Saturday
JAZZ FILE: JAZZ SINGERS, JAZZ PIANISTS?
Radio 3, 6pm
The velvet tones of Nat King Cole are instantly recognisable, but less well remembered are his keyboard skills. In a new series highlighting the ivory-tickling abilities of celebrated singers, Brian Priestley examines Cole’s days as an improviser with his 1930s trio, when he wasn’t singing Mona Lisa but playing Honeysuckle Rose.
Sunday
SUNDAY FEATURE: A JOURNEY INTO LIGHT
Radio 3, 10pm
The music of Shostakovich isn’t usually regarded as a pick-me-up, but it helped the critic Stephen Johnson through his clinical depression. Here, he combines the personal and political, travelling to Moscow and St Petersburg to trace the composer’s musical influences, his life under Stalin and the compassion in his works.
Monday
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DANCE SAVES LIVES
Radio 4, 3.45pm
Ever thought that a pas de deux or soft shoe shuffle could be part of the healing process? This daily series focuses on people for whom dance has been an essential therapy. It begins with exiled victims of torture working with the choreographer John Scott in Dublin on pieces that have helped them to cope with painful memories.
Tuesday
EITHER TOO YOUNG OR TOO OLD
Radio 4, 11.30am
This comedy archive two-parter celebrates actors and comedians who have played older or younger than themselves. It begins with youth, and contributors include “Wee Georgie Wood”, Beryl Reid as the naughty schoolgirl in radio’s Educating Archie (she prepared by dressing in her old school uniform) and Matt Lucas as Vicky Pollard.
Wednesday
BBC PROMS 2006
Radio 3, 7.30pm
Tonight’s live concert, with the London Philharmonic and choirs under Vladimir Jurowski, boasts A Relic of Memory by Mark-Anthony Turnage that mixes bells, a Shakespeare sonnet and phrases from the Requiem Mass. Also featured is Rachmaninov’s choral symphony The Bells and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 2, featuring the soloist Nikolai Lugansky.
Thursday
THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY
Radio 4, 9am/9.30pm
How many higher education students were there in the UK before the war? Answer: 50,000. Today, the Government wants half the population to have enjoyed a university education. Martha Kearney meets the pioneers responsible for this opening-up of the groves of academe and those who opposed it.
Friday
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THE WEEKENDER WITH MATTHEW WRIGHT
Radio 2, 10pm
The Edinburgh International Book Festival has been playing host to writers as varied as Harold Pinter, Irvine Welsh, P. D. James, Will Self, Ian Rankin, Doris Lessing and Iain Banks. Matthew Wright presents this two-hour treat for bookworms, which takes an overview of this year’s festival, with interviews, reviews and previews.