio 3, Sunday 8pm
Satirist Alistair Beaton translates Gogol’s classic 19th century farce which, with its witty take on government corruption and sleaze, is never likely to go out of fashion. A stellar cast is led by Toby Jones as Khlestakov, with Frances Barber, Russell Tovey and Paul Ritter.

Classic Serial: Something Fresh Radio 4, Sunday 3pm
Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres are the team behind this latest PG Wodehouse revival for radio, a new adaptation of the author’s first Blandings novel. Jarvis plays the absent-minded Earl of Emsworth, who accidentally pockets a priceless gem belonging to the American father of his son’s fiancée. Thus begins a typical Wodehouse farce that is peppered with star names: Ian Ogilvy, Ioan Gruffudd, Helen McCrory, Jill Gascoine, Joanne Whalley and renowned US actor Hector Elizondo as millionaire J. Preston Peters.

Previews for Monday to Friday continue after the jump.